Standing over her cauldron, performing the magical incantation to be able to gaze upon the face of her beloved gargoyle. It wasn't exactly spying on him, she was worried. Though she couldn't admit to it, she loved him. The way he had just disappeared nearly broke her. Triadia had given her the spell, it was the only ray of hope she had left when it came to seeing him ever again. The thought of him made her ache with longing. 

She missed her kindred spirit, she would often day dream of him, she started filling her spell books with drawings of gargoyles, their special meeting place near the huge rock formation. She then started keeping letters to him every day, poetry for him. It was sad; no one in her life noticed the dramatic change in her. She became withdrawn from life, even more irritated and moody, as if something dark inside of her was ready to bust. Spending every free moment, every thought that passed through her mind revolved around Ludwig.

Whenever the raven showed up she showed less and less interest in him. He hadn't thought anything of it. Teenagers were moody, he knew that much. After a few nights, she would be fine, he thought as he said his goodbyes to her and flew off into the darkness, back to the forest. As he flew away, the dark sorceress barely noticed him leave. Her soul ached, she needed the gargoyle. His company, his dark humor she even missed his wisdom. She could only watch him with the spell and her cauldron. She couldn't talk to or be with him. It was affecting her soul. It felt like each night a little more of her spirit was tainted, her life essence was dying.

She of course had not idea this was happening. After another week passed by, she forced herself to leave the castle. Grabbing her money pouch and her favorite shoulder bag, she headed to the village. She had run out of spell books again, and liked the ones in the antique store. Hurrying along she wanted to get her blank books and get back to the castle to work on a few spells before the nocturnal hours. After what felt like half an eternity, Veronica finally reached the village. She noticed many people in the square. Several kids her own age, a few small children and several older couples walking in and out of the shops.

She walked a little faster until she reached the old antique shop. For a moment she was happy, going shopping for new spell books usually did. Until she took a third step into the store and looked up to see someone else buying the exact same item. It was just her luck that her nemesis happened to be there too.

"Why does it always happen to me?" She groaned just above a whisper. That moment Gwen saw her while Trinity was occupied looking at the trinkets at the counter.

Gwen walked over to her almost compelled to be her usual friendly self. It didn't matter how many times Veronica had been mean and rude to her, it only made Gwen try harder to be her friend.

"Hello, Veronica I didn't know you shopped here too." She greeted the dark sorceress with a cheery smile.

"I feel the same way. What do you want?" She spat the words out as if they were yesterday's blood pudding.

"I just wanted to be nice to you."

"Don't bother, just leave me alone."

"Why are you so afraid to let someone in?" Gwen asked with wide eyes, expecting an answer.

"Don't worry about it." Veronica snapped back giving her the look of a werewolf ready to attack at any given moment.

Then Trinity looked up to see what all the commotion was about. She walked over to aid Gwen, if needed. By the time she got over to her friend Veronica had grabbed three blank books and paid the cashier in exact change. Then bolting out of the antique store and heading back to her sanctuary, to her tower. She hated running into that poor excuse for a witch.

Once the dark sorceress left the antique shop, Trinity just gave her best friend a look of pity, knowing Gwen was just generally nice to everyone, it was the girl's nature.

"Come on, let's get to the counter, I think we need to stop at the pub before we go home." Suggested the newest resident of Galderia.

Gwen simply nodded, agreeing that maybe a drink before they return didn't sound too bad of an idea. She let her friend lead the way.

They walked across the dirt path from the antique store to the tavern. Trinity opened the door and Gwen peered inside. There were more than a few patrons sitting around the pub; she looked for ones she knew. There were a few, she even noticed Pa in a corner booth talking with two other gentlemen. She whispered to her roommate to go left, as not to run into her father. She wouldn't be in trouble; she just felt it not wise to disturb him. He could be having a drink discussing work; she didn't want to be rude in front of them.

They sat down around the corner from the front door, Trinity waved at the barkeep for the night, Daniel. He was new to the tavern; his uncle had gotten him the job two nights a week. He noticed her right away, and stopped what he was doing so that he could bring over a pitcher of beer to them. He delivered the pitcher and two large cups to them, with a beaming grin as he looked into Trinity's wide eyes.

"Hey, Ladies. This one's on the house." Daniel spoke with what courage he could find, he wasn't a confident eighteen years old, but he tried.

"Thanks you are too kind, really." Gwen spoke, cheery and polite as usual, even though inside she was still a little upset about her run in with the dark witch.

"What's your name?" Asked the other girl staring back at him.

"I'm Daniel, you're Trinity right?"

"Yes, very good to meet you."

"I like your name it's pretty."

"Thank you," Trinity replied in a soft tone.

"Let me know if you need anything." Daniel offered before heading back to work.

Once the bar keeps left their booth, the two began to snicker and giggle as young girls do. They sat there talking about their lives, friends and as always, witchcraft. Soon the two were having a good time together as the pitcher was near empty. Trinity waved to Daniel once he didn't look busy, and he was prompt in bringing over another pitcher to them. Daniel couldn't help but notice the girl in the booth with the cool name for most of the evening. He tried not to be obvious about it, but cool and collected was not his strong point.

Trinity took a sip of her beer and pretended she didn't notice every single time he would gaze at her, then  towel down the bar, pretending he wasn't gawking at her like an idiot.

By the third pitcher of beer, both of them were feeling it. Trinity turned to Gwen and started to giggle and couldn't keep her balance much longer.

"Do you feel better now?"

"I must admit that this did help a little." Gwen replied, emptying her glass.

"You see, I'd never steer you wrong." As soon as Trinity spilled the words from her mouth, her drinking buddy burst out laughing.

"Come on finish up, we better walk it off and go." Gwen suggested to her kindred spirited friend.

She nodded, agreeing with her roommate and good friend. When she stood up, everything went blank for a moment as she was hurled into another one of her visions.

Everything went dark, she didn't know where she was or even if she were alone. She saw something shiny several feet ahead, she moved closer to investigate. Once she had gotten closer to the shiny object she saw it was an amulet. It was not just any amulet, but the one that was usually around Veronica's neck. There it was lying on the ground in the darkest part of the forest.

Without warning the vision changed, the background of the forest had begun to shift entirely until she saw what she was truly meant to. The vision became a flash of the dark sorceress standing on the roof of her beloved tower attached to the castle. While in this translucent state, the young witch of balance was horrified, not by what she saw but by what within her she could sense. Immediately she felt grave danger mixed with impending doom. The entire scene just evaporated before her as she heard Gwen's voice, filled with panic.

"Trinity, hey are you okay?" Her eyes widening with fear, Gwen called to her again in the tavern. "Trinity what's wrong?"

The next thing she knew Trinity was standing in the pub with Gwen, staring through her. After a long silence, Gwen looked at her friend who was coming out of her trance state. "We have got to go, now." Gwen followed Trinity out of the only tavern in the village. Once they were a few feet away from the bar, Gwen started asking questions.

"What's wrong? I can tell something's up." She asked her just as the creepy looking raven flew past eye balling them as he flew off into the bleak night's sky.

"Forget that stupid bird, you saw something didn't you?" Gwen glared at her, demanding answers from her as they hiked it home from the pub.

By the time the two of them reached the huge hill leading up to the cottage, Trinity told her about the vision, both of them quickly said goodnight to Angus and Sophia before heading off to write down the vision in their spell books before ending the night themselves. The two slept rather soundly that night. Neither of them stirred from discomfort or dreams.

mCr$z