Garlic

“If any wizard therefore or person imbued with magical contamination who is called by custom of the people a magician...should be apprehended in my retinue, or in that of the Caesar, he shall not escape punishment and torture by the protection of his rank.”

I closed the thick book and let out a sigh, fiddling with the opal ring on my finger. The library felt emptier than usual, I sat in the small spot next to the bookshelves that held books on Ancient Greek and Roman Empires, a corner less visited, in the only library in town that had any books featuring the Roman History so to speak.

I looked again at the cover, Excerpts from the Codex Theodosianus, I had always been curious about the ancient Greeks and Romans but even after reading countless books, potentially becoming the fan-club president of Percy Jackson and almost flunking my finals, sadly I was still not able to satiate my thirst. From all the readings I had done, I had derived this one thing for sure that magic was real. I could hear people laughing even when I thought of this in my head, I was a science student, of course I should be a pro-Science person but I had come to this conclusion after proper analysis of the history recorded in these books.

It was real, there were evidences everywhere but people didn’t bother to verify and branded them as mere trickeries but I, Kate Virgil, was sure about it and I had pledged to collect evidence to support my claims and rest my case.

I picked up my things and started for home, today was not the day to proclaim to the world that I had lost my mind yet.

As I entered, I was taken into a bear hug at once, I had totally forgotten it was my birthday today and my grandma was coming home after such a long time.

“Where had you been for so long? Didn’t miss Granny did you, now that you are a big girl?” grandma pouted. I hugged her back guiltily, “ How can I not miss you grandma, let’s go and eat your favorite garlic bread!”

I couldn’t process it at first, but everything came to a standstill, just like the many dreams I occasionally had, everything around me froze and started floating, the chairs were hovering around, the remote was flying, as my grandma looked back at me with a knowing smile. I didn’t really know what to do except quietly follow as my grandma took my hand and led me to the backyard. “Today I will tell you about what you had actually been searching for. I will make you remember what you had forgotten.” She said.

“Grandma… do I have superpowers too?” ,I asked brightly. My grandma looked at me and laughed. She shook her head and said, “ Do you know why you are called Kate?” I had known that my name was not derived from the usual names like Katie, Christina or even Katniss, it had always been just Kate but I didn’t know why. As if reading my thoughts, she replied, “ It came from Hekate. You are actually the daughter of the Greek Goddess of Magic, Hekate.”

Looking at my stupefied face, grandma continued, “Yes, Heckate has always been looking out for you. You are in fact her only offspring who has managed to live for so long. Heckate is the holder of the keys that--- ”

“can unlock the gates between realms, she can unlock the gates of death.”, I finished the sentence. This was it; I could finally relate to the complicated family scandals of the Greek Gods.

My grandma continued, “ She had you when she had come to the Earth realm to run an errand for Hades incognito and met your father, he was a human who didn’t know when to not interfere in others’ problems, she fell for his kind and tenacious nature. She has been watching over you ever since. She had locked your magical spirit when you were born because it might destroy your fragile human shell but now the lock has become weak against your flowing spirit. Soon you are going to gain the spirit of fire.”

Grandma suddenly moved her hand and launched a blinding flash of light towards me. It hit me and I suddenly started feeling as if someone had put me on fire. It felt as if I was covered in flames, she was trying to kill me. So this is what she meant by spirit of fire. I slowly walked towards grandma and hugged her, I whispered in her ears slowly, “ You might regret this later, mother.” I pulled out my ring and thrust it into her hands.

There was a slow laugh at first and then suddenly Hekate started laughing loudly. “How did you know it was me?” She transformed into a young lady, her features resembled that of grandma but she radiated something which didn’t feel humanly.

I smiled as I felt the pain slowly subsiding, I replied, “You had the power to freeze time, knew about my life story in such vivid detail even though it was an incognito task. Furthermore, my mother would prefer to come on her own rather than send someone else to murder me. ” Honestly, it was just a hunch because she liked garlic which was also liked by Hekate and the opal ring was given by my grandma herself so it might have a connection somehow but it’s always better to appear strong and knowledgeable before an opponent who is literally a Goddess.

My mother seemed to find it amusing. She tilted her head and looked me over. She finally said, "Fine. Whatever. You can live longer. You are my daughter after all. You have a part of my powers now though, so you'll need to learn to control them so that you don't end up blowing up this realm. Follow me, you need training."

I paused for a moment. It felt good to meet my mother though I missed my grandma. I decided I needed to get stronger anyway if I wanted to survive. I followed my mother.

Something magical was calling me. I had finally found the thing I had been searching for everyday, the thing that had the ability to satiate my thirst.