Ander closed the book in his hand and looked up at Hayden, the woman was reading another book; the title read “Grooming Your Chihuahua” though he knew that something else was written in it. “Is that how Eric was born?” he asked setting down the book on her desk, “Mother never told me how he was born, or why” Hayden looked up from the book she was reading now, “You really don’t know do you? It’s not my place to tell you though” Ander was confused, “There is another book that tells of how he came here” she stood up and handed him another book which he took and opened.

The two women who shared the same face ran down a hallway with the baby in their arms, they could hear the terrifying scream of sadness and pain from the direction they had come, they didn’t slow down until they came to a courtyard with a tree in the center of it. The tree was large, wide and old, its branches casting a shadow over the entire courtyard but it was not dark as the light from the moon ran down the trees thick trunk in white lines of light.

The two witches chanced a look back when they heard the sound of a battle, or rather the sounds of a slaughter, they didn’t waste another second as they ran towards the tree, the one not holding the baby opened her mouth to speak but no words came out and yet the tree obeyed and peeled back its bark to show the portal that would take them to another world. Stepping through the portal the one with the baby left behind the other that shared her face, the one that stayed closed the portal behind the carrier and by only raising her hands she watched as fire erupted throughout the courtyard and burned everything, even the once great tree.

Ander couldn’t believe what he read, “Why was the courtyard burned?” Hayden smiled at him, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes, “Because as you should know, the old Age tree was the only way to this world that didn’t require you to cast a spell that would leave you weakened for days” suddenly it started to make more sense to Ander but something felt wrong, or rather sounded wrong.

“But the last Age tree didn’t stand in our courtyard, it stood in…” he couldn’t even finish, he didn’t know how. “See, you figured it out. Eric is your brother but you do not share a mother, you share a father” it was a blow to hear her say that, “Does it change the way you feel about your half-brother, do you still care about him the way you used to or has this lie that you uncovered changed all of that. Will you still stay to protect him, will you still stand against your father or will you simply let the one thing in this universe that wants your brother dead have its way” she wasn’t asking questions, and Ander knew that but each word from her mouth only caused him to question everything in his own life.

“I thought that mother sent me here to bring Eric home, that we would be stronger as a family, strong enough to defeat our enemies?” Hayden could see how lost the person she fell for was, “You were sent here to get the one thing that could save your family, with each passing year Eric’s mother had regained her power, had rebuilt all she had destroyed to give Eric enough power to become, well for lack of a better word, a dios. Now with her power back at full strength she attacked your family, the family of the woman who had cursed her” Ander couldn’t believe that his mother was the one who had attacked the witch in that book, “What curse?” he asked but he didn’t think that he wanted to know. “As long as Eric’s mother lives, she will never be able to carry another child, even if your mother were to die”.

All of this was too much; he didn’t know how to deal with it. Everything he was ever told about his brother, of how his mother had sent him here to protect him from her enemies had been a lie, and that his father had also wanted to kill Eric, but then what about the picture, “What about the picture you showed me, the one with me, Eric and our father?” Hayden walked out of the study for a moment and came back with the book that held the picture and opened it to show him.

“Your father asked this picture to be painted when he had returned to this world a few years after that night, he had been lead to believe that Eric had died in that fire so he had ordered an artist who could see the possibility of what you two would look like to paint this picture so that he could have something to remember you both, the son who had died and the son who was born of a mistake” Hayden could see the hurt in Ander’s eyes when she had said “Mistake”. “It is enchanted so that as the years pass the picture ages, which is why I took it from him; to keep him from learning what Eric looks like”.

Ander was confused, his face downcast with a frown as he thought about what he had read, about how his whole life had been a lie up to this point. He had always thought that he was on the side of good, justice and freedom; now he sees that all of it was just a lie to keep him in line.

“Your mother had found a way to capture your father, how no one knows but everyone knows that she could only do it once. She had hoped that a child with both her blood and his would become strong enough to defeat him and take his place, or give his place of power to her” Ander has learned so much already that hurt but this was by far the worst; but as he looked up at Hayden he saw that there was more.

“Your father had sworn never to show weakness like that again, but at the time neither he nor the best seer could have known that he would fall in love with a witch and get that witch pregnant. When he had found out about the pregnancy though he tried to kill her and she only barely escaped with her life. When he once again found her she had already made plans to give his unborn son the power to defeat him” he now knew at least why Eric was so valuable to everyone. “Why are you protecting him then if you’re Master wants him dead?” it was the first time that he had ever seen so much sadness in Hayden since he knew her, “I was the one who brought him to this world, the first to hold him and the last to know that he really is alive. It had been me who carried him to this world and it was my sister who had lied and said we were dead, but when the Master found me here he had known that she had lied so I had to make both of them believe that Eric really had died, and it had worked even if the cost was high” no one knew that Eric was alive, but then why was he sent here, why did his mother send him here to retrieve a boy who was thought to be dead.

His mother had sent him here to get his brother, his half-brother but now the Hunters his father had created are coming to kill him because he is here, did they know why he was here or was it just that they wanted to kill the mistake? There were too many questions and no one who could answer them; he knew that even though Hayden knew a lot that she could not answer these questions, “I have to go back, I have to talk to my mother” he said as he stood up.

“She won’t let you come back you know, once she learns you know the truth she will either lock you up or kill you” it didn’t sound like his mother and even if it was he wanted to believe that her love for her son would win over her disappointment. Hayden could see that there was no way to change the young man’s mind so instead she walked over to him and embraced him, she held him close to her and didn’t let go, “You better come back, or I’ll have to come and get you. Drag you back here by your hair and beat you silly afterwards” Ander smiled at her words and hugged her back, they stood there and embraced for so long that Ander’s shoulder was soaked from the tears that Hayden shed but neither of them would say anything because they both knew that no words could make those tears stop but still Ander felt himself say three words anyway, “I love you”

Ander didn’t wait until the next morning to leave; he left that night after dinner. “I’m going back to tell my mother that I’m going to stay here with you guys” he had told Eric, the boy looked both sad and happy all at the same time but had he noticed how sad Hayden looked then he might have known that it would not have been as easy as Ander had made it sound. The last words Ander said as he faked heading towards the path were, “I’ll be back”.