Chapter 1
Jasmine I
It was ironic to Jasmine how fast she ran through the forest in search of a body of water. She was powerful, or at least was supposed to be, but the shadow after her made her feel weak.
Born with the power to travel through reflective surfaces, she had never been this desperate. Not even when the Seekers hard ransacked her village in search of any Witch not wearing a magic binding necklace, bracelet or anklet. At that time, a simple nod from her 13th mother to go through the mirror in her room had been only it took to get to the home of her 14th mother.
All her life she had been on the run but not like this. She had moved from home to home, staying only a year in each without the binding, but had never gotten this close to death. She had never been this close to Calamity.
With a look back at the hooded figure, who had eyes that promise death and the long braided hair of silver-gold with a long spear that he wished to drive through her, she sped up. She had heard the rumour and had read her history but nothing had prepared her for the Wizard King that came at her on foot.
A shout escaped her lips as she lost her footing and landed on her face making her roll to her back in pain. Her halt was all it took for Calamity to bridge the gap between them and stand a couple feet from her with the confidence of a man that had slain thousands of Witches with his Spear of Calamity.
“You look in pain.” He mocked as her chest heaved painfully, her knees hurt and her elbows bled from protecting her face. “How about I put you out of your misery?”
Calamity was undeniably handsome with his silver-gold hair, brown eyes, brown skin, and a well endowed body. If he hadn’t been the Apocalypse of the Witches she might have considered him in a favourable light. But under the moonlight with him standing over her like her executioner she had nothing but loathing for him.
“Why kill me! You have won, every Witch is under you, every Witch fears your Spear too much to come at you! So why kill me?!” She screamed out in anger and fear as her eyes darted between his brown eyes and the Spear he held on to.
“Why, you ask.” He said before he walked towards her and squatted to be on her eye level. “Because you are a Traveler Witch.”
Before she could process what he meant by that eighteen Witches stepped out of the forest to surround them. Each with a scowl and determination all Witches older than her had for Calamity. Their hatred was palpable and one look at them, she recognized them as her mother’s which made her hopeful, but also scared. Hopeful she might escape from Calamity, but scared the women who had raised her all her life would die a terrible death.
“You are all rebelling against me.” Calamity said in a very calm voice before he stood up to face them.” I hope you’ve kissed your loved ones goodbye, because you won’t be seeing them again.”
" We are here to save her from you.” One of her mothers said venomously.
“That’s admirable.” He said with an amused smile. “But I would love to see you try.”
“Go Jasmine, we’ll hold him off.” Another mother said before the eighteen of them got ready to cast their spells.
“For a second perhaps.” Calamity mocked.
" That’s all she needs.” Another replied before they unanimously cast a spell of lightning at Calamity, only for him to parry them away with his Spear as if the lightning strikes were nothing more than annoying flies.
She didn’t look anymore as she got up and ran towards the stream she knew was ahead. As she ran, she heard her mothers scream as Calamity activated the Spear which began to absorb their magic, painfully. Even from this distance she could feel her magic leaving her. This was the true fear of Calamity. His ability to take their magic from them and leave them empty.
Jasmine had to bite her lips as her tears ran down her cheeks. She had to keep going because she knew that without their magic, they would be killed effortlessly by Calamity and it would be a shame for their deaths to be in vain. As she ran, she heard the running water clearer than a moment ago which made her run faster with hope pumping through her veins.
After ducking under a branch, she saw the stream which made her let out a relieved laughter and charge for the water. At that moment, a projectile a flew past her and landed firmly in the ground before her throwing her backwards at the force released.
With a groan she sat up, only to see Calamity step out forest and into the clearing she was in. He was covered in some places with the blood of her mothers which made her tears run down unbidden.
“Their efforts were futile.” He said to her as he let down his hood to show his face properly. “They could have lived, but it’s treason to remove your magic binding. A crime punishable by loss of magic and life.”
“You’re evil.” She said to him. “The worst thing to ever exist in the Argillac Peninsula.” She gritted out in tears as her eyes went to the Spear that if activated would make her lose the one thing she had always had that gave her comfort in a world determined to make her miserable. A world made this way by Calamity.
“You can fight back you know? You are powerful after all.” He mocked with a smirk that made her feel anger and fear in equal proportion.
She could fight back, but her fear of him was holding her back. All the magic absorbed by the Spear was in him, magic of Witch Queens, Princess, Ladies and even Travelers, were all in him making his a terrible threat with or without his Spear.
“You will pay for my mother’s deaths.” She swore before she slowly got to her feet.
“Will I?” He asked in amusement before he summoned his Spear to himself.
Before he Spear could get to him, she sent lightning and thunder at him in quick succession before she cast the spell of shield to protect herself when Calamity waved the elements away from himself and sent a wave of fire at her with his Spear.
Not wanting to give him time to activate the Spear, she went on the offense, launching boulders and branches with the little magic she had left after she had lost so much of it to the Spear. To her frustration, he simply spun his Spear in a circle evaporating the elements before sending a gust of wind at her which flung her across the stream.
Once she landed, she looked at the water and then at him before running to it determined to travel through the water only for her to feel pain beyond words wrack her body and force her to a knees. Her head and chest like they were being split apart and put together violently, which made her see nothing but white blinding stars.
Due to the immense pain, she let out a shrill scream only for the pain which had come so quickly to leave as quickly leaving behind an emptiness so deep she collapsed on the ground while still on her knees.
She felt heavy and empty at the same time. The warmth that had always been there was gone, the light in her eyes were gone, her comfort was gone all at the whims of a man called Calamity. She was cold she was empty and her life felt worthless, despair seemed to be all she knew.
Before Calamity could take a step to cross the stream to end your life eleven Witches arose from the water and launched powerful strikes at him simultaneously. While he was preoccupied with defending himself, two of the Witches grabbed on to her and took her to the water, traveling through it just as she blacked out.
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“She has lost her magic to Calamity.” She heard a woman say as she slowly got back to the waking world.
“It changes nothing.” Another said in a firm voice.
“What do you mean it changes nothing? This changes everything!”
“She’s right you know? We are all Traveler Witches and for us to travel through time to undo all this madness, eleven of us will have to sit for one to go. Eleven with magic.”
“Like I said, it changes nothing. If eleven have to die, and the eleven have to have magic, we will simply send the one without her magic.”
“Are you mad? You wish to send a little girl to do a woman’s job? Has she killed before, can she put aside her ‘morals’ to kill Calamity before he becomes Calamity. Can she stomach the thought of ending the life of an ‘innocent’ boy?”
“It’s not like we have a choice now do we? Over a thousand years Calamity has been killing a Traveler per century to prevent us changing history. This is the first time in history that we have such a golden chance, we have to take it regardless.”
“Also, we are running out of time! Any moment now, Calamity will walk in her and slaughter us all like we are nothing but ants and damn every Witch to another century of this!”
Jasmine heard the back and forth for a while longer before she opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling. They were in an abandoned castle with most of the concrete ceiling giving away for her to see the dark sky and the steel rods between which told her it was still night outside. Her groan was all the sound she made as she slowly sat up, alerting all eyes to be on her.
“You okay?”
“She’s had an encounter with Calamity, of course she’s not okay.”
" he stayed alive long enough for us to get to her after we received word from the Guardians. That alone is impressive.”
“Guardians?” She asked in confusion as she looked at all the Travelers who all looked at her with various expressions. Some were worried, other inpatient and some angry.
“Your mothers.”
“Oh?” She said before she remembered how brutality that had died by the hands of Calamity who had stolen her magic and tried to kill her. “So we can travel through time?”
“Technically.” One of the said with a smile.
“Eleven die for the twelfth to go. A high price that no one in the right minds would pay, but given our situation, its the only logical step to take.”
“He killed my mother and stole my magic, if my death can end him, kill me.” Jasmine said in a determined voice.
“That was the plan, except now you have no magic.”
“So Calamity has won?” She asked in horror.
“Not necessarily.”
“We had planned to send the oldest amongst us to kill Calamity before he became who he is now, but with you lacking magic, you will have to go.”
“To kill him?” She asked.
“Afraid?”
Whether she was afraid or not wasn’t the point. The point was that she had been given a golden opportunity to kill the bastard herself, a chance she most definitely wouldn’t pass up.
“I’ll do it.” She said to them.
“Do you know anything about him?”
“Other than his Spear of Calamity, the fact he’s a thousand years old and that he brought about the end of the Golden Age, nothing much.*
“Well, first of all, his real name is Jaden.” Another Witch said. “He was hidden from the Peninsula until he was found desirable by Princess Lovella who then took him as her Consort.”
“The plan is to arrive before he leaves Galaha for Darmstram and kill him on the road.”
" Why not earlier?” Jasmine asked in confusion. ” Why not when he was a baby or a child, why when he turned eighteen?”
“Because he was the Wizard Prince of Galaha. His Queen Mother kept him safe and protected at all times till he was ready for marriage as was custom then.”
“But remember, when you kill him, make sure no one knows you did it or your doppelganger will be charged for murder once you leave, changing history in some unforeseen manner.”
Jasmine nodded her head in understanding before she was led to an alter and surrounded by the eleven of them. They looks on their faces were grim as no one wanted to die. However if their deaths could bring forth a brighter future for every Witch in the Argillac Peninsula then they were ready to die.
As for Jasmine, killing Jaden would save her mothers from dying by his hand. Killing Jaden was the only way to save all that she held there. This was the only way.
Jaden had to die.
