The portal opened into the Immortal Fields in a place that Rachel had not visited before. It had been mentioned that the Fields did eventually end and did eventually have trees, and now she stood in that spot. Just as the regular Fields had been covered by every flower in existence, so too did the woods cover seemingly every tree. She could feel the presence of magic and majik alike whispering through the leaves. "Oh, wow," she breathed. "Teach me to not go exploring the Plane more. This is beautiful."
Fitzgerald stepped up behind her, and she felt his presence curling around her. And his power. That unusual thing inside him they had never been able to define. She removed her Mask and returned it to her bracelet, and then closed her eyes to gather herself before turning to face her husband. "Why, Aldan?" she asked quietly. "Why did all of this happen? You can come and go from the Ephemeral Plane at will, clearly. Not just to the Hall but anywhere you like in the Fields. Shana and Edgar clearly have known you were here all along, which tells me Tasia must have known, and Pallas knew you . . . but they all didn't say anything to me even though I was so scared, which means whatever you're doing is extra important." She shook her head hard. "Why didn't you just tell me you were here? How did you . . . become whatever it is that you are?"
He pulled off the mask he wore and then touched an amber gem imbedded in his armor. The armor glowed and disappeared, leaving him in casual clothes but with the amber gem hanging on a chain around his neck. His hat, one that looked like a classic from Vericity, still sat on his head as well. "It's a long and complicated story."
"So you implied already." She studied his face hungrily. His beautiful eyes were still shaded by his hat, so she removed it and tossed it aside. The sunlight fell across his face and illuminated his green eyes. Her heart eased as she saw the shadows within, and she smiled as she lifted her hands to frame his face gently. "I've missed having your face be the first thing I see in the morning." His arms wrapped around her waist, and she closed her eyes in sheer delight. "And that. I've missed being held by you too." Her eyes opened suddenly, and the normally soft brown color had turned livid. "You're such a jerk, Aldan Castlera!"
He knew his wife very well. He snagged her wrist before she could hit him and used the forward momentum to pull her off her feet. His other arm shot around her waist to keep her anchored close. She half-cursed and half-laughed as she realized he was both stronger and faster now, and then every emotion turned to greedy need as he lifted her higher and kissed her hungrily.
He released her wrist to hold her tighter, and her hands locked into his hair to hold him close. This too, she had missed. They had been together for over a decade that had spanned five millennia. She truly was more complete with him than without. I missed you, she thought achingly.
You are tempting me to do something in a place we shouldn't, he muttered right into her mind. He broke the kiss only to start stringing hot kisses along her neck. "Tell me to stop."
She drew a ragged breath. "Don't you dare stop." Her breath whooshed out on a laugh of humor and lust alike as he immediately tumbled her down onto the grass. Their hands tangled together as they fought mutually with clothing. "You can't be found on the Plane unless you want to be. It's more than safe." She caught his face in her hands and dragged him in for another devouring kiss. "Which Rhya and Pallas will enjoy too," she whispered.
It made him laugh as she had intended though it turned into a groan as her knowing fingers found the sensitive places along his ribs and tormented him. Too many ups and downs, too long without each other, meant there could be no taking their time or finding the will to savor. They came together with a near desperation that radiated from their souls as much as their bodies, and when ecstasy finally arrived, when pleasure finally replaced pain, even their minds could not speak for the sheer joy of the moment.
Into the quiet aftermath, they lay cuddled together and not entirely wanting to move—though they knew full well they needed to do so. Aldan's grip tightened where his arms held Rachel, and then gentled, and he slowly eased back. He looked down at her with such emotion in his eyes that her own stung with tears. He rested his forehead against hers and rocked her lightly. Life would have been so much easier if he had simply been able to come to the past to help her as he had intended. Yet nothing was ever easy, and he could not regret the job he had been born to fill nor the decisions he had made.
Thinking of his job made him suddenly blink as he realized his hat was gone, and they probably should not waste more time. He released Rachel and sat up to look around. "We should get dressed. Also, where did my hat go?"
She stretched largely and then sat up on a grin. "Strictly speaking, we didn't undress. Just sort of unfastened and moved things. Which isn't the first time we've done that."
He shot her a wicked grin. "It's not my fault I can't resist you, and you would be lying if you dared deny you will often torment me mentally until I grab you wherever we are."
Her grin turned a little wicked as well. "I deny nothing. But as to your hat, I didn't toss it far. It should be—" She broke off as she spotted the hat and realized it was trying to surreptitiously crawl away of its own will. "Uhm. Honey?"
He rolled up to his feet and fixed all of his clothing before going over to kneel beside the hat. "Now where are you going? Come on, Meli, don't be sulky."
"Sulky!" The cute feminine voice from under the hat made Rachel's brows shoot up as she was finishing fixing her own clothes. "Sulky he says! You're not the one who went flying! Also, I might not have seen any of that but I heard it, and now I am traumatized."
"You have wings," was his dry response. "And I doubt it was as traumatizing as you say. You outright said you expected it to happen. Not my fault if you were right." He slid one hand under the hat and used the other to hold it steady as he picked it up. He turned around and smiled to see the highly curious look on Rachel's face. "This is part of the story," he told her. "I'd like you to meet my partner, Melina." He lifted the hat to reveal a very tiny fae sitting on the palm of his hand, and Rachel took a startled breath. She had of course known of the fae that lived in the Fields, but she had never gotten to meet one before.
This fae stood no more than five inches in height and had long brown hair that went to her knees. Her eyes looked identical to Aldan's, green with swirling shadows, and she wore a little outfit that looked as if it had been made of autumn leaves. Little red boots were on her feet, and her wings looked not unlike a dragonfly's in iridescent green. Her ears were long and pointed, and they moved almost of their own free will like a cat's tail. She cocked her head and only one ear moved in curiosity. She got to her feet and held onto Aldan's thumb as she studied Rachel intently. She then tilted her head back to look at the man holding her. "You're right. She is pretty."
Rachel smiled and held out a hand. Melina studied her and then flew over to land on her palm. The little fae instantly felt the power under her feet and brightened vividly. "Oh! Oh you have majik! You're a witch!" She bounced on her toes as she looked at Aldan. "You didn't tell me she was a witch!"
He grinned. "I wanted to surprise you."
"Best surprise!" She walked around in circles on Rachel's palm. "Also a Dual Cultivator, and that means she has magikry! Oh, and she's an awakened summoner. Statice born, of course, as Apprentice Librarian, and the Memory Flower Element. Telepathic and telekinetic, with Sensing. Took Ice as her second Flower Element as a witch. All Sight, too. Ooh, and she can read shadows to know who they belong to. That must be something she got from you, Al, as your lover."
Rachel blinked at her in bemusement and then looked at Aldan a bit helplessly. He was grinning as he watched, and he walked over to pick Melina up. She flew out of his hand and then up to land on his shoulder where she sat down. "She's a Nature Flower Element fae with the ability to 'read' different power in people. She also," he added a bit wryly, "has other unusual abilities that we can get into later."
"It's easier to see than to hear," Melina agreed cheerfully. She swung her feet lightly as she looked at him curiously. "I heard you say you were going to bring her along to help. Do you think she'll be able to do anything other than keep you from being distracted?"
Rachel grinned, and he cleared his throat. "Yes, smartass, she'll be able to help. Her All Sight beats my Present Sight in many ways, and since she's the Apprentice, she also has skills and abilities outside the normal scope of just magikry."
Melina braced her hands beside her and smiled cheerfully at Rachel. "I'm a mascot and a partner all in one. Allister—er, Aldan—woke me up so I belong with him. I'm technically his familiar. Same eyes after all. That's the mark of all familiars."
"So I noticed." Rachel leaned against the tree that was nearby and studied her husband and his partner curiously. "How about we go over how all of this happened?"
"Well . . ." Aldan raked a hand through his hair and smiled wryly. "Let's walk and talk at the same time. We're still on the hunt anyway."
"Hunt for what?"
"That's also part of the story. Do you remember back when you first were taken into the past? The portal you opened? Well, that's where the story started. Apparently having the High Priestess of the Plane using Memory majik sort of created a connection to said Plane, so when I jumped in I got caught between the two and landed in the Immortal Fields . . ."
(Immortal Fields, two months earlier)
The landing had been more than a little jarring. Allister felt his head spinning as he tried to catch a breath. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at a very familiar field of flowers. Whether or not he had landed in the present Fields or the past Fields, he did not know. He gingerly pushed himself up to a sitting position and sighed. Well, lesson learned. No more jumping blindly into portals.
"Allister?" The bemused voice belonged to Pallas, and the Archon walked out of a shimmering green and pink portal of his own. "Well done, friend. That was quite an entrance."
Allister eyed him. "When am I?"
"Apt wording. You made it to the Rebirth Era, in fact. Next time a bit more caution, hmm?"
He snorted. "You're loosely connected to the Protea bloodline, and directly related to the Statice one. I'm not even sure you know what the word 'caution' means."
Pallas grinned. "Your point on that." He sighed and sat down across from Allister and set his broom to the side. "And to be fair, part of this may well be my fault. I had reached out at the same moment that Racine and Tasia did, and our powers collided. I was trying to find someone. I did not intend to make things more complicated for you."
"I think things are about to be more complicated for you." Allister lifted a brow. "Were you trying to find your soul mate?"
A pause. Then, "Yes."
"Well, you were on the right track. That woman you kept meeting and walking with? Reagan Delphinium." He smiled when Pallas winced. "Yeah, surprised all of us as well. She had no idea who you were either. We actually realized a few years ago what was going on, but she's been too shy to ask someone to bring her here. I think Tasia might have been intending to, hmm, convince her to come see you, but the trouble started up again."
In a murmur, Pallas said, "I suppose in hindsight I should have realized her identity. She . . . lights up the space around her. I never felt happier than when she came to me. She looked so lost that first time I found her in my Fields, but she reached out to me so generously. I do not think it took me long to fall in love. I just . . . knew. I tried to be so patient but even I have my limits. Again, my apologies, Allister."
"Well, I'm not going to be too concerned over it. It's probably a good thing it happened, right? Now you know and we can work to have you and Reagan finally meet in person, so you can be her Caretaker. If you can." He frowned. "That sounds like it could be complex."
"To say the least. It is to be discussed with my Rulers and High Priestess later. However, as you said, knowing will allow me to find my soul mate wherever she may be, so I can at least offer her aid from a distance. I think . . . I know something I can do in interim." He brushed it aside. "That is not quite so important as something else right now."
"How to get me back to Resurrection or out to Rebirth?"
"Uhm. Well . . ." Pallas coughed. "As I said, things are very complicated for you now. It is entirely possible your appearance here is not actually an accident, and I was merely a tool utilized by Destiny. Has anyone ever told you about the roles to be filled in the Ephemeral Plane as a whole and the Immortal Fields specifically?"
"Loosely."
"Allow me to fill in the edges, then. Back at the beginning of it all, my sister of course became Librarian of the Hall of Records. I was assigned as Archon of the Immortal Fields. Over us both was the Ruler Cultivator of Protea who would be Ruler of the Ephemeral Plane as a whole. Because Claret is a Dual Cultivator, she can defend the Hall without any additional help. Too, the Hall is isolated and hard to enter to begin with. The Fields are not so lucky. I manage the day-to-day care and maintenance of the Fields while my Ruler—or Rulers as is the case currently—provide Nature power to support the Plane as a whole. The duties currently split where Evan's Nature magic is what holds shields over the Plane to prevent anyone from entering wherever they like, and Shanae's Nature power maintains the balance by filtering excess dreams and nightmares alike, and she also helps maintain the cycle of growth and death to keep our flowers and trees healthy."
"Okay, I think I knew most of that without outright being told. When LeAnn becomes High Queen, she'll have both tasks."
"Correct. And, for your own knowledge, Evan and Shanae can switch duties between them as is needed. It just falls that Shanae is, er, a little disinclined to let others deal with nightmares. For obvious reasons. Very obvious ones." Pallas laid his broom across his knees. "This is the mark of my role as Archon. We all have something that marks us. An hourglass to Claret and Racine—though the latter has the Memory Ankh as well—and I have my broom. A curious connectivity we discovered later when Liena came to be High Priestess of both Protea and the Plane alike. That role means she can step in for any of us who maintain the Plane should it be needed."
"Hmm. That explains a lot."
"More than you can imagine, and it is underscored by Tasia's presence. She is very unique." Pallas huffed out a breath. "As are you, interestingly enough. You see, while Claret or Racine can maintain and protect the Hall, I lack the ability to do something utterly critical: destroy the dreams and nightmares that are dangerous. I have managed to develop some measure of attack magic over my millions of years, and I do have some other skills, but the ability to destroy the dreams that go out of control is not within my scope."
Allister began to have a sinking feeling he knew where the conversation was going. "What have you done when it happens? Because it surely has."
"More than once," Pallas admitted tiredly. "The best I could do was try to catch and contain the released will-o-wisps. By the time Liena came to being, I was in a terror that the containment would break. She took care of erasing them for me. Only a few built up over the next five thousand years, and they were erased in the first half of the Chaos War—because of Jean. She aided me for as long as she lived. Again, some more built up that I contained and then Tasia began helping me even before she reached adulthood. But it's not supposed to be the job of the High Priestess. It is supposed to be the duty of the Knight of Fields."
"Knight."
"Indeed. My brother, Orion, tried to step into that role, meaning the Plane would be collectively supported by us children of Horatio, but the Fields rejected him as Knight."
Allister closed his eyes. "I get this sudden feeling that we are having this conversation solely because, somehow, I am supposed to be the Knight of the Fields? I guess still keeping it in the family though a little more distantly, especially depending on which family member I am claiming a connection to you and Claret through. What does the Knight do?"
"They are to guard the Fields and destroy those dreams or nightmares that gain will of their own and threaten to harm either the one who created them or the Fields as a whole. We always knew there were unusual gifts inside you, Allister. I admit, I . . . began to suspect. It became confirmed when you landed here just now and I watched the Immortal Sword bloom. Inside you is the power that can destroy a dream without destroying the person who owns it, as well as destroy anything that may wish to embed itself in our Fields. Lingering sentiments of evil mostly. Those that do not go right to the Underbelly where they belong and instead try to fester here."
"The Underbelly being where the worst of all existences are trapped and held, the place we all reference if we ever refer to a hell of any sort." He took a long breath. "I am daunted and a bit scared but at the same time a bit relieved to feel as if there are answers for things I never knew how to ask. What do I need to do?"
Pallas smiled and held up his hands. A swirl of Nature Flower Element magic welled with a tumble of leaves and then faded to reveal a lovely fae standing on his palm. She blinked a few times and then smiled at Allister. "Hello." She gave a bow. "I am Melina, the spirit of the Immortal Sword. I'm pleased to meet you, Allister." She flew over and landed on his hand as he offered it. She nodded firmly. "You are definitely our Knight!"
Allister looked at Pallas a bit helplessly. "Where do I go from here?" he asked. "I mean, great, I have a sword spirit. Now what?"
Melina flew over to his shoulder where she sat down and made herself at home. Pallas smiled as he watched her and then he grabbed his broom and stood, and gestured for Allister to stand as well. With the younger man following, they made their way through the Fields. After a bit, Pallas stopped and rapped his broom on the ground. "Rise, by command of the Archon," he ordered.
Two altars rose from within the land, and each looked different despite being made of matching marble. One had nothing on it though the other had an amber pendant strung on a chain. It could be seen where something had been held by the other; a hole implied something tall had once been housed inside. "This is where I received my broom," Pallas confirmed. "These altars are docks of sort. The pendant is yours." He smiled. "It contains the armor you will wear as the Knight. It will protect you not unlike the armor of Defenders. Fitting it go to a Caretaker.
Allister walked over to the altar and looked down at the pendant to find it shimmering a soft blend of gray and green color. He slowly reached out to it, feeling again that realization of how his life made more sense. His Present Sight—now logical because he needed to see if there was trouble in the Fields—and his Light Shadow Flower Element that meant he walked closer to internal balance than anyone except other Shadow elements. Those other unknown powers? No doubt attacking type magic as well as the ability to open a portal to the Plane from anywhere he wished—just like Shanae, Evan, LeAnn, and Tasia did. It felt a bit daunting to realize there was an answer to it all.
He carefully touched the pendant. It glowed brightly and then shimmering gray power swirled up his arm to consume his body. He could not pull his hand away until the power faded, and he promptly stumbled a step since he initially could not see anything.
"He looks more impressive than I thought he would," Melina called to Pallas.
Allister blinked rapidly, and his sight began to clear. The first thing he saw was Melina hovering in front of him. She held a mirror that was bigger than herself. The second thing he saw was his reflection, and he realized he had definitely become the Knight of the Fields. The head to toe metal armor of shimmery-gray made that plainly clear. The amber pendant had embedded itself into his breastplate. Much to his bemusement, he still wore the hat he had been wearing when he arrived. With a little huff of air, he looked to where Pallas stood smiling at him. "Great. Now what?"
(Immortal Fields, present day)
"Isn't he so awesome?" Melina asked Rachel from where she now rode on the Defender's head. "He's really settled well into his skills and stuff, with only a little practice. I guess he's like your entire generation in that!"
"I noticed." She smiled and decided she would enjoy having Melina around. It was as if Aldan had just gained a sister she could talk to about him. And tease him, she added mentally. She saw her husband give her a sidelong glance of warning, and she grinned. "Okay, well, now I know the what and how. Let's cover why you and Pallas have something important to do before you can come aid in the war. Pallas even mentioned it when we met him, but I don't think it dawned that both were connected. Why the alternate name as well, and not telling us anything? I could still hit you for that."
He had donned his armor again though he left the mask off this time; he did not actually need it any longer. It contrasted to Rachel needing to wear hers to even access her armor, which she had also put back on. "Well, as to the name, it was mostly because there was some concern you might not think before acting and interfere in a way that could be problematic. Can't imagine why we thought that. So I semi-disguised myself to throw you off. I am sorry, Rach. I know you were scared. As to the duty, well, remember that thing about the Knight destroying dreams or nightmares that take on wills of their own without harming the owner? Yeah. Pallas and I were set to go find you two and then just knew there was a problem, which I have been tracking non-stop since, and he himself has put up whatever defenses he can to keep the sucker from escaping the Plane."
"That makes sense. I guess maybe I'm still a little puzzled on how a dream can gain a will of its own."
"Okay, let's step back to how dreams get here at all." Melina swung her feet. "Basically, as people live, they have dreams. Both dreams that are like wishes where they want something, and literal dreams that they have when they are sleeping. Good and bad dreams alike, of both sorts, end up housed in the Fields. When you see dew on the flowers, those are the different sorts of dreams. Sleep-dreams will fall and shatter and release will-o-wisps naturally as the dream ends. Those wisps are absorbed back into the Plane, or, if there are too many, filtered through the Ruler. Likewise for nightmares. If they aren't filtered, then they slough over and become more powerful." Very softly, "Like Nemesis. The first of evil came about when nightmares could not be controlled or contained in the conflict inside Shanta Protea. If we'd had a Knight then, it might never have happened."
"I think Shana would be the first to say everything happens for a reason," Rachel told her gently. "And that someday, when we can remove all evil again, the universe will be stronger for the pain that led there."
"Spoke like a true Librarian!" Melina smiled again. "So, anyway, as I was saying. That sloughing is inevitable now and then. The wisps take on a will of their own and run rampant. The ones from good dreams aren't so terrible—mostly just terribly mischievous—but the ones from bad dreams or nightmares are really bad. Once a wisp reaches sentience, the Ruler can't do anything. It falls to the Knight to destroy the wisp. Now, here's where it gets more tricky: dreams of either sort can start to produce really bad energy if the person creating them is doing so with bad intentions. Once those wisps are released, they become terrible monsters. The Knight has to severe the dream from the owner, prevent them from dreaming again until they lose the bad intentions, and then personally destroy the dream. Or, destroy the monster-dream and then do the prevention thing."
"Which is where we are."
"Which is where we are," Aldan sighed. "Slipped by unnoticed because Pallas can't see those things, and I had only just activated, so to speak. The monster-dream thing, I have been told, is exceedingly rare because it's very rare, and perhaps ironic, that people infested by evil or made of evil can't actually dream. Rulers don't usually dream either unless sent the dreams—and neither does Tasia, I will add—but that's because they have to be an open conduit. There is a point where someone with bad intentions or thoughts loses the ability to have literal dreams. I suspect it to be some sort of safety function."
"But some can."
"And do, and then that's where my job starts."
Rachel thought about everything and then asked, "Are there repercussions for the one who made the monster-dream? Because I find it hard to believe we'd want that sort of person running around."
"Well," Melina said, "sort of? Karma usually kicks back at them proportionate to whatever terrible things they did. This one in particular has, ah, already been dealt with. Over the last thirty years across the board, Karma has become more . . . precise? And prompt? You can infer from that what you want. Basically, all that's left is to destroy the monster. Aldan already severed it and removed the ability to dream again, but the critter keeps finding new ways to hide!" she said in frustration.
"I am on the verge of contacting Tasia and getting her help," Aldan admitted only to break off as he felt a powerful chill move down his back. He stopped walking sharply. "Melina."
"On it!" She flew off Rachel's head and around them both in a quick circle. The circle slowly expanded outward and left behind a trail of glitter drifting through the air. The glitter floated to the ground and glowed as it stuck to previously invisible footprints. They looked in no way like anything resembling human, fae, or dragon tracks. "North," she said decisively.
Aldan grabbed his lasso, and Rachel grabbed her ankh. They exchanged a glance and then ran through the woods with Melina flying at their side. A sudden sense of danger inside them, for each other, told them as they got close. Both had been prepared by it, so when they burst into a clearing near a river, the blast of evil power that flew at them missed entirely as they dove out of the way.
Aldan came up firing and bolts of shimmery-gray magic flew from his palms. The barrage drove the monster back several steps and gouged out flesh. The creature stood taller than either of those confronting it and had reached almost four-feet in width. There was no describing it, no way to explain the way it looked. It was nothing but an incarnation of evil with three crystal spheres embedded in its flesh that reflected back nothing around them.
Rachel leapt to her feet and swung her ankh up to send Memory magic flying not at the monster but at her husband. Time jolted briefly and then his attack appeared in front of him again and re-fired at the monster without him having to expend more of his own magic. The monster fell but staggered up again and turned toward Rachel on a roar. It opened up a perfect shot for Aldan, and he fired off a blast that shattered a globe. The monster gave a horrific scream of fury and lunged toward the Knight. Melina darted around behind the monster and shot off a blast of her own nearly identical to Aldan's, and it shattered the second globe.
The monster whirled to go after Melina, and Rachel hastily swatted her out of the air. Claws struck her instead and sent her wheeling into a tree. Her armor weathered both blows, but she landed hard on the ground and could not immediately catch her breath. Blood trickled from under her Mask. Aldan's eyes went solidly white in his fury as the job became personal. "Meli!" he snapped.
She flew around in front of him and held her arms out to her sides. Shadowy tendrils of power climbed up her body to encase her within a gray-green seed pod. The pod broke open and the leaves fell back to become a hilt as a blade of green and gray metal emerged from the heart. The hilt fell into Aldan's hand as if made for him, and he felt no weight from the longer than average four-foot blade.
The monster backpedaled with sudden fear and whirled to run. Too late. Aldan leapt forward on the attack, and the blade pierced the monster in the top of the head before continuing all the way down through the final globe. It shattered, and the monster roared as it exploded outward in a rush of color and power.
Aldan blocked the wave with the sword and then lowered the blade and walked over to where Rachel had risen to her knees to watch. He let go of the sword as he knelt next to her, and it glowed and turned into the seed pod once more. When the pod opened this time, it left behind Melina, and the fae flew over to hover in front of Rachel's face. "You're an idiot," she scolded.
"Sorry, it's a reflex to protect someone about to be hit." Rachel smiled as Melina kissed her cheek in thanks and apology. "How was I to know you weren't just the spirit of the sword, but the sword itself?"
"True," she conceded. She tried to peer under the Mask. "How bad is it?" Rachel removed the Mask to reveal a bruise on her forehead deep enough to break skin, and Melina's nose wrinkled. "Ick! Well, I've got this one!" She held out her hands and shimmers of green-gray magic flowed from her hands into the bruise to heal it.
Rachel raked a hand through her tangled hair. "Thanks, Meli." She looked at Aldan. "So. Can you come home now? Hmm. Misnomer. Can you come with me to be my Caretaker and then we all go home together? That sounds a lot easier than trying to send you through time without me."
He started to answer when he heard a sound near them. His lasso appeared in his hand as he turned, and he shifted just enough he protected Rachel and Melina both. He saw who approached and scowled as he put the lasso away. "Whistle next time, Pallas."
"My apologies." Pallas smiled as they both stood. "Yes, what has needed to be done has been done. Aldan may once more act as a Caretaker, and I myself can act as one for Rhya, for at least this war anyway. The rest can be discussed later. Rachel, if I open a portal to the physical world in the Rebirth Era, can you show us to where you are staying?"
"Well, of course!" She shook her head as he opened the portal for all of them. The entire thing bemused her, really. It definitely seemed as if every family tree was connected to everyone else by some way or another. Weird how that worked.
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
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