Samantha walked out of her house early in the morning, before the sun was even visible over the canopy of trees, to do her errands before the shops got too busy. She walked down the main street of the shopping district looking at the different merchants getting ready to start the day.
As she walked down past the stores and vendors her senses were assaulted by the smells, sights, and sounds of the market and she absolutely loved it, it made her forget all of the other things going on in her life and all she could focus on was everything that was assaulting her senses. However, this morning as Samantha was walking through the market something kept distracting her, she felt a presence behind her. But, she was not that worried about it, she could tell that it was not a hostile presence. Her senses were confirmed a couple of seconds later she heard a voice say, "Auntie Sam, Auntie Sam."
She knew who it was before she even turned around, when she did turn around she saw her a young boy with black hair and green eyes, running towards her. "Hi, Lex, what are you doing out of the palace this early in the morning, does your mother know that you snuck out again?"
He broke into a huge goofy grin and said, "Of course not if she did it wouldn't be called sneaking out. No, I was able to sneak past my bodyguards and get out of the palace unseen."
Samantha shook her head and said, "Your mother is going to be worried about you when she realizes that you are missing, you should go back to the palace before you get in trouble with your mother; she is not one that you want to get mad at you, trust me"
"It is okay, I already thought of that and I left a note on my bed telling her that I was going out with you."
Samantha shook her head, "Why did you have to drag me into it? Your mother is going to kill me too now. I am going to take you back to the house before she finds out and gets mad at me. Now, let's go before they realize that you are gone."
As I was about to turn and head back to the palace, he looked up at her with big round sad eyes and said, "But, Auntie Samantha, I am sick of staying in that stuffy palace all day. I like it better out here in the capital anyways, plus I have some questions I want to ask you about my mama."
She stopped and looked at him; she could not really blame him, she never liked to stay in the palace. Which is why, even though her sister-in-law had invited her to stay in the palace while she was living here, she lived in a small house at the edge of town. Even though she was technically royalty she was brought up in a small farmhouse and preferred to continue to live that way.
She sighed and said, "Fine, I won't take you back to the palace, you can come with me as I do my errands. And when I finish my errands I will tell you what you want to know, is that okay?" He smiled and nodded, the young boy seemed satisfied with this agreement; Samantha continued to walk through the streets.
After about a half an hour she had finished the last of her shopping and she started back to her house with Lex still in tow looking as happy as he could be. When they got back to her she climbed up the stairs to her house and opened the door.
It was a small house, but it was really all that she needed since she only spent about a month in the house a year, she spent most of her time at the school. She only came here for the yearly family vacation with her wife and her sister, and their kids.
It was a small four room house, just enough for her and her family to stay in. It had a room for her, one for the kids, a living room, and a kitchen. It was sparsely furnished, but it did have a few beautiful pieces of art that she had been given over the years by students and royalty alike. All and all it was a nice house, and it had a homey feel to it that the palace just didn't have.
Samantha put her stuff away in the pantry and then put on some water for tea. When she returned to the living room she saw Lex looking at her art that was hanging from the wall, she crossed the room and sat down in a chair next to him and said, "So, what is it that you want to know today, Lex."
Lex turned around, looked at Samantha and said, "Well, I realized the other day that I really do not know that much about my mama at all. So, I want to learn more about my mother. What kind of person is she, where did she grow up, what was her childhood like, how did she and my mom meet, why did she leave my mother behind…"
"Okay, slow down Lex." Samantha was really taken back, neither of his sisters had ever asked about their mother. But, that was not that surprising since his sisters had their mother, when she was still living at home. But, Lex was different, he had grown up not really knowing his mother that well since she left for prolonged periods of time, the latest being when he was only 3 years old. She had known for a while that it was only a matter a time before one of them asked the questions, so she had resolved long ago not to hold any information back from any of them concerning their mother.
"Your mama is a woman who likes her secrets, so I really don't know if I will be able to answer these questions to your satisfaction. But, I will try to answer what I can"
This seemed to disappoint him a little, but he bounced right back and said, "But you must know Auntie Sam. You know must everything about her you are her sister." Samantha knew what he was trying to do.
"Isn't this something that you should ask your mom Lex?"
He hung his head and said, "Every time that I talk about mama in front of mom she just gets all sad or mad and refuses to talk about her. Mom never says anything expect that he is an amazing guy. I never understood why she gets like that, so that why I am here. I want to find out why my mom acts like that, and where my mama is now. But, I also want to know why he can just leave us alone for so long. So, I thought I could come to you for the answers Auntie Sam."
Sa sighed, "Lex, I will tell you what you want to know. But, I think that it will be easier just to tell you his whole story, and your questions will be answered along the way. Also, I am not going to be able to answer all your questions in one sitting, it is a long story. To answer all your questions we are going to be here for a while. Is this all okay with you?"
Right away he nodded his head and said, "Yes, Auntie Sam."
"First, since we are going to be here for a while let me go get some snacks for us to eat." Samantha got up, went to the kitchen, and grabbed the tea some seed cakes. Then she came back into the parlor, sat back down in a chair beside the table, she poured some tea for Lex, and she poured some for herself, too.
Then, she took a minute to take a sip of her tea. But, just as she was about to start there came a knock at the door.
"Who is it," asked Sam.
"It is us, Aunt Samantha. Is our idiotic little brother here with you? Our mother sent us to find him" said a set of voices from the other side of the door.
She looked at Lex who shook his head so furiously it looked like it was going to spring off and ran into the other room to hide from his sisters. Samantha laughed, got up, and walked over to the door, opened it and said, "Yes, he is, he just ran into the other room. Lex, come out of there and listen to what your sisters have to say to you."
After a couple of seconds his head popped out from around the corner.
When his sisters saw they said, "You really have to stop doing this. At least wait for mom to get up and tell her that you are leaving, she is worried about you."
He hung his head, and said, "I am sorry, but I really wanted to talk to Auntie Sam, and I did not want to spend another full day in class, I mean we are on vacation."
They smiled and said, "We don't blame you, but you have to tell mom or one of the maids so we don't get worried about you; you are lucky that she just sent us she wanted to send out the guards to find you." Then, they turned to Samantha and said, "Aunt Samantha, can we please stay here with you as well. We don't want to go back to the palace either."
Samantha sighed but said, "That is fine with me, I was just about to tell Lex the story of your mama. You are more than welcome to stay as well. But, before we get into it let me send a note to your mom, so she knows where you are and won't worry for the rest of the day about you. While I do that get comfortable."
"Really, thank you Aunt Samantha, you are the greatest, we love you so much."
Then, she walked into to kitchen, grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill, and scribbled down a quick note to her sister-in-law. She rolled the parchment and tied it up then opened up the window and tied the paper to the hawk that was sitting on the window sill.
Once it took off she closed the window and walked over to one of the cabinets and grabbed two more sets of dishes and some more snacks. Then, she took them into the living room and set them down on the table.
She took another sip of her drink as the twins grabbed a couple of cakes. Then she looked at them and said, "Your mama is not a woman that likes to share that much about her personal life with others, your mom is the only person that she has ever really been truly open with. And while she might seem like a bad guy on the surface for leaving you and your mother that is not the case, she is just a very complicated woman. I also want you to remember that I do not know everything there is to know about her, there are gaps in my knowledge that only he can fill in, I will ask her to tell you herself when he gets home."
"But how can you not know everything about his life if you were her sister? And…Hey, wait a minute you are still in contact with mama, why didn't you tell us that you still talk to her." asked Lex.
His sisters rolled their eyes, as if they knew what she was going to say next. "I was not with her for every second of her life, does it look like we are joined at the hip; most of the first part of her life will be very accurate but it gets murky after she left school, and went out on her own because this was the time that we went our own separate ways. Your mother and I have different ideas about our missions in life. No, I just know that she left a few years back on some sort of trip, I only know as much about it as your mom or anyone else," answered Sam in a rather annoyed voice.
"Wow, she went to school…" Started Lex but he suddenly stopped when Samantha flashed him a reproving glare. "Sorry, Auntie Sam, I won't interrupt you anymore, I promise," he said settling down in his chair.
"Now, before I start into his story, you must understand a couple of things, a background if you will to his life. One your mother was not always as she is today; this is a critical point that most people overlook. Her early life was not much different from your own life, or that of any child," started Samantha
But, then Lex broke in again, this time she could tell that he was very annoyed, he had never particularly liked his mother for leaving right after he was born and even though she knew that the boy loved her, it was understandable for him to have some animosity towards his mother. She guessed that he refused to believe that he had anything in common with his mother, even though this made him very much like his mom. "So, she had a mother who was there for not for her."
Both the exact same moment both of his sisters kicked him, and said, "Shut up idiot and listen to Aunt Sam." Samantha felt for the boy, so she decided to go easy on him, "In matter of fact, yes Lex. But, she had it much worse off than you do, at least both of your parents are still alive, both her mother and father died before he was only nine months old. But, if you had just let me tell the story all your questions will be answered. Now, can I continue with my story?"
This answer seemed to take Lex completely surprise, and he shifted in his seat uncomfortably. Then he said, "Sorry, again, Auntie Sam, I had no idea I will be better from now on, I promise. I didn't mean to burst out like." Samantha just smiled, thinking to herself, 'He is more like his mother then he knows.'
Now, as I was saying, "She grew up outside a village that once stood about fifty leagues from here. The name of the town was Midvale."
"But, like your mama always says, it is not your birthplace or conditions you were born into that determine your destiny, it is the decisions that you make in your life. And there is no better example than your mama. The town that she grew up in, Midvale, was a tiny trading town outside of the Southern Kingdom. Most of the people there were farmers, whose families had lived there for generations, and if they were not farmers they were tradesmen.
It was the final frontier on the southern edge of the human kingdom. It was a buffer between the human kingdom and the unknown beyond. Now with that little bit of background we are ready to start into the story."
After she was done saying this, she took a sip of her drink, then she reached into her robes, and pulled out a key. Then she walked over to the wall, tapped on it a couple of time, and a section of the wall slid back and revealed a small door. When she inserted the key, the door swung open and showed the contents of the safe. There was some money, a couple of gems, a scroll or two, and many bottles of a clear liquid. She pulled out several of the vials and set them on the table.
Then, as if guessing the question on their minds she said, "These, you guys, are experiences, or to be more exact my and other memories of your mother's life. I was able to get these memories with the help of a spell that was ironically invented by her while she was at school, this is a very quick, simple, and accurate way to keep records or extract information from people. It was developed by your mother because she is first and foremost an inventor, and this provided a fantastic way to pass on firsthand knowledge of events."
Then she picked up one of the vials and poured all the liquid into a scrying dish, which was sitting on the table of the low table in front of the couch, then said, "With these we will actually see the memories of the people who witnessed the events of your mother's life, we will witness what they saw, and see what really happened. You will get firsthand knowledge of your mama from the people who knew her best. These people include your mama, your mom, your aunt, and me, along with many other people who knew her throughout her life. You will have the thoughts and memories of these people passed straight onto you as they remembered them when I asked them about their time with your mother. Just so you know not all these people have the same views about your mother, you must keep that in mind. There is no way to remove the bias of the people, or the inconsistencies of memory that were recalled sometimes years after the fact. But, anyways, are you ready?"
They slowly nodded their heads and peered into the basin. "Well than get ready to the story of your mother." And with that she poured the first vial into the bowl.