Brom stood aside and opened the door fully. Alexandra then noticed that a crowd had gathered outside of the small building, people of all ages eagerly looking in through the windows. Luca recognized Forleyla among them. It almost looked like the entire town had shown up.
But why? Why could they possibly care about Alexandra's pendant? Surely it was not that exciting; how could it be important to anyone but her? All she wanted to know is possibly where her father obtained this pendant, when was it made and where. From there maybe she could try to track him down. But there was fear, what if she did not like what the truth was, if there was even any?
Standing at the forefront now in the door was an older man, his white beard coming out from under the black hood he wore and lines marking the years on his face.
"Now, he looks like a Tovanaar," Luca whispered, glad that something unusual was happening here at last.
The old man had his eyes closed and his head tilted up to the sky. It almost looked like he was asleep until he blinked and lowered his head. He gazed Alexandra for a moment and then smiled.
"Welcome," his voice was warm, "welcome to you, visitors of Braeden."
"Thank you," Alexandra was nervous with so many people watching them.
"We have been waiting a long time."
"I'm sorry," Alexandra apologized quickly, "I hope we didn't keep you waiting... I..."
He held up his hand. "For years we have waited. I am the Lederan of this town."
What could he mean by that? Alexandra tried to hide her confusion.
"Hello sir," Alexandra bowed her head, her friends quickly following suit.
"Ah," he almost sounded ashamed, "do not bow your head to me. It is I who should bow to you."
"Please sir," she tried to explain,trying to both maintain decorum, "I'm no one. I'm just an Oonskat, one of the unwanted."
"You are."
"Sir I'm not only an Oonskat," Alexandra could not believe how this man thought she deserved any respect over a Lederan. As her confusion and nervousness grew, the words came spilling out. "I'm also an outcast of a Noble House, I'm a named outcast."
She had never told anyone except her friends that.
She expected the gathered people to be shocked, to look away, to cast her out of the village. No one reacted that way, in fact she sensed something else from the crowd: indignation. But not because she was there among them, no, was it indignation on her behalf? Why would they feel that? Why do they care?
"We know Alexandra Benham," he appeared to already be aware of all the facts and muich more. "You are special. From keeping your friends alive in the slums in Avindr, saving that little boy in Gylesemoore, starting the rebellion against the corrupt Lederan in Lerwick. Even to starting a series of irreversible events in the capitol by going to the Watchers, You've always spurred events forward, just as it should be."
How did he know all that?
You know that is true what he's saying about you always starting trouble. You can never leave well enough alone. The voice in her head condemned her.
Sure she had helped people, but she had also caused so much pain with her stubbornness. What about the townspeople who died while overthrowing the Lederan in Lerwick? What about the Watchers killed in the Winnowing Chamber when she was demanding they look at her pendant? Zooey being forced to fight the soldiers, Zooey being used as a punching bag. Luca as a slave, Luca fighting soldiers way out of his depth. Sophia taken to the Guilty Lady for Lerrick Cornelius' sick pleasure, Sophia forced to be a servant in Lerwick, that was all because of her. That was all her fault.
"No, no it's not!" she silently protested her own thoughts, but they just hit her harder.
"We came here to find out if you knew anything about Alexandra's pendant," Sophia had uncharacteristically spoken up in the face of a large group of strangers, "can you help us?"
"May I see it?" the Lederan held out his worn hand.
Alexandra paused, she had never given the pendant to anyone. It always stayed with her, she had never consciously parted with it. Her hands were already at the clasp but they had stopped and were shaking.
Was this really it? Would she find out? It was all too much to hope for.
Sophia's hands were over hers, holding them still, "it's okay," she whispered, "we're here"
Alexandra nodded and undid the clasp in the necklace from which her pendant hung from. With her most precious possession in hand, Alexandra stepped forward to the Lederan and placed it carefully in his hand. The old man held it up to see it better in the candlelight, letting it turn gently on the cord.
"Can you see anything that says what it is or where it came from?" she dared to ask, try to keep her voice steady.
"The etchings," the Lederan began, "an old pattern, very old."
"They've always reminded me of the decorative patterns that adorn the pillars and tapestries at the Noble Houses' estates," Sophia recalled back to her childhood, "maybe they were the inspiration for the pendant."
"No," the Lederan's eyes were glued to the precious treasure he held, "the pattern here is much older than any of those."
"So it's an antique?" Alexandra was desperate for any information at all.
The Lederan smiled and placed the pendant back in Alexandra's hands. "It confirms what we believed and knew to be true."
"What? What is it?" Alexandra's legs were shaking, her heart threatening to leap out of her chest.
"This pendant is a name relic."
Silence.
Alexandra looked at the pendant in her trembling hand, "...a name relic?"
She knew the pendant was special in some way, but a name relic?
It had reacted to Lerrick Cornelius' name relic and that is what had prompted all this, but how could it actually be a one itself?
"It can't be," she shook her head, "it doesn't have a name on it. I mean, there's no name."
"But we already know she's from a Noble House," Zooey pointed out, "from House Benham. Why would they give her another relic after giving her that tattoo?"
"A person can only receive one name relic from the House bestowing it, it does not work twice," the Lederan explained to them.
"But, where..." her voice trailed as she just stared at the pendant. None of this made sense.
The Lederan was speaking again. "It is true what you have always known: this pendant was given to you by your father when you were still just a newborn. He gave it to you because you were special to him and he wanted to do something magnificent for you."
"Can't be," she refused to believe it and shook her head as the tears began to fall. "Then where is he?! Why was he never there!? Why did he let mommy and me be sent to the slums! Why did he let them give me this tattoo!?"
The words and the hurt spilled out.
The Lederan had a great sadness in his voice, "he was killed. Murdered before you could properly meet him consciously and before it became known you were his child."
He was dead. She could never meet him.
Alexandra felt a crushing weight on top of her. Everything she had dreamed of telling him, the long hug she imagined giving her father when she met him would have to stay forever in her imagination.
"After he died, your mother went back to House Benham, keeping the romance and child a secret out of fear that those who murdered her love would come for you as well. Even so, safety was not to be found for long. Evil men soon arrived at that House as well, at House Benham. They took control of that House by manufacturing scandals and financial falsehoods that forced House Benham to turn to them for assistance. Once they were under the thumb of Cornelius there was never any hope of getting back out again. Radulfus Cornelius and his two wicked sons inflicted terrible shame and attrition on House Benham just for their own entertainment. They thought it right humorous to name a baby and then exile it, thus you received your tattoo that has caused you so much trouble and shame over the years. They were particularly cruel in their method: a tattoo made of metal so it would serve as a name relic. Their depravity runs deep. It was a display of their power and they used a newborn to make their example."
Alexandra did not even care how this stranger knew all these details about her life, she cried as she heard the truth about her birth for the first time.
The Lederan was not done with his sad tale. "Your mother, Heloise, never told you who your father was exactly. She was afraid the people who murdered him would find out the connection and return to inflict much worse upon you then had already been done. It was a cruel coincidence they murdered your father and then you were made a named exile, no one ever knew who you were. I think now they are realizing their huge mistake because if they had they would have never name you and exiled you, they would have killed you then and there."
"Thankful for small miracles I guess," Zooey whispered, rubbing the back of her head.
"Before your mother could tell you," the Lederan bowed his head, "she was also taken from you."
"A gang killed her when I was young," Alexandra said between sobs. "She went out to beg for food and never came back."
"And thus you never knew," the Lederan could feel the Alexandra's pain, "but your mother's kindness and your father's spirit has lived on in you, that much is apparent to anyone who has seen you. All the things you've done to help people, uncaring about yourself, so much like your father."
"But wait," it suddenly dawned on Luca, "if her father gave her a name relic, then he must have been the head of a completely different House!"
A pregnant silence hung in the air. The implications were too much to fathom.
"Is that why," Alexandra sniffed back the tears, "is that why everyone's after us? Is it because they knew who my father was? Why? Why does it matter now? I'm no one."
"They suspect who you are, you look so much like your father."
"But why is everyone so crazy about who gave it to me?" her hand shook, "why does House Cornelius care so much?!"
Then the answer came at last.
"Because they're the ones who murdered your father."
The words sank into Alexandra like a stone into the ocean. A cold feeling swept over her heart. She stared ahead without seeing.
Cornelius. They had made her and her friends life miserable, they had killed many innocent people, and they had killed her father.
She could not stop the tears from flowing; the news had hit her hard. So many mysteries that had always been nebulous and unreachable were taking shape, everything she had wanted to know was being told to her for better or worse. She had found her father, only to discover she had lost him before she was even fully aware of the world.
"But..." her voice was shaking just as much as her body, "why did they kill him? Why do they want to kill me?"
"Because of this," the Lederan face drew into a smile.
Reaching forward, he placed his finger on the round edge of Alexandra's pendant.
He began tracing his finger along the side, and the line he drew with his finger started glowing an otherworldly shade of white.
He withdrew his hand and Alexandra saw that the pendant had opened! It had always just been a solid piece of metal but now it looked like the top half actually opened! The seam was exactly where he had traced the line with his finger. Had it always been there and she never saw it? Did he make it just know? Alexandra tried to wrap her head around it.
The latching mechanism had been hidden inside, not visible at all from the outside. She gently pushed open the top of the pendant to see the inside: a clock face. The pendant was actually a pocket watch.
The hands of the clock had long ago stopped keeping time, it had not been wound in at least sixteen years after all. Opening the front further, she saw more etching on the underside of the top. Both watch hands seemed to be pointing at this etching on the inside. This was not a pattern though like those that adorned the outside of the pendant, it was a word, a Name.
This was it. This was the House her father was the head of, the House she had been given a name relic for but never knew. This was her Name, and apparently had been all along. She pushed the top open all the way. Her eyes widened.
Archdeacon.