Heritage

Family History

"Not that big of a deal really, but it has given some select members in our family a gift. Members like your uncle and you." Teague continued.

"I have a gift? Where is it?" Jack asked looking all around and under himself as if would just magically appear out of then air.

"Not that kind of gift lad. We mean something more of an... ability." Uncle Jack said.

"You see the two of you inherited a piece of the siren's alure powers. The call, pull, charm whatever you want to call it." Teague continued.

"It allows your words and touch to have a suggestive power over most men. Some of them can fight it if they have a strong enough will or have been exposed to it enough. Men like your old man." Uncle Jack said clapping a hand over his brother's shoulder. Which he slapped just as it landed. Uncle Jack swore and shook his hand from the pain.

"I don't get it." Jack said looking confused.

"Think of it this way. Say a man has a purse full of gold coins. You would want to steal it right?" Teague asked and Jack nodded as if that was obvious.

"Well, with your power you don't have to. You could just ask him to give it to you and he would. Or if that doesn't work you could just touch his arm or something and ask again and he will. Sometimes you don't even have to speak. You could just touch his shoulder and look at the purse and they may give it to you." He explained. Jack's face lit up.

"I could do that!?" He asked and smiled excitedly.

"Yep, sure can. I've done it plenty in my youth. Now-a-days I can sometimes get a whole ship if I concentrate hard enough." Uncle Jack said and Jack's jaw dropped again. Before his face turned up in confusion.

"How come only we can do it though? Why not you dad? Your related to a siren too." Jack asked confused.

"The gift doesn't go to all of us on account of our more human blood. For the most part very few of us don't get it. A lot of the time it skips over more then one generation. It's really rare for two generations to get it back to back like you and your uncle. For those that do get it, don't even have the same level of power with it. For instance, your uncle can charm an entry crowd of people enough to weasel his way out of an execution if he wanted to but you great grandmother could only ever manage a free meal at most." Teague explained.

"Well... if that's the case how do you know I have it? Can you tell me how strong my charm is?" Jack asked.

"From a special mark. When children in our family are born we check just below their left ear. If there is an indent below it, something like a remnant of a gill, it means your born with the gift. For if the siren blood in you to be strong enough to use a charm it shows up physically on the body as well. You have that same mark under your own ear. If that wasn't enough you had been using your charm very early on. When you were a baby their wasn't a member of this entire crew that wouldn't die for you. It's the only reason that I was able to keep you on the ship so young and not send you to an orphanage. I never had to worry about anything happening because I know those lads outside would throw themselves at gun point for you. That's just from you being around them. I don't even think you've been actively charming them at that age." Teague said and Jack looked down at his small hands as if he could see the power in them if he focused hard enough.

"As for how strong your charm is, I think you may be the most power our family has ever seen... Most likely because of your mother's family heritage." Teague said this time also getting Uncle Jack's attention as he was not aware of this.

"What about my mother's family?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, what about his mother's family?" Jack senior echoed.