Chapter 3

"Where have you been, you sneaky witch!" Ezeldah yelled as she scanned her body. She could feel that something was wrong but could not tell what.

Fiona on the other hand was shaking and almost peeing her pants. For the first time, she felt her cesarean scars. She needed to put on a straight face and not look in the direction of the tomb.

"Where is your baby!"

"I...I…," Fiona stammered.

Suddenly a baby cried, freezing them both in position.

They both looked west to where the sound was coming from. The tomb was on Fiona's east and she was very sure she left the baby in there.

Ezelda quickly ran to the shrubs and picked up the baby.

With difficulty, Fiona got up, the baby had made it but someone moved it from the tomb while she slept and placed him on the shrubs. Or did it move itself, a very puzzled Fiona pondered.

"Why on earth would you come and give birth in the grave forest! Are you stupid!"

Fiona stared at the high priestess. From the question, she could tell the old hag was blinded by her spells. Fiona felt like bursting into laughter, not only did she outsmart her but she seemed to be more powerful than the hag.

She watched as she kept sniffing the baby.

"They said… they… said I was carrying a demon… so I came to give birth to it here and bury it," Fiona lied.

"Liar, Liar Liar," Ezeldah's voice echoed.

Fiona quickly bowed down

"your high Priestess, you see everything and know everything then tell me what happened?" Fiona asked in a mocking tone.

Ezeldah sensed the mocking tone, that was by far the only thing she could detect. She glanced at the baby back and forth, it was not a beast but a shapeshifting girl. They rarely had shapeshifting naturals, most shapeshifters relied on spells.

Fiona's spells had worked, Ezeldah could only see what Fiona wanted her to see. She had been right all along, she was a sorcerer and the high priestess in front of her could not match her spells.

"Something is wrong here, you will see this baby after I'm done with it, go to the Coven and heal," Ezeldah ordered.

"I'm not leaving my baby!"

"How dare you defile my orders! Go before I grind you to shreds for coming here to give birth and contaminating this baby!" Ezeldah yelled. "This baby needs cleansing!"

At the mention of cleansing, Fiona froze. Fooling Ezeldah for seconds was not a match with cleansing which involved other sorceresses. She was done for, she knew the deception spell would be unearthed.

Ezeldah opened a portal and disappeared with the baby.

"No...no..no..noooo," Fiona cried out. She had not thought her plan through. How could she have thought Ezeldah would only look at the baby and look the other way? She was screwed, she knew she was done for. She dropped to the ground and waited for the hag to reappear and finish her off.

But minutes turned into hours, a blissful morning turned to a hot afternoon. She thought about how her life would have been with her baby, the special moments, only a mother would understand even if they gave birth to a deformed or a sick baby.

The graveyard became too quiet and all she could hear were scavenger birds flying above, waiting for her body to turn into a corpse. She got up, it was taking Ezeldah too long with her cleansing. Something wasn't right.

She swallowed hard and decided to go to the Coven and find out for herself. She turned and began walking away, fearful of the evidence on her face. She was too weak for any teleportation spells. She walked into the Coven with stares and whispers hovering over and around her. Word about her disappearance and the High Priestess finding her in the grave forest was all over the Coven.

They all noticed that she had given birth but there was no child in sight. Rumors began spreading that she had given birth to a beast. However Fiona did not mind the rumors, she was more concerned with finding out her baby's fate.

She walked straight to Ezeldah's chambers but was informed the Priestess was at her shrine and no audience was allowed near it.

Fiona began panicking, there was nothing else she could do but wait. The watchwoman advised her to go to her room and take a bath. She was giving off a bad smell. Embarrassed, she raced to her room. Not only did she need a bath but she needed to be alone and think about her next move.

She reached her room and closed the door. From the scent in the room, she could tell someone had cast a spell in her room and they were watching her. "Ezeldah," she thought to herself.

The hag was supposed to be cleansing her son not watching her unless her cleansing did not amount to anything.

Fiona almost burst into laughter but she held it in, she did not want to raise any suspicion. Her role was to play the victim, a mother who had her baby taken away. She went to her bathroom and cried while she bathed, tears of mockery and Joy combined. She wanted to say "SCREW YOU" but she could only think it.

After she was done she walked back to Ezeldah's chambers and sat at the door ignoring the watch women at the door.

Other witches in the Coven could only watch, they had no idea what was happening. Fiona was a looner, she never allowed anyone to get closer to her. She was considered difficult by most of the coven members making it difficult for anyone to approach her and inquire about what happened to the baby. They were all left with no option but to wait for their High priestess.

Ezeldah on the other hand could not find anything wrong with the baby that kept crying. She sought an audience with the most powerful Sorceress in her Coven and they could not find anything wrong. All they saw was a hungry baby in need of its mother.

Two days passed and there was no sign of foul play. The only thing Ezeldah was achieving was killing the baby due to dehydration. Most new babies would have died but Fiona's baby was holding on. It was like she was waiting for the baby to react to the punishment she was subjecting it to or its mother.

The elders advised her to take the baby back to its mother or end its suffering. However, Ezeldah was very stubborn, she always wanted to be in the know, and not knowing was killing her. There was a part of her that was telling her to kill the baby but she had missed that opportunity at the graveyard. What reason would she give when she and the sorceress had found nothing wrong with the baby?

"I advise that we give the mother the baby and keep an eye on them," the Sorceress advised.

"There is something wrong with this baby, I can feel it even though I can't see it!" Ezeldah yelled.

"Only time will tell my Queen, only patience will guide you into seeing what you are supposed to see."

The Sorceress was right, she was letting her emotions override her judgment. Fiona always did that to her, back then during the assignment ritual it was the same scenario. She had kept her eyes on Fiona, caught her a lot of times hiding and attending the sorceress classes but that was all she was. A little girl that wanted to be a sorceress and always claimed she had been wrongly assigned.

However, there was a baby girl, nothing wrong with it. Ezeldah was right after all and all she was doing was overthinking. The sorcerer was right, time was going to unseal whatever was hidden.

Finally, on day three, Ezeldah gave up and handed the baby to Fiona but promised to keep an eye on her. Fiona grabbed the baby furiously and ran to her room. She had camped at Ezeldah's door for the past three days crying for her baby without food or water.

She quickly took the baby and began breastfeeding him. Her baby was severely dehydrated, she cursed the old hag, making sure she heard everything. She knew Ezeldah was watching her, it was going to take days even months for the hag to let it go.

However phase one of her plans was done, her second phase was to lay low until Ezeldah gave up. Fiona was good at hiding the real power that hid inside of her. She had done it all her life and she knew the only way Ezeldah would find out she was a sorceress was if she admitted being wrong and called for a reassignment ritual. But Ezeldah was big-headed, she was never wrong according to everyone in the Coven and herself. Fiona planned to capitalize on that.

She knew she only gave back the baby for two reasons; one in hopes of it dying in Fiona's arms and not hers and secondly to spy on Fiona and find answers. However, Ingram's health picked up, the baby was determined to live, and in two weeks, no one could tell it was once starved.

Fiona kept the baby to herself and never allowed anyone to get closer or touch him. Most of the witches thought her giving birth alone in the grave forest screwed with her head. But Fiona had her own reasons for not wanting anyone near her son and she was determined to keep it that way.

On second thought she too was still shocked the cleansing ritual did not reveal anything. Not even the other Coven's magic that she used. There was definitely something inside the baby, something that once blocked her from seeing what was in her womb. Previously she would have gotten to the bottom of it but Ezeldah was watching her so she made up her mind to ignore it.