Chapter 309 - Oracle
High Priestess Tabitha was carrying a burning candle in her hand. The light from the candle made her face radiate even in the dark room that she was in. She slowly walked down the stairs that led to the basement.
Tabitha was followed by the rest of the witches of the Mystic Coven, all of whom were dressed in a long white gown paired with white hoods. And all of them were carrying a candle in their hands. They were all letting their hair loose and at the moment, they looked like a group of beautiful women rather than a coven of powerful witches.
The High Priestess pushed the old wooden doors. The door made a creaking sound and opened to reveal a dark room. As the faint light of the candles entered that room, it exposed several items used in witchcraft.
There was an altar at the opposite side of the door where several items used in the rituals were displayed. Among the items, the major four elemental tools were an athame, a chalice, a pentacle, and a wand.
There were shelves on either side of the room. One was full of Grimoires that recorded each and every spells known to them. And the other was full of herbs and ingredients that the witches used to create potions.
At the center of the room, there was a huge cauldron for brewing potions. And circling the cauldron, there were thirteen seats, each for a witch of the Coven.
All the thirteen witches lay down the candles they were holding on the stands that were beside their respective chairs.
And the meeting of the Mystic Coven formally began.
Tabitha glanced at Agnes with her fierce but at the same time soothing gaze and spoke in an equally calm voice, "Agnes, I believe that you have something very important to share with the rest of us."
Agnes had recently returned from the Golden Street to meet with the High Priestess and the coven. She was there to deliver the message from the Princess and to relay the plans of capturing Lillian.
She gently nodded her head and then glanced at everyone in the room. And then she began, "The time has finally come, for us to finally punish our sworn enemy who had chosen the path of darkness years ago. It is finally our time to avenge our fallen sister."
Agnes glanced at the High Priestess and then further added, "As per my recent vision, Princess Adeline came to my place and she has asked for our assistance in capturing the dark witch. And she plans to do that on the seventh day after today."
"What has the Princess proposed that we do?" Tabitha asked Agnes in order to gauge the viability of the plan.
And Agnes stated the plan to the whole coven, "Prince Edwin and Lillian will head for Frostford early in the morning on that day. We will wait for their carriage by the willow creek near the Ethereal River. We will surround them and lure Lillian out to fight us."
She then glanced at Tabitha and then at Sibyl, and said, "And I think we all know who will be able to face that witch head-on. While one or two of us face that witch, the rest of us will create a magical barrier in the carriage. We then push her in the carriage and send her back to Wyverndale."
"We also need to create the magic circle in the prison cell where she will be kept for the rest of her life," Agnes had a sense of satisfaction just by imagining the pitiful situation that Lillian would be in on that day.
Tabitha contemplated on the matter for a while. "The plan sounds really simple." And then she raised a question, "But will it be as easy as you are making it sound, Agnes? We don\'t even know how much she has corrupted since the last time we had a fight with her. How can we be so sure that we will be able to take her down?"
But Agnes said with confidence, "I believe in you and Sibyl. The two of you are the most powerful witches of our coven. There is no way that Lillian\'s power is too great for the two of you… no matter how much she has already corrupted."
Sibyl also made a few hand gestures and said that there was no need to be so afraid of Lillian when there were thirteen of them.
And the others also voiced that they were ready to even sacrifice themselves if it meant that Lillian would be punished for her wrongdoings.
"She has already upset the balance of nature by tapping into the dark side. If we don\'t punish her when we have the chance then our ancestors will never forgive us," one of the witches said while looking at the High Priestess with great conviction.
Tabitha listened to them all and in the end, she decided to fulfill the wish of her coven members and give the plan a go-ahead signal.
But first, she gazed at Agnes and asked, "Agnes, have you had any premonitions yet?"
Among the witches of the coven, Agnes was the one whom they looked up to for future predictions and oracles. She was gifted with the ability to perceive things before they happened. But as Theodore had said, they did not always come true. Nonetheless, her visions were a great guide for the coven.
Agnes shook her head and said with honesty, "No, I haven\'t had a vision yet. I don\'t know if I will, but I will let you all know the moment I have-"
Suddenly, Agnes began to convulse and she fell down to the floor. Her eyes had turned white and she was still shaking as if she was possessed.
The others didn\'t touch her or disturb her because they knew what was happening to her. She was seeing a vision and they didn\'t want to pull her out of her trance.
After a while of struggling, Agnes finally came back to her senses.
Two of the coven members helped her to get up from the floor and Tabitha asked with curiosity, "What did you see? Is it related to the fight that we are going to have?"
Agnes frantically nodded her head. For some reason, she looked terrified at first. She darted her eyes around for a while as she tried to make sense of her vision.
And after a while, she looked at the High Priestess and said, "The gates to the Hell will be opened. I saw a lot of blood… No matter we capture her or not, the bloodshed is bound to happen. But the bloodshed will be higher if we do not capture her that day."
She gave a scared look to Tabitha and whispered in a shaken voice, "I sense a great war! It is already at our doorstep!"