Twelve years later....
An older woman sat in a wooden chair, picking herbs from a basket before putting the leaves in a mortar preparing to pound them so that she could add the pounded herbs to her boiling cauldron.
Her hair was tied up, and wrinkles marred the sides of her eyes. Her eyes though downturned, were still sharp as she got up from the chair to start her pounding.
A loud bang was heard and the woman stopped what she was doing to look at the direction from which the sound came. Suddenly a young man rushed out from the house looking terrified. The young man unable to see where he was going because of terror crashed straight to the woman boiling pot.
The young man jumped from the spot before the contents of the hot pot touched him. He raised his head to meet the woman's angry face. He scratched his head sheepishly as he knew that he was in trouble.
"What have you done you this troublesome child?" The woman asked angrily. She looked around to see the mess the young man had caused when a girl of almost the same age walked out from the same house which the young man rushed out from.
Her long shiny ginger hair bounced as she walked towards the woman and the young man, her eyes and smile cunning. She saw the angry look on the woman face and stopped.
"What's wrong Aunt?" She asked. She looked around and then looked at the young man wide eyed " Oh Levi, what have you done to dear aunt's cauldron, you know how hard it is to make a strong potion and you wasted everything on the ground.
The young man named Levi looked at her accusingly " If you had listened to me and stopped attacking me with your powers, then all these wouldn't have happened."
"Common Levi, I needed a partner to practice with, Jennie and Walter went to their grandparents village to visit and they won't be coming back soon. I have no other friends and Aunt Althea is getting old so she can't practice with me." The girl explained with a frown on her face.
"Oh don't say that Eve," the woman said, obviously displeased with the fact that the girl thought of her as an old woman, even though there were enough signs that she was getting old.
"Now both of you should clean up the mess you created, Levi you should watch where you are going to avoid crashing into things in the future. Now I will have to wait till next week to get the ingredients for the potions because of you Levi" the woman said unhappily.
"But Eve started it!" Levi began but stopped when he saw that Lady Althea wasn't in the mood to talk.
Lady Althea stared hard at the two young people who disrupted her work before turning to go into the house.
Now in her room, she thought about the little girl she found by the river and how she rescued her from dying after being in a coma for days.
She had left the town with the little girl and servant boy , weeks later and relocated to a quiet town to avoid questions from nosy townsfolk as to why a young girl was suddenly living with her. Not to forget, the girl was not an ordinary human but a witch with actual powers.
She had tried every means possible to make the girl appear human like, but it was almost impossible because power kept on leaking from her, destroying things and to avoid suspicions, Lady Althea had to move to Brokengroves— A hidden witches town, so as to help Eve control her powers.
Over the years, Lady Althea took Eve as her own daughter, teaching her how to make different witches potions and how to control magic and elements.
She knew that the girl was no ordinary witch but a powerful one and was being hunted by people who wanted her for more power. So she casted a spell on Eve to limit her powers and make her less noticeable to other supernatural creatures.
But what she did not expect was that the spell meant to curb Eve powers and shield her from the evil creatures had exacted a terrible price—Her own life.
For years, she watched as life drained from her body in a bid to keep Eve safe and she knew her time was near, no not near, It was now. Sooner than she expected.
Laying on her bed with thoughts of the girl she gave her life for, She closed her eyes.
***********
Evelyn Woodlock, now Twenty years old, had known who she was and had learned how to control and use her powers the right way, even though there were some slip ups like the one that happened a while ago.
Eve was a very beautiful young woman who could easily capture the heart of any man who came across her. Her flaming ginger colored hair made it easier for people to notice her. Her eyes held innocence mixed with a little bit of cunningness that made men intrigued, wanting to have conversations with her, most of them coming with marriage proposals.
But Eve did not want any of the attention, and she didn't want to get married. She had always wanted to leave her small town and move to the big capital city of Ravennore to explore and experience life. She and her best friend Jennie together with her other friends—Dimitri and Walter had the same dream— to start a trade and live comfortably as wealthy merchants.
Only Levi and her aunt Althea were against her dream. Her aunt would always tell her " The outside world is not safe for creatures like us. The world is not nice to our kind. You will find a decent man here in this town to settle down with and live a happy life."
But Eve had her own plans—Once she turned 22, she and her friends planned to move to the famous city hoping to chase a better life than the one her aunt wanted.
But no one knew what fate had in store for her.
Another reason why Eve wanted to move to the great city was because she wanted to see if she could find the killers of her aunt and her uncle. She could still see the horror on her uncle's face when he laid on the floor lifeless. She still had nightmares of when that bat-like man plunged his hand in her aunt's chest. She remembered how the vampires slaughtered everyone and everything in her village.
The fear of nightmares turned to pain, then hate , till it planted a seed of revenge in her which only grew over the years. She promised to get revenge for her aunt and uncle.
But she had to move to Ravennore City first!
"Relocating can wait," Eve said to herself. "Now I have to ask aunt where she kept the ingredients for making the potions so that I can help her as it is somehow my fault for making Levi crash her cauldron" She thought as she walked into Althea's room.
"Aunt..." Eve started before her eyes widened at the sight she saw.