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.
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