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Sound is only one of the means by which we communicate in the Immortal Realms. Even in the Fundamental Realm, it is a mode mostly used out of habit, because the Human Clade immortals (and certain other sapient clades) used it as their mode in the Mortal worlds where their kind originated. But we also communicate direct thoughts, which might form words, or pure concepts, but can also be emotions, or sensory impressions like smells and aural signatures.
The aura is the most definitive, unambiguous identification, so communicating that directly is the obvious means of naming when the subject is a person. Names made of sounds are simply not used. Of course, the Immortal who gave Senhion birth in the Fundamental Realm was originally Ascended herself, and likely possessed a spoken name when she was herself a mortal, but her parent species itself had ceased to exist a half-billion years before Senhion was born. She had long since ceased using it.
She had suggested that I call her Immortal Mother, and it was as good a name as any for this divine ancient.
Immortal Mother sipped her tea, then smiled at me, the eldest of her three daughters present. She had just agreed to start our discussion with the question of whether it was truly okay for Mother– I’ll use Immortal Mother’s suggestion and refer to Deharè as ‘Fairy Mother’– to become my daughter. But she didn’t say anything further. She was waiting for me to speak.
Well, yes, naturally, since I was the one who had come running to her for advice. But the truth was, I had expected only to be able to speak with Gaia or Eurybia, with a very outside chance of speaking to Oranos. The last didn’t seem inclined to get involved with my troubles, since he never showed up except for that brief moment at the end of my duel with Mára.
I was at a loss for words. I glanced down at Kiki, who had decided to take a nap while lounging on my bosom– a choice that seemed contrary to the force of gravity– and wondered how to voice my anxieties.
I had hoped for Immortal Mother’s help, but she had caught me off guard by actually showing up. The last time we even interacted… When was it?
She answered, “I bid you fair travels when you took your repose in your capsule in my storage space, just before Descent. Your hand still clutches the Twenty Gems Blossom I gave you at the time.”
“You… gave me a flower?” I was puzzled over that. “Why?”
“It would rapidly wilt if the time suspension protecting your body were to lapse. A body with no soul in occupation is vulnerable to all sorts of dangerous invaders. A wilting flower would set off an alarm that my spirit beast friends could respond to, long before any such invader could threaten.”
While death is rare in the Immortal Realm, other dangers exist, especially to one’s possessions, including one’s body. An unwary Immortal could find themselves without a body, or enslaved by a hostile force, or any number of other threats. Immortal Mother’s guardianship of our original bodies must have been a big factor helping Oranos to convince the crowd of very vulnerable young celestial maidens to entrust their safety to him while they Descended to Huade. Sleeping there while living in the Mortal Realm would be far less dangerous even than living their lives normally.
“Well, plenty of other mentors could have protected them, in pursuit of other goals. And naturally, simply dwelling in a land of sanctuary in the manner of a well-behaved young celestial maiden would be the safest option. But for celestial maidens too ambitious to be well behaved like you and your fellow Elders, the chance for advancement and fortuitous opportunities while following a great senior like Oranos was irresistible. Although, I have no doubt that my protection was, as the expression goes, ‘the icing on the cake’.”
I jolted slightly as she suddenly switched to English to deliver an idiom from my previous life.
She smiled, then continued. “Although I was indeed waiting for you to speak, I already know your concerns. But I believe that you already have your answers. Sitting here in this high-spirituality environment, you can’t help but have already found them. The fact that you don’t believe it to be true…”
She pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow. “In the words of my fellow mother from your previous incarnation, ‘Seems like denial ain’t just a river in Egypt!’“
A gigglesnort escaped from me when she again switched to English to use one of Robert’s mother’s dumb cliché sayings. She even used Jennifer Stewart’s twangy Texas accent to deliver it.
But then I frowned. “I’m in denial? So you’re saying I’ve already made my decision?”
“Why have you come here, Child?” Immortal Mother asked. “You hate the idea, but you have yet to tell anyone you won’t do it. You have yet to even say to yourself that you won’t. You’ve only agonized over whether it was okay to turn your Fairy Mother into a vampire. Which I should point out is a question that is rightfully hers to answer, since you are able to ask her. You’re only here to hear someone else tell you that it’s okay.”
Kanon spoke up, with a mischievous smirk. “And isn’t it a good opportunity to have children without having to do that?”
During my little vacation in Sky Ocean, I had confessed to her my biggest problem with marrying Rod, that I could never embrace him sexually.
“What nonsense,” Immortal Mother declared, having read the whole thing in our minds and understood about the issue instantly. “You never had to worry about such a thing in the first place.”
Kanon blinked. “Mother, it’s an important issue for us lesser beings. As Senhion, we were only occasionally able to have relations with a man, and for Tiana, it seems to be impossible.”
The ancient being heaved a patient sigh, along with which we received a wave of spiritual energy communicating both tolerance and love. I don’t know if I can explain this, but it was the sort of thing that left a child unable to rebut.
“It’s true that sexual orientation is somewhat meaningless to beings of my level. Anyone above the Fundamental Realm has difficulty relating even to the concept of sexual desire. When your father and I decided to experience having a child, we had to Descend to the Fundamental Realm and relearn what we had long forgotten. But it has only been fifteen thousand years. I could have hardly forgotten it again already.”
The concepts of ‘only’ and ‘fifteen thousand years’ can’t be grouped in the same thought, to my mind. But I have no idea how old this woman is. I only know that when her original species in the Mortal realm ceased to exist, the very first vertebrates were only just evolving in the Devonian oceans of Earth.
She chuckled as she regarded me. “It’s true, your position on the Kinsey scale is a firm six. But as Senhion you were in the four to five range, and that was also true for most of your other female incarnations. Especially Sirth, who did not dislike sex with her husband.”
“How come you know so much Earth stuff?” I demanded. Kinsey scale? Really?
“Naturally, I studied up on all your lives before I came here to see you,” she said, tilting her head sideways with a smile.
I reminded myself, this woman’s intellect was on a scale unimaginable to a mere Mortal Realm denizen, and didn’t argue. But I protested, “Sirth and her husband married in order to cover for one another’s homosexuality.”
It had been a practice once common on Earth as well. I suppose it probably still is, in some countries.
“That is absolutely true, but they were also close friends who could arguably have been said to love each other. As friends, anyway. And they did manage to produce two children.”
She smiled. “Which means, in order to lay with your husband, all you need to do is entrust your body to Sirth, or another bisexual incarnation.”
My eyes bugged out. Just imagining doing so felt downright creepy. Actually doing it?
I would have to think a very long time before I could do it.
“It’s beside the point. You do not need to do so in this case. Although I’m afraid I’ll have to correct Gaia on one matter. You won’t be able to ‘simply hold hands’. Or rather, there’s too great a risk of failure. But you will not need to sleep with your husband.”
“What do you mean?!” Gaia demanded, causing me to jump and nearly spill my tea.
I turned my head to see her standing near the entrance.
Immortal Mother simply chuckled and sipped her tea.
Gaia pressed her lips together and bowed, then stated, “I apologize for my rude outburst, Senior, but why do you say this?”
With a smile, the ancient divinity smiled and stated, “You are forgiven, my cute junior. Even if you are as surly as ever.”
As she spoke, she gestured to the space between where Durandal was quietly waiting and where she herself sat. There, another cushion had appeared. Gaia quietly walked over to kneel there.
She may call herself my wife, but to me, Gaia is a goddess, and far senior to me. It was remarkable to see her looking like she had swallowed a bug while regretting her words.
“I would like to know what error I have made in my plan, Senior,” she stated with due contrition.
Immortal Mother had a teasing smile, but stayed serious and explained plainly.
“Although I myself am incapable of creating a lifeform at the level of an Elder from scratch, I am one of the assistants who helped those senior to me bring the infant race into being. So I have knowledge of the vitality required to enkindle an Elder egg. Doing so without the spark of a mortal sperm is close to impossible. Furthermore, the spiritual protection inherent in an Elder womb is such that Tiana’s body may reject the souls you were trying to insert. You will likely again create new Elder souls while possibly losing the souls you are trying to save. You must transmit her husband’s genetics to her via his living seed.”
“Well that… wouldn’t that mean we can’t do it?” Gaia worried. “When we tried with Deharè and Egon, a new soul was created immediately!”
“Because you were using a spark that carried the vital force of a vampire,” she stated. “There is a reason vampire women can only bear vampire children with a vampire father. They create dhampirs when lying with a mortal man because of the difference in vital essence. A mortal sperm and an Elder egg have a slower reaction, which would give you time to intervene.”
I was only sort of keeping up with this conversation, but I grasped one ramification immediately. I blurted out, “We need Rod’s actual sperm?”
And the scruples of the original Tiana instantly hit maximum embarrassment as soon as the words escaped my lips. I blushed bright red.
Immortal Mother outright laughed. “We do, but it can’t happen inside your body, Child. Your own spirit would reject our attempts to insert the souls. My dear junior will need to transfer your eggs to a mortal intermediary within whose womb the fertilization can happen. Once the proxy mother has laid with him and conceived, my junior can transfer your new babies back to your womb, where you can safely support them. It’s rather oddly reminiscent of how your Fairy Mother conceived her mortal lover’s children for her, really.”
“An intermediary?” I worried. “I have to involve a third person?”
“You already have one, so that’s not a problem,” Gaia said.
“What do you mean, I already have one!” I retorted. “Asking another woman to do such a thing is a big deal, you know?”
“She would do it happily, if you gave your blessing,” Gaia answered.
“Are you talking about one of my Servants? That’s not something I want to ask of them!”
“I am, but she wouldn’t be doing it as a result of being your servant,” the goddess answered. “She and your Mortal husband genuinely love each other as a self-inflicted consequence of her magic. Out of guilt over what she has done to your Mortal husband and you, she has been doing everything in her power to deny and suppress it. Out of similar guilt, your Mortal Husband has been doing likewise. You would save them both significant anxiety if you were to bring them back together and bless their feelings for each other.”
“You’re talking about Mireia?” I asked, even though it was pretty obvious that she was.
“Naturally,” Gaia nodded.
“But Diurhimath broke that magic!”
“What was done was already done,” she stated. “Durhimath broke the spell, but he could do nothing about the consequences already inflicted. The fantasy that child was recreating from her subconscious mind required that she and the Prince fall deliriously in love. It also required him to fall out of love with you, but he held too much love for his beloved Tiana to allow that. Instead, he wound up in love with two women. The creative spiritual forces that Mireia summoned were far more powerful on Huade than they would have been on her homeworld, so neither she nor the prince stood a chance. That’s why we purged all knowledge of that sort of magic in the first place.”
I weirdly felt guilt about being in their way. Even if it were artificial, if they couldn’t do anything about it, and they love each other, and I was blocking them…
“There’s no need for you to feel bad about it,” Immortal Mother declared. “They are your solution, and you can happily give them your blessing. Let them consummate their love while they help you conceive your babies.”
I gawked at her, struggling to find a retort. She and Gaia were both absolutely serious…
“So the only thing remaining is your silly concern over turning your Fairy Mother into a vampire. Which I have noted, isn’t even your decision to make. Come join us, Your Highness.”
As Immortal Mother spoke those words, Fairy Mother appeared in my awareness, at the entrance opposite where Gaia had come in.
