Chapter 241: That vile Woman
Lys stood there in the quiet bedroom, the rolled paper still in his hand. The warmth that had filled the room when Sara first smiled at them when they entered had disappeared completely. Bertha sat perfectly still on her stool. Selene’s face stayed tight after that small gasp, indicating she had an idea about who that woman named Madam Ines was. While Sara just looked down at her blanket, fingers picking at a loose thread like it was the only thing keeping her steady.
Lys looked between the three women. He didn’t fully understand the gravity of this situation yet, but he could at least see how heavy it sat on Sara. From just seeing that, he deduced that whoever that woman named Ines was, she was the reason Sara was like this. "So, who is this Ines? What does she have to do with you?" He asked Sara directly.
Even though she heard his question, Sara stayed quiet for a long moment. Her shoulders rose and fell with a slow breath. When she finally spoke, her voice came out low and careful, like each word cost her something.
"I’m sure Selene knows more or less about her, too. Madam Ines is what they call her these days. And she’s been quite famous nowadays.”
Lys glanced at Selene. The priestess had a worried look on her face, deeper than before. Not as raw as Sara’s, but clear enough that it reflected that she understood the danger that comes with that woman.
Sara kept going, eyes still fixed on the blanket. "Ines is the Viscountess of this land now. She took the title after… she killed my father. The former viscount."
The words dropped into the room like a stone into still water. Lys felt the air change. Selene’s eyes widened further. Bertha’s hands tightened in her lap.
Sara’s voice didn’t shake, but her fingers had stopped moving on the thread. She sat there, pale face steady, but Lys could see the effort it took for her to keep herself calm while saying all of this.
"Your father?" Lys repeated, voice quieter. He took a half step closer to the bed. "You… you were the daughter of a viscount? You’re a noble?"
Sara gave a small nod. She finally looked up, meeting his eyes directly. "Yes. I’m the rightful heir of the Thorne Viscounty.”
Lys just stared at her, completely flabbergasted by hearing all of this.
“We were the rightful rulers here. For generations. Until that woman came into the picture like a living curse. Her husband, the younger brother of a no-name baron, died from the curse early on. Rumor is she changed after that. She swallowed her own house, and when she wasn’t satisfied with being only a baroness, then she started taking everything else she could reach.”
“First it was the small territories, then came the blockage of the trading routes. My father was already suffering from the curse back then, getting weaker every day like most men back then. Mom was handling the estate and everything by herself, while I was at the academy. That vile woman got bolder and bolder with the small victory she tasted. And as the whole country was in a messy situation, corruption among the nobles, lawless activity, every possible illegal thing you could think of used to happen, almost quite openly, even in our territory. And she took advantage of exactly that. Somehow she riled up most nobles serving under our family, and banded them together to cause a rebellion. And as my father was at his weakest moment because of the fucking curse, she picked that moment to strike hard, when we were at our most vulnerable point."
While talking about this part, she trembled a little, as if just recalling that time was triggering a trauma. Lys wanted to stop her from talking, but for some reason he couldn’t. His instincts screamed at him to listen to her without interrupting now. So, he did just that.
The room stayed completely silent for several heartbeats. Lys’s grip on the paper tightened without him realizing it. He tried to picture it: Sara younger, watching that happen, and the image sat heavy in his chest. Selene looked like she wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words. Bertha stared at the floor, jaw tight.
Sara continued before anyone could interrupt, her voice dropping even lower. "I returned home immediately after hearing the news. But it was too late.”
Everyone in the room realised what she meant by “too late”. There was no need to ask her.
“Yes, we were spared after that. Barely. Some nobles who felt it was too cruel to just kill all of us stepped in at the last moment, probably because they didn’t want her getting too powerful too fast. But yeah, we lost almost everything. Our noble title, our lands, our respect, everything. And my brother…."
Lys felt his stomach turn. "Wait a second, you had a brother? But you told me you were an only child. No, forget it, that’s not important right now. So, she killed your brother, too?"
"No, killing him back then would’ve been a mercy I guess. Considering what she made him." Sara’s hands clenched on the blanket now. "She made him a completely different person from what he used to be, by using witchcraft.”
Selene spoke up, “Memory wiping potion!”
“No, I heard she used a confusion potion or something like that. Where she got those, no idea. After all, the kingdom has a ban on all witchcrafted potions.”
“Well, considering how well connected she is, as the rumor goes, I wouldn’t be surprised to know if she had a direct connection to any witch or someone like that,” Selene said.
“Okay, I get how dangerous she is, and how she destroyed your family and all. But how does any of that relate to your not being able to use magic?” Lys asked, trying to stay on the topic.
Selene elbowed him, not to the point of hurting him, though. “Don’t you get it? That woman killed Sara’s father, held her brother hostage by witchcraft. Do you think a woman as prepared as her would leave Sara alive without taking any precautions? Even I know, I wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, she did that by making a deal with my mom. Well, to be honest, my mom still wouldn’t tell me the full details of the deal she made back then with that woman, to save me back then. But one of those deals was, I can’t use my power openly. Ever. Not in this village, not anywhere. In return, she won’t come after my family. My brother stays alive. And we can do anything we want other than that.”
Sara looked up at Lys' face now. “So, you get it now, right? That one wrong move from me, one rumor that I used my magic, and that reaches her ear, and there is a possibility she might come after us. And she has grown more than before in terms of power and connection, I fear."
She looked at Lys, really looked at him. Her eyes carried years of holding this inside. "I haven’t used my full power in public since she killed my father. I had to let my manapool waste away from disuse because any careless slip from me could travel back to her. My father was the strongest person in my world when I was a child. I believed that completely. And she broke him by herself, even if he was weak at that time."
Sara’s breathing had grown a little rougher. She paused, swallowing hard. "I’m scared of what that woman is capable of, Lys. Yes, part of me wants to kill her. With everything I have. But I fear that if I move even an inch too far, and if she hears about what I did, and maybe feels threatened by me somehow, she’ll come here. Killing my brother would probably be the smallest thing she will do. She’ll likely finish what she left unfinished before, wiping out the rest of the Thorne line so we never pose a threat to her again."
The confession of Sara hung in the air. No one spoke right away. Bertha reached over and rested a steady hand on Sara’s arm, saying nothing. Selene looked shaken, her usual calm cracked wide open. Lys stood frozen, the paper forgotten in his grip.
He had guessed before that Sara might have some kind of burden she always carried, which she always tried to hide with her small gesture of mischief or teasing, but this? This was way bigger than he had imagined.
A dead father, a hostage brother, and years of hiding her own strength just to keep what remained of her family alive. He had no idea how to console a person who carries this much burden on her.
After racking his mind for words of console, he finally found his voice, rough around the edges. "I didn’t know. I’m sorry for bringing this today. I thought…."
Sara shook her head slowly. "You couldn’t have known." She leaned back against the pillows, looking more exhausted than when they first walked in. "But now you do. That woman… Ines… she doesn’t forget. And she doesn’t forgive threats to what she owns."
The afternoon light coming through the window felt colder. Outside, the village kept moving, hammering on the walls, distant voices, but inside Sara’s room everything had slowed down. The weight of her words pressed on all of them.
Lys could see it in the way Sara’s shoulders stayed straight even now, years of practice at carrying this alone. Sharing it hadn’t made it lighter. If anything, saying it out loud seemed to make the fear more real.
He set the paper down carefully on the small table beside the bed. "We’ll figure something out. You don’t have to carry this by yourself anymore. Words about you using magic won’t leave this village."
Sara smiled a little. “If only that were possible, Lys.”
Lys didn’t answer right away.