Transmutation: the act of moving oneself from one place to another. It's the same as teleportation and is one of the 7 Wonders.

Up above: Esmeralda Castavet (Atticus' mother) played by the beautiful Cate Blanchett.

Enjoy xx

t.m.

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S.E // The 7th Supreme

  Today was another really stressful day at the university. I had the students present presentations on a topic of their choice regarding 20th Century Wars. They were all incredibly well done and interesting in many ways, but today I just wasn't feeling it. Part of me thinks it was because Harry had left in the morning without notifying me at all. I tried not to take it personally, but I couldn't help but feel my heart drop in disappointment as soon as I woke up to an empty space next to me.

  I didn't see him around the university today, probably because his students were setting up an exhibition for today and he was busy tending to that. I didn't want to see him anyways. I tried my best not to think too much about it, nor nag him about it either because I was unsure about whether or not that was okay to do. I didn't want to seem clingy or anything like that, but on the other hand I did want to talk about it or at least question him. My mind was a mess, questions and thoughts like these swirling around in it as I sighed heavily.

  Relief flooded my body just as the last group of students finished their presentation and ended it on a light note. Everyone began packing up as the lesson came to an end, much to my pleasure. As I began packing up, I received a text from Esmeralda, asking me to come into her school and teach a couple of lessons for the rest of the evening. I let out a small groan, before pushing myself to text her back saying yes.

  As I walked down the corridors, I passed the area where the art students were setting up their works. My eyes immediately landed on Harry, speaking to one of his students with a tight frown on his face. He looked like he was scolding the student, as per usual. Instead of approaching him like I wanted to, I kept walking quickly, hoping he wouldn't notice, and luckily he didn't.

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   "In order to be able to use your powers effectively, you need to control your emotions. You need to be calm and focused, and have a clear mind," I spoke out loud as I paced back and forth in front of the class. "If you're ever in a situation where you need to use your powers to defend yourself, the first step is to remain calm and focused. You won't get anywhere if your mind is in a state of panic and hysteria."

   "But Miss Everett!" A voice spoke up loudly, along with a hand shooting up. My eyes landed on the new girl who had just arrived to New Orleans about a week ago from Jordan.

   "Yes Mona?" I nodded.

   "I heard that sometimes when you're in a situation where you're panicking and you're scared, your powers can be triggered, but not in the way you want it to be done so," she said, her voice hesitant but growing confident as I nodded along to every word of her sentence.

   "Yes of course. In some cases if you have many talents and not just a few, it is possible for emotion to be a trigger for certain powers. For example, when I get extremely angry at something, the buildings shake and lights start flickering. Your emotions can't exactly trigger specific powers, but they can have an impact on them."

   "Yeah but you're the 7th Supreme, of course whatever you feel will be transferred in the form of your powers or just magic," Rosita said in an obvious tone.

   "Nice observation Rosita, care to share anything else?" I questioned sarcastically.

   "Yes, actually I do," she spoke up confidently. "I have a question."

   "What about?" I arched a brow at her.

   "It's about The Saviors," she uttered, making the blood in my body freeze as I was suddenly reminded of the prophecy I had.

   "What would you like to know about them?"

   "Is he really coming for you?" Her voice had grown considerably lower, a look of fear flashing across her features as everyone else looked to me for the answer.

   "Yes," I murmured softly, folding my arms across my chest.

   "That means he's coming for us too right?" she inquired, her eyes wide now with fear and worry as these emotions had begun to spread to the other students of the class as they all stared up at me.

   "Yes," I answered honestly, in a low tone before speaking up again. "But I will not let him near you. I promise you all that I will protect you against him and those monsters."

   "That's what every Supreme promises to their coven," Rosita whispered lowly, looking at her fingers that she was fiddling with. "Look where they are now."

   "We're much more aware and stronger than they are," I growled lowly, feeling the annoyance rise up inside of me. "Don't you trust me? The headmistress? We're all entitled to keep you safe and help you learn how to control your powers and use it in case of emergencies."

   "So are you suggesting we fight The Saviors when they come for us?" Rosita spoke up all of a sudden, ignoring my previous words.

   "No, it'll be too dangerous. The Council will handle it," I said in a firm tone, trying to wrap up this conversation but now that Rosita had spoken up, all the other girls found their voice.

   "But what if they're here already?"

   "6 Man could be anywhere!"

   "Shouldn't we be putting up more protection spells?"

   "You need to stop sugar-coating everything and just tell us what's happening!"

   "I don't know what's happening!" I exclaimed all of a sudden, exasperated and just completely done with this conversation. "You don't need to know anything about what's happening with The Saviors because that's The Council's problem, not yours. Your lives are in safe hands. I know it's hard to trust us and believe that but please do."

   "You're right it is hard to trust you after what happened with Rita," Rosita spoke up loudly, folding her arms over her chest with an arch of her brow.

  Her words made my face go pale, an expected wave of horrific memories flooding my head as I stepped back.

   "How can you guarantee nothing is going to happen to the rest of us after what happened to her?" Rosita continued to ask, before my hand closed into a fist, slamming down onto the table with a loud bang.

  As my fist hit the table, the lights of the entire mansion went out. Everyone let out small whines and groans of annoyance, as I exited the classroom before something else would happen due to my overload of negative emotions. As I held a lot of power within me, just by increasing any sort of negative emotion, my powers would start acting up on its own accord. Lights would start to flicker when I'm angry, as well as objects will begin to just fly around and crash into other things. When I start panicking a lot all at once force fields began to form around me.

  All sorts of things happened and usually I was able to keep my powers at bay, even if my emotions were all over the place. But at the moment, I needed to cool off. Everything the girls were saying was getting to me, the stuff about Rita, The Saviors and all that. It reminded me of the prophecy and how it was important that I needed to inform The Council about it.

  I walked around the mansion with no exact goal as to where I wanted to go, just wanting to get away from the class and think for a bit. I slowed down when I approached the wall of the fallen witches. Up there was a portrait of Rita. Rita was the sweetest girl I had ever known. Her fiery natural red hair and vibrant green eyes were a large contrast to her sweet, shy personality. We were friends when we were around 19. I was beginning to master my powers as a Supreme, learning about how to handle the responsibilities of protecting the coven and being a role model to all of the girls.

  However, I was a bit reckless and wild at the time, rebelling against Aunt Sephy a lot as I was cracking under the pressure of being a Supreme and didn't exactly want to take it seriously. I scowled to myself as I remembered the way I used to be when I was 19, how naïve and ignorant I was to the importance of being a Supreme.

  A friend of mine was celebrating spring break in Houston, Texas; and had invited me to come with. I, like the idiot I was, went against Aunt Sephy's warnings about staying in New Orleans for my own safety, went along with her. I took Rita with me, convincing her that she needed to live a little and have some fun. We sort of snuck out of the state, taking a flight to Houston and staying over at my friends' house.

  We partied hard all night, not at all bothering to put on protection spells or even wearing our protection charms that my grandmother had made for us. At some point I was too busy sucking off a random guy's face to notice that Rita had disappeared. I only realized this once I had freed myself from the random guy who's tongue was shoved into my mouth. I searched everywhere for her, ultimately ending up trying to locate her using my mind, connecting it to hers.

  I was able to find her location, by then utterly worried and scared for her. She wasn't answering my calls nor replying to my texts. The longer I drove on, the more worried I got, noticing that the area I was going to was more isolated from the city. I ended up in a forest, absolutely hating trudging around in the dark. But with a little fire, I used my mind to connect with hers and tried to find her. My heart fell in my chest when I heard screams coming from the area I was being led to. When I approached the location Rita was supposedly at, I had walked in on something utterly horrific.

  There in front of me where two men chanting the words 'Salvatores Vivat', while screams were emitted from a witch burning at the stake in front of them. It took a few seconds for everything to dawn upon me, my mouth dropping open in a silent scream as tears pricked my eyes. Due to the intense emotions I was feeling, the men in front of me buckled to their knees, my anger radiating from me in the form of power that was used to boil the blood of the men.

  By the time the fire died out, it was too late to even attempt to bring Rita back to life. The Saviors had mixed the kerosene they use for the burning, with a special potion that restricted witches from being brought back to life. I spent the whole night weeping in the cold air, feeling the nature around me deteriorate due to my intense sorrowful emotions as I felt the guilt suffocate me.

  When I returned to New Orleans with Rita's dead burnt body, The Council went ballistic, and so did everybody else in the coven. Half of them blamed me for not protecting her, using Rita's death as proof that I was unfit to lead the coven as a Supreme. But the other half of the coven didn't blame me for her death as they understood that I was still finding myself and accepting the role of the leader of the coven. It took a while for the whole coven to trust me again, but over the years I proved to them that I was worthy of being the best leader for our coven.

  As I stared up the picture, I made the decision to hold a council meeting to discuss this prophecy and what sort of actions should we take to try our best to avoid it from coming to life.

   "Sage did you do this?" Rowena rushed past me, halting as soon as she spotted me.

   "Yes," I shrugged, as she groaned.

   "What did they say this time?" she questioned.

   "Stuff about Rita," I mumbled, glancing back at her portrait before looking at Rowena, who gazed at me sympathetically.

   "You know it's not your fault, right?" Rowena checked, making me nod slightly.

   "I know but..." I trailed off, folding my arms over my chest and looking to the floor. "Whatever," I shook my head, making the thoughts about Rita disappear. "I need to hold a council meeting."

   "What for?" Rowena furrowed her brows.

   "You'll find out once we hold it, round up all the members and meet me in the conference room."

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  The Council was a group of witches/warlocks whom come together in times of crisis to deal with all sorts of large problems the coven would face. On the council was Atticus, Rowena and I; along with Atticus' mother, Esmeralda, and Aunt Sephy.

  As I sat and waited at the head of the table in the conference room, Atticus stared at me intensely from beside me, chocolate eyes squinting as he tried to figure out what was the problem by trying to read my thoughts.

   "Why can't I read your thoughts?" he questioned me as more of the members stepped into the room.

   "Because I put a shield on them to protect my mind from nosy people like you," I told him, making him scowl and sit back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest.

   "Whatever this meeting is about we must make it quick because I need to get back to sorting the lights out after what you, Sage, did," Esmeralda walked in with her chin held up and a cigarette in her hand, Louboutins noisily clanking against the wooden floor.

   "Mother you should've just asked me to sort it out," Atticus rolled his eyes, scowling at the look of irritation Esmeralda was shooting at me.

  Esmeralda and I weren't exactly on the best terms. She used to love me like I was her own daughter, and acted like another guardian besides Aunt Sephy for when my parents died. However, when the whole Rita situation occurred, she turned on me, blamed me for Rita's death. Even though I proved to her and the coven that I was fit to rule as the leader, she still thought I was inexperienced and just naïve. However, over the years she started to hold her tongue more and respect me as I grew more powerful and started taking on my responsibilities. But whenever I slipped up or made a mistake she'd be the first person to criticize me.

   "I promise that problem will be taken care of once we sort this one out," I said with a stoic expression, before Aunt Sephy had finally arrived with a confused expression on her face.

   "What's this all about Sage?" she immediately questioned, making me simply gesture towards the empty seat nearby for her to sit so that I can commence.

   "So, a few days ago I went to visit my grams in the French Quarter and while I was there I held an infant in my arms whose mother had powers of clairvoyance-"

   "What's a white witch doing in the French Quarter with the voodooists?" Esmeralda immediately interrupted with a scowl.

   "Her husband is a voodooist," I snapped back, mirroring her expression with annoyance. "Let me continue." She sat back with her cigarette in her hand, the crease in her forehead still evident as she gestured for me to carry on.

   "Her baby grasped my finger and showed me a glimpse of the future, unintentionally of course. Everything moved way too fast in images that were hard for me to distinguish but I managed to spot a few things. There was the black titanium ring, which belongs to The Saviors. Hounds that belonged to The Saviors running in the woods with the hunters themselves holding up torches. Blood splattered against the white walls of the Buckner Mansion. Lastly, a baby in a cot."

  I sat back for a second, watching the expressions of the rest of my council members contort from confusion into realization and then into more tense emotions.

   "They're here," Atticus concluded quietly, gazing at me with grim eyes.

   "But where?" Rowena asked the dreaded question. "The ring and the hounds from the prophecy is obvious enough that they've found us. But the blood in the mansion?"

   "That has to include the academy," I said, eyes flickering to Esmeralda, whom for the first time seemed speechless.

   "My girls are not going to be put in danger because of you," she snapped all of a sudden, her words making my eyes widen and a frown etch upon my face.

   "You think I would allow that? The coven is my priority, not my own life-"

   "Mother, you do know every coven with a Supreme is always in danger no matter what right?" Atticus questioned, his tone full of sarcasm and mockery as if he was pinpointing on his mother for being foolish to think the coven would be safe just like that.

   "Of course I do Atticus," she snapped at her son with a vexed glare.

   "Good because I'm not gonna let you blame Sage for anything this time," Atticus growled back, making me bite my lip, knowing that his mother absolutely hated it when her son took my side instead of hers.

   "I'm not blaming her for anything-"

   "Yes you are! You're literally blaming her for being a Supreme and being a fucking magnet for The Saviors to be attracted to! Even if she wasn't the Supreme, our coven will always be in danger because The Saviors will continue to slay witches until there isn't a single witch in sight!" Atticus ranted with a cross expression on his face.

   "Atticus!" I quickly said, placing a hand on his arm and shooting him a stern look. "It's fine, let's focus on the prophecy please."

   "It's pretty self-explanatory to be honest," Aunt Sephy spoke up. "Except for the baby."

   "Yeah, what's the thing with the baby about?" Rowena questioned out loud, making Atticus immediately answered.

   "Nothing of our concern I think we should focus more on The Saviors at the moment," Esmeralda said, immediately shooting down any thoughts about the baby in the prophecy, and just like that it was completely forgotten. "We need to start being careful with who we meet on a day to day basis," she said, casting a certain look at me that had me narrowing my eyes at her.

   "Care to expand on that?" I arched a brow at her challengingly.

   "I heard you got a new boyfriend," Esmeralda said slyly, her pale pink lips curving into a smirk as I felt the anger immediately rise in me.

   "And exactly are your assumptions about him?" I questioned sharply, even though I knew the answer to my question, only wanting to challenge her to say it out loud.

   "I don't have any, I just want to suggest that you should check up on his background information."

   "You think I didn't do such a thing?" I responded, knowing that she meant reading into Harry's mind and his background. But obviously that wasn't possible due to unknown reasons I had yet to figure out. But I wasn't going to tell her that, it would only add to her suspicions.

   "So, is he in the clear?" she asked me, making me scowl.

   "I wouldn't still be with him if he wasn't," I said in a sharp obvious tone, feeling Rowena and Atticus' gazes fall on me as I spoke.

   "Just checking," she raised her hands in defense with wide mocking eyes.

  I sat back, swallowing thickly as my gaze burned into hers. Atticus broke the tension by bringing up suggestions as to how we were going to avoid the prophecy coming true. On the other hand, I began to zone out, thinking about Harry. But what really concerned me was how I still couldn't read his mind. With power like mine, I was supposed to be able to dig deep into his mind way back to the day of his birth. But I couldn't even hear what he was thinking in general. Why he was like that is still a mystery to me. But I was curious to find out.

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➰what do you guys think about the prophecy? I know some parts are obvious, but what about the other parts like the baby *wink wink.

➰ also, do you think Sage should be blamed for Rita's death?

Until we meet again...

t.m.