Chapter 15.

I haven't heard anything from my father yet and already it's been two days, I'd like to say it hasn't worried me, but that would be a lie. Right now, I have more things running through my head so I don't have time to concentrate on family issues, I guess this is a problem for another day.

To start off with, if Dave new about the first Vienna Markson then why didn't he know that I could be related? How does Dave know about all this? Is he one too? That is a real possibility and it would make sense if he was, I mean, he had dark, dark hair and blue eyes. Like the Nesahlas I've seen. I have to ask him when I see him next. He kind of vanished into thin air since the last time I seen him.

Besides going to class and to the feeders, I haven't really left my room. I just have so many questions. The morning has disappeared, so the rest of my day is spent in my room, mulling over the questions and trying to string pieces together but it isn't working. If the Markson family came from the first Vienna, wouldn't we all technically be related? No of course we wouldn't. I keep forgetting she was adopted so she isn't really a Markson, she just took on the name. And the family that adopted her probably had other children too. It's so complicated. How many children did Vienna have? Where those the three kids I seen a while ago? So many questions. No answers.

I lay in bed for a good portion of the night, wide awake, trying to string it all together.
What if I'm not adopted, then one of my parents has to be a direct relative to Vienna Markson?
Though it has to be my dad considering he has the Markson name and if it's from him, he must be a Nesahla too. So my father and I could be traced back to one of Viennas children, instead of a child from the real Markson family. If I go by my visions, she had three children, so my line could be traced back to any one of them.

What I don't get is why only I have these sort of powers and my father doesn't. Dave has them too. He must be a relative. I mean, like he said, it could only manifest in some people. So why me?

I try to calm my racing mind and get some sleep. If I want answers from Dave I'm going to need all the sleep I can get.

I wake up with bleary eyes, looking around I realise I actually fell asleep.
Someone is knocking at my door. With all of last night's questions pouring through my head I realise it might be Dave and scramble for the door. And as luck may have it, his smirking face is leaning against my door. I quickly put on my stern, I want answers face, and pull him into my room.
"Hey there, calm down" he says with a little laugh.
I turn back to him and cross my arms. He sighs, throws his head back and speaks.
"Fine, fine, what do you want to know." He tips his head forward again and he has his business face on.
I sit in my desk chair and swivel around before trying to decide which question to ask first.
"How did you know about the first Vienna Markson." I stop myself from asking a string of questions all at once and patiently await his answer.
"I did my research. I traced certain family lines, though I didn't think to look into yours." Certain family lines?
"If you knew about her, why didn't you automatically know that I was one of them, I mean shouldn't it have been obvious considering we have the same names.

"No, there are two different Markson family lines. The first Vienna Markson, A.K.A, Vienna Nesahla, daughter of Louella, whom you already know and the second is from the real Markson family line. The people who adopted Vienna had 2 other children." He says evenly.

"Then what about my powers? Surely that would have clued you in if my name didn't."

"Like I said before, I didn't single you out for having these abilities as I've seen them in other Marksons, not related to Vienna. They have seen the same vision, but then their abilities disappear after a short time."
It's at this point I look to my hands and find them shaking.

"So what made you realise I was one of them?" I have to talk slowly so my voice doesn't waver.

"Well, when you told me about the vision, the one about hearing Louella's daughter's name, it just hit me. No other person I've come across has found that much information.
You have been seeing more that the others but I always thought your abilities would just fade, and when they didn't, I suspected. I thought maybe that Louella may have had other kids, and when you told me your name was Vienna, it all seemed to come together.
There is a large chance you are a part of her line. I should have done history search on your family but I thought I didn't need to." He replies, I heard the disappointment he felt in himself for not seeing it earlier.

I stare at the floor for a few minutes, trying to process everything.
"Do you know how many children Vienna had?" I ask and a curious look gleams in his eyes. He leans back on his hands and looks at me weirdly.

"Three. Why?" They must have been the children I have seen in my visions. A boy and a pair of female twins. Only one child came up in my family tree research and it was the boy. Why wasn't there more information about the twins available?

I sit back in the chair and look at him. I can see parts of him resemble the Nesahla family. Short black hair, blue eyes that compliment a rounded chin and high cheekbones that make his eyes stand out even more. He sits up and stares at me expectantly.
"What? What do you want to know?" he smirks at me, does he know what I'm going to ask?
"What's your name?" he sighs with a smile on his face and continues to stare at me.

It feels like an eternity before he decides to answer.
"Danahi. Danahi Nesahla." He smirks.
I gape at him. So he is one!
"So your one too." I whisper. "So does this mean were related? I mean if your one too we have to be?"

"Yes, we are. Though my family came from another of Viennas children, not the same as yours. I'm from one of the twins, which means was born with a different last name." He stands up and starts walking around my room with his hands shoved in his pocket. "I was a Brindle, before I decided to change my last name. Because my family descends from one of the female children, it was difficult to trace my line back because she would have had to change her last name too. Though you still have the Markson name, so I'm guessing you're from the male side." He glances at me expectantly and I nod. That part I know for sure.
"So technically, I'm like some sort of distant cousin to you." He leans back on a wall near my bathroom.
"Well isn't that nice to know, Dave." I give emphasis on his nickname.
"Easy, I wasn't going to tell you my real name until now, since I didn't know who you were.
For all I know, you could have been a spy to try and kill me." He says easily.

"Yet you still tried to help me with the visions and stuff." I say back. He shrugs.
"Guess I thought it was worth the risk, and if you were going to kill me, well I guess I know enough spells to turn your ass upside before you could even try." He gives me a wink. When he says spells another question comes up in my head.

"What element did you specialise in?" I ask. He chews on the question for a while, probably deciding whether he should actually answer.
"None. I didn't specialise. We don't." what? We don't specialise?
"How is that even possible?" He takes a deep breath, like he is about to go into some mad, college worthy lecture.
"Well, in ancient times, the Nesahlas were a big family, as Royal families usually are," I stop him at that bit.
"Wait, Royals? The Nesahlas weren't royal." The article I read what seems like years ago flits through my head. It had said that the common Nesahla family was killed. He gives me another knowing look.
"Trust me, they were. The Nesahlas were royal but were disowned by the Moroi council because we used a different kind of magic and they had done a lot of bad things.
Which is why they wanted the line wiped out. So they staged what history reports as a 'Strigoi attack' but that's not the real story. It was the royal guardians.
The members of the Nesahla family were hunted to extinction, although Louella and her family remained well hidden for years, they didn't realise she had a daughter that they managed to hide away before the final family members were discovered and murdered.
They thought they wiped out the bloodline, but they didn't. You and I are living evidence of that. They still think we don't exist and at the moment, its best if we keep it that way."

I notice he continually says 'we' like he was there. Though he is part of the line so I guess it gives him the right to use it. I guess I do to.
"So they wiped their – our - family line, or so they thought. Then they covered it up by making it seem like it was just a bunch of non-royals killed in a strigoi war." He nods and I put a hand to my forehead. I think I'm going to explode with all this information. "So what does that book have to do with all this?" I ask.

"Well, that's the problem, I don't know. Which I why I need you. For some reason, I don't have visions of the book anymore, it won't allow me to have more information, but it's letting you. Now I know who you are, I can tell you it isn't sealed with any type of elemental magic. In simple terms, they used Wicca, or in modern terms, Witchcraft. It's sealed with a spell, I don't know what one so I can't open it." He looks at me closely, like he is searching for answers. So all that magic use was for nothing. Great, at least I know now that it was a complete waste of my time. Then I think of the whispers that came through in my visions.

"So what, like Latin spells and stuff?" I peek up at him. "
"Exactly like that. Because all of the witchcraft was from different origins. So they spoke most of their spells in Latin, but they sometimes used Pagan enchantments as a simpler way." Pagan? It all makes sense now. I lean back in my chair.

My head is going to explode. We sit in silence as I try to process all this new information. My thoughts are interrupted when I hear a ping from my computer, just an email notification.
I straighten up and I see Dave – Danahi, I don't even know what to call him now – out of the corner of my eye lean forward abit.
It's from my dad. I hesitate before I open my email. When I do open it, it isn't a million paragraphs explaining why I was adopted, it's just one sentence and a question.

"No, Vienna, you are not adopted. Why would you ask such a question?"

Without even realising it, I slump into my chair with relief. Danahi walks over and reads my email. He then nods and walks to my bed and sits with his hands folded in his lap.

"So any more questions?" he stares at me intently. I don't even know, I have so much information going through my head right now I hardly know which is a question and which was an answer. One pops up in my head.

"Why would the Moroi council want to wipe out a royal line?"
He stops and take a deep breath before answering.
"Two reasons really. Firstly, they were practicing a different magic that Moroi didn'tâ€Ĥ.don't believe in, they though it was unnatural. That it shouldn't be allowed. Second, they did something that no one ever expected, something that signed their death warrants.
They plagued the world." He says with a heavy voice.
"What do you mean, plagued the world? Did they start the black plague or something?" he stares at me again, as if weighing his answer.
"Worse. The Nesahlas created Strigoi."