Page 58 of Sunflower

“Good.Youpickedupon that,” Callum said approvingly, a small smile tickling at the corners of his lips. He took his seat again and motioned for me to join him.

“Story time again, huh?” I asked as I laid down and got comfortable once more.

“Kind of, yeah.” He tipped his head back and looked at the stars, still sparkling merrily above us.

Many generations after Cassandra and Helenus died, when their lives and the lives of their children were being talked about as legends but not yet myth, a young man from the past family line married a young woman from the present family line.

Until that point, intermarriage between the family lines wasn’t forbidden like it is today. Couples between two family lines weren’t wholly encouraged because any marriages between the lines always proved to be childless. For families that prided themselves on continuing the family lines and their resulting powers, children were typically what every couple desired.

It was believed that if two people from two different family lines were so in love that not even the thought of remaining childless could keep them apart, a benevolent Apollo wouldn’t stand in their way, and would instead honor their union.

But such a marriage had to be balanced by sacrifice, and so he would steadfastly refuse to allow them any offspring. It was said that, even after all the centuries that had passed, Apollo still held his grudge against Cassandra, and his refusal to bless such a couple with children was his way of keeping that grudge alive.

I sighed as Callum’s fingers threaded through my hair. Gods and their grudges. They all fought like children. No wonder our ancestors loved telling their tales.

This young couple in love were one of the rare few that the idea of remaining childless didn’t bother them, and so their extended families celebrated their marriage as one where Apollo had accepted their sacrifice and thus honored their union.

After many years, and to everyone’s complete surprise, the woman from the present family line became pregnant, and there was much rejoicing. Maybe, after all this time, Apollo had finally forgiven Cassandra’s betrayal?

The miracle baby was born healthy and was named Iris, and she grew to be beloved by all. All three family lines adored this child and saw her as the physical representation of Apollo’s long-awaited forgiveness of Cassandra.

I snorted. Somehow, I didn’t think that was how this story was going to go. If there was one thing I knew about the gods of old, forgiveness was extremely rare and incredibly hard won once finally given.

But yay for a miracle baby, I guess?

Iris displayed her mother’s present telepathic powers early, far earlier than anyone else in their family line. Where most powered individuals didn’t start displaying their power until they were six or seven, she was telepathically communicating with any animal she encountered from the age of two. By the time she was five, she was interacting with people from the next town over. Her mental power was immense and there were those that wondered if this increase in power was because of the two family lines mixing.

When Iris turned seven, however, everything changed.

I knew it!

On the morning of her birthday, she was presented with a new coat that her grandmother had made for her. She took the colorful coat in her hands and thanked her grandmother for the time she’d spent on her gift. Then, as if in a trance, she talked about the history of the coat: who had helped her grandmother create it, where each thread had originated, and what her grandmother had felt when she stitched it together.

This was her father’s past gift of psychometry and the first time anyone had presented two family line powers. Because Iris had already presented with telepathy, no-one was expecting her to show another power.

A shiver of dread and recognition traveled up my spine. Those were some of the same powers that Callum had. Abstractly, I knew Callum had been telling me stories that told of his family history, but this felt more real, more genuine. The previous story felt like something he’d heard around a campfire and was passing the story on to me as a matter of course. A myth told to explain how his world worked.

This story, though… This story felt raw, almost painful. A warning told from one generation to the next to make sure the mistakes of the past never happened again.

This felt personal.

At first, while her parents were astonished and took the new direction of her power cautiously, her extended family was thrilled. They celebrated the fact that someone could hold multiple powers and talk quickly turned to who her parents could marry Iris off to in order to receive the best dowry, and even began conspiring about which other children could be married off to mix the bloodlines for the best combination of powers. Her parents urged their relatives not to get ahead of themselves, but they were ignored.

While these discussions took place, her parents watched their daughter grow more and more restless. When she began complaining of a sharp pain in her head, her parents sent their relatives away so they could care for their child.

That night, the bloodcurdling sound of Iris’s pained screams could be heard from their house. By dawn of the next day, Iris’s screams had stopped, only to have been replaced by the anguished wails of her parents.

Oh, no.

But also, how? If this girl had presented with the same powers as Callum but died, how did Callum exist? I shuffled restlessly in place, trying to focus on the soothing scrape of Callum’s fingernails against my scalp as he talked.

After her distraught parents were finally dragged away from their daughter’s body, Iris was examined thoroughly. It was discovered that introducing the second power had burned her mind from the inside out. Her body couldn’t cope with the additional drain the second power had on her and took the fuel for that power the only way it could: by boiling her brain until there was nothing left.

Although Iris’s extended family mourned the loss of her presumed dowry, they continued to plot the arranged marriages of other powered children together in order to create more dual powered offspring. Their greed of what the future could bring blinded them to everything else.

Iris’s parents were left to grieve their miracle child alone.

Those pricks. I hoped there was some retribution coming the extended family’s way, because focusing on anything other than the death of a child felt all sorts of wrong.

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