This is for Guest: Emily, who reviewed ages ago on my fic W is for WITCH, but I've only just gotten round to writing it x I really enjoyed writing this and wished I could make it longer, but sadly the scene doesn't give me all that much to work with x

It was quite nice down here, at the bottom of Mackenzie Falls. Peaceful, tranquil almost.

The waters are mostly calm, the ripples from his and his father's recent swim already stilling on the surface, clear and close enough for him to see his reflection. It is almost silent, if not for the waterfall and the chirping of the birds, like they have nothing better in the day to do.

Not at all fitting for the life changing information he's just been given. Right now he doesn't feel at all tranquil, only confused and enraged.

Nerissa is his mother. His mother is the Mage.

He has a mother.

There are too many thoughts pounding through his head, like the pounding of the waterfalls only metres away and the blood rushing through him. He has a mother - and he hasn't had one of those all his life. But he'd like to think that he'd grown up well enough without one, just him and his father. Better even, than some of those that grew up mothered. They have gotten used to being look after, babied at some point in their lives.

Caleb has never had any kind of maternal focus and has been a better rebel leader because of it, even if it means he flounders when coming to his girlfriend.

He wonders briefly why she left them, no matter who she is, but squashes the though quickly. No magic can change the past, not even Nerissa's, and he wouldn't want her to. These thoughts remind him that he is only barely an adult, still half a child; because he wants his mother at home with his father, not planning world domination.

Secondly, Nerissa is the Mage. The Mage who had helped them defeat Phobos, who had been on their side and defended them, protected them. That Mage had been killed eighteen years ago and replaced by a copy designed to act the same, and that copy had started a relationship with his father.

Nerissa was the Mage. The Mage was his mother. Nerissa was his mother. Was there any difference between the two?

Did Nerissa have the almost soft and caring side to her or was that all just as much of an illusion as her appearance?

He already knows the answer to that question, had known it for a while. He just didn't want to admit it.

He looks at the water and then at his father, trying to notice the resemblances. What parts of her are a part of him? He wants nothing to do with her.

Nerissa is his mother. She is insane and power hungry and wants to take over the world. She probably won't stop for anyone - not even her son.

Especially not her son.

But he has to try.