The Devil's Cursed Witch

"For any divine beast, drawing a little blood should not harm them since flesh wounds heal fast, but this is not the case for the captives, since whenever a black magic spell is casted using their blood, it shortens the lifespan of the source.

"I suspect whoever that Black Witch is using as a source must have died or must be on the verge of death, that is why she is in search of a new divine power source."

Aurus felt this theory was reasonable. "How pitiful. I feel sorry for whoever she captured. Do you have any idea who that might be? Those with divine bloodline are rare, and Agartha has a small population, so I guess you will know if there is anyone missing from your kingdom."

The elf shrugged. "I can't tell. There are also supernatural beings not living in Agartha like you. Last I heard, your mother is the last known divine beast who left the kingdom."

"My mother is dead. That Black Witch killed her."

"Deepest sympathies," Erlos said with a lowered head. "If it's any consolation, I too have a grudge against that Black Witch."

Aureus nodded but there was sadness in his eyes as he looked away, pretending to see the rest of the scenery on top of the palace wall. "She died protecting me."

"It must have hurt you a lot to witness that."

"Sadly, I wasn't able to see her last breath. I wasn't even able to see her corpse," the young eagle sighed. "The attack caused an explosion so strong, I was lucky the previous Queen of Megaris found me and saved me or else I too would have died. My savior did not even find a single trace of my mother left. It was pathetic that I could not even bury her body..."

"Sorry to hear that." After a bout of silence, Erlos continued, "You and I are not the last. As long as that Black Witch remains alive, there will be more and more people like us whose loved ones would be taken away. Maybe even now there is someone out there, one of the wandering supernatural beings, mourning in grief because their family or friend is that Black Witch's current source."

Aureus said nothing, but he felt a small sense of unease gnawing at his insides, as if something was amiss.

Seeing his new friend had become upset, Erlos hurried to change the topic. "I remember you saying that Black Witch has gone to the enemy kingdom of Megaris?"

Aureus looked at Erlos as he stared at him for a moment. "Erlos, I know you have a grudge against her just like I do. Yours is heavier for your clan was wiped out but... what you are thinking at this moment, I wish you to drop that idea."

Erlos fell silent as Aureus had guessed his intentions.

The young eagle continued to speak, "If it was that easy to beat her, I would have done that many times over. So wait. We need to be patient. With our kings cooperating, her days are  numbered."

Erlos sighed and nodded but inside he was not calm at all.

Aureus said nothing more and accompanied him in silence.

------

After talking with Yula, Ember could not sit idly inside her chamber. Even after she had her meal, she felt nervous and uneasy, worried about how to bring up the issue of child-bearing with Draven. She desperately wanted to go out on a stroll--more like to breathe fresh air outside of the palace where there would be no chance of her coincidentally meeting her mate.

"Is His Majesty busy?"

"Yes, Miss. There is an important guest in the palace and His Majesty is busy with that."

Ember sighed. "Is that so?"

If Draven was stuck in his study, then maybe she could take a leisurely walk in the garden. But what if he happened to leave his room? She often bumped into him in the hallways.

'Maybe I should head to the place farthest from the study?'

"I think I ate too much," Ember started. "Let us take a stroll outside."

Her two servants accompanied her without suspicion. As they walked in the garden, Ember's eyes wandered around, and they soon landed at the outermost part of the palace--the walls.

Reya's words then reached her ears. "--I heard from those in the kitchen that the mysterious guest is a shapeshifter from the Divine Eagle clan and he is the royal envoy of a human kingdom."

"Human kingdom?" Clio exclaimed. "How can that be?"

"Not sure but it was what I heard from the other servants who are in charge of his stay and meal. Erlos told them to prepare food preferred by the Divine Eagle clan so the kitchen help identified the guest immediately."

Ember remembered seeing the gold hair strands of that guest. She also remembered what Morpheus told her in passing, about the hierarchy among his clan, and among the four colors of the eagle shapeshifters, and the golden one was the highest. Gold symbolized the purest divine bloodline.

"Divine Eagle? You mean the golden one?" Ember asked.

"Yes, Miss," Reya replied.

"I want to see him," Clio said excitedly as they continued to walk, not realizing that Ember who was in the lead was taking them towards the palace wall.

It happened that the three young women spotted two people at a distance--one with a familiar but eye-catching silver hair, while the other had an even more eye-catching golden one. The first was Erlos, and he was standing next to someone, and from his garments--the feathered cloak specifically--they realized he was the guest they were talking about.

Erlos and Aureus sensed their presence and turned around to look at them. Erlos then gestured for the eagle to follow him, as they had to properly greet her first, given her status in the palace.

"Greetings, Miss Ember."

"Good afternoon, Erlos," Ember replied and her gaze went towards Aureus who gave a polite bow towards her. He had seen her portrait so he knew who this woman was. It was almost similar to what they drew in the portrait and those emerald green eyes...No wonder Seren pointed out the color of her eyes when she described the woman in her dreams. Her eyes had a unique and beautiful shade of green.

"Miss, this is Aureus, our guest from a human kingdom. Aureus,  this is Miss Ember Aramis, His Majesty's mate."

"Aureus from Megaris pays respect to the Queen of Agartha." For him as an outsider, it made sense that the mate of the King holds the title of the Queen.

Ember accepted the greetings with a light nod though she wanted to correct him, but in the end since neither Erlos nor her own servants reacted, she kept her mouth shut.

'A Divine Eagle...'

She didn't know why but she found him to have a  resemblance to Morpheus but on second thought, there was nothing similar between them aside from the manner of their clothing.

'Are they related or is it just because they are both shapeshifters from the same clan?'

The more she looked at him, the more she recalled the things Morpheus told her in the past. His sister was the last golden eagle, and ever since she was gone, no golden eagle was born in his clan. She wondered if Morpheus' sister looked the same like this--golden hair, golden eyes and even that invisible aura around their body seemed to shine gold as well.

'Beautiful she must be.'