“How much does she know, my mom?”
“Enough but not all. She doesn’t know for instance that I’m dead and that all of our meetings take place while she’s in a dream state. I usually use a very strong compulsion on her to get her to do my bidding.
She thinks that it’s all a fairytale and I’ve never seen any reason to teach her different. Her mind was at breaking point when I found her, it would’ve been cruel to force any more truths on her.
So I let her believe that I was just being fanciful, but when it came to the danger, she took that very seriously.”
“What now?” I asked the room at large. My grandmother answered me. “Now, the son that you have conceived will grow up to be very strong indeed and will do many things for our kind.”
She’d just told dad that Thorn and I had had sex. I guess he was too blown away by current events to catch on.
Mina was out of her seat at the news of our son. Her eyes were wild as she looked around the room.
“You promised father, you said he would be mine.” What a spoilt, whiny bitch.
“I’m afraid your father spoke out of turn when he told you that young Mina. You were never considered, it was only as a precaution after Ekaterina had been murdered, that your family was even mentioned.
The legend states that it is the Vikov and Azarov lines that will be the bearers. Farther more it is providence that you are all here as there is something else that must be discussed.
As you all know, the society watches over many aspects of our country’s history, from its inception up until today.
“As some of us know, Azarov is not the original name of this family, but Alexeevna.” I guess not everyone knew that truth, but I wasn’t sure about their reactions.
“I see that you all recognize the name. As we can see here tonight the striking resemblance between Ekaterina and her granddaughter, there is no longer any doubt as to her place.
Now as to my reason for bringing this up, this is something that young Thorn brought to our attention some time ago.
They are both descended from the Great, which means their son will be the first born purely of that line in over three hundred years.
As such, anyone who should oppose them or bring harm to either of them will be executed.”
Dad cleared his throat at the mention of execution. “Not to worry sir Peter, all punishments will be carried out in the mother country. Ekaterina, would you care to tell us what you know of these murders?”
Now I knew that I’d fallen down the rabbit hole. Was he questioning a ghost? And why was no one including myself freaking out over this?
We were all acting as though it was perfectly normal to be in a room with a woman who had died almost forty years earlier.
“I wasn’t very careful coming on to the end. I had just found out that my beau was the offspring of The Great. We had never shared such confidences before, but while the child grew inside me, my eyes were opened.
When I realized I didn’t know where to turn. I understood the danger, not just to me or even my son, but to my future granddaughter.” Here she smiled at me before carrying on.
I knew that there were many who would put it together if they ever found out.”
Put what together? the question was a silent one, but she turned to me nonetheless.
“They would put together that both you and Thorn were descendants of The Great and that any children you bear will be of pure lineage. Meaning that the child of the legend will be powerful in more ways than one.
Some would want to protect such a child, while others would seek to wipe him off the face of the earth.”
“Did the Diveckis learn of your secret somehow?”
“No, it was nothing like that. They needed money. Their power had waned over time, and was all but extinct.
They plotted amongst themselves to be rid of me, but they had no knowledge of the son I’d already birthed.
It was Sergei Divecki himself who came to my home, under the guise of friendship. I was so preoccupied and as you all know I’d long had a grievance with my gift and took every opportunity to thwart them.
Besides I had no need to fear another one of the five families or so I thought. That morning I had taken my son, whom I had named Alexi after his father to a neighbor’s house.
The old lady didn’t know that he was mine. I led her to believe that I was doing a friend a favor and had to run out.
When Sergei showed up I thought nothing of it. I didn’t know he had killed me until I felt the poison in my blood.