Chapter 49

**Merianna**


My stomach felt sour as I sat in Noch’s office, waiting for Fog. It didn’t help matters that Noch thought it would be a good idea to let Nelia also know about the find. I only put up half an argument at that, the day’s shock didn’t leave me much energy for anything else other than “Please don’t”, which was flatly ignored.

I also didn't like the fact that this was the second time today that I was sitting in this office. The sun was already setting outside. I would much rather have been curled up in my bed right then. *I should ask Strider to come sleep with me, I want something warm to cuddle up with as I fall asleep tonight.*

I was jolted out of my thoughts when the door suddenly banged open and Nelia charged in like a raging bull. “Are you alright?! I heard something happened! Why are you here? What happened?” She fired off.

“One question at a time Nelia!” I pleaded while grabbing her arms to still her examination of me. “I’m fine, I’m not hurt. Everything is alright, I hope.” I muttered lastly to myself.

“You wouldn’t just randomly be sitting here in Noch’s office if you were alright and everything was fine.” She said matter of fact as she looked me in the eye. All I could do under her scrutiny was smile weakly.

“Now, now Nelia. Let us hear what we’ve been called here for. I’m sure that things will be explained as soon as they have a chance to talk.” Fog said smoothly as he wandered in and closed the door behind him.

“Why is it that every time I *finally* manage to slip into sleep, you lot always have to barge in?” another voice piped up from one of the shelves.

“What I would like to know, is why you are here every time something important is about to be discussed and not out slinking around another town.” Noch said irritably from his throne of a chair.

“I chalk it up to feline luck and impeccable timing.” Strider yawned as he uncurled himself from the shelf and jumped down to sit next to Fog on the opposite couch. “So what seems to be the change in development this time?”

My stomach flipped and I cringed inwardly. Saying that this was about our parents, was not something I felt comfortable doing. Not with all the evidence lying on my lap, which Nelia was eyeing curiously.

As if picking up on my reluctance to talk, Noch started off the story. “Merianna went over to your old home this afternoon.” Noch said as he pointedly looked at Nelia. Her eyes went wide and she turned her gaze back to me for confirmation. I just gave a slight nod and waited for Noch to continue.

“And in doing so, found something… disturbing, if I can put it that way.” He turned to me and took the cloak from my hands first. He gently unfolded the ratty cloth and displayed the insignia that was woven in on the inside. Fog and Strider both frowned at the cloth while Nelia made a small gasp and clutched my right hand tightly.

“It looks too old for it to have come off of a hunter recently. Where was this found?” Fog asked, directing his question straight to me.

I pulled my lips into a tight line, not wanting to answer, but also knowing that I had to. Taking a deep breath, I forged on before I lost my composure. “I found it underneath the stone flooring in a corner of our parent’s room. It was buried in a box along with these.” I said, holding up the daggers and belt I still had in my left hand. “I think it might have been our mother’s.”

Silence fell over the room after that little statement. Nelia put a gentle hand over mine that was clutching the belt and daggers, and carefully started loosening my fingers around them. I hadn’t even noticed that I was gripping them so tightly that I had started shaking. With a sigh I placed everything back in my lap and allowed Nelia to look at the items properly.

She took the belt from my lap and carefully examined it. I knew when she finally read our mother’s name on it, because she made a small noise in the back of her throat. When I looked up at her face, I noticed that she had tears brimming on her lashes as she caressed the inscription.

“Morina, that’s her name.” Nelia breathed. “I almost forgot.” Her breath hitched and I pulled her into a sidelong hug. She sniffed once and then lifted her head again. “What does this mean?”

I was surprised by how quickly she became serious, and not for the first time, wished that our parents could see how much she’d grown up. It almost felt like yesterday that we arrived at the Order and I would find her crying over just about every little thing. She asked me about our parents that first night she woke up after we retrieved her, and I couldn’t lie to her. It broke my heart when she cried for them those first few nights, but I took comfort in the fact that she wasn’t the one that was there when the Wraith appeared.

Noch’s voice jerked me back to the conversation at hand. “Right now there is only one real likely possibility, and trust me, I tried thinking of better ones.”

I eyed Noch warily, his expression said that he knew that Nelia and I wouldn’t like what he was going to say next. By the looks of things, Fog and Strider were in the same boat.

“It is clear that Morina, your mother, was indeed a Hunter. This is solid proof of that fact.” He said as he tossed the cloak onto his desk. “I wouldn’t put it past the Hunters to send someone out on a mission to infiltrate Covens by any means necessary. And by that, I mean, even through Hand Fasting. Becoming 'one of us' so to speak.”

My heart plummeted at his deduction. Was that really the only option that was available? I looked over to Fog and saw the scowl on his face deepen. “Unfortunately that is the only thing that would make sense to me too. The Hunters are so indoctrinated that even the thought of leaving of their own free will, is basically death for them. They cannot seem to think for themselves, their only goal is killing off as many of us as they possibly can. For as long as I have been around, I have never met, seen or heard of a Hunter that managed to think for him or herself and abandon the sect.” he said grimly.

I didn’t want to think of the possibility of our mother betraying our father’s love. It was clear to us now, that our father was at least to some degree, a witch. Whether he knew it himself or not was unclear, but his talent in healing was unmistakable. After meeting everyone in the Order, I kept wondering why he had always told us stories of ugly misshapen crones and haggard witch hags, if witches weren’t like that at all.

An image of Nana Ara cackling over her brews quickly flashed into my mind, it made me think that he might not have been too far off in his descriptions after all…

“Unfortunately that theory is not one that can be confirmed as being correct or not.” Strider piped up as he flicked his bushy tail. “We can only speculate and wonder, I doubt we would ever be able to find anyone that knew them personally. And I doubt anyone would want to willingly infiltrate a number of Hunter bases just to go and dig up their internal documentation. If they even have any that is.”

“What about you Fog? Didn’t you ever stumble across them as they made their home in the forest?” Noch asked next.

Fog shook his head. “I have never had the need to go to the deeper reaches of the forest before. Especially to the West where most of the darker creatures tend to reside. Why someone would want to live there in the first place is beyond me”

All of these things were bouncing around in my head uselessly. I didn’t know what to make of this theory, this possibility, and there was no way of getting solid proof either. There was definitely no way that I was going to a spirit walker to ask them to contact our parents, even then there was no guarantee of solid facts. The living, as well as the dead, can lie. That left me with nowhere to turn to really.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked out loud.

No one could say anything for a minute, before Noch broke the silence. “Nothing actually. Well, not completely nothing.” he said as he pushed off from his desk to stand straight. “You need to continue learning about your element and writing me that scrolled report you suggested!”

I slowly turned my unimpressed expression on him. “You can’t be serious…”

“Oh I’m deadly serious. The fate of your scythe depends on it!” He declared.

“You said I could get the scythe after the bounty!” I yelled disbelievingly.

“Ha! And now it has moved on to your studies too since I’m not finished with it yet!” He almost sounded proud of that fact, and why that was, I had no idea.

“You’re unbelievable!” I fumed. I froze when he moved towards me and planted his palm on my head. Looking up at him, I was surprised by the empathy I saw there.

“Nothing else can be done about it, so don’t needlessly worry yourself. Only focus on what you can do right now, and there is plenty for you to do as is.”

I pouted up at him, not sure what to do in this situation. It wasn’t like him to be this gentle with me. Maybe I looked a little more fragile than usual. There was so much that I wanted to know, with no way of finding out the facts.

“Things like that scroll you need to fill up with all that wonderful information you soaked in since I started teaching you personally.” He went on to say.

My good feelings instantly disappeared and turned to irritation. “You could have left that part out!” I yelled as I slapped his hard off my head.