Release That Witch

They enjoyed a moment of affection, and then Ashes' attention was drawn to a bunch of diamond-like gemstones in front of Tilly. She asked curiously, "What're these?"     

"Come." Tilly patted her sides. "I'll show you something interesting."     

Ashes sat cross-legged next to her and saw her putting on a white silk glove the back of which was embedded with a red gemstone.     

"Is this... a tracking stone?"     

Tilly did not reply. Instead, she smiled and raised her hand toward the empty place. Suddenly, a lightning appeared from her fingertips, hitting the floor with a cracking sound. As a green smoke faded away, she saw a black spot at the size of a palm on the hit spot.     

Ashes could not believe in her eyes. "Did you... obtain a new ability?"     

Tilly Wimbledon was an extraordinary witch whose magic power could exert on herself, manifesting as genuine intelligence. It was impossible for her to unleash her magic power like the other witches. That lighting flash just now meant that she now had a brand new ability, but it was impossible for witches to have two types of abilities, which was a common knowledge among all the sisters.     

Tilly took off the glove and handed it over to Ashes. "It's not like I acquired a new ability and it's actually because of this stone." She smiled. "It has the ability to change the way magic operates, allowing the magic to manifest in different ways."     

Shocked, Ashes rubbed the gemstone in the middle of the glove. She knew that Tilly would not lie to her—this meant that even non-combat type witches would now possess the ability to fight, significantly increasing the witches' ability to resist an enemy. "How many these stones we have?"     

"Only one," Tilly said like she had guessed Ashes' thoughts, "Not to mention that using them is quite difficult. You'll have to think of magic as something real and concrete, letting it fill in the stone and then release it through the gemstone."     

Ashes tried silently for a long time, but not even one ray of lightning appeared.     

"Do you understand now?" Tilly smiled. "We, as extraordinary witches, can already sense magic, so for the rest of the witches, it's even harder. It requires a tremendous amount of imagination and understanding. As a matter of fact, I've asked many sisters to try, but only two to three out of 100 people were able to understand it and release flashes of lightning."     

"Are you saying I'm stupid?" Ashes took off the glove.     

"That's right." Tilly raised her eyebrow. "At that time I merely used... oh..."     

She was unable to continue talking as Ashes suddenly kissed her… When they parted, the latter exhaled a deep breath. "Fine, not too stupid."     

"What about the other stones?" Ashes licked her lips as if she did not have enough. Only in the presence of Princess Tilly, was she able to completely relax. "Do they all possess different types of abilities?"     

"They manifest differently." Tilly corrected with her cheeks still blushing. "They still won't allow commoners to possess abilities like witches since they require magic to be triggered," she paused and said then, "which left me with a question."     

"What kind of question?"     

"What exactly magic power is?" Tilly said slowly and explained word by word, "For a long time, the abilities vary and manifest with a certain uncertainty, and they also feel different according to the senses of an extraordinary witch. But these strange stones are able to unify all magic power and through them, all witches can release the exact same ability. Thus, I might have been thinking in a wrong direction previously. Perhaps magic itself is an all-powerful type of force, but the witches can only possess one of its forms."     

"Then what about these magic stones?" Ashes asked.     

"They can only be used to release, but not to gather magic power. It isn't clear whether they're man-made or naturally formed," Tilly said regretfully, "according to legends, they were first excavated in the ruins and most of them were then spread out among commoners. I was only able to collect this much… I heard that some ancient ruins lied in the forest east of King City at Seawindshire. I really want to go personally and check it out, and we may be able to find more clues about magic and other historical faults."     

Tilly's words were not making any sense to her again, Ashes thought helplessly. As long as they could manage to live on, who cared about what had happened 400 years ago. "It's best if you don't. Currently, Seawindshire is probably one of the most dangerous places in the Kingdom of Graycastle."     

"Why?"     

"Before leaving Port of Clearwater, I heard the sailors mention that Garcia Wimbledon had dispatched the whole Blacksail Fleet with Seawindshire as her target—that's Timothy's territory. She probably wants to use the advantage of the sea to directly attack his homefront camp." Ashes persuaded. "Only when the martial law had been lifted, I was able to leave the harbor. If what they said was true, I'm afraid that Seawindshire had already become a war zone."     

"They're still fighting amongst themselves." Tilly's expression became worried. "If this continues, the church will take advantage of it and start an invasion. If we don't unite, the Kingdom of Graycastle will fall just like the Kingdom of Everwinter and we'll be swallowed by the church."     

These words startled Ashes, and Princess Tilly soon noticed it. "What's it?"     

"Nothing." She blinked her eyes. "Just now, you looked a bit like Roland Wimbledon who also said the same words to me."     

"Oh? You managed to see him?" Tilly got interested. "Right, you still didn't tell me anything about your trip to the Western Region. Come on!"     

"Shadow must have already told you that after hearing the news about the Witch Cooperation Association I went to Border Town." Ashes hugged her into her arms, "After arriving there, I found out that the so-called Holy Mountain search was just a lie created by Roland who had taken command of the Witch Cooperation Association and was secretly recruiting witches…" She then described to Tilly about everything that she saw and heard during her one week in Border Town. "In the end, he told me that we should unite to resist the attack of the church. If one day we couldn't live at the Fjords anymore, he would gladly welcome us to Border Town at any time."     

"Well…" Tilly thought silently for a moment, then suddenly said, "This man isn't Roland Wimbledon. He has been replaced."     

"Huh?"     

"You've mentioned that many witches have gathered around him, right? I guess that a witch is controlling him, or maybe changed her appearance into his." Tilly said bluntly, "I grew up with Roland, so I'm sure about this—compared with my two other elder brothers and my third sister, he's the worst at deceiving, and his lies are full of loopholes. It's impossible for him to pose as another person. As for the weapons you've mentioned that can fight against those of the God's Punishment Army, they prove my point even more… One can hide his character, but can't fake knowledge. Court mentors had never taught these things, so how did he come to know them?" Tilly said without any hesitations, "No one in this world is born knowledgeable, so that person is certainly not my stupid and annoying brother."     

"Is... that so?" Ashes frowned.     

"Having said that, I still have to contact them." Tilly sighed. "Roland Wimbledon is my brother after all. Even though he's ignorant and incompetent, there's still hope for him. Compared with the rest, he was the most harmless. Hopefully, the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association haven't killed him already."     

"I think that's highly improbable." Ashes could not help thinking of Wendy. "I also left Maggie there, and at the end of this month, she'll come back to bring us news from Border Town."     

"Alright, after all, our current priority isn't that." Princess Tilly freed herself from her embrace, going to the garden and opened her arms. "Now that you're back, we can finally begin with the cleaning project. I want no traces of the church on the island so that Fjord Islands can finally become the home to the witches."     

The sun shone at the back of Tilly's body, covering her figure with a golden halo. Her long gray hairs fell on her cheeks like golden threads and her face was full of confidence as if no difficulty could ever bring her down.     

"I'm willing to serve you, my Queen," Ashes said with a smile.