"Now Tim, we have something important to discuss with you," Dave began a few minutes later once Tim and everybody else had started eating their desserts and were about halfway through their slices. Dave began his usual speech, and Tim listened, looking as if he was about to interrupt until Zelda squeezed his hand and urged him silently to just listen.
Zelda didn't look disbelieving at what her father was saying, Tim noticed when he looked over at her, and neither did any of the other people in the room, not Zelda's mother or her godparents in fact, if he was any judge, they were listening with polite attention, as if they had heard this same explanation many times before.
"We know you're going to want proof since that's the one thing that people always want," Zelda spoke up before Tim could find his voice.
"And how exactly..." Tim begin, his voice rather soft, though everybody in the room still heard him. The disbelief that was evident on his face was not unexpected.
"It's actually fairly simple," Jazz spoke up. "One of us will simply cut ourselves with the knife, I brought to cut the dessert and whoever does so will of course heal right up in just in few seconds."
"What you suggest is impossible, even with current technology being what it is," Tim said.
"Which ought to prove we'll telling the truth once we demonstrate," Zelda said. "You're right, even with current medical technology there's no way to heal a serious wound so fast unless of course, it's not done by human techniques, but by being what we are and that's immortal."
"Immortals have been around for thousands of years, but most people don't know we exist and for good reason," Aaron said.
"Here, I'll do the demonstration," Zelda offered.
"What you're suggesting is impossible," Tim argued, even as he tried to find words to convince Zelda not to do what she had offered to do just a few seconds ago. However, he'd never been good about finding the right words under pressure and he felt immense pressure to stop Zelda from doing what she was going to. He felt sure that if she did what she said that they'd be a visit in the hospital tonight to get her wound seen too.
None of the people in the room looked the least worried Tim noticed, even as Zelda's mother handed her daughter the knife so she could do the demonstration.
Before Tim could utter a single word of protest, Zelda quickly slashed her hand deeply enough that it should've needed serious treatment wincing as she did so.
Before Tim could even think about calling 911 and having Zelda's family committed to a mental hospital as being insane, he watched as the wound on Zelda's hand begin to heal right before his eyes. First, the blood stopped flowing so heavily from the slash, then the wound got smaller and smaller until it finally scabbed over and then even the scab disappeared as if by magic.
"There are supernatural forces in the universe that most people don't know or believe are real," Zelda told him calmly, even as she wiped her hand on the napkin that her father handed her. "Most people just don't see or know these supernatural forces are real and don't believe in anything that can't be explained by logic or science. Some people run across something supernatural, but if they do, they don't talk about it if they don't want to be considered crazy and perhaps be committed to a mental hospital."
"As for immortals, they've been around for a very long time," Dave continued. "We do our best to blend into society, which isn't easy in this very technological age. We simply live our lives, cause no trouble, so that the authorities have no reason to show up at our door."
"We live quietly, have jobs and families," Shonda continued.
"OK, I guess I'll have to believe what I saw, as I can't doubt my own eyes, but why tell me?"
"You know almost everyone we've ever told asks that question," Aaron said his expression serious.
"Of course they do, as it's a logical one," Dave said answering his friend. "As for why we have told you, there's a very good reason we did so."
Dave looked at his daughter and Zelda took a deep breath, then explained why they had revealed his secret to him. "Every immortal has what is known as of mate. Basically, that means a soulmate," Zelda said. "What that means is there is just one person that they are meant to be with and they'll never be able to connect with anyone else, not in the same way, ever again. That person is the one that they can settle down, with have children and basically build a life."
"I met Zelda's mother in a small town known as Moonlight Gorge, which is in Louisiana," Dave said, continuing the explanation. "I knew instantly what she would be it for me if only I could convince her of what I said. For me, that wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be. We became close quickly, and when I finally told her my secret, she accepted it better than I imagined she would. Jazz is the light of my life and she's well aware of that fact. That she's one of the best bakers I've ever known is just lucky coincidence. I had been around for centuries before I met Jazz and I was often lonely before that day. I remember walking into her bakery and seeing her behind the counter, serving a very long line of customers, since her usual cashier had an emergency so had to take off. Seeing her for the first time was like taking a lightning strike to the heart. I felt that instant connection."
"While I didn't feel what Dave felt that first time we still got close quickly, so I knew he was the one after just a short acquaintance, the one I would marry, have children with," Jazz continued.
"OK, there's an inconsistency in your story," Tim said. "Why didn't you feel that lightning strike that Dave said he did if the two of you were supposedly meant to be together I would think you both would've felt the same thing."
"That's a very good question and the answer is simple," Jazz said not looking upset at Tim's question and in fact she looked rather pleased at his curiosity. "The reason I didn't feel as if I've been struck by lightning is the fact that I was still mortal at that time, not immortal. Only another immortal feels that way when they meet the one. I was a simple mortal woman who had dreamed about opening her own bakery since she was 13 and her mother had taught her how to bake. I'd helped out my mother in the kitchen before then of course, but that's when I really got interested in baking, as the process fascinated me.
"I knew that someday I would own my own bakery and I accomplished that goal just a few years before Dave came to town. Luckily, my parents were well off enough to help me get started, so I didn't even have to get a loan from the bank and that was a good thing, as I had nothing of value that I could put up as collateral. Well, other than my grandmother's pearls, but I would never have put that up for collateral, as they had sentimental as well as cash value."
"For me, my story is similar," Shonda continued taking over. "I wasn't lying when I said that Jazz and I had been best friends since kindergarten and I was just as mortal as she was before I met Aaron. We met in Houston Texas as I own an antique store that's been in my family for generations and that required traveling to attend auctions and things. Today, centuries later, Walter Antiques has multiple locations, in multiple cities, run by some of our family.
"I fulfilled a promise I made to my father and that was that I would keep the business going, and he knew that I would be around for centuries to come as he met Aaron not long before he passed away. The fact that I had met my mate, pleased him no end, as my mother had died several years before I met Aaron and he knew he wasn't long for this world. He had simply given up on living because he missed my mother so much and he knew that I didn't really need him either, even before I met Aaron, as I was very self-sufficient and was already running the business before he passed.
"Meeting Aaron meant, I wouldn't be alone when he passed away, even though I had Jazz and her family to help me get over my father's death when the worst occurred. I believe my father passed away, because he loved mom with his whole heart and he just stopped eating properly, because he was mourning her loss or at least that's part of the reason.
"He lived just long enough to see his first grandson born, and then he went to join my mother in heaven. Dad knew that his line would continue for a very long time and that I would be happy with Aaron and that was important to him so when he died, he was at peace with his situation. He lived long enough to see me settled with a good man, and the birth of his first grandson and that was all that mattered.
"I was an only child and had no siblings, at least not one's blood related, but I always had and will have Jazz who is the sister I never had by blood," Shonda finished.
"Question," Tim said looking confused.
"Ask away," Zelda told him once the rest of the family had fallen silent.
"I thought you were mortal at the time and yet you said several times that your father was happy you met your mate, but if you were human, then that would mean that you didn't have a mate or at least didn't know that you since humans don't have such a thing," Tim.
"He is right, honey," Aaron told Shonda kissing her cheek affectionately. "I think you need to explain our other secret so he can put your story into context."
The tone of affection in Aaron's voice was obvious to Tim. It was clear that Zelda's uncle was still very much in love with his wife, and that kind of love was rare at least among mortals.
"I guess we did forget to explain that yes, we were mortal and everything, before we met Dave and Aaron respectively, but I guess one thing we didn't say was that Jazz and I were magical and so were our parents."
"Before you argue that magic isn't real let me demonstrate," Zelda said, as she formed a little witch light in the palm of her hand to where it simply glowed an electric blue.
"This is a witch light. You could consider it a flashlight that's made by magic and it's a simplest piece of magic there is that any child by the age of five that has magic can produce. This little globe doesn't take much power from the caster to produce and it's the easiest way to demonstrate that magic is real as there's nothing like it in the mortal world. More complicated spells require different things and not just power from the caster, but we can talk about that later, let's not get off track," Zelda explained calmly.
Tim examined the little globe just like everyone who didn't know magic was real did the first time they saw the light form out of nothingness.
"Now that Zelda has displayed her magic, let me explain the reason that both Jazz and I knew when we had met our mates is because magicals have something similar. While we might not know instantly like immortals do that we have met the one we still know within a short amount of time. To settle for a lesser relationship, well, let's just say it won't be as happy, as that with your mate. I won't say that magical don't marry those that are not their mates because finding them is up to chance," Shona said.
"Mates appear in your life when the time is right or magicals marry other people and so long as they never encounter their mates then they're reasonably happy with their spouse, mostly anyway," Jazz added taking over from Shonda.
Tim could guess why Jazz had added on the mostly as he was sure magicals could be just as abusive as ordinary people without that... ability.
It was hard for him to think that magic, not to mention immortality was real, but he couldn't really deny the evidence of his own eyes. Still, he used to believe in technology and things that could be proven, but his worldview had just taken a dramatic shift.
"So if I'm understanding you right, you identified me as your mate when we met?" Tim asked Zelda who nodded.
"True, I did," Zelda agreed.
"That's why you put so much affect to getting me to relax to, help me get over my shyness in relationship," Tim said, and at the moment he and Zelda were the only two people in the room
"That's why," Zelda agreed. "I now know your father was a demanding, arrogant, small minded man and didn't give his son the confidence he needed. He probably expected a carbon copy of himself and when you didn't turn out as he expected..."
"We've heard all about how your father was rough on you in particular," Dave said, speaking, interrupting the private moment between his daughter and her mate.
Tim looked startled at the sound of Dave's voice, but then nodded and confirmed. "He was. I was the oldest son and I was expected to obey and he didn't really care what I wanted. He'd already decided my future for me. I would finish college and enlist in the Navy like he had as a young man. That I got terribly seasick by even stepping on the deck of a boat that was gently rocking back and forth didn't really matter to him, as there are medicines for that."
"If you got mild seasickness just from the rocking back-and-forth while the ship was docked, it would've been much worse if there'd been a storm," Jazz noted.
"When Zelda turns you immortal, you won't have to worry about that anymore as immortals can't get any form of sickness whether that's your current problem or something more serious like cancer," Dave commented.
"I hadn't thought of that, but that's true," Zelda agreed with her father. "You'll be able to board a ship now and you won't even get mildly queasy much less more than that where you actually throw up."
"That would be great," Tim said brightening at the thought. "Still, even if I didn't get seasick I never wanted to enlist in the Navy like my father demanded I do. My sea sickness was a legitimate excuse, not to do what my father wanted, even if he didn't accept it as a good enough reason to not enlist."
"Still, you were strong enough mentally and emotionally to defy him and that's not necessarily a bad thing, even if I know being estranged from a parent is hard," Shonda said. "While that never happened to me, since my father was very supportive and so was my mother when she was alive it has however, happened to some of the mates of our children to where their parental figures don't agree with the path they choose for their lives. Those parents try to get their children to do what they want instead of letting them choose their own path."
"It's all about arranging your child's life to suit them instead of letting them be their own person," Jazz commented with a snort of derision. "That sounds like your father's problem, as he tried to arrange your life to suit him instead of letting you make your own decisions. He didn't want to let you decide what you wanted to do with your life."
"Many parents never learn that trying to force their children down a path that suits them instead of that child is not the way you go, but that's not the way that our family operates," Aaron commented.
"There is a reason for that, though," Shonda commented. "There's a reason why we let our children be themselves, let them choose their own career."
"I suspect that your perspective is different since you have more experience then mortals," Tim commented and everybody nodded in appreciation of Tim's point making him blush.
By this point, all the dessert had been consumed from everyone's plates, and there was only a little left on the pie plate that was sitting on the table that was in the middle of all the furniture.
"I'm glad you accepted our explanation, Tim," Zelda told him even as she squeezed his hand gently. "Don't think we don't all know how hard immortality and magic is to believe. Both of these things are hidden from most people and for very good reason, as just imagine what would happen if magic for instance, was revealed to the general populace."
"Imagine something like the Salem witch trials, except on a larger scale," Shonda suggested.
"The thing is that they didn't even kill that many witches, as it was mostly ordinary folk that the authorities at the time believed were witches."
"Witches went underground long before the Salem witch trials," Zelda told him. "They went underground sometime near the end of the dark ages if I remembering right."
"That's exactly right, though I can't remember the exact year right off the top of my head," Jazz told her her daughter, smiling.
"It would be mass murder on a grand scale," Shonda commented shuddering at that possibility. "The Salem witch trials would look like a picnic in the park compared to now if magic users were actually revealed. Back when the Salem witch trials took place there weren't things like radios or vid screens and there was no way to communicate long distance except letters. There was no guarantee that whoever you were trying to contact would ever actually get your letter as there were many dangers when traveling great distances. The Salem witch trials took place at a time when technology was minimal and so it was just in Massachusetts, mostly just Salem, instead of worldwide like it would be today if magic users were revealed."
"You're right that most humans wouldn't react well to learning about magic and the same goes for immortality, I've had a demonstration of both I can't deny that they exist," Tim agreed.
Jazz's magic that she had passed on to all of our children strikes again, Dave thought, but didn't say out loud.
Everybody continued to talk for awhile before Zelda declared it was time that she and Tim headed back to the hotel, as they were staying in for a few days so they could see some of the sites before they went back to New Orleans.

~~~Tim and Zelda~~~