It was dawn one morning a few days later when Edgar awoke to a bedrock certainty inside his heart and soul. He rolled onto his side and propped himself up to study Siobhan as she slept. She lay curled against his side where she had always slept for over five thousand years. Her fluffy hair had gotten tangled all over them as usual, too.
Drowsily she murmured, "I can't sleep if you're not asleep."
He leaned down to lightly touch her lips with his. Teasingly, he said, "After ten thousand years, are you telling me I finally trained a Delphinian to be an early bird? You of Delphinium belong to the night, and we of Protea to the day."
She half-heartedly punched his shoulder. "After ten thousand years, I've finally gotten a Protean to stay up later than the twentieth hour of the night, so that's fair!" She wound her arms around his neck. "It's a wonder you lot allowed parties to run so late in the Royal Era."
"I'm fairly sure we ran on automatic and then crashed after." He trailed his fingers over her lush skin. "If someone had seduced me sooner in our last lives, I could have easily used the excuse sooner of wanting to sneak out with you."
"To be fair, I did seduce you as soon as it was legal in both of our lives." She grinned. "Which is supposed to be a Caretaker job, but since we are each other's Caretaker, it seemed fair enough to take the duty for myself. But I would have entirely let you or Shanae sneak out whenever you needed. Robert and I both would have. We are very fair to our introverts, you must admit. We figure we let you two recharge all you need and then steal all of your energy via cuddling."
It made him laugh. "At least we're easier to cuddle than Tasia. Good luck catching her."
She giggled. "It's not that hard! She's actually really cuddly, though she doesn't seem it. Her and Rodi both. I think that was always an early sign of them being Chaos, you know? They just ooze out all sorts of good emotions."
"And I thought two Apexes were bad enough, but three is far worse."
She sulked. "We're not that bad."
"Mm-hmm. And how many times have I had to almost literally haul you out of trouble?" He laughed as she grabbed a pillow and bopped him in the head. "You can't deny it, can you? I have spent two lives chasing you and sweeping up the pieces of your heart when you break it over every lost cause." He disarmed her easily and then leaned down to kiss her slowly and lingeringly. He knew all too well that theirs were stolen moments. It wouldn't be long before he would no longer be able to touch her. The sealing of the Realm meant they had no idea how long they would be apart. She burned as the Light inside his darkened soul, and he would suffer as deeply as she did until they finally reunited.
By the time he lifted his head, she felt as if she couldn't move a single muscle. "You," she managed to say, "are lethal."
"I aim to please." He smoothed her hair out of her face softly. "We need to go."
"Go where?" she asked simply. If he had asked it of her, she would have followed him into the Underbelly itself.
"Let's start by hitting the place of memory I feel is most important to me. Time changes so slowly that I know the spot I want is still there." He swung his legs around to get out of bed but stopped as her arms went around his chest. "What is it?"
"Nothing." She pressed her cheek to his strong back. "I just needed to hold you." Try as she might to control it, her voice still quivered as she added, "I'll be waking up alone soon."
He had to force himself to release her. There was nothing they could say to change things. Instead, he got out of bed and got dressed. She did the same. Time may change things slowly, but that did not mean it moved slowly. Every minute counted in this war.
When they opened the door and stepped into the hall, they weren't entirely surprised to see LeAnn and Chance sitting on the top of the stairs. LeAnn was leaning on Chance's shoulder and he had his arms around her tightly.
Siobhan stepped up behind them and knelt down to their position. She was only vaguely aware of Edgar's hand on the back of her denims to keep her from falling. He was used to her clumsiness, and she was used to his overprotectiveness. "Hey," she said softly.
"Good morning." LeAnn turned to smile at her, yet pain lingered in her eyes that implied she barely managed to put on a brave front. "We figured this would be the day. I could feel it, so we thought we'd wait for you. Can we go with you on your memory journey, Uncle Edgar?"
"Of course you can," Edgar said. "It's the most important one, and I think you will enjoy hearing it. And, actually, it's not that far from here, even if we didn't use transport magic."
"Okay." LeAnn got to her feet with all the natural grace of her Protean bloodline. Her father had of course made himself into a respected and powerful warrior as well—one only surpassed by Shana, Tasia, and Rodi—but it was LeAnn's black protea lineage that made a moving body into a work of art. "I'm ready if you are."
"How are the Immortal Fields?" Edgar asked quietly as he followed her and Chance down the stairs. "I can't quite feel them anymore, and even with you in charge, I've at least felt their presence."
"The Plane is . . . troubled." Her voice stayed even with effort. "People are consumed with nightmares, so the balance is off. Tasia, Pallas, I, and Allister have determined that we can do more by aiding here than going there and sitting on our hands. There is truly nothing not even the High Priestess can do now. Even if I tried to filter the excess, it would not help, and Allister would spend forever trying to destroy the will-o-wisps. We have a containment on the Fields to let nothing out, but that's all we can do for it for now. Everything else needed to be done has to be done here."
"So where are we going?" Siobhan asked Edgar.
"I'll handle the transport if you tell me the location," LeAnn offered. She tucked her hands in her pockets. She had never felt as helpless as she did then, forced to simply watch as her beloved uncle sacrificed his life for her and her mother.
"In that case." Edgar leaned over and whispered in her ear.
The location sounded oddly familiar, and the city certainly was, though she couldn't peg why she knew the former specifically. She simply lifted her hands and called on the magic. It rose hot and welcoming inside as a sign that the Core of Protea still breathed. Labored, perhaps, but still breathed. All four disappeared and then reappeared at the set location.
Before the resurrection of the kingdom, the large city of Lux on the other side of the mountains from the capitol had, in fact, been considered the capitol. Even now it held a prominent role as one of the largest of the cities, and as it had been home for millennia to the Elder Cultivators, everyone saw it as being special. The specific place the four landed in within Lux was a garden within the largest park where flowers of all sorts grew, including the black protea special to the world.
The garden looked ravaged and torn, and a far cry from the last time Edgar or Siobhan or Chance had seen it, but it could be identified. Some flowers still held on, especially in the place where the sections holding proteas and delphiniums had been grown together. All around the park, Lux felt as silent as a tomb. The people who still had homes stayed inside them. Those now without homes or jobs huddled together in corners and alleys as they tried to stay warm in the unexpectedly cooler weather; the normally warm and temperate climate of Protea—especially Lux—had been completely unbalanced. Very few vehicles traveled down the closest street despite its use as a main road. It couldn't be blamed on the time of day; it had always been busy even at the middle of the night.
"What's the important memory?" Siobhan asked Edgar. "There are so many possibilities here! Not all of them good," she added softer, "but most of them are. What is the one you treasure most?"
His fingers skimmed over her cheek. "This was where we met in this life five thousand years ago. I was five, and you were nearly that." He smiled. "You were a little bundle of light and laughter and hugs you seemed convince could cure the world."
"So how did you meet?" LeAnn asked on a smile. "I don't think I know this story!"
"It actually relates to how your own parents met," Siobhan said on a matching smile. "We all came together at once! I had been picking flowers with Rocky and our mother, Octavia, when I wandered off to pick some proteas. Because, reasons."
LeAnn bit back a giggle. "Subconscious reasons."
"Right? Well, this big dog came out of nowhere and scared me so much. I thought he'd attack me for sure."
"So Uncle Edgar saved you?"
Edgar grinned. "No. Your mother did. Because also reasons. I had been with our parents when I realized Shana had disappeared, and so I went looking for her. I came around the bushes to find her holding a bouquet of flowers while this pint-sized fluffy haired little girl happily hugged her. I just . . . couldn't take my eyes off Siobhan." His gaze lingered on her even then. "And then her brother decided to hug me, and then she did, and Shana and I probably first realized without understanding how doomed we would be to a lifetime of exasperation for our companions wearing their hearts on their sleeves."
Chance lifted a brow. "How long did it take you to realize it consciously?"
"Probably within the first year of living together as family. But I'm not ashamed to admit that it really did take Siobhan stripping half naked and pinning me to my couch when we were twenty-one for me to actually realize that we were soul mates." Edgar snorted softly. "And now you suddenly understand why I had that moment of exasperation at discovering that our daughter had all but gotten none of my genes. I think LeAnn is more terrifying for being perfectly half and half Shana and Rocky, but Reagan has been another sort of terrifying herself. I've had to chase her and her mother with a dustpan and broom to sweep up their broken hearts. Thank goddess I don't deal with Rocky anymore. He's Shana's problem."
"And mine," Chance grumbled.
LeAnn just laughed at him and laced their fingers together. She had liked learning this important memory of her family. In a way, it eased the things to come. "So." She took a long breath and held Chance's hand tighter. "Where to next?"
Certainty gelled inside Edgar. "The remains of Protea Castle." He let out a soft breath. "I'm ready."
Siobhan didn't think she was ready herself, but she said nothing. She went into his arms and held onto him tightly while LeAnn activated transport. Frankly, she knew she would never be ready, no matter how often she witnessed it, to see him die. He had sacrificed his life for hers during the Ranunculus War, and now he laid it down willingly for Shana and LeAnn. Her only consolation was that it would be the last time. Some consolation.
They landed in the castle and found it still and silent and nearly abandoned. Walls stood broken and fallen. Blood stained the marble floor and stone structures still standing. Bodies lay in broken disarray like discarded dolls. Lightning from the clouds overhead flickered in stark flashes to illuminate the dull air.
Standing there felt almost like a physical blow for Edgar. He doubled, would have fallen, but Chance was deadly fast and grabbed him to keep him standing. "Easy," Chance said quietly. "Breathe."
"Are you okay?" LeAnn asked.
Siobhan shook her head. "No, honey. This . . . this far too alike to the Royal War." Tears caught on her pale lashes. "It . . . was horrible then too."
Chance looked at LeAnn and remembered for the first time in a long time how stark the difference between their ages actually was. It did not make him uneasy. In a way, it comforted him. She would only have one memory like this, and she was more than strong enough to know everything—in a way, she needed to know so she could truly understand the importance of this war. "In the fall of the kingdoms during the Royal War," he told her, "Shanae and Sayena witnessed their Defenders fall trying to protect them as all the worlds were slowly eaten alive by disease. They ran to find their families, and both sets of siblings watched as their mothers sacrificed their Seeds to buy them time to say goodbye. Evan and Shanae then watched as their father also sacrificed himself—just as all Caretakers intend to do this time."
"Enough," Edgar ordered roughly.
"No." A tiny smile touched Chance's lips. "Feels odd still to not take an order from someone, but I'm getting used to it with practice."
"She doesn't need to know." Edgar straightened carefully. "She's too young to know."
A familiar temper lit LeAnn's eyes, and she stepped toward her uncle threateningly. "I am thirty years old," she said heatedly. "I'm five years older than my mother was when that occurred. I am only one year younger than you and my father were when that occurred." Power crackled over her. "I am not a child. I am the High Queen of the Protea Kingdom." She whirled around as gracefully as a dancer and as deadly as a warrior.
The magikry that crackled over her caused the land to shake. A panel opened in the floor and revealed a dark tunnel that led to a depth no one could guess at. When Chance's hand settled lightly on her shoulder, she knocked it off. "I'm too pissed. I'll hit the first person to try to placate me."
"No, you won't." Siobhan stepped closer and hugged her taller niece tightly. "You wouldn't hit me."
The fight went out of LeAnn and she sighed. "No, I wouldn't."
"Hey." Siobhan grinned at the males. "It must be genetic. I can use that on both her parents."
"And Reagan can use it on me too," LeAnn groused.
"It's that balance thing again," Edgar said dryly. "We of Protea and Delphinium can either rile each other up, or calm each other down. It's harder to see as a balance, given how hard it is to make Shana or I truly mad, but if we ever get to that state, Siobhan and Rocky are the only ones fearless enough to grab us and calm us down." Aware of the ticking clock, he took a long breath, looked at the tunnel, and then jumped down inside without fear. He landed safely only ten feet down. He glanced around and then called up, "Come on down. It's not very far."
He was unsurprised when LeAnn and Chance also jumped right down and landed on their feet gracefully. He was equally unsurprised when Siobhan opted for the ladder but fell off halfway. He simply caught her and put her down gently with a wry smile.
The entrance shaft actually sat at the end of what seemed to be a very long tunnel. It was nearly pitch black so LeAnn called a ball of majik; while Chance and Edgar could see in extreme levels of darkness, she and especially Siobhan could not. It hovered over her shoulder like a firefly and illuminated the area around them.
Neither Defender argued when Edgar took the lead and Chance followed behind. They obviously wanted to act like Caretakers, and Siobhan and LeAnn were the last two who would argue. It had been expressly said that there would be a trial and physical test, so they all felt a little on edge and alert for some sort of fight.
As a point of light began to appear at the end of the tunnel, LeAnn let her spell grow dimmer in response. When they reached the light at the end, the spell disappeared entirely.
Before them stood an immense door that was double even Sam's height and build, and he was the tallest of everyone in the extended families. Even LeAnn and Chance felt small next to this door, and Siobhan felt positively tiny. The entire door had been made of wood and amber and carved with symbols from across the universe that represented the Nature and Dark Flower Elements. The very center of the door held the familiar protea blossom Flower Mark that also marked Edgar, LeAnn, and Shana.
"This is fir wood." LeAnn lightly touched the door. "The sacred wood of Protea. Fitting to be here alongside amber, which is also sacred. Oh." Her eyes widened. "I'm . . . seeing a connection suddenly, I think. Wait, let me ask Tasia."
"Want me to?" Siobhan asked. "We three Apexes can communicate with our minds across any distance." They could also get into any mind they wanted, but they tried not to mention that because it did unnerve their friends. Tasia had almost always been telepathic even before evolving, but Telepathy did not usually puncture barriers. Literally nothing could stop the Apexes, and Tasia, as Chaos, could even alter or effect thoughts. What kept Shana and Siobhan from being considered telepathic in turn was the simple fact they had to actively listen and enter minds; Tasia heard them always as a constant background noise.
"My twin is never far from me," LeAnn assured her. Her mind automatically sought that of her twin and the information came softly and gently. Of course Tasia knew what LeAnn needed to know. That was one of her purposes. To teach and to instruct. "I was right. Everything about Protea is about change. The black protea means change and transformation and courage. Fir is malleability and cleverness and change. Amber itself is endurance and change. No wonder I got Shapeshifting as a skill as a witch. And no wonder Proteans are unafraid to just . . . push and shove until we get the results we want. We make change happen."
"I don't think I ever thought about it," Siobhan mused. "I mean, I knew what some of the flowers meant and some of the stones because someone mentioned it at some point, and I mostly knew what each of the items was, but I never realized . . . how thoroughly the totem items belonging to a world may have influenced every Cultivator across all of time."
Edgar lightly the touched the door and felt it pulsing softly under his fingers. It throbbed with the familiar power of Dark and Nature. Though he only had Nature magic, he was no less attuned to the Dark thanks to his world's role, and even his own role as brother to the Apex of Dark and lover to the Apex of Light. "This isn't the Core." Of that he was sure.
"Then what is it?" Chance asked.
Something stirred suddenly in the air. The presence felt feminine and powerful; so powerful that LeAnn felt a ripple in her magikry and Siobhan in her arcanery. Even Chance, with the most limited gifts of those gathered, felt the power of this presence that seemed oddly familiar to all of them. It was something they had all felt at some point. It was always there, always protecting them. Always showing them the way to where they needed to be.
It was Destiny herself.
The door shimmered with all the colors of life and then began to ripple with the black and pink colors of Protea. I feel before me the presence of two Children of Protea. Where is the Mother? The voice was soft, tender, and loving. There could be nothing wrong in the world when this voice spoke.
"Mother?" Siobhan asked.
Ah, of course. You would not know. When a Cultivator is born, they are the Son or Daughter of their world. When they have a successor and become an Elder—as you call it—they become the Mother or Father. Before me stands the Son of Protea and the current Daughter of Protea; the Mother of Protea is not present.
It made a little pang fill Edgar's heart. It sounded a little as if there would ever only be two roles, that of parent and child, and that meant that perhaps the tradition of Cultivators never seeing their grandchildren would continue.
The presence wrapped around him warm and soothing. No, little one. That will change soon enough. A terrible necessity that, if everything happens right, will never be needed again. You yourself have already done more for that future than I ever dared hope. Soon you will have your reward. All of you will. Now then. You seek the Core of Protea. Tell me, then, who it is who comes to make their sacrifice.
"I do," he said quietly. "I am the Son of Protea. I have come to give back my life and Seed to the planet that brought me forth. I give myself in place of my sister and my niece so that they may fulfill whatever need you have of them."
A tear slid down Siobhan's cheek. She was barely aware of LeAnn taking her hand or of Chance lightly putting a hand on her shoulder.
Then you must make the first sacrifice. The sacrifice of mind. Your memories will remain here as you travel, and they will slowly leave you as you progress. You will remember only the people you love but not any experiences you shared with them.
Edgar's eyes closed. "So be it."
A glow centered at his chest and slowly a multifaceted stone began to appear. It resembled a shimmering crystal gemstone with black veins, and it had thousands of tiny sides across its smaller stature; proof a long life lived. It radiated purity into the air around it, and LeAnn's own heart stopped. "A Life Orb," she whispered. She did not feel too surprised. All Cultivators at some point had been pushed to the edge of their limits without falling apart.
The Orb floated away from Edgar and merged with the door. It instantly opened and revealed another tunnel beyond. Strength left swiftly but Edgar forced himself to start walking forward. With every step, he felt memories in his mind slowly dissolving. The most trivial of things left him first. The shenanigans he and Rocky had once pulled as kids; or rather, that Rocky had instigated that Edgar had been forced to help get them back out of. His sister's gloating when she beat him in sparring; she always won, but she only gloated when he had been teasing her. All the tiny details of his everyday lives just disappeared.
Each step made the tunnel longer and longer. More and more memories fled. Slowly they gained in importance. Memories of the Commanders belonging to his brother-in-law went first; those fascinating men chosen through a battle competition who had been the bodyguards of his best friend and the only people alive who could keep him out of trouble. The Resurrection Cultivators followed. They had awed and impressed him endlessly yet they faded away.
The Elder Cultivators went next, until all he remembered of them was their faces. He knew they were his friends, but he remembered nothing of anything he had ever shared with them. He did not remember his deep friendship with Yvonne and Juliet or the way he had let Sherry and Virginia boss him around. He lost his memories of how Kellie and Desiree always stood fast by his side when he needed, or how Alexandria and Clara could be provoked into playing if he talked fast. All of it was gone.
Painful memories welled of his own Commanders. Doug, Nathaniel, and Justin. His best friends, his confidants, and almost his brothers. He had resisted the idea of having his own guardians until he met them. Their love had pulled him through too many times to count. He lost LeAnn after them. Though she walked beside him, he did not remember that he had helped her learn to ride a horse, or that he had secretly snuck her candy when her parents weren't looking.
As the door loomed, before his eyes swam the images of the five most important people in his life. His oldest friend, his daughter, his twin soul, his sister, and his lover. Rocky was the first to leave him. The years of always being together, of Rocky's eternal cheer always keeping Edgar from being too serious. His intensity about protecting those he loved. His unswerving belief in the good of people had been Edgar's salvation in two lives, and he forgot all of it.
It was memories of Reagan that were next to go. He forgot her first steps, her first word. He forgot the sheer joy in knowing he would be a father, and the way Siobhan had glowed while pregnant. His baby girl who was such a perfect replica of her mother. She had held his hands for her first steps and had always thereafter come back to hold his hand when she felt unsure. All of it was gone.
It was Michael taken from him next. Michael, his closest friend and confidant. More than even Rocky, Michael had been Edgar's brother of the heart. Each possessed half a soul that was identical to one another. Across any distance they could feel each other. Even in the time before Edgar had remembered him, he had still felt him. Those memories faded like stars in the morning sunrise.
Shana was next to go, and she seemed to be torn out of him by the root. Something inside screamed in pain and rage that he would forget this person who was so critical to him. His little sister. She had always been there, following him around, asking a million questions, her mind never satisfied. His beloved almost twin sister who had born up underneath an insurmountable weight without asking anyone for anything. They had spent countless hours reading together or watching terrible theatricals together to make fun of the bad acting. He had almost no memories without her in them, and yet in the space of a dozen steps, she disappeared from him.
Something terrible swelled inside his chest. His memories of Siobhan hovered in his mind and slowly lost their hold. "No!" he shouted. "Don't take her from me!"
Quite suddenly, the next door appeared before them. Destiny's presence felt warm and soothing. My little one, she said lovingly, would I take from you one of the very reasons for your existence?
This door, too, was made of fir embedded with amber that glimmered and glowed softly. A throbbing existed inside LeAnn now, and pulsed and beat inside her blood. When she closed her eyes and focused, she was sure she felt Edgar's memories inside her. "What is that?" she asked softly.
It is your final evolution, the start of you being fully bloomed. When this journey ends, your uncle will no longer exist on this plane, but his very memories, emotions, reason for being, and strength will become your power. You will be his living legacy.
She took a deep breath. It was a large burden to bear, but it was one she carried willingly. "I accept his legacy."
Edgar, it is not too late. You may go back. Do you continue?
"Yes." There was no room for doubt in him even though a throbbing headache echoed in his mind and he felt unsteady on his feet. He saw Siobhan reach out her hands and gently pushed them away. He would bear the pain willingly.
Then it is time for the second sacrifice. The sacrifice of heart. As you progress, you will lose your love for all those around you, save Siobhan who is as critical to your existence as you are to hers.
A very faint tremor went through his body but he stood tall and proud. "So be it."
A glow once more centered on his heart. This time it brought forth a black and pink glowing force that formed into a protea blossom. It resembled the Flower Marks on Son and Daughter and Mother alike, though the one visible on Edgar's chest had begun to fade. Trying desperately to keep her spirits up, Siobhan said, "I bet Shana would have a heart as beautiful as yours."
A little sad smile touched his lips. "I'll take your word for it. I do not remember her heart."
LeAnn was strong and fast. She kept Siobhan on her feet when she would have fallen. "It's okay," she said into her aunt's ear. "Just hang on. You'll make him falter otherwise. We have to be strong for him." Siobhan did not respond but she clung onto her niece tightly and drew strength from her.
Edgar staggered as the glowing flower left him and merged with the door. As the door dissolved, he took a step and nearly fell flat. Chance caught him and held him up. He lent his shoulder without hesitation for Edgar to lean on as they walked.
Slowly, one by one, the love he had for his friends and family faded from Edgar. The Delphinian Commanders went first, then the Resurrection Cultivators. The Elder Cultivators. Then it was the Protean Commanders. Something in Edgar howled a protest as his love for LeAnn simply . . . disappeared. He was left with emptiness, nothing but the knowledge that he had once loved her and remembered her.
It seemed as if something inside him ripped open as his love for Rocky and Reagan disappeared. Gaping holes were left inside his soul. Those holes deepened and widened as Michael was taken from him. Indeed, it was as if half of his soul simply . . . disappeared.
Shana's face flashed across his mind. He remembered nothing of their life together. He remembered only how much he loved her, how important she was to him. She was as important as his twin soul and his lover soul. "No!" he cried to Destiny. "Do not take her too!"
The third door instantly appeared. Do you understand yet? Destiny asked softly. Do any of you understand what is between Edgar and Shana, and Siobhan and Rocky?
"No," Siobhan whispered. "We know it is something . . . profound. We've always known. We share elements of both sorts of bonds with our sibling, and we can't—we can't live without each other. When Edgar lost his Seed fighting Mania, Shana suffered as deeply as I did. And when Rocky lost his," her voice broke, then steadied, "I couldn't bear it. Losing our brothers gutted us as much as losing our twins or our lovers."
There is a good reason for it. As you know, identical halves of souls overlap as twins, and halves of souls that interlock are lovers. A Cultivator's soul is born from their Seed, which is born from the flowers of their world's Core. I harvest those Seeds, Life tends them in her garden until the souls develop, and then they are born.
"That's simple enough to understand," Chance said. "What makes the sets of siblings so very different?"
The balance of the universe. The three Apexes . . . they are different. So very different in many ways. When Delphinium, Protea, and Iris' flowers all created the Seeds that would become an Apex, they could not prevent excess power overflowing. In doing so, second Seeds were born attached to the first. Conjoined. Fused. Whatever word you wish to use, there is no prying them apart.
"Oh!" Siobhan's eyes went wide. "Oh, gosh. We saw it. We didn't understand it, but we saw it. When we saw Rocky and Edgar's Seeds as Mania stole them . . . they looked as if they had been torn away from something. They had. That . . . that explains everything. Why there are aspects of both bonds. My Seed . . . it is identical to my brother's and yet we are also fused together." That would also explain why she and Shana had been so very close, and why Rocky and Edgar had. Again, reciprocity. Another thought occurred and she blurted, "Wait! You said all three Apexes! Where is Tasia's conjoined brother? It—it can't be Logan! He doesn't have a Seed!"
Do you really believe that to be so? Destiny asked warmly. It would be easy to miss, given that his Seed is—for want of a better term—infertile. It can neither blossom nor bloom, and that is why no one save his sister ever noticed its presence, but it had its impact on him regardless. Anything that could have been magic came to him as majik instead. He is for all intents and purposes not a Cultivator, yet he is also still a child of Iris.
It really did make sense of many things, even how Logan and Tasia could look so very much alike without being closer related. Power more than even genetics would all too often have the final say in someone's appearance, especially those with Seeds. "And they knew," Chance murmured. "At least subconsciously. Something in the way they acted and spoke. I think they know they have conjoined Seeds, even if Logan may not yet know he has one at all."
Edgar took a long and deep breath. Somehow he knew what was coming. "And the next trial?"
The sacrifice of your soul—the sacrifice of your Seed. You must give up your sister. Her memories, her love, her presence. She will be ripped from you entirely. It is not too late. You can go back.
Savagely, he said, "And if I do, then it will be her or LeAnn who has to do this! I'm not going back! Even if she is lost to me, at least she will survive!"
Then so be it.
The glow centered at his chest and began to glimmer brilliantly. His Seed appeared in all its glory, and once more they could painfully, clearly, see where it had been torn away from the one it had been conjoined to for millennia. The Seed floated away to merge into the door, and both disappeared. A great, ripping, tearing pain tore through Edgar's entire body. It was as if his life and his very existence screamed all at once. Gone. She was gone.
He fell to the ground when he tried to step forward. The other three moved instantly to his side. LeAnn and Chance each braced him and helped him to his feet. Siobhan ducked under Chance's arm and wrapped her arms around Edgar's waist. Together, the three of them held him supported as he made his way slowly down the hall. A Cultivator could not normally continue to exist without their Seed, but Edgar had lived so long that his Seed's presence had permeated his entire body and bolstered his lifeforce immensely. He could endure to reach the Core and save his world by giving it that enhanced lifeforce he had grown.
With every step, the land quivered and shook as it screamed and cried in denial and grief. Tears ran unchecked down Siobhan and LeAnn's faces. Even Chance, for all his normally unflappable resolve, felt the burn in his eyes that were tears.
When something began to loom before them, they braced for another door. It instead revealed itself as a doorway, and it rushed forward to consume them in light that briefly blinded them, even Siobhan. The light faded and they found they were no longer in the torturously long hall. They stood in a spherical room that glowed pink and black. In the very center of the room sat an immensely large chunk of amber that had black proteas growing all over it and black veins running through it. Many of the flowers had wilted, and the amber had dulled, in the evil tar dripping from the ceiling.
"The Core of Protea," Siobhan whispered.
And the final trial. You know what you must do, Edgar.
Edgar nodded and gently brushed off the three holding him. Tall and proud, the pain hidden, he walked slowly toward the Core. The evil began to gather all its power as it sensed him, and it aimed a deadly blast at him before anyone else could react. Chance started to spring forward, but the blast bounced harmlessly off an invisible shield around Edgar. A pink and black light swirled around him in return and fired at the evil. It screamed with the voice of the damned and dissolved. The faintest of glows returned to the amber, but it was so tired and weakened that even LeAnn barely felt it.
He slowly climbed the dais to the stone itself. When he touched it, he felt how terribly weak and sick his world was. Nothing he had ever suffered could compare to this. He let his lifeforce well up without hesitation. His lifeforce and his magic alike, everything left inside him. He let go of it all, and the Core soaked it up like a plant soaking up the sun. He slowly began to fade as what remained inside him fled, but in that moment, that shining, beautiful moment, it all came back to him. Every memory, every feeling, and even his Seed. He felt his sister's steady, solid presence. He also felt her grief and pain. "Destiny," he said softly.
Ask and it is yours.
"Shelter the ones closest to me. Do not let my sister, or lover, or twin suffer. Don't let the three most important people in my life hurt without me."
It is done. You are everything that is Protea, Edgar. You have endured and transformed and caused change. You have provided respite for others, and now you can rest. You have done all that was ever asked of you, even when you did not know you were being asked.
He held out a hand to LeAnn, and she slowly climbed up to him to link their fingers. He was nearly insubstantial now, nearly gone. "You'll win," he told her softly. "I know it."
"I won't let you down," she promised.
His gaze shifted to Siobhan. If she was shielded by Destiny, she would hurt but not suffer. The grief would not immobilize her. "I love you," he told her softly. "Don't you dare keep me waiting for too long. I won't know what to do with myself if you're not there."
Siobhan bit back a sob. "I won't," she vowed.
Finally, slowly, at last, he faded away entirely as everything that he was returned to the planet that had given him life. The Core began to quiver and shake and then produced a glow more radiant than anything anyone had ever seen as every flower came back to brilliant life. LeAnn could feel the pulsing warmth of Edgar's magic inside her soul. It was his memories, emotions, existence, and life. She had become his living legacy.
Her Mask appeared before her and began to glow brightly. The hairline fractures mended, and the entire Mask began to take on a soft sparkling effect. LeAnn could actually feel the magikry in her body expand and contract to unexpected levels. Her two Flower Marks, which had been visible all along, began to glow hotly as well.
It is time, LeAnn, came Destiny's voice. You are powered by the oldest of magic, the rawest force of the Nature Flower Element. Take this destiny thrust upon you and bloom!
LeAnn pulled her Mask on, and her Defender Mark suddenly gained a new blossom before all three there and the one on her chest alike opened fully into bloom as she entered her final tier. Her armor rushed in to cover her body, and a nearly glittery effect had been added to every bit of metal. The cloth parts had taken on a shine of their own. Magic pulsed off her strongly and rippled in the air. It felt, a little, as if Edgar had never left. He was there, living inside his niece, becoming the power that fueled her.
She suddenly began to fall and Chance shot forward swiftly to catch her. He caught her up high in his arms as she slumped against his shoulder in exhaustion. "Rest," he told her softly as he pressed his lips to her hair. "Your body has to adjust to what it now holds."
Siobhan gently removed LeAnn's Mask and then tucked it into her hand. Her lashes fluttered and lifted only slightly in response. "Did he go to the Realm, even with it sealed?"
No, came Destiny's voice. Her power swirled and began to surround them. For now, his soul remains in limbo. Unless the evil is defeated and the Realm unsealed, he will never ascend there.
"No pressure," Chance muttered.
"We'll do it." LeAnn closed her eyes again. "We'll do it. We have to."
The power contracted and lifted them to carry them away from the Core of Protea. I believe in you, Destiny whispered softly. Just as I always have.
You will make it happen.
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
Chapter 7 (October 19th, 2024->
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