Finally, Grace blinked and Looked around the room just as Amber and Amy walked back in from outside holding hands. She grasped Jasmine's face and pushed her away from her neck. "Enough. Go sit."

"No. I don't want to."

Grace smacked Jasmine's ass with a loud retort. "Get off me."

Jasmine scrambled out of Grace's lap and looked toward Amber, and grinned at her.

Grace ran her hands down her face. “Just wow. Wow! So much to process. I'll come back around to this later. For now, shit. Okay.

Where to start? Freeing the gnomes after a thousand years of living under a curse? Like that happens every day..."

“How about telling them how impressed you are with them, Grace?" said Brian softly. He passed the whiskey back to Jason, who took a swig but held onto it.

"Yeah. Okay. I can do that. Good idea. Guys, that is impressive to hear. You've managed some impressive things in a short amount of time.

I knew you would do well, but that well? I never imagined. Not once.

It's a little frightening, you know? Fuck, I can't wait until Glenda gets here.”

"We keep hearing about this Glenda. Who is she?" Jasmine asked.

Grace looked at Amber for a moment. "A good witch. The best, really.

She single-handedly erased the last known witch circles during the last witch war. Amber knows about this, don't you? Your mother was a part of it. A survivor. One of the few."

Amber had frozen up hearing Grace speak. Daniel could see a flush of red at her neck. She didn't respond.

Grace kept talking. "You'll be under intense scrutiny now; you realise that? The entire Realm knows about you now. Word is spreading like a wildfire. There are some people who will challenge that.

Fanatics, Like Quinten. All bent on the destruction of whatever isn't like them. But to be fair, witches are evil as shit. With the obvious exception of you guys and Glenda.

"You'll be hunted. At least until you can prove your worth. Then it will only eliminate the stupid fanatics. The smart ones won't stop.

Sorry, but that's how it works. Witches are crazy scary. It's Like it's embedded in people to automatically hate and fear them. Stories about eating children? True. Gaining powers from ungodly sources?

True. Writing crazy evil black magic tomes like Witch Circles: How to Control Your Spell Caster and Use His Power. True. Destroying people's lives for shits and giggles. True. Cursing people because, fuck why not? True. The nature of witches has been proven again and again."

"But Glenda is a good witch, right?" asked Jasmine. "So we will be too, right?"

Grace sighed. "Yes, she is. How? I don't know. You'll have to ask her. As to you three and Daniel, time will tell. You all have a hundred percent potential to be the scariest, evilest witches the world has ever known. ALL because of Daniel here. And well, honestly, Amber too."

"Me?" gasped Amber.

Grace glared at her. "Yes, you. Your mother is Amanda Aine. She lives only because Glenda said so. Her and Gwydion. Glenda said they still had a role to play, but she didn't know what. Guess we're finding out."

"I-I don't understand," complained Amber.