§
I stayed on my back but turned my head to face Lady Serera. She remained on her back as well, with only her head turned toward us, showing no sign of waking, but she had clearly spoken, just then.
Aunt Elianora demanded, “How are you awake?”
The last healer to visit had put everything she had into a [Sleep] spell, because Elianora wanted Serera to spend some extended time under sedation to enhance her pneuma recovery. Her blood loss was not as bad as mine, but she suffered from severe pneuma starvation. She had overextended her life force with a prolonged [Perseverance] spell in order to limp back from several hundred miles to the south, only able to fly in short hops of a mile or two in her wounded state.
I had seen how much mana the healer used. A normal patient would have remained out until morning.
Serera’s eyes fluttered open, but only her lips moved as she answered, “Most of me is still as asleep as the healer intended. I heard an interesting conversation, so I woke enough of myself to participate.”
The terms ‘awake’ and ‘asleep’ normally don’t apply to fractions of oneself. My face probably showed the retort I wanted to make, because she smiled weakly at me and gave a faint, “ohohohohoho.”
As Elianora circled my cot to go check on her, Rod went around the other direction. Elianora picked up her wrist to feel her pulse while Rod took a knee between our cots.
“My Lady, we have a more pressing matter to discuss,” he said. “As you seem to be stronger now…”
“She is not,” Aunt Elianora interrupted, with a sharp voice.
A surprised Rod looked up with raised eyebrows. She pursed her lips, apparently only that moment remembering she was addressing a prince.
While laying Serera’s wrist back on the cot, she bowed her head slightly and continued, “Please pardon me, Your Highness. We physicians generally ignore etiquette when our minds are on our patient’s health.”
She laid her hand on Serera’s chest, concentrated for a moment, nodded and explained, “This woman has a long way to go before recovery. She’s using a mental technique which I don’t understand. Her body is still quite asleep. But doing this is consuming her energy rather than recovering it. Please conclude this interview as rapidly as you can, as I want her to stop.”
“It’s called sleep-talking,” Serera explained as her eyelids drooped and closed. “If one is dextrous enough, one can use it to good purpose. Your Highness, I can only speak for a short time. Quickly ask your questions.”
“We’ve confirmed by divination that my father has died, My Lady. What about Deharè?”
“Do you have it, My Lady?” she asked me rather than answering him.
“The amulet?” I wondered, then felt for my belt-wallet before remembering I wasn’t wearing it. “I’m not holding it, but it’s in my sword harness.”
Lady Serera didn’t respond at first, and I began wondering if she was done. Rod pursed his lips, probably controlling the temptation to rouse her. But at last, she spoke again.
“A god spoke to me,” she declared. “He said Deharè can live again, if it reaches your hand.”
My throat tightened as the dull worry within me suddenly grew much sharper. “Live… again?”
“I killed three of those bitches and rescued His Majesty,” was her non-sequitur continuation. “But then… that came.”
Rod wondered aloud, “Is she answering questions that she’s hearing in her dream?”
“Ah…” she responded. “Sorry. A thing neither alive nor physical appeared. A cloud of mana. Mostly Darkness. I can’t describe it better.”
“Hm…” he glanced at me. I nodded. It sounded like Astaroth’s proxy to me, too.
“It was just before Deharè arrived. She somehow homed in on her lover’s location. But… that thing… what hideous power it had…”
The fairy knight faded and began emitting faint snores. Rod blew a bit of air out between his lips. This conversation was trying his normally somewhat thin patience.
“What did she mean, ‘live again’?” I asked. My voice was shaking.
Rod took hold of my hand and squeezed. “Your mother surely can’t be dead. Perhaps she’s trapped somewhere.”
“She’s dead,” Serera contradicted flatly, suddenly back again. “She shielded us with her last breath. She succeeded, but it was too late. His Majesty was hurt too badly…”
She’s dead… Those words echoed repeatedly in my mind. The words that were hinted in previous statements had finally been said. I shook my head, wanting to deny it.
How could Mother be dead? Mother was insanely strong.
“My Lady,” Elianora said, raising her voice. “If you can hear me, please stop this.”
“My healing wasn’t enough…” the fairy knight softly mourned.
“You are pushing yourself too hard, My Lady,” Elianora told her sternly.
“God said… live again… but she’s clearly dead,” Serera mumbled. “I don’t understand… how can she…”
“My Lady, I’m calling for another healer if you don’t stop,” Elianora warned her.
“Relic of Gaia…” she whispered.
That phrase set up an echo in my memory, of words recently spoken to me.
Once your mother’s treasure falls into your hand, pray to Gaia.
“I understand, My Lady,” I told her. “We’ll take it from here. The doctor says you must rest. Please go back to sleep.”
“… already asleep…” she retorted with a light giggle. It might have been a hohoho but it was so light I couldn’t tell.
“A relic of Gaia,” I repeated, looking up at Rod.
“What do you mean, you understand?” Rod asked. “Does that mean something to you?”
I nodded, but the reasons it meant something were complex, and I would have to explain many things before giving my answer. I came to a decision. It was time to tell Rod.
I spoke for a long time, but I remained flat on my back, simply keeping my head turned toward him. Eventually, he returned to the chair, but he moved it to between my cot and Serera’s, in case she spoke again. While he sat and listened to me, Aunt Elianora continued to hover over Serera, regularly taking her pulse or casting her diagnostic spell. When checking, she would give a disapproving scowl and shake of the head. It seems Serera, despite being asleep, was still paying attention to our conversation.
At the end of my words, the prince wore a complicated frown. Naturally, given the content of what I had just told him, he should have some serious misgivings at the moment. My heart hurt a little, knowing he could no longer see me in the same way. And knowing that he was now dealing with the fact that another of his precious loved ones had died.
“Did Dad know?” he asked.
“I actually don’t know,” I answered frankly. “I told Allia, and I told Mother. One of them might have reported it to him. But he never changed how he treated me, so perhaps they didn’t.”
“So your mother knew?”
I nodded. “She knew from the start. She could tell that I wasn’t her daughter.”
“It didn’t trouble her?”
I pursed my lips, recalling her original reaction.
“It troubled her considerably,” I said. “She nearly killed me. But she seemed to suddenly change her mind at one point. She never told me why.”
In retrospect, I had realized at some point that it was a big mystery why she began treating me as her daughter. My best guess was that her other grandmother had spoken to her. It felt like an action Eurybia would take.
“I had no choice but to continue the deception, Your Highness,” I told him. “Heaven placed me in this body to receive a heroic destiny of critical importance to the people of this kingdom. I must continue to live as Tiana in order to fulfill it.”
The prince was quiet for a while, then finally asked, “What is your real name?”
The corners of my mouth tightened. I had described myself as Deharè’s grandmother, so the name that made sense was one I had avoided calling myself until now.
“Senhion,” I stated. “It’s a name from the Xa-Ne… from the Ancient Fairy language. My son Oberon is the man you know as the Fairy King. That makes Deharè my grandchild and your Tiana my great-grandchild.”
His face twisted with anger and frustration. “If the gods could just put another soul in her body, why couldn’t they just put her own soul back?”
I gave a sigh. The complexities of the Afterlife, Samsara, the Immortal Realms, all would require too much time to explain.
“Your Highness… the myriad worlds and Heaven are far broader and more varied than what even the scholars of this world understand. The gods that you know are not the lords of everything. They are just the administrators of this one small planet. They don’t have the power you are imagining. They have rules that must be followed, because they too must bow to the Law of Heaven.”
“What law?” he retorted, clearly still upset. “What arbitrary law would allow them to push your soul into her body but wouldn’t allow them to use her own soul for the purpose? What sense does that make?”
He was trying to apply lawyer-like logic to it, I noticed. He had been receiving legal instruction since childhood.
I had to think through my answer carefully. It wasn’t like I could quote from legislation written in Ostish.
“Translated into mortal terms, the relevant law would go something like this: ‘Those of Heaven must never impede the advancement of those who reside in the Mortal Realm’. The Immortals can guide, assist, train, encourage… any act of benefit is allowed, but acts of hindrance are forbidden. They indeed had the right, and even a good reason, to perform a miracle and give her back to you, Your Highness, but your beloved little sister had a path forward of greater benefit to herself than returning to her body. That path forward was therefore of higher priority, and they could not stand in her way.”
“And what about you?” Rod demanded. “If this life wasn’t good enough for her, how could a woman ten thousand years older than her benefit from being here?”
My lips curled up. On the face of it, that made sense. “My soul seems to have been on a long journey of healing, Your Highness. Returning to an Elder body was the final step. It seems, in the original plan for my return, that I would have been born as Tiana’s daughter for that purpose. I would have been your daughter, in other words. It would have been a little over two years from now, as I understand it.”
That news caught Rod off-guard. Aunt Elianora grew a slightly wry smirk, seeing his reaction.
“Don’t worry,” I teased. “Due to the way things worked out, I won’t be calling you Daddy.”
His eyes told me it was a bad time for humor. Right. I felt the same way.
The time-out to describe my relationship with the gods, necessary in order to explain how I could have conversations with Eurybia, had allowed my heart to hide from my churning emotions over Serera’s news about Mother. I still needed a more detailed report from her before I could actually believe it… and it didn’t help that the amulet and Serera’s claims about it were still giving me an out, a way to deny the report of Mother’s death. Naturally, my heart wasn’t letting go of that.
“I need to make one thing clear, Your Highness. I inherited Tiana’s emotions and memories concerning your family and Mother, and everyone else she knew. I see you as my brother, just as she did. But I will understand and cooperate without protest, if you choose to file for divorce over this. I am not your true beloved, after all.”
He scowled hard at that. But he didn’t immediately reject the idea. Obviously, he needed to think it through.
“Aunt Elianora, can you bring out the amulet? It’s in my belt-wallet.”
“You stay with your patient, Doctor,” Rod said as he rose. “I’ll get it.”
He returned with the item, and handed it to me. I turned it over in my hand, inspecting it carefully.
“This is the so-called relic of Gaia,” I told him. “I originally thought it was fairy-made, but Eurybia told me Gaia made it.”
“Eurybia told you,” he repeated, with an air of skepticism. Or at least, of not necessarily accepting my words for fact.
“I do not lie to you, Your Highness,” I stated firmly. “Regardless of what you see me as, in my heart you are still my elder brother.”
He didn’t respond. My heart felt a kind of pain I hadn’t felt since being in this position with Mother.
I put my mind on the ‘relic of Gaia’ instead. I turned it over in my hand a few more times, giving it a long look from every angle with my fairy sight. It really was different now than before.
It now held traces of Mother’s aura.
