The Eternal Kingdom - Chapter 7

<-Chapter 6

The call came from two of the people she loved. It was so sharp and potent that it yanked Tasia from a sound sleep into instant awareness. Normally nothing pierced the rest her lover brought to her, but this did. She jerked upright in bed, her heart pounding. "Raine. Rhya." She cursed and threw aside the covers to scramble out of bed and into her clothes.

Rodi, having awakened the instant she did, was close behind her as she dashed out of the bedroom and into the living room where Ryan was still chatting with the Elder Defenders. "Ryan!" he snapped. "We're going!"

Ryan leapt to his feet and stuffed his PCA into his back pocket. "I knew she was going to get in trouble!" He looked at the three astonished Elders. "Tasi just got a call from Raine!"

"But she was asleep!" Juliet protested. She looked at Tasia in utter shock as the other woman pulled on her shoes. "How could you hear something like that?"

Tasia straightened and looked at her evenly, and she caught her breath as she saw the swirl of shadowy power. The chocolate eyes looking at her felt far too old to belong to a near thirty-year-old, even a Cultivator. More than even Storm, Tasia just felt packed with ancient wisdom of the cosmos. "She needs me," was all Tasia said before she ran out the door with Ryan and Rodi close behind.

"No wonder those PCAs they had looked unusual," Shana mused as she got to her feet. "It's an updated version from the future. But with how slow technology moves, they still work in this Era because there was no need or desire to change the working frequencies. It's . . . strangely reassuring. How slowly things change, and how other things don't." She shrugged it off. "Let's grab the other Elders and join the fight. Doubt we can do much, but we can at least be support."

Desiree shook her head wryly. "It is a strange feeling to suddenly be an Elder. If someone says Elder Orchid to me, I may still expect to look for Sandra!"

Juliet grinned. "We'll have time to get used to it. And even if the Memory Lag Delay at the start of the next Era wipes it from us, it'll still linger inside our souls just enough."

 

Alloran was so busy staring at the Life Orb he had grabbed that didn't know the rest of the Defenders had joined him until Theo's foot connected with the back of his head and sent him flying. He tumbled head over heels until he could catch himself and regain his feet. He whirled around and found the Resurrection Cultivators gathered around Rhya and Raine. "I'm impressed you landed a blow."

"Give back the Life Orb and I'll impress you more," Theo offered with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

Alloran's eyes flickered over to the side as he saw the Elders and their Caretakers arriving to the battle as well. It was clear they weren't there to interfere, just to observe, but it didn't reassure him. They may not have had magikry, but they did have plenty of weapons and skills—and the two Apexes in possession of arcanery. Arcanery did not have majik in it, but could potentially be as lethal to him as arcanistry since pure arcane forces were something he could not stop.

Emily drew her harpoon and hacked through the binds holding Raine so that she could go to their princess and lift her gently into her arms. "Rea?" Raine called softly. She gave her a little shake. "Rea!" She removed Rhya's Mask for her to send away her armor and try to make her more comfortable. The dented metal parts seemed to be impeding her breathing more than a bit. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," Rhya whispered. She tried to lift the hand holding the wand but could not manage the strength.

"What's this?" Beth grasped her hand and held it up to show the wand to everyone. "Where did you find your wand, Rhya? It's perfect for you." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Holy crap. It smells like the Plane! I mean, it really smells like the Plane, as if the wood that makes it came right from there!"

"There are trees on the Plane?" Emily asked.

"Eventually, at the edges of the Immortal Fields," Tasia admitted.

"It has edges?"

"Hence the 'eventually.'"

The opal on the wand began to glow brightly and then released a pulse of what felt like not just Illusion majik, but Nature magic. A portal swirled into appearance over the top of Alloran, and he had to hastily dodge as thick vines fired out and nearly impaled him. He moved away from the portal and stared at it wide-eyed. "What the shadowy hells is that?" he demanded of no one in particular.

"Uhm." Shana coughed. "So that's a portal to the Ephemeral Plane. You know, that thing that Edgar and I and Leslie and Tasia can open from anywhere because of our ties to the Plane in our varying roles. The thing that also can be accessed from very select points on Protea where the physical and metaphysical realms connect. Or via very specific items created by Pallas that give permission to the owner to pass through at will. All Elder Defenders have orbs he gave them during the Chaos War years ago. And it looks like he gave Rhya that wand somehow just now! It is definitely made from a willow tree of the Plane, and it definitely is an access point on its own."

"Which may also explain those vines," Edgar concurred. "Pallas is a Nature Flower Element, and he has unique magical gifts in his role as Archon of the Immortal Fields. We've never known the full scope of them ourselves as Rulers of the Plane, but it is not unreasonable that in protecting the Plane alone for all these millions of years, he did develop at least one attack. There is supposed to be a Knight of the Plane to do the protecting and policing, but they have never been found. Pallas has worked the Fields alone, with only magic from the Ruler Cultivators of Protea, and since the advent of the Faith, majik from witches to aid him."

"Pallas is also not human, any more than I am," Clara spoke up quietly. "We are technically under the demi-god classification because of who our parents were. Our father was Horatio, a son of Time herself, and our mother was Mortality, another demi-goddess. So there are no doubt powers inside Pallas as there are inside all gods and demi-gods that do not strictly fit under any normal classification." Before anyone could ask, she added, "Yes, that applies to me as well. And Rachel, in fact. It is part of what makes us fit to be Librarians. Not everything we do is via magic, though it can deceptively look so."

Softly to the others so the Elders did not hear, Rachel said, "That will become more obvious as Relisha grows as a Ruler. You'll see a distinct difference then."

"So what is going on then?" Tyson asked in frustration, asking for everyone present—even Alloran. The villain clearly did not seem to know what to do or how to do it. "Something different about him," Tyson muttered to Sam, Diaz, and Uwe alike, who all nodded in agreement.

Tasia looked at Storm who cocked his head. He looked up at the portal for long moments, and then at Rhya. Only his friends did not feel disconcerted for they had many times before seen the look in a pattern master's eyes—his or Tasia's—that implied they worked through millions of possibilities. The flickering across his eyes looked not unlike what a computational machine resembled when it also did heavy work. The three present with Telepathy could hear nothing but a buzz inside his brain because it simply ran too fast to be read. Tasia as a stronger pattern master could have tried to decipher it, but she had never felt it worth the effort.

Finally, Storm said, "Okay, we all were pretty sure that Rhya and Pallas are soul mates."

"Wait, what?" Siobhan blurted.

"Later, okay?" He waved a hand at her to shush her. "It seemed pretty obvious given what she said when we figured out she was astrally walking. She and Pallas went much the same route as Tasia and Rodi, meeting immaterially and building up that powerful friendship. Definitely a deliberate action on Destiny's part. She didn't know who he was until Tasia and Rachel told her, and I feel confident he did not know who she was either—until somehow recently, because he has very clearly reached out to her to offer whatever aid he can, which also says he knows he is her soul mate and Caretaker. I think he put not just an access point in her wand, but actually something more holy: with that wand, she can reach out to use his Nature-based magic attack, giving her an additional protection until he can join her."

"I am less surprised by that than I ought to be," Kellie admitted. "Given that I think Shana and Edgar always sort of saw him as being like family."

"We were sort of suspicious, I admit," Edgar said. "Especially after meeting Rhya. She had an odd connection to the Ephemeral Plane not at all like Leslie's own connection as future Ruler. Just some sort of . . . anchor, I think, inside her soul. We brushed it off as her being my daughter and it being a residue of her having half-Protean blood. That might actually be true, but there's more going on."

"Definitely more," Storm agreed. "I think it fair to say that Pallas' soul mate could only be of Protean blood, but they could not be full Protean because the roles of the Plane have to remain separated. It's actually another clever unity of the two Overseer kingdoms, you know? The future High Queen of Delphinium will take the Archon of the Immortal Fields as her High King. That ties the Plane directly to Delphinium, which will make the Plane stronger in turn, and will lessen some of the burden on the Protea Kingdom and its Rulers."

"Pattern master," Alloran mocked. "I see now why you fooled my father thoroughly. Truly, you earned your title."

"I did, but your dad was also just an idiot." He ignored him again and knelt beside Raine. "Rhya," he said softly. "Rhya, listen to me!" When unfocused eyes shifted toward him, he reached out and took her shoulders. "You can't give up. There's too much left for you to do. You have to reach out and grow stronger." He looked at his sisters and nodded once.

Raine shifted Rhya to him and got to her feet. Her spear appeared in her hand as she walked forward a step. Tasia stepped up beside her, and she held out a hand for her sword. More than one pair of Elders' eyes widened in surprise at seeing the ancient and visibly powerful weapon. Only Shana and Rocky, however, recognized it.

"That is not . . . made by a Metal Flower Element," Virginia said in a low voice. "It can't be. Kellie and Raine are two of the best weapon-making Rulers in history, but not even they could make that. It feels very . . . different. It's radiating majik with such force I can see it."

Shana nodded. "It belongs to her lineage. I saw it first in Liena's hands, and then in Jean's. A powerful ritual sword of divine power that could only be held in the hands of a High Priestess of their blood."

"Divine?" Sam's eyes narrowed. "How did their lineage end up with a divine blade? That's literally power right from Destiny."

"That I haven't clue. I just know it is." In a murmur, she added, "Perhaps soon that too will come to light. I've always thought there was something . . . additionally unusual about that lineage. I see it even stronger in Anastasia than any others."

Alloran had barely noticed the conversation. He took a wary step back as the two sisters took a step forward. He drew his own sword and braced himself, but he was still unprepared when the two Defenders shot forward in perfect harmony, their every motion perfectly matched to each other. Caught within the dual attacks, one from each side, he lost his grip on the Life Orb and Beth's whip lashed out and caught it.

Beth knelt next to Rhya and gently handed her the Life Orb. "Here, Rhya."

Rhya held tight to the Life Orb but it refused to merge with her. It simply hovered between her hands and glowed brightly. Her hands tightened around it, and a single tear slid down her cheek as she tried to will it to return to her. "Why?" she whispered.

Haeth flew down from where she had been perched on Rodi's shoulder and hovered in front of Rhya. "Because you feel pain from your memories. You built so many, didn't you? Of Pallas, without ever knowing him in person. It hurts now. It hurts to look at those memories because understanding has come and you want so much more. You want to make more memories, so the ones you already own just hurt you deeper."

"But letting go of the memories is to let go of everything," Rhya whispered. She stared into the depths of the Life Orb she held. "But I don't want those memories to go; I'd truly have nothing. I want my memories," she whispered. "Because they show me the moment I fell in love with my soul mate. I will never let go of that no matter how it hurts!"

"Move!" Tasia snapped.

Her voice carried a powerful and literal compulsion that had all Cultivators anywhere near Rhya hastily scrambling away. White power blazed around Rhya's hands and then enveloped her in the glow. A blue-white ring of majik flames appeared around her as she slowly sat up. The Life Orb dissolved as it returned to where it belonged, and her Defender Flower Mark began to glow hotly. It suddenly sprouted another delphinium blossom, proof that she had forcefully pushed herself to another tier.

She rolled up to her feet and picked up her Mask from where Raine had put it. She could actually feel the magikry in her body. She pulled her Mask on to again armor herself, and the cloth and metal alike had taken on the extra shine that underscored its own increase in strength. She held out the hand not holding her wand, and her actual weapon appeared. The rod had been made to focus magical attacks, but it could hurt if she smacked someone hard enough. She looked at both the items she held, and smiled. "Well, I guess my cousin can't be the only one who dual-wields!"

Alloran was so busy gaping at her that he did not see the Lead Defender was on him until her fist slammed into his jaw and sent him reeling. Unlike Rhya's punch, this one audibly cracked bone. He landed anew with a thud on the ground. He watched Raine and Tasia both run back over to their team to form an impenetrable ring of power, and he cursed. He was outnumbered and certainly outpowered. He hefted himself to his feet and threw a vial on the ground. It shattered to release a Gensome, and he swiftly disappeared from the scene.

The Gensome roared and grew to full size, and it took several menacing steps toward the Resurrection Cultivators. Theo and Emily immediately put up shields of fire and air around their team, and for safety, Tasia and Beth put one around the Elders of ice and glass. Tasia then grinned at Rhya. "Well, kid, you ready to try a new attack?"

Strictly speaking, Rhya was only a year and a half younger than the Lead, but Tasia just felt much older, so Rhya had never been offended. She found it sort of endearing actually; she had noticed Virginia tended to call all of her generation 'kid' too. It had to be a Lead thing because they were the eldest. "I think so." She shook her head. "I know so!"

She went running out of the shield and then hastily dove and dodged as the Gensome swiped at her. She rolled up safely though she did wobble at the end. She looked at her wand and rod both and then sent the rod away. Somehow, she just knew what she needed to do. "Summoning!" Magikry billowed up around her in swirls of silver, and she used her wand to draw an invoking pentagram like she had seen Tasia do. The pentagram began to spin ever faster and she tossed it at the sky. "Immortal Dream!"

Flowers sprang up under her feet of many sorts, and little crystal spheres appeared on each as if made of dew. The little crystals released will-o-wisps—dream energies—into the air that surged around Rhya's body before flooding together before her and growing into the shape of a tall, shimmery, illusive, titan. She stepped up beside it and then snapped her fingers.

Her titan lunged at the Gensome, which lunged at it in turn only to go right through its center. It emerged on the other side highly confused. The titan spun around and released dozens of copies of itself until it had surrounded the Gensome. Before it could blink, the copies had rushed in and consumed it whole. The titans began to dissolve back into will-o-wisps and then faded into the sunlight. Nothing at all remained behind.

Rhya blinked at the sight and then sheer joy lit her face. "I did it!" She jumped up and down in her happiness and then whirled around to rush at Raine and jump on her twin to hug her tight. "I did it, Rainy! I did it!"

Raine laughed and caught her before she tripped. "Of course you did. There's a lot more potential inside you than you ever knew. You're still new enough to majik at all, let alone think you could be a summoner. Even magical defensive type Defenders are capable enough in battle alone. You just didn't have the bravery to try."

The Elders came over to join them, and Siobhan grabbed her daughter in a hug. "You are amazing!" she said fiercely. "And I'm so proud of you, okay?" She aimed a finger at Rhya's nose. "And you had better keep up family tradition, okay, and go chase down Pallas if he takes too long to come find you! You're still more Delphinian than Protean."

Rhya giggled. "Yes ma'am!"

Everyone wearing Masks pulled them off and returned them to jewelry, and they prepared to transport away. Inexplicably, however, Rachel's PCA began to chirp with a tone only her friends recognized. Everyone collectively stared. "Uh, Rach?" Ryan asked carefully. "Isn't that . . . the tone you assigned to Kimber? How . . . is she calling you? Here?"

Rachel grabbed her phone and stared at the screen. "It actually says it's Kimber. What the blinking hells?" She hit the button to answer the call and put on speaker at the same time. "Uh, Kim?"

"Yes, it's me," came the familiar voice of Kimber Richards, Theo's betrothed and Caretaker. She had an easily recognizable sweet, almost dulcet, tone to her voice that more than her lover liked to listen to for hours. "And I don't want to know how Claret made this work but she did. It's irrelevant. Is Allister with you?"

Rachel felt a little flutter of panic. "No. Kim, is there something wrong? What's happened? Is Allister missing?"

"I wouldn't be calling long distance across five thousand years if we could find him! We honestly didn't think much about it initially until Terry decided to check with Allister to see if he wanted to join us to see a stage theatrical. Distract all of us, right? Well, no answer to Allister's PCA, so we called Sabin. He was pretty surprised to hear from us because he and Claret had been watching the twins since Allister had said he was going with you. Which contradicts what Rodi had told us about him being the only Caretaker to go, so . . . much confusion over here."

Theo looked sharply at Tasia. "Did he try to go with us and we not see him?"

Tasia hesitated. "If he did, then I didn't notice it, and obviously Rachel didn't either."

Clara shook her head from where she had been listening. "I didn't even notice you lot passing through, and I doubt I'd have noticed it in the future either. On the other hand, if he were stuck somewhere between times, that we would have felt. In fact, I can't be certain the Apexes wouldn't have noticed because that would be an unmistakable fluctuation."

"Nothing here," Siobhan said.

"I sure haven't felt any fluctuations," Shana agreed on a sigh. She lifted her voice a bit to be heard by the PCA. "Let's disperse and do a normal old-fashioned search of Protea here, and in your time, Kim, everyone can disperse for a search as well. Only when we've confirmed he didn't just land somewhere out of signal will we start turning our eyes to other possibilities. He didn't just outright disappear; he couldn't, else Rachel would have felt him torn from her."

"Yes ma'am," Kimber said in response. "I'll call again if we find him first, and I'll assume Claret, Clara, whatever, someone with Memory power, can get you guys to contact us if you find him instead." In a grumble, she added, "My life has become so much more complicated."

Theo grinned wickedly. "At least you're not bored, love."

"No, but I am lonely. Hurry up, would you? Ashe recently gave me a new gift to wear for you." Her side of the line clicked off.

The look on Theo's face made several of his friends and the Elders alike try desperately not to laugh at him. Just as Justin did with Sherry, Kimber clearly knew how to handle her fiery, passionate, Aster Cultivator just fine.

Amused as she was at Theo, Rachel still could not fully fight nerves as she stuffed her PCA back into a pocket. "If my husband is fine when we find him," she vowed, "I'm going to kill him for putting me through this!"

 

©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.

Chapter 8->

The Eternal Kingdom - Chapter 6

<-Chapter 5

Rodi lunged to his feet and caught Tasia as she fell forward. He lowered her gently to the ground and turned his head to find the source of the agonized scream he had heard. It didn't surprise him to see Alloran standing nearby, his face white with horror. He may as well have attacked his sister for the way he looked. All members of the Arian Ruler Cultivator lineage were powerfully drawn to the lineage of Liena Vanguard. The conflict that had kept apart Liena and her soul mate, Kadon Aria, manifested inside the two lineages as members who either viewed each other as potential mates or potential siblings, but no matter how it landed, they could not harm one another unless one of them did evil.

Alloran may have been using evil magic, but he had in no shape or form ever intended to attack Tasia. The only thing he felt as he stared at the glowing gray gem was the sickening sensation that he had done something irreparably wrong. The large Life Orb literally radiated purity with such force that rather than be stone with reflective surfaces, it looked instead like a crystal clear gemstone striated with gray.

"You bastard!"

The raw fury in Rodi's voice had Alloran spinning around barely in time to duck as Rodi's sword nearly severed his head from his shoulders. Alloran scrambled back and drew his own sword. "It was a mistake!" he said sharply as he blocked the next attack. "I don't want to hurt her!" he shouted as their swords locked with them nearly nose to nose. "I was after you, dumbass!"

"Well, you missed, dumbass!" He kicked Alloran in the stomach and sent him flying across the wood chips that made up the floor around the playground equipment. He very nearly took a step after him but felt a pulse through his mind and soul. A sound made him and Alloran alike look over sharply to see Tasia staggering up to her feet. Their jaws dropped in unison. The depth of her will was strong enough to keep her on her feet even when a piece of her had been torn free.

She staggered forward a few steps and reached out with trembling hands to take hold of the Life Orb. She lost her balance and fell down to her knees with the gem clutched in her hands tightly. Try as she might to make it return, it just wouldn't.

"You don't want those memories, do you?"

The feminine voice had her slowly turning her head to watch as a swirl of blue and white color appeared in the air next to her. From where Striker was circling madly overhead, unable to do anything, she heard him call an intricate dragon's greeting that was echoed by the light as it took form. As the light faded away, it left behind a beautiful new dragon of blue and white. Delicate wings held her aloft, and her long tail would make her a powerful swimmer. Horns on her head curved backward for half her body's length; only an Elder dragon had horns, and the longer the horns, the older the Elder. At that length . . . she had to be millions of years old. Her appearance mimicked the shape of the pendant around her mistress' neck, and her shimmering eyes transitioned in color to match her mistress as well. They had once been golden brown, then they had been auburn, and now and for always they would remain caramel in light and chocolate in dark.

She was beautiful and so achingly familiar to Tasia that she knew she had been near all along. "It was you," she said softly. "That whole time."

"I could only speak into your subconscious," the dragon told her gently, "but I was always a part of your memory. I've been with your family forever. I bonded with Liena so easily, yet not her children. I slept within our pendant until the day Jean was born and I woke anew. After Jean left me, I felt it again that I could not bond with her children. I would have to sleep until you were born. I did not want to wait. I couldn't wait. So when Jean left me, I prayed to Time herself, to Destiny, to the Guardian of Dragons. To any who would head, to let me move forward to find you."

"So you did," she whispered.

"I did. Destiny granted me my boon and Time sent me forward. I arrived the moment you took your first breath. When Olivia placed our pendant around your neck the first time, I wept knowing I would never be alone again. I reached out subconsciously at first, knowing that I would reveal myself fully when you needed me most. You are the third. My most special person. I will be with you always. Always and always. Please accept my final dedication, my mistress."

"Haeth." Tasia reached out her free hand to touch her dragon's head. She had roughly the same size in this Coda form as Striker, even though Striker was technically small for a dragon. A dragon's normal size proportionately dropped when they took a Coda—alternate—form, though the Coda could be controlled. Perhaps Haeth chose the smaller size on purpose to be more able of riding her mistress' shoulder. Striker flew over to land on Tasia's shoulder himself, and the sight of the sorceress and the two dragons was so haunting that both Rodi and Alloran lowered their weapons.

"Anastasia, listen to me," Haeth told her urgently. "You can't be afraid of your memories. You have to accept them otherwise things will never change. Learn from the past, don't run from it! You're the sorceress who will awaken the sleeping power!"

Tasia's hand fell away from Haeth as she reached out to touch her Life Orb again. She drew it close and held it pressed against her heart. "I've been here," she said softly. "I've already faced these memories." She looked into the Life Orb and saw the echoes of her past. "To change these memories would be to change who I am." Her head lifted slowly. "I can't change who I am. There are too many people who need me for being me." Her hands tightened on the Orb. "You will never make me falter in my path!"

Gray power blazed around her hands and enveloped her in the glow. A blue-white ring of majik flames appeared around her, and Rodi and Alloran both stumbled back before they accidentally got trapped inside. The Life Orb dissolved as it returned to where it belonged, and Tasia's Defender Flower Mark began to glow hotly. It suddenly sprouted another iris blossom, pushing her up to a new tier, and even a new small black poppy appeared snuggled under the new iris.

She carefully got to her feet and the circle dissolved. Striker and Haeth flew in overlapping circles around her as she pulled her Mask off her bracelet and grew it to full size. Her eyes glowed with magic purple and yellow and black and magenta as her arcanistry moved over her body with rainbow-gray color. A sorceress? She almost resembled a goddess.

She pulled on her Mask and her armor rushed to cover her body faster than before. It did not look different visually other than an additional shine to the metal parts, but it had also become much stronger. Her boots stayed utterly silent as she slowly stalked toward Alloran. "You could be forgiven for attacking me." Her mystical voice sounded brutally calm. "I'm strangely forgiving where that is concerned." Her hands shot out and grabbed his shirt, and she yanked him off his feet with casual strength. "Going after my husband originally, though? Not a chance on my forgiveness there, dumbass."

She turned and threw him to the side, and he rolled smack into one of the beams of the equipment. He spit blood out of his mouth and then swiped his arm across his face. Later, he knew, they would have to battle, but right then he could not touch her. It was all he could do to bear the knowledge that he could have killed her. He drew a vial from his pocket and shattered it onto the ground. The tiny creature within let out a small roar and then grew to immense size and bared its claws. "Deal with him for now, Defender of Iris," Alloran said curtly as he disappeared.

She tilted her head slightly as Rodi stepped up next to her and then turned to look at him with a smile. "Contact the others so they can come watch. I don't need the help." She started to step away, turned back, and caught his shirt to pull him down for a hard kiss. When she finally released him, she flipped her tightly packed braid back over her shoulder as she began walking toward the Gensome.

Rodi shook his head hard to clear it of the happy fog of desire she had so deliberately provoked, and he had to smile wryly. Ice Flower Elements were far from the cool ones of the elemental family. In fact, they sometimes burned the hottest of all. As he reached for his PCA, it began chirping on its own. He pulled it out and said, "Hi Leslie. No, you're not wrong."

By the time the rest of the team arrived, the fight had all but ended. Tasia casually leaned against the playground equipment with her arms crossed, and the monster cowered on the ground before her. Rodi stood next to her, and at sensing the others, he looked over and said wryly, "I don't think Shanae was joking about that 'judgment' thing in arcanistry. Tasia took one shot with her power, and, well . . ." He gestured vaguely.

It would have been scary if they hadn't all had inexorable belief in Tasia's ability to only do good. She had no limitations imposed on her by outside forces the way others did; the only thing that limited her was her own driving need to create positive energy. It did not seem hard to determine what had happened to her, either. Her Flower Marks still glowed visibly through her armor.

Leslie walked over to Tasia and looked up into her eyes directly. She saw what she had been expecting and, without a word, wrapped her arms around her waist and held on. Tasia held her just as tightly and smiled a little as she rubbed her cheek against her twin's hair. "It's alright, Les," she said softly. Still holding the other woman, she looked at her friends who had various degrees of anger on their faces. Rhya, in particular, had a look of pure fury on her face. It didn't surprise Tasia much, for Rhya was fiercely protective in that way only a Delphinian could be. "I promise, guys. I'm fine."

"Who is the new dragon?" Emily asked as she saw Haeth sitting beside Striker on the metal bar near Tasia's head. "They're lovely!" She looked closer. "Actually, they sort of look like your pendant, Tasi, which is probably on purpose."

Haeth smiled. "It is, and thank you. I am Haeth, an Elder dragon. I have been with Tasia's family since the start. I bonded first with Liena, and then Jean, and now Tasia. She is my final mistress. I will be with her until time ends. Her pendant is the symbol of my dedication."

"Is it terrible of me to say I sort of want to hug you because you're so pretty?" Ryan asked. His eyes widened a bit as Haeth flew over and dropped into his hands. "Uhm, hi!" He could not resist snuggling her since she had offered.

"It's okay, Ry," Raine told him on a laugh. "Dragons and humans have this mutual 'oh my gosh you're so cute I want to cuddle you!' dynamic that has been going on forever, especially where witches are concerned. For any dragon you randomly think 'can I keep them?' or 'can I cuddle them?' I will guarantee a dragon has thought it about you. And, hey, one might eventually actually do so, like Haeth and Striker did with Tasia."

"So, what do we do with the monster?" Theo asked as he jerked a thumb at the creature in question.

"Better yet, what did you already do?" Beth put in dryly.

"Mostly just cowed it. I didn't want to destroy it until you guys were here so I could show you what sort of extra potential we have in our generation. That magikry inside us—well, arcanistry in me—means something very special that is apparently unlocked when we reach a second tier and can access more magic from our worlds. By blending the magic and majik inside us, even those with defensive magic will have access to a potent sort of attack. I knew we had the potential for it and that we would eventually gain access to it, but I wasn't sure how or when until I forced my Seed to evolve just now." Tasia straightened and began to walk toward the Gensome.

She held out a hand and her sword appeared obediently. "Summoning!" she ordered, and arcanistry billowed up around in her swirls of rainbow-gray. She swung the sword up and drew a perfect pentagram in the air, starting at the top point in order to invoke. The pentagram began to spin faster and faster until she hurled it into the sky. "Eternal Glacier!"

Snow dropped in from the sky and covered everything, even those standing around. A little wisp of wind made snowballs start rolling and they stacked themselves together into snowmen. Something rumbled in the distance and frozen meteors hurled violently to the ground. They consumed the snowmen and began to run together into a single heap until they merged together and rose up as a solid titan made of ice that towered over even the tallest humans. Tasia moved up beside the titan, and even she looked unexpectedly short. She calmly snapped her fingers, and the titan lunged at the Gensome. The cowering beast had nowhere to dodge and nowhere to hide. The titan grabbed it up in a powerful bear hug and froze it solid in seconds. Cracks began to appear and spread, and then both exploded into fragments of ice dust that sparkled like diamonds as it filtered through the air.

"I don't think she needed the help," Emily managed to say. "How is it fair for a sorceress to be a summoner as well?"

"Well, it couldn't be just the rest of us," Theo told her reasonably, though not without some unsteadiness of his own. "But, yeah, okay. A little overkill. Damn, Tasi."

Beth felt strangely calm, actually, and walked over to stand beside her leader as Tasia removed her Mask again. "All of us, huh?" she said quietly. "We can all do that." She shrugged with a smile. "Well, we basically did it once before when we helped summon the Arian Draconis to fight Armand. That should've been our first clue. Actually, it probably was the first clue for you two pattern masters. So now we'll just do it on purpose. Right, Tasi?" She blinked as she saw her friend holding a hand against her forehead in a familiar way. "Anastasia, don't you dare!"

Luckily she was strong and fast for her size. She caught Tasia as her knees gave out. "Ooph!" She braced her feet so that she could hold up her friend. "I think you've gained weight, hon. You definitely hit some sort of plateau that must be what affected your hair. Maybe you finally stopped evolving after becoming Gray, and your Light and Dark aspects are now maxed." The weight of her majik alone made Tasia weigh much more than she appeared; in fact, she weighed close to eighty pounds more than what her body's blend of sheer muscle and soft curve should. Magic did not have a weight, thankfully, else she could have weighed a literal ton. The others with majik only weighed ten to twenty pounds more than expected, other than Rodi who was closer to sixty or so.

Majik could just as fully effect strength, however, so Rodi had no issues moving his mate even against her will. He ran over and lifted her into his arms, and his heart pounded with fear that only lessened once he touched her and felt her sheer exhaustion. "Easy." He pressed lips to her forehead and let his majik well with gold color. It brought the scent of the black poppy with it, and Tasia's entire body went limp as she dropped peacefully asleep. "There. Someone transport us all home."

Storm took care of it, and Rodi carried Tasia to their shared room. Beth's words danced in his mind as he gently undressed his wife for bed. It actually wasn't just power that had increased Tasia's weight. She had put on some physical pounds as well, and all of her curves had been much more pronounced lately. It gave her already beautiful body that much more appeal and vividly put impressions of goddesses into not just his but their friends' minds.

His lips curved as he got into bed beside her and tugged her safely into his arms. He kind of hoped the extra softness stayed. Sure, she would complain that she didn't need more curve or muscle, but it honestly did suit her Gray core, bringing more balance to her body's blend of magic/majik and strength. He couldn't blame Shanae for wanting to get Tasia in front of a camera, with or without clothes. In fact, he half expected Shana to start in as well. Thinking about it, he fell asleep smiling.

He wasn't smiling when someone began incessantly ringing the doorbell several hours later. He disentangled himself from his wife's sleepy grip and yanked on a pair of pants. He had just enough presence of mind not to slam the door as the others in the house might still be asleep. His mood didn't improve when he yanked open the front door and found Desiree, Shana, and Juliet standing there. "Go away."

"Good morning to you too," Shana said dryly.

He retorted, "You Elders need to sharpen your senses. Tasia was attacked last night. She's trying to sleep and so are the others!"

Desiree frowned. "Is she alright?" She caught movement and looked over his shoulder to see Ryan approaching. He was fully dressed and carrying a cup of coffee. He swung Rodi around, put the coffee in his hands, and shoved him toward the kitchen. Desiree began to smile. "Hmm. You remind me of someone. I can't imagine who."

Ryan grinned at her. "There's some of Dad in me as well. Not a lot, but some." He sighed and stepped back to let them in. "Come on in. Right now the only one still sleeping is Tasi. The others either found jobs around town or are trying to sneak off to a duel without her guardian knowing but of course the guardian knows and is following her."

"Must be Rhya and Raine." Shana sat down on one of the chairs in the living room. "Since you just mentioned Tasia is asleep, it couldn't be Leslie." She draped her legs over the other arm of the chair and grinned as Ryan lifted a brow. "When you're a twin on either side of the equation, you understand how things work. Phoo. You think I and Siobhan give Alexandria and Sherry trouble? Ask Sam or Mike about Rocky and Edgar!"

"How is Tasia?" Juliet asked Rodi as he walked back into the living room. He seemed a little less peeved, so she felt safe talking to him again.

"She'll be fine," he said. "She's just exhausted from reaching her next tier and from finding Haeth."

"Haeth!" Shana's eyes lit brilliantly with delight. "I have not seen her since Jean died, so it makes me happy to know she found Tasia so fast. Hmm." She pursed her lips. "That is . . . strange sounding. Is it mostly complicated but something not to worry about?"

"Yes," Rodi said dryly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go join my wife." He handed the empty coffee mug to Ryan and disappeared down the hall.

The three Elder Defenders watched him go and then Juliet commented half to herself, "That is one exquisite specimen of the male of the species. And having had the good fortune to be around superbly fine samples for over five millennia, I feel justified in my opinion. Magenta and black must be the colors of the black poppy, since he's basically got that all over. He's only the second person I've known with shadows in his eyes, but his are magenta."

"Yeah, Allister—er, Aldan—has a light gray shadow that echoes to him being Light Shadow," Ryan agreed. He plopped down onto a chair. "Tasi says it has more to do with the person themselves than anything about their power. People born Shadow whether Light or Dark or True have shadows in their eyes. Before she evolved and forced her core to become Gray, the swirl on her eyes always looked muddled and stifled."

"Because she should have been born Gray and True Shadow," Desiree murmured.

"Right. Once she was both, the swirl unmuddied and became clearly shadowy. That's why Chance doesn't have shadows in his eyes: because he wasn't born Dark Shadow. That's what Tasia said anyway, when I asked."

Shana contemplated things she had known and wondered. "Could his eyes gain those shadows? It just feels like . . . he should have them. Because he's the only one who doesn't."

Ryan hesitated. "You know, I asked that too. And Tasia said that it could happen if he fully embraced what he has become as a Dark Shadow. She said for all his seeming comfort with his gifts, he's actually not really."

"Yeah," Juliet murmured, "because he can't figure out why he has them. The rest of us have suspicions though."

"We know why he does." He grinned. "And you're probably right either way. It's not exactly been subtle to anyone who 'gets' certain things. I told Tasia I was ready to help do whatever was needed, and she laughed at me."

"Ah, there we go." Shana grinned as well. "That you get from your father."

 

* * * * *

Rhya felt extremely lucky that she had gotten out of the house unseen. She snuck along the alley between two buildings, determined to find and challenge Alloran to make him pay for what he had done. She knew it was really Leslie's right, or Rodi's, but both seemed fine with the outcome. She wasn't. Alloran had hurt one of her dearest friends, and he would pay.

An arm shot out of the darkness and wrapped around her waist just as another hand clamped over her mouth to muffle her startled shriek. Struggling madly, she at first didn't recognize the person who had grabbed her, and then she looked down and saw a familiar peach boot with copper armoring.

She slumped over with relief, and Raine released her. The Metal Defender felt no guilt at all for scaring her princess as she had. She had deserved a good scare for sneaking off without someone to guard her back! "Serves you right, Rhya Chivanti!" she scolded. She crossed her arms tightly. "Now, mind telling me what the weighted hells you thought you were doing?"

Still holding a hand pressed to her heart because it wasn't steady, Rhya scowled. "Nobody was going to do anything! Tasia got hurt and it was bad because it made her so tired like that and okay it's fine that she evolved to another tier but Alloran isn't supposed to hurt her and I had to do something!" The last came out in a powerful rush punctuated when she stomped a foot. "Rainy, can't you see I couldn't stand idle?"

Raine smiled. "Yes, I understand. She's my sister, Rea, so of course I understand. I was fine to wait for Alloran to come to us. He's probably already riddled with guilt for hitting her. Remember who he is, and who she is. That was enough for me for now."

"Well, I can't wait for him to come to us!" Rhya protested. "I hate that! I hate that so much! Why don't we ever just find evil and march in to beat it up?"

"Because those of you most prone to marching in are damned squishy!" Raine's tone was light, but her eyes looked intent behind her Mask. She caught Rhya's chin in her hand. "I am the second of our team. I will allow you to do this thing you need to do, because Tasia herself said you and Leslie could be our equals as you need. Now, that was with the caveat that your value is still placed over ours, and you will not risk yourselves on our behalf, so you risking yourself for Tasia would normally push the rules."

"But . . . ?"

"But because I know how painfully bad this is burning inside you, I will permit it under a caveat of my own: I will be going with you. You may have gained a fair bit of physical combat skill under our Lead's tutelage, Rhya, but you are still not nearly strong enough to go alone." Her voice hardened. "Either I go along, or you don't go at all."

Put like that, what choice did she have? Not for the first time, she truly understood and sympathized with her parents and having twin souls just as stubborn as they were. It could be very vexing. "Oh, alright." She took Raine's hand and started walking again. "I figured on finding a place safe for a fight and then trying to call him there."

"I recommend the top of Chivanti Corporation building. It's the tallest, large enough, and I know for fact that it has shields on it because Tasia put them there personally shortly after we arrived." She paused, then said, "Why are we walking there?"

Rhya stopped. "Uhm. No reason." Her cheeks pink for forgetting she had transport magic, she used said magic to swiftly carry them to the top of the building in question. She had spent so many years sneaking out of the palaces with Leslie that she sometimes forgot transporting magic was a thing.

She could not help the nerves as she moved toward the center of the roof. It was probably not the stupidest thing she had ever done, but it likely ranked high. She very nearly decided to change her mind when Alloran abruptly appeared. Before she could say a word, ugly magic blasted from his fingers that smashed into her armor and knocked her tumbling across the ground.

Raine would have leapt forward but he quickly fired off another blast that bound her with energy bands. It was doubly alarming that he could even do it; Alloran was not just from the non-direct lineage of Aria, he had no Seed whatsoever. He should not have had magic or majik in any dose. Where had he gotten this power?

"Rea!" Raine struggled hard, but she couldn't manage to free herself. She could only watch in mounting fury and anger as Alloran approached Rhya. She knew he was intent on taking her princess' Life Orb, and she would be damned if she allowed it! Gold majik swept across her eyes as she sent a call toward her sister with her mind alone. She did not need to have Telepathy to make the call.

Alloran walked over to look down at Rhya, and her legs suddenly lashed out to kick him in the back of the knee. He landed on his ass with a yelp of surprise. She scrambled up and away and then swung around. Her Illusion magic swiftly created a shield around her as she desperately tried to think of a plan. Her gift of Present Sight inexplicably stirred, and her eyes went wide as she stared no longer at the rooftop but at somewhere else entirely.

Fields of every flower imaginable went on forever as an eternally sunset sky swept across overhead. She had been there before, hundreds of times, in what she had once believed were daydreams but had come to realize were not once she had been introduced to the idea of astral projection. The Immortal Fields of the Ephemeral Plane, a place where the dreams of all that lived were housed. She had not been back in over four years. She had thought that perhaps realizing it was not a daydream had removed her ability to visit, and she had been too shy to ask someone to take her there.

Though there was no sound, suddenly she knew he was there. Her secret friend, her most beloved person other than Raine. For almost six years, they had walked and talked and she had fallen painfully in love without realizing it was real or he may be her destiny. She had never even known his name until uncovering the truth of her trips. Softly, she whispered, "Pallas?"

His arms went around her to cover her hands. He was barely taller, not that much bigger, but she had never felt so utterly safe in her life. Honestly, not even Raine or Tasia made her feel so secure. But then, Raine may have been her twin soul, but she was not her Caretaker, and only a Cultivator's Caretaker could ever make even their heart and soul feel as if they could never be harmed. Rhya loved Raine and Pallas with equal depth and fury, but each filled a different and specific need inside her.

"I am here," his familiar voice whispered in her ear. "I cannot come to you yet, my princess. I cannot Care for you as I long to do. But I can give you something. A gift. Hold it close until I can hold you. Soon. I vow, soon, we will meet in person."

His lips caressed her cheek and she closed her eyes at wishing to feel the touch for real. It felt barely there, as ever. She had never felt desire for Pallas before for her body had never been near to his; just her spirit. Now the reverse was true, with his spirit near to her body, and she felt the stirring inside that was a promise of the fury of a lover soul mate's hunger.

Her eyes opened and she discovered herself back on the roof, in the shield, and barely a second had passed. She slowly looked down and discovered that her hands now held a beautiful wand made from willow wood and topped with a shimmering opal bound in gold threads. Of all the witches in her circle, she had actually not yet made a wand for herself. Even Emily had finished making hers, and she had grumbled across four years over the silliness of it. A wand could focus and channel a witch's raw power in a myriad of ways, and was of particular use to those still learning, though even one such as Tasia still used a wand faithfully.

Tasia had said their entire team met the criteria for strong enough majik to become an attack, and now that Rhya had her wand, she no longer had purely defensive skills. Defensive magic, but offensive majik. Perfect magikry.

She dropped the shield abruptly and went running toward Alloran. He looked surprised enough by it that her empty hand cracked across his jaw in a painful, and unexpectedly powerful, punch. He immediately swung back around on a snarl and his counter punch landed hard against the breastplate of her armor. It was her turn to land hard on her butt, and before she could recover, a blast of bitter magic hit her in the chest. It went right through and tore out the back, and with it came her Life Orb. It did not glow near as brightly as Tasia's, and it looked smaller, but that in no way took from the fact that it still looked like shimmering crystal gemstone with white veins.

She could not hold herself up and fell over onto her side. She could hear Raine shouting her name repeatedly yet could not answer her. She just stared up at the Orb with glazed eyes and wished with all her heart for the strength to save herself.

 

©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.

Chapter 7->