Return To Sky Raven (Book 2) (14 page)

Finally, my mother could take no more. She beckoned and whispered to another nebulia maiden who dashed through the portal and returned carrying two devices that looked like fishing nets attached to long poles. The maiden, this one with a fox head, went outside and tossed one of the nets to the poor, tired-out nebulia who was still not having any luck apprehending the artful dodgers. A few moments later, an exhausted but seemingly vindicated maiden had collared both rodents by the scruff of their necks. Resigned to their fate, the marmots just hung there mournfully as the nebulia carried them inside. The fox maiden ditched the nets and closed the door behind them. Presented to my mother, the two rodents just seemed to eye her warily and didn’t even struggle. She smiled and motioned to two of the empty chairs. The maiden carefully deposited the furry creatures in the assigned chairs. Not quite done with her task, she walked through the still-open portal and returned almost instantly with two more maidens with platters, setting them before the confused marmots. Seemingly pleased, she returned to her position behind my mother and the other two stood behind the furry critters, just like the rest did for us.

Maya looked at me with a wide-eyed look, but I also caught Rosa smiling. From the thoughts I was getting from her, I had an idea what was going on. Using my mage sight, I confirmed what Rosa was thinking - the two marmots were a pair of mischievous druids, not ordinary varmints.

“Lin, Julia, you can change back now; I don’t think you’re in trouble for anything,” I said to the two teens in disguise.

“Certainly not, we are going to need help eating all this food!” my father said, almost shouting it actually.

Reluctantly, they chittered at each other before changing back to their normal selves. It wasn’t as dramatic a shape change as we were used to from the dragon twins, more of a soft blurring of lines as they grew larger and the scruffy fur rewove itself into their normal green robes. “Um, we’re so sorry for intruding,” they said in unison, and then looked guiltily down at the floor and all the mud they had sloughed off in the course of their change.

Brushing off their concern, Mother snapped her fingers, sending the room into motion. The maidens behind all of us whipped out large cloths from somewhere and placed them on our laps; they even had a small one for Nia. They then proceeded to set out silverware that seemed to just materialize in their hands. Once each of us had a truly alarming number of spoons and forks placed in front of us, normally more than enough for an entire family, they removed the lids of the trays. Underneath was a single bowl of soup; based on the size of the tray, I was expecting an entire roast duck or something. With a flourish, my server scooped up the bowl and placed it on the plate in front of me, then stepped back.

Looking around, only Maya and I had been served. I looked across the table to Mother, but she was just smiling back at me.

“Sir and Lady, you are the guests of honor this day; by your right, you are the first to be served,” intoned the maiden from behind me. Her voice was very smooth, but I could tell she wasn’t speaking in common.

Maya looked at me questioningly, unable to understand her. “We are the guests of honor so we eat first,” I said, and she smiled slightly as we both picked up spoons. As we were about to dip into the soup, we were each tapped on the shoulder, and our servers shook their heads gravely and swapped out the spoons we had selected with two others from the group near our plate; this was all performed with lightning fast grace. Confused for a second, we shrugged and took our first taste of the soup.

It was some form of cream-based soup, but that was all I could tell even with all my cooking experience. But that didn’t stop it from being absolutely delicious! Apparently pleased with our expressions, the rest of the maidens uncovered the platters and served everyone else with beaming smiles on their faces.

“Now with the formalities out of the way for now, we can finally talk freely, and your father and I can begin some long-overdue explanations.” Mother paused and smiled at each of us, happily watching us eat with so much enjoyment; she seemed uninterested in her own soup. “Undoubtedly, your first question is ‘who are you?’. Which is a very good question and one that will require rather more explanation than you think. In short, my name is Oreale and your father is Ranther, and we are the Nova.”

“Well, that explains the writing on the wall and gate,” I said, putting down my spoon.

They were both still smiling. “Indeed, and as Alera said, we are the rulers of the nebulia. This makes you a prince, Alex.” I’m a prince? Wait, what?

“If he’s your son, then why did you abandon him?” Maya asked levelly, searching both their faces.

Both my parents cringed, and my mother looked away, her eyes glistening, as my father sighed and explained, “You should probably get comfortable as this is going to take a while. Maya, my dear, not to sound trite, but it’s complicated. The short answer is that Alex would have died if we had kept him with us; the long answer involves his place and responsibilities moving forward in the universe. I’ll tackle the short answer first, as it’s the easiest. The long answer involves all of you,” he said, affixing each of us with a serious look, “and will undoubtedly generate a lot more questions. Alex, if we could have kept you, we most certainly would have. But if you had stayed with us, you would have died in a horrifying way.”

“Why?”

He continued, “I know this will be hard to understand, but please know that it is the truth. Alex, we have no real bodies, not anymore. What you see before you are just shells that we can inhabit. As Nova, we are the rulers of the space beyond this world, what you would call the stars. We are very old and very powerful, but all things in the universe have limits. The first thing you should know is that there are many of our kind scattered throughout the stars, far beyond those you can even see. Normally, if one of our kind has a child with a mortal, the child stays with the mortal and is raised by them. Most of the time, the father is never seen again, but the child grows up to do great things, or terrible things, as sometimes happens. You are an exception.

“How so?” I asked.

Mother put an arm around my father. “We are the only pair.” She kissed my father on the cheek. “All of the others are male and live alone. But one day, many centuries ago, your father found me and we fell in love. But instead of just giving me a child and leaving, he gave me a choice - I could stay on my world or I could join him for all eternity, I chose him.”

Rosa stepped in. “Wait, you’re from another world?”

She smiled back. “Yes, I am. There are, in fact, many worlds out there. But it would be best if we left it at that for now.”

Father continued, “As we were saying, I chose to share my powers with your mother, but it didn’t quite go as planned. Instead of sharing them, I ended up splitting them right down the middle. I retained my powers over the physical plane, but your mother now controls everything of the magical realm. But to be honest, it’s not so bad. The other Nova, on the other hand, feared this outcome and vowed to never let it happen to them for fear of losing their own powers.”

“So they would give up a chance at love just to retain a bit of power? That seems rather sad,” Maya said.

Father sighed, “I know, and it is regrettable. Don’t get me wrong, they are all very good men and do their jobs without question. But we still have not answered your question. Many years passed before we decided to have a child, and looking back, I feel like a fool. We had completely forgotten what we were that day. Alex, if you were born without a body, your soul would float forever, unable to even pass on to the afterlife; we could not let that happen. Unable to stop what was coming on our own, we were forced to turn to the one group that we despise the most, the gods of this world.”

“Why do you hate the gods so much?” asked Lin.

Mother smiled at her. “It's not so much that we hate them, it is more of a inane disgust. We Nova created this world, but they claim the credit; we created the sun, but they say it’s theirs, and so on. Yes, they have powers and most of them are vastly different from ours. But they need followers to draw their strength from, we don’t. Unlike them, we will never age, never tire, and never die, yet they think themselves superior just because they roam the world more freely.”

My father continued, “But we needed their help, and after some rather humiliating negotiations, they agreed to help.”

“What sort of negotiations?” I asked, leaning forward in my chair.

Mother frowned, “They demanded more power over the forces of magic, to make themselves more impressive to their followers. But no matter how humiliating it was to be laughed at by the rest of our kind, it was worth it. They upheld their side of the bargain, you were crafted a body and a chance to live. But that was only half of our struggle; as Nova, we have our own laws we must follow, one being we cannot show ourselves to you until you come of age, which for humans is your twentieth birthday.”

“I don’t understand.”

My father answered, “It is not a law without reason. Undoubtedly, you have noticed your powers are growing more and more each day since your last birthday. This is because it takes that long for your body and mind to grow and adapt to the powers you possess. Before the law, some fathers would visit their children, and just the act of being close to them would activate their abilities prematurely. This release of raw power would almost always kill the child outright, or in some cases, cause permanent insanity, and that is why we were forced to stay away from you. But just because we had to stay away doesn’t mean we were gone from your life. We did everything we could for you, all of you, in fact.”

All but the twins seemed confused by that statement and were looking around in wonderment. But I didn’t really care, I was still processing what was just said. They left me because if they didn’t, I would die? I guess I could see that as a good reason. Even though they were hiding it pretty well, I could still tell they were screaming on the inside. As a parent, how do you cope with knowing that just being near your child would kill them? Mother picked up the story and continued as the maidens whisked away the second course of food that apparently I hadn’t even touched or noticed was even placed before me.

“Alex, we put much thought into your life. The choosing of your foster family for one thing was very painful. I wanted someone who would love and care for you where I couldn’t,” my mother revealed unsteadily, still daubing at her eyes regularly with the cloth.

“And I wanted someone who would teach you the skills needed for the rest of your life,” Father stated gently. “We settled on the Martins rather easily. In fact, they were everything we were looking for. Mr. Martin was an able smith who valued hard work, and Mrs. Martin was a kind woman who was also an able healer; two skills you have already needed. Their living in a dark elf community was a fortuitous turn of events as it prepared you to see their culture and people in a positive light. Nearly twenty years with the Martins also gave you a valuable education in what it’s like to be mortal. You learned what it’s like to skin your knees, to feel sweat running down your back, to have a girl you liked reject your invitation to a dance. You’ve watched friends die and babies born, and you’ve yearned to imagine a life greater than your own. None of these lessons would we have been able to offer you living as a Nova. Someday, if you get the opportunity to rule, these lessons will be more valuable than any fortress full of servants or vaults of gold.”

“Now for the long answer…Alex, yes, you are a prince of the Nova and someday the woman you marry will be a queen.” He stopped and smiled meaningfully at Maya, winked and continued, “But you should know that there are no free rides in the universe, even for our kind. It is a common expression on every world in the galaxy that counts philosophy as an asset; ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’, and so the universe has tasked you, Alex, Maya, and your group of friends. One important thing you all should be aware of, the universe strives for balance in all things. Good does not always triumph, the hero doesn’t always prevail, and sometime the dark of evil is victorious; no outcome is certain. What is certain is that this world, right now, is currently locked in such a struggle. The individual known as the ‘Lifebane’ is the champion of evil in this battle and, if left unchecked, this world will lose all magic and be lost forever. You and Maya have been destined since before your birth to be the counter to this great evil.”

“The Prophecy,” Maya whispered.

“Yes, exactly!” He paused as both of them looked saddened. “Before we go further into the long answer, we need to confess that not only did we watch and monitor Alex’s life with the Martin’s, but we also had a hand in shaping the rest of your lives as well, some for the better we hope. But whatever hand we played, it was necessary to get you all to the point where you are today.”

We were all silent looking around the table at each other. Mother looked over at my master. “Rosa, my dear, I don’t know if you remember, but that horrible episode so many years ago when your family was attacked and your sister pushed you out into the river to save you, it was my voice you heard that day on the log telling you to head to shore. I am sorry for the years and the pain of loneliness that you were forced to endure for so long, but you are the only other real enchanter alive.”

Rosa was crying softly, her face in her hands. It was almost like our sensitivity to emotions were heightened in this place. I could feel the raw pain of her memories flooding back to her more vividly than even the first time she revealed them to me. I reached out through our link and did all I could to comfort her. Grateful for my presence, she mentally clung to me as I sent her memories of the good times we shared; cooking breakfasts for her, Nia in the mixing bowl, Maya and me waking up on the floor of the reading room after the First Day dance. Soon, she had stopped crying and was even laughing a bit. She then reached over and hugged Maya with all her heart.