35 - Iona #3
We could alter Mother’s face, her skin, to maintain the appearance of youth, but the tissue beneath would still age as any other’s, the decay only preventable for so long, until the body dies.
Casting a necromantic spell on Mother’s body would have reanimated her, but not in a lasting way.
She would have come back changed, infirm, and the pendant would have been lost to another.
When the time came that the pendant’s magic began to fade, marking the end of Mother’s reign, we knew we’d run out of time. We scoured the earth for any recourse, any spell, potion, or incantation that could keep my mother alive. In the end, we found one, singular solution.
By conjuring a vessel, we could transfer our mother’s soul to a younger body so she might live on. The pendant is tied to the soul and so our theory was that it would not be lost in the process, though we couldn’t be sure until we attempted it. And so, that night, on the eve of your birth-“
Ariadne jerks with sudden revelatory shock, and my heart sinks.
“-our coven performed a ritual to craft the vessel. It was… 1782, I believe, within this crater on the day of the spring equinox. We incanted for hours, starting in the early morning, used all the plentiful magic at our disposal, and still nearly lost our lives before the night was through. I hope to never again endure that dreadful emptiness. The strain it took… it was agony. Then, that vermin-” Xiomara pauses a moment to reign in her disgust. “Arachne did what we had all been led to believe was impossible. She more than intervened. In that we could have possibly tried again another day, searched for a different avenue, but no. At the stroke of midnight, when the equinox waned, Arachne deviated our spell, corrupted its true purpose, so that instead of the vessel we’d intended, we were left with you.
A baby with its own soul, its own thread of life, and altogether useless to us and our cause. ”
Hot tears pool in Ariadne’s sightless eyes, and I am left speechless. Ksenia had been right after all.
“At once, our plans were foiled. The spell took such a devastating toll on Mother and, whether it was due to Arachne’s further interference or not, the pendant’s magic faded in earnest. She had mere years left and, with her power greatly enervated, there was no hope of her attempting the spell again.
Without her, we could not craft a vessel perfect enough.
Mother couldn’t very well inhabit your body, forced to live as a baby, and then a child for years on end, and unable to bear the pendant.
Even so, we did all we could to fix you.
Zephyra even tried brewing a growth potion to accelerate your age, but it was not to be.
None have mastered that sort of complicated transformation yet, and it likely would not have been permanent either.
Zephyra’s potions only sickened you and left us to nurse you back to health.
All our efforts were in vain. We had no other option but to wait, but Mother has always been patient, as am I.
Mother passed on, as Arachne and Morgan intended, and the pendant went to Lysander College to await the next bearer. It was our undertaking, as our mother’s true daughters, to raise you to achieve only one goal, taking back the pendant for your family.”
I realize then that if Katrin had unwittingly bore Ariadne through the ritual, using the pendant’s magic, then she was not Cintia’s daughter at all, but her sister. I’m not given much time to process the new development before Xiomara continues with her tale.
“I could not take you in. Not with Moira and Marina to look after. They wouldn’t have let you live long enough to use you,” Xiomara says, with a sickeningly adoring chuckle.
“Zephyra had Sebastian, who would have done far worse, I assure you. We had very much to teach them and couldn’t have you in our way, with the constant threat of you learning the truth too soon.
Cintia never wanted children, which made her the only one able to raise you away from us and the rest of society until you came of age. She taught you magic, kept you in line, ingrained in you the importance of our sovereignty, so that when the time came, you would do your duty.
It had been our plan anyhow, if the vessel had been a success, to pretend Cintia had a daughter without anyone’s knowledge. I’d say she was the one most frustrated by all this, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Cintia detests waiting… but I saw it as an opportunity.
Initially, we’d intended to raise you as a prodigy, preparing you for the trials, ensuring your power was undeniable, orchestrating occasional, brief appearances in society while under our watchful eye, so that when Mother claimed your body, she could live as you and no one would suspect a thing.
However, after Mother’s many years of waiting, she’s become increasingly uninterested in that plan and unsatisfied by assimilation… That time has passed, it seems.
While our elevated status has empowered us to gain complete control over the world’s magic, feasting on it, growing ever stronger, still we are forced to hide. No longer does Mother wish to live in the shadows. No longer will she suffer this world to obstruct us.
Anyhow, all was going according to plan until your encounter with the Nicolo girl,” Xiomara says, and Ariadne cringes.
“Even Marina did not foresee it, but we suspect the girl’s parents placed protective charms over her before sending her off to kill you.
They knew nothing of the hex we’d placed on you. ”
Ariadne goes rigid.
“A powerful defensive hex that could only be awakened if you came to the brink of death at the hand of an enemy. We could not simply allow you to roam about freely without one,” Xiomara says.
“It’s a shame the girl’s parents sent her to commit their crime for them, but these are the consequences.
You only thought the illusions were of your own making, and we never deemed it necessary to contradict your assumption. ”
Oh Ari… I know not what to say, cannot fathom how anyone could be so cruel as to torture a child, only to blame another child for it. Ariadne doesn’t respond, made speechless by her devastating shock.
“Then that damned blood bond nullified our hex… Yet another annoyance,” Xiomara sighs. “We never dreamed that you would subject yourself to that sort of magic in only a year, that you could find someone you would willingly surrender yourself to so entirely.”
Ariadne recalls her mother’s rage when she’d told her of the bond in the greenhouse.
Then she remembers her small fights with me, overwhelming relief filling her that the hex hadn’t seen fit to attack me unnecessarily.
Possibly because Ariadne had wanted to fight, had almost enjoyed it, and I was never any real threat to her.
If only Elise had dueled her earlier, rather than implementing indirect, cowardly attacks. Then perhaps the hex could have defeated her without Ariadne needing to lift a finger.
The hex impeded Elise’s blood magic, I realize. She would have choked you using me if it hadn’t-
“Again, Arachne interfered.” Xiomara huffs in annoyance.
“I’d always assumed she would simply orchestrate the pendant’s bequeathal to another witch as swiftly as possible, in which case we would have been forced to kill the young pendant bearers as many times as was necessary to ensure it was available when you were of age to attempt the trials.
Instead, Arachne tied you to that common scum, distracted you from your Goddess-given role, shedding away years of careful grooming in mere months.
Even a visit from Mother wasn’t enough to set you to rights.
Cintia had no luck, either. I am admittedly impressed by Iona’s influence.
I wouldn’t have thought it possible if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
Yet again, we were left to make sense of this new obstacle, to find some way of salvaging our plans. At first, our objective was clear. Iona must die so you’d be given another chance to claim the pendant.”
Ariadne jerks despite the spell of paralysis weighing down her limbs. Xiomara’s speech pauses nearly imperceptibly, then she continues as if she’d not noticed.
“Inadvertently, due to your confession at dinner, we learned of an alternate option.
If you could still bear the pendant, then all was not yet lost. We simply needed to determine a way to convince you to take it back or convince Iona to relinquish it.
We cared not how it would be accomplished, only that it was done, once and for all.
We took on different approaches. It was almost like a game to see who could destroy one or both of you the most, tear down your confidence, turn you against each other.
” Xiomara chuckles. “Zephyra still preferred the notion of killing Iona so you might take the pendant from her corpse, but you are far too protective of her, as I predicted. Marina suggested we inundate Iona with the worst of our magic, compelling you to doubt your giving the pendant away. You see, we couldn’t harm you too terribly or risk marring Mother’s vessel, Moira’s lapse of judgement in Japan aside, so Iona took the brunt of everything, the poor dear. ”
Ariadne’s thoughts are suddenly deafening, a flurry of rage-filled admonishments, berating herself for her damned foolish pride in considering herself so much better, stronger than me, when I’d simply had it worse in comparison, an entire coven’s power working in tandem to crush me, discourage me, humiliate me.
“Cintia has grown to know you the best, and sure enough her methods proved the most effective. She killed Euphemia-”
Again, Ariadne jerks, trying with all her might to break free of the spell, but it’s no use.