Chapter 4: Inside "Mirembe"
The candles Imorah is sitting within spark and wind with the power of a hurricane invades the room, not once killing the flames.
"It is time." She whispers to herself.
From the two doors on either side of the room. One black, the other white, both girls enter at exactly the same time.
"I knew it." She hears Assema whisper and Aja gasps aloud.
"Sit girls." Imorah instructs, calmly. Kmowing bow comfusing this might be for them, but unfortunately, there is no time. This place is not completely safe at the moment. Imorah's presence signifies an open door somewhere, a door that leads somewhere dangerous.
"Who are you?" Aja demands, hesitant to sit down, or even step closer to the woman seated on the floor.
"Always so hesitant, so inquisitive. A sceptic. Just like your father." Imorah looks to Aja and recognises the knowing in her eyes. She knows the Path. She shifts her gaze to Aseema and is dissappointed when she doesnt observe the same level of recognition is Aseema's.
Imorah knows the girls must have been separated for them to have lived this long. Which means Kellan took Aseema, that is why she doesnt know of the power. He probably moved her to his family across the border, and raisrd her 'normal'.
Imani would have needed the coven after losing more than half of her family, her newborn baby especially, in one fell swoop. She would have needed the coven to keep her powers under control.
Imorah looks at both girls side by side. To this day she is mesmerised when she sees how identical they are. One never really gets used to it.
"You knew my father?" Aja asks, now taking a step closer.
"I know your father child, and I know your mother Aseema." Imorah reveals, refusing to keep any more secrets from the young witches.
"How do you know my name?" Aseema asks.
"Sit!" More of a command this time. The candlelight dances. "I have a story to tell you both. Inside this circle, within the candles, for your own protection. This is not a safe place for you as long as I am here."
The girls do as told but are somewhat hesitant to be near one another. They cannot take their eyes off of one another. It is understandable.
"Holy shit." Aseema whispers the closer she gets to Aja.
They sit down inside the circle and look to Imorah.
"When I was child, they would tell us stories, what we thought were tall tales to keep children of our world obedient. Legends about a forbidden magic that disrupts the balance of nature. It causes destruction, creates monsters, controls darkness. It was an insatiable force that destroyed everything. But when I got older I discovered the truth, it was part of a prophecy.
The prophecy of Ìparun (The Last Ruin). Twin Children born to carry to this forbidden power. The secret, unpredictable manifestation of this evil in our world.
This is the prophecy:
'5 Times Ìparun will rise and 5 times Ìparun will fall. But the Last Ìparun brings the end of us all'.
Indeed 5 times they rose, and 4 times they fell. And the two of you are, the Last Ruin..."
The girls gasp and exchange identiacal glances of disbelief.
...so, I had to do everything I could to protect my sister. As the vessel carrying Ìparun, her life was in immediaye danger, and I could not let her die."
"What do you mean?" Aja prompts.
"Is this some kind of a joke?" Aseema interrupts. Shocked that the girl next to her is actually buying into this story.
Aja looks to her copy and wonders if this girl really is her sister or if this is another dream.
"Do you know where you are right now child?" Imorah asks Aseema.
"The house from my dreams." Aseema answers.
"You dream of this house too?" Aja asks, shocked when Aseema nodded.
"Wait," Aseema starts. "That means it was you I was seeing all this time wasn't it?" They both do not know so they look to Imorah for an answer and she just nods.
"Are you saying that the two of us are sisters?" Aja asks.
"I knew I was not crazy." Aseema announces ,thinking back to all the times that she would swear to her father ,she felt like two different people in her dreams.
"Let me finish." Imorah states and hesitantly, the girls let her.
"Every witch alive felt the power surge through the atmosphere the second you girls were born. But nine months before that, something in the universe had shifted. There was a power, your power, just waiting to be claimed. Weak and vulnerabke, in your mother's womb.
Some wanted it for themselves. Others wanted to destroy it. A power like no other. One that could turn the entire world in on itself. One that could wield the power of the ancestors without their permission. It was a certainty that if my sister didn't die during pregnancy, she would die during child birth and I could not risk losing her, or someone killing her.
But just as always, my baby sister was smarter than me. She protected the two of you fiercely, like any powerful witch would..."
"...woah...woah..." Aseema interrupts, blinking slowly.
"Did you say my mom was... Is..." She correct, still in disbelief. "... A witch? And that we are her twin witch daughters, separated at birth?" Aseema frowns but almost can't wipe the smirk off her face. She is finding it hard to believe that any of this is real and that maybe it is just another dream. But when she looks to the side and sees the reaction of her alleged "twin" she gasps and looks back at Imorah.
"Really?" She breathes and Imorah only nods.
"I knew that if I couldn't kill you anymore..." Their aunt continues with her story. "...the least I could do was prevent the prophecy from fulfilling, or at least delay it. And I did." Imorah pauses, as though what she needs to summon strength for what she has to say next.
"What did you do?" Aja whispers while looking down. She may have a sense of where this is going.
There have always been whispers in the coven about Imorah Masara and how she died. That she may not even have been dead.
But it was never clear whether she was a hero or a villain. Some people idolise her in the coven, they see her as a saviour. But none of the younger anx newer member really know what she did ,including Aja. Some say she slayed a poweful demon and saved the coven from extinction, others simply worship her for her brsvery and courage to do with magic what noone had even attempted before her.
Imorah Masara is a legend. But not only her.
They speak of Imorah and Imani Masara and Kellan like heroes. Pioneers of modern knowledge that took spiritualism to its peak of modern evolution. They re-labelled magic ,especially in Saltridge-Mashaka. Redefining it's uses. Unlocking levels in modern-medicine, military, communication technology.
However, their discoveries are limited to Saltridge-Mashaka and the rest of the supernatural world. Which surprisingly, is cultivated and used by a very crucial 1% of the world.
Aja has always known that the coven has kept secrets; that there were things her mother kept from her.
That is why she never felt safe. But if this is it? If this is what they have been hiding, she might not have it in her to forgive them.
"I put a curse on the two of you." Imorah blurts. "A death spell; if the two of you ever encounter one another in the physical, both of you would die.
"What!" Both girls yell at once but Imorah puts up a hand and they calm immediately. Not at their own will but they calm down none the less. It confuses them but the calm is overwhelming.
"It was the night of your birth..."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone