As Juliet sat quietly in the horse carriage, she gazed out of the window, thinking about Syvil's sudden personality change.

Outside of the window, there were many peasants on the streets and prostitutes lingering in dark corners. Drunk men stumbled out of gambling dens, pawing over the street whores.

Suddenly, Juliet froze. She leant her head out of the window. There was a man coming out from one of the houses. Even though he was dressed in a cloak, she recognized the tall, lean frame.

"Edmund!" she shouted.

The man looked up and Juliet gasped when she recognized the emerald green eyes sparkling in the dark, hazy surroundings of Whitechapel.

"Juliet?" Jasper touched her arm. "What's going on?"

As the horse carriage clattered on, she lost sight of Edmund. She turned back and said slowly, "I think I just saw Edmund."

"Lord Edmund?" Jasper frowned. "Why would he frequent Whitechapel? It's not befitting of his rank. Which house did he come out from?"

"The one with the sign titled, "The Seductress"," Juliet answered.

"Oh, I know that establishment." Jasper nodded. "It's owned by a very powerful woman called Caroline. It's a gambling den and whorehouse."

"What?" Juliet gasped. "You don't think that...Edmund...went there to...." She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"I'm not sure." Jasper shrugged. "Despite my misgivings, he seems like a man of true character. It's indeed strange that he would visit that place."

Juliet turned back to stare out of the window again. She must trust Edmund. He wasn't the type to frequent such sleazy places. He would never betray her.

Her thoughts were momentarily interrupted when Jasper announced, "We're here."

******

As Juliet stepped into the dark house with Jasper, she noticed that the scene hadn't changed. There were strange, disturbing ornaments like skulls everywhere but she was used to it now.

The witch was standing in front of a table with many jars of foul-smelling liquids. She was mixing and brewing some liquids in a container.

"Madam Favela?" Juliet asked.

"Tsk. Tsk. You young lads should knock before coming in," Madam Favela said without looking up.

"The door was open," Jasper interjected. "If you don't want any intruders, you should lock it."

"Lad, don't get ahead of yourself. What do both of you want?" Madam Favela answered, still busily mixing the liquids. "I thought I was done with the lot of you. I ain't got that much time to entertain a bunch of high-strung nobleborns."

"Can you cure a psychological illness?" Juliet asked.

"I assume this is about your friend? The one who's currently scorned and shunned by the society?"

"How did you know?"

"I do have ears," the witch snapped. "Now, what about the illness?"

"Lady Syvil doesn't recognize people anymore. She hallucinates and all she does is stare off into space," Jasper explained.

Madam Favela snorted. "Oh, she's one of those."

"One of what?"

"One of those lovesick, high-strung ones," the witch snorted. "'Tis a love sickness, it's incurable."

"What do you mean?" Juliet demanded. "You're a witch. You can do anything."

"You place us in too high a regard," Madam Favela sighed dramatically. "As a sister of the darkness, I can't cure matters of the heart. 'Tis incurable, as I've said."

"But there must be some way," Juliet sobbed, breaking down. She didn't care what the witch thought of her crying and kneeling down but she needed to save her best friend.

"You've misunderstood, young girl. It's not that I won't help you but I can't," Madam Favela sighed. "As sisters of darkness, we use dark magic. We especially abhore love and anything related to the matters of the heart. This is why I can't save your friend. If you heed my words, send her to a place faraway so that she can recuperate."

"That's what I told you," Jasper murmured. "We shouldn't have come all the way to Whitechapel to consult some old witch."

"Can you at least make Duke Roman come back to Syvil?" Juliet begged.

"You want me to make a love potion?" Madam Favela asked skeptically. "That is deception and trickery. I thought you would be more honest than that."

"I didn't know witches care about honesty," Jasper muttered.

"Just pointing it out. I can make one if you want."

"No...no." Juliet shook her head. The witch was right. It was no use. "So there's no hope then?"

"Well, there's one thing I can do." Madam Favela licked her lips mischievously. "I heard that the honorable Sir Bernard made her pregnant. I can make his member shrivel up and fall off."

"No! No! Don't do that!" Juliet gasped. "That's cruel."

"Well, she made your friend pregnant."

"They were both drunk...." Juliet stuttered.

Instead, the witch shook her head. "You must be foolish to believe that. That nobleman must have drugged your friend and bedded her."

"That seems likely," Jasper interjected. "Finally, you do make sense for a change."

"I've my moments." The witch waved her hands. "Now, do you want to make his member fall off anot?"

"That's too extreme. He doesn't deserve that." Juliet shook her head.

"I say, we do. It will teach that bastard a lesson," Jasper said, his eyes sparkling with interest for the first time.

"I will make the potion and you will decide what you want to do with it," the witch said and went back to mixing some chemicals.

"How are your parents, young girl?" The witch asked as she busied herself with making the potion.

"My parents?" Juliet looked up. "They are dead."

"Dead?" The witch spun around and her face looked stunned. "What do you mean dead?"

"They died," Juliet repeated.

"Of poisoning? I made sure to not give them the lethal pose. How did they die?" The witch looked horrified.

"Pardon?" Juliet stared at Madam Favela's crinkled face. "They died of a horse carriage incident, not of poisoning."

"Oh mercy, they still got to them in the end," the witch murmured softly.

"Do you know my parents?" Juliet demanded. "Did you have a hand in their accident?"

"Oh, mercy, no!" Madam Favela shook her head. "I did not have a hand in that horse carriage incident which was undoubtedly arranged intentionally..." she trailed off.

"Do you know something about Juliet's parents?" Jasper frowned. "Speak the truth."

"I was supposed to carry this secret to the graveyard," Madam Favela muttered. "But I suppose I must redeem myself for the mistakes I've made."

"What do you mean?"

"A few years ago, a woman came to me, requesting for a lethal poison which could kill the person immediately. She wanted two doses for two people," the witch narrated in her hoarse voice. "While I was making it, I asked her who it was for and when she said it was for Henry and Lilian Rosewood, I almost dropped my cauldron."

"You knew my parents?"

"Aye." The witch nodded. "Your mother was the fairest lady in the county because of her exceptional beauty while your father was a loyal servant to the Queen and was well-regarded by many. But that wasn't how I knew them."

The witch paused and her eyes glazed over. "There was a period in London where witch-hunting was popular. Both innocent and guilty souls were burnt at the stakes. While it wasn't that rampant then, someone soon discovered that I was a witch and tried to report it to the royal council. Your parents were the ones who saved me."

"How?"

"They bribed the person to retract his accusation and I was spared. Oh, they were both such good, honorable people."

"Why would they do that?" Jasper interrupted sharply. "You've killed people before. Why would they help you?"

"Because I saved their daughter before," the witch replied. "Not this young girl here. Her sister."

"Titania?" Juliet asked, a little surprised.

"Aye. When she was but a child, she was dying of a rare disease and I administered an antidote to save her. Your parents repaid my favor which is why I owe my life to them. So when the woman told me that she was intending to poison the Rosewoods, I wasn't damn going to do that."

"So what did you do?"

"I purposely made a less lethal dose so that it would render the drinker unconscious but not dead. After I gave it to the woman, I quickly packed my bags and disappeared into the night because I knew that she would come after me after learning that I had cheated her."

"So that's why you never knew my parents died," Juliet whispered. "You were gone for years."

"Aye. It was only until recently that I returned yet."

"Why would you be scared of a mere woman? You're a witch," Jasper asked.

"The reason?" Madam Favela narrowed her eyes. "It is because she was from the Ouroboros clan."