Chapter Two #2
Dagan paused before replying, trying to find a way to tell her, without telling too much.
He walked past her, into a small room in the back of the shop.
He sat at the table and waited for her to join him.
“Before I tell you, I need you to understand something, about Sidonie and me. About our relationship.”
“Do you have… you know, the connection?”
“How is it that you know about it, but I didn’t?
” Dagan said, rubbing a hand through his hair.
Had he spent more time with his grandfather as a child, perhaps he would have known.
“The fusion. Yes, we do, but she had no idea about her magic when we first met. This is completely new for her too. I need to tell someone, but I don’t know who to trust.”
“You know you can trust me. After all we have been through…”
She didn’t need to elaborate. After his mother died, Dagan had fled to Elmber, drinking his pain away at the tavern.
His grief had caused a week-long hailstorm to brew above the town.
It was Cassandra’s mother, Elaine, who’d found him and brought him back to his senses.
He’d spent a considerable amount of time with their family over the years that followed.
“I know,” he conceded. “Alright, here goes. Sidonie’s mother was Queen Anassania. Queen Anassa.”
Cassandra didn’t speak for a moment and Dagan understood why.
Anassa was known in the realm but not remembered fondly.
She was an evil sorceress, who lived over one hundred years ago.
She was thought to have died during the Shadow War, having no children.
No other females since Anassa had inherited full magical abilities. She was the last of her kind.
“What?” she asked, her face aghast. “Do you mean to tell me that your girl is the daughter of the most powerful sorceress to ever live? That cannot be true. Anassa didn’t have any children. And if she did have a child, who is what, twenty years old?”
“She’s twenty-three, actually.”
“Right. Then that would mean that Anassa—”
“Didn’t die during the war,” he finished for her.
“Wow. That’s unbelievable. Are you sure?”
They spent most of the day in the back of her shop, talking about Sidonie’s magic, her parents, and the Sabras. Then Dagan took a quick look through her shop, snatching up a few ingredients that he hadn’t been able to find in Junacave.
After he left, Dagan took a stroll through the forest to where his old portal used to be.
It had been many months since he and the others had been kidnapped from that very spot by the Sabras.
The pieces still left of the tree which used to be the entrance to the portal were now covered with leaves and vines.
However, after looking closely, he realized the trunk was still rooted to the ground.
He touched the tree, then summoned magic, hoping to find the portal was still connected to it. At once, the tree began to rise from the ground, the roots pulling up from the dirt. It only reached a few feet before it stopped, just a fraction of the size the tree used to be. Still, it was enough.
Dagan waved his hand over it and the tree expanded, opening the portal.
He had to lean down to fit through, but once he was inside, he sighed in relief.
His home stood in front of him, the same way he’d left it.
He turned and walked back out, then he closed the portal and used his magic to pull it from the tree.
Creating a new portal would take a lot of magic and many ingredients he didn’t have, but carrying one around was simple.
All he had to do was bind it to another object—one made of a natural mineral, such as metal or stone.
So he pulled a small dagger out of his robes and cast the portal into the dagger.
Then he tucked the dagger into his robes and headed back into town, knowing his home was safely tucked away, if he ever needed it.
~*~
“I just cannot believe the nerve of that woman! Kissing him, right in front of me. Acting like I wasn’t even there.
And him! Just standing there and letting it happen.
” Sidonie shook her head, still upset by the entire ordeal.
“I shouldn’t go back. I will stay here, forever. I never want to see him again.”
Adelphie laughed. “As much as I agree with you and would love to have you home, you and I both know you will not be staying. You couldn’t leave him, especially when things are so… sticky… between you.”
Sidonie glared at her sister, unable to believe what she was hearing. “How can you say that? You didn’t want me with him to begin with. Now that he has done something terrible, shouldn’t you be trying to convince me to leave him?”
“Oh, I tried that already, remember? You said I knew nothing about love and stormed off, back to him.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have…”
Sidonie stood and stepped outside her sister’s hut, looking around at what used to be her home. The fire pit in the center was still burning after roasting their supper and several Sabras were sitting around it, telling stories and singing songs. It was something she really missed at times.
Adelphie put her mug down and pulled a fur off her bed. Then she walked over to where her sister was standing and wrapped it around her chilled shoulders. “Sid, I know things seem bad now but they will get better. You’ll see.”
“The way she looked at him, Adelphie… It was like she knew him. Like she knew him better than I did.”
“Well, you haven’t known each other very long yet. Perhaps she does know him better, but I would bet she doesn’t know him in all the ways that you do. Or will in the future.”
Sidonie sighed. “I guess that does make sense.”
“Come back inside and let me pour you some tea. It should be ready.”
“And when did you start drinking tea?” Sid sat down on a stool next to the barrel her sister used as a table. She watched her pour tea from a large soup pot.
“Since I tried it in the castle. I’ve seen these teas before on the merchants’ carts, but I never knew what to do with them.”
“You really should use a kettle, though. It would be easier.”
“I would but I don’t have one,” Adelphie said, frowning.
“I could bring you one. I can buy one in Vale, when we get there.”
Adelphie raised her eyebrows at her sister and took a seat across from her. “So does that mean you plan to return, then?”
“Ugh. I don’t know. I can’t believe this happened. Everything was so amazing between us until today and I had never been so happy. I just…” She wasn’t sure how to put her disappointment into words.
“Realized that you are living in reality and not a daydream? Sid, you obviously love this man, a lot. Or else this woman wouldn’t have bothered you so much.”
Sidonie rolled her eyes to the side at Adelphie’s remark, but she knew it was the truth.
If Dagan wasn’t so important to her, a quick kiss from another woman wouldn’t bother her this much.
“How could I possibly go back and face him after what happened? I should just pretend like I don’t love him.
Maybe if I pretend long enough, it will come true. ”
Adelphie reached over and took her little sister’s hands in hers. “Even if you did that, it wouldn’t make a difference. Someone once told me that when you love someone, you want to shout it from the treetops. It just shows. You can’t hide it.”
“But…”
“Now Sidonie,” Adelphie returned, her voice hard.
“You know better than to cower before another woman, especially one like her. You are a huntress, a Sabra. Don’t forget that.
You have killed and skinned more animals than this woman has probably ever eaten, and you have climbed the side of mountains with your bare hands. Don’t forget who you are.”
Sidonie bit her lip. “Actually, there was something I wanted to tell you. Something that has a great deal to do with who I am. With who I’ve become…”
“You mean your magic?”
Sid could feel her mouth drop open in surprise. “You mean you know? You already knew?”
“Yes, I know, but I didn’t figure it out until I came to Junacave for the second time. When I saw you the first time, I could tell something was different, but I didn’t know what it was. When you returned from rescuing Cicilly, I knew. You inherited the gifts. The gifts from our mother.”
“Are you telling me that you knew about this all along?” Sidonie stood up, irritation spreading through her. “About our mother and her magic? And you lied to me?”
“Not exactly. I knew that there was a chance you might have magic. Mother told me to keep you safe and to continue raising you like she had raised me, to fear magic and destroy it before it could destroy us. I never believed her when she said that one of us might inherit her magic. I didn’t believe her, Sid. Or maybe I chose not to.”
“And now what?” Sid countered. “You didn’t think it was important to tell me when you realized it really happened? Dagan asked me who my parents were and I could only tell him our mother’s name—nothing else—because I know nothing else. You knew something more, all this time, and never told me.”
“I’m sorry, Sid.”
Sidonie pulled her fur off her shoulders and threw it across the room. “I can’t believe this. First Dagan, now you. Is there anyone in my life who doesn’t keep things from me?”
“I didn’t want to keep it from you,” Adelphie argued.
“I started to tell you, many times, but you didn’t show signs of having magic, so it never seemed necessary to tell you about it.
I don’t know what happened to make your magic suddenly appear.
I really don’t. But I didn’t tell you about it to protect you. ”
“Protect me?” Sid rolled her eyes. She was tired of everyone thinking she needed to be protected. It wasn’t a reason for dishonesty. How could she trust anyone in her life if everyone kept secrets from her?
“That’s why we live like this, Sid. Secluded from everyone and everything with magic. Mother said that if one of us had magic and someone found out, they would kill us or use it against us.”