Richard clutched his head and plopped onto the couch in the living room. He had never expected to see this day but here it was, he could only wish that it was all just a misunderstanding and that his daughter wasn't the one the ridiculous prophecy spoke about. Even though he didn't believe in all this, he still felt pretty threatened of the prophecy and the prospect of her daughter turning out to be a witch.
"Did you read the book?" Victoria asked her sister.
Serena nodded. "Yes. Did you receive it too?" She asked.
"Um, no. Not exactly." Victoria replied. "Grandma was still around when I turned 22 so she personally told me all about our ancestry. But when she was compiling the content for your book, I did have a few peeks at it. It wasn't anything different from what she told me, just a little more detailed but I liked learning about witchcraft from grandma. She was an excellent teacher even though, in the end, I failed her as her student."
"Failed her?" Serena was confused. Her sister had been the brightest student while she was in high school and even after going to Law school, she maintained her reputation the how could she fail their grandma?
"Did you read about the Prophecy?" Abby asked Serena, interrupting the sisters' conversation.
"Kind of. I only skimmed through all of it since it was late and I didn't want to skip dinner. Who knew by the end of it, I'd lose my appetite." Serena said, resentfully.
Her mother sighed. "Skimming won't do. Read it all in detail once you get the time. For now, we'll provide you the necessary information."
"Mom, you know better than anyone that I don't get free time. I can't even read the books in my syllabus, how can you expect me to read something like this?" Serena couldn't believe her mother was so casual about this. "If you really want me to know all this then when didn't you tell me? Why did you wait for this day, for me to find this book and discover things on my own?"
"There was no point." Abby replied simply. "You 22nd birthday was the right time for you to know this. I was going to tell you but your non-believing father stopped me. I looked for you everywhere but I couldn't find you. I even went to the cemetery but you weren't there either. Then I looked in your room and the book was gone, so I relaxed thinking that your grandma had taken care of this after all." She shrugged.
"Non-believing?" Serena glanced at her father who was staring at the cracked window glass without paying attention to anything that they were talking about.
"Didn't you heard him? He keeps denying the existence of witches. Which is why he was important for the prophecy to be fulfilled."
"Wait, what is this prophecy?" Serena asked. She knew it was something really important since her mother and sister kept talking about it. "I read about the magic bloodline ending with great grandma Evelyn and something about a child of the witch bloodline and...I don't remember anything else."
"Grandma told me that great grandma Evelyn was a very powerful witch but she had to hide her powers." Victoria started explaining. "She didn't want her bloodline to suffer her fate, so she suppressed the magic in our bloodline with the help of another powerful witch, thus preventing grandma from inheriting any magical powers."
"What fate?" Serena knew that in great grandma Evelyn's time, Europe had become free of witch trials, so she was a bit confused.
Serena's mother knew what she must be thinking so she explained on Victoria's behalf. "Even though the witch trials in Europe were over, the people still kept an eye open for any suspicious activity that could be called witchcraft. Grandma Evelyn was smart enough to conceal her magic but she knew that if she had a daughter, the little one would be in danger. So she went to a witch who was also a seer and there she cooked a spell which would suppress the magic in her bloodline. The seer helped grandma but she uttered a prophecy once the spell was done and that prophecy foretold that magic would be revived by the child of a witch and a non-believer."
"But if it was supposed to be revived then why did she help in suppressing it in the first place?" Serena asked. There were so many questions in her mind regarding this but she decided to be patient and voice them one by one.
"Suppressing magic was wrong," Abby agreed, "but in such a situation, what else could grandma Evelyn do? If I were in her place, I'd do the same and even if I was in the seer's place, I would take the same decision. I wouldn't want my daughter to suffer."
"But you want that now." Victoria whispered.
At that, Serena frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing. She means nothing." Abby glared at Victoria, telling her with her eyes to keep quiet.
Serena sighed. "Mum—"
Abby took her daughter's hand and looked at her with a worried expression. "Look honey, grandma Evelyn regretted her decision because she realized that she would be ending the royal magical bloodline and she desperately wanted for your grandma to be the prophecy child.
"When she married your grandpa Will, she tested whether he was a non-believer or not by telling him about her powers even though she had nothing to prove that she was telling the truth. Grandpa still believed her. So she lost hope and decided to pass down this prophecy with the inheritance to her daughter, that is my mother and your grandma.
"When your grandma married your grandpa, she did the same thing as her mother and received the same result. You grandpa was a believer. So she passed down the prophecy to me.
"When I married your father, I already knew he was non-believer. Our bloodline desperately needed magic, the conditions were becoming bad for the followers of the right hand path and since we are the royal bloodline, it was our responsibility to restore order but without magic we couldn't do anything. So I searched for a non-believer and found your father.
"At first, I thought our marriage would be a compromise for me but I slowly fell in love with him and felt guilty for using him for my advantage so I told him about my witch inheritance, he didn't believe a single word.
" When your sister turned 22, which was the age specified by the seer to be the right time for the magic to return, I was expecting her to be the prophecy child but she wasn't, her magic didn't work but I still had hope because I had you—"
"So that's why you wanted me here? To check if I'm the prophecy child so you can take advantage of my powers?" Abby shook her hand and opened her mouth to speak but Serena wasn't about to let her. "What do you want with them anyway? What conditions made you so desperate that you became to marry dad out of compromise?
" Because we still have enemies." Victoria finally spoke the moment Serena's mouth closed.
"Right, royal bloodline." Serena nodded her mockingly. "I mean, seriously?"
"Serena, you don't want to believe anything, that's fine but don't insult our royal status. Our ancestors were the leaders of the right hand path followers."
"Fine. But why are you guys telling me all this if this didn't work?" Serena asked. She was very tired and just wanted to forget all this.
"But it did work." Abby told her, smiling.
"What?!"