St. Petersburg, Russia
1870
I'm beginning to feel all my 42 years as the bitter cold swept over St. Petersburg. Although the nonmagical Russia seemed to thrive, magical Russia was suffering. That is to say, the entire magical world was suffering as well. The Atlantean Empire in Exile was declining, and it was all Paxton Rothchester's fault. Him, and his allies/nephews Ryland and Piers Buckingham.
I knew I had no choice but to get rid of them.
Before we get to this point, I must say that I became a grandmother when Thorn and his wife presented me with their first child, a boy named Isaac. David's first grandchild was a daughter named Emaria, who had been born a year after the young Grand Duke Nicholas. The Trichenberg family was beginning to grow again, with David's siblings reporting on their growing families and prosperity.
While my younger children thrived in the Russian Imperial court, my eldest daughter Isadore was slowly going mad, as my grandmother and mother had the same madness. (I am eternally grateful that I and my other daughters don't have the madness.)
At the same time, though, I knew that I had no choice but to inform the Czar about what was happening in England. By that time, the anti-magical revolution had swept the country, with as many as 100,000 mages, spellcasters, and witches renouncing their magical heritage in favor of a bland, meaningless life as a Norm. Of course, many wizards and Atlanteans took some severe offense to that; they ended up declaring war on the magic breakers (which was what those who stopped using magic were). King Ihon was very displeased with how quickly the magical world was declining; he knew he had to find a way to stop the decline or else the magical rebellion would spread to other countries.
And there was my mistake, the mistake cost me everything, including my life.
I had reached out to the king with an offer to help him, not knowing or caring that I had been banished from England under pain of death for my traitorous deeds while I was in Queen Victoria's royal court. I knew that if I could persuade the king to listen to me and tell Paxton to put an end to the madness that he had created, things could improve between the Atlanteans, the magicians, and the Nomagies.
When I voiced that to the king, he said, "You do realize that I could have you executed for violating the conditions of your exile. In fact, I should have executed you for returning to England when you came with your husband. But this madness that is sweeping the empire is much too big for me or you to ignore, and I cannot in good faith allow it to continue."
"And what about Lord Paxton Rothchester, Ryland Buckingham, and Piers Buckingham?" I said worriedly. "They are my brother and sons. What are you going to do with them?"
"Did your brother Phoebus not tell you?" said the king.
"What did he not tell me?" I snapped, wondering why my brother didn't tell me anything about what was going on despite the fact that he had written to me regularly while I was in Moscow and London. "What is going on with him?"
"Phoebus has informed me that Paxton no longer uses his birth name, claiming that it was at the whim of a wicked man who had no regard for his mother's marriage and stole her from another man and their children. Paxton says that he never should have been born in the first place, and he was a bastard who ruined the Drake family with his presence, putting a curse on his siblings and cousins. Phoebus told me that Paxton is now referring to himself as Brother Timotheus Rediger."
I shook my head, wondering how and why he would throw away the name that Mamma had given him at the moment of his birth. I always believed that to throw away the name that your parents gave you when you were born is to disrespect them and their wishes for your life. I shook my head, thinking about the last thing Gramma said to me: "You will be cursed if you keep picking up that little creature!" So far, I had not had the happiest life due to the soothsayer's curse, from my traitorous liaison with Rafael Hawksley to the births of my bastard children. I was also exiled from England and forced to go to Russia, where I was expected to freeze to death. Yet instead of freezing, I married David Trichenberg and had nine children. I also participated in the downfall of the United States of America and the rise of the Kingdom of Columbiana.
But I knew that I wasn't finished living yet, not when I had my family to save. My relationship with Luna was all but destroyed, with her blaming me for her husband's death while I haven't seen my father in many years. Phoebus was the only person who I spoke to regularly, as my cousins had stopped speaking to me per King Ernaut's orders when I was exiled to Moscow.
This meant that I had to convince someone in the Drake family that I was not as awful as the king had told them that I was. Plus, I haven't forgotten that the Drake family had declared war on the Hawksley family when my son Terra was born; things had heated up when I was banished from England shortly after the birth of Acacia.
But that's not this story.
When I went to speak to Paxton at the monastery, he was decked out in a robe made from sackcloth. He wore a pair of leather sandals on his feet. His long white hair was unkempt, as if he couldn't be bothered to take care of it. The stench of his body odor repulsed me, making me wish that I had chosen to visit my father and his family instead of dealing with my brother.
But I couldn't run away from him, not when I was the last hope for Eirebul. Paxton saw me and said, "I was beginning to wonder if you would return to England, Selena."
"I'm here, but not for long," I said as I tried not to stare at him or recoil from his stench. "Phoebus tells me that you have changed your name."
"I have," said Pax as he glared at me. "My name is Brother Timotheus Rediger."
"Brother?" I cried out, wondering what on God's green earth had possessed him to drop the name Paxton Rothchester and take up another name that I don't like or approve of. "What do you mean brother? Aren't you my brother?"
"We are all brothers and sisters in this kingdom," said Pax. "There are no distinctions between families, because we are all children of Qaaldir and Tyxenta."
I couldn't believe the things that I was hearing; Paxton had officially lost his mind. To date, I was sure that he had went crazy after he was struck by lightning when he was a year old. I mean, what else explained why he was doing what he was doing in the first place?
But the nightmare I was experiencing was only beginning, as I saw Ryland and Piers approaching me with four of their "brothers" following them. One of them saw me and said, "Selena of the Drake Clan, you have been accused of fornication, conspiracy, treason, the firebombings that caused the destruction of United States of America, and racial genocide."
"What are you talking about?" I cried out in shock, not knowing what was happening. "What crimes have I committed?"
"You have broken the laws that were set in place when our kingdom in exile was established," said the second brother. "You have laid with a son of an exiled mage and brought forth three bastard sons, two whom you had named Ryland and Piers Buckingham." (I wondered why they didn't mention my youngest children Thorn and Acacia, as they were also my bastard children.)
"What about them?" I cried out, curious that they had brought these accusations on me. "Why would they do that?"
The brother continued, "They have abandoned the bastard names their parents had foolishly given them at the moment of their births and have renamed themselves as Brother Rueben Schwartz and Brother Phineas Quigly, thus freeing themselves from the taint of bastardy that was forced upon them."
Of course I'm trembling, as I realized that I was being taken to task for all the sins that I had committed during my 42 years on this Earth. But no one told me that my own sons would betray me. Did the soothsayer know this was going to happen? Was it because of my grandmother's curse?
The funny thing was, I had forgotten about my grandmother and the curse she had put on me when I refused to stop picking up Paxton when he was a baby. She had repeatedly told me that Paxton was not my brother, for he was a bastard and he had no place in the Drake family. But I had protested Gramma's harsh treatment of Pax whenever I could, and Phoebus and Luna had taken my side whenever Gramma and I fought.
Even then, I couldn't stop her when she took Pax outside during the infamous thunderstorm of 1838 and tried to kill him. Yet Gramma herself had been killed in the storm and Pax was changed from a deformed dwarf to a holier-than-thou mystic whose controversial teachings were causing more trouble for the magical world than what Jesus Christ had done for the entire human world.
But I'm sure the story isn't over yet, as I faced Ryland and Piers. They had hated me since I was forced to abandon them when I was exiled to Russia. They had forgotten that I had risked everything (including my life and reputation) to put them on this earth.
But that still didn't excuse the fact that I had defied Gramma's wishes to stay away from Paxton. She knew that Paxton wasn't my father's son, and as such, she tried to keep me away from him.
And now I'm about to pay for it.
The second brother continued, "And because you have committed these crimes, we have determined that you are guilty of those crimes and you must be punished."
Before I could do anything, the other two brothers reached out and grabbed my arms, dragging me away from the gardens. My face lost all its color as I was taken through the monastery and then to the cellars, where I was stripped of my clothes and tossed into a small cell. A huge dress made of sackcloth was shoved over my head; the thing hadn’t been washed in years and stank something awful.
I then said, “Why are you doing this? What sin have I committed to warrant this horrible treatment?” To Ryland, I said, "You do know that I am your mother; why are you treating me like this?“
“You should be praying,” Ryland said to me as he slammed the door shut.
Now I knew that I was in big trouble; I should have realized that I had been led into a trap, no thanks to my willingness to continue breaking the rules and helping people who didn’t deserve my help. Plus, I should have realized that Pax, Ryland, and Piers weren't going to listen to me, let alone the king.
Something had to give.
London, England
1870
I had been trapped in the monastery for six months.
During that time, I had time to reflect on where my life was going so far. My oldest sons had captured me and there was no way anyone could break into the monastery and rescue me, not when no one in my traveling party knew where I was.
But the worst part about being captured was the never-ending torment that I was forced to endure. Every day, a sister would read the Book of Morals to me, which drove me insane. (To start, I would rather have someone read the Bible to me (the King James Version), as I had been going to church almost my entire life and the preacher always used the King James Version to preach his sermons.) The stuff that was written in that book were so deplorable, I felt like tearing out my hair and screaming in agony. I mean, not even the Bible was that bad, and I had to read the Bible, knowing that the ghosts of my father's parents would come out of their grave and scare me to death if I didn't read the Bible every night.
And that wasn't the worst of it.
I was put on a bread and water diet, which messed up my entire system. The water was so bad, not even a man dying of thirst would drink it. The bread tasted so awful, not even the rats that ran around in the cellars would go near it. I found myself slowly starving to death and feeling sick. Yet every time I begged to be let out, someone would come into the room and beat me with a riding crop.
This abuse went on for nearly six months.
Yet one day (which was about six months into my imprisonment), I received an unexpected visitor. (I will say that no one knew where I was since my so-called "arrest".) Lord Seth St. Claire had heard about my arrest and went to visit me, breaking another of King Ernaut's orders for him to never see me. "Is that you, Sarah Farrington?"
"I'm Lady Selena Trichenberg now," I said while trying to get some semblance of respectability.
"I see," said Seth. "Phoebus told us at the court that you were arrested; I decided that you have been in the cellars for far too long."
"I have," I said. "I have nine children and a husband in Russia who are very worried about me; I also have three small grandchildren who need me. Yet Paxton will not let me go, not for all the families in the world."
"Such a travesty," said Seth as he stared at me. "And I'm guessing that Paxton corrupted Ryland and Piers and forced them to do his bidding?"
"He did," I said. "He told them false lies about me, their own mother. After I had spent many years trying to love him, he has turned against me and is trying to finish what King Ernaut had begun, something that King Ihon would never do."
"Which is," Seth began to say.
"Paxton is trying to get me put to death because of everything that I have done for him," I said sadly. “I took care of him when my grandmother neglected him. I defended him when my grandmother wanted to get rid of him. You would think he would be more grateful for the kindness that I had showed him.”
“He should have,” said Seth in agreement. I then told him about how Thorn and Acacia were doing, feeling grateful that so far, my youngest bastard children (Seth's children) had been spared from the insanity that was quickly ripping their family apart. (I'm also happy that Terra was living safely in Columbiana with his wife and children, where he would never have to deal with his insane older brothers.)
Yet Seth said, "When your brother told me that you were arrested and being held here, I knew I had to do something. My wife and her father have learned about you and how you were being treated; they have arranged for your escape from this place. We will bring you to Goldenstern Manor, where you will recover from your injuries and testify before the royal court of your treatment at the hands of that cruel man."
Without so much as a word from me, Seth grabbed my hand and dragged me through the monastery until we found ourselves in the gardens. (I sadly must inform you that I had spent six months locked away in a dark cage in the cellar; the sackcloth shift that I was forced to wear had rotted away, leaving me as naked as the day that I was born. But the worst part about everything was, though, I could hear the voice of a sister shouting, "A witch comes before you; she has admitted her sins to our gods and asks for forgiveness. But in order to obtain the gods' forgiveness, she is to perform a walk of atonement."
At once, Seth helped me walk down the garden pathway as the people who gathered for the event shouted horrible words at me. (I don't need to tell you of the words they shouted at me, as those words were not particularly nice to hear. Plus, more women screamed at me then the men did, which shows you that women are much more horrible to other women than men are to women. I will also say that men mistreat other men far more that men mistreat women.)
As the walk progressed, I had no idea that the jeers I was hearing soon translated to shock and horror from the general public. No one knew that we had left the magical world and were now in the nonmagical world. Yet the people in that world were horrified to see me; I was covered in mud and animal excrement, someone threw rocks at my head, causing a bruise to form on my right cheek, and to top it all off, it was the month of July, which meant that it was hot outside and the entire city of London stank to high heaven.
Yet the people living in nonmagical London were so angry with how I was being treated by the magical community; a group of them started a riot to stop the walk. Seth quickly rushed me away from the chaos and got me to a carriage, where his wife and father-in-law were waiting. Mary threw a blanket over my poor abused body as her father and the coachman helped me get into the carriage. The carriage soon took off, with me gasping in horror as I watched Paxton's military force beating the nonmagical people into submission.
But the story wasn't over yet, not from where I was standing.
When King Ihon found out about the walk of atonement that I was forced to do, as well as the riot that followed, he was so angry that he called for the arrest of Paxton and his followers. Yet the man in question refused to submit to the arrest, claiming that the king was a bastard who had usurped his father's throne and destroyed his older brothers so he could be king.
Well, that remark from Paxton had angered many people who believed that Ihon was the rightful heir and his brothers were unworthy to be king. Plus, Queen Victoria had found out about me being shamed in the streets of London; she was very displeased about the whole thing. She demanded that Paxton be arrested and brought to trial for the abuse and humiliation of an innocent woman.
And can you believe that Paxton said that she shouldn't be queen, not when she had male cousins who should be ruling England. (Could you imagine all the angry people who heard what he had said about their queen?) Well, I knew that Paxton was so knee-deep in his ignorance that he didn't know how much he was hurting many people, but this was a new low, especially for him. He had already had me arrested and sent to the cellar in the monastery, where I was beaten and tormented. But when the people of nonmagical London discovered that I had been forced to walk through their streets completely naked, there was such a rage that swept through the city that the mayor called for Paxton to be arrested and locked up in the tower of London for speaking out against the queen. But I knew that Paxton would not rest until he had destroyed the noble class and force them to give away their wealth, making them even poorer than the most wretched of people in the lowest class.
This would not do.
While I was recovering from whatever was done to me in the cellar, David made his way to London, bringing with him Lem, Delmer, and Joseph Turner. (David and I had adopted them and their siblings Erwin, Ester, and Celeste when their parents Frederick and Elizabeth Turner (who served the Trichenberg family) had unexpectedly died during a tuberculosis plague in 1859.) David had heard about what happened to me, and he was more than angry with Paxton. Brother-in-law or no, David determined that Paxton deserved to die for what he had done to me.
So here's what happened next:
Magorious (who came with David to London) said to me, "Well, I will admit that the people living in America were treated unfairly, but they got what they deserved for having slaves and kicking the Natives off their lands. But your brother here has gone too far with how he had treated you. You didn't deserve to be paraded naked and exposed in the streets for all and sundry to see."
"But Paxton is my brother," I snapped, knowing that even though I had no right to defend him, given what he had allowed to happen to me, he was still my brother. And you should never give up on your brother no matter what.
"He does not deserve that title, not after what happened to you," said Magorious angrily. "I would not allow anything like that to happen in my clan, and my people know better than to mistreat others. But humanity doesn't seem to care about who they hurt or beat, just as long as they can get what they want. Paxton is out of control, and he must be stopped if he knows what's good for this world!"
"So, what should you do about him?" I said, fearful of what he was planning to do with my brother.
"I'm going to make sure that a great and terrible plague will strike this city," said Magorious. "Everyone who supported this false priest and his false disciples will die a horrible death. The survivors will let out a loud and terrible cry, and the cry will reach the heavens, so that the human world will find out about the evils the magical world had allowed to happen."
It was at the moment that I knew that Magorious Hoffelbax had pronounced his judgment upon the magical world. As a tradition, the werewolf packs were descended from a group of deformed Ainysians that were captured and cruelly tormented by a group of cruel magicians, so they became werewolves. The werewolves did not like anyone who used magic for that reason, even if they had the ability to use ability to use magic. As for werewolves using magic, only a handful of them could use magic. Most werewolves avoided magic, as they were reminded of their ancestors' torment at the hands of the wicked magicians who once ruled over Ainysia.
Yet what Magorious was suggesting was a massacre by epidemic. He was a powerful magician, as his mother was a witch from Germany, as well as a dangerous werewolf; he could easily wipe out the entire human race if he felt like it.
Which was what had happened the next month.
In September 1870, over 10,000 people living in both magical and nonmagical London died of the dreaded Divine Sickness; that illness consisted of confusion, severe sleepiness, loss of appetite, dizziness, and some cases, violent seizures. there is no treatment for this disease; anyone who got the disease often died within three days of contracting it.
Which meant, those 10,000 people who got the Divine Sickness died three days after Magorious's curse; most of the victims ended up getting mysterious cuts on their bodies that resembled the wounds that Jesus Christ had as he died on cross. And the sad thing was, those people who died had foolishly renounced the usage of magic in favor of living a magic-free life.
Sad to say, though, those people had brought it upon themselves when they chose to listen to Paxton and believe his lies over the well-preserved truth.
While the Eirebulian government struggled to deal with the plague, David took me back to Moscow, where I recovered from my ordeal and yet began planning with King Ihon to bring about the downfall of Lord Paxton Rothchester. (I refused to use the name Brother Timotheus Rediger, as it was an insult to the woman who brought him into the world at the cost of her own life.) As much as I hated to say it, Paxton would have to die.
And not just him, but Ryland and Piers must also die, which hurts because I had brought them inti the world at great risk to my health (as i was a teenager when I had them).
No parent should have to destroy their own children; that's just not how it's done. But after the harsh treatment that I had received from the cruel brothers and sisters who served Paxton, I knew that it would have to be done. Paxton was completely insane and he needed to be stopped before he destroyed all of Europe in his mad quest to take over the world.
But that's only half the story.
I did remember the soothsayer claiming that I would be attacked and strangled to death by a man who would gave destroyed me. So far, I had been beaten and humiliated, I had been shamed, I had been called a liar, a sinner, and a whore. I had been banished from my home and lost my entire family.
But I survived.
I'm still alive. I haven't given up yet.
But that doesn’t mean I’m just going to fade away quietly, not when I was unceremoniously paraded through the streets of London as if I was nothing more than a common slave or a prisoner of war. According to everyone who learned about that part of that story, I deserve better than that.
Like it or not, I'm going to get my revenge for that, one way or another. It’ll only be a matter of time when that happens.
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