Nevermoor Fanfiction

The Truth *slight hollowpox spoiler*

"Morrigan," began Anah. "What's this?"

The whole Unit was over at the Deucalion. They had been in the pool all day but now after a lovely dinner they were all in Morrigan's room rebelling against Jupiter's rule of going to bed early.

When Morrigan looked up to see what Anah was referring to, she saw her childhood toy, Emmett. A light blush rose to her cheeks as she stood up to take the toy off Anah.

"That's just something from when I was a kid. Don't worry about it," chuckled Morrigan, sitting back down after placing Emmett on her dresser.

Anah nodded where as Arch furrowed his brows.

"But, Morrigan, we've been here loads of times. How come we've never seen it before?"

Morrigan felt anxiety rise in her chest. "Jupiter just got it for me. I mean, from storage. You see, we packed everything away from my childhood, but that toy is really special to me, so I wanted it back." Morrigan knew she was rambling and lowered her voice.

Someone next to her cleared their throat, and she looked to her side to see Hawthorne looking at her with a meaningful gaze. "I thinks it time to tell them," he whispered softly.

Morrigan hesitated before nodding. She felt Hawthorne place his hand on hers and she found that this comforted her.

"Um, guys, I actually have something to tell you."

Suddenly she had the attention of all eight of her friends. Surely they wouldn't think of her any differently, right? They all knew Lam's secret and the only thing that changed was the fact that group circles had become tighter, as if to protect Lam from anyone that would take her. Morrigan took a deep breath before exhaling slowly.

"I haven't been truthful with you all and before you say anything about lying going against our oath, I did it to protect Jupiter, and the Deucalion, and Hawthorne, and Cadence because, unfortunately, they got wrapped up in this secret." There she goes again, talking in long sentences to avoid what she needed to say.

Hawthorne squeezed her hand, urging her to go on.

"I'm not a Nevermoor citizen." A few gasps were heard from the group, but Morrigan carried on before any questions were asked. "I am protected under Wunsoc law, but after the trials ended, and before our inauguration day, the police believed they had seen my official citizenship papers. What they really saw was a troll fighting poster and Cadence mesmerised them into believing was my papers." Morrigan gulped, trying to clear the lump in her throat. "I'm from the Free State."

Everyone's faces (except, of course, Hawthorne and Cadence) fell, but no one looked as shocked as Lam. The poor girl looked as if she had seen a ghost. Her face was pale, her eyes glassy and unmoving. Her mouth hung open until she found the strength to close it and speak.

"Crow. Of course. You're Corvus Crow's daughter?" If it were even possible, Lam's face paled further. "You were on the cursed children's register!"

Morrigan nodded with a grim smile. This sent Lam into tears.

"I'm—I'm sorry. Cursed children's register? What on Earth is that?" asked Thaddea.

Morrigan sighed before answering. "The worst thing imaginable. Any child born on Eventide is placed on the register. They bring bad luck everywhere they go because they are cursed to die on the next Eventide. I was told twelve years, like we all were. Just before I turned eleven, I had expected to live another year, but then I was told I would die in a couple of days. Hours before my death, Jupiter brought me here. With the time difference, I missed the twelfth hour. I had cheated death." Morrigan smiled when the memories of the party came rushing into her mind. Her smile faltered as she remembered the feelings she had for the next few years.

"I thought my 'curse' had followed me to Nevermoor. What with the Wunder outages, then our blackmail, which turned out to be our final trial, the Ghastly Market, and then of course the Hollowpox. Jupiter never told me what my knack was until after my Show Trial. Well, really it was his Show Trial since he used his knack. But anyway, when I brought up the fact that maybe being cursed was my knack, he told me never to speak of it again, that I wasn't a curse on anyone, but when you are told the opposite for a whole 11 years, it's kind of hard to get rid of the thought."

The room went quiet as they processed the new information.

"What were they like? Your parents?" whispered Francis into the silence.

Morrigan chuckled sadly. "My mother died on Eventide."

"I'm so sorry, Morrigan, I didn't know."

"How could you?" Morrigan smiled back at him, reassuring him that it was okay. "She was lovely though. She used to do my hair in little pigtails, similar to how Anah used to wear her hair. She would play with me all the time. Life was great until she was gone." Morrigan felt the tears prick at the back of her eyes. She wanted to stop talking but she knew she couldn't. They all deserved to know.

"He fell into somewhat of a depression. My father, I mean. It was understandable. He had just lost the love of his life. He pushed me away. Stopped caring for me. He never defended me anymore when people would flinch at the sight of me." Morrigan took a shaky breath before continuing. "About a year before I was supposed to die, he met a woman. Her name was Ivy. She was everything my mother was not. She had gorgeous blonde hair, and stunning blue eyes. Father fell head over heels in love with her and started ignoring me more and more. Months before my death, they were planning all the things they were going to do once I was out of their way. They got everything prepared. And then on the day I was supposed to die, at the last dinner we had as a family, Ivy announced she was pregnant."

Tears came to Morrigan's eyes but she didn't try to hold them back. She let Hawthorne pull her into his shoulder as Mahir stood up, pacing around the room while cursing and speaking in multiple different languages. She recognised some rude words from when he taught the Unit, and she knew he was aiming them at Corvus.

"Mahir, sit down. It's okay. It's all in the past."

"No, Morrigan! It's not okay! You were a child! You were a harmless little girl and you're telling me people flinched at the sight of you?" Mahir was yelling. Morrigan anxiously looked towards the door, not wanting to wake any guests up. "You were born on Eventide, so what? You can't help that. That is no excuse to get mentally abused for 11 years of your life. Thank God for Jupiter. Seriously, I don't know what would have happened without him." Mahir seemed to have calmed down a bit and sat down, however his face was still red.

Morrigan knew what would have occurred if Jupiter had not appeared that night. The Hunt of Smoke and Shadow would have whisked her away to Squall and Morrigan would never have  come to Wunsoc. She was extremely grateful that Jupiter arrived when he did.

Morrigan heard a sniffle beside her and saw Cadence...crying?

"Cadence?"

"I'm so sorry, Morrigan! You get taken away from that monster to then deal with all of us! We were awful to you when we found out you were a Wundersmith. We behaved completely out of line, and we're all so sorry."

Mumbles of agreement came from the Unit.

"I wasn't mean. I was quite accepting," said Hawthorne with a smug look upon his face.

"Guys, don't worry about it, its okay. It's all done and over with." She saw Mahir open his mouth to argue, and say no, it was not okay, but she fixed him with a glare before he could say anything.

"Hey, guys?" asked Hawthorne. "I think we're all superheroes in our own ways. Can we get capes?"

The group collapsed into shrieks of laughter and giggles. Morrigan felt the happiest she had been in a while as she was surrounded by her brothers and sisters. She was glad that they knew. She felt happier now there were no more secrets between them. Morrigan knew that she could rely on them for anything because, after all, they were sisters and brothers, loyal for life.

1436 words