(Aluria)
The battle raged on for days with neither Starlight nor Cashlin able to get the upper hand. Sunlight got dragged away to help fight another breech of the castle, and Moonlight stayed busy trying to protect the wounded. Starlight visibly reached the limits of her skills and magic alike and would either run out entirely of the latter, or be forced to burn her Seed and destroy herself. Cashlin could almost taste the triumph at hand.
One of his generals had been standing by for quite a while as he waited for a cue. Cashlin did not actually want to kill Starlight; killing the current Activated Ruler Cultivator of Aluria would do nothing except cause Moonlight to become Activated instead. His preference, really, would be to get all three removed from Aluria in a way that would prevent them from coming back, or break one of them down enough in some fashion that he could take her as his wife and ensure his own succession.
"Give it up, Starlight, and come to heel," he told her coolly. "If you had just accepted my suit, then this would not be happening." He stared at her with some distaste. It bothered him that even with her armor in tatters and her Mask cracked, dirt and blood streaking her, he could still desire her. So terribly annoying.
"Screw you," she retorted, borrowing one of her sister's favorite insults. "Neither I nor my sisters will ever give in to you!" She managed to smile mockingly even though she was in pain from her head to heels and so tired it made its own agony. "It must sting to know all three of us rejected you."
Enraged, he turned and gestured to his general who held up the odd colored globe on his hand and activated it. The light inside washed out and over Starlight with enough power to illuminate the entire area. She could not even scream as her feet left the ground for her voice had been frozen. Her eyes met Cashlin's, and he smiled at her nastily. "Enjoy your long life elsewhere for Aluria is mine now."
The light sucked her away from Aluria, and as the light faded, the kingdom realized their queen had disappeared. The army was forced to lower their weapons. Sunlight and Moonlight would have fought on, but they got kidnapped from the field by their own Defenders and carried swiftly away to safety. They had to survive for if the worst happened and Starlight was lost, one of the other triplets would have to Activate instead to ensure Aluria's survival.
When Cashlin received word that neither princess could be found, he thought about his many options. It really would be better if perhaps he did kill Starlight and force Moonlight to become Activated. Finding her would be quite easy if that happened, and then he could turn his attention to trying to corrupt her Seed. She might well be the easier target of the sisters, in fact, for while she had great defensive magic, she had no physical skills to back that up. Burn out her magic brutally and then move in for the final strike. It appealed.
He glanced at his general. "Glacia, send some soldiers after Starlight."
Glacia lifted a chocolate colored brow. "You want her dead after all?"
"Indeed. I have other plans."
"Alright. As you command."
* * * * *
(Protea)
Tasia slowly rode her horse across the hilly but open plains that circled the city of Vericity on one of Protea's landmasses as she made her way toward the next city in the distance to check in with the mayor and see how things went. Certainly, she could have transported there via her magic as a Cultivator, but she had absolutely no hurry and the ride would only take a few hours anyway. One of the duties her entire generation held was to be an ambassador of sorts to visit the completed and near completed cities of their mother worlds, and Tasia also did the same for Protea while Raine Fujisawa—Reagan's twin soul and the Daffodil Dual Cultivator of their generation—did the same for Delphinium. Being an ambassador basically meant checking in with city leaders and making sure everything went smoothly and that there were no issues to be reported back to the queens. Once their entire generation got crowned, all would find new ambassadors until they had children grown enough to do it themselves, and then the cycle would repeat.
Tasia had gotten halfway to her destination when a power swept across her skin that she did not recognize. Her baby dragon, Anira, sleeping in a little basket hanging from the saddle, opened her eyes and gave a curious squeaking noise as if to imply she had felt it too. Anira's parents, Haeth and Striker, flew back from where they had been flying ahead and they circled Tasia as she dismounted. "Any idea?" she asked them as she gently put Anira on her shoulder.
It's not power from Protea, Striker told her mentally. He could only speak to the minds of telepaths, so only Tasia, Racine, Allister, and Rodi heard him. Luckily, he could use a fair bit of semaphore for the others to understand him. His ears suddenly flattened and his entire body vibrated with multi-elemental magic as he prepared to defend his family and mistress. To the East!
Tasia turned sharply and saw the light opening. Her hand moved toward the Mask hanging from her bracelet as she watched. She then ignored her Mask as she saw a bloody and battle-worn woman expelled from the light. She rushed across the field and slid to her knees beside the prone figure. "Hey!" she said softly, pitching her mystical voice to a soothing cadence. "Can you hear me?"
The woman looked not at all familiar with ivory skin, short silver hair, and lovely features. Very short but leaning to the plump side, implying more magic than strength—and she definitely had magic! Tasia could very plainly feel the Seed and Illusion Flower Element inside the other woman and knew that she was not just a Defender Cultivator but a Dual. Not from Blossom Field—not when she smelled like an edelweiss flower—but definitely still one. Curiously, however, for all Tasia's knowledge of the flowers of the worlds in the universe, she had no knowledge of any being the edelweiss.
She also looked to be in terrible condition, and her armor had probably once resembled the edelweiss but now had been nearly destroyed. Her Mask, too, had been cracked terribly. Tasia gently removed the Mask and shrank it down, which would allow it to restore itself. She winced as the armor disappeared to reveal casual royal wear of an unfamiliar sort that had been just as ruined. Unfortunately, once damage affected a Defender's armor enough, it started transferring to the clothes it had replaced. Every tear and cut showed another bloody wound, and it also revealed the Flower Mark over her heart that named her a Ruler and the one on her upper left arm that named her a Defender. Two blossoms to the latter, implying she was in her second tier, and all were indeed the edelweiss. Interestingly, the blossom on her chest had a sparkling edge to imply she was the only Activated Ruler of her world, but her Defender Mark did not. Her world had more than one Defender.
The woman's lashes flickered slightly and then lifted. Her green eyes the same color as her edelweiss looked up at Tasia dazedly. She tried to ask something, but it came out in a language Tasia unexpectedly did not know either. The sorceress cast a quick spell and then said, "Can you try again? I gave you our languages."
"Where . . . am I?" It came out painfully, but in Blossom.
"Protea." Tasia took her hand and brought it to the covered Flower Mark on her shoulder that named her as a Defender of Iris and Aria alike, and she smiled softly. "Just relax, you're safe now." Her voice became soft and melodic and promised safety and peace. It felt the same as her arcanistry flowing into the woman's body to gently coax her mind into shutting down so she could rest.
"Defender?" Starlight managed to ask drowsily. She had drained her magic so much that she could not actually tell if she felt a Seed inside the other woman, and cloth covered her Marks, but that gesture of bringing her hand to the left shoulder was one used by Defenders only. From a Defender to a lover, it was an intimate gesture asking for support. From a Defender to a Ruler, it became a sign of respect and an indication of protection. She did, however, feel something. Something incredibly powerful just pouring into her soul with a surge so hot she felt a bit as if she had been punched—but not hurt. It felt . . . beautiful. Safe.
"Dual," Tasia promised softly. "I am the Dual Cultivator of Iris, and the Defender Cultivator of Aria. I am the Lead Defender for my generation here in Blossom Field. Rest, my friend." She pushed a little harder on the spell.
Starlight inexplicably felt so tired suddenly that she could not keep her eyes open. At least she was safe. She knew she was. She could trust this beautiful Cultivator; something glowed from inside her soul to the outside and just made her wonderful to behold. Starlight let herself go and slipped deeply asleep without protest.
Tasia was about to grab her communications mask from the bracelet to call for another healer when the light that had continued to linger suddenly expelled four armed and uniformed—unfamiliarly uniformed—soldiers. All carried weapons, wore bad attitudes, and very did not look like a rescue party of any sort. Tasia held Starlight a little closer and snapped, "Trespassing without invitation on Protea is a bad idea. Go back to where you belong!"
"We're here to kill that woman," one snapped back. "It's our duty."
"It's my duty to protect people, so you've got a problem, boyo!" She laid Starlight down gently and got to her feet. She knew full well that Rodi would sense her in danger and grab LeAnn to come rushing to her aid. All Caretakers to Defenders usually came equipped with the needed skills and strength to support their soul mate in battle, and she more than most had an exceptionally powerful Caretaker. She just also happened to have one who had enough common sense to grab additional Defenders before rushing in. She grabbed her Mask and got to her feet as her dragons began to circle her. "Don't press your luck."
The soldiers edged back slightly with sudden unease. They had thought she was just a human, but she had a Mask. Moreover, she had begun to radiate a different power entirely that they could not name. Something in her eyes promised she would be deadly. A swirl of a shadowy galaxy across her pupils looked like a glimpse of infinity. "Who are you?" the leader managed to ask.
She smiled. "Some of my friends think I'm Karma itself. I don't know where they got that idea. I'm just a sorceress with arcane power." She pulled on her Mask and her armor came to cover her protectively. It resembled the purple iris of her Mother world, but parts of the armor had turned gray to show her connection to Aria, her adopted Mother world. She got the satisfaction of watching the men stumble back and trip over themselves as they tried not to be the first in her line of fire. "Now," she asked calmly as she held out a hand and called for her sword, "do we do this the easy way, or the fun way?" The sword looked no less impressive than its owner and felt ancient and powerful alike.
Judging from the way the warriors kept trying to hide behind each other, Tasia had to guess they would want to do things the easy way. She saw one move suddenly and casually stepped aside as he shot an arrow at her. The projectile went off harmlessly into the distance. She lifted a brow. "That was almost insulting." She held up a hand where Ice magic began to gather.
Fog rolled into the plains and cut off nearly all visibility. It felt bitterly cold and uncomfortable as well. The enemy could not see anymore, but Tasia saw through it perfectly. She knelt to check Starlight one more time before moving in for the attack, and two figures materialized out of the fog. "Good timing," she told them in a voice that literally carried no further than Rodi or LeAnn's ears. The former carried his sword as well, and the latter had on her Mask and armor.
Go have fun, Rodi told her telepathically. LeAnn and I will keep an eye on our visitor.
Tasia grinned and then got to her feet to move silently through the fog; she and her allies alike could see through it as if it wasn't there, and they felt no change in temperature. She could hear the soldiers mumbling something about 'Jeo' and his similar power, and she filed the knowledge away for later use. She moved forward and appeared from the fog right in front of the four soldiers. "Surprise, kids."
It took her less than a minute to disarm all four and plant them on the ground. No doubt they were good enough for their normal jobs, but they could not compare to a fully trained Lead Defender. Frankly, there was no one who had ever defeated her. She knew two people who could push her to work for a win, but she had never been defeated.
She stepped closer and looked down at the man near her feet. "Go back to where you came from," she ordered softly, "and tell your leader that this woman is now under the protection of the Resurrection Cultivators of the Blossom Field galaxy. I then want you do something else."
He couldn't look away from her eyes no matter how hard he tried. It was as if he had been bound where he was, too terrified to move. A sorceress. He wished he had believed her. "What?"
"Hide." She stepped back and watched as all four soldiers scrambled into the light and it closed behind them. She would have borrowed Yvette's Personal Communication Assistant—PCA for short—if she had known this would happen. It had a scanning feature that could have been useful. She needed to have it put on her own as soon as she could get to Robert. With a wry shrug, she put it behind her as she walked over to where the other two were with the woman. "How is she?"
"Exhausted," LeAnn said succinctly. "She's been run ragged for far too long. She's damn near burned herself out on her magic, and her Seed is partially wilted from it. She needs someone to patch her back together physically and then a long time of not using magic in order to let it recover. It's a pretty glaring reminder that no Cultivator—except you and the two Apexes—have infinite power or magic." She lifted her head and looked at her twin with grave pink eyes. "Our peace is shattered, isn't it? This is the start of the next war."
"Yeah. Yeah, I'd say so." Tasia watched as Rodi lifted Starlight gently and then put her arm around LeAnn's waist. "Let's hold off calling Theo as long as possible. Maybe this will be easily handled."
"Fat chance," LeAnn sighed. "When has anything ever been easy for us?"
* * * * *
Cashlin settled on the throne more comfortably and considered the man standing in front of him. He had every confidence in General Glacia's battle ability as well as his majik. Cashlin had never heard of such a thing before Glacia had arrived little less than three decades earlier, but he had proven his skill in manipulating ice as part of his Ice Flower Element—for which he had been named—and his Nature Flower Element alike. The king only felt concern for Glacia returning to Protea after so long; Cashlin had not intended to send Starlight there at all, but it had happened anyway. "Can you do this?" he asked. "Or might it be too much for you?"
"I can handle it. With your leave, I intend to touch bases with my family as well. I expect them to have written me off, but I would like to see if I can get back into good graces with my daughter. I can handle them while handling the Resurrection Cultivators, I am sure."
"You have permission to contact your family as it would make a decent cover. Are you sure about the Resurrection Cultivators, though? Their sorceress Lead sent my four strongest soldiers running home like whelps. I know you are not without your own powerful majik, but you are still just a witch."
The man smiled. "I don't know how I'll do against her, but I'd like to try. She sounds fascinating at the least, don't you think? Leave everything to me, Your Majesty. I'll kill Starlight and make sure the Resurrection Cultivators don't bother us at all."
* * * * *
Shanae took one look at the party trooping into the castle with an unconscious woman and just sighed. "Of course." She swung around and headed back up the stairs to grab a few servants and prepare a guest suite.
Rodi followed her upstairs and went to the second floor medical room where Lower Queen Kacey Daffodil waited with Raine. As soon as Starlight was settled on a bed, the two healers got to work. Rodi rejoined Tasia and LeAnn in the hall, and all three of them shared a long look.
Emily Hyacinth and Ryan Orchid came down the stairs, with Devin perched on Emily's back, and both Dual Cultivators looked just as annoyed as LeAnn had sounded earlier. "Okay, so what's going on now?" Emily asked.
"A refugee Dual Cultivator of some sort from a world I didn't recognize—which is saying something," Tasia told her. "I kicked the asses of the men who followed her." She didn't bat a lash at the sight of the small cornflower-haired boy clinging onto Emily any more than her friends did when they saw Anira. Devin had a powerful attachment to all of the Resurrection Cultivators, though he had a clear preference for Raine as his elder sister and Tasia.
"Of course you did." Emily started to say more when a loud chirping came from Tasia's PCA. "Isn't that your tone for Beth?" She watched with lifted brows as her leader answered and then winced slightly as her face darkened in a way that was not good. "Great. Now what?"
"That was indeed Beth. There's a monster rampaging near the port on this landmass and all other communications are down. Only our PCAs work right now because of the recent upgrade Robert made to the system." She put the phone away and then took Devin and put him on the ground. "Go find your dad, kid," she told him.
"Aww . . ." He grumbled as he ran off, and he sounded so much like his father that the Resurrection Cultivators grinned.
Since neither Tasia nor LeAnn had removed their Masks, Emily and Ryan pulled theirs on as well. Communications may be down, but transport magic still seemed to be working fine, so they took themselves directly to the scene and found Racine, Beth, Reagan, and Storm all in Masks and armor as well and trying to keep the damage to a minimum physically.
It took Tasia only a second to realize they had not used magic because they couldn't. A blocking spell had sealed the area. Her eyes narrowed sharply. She probed at the spell, found it impressive but not up to her standard, and also not capable of stopping anything beyond the common Flower Elements. A little smirk touched her lips and she fired off a blast of Light magic that seared the monster's sagging flesh. It whirled toward her on a roar. "Come and get it!" she taunted.
It charged toward her . . . and skewered itself as her sword appeared in her hand at the last moment. She did not lower the weapon as the monster fell to the ground and melted away to nothing. "Someone else is here," she said in a low voice.
Storm turned suddenly and fired an arrow up into a tree. A man cursed angrily and then leapt out of the tree and landed on the ground. Glacia pressed a hand to the wound on his arm and scowled. He hadn't known the Gladiolus Defender had found him until he had been hit. If he had wanted him dead, there would be an arrow in his chest. Glacia evaluated everyone in front of him and clearly sensed their majik as strong as their magic. "All of you are witches? Interesting. I've never seen a hybrid." He spoke Protean with utter fluency, which seemed a little surprising.
"We're a special generation," Racine agreed. She smiled and pointed at Tasia. "Especially her. She's a little higher on the hierarchy."
"So you're the Lead Defender of your generation?" He slowly walked toward Tasia and watched in bemusement as she pushed LeAnn back a bit more in the telling gesture of a twin soul. Interesting that she be Iris for either role, really. "I understand you're a sorceress."
"I am. I possess what we call arcanistry, which is a combination of magic, majik, and arcane power. I have infinite reach and no limitations." Her voice sounded as chilly as her power. "It would do you well to remember that." She studied him intently but he wore an all-covering mask of his own, and he was using his majik to disguise his voice and presence alike. She could have punched through and figured his identity out in a second flat, but a little warning shiver of premonition told her not to just yet. "What are you here for?"
"I'm here on King Cashlin's orders to kill Queen Starlight Aluria." His own voice cooled. "I wouldn't suggest getting in my way again or I'll block more than your communications."
"Oh please!" Emily smirked. "Iris, I'll help you."
Both Defenders' eyes flashed with the color of their majik and the sound of the spell shattering echoed in all ears. Glacia felt his first real nerves and paled a bit as he realized that even the witches were no ordinary ones either. The Resurrection Cultivators could merge powers and spells without physical contact or words. He took a slight step back. "Well, this ought to be interesting."
"Who are you?" LeAnn demanded.
"My name is Glacia, and I'll be the force that destroys you all." He turned and disappeared into a similar light to the one Tasia had seen before.
"Who was he?" Reagan demanded of Tasia. "You know. You have to know! You know all witches because you're High Priestess!"
"I actually don't know," Tasia admitted. "He's blocking himself. Something tells me not to press for now, so I won't. It will come to light soon enough. In the meanwhile, we have a clear issue. Starlight Aluria must be the Dual Cultivator I saved, which means her world is called Aluria, but damned if I know where that is. Cashlin is probably the reason she ended up here, and Glacia is one of his right hand generals. Pleasant."
"It hurts to see majik used for bad or evil," Ryan said in a low voice.
"Just because nearly all witches do good does not mean all do, for majik has spread far from where it started. That will never change, not even if we eradicate all evil. Removing evil merely removes the most terrible of events and ensures there can always be a happy ending, that there will always be a way to push through the hard times. That the risk of the annihilation of all existence has disappeared and we Defenders will no longer be needed. Even with that, however, humans will still find ways of hurting each other. We could not enjoy good without bad. That's balance." Tasia crossed her arms. "He's strong, but not really comparing to any of us. My biggest concern is his presence overall. We don't want him finding out who we are lest there be problems."
"How do we manage that?" LeAnn asked. "Everyone in Blossom knows that the Lower and High Rulers are Dual Cultivators across both generations. That hasn't been a secret in millennia. How do we just block that from spreading?"
A little smirk touched Tasia's lips. "The same way Glacia hides himself. A little blocking spell of my own on Blossom will handle it, if Racine and Aunt Claret help me."
Pause, and then, "Is this one of those times where we really don't want to ask how you do things?"
"Definitely. Beth, call Theo. He's off his honeymoon and on active duty. We're also returning to Protea Castle to check in and see how Starlight is doing." Tasia cast the transport for all of them, and they landed in the grand entry. Everyone pulled off Masks and returned them to jewelry, and Beth got out her PCA. As much as they did not want to call in Theo, they had no choice.
This promised to be a much bigger deal than they had anticipated originally.
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
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