The Chaotic Kingdom - Chapter 19

<-Chapter 18

When Olivia opened the front door to the house the next morning, she felt nonplussed to discover Shanae on the doorstep. She had come to know all the queens quite well and was finally used to calling them by name, but it still seemed vastly unnerving to discover the High Queen herself on her porch. "Er, good morning?"

"It will be." Shanae rolled up the sleeves of her shirt. She was dressed casually in snug denims and a black shirt, both of which flattered her powerful body more than was fair in Olivia's opinion. "I'm here to torment your daughter. Where is she?"

"Still in bed. She and Rodi are both asleep." Olivia's eyes widened as Shanae headed for the stairs. "You're going to wake them?" she asked incredulously.

"Sure. Why not?"

She had to smile in bemusement. "You and Tasia are far too much alike. I'll get the tea ready."

Shanae felt absolutely no guilt as she climbed the stairs. The conversation she needed to have with Tasia could not wait. Really, she hated waiting for anything even though she could be immensely patient. That was why she all too often would just shove and push until she got what she wanted. She paused to listen out the bedroom door, heard nothing, and opened the door.

Her heart melted. Given Tasia's incessant insomnia without Rodi's presence, it always felt utterly sweet and beautiful to see her deeply sleeping peacefully. She lay mostly sprawled across her husband's chest, and it looked as if she had not moved all night. Thank goodness. It looked equally obvious Rodi had a grip on his wife that even Shanae's great strength couldn't break, so she settled for leaning over them and shaking Tasia's shoulder firmly. "Anastasia. Wake up." A very sleepy mumble in Vericin was the response, and she lifted a brow. "You know, in other Eras, referring to a queen in such terms would get you tossed in prison."

Tasia cracked one eye open to glare at her. "Hate you so much." She reluctantly and expertly disentangled herself from Rodi's grip. He muttered something in Arian and rolled over to pull a pillow over his head. "He doesn't like being woken either," she noted. "He loves to sleep. It's either ironic or hilariously fitting, depending on your point of view."

"I vote hilarious." Shanae stepped back as Tasia slid out of bed. "Olivia said she was making tea."

Tasia glanced at her bedside table, and a cup of tea materialized. She picked it up and sipped at it gratefully as Shanae applauded lightly. "Sending things to another witch is not unlike sending a letter via courier. One takes it halfway and the other picks it up from there. Anyone can do it if they have a bond of some sort."

"Just like spider mail but with no server down time." Shanae tucked her hands in her pockets. "We need to talk, kid."

"I got that much." Tasia pulled on a pair of denims under her pajama shirt but that was all. She felt no more urge to dress up for Shanae than the queen did for her. They were too close of friends to bother with formalities. "Let's go to my sacred space."

"I always wondered what it looked like." Shanae followed her up the stairs to the attic and felt her skin prickle with the awareness of immense power. It was Shadow and Ice with an underlying tang of Glass. The underlying tang came as no surprise despite the fact that it had entered the bloodline five thousand years before. There was actually as much of Byron Ranunculus inside Tasia as the previous two High Priestesses.

Tasia shut the door behind them and then went over and began to gently nudge awake the two dragons sleeping in a little circle on her trunk. Anira had snuggled up against Haeth and made a squeaky noise of disgruntlement as she was woken as well. Deprived her of her warm spot, she flew over and curled around the back of Tasia's neck. She fell asleep again moments later.

Haeth and Striker more reluctantly shook themselves and stretched out their wings and bodies. "What's with the wakeup call?" Haeth asked around a jaw-splitting yawn.

"Sorry about that." Shanae rubbed her fingers lightly over Haeth's head. "I needed to talk to your mistress and she's of the 'if I suffer, so do others' mindset." She quirked a brow. "Which makes me wonder why she didn't make Rodi get up."

"He's only good for one thing in the early morning," was the dry response, "and we don't need an audience for it." She sat down on the floor and stretched out her long legs. Between her natural tendency to wake quickly, and the herbs her mother had dumped in the tea, she felt more awake than normal. "This is about yesterday, isn't it?" Something painful flickered in her eyes briefly and then was gone.

"It is." Shanae sat down across from her. "There's some . . . irony in this conversation."

"There is?" Tasia tilted her head.

"Yes." Shanae rested her chin on her up-drawn knees. "Many wars have littered my past as a Defender Cultivator, but I don't think any—except perhaps this one—has ever been as terrible as the Chaos War we fought when I was twenty-four. The war against Mania."

"Mania." Tasia pressed a hand to her heart as she felt an echo inside saying she had heard the name before. "Damn it, Jean," she muttered.

"That wasn't from Jean." Shanae smiled. "That was from Byron—her soul mate. A Defender Cultivator from Ranunculus who came to Protea to stop Mania. She had been born on Ranunculus when Tara Ranunculus—Byron's sister and the Ruler Cultivator—had lost control of the Chaos power she had been curiously studying. She had tried to save her world by absorbing it into her own core, but all she had done was completely corrupt herself, go insane, and become Mania. Byron knew she would seek out me and Siobhan eventually, given our being the Apexes of Dark and Light, in order to take our Seeds and empower herself more. So he got here first and established himself as an actor to travel the world."

"I knew some of that," Tasia admitted. "Jean's journals mentioned Byron's role and his being a Cultivator since that would have more than a little impact on their shared lineage. That was how I knew I descended of a Defender. I didn't know he had been just shy of being a Dual, though."

"We did not either at first, until after Mania had killed both Edgar and Rocky, and in my fury, I got close enough to her to realize the truth." Her voice remained calm even though her eyes flickered. "We had known she was a corrupted Ruler Cultivator, but once I got in closer, I realized she came from Ranunculus, and that under the Chaos consuming her, she bore more than a passing resemblance to Byron. I asked, and he confirmed it." She took a quiet breath. "To make a terrible story short, in the process of trying to get to her to save her, all of the Defenders sacrificed themselves to allow Siobhan, I, and Byron to get deeper. Alexandria made it down with us to the bottom as well, to buy me more time with her. I was . . . raw. On the verge of evolution to Apex. Siobhan sacrificed herself as well to give me her Seed so she was not a liability. Alexandria fell protecting me and Byron. I . . . maybe went a little mad myself. I forcefully shattered my own shredded and gouged soul, and I reforged myself into the Apex of Dark. That reforging made me just strong enough to plunge into the Heart of Chaos, release my Whisper of Hope, and save Tara—with help from Byron's Virtuoso voice. I did not emerge unscathed. Chaos had nearly killed me anyway."

Tasia closed her eyes and leaned her head back. "I didn't look into the Heart of Chaos. I looked into the heart of madness. It's very different, trust me."

"I believe you. I had to tell you all that to get to the important part, though. Even after the dust settled and everyone had been restored and my body had healed, I suffered under some extreme survivor's stress. As soon as I reached a point where I could be healed, Rocky sent for Jean and Byron to come help me face what had happened, get through, and heal." She smiled wryly. "That's the irony in this conversation. My coming here to do for you what they did for me. I'm no Spiritual Healer like Jean but I'm a damn good listener!"

"Indeed." Tasia traced her finger lightly over the floor. "I can't face it right now, Shanae. If I face it with the intent to heal, it will make me break down and cry. I can't afford that as long as Minstrel is here. He feeds on chaotic emotions, and healing tears are amongst the most chaotic of all because they straddle between good and bad." She shuddered. "You know what insanity is? It's emptiness. Not even silence or peace. Just . . . empty."

"Did you see the Chaos inside Minstrel?" Shanae asked quietly. "Do you understand what Chaos is?"

"Yes to both." Tasia tilted her head. "It was everywhere inside him. Overwhelming. And . . . sad, somehow. It wanted to fill the emptiness with emotion yet could not because it fears the emptiness—fears the thing most opposite to it. That is why he is obsessed with feeding on pain and hate and fear in others. He cannot produce emotions easily on his own, and those are the only emotions that don't recoil from the emptiness. Something about me, however, is able to pierce the emptiness personally and induce him to feeling emotion on his own. Again, the more terrible ones, but possibly that is because he more easily recognizes them. I think that if he fed on love or joy, he would not even see it or know it, and it would be consumed in the emptiness. He would have to be hit with such a raw force of love that it silenced the emptiness in order for him to know it." She slowly lifted her hands. "I know the sparks inside me are the precursor to Chaos. I'm not a fool. It seems almost expected, you know? Given that it is literally the only Flower Element in existence that I do not have—and as much as I did not want it, I can see why I should have it."

"Considering Byron got imprinted by Chaos by being at the focal point of Mania's birth, it is logical. That imprint very obviously got you to where you are now. After all, if the Glass Flower Element managed to come down this strongly to tinge your power, then no surprise Chaos would. It imprinted me, too, actually, and it passed to LeAnn—which may be another reason why you are her twin. The two of us can easily sense Chaos where it manifests, but we can't see it. We can't understand it. You can. That's why Minstrel reads you much more strongly than others. Even when he faced me, he didn't feel as drawn to break me as he was to you. I, who went into the Heart of Chaos."

Tasia got to her feet and walked over to the window. "Reagan said it was inevitable that his focus would shift the minute he saw me. That must have been what she picked up on." She raked her hands through her unbound hair. It looked more chaotic than usual, too. "So that tells us the what. It doesn't tell us the why. Why is he consumed in Chaos energy? Was it there before the emptiness, or was the emptiness there first? Are they inexorably linked, given that Mania went mad after being consumed? How does Sabirah's spirit keep him in check? The door Racine saw and how I have to open it; what is it?"

"Welcome to being a Lead Defender, honey. We get to face and try to answer the toughest of questions." Shanae walked over to stand beside her. "It makes me wonder as well about his hate for our Caretakers. I mean, enemies have been stupid enough to break that rule before, but this time it's deliberate and not necessarily directed at us. It's directed at them. Storm called it envy because he hated Raven but I wonder if maybe there's something more."

"Rule?" Tasia quirked a brow.

"Never screw with a Defender Cultivator's lover. It's a universal law. Not only are those sorts of Caretakers usually dangerous in their own right, but damned if you want an armored and armed Defender after your head—especially a Lead!" She drummed her fingers on her hip. "I think we need to know more about Sabirah herself. If she's at the heart of Minstrel, then she's at the heart of it all. Her resemblance to Anna—and therefore you—can't be an accident. Especially when Anna is not yours by blood. Hell, maybe Minstrel can see that you are what Sabirah could have looked like had she lived. Add it to the questions."

"If there's one thing I've learned in my life," Tasia said dryly, "it's that there is no such thing as a simple answer." She turned her gaze out the window and silence fell for a few moments. Then, quietly, she said, "You hadn't told them."

"No. It wasn't something easy to drop into conversation." Shanae's voice was just as quiet. "I regret nothing about knowing you, not even knowing what your presence means." She smiled. "I am grateful. It tells me that someday I will be free."

Rodi suddenly appeared in the doorway and was still only half dressed. "You're a sadistic woman," he told Shanae.

She grinned. "What's your point?"

He walked over, removed Anira to put her in Shanae's hands, and then caught Tasia around the waist to toss her over his shoulder. "Excuse us. We missed a morning ritual."

Tasia began to beat on his back, torn between exasperation and humor. "Rodi! Put me down! You cannot haul me off to bed in front of Shanae!"

"Why not?" was his absent response as he headed out of the attic. "Given half a chance, her husband would haul her off too."

"He has," Shanae called helpfully after them, "and on more than one occasion." She had to grin to herself as she snuggled Anira. She supposed that it was just the balance of things that would make her and her kindred spirit find mates cut from the same cloth. Robert and Rodi were far too much alike, too!

 

* * * * *

 

The Resurrection Cultivators meeting was already in process when Tasia got to the castle. She stepped into the doorway with dignity and gave her friends a pointed look. "I don't want to hear a single word," she warned them. "Because I will turn you into snails and set you loose in the garden."

LeAnn and Raine picked their books back up with grins. The others just whistled innocently. Satisfied, Tasia walked into the room and sat down on the couch next to Emily. "And anyway, that's not the only reason I'm late. I was sending Daelan to the Delphinium Kingdom. Mom and Tosh have gone as well. I'm not taking any more chances. The orchards will be fine on their own for at least a month. One harvest is done; the next isn't coming until February. The ice apple freeze already happened as well." The apples bloomed all year and were one of the biggest exports both on and for Protea. The farm would randomly freeze for one month of every year—usually December or January but sometimes earlier—producing ice on the farm's small lake and allowing the extremely rare ice apples to bloom for the entire month. Protea as a whole had a temperate climate, but snow and ice did pop up in rare places—notably the high northern mountains on Vericity's landmass—and, now unsurprisingly, the Martine farm.

Starlight rubbed her hands over her arms to ward off a chill of her own. "What do we do about Minstrel? Storm said that you must have seen into his heart to unleash the song you did." She still felt a sense of awe as she remembered the force of the power ripping through the air. She had never before heard music with her soul rather than her ears. It had been cataclysmically more powerful than Tasia's song of grief over Arthur.

"I did." Tasia had no objections when Ryan scooted over and took her hand to ease the pain she still felt. It was minor enough to not cause him anything more than some nausea; she had already healed most of it personally. "It was emptiness."

"Emptiness." Raven tilted his head. "How is that terrifying?"

"You've never seen it, I take it." Beth shuddered. "An empath's greatest nightmare. The void of emptiness is the herald of evil. The lack of existence to which evil wants to return everything. Imagine something that has no feelings. Not even indifference, not even silence. No light, no dark. Just an endless now where you can't move or breathe. You're just . . . there. You struggle and you fight but there's nothing there. Eventually it starts eating away at you until there's nothing left in you too."

Phoenix shuddered. "Okay, stop! We get it!" He wrapped his arms around himself. "You're saying that at the heart of Minstrel is emptiness?"

"At the heart of Minstrel is madness, and true madness is emptiness. That's what it feels to go insane. Empty." Tasia drew a long breath. "It's left for debate which came first. The madness or the emptiness. Either way, the Chaos energy inside him wants to fill the emptiness and can't because it is itself afraid of the emptiness. In an effort to fill it personally, Minstrel fills himself with more Chaos by feeding on chaotic emotions."

"Is Chaos innately bad?" Starlight wondered.

"Nope." Theo shrugged. "It's actually another critical part of the universe. Maybe one of the more critical ones because Chaos is, as Tasi said, made of emotion. All of them, even the terrible ones. We wouldn't be alive if we didn't hate, and cry, and hurt; the important thing is to not feel those emotions all the time. I always thought that if someone had enough emotional depth on top of being heavily balanced elementally, they could become the master of Chaos. Chaos is the third arcane force of existence alongside Light and Dark. The latter two have Apexes. Chaos really should have one, too."

Tasia felt the sparks under her skin anew and said nothing. "Well, I can verify that Chaos is not bad," she admitted. "The madness hurt me. The terrible emotions of Chaos only hurt me because Chaos hurt. It was as if . . . I empathically responded to Chaos' own pain. It fears the emptiness even more than we do. Fears the thing most opposite to it." She rubbed the back of her neck. "Shanae told me that I can see Chaos clearer than anyone else because my ancestor Byron was imprinted by Chaos during a terrible war. That imprint carried to me. I suppose it would be suitably ironic that the one Flower Element I do not have, and have never wanted to have, is the one I would be most sensitive to feeling."

"Give your own emotional depth and how volatile your emotions can be, it makes sense," Beth said softly.

LeAnn nodded. "Mom was imprinted as well during that war, and it passed to me. It makes us sensitive to Chaos, allowing us to feel it when it manifests. I've definitely been feeling it inside Minstrel, but I don't think I realized until maybe now that that was what I felt." And now also understood that, perhaps, she could feel it somewhere else. She said nothing about it.

"So what now?" Raven asked.

"Now we focus on Sabirah." LeAnn crossed her arms. "We want to free her from Minstrel. To do that we need to know more about her. What can you tell us? How old was she when she died?"

"Barely five."

"So if she was still alive now, she would be . . .?

"Thirty-two come January, I believe. She was older than any of the Alurian Defenders." Raven felt his heart give an odd thud as something seemed very coincidental. "Tasia . . . isn't your birthday coming soon?"

"In two weeks, on January 1." Tasia got to her feet and walked over to look out the window. "I will be thirty-two. I am the eldest of my generation, the literal herald of the Era for I was born on the first day of the first month of the first year. Me, who has a daughter the spitting image of Sabirah. Anna looks eerily like me and Rodi; few know she's adopted. We can only assume she will continue to look a fair bit like me as an adult. The only thing that prevents her from being wholly mistaken for mine by blood are her beautiful black eyes. All females of my direct lineage have brown/brown coloring." Anna herself also had her birthday in January, only a few days after Tasia and Rodi's shared birthday—just a year separated the destined couple.

"Is it possible Minstrel senses that subconsciously and that's part of his obsession with Tasia?" Racine asked Storm swiftly. "Are we looking at a whole bunch of things combining into a single unit? The nature of Chaos is that it is made up of thousands of little things that lead to a single whole. Is that what's happening with Minstrel's obsession? A slew of small things that all lead him toward Tasia?"

Storm hesitated and then shook his head. "Yes and no. There's something missing. I still can't see the why. I can see the pattern, how it all leads, but I can't see what's at the end. Or the beginning, as it were."

"Was there anything particular about Sabirah that made her different?" Emily asked. "Like weird powers or something. Anything that might tell us why she was so damned critical to Minstrel's minimal sanity? Do we know what Flower Element she may have had, or anything? I mean, you can't sense that about a ghost, so no way for us to tell now."

"Unfortunately, we know next to nothing about her," Starlight admitted. "And given her age, she may have just not yet manifested anything."

The room abruptly plunged into darkness as even the windows suddenly became blocked and all lights went out. "Stay where you are," Tasia ordered as she felt the rise of tension and fear. No darkness nor no light could take her sight again, even all the way into full whiteout or blackout. Being wholly Gray, she could still see just as clearly and distinctly as she had in the light, just now with a different color cast to everything.

Theo took a little breath. "Sabirah is here. I feel her." His Virtuoso voice softened. "It's alright, sweetheart. Come out where we can see you; I offer my power freely."

The lights didn't come back on, but Sabirah's ghost appeared in the middle of the room with an eerie glow. Her light proved bright enough to allow them all to see her. She was facing Tasia. I can lead Minstrel to you, she said.

"Safely?" Tasia asked quietly.

Well, it's not like he can kill me again.

Emily muffled a snort of laughter. "Sorry. It's just . . . well, she even sounds like Anna and her mother."

Tasia ignored her. "There are fates worse than death."

He cannot harm me. He would never have harmed me before if I could have stopped him. He could not hear my voice. This is the price I pay for not being strong enough for him. She turned and floated over to Theo. Aster Defender, I ask you to break the chains binding me. This will free me, but it will also unleash him and he will become entirely unstable. She turned toward Tasia. Just because I am not bound to him does not mean I will be able to leave him. I cannot leave without him.

"What are you?" Ryan whispered. "What are the both of you?"

I can't say. But . . . She floated up and framed Tasia's face with her small hands. But . . . we are connected to Tasia. When the door is opened, everyone will know the truth. I will lead Minstrel to you shortly.  And with that said, she disappeared.

The lights returned and everyone blinked rapidly. A thoughtful silence fell before Phoenix finally said to Tasia, "Boy, I'm glad I'm not you."

She smiled wryly. "Speaking of Chaos, my life is made of it."

 

* * * * *

 

Minstrel didn't know what to do. It had been an entire day, and he still felt chills when he remembered Tasia's song. It had cut across dimensions as if they weren't even there and had wrapped around him with the taunting knowledge that she had seen inside him. The song had scared him at first as he felt it inside his soul but then . . . he had felt something else. He had felt . . . safe.

It was such an alien and discomforting feeling that he had rejected it. Yet, even in rejecting it, he burned to feel it again. He had wanted to play with Tasia to get as much emotion out of her as he could, but now he wanted to kill her. He wanted to kill her so he could trap her to him and feel that frightening feeling again. He had felt something other than pain or fear. It had made the emptiness disappear entirely for a while.

His head lifted sharply as he felt Sabirah's presence fade inside him. "No," he moaned. She did that only when she was trying to keep him from going too far. He began to rock back and forth. "Come back, Sabirah!" He put his hands on his head and ducked down as if to protect the hat he wore. "I'll play nice!"

She did not respond. The emptiness inside seemed to loom over him as if to swallow him whole, and he felt another new emotion: panic. It was unpleasant. A little shriek slipped past his lips, and he covered his ears as if to convince himself that he heard nothing because he chose it. He screamed out mentally yet Sabirah had somehow gotten strong enough to push away to a place where he could barely feel her.

Tasia.

Yes! He leapt to his feet. If he could get to Tasia, if he could draw her out, her emotions would be enough. It would beat back the emptiness. It wouldn't eat him. She would save him. She was a Defender Cultivator—a Lead no less. They did that sort of thing. He knew all there was to know about Defenders. It had made sense to him to learn.

 

* * * * *

 

Tasia and Raine had decided to go for a walk together along the river that ran through Protea City when a burn through Tasia's blood alerted her to danger. Her brief tension flashed to her sister, but Raine felt no fear despite being on alert. Carefully concealed inside potent arcanistry were the rest of their team as well as Starlight and Phoenix. All Masked, all armored. All prepared.

Minstrel suddenly appeared in front of the sisters with a wide smile. "My favorite person!" he crowed. "Ready to play some more?" He waved his hands over-dramatically and made many Reparations appear with bright flashes of color and light and confetti. "See? Aren't I the best?"

Tasia grabbed her Mask. "I've seen better." She pulled it on to call her armor, and Raine likewise did the same. They had barely been protected before the monsters descended on them. Raine grabbed her three-headed spear to help even as Tasia grabbed her sword, and they waded right into the middle. Neither bothered to temper their emotions and let their anger be a tangible thing. They wanted Minstrel to feed on it. They needed to distract him.

Minstrel, however, sensed that there was something off. He frowned. His sorceress had never before let her emotions be . . . obvious. She was always careful to control herself. It was why what made it so delightful to try to break her. But this was . . . no fun. He sensed movement behind him and dodged barely in the nick of time. The arrow that missed him struck a tree and buried itself halfway deep. It was an odd arrow made of alder wood with an arrowhead made of agate. It took a few seconds for his knowledge of woods and stones to catch up, and he realized he looked at an arrow deliberately made for banishing spirits. It glowed softly with familiar Fire majik, too.

His scream of fury and hatred sounded sharp and high-pitched. It sliced through the air and nearly made it bleed. Wild madness gleamed in his eyes as he lost all control and began lobbing chaotic blasts in every direction. "No!" he screamed. "No, you won't take her! Come out, Aster Defender!" His voice dropped to a guttural level. "I'll peel the skin from your body and make a hat to go with my feather necklace!"

He destroyed his own monsters in a burst of chaotic power when they got in his way. Tasia and Raine pulled back from the fight quickly and joined the other Defenders to form a circle with Minstrel trapped in the center. He hunched down toward the ground like a wounded animal and made noises of the same. "If you take her," he whimpered, "I have nothing. Nothing! The emptiness will eat me! I will disappear!"

He was trapped as long as they held the circle. Yet Storm could not use the other blessed arrow Theo had given him as long as his hands were held. They had to take the split-second Minstrel's eyes moved away so that Storm could step free and the circle close behind him. They waited, the enemy's eyes shifted to the other side, and Storm swiftly let go.

Before Starlight could grab Reagan's hand, Minstrel seemed to explode with power. The wild wave of chaotic energy surged from him with explosive force and blew the circle apart. Everyone went flying violently away. Tasia smashed into a tree hard enough that she felt one of her ribs crack despite her armor. As she lay on the ground, dazed, she could only stare up at Minstrel as he came to stand over her with a sword in his hand. There was a wild expression in his eyes that chilled her. It was like looking into the heart of madness. Could she get an attack off fast enough to stop him? Would the Gray inside her be enough to stop Chaos where Light or Dark alone could not? Sparks surged hotter, wilder, under her skin until she felt it crackle her hair.

He laughed shrilly. "When you're dead, you'll be with me. And then I can't get eaten!" He tightened his grip, lifted the sword, and prepared to strike.

"No!" Anna shot into the area and planted herself in front of Tasia with her arms outstretched. She was pale with fear and breathing hard, but she didn't flinch or back down even when she looked into Minstrel's eyes. "Leave my mommy alone!"

"Anna!" Tasia struggled to sit up. "Leave, at once!"

Minstrel went as white as sand. "Sabirah?" The sword fell from his hand to land on the floor with a clatter as he backed up. "But . . . but . . . you're dead! How?!" He covered his face on a moan. "No . . . he'll kill you too!"

"Raven didn't kill Sabirah," Phoenix said distinctly. "You did! You blamed him, but it was you that did it!"

"No!" he shrieked. He turned to look at Tasia, but Anna still stood in front of her. He stumbled back and clawed at his eyes so hard that they began to bleed. "No! No! Nononononononono!"

Storm lifted his bow, sighted, and fired the other arrow. It ripped through the air and snapped the chains between Minstrel and Sabirah. Minstrel snapped, too. His high-pitched scream was the most terrifying thing any of them had ever heard. Chaos energy consumed him, and he disappeared with a violence that cracked the land where he had been standing.

Anna gulped air and lowered her arms. Shaking, she whirled and fell to her knees beside Tasia. "You're hurt!" she sobbed. "Please! Don't die!"

"I'm not going to die." Tasia grit her teeth and pressed a hand to her ribs when they protested. "I'm going to get healed and then I'm grounding you until you're ninety! What were you thinking?! Goddess." Heedless of her injuries, she grabbed her daughter up close and buried her face in her hair. "You scared me doing that!"

"Anna," Raine said as she painfully gained her feet, "heal your mother. There's too many of us for me to handle alone. I'll need you both to help me, and Tasia shouldn't waste her effort healing herself when you're here. That's your special job."

"Okay, Aunt Raine." Anna held her hands over Tasia's side and concentrated fiercely on making the wound go away. Soft silver majik flowed over her hands and down into the wound and then to the bone beyond to mend that which was damaged.

The pain eased, and Tasia took a long breath. "Good girl." She stood and went over to her nearest friend while Anna hurried to heal Raine herself. Between the three of them, they soon had everyone healed and back on their feet.

"You," Beth scolded Anna, "are going to get it when we tell your father! Oh, good goddess, and your grandparents too! How the glassy hells did you sneak away from Uncle Dane? I've been half-convinced he had eyes on the back of his head!"

"Sabirah helped me. She told me that . . ." She broke off as twelve pairs of eyes landed on her. She gulped faintly. "I mean . . ."

Tasia knelt down to her height. "You spoke with Sabirah?" she asked quietly. Anna nodded miserably, and she sighed. "Why didn't you tell me, baby?"

"Because I wanted to help you," Anna whispered. "And I wanted to help Sabirah. Is . . . is she free now?"

I am free from my chains, came Sabirah's voice as she appeared near them. She floated over to Anna. Though there was a nearly four-year difference in their height and their build, they still looked nearly perfectly identical. Thank you, Anna. This is from me, to you. She opened her hands to reveal a piece of softly glowing blue diamond.

Seeing it made Tasia smile softly. "Of course." To Anna, she explained, "The diamond is a symbol of unconditional love and purity, as well as great healing both physical and spiritual. A blue diamond is even more special, and adds peace and communication to the attributes. That's perfectly you, my little healer."

Anna's eyes widened with delight. "Oh!" She reached out to take it and felt it pulsing warmly in her hands in a way that tickled the majik inside her. "Thank you," she said softly. She looked at Racine. "Aunt Racine, can you help me make it into a necklace? I have an allowance to pay!"

Racine smiled. She had professional level jeweler skills and made pieces sold for high prices, but this would be a gift. "Of course."

Sabirah turned toward Tasia. I always wanted to grow up to be a woman like you, she admitted. I wanted to be strong and powerful and to protect my queen and kingdom, but then I died before I could. Please. Protect Aluria for me? Protect Queen Starlight and the Princesses Sunlight and Moonlight.

"You have my vow," Tasia said quietly. Something she had begun to suspect had now become fact inside her Pattern Mastery. "Tell me, would your hair be like mine if you were alive now?"

Sabirah smiled. It is possible, though perhaps I would have just one the silver-green color of the edelweiss. I had not Activated before I died. A little shimmer of light rippled over her body, and she disappeared.

A long silence fell before, finally, Storm murmured, "She had a Seed. She was supposed to be an Alurian Defender. And given her age . . . probably the Lead."

"What!" Starlight and Phoenix spun toward him sharply. "But," Starlight said, "she was five when she died! She did not respond to the pulse of power I and my sisters sent out, and our Defender team was already all accounted for anyway! We already had Vincent as our Lead!"

Phoenix's heart began to pound. "No," he whispered. "That's not true. Don't you remember? We didn't find Jeo until we were ten. He's five years younger than us, and we found him five years after Sabirah died. What if Sabirah was supposed to be the Ice Flower Element, but her death made Aluria give another child a Seed? He turned five, Activated, and we never thought anything of it other than 'hey, surprise, he's younger!' Also . . . Vincent. He didn't act like Lead right from the start, did he? He only started acting like a Lead—surprise—about a year or two into things. After Sabirah died."

Starlight felt her heart wrench painfully. "If she had been a Lead Defender of the Ice Flower Element," she whispered, "she would have been just the second in existence, with the other being Tasia. Oh goddess." In a thin whisper, she added, "She was supposed to be my Defender. My friend. And I never got to know her." She immediately felt Phoenix holding her, but her twin's embrace only helped a little.

"That's why Minstrel hates Raven and our Caretakers!" Reagan blurted. "Oh my god, what if he was supposed to be Sabirah's soul mate? That would explain why he hates the mates of Cultivators! He failed his own in the most terrible way possible! We kept calling her his sister but she wasn't. She was adopted."

Storm rubbed his forehead as it throbbed. "It's still more whats. Still no why. But . . . we're closer. I feel it. There's one last thing. Something to explain the madness and the Chaos." He looked at his eldest sister, but if Tasia had any suspicions, she was not sharing.

"We have to go to Aluria." Starlight squared her shoulders. "He won't come back here to us. We have to go to him. We need to gather the other Alurian Defenders and take him on as a full team of twenty. All of us, together." She took a deep breath. "Tasia, that orb from Arthur. Do you think it will let us go back to Aluria?"

"Of course it will. I might even be able to adjust it to prevent Uncle Talon from suffering if we use it." Tasia closed her eyes for a moment and then hugged Anna close. "I suggest we all make our goodbyes. The Caretakers cannot come with us this time because we don't know what that will do to Minstrel. This has to be a matter of Cultivators only," she said quietly. "We will leave in the morning."

 

©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.

Chapter 20 (June 1st, 2024)->

The Chaotic Kingdom - Chapter 18

<-Chapter 17

Tasia rarely ever kept secrets from her friends unless for their own good. In this instance, better they knew. No sooner had Minstrel disappeared than did she get out her PCA and call LeAnn. When her twin answered, she said only, "I'm fine."

"I guessed as much but . . . what the vined hells were you doing?" LeAnn demanded. "We all felt the spell you released, and it gave poor Beth a headache! Not to mention Logan was all but gnawing on the furniture; Raine and Reagan literally had to sit on him to keep him here!"

"Sorry," she said quietly.

LeAnn fell quiet as well. Then, "Well, not really, I'm sure. But we forgive you anyway. Now, what did happen? Or is this something we need to get together with the Elders and Alurians on?"

"At the least the Alurians."

"You owe me money," she said in an aside to Chance. "I told you she was kicking Cashlin's ass!"

Tasia had to smile. Her friends, especially her twin, knew her very well indeed.

 

* * * * *

 

The Caretakers of their generation got dragged to Protea Castle for the meeting as well, much to their surprise. They had not usually been a mandatory component of any meeting before. Since that raised the number of people meeting to over forty, Shanae very wisely had everyone go into the throne room instead of a drawing room. Its vast space could hold a hundred or more comfortably, and it was used for the weekend sleepovers as well.

Those who were conjurors made enough pillows, beanbags, chairs, and rugs for everyone to find a place to sit comfortably. Maxim looked around and then shook his head wryly. "I begin to see the merits of why no more than two generations have been alive at a time. It gets crowded fairly fast otherwise. Even Sabin and Claret's backyard would have gotten overstuffed at this point."

"We'd have just moved to the Chivanti manor in the mountains," Sabin retorted on a grin.

Arista shook her head as she settled back against the couch she and Diego sat in front of; the couch itself held their daughter and future son-in-law. Not uncommonly, the families had bunched together around the room. At the least, she had finally gotten used to how utterly casually the Resurrection Cultivators used their majik. It had only taken a few years. "What's the meaning of this meeting anyway? Clearly this is major, Tasi."

Tasia was the only one still standing, and she began to pace slowly. Everyone there knew her well enough to know to stay out of her way, so outstretched legs got tucked in. "The Alurian Cultivators are here because it directly affects them. You all are here because you have a right to know. My partners are here because they have to know. And we brought our Caretakers because flat out we don't trust Minstrel's track record where that's concerned."

"And with good reason!" Logan said firmly. "Quite frankly, most of us are just kids when it comes to battle, but like hell we'll let ourselves become easy targets and be liabilities to you."

Sayena smiled. "Sometimes knowing when to stay out of a fight is as important as knowing when to fight."

"Uh-oh, she's waxing philosophical," Robert murmured. "Quick, someone start talking before she regresses back to normal."

Sayena smartly smacked her brother in the back of the head and made everyone laugh. Tasia grinned. "I can't disagree with him, so I'll just keep going." She took a long breath. There was no way to say it delicately or without confusion, so she just said it outright. "I killed Cashlin this morning."

Starlight shot to her feet in sheer shock. "But . . . but how?! I mean, my god, I knew you were powerful but how?!"

"The actual how of the deed is not the critical part." Tasia brushed it aside with a wave of her hand. "The circumstances are. Minstrel set Cashlin up. He, well, essentially gave me him to kill. As a gift. He said it himself, that it was a gift to me for being so strong. Strong enough to make him feel pain."

Starlight slowly sat down again, but she still looked shocked. Phoenix was more thoughtful. "That doesn't surprise me," he finally decided. "Minstrel has never been the type for familial relationships. Cashlin being his brother was no more important than anyone or anything else. We assumed he would turn on him eventually. He doesn't love anyone."

"Not quite true," Raven reminded him. "Sabirah."

"About Sabirah," Theo spoke up. "We contacted her."

"Is that why you were all naked in the attic?" Gail grumbled.

"They were what?" Evan blinked. He could not quite reconcile the incongruity of the action, or the odd presence of it in the conversation.

Reagan coughed. "We're witches, Dad. We do that sort of thing. We didn't need clothes let alone armor for what we were trying to do. Really, until we got knocked out by the dragon force, we had been just fine overall."

"Dragon force!" Delilah's forehead hit her hands. "Now you say you were attacked by a dragon?"

"Not attacked!" Ryan hastily assured her. "It was protecting us from something else trying to attack us—which wasn't succeeding anyway," he added quickly when both his mother and father eyed him equally.

"Well, that, and my grandfather is an arrogant jerk sometimes," Tasia said dryly.

"Only she would call the King of Dragons that," Beth noted on a snort.

"Only she would get away with it!" Terry said with emphasis.

"Either way . . ." Theo waved a hand in the air to bring things back in line. "What it boils down to is that we contacted Sabirah. She told us that saving Minstrel would save her, but to save him we needed to destroy him, and yet destroying him wouldn't save him. I think Minstrel was pissed when she left. He tried to attack us but we were linked as ten. He didn't stand a chance."

"Despite it," Tasia picked up, "Tananeen's power swept the room and removed him. He also wished to speak with me so he knocked all of us out. It's what he does," she said apologetically when her friends eyed her. "He told me that I cannot hesitate to open the door we all keep sensing, and that I'm the only one who can open it."

Racine shuddered. "I swear my vision said we should not open it at all!" She moved closer to Allister as he pulled her into his arms. His warmth, as always, banished the chill she got when she remembered the chaos of her vision. "We destroyed his dream, and it was in front of the door, right?"

"Ow!" Rodi winced and scooted away from Storm. "Someone's brain kicked into overdrive. Smacked into my brain as a wave of static."

Storm had gone deep into his mastery. His eyes stayed open, but they flickered rapidly like a computational machine processing information. Even Allister and Racine across from him could hear the static hum inside their own heads. "The plaid in Minstrel," he said slowly, "is tied together by Sabirah's blue thread. When the blue thread was removed, everything came apart wildly. What if we, well, helped Sabirah's spirit pass on?"

"I don't think we can," Emily spoke up. "I'm not sure any of the rest of you noticed, but when we were talking to her, I was really confused because she had a shackle around her ankle and there was a chain connected to it that had to be as big as my arm."

Tasia's eyes narrowed, and Theo frowned. "Someone bound her here," the latter muttered. "That oddly makes sense."

Ulyen frowned. "Is it possible Minstrel did it? You've mentioned his obsession with his sister." He looked at Raven. "You know him best. Do you think he could have tied her spirit to him?"

"It's very possible," Raven agreed. "In fact, it would not shock me in the slightest." He let out a long breath. "That gives us a plan, but not necessarily an action to take." He glanced at Theo and Asheria, knowing they were the two who acted as mediums thanks to their Ghost Sight as Aster Cultivators. "Can you banish good spirits?"

"If they want to go." Asheria ran a hand through her short orange hair in a gesture more of agitation than frustration. "Do you think Sabirah wants to be freed?"

"Yes," Storm responded instantly. "She would not be helping us unless she wanted to be freed."

"If the pattern master is sure," Chance decided, "then that's good enough for me." He scowled as all eight Commanders suddenly stared at him. "Now what?"

"Holy shit, you've turned agreeable, and you're willingly participating," Maxim snorted. "Next thing we know, you'll tell jokes."

Diego looked at LeAnn. "Damn, Leslie Ann. You should have seduced him earlier."

Amid the snickers and the outright laughing, LeAnn said drolly, "I did try, but he's horribly stubborn."

Chance glared at Diego but refrained from comment. He just filed it away under revenge the next time they got to sparring. If anything, training with Tasia had assured him that he could smack Diego and Talon alike around sufficiently for their wiseass remarks. Nothing pleased these people. They harassed him for not opening up, and then harassed him when he did. Then again . . . that was part of friendship. That took getting used to as well.

"With Cashlin dead," Veronica asked Starlight, "does that mean that Minstrel is now technically the king? Since Cashlin stole and claimed your throne, and Minstrel is his next of kin, by laws of succession, that means Minstrel is king."

"Yes." Starlight wrapped her arms around herself. "I would hope he might be willing to surrender and give me my home back, but why should he? Now he has an army. He can torture and abuse my people until he has a buffet of terrible emotions to feed on."

"It won't satisfy him," Rodi said quietly. "Eventually he will be drawn back to us. To Raven. And to Tasia. Especially to Tasia. He knows she's equal to the Apexes." He ignored the sharp breath that Arista took suddenly. It was Shanae's choice to tell. "He'll want to break her."

"That means he'll be coming after you next," Pallas noted.

His smile turned savage. "Let's see him try."

 

* * * * *

 

Anna had been left by herself for the first time thanks to the large meeting, but she had promised Yvette and Dane to not leave Delphinium Castle. She instead explored the halls inside. She felt a little sad, and really bored. She really, really missed her mommy and daddy and little brother. She knew she was there to be kept safe, that the enemy might try to hurt her, but she wanted so badly to help her mommy even a little. There was always something she could do for her mother. Even if she was just there to heal her when she got home; Tasia could actually heal herself, but she knew Anna's need to support her and so often did not bother to mend everything before she got home.

A bell softly chimed. Anna turned around quickly but saw nothing in the hall with her. No one had come up that she could see. Yet, her sixth sense clearly told her that someone had joined her. Her heart pounding madly, she held her breath. "Who's there?" she whispered.

Don't be afraid. The voice seemed to come from the air and sounded eerily like her own. I'm not going to hurt you.

She quickly rubbed a hand over her forehead to clear the point where she received her Sight. The fact that she had it was as yet a secret only her parents knew since it was only just developing. Clearing the mental focal point allowed her to suddenly see a little girl hovering in front of her. It felt like looking into a mirror and seeing herself reflected in different clothes, but the other girl also looked both insubstantial and translucent. "Are you a ghost?" she whispered.

Yes. I died many years ago. Sabirah floated down to land in front of Anna. Your mommy needs you.

"But what can I do?" Anna asked. "I want to help her. I want to be strong enough to help her. But I can't."

You can. I can help you, and you can help her. But you need to help me first. Do you trust me?

Anna looked into Sabirah's eyes, and her developing Empathy told her what her heart already had: this ghost, whoever she was or whatever she was, meant her no harm. Whatever her reasons, she truly wished to help. "Okay," she said. She took Sabirah's outstretched hand. "What can I do?"

Sabirah smiled as the chain around her ankle suddenly shrank. You've already done it.

 

* * * * *

 

Minstrel was having fun. Leading an army was really easy since all he had to do was tell them to do something and they did it. They didn't like doing it, definitely, but he scared them into obeying by threatening their families. He had them obliterate an entire city and the waves of terror and pain had been delicious but . . . "Tastes great, less filling," he said to himself as he began to pace in the throne room. His throne room, he thought with a giddy giggle.

He took out a coin and studied it. He wanted to feel real emotions, strong ones, and that meant he needed to go play with Raven or Tasia. Only they had ever provoked out the deepest of feelings from him.

His head suddenly lifted. "Sabirah?" he asked the air. He wrapped his arms around himself and began to rock back and forth. "You seem happier now, Sabirah. I can feel it. I told you that I wouldn't let you be unhappy. Soon you'll never be alone."

He took his coin and flipped in the air. "Heads for my favorite sorceress," he announced. The coin landed on the floor with a little clink and fell heads up. He thought to himself about things. Going after Tasia directly was silly. She would be too inclined to keep control of her emotions. He needed to break her formidable walls.

He remembered then, how beautifully she had burned when he had attacked her princess. Anticipation hummed inside him. What if he took it a step further and went after her other half? Oh it wouldn't be easy; he was ridiculously strong within his own right. Then again, hurting him would be wonderful if only because of that very strength. With a spring in his step, he skipped out of the room and left the two-headed coin face up and down in the middle of the floor.

 

* * * * *

 

"I've been meaning to ask," Terry said to Rodi as they, Kimber, Kari, and Logan all headed back into the city. They had left their Cultivators to continue their meeting alone since it had been fairly obvious they made a distraction. Most of the rest of the Caretakers across both generations had dispersed as well. "You've said it, and Tasi has said it, that you're a witch. But you're . . . definitely not quite the same as Logan and me. I've never really asked about that."

"For one thing," Logan noted, "you're one hell of a lot more powerful. And that doesn't shock me, by the way."

Rodi lifted a brow. "How so?"

"My sister would be bored with a mate less strong than her." He smiled wryly. "You remember your wedding? Er, the official one," he amended. He might not yet know all the details of the trip, but he had at least been told that one. It still amused him. "The wedding crasher?"

"Ah." Rodi's smile turned dangerous. "Him."

Kari's brows shot up. "Whoa, what happened?"

"Well, basically, a guy that Tasia went out with once decided to be more of an asshole than we thought he was originally, so he tried to object to the wedding," Terry offered dryly. "So Max and Sabin objected to him and removed him. Physically and by the seat of his pants."

Kimber grinned. "Nice."

"My point," Logan continued, "was that even if he had turned out to be decent underneath, and Tasia hadn't even known you, Rodi, she would have gotten rid of Riam fast. He had nerve enough to constantly ask her out for two months before she finally agreed, but that's about all I can say for him. The fact that he immediately chose to hide his own shortcomings behind accusing her of using majik on him to make him interested really says it all."

"He said that?!" Kari's eyes widened. "And he lived?!"

"Well, yes, but . . . he had all but turned himself into an outcast for it." Logan smirked. "People don't really tolerate that attitude much, you know? And that he dared crash the wedding of a Crown Princess to a former Ruler Cultivator from an allied world? He, ah, left the planet pretty quick after that, we'll just say."

"I'm pretty sure he was escorted off the planet," Terry said drolly. "Max had mentioned something about 'enjoying some duties where protecting Rulers are concerned' to Beth, and the timing felt pretty coincidental." He glanced at Rodi. "And so you know, it does not escape me that you're as good at avoiding answering questions as your wife is. If we keep talking, you'll let us."

Rodi smiled wryly. "Guilty. However, it's not that I don't want to talk about it; I'm just not sure how to explain." He raked a hand through his thick black hair, and his wedding ring glittered on his thumb. A poppy-shaped clip in his hair over his left ear made of labradorite and amethyst was also a wedding symbol, but from Aria. He and Tasia both wore them; hers was clipped over her streak of golden yellow hair marking her as Iris' Defender. "Majik entered the Ruler Cultivator line of Aria when Liena Vanguard, Tasia's ancestor and the first High Priestess of Protea, blessed the family that had adopted and raised her."

"Oh, I see," Kimber said. "And it kept evolving in your line the way it did in Tasia's."

"Pretty much. We're not entirely sure how—it was dragon blood that made the power grow without diminishing in Tasia's direct line—but it definitely happened. It had to happen. I needed to meet her as close as could be met to a sorceress." He laughed suddenly. "I just chalk it up to Destiny and leave it at that. But what it comes down to is that I'm technically almost a wizard, and not a witch. And I say technically because I've never felt a distinct difference in my power evolution. I hover at the cusp without going over, though neither Tasia nor I yet know why I can't. I should. I have six elements and two rather potent skills, and my limits are remarkably long. But I can't—yet."

Kari tucked her hands in her pockets. "Kind of like dancing on the edge of a fence, huh?"

"A bit. It still makes me stronger than the lot of you put together." He elbowed Logan. "He hates that. He was the best around until I arrived and metaphorically smited him."

"Shut up, Rodi." It was said half-heartedly. Logan and Rodi actually had as close a friendship as Raine and Tasia, for much the same reason. They just enjoyed poking fun at each other and keeping Tasia entertained. He was going to return the taunt when he felt a sudden and familiar burn through his blood that meant danger approached. At least that made sense now; dragons were known for their built-in warning systems. His tensions transmitted to Rodi, and they automatically moved to put their backs together. "There's something here."

"Crap." Kari, Kimber, and Terry also put their backs together to make it harder to sneak up on them. "Why did we have to get the crash course in combat?" Kari wondered with a sigh. "I would rather have worked my way through things."

"So has every Defender Cultivator across time." Rodi drew his sword and let his senses expand outward. He was not at all surprised by what he found. "You can come out, Minstrel," he said clearly. "I'm well aware that you're there."

"Aww! You're no fun!" Minstrel appeared with a pop of sparkles that came showering down on them. Logan was quick to get a majikal shield over them, and the sparkles exploded against it harmlessly. Minstrel quirked a brow. "Nice!" he praised. "I can tell you've been practicing since I last saw you!" He floated down and landed on the ground facing Rodi. "It's nothing personal," he told him, "but, you see, you belong to my sorceress. To get the strongest feeling from her possible, I need to hurt you." A wistful look appeared in his eyes. "Though I'm sure I'll feel quite a bit from you as well. You have a capacity to feel emotion not far from hers."

The soft tingle inside Rodi's soul that was the constant presence of his lover's arcanic soul sharpened with sudden and deadly fury. He smiled dangerously. "The good news for you is that she knows you're here. She's already on her way."

Minstrel blinked. "She can sense me through you? Huh. Interesting. I figured she'd sense you in danger, 'cause she's a Defender and you're her Caretaker, but I didn't know she could actually feel through you."

He touched his heart with his free hand. "There is something inside her that burns without dimming. A force of hope. It makes her exceptionally sensitive to those her soul is fused to, able to actually feel through their skin if she needs, so she knows what danger they confront. Nothing will stop her from coming to my aid if I need it."

Logan briefly glanced at him but said nothing. It certainly sounded as if Rodi had determined at least partially why Tasia—and potentially Shanae and Sayena—had the ability to sense danger to their brothers as much as their lovers. It would make a great deal of sense if it tied to the arcane force of Hope all three could use. Only the two Apexes could actually gather all hopes in the universe and release it as a Whisper to create miracles, but, honestly, at Tasia's rate, she might end up able to do it as well. She already skirted creating miracles anyway, and did a lot of things like an Apex without being one. That would just add to the list.

He was also not surprised that Rodi had not mentioned Tasia could sense Logan in danger or any pain he felt. It was best to keep Minstrel from focusing on him as anything more than a way to hurt Raine; he had already been tested, and it needed to stay that way. If Minstrel knew hurting him would hurt Tasia, he would attack. Logan did not stand a chance against him, and he knew it. It was a bitter acceptance, but he would not be used against his sister!

Minstrel evaluated what he had been told and his smile turned sinister. "So hurting you literally hurts her. How delightful." He made an elegant gesture and several Reparations appeared in the area around him. Though Cashlin had been killed, his collected evil power had been easy enough to claim before it dispersed back to the cosmos. Minstrel considered it his own personal bucket of fun now. "Here's how it works," he said cheerfully. "Either you fight them, or I sic them on the city. I bet they'd get a lot of killing done before the Defenders got here."

Rodi stepped out of Logan's shield and majikally called for his sword and uniform. The gray and purple outfit had been designed for battle, but still had homage to both the black poppy and the purple iris. It had also been defensively enhanced. It was nowhere near as strong as a Defender's armor—nothing was—but it would still be far better than nothing. "Stay in there," he told his friends quietly. "Quite frankly, you'd become mincemeat."

As they watched him walk forward, Kari muttered distinctly, "You can always tell the Caretaker who is mated to a Lead Defender."

The monsters leapt for Rodi and he met them head on. He let his sixth sense tune toward Minstrel so that he knew if the other man intended to try anything sneaky, but it took away some of his ability to sense sneak attacks from the Reparations. He could feel a burn of pain from a claw slicing down his arm but did his best to ignore it.

They all knew the moment Tasia got within a hundred yards. The ground quivered in the sheer force of her fury. An immense dome instantly appeared over the top of everything and sealed off the outside. It was not her power; this crackled like Chaos.

Kari felt a jolt of understanding. "He trapped her in here with us!" she told the others sharply. "Because he knows that she can't call backup if she's too busy trying to keep us alive!" She quickly turned and slapped a hand over Logan's and added her majik to their shield. She was just in time. More Reparations struck the shield and bounced off.

Terry and Kimber wasted no time in helping to strengthen the shield. As long as they kept monsters out, they could keep safe. If they kept safe, Rodi and Tasia could concentrate on fighting and destroying the enemy.

Tasia's fury manifested in the blazing gray of her eyes behind her Mask and the fierce glow around her dragon pendant—something always visible even in her armor. No one ever dared lay a hand on the people she loved, especially not her soul mates or her soul brother. Her sword appeared in her hand, and she shot forward in a blur of purple and gray to wade right into the fight.

Minstrel could not have been more delighted. He called on more Reparations and moved to the side to watch. Rodi and Tasia fought seamlessly side by side but eventually even they had difficulty with the sheer number of mobs. Minstrel wanted to see her burn brighter, and he sent more monsters to beat on the shield protecting the witches.

Tasia was aware of his intent but grimly kept her focus on her own fight. As long as her kids kept strong, they would be fine. She just wasn't sure how long they could last. She could see the sweat rolling down Logan's face that indicated he had started to reach his limits. His power was great but far from infinite.

The protective shield broke with a horrifying crack and repelled the monsters. It also sent the four witches inside flying. Dazed and drained, none of them could get to their feet let alone make another shield. Minstrel went lightheaded with delight as he felt their fury and fear.

Tasia whirled and threw her arcanistry at her brother and friends. A second shield formed just before the wave hit, and the Reparations were repelled violently. The split in her concentration meant a different monster entirely managed to get close to her, and it lifted a massive claw for a strike that could very well kill if it pierced her armor.

Rodi knocked into her at the last second and pushed her out of the way to safety. The monster's claw struck him in his stomach and went through the material of his uniform as if it had not been blessed at all and then buried deep into his body. The force of the impact sent him flying, and he landed hard. Gray blood began to pool under him. Tasia scrambled to her feet and rushed to his side. "Rodi! You dumb bastard!" she said raggedly as she slapped her hands down over the wound. "Kari!!"

She was already hurrying over with the others close behind. Logan and Terry quickly put up a second shield to cover them all as Kari also put her hands down over the wound on Rodi's stomach. "Shit, shit, shit," she breathed. "I don't know if I'm strong enough for this! His internal organs have been shredded! I don't—I can't even determine how to fix this!"

Tears ran ceaselessly down Tasia's face though her expression stayed calm. "Raw will is enough. I can't do the healing myself—I have to protect all of you. Take my majik. Take whatever you need. I offer it freely." Her lashes flickered only slightly as she felt Kari immediately pulling on her majik. The healer could combine their shared healing ability and bolster her own strength with Tasia's literally infinite majik to, maybe, make the impossible happen. It truly was down to Kari to save Rodi: he and Tasia already had a child to secure the future of Iris, meaning he may have fulfilled whatever need there was for him. Worse, he and Tasia were not a normal mated pair. If Rodi died, Tasia would not survive long without him.

Tasia slowly got to her feet and the sky turned black with storm clouds over their heads. White and black lightning flickered. She picked up Rodi's sword and her wand of oak and amethyst appeared in her other hand. She wielded them dually as she waded into battle once more. The land shook violently. The only visibility came from the flashes of lightning and the gray glow emanating from her body. She needed neither light or nor dark to see: her Gray eyes literally could not be blinded.

Minstrel had been so entranced by the waves of pure molten emotion that he didn't realize she was right on top of him until he found himself receiving a sharp kick in the side of the head. He flew into a wall hard enough that he cracked it from top to bottom, and he felt equal cracks through his body. He laid there dazed and slowly looked up to see Tasia standing over him. She glowed like an avenging goddess as she stared down at him.

His palms began to sweat and his heart raced wildly. A powerful urge to run welled hot and wild. Fear. It choked him briefly, for the first time in his life. As soon as he realized it, the fear smothered in sheer delight; ironically, the only emotion he ever felt easily was delight when either he fed on the emotions of others, or when, somehow, he felt something on his own. This delight welled up high. He had felt something new. He had felt an emotion by himself that he had never known before! "I'm afraid of you," he told her gleefully.

"As you should be. I would stop myself from hating you if I could, but I can't." Power churned across her gray irises for her pupils had nearly disappeared. "If he dies, I will make your death quick and painless." It was the worst thing she could threaten him with, and they both knew it. "Screw it." She bent and dragged him up off the ground. "I'll kill you now."

Their eyes locked and everything went away around them. She found herself alone in the middle of pure emptiness. With a start, she realized she was either having an odd vision or she had somehow been taken inside Minstrel.

The emptiness began to fill with emotions. Anger. Hate. Obsession. Emotions crucial to life but so very dangerous when not balanced. These were wild and mad and consumed everything they touched. She knew then that she looked inside Minstrel. Something, some pain from Chaos, cut at her and stabbed into her soul until she cried out. She forced the pain down as she desperately tried to find what lay at Minstrel's heart beyond the terrible emotion.

The feeling of obsession swirled around her and choked her until she couldn't breathe. She felt something looming behind her and whirled swiftly . . . only to find herself staring into nothing. There was nothing. No pain, no hate. There wasn't even a sense of relief from leaving them behind. Just . . . nothing. The emptiness that heralded evil. It was the most terrible thing she had ever felt.

A bell chimed. She looked down to find Sabirah standing beside her. The small girl gently took her hand and smiled in reassurance. The emptiness retreated, and she could breathe again.

Her eyes opened and she found that only a few seconds had passed since she had grabbed Minstrel. Her arcanistry welled up inside her in a searing wave of volatile emotion that made the sparks in her blood leap visibly over her flesh for a moment. Minstrel yelped in pain as the power blasted into her hands and burned him to the bone.

She dropped him and backed up with her arms wrapped around her body. Music seemed to snap and surge inside her. She had been wounded all the way to her soul with such vicious force that she had to sing now to heal the gouges before they spread.

Kari's head jerked up in shock as she felt the sudden torrent of Tasia's power surging at her. It flooded into her with such force that she nearly collapsed. Kimber braced her and covered her hands. "Focus!" she snapped. "I'll help!"

Kari let Kimber support her and poured the power through her hands and into Rodi. A wild cataract of yellow light sealed the wound closed and mended the damage to his organs. Rodi drew a sharp breath but did not wake. Kari cut off the power and slumped against Kimber. Her head was spinning. "Holy hell," she managed to say.

Logan and Terry knelt down beside them and shrank the shield down as well. At Kimber's questioning look, Logan asked grimly, "You can't hear it?"

Kimber belatedly realized she could hear music inside her soul long before it reached her ears. It startled her at first and then her gaze slowly slid toward Tasia. "Oh shit." She quickly lifted a hand to add her power to the shield but she had no hope of it working. Nothing could stop a Mystic.

Minstrel's throat closed and his eyes burned. Terror was a raw and living thing inside him and he thrilled to it. So much she had given him. So much more than he had dared hope for. What would she give him next?

The sky seemed to go even blacker and the ground trembled harder. And then . . . it stopped. Tasia's eyes glowed with power as she lifted her voice in haunting cadence and began to sing.

You have nothing left to give, nothing left to offer me

Everyone you cared for has been taken away from you

I can't do anything for you now; your soul has shattered to dust

 

The broken shards inside of you are cutting me to pieces

It may be a lonely way to live but you don't want help

 

This moment building up with pressure climbing ever higher

Is destroying the dream that you protected for so long alone

We're heading toward a breakdown

 

All the dreams you hoped for have gone away

Everything that you were promised doesn’t exist

There is nothing left in your heart; you have lost your way

 

The broken shards of your soul are cutting me to pieces

Blood stained your hands when you tried to touch the sunset

 

This moment building up with pressure climbing ever higher

Is destroying the dream that you protected for so long alone

We're heading toward a breakdown

 

The broken shards inside of you are cutting me

It may be a lonely way to live but you don’t need people anymore

 

This moment building up with pressure climbing ever higher

Is destroying the dream that you protected for so long alone

We're heading toward a breakdown

The searing wave of her emotions was too strong. Minstrel couldn't bear it. It made raw physical pain. He swiftly disappeared and removed himself from the scene entirely. As he left, the dome he had made disappeared as well.

The rest of the Resurrection Cultivators and their mates stood right outside the edge of the dome. All of them wore matching expressions of shock and fear. They hadn't known what was going on inside. All they had known was the wild wave of Tasia's power. Her song had punched them in their souls. They would never forget.

"Tasia!" LeAnn and Raine rushed toward her, but Raine saw Rodi covered in blood. She paled. "Shit!" She changed course and scrambled toward him instead. As she dropped to her knees and swiftly examined him, she realized he was already healed. "Thank god," she breathed. She looked at Kari. "You did a great job."

Kari managed a thumbs-up, but she had no more energy than that and rested tiredly against Storm's shoulder as he held her close. Kimber and Terry weren't in much better condition; they were more than willing to let Theo and Beth support them. Logan felt equally grateful when Raine moved to his side. He felt like he had gone through a wringer. He had pushed his capacity for majik to max.

"Anastasia?" LeAnn asked softly as she stopped next to her twin. "Are you okay?" She meant it in a general sense since she could plainly see the wounds lining her friend's body through her armor and the pallor of her skin.

Chance had been around a long time. He had seen what happened to especially strong Defenders when they reached a breaking point but could not break. He was already there behind her as she fell, and he caught her safely. She was unconscious before he stood with her in his arms. Luckily, he had just enough strength to handle her; conveniently, he thought then, given her connection to LeAnn. "Too damn much like Shanae," he sighed.

"Let's take them home," Ryan suggested softly. "It's shielded by Tananeen himself. They will be safe there, and sure as hell they'll be more comfortable!" He shivered and wrapped his arms tightly around himself. "Whatever happened," he whispered, "it left behind echoes so loud that I feel them, and I'm the weakest here with Empathy."

Beth and Terry both looked as pale as chalk, but both had had long experience at fighting their own much stronger Empathy. Still, the sight of them told even those without the skill that Minstrel had left something in the air behind him. "It makes me wonder if my sight into him," Beth whispered softly, "was wrong after all."

 

It was close to midnight before Tasia awoke with her normal instant alertness. She never woke slowly unless her sleep had been brought by her husband. She knew instantly that she was in her own bed, in her own room, in her own house. The physical pain and exhaustion seemed a thing of the past. Emotionally, she still felt as if she had been ripped in two. It reminded her of being on Aria and forcing herself to break in order to be reborn. Would she have to shatter her soul a third time for some other evolution? What evolution was there left?! "I can't bear this again," she whispered softly.

She immediately felt Rodi move and he leaned over her where his arms could cage her safely. Her eyes opened, and she looked up to see him watching her with magenta shadows in his black eyes. He wore only a pair of pajama bottoms, and his body was exposed to her eyes in the candlelight around them. Not a mark remained on his skin. "I'm fine now," he told her softly.

"You'll be black and blue when I'm through with you!" She didn't hit him, though, and instead threw her arms around him as tightly as she could. Shudders rippled through her body and she couldn't get warm. "I saw it," she whispered. "I saw the heart of madness. It was . . . emptiness. That's what insanity is. It's the emptiness of nothing."

He gathered her as close as he could and wrapped the blankets around them tightly. She wore the matching pajama top that went to his bottoms, but he eased the edge of it up to run his hand over her bare skin soothingly. Sparks flew between their skin, but this time, both felt them inside as much as saw them outside. The Light and Dark inside him had begun to spark, too. "Promise me something," he told her quietly. "When all this is over, you will finally cry everything out. You cannot cry now because it will fuel Minstrel, but when that sick son of a bitch is gone, I want you to cry until you can't cry anymore."

She sighed. "I don't need to cry. My songs healed me."

"Anastasia." He caught her face in his hands. "You think I can't see the deepest wounds inside you where your music did not reach?"

Her hands closed over his wrists. "I will have to shatter myself again. Through tears or music or by my own hands, it has to happen."

"Then so be it. I will put you back together." He feathered his lips over her face before tenderly kissing her until her body relaxed. His mind sought hers to comfort, and he winced a bit. If the mental wounds she felt had been physical, Sayena would have literally tied her down to a medical bed. "Just rest for now." His majik welled around him with soft gold color and brought the soothing, restful scent of the black poppy.

Her entire body relaxed and her eyes closed as she let him soothe her. That was the nice thing about a strong Caretaker. He made it very easy to rest and take a breath from saving the world. But it could only be a breath. Minstrel was still out there, and she now felt the burning inside her heart to see him stopped. Now it was personal.

 

©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.

Chapter 19->