Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 553: Theories and solutions

"Are you sure they are going to be alright?" Ada looked at the blank faces and eyes of the royal staff surrounding them in the king’s room.

Morgana, without turning away from her doing, explained, "They are just fine, in a dreamless trance," she tinkered some more in her bag before pulling small pouches out, "I needed them to stay idle while we work, but we will have to do it fast,"

Ada did not hesitate and folded her sleeves then moved forward, "Right! What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to mix this powder with this solvent," Morgana handed her the said items.

The powder itself was beige whereas the solvent was red. Once mixed together, their joint color as well as consistency turned to a pinkish goop.

"We need to make him ingest it," said Morgana after adding a sprinkle of a different powder into the mix.

The witch put her hand under the unconscious king’s head to lift it up while Ada brought the cup to his lips.

It took them a few seconds to successfully get him to swallow it without choking.

"What do we do now?" Ada asked, gawking at his inert figure.

"Now, we wait," Morgana sighed.

Once again, seconds had to pass in order for something to happen, to shift before the young woman’s eyes.

It was subtle at first, starting from his core then spreading all over his body at a faster pace. His veins began rising and protruding, turning black beneath his grayish skin.

"Would you look at that?" the smirk on Morgana grew more apparent.

"So, he was poisoned, wasn’t he?" Ada held a hand to her own mouth.

"Yes, you were absolutely right! He was and not just with one type of poison," the witch nodded.

"I suspected that whoever did it used a meticulously prepared cocktail in order to obtain these specific and confusing symptoms. I just couldn’t detect any in his blood. So, that confirms it, right?" Ada finally took her eyes off him to look at her friend, "Whitchcraft was used to conceal the poison coursing his blood," she half asked.

"I am not surprised. Arabella did warn us about the presence of a witch in the castle, and I am certain I know who it is," Morgana’s teeth started grinding against each other in her mouth.

"Really? And who might she be?"

"Well, we met her today. She was quite memorable, so I know you won’t need many hints to pinpoint her among the rest," while speaking, the witch began gathering her things back into her bag.

Slowly but surely, Ada’s eyes widened at the thought of the only person Morgana could have been talking about, "You mean the revolting old hag we met earlier this morning," her breath nearly hitched in her throat, "But...," her lips trembled.

"Yes, she does not look like a witch but that is for a precise and well-known reason among our kind," Morgana’s shoulders finally relaxed, "You see, our kind is only comprised of one gender as I am sure you’ve noticed there are no male witches. That is because we are not born from a witch’s womb but from a human or a vampire one. Born from a binding deal made between a desperate couple and a witch or a coven. In exchange for whatever it is they ask of the witch, she demands their first born and once they agree to the terms, the mother is made to ingest a potion that affects the infant resulting from the deal. When born...," she trailed off.

"When born, the baby is always female and exhibits genetic traits of a witch and not her parents," Ada finished it for her, eyebrows somewhat furrowed, "But then... Was this one an exception?"

Morgana shook her head, "Contrary to popular belief, us witches are perfectly capable of reproducing with other species. Despite the circumstances of our birth our reproductive organs still work just fine but...,"

It dawned on Ada, leading her eyes to widen further as her brows refused to relax, "She is the result of breeding between a witch and a human or vampire!"

The witch stood up, moving back towards the front of the flock of nurses, "Not exactly. I’d say she is the descendant of one such result as during the war some witches were captured and were made to work for day walkers. I’ll let you imagine the rest,"

Ada’s entire body shivered, but Morgana was not done, it seemed.

"I’ve heard the resulting child of such a union is always female too, that they inherit some magical abilities from their mothers instead of feminine features and that is how we end up with women like her. Due to the way they were treated and used, most of them turned very bitter, mostly towards other, feminine young women... I don’t doubt the crown prince or whoever it is using her talents found the right pressure points to press with her in order to make her loyal and an accomplice in his scheme. So, steer clear of her,"

After taking a few seconds to swallow the information, Ada held her chest, took a deep breath and spoke, "Understood, but what are we going to do with the king? I cannot think of any remedy that will reverse the damage already done to his body and I doubt witchcraft can do anything for him either,"

"Indeed. What’s been done is done but... Silas’ blood may change that," Morgana grumbled.

That birthed little stars in Ada’s eyes, "I still have the vial of Lord Silas’ blood that Arabella left with me. I had completely forgotten about it! If we use it right now, he will-"

But Morgana cut her off immediately, "We cannot do that without bringing modification to the blood, I am afraid," she sighed.

"Why?" Ada’s face dropped.

"We speak of a man in his eighties... If we make him ingest Silas’ blood straight from the flask, it’ll revert him back to his twenties. He will become unrecognizable and will probably be accused of heresy and witchcraft so, instead of fixing things, we would speed up our own downfall. I will need time to adjust the blood so that it would just cure his malady,"

"What do you mean by it’ll revert him back to his twenties?"

Ada clutched at her own nurse gown, staring back at the witch in pure disbelief...