"Ok, Elliot." I looked at the young woman. Her midnight black hair was luscious and healthy with thick long curls as she flipped it over her shoulder. Her mighty blue eyes stared at me. "This will be your first test." Her face hardens. "You will have to perform magic throughout the day without me here to monitor it. If you do this successfully I will know that I can trust leaving the children in your care while Seth and I travel."

"Yes ma'am, I will do my best!" She beamed at me.

"What about me, mommy?" Josephine grabs my skirts.

"If you can show me that you can listen to Elliot and only use your magic when she says it's ok I will know that you are a big girl now." I knelt in front of her. "This is a test for all of you. Can you be good for me?"

"Yes mommy." Josephine nods and gives me a very serious face.

"Excuse me, Mari?" I turn to look at Elliot. Her cheeks turn a little pink. "Excuse me for asking if this is rude, but you seem kind of young to have kids and they don't really look like you...?"

I laugh a little. "Don't worry, they aren't actually my kids. I just decided to save them a while back and sort of adopted them." I explain. "So, your assumption was right. Don't worry." I smile at her and she smiles sheepishly. I stand up. "Alright, we will be off." I wave to them as Seth and I exit our house.

"Are you sure her magic is stable enough?" Seth stares at me meaningfully. "Her strong suit seems to be fire. If she were to lose control when you aren't around she could very much set the whole forest on fire." I hop on to Hazel and he climbs on behind me.

"I am aware, Seth." I look at him. My ability to see magic has grown stronger in the last month. To the point where I can identify it in people who haven't even unlocked their powers, like Adeline. I stare at Seth. A small ball of blue magic rests in his chest. "I already put her control to the test."

"How?" We start to ride off and I consider how to answer his question.

"Tell me about yourself first, Seth." I look up at him. "What did you do before you were a witch hunter? There is so much I don't know about you still. Like who is your mom?"

"I'm an orphan." His jaw tightens and I start to regret my question. "Any male orphans become witch hunters at the age of fifteen. So, I didn't have much of a choice in the matter. I never knew my mom or dad." He looks down at me. "Why do you ask now?"

"I just think that it's possible that your mom is a witch." I mumble the words. He freezes behind me. "Listen, since the day we found Elliot I have been able to see magic. At first it was only when it was being used in the witch. Then I started seeing it in people who haven't unlocked their powers, like Adeline. The problem is, I see a small ball of magic in you and in Bastian and Joseph." I poke him in the chest where I see the ball of magic. "Bastian obviously had a witch for a mother, otherwise both of his sisters wouldn't be witches. With that and Joseph being my only source of evidence so far, I can only guess that you had a witch for a mom as well."

"What does this have to do with Elliot's control?" Anger flares up in me at his accusatory tone.

"Well, when I met you my emotions started to spike and it made controlling my powers difficult. I thought it was just because I was anxious at the time in general." I meet his steel-like gaze. "But I have been living with you for over a month now and my emotions are always hitting a high note when I am around you. It happens to Josephine too so I know that it's not just me."

"Ok?"

"So, the longer I have you around Elliot was just extending a test over her control of magic and emotions." I say simply.

"Oh... that's why you have me leave when you are going to teach them something new?" I nod. "But, why does that happen?"

"My guess is that your mother had some sort of control over emotions that she could use to weaponize against other witches because if you haven't noticed, both Josephine and Elliot have a form of magic that they are strongest in. What I have learned is that witches can learn any magic related thing but will always be the strongest in one of them." My journal floats into my hands as I show him my notes. "I also noticed that Bastian has a strong heat resistance, he doesn't get burned ever. Meaning that the strongest form of magic for the females is inadvertently passed on to the males in some way." I show him my notes on everything.

"That's amazing, Mari." He holds my notebook carefully. "You really write down everything you learn and find?" I nod. He starts to flip through all of the pages gingerly. "Even the times you can hold spells and all of your hypotheses?" I nod again. "This is an amazing notebook. It really broadcasts your intelligence and how quickly you were able to adapt to being a witch."

"Thank you." I slide the notebook out of his hands. "I started logging everything the second I figured out about my magic. I had originally believed that the stronger I would become, the easier it would be to hide the magic. I learned quickly that what I really needed was to control my emotions otherwise all of my training was worthless." I mumbled a little to myself. "I started logging all of my herbs and recipes that I used to make my pastes and tonics."

"What else?"

"That's it?" I looked at him but he just wiggled the journal out of my grasp and opened it to a page around the middle.

"This one." An illustration of a building sat in the middle with my scribbled writing all around it. Drawings of cakes and pastries dotted the page next to it.

"That's the bakery I wanted to open." I face the road again. "It's just a childhood dream of mine."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I love baking. I used to bake with the maids at my manor every other day. I had purchased a building and was renovating it to open as my bakery when I found out I was a witch." I sigh at my naivety. "It would have been opened by now. When I was found out and burned at the stake, I let go of my dream. Recently I had thought that I would be able to open one out here for witches and witch sympathizers. Then, I realized quickly that I would be too busy to actually do anything with that bakery."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, someone has to go and save witches. Especially now that I can see magic in people I can identify them quicker and save them sooner." I felt sad even though I knew it was the truth. "Maybe in several years from now when there are stronger witches that can see what I can, I will be able to go back to my silly dreams."

"I can't bake." Seth comments. "No one ever taught me." He rests his chin on top of my head. "But, I bet if you taught those girls back at home, they would be able to maintain a bakery, herb shop, and cafe when you can't." I smile and lean back into him. "I will even learn how to bake if that would make you happy."

"Well, aren't you a charmer?" I smiled.

"You could teach the boys too." His chest rumbles when he talks. It was soothing. "Then you can have a family owned business. Then you can help young witches and men open up their own dreams here when we grow larger and larger."

"I like that idea." I smiled and planned. I opened my notebook to the page with the bakery and tried to squeeze all my ideas in it.

"Why don't you flip to a clean page?" He asks as we near the village. We tie up Hazel and I show him the journal.

"There isn't a clean page." Every single page was crammed with notes and every single part was dated and timed. "This journal has had the responsibility of holding all of my thoughts for almost three months." I place it in one of the pouches on my saddle. "It's reaching the end of its life."

"I see." He slides his ring on. I had adjusted the appearance the ring gave him so he wouldn't be so fat. "Thanks for making me not obese." He smiles.

"Anytime my darling husband." I slide my ring on. I wrap my arm around his arm and we walk into the village. No one even glances our way. We blend in with the crowd easily. "I need to purchase clothing for everyone, fabrics, we should get them food, I want yarn, and lastly I want to buy the children some sweets to congratulate them on all of the progress they all have made."

"Alright, I have my own shopping list." He taps his head. His voice was higher pitched in this form and I didn't really like it. "I can leave you here, right?" I nod. He kisses the top of my head and waddles off. I carry my basket with me as I work through the town.

My eyes were open and searching for anyone with even a hint of magic. I got all of the items I had wanted to purchase. I begin working my way back to Hazel when a strong thread of magic catches my eyes. I follow it. I weave through dark alleyways until I come across a small basket. The source of the strong magic was inside of the white blankets in the basket. My heart thundered.

I knelt down and opened part of the blanket. A small baby girl was in the blanket. She looked to be about four months old. Oh good lord. She was sleeping easy in the bundle. I lift her up and a small note falls from the blankets.

"To whoever finds my poor baby." I read it out loud. "Her mom died in childbirth. I didn't know that was possible for a witch." I gasped. "I was being hunted the second this baby was born, I pray she is found soon. I had decided to drop her somewhere and turn myself in." Tears well in my eyes as I feel the raw emotions in this note. "To whoever finds her, I am sorry, please love her like I will never be able to."

I hold the baby in my arms and then burn the note and the basket. I hold the baby gently. She continued to sleep. She had probably just been left here by the looks of it. Thank lord I found her before anyone else did. "Well, what should we name you?" I whisper. I turn and quickly leave the alleyway and enter the woods. I make my way to Hazel.

"Mariposa?" I take off my ring as I look at Seth, he is back in his true form. "What did you do?" He looks at the little bundle.

"She was left in an alleyway, Seth." I looked up at him. "She has strong magic that led me to her. Her parents are dead. There was a note explaining what happened. I had to take her before someone else killed her." I was rambling. I held the baby close to me.

"Alright, we will just have to add her to the growing group." He scratches the back of his head. He walks over to me and runs a gentle finger on the baby's face. "What are you going to name her?"

"I think... I think I will name her Iris."

"Why?"

"Her magic is the same dark purple as the flower." I stare at the baby. "What do you think?"

"I think it is beautiful." He smiles softly. I nod and hop on the horse. He climbs on behind me. "Also, I bought you something."

"Why?"

"Because, you deserve it." He pulls a journal out of a saddle bag. The cover was the same soft purple as my flames were. "Now you can write your ideas on a clean page again." I looked up at him and smiled. "I also bought ingredients for baking. He motions to the saddle bags. They were full of different items. Flour, sugar, vanilla, everything that you use for baking.

"You are the best, Seth."