Sorceress Part 2

A knock on the front door interrupted my mid-morning book time. I glanced at my mug. Barely half of my tea was gone and it was still pretty warm. I’m so not ready for social interaction yet, I thought. I haven’t even finished my tea. Not nearly enough caffeine is in my system. Ugh. But I had to answer the door. Not many knew that I had Rowena and Duncan here with me, and most people didn’t react well to the sight of Brownies, which hurt both of my friends feelings, though they were very good at hiding that.

Sighing, I bookmarked my page, closed the book, put it down and went to the door. Opening it I was confronted with a man. In general, men aren’t all that noteworthy, but this one was. He was tall, definitely built, had black hair and light gray eyes, and a smirk that could melt you into a puddle, if you were willing. I wasn’t. This attractive man was interrupting my reading time and I hadn’t finished my tea. I wasn’t in the mood to melt into a puddle.

“Yes?” I asked, letting annoyance creep into my voice. It was too early…you know what, you get the idea. It was morning, I was crabby, etc. Lauren was mad about having to answer the door.

“Lauren ELEPHANT?” the man asked. How the hell did he know my name? But he wasn’t done. “Daughter of the goddess of Time?” Oh shit. No one was supposed to know that outside a very few, very powerful people who knew my mom, or I, could turn them to dust in a second if they misused the information or shared it. So who decided to gossip? I began gathering power to me, shifting my legs slightly so I could jump back and slam the door shut while activating the barriers.

“Mind telling me how you know that name? I’m sure Lauren and the goddess would really like to know so they can pay them a visit.” I leaned back slightly too.

“No one told me, I just know” he said, his smirk getting smirkier. He leaned forward, a sure sign that he knew what I was preparing to do. Crap. “My name’s Derek. I’m your mate, your husband to be, I guess you could say.” WHAT. EVEN. WHAT??? My mind started cartwheeling. Rowena and Duncan must have sensed the gathering power and activated the rest of the protections. Yes, I sensed the faint hum of the barrier on the garden increase in frequency. Good.

“No thank you, I’m not interested in a mate or a husband. I’m sure someone else in town will be very happy to fill that role. Good bye.” His face had a such a look of confusion on it that I would have been laughing in any other situation. I slammed the door shut as I activated the rest of the barrier.

Holy shit holy shit shit shit. No, I’m fine, I’ve got this under control. I ran to the library, snatched open a drawer in my desk, spat out a spell, revealing the secret compartment in the back half of the drawer. A hand mirror sat there. I grabbed it, shouting “Show me Niamh right now, you son of a bitch!” I was going to have to apologize to the mirror later for being so rude, but right now I had to deal with this creep.

The surface of the mirror rippled, and then my friend’s face appeared. She was smiling, but stopped as soon as she saw my face.

“Lauren, what’s wrong?” she asked, her eyes widening in concern.

“There’s a shapeshifter here. He says he’s my mate, but none of my alarms sensed him and I didn’t even know what he was until he said that.” I hissed accusingly.

“What?? What else did he say?”

“He asked if I was Lauren ELEPHANT, the daughter of the goddess of Time. Niamh, no one is supposed to KNOW that except for a very few people, including you!”

“Oh shit! Ok, can you show me his face?”

I peaked out the window of the library, twitching the curtain aside as I did. He wasn’t standing on my porch anymore, but was still in the front yard, on the path leading to the house, looking up at the windows. I tilted the mirror so that NEAVE would see him. I stood there for several seconds before the man turned his head toward me, at which point I slowly let the curtain fall back into position and moved the mirror away from the window. I turned it to face me again. NEAVE’s face looked pale.

“Did he say anything else?” She asked me.

“Just his name, Derek, and what I said before. After the part about being my ‘mate’, I slammed the door shut and put up all the barriers.”

“Ok, ok, ok. I am going to the elders and asking them what they know. Because the waves of magic coming off of him are nothing like any other shapeshifter magic I know, but he’s definitely a shapeshifter. I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything out.” She was gone before I could say anything else.

I put the mirror down on the desk and headed to the kitchen. Rowena and Duncan were there, quietly talking. They both stopped and looked at me as I came in.

“Who is it? we activated the wards as soon as we sensed you pulling in power.” Rowena asked.

“A shapeshifter” I sank onto the bench.

“The wards should have sensed a shifter,” Duncan mused. “Are you sure?” Rowen slapped his arm. She didn’t like it when others questioned me. Only she could do that.

“Oh, I’m sure. He informed me he’s my mate. Then, once I slammed the door in his face I called Niamh on the mirror and had her check.”

“He said he was your mate?”

I put my head in my hands. “Yep, he said ‘mate’. Also the words husband-to-be.” I stared at the floor, running through all the denizens of the magical world in my mind, trying to figure out who would use the word ‘mate’ in reference to me. Not a lot of people knew my mother’s real identity. Sure, many knew I was a powerful sorceress (not that I hid it much), but there were many, many powerful magic users in the word.

From that perspective I wasn’t anything unique or special.

My phone chimed, making me jump. It was a text from Niamh.

[He’s a Pure One. Keep barriers up until I get there. ETA tomorrow]

I looked up at Rowena and Duncan.

“Do the words ‘Pure One” mean anything to you?”

Duncan inhaled sharply; Rowena’s eyes widened and she hid her hands in her apron pockets.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Explanation, please.”

Rowena shook her head. “Is Niamh on her way?” At my nod she visibly deflated. “We should wait until she gets here to explain.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You know I’m going to spend the time waiting researching the term ‘Pure One” as much as I can. You might as well save us all the stress and tell me.”

Rowena shook her head. “I can’t” she whispered.

I sat up straight. Rowena never whispered like that, never appeared afraid, as she did now. A cold feeling started in my chest and slowly spread. Wordlessly I reached out, took her hands in mine, and nodded my understanding. We stayed that way for a moment, then I released her hands, got up, and went into the library.

Hours later, the library was a mess, and I didn’t have much in the way of answers. None of my books mentioned the phrase ‘Pure One’ and a few internet searches got me nothing but racist blogs and weird sex toy shops. I contemplated my next steps.

I could call Mom and ask her. But that could lead to her coming here in a hurry, drawing unwanted attention and putting both myself and my family in danger. But not calling her now and having to call her later (if this ended up being as bad as Rowena made it seem, or even worse) would put everyone in danger anyways. I had to call her now.

I grabbed my phone and tapped her picture. She answered after a few seconds.

“Hi Pumpkin!” Her voice filled me with a sense of comfort and safety. I breathed deeply before I breached that sense of safety.

“Hey mom. I have a situation and need information. Do the words ‘Pure One’ mean anything to you?”

“Pure One? Are you absolutely sure?” She asked, all levity leaving her voice.

“Oh yeah. Dude just appeared at my door, said he’s my mate or husband or whatever. I slammed the door and the barriers, called Niamh, who talked to the elders and got the phrase ‘Pure One’. She’s on her way now. But Rowena won’t even talk to me about it, and I’m really freaked out. What the hell is going on?”

Mom sighed. “Ok, pumpkin, put the phone down for a minute and take a deep breath.” I started to protest. “Just listen to me and breathe.” Groaning, I tapped the speaker button and put the phone on the floor. Then I laid down next to it, and took a deep breath. “Another.” Mom’s voice instructed me from next to my head. I took another. And another.

“Feel calmer?”

“Yes. I do.” I stayed on the floor.

“Good. Alright, Niamh will give you the shapeshifter side of the story when she gets there, and I’m going to tell you our side, and then you’ll have 2 perspectives.”

Mom’s side of the story

A long time ago, when the gods were just getting started on messing shit up (No, really, mom did not like the other gods playing so cavalier with life), many of us were very concerned about lineage. “Lineage? Why? They live forever,” I muttered. Don’t interrupt me, please. Yes, they were concerned with lineage. They were creating life and realized that they could have their own children. Where do you think so many ancient and current cultures got the idea of a pure bloodline from? It’s all ridiculous, blood doesn’t keep a mind from going one way or another, but gods are not known for being clever. Anyways, because they were convinced that their descendents had to be perfect, they focused on finding the best partner who would pass on the best of themselves to the child. Sadly, I also thought finding the best partner was necessary for a time, and met with many potentials. But none interested me enough to want to have a child with them. Which upset a number of the others who wanted to have a kid with the power of time. So they began coming to me with proposals, like if I had a child with them, they would raise it, not me. Insane, if you ask me. Why would I have a child just to leave them with someone else. They clearly didn’t know me at all. When I refused, they then offered to have my child (with whoever I chose) match with theirs. Again, I refused. I wasn’t the only one who was refusing, and so a number of gods and goddesses gathered to discuss how to force our hands. Not good. They came up with the idea that their children, which they would call ‘Pure Ones’ would seek out the other children of whatever gods/goddesses refused to take part in this charade, and mate with them, to bring the bloodlines back into the fold. When we found out about this, many of us fled to Earth, taking on human personas to hide ourselves and protect our families. It’s had mixed success. Some children chose to partner with these ‘Pure Ones’, others have been able to hide, as far as I’m aware. We don’t keep much contact with each other, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, as one of the more powerful gods, my children risk being easily detected. You especially, since your biological father was already a half-blood himself. It’s made you quite powerful, and while I’ve been doing what I can to hide your power, it’s impossible to completely conceal it. I suppose they’ve finally figured out how to track your magic and sent someone to you.

“This is all fascinating, mom, but what does that mean for me? Am I required to be with this guy? Will they force me? Cuz if they will, they’d better be prepared for a fight. I will not do what they want.” I could feel anger rising in my chest.

“No, you are not required, I have never and will never force you to do anything. What they will do, on the other hand, I have no idea. They can’t outright force you, but they may try many underhanded attempts to get your cooperation. Whatever happens, I am here and will help you, and you have allies in other places as well.”

“Ok.”

“This is a lot. How are you doing?” Mom’s voice hid some of her worry, but I knew it was there.

“Not great, honestly. I do not like the idea of them not caring about what I want and only care about using me to make their bloodlines better. What about my siblings?”

“I’ve been able to mask their powers until they came of age, and you know all of them chose to remain human. Their powers have mostly faded and can’t be recovered. I’m so sorry, honey, that you’re the one who has to deal with this. I wish I could make this go away. It’s not fair to you, or anyone else.”

I sighed. At least my siblings were safe. “I know, mom. Thanks for telling me. Niamh is here tomorrow, so I should probably try to sleep. I’ll call you when we have a better idea of what is going on.”

After saying our goodbyes, I ended the call and stayed on the floor for a few more minutes. Well, this fucking sucks. I have a horny, bloodline obsessed shapeshifter in the area who is set on making babies with me. Nevermind that I have no interest in having kids. Ugh.

I let myself wallow in self pity for a moment longer, then I sat up, and looked around the library. It was a mess, and when I’m upset, a mess makes my mood even worse. Wordlessly I flicked my fingers and pushed with a bit of magic, and the library began to organize itself. Books closed themselves and flew back to the shelves, papers shuffled together into a neat stack and settled on top of the desk, and the cups and teapot floated back to the tray. Once the magic was finished, I stood up, picked up the tray, and left. I placed the tray in the kitchen, and began washing the dishes on it. The mindless task helped me relax a bit more.

Afterwards, I checked the fridge for food, and found a plate covered with beeswax paper and a little note with my name. Rowena had left me dinner. I uncovered it, microwaved it (yes, I could have used magic, but a microwave works just as well, plus while the food was reheating, I put away the tray, and the beeswax paper and wiped up any water from washing the dishes). I sat down to eat the food, the flavorful vegetable stew distracting me from my thoughts. Rowena always knew how to make the food taste just delicious. I washed those dishes and went to bed. Thankfully, I was able to sleep well enough that I woke up the next morning feeling a bit more optimistic about the whole situation.

After showering, I checked my phone, and sure enough, Niamh had texted with her ETA. I hurried downstairs to let Rowena know that we would have guests for breakfast. Naturally, Rowena had already guessed, or perhaps knew somehow, that Niamh and her partner would be here in time for the first meal of the day, and was already making enough food for us all.

Grinning, I thanked her for the plate she had made me last night.

“No need,” she said, focused on the 4 pans cooking in front of her. “Thank you though for washing the dishes. Twas a nice surprise to see a clean kitchen when I woke up.”

I gave her a quick hug. “We all deserve to have a clean and neat home, and the kitchen is as much my safe space as it is yours, so of course I keep it tidy.” She chuckled and then shooed me away.

Pulling out my phone, I called Niamh. “How’s the drive going? Want to murder anyone yet?” I asked as soon as she answered.

“Nearly. I made Max switch with me once morning traffic started getting worse. He’s a lot of things, but aggressive driver isn’t one of them.” I could hear