Legacy

Evangeline brought her a robe.

She had been shivering in her room, wrapped in what was admittedly a very nice, very fluffy towel out of the bathroom. Evangeline knocked timidly at her door and Dakota opened it to see the petite woman wrapped in a robe and offering her another robe. Dakota wanted to slam the door in her face, but she was cold, and she was embarrassed at how she had behaved, and she was afraid. She didn't have a car. She couldn't simply go home because she was fed up.

And there was still the program. The leadership program. The money.

She took the robe and wrapped it tight about her body. She dried her hair. And then, as timidly as Evangeline had come knocking at the door, she went padding down the stairs. She found Evangeline in the kitchen making a cup of coffee.

"Want one?"

"No," said Dakota. "Um... Got any hot chocolate?"

"Of course."

There was hot chocolate, but there weren't any marshmallows. Not that Dakota needed marshmallows. Still, would've been nice. Evangeline added whipped cream and little chocolate shavings instead. Dakota accidentally dipped her nose into the cream, and they laughed about it. And then they were both silent as Dakota waited for Evangeline to be the one to speak first. Turned out, though, that she couldn't wait quite long enough.

"I can't be a slave," she said. "My whole life, I've just wanted to get away... I've been a prisoner in my own house. Under my own parents. I want freedom. I want to get away from them and be my own person. Be who I want to be, do what I want to do—go out into the world and experience it all. I can't be just chained up in someone's basement. I can't do that to myself."

Evangeline nodded. She didn't say it was right or wrong; she didn't agree or argue. She just nodded once as if to say, I hear you. Go on.

"Is that what the program is, really?" asked Dakota. "It's... Some kind of slave training program?"

"Yes," whispered Evangeline.

And Dakota saw the fear in her eyes when she gave her answer.

"I want to tell you that it's more than that—that it will introduce you to your truest self. That it will show you strength within yourself that you never dreamed was there. That it..." Evangeline paused, and she shrugged. "But you would think me dishonest. And I couldn't blame you for that."

"Have you been lying?"

"Non!" Evangeline's hand trembled. She set her cup down and took a deep breath. "Never. I've spoken only the truth with you—at least the truth as I see it. But I realize that I see the world through different eyes. You can't possibly understand. And maybe you never will. But I'm here for you, Dakota. Whatever you choose to do."

Dakota didn't let herself ask the question that came to mind: where were you when I was six? Instead, she stirred her hot chocolate, and she tried to think more practically. Like a scientist. Like a doctor.

"The prize," she said. "The elm wand, right? The money is awarded along with the elm wand?"

Evangeline nodded.

"And the Masters—whoever they are—award only one?"

"It was like that when Sara and I... Well, when your mother and I were trained," said Evangeline. "Not anymore. Today they are free to award as many as are deserved—or to award none at all. Yet the competition is still fierce."

"But I would have to let them brainwash me?" said Dakota. "I'd need to be their puppet—do whatever they say, have no thoughts of my own."

Evangeline's face took on a look of deep sadness. "Is that how you remember your mother?"

Dakota couldn't answer.

She couldn't remember her mother at all. Just a smile now and then. Blonde hair and bright eyes. Just a scent and an embrace and the songs she'd sing. She didn't remember a person. Just those fragments.

When she returned to her room, she finally realized that there were at least two dozen angry texts on her phone, mostly from her stepmother. She started to read them all and try to respond, but then she came to her senses. She dismissed the notifications and set down her phone, and then she picked it up again. She texted Evangeline.

"Can I stay here tonight?"

"But of course."

"I didn't bring any clothes."

"Good! We'll go shopping. What else is money for?"