The surroundings were bright, too bright, yet perfect at the same time. Something she was used to. A man in front of her on his knees, begging.

"Please goddess, help me. The other gods don't even look my way. That man took everything from me, he killed my family. I want revenge. Please send me back to the mortal realm."

"It's not possible! You already have been buried."

"Please, I beg you, you are my last hope."

"I can send your soul back to your body but you won't have any life force of your own, you will need to drink the blood of humans to borrow their life force. You won't be alive but undead. A creature of the night, a Vampire."

Seraphina woke up, out of breath. By this time she should have gotten used to these dreams. Dreams which felt like history textbooks playing out in her mind. History that her grandmother had taught her. Why did it feel like that? Why did it feel like she was there?

She got out of bed. She couldn't even have a stress free night of sleep, even though she was spending her time at home. It's been a few days since their stunt at the hunters base. She wasn't going to Celestine anymore. She was tired of the stares. It was easy to assume that the victims had blabbered everything and the rumour spread.

One of her customers even directly asked her if she was the one from the prophecy. She decided that was it, she couldn't take it anymore. She hated it when anyone mentioned the prophecy. And she hated to be in the spotlight, she missed the days she spent behind the bar and not even spared a look.

She could, if she wanted, use glamour; it was a power she inherited from her mother, she would be unrecognisable. But she hated using it. Her mother spent the end of her life under glamour. Whenever Sera used it, she felt her heart become heavy. If her mother was alive, maybe she would have taught her how to use it.
Sera was yet to tell her theory about what she thinks the hunters are up to, to Nik and Sylvia. How could she when, she herself found it difficult to believe. She probably wouldn't even have known about it if not for her maternal grandmother, Venessa.

Flashback:

"But grandmother, why do I need to learn about all this history? I just want to learn how to control water already.", the young girl said, she was barely fifteen.

"There is a lot to be learnt from history. Did you read about the subjugation of the hunters by the witches?"the older the women asked. Her voice was neutral, it didn't hold the warmth you would expect when a grandparent spoke to their grandchildren.

"Yes I did. The witches were able to defeat the hunters by giving them memory ethers and making them forget their purpose. They keep track of the hunters, so if the effects wear off, they can again give them the potion again."

"Good. Since you have studied well, before we start our study about the 'Vampire-Witch War'. Why don't you tell me about a topic that interests you?"

"Really! There is this thing I read about.... but there isn't much in the books. Umm...blood magic."

Venessa's face goes grim. "I will only talk about this once. You should never ask about this again. Blood magic is forbidden."

"I was just curious. It's not like I want to do it"

Venessa sighed. "It's not like you could do it. Blood magic can only be performed by a witch with necromancer abilities. Which means they have influence over the dead. But in most cases their ability is considered a waste since most they could do is communicate with the dead. They usually handle funerals and sometimes help humans connect with their dead relatives for some quick earnings. But among a coven they are considered to be the weakest."

"Why can't they rely on their other ability?"

"You keep forgetting Seraphina! Only the royals have multiple abilities. So the necromancer witches didn't have any other ability to rely on. The first witch to use blood magic has been named Helga The Bad, she was a necromancer in her coven."

"Not a very creative name."

"I know. She was greedy, wanted to be the coven leader, who were mostly elemental witches. They were strong in their craft. No one knows how she figured it out. She began using her blood first, using which she could control other witches. But it made her weak, she realised she could use the blood from other supernaturals, but human's blood didn't work. But when blood magic was performed the owner of the blood felt very weak as their life energy was being used. She even tried to raise the dead but failed. The more blood magic she used the more she went mad, her eyes surrounded with dark black veins. She wanted to perfect the spells and wrote them in a book, which she called 'The Bloodbound Grimoire '. She wanted the destruction of the world."

"Well, that didn't happen, obviously. But what happened to the book?"

"It was destroyed by the witch queen at that time."

"What happened to Helga at the end?"

"She was executed by the queen herself. It turned out she could only be killed by the royal swords which are summoned by a member of the royal family."

Flashback end.

Seraphina made her way down the stairs to the living room. She was surprised to see Theron and Leo along with Nik and Syl. She would have expected Syl here with Nik. They had been asking her about what was going on in her mind for a while now, while she kept avoiding the subject. "What are you both doing here?"

Nik answered for them, "They just want to help us, cousin. We know something has been bothering you, just talk with us." Sera's expression turned worried. Should she tell them? But she herself wasn't sure. She also just felt tired. Going to Celestine was like a stress buster for her, but now she couldn't even do that.

Her grandfather, Thaddeus was also present in the room. Sera reminded him of himself, strong, stubborn and kept to herself. He only trusted himself in the battlefield at first, but it was too much, you always need comrades to rely on. He wanted Sera to also rely on her friends. "Sera dear, don't be like that. Talk to them."

Sera looked at her grandfather and sighed, perhaps she shouldn't keep everything to herself. She decided to tell them what was going on in her mind.
"Dear? You never talk to me like that. This is partiality," said Nikolai with a pout.
Thaddeus rolled his eyes. "Shut up grandson."

"See! Grandma!" Nik complained to Ravenna, who just entered the scene. She scolded her husband, "Don't be rude to our Nik."

"My love! I didn't mean it like that!" Thaddeus followed her like a puppy to the garden. Seraphina couldn't help but smile. No matter how big of a war hero her grandfather was, at the end of the day he was just her grandmother's husband.

"Sera. Without you we wouldn't have found Lyra. We want to help as much as we can. Please involve us. You had said something about there being more bases for hunters?" Leo asked. Theron nodded his head to show his support. Leo had tried to convince Cassius to come and apologize but he still wasn't ready to listen to anything. He didn't even allow Lyra to meet Theron.

Seraphina appreciated their concern but she didn't want any more drama with the crown prince. "Does his highness know his friend is here?" Leo didn't know what to say.

"Please, cousin, don't shut us out. I know something has been bothering you since that day. Talk to us." Nik requested.
Sera yielded, "Have you heard about Blood Magic ?"

"Isn't it a legend? Like a spooky bedtime story?" Theron asked, his eyebrows scrunched. "Don't tell me Sera ... .You think hunters have been collecting blood for performing blood magic. But there wasn't any witch there at the base." Sylvia stated.

"Do you remember? The leader was talking about transporting something, they must be talking about the blood they were collecting.There probably are necromancer witches in the other bases" Sera replied.

"Blood Magic is no legend. It is a very real thing. Witches have gone mad trying to perform it. We have no idea what the hunters are trying to achieve with it. But I know one thing for certain: we need to find the other bases."

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