The sun had not yet reached its zenith when Theo and the siblings returned to the streets of Augsburg. The air in the town was thick, laden with the scent of damp wood and the nervous murmur of villagers who felt the shadow of the Blood Moon approaching. Theo walked with a calm stride, followed by the siblings. At his request, they had left Jackson behind in the town center. Theo had been clear about it: he didn't want a civilian nearby when they confronted Mina. They already knew the story and had agreed that they wouldn't harm the white witch, but Jackson didn't know, and there was no time to tell him or convince him.
Fortunately, they didn't have to walk far to find her. Fate, or perhaps something more mundane, seemed to be on their side. Mina appeared around a corner near the market square. It wasn't a forced encounter; she saw them first. Upon spotting Hansel's figure, her face lit up for an instant with a glow that betrayed her feelings. She approached them with quick steps, though her expression showed a mixture of relief and shyness. She still vividly remembered how Hansel had defended her from the mob the day before, and that small infatuation pushed her to seek his proximity.
However, Hansel was in no mood for pleasantries. His mind was fixed on the cabin, the revelation about his mother, and the danger his sister was in.
"I don't have time to talk now" - Hansel blurted out as soon as Mina was close enough. His tone was sharp, almost rude.
Mina stopped dead in her tracks. The smile that was just beginning to appear on her lips vanished, replaced by a grimace of discomfort. She stood there, in the middle of the street, fiddling with the hem of her apron. She wanted to say something so as not to look like a fool desperate for attention, but the words got stuck in her throat.
"Actually" - Theo intervened, breaking the awkward silence. - "we were just looking for you."
Theo's declaration was like a bucket of cold water for the siblings. Hansel and Gretel looked at him in total surprise. They hadn't expected the "white witch" Theo mentioned with such certainty to be precisely the red-haired girl they had rescued from the flames. Mina, for her part, looked at Theo with bewilderment; she had never seen him before and didn't understand why a stranger with such an imposing presence knew who she was.
"Is it really her?" - Hansel asked, pointing at her with a tilt of his head, while his gaze traveled from Theo to Mina with incredulity.
"Better if we go somewhere quieter" - Theo suggested, since after all, this wasn't something that could be discussed in the middle of the town.
Mina didn't look very sure. Her eyes reflected the fear of being pointed at again, but Gretel took a step forward. The huntress, whose gaze was usually made of steel, softened a bit upon seeing the girl's state.
"Nothing bad is going to happen to you, I promise" - Gretel said firmly.
"It's true" - Theo added. - "We just need your help with something that only you can do."
Mina felt even more self-conscious, feeling the weight of the three of them staring at her. She looked at Hansel once more, seeking confirmation from him that it wasn't a trap. The hunter sighed and nodded slightly, inviting her to follow them. Finally, she accepted, though she walked a bit behind, wondering what kind of mess she was getting herself into.
They arrived at a rented room in a discreet inn on the outskirts of the town. Once Hansel closed the door and made sure no one was listening through the wood, Theo placed the old book they had recovered from the cabin on the table.
"We need you to read this" - Theo said, going straight to the point.
Mina approached the table with caution. At first, she didn't understand why they were asking her to read an old book, but as soon as her eyes landed on the book's contents, her breathing quickened. She tried to maintain her composure, but fear leaked into her gestures; she had realized it was no ordinary book.
"We know what you are" - Hansel said, watching her from a corner of the room with his arms crossed. - "Theo says you're a white witch. We're not going to do anything to you, stay calm. We just need to see if there's anything in that book that helps us against the witches who want to perform the Blood Moon ritual."
Mina looked at them with a mixture of anguish and relief. It was the first time someone had called her that without wanting to burn her.
"I really regret getting you into this this way" - Theo commented, leaning against the wall. - "But many witches are going to appear in the coming days and we need any advantage we can get. The knowledge in this book is our best chance."
Mina swallowed hard, looking at the grimoire of the siblings' mother. After a few seconds of hesitation, she nodded, agreeing to help. With her confirmation, the siblings were able to relax a bit and begin checking their own supplies and weapons. Theo, for his part, stayed seated near Mina; he didn't have much else to prepare and preferred to be there in case she needed any clarification or if her nervousness overcame her again.
From that moment on, time seemed to both speed up and slow down. The rest of the morning and the first hours of the afternoon passed as they planned what they were going to do. They spent a few hours on their next plan of action. It wasn't a fluid conversation; there were many disagreements and moments of friction, especially between Hansel and Theo.
The plan, once distilled after much "push and pull," was simple in theory but risky in practice. The siblings would stay together in an isolated area away from the town center, serving as the primary bait. They knew Muriel and her henchwomen would be looking for Gretel, the Grand White Witch, so their presence in a clear area would be an irresistible magnet. Theo, meanwhile, would be in charge of guarding the house of the last child, or rather, the last girl necessary for the ritual. She was a girl of about ten years old, the last month Muriel needed to complete the cycle of twelve.
Hansel wasn't at all convinced about leaving the girl under Theo's exclusive care. His thoughts were clear: despite the fact that Theo had helped them and shown unusual strength at the cabin, he was still a stranger who knew too much information. 'What if it's a trick? What if he hands her over to the witches himself to save his own skin?' - Hansel wondered while sharpening his knife. However, Gretel convinced him that they couldn't be in two places at once and that Theo was the only one with enough skills to intercept a witch solo if things turned ugly.
Mina, for her part, spent the afternoon immersed in the pages of the grimoire. The process wasn't anything magical with lights and chants, but a meticulous job of reading and mixing ingredients. By mid-afternoon, she had managed to decipher and prepare a specific potion described in the book. She didn't give long explanations about the magical theory; she simply appeared before the siblings with a small glass vial. With careful gestures, she sprinkled the contents over the siblings' weapons and Theo's sword, the latter just in case he threw it.
"This should work" - Mina said in a soft voice, though her eyes showed exhaustion. - "The book says this ointment allows the metal to ignore protection spells. The witches won't be able to deflect your attacks with their defensive magic."
Finally, the sun set, giving way to an unusually silent night. The siblings positioned themselves in the agreed area, senses alert, waiting for the witches' first move. Hansel continued to ruminate on his distrust toward Theo, glancing sideways toward the part of the town where the young man was supposed to be guarding the girl. He was convinced that the witches wouldn't attack the town directly; his experience told him they tended to be subtler, waiting for their victims to be alone or in the forest.
"They won't come here, Gretel" - Hansel murmured, adjusting his heavy weapon. - "They're going to wait for us to lower our guard."
Gretel was about to say something, but then, just a few seconds later, a series of violent explosions shook the foundations of Augsburg. So all she did was shoot a look at her brother, who made a face.
On the other hand, explosions continued to ring out thunderously, followed quickly by the sound of wooden beams splintering and harrowing screams that cut through the silence of the night. Looking up at the smoke-tinted sky, the siblings were able to visualize three silhouettes.
Three dark silhouettes mounted on twisted wooden brooms soared through the air over the rooftops. It was Muriel and her henchwomen, but they weren't hiding in the shadows. Two of them hovered over the town center, hurlings balls of fire that turned houses into instant pyres. The fire lit the sky an infernal red, and in that moment, Hansel and Gretel realized that the hunt was not going to be according to their rules. The witches had come to Augsburg with the intention of reducing it to ashes to get what they wanted.
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This chapter and the next are mostly, if not entirely, written in the third person, since I didn't know how to explain the chapter to the AI (the awkward conversations), so I asked it to explain it mostly in the third person. I took it literally and the only conversations that the AI made, I had to rearrange them; this one and the next one are arguably some of the ones where I've changed the most.
But well, fortunately we're almost finished so I won't have to suffer with this anymore.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter.