290 289. Of homes, consequences and a little present

Cassandra Pendragon 

"Could you start over again," I said, my eyes never leaving Ahri and Brianna, who were submerged in the azure waters, barely a stone throw away. "From the beginning, please." 

Pete smacked his lips in visual appreciation of the food Ahri had organised while I had been flying all over Free Land. We hadn't talked but she had simply gone ahead and assumed I'd return with a bunch of famished strangers, which had turned out to be spot on. Well, I had only returned with one, but the rest of the posse hadn't been too far behind. They could truly be quick on their feet, if they wanted to, and by now Violet, Amos, Jimmy and Kali were slowly but noisily munching their way through strips of cured meat and fresh fruits, courtesy of my winged darling. The fragrant cherry blossoms behind them even managed to drown out the rather acquired smell, wafting around my nose every time a soft breeze rustled the leaves of the trees.

While they were filling their bellies and Brianna was slowly regaining some colour, her pain and weakness washed away while Ahri made sure she wouldn't drown, I pulled Pete to the side. There were a few questions I wanted answered and since we were simply waiting for his young charge to open her eyes again or the first of the Captains to arrive, now was probably the best time to get to the bottom of this mess. I was mainly interested in when she had been hurt, something more accurate than "about a week ago", why he had chosen to contact me through one of his little friends and how he had managed to remain oblivious to what we had done. As far as I knew most of the dwarfs and kitsune had spent their night and most of their morning drumming up Free Land and inviting them to our little corner of peace, quiet and magic. Unless he had been stuck under a rock he must have realised something was up. Also, I simply couldn't imagine that he had just visited them for the first time after returning. We had been in town for almost 10 days by now but the first time I had heard about his miniature troops had been today. Why would he keep them a secret, especially if the needed help?

With a content smile he watched as blue, iridescent waters swirled around his protégée, her head held aloft by an elegant hand while tiny sparks materialised, dancing across her skin for a moment, before they vanished into her. "Sometimes you're a bit slow on the uptake, aren't you," he replied, chuckling. "Of course I've visited them before, while you were under, dealing with whatever magical nonsense your body went through after you defeated the Mask, but they were fine, back then, and as soon as you woke up… Well, I don't have to tell you how many hellholes we've had to wade through, since then, do I? It was only yesterday, when you decided to take a night off, which has turned into another friggin disaster, I might add, that I thought I had the time to spare. When I arrived… you've seen her yourself. I was decently sure you or one of the others would be able to cure her, but I wasn't going to leave her side. Hells, I've pulled the girl from the gutter when she was nothing more than a handful of bones, bundle up in filthy skin. If she wasn't going to… you know, make it, I wanted to be there, if only to hold her hand. I owe her that much. Luckily Jimmy is a tad more pragmatic and quite a bit bolder than me. It didn't take much to convince him to carry a message to you, especially when I had told him what you look like. I didn't expect he'd have to sneak past bearded guards in mithril armour, though. I thought you'd still be hauled up at the "Gilded Dream", maybe even sleeping though the day."

"No… something came up."

"It always does, at least where you're concerned. Wanna tell me what, exactly?" I shrugged and used one of my wings to steal a small strawberry from the basket behind us. Chewing slowly I mumbled through the sweet taste: 

"Brightblaze. The older one is trying to wed the younger one to Asra, uniting their resources. I expect they think we'd support them, considering they'd represent the strongest force around here, combining his money and her soldiers. I wasn't particularly keen on being blackmailed, even though I do see the appeal, especially with Amon already knocking on the doors. Anyways, we've… well, to be fair, I've decided to try something else. Even while we speak the waters over there are slowly dripping through the earth, infusing everything they touch with magic, potent enough to cure wounds and maybe even ignite the spark within some. I'm just not sure if that's actually brilliant or about as shortsighted as it can get." He whistled through his teeth.

"Are you telling me this… spring can do something even the most powerful mages of old thought impossible?"

"When have you become that educated? I thought you'd have trouble reading a book, never mind actually memorising its contents. But yes… don't tell me you're surprised. By now you must have gotten used to our special brand of insanity."

"I do take offence, I'll have you know. I'm just as literate as the next guy you pick up in the streets. And I've probably read more than you, considering how much you actually hate doing anything that's even remotely boring. I'm not surprised, though, not really, but I'm just as doubtful as you are. I… truth be told, while I'm glad like all hells that you can just cure Bri with a bath, I don't think that was one of your brighter moments. Back where you're from it might have worked, but here…" his words trailed off and he shot me a quizzical look from underneath his stringy hair, urging me to explain what I had been thinking. Unfortunately, by now, I wasn't so sure anymore myself.

"I know… do you think they'll tear each other apart to control the pond?" He shrugged.

"Maybe… most likely. What are you going to do about it?"

"Have Alassara stand guard? Her and a bunch of her newly turned. The Madame and her girls seem more than eager to join her and if she's willing…"

"Which would bring my town under the yoke of vampires… again, I might add."

"Well, if you can't play nice by yourselves, someone has to keep the peace. Honestly, she isn't half bad. In comparison to some of your race I've already met she's even full of sunshine and rainbows. In a very dark, you should better do what she says, kind of way. Have you even talked to her?"

"Not really… but it doesn't matter, either way, does it? She could be a saint, all hugs and kisses underneath her fangs, and it still wouldn't fly. I'm going to be blunt. Putting her in charge of," he gesticulated vaguely, "this is pretty much the same as putting a crown on her head. Don't know about you but us humans don't tend to play nice, as you put it, if we're forced to bow our heads to a stranger, especially if it isn't her strength but yours that made it possible." He shrugged and added: "she's probably powerful enough to meet the challenges but the way I see it, there'll be blood and pain and suffering until she's proven her own mettle. Is that what you want?"

"Of course not, but what am I supposed to do? She'll be a far cry better than an obese trader who only thinks with his wallet or his groin."

"You could… you know, settle down. I'm pretty sure all of this would end, if everyone knew you were going to stick around." I sighed, just as much from frustration as a gnawing feeling that I had already known. It wasn't exactly rocket science, I just hadn't wanted to face the truth.

"He's right, you know," a new, somewhat leafy voice reached my ears. I had already heard and smelled Auguros a while ago but preoccupied as I had been, it hadn't truly registered. The best part, he wasn't even alone. Now that I actually focused on my senses I could clearly discern Erya's scent and Morgan's light steps. "I've been thinking for a while and… well, do you even want to listen to what I've got to say?"

"Sure, why not? When has your advice ever turned out to be anything but flawless," I asked with the faintest hint of trepidation in my voice. I wasn't exactly keen on another, self proclaimed prophet to meddle with my life.

"Ouch, but I guess I deserve as much. Just so we're clear, though, this isn't some convoluted scheme of mine, but I truly think you've forgotten an important part." He had reached us by now and was settling down, a ripe, red apple in his hand. "I'm talking about the portals Alassara and her late brother mentioned, on more than one occasion. What I'm getting at… does it truly matter to you where that seed, you've been lugging across creation for a while now, actually blooms?"

I hesitated and before I could muster a reply, someone else joined the conversation. "You know," Morgan said through a smile, her arm wrapped around her grandmother. Was everyone going to say their piece? I could hardly blame them, somehow, somewhen the whole bunch of nosy misfits had become my family. "Before you answer, there's something else I… we want you to know. Wherever you've gone, whatever you've found, you've still managed to pull everyone around you closer, step by step. It's about time you stopped hiding. You've said it yourself, on more than one occasion. Why are you still afraid of… claiming a throne?" I was already marshalling a bunch of arguments why that would never happen, when I felt a soft, warm hand on my shoulder. Erya was smiling at me mischievously and hurriedly explained:

"What my granddaughter wants to say, even though she hasn't found the right words, is this: you might not be able to use your magic to change this world or even this town, but you sure as all hells can use it to reclaim what once was yours. Boseiju might have burned but what he stood for is still alive… thanks to you."

"Have you been conspiring behind my back," I asked exasperatedly without turning around.

"Behind your back? No. But that scheme of yours, you presented last night, had all of us thinking. Even your royal brothers. Why do you think they aren't here? And before you get your tails in a twist, the two of them are, right now, at Brightblaze's mansion, explaining politely why she will be shit out of luck if she decides to cross them, or you for that matter. You had the right idea, but it needed some tweaking and since you've been busy bleeding all over the place, once again, I might add, the rest of us decided to… let's say make sure you're not going to crash and burn. Cassy… if you want to change something, you've got to stick around, you've got to be there, you've got to live and breathe with the people you're fighting for. Luckily you've got the means to be almost everywhere at once, at least as soon as you get your magic to work properly. Why not start here? You'll have much less trouble with a decapitated city in turmoil than you'll have with an ancient society at war with my people. Do you really think a tree, grown from the essence of two immortals and fed by an ancient kitsune, who taught you, won't be able to dig its roots into more than just one place? Once it blooms, I'm sure you can just… plant another seedling. There won't even be the need of manmade portals. You've got all the answers you need right in your pocket. Why are you so reluctant to use them." I huffed indignantly but answered truthfully, never the less.

"Because there's much more tied to it than you can imagine. The seed, just as much as everything else form my past… if I fully embrace it, I'll be running down a rabbit hole the likes of which you can't even fathom. I'm scared, scared that I won't be able to…"

"Keep us safe," the infuriating fey laughed. "Honey… do we really have to jump through the same hoops you already went through with your brother? We're not your toys, nor your children, even though I must say I'd quite like to call you mommy, but that's beside the point."

"Is that why you're all here? To talk some sense into me?" I chose to ignore her ribbing.

"Well, Auguros and I have also come for a bath," Morgan quipped, "but seeing the tub taken we thought we could use the delay. In all seriousness, though, do you think we're wrong?" I sighed deeply and moved my tails into a more comfortable position. I even closed my eyes for a moment and concentrated on the smell of herbs and cherry blossoms. Damn it, I already felt at home in this little grove and while I had never admitted as much, not even to myself, I loathed the idea of letting it go, of allowing someone else to decide what would happen with the first real piece of magic we had ever created. This was ours, Ahri's and mine.

"Unfortunately no. In that case there's something else that might help and I should probably show you, once Ahri is back…" while I had been talking the vixen in question was just leaving the pond, a drenched but entirely healthy and snoring girl in her arms.

"No need to wait, then," she said with a smile and handed her living burden over to Pete who, tears pooling in his eyes, was accepting her shakily. She cut his stammered thanks off brusquely and add: "I can also do it, if you want me to. I think your magic will listen to me."

"You know what I'm talking about," I asked, slightly taken aback. But then again, she was a wee bit cleverer than me. Most of the time, at least. 

She leaned into me and stole a kiss, water dripping onto me while her energies flowed through our tattoos and she breathed against my lips: "open sesame." We only received a couple of blank stares but they changed quickly enough when I felt power rushing through my core, my eyes ablaze with silvery light. Damn it, all I could do was pray that I actually had known what I had been doing when I had enchanted the little gizmo. Otherwise this might yet blow up in our faces, quite literally, and judging from the amount of energy I was losing with every heartbeat it wouldn't be a minor explosion. 

Luckily I had been a tad more capable in my past and without so much as a wasted spark a cube made from silver materialised between Ahri and me, revolving around itself for the fraction of a second before it fell into my lap with a soft thud. Breathlessly I picked the little thing up, marvelling at its sparkling lustre and surprising weight while our friends exchanged worried glances. They had seen my magic but they couldn't know what had happened since I had only told Ahri what I had crafted, all those years ago in the far reaches of the Himalaya. That they didn't bombarded us with questions was a testimony to how much they had actually come to trust us. Or they simply didn't care since all we had apparently done was conjure a shiny box from thin air, an impressive magic trick for sure, but hardly worth much attention.

Until filigree, almost imperceptible runes started glowing all along its sides, their complexity easily rivalling anything I had seen before. This time, though, they weren't fiendishly intricate to compensate for a lack of strength but rather to contain the swelling, transcendent forces circling through the runes. For the first time in my life I saw a formation created by an immortal at the peak of his power and it was humbling. To realise how far I still had to go to even approach this kind of knowledge, of understanding, never mind the sheer, undiluted strength contained in each and every stroke, was daunting but, at the same time, exhilarating, a glimpse at what I might once become in the future, should I have the time to truly get to know my own abilities. 

With a sound like breaking glass the runes pulsed ones, twice and receded into the pristine metal, as if they hadn't even been there to begin with. Only the scent and taste of unspent power, still lingering in the air, like a haze after a warm summer rain, and the wide eyed look on the faces surrounding me proof of what had happened. I had finally claimed a part of what was mine.