"Where have you been?" Francheska asked Matthew and Ava before they could even step inside the cabin.
"I don’t think that is any— "
"Someone wanted to talk— " Jude said. He opened the door, revealing the chairman of the village earlier. "Priestess Anna and most of their witches vanished. They cannot sense them. So they came here to ask for our help."
"We are not here to find people," Matthew’s answer was quick. "We came for the rogues."
"But— ’’ Jude tried to answer but Chairman Tanik suddenly pushed him out of the way.
"Please, you must help us. The barrier around the village had been destroyed and we do not have the protection that we used to have."
"You said that Priestess Anna and the rest vanished?" Ava asked. Of course, she only asked this because she wanted to know if they are suspecting her and Matthew.
Right now, she could clearly feel their anxiety and worry.
"Yes."
Luckily there were no changes in the chairman’s emotions. If he was suspecting Ava and Matthew, there would have been little fluctuations in his emotions.
"When did this happen?" Ava continued asking.
"Well... just a few hours ago." Chairman Tanik said. "About four hours ago, the barrier started trembling until it broke. Right now, the village is completely vulnerable to other supernaturals."
"So, you wanted us to help you find them?"
"Yes but— "
"But what?" Matthew asked.
"The village is currently vulnerable to attacks so— "
"Attacks?" Ava asked. "What attacks?"
"They hid it from us," Matthew said.
"Please understand, we didn’t want any more trouble. We are safe inside the barrier. There is no need for Trillium to get involved."
"What are you talking about?" Jude asked, confused.
"There have been attacks on the other villages outside the village. But the chairman refused to tell us because he didn’t want Trillium to send more people to investigate the matter." Matthew said while staring into the chairman’s eyes.
"I don’t understand. I thought the village is safe?" Francheska asked. Just like Jude, she looked confused.
"Their village is..." Matthew smirked. "But the others aren’t."
"What does that— "
"Didn’t you find it weird that they immediately gathered their strongest warrior when they thought we are going to hurt the Priestess?" Matthew asked. "How could a village have so many warriors that were just around and were ready to fight when they are called?"
"They must have taken the other people living in other villages. They let them in because they are stronger. They stayed in their village with their families as they were promised protection." Ava said. She was able to piece together all the information that she was able to observe earlier. "The witches are keeping them safe. So they are willing to protect her. But now that the witches are gone..."
"The barrier can only take a few hundred people. Even if we wanted to take all the other people inside the village, we simply don’t have enough witches to reinforce the barrier every single day." The Chairman explained. "We already did our best to protect them."
"So protecting the other villages means... taking away the stronger ones?"Francheska argued.
"We didn’t have the choice. We needed supernaturals to protect the witches as they maintained the barrier."
Ava nodded. Actually, she had sensed that something is wrong with the village but she didn’t know anything about this. "The attacks that you are talking about..." Ava said. She already guessed that it must be some rogues who are killing people but she still needed to hear from them.
"Rogues were getting stronger and stronger but this isn’t the only problem," the woman standing behind the Chairman spoke. She was a very frail, older woman with a cane. At one glance, Ava knew that she was not a witch. She is a shifter. Though, she’s not really considered a strong one.
The only thing that was very memorable about her was the fact that her eyes were completely white.
She’s blind!
"They are taking children," the woman said.
"This is Ellama, a healer. She’s from the infamous crow tribe from Africa. All of her family had died because of the massacre that happened tens of years ago." The chairman explained. "She also lost her eyesight because of the massacre."
"There is no need to talk about the past," Ellama said. "We can only focus on the future now."
Ava silently agreed before she suggested that they talk about this inside the cabin. It was already dark and the night is getting colder and colder.
"You said they are taking children?" Ava asked after they settled inside.
"Yes." Chairman Tanik said. "They are not killing the children. They are just taking them. We cannot find traces. Even the witches cannot help us. They said that whoever was taking the children must have kept them inside a room made of bronze."
"If they cannot use a tracking spell to find the children then there is indeed a possibility that the ones who took them are using bronze objects to avoid detection," Ava said. Magick is weak against bronze. Meaning, they know about the witches and had planned everything in advance.
For some reason, Ava couldn’t help but think that this had something to do with the rogues and their sudden increase in power.
"How about the nearby pack?" Jude asked. "Aren’t they doing anything about these attacks?"
"They are..." Chairman Tanik said. "But they haven’t been very successful. As you know, many packs still hate witches. Because of this, they didn’t have a witch to set up barriers around their packs. They too had suffered great losses because of the rogues."
"Is that why you decided to come here instead of the nearby pack?" Matthew asked.
"First and foremost, the nearby packs hated us for taking witches," Ellama said. "They do not believe that all supernaturals can coexist together and have always discouraged their younger members to interact with us. Even if we asked for their help, there is no way that they would help us."
Ava glanced at Matthew. The latter slowly nodded.
And Ava understood.
The Priestess and the other witches died because of them. They aren’t good people but how could they allow rogues to continue what they were doing?
....
Today, I met with a few of my bestfriends. We have been friends for 13 years. I feel so happy. :)
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