They chose an ocean beach for their ritual. It was far from any city, big enough to allow all ten of them to stand in a circle, and it felt only cool not cold despite the winter season. Protea's temperate climate had proven to be convenient yet again. Leslie and Storm moved along the shoreline to hunt firewood while Ryan helped Tasia carry their supplies to their designated spot. They had ten candles in ten colors, a ritual dagger, and a bag of frankincense.
The two firewood hunters returned shortly and built a large stone pit where they could put the wood. Theo lit the bonfire with a flick of majik, and the wood burned bright and hot without releasing smoke. They had been relying on little Illusion spells to see in the late night darkness, but the spells winked out as the fire brightened the area.
Everyone wore simple white clothes in a variety of styles; each person looked as different as their personality for it had been their choice what to wear. Tasia and Ryan were the only ones who wore anything additional; Ryan had a white cord looped around his waist, and Tasia had cords of white, red, and black.
They all moved to stand in a circle around the bonfire and interspaced themselves so that no lines defined them. They were one team, one heart, and one mind. Tasia walked around the circle and handed each of her friends a candle bearing their world's dominant color. She held onto the purple ombre one for herself and then went to take her place once more. The dagger hung from her hip, and she carried the bag of incense. She opened it to throw the contents onto the fire so that the scent rose in the air, and a soft gray smoke curled upward. "You don't need to be told what to say. The words are there, inside you, and must be your own. Each of us is a different embodiment, each of us is connected to a different piece of Tananeen. All of us are connected to a stone. Find those three things, and speak them aloud." She looked to her left at Rhya. "Go ahead, Reagan."
Rhya lit her white candle from the bonfire and thought for a few moments before saying, "I am spontaneity. I am the opal, and I am the conscious mind."
"Ryan," Tasia said as she continued going clockwise to the left.
He lit his ultramarine candle and didn't hesitate as he said, "I am charm. I am the aquamarine, and I am the eternal soul."
"Storm."
Storm held his yellow candle to the fire and let it light before bringing it back close. He, too, did not hesitate. "I am faithfulness. I am the citrine, and I am the will."
"Bethany."
Beth lit her red candle and considered for a few moments what she was to herself, and what she was to others. "I am love. I am the rose quartz, and I am the living soul."
"Raine."
After lighting her peach candle, Raine stared at the flame and let her senses go into it the way she often went into others. "I am rebirth," she said softly. "I am the ametrine, and I am the physical soul."
"Theodore."
Theo lit his orange candle from the bonfire and twirled it between his hands to make the flame dance. Fire was his friend as much as his element. "I am purification. I am the agate, and I am the power of defense."
"Leslie Ann."
Leslie lit her black candle and held it calmly. She had never been afraid to burn. "I am change. I am the amber, and I am the subconscious mind."
"Emily."
Though she had once scoffed and resisted, there was no hesitation left in Emily as she lit her blue candle. She had learned to believe in the magikry. "I am communication. I am the apatite, and I am the power of offense."
"Racine."
Rachel lit her pink candle and spent a moment wondering where Tasia could have found such perfectly shaded candles. Maybe she had pestered Justin for some from his shop. It would be so like her. "I am endurance. I am the chrome tourmaline, and I am the spirit."
They had come full circle. The sorceress lit her purple candle and said calmly, "I am wisdom. I am the amethyst, and I am the heart." She released her candle where it hovered in the air, and then, before anyone could stop her, she drew her dagger and slid it across her palm to create a thin line of gray blood. "I am the blood of kings and gods. I am a sorceress. We are the summoners. Return and reign over the skies!"
The flames from the candles leapt high into the sky beyond the reach of the bonfire. They flew back and engulfed all ten Cultivators, yet none were afraid. They feared no element any longer. The bonfire suddenly exploded outward and sent the ring of summoners flying to the sand. The surge of power inside their bodies was more than their minds could process all at once, and all dropped unconscious. No one saw the bonfire burn itself out, or the candles continuing to hover in the air by themselves. Slowly each winked out until there was no light left in the night but that from the stars above.
When Rhya stirred the next morning, she wasn't quite certain for a moment where she was or what was going on. She was lying on the beach, and she could feel the sea spray across her face. She carefully sat up and looked around at all of her friends who were also stirring. They were still in a circle, though they had been knocked much further apart. "What time is it?" she asked as she realized the sun rose over the waves.
"What day is it?" Leslie countered.
"Hell," Theo grumbled, "what year is it? I've lost track."
"Sixth hour, Thursday, and Rebirth Era Year 30," Rachel helpfully supplied as she sat up. She reached up to rub her eyes and then spotted her bracelet holding its two masks. Surprised, she looked closer. "Guys. Check your Masks. They changed."
Masks got quickly checked and everyone discovered the same thing: etched somewhere in the Mask was a small ten-point star. When Leslie enlarged her Mask to look closer, they found the star was no more than half an inch across; just big enough to be seen, but not taking away from the rest of the Mask. It felt incredibly significant to anyone with any measure of Sight or Sensing for the Masks of the worlds had not changed since they had first come into being.
"Guess he wasn't kidding about that 'divinely sanctioned summoners' thing," Tasia said a bit wryly. "The star is the symbol of Destiny herself."
Rhya felt something click inside her mind. "Wait! That's why the pentagram is star-shaped and scared to witches, right?"
"Bingo!"
"So being 'divinely sanctioned' and stuff," Emily brushed at the sand clinging to her legs as she stood, "does that mean we're ready to get this done?"
"We are. Let's go touch base with the Elders and then get rid of the demon once and for all."
Everyone had already gathered in the Castlera backyard by the time they arrived. The Elder Cultivators said nothing about the not necessarily new but more cemented power they sensed inside the younger generation. Rodi, Pallas, Aldan, and even Kari had been requested to be at the house as well—though Kari had not attended many of the meetings since she had been finishing up getting in order what she needed to in order to leave—and all four started to cross to their mates to be reassured they were alright. They realized as they drew close that the summoners were more than alright: they were damn near glowing. "Uhm." Kari smiled in bemusement. "I guess we won't need a night light in the future?"
Storm opened his mouth and then closed it. When Emily lifted a brow at him, he admitted sheepishly, "I can't decide which comeback I want to use. Too many options."
Tasia shook her head. "The glow will go away." She huffed out a breath. "Alright, so here is where I make the Caretakers mad at me: all of you are staying here." She lifted a brow as all four visibly bristled. "Don't ruffle your feathers, kids. If we need you, you'll know. We need to do what we can on our own first." Something moved across her eyes like either a premonition or a pattern. Her eyes flicked to Clara and then away. "Our hearts are what will give us power. As long as we can overfill our hearts, we will have no problems." She turned and ran off around the side of the house with the rest of the Resurrection Cultivators close behind.
"Clara?" Virginia asked. "I'm not mistaken that she was telling you something, am I?"
"No, you're not." The Librarian smiled wryly. "She was very pointedly telling me something I needed to know, that I had only been suspicious of up until now." She crossed her arms as she thought about things. "She was not at all joking that a summoner is only as strong as their heart. Truly, it comes as no surprise that the first real summoners in history happen to be Cultivators of any sort. Rulers, Defenders, or Dual, we all love incredibly deeply. Unfortunately, that is a bit of a double-edged sword here. What fills a heart more than a soul mate?"
"So why are we staying here?" Aldan demanded.
Clara smiled wryly. "Because not all of the Caretakers to the summoners are present in this Era. There are a few still in the Resurrection Era, and they need to be here instead. That's what Tasia was telling me to do. I'd call it breaking the rules, but when it comes to Paradoxal Pivots, there are almost no rules at all. Rodi, may I borrow your PCA?"
The Resurrection Cultivators donned their Masks and armor before spreading out across the pentagram shape in the land. Each moved to an intersection best befitting their embodiment and role within the team as a while. Tasia stood at the very peak of the pentagram for she was the heart and highest of powers.
She knew Splice would have felt them arriving, and she also knew he wouldn't come out to play unless they did something to piss him off. So, with Anira perched on her head, and Haeth and Striker flying around her in circles, she held out her hand and ordered her sword to manifest. The divine blade that only her lineage could use for they carried the blood of a god and demi-goddess in their veins, both beloved to Destiny herself.
She spun the sword and then stabbed the blade into the ground. A tremor of power echoed from the sword and raced toward the building to climb up its sides. When it reached Splice, it still had enough power to throw him from his perch, and he roared in fury. Knowing they were waiting didn't stop him from racing toward the roof. He would destroy them all!
He looked around the city, saw the positions of the summoners, and knew he was trapped. A shimmering silver-gold shield surrounded the entire pentagram and could not be broken. He screamed in fury and his body contorted and twisted as evil consumed him. Flesh sagged and drooped and skin fell from his wings until they were skeletal frames. "You think you can summon Tananeen to destroy me?" he hissed at Tasia.
She smiled. "Yes, I do." She closed her eyes and let go of all binds on her arcanistry. It rose in the air as a tangle of Ice and Shadow with a tang of Glass, and music swelled vibrantly like a call to arms. Her aura pulsed brightly rainbow-gray as she reached for the depths of her summoning power. It stayed hovering around her body without releasing into the sky, and her eyes opened slightly.
Rodi's hands settled on her shoulders and then slid down to cover her hand on her sword. Like a key unlocking a door, his presence allowed her heart to overflow and release her arcanistry into the sky. "You knew," he murmured into her ear.
She rested her head back against his shoulder and smiled. "I know everything."
Her power wasn't growing as it should, and Rhya knew it. She didn't know where she could possibly find the key to the rest, but she knew she needed to before it was too late. How was she supposed to 'overfill' her heart anyway?
Pallas' arms suddenly went around her waist, and the powerful surge of emotion inside her soul sent her magikry winging up into the sky. She looked at him in utter shock and then realized what must have happened. "Oh," she said softly. "That kinda makes sense, huh?"
Okay, so he wasn't reaching full potential, Ryan thought a bit in despair. He had tried everything he could think of to make his aura release into the sky, yet his power stubbornly remained hovering around his body. Familiar arms unexpectedly went around him and his eyes widened as he saw Gail's hands reach out to cover his. "Gail?"
She smiled. "I told you I'd always be there if you needed me."
He smiled in return as his magikry flooded into the sky in a wash of ultramarine and purple. "I like having a personal demi-goddess guardian."
Storm had not known from the get-go what needed to be done, but he figured it out damn fast when he saw what happened around him. How the hell was he supposed to contact Kari and tell her to come help out after all? He didn't exactly have the time to make a call in the middle of this situation.
Her hands suddenly fell on his shoulders and he looked to the side sharply. She just grinned. "Gee, I guess I don't have to stay behind after all. What do I need to do?"
He smiled and leaned over to steal a kiss. His magikry overflowed, released, and filled the sky. "You already did it."
Ke-rap, Beth thought a bit in despair. She could also see what was happening and it alarmed her deeply. How in the name of all that was divine—including the resident sorceress—was she supposed to overfill her heart with love when her lover was in the future? If she had realized this would happen, she would have insisted on dragging all of the Caretakers along anyway!
As if she had called him, one of Terry's arms wrapped around her shoulders as his other hand covered hers on her wand. Her jaw dropped as she stared up at him. She would have called it a hallucination, yet his wonderful emotions had poured into her and called up her own, and her magikry was already flying toward the sky.
Raine could not see Beth but she had seen her siblings, and she had had the same despairing thought about leaving their lovers behind. If only Tasia had known from the get-go what was going to happen! They could have found room for everyone, or just gotten a bigger house. It burned Raine that she might be the one to screw this up, and it combined with the longing she had already felt to see her husband again. She missed him so terribly.
His hands covered her shoulders and then slid down her arms to close around her hands on her wand. She stared at his hands and the engagement and wedding rings he wore, and then slowly turned her head to stare at his beloved face. "Logan? How?"
"You needed me," he said simply. He kissed her softly, and his lips curved as her magikry overflowed and flew toward the sky. "You and Tasia been causing trouble?"
She only snorted softly. He already knew the answer to that, really.
"Fiery damned hell," Theo muttered as he felt his power reach the edge of its limits. Why did doing things the first time always take more effort than doing them again later? Surely it wasn't supposed to be this damned difficult! How was he supposed to make his heart overflow when he had left a chunk of it with Kimber in the future?
He sensed her presence behind him a split second before her hands covered his on his wand. He blinked once and then again as he turned his head to look at her. She grinned at him with the same crooked smile he had always loved, and he had to smile in return as his magikry overflowed. "So that was what Tasia was inferring to Aunt Clara. Of course."
"You don't follow orders, do you?" was all Rachel asked as she felt Aldan's arms go around her and his presence bolster her magikry until it flooded into the sky. She turned her head, found him grinning at her, and could only scowl. "Don't gloat. It's rude."
Good thing she was a loner, Emily thought to herself. She hadn't given her heart to anyone so she would be just fine on her own. Or so she thought. Her frustration mounted as she felt her aura swell hotly and yet her magikry refused to overflow and join the others. She was not in love with Silas and he did not need to rescue her again!
"Quit fighting it, Em," Silas said as his arms went around her waist. "Damn it, is it so hard to admit you're in love with me? You know we're soul mates!"
"I'll admit no such thing!" But as she felt his arms tighten and watched her magikry climb up to join her friends', she realized with some despair that she really didn't have to admit it. Her power had just made it abundantly clear that he more than filled her heart to overflowing in a way no one but a lover could.
Damn it.
Tears welled in Leslie's eyes and slid down her cheeks. The summon would fail because of her. She had tried. She had tried desperately to overfill her heart on her own by thinking of the ones she loved, yet it was not enough. To love was never enough. You could only be truly strong if you were loved back. The man who held her very soul in her hands would not acknowledge he had it let alone that he loved her. "Damn you," she whispered.
Dark shadows swirled up around her body and made her heart skip a beat. She looked sharply to the side and saw Chance standing close. He looked hesitant and unsure, a far cry from the normally emotionless front she was used to seeing. He stepped closer, and then closer still, and then his arms slowly lifted to wrap around her.
She almost could not breathe in the painful love he stirred inside her. Her heart overflowed wildly and sent her magikry shooting into the sky in a burst of black and pink sunshine. "Why?" she whispered.
"I don't know," he said quietly. "I just knew you needed me. I couldn't ignore your voice this time either."
The ten powers met in the sky and swirled together into a single silver and gold light that blotted out the sky. Anira flew up off of Tasia's head and straight toward the light, something that caused Splice to lunge forward trying to catch her before she reached it. He was moments too late.
She shot into the light and the stars set into the Mask of each Defender began to glow rapidly. It started with Tasia and moved along the pentagram in an invoking pattern before returning to her once more. All ten Defenders lifted their wands and shouted, "Summoning! Divine Dragon!"
The sky went black and dark as night. The silver-gold glow that swirled in the sky did not cast light around it. It merely radiated power. Splice cringed back and cowered, but there was nowhere he could run, nowhere he could hide that they wouldn't find him.
The glow began to expand larger and larger as a mighty roar echoed on the air. The glow stretched even further until an immense dragon emerged from within. He was at least fifty feet long with twice that in wingspan and covered in white scales that shimmered rainbow iridescent. Powerful horns arched back from his head and reached almost to his tail. The shadow he cast upon the ground encompassed the entire pentagram.
Splice looked into Tananeen's white-rainbow eyes and knew that he looked his death in the eye. He had not gotten the Life Orbs he needed to increase his power, and the failures along the way had only awakened the ten divine summoners.
Tananeen opened his mighty jaws and threw his head back as power gathered in his mouth. He threw his head forward, and the blast shot toward Splice who was so frozen with fear that he couldn't even begin to move. The blast struck him . . . and obliterated him instantly. The immortal demon dragon, the being who had destroyed thousands of other dragons, had been erased from all existence by the king of them all.
Tananeen turned to look down at Tasia with what looked like a smile on his face and then held out his claws to the air. A tear through the sky appeared and then peeled open. The figure of beautiful woman with chocolate hair wearing ancient clothing stepped out onto Tananeen's claws, and he slowly lifted her toward his face. Without fear or hesitation, she wrapped her arms around as much of his head as she could and held on. The tear closed behind her, and Tananeen flew like an arrow straight up until he disappeared entirely.
As the sky began to clear, Tasia held out her own arms. A little shimmer became Anira, and the baby landed safely in her surrogate mother's hands. She slept peacefully, deeply, and looked perfectly normal anew. For an end to a battle spanning millennia, it felt almost anti-climactic for how easily Splice had been destroyed. But as Tasia and Rodi looked at the dragon they held, they and their friends alike knew that sometimes the greatest battles were the ones fought within yourself. They had all won those. They had all triumphed. That was something worth crossing five millennia for.
* * * * *
Everyone gathered in the backyard for one last time one week later. It was time for the Resurrection Cultivators to return to the future, and they were taking with them the people who had either come to the past or been found there. There were no tearful goodbyes since it was not actually a goodbye. They would see each other again soon enough.
The only tearful goodbye that was a true goodbye was between Rhya and Pallas. Their hearts were breaking. They had spent the last week together, doing all of the things normal couples could, but Pallas' vacation was over and he needed to return to the Immortal Fields. They were not yet lovers, though, for they did not know yet what would be decided when he spoke with his Rulers and High Priestess. That Shanae and Evan and Tasia alike would want to make it possible for him to be with Reagan went without saying, but whether or not it would be an easy route remained to be seen. Until they could be sure that they would be safe to interlock their souls wholly, they abstained.
Once everyone had gathered together, Rachel lifted her hourglass and called up her Memory magic as a well of pink and lavender. Tasia reached out to touch the hourglass and then paused and looked pointedly at Aldan. Red climbed his neck. "I'm not going anywhere," he muttered. "Will you never let me live that down?"
It made everyone laugh, and Tasia grinned. "No." She touched the hourglass to bring up her majik as well, and the combined power welled up until it again looked like a swirling galaxy. It consumed everyone in the circle and they disappeared from the Rebirth Era to move forward toward the connecting point of the Resurrection Era.
Shana watched them go and then sighed. "It will be hard to wait to see them again, especially Leslie and Tasia, but it will be worth it. And once the Era switches, we'll forget anyway until the point the times realign. I'm okay with that. That moment of remembering will be sweet." She frowned. "Still." Sensing a familiar presence, she turned and saw Gail and Silas had come up. "Well, hey there you two. Honestly, I was not at all surprised to sense you on Protea, or why."
Silas smiled at her. "Mom and Dad were not surprised when we asked." He took a long breath. "We let them go, for Emily's sake. But . . ." He looked at Clara very seriously. "Answer us a question, Aunt Clara. When can we approach them again in the future? Do you know?"
"I do," she admitted softly. "Because my future is not as entwined with the next generation as it is with this one—it's perhaps ironically more like your mother's generation—I have been able to see salient things around Emily and Ryan alike while they were here. Emily needs time, yes, but not as much as she thinks. When you see the light of a star arrive, you'll know it is the right time."
Gail nodded quickly. "Thank you, Aunt Clara."
"Well, of course." She smiled. "That's what aunts are for."
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment