Meeting with destiny

Night fell slowly and fearfully over the city, the sky covered by heavy clouds that foreshadowed a storm that would soon break, causing fear in the residents of Cicury, as it was known, about the damage that the rain could cause. Grace's mansion was lit only by a few dim bulbs and the soft glow of a lamp in the living room. Viktor was now sitting on the couch, with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped together. His expression was serious, but not rigid—there was genuine concern in his eyes as he watched Grace, who arrived with a tray with two cups and a pot of tea.

They had entered her house after another thunder ripped through the sky while they were still in the car. Viktor was still worried about the conversation that was to follow in a few minutes, he had promised Dante and Soraya that he would take care of the girl when they couldn't and that he would help her follow her path to the destiny that her heritage forced her to follow. What he didn't know was how she had stayed away from the supernatural world for 24 years without even having an idea of what was going on in her hometown.

Non Cicury City is a city founded by lineages of powerful wizards who built a small village around a portal that gave access to the world of shadows, using the powers of the wizards to keep the evil souls on the other side and not letting them pass to the side of humans, it was always like this, the worlds living in harmony, which later became the city they knew today, preserving the good customs and wizarding culture of the place until the fateful night when Lazarus Salazar decided he wanted to be more, have more and ended up su covering the curses cast by the guardian wizards.

Since then, nothing has continued as before, the local culture was obstructed by European travelers, the traditions were erased and the wizarding people were covered up by the fear of being discovered and killed by the prejudice of being who they were, along with the founders, the knowledge of the location of the portal was lost among the families, leaving none of those who kept the secrets on the other side, those who helped keep the peace, leaving only a lineage wrongly cursed to guard the portal, sealing their fate in not allowing the Lazarus' passage to the other side.

The Valefar lineage.

Viktor followed Grace's movements as she poured the tea into the two cups and offered one to him. Accepting willingly, he waited until she sat in the armchair opposite him, divided by a coffee table. Observing the decoration of the living room, it is very reminiscent of Grace's style, high shelves with different books adorned the walls, Gothic style decorations and some trinkets were also part of the composition.

From where they were, he could see the outside of the mansion, the tall glass windows could give comfort to the environment, but at that moment when the trees were shaking with the wind and the sky was closing in more and more, starting a light drizzle, the only thing that was going through his mind was: macabre.

Grace placed her cup on the table, Viktor realized that it was empty, she had drunk all its contents while he had not even taken a single sip of his own tea. Lifting the cup to his lips, he took a long sip, feeling the faint taste of mint on his tongue.

Before he could say anything, the woman got up from the armchair, starting to walk around the room, amusing herself with its decorations. She noticed his gaze and set the trinkets aside.

“Sorry, I can't sit still” Grace confessed to him.

"I understand." Viktor sighed. “Do you have any questions? Whatever it is, I will try my best to answer it.”

“What happened there at the cemetery? You know?" Grace asked her questions. Now that all the euphoria had passed, the disbelief of the situation was beginning to settle in her gut. Her running, the woman who disappeared, the crow, on the tombstone, the absurd pain she had felt and her broken cell phone was becoming a stand comedy script.

“As I already said. That woman is Elisa Devereux, she is a witch of black magic, her powers are mental illusion and invocation of magic. She knew who you were and what your… obligations were, so to speak. So, basically, everything you saw inside was an illusion created by Elisa to deceive you and possibly be another one of her victims.” Viktor explained to her.

“But what about the headache? The bleeding? The voices I heard? Was this all an illusion too?” Grace changed a little. Having her feelings and sensations being reduced to 'purely illusion' didn't calm her, it made her blood boil.

“I can’t say exactly why you felt that way, but no, it wasn’t an illusion, I can tell you that.” Viktor leaned back in the armchair, taking a sip of his tea and crossing his leg. “Based on the little knowledge I have in this area of initiation, I could say that this was a reaction of your dormant magic trying to fight against Elisa's illusion, hence the headache. As for the voices you heard, I can also say that it is because of your heritage, your family has the gift of communicating with the other side.”

Grace stood up again, starting to pace back and forth across the room. The rain had intensified, hitting the window heavily, causing a loud noise in the room, but not enough to become a nuisance. She remembered the things her grandmother told her before she died, telling her stories about her family, making up fanciful stories to help her sleep faster, maybe not as fanciful as she imagined. Running his hands over his face, reality was starting to become clearer than before.

“You don’t seem very surprised.” Viktor spoke.

“My grandmother. She would tell stories about guardians, ghosts, spirit guides, the shadow world and that kind of thing to me before bed, every night she would tell a… a different chapter.”

Returning to sit down. Grace poured more tea into her cup, thinking how good chamomile tea would go.

“Ah… Soraya was always like this.” Viktor gave a nostalgic smile. He remembered the Valefar matriarch well from his time. She had been his mentor during his years of training, teaching him all the knowledge acquired in his 74 years of life. “Your grandmother was my mentor when I started training at 25. She was the one who taught me about enchantments and magic, my family is not very focused on invoking magic, but we are proficient in enchantments and using enchanted objects.” He had supported his mentor even when she came up with her ideas about her granddaughter's future, but with his clairvoyance, he could not deny the inevitable, as she was far from lying.

“What else do you know, Viktor? I'm sure you know something. Tell me." Grace insisted. She still greatly resented her grandmother's death, it had been something very sudden, her grandfather was devastated and that was when he moved out of the mansion.

“Before your grandmother died, what did she do?” He didn't want to tell her the truth about Grace's grandmother's death, it was something that made him sick to think about, but if she wanted to understand about her future, that was an important detail.

“She did volunteer work, she was no longer old enough to work, so she helped at the local church and in the community, the same as grandpa does now.” Grace didn't understand how that could be important, but she wasn't going to upset the boy.

“And how did she die?” He didn't really know how Soraya had died, having lost contact a few years before her death. Which was actually a surprise for him, between investigating Elisa's case and receiving a call from Dante.

“Cardiac arrest. Why is this important? My grandmother has nothing to do with this.”

“She has more than you know. Witches don't die of cardiac arrest, Grace. The magical heritage that runs through our veins gives us high immunity and bodily capacity to withstand the discharges of magic we receive when using it. I'm sorry to say this, but what killed your grandmother was the curse that runs through your veins and that of any Valefar alive right now.”

“You're just making things up, aren't you? If that's true, why hasn't anyone ever told me about it? Why didn't they let me know sooner? Since I was little I've seen apparitions, things calling me, I can't sleep well because I have macabre dreams all night long!” Grace snapped. She was already getting stressed with everything that was going on.

“I can't tell you about the curse because it's not my obligation to do so. It was your parents' obligation, but they hid it from you and you took that decision to the grave. The only thing I know about her is that she has existed in the family since the first living Valefar, he was the one who cursed his family and consequently everyone who had at least one Valefar DNA cell in their blood.”

“Who is this?” Grace asked in surprise. She didn't know these things, while she wanted to break the first thing she saw in front of her, she was relieved that everything was making sense for the first time in her life.

However, before Viktor could answer his question. An exceptionally loud thunderclap ripped through the sky, accompanied by a beam of light that fell onto the grounds of Valefar Manor, causing the living room windows to crack and shatter, sending shards of glass flying wherever there was room.

In a sudden action, Viktor jumped to protect Grace from the shards of glass flying towards them. He cradled her against his body, despite her quick reaction, a few pieces had landed before she could protect her face with her arms.

“What… what is that?” Grace asked. From her position, she had a view of the land and trees and could see when a mass of what appeared to be smoke projected in the shape of a man in the distance along the line that delimits the forest from the mansion's grounds.

Viktor turned his head to get a better look at what Grace was referring to. His eyes widened when he noticed the cloud of smoke approaching, losing the human figure to a specter, it was still far away, but it wouldn't take long to reach them.

“Shit, those are evil ghosts. I need something to cast a spell on, but I need something big to reach as far as I can.” He began to look around frantically, looking for anything that could be used for enchantment. Unfortunately he couldn't capture anything good enough, until he felt a hand on his shoulder, looking down he caught Grace's form cowering with an expression of doubt.

“Is water okay?” She looked at him still with the same expression of doubt.

“It would not be very efficient since the water is not solid and the enchantment cannot be sustained anywhere. But it could be a way to prevent him from advancing too far and I would have more time to do the banishment spell.” Viktor spoke lightly, not wasting much time, he immediately understood what Grace was referring to, there was still tea in the teapot and the water could reach a larger surface.

He wasted no time in chanting the incantation.

“Grace, I need you to pour the water on the ghost while I do the banishing spell. Take it.” Viktor handed over the teapot which now glowed a sickening purple color. If the enchantment worked, he would have enough time to evoke enough power for the banishment to work.

They stood up and stood back to back, Grace facing the yard and Viktor chanting an incantation to invoke his magic. They were already wet due to the rain that entered the room, soaking the books and armchairs.

“Viktor, he's coming” Grace informed, straightening her posture and preparing to throw the liquid. As soon as the mass was about ten feet away from her, she threw the water and the teapot at the thing.

The effect of the enchanted water created sparkles of yellow magic, as if they were mini firecrackers bursting at the same time, creating a strong white light. As soon as Viktor felt the heat of the enchantment, he began to chant the banishment, chanting in Latin.

“I don’t think it’s working!” Grace screamed in the middle of the whole situation. The sound of rain and thunder combined with the deafening noise the thing made as it flew around them prevented her from being able to speak quietly.

The boy opened his eyes and looked around, realizing that the banishment had not worked and that the cloud of smoke was now swirling between them, creating a barrier with his own body.

Viktor didn't take long to cast a protection spell.

“Murum umbris ex sanguine meo,

Claudat inimicos, teneat hostes,

Fiat lumen in tenebris!”

As soon as Viktor finished the incantation, a circle of purple fire formed around them, keeping a safe distance between them and the ghost that continued to surround them.

“What is he doing?” Grace asked, turning to face Viktor, arching her eyebrows when she noticed the color of Viktor's eyes, they were pure purple.

“I don’t know, but whatever. It’s not good.”