“What is it about the contract and why is it still in force? Isn’t there a judge who can nullify it?” Couldn’t they just deny the contract?
“You have much to learn about magic, far more than Destra knew and even more than I know,” Abigail answered, surprising her granddaughter. “You see, the contract was magically created between Orion and Celie while she was still under his power. The lawyers in this dimension are laughable when they say a contract is ironclad. They have no idea what that means.”
Standing up, Abigail moved her arm and the table and chairs disappeared, leaving Ari and their glasses sitting suspended in air. “The contract they signed magically locks down to our very DNA.” She made another movement and a long strand of DNA appeared, most of it white, with one strip of reddish orange wound around it. “You see the orange strand?”
“Yes.”
“The contract is controlled by that particular strand. Anyone with that DNA has the possibility of being taken by Orion, and there is nobody who could, or even would, fight against it. The entire universe knows you cannot fight a magical contract. It is futile.”
She walked up and grabbed the orange strand, unwrapping it from the rest. “Each one of these calls to him. If he decides to own that particular woman, all he has to do is ask her to accept his possession. Since her very own DNA is pulled to his ownership through the contract, she cannot nor does she wish to say no. The moment she says yes, this happens.”
She tossed the strand back into the DNA where to Ari’s horror, it seemed to take over. Slowly, each white piece began to turn, until a few minutes later, every piece was the same orange color. “It takes less than a second for this to happen.”
“Oh my God,” Ari gasped, wringing her hands together as the truth about what could have happened hit her. “I almost said yes.”
“Why didn’t you? No other woman in our family has been able to deny him.”
“My ankle. It burned so badly, I shrieked ‘no’ instead.”
Nodding, Abigail made another wave and the DNA disappeared, and the table and chairs reappeared.
Ari felt more comfortable knowing there was a chair holding her up. “Now, we will need to get you trained. I know of only two dimensions that are powerful enough magically that Orion dare not enter, Corofus and Zeta.”
“Corofus?” Ari asked in surprise. “One of the guys who wrote me from IDS mentioned that. I thought it was a food.”
Laughing, Abigail shook her head. “No, Corofus is a very strange place. Magical traders hang out there a lot, some of the best and worst of the galaxy. Orion used to hang out there, I’m told, until he screwed up too many deals. His eternal ban was the first of its kind. Zeta would probably fit your imagination a little more as to a magical world.”
Zeta? Ari’s eyes lit up. “My anklet was made there.”
“Unfortunately, that is true. The Faerce Jewelry Makers have been around for many millennia. They make jewelry for many different reasons, each one imbued with a magical spell specifically created for its owner. About seven centuries ago, they entered into a contract with the Interdimensional Dating Service to provide magical talismans to their female clients to help them recognize men they might truly match well with. Obviously, yours was also able to tell you when evil contacted you.”
Her head spun with all this new information, but if she had to go anywhere, Zeta sounded nicer than Corofus. “Why do you say unfortunately?”
A sad smile covered Abigail’s face. “That mark on your ankle will be with you as long as you live. And whatever spell they cast upon that piece of jewelry will always be with you. That can be both a blessing and a curse, my dear. And as you have gone through the dimensional shift twice, and will soon go through it again, you will stop physically aging. You will remain with the body of a twenty-eight-year-old until you die.”
Stunned, Ari stood up shakily and walked around the small room. “I won’t age.” Abigail shook her head. “Is that why you look to be in your thirties?”
Laughing, her grandmother nodded. “Yes, though I was technically one hundred and forty-two the first time I shifted dimensions. This is how one hundred forty-two looks in my dimension.”
Looking her age for a long time did not sound like a bad thing, and she could go to this Zeta place and learn how to keep Orion at bay. Then it struck her. “I have to leave Earth permanently?” Her voice squeaked at the end. No more Cory? Or Jane? Or Denise?
Gently, Abigail stood up and walked over, placing an arm around her shoulders. “I know it sounds disheartening, Arwen, but there is a tremendous universe out there to be conquered. You can stay in contact with Cory and Jane.
“To make it seem as though you are still here, you will need to keep up with the Interdimensional Dating Service though,” she sighed. “Orion needs to think you are still leading a somewhat normal life.”
“But if he thought he couldn’t get me, wouldn’t he just give up?” Ari asked hopefully, until she saw her grandmother’s expression.
“No. Orion never gives up. Plus, if he thought you were suddenly unattainable, he might go after Cory or Jane just for spite. Since neither of them have a magical signature as strong as yours, it wouldn’t be good.”
Pain filled Abigail’s eyes. “He would torture them until they were nothing but mindless broken bodies. And he would still come for you.”
Depressed, but not one to just wallow, Ari took a deep breath and stood up straight. “Fine. So I guess I need to quit my job and pack up my belongings?”
“Cory is doing that now. She is grabbing the items that mean the most to you and dumping the rest. You will only be able to take a few things with you. And don’t worry. You will not be going alone. I will accompany you to Zeta, since that seems to be your choice, and introduce you to Mayir, an old acquaintance of mine. He is strict and a bit of an asshole at times, to be honest, but if anyone can teach you how to deny Orion, it would be him.”
A slightly evil glint came into her eyes, which made Ari wonder. “Why can’t Orion visit Zeta?”
Abigail shook her head, her expression filled with sorrow. “Ask Mayir about it once you have been there for a while. You never piss off one of the fae folk. Never.”
Chapter Eight - Zeta
As if things weren’t going fast enough, Cory returned with three large suitcases comprising the only things in the world that Ari now owned. Two of them were filled with Abigail’s gifts, the other contained her laptop, a few personal items, her address book, and a family picture.
“No clothes?” Ari asked confused, looking through all three cases. To be honest, she did not understand why Cory had retrieved all the Abigail gifts. Couldn’t they have been left them behind in lieu of something to wear?
“No,” Abigail answered shortly, quickly closing them all. “They have a specific kind of clothing on Zeta you will be expected to wear. The last thing you want to do is insult Mayir the first time you meet him.” She grinned as another twinkle came into her eyes. “Leave that to zoors like Orion.
“Good choices,” she added, nodding toward Ari’s sister. “He needs to think she is here. As he has been to her apartment, he will look for her clothing when he cannot find her. I will drop these items in several different dimensions, lead him on a wild goose chase that should last at least a couple months. At some point, he will realize we have duped him, but by then, maybe Arwen will have enough power to resist him.
“This case has all you’ll need,” Abigail insisted, pointing at the smallest of the suitcases with her laptop in it. “What did you tell her boss?” she asked, once again switching from talking to Ari to talking to her sister at lightning speed.
“That she died and we are having a private family ceremony,” Cory replied simply.
A gasp left Ari’s lips at the lie. “But I’m not dead!”
“You will not be coming back, Arwen,” her grandmother scolded. “And even if you could stay, you would never age. It wouldn’t be as though you could keep that job anyway
. Now, come. Grab your bag and let’s go.”
Cory pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. “Keep in touch,” she whispered. “And contact Mom. I bet she and Vane would love to come say hi.”
Ari nodded and, as Cory stepped back, she picked up her smallest suitcase. She watched her sister walk out of the room and close the door, and she realized she had never felt so alone. She would almost be willing to go back and be on a date with Jay. Almost. A giggle left her lips. Nothing was that bad.
Abigail grabbed her left hand and pulled her into the center of the room over the insignia. As she began to chant nonsense words and grunts, Ari clutched her suitcase to her. The now familiar feeling of having the world she was in fade while something else took its place made her shudder. With any luck, Orion would accidentally shift into the sun, burn up, and she could go back to her regular life. If only she could figure out how to look as though she was growing older, and of course, there would be the pesky explanation of how she’d returned from the dead.
The walls receded and in their place, muted greens, browns, and blues began to appear. She stared at them, feeling fuzzy, as though her eyesight was out of focus. Abigail’s chanting grew louder and the air around them grew colder. The green began to take form, looking like tall thick grass, waving in the wind. The blues intensified into crystalline blue flowers. The brown came into focus as tree trunks, a dirt path, and then so did other colors and hues begin to take shape.
Blinking her eyes, Ari realized she and Abigail stood in the middle of an unpaved road with grass, taller than they were, on each side. Each stem was about four inches thick and, about three feet up on each blade of grass, lay a beautiful flower with four light blue petals that looked like crystal surrounding a dark blue center. Above them was the sky, but it wasn’t a sky Ari was at all familiar with. It was pale lavender. “Wow.”
A snort came from her grandmother. “Well, we are here, but not in the right place. Come, we need to find a clothing merchant and then Mayir.” Abigail set a very fast pace, forcing Ari to hurry in order to keep up. It was a good thing she was into running, or she might have been left behind. For over an hour, they followed the very straight path through the tall grass, not coming across anywhere or anyone, and Ari was beginning to feel light-headed. A childish desire to ask “Are we there yet?” came to her, but she did not voice it.
Pet. His soft voice infiltrated her mind and she gasped, going still as stone.
“Arwen, we cannot dawdle!”
Pet, I will find you. Return and your punishment will not be as bad as it could be. Return, pet. NOW!
A cry left her lips as her body of its own accord seemed to want to follow his voice.
“Arwen!” Abigail snapped, shaking her. “What is going on?”
“He’s calling to me,” she said through frozen lips. “He wants me to return to him.”
“He’s already found you!” Abigail screamed, releasing her granddaughter. “There is only one way that could have happened. He is following me.” She took three steps backward and began to make some strange hand movements. “Follow this road. Tell the first individual you come to, the following: ‘I am a gift from Abigail of Corlanos for Mayir. Please deliver me quickly.’”
“What!” screeched Ari as the words and the realization her grandmother was leaving her combined. “A gift?”
“Just say it, Arwen! Mayir knows you are coming, and it will keep you safe. He will just have to accept that he will have to get you your uniform. Say it!”
Pet! Return now.
Whimpering, Ari whispered, “I am a gift from Abigail of Corlanos for Mayir. Please deliver me quickly.”
As soon as the words left her lips, Abigail disappeared and so did Orion’s voice.
“I hope this is a dream and I will wake up soon,” she whispered, grasping her suitcase tighter and continuing along the road. As the lavender above began to deepen to a purple, she wondered if she would have to spend the night where she was. But even with the dark purple, she could still see the road ahead so she kept walking.
And walking.
And walking.
With each step she took, she repeated the words to herself that Abigail had told her to speak, hoping if she messed it up, they would get the gist of it, whoever they were. And that brought up the question, who were they? Were they like her? Or would they be more like him? Shivering at the thought of the man with cold red eyes, she began to whistle as she walked.
It was a strange road, never ending, never turning and never getting anywhere. As the purple began to lighten to lavender and her gaze turned a little hazy due to exhaustion, she began to wonder if she would ever find anyone, or if she was doomed to walk this path forever.
The first time she heard it, she paused and cocked her head. Murmurs. Definite murmurs. People! Quickening her step, she had a renewed sense of something. She couldn’t call it hope, because she was worried about what she would find, but it was nice to know she would soon run into one of the citizens of Zeta. The knowledge that she was dressed in a pair of her sister’s pajamas did not daunt her step. She was tired and hungry. Surely, these people would be friendly. They made her that anklet, and it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. In fact, before she left, she might see if she could get a few more pieces. Though hopefully these wouldn’t melt into her skin.
Strange sounds of poof, poof, poof, filled the air, and she slowed down as they became louder. To her surprise, the blue flowers ceased to exist about five feet in front of her. The grass was still there, but not a flower in sight. The flowers next to her began to disappear, each one making the poof noise as they left. No longer hearing the murmurs, but a little afraid to stay in a spot where things were disappearing, she forced her legs to speed up.
The grass disappeared on her left. POOF! On her right. POOF!
A scream left her lips as she hit the ground, afraid that whatever was taking the grass would take her too.
“Vast!” hollered a voice that was echoed all around by other voices.
A moment later, a shadow loomed over her. Oh, no. Please let them not be angry with her. “Va misra loe?” A long thin white hand appeared in front of her. Figuring the person was offering her a hand up, she gingerly took it and stood up. Looking up, her eyes fell on the man who had helped her to her feet. Unable to judge age by looks anymore, she noted he had long brown hair and bright blue eyes the color of the flower petals. His face was long and angular and he wore a nice smile. “Corlya loe?”
Having no idea what he was saying, she opened her mouth to say so when she remembered what her grandmother said to say. Clearing her throat, she said, “I am a gift from Abigail of Corlanos for Mayir. Please deliver me quickly.”
His eyes widened, even as his smile dimmed. Then he nodded. “Of course,” he said in a soft voice. “I apologize for scaring you. Clearing the Molara fields can be a tedious job, and sometimes we forget travelers take this road. Come. I will take you to Mayir.” He turned and shouted a few more words that made no sense to her and then turned back to her. It just occurred to her that her hand was still in his when the world she was looking at disappeared and in its place was a tall white wall made of stone. Turning around she saw they stood in front of a large building. Behind them were fields and fields of flowers without another building in sight. “I hope Mayir is everything you were promised,” he said, leaning down to kiss her hand. “If he bothers you, please call out for Verisha and I will come.”
He dropped her hand, banged on the wall, and then quickly disappeared. Zeta was an odd place. The next time she saw Abigail she would let her know what she thought of being dumped here. A squeak left her lips as a door opened in the stone wall, and a tall man with cold blue eyes surveyed her. “Va misra loe?” he asked in a much colder voice than Verisha. His whole persona told her to go away, but she wasn’t about to stop now.
Taking a deep breath, she said in a loud voice, “I am a gift from Abigail of Corlanos for Mayir. Please deliver me quickly.”
His cold eyes seemed to become even colder, but he stood back and held the door open, so she went inside.
She had been wrong. The stone was not the wall of a building, it was the wall of a fortress. Inside the wall was a large garden separated into sections. Grass with blue flowers like she had seen before. Grass with purple flowers, green flowers, pink flowers, opaque flowers…everywhere she looked was a different section of flowers separated by a stone walkway. But the scary thing was that lining the inside of the wall were men, lots of lots of men, who were dressed like warriors. They even had swords.
What did a magical people need with swords?
“You would keep Mayir waiting?” he asked in a haughty voice, and she looked up to realize he was several feet away. Quickly, she followed him.
The garden seemed to go on forever, just like the wall of soldiers did. Finally, they came to a set of steps that rose to a doorway. She hoped Mayir was in there. He took three steps at a time and she was so tired that taking them one by one seemed a chore. By the time she got to the top, she was breathing hard, and he gave her a disdainful glare before opening the door to usher her inside.
Inside, the walls were of the same stone as the fortress, and while she could not tell where the light was coming from, the hallway they walked down was well lit. At the end, he opened a set of doors and walked in, shouting something at the top of his lungs. Cautiously she followed him.
The room was large, square, and made from the same stone. Light and open, it had three pieces of furniture. A large chair, a small table beside it, and a small footstool. On the chair sat the most interesting man she had ever seen. Thin and wiry with a gaunt face, pointy ears, long white hair, and bushy eyebrows, he made her think of a Santa who must have lost weight really fast. He turned and nodded at the man who had shown her in and he left quickly.
“So, you are Abigail’s granddaughter,” he said in a smooth, deep voice. “Come.” He pointed at a spot a few feet in front of him, and she quickly walked over to it. His eyes took in everything, her face, hair, clothing and from the frown on his face, she was sure he would throw her out. Instead, he chuckled. Surprisingly, it did not lighten his face. It made him look ill. “She was right. Your magical signature is extreme—almost as powerful as mine. She should have sent you to me for training years ago, but never mind. Training starts tomorrow.”
Your Dimension Or Mine? Page 10