The Eternal Kingdom - Chapter 18 (Adult Content)

<-Chapter 17

The portal opened into the Immortal Fields in a place that Rachel had not visited before. It had been mentioned that the Fields did eventually end and did eventually have trees, and now she stood in that spot. Just as the regular Fields had been covered by every flower in existence, so too did the woods cover seemingly every tree. She could feel the presence of magic and majik alike whispering through the leaves. "Oh, wow," she breathed. "Teach me to not go exploring the Plane more. This is beautiful."

Fitzgerald stepped up behind her, and she felt his presence curling around her. And his power. That unusual thing inside him they had never been able to define. She removed her Mask and returned it to her bracelet, and then closed her eyes to gather herself before turning to face her husband. "Why, Aldan?" she asked quietly. "Why did all of this happen? You can come and go from the Ephemeral Plane at will, clearly. Not just to the Hall but anywhere you like in the Fields. Shana and Edgar clearly have known you were here all along, which tells me Tasia must have known, and Pallas knew you . . . but they all didn't say anything to me even though I was so scared, which means whatever you're doing is extra important." She shook her head hard. "Why didn't you just tell me you were here? How did you . . . become whatever it is that you are?"

He pulled off the mask he wore and then touched an amber gem imbedded in his armor. The armor glowed and disappeared, leaving him in casual clothes but with the amber gem hanging on a chain around his neck. His hat, one that looked like a classic from Vericity, still sat on his head as well. "It's a long and complicated story."

"So you implied already." She studied his face hungrily. His beautiful eyes were still shaded by his hat, so she removed it and tossed it aside. The sunlight fell across his face and illuminated his green eyes. Her heart eased as she saw the shadows within, and she smiled as she lifted her hands to frame his face gently. "I've missed having your face be the first thing I see in the morning." His arms wrapped around her waist, and she closed her eyes in sheer delight. "And that. I've missed being held by you too." Her eyes opened suddenly, and the normally soft brown color had turned livid. "You're such a jerk, Aldan Castlera!"

He knew his wife very well. He snagged her wrist before she could hit him and used the forward momentum to pull her off her feet. His other arm shot around her waist to keep her anchored close. She half-cursed and half-laughed as she realized he was both stronger and faster now, and then every emotion turned to greedy need as he lifted her higher and kissed her hungrily.

He released her wrist to hold her tighter, and her hands locked into his hair to hold him close. This too, she had missed. They had been together for over a decade that had spanned five millennia. She truly was more complete with him than without. I missed you, she thought achingly.

You are tempting me to do something in a place we shouldn't, he muttered right into her mind. He broke the kiss only to start stringing hot kisses along her neck. "Tell me to stop."

She drew a ragged breath. "Don't you dare stop." Her breath whooshed out on a laugh of humor and lust alike as he immediately tumbled her down onto the grass. Their hands tangled together as they fought mutually with clothing. "You can't be found on the Plane unless you want to be. It's more than safe." She caught his face in her hands and dragged him in for another devouring kiss. "Which Rhya and Pallas will enjoy too," she whispered.

It made him laugh as she had intended though it turned into a groan as her knowing fingers found the sensitive places along his ribs and tormented him. Too many ups and downs, too long without each other, meant there could be no taking their time or finding the will to savor. They came together with a near desperation that radiated from their souls as much as their bodies, and when ecstasy finally arrived, when pleasure finally replaced pain, even their minds could not speak for the sheer joy of the moment.

Into the quiet aftermath, they lay cuddled together and not entirely wanting to move—though they knew full well they needed to do so. Aldan's grip tightened where his arms held Rachel, and then gentled, and he slowly eased back. He looked down at her with such emotion in his eyes that her own stung with tears. He rested his forehead against hers and rocked her lightly. Life would have been so much easier if he had simply been able to come to the past to help her as he had intended. Yet nothing was ever easy, and he could not regret the job he had been born to fill nor the decisions he had made.

Thinking of his job made him suddenly blink as he realized his hat was gone, and they probably should not waste more time. He released Rachel and sat up to look around. "We should get dressed. Also, where did my hat go?"

She stretched largely and then sat up on a grin. "Strictly speaking, we didn't undress. Just sort of unfastened and moved things. Which isn't the first time we've done that."

He shot her a wicked grin. "It's not my fault I can't resist you, and you would be lying if you dared deny you will often torment me mentally until I grab you wherever we are."

Her grin turned a little wicked as well. "I deny nothing. But as to your hat, I didn't toss it far. It should be—" She broke off as she spotted the hat and realized it was trying to surreptitiously crawl away of its own will. "Uhm. Honey?"

He rolled up to his feet and fixed all of his clothing before going over to kneel beside the hat. "Now where are you going? Come on, Meli, don't be sulky."

"Sulky!" The cute feminine voice from under the hat made Rachel's brows shoot up as she was finishing fixing her own clothes. "Sulky he says! You're not the one who went flying! Also, I might not have seen any of that but I heard it, and now I am traumatized."

"You have wings," was his dry response. "And I doubt it was as traumatizing as you say. You outright said you expected it to happen. Not my fault if you were right." He slid one hand under the hat and used the other to hold it steady as he picked it up. He turned around and smiled to see the highly curious look on Rachel's face. "This is part of the story," he told her. "I'd like you to meet my partner, Melina." He lifted the hat to reveal a very tiny fae sitting on the palm of his hand, and Rachel took a startled breath. She had of course known of the fae that lived in the Fields, but she had never gotten to meet one before.

This fae stood no more than five inches in height and had long brown hair that went to her knees. Her eyes looked identical to Aldan's, green with swirling shadows, and she wore a little outfit that looked as if it had been made of autumn leaves. Little red boots were on her feet, and her wings looked not unlike a dragonfly's in iridescent green. Her ears were long and pointed, and they moved almost of their own free will like a cat's tail. She cocked her head and only one ear moved in curiosity. She got to her feet and held onto Aldan's thumb as she studied Rachel intently. She then tilted her head back to look at the man holding her. "You're right. She is pretty."

Rachel smiled and held out a hand. Melina studied her and then flew over to land on her palm. The little fae instantly felt the power under her feet and brightened vividly. "Oh! Oh you have majik! You're a witch!" She bounced on her toes as she looked at Aldan. "You didn't tell me she was a witch!"

He grinned. "I wanted to surprise you."

"Best surprise!" She walked around in circles on Rachel's palm. "Also a Dual Cultivator, and that means she has magikry! Oh, and she's an awakened summoner. Statice born, of course, as Apprentice Librarian, and the Memory Flower Element. Telepathic and telekinetic, with Sensing. Took Ice as her second Flower Element as a witch. All Sight, too. Ooh, and she can read shadows to know who they belong to. That must be something she got from you, Al, as your lover."

Rachel blinked at her in bemusement and then looked at Aldan a bit helplessly. He was grinning as he watched, and he walked over to pick Melina up. She flew out of his hand and then up to land on his shoulder where she sat down. "She's a Nature Flower Element fae with the ability to 'read' different power in people. She also," he added a bit wryly, "has other unusual abilities that we can get into later."

"It's easier to see than to hear," Melina agreed cheerfully. She swung her feet lightly as she looked at him curiously. "I heard you say you were going to bring her along to help. Do you think she'll be able to do anything other than keep you from being distracted?"

Rachel grinned, and he cleared his throat. "Yes, smartass, she'll be able to help. Her All Sight beats my Present Sight in many ways, and since she's the Apprentice, she also has skills and abilities outside the normal scope of just magikry."

Melina braced her hands beside her and smiled cheerfully at Rachel. "I'm a mascot and a partner all in one. Allister—er, Aldan—woke me up so I belong with him. I'm technically his familiar. Same eyes after all. That's the mark of all familiars."

"So I noticed." Rachel leaned against the tree that was nearby and studied her husband and his partner curiously. "How about we go over how all of this happened?"

"Well . . ." Aldan raked a hand through his hair and smiled wryly. "Let's walk and talk at the same time. We're still on the hunt anyway."

"Hunt for what?"

"That's also part of the story. Do you remember back when you first were taken into the past? The portal you opened? Well, that's where the story started. Apparently having the High Priestess of the Plane using Memory majik sort of created a connection to said Plane, so when I jumped in I got caught between the two and landed in the Immortal Fields . . ."

 

(Immortal Fields, two months earlier)

The landing had been more than a little jarring. Allister felt his head spinning as he tried to catch a breath. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at a very familiar field of flowers. Whether or not he had landed in the present Fields or the past Fields, he did not know. He gingerly pushed himself up to a sitting position and sighed. Well, lesson learned. No more jumping blindly into portals.

"Allister?" The bemused voice belonged to Pallas, and the Archon walked out of a shimmering green and pink portal of his own. "Well done, friend. That was quite an entrance."

Allister eyed him. "When am I?"

"Apt wording. You made it to the Rebirth Era, in fact. Next time a bit more caution, hmm?"

He snorted. "You're loosely connected to the Protea bloodline, and directly related to the Statice one. I'm not even sure you know what the word 'caution' means."

Pallas grinned. "Your point on that." He sighed and sat down across from Allister and set his broom to the side. "And to be fair, part of this may well be my fault. I had reached out at the same moment that Racine and Tasia did, and our powers collided. I was trying to find someone. I did not intend to make things more complicated for you."

"I think things are about to be more complicated for you." Allister lifted a brow. "Were you trying to find your soul mate?"

A pause. Then, "Yes."

"Well, you were on the right track. That woman you kept meeting and walking with? Reagan Delphinium." He smiled when Pallas winced. "Yeah, surprised all of us as well. She had no idea who you were either. We actually realized a few years ago what was going on, but she's been too shy to ask someone to bring her here. I think Tasia might have been intending to, hmm, convince her to come see you, but the trouble started up again."

In a murmur, Pallas said, "I suppose in hindsight I should have realized her identity. She . . . lights up the space around her. I never felt happier than when she came to me. She looked so lost that first time I found her in my Fields, but she reached out to me so generously. I do not think it took me long to fall in love. I just . . . knew. I tried to be so patient but even I have my limits. Again, my apologies, Allister."

"Well, I'm not going to be too concerned over it. It's probably a good thing it happened, right? Now you know and we can work to have you and Reagan finally meet in person, so you can be her Caretaker. If you can." He frowned. "That sounds like it could be complex."

"To say the least. It is to be discussed with my Rulers and High Priestess later. However, as you said, knowing will allow me to find my soul mate wherever she may be, so I can at least offer her aid from a distance. I think . . . I know something I can do in interim." He brushed it aside. "That is not quite so important as something else right now."

"How to get me back to Resurrection or out to Rebirth?"

"Uhm. Well . . ." Pallas coughed. "As I said, things are very complicated for you now. It is entirely possible your appearance here is not actually an accident, and I was merely a tool utilized by Destiny. Has anyone ever told you about the roles to be filled in the Ephemeral Plane as a whole and the Immortal Fields specifically?"

"Loosely."

"Allow me to fill in the edges, then. Back at the beginning of it all, my sister of course became Librarian of the Hall of Records. I was assigned as Archon of the Immortal Fields. Over us both was the Ruler Cultivator of Protea who would be Ruler of the Ephemeral Plane as a whole. Because Claret is a Dual Cultivator, she can defend the Hall without any additional help. Too, the Hall is isolated and hard to enter to begin with. The Fields are not so lucky. I manage the day-to-day care and maintenance of the Fields while my Ruler—or Rulers as is the case currently—provide Nature power to support the Plane as a whole. The duties currently split where Evan's Nature magic is what holds shields over the Plane to prevent anyone from entering wherever they like, and Shanae's Nature power maintains the balance by filtering excess dreams and nightmares alike, and she also helps maintain the cycle of growth and death to keep our flowers and trees healthy."

"Okay, I think I knew most of that without outright being told. When LeAnn becomes High Queen, she'll have both tasks."

"Correct. And, for your own knowledge, Evan and Shanae can switch duties between them as is needed. It just falls that Shanae is, er, a little disinclined to let others deal with nightmares. For obvious reasons. Very obvious ones." Pallas laid his broom across his knees. "This is the mark of my role as Archon. We all have something that marks us. An hourglass to Claret and Racine—though the latter has the Memory Ankh as well—and I have my broom. A curious connectivity we discovered later when Liena came to be High Priestess of both Protea and the Plane alike. That role means she can step in for any of us who maintain the Plane should it be needed."

"Hmm. That explains a lot."

"More than you can imagine, and it is underscored by Tasia's presence. She is very unique." Pallas huffed out a breath. "As are you, interestingly enough. You see, while Claret or Racine can maintain and protect the Hall, I lack the ability to do something utterly critical: destroy the dreams and nightmares that are dangerous. I have managed to develop some measure of attack magic over my millions of years, and I do have some other skills, but the ability to destroy the dreams that go out of control is not within my scope."

Allister began to have a sinking feeling he knew where the conversation was going. "What have you done when it happens? Because it surely has."

"More than once," Pallas admitted tiredly. "The best I could do was try to catch and contain the released will-o-wisps. By the time Liena came to being, I was in a terror that the containment would break. She took care of erasing them for me. Only a few built up over the next five thousand years, and they were erased in the first half of the Chaos War—because of Jean. She aided me for as long as she lived. Again, some more built up that I contained and then Tasia began helping me even before she reached adulthood. But it's not supposed to be the job of the High Priestess. It is supposed to be the duty of the Knight of Fields."

"Knight."

"Indeed. My brother, Orion, tried to step into that role, meaning the Plane would be collectively supported by us children of Horatio, but the Fields rejected him as Knight."

Allister closed his eyes. "I get this sudden feeling that we are having this conversation solely because, somehow, I am supposed to be the Knight of the Fields? I guess still keeping it in the family though a little more distantly, especially depending on which family member I am claiming a connection to you and Claret through. What does the Knight do?"

"They are to guard the Fields and destroy those dreams or nightmares that gain will of their own and threaten to harm either the one who created them or the Fields as a whole. We always knew there were unusual gifts inside you, Allister. I admit, I . . . began to suspect. It became confirmed when you landed here just now and I watched the Immortal Sword bloom. Inside you is the power that can destroy a dream without destroying the person who owns it, as well as destroy anything that may wish to embed itself in our Fields. Lingering sentiments of evil mostly. Those that do not go right to the Underbelly where they belong and instead try to fester here."

"The Underbelly being where the worst of all existences are trapped and held, the place we all reference if we ever refer to a hell of any sort." He took a long breath. "I am daunted and a bit scared but at the same time a bit relieved to feel as if there are answers for things I never knew how to ask. What do I need to do?"

Pallas smiled and held up his hands. A swirl of Nature Flower Element magic welled with a tumble of leaves and then faded to reveal a lovely fae standing on his palm. She blinked a few times and then smiled at Allister. "Hello." She gave a bow. "I am Melina, the spirit of the Immortal Sword. I'm pleased to meet you, Allister." She flew over and landed on his hand as he offered it. She nodded firmly. "You are definitely our Knight!"

Allister looked at Pallas a bit helplessly. "Where do I go from here?" he asked. "I mean, great, I have a sword spirit. Now what?"

Melina flew over to his shoulder where she sat down and made herself at home. Pallas smiled as he watched her and then he grabbed his broom and stood, and gestured for Allister to stand as well. With the younger man following, they made their way through the Fields. After a bit, Pallas stopped and rapped his broom on the ground. "Rise, by command of the Archon," he ordered.

Two altars rose from within the land, and each looked different despite being made of matching marble. One had nothing on it though the other had an amber pendant strung on a chain. It could be seen where something had been held by the other; a hole implied something tall had once been housed inside. "This is where I received my broom," Pallas confirmed. "These altars are docks of sort. The pendant is yours." He smiled. "It contains the armor you will wear as the Knight. It will protect you not unlike the armor of Defenders. Fitting it go to a Caretaker.

Allister walked over to the altar and looked down at the pendant to find it shimmering a soft blend of gray and green color. He slowly reached out to it, feeling again that realization of how his life made more sense. His Present Sight—now logical because he needed to see if there was trouble in the Fields—and his Light Shadow Flower Element that meant he walked closer to internal balance than anyone except other Shadow elements. Those other unknown powers? No doubt attacking type magic as well as the ability to open a portal to the Plane from anywhere he wished—just like Shanae, Evan, LeAnn, and Tasia did. It felt a bit daunting to realize there was an answer to it all.

He carefully touched the pendant. It glowed brightly and then shimmering gray power swirled up his arm to consume his body. He could not pull his hand away until the power faded, and he promptly stumbled a step since he initially could not see anything.

"He looks more impressive than I thought he would," Melina called to Pallas.

Allister blinked rapidly, and his sight began to clear. The first thing he saw was Melina hovering in front of him. She held a mirror that was bigger than herself. The second thing he saw was his reflection, and he realized he had definitely become the Knight of the Fields. The head to toe metal armor of shimmery-gray made that plainly clear. The amber pendant had embedded itself into his breastplate. Much to his bemusement, he still wore the hat he had been wearing when he arrived. With a little huff of air, he looked to where Pallas stood smiling at him. "Great. Now what?"

 

(Immortal Fields, present day)

"Isn't he so awesome?" Melina asked Rachel from where she now rode on the Defender's head. "He's really settled well into his skills and stuff, with only a little practice. I guess he's like your entire generation in that!"

"I noticed." She smiled and decided she would enjoy having Melina around. It was as if Aldan had just gained a sister she could talk to about him. And tease him, she added mentally. She saw her husband give her a sidelong glance of warning, and she grinned. "Okay, well, now I know the what and how. Let's cover why you and Pallas have something important to do before you can come aid in the war. Pallas even mentioned it when we met him, but I don't think it dawned that both were connected. Why the alternate name as well, and not telling us anything? I could still hit you for that."

He had donned his armor again though he left the mask off this time; he did not actually need it any longer. It contrasted to Rachel needing to wear hers to even access her armor, which she had also put back on. "Well, as to the name, it was mostly because there was some concern you might not think before acting and interfere in a way that could be problematic. Can't imagine why we thought that. So I semi-disguised myself to throw you off. I am sorry, Rach. I know you were scared. As to the duty, well, remember that thing about the Knight destroying dreams or nightmares that take on wills of their own without harming the owner? Yeah. Pallas and I were set to go find you two and then just knew there was a problem, which I have been tracking non-stop since, and he himself has put up whatever defenses he can to keep the sucker from escaping the Plane."

"That makes sense. I guess maybe I'm still a little puzzled on how a dream can gain a will of its own."

"Okay, let's step back to how dreams get here at all." Melina swung her feet. "Basically, as people live, they have dreams. Both dreams that are like wishes where they want something, and literal dreams that they have when they are sleeping. Good and bad dreams alike, of both sorts, end up housed in the Fields. When you see dew on the flowers, those are the different sorts of dreams. Sleep-dreams will fall and shatter and release will-o-wisps naturally as the dream ends. Those wisps are absorbed back into the Plane, or, if there are too many, filtered through the Ruler. Likewise for nightmares. If they aren't filtered, then they slough over and become more powerful." Very softly, "Like Nemesis. The first of evil came about when nightmares could not be controlled or contained in the conflict inside Shanta Protea. If we'd had a Knight then, it might never have happened."

"I think Shana would be the first to say everything happens for a reason," Rachel told her gently. "And that someday, when we can remove all evil again, the universe will be stronger for the pain that led there."

"Spoke like a true Librarian!" Melina smiled again. "So, anyway, as I was saying. That sloughing is inevitable now and then. The wisps take on a will of their own and run rampant. The ones from good dreams aren't so terrible—mostly just terribly mischievous—but the ones from bad dreams or nightmares are really bad. Once a wisp reaches sentience, the Ruler can't do anything. It falls to the Knight to destroy the wisp. Now, here's where it gets more tricky: dreams of either sort can start to produce really bad energy if the person creating them is doing so with bad intentions. Once those wisps are released, they become terrible monsters. The Knight has to severe the dream from the owner, prevent them from dreaming again until they lose the bad intentions, and then personally destroy the dream. Or, destroy the monster-dream and then do the prevention thing."

"Which is where we are."

"Which is where we are," Aldan sighed. "Slipped by unnoticed because Pallas can't see those things, and I had only just activated, so to speak. The monster-dream thing, I have been told, is exceedingly rare because it's very rare, and perhaps ironic, that people infested by evil or made of evil can't actually dream. Rulers don't usually dream either unless sent the dreams—and neither does Tasia, I will add—but that's because they have to be an open conduit. There is a point where someone with bad intentions or thoughts loses the ability to have literal dreams. I suspect it to be some sort of safety function."

"But some can."

"And do, and then that's where my job starts."

Rachel thought about everything and then asked, "Are there repercussions for the one who made the monster-dream? Because I find it hard to believe we'd want that sort of person running around."

"Well," Melina said, "sort of? Karma usually kicks back at them proportionate to whatever terrible things they did. This one in particular has, ah, already been dealt with. Over the last thirty years across the board, Karma has become more . . . precise? And prompt? You can infer from that what you want. Basically, all that's left is to destroy the monster. Aldan already severed it and removed the ability to dream again, but the critter keeps finding new ways to hide!" she said in frustration.

"I am on the verge of contacting Tasia and getting her help," Aldan admitted only to break off as he felt a powerful chill move down his back. He stopped walking sharply. "Melina."

"On it!" She flew off Rachel's head and around them both in a quick circle. The circle slowly expanded outward and left behind a trail of glitter drifting through the air. The glitter floated to the ground and glowed as it stuck to previously invisible footprints. They looked in no way like anything resembling human, fae, or dragon tracks. "North," she said decisively.

Aldan grabbed his lasso, and Rachel grabbed her ankh. They exchanged a glance and then ran through the woods with Melina flying at their side. A sudden sense of danger inside them, for each other, told them as they got close. Both had been prepared by it, so when they burst into a clearing near a river, the blast of evil power that flew at them missed entirely as they dove out of the way.

Aldan came up firing and bolts of shimmery-gray magic flew from his palms. The barrage drove the monster back several steps and gouged out flesh. The creature stood taller than either of those confronting it and had reached almost four-feet in width. There was no describing it, no way to explain the way it looked. It was nothing but an incarnation of evil with three crystal spheres embedded in its flesh that reflected back nothing around them.

Rachel leapt to her feet and swung her ankh up to send Memory magic flying not at the monster but at her husband. Time jolted briefly and then his attack appeared in front of him again and re-fired at the monster without him having to expend more of his own magic. The monster fell but staggered up again and turned toward Rachel on a roar. It opened up a perfect shot for Aldan, and he fired off a blast that shattered a globe. The monster gave a horrific scream of fury and lunged toward the Knight. Melina darted around behind the monster and shot off a blast of her own nearly identical to Aldan's, and it shattered the second globe.

The monster whirled to go after Melina, and Rachel hastily swatted her out of the air. Claws struck her instead and sent her wheeling into a tree. Her armor weathered both blows, but she landed hard on the ground and could not immediately catch her breath. Blood trickled from under her Mask. Aldan's eyes went solidly white in his fury as the job became personal. "Meli!" he snapped.

She flew around in front of him and held her arms out to her sides. Shadowy tendrils of power climbed up her body to encase her within a gray-green seed pod. The pod broke open and the leaves fell back to become a hilt as a blade of green and gray metal emerged from the heart. The hilt fell into Aldan's hand as if made for him, and he felt no weight from the longer than average four-foot blade.

The monster backpedaled with sudden fear and whirled to run. Too late. Aldan leapt forward on the attack, and the blade pierced the monster in the top of the head before continuing all the way down through the final globe. It shattered, and the monster roared as it exploded outward in a rush of color and power.

Aldan blocked the wave with the sword and then lowered the blade and walked over to where Rachel had risen to her knees to watch. He let go of the sword as he knelt next to her, and it glowed and turned into the seed pod once more. When the pod opened this time, it left behind Melina, and the fae flew over to hover in front of Rachel's face. "You're an idiot," she scolded.

"Sorry, it's a reflex to protect someone about to be hit." Rachel smiled as Melina kissed her cheek in thanks and apology. "How was I to know you weren't just the spirit of the sword, but the sword itself?"

"True," she conceded. She tried to peer under the Mask. "How bad is it?" Rachel removed the Mask to reveal a bruise on her forehead deep enough to break skin, and Melina's nose wrinkled. "Ick! Well, I've got this one!" She held out her hands and shimmers of green-gray magic flowed from her hands into the bruise to heal it.

Rachel raked a hand through her tangled hair. "Thanks, Meli." She looked at Aldan. "So. Can you come home now? Hmm. Misnomer. Can you come with me to be my Caretaker and then we all go home together? That sounds a lot easier than trying to send you through time without me."

He started to answer when he heard a sound near them. His lasso appeared in his hand as he turned, and he shifted just enough he protected Rachel and Melina both. He saw who approached and scowled as he put the lasso away. "Whistle next time, Pallas."

"My apologies." Pallas smiled as they both stood. "Yes, what has needed to be done has been done. Aldan may once more act as a Caretaker, and I myself can act as one for Rhya, for at least this war anyway. The rest can be discussed later. Rachel, if I open a portal to the physical world in the Rebirth Era, can you show us to where you are staying?"

"Well, of course!" She shook her head as he opened the portal for all of them. The entire thing bemused her, really. It definitely seemed as if every family tree was connected to everyone else by some way or another. Weird how that worked.

 

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

Chapter 19->

The Eternal Kingdom - Chapter 17

<-Chapter 16

Arabella stared out the window of the room she and her husband shared and studied the skyline of Lux. The scene she had witnessed with children born in the Realm of the Gods revealing themselves as Caretakers to the Resurrection Cultivators of Orchid and Hyacinth seemed to underscore as a whole everything she had been thinking all along. There was no way that team of Defenders could have done evil deeds. Period.

Yes, the question still remained of what had really happened, what Armand had really done, but she already knew enough to know the False King had been the truly evil one. He had turned his son into an Other, and his vile poison continued to threaten to ruin more lives. It could well get Alloran killed; if not out of necessity by the Cultivators, but by that . . . thing he had joined.

She looked to where he slept in their bed, and her stomach churned as she saw anew the healing welt across his face. He had endured so much on her behalf. It was time she took action herself, and grabbed for the bravery to do what was needed. If she could find out everything, could confront Alloran with what he had been so afraid to see, then maybe there could be a chance to save him.

She walked over to his side and leaned down to lightly touch his lips with hers. He reached for her without waking and she stepped back out of reach. She grabbed her cloak to swath it around her shoulders and then tugged up the hood as she hurried from the room. At the least, she knew she was safe where she was going. She did not at all feel safe in the 'base' where she had been.

 

* * * * *

 

For once, the house was mostly empty. Tasia did not mind at all, since it meant the introvert half of her ambivert tendencies happily absorbed the quiet in order to recharge. Only Beth and Raine were home with her, but both had ensconced themselves in their room with snacks to watch a film theatrical on the Visuality. They only had one of the devices, and it moved from room to room based on need, though it usually stayed in the family room. Tasia had control of the family room for once and was able to easily and contentedly lose herself in her story. She was almost done with it, in fact.

Anira slept in her bra as usual and then suddenly lifted her head on a questioning squeak. Tasia stopped typing and looked down at her and then sensed a presence outside the house. Someone knocked on the door a moment later. She frowned a bit as she walked over to look out the spyhole, and a chocolate brow lifted. She opened the door and looked at the cloaked woman on her porch for a moment before stepping back to let her in. "Come in, Arabella."

Arabella did so but could not stop her nerves. She had never been in such close proximity to someone whose power could be felt in the air. The legendary sorceress whose arcanistry rivaled the Apexes for scale and scope. Knowing she was also the Lead Defender of her generation only made her more unnerved, despite the fact that they were technically related through their husbands. "I . . . that is . . ."

"Take it easy." Tasia conjured a blanket and offered it. "You're shivering and almost edging into shock. Don't make me call the doctors I know. You're not in a den of lions who will eat you for dinner. If you're here under a peace flag, then I'm willing to listen." She leaned against the hall table as Arabella removed her cloak and hung it up. "What do you need?"

She swathed the blanket around her shoulders and felt better. "Your protection." She could tell she had startled Tasia for the other woman's brows lifted in surprise. "Please."

"Protection? From what?" Tasia's eyes suddenly narrowed sharply and a sort of predatory danger lifted around her. "From Alloran?"

"Gods, no! Ran would never hurt me." She had to smile. "I suspect our mates are very alike, Your Highness. They bluster and huff and threaten to do something drastic if we're too reckless, but they would sooner die than ever hurt us. Honestly, the most dramatic thing Ran has ever done is throw me over his shoulder." She saw Tasia grin, and felt a grin rise as well. "Uh-oh. You too?"

"It was both impressive and a little sexy given the circumstances, but I was so pissed at him that I didn't acknowledge that until later." Not for the first time, she found it a damn shame she and Arabella had to be enemies. She had the feeling they could be good friends. "Drop the formalities and call me Tasia. And let's get something warm into you." She led the way into the kitchen. "I'm fairly sure that your hubby won't be happy with you being here because I suspect you're here without him knowing."

"Correct on both counts." Arabella sat at the table and watched curiously as the sorceress made both a cup of coffee and a cup of tea. "You don't drink coffee?"

"Never had a taste for it. I'm also not a stimulant junky, which I suppose is just as well since the healers have put me on a non-stimulant diet." She rolled her eyes. "I daily channel arcane forces of the universe and they're worried about my son absorbing stimulants." She put down the coffee in front of a shocked Arabella. "I suppose that was clear enough, but I'll spell it out anyway: yes, I'm pregnant. I'm due in about five months."

Arabella's stomach clenched warningly. "Oh no. If Ran had known, he would never have attacked you!"

"Hon, he technically wasn't aiming for me to begin with. He's been trying to avoid that like crazy. He hasn't been succeeding, sure, but that's mostly my fault because it's hard to avoid dragging me into the messes my friends end up in."

Arabella looked down at her hands. "Still . . . I'm sorry." She closed her eyes tightly and then opened them in surprise as she felt Tasia cover one of her hands gently. She looked up and was startled to find the other woman kneeling in front of her with a smile. She looked . . . like a goddess. Even the baby dragon visible in her shirt didn't take away from the image; in fact, it helped. "Can you forgive me?"

"There's nothing to forgive." She sat down on the chair beside Arabella. "Beth is one of my dearest friends, and she welcomed you into our group. I can do no less. Besides, we have a lot in common. Dark haired, overbearing, and overprotective husbands are just a tip of the iceberg. I also have Empathy amid my many other gifts and skills and issues." She put a slice of lime in her tea and watched it float. "I think we need to clear the air here. It has become patently obvious to me that Alloran has been thinking we were the bad guys in what happened on Aria."

Arabella nodded. "Alloran and I had left Aria just before things happened. It wasn't even a month later we got a message saying that the king and queen had died, Romalia had been declared unfit to rule, and Armand was desperately trying to find a way to Activate himself as a Ruler to save Aria. I knew that was a lie—Armand did not have a Seed—but Ran loved his father, so like so many times before, I said nothing. When we finally made it back, it was to discover Armand dead, Aria rejoicing in such a thing, and Rodi sat as the True Born King—though he was already working on Deactivating his own Seed to Activate his sister to rule in his place. We heard about the Resurrection Cultivators and the prophesized sorceress of Liena's lineage and how they had killed Armand. Alloran became so enraged. I couldn't help him. I had no control over my gifts then and I was just . . . overwhelmed. On the edge of breaking down entirely."

Tasia dropped her head into her hand. "Oh for gods' sake, Armand! As if you didn't force us to deal with enough shit, you had to set this up to fall on our plate?" She straightened her back. She had vowed to never look back at those events, but there was no choice. "Belle, Armand murdered his parents, tried to murder his sister and nephew, and stole the throne as a False King whose lack of magic and majik alike began to choke and stagnate Aria until by the time we arrived she stood on her last breath. Lest you think I'm kidding, I will also point out that Armand had planned for his ascension very carefully by finding me—the Lead Cultivator of my generation—and attempting to kill me when I was a child."

Arabella went white. "No."

"Yes. He had seen my entire team and knew we would rise to defeat him, so he tried to stop it by targeting us and freezing our Seeds, and in my case, trying to kill me. I drowned, Belle, and only Aria's intervention from a distance saved me. My lungs were shredded and sewn back together—and that's not a metaphor. He attacked all of us Resurrection Cultivators except for Rhya, Leslie, and Rachel. Roughly twenty years later, we gathered of our own will and he sensed a threat. He stole us to Aria in hopes we would die, but Aria herself had placed a stake in these events. She thawed our Seeds and helped us Activate." She took a hard breath. "It was terrible. Everything. I had to force myself to evolve into a sorceress. I had to shatter my own soul and put myself back together. Rodi and I . . . we struggled so damn hard to resist what not just Aria but also Iris and all the gods and goddess wanted. We were accidentally betrothed and then even more accidentally married. I had to throw away my pride for him. He had to find a way to see hope for us."

"I . . . I think I'm going to be sick," Arabella managed.

Tasia touched the coffee she held and turned it into tea. "Drink."

Arabella did so, and the sweet but tart taste helped ease her stomach. "I always knew," she whispered, "that Armand had the potential to do evil. I didn't know he had already done it. I only very recently saw what he had done to Alloran." Her shoulders hunched. "Spikes inside his soul. Magnets for hate. He—he became an Other."

"Which is especially painful for you because you're a witch." Tasia found a smile when Arabella looked at her quickly. "Hey, I'm the High Priestess. I know every witch on sight, even if they're unawakened. You're in full possession of your majik, so there's no way I wouldn't know. Curious you ended up on Tav—even five thousand years ago from now, witches did not really spread beyond Blossom. Probably because this is the heart of the universe." She sighed. "Damn. You know, I honestly thought he was an Other myself, but I doubted myself because he was of the lineage of Aria. I've also been doubting all along there was real evil inside him. Something seemed off somehow, but I didn't have enough information to be sure."

Arabella nodded. "Ran is a good man. Truly. He is nothing like his father. But . . . he loved his father, was blinded to Armand's true nature. Alloran is a Dark core with a Metal Flower Element; no Shadow of any sort despite being of the Arian royal family. He is so easily blind to the obvious."

"Yeah, Armand didn't have any Shadow either. Only Cultivators of Aria get that, and he had no Seed. Also had the Dark core and maybe Metal element; it was hard to tell with all the evil power he kept using. Still, that lineage is prone to being blind to the obvious. Makes keeping them safe a damn pain."

Something in the way Tasia had said that made Arabella pause. Sensing it, Tasia pulled up her left sleeve to reveal her Flower Mark as a Defender. As dominant as the iris blossoms were, the black poppies could not be hidden. Arabella stared and then whispered, "You're the Defender Cultivator of Aria." Her shoulders hunched. "Oh, Ran. This mess is so much more than you realized."

"Is he finally starting to see the truth?"

"Yes, I think so. He trusts my gift, and there is good inside him. He's just scared, Tasia. Terrified. When he . . . when he tried to attack Hyacinth and Orchid, it was in the hopes of using their Life Orbs as a barter to . . . to get us free from the thing he joined with."

"And there we are." Beth walked into the kitchen and lightly touched Arabella's shoulder in greeting. She tugged out two chairs, and she sat in one while Raine sat in the other. She hadn't sensed Arabella until Tasia had begun her story, and then she and Raine had come to stand in the doorway and listen. They hadn't wanted to remember either, but if Tasia, who had hurt the most, could do it, then by the gods so could they. "So Alloran isn't pulling all the strings."

"No. He was desperate to save me and to get revenge. He thought destroying your parents would change the future and prevent what happened to me, so he somehow joined up with some . . . creature. Evil." She fought another shiver and burrowed more into the blanket. "It gave him all of the magic he has been using, and promised to give Ran what he wanted if he got Life Orbs."

"That explains why Dad sensed something off," Raine told Beth and Tasia alike. "He's hypersensitive to fluctuations of time-space, and is all but Sensing himself. He must've been picking up that Alloran used evil magic without being evil—which is a misnomer, to be sure. Even when parts of our team were corrupted, for the time they used evil they felt evil."

Arabella's eyes closed. "Please. Don't tell me . . ."

"Yeah, another antic of your asshole father-in-law." Raine leaned over and pressed a hand to Arabella's head. "No passing out or puking on the floor in this house. Healer's rules."

Her majik eased both ailments so Arabella could breathe again. "I'm sorry. I . . ."

"Am just hypersensitive as well." Beth smiled. "Trust me, you're in good company. We won't discuss the things I and Tasia and Ryan have had to weather. We'll come back to the evil stuff a bit later. Let's divert. You mentioned Alloran needing to save you. From what? What's been going on with you? I mean, the first we saw you was when you posed as Nelly, and we at least knew of you, so it did seem odd we had not seen you yet."

Arabella nodded. "To be frank, I had been unconscious. Majikally induced healing sleep for several years."

"No wonder you're so thin!" Raine scolded. She immediately went over to the fridge. "Keep talking. I'm listening. I'm just going to feed you something filling. I thought you looked a little malnourished. Majikal sleep can shut down everything and allow a body to survive on just breathing, but the body does start showing effects after too long."

A little bemused, Arabella shook her head. "I used to be much rounder. I miss that. I don't object to getting it back. Anyway," she sighed, "the sleep came on because of a complete overload of my senses. To start, let me say I'm from Tav. Yes, I don't usually have legs. I met Alloran right after he turned twenty-five. I'm a bit older than he is, actually. This was a few months before . . . before what happened did. He came to Tav on vacation."

"Did sparks fly?" Beth asked on a grin.

"To say the least! He made such a handsome swimmer," she said wistfully. She waved it off. "My family is a relatively high ranking one on Tav, holding titles and property alike. I said a little about it to Beth when I . . . attacked her. As I said, I didn't even know there was a name for what was inside me. I just knew I could feel everyone's emotions and sense events moving." She sighed. "My family, you see, prizes a lack of emotion. They think that emotion weakens you and makes you do stupid things. Unfortunately, I could feel everything they claimed they did not have, and as a child, I didn't know to keep my mouth shut."

Tasia winced. "I've suffered bullying and abuse from my peers. Family would be worse."

"There was no escaping. My situation was not aided by my eyes." She gestured toward them. "I was born blue-eyed like the rest of my family but then one eye turned green."

Raine glanced over her shoulder. "I take it you were not . . . entirely of your family?"

"If that's a tactful way of saying that my mother and father hated each other and were also sleeping with other people and my mother got pregnant, yes. So now I'm not entirely like my siblings, and I've got weird powers, and I keep telling them they feel things they say they didn't. I also embraced my own emotions. That might have been the worst of all." She sighed. "I learned to keep my mouth shut as I got older, but the damage had been done."

A little smile tugged at Beth's lips. "And then one day a handsome prince from another world showed up."

Arabella began to smile. "How terribly romantic that sounds."

"Am I wrong?"

The smile became a grin. "No. He didn't sweep me off my feet, per se, given we had no feet, but I'm fairly sure the water-based equivalent still applies." She gave a little sigh. "I had never had anyone love me, and I couldn't read him clearly anyway—which surprised me—so I didn't really believe it when he said he wanted to be mine."

"Empaths have a tendency to not notice if their soul mate loves them," Tasia offered. "I've often thought that was a sort of gift from the Goddess that allows an empath to still have that moment of joy in realizing they are loved. It goes away after that, and an empath instead becomes acutely attuned to their mate. On the other hand, an empath also instinctively tries to hide their emotions when they aren't sure if they're returned, so if you've got two empaths falling for each other, they might take longer than most to figure it out. Beth and her betrothed had that. Hid their feelings from each other so they had no clue until both decided to just admit the truth and jump each other. Now they can't hide anything if they try."

"I read Ran clear as crystal after we were lovers," Arabella agreed. "Before that, you're not wrong! He had sought me out at first because he was curious, having heard of me, but told me outright that he thought I was fascinating and he wanted to know me better." She sighed. "Of course, he had ulterior motives. He had decided right out that we must be soul mates."

"Unusual for a Dark core," Beth mused, "but does happen." She jerked a thumb toward Raine who was making a pot of soup. "Her mother is a good example."

"Trust me, Dad doesn't complain about that."

Again, Arabella smiled at the banter, but then it faded. "My family was not happy that Alloran proposed to me. I think . . . they wanted to kill me. I don't know why. Ran took me back to Aria where I met his family. We married there, and I . . . I began to worry. About Armand. Ran knew I was uneasy though not why, so we traveled to Celia for a while. A month later . . . well. You know the rest." She took a bracing drink of the tea. "Ran definitely did not help things on Aria after the fall. I was on the verge of breaking already, as I said. We went back to Tav to regroup, and my family found us—and attacked us. To this day, I don't know why they were so afraid of me. Everything finally overwhelmed me and I just could not endure. I went into the majikally-induced sleep, and it lasted until just recently when your grief awoke me, Tasia."

"Four years," Beth repeated in horror. "Asleep for four years?!"

"She's lucky it wasn't longer," Raine pointed out. "Holy crap. Almost thirty years of empathic static and scars and no one to help you train and control? Belle, you could have well slept for a whole decade if it weren't for Tasia being a Spiritual Healer and High Priestess. It wasn't so much her grief that woke you, but the power carried in her grief." She carried over a bowl of soup and put it in front of Arabella. "Eat."

She did not argue. The spicy soup actually tasted very good, and felt more filling than she expected. Half a bowl proved enough. She pushed it away after and sighed. Tasia had been waiting patiently, but she finally leaned forward. "Belle," she asked softly, intently, "what creature did Alloran join with? We've known all along there had to be something more behind him, that something gave him that magic he used. If we're going to save Alloran, we need to know what we're facing. We need to know why we are summoners who have to restore Tananeen. If it was not important in this war, it would not have happened now. Anything you can tell me will help me put it together."

"I don't actually know much. Just that it is . . . a terrible thing. I didn't meet it. Just felt it. Something slimy and disgusting and . . . unnatural." She huddled into the blanket again. "It creates those Gensomes by—by tearing off bits of itself." She drew a long breath. "I only once heard it called by name. It was called Splice."

Though Striker and Haeth had been sitting quietly on a chair together, just listening, the sound of that name sent them both into what looked like a full panic attack. Both let out chilling cries that sounded more like screams, and their power began to rise up hotter and hotter around them. They had lost all control, and dragon magic began to shoot through the air.

"Get out of the way!" Tasia snarled. She shoved Arabella toward the family room and then grabbed Beth and Raine to shove them as well. She planted herself between the door and her dragons and spread her arms wide to form a physical barrier. "Haeth! Striker! Please hear my voice!"

Not even her Mystic voice could pierce their frenzy, and a window shattered. Wind gusted in and swept Tasia's hair into a more chaotic tangle than ever. Anira crawled out of her shirt and almost fell to the floor before her wings worked properly. She flew toward her parents but Tasia reached out and snatched her from the air. She was just in time; Haeth's flailing claw raked down her arm.

"Stay back!" she ordered when Beth and Raine started forward. They did as she commanded, and her eyes went gray. A majik circle cast around her and the three dragons, and she reached out to snatch her two eldest from the chair. She held them to her heart over their struggles and fought to tame them without breaking the circle. She dropped her Coda form to help, and the surge of her dragon power released a ripple that went through the circle only to immediately amplify into a shockwave of what felt like a blend of elements.

Time itself seemed to slow down for a moment as the wind died, though her hair continued to ripple. The circle began to go counterclockwise and took time in reverse. The broken window reset and the claw wounds disappeared. Haeth and Striker calmed and burrowed closer against their mistress, yet she did not see them. Her eyes saw nothing except the Sight that had torn through her mind.

Splice.

An immortal demon who had once been a dragon. He had been consumed by evil many millennia before and now devoured dragons as his source of power. He had become almost a god among dragons himself. Only the King of Dragons could defeat him for only Tananeen had the full, raw force of dragon power needed to erase the corrupted demon. Splice both hated and feared nothing more than Tananeen's majikally-enhanced descendants. If he had not known before that Tasia was the last and most powerful member of that lineage, he would know it now as soon as the shockwave reached him. She and her friends were the only thing between him and the utter destruction of all that lived.

She suddenly collapsed to the floor as the circle disappeared. The other three women instantly ran across the room to kneel next to her. Haeth and Striker were unconscious as well, and only Anira seemed perfectly fine by the display. She crawled across the floor to where Tasia was lying and laid down with her little body tucked against Tasia's cheek. Raine watched her and began to suspect there was more to the baby than met the eye. She was a hatchling and yet she had not fallen susceptible where an Elder had? Just what role was she playing in this drama, and why had she chosen that moment to hatch?

 

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

Chapter 18 (Adult Content)->