291- The Summons of Blood and Fate
POV Seraphine Valerian:
Present Day
The ominous words pierced my mind and paralyzed me.
I looked at my tearful aunt sitting on the couch in our apartment. Perhaps she had said something else and I had misunderstood.
As my heart pounded hard against my ribs, I murmured:
“My father?”
“He’s dying, Teo. There’s nothing more that can be done.”
The colorful fabric in my hand slipped to the floor without me even feeling it. Trembling, I shook my head and stepped closer to her.
“No...”
“Calm down, dear... Come here...”
I was pulled into an embrace. Gretel, who had never liked her brother-in-law very much, was crying for him, soaking my blouse with her tears. I swallowed hard because it couldn’t be true.
I would return to Vila Rósia, in Romania. I would be part of my clan, where I would dance while playing the tambourine, selling my jewelry at fairs—finally being loved and accepted by my father’s people. The Romani would be proud of the gypsy woman I had become.
That was what I had waited for twenty-two years, holding onto hope every birthday. Finally being close to my beloved father. He couldn’t be dying.
“There must be some mistake.”
“I’m sorry. I received the news just a little while ago and...”
I didn’t let her finish, my despair growing without end. I stood and went to my embroidered bag on the table, which I had carelessly left there when I arrived, all excited to show my aunt the silk fabric I had bought. I stepped on it as it lay on the floor while grabbing my phone and dialing.
“Zorvan can’t answer, Teo. He’s bedridden right now. One of the women taking care of him called me and told me.” Gretel stood up, wiping her eyes.
“What did she say?” I set the phone back on the table after it rang endlessly. I had to lean on a chair because my legs were shaking.
“You know your father always had some liver problems. He never took them seriously, but it got worse. He was even hospitalized. The doctors gave up on him and he was discharged to rest at home. He only has a few days.”
I shook my head.
“He was cured.”
“I thought so too, but... You need to accept it, dear. Zorvan asked the woman to tell you that he’s at peace with his fate, that you shouldn’t worry. He’ll find a way to call tonight to say goodbye to you. He left some written instructions that they’ll send us when...”
I grabbed my phone and bag, tears filling my eyes as I realized it was real. I walked down the hallway and Gretel followed behind me, dragging her slippers decorated with colorful stones and feathers.
“Teo...”
“I’m going to Romania.”
“No!” she shouted, catching up to me as I entered my bedroom and pulled a large travel bag from the closet. “You know you can’t!”
“It’s my father!” I sobbed, grabbing clothes without even looking and throwing them into the bag. My aunt began pulling them out, scattering them over the bed. “I should have done this a long time ago!”
“Stop!” Nervous, the woman with hair dyed a vivid red had a face nearly the same color. She grabbed both my arms and shook me. “You’re not going, do you hear me? Your father forbids it, and so do I!”
“Let me go, Aunt...” I could barely see through my tears.
“Girl, you cannot disrespect Zorvan! It’s his order!”
“Nothing will stop me!” I shouted, beside myself. I managed to pull away from her, rubbing my face. I was trembling from head to toe. “I regret so much not following my heart. For denying my roots, my family!”
“We were forced into it! You know that!”
“No!” I looked at her with bitterness. “We’re cowards! Pretending we don’t have Romani blood! I denied my surname, lived here in Germany as Seraphine Kurz! But I’m a Valerian! I’m a gypsy!”
“You know the reason! All of Europe has rejected us for centuries! Even today we’re persecuted, seen as dirty and as thieves! Do you think I would have kept my shop profitable for so many years if people knew I was a German gypsy? It was better this way, Teo. You studied, made many friends, became an admired professional and...”
“I’m ashamed of myself. Ashamed!” The more I tried to control myself, the more the pain tore through my chest and made tears spill out. “My father promised that when there was no more danger, he would let me live with him in the village! And now...”
“He read your fortune and your palm every birthday he came here, dear. If anything had changed, he would have let you go to Romania. But the danger continues and...”
“It’s all madness! Lies!” I grabbed more things and threw them onto the bag. “I was forbidden from being there, from being a real gypsy, because of this nonsense!”
“It’s not nonsense! The cursed ones exist! And one of them will destroy you if you step onto his lands! Oh, my Saint Sara! Help me put some sense into this girl’s head!” Gretel raised her hands to the sky.
“I’m not going to the Tharnak. I don’t even want to know about those horrible beasts! I’ll see my father in the village and stay there! It’s decided!”
She cried and lamented. Then she threw in my face the years she had raised me, since I was a baby. That I was ungrateful for abandoning her at that moment without obeying or listening to her. Finally, she went to the kitchen to drink water and calm down, and I locked the door.
I collapsed onto the clothes on the bed, sobbing. Fear and despair invaded me as all my dreams were trampled. I had lost my mother during childbirth—I couldn’t lose my father too.
I anxiously awaited every birthday, the only time my father came to see me and spend a few days with me. That was when I eased the longing and desperately wished that this time he would take me with him. But no—there were always the damned predictions he had made when I was still in my mother’s womb. Predictions he confirmed every year.
If I told anyone about it, they would think I was crazy for believing in legends, curses, and premonitions. My friends didn’t even suspect my Romani blood or that my father was a Barô in Vila Rósia, a kind of leader of his small gypsy clan. Much less that he was a Shuvano, a priest or witch with spiritual powers.
Even I doubted those stories, although I studied everything about my people and believed in things beyond understanding. But others seemed exaggerated, like the cursed beasts and my destiny, which I supposedly had to prevent from coming true. If it weren’t for the dreams about him...