The sound of drums and celebration slowly dwindled out as the moon’s brightness increased. The smell of wine was still thick in the air. A cacophony of crickets and dreams filled the atmosphere.

There, in her grand tent, Lusha remained seated, her arm resting over her knees as she peered off into the night sky. Everyone had already drunk themselves to sleep. By now, in the silence, it was just her. There was a time when she used to marvel at the stars, believing that they held the key to her wishes.

Those days, long ago, Xin would watch the stars with her, explaining how he could heal even the stars should he decide to. That fool, he would always gloat about his abilities and how he could fix everything that was wrong with the world. Of course, that would have to include himself as well. Lusha laughed. As the years went by, she had forgotten even the man’s face. – The enigmatic sage of life… the man who couldn’t bring back his dear beloved. – Only his white hair and silhouette remained loyal to her mind.

As she was lost in thought, she noticed something, a small, mischievous child glaring curiously at her. When she turned her head, she quickly hid behind the tent, hoping not to have been found out.

“I know you’re there.” Lusha exclaimed.

This was met with silence and absolute stillness. Lusha sighed. Children… what can be done about them?

She patted a spot next to her on the tent. “Should I have talk to your father on the importance of teaching respect?”

This instantly caught her attention and she launched herself out from behind the tent, frantically pleading with Lusha.

“N-n-no Please! I won’t do it again. I-I-i’ll—”

“ — Alright alright. Understood.” She patted the spot next to her yet again, and the girl reluctantly walked over to her, her hands linked together in front of her in a timid manner.

“Come on, come on, sit. What’s your name?”

She recognized the girl from earlier. It was the brat who could not keep her mouth shut. Though, recalling how her father had punched her so, did give a bit of satisfaction to her. This would be at least one of the rarer times this night where she could talk with someone who wasn't drinking.

Though with her being a child, she wasn’t certain how great of a conversation it would be anyways.

“Kannupi…Kannupi Elbrea. I’m the daughter of Chief Virald Elbrea”

Lusha nodded. “I’m well aware.” There really was no need to formally introduce oneself as if she had not just seen the girl and her father earlier. “Well. Now do you know who I am?”

She nodded. “Mhm… The Witch of the West”

Lusha laughed at this answer. “Please, no need to be polite.” It had been at least a couple of centuries before she was called by that title. “I’m the Wretched Witch of Despair.”

She paused and thought hard before finally perking up and posing a question. “What is wretched?”

“It means, I’m a terrible and evil person. Someone who leaves everything in ruin.”

“Y-you don’t seem that bad?” Kannupi added. Though, recollection of how everyone had treated her, was still fresh in her mind. Everyone acted out of pure fear around Lusha. She sat down next to the witch.

Lusha let out a light snort in amusement. “Kannupi right?”

“Don’t venture too far from your parents.”

Surely a child this innocent should not ever venture off into the world. For the rest of the world is full of despair and monsters like herself. She would not be able to survive… or worse, she does survive and turn out like her.

Kannupi nodded. Though there was a look of confusion in her face.

“What are you still do–”

As if to answer her question, Lusha hushed her. “Shh– It’s appearing.”

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The girl looked as confused as she first was when she had asked the question. No– perhaps even more confused. She looked up in the direction that Lusha was staring, but could see nothing of note. There was only the night sky and various stars.

“I-...I don’t see anything? What are we looking for?”

“Eraderonis.”

Her blank stare was all that Lusha needed to know. “Hmm.. then how about this?”

She quickly attributed some mana to her eyes.

Kannupi’s eyes suddenly widened. “N-no…way. Wh-what is that?”

In the middle of the sky, just above the full moon, a glowing red star could be seen. So bright was the star that it had tinted the entire moon’s shade to red. “There’s only two times when it’s present. One, when it's the red crescent moon that occurs every 10 years, and for 5 seconds at a time, every full moon.”

The pulse it let out was like that of a beating heart. Flashing, then retracting, and flashing then retracting.

“How- how come I haven’t heard of this star.”

Lusha remained silent. “The truth is, it only began to appear around 500 years ago.”

Kannupi’s eyes widened and her lip quivered… “that would be when–”

“Yes… when I— we had slain the dragons.”

She let out a sigh of awe. “T-then.. It’s the dragon’s souls!”

Lusha looked over at her and her quick conclusion. She seemed pretty proud of that hypothesis. However, Lusha decided on not divulging anymore about the star. It was an oddity by all means and Lusha had a different hypothesis altogether.

She wasn’t sure why she often felt uneasiness when she looked upon the star, but she did. There was also the nagging thought that trailed onto the back of her head. That it was indeed not a star…

“What if it were….energy?”

That would explain why she would need to enforce her eyes with mana to view it. It was reminiscent of a giant blaring aura. Xin often-times told her that the stars had already died. In fact, he gloated often that he could heal them. So perhaps this was just the releasing of energy from a dying star. She knew not the answer either way.

For now, it was just a marvel to her. Something to watch and observe from afar.

“Miss Lusha?”

Her thought process was quickly interrupted. She cast a glance over to the girl as if to say “speak.”

“What were the other witches like?”

That question had caught her off-guard. Most people had assumed they were all on bad terms, and thus to never bring up any of her former associates.

Lusha grew quiet. They were… amazing people. To Lusha, there were no greater people than the two sages. They had grown and lived together for centuries. There was no comparison.

“The Witch of Life… he was a funny man. Super wise, but nonchalant and lived without care. He did everything and anything he wanted without regard for the objections of others.”

Kannupi nodded attentively. “Oh I know, I know! He could heal anything right?” She sounded so excited. It was odd how the characterizations of these witches had changed over time. It appeared as if the Sage of Life was viewed benevolently.

“How is he a witch if he could heal others?”

Lusha tilted her head. “Anyone could become a witch. Healer or not. It’s a matter of wanting something.”

“But- papa said witches were people who ate children and destroyed nations.”

Lusha laughed and immediately gave the girl a glare. “I have eaten a child or two.” She joked. “Perhaps you’ll end up on my plate next.”

She quickly tensed up and one could see the fear in her face. Satisfied, Lusha waived her down. “It’s not like that. The title given to us is just that… a title. To truly be one worthy of this title you have to have desire… desire so strong you can fracture the world.”

“Th-then… What did he want so badly?”

“Xin… ah. He wanted to bring back his wife who died of illness.” Lusha recalled the pained anguish that was on his face whenever he would bring her up. “Of course… he never could. I suppose that’s why he became so good at healing.”

Kannupi seemed saddened to hear the story. “What about the Witch of Death?”

Lusha took a moment to think about her. With her mask that she dawned on, and the cloak made of shadows, she constantly appeared as if she was from a dream. The Sage of death… was perhaps the most merciful and yet the saddest.

“She was…kind. The most merciful one among us. Though… she was also very lonely.”

“Was she not friends with you all?”

“She had a condition in which everyone around her immediately died.” For the longest time, no one could get close to her. The miasma that she had killed unconditionally, all those who came in contact with it. That was perhaps her most frightening aspect. But because of it, only the sage of Life could hang around her. It wasn’t until they had all attained immortality that she was finally able to converse with the others. –albeit only for short periods of time.

“It had come to the point where she couldn’t even have children if she wanted to. They all immediately die after their hearts start beating. Lusha did not want to delve into any information on how she had even tried to conceive children to begin with. But the loneliness of her own hatred led to her self-isolation.

Almost as if hearing the next question Kannupi was going to ask, Lusha explained about what it was the Witch of Death had wanted. “Ashase… had wanted to kill a certain someone.” This may have seen itself as an easy task… but it was far from it. “Ashase’s idea of killing an individual was to rid them of all ties to the earth. Every relative, every friend, and everyone who had ever even said hi to the individual was to be stamped out of the earth. That was the hatred she carried for the Warlord. Her miasma would not stop until the last one was destroyed. Her heart could never be satisfied even when she was full of loneliness.”

The tales of the Witch of Death yielded no surprises. But, what did surprise her was the intense amount of sorrow she had felt for the Witch. They had never divulged these parts of the story to her. Or perhaps no one knew of them aside from those who had first-hand accounts.

“So then…- what about the Witch of peace?”

At that moment. Everyone awoke from their drunken nap. A feeling so ominous that it shook everyone from their dreams and sent them into pure shock had just spiked throughout the camp.

Kannupi instantly broke out in cold sweats and everyone in the camp immediately felt as if they were dying. There was no way to describe such a feeling aside from overwhelming force. Some people found themselves unable to breathe, while others rocked back and forth. Some woke up in a paralyzed state altogether. Kannupi who was grasping at her head in confusion as the force of 100s of pounds pressed against her temples.

She frantically gripped at her hair. Looking to the witch for help. It was then that she realized where everything was coming from. A look of disdain so cold it could freeze the mountains of iridis – that was the perfect way to describe it.

Kannupi clawed at Lusha, forcing words to come out in between breaths. But Lusha did not budge. Her stare was somewhere distant. All the world around her was drowned out in her thoughts. With each passing second the aura grew stronger and stronger. Until…

“L-luhsgaa…– sthah… stahp” Kannupi finally got those words out and like that Lusha had returned back to the current world. Her eyes looked at Kannupi, aura still blaring around the camp. He glared at her for several seconds as if contemplating whether to continue or not, before she finally stopped.

It felt like oxygen had just been returned to the world. The fleeing pressure gave a feeling of instant relief to everyone. Yet the after-effects were still present on everyone’s faces. Goosebumps, hair standing on end, sweating, and even crying.

Tears ran down Kannupi’s face as she rocked back and forth. “I’m sorry… M-miss Lusha… I didn’t m- I’m sorry. Don’t kill me- please I- I-” She continued to cry out loud adding to the ferver around the camp.

“Kannupi.”

She instantly stopped crying. This type of control was born of pure fear. “Leave me. I think it is time we call it a night.”

Kannupi nodded and immediately hurried off. She would surely get a scolding from her father about this, but even that paled in comparison to what she had just experienced. She knew this woman was a monster… but not like this… this woman was a disaster.

Lusha sat back and watched the night sky, ignoring the murmurs and confusion around her.

“ahh...you’re proving to me why I should not exist… yet again. Aren’t you Eraderonis?”