The witch laughed, throwing her head back. "You are so foolish. You think that they are still alive?" 

Anastasia's lips curled up. She moved her hands in front of her face. As she moved her hands, her wrists burned, but she endured the pain and showed her the Evindal ring she was wearing in her finger. The ring started to glow even in the dim candle light. "This is the Evindal ring—a brand of our marriage. I trust the glow of this ring more than trusting you… at least!" 

"Fuck you!" She shrieked. "Fuckity, fuckity, fuck!" She exploded into black shadows and materialized right in front of Anastasia. She picked up her finger and glared at the ring. 

Anastasia remembered this curse. It was the curse of the spirit that had attacked her two days back when she was returning from the market square of Silver Vales. A feeling of heaviness expanded to her core and her mind became dizzy. Was this witch behind that attack? Oh god. 

The witch held her finger tightly and tried to yank out the ring from her hand. "Give it to me!" she screamed. 

Her rough handling caused pain in her finger to the point that it started bleeding but the ring didn't come out. 

Anastasia chuckled as relief surged through her body. She realized that Ileus was alive. The ring was glowing and that was the evidence that her husband was still breathing. Through her tears, she laughed. If Ileus was alive then Kaizan and Darla must be alive too. She wanted to cry loudly but a slight moan escaped her lips. Her eyes shone, locked on the thought of Ileus being alive. 

When the ring didn't come out, the witch shoved her hand down and floated back to her corner. "That must be sounding nice to you, doesn't it?" she said in a low, feral voice. She shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. He was never needed. In fact his only work was to get you to Silver Vales, which he did nicely." 

"So you were the one behind the attack on us two days back?" Anastasia asked, wiping her tears. She didn't want the witch to feel the satisfaction that she was feeling horrible, because now her will to escape became stronger. 

She clicked her nails against the wall and said, "Yes. It was fun to play with you. But that dagger of yours—I love it." She snapped her fingers and the dagger appeared in the air. It drifted towards her. She tried to grab it but the dagger drifted away. Every time she lunged at it to grasp it, the dagger would just glide away. "The problem is that it doesn't listen to my command. But it will… soon… when I kill you…" 

Anastasia looked at her dagger and moved her hands up to attract it. She found that her magic had weakened so much that the dagger hobbled in the air while coming towards her. The witch watched it glide with immense focus. The dagger dropped right beside her. "This belongs to me." 

"Yes, for now. It will belong to me when you die. I know that I have to win this dagger from you." 

Anastasia changed the topic. "Were you the one who constructed the bridge outside Draoidh? The one where Ileus and I were trapped?" 

"Ahhh! The beautiful bridge. Yes, I had created it for you because I knew you both were about to enter." She held her hands up and her claws elongated. "We wanted to kill both of you and then present you to the dark lords. We would have presented your heads to the dark powers and kept the rest of you, to eat…" she smacked her lips. "Your blood smells divine." She took in a deep breath, and then continued, "I was waiting for you on the other side of the bridge, but you slashed through the vines with your Evindal sword and ran out of the charmed bridge." She shook her head. "Sometimes I hate when Ileus shows his dark powers. The foolish man can't seem to appreciate his gift." She sighed. "Oh, do you know who broke the bridge?" 

"Wait let me guess," Anastasia scowled. "It was you." 

"Yes, it was me…" her voice drawled. 

"But you crossed the bridge and also saved Darla and Ileus!" She clapped her hands and cackled. "And then you crossed over to Draoidh. Disgusting!" She started leaving the prison. 

All at once Lila's image flashed across Anastasia's mind. "And what about Lila? Was she your protégé?" 

The witch was near the iron bars. She turned her head sharply like an owl. Anastasia shuddered on the inside. No one should be able to turn their head this sharply and at this angle. It would simply snap their spine. "Lila was never my protégé. That drug-addict? She was an ass. A complete moron behind the façade of a refined woman. She wanted to marry Ileus in order to gain more power. And who was I to stop her? It served my purpose. But Ileus was fated to you. So I had to do something to Cora and Pierre's mind. You see all I did was to plant a sweet memory about Lila in their minds. Now you would think that why couldn't Lila do this job? After all, she was a witch? And at the top of the wizard academy?" The witch's body turned to her. "Lila's magic was slowly fading. That's why she came to me to make a deal. And who would know better than you that making a deal in the Lore is just a very bad idea. Promises in the Lore imply more. They come with a heavy price and they last forever!" She started to float towards her. "I made a deal with her. She had to entice you if you ever came to Draoidh. And then I added more. I gave her what she craved for—opium… a steady supply of that." 

"Yet she couldn't deliver her part of the deal," Anastasia scoffed. "The bitch died at my hands." 

"How do you know?" said the witch. She whispered, "Lilaaa…" towards the darkness of the prison. Light footfalls were heard. 

Anastasia's stomach churned. 

The footfalls came nearer and they stopped right in front of the witch. Anastasia focused in the darkness to see who that was, and panic flooded like ice in her veins. 

Lila shambled closer and came to stand along the iron bars of the prison. There was something very wrong with her. Anastasia narrowed her focus to look at her, but realized that Lila couldn't look back. A dense white layer was spread all over her eyes. Her skin was pallid, even decaying. 

"Dead!" Anastasia clutched her sides as she stared at the rotting and aberrant Lila. Her lips quivered. She couldn't believe the cruelty of the witch. "You should have let her pass to the lands of the dead," she said in a shaky voice. 

The witch laughed eerily and ran a pointed claw on the side of her face. "Deal. She is bound by her deal. Her deal was to serve me as dead." She allowed Lila to cross the bars. Lila came in and stood in the corner she occupied earlier. "Keep a watch on her," the witch commanded. "We will take her to the Stone of Tepcha tomorrow for the sacrifice!" 

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