Purple Stones - Chapter 4

Ktyra walked back to the waiting room where her parents were, thinking of a plan. Luckily, the bathroom was in the same hallway as the arcane room, so she could make a perfectly valid excuse that would allow her to find out what exactly that test was about.

When she reached the place where her parents were sitting, Andromeda quickly rose from her seat. She looked like she had been worried sick as soon as Ktyra had gone out of her sight.

“Oh Ktyra,” she exclaimed, grabbing Ktyra’s arm, “are you alright? How was the test? What happened? Do you have a curse? Tell me everything!”

“I’m fine, mother,” Ktyra replied calmly. “Dr. Chrysswheel wants to see you, she’ll tell you all about it.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Andromeda breathed a sigh of relief. Vtynno got up from his seat. “Where is the doctor now?”

“I’ll lead you there, I have to go to the bathroom anyway.” Ktyra said. (She made sure not to look at her father when she said this or else his curse might think she was being kind by leading him there.) A strange paranoia inside of her was weirdly scared that her mother would ask her to stay put, but of course Andromeda let her lead her to the arcane room.

Ktyra walked Andromeda and Vtynno to the arcane room, and planned out her next moves. When she got to the room, she wished her parents good-bye and started walking towards the bathroom. As soon as she heard the door close, she hurried to it and put her ear to it. The door thankfully didn’t have a window so she wouldn’t be seen, and amazingly, she was able to hear her doctor and parents talking.

“...test went as expected.” Ktyra heard Dr. Chrysswheel say.

“How so?” Andromeda asked. Yes, how so? Ktyra thought as well.

“I had her drink a potion that would rid her of all enchantments,” High Sorcerer Emmenwell told them. “But she told me that she felt it do nothing.”

So that’s what that drink was. It was to make sure she didn’t have any spells on her that made her perform differently in the test. But why would that matter?

“Then I had her touch this,” the sorcerer continued. Ktyra assumed he was showing them the orb. “This orb, if touched, will make a normal person’s eyes glow. But Ktyra’s eyes remained normal. She told me she still felt nothing. So I tried to look deeper. I look into the root of where this magic might be. I kept looking deeper and deeper, and still found nothing. And finally, I found something. I don’t know what it was. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was a magical heart, pumping something through her veins, but it wasn’t magic, it was…anti-magic. Something that couldn't be touched by magic.”

This was too much for Ktyra to take in. Her eyes were supposed to be glowing? And she had some sort of…anti-magic core inside of her? What was it? And why wasn’t it allowing her eyes to glow? She hadn’t felt anything when she touched that crystal ball. The most exciting thing she had felt from touching it was static electricity from rubbing her feet on the carpet. She hadn’t felt any magic of any sort. It was a good thing that she was eavesdropping. Her parents would never tell her anything like this!

“Before I could look more into that heart, it sent me out, and gave Ktyra and I an electric shock,” Emmenwell explained. “But one thing can be confirmed about your daughter without a doubt: She is immune to magic.”

Ktyra’s heart was pounding fast, and she hadn’t even been moving. Her hands were so sweaty that it left a stain when she wiped it on her skirt. Immune to magic? That’s what it had been all this time? No wonder she didn’t have a curse! She couldn’t be given enchantments! This was a huge shock for Ktyra, because she had always wondered why she didn’t have a curse. This meant she couldn’t be cursed in any way! That was amazing!

“That’s wonderful!” Vtynno said.

“Thank you both so much,” Andromeda told them. She sounded immensely relieved that nothing was wrong with her daughter. Was there? “But do you know exactly why she is immune?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Sorcerer Emmenwell said. “Because I was unable to look deeper into that heart that was giving her immunity. But I will further look into it, and see if there have been any cases like this in history. But for now, it is still a mystery.”

“Well, at least we know what has caused her to not have a curse.” Vtynno replied.

Ktyra heard the sound of a chair moving. Then Andromeda spoke, “Thank you for your time, I hope you both have a wonderful da-”

“Um, actually,” Dr. Chrysswheel interrupted her, “we would like to discuss something further with you.”

Ktyra heard the chair move again and her mother speaking. “Yes, what would you like to discuss?” There was a short pause before Sorcerer Emmenwell started to speak.

“Well, as you know, your daughter is immune to magic,” he said, “meaning that if anyone tried to curse her, it wouldn’t work.”

“And?”

“And as you know, the witch who has cursed our village has been impossible to defeat because she always has an enchantment up her sleeve. I don’t mean to impose this on your daughter but-”

“Ohh I see how this is,” Andromeda said. You could hear from her tone how much resentment and anger she was feeling, and that she might explode any minute. “You want to use my daughter as bait for a mission to kill this witch who lives across the unknown woods in the bustling capital city of Tqladia, where she may risk her life at the age of only twelve?”

“Ms. Pduiri, you must understand - if we allow the witch to continue cursing towns, people may die! Don’t you understand what’s at stake? Your daughter could change Tqladia forever! Everyone’s misery would vanish without a trace!”

“She is only a child! At least let her become 16! She has never gone that far into the woods!” Andromeda shrilled.

“Ktyra takes archery lessons, does she not? We both know that she is quite a skilled archer. She would be able to defend herself if any danger came upon her, which would likely never come upon her!”

“She. Is. My. Child. I will decide whether she can go or not. She is my child, not yours!”

“Mr. Pduiri, do you have anything to say about this?” Dr. Chrysswheel interjected, hoping to stop them from shouting.

“Well,” Vtynno said, “we know that the witch will curse a new town in about 6 years, correct?”

There was a short pause.

“Which is bound to bring as much of a horrible curse as the last, which means that perhaps Ktyra could help,” he said.

“Darling, she is too young, she may be in danger of-”

“I haven’t finished,” Vtynno continued. “I agree that she is too young, so I believe that we should wait until she is older, because we have a full six years until the next curse, which is plenty of time for her to grow up a little and prepare.”

Grow up a little?! I’m old enough! Ktyra thought. Her opinion on this situation was that she wanted to go, and she thought that she was perfectly old enough to defeat the witch. Although, she was a little surprised that they would suggest something like that at this time. Usually all adults thought that she was too young.

But it seemed like Sorcerer Emmenwell still wanted to defeat the witch as soon as possible. “Are you sure? There-”

“Well, it’s settled then,” Dr. Chrysswheel interrupted him before he could start another argument. “In about six years time, Ktyra will go with some of the Corner Village Guard to defeat the Witch of Tqladia City once and for all! In the meantime, I will contact Ktyra’s archery teacher by giving her assignments that can help her prepare!”

“Thank you!” Vtynno said. Ktyra was upset by this. She had wanted to go immediately, but her parents of course still thought that she was a baby. She was old enough! Ktyra couldn’t think much about it because she had to run to the waiting room so that her parents would think that she actually went to the bathroom.

She quickly sat down in a chair as her parents came into the waiting room.

“So, how was it?” Ktyra asked, pretending like she had no idea what they had talked about.

“Oh, nothing,” Andromeda replied, “nothing new.” Ktyra wasn’t the only one who was acting.