Ah, so I am about to reach the end sprint... once again, thanks for reading, I am looking forward to your opinions! :)

20.

Magic

There was a long moment of silence that filled the room, during which Rolanda could do nothing else than stare at the king with wide eyes.

Her mind was blank, and it was as if she just had not enough capacity to really take in the words he had just said, though they were constantly resounding in her head like an echo in a cave.

It sounded pretty ridiculous, and for a split second she was utterly convinced that he was insane, that he had lost his mind and was having halluzinations of some sorts, that he imagined things that every sane person in the world knew did not exist!

Then, she thought she had got hold of him and what he was trying, and she started to laugh, wiping a strand of her blonde hair out of her face.

"Oh, you are making fun of me... Really, this was a good try, your highness, the way you kept your face straight, for a moment I really believed that you were thinking that you were telling the truth... But I have to inform you that you are not really that talented in making jokes!" Rolanda snickered, she was really convinced that he really was trying to make a joke on her expense.

The king, though, was suddenly glaring at her and Rolanda's grin fell immediately, she stumbled backwards and a lump formed in her throat as he straightened his back and said:"In my opinion, there is nothing to laugh about. And I hereby inform you about the fact that I am never making any jokes. Your father is capable of performing magic and he is indeed a very talented wizard."

Rolanda's eyes widened impossibly and she thought she must have been dreaming this statement as well, because something like this was just not possible.

"You're lying! You have got to be hallucinating, there is nothing like magic in this world, and I surely would have registered it if my father had performed magic in our house once!" Rolanda exclaimed, shaking her head so frantically that her braid was hitting her shoulderblades painfully.

"What kind of reasons should I have to lie to you? I am just as sane as you are," Severus replied calmly, but still Rolanda snorted sarcastically, not able to bite her tongue in time to hold back a snide comment:"Yes, because you are giving everybody a reason to believe that everything in your mind is just the way it is supposed to be."

The king glared at her, a dark expression on his face, but for once, Rolanda did not feel intimidated by his behaviour – she was just too angry to do so, due to the fact that she believed him to turn her into a victim of his crazy mind.

"For your own benefit, I am going to ignore this statement, Rolanda, but I assure you, the next time I hear you saying such things to me in a careless and disrespectful way you are going to face the consequences!" he growled indignantly but Rolanda was still too absorbed by her temper to care at all about breaking the king's precious rules – he had not been too keen to punish her before and a distant feeling told her that this behaviour of his was going to continue just the same.

It was odd, really, that he seemed outright reluctant to rise his hand against her.

Not once had he really been violent towards her – the objects he had sent flying during his furious outbreaks had never really been aimed at her at all. Additionally, him grabbing her arm a little bit roughly during her first try to ask him for the reasons of Rolanda and Alannah being held captive at Blackdown Stronghold had been the worst physical contact they had had.

Of course he would scream at her when he was annoyed, regardless if she was the cause or not, he would say the rudest things she had ever heard coming from a man's mouth. But never had he really done her any harm, no matter how much he had threatened her in his blind rage, telling her that he would love to kill her. She doubted that he had left out a single way how one could take another person's life – snapping her neck, stabbing her with various weapons that consisted of a blade, poisoning her, choking her with his bare hands or shooting an arrow right into her heart.

The latter seemed to be his favourite method as he mentioned it more often than the other ones and Rolanda wondered if he had had any issues with affection in the past, like loving a parent but not receiving the love and attention the child wished and longed for in return.

And though she did not dare to come close to trusting him and still believed that she had to be rather careful around him, as she thought that he was dangerous and unpredictable, she was still crossing the boundaries in this moment anyway.

She was pretty sure that this was because she just allowed her temper to take control of her – past events had proved that it was never good for her when this happened.

As a child, if boys would make fun about her, they were bound to be surprised by the smaller Rolanda jumping at them, trying to break a bone or at least cause them enough pain so that they would never dare to say anything hurtful to her again.

Fighting definitely was not an option right now, as she was not particularly suicidal. However, her temperament also enhanced her verbal battle skills – she would not care about what she said, how loud she would voice her thoughts, to whom she was speaking and especially how striking the words were.

Men thoroughly disliked it when women spoke their minds too loudly and too intelligently or radical, and this was the spot where Rolanda aimed her blows at.

The problem was that she was becoming rather reckless, dangerously reckless when she had started speaking once and her parents had often been forced to scold her, even after she had grown up. Sometimes she had brought them extremely close to loosing their face in front of their costumers or neighbours as she had not been able to keep her opinion to herself, but of course they still loved their daughter for who she was, for being this unique and fierce young woman.

Later, after the words had left her mouth or her fist had landed, she would sometimes regret what she had said or done, as in some cases she had never meant any harm, but still this did not change the fact that while being ruled by her temper, she did not really think about the consequences some words or actions could mean.

Right now, as she stood in front of the king and was just warming up for an argument, it was no different.

"Fine!" Rolanda snarled, throwing her hands up while glaring back at Severus just as intense as he did. "Then prove it! Give me a reason to really believe that what you are saying his true! Just show me a proof that magic exists and that my father is a wizard!"

Severus sighed inwardly, feeling just so utterly annoyed about the current situation. This woman was really pushing him to new states of something he called his "calm anger" - it was fury that was boiling inside of him, making him feel really uncomfortable because it woke the need to shake himself in him, to behave impulsive, while he was just not able to release his feelings at all.

Never before had he met a person that was able to bring him to such emotional states, and the way she always had to question what he was saying was making him want to jump in circles while screaming madly at her.

She seemed to have grown more confident over the last few days – it was obvious to him that she was challenging him, showing off her intellect and her courage, not caring about the fact that she was not supposed to voice any backtalk, something that was not allowed for women and servants.

Still she did it, proving that she was more than what she appeared to be on the outside, that her head was not only pretty but also intelligent. And even though this behaviour of hers was annoying him endlessly, it still also was the thing that was drawing him towards her.

Rolanda was beautiful, she was witty, outspoken and had more in her brain than many of his own men – she was different, she did not show as much devotion as she was supposed to be and had her own opinion, which she obviously did not hesitate to defend.

"As you wish, my lady," he hissed, doing a mocking bow before walking past her, making his way into the living room, towards a cabinet. Rolanda heard a clicking sound, as if a lock was being opened, but she could not remember seeing him taking a key out of his pocket.

He pulled one of the drawers open, actuating a secret switch that opened a compartement hidden in the bottom of the drawer. Severus took a long and thin wooden box out of the compartement – it was looking pretty expensive and was richly decorated with runes and other signs she had never seen before in her life.

"Magic is a mysterious power that seems to be as old as the world itself. Nobody really knows when people started to discover that they were able to use magic to do things others were not able to do and that they could enhance their skills through practice, making them more powerful. But there are things we indeed know, though it would take years to explain all these findings to you," he explained, all the while opening the box which was, as Rolanda noticed now, about as long as his forearm.

"You surely believe magic and magical beings to be a motive that exists only in fairytales or old legends nobody has a proof for, something that is solely meant to give people hope that something in their miserable lives could change out of nowhere and that miracles can happen if you only have enough hope. But also are the unskilled people afraid of what witches and wizards are capable of. Many people tried to benefit from the skilled ones in the past, convincing them even with violence, therefore many wise wizards and witches are concealing what they really are, to protect themselves, their families and our secrets."

He carefully took a thin, wooden stick out of the box, holding it almost lovingly while Rolanda eyed the object suspiciously, of course still not convinced at all. All he did was talking about a something without really showing anything.

"This is a wand. We use wands to be able to control our magic more effictively when we cast a spell. It is not necessary to make an incantation work, but if the result is ought to be steady and powerful, the wand is the only way to achieve this, especially for apprentices.

"This one is one of, or maybe even the mightiest wands that do exist in this world and it is made out of elder wood and has a core of Thestral hair, a magical being that can only be seen by witches or wizards who have seen death," Severus went on, registering Rolanda's still sceptic expression, though he suspected that he at least had woken her interest – he already knew that she was a very curious person and surely she was thinking about his words.

"I guess a demonstration would wipe some of your doubts away, am I right?" he added and before she could nodd of give an answer, he waved his wand and one of the candlesticks nearby slowly rose into the air, hovering a good arms length above the side table it was supposed to be standing on in this moment.

Immediately, Rolanda's jaw dropped and she slowly walked over to the side table, waving her hand searchingly above and underneath the still hovering candlestick, checking for invisible strings that could have been attached to the object in order to create an illusion.

"It... it is real...," she whispered, her voice shaking ever so slightly and her eyes being wide in awe as she looked back at him, struck by realisation.

"Yes, indeed," the king replied dryly and with a casual flick of his wand, the candlestick slowly sank downwards until it gently landed on its table again.

"And... and my father, he is... and you, you are?"

"I am a wizard, just as he is, yes," Severus nodded, grinning inwardly about her utter surprise. "Of course I am unable to prove that your father is of magical heritage as well, as he is is not present currently, obviously. But I assure you, he is a very powerful wizard, maybe as powerful as I am, and he as he is considerably older than I am, he is much wiser, having been able to gather more knowledge throughout the years."

"And... and how do you become a wizard or witch?" Rolanda asked curiously, her interest awakening though she was still feeling as though all these completely new informations were weighing her down and and every single one of them had hit her with full force upon hearing it for the first time. It somehow was as if her father had been living a double life, and she somehow was reminded of Janus, the Roman god with the two faces. She only knew her father as the kind and amusing man who raised her up, and now it was revealed that he had a side that he had hidden away completely from her whole family.

Did her mother know that he was a wizard when she had married him? Or was she as oblivious as Rolanda had been a few minutes ago?

Severus therewhile was feeling rather excited – she had just touched an aspect he had been aiming at all the time.

"Well, magic is not something that can be learned by anybody, it is not a skill as trivial as sword fighting is. No, one has to be born with the skills, and the ability to perform magic is only passed on by blood. Like... from father to daughter."