Chapter 8
I woke up to a cool hand rubbing along my entire body. I smile before
opening my eyes, greeted by dark silver eyes and a brief but sweet kiss.
I felt different and turned my face to the light streaming into the room.
The cool hand caressed my cheek and I turned back to Damien to smile
at him. I reached up and ran my warm fingers down the bridge of his
nose and across his lips and leaned in to kiss him again.
He inhaled deeply as I kissed him and then pulled away and got out of
bed, “I’ll start a bath for you. You are probably going to be sore.”
I nodded and moved my legs feeling for the soreness that I had always
known would accompany this feeling. As I sat up I did, in fact, feel the
pain that Damien had mentioned. I got up slowly and winced catching
my breath and holding myself up by holding the bed post. Damien
stood in the doorway watching me.
“Is it really painful?”
I shook my head and smiled reassuring him as best I could, “It isn’t how
bad the pain is, it’s that its new. I have never had this sort of pain
before, so it just takes a bit to get used to. I’ll be alright.”
I walked to him and wrapped my arms around him, concern still on his
face, “Are you sure?”
I nodded and kissed him softly, giving him small kisses across his neck. I
ran my fingers through his long, black, hair, “It’s kind of romantic,
actually. It’s like you left a scar in me that will always belong to you, no
matter what happens.”
 
He looked at me and grabbed me into a strong embrace, I rested my
head on his chest, closing my eyes and smelling the spicy scent that was
uniquely him. I felt him bury his face in the hair on the top of my head
and breathe deeply before releasing me and he stood back watching
me slip into the hot bath.
I sighed happily and looked up at Damien, seeing his eyes turn from
silver to steel. I sat up and looked at him worried, “What is the
matter?”
Damien shook his head, “Nothing you need to worry about. I need to be
gone for about an hour, think you can survive without me for that
long?”
I laughed, “I will try.”
He turned to walk out and I couldn’t help but call out for him,
“Damien?”
He turned and looked at me quizzically and I smiled shyly at him, “Um
hurry back.”
He smiled and nodded walking out quickly and leaving me to my
thoughts. I soaked in the bath for a while, thinking about Damien’s
touch and kisses on me. I felt my heart pick up and heat, that had
nothing to do with the water temperature, course through my body
and center directly where I was supposed to be sore in.
I got out of the bath after quickly scrubbing and washing my hair and
wrapped a towel around me. I made my way into the living room,
seeing my breakfast in the form of hot cereal and cream. I saw a box
next to the food and I opened it seeing a pair of silver lace panties and a
silver, lace bra. I grabbed the note annoyed and read my aunts writing.
 Put these on this instant, then go into the Princes closet and get a
button up white shirt and put it on. Have a good morning and enjoy
breakfast.
I sighed annoyed and stripped my towel off putting the panties and bra
on and walked into Damien’s closet and looked around. I saw hundreds
of button up shirts, all black and red, but not a single white one like my
aunt had wanted. I touched all of them finally settling on a thicker
velvety black one and took it off quickly putting it on and buttoning
only one button.
I sat down and ate slowly enjoying the warm cereal and quiet around
me. When I finished and walked around the room, touching the
counters and couch. I paused at the windows and looked outside. I
smiled seeing three large, blonde figures running out of the tree line.
They all stopped and looked up, smiling and waving. I laughed and
waved back, watching them disappear into the tree line.
I shook my head, “They are so weird.”
“What is so weird about them?” The velvet voice startled me.
I smiled and continued to look out of the window, “They act really
carefree, but if you ever watch them when they are just standing with
each other, they are stressed, anxious. They play suitor by making me
laugh and dancing my feet off but just now they had looked very
serious, until they saw me and then acted the suitor again.”
“And that is something you want?”
I turned and looked at Damien, he was wearing a black pair of slacks
and a tight, black, turtle neck. He had his hair down and slicked back
and his eyes had started steel grey but slowly turned silver as he looked
at me.
I shook my head, “No, they are not what I want.”
I felt his gaze roam over my body and I shivered in delight as his eyes
slowly became the color of liquid silver. I walked towards him and
stopped a few feet away from him and looked at him worried as the
liquid silver turned to steel grey once again.
“What’s the matter Damien?”
He faked a smile, “Nothing at all.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, “Liar.” I closed the distance between us and
grabbed his hand and gently pulled him to the couch and sat down with
him.
“Tell me what is going on.”
He leaned back and rested his head back, looking up at the ceiling,
“There are small conflicts breaking out all around.”
“Conflicts, why?”
He sighed and shrugged, “Honestly, most of them are your family, some
of the family, feel like the reason I let the Lycans court you is because I
am not going to choose you. They feel that I am not giving you a
chance. Others are feeling that the oath is being broken, simply by
having this ceremony.”
I sighed and looked out of the window, closing my eyes as a bit of
sunlight broke through the clouds and filled the room. I breathed
deeply, “Alright, what else then?”
” The Council is angry and they don’t think that you will be a proper
Queen.”
“What makes a proper Queen anyway? And why aren’t you getting this
advice from your parents, and not the council?”
Damien sat up and looked at me, “The council guides me because my
parents were killed, Lilly.”
I winced, “How?”
He ran a finger through one of my curls, twisting it around his finger,
“They were poisoned with silver powder, by a human they trusted.”
I stared at him open mouthed before grabbing his hand and pressing it
to my face, “I’m sorry Damien.”
I leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips then pulled away and
sat looking at him, “Well, we can’t solve the council in one day but we
can do something about my family.”
I stood up and walked to the door peeking my head out and catching a
servant walking by, “Excuse me, can you please get Lady Isadora for me,
tell her it’s urgent and to bring her phone with her.”
The servant looked at me and stuttered a reply before looking behind
my shoulder and running faster than I had ever seen before. I turned to
see a very dark looking Damien glaring after the servant, then grabbing
me possessively and pulling me back into the room.
“At least button more than one button when you go into the hall.”
I laughed and kissed Damien passionately wrapping my arms around his
neck, “And when I’m in here?”
He unbuttoned the shirt and took it off running his hands along my
body before pulling me close to him, “You should wear as little as
possible.”
I leaned my head back and watched his eyes turn from steel to silver
and I caressed his face before kissing him again. His tongue caressed my
lips and I opened them, allowing him to delve into my mouth. I
caressed his tongue with mine and gripped him harder to me,
deepening the kiss as much as possible.
I felt his hand grab my ass and lift me up, I wrapped my legs around his
waist and he pressed my back into the door. I gasped for air as he
kissed the nape of my neck and gently nicked it before kissing it again.
Heat was funneling from his kisses to the center of me and as I felt the
heat and electricity build and had a newer intense urge to have him
inside of me again.
I squeezed him with my legs kissed him for a moment longer before
breaking the kiss and kissing down his neck, “Damien…I need you.”
He groaned and reached down and unbuckled his pants dropping them
to the floor. I gasped in pleasure as I felt the hot tip of his member
press against the sopping wet, silver panties. Damien hooked a finger
through the side of my underwear and made quick work of ripping
them off.
The feeling of him at my entrance sent a whole new wave of fire
coursing through me. He inched slowly inside of me; the feeling was
uncomfortable but not painful. I could feel my walls stretching to
accommodate him and soon he was sheathed to the hilt. I moaned as
he paused simply enjoying the delicious sensation of him inside of me.
After a moment he lifted my butt and then slammed me down,
thrusting into me. I gasped and started to help as he did this. Soon my
back was again pressed against the door, but this time Damien rocked
in and out of me, causing me to moan with each thrust. I felt the heat
building and gasped in his ear, “Don’t stop…more…oh god…Damien…”
He moaned my name as I felt his member thicken and he cried out my
name as he filled me with his seed. Seeing his face in such pleasure
finally pushed me over and I cried out pulling his face to my neck, “Bite
me…please…I want to only be yours.”
Damien groaned and I felt his fangs plunge into my throat. I had no idea
what possessed me to demand him to do that but part of it was the
need to keep him. I loved him, I couldn’t deny it, and as I writhed in the
pleasure and pain he had caused me I didn’t want to ever be anyone’s
but his. I wished many times I had been a vampire, but never so much
as this moment, where our bodies where ravaging each other, trying to
express just how deep our feelings were for each other, and I wanted to
be able to sink my fangs into him, to make him mine, and mine alone.
I felt his fangs release me, and his tongue passed over the puncture
wounds, closing them up instantly. You wouldn’t be able to see a single
mark, but Damien would, he would be able to sense his mark on me,
and I looked at him lovingly, kissing him tenderly.
He stood up without putting me down, carried me into his bedroom
and lay with me on the bottom, his member still hard and still buried
inside of me. I didn’t mind and instead began to rock against him,
causing him to grin at me mischievously before taking over the
movements himself.
 
He lengthened the stroke, pulling almost entirely out before slamming
back into me. I moaned and met his thrusts, our bodies suddenly
engaged, once more, in our expression to each other. I scratched his
back as he pushed me over one crest after another, my body sweating
with the exertion, but not being able to stop. I kept, wanting more like
a drug I couldn’t get enough of. He brought me over the edge over and
over again, and I kept crying out for more.
He finally burst inside of me again, his seed coating my entire inside
with the hot feeling. I pulled him too me, gasping as my body tried to
recover from its exertion. I kissed his neck and ear, before pulling away
and looking into his beautiful silver eyes. He caressed me, and I smiled
at him touching his face.
“I love you Damien.”
A strange conflicted look came over his face before he captured my lips
and kissed me down from the dizzying heights he had taken me to. My
body twitched and I whimpered as he pulled out of me, only to have
him chuckle and run his hands along my body, the touch allowing my
body to become less and less sensitive.
I sighed and fell asleep in his arms, my body no longer able to handle
anything other than rest. I felt him kiss his mark on me and then
blankets were pulled over me and he laid beside me.
*****
I felt him move and I grabbed his arm gently, “No, please, don’t go.”
He brushed my curls out of my face and kissed my lips softly, “I won’t
be gone long, rest Lilly.”
 
I sighed and closed my eyes again, letting sleep reclaim me. I awoke not
much later to a loud yell coming from outside the closed bedroom
door.
“I don’t care, get her out!!”
I sat up and listened to the murmured voices on the other side of the
door. I got out of bed and padded silently to the door, pressing my ear
to it.
“We agreed you would seduce her and get her to fall in love with you
but there was nothing about you sleeping with her.” I recognized the
high, whiney voice.
I pulled away from the door wondering why Desmond was here, and
who she was talking about. I took a deep breath to calm the irrational
anger that was starting to build in me and I pressed my ear back to the
door.
“I haven’t really been able to do anything thanks to having to leave all
the time.”
Damien’s voice was cold and detached and I kept listening.
“I have been pretty patient, and so has my family. You said you had a
plan when you brought her here, and I trusted you when you said you
had a reason why you brought those mongrels here. And don’t get me
wrong I love the viciousness of it, Damien, I do. But then this morning
you were supposed to come to me after you were done with her, like
you had before, and you didn’t.”
“I didn’t expect her family to be so together. I was under the impression
 
that the majority of them disliked the other. That Dimitri’s side hated
Esmeralda’s side and that they never worked together. Imagine my
surprise when I bring the stupid Lycan back and BOTH sides find it
offensive.”
“So what, my family will support you when you marry me.”
I heard Damien scoff, “You family is small and powerless compared to
Lilly’s family. Not only is their size the problem, there are too many
vampire families that still see them as the true ruling royalty. If we
don’t tread carefully, we won’t survive to rule anything.”
I heard Desmond growl in what I could only put as frustration, “I cannot
believe that I went with this whole revenge plan. I’m going to be killed
because you needed to avenge your mother and father’s death on the
stupid human. I have it on good account she doesn’t even know that
her family killed yours, or that they did it because they tried to break
the betrothal contract.”
“Yes, I found that out this morning.” His voice had gotten quiet and I
barely heard what he had said.
“Yes, well, the council will not begrudge you revenge for you parents.
So be done with it, I already have Isadora locked away, so there is no
more protection for Lilly. I don’t care if you get her to love you
anymore. Break her, and then throw her to the wolves. If you don’t do
it, I will.”
I heard her stomp out and slam the door behind her. I backed up and
quickly ran into the bathroom closing the door softly behind me. I put
the shower on and jumped in, letting the hot water take away the
shaking that had started rocking through my body.
 
I touched the nape of my neck, trying to feel where Damien had sunk
his fangs into me but I couldn’t. I tried to understand what had
happened as I replayed the conversation in my mind. Desmond had
said that Damien’s parents had been killed by mine and that they had
tried to eliminate the contract between the families.
I tried to think about the law that my father had tried to stomp into my
head, but couldn’t quite remember what the punishment for breaking a
blood contract was. Maybe that was why we had left, why my family
had given up everything to move to the U.S.
It started to make more sense, as I remembered Damien saying we
were playmates until I left, why I couldn’t remember anything. That
also explained why I spent almost a month in the U. S hospital when we
had first arrived. It had been the third attempt on my life, and was the
only time that I almost did die.
I reached behind my head and ran my fingers against my scalp, feeling
the long scar along the base of my head. I could feel where the staples
had made their scars, in an attempt to keep the pieces of my skin
together. I lost all my memory of my childhood in Europe because of
that attack. I’d had to relearn to walk, eat, speak, almost everything,
and not a single person in my family would tell me about it.
I jumped when the curtains opened and Damien peeked in, a
concerned look on his face.
“Are you alright?”
I nodded, “Desmond woke me up, so instead of barging into the room
and stabbing her, I decided to cool my temper with a hot shower.”
It was as close to the truth as I could get, I was a terrible liar, my heart
would speed up and any vampire within a hundred miles could hear it
screaming, “Liar, liar.”
He stared at my face for a long time until he finally sighed, “Yes, sorry. I
promised her I would go for a ride this morning. She was less than
thrilled to have found me the way she did.”
I smiled mischievously and shrugged, “That’s her problem. But, I should
probably spend some time with MY suitors, so you could still make it up
to her.”
A look of concern flashed across Damien’s face and I stared at him
trying to decide if it were genuine or if he were an incredible actor, “I
would prefer you not to be with them alone.”
I doused my face in water for a moment, “My aunt could be with us.”
Damien straightened and stared at me for too long of a moment, and
realizing I needed for him to believe I didn’t hear what he and Desmond
had spoken about. I swallowed my fear and reached out and ran a wet
hand across his jaw, “What’s the matter?”
He grabbed my hand and squeezed it softly and shook his head, “Your
Aunt went up North to try and resolve some of the conflicts with your
family. She came by when you were sleeping and I spoke to her for a
while. She thought this was the best idea for now.”
I got out of the shower and wrapped a black towel around me. Damien
pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me. I breathed him in,
trying to reconcile the fact that I loved this creature, and that he was
trying to destroy me for something I couldn’t understand. I wrapped my
arms around his waist and continued to breathed him in.
 
“Did you hear anything Desmond said?” He had tried to make his voice
light, but I heard the edge in it.
I pulled back and looked into his dark grey eyes, “Just that she didn’t
care and she wanted me out. I heard that, realized it was her and made
for the bathroom.”
I shrugged and his face lightened a bit and he leaned down and kissed
me. His kiss was stiff and I pulled away giving him a concerned look,
“She must have really upset you.”
I sighed and broke out of his embrace and walked into the bedroom, “I
guess I should go thou. Without my Aunt it may take me hours to get
ready, and then I need to figure out how to contact my three suitors.”
I felt Damien follow behind me as I dried my body and wrapped the
towel around my hair. I put my hand on my hip and looked around, “I
have no idea what I’m going to wear out of here.”
I turned to Damien and realized he was standing in the doorway of the
bathroom staring at me, not admiring but observing me. I shivered and
walked into his closet pulling down the first shirt I saw, which happened
to be a dark red button up. I put it on and buttoned it most of the way
then sighed as I looked around for something to wear.
I turned to find Damien again in the doorway staring at me, this time
his eyes the color of steel and his face dark. I faced him and felt my
heart begin to beat faster. He took a step towards me and I stepped
back, and suddenly as he walked towards me I felt like prey being
stalked.
I kept backing up until I hit the end of his closet; he came close to me
and gently grabbed my chin, “What did you hear?”
 
I looked at him, trying to feint confusion, “I don’t know what you’re
talking about.”
“Then why are you scared of me.”
I scoffed, “If you saw your own face you would back up too. You look
like you’re going to kill me.”
My voice shook and he took a step back, his face a mixture of surprise
and what looked like sadness. I stepped towards him and grabbed his
hand, “What’s the matter Damien? What did Desmond say that upset
you so much?”
His eyes hardened and he stepped back and turned and walked out
leaving me alone in his closet. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my
heart down taking a few deep breaths before walking out into the
bedroom. Damien was sitting on the bed, his head in his hands, looking
down at the floor.
I knelt down in front of him and grabbed his hands, forcing him to lift
his head and look at me, “Please Damien, you can trust me.”
He ran a finger across his mark on me and whispered, “I know I can.”
I looked at him beseechingly with my eyes, “Then tell me.”
I looked at him, his eyes flashing silver before he leaned down and
kissed my neck. He stood up leaving me sitting back on my legs, “Stay
here, Ill have your clothes brought here. I don’t like the idea of you
being alone without your Aunt.”
 
I smiled up at him, forgetting to be afraid for a moment, “You’re letting
me move in?”
He chuckled and helped me to my feet, “I suppose that’s what it looks
like.”
I laughed and threw my arms around him, kissing him deeply, plying at
his stiff response until he finally kissed me back appropriately. We
stood there locked in our intimate embrace for a few minutes longer
until he finally broke it.
“I have to go soothe Desmond.”
I frowned at him stopping just because of her and then made a deep
sigh myself, “I guess I should go entertain my suitors.”
A frown played on his lips and I touched them, “You allowed them here,
so that we wouldn’t have war. It’s my duty to make sure they are happy
enough to keep the war from happening.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head once before
grabbing my hand, “Don’t go into the forest with them. I would prefer if
you entertained them in the front, in full view of all the windows.
Deal?”
I smiled and nodded, “Deal.”

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This is a Non Erotic tale. There will be Romance later, if the story continues, but i don’t do sex scenes.

Thank you again to all those still reading. I’d like to remind everyone that I do appreciate comments and constructive feedback as well as questions. I will do my best to answer them either in the stories themselves or as some may have noted I do reply in the comments section. I also answer PMs sent to me by members registered to the site. I hope you continue to enjoy the series as I add more to it. Keep reading, and if you are also a writer, let me know about your stories, I read more often then I write.
The worst part about waking inside of a vision is how disconcerting it is. You know that your mind is aware, but aren’t sure if your body is there or safely in bed where you went to sleep at. In addition to that normal issue is that I have already found that these particular visions have a disturbing habit of bearing consequences in my reality. Not just for the possible future, but painful and immediate to me. I had come out both of the previous visions injured in some form or another.
I had realized that they weren’t really what one would call a vision as I had gotten glimpses of the future through the use of Time Magicks in the past. What I experienced in these instances was closer in reality to a seeking than a vision. However similar to a seeking as they were, it still wasn’t the same thing. What concerned me than anything is that if were killed during these occurrences was I may actually die instead of waking in my own bed. It seems to me that my enemy was trying to kill me here in the future they intend to bring about before I could stop them for bringing their plans to fruition in the past. My best guess is that while the enemy in this time knows who I am, the version that exists in my time space doesn’t. There are too many theories involving time travel, both scientific and Magickal that make me think my nemesis is unable to warn his past self about me without causing some form of paradox event. This is all just guesswork on my part because while I am adept at Time Magick and gaining understanding and control of it steadily; there is still much that I am unsure off. I started learning everything I could about time theory because after traveling back in time and causing my own Awakening to happen as it did in the past I had thought of the “Grandfather Paradox.” The grandfather paradox is a time travel theory that suggests that altering an individual timeline is impossible and creates the argument for parallel timelines or branching universe theory among others. The basic idea is this:
An individual creates a time machine of some sort. Another person takes the time machine and travels back in time to kill the inventor’s grandfather before his father was born. Since the grandfather died before having any children the inventor was never born so how the time machine could have been taken to the past when the man who invented never existed to do so?
I know that things beyond scientific explanation exist, not the least of which is that there are other dimensions and planes that most have not and will never see. My trip to the past was not through temporal sciences or Time Magicks. My theory about how it happened and why I didn’t create a Grandfather Paradox has to do with the nature of how I ended up in the past as well as the fact that I ensured that everything happened as it did the first time. I didn’t travel through time as space to the past so much as went from the linear time frame in which I was living into an timeless existence of sentient energy within the space between spaces. Every plane has rules to how things work, not all of them are even remotely like our own. Todash Space on the other hand doesn’t have any of those rules so when I made my escape by using my perception of reality I was spit back out as my subconscious mind and Avatar had to have known what needed to happen the night of my Awakening. Avatars have access to more knowledge and power than they automatically share with the mage they Awaken. The reasons for performing a seeking is to allow both the Mage and their Avatar to bind even closer, share more knowledge and for both of them to gain more power than before. When a Mage dies the Avatar is freed to search out a new potential with all of the power and knowledge they gained intact. What happens when a being ascends has been debated. The theory I lean towards is that they become in a sense a god. They leave this plane and create a new reality with their own belief paradigm shaped by their perceptions of reality. This would explain why each plane, dimension and timeline had its own rules and why travel between such planes while difficult was possible.
So here I was standing on the outskirts of the ruins of Las Vegas in the future again. The property damage this time around seemed worse with most of the larger hotels and casino’s leveled. There seemed to be more damage to the surrounding areas as well with entire neighborhood being nothing more than scorched earth. It was daylight this time and I could see a crater were Nellis air force base used to be. There towering condo building all over town just piles of rubble in the desert. The Stratosphere tower stood tall above the ruins in perfect condition. I focused on the ground around the tower using Magick to enhance my vision. Surrounding the tower was an army of creatures ranging from Werewolves, Zombies and a few horrors that shouldn’t exist in reality. I decided to stay away from the tower for now. I mentally reached into the connection with my Avatar to find Sindee in this time stream but couldn’t sense the connection, just a gaping psychic wound and a strange resonance echoing in the power I tapped.
I reached out with sensory magick across the valley to analyze the changes since my last visit here. This potential future was worse than the last as I sensed very little life or magick in the valley. The only supernatural beings that I could get any kind of read on were surrounding the tower. I spread my awareness up toward the top of the tower to find a level or power and a palpable sense of evil sitting inside. The moment when sensed the touch of this being I felt a probe tracing back towards me. I cut of the flow of Magick to my senses and shielding myself, wrapping myself mentally with a wall of air spinning and deflecting anything searching for me away. There are many ways to shield your mind, different ways of envisioning the mental barriers and reasons for using the different types. Shielding with walls of stone or brick work well for combat and can be used to hold up against assaults on the mind. These are less useful for when trying to go undetected because they are a solid beacon that something is there to be assaulted. Some people use fire and water or whatever material works best for them or the situation. I can and have learned to use many different shields but prefer air most of the time. Air is all but invisible while being one of nature’s deadliest forces, capable of driving straw through a steel sign in a hurricane. In the situation here I used it deflect around me anything sent my way, guiding gently away from me so that I was no more than a breeze across the land.
Once shielded I started to move across the land quickly, traveling out of the area where I had used the magick in the event someone came to investigate the occurrence. Every being’s magic left some kind of signature detectable and unique to the caster and if you understand had it work you could identify what and who that person was. There are also techniques for leaving as little of the signature as possible. Sensory magick almost never leaves a trace, but you need to be careful of the amount of power put into it. I traveled over land instead of following the streets in the open, moving from standing building to rubble watching for anyone or thing around me. I was moving across the valley toward the Existence carefully. My goal was to get a read on what was happened or was happening to cause this particular branch of the timeline to come into play. The sun was setting as I started getting close to the club. I started to move more swiftly as there was less rubble in the industrial areas of the city. About a half mile from the club my night got a lot worse as I sensed several supernatural being tracking me. I had made it about three more blocks before the shit hit the fan. Halfway across a street covered in rubble and remains I stopped, surrounded by a group of vampires. There were eight of them and that was more than I could fight hand to hand even with all of my physical abilities enhanced to their limits. They seemed feral, clothing hanging from their bodies in tatters. Most seemed emaciated, as though starving for lack of prey in the valley. My only chance for survival was to destroy them in a way could kill me from the backlash. One thing from the books that humanity got right was that vampires are very flammable. I decided that I would rather possibly die fighting rather than die as food.
I tapped into my magick, feeling that strange resonance again as I pulled the power to me shaping the spell. The spell or rote I intended is referred to as friction curse by many of the mages that I have met and worked with. What it does is convert the kinetic energy of a target into fire. In this instance the amount of energy I pulled and the focus I had for the casting would immolate all of my attackers. This particular action was one of the most vulgar uses of magick and in no way would be coincidental meaning the backlash would be brutal and have a chance off killing me or putting me into a quiet where I’d be unable to stop what was coming. While those possibilities were not something I welcomed, certain death would leave me in possible worse position. As usual I was going to put my life on the line to protect everyone I could. I just wish that more people would act to protect the world instead of trying to force their desires upon it.
Once I had the rote ready to go and the power drawn to me, I used just a touch of Life Magick to open a wound letting the smell of blood into the air for these feral beasts. The moment they moved to attack I cast the friction curse on all of them. All eight were ash before they made it halfway to me. The additional speed that vampires have creates more friction thus creating a hotter, deadlier inferno around their bodies. I braced myself and accepted the backlash mentally in order to reduce the damage to my body. I must have stood there for about the longest thirty seconds of my entire life. It was about that point that I realized that there was no backlash coming for breaking reality. That told me that the Ascension war had spilled out into the view of humanity causing a paradigm shift. People believed in magick and the supernatural bringing things into reality that had no business being there. I turned and ran for the Existence full out.
When I arrived there and saw not the fortification against this future, but a burnt out ruin I knew part of what had brought this timeline into play. I dropped all pretense of stealth and used Correspondence Magick to “step” from in front of the club to my home. Upon arriving there to see the house gone was sickening to me. I keep fighting to protect humanity from the future only to find things worse each time I had one of these visions. I walked around the property, searching for any sign to tell me what happened here. The structure of the house was gone, the wall of the basement and the area around the node crumbled. There was no gateway there this time; unfortunately I could sense no power from a node any longer either. The magick that had created the node had either faded or been intentionally destroyed, possibly that is what destroyed the house.
I continued to search the property, moving around and back towards the mountains at the edge of the valley behind it. That is where I found the tombstones on a patch of bare earth. I didn’t want to look at the names engraved upon them even though I needed to know who was there. There were four markers side by side along the mountains edge. The first name I read broke my heart, Jacqueline Dupree. It said that she had died March first 2013. As I continued on to the next stone that break in my heart shattered it to pieces, Arthur Masters. That explained the condition of the Existence, at least in part. The odd thing was the date recorded for his death was the same as Jaq’s. The third stone took those shattered pieces of my heart and ground them into dust and ash in my throat as the name listed was my own. I had to find out what happened to stop this from happening. Even if it cost me my life I would change what was coming to save this city and more importantly my friends. Arthur was needed to protect the world and had more power at his disposal to do so than I would ever attain. It seems as though I had died on the same day as Jaq and Arthur as well. With my name read I wanted to fight my instincts to look at the final tombstone, I didn’t want to see the name I was dreading would be there. I also knew that if there was going to be any way for me to change this possibility, I needed all of the information I could get. I read the last tombstone, checking the date first. As it was the same March first as the other three I moved my eyes up to read the name: Sindee Graves.
Forget heart break, forget pain; there aren’t words in any language to describe what I felt at that moment. I left out a sound that was raw emotion, part scream, part howl and all despair. Despair is more dangerous than any enemy that could attack you from without. It was also worse than any other emotion. Pain, both physical and mental can hurt and can tear you up inside. Despair is worse because it makes you numb, makes you not care about anyone or anything. It can paralyze you and eat away at your soul. Despair can destroy the mind in ways that the worst physical pain can’t. Despair is a wound and a poison to the soul. I wanted to just curl up there and disappear because without Sindee there was nothing for me to fight for. Seeing her name on that tombstone had not broken my heart, it cut my heart right from my chest and took my soul with it.
I simply laid there on the sand and rock as the moon shined its light down upon my body. I wanted to fight this feeling, but couldn’t find the will to do it. I’d lost too many people in my life and now I lost the one who made my life whole again after everything that had happened. As the sun began to rise again over the eastern mountains I saw someone walking toward me. I figured it was death coming to collect the living dead from this time, and I welcomed it. As the figured moved closer I could tell it was a woman. That was the last thing I realized before the darkness of despair pulled me into the oblivion of the unconscious.
When I woke again, I had hoped to be in my bed at home. I didn’t expect it for as far as reality was concerned I was dead and shouldn’t exist. I really didn’t expect to wake up again. I was lying in a bed it a large room. There was a small lamp beside the bed that game me a little light, but anything outside of 10 feet was shrouded in darkness. I still felt hollow inside even more so because once I woke I instantly reached for the connection to Sindee and felt her absence again. It took every bit of will I had to force myself to sit up. I knew if there was any chance of changing what I had seen, I needed to find out more before I was forced back to the past again.
Once I managed to sit up the woman I’d seen stepped out of the darkness around me. She was tall, a little more than six feet with a slender athletic build and long limbs. She was stunningly beautiful. Her face was a slightly elongated over with sharp cheekbones and chin. Her mouth was just the right size fitting the rest of her features perfectly. The lips were the pale pink color of sunset’s light appearing soft and fill. Her nose was sharply angled down with the slightest up tilt at the end. Her eyes were Dichromatic with the left a bright blue like a cloudless spring day with flecks of gold; the right was heavily gray the shade of approaching storm clouds with slashes of silver. Her long hair hung down her back falling to her knees. It was pure white with streaks of clack and all shades of gray throughout. Her skin was a pale creamy white like falling snow with an inner glow like lightning. She wore a long pale blue sun dress that hugged her form from shoulder to waist before flaring out into a flowing skirt. As she closed with me the scent of a spring rainstorm wafted ahead of her. I had never seen or met anyone like her before and had no idea what she was. Through my awareness of the supernatural I knew she was not human, but I couldn’t classify what she was.
She stepped up to the bedside in front of where I sat, “You were able to get and a move on your own, that is good.” Her voice was gentle like a breeze through the trees. She turned away for a moment then turned back to me holding a glass of water, “You need to drink this and then eat before we talk. There is much to discuss and only a short time for us to do so.”
My throat was raw as though sandpaper had been used to scrape away the skin from the inside. I was either severely dehydrated or it was raw for the screams and wails I let out before I lost consciousness. I opened my mouth and started to speak, “Who a…..”
I had barely gotten the first word out what the glass was pressed to my mouth tilted so that the water slowly flowed into my abused throat. “Drink this now and eat what I bring, then we will talk. If you do that we will save a lot of time arguing and have more time to talk. Don’t let stubborn pride or horrid pain get in the way of learning what you need to here,” Her tone was still gentle but had the undercurrents of thunder to it dispelling any arguments I could have made.
While I drank the water quickly, I didn’t just drain the glass instantly as that would have done nothing good for my throat or my stomach. As I was drinking she returned with a small tray table and some food. The food was a thin stew, hearty with a lot of liquid and a hot loaf of fresh bread and some fresh fruit and cheese. There wasn’t a lot, but I was still unable to finish it all because of the empty feeling inside me had nothing to do with hunger or thirst. While I was eating she brought a small chair into the pool of light and sat down across from me.
“I’ll tell you a few things before you start asking questions so that we can hurry things along and get you any information you may be able to use before you return to your time. My name is Skye and while you have no idea who I am yet, I am quite familiar with you Andrew. I have watched you for a long time and from your perspective we will meet for the first time very soon. What you have been experiencing with the trips to the future I call a Dream Quest. What happens to you in these will always affect your body when you return for it is as real here and now as it is then and there. In three weeks from where you are an event will cause this particular timeline to be the most likely outcome for the prime material planes timeline. While all possible futures do occur in alternate time streams and realities, the original reality from which all other stems is in danger. That original reality is what many call the Prime Material Plane, the core of all realities. You must ensure that not only this event is stopped. Arthur Masters and Jacqueline Dupree must survive, and I would greatly prefer it if you and Sindee did as well for eventually my reality is dependent upon the four of you doing what is needed. I can’t tell you anymore about that, and even if I did you will not remember most of this conversation. You will remember that there is event ahead and anything else related to stopping and surviving the dangers it presents.” She fell silent and looked at me expectantly.
The first thought that crossed my mind since she already named herself come out of its own accord, “What are you Skye?”
“Though you will not remember any of this, I will give you the simplest answer. I am an Aspect and I will explain nothing else of them until we meet in your future since you will remember nothing of me once you return to your own time.”
I hate cryptic, but since Sindee’s life was on the line in my near future I would accept it for now, “What can you tell me about this event?”
“I can tell you that the being who will cause it was once as human as you are and now is even more dangerous an enemy that the Nephandi you have been fighting.” He face took on a sad countenance before she continued, “The Nephandi has a long reaching goal and desire for power that can be disrupted and stopped if you ever are able to discover their identity. The being you will face has nothing but a desire for chaos and destruction, a rage brought about by pain and vengeance. This enemy will not be alone and will stop at nothing to bring about the ends it is driving for. I do not know what those ends are, only that if you are unable to stop this attack, the future you see here will be the end of all realities.”
“Do you where this event was centered?” I asked.
“I can’t say for certain as I was unable to see the event itself. However, it appears that it happened at Arthur’s Existence or your home; quite possibly at both locations.” Her answered while informative was not exactly useful.
“Can you tell me was there a Resonance, a magick signature or sorts, left behind by the being that caused this?” I asked quickly.
“I am not familiar with this idea, what do you mean?” Skye tilted her head to the side a little, her features scrunching up in a look of confusion and inquisitiveness.
“Every being that I’ve met thus far that uses any kind of magic leaves a kind of signature. The mind and personality of the caster imprints a resonance that is detectable by those who know of them and can be used to identify not just the kind of magic used but also the identity of the caster.” I took a breath before continuing, “This Resonance as it is called is the supernatural equivalent of a fingerprint for mortals.”
“I have never heard of this technique, how did you learn of it?” She asked.
“I never learned of it formally, I came out of a seeking with the knowledge. I have not trained anyone about it as I thought it was common knowledge that all magic user would eventually discover.” Knowing that was not the case now I started to put together a plant to stop this event, “Skye, I need to get to the Existence and my home before this Dream Quest ends.” I stood up to move and the blankets fell from my lap. That’s when I realized I wasn’t wearing anything and had some healing cuts along my legs, arms, chest and sides. I flushed red standing before this woman swinging in the breeze so to speak and sat back down, yanking the blanket back up to cover myself, “What happened to my clothes?”
She quietly answered, “They hung it tatters from you. You had looked as though you were mauled by some creature before I was the damage to your hands and fingers. I believe in your loss, you were trying to physically join them now and tore and claw at your own body. I treated your wounds as best I could within the limits of you powers in this current plane. You have been unconscious here in this timeline for two days before awakening. I have clothing for you to wear, and we must hurry. I’ve been doing my best to keep you hear as long as possible to aid, but my powers are quite limited. It is your own Magick that has been bringing you these visions or Dream Quests.” She stepped out of the light and quickly returned with clothing for me.
I dressed quickly in faded, torn jeans and a comfortable t-shirt. As soon as I was ready I turned to Skye, “Are you able to travel distance quickly or do I need to take you with me?”
“I am able to travel quite quickly, but I can’t take anyone with me here in this current reality,” She answered.
“I’m going to step to the Existence and find out what I can, after that I will move to my home to do the same. How fast can you travel?”
“I can get from here to the existence in seconds, the other trip would take a few minutes because of how far out your home is,” was how she replied.
“Then allow me,” was all I said before stepping to her side, taking her arm gently by the elbow and using the same rote I used before to travel the interspacing distance instantly. I couldn’t use these spells in my own time without a serious backlash yet. In time I will perfect the shunting technique Arthur showed us in the mountains but until I do, I won’t risk death by throwing the most vulgar magick around like it was nothing. Upon touching her arm, the energy flow through me felt like a current running though my nerves.
She giggled as we came out the other side of the spell and staggered. The amazing eyes of hers glazed as though she had a nice alcohol buzz. “That was amazing,” she practically sang as she regained her balance using a wall near where we came out at.
I immediately set to work but heading into the middle of where the Existence used to stand in this reality and knelt in the rubble. I focused first on my natural awareness of all thing supernatural and then tapped into all nine spheres of sensory magick to look for this mysterious beings signature. I quickly found and mentally filtered out Arthur and his staff’s signatures as well as the protection from the original building that still remained. After that I filtered any low level signatures that would interfere with my search. As I steadily worked away all traces that had nothing to do with the destruction of the place I was left with something that made little sense to me at that moment. There were traces of True Magick mixed with hedge wizardry and some form of blood magic, possibly vampiric in nature. The problem was none of the signatures were complete enough to completely identify fully, let alone tell me who or what the casters were.
After deciding there was nothing more for me to discover here I decided to quickly move to my house to search there. I ran back to Skye still leaning on the wall and asked, “Ready to move on?”
“I think so, still a little dizzy from that last time. Not sure why though.”
I took her arm once again, watching her eyes as I did so this time. As I felt the current running through my body the gold and silver highlights in her eyes seemed to glow brightly even as they glassed over again. We stepped through the distance instantly as before coming out right where the node had been created. Skye was again staggered, even more so that the first time. “That was amazing, I have never felt anything like that before,” she sang again in an even higher pitch that before. Her words slurred a little and her eyes continued to glow through their glassy appearance.
“Skye, have you ever been on contact with a Mage using their magick before?” I asked as an idea struck me.
“No, you are the only Mage that exis… I mean the only Mage I have ever known.” She replied in the sing-song voice of hers.
I caught that she changed what she was saying and had an idea as to how that would end. If all planes had collapsed into the Prime Material Plane, there was no longer a way to connect Mages and their Avatars. My being in two time streams at once is the only reason I could continue to tap into the magick I use. “I think your physiology doesn’t mesh well with my magick, you’re in a state that can be described as power drunk or high.”
She giggle sounding like a young girl instead of the woman she appeared as she replied, “It feels so wonderful though, I have never experienced anything like it.” She continued to dance around in the area.
I knelt down again, spreading my sense both normal and magick to repeat the process I used at the Existence. It was quicker and faster to do the filtering of powers here as I had known all the supernatural that used powers here regularly. What took more time and complicated things was the residual resonance of the node and how it was a knot in all realities. As I completed the task I came to the same sense of wrongness as the club. The signatures were of the same type but incomplete. I sat there thinking for a few minutes before I was struck with why there were only partial signatures at each location.
I tapped into the Magick and pulled energy to me a quickly as possible. Gathering a scrap of power I could for what I was about to do. In my time a spell this Vulgar would destroy me either from a physical backlash or Quiet so intense that with the despair and emotional pain I was in would most likely keep me from ever again leaving with my mind intact. Fortunately, here I had no such worry. I focused on Matter, Correspondence and Prime magicks in order to Co-locate the Existence and my home. Co-locating in the act of taking two separate places and making them exist together and separate at the same time. I knew the drain that this spell would have on my energy reserves and knew I had minutes if not seconds to figure out what I needed to. I pulled from my memory the partial signature I felt at the existence and sought it out, then did the same again for my home. I took the two portions and brought them together searing it into my memory using both my will and Mind Magick. I was fighting with using so much magick at once when Skye rushed up to me and placed her hands on my shoulders. I again felt the current of energy running though my system. The spells came under my control as this energy entered me. I was able to focus and fix the signature in my mind. My skin started to crawl and burn with power I was containing. I felt the skin tear open over my ribs, the scent of blood flowing to my nostrils as my clothing began to stick to my body. The pain and sensation stopped as I passed out.
I awoke from the pain and shouted one word before passing out again, “Lich.”
Sometime later I woke in my own bed. While I was no longer bleeding, the pain of my wounds was still fresh. Sitting beside with her face creased in worry was the woman who makes my life worth living; the single most beautiful woman who ever existed, my wife Sindee. Seeing my eyes open she immediately stood up and stepped right next to me. She reached down and grabbed my wrist, checking my pulse. After that she leaned down, kissed me with a tender passion that still brought aches and pain across my body. “I’m glad that you have finally wakened up. You have been practically comatose since we laid down last night. It’s now just after nice pm.”
“I….” I didn’t know what to say as the pain of finding her tombstone was fresh and now having her back was overwhelming my ability to think. As I tried to speak a fresh wave a physical pain washed over me. I felt as though someone had run me through a meat grinder before tossing me on the barbeque to cook. I flesh was tight in some places and loose, even torn open in others. When I breathed I could feel the pull of stitches or stapled from both sides over the ribs. I groaned and writhed on the bed bringing new waves of pain before I could force my body to remain still.
Sindee leaned back over me, placing her hands upon my forehead. I felt the pulse of Magick from her as the pain lessened, “I have been unable to heal the injuries Andrew. I was able to increase the rate at which your own body will heal the damage, but I can’t directly affect the wounds with Magick for some reason,” she explained as tears ran down her cheeks.
I forced myself past the emotion keeping me from speaking, “I understand.” I reached up through the pain, careful of ribs, to caress her cheek and wipe away the tears there. “The injuries are Magick in nature and therefore require a level of Magick that I don’t know and you haven’t had to try yet.” I stopped speaking for a few minutes to catch my breath before continuing to speak with her, “Call Arthur and Jaq please, have them come over as soon as possible.”
“Right away, they asked me to do so anyway after I told them about the first time you woke up.” She looked down at me with concern written on her features, “You screamed in pain and then yelled a single word before you passed out again from pain and blood loss. You screamed the word lich. I’ve never heard it before from you or anything I’ve read, here or at Arthur’s. Who or What is a Lich?”
“I’d prefer to explain it once, but I will tell you know if you want to know”
“Let me know what a Lich is and I’ll save any further questions for when Arthur and Jaq get here,” she stated. I couldn’t really argue and didn’t actually want to anyway. I was just happy to be back here with her.
“A Lich is one of the most dangerous types of supernatural that theoretically exist. Though has been deemed possible, no one that I know of has ever seen one, or seen one and lived to tell about it. They are a hybrid of sorts. A Mage that created and used a complex ritual that allowed them to turn themselves into a Vampire while still maintaining their Avatars is what a Lich is in theory. I’m not sure what that would do to the creatures mind and an Avatar typically required a living breathing body in order to maintain its connection. So the ritual and spells that create this thing also twist the magick that creates the bond between Avatar and Mage. What than does to either of them, I can’t imagine. Hopefully Arthur will have some knowledge of Lich or we’ll be flying blind on this one. I’ll explain the rest of the vision and the injuries, at least as much as I can remember once they get here.”
While we waited for our guests, Sindee brought me some soup and forced me to eat it, “The food will help give your body the energy needed to heal. You could also use it if you’re going to try and stay awake to talk.” She checked my pulse again after I ate and cleaned the wounds with a warm sponge and cleanser.
I looked up at her as she worked on the chest and neck area, “I am the luckiest man in the world in that you’re my wife. I’m married to an incredible doctor, an accomplished mage, and beautiful woman and most importantly, someone who loves me as much as I love her.”
She smiled, “I bet you say that to any woman who gives you a sponge bath.” She laughed as she said it making me feel better seeing some of the stress over my injuries leave her features. If she can make jokes my situation must be improving.
A few minutes later she had me clean, dry and in a pair of loose sweat shorts and a robe. She got me out of the bed and assisted me in walking to the living room so I could put me feet up and rest while I explained everything I remembered from my vision to Arthur, Jaq and her. “Thank you for helping me.” Sindee simply nodded her acceptance.
Jaq and Arthur arrived a few minutes later when I heard the roar of his engine and screech of the brakes when they pulled in. They came up to the door and before they knocked I called out, “Just come on in you two.”
As the door opened Jaq had a huge smile on her face and Arthur looked as pale as a ghost. His visage struck me with something I couldn’t bring to mind. After a moment, I shook it off as I don’t forget anything as I have a perfect memory since my Awakening. Looking at the color, or lack thereof, in Arthur’s features, “Jaq did you have to scare the courage out of Arthur with your driving?”
She laughed, “It’s not my fault. I still find it amazing that he stands up to and fights Vampires, Werewolves and other supernatural beings trying to kill him on a regular basis but can’t hold himself together when I drive.”
I smiled back, “I think it’s less his being afraid of your driving as he can ensure you both survive an accident. The same cannot however be said for the car and that is his baby.”
Jaq laughed and looked over her shoulder at him, “That’s not what you were saying last night.” She looked back at me, winked and laughed.
Arthur chuckled as well, “That’s true my list of priorities has changed since we met, but that car does hold some sentimental value. After all it was that care where we first started talking as we drove to the Existence the night we met.”
She smiled and looked very pleased, “You know smooth talk like that might convince me that you aren’t just trying to seduce me.”
Arthur’s reply was artful, “To seduce my way into your heart is the only thing that I wish as you have already taken possession of mine.” He stared straight into her eyes, looking through them into her soul and showing his own.
Jaq just stood staring back in silence, unable to speak past the lump in her throat. She stepped up to Arthur, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close pressing the curves over her body against his leaving no space between them. Again I was filled with joy at the fact that they met.
Sindee stood over my shoulder behind the chair I was stretched out on watching the scene unfold. She tilted my head back, leaned down over me so that she could kiss me. After a few minutes all four of us came up for air. I looked over to Arthur and Jaq, “As much as I would prefer for this to be purely a social call, we have much to discuss about the near future.”
Jaw and Arthur sat down on the love seat, sitting practically on top of each other even though they had plenty of room to spare. Sindee curled up on the couch close to me, but not against as we would normally prefer due to my injuries. Arthur spoke up, “Tell us what happened and why you screamed Lich when you came out of your vision.”
I took a deep breath and immediately regretted it for the flash of pain I brought. “After laying down tonight I went into another of my visions of the future. I have come to understand that they aren’t visions so much as co-locating time streams. I figured that part out because when I went forward this time all possible worlds had collapsed into the Prime Material Plane. There were no more branches or parallel worlds.” I took a few shallow breaths before continuing. Something about how I had learned all this was nagging me as I couldn’t quite remember. As I tried to the concern about it faded from my mind and I moved on, “Once I arrived there I sensed almost no human life at all. The city was in complete ruins with only the Stratosphere standing above it all in pristine condition. I enhanced my eyesight and pushed my sensed out to the tower. Surrounding it were scores of different supernatural creatures that shouldn’t have existed on this place because of disbelief. With my sense I detected and powerful evil sitting enthroned in the tower. I headed for the Existence to see if it still stood as a bastion against the evil of the world. It had been turned into charred rubble and scorched earth.”
I took my time telling the story as it was painful to remember and relate as well as taxing what energy I had, “Right before I got to the club’s location I was surrounded by feral, emaciated vampires and used friction curse to kill them. I was waiting for the backlash from such a vulgar use of magick and nothing happened. Somehow I don’t believe there are any mages left in that future with the collapse of Planes and dimensions into one. I used Correspondence to step from the Club to my home. There was nothing left of the houses structure. The basement was a crater and the node was gone. As nodes are a twist in the fabric of reality, my guess is that all nodes were destroyed in the collapse as well.”
“I continued to explore the property looking for any sign of what had caused all of this when I came across something that crushed my heart with pain and despair, making it impossible for me to function for a time. I found four graves at the back edge of our property here, just against the mountains.” I took a deep breath, ignoring the physical pain as it was nothing compared to emotions passing through me, “the Graves were ours.” I stopped there for the time being unable to continue and to give them time to absorb the shock of my revelation.
Sindee paled and looked at me with love. I could feel through our bond that while she was shocked and concerned, she was sending reassurance to me that we were alive and she held faith in my ability to change what I had seen as I had done before. Despite the pain I was in, I reached over and drew her gently against my side under my left arm. She reached over up and wrapped her left hand in mine, bringing our wedding bands together which always seemed to fill us with comfort.
Across from us on the love seat, Arthur and Jaq pressed closer together. They held to each other providing support to each other. I hoped once again that they would one day share the bond through magick that Sindee and I did. Jaq was the first to break the silence before I was able to continue, “You said near future, so I need to ask; When?”
I continued the story with my reply, “The first of March, about three week from now. There’s more and I’m going to explain it. It will just take time because neither Sindee nor I can heal the wounds I suffered.” Before anyone could interrupt with questions I held up my hand to forestall comments and continued the explanation, “The wounds are part of it all so we’ll discuss them at the end. I was out of it for a few day from despair and the trauma of my mind wrapping around the fact that not only was I dead, but that I had failed to protect any of you; I felt it was my failure that cost Sindee her life and I was unable to function or even think through the guilt for some time. Once I had recovered enough to continue searching for answers I went back to the club and the house to search for a Resonance Signature in order to figure out who or what caused the destruction wrought at both location.”
Jaq and Sindee both looked at me like I said something strange and even Arthur looked intrigued and curious. Jaq and Sindee both asked at the same time, “What’s a Resonance Signature?!?!” While I got that in stereo Arthur quirked up an eyebrow in a questioning manner.
“It’s my name for something I knowledge I gained after my last seeking. I came to realize that any use of supernatural power leaves a mark or stain on reality as it alters things. These marks are unique in my experience not only to the power but to the wielder of that power as well. All four of us are Mages, or at least three of us and the fourth something different and more powerful but started off as a Mage. When we use a rote or even case a spell or ritual that we infuse with magick the signatures are different from one of us to the next. There are partial similarities that identify the power used as mage magick of the spheres use, but the parts that are uniquely formed from out mind and intent in the casting differentiates the signatures. It is like the resonance frequency of jewels and crystals that scientists use to identify some things that they can’t see. That’s why I call it a Resonance Signature.”
Arthur looked thoughtful for a moment before replying, “I know what you’re talking about know. I never gave it a name or thought much about it, but have seen and used the knowledge in the past. I’ve not met any other people in my travels or at the Existence that know anything about what you just described. I’d suggest keeping it between the four of us for the time being. It may be something that people are meant to discover on their own as they learn to harness and use magick.”
“Okay, I’ll agree with that. However Arthur, we should both make sure that Sindee and Jaq are taught how to see and recognize these signatures as soon as possible.” He nodded his agreement as did both Sindee and Jaq so I continued, “What I found at each location was not a complete signature. Each signature was only partial; however there was some overlap as well. When I realized this I came to an idea of what had happened. I decided to attempt one more major act of vulgar magick to aid in solving this mystery in order to help us all survive what is coming. Using the idea that our enemy co-located the properties as part of whatever magick they were using I chose to do the same to read the Resonance of the Magicks. It took more energy that I had ever pulled through me before and I came close to losing control. As I was about to fail I got a sudden influx of power and control that felt as though someone was running electricity through my nervous system. It allowed me to latch onto the resonance even as it caused the massive trauma to my body. What I found in the resonance was something theorized but up until now I figured to be impossible. The magic traces indicated that the powers in use consisted of True Magick, Vampiric Power and some form of Blood Magic. What shocked me was while there were those two or three types of power in use, the signature portions all pointed to one caster. Not as though a group worked together with one person controlling the intent of the spell as all of the peoples signatures would have been in the resonance in some way, but just one being accessing forms of power that are supposed to be impossible to find in anyone being. The Resonance Signature could only be that of a Lich. A Vampire Mage.” At that statement everyone fell into silence. The mood of the room was so thick you could almost see the shadows of tension flowing from all of our bodies.
None of us wanted to break the silence this time so I decided to do it, “We now have about three weeks to figure out a way to stop a Lich from killing us and bringing about the destruction of all realities.” Every one of us broke into laughter, not out of hilarity but from the absurdity that we four were out classed by something we’d never run into before.
Arthur spoke, “I am quite capable of enforcing the rules of the Existence, more so because of all the protections in place combined with my Magick but I’ve also never run into a Lich. My guess is that the co-location with your property brought a Node into the club allowing this Lich to tap into the potential power of the realities and Todash space as well. I don’t know if my protections could stop that. I figure based on what you described that they won’t stand to that so I need to call in some favors.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll do what I can to prepare from here while I recover from my injuries. The healing is already accelerated thanks to Sindee, but I may be out of commission for a good portion of the next few weeks. I should be healed and ready to go when the time comes however.” I tried to force a smile to my face, but the reactions I received suggested it looked more like a grimace.
Arthur stood and reached into his inside jacket pocket as he crossed towards me, “Stand up Andrew and lose the robe.” I gave him an incredulous look considering that Sindee, he and Jaw were all in the room. He gave me a patronizing look, “You don’t have anything than we all haven’t seen before.”
I looked him in the face and replied, “I just don’t want to make Jaq blush or you feel insignificant when my body is revealed.”
All three of them laughed at the joke, happy that my sense of humor was at least partially intact. Arthur’s response was simple, “Get up on your feet and take off the robe or I’ll let them do it.”
I looked him in the eyes and sat there, “Not going to happen in either case. You want to get my clothes off it is going to take a nice meal and lots of drinks. Even then I don’t guarantee you’ll succeed in your endeavor.”
He turned, looked at Jaq and Sindee and said, “Ladies if you will take care of the patient please?”
Sindee and Jaq strode over, gently grabbed me under my arms and pulled me to my feet. I had to put my feet down and stand because falling would more painful than any embarrassment at being stripped by two gorgeous women in front of Arthur. Once I was on my feet Sindee opened the robe and slid it off of me. I was standing in my living room in just a pair of shorts. Under normal circumstances I am quite proud of my body and the work I’ve done to keep it healthy. Right now however I was in a beat, burned and bruised mess. I’m a little vain sometimes, so sue me.
Arthur pulled something out of his inside jacket pocket. It was some kind of jewel or crystal inside some kind of precious metals. It was about six inches long and three inches at the widest point. It was teardrop in shape and glowed with and inner light. I could feel the power of it as soon as he pulled it out, it was some form of talisman. “What is that Arthur?”
“It will take care of most of the wounds you have leaving you in need of a day or two to rest and recover your strength. It is a very old talisman, more a legendary artifact than a talisman as it wasn’t created so much as it turned from a simple piece of jewelry into an item of power. Most still call it an artifact due to the Mage that had owned it when the conversion took place. It had once belonged to the man that Arthurian Mythos calls Merlin.” The reverence in his voice for the object and the man who it belonged to made me want to ask more about it and also stilled my tongue before I made an ass of myself. He passed the jewel over all of the wounds I had received that he could see. The ribs healed almost immediately sealing the wounds and the staples disappeared. Once he was done with the visible wounds he looked my shoulder at Sindee and Jaq. Jaq excused herself and went outside for some air. Once she closed the door behind her, Sindee dropped my shorts allowing Arthur to work on the other wounds.
Once he knelt down to see what he was doing I couldn’t resist the juvenile joke as I was being somewhat mortified by this experience even though he was helping me, “While you’re down there Arthur…” I trailed off leaving the statement implied.
He was quick on the reply, “As you said, a nice meal and many, many drinks. Besides, I don’t have a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers.”
Sindee gave his a gentle swat on the back of his head, “That’s my husband you’re talking about.” She laughed then continued, “Make sure you do a good job there, I still want children someday.” The look on her face was one of humor, but the light in her eyes at the same time told me that she really did want children, plural as she said.
I looked into her amused and thoughtful expression, “I’m open to a large family as you know about mine from our talks. Just how many children were you thinking about?”
She took a few minutes to think about it before answering, “I’m not sure. I want at least two, but am willing to have several. I enjoyed the stories you told me of your growing up in such a large family.” Her expression switched from thoughtful to mischievous in a blink, “Besides think about all the fun we’ll have in making them in the first place.” Her smile went from bright to sexy and teasing and had the desired effect on me she wanted. Unfortunately it was not something Arthur wanted.
“Hey, hey, hey!!!! Sindee can you please not encourage him, I already said It would take a good meal and lots of drinks.” He laughed and said, “Down boy, just think of the Lich or something and stop pointing that thing at me.” He quickly finished up and stepped away, “Sindee, please help him put that thing away before he hurts somebody.”
I leaned down now that most of the pain was gone and pulled my shorts back up. Now that the ordeal was over I pulled the robe back on and sat down, my energy failing me. Jaq came back in and laughed at my embarrassment. I simple sat there and smiled. We called it a night and agreed to meet back at the Existence in the next few days for a strategy session. Sindee helped me to my feet and into the bedroom. As much as I wanted and loved her, I had no strength or energy at the moment and was back to sleep as my head hit the pillows. I slept and dreamed about a strange woman, speaking to me and telling me secrets. As soon as I woke in the morning all memory of the dream faded away like a feather on a breeze.

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This contains all the chapters

By: StormHerald
Chapter 7
I danced most of the night, only taking a break for water or fresh air
with the three Lycans. They passed me to each other, and Damien
stepped in only twice more before they monopolized me entirely. It
was after midnight when I waved the flag of surrender and told them
that I was exhausted.
They laughed and passed coins to William before letting me know that
they were camping out in the forest and would be back towards
tomorrow afternoon. I thanked them and watched them bound out of
the ball room and right off the balcony. My aunt was at my elbow the
moment they disappeared.
“You seemed to be having fun.”
I nodded, “They look worse than they are, or at least their hiding the
worst of their natures around me.”
My aunt narrowed her eyes at the night sky, “I don’t like how the big
one and the bouncy little one stare at you.”
I nodded, “They are the only two serious about courting and the darker
one isn’t interested. It’s funny you say that though, because that’s,
more or less, what Damien said.”
“Oh really?” My aunt smiled a very evil smile and I looked at her warily,
“What are you planning.”
She shook her head, “It’s my concern, you go sit down and wait for me,
I have something to work out.”
 
And with that she grabbed her skirt and marched over to the four
council members seemingly furious. She waved her arms and pointed
to me more often than I would like and finally the council members
nodded and she beamed at me in victory. I was quickly grabbed by my
aunt and pulled through the halls and into the room.
She had me strip and put on very revealing white silk lingerie, the
length of which barely covered my ass. Pulled dark blue stockings up to
my thighs and then wrapped a robe around me and pulled me out and
shoved me protesting into Damien’s room. I sighed as she closed the
door and looked around spotting a familiar blanket waiting for me on
the couch.
I didn’t know how long Damien would be at the ball but vampires could
party all night so I picked out a funny romantic comedy and put the
movie in watching as the familiar characters began to fall in love. Half
way through the movie I fell asleep, exhausted from the evening of
dancing. I woke up to the feeling of being lifted and looked into now
familiar grey eyes and snuggled into him.
He chuckled, “You should have slept in the bed. You will get too cold
out here.”
“Sorry.” He chuckled again as he laid me on the bed and pulled the
blanket off of me only to wrap me in the blankets on his bed.
I stretched and watched him slowly undress changing into the loose
fitting pair of black sweats before crawling into bed with me. I slowly
got out of bed and used the restroom, and walked back to the bed,
catching the silver look in Damien’s eyes as he looked at me.
“You’re killing me Lilly.”
 
I looked down at myself and blushed, “Sorry, my aunt.”
He grabbed my wrist and pulled me back into the bed, pulling the
covers back over me, “Yes, I’m well aware of your aunt’s motives.”
I smiled and snuggled in noticing the purposeful distance between
Damien and I. I sighed and lifted my head on my arm to look at him,
“You’re making the Lycan sleep outside?”
He snorted, “No, they prefer it out there. You seemed to be having a
good time though.”
I nodded, “Yeah, they are really funny about certain things.”
“For example?” I ignored the hard edge to his eyes and shrugged.
“Women rule over them mostly. Like there are seven brothers and four
sisters, but the ones who dominate the place are their sisters. And then
they were talking about where they are from. They said it was right on
the ocean.”
I flipped over onto my stomach and rested my head on my arms looking
at Damien, “I have never seen the ocean except on an airplane. They
said they would have no problem showing it to me, and they described
how green it gets when its spring.”
I look had drifted and when I looked at Damien I saw the hard steel look
in his eyes and I frowned at him, “What’s the matter?”
“It sounds like they will make you happy.”
I winced at the cold tone and flung the blankets off and got up, “I’m
trying to make the best of a not so great situation. What do you want
from me?”
He sat up slowly and glared at me, the muscle in his cheek straining, “I
don’t want anything Lilly.”
I sighed and turned around crossing my arms over my body and I stood
looking into his closet. I had to try and squish the feeling I had for him,
the possessiveness, the need to see him, being happy when I pleasure
him. I needed all of that to go away, I had deluded myself into thinking
that I could have him, but his plan was solid. Desmond would be his
wife in six months and I would be bartered off to the Lycans.
I felt his hands on my waist and he turned me to face him, but I refused
to look at him and he dropped his hands, “I’m obligated in many ways
Lilly. It would be nice to say that you have as equal a chance as the
other three of being my wife and queen, but it would be a lie. At the
end of the day you are still human.”
I looked down at him feeling the pain as he said what I just knew all
along, “You know, the three Lycans say that vampires are idiots. There
hasn’t been a human born between two vampires in almost a thousand
years, that’s better than your century. And that if you really prized rare
things, I wouldn’t be competing for what should rightfully be mine.”
He stood up and I turned and walked out of the bedroom grabbing my
robe and putting it on, “Maybe I’ll at least be valued there, with them.”
I heard a loud crunch and turned to see very dark steely eyed, Vampire
Prince stalking angrily towards me. I took a step back and in a breath he
had me by the waist and was flinging me, hard, onto the bed.
He loomed over me, “Where are you going?”
 
“It’s none of your business.”
He’s ground his teeth and knelt onto the bed, “Were you going to
them?”
I hid my surprise by the leap he had made from simply leaving and
going to my room, to jumping to the Lycans. But I was angry and
hurting and I wanted to see him hurt, even a little bit.
“Again, none of your business.”
He grabbed my hands and yanked them over my head pinning them
and leaning down over me our noses almost touching, “Would you go
to them dressed like this?”
I gasped as held onto both my wrists with one hand and grabbed a
hand full of the white satin in the other, “What do you care what I do?”
He hand tightened onto the fabric and I listened to the material rip and
he slowly yanked it from me. He stopped and looked down at my body
running his hands down my side and down the middle of my chest,
stopping at the dark lace panties.
“Would you let them touch you?”
He grabbed one of my breasts and began to massage it flicking and
pinching the nipple until it became a pink pebble.
“You wouldn’t care if they did.” I gasped as he pinched my nipple,
sending electricity directly to the center of my body.
“You will not go to them like this.” I was writhing on the bed as his hand
switched to my other nipple and began twisting and pinching it.
“What do you care?” He brought his mouth down to the nipple and
sucked on it, nipping sharply at it.
I moaned and he whispered in my ear, “That’s none of your concern.”
I arched my back slightly as he sucked onto the other nipple, heat
building inside of me, my slit drenching in response, “You have
Desmond, and you made that…very…clear.”
He continued to suck on my nipple and I felt his free hand begin to rub
on my lace covered mound. I was losing my train of thought and when I
looked into his eyes, they were turning more silver than steel.
He released my nipple and hands and began to kiss down my body, “I’m
glad you are clear, because I’m not so sure.”
I laced my hands into his hair and writhed against his soft mouth as it
kissed all along the line of my panties, “Why are you not sure?” I gasped
out.
He pulled up leaving me feeling cold and I looked at him, seeing silver
had completely replaced any other color in his eyes, “Because of this.”
His hand slipped into my panties and gently ran his finger up my slit
causing me to moan loudly.
“And this.”
His lips locked onto mine, his passion making him ravenous as he
devoured my mouth and I moaned into his mouth as his hands both
grabbed my breast and massaged them again.
 
“Tell me to stop Lilly.”
I looked into his eyes, his beautiful, silver, glowing eyes and shook my
head, “Tell me to stop, because I won’t. I will make you mine, even if I
can’t keep you.”
I pulled his hair free and wrapped his silky black hair into my fingers and
grabbed him to me, “No, don’t stop.”
He groaned and recaptured my mouth, his body pressing against mine
and his hands wandered down my curves hooking the edge of my
panties and ripping them off. He released me and grabbed a hold of my
leg and moving down until he could throw it over his shoulder.
I looked at him and he smiled briefly before locking his mouth onto my
dripping sex, licking at the juices and the flesh, daftly avoiding the spot
that would bring me to an explosion. He continued to suck and lick. I
arched my back trying to get him to focus on my release.
He chuckled and kept refusing until finally I leaned forward and said
throatily, “Dear Hades Damien, please stop tormenting me.”
He licked the entire length of my slit before finally locking onto the
small bud and working it quickly. I cried out and arched my back the
explosion causing me to tense up and moan deeply, he continued to
attack the small part until I went limp, and he returned to suckling the
juices from me.
When he finished he kissed back up my body to the nape of my neck
where he began to nip at the sensitive area. I felt the heat begin to
build again as he kept kissing my body and pinching my nipples.
All too soon I was arching into him again, the burning need back with a
vengeance. I realized that it wasn’t just his mouth I wanted on me, I
wanted him inside me, I wanted him to scar me as his for the rest of my
life and to feel as close to him as I could possibly be.
I grabbed him and pulled him to me kissing him deeply, tasting the
slight tang to his mouth. I looked into his silver eyes and whispered to
him.
“Please Damien…please…I need to feel you inside of me.”
A look of concern filled his eyes, “I can’t Lilly.”
I kissed him and caressed his face, “Please Damien…I need you.”
He caressed my face, running his thumb across my lower lip, “It will
hurt.”
I nodded kissing his thumb, “I know…but I need you, I trust you.”
He stood up and peeled his pants off, his beautiful member springing to
attention. I couldn’t help myself and I sat up and wrapped my hand
around it, licking the sweet liquid pooling at the tip before wrapping my
lips around it and swallowing him whole. He moaned and grabbed my
hair holding me to him, keeping me from moving. I reached up and
cupped his balls, fondling them gaining a gasp from Damien.
“Stop Lilly…”
I released him from my mouth and he pushed me back down and
pushed my thighs apart with one of his. He reached down and ran a
finger down my slit and I moaned and arched against him.
He grabbed his cock and began to grind the head against me. I gasped
at how hot it was and then he positioned it at my entrance. He grabbed
my hand and laced his fingers with mine and we locked eyes as he
slowly entered.
I felt myself stretch as the head entered and once it was in Damien
kissed the palm of my hand and then began to inch slowly forward until
he reached the resistance of my virginity. He grabbed my hand tightly
and thrust. I felt a rip and then an unbearable pain. I gasped out and
turned my head trying to hide the pain from Damien.
He grabbed my face and gently forced me to look at him, “Don’t hide
from me.”
I nodded and felt a tear drip down to my hair. He kissed me gently then
inched further until he had filled me. My pussy walls clenched and
unclenched trying to adjust to the size and feeling of him inside of me.
He didn’t move until I quit convulsing on him and then he pulled out
only slightly and thrust back in slightly.
I gasped at the feeling, it hurt and I wanted him to stop moving but he
kissed my neck and whispered softly, “Just relax, it hurts but I promise
it will feel better.”
I nodded trusting him and stared into his eyes as he took small, soft
thrusts into me. A deeper kind of heat began to replace the pain and I
released a moan as he thrust once more. He smiled and began to
lengthen his strokes.
Soon I was moaning with each stroke, every movement feeling like
molten heat being poured along every inch of me. I began to meet his
strokes and he was soon moaning in unison with me. I moaned his
name and pulled his lips to mine, kissing him with the same passion
that I was feeling with every thrust of him.
 
He moaned into my mouth and I gasped into his until the building heat
exploded and I arched my back and dug my fingers into his back,
screaming his name. He cried out just as I did and we both convulsed
our passions together until I laid back exhausted. He buried himself to
the hilt in me and smiled down at me kissing me, “I hope your stamina
improves.”
I purred a half conscious response to him and fell asleep.

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By: StormHerald
Chapter 5
He sighed and closed his eyes and covered them with his arm. I looked
at his beautiful chest and then looked lower, not surprised to see a very
tight bulge straining against his pants. I leaned forward to kiss him,
realizing what he was not doing to me at that very moment. He kissed
me back passionately before flopping his head back down, refusing to
do anything else.
I reached out and touched his chest, my fingers running down the
contours of each chiseled muscle. I looked up into his face, seeing his
silver eyes glow as I continued to touch him, growing more confident
with each touch. I leaned forward and kissed his stomach gently, feeling
the contrast between how cold he is normally and how warm he had
become, due to his arousal. I sat up and turned, straddling his panted
leg, hearing him moan in frustration and I leaned forward and kissed
down his chest, making a point that my breast trailed a line down his
body too.
Finally I kissed the edge of his pants and I looked up to see him
watching me intently. I smiled at him and unbuttoned his pants, and
pushed the zipper down. I reached inside and freed his straining
member, seeing it stand proudly in the cool air. I looked at it curiously,
having only seen one in porn before. It was large, and there was a large
vein that ran from the tip all the way down disappearing into the black
curly hair at the base. I saw a drop of clear fluid gather at the top and
without thinking about it, I leaned forward and licked it.
Damien gasped and I smiled tasting the sweet fluid on my tongue. It
tasted wonderful and with no further teasing I began to lick the silky,
velvet of the head of his cock. I licked down tracing the vein before
licking back up, enjoying the spicy, musty scent of Damien, coupled
with the velvety flesh against my tongue.
“Hades Lilly, don’t tease me like this.” His words were a combined
moan and plea and the sound turned me on.
I leaned forward and wrapped my lips around the head of his member
and began to slowly slide down him. He groaned loudly and thrust up,
pushing himself down my throat. I swallowed and milked him, enjoying
the dual sensation of his heat in my throat and the tickly spicy sent
filling my nose.
I settled there unmoving savoring the sensation before I started to pull
up, sucking hard on him as I did so, he groaned again and before I could
pop him out of my mouth, I slid down, my throat swallowing the hard
member. I kept up the very slow pace, feeling the heat return to my slit,
knowing I was probably starting to soak his pant leg. I loved the feeling
of doing this, the control over Damien’s pleasure, it turned me on.
Finally, unable to take the torture anymore Damien grabbed a fist full
of my curls and moved my mouth up and down, quickening the pace. I
continued to enjoy it, caressing him with my tongue, and swallowing
him each time. He ground his teeth and gasped trying to pull out of my
mouth, but I felt his cock expand and I was greedy for more of his sweet
taste, and instead locked onto him and sucked feeling the first blast of
the hot seed fill my mouth. I kept stroking him with my lips until he no
longer came and when he collapsed back I swished his cum in my
mouth and around his softening cock. I loved the taste as I coated my
mouth with the flavor before swallowing it and licking him clean,
sucking all that was left in him.
I sat up and looked at him licking my lips to taste the little bit I had on
them. He stared at me stunned for a moment before grabbing me and
flipping me under him.
 
“Where did you learn that?” He hissed, now suddenly angry. I looked at
him confused.
“I didn’t do it right?”
He grabbed my shoulders and pinned me down, “Who taught you?”
He sounded angry but also, territorial, and maybe even jealous. I smiled
up at him and shifted so I could touch his face, “No one taught me.”
He narrowed his eyes, “Do not lie to me.”
I was moved by his sudden possessiveness, and I couldn’t help but to
beam at him, “I’m not, I learned online.”
He put a hand on each side of my face, holding it tightly but not
painfully, “Who did you practice on.”
I closed my eyes waiting for him to let me go and eventually he did
moving away from me entirely. I sat up and looked at him, his gaze out
of the room, “Damien, I didn’t practice on anyone. I just did what felt
right with you.”
My smile faltered as his face didn’t soften, “Did I not do it right? I’m
sorry, I didn’t mean to not do it right. It seemed like I was doing it right,
that it felt good…”
Damien reached out and pulled gently on a curl watching it spring back,
“It more than felt good.”
He turned back around, his back to me. I looked at him and suddenly a
flare of jealousy and insecurity hit me and I said coolly, “Was it not as
 
good as Desmond’s?”
His back straightened instantly and he stood up and without a word
walked into the bathroom and closed the door. I stared after him for a
few moments then closed my eyes and shook my head. I was feeling
territorial too, and I couldn’t, he had to do this with three other girls,
three vampires, with perfect bodies, and endless stamina.
I began to pull my hair down, taking each hair pin out one at a time
throwing them across the room muttering stupid to each of them. I was
stupid, plink, stupid, plink, stupid, plink. I ran my fingers through my
hair and then looked back towards the bathroom, Damien didn’t seem
like he was coming out anytime soon, in fact I heard the shower start
running, so I sighed and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and
walked back out to the living room.
I knelt down and looked through his movie collection picking out a
relatively safe action movie and putting it in, bunching myself onto the
black leather couch. A soft knock on the door tore me away from the
previews and I looked back to the bedroom. The knock came again and
I sighed, wrapped the blanket tighter around me, and opened the door
peeking out and seeing a servant with a tray in his hand and a box in
another.
I opened the door fully and scooted back to let him in. The vampire
kept his eyes off of me, and quietly put the tray and the box on the
table and bowed low before disappearing out of the door. I looked at
the closed door and shrugging, turned back to the table and quietly
walked to it and took the silver cover off of the plate. I was happy to a
cheeseburger and fries and sighed happily seeing the fry sauce off to
the side. I covered the food up, and turned to the box. Before I could
open the white box I felt a cold chill and looked up into a pair of soft
grey eyes staring at me.
 
“When did that come?”
I shrugged, “Just a few minutes ago.”
His eyes narrowed, “You answered it like that?”
I looked down at the thick black blanket wrapped around me, “Yeah, its
not like he knew I’m naked underneath, he probably thought what
every other vampire thinks when looking at me. Poor little human has
to wear a blanket because she’s cold.”
Damien straightened up and crossed the floor and I became very aware
of the fact his hair was still wet and he was shirtless with a pair of black
sweatpants swung low on his hips. I tore my eyes from the sight,
coughing and feeling heat flush my face, looking up to see him smirking
having noticed my admiration.
“I’ll have a servant in here to build a fire for you in a few moments.”
I nodded thanking him and his eyes shot up at the sight of the box. I
smiled and shrugged, “Probably my aunt.”
He nodded and opened it pulling out a long, dark blue, silk night gown.
He pulled out the small folded paper at the bottom and handed it to
me. I opened it seeing my aunts flouncy writing.
Sorry I didn’t get a chance to warn you, I hope it went well. Let me know
if you need anything, and try to remind Damien that you need to stay
warm. See you tomorrow after lunch.
I smiled and handed Damien the note, ignoring his surprise as he
grabbed it and read through it. I opened the plate again and reached
down and grabbed a fry popping it into my mouth before covering it
again.
“She is very protective of you. She treats you like a piece of crystal.”
I looked up and smiled swallowing and shrugging, “Yeah, I think my
mother and father gave her the wrong impression of my limitations.
Although, I do have to admit that this castle is ridiculously cold.”
He nodded and returned his attention to the silk nightgown in his
hands, “You seem to like to flaunt how different you are.”
I reached forward and grabbed the dress, allowing the blanket to fall
from me and I smiled up at him noticing him looking at my body, “I am
different, and there’s no hiding it so I might as well flaunt it as much as
possible.”
I slipped the dress on and then put the blanket back around my
shoulders and he shook his head, “There are certain expectations for
royalty when it comes to clothing, and I’m pretty sure white is not
among them.”
I laughed, “My aunt genuinely tried to put me in black, but it made me
look bad. Which baffled even her, so at the suggestion of a very brow
beaten French shop woman, I ended up in white. It was meant to grab
your attention.”
His eyebrows shot up, “It certainly did, but it would be hard to not
notice your body compared to the other three girls.”
I smiled and sat down in front of my food, while Damien removed the
box and sat down in front of me. I bit into the burger and chewed
slowly before sipping at a glass of water and swallowed, all the while
feeling self-conscious at Damien watching me intently. I looked over at
him and shrugged, “You act like you have never seen a girl eating a
cheese burger before.”
He smiled and shrugged back, “I haven’t.”
“Are you serious? Did you get turned that young that you don’t even
remember a cheese burger?”
His eyebrows furrowed and he shook his head, “I wasn’t turned.”
I tilted my head curiously at him and bit into a fry, “What do you mean
you weren’t turned, you’re a vampire aren’t you?”
In answer, his fangs dropped and I shivered in deliciousness, the chill
always got to me when a vampire dropped his fangs. He smiled at my
reaction and in a blink was picking me up. I laughed and wrapped my
arms around his neck and smiled at him as he carried me back to the
bedroom.
He parted the sheets and blanket and set me between them before
climbing into bed next to me. I turned to him and he rubbed his thumb
across my full bottom lip, “It was hard watching you eat, all I could
think about was what you had done just a few minutes ago with this
same mouth.”
I smiled at him and grabbed his hand pressing his palm against my
cheek. I closed my eyes and breathed him in before settling down and
opening my eyes, seeing his eyes turn a silvery storm.
“Are you alright?”
He nodded and laid down with me, slipping his arm underneath my
head and pressing me to him. My eyelids grew heavy and I sighed, “You
don’t have to stay with me, I know you probably have more important
things to do.”
He ran his fingers through my curls before running a finger down my
face and along my jaw, “I find that I would rather be here with you.”
I sighed and buried my face into the crease of his neck and breathed
deeply before falling asleep.
I heard muffled voices and opened my eyes to see it was still dark
outside. I couldn’t be later than three in the morning and I reached out
and realized that Damien wasn’t in the bed with me. I sat up and got
out of bed, silently padding to where I could hear the voices. I peeked
out of the door into the living room and had to bite back a gasp.
Wrapped around Damien was the long, white haired Desmond. I
continued to watch trying to catch bits of their conversation.
“You shouldn’t be here.” Damien unwound her arms from his neck.
“Who will know? The little human is asleep right? If you had chosen me
first, we would still be together in bed doing other things than
sleeping.” she pressed her body against his causing him to sigh and take
a step back.
She snapped her hands out of his grip and glared at him, “Why did you
choose her first? Do you actually have feeling for the disgusting little
creature.”
Damien shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, “it’s none of
your concern.”
Desmond laughed, “Are you serious? You are a vampire prince, the first
pure vampire, born in almost a hundred years. You are seriously
interested in a weak, pathetic mortal, and more importantly, that weak,
pathetic mortal?”
“I choose her because her family has very strong lines, and more power
than anyone gives them credit for. Think about it Desmond, I can’t just
flat out reject her, especially if I don’t want a war on my doorstep.
Instead I show her favor, and when I reject her, it seems like I gave it an
honest shot. And I will do the same for Yuki and Elizabeth, and I expect
you to be patient.”
Desmond leaned forward and kissed Damien, who pulled her close and
kissed her in return.
Now at this point I had two very usable options, the first would be to
slink off to bed, and pretend it didn’t happen, the human way. The
other way would be to contact my aunt right away and let her know of
the Princes and Desmond’s plans, and have the council figure it out, the
royal way.
I, however, chose the short tempered vampire option in that I grabbed
the nearest object, which happened to be a crystal vase and hurled it
with amazing accuracy right into the side of Desmond’s face. The vase
shattered and stunned the two giving me time to run into the bedroom
and grab the silver dagger that Damien kept at the head of the bed. I
gripped the handle and turned just as Desmond was lunging at me. I
raised the dagger and she froze, silver dagger pressing into her throat.
Her eyes were a fathomless black in fury and mine had turned into a
soft gold in response. I was panting and shaking from adrenaline and I
pressed the tip forward causing her to lean back to avoid the deadly
weapon. I may have a million weaknesses in being a human but I knew
every single one of a vampire’s weakness, including a violent allergy to
silver blades. Damien had appeared in a blink and was pulling Desmond
off the bed, the both of us never breaking eye contact with each other.
She hissed in fury at me and I stalked after her as Damien pulled her
out of the room and to the front door. As he pushed her out of the door
she lunged once more at me, “Be careful little human, that you don’t
find your neck snapped.”
I looked around Damien and glared at her, “Be careful little vampy that
you don’t drink silver dust next time you have a glass of blood.”
Both she and Damien froze and looked at me shocked and I pointedly
looked at both of them before turning around and stomping back into
the bedroom, taking a moment to slam the tip of the knife into the
wood of the table before disappearing into the room. I walked into the
bedroom and flung myself onto the bed, burying my face into my arms.
I felt stupid and oh so human at this moment. I had seriously felt pain
when he had said what he did to Desmond. I had thought that there
had been something between us when he held me as I slept, but it was
painful to realize it had all been a ploy to make sure my family didn’t
get upset.
I felt the bed dip beside me and his hand touched the silk on my back I
pushed his hand off of me and turned my face away from him, looking
at the wall, “Leave me alone.”
He sighed and stood up and I heard the bathroom door click closed and
I grabbed a pillow and screaming into it until I felt my voice getting
hoarse. Then I grabbed the end and began to pummel the hell out of
the rest of the bed with it, thumping it against the bed over and over
again until all my fury was gone. All that was left was the raw pain in my
chest. I sat looking down at the pillow panting, my tantrum causing me
to gasp for air.
“You have a very vampire temper for being a human.”
I looked up at Damien, angry quickly returning and I crawled over to the
edge of the bed and straightened myself on my knees, “What do you
care, you serpent.”
Damien’s eyes flashed to a steel grey, “Be careful human.”
“Of what? You? It seems you’re more scared of my family than I am of
you.”
He had his hands wrapped painfully on my arms in a blink of an eye,
“Don’t presume to know anything about me.”
I tried to twist out of his grip but he only squeezed my arms harder
causing me to visibly wince before he released the pressure, “I don’t
presume anything, I listen to a snakes plan and then get pissed about
it.”
He let me go and I fell backward and rubbed the redness on my arms,
“I’m sorry I over reacted.” I sighed and looked down on the bedding.
Damien sighed and sat on the edge of the bed.
“You shouldn’t have heard what you did.”
I nodded, “I gathered that. I wish you would have told me before…” I
paused and shook my head trying to clear it of the feeling of being with
him, “Before we did what we did. If you would have told me I probably
wouldn’t have reacted that way.”
I looked up into his grey eyes and he regarded me curiously, “It is within
your family’s power to start a war with me. That’s why we were
betrothed to begin with, your family hasn’t been in power in a long
time, but that doesn’t mean that vampires have forgotten that they are
descendants from the original, ancient line. To tie your line with mine
would solve a lot of the disagreements between our families.”
“It sounds reasonable, but…”
He shook his head and looked past me out of the window, “But you’re a
human, even if you seem to think a lot like a vampire.”
“It’s hard not to think like a vampire when your whole family is
vampire, and your dad drills it into your head how much of a non-
vampire you are.”
Damien chuckled, “You held your own enough against Desmond. I don’t
think when she saw you running, that you were grabbing the knife. And
I wasn’t aware you had noticed it when you went to sleep.”
I smiled and shrugged, “I felt it when I rolled onto your arm.”
His smile faded, “She threatened you, and I realized just how human
you are, when I realized that she could snap your neck, and that you
would die from it. How human you are, that the idea of silver dust in a
goblet of wine, really could happen. You wouldn’t get sick or die from
handling it, and no one would notice it had happened until the deed
was done.”
I sighed and chewed the inside of my cheek, “Yeah, it’s the one thing
my father always told me was the only advantage I have.”
Damien reached out and captured a curl, tugging it and watching it
spring back, “He was right.”
 
I leaned back out of Damien’s reach and ignored the flash of steel in his
eyes, “So what now?”
He stood up and began to pace the room, “I don’t know? What you are
going to do?”
“What do you mean, what am I going to do?”
“It is within your power to have Desmond removed from the courtship
because of the stunt she pulled. You can also reveal what I said to
Desmond as well, and then the Council would have to decide what to
do after that.”
“Wow, that gives me a lot of leverage over you doesn’t it?”
He gave me a dark look and nodded, “yes, I suppose it does.”
“Is that really your plan? To eventually marry Desmond without giving
the rest of us a chance?”
He slumped down and hunched his shoulders over, “I don’t know, I
have a lot of pressure from each family to pick their daughters.”
I inched forward and ran my fingers through his long black hair, “Who
cares what the other family say, you should figure out who would be a
good queen for your people, and a good wife for you.”
He captured my hand and turned around to face me, “Why are you
being so kind to me? I betrayed you and your family.”
I shrugged and played with a knuckle on his finger, “I know vampire
rules say I need to enact revenge or something, but honestly that takes  
way too much energy. I’m just a little human after all, and that kind of
revenge is too exhausting.” And if to emphasize the point I let loose
with a huge yawn.
Damien pulled the blankets down and motioned for me to settle in. He
tucked me in and walked to the door, “Where are you going?”
He smiled down at me, “I have a few things to take care of. Sleep and
I’ll wake you for breakfast.”
I smiled and thanked him before closing my eyes and falling deeply
asleep.

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During our last chapter, the three races began to come together. Finding greater understanding and wisdom, they work together in friendship using the strength of each race to strengthen all three. The miracle of the temple of Aphrodite has brought many to the service of the chosen.
Magical Hearts: chapter 14
A loud boom from outside gets the attention of all in the room. I fear one of our jars has accidentally gone off. We rush to the window on that side of the building to see a huge plume of angry red flame rising from the channel. The channel is easily as wide as the Straits of Izmira. One of our carpets speed over the land away from the channel it carries at least three figures. Trees on the side of the channel from where the explosion occurred fall. A high wave seems to run from the center racing along the shores and down the channel.
Father, Granite, King Sky and I stand with our mouths gaping. That was far more powerful than any fireball spell has ever been. The carpet lands at the steps outside the temple. Father pulls us into the grand stairwell. He unfurls a carpet that was resting inside his room. I recognize it as one of our first. Isabel and the elf Queen, Jewel, Charles and the rest of father’s Knights join us on the carpet. Granite is a little reluctant, but he too steps upon the carpet. Isabel directs the carpet to fly out into the open air and descend rapidly.
Granite pulls on my arm until I am looking into his face. In his gruff voice he asks, “You sure this thing will not fall?” As I nod my head yes, he again asks, “The magic in it will not just stop when we are in midair?” I shake my head no, as Isabel giggles in my mind. Before granite can ask a third question of me, we are at the crest of the stairs. The three that were on the carpet are now walking up the stairs and we meet them. Brook is a little wide-eyed. Gabriel has a wide grin although he has a hand over one ear. Bill seems to be speaking excessively loud. I doubt he can hear himself.
Brook in a very loud voice says, “It is good to see you awake.”
I hold my hand up, and then bring Isabel into a kiss. The light seems to surround the three especially around their ears. The three, seem to relax.
Now in a normal voice Brook says, “Thank you Goddess, thank you Julius and Isabel.” Then she gives Isabel a hug, looking into her face she says, “This has to be the most luxurious palace ever created.”
Bill asks, “Have you had a chance to try the showers yet?”
Isabel and I shake our heads no. I ask, “Where you testing the jars?”
Gabriel nods his head yes and says, “Bill and I threw it from the carpet, as Brook directed the carpet over a target.”
Justin still shaking his head with his hand laced with Selena’s enters the temple. With a grave expression he says, “We will have to be very high on the carpets to use the jars. By dropping them, Brook if you flew a little slower you would been caught in the blast. As it was, you were barely missed by the flames.”
Gabriel points out, “That will not be a great difficulty, but we now know how powerful a weapon the jar is. Our alchemist are working on making the formula that Brook gave them. If we place the jars we already have, we possibly can take out the first two or three ranks of orcs as they gather at the mouth of the pass.”
Bill says, “I now know why they have the shark fins, it cause them to fly straight to the air and not tumble.”
Father says, “I am glad I took one to show as an example for our Potters to re-create. For some reason the idea of them tumbling does not seem good to me.”
We see three carpets in the distance. I know they belong to house Morgan. As they land, Jeremiah looks wide-eyed at the temple of Aphrodite. All his men stare in wonder. Although Rebecca rushes to Isabel’s side hugging her gently because of her advanced stage of pregnancy. It will not be long before Isabel gives birth to our daughters.
True to her nature Rebecca asks, “You and Julius along with the dwarf Chisel built that in three days?”
Isabel as always is humble and says, “The goddess must have been working through us, because I truly do not remember building more than the first floor.”
I say, “That had to be, it was like I was in a dream. Great sections of the building were completed between each time I had any awareness.”
Father chuckles and says, “It was like watching a child building a Sandcastle. If you looked away for a moment, a new section was complete. If you think the outside is something special just wait until you have a chance to go in.”
The men from house Morgan are beginning to empty a crate. It has a huge number of jars within it. Many labeled with names of chemicals. Others are in the shape of the jars we will drop. Turning back to father Jeremiah asked, “Sire, was that one of the jars we noticed explode?”
Father says, “It was. I believe it far greater than what we believed it would be. Perhaps our enemy will break and run never to return.”
Jeremiah little pale faced says, “If they have any sense at all, any love of their own lives they will.”
We spend the rest of the day, getting some advice from Jeremiah who looked at both the plans for the Straits and the Pass. He finally smiled and he says, “I cannot think of anything else to add to your plans, but if I do I will send word.” As if an afterthought he says, “The jars you want us to make for dropping take quite a bit longer, and if we have another type of jars ready, they can be used to be placed on the ground and save the others made to drop.”
I smile and say, “The ones that are made to be dropped had the special fins the keep them from tumbling. If we just need to place a few on the ground. As Gabriel has suggested any jar would work as long it is big enough to hold the amount of chemicals we want.”
Jeremiah smiles and says, “We have a full warehouse. We used to use them before the crates. I will send them here tomorrow.”
Father asks, “Wine jugs?”
Jeremiah shakes his head yes and says, “Before the crates we would divide the wine from barrels into jugs to move. Now because the crates we do not need to do that. The wine taste better straight from the barrel anyway.”
Father chuckles and says, “We could just make a whole wagon full, place a few with wine on the back and on top. Let the orcs find the wagon and take it back to their own encampment. When the first one opens a jug not finding any wine I bet he throws it down.”
Gabriel chuckles before saying, “If we are lucky they will have spread them out just enough when the first one explodes it breaks the rest.”
I say, “We were planning on letting them kill themselves for us anyway. This would be a nice way to take out a thousand.”
Laughing Ben says, “Remember the smugglers and their wagon we caught last year. How many do you think would be kill by a wagonload a foot thick of the explosives?”
Brook smiles and says, “As they all gather around for wine, and their leaders are forced to come to restore order.”
Something Gabriel said rings in my ears and I wonder how so many orcs can be because the land that they inhabit is poor. The northern third of our continent that belongs to the orcs has great lava flows, or glaciers not great farmlands. Millions of orcs would require as much food as that number of humans, elves or dwarves. How could so many exist with very little to eat, where do they all come from? I think of the map, perhaps it will show us the answers.
Getting everyone’s attention I say, “Let us look at the orcs’ lands something does not seem right, Gabriel you said the numbers could be as many as two million. I think not because the land is too poor for that great of a number. I do not doubt your word or what you seen. I only doubt the land is capable of supporting that many. If the land cannot support that many, they must receive aid from elsewhere or they come from elsewhere.”
Everyone within the room now shares the realization. Gabriel is the first to speak and he says, “Soon after the last orc war I became a Ranger. Many of the orcs were destroyed during that conflict, and I could walk about their lands all but the farthest north without seeing a patrol or hunting parties. I saw no great villages, no farms or shepherds. The orcs used a few caves. However, there was no way for so many to survive. I believe you are correct they must come from elsewhere.
We go back to the map, starting from Dead Man’s Pass we begin heading north, we find the remains of the orcs Gabriel and Brooks fought. The path is recent enough from the large number that it remains visible on the ground. We follow it north, and emerges with many other groups. Gabriel was correct in his estimation possibly two million strong are beginning to collect just south of a river that would block their movement in the spring. We can see where they cross the river. We continue to follow the muddy trail that so many feet have marked. Mile after mile north, Gabriel finally becomes unfamiliar with the land on the map. In the very far north stands some ancient ruins, far older than any in the room know.
Chisel says, “Dwarves made those, see how that arch is formed they look like some of our oldest buildings in Undermount.”
We turn the map trying to look through openings in the ruins. A section that looks like a large doorway, mist obscures the opening, as we watch several drow exit, followed by at least two hundred orcs. We back off and watch as they travel through the ruins and begin heading south.
Sparrow directs the map back so we can take a closer look at the doorway. He almost hisses as he sees the writing carved into the door. He says, “That is a very old ancient elfish dialect. That is a world gate. It is a more powerful form of the spell of teleportation. Only it took several master mages to enchant. It actually connects to another world.”
I say, “We have two choices, allow it to remain open and more of the dark ones come in making our fight more difficult, but allowing them to retreat. Our second choice is to close it permanently, destroy it, preventing any more dark ones to enter our world, but we will have to deal with all that are here.”
King Sky says, “I believed that place was just a legend, the story of the Exodus from our old world. As I remember the story. The world the three races were born on, have become quite old it sun began to die in the world was falling into blackness. To escape the mages had been searching for a new home for millennia. They had found several worlds but none capable of supporting life. They kept searching even further away. Some worked on how to move our people, while others worked on finding a new home.
Finally, a world found that we could live upon. The only problem was the orcs already lived there. We knew nothing of them and sent emissaries. They allowed some of our people to come promising them safety. We did not know of the dark gods. The people that we sent fell to their influence. They became the first Drow, dark dwarves and dark men.
Another world found as we realized the danger. The majority of our people escaped, but some dark ones must have infiltrated the last survivors. It seems they found the old gate redirecting it somehow.”
Father in a deep voice says, “All that matters is what we do now. What mistakes made in the past are over and done. Sparrow you believe that we can close the gate or we are going to have to destroy it?”
Sparrow first looking at his brother says, “The archway needs to be destroyed. Even if we do manage to close the gate, it can reopen. Even destroying the gate may not prevent another’s creation, although that would be very difficult. Those in this room and a handful of others would be required to create one. Although we would have to know where to go, and none have looked.”
I ask, “If we stacked, say ten of the jars against the pillars, dropping two or three others to set off the ones already there would it be enough?”
King Sky says, “If legend is correct, that is more than three millennia old. I doubt that would affect the stone of the arch. However, the stone in the building around it may crumble and seal the exit for a time. That would prevent any more reinforcements until we finish our battle.”
Sparrow says, “If we close it from this side, it cannot be reopened from the other side.”
I say, “If buried it would be very difficult to reopen.”
As we watch another group exits the gate, although dressed somewhat differently, they begin heading south following the trail. Every few minutes another group exits, they will be more than we could possibly stand against if we do not do something rather quickly. None stays at the gate long, and if we hit the gate a few minutes before the next group arrives, just as the last group was out of sight we may have as much as three minutes to close the gate.
Whatever we decided to do, we must do it quickly and quietly. If we remain too long, the next group will be upon us. With the last group only a few minutes away at a walk, they could return to reinforce their fellows quite quickly. If we are too noisy at our efforts, it may bring the last group back to investigate.
Chisel believes he can place several of the jars to bring down the building entombing the gate. Sparrow believes he can close the gate given a few minutes. We decide to take Chisel and Sparrow along with a few of our companions an attempt to close the gate, if not permanently for at least as long as we can. Once the battle is over, we may be able to return and make it permanent.
We load a carpet with twenty of the jars. Chisel believes he will only need half that number, but I believe it is better to have too many than not enough. If nothing else, our second attempt made be successful.
Martin, Samuel, Bill, Brook, Gabriel, Eldeone, Isabel and I along with Sparrow and Chisel carefully load a crate with twenty of the jars. Granite and Father both wish to come along but I reluctantly tell them, “The smaller our group is the more likely we are unnoticed.” As I tease the two I say, “You are more likely to just attack a group for the fun of it, how can we remain unnoticed then.”
Father surprises me by saying, “Pup, I am still your father.”
What could I do? Stepping to my father, I give him a hug and say, “I do not want to become King too soon. I love you, Father.”
Father slaps me on my back and says, “I do not want to lose you again my Pup. You and Granite can take care of the orcs. As the rest of us take care of the drow if it comes to that.”
As a result, our group grows by thirteen. Ben and Ruth wanted to come along as well but their baby decides to stay keeping Ruth and Ben, who is an excited father as his wife begins her labor. I finally tell him, “We should be back before the baby is here. We will go make a big noise, and be back before they know what happened.”
We lift into the air. We have coats and heavy clothes ready for the cold weather. The ruins already have a couple feet of snow. This may be the last of their army, and in the month the land around the ruins will be impassable, now a snowstorm could make it so overnight.
The map has allowed us one other benefit, sparrow’s spell of teleportation allows you to move to any known location. Additionally, high on the carpet we can remain unseen only dissenting silently at the proper time. A wall of mist appears in front of us, and sparrow directs the carpet through it.
During my time, making the palace and asleep Granite has completed our weapons. Mine rests against my armor in a sheath specially made for it. I also carry the short sword and dagger. There is places where an ax is at a disadvantage, as well as magic.
As soon as we exit the wall of mist, the air is quite cold with a strong wind and snow blowing in our faces. There is a dim light coming from the area of the gate, and a party has just emerged carrying a lantern to light their way through the ruins following the path that so many have walked before.
We are unnoticed as we descend silently. The group barely has exited into the ruins, as we set the carpet down. Chisel immediately begins quietly to direct the placement of the jars. Sparrow, Brooke, Isabel and I walk up to the gate. Sparrow is examining the writing and quickly finds the command word that will close the gate. As soon as he speaks the word, the wall of mist vanishes.
A large room full treasure is on the opposite side, the chests that held the treasure have long since decayed to the point that they spilled the gold over the floor. I doubt anyone ever knew it was here, hidden behind the wall of mist. Once our crate is empty of the jars, careful not to disturb anything other than the treasure I cast a summoning spell that causes the treasure to float to the crate.
We even place a few jars within the now empty room, the way Chisel has explained it, the explosions will knock down the walls that support the walls above, cause them to fall down and bury the gate. Chisel double checks each jar ensuring each point is at a mortar joint, he even uses some stones to ensure they do not move before they explode. Once we have everything in place we only have a few moments to exit, we even leave a few jars we have not used behind, back on the carpet high in the air Isabel and I direct one of the last jars to fly directly into the room. I hope that that will set all the other jars off.
Just then, as a spell of teleportation opens several drow mages walk out as the jar hits setting off the several we left in the room. In an instant, all the other jars explode as well. We are moving quickly away from the ruins but I believe we were not moving quickly enough. I cast a shield spell in the direction of the ruins. Pieces of debris strike the shield spell causing it to glow brightly. We can see nothing but smoke and dust from the ruins, but the sound of falling stone heard with the echoes of the explosion.
The cold when quickly blows away the smoke and dirt in the air. Where the gate had stood now stands a mound of rubble at least ten foot higher than the gate had been. There is no sign of the drow, even the parties that have already exited the gate are still running away from it. In their confusion, I believe we went unnoticed.
We climb higher and circle slowly. We wait for a while to ensure none survived. There is a small possibility that they cast a shield spell. However, Sparrow and I doubt they even had time to cast any magic before death found them. We cannot even feel the magic of the gate, and it is possible the explosion destroyed it as well.
Once we are sure, sparrow again cast his spell, the carpet flies through it quickly, and he ends the spell the second we have crossed back over Hound Island. The sky here is warm and sunny compared to that cold dark place we just left.
We open the crate and examine the treasure closely. Sparrow checks for any magic that used to track the gold. It would not do to bring back something that can bring our enemy straight to our door. It is just a way of double-checking, we checked before. Although some spells not activated until the item removed from their resting place. Finding the treasure untainted and not cursed, we even cast the magic to detect poison or disease. Once we are sure that treasure is safe we divided equally among all who came, several thousand gold pieces for each.
Granite eyes go wide as I sit down his chest showing the gold coins. Telling him it is the share for his protection during our raid. Father seated beside Granite looks at the chest in front of him. Both hold the same amount of gold. My father chuckles and says, “The best payday I have ever gotten.”
I chuckle and say, “I enchanted those chest, they are far larger than they appear. Do not turn them over thinking to get a hand full of gold. You will spend most of the night picking up your treasure. It was not on either of your lands, all you get is an equal share. No King’s taxes this time.” When they both turn and look at me, I say, “Perhaps we should find the drow King to pay him his taxes.”
Granite smiles evilly and says, “Tell you what Pup, you find him I will give him something for his taxes.”
Laughing I say, “Now him I will fight you over, well we just flip one of his gold coins to see who gets to take his head.”
Granite flips the coin in the air and says, “Call it Pup, just in case we run into him. It will save time later.”
Instinctively I say, “Heads.”
When the coin lands it lands on its edge and remains there. Father laughs and says, “First I ever saw that, but that means both of you should take him together.”
Chuckling I say, “Knowing drow he would not settle for a fair fight. It would be he and all his guards that is with him.”
As he looks at the small chest before him, Eldeone chuckles and asks, “Are you always so generous with what treasure you find?”
With a chuckle I say, “I find no reason not to be, I never campaign with mercenaries only companions and friends.”
Eldeone looks a little startled by that comment. He asks, “You allow me into your service, as a companion?”
With a chuckle I say, “How better to combat your prejudiced. It is not as easily defeated has Granite’s, he only believe his stomach not capable of handling the Elfin food.”
Granite had just finished a plate of venison, prepared in the elfish fashion. He laughs at my statement. Looking up from his empty plate he says, “Aye, it has been a hard lesson. One I will never forget.”
Eldeone chuckles, “One lesson Pup has taught me too. Prejudice is best shown to be incorrect than just told to be. It is easier to see the incorrectness of your beliefs than just to hear them. It does not stop them from being wrong either way, just easier to see.”
Chuckling sparrow sitting down says, “Eldeone that is because you are not blind, a blind man must hear and understand the truth, where as you can see the truth.”
Eldeone chuckles again now with a smile he says, “Yet more lessons for me to take to heart. I have learned that what I have believed is not always true. I should keep an open mind, and an open heart. Friendship has little to do with one’s birth. Julius although born to royalty never knew that until he reached manhood. I think he sees royalty as a burden not a privilege.”
With a smile and nod, I address Eldeone, I begin by saying, “A good King leads his people, a wise king listens to their hearts, and a great King helps to make their dreams come true. When your subject are happy, healthy and productive so is your kingdom. A King should always strive to ensure the well-being of his subjects. Sometimes it is very difficult to balance their well-being against your own, even more difficult if you hold the belief they are to serve you, and you do not serve them. A great King serves his people far more than his people serve him.”
Father and Granite both chuckle as they nod their head yes. King Sky from the doorway has overheard because he begins to chuckle along with the two other kings. Bowing to me on his approach, and I stand to return it he takes a seat beside us with a smile he says, “That is the best way I have ever heard it described. It is far harder than most people realize to be a great King. It is easy to fall into the trap of believing all should serve you. When it is your turn my son, remember your friends and kinsman’s words.”
Eldeone with a smile says, “Yes my father I will. Although I would hope it long enough that the memory be a distant one.”
With a chuckle I say, “The problem with be in a Prince. We do not want our father’s power. The gaining of it means a great loss to our hearts. We would find it a lost too great, to enjoy the gain.”
Eldeone smiling as he looks in my face says, “I see our hearts shares much kinsman.”
With a smile I say, “True, we have far more in common than you realized just a few days ago.”
Of course, I have not forgotten about Ben and Ruth. I know the baby will soon be here so I excuse myself. Eldeone comes with me, seeing my look he asks, “Do you worry for Ruth?”
I nod my head yes, and my steps take on a swiftness that has Eldeone stretching his legs to keep up. I entered the temple of Aphrodite, and we proceed up to the fourth floor, one section is set up to be a hospital.
I find Isabel watching Ben pace nervously. A baby’s cry makes him spin on his heels as he faces the doorway. Only a few moments later one of the priestess of Aphrodite brings the babe wrapped in a blue blanket. She smiles and says, “You have a fine baby boy.”
After taking the baby Ben asks, “His mother?”
The priestess smiles and says, “Tired, but she will be well soon. She wants you to come in.”
Isabel says, “Give her a nice long kiss for us Ben.” Ben chuckled as he disappeared following the priestess.
Isabel’s face contorts with pain, something that Isabel was trying to conceal unsuccessfully. Isabel’s contraction started soon after we departed on our mission this evening. I look in my wife’s face as my hand reaches for hers. I say, “Our twins are not long in their entrance to our world.”
As if in answer Isabel’s water breaks, and Eldeone shouts for the priestess. He has a look of concern on his face, and he pulls the priestess to Isabel assumed she appears in the doorway. I lift my wife and carrier to the room the priestess indicates. There is a comfortable looking bed although somewhat narrow. I place Isabel upon the bed. The priestess runs Eldeone and myself from the room. Now it is my turn to pace.
Eldeone watches as I pace, when Bill arise along with the rest of our comrades he says, “We heard Ben and Ruth had a baby boy.”
Eldeone chuckles and says, “A fine young lad, he looks a lot like his mother.”
Gabriel and Bill share smiles, the two have become close friends, and often compete to find out who is the best archer. Martin and Samuel have female companions as they arrived. I think it is a good thing, because the two big men could use a good woman in their lives. Michael and Juliet arrived with little Patrick. I have to stop my pacing to hold my son.
Martin and Samuel both have grins as Samuel asks, “Is it Isabel’s time?”
With little Patrick’s head against my chest I smile and say, “The twins will be here soon.” As I look at little Patrick I say, “Your Mommy is going to give you two little sisters tonight.”
Little Patrick says, “Goodie, I will not have to be the baby anymore.”
The room feels with chuckles. Smiling I say, “That is right son. Soon you will be the big brother.” He smiles brightly and I ask, “Are you going to help me take care of your baby sisters?” My son nods his head enthusiastically. More chuckles fill the room.
Father asks, “Are you so sure you are going to have twin daughters?”
I reply, “I hope so father. We only have two girls names picked out.”
Jewel the elfin high priestess, enters the room overhearing my last comment she asks, “Prince Julius what names have you selected?”
Giving her a smile I say, “We have changed one of our selections, we are now thinking to use Ines and Carissa. Later we will use Marta to honor Isabel’s grandmother.”
Jewel asks, “Ines as in Ines Firemoon, Isabel sister?”
I sense there is more to the question so in answering I probe for additional information. I say, “That is who made us first wish to use the name, to give homage to her long service. Nevertheless, why did you ask your question that way?”
Jewels eyes widen, and her expression says she has given away a secret. She says, “Souls reborn seldom remember their first life, even though you lived it twice.”
Now confusion is truly on my face, and shared by most in the room except for Jewel and Eldeone. To answer the question Eldeone begins, “Prince Julius, you never realize that your life story was the same as Cowan the Wise? His life was exactly is yours, except for his father and mother both perished at the hands of a traitor during his fourth year of life. The traitor captured him and made him a slave, only to escape slavery during his eighth year of life. He was trained by the dwarves the same as you, on his fourteenth year he began his campaign to retake his kingdom. During his time the land, you call Cowan were feudal states, the size of your duchies now. Cowan the Wise not only retook his, but he began to unify the whole of your country. During his sixteenth year, he completes the task, makes peace with the dwarves and begin the process with the elves. During his eighteenth year, he travels to the land of the elves.
What you know, Isabel did run away from her father and her upcoming nuptials. However, what you do not know, there was a Duke who wished to prevent peace between the two races. The Duke captures Isabel and with plans to force her to marry his son. The Drake killed the Duke and his loyal men before they could capture Isabel.
The injured Drake attacks Isabel, and Colin rushed to her side. They too shared a kiss after the battle, and the Royal guard knew they were a blessed couple.
The Captain of the Royal guard who found Isabel and Cowan was Isabel’s uncle. The dowry Cowan brought for Isabel’s hand was her weight in gold and a third of her weight in raw diamonds.
Ines was jealous of her older sister, although she did love her sister, her prejudicial remarks was an insult to the goddess and her chosen couple.”
Jewel places her hand on Eldeone’s arm and he gives her a nod. Jewel continues, “The prophecy was that Cowan and Isabel would be reborn, human both, although most of my people never knew that part. You are the sole of Cowan the wise reborn. Isabel is Isabel Firemoon reborn. The two of you have been reborn to fulfill the two prophecies. The first you have completed, the second given to me by Ines. Said you would rebuild the Palace of Aphrodite.
Additionally a number of other things you have yet to complete, those prophecies I am not to share with you, by chance you may do more than what was prophesies. As you have with the Palace, by adding the skill of the master Stone smith Chisel. The goddess inspired him and allowed him to direct the power you and Isabel wheel. She inspired Chisel with not only the image of the blueprints for the Palace, but placed within him the magic for things like the showers, hot and cold water. Even the pool that reflects the noonday light, you and Isabel need to take the time and gaze upon the ceiling of the chapel one-day at noon. Perhaps you should gaze upon it tomorrow with your son and daughters.
As if the babies summoned by the end of Jewel’s speech, my daughters began to cry. A priestess brings the two girls wrapped in pink blankets. I take my daughters into my arms kneeling for little Patrick to see. He has a bright smile looking into his sisters faces. The priestess leads the four of us back to Isabel and we share a long kiss that gives Isabel her strength and health back. The priestess does not object to Isabel leaving with me as we take our children up to our new quarters.
Jewel and companions all accompany us, and the two of us get the retelling of Jewel and Eldeone’s tale. Isabel giggles and says, “I learned Elvish as a young child, my mother said I picked it up as easy as an elf.”
I am not sure if one soul receives their body on the moment you are born or sooner, either way it is not beyond the possibility given the abilities of Aphrodite. Ines has the same green eyes the old high priestess had. Everyone knows your eyes are the windows to your soul. Jewel has tears of joy looking into Ines’ eyes. Isabel and I do not need to ask our shared question, the answer is on Jewel’s face. Our daughter has the sole reborn of Ines. Perhaps that is why we felt the sting of her loss so greatly in the Inn of the fallen Oak.
She would have been my beloved sister in a lifetime before, now she is my daughter I will cherish. Ines will have greater healing art than nearly anyone had before, both magic and herb, potion and salve. Her art of healing will be nearly miraculous, and be a true gift to the world. Knowledge like that I know comes from the goddess, another gift.
Our friends and companions stay with us for a while. Ruth and Ben join us with their little boy. Isabel and I give Ben and Ruth one of the shares from our campaign earlier this evening. Ben rejects before I tell him it is for his son. It is not as if Isabel and I are short of money. Their son coming in the world prevented them from coming with us. We all explain to them how boring it really was, just sitting the jars and dropping one to explode the rest.
Bill laughing as he remembers says, “It was surprise seeing how large the explosion was, especially to the four drow who come to see why the gate had closed. They could not have been there more than two seconds before boom and they found themselves in the afterlife.”
Gabriel begins laughing and says, “The last group through the gate did not even turn around just start to run south as fast as they could, as if hell itself was chasing them.”
Ben finally laughs and says, “By the time they get to their encampment and spread the story how the gate was destroyed their going to be so scared of their own shadow. If we let them march to within a mile of Dead Man’s Pass and then set off a large enough explosion to take out the first two or three ranks. The rest will try to run back and dig the gate out.”
Sparrow laughs and says, “I doubt it still exist, but if they run that far I think I can make a gate to send them home if Isabel and Julius helps. Perhaps they will lose their love of war.”
With a smile I say, “Of course we will help, it would be much easier to allow them to retreat never to return. It would really be nice for them to lose their love of war too.”
Father not so lighthearted says, “It may be best just to end their miserable lives. I sought to end their leadership, we know they never return and under fifty years. Nevertheless, here they are again on our doorstep a large number of them returned to their world obviously. The only thing different now is there is no gate to our world. They do not bring their females, so no matter if, it is long or short, their race is doomed. We have on this world our own drow to deal with, that will be hard enough.”
King Sky sharing my father’s point says, “The drow are not alone, they are many dark men who follow them, the men who chosen to worship the same Gods as the drow.”
His words bring back a memory and I say, “The ships Isabel and I destroyed, the men aboard were dark men. Their souls were evil and black as the gods they worship.”
Father asks, “Those who were in Edmonton where those also dark men?”
I answer father, “Some were, although most only served those that were. The necromancer and the soul that inhabited Duke Duncan definitely was a dark man. If they all were dark men, their coming would been too easily detected. Most humans have some darkness within them, unfortunately. However, most humans recognize their own darkness and fight against it. The dark men embrace their darkness fighting against the light within themselves.”
King Sky looking directly at Eldeone says, “That is true for the elves as well. Fortunately, humans and elves have very little darkness in them to start. It is easy for the light within them to defeat their own darkness.”
Granite smiles as he looks at us. In a soft voice for him he says, “The dwarves long ago, battled the darkness within ourselves. Living underground and having darkness within is difficult. We nearly fell to our own darkness that is when the goddess Jewel showed us how to create light within ourselves. We as a people won the fight. Our people no longer carry the darkness. Nevertheless, it was not an easy battle, and if it were not for the goddess Jewel far more would have fallen.”
Little Patrick stretches sleepily then lays his head against my chest as he closes his eyes. Granite chuckles before he says, “Little pup sleep well. Tomorrow is another day for us to share. Little pup has the right idea it is time for sleep. Out all you let the little fella sleep.”
Like normal little Patrick was the first awake. We had not even noticed the true luxury of our rooms until morning. A thick wool carpet was upon the floor of the bedchamber. Furniture even better and the bed is wider, than what we had in New Cowan. Off the main bedroom, a deep set of closets, a bath with the shower and a bathing pool. Excellently made cribs in the elfish style hold the twin girls. In his own room, Patrick has a dresser with in a closet, his bed nearly as wide as ours in New Cowan, a chair in the corner with a table. Outside our bedchamber is a medium-sized but comfortable room, set of couches, with a few comfortable high backed chairs. The furniture seems to be a blend of all three cultures the chairs are elfish design, the couches human design, the tables of dwarf’s design, others would find it strange that all three designs complement each other.
The high priestess of each race greets us at our door, we know each except for the dwarf high priestess and her name is Dawn. It is rather common that the priestesses of the goddess have names that referred to her. It is rather a unique name for a dwarf, they live underground and some never have seen the sun, let alone a dawn.
On our way down to breakfast, we meet Chisel who smiles at as brightly. He asks, “How did you like the waterfall bath?”
I realize he means the shower, dwarves living underground call a rainstorm the waterfall from clouds. Smiling I replied, “It was most refreshing.” Isabel blushes because I spent the entire time we were within it caressing her body.
Chisel chuckles and says, “I wish I could remember making them. Me wife already wants me to add one to me home.”
Isabel smiles and says, “Ask the goddess perhaps she was share the knowledge with you again.”
Dawn the dwarf high priestess hands Chisel of parchment. As he unfurls it, she says, “The goddess knew of your wife’s wish and has provided you the knowledge you would request.”
Chisel smiles and says, “Perhaps this knowledge will create a new house among our people. I will need to make a copy for the great library. Please excuse me.”
The three priestesses giggle as Chisel runs back to his room. Dawn the dwarf high priestess says, “In a few years all of Undermount will have plumbing. Chisel is correct. A new house will be formed called Plumbers among the dwarves. Their profession will require the aid of either human or elf wizard. Our high Council will change some things, allowing other races to visit Undermount.”
I ask a question of Dawn, “How is it that I am allowed to travel freely in the dwarves’ tunnels?”
Dawn smiles, “Granite’s orders, and the Counsel named you dwarfing on your seventeenth year, after standing at the shoulder of our King in battle, defending his life with your own.”
I chuckle and say, “Of course, I would defend him with my life. The goddess has given me great men to educate me. First was a simple farmer who I only know as Daddy, he taught me humility and kindness is a strength. The next was my uncle Justin, who taught me power no matter great was not absolute. Granite has been like my own father in many ways, he taught me patience, forgiveness, and the ax. Then the goddess restored my birthright, and reintroduced me to my father. By his example even before meeting him, he taught me that a great leader sacrifice much for his people.”
Continuing I say, “They all taught me that a father’s love is a precious thing. They show pride in me, even King Sky, something I would never do anything to tarnish. Isabel and I are the messengers of the goddess. As the messengers we serve all three races, all of the goddess’ children.”
Jewel says, “Isabel kiss your husband for the goddess. Julius kiss Isabel for the goddess.”
Isabel hands Ines to Jewel, and Carissa to Dawn, little Patrick moves to stand beside Dawn the dwarf high priestess, and they give each other a warm hug. Isabel and I embrace each other giving each other a passionate kiss. The glow seems to surround us before moving both up and down the stairwell filling the entire temple with the light of the goddess.
When we finally break our kiss, the three priestesses giggle escorting us to breakfast. Entering the dining hall, there are two head tables Father and Granite are giving the telling of our mission the day before. Ben walks over to us, leading us to a table near the King’s table. After Father and Granite finish the story, Ben turns to me and says, “A boring mission right.”
Laughing I say, “It had a bit of suspense, then a little excitement when we dropped the jar.”
Ruth giggles and says, “To hear your father described the ruins they were nearly as large as New Cowan. Now nothing remains after twenty jars explode within their heart.”
Isabel shrugs her shoulders and says, “Perhaps not quite as large as New Cowan, but near. We will need no more than four carpets with crates for the jars to deal with the ships.”
In a quiet voice, I tell Ben, “Look around Ben, there is no fear or worry now. Remember when Gabriel gave the news. How different the faces in this place look to those in the fallen Oak. They see us not as defeated like before, now hope and confidence has displaced despair. It has done more for our victory than anything before.”
Ben looks around then slowly nods his head, as a smile crosses his face. Ruth embraces her husband and gives him a kiss as she says, “Our son will live to grow into a man, my husband.”
Isabel smiles before she says, “The two of you will give him brothers and sisters.”
I realize Ben worries too much, but he does a good job of keeping Isabel and I out of trouble. He sees all the bad things that could come and strives for us to avoid them. He is our true friend and protector. Ben does for me, what I do for the world.
Eldeone smiles and says, “Our actions did not seem so great before, it seemed as what needed doing.”
Jewel giggles, “Spoken like a true hero. Heroes never see their actions as heroic only as necessary.”
Eldeone chuckles and says, “It seems like I was only along for the ride, although I did help place jars.”
I smile and say, “If we had taken longer, you would have to strike down a drow mage. From all the stories, I understand it is not an easy thing.”
Eldeone says, “My sword will taste the blood of the dark ones, sooner or later I will be forced to fight.”
Ben says, “That is assured, but now hope rules where despair did before. We will win this fight together.”
That seemed to set the tone, for not only us but also our entire continent. The three races came together working for our common good.
Be found out of our other seven allies only two were free of the dark influences. Those two were the weakest, and we provided them more in defense than they could us. Therefore, the victory rested on our shoulders.
The only good thing we realized as we watch the port of Izmira that the enemy was gathering their entire forces to move against us. Each day more and more ships arrived, and fewer departed. Now hundreds of ships were in the harbor of Izmira, so many ships were there that others harbor nearby in sheltered coves.
We knew the time drew near, as they begin to load their ships with provisions. It may take weeks before they finish, but I fear that our time is less than what we need.
Isabel and I, along with sparrow have trained many wizards on how to control carpets, Isabel and I have created many in taught others to do the same. Each day new supplies arrive, carpets made by the elves arrive for us to enchant, and arrows and other supplies arrived by the Shipload.
The islands’ forest totally consumed except that the mages replace trees taken. Carpets from the house of Morgan arrive daily carrying the more crucial items. Among the items they carry are the chemicals for the alchemist, the jars, and more food.
Eldeone got a shock. He really likes the dwarves cooking. He and Granite found they both had more in common because of that. I simply said to Eldeone, “It is good to try something new, a few hundred years of eating the same food has to be boring.”
They both found that they like human dishes as well. Humans tend to use different herbs than the elves, making even a similar item like beef or venison taste very different.
Our time in discovery proved too short. We watched as the last ship was loaded, and troops begin to embark, by the map we could since they were all dark men or drow. We knew they would depart on the coming tide. It would give them the deepest draft through the Straits. We had five crates ready, loaded with the shark fins jars.
Gabriel and Bill had their archers ready, ten large carpets holding fifty archers each. Each archer with two hundred arrows at their disposal, along with special arrows magically enchanted to burn through the decks and planks leaving gaping holes in a ship.
It was just past the winter solstice, and the coldest part of the year in New Cowan. North of dead man’s pass the orcs huddled in their encampments. None of their encampments was more than a few thousand orcs, but their fire seen from east horizon to the west. Camped among the orcs where the drow, their rich looking tents a stark contrast to the orcs. The weather there have been cold, and they show no sign of moving until it warmed.
As the first ships departed, we loaded the crates knowing we had a couple hours until the first ships would reach the near end of the Straits of Izmira. Sparrow handed each of us a small mirror, only four inches across with a smile he said, “Each carpet’s commander will have a mirror, and we will coordinate our strikes.”
I began our briefing before we depart knowing we have an hour. I say, “Today we will face the dark ones. The enemy that come in ships to our lands to destroy our people are dark men and drow. They would show us no mercy. Keep your carpets out of their range, rain death upon them by jar or arrow. When they are their most vulnerable, we will strike. Strike them not in hatred. We do this for the love of our people they deserve our protection. Make your shots clean, and their deaths quick. We are few but we are powerful, together we stand, together we fight together we will be victorious!”
Those assembled shout, “TOGETHER, TOGETHER, TOGETHER!”
We climb aboard our carpets. Sparrow and I open to teleport spells, and the carpets fly through each in two columns.
Sparrow, Brook, Bill, Ben and Ruth are bored one carpet along with a group of archers. Gabriel, Martin and Samuel are bored another carpet with a crate of jars. Gabriel seems have a talent at hitting his mark when directing the two big man. A group of archers also rides with them.
Isabel and I, Eldeone, Chisel and Granite are on one carpet. The carpet is a brilliant red and easy to see even from a great distance. We are to direct the fire from the others carpets, and draw the fire away from them. Eldeone will direct the two dwarves to throw the jars at the proper time. Chisel and Granite insisted on coming, the dwarves having no other representatives in this battle. I warned that the dwarves would have too much responsibility in holding dead man’s pass. Nevertheless, the two are here.
The first ships near the exit of the Straits, one slows to allow the other all of the narrowest part of the channel. Isabel and I dive our carpet moving very quickly we passed by the side of the ship both on leasing lightning bolts that ripped the ship’s planking away. We change our course quickly avoiding the arrows fired from the other ship as the first sinks coming to rest in the center of the channel. The sunken ship’s rigging nearly thirty feet above the water. Several bright colored flags now show on the second ship.
Instead of diving on the ship, Isabel and I fly a crossed had a very high altitude. Eldeone directs Chisel and Granite to toss one of the jars at the proper time, the other carpets are moving into position, three are moving to the rear of the column that enter the straight shortly. The jar hits a deck hatch and it buckles as the jar crashes through. Beneath the deck, an explosion lifts the ship nearly three feet from the water. That ship is on the bottom faster than the one Isabel and I attacked. The third ship of the column tries to sail past, only to be struck by jar when is directly beside the second ship. It sinks quickly and further jams the channel closed.
We can hear explosions from the rear of the column, and rigging seem to sink only a few feet still dragging the ship across the bottom of the channel. There is a wide area in the middle, and ship seemed to try to turn only to run into each other. Cries of panic mark were ships damaged so badly they begin to sink. Now explosions ring out from near the center of the straight, and the panic increases. Some ships tried to lower lifeboats, only to have other ships smash into their side destroying their small craft.
Our archers seem to zero in on the helmsman. Those ships strike the reef having their bottom ripped from them. Some seem to tumble back into the channel their rigging catching other ships. Our enemy is in a panic, there crews abandoning perfectly good ships, the panic sailors preferring to brave the reefs to the unknown enemy.
The battle goes on for a while possibly two hours; very few ships choose to surrender raising a white flag after setting their anchor. Those few ships we ignore. At the end of the battle, we gather our carpets. Upon our gathering, a huge wave crosses the straight caring all ships towards the land. Those at anchor lifted smoothly and deposit inside the reef. Those wrecked seem to choke the channel even more. None of the large ships will be able to sell through for a very long time.
If our carnage had not been bad enough, those who braved the reef now find themselves under attack by sharks. Dark man and drow alike find no shelter from the sharks. We leave them to the faith the gods have chosen for them. Again, Sparrow and I cast our spell of teleportation and we are again above Hound Island.
Landing on the large square, Granite and Chisel happily depart the carpet. As just before we left, the assembled shout, “TOGETHER, TOGETHER, TOGETHER VICTORY!”
Those gathered to see our arrival echo our cheer.
Father and King Sky call for silence from the steps of the palace. When the gathered crowd following fall silent father begins, “Today we won a great victory. This day shall always be known as our first victory in the name of the allies. All three races took part. All three races can claim victory together!”
The cheer rings out from the assembled, “TOGETHER, TOGETHER, TOGETHER VICTORY!”
Father and King Sky again call for silence. When the gathered crowd is silent, King Sky begins his speech, “Today our enemy has seen our true power. They found themselves wanting against it. Together we will use that power. Together we will find victory again. Together we will end these cycles of war. Together we will have a final victory and a peace that will last long past our grandchildren’s time.”
The assembled cheer loudly again, “TOGETHER, TOGETHER, TOGETHER VICTORY!”

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More introduction to the Place and People and set up for future than a full story.

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