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AUTHORS NOTE:
Sorry for the delay I was out attending a cousin's marriage.
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Adrian sat on a flat boulder inside his clearing, legs crossed, eyes shut, breath slow. The rock wasn't touching the ground. It hovered—steady, firm, and completely unnoticed by him—about an inch above the dirt. The clearing around him was bright under the midday sun, but his mind was elsewhere. He was replaying the moment he wished he could un-hear.
Earlier that day…
Esther's house…
The question he had placed all his hope in.
"If you are also a witch… then can you teach me magic?"
It had left his mouth before he could rethink it. Simple. Direct. Earnest.
Esther glanced up at him. For a moment he genuinely believed she would say yes, maybe consider ,Instead she gave only one answer.
"No. I can't."
No explanation. No suggestion. No alternative path. Just a rejection so clean he could still feel the sting of it.
Adrian opened his eyes and sighed—long, sharp, irritated. The moment he did, the concentration he hadn't realized he was maintaining snapped. The boulder dropped with a dull thud, and he dropped with it.
"—OW! Seriously?" he hissed as he landed sideways in the grass.
He sat up, rubbing his elbow, then let himself fall backward onto the ground. The sunlight hit him square in the face, forcing him to squint.
It was noon.
Not even late afternoon.
And he was already mentally done with the day.
Six months ago, he was barely lifting pebbles. Six months ago, he thought magic was some distant dream that he might someday understand if he kept practicing. Now he was lifting himself without even noticing, floating half the clearing by mistake, and occasionally snapping branches off trees when he sneezed.
He groaned. "At this rate, I'm going cause some serious trouble without continuously maintaining control on my magic it works on his own.
Just like how bonnie lights up candles unknowingly any emotional fluctuations now cause some trouble for me."
He ran a hand through his hair and stared up at the canopy. The frustration was real, burning hot.
If she wouldn't teach him, then he'd find another way. He'd break into houses. He'd steal spellbooks. He'd experiment until the ground exploded under him. He'd push until the answers showed themselves because no one was going to hand them to him.
He rolled onto his side, propped himself up on his elbow, and looked around the clearing that had become his unofficial training ground months ago. A fallen trunk sat on one side, rocks and gravel scattered around, and scorch marks from previous failed experiments still stained the dirt.
"There has to be another way," he muttered.
When his eyes fell on the trunk that was somehow on fire. "Fuck!!!!!"
---
Evening — Ayana's House
By the time the sun dipped low, the tension inside Esther's house was thick enough to cut.
Ayana stood near the central table, arms crossed, back straight. Esther took her usual seat while Mikael lowered himself onto the bench opposite her. A single candle on the table flickered weakly, its light casting stretched, uneven shadows across the walls.
Ayana didn't waste time. "How did it go? Did the plan progress as expected?"
Esther exhaled slowly, rubbing her palms together. "Yes. More than expected, actually. He is very interested in magic. He asked me directly to teach him." She shook her head, still baffled by how quickly it happened. "I wasn't ready for it. I denied him immediately to keep the plan intact."
Ayana's eyebrows lifted. "He asked you to teach him?"
"He did," Esther confirmed.
Ayana stepped around the table, the candlelight catching on her face. "Then our timeline just shrank again." She looked between Esther and Mikael. "Adrian has already awakened magic. He will probably start tinkering with magic as a primordial, his learning curve won't grow slowly… it will jump. If he continues training alone, he will understand more and more without guidance. And then—"
" We will lose the easy way out!" Esther finished quietly.
Mikael frowned, confused. "Hold on. Why does it matter if he learns magic by himself? He plays around. So what?"
Ayana blinked at him, thrown off for a moment. "We didn't explain this part to you, did we?"
Mikael crossed his arms. "Clearly not."
Ayana straightened, speaking more deliberately. "The ritual we want to perform requires consent. Actual consent from all participants. The easiest way—to get concent—is simple. Esther offers to teach him magic. In exchange, he agrees to join her family through the ritual. He's young; he won't fully understand the depth behind it. But he will agree. Easily."
"And if he learns magic on his own?" Mikael pressed.
"Then e have to look for other reasons to let him do the ritual." Ayana said bluntly "we have look for other way to let him agree to joining the family. "
The room fell silent.
After several seconds, Esther lifted her gaze. "We move forward,with the plan" she said, her tone firm.
Ayana turned to Mikael next.
He sat stiff, jaw clenched, clearly troubled by the direction the plan was taking. But after a long exhale, he nodded. "If this must be done,to get Freya back then it must be done. But listen well—I will train the boy myself. If he's going to be part of this family, I'll shape him into someone worthy of my daughter."
Ayana accepted this with a nod. "Then I'll prepare everything."
She walked to the shelves, pulling out old scrolls and folded pages. She laid them across the table, her expression turning serious.
"There are many components," she said. "Herbs,some crystals, many other ingredients needs preparation —basic things we can gather easily. But the hardest ingredient is the one we cannot easily get two Wolves remains."
Mikael frowned. "Wolves are everywhere. Why not just hunt a pair?"
Ayana said, "not really rare, wild wolves are everywhere but their remains are never intact most of the time even if you find the remains how do we know if they were mates and those even remotely involved in this ritual should not be the cause of their deaths so basically we are left with scavenging."
Ayana tapped one of the pages of the time.
"And that's the problem," Esther added.
The candle flame flickered, shadows stretching across their faces—frustration, worry, calculation.
After several long moments of silence, Mikael rubbed his chin. "I might have an idea. I don't know if it will work."
Ayana turned instantly. "Say it."
"Our neighbors," Mikael began. "The beasts—werewolves. They're wolves too, aren't they?"
Ayana stopped mid-breath.
Esther froze in place.
Both women stared at him.
Shock.
Recognition.
And then realization hit them both like a hammer.
Their mouths fell open—not exaggeratedly, just enough to show that the idea hadn't even crossed their minds.
Ayana inhaled sharply. "It… would work."
Esther slowly nodded, disbelief shifting into relief. "It solves everything."
Ayana leaned over the scrolls, scanning the ritual lines again. "There may be minor side effects," she admitted, "but nothing worth reconsidering. And it gives us the single thing we need most—confirmed mates. You are good at this Mikael!!"
Both women exchanged a pleased, almost triumphant smile.
The problem that could have stalled them for months at least was suddenly viable.
Mikael folded his arms, satisfied. "Good. Then we can proceed."
Ayana nodded. "We will. So how do we get those ashes from our dear neighbors?"