Revelations

The party had winded down after my grandfather had escorted an elderly Viscount to his carriage. I had been sitting in the corner again because I was painfully aware that heels and I were frenemies. Father had walked up to me and gestured to my feet, “You can take those off now that it’s just us and then you can follow me into the study. We have more to discuss.” It appears the time has come that many of my questions would be answered. I took my shoes off with a deep sigh, psyching myself up to walk into the room where my father and now my grandfather, who sent me a smile and wink as he entered, were. Something within me told me that the revelations of the end of this night would change my life forever. This made my skin tingle and my heart was heavily thumping as I approached the study, shoes in hand. As I walked in, my father gestured to the settee in front of the fireplace which sat between his chair and grandfather’s chair. I sat down nervously as the silence set in for what seemed like eternity. Was he waiting for me to ask my questions? I looked up to find him with his hand on his mouth and contemplative look. This meant he would eventually speak but he was thinking about how to deliver the news. I had seen this look once before when he had to tell me and my mother that our beloved family husky Steele had gotten out and was hit by a car. Was what he was about to tell me bad news? This set me off on a sequence of internal questions. Was I adopted? Was he dying and that’s why they did this weird ceremony tonight? Was he secretly a prince in Vellum? What exactly is Vellum? I only knew there was a portal to this other world in our back yard essentially. Was there something special about Vellum?

Father looked up to see my brow was furrowed and briefly grabbed and squeezed my hand, “Little rose, the topics we will discuss should not cause you to concern so much.” Grandfather then chimed in, “Reggie, you don’t know that. What we have to say may shake her mentally so we need her to be prepared.” My grandfather was always the centered realist in the family, his words were sensible and father knew it because he nodded. My father looked back at me, “Xan, what we are about to tell you may be unbelievable but I need you to know this, everything we did in your life was to protect you.” Protect me from what? It was the question I wanted to say if my mouth could form the words. It was like some invisible force within me willed me to keep my mouth closed. Usually, I insert some sort of snarky humor into serious situations but this time I was not keen on doing so. I nodded; it was all I could do. Father proceeded, “Vellum is a world that is home to supernatural creatures of all sorts. The guests here tonight were all in their human forms or are humanoid. The Batiste family is from a long line of Pyrio. I suppose here in Terre, they would liken us to a vampire but there are many difference between their lore and what we actually are. Can you understand what it is that I am telling you Alexandra?” I must’ve looked shocked because my father paused this revelation. I looked at him and hoarsely replied, “I think I do but I have never once craved blood and I have never seen you drink blood.” My father chuckled, “I was getting to that. Blood is merely a thing we consume every once in a while, we do not require it to survive. You could say it is more of a delicacy to us and we only consume it on very special occasions.” It occurred to me that my blood was exposed to some Pyrio at the party, “Does the smell of blood trigger us?” My father nodded, “It can especially if the blood is special, like yours. Most of the time if we smell blood, it becomes a small pain in our stomachs. Our ancestors relied on blood to survive but over the years as we merged into Terre, we began to evolve. That being said, there are Pyrio families within Vellum that do not like Terre and have been here so they have not evolved. When you go to university, you will need to understand that your blood may be a target for them so please be careful not to nick yourself.” Oh great, now instead of worrying about predatory frat boys now I have to worry about predators.

The revelation that I’m a freaking vampire brought on another question, “Do we have some sort of magical powers?” To this question, my grandfather chimed in, “We don’t necessarily call it magic but in a way we do. We can turn our abilities on when needed...well most of us can. Some are born with abilities they cannot feasibly control. It is always a random what sort of abilities we are born with. My main ability is to calm those around me with my presence.” This made me sit up, “I always thought your presence was calming but I just thought it may have been your personality.” My grandfather continued, “Yes, my ability works through scent. It’s like when a human uses aromatherapy like lavender and chamomile.” I looked at him, “So you’re a walking aerosol spray?” My grandfather laughed, “Well, I can tell you’re far more relaxed now than when you came in. Does this news not distress you?” I leaned forward and rested my fists against my cheeks, “I think it must be shock because I’m not exactly sure what to think at this point. I’m sure once reality kicks in I will freak the freak out.” My father laughed, “Your having grown up in Terre is going to make you quite unique amongst those at university. That reminds me, tomorrow we will be receiving one of your classmates to stay here at the manor for the next few weeks. Her father was transferred to the East coast to be the Vellum envoy to the President.” I looked at him, “Um, excuse me what? The President knows about the existence of Vellum?” My father nodded, “This is a new development, we made ourselves known last year. You remember I had to make a trip to Washington?” I nodded, “Yes, I had always wondered why.” He grabbed the arm of his chair and squeezed it because that elicited a barrage of questions at the time that turned into a very messy argument between us. He had a flash of a pained look in his eyes. He continued, “I had to meet with the President to ensure that I was a suitable guardian of the portal to Vellum. He was convinced with my presence that we were no threat. It doesn’t hurt that one of my abilities is charm everyone I meet. This works mostly on humans. Anyhow, Lord Kellen is the envoy of Vellum to the President. His daughter Evangeline will be our guest for the few weeks before university classes start. I’m not entirely thrilled having their kind in my house, we as Pyrios don’t always get along with their kind. They are lycan, do you know what that is?” I nodded, “What is known in Terre as a werewolf?” He sighed, “Yes, another lore in Terre that is slightly wrong as well. They aren’t aggressive and run off and eat random creatures during the full moon. Their desires lie elsewhere at that time, this helps them to keep their kind fully populated if you know what I mean.” I nodded and giggled. He raised an eyebrow, “This behavior is the very reason I’m not a fan. They don’t exactly stick to their own kind either. Their males hit on anything that looks like a female and I fear this will be a thing you will have to deal with. But moving on...”

He cleared his throat and leaned forward, “Now to get to your bracelet. I know you’ve always thought it odd that we keep that on you at all times.” I looked at him, trepidation creeping into my heart. Knowing what I am, it grasped in the back of my mind that the bracelet kept me safe but why? It was silent for a little while before I was able to speak, “I have a feeling now that it has to do with us being Pyrio.” He cleared his throat again, “When you were born, the Pretre was there as is tradition so he could give your birth the blessings of nature. He noticed that you were born with a mark on your wrist. At that time, this troubled him but that wasn’t all. We found, having went to Vellum once, that you were attracting the attention of every Pyrio and Lycan there. It wasn’t until we brought you into town here in Terre that your particular ability became a problem. You were almost kidnapped. The young man that did that attempted to do so told the authorities that he was in love with you. It made him so obsessed that he committed suicide when he couldn’t have you. He was the brother of Virginia Plinker so they have every reason to hate you to begin with.” I gasped, “You mean to tell me a grown man fell in love with a baby? How is that possible?” He looked at grandfather who in turn started to explain, “Technically William was a teenager not much younger than you when it happened. Alexandra, it had been determined that you had the rare Aphrodite ability. This is an ability that, as a youngling, you will not be able to control. This in mind, we turned to your mother’s best friend Vanessa. You see Vanessa is a witch and specializes in magical items. She agreed to make an item that would both suppress your ability and hide your mark on the condition that she be named your godmother. Getting back to your father’s mention of the Pretre, the mark was the only other time he had to confer with the Great Pretre. I have no doubt, that after tonight, you will be of personal interest to her. She was able to consult the ancient text and found that that mark showed up once in a millennia when Vellum would need a person to be it’s champion. We are unclear if you are to be that champion or were merely a messenger of this coming need. The Great Pretre wanted to make sure no one would panic so she asked that we hide the mark from all in Vellum. So, we did with the bracelet you normally wear, the gloves on your hand currently do the same thing.” My father spoke up, “Do you have any more questions for us?”

I had sat thinking if there was anything that I wanted to ask that they had not already addressed. It dawned on me that I had only been to Vellum once when I was a kid which led to another question. This would be my lead off question, “Why did you keep the truth from me my entire life?” My father nodded like he had expected this question but you could tell he was hoping this was not a question he was going to hear because he was squeezing the arm of the chair again. He closed his eyes before he opened them again and set his honeyed gaze into my eyes, “It is never easy keeping secrets from ones own beloved child but this was decision made by me, your mother, grandfather, godmother and The Pretre. We felt that if we had exposed you to all this information at a young age and sent you off to school, that you would likely share that information with your classmates and that would likely put Vellum in danger.” This led me to my second question, “If it was so dangerous to Vellum, why not send me to school in Vellum?” My grandfather said, “The King had asked that you be educated in Terre. Being part of the family that protects the portal, he felt that it would help with human relations. His wish was to eventually let the government here know that we exist but we didn’t need to you to be the one to break the news here...” My father stopped him, “We had other reasons to keep you out of Vellum as well. You see, the Aphrodite ability can be quite powerful and some of the Pyrios that were exposed to it eventually knew what it was and they were from families that didn’t quite have a good view of the King or his nobility. There was a plot to kidnap you and use you to wreck havoc in both Vellum and Terre.

Unfortunately, you were also exposed to Prince Blake who is the oldest son of the former King. He has grown up to be rather a problem for his brother the current king. We had a fear that he would show up tonight to try and kidnap you for some nefarious plot but because of his latest attempt to overthrow his brother, he was stripped of his ability to get through the portal. I have no doubt that he would have appeared had he had that ability and, in that case, you would have been heavily watched all night.” Those words sunk into me but that drove me to another question, “Why is it that everyone in town hates me? It isn’t just about the incident with Mrs. Plinker’s brother, right?” My father sighed, “No, it isn’t the Plinkers hate you for that and that is why they relentlessly bullied you, I imagine they thought if they bullied you enough that you would take the same action young William did years ago. The town has an affinity for you because your ability is suppressed. The unfortunate side effect to suppressing your ability is that you get the exact opposite of the ability.” It made no sense to me so I had to ask, “I was able to make friends with many of the kids at first. Why did it not affect them off the bat? Also, it didn’t seem to deter the others from Vellum from being friendly with me. Why is that?” My father replied, “I honestly don’t quite understand why the humans acted the way they did. I imagine that Vanessa could explain that to you, she too will be here tomorrow to help do cleanup. As for the Vellinian here tonight, the reverse side affects of magical items doesn’t affect them. They merely see you as the future Duchess of Blackwood and that in itself holds significance within our world. It means we only answer to royalty and everyone else answers to us.”

I think my father knew I was all out of questions because he rose from his chair and held out his hand, “Xan, I imagine, with the festivities of tonight along with all the information you’ve been given, that you are exhausted. I will let you take your leave to your room.” I used father’s hand to pull myself up from the settee and went to walk out of the room. As I left the room, I heard my grandfather ask my father, “Do you think she’s going to take all this information well once the shock wears off?” To which my father replied, “She has to, the future of Vellum may just depend on her. I know she is strong but will this break her? Only time will tell.”