“Honey, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re making as much sense as a rooster trying to lay an egg.”
“The birthmark, it’s the mark of Merlin.”
Allyson shot Harris a curious look before asking, “The mark of Merlin who?”
Harris stared into Allyson’s eyes while saying, “It’s the mark of the wizard Merlin.”
Allyson busted out laughing before saying, “You had me going there.” When Harris shot her an annoyed look, Allyson stopped laughing and continued with, “Oh, you’re serious.”
“I am,” Harris insisted. “Tanya, my cousins and I are descendants of Merlin. And of course there are more descendants out there… somewhere.”
“You do know that Merlin is only a mythical character, don’t you?”
“A shadowing-truth spell was cast several hundred years ago that turned truth into rumors, and then over the years those rumors became myth and legends.”
“Honey, I think the stress of you losing your sister is getting to you.”
“Merlin existed. He’s the reason why twins are common in my family.”
“Okay, we’re back to the rooster that’s trying to lay the egg.”
“Merlin was a very powerful wizard,” Harris began. “He had power over the Earth, Air, Fire, Water and all of the beasts of the land. Any of his descendants would be as equally powerful as he and he feared the worst. So he cast a spell on himself. Each time he would father children his powers would split.
“His direct sons and daughters were always born as triplets, and each triplet born would carry his mark for identification. One would have the power over the Earth and Air. Merlin would know which triplet it was because the freckle nearest the moon-shaped birthmark would be the darkest one. Another would have the power over the Fire and Water; the darker freckle was the one on the right… to our right I mean. The last triplet would have the power over the beasts; the darker freckle would be above the other two.
“That was where he had meant for the separation of his powers to end, but it didn’t. It kept splitting. Every three generations twins were born and each twin would receive half of his or her parent’s powers. The moon-shaped birthmark had also changed from its original full moon appearance. It gradually moved through all of the waning moon phases. It appeared as a waning gibbous moon, a third quarter moon and a waning crescent moon until it had faded completely… and it had. When my great-grandmother gave birth to my grandmother and her twin sister, the mark of Merlin was gone.”
Allyson looked towards the birthmark while saying, “So going off of what you had said… and assuming that you haven’t completely lost your mind, your ancestors had power over the beasts.”
“Not the beasts,” Harris said as he turned towards his niece’s birthmark.
“Well, the darker freckle is above the other two and according to what you had said, it’s the power over the beasts,” Allyson retorted.
“Wait! That’s not right,” Harris insisted. “I was told that our line had the power over the Fire and Water.”
“Perhaps you were told wrong,” Allyson suggested as Harris turned towards the door as if he had heard someone coming. Allyson followed Harris’s momentary stare as she continued to say, “Or perhaps one of your relatives was pulling your leg. You wouldn’t be the first one to have been taken in by an urban legend.”
“The stories of my ancestors are real,” Harris again insisted as Ellen and Jane were reaching the door. “They were well documented.”
“What were well documented?” Ellen asked as she and Jane entered.
Harris stared confusingly at Ellen and slightly hesitated to say, “History of my ancestry.” He then went to give Ellen a hug. “It’s good to see you, Ellen. Of course I would’ve liked it to have been under better circumstances.”
“Likewise,” Ellen said as she hugged Harris. As the hug was ending, Ellen continued to say, “And the history of my ancestry isn’t documented, but when I was visiting my dad in prison four years ago he decided to share some stories with me. The stupid idiot actually thought it would make us closer, but his stories just confirmed what Mike had been telling me all along; about how I should fear for my safety around him…” Ellen shook her head in disgust. “He should’ve kept his stupid mouth shut. Because before that, I thought that my brother was just making things up about him.”
“You were never around him, right?” Allyson asked as she went to give Ellen a hug.
During the hug, Ellen said, “He went to prison a few months before I was even born—thank God.” Ellen and Allyson then broke the hug. “If my dad would’ve helped raise me I probably would be all messed up.”
Harris amusingly grinned before jokingly asking, “You mean, you’re not messed up?”
Ellen amusingly grinned before saying, “You think I’m messed up now, just imagine me two or three times worse.”
“Now there’s a terrifying thought,” Harris jokingly retorted.
When Ellen shot him a smirk, Allyson said, “Ellen, you don’t have to answer if it’s too personal for you. But what did your father do to get sent to prison for thirteen years?”
Ellen took a breath before answering with, “My dad and my dad’s dad had kidnapped Mike, my other three brothers and my sister, and during the act of running from the law, everyone except for my dad and Mike was accidentally killed. So he was charged with five counts of kidnapping and five counts of involuntary manslaughter. He would’ve gotten more time in prison, but he turned state’s evidence against someone that the FBI had really wanted in prison. Anyway, this is Jane, my neighbor. Jane, meet Harris and Allyson.”
“Nice to meet you, Jane,” Harris and Allyson said.
“Nice to meet you two,” Jane said. “Ellen told me about you two.”
“Good things I hope,” Harris jokingly said.
“They were,” Jane said with a grin. “She thinks quite a lot about you two.”
“Before I start blushing, can we change the subject, please?” Ellen prompted.
“I don’t think I had ever seen you blush before,” Harris said. “That’s a sight I might even pay to see.”
“Don’t get out your money just yet,” Ellen said. “I don’t blush easy.”
Harris amusingly grinned, and without saying the pun that was clearly on his mind, he said, “Anyway, we do need to shift the subject to our niece. She needs a name.”
“I was thinking Paige,” Ellen said, which brought a grin across Allyson’s face.
Harris mulled it over for a brief moment before responding with, “Paige is a fine name… it’s even the name of Allyson’s mother. But is there any reason that you’re suggesting the name Paige?”
Ellen glanced at Allyson before saying, “She’s a page from my grandpa’s life.”
“How so?” Harris questioned.
“She has my grandpa’s birthmark,” Ellen said. Harris stared at Ellen as if she was a ghost. “Wh-what? Did I say something wrong?”
“Your grandpa had the moon-stars birthmark?!” Harris demanded to know.
“Yeah, it’s a trait within my dad’s side of the family that gets passed down from parent to child; however, it didn’t get passed down to my dad or his twin brother.”
“The birthmark reappeared because Tanya and Mike both had the recessive gene for it,” Allyson suggested.
When a disquieting expression came across Harris’s face, Ellen asked, “What’s going on?”
“Ellen, what do you know about the moon-stars birthmark?” Harris prompted.
“It’s cool looking,” Ellen said as she looked towards her niece.
“Yes, there’s that,” Harris agreed. Ellen turned back towards Harris. “But have you ever heard the phrase ‘the mark of Merlin’ or ‘the Merlin’s mark’?”
Ellen slowly shook her head before asking, “Is that a book?”
“The name of the birthmark that our niece has is actually called ‘the mark of Merlin’ and it originated in England more than a millenniu
m ago.”
“How do you know this?” Ellen quickly asked.
“My ancestors had carried the mark of Merlin as well,” Harris said.
“Would that make you and Ellen blood relatives?” Jane asked Harris.
“Our common ancestor is too far in the distant past for us to be considered blood relatives,” Harris assured Jane.
“How can you be so sure?” Ellen asked.
“Look at the darkest freckle to our niece’s birthmark,” Harris prompted.
“Okay, what about it?”
“The darkest freckle remains constant from parent to child and in my family’s line the one clockwise to it was the darkest,” Harris explained.
“Okay, well, why is the birthmark called the mark of Merlin?” Ellen asked.
Harris shot a worried glance at Jane before saying, “I hope you and Jane are open-minded.”
Ellen and Jane gave Harris baffled looks as Ellen said, “I believe I have an open mind.”
“Okay, here’s what I know,” Harris said before turning towards Allyson. “Oh and I will be making long distant calls— possibly many of them—to London to find out what I don’t know.”
Allyson amusingly grinned before saying, “Perhaps your parents can tell us more about it once they get here.”
“Maybe, but I think it would be my grandmother who would know more about it. Anyway, here’s what I know.” Harris then restated what he had told Allyson for Ellen and Jane to hear.
Ellen’s eyes grew wide, and once Harris was done she asked, “So our niece is a wizard?”
“Well, for a girl I think the proper term is a sorceress, but yeah,” Harris confirmed.
“And my family’s line has… had anyway, the power over the beasts?”
Harris nodded while saying, “Correct.”
“Is that why birds, rabbits, mice and squirrels don’t seem to be afraid of me, and why every stray dog around my house comes to me all willy-nilly while wagging its tail every time I’m in sight of one?”
Harris gave Ellen a curious look before saying, “In my understanding, you have to recite a one-time incantation to activate your power over the beasts, and I thought that the ability would be forever lost once the birthmark had vanished from the family’s line.”
“I have actually seen a sparrow land on Ellen’s head one day,” Jane began. “So perhaps the animals not fearing Ellen is a residual trait.”
“I’m definitely going to be calling my grandmother about this,” Harris announced.
“In the meantime, this baby girl still needs a name,” Allyson pointed out.
“Yes,” Harris quickly agreed.
“What was your great-grandmother’s name?” Ellen asked. “The one who had carried the mark of Merlin?”
“Sonya Rosemary Clifton,” Harris replied.
“Then I propose that we name our niece Sonya Paige… Anderson,” Ellen suggested.
Harris grinned before saying, “That sounds like an excellent name.”
“It does,” Allyson agreed.
Ellen grinned just before a thought had occurred to her. “Wait! If Sonya is a sorceress then would she be a good sorceress or an evil one?”
“And there lies the root of my worry,” Harris said.
Everyone shot Harris a curious look as Ellen asked, “What do you mean?”
“From Merlin’s time to modern times—in the Fire and Water line alone—there have been good sorcerer-slash-sorceress, bad ones, angels and even the devil incarnate.”
“So in other words, spin the wheel and the choices are angel, devil and everywhere in between,” Ellen replied.
“Exactly,” Harris confirmed.
“Great!” Ellen sarcastically uttered.
“What was your grandfather like?” Jane asked.
Ellen shrugged before saying, “From the stories I’ve been told he definitely wasn’t an angel, but he wasn’t the ‘go out of your way to hurt someone’ type either. So I’ll guess that he was near the center of the two extremes. Of course that could’ve been different though if he would’ve known that he was a wizard. And speaking of being a wizard… or even a sorceress, once Sonya is old enough, will she be able to perform magic or—if it really exists—witchcraft?”
“Witches and warlocks do exist,” Harris began. “And Sonya would still have to learn the incantation to any spell as any other witch or warlock would, but by her being a sorceress, her magic-casting ability will be greatly better than theirs. In fact, many witches and warlocks are actually the children, the grandchildren and so on of a wizard or a sorceress.”
“So if I wanted to study witchcraft, how powerful could I become?” Ellen asked curiously.
“Way to go, Harris,” Harris scolded himself. Everyone shot him a curious look. “Putting dangerous ideas in a teenager’s head.”
“Learning the truth just makes me wonder,” Ellen retorted. “And since the idea is there, how powerful can I become?”
Harris slightly sighed before saying, “As a witch, you would be two… perhaps even three times more powerful than anyone not descended from Merlin…”
“Cool!” Ellen interrupted with.
Harris gestured for her to wait as he continued with, “However—depending on if the moon-shaped birthmark is a full moon, a waning gibbous, a third-quarter moon or a waning crescent moon—your power would be respectively anywhere between one-sixteenth as powerful to half as powerful as the people who carry the mark of Merlin.”
“Well, it’s still cool that I could be more powerful than the average person,” Ellen thought aloud.
“Yeah, well, if you want to learn witchcraft, let me introduce you to my cousin Sadie,” Harris insisted.
“I met Sadie at Mike and Tanya’s wedding,” Ellen reminded him. “She was Tanya’s bridesmaid.”
“Okay, then let me reintroduce you two,” Harris corrected.
Ellen gave Harris a curious look while asking, “Why?”
“She’s a practicing witch and she’s a safety nut,” Harris said.
Ellen grinned before saying, “I guess learning witchcraft under Sadie wouldn’t hurt… so to speak.”
Before anything else was said, a nurse stepped in and told them, “Sorry to interrupt you folks, but I need to check on the kids.”
“It’s fine,” Allyson assured her. “Don’t let us keep you from doing your job.”
“So have you folks decided on a name?” the nurse asked as she moved towards one of the cribs.
“We have,” Ellen and Allyson said. Allyson grinned while gesturing for Ellen to continue.
Ellen grinned as she continued with, “Her name is Sonya Paige Anderson.”
“Pretty,” the nurse said.
“Thanks,” Ellen said.
“We should get out of your way,” Harris told the nurse.
“What do you mean get out of the way?” Ellen quickly demanded to know.
“I want to go to your house and use your phone and computer,” Harris said.
“I’m staying here, but I’ll give you my house key,” Ellen said as she went to pull out the key from her pocket.
When Harris shot Ellen a curious look, Jane said, “She doesn’t want Sonya out of her sight.”
Harris gave an understanding nod before saying, “Ellen, Sonya isn’t going to disappear from life if you’re not around her.”
“I know that,” Ellen quickly said. “I just want to visit, and if the nurse will let me, I want to feed her when the time comes.”
Before the nurse could respond, Allyson strongly suggested, “Ellen, Sonya’s weak right now, and until she’s stronger we should let the hospital staff feed her.”
“And in the meantime, you don’t need to be underfoot,” Jane added.
“So we will all go back to your place, so I can use your phone and computer, yes?” Harris requested.
Ellen slightly huffed before saying, “Yes.”
“Before you folks go, you should make Sonya’s name official by filling out the paperwor
k,” the nurse suggested.
“Right,” Harris said before looking at Ellen. “Let’s go fill out the paperwork.”
“Fine,” Ellen said before she followed Harris out of the room. Jane followed Ellen while Allyson followed Jane.
Chapter Two
As soon as Ellen, Harris, Allyson and Jane stepped into Ellen’s house Harris called his grandmother in London.
Harris had used the speakerphone feature so the others could also hear. Once all the greetings were over and Harris had told Laura—his grandmother—about Sonya, Laura said, “I had told your mother that I had a strong feeling that Tanya’s daughter will be born with the mark of Merlin… and I was right.”
“Why would you think that since the mark was gone?” Harris asked as he glanced at Allyson. Allyson just responded with a polite grin.
“Two reasons actually, and the first reason is that it’s yours and Tanya’s generation to parent twins, and Tanya wasn’t carrying twins.”
“But the mark was gone,” Harris insisted.
“The mark might’ve faded from sight, but it needed another generation of twins being born before it could die out completely. The three generations from when the birthmark first fades to when the next set of twins is born is known as the Phoenix stage. As long as both parents are in the Phoenix stage the mark of Merlin will return within their children. The mark of Merlin will also become more prominent in their children if both parents carry the mark. Even if one parent is in the Phoenix stage and the other carries the mark, the child will still have a more prominent mark than the parent who carries the mark.”
“I did not know all that,” Harris replied. “When there are multiple lines involve, is it random or is there a rule of which line the child will have power over?”
“There is a rule actually. The stronger line will always give strength to the weaker line, so the child will always be born with a more definable birthmark of the weaker line; however, if the child has grandparents of all three lines then the child’s mark will be of the strongest line of the three lines.”
Legacy Page 3