§
Having described all the events leading up to this point, I suppose the next natural scene would be my awakening in the custody of my older sisters.
Nah, my life was never that simple, you know?
We can start with the ‘awakening’ part, saying something about ‘an unfamiliar ceiling’ and all that…
Not this girl. It was a sky rather than a ceiling anyhow, with trees at the edge of my vision barely lit only by starlight. The smell of nearby woods, the soft lapping of waves, the hushed sounds of wildlife all clearly showed me outdoors.
But I have grown well-acquainted with the unreal texture of an Illusory Reality, so I already knew that the real me was still sleeping somewhere other than this non-physical place.
“Your physical self rests in the same position as you do, in the shallows of that little semi-immortal’s pond, dear. Or rather, in the reproduction of it in your small world. She came back to your small world to look after you, and it is the most convenient place to keep you.”
For some reason, I was in mermaid form, and as nude as a mermaid ordinarily is, with my shoulders leaning against a smooth rock and my back resting in water. With my babies as heavy as they have become and my body still too sleep-heavy to make the effort to turn it sideways, I simply turned my head toward the voice. The eternal white jade beauty to whom that voice belonged sat on a straw mat on the nearby sand.
“Immortal Mother,” I greeted her, then looked around. “This Illusory Reality appears to be that place, though? Have you recreated it for my benefit, or does this also belong to Grandmother?”
The timeless goddess dimpled, glancing around the scenery that was exactly like Grandmother’s pool and brought an alabaster cup to her lips. I used her pause to shift my weight so I could prop myself up with my elbow to face her. I was feeling oddly heavy, even more so than usual.
Beyond the obvious water, juices and natural milks, the Immortal Realm offers a near infinity of beverages, but they are always perfections of Mortal Realm drinks, including from worlds and races outside the Human Clade. Immortal Mother certainly could safely imbibe in some acid or alkaline horror from some Lovecraftian nightmare world, but the bottle gourd vessel beside her which held more of the clear, colorless liquid in her cup matched the vibe of her outfit, so I choose to say Immortal Mother was enjoying a cup of rice wine. Although it was more likely an immortal substance concocted from the nectar or grain of an Immortal Realm plant, which mirrored rice wine.
She lowered the cup and gave a slight nod. “Eventually I will turn this place over to her, but she does not yet have the ability to maintain her own Illusory Reality. We are in a prototype which I maintain for the child, based upon her home, to serve as an environment where I can instruct her.”
The Illusory Reality was not as high density as others I had experienced. In fact, it was only slightly higher in spiritual density than Huade itself, since I wasn’t naturally becoming ‘Little Sen’. I was currently the Tiana + Lydia form that was becoming the usual me. I could see it being a useful place to train a fairy with advanced cultivation.
Immortal Mother had remained in the Immortal Realm near Huade ever since she first answered my prayer, but this was the first time I was hearing about her having contact with other members of my family, other than some contact she seems to have had with Oberon and with the goddesses.
She nodded. “I’ve been rather taken with this family you’ve acquired, child, and helping them is helping you.”
“So, am I here now for your help, Immortal Mother?”
Why are you here? in other words.
Her lips curled lightly again, this time tinted with teasing. “Do you imagine that a mother would not help her child?”
“Never,” I assured her, while blatantly holding her eye and awaiting an actual answer.
Her reply was light laughter, laced with a touch of tinkling bells. Then she tilted her head.
“When I visit you in Illusory Reality, I am able to know things which I must prevent myself from knowing while I visit you in life, to avoid entropic backlash.”
I oddly thought of Fan Li as I heard those words, and then realized Immortal Mother had just given me an insight concerning how the ancient scholar hides her knowledge from the rest of us. But that was a subject for another time. I needed to focus on the present.
“But I would still suffer backlash if you told them to me,” I pointed out.
She nodded. “As you say, for the same reason that I cannot know them while in your reality, such things are not possible to reveal to you while you are here. But knowing them while here allows me to point your way.”
In other words, this woman was practically speaking in riddles with me because she was treading a very narrow path, not wanting to tell me anything unnecessary.
“I understand,” I agreed with a nod. “I understand. I will listen to what you tell me and not ask for any clarifications.”
She took another sip, then smiled her satisfaction at my answer. Then her eyes wandered down to my midsection.
“It’s good that they are well. Matters in the near future may expose them to danger again. I suspect you will be unable to avoid this, so always take steps with every action to protect them.”
My palm went back to my swollen belly. I didn’t like how she wasn’t telling me to avoid going into that danger. It suggested that I couldn’t, or shouldn’t.
She poured another refill from the bottle gourd, corked it and contemplated her cup for a bit. Having agreed to not ask anything, I simply waited.
“You will be unable to avoid danger. You seem to have forgotten, but the very way you returned to this world was by receiving a destiny. You are still caught up in Fate, and you already know how heavily it weighs upon those in the Mortal Realm.”
I caught myself before the question, can’t I wait until they are born before tackling destinies? escaped my lips. Of course, she knew my thoughts, but if I didn’t say it, she could pretend she didn’t hear it.
“So, hold onto this, and do your best not to lose it to backlash, my daughter. You must recognize that you face two enemies, not one. Do not confuse which one you must face now and which you must face later. You already know.”
She downed her cup, stood and walked to the edge of the water. Crouching down, she held out her hand with the open palm facing my babies and I felt a warmth replace the cool night air on my bare skin.
Perhaps it was a blessing for my babies. Perhaps it was some sort of charm. She didn’t explain, probably so as to not add anything further to the entropy from my visit.
§
The same night, the same water, the same outside air, the same mermaid form, but this time, a gaggle of naked fairies surrounded me, with one of them embracing me from the side.
“You’re awake!” she exclaimed, and kissed my cheek as I began wondering who the heck she was. No, I realized after a moment who she almost certainly had to be, although that begged another question, regarding why one of her hands was blatantly fondling my bosom.
She had green eyes, instead of Mitozin’s aquamarine, with the same flaxen hair and practically the same face, but she wore a fairy’s natural late teen look instead of aging herself into her mid-twenties the way Mitozin and Velerè do, the way Mother did. I only had two living sisters left to meet, and this was clearly the Nereid named Moira, because she was also wearing a mermaid form, hers having ornate scales and fins far fancier than my sleek dolphin body.
As I frowned down at the continued gentle groping, Amana let out a throaty laugh and waded up to us.
Sliding her hand onto her sister’s shoulder, she told her, “Moira-salne, even if you seduce every other sister you have, I think you won’t succeed with Little Tiana while in front of everyone. She’s very shy.”
“Amana!” I protested, but Moira simply laughed. The laughter spread to the other fairies as well, and all of them wore expressions that suggested Amana had not said anything strange.
Then I noticed she said seduce. Not, try to seduce. Was she implying Moira succeeded at times? It only made my blush grow deeper.
“I’m not really doing that, right now, Innanmi,” Moira insisted. “I just love the feel of a new mommy who’s getting milky.”
“What?” I cried, causing the other two to giggle. But Amana firmly took Moira’s hand and removed it.
“That’s enough, Salne,” she told her plainly, as the chuckles rippled through the rest of the fairies present.
Velerè, who was laying on the grass, on her side, propping her head up with her arm, told everyone, “Come ashore, everyone. We have much to discuss.”
I morphed from flukes to legs and struggled to my feet. My body was strangely sluggish, and something was badly wrong with my center of gravity. A smirking Amana helped me up while obviously swallowing laughter, and Moira, now with legs, steadied me from the other side to help me waddle out of the water.
“What’s wrong with me?” I demanded.
“You’ve just been off your feet a long time, Your Grace,” Amana told me. “Well, that and your babies are getting bigger.”
That made me grow more conscious of my swollen tummy. It was… very swollen?
Apparently reading my mind, Mitozin declared. “You’ll be getting bigger than that, girl. I’ve carried twins, too, so I can tell you that, first hand.”
As they led me closer to where Velerè was laying, her cow’s tail flicked into view momentarily, demonstrating that she was in natural huldra form at the moment. If I could see her back, I would see the moss-like furry stripe down the center of her back to match the similar fur covering the lower half of her shanks. She does have human-like feet, unlike some huldra with their cattle hooves.
Almost all these women had different fathers, which is why they had such varied characteristics. Huldra, Sylph, Naiad, Nereid, even a High Fairy in the form of Amana. But they did share enough inheritance from Mother to show that they were clearly sisters. Whether huldra or nereid or naiad or sylph, they all had faces and bodies that resembled hers to varying degrees.
As I settled down onto the grass next to Velerè, my eyes grew a little moist. As Amana settled down next to me, I placed my hand on my tummy so that their auras could reassure me that Mother and my little sister were still here.
A woman who looked a lot like Amana, down to and including having Mother’s bust, took a seat on the other side of her from me. Amana introduced her to me.
“This is Áda. She’s pretty much finished transitioning into a Lesser Fairy. If it’s alright with you, she’d like to stay here in Sky Ocean to finish her transformation.”
Áda had a strange look. Her hair was gunmetal gray, but strangely lush for that color. She had a teenager’s body and a face that had mostly grown smooth, but was clearly still touched with laugh lines and other signs of aging. She was clearly an aged fairborn in the process of becoming an ageless fairy.
“Hello, Áda,” I greeted her, and with that, I had met all my living sisters.
She smiled back and answered, “It’s good to meet you, Your Grace. This place truly is a blessing. I can feel myself growing stronger by the hour. Is it alright with you?”
“Absolutely,” I assured her.
“I hope you can allow it for Álon, as well,” Velerè stated. “He’s in danger of dying of old age without reaching fairyhood, but I believe he can still make it. He is quite close.”
She was talking about Áda’s twin, a fairborn man nearing the end of his seventh century. Several eyes in the circle of seated fairies were watching me with hope for their brother.
“Of course,” I replied with a smile.
Moira, the last to sit, took her place in the circle between Áda and Amana, and I realized the women had seated themselves naturally in order of age. I, the youngest, sat next to Velerè, the eldest, with Alorè and Diddere, the twin sylphs, to her left, Mitozin the naiad next, then Áda, then Moira, then Amana and back to me.
“So, all the living daughters are present,” Velerè declared, then glanced over her shoulder to where Serera and Dilorè were taking seats outside the circle. “Which means it’s time.”
