Ceci pursed her lips and slowly closed her eyes with a nod. "Very well..." She mumbled.
When her eyes were closed she felt his hands, sliding open her robe and baring her to the air around them. She took in a sharp breath, her brows furrowing as she felt his gaze traveling her body. "Rakith..." She hissed, her hands fisted as she tried to concentrate on what she needed to do. He told her not to open her eyes- for anything. Ceci gritted her teeth, knowing he did what he did on purpose. Pervert, she thought.
Trying to push thoughts of indecency out of her mind, she focused on what he wanted to know. Her secret. The time she wanted to forget. Figuring any little detail could be important, or so he said, she started from the beginning. When she had the series of memories laid out in her mind, she exhaled softly, her face a mixture of focus and discomfort, "Now...." A breath of a whisper.
The pain of losing those most important to her was crushing. Cecilia had already lost her grandmother, easily the most important, but now her parents were gone as well. To find their dead bodies had been a blow the young girl had not been prepared for. Her cries had lasted well into the night, but she pushed the pain aside. Knowing she couldn't let such emotion weight her down. It wasn't until a year later that her pain was resurfaced. A knock on the door of her cottage alerted her, taking her attention away from the spell book in her lap. She crossed the room warily, unsure who on earth would be visiting her. At thirteen, she didn't really know anyone.
Reaching the door, she hesitantly pulled it open to see a black haired girl, a few years older than her, eyes a piercing green that caught Ceci's attention immediately. She felt the magic before the girl could even introduce herself. She was obviously a witch. "H-Hello?" Ceci had greeted, hiding her body behind the door. The girl broke out into a warm smile, offering a small curtsy and her name. Moira. Ceci let her in, and that began the painful recounting of her parents demise.
The memories shifted to a few days later, Moira having spent the days sleeping over at Ceci's cottage and keeping her company.
Moira had spent the days telling Cecilia how unfair it was that her parents had died. Spinning stories about revenge and how the humans in her village never would have dared doing such a thing. Ceci argued that she couldn't blame the village. They were scared of what they didn't understand. Moira insisted that it wasn't true, that it was jealousy, not fear. Ceci brooded, wondering if the young witch was right. Wanting to change the subject, Ceci asked if Moira could show her more spells. So she did.
They spun spells as the night went on. Spells that Cecilia wasn't familiar with, the book in which they were read from was old and worn. Pages were torn, edges were burned, and an overwhelming sense of dread seemed to leak from the book itself. Cecilia, while uneasy, was too excited to be involved with the spells to be worried. She was a naturally trusting child, and saw nothing wrong with the witch that came to visit her.
The memory became unfocused, Ceci making a sound of discomfort as her head ached painfully, unable to focus fully on what she was trying to remember. As if a block was stopping her.
It was after a rather tiring spell that Ceci rested on the floor of her living room, panting from the power that Moira had both used herself and pulled from what small reserves Ceci had. Ceci's finger was bleeding, sliced open on Moira's behalf. She didn't remember what they were just doing, but she was exhausted. Moira patted her on the head, pulling her up and taking her to bed.
Another shift, the memory becoming fuzzy, Moira's face fading out.
When Cecilia woke the next day, Moira was gone. A note had been left, explaining that Moira had to return home due to some family incidents. She promised she'd return one day to check on her newest friend. Cecilia was heartbroken that Moira had left her, but she understood. Family was important.
Family.
Pain bubbled back up. The pain she'd struggled to put away and accept over her first year without her parents came rushing back to her. It was the oddest feeling, but she just felt filled to the brim with anger and despair. Her hands were shaking and she felt her eyes fill with tears as she crumbled to the floor, letting her emotions get the better of her. She cried for hours, letting it all out until she thought she'd never cry another tear. She was alone again. And it was their fault.
The village.
She knew they'd done it. They'd stolen away her family and left her to fend for herself. Alone, miserable, and vulnerable. Cecilia, still tired from whatever Moira had done the night before, rushed to her grandmother's spell books. She pulled them out, one at a time, making a mess on the floor until she realized nothing she wanted was in them. Then something caught her attention. A familiar old book. Moira's spells. She was drawn to it, her gaze unwavering as she stood and walked to where the book was resting on her bed. Picking it up she returned to the living room, sitting beside the fire as she searched the pages for what she wanted. Every spell seemed to radiate vengeance and suffering. Exactly what she wanted to inflict. To make the village suffer for taking away her family. For making her the last in a long line of witches. Leaving her with weak magic and a broken heart.
Ceci screamed, slamming her fists into the floor.
Her hands reached out, her eyes still shut, but her body seeking comfort as the onslaught of memories continued. She pulled herself flush against Rakith's body, too far engrossed in her mind to care that she was naked.
A week after Moira's departure, Ceci had tried spell after spell in the woman's book, trying to create something to satisfy her urge for chaos. But nothing would work. She'd spent hours trying to spin magic out of herself, only to end up in a heap of gasping exhaustion. It was on the eighth day that she was feeling the most unstable. She was still exhausted, her body not having time to recover from the never ending use of magic that she just didn't have to spare. But she found a spell that she needed to do. One that would get her the revenge she had such an obsessive need to obtain.
But as she found herself immersed in the spell, her body started to rebel against her.
Cecilia was tense, her nails digging into where she was clutching at Rakith's body, her heart hammering away in her chest.
Pain had overwhelmed her at the beginning of the spell, her entire body felt like it was on fire. Magic, that of which she didn't think was even her own, swam around her, fueling her anger and desires. Ceci was crying, tears staining her cheeks as she murmured the spell in front of her. She wanted to do the spell. She wanted her revenge. She wanted her family. The sensation of splitting skin made her scream, her body collapsing forward as she struggled to maintain her focus on the spell. Anyone would know that Ceci didn't have the control or the magic to complete such a powerful spell, it was essentially suicide to even attempt to spindle so much power, but she was too blinded by her pain to pay any attention. She'd been running blind since the moment she woke up and found Moira to be gone.
Something stopped her. A wall came barreling down, cutting off the uncontrolled magic with a bang. It knocked her out cold. Ceci slumped to the floor, her eyes rolling back and her body limp. It wasn't until two days later that she woke up. Dehydrated, starving, and throbbing with pain all over her. There was blood under her fingernails and toenails, her eyes were sunken in with exhaustion and weakness, and her magic seemed almost nonexistent. But still she felt the stirrings of anger, her weary gaze falling on the book only feet away from her.
The book.
Cecilia groaned, crawling towards it. She had to get rid of the book. Otherwise she knew she was going to die. She didn't know what had cut off her magic, but it had been an obvious sign that something was wrong. It was just enough to clear her head. Just enough to make her realize she was going to kill herself if she kept trying spells that were out of her range of ability.
The memory continued with Cecilia painfully dragging herself outside where she could bury the book. It had taken weeks for her magic to return, even longer for her to heal her shattered mind. She had truly lost control of her own desires and emotions. Moira had something to do with it, but she never figured out what. The witch had never returned. But then again, if she had caused Ceci's spiral- she probably thought she was dead anyway.
Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)
