By Jasmine Monica
Veronica discusses her decision to try out for cheerleading and explains why. She startes training and then takes a test and learns about the history of the witches.
Chapter 7

“I really want to be a cheerleader,” Veronica told Crystal. “I know you want to look like a tough girl who looks down on that. There's even a debate about if cheerleading is really a sport at all. You are all tough sports girls. So, having a sister on the cheerleading squad would reflect on you, but I am not you. It is a serious and dynamic sport that I have always wanted to be a part of. Please understand, I really want to be on the squad. It looks so exciting.”

Crystal nodded, understanding her sister's thinking, and said, “Only if you make it on the competition squad. Otherwise, you are just there cheering on the boys during games. And the odds of a first time tryout making it on that level is slim.”

“If that's what I have to do, then I will do it,” Veronica told her sister. “I hope I can get myself ready and be part of the competition squad. But it is what always I wanted to do. Even when I was a boy, I would watch the cheerleaders practice, and I would go to the game and watch them. I would make it a point to go to the various competitions and watch our school compete. It was odd and many people thought it was just a boy's horny sexual attraction to the cheerleaders. The usual, but it wasn’t. When I was watching them, I was picturing myself as a girl, wearing the outfit and doing the routines with them.”

Crystal shook her head and said in a pained voice, “No wonder you were so closed off and miserable as a boy.”

Christine and Michelle sat there facing Veronica. Teresa was with them. Veronica felt the pressure to back out, but she wouldn’t. Michelle saw her put her name on the paper for the upcoming cheer tryouts. They had seen her watching the varsity squad training and she was practicing their cheerleading routines. This was something she wanted so bad.

“I have a week to practice, and with what Teresa will be teaching me during her classes will help," Veronica told them. "I think I have a chance. I know it will be embarrassing. But please sis, I really want to do this.”

Veronica was really jumping into the girlie girl thing big time with this. She wanted to be one of the cheerleaders. Crystal was on the softball team with Michelle. Teresa taught martial arts, but that wasn’t a school sport. Karen was on the basketball team. And Veronica wanted to be a cheerleader. Of course, she wanted to try out for the competition squad, which was on a whole new level and could be as intense and grueling as basketball.

Crystal looked at her little sister and nodded, “Okay, fine. I will support you, but you better be damn ready for tryouts. My friend Kimberly was a cheerleader for a year. Perhaps she can help you. I will give you a call. Cheerleading and Martial arts. And witchcraft. You will be very busy.”

“Don't I know it,” Veronica giggled. “But I am strong, and I can do this.” Both sisters gave each other a tight hug. Veronica said, “and now I think it's about time to go. Teresa offered to take me to her Dojo for a first introductory lesson.”

Veronica ran to her room to find something comfortable to wear when she was working out. She chose a loose pair of shorts and a top and ran out again. Veronica and Teresa walked out as Crystal waved and told them she would see them later.

Teresa drove them to the Dojo she trained in and went into the of back the instructor's area to get herself dressed. She told Veronica to stretch and get herself ready.

Teresa walked out a few minutes later wearing her instructor's uniform and a red and white belt with her name etched in red thread and many stripes down one side. She looked fearsome and stood facing Veronica.

“Are you ready, Veronica,” Teresa asked. “Did you stretch and warm up your muscles?”

Veronica nodded, and Teresa said, “Okay, So the first thing you need to learn is your foot positioning and the proper stance for the foundation. I can teach you fancy kicks, punches, strikes, and blocks, but without the proper weight distribution and stance, the rest will fall apart. Your foot positioning and weight distribution is the foundation for everything else. So let's get started.’

Teresa spread her feet and belt her legs a bit and told Veronica, “This is a neutral stance, or as we tend to call it, a guard stance. It's the basic stance we use for just about everything. It allows you to move back, forward, pivot from an attack, or attack if you wish. This is where everything else will flow from. So get into this position, Veronica, and I will show you some of the basic footwork we do. Spread your feet and distribute your weight fifty-fifty. Bend your knees so you can move around. You don’t want to be stuck in one position.”

“Now shuffle forward, this is to attack an opponent. Watch.” Teresa shuffled forward and her hand flashed out toward Veronica's face. It would have been a devastating blow if she intended it to be. But she was just demonstrating the reasoning behind the moving forward move. “See, then shuffle back, if your opponent is attacking you, and you quickly evade his attack.”

Then Teresa called someone in. A larger man walked in, wearing sweat pants and a tight workout top. “This is our instructor. He is Mr. Thompson. We will demonstrate some of the footwork for you, and we can match it later once you see it in motion.”

Thompson squared off with Teresa, and they got in their guard stance. Thompson moved forward aggressively and Teresa quickly shuffled back. Teresa moved forward and Thompson quickly shuffled back. They repeated that a few times, and Veronica got the general idea. Then Teresa said, “I will demonstrate a few evasion moves to quickly move away and gain position. So observe.”

They squared off again, and Thompson moved forward and threw a quick strike at Teresa. Teresa quickly pivoted away with her back foot and threw a solid blow to his midsection. “See how that works? I didn't move back, I moved to his side to gain an unexpected advantage. You use this against aggressive hotheads or people who like to rush. Now watch.”

Thompson threw another strike from the other side, making Teresa have to quickly pivot the other way to avoid it, and she threw her own sweeping move at Thompson. Veronica got the general idea of those moves.

Thompson, having helped Teresa demonstrate the general footwork drills, retired back to his office and let Veronica practice some of it herself. Veronica and Teresa squared off and practiced the drill for another ten to fifteen minutes until she began to get reasonably proficient with the footwork drill.

Once her footwork was good, they worked on a few simple strikes. Teresa demonstrated a simple midsection and face punch. “The idea is to rotate your foot and your hip to drive in your entire body to the punch. You notice how boxers move their shoulders and leg into a rear hand punch that usually results in serious damage to the other or a knockout. That's what we are going for here. Watch.” Then Teresa demonstrated the proper cross punch that sent the bag flying back. The punch was much more powerful than a girl her size looked like she should be able to have.

Then Veronica worked on that for a few minutes, and the large fifty-pound bag was barely moving from Veronica's punch. She lost her temper and concentrated and gathered some energy into her hand and struck out. The bag nearly flew off its chain, and Teresa was mad. “Veronica, don't cheat and use your craft to enhance your strength. It will come with practice. Your strength will increase. Please don’t expect to be as strong as me in a few hours of practice.”

Then they worked on a few simple kicking moves and Veronica was very worn out by that time.

Then they sat down recovering when Veronica said, “this is very different from when I did this as Richard.”

Teresa wanted to know if Veronica had done anything in the past.

Veronica shrugged and said, “I trained when I was a boy. It was a different art called Brazilian jujitsu.”

Teresa laughed, “that's what many males want to do. It is a grappling art, and I like fighting those guys. They have to move in and grab me, and it makes it so easy to keep them away and knock them down before they can get a hold on me. Of course, the more experience they have, the harder and faster their moves are. And more difficult to stop them from grabbing me.”

“It is just so different as a girl. I got to a green belt in it and everything seems to be lost," Veronica said sadly. "My muscles have transformed. My entire body is different. I have to start from square one now. I trained as a boy to stop bullies. They tended to target me until I got strong enough. But now, I think they will target me for different reasons than when I was a boy. I need to be able to stop them.”

Teresa nodded to her, “Good, go in the dressing rooms and shower and come back. I will have a uniform for you, and we can discuss your classes and schedule.”

Veronica showered and put on a clean set of clothes and walked out where she saw Teresa’s instructor sitting with her. They were waiting for Veronica to finish.

The man said, “you looked good, Veronica. We would welcome you here and since you are Teresa’s friendand have helped her, we will offer you training at no charge. Just come in and take it seriously. And please, don’t lose your temper. I think you will progress rapidly. Here is a list of our beginner courses. It looks like you should progress through them soon enough.”

Then Teresa drove her back to her place where Crystal was waiting, and Veronica just collapsed in exhaustion.

Veronica knew that her mother was planning something big, so she had to get ready for it. She already heard her inviting Lady Fawna and her other witches here for something. She suspected it was some sort of test, but she couldn’t figure out what it was for. She had only a few weeks of training at the most.

She rested and feel asleep, unexpectedly. She was jolted awake by her sister, shaking her and telling her to wake up. Veronica groaned in soreness as she was being shaken and woke. Her sore muscles screamed as she got out of bed.

Crystal was excited, “wake up sleepyhead! They are waiting for you in the training room. We are getting prepared for your big day. Get ready and come on sis.”

What infernal thing were they preparing for, Veronica thought sourly. She got out of bed and dressed in a hurry and ran down the steps to the training room to see her mother there with Lady Fawna and the other leading witches standing around the room. Veronica never felt more intimidated than she did at that moment. She felt like leaving.

Seraphine must have seen Veronica's fear and stepped forward to say, “Calm down. You are not in trouble. We are here to test your abilities to be made an apprentice witch. Such a thing is unprecedented after a few weeks of training. Your sister had to work hard, and we started her training at eight years old, and she was ready for the test by fourteen. That was also unprecedented. And she is preparing for the test to become a fully certified witch. But she swears you are you more than ready for the Apprentice test."

Veronica gave Crystal a doubtful look of fear and she just nodded and smiled at her.

Saraphine said calmly, “We will give you tasks to perform and see if you can perform them. Each one will get progressively more difficult. Then you will have a safe duel with one of us under our observation. A safe duel is more difficult, but Crystal swears you can do it. A safe duel is that you perform your defense and attacks, with extreme control, so they are executed but do not hit your opponent to cause harm. That's one of the most difficult things to do. Your sister says you can do it and I believe her. We will see and feel each move and attack and calculate the damage it would do if you had fully executed it. So, are you ready?”

Veronica nodded and hoped she didn't make a fool of herself.

Seraphine nodded and said, “Your first task is to read this story to us. Read from the ancient book to us and tell us its story.”

The story had to do with the origin of their order. She started reading, and it seemed to be a very emotional and painful story about an ancient prince named Serren, who was transformed into a princess by his sister Pattenia so she could claim the throne from him.

Prince Serren was embittered and abused by Pattenia as she ruled. Serren suffered the pain and humiliation of countless injustices and he eventually got his revenge upon the ancient Goddess and his sister. Eventually, all of the witches who executed the plan were slain and the new glorious new age of freedom they had planned with his transformation never took place.

He rounded up the witches and tried them in a horrible inquisition. Many of the witches were burnt at the stake. Instead of their new golden age of freedom, they got more of the rule of the men into the late middle ages into the renaissance.

Veronica wondered if this story was real at all. She thought that most of the story must be Myth. It took about a half-hour to read, but she had no trouble understanding the ancient language it was written in. Then Seraphine told Veronica to read it in the ancient language, which she did nearly perfectly. None of her word usage or pronunciation was wrong in any way. She passed that with flying colors. The reading was probably the easy part.

“Now, I want you to repair this dress.” Seraphine said.

Veronica looked at an old dress that seemed so worn out. It was faded from time and some of its material was so old it had laces and threads unraveled and hanging out in many places. It was almost ready to totally fall apart. But this was no problem.

The question was whether to repair it all in a modern way or try to keep it as original as possible and only repair it using methods and materials used in the time of the dress. The dress looked like it was from the sixteenth century. It sort of looked like an old English Tudor gown. She decided to repair it using only methods and materials used in its time.

Veronica pictured the dress and the method to be used to repair it. She pictured the thread appearing in the worn or tore parts and weaving itself to fill in the holes and tear spots. The spots are filling and repairing. Then Veronica cast the proper spell carefully and watched the threads appear and began slowly filling in the holes with the original and proper material used in the day. The results were amazing and, within an hour, the dress was totally repaired.

Seraphine and Fawna looked amazed and shocked. Seraphine said, “That was very impressive, Veronica. Most teenagers don’t really care about the method and just command the dress to be repaired, not caring about the proper material or method used. It just repairs to them. You took the time to use the proper method and material and colors of the time the dress was created. And kept it as original as possible. This is very impressive. Your sister was very right. You are more than ready for this test. Now, it's time for the real challenges. Now, command this dress to change colors, and to appear on you.”

Veronica brought the picture to her mind. She envisioned the bright blue dress being a deep burgundy red. Every thread in the dress being red. Then she cast the spell and the dress’s color changed from blue into a deep burgundy reddish color. That wasn't the end of the challenge. She had to have the dress on her. She pictured herself wearing the dress. There were several ways to do it. She could transform the gown she was wearing into that dress, but then it really wouldn’t be that dress then. That wasn’t the instruction. So, she pictured the dress she was wearing being removed and replaced by the red dress. That was how to do it, and she cast the proper spell. Suddenly the two dresses replaced each other, and she had the red dress on.

Seraphine said, “Veronica, do you see the fifteen candles on the wall. I want you to light each of them at once with a brilliant blue flame. And make it so that they never can burn out. Also,” Seraphine said as an afterthought. “Keep the temperature of the room the same.”

A blue flame burnt at thousands of degrees. Fifteen of those would raise the temp of the room quite a lot. She saw each candle and lit each of them at once time. They suddenly erupted with brilliant blue flames burning at three to five thousand degrees. They had their own source so they wouldn't use up the wax in the candle. Each of them had a tiny spark of hydrogen fusion in the flames. She made sure to cast another spell that those candles would not affect the temperature of the rest of the room.

“Now,” Seraphine told her, “Copy the candles and send them all through the wall and into the other room. Make them land in the center of the floor in a circle.

Veronica recreated each of the fifteen candles and lit them with the same blue flames. Then she sent them into the far wall, and they all floated through the wall and landed in a circle in the other room.

“You have done very well,” Seraphine said. “And now we have the final part of the test. You will face Lady Fawna in a witchs' duel. I was going to have you face my daughter as I was confident that she could handle and protect herself if things went too far. But I am not so sure now, and I think we need someone who has far more experience than my daughter to face you. Lady Fawna, please face off with my daughter Veronica.”

This was a very odd thing. Usually, they had someone around the child's age and experience to face off during a test. They never had someone with vastly more experience and power to face a child. That was unheard of. And made the test very unfair.

Lady Fawna went to the center of the room and faced Veronica. She whispered, “Don’t worry, Veronica. The fact that she wants me to face you instead of Crystal means you already passed. What happens here hardly matters anymore. You have done exceptionally well.”

The two ladies bowed and got into position. Both ladies levitated into the air. Lady Fawna floated upon a cloud of fire. Veronica levitated on a cloud of dark electrical energy and both ladies circled the room, facing each other. Fawna attacked, first sending a weak torrent of fire racing toward Veronica.

Veronica simply held out her hand and put up a shield to absorb the fire. It would have died before hitting her but she absorbed it anyway. Then Veronica fired off a huge torrent of electrical energy shooting toward Fawna. She held up her hand to absorb the blast as it died off before hitting her.

Seraphine beamed with pride. She said, “You didn’t absorb enough and much of it would have torn into you if Veronica was serious. Fawna, stop holding back. There is a good reason I chose you instead of my daughter Crystal to face Veronica. She is a child, but don't underestimate her, or she will defeat you without question. You were already struck with that blast. Take her seriously now.”

Fawna got seriously and sent a hail of glass shards and ice crystals racing toward Veronica. Veronica simply put up a fire cloud to block the attack and it was dissolved in the hot firestorm she created and then sent back at Fawna. Fawna tried to block it and, when she did, another attack of thick ice shards went racing lower into Fawna's legs.

Neither attack actually impacted, but the hot firestorm required much of Fawna's energy to block. The ice shards would have torn off Fawna's legs. Seraphine declared Veronica the victor and both ladies lowered onto the ground.

“Follow us, Veronica,” and the witches stood up and went into the other room. Seraphine instructed Veronica to stand in the center of the circle of candles. The other witches sat outside the circle facing her.

Seraphine said, “I had Fawna face you because I saw your power from the first second. I knew you would pass without question. But I doubted your ability to control yourself, which is why I had a more experienced woman facing you during the duel. I figured if you got out of control that she could handle you. Obviously, I was wrong on both accounts. Had you got out of control, I doubt she could have handled you, but there was no need. You controlled your attacks, and nothing was lethal.

"Veronica, you are extremely impressive and you are a very good example of what can happen when we abuse our power and do stupid things. My daughter was raped, and I wrongly assumed you had done it. I made a stupid snap judgment and ignored your absolute confusion about events and punished you.

"We are lucky that it was exactly what you wanted, and it all ended well. But it could have easily ended up being very bad and we could have had a worse problem then. Someone of such power as yourself being angry and vindictive. Our power is extreme and real. We must be very careful with it and use it only when needed. Or else we face Disaster.

"Veronica, you have passed and are now an apprentice witch. You will become a full witch very soon. You have the right to wear this amulet of power. It is the symbol of our ancient order and a symbol of our Goddess.”

“Our Goddess?” Veronica said questioningly.

“Yes, but she is gone. Killed long ago. We can still honor her even if she made some disastrous mistakes.”

Then they went to the far end of the room, and they all sat down. Seraphine then said, “It is time you learn the history and the origin of our order. Are you ready? It is a long story.”

Veronica sat down and prepared. There were so many questions she still had. “Yes, I believe so. I would love to hear it, mother.”

“Good,” Seraphine said. “Our order is ancient. Its origins start around the beginning of time itself. Or at least the first women. Our order is called the Hekatin. And it started around the time of the first witches in a nation we call the Kingdom of the Shattered Isles. We know what they are now. Everyone knows but we will discuss their history and organ of the Hekatin. Its time can be divided into three long ages. The Hekatin came from the first age. That is the time of the Goddess Progenita and the rule of women. That ended, and the Second age was the rule of men over women, and we are into the third age now. So let's talk about the first age in which our order comes from. That was the age of the Matriarchy and the rule of the Hekatin over men.

"The Hekatin thought it was a glorious time of peace and unity. But that was a lie. It was a time of darkness and brutality. We ruled over men with an iron fist and they were helpless and had no control over the course of their lives. It was the time of the Hekatin Kings and the rule of women. We thought that men were immature and could not control their anger. They were taught that men were like children and unfit to hold power. Men were powerless. Century after century of that time and men's anger rose with each one. They were bought and sold like chattel. Until they finally struck out in what we called the great war.

"Men took control of the three most powerful families, Denae, Malnae, and Fawnae, yes, like Lady Fawnae. She is a member of that ancient family. They united, they assassinated the last of the Hekatin Kings and started a long bloody war. Temple after temple fell to them. They wiped out the witches during each conquest and eventually won. The last temple fell, the great witches moon, which was a symbol of the order, and the Goddess fell. The Witch Moon vanished from the sky, and then we entered the rule of man.

"Women were denied all positions of power. We were now treated as chattel. Worship of the Goddess was declared illegal. Witch Hunters hunted for the descendants and members of the last royal family of the witch kings. Then they hunted for the remaining witches. It was a time of Darkness under their male God called Maxis.

"Women were even denied an education at first. For the first three hundred years of the Rule of Maxis, women couldn't even read. We were illiterate. It was eventually decided that educated wives were much better, so we learned domestic skills. That was the beginning of the end of the rule of Man.

"It lasted a few more hundred years but, around eight hundred years after the fall, the witch moon suddenly appeared back in the sky again. It was supposed to be a glorious time. But they did something horrible which destroyed them all. They hatched a plot to retake control. They arranged the death of the final Denae, King Gerrick. His son Serren was set to become King. He was ready, but he was very young. Text says he was sixteen and slightly immature as all teenagers tend to be. He had an older sister named Pattenia. She was a year older. Serren was a strong, and he was bred to be a warrior. He was the greatest warrior in the kingdom.

"But Pattenia was angry at her life and at the restrictions under the rule of Man. His sister Pattenia was a year older, and she thought she should be the rightful king. She was a Hekatin, as was Serren's mother, Aanya. The witches hatched an insidious plot to change the sex of Serren and remove him from the line of succession. A young woman named Actonia, she was a very powerful young witch who found out that the Goddess had chosen Pattenia to become the King, found a way to make it happen by turning Serren into a girl. She convinced Pattenia to agree.

"Serren would be the little sister of Pattenia, who would become the rightful king. The plot was formed, and it was done on the day Serren was supposed to be coronated as the King. Serren was turned into a girl in front of the entire Kingdom and renamed Serrenina. He was betrayed by his own family. He was angry but helpless.

"But they didn’t know what we know that when you change someone though magic, it infuses in them. The spell was called the blessing. It's supposed to bless the person and not hurt them. They abused magic, and the spell. The Goddess inspired it and she was wrong.

"Well, Pattenia was crowned and she ruled. She was a good ruler, but she was still horribly abusive to her little brother. He was mistreated, humiliated after having lost everything.

"Pattenia withdrew the restrictions on women and she instituted the rule of women once again. She freed the women and made worship of the Goddess the legal religion of the country. People celebrated in the streets all night long. She dispossessed every male in the kingdom when she ruled that only the eldest girl can inherent the family's land and titles. Then she prepared to go to war against a few families that had rebelled against her.

"Her brother Serren was hurt by that most of all. He was supposed to be a warrior, but he was forced to watch his arrogant sister don armor, pants, and hold his sword to go to war and lead their army. All while he was trapped in the body of a helpless teenage girl.

"He swore vengeance against her, and when someone is that angry, it may be wise to take it seriously. No one did. He started learning witchcraft to find a way to restore his manhood. He begged Pattenia to help him and offered to even renounce the crown if she would. She refused and lied to him before she marched off to war.

"He studied witchcraft and progressed faster than anyone thought possible. Much like you Veronica. Well Pattenia won the war and retook a few cities, she had yet to retake the islands the rebels held. She returned in victory and mocked Serrenina for her weakness.

"Then he suddenly became pregnant. It was a disastrous thing for a boy like him. It was a devastating blow. His sister continued to mock him, he studied and did his best to find a way. He even attacked the King's chief witch and adviser. He never gave up wanting the crown back no matter what, and he swore to retake it and destroy them. The witches were frightened by this point in time. Serren had been molested by a group of boys, abused, belittled mocked ignored, and then made pregnant.

His pregnancy was considered a miracle from the Goddess, but it was really a spell cast by Actonia and Pattenia to do this to him. She had got pregnant and transferred it to Serren though a powerful spell. She reveled at the changes overtaking her arrogant little brother and loved his suffering. He married the woman he loved, she was a beautiful woman named Nemeria. But he still wanted the crown. Serren retrained his mind and body for combat. He was the best fighter in the Kingdom as a boy. Serren was unrivaled but he lost all of that during his transformation and found himself as helpless as any other teenage girl. He solved that by relentlessly retraining himself to fight again. So when Prett tried to attack him once again, Serren was able to fight back and defeat him. He killed Prett during the second brutal assault. He trained to fight for one reason, to reclaim the crown that was stolen from him. It was a single minded devotion to one single goal.

"Pattenia should have known better. Serren suffered it all and had beautiful twins he fell in love with. Pattenia became more hateful and she won the war. She tortured citizens of the rebel isles and she massacred their army after they surrendered. She committed many atrocities on the men there as she reimposed her rule over them.

Serren loved being a mother and loved his children. Pattenia was able to quicky end the war and return to watch Serren give birth to his children. Pattenia was upset at how much he adored the kids and wanted to raise them. She went to claim the children as her own and Serrens power had grown. He prevented her from taking his children and nearly killed her and the men she sent to claim the kids. But the Goddess had prevented Serren from killing Pattenia. That was the spark that made him hate the Goddess even more and he went into action.

"Serren was still very embittered and hateful. He was powerful enough he formed his own plot and left the isles to learn under the elves. He vanished from the Shattered Isles for nearly a year, training under the elves masters to learn the hidden secrets of Magic that no human knows. The Evles were under the assumption that Serren was interested in restoring their sacred alliance between the two races. They had a sacred alliance during the first age that was broken by the men. The Elves have a matriarchy and that made the humans matriarchy attractive. The elves formed a close alliance with the humans. Men broke it when they seized control. They thought that Serren as a woman would restore it. He learned their secrets of magic over the next year and returned very powerful. But he betrayed the elves and had no interest in an alliance. Serren broke his word and returned to the shattered isles ready to reclaim his crown.”

"Then he formed his own alliance of three of the Sey Families. Onsey, Ansey and his new family, Malney. They united and formed their own nation. War overtook the isles again. Only this war was led by her own deposed brother and an alliance of the three most powerful families in the region. This was sure to be a larger and longer war.

"Then Serren started an inquisition on the witches. Witches were rounded up and tortured. He removed women from all positions of authority and re-instituted the rule of Man once again. He refused to even admit he was a woman. He was a man no matter what was done to him. Women were persecuted under his rule and he proved his brilliance by defeating his sister in every engagement.

"The witches were killed, as he overtook the capital and hunted the witches. They fled the Shattered Isles, and the new age dawned. Serren forced the witches to transform him into a man so he could reclaim his life and rule as a man. This wasnt what the Hekatin would have wanted at all. Their time of freedom lasted only a few years at most. It was still a brutal rule of Man. Witches were hunted across the world. We were illegal. Serren even put the Goddess herself on trial and had her killed. It was found that the Goddess was Maxis and Progenita. She was both, and at times, she felt like a woman and women ruled, at other times she felt male and man ruled. She wanted to institute a new age of equality, not rule by women again. She saw how that turned out.

"But Serren had suffered too much to care what the Goddess wanted and felt terribly deceived. So Serren and his new witches cast a powerful summoning spell on the Goddess that brought her to Trial. She was trapped in a cage, unable to leave.

"During Progenita's trial, he made the point that he was a follower of Maxis, many were, and that was exactly what the Goddess had taught them. One of the charges was betraying her own followers and deception. She was found guilty of that big time. She condemned her followers for doing exactly what she and her religion under Maxis taught them. Then he asked her if he could have been taught differently. And why she never encouraged his family to teach him differently so he could be helpful to them and support his sister. But he was treated as something that needed to be removed and ignored. When he was a very kind and friendly kid who dearly loved his family.

"Serren was angry. He felt like nothing but a meaningless sacrifice and he was doing exactly what Maxis had taught him to do. He said he felt doomed from the day he was born. Serren and his new friends learned a new set of very powerful spells. Another spell was to bind the Goddess into human form. She was suddenly a human girl and then she was burnt at the stake.

"And we entered the new age we called the renaissance. Men still ruled with an iron fistand women were ignored. We had few rights. Some women ruled nations during that time, but it was still the rule of Man. Women had little say over their lives under the great queens like Ekaterina, Queen Elizabeth and those like them. Slowly, the rule of man faded in the nineteenth century. But even today, here are some places where women have no rights at all. It could have been different. Still, some of the Hekatin think Serren was wrong, but they were wrong. Had they done things different, History may have gone very differently.

Then, Veronica read a final exert in the book about the history of the shattered isles that seemed to be written by the hand of Serren himself after he reclaimed the crown and declared victory. It was a very angry passage that talked about how he was betrayed by his family. How they all pretended to love him for so many years but were planing to betray and destroy his very life. How his mother must have hated having a son and never loved him at all. Then he questioned whether women were even capable of the feeling of love.

Veronica shook her lead at the level of hatred this boy must have felt. But the women of his family betrayed him and caused him more pain than she could ever imagine.

She knew that her mothers story about the Shattered Isles was a warning of what can happen when they abuse their power. She had to make sure she never abused her power and when she saw power being abused, to speak up and defend the helpless. She needed to help Riley.