The Awakening

For as long as I could remember, I had always felt different. I never knew how or why, but there was always this indescribable feeling lingering within me, as if something was buried deep within and waiting to break free. I knew very little of my past, and of my biological parents. My adoptive mother said I was left at her doorstep with a cryptic letter pleading with her to act as if I were her niece whose parents had just died in a car crash. Mum had followed those instructions and never revealed the truth to anyone, not even her closest friends.

My biological mother had said in her letter that her life was in danger, and that I should be as far away from her as possible until the time is right. I never understood what that meant. When would I even know when that time would come? It was a question that stuck in my mind for years before something strange happened. One day, I was walking home from work when I was mugged by three men. I overpowered them and defended myself with ease, but how I managed it shocked me as much as it did them: I flung the men across the street until they landed on either their backs or against walls.

That night, I asked Mum something I didn’t have the courage to do before; I asked her to hand me the letter my biological mother had left. Mum was curious as to why I had a sudden interest in it, so I revealed to her the powers that had awakened within me. Mum sat speechless for a whole minute before agreeing to show me the letter. She also noted that there was an even stranger message at the end of the letter; it was in an unknown language, one that I had never seen before. However, as my eyes raced through those mysterious symbols, I somehow knew exactly what they meant: they were directions.

I followed the instructions in the letter and went to a forest that was far from where I lived. The journey took me a full day, and I went alone after an hour-long conversation with Mum, pleading with her to stay at home and let me go by myself. Given the circumstances, it was best that she was as far away from this matter as possible. I ventured deep into the forest until I came across a cabin. Inside, there was an old woman who had sunk into her chair with exhaustion. The woman introduced herself as my mother, which I didn’t believe at first. Soon, I learned what had truly happened in the past: my mother was being hunted by a witch named Rana soon after I was born. Rana sought to absorb my mother’s powers and raise me to be a lamb to the slaughter, but my mother had placed a spell to conceal my powers until the time was right—and that time had arrived.

Rana had stolen my mother’s powers a year ago, and that had caused her body to deteriorate faster due to the after-effects of magic use; my mother would not survive another year if it kept up. We devised a plan together over the course of two days to ensure that Rana would be defeated once and for all. It was believed that Rana had stolen the powers of seven witches; I couldn’t afford to make a single mistake. My mother taught me during the month that followed, and I was ready before I knew it. It was time to summon Rana.

The battle was intense. Rana countered almost every spell I threw at her; what was sharper than her powers was her precision; she forced me to be vigilant of every direction at all times as we continued to destroy everything around us. My mother took refuge underground in a nearby cave as the destruction unfolded, and after twelve hours of combat, Rana finally fell into our trap. Knowing we could not outdo her in either a battle of power or one of attrition, we had to ensure that her powers would be the key to her own undoing, sparking a chain reaction that would lie in secret, etched deep into the earth where she her focus would not be directed to. Our hard work paid off as Rana was ensnared by our trap and was reduced to ashes by her own hubris.

Once she was defeated, my mother regained her powers. We heard that two other victims of Rana who were still alive were also revitalised. With my first mission as a witch a success, I looked forward to discovering a whole new world of wonders that awaited me.