Lia entered the office in a much better mood for her second session. Dr. Plethoric was already seated in the session area with a folder filled with handwritten notes in her lap.
“So Doc, where do we start today?”
Serach smiled, “What has you in such a good mood?”
“My writer is doing well. Guess the last session helped. She’s even written a friend for me.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Yeah she’s a bit two dimensional at the moment but I’m sure she’ll flesh out in time.”
“Wonderful."
"Should we start?"
"Sure. Last session we stopped when you were six what were the following years like?”
“Well I guess they were as good as a kid could ask for. I was homeschooled for the most part. My Uncles were great and Granna was a good replacement for Mom. It wasn’t until the second seal broke that things fell apart again. I was nine, Underhill was open again and most of the people I hated left to go back and live there.”
“Your Granna didn’t go back to Fairy?”
“No she said she liked it here... I’m pretty sure it was because of Grandfather that she stayed. He is one of the High Kings in Fairy and she used to be his Queen. If she went back she would either have to form a Kingdom of her own or go live under someone else’s rule. Here she was under no one and responsible only for her land and me. It would have been perfect. Unfortunately my mother decided it was time for her to become part of my life again.”
“And this didn’t make you happy?”
“Not even a little. Mom had moved into Grandfathers castle and thought it was the perfect place to raise me. She was convinced that away from the mortal world my Fae heritage would destroy the Were part of me. So despite my Granna’s arguments she took me into Fairy. Luckily it only took a few months for me to realized Grandfather had only agreed to it so he could more easily kill me.”
“Did your mother try to stop him?”
“Mom is many things beautiful, charming, graceful, but smart is not one of the descriptions I would use for her. She loves being a princess and blossomed in the medieval style court. Most of the returning nobles tried to pretend the last thousand years or so hadn’t happened. They wanted to ignore the time they had spent in the mortal realm. I was miserable and a constant reminder to my family and their retainers of the mortal realm they hated.
The assassination attempts were subtle at first. Poison in my drink, letting the wild hounds out while I was walking in the garden, bad directions to the dance hall that took me through the lower dungeons where a prisoner had just happened to escape. When a spell meant to make me fall off a high balcony almost took my mother with me she said that ‘something about my Were nature’ didn’t agree with fairy.”
“So she didn’t acknowledge your Grandfathers part in any of it?”
“No, he was too slick to be caught. I don’t think it was hard for her to send me away. I was only ten but she knew my Grandmother and uncles would protect me, and enough of the lesser fae had stayed in our home town that she could pretend I wouldn’t be alone. I’m confident that the moment she sent me through the gate home she forget me. I haven’t heard from her even once since that day.”
“Have you tried to contact her?”
“No, it was better that way. Granna was happy I was back. So was I. I was never meant to be a court lady. I had hoped to have normal life when I returned home. I thought that my Grandfather and his cronies would stop trying to kill me now that I was out of sight. I was very wrong, in fact now that I wasn’t in court anymore they stopped trying to hide the attempts as accidents. I have no idea how many assassins and summoned creatures my Uncles killed over the next year but I do know there wasn’t a single week that went by without something happening.
I was eleven the first time I had to kill. ‘Killing should always be your last option Lia’ My uncles would say to me ‘But once you have made the choice to kill all rules and honor are no more. Survival is your only goal.’”
“Did the thought of killing scare you?”
“Not really. I think until you actually kill it isn’t real. Like the video games you just don’t feel anything. I remember It was just my Uncle Thomas and I at the house when a pack of Kith Hounds attacked. I ran upstairs intending to climb onto the roof but stopped when I saw my uncle go down under the weight of four hounds.
It was in that moment that I found, rage has a taste. It’s like acid and pennies at the back of your tongue. Something broke inside me. My two knives were in my hands and I don’t know how they got there. Everything was slow motion, I could see every twitching muscle on the beasts.
After that I only remember the last kill. I was covered in hot syrupy blood and my knives were now metal claws grafted by magic to the ends of my hands. My uncle was barely conscious and covered in wounds. He was holding the last hound inches off his throat and his arms where shaking. I dove onto the hounds back reaching my hands around to its soft underbelly.
I remember my metal claws slipped into the hound like it was putty. I pulled the creature apart. It was odd, there was no gasping or scream from the creature. Just ripping sounds as I held its lungs in my hands.”
“You did what you had to do …”
“I must have looked completely feral as I stood there holding my bloody trophies. ‘ It’s over Lia girl. Put the claws away darling.’ My uncle must have said that several times before it sunk in. I threw the remains to the floor horrified.” Lia’s body shook at the memory and her hands clenched around invisible claws.
“That is something an adult would have a problem with, as a child I’m sure it was worse.”
Lia nodded but absently rubbed her hands up and down her thighs. “Killing cemented something inside me. I think it was hate or anger, but what came next was somehow worse. Granna decided I wasn’t safe there anymore. Her reasons were sound but it still felt as if I was being exiled. She said I needed someone to teach me how to tame my Were nature. I was almost eleven and my first change wasn't far off. She told me I was going to a Were-wolf pack until I mastered the change then to a private school out of my Grandfathers reach.”
“How did you handle that news?”
“It wasn’t like I had much choice. Put my family in danger or accept exile to strangers. She told me I had to stay away until my age of majority, twenty for a Fae. That was how old I had to be to legally challenge anyone who attacked me. Until then by Fae law only my Mother or Father could do that and I knew my mother wasn’t strong enough. My Father didn’t even know I existed and at that point I only had a fake name and a picture of him.”
“Did it bother you not knowing your Father?”
“Yes and No. Dad was just a concept. When I thought about it I wanted one, but I also wanted a loving mother. It helps now that I know he would have been a part of my life had he been told about me. So I resent Mom and if I'm honest my whole family for not telling him.“
“Understandable and realistic. Well Lia I think this is as good of a stopping point as we are going to get. Some points for you and your author to think on. You might want to think on some good memories to add to all these painful ones. So far I’ve only heard details about the bad in your past. It is good that on the surface you appear to have a positive relationship with your Granna and Uncles but they seem to be extremely vague and unreal characters. If any charecter has nothing bad in their past they would become bitter and angry like your author said you are showing signs of. Before our next session I would like the two of you to come up with a short but detailed happy memory.”
"I'll let her know."
"Good. See you next time"
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