Page 67 of Gift from the Tree

Willow

I have a sister. Well, not technically, but the closest I’ll ever come to having one.

After I calmed down, I stayed in Draken’s lap for a little while longer, sucking up his heat and letting my mind wander to the bomb Gaster just dropped. When he got up to leave and head back to the archives, I asked him if we could go find Oakly together because I really wanted to be with him when he told her.

He reassured me she’d be just as happy about this as I was, but I needed to see it for myself. I’ve been hurt so much in my life by people who were supposed to be there and take care of me, I didn’t want to just accept she’d be thrilled about this.

He agreed and I asked Draken to stay behind with the guys. He of course argued and pouted, but I promised I wouldn’t leave Gaster’s office till he came and got me. That seemed to be the only thing to convince him not to tag along. Eventually, he’ll have to let me find my own way around this giant castle, but since it’s my first day, I’ll indulge him.

It’s still lunchtime and class break, so we assume she’ll either be in the dining hall or the courtyard and my gaze finds her immediately, sitting off by herself, reading under a tree.

“Oakly,” I yell out, waving my hand in the air.

“Hey, Willow.” She waves with a smile, giving my heart hope.

“Have you eaten lunch already?”

“Yeah, just finished up. Why, what’s up?” she asks, looking behind me at Gaster standing there. “Oh, hi, Master Cato, is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. We were just wondering if you’d like to come back to my office with us so I can have a conversation with you and Willow?” Gaster replies formally. Being in the presence of so many students, I guess he has to, but it’s strange to hear.

“Yeah, sure,” she agrees easily, packing up her books in her satchel and falling in step with us.

“I really love that satchel. Where did you get it from?”

“Oh, my mom made it for me,” she replies, looking at the bag with a mixture of affection and resentment.

“Does that mean she has an earth element?” I ask. Would it be rude to ask her what her element is?

“Yep, she and my biological dad. They were a little shocked when I emerged with a water element,” she says, wearing a little smirk on her face that tells me defying them, even if unintentionally, makes her happy. “What about you and your parents?”

“Oh, um…” A pang of sadness runs through me for a minute before I shove it away. I never knew my mother. She died in childbirth, according to my father, and he never speaks about her, and well, we know how shitty he is. So I’ve never had a mom or really a dad, always being taken care of by the forever rotating house staff.

“Willow’s a charge of the academy. Let’s finish this conversation in my office, shall we,” Gaster, thankfully, cuts in, knowing I don’t know what to say to her.

“I’m so sorry, Willow. I wouldn’t have pried if I had known.” Oakly surprises me by wrapping me up in a tight hug as soon as we walk through Gaster’s door.

“Known what?” I ask as I separate myself from her.

“We don’t typically broadcast when someone is a charge because that means they have no family. But you’ve got a family now, child, just not one born by blood,” Gaster explains.

Well, yeah, that sounds sad as shit when you say it like that.

“Oh, well, it’s okay, Oakly, you had no way of knowing. I didn’t even realize when Gaster told me I was registered as a charge of the academy, there was a meaning behind it,” I inform her, hoping to ease her guilt.

“Have you never heard of a charge, Willow?” she asks, confused.

“Please, come sit, girls. Oakly, it will make more sense in a minute,” Gaster instructs us.

We make our way over to the couch and sit beside one another while Gaster rolls his desk chair over and sits in front of us. If I didn’t already know what we were going to talk about, it’d look like we were about to get a lecture. I laugh to myself, thinking about how me and Oakly could get up to some trouble and Gaster lecturing us like children.

The thought must have brightened my aura because he gives me a warm smile before turning his attention to Oakly. “I’ll just come out and say it, Oakly, because I believe you to be a very smart girl. You and Willow have a Perfecta Anima bond. It snapped into place earlier.”

Well, damn, Gaster just hit her with it. Although the guys had no clue what he was talking about, I highly doubt she did either.

“That’s impossible. It’s been almost five hundred years since we’ve seen a Perfecta Anima bond,” she whispers low, eyes so wide her eyebrows are nearly in her hairline.

Welp, never mind. She’s obviously smarter than the guys.

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