the seven virtues [tom riddle]

chapter twenty-six

it is 4am and this is a 10k word so i only edited half of it. sorry for any mistakes. too tired.

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THE ANATOMY OF ANANKE NAVARRO - PURITY

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

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By the time December swirled around, Ananke was wholly sure that the demons of her past were looming around the corners. There was a peculiar paranoia that bewildered her, especially when one night, she woke up well past midnight only to see a white owl on the edge of her window, holding an envelope in its beak addressed to her.

With reluctance, she plucked it from its mouth, a clogged breath in her throat as she gaped at the animal that stood on the emblem on most of the dresses she had worn while growing up, her family always craving their badge on all possesions. Still, she did not allow herself to believe that they had found her and attributed the letter to someone else entirely.

But when she opened the envelope and read her mother's familiar handwriting on the paper, she felt her chest twist with apprehension.

Ananke, you cannot run from your duty any longer. You know, as well as I do, that your choice is affecting this Coven and everyone that serves underneath us. Please, return home by the end of the year and accept your status as heiress. We depend on you.

The letter was not signed, nor was there any returning address on it, only a sigil she knew too well and the slanted curves of her mother's calligraphy, as was custom of their bloodline. For decades, the empath Coven had been hiding in plain sight from the wizarding world, their powers so sought after that massacres had followed their history. From the most ancient times, the Navarro bloodline had been utilized in wars, their capability to control human emotions extensively used in torture and interrogation.

For that reason, they had been hunted by the opposition for so long, butchered for their sorcery until the empath Coven had been reduced to nothing but ten families, out of which only the Navarro one maintained a stronghold on their purity, with all members only marrying other empaths. Being the leading force in the circle of outlandish wizards, Ananke's family had first choice in wedding matters, their daughters and sons, their magic heritage so sensitive that only the most harmonious genomes could produce a mighty empath.

They were a dying breed—butchered by the wizarding world, selected against by nature, and increasingly less potent as time went on. So, Ananke knew that when her mother had presented her with a marriage announcement, having her engaged to a boy from another family in their coven, she had meant well. That did not mean, however, that the witch was willing to sacrifice her future and obey their requirements, only so that their magic ancestry could be passed down.