Bab 42: Prison!
Visha was wearing a Suppression Stone today, and she couldn't do any magic because of that. The last time this happened was when she was practicing at home. There must be something there too.
Dhira sped the car towards Visha's house. She didn't know what she would find there or if she would find anything at all, but she couldn't just sit idly waiting for a clue to fall in her lap. Before leaving, she had told Visha to keep practicing and that she had an errand to run. In just a couple hours, Payal would return home, so she had limited time. She used a lot of force as she stepped on the brake. The car stopped with a loud screeching sound and she jumped out. She rushed right through the small yard and tried to open the door. It was locked. Dhira chanted a spell and pointed at the knob. Nothing happened!
Her eyes grew wide as she tried again but nothing. She looked around and saw another red Suppression Stone on the door bell. It was entirely covered in dust but she still managed to recognize it. From the looks of it, it had been there for a good few years.
Dhira turned and started to look around. Just like she had suspected, there were Suppression Stones everywhere, hidden in plain sight. Some were even embedded in the wall as decorations! The whole house was surrounded in it. Even if she managed to take one out there were dozen others to stop her magic. She had no way to get inside. It was strictly a no magic zone. Her phone rang and distracted her thoughts. She picked it up and answered with barely paying it any attention.
"Hello"
"Hm" Dhira sounded distracted but she recognized Shivam's voice.
"I just came back after delivering the warning to Davar, the guy who wanted to form a crime syndicate using other witches. There were a dozen other witches with him and all have been eliminated except him..." Shivam continued to explain how they broke in and killed the other witches working for Davar and how they had him surrounded by Hellfire. Dhira was still distracted and just gave a few "Hm"s as her answer. She was not interested in any of that.
"And we need to talk since it's urgent."
"Not now. I'm at Visha's house and there is something I need to do." This was her first reply that consisted more than one word.
"Great, my thing is about her too. I'll be there in a few minutes."
After that he hung up and Dhira frowned. She was in the middle of some important work and he needs to talk about a small time gangster. And what relation could there be between that and Visha? But she might need help to get inside the house so she couldn't have denied anyway. After patiently waiting for a few minutes, she heard a car stop outside. Shivam entered the house and saw Dhira come out from the back.
"Help me pick the lock." she instructed and pointed to the front door. Shivam looked at her in confusion before he chanted a spell to unlock the door but nothing happened.
"If you were really smarter than me then you would have been the heir." she taunted. "Do it manually."
Shivam frowned at that and started to pick the lock. He can never get used to her sarcastic comments, no matter how long it's been. With a small click the door opened and Dhira immediately went in. She tried to find more stones in the house, or some other clues.
There was a beautiful scent inside as if someone had lit an incense. They followed the scent and found a shrine. A photoframe sit atop it with the picture of a handsome young man. He looked to be in his early twenties. Dhira immediately clicked a picture and started to look again. She did find few more stones but these were randomly placed. Four were embedded in walls like outside, one on the ceiling fan of the upper floor, one sewed in a carpet. She couldn't understand the significance of these and went upstairs to Visha's bedroom to see if there were any. She looked around and saw a hole in her dressing table. It was the same size as the stone in the pendant! The stone in the pendant was here before.
Dhira pondered for a while to think of some reason or explanation but nothing. She came outside to her balcony and stared blankly at the sky.
One of the stones in the wall of the yard below, reflected the sun in her eyes and she looked away and couldn't help but follow the trail they formed around the house. Something struck in her mind as she quickly looked out from the other rooms' windows. The trail surrounded the entire house in a square leaving no gaps. She then ran downstairs to check the other stones. These were not randomly placed, this was a formation. Each and every stone outside concentrated their powers on the ones inside. Inner stones collected the power from all six directions- east, west, north, south, above and below. Then amplified the power of the stones and combined it in one single stone, the largest one on the top of Visha's dressing table!
Visha was not being suppressed by just the stone around her neck. She was being suppressed by all of these stones. These stones have been connected for so many years, and now the Middle stone could channel all these stones' power, regardless of where it was. This was an ancient formation created by witch elders more than thousand years ago, which was used to chain and imprison demons and vicious beasts! But it seemed to have been modified to provide mobility to the person in the middle. Why would Payal create an Imperial Prison formation around her own daughter? This came as a shock to Dhira while she staggered and supported herself by a wall. Her knees felt weak as she came downstairs to find Shivam. He was leisurely sitting on the couch waiting for Dhira to finish her 'investigation'. He was taken aback by Dhira's pale face as she stumbled on the last steps and he immediately rushed to help her. Dhira seemed to be shook to her very core. Shivam helped her sit on a chair and silently waited for her to calm down. Dhira looked up at him and pushed the words out.
"This is not a house. It's a prison!"
***
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone