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Heliopath’s World: Ildieu: Benedict: Studying (part 2)
Eventually, Benedict knew, he would have to tell the truth, but that would only happen if certain points in time happened. They were points in time his grandfather had told him about, because they would affect all of the preparations that had been made for what was coming. No one really knew what was going to happen when Kestrel and Ash were pushed together, even though it was something that had to happen, so all Benedict could do was wait to see how things went. Two of the many possibilities were preferred by those who had been planning for the future – neither of them were something he could see happening, not after meeting both Kestrel and Ash, and he had a feeling that the least favoured possibility was the one that was going to come true.
If it did… he looked down at the book he’d taken off the shelf to pretend to study… he knew that he had to tell Ash as soon as possible who he really was and why he was at the Gardens. Fortunately if it did he’d understand, even though that didn’t mean Benedict would still have a position at the Gardens, or at the Hollow for that matter, because being a part of that family meant keeping secrets from everyone else. Falcon couldn’t tell his sister or cousin that he already knew what was coming; Kestrel couldn’t tell Falcon that, in order to protect herself, she had chosen to learn how to make poisons and that she had been the one to kill three traitors within the Hollow; Ash couldn’t tell Falcon or Kestrel who he really was; and Benedict hadn’t been able to tell any of them that he was their cousin, born to Ginevra while she was still leader of the Black Hollow.
There were some people who knew. Falcon’s father, their grandfather, Ginevra – wherever she was, and it had been their grandfather who had put him in Ildieu at a time when he would be needed, because that was what their grandfather did. Benedict sighed. He hated the position he’d been forced into, feeling exactly the same way Falcon did, but he had no other options. If he told them who he was before they worked out what was happening he would affect everything, but… he glanced up at the ceiling. Kestrel and Ash would be talking, Kestrel would be dealing with the aftereffects of using green level magic without stopping for nearly three years, and they would both be affected by memories, by how they were feeling, and by what had happened.
Would they realise that they were related on their first day together? Benedict thought they would, even though their grandfather disagreed, but Benedict had come to the conclusion that their grandfather didn’t know any of them properly – children or grandchildren. He’d always kept his distance, said it was better that way, and by keeping his distance he’d taken from himself the chance to get to know the people he’d been using as pawns, in order to protect himself from the pain that he would feel when he lost them. That was why he didn’t know that Kestrel was smart, Ash was still hurting from what happened to Mina, and as he was he would say things that would tell Kestrel exactly who he was. Whether that was before or after Kestrel admitted to Falcon being her brother depending entirely on how bad her headache was.
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.