The Devil's Cursed Witch

As she listened to the crackling fire echoing inside the cave, Ember thought about something and asked, “Did she have beautiful wings like yours? It must be fun when you two fly together to visit this cave, right?”

Morpheus let out a dry laugh. “The females of the feathered races cannot shapeshift. They cannot transform into their beast forms. They are born like a human child and their appearance is similar to a human.”

“What?!” Ember could not help but gasp. “How can you be a shapeshifter if you cannot shapeshift? Isn’t that unfair? If I were of your clan, I would want a pair of wings to be able to fly anywhere.”

Morpheus looked at her with a light smile as her words reminded of his sister who often complained about this. “My sister used to say the same thing. Well, nature has a reason why our clan is made this way. Though females cannot shapeshift, nature has compensated them by giving them larger energy cores than that of males. That allows them to use their powers to efficiently cast more complicated spells than most warriors.”

Ember still could not help but find it a pity that the females had no wings. “I don’t know…Having wings looks awesome.”

“You do not need to feel bad for my sister. Though she didn’t have wings, she was much more powerful than me, and I am the strongest warrior of my clan.”

That piqued her attention. “Really? That means you are very, very strong. I wonder how she must be if she’s stronger than you.”

Morpheus playfully poked her forehead when he saw her looking at his muscled arm. “What are you imagining? I don’t mean she looks like a burly warrior. She is delicate-looking like you. When I say strong, I mean to say her magical powers are beyond average among the females from the beast clan. After all, she has the purest bloodline among those of the Divine Eagle clan.”

“Since she’s your sister, your appearance must be similar, but I cannot imagine you looking delicate,” Ember commented.

Morpheus was amused upon realizing she’s using a human concept to understand the Divine Eagles.

“My sister embodies the ‘divine’ in our clan name. Her hair and eyes were golden like the sun, and everywhere she went, she seemed to shine—anyone would know that she was someone really powerful…”

Morpheus continued to talk about his sister with a content smile painted on his lips.

“A beautiful delicate lady with golden hair…” Ember muttered as she tried to imagine. She then tilted her head.  “But why is your hair gray, not golden?”

Morpheus already expected this question. “For the Divine Eagles, the hierarchy of our powers can be differentiated by the color of our feathers. You see, I am a gray eagle. When I am in my human form, the color is manifested through my hair and eyes. Gold indicates the presence of divine power, so if I wrap myself in divine power or use divine power, I can temporarily show a golden appearance. However, there are some rare cases every few centuries where golden eagles are born. For this generation, it is my sister. They are the most powerful since they are the one with the purest bloodline. Then next to the gold is gray, then brown, while the lowest ones in the hierarchy are the blue ones. Though the blue are the lowest in rank, they are still stronger than the average shapeshifter.”

“It must be a pity she doesn’t have wings. I think it will be beautiful to own a pair of golden wings,” she commented.

Morpheus shrugged. “Others find it a pity too since my sister is the only golden eagle among the Divine Eagles of our generation.”

Ember then had a realization.  “Wait, if she doesn’t have wings, then how did she find this place?”

“She flew, of course.”

Ember blinked at him in confusion.

Morpheus explained with a grin, “She had always been envious of my wings. Once, she decided that she would go to the highest place and live there to mock me and look down on me, saying you cannot fly higher than this. Just like me, she had powers of the air element so she used it to make herself fly here.”

“Oh, so you mean she flew by controlling the air?”

“She is powerful enough to rival a Wind Fae in terms of controlling the air the way she wanted. She had trained for a long time and then succeeded. I was so proud of her at that time,” Morpheus said and looked around with a warm gaze, as if he’s recalling fond memories. “We used to spend many days here in peace. It was nice when she was here.”

Rumble!

Just then Ember’s stomach growled which showed that she was hungry. It shocked her as she immediately tightened her hands around her stomach and smiled awkwardly at him. “I, uhm, I could not eat properly in the morning so…”

Due to what happened between her and Draven the previous day, she could not sleep or eat properly and now she was hungry.

Morpheus stood up. “Wait here. I will be back.”

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“I don’t want my guest to starve and faint on me,” he said and walked out of the cave.

With him gone, Ember stood up and walked around the cave while having that hide wrapped around her. On the wooden shelves fixed in the stone walls, she saw a pair of female clothes and a curious-looking wooden box. She did not want to touch it since they were someone else’s things, but after waiting for Morpheus for some time, she could not help her curiosity.

‘Peeking won’t hurt.’

She stealthily approached the curious-looking box and opened it. Inside, she found a few simple accessories like a wooden hairpin with a delicate carving, brooches with fancy engravings, and a pendant woven in threads.

“Seems like this belongs to his sister,” she mumbled.

The pendant in particular caught her attention. The necklace was created from colorful threads neatly interwoven into a cord, and attached to it was a small circular pendant made of thick redwood, which had a pair of large wings carved on its center. It looked like a token that belonged to a person of a particular clan.

It reminded Ember that she too had something like this token, a jade pendant back in the cave.

“How could I forget about it? My nanny said it was something related to my true identity. She told me to never lose it.”

She racked her mind to recall where she had last seen it. It should still be inside her old cave, right?

“I need to go back there and bring it back. But…how do I do it? I don’t even know where exactly this kingdom is and how far Valor is from here. What shall I do? Should I ask His Majesty to take me back there?”

Her thoughts were disturbed by the arrival of Morpheus who had brought something for her to eat. She looked at him in panic as the box of his sister’s belongings was still in her hand. “Ah! Y-You returned so fast…”

“I didn’t have to go far,” he replied. In his hands were fruits that were wrapped by a hide.

He glanced at the token in her hand and she put it back immediately inside the box before returning it to the shelf. A sense of shame enveloped her. “I was just…”

“First, eat this,” he interrupted her as he gave her the fruits. “Once you finish, we will return to the palace.”

She nodded quietly and went to sit on the stack of hay covered with animal hide.