There was an awkward silence within the glade which Evanthe got rid of with a shaky laugh.

“Ah, I forgot to give you this.” A small vial appeared on her palm and she gave it to Seren. “This potion should help you stabilize your emotions from the effect of hellfire.”

Seren accepted it and drank it. “Thank you.”

Seren then looked at Evanthe with a hesitant gaze. “I wished to speak to you about something, Lady Evanthe, just the two of us?”

From her gaze, Evanthe understood something and casted one spell. “No one can hear us.”

“Uhm, Lady Sierra…”

“It is fine. What you tell me, I will tell Sierra as well after, so having her with us relieves me of trouble.”

Seren glanced at Drayce who was chatting with Yorian. “Uhm…I know you are Drayce’s mother and my mother-in-law.”

As she said the word ‘mother-in-law’, Seren felt herself grow nervous, and after realizing how she behaved earlier, became more and more embarrassed. Her mother-in-law, the Queen of Witches, was a high and mighty person, admired and respected by many, but Seren had been nothing but  thoughtless, childish and rude to her and her comrade. 

Which idiotic daughter-in-law would flaunt her terrible side to the one woman she ought to impress? Her, Seren, she did exactly that.

Evanthe simply offered her a gentle smile. “I am not surprised.”

She lowered her head a little. “Apologies for my terrible behavior.”

“Are you apologizing to your mother-in-law now?” Evanthe asked with a lighthearted chuckle. 

With her head still lowered, Seren nodded. “I was being an improper daughter-in-law.”

“Then do you want me to punish my improper daughter-in-law?” Evanthe asked and looked at her friend. “What do you say, Sierra, shall I?” 

Sierra frowned inwardly as her friend. “Do not bully a child.”

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Her purple eyes shone with relief. “Thank you, Lady Evanthe.”

“Shouldn’t you call me ‘mother’ then?”

Seren shook her head. “Pardon me, but I can only address you that way after Dray calls you that as well.”

Evanthe understood her daughter-in-law was being thoughtful, indirectly telling her to resolve her heart’s knots with her son. 

“Soon, maybe,” was all Evanthe could say. 

Seren felt hesitant a little but could not help but ask, “Will you return to Megaris after your immediate affairs are done, Lady Evanthe?”

Evanthe turned silent. 

Seren continued, “There are people who are still waiting for you, and there is someone whose life seemed to have stopped—”

Evanthe let out a tired sigh and shook her head, telling Seren she no longer wished to speak of this matter.

“I know what happened back then,” Seren told her, causing Evanthe’s face to grow pale. 

“Does everyone—”

“No one knows except for me and Great Lady Theodora,” Seren said. “Please, Lady Evanthe, you have to come back. I know how it feels to grow up without a parent. At least my husband, he still has a chance to have both his father and mother, unlike me. What Drayce knows is far from the truth, which only created a rift between father and son.”

“What do you mean?”

Seren explained everything to her and Evanthe’s eyes turned moist. 

“You have to come back and make everything right, Lady Evanthe.”

Evanthe was quiet as she had not expected things to turn like this between her son and husband. 

Seren spoke again, “Lady Evanthe, you are a supernatural being, and for a long-lived individual like you, a hundred years to pay for your sins will flash by in a blink of an eye, but the one who is waiting for you, a lifetime of regret and pain. His Excellency King Theron cannot wait that long. Two decades have passed, and for a human, two decades can be their entire life. Your husband is still waiting for you.”

“You really are…a lovely child.” 

Evanthe’s voice was heavy as she excused herself, leaving Sierra and Seren alone. 

Sierra suddenly spoke, “Do not be fooled by Evanthe’s smiles. Though she puts her responsibility above all, in the end, she is but a wife who could not forget her husband and a mother who longs for her child.”

Seren looked at Sierra. “Do you think my mother longs for me?”

“I believe she does,” Sierra answered. 

Seren simply stared at her for a while. “I should… practice some more.”

Before she could leave, Sierra asked, “Why do you still keep these scales on you when you can choose not to?”

Seren stopped and looked at the woman, her gaze passing the skin on her hand. “These scales, along with my veil, are the only things my mother gave me other than my life. As I am not brave enough to give up on this life she had given me, how can I give up on these? I am known as a witch’s daughter and these scales are part of my identity. How can I abandon what I have been living with for so long?”

“I understand,” Sierra replied. Seren walked away from her to go back to Drayce.

Under their guidance, Seren practiced till noon. The glade had turned into a wild garden of sorts, with grass as tall as their waist swaying back and forth with the wind..

“That’s enough for the day,” Sierra said as she could see Seren was tired. “You did really well, Seren. I am aware that you have affairs for tonight. We can continue your practice when you have free time tomorrow or the day after. I believe this evening is bound to be an exhausting night.”

As soon as Seren and Drayce returned to the palace,  Seren was then surrounded by her servants and attendants from Queen Niobe’s side, intending to prepare her to attend the grandest coming-of-age ball thrown this season.