The month ticked by with remarkable quiet given the circumstances. No one in the Rebirth Era found Allister, and they could only wait for word one way or another from Resurrection since that Era had far more possible landscape to cover thanks to the reborn worlds and new alliances. Life could only continue on, and Rachel was forced her to shove down her worry. As Shana had said, if Allister had been hurt or worse, Rachel would already know.
At the end of October rolled around the second harvest festival known as All Hallows', and the week leading up to it became a flurry of activity. It was a night when majik and magic alike became stronger, more than just those with Ghost Sight would see spirits, and people dressed up in costumes to confuse any spirits that might want to follow them home. The celebration had been around for millennia, and it lasted even into the Resurrection Era. It had actually become bigger in the future thanks to that Era finally restoring the Faith to its full footing; it was a sacred day for witches on the Path.
That year of the Rebirth Era meant that witches both non-Faith and Faith alike had certainly begun to emerge from their isolation, but they did not walk with the full exposure they would gain over the next five thousand years. Still, Tasia felt no concern for her safety, or the safety of her friends, or any of the other witches on Protea at that moment. The one night you would never want to accost a witch was All Hallows' for that could get you literally smited by the Goddess. Tasia had no objections to doing some smiting of her own if needed, really.
She would be in the thick of Lux's annual festival, though, so smiting might be hard to find time to do. Her father had recruited her to put on the majik show—given that she had no limitations and could make it particularly fun—and she hadn't been able to resist. The propensity toward a theatrical nature came through her lineage in many ways. Doug had handed off music to her that she had written the lyrics to, ensuring they would start the performance with a bang.
She turned away from where she had been watching the street from a window and patted away a yawn. As crazy as it may be, she had been wanting a lot of naps recently. She could only assume that having a second black poppy on her Flower Mark had perhaps integrated the restful effects into her more directly. She hoped it ebbed eventually; she was too busy for all these naps her body kept demanding.
"Help!" Leslie walked into the family room. "Lace me in, will you?"
"Sure." Tasia began competently lacing up the back of the corset her twin wore. "You'll take any excuse to wear one of these."
"Hey, they're comfortable and I look good in them. I just want someone to make a self-lacing kind so I'm not always needing someone help me get dressed and undressed." She turned around once laced and pulled on a short vest over the top. "How do I look? Suitably 'not really me' to muddle some ghosts' perception?"
Tasia studied the shorts, corset over opened shirt, and vest combination and grinned. "Frankly, I think you're going to muddle just about anyone who looks at you. I'm not sure whether you're an adventurer or a warden or maybe a combination thereof, but you definitely look like you walked out of some fantasy theatrical, so you should be good." She tapped Leslie's nose. "Just don't give someone a heart attack."
Leslie sighed. "Yeah, I could only wish. I'm pretty sure he still sees me as a kid in the future let alone now, despite the fact that I turned twenty-five earlier this month." She scowled. "No one mentioned how utterly frustrating it would be to hit adulthood, get sideswiped by the full force of desire for a lover soul mate, and then not be able to do anything about it because said soul mate is so blind to things it's a wonder his eyes work in the light at all!"
Laughter welled in Tasia. "Well, to be fair, you're in an unusual position. Normally a Cultivator chasing a Caretaker has on their side the fact that the Caretaker fully knows the power of the various emotions between them; they're usually just scared of all it means. Hence those nice laws protecting all Cultivators. Leverage is good. You're starting a few steps back from the normal line because Chance is so much older. You need to rattle him pretty good to make him see you as an adult, and then you can move on with the chase."
"Which depending on his reaction to being rattled will be either hard, really hard, or 'thank god I'm my parents' child because I'm going to have to plan every word I say and move I make in order to get who and what I want'," she grumbled. She raked a hand through her loose hair. She had left down her normal, much beloved, pigtails for the night, and the striated black and white locks fell around her shoulders. "I just had to fall in love with the one person guaran-damn-teed sure to fight tooth and nail over everything."
"Hence the armoring of a different sort."
She coughed lightly. "Well," she said defensively, "it never hurts to lay the groundwork, right? The Memory Lag Delay at the start of the next Era will wipe anything that happens here from his mind until the two times realign, so it won't affect anything important. He won't get memories of what happened here back until shortly after we return. So I figure I scope out things on this side out of convenience, maybe rattle him a bit, and then whatever I start here I can build on in the future after the dust settles." She picked up her lipstick and expertly applied a coat as she peered in a mirror. "All is fair in love and war." She tossed back her hair. "I don't lose any wars."
"That's my girl." Tasia glanced over at hearing doors open and then politely stepped back as Beth ran down the hall and executed a perfect cartwheel and backflip that ended in the splits. The move perfectly suited the sports cheer team uniform she had donned. A hexball specific one, of course, because Tyson would stop talking to her otherwise; the coach took his game seriously.
Rhya, just because she could, had dressed like a doctor. It paid homage to her mother and grandmother alike. Siobhan still actively worked at the hospital in this Era, and hers and Rocky's birth mother had retired as a nurse from the same only ten years earlier. Octavia Toulume may have been approaching eighty in age, but she still ran herd on her blood and adopted children alike; she had raised both Siobhan and Rocky, and Edgar and Shana.
Raine had dressed like a hexball player and borrowed a uniform from the university; she had actually been a player at university during her tenure in the future, so it wasn't completely pretending to be someone else, but she had promised Beth to have matching outfits, and she looked forward to making her father sputter at hearing she had a higher goal count than he did. Theo had decided to play along and wore a uniform from an opposing team; he had not played before, but he had thought it would be fun to complete the group set.
Storm, Emily, and Ryan had opted for a set as well. All three had dressed in the formal attire normally worn by orchestra musicians, and they all carried deliberately cheap and toy-like instruments. As soon as someone addressed them, they launched into an enthusiastic and terrible rendition of the first song they could bring to mind. Neither Storm nor Emily actually had any musical talent, but Ryan had proven adept with a guitar and possessed decent vocal skills of his own. He stayed in the Master range only, though he did skirt fairly close to Shaman.
Neither Rachel nor Rodi had dressed in costume since they had agreed to help as technical support for the festival. They would be aiding and assisting Tasia with the actual performance and keeping things running smoothly. Still, for fun, Rachel had put on a pink wig, and Rodi wore a headband that had pumpkins attached to it via springs. They bounced every time he turned his head.
Tasia blinked at him. "Where did you get that?"
"Sherry," he countered dryly. He held out the bag he had been carrying. "She stuck it on me when I went to pick up your costume for you. I thought it was cute, so I kept it. Why not, right? It's the night to be someone else."
"So what does that make you?" Theo asked dryly. "The Pumpkin King?"
"Considering who I married, she of the 'carve all the pumpkins into lanterns for everyone every year' mindset, you're not wrong."
"Those pumpkin lanterns scare off spirits with bad intent." Tasia briefly stuck her tongue out at him. "Now quit sassing me. The festival is starting and I feel like making some majik."
"Are you sure you don’t mean arcanistry?" Rhya countered politely.
"Well, probably that too."
* * * * *
They split up as soon as they arrived, and Leslie wandered over toward the midway's archery area. She loved festival games, and she was an expert shot thanks to archery being included as part of her various physical training efforts over her life. Honestly, few Proteans ever turned down any sort of training if it indulged their Dark core's need to be physical. Leslie felt compelled for a little indulging of her own. However, the speckles of Light also inside her core meant that she mostly felt compelled to get something adorable and squishy to make her cousin squeal like a kid. It would be funny.
As she was studying a particularly interesting game, a hard hand fell on her arm. Instinct kicked in. She grabbed the hand and yanked as she twisted her body to get away. It should have freed her, but the man holding her somehow knew the same move. Before she could blink, she was reversing direction and coming up against a strong male chest, and arms snapped tight around her waist to keep her from getting away.
Her temper spiked. "Now look here you . . .!" The words stopped abruptly as she realized she was staring up into a familiar pair of blue eyes filled with a combination of disbelief and consternation. "Chance?!" She should have realized. As she took stock of their positions, she realized her body had instinctively molded itself to his. Two halves of a whole. Her perfect soul mate. She could only stare up at him in shock.
He was no less shocked. When he had seen her walking through the area, he had been sure his eyes were playing tricks on him. It couldn't be Leslie Ann. He had stopped her fully prepared to discover the sultry, dark haired adventurer was not his princess, but he had discovered instead a feisty warrior who knew a move he had invented, and one who fit entirely too comfortably in his arms. The gut punch of desire felt powerful and embarrassing and unexpected. He had honestly never felt desire before for anyone in any shape, let alone that forcefully. He let her go as fast as he could. "Excuse me for not recognizing you," he told her sharply, "since you decided to go to an extreme for the holiday. You knew you'd get attention dressed like that."
Pink eyes that anyone would happily drown in narrowed to slits at him, and her impossibly kissable mouth curled into a near smirk. "Why, Rubeo Chance," she purred, "does that mean I have yours?" She took a step closer and shifted her weight so that every curve of her body drew attention. His eyes narrowed, and she brushed past him with a toss of her hair. "You said it, Captain. Not I."
He caught her wrist before she got far and then paused for a moment as he stared at the sight of her wrist in his hand. His skin was a couple shades darker than hers in a perfect complementary tone, and somehow she seemed impossibly fragile compared to him. Certainly, she wasn't small, nor was she delicate for she had the Protean build, but something about her stirred up powerful instincts to protect and shelter. It was not actually the first time he had felt the deceptive impression; he had felt it before, meeting her as a child. It just seemed so very . . . different now. He could not see her as a child any longer. "Are you trying to provoke me?"
"You grabbed me. If anyone was doing the provoking, it was you." She snapped her wrist free with casual strength and watched his eyes narrow further. It was damned tempting to kiss those stubborn lips. They would see what provoking was then! "You never change." It was almost a curse as she turned and stalked over to the closest archery game.
Nathaniel was the one in charge, and he had seen the entire exchange. He knew his princess just as well as he knew his queens and kings. He handed her a bow without a word. He was also fully unsurprised when every arrow she fired hit dead center of the target, each one aimed just a little different to form a cluster rather than push the preceding arrow out. "Okay, you're showing off. And you definitely win a prize. Pick whichever you like."
She reached up, took down a gaudy feather boa, and then turned and wrapped it around Chance's neck. Arms crossed, temper still seething around her, she stalked off.
Blandly, Nathaniel said, "It complements your eyes."
Because kids in the area were snickering and giggling, Chance almost ripped the boa off and stormed off the other direction. Nathaniel slowly lifted a brow and then decided he needed to speak with Shana and Rocky at the earliest opportunity. Something about this scenario looked and felt very, very familiar.
All Hallow's happened to be Emily's twenty-ninth birthday, so she indulged in playing all of the games that she could. She even got to wear a little pin on her costume indicating it was her birthday—kids and adults alike got those—so she could skip ahead in a line if she wanted. She only did that with her favorite game, which was a miniature track that had little electric carriages that even kids could drive. Her father was operating it, of course, being a racer himself. He did races designed for endurance, so he didn't drive excessively fast, which saved the sanity of more than one of his friends. The fast races were dangerous, and they even had special tracks made just for them to be sure no innocent bystanders got hurt. Emily had always loved carriages and engines, so meeting Arista and Diego and realizing they were her perfect parents had made sense of a lot; in this Era, Alexandria still built and performed maintenance on engines for all sorts of ECs.
Emily happily hopped out of her little cab when done and ran over to where she had dropped her bag. To her sheer surprise, a present had been stuck in it while her back was turned. It had been wrapped with sparkly blue paper, and she tore it off impatiently. She discovered a professional, expensive, chemistry set inside the paper, and her jaw dropped. The set had been in use for several hundred years already in that Era, and it continued use into the future because no one had made better. Any serious chemist needed one of their own, and she had been saving up to get one as soon as she graduated; something now delayed because of the trip.
She looked over sharply and found Diaz not-so-innocently whistling as he pretended not to look at her. She abandoned all pretenses of maturity as she ran across the area and grabbed him around the waist in a fierce hug. "Thank you, Dad! And probably Mom, too, but you're closest for hugging!" The last four years had felt like such a miracle to her, to have parents to love and be loved by, and getting to continue enjoying it in the past helped ease homesickness.
Diaz hugged her back and hid his face in her hair briefly. His baby. Such a perfect replica of her mother, but with the best of him mixed in as well. "Well, a little bird whispered in our ears. Happy birthday, Em." The sound of music suddenly filled the area, and he glanced around with a smile as all the kids went running. "Sounds like the show is beginning. Let's go check it out."
All the seats were packed, so they grabbed places at the back with the others in their extended family and watched as smoke and fire exploded on stage. As the audience cheered, the effects faded away to reveal a single figure kneeling in the middle of the stage. Crystals dripped from the chains in her long hair and wrapped around her wrists, ankles, and waist. She wore a single dragon pendant, and her costume consisted of a gray corset with a pale purple sheer drape that went around the front and the back where it fell in waves past her waist. The skirt she wore was gray and short in the front while it fell in long pleats to the floor in the back. On her feet were gray ankle boots and on her hands were gray wrist gloves.
She slowly stood up and conjured a microphone to hand, causing more cheers to erupt. Majik welled up around her with silver-gold color as she moved forward and let her voice lift into the music with power that could not be contained.
Crystals and pendulums, swinging from a silver rope
Prophecies engraved in stone, foretold through cards
Through these means and methods, my Sight expands
Crafting spells in the dead of night
The power to craft is something I embrace in my heart
Letting my soul free to fly through other worlds
Majik and dragons surrounding me
Come with me and lift me higher than the sky
Visions in my blood show me the end
The time when everything will come to a stop
Majik and dragons surrounding me
I believe in their power and the power that's mine
I'll command the sky and call the land
Believing the power of love is strongest of all
Even expecting it, having experienced it, neither generation could really breathe as they listened to beautiful voice pouring out power. In some ways, they responded harder and faster to the Mystic's call because of their own power.
Leslie hesitated and then reached out a hand to touch Chance's without looking at him. He didn't say anything, but he did return the touch and briefly catch her hand in mutual apology.
Watching them, Shana just smiled.
Dragons fly with me like my truest friends
Falling stars are prophecies, crystal dragon tears
The power to believe is something I embrace in my soul
Letting my heart free to fly through other worlds
Majik and dragons surrounding me
Come with me and lift me higher than the sky
Visions in my blood show me the end
The time when everything will come to a stop
Majik and dragons surrounding me
I believe in their power and the power that's mine
I'll command the sky and call the land
Believing the power of love is strongest of all
As the song continued, Beth suddenly realized she could feel a very majikal power from someone else entirely. A very young majik that still felt surprisingly strong. She looked swiftly through the audience, and then Rhya tugged on her sleeve and pointed; her Sensing skill had found it faster. A little girl of about six or seven years, dressed like an Iris Defender Cultivator—there was a high density of Defender costumes as a whole—had begun to softly glow with a subtle silver color invisible to non-majik eyes. She actually looked a bit eerily alike to Tasia, including the same chocolate hair. Beth and Rhya exchanged a nod of agreement; they needed to meet this child somehow.
Majik and dragons surrounding me
Come with me and lift me higher than the sky
Visions in my blood show me the end
The time when everything will come to a stop
Majik and dragons surrounding me
I believe in their power and the power that's mine
I'll command the sky and call the land
Believing the power of love is strongest of all
The music came to a crashing finish, and the entire place burst into loud applause and whistles. Tasia waved a hand with a laugh and her eyes sparkled as she realized just how much fun she was having; more than she had expected, really. She waved a hand toward the audience and set off an array of sparkling lights over everyone's heads. "Hello, Lux! Welcome to the All Hallows' Festival! I'm Anastasia, and I'm your host for the night!" She felt no issues using her real name; Clara had already promised to go through and clean up any 'loose threads' that could cause trouble. "Let's start with some majik! Who wants to help me?"
Hands across the space began waving wildly from adult and child alike. Her eyes went across them quickly to find the majik she had Sensed during the song, and she knew immediately when she had found it. A little shiver of premonition went down her back as she realized the girl could have been her daughter. She had Tasia's chocolate hair and Rodi's opaque black eyes with their magenta undertone, and a familiar mocha hue to her skin. She looked a bit taller than average for her age as well, something both Tasia and Rodi could claim. "Let's see . . . you!" She snapped her fingers, and the girl floated up out of her seat and toward the stage. She giggled the whole way. As she landed, Tasia knelt in front of her and smiled. "What's your name?"
"Anna." Enchanted by the incredible power she could distinctly sense in the beautiful woman smiling at her, she barely kept from blurting out that she wanted to be a witch, too. Even more powerful was the urge to just . . . throw her arms around Tasia and beg her to never leave. "What can I do to help?"
Tasia did not get a chance to respond before a familiar feeling swept through her blood. Her head jerked up just as Icewings poured into the area. Screams began to fill the air. The monsters directly went after anyone wearing a Defender costume, and Tasia shot to her feet with a hand protectively in front of Anna as the birds circled the area without not yet noticing them.
Anna clung tighter to Tasia's leg, and Tasia swept her eyes over the crowd. A man seemed to be trying to come toward the stage, and he had nearly chocolate hair. He could not seem to make it through the crowd, however, and Tasia called to him, "Go! She's safer with me! Get to somewhere you can be safe as well!"
The man met her eyes, studied her intently, and then nodded before fleeing back the way he had come toward safety. The crowd was flooding out the exits and the immediate area had nearly cleared. Tasia took a step backward and kept Anna back safely as Icewings at last spotted them and started moving in. "You won't touch her!" she snarled.
"They want me?" Anna whispered in a tiny voice.
"Baby, they want any Ice Flower Element they can find, and you have that as much as I do." Along with two others, if Tasia was not mistaken. The not-yet-woken witch might possess the ability to become a wizard someday—another connection to Tasia and Rodi, for Tasia was of course a sorceress, and Rodi had hovered for years at the cusp of evolving to wizard himself.
"Tasi, go!" Theo shouted as he vaulted over the seats with his Mask in his hand. "We'll cover your back!"
"Thanks!" She scooped Anna up and ran off the back of the stage past Rodi and Rachel as they went running toward the battle. She ducked into the crowd still fleeing and dodged gracefully through as she attempted to find Anna's father again. The plan had to be abandoned partway, however, as an Icewing latched onto her trail and started pursuing them. She diverted away from the crowd in hopes of keeping them safe.
There were many dead ends in the festival grounds, and they eventually got stuck in one. She put Anna down and stepped in front of her protectively as the Icewing confronted them. The small girl immediately grabbed her skirt and bit back a sob. "No! You'll be killed!" she wailed.
A combined blast of Fire and Water magic poured through the air and made the Icewing screech in pain. It melted away immediately. Tasia held up a hand and called, "Haeth! Striker! To me!" The two dragons flew over to her, and Striker landed on her wrist as Haeth landed on her shoulder. She turned and knelt in front of a now wide-eyed Anna. "These are my partners. Striker and Haeth."
"C-can I hug them?" Anna whispered. Sheer happiness lit her face as Striker nodded his head firmly in agreement, and she reached out to pick him up. He felt a little heavier than she expected, but warm and safe and his rainbow scales just looked so pretty.
Tasia's blood boiled warningly with the feel of danger, and she heard a screech. A look showed more Icewings approaching. Better to be armored than not, so she grabbed her Mask from its bracelet and pulled it on. She spied an attack incoming and grabbed Anna and Striker alike into her arms. The blast of ice froze parts of her armor but did far less damage than the last time she had been hit, thanks to her evolution. "We're going to run," she whispered. "Hold onto me."
Anna clung onto her neck tightly as Tasia lifted her and started running. She seemed to just . . . fly over the top of the wall blocking them. She ran only a short distance before another Icewing spied them and spit more ice at them. Tasia dodged the blast and rolled quickly across the ground to move her and Anna safely out of sight behind a tent. When they stopped rolling, she loosened her arms. "Are you okay?"
"Yes." Anna sat up and then went white as she saw the gray blood sliding down Tasia's face under her Mask. Something had split her skin open across her cheek where her Mask did not cover. It never once occurred to Anna that the gray blood would be unusual or frightening. Instead, it seemed beautiful somehow. "You're hurt!" She instinctively reached out and touched the wound with only the fierce wish to make it go away. Something moved inside her body and soul, and silver light flared around her fingers. She promptly yanked her hand back, terrified she had done something wrong.
Tasia felt the wound closing and smiled. "Little healer," she said tenderly. She caught the girl's small hands in her own. "Never," she said softly, "be afraid of the majik inside you. It is a beautiful gift. I will help you learn to use it while I am here, alright?"
"You're going to leave soon?" Anna whispered.
"I have to eventually." Her head jerked up at a sound and she saw Icewings hurling toward them. Luckily, before they got close, a shield of Fire magic safely ensconced Tasia and Anna alike and the beasts melted on contact. The shield then faded, and she huffed out a breath of relief as she saw Theo and Rodi alike running toward her quickly. "Nicely done!" she told them.
"Are you okay?" Rodi demanded as he knelt beside her.
"Just fine." To her horror, though, almost as soon as the words left her mouth, her head spun alarmingly and the world tilted on its axis. Gray edged into her vision and then went black. The next thing she knew, she was opening her eyes to find herself in Rodi's arms. She had been un-armored, and Theo had her Mask. Raine had joined them and was competently examining her. "What. The. Icy. Hells?" She covered her face with a hand. "Did I actually faint? None of you dare mention this!" She included Anna in her glare for good measure.
"What the fiery hells is going on with you lately, Anastasia?" Theo demanded as he sat on the ground. He smiled internally as Anna climbed onto his lap for a cuddle without being asked. Like always recognized like. "You've been flat out strange! Leslie swears she's been smelling black poppies near you in a very unusual way—as in from you and not your husband's influence—and I keep getting flashes in my Sight of red eggs and bunnies! You're oozing Spring Equinox feelings at the wrong time of year, honey."
A little giggle bubbled up before Raine could stop it. The moment she had touched her sister, she had finally got the confirmation for what she had suspected all along. She owed Logan money; he had called it first. "Well," she said cheerfully, "pregnant folks do tend to start projecting fertility into the air around them!" As eyes widened, she lightly touched Tasia's belly again and felt anew the powerful pulse of life and magikry. "Yep. Roughly over a month along. I would put money on conception happening the day before your hair grew." She started laughing. "That explains the weight gain and cravings—those can start early in some folks—and it also explains the naps lately! Those black poppies must be because the baby is half Arian blooded even though he'll be a Ruler for Iris."
Tasia could barely find a single word as she stared at her sister. She did not doubt her power, not when it was fueled by her Sensing skill as well. She just couldn't figure out the timing. After a four-year relationship with her husband that could only be called tempestuous where they had never really tried to stop pregnancy from happening, it had happened now? "Well."
Rodi's hands framed her face and she looked up to see his eyes shimmering with a blend of love and joy. Her lips trembled as she saw inside him what she felt inside herself: the secret need for family they had both been trying to ignore. It ached into her soul and then spilled as a tender lullaby in the air as she threw her arms around him and held on. A child. A son. She could have been no happier.
The other Resurrection Cultivators came running into the area and skidded to sharp stops in surprise. The lullaby they could feel in their soul only seemed to underscore the life energy they could now see flowing around their leader. "Holy goddess!" Emily yelped. "Don't tell me . . ."
"Yep." Raine grinned. "We're going to have another baby to spoil soon."
"Told you so!" Ryan said to his sister. "You owe me money!"
The entire team descended on Rodi and Tasia with happy whoops to congratulate them, and they laughed and talked over one another. As Anna watched them all, she felt the curious sensation of belonging as though she had returned home. Accepting it, and the power she felt in them all, she leaned against Theo and just smiled. Just like Tasia's song had said, she was surrounded by majik and dragons. It felt so perfect, she had no fears at all. She would have to think about Tasia leaving, though. She didn't want to ever let her go now that she had found her. Ever.
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
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