064 Gift From Lilith

"It's embarrassing for her, too, to discuss that in front of other people," Metis came up to Erebus with a soft voice, "She needs time to lick her wounds and calm down."

"I supposed you are right. That was stupid of me to get into that talk with her..." Erebus sighed in a defeat tone.

He could handle whatever scheme the enemies cook up, why did he always handle her in the worst manner there could be?!

With the frustrated thoughts, he looked down at his hand, there was a startling split right in the center of his palm with black, burnt edge!

"My Lord!" Metis exclaimed as she took his hand into hers with extreme care, "You are hurt!"

"It's okay." Erebus made a fist and pulled his hand out of hers, "It will heal."

He didn't show anything because he didn't want Kitty to know that she hurt him.

"I doubt it." Winnie suddenly said, holding Emma still.

"What do you mean?!" Themis was anxious at Erebus's wound, too.

"It's a magic burn." Winnie said, "It's not a normal injury. There is no easy cure for that even with the healing ability of a werewolf."

"Thanks." Erebus said indifferently. He knew, and he COULD deal with it, because he had magic, too. But he didn't want anyone to know, hence his indifferent answer.

And his indifferency wasn't much of a help for others.

They all started murmuring, or making phone calls for answers, or talking to each other about what to do with his Lord's wound. Erebus sighed slightly, for both the noisy crowd, AND the horrible conversation he just had with Kitty.

"Well, guess that explained how Kitty got out of the magic space the wizard took her to." Winnie said, and no one was listening...

Except Erebus of course. His ear filters everything concerning Kitty ever since he marked her apparently.

"Wait, she couldn't use magic before, you said so yourself." Erebus led Winnie to the window where he could hear her better with all the murmur in the room

"Yes, that's correct. She couldn't when I tested her." Winnie nodded, "And even if she could, I doubt her un-trained magic power could defeat an adult wizard."

"Then why..." Erebus shook his head in confusion.

"Now that we are sure she's witch, there's only one explanation of why she couldn't use magic," Winnie continued, ignoring his question, "That is, someone sealed her power."

Erebus didn't interrupt this time, instead, he just waited.

"SOME spells can do that, usually as a weapon against another witch, but it's hard, and rarely used." Winnie explained, waiting.

"Why?" Erebus got her hint and quickly asked.

With a satisfied smile that someone cares about her knowledge, Winnie went on:

"As you can imagine, it requires higher power from the witch who wants to press another's magic, but if they could do so, there is less reason why they would need to in the first place."

"Makes sense." Erebus nodded.

"So another reason, would be to hide one's identity." Winnie said, and fixed her eyes on Erebus, waiting for him to connect the dots. "In Kitty's case, from herself even."

"But why would someone need to do that?" Erebus asked, except this time, he knew the answer. He just couldn't let Winnie know that he knew.

"Because a witch's power is unique, like their finger prints." Winnie said, "And it can be used to detect or trace one another."

"So, most likely, it's protection against other witches?" Erebus asked.

Winnie nodded with satisfaction at his fast reaction: "By her mom, the Master of the Sea."

"You mean Kitty is more powerful than her mom now?" Erebus frowned in surprise. He was pretty sure if that was the case, he wouldn't still have a hand to bare a burnt mark by now.

He might have to say goodbye to his whole arm.

"Of course not!" Winnie rolled her eyes, "What do you think?! That magic power can just magically appear?!"

Erebus tried hard to not laugh at that sentence.

"Well," Winnie said quickly, hiding the fact that herself was embarrassed at her choice of words, "I'm definitely more powerful than Kitty now, but I couldn't even break the magic on her."

"So it wasn't Kitty, who could it be?" Erebus murmured.

"Her mom." Winnie said.

"What?!" Composed as Erebus, he let out a yelp, "It's not possible."

Winnie rolled her eyes again.

"You could comprehend that she left a piece of her soul in a pocket watch, how could not understand such a pretty metaphor?!" She scolded him like a teacher enlightening a young kid.

He WAS, just a young "pup" to her.

Erebus didn't protest that it was BECAUSE there were the possibilities of magic work in this case that he didn't think that was a "metaphor".

He asked in the way a kid would a teacher: "So what does that metaphor mean?"

"Phosis." Winnie said, "It's a magic item given to me by her mother. I was in need of its help, and she got it for me. I was going to return it, but she wanted me to keep it for her."

"You think she had foreseen all these happening?" Erebus asked softly with respect.

"I believe so." Winnie said.

She was proud of her skills with a crystal ball, and yet Lilith was the ONLY witch that beat her on it.

Lilith had that power.

"So Lilith left that item for Kitty, but how--" Erebus asked.

"Patience!" Winnie was upset at him breaking up her thoughts of her old friend, "I'm getting there!"

Erebus nodded like a good student would and waited in silence.

"Phosis is a form of pure power, it appears in the form as needed to different people. To me, it was a crystal ball. To some people, it was gold, even." Winnie said with loathing on her face. Apparently, money is not the highest pursue for her.

"What's it to Kitty?" Erebus asked in curiosity.

"A stone." Winnie gave a grandmotherly smile, "Just an ordinary, simple stone."

The stone Kitty summoned on the train!

Erebus didn't let her know that he had saw it already, but it was NO ordinary stone. Nothing was simple about it!

It was the "concept of stone"!

Any bit more or less, it would be smaller, but it was just right, it was the "stonest" stone.

He didn't think it meant that Kitty had no interest in money, rather, it meant that Kitty sees things in their most pure essence.

"There is one more thing you need to know about Phosis," Winnie said mysteriously, "It's that it can be used by anyone, but can only be summoned, by the master it recognizes."

"You mean--" Erebus rose an eyebrow at that.

"Yes, it chose Kitty to be its master!" Winnie exclaimed, "It hasn't happened in a long time. And I mean LONGGGG, not even Lilith herself was recognized."