Yet she knew that her growth would be stunted because there would be no real danger to sharpen her abilities to the point of reflexive activity. Besides, she had no reason to stay behind anymore. There were no clingy relatives to consider, or anyone to be missed. She was sure that she wouldn’t be missed either. She simply wanted out.
If Evanora knew that her Awakening would signal the end of her innocence and the start of her misery for the next two centuries, she would never have Awoken. She’d have committed suicide before her Awakening because trying to run away was tantamount to death- she’d be caught, dragged back home, and whipped to stupor for disgracing the family name.
Unlike her taciturn nature, her Awakening was anything but silent.
It started with a subtle change in the aura that enveloped the atmosphere. Previously, it was downright depressing. But soon, her pure aura began to eat away at the depressive atmosphere, easing the general tension. Her siblings shrugged it off as a random atmospheric spell, but one member from the Andalusian branch of the family noticed the tell-tale signs of the Awakening of a witch with great potential.
Eager to improve his reputation before the patriarch, he reported his observations to Anthony Vischer, who ignored him at first. However, a talented wizard can only remain blind to the truth for so long, and he soon began to notice the potential in Evanora. He kept an eye on this reclusive daughter of his who he had previously ignored, due to the similarity of her appearance to his deceased wife (she reminded him of what he had lost).
Evanora’s Awakening took a toll on her and she lost consciousness not long after succeeding. But she received a huge shock when she came to and found herself bound to a room, unable to move out of it. Her siblings managed to decipher that she Awakened one of the rare branches of magic, and blinded by jealousy, they imprisoned her and sought to siphon her life force.
Her father, Anthony Vischer, was obsessed with bringing his dead wife back to life for a long time. When pure magic yielded no results, he turned to deviant magic and started practicing necromancy. This slowly turned him into a twisted being, with no sense of wrong or right, as long as he achieved what he wanted in the end.
Upon discovering from her jealous siblings that Evanora had awakened a rare branch of magic, he sought to use her gifts in his master plan- to resurrect his wife. At that time, there was no way to know what gifts an individual had awoken, and everyone relied on what elements the individual showed an affinity for to make an educated guess. Although this was a trial-and-error method, it was highly accurate, and only a few guesses were wrong due to time, maturity, and other human factors.
Thinking that she had awakened the gift of necromancy, he decided that he would work with her to give life to her mother’s corpse. He reasoned that after all of Klara’s suffering, she deserved that much from her daughter. He did not consider the fact that necromancy did not give true life to an individual. The laws of magic were based on the universal laws of life and death, and these were two mutually exclusive entities. Life cannot emerge from death, just as death does not stem from life.
But Evanora did not awaken the gift of necromancy. She awakened something far stronger, and even rarer- the gift of Fate.
The gift of Fate is a rare gift, one that is hardly ever found in the kingdom of magic. Even ancient witches and wizards were not as scarce as the gift of Fate. Fate encapsulated time, space, and people. It affected all entities, be it living or non-living, sentient or not. Fate is absolute. Ultimate. Final.
Having the gift of Fate granted her a herculean life force, for divining and manipulating Fate was no easy feat. Evanora thought she had awakened the gift of time, as the first thing she was able to do was move back time by a few seconds. However, her mother had foreseen that the dearth of a tutor would lead her to wrong decisions; apart from her magical inheritance, she left a wisp of her consciousness behind, and this served as a guide to the young witch, saving her from making several mistakes along the course of her growth and development.
The residual wisp of consciousness Klara Vischer left behind made Evanora understand the significance of her gift. She was not just an asset to her family; she was pivotal to the entire kingdom of magic. She was given this gift in preparation for terrible times that were yet to arrive, but would surely happen. In the right hands, this gift would ensure the survival of witches and wizards all over the world. But in the wrong hands, it could obliterate all forms of life from the face of the Earth.
Evanora knew that her father was no longer the man he used to be. He hid the changes perfectly, but before the eyes of Fate, every secret was laid bare and truth was all that existed. Deviant magic had eroded whatever good he had left in him, and if he were to ever find out that she could manipulate Fate, he would force her to misuse her powers, without care for the damage that would result from it.
To avoid suspicion, Evanora learned and practiced necromancy. Her life force was massive, so the adverse effects of such magic would not be so debilitating. Besides, she did not plan on remaining there forever. Once she accumulated enough power to escape, she’d run without looking back.
But Fate had different plans in store for her, because her father discovered that she did not Awaken the gift of necromancy two days to the day she planned to leave home.