Chapter 10 #3
“Novel abilities are rare,” I said, and it was also a question.
If my own novel ability sent Selene running with me to the hills of Ardens, why had I never heard of Jack, the Coactus witch with the ability to compel? Heidi would have surely let such a piece of gossip slip by now; she wouldn’t have been able to contain her pride in her coven.
“They are meant to be, aren’t they?” Lady Flores agreed.
“I thought so,” I said, as I carefully put the photograph back in the frame within the book and closed it.
Lady Flores reached out for the photobook, and I handed it back to her.
“You want to know why you’re here, Percy,” she stated with the photobook sat on her lap, her hand protectively resting on it.
“Yes,” I replied tersely. What else would someone in my position want to know?
“I understand that you are likely feeling unhappy with your current predicament. I’m told that you are quite fond of the Borealis girl,” she continued, and the way she spoke about Selene offended me.
“She’s not some girl. She’s the Princess, and I’m not simply fond of her; I love her,” I replied, trying and failing not to sound as angry as I was.
Selene was safe. Arvid had confirmed as much now that she was back in Borealis and with her father. I tried to calm myself down.
Lady Flores hummed, “Many are speaking of the Princess’s clear…” she hesitated, “…appreciation of you.”
I didn’t reply. Selene loved me. I knew that. It didn’t matter if this woman, warlord, grandmother, thought so or not.
“Why am I here?” I questioned after a calming breath. I needed to remember my goal was to get back to Selene as soon as possible. The sooner I discovered what Arvid wanted to know, the sooner I would be back with Selene.
“You and Jack are similar, aren’t you?” she asked me.
“I guess,” I answered, we both had novel abilities.
“The two of you share more than the gift of a novel ability,” she told me, “Chloe, my eldest, is Jack’s mother.”
“We’re related,” I said numbly. No relatives apart from my father all my life, and now suddenly I meet two.
“Your cousin,” she continued.
“I got that,” I replied and couldn’t help the way I cringed at my rudeness. Selene wouldn’t approve, even in such a situation. “Sorry, I’m upset,” I apologised.
“I know, dear. And I, too, am sorry for bringing you to me under such circumstances,” she replied softly.
“Then why did you? You could have reached out some other way,” I asked.
If she were able to send a team of soldiers to get me, surely she could have written a letter, Hades, she could have knocked on the doors of Ardens Estate, and Selene would have welcomed her.
“It’s a dangerous time, young Percy. If there had been a safer option, I would have taken it.”
“Why not before now then?” I continued to question.
Why did my own family leave Father and me alone, with no one, for all this time? Didn’t she want to know me then? Or did she only care when she learned of my novel ability?
“It wasn’t time,” she answered.
“Time for what?” my frustration had boiled over into tiredness, or maybe I was simply tired from the fight for Ardens’ Estate that felt fresh like it happened only that morning, not five days earlier, maybe it was from the ache in my chest, the hole that Selene was meant to occupy, or maybe it was the emotional toll of finally being with family and yet feeling utterly alone.
“Damia was a pacifist, and she could see even at her young age that violence would become inevitable. She left the coven to make her own way in the world, unencumbered by her lineage. She wanted you to grow free, and I wanted to honour my daughter's wishes. As much as I’ve wanted to meet you, to bring you into the fold of Flores, to see what of Damia lives on in you, it would have been selfish of me. Damia made her desires known.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. I had never heard anyone who wasn’t my father or one of the women in the village who had known my mother speak about her. It was disorientating. It made me sad in that way that I longed for a mother as a child.
“Why break her wishes now?” I asked, with my voice barely above a whisper, scared it would break and reveal the tears that stung behind my eyes.
“You became the property of Borealis. From the moment we became aware that Selene Borealis had purchased you,” her lip twitched in disgust, “we have been conceiving of ways to rescue you,” she explained.
“I didn’t need rescuing,” I protested.
“The paramilitary groups of the northern Houses had banded together under the banner of True North, and you, my daughter’s daughter, were their top target.
You cannot imagine the depravity and torture that would have befallen you, had they succeeded.
We learned of the imminent danger to your life, and I acted.
I will not apologise for ensuring that the cowardly and corrupt did not achieve their goal.
Yet I am mournful that fate did not see fit to allow us to meet under kinder circumstances. ”
“I was doing fine on my own,” I reiterated.
I didn’t need saving. I wasn’t weak or incapable, like Dylan viewed me.
“Perhaps, but I wasn’t willing to take such a risk. It was only a few months ago that you were kidnapped and held hostage in Vouna,” she argued.
“I didn’t need rescuing then either,” I told her.
A smile slowly grew on her lips, replacing the thin line of frustration that they had been.
“You remind me so much of your mother. You share the same wilfulness,” she told me.
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t know. I never met her. And no one who did know her, no one calling themselves family, ever reached out to us. As far as I’m concerned, you didn’t exist until a few days ago, and even then, you could have been dead for all anyone knew of it,” I countered defiantly.
I wouldn’t be fooled into whatever familial bond Lady Flores thought we shared. Where had she been when my father and I were hungry? It was the support of the village and the coming of my magic that fed us.
She didn’t care about me. Not really. I couldn’t forget that.
I couldn’t allow the warmth of the room, the gentleness of her tone, the way she looked at me, and photographs of my mother to fool me into believing that the dreams I held in childhood of family and a home of more than father and me could be real.
The time for that had passed.
The woman before me claimed to have been aware of me all my life, yet she had never offered any care or support. And there had been times when it was badly needed.
Her only act in my life had been to rip me away from the woman who did care for me, who did support me and who loved me like no other ever could. My soul match. And while she was unaware of the bond I shared with Selene and, therefore, the magnitude of her actions, the result was the same.
Lady Flores sat back in her chair and slightly narrowed her eyes.
“That is fair,” she replied slowly. “I have been a poor grandmother. I haven’t been there for any of the big moments in your life, your name day, first steps, birthdays, or the day your magic first manifested,” she leaned forward again, “But it was not from a lack of wanting to be there. I have longed to meet you, to bring you into the coven,” she told me and it felt sincere.
I took a calming breath.
“What coven? I was told Flores disappeared, disbanded, that they stopped helping the kingdom,” I said, more curious than angry.
The old woman before me was my mother’s mother, my grandmother, my family, and at the very least, I could allow her to explain herself because I deserved answers. I deserved to know why I had been forgotten, along with the rest of the kingdom.
She nodded in understanding.
“Your mother’s magic was unique, too,” she began.
I leaned forward.
“Like mine?” I asked.
She smiled fondly.
“Not quite, well, at the time, I didn’t imagine that it could develop into what you have shown yourself capable of.
Given your own novel ability, it complements your mother's well. Your mother was a dual user,” she replied.
She must have seen the confusion on my face because she continued, “Damia could control both Flores' magic, like me, and Aqua's magic.”
“Her books, her gift, she said it was for aquatic plant life,” I replied, confused.
I had read my mother’s books cover to cover more times than I kept track of; she made no mention of being a dual user.
No one had the magic of multiple covens.
Even if your parents were from a mixed magic background, magic only manifested within the limits of one coven, similar to vampiric capabilities; one parent's characteristics were always dominant.
Lady Flores laughed softly. “Yes, that was how we explained Damia’s abilities, how I hid her.
Dual users of magic were so incredibly rare that I had never known of any witch with such abilities.
We chose a cautious approach; as a family, we kept her abilities secret from the entire witching community, at least until we understood what was happening,” she explained.
“What was happening?” I asked.
“Did you know it is coven law that none of Flores' magic can bear children with any other witching coven?” She asked me.
I shook my head, no, I had never heard of such a law. But coven law was sacred to each coven; it wasn’t for outsiders, and I was an outsider.
“It has been the law of the coven for as long as anyone can tell, and we don’t change laws lightly. You understand? Coven laws are the most highly held; they are there to protect us. They are gifts from our ancestors.”
“And so, you broke the law with Mother,” I stated.
She smiled sadly.
“All children should be born of love, and Damia was so dearly loved, but not all children are conceived from love; some are violent conceptions,” she answered.
There was a pause at her words, and the room seemed to become cold despite the crackling fireplace.
I felt sick in understanding.
“My late husband, the only man with any right to be regarded as your grandfather, was understanding, and he loved Damia as his own. We kept the circumstances of your mother's birth and heritage secret. For her own safety.”
“I,” I hesitated, “I’m sorry,” I said, looking to the fireplace, my anger for the woman in front of me extinguished.
I’d never met anyone who had revealed to me that they had experienced such a violation, and I was unsure how to respond.
I felt grief for this woman, as a woman myself, but I thought it wasn’t my place to express such a feeling; it wasn’t my experience. I could only be sorry.
“It was at the time the worst experience of my life.
It was meant to break me, to humiliate me, to silence me.
Rape is never about desire; it is never the result of what a woman has or has not done.
It is an act of shameful violence committed by those who are so aware of their inferiority that, in their cowardice, they attack in a vain attempt to dominate.
They are already broken, and they carry shame so great that they will never escape it.
“If it wasn’t for Karo, your grandfather, my rapist may have achieved his goal.
But he reminded me, in his strength, that we are Flores, we give and protect life, and Damia may not have been planned; her very existence was against our laws, but she was chosen, she was loved, and ultimately, we are here today because of her. ”
“My grandfather?” I asked.
She smiled softly.
“He passed away,” she answered.
“Oh.” I didn’t know why; I had never even known of him, I had never thought of him, but hearing that he was no longer here, that I would never know him, was upsetting.
She leaned forward and gripped my knee.
“Only truly good men are missed by those who did not know them,” she told me before removing her hand and sitting back in her chair. “We discovered with your mother why Flores has held such an apparently absurd law.”
“Why?” I asked, my attention fully focused on Lady Flores.
“Because we are Flores and our magic is unlike any other. Other magic simply manipulates that which already exists, but Flores, we create, we grow, we make fertile what was once barren. When our magic mixes with that of another coven, there is no fight for dominance, only a merging of gifts and the growth of power,” she explained.
“Why have a law against that?” I asked more curiously.
“The merging of coven powers, young Percy, is already known to us,” she answered.
“Inter-coven magic,” I said in understanding.
“Precisely. Such magic is outlawed throughout the world for very good reason.”
I nodded. Inter-coven magic was too powerful; it created monsters like the Maze of Ardens.
“I could control the maze of Ardens,” I told her.
Lady Flores smiled knowingly.
“I heard, yes,” she replied. “Quite impressive, as were your first showings at Sanguis Academy.”
I couldn’t help how I stiffened at the mention of Sanguis Academy and what had happened, of Selene’s warning that others would want to use my magic for their own gain, for war.
“You worry about my intentions?” she asked. I didn’t reply. “That is very smart of you to be wary. You are more powerful than you realise. But I promise you, daughter of mine, that I wish only to help you control and master this gift and to protect you from those who would try to harm you.”
“You kidnapped me and brought me to a military base. Forgive me for not believing you. I am capable of protecting myself,” I said.
She laughed, a surprisingly deep laugh for her appearance.
“You are Damia’s daughter, and I would expect nothing less than prudent caution.
I encourage you not to take my word as truth, but to explore what we are building here, to learn what we plan for the future of the kingdom and to decide for yourself whether I and the coven are trustworthy.
Everyone here believes in the same cause,” she replied, and I didn’t know whether to be calmed by her words or more distrusting.