Sorceress looked at him for a moment, and then replied, "You are something else, Preston B. Whitmore...I do not doubt of your resolve...You have gained my mentorship, and your friendship is refreshing...And you have my respect, which I can say more than for most men out there...You are now able to know my birth name...but I ask you not to say it freely around Kamar-Taj, is that clear?".
"Trust me, I'll take it to my grave.", Preston smiled. "After all, there's quite a few secrets I have already that I was going to do the same so you should at least have faith that I'll treat it the same.".
She smiled warmly as she nodded, "Somehow, I very much believe you...", inhaling and exhaling in a deep breath, and then spoke, "As I have said days before, I was born in 1316, but not where...I was born in Ireland, and I was given the name of Bebinn. My mother named me that because she believed that there was something fairly and meaningful waiting for me. Of course, I suppose she didn't expect that I was to be a sorceress, not a housewife or a noble woman or a serf.".
"Did she ever know?", Preston asked her. "I mean, I can't imagine that was something that was smart to admit or anything. My knowledge of witch persecutions are a little spotty aside from the 15 and 1600s.".
"Not in life, no...I lost her to the Black Death...and my father blamed me. She was a nursemaid, and she taught me when I was young and naive...We were in the south on a call by horseback while my father tended to the land on our homestead in the north...I was scared and confused, but my mother, she was so quick to aid the seemingly mildly sick people that looked a bit worse than usual, but she had referred to it as a bad case of influenza...She asked me to play with the children that day...She had trusted her gut there in place of me, for I think she vaguely felt that I'd catch something if I worked besides her, and seeing how the people looked even if it looked like a usual case of illness if mildly worse...We came home, having a bath day, and days later, she got a cough and all...She worked on herself, with Father helping occasionally while I was doing the chores...It seemed to be gone at first before it got worse and worse...We tried to ask neighbors and such to get a healer on horseback...But we were condemned...It was so quiet when we lost her...Even after burning her clothes and such for her burial...almost everyone didn't arrive...My father, he didn't care anymore...drinking and all...I tried to help him...I tried to tell him that we gotta work the land for winter...He yelled at me...blaming me...I ran from home...I believe I was 8, almost 9. Never saw him again...Heard that he got sick later on.", Sorceress, no, Bebinn sighed lightly, a flinch of grief in her eyes, but was gone in a second then.
"I'm sorry to hear that... must have been awful to live through that time period. I mean, we had the Spanish Flu and all a few decades ago but that wasn't nearly as devastating as the Plague was.", Preston said.
Preston then added, "Your mother picked a lovely name...Bebinn...It suits you...", with a soft smile, and Bebinn smiled warmly, blushing a bit, "Thank you, Preston...And yes, it was terrible...I scrapped by through a few villages here and there for some years, cooking and all, and I suppose I was lucky that news didn't go fast, but only by a few weeks when I wasn't forced to move on to elsewhere...I must have been 15 when I found a ship by port that was to go for London, but of course, seeing the state of me, despite my changes into a woman, and the fact that I didn't have richer coins than the meager ones I had on hand, I was refused to board...That was when I decided to sneak on...I heard the captain saying that it was to take almost 7 weeks, considering that it was only sails back then, you must know. I hid well for the first three weeks, but eventually, someone noticed that food kept disappearing...and I was caught one night when I was heading for the galley.", with an ashamed avert of her eyes.
"Seven weeks? Was it doing cargo runs or something at the same time?", Preston asked.
"I think so, now that I remember; even despite the time, sailing from Ireland to London down the Thames wasn't too long so I think they had been making stops along the Irish isle before heading to London. It was an English ship and they had been ruling the island and plundering it for a century and a half by that point.", Bebinn explained.
Preston nodded, "Gotcha...And I can't apologize on behalf of Peggy and her parents and their ancestors, but...", grimacing at the fact that England has been...difficult in the far past, and Bebinn waved a hand, "Even I don't know of all the ancestors of all English people, Preston, and it's kind of you to apologize in a way, even if it isn't their fault in the present when the past was done, which you didn't need to, but rather did it anyway.", with a smile.
"Oh, thank goodness...", Preston exhaled in relief, realizing that Bebinn didn't have anger towards the ancestors of English people in her time, and Bebinn smiled, "You may be surprised that anger is pointless over time if you are essentially immortal like me...Of course, I blamed the Black Death, and it wasn't just from England, but essentially all over the known world of Europe...all because we didn't know proper hygiene and that it came from rats...Naturally, I didn't know it at the time, and I felt guilty, angry, sad, desperate, hungry, and such when I was caught...and that I was an illegal immigrant of Irish descent, unable to speak English much good as my native language was all what I knew...They were mad...loud...disgusted. I was thrown into the brig for my punishment of stealing and stowing away...They gave me meager food two times a day, and a cold pail of water at me when I started to smell...I only knew the passing of days when they had the stops, and after even after a horrible and miserable time with my monthly bleeding, I was still down there for nearly two more weeks...With any English I tried to understand, I soon heard that London was to be sighted soon within five days, and that I was to be taken to the poorhouse...There was one final stop, and when I knew that London is approaching soon, I really tried to plead for them to let me go without taking me to the poorhouse.. I was not understood very well, and they must have noticed that I was getting desperate and such, for one of the men approached my cell one night, and of course, being desperate and naive...he offered me a job as a scullery maid in his household, talking to me like I was a child, and I knew a job, even a meager job is better than the poorhouse from what I understood, so I said yes...He gestured that he was going to let me out of the brig, talk to the captain, and all, and so, he opened the cell, and I was going to walk out when I was knocked out by his fist...", exhaling slowly and deeply as Preston's eyes widened and widened in horror and such.
"Next thing I knew, I was tied and gagged in one of the supply closets...That was when I saw him...My legs were freed and they kicked and fought, but he...he held me down...I screamed and cried through the gag as he touched me...I struggled when I saw him...g-going for my virtue when golden whips wrapped around him, snapping him away to some sort of portal with crocodiles that vanished a moment later, as through the door was a man...a middle-aged, kindly man who was to be my mentor and father, and was picked up on the last stop of the ship. I was hysterical when he came closer, shrinking back from him, expecting him to hurt me like the other one when he just took his cape off, wrapping it around me as he gently and slowly cut my bonds and gag...", Bebinn whispered ashamedly, her teacup and saucer shaking in her grip, looking down, averting her eyes from Preston.
"I can't imagine how to think going through all that. One moment it is looking like you were about to be violated; the next he's suddenly dealt with by a strange man who, I guess you must have thought, was a witch or something?", Preston said.
Bebinn looked up sharply in shock and surprise, to expect pity and such which she hates to see, but no, he's having sympathy for her. She doesn't feel scared somehow, and he makes her feel like she could be herself around him which both terrifies and excites her as it has been a long, long time since she was able to vent..."But...you heard me...I was helpless and powerless and naive...You must hate me...".
"Why would anyone hate you for that?", Preston asked her. "You were just trying to survive and got caught up in a bad situation; one that thankfully didn't get worse, if I'm guessing right?".
Bebinn was amazed to see that Preston hadn't accused her of taking the man's advantage and all, for if it hadn't been for her mentor and father-figure, she would have been truly worse, and the man would have lied or something, with people judging her and accusing her.
"It thankfully didn't get worse.", Bebinn gave him a small, grateful smile for his words, "And yes, I thought my savior was a wizard, a male version of a witch, and I was scared and confused, talking in my native language, pleading for him not to hurt me...He looked like an Englishman yet I was taken off guard when he spoke Celtic naturally as one of the languages that all Masters learned to speak...He was kind and careful not to push me as he let me get up on my own, wrapped in his cape, and he asked me if I wanted to go back home to Ireland. I told him that I had no family, and he understood, asking me gently if I just wanted to get off this ship...Of course, I did want to get off...especially after what just almost happened...I was so hesitant, afraid of being taken advantage again, yet I told him that I just wanted to go anywhere from here...He smiled kindly, telling me that he is going to take me to somewhere safe and warm, where he wouldn't scare me every day, with his wife taking care of me, warning me that it's magic like before, but good this time, as the other portal was a bad punishment for the man...And seeing that I had no good choice, as if I said no, I would have been caught again, or chased by the people in charge on the docks, or thrown into the poorhouse, and so, I said yes, and that was the best decision I made, as the man kept his promise...His wife took care of me, keeping me warm, safe, and with patience and love, I eventually got to see him without having nightmares and all, and that was when I first got to know the Mystic Arts through him, mentoring me and becoming my father-figure as I realized that I wasn't helpless or powerless anymore...It took me about 10 years to be a Master, and after receiving his position of guarding the London Sanctum, it took about 20 years before I became Sorcerer Supreme.".
"Wow, he and his wife must have been proud...And the title of the Ancient One?", Preston asked, and Bebinn smiled, "They were...And ah, that's another story for another time...much later...okay?", with a cautious glance.
Preston nodded, "I understand. We all have our secrets and I suppose it is a bit too early to go ahead and already reveal them.". She smiled upon hearing that, "Thank you, Preston.".
Preston smiled, sipping his tea, and so, they went to relax, training for the rest of the month, their friendship and mentorship getting stronger and stronger.
{It was wonderful, improving and improving, becoming a novice after being a disciple for a month, and it got easier for me to take up everything from training, but she was right as it was harder at the same time with new lessons and such, taking up a few weeks, and we traveled to places I remembered like your old cabin where you hid, Thaddeus, via sling ring...My friendship with her became more whole with being my mentor...and then it changed as we came into the holiday of Christmas.}
(December 1944)
"Quite beautiful around this time of year, huh, Bebinn?", Preston complimented as they strolled in their winter clothes at the Central Park Zoo, and Bebinn smiled warmly, "Indeed, though I must admit that I'm anxious for the first snow of the holidays...Thank you for suggesting a break, and a bit surprised that you suggested the zoo as it's relatively new...I suppose we've been working hard lately, have we?".
"Obviously, I've probably been working hard more than you, considering that you've mastered this stuff so long ago. And of course; trying to learn so much at this point in my life; it's been a challenge. I'm surprised you actually said yes to this.", Preston commented.
"Well, as you've said in the past, you aren't exactly still young...", Bebinn chuckled. "And besides, not too often that I ever really get to see normal life these days what with my role and all. The sheer idea of a zoo, quite intriguing, never would've even dreamt of this sort of thing when I was a young child.".
Preston smiled lightly, "It's quite interesting to see exotic animals without getting hurt, and of course, the staff are doing their best to take care of them, and I have a strange feeling that it'd be a good place to save endangered animals as time goes on. Why, the children are having quite the learning experience to actually see that they are real outside of books and stories.", glancing at a group of kids checking out the wolves.
Bebinn chuckled warmly, "They are indeed having their worldviews changed, like I did...Wolves aren't monsters, after all...They are pretty much carnivorous, though they can eat berries and such, and they don't actually eat living humans as they are pretty much scared of them more than humans are. It's amazing how wolves are descended from actual dogs today.".
"Yep...Are you okay, though, as it's busy?", Preston asked in concern, and Bebinn looked at him, "Preston, I've trained more whippersnappers than you've ever counted. This is nothing.", with a smile, "And besides, it's less busy compared to the summers, due to the weather.".
Preston chuckled, "Good point.", as he looked around contentedly, seeing a couple kiss under mistletoe, and smiled wryly before hearing a little gasp, and looked over to Bebinn, and he looked her way to see a hot chocolate cart, and he replied, "When was the last time you had hot chocolate?".
"Must have been a few decades at least...One of my past disciples had an intense sweet tooth.", Bebinn replied, glancing at him, "I don't suppose if you could..?", with a polite, warm smile.
"I'll see what I can do... we've still got the rationing and all, but I've heard rumors they're starting to let up soon as the war in Europe at least looks like it's not going to last long. Germans are boxed in at almost all sides; one more major offensive in the west and the east and the Allied Powers will probably be shaking hands in Berlin.", Preston smiled. He honestly couldn't believe that day may be approaching.
Sure, the war in the Pacific raged but the Japanese were being pushed back to their home islands too. Taking them would be another story and the rumors were circulating about what happened at places like Saipan, the Philippines and Peleliu: of the sheer tenacity of the Japanese holding out against all odds and choosing death before surrendering while taking out as many Americans with suicide tactics, or how their own civilians will take their own lives to avoid being occupied by Americans.
Bebinn smiled, "Indeed, that'd be a good day for New York City.", having seen various timelines, and that day where soldiers reunited with their families off the boat is memorable throughout the far future.
Preston went to buy a couple of rationed cups with delicious hot chocolate, and Bebinn closed her eyes as she sipped, "Oh, much glorious than I remembered...", as Preston chuckled, sipping his cup, delighting in the happy look of his friend.
Then he blinked as little white flakes appeared on his nose and in his cup, and looked up with a smile, "Bebinn, you might want to open your eyes.", and Bebinn opened, confused for a second before a wide smile formed, "It's snowing!", faintly hearing the excited laughter of children as the first snowfall came to the city.