Esther: Ivana (BONUS)

Chicago, 2189.

Ivana Balev

“Ivana-Chloe-Jane wake up bambino,” I heard my mother’s sweet voice. I turned in my bed to see her sitting on the edge, literally glowing in the morning light that shone through my window.

“Hi mama,” I giggled.

“Your sisters are here,” she announced and it took me all of one second to jump out of bed and pull on the nearest clothes I could find. My mother laughed. I pulled my long brown hair up into a quick bun and presented myself to my mother. I was lucky, I barely had to wear makeup, I had naturally dark eyes and flawless skin thanks to my parents. “Ready?” she asked with a smile. I nodded and reached for the door. I took the steps two at a time and saw my sisters standing with our father in the hall.

“Lidy, Annie!” I called and ran full speed down stairs into my sisters. I was nearly sixteen now, at least physically. I was nine years old and only had another year of growth left. I spent most of my time with my parents but being a child of the Luna Bambini I could talk to my sisters and others like us in my head. My sisters hugged me and pulled away.

“Ready Ivie?” they asked.

“Yeah,” I smiled. My sisters were here to help teach me control of my ability. From birth we knew what I could do but it was only on a small scale, I could make things melt or solidify the moment I could reach for things but as I grew up my ability seemed to strengthen and my mother always called it ‘manifesting’ she said a similar thing happened to my sisters when they got their abilities back and started to learn how to use them. My sisters were life and death but it wasn’t entirely that simple, they could do all sorts of things, life and death wasn’t that straightforward, it controlled everything and my mother described them as manifestations of their abilities. They were literally life and death. It often made me think of myself, if I was a manifestation of something what was it?

God. I heard Teddy Cullen in my head. He was Eddie Cullen’s son.

God? I asked him with a laugh. He was the comedy relief in the minds of the children of the Luna Bambini. I honestly couldn’t imagine my head without him in it.

You’re god. You control everything.

Not everything. Anelie said and she took my hand as we moved into the living room.

“Okay Ivy I know you just want to be with your sisters but there is some seriousness to this. Jasper and Zio are coming next week to help you too but I’m hoping things won’t stretch that far. You have control over a lot of things and if you can understand that, it will be the key to controlling it completely. I don’t want you to be one of the most wanted people in the world like your sisters but I don’t want you to lose control either. I’ve seen that happen and it was heart-breaking,” my mother said looking over to Lidiya for a moment. Lidiya looked to our father quickly before dropping her head.

“You will do great Ivana. You are your mother’s daughter,” my father said behind me, he placed his hand on my shoulder and kissed my head for a moment.

“That’s funny I always thought she was your daughter too,” Anelie laughed trying to make light of the situation. Father smiled at her.

“It does take two,” he agreed.

“Ew,” I rolled my eyes. Anelie and Lidiya just smiled. I didn’t want to become one of the most powerful people in the world and clearly the idea scared my mother so why was I learning my ability? What was the point?

“It will be ok Ivie, and it’s just the curse of being Esther’s daughter. She’s not the original for nothing,” Lidiya smiled at me reassuringly.

“Actually is the curse of both our parents being moon pool children and it’s not that bad. We may be feared but we’re also worshiped, we’re protected and we’re immortal and infinite. We will always exist and there is nothing for us to fear. You’ll be the same Ivy. Everyone will know about Esther’s new daughter soon. Some will want to come meet you, some will want to kill you but you are our baby sister, we’d never let you get hurt,” Anelie said.

“Plus you’ll be able to protect yourself pretty soon.” Mother added.

“We’ll be coming to you for protection, just wait and see,” Lidiya winked. I smiled and nodded.

“Okay I’m ready then,” I announced.

“You have liquid, solid and gas manipulation pretty much mastered, I want to try something new today,” Anelie announced she disappeared for a moment and came back with a rabbit in a cage.

“You’re not going to ask me to turn the rabbit into liquid are you?” I frowned in disgust.

“No,” Anelie laughed. “Mama told us that you were able to cure a wound you had as a child. I want to see how far that part of your ability goes. How did you mend it?” she asked.

“I just manipulated the cells and grew new skin,” I frowned. “I don’t know exactly how I do things. I just do them,” I told her.

“Right and that’s why I brought the rabbit. You said you manipulated the cells…” she said and trailed off, she pulled out a knife.

“This rabbit has been injected with anesthetic. It can’t feel a thing so don’t worry about it getting hurt all the time. I know it’s cruel but it’s the only way to test this. We had to do the same thing when we were younger to test our abilities only we couldn’t always bring them back then. This rabbit will live and be healthy. It’s just for now.” Anelie said sadly. I nodded as she ran the knife over the rabbit’s skin. The rabbit didn’t move and didn’t flinch in pain. It was okay.

“Heal it,” Anelie announced.

“What If I can’t?” I suddenly panicked.

“You can,” Lidiya told me.

“But what if I can’t?!” I protested as I stepped towards the rabbit.

“I can or father can so it will be fine but you need to do it. Your healing abilities are vastly more complicated than mine or papa’s. You affect things on a molecular level, willingly. Just try Ivana.” Lidiya told me. I reached out and I didn’t even have to touch the rabbit before the wound healed.

“That’s incredible,” said a strange voice. We all turned to look at the man watching. My mother and father were in front of me in a second; shielding me from the view of the man. Lidiya and Anelie took each other’s hand and stood beside my mother. For someone to creep up on my parents successfully meant this guy could be potentially dangerous. No one could sneak up on Moon Pool Children, never mind the original. The man was smiling at us, or more specifically at me hidden behind my parents.

“I’ve been hearing tales of Esther having a new daughter and I knew if she was anything like her older siblings she’d be simply spectacular,” he smiled. He had a heavy accent as he spoke English but I couldn’t get a good enough look at him to see where he was from. “I had to come and see for myself.”

“This is private property.” My father announced.

“Well I don’t follow boundaries... if there is somewhere I want to go, I go. If there is something I want, I take it,” he said menacingly.

“You have got to be an idiot if you think any of us are letting you get to Ivana,” Anelie announced.

 I looked out from behind my mother so I could see him properly.

“Your little powers don’t work on me child.” He announced with a smile.

“He’s a warlock,” my mother told us. “Warlocks and witches are similar to vampires in the way they get abilities too, they specialise in certain areas of witchcraft.” She explained quickly.

“So what is your speciality?” Lidiya asked.

“Oh child, I forget you wouldn’t recognise me. Immunity, among other things,” he smiled at her like she was a long lost friend. I took a step away from my mother but she held her hand out to stop me.

Its ok mama, I want to scare him. I told him.

“Ahhh so beautiful,” the man said appreciatively when he saw me.

“Would you like to see what I can do?” I asked him flicking my hands slightly, he nodded excitedly like he was a child and I was giving him a toy. I lifted my hand, and the tree beside him started melting, only slowly but the solid was turning to liquid and his face lit up like a Christmas tree. As the tree melted I turned to the floor below him, it started to shake and go soft beneath his feet and he laughed some more, hopping from the spot to a few feet next to him. He was standing by the fountain in our garden now. I pulled the water towards me; it floated in the air for a moment before becoming solid, suspended in space. I kept all three things happening around him and he wasn’t the only one in awe. I could see my family watching too. I dropped my hands immediately and all three things returned to normal.

“You are an enchantress young Ivana,” he said delightfully. “I offer you a place by my side but I know you will decline.”

“I’m sorry,” I said with a nod.

“Such a shame.” He sighed and looked to my sisters.

“Send my regards to your husband mistress Lidiya, I shall be seeing him again soon,” he said and with a blink of an eye he was gone. My parents immediately relaxed.

“Who was he Lidiya?” I asked my sister.

“I didn’t realise at first, he changes his face. Last time I saw him he was different. He’s an Immortal Warlock,” she told me. “Very powerful.” she added.

“His name is Cain,” my mother announced.

“As in the son of Adam and Eve?” my eyes widened. My mother shrugged. My parents had given me books of ancient mythology and biblical stories. Books were extremely rare, most scripture was in technology now but my parents had kept a lot over the centuries. They allowed me to read their books before bed. I remember reading the one about Cain and Abel. He had killed his own brother.

“Highly doubtful but he’s been around for a very very long time,” she announced.

“Matthew thinks he is. After all that happened with Liana,” Lidiya said.

“I think part of it is belief. He’s old, that’s all I can tell you. My abilities don’t work on him. I can only sense some information about him,” my mother announced, my father hugged me and I let him hold me for a moment. He had probably been quite scared for my safety.

“So why did he just walk away?” I asked hugging my father back.

“I don’t know but I think we’ll be seeing him again very soon,” my mother announced. I shivered and my father held me tighter, I wasn’t sure why but I didn’t like Cain at all. There was something about him, maybe that he could change his face that freaked me out. “You're safe though Ivana. He’s too fascinated by you to want to hurt you. At least we have that.”

“He’s not having her,” my father spoke, in English. I was shocked. “You are ours,” he announced.

“Always, papa,” I said holding him tightly for a moment but pulled away from him to speak.

“There is always going to be people after me,” I reminded them and my father’s hand took mine. “You knew there would be when I was born; you had me knowing there would be a huge chance of me possessing an ability as strong as Lidy and Annie’s. People have been after them their entire lives and they will be after me too but they don’t stand a chance. Cain has seen how powerful I am and others will too. They won’t dare to force me into anything. If they try they will regret it…” I said and paused slightly before looking directly at my mother who was smiling proudly at me.

“Because I will bring down the world.”