"She wasn't coming back with good feelings, Mara. Our father had chased her out and killed her baby. The Blue Moon Clan, now called the Sapphire Moon, hadn't helped her. She was dead jealous of Sylviana, who had been raised by their mother, and most of all, she blamed Nora and Selena's family for what happened to her."
Now everything is becoming much clearer...
"So that's it," I whisper. "The war... It was caused by all of this?"
"By Nephera," Liam says. "She wanted revenge. She wanted to kill all of us, for what she had suffered. She was... tortured by vampires for years, Mara. Vampire venom is extremely painful for witches. A werewolf can save themselves from it under certain conditions but for a witch... Even if she could heal herself, she must have gone through hell. It... wrecked her. She was just so full of spite, I think blaming us for everything was her way to cope, but it also made her crazy."
"I would have gone crazy too if I had gone through all that shit." I sigh. "I get that the werewolves and Sylviana were lucky, but I feel sorry for Nephera. Your father was the bastard in the story. If he hadn't chased her out, and killed her child... What kind of bastard even does that to a woman carrying their child?!"
Liam rolls his eyes.
"I don't want to talk about that... jerk, Mara. But yes, deep down, my father probably caused it."
I feel pretty sour about that. Their half-sister was killed in such a horrible way, and Nephera... In the end, she was just a pawn, wasn't she? How young was she when Danica sent her here? No wonder she envied Sylviana, to be sent away from her mother to some unknown location, with no one like her? I can feel that.
I glance at the tree again, while Liam resumes his explanation.
"Basically, the war occurred because Nephera wanted revenge. She... somehow turned the vampires to work for her, but she was coming back to kill us, as the sons of the man who had betrayed her, and Selena, Nora, and Sylviana for what she had gone through, Mara."
"I get it," I retort, still absorbed by that tree.
"...You don't look very... concerned."
I turn to him, a bit annoyed.
"Being sent somewhere without any family or friends to explain to you how to be a good witch? Well, I can relate to that. For the record, werewolves didn't exactly welcome me with open arms, nor did the humans. So if you're waiting for me to take sides, for now, I won't, okay? Nora and Selena were nice to me, I get it. But look at this tree. Sylviana liked her sister, didn't she? No matter what, I don't think she saw Nephera as a villain."
"She was a bad witch!" he retorts. "Do you know how many people she killed?!"
"You said it yourself, she had gone nuts from being tortured! Moreover, are you going to tell me your father had no victims? I heard the story, Liam!"
He looks at me, shocked.
"Why the hell are you defending her so much? Just because she was a witch too? This is ridiculous!" he yells, standing up.
"And why are you hating her so much?" I retort. "Look at this tree, look at what Sylviana was trying to show us! She knew Nephera wasn't her sister! Yet, she said otherwise, to the point even you thought so too! Why, if she did not consider her family herself?!"
Liam glances at the tree, upset.
"You're just looking for someone to blame for what happened to you," I say. "To Sylviana."
"You're talking as if you were there," he says. "You know nothing."
"I know I am a witch, and those sisters were too. Maybe their family mattered more to them than what happened."
We stare at each other like this for a long while, both angry and stubborn. I didn't expect that kind of reaction from him, but I didn't even know I'd react like this either. Why am I so affected by the sisters' story? Until now, every time it had been mentioned, I thought this wasn't of any concern to me, something that happened two years ago, when I hadn't even set foot in Silver City, wasn't related to me in any way.
So what has changed now? Why? Why am I reacting like this, to the point where I'm even fighting Liam about it? I was supposed to look for my name, so why do I care anyway? I need to stop doing this... I take a deep breath and step back, away from him. He seems to calm down too, shaking his head. A long silence comes between us, and now, it's awkward. I'm a bit ashamed of my reaction too, it was overboard...
"She... cried."
What is he talking about? I cross my arms but glance at him, unsure. His clear eye is still fixated on that portion of the wall, where the two witches have their names close to each other. Liam takes a deep breath.
"When... the battle was over. Sylviana cried for Nephera. I had forgotten that... until now."
That's a... strange detail to think about. Somehow, it makes me a bit relieved to hear that. I follow his gaze to the two little symbols. An ivy leaf and a water droplet, not that far from each other. I guess there really was that sister bond after all. Maybe that's why Sylviana hid that the two of them weren't actual sisters until the end... Whether she learned of it late or knew from the start, she chose to keep this lie alive until now.
"...Let's look for you," he sighs.
