Appearance
POV: Alexandra
A man appeared in my mother’s room from a portal and my mom stood up, “Mordred! What are you doing here?” Mordred was a tall man with long grey hair and steely grey colored eyes, he was dressed in a pin striped three-piece black suit. He was carrying a cane but really didn’t need it, I had guessed to myself that he used it for image. He looked over at me and smiled, “Well, your daughter worked to get me here. Quite effectively might I add.” My mother looked over at me, “How did you do that?” I looked over at my uncle and then back at my mother, “I asked His Majesty to lift Mordred’s banishment so that he can come here and assist with an issue with Uncle Talon.” She furrowed her brow, “What issue?” She looked over at my uncle and he sighed, “I am cold but whenever Alexandra touches me, I get warmed up enough that I feel alive again. Unfortunately, she cannot take away the memories that are slowly coming back from my time with The Order.” She looked at the hand that was rested on his shoulder that had been in there since we sat down to have the conversation about my parentage. She looked back over at Mordred who was leaning forward on his cane. She sighed, “And how do you propose that you would be able to help my brother?” He smiled at her, “Vanessa is a gifted magical tool maker. Is she not?” My mother nodded, “Of course, she’s known as a genius magical tool maker. Everyone knows that, I imagine this was known even in the corner of Terre where you lived.” He nodded, “Well I am going to imbue some of my magic into a tool that Talon can wear as a buffer. It will act as sort of like a battery powered tool. The battery being the little rose.”
He looked over at me and smiled, “Now, darling, I need you to bring me to Vanessa’s home.” I rose to my feet and nodded, “I don’t know if she’s conscious yet though.” He shook his head, “She’s awake and feeling rather remorseful for what she said to you. You should expect an apology and rightfully so.” My mother spoke behind me, “Why don’t you just open a portal over?” He chuckled, “Because I really want to talk to the little darling. We’ve telepathically chatted before but it would be so much nicer to have a stroll and a chat. I can technically be considered like a grand uncle or grandfather to her. House Esperanza and House le Fay are very close to each other so we are practically family.” My mother sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, “I understand you want time to talk to her but you do realize that she has to be guarded all the time. You won’t have time to yourselves.” He nodded, “I am well-aware that The Chalshin will have to be with us. You forget my powers.” She got up from her seat and strode over to her wardrobe, “Very well. Can you do me a favor though?” I spoke up for the both of us, “We can absolutely help out, Mom.” She smiled at me and opened the wardrobe and pulled out a dress bag, “Take this to Vanessa. She may need it in the future.” She side eyed her brother and then winked at me. I nodded at her understand what was so important in this bag, “How long have you had it?” She drew in a calm sort of breath, “Long enough. She will be happy that I kept it instead of getting rid of it like she requested.” She really did believe in her heart that her brother was still alive, enough that she wouldn’t get rid of the wedding dress that Vanessa had chose to throw away.
I turned to Mordred, dress in hand, he was staring at the garment bag and smiled at it lovingly. He eyes came up to meet mine, “Shall we?” He led the way down the stairs where we had ran into Derek who looked like he had just come from the kitchen. Lycans males had big appetites in everything but especially in food so he was constantly snacking and it really wasn’t a surprise to see him emerging from that room in particular. He was startled by the man who was standing beside me, “Hi there Lex. Who is the older man with you?” I looked up at Mordred and then made the introductions. Just as soon as I finished, he spoke, “It was perfect timing that we met here young Chalshin, we were going to take a stroll to Vanessa’s cottage. I am told that you must be the little darling’s guard.” Derek smirked and rubbed his neck, “Yeah, it has been my honor and privilege.”
We started to make our way over to Vanessa’s cottage with Derek following closely behind. Mordred spoke, “I was looking more into your curse. We do know now the curse is made up of shadow magic so obviously it came from a god. The problem is we don’t know who at this point. I didn’t want to bring it up in front of your mother. I know you have asked the others not to bring it up to her.” I nodded, “I didn’t want her to fret over it since I was told it wasn’t really a life-threatening type of curse. She needs to focus more on her brother than on me at this point. He’s the one who went through trauma. He needs all the love and understanding to get through the memories that will come back to him.” He nodded, "Very noble, little darling. You need to think of yourself sometimes though too. Think about that once you help him out. Can you promise me?” I put my pinky out and said, “I pinky swear.” He chuckled, “I often forget that you grew up as a human.” He placed his pinky around mine and continued, “I believe I can help to identify what sort of shadow magic it is that is cursing you but I will need time and to gather some materials.” I shrugged, “Like I said it isn’t affecting me that much right now so I’m not really in a hurry to find it out.” He shook his head, “This curse is affecting your ability to connect to the gentlemen in your life in a different sort of way. Your fated one may be amongst them and one should not go against fate.”
As soon has he said that, I thought back to what Saraphia had said about doom. After that reading, she had started to not feel good and had to leave. Thankfully, I was the last to see her that day but I was told by Pretre Jean via letter that she had took a long nap and was bed-ridden. What she had said made a whole lot of sense now that Mordred had spoken these words to me. What I didn’t understand was what exactly had happened to her. We had neared Vanessa’s cottage but Mordred stopped short. I looked back at him, “What’s wrong?” He shook his head, “Huh? Nothing. I was just thinking of the past and what got me expelled from Vellum. I will need to see the King after this. One of my conditions of returning is that I have to do another Blood Ceremony with him. I sent word that I would see him after assisting with Talon.” I walked back to him and looked into his grey eyes, “I imagine that His Majesty was very amenable to that. He has always admired my uncle so he would be happy to accept anything that is helpful to him.” Mordred smiled, “I know that which is why I knew that I could come here right away.” We walked up to the door while Dorothea was walking out and she ran smack into Mordred. She looked up and gasped, “You old fool. What are you doing here?” He laughed, “Good to see you too, Thea.”
Vanessa walked up behind Dorothea, “Who is it, Aunt?” Vanessa looked at me and started to cry, “Alexandra..." I shook my head, "You don’t need to apologize Ness. I am just glad to see you up and about.” She smiled through her tears, “I was just about to walk over to the manor to see if Talon was healed up yet.” I nodded, “Yes but he’s spending a little more time with my mother. They’re having some tea and catching up with each other.” She looked down, “Oh. I had hoped to do some catching up myself but I suppose I should concede that for now.” She looked up at the garment bag in my hands, “What is that?” I handed it to her, “My mother said that you asked her to get rid of it a long time ago but she couldn’t bring herself to do so. She said that you might want it again in the near future.” For the first time since I met her, she blushed and smiled, “Thank you for bringing it. I will have to thank Talia also but who is the man with you?” Dorothea spoke up, “I can answer that, this old fart is Mordred. He’s the oldest known warlock in all of Vellum. That is until he did something, Gods know what, to get him expelled to Terre. I’m not sure what trickery got him back but he’s the brother to Whisperia.” Vanessa smiled at him, “I am grateful for your assistance in locating Whisperia and her assistance in not only healing Talon but myself. I feel like I will forever be in her debt.” He shook his head and smiled at her, “It is nothing. She would never accept anything you would want to give her. All you must do is live your life to it’s fullest. That is likely what she intends as payment. More importantly, I am here to ask your assistance in making a magical tool for the young Talon.”
