As The Years Go By

(One year later) *Talia is four years old.

Talia was sitting under her tree in the backyard while Morgana was flying around, they all talked extensively about everything that happened and everyone came out of it better for it, Talia was just trying to mix a concentrated amount of fire with a just as concentrated amount of air when it happened, a tiny little bolt of lightning, impressively stable formed right between her hands.

[Congratulations, you have learned the elemental basic lightning magic level 4]

'Cute little announcement, level 4 already? How?'

[Compound elements made between only two of the main four, if, the two that made it up are advanced enough get a little bonus]

'Cool, one more level and it'll be at Intermediate already, this bracelet is awesome, let's try all combinations possible and see what we get'

[Sounds like a plan]

'Yep, good idea using the compressed forms of the elements, also just compressing them now doesn't tire me nearly as much anymore, practice is really helping grow my Stamina'

[Yes, since there isn't a limit to one's magic here, Stamina is what marks how far you can go, more complicated spells will exhaust you faster, simpler ones, slower, the goal is to raise your Stamina as high as it can gets so you can use all the magic you want]

'Agreed, now, let's try water and air'

And so, Talia spends weeks trying every combination she can think of, she got:

Fire + Air = Lightning lvl 4

Water + Air = Ice lvl 3

Earth + Air = Sand lvl 3

Water + Earth = Mud lvl 2

Fire + Earth = Lava lvl 3

Water + Fire = Life lvl 3

Out of mixing the four main elements.

(One year later) *Talia is five years old.

"Come on, Morgana it's easy, really, you just have to concentrate on your fire like…'

Talia tries to demonstrate finer fire control to Morgana without using any fire herself, when a little flame suddenly appears right in front of her hands.

'Did I just?'

[Congratulations on getting your fire magic to advanced. Yes, you did just create fire out of nowhere]

'I thought I would get air to advanced first'

[Maybe you should try to do that under water? You've been in the threshold for that for quite some time now]

'Huh, I'll try that in the bathtub later'

"Oh, you've got it too Morgana, just like that, wanna learn air next?"

Talia says seeing as Morgana is making her flame move in the shape of her family in great detail, like a little 3D home video of them made purely out of Morgana's blue fire.

Morgana smiles "Okay, then can I make lightning like you mommy?"

Talia smiles "Yes, I'll teach you all you want to learn as long as I know how"

Morgana grins happily, secretly dreaming of being like those extinct lightning Dragons from old stories Tim told them about.

(One Year later) *Talia is six years old.

"Mommy, why do we live so far away from everyone" Talia asks, cuddling in the couch with her mom watching a kid's movie.

"Well, your father really should be present for this story, how about we finish the movie until he gets back and we tell you together?" Georgia asks.

"Okay" Talia answers getting back to watching the movie.

…

"Your mom told me what you asked her about. Why we live so far from everyone?" Tim asks sitting on the couch at Georgia's side.

Talia nods, curious about all the suspense.

WARNING (It gets a bit dark from here, mentions of people being unalived)

"Okay, so, uhm" Tim starts already getting tongue-tied.

"We'll tell you together, I'll start" Georgia says squeezing Tim's hand.

"There is a kingdom, far, far away from here, and its queen is a really old and powerful witch" Georgia starts.

"But she wasn't always" Timothy says.

"She wasn't always" Georgia repeats "She was once just an ordinary witch, living in one of the cities around the castle"

"One day, the young king went to visit that city and met her" Tim says.

"They talked all day long, until he had to leave and they parted ways" Georgia continues.

"They kept meeting every week, and every week they would talk for hours on end" says Tim.

"But the king was young, just recently crowned and very naïve on his view of the world" Georgia tells her.

"And so was the young witch, they fell in love and the king asked for her hand in marriage" Tim says smiling.

"But when he presented her to his family, his brother, just one year younger than him, feel in love with her at first sight" Georgia says with a sad face.

"The brother wasn't a good man, you see, he was always very envious of his older brother, thinking it was all supposed to be his instead, the charm, the crown, the witch. And so, he came up with a plan, to make everything right for him" says Tim, also a little sad at this part.

"Just before his brother's wedding, he paid a servant to poisoned his wine. The young king didn't make it" she sighs.

"The brother then professed his love to the witch, saying he would be king now and with his brother out of the picture she could grow to love him instead" says Tim.

"But the witch didn't want that, she knew how he felt about his own brother and found all the events surrounding the death of her love suspicious" Georgia says hugging her daughter.

"The new king then found out that the witch was pregnant with his brother's baby, he had sent spies to tell him of her every move" Tim tells her.

"And so, he told the witch that if she didn't marry him, he would take her baby, it had royal blood so he would raise it as his, in his brother's name, without her" Georgia said.

"They got married and the witch, now queen, had a beautiful baby girl" Tim smiles at that.

"But the new king didn't like that, in his mind it was a reminder of how his brother got the queen's love while she only pretended that she could stand him in public" says Georgia.

"He started going crazy, saying that the baby girl was mocking him with her dead father, seeing him be denied all the love she was lavished with" Tim says sadly.

"On a dark night, he snuck into the baby's room, the queen was asleep in a chair, previously watching her baby girl. He took her and sent her to the heavens with her father, saying that if they'll mock him together, then together they shall be" Georgia says, a tear falling from her eye.

"When the witch woke up and saw that her little girl was gone, she tried everything she could to try and bring her back, she looked for all the magic across the realm, but nothing worked" says Timothy.

"Until one did, but not how she hoped, she managed to absorb all the life and magic the little girl would have had into herself" Georgia kisses Talia's head.

"She became insane, killed the king. And became the sole ruler of the kingdom. By now she had more magical knowledge and ability than anyone else in the land, and all those who opposed her suffered from it" Tim says looking down.

"She eventually had more kids, two more girls and three boys" says Georgia watching Tim.

"She did the same with her second baby, another little girl, and it worked, she was even more powerful" says Tim tearing up.

"Her next baby was a boy, she tried the same thing again, but this time it didn't work" says Georgia.

"The next a girl, she raised her for a few years as an experiment, to see if she could get more power this way, she then did the ritual and it worked again, even better than before" Timothy says.

"And then she had two boys, knowing it wouldn't work on them she raised them practicing different kinds of magic on them, from mind manipulation, to healing, all to further her magical knowledge" Georgia squeezes Tim's hand.

"She stopped trying to have more kids and committing such atrocities" says Tim.

"Everyone thought she was better now" says Georgia.

"Until her second son, her oldest living child had a baby girl of his own. She asked to see the baby as soon as she was born" Tim tells Talia with a sad smile.

"She was happy the baby was a girl" says Georgia "Every time she got happy like that in the past something horrible would follow"

"And so, the baby girl's parents took their little baby and ran away with her to far, far away from the evil queen, somewhere she can never follow since her horrible actions got her tied to her kingdom's land," said Tim.

"It is said that it's the Soul of her victims trying to keep the rest of the world safe from her" Georgia finished.

Talia looks at them both in complete and utter shock.

"That's why we live away from everyone" Georgia says.

"Your grandmother is the evil queen Talia" Timothy says with a sad smile.

(Later that day in Talia's room)

[What the fuck was that story?!?!???]

'That's what I was thinking'

[Like… What??? Remember when we thought you were lucky?]

'Yeah, I really hope there are no missions around that kingdom for at least two decades or so'

[There are, but we'll deal with it when we get there]

'That was horrible'

[Even I'm traumatized by that story]

'I have like, so many feelings right now, I don't even know where to begin to process everything'

[Exactly]

'If the younger brother wasn't such a jealous little b***h none of that would have happened'

[Yes, also, did you caught the part where they didn't say any dates, names or ages?]

'That WAS suspicious'

[I'm just scared that, if that was the story they thought was okay to tell a six year old, what do you think they held back?]

'I haven't even thought of that! but you're right, my parents aren't clueless enough to tell me the whole thing uncensored at the age of six'

[I really don't want to find out what they're holding back]

'At this point, me neither. We lived for six years hiding in peace, I would rather keep going like this for now, until I'm at least strong enough to take her down, or escape again, whichever doesn't get me killed'

[And you apparently have an uncle]

'I wonder why he didn't come with us'

[Maybe there wasn't any time?]

'Maybe'

[Do you think they're hiding anything else that is that major from you]

'No idea, it's possible though, not a word was spoken about my mother's family'

[How much worst do you think this can get?]

'This really did take you by surprise, didn't it?'

[It truly did, I was not expecting that at all]

'I thought you knew everything about this world, at least from before we got here'

[I did, well most things, my focus was on things related to the mission, which is why I know what happens in them, and when something changes around it, but that's all really, she must not have been connected to any of it]

'But now she's connected to me, she probably has spies or something all over the world looking for us'

[Probably, that must be why you're all in hiding even though she's stuck in her own kingdom]

'Yeah, my parents probably didn't tell me that part to try and not scare me too much'

[Sure, because the rest of it was all peachy]

'Well, it's not like there's anything we can do about it right now, let's just get some sleep, goodnight, Clover'

[Goodnight Talia]

"Goodnight Morgana"

"Goodnight mommy"