With shock, then curiosity...

Zoe's world was spinning around her. She felt nauseous as she put down the family tree, clutching her head. What the hell did this mean? That her ancestor was a witch seeking immortality? That she actually achieved it? Zoe didn't know which one was the worst to believe.

Does that mean Zoe really is an reincarnation/clone of some long dead woman? That her personality and mannerisms would slowly become integrated to that of the long-dead witch, so that her spirit can never truly die? There was a whole lot of questions and not enough answers.

Zoe was reeling, yet she managed to calm herself down by taking deep breaths. "Calm yourself Zoe, maybe this won't be all bad..." She closed her eyes and counted to 10 slowly, opening them when she felt her composure return.

"If I truly have magic in me that I inherited from her soul, there should be some tricks in the books that I could use to prove it..." Zoe knew what she was going to do next as she started to heave the heavy box of magic books up from the basement. Her parents would be busy for another few hours, so she could use the time to figure everything out. Looks like the search for garage sale items would have to be put on hold.

Zoe closed and locked the basement door, grabbing the box of dusty old books and resisting the urge to sneeze as every movement seemed to rouse extremely thick dust.

She hauled the box of oddities into the huge living room, sprawling it's contents over the floor as she made herself some coffee for the work she was about to do.

Zoe sat on the floor, books around her as she stirred the steaming cup of coffee with a spoon. She had looked through the pantry to find a sugar shaker about 1/4ths full, shrugging and muttering "good enough" as she added some sugar in. Better than having pure bitter coffee.

She set herself down, taking a few reinvigorating sips before setting the cup down at a distance where she couldn't accidentally knock it down. Cracking her knuckles, Zoe set about to do some reading.

To start with, she grabbed a book with a peach-colored spine titled "Basics in magic 101", flipping through the yellow old pages.