The Fletchers & Elistina and Melba Growing up:

The Fletchers:

                Precise records were kept on the House of Simeon. All documents including marriage certificates and birth certificates were kept in the temple on the, now, even greater estate.  The Fletchers were a Descendant of Angelica Argurious. The only family remaining in The House of Simeon. Rachael Fletcher was the only child of Agatha and Benvolio Fletcher and when she married Laurence the Wheeler, he was made to take her name to keep the family line going.

                Rachel and Laurence Fletcher were the last descendants of The House of Simeon and were, therefore very wealthy. They tried for a few years to conceive a child and after a few complications Rachel became pregnant.

                Rachel gave birth to identical twin girls. Elistina the oldest and Melba the younger and frailer of the two. Rachael and Laurence were horrified to discover that they had conceived twins. They knew they had to kill one but which one should they choose?

                The obvious chose was to keep Elistina and abort Melba. Melba was frail and was born with milky eyes indicating that she was blind. However Rachel could not bear to ruin one of her children. She begged Lawrence to let her keep them. Knowing the legend, Lawrence declined. He could not bear to lose a child to some unnatural cause either. Rachel begged until finally they decided that they would keep the children until they were 5 years old. Melba looked as if she wouldn’t last long anyway, and since they were the last of the line of Simeon it was safer to keep both children in case one died of natural causes.

Elistina and Melba Growing up:

                Rachel had to give special care and attention to Melba for the first year of her life, but she became stronger. Even though it was clear that she would never see there was no difference between the two girls except the color of their eyes. Melbas were, of course white while Elstina’s were dark brown to match her hair and her father’s own eyes.

The first year of their lives set the tone for the next four. Rachel spent most of her time fussing over Melba and so Elistina’s father picked up the slack with her. By the time the girls were in their second year the couple had clear favorites. Once they could walk and talk they began all of the training and schooling afforded to a noble family.

However, since the fact that the Fletchers had two daughters had to be kept a secret only one private tutor was hired and they were placed under a powerful magical oath by Rachel so that their secret would be kept safe. The tutor trained them in every weapon type and thought them several languages.

                They were both a quick study which came in handy because they would speed through their studies to get to their sparring lessons. As their fifth year approached Rachel and Lawrence began to worry that they wouldn’t be able to choose. They both loved their daughters and there was no way for them to decide. They feared that the curse would decide for them but they were horrified at the thought of having to take one of their lives with their own hand. So they let another year pass.

                It was easy keeping the fact that they had two daughters a secret. They only needed to pretend that they were the same person. Elistina began training to manage with a blindfold on so that she and Melba were on equal ground for sparring matches. It was an easy translation to using one while she walked around town with her parents or attended celebrations.

                Rachel and Lawrence let another year pass. Rachel had the blindfold enchanted with blind sight and both the girls were taught to train with that. It turned out that neither of the girls needed the limited vision much as they honed their other senses and were very competent fighters. The blindfold came in handy more for social occasions.

                The Fletchers let the time pass as easily as if they were allowed to have two daughters. As they grew up the favoritism deepened. Melba was quick to study magic alongside her mother and became quite gifted. Elistina’s gifts were not so apparent. She took after her father’s line and was able to manipulate the earth around her. She was also very clever at channeling that energy into healing magic.

                As their fifteenth birthday approached Rachael and Lawrence became desperate. Rachael spent every waking moment in the monastery trying to find ways to break the spell that had been cast on their family line. One of these days she decided to take Melba with her and explain everything. They were instantly both determined expel the magic that would kill one of them in only a few months. Melba was worried for the life of her sister and Rachael for her beloved Melba.

                Only a few short weeks from the anniversary of Elstina and Melba’s birth Melba and Rachael were again at the temple searching frantically for a way to keep both of the girls alive past their fifteenth year. During one of their attempts to destroy the spell there was an enormous explosion in the temple. Priests fled their lives; some went to the river to bring back buckets of water to try to put out the fires that had started due to the explosion. Nothing could be done to stop the blaze. There was nothing left of the ancient building save some foundation stones and of course, amongst the rubble the still shining Scepter of Simeon.

                Elistina and Lawrence were enjoying a day at the lake when they heard the explosion. It took them over an hour to run to the temple, when they it was a smoldering pile of ash. Rachael and Melba were never found and were presumed to have perished in the explosion along with 12 other priests and devotees.

                Elistina and Lawrence were devastated. Lawrence fell into a deep despair.  He rarely came out of his room except to eat and he could no longer take joy in the presence of his beloved daughter. She reminded him only of what they had lost.

                Elistina’s 15^th birthday came and passed and Lawrence’s despair grew. One evening, only a few days after her Birthday Elsitnia dined with her father. She greeted him and took her place at the table and as she sat he began to weep.

                He told her the whole story about her ancestry and about the curse. He told her that Rachael and Melba were working on a way to end the curse and that was what had caused the explosion that ended their lives. Elsitina was devastated. She screamed at her father that he should have told her sooner that he should chosen to kill her rather than let this happen. If he had told her she would have taken her own life rather than feel the pain of the loss of her sister and mother.

                What Elistina thought was an unfortunate accident had now become a huge hole through her heart.