Tasia was in the process of pulling a camisole on when she felt a familiar tingle in her scalp. "Shit!" She jerked the top down over her head and grabbed a handful of her hair. She dragged it forward over her shoulder and stared at the ends in frustration. It had grown again. "How do I turn this off?"
The slender blue dragon lying on the top of the trunk at the end of the bed lifted her head curiously. Haeth had been with Tasia's bloodline since it had begun ten thousand years before, and was in fact the oldest living being other than Clara given that she had been born very shortly after the beginning when the first dragon, Tananeen, had formed. He had created Haeth as one of his first, and the horns on her head clearly marked her Elder status. "To be honest," she told her mistress, "I am not sure myself. I've never seen the like before."
Haeth's mate, a green dragon named Striker, sat on the dresser. He was much younger in age though honestly not much less in power thanks to his blended elements. He had only been with Tasia for slightly less than ten years. He could only speak telepathically, so only those with Telepathy could hear him: Tasia, Tasia's husband, Allister, and Racine. However, he did well enough with semaphore that most others understood him decently, and in a real pinch, he had recently learned to write. Every time it happens, he said, I always feel your Chaos power.
Being the Apex of Chaos was not a simple thing. Shana and Siobhan, despite being Apexes as well, were for all intents and purposes rather 'simple' in the power they commanded. The element of Dark to Shana and all the physicality it encompassed, and the element of Light to Siobhan and all the magic it encompassed. Both also had the Nature or Illusion Flower Element of their world, and could utilize arcane forces to do things clearly in the 'goddess-like' category, but that did not make them complicated. Chaos was complication incarnate thanks to the way it worked. It represented the turbulent and sometimes violent meeting ground where Light and Dark came together with raw emotion to rip bare the truth from millions of lies. Chaos encompassed all physicality and magicality alike, and even majikality, and it had dominion over every emotion. The arcane powers that Tasia controlled may look a lot like her sister-Apexes' but were very different.
"What the hell is this?" she muttered. "I know I have no further to evolve. You can't evolve past an Apex, for Goddess' sake!"
Haeth and Striker's daughter was a baby dragon with a blended Water-Thunder element. She loved Tasia's hair. It was demonstrated anew when she woozily flew over from where she had been on the bed and happily began to gnaw on the end of Tasia's hair. "Anira!" Tasia scooped her up. "Stop that. You know better."
Anira made a noise that was more of a squeak and cuddled in. Her bond with Tasia was, in many ways, far deeper than any bond even Haeth might have. She had imprinted on Tasia as if the sorceress was another mother. Tasia just sighed and held her closer. "It just doesn't make sense." The bedroom door opened, and her husband walked in. She slowly lifted a brow as she saw how sweaty and disheveled he looked. "Did we win?"
Rodi Iris glowered at her. "He cheated."
"He always cheats."
"Yeah, and so do I." He yanked off his shirt on a mutter. "I need a shower." He walked over to give her a quick kiss and then turned toward the bathroom. He stopped, however, and turned around with a frown. He had gotten a hell of a tingle that had nothing to do with desire when he had kissed her. Sparks always flew when they touched because of their mutual Gray cores as well as the sparks actually inside both their blood, but that had been far more extreme than usual.
She let go of her hair and it fell down to rest on the floor. At least six inches of hair now pooled at her feet. "Just now," she sighed. "I'm really starting to dislike this. I mean, I like having long hair, but this is getting ridiculous!"
"Yeah." He caught a handful of her chocolate hair and wrapped it around his wrist. It was soft and resilient and always vibrated with the soft electrical sensation he associated with Chaos lightning, which looked and felt far different from the Thunder Flower Element. It echoed to the True Shadow Flower Element inside his soul and comforted him to a cellular level. He also had a Gray core neither Light nor Dark and instead both, and being a Deactivated Ruler Cultivator from Aria meant he had been born with a True Shadow element—which derived from Chaos. His True Shadow element actually kept splitting apart into Light and Dark inside him only to be yanked back together by his Gray core, something that produced the sparks under his skin. The same had happened to Tasia as well before her final evolution, and unspoken for years had hovered the question of whether or not he could evolve his element as well. Certainly, he had hovered on another evolutionary cusp his entire life. "If you can't make sense of it, I sure as hell can't."
He was sweaty and messy but she did not care. She pressed against his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. The steady beat of his heart under her ear was familiar and soothing. He stood only a few inches taller than she did, and had an incredibly muscular frame from years of training. He was one of the only ones—if not so far the only one—who could push her in training. The fact that his pitch black hair with its magenta undertones and his opaque black eyes with their magenta shadows set against his mocha skin only made his unfairly perfect beauty more so just seemed like a bonus to her when everything else about him was already everything she had ever wanted. They had been bound together in ways far deeper and more profound than any other pair of soul mates, to where they could likely not exist without each other, and she had no issues with that. "I think I'm going to try an invocation later, to see if anyone out there in the beyond has an answer for me."
"Well, if not," a smile was in his voice, "then we'll hire someone to walk around behind you, carrying your hair like a train."
She lifted her head to glare at him, and her ire immediately faded as he bent slightly to kiss her deeply. Everything bad melted away in the familiar heat of his touch. He lifted her off her feet and she hastily grabbed his shoulders for balance. It was still a thrill that he could carry her without any trouble, given that her majik made her weigh near to a hundred pounds more than her body type implied. "What are you doing?"
"I've decided you're going to shower with me."
She snorted softly. "Lucky me."
By the time they were both dressed and had collected their children, it was time to go to Protea Castle for the get-together. As usual, only Rodi and Anna looked at all put together. Tasia had absolutely no care for what she wore, so when not in her Ruler gown, she just put on the first items to come to hand, resulting in often looking mismatched. Yet, humorously, she felt so comfortable with herself that she always looked good anyway—and Daelan had begun to show signs of the same thing. Perhaps adorably so, given that Yvonne had the same quirk. Tasia had also given up on taming her hair and only ever tied it up in a ponytail with a floppy gray bow. Beth and Desiree alike called it a chaotic tangle that no stylists but them would dare touch, and Tasia felt fine with that. As if she would trust anyone else.
Anna barely bit back a happy sigh as she saw her mother coming down the stairs. She never tired of looking at Tasia. She was so utterly beautiful. It was not wholly a physical beauty, either; a radiant force of pure good came out of Tasia's skin from her soul to make her look more beautiful than her physical features already implied. It existed inside all witches who did good deeds with their magic—all of the Resurrection Cultivators and their witch mates were the same—but it was especially strong from within Tasia because she was a sorceress Apex. She had no limitations except her own driving need to only do good, and she seemed literally incapable of doing harm. Every time Anna saw her mother, she wanted nothing more than to be like her someday.
Moving between kingdoms or even across the galaxy could be accomplished in any number of ways thanks to the magic inside Rulers. All Cultivators had the ability to transport via magic, and Rulers especially could go just about anywhere. Devices known as Portalpads, or Pads for short, had been installed all over the galaxy to allow normal people to transport as well. Most cost a fee to use, but the money went right back into the local economy.
When the Iris family stepped off the personal Pad in the gardens of the Protea palace, they found LeAnn waiting for them. She happily hugged Tasia. "You're almost late!" she scolded. "I was going nuts!"
Tasia smiled and hugged her just as tightly. "You just saw me a week ago!"
"That was too long!" LeAnn laced their fingers together as they started down the hall. "Chance pissed me off."
"I had noticed!" Though twin soul mates could not normally feel physical pain to each other or each other's emotions, Tasia being Chaos could feel any strong enough emotions felt by any of her loved ones. They had gotten used to it, and actually found it comforting when she would call them almost the moment they realized they were troubled. "What the hell did he do this time? You two had made it a month without bickering."
"My monthly cycle was two weeks late. We thought I might finally be pregnant, and he went into a ridiculous overprotective mode where he tried to keep me from doing anything."
Rodi winced. "Even I didn't try that with Tasia."
"We were also in the middle of a war," Tasia retorted. "You thought it more than once but managed to bite your tongue."
"Sweetheart, I love you and you were carrying our child. I think anyone worth their salt is allowed to fuss and worry over their spouse in that situation." He winced again. "And if they go too far, they deserve a smack. What did you do to Chance, LeAnn?"
"Deliberately banned him from working out with me and Racine and Allister. I told him I was worried about him hurting himself since the last time he and Allister sparred, the latter had knocked him down pretty hard."
"I bet Al enjoyed that," Tasia murmured.
"About died laughing." LeAnn was well satisfied. "So now we're even." She studied her twin's hair. "And what's up with this?" She flicked the ends of Tasia's hair and felt the little static shock that told her she touched Chaos power. It was quite unusual for her to feel it since the only cores strong enough to spark against each other were Rodi and Tasia, or Tasia to either Siobhan or Shana, or Shana and Siobhan. LeAnn had never sparked against any of them with her own Dark core, especially since it had speckles of Light. "I know being an Apex permeates every inch of your aspect, but, really now."
"I'm going to scry for answers later. Don't worry about it." Tasia stepped into the doorway to the throne room and propped her hands on her hips as she surveyed all the faces in the room. When it came time for all forty-plus members of the extended royal families to get together, they always turned the throne room into a giant family room. "Hey, I think I know some of you people."
"Are you sure?" Shana teased.
"Well, it might be debatable. Most of you are weird."
They met in the middle of the room and their hands linked together where sparks flew. They weren't related by any means other than Tasia being Shana's daughter's twin soul, but between them was something almost as powerful as the bond of soul mates. They felt closer to each other than anyone else in many ways. They were best friends, nearly sisters, and kindred spirits: they had been forged into a similar shape by similar experiences and memories.
And there was something more. Something no one ever spoke of. Something no one wanted to think about let alone talk about. It was something coming soon. Tasia and Shana both felt it as their hands clasped. Where always before Shana's Dark arcanery had pushed against Tasia's Chaos arcanistry, now the opposite was true. Shana could feel the static flicker against her skin indicating that, in that moment, she could not overpower her friend.
Neither spoke of it. Instead, Shana eyed Tasia's hair. Neither she nor Siobhan had ever had the sort of problems their fellow Apex seemed to be having. Thoughts stirred that she kept silent on for the time being. "That's a bit excessive, Anastasia."
"To say the least!" Emily muttered.
"You be quiet," Tasia ordered her. "Else I'll make your hair this long."
"Gah!" Emily clamped both her hands over her head. "Don't you dare!"
"It'd match the feathers," Diaz offered helpfully.
"Damn it!" She pulled away her hands and, sure enough, found more feathers. "Silas!"
Her husband, smart man that he was, sat on the other side of the room with Gail and Ryan. "Stop being a restless sleeper," he retorted. "If you didn't toss and turn so much, you wouldn't collect as many feathers."
"Stop molting!" was the counter-retort.
"I had missed this," Kellie said to no one in particular. "I have to question my sanity, but I missed this."
The youngest of the generations, the few kids among them all, had always been as close as cousins, and they loved equally the opportunity to hang out and play together. Percival tugged on Rachel's sleeve and asked, "Can we go play?"
"Of course. Go skedaddle."
"Alright!" He grabbed Relisha's hand and the twins led the charge out the door. Devin followed closely, and he had Daelan's hand so that the smaller—though not by much—boy could keep up. Daelan already chased his older cousins' heights and would probably be his father's height by the time he finished growing.
"Me too?" Anna asked her mother hopefully.
Tasia smiled at her. "Of course! You're the oldest, though, so I expect you to keep the rest out of trouble. Don't let them get away with too many shenanigans. Also, remember the healer's rule: if someone does something particularly stupid resulting in injury, you're allowed to poke said injury before healing it as a reminder to not do it again."
"Okay." She kissed her mother's cheek and then hurried off after her friends. The doors banged shut behind her.
"Blessed silence," Tyson sighed. He leaned back and linked his hands behind his head. "How have things been going? The kingdoms look like they're thriving."
"They are." Reagan smiled. "I haven't seen anyone complaining about much of anything lately, at least not of a significant sort. Mostly personal foibles. We seem to have settled into an idyllic pattern again, which is nice for however long it lasts."
The sad truth was that war against evil would inevitably come again for not all evil had yet been erased. Many believed it would happen in this generation, but it had not happened yet. Certain events of the past million years could still repeat again as they had for nearly every generation. To divert thoughts of it, Tasia put down the bag she had been carrying. "Everything has in fact stabilized to the point that even a busy queen can finally find some spare time for doing things she loves." She rummaged in the bag and then emerged with a handful of small copper-colored discs. "I do hope everyone has EBD readers by now."
Electronic Book Discs were the latest invention, and something that Storm had been helping innovate since he loved tinkering with electronic things as much as he loved to cook. PCAs had for a while now had the ability to display digital books for reading, but EBD readers did solely that, allowing for a bigger screen and fancier books. Rocky had been tinkering with the idea of such a thing for centuries but never been able to nail it down. He had passed the concepts to Storm who, with some help from other specialists, had made it happen.
"Gimme!" Shana happily took her disc. "I've been waiting for this. You randomly threw in the first page to your next book in the last letter you sent to everyone, and I've been dying to get the rest! Seriously, I'm going to call seniority and demand a first read with Raine and LeAnn."
Tasia grinned. "That could be arranged, I'm sure." She contentedly sat down on one of the couches. She had been a published author for most of her life and had reached critical acclaim, yet she loved nothing more than giving her stories away to her friends and family. She and Raine worked as partners, with her providing the words and Raine providing illustrations. Because the story had to be finished first, Raine got first read before she did any art, but LeAnn also got an early read because of being Tasia's twin and Tasia guiltlessly spoiled her. "My publisher added EBD recently as part of her line-up so we can continue to reach the biggest possible audience."
"Anyone yet figured out that Cold Steel consists of the queens of Iris and Daffodil?" Michael teased.
"So far, no." Raine grinned. "Other than the castle staff, though, since they are used to my art room being a disaster with sketches everywhere, and maids have literally had to march into Tasia's study and shove food under her nose so she doesn't forget to eat."
"You have got the bravest staff in the galaxy," Doug told his daughter solemnly. "I am impressed they have the nerve to do that."
Tasia snorted softly. "We hired many of them specifically because they have that sort of nerve. My life is easier if they sass me rather than fear me because the moment there is a problem, someone finds me to complain and I can fix it rather than it balloon out of control."
"Sounds like the Protea Castle staff," Sam murmured.
LeAnn grinned at him. "Which I inherited, so they are well used to me. And I'm not nearly as scary as my mother."
Juliet stretched largely on a contented sigh. "It feels so surreal sometimes, to be in this state that feels like a blend of two lives. I honestly have to stop and remember everything that has happened in such a short amount of time. So many wars and battles of the past have started to feel as if they're fading away, which I guess is a sign of retirement if ever there was one."
The three Apexes looked at each other but said nothing. None of them would ever forget the things they had endured. They had been pushed to the edge of survival—Siobhan had even suffered a painful, wrongful death once—gouged their hearts and spilled their blood, and Shana and Tasia had been forced to shatter their own souls in order to evolve. They never spoke of it to anyone. If there was any one thing all three had in common, it was a determination to never burden their friends with their own pain.
"So what will you do with this newfound retirement?" Storm asked.
"Varying!" Shana smiled as she said it. "All of us have careers we can go back to, though the family company Edgar and I co-owned was long ago merged into a part of Protea Kingdom. I think most of us are looking at settling down on our worlds to either pick up or start over new normal lives. The intent of immortality for all Ruler Cultivators, I think, but like having grandkids, something never gotten to be enjoyed."
The same could not be said of Defenders, though, as no more than two generations could exist at the same time. So, inevitably, something terrible happened. However, given the unusualness of the currently living generations—and the curious fact that no new Defenders had been born on any world in the universe for many centuries except for those in Blossom and Aluria—no one could really say how things may go. Whatever path lay before them now had been set long before.
The get-together lasted long enough for everyone to have dinner and then they all split for their respective worlds. The Elders intended to stay for at least a week or two in the castles so that they could see how things were going and spend time with their children and grandchildren, if they had them. They would look at permanent lodgings after that.
It was late when Tasia and Rodi returned to Iris with their children and Yvonne and Doug, and the snowy landscape of their world looked like a peaceful blanket. For obvious reasons, while all worlds had varying time zones across the surface, all kingdoms had been built millions of years before to share the same schedule. Protea and Delphinium, whose Cores produced the critical Light and Dark Flower Elements that infused all life in the universe, kept the planets behind them in line so that all had the same length of days and years despite different sizes. Iris, who had a Gray Core, depended on both Delphinium and Protea equally now, as did Aria in the next galaxy for the same reason.
Though late, it was not yet bedtime for Anna or the adults. Daelan got tucked in for the night, though, and then the others except for Tasia settled in to relax for a bit. Tasia instead headed to a room hidden within a tower of her castle that had been made expressly off-limits to everyone except for Rodi and Anna. There, in that room, was where she actively practiced her majik and her Faith.
Of the witches in her generation, only four were considered 'practicing' witches because they walked the Path that followed the Faith of the Goddess that one of Tasia's own ancestors had formed that had resulted in the creation of all witches: Tasia, Rodi, Ryan, and Logan. The Path referred to the individual journey a witch walked as they followed the Faith, and it came in three distinct stages where the first had lots of supervision, the second had more autonomy, and the third effectively allowed a witch to walk alone as needed without direct observation. The other witches of their generation did not follow the Faith, which meant less rules to follow, but far less resources to access. Either way, all answered to Tasia as High Priestess, which none minded at all.
In the youngest generation, Anna and Daelan alike had begun practicing and walking the earliest part of the Path, while Relisha and Percival had no interest. Intriguingly, Devin had begun to express a deep interest in learning more about the Goddess and God worshipped by the Faith. He had no majik and was certainly not a witch—he didn't even have a Seed—but he did possess some measure of great power no one had been yet able to identify. Even from birth, however, he had been drawn to the majik in the Resurrection generation, and if he was close to Raine, he often seemed even closer to Tasia. If he came to ask her questions, she more than willingly sat down to talk with him. That was just another duty of her role as High Priestess, really.
Her dragons followed her as she went into the tower and then each went to their favorite places to watch. For Anira, it was hiding among the stones of power on the oak table. For Haeth, it was on an ancient trunk that had been passed down through Tasia's bloodline for millennia. For Striker, it was near the small window where sunlight flooded in during the day.
Tasia changed into her ritual robes and then looped her cords around her waist. She felt no need to go skyclad for this particular event since she was not actively working a ritual. She unbound her hair and let it fall as she knelt in the middle of the floor and cast a circle of blue-white majik flames around herself. The feeling of Ice and Chaos, with a subtle tang of Glass, rose on the air to fill the room. She softly began to speak in a language that had been lost millennia before. It had nearly gone extinct except for those of her lineage covetously keeping it alive. Around the edges of the circle, spirits began to dance and sway as they responded to the music of her soul.
She asked no questions; she had no need. Unfortunately, no one who had arrived seemed to know anything about how to fix her problem. They were unanimous on the agreement that her Chaos power was at fault, but they did not know a solution. She was about to give up and release them when a sudden strong power struck her circle.
She shot to her feet as her body dropped into a defensive stance. "None who wish harm may enter!" she said sharply as she reinforced her wards. "Let only those who seek to aid enter!"
The power pushed easily past the circle and entered the center. Her body tensed as the power swirled around her. It didn't feel dangerous or threatening. In some ways, it felt both familiar and comforting. She still didn't trust anything that would force itself inside a sorceress' circle, even if it did enter with potential good intentions.
The power slammed into her chest with the force of a spaceship. She went flying backwards, and the circle dissolved safely just before she struck it. She landed on a cushion of Illusion majik instead. By the time the dragons reached her side, she had already been lowered safely to the ground.
"Tasia!" Haeth patted at Tasia's face but found no response. She looked quickly at Anira. "Go for Rodi!"
The baby immediately began flying unsteadily toward the door. She went through it instead of trying to open it. She may not have flown well yet, but she had other gifts to make up for it. Her young mind, not even the equivalent of a year-old human baby, could only recognize and understand that the most important person in her world had been hurt.
Rodi was reading a book with Anna when Anira flew into the room. His head came up sharply. "Anira?" He got to his feet and caught the baby dragon before she could fall. "What's wrong?"
She flapped her wings in agitation and gnawed on his hand lightly, trying to get him to let go. Anna stared at her and then went white as she realized what must be wrong. "Mom! Oh no! Something must have happened!"
"Take the baby!" Rodi handed Anira to his daughter and ran as fast as he could toward the stairs. Anna stayed right on his heels with the dragon in her arms. He didn't try to stop her. She had a great deal of majik herself, in both the Physical and Spiritual Healing categories, and she may well be needed depending on what they found.
Tasia was starting to stir when Rodi ran into the room. He skidded to a stop beside her and knelt down to lift her into his arms. "Tasi!"
"Ugh." She dropped her head against his shoulder. "No yelling. My head hurts."
Anna put down Anira and hurried over to her mother's side. She carefully put her hands over Tasia's head and sought the knots of pain to dissolve them. It took no effort to remove them, and she barely even noticed her own body processing them and then removing them. All healers healed by taking in the patient's ailments and then personally mending them, and the stronger the healer, the less they noticed the effects. Bruising for physical, unpleasant sickness for spiritual. Tasia was the only healer able to actually heal herself, but she rarely bothered because she had Anna and Raine alike. "Is that better?" Anna asked softly.
"Yes, it is. You do that well." She let out a long breath. "That was an interesting experience. I forbade all bad from entering but something got in."
"Then could it really be bad?" Anna asked.
Rodi felt the air lightly with the small bit of Sensing he had absorbed from his wife after years as lovers. "Certainly left no traces of it if it is. If anything, it feels very comforting. It must not have meant you any harm and that's how it got inside."
"Knocking me off my feet and giving me a migraine counts as harm!" Tasia carefully sat up. Some aches still lingered in her body but she could soak those out with a hot bath. Her right eye, however, had started burning lightly. She rubbed at it. "Ouch."
"Let me see." He framed her face with his hands. "There might be something there." His heart stopped in his chest as her eyes opened and met his. "Son-of-a-bitch." He yanked her up to her feet and hauled her over to the table where a mirror sat. "Look."
She looked in the mirror and her stomach sank. Her brown eyes normally transitioned from caramel to chocolate and back depending on light or dark, but her right eye now looked neither of those colors. It had turned a pale brown hue. "Something possessed me," she said grimly. She picked up the PCA she had left sitting on the table. "Theodore Aster," she said. When the other side connected, she said only, "I need you."
The frown was in Theo's voice as he said, "What's wrong?"
"Something happened. I need a trained medium."
"Crap. I'll be right there. I'll bring Mom."
She disconnected the call and put the phone down to look into the mirror again. For just a moment, she saw another face over hers. It seemed an oddly familiar face and it was smiling at her. Though she didn't feel very safe knowing something lurked inside her, she felt oddly comforted regardless.
Theo and Sherry came running up the stairs a moment later. "I love transport magic," Theo said as he walked into the room. "Seriously might be my favorite thing about being a Cultivator."
Sherry grinned a bit. "A refrain heard every generation." She looked intently at Tasia and saw the problem instantly. She frowned. "Well."
"Damn." Theo walked closer and framed Tasia's face to tilt her head down. He stood many inches shorter than his leader. His blue eyes probed Tasia's intently. "Hmm. It's not quite a possession."
"Then what is it?" Anna asked fearfully.
He took a step back and tilted his head. "You know how conjoined twins will share body parts? Well . . . the best way to describe it is to say that Tasia's eye is the place where her soul is now connecting to another spirit. There might be other points of physical contact on her body, but I'm sure Rodi would find those faster."
"He does know me best," Tasia agreed blandly. "Am I in danger?"
"No . . . I don't think so." Sherry hovered a hand over Tasia's heart. She could feel the invading soul but felt nothing dangerous from it. If anything, it was a presence very clearly not as powerful as its host. "You could expel it right now. It would not be able to resist."
Tasia fell silent for long moments. "No," she finally said. "There must be a reason for this. If this spirit needs me for something, then I'll let it stay. Perhaps it has the answers to what's going on with me." She smiled. "Maybe the spirit had short hair once and can curb my hair growth."
Anna knelt and touched Tasia's hair. It reached even longer than before and now pooled more than a foot on the floor. "So far, it doesn't look like it."
Theo picked up the ritual dagger on the table. "Alright. That's it. Turn around." Tasia did, and he wrapped his friend's hair around his wrist. He pulled the dagger through right above where it was wrapped, and the ends cut away evenly to fall against Tasia's waist. "I can't say how long it will last, but it might give us more time."
Sherry took the coil of hair that had been cut. "We'll burn this for you." She was well aware that Tasia's hair was too powerful to simply throw away. Her arcanistry literally permeated every inch of her genetics, including her hair. She could actually use locks of her hair in spells, so it needed to be burned to prevent others from doing the same. Aster fire would do the deed nicely.
Tasia winced wryly. "Even if it's only a few days without the weight, I'm glad for it. It's okay at my ankles, but once it pools, gravity takes over and gives me a hell of a neck ache."
"I didn't know hair could be this heavy," Sherry mused. She felt as if she held a ten-pound weight instead of four feet of hair. "I logically know that majik weighs much more than muscle and that you weigh far more than you reasonably should, but I honestly did not expect it to be in your hair."
"That's actually where you can notice it the fastest." Theo cut a lock of his own hair. "Feel."
She took the lock and her brows rose. What should have felt like nothing felt like a pound. "It's a wonder Desiree and Beth don't charge you lot more for doing your hair for you," she said dryly as she headed for the door. "It's a bonus workout."
Theo hid a grin and looked at Tasia. "If anything changes, call me. I'll also let the others know what is going on."
"Okay." Tasia blew out a breath as Theo left and then groaned as she heard a servant calling her name. "Goddess, now what?" She quickly changed back out of her robes and into her regular clothes. "I'll clean up later."
"Can I do it?" Anna asked hopefully.
"If you let Haeth tell you what to do."
"Promise!"
"Alright then." Tasia hugged her before hurrying down the stairs. She was well aware of Rodi right behind her. Oddly, she felt more aware of him than before, as if she could feel the blood in his body calling to the blood in hers. Their lineages had been drawn to one another as far back as the Royal Era, yet she had never before been so conscious of it or felt the actual magnetism between them that had allowed for them to interlock their souls long before becoming lovers.
The maid at the bottom of the stairs smiled when she saw them and bowed briefly. "My lieges, I'm sorry to interrupt. However, there is a gentleman here who wishes to speak with the queen. He apologized for the late hour but said it was a matter of life or majik."
Rodi's brows lifted. "Isn't that the old communication used between witches?"
"Yes it is." Now curious, Tasia headed toward the reception room and magically called for her crown; she felt too tired to bother with her Ruler gown. Long before she reached the door, however, she could feel another familiar power tingling against hers in recognition. What the hell had happened when the spirit entered her? She felt as if her sixth sense had doubled somehow. She opened the door and walked in saying, "Sorry for my appearance, but I didn't expect company. I assure you, I am the queen."
The man standing near the immense bookcase holding, among other things, Tasia's own works, turned around and smiled. She may have worn mismatched casual clothes, but she still looked every inch a warrior queen. She had a majestic and also comforting presence. "I believe you," he assured her.
"What can I do for you?" She walked closer to study his face. There was nothing familiar about his handsome features nor his striated black and blond hair, but there was something oddly familiar about his eyes. One was blue and the other green; not an entirely uncommon feature among humans, but his just seemed different somehow. "Life or majik, is it?"
"Yes." He bowed lightly. "My name is Xavier Nguyen, and I seek your instruction."
She linked her hands behind her back to study him closer. "Instruction in what?" she asked gently. She could never offer to teach. Only be there for those who found the courage to ask.
"Majik, and the Path." His smile came sadly. "I would guess I'm not old enough to be your father, but I may not be far from it. Yet it was only recently that I really allowed myself to accept what I had always felt I carried inside. I never expected to have any sort of power. But after you rose as High Priestess some decade ago, I just started . . . thinking. I moved here to Iris from Protea to be nearer to you. I hope that isn't alarming."
She shook her head on a smile. "For obvious reasons, there is a high density of witches both of and not of the Faith on my world. I'd have been more surprised if you hadn't made the move."
He knelt for a moment, as graceful as a knight, and then stood again. "I would ask to be taught. I wish to walk the Path as a member of your Faith."
It intrigued her that he would call it 'her' Faith for next to no one knew she descended of—and had been named for—Anastasia Courimay, the founder of the Faith of the Goddess some fifteen thousand years before. He had likely picked Sensing unknowingly as his skill, given that that one was what allowed people to sense the flow of events and different energies. "Very well, Xavier. I will teach you what you are willing and able to learn. If you do not mind learning alongside my eleven-year-old daughter, of course."
"Not at all." He smiled. "I imagine she will be far more talented than I. Our princess is said to have the potential to evolve to a wizard?"
"Indeed. Seems to run in the family. Daelan is headed that way as well, and their father is on the cusp personally." She smiled. "Come back tomorrow and we'll get started on the most basic of things. We start at the eleventh hour."
"Thank you." He walked over to her and caught her hand for a moment in a tight squeeze before he continued past and went out the door.
She stared at her hand in silence. She had not felt his touch directly. That 'other' inside had taken over her hand. Even at a distance, however, his touch had felt strangely familiar and comforting. Who are you, she asked inside her mind. Who was he? There was no response, but she hadn't expected one. She could feel the spirit was very tired and very weak. It had barely had the strength to even possess her; more than ever, she decided she did not mind the new company. If she could help, then she would.
"A new student?" Rodi asked from behind her as his arms went around her waist snugly.
"Yes." She leaned back against his chest. "You're never too old to learn." She closed her eyes to combat a chill as she felt something stirring along the edge of her consciousness. Her own All Sight awoke, and a premonition seemed to rise and loom with a malevolence she had never felt before.
"You're shivering!" He pulled her even closer and tried to wrap her in his heat.
"Something's coming."
A chill went down his back this time. When her voice took on an echo of Chaos power, it meant that her Sight came right from the arcane forces—and that did not bode well. "Shit." He turned her around and buried his face in her hair. "We'll deal with it. We've always dealt with it before."
"I know." But she had no way of speaking aloud the terrible sensation trying to choke her. If this was the prelude to a war, it would be the worst they had ever seen. It might very well be the worst the universe had seen. The very existence of the universe might be on the line this time. Those endlessly repeated events of the past may well come anew, but somehow worse. "I have to call Shana."
"No, you don't." He picked her up off her feet. "You can call her tomorrow. She probably already knows."
She crossed her arms and forced herself to try to forget the premonition. "And am I supposed to just sit around with this in my head?"
"No, I'm going to help you forget."
She arched a brow delicately. "And how are you going to do that?"
His grin looked decidedly wicked. "I'm going to check you quite thoroughly for any other physical changes."
"Oh, well, carry on then."
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
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