“How about an origin story?” Baladar offered. “I’ll keep it short.”
Kade nodded and I did as well; I was all about origin stories lately. A butterfly landed on my shoulder and I smiled. Their beauty brought a little joy and lightness into the world. Baladar’s entire posture changed when he morphed into storytelling mode; his expression took on a whimsical quality, and I almost thought I saw some rosy red in his pale cheeks.
“In the beginning, there were three races connected to the mecca: the humans, the Tuatha de Danann, and the witches.”
I leaned forward, feeling my brow wrinkling. The origin story was not new, but … this was different. Where were the shifters?
“The oldest of the races were the Tuatha, strong and powerful. Born of magic and energy, they controlled the mecca. Witches were humans that had a genetic affinity for the mecca, and were next in the power structure. Humans were last. They had very little connection or control to the magical energy which governs this area. For many years these three races existed together, but also very apart – they lived in separate but amicable worlds.
“The drama started with a forbidden romance, as most true dramas do. A high priestess of a powerful witch clan, Priscilla Cottington, fell hard and fast for a fae that lived nearby. They made love on the full moon, and nine months later had a beautiful pale, magical child.”
Kade and I shared a look, the first magic born. I knew that magic born were descended from witches, but I’d believed it to be witches and shifters. So Baladar’s story was a little different. I was most interested to hear where his account of the shifters was going to come in. As far as I was told, there were four races: human, fae, witch, and shifter. Shifters were evolved from humans, some sort of magical genetic anomaly which happened during the final days of fae on Earth.
“Then, one of the most powerful fae of all time, a dual animal-affinity male, named Wayland Lightmoon, who held the souls of both a wolf and bear inside, fell in love with a human. His human lover fell pregnant with twins. The children carried each a pure soul of their father’s animals. One was a bear and the other a wolf. It was soon discovered that unlike their fae father, they not only had the animal affinity, but were able to actually shift into the form of their beast, and this was how the shifter race was born.”
My face was pinched as I tried to sort this story out in my head. “Wait, so there weren’t three magical races? We aren’t evolved from humans?”
Baladar shook his head. “Queen Arianna, the shifters are fae. They are part fae, part human. The Tuatha never truly left the mecca, they just handed it off to their offspring. The full-blooded fae went back to the Otherworld because they are stronger on that side of the veil, but for all intents and purposes, you, Kade, and I are all fae.” He leaned back in his chair. “That is the knowledge that landed me in here.” He gestured around him.
Holy shifter. It was known that some shifters were descended from fae. This was the reason the Red Queen had so much power – she could trace her ancestry back to the fae. But the general gossip was that someone in her family had bred with the fae at some point. No one had ever stated that all shifters were actually descended from fae. This was much more than I thought. A fae with dual animal affinity was the creator of our entire race. And bear-wolf souls…
“Wolf and bear together…” Kade’s voice was deep and deadly calm.
Baladar nodded. “In the beginning they were one and the same. Other bear-wolf fae began to mate with humans, and more and more shifters were born. For some reason that combination of animal-affinity fae and human are the only ones who produced children. Other fae tried to mate with humans but it never resulted in a child.”
Geez, how many different types are fae were there?
“So magic born are descended from witch and fae?” My mind was reeling!
Baladar nodded, looking suddenly sad. “Only the bear-wolf shifter fae could mate with the humans to produce an offspring, but it was found that any fae could mate with a witch and create the powerful magic born. The dark Winter Court recognized early that the magic born were too powerful, and that’s why they wiped the witches out. The few magic born we have left are descended from witches that mated with the bear-wolf fae and were smuggled into hiding.”
Holy sweet shifter babies. I just sat there dumbfounded, thinking of what I would do if Violet didn’t exist. Another thought came to me then.
“The heirs? The familiars? How?” My brain was buzzing with this new knowledge and also lining it all up with what the fae treeling had told me. It had been the truth. It all made sense now.
Baladar smiled. “The heirs are born from the royal line of the Tuatha de Danann. You’re all descended from one of the four houses: Summer, Winter, Spring, or Fall Courts. You also have more fae in your genetics than most shifters. Once it was known that the fae touched with animal souls were mating with humans, each court wanted to have their own children represented. It’s why you always have the four houses, Red, Green, Yellow, and Purple. One for each fae court. But you, Arianna, I must confess, you seem to me to be the most fae of them all.”
I stood so fast I knocked the chair over. “I’m … I’m going to need a bit of time to try and compute all of this information. It’s a lot…”
Baladar stood and bowed his head. “Yes, of course, My Lady. I apologize. Before you go though, I do have one question to ask you … when is your birthday?”