In the days of old, when the ancient witches were still present in the flesh, when being a witch-born was not such a rare phenomenon, and pure magic was as common as the sands on the seashore, there existed a happy family of four, comprising a wizard, a witch and their two children, a boy and a girl. They were the Vischer family of the Vischer-Andalusian bloodline, one of the many ancient families with a pure magical bloodline.
The Vischer-Andalusian bloodline was, as the name denoted, a fusion of the Vischer and the Andalusian bloodlines through the Syretian Curse.
Wizards were fewer compared to the witches, but they weren’t as scarce as they are today. Since wizards are beings of pure magic, they can only survive where there is an abundance of pure magic. It was (and still is) an honour to be married to a wizard. Even if he had no iota of common sense, or couldn’t even perform any magic at all, it was better to be married to a wizard than to mate with other species.
All wizards could procreate, and their offspring would either be a warlock or a witchling, depending on the gender.
Then, it was common for a wizard to be married to several witches.
At that time, magic was a lot more diverse than it is now. There was nothing like deviant magic, technically; it would be correct to say that deviant magic was not practiced because there was no need for it. There were so many branches of magic to learn, ones that were more effective than their deviant counterparts. The logical choice would be the safer one; the moral compass of the supernatural world was not as skewed as it is today.
The Vischer family, like other ancient families with pure bloodlines were very conventional and frowned against the use of deviant magic. However, there were certain beliefs that they held onto. Most witches and wizards viewed their offspring as objects, dispensable resources that could be utilized to further their goal. But this was not the case with the Vischer family. The love that this family of four shared was beyond compare.
A lot of people mocked Anthony Vischer for marrying only one woman when he could have as many as possible. At a time when wizards were utterly lazy, promiscuous and arrogant, there were a few who did not follow the trend. This included Anthony Vischer, Maguire Vane, Arturio Slanvinsky and some other patriarchs of the pure-blooded families.
Everything about a wizard is intensified, and by implication, if a wizard is powerful, he is usually very powerful. If he is weak, he is a spineless individual with no hope of redemption.
The Vischer family were known for their slightly aberrant behavior, but no one tried to challenge them or say that they were wrong. In those days, power spoke volumes. The Vischer family would never oppress others with the prestige they had, but that did not mean that they were barking dogs with no bite. They were not called the mavens of magic for nothing.
Empires rise, and empires fall. Every good thing will surely come to an end, at least until true, absolute immortality is attained. The Vischer family had it all rosy until Klara Vischer was pregnant for the third time.
Unlike her previous pregnancies, this one was especially draining and intense. The strain on her physical body was the least of their worries, as it was unlikely that she would survive the birth of the child. If not for her insistence on carrying the child full-term, alongside fears that her chances of surviving a forced fetal termination were slim to none, Evanora would not be born.
Klara Vischer reasoned that since she would most likely die, either way, was it not better to give the child a chance to live? For a witch who had lived for several millennia, death was not such a bleak prospect- there were worse things than that. Like taking the life of her own child.
With quaking hearts and bated breaths, everyone anticipated the day Klara would birth her third and final child.
Six hours to the summer solstice, Klara Vischer went into labor, and six hours later, Evanora Maybellina Vischer was born. That is to say that she was born on the day of the summer. At that time, such fanciful words as ‘solstice’ were not in use, and all everyone knew was that Evanora was born on the day the sun was at its peak.
Fortunately, Klara did survive, but she was never the same again. Her healthy constitution was non-existent, and she would later spend the rest of her life in and out of sickbeds and physician homes.
Klara Vischer was a beautiful woman, with a fair temperament and a lot of wits. She was full of vitality and could never bear to be confined to a place for long periods of time. Seeing such a bustling woman reduced to a frail, feeble shell who spent most of her time writhing in pain on a bed, would affect anyone who knew her, and that is exactly what happened.
Evanora Vischer grew up in a neutral environment, devoid of warmth and care. She was not exactly maltreated in any way, but she did not enjoy the love that was synonymous with the Vischer household. Her mother was too ill to love her, and the rest of her family alienated her. They never blamed her for Klara’s condition, but they didn’t exactly treat her like family either.
The witchling walked this frayed rope of kinship all her life, and it was a pity to see the formerly strong, tightly-knit family fall apart. Every frayed rope requires an insane amount of dexterity to walk upon it, for the slightest tug would cause it to snap in two.
And the tug that snapped the filial bond of the Vischer family was the death of Klara Vischer, the last matriarch of the Vischer family.