Raine was the first to step forward. She took a long breath and asked, "So, how's the weather around here?"
"A little cloudy, a little turbulent. Some poisoned rivers. You know. The usual." Tasia smiled. "You guys are so late."
"Taaaaaaaasi!" It was a half wail as Storm ran forward and hugged his eldest sister tightly. "You scared us!"
"I scared me!"
Leslie dashed forward on a happy cry to hug her cousin tightly. Rhya held on just as tight as tears ran down her face. "Ooh! Darn you, Leslie Ann! You're always making me worry about you!"
It took only a moment before they all ended up in one giant group hug. Emily threw her arms around Tasia and held on with surprising strength, and the taller woman just hugged her back with a smile. She knew that Emily, having never had friends other than Ryan, would hold on tighter for fear of losing them all. "I'm okay now."
"In more ways than one," Beth retorted shakily. "What happened to you, Tasia? You're not the same person we lost a week ago. We just felt a shockwave and it knocked us literally for a loop. Theo said he could hear something, too, which is significant because he's a Virtuoso. What happened to you?"
Tasia's lashes lowered slightly. "I have become the sorceress I was always meant to be, and I have reached the full potential of my bloodline." She let the arcanistry well until it flowed around her body with Ice and Shadow and the still underlying tang of Glass in a beautiful rainbow-gray gradient. "I shattered my soul and forced myself to evolve. In doing so, I merged my Light/Dark core into proper Gray to make me as wholly True Shadow as I am Ice in my magic, and my Light/Dark majik has shifted to Shadow as well. We once asked why Aria did not have Defenders. It does. Me. I have not just the Ice Flower Element of Iris as a Defender, but Shadow now as well. And, of course, both offensive and defensive because I am a Lead. There's more but . . . we can discuss it later. It's not important at this moment."
"I get the feeling everything about you is both important and deliberate," Ryan admitted.
"You're probably not wrong, but it can be covered later."
Theo caught Tasia's arm to get her attention. "You sang."
"To shatter myself, yes. Only music could have done what I needed to do."
He nodded. "I thought I heard an echo of your voice in my ears. If you hadn't been so strained and stressed and fractured, everyone on Aria would have heard your voice. You need to sing again, and soon."
"Wait, what?" Ryan shook his head. "That . . . is out of place somehow."
"Later, Ry. And it's not, I promise." Theo grasped Tasia's hands. "You have to release the pressure of that evolution," he warned softly. "Have to see how far your soul can now stretch. When that happens, I don't know if I will be able to support you, but I will try, even if I put my own gift at risk."
Tasia freed a hand and cupped his cheek with a smile. "I know."
Cara, alerted by the voices, came toward the group from down the road. Her smile lit her face as she saw Romalia. "Roma! I'm so glad you're alive!" She hugged her friend tightly. "When Aevan wrote and told me what you had done by Deactivating yourself and that you had been taken by Armand after, I was so terrified! Tasia and Leslie helped that by telling me they had found you alive and well enough, but I really hoped I would see you to be sure!"
Romalia hugged her back on a smile. Cara had started as being her lady-in-waiting and attendant and then had quickly become her dear friend. In fleeing the palace, Romalia had forced her to flee another direction for her own safety. "I'm glad they could help. And if it hadn't been for Beth here, I would probably still be a prisoner." Romalia grinned at Beth, who winked at her, before adding, "Also, if I hadn't been rescued, Rodi and Tasia wouldn't have been married yet. He didn't even know I was there when he grabbed her." She half suspected the entire scenario had been just to force that happening, honestly.
"It wouldn't have stopped him," Tasia grumbled. She almost absently rubbed a hand over her heart as she felt the familiar ache from her lungs rise. It never seemed to go away entirely, though it had ebbed some in her evolution.
"Tasi." Raine covered her hand. "He cursed us."
"I see." Her lashes lowered slightly. "I had been wondering. So that's how he keeps finding us. He really did try to kill me." She turned her hand over and gripped Raine's. "Remove it. I will not be marked like that."
Raine had never actually tried to look at the scars in Tasia's lungs; she had merely tried to heal them once but finding no response to her majik had made her drop it. As she looked now via a combination of her Sensing and her very minimal Sight, her stomach churned. The scars from the evil looked more like icicle stalactites than anything else. She could even see the literal stitching from where her lungs had been sewn back together. A quilt. Her lungs, horrifically, looked like a quilt. "Someone brace her," she ordered.
Emily and Rachel moved mutually to support Tasia, and Emily's magic welled. "If her lungs stop, I can give her Air," she promised. "Ruler skill. No one smothers on my watch!"
Raine started removing the curse and by proxy healing the scars, and the pain alone stole Tasia's breath. Luckily, Emily's magic was there to give it back. It took far longer than anyone else's cure had, but finally Raine felt the evil vanish entirely and Tasia's lungs looked as good as new. Tasia took a long breath all on her own, and for the first time no one heard the painful little hitch at the end.
Theo started to say something and then felt a chill down his skin. Tasia looked over sharply at almost the same time, and Rachel recognized both gestures. "Something evil is coming!" she snapped.
Beth spotted the 'something' flying through the trees and leapt at Theo. They hit the ground just as the monstrous bird shot past over their heads. It crashed into another tree and struggled madly to free its beak. "Thanks, Beth," Theo said on a sigh.
"Anytime."
"Perchance would that be a Firewing?" Rhya asked with absolute politeness. "Oh, Ryan! Calling the Orchid Defender to the battle lines!"
Ryan evaluated his options and then decided he didn't need his armor. Defenders didn't need to be wearing Masks to use their magic; they just preferred to do so since pissing off bad things could be dangerous without protection. In this instance, he did not expect to miss his first shot. He gathered up a large ball of water and took careful aim.
Leslie, standing at a different angle, realized something and hastily alerted Tasia mentally, who grabbed Ryan's arms and readjusted him just as he fired off the blast. It aimed over the Firewing's head instead of directly at its back, but the Firewing ended up hit anyway as it freed its beak and shot upward right into the bubble where it dissolved to steam on an indignant squawk.
Ryan blinked. "Good guess. Or was that a guess?" he asked Tasia.
She shook her head on a smile. "Leslie spotted that the monster had almost freed itself, and when I saw the angle it had been imbedded at, I realized it would bounce upward in freeing itself, which meant you would miss. So you can credit Leslie for sending me what she saw."
"Sending?" Emily lifted a brow. "Is she telepathic now too?"
"Nope. But she can now send me her thoughts or images she sees. She's sort of telepathic but with me only." She smiled and ruffled Leslie's ponytails as her twin hugged her fiercely. "She's still a little clingy after what happened. I don't mind. I kinda like it."
"You like having someone to shelter and protect, and she needs someone to love her unconditionally," Rhya pointed out politely.
"And this is different from you and Raine?"
"Sure. I'm not clingy. I just expect everyone to love me anyway." She grinned when her friends laughed. Truthfully, she and Leslie had the same need to be loved for being themselves—came with the burden of the thrones they would inherit—but it was always fun to ruffle her cousin's feathers.
In a mutter Theo said, "What good am I at sensing evil if I don't know which direction it's coming from? I need that part most! Also, maybe a little sooner? I need to hone my Sight and my sense of evil. I have it so I can tell the what and where, and obviously, I kind of suck at that right now!"
Tasia bit back a laugh. "I can help with that. I'll work with you soon enough. For now, you lot could use a breather. You got here by walking where I and Leslie sort of tumbled down the river."
"Works for me," Rachel said in relief. "Pregnancy is murder on stamina."
"That's what happens when you have a baby grabbing resources," Ryan scolded her teasingly.
"I'll show you to a cabin!" Leslie said cheerfully. "We each get our own. It's kinda like having bunches of scattered inn rooms. Really nifty, and no noisy neighbors."
Romalia and Cara headed off one direction to catch up, and the others followed Leslie and Tasia deeper into the village. Everyone got their own small cabin, which felt a little delightful after all the traveling as a group. Even the extroverts had been wishing for a moment to be just by themselves and shut out the world. The introverts had only survived because of how close they all felt. Storm still thought he felt his head decompress, though.
Raine accepted a cabin of her own but almost immediately left it again to barge into Tasia's, which happened to be beside her. The door barely shut behind her before she demanded of her sister, "What happened? You shattered your soul? You made it sound so utterly blasé earlier but it couldn't have been so simple!"
Tasia sat down on the edge of her bed with a sigh. "You wouldn't like hearing about this. I don't want to tell you. Can we skip the actual event and just skim the whys of it? I'm not sure you could possibly understand what I did, Raine. It was a terrible necessity to forge me into something specific, but I can't put it into words how it felt, or even really touch on the core reasons of the why."
"Then tell me what you can," Raine said simply as she sat beside her sister.
She did. She covered waking in the village, the brief switching of her eyes' ability to see, and the necessity of being Shanae's kindred spirit without saying why. She still had trouble coming to grips with it herself. She covered her ancestor's roots and very, very briefly skimmed her awakening. She kept it as bare as she could but still knew she had said enough because Raine visibly flinched. "I think . . . it's okay now. I honestly feel better than I have in my life."
"You do realize Logan is probably losing his damned mind back on Protea?"
Tasia winced. "And may not let either of us out of his sight for a year. Yeah. I know. I've tried reaching out to him, but I've been unsure if I succeeded. All I know is that if he is as deeply connected to my soul as I think, then Destiny would have protected him as thoroughly as she protected Leslie and Rodi, so he should not have suffered in my actions."
"Other than, you know, suddenly not feeling you for a while. Leslie is very not going to be the only clingy one."
It made Tasia laugh. "After the accident when we were kids, he moved in with me and my parents for a month because he insisted he had to take care of me. I felt so tired and weak I didn't really have the ability to argue, but I probably wouldn't have anyway. He's like Leslie in having a speckled core not strong enough to be Shadow—though he's Light with Dark rather than the other—so we mutually feel compelled to nurture and baby each other if the other is sick or hurt."
Raine grinned. "Didn't you force feed him soup when he got sick that one year? He told me about that."
"I had to threaten to majikally tie him to his bed, for Goddess' sake. The one time in his life he has ever gotten sick, and he turned into a damn baby about it." Tasia pushed down the memories forcefully as all they did was bring pain and longing to see her brother again. He truly was as important to her as Leslie and Rodi, and she loved all three with equal force. "Enough on that. You want to stay here all day or should I introduce you to the people of the village?"
"Let's go get introductions. A quick breather is more than welcome."
They stepped out of the cabin only for Raine to nearly jump out of her boots as Theo popped up and grabbed Tasia's arm. The sorceress didn't even bat a lash. "Yes?" she asked dryly, and then blinked as her friend started dragging her down the road. "Theodore, what the icy hells are you about this time? Why are you kidnapping me?"
"You know me! I've always loved taverns. I found Nalack's and I got to talking with the bard who plays there. He asked me to sing for him, so I did—we get free supper by the way—but he liked my singing so much that I knew he absolutely had to hear you." He was forced to stop as his friend planted her feet and became an immoveable mass. "Tasi." He turned and caught Tasia's face in his hands. "You have to do this. Don't let the song of shattering be the only thing you give Aria. She needs more from you."
"What is all this about singing?" Emily demanded as she and the other Defenders caught up. "Does this have anything to do with why sometimes I feel music coming out of you when your soul is being affected? It's friggin' weird."
Theo's eyes didn't leave Tasia's face. "There's a hierarchy in musical gifts. A set of five tiers, if you will, that delineate the particular strengths and powers of a singer. The most common and lowest tier is where normal voices reside. Normal singers who can carry a nice tune. You hear them on audioboxes all the time. Up from there, about one in a thousand, you find Master Singers. These are the people who are really talented. They can sing anything and manipulate their voices to fit."
"Then," Beth picked up softly, "about one in ten thousand, you find Shamans. Rodi is one, actually. They have a power that resonates musically, and it gives them both an extraordinarily beautiful voice and also the ability to play more powerful music. Shamans can actually use their music to summon powers or emotions already existing inside people—they can sometimes just outright summon people, too. Some people just call them summoners because of it, but they're not literally summoners by definition. They can't usually access the elemental spirits. That's a different non-musical skill entirely."
"After that," Theo continued, "at about one in one hundred thousand, you have Virtuosos or Virtuosas. I'm one. I was born with a voice so beautiful, so pure, that my voice became another power. I have the gift to awaken things hidden inside other people. Powers, emotions, whatever. When you hear a Virtuoso sing, you are compelled to answer. A Shaman can influence people with their voices, but a Virtuoso can outright compel obedience."
"And last?" Ryan whispered.
"If two Virtuosos have a child . . . there is a one in one billion chance that eventually a Mystic will be born." Theo took a deep breath. "Mystics have a soul that is literally made of music, and they so thoroughly embody majik and everything in the universe that is good that they can bend existence and change the universe with a mere song." He looked at Tasia. "Since the beginning of time, there has never been a Mystic . . . until now. I can't help but wonder if perhaps there was never a Mystic because there was never a sorceress."
"So if your soul is . . . is affected, you have to sing?" Rhya asked Tasia carefully.
Tasia nodded. "When I feel something strongly enough or my power is made tangible, my soul radiates music. You feel it in your soul more than you hear it, and for you all who are also witches, you feel me most strongly."
"All of us?" Rachel's eyes went wide.
"All of us," Beth confirmed. She smiled. "What, you didn't know? Don't worry, Tasia's a great priestess. She'll help everyone find and control whatever their gifts are. Just let it sink in for now."
"You are so amazing," Ryan told Tasia. "You can do anything!"
"Trust me, I can't do everything. I can't cook," she muttered. "I burn water. I also can't clean to save my life. My room would be a disaster if my mother didn't take pity on my need for order and pick it up for me. I do the laundry in exchange."
Rhya burst into giggles, and Leslie fared no better. Trying not to laugh as well, Rachel said, "You really could be Yvette and Dane's daughter! He did all the cooking because she was terrible at it, and she cleaned up behind him because he would get lost into his music and not notice. That's so funny." Not to mention, Dane being a Shaman himself may well play into that connection as well!
"I told you I had been feeding everyone for years," Storm said dryly. "And by everyone, I meant mostly Tasia. Mom—er, Olivia—does most of the cooking, but I considered it my job to make sure Tasia had lunches for school and university. And maybe I also cook dinner sometimes."
"Every weekend," Raine said dryly.
Reasonably, he said, "Well, we and Dad eat over there almost every weekend, so it's only fair, right?" He shook his head on a smile. "We all have gifts that are outside the realm of magic or majik, you know? We have things that make us most special to each other, because we fill in spaces inside each other we either did or did not know we needed filled."
Tasia smiled. "I guess I should mention something else finally. It isn't just magic, or majik, or special knacks that bring us together. Five thousand years ago, we had ancestors that were dear friends to one another."
"Wha, even us?" Emily asked skeptically.
Leslie grinned. "Even you and Ryan! I got to meet most of them, y'know? They were around Jean Kinsley, Tasia's last direct ancestor. I asked her about that recently when I began to wonder. Emily, your ancestor was named Chevon. Raine and Storm descend of Jean's closest friend, Lisabelle. Oh, wait, actually, so does Ryan! Lisabelle's soul mate, Alan, was also a friend of Jean's. So you three share the same ancestors, which may be why there's crossover between Raine and Ryan's gifts."
"As for me," Beth spoke up, "my ancestor was a warden on a preserve on Protea. Imagine my surprise when I found her journals after Tasia and I were already friends, and I discovered my ancestor had met a Delphinium Ruler Cultivator that had introduced her to the High Priestess of Protea for the Rebirth Era."
"It got even crazier," Theo added dryly, "when we realized I and Terry also had connections to Jean. Our ancestor had a mutual friend with Jean—who I now have suspicions about—who introduced them. She started working at a tavern that she ended up buying off that mutual friend, which is probably why I love taverns. They're so lively and fun."
"Rachel, so you know," Tasia said, "you also have a connection to us in that Era. I am not yet sure how but there is something inside you that causes the same sense of ancestral familiarity I got from the others. You were born in that Era, so the connection might be closer than the rest, but I intend to go looking."
Rachel smiled. "It's enough to be friends with you now."
"So sayeth the future Librarian of the Hall of Records," Leslie intoned. She looked at Tasia. "To go back to the original subject . . . Theo's right. You need to sing. I want to hear you really sing." She caught her twin's hands. "You said you hear music that makes you smile if I'm near. Your music inside my soul makes me happy. I don't want my only memory of your voice to be that . . . that moment." She could barely stand remembering it. "It shouldn't be Aria's only memory, not when she has been waiting for you." Her lower lip quivered. "Please?"
"Damn you," Tasia sighed.
The threat of tears disappeared as Leslie grinned. "Wow, that does work on people pretty fast! Watch that Mom doesn't do it to you guys if you don't agree fast enough to let her take your photo for her figure study collection."
Rhya looked at her. "You think she'll pick up a camera again? She hasn't touched it since before the kingdoms formed."
"I believe in what Tasia said. She'll be okay when we go home." She started shoving her twin toward the tavern, and as they swung through the unlatched door, she called cheerfully, "I found a Mystic! She's amazing! Wait until you hear her!"
Tasia sighed deeply. "Hi."
The bard grinned. "Hello!" With sincerity, he added, "It's an honor to actually speak with you. I honestly do not know if I can be of assistance to you, though. I can accompany a Virtuoso, but I don't know what trying to help a Mystic might do to me."
"Potentially detrimental things," Tasia told him honestly. "And if I tried to hold myself back, I'd do the damage to myself. So . . . maybe just hand me an instrument? I can play anything you hand me. Benefits of that music in the soul thing." She took what he offered and found herself holding something that looked enough like a guitar to feel familiar to start with, and her gifts could fill in the rest.
She perched on a chair at the bar and tinkered lightly with the strings, mostly just getting a feel for the instrument as well as a feel for her own soul. Somewhat unconsciously, the tinkering began to transform into what sounded like a real song, and music began to emanate from her soul with equal force. It almost seemed as if her entire body had become an instrument. Unlike before, this music spread. Her newly evolved and strengthened soul could not be contained. The music spilled into the entire village and made people stop in their tracks.
She had not known what would come to her, but as she felt it welling, she felt no surprise. Was it hers alone, or was it from them? Her memories. Jean's memories. Liena's memories. They all poured into her, through her. Words that only she could give voice to, words that spoke of promises made for ten millennia, seared her throat. Her soul, swelling until it might burst, could not withhold them any longer.
The voice that lifted on the air from her was nothing anyone had ever expected. The others had noticed the change in the sound of her voice without realizing what it really meant. Leslie was left most speechless; this was nothing like what she had heard only that very morning. This beautiful, musical, voice was as mystical as Light and Dark themselves . . . and yet, somehow, it held the promise of so much more.
I wander alone through a sleepless night
I can’t share my burdens with anyone at all
But then you wouldn’t let me stand alone
And you taught my lonely heart what it was to love
Time has frozen on the face of the clock
It stopped at the moment we said goodbye
I want to make it speed up and go faster
So that the time we meet again will come sooner
Lost in the dark you brought in the light to me
I’ll cross over a million nights to find you again
No eyes were left dry. Lovers reached out to hold on tight. The aching love and longing inside Tasia's voice tore at everyone. Only a heart that could not feel would not respond to a Mystic's call. Only a heart that was dead would not weep in sympathy for what she cried out to find again.
Even though time stopped, years still passed
The distance now between us knows no bounds
I want to find you again and hold you close
I still wait to hear your laughter in this world
Even though I couldn’t stay with you that time
I’ll continue to hold onto you across the eons
Lost in the dark you brought in the light to me
My path was obscured by the weight of destiny
You lift my heart to somewhere warmer than love
I want to be by your side all through the night
Even if I’m lost in the light, you’re my darkness
You bring back the sleep I thought I had forever lost
The music tore from her soul in a tangle of power and emotion that ripped like a shockwave through the air as her voice moved through wordless harmonies. The wave moved far beyond the village, beyond all realm of reason, and encompassed the entire world until Aria herself seemed to quiver with longing. They all knew who she sang to and why. He had promised to back his friend up, but standing there, Theo couldn't move or breathe.
Lost in the dark you brought in the light to me
My path was obscured by the weight of destiny
You lift my heart to somewhere warmer than love
I want to be by your side all through the night
Lost in the light you brought in the darkness to me
I’ll cross over a million nights to find you again
I will continue searching across the galaxy
For your smile that sparkles like the stars
When the music slowly faded and ended, there was silence. No one clapped, no one cheered. There was nothing they could say to rival what they had seen through her song. Tasia was more dazed than even when she had shattered her soul. She stood from the barstool, but her knees threatened to buckle. Theo immediately shot forward to catch and brace her. "I've got you," he promised softly through his tight throat. "Gods, Anastasia." He took a shaky breath. "Lean on me. You need rest. That was too long overdue."
She did not protest and let her friend support her as they moved back toward her hut. "It wasn't just me," she whispered thickly. "It wasn't just me. Liena. I felt her. My power carries a . . . a stamp from her and Jean. I can feel ancestral echoes of things they felt strongly. I felt her there." Her lips trembled. "She never found her way back."
"Hush." Theo helped her into the hut and then eased her onto the side of the bed. "Sit and breathe." He knelt in front her and covered her hands. "I don't think you know what you might have just done."
You will awaken the sleeping majik.
"No, I don't." She braced her elbows on her knees. She wanted to cry as she knew the others had been, but there were no tears left inside; the song had drained her entirely. Music was a Mystic's tears. That was why it had been so critical that she sing after shattering her soul.
"Your song . . . I saw it." He found a smile, knowing she needed it. "I saw everything. My Sight just . . . blew wide open. I was given a little glimpse of the past, almost as a reward for it. I saw your ancestors, Tasi. I saw Liena leaving Aria for Protea, and I saw Jean arguing with a Defender wearing armor that reminded me of a certain flower." He took a long breath. "You don't have to help me. You already did."
Tasia opened her mouth and then closed it on a wry smile. Whether she had intended to or not, she had indeed awakened the sleeping majik in her friend. What she couldn't be certain of was whether or not she had accidentally awakened something else entirely. She felt it drawing closer, looking for her.
Evil covering everything. The promise of hope shining through it all.
The premonition rose thick in both of them, the vision shared between them. In support, Theo laced his fingers with Tasia's and held on to remind them both that they were twice the strength when together. They would find that promise of hope, somewhere, even if Tasia had to make it herself. They just couldn't be sure why it felt so significant that only she could be the one to do it . . .
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment