The Descendants of Arn

“There weren’t always Dragons in the Valley. Jo, it is time. You must tell them.”

Indira paced the hallway while her sister put the kettle on the stove. Her sleeves swished loudly at her sides as she pumped her arms. This was too distracting. She twisted the ring on her right ring finger nervously. It was an heirloom from her mother—a large sapphire inlayed in silver with enchantments placed on it by its previous owner and her sisters. Protection is always the first step in using magic. Her mother had been protecting Indira and her siblings from whatever the world was going to throw at them well before they knew anything of magic. The weight of the ring stuck out particularly this day. Indira stopped in the doorway to check the progress of the kettle.

“Zina, how is the tea coming? I can feel her. She’s near. Of all days for her to arrive early,” Indira puffed.

“It will be done when it’s done. Besides… Aunt Jo doesn’t care if the tea is ready or not. She just wants to see us,” replied Zina as she selected the blend of herbs they would use today.

“Where is Araya? She should be here too. The letter said she needed all of us to be here. She has something important to tell us. What could she possibly have to tell us?”

“I don’t have the foggiest, but I know twisting yourself up about it when we’re about to get the answer is silly. You should have started drinking something herbal as soon as you got up in the morning. Araya is about to come through the garden door. She will need a vase, no doubt,” Zina said.

The last sister flung open the door carrying an armful of purple and white flowers. She had twigs in her wild, brown and wavy hair. Her dress had a few inches of mud on the bottom and was tied up haphazardly in certain places and she wore no shoes. Araya had a constant playful look on her face; mischief danced across her freckles and shone out from her heterochromic eyes, which looked like the golden sun shining in the middle of the blue sky. Herbs were stuffed in tufts inside her apron pockets, and she smelled like sweat and the fresh outdoors. By comparison, her identical twin sister Zina kept her brown, wavy hair neatly braided, was uncommonly tidy and where mischief played the central character of Araya’s personality, warm kindness could be seen as Zina’s. They could not be more different in their interests from one another if one had been born the sun and the other the moon.

The 3 girls had all inherited the slope of their mother’s nose and the curve of her lips but that is where the resemblance between the twins and their older sister ended. Indira was the oldest by nearly 5 years and was prone to a seriousness that her sisters had not found interesting enough for themselves. She often took it upon herself to mother the household, even when no one had asked her to take up such a role. She stood much taller than the twins and her build was sturdier. Her hair came up in bouncy brown curls, which she preferred to keep down whenever it made sense and where her sisters eyes resembled the sun in the sky, Indira’s looked like a patch of grass upon the earth.

“Sissy, get me a vase please. You know how Jo loves the purple ones,” Araya said to Indira.

“That she does. Grow these yourself, did ya? Why the white ones?” Indira asked,

“I did indeed. And these ones are white because I intend to do this…” Araya reached out and gently held the white bloom of one of the flowers in her palm and as Indira looked on, the petals began to change into a lovely lavender color.

“Beautiful, Araya. Just stunning. She will love these.”

“Zina, is Uncle Bruno coming for a visit as well?” Araya asked her twin.

“The letter doesn’t say. He may have stayed back with Jack and Lucy,” she replied.

The three girls set to making the various rooms in which they would entertain ready for their aunt’s arrival. Zina tidied the kitchen as she conjured up pastries to go with the tea she would soon begin steeping. Araya arranged flowers and placed them on the table in the front room to greet her aunt. Indira knocked tentatively on the study door before gently pushing it open. It was dark through most of the room and a little musty even though the windows were open. Depressing. That is how the room always looked now that their mother didn’t inhabit it daily. In a chair with its back turned to her across the study sat Indira’s stepfather, Tor. Indira and the twins felt the loss of their mother every day, but even they knew it was nothing compared to the loss that Tor felt in his very soul. He was like a compass without its needle and spent most of his days drinking alone in her study. Indira stepped inside the room and shut the door quietly.

“Tor?” Indira spoke gently to not startle him. “Tor, Aunt Jo is coming for a visit. I thought maybe you would want to come greet her with us?”

Tor turned to glance behind his chair at his oldest daughter. He got a strange look on his face, and he got up so rapidly that the chair almost tipped over.

“Vivian? Is that you?” he squinted through the darkness at Indira.

“No, Dad. It’s me… Indira.”

“Oh my. Heavens and Hells, Indira. I think you grow more like her every day.”

Indira blushed. She had always wanted to look like her mother. Vivian would laugh as she said that she had prayed so hard for a girl only to have her look like her father. Indira herself could not remember any man aside from Tor as her father, so she had to take her word for it. The thought took her back to a simpler, happier time. Tor and Vivian loved one another so completely and their house had been so happy. Tor had 3 adult sons before he met her mother. Indira was the only girl and had been swept up in the whirlwind of the Brewer family. Every day felt like an occasion and the warmth she felt in those memories still sustained her on her darkest days. It only took a few years before her mother fell pregnant and would complete the family.

“One time, boys! One time and we shall have 2 sons from it!” he raucously said as he clapped his hand on the middle son, Arthur’s back. The midwife had confirmed what Vivian had suspected. Indira had protested the idea of more boys immediately. She wanted 2 little sisters. And of course, a few months later, she got her wish. The twins came nearly 2 months early and the labor was hard. She remembered hearing her mother scream from one of the rooms on the second floor for what felt like days. Zina came quietly shortly after the sun had gotten up that day. Araya took her time in following her sister but announced herself quite loudly. Tor had never been happier.

“I never in a million years thought I would have daughters. First you bring me one and now you’ve made me two beauties. Truly, you have made all my dreams come true from the moment I met you,” he said to Vivian as he held her and admired the twins. She smiled contentedly and life went on as charming as ever.

Jo was, of course, the twins Godmother. Every milestone the girls had, every celebration had included Aunt Jo, who was not biologically related as their mother was an only child. Vivian had selected her sisters for herself over the years and was afforded the luxury of loving each one more than most love their actual siblings. The other aunties were scattered far and wide, but Jo always stuck close because she never wanted to miss anything important. They were her girls just as much as they were anyone’s.

“Dad. I can feel her. She’s very near the property line and I’m sure she will be shown in soon. Would you like to make yourself ready to greet her? I know she would love to see you. You’ve barely said 5 words to anyone outside of us kids in the last year,” Indira said to her father.

“My dear, the breath left me when your mother disappeared,” he solemnly replied.

“Dad… she’s gone. You don’t honestly think anyone could have survived an explosion like that, do you?”

“Indira, if anyone could, surely it would be your mother. I don’t know what happened that day. I don’t know if it was a freak accident, sabotage or a diversion. I don’t know if your mother implemented it or was a victim of it. All I know is that I still feel her, Dira. She’s still out there. And I know that I don’t possess magic like you girls do… I know that you are all very connected to one another. But if I’ve ever been connected to anyone, it’s her. She’s still out there. I know it.”

Indira tenderly placed her hand on the side of Tor’s head and pushed it to her side like her mother had always done with all of them. He was getting a little too upset to convince to entertain someone, even briefly. She looked down at his hair and thought that it looked whiter than she remembered. The year had been hard on him in more ways than one.

“Let’s forget about Aunt Jo for now, Dad. She may end up staying for a while anyway—we don’t really know the nature of her visit or if the rest of the Thatchers are coming. Maybe we can make arrangements with Cai, Arthur and Eli to come up for dinner tomorrow. Would you prefer that? Maybe they’ll bring you a sample of whatever they’re working on now?”

“I would like that a lot, dear heart. Thank you. I won’t keep you any longer,” Tor said in a tired voice.

Back in the main part of the house, Zina and Araya were sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea and eating cookies. They looked out the garden door waiting for their aunt, who would presumably use this door as she always had in the past.

“Whatchu think she’s comin’ to tell us?” Araya asked.

“I don’t know, but clearly something more important than the weather report if she’s traveling to do it in person. She’s hardly been here since Mom’s accident. I think it made her feel like she needed to be with her own kids,” Zina replied.

Just as Indira walked into the kitchen, their aunt could be seen rounding the corner into the garden. Araya called her name and motioned for her to come in through the side door. Zina fixed her aunt and sister cups of tea while Indira took her traveling cloak and hat. Jo was neither tall or short and was soft and motherly to look at. Her face always looked amused, as though she knew some secret about you that was funny. And where their mother seemed like she had a soul as old as the hills, Jo always seemed to hold onto a childlike wonderment with life. This also was apparent in her hair, which had an enchantment on it that allowed Jo to change its color depending on her mood.

“Alright, now that that’s out of the way, come here you little Hellions!”

The girls piled into their aunt’s warm embrace. Jo’s hair changed from the dark forest green it often was to a bright pink. They hadn’t known it until that very moment, but they had needed this hug for a long time. There was something different about a hug from someone who has known you since you were very small. It was as though their aunt was pressing right through them and hugging the younger version of them inside.

“It’s so good to see you, Aunt Jo,” Zina said once they had all separated.

“It’s good to see all your smiling faces again. I know it’s been too long since last I was here but…” Jo trailed off.

“We understand. You had your hands full at home with the little ones. How are they? And uncle Bruno?” asked Indira.

Jo proceeded to update the girls on the happenings of her household while their tea cooled. Her hair changed from mellow yellows to unnaturally bright blues and every color in between. Araya listened with one ear as she stared dreamily out the window, Zina was rapt with interest and asked questions about her little cousins while Indira quietly waited for an opening to ask about why their aunt was really there. Some time after her tales of Lucy’s mud pies and Jack’s skinned knees, Jo could see that her oldest niece was a little on edge. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself for the conversation she had been avoiding for a year.

“I know you’re anxious to know what I must tell you. But I don’t really even know where to begin. A lot of this your mother should have conveyed to you long ago. I suppose she thought she could spare you if you didn’t know the truth, but here we are. And so I must ask you, Indira… what do you know of your life before the Brewers?”

Indira felt her face redden. She didn’t know anything. Once, when she was a teenager, she had asked her mother a few questions about her father. The only reply she had received was that Tor was the only father that was important. She had had a sinking feeling that this conversation was doomed to be about her, no magical inclinations required.

“Not much. I know that Tor is not the one who gave me life, but he has made my life full and happy. I know that Mother is truly an only child and that our plethora of aunties comes from many years of friendship. And… I know that Mother is not from around here, but I do not know what area her family is actually from,” she replied.

“That’s about as much as I expected you to know,” Jo replied while rubbing her eyes. “Indira, you come from a village on the other side of the world. Your mother’s family are renowned magic users and run this village. It is a secluded valley high in the mountain and most people need to be shown how to get there by villagers or travelers who have been shown the way. They don’t like to be disturbed and generally spend their time learning as much as they can about their craft.”

The twins, who sat next to one another at the table, glanced from their sister to their aunt, back to their sister again. Araya, who normally has a distracted air about her during serious conversations, felt cemented to the spot. Zina worked hard to control her breathing and keep herself calm. Indira felt as though the first 21 years of her life were about to become very small.

“To summarize, you girls are descended from legendary magic users. The cream of the crop, as it were. I should think that if you still lived in the village that there would be a lot expected from you. Your mother, as you could probably have figured out on your own, didn’t fit the mold of her kinsman. She was too much her own person to fall in line and obey orders. When she met your father, Indira, she was introduced to quite a different world. And that’s when I met her. You see, your father and I were in a thieves guild. We were given an assignment to retrieve a special book from your grandfather’s library. I’m not proud of my past, girls. But it helped make me into the person I am today. It brought you into my life.” Jo’s generally happy face was very serious, and her hair had changed to a steely blue.

“We obviously didn’t complete the assignment; your mother having found us out. Her magic was very strong. She was forgiving and since we were clever enough to find the Valley, she invited us to stay and began to teach us how to do simple magics. When your mother became pregnant, we went on the run in the middle of the night. She knew that if she birthed a son, he would be next in line after your grandfather to run the village and guide the Valley. It wasn’t something she wanted for any of her children, and she knew that an heir would be taken from her as soon as he was weaned. That was something she couldn’t bear.”

The pieces of their mother’s life began to fall into place as they listened to their aunt, a former thief, go on. Indira’s head swam with questions. All of her mother’s little quirks and seemingly out of place opinions on things suddenly started to make sense. She watched Jo’s hair change colors as she went on. It moved almost like a wave and helped keep her from flying apart at the seams.

“So, you guys ran off in the middle of the night in case I happened to be a boy to avoid having to give me over to this monarchial rulership. What happened to my dad?”

“Indira. This happened 4 years before you were born,” Jo said, her eyes clamped tight and her hair as dark as the depths of the ocean. When she opened them again, her nieces could see the tears were about to spill over.

“So… mother had a miscarriage and 4 years later, I was born? What happened to my father? This is making things worse, not better. I’m more confused now than ever.”

“Okay, okay. Your father died when your mother was pregnant with you. She wasn’t strong enough being so heavily pregnant to use her magic against the attackers. He was overcome and she barely made it out alive. She showed up at my door days later, weak and exhausted. She finally let herself cry once she was inside. It broke my heart, Dira. Hearing her wail. It took her family 4 years to find her, but they had finally done it.”

“Her family did this? My family did this? How? How could they do this to her? To me?” Indira felt the heat rise into her face and she began to cry. She had never known her father, never really had the opportunity to miss him. And there it was. He was off this mortal realm before she had entered it and all to protect her mother and her future self. Zina ran over and tried to comfort her while Jo and Araya just looked on. After Indira composed herself a little, her littlest sister spoke up.

“You’re not hearing everything Auntie is saying,” she said evenly.

“She’s right,” Jo sighed. “There’s more to it than what you have guessed.” Jo slid her chair back and stood up. She paced the length of the small kitchen, and then faced all 3 girls. Zina straightened from her comforting stance. She could feel the energy her twin had already picked up on.

“You girls have an older brother,” Jo said slowly. “His name is Ryder. In 6 weeks, he will come of age and be brought out to begin his rule. It’s a lot to process. I know. It’s been a lot to keep from you.”

The 3 girls stared at Jo with varying degrees of confusion and realization. They hadn’t even processed her statement when she followed it with the biggest news of the trip.

“Girls, listen to me. There’s something else you need to know: your mother is still alive. And she’s in trouble.”