Cursed Daughter

Chapter 10

    I recognized the lady as Dimitra, the woman from my vision. She had long black hair with fierce green eyes. Her complexion was rather pale with a short slender build. She had a light scattering of freckles across her heart shaped face. The other woman in the shop was her sister but I still  could not remember her name. She was very tan with long gold hair and the same green eyes as Dimitra. They shared the same shape in face and body but this woman had no freckles. Katerina took that moment of shock to pull her arm from her aunt's grasp and escaped past the doorway.

    "What do you mean centuries ago?" I asked questioningly.

    Dimitra loosened her grip on the counter but only slightly. Her sister still stood motionless, almost afraid of us, her eyes darting between me and Kyle. Dimitra very tentatively walked to us and slowly took the necklace out of my hand. She acted as if we were a dream, or a ghost, and we would just disappear if she blinked too long.

    "You gave me this necklace to help find your mother back in the sixteenth century. I helped as much as I could but we had no luck and I didn't get any further before we were ambushed and you were taken," she paused and got a lost look in her eyes. "I tried to search for you but it was like you disappeared so after months I had assumed you were killed."

    "That's not true," Kyle said.

    He had been so quiet I had forgotten he was in the shop. We all turned to look at him. He had sheer confusion and anger on his face. His expression matched how I felt internally but I was very talented in keeping my face neutral.

    "How could Austin be that old? I remember her from when we were children! We aged together, in my memory, and at the Academy, so how would it be possible for her to be centuries old?"

    Dimitra's sister spoke for the first time since we first walked in. "That's because she is of a mixed race. The daughter of a Warlock and Immortal, she aged slowly but has reached maturity so past this century she will not age any further. Austin is to never die but you Kyle are only the son of an Elemental so while you have great power and slower ageing, you will eventually die."

    "What are you talking about?" he shouted angrily. "It is not possible for either of us to be that old! We aged normally, we have memories of ageing normally!"

    Dimitra raised her hand to stop her sister from talking. She sighed and looked at me, "Austin I know that you can sense the truth in our voices. Think. You lost your memories, had none from before the Order Academy, is it much further of a stretch to conclude that they altered your memories, more than both of you had initially thought?"

    I opened my mouth to argue but I couldn't. I felt it deep down that they weren't lying. With more of my memories coming back it would make more sense. Why nothing I remembered was ever the same. My clothing was so drastically different the older I was. How I could remember a time of castles and horses but this town had cars and electric lights.

    "Kyle think about it. You said you remember us as children but what was our clothing like? I have no memory of electrical lights, vehicles, or even shops that resembled these." 

    He stopped for a moment and I could see his mind race as he thought harder. If all this was true we had been brought to the Order centuries ago but they altered our memories so we would never question advancing technology. My own thoughts raced as I thought about the implications of all this. Order Garrett never aged, we have, but slowly. Centuries have passed in real time and they had hidden us, even going to the extent of changing our names and memories.

    "Dimitra," I paused unsure if I wanted to ask my next question, "if the Order is powerful enough to hide us and alter our memories, how much danger are we truly in?"

    She looked at us for so long I wondered if she would ever respond. "If neither of you can remember who you are soon, danger will be the least of your concern. At best, death, at worst, a puppet for the Order."