Penny had barely caught any sleep at the thought of what the next exam would be like. With the little amount of sleep, she was woken up by Caitlin who knew that Penny was taking part in the council exam. When she sat up on the bed, she noticed how Damien had left the mansion on council duties.
Reaching the same domed building, she was yet to get down where Caitlin and the butler had accompanied her to hear Caitlin say,
"Be careful once the exam starts and trust no one," the red-headed woman looked worried at the thought that Penny was taking the exam. An exam that was not meant for witches.
Penny squeezed Caitlin's hand, "I will be. Don't worry about me," and with that, she stepped out of the carriage which had been pulled over at the corner of the road.
Caitlin looked at Penny who walked with everything she needed that was hidden in her dress. No matter how much one was careful, it was never enough. She didn't know much about the exam but she did know that the council was never fair. It played dirty tricks to trap the evil at the expense of the innocent lives. She had heard of how Penny had only started to learn magic and wasn't expert in it. She could only hope her niece would be alright by the end of the exam.
When Penny reached the dome, she noticed how everyone was gathered outside as they waited for the council members to speak.
"Did they say anything?" Penny asked Jera after spotting her.
The young white witch shook her head, "Nothing as of now. I think they are waiting for the right time," Penny noticed how one of the councilmen kept glancing at his pocket watch.
"You didn't sleep well," Penny commented looking at the dark circles that had formed around Jera's eyes.
Jera leaned closed to Penny and said, "There was this little mosquito that was singing in my ears, and then I had this very strange dream. I think they are going to speak now," she said looking at the councilman flip the pocket watch and put it in his pocket. At the same time, carriages appeared from the other end of the road one after another. There were eleven carriages.
"Everyone step into the carriage in the number of four," announced one of the men from the council. Penny and Sister Jera stepped into the same carriage. When everyone had settled inside they were taken to a place they had no clue about. It felt like a short ride as everyone had started to anticipate what the second exam would be. When the carriages finally came to a halt, Penny leaned over towards the window to see trees.
When all of them stepped down, the councilmen came forward, looking at all the candidates, he said, "This is where your second exam will be held," it was a forest and they were surrounded by nothing but trees, "For the next twenty-four hours, you will be spending your time here. A case was reported here from this forest. It is said that there have been some dead bodies that were found here. Your task is to find them."
Penny frowned after hearing this immediately. Wasn't this the exam which the other girl named Vivian had taken part in? If she wasn't wrong the task was the same except for the settings. The reason why Penny knew it was because she had been curious to know the kind of practical exams that had taken place all these years.
She wasn't sure about history repeating itself but she was sure the practical exam was being repeated.
Why though? Damien said the exams never repeated, was this some kind of rare thing that was happening right now?
On saying there were dead bodies in the forest, the people around her started to mutter and murmur on why they had to go search dead bodies when the council could do the job themselves.
The councilman didn't bother to clear the air on why they were making them hunt the dead bodies.
"Find it and come back here in the next twenty-four hours. Your time starts NOW!" and the man turned around to leave the forest in the carriage. The rest of them had scattered across the forest in search of the dead bodies while Penny stood still without moving an inch.
Helen who was passing by her commented, "Looks like someone is scared at the mention of dead bodies."
Penny didn't bother to entertain the younger girl as she walked away with the two men following her. She was still figuring out if there were dead bodies in the forest already or if there were going to be dead bodies before the twenty-four hours of time. She had come here to find black witches and it wasn't hard to do it.
All she had to do was blow the powder on every person's face and the one who sneezed would be a witch.
If there were pure black witches then they would be able to find out that the white witches had taken part in this exam but the witches were modified and operated to take the features of vampires and with that came the loss of identification.
"Lady Penelope, what is your plan when it comes to finding out who are the black witches?" asked Sister Jera who had stuck on to Penny for assistance. Penny, Jera, and some other white witches weren't here to pass the exam but they were here to catch the black witches.
Seeing people disperse, Penny pulled Jera along with her to walk through the thicket of the forest to say, "We need to observe them first. Attacking without reason will end up in making enemies here and we need to survive these twenty-four hours."
"What if we find the dead bodies first and hang them as bait?"Jera asked the lady who was leading the way.
"Then there's a possibility of us ending up dead. The black witches here succeed in the task. We are here to find the black witches. Do you know where we are?" Penny questioned the girl.
"I don't know, milady. They dropped us in the middle of nowhere but judging by the speed and time we traveled and where the dome is located, I would tell it's somewhere towards the North and East of the map."