Death's Door 31 Volume 2: Chapter 18-The Story Of The Witch

Many human being fortunate enough to have caught the eyes of the G.o.ds were given blessings, either since birth or manifesting itself when a G.o.d chose to bless a certain person. In a sense, the G.o.ds were playing favorites. The chosen human being received a blessing known as Bata. Thus, those who were given a blessing were given, in a sense, a seed of power, a mere tiny fraction of a G.o.d's power that manifested within the body of the blessed one. The seed, with proper nurture, care, and training had the potential for unimaginable growth, and those who have reached a certain level of strength that surpa.s.sed the level of humanity were said to have transcended to realm of demi-G.o.ds. Thus, it might have been a misnomer, but people started to refer to those who received a blessing as demi-G.o.ds. The blessing manifested itself as a mark somewhere upon the user's body, signifying which G.o.d or G.o.ddess had given the blessing to a human being. The kids who found a mark of blessing upon their body were overjoyed to know that the G.o.ds were on their side and have personally marked them as their followers. But that was only half of the picture.

The truth was, while there is a power of blessing granted by the G.o.ds, thus under their complete jurisdiction, there was a power in the world that was present in reality, independent from the G.o.ds' will.

That power is called the Jin, also known as Supremacy.

They are in a sense are equivalent of a blessing except their hosts are born with them, regardless of G.o.ds' involvement. G.o.ds had no way of controlling that power. The power would manifest within a host and exist within their body, growing and getting stronger, until the power permanently consumed the user or the user manages to tame the power instead. Jin's were no tool; they had a will of their own, so more often than not they would take over their hosts and cause them to lose control. Those who were unfortunate enough to be born with a Jin were called witches. Cursed with a terrifying power that seemed to attract all the evils of the world towards itself, the witches were outcasted from their societies, often ostracized for simply being born a witch. To make the matters worse, the G.o.ds encouraged their followers to kill and sacrifice the people who manifested supremacy as act of appeasing the G.o.ds, so hunting down those who manifested the Supremacy became a matter of principle for the human beings. Unlike the blessings, any type of beings could manifest Supremacy, even the non-humans, further inciting the wrath of people who hated anything not human.

The people who manifested Supremacy were easier to identify due to their peculiar trait-heterochromia, their eyes were of two different colors, and not just darker or lighter shade of the other but entirely different color than the other. The popular belief was that the evil inside their body was steadily taking over their body, manifesting as the change in one eye, and it is believed that by the time the evil completely takes over their body, both of the eyes shall change to become something unnatural. The second surefire way is that the witch's power always has negative effect upon the world the witch is living in, creating fear and disdain from those surrounding them. Many witches thought of their affliction as a curse for their actions in previous life, many taking their own lives just in order to ease their own suffering. Those who lives however met even more cruel fate.

Such was the case for young Sariu Lixus. Living an ordinary life in a village as the only child of her beloved parents, the life seemed to have been a blessed one. They were not rich, not by a long shot, but by effort and perseverance they managed to stay alive, more importantly they had each other to support them. Each other's smiles pushed them to do better to work harder on the fields in order to support themselves. For a time everything seemed well, until one day when Sariu was only seven years of age, she noticed something strange.

All the gra.s.s she touched seemed to wilt away the moment she touched it, all the plants she touched lost their colors and quickly died. At first she thought it was just a fluke, but when she touched their family's horse, the horse's eyes lost their light as its legs collapsed powerlessly underneath it. Panicking she called for her parents to show them what happened, but her parents were looking at her in horror as though they have seen a ghost. Not realizing she was the cause of their fear, Sariu looked at a reflective bowl only to see her face in it. Her face looked normal, her dark purple hair was same as usual, but her eyes were not. Instead of being both purple colored, the left eye was colored vivid yellow. There was no mistaking it. She blinked several times in order to make sure it was not something in her eye, and only after the image did not change did she finally accept the truth.

She did not know the implication of what it was. Her parents whispered to each other, saying words like "curse", "witch", and "doom".

Her father and mother told her to never show her left eye to the villagers so they put a scarf around her eye in order to hide it.

For a time, such deceit worked and Sariu was able to resume her normal life. But the other children feared her because everywhere she went to the plants and life seemed to fade. The children even told their parents that everywhere she went to she carried gloomy atmosphere and misfortune seemed to follow her. Their parents were suspicious of her so they told their children to avoid her. The other children feared her and left her by herself, making her only able to watch as the others had fun playing with each other with a leather ball made of sheep skin and fur knitted into a ball. They all but forbade her from coming near them, they considered her a weird person, no matter whom she approached, and they treated her as if she was a plague. It was true, whenever she was near people, they seemed to feel weaker and many fell sick in her presence, thus the villagers treated her as a token of bad luck incarnate. However, they did not show open hatred towards her just their cold eyes seemed to pierce her very soul.

But one day, a day before the 13th day of Jorus, her 11th birthday, when she was watching other children play, her scarf got knocked off by a stray leather ball, revealing her features for everyone's eyes to see. Their reaction could only be described as horrified.

"The Devil! Run!"

"Don't touch me!"

"You monster! You kind should die!"

Many words piercing her very soul, coming from those she considered her friends made the pain even worse.

The next day the village head had rallied his people, all carrying torches and spears, they seemed to be armed for battle.

"We should have known she was a monster! Hand her over! We knew there was something off with her, now we know!" The villagers shouted.

When she woke up, she saw a scene of her house being surrounded by the villagers. All of whom she knew, some of whom even treated her nicely. But now, as if some kind of a switch has been turned, all of them turned against her.

"We shall sacrifice her to our patron G.o.ddess Ignis, as a tribute to her, as her loyal followers we shall sacrifice this abomination in her honor!" an elderly man she affectionately called her 'grandpa' was saying this. She did not know what to think.

"She is a witch! You saw her eyes! She must be dealt with immediately!"

Her parents refused to move away, so the villagers made even more cruel choice. One of the villagers dropped a torch inside her house, setting it on fire. Now they considered her parents enemies as well.

"Kill them! They gave life to the abomination!" Her parents were stabbed with spears right before her eyes. Unable to move, unable to comprehend what happened right before her eyes, she stared in horror as the corpses of her parents plummeted down, stabbed again and again by the angry villagers.

Now they advanced to kill her, but she could no longer see them. The feeling had overwhelmed her, like the blinding light, her mind now became completely blank. Her mind was sent into extreme frenzy, not from fear, but from sorrow. The feeling of loss of those two, her parents, the ones who cared for her, loved her, and cherished her no matter what, they were gone. Seeing this right before her eyes, something inside her broke, unleas.h.i.+ng a terrible monster….

….When she woke up, she saw all of the villagers, their burned corpses littering the ground. There was nothing left of the house, all burned down to the ashes. Off her parents only cooked corpses remained. Unable to feel anything but pure terror in her heart she found herself in a reality that seemed too unreal to be true. Everyone who she knew was dead; reduced to lifeless corpses. And she knew that she was responsible.

She walked through her entire village, not a single living person remained. When she opened a door to a house, a corpse leaning upon a door fell upon the ground, limp and motionlessly, as though it was an object not a former human being.

When she opened the last door of the house she knew in the village, her fears were confirmed, her entire village was dead, and she was the cause. Because of her curse her peers feared her. Because of her curse, her parents died trying to defend her. Because she lost control of her curse, her entire village was reduced to a grave. And it was all her fault.

* * *

Briefly afterwards, the pa.s.sing slave merchants stumbled upon village of Red Ferns, to find that their trading partners, the villagers, were all dead, except for one girl. Not wasting the opportunity, the slave traders proceeded to put chains upon the girl's neck and took her as their new slave.

Consequently, the slave traders brought her to the city called Oran, there they sold her to the highest bidder, to the Lord of House Venlander, Ragnor Venlander.

* * *

As a property of Lord Venlander, Sariu served as one of his maids, performing duties such as cleaning the house, tidying the area, cooking, and other household tasks. Everyone treated her with obvious apathy, as if she was a mere object, nothing more. And she believed it too, she felt too worthless to be a person. Needing to conceal her left eye with bangs of her hair so that she wouldn't be outed as a witch. She was Lord Venlander's property, nothing more.

Knowing that she destroyed the lives of everyone she interacted with, she carried out the duties of a maid with extreme efficiency. In order to not kill everything she touched, she wore gloves on her hands at all times, but even then she was not certain whether the life around her would die or not. The other servants noticed that every time Sariu took care of the garden, all the gra.s.s seemed to lose color, almost as if the early autumn had arrived. They thought of it as a weather phenomenon, without knowing the true cause.

One day, while carrying dishes, Sariu tripped and fell, ending up with the dishes broken and with a shallow cut on her hand. A maid by the name of Annalisa happened to be right in front of her.

"Are you ok?" Annalisa asked. She usually wore her hair over her right eye, but now that Sariu was looking at her from below, both her eyes were visible. The right eye that was always concealed was as black as the night while the eye she showed everyone else was sky blue. Consequently, for the exact same reason, Annalisa ended up seeing Sariu's full face and her eyes as well.

"Are you…" Annalisa didn't finish. Lord Venlander stormed in and shouted.

"You ungrateful servants! What is the commotion about!? What did this fool do with the dishes and silverware? I will have you flogged for this…" He was advancing at Sariu with intimidating expression.

"It is entirely my fault, Lord Venlander. Please forgive my clumsiness." Before Sariu could say anything, Annalisa interjected, drawing the blame to herself.

Lord Venlander proceeded to slap her harshly upon the face. "Make sure this does not happen again, do you understand?!" He growled angrily.

"Yes, my lord." Annalisa bowed. Lord Venlander then proceeded to leave.

After seeing that he had left, Annalisa turned her back to Sariu and whispered "In my chambers, in the evening."

Then she proceeded to leave, leaving Sariu not sure what just happened. But she knew now one thing for sure. She wasn't the only one hiding a secret.

* * *

Sariu did as she was told and arrived in a room that seemed to be made for the sole purpose of serving; the atmosphere of the room betrayed the fact that the owner was preoccupied with work to put anything impractical. Everything there was of practical use. Writing utensils, books, sc.r.a.ps of paper, everything suggested an inquisitive mind.

"I am glad you have come, Sariu." Annalisa greeted her.

"I am glad you have chosen to invite me, Lady Annalisa." Sariu said respectfully, after all Annalisa was her senior.

"Drop the lady, it sounds too weird." Somehow, maybe because Annalisa was no longer wearing maid's uniform since she was off duty, she wasn't as strictly following the rules. She was wearing a simple yet elegant white nightgown. Brus.h.i.+ng off her dark blue hair off her eyes, Annalisa began. Sariu just looked at her with the same level of alertness as the moment she first saw her different colored eyes.

"Judging by your reaction, you already know what this means. Then I am going to go straight to the point…Why are you here?"

"What do you mean?" Sariu asked confusedly.

"How did you end up in the hands of someone like Lord Venlander? You must know by now how much he hates non-humans, so walking in here for someone like you is the worst possible decision!"

"I…I was sold to him…at a slave auction." Sariu gulped saying the last part.

"I see. So it wasn't by your own choice then, I am sorry for being insensitive."

"It is fine; I am used to it by now." Sariu mumbled.

"Let me give you an advice, make sure to be wary of Lord Venlander, that man…he loves to inflict pain and suffering to anyone he touches. Many maids who have worked here have been maimed and beaten by him; he keeps them alive only to have them suffer more. So make sure not to cross his path when he is in the mood for blood."

"I understand." Sariu fearfully uttered.

"You better do." Annalisa sorrowfully replied.

* * *

Over time, the distance between the junior maid and her senior began to decrease; the more they talked the more one grew to know about the other.

Needing someone to confess her sins to, Sariu told Annalisa, to whom she referred to now simply as Lisa, all about her past, her guilt, her pain, and her sincerest wish to not cause more suffering.

Lisa, in turn revealed some things about herself. Her family lived in a territory that now belonged to Lord Venlander. He had seized all their ancestral lands and left them in poverty. Then, after some time he ordered the people living in his territory to pay hefty taxes. Stripped of all they owned, her family was going to be exiled and the head of the family was going to be executed for not being able to pay back their debt to their lord. But Lisa loved her family too much to see that happen, she stepped forward and offered herself as a slave to Lord Venlander in exchange for letting her father live and her family be able to survive. Lord Venlander agreed. Since then, she had worked tirelessly for him, even with him sometimes beating her for no apparent reason other than to satisfy his urges for dominance, she braced herself for she was doing it for her family. When he caused her to black out, bruised all over, she did it for her family. It was all for her family, all for her family…

But her family wasn't there for her. Shortly after being freed and with no danger of execution anymore, they fled from Lord Venlander's territory, leaving their elder daughter Annalisa Lockmayer a prisoner in the hands of a cruel lord. They abandoned her, made her a scapegoat. Even if she knew she was doing it for her family, that family no longer was there, they have abandoned her to the wolves.

She told Sariu how she found out she was a witch when she was four years old, but her family accepted her nevertheless. She hid that fact from Lord Venlander the same way Sariu had done. By coincidence, she ended up finding many books in Lord Venlander's library that delved into the witches and their abilities and used it to study how to control her own powers.

In many ways, she taught Sariu everything she knew, but rather than a teacher, Sariu saw her more as an older sister, a family she longed for. The feeling was mutual.

Annalisa taught Sariu how to use her power called Jin, The Supremacy, or as they are better known, the Sins. She taught her that there were more than mere seven and that each witch born in the world embodied one true sin, weaker versions of the sin could be used by others but the true sin could only be wielded by the real user. Annalisa wielded the Jin of Misery, and her mastery of it was such that she was able to take all the pain of the suffering of others into herself so that the other workers wouldn't have to feel the pain or suffering. She tried to teach Sariu how to control her sin by using flowers in pots. Sariu's objective was to control her sin, The Jin of Life sot that the flower would not wilt away. It was much harder than originally planned. After countless attempts, Sariu managed to not suck away the life within a plant by direct contact.

Annalisa taught Sariu that the Jin is in a sense another being occupying their bodies and that she needed to control it lest that monster within them would be unleashed upon the world.

"But do not misunderstand, our affliction is not a curse, at least I do not believe it is. Who knows? It might be a blessing in disguise?" Annalisa smiled at Sariu with the warmest smile. Sariu remembered that smile for a long time after that, but it wasn't for happy reasons.

* * *

It had been almost four years since she has been bought by Lord Venlander. Even with inhumane master, with someone she loved and cherished, everything seemed bearable. To her, Lisa was an older sister she had always wanted and by stroke of fortune they met each other. Sariu considered herself very blessed to have met someone like Lisa.

But what she saw that day changed it all.

She heard a sound of scream from Lord Venlander's room. It was a woman's voice. She carefully approached the door of the room, too scared to do anything more.

"How dare you have touched the books within my library…How dare you!" the sound of someone being lifted up by the neck could be heard. Then a sound of surprise coming from a man. "Those eyes, you are a witch!!" A sound of a body being brought down to the ground with a dull sound, cras.h.i.+ng on to the floor.

"So it seems a wolf has raided my den, but I am not going to have it!" He proceeded to punch the person repeatedly. Sariu saw this from the door, too scared to move, she didn't know who was being beaten but she didn't want to be in their place right now so she kept her distance.

"I have fed you, clothed you and this is how you repay me!" He shouted loudly.

"Please forgive me, my lord." A weak voice whispered out. Sariu recognized the voice, it was Lisa's voice. The one she thought of as her older sister was suffering. Gone was the fear she felt within her, now it was time to act. She barged into the room, but it was too late.

"Your existence is unforgivable, you will die!" Lord Venlander proceeded to stab Annalisa through her chest, through her heart.

Sariu saw what was happening in front of her, her heart beat like crazy, her vision momentarily becoming cloudy, her center of gravity swiveling. For a moment, she saw nothing but darkness, that moment seemed to last an eternity before her eyes opened again.

Now lying before her was the body of Lord Venlander, his eyes turned inside out, his heart no longer beating. She lost control, and now he was dead.

She now approached Annalisa who was looking at Sariu with a welcoming smile on her face. Sariu lifted Lisa's upper body over her lap. Blood was spilling all over her maid uniform.

"Lisa! You are going to be ok; everything will be fine, just hang on… I will…"

"Sariu, both of us know I am not going to make it, but still, allow me to say this, thank you. After my family abandoned me, I had nothing left to live for, but then you stepped into my life and filled it with joy. We had fun times, and I thank you for it."

"Lisa, I am the one who should be thanking you!" Sariu's eyes were now overflowing with tears. This was someone who was dear to her, closest thing she had left to a family.

Lisa's weak hand clutched Sariu's hand with weak grasp.

"There were so many times I wanted to end myself, but you made me want to live, and I thank you for it…" Lisa's eyes now seemed to be getting weaker and weaker, more and more blood now was spilling onto Sariu's skirt and blouse, but Sariu paid it no heed.

"Lisa, please, hang on…!"

"I love you, little sister." Lisa whispered and now her weak grip on Sariu's hand came undone. Lisa's eyes now closed to never open again.

Annalisa Lockmayer was no more. The person who shared Sariu's secret, the one who taught her so much, and the one she loved as her family, was now gone.

With a anguished scream, Sariu let out a sound of pure despair. Crying, screaming, wailing, she no longer knew what was happening. Everything around her seemed to be gone.

She was given love only to have it s.n.a.t.c.hed away so cruelly. If only she could have entered the room just a few seconds earlier, if only she realized it was Lisa there, she could have saved her. Such thoughts magnified hundredfold by the realization that the last person she loved was gone, sent Sariu into a state of mind of pure nothingness. Her mind seemed to have left her body, and her body helplessly slumped to the ground, still embracing the corpse of her dear friend. Unknown to her, her powers manifested yet again, but now they had managed to take control of her body, thus causing physical changes to her. Her once purple hair now started to lose its color, turning silver white overnight. Her body emitted an aura with an undeniable stench of death. She lay there for three days before the knights came in, alerted by the maids about the poisonous mana coming from Lord Venlander's room and the fact that Lord Venlander did not leave his room for the last three days. Something seemed fishy.

Looking at the source of the dark aura, and Sariu's mismatched eyes, the knights proceeded to arrest her as a witch, charged with murdering a high ranked lord. Her execution was going to take in four months, before which she was thrown into an underground prison, to rot there before her time came.