Interlude I (part 1)

Seekers

It was harder than she thought it would be, searching for herbs. Anya was told by her teacher that it would be easy to find such things as chicory, lemon balm, peppermint, and ginger (amongst other things) with practice, and perhaps that was true, but the nine-year-old couldn’t understand how anyone could tell the difference when most of them still looked like weeds to her.

Still, never one to back down from a challenge, Anya continued to rifle through wild plants with her wicker basket and pocket journal in hand. She referred to it constantly. The girl’s light brown eyes bounced back and forth until she felt certain she had found her desired herb.

Time passed by swiftly as Anya foraged and ultimately completed her task. The sun was high in the sky now, indicating to the young girl that it was already noon. She wiped the sweat off her brow, leaving her forehead marred with soil, but she didn’t mind it. Instead, she gathered her things and walked back down the trail she came from until she reached a clearing. It was a small field, surrounded by vibrant trees that swayed listlessly in the warm summer breeze. The cicadas screeched loudly, almost distractedly so. It didn’t bother Anya—not much usually did—but in the center of this field was another girl. She was on the ground; legs tucked under her verdant dress. If she was lying down, she would have camouflaged with the earth.

The girl’s black brows were pulled together so tightly she appeared older than she was.

Anya neared her, calling her name when the girl didn’t look up at her approach. “Ophelia!” she waved and ran towards her. “Look! I found sooooo many plants today!” she giggled.

At her sister’s jubilant cry, Ophelia glanced at her twin. The two were identical in every way. Same long, black hair, same light brown eyes and sun-kissed skin. There wasn’t even a slight height difference between them. And there was certainly no obvious marking to help discern them. Everyone always mixed them up. It used to bother them, but the more they heard it, the more the girls resigned themselves that no one would ever be able to tell them apart. Except for each other.

Ophelia’s gaze landed on her sister’s full basket. She checked them with ease, finding that Anya truly did find all the herbs that was asked of her, and she was impressed. “Wow, you did!” she beamed at her. “I don’t see a single blade of grass or weed in sight.”

Ophelia was always the more gifted one between them, finding herbs with an ease that often made her sister jealous. And despite adoring the praise showered by her twin, Anya rolled her eyes. “I told you I could do it! It just took a minute, is all.”

Ophelia gave her sister a knowing look. “Did you do it without the book?”

Anya’s face scrunched up before she stuck her tongue out at her. “The point is I found them, Ophelia. Anyway, how’s your training going?”

“It’s not.” She confessed, face scrunched up, dissatisfied. She glared at the two puddles she made on the ground. “I can’t seem to keep them open long enough to do anything. Let alone send a pebble through.”

“Focus harder?” Anya suggested with a shrug. Unlike her sister, Anya’s specialty was with remedies and spells. Portal magic just wasn’t her thing, so she couldn’t help Ophelia in the slightest. However, she hadn’t a doubt that her sister would crack it one day.

“If I focus any harder, I’ll get a headache.” She pouted at Anya’s very unhelpful advice.

Her sister crouched beside her. Ophelia noticed how hard Anya had worked. Her matching dress was covered in dirt and sweat bled through the fabric at her collar and under arms. Even Anya’s face was dirty. Ophelia took the ends of her dress and dipped it in the pool of water before raising it to wipe the dirt from Anya’s forehead.

The gesture made her sister’s shoulder slump, and her features relax. Anya almost sighed. She always felt a bit competitive with her twin. Ophelia was so good at everything that she was sure the thought of competing with her didn’t even cross her sister’s mind. And yet, now that she had a bit of an upper hand on her abilities, Anya couldn’t take the despondent look on her face. After all, it was like looking in a mirror. To see Ophelia upset was like seeing herself upset, and that simply wouldn’t do.

“Maybe you should strengthen your resolve.” Anya finally proposed.

“My resolve?”

“Yeah!” Anya smirked, standing up in a wide-legged pose as she punched at the air. “You know, your fire! Your spirit! Your… motivation! Maybe you don’t have a strong enough one to get your magic stirring.”

“I want to be able to do it plenty!” Ophelia frowned, not understanding what her sister was talking about.

“Do you?” her sister countered. “Cause I’ve seen you do plenty of other things without giving up like this. But… well…” Anya smirked mischievously. “If you can’t, then you can’t.” she shrugged. “I’m done with my task. If you’re done, then let’s go. I still need to dry, preserve, and crush these things, and it takes forever!”

At her sister’s taunts, Ophelia grew further frustrated. Anya just doesn’t understand. She thought. My magic is not as easy to master, and at least, she has a teacher for hers. There are too few witches with my type of magic around. I’m basically just figuring this out as I go.

With a huff, Ophelia put her arms out over the puddles. Her hands shook with effort, and she held her breath as the water finally started to shimmer some. The young witch nearly gasped but dared not. She was afraid any distraction would cause her to lose focus completely. The puddles’ glow grew brighter, the portals fully open now.

“Oh my goodness…” Ophelia whispered breathily. She placed one hand down. Her right hand trembled as she picked up a pebble near her knees. As carefully as she could, she dropped the rock into the portal, and it popped up like water in a geyser in the opposite puddle. “I did it!” Ophelia’s face burst into a wide grin. She dropped her hand, watching the portals slowly fizzle out before glancing up at Anya.

The twins hugged each other, squeezing hard. Ophelia felt drained from just the small exertion, but more determined than ever to continue. If she could do it once, there would be no doubt she could do it again with practice. Anya, on the other hand, while truly overjoyed by her sister’s accomplishment, felt a pang of envy.

“Did you see that?” a man’s voice boomed through the clearing, frightening the twins as they searched for the stranger.

“I sure did.” Answered a second man, his voice a much higher pitch than the first. “It seems we found ourselves some witches.”

The two men came out of the shadows of a nearby tree. They were both imposingly tall to the children before them. They wore all black, and along their belts were chains and ropes. The pouch of their shirt had a symbol of an orange eye with a diamond where the pupil should be.

“Seekers.” Anya gasped as she dropped her basket and snatched her sister’s hand, roughly yanking her into the opposite direction of these poachers.

Seekers were hunters that stole away witches, trafficking them to those who would force their kind to use their abilities and imbue objects with magic. While some witches willingly provide this service, it came at a high price that not everyone was willing to pay. So, when they came across a witch, these hunters would strike. The younger the witch, the more malleable they were. Seekers would raise them in conditions so harsh that they would gladly use their magic just to leave their cells. And after the seekers were done fostering their powers until they were ripe enough to use, they would toss them aside as nothing more than the husks of their former selves.

Ophelia and Anya heard about them from others of their kind. Many a witch were ruined by these fiends. So, they were warned to be wary of everyone, but they never thought they would be facing seekers in this lifetime. The twins had been so careful whilst they came out to train, but it was not careful enough.

The men’s heavy boots could be heard gaining speed behind them. One of them cursed as he stepped into Ophelia’s puddles, but it didn’t slow them down. They would gain on the girls soon enough.