The Family Tree
POV: Vanessa
I was waiting for Dorothea and her sister to show up to my cottage so that we could work on a personal force field device for Alexandra. The thought of her sending out a bring it on type message to The Order made me anxious, more so that she had asked me not to mention it to her parents. I was in my garden attending to my plants when Dorothea, who was dragging another old woman along behind her, showed up in the path from Blackwood Manor. I smiled at her, “You look excited Ms. Dorothea.” The older woman looked up at me and gasped. Dorothea smiled, “Realized who you’re staring at, did you?” The old woman nodded, “Almost the spitting image of Evelyn.” Tears welled up into her eyes as her trembling hands reached her face. She was sobbing and I couldn’t handle it. I pulled the handkerchief I had in my jean pocket out, “My goodness, are you okay madam?” Dorothea sighed, “I think it is time we had a chat with you about your mother. I wanted to have this conversation with your little goddaughter with you so that she could have been someone to lean on but here we are.” I closed my eyes, wondering what it was that my mother might have done to these women to make them act the way they were. Evelyn Tannen was a gentle woman but she was a klutz in the purest form and didn’t really have a mouth filter at times. She must have offended these women at one point for one to be pissed off at me for a time and the other to be sobbing uncontrollably in my walking path.
I nodded at the the women, “We can take tea in my lounge. Then you can talk to me about Evelyn.” Dorothea hooked a hand into her sister’s elbow and pulled her into my cottage. We all settled down to tea a short while afterwards. Dorothea inhaled sharply before letting loose what she was going to say, “Vanessa, did your mom ever talk to you about her father, mother or any other family?” I thought about it, “Not really, she merely mentioned that her father expelled her from the family for getting pregnant with me out of wedlock.” Dorothea looked at her sister, “My sister Z and I…there’s a reason we have acted the way that we have. You see Evelyn’s father had forbidden us from speaking to her. Some of us took that far more seriously than others.” I was confused as to why her father would rule around these two women, “Were you her father’s servants or something?” Dorothea shook her head, “I’ve always been blunt but I’m at a loss as to what to say here.” Zebinezer blurted out, “We’re your Aunts dear.” She went back to sobbing quietly into her handkerchief as my mouth fell open.
I sat there for a time processing the information that I had been given, “Excuse me. What?” Dorothea sighed, “It is true, Evelyn was our sister. I had defied our father’s order to never speak to her and he kicked me out of the house. Zeb never did and she was able to rise to a high rank within the nobility due to her skill and connections. She valued that over her sister.” Zeb stopped sobbing to angrily look at her sister, “I didn’t value that as much as you think I did. I was too scared to leave the house. I had heard how you both struggled to live your lives and I panicked. The guilt has been in my heart when I learned of Ev’s passing…don’t you try to shame me in front of our niece!” She went back to sobbing, I gathered that Zeb was likely the middle child and Dorothea was likely the oldest. I shook my head, “Wait so if you defied your father’s order, then why didn’t I know about you?” A single tear rolled down Dorothea’s cheek, “I was asked a favor by His Majesty and Darren Batiste to go undercover in The Order. In exchange, your mother was taken care of until her death. Darren would have cared for her anyways as Evelyn was his childhood crush. We all knew that.”
The news that Darren had the hots for my mom was rather a shock as well. A gut sinking thought came to my mind, “I-is Darren my father?” Dorothea chuckled, “No, he isn’t dear. He just had a crush. Something a little less than what Blake feels for Alexandra. When he was arranged to marry Calista, he devoted himself to his wife. They had a very loving relationship as you well know. He still loved your mother as a close friend would so he vowed to care for her and you by extension. Besides, wouldn’t you know if you were part pyrio?” I shook my head, “Not necessarily, Xan didn’t know she was a pyrio until recently. If you aren’t aware of it, it lays dormant.” I sighed at the thought that I may have solved the mystery of who my father was but disappointed at this remaining a mystery. Zeb spoke up, having pulled herself together, “Daddy said he knew who your father was but he didn’t say who.” Dorothea rolled her eyes, "Way to contribute any value to the conversation Zeb. Real insightful.” Zeb pinched Dorothea in the arm, “I was getting to the valuable part of the conversation, idiot. You can be a real jerk, you know. Anyhow, Vanessa, my father once told me that he kept the letters he exchanged with your father in his study drawer. I can go retrieve them and maybe we can figure out the mystery together. I imagine he had to have been someone close to the family for him to exchange letters with father.” Dorothea nodded, “She’s right about that and father never threw away letters just in case he needed to jog his memory. I’m curious who this mystery guy is myself.”
I nodded but wanted to change the subject, “So then why were you mad at me for a long time Dorothea? You treated me like crap for a long time.” Dorothea sighed, “Grief is a funny thing kiddo. I lost many years with your mother between my father cutting her out of our life to having to go into The Order and losing that contact with her because of it. I placed the blame on you and unrightfully so. This business with the pretty one made me realize that I should have been mad at my father and The Order for existing.” It made sense, my existence robbed her of her being with her little sister for a long time due to many circumstances. I nodded at her, “I understand now and I know you didn’t ask for it but I forgive you. Anyhow, speaking about the pretty one, we should honestly get to work on the tool. I had heard Panshad before you both came here and the trap is set for the day after tomorrow.” Zeb sat up straight, “I really would love to help that sweet girl out. She doesn’t deserve this hate that she has been putting up with from The Order.” Zeb’s resolve to help out just from meeting Alexandra just once was impressive. The kid was charming and made people want to go through hell and back for her, I had wondered if that was what being touched by the Goddess of Love was all about or was that some natural ability. I looked at Zeb and smiled, “Did you resolve her issue with contacting Aphrodite?” She smiled and nodded, “We got to briefly see the Goddess herself, she was beautiful. Very much resembled her soul daughter in many ways.” I was relieved to hear that our girl was able to speak to the one who gave her her ability and maybe she would be able to learn how to control her ability as she was always meant to do. She also mentioned that her little familiar could likely be trained to heel if she was able to contact her soul mother.
I had remembered something that Dorothea said at one point, “Dorothea, are you really thinking about coming to teach at the university?” She smiled and nodded, “I think it would be beneficial to the young folks to learn about my water magic. They’ve need some witches to teach proper magic for a long while.” I reached out and squeezed her hand, “It is so good that you are coming now then. Those kids really could use the help. We’ve only been able to offer fire magic but the Citadel candidates could use water magic.” Zeb spoke, “Would they happen to need an earth witch too?” Dorothea gasped and gaped at her sister, “What?” Zeb shrugged, “I figure it is time to give back to our realm as well since the Royal Family had given me so much.” I looked at her and smiled, “I will talk to the Headmaster about it. Thank you Zeb.” She giggled, “You can call me Aunt Z.” I nodded at her, “Now I think it is time that we work on this tool. What do you ladies say?” They both nodded at me, we all rose to our feet and made our way down to the hearth.
