I was torn. On one hand I was glad to see a close relative after what I had been through; on the other hand, Lynette had never been my favorite person in the whole world and the way she was treating me now was a far cry from the way she had treated my family for years.
“Hello grandmother.” I said, finally managing to coax the words out of my mouth. She nodded at me, her smile unfaltering but she lowered her arms after she realized that I had no intention of hugging her.
“Well I am glad to see you too.” Lynette said wistfully. I looked around at my surroundings but there was nothing to give away where we were; the airfield was merely a strip of tarmac surrounded by abandoned grasslands fenced off on three sides, and a one-story concert building on the other. The temperature was mild and the sky was partially covered in clouds, mirroring my mood.
“Come on, we better move back inside.” Lynette said, waving her hands like she was addressing a formal meeting. Her demeanor was exactly the same; the regality, the air of superiority. It was just down-right annoying.
Since there was no objection, all of us followed her into the building. Inside it was a lot better than it looked, lined with soft, burgundy carpets and light wooden panels. There were a dozen people or so running around in black clothing embroidered with the de Silver sigil, either on the phone or typing away furiously in front of a computer.
I noticed that everyone seemed to make way for Lynette as she passed through; she nodded at a few people and led us through the main office area into a plush room.
“Have a seat.” Lynette said, I turned around and saw that the pilot and co-pilot had left the group, as well as Kenneth and Wayne. Only the de Silvers were left.
“Lynette, we need to check her first.” Paul said, sighing as if this was not the first time my grandmother had ignored protocol and did what she wanted. No surprise there.
“She has been wearing the necklace since she entered the Academy. She is protected.” Lynette said, giving Paul a final look before turning to address me. I touched the necklace and frowned; protected? So this was more than just a decorative heirloom?
Paul’s glance flickered to my necklace and I detected a hint of jealousy in his eyes that I didn’t see before. “This is the necklace?” he asked and Lynette gave him a pointed look and nodded.
“Alright then.” Paul straightened up and I looked towards John and Jenny to see if they had any idea about what just happened, but neither of them seemed to follow what was going on.
“Where is Ethan?” Paul asked, Lynette shrugged like she didn’t care. “He said he wanted to be here.”
“Yes, but I told him I need time to talk to my granddaughter.” She said, and then dismissed Paul when he opened his mouth to say more with a wave of her hand. “Which is exactly what I am going to do now.”
I narrowed my eyes at my grandmother as she ushered the three de Silvers out of the room. She sighed as the door finally clicked shut behind them and shook her head.
“People will always be jealous.” She said as if that would account for everything. Sitting back down she folded her hands neatly on her lap and just looked at me. It was hard not to feel patronized by her; she had this air of authority about her that made people squirm in her presence.
“Well dear, you have been hiding that power of yours quite well.” She said, her glaze on me unfaltering. I grimaced inside, it didn’t take a genius to figure out she was praying that Dan and I would have powers to compensate for her children.
“You never told us about the de Silver clan either.” I retorted; to her credit Lynette didn’t seem fazed by my question at all. She leaned slightly backward and crossed her legs, a wry smile on her face.
“You father has no power, there was no need to burden him with such knowledge; the same for you too, if you were without powers.” Lynette reasoned, sounding like she actually cared. But I knew that although that was the reason, the main point was because she couldn’t let other people know that her son was without powers. It was a miracle that she married grandpa, a norm. I could barely remember grandpa, he had died of a sudden asthma attack when I was very little. My only memories was of him bringing me to a playground when I was about three; he was a good, kind man. Why he married Lynette was a mystery to me.
“They didn’t even seem to know about Dad and aunt Lydia.” I continued, relentless in my attempt to get some reaction, some truth out of my grandmother. And she knew it.
“They have no powers.” Lynette repeated, as if that was the answer to everything. “Involving them in the family business would only deprive them of their normal life, a life that they deserve to have, one without drama.”
Again, would it have been some other person, I would have believed that their true intent was good and they wanted to let their children have a normal life. But with Lynette, I knew the ulterior motive; we were after all still family and despite the fact that we didn’t spend much time together, I still knew what she was like.
“And that is the truth, whether you believe it or not.” Lynette concluded, the finality of her voice signaled that the discussion on that topic was over.
“When did you first develop your powers?” Lynette asked, cutting straight to the point. I smiled a little at the sense of déjà vu that hit me; things would have turned out so differently if Lynette had found my powers first. But then I would never have met Tom.
“I am not entirely sure, but I remember having sensed them at the age of three or four.” I admitted and the sound of a sharp intake of breath responded to me. Her eyes were sparkling and I raised my eyebrow at her.
“And you never told us?” She said; a hint of excitement laced in her voice. I shook my head, recalling my fear of being experimented upon. The fear still held, but I took comfort in knowing that Lynette would not stand by and watch one of her only three grandchildren get played with by scientists.
“No, I saw what happened with the kids that are different.” I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest. Lynette looked thoughtful and drummed her fingers on her thigh; I waited for a response from her.
“You should know that we would never do that to you.” Lynette said; despite our differences I knew that she would never do that to me. However it wasn’t like I knew that when I was three; I felt like I could sense some kind of stories on the experiment front with the overreaction from the de Silver whenever it was mentioned.
“You have a lot of family history to catch up on.” Lynette said and my mind quickly drifted back to the bedtime stories that she used to tell me. Of course now they would be tales of POEs instead of knights.
“John and Jenny told me about Akram de Silver.” I said, Lynette smiled and nodded, her glance flickering to the photo on the wall. Following her line of vision, I saw a portrait of a young man, about my age actually. As I studied his face I noticed we had the same colored eyes and the same shade of hair color. He was a handsome teenager, enhanced by the brooding look on his face. There was a girl next to him, slightly younger with soft, corn-colour hair and doe-like brown eyes.
“That’s Akram de Silver with his wife Anastasia.” Lynette said, still admiring the photo. My eyebrows shot up, so they got married so young?
“They got married about five years after the photo was taken.” Lynette added, to my relief. “Akram and his brother Andre establish an organization together, the one that still stands today. They wanted to create a safe place in the world for POE, to make sure that none of our kind were mistreated and had somewhere to turn to.”
I listened attentively to the history and began to envision what it must have been like at the time. The chaos, the struggle and the mortification that your child might not be born healthy; Citybases were a dream compared to that.
“He was one of the very first anti-government groups.” Lynette continued, “There were still remnants of the Old World’s government littered across the globe, some were attempting to help but others only added to the chaos and wreaked havoc on the general public. At age fifteen he exterminated the groups surviving in London and relocated his families to Paris for refuge.”
My eyes widened. This guy was quickly becoming a legend in my mind; although the idea of killing people was still nauseating for me, but whenever I remembered the blood bath in Himalaya I couldn’t help but feel that it must be justifiable.
“There aren’t many details of that period until he was twenty five. By then he seemed to have gathered up a group of followers and made a name for himself in the worldwide POE community, just in time for the establishment of the UGE with the Originals. After that, he quickly gathered support and built the foundation of our clan with his brother that still stands today.”
I let out a long sigh. Although our family came from a long line of heroes, now I personally think that Akram de Silver is definitely top of the list. It is difficult to be a POE now, I could not even begin to imagine how difficult it is to be one back then.
“Enough on the history.” Lynette said, clasping her hands together in a very poised manner and stood up. She smoothed the creases on her skirt and I followed her suit. “We need to move on to the next destination.” She said, I frowned; we had been here for barely an hour and now we had to move?
Once we were outside I looked around to see if I could see the others that had arrived with me, but the mob of people milling around in the same attire was making it really difficult. Lynette was walking at a brisk pace that was unnaturally fast for someone wearing high heels and I had to jog to catch up to her.
We were heading to another side of the office, weaving between the small cubicles of workers. One of the women nodded at Lynette as she saw us approach and whispered something in the ear piece she was wearing before stepping in front of us to lead the way.
“How is the time?” Lynette asked her. I took this opportunity to study her; she had blonde hair tied into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, dressed in a black, fitting dress suit with a pair of low, block heel and holding a clipboard. She looked at her watch and scribbled something on the clipboard before responding.
“We are only one minute behind schedule.” She replied with a monotonous voice and Lynette nodded, somehow managing to increase her pace making me jog another few steps to catch up. As we made our way across the office I realized we were heading towards a huge, metallic rectangle that was set near the middle of the floor among the litter of small work cubicles.
It was an elevator. A huge, dark-hued metallic elevator that stood in stark contrast to the white surrounding; the clipboard woman pressed a button on the side and the doors parted silently, revealing an extremely spacious interior that was made of the same illuminated metal.
“Where are we going?” I asked, cautiously eyeing the elevator. There was nothing above us, which meant we must be going underground which could take us anywhere. Also I was sick and tired of not being informed of the plan.
“We are taking you back to the headquarter.” Lynette said, looking at me as if I was being insipid. I made a sarcastic look behind her but bit back a snarky comment.
The door slid shut quietly as soon as we were inside and the clipboard woman went in front of one of the walls; I frowned as I looked around searching for any buttons to press, coming up short my glance returned to the suited woman and my jaw dropped.
A small monitor had appeared on the body of the wall and it emitted a laser blue light and scanned the iris of the lady. A green light flashed across the screen along with a beeping sound and before I knew it the lift began to move.
“How long is this going to take?” I asked worriedly; it wasn’t like I knew where we were to begin with anyway.
“Faster than you would think.” Lynette said with a mysterious smile and I huffed. True to her words, the doors opened seconds after she spoke and revealed what appeared to be an underground terminal.
“We are taking the train.” She said, the echo of her heels against the hard stone floor resonated throughout the underground space. I walked out in awe as I took in the sleek design of the place; every inch seemed to be oozing with high technology.
“Come on, we do not have all day.” Lynette said and I had to run again to catch up. I was ushered into a small, two-carriage train and after a few clicks and scans, we were off.
“How big is the de Silver family?” I asked, after all I had witnessed, it seemed that we were not just any small power. Lynette gave me a smile that I could only describe as smug; she settled down on the plush velvet chair and folded her knee behind the other neatly.
“You will find out.”
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Hey everyone :D so finally i updated yay! I had a mild case of writers block combined with overflow of workdload so this took me a while to coax out. I am at a point where I am not sure if I should fast forward the plot or it needs more built up.
I am one of those weird people who already have some kind of ending planned but not so much the middle! So it's killing me right now.
Let me know what you think of Gail's family history! I personally LOVE Akram de Silver and his story (coming soon, ok, not so soon in the Prequel)
Don't forget to vote ;)