Chapter Twenty-Eight (Amaya)

I got up off the floor and went to open the door, not surprised finding it was locked, I pushed against it, but it didn’t budge, resorting to beating on the door demanding I be let out. It was oddly therapeutic to beat up a door. I did this until my fists were bloody.

“Amaya dear, stop. We are not getting out of here.” Abigail spoke as she stood and walked up to me, pulling me away from the door.

“You don’t get it; it doesn’t matter what we say we are dead.” I whispered as tears fell down my face, “They did horrible things to their prisoners.”

“I know, dear, I have seen it.”

“Why aren’t you worried?”

“Because I believe this time will be different.”

“Why?”

“Because you are here.”

“Why would that change anything? I am not important.”

She wiped the tears from my cheek, “You, my dear… are very important. You are going to help me save magic.”

“How? “

She sighed, “Come sit with me. I have a lot to tell you.”

I listened and followed her as she took a seat by the far wall; I sat beside her as she seemed to center herself.

“I’ll start at the beginning, for everything to make sense, you need to know the whole truth.” I nodded as she continued, “My family has been tasked with a very important job, I am related to one of the very first family of witches, my ancestors were gifted magic by a powerful woman, she grew up with one of my ancestors. The woman never knew her parentage, my parents had found her in a basket as a baby and took her in, when she was older, they discovered that she had been a goddess misplaced in our plane kidnapped from the heaven plane and left in the human plane. When she was an adult, her parents finally tracked her down by her power signature and she had to return to the heaven plane and as thanks she gifted her adoptive parents with magic, they became the first known witches, and as a result she became the Goddess of witches.” She paused and looked at me.

“So, you are related to the first witches? What does that have to do with saving magic?” I asked as my mind tried to comprehend her story, but it was just too unbelievable.

“The heaven and hell planes differ from the humans' plane or earth plane; time moves differently for them. By chance, the Goddess came to the human plane and decided to see how her adoptive family was doing, only to find out that a couple hundred years had passed. She was devastated at learning that the family she knew and loved was gone, she attempted to go back to the heaven plane but because of her distress she went into the hell plane instead, stumbling upon a sleeping demon infant. The infant called to her. Something about him seemed important, she looked at the sleeping babe but heard someone coming so she hid, a pregnant woman entered the room and stood over the crib. She was angry and blamed the baby for ruining her plans, in her hand, she held a knife poised above the baby's heart, planning to kill it. The Goddess slipped out from behind the curtain and grabbed her wrist stopping her as another woman entered the nursery, the woman was hysterical attacking the woman with the knife and accusing her of trying to kill her baby, the future king. While they were fighting, the Goddess picked up the infant to protect him and placed a protection on the baby, preventing the assassin from harming him in any way. Hearing the commotion, the guards rushed in and arrested both women. She returned the baby to his crib. The Goddess stayed in the hell plane in secret and watched over the child and stopped numerous assassinations attempts by the bad woman, after the child's mother was executed. The heaven plane found out what she had been up too, and a bright light appeared and forced the goddess back up to the heaven plane.”

“The King being Sin? Or Sin’s father?”

“I don’t know, to be honest." She paused as if debating something, then replied, "I believe it was Sin. Anyway, the Goddess had to face the King and Queen of Heaven and helping demons was against the law, baby or not. There is a longstanding feud between the hell plane and heaven plane, mostly over the ownership of souls.”

“So, what happened?”

“They stripped her of her body and forced her essence into exile.”

“Where is her essence now?”

“Well, she was exiled to our plane and when her essence was forced here, it was attracted to the magic she had gifted to her adoptive family. She found them and they offered to share their corporeal forms with the essence in thanks for the magic she had gifted their ancestors.”

“So, your ancestors housed her essence. What happens when they inevitably died?”

“The essence would transfer to the next woman in the bloodline.”

“So, who has it now?”

“My family was wiped out by witch hunters. That is all except for me, I am currently carrying the Goddess essence, it is how I am able to see into the future and learn things I shouldn’t know.”

“So, when you die, it passes to one of your kids.”

“My son is unable to take her essence, as it is only passed to the women in our family.”

“So, when you die, the essence and the magic go with it.”

“In the past, that is what has been, except now I have you.”

“What do I have to do with anything?”

“You are my daughter.”

“No, I am not, I am not from this time at all.”

“When I was pregnant with you, I had witch hunters chasing me. I sent my sister-in-law with my son to another town when your father was killed. She took him where they would be safe, they changed their names and cut contact with me. When I had you, Sin appeared, and I begged him to take you somewhere safe, so you would be protected. He did as I asked and took you but didn’t tell me where.” Tears streamed down her face, “It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do; it wasn’t until he brought you back that I realized he had taken you to the future, but I recognized you because you look so much like your father.”

I was speechless, everything I knew was a lie, I wasn’t even living in the time I was born in. It was so much information to process the mother I had been looking for my entire life wasn’t even at the same time period as me, but in the past carrying the essence of a Goddess. I shook my head, “No, that isn’t possible, none of this is possible. Demons, Gods, Goddesses, different planes. How could any of this be possible?"

Abigail moved to touch me, but I backed away, she frowned but didn’t push it.

“How old were you when you had me?” I asked, still in disbelief.

“I was twenty.”

“Isn’t that old for this time?” I asked, confused. In school, I remember being told some girls married as young as fourteen.

She shook her head, “No. I was adopted by a puritan family after mine had been killed and puritans marry for love and getting married in your twenties is quite common.”

“I see, so who is my father?”

“He was a kind and caring man, I met him when I was in my teens, and we were best friends before we got married and had your brother. His name was John, and your brother's name is Josiah. I had to beg your aunt to take Josiah and go into hiding so they wouldn’t meet the same fate as my parents and your father.”

“It’s so much to wrap my head around, not to mention that Sin had taken me from you when I was a baby. How old is he?”

Abigail laughed, “Like I said, time moves differently in his plane, and he didn’t take you from me. I gave you to him because I knew he would protect you. I knew what you would be to him.”

“Why did you know he could protect me? He is a demon not exactly screaming trustworthy. What am I to him?”

“I just knew.” Abigail smiled. "The rest is for him to tell you, dear."

I could hear noise outside, “what do you think they are up to?”

Abigail frowned, “I don’t think you want to know.”

A thought occurred to me, "Can you speak to the Goddess?"

"No, she is asleep until the right person takes her essence, the one that will help restore her body."

"It would've been an advantage to talk to her."

"Well, she does amplify my abilities. That is how I am able to see into the future."

"So, you could've stopped this from happening?" I snapped.

"No, some things are set in stone and cannot be altered."

"Have you even tried?"

"I am trying to change the outcome right now."

"But we are still going to be put on trial."

"As we must. I am sorry Amaya; time is fickle and only some things can be changed. I am destined to be here. One way or another, I end up in a cell."