The three women stood together outside the city and talked in low voices. It seemed eerie to see them together for the gloomy light made it near impossible to tell them apart. Two walked away with smiles, and the third went another direction though she was also smiling. Her clothes seemed to dissolve around her until she was bathed in nothing but a swirl of shadows. Her steps echoed hollowly around the area she was in, and the tiny dragon that rode on top of her head suddenly flew up into the sky where she began to grow in size until her body blocked sight and everything went black.
Sherry awoke with a sudden start and sat upright in bed. It jerked Justin awake as well, and he instinctively reached for a weapon before his brain clicked over and reminded him that there was neither any danger nor did he sleep with a weapon beside the bed. He hadn't done that in five thousand years.
He sat up and gathered Sherry close, and he felt her vision invade his mind. The identity of the three women seemed obvious, yet that was the only obvious thing. They did not recognize the new dragon nor did they know why Tasia had become one with the shadows in the way she had, though it did somewhat resemble what had happened to her during her grief.
Justin closed his eyes and decided it was time for the next meeting of all Cultivators and Caretakers. With visions becoming more common and confusing, this one definitely qualified as an emergency.
* * * * *
It was like waking from a long dream. A long, elusive dream that she hadn't been able to either wake from or see the end of. Arabella had drifted for ages, peaceful and lost within the contentment that came from not needing to have to do anything. It had hurt so much on the outside that she had been almost grateful when she had been placed in the sleep.
Time had passed, she didn't know how much, before a voice had pierced into her sleep and called out to her. The voice had echoed with such pain and grief that she had known it was from another who felt emotions. She just knew somehow the owner of the voice would understand her and wouldn't condemn her. That belief was what finally allowed her to wake.
When Alloran heard shifting behind him, he turned and looked toward the bed in shock. Sheer joy eclipsed his face as he got to his feet and went to kneel next to the bed. "Belle?" he asked softly. He caught his wife's hand and held tight to it.
Her lashes fluttered and she opened her eyes. One was blue while the other was green, and both looked murky and confused. She sat up carefully and wondered why none of her muscles seemed to work properly. Seeing her husband made everything better, and she brought his hand up to her cheek. "Good morning," she said softly.
"Belle!" He caught her up in his arms and kissed her with the fury and pain of four lost years. When he released her from the kiss it was only to gather her as close in his arms as he possibly could. "Belle . . . finally . . ."
She slid her arms around his waist and held on tightly with her face pressed against his neck. The dream faded away as she felt the reality of life returning and the comforting strength in her husband's embrace. "How long was I asleep?" she asked huskily.
"Four years," was his rough response. "Well, slightly more than that. It's felt like four thousand." He framed her face in his hands and searched her eyes intently. The memories were either gone or hidden away; for whatever reason, her eyes looked clear and free. "I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth, but why did you wake now?"
She frowned a little. "I'm not sure. I heard this . . . voice. It called to me and I knew whoever owned it would understand me and my gifts. It healed me I think." She felt the shock in him and covered his hands with hers as her abilities woke at last, and she felt blindingly the pain that had etched into her husband's heart and soul. "Ran, what has happened?" she asked urgently. "Whose grief did I feel?"
"Every time I turn around," he whispered roughly, "I'm always hurting her. I can't do this any longer, Belle. I want so badly for us to have our revenge, but the longer it goes on, the more I hurt her. That damned sorceress haunts my bloodline, and she's right in the path of everything going on."
"Revenge?" she repeated. "What revenge? Oh, gods, Ran, what have you been doing?"
"The Resurrection Cultivators killed my father, Belle, and they made Aria into a place where we are not welcome. I determined to seek revenge on them by traveling to the past, finding Life Orbs, and gaining the power to destroy the Rebirth Cultivators and ensure a future never happens where the Resurrection Cultivators are born and therefore we're not forced to leave Aria and you wouldn't be nearly killed."
She could only stare at him in growing horror. "And the sorceress of Liena's blood, the one prophesized to save Aria, is one of the Cultivators?" He nodded, and she smoothed a hand over his arm tenderly. "That explains what I feel in you." It had always fascinated her, the tale of Liena and Kadon and the sorceress descendant who would come to Aria in its time of need. She knew of the fact that descendants of the Aria bloodline would be drawn to the descendants of Liena's, but she felt no jealousy. What she felt inside her husband felt like a elder sibling's love. It made an adorable blend of frustration for her antics, pride for her accomplishments, and a contradictory desire to stash her somewhere safe while also letting her be the independent creature she was.
"Ran," she said quietly, "I think your father lied to you." She held his sleeve when he would have stalked away. "Ran, please. I never believed what he said, that he had claimed the throne after his parents died and his elder sister had been declared unfit to be Ruler, and he had been struggling to Activate himself to save Aria. He didn't have a Seed inside him. He could never be Activated. He . . . he was so empty, Alloran. I could not stand being near him."
He slowly looked at her in shock. "What? Why didn't you tell me?"
"He was your father. You loved him." She tugged him back down to sit beside her again. "I was so overwhelmed in those days, not in control of my own gift, but as I'm looking back now, I'm beginning to think we were fooled all along. When we returned to Aria, it was not long after the Cultivators had left, and your cousin—the final True Born—had begun the process to Deactivate himself and instead Activate his sister. You kept saying the Cultivators had murdered your father, but how did the people of the world describe it?"
A quiver went through him. "They saved Aria." A tremor started at his soul and began to work its way out. "The prophecy had come true, they said. A sorceress of Liena's lineage had joined with a True Born and saved Aria." His shoulders slumped and his head fell onto her shoulder. "A sorceress can't do evil, and neither can Cultivators," he whispered. "I knew that. I just needed something to blame for what happened to you. If Aria hadn't been so cold to us after Father's death, we wouldn't have had to return to your world, and your family wouldn't have tried to kill you, forcing you into that terrible sleep. I wanted to save you so badly, was willing to do anything for it. I thought . . . getting revenge would make everything better. That erasing the Cultivators would fix the future."
"Oh, Ran." She held him tighter as her heart wept. She had always thought Armand could do evil, and now she felt surer than ever that he had. The condition of Aria had been deplorable, and the sheer joy and relief Arabella had felt in all they had met had told her things had been worse than they looked; a daunting thought. But Armand's evil had spread so much further than just Aria: it had burrowed little spikes into his own son, made him vulnerable to hate. It had made him an Other. "We can't change the past," she whispered. She tugged his head up to force him to look at her. "We have to move forward. What has happened lately that is so terrible to leave grief in the air?"
"A week ago, on the eve of the new year," he closed his eyes, "there was a big miscalculation on my part. An innocent man was killed. I am willing to take Life Orbs to get our revenge, but not risk the slaughter of so many. It is a miracle that only one life was lost that night."
Her breath hitched. "Dear gods." She shook her head hard. "No more, Ran! This has to stop. Just make all this stop. I'm fine now. We can find a place where we will be safe. There are dozens of worlds beyond Aria and Tav."
"I can't. I . . . joined with some . . . one. A creature with great power. He allowed me to use powers I would not otherwise, and he is the one who would use the Life Orbs for our revenge. His patience wanes. I have nothing to show for my efforts. I told him it was because of the sorceress and my inability to harm her, but . . ." He dropped his head into his hands. "I don't know anymore, Belle. I don't. When Tasia's grief tore across the world, it gutted me. I can't make her cry anymore. But we have to get Life Orbs, if only to appease the master and get ourselves free. What are we supposed to do? I've made such a terrible mess . . ."
"Alright," she said briskly. "I'll go." When his head came up sharply, she found a smile for him. "Not just to get us a Life Orb, but so that I can find out more about the Resurrection Cultivators. I want to find out from them, directly, what happened on Aria. You will never feel comfortable until you learn the truth, and you know a sorceress cannot lie, right?" He nodded, and then she nodded in turn. "So whatever I can learn has to be fact. Maybe if I can get close enough to them, we can ask them for help."
He shook his head sharply. "I do not trust them! What if you're wrong, Arabella?"
"What if I'm not? You are destroying your soul, Ran, and I will save you this time if I can." She got to her feet and stood for a moment to test if her legs would hold her properly. They did, and she turned to her husband again. "Hold off that master for a little bit, long enough for me to give it a try. I have my majik still, of the Illusion Flower Element. I can get close. Give me something to use to—to attack them." She loathed even saying it but knew all too well it may be a necessary evil. They needed to know. She needed something to give Alloran to hold onto, to bring him back to good and remove the spikes inside his soul where hate had festered.
"Belle . . ."
"Oh stop being such a worrywart!" she admonished. She gave a little sigh of fond exasperation. "I wonder if the sorceress has this much trouble with your cousin! You Arians are such overprotective creatures!"
He thought of the sheer rage in Rodi's eyes that first night, and he winced on a wry smile. "Probably."
* * * * *
Beth deeply loved her part-time job, especially since it happened to be at a small shop big on charm. She boxed up the lovely pearl necklace a customer had purchased and then rang up the cost at the register. Not only did she get to work surrounded by beautiful gems, but her boss was a delightful old lady as well. She spent her time either working with stock in the back or resting her feet with an episodic theatrical on her Visuality.
Part of the fun, Beth acknowledged as she wiped down the glass counter behind which she was standing, was using her Empathy to find the perfect item for each person. She had narrowed it down to such a fine art that she was even able to buy for people they described. Such a practical use for an ability mostly known for not being practical at all.
She glanced in the mirror and adjusted the necklace she wore. That was the other fun part: she got to wear the merchandise to demonstrate how it looked on a live person. Her piece for the day was a pearl string with a topaz drop. She felt a tad tempted to buy it for herself. She heard the bell chime over the door and turned with a smile. "Welcome to Enchanted Dreams!"
No one was there. She blinked in confusion and glanced back to make sure the chime wasn't malfunctioning. Nothing looked out of place. She turned back again and hastily stifled a shriek as she saw someone had come up to the desk unannounced. "Good goddess!" she squeaked.
The woman leaning on the counter grinned at her and didn't say anything at all. She was unknown by Beth, and yet something about her still felt very familiar to the mahogany haired Cultivator. She had pale blue hair that fell in straight lines to her hips, and there were wings of white streaked over each of her ears. She had the willowy but strong form of swimmer or diver—she resembled Desiree in that—and she definitely echoed the feel of the Water Flower Element with an underlying tang of Ice. An interesting line of darker birthmarks climbed down her tanned neck and arms that looked a little like scales.
Beth looked into her eyes and took a quick breath of realization. Not only did the eyes watching her transition in a familiar way from caramel to chocolate and back, but her pupils did not have the round shape of humans: they were the diamond shape of dragons. "Haeth?" she whispered.
Haeth lifted a brow. "Of course. A Coda form can come in all manner of shapes and sizes, depending on our need. We do have to exert effort to hide our marks and eyes, but makeup or clothes handle one and sunglasses," she put on a pair, "handles the other. Also, the older the dragon, the more resources we have." Her marks disappeared into a shimmer of magic. "And speaking of need, I'm here on orders from Tasia. She sent me to get you since you didn't answer your PCA, and I felt a dragon flying in the door might be awkward."
"My phone is in my bag in the back, sorry. What does she need?" She broke off as her boss emerged from the back of the store carrying a water can for the plants across the room. "Ah, Nelly, meet Haeth. She's, uhm . . ."
"A friend," Haeth supplied promptly. "I'm one of her best friend's cousins, so I'm her friend too." She caught Beth's sidelong look but ignored it to smile at Nelly. The older woman clearly resonated with the subtle presence of majik, so Haeth couldn't help but like her. A bit of melancholy clung to Nelly as well, but at her age, she had had plenty of time for sad memories. "It's close to lunch, and I was wondering if I could steal her."
"Oh of course!" Nelly smiled cheerfully and wondered why the woman with blue hair seemed so utterly powerful, as well as familiar. The power felt oddly reminiscent of another she had been around lately, and she couldn't figure out why. "Tell you what, Beth, why don't you take the rest of the day off as well? It's slow right now since people's pockets are light after the solstice festival."
"Deal!" Beth took off the necklace, grabbed her bag from the back, and then grinned cheerfully as she ducked around the counter. "See you tomorrow!" she called as she followed Haeth out of the store. The minute the door swung behind them, both broke into laughter and went running down the street.
Arabella watched them go and then closed her eyes and let go of the illusion to return to her normal form. She tucked her hair behind her ear as she went into the back area and surveyed the room intently. She had determined something of an elaborate scheme, but she wanted to get all of the Resurrection Cultivators in the same place where she could evaluate the situation. Her only uncertainty was whether or not she could split them up long enough to get to Beth and her Life Orb.
The thought nearly made her gag. She had been posing as the old shop owner for three days, and so had come to know Beth fairly well and enjoy her company. She had also seen several of the other Cultivators of both generations, and had liked them as well. She found it more impossible than ever to believe they could have done terrible deeds. That they had destroyed Armand, she had no doubt, but she now felt more confident in the deed being a necessity because of Armand's evil.
A sound made her turn, and a smile lit her face as she saw Alloran walking toward her. She lifted her face for his kiss and then cuddled against him and rested her head where it belonged on his shoulder. "How did the, er, master take the news?" she asked.
"Not well." He didn't put his arms around her, and that instantly sent off alarm bells in her mind. "He doesn't think you're strong enough for this."
She grabbed his hands and pulled them where she could see them, and she cursed softly as she saw the welts across the backs of his hands. They were still bleeding lightly and she ripped her shirt to wrap the wounds. The claw marks would eventually heal, like all the others had. Her husband's beautiful body was covered in scars now. "Why did you join that awful thing?" she asked. "Did revenge mean so much to you?"
"You did. I thought he could help me save you," he said quietly. "To protect you, I'd sell my soul to Evil itself."
"Somehow, I fear you already did," she whispered.
* * * * *
Haeth had already retaken her smaller, more natural, Coda form before she and Beth reached the Castlera backyard. The dragon flew over to where her mistress was sitting on the top of a picnic table with Anna on her lap and Anira snuggled into the curve of her breast. The baby was revealed by her partially unbuttoned blouse and it was to everyone's credit that they didn't bat a lash at the sight. Anna was present both because she couldn't be left home alone, and also because she had a small fear of letting Tasia out of her sight for long periods. That would slowly ease as she became more secure.
Striker sat next to Tasia, and the two dragons nuzzled their noses together as Haeth landed beside him. Beth wandered over to where Michael and Virginia were sitting and sat down with them. It was with amusement that she noticed all of the Resurrection Cultivators sitting with their parents. The only person who wasn't sitting with anyone at all was Chance, but, well, no surprise. He was only there because Shana and Rocky made him attend the meetings.
She glanced at Chance, then at Leslie, and then at Chance again. Leslie continued to bide her time like a hunter stalking prey, and Chance remained completely oblivious to it all. He also had no idea that he had already given himself away, and they all knew that he cared for Leslie in a way that had nothing to do with her being a princess he had vowed to defend.
The winter solstice holiday had been a spectacular hit with everyone. Shana and Siobhan had hosted the party at the massive manor in the mountains that they shared—it was the Chivantis' family home and more than big enough for both couples—and there had been so many gifts that the multiple trees had barely held them all. Chance had pointedly stayed out of any gift-giving (though he had reluctantly received several), and yet Leslie had found an unaccounted gift for her on the dinner table.
It had been a small gift and would have been overlooked if it hadn't been put on her plate. Brown paper had wrapped a small brown box, and inside the box had been a stunningly beautiful necklace. A delicate silver chain had rested on blue satin, and the pendant itself had been about the size of small cameo. Shimmering jet obsidian had been set with a piece of very dark amber in the very center, and silver wires had wrapped the entire thing. The piece so perfectly suited Leslie that everyone had known someone had custom ordered it for her. It even closely resembled a pendant her own mother wore, but Rachel had made that one, and she denied any knowledge of this one.
She had not removed it once after putting it on. It now hung on the same chain as her two Masks, nestled perfectly between them. It fell to rest over where her Flower Mark appeared, right over her heart at the curve of her breasts, and her low-cut off-shoulder blouse that day showed off both curve and jewelry alike. Even as Beth watched, Chance's gaze lowered to see it and something hot briefly filled his eyes before he looked away. Beth barely bit back a smug smile that she shared with Ryan. Busted!
"So what brought this meeting on?" Shana asked Sherry and Justin curiously. "Did someone have a vision I didn't? That's unusual. Even that first vision that kicked this off was shared by me, though I did not literally see the same thing. Just felt it. Which was more annoying." But given the circumstances, might have told her more than they were supposed to know that early on.
"To be sure. This one felt important enough to share even though it only hit me and Theo and no one else." Sherry stretched out her legs on a sigh. "I saw you, Siobhan, and Tasia together."
"No surprise considering recent events," Rocky muttered. There was still something about that scene that tickled his own Future Sight, but Shana wouldn't tell him why.
"Okay, that doesn't sound like that big a deal," Alexandria said. "I mean, Shana and Siobhan and Tasia are often spending time together." Which made her life easier because she knew she could trust Tasia to react to danger even before Alexandria or Sherry could make it to the scene.
"It wasn't that they were together. Argh." Sherry dropped her head on her knees. "This is hard to put into words. It was so much more symbolic and metaphorical than I'm used to seeing. I think it's more in line with the crazy things Rachel gets to see. I think I need less sugar in my diet. Theodore, help your mother out."
Theo wisely hid a smile. "Well, it wasn't that metaphysical, and I think Rachel still wins on crazy—though Tasia probably has stories of her own—but that said, yeah it felt odd. It really wasn't that they were together so much as the fact that it felt pretty hard to tell them apart. The gloom around them seemed determined to erase individual characteristics until Apex could not be seen apart from sorceress. Which, given the circumstances, is sort of logical since they share arcane and infinite power, and Shana and Siobhan are Dark and Light where Tasia is the Gray between. After that is when it got weird because Tasia changed somehow and Anira transformed into something. Something really big, I might add, that I feel safe in saying Tasia literally summoned."
The baby gave a little squeak as she heard her name, and everyone looked over to see her peering over the edge of Tasia's shirt. Her eyes looked wide and curious, and she blinked as everyone looked at her. With another squeak, she closed her eyes and settled down again. Tasia just smiled. "Go back to sleep. You're not needed yet."
"So what's all this going on with summoners anyway?" Kellie asked curiously. "I don't understand. I'm not sure I've ever heard of such a thing before."
"Summoners are strange classification," Siobhan said slowly, "because what they do is very unlike what anyone else can do. They literally summon the raw force of a Flower Element as an attack, and to do that, you need to have majik and magic combined. No one actually even knew such a thing could possibly be feasible until the Royal Era when Liena started exploring the overlap of magic and majik and how they would complement each other. She was the first to resonate with Cultivators, you know? And so far only her lineage has had the same aspect, other than of course the Cultivators here who are also witches."
Shana nodded. "Jean was exploring much the same thing, that overlap. They both wondered if maybe their ability to resonate to magic meant that a witch of their lineage could join with a Defender, or even a Ruler, and summon the raw force of an element as a team. We never had an opportunity to test it because it just didn't feel important, more like a curiosity than anything, and I mostly figured that when the third descendant came around, we'd have our answers finally. Guess I wasn't wrong there. Long story short, a summoner has to have what we now call magikry—or arcanistry—in order to be a summoner. Siobhan and I actually knew even before Tasia evolved that it would probably happen. Pretty much as soon as it got confirmed that magikry was indeed magic/majik combined, we knew this would likely be the outcome."
"It's also worth noting," Clara spoke up, "that a summoner does, of course, have limits. They can only summon something that is within their own elemental range, and the beast they call can only be within ten percent of their own strength either higher or lower—though they can join together to reach higher ranges."
Eyes swung toward Tasia. "You summoned the Apexes," Uwe breathed.
"Yeah." Tasia lowered her gaze. "And it's worth noting the irony that I actually have the most limitations as a summoner because of my arcanistry. There's little I cannot do by myself, therefore there's not many creatures I can summon. I am limited to the highest echelon of elemental creatures, basically grabbing right from the arcane forces. I'm sure several people already noticed that while the others called an 'Immortal' element, mine was 'Eternal.' At that moment when I had been gutted, there was no one else I could reach for except for the Apexes, and with my True Shadow split in both magic and majik to allow me to again use Light and Dark individually, I met the elemental criteria." Her eyes met Shana's for a moment and then she looked away. She had always felt there was something Shanae hadn't told her, but she had never had the nerve to ask. What she already knew of the reason for her existence had been hard enough to accept. Sometimes she just didn't want to see a pattern.
"I guess that does make sense," Virginia said. Daunting as it may be. "I think it still leaves the why of you lot needing to be summoners. It's a very deliberate gesture from Destiny, to be sure. I'm going to guess there's something you ten can summon together as a group."
"Good guess." Tasia took a long breath and then put Anna on Rodi's lap. She got to her feet and walked a few paces away from the ground as a while. "There is something that could only be summoned by a very specific circle of ten, and the ten needs not just any sorceress, but specifically one of my lineage. No joke that this was very deliberate. I think my birth might be the most deliberate of all."
That did not settle well with anyone, for many reasons. The more deliberate a birth, the more weight carried on their shoulders. They had all thought that finding a Cultivator more deliberately born than even Shana could lead to the entire universe changing, and now they felt it stronger than ever.
Tasia swung around and lifted her chin. "I am not human."
A pause, and then Yvonne said gently, "Anastasia, we are still human. We may be Cultivators, we may have Seeds, and we may be immortal, but we are still human in the end. Even when we ascend to become Guardians or Goddesses, we are still human. Our genes look no different from any other human, even those without any power at all."
"My genes do not. What runs inside my veins is not wholly human." She closed her eyes for a moment as she felt the pulse of that non-human code in her blood. Somehow she had always just known it was there. Each time her blood had boiled literally and she had wondered how or why for it had not come from her majik or magic or even her arcanistry. The danger sense that acted in ways so very different from others who had it, even Shana. "It's hard to put into words. Can I just show you?"
"Of course," Shana told her.
She had studied her power and her body intently after learning the truth, and so she knew how to remove the unconscious spell that kept her in what was what she now understood to be her Coda form. It was an autonomous spell that anyone of mixed dragon and human blood carried from birth. It had to be consciously canceled, which was how Aria had never once suspected the newborn witch on the castle doorstep, guarded by a dragon, had been half-dragon herself.
Gray color swirled at her feet and then surged up her body. When it faded, not much had changed at all, but what had changed was significant. Her mocha skin had been covered liberally in familiar scale-shaped birthmarks that made more than one person take a sharp breath of realization, and her round pupils had become the diamond shape belonging only to dragons.
The shape actually gave them the most expansive depth of range in both value and hue of all living beings. They were pentachromats and saw more than ten million colors—humans saw, at most, one million. She had known she would see more, yet she had not realized what it would be like to find herself living inside a rainbow. It was . . . beautiful. She would have to find a way to share it with Raine, somehow, so her artistic sister could try to recreate it.
She took a deep breath that she slowly blew out, and ice crystals formed from her breath and hovered in the air before softly falling to the ground. Even her husband was gaping at her, and she had to smile. "I am of dragon blood. Liena's mother, Anastasia, was more than merely a witch. She was the soul mate to Tananeen, the God of the Skies and King of Dragons who was also their Guardian."
"Tananeen." Doug struggled to be calm when he was shaken. He knew he wasn't the only one. Everyone looked shocked, even Chance. "That . . . that makes a lot of sense. Daphne—the interim Guardian of Dragons—told us many things during the Realm War, and I think more than one of us felt there ought to be some sort of connection. After all, Liena's age meant she had been born during or just before the Majik War, but she had never talked about herself. We could only guess she came from Aria because of her name; she had just . . . kept her origins to herself. And we loved her too much to ask."
"She did not know," Haeth spoke up. "For her own safety, she did not know. I gave her the name of her mother because it felt so important to her—and it should because Anastasia had been the first witch in the lineage—but she did not know her father. She also knew she had been taken from Protea during the War, and so had not mentioned her mother's name or her origins for fear of causing unrest. I could never have borne telling her that her own birth had caused the War and the loss of her parents." Her gaze lowered. "I could not bear telling Tasia either. I was very grateful that it was not meant to be my duty."
Tasia shook her head. "I will never be upset at you for that, Haeth. You have suffered at our side all along." She sighed. "Dragon blood is very different from others. It is . . . sticky. It never leaves a bloodline once it has entered. That is what has allowed the power of my lineage to continue to grow where it should have rightfully diminished. It is how I can have echoes of my ancestors; they left fingerprints of their experiences on our mitochondria. Until no more children are born to my line, the dragon gene will carry." Her hands lowered to her belly. "My son is carrying the gene. My mitochondrial lineage has ended—Anna will be my only daughter—but the dragon lineage will continue. We will always be closer to dragons than humans."
"I need to read up on dragon physiology," Raine muttered. "That explains a lot."
"You and me both," Kellie and Siobhan equally muttered back.
"Is there anything else?" Yvonne asked gently. "Anything else we need to know, Tasi?"
Tasia shook her head. "There's still something about Anastasia that I only have some suspicions about, things that will finally reveal everything still hidden in the past, but only Tananeen can give me those answers when we restore him." She smiled. "It's supposedly a pretty sweet tale. I guess if we're talking about a dragon god falling for a witch, it would have to be."
Rodi passed Anna to Rocky who was closest and then walked over to his wife. She started to lift her hands and then remembered the birthmarks covered her hands as well. She lowered her hands again but he caught her wrists and pulled her hands up to rest over his heart and the outline of his Deactivated Flower Mark.
She looked up into his eyes and was nearly overwhelmed by the brilliant colors she found. The magenta shadows had gained immense depth, and the black no longer looked just black. It felt like there may be rainbows hidden inside his eyes. She had no words for how beautiful his eyes were to her, and she always had words for everything. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you," she said softly. "I only just learned. I had intended to, but this came up first."
He ran his fingers over her cheek and traced the birthmarks. "You know something? I had been starting to suspect. Something Raine said when we met Striker had been nagging at me all this time. About how dragons love you and flock to you, and just follow you like puppies each time you're in the Immortal Fields."
"More like kittens," Haeth corrected dryly. "We tend to purr more than bark."
"So does my wife," he retorted just as dryly, and set off a round of snickers and giggles. He threaded his fingers into Tasia's hair and then drew her close as she shimmered with gray and returned to her Coda form.
"It really makes more sense than you know," Sam spoke up. "I'm remembering something else as well. Something else Daphne said during the Realm War. She had been talking about dragons and witches being drawn to each other, and when asked about Liena and Jean, she admitted that that lineage was very special to dragons though no one knew why. It came up again later when Jean was attacked by Dragonsbane, and they all expressed extreme remorse after the fact. That's it. That's why. They sense the dragon blood inside the lineage, which means dragons don't necessarily see a human witch: they see a dragon with majik."
Tasia nodded a bit. "After all this time, the truth had been lost to nearly everyone. And even now, in the future Era, it will remain such. Not out of shame or embarrassment or worry, but because there are all too many members of my family who just don't need to know. I'm not sure how some would handle it. For their sake, it will remain quiet."
Raine suddenly got an odd look on her face. "I married a dragon."
That, of course, made everyone start laughing. Tasia grinned. "Yes, you technically did. Sorry. We can figure out together how to tell my brother what's in our blood. He should take it well enough. He's taken the other oddities in our lives with relative ease."
"So that means both Iris and Daffodil's lineages are now inexorably entwined with the dragon lineage from Liena," Siobhan mused. "And given the nature of dragon genes, I think maybe that might be a sign that at least those two lineages can never become inbred in power ever again."
Dryly, Shana said, "Moreover, given the evidence that we're definitely going to finally see more than one kid per generation, and the existing propensity in Blossom for everyone to somehow eventually be related to everyone else, I bet within a few generations, that dragon lineage might enter into all Ruler ones, ensuring the safety of the galaxy as a whole."
"It will stabilize things, to be sure," Tasia agreed. "It might also stop the propensity of the power of the Ruler lineages to grow, peak, drop, and then repeat. My generation . . . we are truly the peak of what Blossom—what any galaxy—will see. From Raine's and my heirs on, our Ruler lineages should only see small bumps up and down from whatever starting point said heirs make. And since generations are always equal, they will hold their companions in line long enough for whatever time needed to get the dragon gene into the rest."
"What is the starting point?" Clara asked Rachel. "Where is Relisha relative to you? In Ruler magic, that is, as majik is a separate thing entirely."
Rachel thought about it. "I'd say she's just slightly less powerful than the current Guardians and Goddesses' generation. Which makes sense, because even though she has majik and magic both, she only has Ruler magic and not both Ruler and Defender, which is a key reason why both my generation and yours are so much more powerful than others." She named Clara as part of the Rebirth generation not only because she most closely resembled it, but also because it would be Clara's last team of partners.
Thinking about that, Desiree asked, "Does Relisha have magikry, or will Tasia's son?"
"In fact, they do not. And though the Ruler lineage of Aria has both magic and majik, they don't have it either, not even Rodi while he was Activated."
Siobhan nodded firmly. "That confirms it then. I had been pondering that for a while now, where the line may draw, and I think I know for sure now. It's not just magic and majik combined. It's both types of magic combined with majik. Something very specific only in the Resurrection Era's first team of Cultivators, because obviously the Dual tendency has ended in the next generation and we are probably returning to a split the way we were for so long before."
"Or something like that," Rachel said very softly.
"That comment sounds suspiciously like a Librarian who knows more than she is able to let on," Alexandria told her dryly. "And after being friends with Clara so long, trust me, we recognize it!"
Rachel shook her head. "I can't say as I know. Just feel. And suspect. Remember, like Mom, I'm deeply entwined into my current team of partners, so I don't usually know where our futures are going. And, hell, my visions are never straight-forward to begin with. They're crazy mishmashes of metaphor and symbolism and most of the time I just go to Tasia and make her help me translate." She looked at the sorceress in question. "That said, we know for fact now that Tasia is still evolving somehow. That means there's more for us to do beyond this war. And there's also belief that the end of all evil will happen in our generation. So whatever the next generation may hold, it will be as dramatically different from my own as yours was to the one prior. As to how . . . well, I guess only time will reveal that."
* * * * *
Beth was still reeling a bit when she got to work the following morning and got a fresh shock. The entire place had been ransacked. Windows were broken and legal officers milled about everywhere. She hastily ducked under the tape and ran inside calling for Nelly. The old woman emerged from the back with a legal investigator, and Beth frowned at her. "What's going on? What happened?"
"A break-in." Nelly wrung her hands together as she began to pace in agitation. "They didn't even seem to take much of anything. They got in without tripping the alarm and just trashed the place. It's like they were making a personal attack on me, and they got past the door by entering the codes!"
The investigator nodded when Beth's eyes narrowed. "It certainly does seem as if someone wants to make you look guilty, Beth, but I'd have trouble believing that under any circumstances, let alone with you being Virginia Donohue's cousin. Besides, I believe you were out to dinner with her and the chief last night anyway. Everyone noticed you together, because you were sassing the boss." He smiled. "I think Virginia and Michael see you as more like a daughter with the way they dote on you. The chief is always talking about you."
"The age gap helps with that," she demurred, but she had been warmed. It was probably a good thing she had not been raised by her adopted parents; she would have been spoiled rotten. She had inherited her mother's ability to always have her way, and her father's extra stubbornness on top. "So maybe it was just a normal rabble-rouser? Fairly sophisticated for that."
"To be fair," the investigator admitted, "the new electronic door locks that are based on PCM technology have many of the same weaknesses, so anyone with enough skill could bypass them. Chivanti Corporation has their technology division working on improvements."
That she knew since it was Rocky's latest pet project and he had dragged Tasia and Storm into it as well. "Great. So what do we do to catch these jerks?"
"We'll be doing some more investigating," he promised her. "Most of the rabble-rousers in town are known to us. We'll figure it out quickly. At least nothing was taken." He tipped his hat and headed over to where an officer tried to get his attention.
Nelly caught Beth's arm and pulled her into the backroom. "That worried me, that he might blame you! What does your being the Donohues' cousin have to do with anything?"
The first alarm bell went off for Beth. Nelly had known from the start about Virginia being the Lead Defender of Blossom Field, and had jokingly said that having a cousin to such a person working her shop had made her feel safer. Did Nelly have a memory-loss problem? Rare as they were, they did crop up in humans—witches or not. The degenerative diseases could eventually erase all memories and many cognitive abilities; effectively wiping their Life Orb, Beth now knew. It could be halted and mostly mended once caught, but early detection was key, and witches tended to recover faster. Weird enough that she had only lately sensed majik inside Nelly at all. "Well," she said, "Virginia is a Defender Cultivator. You knew that. Most of the time, immediate family to Cultivators tend to be firmly fixed on the side of good. It's really rare to find otherwise."
"Oh, dear, did that slip my mind?" Nelly sighed. "I need to see a doctor. Let's clear out of here to let the officers do their job. I hope the culprit doesn't come back tonight for the amber necklace I just obtained. No heroics," she scolded Beth. "Leave it to your cousin if necessary."
She mentally crossed her fingers. Heroics went with her real job, and her mother would have been the first to charge in. "Sure. Just make sure you are safe, okay?" A sudden wave of guilt from Nelly made her own alarms trip though she kept her smile. Nelly really had not quite been herself the last few days. Was this an enemy trap? When she returned that night to catch the crook, she would bring her whole team just in case.
It was near the twenty-fourth hour when Beth and Storm snuck into the back of Enchanted Dreams. All of their friends were perched on the roof overhead or on the ones nearby. A tiny light spell provided by Rhya used Illusion majik to illuminate the immediate area without casting shadow or reflection. It allowed the two Defenders to make their way through the storeroom looking for something suspicious that might explain either the break-in or Nelly's odd behavior—or both.
The first answer came in the unexpected form of a secret passage. A faint outline of a door could be seen in the dim light spell, and a quick examination revealed a near hidden button to open it. Behind the door lay a staircase traveling deeper underground, and Beth led the way cautiously. They opened another door at the bottom and unexpectedly found Nelly trapped inside some sort of barrier on one side of the room.
"Nelly!" Beth ran toward the shield and then stopped and cursed as she realized she couldn't break the shield barehanded. She held up a hand and reached for her majik. "Breaker!" A touch to the shield broke it apart, and Nelly looked curiously unfazed as she hurried over to Storm for safety. Beth studied where her employer had been trapped and realized there was a fridge with food, books, and a bathing room to the side. "Hostages get modern conveniences?" she muttered.
"I thought you'd come back," Arabella said as she came down the stairs. She still wore her disguise but dropped it as she reached the bottom step. Her blue and green eyes looked more regretful than they did anticipatory, and she sighed deeply. "I almost hoped you wouldn't, to be honest."
Beth pushed Nelly to safety inside the bathing room and shut the door. "So who are you?" she demanded.
"My name is Arabella Aria. You've been fighting my husband." She stepped forward until they stood on equal ground and said softly, "I like you, and I don't want to do this, but there is no other choice." She lifted her hand slightly, paused as disgust crossed her face, and then closed her eyes and fired off a blast of power from her fingers.
Beth could have dodged; she had seen the attack coming. She instead lifted her chin and let it hit her, and she fought to ignore the pain as her Life Orb tore free. Her knees buckled, but Storm hastily caught her. "I've got you," he said softly. In a mutter, he added, "Seeing these things coming in no way makes them more pleasant." He looked at Arabella and found her staring at the glowing Orb with a look more akin to horror than anything else, and the familiar echo in her eyes of an empath enduring someone else's pain. Her majik felt clean and true, not polluted. "What in the thundery hells is wrong with you?" he asked. "You look more like an ally who harmed a partner than an enemy attacking!"
Beth had sagged in his grip but her eyes remained fixed on Arabella. "Why?" she whispered. "Why do this? You're not evil. I can feel the pain you feel. The remorse. You've been echoing guilt so loudly a non-empath could feel it, let alone me. I can feel the good inside you!"
Arabella froze. "You can feel it?" she whispered.
"Yeah, hazard of Empathy." She straightened with help and reached out to grasp her Life Orb. It refused to merge yet she could not be surprised. The memories did not need to be sought; they had always bubbled under the surface. Her ability to feel emotions had done a fat lot of good for her friends on Aria. She had been nearly useless more than once in the crippling pain of the world and its people. "It's a useless gift sometimes," she admitted softly. "I don't always know how to control it." Her eyes shot to Arabella's shocked ones. "You're like me, aren't you? You're a witch like us, with majik, and you have Empathy. And . . . Sensing, I think. That makes it worse, you know? That's what I have."
Arabella crossed her arms against a chill both internal and external. "I . . . I didn't quite know there was a name for it. Just that I felt emotions. My family prided itself on not succumbing to messy emotion, but I felt everything they claimed they did not have. My eyes marked me. Ran and I returned to Aria to make a home there, but we came back after you had destroyed Armand, and people shunned us."
"I'm betting Alloran did nothing to aid that," Storm shot at her, "considering how he's acted in the time since! He seems to be a chip off his father's block. Armand almost killed Aria, Arabella! And you know what? I think you know that. You don't look shocked. This was a farce you set up. You just wanted to hear our side. You didn't want to attack Beth. You just knew it a necessary evil."
Beth pulled away from her friend and took an unsteady step forward. She would not let her failures of the past stop her from succeeding now. Her Empathy had given them an insight they may have never obtained otherwise, giving Storm enough information to figure out the rest. "Arabella, you could have a place with us. Or on Aria. We have an in with the Ruler Cultivator, and the Defender Cultivator." She held out a trembling hand. "Come with us and we'll explain everything. That's what you want, right? To hear what really happened."
"I wish I was strong like you," Arabella whispered as tears slid down her cheeks. "I can't handle my own abilities. I wish I could be your friend, could learn how to live with the gifts forced on me."
"You can."
Arabella hesitated and then slowly reached for her hand. Just as their fingers barely touched, Alloran appeared and pulled Arabella back protectively. "You took my father," he snarled, "but you will not take my wife!" He hurled a vial with a Gensome onto the floor and then took hold of his wife and began to disappear with her.
Arabella's eyes met Beth's over Alloran's shoulder, and there was a stirring of hope and longing inside. Beth's heart soared as they disappeared. Maybe there could be a chance to save them both. Her hand tightened around her Life Orb. "If you don't learn from history," she whispered, "you're doomed to repeat it. It's having the memories of what didn't work that allow you to be successful. I want my memories! I can change the future with them!"
Storm hastily released her and dove out of the way. He rolled up to his feet outside the bathing room door, and a polite knock came from within. "Can I come out now?" Nelly asked.
"Uh, not quite yet."
"Son, I'm terribly bored in here."
He grabbed a periodical and shoved it under the door. "Hang on, okay? It's not safe."
"You Defenders do everything the hard way," she grumbled.
The Life Orb glowed brightly white in Beth's hands as a majik circle cast around her feet. Her Defender Mark appeared and began to glow hotly before suddenly gained a second carnation blossom as the Orb dissolved back to where it belonged. Beth grabbed her Mask from her bracelet and yanked it on. Her wand of apple wood and rose quartz appeared in her other hand, and she called up a glass orb via majik. She threw it at the Gensome's face and smirked when the orb shattered and made the monster scream in pain. She held tight to her wand as she ran over to an open window and jumped out through it. "Catch me if you can!" she taunted the monster behind her.
Storm politely opened the bathing room door just as the Gensome dove out after Beth and took out some of the wall with it. "Sorry," he apologized to Nelly. "We'll pay for it to be fixed. Please stay here." He pulled on his Mask and ran toward the hole to hurry out after his partner.
Beth spied her friends watching from the rooftops but knew they would not step in as she had both right and need to handle things personally. There was no doubt in her mind that everyone was well aware of what had happened. The pattern masters had seen this coming from miles away. They knew almost everything. Well, Storm did. There was no 'almost' about Tasia!
She stopped in the middle of the street and swung around. She drew an invoking pentagram with her wand. "Summoning!" She hurled the pentagram up toward the sky and a shimmer of heat waves like the sun in the desert rose even in the dark of night. "Immortal Sand!"
Sand began to spill from the sky until it had covered the ground around and under Beth's feet. From the stone of her wand, hot sunshine seemed to spill in a way not at all like the sunshine of a Nature element. This burned. She spun gracefully and kicked up sand into the air. It started swirling on its own until it began to pile up into a larger and larger heap. The heat radiating from her wand started melting the sand and it solidified into liquid glass. The glass flowed up and out until it formed into a titanous creature and then hardened. Beth stepped up beside it and smiled as she snapped her fingers.
The snap reverberated off the air like a tuning fork, and the titan shattered into enormous shards of glass. Before the Gensome could move, the shards hurled at it with lethal force. They struck, pierced deep, and then exploded outward with enough force to explode the monster with them. Any remaining sand dissolved away, and Beth dusted her hands off with a decisive nod. She sent her wand away and grabbed her whip instead. With unexpected speed, she whirled and lashed the end into the shadows. "Hold it right there, mate!" She felt the weapon grab on and towed her captive out into the light of the streetlamps. "I think we've all had enough of this."
Rachel took a little breath and climbed down off her rooftop. Fitzgerald broke free of the whip's hold and braced himself as his wife rushed at him. She certainly had the right to be angry enough to deck him, but all she did was drop her ankh and leap into his arms as if she would never let go again.
A shudder went through his body and he held her just as tightly. The feel of her, even through their armor, was nearly sheer joy. The months had been just as hard on him as they had been on her, and he still couldn't get free in order to return to her side where he belonged. "Rachel."
"Damn you, damn you, damn you!" she raged. She beat his shoulder with a fist, which did not do much when he wore metal and she did not have gloves of any sort. "I'm dying without you! Don't leave again, please!"
"I can't, I'm sorry. I have to finish something."
"Then take me with you!" she snapped. "Whatever you have to do, let me go with you!"
He hesitated. Having her along would assuredly make the process faster, but her friends needed her as well. Too, he was not sure if he was strictly allowed to bring her with him. The rules were still new to him.
A footstep had everyone turning, and they discovered Sam and Rocky had joined them unannounced. "You!" Sam scolded his brother sharply. "You are damned lucky you're too old and too mean for me tan your hide, kid! Scaring me to hell and back like this. Shit." He scowled. "If I hadn't finally twisted Rocky's arm, I still wouldn't know what was going on!"
Rocky scowled at Sam equally. "I had to twist Shana and Edgar's arms to get the info, thank you, so you can't blame me for keeping my mouth shut!"
"What is going on?" Rhya almost wailed. "This is driving me crazy and I would think I have an interest in things because my boyfriend is probably in this up to his ears and I am going to want to yell at him for not telling me anything!"
Fitzgerald winced. "It can be covered later. The short version is I . . . work for the Immortal Fields now. Of a sort. There's something only I can do. I have to take care of it before I can return to my duty as a Caretaker. I'm so sorry, Rachel. But . . ."
She shook her head. "If the Fields need you, then I am the last person to complain. Just take me with you." She looked at Tasia. "I ask permission to leave the team briefly to support my Caretaker in whatever capacity he fills within the Ephemeral Plane."
"Granted," Tasia said immediately. "And that's both the Lead Defender and High Priestess speaking. You're all but useless in your current condition, and across history, teams have always been balanced enough to handle not having the Statice Defender constantly. It was only the last generation and ours where that changed. Both of you get done what is needed and then come back and we'll take care of things here."
Leslie nodded succinctly. "Every role within the Ephemeral Plane is not one that has to be done entirely alone. I have helped Mom and Uncle Edgar more than once. There are things only you can do, but that doesn't mean you can't call in backup."
Fitzgerald blew out a breath. "I should have just said something, eh?"
"I blame the Shadow in you," she retorted politely. "You Shadow Flower Elements don't know how to ask for help, whether you are Light, Dark, or True!"
"I resent that," her twin muttered.
Fitzgerald and Rachel alike were too smart to smile at that. Fitzgerald held up a hand and opened a shimmering-gray portal that reflected the Immortal Fields on the other side. "We'll be back soon, then." He held tight to Rachel's hand and led her into the portal which closed behind them silently.
"Be safe," Ryan murmured. "And come home soon, Aldan."
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
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