Chapter 5

The only person in the den was a man with graying hair, a clean-shaven face, and a suit that probably cost more than I would make in a year. He sat behind a desk that was made of dark wood, which was polished to a high sheen. The rest of the furnishings looked just as extravagant, just as expensive. Part of me knew this all belonged to my deceased biological mother, but another part hoped the first part was wrong. I didn’t want things this expensive. I just wanted answers to a few personal questions and then I would leave for home, content that my life would go on without any undue fuss.

When the man looked up, something told me it wouldn’t be that simple.

He stood up and said, “Mr. Connors.” He had a deep, resonating voice, the kind that could carry a distance and made him sound authoritative. He held out his hand to shake. “I am Steven Van Dusen, the family attorney.”

I crossed the room and shook his hand.

“Please, have a seat,” He said. He waved at a pair of green leather armchairs on my side of the desk as he sat down.

I pulled one a bit closer to the desk and sat down.

He opened a folder and sifted through the papers inside. “I have been the family lawyer for a very long time. I was here when your sister was born. I was here when you were born. I was also here when you died.” He looked at the papers as he talked. “After your mother died, I pulled out her will and read it to make sure everything was in order. I discovered that she had not updated it after your death. I grew concerned. If the wrong person found out about this, with the right documentation, he could take advantage.” He looked up.

I met his eyes and could tell he was a man who was rarely surprised, if ever. “I’m not here to take advantage. Hayden was my biological mother, but I never knew her.”

He stared at me for a moment and then said, “I also find this difficult, because your mother, err ... Ms. Rosenbaum hired me to help with the arrangements for your death.”

I stared back at him. I had nothing to say about that. It wasn’t as if I’d had any say in the matter when it occurred.

“I don’t like surprises,” he said. “Yet I was surprised when your sister told me that you were alive a few weeks ago.”

I nodded. “I’ve been surprised by a great number of things since I left for college. What I don’t get is why you’re telling me all of this now. You could have said something over the phone when you called.”

He nodded with a grunt. “You are correct. However, before I leveled any accusations, I wanted more information, and it takes time to gather it.”

“And what have you learned?”

He squinted at me, as if he was sharpening his focus. “I did not become a partner at my firm without knowing things, Mr. Connors. One of my duties is to confirm anything that might jeopardize this family by way of legalities. When your sister informed me that you were alive, I of course had to confirm it. I hired a number of different private investigators who all collected similar data that confirmed you are, without any doubt in my mind, Seth Rosenbaum, later renamed Seth Connors.”

“I take it you have the paperwork to prove this?” I asked and he nodded. “Could you send copies to a lawyer I know in Texas?”

He nodded, took up a pen, and wrote down Linda’s information as I gave it to him.

When he looked up again, I said, “If you don’t mind my asking, I’d like to know how she died.”

He studied me with a somber expression. “The official cause of death is heart failure.”

I frowned. “Isn’t that the default when the real cause cannot be determined?”

“Yes,” He said. “And I will add that the coroner who performed her autopsy is very good, very thorough.”

“If there was an autopsy, then foul play was suspected,” I said. “Do you have a copy of the police report?”

“The investigation is still open, but cold,” he said. “I may be able to gather what little data the police have, if you wish.”

I nodded. “Yes, please.” Valory was convinced that someone killed Hayden by magical means. She even mentioned something about a Sheriff looking into the death. However, the Sheriff’s official conclusion was that it wasn’t a magical death while Valory said it was. It made me wonder what they each knew, and how the differences lead to different conclusions. The police report wouldn’t hold that kind of information. I would have to talk to the Sheriff Magus who looked into this if I decided to investigate it myself.

For mundane answers though, Mr. Van Dusen was very good. His mentioning the coroner made me wonder if the Magus community had an equivalent. Emma, my first Stirpe, was a heart doctor and used Magic to help heal her patients. It was never anything outright obvious. She would correct the rhythm of a heartbeat or correct problems during surgery. She did not, however, try to completely stave off death for all of her patients though, and as far as I knew, she had never performed anything like a Magical autopsy on anyone either. I would have to ask her if she had ever heard of such a thing. I might even ask if she knew of anyone in this part of the country who could, but that would have to wait until later.

Returning my thoughts to Mr. Van Dusen, I said, “I suppose that’s all I wanted to know for now. If I should come up with any other questions though...”

“I am continuing my duties as family lawyer,” Mr. Van Dusen said. “Which now extends to you when you are in this part of the country. I would have to brush up on Texas laws and pass their Bar exam to work there.”

I shook my head. “I have a lawyer in Texas, thank you.”

He smiled and nodded. “Shall we?”

I nodded too.

“Ms. Rosenbaum’s will was very concise. She left the entire estate to you and your sister. The details regarding the estate are included in the paperwork I’ve taken the liberty to copy for you in this packet.” He placed a sealed packet on the desk in front of me. “For the most part that was all, except for one detail she left specifically for you. She left a video for you to watch here, in Florence Manor. Your eyes only.”

With that, Mr. Van Dusen opened a laptop that had been sitting on the desk. He started an application and turned the laptop to face me. Then he stood up. “Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you when the video is complete. I’ll be in the kitchen, getting some coffee.”

I nodded, watched him leave, and then turned to the laptop. I couldn’t imagine what my biological mother could possibly say in a video that could make up for seventeen years of not being there for me. I wasn’t angry with her, exactly. The hardships I had lived through weren’t from my family, but the town we lived in. It made me wonder briefly what my life would have been like if I had grown up with her rather than them. I would certainly know more about the world of Magic than I do now, but would I have been as outraged with her death as Valory seemed to be? Would I have gone with her to seek out Hayden’s murderer? Would I be under the same geas?

I shook my head. I had many questions that would never know answers, and it was pointless to ask them. For a moment, I thought about leaving the message alone. It wasn’t out of spite. I had a life to live and anything she said in the video would probably try to change that. Unfortunately, I would always wonder what she wanted to say. My curiosity got the better of me and I hit play on the application.

The video started with static and then the picture cleared up showing me a woman’s face that I only recognized from Valory’s memories. It was Hayden Rosenbaum, our mother. After a few seconds, she looked side to side, as if checking her room for something. Then she looked at the camera again. “Good, we’re alone. I can forego this format and we can have a real conversation.”

I frowned and shook my head. Whatever she had been thinking at the time, she apparently didn’t understand how video worked. She could talk to me, but I couldn’t ask her any questions.

She leaned forward to stand up, and, as she rose, the frame of the application nor the laptop cut her off. She rose up out of the laptop.

I pushed my chair back, watching as Hayden rose up to stand in front of the desk. I had seen Rho walk through things on a number of occasions and it still unnerved me. This reminded me of those times. Was she an interactive magical construct, like Rho?

She stretched as if she had been sitting in a car for a long road trip. The stretch also reminded me of how some of my girls would stretch in front of me, showing off their bodies, enticing me to make a move. A fleeting thought went by: did all women learn to stretch like that or was it just me? Whatever the answer, it gave me the chance to take in her details.

She wore a black spaghetti strap top. It hugged her full, firm breasts pleasantly, and as she stretched the hem of the top pulled up from the edge of her skirt, showing off a line of her tight midriff, like an invitation for me to reach out and touch her. The skirt was multi-colored, hung low on her hips, and flowed around her legs to the floor. I couldn’t see her feet.

She relaxed and looked at me. Her eyes were more than simply brown. Several rings of different shades circled her pupils. On the inside, closest to her pupils were a soft tan, then a soft brown, and finally something close to mahogany. Her tousled auburn hair made her looked as if she’d just woken up and hadn’t had time to brush it out yet, yet it worked on her. She looked much younger than what I recalled from Valory’s memories.

“There,” she said, and looked herself over. “That’s better.” She looked at me again. “Seth, I know this must come as a shock, but I am an interactive magical construct. We can talk like normal, and do more as the situation calls for it.”

Apparently, I had guessed correctly. I originally met Rho in a magical environment that acted as a transition area between reality and the stasis fields Valory and I had entered when we both tried to end the Lockdown. As frustrated as I was with myself for not figuring this out, I also felt relief since I understood how she climbed out of the laptop like that. She couldn’t interact with physical objects. Rho said she could only touch me. I wondered if that held true for all constructs. I stood up. “You’re like Rho.”

She smiled softly, as if I had said something cute. “I’m sorry for this but...” and then she lunged at me.

I didn’t believe she could touch me, but that didn’t stop me from raising my arms and pulling away.

Not only could she touch me, she hugged me. It wasn’t a bear hug though. She wasn’t trying to hurt me. It took a few seconds for me to relax as I realized that she simply wanted to hug her son.

“I know this must seem strange,” she said with her face half-muffled against my chest, “but I’ve wanted to hug you for a very long time.”

I relaxed more and more. Finally, I settled my arms around her and hugged her in return. It was all I could think of. Maybe it was because she was a construct. Maybe it was because I didn’t really know her. Whatever the case, I didn’t get anything from the hug.

After a moment, she pulled back enough to look up at me. Her eyes searched my face or maybe she just wanted to take in the details. She smiled softly and said, “You’ve grown into such a handsome young man. The last time I saw you, you were in junior high.”

I frowned just a touch. If everything I had learned was true, then she knew it was time to awaken me. Did she come looking for me to help with that, or was there another reason? I didn’t recall seeing her – ever.

She gave me one more, tight hug, as if it would be her last one, and then pulled away. She smiled up at me and wiped at her eyes. There was a sadness to her. It went along with the way she was acting. She obviously missed me, but that didn’t explain why she had given me up. She shook her head, as if trying to shake away the emotions. “You know about Rho. Did Valory tell you?”

I watched her. “Not directly,” I said. Talking to a construct that looked like Hayden felt odd. “I’m not sure how much you know, but a lot has happened since ... you died.”

Her brow furrowed and she nodded. She looked down at her own hands. “I know. This is weird. I look like your dead mother. For that matter, I’m acting like your dead mother.” She looked up again. “You may as well refer to me as Hayden. I know most of what she did.”

I waved over to the chair next to the one I had been sitting in. “Sit down. We’ll talk.”

She sat down, folding her hands in her lap. She fidgeted for a few seconds and then said, “I would love to talk at length, but – as you may understand it – I am only a sub-spell cast on my copy of Rho. I don’t have much time.”

I sat down too. She seemed regretful, and part of me felt sorry for her, yet I knew there was a reason Hayden had set this up. She needed to tell me and getting all teary-eyed wasn’t going to make it happen any faster. I nodded at her, indicating that she should tell me.

“There is a lot I need to tell you and I wish that it would be me that does so, but Rho will have to fill in the finer details after I’m gone.”

“You’re here now,” I said and waved for her to start.

She nodded. “I’m sure you know about the Council and the Laws of Secrecy,” she said and I nodded. “Both were created at the end of the American Civil War and because of it. A number of Magi supported the southern states. They wanted to help them secede from the North. Only, they didn’t act as advisors who stood in the background. They walked the trenches with the regular soldiers. They used spells to both help those soldiers and to decimate the northern forces.”

I sat back in my seat. “Did the North have supporters?”

“Yes, but they were advisors. They didn’t get directly involved in the fighting. If the Southern supporters hadn’t helped, the North would have won much sooner and with much less bloodshed.”