Akiro Hideake watched from the shadows of the trees, in his invisible form and frozen still to where he stood. He would stay as transparent as glass and would not risk moving one foot unless necessary. Even the magpies on the branches above could be spies. It was Syrika, home to the ruthless, cunning and vengeful Saiki clan. Before him, through the charcoal leaves of the black willow trees, at the edge of the bank, was the most powerful, the most maleficent and the most feared Saiki sorceress anyone had heard of for centuries.

He had only seen her once before and then it had taken months to find out what she looked like. However, the Dagdan magicians also had their spies. She was often surrounded by others and wore hooded cloaks, but Hideake knew this woman was Elmterra. There was no one else with the same deeply set, large, cold, blue-grey eyes and heavy, dark eyelids. She was tall and slender, with sloping shoulders and a round, pale, moon-like face. Her face held no expression – her nose and mouth were two straight lines. Like most of the Saiki witches, she wore a full length, grey cloak but this time, had removed the hood from her face. Her long, black, wiry hair fell down her back.

Elmterra was not alone. She was flanked by two other witches, who each stood close to her shoulder, but a little further back. She spoke to the two hooded witches with her, with a satisfied smile on her face. Hideake knew it was the first time in almost a week that they had found water. He and the other Elkari magicians had worked for so hard for so long for this. It could not go wrong now. They had finally managed to evaporate almost every source of water in Syrika. The pond was the only known one left.

It was usually against his Dagdan principles to poison their enemy. Dagda taught them to face their foes full on. Exceptions had to be made, as Hideake could see no other way. Elmterra had to be stopped soon or she could end up taking over the whole of northerrn Moraik. Ashari had already suffered badly – she'd had the forests burnt down and her armies had ransacked any village they found, whether Angran or Dagdan. Parts of Hideake's own region, Annaki, were also being taken over. The death of their leader should cause confusion and disruption to the Saiki, if nothing else.

The two companions of Elmterra both kneeled down at the edge of the water. They would drink first. Suddenly – what was that? A child was clinging to Elmterra's back! A little girl, barely older than two, was wrapped around in a shawl which was secured around Elmterra's middle. Hideake was sure it must be Elmterra's child, because why would such an influential witch carry someone else's child? He felt foolish for not realising that she could easily be a mother. She probably had several children, which he did not know about. Heirs to the Saiki clan.

It was not worth worrying about for the moment. He had to concentrate on what was happening. The two witches scooped up water in their hands and drank. The water had been poisoned only a few minutes before. Hideake held his breath. The poison should not have any effect for a while yet. The two witches finished drinking and straightened up. Elmterra untied the shawl from around her waist and one of the other witches lifted the child from her back onto the floor. Luckily the other witches were showing no signs of being poisoned yet. Now Elmterra kneeled down and scooped water from the pond. She had a long drink. Her last drink.

What if the poison had no effect? Hideake's heart missed a beat. What if it only affected the other witches and not Elmterra? She would know it was poisoned and make sure she found out who was guilty. Soon enough, his anxieties vanished. Elmterra's companions began to cough, gasp for air and splutter and then they staggered to the ground where they fell dead.

Elmterra whirled around, her large eyes flashing. She stared at the two dead witches. It was too late, she had already drank the water. She seemed paralysed for a while, as if she did not know what had hit her. Then, she sat down, next to the bodies, and spoke. They were the first words Hideake had heard her say. In a clear, hard voice she said, “Let my descendants again rise, and my enemies be defied.” Elmterra began to choke and she fell to the ground. Her last words were left ringing in the air.

Then he heard a small quiet cry. It was the child. She sat among the three dead bodies and whined pitifully. Hideake thought of Elmterra's curse. The girl would be brought up to be like her mother, to be an Angran and to be selfish and deceitful. The curse would make sure she was as powerful as her mother, if not more. Of course, when she grew up, the girl would want revenge. She would make it her goal to hunt down the Dagdan of Moraik. He had to kill her too.

But she was only a child. She was not much more than a baby and was probably only beginning to learn to talk. To kill an innocent child would be going against the teachings of Dagda. What if she was brought up as a Dagdan? Elmterra meant that her descendants would become as powerful as herself. The girl could turn out to be incredibly useful to their side. It would be foolish to leave her and wrong to kill her. The only option seemed to be to take her with him.

Hideake needed to get out of Syrika as quickly as possible, before the Saiki came to find Elmterra. He didn't want to attract any attention to himself or the child. He became visible again and used his powers to talk to the girl through his mind.

“It's okay,” he said reassuringly. “Just come with me and you'll be fine.” He walked over to the child and picked her up. Surprisingly, she didn't make a fuss and allowed herself to be carried by him.

---

When Hideake was back at Elkari Hollow, he went straight for the hospital.

"Esme!" Dr Hideake called to a woman, who was handing out medicine to some nurses. "Could you please take care of this child for me?" And he lifted the girl down on the floor.

The Matron looked at him in surprise. "Why, is she unwell?"

"No. She is...an orphan. From one of the burnt-out villages in Ashari. I will come back for her as soon as I can." He said hastily and left the room before she had a chance to ask any more questions.

Down the corridor, he met the senior professor of chemistry, Dr. Mala Anke Nielli. She had been involved in making the poison that was used to kill Elmterra. “You're back!” she exclaimed, before he was halfway towards her. “Did it work?”

“Yes,” he said, with a little smile. “She's gone.”

Dr. Anke Nielli's eyes lit up. “I can't believe it. We did it!” she cried. “After all this time, too...”

With the help of Dr Anke Nielli, Hideake gathered all the senior doctors and professors of the college into his office and told them what had happened. Their reactions were similar to Dr. Anke Nielli's. They were ecstatic that the plan had worked and stunned that the witch was actually dead. However, Hideake took care to not mention Elmterra's curse and her living daughter. It wasn't likely that they would understand and they would almost certainly want the child removed from the college.

Hideake warned the magicians to stay low over the next few months. The Saiki witches would quickly realise that Elmterra was dead and want revenge . He had a suspicion that the witches knew of their Dagdan community, but had no idea where they were located.

Elkari Hollow was the largest of the few Dagdan sites in Moraik and probably the best hidden. It lay in a valley within the Havior Hills, surrounded by a thick forest and camouflaged. Charms protected it from strangers entering, but there were few, difficult routes to get in anyway. The majority of the building lay underground and parts of were built into the surrounding hills. The full name of the building was 'Elkari Hollow Apothecary and College of Magical Science'. From all over Moraik, scholars came to learn about Dagdan magic and potential magicians came to be apprenticed. Dr Hideake was in charge of it all.

The doctor kept his promise and went to find Esme Marth, the Matron, straight after his meeting. He found her in the hospital attending to a sick student, but there was no sign of the child. It scared him for a moment.

"Well I couldn't take her in here with all these ill people, so I left her with one of the maids in my office." the Matron told him, "She's an unusually quiet child, you know. I know she's lost her parents, but they often whine and cry for a good while.”

Esme Marth's words worried Hideake. He had no experience of Angran children and didn't know how different they were from Dagdan children. The Angran were against showing emotion. It was something they saw as a weakness. There was still hope though, as the girl was not much more than a toddler.

It suddenly dawned on him that he had adopted her. He had to adopt her, really. Giving the daughter of Elmterra to an unsuspecting Dagdan couple would be a heavy weight on his concious. At least if she stayed with him, he would be able to keep an eye on her and try to bring her up as a good person. Anyway, he liked children, but had always been too busy to start his own family.

When Hideake went in, the girl was sitting on a floor with a wooden toy eagle. She wasn't playing with it, only holding it. However, she slowly lifted her solemn grey eyes up at Hideake and fixed them on him.

"What is your name, dear?" he asked. She didn't answer him, but carried on looking up at him warily.

“It's okay, you can tell me. What is your name?”

“Em...Emkron.” she said finally.

"Emkron? That is not a nice name.” Hideake said. “If you're going to be living with us then you should have a Dagdan name."

"Angra."

Hideake sighed in dismay. "I think you need lessons with Kyril Auber. He'll teach you about Dagda." he said. "I think I shall call you Taika. That is a good name."