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The mood remained awkward as the two ancient fairies observed me for several breaths, unknown inhuman calculations passing through their minds as they weighed my answer.
These two were nothing like Dilorè and Amana, who are relatively familiar in their thought processes. Rather libertine and unbound by most human scruples, but familiar in the shape of their reasoning. Dilorè is less than two centuries old and Amana less than a century, so their minds have not had time to grow mysterious in the expanse of time.
Mother took pains to deal with mortals and young creatures such as myself on mortal terms, so that she could relate to and remain close to them. I suspect this is also true of Oberon, and possibly of those in Sky Ocean who formed their very lives originally around training and entertaining Senhion’s Servants. But, behind the eyes of my two older sisters lay far less familiar minds, more like my Immortal acquaintances. People willing to communicate in mortal words, but not necessarily ready to adjust their thinking to match.
Just how old? From her testimony, Mitozin was born not long after Mother married Father. That would be somewhere around the establishment of the Kingdom of Pendor, fifteen-ish centuries ago. But what about her elder sister, Lalhàn? All I knew was, she was obviously younger than Mother.
But I did have one more clue. “Senhion” or “Oberon” are Ancient Fairy names, or really, names in X’ne, the Juvenile Elder tongue, which is an older form of Ancient Fairy, but “Deharè” comes from the High Fairy language.
A resurgence of demons ended the Ancient Fairy Age and fairy dominance, nearly extinguishing the race and the language. Generations of fairies survived among mortals between that time and the Elven Golden Age, speaking their common tongue. Mortal languages evolved as the ages passed, but the fairies continued speaking the mortal language of their youth, eventually inheriting it as their own and renaming it High Fairy.
In High Fairy, even those names which do use Ancient Fairy elements, like Tiana, no longer follow the old three-element name structure. “Lalhàn” and “Tiana” both combine a High Fairy element and an Ancient Fairy element. “Mitozin” and “Deharè’ are just old-fashioned High Fairy words, respectively meaning ‘Spring Blossom’ and ‘Elegant’.
Therefore, with “Deharè” as her name, Mother must have been born in the Elven Golden Age at the earliest. Her daughter, Lalhàn would be somewhat younger than her while being older than Mitozin.
In other words, she was as much as seven thousand years old, as little as two thousand…
“Sit,” the ancient being ordered. “And be at ease, child.”
Lalhàn exuded the same terrifying power as our mother, without any of the warmth to temper it. I wasn’t quite sure how she expected anyone to be at ease. But I sat, anyhow. In this act, at least, I was as clumsy as a normal pregnant woman. It takes effort to settle oneself and the babies into a comfortable position, especially when sitting on floor cushions.
She looked a bit sour. “You don’t have to act in front of us. We know you aren’t as encumbered as a mortal”
“This actually is a little awkward,” I protested.
“Then use magic to help yourself,” she tutted.
Mitozin took a seat on the tatami beside me while chiding her older sister.
“Salnedo, how is a child supposed to be at ease with a being like you in the room, overwhelming everyone with her spiritual pressure?”
“She’s indeed that young, yet she’s stronger than you,” Lalhàn retorted. “Although I imagine you can’t see it. “
She turned to me and demanded, “What is this illusion you are using to appear before us? You aren’t actually here at all, yet you clearly have spiritual presence.”
“She isn’t what?” Mitozin retorted.
“There are fairies half your age who could easily see that, Innanmi,” Lalhàn scolded. “You need to work harder on developing your fairy senses. Being powerful at magic is fine, but it’s useless if your eyes can be fooled so easily.”
At least I wasn’t the only one she frowned upon. It made me feel better.
As her little sister bunched up her brows and alternated looking at her and me, clearly trying to see what she meant, I told Lalhàn, “I can tell you are well advanced in both body cultivation and spiritual cultivation. I assume you know at least one means to send a proxy or other substitute in your place, right?”
“Cultivation?” Mitozin echoed, tipping her head. “Proxy?”
“I am familiar with several such means,” Lahàn replied in frosty tones, “but a mere infant nearly seven millennia younger than me is somehow demonstrating a method completely unknown to me. Explain.”
Oh, hey, now I know how old she is!
“It’s not a product of my young years in this life, Salnedo,” I stated respectfully. “I benefit from the knowledge of many other lifetimes.”
The fairy pursed her lips, then finally moved to take a seat of her own on the tatami platform, causing an ornate cushion to blink into place for herself just in time. She carefully arranged her archaic clothing with precise motions of her hands, even though it was actually her raiment and she could just will it into place.
“As you have claimed,” she stated, finally. “And as Grandfather already told us. Very well. Shall I address you as Great Grandmother?”
I winced while my cheeks colored. “I prefer you don’t. I don’t actually possess the full memories of my life as her, so I can’t pretend to actually be her properly.”
“And yet, you somehow possess at least some of those memories. I’ve heard of remembering previous life memories, but it’s vanishingly rare.”
“I had… assistance.”
“Assistance?” her brow rose.
“Are you two going to explain what you are talking about?” Mitozin demanded. Her arm was still around my shoulder, I should mention. “What did you mean, an illusion? I can feel her quite clearly! She’s right here!”
I smiled with a bit of embarrassment and admitted, “You can, but this is not my real body. It’s a magical construct which looks like it.”
Lalhàn agreed. “It’s a manifestation of spirit, mana and pneuma. Is it Blood Magic?”
I hesitated, then stated, “It is based on Blood Magic, but it’s different.”
I could see she didn’t like my equivocating answer, but I was trying to tell the truth. The technique actually uses Blood Magic to replicate an advanced spiritual technique from Huajie. The blood magic part only replaces the paper manufactured from the leaves and sap of ten-thousand-year-old spiritual trees on Huajie.
After she chewed on that a bit, she noted, “I’ve never seen this technique. And vampires who create a body substitute normally cast [Shadow Body], not Blood Magic. Besides, you ought to be too young to even have accumulated enough blood to do this.”
“I had considerable help from Grandmother Lâra. And my reincarnated soul made it easier. And I stole blood from demons who practiced blood magic.”
Mitozin’s eyebrows remained bunched up and aimed steadily at me, as I had yet to explain myself. She actually moved her face closer to mine, probably to remind me she was still waiting.
“I’ve kept my physical body hidden in a secret place ever since that archdemon attacked me,” I told her. “This substitute places me here in spirit and allows you to hug me, Salnedo.“
“Don’t be so stuffy. For me, Salne is fine,” Mitozin stated.
“Salne.”
She put her hand on my tummy again. “And I can feel your babies in here!”
I put my hand over hers. “Because I’m using the same technique to bring them with me.”
“How can be that healthy for their real bodies?” Lalhàn demanded.
“Just like me, they are both here, and in their real bodies,” I told her simply. “It’s easier for them, since their environment is essentially the same in both places.”
Lalhàn just frowned and nodded. I got the impression that Mitozin had decided to simply not think too hard about it.
That gave me a chance to take the initiative. “So you’ve come to listen to Mother’s last message, right?”
Mitozin nodded. “That’s right. Grandfather told us about it. Amana’s already here, right?”
“She isn’t,” Lalhàn contradicted.
“She’s nearby,” I corrected. “She’s a hundred miles away, investigating something for Morrígan. I can call her here at any time. Do you want to review the message once she gets here?”
Mitozin looked surprised. “We have to wait for the rest, though?”
“The rest… of what?”
My sister’s face immediately turned sour. “Let me guess. Mother never even told you about us, right?”
“Well, she did mention I had older sisters…”
The naiad heaved a sigh so overly dramatic it made her… well, bounce a little. Forget anime. Doing something like that requires a serious jolt, even on an especially busty fairy.
“Mother lacked common sense in all the weirdest ways,” she complained. Then she switched gears and declared, “I’ve been out of the water so long, I’m drying out. Let’s go in!”
“Let’s… huh?” I blurted as I found myself levitated on a cloud and heading with her to the door leading into the bath. “But I have to call the maids…”
“Of course, I’ve already taken care of it!” she retorted as we flew through the door and I sailed in an arc right into the tub she had somehow already prepared from the next room, landing gently in warm water…
In my kimono.
“Why are you still dressed?” Mitozin demanded.
“Because, you daft child, that’s real cloth,” Lalhàn answered as she followed us on foot, her own raiment disappearing as she used her own magic to raise me back up. “She’s too young to make a raiment.”
Warm mana cocooned me and the water soaking my clothing magically evaporated at a rate that would surely have been dangerous, if not explosive, had it been naturally converting to steam. It seemed to be a process involving Water and Air mana, but far more complex than Dilorè’s ‘blow dryer’ magic.
“How does this thing come off?” she muttered as she tugged at my obi.
Mitozin came back out of the water and began untying it. “I’ll do it, Salnedo. I run a brothel, after all. I’m very familiar with these.”
The various pieces came off with remarkable speed as she demonstrated her expertise. The maids would no doubt be annoyed at my elegant clothing being tossed into a pile instead of carefully folded, but I couldn’t do anything about it.
We went straight into the tub, something you never do in Dorian lands, and you never wash yourself there, either. You wash first, rinse off, then get into the tub to soak. Naturally, these fairies didn’t give a wit about mortal customs and skipped straight to the soaking. Well, it was pretty likely they kept themselves magically clean, and my body wasn’t physical, so it didn’t matter much.
“Huh?” Mitozin suddenly said after we had settled in, tipping her head. “Wait, if this isn’t your real body, why were you wearing real clothes?”
“It would confuse the maids, child,” Lalhàn answered before I could. “I imagine they don’t know this isn’t her real body.”
“Um… yeah,” I lamely confirmed.
“Four more sisters,” Lalhàn declared without preamble, then began holding up fingers to enumerate them. “The twins, Alore and Diddere, who are about halfway between Mitozin and I in age. They have to fly back from the Eastern Continent and we only agreed this morning to meet here, so they won’t make it until tonight. Moira will surely swim rather than fly, and she was in the middle of the sea, so I expect her no earlier than tomorrow. And Áda is still a lesser fairy. Her speed isn’t all that great, but she’s too proud to let me go pick her up. She has to make it here from the Southern Continent, so I imagine she’ll arrive no sooner than tomorrow as well. Perhaps even the day after tomorrow.”
“A lesser fairy?” I echoed, confused. Mother couldn’t give birth to a lesser fairy.
“She was a fairborn at birth, naturally. Just like Inda. She managed to cultivate herself into lesser fairyhood before she died of old age, so she’s still with us.”
Mitozin added sadly, “I thought for sure that Inda would manage it as well.”
“Well, it’s no guarantee,” Lalhàn lectured. “Despite how many fairborn Mother gave birth to, Áda is the only one remaining. A few others did get to lesser fairy, but died later.”
“How many?”
“She was almost eighty centuries old,” Lalhàn answered in a dark voice, “And had an inordinate love of mortals. It wouldn’t be surprising if she had hundreds.”
“She wasn’t so silly, Salnedo,” Mitozin chided her older sister. “Unless Mother lied to me, Tiana-innan made exactly three dozen.”
“Three dozen daughters?” I gaped.
Inda wasn’t the only one I never had a chance to meet…
“Three dozen fairborn daughters,” Lalhàn corrected. “But only because she counted you as a fairborn. I’m not sure you really should count as such. As for fairy daughters, Amana was her tenth. Only six of us survive, though. So, eight living daughters out of a total of forty six. Mother… enjoyed motherhood, to be frank.”
“We have our cute daughters and nieces and even a few nephews, Tiana,” Mitozin reassured me, probably in response to my expression. “And many, many generations beyond them, especially among the mortals. Most of Mother’s daughters left children behind. Few have no living descendants.”
She put her hand on my tummy again, caressing the flesh sheltering the babies within.
“This world remains full of Mother,” she told me with a smile. There’s nothing to be sad about.”
