Suppression
I sat in the carriage next to the Grand Pretre while she held my hand. I got the feeling that she was very much adoring of me and this wasn’t normal behavior judging by the look on Pretre Jean’s face. He was not allowed to look at her but he kept his eyes on her hands and how she kept stroking the back of my hand. I wondered if this would be same if I were to take off my bracelet and walk straight through the portal. She spoke, “No it would not be the same. I simply adore you because you are the future of the church. If you were to walk through Vellum with your Aphrodite ability in full force, you would be in grave danger. Please keep the magical item the Protector has made you on at all times in Vellum.” The Protector? She called Vanessa the Protector; I wonder why. She said, “I call her that because her fate is one of Protector. She will be a great asset for you when you go to university. Turn to her and us if you need anything. We will be your guide since your parents will not be there to help you.” I wondered what that meant. “Nothing will happen to them; they just have their hands full here with the government of this place. I have never been to Terre by the way. I can hear the souls of the humans especially the ones in the place you call Everly. Please stay away from that town until you depart for Vellum. They have no good intentions for you my dear.” I nodded thinking that they never had and she said, “Quite.” Our carriage pulled up to the place where the ceremony took place. It looked so much less ominous during the day. I followed Pretre Jean out of the carriage so we could help Grand Pretre down. She adjusted her robes and dusted herself off then turned to me cupping my cheek with her hand, “Alexandra, take care of yourself and we will see you this fall. I will summon you once you’re settle in. We can have tea and talk about your impressions of Vellum.” I nodded and escorted her to the stairs. As she climbed up each stair lit up with a white glow and Pretre Jean did not dare step on the steps until they turned back to stone. She pulled her locket out and placed it in the doorway just as Pretre Jean did after my ceremony. She walked through but Pretre Jean stood back until the portal closed. He looked down at me, “No one can take the portal the Grand Pretre does, her portal leads directly to her chamber and no one is allowed in there. Please take care of your Alexandra, remember I am always available should you need me. Just come to the church and ask for me. Understand?” I nodded comforted in the knowledge this old dude would not be stalking me as I had initially thought. He placed his locket in the spot and disappeared through the portal.
I turned around and heard the portal open again. I wonder if they forgot something. I turned to see Vanessa emerging from the portal, shock on her face as she saw me at the bottom of the stairs peering up at her. She smiled, “Oh my darling girl! Just who I was coming to see, did you have a premonition that I would be here.” I shook my head, “I wish I had that ability. No, I was just seeing the Pretre Jean and Grand Pretre off.” She reached the bottom of the stairs as I had finished that sentence. Her eyes widened, “Excuse me what?! THE Grand Pretre was here visiting you?” I nodded, “Apparently I am destined to be the mother of the church or something like that. She wanted to read my soul personally and was studying my charts.” Vanessa grabbed my hand and laced fingers through, “So the rumors are true, she blew off the King to do something she deemed much more important. She never ignores him so that was the talk of Vellum and more specifically Tarn.” I quizzically looked at her, “Tarn?” She smiled and conked her forehead with the edge of her palm, “I keep forgetting you don’t know much about Vellum. Vellum is the world but Tarn is the capital which houses not only LDMU but the church and the castle. Blackwood on the Vellum side sits just outside of Tarn and borders the university actually. It’s a five-minute walk from my cottage to work.” We climbed up into the carriage and set off towards the manor. I smiled at her, “You know she called you Protector?” She turned to me from the window, “Oooo I like the sound of that. What do I protect?” I leaned forward, “Me, apparently. My parents will not be able to visit me because of this stuff with the president and his generals. You will be my Protector.” She nodded with a big smile on her face and she relaxed into her seat. It saw her clutching a black pouch next to her as she did so. I nodded to the pouch, “Is that the thing daddy asked you about?” She pulled the bag up to her face, “Yep, I don’t know if it is calibrated enough but we will find out. I can’t say I’m not nervous because who knows what the right amount of suppression is.” I nodded knowing full well that the slightest calculation off and it could be bad for us. I had wanted to ask her about the bracelet since my ceremony and since I found her alone for a few minutes I asked, “So why does the suppression make humans hate me and Vellinians not affected at all?” She pulled the smile off her face, “Yes, that was a nasty side effect wasn’t it. Your mother gave me your book of life and I had read about you all your life. I made it a mission to keep an eye on you. So, the bracelet can give off vibrations with humans which messes with their biological timing. It can take a few hours or a few days but eventually your presence to them would be unbearable. With Vellinians, we don’t have that same issue so it doesn’t affect us.” This explained why Sally was so willing to be my friend at first, the vibration didn’t hit her right away. I then asked my second question, “Okay so this new calibration would pull out just enough these humans won’t hate me?” She shook her head, “To suppress you completely caused the vibrations, this suppression will take care of that. I believe.” It bothered me that they had not thought to do this before when I was growing up and this thought made me upset. Vanessa leaned over and squeezed my hand, “I know what you’re thinking Xan but this suppression will only work the one time. I would have had to constantly make you items and it would not be feasible. These types of magical items cannot take the strength of your ability too long which is why I will need to you to keep your regular bracelet on. Your new item will be a necklace, I figured to make you more relatable to humans. I would make it a cross for the symbolism of Yahweh. From what I understand, this president guy is a Christian. This cross will comfort him to see it around your neck.” I giggled, “In human lore, a cross for pyrios means death. I find it funny this will be the symbol I will wear in front of him and him knowing what I am.”
As we neared the manor, my parents were waiting outside along with my grandfather. I got out first so that I could warn my father Vanessa was in there. I whispered to him as he helped me down, “Vanessa’s here.” He nodded and pulled his hand up to help her out. She coolly said to him as he helped her down, “Oh what a gentleman.” My mother giggled. Vanessa brought out another side of mother that I rarely ever saw. She was like a school girl whenever she was around. My mother was the most relaxed around her and I suppose this is what they mean when they say in pyrio lore that we each bond to someone of our own soul, in this case it is called “sanguis sororibus.” It was different than a marriage, it was a bonding of platonic souls. Pyrios believe we each have two soulmates, our one true love and our one true friend. When I read that in my book, I had wondered if I would ever find that one day. Perhaps I was close to that with Jess, we were practically friends already. We spent most of our waking hours together. She had told me yesterday that we should be receiving our registration forms for university soon via messenger and thought it would be cool to fill out our forms together. I liked the thought of hanging out with my friend, trying to figure out what classes to take. I wasn’t sure what the purpose of university in Vellum was. Did we get degrees for jobs like they do here? I would need to ask these questions soon but for now, I had to focus on what Grand Pretre was telling me since my parents immediately started staring at me. I stared back, “What?” My father cleared his throat, “Forgive me Xan but it is still a shock to me that Grand Pretre Herself was here but to find out you were touched by a deity? It is a lot to take in being the father of such a person. I cannot believe that one day my grandchild will be head of the Church of Vellum. It’s so much.” My father placed his hand on his forehead and drug it down. I had never seen him so distressed? Was that distress? I don’t know. I maybe would categorize it as distressed and disheveled. I heard a laugh behind me, “If you could see how, you look right now, Reg, you would probably straighten yourself out. You look a mess.” Vanessa walked up and placed her arm around my shoulders, “Listen, she’s still your baby girl. Still the same girl she was yesterday and every day since she was born. You just now have some knowledge of her destiny. I’m sure she needs and would love for you to treat her like she’s just your daughter.” I looked at my parents and nodded. Yes, normalcy would be great. It’s bad enough I have to adjust to the idea that I’m not human, I have a super strong ability that needs to be suppressed and am destined to save Vellum. I don’t need my parents and grandfather treating me like I’m God Himself.
My mother sighed, “I understand Xan but please be patient with us. It isn’t easy to hear what we just heard from someone we have never seen before in our lives. It is very rare for anyone besides the King and select Pretres to see her. For you to get a special visit from her and us to be in her presence. I don’t know if you know how big that truly is.” My mother reached out and hugged me, “That being said my darling. I want to know how you feel about all of this.” I hugged her back and at the same time felt that all too familiar calm wash over me. I looked at my grandfather from over my mom’s shoulder and smiled at him to thank him. He nodded and smiled back. I pulled away from her gently, “While I think it is pretty wild to be the mother of the future of the church. I think I’m ok. Grand Pretre has said She will summon me once I settle in Vellum and we could have tea.” My mother’s eyes widened, “Tea? Like as if you were best friends.” I smiled and shrugged, “Yeah, I guess. She said she adored me because of my fate.” Vanessa cleared her throat behind me, “Hey, can we get this shindig on the road? I need to finish up here and go back to submit my lesson plan to the big guy.” My father looked at her sternly, “The big guy? Honestly Vanessa, you should show some respect to the man.” She waved her hand in a gesture to shoo my father off, “Whatever, I want to fit this to Xan to see if I’ve calibrated the suppression right.” We all walked inside to father’s study and she gestured to me to sit on the settee as she came up behind and pulled out the pouch. She draped the necklace around my neck. I felt a tingle for a brief minute on my chest where the cross laid. She then pulled out crystal from her messenger back she had draped around her body and laid it on top of the cross. It glowed white then streaks of purple. She then crinkled her nose, “Well that’s odd, it has never had streaks of purple before. It’s like when you had your ceremony.” I looked up at her, “That? According to Grand Pretre, that was Aphrodite giving her blessing.” Vanessa nodded, “I suppose so because the calibration is perfect. Let’s take this off of you before it disintegrates and I will have to make a new one. She pulled it off and plopped it into the pouch and handed it to my mother. She winked at her, “For safe keeping from the one I trust the most.” She turned to the table by the book shelf and placed her messenger bag on it. She then pulled out a pile of papers, “The head master sent these for Xan and Jess. They will need to be filled out within the next two weeks and sent back via messenger.” I got up and walked over to the stack of papers to see a crescent moon with clouds below it and the words Lune de Minuit University across the clouds. Our official registration forms. So, it begins.
