ANISE AGNELIUS - RED CLAN, STRAIN

“Mama, mama I know you’re here...”

“Mama are you coming back?....”

“Mama, mama I don’t need anyone anymore...”

Quiet thoughts echoing in a soundless scream, shattering the winds that lifted it up high to be heard, still it remained unheard, ignored and unnoticed to those it wishes to be known. For all her life, her first word was to know the meaning of loneliness. Wanton abandonment cruelly brought upon by the hand that was in all expectation to raise her in love and respect.

Anise never experienced those, trapped in the coldness around her... she was but a forgotten observer left to survive on her own two feet. She couldn’t recall, the time she felt she knew it’s meaning. Love and joy, two terms she learned from reading a dictionary, words she came across numerous times in the fairytales her caretakers read to her when she asked. She knew their textbook meaning, but to experience it by heart. It wasn’t made to be, her heart had long ago froze. It never held a reason to function for the world. All it held was the cold ice wrapping around it like a cold embrace.

Mama... How could she forget the numerous times in her young mind she called it out, only to met by the eternal silence of the lonesome manor. She recalled, as young as five when she asked why she didn’t have parents like the other children she read in the books. They never answered, they met her questions with steely silence. Her grandfather couldn’t meet her straight in the eye, she saw what passed through them each time she would stare at his cold orbs, remorse, pain...anger, prevailed over the whirlwind of emotions her sharp mind took note.

Still she didn’t understand, the young mind of a child hindered her from truly taken in the real meaning behind those troubled gaze. She was innocent, years later she’d laugh it out as the whimsical effects of having such a young developing mind but within her heart she cursed it. If it wasn’t for it she would have known what she knew now, she would have known the meaning behind her treatment.

As years came and went she developed, the innocence faded she grew up far too early. Then again she never could call her childhood as one for whimsical trains and dreams of princesses living a fairytale life. At the young age of seven she became more aware of her surroundings of the looks people gave her as she passed through the corridor. Her innocence permanently shattered on that eve of her seventh year,

She had always labeled herself as the black sheep around a horde of white ones. She’s been carrying that proverbial nametag for as long as she could remember. She could see things, catch glimpses through the back of her mind of things she knew nothing about. People being shot, storms raging through a quiet town, she took it as something born from her reading too much fiction. She tried ignoring it... but found it near impossible to do so. She began strange spheres floating through the air but dismissed them as her imagination. She told them once, but it led them to stare at her as though she had finally lost her mind.

Her grandfather was notified, she heard his heavy steps against the polished floors. She waited, eyes fixated on the door as she saw his imposing figure appear through the double doors. The stern look he gave her, she wished she understood it at that time. It looked as though she had done a grave sin against the gods her grandfather held in high regard. Another thing that tainted the line was her absolute disbelief when it comes to the heavenly lord. She cried so many times to him. In the end her tears dried up nothing still happened. Nothing changed with the wishes of her past-self poured into those prayers.

Nothing changed.

She’ll never forget those words he told her.

He told her to stop it, never mention anything of it to anyone. Anise obeyed, she gave up finding a reason to fight. They wouldn’t believe her... now that she thought about it, years later in her midteens she was thankful for it.

It gave her a reason to ignore their existence... He made her feel that she didn’t have a voice. He made it certain that her worth would be next to nothing as foolish as it sounded she believed him. At this point she knew she only had one person to whom she could turn to, ironically it was the boy her grandfather had an eye for.

Anise viewed him as an older brother of sorts, family she used the term as loosely as possible but he was different story. Out of all the people in her life he taught her a reason to trust, not just in anyone but the girl trusted the man who was five years her senior. He became somewhat of a surrogate brother to her and sometimes she thought of him as a father figure she never truly met.

Fourth week of July the room was in chaos, her grandfather’s health had been declining for years now. She figured it out now, at nearly eighteen to why her grandfather couldn’t look at her in the eye. She reminded him of the sin her mother, his daughter had done. She was the fruition of that sin when her mother decided to abandon the clan to elope with her father who was a gold clan member against her grandfather’s wishes her mother left. In the coming years with no contact she came along delivered to her grandfather’s footsteps after the death of her parents from a lurker attack. He couldn’t look at her without being reminded of the pain her mother brought upon. In his eyes she was viewed as the scapegoat for her mother’s sins. Ironically she didn’t mind now numbed towards anything they have to say, it was the way she had to find out affected her.

Every month on the third week at the same date her mother left he would drown himself in liquor in the company of his trusted advisers. No one noticed the young mite patiently watching them through the curtains. Through her grandfather’s drunken rants he mentioned her mother and the events that led her to being in his care. He mentioned how she looked like her mother, strangely enough she didn’t feel anything, the shock numbed her mind far too much for the full blunt of it to hit... then he began again she listened him state her as being a ‘strain’ as he called it. She didn’t listen to it anymore when she slid out of the room. She carried the knowledge up to his death bed when he passed the title to her brother figure. It didn’t surprise her anymore that she wasn’t even chosen as a candidate. Honestly at this point...she didn’t care, she was just happy enough to stay with her adopted brother.

TIMELINE

O years old

>> Lost her mother during childbirth,
>> Lost her father a few hours later due to a lurker attack.
>> Given custody to her grandfather after being delivered to his doorstep.

1-4 years old

>> Raised in isolation after her grandfather found out she was a strain.

4 years old

>> Met Lucifer and began following him
>> Unofficially adopted by Luci as a younger sibling.

10 years old

>> Began manifesting her abilities as a strain but managed to keep it under lock and key from those around her.
>> Began taking an interest in biology and plant life as well as poisons.
>> Met a strange man by the name of Gene after he saved her from a lurker attack when she snuck out of the protective safety of the walls to search for herbs.
>> Started learning herbology from Gene whom she now calls as Master.

13 years old

>> Her grandfather's health began deteriorating.

15 years old

>> Secretly began studying about political affairs
>> Began exploring the neighboring underworld.
>> Started earning a bit of extra pocket cash as an informant

18 years old

>> Grandfather finally succumbs to his illness and dies
>> Adopted brother picks up the mantle as the new red king.