The blue grey world surrounded him once more. He was dead again, maybe for good, but for once, he didn’t mind.
Cherry was here.
She smiled at him, but something felt wrong as he looked at her, his relief giving way to dread as he pieced it together. She was human. She was never human in the Realms Between. Not unless…
“You’re dead,” he said, choked up at the admission. His heart crashing in despair.
Cherry smiled, cognizant but possessing the serenity only a soul long at peace could attain.
“I am. I have so much to tell you,” Cherry started.
“I didn’t want to leave, I swear— “
She silenced him with one cold finger on his lips.
“It doesn’t matter now. You have to go back. Our daughter Talia needs you…”
He paused, confused. It’s not like it wasn’t possible, but at the same time, it had never occurred to him.
“We have a daughter?”
He wracked his brain, but the realization finally hit him.
“Brat.”
She laughed at the name.
“You called me that when we first met.”
“Well, I met her first, after all,” cringing at the weirdness of that. It still didn’t make sense. He knew Hylia, knew she was the girl’s mother. “No, I saw her mother. She was pregnant that day we went to the bathhouse and— “
“She lost that baby. When Talia was born, she was my midwife. It was an easy birth, but the Queen’s Guard found out who I was. They killed me, but not before I had Hylia escape with our daughter and warn the others. Fajja created a hiding place at the bathhouse where only we could enter.”
Once again, his heart sunk as her cold lips touched his forehead. Of course. It was simple when she put it like that.
“Don’t be sad. You have to go back. Only you have the way to close the Gates…”
“You know what’s going to happen, don’t you? Tell me.”
Cherry smirked conspiratorially and she shook her head.
“Payback’s a bitch.”
Once more, he had been sucked back into the Realms of Men, Talia crying as she tried rousing him, the other Maidens standing between them and the Princess.
“Ah, mister, you’re awake! We really need your help! We can’t kill the Queen without you!” she pleaded.
“Talia,” he said, reaching up fondly to stroke her cheek.
She looked shocked, but then her eyes lit up. He knocked away the ugly blue hat to see her long hair carefully braided.
“Well, at least one of my mistakes didn’t come back to haunt me,” he said ruefully, letting her help him up to his feet.
He wasn’t entirely sure what it was that he was ‘supposed to do’; at least, not until the glowing purple light at the Queen’s throat grew rapidly, pulling them all once more into the Gate Realm.
The eight Gates stood all around them, shaking as if on overload, spinning slowly around them at first then with increasing speed.
“Huh. So that’s what the seed does,” he mused.
“You have something that belongs to me, gargoyle,” the Queen hissed at him.
He laughed.
“At least you’re not calling me beautiful. And finders keepers, babe. It took me days to get your father’s brain out of my fingernails.”
The Queen growled with rage, charging him.
Brute tried to attack her with her Key, but it flew out of her hand and into the Queen.
The Queen screamed but didn’t slow. The other Keys were ripped away as well, each one embedding itself in the Queen’s torso as they were absorbed into her body.
Her body swelled and grew, becoming grotesque in both size and shape, purple scales springing from her skin.
“Holy shit, she’s turning into a dragon,” Amber murmured as they backed away.
The Gates skidded to a sudden halt, shaking as if they were about to open.
His eyes shot to the Queen roaring as a single Key started to emerge, the Gates melding closer.
“If she unifies them, the Sentinels will break free!” Sunday yelled.
Talia looked at him then, her eyes pleading and his nightmare came back, the one where he watched his darling Brat destroyed and he suddenly knew what he had to do.
The thrall filled him and he felt his whole body sharpen, transmuting into a giant arrow of intent. His forehead became the point and he zipped forward, piercing the purple throat of the giant dragon.
He felt the purple fill him, shattering them both like glass.
At the same time, the Gates joined, the door bulged on its hinges, but the shattered remains sprinkled and the red seed started to shape the shards. The Keys reformed, a small glowing blue bottle as well, but it was too late; the Gate was already opening and the restless Sentinels poured out.
Talia rushed forward, grabbing the blue bottle and held it in front of her. The Sentinels froze in place, their bodies stuck in midattack.
The Rain Maidens did not hesitate. Each gathered their Key, stabbing the Sentinels of their namesake, shadows pouring from the wounds and into the tiny bottle. They filtered into the bottle like sand and when the bottle was full, it sealed itself shut.
The large gate started to close once more and Talia threw the tiny bottle inside before it could shut, running to retrieve her Key.
After the closing of the huge Gate, they stood in mute confusion, tensed for more surprises.
The shards around them started to fade, all but ones glowing with an eerie purple light.
Tears poured down Talia’s cheeks as the shards came together. She screamed furiously, intent on shattering them but Dolly grabbed her shoulders to stop her.
“Wait, look!” Dolly said, seeing that that they took on his shape, or rather the borog he had become.
He groaned, sitting up as he did, Talia nearly strangling him as her arms tightened around his neck. He laughed and hugged her back.
“It’s okay, Talia, it’s over,” he said.
But it wasn’t. He watched in dismay as he noticed his daughter took on the otherworldly look of a Rain Maiden.
“No… No, you were never meant to become one…” he lamented, seeing she was just as surprised as him.
Yelling in frustration, he pulled the Keys from them once more, letting them pierce his body.
The Gates tried to split apart once more, but he slammed them back together with his hands.
“I’m freeing you all,” he said with determination.
“How?” Reina asked with wonder.
The colorful seeds swirled around him, combining into one blazing white light. Serenity filled his face.
“The world is about to see a new era,” he said, accepting the light.
It spread through him, suffusing his skin to its normal flesh tone, restoring him once more to a man.
No, more than that. A God.
Talia tried to lunge forward again.
“No! You don’t know what you’re doing! You’ll have to guard the Gate alone forever!” Talia screamed.
“Not alone…” came a gentle voice, Cherry fading in to stand with him.
“Mom?” Talia asked and Cherry nodded. “You’re both selfish! You’re just going to leave me alone!”
Reina placed her hand on Talia’s shoulder.
“Not alone. You can still live with us. Your mother can’t leave but she can watch the Gate when he is away.”
Talia sniffed, swiping at the tears that formed in her eyes.
Talia saw her father grab her mother’s hand, seeing love light his eyes for the first time as he kissed her hand. She sighed with resignation.
“You did this to release us,” Talia said.
Fajja appeared on the smell of sulfur, laughing and shaking his head.
“Clever bastard. And here I was thinking I could at last claim the delicious soul I had cultivated so well,” Fajja lamented. “You do realize that you’ve released magic into the world as well…”
“As I said,
it will be a whole new era.”
“At least tell me your name,” Talia asked.
He kneeled, pulling the braid from her hair, tousling the long red curls she had inherited from her mother.
“Dad will do.”
EPILOGUE
Talia rushed along the cobbled streets, arms full of books and gadgets. She’d finally gotten a firm grip on her lesson books, but her fire wand had slipped free. She hopped as she stuck out the toe of one silk-slippered foot, catching the tip and bouncing it back up to land neatly over the burgeoning stack. She had barely broken stride in the process.
Education had been one of the first things ‘Dad’ had insisted upon and she had certainly taken on the full load: language courses in common and runic dialects, horse riding, the full range of academics. Rathbern Magic Academy had offered it all. Well, all except for a few things no decent school would deign to teach, but anything to get her overprotective father off of her back was a plus.
The only thing he had taken objection to was fire dancing. She had never been able to forget the thrill of seeing fire dancer in one of those sideshow performances when she was younger. Her aptitude for fire magic only made her more adamant. A non-magic fire stick and her fire wands were two different beasts.
The fire wand she carried was her pride and joy, after all. The hollow silver tube half the width of her smallest finger and etched with delicate runes was an instrument she could focus her magic through to ignite it at both ends. It was more than just a tool of entertainment, but practically used for academics as well. When she added the fact that it made her far less clumsy and she would dress like a girl besides, her father had lost the fight—even though he hadn’t much liked how skimpy a dancer’s outfit could be.
She hurried just under the archway with the massive obnoxious marquee emblazoned with the school’s name as the bell signaled for the start of class.
Lucky for her, her first class wasn’t far from the entrance and she had managed to slip into her seat just as the bell stopped its heavy rhythm.
Vandr leaned closer to her, winking his grey eye at her, the blazing yellow one sparkling with amusement.
“Senior class exams are next week. Need a study partner?”
Talia sighed, but nodded her head with a wavering smile as he sat back satisfied. The teacher, Professor Hallreth, narrowed his eyes as he turned to see her there, knowing full well it had been yet another close call.
She hadn’t told her dad about Vandr yet. She had just started dating him. Most kids had their first boyfriend well before her advanced 17 years of age. Then again, most kids didn’t have a Rain God for a father.
Her father had made good on his promise to visit. The days always seemed brighter when he did as if to let her know. Sometimes he would precede his arrival with a rainbow, sometimes he liked to show up unannounced and it was obvious he just intended to catch his rebellious teen doing something she shouldn’t be.
It had been hard for her father to decide that he should reclaim his family home for her. Hylia and the other Maidens had moved there as well, a regular sorority of a household with the exception of Aster’s husband Yaro. With what equated to nine mothers hovering about, Talia had wondered what her father could be so paranoid about. Absolutely nothing got past them.
The past five years had indeed been the new era her father had promised—the world was full of magic and the slumbering creatures had awakened. Scholars had scrambled to educate the public on how to handle the rapidly changing world, but it wasn’t a change that people could acclimate to in a mere handful of years.
Rathbern and Orendon had been thrown into disarray. Between Rathbern’s shaky government after the fall of the Triumvirate and the regicide of the Orendon royal family, the Rain God had seen fit to step in himself to appoint an oligarchy to oversee both Rathbern and Orendon as one. Their appointments would be limited to a set amount of years before the people would elect new officials.
It wasn’t easy to keep people from knowing who her father was and it made it nearly impossible to find a boy brave enough to date her because of it. Her father probably counted on that.
She had to have been spacing out when she heard Professor Hallreth say her name with enough volume and annoyance that it couldn’t have been his first attempt.
Talia shot up out of her chair amongst a sea of giggles.
“Ms. Ueryl needs you as office aid. Return after school to get your assignments for today.”
Getting out of class to help in the office was usually an exciting prospect, but she shot a wistful look at Vandr, wishing she could spend the time with him even if they couldn’t talk in class. They didn’t have many classes together and she’d spend every minute of the day with him if she could.
She gathered her things as the Professor had resumed teaching and she departed with a wave for Vandr.
The hallways were dim, cool and empty, so she found some peace in the only noise being the light taps of her feet. It wasn’t that she was constantly crowded at home. It was certainly big enough that they weren’t under each other’s feet. Still, she never quite felt a sense of independence there as she did when walking between classrooms with class in session. There was so much structure in her life now that she was indeed wont to slip away whenever she could.
Talia could hardly complain. Perhaps she had more freedom in her youth, but she had been grateful to trade it for comfort. Even so, she was still convinced that a life existed where she could have both.
She went into the office where Ms. ‘call me Cali’ Ueryl smiled up at her from behind whatever newly sorted stack of papers she was shuffling through.
“Talia! Bet you’re glad to get out of class! I have some errands for you!” Cali chirped, meaning every last exclamation point that Talia could hear in that high-pitched voice.
‘Glad… sure…’ Talia thought, feeling rather bummed out again, but managing a bright smile. It wasn’t the secretary’s fault. She wasn’t exactly screaming her new relationship status from the rooftops.
Not like she didn’t want to. If he survived the introduction to her father, that step was definitely on her list.
Cali had been right about needing a lot of errands done and it had at least kept her busy enough that she had been surprised to hear the final bell of the day.
She had fire dancing lessons in the Algar Square studio shortly, so she finished as soon as she could and tore off on her usual mad juggling race.
Talia had been the first one to the studio, which gave her time to get ready without the bustle of a cramped locker room. Even though her fire wand was safer, the actual classes usually took place in the courtyard outside. She was in no rush to head out there so soon, preferring to slip off into one of the side rooms to stretch and practice a bit on her own.
She made her way to the center of the dim room and closed her eyes, deliberate in her leisure to grip her wand in both hands. She held very still for a moment, listening to the gentle ticking of overhead lamps, feeling the cool drafts from the upper windows that never quite closed all the way, taking all that was far and gradually tuning out. Her focus closed in, feeling everything on the hairs of her skin then deeper still, to the breaths filling her lungs and the steady rush of her blood.
Talia could feel the magic build, warming the surface of her wand far faster than her body heat could do alone. She let out a little gasp as she felt the flames spark to life at the end. She swayed side to side to some tune only she could felt, dipping low as she began to twirl.
The surreal sound of a lute played with inhuman skill seemed to reverberate from deep within, filling her with a boldness she had never quite felt before. She no longer felt the floor beneath her but she kept her eyes closed. The walls and the very air around her seemed to guide her, assure her that she was safe. The only presence she could feel of herself was the smile pulling at her mouth at the heady sensation of this new discovery.
Maybe she could do her dance for the Rain God Festival with a blindfol
d on… One that matched the flames of her bodysuit…
The music stopped when her dance was complete, the last plucked string ringing on the air. She frowned and spun around to see the music had not been in her head at all. The shining violet eyes of a bard, young but older than her still, held hers from where he sat on the edge of the room.
‘They aren’t as pretty as Vandr’s eyes’ she thought to herself, wondering also why she felt the need to be so defensive.
She gripped her arm as the man patiently looked at her without speaking. The contrast between the freedom of her dance and the tension of the silence between her and this unwelcome audience were jilting in comparison.
Her eyes wandered down to his hands still resting over the strings of his lute.
“Play something else.”
She wasn’t sure why she blurted that out. Her father would have scolded her for skipping introductions. Also like him, curiosity often won out over etiquette.
The bard seemed unconcerned by the demand and complied, his face not even changing as his fingers sped along the neck, fingers deftly plucking the strings.
She listened with contentment, deciding she didn’t mind if the song never ended. She could feel her body swaying again, holding it in check as long as she could until the happy melody made her laugh and do one full sweeping turn.
The music had stopped again and the man’s eyes seemed full of questions. Still, the silence lingers.
Talia couldn’t just keep asking him to play.
“Who are you?”
Maybe it wasn’t the question you would ask in polite society, but because her father had always balked at being asked his name, sometimes you had to give someone room to define themselves otherwise. The bard’s eyes seemed to plead with hers now as he plucked five discordant notes.
She tilted her head slightly, nostalgia pulling at the corners of her mind but not finding a home. Music had seven basic notes A-G, but several octaves besides. If the lower ranges represented A-G, then rising above that could go further, to H and beyond…
“Do that again.”
She realized she was being rude and bossy but his patient smile didn’t break as he complied with the demand.
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