Magic Unknown (The Elustria Chronicles: Magic Born Book 2)

by Caethes Faron

  “And I’m Marguerite.” She stepped forward and cupped my cheek with her hand, searching my face, probably for any sign of her dead sister. “And you’re Meglana’s little girl. How I’ve waited for this day.” She kissed my cheek and hugged me the way a normal person does: without the intent to suffocate.

  “So are you sisters to my grandmother or my grandfather?” I asked as I looked between Matilda and Lucinda.

  “Your grandfather. He was one of the brightest mages of our age. In fact, he sat on the Magesterial Council. Never did understand what he saw in that wife of his,” Lucinda said.

  “You know I won’t tolerate that kind of talk about my mother,” Marguerite eyed Lucinda with scorn.

  “You’re not a mage.” Matilda’s words stopped my heart. What scared me most about this meeting had been my feelings of being an imposter. They would see through me—that I didn’t belong in their world. When I turned to Matilda, she was peering at Alex with squinted eyes. “What are you?”

  “I swear, Matilda, don’t be so daft. He’s clearly a shifter,” Lucinda said in a tone of voice that led me to believe she spent most of her life exasperated with her sister’s stupidity.

  “Oh, I see. Like mother, like daughter.” Matilda gave Lucinda a knowing look.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, defensive without knowing why.

  “Your choice of mates, my dear,” Lucinda said.

  Until that moment, I’d never heard a word about my father. “You mean my father wasn’t a mage?”

  “We don’t talk about your father, dear,” Lucinda said.

  “And what about my grandparents? Why aren’t they here?”

  “We don’t talk about them either.” Lucinda’s non-answers grated.

  “Then why are you even here? You’re supposed to be giving me information about my family. If you’re not going to, then I don’t see the point in continuing with this.”

  “I see you inherited your mother’s rude and impetuous nature,” Matilda said with her nose held in the air.

  Alex stepped between us, probably sensing that I was going to attack her. “Why don’t we all take a seat and eat something?”

  Matilda eyed the table, and her expression softened. “Yes, something to eat would do quite nicely.”

  I reached for a plate of pastries and felt my aunts staring at me as the rest of the food levitated. They all had their wands out lifting the food they wanted to their plates. I wondered what would happen if they tried to levitate the same food. Strange that none of them had a talisman. At least I wasn’t the only one not levitating their food: Alex ate like a normal human.

  “So tell me about my grandparents,” I said once I had a plate of food.

  “As I said, darling, we don’t talk about them,” Lucinda said as she lifted a delicate pastry to her mouth.

  “Oh stop it, Aunt Lucinda. We don’t speak of it because it’s uncomfortable, but Kat here is family. She deserves to know.” Marguerite turned to me. “My parents were killed by a sorcerer.”

  Being murdered must run in my family. Did anyone die of old age? “But how? Why?”

  “The thing of it is, no one really knows,” Marguerite said. “We don’t even know for sure who the target was. Perhaps both of them, though it seems unlikely.”

  “But if my grandfather was on the Council, wouldn’t it make sense that he was the target?”

  “Mother has been the assumption. Despite what Matilda and Lucinda think, my mother was a genius. She studied magic and the differences between mages and sorcerers. Meglana took up Mother’s work after her death, but I didn’t want anything to do with it.”

  “And nor should you. The way that woman acted like being a mage wasn’t something to be proud of. Hmph. We don’t want to be sorcerers. We are who we are, and if you ask me, that’s much preferable to being an arrogant, bigoted sorcerer,” Lucinda said.

  Pieces started to fit together in my head. If sorcerers killed my grandparents, then it would make more sense for my mother to align herself with the Directorate. But if it was known that Meglana continued her mother’s work, why didn’t the Council tell me?

  “Did they ever find the sorcerer who killed my grandparents?”

  “No, they didn’t. The Council didn’t want to cause any more trouble. They let it go, much to their shame,” Lucinda said.

  It was no wonder that there was no love lost between my mother and the Council. What did they expect? This information would prove useful when I went back to the cavern. “But I thought the Council had to serve justice? I’m in this situation because if justice isn’t served, the Council has to pay.”

  “It was deemed in the best interest of mages to not pursue it. Bunch of spineless nitwits.” Finally Matilda said something I agreed with.

  “Their death must’ve hit my mother hard.”

  “Oh it did, it did. Sibelius was the only person who could reach her. He had a calming influence on Meglana. They were so good together.” Matilda got a faraway look in her eyes, as if she were gazing on happier times.

  “Yes, that they were. All this would’ve been avoided if they had just stayed together. Meglana never knew what was good for her. She’d still be alive today if she had stayed with Sibelius like we told her to, mark my words,” Lucinda said, making it clear that the world would be a better place if everyone heeded her advice.

  “So Sibelius isn’t my father?”

  “No, unfortunately,” Lucinda said with the weary look of someone who always knows best but is rarely listened to. “He should’ve been. Your mother was madly in love with him, and he with her. Who knows why it didn’t work out between them? Both strong personalities, but each intelligent in their own right. I never understood what went wrong between those two.”

  “Yes, Auntie, we all know what a disappointment it was that she didn’t marry Sibelius,” Marguerite said. “They wouldn’t have been good together in the long run, and you know it. Sibelius was too ambitious. It doesn’t do to have two ambitious people like that in a marriage. She needed someone to temper her.”

  “So that’s why she ended up with my father?” Getting the facts interested me more than delving into family squabbles.

  Marguerite opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, Lucinda spoke up.

  “No! I will not have talk of that man in my presence. I’m sorry, Kat, but I cannot condone talk of him. He’s the reason your mother’s dead, my brother’s daughter. You’re better off not knowing anything about him. From what I understand, the Council wants you to look into your mother’s research, and talk of your father won’t help that. It brings nothing but shame to our family.”

  And that was the end of that conversation. I felt like a little girl being reprimanded instead of a woman with guests over to her house. I wanted to press the issue, but nothing good would come of it. This conversation had still been a wealth of information that would help me in my research. I had dreaded this visit, but now that it was here, I might as well see it through to the end.

  Alex broke the awkward silence. “Kat would love to know more about her mother. Why don’t you tell us about her?”

  I smiled my thanks to Alex and did my best to listen politely and glean any helpful information from the rest of brunch. Having been told not to ask about my father, I naturally couldn’t stop thinking about him. As the missing piece, a part of me thought he might be the key to everything.

  Chapter 13

  “Well, that was…interesting,” Alex said after he shut the door behind the last of my aunts.

  Following such a stressful meal, I had no choice but to laugh. “Yes, I’d say so.”

  “You have quite the colorful family.”

  “That’s one word for it.” Colorful came nowhere close to describing it. I couldn’t have imagined a wackier family if I tried. “Finding out how my grandparents died was helpful.”

  “I picked up on that.” Alex’s tone said he wanted to say more, but he intended to proceed with caution.
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  “You think this confirms that she worked for the Directorate.”

  “I think it provides good motivation. If I were in her position, I can see doing something similar.”

  “I’m more interested in the work that my grandmother was doing. I think Aunt Marguerite was right. It’s more likely that she was the target. Given what I know of the Council, they seem pretty ineffective. I don’t understand why someone would target one of them.”

  “You have a one-sided, jaded view of the Council. Not everyone shares it.”

  Yes, this made it seem like my mother worked with the Directorate, but I wasn’t ready to give up on her yet. If she was working for the Directorate, she had a damn good reason. That didn’t make her a bad person. It made the Council bad for not getting justice for her.

  I used my magic to stack the dirty dishes on the table. “What about your family? Mine’s colorful; what’s yours? When do I get to meet them?”

  Alex shifted uncomfortably. “Colorful isn’t the word I’d use to describe my family. They’re more plain, and they like to fight. As to when you’ll meet them, if I have my way, never.”

  “Don’t you at least want to see them while you’re here? They must miss you. Or is all your family on Earth?”

  “No, my father was the only person in my family on Earth. My mother lives in Elustria.”

  “We should go see her. Trust me, you should savor the time you have with her.”

  “I appreciate your concern, but I have no desire to see her. It would only complicate things, especially since I need to be here with you. Maybe when this is all over.”

  The last was clearly tagged on for my benefit. It didn’t seem fair that he saw me vulnerable in front of my relatives and didn’t reciprocate. But I could sense there was something more to this attitude toward his family. As much as I focused on the death of my mother, I often forgot that he had lost a father. “Does your mom even know that your dad died?”

  Alex shrugged. “Probably not. She and my dad weren’t together. It’s common among cat shifters. People get together to have a child then go their separate ways.”

  “So was it your mother who raised you?”

  “Yeah. I’d really rather not talk about this right now. You should be in the cavern going over your mother’s work while the information your aunties gave you is fresh in your mind.”

  I studied him for a second, wondering if I should push the issue of his family. But his objections didn’t appear to be just on the surface. He was right, I had a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. “I’ll go downstairs as soon as we’re done cleaning up.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I can do the cleaning. Since I can’t read your mother’s writings, you’re the only one who can do that work.”

  “I’ll take the dishes to the kitchen for you.” With a flick of my wrist, the stacked dishes floated into the air and made their way to the kitchen counter. Checking over the table to make sure I’d gotten everything, I saw a note where Marguerite’s plate had been.

  You aren’t wrong to want to know more about your father. Meet me behind the cottage at sunset, and I’ll tell you more away from your eavesdropping guard.

  “Alex, I don’t think we’re quite done with my family yet.”

  With Aunt Marguerite’s clandestine meeting looming, I went back to the cavern to catch up on the time I lost that morning. The more I found out before I met with Marguerite, the more intelligent questions I could ask her. She was the only person in my family who seemed willing to talk, and I couldn’t waste that opportunity.

  My mother’s journal took on more meaning now. I looked for the influences of my grandmother among her writings. She mentioned something that was done in the past, something that would make mages more powerful, but she never came right out and said what it was. I tried to determine if the omission was a result of her being careful or if she just assumed that whoever read this would know what she was talking about. It seemed a reference to whatever creation myths existed on Elustria. I needed to ask Alex for more information.

  A tone of revenge infused the different musings about how to strengthen magic. This was a woman who didn’t want power for power’s sake. She wanted justice for her family. Why would that surprise anyone? I flipped to the back of the journal, searching for conclusions.

  I can’t include everything here. I’ve taken great measures to protect my work, but as much as the Council shuns power, they will not hesitate to employ it to discover my secrets should I ever be caught or found out. This work is too important to stop with me. I wish I could make them understand that. I wish we had a Council full of members willing to stake a claim to our birthright. We were never meant to have power secondary to the sorcerers. They have grown to be lazy, taking for granted that which I fight for every day. That is their weakness, and it will be their undoing. So you who read this now, if you expected to find my knowledge, you are sorely mistaken. I have locked it away. The only way it will be known is to pass down through my blood.

  “Well, shit.” Great, Mom, way to screw us there. Maybe you should’ve made sure you had a chance to pass on your knowledge to your daughter before you decided to lock it away. Prior to meeting my aunts, I would have been tempted to take the journal to the Council, show them in my mother’s own hand that there was no way for someone else to find out where her research led her, but Gareth had achieved his purpose. I now felt part of the family. This had become more than fulfilling the Council’s request. I was ready to do what they had feared: continue my mother’s work. They had looked the other way at my grandparents’ murder and sent an assassin after my mother who also tried to kill me. I was done playing their game.

  Given everything in the cavern, I had a hard time believing it was all worthless. My mother wouldn’t have kept anything here unless it was important. No one hid junk in an enchanted cavern. But the good stuff also wouldn’t be out in plain view in case someone breached her defenses.

  I’d rummaged through her desk so many times that I knew by heart everything that was there: nothing but a bunch of loose-leaf papers and scrolls and a few leather portfolios full of the same. Nothing interesting. Nothing helpful. For the next hour, I turned the cavern upside down searching for anything that might prove of use. I came up empty-handed. Defeated, I flopped down in the chair and closed my eyes, going over every inch of the cavern in my mind’s eye.

  My mother had written that she would pass her knowledge down through her blood. In my mind, I searched every nook and cranny for something I’d missed. I even saw the pool of water reflecting the color of my talisman like liquid gold flowing through the cavern.

  My eyes opened, and I shook my head at the crazy thought. Standing at the edge of the stream, I looked at the spectral fish. True to memory, the water looked golden from my amber talisman, but in the visions of my mother, she hadn’t been wearing an amber necklace. She had a ruby talisman. When she came down here, the water might’ve looked like blood.

  The stream wasn’t wide enough to accommodate a person, but the pool it came from was. With nothing to lose, I stripped out of my clothing and entered the water. Running my hands across the jagged wall, I searched for any indentation where something may be hidden. At the bottom of the pool, the familiar, excited tingle of my magic rushed to my fingertips. I pushed it outward, and the rock wall gave way to a little compartment. I grabbed the contents and surfaced.

  The stone box resting in my hands was made of a material I’d never seen before. The gray stone was luminescent, and green jewels dotted the lid and sides. Naturally, when I tried to open it, nothing happened. I gripped the lid and pulled with all my might.

  Nothing. Not even enough movement to prove that this was a box and not an ornate paperweight. My mother’s paranoia was beginning to annoy me.

  Each discovery seemed to lead to another dead end. I yanked on my clothes and snatched the box. The light was better in the reading nook. Up there I might find a clue on the box.

  �
��Why are you wet?” Alex came in just as I put the window seat back in its place.

  “I found this in the little pool of water downstairs.” I handed the box to Alex. “I’m fairly certain that whatever’s in there is the key to my mother’s work. I’m also fairly certain there’s zero chance I’ll be able to open it.”

  Right on cue, Alex attempted to pry the box open without success. I made a mental note to let him open a jar for me later so he could reclaim his tough-guy standing.

  “Yeah,” Alex said as he handed it back, “it’s magically sealed.”

  “I figured. I’m hoping the better light up here might reveal some writing or something that will give me a clue. I’m not holding my breath though. Mom apparently believed in making me work for it.”

  “Don’t be hard on yourself. What about the cavern? The Council searched the house, and no one found it. You’re here for less than a day, and you get inside.”

  “I wish I could take credit for that, but it just came to me in a dream.”

  “See if a dream will give you the answer to that box. I’m going to make us something to eat. Then we should go over how things are gonna go with your aunt tonight.”

  “Thanks.” My attention was already focused back on the box. There had to be a way into it. I curled up on the window seat and tried to clear my mind, to summon whatever had come to me in my sleep and provided the answer to the secret passage. “Come on, I know you’re in there.”

  Trouble was, I didn’t know whether I was summoning my mother’s ghost or accessing information buried deep in my mind, maybe memories from my first two years of life. If I understood how this worked, I’d have a better chance of making it happen at will.

  I closed my eyes and focused on the box in my hands. The magic in my talisman jumped to life. The amber stone grew warm against my chest, and a picture appeared in my mind’s eye. My mother sat where I was now. Only, I was peeking around the corner, watching her without wanting to get caught. She sat with the box in her hands, facing away from me. She whispered something I wouldn’t have made out had I not heard the word earlier. “Sibelius.”