(working title)-Part 1-the Torch-Chap 2

Ava sidled down the corridor, daydreaming. The sound of piano playing came from the floor below, where Ava's twin sister, Tanith, was having an extra piano lesson, much to her disgust. Ava could not hold back a feeling of pride at being better than her sister at something for once. Tanith was the master, Ava the dog. They were like many twins, one being overshadowed by the other, although the one that is overshadowed tends to be the "best".
Ava, as she had done may times before, was thinking how lucky she was. Two sisters, a nurse, a big house, a governess... There were thousands of people who would give all they had to have what she had. Not looking where she was going, she bumped into a man coming the other way along the corridor. He was tall, with cold green eyes and almost white hair. His face was lined with sadness, and anger, but no hapiness, no laughter. He was carrying a pile of charts, and dragging a seemingly empty trunk along behind him. As Ava bumped into him, the charts burst out of his arms.
"Sorry, Father!" she gasped, wincing as if bracing herself for a blow.
"No matter, Tan...Ava, help me gather them up now"
Ava went down on her knees, pulling the papers into a pile. They all showed constellations of stars, and planet movements. This did not stun Ava, as her father, as far as she knew, was an astronamer. She looked at the trunk behind her father.
"You aren't going away, are you Father?"
His head snapped up, alarmed
"What? How did you...Who told you..." Then, seemingly getting a grip of hisself,
"No, no, just a little tidying up"
Ava nodded, understanding that she should keep her mouth shut.
The man, Ava's father, Cerberus Farran, looked at the girl.
How she looked like her mother! The red hair, the tall, graceful figure. Her looked at her eyes. Green, like his, with a slight tinge of amber. Amber like her mother. Seeing the girl, with the same patient expression he used to know so well, he felt a surge of remorse for what he was about to do. Even if it wouldn't, prehaps not, anyway, effect her. Anyway, he told himself, he was saving her, sort of, wasn't he? Or at least her sister.
Her sister. Coming down the corridor. The same red hair, the same tallness, but lanky, and her eyes were all green. He felt Ava push the papers into his arms, saw her being dragged off by her sister. But he wasn't there. He was over 15 years in the past, about two weeks after the birth of the twins....
Their mother was a descendent of one of the greatest Gypsy seers in the history of Anglia, known to fall into trances, and to declare the future of people, always being right. Ava and Tanith's mother, three times in her life, had also fallen into a trance, and declared the future of three of her daughters. Cerberus knew of, and had been present at two of these trances. He remebered the staring eyes, amber-red as the colour of her hair reflected on them. He admitted to have spent the first half of her trance trying to wake her up, but could remember the second half perfectly.
"...and she will be the serpent, the temptress. She will give in, and the torch will be misled. She will bring about her downfall, and that of the hidden one."
At first, he had absolutely no idea what shehad been talking about. But after 15 years of mulling it over, he could deduct a few things -
One of the twins was to be a serpent, and also be tempted. And someone, "the torch" would follow her example. The twin in question would also bring about someone, "the hidden one"'s downfall. Cerberus Farran was, infact, an astrologer. And after many readings of the skies, had deducted, that, understandably, considering his history, he was the hidden one. And, not wanting his own daughter to bring about his downfall, he prepared to do something he would later regret.