Some people come out of their daze while others look for a place to sit. The silence of the room is broken by words flying around the room. I turn to see Mick's mouth moving. Words like "Alskling", "Javlar!", "sotnos", and "I helvete" spill out of her.  I've never heard them before, or at least I don't remember. These words are coming so fast and so clearly.

Panic seizes me. "Grandma!"

Grandma comes running over. "For heaven's sake. What's wrong, Tallulah?"

I point at Mick, and Grandma smiles.

"What's so funny?"

"It's not funny, but it isn't anything to be concerned about. The unlocking ceremony also unlocked memories." A sad smile passes over her face. "Mick is just remembering some of the words her mother must have said or let slip out in front of her. A few of the words are swear words, that is what was amusing. The Westlin family is from Sweden. On the islands, plenty of people still speak the language of their ancestors. I'll take Mick up to my room. Why don't you get Tanner and meet me there?"

Tanner is talking with Hunter, but I grab his arm and pull him to follow behind me, not giving him any explanation. Hunter is mumbling something about me being rude. Unfortunately, at this time, I'm unconcerned about whether I'm being rude or not.

A dazed Mick is sitting on Grandma's bed staring out the window.

After a moment, Grandma speaks. "Sit and I will tell you a little about the Westlin family. My daughter, Trinity, married into the Westlin family. Long before that, Peter Lars Westlin came here with his wife. He was one of the Elementalists who helped create the islands. They met in Sweden, but his wife, Sofia, was arranged to be married to another man. Tension within the family rose, so Peter and Sofia married, and they fled when a group of witches and Elementalists were seeking a safe haven from The Last Persecution."

She pauses, taking a drink of water. "Peter and Sofia had several children, and one of them was your great-grandfather, Lars. Lars was an Elementalist, just like his father. All of the Westlin family has been born with some type of elemental magic. Sadly, his beloved wife, Margaretha, died while giving birth to their only child, Erik. After her death, Lars worked hard to provide a loving but disciplined home on his own - never wanting to marry again. He fashioned three daggers, one for each grandchild, to give them added protection. Each one had stones and crystals within the handles, which were supposed to add healing properties. One of the stones of each handle was also the birthstone of the grandchild, thus delineating whose dagger was who's. Once finished, he took them to the Elders, at the time, and asked for the daggers to be blessed with magical protection. Because of his dedication in creating well-crafted weapons for the People's Army, the Elders granted him his request."

At a pause, I interrupt. "What kind of magic is in the daggers?"

"Wait until you all use the daggers in hand-to-hand combat, and then I can explain what is happening. The daggers will only reveal their magic to a member of the Westlin family. Lars provided his blood for the blessing ritual, this linked the daggers to him and his direct kin."

When I notice Grandma has stopped talking, I look over at her, and she has a large grin on her face.

I walk closer. "Grandma, is something wrong?"

"No, not really. The Daggers of Hamingja have become something of a myth."

Tanner scratches his head. "The Daggers of what?"

Grandma answers, but her smile doesn't fade. "The daggers came to be called the Daggers of Hamingja, based on Norse mythology. The Hamingja was a guardian angel that accompanied a person and decided their luck and happiness. It is said that when this person dies, the Hamingja passes to a beloved family member. People have seen the daggers, but not many have seen what powers they possess."

Grandma goes to the corner of the room where five oak chests sit. She opens three of them, one by one, and hands each of us our dagger.

When I look at Tanner, his eyes are wide.  He gawks at the dagger before speaking. "The metal on the blade reminds me of Damascus steel."

Mick talks for the first time. "The what steel?"

Tanner continues to gaze at the blade while talking. "Damascus. It's a type of steel you can recognize by these watery and wavy lines of light and dark steel. There's other information on it that I'm sure you're not interested in listening to."

"And how do you know about this?"

Tanner waves his hand in the air. "Watching one of those shows about forging metal."

The room gets strangely still, and a wave of sadness falls over me. I look over at Grandma, and she is sitting on her bed staring out the window with a stray tear escaping her eye. The silence is almost deafening, and I am about to question if she is okay, when she starts speaking again.

"My husband, your grandfather Tally, was a good and honest man. A Protector most of his life. He became an Elder, and then stopped being an active Protector when your mother took his position. He was still a man with great influence, but one day I found him having a seizure. It smelled like he had eaten a pound of garlic. He died... he died right there in my arms," she sobs. She sucks in a breath, and her face hardens before she continues. "The doctors determined he had been poisoned. This happened exactly one month before the Erbyn Revolt. It was speculated that someone working for Frank Stormer poisoned not only John, but also all of the Seers and a large group of people who were direct descendants of the original Protectors."

Carefully, I cross the room and kneel down in front of Grandma, putting my head in her lap and hugging her legs.

Looking up into a face that has seemed to age years in just a few minutes, I dare to ask, "They murdered all of those people just to get access to this crystal?"

"It's not just any crystal, Tallulah. This is a crystal with immense powers, that can be used for good or evil."

After a while, I ease back and sit on the floor next to Tanner.

She brushes a tear away and continues, "John's family was from Ireland, where they had changed their name to Greely long before he was born.  He was the sunshine of my life. He was a Spellcaster, and an accomplished one at that. This is why his grandchildren will probably be excellent Spellcasters along with being Healers. He loved his grandchildren very much and spent as much time with them as he could, seeing as he was an Elder. I was also an Elder, and we took our job seriously. His grandparents were settlers along with my grandparents. All of this side of the family's heritage lies in Ireland, at least up until 1880."

She also explains that her family is also from Ireland. Her grandfathers brought their wives here during the initial settlement of the Avic Islands.

Tanner and Mick sit off to the side with dejected looks.

"I won't leave you guys out. Tanner, your mother was Laurel Tremblay. She married Alexander Westlin. The Tremblay family came here from Canada, but they were originally from France. And Mick, your father was a powerful Spellcaster and Protector. His ancestors, who were from Ireland, England and Scotland also helped settle the islands. He was married to Lysandra Westlin."

We all sit around looking dazed.

Grandma looks at the floor and knits her eyebrows together. "Even though I considered my children's spouse as my own and therefore, their families, I was not allowed to get in touch with either of you, your locations were kept a secret even from me. The only reason I knew Tallulah's location was because she is a direct blood descendant. I'm sorry I couldn't do more for you Michaela."

"It's not like it's your fault all those things happened to me. I guess I can respect the fact that the Elders wanted to keep the Protectors and Guardians safe, so they hid our location until it was time to find us again. I hold no ill will towards you Miriam," Mick says.

"I'd like the both of you to call me grandma, but only if you'd like too. The Westlin family was an important part of my daughter's life. Since there are no more Westlins alive, I would hope that you would consider me family," Miriam says - hope rising in her eyes.

"Hello Grandma, my name is Michaela, but most call me Mick. It is nice to finally meet you," Mick says with a wide smile on her face. Miriam rushes out of the chair and brings Michaela in for a hug. Tanner joins in, and I hear him whisper, "Hi Grandma."

With tears in my eyes for my cousins and Grandma, I join the group hug, and Tanner just ruffles my hair - like I'm that much younger than him. He might be taller but that won't necessarily save him during training.

After this family history lesson, all of us are tired and decide that being cocooned in cool sheets sounds like a good idea.

"The full family histories for all of your families are kept in the same place with the grimoires." Grandma adds before we leave the room.

Maybe when we get to Everling, we can invite Ande and Carleigh to go to the archives to look at the family grimoires. Maybe we could all compare what we find and help each other. Who knows what information might be stored within the pages.

___________________________________________________________________

[A/N]: After much thought, I took out most of the names off of Tallulah, Michaela and Tanner's explanation from Miriam about their family histories. If anyone cares to see the family trees of the characters, let me know, and I will find a way to post them.

Also the information on the Norse mythology of Hamingja, was mostly from a Wikipedia article.

The "Last Persecution" is a fictitious historical event in 1918.

Translations per internet article and Google Translate):

Alskling (Swedish) - darling, sweetheart, true love

Javlar! (Swedish)- "Damn it!"

sotnos (Swedish) - sweetheart, darling

I helvete (Swedish) - "for fuck's sake"