It turned more secretive that only some knew that this church held potions and other items that were not placed in the display that could lead to suspicious activity in the eyes of the others which was true. There were some unofficial white witches like Penny who were not informed about the council. A lot of them enjoyed their liberty to walk freely but once caught under the watchful eye of the council, life was never the same. There was always someone watching them, be it the council members or the hunters who were waiting for the white witches to make a mistake so that they could add the death count of the witches in their list. 

After all, white witches were not too far from the corrupted vampires. Maybe far worse due to their deceiving nature after being turned into a black witch. All one had to do was have a taste of the black magic. The power that came from tapping the black magic was hard for one to resist. 

Penny looked down at the parchment of sheets which was regarding the use of white magic.

Penny's reading and writing skills had improved, along with marking where she used the quill that was in front of her. Before coming to the slave establishment, Penny had learned only a few things without being proficient and not able to consider herself to be part of the literate group. The script that was often handed in the theater was the hardest when she had joined as she didn't know how to read it entirely.

But she was smart. Smarter than the rest and someone who enjoyed the theater pa.s.sionately. She heard the lines, murmuring them under her breath when there was a rehearsal. Asking the next man what was written down on the script while picking on some familiar words such that she relied solely on the ability of what she heard. 

She was thankful that Damien had sent her to Lady Maggie, his older sister who was well educated. She had taught her the basics which now turned out to be helpful.

"Did you finish this?" came sister Jera to her, looking at the marking she had done on the parchment. 

"Ah, yes. Don't the council ever barge in here?" Penny turned her head to look at the molten liquid which would be turned to bullets after cooling and placing them in their little containers for storage. 

Sister Jera smiled, "They have done it plenty in the past," hearing this Penny's brows rose up, "No one trusts the witches but we don't trust the vampires and the others. This place is counterfeit."

"Counterfeit?" she asked not understanding what that meant. 

"Let me take that," said the young witch, picking up the flask that was placed next to Penny. It was a black solution which was mixed with black witches' blood. The content was being cultured so that they could use it to turn the black witches' own blood against them. A lot of work which was done by the white witches that was run on the orders of the council but there was more to the work which went down in this church. 

The bullets weren't made just for the witches.

They were also being made for the vampires and other hybrids, only that some of the council members were aware of it. 

Sister Jera herself looked around before saying, "Come with me," Penny followed the young girl on her word. Moving past the white witches who were working with smoke that erupted now and then in some corner of the wide room. 

"You must already be aware of what we do here after a week of being here. This church once wasn't a church but a place that was built on the grounds where people had died. The ma.s.s murder of ma.s.sacre."

"What happened?" she asked the girl. Sister Jera picked up a lantern, handing it over to Penny and picked one up for herself before they started to walk out of the room. There was only a one-way path that led back up to the long and tall hallway with bowls of fire before the staircase connected back up to the front of the church. 

"When the black witches were first taken to be a threat, years ago which goes back to the first generation of the pureblooded vampires, it was decided that the black witches would bring ill omens and they did just that. Killing people recklessly while trying to claim the property but if you look at it, can you blame them?" the voice of Sister Jera came as a small echo as they continued to walk to the hallways, pa.s.sing the tall pillars one after another, "It is sad that they had been driven away to not be allowed to live. The decision was taken firmly when one of the black witches killed a human. Using the body parts to their own use which had humans worrying about their lives while the matter didn't sit well with vampires, they burnt as many black witches in this very place."

Penny wondered about this. The black witches had always been isolated but their actions had fueled the fear in humans. 

"Why build the church here if there was the death of the black witches?" with what she had heard and learned so far, every death contained a source of negative energy.

"I know what you are thinking, Lady Penelope and you are right," Jera answered the questions that were on her mind, "Not many are aware but when it happened, the pureblooded vampires wanted to tap the so-called black magic which was used by the black witches. There were some greedy vampires."

Penny could already guess what must have happened, "They made white witches make use of it..."