Chapter 4: Family Legacy

One day, in the private dining room in our manor, my grandfather and I were eating breakfast.

"Are you enjoying your meal, Sonia?"

"I guess so."

"Your father told me that it's your favorite."

I picked up a napkin and wiped my mouth, sad and angry. Suddenly, my napkin caught fire. I dropped it and let out a yell.

Christophe quickly poured water on the napkin, dousing the flames. "What happened?"

"I don't know."

"Did you do this?"

"How?"

"Your parents had told me stories of...incidents involving fire. You were present for all of them. Tell me, Sonia, what did you feel just now?"

"Sadness. Anger."

"It seems you have a special gift, Sonia. It's best that we keep this to ourselves." He paused. "There's something that I want to tell you after breakfast."

He took me to the den. He sat behind the desk, and I sat in front of it.

"Our family has lived here for over three-hundred years. Our history can be traced back to Leon Belmont, a former baron that lived in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries."

He pointed to a painting of Leon Belmont on a wall. I looked at it. He looked like a handsome young man with short blond hair. He was dressed in red, black, and white.

"For reasons which you are not yet old enough to understand, Leon renounced his title. However, he eventually settled in Transylvania and built up wealth and a solid reputation for our family. He began a tradition – teaching the eldest son how to fight."

My grandfather stood, walked over to a wall, and pulled a knob. A secret panel opened. He retrieved a box and brought it back over to the desk. He sat and opened the box. A long black whip was inside.

Christophe picked up the whip, careful to keep it coiled. "This is Leon's whip. Each eldest male child has learned how to use it. Since your parents died without leaving a male heir, it has fallen to me to teach and you to learn. I will train you as I had trained your father. Do you understand?"

"I guess." That was a lie. I paused and thought about it. "Why?"

"Because of something that happened a long time ago between Leon and his friend and what is happening now. You'll understand when you're older." He offered the whip to me.

I took it and looked at it. "It's nice."

"It has a special power – to defeat evil."

"How come?"

"It's been said this whip was fashioned by Christ himself. Another legend is it's the whip that scourged Christ, and it contains his blood. True or not, the real reason for its power...can wait until you are older." Christophe stood. "Come. Your training begins today."

My grandfather trained me from that day forward in the use of the whip and a sword. Most other matters decreased in importance. Over the next thirteen years, I grew in stature, strength, and skill. There was nothing that I could not do.