Tiana will have to wait for Volume 5 to figure it out (I started the last afterword with essential this same statement!) This volume did indeed take up the rest of the arc that started in Volume 3, but at least it is done. Once again, ’tis I, your storyteller Fushigi, Dear Readers! Volume 4 is complete with chapter 175. …

. Oberon nodded, pondered something for a moment, then clapped his hands once. “Today’s audience is adjourned. Everyone except for family is dismissed,” he declared. “Tetra, we’ll take refreshments.” “Your Majesty…,” Serera said, kneeling while the others were bowing and leaving. She seemed to be expressing concern. “She is safe with us, My Lady,” he stated firmly. She looked reticent, …

. The way Mára maneuvered me into a duel had been dirty, but if it had been illegal, the crown prince surely wouldn’t have permitted it from the start. So was she restrained now because she didn’t stop at first blood? As the challenger, it was her prerogative to decide what constituted satisfaction. She should have declared that the duel …

. Princess Tenre looked over at the Fairy King with concern, then leaned down and asked, quietly, “Ininnedo? (Esteemed Father?)” He didn’t respond to her. Instead, he stood and walked slowly down the grass slope toward me, while I stood and wondered what the heck I was supposed to do. None of my protocol training covered this situation. He had …

. Naturally, the footman left the room when it was time for my bath, so I slipped back into my nightie and robe and peeked my head out the bedroom door. Sure enough, he was polishing some furniture in the sitting room while waiting for the bathing and dressing to finish. “Can you help me locate clothing?” I asked him …

. A gorgeous wooden-paneled ceiling with polished timber supports spread above me. I turned my head to the side and saw plaster walls painted with flowers and greenery,  with pedestals holding potted plants, a chest of drawers and a table of the type that I believe one calls a ‘console table’, all in a line against the wall. The table …

. The memory ended– no, it wasn’t memory, it was more like I had been reliving lives– and I returned to that golden-lit non-reality, still frozen in the moment of having run Mára through. With my voice shaking, I asked, “Why did you show me that?” The voice answered, “Because your older, wiser self knew the need to preserve these …

. My awareness falls backward. Another life flits past too quickly to see, and then another… …and I find myself on a merchant ship, high in the clouds. My little son is by my side, clutching my clothing, and his younger sister is in my arms. I’m terrified for us, because the raiders have us check-mated. They will soon board. …

. All motion stopped in that instant, along with the noise of the crowd and the banshee cry emitting from Mára. My body and everything else froze. I was caught there like a fly in amber, with my knee on her stomach and my hand on Durandal’s hilt as I stared into her crazed eyes. I would have thought she …

I had no time to look for either Durandal or the jade writing brush. I yelled, “[Body Fortification]!” while flooding myself with the Earth mana from my core as I rolled on the invisible floor provided by the sword grounds screen, trying to evade her. She was yelling, “[Titan’s Tread]!” [Fortification] formed faster than it ever had before, courtesy the …