Chapter 8

Family History

Early in the morning, I was back in the halls of Milkweed Academy before classes were to start for the day. Since I'd become the newest member of the school board, I had to be sworn in by the Headmaster with other members as witness. My father accompanied me on the trip back to the academy from Germany. He wanted to be in attendance for my swearing in ceremony.

As we turned into the academy's great hall, I looked up at my father as he marveled at the surroundings. His head turned left and right and occasionally, he paused to view something before catching himself and returning to my side. Like a child in a candy store. I found it humorous. This was his first time walking the halls with me and I was enjoying it.

Finding the Headmaster's office, I stopped at the doorway to straighten up my academy blazer and smooth out the fringe of my hair over my forehead. My father glanced at me and chuckled.

"You look fine, son!" He told me, catching my attention. I blushed.

"I just wanted to be sure."

"Are you nervous?"

"...just a bit. Ja."

"There's no need." My father assured me. "You were asked to be part of the board for a reason. You've already proven yourself with that examination. The oath is just accepting your seat at the table."

I knew that, but it was nerve wracking for another reason, entirely. As we stepped into the office together, my eyes fell on board members that were queued up to enter the conference room. More than a few of them glanced over to the door as I opened it and when they realized it was indeed me, the only youth in the room, there was instant whispers and chatter. This is what I'd been nervous about, the mumbling. I had past traumas with gossips and I just knew I wouldn't fit in here. I already felt isolated from the glances alone.

There was something else I'd taken notice of though, the looks my father was receiving. Questioning looks. Looks of curiosity. I wasn't sure what that was about, but surely he was allowed to view the ceremony. Right? I hadn't exactly asked, but I needed him for support. Even if he wasn't allowed, I would've had him at my side.

"Has Merlin arrived for the morning?" My father asked a green-skinned witch, who had been waiting with the other board members. She shook her head.

"No, not yet..." She sighed in annoyance. "Late as always, but you knew that, Freud! Haha! It's been years now. Same song and dance."

My eyes widened when my father's name hit my ears. Freud. How did she know my father's name? As far as I knew, my father had never been associated with any witches. Unless they'd spoken over the phone, by chance? I figured that was the case until the question from him had caught the attention of other board members.

"Freud?!" An older wizard in the que gasped. "As in Freud Nightbreed?" My father laughed one of his hearty laughs, his cheeks burning in an embarrassed blush as other board members turned to look for themselves. With a couple of them gathering around him, my father reached out to shake hands as they seemed to come to their own realizations.

"Oh wow! What are you doing here?"

"My goodness! It's been ages!"

"I knew the name was familiar!"

"How wonderful to see you again!"

Again?! Was this not my father's first time here after all? I was beyond confused in this moment as my father stood in front of me, seemingly catching up with more than a few of the members of the board. How was this even happening? How did he know these people?

Glancing over his shoulder, my father's eyes finally fell on my confused expression. His bright smile dimmed for a moment. Before I could even begin to question him, Merlin the Magician had stepped into the office, marking his arrival with the thump of his crystal-topped staff.

"Good morning and good day everyone!" Headmaster Merlin greeted. The board quickly responded with greetings of their own. Merlin's attention landed on me and a warm smile graced his face. "Good morning, Mr. Nightbreed."

"Good morning..." I replied shyly. My father pulled himself from the circle he'd been centered in and took to my side once more.

"Good morning, Merlin!" He greeted, hand extended for a shake. Merlin obliged.

"Are we ready to begin?" Merlin asked everyone. "Come along then, let's get situated in the conference room!"

As the doors to the room were opened, I followed behind the group of board members. My father continued to chat with some of the members as we found seats and I couldn't help but stare. He'd been here before, there was no doubt about it at this point. He was entirely too comfortable. It was almost a side of him I'd never seen before. Uber personal, especially after having been isolated in our village for so long. I'd only ever seen him this friendly with the people in the marketplace who'd tip him whenever he performed.

In the conference room, there was a long wooden table lined with office seats. Merlin sat at the head of the table and pointed out the chair to the left of him for me to sit at. I followed his orders and took a seat, my father sitting after me and the board members following suit. Once everyone was seated, Merlin conjured a massive book onto the table in front of him with a pentagram on the cover and slowly rose to his feet.

"Again, good morning to everyone here." Merlin started. "Thank you for being prompt and for joining us for this last minute occasion. As you all have been made aware, Sigmund Nightbreed has been called to duty with our board of education here, at Milkweed Academy." Looking to me, Merlin smiled once more.

"Sigmund, would you please stand?"

"Yes, sir." I nodded, quickly scrambling to my feet. As I straightened out my purple, Milkweed blazer, I noticed the glances from the board members were more friendly this time than they'd been earlier. I was sure my father had something to do with the new attitudes I was receiving and I desperately wanted to know why. Merlin continued.

"Sigmund has shown remarkable growth in record breaking time. Although he is an officially licensed sorcerer, Sigmund has chosen to resume his studies along side his peers and has volunteered his time, graciously, tutoring them. Of course, this comes as no surprise to any of us here knowing the history of the Nightbreed clan and their contributions to not only the academy, but to The Realm as an entity and society."

I glanced over at my father in total confusion at this point, but my father seemed to be more focused on the speech. What was Merlin on about? There was more of us? More magic Nightbreeds?

As far as I knew, my father was the only magic being in our family besides myself, of course. From what I was told, we had distant family on my mother's side in Austria and my father's side in Luxembourg, but we'd always resided in Germany, away from them. We'd distanced ourselves because of our obvious differences. We were a tight family unit and it was rare to hear from any cousins, aunts or uncles. And from what I was told about my grandparents, besides my grandfather on my mother's side who I knew of, all the others were supposedly dead.

But now, here I was, stood and listening in on how remarkable my father's side of the family supposedly was. We had history here and I wanted to know why my father had failed to share any of it with me after all these years.

"As I raise a volume of the book of Wicca to you, Sigmund Nightbreed, The Sorcerer, I ask you to please set a hand over the pentagram and repeat after me. We shall now begin the institutional oath."

As instructed, I did as Merlin requested and set my right hand over the book he'd presented to me. I didn't expect it to glow with my touch, but it had, and the amber glow felt warm under my palm.

"Repeat after me." Merlin started. "I, Sigmund Nightbreed, The Sorcerer.."

"I, Sigmund Nightbreed, The Sorcerer."

"..do solemnly swear.."

"Do solemnly swear.."

"..that I will faithfully, impartially and justly perform all the duties assigned to me to the best of my ability."

"That I will faithfully, impartially and justly perform all the duties assigned to me to the best of my ability."

"And with this oath, I seal my allegiance to Milkweed Academy. By the Gods above. Blessed be."

"And with this oath, I seal my allegiance to Milkweed Academy. By the Gods above. Blessed be."

The room applauded lightly as the oath was finished and Merlin set aside the book to shake hands with me. With his opposite hand, he patted the back of my hand and gripped it, firmly. His smile grew, ten fold.

"Welcome, welcome to the board!" Merlin rejoiced. "You should be very proud!"

"T-thank you." I bowed. As Merlin's grip on my hand released, my father approached and instantly pulled me into a tight embrace.

"Congratulations, my son." He spoke warmly. "I'm very proud of you today."

I didn't know how to respond to him after the entire performance from him. I didn't know what to say after hearing Merlin's speech. I had questions, a lot of questions, and I wasn't able to ask any of them at the moment. Other board members approached after my father to shake hands with me, congratulate and welcome me. I couldn't focus on the joy of the moment. I wanted it to be over with so I could ask my questions.

"Meetings will being again on Fridays, weekly!" Merlin announced over the excitement in the room. "As for now, today's board assembly is adjourned! Thank you for taking part! See you all at the end of the week!"

I was the first to head for the door of the conference room. I wanted out, immediately. My father followed behind me at his own pace, once again getting caught in the swirl of random conversations. By the time I'd found my way out of the office and back into the great hall, I found myself waiting for him to find his own way. After a couple minutes, he was out and I couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction of the academy's courtyard. He jumped towards my sudden gesture.

"Hm?" He hummed, keeping my pace. "What's happening?"

I didn't respond until we were clear out of the hall and outside in the courtyard. As it was still fairly early in the morning, the courtyard hadn't been littered with any students just yet. I was thankful for that, I needed to be alone with my father. As I faced him, I felt a sudden wave of emotion. I felt like I didn't know my father very well anymore.

"I feel lied to..." I muttered, hugging myself to keep my composure. Truthfully, I wanted to shout at him. I looked down at the stone lined path in the courtyard when I couldn't keep my father's own saddened gaze. "I always felt like there was something wrong with me. I've been isolated all this time till now, thinking my powers were by some random chance and here you are, strolling into some type of grand reunion!"

"Sigmund—."

"I thought we shared everything with one another! I thought we were training partners! A-and now, I'm finding out there's more of us? More sorcerers? More Nightbreeds? There's more of us and you didn't tell me?"

"Sigmund—!"

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Because they're NOT our family anymore, Sigmund!"

I paused when my father shouted back at me. Turning away from me for a moment, my father ran a hand through his hair and collected himself. Taking a seat on a stone bench behind him, he sat down with a sharp exhale, met my eyes again and continued.

"I had to drop out of Milkweed, years ago..." He sighed.

"Why?"

"Because of my own father." He explained. Conjuring a book into his hands, my father flipped through the pages before letting the book face me. It was an academy yearbook. On the page, he pointed to a photograph. I took a couple steps towards him to get a closer look. It was him, Freud Nightbreed, Wizard of The Year. My eyes widened.

"T-that's you?"

"Haha! Can't you tell?" My father chuckled. "We look very much alike!" Patting the space beside him on the bench, my father urged me to sit beside him. I did as he continued.

"I grew up here, in the space of the realm. The entire Nightbreed family is here. We've been here for generations."

"What about Luxembourg?"

"No, my son. That was a façade. Forgive me. The Nightbreeds have been here since the very beginning. Bought up between Germany and the realm. I studied at Milkweed Academy as a youth, well into my early adulthood, but I wasn't able to continue my education."

"Why not?"

"Because I met your mother." My father smiled weakly. "You see, your grandfather, my father, preferred me to be with someone like us. A member of the occult. A witch. When he found out I had fallen in love with your mother, a normal woman from the normal world, I was seen as a stain on the family. An embarrassment. I was disowned and banished."

"What?!" I gasped. "You must be kidding!"

"I didn't want you or your sister to be bought up in the realm, surrounded by a hateful, spiteful family. No matter how you turned out, knowing that you're only half of the occult would have never worked for any of them. I was trying to protect you, Sigmund."

I took in the information as he, again, flipped through the pages of the yearbook. On a summary page for Milkweed Academy, my father pointed out another photo. Tall and lean in comparison to a younger person he stood beside, the man looked rather stern, but shared the same hair as my father and I. Platinum in color, though his was impeccably styled. His nails were long, but manicured and he was very well dressed. Pointing out another photo, a portrait of the same man, my father spoke again.

"That's your great grandfather, Steiner Nightbreed." He told me. "And that younger man in the photo with him here is my father." Reading the caption of the photograph, I was shocked to read 'Founder, Realm Leader and Grand Board Chief, Steiner Nightbreed The Sorcerer and young son, Siegmund Nightbreed The Sorcerer'.

"I was named after him." I breathed in awe. "We have the same name..."

The same name, the same face, the same expressions. Everything was the same but the amount of luxuries they seemed to be engrossed in. It was the first time I was seeing it all. The first time I ever heard his name. I never knew anything about my grandfather, yet alone my great grandfather. This was shocking for me.

"They're still around." My father informed me. I raised a brow.

"Both of them?!"

"Yes, both of them."

"But how? This photo looks ancient." My father laughed before he answered me.

"Hahaha! Your great grandfather is actually a dark magician and a vampire as well."

"Vampire?!"

"I believe the vampiric awakening came with his oath as one of the founding fathers of Milkweed. It was bestowed upon him, like a gift of sorts, to allow him to keep a watchful eye on the realm for eternity."

"Gott..."

"Ja, it's very serious business. The Nightbreeds are royals in their own right, here in the realm. They'd never allow anyone normal into the fold of the family, it goes against their practices. What I did by marrying your mother, in their opinion, was a direct insult to the family."

"So, why did you marry her?"

My father paused for a moment and closed the yearbook, setting it to his side with another sigh. Smiling to himself, he shrugged and set a heavy arm around me, over my shoulders.

"Because I love her." He grinned. I smiled back. "I love Gretchen. There was nothing my family could say or do that would've kept me from your mother. Even when they thought they had given me an end-all ultimatum, I didn't stray away from your mother. In fact, it only bought us closer."

"I'm glad."

"So am I, Sigmund. Magic is in our blood. It's who we are, regardless of where we've been bought up. I always knew, deep down, that we'd find our way back here on our own somehow. I've been away from the realm for decades, but I always knew that the banishment wouldn't be the end. And now here we are today and my son, my son, is sworn into the board of education at Milkweed Academy! Just like his grandfather and great grandfather, without even meeting them. It's in our blood!"

"It has nothing to do with our blood." I responded, shaking my head. My father raised a brow as I continued. "I have the blood of my mother in my veins as well and I love her. It has nothing to do with blood or names or location. It's just about us...as a family."

"Oh?"

"You trained me every day from dawn till dusk. We practiced the same spells and tricks over and over again till my hands burned. We went out into the fields and farmed through sun and rain to sell whatever we could in the marketplace. We did it, together. Our hard work did it, not the Nightbreed clan. Us."

The arm my father had set around me turned into a warm hug and I tightly hugged him back. I understood why my father wanted me to be the best now. There was a lot to prove, especially being back as a name in the realm. I was prepared though, now more than ever, to do my best. I was proud of my father for living his life and protecting his own and I wanted him to be proud of me and my choices too.

—

I stayed in the academy for the remainder of the week whilst my father traveled back to our cottage home. I was happy to be back in the halls of Milkweed for classes. I was able to catch up with friends I was only able to hang around, briefly, and they were just as happy to see me. I had made two friends so far in Professor Flan's class, not counting Kyle, and we'd become somewhat of a unit.

Ivan Kowalski, the Inquisitive Warlock and Nicolai Othonos, the mutant Nightcrawler were my two closest confidants. We were desk and dorm neighbors and always had a great time hanging out after school hours. Since I'd been away, both of them were eager to fill me in on all the happenings in the school and I was thankful for that. I was never out of the loop, thanks to them.

"The Yule is coming up." Ivan informed me as we walked down the hall together. "Have you been before?"

"No." I responded. "What is it?"

The boys grinned at one another before they turned their giddy attention back to me. They were thrilled to tell me all about it.

"The academy splashes so much money into the Yule ball every year." Nicolai told me. "It's a grand party that happens every winter solstice! Good food to eat, elixirs to drink and dancing!"

"And they best part is, the neighboring schools come too!" Ivan wiggled, giving Nicolai a knowing look. Nicolai returned the expression, but I was confused.

"There's other schools here?"

"Yes!" The boys replied in unison. They giggled with one another before Ivan went on to explain.

"There's a school for strictly dark magic, the University of the Underworld. And then there's an all girls, witching school, The Halfmoon Hallows Witching Academy."

"They've got real pretty girls there..." Nicolai swooned, leaning over my shoulder. I rolled my eyes.

"There's girls at this school too, though."

"Not like the ones at Halfmoon." Ivan assured me. "Halfmoon Hallows is really hard to get into. Only the best of the best witches are admitted. Those girls don't fool around."

"Sounds scary." I joked, getting a laugh from them both as we entered the gymnasium.

In front of us, Kyle had just exited the locker room in his gym uniform and stopped to tighten his shoe laces. Ivan approached him as he straightened up again, catching him off guard and making him jump.

"Oh, excuse me—!"

"You didn't tell Sigmund about the Yule?" Ivan asked Kyle, who blinked for a moment towards the subject.

"I mean, I haven't seen him in a few weeks since he vanished from our room." The red head shrugged. "When exactly was I expected to inform him?"

"Oh, c'mon!" Nicolai scoffed. "You know everyone starts planning their outfits at the start of Autumn term!"

"And their transportation too!" Ivan added. "I've had my broom rented since end of Spring term." Again, Kyle shrugged.

"I don't typically participate in the same fashion as the two of you." He retorted. "I'm not exactly well off or spoiled." Before Ivan and Nicolai could respond, I waved off the brewing confrontation.

"It's alright!" I assured them. "Really! I'm sure I'll be able to manage something in time! It's my first Yule, after all. It'll be fun!"

Ivan and Nicolai shot Kyle nasty looks before leading me in the direction of the locker room to get changed. I flashed Kyle a smile to offset the negative energy. He wasn't exactly the type to party, so I believed him when he said he wasn't interested enough in the Yule to inform me.

When we were changed into our athletic wear, we joined the rest of our class on the glossed floors of the gymnasium, where the group was sat in front of a centaur instructor. The instructor held a stack of papers and after halving off the pile, he started his announcement.

"Take one and pass it around!" The centaur athletics teacher, Sir Chiron, instructed. "By the end of today's exercises, I need nominations for this year's Rune Relay."

"What's the Rune Relay?" I whispered to Ivan. Ivan leaned close to me to whisper back.

"Happens before the Yule." He told me. "It's a bunch of fun races and competitions that our school does against the neighboring ones."

"We're going to quickly run through some of the exercises together." Sir Chiron spoke when majority of the class had received a flyer for themselves. He stomped his hooves to gain the attention of the excited students. "This year's relay will have competitions for alchemy, elemental kinesis, shape shifting, instant teleportation, summoning and of course, the aeroportation broom race."

Reading over the flyer in my hands, I saw that the Halfmoon school was currently tied with Milkweed on overall wins. Their scores were impressive, especially in spell accuracy, and I understood what my friends had meant when they spoke of those witches now. The ranking was incredible.

"Look!" Nicolai gasped. "They have Erin competing on the aeroportation broom race this year!"

"Huh?!" Ivan questioned. "She never does aero! She's always done alchemy."

"Guess somethings changed this year..."

"Who's Erin?" I asked. Again, the boys gave each other a knowing look.

"She's a top student at Halfmoon who competes every year." Ivan told me. "But she's usually in alchemy, not aero."

"She's an enchantress and she's super pretty..." Nicolai blushed. Ivan shrugged.

"Meghan's pretty too." He added, much to Nico's distaste. "Looks like they signed up as partners."

"That green skinned, wicked witch?! No way, Ivan! She's ugly!"

"You're ugly!"

I laughed at their banter, especially when it was interrupted by the teacher's whistle. I looked over to Kyle, who was sat behind me and looking over the flyer for himself.

"What are you gonna try?" I asked him, catching his attention.

"Huh? Me?"

"Ja! Are you nominating yourself for anything?"

"Why would I? This race is childish."

"Oh...that's disappointing. I thought you'd be great doing the aero race."

"Me?"

"Ja, I've seen you on your free time, flying between classes. Just thought we would've made a good team!"

Kyle pondered on what I'd said as I turned back to the class. Sir Chiron had set obstacle courses for everyone to try to come up with nominations for each category. It was a lot more fun than I'd realized and I was truly enjoying overall academy life.

I wanted to be around more often and I told myself that I wouldn't allow myself to be homeschooled again. Between the relay and the Yule coming up, there was always something eventful and I was looking forward to taking part in it all.