The Devil's Cursed Witch

“Miss Ember, shall we begin?” Helia asked.

Ember nodded and Yula guided them to the central part of the training grounds.

Yula turned to Ember as she gestured to the vast meadow far from the buildings and the trees.

“This place is protected by His Majesty’s powers,” she started, “so, even if you lose control over your powers, there is nothing to worry about. It won’t harm others. Also, did you see the servants by the entrance of the training grounds? They’re beings with water-attributed magic and there was also a witch among them who specializes in healing. They will be on standby just in case things go wrong, but of course, we are merely being careful…”

Ember nodded and sighed in relief. Her last experience with her powers hadn’t gone well–as far as she was concerned, it had been a disaster–and she still carried the guilt of having burned those butterflies.

Afterwards, Yula excused herself to attend to her palace duties, leaving Ember alone with her instructor. Ember stared at the red-haired woman with mixed nervousness and excitement.

“Do you know what makes fairies different from the other races, Miss?”

Ember was taken aback by the question before shaking her head. “I only heard that they’re residents of Agartha too who’s good at handling elements…”

“That is true, but it also has to do with our constitutions.” Her copper-gold eyes were bright as she let out a confident smile. “It is because we are not born with physical bodies, Miss. We are spiritual creatures of pure elemental magic. We are children born from nature itself and I am one of the spirits of fire who gained consciousness after existing for a long, long time…”

With that, the air around the red-haired woman seemed to shimmer in gold and red, and the warm magic being emitted by her body gave a specially delightful feeling to Ember.

Ember found it strange, as she had a number of ugly memories related to fire, but at this moment, she felt the urge to reach out and touch Helia, as if her intuition was telling her this fire would not harm her.

Helia let out a pleased smile as she dispersed the magic around her body. “I will begin our lessons not with any introductory concepts about magic, but about understanding your potential and limits, Miss. I do not know if you are aware, but I am one with the most experience in teaching younglings among my people, but you are the first human student I have ever taken. Your lessons will be tailored according to your needs. That makes sense, doesn’t it?”

The human girl nodded.

“There are many kinds of fire in this world. Do you know that, Miss?”

Ember looked puzzled. “I only know there’s many different uses of fire…”

“Then, let us start with that. I wish to understand what kind of fire exists within you, and from that, we will decide the direction of your lessons,” Helia said, and she stretched out her two hands in front of her. “Please put your hands in mine.”

Ember remembered when the Head of the Witches, Cornelia Grimm, had asked her the same thing. Back then, Cornelia had been trying to see through her memories, so she felt there was no harm in doing this once more. She put her hands in Helia’s outstretched hands.

“Please close your eyes,” Helia instructed.

Ember did as she was asked, and Helia closed her eyes as well and focused on what she was trying to see inside her newly-accepted pupil. Before she could start guiding her, she needed to know how capable her pupil was, and she also needed to determine the strength of her energy core. She had heard a few things from the King, but she needed to personally check it herself.

Fire Fae Helia focused, and soon, she found herself delving inside the magic of her student’s body.

Fire.

A sealed fire.

A sealed fire raging to be freed.

Helia flinched, as if she herself was being surrounded by the strong aura of the divine power sealing that raging fire. Though it was sealed, Helia could tell that fire was even stronger than her own power.

​ ‘Her Fire is purer than mine and my kin, the kind of fire that shouldn’t be possessed by just any supernatural being.’

Being a supernatural possessing the same fire element power, Helia saw that while the power inside Ember was much stronger than hers, it was also different in nature. It was destructive, if misused.

‘Fire of Destruction.’

This was what she determined. It wasn’t the gentle fire like hers, which was a Fire of Purification, but maybe because her own fire was used to eliminate things that shouldn’t exist in nature, Helia became aware of the seal that imprisoned the Fire inside Ember.

‘A power that doesn’t belong in nature is binding that Fire. Divine power is what suppresses it, but that seal is loose enough for my student to be able to tap a fraction of her magic.’

Helia continued to explore, and perhaps because she was most sensitive with the fire attribute, she felt something more.

As if there was something missing from Ember’s body–almost as if the core of her power was not complete.

‘Such a strong energy core…but…why is her energy core like this? It seems incomplete… as if part of it had been taken away? However, there seems to be no injuries to her magic system or her soul. It was as if she was born this way. That doesn’t make sense though, that it has been this way since the beginning. Something must have happened, or else it really doesn’t make sense.’

Helia opened her eyes after a while and said to her student. “You can open your eyes now.”

Ember opened her eyes, and looked searchingly into the copper-gold eyes of her instructor, as if trying to figure out what the red-haired woman was about to say. She couldn’t help it–she was excited to learn, and she would be happy as long as Helia said she’d be capable of properly using her magic.

“You possess a strong Fire inside you, Miss Ember,” Helia said. “Has anyone told you before that you are unique? Ordinary humans cannot even use a magic spell, let alone have innate power of the fire attribute like yours. Your Fire is even stronger than mine, who is a Fire Fae. It will be amazing; what you can do once you are in control of your power will probably shock even His Majesty, Miss.”

Ember gaped in surprise, as she was equally amazed at the number of revelations about her identity that had been unearthed in the past days.  She had lived her entire life as a nobody and had always been scared of the world, but now she was being thrust into this strange world where she was suddenly important and, apparently, possessed strong powers.

‘Unique.’

She felt a strange sensation upon hearing that word.

The power of fire she possessed was beyond her imagination. If she could control it…

Though she was scared of the outcome of her power, she couldn’t deny she enjoyed the warmth of the liquid energy burning a path through her veins. Even though she didn’t want to admit it, after she had tasted the sheer essence of her powers when she had burned those butterflies, she wanted to try using her power once again.

The only thing stopping her was fear.

‘I do not want to harm others.’