Chapter 14 - Kindred

"Good morning Martha." He said, his gaze resting briefly on her before returning it back to Hannah.

"Good morning to you, Jasper. Sleep well, dear?" He took a seat on one of the chairs arranged around the round dining table.

“ Yes I did, and you, darling?” She flushed at the flirtation and shook her head,

“ Yes I suppose I did.”

She placed plates filled with eggs and bacon in front of Jasper and Hannah.

"Eat, the both of you, we have much to discuss today, you will both need your bellies filled."

Hannah Rose a brow at Jasper, and he shrugged with a hint of a smile.

“ flirt.” she mouthed at him.

“ I know,” he mouthed. She Just shook her head, smiling.

She fed, they both did. If indeed Martha had answers to the questions he would ask, then indeed, he was sure he wanted the answers on a filled belly, Hannah's belly especially. The woman posed no harm, he saw that now. However, he would have loved for Hannah to not deal with all of this, to shield her from all of these. But that wasn't Hannah, not the woman he loved, she would face this, whatever it meant, it was who she was. He admired it, even though, in this case, it caused him great pains, knowing how all of it weighed on her. One day, God help him. When all of this was over, he would make a list of all the things he loved about her, he had a feeling the list would go on and on, until forever.

They ate quietly, the only sounds, their chewing, the sounds of cutlery against their plates and a bird singing on a Willow tree outside the kitchen window. It was, if Hannah could put it in one word, peaceful.

Martha didn't eat much, Jasper ate more than he did the day before, and Hannah did her best to finish what was on her plate, she sometimes got easily full, and on a day such as that, when her heart was so full, her belly got filled up quickly.

"Martha, we are all done." It was Hannah who spoke, and Jasper rued what was coming.

She nodded briefly, before saying , "let us go into the living room."

They soon settled down, Jasper and Hannah taking the couch they took the day before, and Martha taking a chair opposite them.

"What I'd like to know, Martha, is why the Athànatoi are after me, why me?" Hannah said, without a trace of the fear she harboured toward that thought.

"It goes back to the legend. About seven hundred years ago, the Athànatoi and men lived together––"

"I know this part, I have a book, a book on the Athànatoi, hold on it's in my rucksack." She ran upstairs to get it and in minutes was back, the old brown book in her hand. She handed it to Martha when she got back, who regarded it with curiosity.

"I found it in the library at the castle. When it gets to the part that tells about the separation between man and the Athànatoi, the language changes, see for yourself." Martha opened the book and scanned through it, and when she got to the part that Hannah spoke of, she gasped loudly, a sudden intake of breath, that made Jasper tense, and Hannah's stomach lurch.

"This book, you say you found it in the library at the castle?" Hannah nodded.

"Impossible." She whispered.

"Well, it's possible. She found it, didn't she?" Jasper said, irritation lacing his words.

"Indeed, she did."

"Then why did you say it's impossible? have you searched for this book yourself, Martha?"

"Yes, back when I lived in the castle. Back when I was allowed to." She answered, her eyes were clouded, as if in stupor, or simply in deep thought and just like that, lost in a time between yesterday and today. And then as if some kind of invisible scale had been peeled off, the reasons why the woman seemed so familiar to Hannah started making sense. And yet still...

" What do you mean allowed to? Who are you?" Hannah asked in a hushed tone, completely in wonder.

"I am, Martha, your grandmother, the mother of your mother, princess."

"Dear God." Was all Hannah could say, a hand going to her chest and Jasper reached out to take her other hand in his. She was glad he did, his hand holding hers kept her steady. However, the overwhelming feeling that engulfed her was great.

~~~~

"If you really are who you say you are, then why aren't you allowed in the castle ?" It was Jasper who asked the question, and she was so grateful she had him there with her right then.

"You see, Seers aren't always welcome wherever they go. I am a seer, and one of the places I am not welcome is at the castle."

"But you lived there once, what changed?"

"When you were born, you and I were two peas in a pod, I couldn't keep my hands off you." She smiled as she remembered, and Hannah couldn't help but feel a pang in her chest. "When you we're about two years old, I started seeing visions about you, especially about the Athànatoi. For a while I kept quiet about them, but they bothered me so much and when I could no longer keep it quiet, I went to your parents. They were afraid, they asked questions I didn't have the answers to. With your father, fear mixed with rage, rage I knew, not to me, but toward the situation, toward not knowing what to do, and so all that rage was directed toward me, the messenger, and so he sought my exile. Your mother learned of this, and begged. So instead of exile, I was no longer welcome at the castle."

"I never knew of this." Hannah said in a voice laced with emotions, tears quietly running down her face.

"I did not tell you of this to paint them in a different light, Hannah. You must understand, fear makes even the sanest of men go crazy."

"What ever happened to kindness?! Does fear make you forget that too?" Hannah said, her voice raised, her anger was beyond her, and her tears came more fiercely.

The elderly woman went to her and drew her in an embrace.

"Fear makes us do a lot of awful things sometimes. It is in the bible, a particular book of john, I'm no bible scholar," she said with a weak smile, “but my darling, it is written, ‘that there is no love where fear exists.' Sometimes when we fear, we forget to love." Tears that the elderly woman hadn't cried in seventeen years ran down her cheeks, as she held close the granddaughter she'd loved for a much longer time than that.

"I have learned to forgive them, my sweetheart, and you must learn too as well."

Hannah didn't say anything at that. Forgiveness was too hard a request at that very moment, and she just wasn't ready yet. So she let herself be held, and cried- cried into the bosom of the woman that she'd forgotten, and yet remembered.

~~~

Jasper was speechless. He longed to hold Hannah, and his heart ached for the elderly woman. But they held each other and in an attempt to give them their moment and space, and also for the fact that he had no idea what to do, he went to the kitchen and got three glasses, and filled them with water. And just went to one of the chairs in the kitchen and sat down.

Life, he thought, had so many twists and turns and you never knew where it could take you.

Here was Hannah, with her grandmother she'd forgotten about, never given a chance to grow up with, with her grandmother who had the apple of her eyes, taken from her for so long. And if she hadn't taken the journey with him, would they be reunited? He thought perhaps they would, but definitely not like this. And although the Revelations surrounding this certain reunion just made you want to fly away and be somewhere else less painful, he was sure they were profoundly happy they'd found each other. At least he was happy for them. Life he thought, could sometimes be this way.