CHAPTER 254: QUAFARS III

"If you are not a royal witch, how do you age so well, so... slow?" Diana asked, picking up the bowl before her.

What was she trying to do?

"Are you going to drink that?"

"It will be rude not to." Diana answered, with a look on her face that communicated I was being dramatic.

Like seriously though? She didn’t know if it was poisoned!

"You know she won’t harm us. Ask El. I am sure she will agree with me."

At the mention of El, the witch snorted and returned to scooping liquid from the pot into the bowls, or rather plates on the floor—utensils which I hadn’t seen before.

I must have been too focused on the woman, on her jagged hair decorated with cowries.

"Maya..." The witch called out.

"Yeah, she agrees with you, but I am eating no magic food."

"You better join your sister and drink from your bowl if you want your other to show up anytime soon. As much as your energy levels are up, she’s in a coma." The witch continued, still scooping liquid into the plates.

Oh damn! Let the chaos begin.

"Maya... what is she talking about?" Diana queried, too gently for comfort.

She was just like her mother in that aspect. The quiet before the storm.

I almost expected to be grounded in the next second—well, that would be my lot, a second grounding, if she communicated this matter to Laura.

Grounded on two more fronts: losing El and lying about it.

"MAYA!!!"

I closed my ears with both hands. "What the hell, Diana. Calm down. You heard the witch. She is not totally down and out."

"Calm down? Caaaaalmnnnn downnnn?" She drawled, her voice still higher than usual. "You made me enter the forest thinking El had our back!!"

I said it. I knew the reason she had been so confident coming into the Queen’s forbidden forest was because she had believed El was with me.

The entrance of the Quafars at that moment saved me from more of Diana’s onslaught.

She squealed when she saw them, almost dropping the bowl in her hands.

I praised her stamina then, happy that her attention had been diverted—though I knew I wouldn’t be free from her later. After all, we were living in the same house.

"Oh my God! So cute!" She chimed, dropping to her knees, yet she wasn’t on the same head level with them.

They were that dwarfy.

"Hi, my name is Diana."

When she saw the hungry looks they rather dealt on the bowl in her hands, instead of showing any interest in her, she gave them the bowl.

But the witch wasn’t having it. "Don’t do that. Their bowls are here. You should drink though, before it gets cold."

"What happens when it gets cold?" I watched Diana drink up, and lifted my own, watching it carefully.

"It loses its special properties."

"And what are the special properties?" I kept on, watching Diana hurriedly return the bowl to the witch.

"Well, for one, it will resuscitate El from her slumber. It keeps magic active in the body, unlike the foods you lot eat up there."

A pause, sharing of food amongst her children.

"Although Laura adds necessary magic vegetables to the food, it doesn’t compare to this meal right here."

But the witch already had me on her first point: this meal could wake El up.

Without much ado, I swallowed the whole thing in one gulp, surprised at the interesting taste.

It did feel like I had eaten a gazillion foods.

I looked at Diana to discuss this concept, but she was busy trying to catch the attention of the Quafars, who were rather more focused on their food than making friends with her.

But she wouldn’t be deterred.

She sat on the floor, discarding its wet state, watching them in awe as they drank from their very little bowls.

"So, how do I make this food?" I returned my attention to the witch.

Diana was okay. I trusted that in a short while, the Quafars would open up to her.

Speaking of Quafars, where was the one that had lent me his energy?

"He is still recuperating."

I frowned. "Stop reading my mind."

"Create a stronger mind guard then. Stop relying on El for everything. It can be detrimental to your future."

My frown deepened. "Isn’t she like a part of me forever?"

The witch nodded slowly, sipping food from the bowl in her hands. "She is. But as you can see, she can be disabled for a while—even forever—if the right information gets into the wrong hands. You have to learn to survive without her. Utilize your training with the Queen well. She might be a joke, but there’s a lot you can learn from her."

The queen, a joke?

"You seem to know everyone and everything. Who are you? The goddess?"

She barked that strange laughter of hers, shaking her head. "You have humor. That’s a great political gift."

I rolled my eyes in response.

"I’m just a witch, little one."

That’s what she kept saying. Just a witch.

Yet, she was damn all-knowing, and maybe all-powerful, if only a child of hers could recreate the Queen’s illusion over the forbidden library.

I sighed, needing to rest my back against something.

Immediately, it was.

I turned sharply, amazed to see a wooden block behind me.

"You..."

"Need to make my guests comfortable." A smile on her lips.

It didn’t make it any easier for me to understand. "So tell me about the Quafars. Tell me about you?"

A pause. "And the little boy that we had seen when we arrived."

I looked around. "Where is he? Won’t he eat too?"

I wondered at the segregation. Was it because he wasn’t as short as the Quafars?

"He is in his room. He can’t eat the magic food. It’s harmful to him."

"Why? Who is he?"

"He is a young fellow I picked up as a mere baby in the forest. He was thrown in there at birth for not having the magic gene."

I paled. "What?"

She finished her remaining food, and dropped the plate in a bigger bowl.

"Not everyone is as lucky as you, Maya. You at least had your wolfish mother and friend by your side before you tasted death the first time."