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  The rituals and powers of a sorceress remained hidden from Talia, who was never given reason by either of her parents to believe that she was anything other than an ordinary girl, nothing more than human. But sorceress were not human, so Caitlin had one constant message for Talia: “Be careful who you trust and also who you give your love to.” Talia may not have known she was a sorceress, but Caitlin feared that the greedy humans would learn of Talia’s aberration and try to manipulate her for it.

  CHAPTER VII

  Mother and Father, you were my family and Joshua was my sun. He was my world. You gave me love but Joshua taught me how to love.

  Talia

  TALIA’S KNIGHT - JOSHUA

  A year later, when they welcomed a delightful baby boy into their family, little Talia was quick to christen him Joshua, and with Michael not having the heart to disappoint his daughter, the name stuck.

  As an older sibling, Talia could have resented the interloper on her parents’ affections, but she displayed no signs of any ill will towards her brother. On the contrary, from the moment she set her eyes on Joshua, she loved him with all her heart. She was forever by Caitlin’s side assisting her in caring for the baby and cooing him to sleep.

  Joshua proved himself to be a playful but good-natured boy. He was always chasing after something, and when the inevitable happened and he hurt himself, it was always his sister he would run to. Every time Joshua stepped into the garden, Talia would be ready and waiting to tend to his scrapes and bruises.

  Talia would tell Joshua stories of knights, their brave steeds, and terrible monstrous dragons. Joshua would then take his little wooden spear and attempt to impale a mighty dragon, which was actually a fluffy pillow. When the scattered feathers caused Caitlin much dismay, Talia and Joshua would have no choice but to hide to escape her wrath. Talia took to calling Joshua her ‘knight’ even though she was the one always rescuing him. His little face would glow with pride and he would manfully puff his chest and cast a plump arm around her as though in protection. Where Talia went, on tubby little legs Joshua would follow. Seeing how inseparable the two of them were, Caitlin often lovingly referred to Joshua as Talia’s shadow.

  Joshua and Talia had a little game between them. As soon as he saw his sister, the little boy would start spinning. Round and round he would go and the only way to make him stop was for Talia to hug him. This was Joshua’s favourite game, which he insisted on playing only with Talia and no other. A typical conversation between brother and sister went like this:

  “What are you doing, Joshua?” Talia would say, trying to feign exasperation.

  “I am busy; can’t you see?” he would reply.

  “Busy how? You don’t seem to be doing much,” she would say in turn.

  “I am going around the world on my dragon. The whole world. Woohoo! Woohoo!” he would say.

  The little boy would whirl and swivel, not stopping until his sister enveloped him in a great big hug.

  Caitlin felt extremely protective of Joshua, for he was not a half blood like Talia. The male children of the Heichi sorceresses were devoid of magical ability. They were fully mortal, and to them, enchantments and spells were akin to poison. In a way, they were even more fragile than humans because not only did they not have any powers, but even good magic was damaging to them.

  The overwhelming rush of maternal instincts for her human child overpowered Caitlin with guilt. It wasn’t right to differentiate between her two children. Was she being tougher on Talia because the child was supernatural like her? Did she have unreasonable expectations from her daughter? Her guilt made her suppress her show of affection for Joshua. She did not want her daughter to feel ignored, so Caitlin forced herself to keep her son at arms’ length, never hugging or cuddling him. But Joshua didn’t notice Caitlin’s carefully cultivated reserve because he adored his sister. She was perfect and she was his. She made him feel safe.

  Despite these hiccups in her life, Caitlin was proud of her little family. Michael still travelled, but things were different now. His life was teeming with joy and he no longer had any unhappy memories to run away from. He would return to home and hearth as quickly as time and travel permitted. Whenever Michael visited Jaesdan, he brought back news of their little friends, who were not so little any more.

  CHAPTER VIII

  “Listen and listen well, Caitlin. A warning to you we bring. Hear our voices and not your heart, for nothing but disaster it will bring. A man will come into your life when you expect not, and things will never be the same. For the sake of the child born of this union, you will your family betray. Be warned and be wise and from him stay away.”

  This was the prophecy of the Wraith, which ruined your life and ours too, Mother. You found solace in Father’s love for a while, but when your past came back to haunt you, instead of standing tall and cohesive, you broke away from us. No longer a unit, we splintered apart until there was nothing left to be broken.

  Talia

  THE PROPHECY IS SET INTO MOTION - CAITLIN’S CHOICE

  One fine autumn morning, Caitlin awoke in cold sweat. An ominous feeling besieged her. She hoped that it was temporary and would pass in the brightness of the day. But even as she watched the leaves fall from the trees, the words of the Wraith came back to haunt her. This time she could not shut them out.

  Caitlin looked at her innocent children. She was blessed. The two of them asked for nothing as long as they had each other. But her past was no longer a threat far beyond the horizon. It was a dark cloud hovering over them. If anything happened to them, she would never be able to forgive herself.

  Obsessed by the prophecy, Caitlin began to fret. Michael knew that something was troubling her but she refused to confide in him. What would she tell him? What would he do? She never should have followed her heart. Love had made her weak and unable to make the sacrifice of walking away from Michael, but now. Now it was time to put her family’s welfare before her own selfish needs.

  Caitlin finally saw a way out of her torment. She was born a guardian and it was now time to don that mantle again. She had to protect her little family. She and the cursed child must be separated from each other. If they were not together, the prophecy could not come to pass.

  But how does a mother choose? Choosing between her children seemed implausible and unthinkable, but for the sake of her family, she had to do it. She had to know which child lived under the shadow of the curse.

  In little Joshua, who was so innocent and without guile, Caitlin saw Michael and the peace and calm he brought to her life. In Talia, she saw an image of herself, the strength, the promise of power, and unfortunately, the pain it could bring. Talia was the half blood; the prophecy predicting Caitlin would betray the Heichi on account of her child had to be related to Talia.

  The blood of the Heichi flowed in Talia’s veins, which meant she must be strong. Caitlin had seen glimpses of her daughter’s power often enough, even if Talia didn’t know her own strength. Joshua, on the other hand, was mortal. He needed his mother’s magic.

  After dwelling on her decision and changing her mind a thousand times, Caitlin hastily bundled up Joshua one night and fled. She left no note, no message. Separating herself from Talia to protect them all, Caitlin’s intentions were noble. She knew there could be no long drawn goodbyes else her courage would fail her.

  The next morning, Talia and Michael awoke to a world without Caitlin and Joshua. It was as if they had never existed. Any reminder of them had been ruthlessly destroyed or hidden by Caitlin. With her cowardice, Caitlin thus set into motion that which she had fought tooth and nail to avoid. She broke Michael’s heart, inadvertently setting the prophecy in motion.

  ****

  Talia and Michael took this blow differently. Michael was stoic for a few days, thinking that Caitlin wouldn’t be able to stay away. He had always believed that their love would overcome Caitlin’s fears, but he hadn’t accounted for a mother’s anxiety for her children or a wife’s love for her husband.
Caitlin genuinely believed that she was protecting them all by running away. As time went by with no sign of Caitlin or Joshua, Michael got frantic when he realized they were not coming back.

  Talia’s reaction had been more realistic. She ventured as far as she could without worrying Michael, making enquires to strangers: “Has anyone seen a woman and a small boy?” Sheer waiting would have driven her mad. But when all her efforts turned up nothing, she realized no one had taken them forcibly. Her mother just did not intend to be found.

  Talia convinced herself that her mother and Joshua would return in their own time, but she needed something to hold on to, a talisman to believe in a happily ever after. She turned the house upside down until she found one last toy of Joshua’s that had escaped Caitlin’s harsh spring-cleaning. It was a clay horse. Clutching the little horse in her hands, Talia locked herself in her room, weeping buckets for days and nights until she had no more tears to shed.

  When Talia finally emerged, she was no longer a child but the woman of the house. She had a father to care for and a household to manage. The innocent child of just a few days earlier was gone forever.

  CHAPTER IX

  Wasn’t being king of Aberevon enough for Damien? Why did he want the world? Why did he need my family to fulfil his greedy dreams? The first crack in our family appeared when my mother disappeared with Joshua. My father and I would have eventually found her, but King Damien made sure that what was broken could never be joined.

  Talia

  DESTINED TO BE KING - DAMIEN

  King Damien had a sneaky feeling that the people of Aberevon were compelled to curtsy and bow to him due to the presence of his guards and their sharp spears. He was their lord and master; they owed him their fealty. If they couldn’t give him their love, at least he had their fear. It was not long since he had usurped the throne after killing his adoptive father. That man had taught him one valuable lesson: There was no discipline without misery and dashed hopes. Lack of fear was a perfect scenario for rebellion. A suppressed person always falls in line; Damien’s own childhood experiences taught him that.

  From the day the sorceress Ava put him in her arms, the queen of Aberevon loved Damien as her own. His father, on the other hand, could never accept a child not of his flesh and blood. He detested Damien on sight. “We have to christen you, it seems,” the king of Aberevon announced, looking at him.

  “What do you mean?” Damien asked respectfully.

  “Give you a name, you fool,” the king explained irritably.

  “What for?” he said. “I already have a name. It is Damien. I shall be known by this name and no other.” The king looked at the little boy with grudging respect. Maybe he was not as spineless as he believed. It was going to be even more fun to break him.

  Damien sensed the king’s dark thoughts but he was not afraid. Looking at his new father, he realized that humans were as dangerous as supernaturals. No matter. His ‘father’ was a minor inconvenience who could be crushed like an insect at the right time, just like the giants had almost crushed him.

  Damien was only six years old when the sorceress Ava travelled with him through the mantle of time and taken him to Aberevon. He was always a fragile child, so this free falling through time further impacted his health. To the king, he was a black mark on their ancestral legacy of warriors. The king was always impatiently waiting for the day his ‘son’ would give in to his frequent bouts of illness.

  It was Damien’s ill fate that the benevolent and caring queen passed away just two years after taking him in, leaving eight-year-old Damien as the ward of the brutish and vicious king. Her presence may have brought out the goodness in him, it may have saved him, but without her, the darkness within Damien would only grow stronger.

  Before his courtiers, the king was an attentive father, instructing Damien in matters of the state and even letting him participate at court. When they were alone, the king was a different man, one who spared no opportunity to humiliate Damien. He taunted him about his past, his puny build, anything and everything he saw as a weakness.

  Damien never said a word. He’d allowed the king’s harsh words to wash over him to help him focus better on the future. The king would also thrash the boy at the slightest provocation while being careful not to mark him in any way. Damien stoically took the torture, thinking of it as the price he had to pay to become king. He hated his father for the way he tortured him. He hated his mother for dying on him. He hated Ava for forsaking him. One day, he would get his vengeance.

  As if in rebellion, Damien survived, growing to be tall and slender with long dark hair that fell below his shoulders. He was extremely pale but for his eyes, which blazed with such intelligence. The antithesis of Damien in looks, the king’s hate towards his adoptive son grew in leaps and bounds every day. The king had a dark, fierce face with glittering eyes that were quick to reflect his anger. He wore his muscled, scarred chest and broken bones with the pride of a seasoned warrior. He couldn’t understand or accept Damien’s flawless and graceful features or his slender limbs. He was a hearty man, well built with massive shoulders and beefy arms, and in his eyes, Damien was still a puny, good-for-nothing child.

  The king wasn’t discreet in his search for a worthy heir among nephews and far-flung cousins. Damien may have been weak, but he was not stupid. He knew that an heir would turn up sooner or later, an encroacher to his throne. Which fool would walk away from so rich a bounty and a prosperous kingdom as Aberevon handed over to them on a platter?

  Damien decided it was time to retire his father before it was too late. It was time to get his revenge.

  As predicted, the king’s cruelty only fanned the spark of evil within Damien into a full-blown flame. As Damien grew older, viciousness and savagery became second nature to him. He didn’t see things as black, white or grey, only the way he wanted. What Damien needed, Damien had to get, no matter the price others had to pay for it. He had learned from the best.

  The king’s unabashed smugness made him oblivious to the feral glint and the growing menace lurking in Damien’s eyes, otherwise he would have been more wary of him. Habitually accustomed to baiting and ill-treating Damien, he didn’t realize that the boy was now strong enough to fight him and smart enough to plot against him.

  Ava had wanted Damien to experience love, power, and happiness in human measures, but he had seen too much of the supernatural and the might it could wield over mankind. He wanted revenge. He coveted forever and he craved immortality. He wanted the throne.

  The king would not have been impressed to know that his hated son had successfully followed in his steps and had, in fact, overtaken him in machinations and intrigue. It definitely wouldn’t have thrilled the king to realise that he would be the very first victim of Damien’s active foray into violence. It was a handy tumble down the palace stairs, a result of Damien’s well-placed foot, that put an end to the king’s hunt for a successor and to his life.

  For the embittered and jaded people of Aberevon, things didn’t change much because one cruel king had replaced another. They didn’t really care how the old king had died. They didn’t know that Damien’s penchant for violence would make their old king seem positively benign.

  The king’s death cleared the way for Damien to take his place. Damien had taken his own destiny in his hands. He was taking no chances. No one would stand in his way, even if that someone were his own father.

  Damien saw himself as strong and powerful, but although he had a mind capable of the craftiest and calculating plots, intrigues and machinations, his body could never quite keep up.

  Ava had tried to use magic to wipe his memory, but the truth was that Damien’s brain had always been wired differently. Ava had failed in expunging all traces of the Purge, his family, and even their flight through the curvature of space.

  Physicians from around the world had tried to restore his health since childhood at the behest of the queen, his adoptive mother, but failed to find either a cause or a remedy fo
r the ailments and the feeling of malaise that constantly plagued him.

  Damien knew that if he had to take his rightful place in the world, the little matter of his own fragile constitution had to be taken care of. Nothing could stand in his way.

  Every time the imprint of the soulful hazel eyes of Ava impinged on his memory, Damien silently cursed her for the state of his health and his uncertain future. Damien’s faded memory of the time he once belonged to reinforced his suspicion that his flaky and frail health was the result of magic. He feared he would not find the answers he sought amongst the healers. The vestiges of his past memories convinced him that only Ava or her sisters could give him eternal life and the health he craved.

  Damien remembered what Ava had unwittingly told him. There were others like her. Perhaps they could cure him and make him just like them. Damien knew that he had to find Ava, or at least one of her sisters, thus becoming very dangerous to the guardian sorceresses on Earth, including Caitlin.

  CHAPTER X

  Whom were you hiding from, Mother? Was it your own fears, or the sense of the inevitable? Watch out; they are coming for you and Joshua.

  Talia

  THE HUNT FOR A SORCERESS - GARCIA AND THE HISTORIAN LUIGI

  Damien never saw Ava again after she left him at Aberevon. She didn’t visit him once. All that talk about caring for him had been utter rubbish and a waste of words. Even though she had told him he would never return, he felt she should have done so anyway. She was an immortal, which meant she still lived somewhere on Earth, so he would find her. If not her, another of her kind, the sisters she spoke of with so much love. Yes, he was going to find himself his very own sorceress.