<br/><div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/RoDooxQ.jpg)</div><br/>“My- my mother?”  It was a question Pipa had not at all expected, and never would have guessed. Her face was stony, as she thought for half a second.<br/><br/>“Headmistress? I need something from my dorm,” she requested.  “I can show you more than I can tell you.”<br/><br/>Ravensoul summoned an acolyte who was sent to fetch Pipa's request, as well as what the headmistress called, “-the usual mid morning for myself and the contestant.”<br/><br/>Almost immediately, a pitcher of iced green tea arrived, containing floating rounds of sliced ginger and frozen berries. They both accepted tall, narrow glasses before the acolyte left the pitcher on a tray, adjacent to their armchairs. Pipa downed half her grass in the first draught, formerly unaware of her thirst. Ravensoul smiled and took a more moderate sip.<br/><br/>“I've never really known her,” Pipa started explaining as the door opened again, and the<em>Geomancers’ Compendium</em>, dogeared, worn, and bound in unremarkable brown leather, was delivered to Pipa. She opened the back cover and pulled out a half sheet of heavy parchment. She looked at it a moment, then handed it over to the headmistress.<br/><br/>“When I was very young, I used to ask my father to describe her for me. He didn't want to talk about her ever, but he did give in and make me this picture for my ninth name day.<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(https://imgur.com/Xpe4kk2.jpg)</div>It was a simple picture, done in pastels, that betrayed a little more finesse than you might have expected from Geno Truebridge, Chief of Security, Oreford Corporate Mining Settlement. It was somber for a portrait, lacking fine detail. Her expression seemed hard, and a little far away. Ravensoul flipped it over, on the reverse side he had scrawled in pointy, assertive script,<em>Olivia</em>.<br/><br/>She flipped the image over again to look at the portrait, her mouth formed the word over and over for several seconds, searching her memory. Pipa watched her intently,  her glass now forgotten in her hands as it tipped precariously toward her.<br/><br/>“Yes!” Ravensoul exclaimed in throaty satisfaction, rising swiftly to her feet. She almost appeared to be floating under her full, black cloak as she climbed the short stairs with practiced ease, and honed directly in on a specific section of bookshelf. She pulled out a specific volume, checking the gilded lettering on the spine before placing on her desk, alongside  Olivia’s portrait.<br/><br/>Pipa rose from her seat, her book clattered to the floor. She placed her tea on the tray as an afterthought, after she felt a few drops escape and splash against her thighs. The tea was cold, but that wasn't the cause of her goosebumps as she slowly climbed the steps.<br/><br/>The headmistress opened the book and checked the index, her finger trailing slowly down the page as she asked, “You're what, 20- 21?”<br/><br/>“Uh, 20 soon- but that's just a guess. We always called my name day the day I came to live with my father. My mother said I was one year old, when she left me with him. He hadn't seen her in so long he didn't even know she had conceived. I’m his only child, I guess it must have been a shock.”<br/><br/>Ravensoul’s finger stopped, and she began turning pages. Pipa felt her heart rise up in her throat. “The time works out, it would have been about 3 years after.” She stopped turning pages and Pipa took a few slow steps, until her hips and pelvis pressed against the edge of the desk. Her fingers slid along the top as she leaned forward to see the tight,  regimented script that filled the paper in neat rows. She pressed her palms into the desk, leaning far across, but couldn't focus on the upside down writing. She felt a little nauseous, the ginger tea taste in her mouth suddenly fell flat and sour.<br/><br/>“Olivianna Taurose, Tanian, Enchantress.” The headmistress placed a steadying hand on her charge's shoulder. “Come sit down, Pipa,” she spoke firmly, pulling the chair away from the desk and guiding the young, orcish woman to it.<br/><br/>She reached over Pipa's shoulder and flipped forward a few pages, revealing a formal group portrait of the contestants in Olivianna Taurose’s year, 422 pi. There she was, seated in the front, toward the center of the group. She was younger, smiling and beautiful, but her eyes amd mouth were intensely similar to Geno’s drawing, and Pipa's own features.<br/><br/>“There are more records I could access, but I believe you feel, as I do, that this is your mother. The temple certainly has the resources to fully investigate, if needful. Though, I believe a strongly worded letter from myself to your father would confirm or deny the matter.”<br/><br/>Pipa gave a scoff, “You coupld try; he’s impressively bullheaded.” She could feel all this information flying around in her brain, like birds she couldn't quite get ahold of.<br/><br/>“She made it out at the reaping level, the only one if her year, that's why I remembered her so well. She made it out, though not without suffering her own corruption,” the headmistress continued,  “It could account for her fertility, conceiving with a not particularly fertile halforc. And likely her transient, promiscuous behavior, and any number of additional effects. She would have passed some trace to you, Pipa.”<br/><br/>Pipa nodded slowly, trying to calculate the possibilities.<br/><br/><br/><br/>