The Devil's Warrior Queen-Chapter 288: Blood Vial

"He’s a dark witch?" Rama almost exclaimed, her voice echoing in the lone, silent corridor.

"It was a tease, he’s a full blooded white witch, that doesn’t make him weak now, does it?" Aurora pointed out nonchalantly.

"Ahh, of course not, you’re right. He’s unimaginably powerful if that wound didn’t kill him." Rama murmured.

"It almost crossed my mind." Rama exclaimed with widened eyes.

"What is it dear?" Aurora asked with attentive eyes.

"The other night, I came across a vampire and he seemed familiar, perhaps was I linked to the vampires in any way?" Rama uttered with curious eyes.

"I thought we agreed not to try and delve into your past or dig out lost memories." Aurora remarked.

Rama pouted "But it could help trigger my memories, moreover he felt familiar."

"Forcing yourself to recall doesn’t help trigger your memories back, neither does dumping every information of your life on you. It doesn’t work that way, it’s more of a natural occurrence, your memories get triggered by meaningful actions, not mere words, and you won’t get anywhere with it if we dump everything on you without even knowing who you are." Aurora explained, her silver eyes gleaming with the insurmountable amount of knowledge she retained.

Rama’s lips thinned in defeat, her words were no match against the wise Silver Witch Queen, so she rather accepted defeat too quickly.

"Fine, I’ll listen to you, you know everything after all."

"I certainly don’t possess universal knowledge, I only know what I know." She shrugged with a neutral countenance.

"How old are you?" Rama asked hesitantly.

A grin tore through Aurora’s lips as she answered "Definitely has nothing to do with my knowledge but if you want to know so much, I’m over seventy four years old."

Rama’s mouth slightly parted in bewilderment "Oh, you look so young." She muttered inaudibly.

"Apparently, I might just have good news for you tonight, Rama, that’s the reason why I called you, not to talk about my age." Aurora suddenly remarked, leaving Rama with eager eyes and attentive ears.

"What...good news?" She asked hesitantly, her breath held in suspense for her reply.

"There’s a ritual I could do to retrieve your memories back." Aurora spewed out with a small smile garnishing her face.

"A ritual?" Rama blurted out, perplexity with a hint of excitement lit up in her large jade eyes.

"Yes, but there’s a chance the ritual might be unsuccessful, so don’t put your hopes up high." Aurora warned with pitiful eyes as the hope in her eyes suddenly died down.

"So how does the ritual work? What do I have to do?" Rama asked in desperation.

Aurora’s eyes turned serious "You don’t need to do anything, I only need a bit of your blood."

Rama nodded, although she was slightly fazed, but she was enthusiastic and eager to do whatever she needed to retrieve her memories, regardless of the sacrifice she had to pay.

"Follow me." Aurora’s voice broke her out of her short reverie as she pondered on what kind of ritual it was that needed her blood.

Following Aurora down a familiar path, they arrived at her alchemy chamber.

"I know you’re feeling sleepy, I’ll just take a little bit of your blood and then you can run off to bed." Aurora said with a cheery smile as she moved to a table and casually picked up a dagger.

Rama nervously shifted her feet back the moment she started moving towards her with the dagger in hand. She trusted them, she trusted Aurora but in that instance, seeing her armed with the sharp blade glinting in her hand subconsciously threw her into a defensive mood as pessimistic thoughts crammed her head.

What if they had been lying to her all this while? What if they were only showing her what she wanted to see and telling her what she wanted to hear? What if she was under a spell by them and they had erased her memories? What if they were keeping her alive all this time for a ritual while they waited for the right time until now?

Lost in her thoughts, Aurora’s voice snapped her back into reality "Are you alright?"

Rama skeptically narrowed her eyes at the harmless looking, silver head. Such an Innocent and serene being she was, but witnessing how so nonchalantly yet viciously she had killed that bandit, she was torn on whether her serene facade was only a deception or real.

In that second, she questioned every single thing including her existence. How sure was she that they were allies and not foes? How sure was she that they were hiding the truth to protect her or perhaps it was to protect themselves? Her intrusive thoughts kicked in drastically as it spread rampantly in her head.

"Rama, if you’re having second thoughts, then perhaps you should rest tonight, whenever you’re ready, I’ll collect your blood for the ritual." Aurora suggested in her usual calm tone as she noticed the sudden hesitancy in her.

Rama fluttered her lashes and her cheeks suddenly turned red from embarrassment, realizing her doubts were too visible, but seeing Aurora being genuinely concerned about her, she inwardly smacked herself for having such doubts and pessimistic thoughts about them.

They had been so kind to her, shown her nothing but kindness and hospitality, welcoming her into their abode. Certainly if they had ugly plans for her, she would have been able to discern even a whiff of bad energy from them in her guts.

"I-I..." Rama stuttered.

Aurora slowly dropped the dagger on the table before moving toward her with a tepid smile on her face that said she wasn’t bothered or in the least offended about her obvious doubts.

"It’s alright to have doubts Rama, but remember this, if I wanted to harm you or use you for whatever, I would have easily done that, after all, you’ll obviously be outnumbered and outpowered in a castle swarming with magical beings." Aurora said as she rubbed on her arms.

"I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have doubted you, I know you want to help, but it’s scary being left in the dark." Rama sighed heavily.

"You should be scared, anyone would be but always remember that everything I do and will do is to help you." The words poured out of her lips so smoothly, like a soothing melody.

"You should go to sleep now, you look tired, hm?" She added.

"You can take my blood first, I’ll go to bed afterwards." Rama said with certainty and Aurora nodded.

Silently, she picked up the dagger, while Rama hovered her palm above a small bowl. She pressed the cold tip of the blade against her flesh and with a swift slice, blood trickled into the small bowl.

Getting enough of the quantity she needed, she pressed her hand against Rama’s slit palm and within a second, a soft glow enveloped the slit area before it dimmed. Rama could no longer feel the stinging pain, but when she removed her hand, it was healed.

"I’ll start with the ritual right now, take some rest now." Aurora implied and she nodded.

"When will you start the ritual?" Rama queried, impatience lingering in her wide eyes.

"Right now, so don’t worry." Aurora assured her.

"Alright then, so when will we get the result to know if it worked or not?" Rama questioned, unable to keep her thoughts to herself.

"Soon, but I have no idea, just go and have your rest now." Aurora pressed.

"Good night."

Stealing one last glance at her, she exited the premises as she left to her room with hope lit eyes.

She was excited about the outcome of the ritual and as she lay down on her bed, the thought of the result sprang up in her head even as she closed her eyes to sleep, finally she would regain her memories and find out about the truth revolving around her existence that seemed mysterious even to her.

Her heart throbbed with both hope and anxiety that was torn between the thought of the ritual being a success or in the unfortunate aspect, a failure.

Like Aurora had ad iced, she decided not to put her hope on it and perhaps just live on and wait for her memories to come to her naturally, but her a feeling in the pit of her stomach told her she wouldn’t regain a single hint if she stayed there, after all they weren’t a part of her past or presumably a significant part of her life, until then.

Shutting her thoughts out, she succumbed into the world of dreams.

Aurora still present in the alchemy chamber stirred the blood in the bowl as she poured the contents into a glass vial.

Securing the blood vial, she stared at it with hope and a mixture of perturbation flickering through her gaze.

Clutching her hand around the vial tightly, a cloud of white mist enveloped her form as she vanished into thin air.

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