"Did you reach out to Siderius?" Caterina said.
"I already have my men summoned him." Jude said. He noticed something was off in Caterina. "What’s wrong?"
"I don’t know if you should treat him that way. That witch is different."
"What is there to worry about? My core might be hidden now but I can still sense his magic. It is so little you’re barely able to notice it."
"I doubt that it is all of his power." Caterina said. She had no intentions of telling Jude about what she saw inside the ’spell’, the Mind Palace of Siderius.
After awhile, Siderius entered the room. He was just finishing recruiting Finn into his fictional organization.
He was led by two armed soldiers with polearms in their hands.
"You can leave." Jude commanded the soldiers, leaving them alone with Siderius.
"I guess you have made your choice." Siderius said.
The Baron of Scalize nodded. "Caterina told me all there is to know. We need to release him so that he can have his peace. Am I correct?"
Jude let out a long sigh and looked at Caterina before turning back to Siderius.
"I heard that I am his anchor. He must hate me a lot... for what I did. I should grant him peace. That is what a father should do.
Tell me, white witch. How can we release him?"
"Release is not the correct term. We’re going to kill the phantom."
Jude slammed his hand on the table. "I do not want to kill my son again!"
"Killing is releasing. Your son had turned into a monster in the dream world. We can only kill that monster so that he can return to the afterlife.
Or... Do you want to keep him like that? Suffering and being a hideous creature for eternity? Is that what you want, Jude Fisher?"
Siderius squinted his eyes. His words cut like a blade. Everyone here knew that the Baron couldn’t let him go because of his guilt. Even the Baron knew that. His hands trembled like trees in the wind.
Caterina reached out and gabbed his hands, calming it down.
"We all knew the risk the day we become witches, Jude. What happened that day isn’t your fault. It is simply a curse our witches have to endure. Jareth needs to rest."
Jude reached out his other hand, trying to hold Caterina’s but she quickly retreated it. She understood but that didn’t mean he forgave him.
"Alright. We will kill the phantom. What do you need, white witch?"
"Just a few preparations. Give me three days to prepare the concoction."
"Concoction?" Jude said.
"The phantom places itself in the dream world. We need to enter the dream world to kill it. Both of you need to go." Siderius said.
The concoction that Siderius told them about was a Tonic. This Tonic was used to make people enter the dream state while their consciousness was still aware. This prevented the Phantom from manipulating the victims, allowing for counter strike. Siderius also entered the dream with them, making sure the Phantom would be killed off entirely.
Siderius wasted the entire day to make the new Tonic and brought them to the Baron’s estate right when the sun was beginning to set.
Jude and Caterina had already laid down on two separate beds in a room inside the estate. Siderius split the tonic into three and drew an alchemical seal on each of their forehead.
"Jude is the anchor so we need to enter his dream. These magic circles will help us connect to him and open the door. Remember to keep telling yourself what you need to do after drinking the concoction.
Otherwise, you may forget that you even dreaming. If that happens, the Phantom will control you.
Jude and Caterina nodded with seriousness. They chugged the tonic down in one go then laid down on their back. Siderius kneeled on the floor, entering his meditation position. His two hands joined together in the front.
The room fell into a deep silence.
Jude opened his eyes to see him laying in the room. But now, Caterina and Siderius was nowhere to be found. There was only him.
He understood immediately that this wasn’t real. The Baron grabbed at his waist. His sword was still there.
Jude hadn’t used his magic for quite a long time. So he had trained himself to use the sword instead. He hoped that he would at least be able to defense himself in front of his son.
He didn’t need to defeat it. He only needed to buy time for Siderius to appear.
"I wonder where Caterina has woken up..." The Baron opened the door and carefully entered the hallway of his both familiar and strange estate.
Caterina opened her eyes. She wasn’t in the estate but found herself in the lonely cabin in the woods, the place she called home for more than a decade.
The Black Witch of the Woods walked outside to see the darkness of the woods. The trees bent unnaturally and there were shrieking and wailing of people that weren’t even there.
But Caterina recognized those voices. The people of the village that she had killed.
"Want to use guilt against me? Big mistake."
The witch ventured into the dark woods.
Back in the real world. An entire troop of soldiers circled around the estate, no one could get in and no one could get out. Follow current novels on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵⁂𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⁂𝓷𝓮𝓽
Joyce, the head maid, was there, standing outside the circle and watching the estate attentively. Her two hands clasped together as she prayed for her masters. Beside her was Anna, she was also praying, but not to the Mother Trees. She prayed to the Outsider to protect Siderius.
Jeffery the butler was also there. He stood outside the premise with an umbrella. His eyes stayed aiming at the estate.
Back in the room with the three of them. The trio stayed completely still. A cloud of smoke reached out from the hallway. The cloud was long and animated, looking like snake that was crawling in the air.
The cloud snake looked at Jude and Caterina. It saw the shining alchemical seal on their foreheads. Then it turned toward Siderius. His forehead also has a burning seal.
The cloud snake approached him. The snake circled around Siderius, observing and measuring the vengeful hunter.
Suddenly, it lunged forward with its mouth opened, killing intention was dense like a muddy pool.
But still, it was only smoke. The snake-shaped cloud of smoke dissipated when it came into contact with Siderius.
He wasn’t harm. He didn’t move.
A few minutes passed by. The floor opened up and a masked man crawl out from within the walls.
"Tch. Tch. Tch." The masked man clicked his tongue and shook his head. "You are too careless, white witch.
Those soldiers can’t stop me. And now you don’t even react to a killing intention. That concoction must have put you into a deep sleep, eh?"
Siderius was still silent.
"You cost me quite a lot, white witch. That slave you killed was one of my most precious slave. I was able to integrate a pair of Mystic Eyes into it. But you force me to kill it..."
The masked man took out a long wavy knife from within his black robe.
"Good night, little white hair witch." The masked man slammed the knife at Siderius’ direction.