I was a sophomore when my father and Ezra sent me to Madam Calamity's Private Prep. It was a giant castle in the middle of a dark forest hidden in the corner of a long forgetten foreign country. But in my opinion it was a haven for the unlucky ones like me whose very existence is a disgrace and shame to their family name. My father and brother loved me dearly but it was because of Gladis and her precious CallaLilie that I was sent away. Gladis Claybourne was my father's second wife and the woman he married because of his family's social standing. He didn't love her, it was just a marriage of convenience and he made that all too clear when the public wasn't watching.
His first wife and Ezra's mother, Amelia Dubois, was his one true love. When Ezra was 5 she died of a mysterious illness that was believed to have been cause by an ancient curse put on her family by a witch who had fallen in madly in love with one of her ancestors. He was married and she was a young naive maiden. They were happy until their forbidden love manifested a beautiful bouncing baby girl. He loved the maiden and the baby and had brought them into his castle under the guise of a widowed countess and her fatherless child. They were able to hide their love affair for quite awhile but as the child grew she became more beautiful and undeniable.
When the child came of age the Duchess realized the truth of her husband's debauchery. She went mad with rage and set out to get revenge. She sent her own son to seduce the girl in secret. When they were both certain that the girl was irrevocably in love and only then did the put their deadly plan into action. The Duchess exposed the countess as her husband's mistress and accused her of using witchcraft to seduce him. She claimed that the girl born from the union was destined to bring the down fall of their empire and raize the country to the ground.
The Duchess convinced her people that angels had visited her in her dreams and told her the only way to prevent the devastation was to burn her and her mother at the stake. The people outraged at the Dukes deception and fooled by the Duchesses lies ambushed the women's private estate, they abducted the women in their sleep and burned the manor to the ground. The horde handed them over to the Duchesses soldiers who locked them in cells that over looked the construction of the very pyres that would claim their lives.
The Duchess had the Duke imprisoned under the pretense that he was driven insane by the witches dark magic. He struggled in vain to save the woman he loved and the child they brought into the world. He was forced to watch as his son lit the fire that consumed his daughter's body. When the girls screams stopped he turned to the witch and held the torch high in the air but before he could drop it on to the pile of logs a strong wind blew it out. The air around the witches body began to swirl violently and sizzle with hot static. She lifted her eyes away from the fire that had swallowed her daughter to the glee filled eyes of the Duchess and spoke.
"You and your vile offspring will be destined to find true happiness but when you are at your happiest nature and the universe will strike you down and condemn the next generation with the same fate you bestowed upon my daughter! So I have willed it, so it shall be done!" The wind the created a vortex around her and she screamed a blood curdling shriek as she was struck by lightning that exploded into brilliant purple flames and engulfed her and her daughter's body instantly then vanished just as sudden as they appeared leaving nothing in there wake but the charred remains for the stakes. At least that is the story that Ezra had told me anyway.