It was mania in the Statice area of the Protea Castle. Racine had her hands full as she chased her half-dressed daughter through the sitting room. "Relisha!" She made a grab, missed, and tripped over a wooden horse. She promptly took a nosedive and crashed into her husband as he went past trying to grab their son.
Allister wasn't quite quick enough to catch her and himself at the same time, and they went down in a tangle. His Caretaker instincts kicked in mid-fall, and he turned slightly to take the hit. He landed on the ground with a grunt as his wife landed on top of him. He heard giggling and turned his head to glower at Melina. "Yes, ha ha."
The fae was hardly repentant and just grinned at her master. "I like seeing you act like a goof."
"Yeah, I had noticed." He sighed and sat up with Racine in his arms. "Are you okay?"
She pushed herself up straighter and gave him a wry smile. "It's not the first time I've tripped and tried to beat you to the floor." She turned her head to glare at the twins who looked entirely too innocent. "And what did we say about running in the castle?"
"Only if we've picked up our toys," the two five-year-olds chorused.
Allister lifted a brow at the mess around them. "What do you call this?"
"Toys." Percival and Relisha knew they were busted and obediently began picking up all their toys to put them away. They knew the queen had made it a rule that kids in the castle had to learn to pick up behind themselves for several years before they could have a maid or butler pick up instead. The twins just found it really boring.
Allister got to his feet gracefully and then reached down to assist Racine up as well. He tugged her closer and lowered his head to murmur in her ear, "How soon can we get them to sleep?" His teeth nipped the rim of her ear.
"As soon as we possibly can," was her slightly breathless response. She couldn't help it. Even after almost two decades, even after twins, he still heated her blood with a single look or word. That drawling accent of his went right through her nerves with raw lust. So terribly unfair, really. "There's a benefit to having had them, you know," she murmured.
"And that is?"
"I got something of a figure finally." She grinned when he lifted his head on a snort of laughter. "I know you never complained, but I did. My ego is so much happier now with all the extra pretty things I can wear. I know you've enjoyed them too, so don't you deny it."
"Well, considering that some of those 'pretty things' are rather specifically designed for you to wear just for me, I'm denying nothing." He grinned. "Personally, I find you beautiful and sexy no matter how you look or dress, so really, my opinion shouldn't count anyway. I'm terribly, horribly biased, you know."
Her brown eyes softened. "Well, I can't say that's so bad. Do you have work tonight?"
"Not tonight, no." As the Knight of the Immortal Fields of the Ephemeral Plane, he effectively protected and policed the endless fields that housed all the wishes and dreams of every creature in existence. He alone had the power to destroy dreams that became too strong and therefore became a risk to the Fields. The sloughing of excess dream-energy could cause troubles unless erased, and that also fell under his domain. For the most part, he just kept a mental ear tuned to the Fields the way Racine and Claret did to the Hall of Records, but every few nights, he would visit personally and 'clean up' as needed. The last almost two years of his work had greatly enhanced the stability of the Plane as a whole. "I'm all yours," he murmured teasingly. He leaned down to kiss her and heard their children begin giggling. He snorted softly even as she did.
Relisha and Percival were used to it anyway. Their parents were always kissing. Relisha chucked the last toy into the toy box using Telekinesis and then shrieked happily as Allister caught her around the waist and tossed her in the air. "Daddy!" She happily cuddled closer. The twins had their mother's mink brown hair and their father's green eyes, and a slightly lighter bronze hue than their mother; Allister had gray hair and fair skin.
Racine scooped up Percival and then smiled and handed him over as Allister held out his free arm. "Good night." She kissed them each and smiled as she watched her husband head out of the room into the hall to go to the twins' shared room. How fast life could change! Even she and her mother could marvel at it sometimes. Both Statice Cultivators had deeply benefitted from the Castlera brothers marching into their lives, she thought impishly.
Her good mood did not last as she wandered to the window to look out at the sleeping courtyard. There was something just beyond her Sight. She didn't like this fight they endured. A part of her resented that Starlight had shown up, for she had brought danger to those Racine loved and lived to protect, but more of her felt determined to help the silver haired Dual Cultivator. Just what was it that she couldn't See?
Allister had just tucked in both twins and shut the door when Melina shot around the corner and grabbed his sleeve. "Hurry!" she said. "Hurry, hurry! Racine just passed out! Wah!" She whirled in the air as he dashed past her and then swiftly flew after him back to the sitting room. As he knelt beside where Racine had fallen, she said, "She got that 'I'm in a vision' look and just dropped!"
He gently lifted his wife into his arms and settled her on the couch. She didn't stir once and he remained by her side the entire time. His face was drawn and pensive. Her All Sight had seemed to settle and stabilize into the normal level needed by a Memory Cultivator that meant she only had actual visions when something affected the Hall or the flow of Time itself, with strong premonitions basically covering everything else she needed to know, but now he wondered if she had ever been unstable to begin with. Perhaps her type of visions—highly metaphorical and symbolic and often in need of an interpreter—had an oddly practical use.
No one with Future or All Sight could see their own future as more than hints and premonitions, but they could often see much their loved ones' futures—as long as they stayed out of them. Claret had once been able to see quite a bit of the futures around the varying teams of Cultivators, but the Rebirth Era had changed that significantly by her emerging to live in it wholly rather than the Hall. She had become deeply, deeply entangled because of her love for Shanae, so she often did not see much happening around her friends. She could see a fair bit of Racine's generation, but nothing beyond—that lay in Racine's future command. Racine had the same issue of being deeply entwined with her team, but the vagueness of her visions meant she might still become privy to critical information anyway so long as someone could translate for her. In other words, she might actually be able to see aspects of the future where she was deeply involved but not know that was what she saw unless someone else interpreted that. A clever little workaround from either Destiny or Orion, and surely deliberately so.
That did not make it easier when she would get knocked out. When visions entered behind someone's eyes, they just stared at nothing for a while. When a vision had far too much information for that, it entered directly into the mind and knocked the seer flat. It happened now and then to anyone with Sight—except Tasia and Shanae who processed so fast they never needed a vision to enter their mind—and Racine more than most had a high propensity toward it.
Her eyes opened suddenly. He leaned closer and let his Light Shadow power surround her soothingly. "Racine? It's okay, honey. I'm here."
She gave a violent shiver. "Don't open the door," she told him. Her eyes still seemed unfocused and far away. "Never open the door!" She curled into herself without another sound and began to sob softly.
Fear filled his heart as he pulled her into his arms for safety. He touched her mind with his telepathically, and the vision slammed into his mind with enough force to make him wince. He only had Present Sight to help him watch the Fields, but that did not make him less able to receive his wife's visions. What he saw made his lips thin, and he gathered her closer protectively. Even Melina felt a little unnerved then as she saw the churning shadows inside the green of his gaze.
The Knight was preparing to hunt.
It was near to the twentieth hour of the night on both Protea and Delphinium. The two worlds rotated so perfectly that the two kingdoms had the exact same time schedule, for obvious convenient reasons. In the Royal Era and for ages earlier, parties had been held almost every night at one kingdom or another across the galaxy, but the fall of the kingdoms had of course ended that entirely. Even after the Resurrection Era had begun, it had never really been restarted. Partially because the first many years had been filled with far too much work, but also because Shanae—a strong introvert—rather hated big parties, and Evan was barely better. She had compromised with her extroverted husband and sister-in-law though: one grand party, per kingdom, per month, resulting in staggered parties roughly every two weeks. That kept everyone happy, really.
It particularly made Reagan happy, actually. She was an extrovert herself, but fewer parties meant more time for other things. Like going on late night walks. She snuck out of her bedroom, through the Delphinium Castle, and then to ground floor. The sneaking was purely because it was nighttime, and she tried to be courteous to those who were sleeping. Had it been daytime, she would not have bothered sneaking at all.
She could just barely see Protea coming into view in the sky as she entered the gardens; it would not be fully visible for another hour. Sleeping somewhere on that world were most of her best friends, although some were visiting with her and therefore happily slept in the castle behind her. She ducked around a tree, peeked to make sure none of the night staff were around, and then touched a nearly hidden bit of amber buried in the tree's truck. A shimmering portal opened for her, and she stepped through it on a smile.
She emerged on the other side in the Immortal Fields. They had been well named, for endless and endless and endless fields of every flower in existence spread out in waves around her. Eventually one could find an edge of the Fields, and there they would find every tree in existence. Crossing through a particular portion would lead to knocking on the door to the Hall of Records. Otherwise, the Fields all but existed without space and grew as needed. The eternally sunset sky overhead that represented when Light and Dark embraced added a soft glow to everything.
For a place without structures—other than a tiny house hidden among the Fields—it could feel remarkably private. You had to want to find someone; it very rarely happened that you stumbled upon someone on accident. Tasia and Rodi claimed they had accidentally met in the Fields as children, but Reagan still doubted that. Nothing about them could ever be called accidental! She also honestly did not think her own first 'accidental' encounter with Pallas had been an accident, either. Not that she minded that, of course.
She heard a footstep behind her and turned her head quickly to see Pallas standing near. A smile had lit his handsome face. His green hair ruffled in a soft breeze, and he held out his hands to her. The grassy color of his hair perfectly matched his equally green eyes. Rather than bronze skin like his sister, Claret, he had tanned skin as if the sun that gave him his Nature power loved him as much as Protea did. "I was beginning to think you were late," he teased her.
"I keep trying to outgrow that part of my Delphinian heritage." She raced toward him and leapt into his arms while her own wound around his waist happily. His arms closed around her safe and secure, and she closed her eyes on a contented sigh. "Sometimes I think this is a dream."
He threaded his fingers through her thick white hair and watched it glimmer under the sunlight. She never wore her hair braided around him, despite her love for the more complicated plaits; she claimed that since he was going to get his hands into it, why make him work for it? Since he loved teasing out the little black ends to each of her loose curls, he did not argue. "I have the same trouble," he confessed.
She eased back to look up at him curiously. "The Archon of the Immortal Fields worried he's dreaming?" She thought about that. "Actually . . . do you dream? Literal dream, not wish-dreams."
He brought her wrist to his lips and then linked their fingers together as they began to walk through the endless fields. "Not in the sense of a sleeping dream, no. Like Shanae and Evan, my role precludes me from having those sorts of dreams. I can visit and watch others that people leave open for sharing, though. That is how I am able to determine when I need to send excess dreams or nightmares to your aunt for filtering. I can even do that in my sleep, which is strangely ironic and funny alike. But wish-dreams? Oh, I've had more than a few of my own. Somewhere amid these Fields you would find them as little crystals made from dew like any other."
"What might I see in them?" she teased.
"You." He smiled when she stared at him. "I spent so long hoping that someday I may have a soul mate, would feel that level of happiness, but it never happened. I had given up entirely by the time I came across you in my Fields. You looked so confused to be here, and your incorporeal state meant you had to be astrally projecting yourself. I assumed you to be a witch new to her majik. I suppose I wasn't wrong. I fell in love with you so fast, Reagan. I'm not sure I ever had any choice not to love you."
"I'm not sure I did either." She cuddled against his arm. "I just felt so happy with you. So comfortable. I honestly never realized what was happening or what it meant to have those daydreams until Tasia and Rodi told me. Then I wasted four darn years by being too shy to come see you for real! I totally wrote Alloran an invitation to the wedding, and I included a thank you because his actions spurred me into coming here."
Pallas grinned. "Given that lineage, I'm sure he'll be amused." He skimmed a knuckle down her cheek. "You truly are the only thing I want," he admitted. "After I met you, I . . . had such a fanciful thought I'm almost embarrassed to share it."
"Give!" she demanded.
That was his Reagan! "Well, honestly, I felt as if you were the woman of my dreams."
Tears welled before she could stop them. "Oh, darn you, Pallas!"
He smiled when she hid her face against his shoulder. "I thought you didn't cry anymore." A sniffle was his response and he laughed softly as he caught her closer. "That's my Rea. I wouldn't change you for anything."
"Pallas . . ." She eased back and wiped at her eyes. "I want you to promise you'll be very careful. Please. Minstrel . . . he wants all of you too. Remember when Storm and Theo were attacked a few days ago? We think that because he hates Raven, he hates all Caretakers, though we don't yet know why. You are so very critical to existence. You can't be in danger."
He frowned darkly. "I see." He hesitated and then pulled her closer protectively. "I'll be careful, I promise," he told her firmly. It was no lie, but if she again encountered something only he could protect her from, he would do whatever it took to save her. He eased back and then leaned down until he could kiss her gently. "Where do you want to walk?" he asked huskily.
She smiled and shrugged one shoulder so that the robe she wore slipped down. It revealed a nearly naked shoulder and the thin strap of a white silk nightgown. His eyes riveted instantly. "I like it here," she told him. "Don't you?" She giggled as he caught her up in his arms and carried her down to the flowers. That was more than sufficient for an answer, she decided happily.
It was peeking toward dawn when she snuck back into her bedroom and snuggled down under the covers. She was content and relaxed and felt slightly drugged on the merging of their powers. Her lips curved into an impish smile. The power of a demi-god could be very addicting. She couldn't wait until they were married and could sleep in the same bed all night. Then again, it was kind of fun to sneak away to the Fields. The 'making love in an open flower field' thing was very sensual.
She was woken a few hours later by Raine firmly shaking her shoulder. "Rea," Raine said, amusement in her voice, "wake up. You overslept."
"I'm late for school!" she blurted as she sat upright. She blinked and her drowsy gold eyes focused on her twin. "Wait, I graduated years ago." She sighed and fell onto her back. "Darn it, Raine."
Raine ran her tongue over her teeth. "Sleep well?"
A flush climbed her face. "Yes. Why?" It suddenly dawned on her and she scrambled out of bed in a flurry of white hair and silk nightclothes. She peered into her mirror and then groaned and sank down to sit on the floor. "My mom will kill me! She told me no marks that my clothes can't hide!"
Raine started laughing and knelt down to examine the mark. It was just a little hickey, but still quite vivid against Reagan's cream skin. She lightly touched it and healed it away. "Well, to be fair, it would probably make anyone you have to meet with be unable to stop giggling. Such a distraction from diplomacy! At least she abides by the same rule."
"To be sure," Reagan agreed dryly. "Trust me, I figured out early that 'taking a long lunch' was absolutely a euphemism." She grinned. "And did someone else around here recently all but tell her father to go jump his fiancée?"
Raine grinned back. "He was turning into a nervous groom, and all the planning he and Olivia had been doing meant they hadn't seen each other for more than five minutes over the last month. She was snapping at people, too. Tasia and I decided that we would be more sane if they just had sex and chilled out."
Reagan giggled. "At least they get married next month, right?" She hurried into her closet to look for her clothes.
Raine leaned against the banister of the bed. "Correct." She smiled. Despite all the difficulties in the war, she was very glad for the few spots of brightness still around. "I get to be my stepmother's attendant, and Tasia gets to marry her mother and stepfather. How wonderful is that? We and Storm are also looking forward to claiming each other as siblings without explaining why."
Reagan came out dressed in a more formal outfit than she normally donned since she had some duties that day that prevented the casual wear she and her friends all preferred. She sat down in front of the mirror and obligingly let Raine begin the tedious job of using a pick to remove tangles; no brushing for those with curls! "I should get a haircut," she decided. "Lop it off to over my shoulders. It's more troublesome at this length. Though Mom might be jealous if I do because her hair is so crazy long and way more fluffy and curly than mine. She and Aunt Shanae literally can't cut their hair. Just grows right back out instantly. I'd call it an Apex-thing, but it's probably more an arcane power thing, 'cause Tasia's hair does that too. Weird that it does, but Dad calls it one of those 'we probably wouldn't understand the reasons anyway' type things."
"Well, Tasia at the least knows it's because of her power moving. She can actually identify each time her hair has gotten longer. It gained another inch after Arthur died, when her Light and Dark started sparking." She removed another snarl and moved on. "I don't know what'll happen when she reaches whatever evolutionary peak she's moving toward this time, but she's said that as long as her hair doesn't drag on the floor, she's fine with it. Aunt Delilah and Beth both don't complain, 'cause they love using her as much as they do Shanae and Sayena to test out new hair styles."
Reagan studied her reflection. "Rainy? What are we going to do?"
Raine did not pretend to misunderstand. "I don't know. I just don't know. We only know a little of what is going on. Only the barest minimum of facts. I think it's time we had a meeting with the two Alurian Cultivators and Raven, and find out what they think. We've been so busy keeping them out of Cashlin's gaze that we've become the targets."
"I think . . ." Reagan frowned as her own Sight stirred. She had Present Sight as a gift of her connection through the Protean blood in her body to Orion, the Guardian of Destiny. All children born to the Protean Ruler lineage had it, and Reagan may have been more Delphinian than not, but she still carried the connection. She would be the last Delphinium child with it, though. It would be erased in the next generation.
"Think what?" Raine asked softly. "What do you See?"
"I think . . . it would have happened even if Cashlin had succeeded at killing Starlight. The moment Minstrel saw us . . . saw Tasia . . . I think it was inevitable."
* * * * *
On Protea, Chance was again doing his morning walk-patrol, but this time his mind had wandered from work. He had a serious urge to find his fiancée and coax her onto another, more private, picnic when he was done. The thought made him smile at himself in wry amusement. His friends took a great deal of delight in teasing him—especially Diego and Talon—because of his paradigm shift after becoming lovers with his soul mate. He honestly didn't give a damn. He had discovered he liked being happy, and damned if they would rain on his parade. He had LeAnn, and that was enough.
"You scare me when you smile." Allister fell into step beside him.
He wasn't startled. He had sensed Allister from quite a distance since they both used the Shadow Flower Element, though in opposing ways. He sensed Tasia and Rodi the same way whenever they were near. At the least, he sensed them when they let him do it. As True Shadow, they had a far more expansive range and ability than either Light or Dark Shadow. They could actually create shadows rather than use certain types they found. "Most people have that feeling. I can't imagine why. I'm such an easy-go-lucky sort of person."
Allister just snorted. "You should have gotten seduced sooner. You're actually funny now."
He lifted a brow. "Don't tell me you're here just to make a commentary on the state of my love life."
"That was more of a side benefit. And that wasn't a commentary but a statement of fact. My commentary is that it's about damned time and I have never seen Leslie Ann as happy as she has been these last few days, so, good for you. Also, it's nice to see you finally fully settled into your own gifts." Allister tapped a finger under his own shadowy green eyes to emphasize what he referenced. "I admit, we—being me, Rodi, and Tasia—always figured that once you actually embraced being LeAnn's Caretaker that you would settle more comfortably into being Dark Shadow. You never did because you didn't understand why you had it."
"You can't blame me for that. It was unusual, to say the least."
"True enough. Morbid curiosity makes me ask, though. What element did you start as?"
Chance hesitated, and then sighed. "Nature."
"You are joking."
"No, I really am not. And yes, I am aware of the irony. And the sheer and utter deliberateness of my pairing to Leslie Ann—which I am not so bothered with anymore. Imagine that." He studied Allister curiously. "So if you're not here just to comment on my love life, or to just make small talk—which I know you hate—why are you here?"
Allister fell silent for a moment, and then said, "My real reason is that I need some assistance from someone for something, and you're the best option."
"Assistance? What could the Knight of the Immortal Fields need me to help with?"
"Tracking a broken dream."
* * * * *
Inside Protea Castle, Racine sat curled up in a big beanbag in the drawing room effectively owned by her generation. Her eyes and mouth were drawn at the corners. Tasia and Ryan stood just behind her, and Ryan massaged her temples while Tasia guided his hands. "See?" Tasia said. "Mental pain is the easiest to heal. It doesn't always have to be composted through our souls and become unpleasant sickness. It can just be drawn off and then shaken out from our hands."
"Wow, I can feel all the knots. I didn't know brains could do that." Ryan gently rubbed the knots away and felt the pain flicker in his fingertips. He would shake it out later. "What the heck did you do, Racine?"
Racine closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the edge of the beanbag. "Precog moment. Dropped me. Literally." The pain of the headache she had been sporting all morning was fading away very quickly under Ryan's touch and Tasia's assistance. "Bet Gail loves this."
Ryan smiled. "I've made her purr. It's kinda adorable."
"I thought only dragons purred," Reagan said in surprise.
"Not if you put enough effort into it," Emily sighed deliberately. She grinned as everyone laughed outright. "Well, as if I'm wrong!" She cocked her head as she felt the air quiver. "Incoming."
Transporting dropped off more members of the team, and others came in the door more casually. They had all gotten settled when Starlight walked in with a black ferret in her arms. Phoenix had another by the scruff. "Okay, seriously, these two keep sneaking in our rooms and attack cuddling us at night." He plopped the ferret down in LeAnn's lap, and the critter chirped before climbing onto her shoulder. "Is there any reason these run in the castle where the rest don't?"
"Family tradition!" LeAnn grinned. "Dad gave Mom a black ferret ages ago. After Bastian eventually died of old age, Dad got her another. That's how it's gone for five thousand years now. Once they moved into the castle, they adopted several to run on the grounds, and all are allowed in the castle. They like cuddling, sorry, and they really like Nature Flower Elements."
Theo felt his stomach quiver with laughter. "I just had this mental image of Chance waking up to find a ferret sleeping on him now that he's sharing a bed with you."
"It happened," she said blithely. "He just told her to sleep on my side and not his. No one knows this but Mom absolutely got a photograph of him recently on patrol and, you guessed it, one of the ferrets was riding on his shoulder. Wanna guess which aspect of my power he absorbed?"
Everyone started laughing at that, and Raven finally arrived. He sat down next to Starlight, and she moved to snuggle on his lap instead. No one batted a lash, not even the dragons or ferrets. It seemed fairly common among the petite Cultivators to find the fastest way to cuddling their Caretakers. "Well," Raven said, "what brought on this meeting?"
Tasia braced her hands on the windowsill and leaned back comfortably. "We wanted to talk to the three of you about Minstrel. We've been keeping you cooped up because we thought you were in the most danger, but it seems that Minstrel's focus has . . . shifted."
"He wants Tasia." Storm's voice sounded unexpectedly flat. "We don't know why, but we know he does. He said it himself, that he was becoming obsessed with her. It feels as if the entire time he is circling us and our Caretakers for whatever reason, his eye is always pinned on Tasia."
Raven thought about that and then said slowly, "Minstrel . . . doesn't love. And he has certainly never shown any sign of feeling desire for anyone. If he is obsessed with you, it's because he knows you feel very deeply and he wants to try and break you."
"If only he could," Tasia murmured. She looked out the window at the busy courtyard beyond. "No one can shatter me but me."
* * * * *
Pallas was walking through the courtyard outside the Protea Castle when Allister and Chance walked up to him. Startled, he turned toward them. They both looked almost frighteningly intense. "Is something wrong?" he asked. He smiled wryly as he heard his own words. "A bit redundant, isn't that? Obviously there is something wrong."
"Minstrel has a dream," Allister said bluntly. "I want to see it." Melina rode on his shoulder, and her tiny face looked just as intense. "I caught Racine's vision, and I recognized the place as being the Fields. There is something deadly lurking inside our land and I need to remove it."
Pallas frowned sharply. Nearly no one infested by evil or made of evil could actually dream; a safety feature that kept too much bad energy from getting into the Plane. It happened only very rarely, thankfully, as they had not found Allister as the Knight until the last war. "I see. He must not have yet reached the point of sloughing, which is good. I can only imagine any will-o-wisp released from his dreams would become a truly terrible monster. Best we nip it now. Thank the gods Racine had a vision that led you to this realization!" He cocked his head. "But . . . why are you here, Chance?"
"Backup. Allister doesn't want to go in alone, and my Dark Shadow power may well be as useful as his Light Shadow." Chance kept his voice neutral. Though he had at first declined to help since it wasn't his job, hearing LeAnn could be in danger as future Ruler had changed his mind instantly.
Pallas nodded slightly. "I can understand why. Very well. We will go together." He held up a hand and green and pink magic opened a portal to the Plane. He walked inside and the other two followed. It closed behind them as silently as it had arrived.
* * * * *
Tasia shook off the clinging emotions and pulled a photo out of her pocket. "Here. Does this girl look familiar? She shouldn't as she has not attended any of the weekend get-togethers. She spends that night with her non-royal grandparents to watch film theatricals and indulge in the treats her mother won't feed her."
"That's what grandparents are for," Theo intoned.
"Which is why I pretend I don't know."
Raven took the photo, and his eyes widened. "Wait! This is Sabirah! Cashlin and Minstrel's little sister! How did you get a photo of her?" He frowned. "Wait, she's alive?"
Tasia shook her head. "That photo is of my daughter. Anna Aria. Theo saw Sabirah's ghost the other day and said they were identical." She put the photo away. "I have sent Anna to the Delphinium Kingdom as of this morning to keep her beyond Minstrel's reach, since he seems to prefer coming here to Protea where the majority of us live. Evan's Commanders are Anna's new personal bodyguards, and Dad is standing over her with a lance and a short temper. I don't want Minstrel to know of her. I don't think we want to even guess at what he might do if he saw her."
"I don't think he would hurt her," Starlight said softly. "He was obsessed with protecting Sabirah. If he has ever loved anyone, it was her. That's why when he went berserk and killed her, it broke him down so terribly. His madness drove him to kill her and then her death drove his madness over the edge. We always wondered . . . if maybe he could have gotten better if she had lived."
Storm's eyes sharpened. "Then she was his anchor. She kept him from going over the edge sooner. Raven all but said it himself." He drummed his fingers on his arm. "She held some sort of . . . key to him, I think, is the word I want. It likely led to him eventually being frozen in time." He looked at Theo. "Can you contact her on purpose and see if she can help us? Obviously, she seems to want to try."
"I don't know." Theo frowned. "This is getting in so much deeper than we ever imagined. I wonder why Cashlin isn't pushing Minstrel to come get Starlight."
"Because he's afraid?" Emily offered.
"Of Minstrel?" Reagan tilted her head. "Well, I would be. And if Cashlin hates Tasia as well, then he has two good reasons to stay out of things. Let Minstrel's madness consume the person he hates. Do you suppose Minstrel might turn on him as well?"
"If it will feed the emptiness inside him," Beth admitted. "Quite frankly, it's very painful for me around him. There's nothing inside." She shook it off and turned to Racine. Ryan had finished removing the pain and now sat on the floor against the couch. "Racine, what did you see anyway?"
Racine shuddered. "I almost don't know how to describe it. It was . . . it was like diving into the heart of madness. I saw this . . . this door. I knew if it was opened then everything would be torn to shreds. I felt like I was being torn."
"Where was the door?" Tasia asked.
"I don't know. I couldn't tell. Theo, think you can help?" She straightened up and held out her hands as Theo scooted over to the other end of the couch. "Warning you now, it's very nasty."
Theo took her hands and then hissed out a sharp breath. His eyes turned to solid orange and his skin paled. The three empaths present were quick. Ryan grabbed Racine, Beth grabbed Theo, and Tasia slapped her hand over theirs. Only Tasia was sucked into the vision with them, but Beth and Ryan were able to anchor and block the pain.
"They fascinate me," Phoenix murmured to Raven and Starlight. "I've never seen the like. They work seamlessly together like this."
Starlight watched Tasia. "Because of her. She's their heart." She turned to her friends. "Can we protect them the way they have protected us? We owe them so much."
Raven nodded. "I need my sword, and then I can face Minstrel."
"That's very nasty," Theo said as he pulled back. He was even paler than before. He leaned gratefully against Beth and watched as Tasia sharply shook her hand out. "I can't make sense of it. All I could see were . . . little crystal balls. Thousands and thousands of crystal balls."
Reagan stiffened even as Storm's eyes sharpened. "The Immortal Fields!" they both exclaimed.
* * * * *
Chance had never been to the Immortal Fields before and felt slightly fascinated by them. "It's very beautiful," he decided.
Pallas smiled. "You should get acquainted with the Fields, you know. You are marrying LeAnn, after all. Robert and Sayena have both visited once and a while."
Allister's eyes danced. He had called for his armor before entering the Plane, but he had left off the mask since he had no need. "For much the same reason Reagan sneaks over here?" He had to grin when Pallas' color rose slightly. "I feel honor bound to tease you about that. You're either my uncle-in-law or brother-in-law depending on who in my family I'm claiming you through."
Chance looked around the vast field of flowers and contemplated LeAnn lying in them wearing nothing but the pendant he had given her. "Makes a person wish they could paint," he said under his breath. Maybe he could find a way to convince Veronica to do the painting, or Shanae to take some photos. Possibly the latter; she had done figure studies of nearly everyone already anyway. She had been chasing him as well, for millennia, and lately he had begun to consider giving in. Sometimes, with Proteans, it was best to just let them have what they wanted, really.
Pallas laughed. "We both have decided to make the best of our situation. My job demands I cannot come to her side at all times, and so she comes to mine." He held out the broom he now carried, and the crystal embedded in the hilt glowed brightly. "Show us!" he commanded.
The sky turned black and dangerous energy flickered across the land. "That's not good," Chance decided.
"No shit, friend." Allister held out his hand. "Melina." She whirled in the air and the seed pod closed around her. When the leaves fell back again, they formed a hilt as the blade of the sword pushed free. It fell down into Allister's waiting hand, and Pallas braced himself. Lightning cracked, and madness filled the air. A tarnished crystal orb finally appeared, and it was so corrosive and menacing that it sent a chill down all of their backs. It looked nothing like the tiny crystals clinging to the flowers. This had swollen to far beyond normal size, and it had become hazed and tarnished. Tiny fractures ran down the surface as a warning for what could be unleashed.
* * * * *
Everyone in the Protea Castle suddenly heard Robert shout, "Shanae!"
"Mom!" LeAnn flew up to her feet and rushed out of the room. Her friends were close behind. When they reached the stair banister leading to an indoor atrium, they looked over the side to see Robert rushing toward Shanae. She had crumpled on the floor. All four of the Elder Cultivators of the Dark planets were running onto the scene as well, with their husbands right on their heels.
Tasia leapt over the banister as if gravity did not matter and hit the ground running. She skidded into place in front of Shanae and stomped a foot on ground. The atrium rippled and a majik circle cast around her and the fallen queen. "Stop!" she ordered sharply. Striker and Haeth flew around the edges of the circle warningly.
"Why?" Robert demanded. Anguish filled his face and voice. "She collapsed for no reason!"
"There's a reason." She looked up sharply toward her two princesses. "Emily! Beth!" she snapped.
They responded instantly and hastily slapped up a protective shield of combined Air and Glass magic around the two cousins. It was just in time. An invisible force rushed toward the shield and repelled violently away. It briefly manifested, and Raine called her three-headed spear to hack through it and make it dissipate.
"Dad!" Reagan gasped suddenly. Her hands flew up to cover her cheeks. "Is my father okay?" She looked at the others with tears in her eyes. "Please! See if he's okay!"
"And make sure no one moves him!" Tasia ordered. Theo, Storm, and Ryan nodded and then all three disappeared into a transport. A tense minute ticked by and then Tasia's PCA started chirping. She pulled it out. "Yes?" Her lips thinned. "I see. Make sure no one touches him. Sit on Uncle Max and Sayena if you have to." She hung up. "He's down."
"What is this?" Robert asked warningly, and for once sounded every inch a High King. "I would appreciate an explanation, priestess!"
"The Immortal Fields," she answered succinctly. "LeAnn is not yet queen. Until she is, Evan and Shanae continue to share the role of Ruler of the Fields. Yet LeAnn is the future Ruler, and Reagan is bound to the Archon of the Fields. They were at a risk themselves. Someone deliberately sent out an attack targeted to hit those with any connection to the Fields."
"It didn't get you," Kacey said. Her eyes narrowed. "Or did it?"
"I'm not bleeding." Tasia shrugged it off. "Just felt like getting sucker punched."
"So why can't I touch my wife?" Robert demanded.
"Because you're connected to her, and if the attack didn't find you to begin with, we're not tempting it!" she retorted. She walked over to kneel beside Shanae, and though Dark power rose to snap at her, it did not affect her. Sparks flew where it touched her skin, but those faded fast. The sight of it told the others that it might also have been outright dangerous for anyone else to get close. Shanae's arcanery had instinctively erected protective defenses on her that only Tasia's arcanistry could resist. "Alright," she said briskly. "She'll be fine."
Raven frowned darkly. "This is all connected, isn't it? The door, the Immortal Fields, the danger, and the injury to the Protean twins. Is this Minstrel?"
"It can't be," Reagan protested vehemently. "At least, not directly anyway." She suddenly paled. "Pallas. I have to find Pallas and be sure he is alright!" She banged her fist on the shield. "Let me out of here!" A second thought made her eyes widen. "Wait!! Where are Allister and Chance?! Shouldn't they have come running, too? Or what if Allister has been felled too?"
Racine sucked in a sharp breath. "No, they wouldn't because after Allister saw my vision, he would have probably figured out what it meant and gone to get Pallas to take care of the problem! He probably took Chance for backup on the assumption LeAnn was in danger. Goddamn that man!" She grabbed her Mask. She would smack her husband if he was doing what she thought he was. He knew better than to engage an enemy without Defender backup. He might have had armor of his own—unusual among the Caretakers—but that made him no less beholden to the damn rules! "We're going to find them. Tasi, will Reagan and LeAnn be safe now?"
"We dispelled the initial attack, so yes. But all of you better wear your Masks." She watched all three don Masks, and as soon as Emily and Beth released the shield, LeAnn opened a portal for them all to use; as future Ruler, she already had the ability to enter the Plane from anywhere she liked. As soon as all had left, Tasia looked at Shanae again. "Alright, let's get her to her room."
"How?" Ulyen muttered. "It's got to be dangerous for the rest of us, and Sabin and Robert and Arista are the only ones who can carry her."
"The only ones taller at least. And I'm barely shorter anyway." Literally just an inch shorter when both were barefoot, in fact.
Talon grinned. "Okay, this ought to be hilarious. Are you going to tell her you can physically move her against her will?"
Tasia grinned back. "Probably not. Let her keep that happy illusion as long as needed."
* * * * *
"That's not a dream," Chance said. He drew his sword. "That's a nightmare." And given his connection to the Protea Kingdom, he did not use that term lightly.
"Yes . . . yes it is." Pallas' frown darkened. "This is a strange object. A hybrid of a wish-dream and a sleep-dream, as if the owner dreams of what he wishes to have. A nightmare born of terrible ambition. His wish-dream itself is already a nightmare. We can't allow this to exist. It will damage the very essence of the entire Ephemeral Plane. It's bad enough I could not stop that targeted attack from getting out." He had barely managed to get a shield up to protect himself and Allister. He tried to keep his worry for the others connected to the Fields tamped down.
"Let's take care of this then." Allister started toward the orb but was repelled violently away through the field as power punched his armor hard. When he skidded to a stop, his eyes opened and he looked up to see himself lying in front of a familiar, armored, person's lavender and silver boots. He sighed. "Is this the part where you scold me? This is my job."
Racine merely lifted a brow. "Your job is to get your ass kicked. Well, I can help with that if needed." She knelt and helped him up to his feet. She then took a sharp breath and grabbed his arm where his armor had been pierced and a gash across his skin beneath could be seen. "You're hurt!"
"Nasty sucker slapped me." He glanced over and wasn't surprised to see LeAnn and Reagan rushing across the field toward their Caretakers. "So much for protecting our Cultivators," he sighed.
Racine smiled at him. "That's what you get for loving Defenders in particular."
Pallas was stunned to see Reagan and more so when she threw herself into his arms on a little sob. "Rea! What are you doing here?"
"I was worried! When Dad and Aunt Shanae collapsed, we knew something was bad here! I had to come help." She straightened her back with a bravery that humbled him. "I'm a Defender Cultivator. I'll fight too."
Chance glared at LeAnn as she walked over to him. She glared back and then suddenly swung her fist for his stomach. He caught her hand with his free one and jerked her against him. "Get used to it," he told her curtly. "I protect my Cultivator."
"Well, get used to me," was her retort. "Because I sure as hell will protect my Caretaker!" She leaned up to kiss him hard and then turned and looked at the malevolent crystal orb. "Disgusting little bugger, isn't he?"
Allister and Racine joined them. "I'm the only one that can destroy it," Allister reminded them. "I just need to be able to get in close. Buy me some time."
"We can handle that," LeAnn told him. She drew a set of daggers out of the air and held them in a competent fighter's stance. She very rarely ever needed the weapons since her hands and feet could be more than enough, but she wanted the extra offensive power this time.
Reagan drew her magical rod and squared her shoulders. "We can do this. We just need to draw its back toward Allister." She blinked. "Uhm, which is the back?" Deciding to test it, she held up a hand and used Illusion magic to create a mirage duplicate of herself on the other side of the orb. It visibly turned around, and all saw that the back had been blackened as if burned through.
The illusion disappeared as the orb began to spin rapidly. The cracks spread and more evil power spilled out. It metamorphed into a vicious, disgusting, scorpion beast that bore more than passing resemblance to the Reparation monsters Cashlin seemed so fond of sending. It offered a curious question: did Minstrel himself have evil inside to match his brother, or had his brother's evil poisoned him only more?
Nature magic welled around LeAnn and she hurled vines toward the monster. Each thick branch grabbed on and dug in, preventing it from tearing free. "Sorry," she taunted, "but Nature magic is much stronger here on the Plane!"
Pallas tapped his broom on the ground and sent vines of his own flying at the beast. He had developed the lone attack after millions of years patrolling the Fields alone, and it was one Reagan could actually borrow in battle to supplement her own defensively-oriented Illusion magic.
Chance helpfully gave Allister a boost, and the Knight flew at the monster on Light Shadow magic. His sword pierced the orb and shattered it and then continued through to rip through the body. The parts dissolved and shimmery-gray magic welled around him as he eradicated the remaining energies. He stared at nothing for a moment and then nodded a bit. The mad presence faded, the black lifted, and the sky returned to sunset hue. "There. Done. Minstrel has been severed from dreaming anew."
LeAnn looked at Racine. "Where's this door you saw?"
"Not here," she said apologetically. "I think the orb was just one of the things in front of it." She rubbed at her forehead over her Mask. "I have this immense feeling of impending doom and couldn't even say why. I think . . . I think we had to do this but . . . I think somehow things will get worse."
* * * * *
Minstrel awoke from his nap and realized he felt curiously refreshed. Why, he felt as if there was nothing holding him back now. He could do anything, anything at all. Who needed dreams? Pssh, not him. But where to start, where to start?
An unholy smile touched his lips. He wanted to give a gift. Yes, yes. A gift to the only woman who had ever made him feel pain. What did one give a woman like her? Surely not flowers or candy. She had all the flowers she liked, and candy was so . . . blasé and unimpressive. No . . . it needed to be something special.
Of course, he realized. He would give her the justice she craved! He began to rock back and forth on a little laugh. "Don't worry, Sabirah," he whispered. "Soon you won't be alone. I promised, didn't I, to always take care of you? So don't worry. You won't be alone."
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
Chapter 16 (May 4th, 2024)->
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