Something Hidden: Witches Rising

After hugs all round that morning, we had hurried to our first lesson, which we had been twenty minutes late for.

‘You’re late,’ Professor Sullivan had told us.

‘Riley was upset,’ I had explained, ‘we had to comfort her,’

‘Upset?’ Sullivan had inquired.

‘Bad news from home,’ Kota had said.

Sullivan had let us off with a warning and we had gotten through the rest of the day seemingly as normal.

However, I thought about what Riley had told us all day, and by the time I’d finished dinner - rice, with pork and sweet-and-sour sauce - I’d concluded that Riley had left a few fairly important details out of the story she’d told us this morning. I decided to wait until the evening and then the three of us could talk, safely. But how to get Morgan out of the way? Fortunately for me, luck was on my side - after English, Professor Snow pulled Morgan aside and asked her to come back after dinner to talk about her grades.

I told Kota my fears during music, the only lesson we had that day without Riley. She immediately agreed that talking to her after dinner would be best.

‘Riley,’ I said, the moment the three of us were safely inside our dorm and out of the way of prying eyes and ears.

‘That’s me,’ she smiled.

‘There’s something you didn’t tell us this morning, isn’t there?’

‘You’re a Witch too, aren’t you?’ said Kota.

‘A Blood Witch,’ I added.

‘Too?’ said Riley.

‘Dakota and I are witches,’ I told her.

‘Okay, I’m sorry. I admit it,’ Riley admitted, hanging her head. ‘I am a Blood Witch.’

A flash of lightning lit up the room before Riley had even closed her mouth, and thunder rolled. Golden threads swirled around three of us, and I could hear voices whispering in the wind that seemed to come from nowhere – the door and window were both shut tightly. I didn’t recognise any of the voices but I instinctively knew they were of our ancestors – Elizabeth and Felicity Folchart and their sister, Jane, Kota’s great (x4) -grandmother.
‘Witches Three… Witches Three… Witches Three…’ they were chanting.

Bright white light lit the room, and the golden threads enveloped us in a shining golden orb. The voices grew louder, and I knew the others could hear them too.

‘Witches Three, Witches Three,’ they chanted.

There was an explosion of white light.

‘WITCHES THREE!’ cried the voices.

Suddenly, all was still and silent. The normal light seemed dim after the whiteness of the explosion. I looked at Riley and Kota, They were both glowing, enclosed in orbs of white light. The orbs slowly became smaller and smaller, until they covered the places where our hearts were, then they vanished. Riley sank down on to the floor, quite overwhelmed by the day’s happenings.

‘Witches Three?’ Kota was muttering, her pretty face obscured by a frown.

‘Did you never have Witch Lessons?’ I asked.

‘No,’ replied Kota, sitting down on her bed.

‘Then you’ll never have heard of the Witches Three. Our ancestors, the women who were calling to us then, they were the last three to be blessed,’ I began. I suddenly knew things I could swear I’d never been taught, as if invisible floodgates had been opened inside me and everything had come pouring out.

‘Blessed?’ interrupted Riley.

‘With the Ancient Power of the Witches Three. The very first Blood Witches were the original Witches Three. They were all born to the same mother, Rose Wheatman, back in the early 1300s, in a tiny town in today’s East Midlands called Cawseed. They knew they were Witches, as they came from a Craft-practising family, but they had true powers, more so than anyone who came before them. They were known, by those who sought their guidance and by those who sought to destroy them, as the ‘Cawseed Three’. The title ‘Blood Witch’ derives from them and their ancestors, because, as it is said; “All those with the blood of the Cawseed Three running in their veins will grow to be Witches made stronger by the Blood of Witches old.” That’s also where our families descend from,’ I explained.

‘What were their names?’ asked Riley.

‘Rose, Lily and Hawthorn,’ I told her, ‘anyway, they declared themselves the Witches Three, and said that each member of their family would have two daughters, until the year 1512, when three daughters would be born. Their names were Maisie, Ruth and Laura. They were the first to inherit the power of the Witches three. It moved on, slowly, through two more sets of sisters, until 1849, when three daughters were prophesied to be born, more powerful even than the Cawseed Three, who were the most powerful, as the powers had declined slightly, over the years.’

‘Three daughters?’ Riley interrupted.

‘Oh yes. I think you’ll find, if you dig a little deeper into our ancestry, that Felicity and Elizabeth Folchart had another sister. Their sister was called Jane, and her married name, the name we know, is Jane Oliver.’ I smiled at Kota - Jane Oliver was her direct ancestor.

‘So, the Folchart sisters were the most recent to inherit the Ancient Power of the Witches Three. They said that their families would all inherit powers, but none as strong as the Witches Three, until 1993, when three children would be born into their family – one for each of them, their great-great-great- blah, blah, grandchildren.’ I paused to remember the next part of the story.

‘They would be born to different parents, in different places and on different days, but they would inherit the Power,’ I continued. ‘They would not meet until, aged fifteen, during the second half of their schooling, when they would be brought together, and the Ancient Power of the Witches Three would be born once again,’

‘Hang on, are you saying that I’m related to you too?’ asked Kota.

‘That’s right,’

‘But how can that be? I’m American, for a start!’

‘This bit of the story I’m unsure of too, but I would’ve though at some point between 1649 and now, your family immigrated from England to the US,’ I explained.

‘And, Laurel, why didn’t I know about my powers? Why did none of my family ever know about their powers?’ asked Riley.

‘When Jane and Elizabeth were murdered, Felicity took all six of their children – that’s her daughters, Elizabeth’s daughters and Jane’s daughters – and fled to a secure hiding place deep in the forest. She bound all the girls’ powers, but made it so that at the moment her nieces left her care, their powers would unbind and they would once again be true Blood Witches, but she also decided that her children, grandchildren etcetera, would not receive their powers until the Ancient Power of the Witches Three was unlocked.’ I paused again, in case Kota and Riley had any questions. They didn’t, so I continued.

‘She brought up all the children, her own and her nieces, and told them that, in the event of her death, her silver pentacle would break into three pieces. When this happened, she told them, they were to fasten the pieces to their own individual leather straps, and her oldest daughter, Elizabeth’s oldest daughter and Jane’s oldest daughter were to wear one each, until their oldest daughters turned twelve, when it was to be passed on, and so on.’

‘So why do you have the necklace?’ asked Kota. ‘I’m the oldest child, and so is Riley, but you’re youngest,’

‘Elizabeth’s spirit sent my mother a dream, just before Ashleigh’s twelfth birthday. She told Mum not to give the pentacle to Ashleigh, but to wait and give it to me when I turned twelve. Anyway, how’d you know I had the necklace?’

‘Saw it in your jewellery box,’ Kota smiled.

‘What were you doing in my jewellery box?’ I asked.

‘When I borrowed some earrings yesterday,’ she explained, reaching beneath her dress and pulling out her third of the pentacle. Riley took hers from the drawer in her bedside table, and I found mine, which was nestled happily in the corner of my jewellery box.

‘We have to put the three pieces together to unlock the Ancient Power of the Witches Three,’ I said.

We lay the three pieces down on Riley’s bedside table, and slowly pushed them together. There was a sudden roll of thunder and the pentacle, brought back together for the first time in decades, glowed brightly.

‘We did it…’ whispered Riley

‘Witches Three…’ muttered Kota.

Lightning flashed around us and the windows flew open, blinds rattling and curtains flapping.

Everything fell silent, and the pentacle split into three again. Then, each broken piece of silver glowed so brightly we had to turn away, and when we were able to look back, there were three gently glowing, whole pentacles on the table.

‘We have to wear them constantly,’ I said. I picked mine up and examined it. There, carved into the metal, was a name - Elizabeth. As my fingers warmed the metal, the name began to glow. I blinked and then the glow faded, and I saw that ‘Elizabeth’ had been replaced with ‘Laurel’. Obviously Riley and Kota’s had done the same, as when I looked up from placing the pendant around my neck they were both stood still, staring, awestruck, at their own.