"You don't mind if I take a seat next to you, do you?" her voice was soothing and her speech polite as she asked Penny. Penny shook her head and the woman sat down. Now that she could see her clothes, she realized the woman was a priestess of the church, "Having a bad day?" asked the woman.
"Just another day in the land of Bonelake," Penny replied to the lady whose eyes were light on her without making it look like she was staring at her.
"It is very gloomy weather in here, isn't it?" said the priestess speaking about the weather as the clouds were growling and clashing against each other, "The weather will pass and so will the heaviness that you carry in your chest right now. Things that matter right now will look trivial as you grow old," she had a dainty smile on her face as she said it.
"If you want, you can talk to me. I am a very good listener, better than the confession box," said the woman that made Penny smile. It was very rare anyone came to aid one and if they did it was usually to enjoy the plight of the other, "It's alright if you aren't comfortable speaking about it."
Penny pursed her lips, remembering what had happened in the theater today.
Lately, she had been feeling the emptiness in her chest which she wasn't able to get rid of which arose every time she woke up from her sleep. It was like she was missing something and sinking in a black hole. To make things worse, the villagers had been eyeing her and her mother even more funnily than usual.
"Sometimes it feels too much like there's no way out...things have been hard since the start but when you put a lot of effort, hoping for things to get better to only see it turn worse," Penny looked at the father and the man who was confessing step outside the box, "It makes me wonder if it's worth living the same days over and over, hurting inside..."
The woman stayed quiet for a long time, seconds turning to a minute before she said, "It might hurt now but it will turn better, the pain is what makes you stronger. If you run away from it, it will only chase and burden you further. I understand it is easier spoken than done but every person is given a chance, dear. We all have our times, a sliver of hope and I can hope you can find and grab it when your time comes."
Her green eyes moved up to look at the new paint and the writing on top of the walls, "You got it painted," she murmured looking at the black writing.
The woman turned to look at the wall, nodding her head, "To keep everyone safe from evil."
"Is that what it means?" Penny asked, a part of her knowledge coming forth to what she had learned when she was small to read out the text aloud, "Lliaze, zwe thou ye moth hrye."
The woman's eyes moved slowly to look at the girl. Her eyes looked at Penny with interest. If she could, she would speak but there was a rule to follow, the course of her action which could rebound back instead of pushing it forth where she wanted. Her one wrong step would lead to chaos and loss of lives due to which she would have to let fate run its course while watching from the sidelines.
The priestess then asked, "What is your name?"
"Penelope," the young girl replied to receive another smile from the woman.
"Your days will get better but might get harder in time. I hope you turn to a strong woman, Penelope. If you ever need an ear, you know where to find me," said the woman before she got up and left to meet the father of the church.
Unfortunately, the opportunity for them after a few days Penny met Isaiah for the very first time and when she reached her home, she started to remember a few things about her past and her mother had wiped the memory of her day, which completely erased the part where she had spoken to the priestess in the church.
Though it was sad to think that when they met again Penny didn't recognize the woman as the most she had done was stare at the lady who smiled at her before meeting Father Antonio in the church a month ago, she was still glad to have spoken to the white witch, Lady Isabelle once.
"It was Lady Isabelle whom we met that day in the church," she looked up at Damien to ask, "Were they able to track her?" for what she knew she had been missing from the church and it had caused quite some issue in the council from what she heard from Damien as white witches who were serving the council was not allowed to leave the church without permission.
"Are you sure it was her?" he asked to see Penny nod quickly, "Hmm, strangely even though I have seen her in the portraits I couldn't point her out. Maybe she placed some kind of spell knowing who I was. The council tried to find her, they sent the witch hunters to find her but they found nothing. It was more or less like she didn't exist so the council had to close the case as a missing person."
The woman must have her own reasons to stay low without letting anyone including her own son know that she still existed.Penny still couldn't believe she had met the woman whom she had been admiring for quite some time now. To meet her in such circ.u.mstances in the past where she knew about Penny before anyone, she couldn't tell how much respect she held for Lady Isabelle and right now she was happy.
She hoped where ever Lady Isabelle was, she had found her peace.