Ch.23 Pendragons

After sending off the twin tail bird to deliver the letter back to Princess Aalis, Elric gave Blaze the last of the fish he caught on the way back to the village, and went inside the tiny house to see his mother. Ciara had drawn a large circle on the table made of over two hundred runes in black ink. She was now sitting at the table using a mortar and pestle to crush a five sprigs of Sea Heart Grass into a paste. she only needed five sprigs yet Elric brought back two saddle bags filled to the brim. Ciara guessed it had to be over a thousand times what she needed.

"Elric I know that I forgot to tell you how much I needed to unseal my powers, and it maybe of some use to you once I have my powers back, but you should not waste such a rare herb like this."

"Mother, it truly grows like grass on that central island, the thing is covered in it, I could spend a year picking it, and still not manage to collect all of it. Is there anything I can do to help you recover your powers?"

"You can sit their and grind the Sea Heart Grass into a fine paste for me. Just make sure the mortar and pestle stay on the table within the circle of runes."

Elric walked over and sat down at the table taking over the grinding for his mother. While he maybe a child, Elric was much stronger than his mother, Ciara. Elric had the five sprigs of the herb ground down to a very fine paste in only a few minutes, while it would have taken her over an hour to do the same. After he was done, she pricked her finger and added a few drops of her blood to the paste causing all of the runes in the circle to light up red.

Ciara then dipped her finger into the paste and applied it to her forehead and two wrist. Ciara would need to apply the paste every few hours over the next three days to fully undo the seal. While it could be undone faster and only with one application of the Sea Heart Grass and blood paste it could lead to a heavy backlash and was used as an emergency unsealing method. It could even be done without the Sea Heart Grass in a life and death situation, but doing so would cause permanent damage, and may result in the loss of one's powers or life. As the process was going to take a few days Ciara would use that time to tell Eric about her family and why she thought the hedge witches attacked the day he was born.

"Elric, it will take a few days of putting the paste on my wrist and face for the seal to be undone so I and going to use that time to tell you about my family, you might want to sit down because what i am going to tell you is no less shocking that for me to hear you are a king."

Elric sat down at the table after getting himself, and his mother a drink. Once had sat down Ciara continued to tell him of her family.

" I am a witch and a member of a small branch family of the Pendragons of Vash, that lives on Tera. The Pendragons are one of the two main houses of witches, with the other being the Martocs of the Gagaree continent. There are also several smaller houses or covens along with rogues that do not belong to any house known as hedge witches. While I may not be from the main branch family, my sister did marry into the main branch a few years before you were born. "

This caused Elric to fall out of the chair he was sitting in. After he picked himself off the floor he asked, " Does that mean I am a witch as well mother?"

"I was going to get to that part later, male witches are called warlocks, and can also use magic. While they can use magic most can not pass the ability down to their children, those that can are forced to marry into the main branch of the family if they are not already apart of it. Women of the main branch have to marry within the clan, this is how many of the branch families started in the early history of the House. Newer branch families are started by a woman of an older branch family marrying someone from outside the house or clan as it is also called, that convince their husband to marry into the family instead of her marrying into his, like I did with your father. Men that are not able to pass on the family's powers can also marry anyone they choose. However there is a price for marrying outside the family. Anyone doing so must seal their powers, and can only unseal them if faced with danger or separated from their husband or wife, or is no longer under their protection. The only other way would be if they came back to the family. Because I am to far away for your father to protect me and may face danger, I can unseal my powers. As I told you earlier to do so without a risk of losing the my powers forever or dieing requires the use of Sea Heart Grass.

"My branch or I should say Our branch family is one of the oldest ones. It was started by the son of the founder of the House of Pendragon before the rule that males that can pass on the famaly's power must stay in the main branch. If it was not for the fact that witch houses are matrical, meaning that the women of the family hold the position of power and heads of the families, we might be considered as part of the main branch of the house. Our branch was started to expand the territory of the House before the founder of the house, Morgana Pendragon and her husband Merlin vanished into a vortex created by a spell they were trying to create backfiring. This cause the practice of Spacetime magic to be forbidden. Their son Arthur was the one that started our branch while their daughters Violet and Maleficent are considered the ancestors of the main branch. This all happened over ten thousand years ago. It is said that the name Pendragon was given to Morgana after the Father of dragons Kur gave her and the founder of the Martocs the gift of magic. The House of Pendragon has ruled over the continent of Vash for the last nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years."

After telling Elric this much, Ciara reapplied the the paste and went to make dinner for the two of them. While she was making dinner Elric walked outside to check on Blaze to to catch some fish for her to eat as she seemed to really like the new taste. I would have to be sure to catch a lot of Fish before they went back to Dragon City and have to see if the lakes in the area had fish in them. by the time he had caught enough to serve as Blaze's dinner his mother Ciara came out to tell him his dinner wa ready as well.

With dinner over the mother and son sat drinking a beverage made of orange juice, milk and wild honey, while she told him about the day of his birth and the attack.

"I am not sure if Odis ever told you but we had to escape from our home the day you were born because the city was attacked by hedge witches. Hedges are rouge witches that do not belong to a house of any size and therefore not allowed to have access to real spells. They can however make runes that have elemental powers. I think they found out that I was a Pendragon and wanted to capture her, and use her to force her branch family into giving them a book of spells. Them attacking on the day you were born was probably just a coincidence, and not something that was planed."

Ciara got up and refilled their drinks as the cups had long ran dry. Sitting back down she said, "You might want to hold on to something." She said this because he had told her to do so before telling her that he was a King.

" To answer your question from earlier, because I am your mother and you have the blood of the Pendragon House, you can be considered to be a warlock. Once I have my powers back we can perform the ceremony to awaken your powers and start to teach you the spells of our House."