by Eva Brandt
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Mother, you’re the one who encouraged me to sleep with Prince Brendan. Have you forgotten?”
Her expression twisted into a grimace of irritation. “I haven’t forgotten, but I also remember I didn’t tell you to sell yourself to three-quarters of the academy. Having a sexuality doesn’t mean you get to throw yourself at every man within your reach like some kind of whore.”
What? Where had that come from? Granted, polyamorous relationships weren’t the norm on Terra, but we didn’t follow a strict set of rules either. Since The Grand Judiciary Procreation Control act, women were no longer in danger of having unwanted pregnancies. Most people followed their sexual impulses, scratched their itch, and returned to their lives as if nothing had happened.
Then again, Terran men and women lived in segregated communities, divided by gender. I was entirely different, simply because I shared a room with my lovers.
Whatever. This was stupid and I didn’t have time for such nonsense. I hadn’t come here to listen to a lecture.
“Look, Mother, I’m not sleeping with three-quarters of the academy. Yes, I did make a bit of a misguided bet, but that never went anywhere. My relationship with the rest of my unit is perfectly legitimate, and there’s nothing wrong or tawdry about it. I appreciate your concern, but I’m not being irrational or careless in my romantic life.
“That being said, I have no intention of staying here permanently. I’m going to go back to Chimera Academy. Sphinx and I are one. Pretending that’s nonsense is very insulting.”
“And yet, you’re here, and your chimera is not,” my mother pointed out.
The words sounded matter-of-fact, but the underlining smugness angered me. “This is a temporary arrangement because The Grand Judiciary feels I might have at least some talent in Gaia’s Gift. It means nothing.”
I’d expected my mother to know this already. I hadn’t spoken with her before my arrival, but General Rhodes must have. Hadn’t he shared the real reason why I’d been sent back?
Apparently not, because my mother’s eyes widened in almost comical horror. “That’s impossible. You’re an Unblessed. You always have been.”
“I know that, Mother. But even so, Gaia still heard me.”
As we headed inside, I explained what had happened in the tournament. I didn’t go into too much detail and didn’t tell her our theories and worst fears, instead choosing to depict August’s injury as an anomaly caused by a solar explosion. My mother was aware there had been an incident, as there had been drones stationed around The Fields of Mercury, monitoring the race. She hadn’t realized how serious it had been, though.
“I’m very sorry you had to go through that, dear. But I don’t understand what it has to do with you and your power.”
She sounded like she did regret August’s injury and that pacified my fury a little. “Well, August was badly burned in the accident. We feared he might not survive. So I prayed to Gaia to help him and it worked.” I let out a heavy sigh. “It had nothing to do with any skill I possessed, but it didn’t matter. The Grand Judiciary still decreed I had to take extra lessons to tame this new supposed power I have.”
My mother stared at me like I’d just sprouted a second head. “Of course they did, Selene. Gaia listens to our prayers, but she doesn’t intervene so quickly unless one of her priestesses is involved. Besides, you were near Mercury. Her reach there is limited, you know that.”
That made sense since Gaia was first and foremost a deity that protected Earth. Her power was bound to our planet. But on the other hand, how likely was it that I’d been able to heal August on my own? My tachyon manipulation skills couldn’t have made a difference and my telepathy, my one unique power, wouldn’t have affected his physical wounds.
“It had to be her, Mother,” I insisted. “I’m an Unblessed like you said.”
My mother pressed her lips together in a thin line. “We’ll see. Come along now. We’ll do a very simple test and scan your essence for traces of Gaia’s magic.”
Having grown up at her side in the temple, I was familiar with most of the tests the priestesses underwent. Usually, for them, it was about power level, mental strength, and determination. But there were the very simple ones that involved dummies—the same exam I’d remembered during the Introduction to Tachyon Manipulation class.
The test was held in a special hall that adjoined the main temple. There was no sacred wood here, only stone and earth, things that could be replaced without too much trouble. The dummies were stationary and lacked the firepower of the drones on Tartarus, but that wouldn’t be a problem. This was just a demonstration, so my mother could see the source of my powers.
She took up position behind a protective panel. “You know what to do, right?”
“Yes, of course.” I shot her a weak smile. “Well, in theory. I’m not very sure how it’ll work in practice, but I’ll do my best.” After all, it could hardly go worse than my lesson with Professor Strange.
Famous last words. As I stood in front of the stone dummies, I extended my hands and reached into my core, trying to summon Gaia’s Gift to the surface. That approach didn’t work. Tartarus’s power responded instead and a tachyon aura bloomed around me.
The ground beneath my feet started to crack and crumble. Right. Things here weren’t nearly as resilient to fire as the metal at Chimera Academy. With a frustrated huff, I shook my hands, trying to do some damage control before I accidentally started a devastating fire.
“Sorry about that,” I told my mother. “I’m having some trouble.”
“It’s all right,” she answered. At one point when I hadn’t been paying attention, she’d created a seat for herself out of the earth and she’d sat down. “Take your time.”
I didn’t begrudge her for her casual display of power, although I did wonder if, on some level, she did it just to spite me. I’d never seen my mother as petty, but she’d never called me a whore either. At this point, I’d started to believe that when it came to my life, anything was possible and everything that could go wrong usually did.
On the bright side, she wasn’t pushing me and she didn’t display any of the disdain I’d been showered with at Chimera Academy. It was a nice change and it encouraged me.
Still, I couldn’t fall onto the same methods I’d used to channel tachyons. Maybe real contact with Terra would help me. If I remembered well, most young priestesses didn’t wear shoes at all. I’d asked one of them about it once and the woman in question had explained that touching the earth with her bare skin allowed her to align her center better to Gaia’s power.
I was no priestess and I didn’t have the slightest clue if this would work for me, but I had no other choice. I needed to try.
Taking a deep breath, I dropped to my knees and pressed my bare hands to the ground. There was no real floor, just earth, leveled for convenience, but still raw and pulsing with Gaia’s magic. The moment I touched it, I felt the difference.
Tartarus’s fire wriggled to the side, making room for something else, for a shier, kinder power. It was the same magic that had allowed me to reach out to August when he’d been so badly injured. I embraced it with enthusiasm, wondering how I’d missed it in the first place.
“It’s not unusual for humans to miss what is right in front of their nose,” Sphinx murmured. She said nothing else, but I felt her tug Tartarus’s power aside, assisting me despite the huge distance between us.
I’d have a horrible headache after this, but it didn’t matter, because I could see it now. I could see the hidden power that I’d been denied.
All my life I’d been called an Unblessed. It hadn’t been a slur. It was just a word—like calling someone a woman, a man, a soldier, a tamer—just a noun that identified an undeniable fact about me. No one had told me I was inferior because of it. My mother had gone out of her way to point out I could still contribute to the well-being of our planet even if I hadn’t been born with Gaia’s Gift.
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sp; But at that moment, when I held Gaia’s power so close to my heart, I knew that had all been a lie. ‘Unblessed’ wasn’t just a noun. It was a designation that had the same vibe as ‘Terran’ did on Tartarus. No one needed to utter the word ‘inferior’, because it was right there, staring at us in the face. Gaia’s priestesses were blessed, chosen by a goddess. We were not, and therefore, we were beneath them.
I wasn’t angry with my mother for the deception. She could have very well made me feel horrible because of my lack of magic, but she hadn’t. It couldn’t have been easy to give birth to an Unblessed child as a High Priestess.
But now, I was no longer Unblessed. I did have a gift. And I could truly use it to become a better tamer, a more useful member of my unit. I could protect my lovers and my family better.
Beneath my hand, grass started to grow. Crimson flowers bloomed in bright explosions of color, and in them, I saw Tartarus’s fire. Smiling widely, I guided my power forward, attacking the dummies.
Vines exploded out of the ground, grabbed the dummies and threw them around like they weighed nothing at all. At that point, I realized I had next to no control over the vines, but I very carefully didn’t panic. Volatile magic wasn’t a new thing to me and, if nothing else, Chimera Academy had taught me how to take such situations in stride.
Digging my fingers deeper into the dirt, I willed the vines to behave. They had a mind of their own, in a way, and that made them tough to tame. But tachyon manipulation wasn’t a piece of cake either, and I’d learned that. I could do this too.
The vines slowed down, their motions becoming a little less wild, more coordinated. Finally, I got them to obey my commands and crack the dummies against one another.
As the pieces of stone crumbled to the ground, I thanked the powers of Gaia and allowed the vines to retreat. If I’d had the training, I could’ve probably forced the dummies to crumble outright. It would’ve been faster and more efficient. But there was something beautiful and almost poetic about watching the power of nature at work, and the vines had done a good job. They deserved my gratitude.
Maybe my Chimera Academy teachers had been right when they’d told me to come here. If I hadn’t, it would’ve never occurred to me to try something like this out. I might have never realized the potential that lived inside me. I might have continued to ignore the blessing Gaia had given me.
I turned toward my mother, breathless and proud of my accomplishment. “I can’t believe it. It’s true. I have Gaia’s Gift.”
For a few seconds, my mother just stared at me, as if she’d never seen me before. As the silence stretched between us, I realized in horror that she was nowhere near as pleased with this development as I was.
“Mother? What’s the matter? What’s wrong?”
My inquiry snapped her out of her trance. “Wrong? Everything about this is wrong.” She clenched her fists, her magic swirling around her in agitation. “It appears that your gifts go beyond the power you received from Tartarus. Gaia has touched you as well, but your magic is… corrupted. I can only assume it must have something to do with your relationship with those men. Otherwise, such an abomination wouldn’t exist.”
“Abomination?” I repeated shakily. “How can you say that? I’m still me. Why is it wrong to have this power?”
“If you don’t understand that yourself, there’s nothing I can say that will make you see the truth,” my mother answered, shaking her head in disappointment. “Honestly, Selene, if you were anyone else, I’d send you away. You’ve squandered and defiled our legacy. But you are my daughter and I don’t have the heart to abandon you.”
I’d never heard my mother sound so cold in her life. “You’re talking as if I committed some crime. I haven’t done anything special. Nothing related to Gaia, at least.”
“Don’t lie, Selene. You must have. Otherwise, there’s no way to explain the anomaly.”
“Maybe the magic was just dormant and Tartarus’s gift nudged it awake,” I said, a little desperately. Why was she acting this way? Why wasn’t she happy for me?
“Maybe.” My mother sighed. She didn’t sound like she believed it at all. “It doesn’t matter anymore. There’s nothing I can do on my own to bind it, and I doubt The Grand Judiciary would allow it, even if I did try. We will lie and say the two powers are separate from one another, and that you’ll never be that talented at using Gaia’s Gift.”
Bind my magic? She’d go so far? The mere idea outraged me. I tried to get up, only to find that I couldn’t. My legs refused to listen to me. I was as powerless as a newborn puppy. I’d overexerted myself—badly.
My mother couldn’t have missed my less than ideal state, but she made no move to help me. Gritting my teeth, I faced her again. “I want to learn how to use this, Mother. It could be so useful. It could save so many lives!”
“No, Selene. Nothing good can come out of this. I will teach you a few things, so you won’t be a threat to yourself and others. But I refuse to be a part of it in any other way. In the end, I am the High Priestess of Gaia and I must respect that vow, no matter what it means for you, my daughter.”
My indignation flared into bright hot fury. I’d heard that before from countless other people. General Rhodes had told me something almost identical when he’d said I needed to go to Chimera Academy. The grass beneath my fingertips started to burn, and the smoke reminded me of the mirror trial at the tournament. I ignored it.
“Mother, you told me once that Gaia and Tartarus are both deities that aimed to protect Terra, that they work together side by side. Did you lie?”
My voice was quiet and calm, but my mother heard me anyway. She heard everything I was asking, beyond the words I’d already said. “Yes, Selene, I did,” she answered. “But, given that you’re a student at Chimera Academy now, I think you already know that.”
She turned on her heel and walked out of the building. I didn’t follow. Instead, I just lay there, on the scorched grass, wondering how things had gone wrong so quickly.
It wasn’t a question I could answer, but by the time I finally got up, I’d made a decision. This power had been given to me for a reason. It wasn’t my mother’s place to decide if I deserved it or not. I would bite my tongue, accept her lessons, and go through the motions. Then, I’d learn on my own and have Sphinx help me.
I had a new family now. My mother might have reneged of me, but my unit and my chimera never would.
Royal Command
Brendan
“This is ridiculous, Brendan. I don’t understand your insistence in refusing the inevitable. We’d make a perfect match.”
I suppressed an exasperated sigh and wished, for the millionth time today, that I could fast-forward through sections of my life. “Lady Welton, I don’t know why you persist in this useless endeavor. I’ve told you countless times that I’m not going to marry you.”
Today, I’d been invited—or better said—ordered to come to the palace, for yet another mysterious meeting with my father. I’d known from the moment I’d received the summons that it would go poorly, and so far, my guess had been confirmed.
Penelope had intercepted me the moment I’d gotten off the shuttle and she’d clung to me like a limpet, refusing to go away. I hated being rude to women in public, and she took shameless advantage of that.
We’d ended up waiting for my father in the lounge, with her once again trying to bring back our old argument. “It’s not a useless endeavor,” she said. “Your father has already given his approval for our union.”
“Did he really? You’ll find that no matter what he might have told you, he’ll always listen to me more. I’m his heir. You’re nothing. In the big picture, you’re meaningless.”
Penelope pressed her lips together so tightly they went white. I didn’t enjoy saying such things to her, but it wasn’t as hard as it would’ve been once. Her attitude toward Selene had made me dislike her even more than I already had. And she kept making it worse, every day.
“You can�
�t be king if you don’t have a wife. And no offense, Your Highness, but your Terran is hardly an appropriate match. She can’t even give you children.”
My irritation with her flared into outright anger. At the back of my mind, Typhon snarled in draconic fury. “This woman is overstepping, hatchling. How much longer will you allow this disrespect?”
I didn’t answer Typhon. Instead, I glared at Penelope. “You can’t give me children either, Lady Welton. Because you know what? I’d rather chop my own dick off than stick it inside you.”
I smiled, and I knew it was a very unpleasant expression. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into here. You’d best be off now, before you end up accidentally depriving your family of a daughter.”
By the time I finished the final sentence, my words had turn sibilant. Penelope paled and stumbled away from me. “With your permission, Your Highness. I’ll take my leave now.”
She tripped over her own feet in her haste to escape. The sight shouldn’t have filled me with as much satisfaction as it did. Her fear didn’t really help me. She’d return, or if she didn’t, my father would try to throw someone else at me. But at least I’d gotten her off my back, for the moment.
It was better than nothing and it improved my mood.
“You should terrify these insects more often, Brendan,” Typhon advised me. “It’s very cathartic.”
“Yes, but not very conducive to my long-term goals. I actually do plan to become a king, remember?”
“You can become a king and terrify people. I can’t believe one of my hatchlings is so obtuse.”
“I’m not being obtuse and you know it. I wish things were as simple as you claim, but they’re not. I have to be careful, or I’ll make a bigger mess than I already have on my hands.”
Chimera tamer or not, I had no desire to become a dictator. I’d try to accomplish my goals through regular methods before turning to drastic ones.
“I just think you’re fooling yourself, hatchling,” Typhon replied. “Sooner or later, you’ll have to make a choice. And the moment of reckoning is approaching.”