The bond we share

20. Home

I pull away. My breathing is heavy and my heart is racing so hard I can feel my heartbeat throughout my whole body. I try as hard as I can to wipe the tears away but more only replace them.

"What they did to you was horrible! I don't understand, I knew... I...I... saw...I...I don't know what I just saw!" I say, trying to make sense of my thoughts.

"I knew you could do it."

"I thought all of this was to be judged to help magic, but this was all to show me how magic came to be?"

"Yes, but not only that, this is how magic came to be and how magic will be restored, if it is seen to be in the lands best interest without you losing your life."

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND!" I yell, trying to make sense out of all of this. "My life? What does my life have to do with this? Is this because of the color of my eyes? Am I related to the baby somehow?" the questions tumble from my mouth.

"Bree, you are not related to that baby, you ARE that baby."

"I don't understand. This happened hundreds of years ago. How can this be?"

"Your father was Mitace. His aging through the years was troublesome, so after a while he started staying away from view until he found he could do illusions. As his people grew in power, he had to find new ways to keep moving around so light magic users could not find him. As the years went on, light magic turned on other magic, even themselves. They believed their magic to be superior. In the end, their thirst for power destroyed them all just like the wise ones warned they would, taking their knowledge to a dark place. But when the last light magic fell, King Kintarbie, Mitace returned. He stood out into the light taking his place as Kintarbie the last king of Negalia. With no light magic users left, Mitace gave the kingdom items imbued with small amounts of his power to give the illusion light magic was still strong and alive. All magic illusion could be seen through but his own. A few years after he took over the kingdom the starlight butterfly returned you to our current time. At this point a wife and mother was desperately needed for him to keep his child and make his story match up, the child was his and he was their king. The mother who raised you, her love for you was unmeasurable. She took you in and loved you as her own from the start. Mitace told her the truth of your true origin and she even brought you to me."

"What?"

"Yes, she brought you to me and I saw you as I had remembered. My tears began to flow that day, tears of joy to see you again and tears of sorrow I could not hold you. I sang you a song every time she brought you to me."

"And she sang it to me ever since." I whisper, remembering.

"The stories about me were true in the beginning and as the originals that worked this land died, the new generation told it a little different each time, until there was very little truth to it. I stopped talking and I think Mitace thought it was my curse, although I was heartbroken. Over the years my hope came back. Mitace stopped visiting me and I thought he had finally forgotten about me. When he remarried, I was happy and also devastated all at the same time. But when his new wife came to see me, she admitted he had never touched her, not even once. Again, I was faced with the conflicting feeling of joy and sorrow."

"After all these years you still love him?" I ask.

"I never stopped." She admits.

"After all he did to you in the beginning. How did you get over that?" I ask.

"I must admit that was not my most pleasant memory but even though it is born of great darkness, I would never trade it or change it."

Her words stun me and I am forced to really, soak them in. She was raped in front of more than forty people and yet she still feels this way. I listen intently, hanging on her every word.