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It took them longer than expected to reach Indiana, mainly because they got lost during the first night, which prompted the decision to stay at a hotel for several hours of non-moving sleep. Nevertheless, they arrived about noon on the second day of the trip. Raven was driving and it was a good thing, since his home town had some confusing streets made only more so in recent years. Ten years previous, it had been a small town who's only claim to fame was being along the junctions of two major interstate roads, but there had been a recent boom, and for a time there had been new houses going up around the clock. Raven's nervousness returned as he turned down the street which had been his home for almost eighteen years. With the passing of each renovated house, the nervousness seemed to triple. If there weren't four other people in the car, Raven might have turned around and headed back to New York. By the time he managed to bring up enough courage to do so, he was already at the driveway. He drove down the new concrete path and brought the van to a halt out of the way of anyone who might arrive to see his family.
The house, like his home town, had gone through extensive changes as his mother rearranged it to her liking. In truth, nothing of the original house remained to remind him of those childhood memories from so long ago. There were two other cars in the driveway, his mother's and his younger brother's. He recognized his brother's car mostly because it had been a college graduation present from Raven two years earlier. His youngest brother, Simon, was having a hard time breaking into the gaming industry, since the job market was flooded with brash young programmers that had been raised on modern video games. Simon was staying with their mother to save on expenses and was working from home, designing his own games while trying to get the attention of some company that he would want to work for. At Raven's insistence, his mother had retired early and was living off the money Raven had made with his writing. With wise investing, she would never have to work another day in her life. As it was, she had worked much her life to give the best for him as his brother. It was the least Raven could to do in return for sacrifices she had made all her life for the two of them.
"You going to be all right?" LeShana asked him. Raven nodded and took a deep breath as he opened the door to the car and all of them exited the vehicle. It would take a while and it was rude to leave any of them to wait inside the van. He lead all of them towards the back door, but they did not get there before both his brother and his mother appeared.
"Raven!" His mother called, and ran to hug and kiss him. Simon followed at a more sedate pace, eying the strangers with suspicion and interest. "You’ve been up to no good again." She whispered warningly, but smiling even as she said it.
"You know me, I'll never change." Raven replied with a grin.
"You keep it up, and we are going to have to invest in a moat, a seven foot metal fence, and a some big dogs to chase off all of the reporters and single women." Simon commented with a mocking scowl.
"Don't forget all the enraged husbands and all the game designers whose ideas you've ripped off." Raven replied, taking his brother's hand as he released his mother.
"Mom, I would like to introduce you LeShana, Sarath, Solair, and Destin." Raven began, gesturing to each of the agents. As Sarath shook her hand the two of them exchanged a strange look, but it passed so quickly that Raven thought he had imagined it.
"You can call me Nadia." She told them, shaking their hands.
"Don't I get an introduction?" Simon asked, giving the three women a charming smile, proving his playboy ways had yet to fade.
"No, now go away." Raven replied just as quickly.
"Don't make me send the two of you to your rooms." His mother threatened, mostly in play.
"Yes, mother." Raven and Simon replied with the same mockingly meek tones.
"This is Simon, probably the lowest human on the evolutionary scale." Raven reported to the agents, to which Simon retorted by punching him in the arm. Simon walked to Sarath and took her hand, then bowed to her, kissing her knuckles like he was somehow stuck in the middle ages. "You have my permission to hit him." Raven told Sarath, who smiled at him.
"Don't tempt me." Sarath replied as Simon rose, wearing a flirtatious smile.
"Let's go inside. The neighbors already think we’re strange enough." Simon suggested with a warm chuckle. As they walked towards the house, Raven looked closely at his mother. She was looking better, more relaxed, more alert, as if the ravages of time seemed to be reversing in her case. Oddly enough, she looked more like a woman of twenty than a woman of sixty. Much to his surprise, Raven did notice that her ears her now appeared to be slightly pointed, but he decided that he was seeing things. They stepped inside and walked through the house towards the living room, where there were more than enough seats for all of them.
"You're staying here for the night." She told them definitively, even before he might say a word to her about anything.
"Mom, we can get hotel rooms." Raven replied just as quickly.
"Nonsense there are more than enough rooms here for all of you." She told them with a smile. "Simon, go get the rooms ready. You five have no doubt been in the car for a long time." Simon pushed out of his chair and left the room.
"This isn't just a social visit, I need to tell you some things." Raven began softly.
"You're leaving, I know." She replied, interrupting him before he could truly begin. "I know all about the Salak'patan, the Center, and all that." The look of shock on his face was closely matched by the expressions of the others, and only Sarath seemed unmoved.
"How, what, when, I.." Raven stammered, as eloquent as ever.
"It can wait, I don't want your brother to hear this, not right now." She told him quickly, forestalling any further brilliant word play on his part. His mother changed the subject to something safe as his brother returned. Simon sat down and listened quietly. "Simon." His mother began after several minutes of unabated comments on the weather. "I just realized that we are going to need some things from store." She told him, though it was clear to all of them that it was simply her way of regaining some privacy. "Can you go?" Simon thought about it for a moment with a mockingly playful smile before nodding. His mother located a pad of paper and quickly scrawled out a list. "And pick up some pizza on your way back." Simon grumbled, but he nodded anyway as he left the house. Everyone was silent until they heard the car pull out of the drive way. "I have never told this to anyone, so please bare with me if I struggle. I have repeated this story to myself a thousand times, and I have never really found a good way to begin it. Raven, I am not your real mother. I am an elf. I brought you from the Salak'patan twenty-four years ago. You never really belonged on this world, and I knew that one day you would return to the Halls where you belonged. I am a paladin of Seletra, and I have been one of her paladins for almost three hundred years. But thirty-two years ago, I was working at a manor of the Black Raven Empire's royal families. I did not know why I had been directed there, but it was not my duty to question her wishes. It was there that I befriended a young woman. Her name was Sestal, she was fifteen and a very charming girl." She gave Sarath a significant look. "I instantly liked her. I was surprised when I later learned that she was the lord's daughter, and as time passed, we became friends. I was honored when I became her closest confidant. On the day that she turned eighteen, her father told her that she was going to be married to a wealthy business man. Her father felt that the match might bring him more prominence on the council, not to mention much need funds after his bad business decisions. Sestal was heartbroken, and I was fearful." She told them quickly and without embellishment, clearly worried and fearful of his reaction to her story.
"Corthan had a very bad reputation. He had been married four times, all of his wives had died in child-birth and all of them took their children with them into the afterlife. It was also rumored that he was very promiscuous and had jilted lovers on th
irty planets. But Sestal had no recourse, the decision had been made, and this was before the laws were passed that outlawed forced marriage. So Sestal was wedded a week later and was moved to Corthan's estate. I went with her to serve as her personal servant. Corthan was not gentle with her; he forced sex on her for three months until he was sure that she had conceived, then went off to pursue other beds without a second thought. I hated him, but Sestal couldn't. She did not have the strength to hate him, so I hated him enough for the both of us. I witnessed the birth of her daughter, she named her after me, Lunara." She paused for a moment to take a long, slow breath. "I watched Luna grow up and Sestal wither. She was not made to bear children. The doctors did their best to try and help her, but she had lost a lot of blood. Sestal just seemed to shrink away in the backwater that we were stuck in. Until two years later, when Corthan bought his way into the court of the Emperor and moved all of us to the Imperial capitol. It was there that Sestal seemed to recover, as she was surrounded by friends and given better care by her doctors." She sighed and took a moment to pause and rest her voice.
"That was where she met a brash young mage, Neatain. He was handsome, charming, mannered, and he lavished every moment of his free time on her. It was perhaps only too easy for her to fall in love with him, and I worked hard to hide their relationship from the gossips at court. I helped them meet away from prying eyes and even went as far as using my magic to assist their liaisons. I had forsworn the use of magic for many years after a simple spell had landed me in trouble, but I would have done anything for her. The relationship ended abruptly when Neatain was reassigned to some outpost world. Two months passed and then Sestal discovered that she was pregnant. She had not been with Corthan for three years, so it was certain to be Neatain's child. Sestal refused to give up the child, a baby conceived in love, so she hid her pregnancy for as long as she could and past the point where it could be aborted." She paused to wipe a few tears from her eyes, and Destin offered her a tissue.
"When Corthan found out, he was enraged past the point of sanity. He tried to hit Sestal, but I stopped him, although soon after we were sent to an outpost world that was barely even settled, to wait out the birth of the infant. In secret, he ordered his guards to kill the baby as soon as it was born. I learned of this and tried to smuggle Sestal away. We were found and dragged back to the manor, then I was thrown in the dungeon and Sestal was locked in her rooms. But the dungeon was old and the guards did not know who they were dealing with, although my escape would take time neither of us really had, because Sestal went into labor soon after being brought back to the manor. I could hear her screams throughout the night it took me to free myself. I escaped, killed the guards and the servants that were loyal to Corthan, so when Sestal gave birth, I was there. The sheets were covered in blood and she was in a great deal of pain, but she begged me to take her son and keep him safe. I wanted to stay and help her, but she would not hear of it. She knew she was dying and there was nothing anyone could do, and I could not deny my young friend's dying wish. So, I ran away with the newborn. I needed to get away from Corthan's wrath. he was a very powerful man, and I knew that there were very few places that could protect me and the child. My mind worked furiously, trying to figure out where I could escape to. That night, Seletra came to me and she told me what I had to do to save the child. The next morning I woke with a new sense of purpose. I went to a forgotten planet called Earth where we would be safe. I used my magic to change my appearance, but I needed more than that. I moved from town to town, doing odd jobs, learning the language, and taking care of the baby. I worked my way south until I reached this town, and by that time I was desperate, fearful that I would lose the infant my friend had given her life for. That was when I found a young woman. She had crashed her car into a tree and was dying. There was nothing I could do to save her, but with her I saw hope. I took desperate measures.. got rid of her body, cut my head and exchanged my clothes with hers. Then I started walking dazedly down the road. It was not long before a police car found me. They questioned me, but I did not know the answers they wanted, so they simply assumed that I had amnesia. They took me and the child to the hospital, and as her family members came in, I replaced their memories of her with memories of me and added the child as well. With the last of my magic I insinuated myself into that woman's world. With my assumed husband, I gave birth to another child and started to take care of my adopted child and my own. Time passed slowly for me, but now as I look back at it, it seems to have passed within seconds." She paused as she remembered. "That child was you Raven. Simon is my half-blood son."
"Why don't you want Simon to know all of this?" Raven asked, having long since passed the point of shock.
"One day, I will tell him. He has a lot of growing up to do still, and I do not want him to do it the hard way. When the magic fully returns, and his magic is awakened, then I will return to the halls. I will train him myself, or bring him to the Center so he can be trained there. Seletra has not left me here all by myself and she will call me one day and I will go off again." She replied, then shook her head. "Sarath.. I knew your mother, she was the best of people no matter what poison your father has raised you on." She added with a few more tears. Raven was shocked, but Sarath was not. He stared at both of them, too stunned to get his mind to work properly.
"Sarath is my sister?" Raven asked after an eternity.
"Yes, she is." She replied soberly.
"Excuse me." Raven stated and walked off into the house. Once out of sight he ran up to the stairs to the library and thrust the door shut, his mind reeling from the revelations that he had just been told. He could feel LeShana approaching a short time later and moved away from the door.
"Raven." LeShana called as she carefully walked in. "Are you all right?"
"This is too much." He whispered back, everything seeming to shatter around him. "I have had my world dashed against the rocks." LeShana wrapped her arms around his stomach and laid her head against his back. "I fall in madly love with a woman I have never really met before, I discover that the stable world that I have thought of as home is not the only one out there, nor is it really my home, I am told I can do magic, and now this, a sister!" Raven let his words fade, his voice weak with tension.
"Do you wish that none of this had ever happened?" LeShana asked him softly.
"NO!" He replied adamantly, using just a little more force than absolutely necessary. "I just wish that every time I finally got a stable picture of who and what I am, someone would not come along and completely crush it to pieces. There are just so many times one can have their beliefs destroyed before it becomes too much to handle."
"I know." LeShana replied soothingly. "I promise that when we get to the Center, we won't shatter your views more than once a month." She added with a smile that was heard but not seen. Despite himself, he was forced to chuckle before a bone deep sigh followed. "Sarath is worried that you ran off because of her." LeShana told him after a short silence.
"It isn't.. I just didn’t want the others to see me fall apart." He replied, his voice full of trembling emotions. "When I first meet Sarath, I knew there was something there, like some kind bond. More subtle than the one I felt for you, but it was still there."
"Blood calls to blood. She is your sister, your heart knew who she was even when you didn't." LeShana told him softly, speaking almost as if it was a matter of fact back where she came from. "We had better go reassure her before she decides to copy you and run off."
"We won't need to, here she comes." Raven replied, sensing her as she came up the stairs.
"Raven." Sarath called from the other side of the door.
"Come in." LeShana called and Sarath slipped inside, practically projecting her troubled emotions since her upset thoughts were affecting her shielding. "It's all right." LeShana assured her. Raven could almost hear LeShana relating the last few minutes to Sarath t
elepathically but was thankfully spared the details. Sarath sighed heavily, her sense of relief permeating the room. LeShana patted Raven on the back and let him go so that he could turn to face Sarath.
"I have a brother." Sarath whispered, surprise in her voice. She walked closer and embraced Raven, and he hugged back out of reflex. But as time passed, the rumbling emotions seem to settle as her presence simply brushed aside everything else, heralding acceptance.
"Where were you when I was trying to get a date for the prom?" Raven asked her resting his chin on the top of her head. Sarath laughed softly back at him.
"Where were you when I fending off unwanted suitors?" Sarath asked him in return.
"Probably trying to get a date." Raven replied with a laughter in his voice, causing her amusement to grow in response.
"Simon's home." LeShana commented, looking out the window. "You two better break it off before he gets the wrong idea." LeShana added with a smile of her own.
"He's not my type." Sarath murmured with a smile.
"Just don't go and try steal LeShana away from me." Raven warned her.
"How did you know?" She demanded of him as she pulled away just a little.
"I'll tell you later." Raven replied, tapping her on the tip of her nose, as he let her go and moved towards the door.
"LeShana, did you tell him?" Sarath asked, almost sounding as she were accusing his bonded of something.
"No." LeShana replied, looking just as confused.
"Simon is more handsome than any three men put together, and you barely even noticed him. Even LeShana and Solair took extra long looks at him." Raven commented, sticking his head back through the door as he stood in the hallway, the two women growled at him. Sarath lobbed a pillow from the couch at him a half heartbeat later. Raven ducked back into the hall after allowing the pillow hit the wall, and just as quickly stuck his head back into to smile at her before retreating back downstairs.
"He is going to be twice as hard to control now." Sarath commented.
"I'll keep him in line." LeShana told her with a wide smile. Sarath smiled back at her and nodded as she walked towards the door.