The Truth

******

That was the piece of the puzzle I still couldn't comprehend, even after seeing Lord Himmel's past. "How is it possible for one sorcerer to have two Affinities? I know he's powerful, but magic must have its limitations."

"In the memory, you saw that Lord Himmel had taken his father's magic away while the latter was trying to spellcast, right?"

I nodded.

"Lord Weilsterhein was actually trying to use his Affinity on Lord Himmel, which was mind control. What he didn't expect was that doing so gave Lord Himmel a chance to steal his power away."

The sorcerers in the memory had flung all sorts of spells at Lord Himmel, only to have him absorb it all. It had only happened after they'd used magic. "So in order for him to effectively steal magic, he'd have to wait for the other sorcerer to use it?"

"That's correct."

She wasn't offering me the explanation to everything outright. She wanted me to slowly work it out myself, it seemed. And so I did. "If Lord Weilsterhein was using his Affinity, then does that mean Lord Himmel would have had a chance to steal it?"

"Correct again."

"But...I still don't get it. How does one steal an Affinity?"

"You have to understand that when the two were facing each other, Lord Himmel had the obvious advantage. He'd just absorbed a whole Fountain, after all. You also have to understand that Affinities, are in a way, part of our beings. They're not just gifts granted to us by the Saints—they make us who we are. As such, an Affinity is a part of your body. And like all parts of bodies, they can be taken away and given to another."

"Didn't you just say that Affinities are part of our beings?"

"No more than arms and legs are part of our beings. Normal magic is simply energy we draw from the earth. When we spellcast, that energy gets directed into a different form. However, when we use out Affinities, it's rather like using your fingers—it just happens. You can use your magic to fuel your power, of course, but it does work all on its own."

A distant song played in my head. The melody I'd used when I'd controlled Elise and Frederick's minds. The only time I'd actually used my Affinity. It was like breathing—it had come so naturally.

"I see," I said.

For some reason, Elise's lips curled into a grin. "Surely I wasn't that bad of a trainer, was I? How could you not know of all these concepts?"

"You didn't bother to explain," I snorted. Then I added, "And I don't think I would have bothered to know. All I'd wanted to know was how to spellcast."

"I could sense your eagerness. You remind me so much of Anton. He'd be proud of you if he were here now."

She missed him dreadfully. That was clear. But we hadn't gotten to that part of the story just yet. "So Lord Himmel had stolen Lord Weilsterhein's Affinity for mind control, and that was how he lured the children away. As for his original Affinity, he used it to drain Fountains."

"Yes. That night, only Anton and I were left to see the true capabilities of the Pied Piper—he'd controlled Helene and Leon's minds to kill each other," she said flatly. Beneath the placidity, I detected a ripple of unease. It wouldn't have been pretty, to watch as two of your closest friends rip each other into pieces.

"You survived," I said.

"I survived," she echoed me, almost sounding amused. "And even then, just barely."

"It would make a great tale for the years to come."

"It would, wouldn't it?" Her voice was light, but her smile was tinged with sadness. "So, back to the topic. Once Anton and I realised that we couldn't fight the Pied Piper, I came up with the idea to have him transfer the mind control Affinity into someone else.

"Anton agreed. We'd been hiding at first, but as soon as the plan was made we had no time to lose—I stepped out to distract the Pied Piper and lure him to control my mind, while Anton hung back, waiting for the proper moment to strike.

"What we didn't calculate was that you would walk into the heat of the battle. We'd totally forgotten that Helene had warded you too."

I blinked furiously. "I'd unintentionally allowed myself to be caught up in all this, hadn't I? Even in all those years ago," I said.

"You were always a somewhat precocious child. Anyway, Anton had successfully transferred Lord Himmel's mind-controlling Affinity into a stone by then. He saw the danger, and broke your leg on purpose with magic before whisking you away to safety. Meanwhile, I continued to distract the Pied Piper. It was a hard battle." Her eyes looked old—older than her forty odd years. Then we simultaneously looked at my crippled leg, at its twisted, misshapen form.

"You said that disabilities that had been there by birth can't be healed..." I murmured. "But this is different—it had been broken on purpose." So that was why in my past, I had been walking without a limp. It all made sense.

"I'm sorry to have caused you so much pain over the years, Klaudia," she said, deep with regret. "But we had no choice. We had to keep you safe. If you hadn't had the broken leg, you would have been one of the children who have their youth drained by Lord Himmel."

My mind went numb. So all this—all that I've suffered for my disability, was to keep me safe? I didn't know whether to be angry or grateful. Both, I supposed. Anyhow, I was still alive. "I understand," I said. "I may not like it, but I understand."

She loosened a breath I didn't know she'd been holding. "Thank you."

"Now I'd like to hear the rest of the story please."

"But of course." The corners of her lips quirked up slightly. "So, your father took you to safety. I don't exactly know what had transpired when you two were gone, but in the end, Anton somehow decided that so much power cannot just be left contained in a lodestone." She paused for a bit, and I instantly knew what her next words were going to be.

"He gave the Affinity to you."

I didn't know what to make of the statement. I never had the mind-controlling Affinity in the first place—it had belonged to Lord Himmel. No, Lord Adolf Weilsterhein. I was a mere catalyst for its power. I only had it because I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Elise allowed me to absorb the shock before proceeding: "It was likely because the Affinity was too powerful, and it couldn't be contained for long. Hence Anton needed someone to hold it."

"Why couldn't he take it for himself?" I asked.

"His Affinity for transferring magic was limited to his environment, and not himself. When he used his power, he always needed a source and a receiver," Elise said. "His Medium—stones, or essentially anything of the earth, worked as catalysts, but not as the receiver itself. Depending on how strong the magic is, the stone can only contain so much for a time. Otherwise it would dispel and return to its original owner. And as you can imagine, a mind control Affinity is extremely powerful."

"So all of this"—I raised my hands in front of me, almost feeling the power spark at my fingertips—"is coincidence?"

"An excellent coincidence."

I shook my head. "You still haven't reached the end yet."

Elise cleared her throat, if only to help her resume her impassive mask. "Anton returned to help me after that. Only just in time too. Although Lord Himmel's main power had been taken away, my magic was slowly being drained by him. Worse still, he was prolonging my agony—I wished he'd just kill me and get it done and over with.

"But we also realised that we could never defeat the Pied Piper. If that wasn't bad enough, we didn't have enough time to leave a memory behind for you. I remembered as we looked at each other, and as we both knew what we had to do."

Her voice choked off at the last words. I held my breath; this was hard for her, to reopen all those old wounds. She couldn't have had anyone to relate this to for the past ten years. This was the first time she was re-exploring that fateful night in Hamelin. How lonely she must had been, I thought.

"So I declared that I wanted to serve the Pied Piper, and turned against Anton," she finally whispered harshly. "I—I swore that I would give up my title, my previous life, if only to go to his side. I convinced him that my Affinity was something that could be of use." Tears fell freely down her cheeks, and she didn't bother to stem the flow.

"Then I helped him kill Anton."

A chill ran up my spine. Elise buried her head in her hands, weeping fully now, mourning for her husband, the way she never did when he'd died. Meanwhile, I was a jumble-up of emotions. What was I supposed to make of all this?

She didn't elaborate anymore after that. Silence hung thick in the air, and for the first time since I'd known her, I actually felt awkward. I had been scared of her, cautious, confused. But never awkward. Now it was making me shift on the bed. "I—I'm sorry," I finally blurted. "We don't have to talk about this."

"Hush," she said, lifting her head up and looked at me. Her expression softened. She looked as though she wanted to draw me into an embrace, only barely restraining himself. "Don't say such foolish things. I was merely—overcome with emotion, that's all."

I felt my face flush at the gentleness of her tone. No one had ever spoken like that to me. Not even Papa Gunter, for all he loved me. It contained the unmistakable ring of a mother speaking to her child. It was something alien to me, yet I recognised it immediately. For a moment back there, I'd almost forgotten that I was speaking to my mother.

Mother.

I looked into Elise's eyes, and saw that they had a beautiful light in them. They were glowing with love—for me. With a start, I realised that I'd seen that look several times, whenever I'd finally managed to successfully accomplish a complicated spell. I'd originally assumed that it was an occasional crack in her mask, when she was feeling proud of me but was too reluctant to let it show.

"Then what happened?" I continued.

"I promptly cleaned up the scene of the crime, so to speak. I'd altered your memories so that you wouldn't remember anything of your innate magical abilities, and I helped Lord Himmel to steal all the children away to Heidelberg."

"How? The mind control Affinity—"

"It is possible for us sorcerers to control minds, even without an Affinity for it. The only thing is that it drains our energy and it's difficult to perform."

"And you've been under Lord Himmel for ten years now," I finished off quietly. "It was intentional, wasn't it? You pledged yourself to his service, in hopes that you might be able to defeat him someday."

"That was my intention, yes," she said. "It didn't make Anton's death any easier though. I—I've been living here all alone, and no one else knows my plight." Then after a small hiccup: "Except for you now."

We looked at each other. I still couldn't think of Elise as Mother, but I could try. I had to. She was all I had now.

"So what do we do?" I asked quietly. We. Not me anymore. I had another person in my life who would help me forge on. I wasn't alone.

"We continue to work from behind the scenes," she said vehemently. "There has to be a way to defeat Lord Himmel—we'll just have to find out how."

"We will." We smiled at each other.

Then before I could lose courage, I threw my arms around her.

She stiffened, but relaxed soon, returning the embrace. Her hand was anchored in my hair, and her wet cheeks stained my dress. "I have missed you so much, my mäuschen. If there's any way I can make up for the lost time, I would."

"You already have," I said, voice cracked with emotions. "You've endured everything by yourself for a decade—it's time you let someone else share the burden with you."

She took in a shuddering breath. "Saints forgive me. For all the abominations I had done in Lord Himmel's name."

"Didn't the Council notice anything?"

She pulled away, searching my eyes. I think she saw my father in them, from the flash of sadness that crossed her features.. "We covered our tracks too well. According to Lord Himmel, the official report was that we'd all disappeared, and little Elise had been stolen by the Pied Piper," she said.

I gave a start. That name. Surely... "My name is Elise," I said. Not a question. A statement. I'd already known that when I'd looked into Anton's past. I just refused to believe it.

"And mine is Maria," she finished off. "Stay strong, mäuschen. Get some rest first. I'll come back soon—Lord Himmel will definitely want to see you. Be ready."

I bobbed my head. Elise—Maria stood up and exited my room, leaving nothing behind but the waking scent of her.

My mother.

I fell onto the mattress, exhausted. My mother was well and alive, and I had been reunited with her. Even if the world ended up in ashes because of Lord Himmel, at least we had each other. A small spring of joy lit my heart.

Eventually, I fell into a dreamless sleep.

******