Croatian Tales of Long Ago - The Witch

While Darkness reigned in its underground Iron Castle, Črt cruised the earth in search of souls to serve it. But sometimes he needed rest, and sometimes shelter. Sometimes he needed someone to tend to his wounds.
People, and most of them were women, who made a contract with him and pledged to be his servants and his army he endowed with knowledge that was inaccessible to other people. They knew the purpose of every herb on earth. They knew how to heal wounds or inflict them, how to make lovers quarrel or two fall in love, how to cast a curse or undo it.
Črt also promised them that, like him, they would be able to change shapes and that, like his finacée Morana, they would be able to fly through the air. But these people walked the earth by day as by night, they could use their power for good as well as for evil. The Darkness did not like to squander her powers on soldiers who were not completely in her power. She denied them those powers, but the legend of them remained. Like poison it circulated among people whose hearts were desecrated by fear. They pursued Črt's soldiers, completely eradicated them, and then one by one passed on to the underground Iron Castle.