by SL Perrine
“Wow, I guess there is a lot I have not learned yet.” We walked for a little while in silence, until I thought I should try to learn a few things about him. “How long ago did you lose your mother?” I take a chance and ask a personal question too.
“Let’s just say, it was a very long time ago. I lost a few women that I cared for very much.”
I don’t know why but he took my hand then and held it the rest of the way to my house. His palm was a little sweaty, but he was very gentile. I looked over at him a few times as he kept his eyes still and straight ahead. Being in such close proximity I could see his breathing was steady, and the blond hair he had on his head was also growing above his lip. His eyes were the same crystal blue that I remembered and I also noticed he smelled of aftershave. As I studied his features the smallest feeling of electricity began buzzing through my hand. Then it felt as if it were falling asleep. He let go, almost too quickly, and I let it fall to my side as I waited for it to go back to normal.
When we reach my house, it looks as though nobody was home.
“My father should be at work for a few more hours.” I motioned for him to follow me inside.
“What about your brother? Any chance he will be around?”
“I don't think so. He’s been acting so differently since we stopped looking for our mother. He’s not real happy about it.”
“I would imagine you’re not happy with it either.”
“I don't really know how feel about it.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I headed to the kitchen to get a drink, “Well, I know I’m angry she was left behind. Other than that I guess just sad that she’s not here.”
“So, I guess you do know how you feel about it.”
I shrug at his words. “Would you like something to drink?”
“No, thank you.”
“Okay, so how about you? Who are the people you’re living with?”
“They are my uncles and my brothers. They too were stuck here when the passages closed.”
“You mean since the magical power outage?”
“I told you, magic does not simply go away. We are born with it. The passages were created by magic to allow us to go between worlds. So magic must have been used to remove, or close them.”
"How could you know that?”
“I know that, because in Pylira it’s a part of our history.” He waves his text, US History, in the air. “We are taught about these things just as you are taught your history.”
“Ok, that makes sense.”
“I have a feeling there is something that does not.”
“Well, yes. I mean, why would anyone need to cross between the worlds. Why did you, or your uncles for that matter?”
“My uncles are the eldest two of our clan, besides my father, they are very powerful sorcerers. The accompanied my brothers here to find me when I went missing. They were sent.”
“Oh, when Xander decapitated you. He had you in that box for a while.”
“Yes, he did.”
“So, why were you here? What is the purpose of crossing between our worlds?”
“I was looking for someone who has been lost to me for a very long time.”
“One of the women you lost?”
“Yes.”
“So, your father sent the four of them here to find you?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he come?”
“He’s not been himself since my mother…“ He trailed off and I could tell he did not want to talk about her. “… He’s not been himself, and is unable to do magic. So he sent them.”
“Do you think they can use magic to open the passages?”
“I don’t know if they can, but they have been trying.” He looked as he answered each question, like something was draining him.
“So if my family has magic, I should be able to use it too. Do you think they can teach me?” I stepped in front of him just then. He held both of my arms at the shoulder.
“No! Promise me you will never go to there.” He shook a little, like he was hit with a bolt of lightning, and just as quickly he let me go. Grabbing me did not hurt as much as his letting go of me. Just as my hand had, my arms now felt as if they had fallen asleep. I had to rub them to rid myself of the feeling.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because, they still believe you and your family are our enemy. They would never be 0K with us being friends.”
“Oh, so were friends now, how presumptuous of you.” I laughed a little.
“I mean they would not be OK with us speaking to each other.” He turned from me and went into the living room. As he walked past the array of books on my father’s shelves, he stopped to look at several pictures of me and my brother from when we were little.
“I don’t understand any of this? My mother started teaching me about our family and then disappeared. I’m new to all of this.”
“So, you do not know about your history," he turned to me, “your mother should have told you who you are. You’ve always been seen as a threat to my clan.”
“Why would I be a threat to anyone?”
He held my face in the palms of his hands. “Because, you are the principessa stregone, and the world you live in is not your own. Your bloodline crossed world's a hundred years ago to escape persecution from my people.” His thumb stroked my jawline and his hand dropped to his sides. There was a spark of intense energy where he had touched, and then it was gone.
“What? Are you telling me my family is from your world?”
Now he was standing in front of the window across the room. “You and your mother are from Pylira. Your father may or may not be, and your brother may be half human and half of maga.”
“Well, wouldn't I be half and half too?”
“No; your mother would have done what she had to, to insure you were born with magia; magic. She would have had to conceive you with one from Pylira.”
“So my father is not my father? I my… does he know?”
“That I do not know. Only your mother or father could answer that. You could just try to ask him.”
“Oh my, this is too much.” I hug myself tight and sit on the couch.
“I’m sorry to tell you this way, but I believe it is time for answers, so we can try to find a way to put things right.”
“No, you’re right, I need to know everything my mother did not have the chance to tell me, I just did not realize by asking questions about your world that I would find out my father isn't my father.” I had to stop and process that thought for a moment. “Or maybe you’re wrong. Maybe I'm half and half too.”
“That could not be possible. The stories have been taught to us since we could walk and talk. In order for your bloodline to continue, your mother, as her ancestors before her, must have children with another from Pylira. He moved around the room as he spoke. “In order for your clan to preserve magia, they would need to conceive with someone of magia. In your family’s case, it would have to be a noble of another clan.”
“Why would it have to be a noble?
“You’re royalty. Principessa is princess.”
The word hit me like a thud to the chest. I couldn’t be royalty. My family lived just like any other middle class family in the burbs. We had a house, a couple of cars, and according to my father, a whole lot of debt.
“I don’t think so.” I laughed it off and headed for the kitchen so I could not hear his next words.
“I’ve been searching for you for a life time.”
-5-
“I can sense them.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means they are getting closer, so we need to move faster.”
Chris finishes folding up her blanket and shoves it into her bag as Tabby starts putting out the camp fire.
“How much longer before we get there?” Tabby gets her bag in a comfortable position on her back.
“Just a few more days I think. We might have to give up on a f
ew more of those sleep hours you like so much.” Chris used the inside of her shirt to clean her glasses.
Tabby moans un-affectionately. Tabby does not fare so well with the little sleep they get now. For her it’s not so much the sleep, but the ability to lay still. She was never so much of an outdoors person. All of the muscles in Tabby’s little legs are screaming, and it’s never ending.
They had been traveling for six months, to find their clan, their families. Tabby had always been in the world alone, save just for Chris. Chris however was close to her family, but now she felt they were lost to her.
When the passage closed, her brother was the only one accounted for. Jamie continues to deny his family heritage, mainly because he knows he has no magic. His father is mortal, Chris’ is not. This their mother shared with them when they were just four and five years old. They had been raised as maga all of their lives. Jamie grew up, went to college, fell in love, and created his own mortal family having two children of his own. Of course they know of their relatives, but he does not concern them when magic is concerned… usually.
When the passage closed Jamie reached out to Chris, to make sure all of the family was accounted for in the world they belonged. The two were the eldest of five children, and the closest in age to each other.
“So, which way are we going today?” Tabby looked through the trees.
“You ask that every day, and every day we head east. That’s where everyone is heading.”
Tabby thought about pointing out it was an attempt at humor, but decided she best not. Since Chris found out her mother and two youngest sisters were trapped beyond the passage, she had less and less of a sense of humor with each passing day. Only when they had found Annabel did Chris’ mood lighten, but that was only for the moment. She had sent Annabel to Jamie, and Tabby and Chris had set out to find the rest of their maga people that were stuck in this world. Chris said they would be congregating together to find an answer to their current dilemma. Unfortunately she had not been able to tell Tabby where they were meeting.
“So off we go.” Tabby straightened her arms and legs and started walking as if her joints refused to bend like a wooden nutcracker. Chris grinned halfheartedly, and followed behind her.
Once they reached the edge of the tree line, Tabby made notice of the actual journey ahead of them.
“Looks like were going south today after all.” She pointed to the downward slope in front of them. Chris let out a long sigh as she looked down in front of them.
“You like irony, don’t you?” She said to Tabby with an elbow jab as she walked past her.
“Ouch. You know I could very well let you do this on your own.”
“Yeah, you could, but you won’t.”
“Really, you know me that well?” With that Tabby lost her footing on a patch of dew covered grass and started to fall, Chris turned in time to stop her from falling to the ground.
“Yes, I do.”
“Well the whole world knows I’m a klutz. That just doesn’t count.” She straightened her shirt and jacket and continued down the embankment.
“It’s too bad we did not think to bring a sled. We could kill two days from this trip.” Chris laughed a little at her own joke.
“Was that a laugh I heard?” Tabby poked at her friend.
“Umm, nope I don’t think so.” She gave a small grin, as Tabby was safely behind her, unable to see it.
“When you said cross country hike, I thought you meant cross country hitch-hike.” Tabby yelled.
“Can’t. What happens if we were to run into a group of them, you going to joke them to death?”
“But we can sense them, and steer clear.”
“Yeah, I just think it’s too risky. I mean without being able to chop off their heads what would we be able to do to them to protect ourselves? Not much. So we stick to the roads less traveled.”
“You mean no roads.”
“Yes.”
“Chris!” Tabby says in a screaming whisper. “Look down there, looks like someone else decided on no roads too.”
They both stopped and crouched down. Below them, about a half a mile away, at the base of the slope was a group of men. It seemed at first that they were harrying on each other, but as they looked on longer they could make out a single small girl.
“You think she’s a…?” Tabby couldn’t think to finish the question.
“I don’t know, but if she’s not, then she’s defenseless. It looks like five against one down there.”
“I think we can beat those odds.”
“Did I not just say that this is what I was afraid of happening? Oh, come on.”
With as much caution as possible, they hurried downward. Sliding here and there, but they managed to stay on their feet.
“Shhh, don’t let them hear us.”
They finally got to about fifty feet away and they could see the girl was trying to work magic, but it did not appear to be working for her. Chris stood, grabbed Tabby’s hand and began a chant.
All at once the boys fall to the ground and erupt in a bought of laughter.
“That wasn’t us.” Tabby states.
“Nope, it definitely was not.”
They look on as the young girl starts smiling. She finally got her magic to work. They continued to look on as the girl collected the bag she was carrying and ran farther downhill out of sight.
The boys, all still laying on the ground, uncontrollably laughing have no idea of their surroundings. Chris and Tabby walk right past the group and head downhill still farther only to see they have about another mile of downhill to go.
“I guess were headed in the right direction then.” Tabby motioned to the downward path. “It looks like she’s headed there too.”
“Yup.” Was all Chris said.
-6-
So much had happened in the last three days. I found out that I’m royalty from some magic line of sorceresses from another world; the man I knew as my father, shared no blood what-so-ever with me; and I lost my mother, but turns out she’s just stuck in the home she was born too.
But how could any of this be? That was the same question I asked my mother when she told me we were huntresses of beasts from a world parallel to our own. She told me that the women of our family were destined to rid both worlds of beasts. That they would be hunting me now that I was of age, and they could sense our bloodline, no matter where we were.
The story she told me, was that centuries ago the beasts were created by an enemy clan to search for us and destroy us.
That this enemy clan was once like us, but turned dark when their ruler and King tricked them into working with dark magic (buio). She said they live in that parallel world with others like us, but terrorized them. She had told me about their world. That it was once a beautiful place, with lush green rolling hills, flowers everywhere and the sky and waters were both blue like ice crystals. Also, that there were fairies whose magic kept the balance of their world, but the Buio King had killed the fairy queen, which killed the land.
She told me that the remaining clans that were Luce, like us, cursed the buio clan and it’s King. He was made to be a beast for all eternity, and in turn he created more beasts to hunt us.
She was never able to finish the story, or she did not want to at the time, but Ty had started to tell the story, with what he knew. He had hoped that together we could figure out a way to open the passage, using both buio and luce magia.
Apparently my family, centuries ago fled Pylira to stay safe, since my family ruled of one of the clans that cursed the Buio King. We were considered a direct threat to him.
The sigil of Luce protects us, it hides our whereabouts. Since the beasts were immortal we could not kill them, however we could bind them. Only someone from a magic line had the strength and power to detach a beast’s body from its head. Once the head was in a box, and the bands were placed and marked with the sigil of luce, then the beast would be stuck inside. In our world the body would be gone, and
the head could regenerate the beast after a few hours, but once the box had been inside the tra monde, the beast would be forever bound to the box.
I did not know until a year ago that these beasts that I had been taught to hunt and destroy were in fact people.
I had never seen the other world, because my job was to hide those boxes in the tra monde, so they would not be found and opened. Once hidden, they would be lost to their clan forever. Or so we thought.
He went on to explain of a prophecy that the leader of the Buio had learned of about one hundred years ago.
One day a Mietitore, buio maga would fall in love with a luce maga, and once their love were consecrated in marriage, the curse would be lifted. However, he did not share this information with the rest of his people, since the end of the curse would be the end of him as well.