Chapter 18: Chapter 18
"Here it is," she informed Adela and handed it to her.
Adela approached and, with slightly trembling hands, took the bottle and studied it with longing. Its color was deep blue. Its cap was made of a mineral rock that Adela didn't know. But it was beautiful.
"Thank you!" She said with a big smile on his face and gratitude in her voice. She was looking at it and couldn't believe in her eyes that it was true.
"Yes, but that alone is not enough." The witch said, sending a message to Adela with her look.
"Oh, yes! You're right! I forgot, please forgive me. But I didn't bring money, I brought jewelry."
Adela said, upset, and unhooked the bag from her skirt belt and opened it. She took out three jewels from inside. All of them were beautiful and valuable. On the table, Adela laid out in front of the witch three necklaces decorated with precious stones.
"You can keep it all. You made my dream come true, so you deserve them all." Adela said to her.
"Thank you, but I can't accept your offer. Already the value of each of them exceeds the value of the services I offered you. So I will choose one." The witch spoke carefully.
"You can choose whoever you want." Adela agreed.
The witch chose the least valuable of the three of them and returned the other two necklaces to Adela.
Adela was surprised by this witch's move. She could get all three, but she only chose one. And the one with the lowest value.
Respect for this witch's face grew.
"Can we go home now?" Agnes asked almost in a whisper.
"Yes, of course. As I promised you, you will return safe and sound. The only thing you have to do is to follow my advice faithfully."
"We hear you." The two girls were ready to return home.
"Go out. Ride your horses and close your eyes. Count loudly up to three and then open your eyes again."
The two girls did as she told them. They climbed on the horses, closed their eyes, and counted loudly.
"One, two, three." Immediately after, a "chaf" was heard like a spark. They opened their eyes and, to their great surprise, realized that they were outside the forest, at the beginning of the meadow.
The two girls looked at each other and smiled. Indeed, they had returned safe and sound. All they had to do was cross the meadow, and they would be home.
They motivated their horses to run free, crossing the meadow. Their laughter spread throughout the field. Before reaching the stable, Adela climbed down from her horse and gave the reins to Agnes.
Agnes understood the reason. It wasn't a need to ask anything.
"I will be waiting for you a little further," Adela told her, and Agnes nodded.
Adela got away from the stable, waiting for Agnes to come.
She squeezed the bag with its valuable contents in her handful, and when Agnes met her, they both ran up to Adela's chamber.
"You see, Agnes?" Adela told her excitedly. "Everything went well for us!"
"Yes. Thank God!"
"Oh! Agnes, I'm so happy!" Adela excitedly took the bottle out of the bag. She lifted it and inspected it. The little bottle shone brightly in the sunlight.
"In that bottle contained my happiness Agnes! A drop of it. Then a look of his and he will become mine forever."
And suddenly, with an instinctive movement, she turned her head to the door and saw it was opened. She got agitated.
"We forgot the door open, Agnes. Close it quickly before anyone hears us. "
Agnes went quickly and closed the door. Only two steps away, stuck to the wall, was Francesca. A big smile was spread on her face…
****
Francesca was upstairs cleaning when her eyes caught the girls riding on their horses outside the window. She watched them leave the horses and run home.
She noticed Adela's movement tightening with longing in her handful of something hanging on her belt, and it was easy to realize that it was something valuable and decided that she to find out what it was.
She walked to the stairs intending to go down and spy on Adela when she heard them running upstairs. Francesca managed to get behind a heavy velvet curtain on time and not be seen by the two girls.
Adela and Agnes passed the curtain unsuspectingly and entered the chamber. Francesca could hear their every move with her ears outstretched, and she was thrilled when she realized that the door had been forgotten opened.
She came out of her hiding place, and with silent steps, approached the open door. She peeked inside and saw Adela holding up the bottle shining in the sunlight. She had heard everything from the girls' conversation. When she heard Adela telling Agnes to go and close the door, she preferred to glue on the wall rather than risk hearing his footsteps moving away.
The door closed, and now she was safe to leave from there, thanking the luck that allowed her to see and hear everything that had happened before.
Inside the chamber, the two girls continued their conversation.
"Did you think well, Adela, of what you want to do?" Agnes watched her putting the bottle back in the bag with excessive affection after first taking the jewelry out of it and leaving it on the bed.
"What do you mean?" Adela asked, puzzled, hanging the bag again on the belt of her skirt.
"When you achieve your goal you will have to leave your family and this house. They will never accept Stefan as your husband." Agnes answered, taking the necklaces from the bed and keeping them back in their box.
"Oh! Agnes, you have told me this before. That's enough. I have decided. If it is necessary I will leave with him. I'm ready to do anything for him. I love him Agnes. More than my life." She looked at Agnes with sullen eyes and trembling lips. Agnes opened her arms, and Adela nestled inside them.
"I want you to be sure of what you are going to do," Agnes told her tenderly.
"I am. This is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with."
"Very well then. If you want that I will support you. And of course I will follow you."
Adela smiled happily. She was not intended to ask Agnes something like this. "Thank you, Agnes. I'm so lucky to have you. I owe you so much ".
"No, Adela. I owe you. My life. But I don't do this because I feel obligated to you, but because I love you so much! Like my big sister I once had and I broke up so violently. From her and my whole family."
"Oh! My dear, what did you go through?" Adela told her and hugged her tighter. "I love you too. Very much."
"Every day I thank God that you were there. At the market…."
"Don't think about it anymore. It is all gone now."
"Gone but not forgotten."
"I know, but these memories it only causes you pain. Let's go for a walk in the garden, sit in the kiosk."
Adela walked out of Agnes's arms and gently pulled her to the door. She opened it to come out, and then a wave of shouts hit them in the face.
"I REMEMBER IT CLEARLY. I TOLD YOU I WANTED TO KEEP THIS SPECIFIC SHIRT AND DON'T GIVE IT TO THE POOR, AND YOU GAVE IT. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHEN I SPEAK TO YOU? HOW STUPID ARE YOU? UNLESS YOU DID IT INTENTIONALLY! "
Adela looked at Agnes, upset.
What was that?!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone