All the cards

32

Once we'd fed Hope and Izzy, the latter of whom still refusing blood, we put them in their high chairs, and sat on the couch.
"So your friend Mal," Hayley started, taking a sip of her wine.
"You wanna know the whole messy truth behind that story?"
"Yeah." She nodded.
"Okay. Once upon a time there was a small kingdom, far away. Each and every citizen possessed some gift of magic. Nothing big. Not spells and stuff. Just an affinity for certain things- like healing, or nature. Animals- nothing too big. They had a royal family, a king and a queen. They were more gifted than the next person, but it was nothing too advanced. Then they had kids. Their first child was a baby girl. A sweet, lovely child they fell in love with as soon as they laid eyes on her. They named her Zia. Two years later, they had another child. Another baby girl. Aeliana. They loved their children, more than anything in the world, but if they didn't have a boy, they knew the throne would be passed onto the king's brother. He was the opposite of the king. Selfish, angry, hateful. He wasn't fit for the throne. Then the king and the Queen had another child. A baby boy. Malum." Hayley was looking intently. "The three siblings loved each other. The youngest two had been the closest, but they both loved their older sister. Years later, when the son was old enough to be king and his father was ready to hand over the throne, the king's brother made his move. He spent years searching for more power and he finally got it. But the things he did to get the power- they were crimes against nature. So on Malum's eighteenth birthday, the day before the king was to abdicate the throne, nature bestowed upon the three siblings true and pure magic."
"That's how witches came to be?"
"No. This type of magic was deeper than that. Purer. Stronger. It was sorcery. Nature had given them power unlike anything seen before. The siblings stood together to right their uncle's wrongs, and became nature's champions. It became their job to keep balance in the world. For a while, all was right in the world. The king stepped down, and the sisters stood by their brother's side. But they were immortal. They had jobs to do. Other discrepancies to fix. So years later, Malum's successor took his place and he left the kingdom with his sisters."
"Why do I feel like things are going to take a bad turn?"
"Well, for a millennium things were pretty good. But then nature grew restless. It wasn't supposed to be forever peaceful. There was supposed to be a balance. Good and bad. So she started throwing more challenges at them, creating other species, to see if the siblings could handle it. They could. Anything she threw at them, they stopped and fixed. She gave up. But then the youngest of the three was bored. It was Zia who had first decided to do only good with her powers, and Aeliana who had decided to follow in her footsteps, indulging in a few selfish desires along the way. Never anything bad. But Malum didn't want to just always be the one trailing after his sisters. He never felt like he was his own person. So he went for his own path. A path of darkness. He tried to leave behind his sisters, but they followed after him, wherever he went, cleaning up his messes. It was never anything Zia and Aeliana couldn't fix. Then one day, he got angry. He decided to turn his wrath on his sisters, and cursed Aeliana."
"Cursed her how?"
"He cursed her with a terrible madness. It made her lose her mind and turn to a path of darkness. Together they wreaked havoc with Zia spending more time preventing them from doing too much bad deeds than she spent trying to save Aeliana. It was a long time before Zia found a way to save her sister. When she did, Aeliana was pissed. Superbly angry. He'd gone too far. So the girls decided they had to stop him. Zia came up with a plan. Since she'd devoted herself to a path of total light, there were some things she could do. She couldn't do anything that was dark or went against nature, so she linked herself to her brother. Aeliana, however, wasn't quite so limited. Her path was mainly light, not total. So after Zia linked herself to her brother, Aeliana cursed her to live out a mortal life."
"No!"
"They couldn't die permanently though. It wasn't possible, so Aeliana's spell made it so when they lived out their human life, they'd be reborn."
"Like you and Aria did to Mal?" She stopped, realising something. "Wait, Mal. That's Malum, right."
"Yeah."
"But if you and Aria cursed Mal, that makes you two Zia and Aeliana?"
"Yes."
"I'm guessing you're Zia, and Aria's Aeliana?"
"Yes."
"So Mal and Aria are your siblings?"
"Yes."
"So you're two different people?"
"One person. I've just... lived other lives."
"You said millennia. I know your siblings are a thousand, but how old are you?"
"Um... well, about six thousand.."
"Six thousand. You're old."
"I know," I cringed. "You don't need to call me out on it."
"If it makes you feel better, it doesn't really matter. You've always been ancient."