Caleb 48 - Eleanor

For the rest of the week we alternated between days at the beach, so all the girls could work on their tans, and touring the local sights. Being suddenly able to speak Spanish was a real boon. We got to see things that we might not have merely by having conversations with the Taxi drivers we got to take us to places.

On Friday night we had another barbecue on the beach. Reggie and Donna joined us as it was their last night in Barcelona. Reggie and Dean had spent a lot of time talking together about their time in the desert, and by the time they left it was as if they were old friends. Donna came to speak to me.

"I don't know how you did it," she said to me, "but he's like a different man. He remembers what happened out there, but it no longer triggers him. It's been so long since I had my husband I'd almost forgotten who he was. I don't know how we can ever thank you."

I shook my head. "There's really no need. He stepped up for all of us, it was an honor for me to be able to step up for him."

She pulled me into a hug. "If you ever come to England," she said, "look us up. We'd be very happy to see you."

We spent the better part of Saturday packing things up and getting ready for our return home. I was certainly looking forward to it, even if I wasn't particularly looking forward to the nearly nine hour flight, even given the luxurious accommodations.

In the early evening we called a taxi and went to the address that Maria had sent to us. The taxi driver took us up into the hills above the city and, after almost an hour of driving, we arrived at what could only be described as a hacienda.

The building wasn't so much a 'house' as a collection of houses all joined together with arched corridors between them, and a large central building which seemed to house some communal areas. There were some delicious smells on the air and my stomach rumbled.

Maria, who must have seen the taxi approaching, came out to meet us. Eleanor skipping along at her side.

"Caleb," Maria exclaimed, beaming. "So glad you could come."

"Thank you so much for inviting us," I said as we all unloaded from the taxi. Maria came to embrace me. Leaning in to touch cheeks, left then right. The phrase 'Dos Besos' popped into my head. She moved along the line to Cheryl who was next. Meanwhile I found myself attached to an eleven year old limpet who had thrown her arms around my waist.

"Hey Eleanor," I said do her crouching a little to hug her. "Como esta mi hermanita?"

"Speak English," called Maria, who was just moving from Dean to greet Jules. "She needs the practice."

"How are you?" I asked.

"I'm well, thank you," she said a little formally.

"May I see?" I asked. She nodded.

I looked her over seeing that while she still had some of the cancer cells in her body, they were greatly reduced. I estimated that in another week would see her completely cancer free.

I felt a presence at my side and looked up to see Maria had re-joined me having gone along the line of people to welcome them.

"It's almost gone," she said. "Four or five more days."

I nodded.

"I never thought that we would be able to cure her," she said looking at her little sister. "Even with all our power, I was certain that we were going to lose her."

We stood for a moment regarding the little girl who looked back at us impassively.

"Come on," Maria said suddenly grabbing my hand. "Let me introduce you to the family."

What followed was a whirlwind of people and introductions, as we were all paraded through what must have been an extended family of about fifty people ranging in age from two to over one hundred years old. Each of the adults did the kiss-kiss thing, even the men, which I found a little strange. From what I understood of the culture, 'Dos Besos' only happened when at least one of the parties was female. I wondered how Dean would react to it, but it seemed they were only doing it to me. Josh and Dean were getting handshakes from the men. I asked Maria about it.

"You are part of the family now," she said. "You are one of us."

Then I was led to an old woman who was the spitting image of Taratabuela Gonzales from the illusion. I presumed she was the current Matriarch of the Gonzales family and therefore a daughter or maybe granddaughter of the consciousness I had met.

We spoke in Spanish.

"Good evening," she said.

"Good evening," I replied. "Thank you for inviting me to your home."

She shook her head. "You are one of the family now," she said. "You must consider this as your home. Would you introduce me to your family?"

I made the introductions, first my four fiancées, then Dean and Cheryl, and finally Josh and Louise.

"If you like," she said, "you may call me simply Abuela. It is how I am usually addressed."

"Thank you, Abuela," I replied. She smiled.

"You have beautiful girls," she said. "And some dedicated friends. I can see their devotion to you. You 'share' with them, yes?"

I nodded. "Mostly," I said. "Jules and Ness are Norms and, up to now, haven't 'shared' with any other men."

She looked across at the two girls who were now in conversation with some of the other family.

I saw her reach out her power toward them, my instinctive block caught her by surprise.

"I'm sorry," I said. "They are Norms, and I am very protective of them."

She raised an eyebrow at me. I wondered if this was going to be the shortest family gathering ever. Then she grinned.

"As it should be," she said. "However, I detect that they are not quite Norms. They have some power, albeit an extremely small amount."

A memory stirred of Jules telling Dianna that her grandmother could sometimes feel the emotions of others if they were in contact, and that she knew what it felt like to have power used on her. It hadn't been mentioned since and I had forgotten about it.

"The twins are Eversons," she said. "They have reasonable power. They are not yet reached their full potential, I sense, but they are not far from it. You are also not quite there but you have much more power, I think, than I have ever seen in a single person.

I wondered how she could tell my power, I checked my shield, which seemed to be in perfect shape.

My confusion must have registered, she smiled. "Your shield is being managed by the protection," she said. "It allows us a limited amount of freedom with each other. I couldn't read your mind, or use my powers on you, but I do have access to see your condition and strength. Look at me and you will see what I mean."

I directed my power at her and saw exactly what she meant. I could gauge her power, health, and energy levels. That was all I was getting from her though.

"I'm guessing," she went on seeing I had confirmed what she had said, "that you are making people a little nervous back home?"

"You could say that," I said. "We had some, shall we say, discussions when I came into my power. We are all friends now though."

She laughed. "Not friends," she said. "But not enemies either. I heard that you broke away from the Everson council and formed your own. Good for you. It was time for your family to rebuild."

"Rebuild?" I asked.

She pulled a face. "They have been systematically reducing your numbers," she said, "for, maybe, the last five hundred years. You think it's an accident that there are so few of you left?"

"How?" I asked.

"Careful management of who you are allowed to marry, for example" she said. "Also, limiting family sizes to one or at most two children per family. Oh, they say it's to keep them away from powers, but the real reason, at least originally, was to breed you out of existence. Weaken your line until those with Compulsion were no more. You will probably be the first Stott with more than one wife. You have the opportunity to restart your line. Don't let them interfere with that."

"Don't worry," I said, "I'm not going to. I've already told them that I will not tolerate them using the amulets on any children of mine."

"Good," she said. "Those are abominations. They shouldn't even be used on wilds."

"How do you make wilds safe?" I asked.

"It's simple," she said. She offered me a memory. I examined it.

"FUCK!" I said. It was virtually the same process as had been used to bind our family to the Eversons. The child could be guided through a process of using their own power to bind them to their parents. This binding would both limit their power, making it almost negligible, and still leave them with their full mental capacities. They could grow up with an understanding of their powers, as they would still be able to feel them within themselves, and train them under rigid supervision.

Other power users would be able to temporarily 'release' the block on their powers, for a set period of time, for these training sessions.

"So why have the Eversons been using the Amulets?" I asked.

"A number of reasons," she said. "One, they don't have Compulsion so it's more difficult to use the binding. Remember these wilds are usually encountered when they are very young, so they might not be able to recite a ritual. Also it limits your mental acuity so when you do finally reach your powers perhaps you are easier to manage. . .at least at first."

"And by the time that wears of," I concluded, "we were bound by the ritual."

"Ritual?" she asked, and I told her of the ritual oath. She grimaced and sucked her teeth.

"Evil," she said. "They have been enslaving your family for generations. I hope that they are offering adequate recompense."

I sighed. "Not really," I said. "In the name of peace, we have agreed not to pursue the matter. We are free from their control and now it's time to move forward."

She considered me for a few moments.

"I sense that you are still not satisfied with this," she said. "You need to resolve it, or it will fester within you."

"What can I do?" I asked. "I could go to war with them, strip their power, but what would that achieve? I'd become a pariah, possibly even go to jail, if not worse. I've sworn the oath to our council and to them that I would take no further action. I cannot go back on that."

"No," she said. "You cannot. But there are some things that I can do. First, you are welcome here at any time. I could have you and your family naturalized as citizens of Spain in less than a day if you required it. I am not suggesting that you should leave the U.S., but I am telling you that, should things become untenable for you there, you have a place to go. Second, I am announcing that as of now, the Gonzales line will no longer have dealings with the Everson line. I can assure you also that this will spread to include all of the European families. They have disgraced themselves with this binding oath. Nobody knew about it, otherwise they would have stepped in to stop it."

"I'm not sure that will help," I said. "In fact, it might make things worse."

"They have been preaching accountability for centuries," she replied. "Now they must be held accountable for their actions."

"Before you do anything that can't be undone," I said, "can we at least talk to them? Perhaps an accommodation can be made. Will you at least talk to the Matriarch, and see if anything can be done? We are just starting to settle down between the families and I don't things to blow up again."

She thought about that for a second. "You think she would talk to me."

"I have her on speed dial," I said. "I can have her on the phone in seconds."

"Call her," she said. "Arrange a Teams call for her and I in an hour."

I raised my eyebrows. She smirked at me, "What?" she said. "Just because I'm old you think I don't know technology?"

I smiled at her, inwardly worried what I had set in motion. Oil had definitely been poured on the waters between the Everson council and me, and now this flamethrower ready to ignite it. The fallout from this could be devastating.

I moved off to one side and called Dianna.

"Hey Caleb," she said. "How's Spain?"

"I've met up with the matriarch of the Gonzales line over here," I said. "She'd like to talk to you."

"About?" she said, suddenly sounding a little guarded.

I explained all about my interaction with the Gonzales line, how I had helped to heal Eleanor, and come to meet with the rest of the family. Again, I kept my oath not to mention the protection. I explained that when she found out about the binding oath, Abuela Gonzales had been incensed and wanted to ostracize the Everson family from the European families. I concluded by saying that I'd asked for her to speak to Dianna before she did anything permanent.

"Oh shit," she said. "This is going to go down like a lead balloon. Why did you have to... No, that's not fair. I'm blaming you for the fallout on this when it was the Council's decision to continue the practice." She sighed. "You say she wants to talk to me?"

"She's asked for a Teams call in an hour,"

"You think she'd mind if Maggie sat in?" she asked.

"I doubt it," I said.

"You have my email," she replied. "Send me the invite. I'll be there."

I fed that back to Abuela and gave her Dianna's email address. She sent out the invite.

I went and re-joined my family who were off chatting to other members of the Gonzales family.

Mary pulled me to one side.

"What's the matter?" she asked. Rather than answer her, I gave her the memory of my conversation with the Gonzales Matriarch. She grimaced.

"Oh," she said. "This is not good. What do you think will happen?"

"I have no idea," I said. "I might have to stay in Spain," I joked with a weak smile.

Just then dinner was announced, and we were led into a dining room where a large table was set. There wasn't room for all of the extended Gonzales family to attend but there were about twenty places around the table, with Abuela Gonzales at the head. I was seated to her right and Maria to her left. Our family was interspersed between members of the Gonzales family who, thankfully, all spoke English. Nobody seemed to have noticed I could now speak Spanish or, if they had, they hadn't commented. If challenged I would simply say that I had got it from Eleanor as a thank you for her healing.

I was hoping that there wouldn't be a lot of pomp and ceremony, and I was glad when Abuela simply welcomed us and bade us enjoy our meal. Dinner was a traditional Paella and simply amazing; I would have to get the recipe.

A while later Abuela excused herself to go and have the call. I wasn't invited and, honestly, I was glad about that. I really didn't want to be involved in that discussion. Talk about lighting the blue touchpaper and standing well back.

I spoke to Maria about the old man in the marina and how he had tried to get the twins onto his yacht.

"He is an old lech," she said. "We've had complaints about him before. He offers money but as yet has not gone any further. Some girls take him up on the offer, and they spend a night with him. They come away with some very valuable 'gifts.'

"I'll check in on him again, and make sure he's not going beyond incentives."

"Thanks," I said. "I gave him a severe case of ring itch for twenty four hours but I have no doubt he'll be back out there by now."

"Ring itch?" she queried, apparently not familiar with that term.

"A very annoying itch," I said. "In a very personal place."

She laughed.

We had finished our meal and were still sitting at the table chatting when Abuela came back nearly an hour later. It was getting late and, in truth, we were all ready to be heading back to the Villa, since we had to fly back to the U.S. the next day. Nevertheless we waited for her.

"I have discussed things with your matriarch," she said, "and with the matriarch of the Everson family. We have reached an accommodation. I will let them tell you about it, but know that you, personally, have the full support of the Gonzales line. Should things become 'difficult' for you at home, you have a place here with us. I also heard mention of a joining of our lines sometime in the future?"

I grimaced a little at that. "I think some time will have to pass before I think about that."

She smiled at me. "You are a good boy, Caleb," she said. "We're not arranging marriages or anything of that ilk. A child from both our lines would potentially be very powerful, and also cement the ties between our lines. But neither you, nor any girl from our line, would be pressured into doing anything you wouldn't want to do. I would, however, love to see you again. Please come back and see us."

Eleanor had gone to bed a little earlier, but had extracted my email address from me so she could keep in touch. Maria and Abuela walked with us to the Taxi that had arrived to take us back to the villa.

"Don't forget," said Maria. "Keep in touch. Remember you have family here now."

Jules looked at me as we drove away. "You seem to have gained a third family," she said. "They were very grateful to you for Healing Eleanor."

"Hmmm." I said not really wanting to get into it. I hated keeping secrets from my girls and this was two... Two? Why was it two? I wasn't aware of any other secrets I was keeping, but I had the definite feeling that there was something else that I was keeping from them. Apparently I was keeping it from myself as well.

My phone beeped.

_We need to talk when you get back. Call me! Maggie.

Well Shit!