Page 171 of His Blazing Witch

Mara makes a pitiful face, as if she wanted to hide. She's pulling on... that blue tunic she's wearing, like a baby's shirt. What is that thing? I don't have time to analyze, though. She glances at the mirror.

"You won't tell her I told you?" she asks.

"I promise I won't tell her anything about you, Mara. I'll protect you if she gets mad."

"Please don't get mad at her... It's our fault... Mommy wasn't like this..."

Wait a second. Mommy?

My blood goes cold. Her mom? What the hell, is that... Nephera in there? Oh shit, shit...

"Mara, what happened?" I ask. "Why is Nephera here? Why is your mom still here?"

Mara starts sobbing pitifully, like a child caught doing something wrong.

"I'm sorry..." she sobs. "I didn't mean to... but I really missed Mom, and... and... Clarissa didn't want to, but I wanted to see Mommy just once..."

"Clarissa? What did Clarissa say?"

"Sh-she said mommy is too evil... but I didn't listen... I messed up..."

So Mara tried to call back her dead mother? The necromancy books Kelsi found flash into my mind. That's why!

"Mara, Clarissa wanted to see her mom too, right?"

"Yes, b-but... then... Clarissa said it's bad... and too dangerous... She said I couldn't use magic to bring Mommy back... That it would be too bad, but... but I didn't listen..."

That's why. They really were studying necromancy. Clarissa and Mara had a lot in common, but mostly, they had both lost their mothers when they were young. They found themselves longing for their mothers. However, Clarissa was almost a grown adult, she could see right from wrong. Mara couldn't.

"You lent your magic to Clarissa, didn't you?" I ask. "Clarissa didn't have magic, so you lent her yours?"

Mara nods.

"Clarissa is my best friend!" she says. "She found me when I was all alone... So I played with her, and we played with my magic. Clarissa is so smart, she taught me a lot of things! She taught me how to speak and use my magic! She really showed me a lot of things! But Clarissa was sick... I didn't want her to die... I didn't want her to die..."

She starts crying again, while I'm trying to untangle all this, with what I learned from Clarissa's journal.

So Clarissa somehow found Mara's... ghost, soul, or spirit whatever, while she was studying witches and magic. Somehow, Mara had the magic, but she was still an unborn child with no knowledge of the world. That's why Clarissa was in charge of everything, studying the magic, making decisions for them. However, Clarissa knew her own body was on the decline, and getting worse from using Mara's magic that was never meant for her. That's why she was saying Mara was dangerous. She was the one with the magic, but had no idea what she was doing!

Did Clarissa feel that Nephera could be involved too?

"Mara, we need to stop her. Are you sure it's Nephera... I mean, your mom?"

Mara grimaces.

"I... I don't know... Mommy is different now..."

"Different how?"

"She took... The Dark Magic..."

"What Dark Magic?" I ask, confused.

"The one that was in Clarissa's body... She... Mommy said she could bring Clarissa back if I gave it to her, but... but now I don't know... Mommy is very different..."

Damn it, something really went wrong here. What the heck really happened, and what Dark Magic was it? Inside Clarissa? Could it have been related to her disease somehow? I have so many questions, but for now, I need to be able to do something. I glance up at the two mirrors. It looks like they stay even if the other Mara isn't in sight anymore... So the more reflective surfaces she encounters, the more I'll be able to see.

"You know how I always trust my instincts, right?"

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