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I sat frozen for several seconds, my heart hammering in my chest as I stared at the apparition before me. I had only begun thinking of her as gone…
Mother grew a small smile, as if she were able to read my thoughts, then simply held her arms open and waited.
Somewhere within me, the thoughts and emotions of the original Tiana, perhaps of a Tiana only seven or eight years old, broke loose and overwhelmed me. Before I had thought it over, without considering in the least that I was in the middle of having coffee with a goddess, I sprang up and dashed across the pavilion floor into her embrace. I wept in her arms for a time unmeasured, with her simply rubbing my back as I shook.
“You’re alive!” I finally managed to sob. I’m not sure how many times I repeated it, but each time, she would simply make a soft shushing noise and pat my back.
At last my tears slowed down, and I heard a sound that the little seven or eight year old Tiana had dreaded to hear, although even that sound comforted me now. Mother spoke in her ‘I’m being very patient with you’ voice.
“Tiana, I’m happy to see you, too, but we’re in front of a very important guest, after all.”
A brief laugh escaped through my tears. I nodded and separated from her slightly.
“It’s no bother at all, Your Highness,” the goddess observed after a sip of coffee. “I shan’t refer to you as mother-in-law, but you qualify as a granddaughter in the very least. And my wife gets a free pass under these circumstances.”
I could see all sorts of question marks circling Mother’s head.
Glancing aside, I muttered, “It’s a long story, Mother.”
“Hardly!” Gaia retorted as I led Mother over to the blanket we were using so she could sit with us. “She’s both my husband’s granddaughter and my wife’s granddaughter, so that surely makes her mine!”
The bigamous marriages of Oranos to Eurybia and Gaia are a standard part of both Ostish religion and a number of ancient predecessors, so Mother had probably already figured that part out on her own. It was the terms ‘mother in law’ and ‘wife’ that were confusing her. Understandably so, since me being ‘junior wife’ to these exalted beings so far above me, entities vastly my superiors even as Senhion, was too difficult for me to comprehend as well, and I had never mentioned that part. I had only told her the bit about me having Oranos’ child.
We waited as the attendant– I had finally identified her as the spiritual beast Cha’Shara– prepared Mother a cup of coffee (black and no sugar, for her). Meanwhile, I marveled that my own cup had somehow survived my sudden reaction to Mother without a drop spilled. But Gaia caught my eye while raising an eyebrow and I realized she was probably responsible for its safety.
When the spirit beast finished, I asked her, “You’re the real Cha’Shara, aren’t you?”
I had the auras of many of the spirit beasts of Sky Ocean memorized. I refused to believe this was a recreation.
She gave me a Dorian bow. “Quite naturally, Commander. This is the real Lotus Pavilion, after all.”
That made my jaw drop for a moment. I turned to Gaia. “Senior? This isn’t your Illusory Reality?”
“It’s yours,” she replied. “Why recreate something when the original is perfectly serviceable? In your previous world, they would warn about ‘not reinventing the wheel’, would they not?”
It never occurred to me that she could do something like that. But Gaia is an extremely pragmatic goddess, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. The simulations of Sky Ocean’s training hall were Illusory Realities too, after all. However…
“Our system doesn’t have a means to access our sims from outside the training network,” I puzzled.
“Our presence here is my contribution,” she replied. “The fact that I am meeting you here is costing me considerable extra expenditure, but it greatly increases the time we can spend together.”
Gaia turned toward Mother. “You should correct my wife’s misapprehension, Granddaughter of mine.”
“Wife…” Mother echoed, shaking her head. The concept of same-sex marriage doesn’t really exist in this world. Maybe I should look into introducing it.
“My first incarnation Senhion was… married to them,” I admitted to her, a little embarrassed to say it.
“We married your immortal incarnation before you descended to the Mortal Realm and took on the name Senhion,” Gaia corrected. “Which is why your various Mortal Realm marriages do not conflict with your marriage to us.”
“Marriages, plural?” Mother wondered, now beginning to get amused.
“She has many incarnations, and has been married a number of times through the ages,” the goddess noted. “Mostly in her male incarnations.”
Now we were getting into territory I didn’t want Mother to hear. I felt it would creep her out if she learned a man had inhabited her daughter’s body. As Mother’s eyes twinkled with humor upon hearing about my male incarnations, I sent Gaia a glance, mentally asking her to not say more on the subject.
“So, Your Highness…” Gaia prompted.
“About a misapprehension,” Mother nodded. “Yes, I suppose I’m letting her misunderstand something.”
She looked at me with her brow wrinkling in concern and I knew what was coming. But I waited for her to say it.
“Tiana,” she noted. “You said I was alive. You already know that’s not correct, don’t you?”
The words caused a deep pang in my heart that stopped me from answering. She gave me a tight smile as her eyes also became moist.
“What happened, Mother?” I asked. “Why did you leave Pendor?”
“I went North to protect my darling,” she said. “But the enemy must have launched their attacks on Narses and Langram while I was on the way. They happened at the same time, I believe?”
She looked at me for confirmation.
I nodded. “They also attacked in the Tabad, Dausindiu and Hamagaar. The attacks were synchronized.”
“How are the other kids?” she asked, her voice instantly filled with anxiety.
“Child,” Gaia said patiently, “You’ve already seen Roderick with Little Sen, and you heard him read Gerald’s proclamation. They obviously survived. Amelia is alright as well.”
The goddess answered my questioning look. “Deharè has been waiting here ever since her soul entered the amulet. It was a necessary step. I needed the spiritual energy of a place connected to the Mortal Realm such as this to help support two souls. I have been allowing her to watch over you while she waited.”
Technically, Illusory Realities are in the Spirit Realm, but it makes a difference whether they are anchored in the Mortal Realm or the Immortal Realms.
“Two souls?” I wondered.
Mother put her hand on her tummy, and I noticed for the first time that it was still slightly swollen with pregnancy. “Both my soul and your sister’s entered the amulet when we died.”
Gaia added, “I had to adapt and adjust on the fly, as the amulet was not designed for long-term storage. Hence their presence here.”
She turned to Mother and added, “You’ve strayed off-subject again.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “But I need to know about my other daughter in Narses. Tiana’s older sister…”
I felt a pang of guilt, having forgotten about the sister I had never met. Just a moment ago, I had been happy that none of the children Mother was worrying over had died, but that totally wasn’t true, was it?
“Inda,” I supplied.
“Yes,” she agreed. “She was standing in for me in Pendor.”
I bit my lip, not wanting to tell her, but I had no choice. By the time I spoke, I could see in her eyes that she had already read the answer in my expression.
“Amana… identified her body,” I admitted. “The attack in Narses was very powerful. They were trying to kill somebody as strong as you, after all.”
Tears finally began flowing down Mother’s cheeks. I was about to move to comfort her, but before I could, Gaia had already embraced her. I ended up just sipping my coffee in silence and waiting for her to cry it out.
“The spirit is eternal and the worlds are infinite, child,” the goddess counseled patiently as Mother wept. “Those we met once, we will meet again. Don’t cry for the loss of those who are not truly lost.”
“Is that really how it works?” Mother wailed, suddenly seeming thousands of years younger than the woman I knew. Her teenaged appearance suddenly matched the sound I was now hearing, the anguish of a young, bereaved mother. “I’ve lost so many sons and daughters through the years. I tell myself I’m used to outliving my children, but every time, I’m left in pain again.”
For a moment, I felt confusion, then remembered that Mother must have had many half-fairy children in the past. I had no idea how many, but I was guessing a woman several thousand years old could have had quite a few. Their lives are far longer than mortals, but if they can’t cultivate themselves at least up to lesser fairy status, they will eventually pass away just like mortals.
“A mother’s task is to protect her children,” Gaia stated, still grave and cold in tone but continuing to stroke the weeping woman’s hair. “That’s why it feels so wrong to bid them farewell. But a non-mortal who gives life to half-mortal children must accept that the life she gave them has a limit.”
Come to think of it, I didn’t know if Inda was a fairy or half-fairy…
“Your sister Inda was a fairborn,” Gaia told me as she detached from Mother. “And a gifted mage. And she did not die in vain. She protected many of your mother’s people with her final defense. The attack was simply too overwhelming for her to survive.”
Mother sniffled and stared down at her coffee cup.
I still had no answer about what happened to Mother. I prompted, “Mother, you must have met Serera. She had both your amulet and Uncle Owen’s signet ring.”
“I followed a tracer I had put on my darling,” she answered. “Serera had already rescued him, but … that same being attacked them that attacked you later on. By the time I reached her, my darling was dead already, and Serera was hurt. It had surrounded us, and it was incredibly powerful. It could absorb my attacks and turn them back on me, and erode my shields. I kept hitting it with more and more power, but it didn’t weaken at all, and I couldn’t do anything to stop its attacks.”
As she spoke, she had begun shuddering, reliving the event. For a woman who feared nothing, it must truly have been a horrifying nightmare. In thousands of years, nothing had ever overwhelmed this woman before. I could see in her eyes the dread she had experienced as she encountered the thing that was able to kill her.
“Unfortunately, you never stood a chance,” Gaia told her. “That was Astaroth you were up against. You did remarkably well, and you shaved off enough of his power that your daughter was able to survive her encounter with him.”
“But he’s supposed to be trapped under Áne’s tower!” Mother protested. “How could he escape?”
“It was a proxy, not the real Astaroth,” I said. “I don’t understand how he got such a powerful proxy past Áne’s father. I’m worried he could do it again.”
“He cannot,” Gaia declared. “Now that he’s shown that card, we’ve developed countermeasures.”
“So, how did Serera survive if you couldn’t?” I asked Mother.
“I took a mortal wound,” Mother answered. “I had neither a functioning heart nor functioning lungs left. I used my remaining life to cast a boundary that the demons could never get through. Serera could leave, but nothing can enter. Our bodies will stay safe there until one of my children arrives to fetch us. It won’t disperse for anyone else.”
“Astaroth’s proxy went to attack you and your fiancè once he became convinced he couldn’t get through her barrier,” Gaia added. “Lady Serera escaped the barrier once he departed.”
I remembered the words of one of the divinations. The king rests in his beloved’s arms.
“You gathered his body into your arms before you died, I bet,” I told Mother with a smile.
Her eyebrows rose. “Yes, I did. Is that strange?”
“Of course, it isn’t,” I assured her.
Gaia pursed her lips, looking from me to Mother and back. “If neither of you have any more questions about the past, then we need to turn this discussion to the future.”
