by Hadena James
“Leader of the Fey since time immemorial. She rests now, at peace with her creator. She was much loved and will be eternally missed. As long as a single Elder exists, let it be known that Morgana of the Fey lived, loved, and protected Elders and Humans in the only way she knew how. She paid the ultimate price by dying for us all.”
If I had had a body, I would have cried. If Pendragon had a body, I believe he would have cried. Neither of us did, so we huddled together, comforting each other as best we could.
The “day” after the funeral, Pendragon found our way back to the cement floor and the room where Jasmine had last been seen. It was empty except the four bodies. The Elders had been killed. Their souls were gone. A Gargoyle lay not far from them. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the Gargoyle had fed them his blood after they had delivered their newborns into the hands of Jasmine.
From that point forward, Pendragon and I began to roam the world. We were looking for traces of my sister and her Coven. However, neither of us had magic in the ether. We couldn’t even see it.
I don’t know how long we wandered before returning back to my house. The still impenetrable fortress loomed over us. Nick and Daniel were sitting outside as if waiting for us. Daniel waved. Charades was our only form of communication. Nick also waved, but he looked at Daniel while doing it, proving that he couldn’t see us.
Daniel rushed into the house. Nick stood on the porch and stared at us without seeing us. Daniel came back out with my family, my Overlords and surprisingly, Pendragon’s children. They all stared at the space, trying to see us and obviously failing.
Daniel began chanting. Nick began pulling dust from the earth in front of us. We watched in detached fascination. Pendragon looked at me.
“Don’t get your hopes up, Bren,” he said to me.
“I know Uther, I expect them to fail,” I answered. “If we ever get our bodies back, I’d like to invite you to dinner. One of the Overlords will cook, but we can pretend.”
“I’d like that,” Uther responded.
“Uther,” I looked at him.
“I know Bren, you spend a while in the ether and everything seems different.”
“It does, but that wasn’t what I was going to say. I was going to say I’m glad it was you in the ether with me. It gave me time to get to know you, to become friends with you. You’ve taught me much.”
“Brenna, if they screw it up, we stay in the ether, this doesn’t require a ‘last speech’.”
“No, Uther, it isn’t a ‘last speech’, it is a resolution to everyone. I finally understand my place and I would be clueless without you. If they manage to pull us back over, don’t let me forget it again.”
“Of course,” Uther smiled at me. I smiled back.
Dark Legacies Preview
In the Ethereal, there are three things that don’t exist; time, magic, and donuts. Of the three, I was missing donuts the most. I didn’t know how long I had been stuck in this other plane of existence. Uther Pendragon and myself were of the mindset that the laws of physics were much different here as well. We could see other souls, but we couldn’t interact with them. Only each other, it seemed to be because we had been touching when our bodies were dusted.
We could also see beings, live ones, but again we couldn’t interact. Only Daniel could see us. He was getting very good at charades. Pendragon and I were too for that matter. When it is your only means of communication with the living and a single living being at that, it becomes a necessity.
However, I was learning a lot in the Ether. My soul looked very much like my magic. Pendragon was no different, some details, but mostly just a blob that was the same color as his magic. We seemed to be able to go anywhere except my house and the Island Prison. We tended to hang out in the horse stable that housed my unicorn. It seemed to see or at least sense us. He would move towards the back of his stall whenever we arrived.
I wanted nothing. I didn’t need sleep or food or a bathroom. I wasn’t bored. I didn’t seem to have emotions, except a deep longing to return to the real world.
My family and friends were helping fuel that need. Trying to get bodies created for us was taking its toll. I didn’t know how many times they had tried, I’d lost count, it was more than two handfuls.
Not for the first time, I wondered if this was what it had been like for Sonnellion. He had spent eons trapped on this side. We had come to realize that the reason Sonnellion hadn’t seemed like other dead beings was because Sonnellion hadn’t been dead. He’d been disincorporated by my father. I was sure my father didn’t understand this. I was also sure I didn’t understand how it had happened.
I also understood that it was Nick and Daniel that had pulled Sonnellion from Pandora’s Box and given him a body. And it was Nick and Daniel that would have to do the same for us.
There lay the true crux of the problem. Without me, they didn’t have the magic. I was a keystone for them, a magical spring, eternally flowing for them to use. My role and my fate were impressed deeper upon me every time they attempted and failed to bring us back.
I had tried sleeping a few times when the condition first appeared. I had lay down on the straw that Daniel had set out for us. But sleep was for the living and I wasn’t exactly living at the moment.
“Do you have any theories that might help our condition?” Pendragon asked, interrupting my reverie.
“I think if we were in the house, this would be a piece of cake. But for the life of me, I can’t figure a way in,” I replied.
“Why would being indoors help?”
“As much magic as I have poured into the place?” I would have loved to raise an eyebrow at him. Since I didn’t have one, I settled for a blobby shrug that I knew looked nothing like a shrug.
“We’ve been this way for ages,” Pendragon rarely said anything about our discorporeal form. He seemed very accepting of it.
“How do you know? It might just be a month or so,” I responded.
“Not based on the way the infants are growing, the trees have all come into their leaves. It’s been a while.”
“I know, I was just trying to be optimistic.”
“I have a confession to make.”
“Confess away.”
“I’m a little tired of your company. You’ve become a much more pleasant Demon, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve got my own life.”
“I understand,” I turned to look at the magical blob that had become Pendragon.
“And you aren’t offended?”
“Nope, honestly, you aren’t very good company. You don’t talk much and in this blasted ethereal plane, there isn’t much else to do.”
“Too many years in the Prison.”
“When I get my body back, I may have changed my mind about being able to kill my sister.”
“Good, put this mess behind us.”
“I said ‘may’, Uther. There’s no guarantee, just a deep seated desire to get back to form and kick her Demonic ass all over the countryside.”
“It’s good to see your fighting spirit return.”
“Oh it has,” I looked up in time to see Sonnellion enter the stable.
“He can’t see us,” Pendragon reminded me.
“I know, I think he comes because we were always conjuring him when he was not really dead. I think it’s a sign of sympathy and remorse.”
“Remorse?”
“Remorse that it is us and not him.”
“If you could pull him into your dreams, why can’t your siblings pull us into theirs?”
“They might be able to and just not know it.”
“Perhaps we should try to tell Daniel.”
“That will be an interesting game of charades. What is the mime for ‘dream’?”
“Bets me, I live with nutters, murderers and my children. It isn’t like we have much time or use for charades.”
“I bet my sister is raising her evil brood now.”
“Don’t dwell on those things.”
&nb
sp; “What else is there to dwell on? My sister has probably resurrected all four horsemen while I’ve been stuck here.”
“It could be worse.”
“I doubt it.”
“You don’t have to listen to your mother nag you about sex.”
“That’s true. I guess there is a silver lining and I bet I can find a unicorn in it if I look really hard.”
“What would that be?”
“If I was stuck in the ethereal alone, I’d probably be mad as a hatter when I got pulled back.”
“Pity we had to destroy the Box.”
“Morgana,” her name left my lips in almost a whisper.
“That would be a fate worse than this,” Pendragon said.
“And there’s my unicorn,” I looked around. “So when Daniel comes in for his visit, I need to mime out that he should try pulling me into his dreams.”
“Pretty much.”
“I think that’s going to be a struggle.”
That ended the conversation. I set to the task of thinking about the movements and motions I would need to mime that particular idea. By the time Daniel arrived, I was still at a loss.
Daniel smiled and waved. We both waved back.
I put my head in my hands and closed my eyes, pretending to sleep. Daniel frowned at me. I switched focus and mimed a noose being pulled around someone’s neck. Daniel frowned even harder. Since I didn’t know a better way to mime Sonnellion, I kept at it. This time, removing a hood and miming horns.
Daniel stood rooted to the spot for what seemed like ages as I repeated the gestures over and over. Finally, he smiled and took off towards the house.
“That wasn’t so hard,” Pendragon smiled at me.
“We’ll see,” I wasn’t as optimistic.
Daniel and Sonnellion returned. Since I wasn’t sure I actually needed Sonnellion, I wasn’t sure it was an improvement. I thought a little longer.
I mimed the sleep gesture again and then pointed at our uncle. Daniel’s frown returned and he turned to Sonnellion. The two chattered at each other for a while. Then both of them shrugged.
“Let me try,” Pendragon moved forward. He mimed a yawn, then put his head in his hands and closed his eyes. When he opened them he pointed at Sonnellion and then at Daniel.
The two spoke longer this time. I was betting that the message hadn’t gotten across as Sonnellion suddenly turned to where Daniel pointed and began shaking his finger at Pendragon. From the way his mouth moved, I was also betting he was shouting at him.
“What did I do?” Pendragon asked.
“I don’t know, I’m not on that side trying to figure out what you are talking about,” I shrugged. “Why don’t we try it together? I’ll pretend to be asleep, you float over my head.”
We tried that. There was more discussion. Daniel shrugged at me again. I shook my own head and looked at the ground.
“To hell with the miming,” I lifted my blobby hand and blobby fingers and very carefully began to trace letters in the air. It would have been more effective with magic, but I didn’t have any.
The first letter was a “P” I stopped and thought. I could do this, I just needed to figure out how to do spaces. The idea popped into my mind.
My fingers began to trace the letters again. “P-U-L-L_M-E_I-N-T-O_Y-O-U-R_” Daniel stopped me by shaking his head and making wild gestures with his hands. He tried to respond in the same manner and I realized I was tracing too fast and the message was too long.
“D-R-E-A-M_O-F_M-E” I traced into the air.
Daniel gave me a thumbs up. He turned to Sonnellion and they began talking again. Then they both waved and walked off.
“Why didn’t we think of that earlier?” Pendragon asked.
“I don’t know,” I responded.
I leaned against the side of the stable as best I could and stared out around me. The stables were located in the pasture. They had been hastily constructed in January, but the work had been done very well. They had also erected a split rail fence system that enclosed the pasture. Beyond that, there were trees and heavy equipment. The buildings were going up. We had been watching the work. The apartment building was the first. It was currently at ten stories. Yet, they were still working on the support system and not adding the outer skin. I didn’t know how tall they intended it to be or if we needed a special permit to build such a thing, but it was being erected.
They were also breaking ground on the houses finally. Their outlines cut out patterns in the trees and paths were being constructed. During the day, workers wandered to and fro, looking very busy. Occasionally, they would stop and look at the unicorn prancing around the pasture or grazing. But most of the time, they passed in small groups and looked lost in conversation.
My house was the most impressive structure at this time. It was also under construction. They were attempting to add a second floor. There were problems though from all the magic poured into the building.
However, the obsidian facade glinted in the sun and looked terrifying in the dark. From here, you could see four of the five spikes that radiated out from the center. Some of the windows were dark, revealing no secrets. Some were brightly lit revealing beings moving around. Some had the window shades open, revealing more than just blobby black outlines and allowing me glimpses of my family.
Night was starting to settle on it. The moon overhead was full. The pasture was eerily lit by it. The unicorn made a noise, breaking me out of the trance I had been in. I turned to look at it. It was bedding down for the night.
I felt the first tug. Magic was enveloping me. I looked to Pendragon. I swirled around him as well. It was like someone had harpooned me in the stomach and yanked on it. I was jerked from the stable and into a strange setting.
We were in a house. Not my house, but a house none-the-less. The kitchen and living room were both lit with candle light. It looked to be something out of the Tudor area. Torches were on stone walls.
“Sorry,” Eli smiled at me.
“I can hear you,” I said to him.
“I can hear you,” Eli responded. The three of us sat down at the table. It was long and wooden and scarred from use.
“Where are we?” Pendragon asked.
“No clue. Daniel told me I needed to pull you into my dreams, so I did,” Eli responded.
“I think if we can get into the house, we can use the magic already inside to create us bodies,” I told my brother.
“Why can’t you get inside?” Eli asked.
“Magic, lots of it. We can’t enter the Prison either. Those seem to be the only two places we can’t go,” I replied.
“Then how do we get you inside?” Eli pressed.
“Maybe the new addition?” I said. “There has to be some magic breaking to get it built. Maybe we can use that to get into the house. Maybe you guys can come up with a spell to help.”
“I’ll talk to everyone about it when I wake up. They are all waiting for me to come back with a report.”
“How long have we been gone?” Pendragon asked.
“Six months and counting,” Eli said.
“Not as long as I had thought,” Pendragon answered. “If Bren is correct, then getting into the house should allow you to pull her magic from the structure to create us bodies.”
“That would be good. We’ve run out of suggestions inside the house. We’ve called all the covens and they didn’t come up with anything either. Mom thinks that blasted book may have the answer to the reversal of the dusting spell, but we can’t find the book. Jasmine hid it well.”
“You have Jasmine?” I frowned at him.
“Your Overlords caught her yesterday. She is being kept in the Council Chamber. We figured it was the only place with enough magic to do the job. Except the house, which attacked her when she got on the front steps.”
“Wish I had seen that,” I smiled.
“Daniel went searching for you, but couldn’t find you.”
“Who knows, we don’t know where we are
when. There is no time or distance on this plane. We just think of a place and we are there. We are also trapped together,” Pendragon answered.
“That should help. The ones that have come back are all a little bit screwy still. We think it is because they were alone for so long,” Eli answered.
“We can see beings, but we can’t interact with anyone but Daniel,” I answered.
There was another jerk and I was standing in the stable again. Pendragon with me. We looked at each other.
“I guess he woke up,” Pendragon answered.
“I guess,” I looked at him.
“What?”
“Think it will work?”
“I don’t know, Bren, but I’m willing to be optimistic.”
Daniel came running to the stables. He looked at us and then pointed to the roof of the house. I frowned at him. He did the gesture again, this time more emphatically.
“I think he wants us up there,” Pendragon told me.
“Yeah, but I don’t know why.”
“Then we go find out.”
Getting to the roof was effortless. I thought it and we were there. I stood on the roof and waited.
If noise had traveled to this plane, there would have been a tremendous rumbling and probably lots of other noises. They didn’t. Suddenly, my roof was falling into the living room. We stood on a bubble of magic. Daniel pointed. My siblings joined hands with my mother and a few other Witches.
I stared down at them. Daniel was shouting. Lucifer was glowing.
The magic bubble burst.
Character Guide
Character name pronunciation in parenthesis
Overlords:
Lucifer or Luc – Demon Overlord – Father of the Strachan children
Anubis (A-noob-us) or Ani – Vampire Overlord
Ba’al (Bye-All) or Beal (Beel) – Gargoyle Overlord
Gabriel or Gabe – Angel Overlord
Fenrir (Fin-rear) or Fen – Lycan Overlord
Morgana LeFey or Morgana – Fey Overlord
Kagutsuchi (Ka-gut-su-shi) or Kaggi – Elemental Overlord