Stella Academy: The Secret Society

Chapter 15

"Have you heard the story of Leda and the swan?" my mom asks. She's avoiding my gaze, her own eyes are glued to her coffee. Her hands shake slightly as she places them both on the cup.

"No?"

"But I assume you've been told about Europa and the bull?" she continues.

"Yeah, the school nurse told me after-" I pause, not sure if I should go on.

We agreed to meet in a small diner in Torchville. It wasn't really safe to talk about these things anywhere, but at least here no one from the Academy would overhear us, and I couldn't get in trouble for talking about it.

"After what?"

I smile nervously, "Never mind. Tell me your story." I ask.

"I'm gonna tell you the short story, because we don't have a lot of time. I'm going home in an hour. Dean has a meeting early tomorrow morning, and it's a long drive home." I sigh at her, "Okay, so the legend goes that Zeus raped the woman Leda while in disguise as a swan. It also states that the daughter the two had together was hatched from an egg as a result of Zeus impregnating her as a swan. This daughter was Helen. I am a descendent of Helen and therefore a descendent of Zeus."

"What? Does that mean you're a shifter too?" I clench my teeth in an attempt of keeping my voice down. Sherri finally looks up at me, a sheepish smile on her face,

"Yes, but a different one than the Taurus shifters. The Cygnus shifters are a matriarchal society, or group, whereas Taurus are patriarchal. They depend on a male leader, and they fight to maintain their rank in their groups. Cygnus exists as a democracy. They are peaceful." She explained, "Neither group knows the other exists. Except for a few people; me and Tristan among others."

"Tristan?" I inquire curiously.

"Yeah, Tristan Rivers. Your father."

Tristan. That is the first piece of valuable information I've gotten about my father, and it's the name of a horrible girl's father. A girl I don't want anything to do with. The less I interact with Sky the better. But now it's more or less impossible, since she's my half-sister.

"How did you meet?" I ask. Mom rolls her eyes and chuckles lightly.

"We were brought together for an experiment. Some people wanted to see what would happen if descendants of Europa and Leda would procreate. They chose Tristan and I, as we were the current leaders of each clan, and even though he was married at the time he agreed. But he left immediately afterwards to go back to his wife who was taking care of their one-year-old daughter. But she was told about the arrangement and soon after your birth she sought me out and asked me about the truth. I told her, and she left him. I heard from Tristan a few times since then, he wanted to know about you. Last time he called, you were about five, his ex-wife had just died and he was taking care of his daughter full time."

"So I was an experiment?" I can't quite wrap my head around what she's telling me.

"Well, yes. But I love you just the same."

"But why? What were you hoping to get out of it?"

"I wasn't hoping anything. I wanted a baby, and I didn't have a husband. I was offered an opportunity and I took it. But you never showed any sign of having the powers of a shifter."

"But shifters don't have any powers until after they turn eighteen. How would you know?" 

"The theory was that a child born from both clans would evolve early, and have the powers from both Cygnus and Taurus. Of course, there was also the theory that nothing would happen because you were only half and half. In the last few centuries no one has ever been born a shifter with only one parent being Cygnus or Taurus. But they did hope it would work."