At the young age of 20 Gemma Doyle was married, she prefers not to recall who it was to. At the age of 24 she had a daughter. Two months later her husband left. He went to sea, said he was better needed on a ship; he failed to remember how much he hated the sea. But she'd heard this excuse before too, she prefers not to remember who said it.
You see Gemma tried to forget about everything that happened at Spence; the realms, the Order, the Rakshana, all of it. Her crescent eye amulet sits at the bottom of a box collecting dust.
The last time Gemma entered the realms was on her wedding day. She woke up early that morning and made the door of light appear as she always had. She entered the garden and called out for him. She spent what seemed like days searching for him but with no luck. Before she left she entered the Winterlands, the last place she'd seen him that day so long ago. She approached the tree and ran her fingers over it and whispered his name but she felt nothing. She was confused and didn't understand why there was no feeling anymore, why she couldn't feel him like she used to. She left the realms that day and vowed to never go back, never use the magic again.
That all changed the day Olivia was born. With fiery red hair and the same piercing green eyes as her mother, however there was something different about Olivia. She was born with a scar on her abdomen, in the shape of the crescent eye. Olivia's power was instant. small things at first, making things move, things that were easily done. As she grew though so did her power.
Gemma found it no longer safe in America so she moved herself and the now 10 year old Olivia back to London. She alerted Tom of her arrival and ended up attending his wedding a year later. Her grandmamma died 2 weeks after Olivia's 11th birthday. Her father, after returning to London shortly after she did, died one year later. Gemma was alone with her daughter. Tom came to visit once a year on Olivia's birthday but other than that she spent her life by herself watching her daughter and her powers grow stronger.
When Olivia turned 13 Gemma explained her power to her. Olivia now knew how to control it and Gemma made sure she did.
3 years later Tom, his wife and their daughter came to celebrate Olivia's 16th birthday Tom told Gemma it was time, Olivia was 16 now it was time for her to prepare for her season. Gemma was reluctant to send Olivia to Spence after all that had happened there but it was the only place she trusted.
So 3 months after Olivias birthday she packed her bags for Spence. Before she got on the train Gemma gave her daughter her crescent eye amulet, "For protection" she'd said.
Then kissed her,
wished her good luck
and watched her daughter leave for Spence Academy.