The Final Kingdom - Chapter 3

<-Chapter 2

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.

Chapter 4->

The Final Kingdom - Chapter 2

<-Chapter 1

(Protea; Protea Castle)

The fighting could be heard from even outside the castle. Shana Toulume could only sigh and ask her husband, "Why couldn't she have gotten more of my temperament than yours?" She had always been exceptionally hard to make mad thanks to her Dark core, but her Light core lover was rather quick to flare with his temper. Their daughter was almost perfectly half and half of each of them, including being quicker than her mother but slower than her father to temper.

Rocky Toulume snorted softly. "Hey, at least she has some self-control." His grin turned mischievous. He shared most of his personality with his younger sister, Siobhan, just as Shana shared most of hers with Edgar as his younger sister. The age difference was all but negligible, though, and the siblings not only looked and acted like nearly identical twins, but also shared the same age for brief periods each year. "Let's go see Chance deal with his lover's temper."

She snickered as she followed him into the castle. "You just delight in tormenting him!"

"I consider it my prerogative as his father-in-law. He's kind of hilarious when he's trying to get used to the fact that we always sort of treated him like a son even before LeAnn was born, and even disregarding his being older than either of us by a few years!" He swung an arm around her shoulders and tugged her closer. At six-two, he had one of the tallest heights in their circle, and it was the only real difference between him and his sister. They shared the same skin, eyes, and hair, though he kept his quite short. He also had staved off their lineage's propensity to magical plumpness by hard physical training, but he still had a visible softer edge.

Shana stood an equally impressive six-foot tall, meaning only one female in their circle was taller, and barely any of the males. She also stood taller than her brother's five-nine height, and looked even more powerful—though not as powerful as she truly was thanks to being Apex of Dark and the embodiment of everything physical in existence. Her hair fell to her ankles in perfectly straight lines, much longer than Edgar's but still the same texture and color, and they equally shared their skin tone. Tasia, as Apex of Chaos, literally looked half Shana and half Siobhan, with the best of both in her body type and hair alike; the now uncontrollable locks had half curls and half straight lines in a chaotic blend.

Shana's pink eyes sparkled as she asked a servant, "What set them off this time?"

The maid muffled a giggle. "His majesty took offense that Queen LeAnn neglected to include him in a recent sparring exercise. She said she was afraid he would be hurt."

Both Rocky and Shana winced good-naturedly. No doubt there was more to the story. Their daughter wasn't mean-spirited enough to keep her own Caretaker—a former Captain of the Royal Knights—out of a mere practice match. Obviously, Chance had done something to spark the action.

Inside a drawing room of the castle, High Queen LeAnn Protea stood nose-to-nose with her only slightly taller husband and looked near ready to knock him on his decidedly attractive ass. He was only a couple inches taller than her five-ten height, and she had inherited her mother's shapely and strong frame, so he really did not have much of an advantage over her. She also had her Protean lineage's golden brown skin and pink eyes, but her waist-length black hair held visible waves as well as white streaks to harken to her technically half-Delphinian blood.

Rubeo Chance's crystal blue eyes snapped with sparks that indicated his temper could be as fiery as his dark red hair, and the shadows of his power churned inside his eyes as well. Offset against darker brown skin, he had a surprisingly devastating appeal despite his usually reserved nature. Reserve all too often went out the window where his Cultivator wife was concerned, though. There were times where he wasn't sure if he would shake her or kiss her senseless. Kissing her usually won; he loathed the idea of hurting her in any shape or fashion. "You did it on purpose!" he snarled.

"Of course I did!" She shoved him back a step and then tossed her dark hair out of her face. Normally she wore her hair up in double ponytails, but she had left them down after a shower and not bothered to put them back up. If anything, the heavy crown she wore as High Queen sat easier on her head without the up-do; she had considered moving away from it entirely lately. "YOU started the fight by trying to put me under house arrest!" She straightened to her full height and looked every inch a Dual Cultivator and warrior queen. "You're lucky Tasia didn't hear about it!" she challenged.

He grimaced. Tasia happened to be LeAnn's twin soul mate and therefore her personal protector among the Defenders of their generation. Since he was LeAnn's lover soul mate, they clashed frequently when they had conflicting ideas over how to keep their shared soul mate happy and healthy. "I'm surprised you didn't tell her," he muttered.

She smirked. "I figured it was more satisfying to take my own revenge. Now we're even!"

"Ah, trouble in paradise," Rocky said dryly from the doorway. "Have you spent every minute of your marriage arguing?"

"Yes," LeAnn said.

"No," Chance said at the same time, and glared at his wife.

Shana covered a smile. "What started it this time?"

LeAnn crossed her arms. "We had a hopeful moment where I thought I might be pregnant. He promptly forbade me from going anywhere and tried to keep me from doing anything."

Rocky very slowly lifted a brow. "Chance," he said helpfully, "you were there when Shanae was pregnant with LeAnn. You do remember that I and Arista couldn't keep her out of anything, right? You really can't contain any force of nature, let alone Nature Flower Elements!"

"Are you?" Shana asked LeAnn hopefully.

"No." Her gaze lowered as sadness clouded her pink eyes. "I wanted to be. So badly."

Chance forgot all anger at the pain in her voice. The same pain seethed inside him. They had been trying for a year to conceive the child they both wanted so badly. He tugged her into his arms and rocked her back and forth gently. "It'll happen when the time is right," he said into her hair softly.

Rocky and Shana exchanged a smile and then the latter said, "I always knew LeAnn would be perfect for you." Chance looked at her warily and she added impishly, "You've actually turned into a nice guy."

Lacking anything creative to say, he made a single rude gesture toward his former queen and current mother-in-law. She didn't need to rub it in.

 

(Carnation; Carnation Kingdom)

Alliances crossed Blossom Field like threads woven on a tapestry. Delphinium and Protea had queens who were cousins twice over, while Gladiolus, Daffodil, and Iris had Rulers who were siblings by blood and marriage—Gladiolus and Daffodil by blood as birth brother and sister, and Iris as their shared stepsister. Hyacinth and Orchid had Rulers who had been adopted siblings before each had been subsequently adopted into different royal families, and had ended up marrying twins as well. And, lastly, Carnation and Aster also connected via marriage. Theo's elder brother had married the Ruler Cultivator of Carnation for the Era and therefore become Carnation's latest king.

Like all Carnation Cultivators be they Defender, Ruler, or Dual, Bethany Carnation appeared both beautiful and enchanting to just about anyone who beheld her. Long mahogany hair with red and gold streaks framed bright teal eyes, tanned skin well suited to the Glass element-based desert lands of Carnation, and a surprisingly curvy figure despite her rather petite height. She had been quite well-suited by her Caretaker husband, though, for Terrence Carnation—Terry to his friends—shared his younger brother's overall coloring sans streaks as well as his nearly sultry beauty. He also made no secret of the fact that he was perfectly content with the way his wife could get her way with a smile. Their relationship was very much equal, and they had been mutually wrapped around each other's finger forever. He had his own ways of getting what he wanted when he felt the need for it.

Carnation's personal flower, the red carnation, represented love and pride and beauty, so the people of the world collectively felt a little giddy at seeing their king and queen be so happily married. Sure, all Cultivator-Caretaker pairs were ridiculously in love through their hearts and souls alike, but the pair from Carnation had a reputation for adorable public displays of affection.

Virginia and Michael Donohue had heard all the stories long before they were halfway to the palace. "Your child," Michael told Virginia. A strikingly handsome man in his own right, his brown skin contrasted beautifully against opal hair and silver eyes. His five-eleven height and strong frame served him well as a Commander who protected Edgar; he was in fact the former king's twin soul. The combination of Defender-Commander happened across the entire galaxy, in fact. The same way all eight Defenders of the Elder generation protected the former High Queens, their husbands served as Commanders protecting the former High Kings.

She smirked. "And what's your point?" The former Lower Queen Veronica Carnation, who happened to be the Lead Defender of her generation, had no compunctions about admitting that their adopted daughter was more like herself than her husband, though Beth did have enough of Michael in her to keep things interesting. Virginia had gold eyes and red hair from her lineage, however, as well as a strong body proportioned with curves in such a way that she literally could wear anything. She had spent as much time being a model as she had spent it painting them; the art in nearly all castles had been made by either her or Raine, another artist. "But let's be fair: I've never kissed you on a public street in broad daylight."

"That is true." He eyed her warily as she suddenly stopped walking. He didn't trust her often devious mind. "What?" He got his answer when she suddenly jumped into his arms and kissed him so hotly that his toes curled. They were in broad daylight on a public street. He should have guessed. And it was only the whooping and cheering that gave him the will to break the kiss. "Point proven," he said huskily.

"And nicely too. Whoo." She blew out a breath. They did everything passionately, including fighting and loving. They had no middle ground, not really. "Okay. Now let's see how Beth is handling things."

She was handling things just fine. When they found her and Terry, they were locked in a sparring match in a gym room of the castle. Terry wore workout pants and a black sash that marked him as a master in several styles of physical combat. Beth wore workout pants, a workout bra, and a matching sash. He had a few more styles mastered than she did, but that did not mean she couldn't give him a good run for his money.

The match ended with a surprising suddenness. She snaked under his guard and clipped him in the chin with a fist just hard enough that it knocked him off balance, and she was able to spin him around and knock him flat. She had him pinned before he could move. "Ha!"

"Alright!" Virginia cheered. "That's my girl!"

"Mom!" Beth brightened as she saw her parents in the doorway. She had always considered herself one of the luckiest of the Resurrection Cultivators because she had two full sets of parents to love and be loved by; only Tasia, Raine, and Storm shared that. Her birth parents lived in the capitol city surrounding the palace where they could easily see her anytime. "When'd you get here?"

"Just now," Michael admitted.

"Bethany . . ." Terry said warningly.

"Oops!" She scrambled off her husband and then watched in admiration as he rolled over and flipped to his feet. The way he moved made her pulse flutter happily. She had once tried to count all of his muscles. She had given up halfway through and jumped him instead.

Terry ignored the heat in her eyes to the best of his ability. "What brings you by?" He grabbed a towel and rubbed it over his sweaty hair.

"Just felt like it." Virginia grinned at Beth. "Want a match?"

She grinned back. "Just don't expect me to go easy on you, old lady."

Challenge sparked Virginia's eyes, and she took off her jacket. While, technically, yes at over five thousand years literally and ten thousand metaphorically, Virginia could be called old, the immortal sure did not like to be called it. You were only as old as you felt, and she preferred to feel young. "I'll show you old, kid." Such a smartass she had for a daughter. It did her heart good.

 

(Hyacinth; Hyacinth Castle)

"She didn't mean that!" the lavender-haired king blurted hastily as he saw the ire rising on the visiting delegate's face.

Beside him, her crown at a cocky angle, his wife narrowed her pine green eyes and said, "Yes, she did! Get out of my castle!" She turned sharply and stalked away across the throne room before she gave in to the urge to kick somebody's ass.

The delegate beat a quick path to the exit. Silas Hyacinth could only sigh and run a hand through his short hair. "Em," he said warningly as he went after his Dual Cultivator wife with warning in his silvery-black eyes. "You promised you'd have more tact!"

Lower Queen Emily Hyacinth merely snorted rudely. "For those that deserve it!" She impatiently yanked off her crown and chucked it to the side before raking both hands through her slate hair to get rid of the careful coifs. She hated styling her hair. She kept it just short enough that she would not be required to curl the stuff each time a formal occasion came around. She hated curls. They bounced.

Silas caught the crown and put it aside. He then caught her around the waist and hauled her up into the air over her indignant yelp. She may have only been three inches shorter than his five-eleven height, and sturdily built, but he had more than enough strength as a demi-god to keep up. He actually had the normal strong build of a physically-oriented combatant; his twin sister, Gail, had a much curvier and rounded frame from being magically-oriented, though they otherwise looked nearly identical.

The slim though long skirts of Emily's Ruler gown fell back, and he grinned as he saw her feet. She was barefoot. "I knew it!"

"I am not wearing high heels!" She wiggled and squirmed, but her husband kept her easily trapped. "Bad enough I have to wear a skirt almost all the time."

"You do know if you hated it as much as you claimed, it'd change, right?" he asked dryly. "Kiegan from Aluria proved that."

She crossed her arms mutinously and considered the merits of turning into something wiggly and slimy. Maybe an electric eel. She could zap him for being heavy handed when he knew she hated it. As a witch, her skill lay in Shapeshifting, so she had read plenty of biology books to learn all manner of different things to change into. A useful skill with her husband around!

Her thoughts scattered when his lips suddenly pressed to her neck. He smiled as he felt her pulse kick into overdrive. "I could always get the dress off you." He held her with one arm so that his other hand could steadily climb her leg under the dress. Despite her protests to the contrary, his wife was sexy as hell, and he knew he was not the only one to think so. She rivaled Beth for that and honestly had no clue. They all found it rather adorable.

"Damn it, stop that!" She let her magic rise until wind began to blow. She carried the Air Flower Element of her world across both magic and majik alike, so had plenty of tricks up her sheer sleeves. Wind nearly always blew on Hyacinth, actually, and rustled the endlessly flat grasslands that hallmarked the temperate world. "I'm warning you, Silas!"

"Alright, alright." He let her go, and a smile teased his lips as he moved back a step. "And anyway, you've already got feathers in your hair. Why add more?"

She stopped in her tracks. Her eyes narrowed. "You bastard." She whirled and rushed across the room to look in a mirror. Sure enough, gold feathers had been tangled into her slate locks. It couldn't be helped, unfortunately. Silas and Gail had been born in the Realm of the Gods, and they therefore had small gold wings. Silas slept with his wings out, so the bed was often covered in feathers. Emily never really could avoid getting some in her hair, though she tried her damnedest.

She turned and went after her Caretaker. He laughingly blocked the first punch and then caught her wrists before she could try again to hit him. "You're foul, mean tempered, and violent," he said. "It makes me wonder why I love you."

"It's because you're stupid!" she scowled.

"We left when you were arguing, and we come back when you're arguing," Alexandria Francisco said dryly from the doorway as her husband and Caretaker, Diaz, grinned beside her. "I feel as if we never left at all!" The former Lower Queen Arista Hyacinth shared almost nothing of her appearance with her daughter, but she shared nearly all of her personality. Alexandria's short blue hair and cloudy white eyes could be seen in the streaks Emily possessed, though. And where Emily had a rich coal skin tone, Alexandria was actually rather fair with plenty of freckles across her face and arms alike—she also stood very tall, passing Shana by an inch exactly. Just enough to have the strength to keep Shana safe as her twin soul. Diaz stood a few inches shorter than Alexandria, though looked not much less powerful, and had bright blond hair paired to strawberry red eyes and tanned skin.

Joy lit Emily's face at seeing her parents, and Silas's heart ached painfully as he saw it. That was why he loved her. Because under her tough exterior was a beautiful, tender, heart that loved generously and endlessly. If he could only see her smile, he would do anything. He let her go and smiled as she ran across the room to hug Alexandria and Diaz equally tight. "Rumor has it she's just like you," he told Alexandria.

Diaz grinned at him. "Rumor has it right, except for the fact that emotional blackmail was involved in getting her to wear her Ruler gown more than once every few months, and she did reluctantly wear heels."

"There was no blackmail involved, thank you," Alexandria retorted on a grin. "And I wore those heels because Shanae wore them, and I needed to stay taller than her for my own sanity."

Emily snorted. "Because it's hard to bodily protect someone taller than you. Gee, know that feeling."

At five-eight, Emily did actually stand in the taller side for her generation, but LeAnn still had her beat by two inches as well as a bit of strength, so fulfilling her duty to protect the High Queen as a Defender could be challenging. Reagan was far easier to protect thanks to being both short and willing to stay back in battle. Proteans? No keeping them back ever. That was why all twin soul mates to a High Ruler had at least an inch of height and whatever strength may be needed to bodily remove said Ruler from danger.

"Now imagine how I feel," Diaz said dryly. "Or, better, Tyson. Rocky almost towers over poor Ty. Never stops us from tackling him flat, though. Makes it funnier, usually. Remind me to tell you about the incident a few months ago."

"Let's not," Alexandria groused. "I lost sleep over that."

Emily grinned. "Now I have to hear it! Since you're here, tell me we can have a big get together and I can wear denims."

"I think there was rumor of that."

"Sweet!" She made a beeline for the door as fast as she could.

Alexandria and Diaz shared a smile with Silas. They would have changed nothing about Emily. They loved her because of everything she was not despite it.

 

(Gladiolus; Gladiolus Castle)

A long and honored tradition existed on Gladiolus: all Cultivators, Ruler or Defender or Dual, loved to cook. They loved to nurture and care for their loved ones, and they had ages before determined the best way to do it was to feed them. People teasingly said all Gladiolus Cultivators had recipes instead of genes inside their blood, and no Cultivator ever denied it. In the last few years since the kingdom on the rainy world had been resurrected, however, it had come to pass that the same genetic difference existed inside nearly every citizen as well! Gladiolus had ended up with the biggest and best culinary export in the entirety of Blossom Field, and they produced foods that got sold on all planets. People made the long trip just to sample some of the specialties. Whimsically, tourists claimed that the entire planet smelled like pasta and cookies.

It actually was true in some places on the world, and the most prominent was near the palace in the center of the capitol city. The entire castle almost invariably smelled like cookies. The cooks of the palace blamed the king and queen, both of whom loved to cook and bake. Without fail, all cooks and chefs got weekends off and the royal couple made meals for themselves.

It was for that reason that Juliet and Nathaniel Matica got to the palace, smelled the delicious scents coming from the kitchen, and felt not a bit of surprise. The former Lower Queen and King of Gladiolus shared a smile. "He really is your kid after all," Nathaniel told Juliet. A handsome man of taller height, he had coal colored skin, black eyes, and auburn hair that he kept short around his shoulders.

Juliet, formerly Julianna Gladiolus, just smiled. As proof of her lineage, she had long yellow hair and vibrant green eyes, and olive skin that often called attention. "And the fact that Stormy turned this into a cultural icon is evidence that he is yours." She sniffed the air. "Let's follow our noses. He and Kari smell like they're up to decadence."

Lower King Storm Gladiolus and his Caretaker wife, Kari, actually happened to be up to their elbows in cookie dough and chocolate chips. Flour was smudged across Storm's tanned face. Chocolate had smudged on Kari's fairer skin. The oven dinged. "Aw crap," Kari said.

Storm glanced over his shoulder and lifted an ash brown brow. The oven door opened, and the casserole that had been cooking obediently floated out and over to the cooling rack. As a Dual Cultivator of Gladiolus, he had the Thunder Flower Element of his world, and as a witch, he had the skills of Finding and Telekinesis. He also had the much rarer Pattern Mastery; the latter proved the most powerful of his abilities, but his mind had more than enough strength to move objects without touching them.

Proof of connections between worlds, Storm looked a fair bit like his elder sister Raine with the same coloring across the board—though he had yellow and green streaks—as well as the same slender but clearly strong build. Kari looked like no one else thanks to usual auburn eyes and beautifully rusty colored hair no artist had been able to replicate in paint; Virginia and Raine kept trying anyway. She also had a lean though softly curved frame thanks to being a runner, but she actually spent as much time as a clay sculptor as she did a chef.

"Do you realize how incredible it smells outside?" Juliet said from the doorway.

Storm shot her a grin. "Probably as good as it smells inside." Blithely he continued, "There's plenty for all of us, so grab a chair."

Juliet eyed her adopted son warily. "Alright. How did you know?"

"Lots of reasons." He finished putting dough on his trays and popped them into another oven. Several had been situated around the enormous castle kitchen. "Mostly it was just timing. It felt right. Theo sensed that we'd have visitors, so I calculated your last location and knew when you'd get here."

"I blame you for that," Juliet told Nathaniel. "I think he got part of your legal advisor brain."

"Goddess help me," Kari said under her breath.

Storm beamed. "At least you're not bored." He leaned over to kiss her cheek and then rested his head on her shoulder. "Let's have dinner then we can plan to meet up with everyone else. We can even bring cookies."

"Not that you planned that either."

"Who me? Never."

 

(Statice; Statice Castle)

Of all the kingdoms in Blossom Field, Statice had always been the most unusual for it had had only one Ruler and one Defender—the same person as a Dual—since the beginning of Time. Only with the advent of the Resurrection Era had that shown possibility of change when a second Dual Cultivator of Statice had been born, though she had neither been born to the previous one nor even born within that Era. Again, Statice and its Memory Flower Element tended to be the odd one in the family.

Lower Queen Racine Statice served both as the current and second Ruler of Statice, but she also served as the Apprentice Librarian to the Hall of Records within the Ephemeral Plane where the memories of all living creatures were housed. The Hall maintained the flow of Time itself, and only the Librarians had full access to its shelves, though witches could knock on the door and ask to see things about their own past lives. To maintain the flow of Time was to watch over past, present, and future and ensure everything continued to move smoothly without interference. It did happen; they called those Paradoxal Pivots, and both Librarians had seen their share.

Being Apprentice meant that Racine only acted as a sort of sidekick for her mother who was the full Librarian with full powers and skills related therein. Normally, the two had shared oversight of the Hall while also filling duties as a Dual Cultivator, but when Racine had ascended the throne two years before, her mother had decided to take a real vacation for the first time in millions of years and had left the Hall wholly in her Apprentice's hands as well.

A soft fluctuation through the Hall told Racine when Clara Castlera had returned to reclaim her hourglass, the item that marked her role. "Mom's back," she told her husband as she looked over from where she had been reading an immigration report. Statice's position at the end of the galaxy behind Protea—and Iris' end position behind Delphinium—meant the two worlds had to be checked into before ships coming from other galaxies could go any further.

Allister Statice looked up from the chess game he was playing. Across from him sat their eight-year-old daughter and future heir to the throne. Relisha had been winning, much to her father's reluctant amusement. Her twin brother, Percival, sat on the floor and avidly sketched a portrait of the small fae that was Allister's sidekick and familiar. Both twins had their mother's mink brown hair and their father's vibrant green eyes as well as a lighter version of their mother's bronze skin. Racine's eye color matched her hair, and Allister had smoky gray hair to go with his fair skin. Since she stood at five-nine and he at six-foot, both twins also skirted the tall side. "I hope she and Sam enjoyed their vacation," Allister said.

"I'm still confused," Percival told Racine. "How come our grandpa is also our uncle?"

"Strange quirks of adoption and two brothers being more alike than is good for your mother and grandmother's sanity," she grumbled.

Allister's elder brother, Samuel, was Clara's husband Caretaker, and had also adopted Racine, so that made him her father and brother-in-law alike. However, because Allister had himself always seen Sam as more of a father than a brother due to his brother raising him, it felt less confusing than it seemed. A lot of people actually forgot Allister wasn't his son at all despite the fact that the brothers nearly passed for twins personally; Sam just stood a few inches taller—a necessity as Rocky's twin soul mate. Clara herself was the same height as their daughter, and eerily did look enough like Racine to be her mother. They shared the same skin tone and some similar features though Clara had the lavender eyes and pink hair alike to the pink statice flower of their world.

Allister grinned swiftly. "Sam blames Destiny for all of it."

"Well, who else would have made it so complicated?" She stretched largely. "I guess I better go say hi and give her back her authority. Pity. I was hoping they'd take a longer break. I liked being entirely in charge. It felt . . . right."

Melina, the fae, looked at her curiously. "You think you're ready to take over?" she asked.

"Well, I certainly think she is," came Clara Castlera's voice from the doorway to the family room. She smiled when all eyes turned, and she held tighter to Sam's hand when he laced their fingers together. "I think the time has come for me to retire. The Hall showed no ill effects for not having my presence, and I noticed a few things had happened that I had entirely not seen with my Sight or even sensed—but you did, and handled. I always thought that that would be my sign of the change, and it is."

"Given how long you served," Sam told her, "I think you're more than ready to retire. I didn't notice you once worry while we were away."

"How could I?" She smiled up at him and then at their daughter. "I had Racine there. From the day I met her, she made sense of everything to me. How I could love Shana and Siobhan, especially Shana, so much more than any other High Princesses I had ever served. Maybe a little reciprocity could be involved, but it was truly a sign of change, as Time herself told me once. We will do the transfer within this week and make it formal. The Resurrection Era and all Eras beyond shall belong to you, Racine." A thought occurred, and she blinked. "Well. How . . . odd."

"What's that?" Allister asked.

"I was just thinking over what would be involved for the transfer, and it occurred that, well, we need someone with Memory power who is not the current or future Librarian, and perhaps oddly conveniently, we have exactly that in Tasia. She has very tactfully not used her Memory majik for much because she feels that's our special job, but the fact is that she is the High Priestess of the Plane as wholly as she is of Protea given the two being inexorably linked, and she can in fact serve in lieu of Pallas as Archon, Allister as Knight, or even us as Librarian."

Allister had known about Tasia's ability to step in, yet he had not realized the full ramifications of such a thing. "Do you suppose Destiny planned for that as well?"

Clara and Racine looked at each other. They were not allowed to see their own futures; at least, no more than the extremely metaphorical and often deeply interpretive visions that Racine had through her All Sight. Clara's own All Sight tended to be more literal, so she could only see things where she was not involved. However . . . at that very moment, neither of them could see anything. The futures surrounding all Cultivators and Caretakers, Elder and younger alike, had gone entirely murky and vague.

"Destiny's planning for something," Racine said softly. "That's for sure."

 

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

Chapter 3->