chapter one-more to the story

The Aleda of the present day flicked her wand again. "If I had to guess, I'd say your parents were 2 of the most well known mystics in our world. Even including the queen. Though it was true that your parents were good friends with the queen, and myself, they weren't just known for being good friends to royalty. As you have seen, Your mother was a general of the queens army, and fearless to boot. Your father, was one of the very few mystics that had the gift of foresight. He was also the most powerful clairvoyant mystic. Most only could get visions once in a great while, and even the ones that saw visions every day could not make heads or tails of them without the help of a vision reader. Your father however, he could cause himself to get visions, and they were very clear visions. I was one of the few who he showed any of his visions."

Aleda stopped to allow Callisto some time to let this information sink in, then she swished her wand, and they were back in the bubble sitting around the table Aleda had conjured. "Was that it?" Callisto said with a let down kind of look. "No, there is more, but I'm not entirely sure about all of what I have been told, and it's late. I promise you, that we will talk more once I have found out all that even I do not know of what has occured." Aleda replied.

Both women were quiet for what seemed like hours, until finally Callisto said "But wait a minute! You told me you would tell me about that man back there, and what that was all about."

"Oh, right! Well, that's kind of one of the things I was talking about, but I guess I can tell you of my assumtions. See, I'm pretty sure that was the eldest son of the queen. You see, in the mystic world, the line of succession of royalty is a bit different then in the mortal world you have known for 17 years. In the mortal world, most countries royalty succeed with the men of the royal family. In Ariland, it is the women who are usually in power. The only way the men of the royal family have been able to be King, is if they are no daughters, or if they are the eldest and marry before the queen dies. Now I may be wrong, but I think he may want to take you as his bride, so he can be king whether his mother dies, or is murdered."

Callisto looked at Aleda as if she were crazy. "Ok, I understand needing to get married to become king, but why would he want me as his bride? And how does he know about me anyways? Wasn't he only a few years old when I was born? I mean from the memory you've shown me." Aleda hesitated, as if there were something she had not wanted to reveal. "Well, I am quite certain that all of Ariland have heard of you. I mean you are the daughter of the two greatest mystics ever known."

Callisto swallowed hard. "The two greatest mystics ever?" Aleda smiled, "Well, none could surpass the power they happened to possess." Callisto looked awe struck for a second, and then finally, with a frown she replied "If no one was more powerful than them, how did they die?" Aleda's smile faded, and she looked as if she was afraid to say, but reluctantly she replied, "Well, there are 3 reasons you will be well known in this world. The reason we have already discussed. However, there are two other reasons. You see somehow, word got out of your father's vision. As well as a vision he had before that. Both were about you. It's rumored that the last vision was about you too. I can't say for sure that the last vision was anything like the first two, but at least the first two showed that you would...Well, that you would be even more powerful than your parents."

Callisto laughed, "I don't believe those visions foretold the future. There is just no way I could be more powerful then them. I mean, I just recently found out I had power, and wouldn't I need to train. Or something like that?" Aleda replied "Well, yes, but the mystic powers is more of a birth rite, meaning that your power stems from your belief in your power more than anything."

Callisto played with the food left over on her plate. Her appetite had gone with the excitement of the story. Finally she broke what seemed like the hundredth silence of the night with "Well, what as the last reason?" Aleda looked even more serious now, and she sort of wiped her forehead, as though wiping invisible sweat beads. "Well, your father, when he died, he was having that last vision. It has been widely rumored that this vision of you was a reflection of your power, and that it had been so powerful that it ended up killing him. Now that is just the rumor, no one knows for sure just what happened to your father."

"What about my mother?" Callisto asked, almost unable to speak. Aleda cleared her throat, obviously to stall what she had to say and she continued, "Well, she died in childbirth. See she went into early labor with you. Something quite unnatural in this world, and it seemed you were not going to make it. She used her last bit of life to bring healing into you and she saved your life. That however, I happen to know to be very true. That is why you look so much like her. Not just because of genes"

Callisto closed her eyes, tears falling down her cheeks. "My dreams! They were memories then!" she cried. Aleda flicked her wand, and a box of tissues appeared before Callisto, and Callisto took one and blew her nose. "It was not natural the way she died. I've seen it in my dreams. Someone poisoned her." she said, the tears streaming down so excessively that her shirt was already soaked.