As soon as she received the urgent summon from the King, Lady Tyra hurried towards the Crystal Palace despite it being so early, the sun had barely brightened up the sky.
Being summoned by Drayce, a person who shouldn't be within the capital, out of the blue made her feel that an unforeseen incident must have happened, or else, the servant acting as a messenger would have informed her of the reason why she was being called to the distant residence of the King's grandmother.
Upon reaching the Crystal Palace, she first came across Great Lady Theodora. "Good morning, Your Ladyship."
Seeing the serious expression on the old lady's face, Lady Tyra could not help but ask, "Did something bad happen? Is it because of the Queen? Where is Her Majesty?" Her intuition was telling her it was definitely about Seren.
"Something bad did happen," the Great Lady finally replied. "You should first come and see Seren. Dray is here. He will explain what happened to you."
Great Lady Theodora and Lady Tyra went to the room belonging to Drayce, where Seren was currently resting.
The moment the two women entered the room, the sight of Drayce sitting at the edge of the bed greeted them. From his appearance, it seemed like the man had no intention of leaving his wife's side.
"Greetings, Your Majesty," Lady Tyra said as she bowed to the King.
Drayce accepted with a nod while Lady Tyra looked at the weak-looking Queen, wondering why she looked so pale. Though, she was more surprised to see Drayce returning to the palace in just a day, unlike in the past years when he would always stay away for about two to three days.
"What happened to Her Majesty?" she asked.
Drayce told her the entire incident from his perspective--starting from the moment he saw his unconscious wife and the winged stranger, as well as how he had to use his dark side to save these two. He also informed her about what that winged man told her, about how Seren was abducted. He then brought up how the shapeshifter claimed to know his mother, Queen Esther, as well as Lady Tyra.
After telling Lady Tyra those things, Drayce started to voice out his doubts. "The winged man is in the chamber next to ours. You must go see him and tell me his identity. I want you to confirm whether he's telling the truth."
Lady Tyra nodded. "From what you've told me so far, I have an idea of who that person is and he is indeed a friend of ours. A young man with golden eyes and divine power."
"Yes, that's him."
"I do know him--that man should be the young Divine Eagle who Queen Esther saved in the past. But I will see him later; first, I would like to know if Her Majesty is alright."
Drayce nodded and stood up from the bed and let Lady Tyra approach the still unconscious Seren. The old woman held Seren's hand and closed her eyes.
The use of strong black magic on the young queen worried Lady Tyra. Being a witch herself, she was aware of its consequences if traces were left behind in a body.
Black Witches and White Witches.
Though there was a difference between them, they belong to the same race, thus, they knew their counterpart the best, being creatures with opposing natures from each other. Black magic was known for its destructive property, and many had mistakenly thought that black magic was dangerous for its offensive nature; only those who had personally battled against black magic practitioners knew the truth--that the deadliest part of black magic was not its nature, but its purpose.
Black magic was not the magic of death and neither was it the element of darkness. After all, both darkness and death are still a part of nature.
It was dangerous because it was magic that shouldn't exist in the first place.
A kind of magic created against the laws of the world.
It was practiced to overturn the balance of nature.
'A taboo.'
That was why normal supernatural beings struggled to fight against black magic practitioners. It was because black magic suppresses natural magic. To those who considered themselves 'children of the world', black magic--a kind of power created out of greed--was poison to them.
Though Drayce had confirmed he had gotten rid of the remaining black magic from Seren's body, Lady Tyra could not help but want to check it on her own to make sure. Black magic could be in the form of a hidden curse or a slow-acting poison. Sometimes, not only would it endanger the body but also the victim's soul. In recorded history, there were instances in the past where the minds of the victims could even be manipulated by the black magic practitioners...
After following Esther for a long time, she had gifted Lady Tyra with various spells that could be used against their natural enemy. Before the previous queen departed, some part of her powers and knowledge as the Monarch of the White Witches were imparted to Lady Tyra as well, helping her see through and deal with the difficult things related to white magic or black magic despite her being half-human.
After a few moments, the old woman let go of Seren's hand as she sighed in relief.
"Queen Seren's body is cleared of all traces of black magic." She looked at Drayce. "Your Majesty did well by using his powers, or else, we can't imagine what would have happened."
She stood up from the bed.
"At this point, she's just asleep due to the shock of what she experienced, but her body had no problems. We don't have anything to worry about Her Majesty," she assured.
"May I go see the Divine Eagle, Your Majesty?"
Her expression said that she was worried about him and could not wait to go see him.
"You can follow me," Drayce said and he led the way for Lady Tyra, leaving his wife to his grandmother. Just as she entered the chamber next door, the old woman hurried towards the bed and saw unconscious Aureus lying in the bed. Her eyes turned moist seeing him like that as she sat on the bed and held his cold hand.