Crowpeak Forest

The night was still young and Aleyah had run a couple of miles away from the village. The tears had dried against her cheeks, but luckily for her, she had stopped her sprint beside a small lake. Aleyah kneeled to the edge and splashed some water on her face.

When the waves started to settle again, she took a glance at her reflection in the water. It looked like her, copied her every move, and felt her pain, but because of her reflection, she did not feel like the only broken one in the forest. In all honesty, she felt whole looking at herself this way.

As she started to regain her composure, she noticed a figure stood behind her. Aleyah slowly took a handful of dirt trying to not get noticed by the creeping figure walking closer to her. A hood covered the person’s face so she had to aim the dirt perfectly under it.

The person took one more step and cracked a twig in two. Aleyah took this as her chance to catch the person by surprise. With one swing, she threw the dirt right into the hood, but it went right through them. Surprised by this, Aleyah backed away, landing her feet in a couple of inches into the water.

“Who are you? What are you?” She began to ask.

The figure transformed into water and fell onto the ground. She couldn’t believe what she saw. Walking out of the lake, she stepped over the spot where the water landed and rubbed her eyes. It was crazy to believe she was going this insane. Aleyah was sure that she saw someone behind her and even though that person turned into water, she was sure that was real as well.

She took a glance at the ground and that was when she was convinced someone was there. Footsteps were seen aiming toward the spot where the figure once stood.

“I am sorry if I startled you, young lady.” A soft-toned female voice echoed pass the forest’s trees.

“Show yourself!” Aleyah demanded.

The hooded figure appeared once more as she passed the tree line. This time, she stopped further from Aleyah just in case she posed some sort of threat. “I mean you no harm.” The hooded lady said.

“Prove it to me. Show yourself.”

The hooded lady slowly uncovered her face. She had short purple hair that was curled behind her ears. Her blue eyes shined under the moonlight and gave Aleyah a less hostile feeling. Her voice, every time she spoke, also helped her seem friendlier rather than aggressive.

“Are you content now?” The woman asked.

“Tell me your name and I’ll give you my answer.” Aleyah was still on the defensive. She did not know this woman so trusting her just because she revealed her face would have been a foolish thing to do.

“My name is Sinclair Dewitt. Your turn.”

“I’m warning you now if you try anything, I will retaliate.”

Sinclair nodded, “I understand. May I ask you your name?”

“My name is Aleyah Angelorus. I am the leader of Team Trinity, a strike team representing Sentinel Stronghold.”

“So that’s what I felt.”

Aleyah did not understand what Sinclair meant when she said that so she asked for her to clarify. “You see Aleyah, like you, I was born with…unique abilities. Abilities everyone has, but only some unlock its’ true potential.” Sinclair walked closer to Aleyah, extended her arm, and grabbed her hand. “I felt you crying out and your aura is what brought me to you.”

“Is that really possible? What form does your aura take?” Aleyah continues to question becoming ever more interested in what Sinclair had to say.

“Although my birth name is Sinclair Dewitt, I am most commonly known to the villagers of that horrid town as the ‘Warlock’,” she replied with a sudden change in her tone.

Aleyah had felt some sort of remorse for Sinclair, but she was curious. What was a Warlock? This was the second time she had heard that word within 2 hours from one another. She has never encountered the word before, let alone met a person that it was originally meant for. This forced her mouth to open and ask Sinclair what did the title of “warlock” meant and if it held any significance.

“We shouldn’t talk here. I have a cabin not too far from. If you want to know more about me and that village, come.” Sinclair said in a hurry.

This made Aleyah a bit uneasy, but she followed Sinclair anyway back into the forest. As they walked, her guard was up once more. The sense of urgency from Sinclair did not sit well with her. If anything, she wanted to just head back to the village, sleep her anger off, and be done with their assignment by the morning, but her curiosity is what made her follow Sinclair, the warlock, to her cabin. It was a bold move, but once they got there, nothing looked different to her. The cabin looked like a normal cabin and that’s exactly what it was.

She was stunned for a bit until she heard Sinclair open the door to her home and welcome her in. Aleyah stepped inside and saw nothing out of the ordinary. The floor was cluttered with books, but other than that, everything seemed…normal.

“Please excuse the mess. It’s not often I receive visitors that are less aggressive toward our kind.”

Sinclair moved some books off her chair and offered Aleyah the seat. She had sat down and was then asked if she wanted any tea as Sinclair was heading towards the kitchen to heat up the teapot.

“I’m fine, thank you. Now can you please share with me what you know?” Aleyah suggested.

Sinclair pulled out an empty chair and sat next to her. “Tell me what you would like to know.”

“First, what is a warlock? I’ve never heard that term before.”

She scratched her head and agreed, “No, I guess you wouldn’t have.”

Between the two of them, there was a small wooden table perfect for a group of three or two. It was placed against one of the walls within the house. Sinclair looked out the window that aligned well with the table. She stared at the night sky for a bit before answering Aleyah.

“A warlock is someone who has been cursed with the powers of a mythic soul witch but refuses to use their abilities for warfare. Instead, they use them for their own personal gain. I did a selfish act and was shunned for it. The people of that town claimed that I was a shade disguised as a human sent from the Gods to torment them.”

The clouds covered the moon and the only light in the house was the lit candles. The teapot whistled indicating that the water was ready to be poured, however, Sinclair continued with her story.

“I thought I could handle the verbal abuse, but then things started to get physical. All that pain I had to endure pushed me to my limit…” Sinclair got up from her seat and started to blow out the candles. “I thought to myself, ‘if they claimed that I was sent from the Gods to punish them, then I will make that false tale a reality’ and I used my power to strike fear into their hearts.”

She blew out the final candle and stood in the middle of the room waiting for the clouds to pass. Aleyah did not understand why she was doing this, but her attention was focused on the story. For a strange reason, Aleyah felt connected to this person just like how she described when they were both at the lake. She could feel Sinclair’s aura crying out for help as she told her story.

The clouds finally passed and the moon’s light shined through her window. Sinclair took off her hooded garment and dropped it on the floor. The angle of the light showed her upper body mostly, but that’s when Aelyah saw it. Sparks of dark blue electricity flowed around this woman…this warlock.

She opened her arms, “My aura has been tainted with anger, fear, and hatred. It is no longer pure like yours Aleyah.”

No words were spoken from Aleyah. She never realized that aura itself could change its state. All of this was very new to her, even the fact that she could show her aura stream to someone else without calling out for it. This opened her eyes to many things.

Sinclair picked up her rob, covered herself with it, and stood still until the moon was hidden once more.

Aleyah broke the silence, “What was it that you did to make the townspeople hate you if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I tried to cure this town of its’ famine.”

“That doesn’t sound like a selfish act to me.”

“It was not supposed to be, but you have to understand Aleyah, those who are not like you and me see the world differently. They see us differently,” she replied as she went to the kitchen to grab the teapot. She poured the hot water into a cup that had leaves and other herbs in it.