by T J Trapp
“Who is your client?” asked Erin.
“They are very resistant to being named,” the sandy-haired man said.
“Very resistant … if you know what we mean,” the other man said. Then he repeated, “Very resistant.”
“What is your client going to do with these … products?” asked Alec.
“I do not know what they intend to do or even exactly who they are,” the sandy-haired man said. “But I do know that the appearance of that creature in India has marked the start of the real event. Up until now there have just been preliminary preparations. Now the Grand Cull is truly underway.”
The man with the hat leaned forward. “We need all of the help that we can muster,” he said earnestly. “Our clients are looking for domestic sources to manufacture these products. I am authorized to pay you a retainer in advance.” He looked from Erin to Alec and back again. “A substantial retainer,” he added.
“Why should we trust you?” Erin asked.
“I was advised that you would be interested in a mutually beneficial agreement,” the man said. “If you help us, we can provide some cover for your other project – your transporter.”
“You know about …” Alec said, and broke off.
“Your work with transporters? Yes. Our client has advised us of your work. We know that you understand the situation. That is why we came to you.”
“And you said Veranzo sent you?” Erin asked.
“Yes, he was our contact. But he is not our client,” the man added hastily.
“So it seems as if you are a front for the resistance movement,” Alec said, venturing a guess.
“Perhaps,” the sandy-haired man said, eyes narrowing. “The off-world orbs have evolved organizations over the years to work in these kinds of situations. The organization is so diffuse that I do not know the members. There are layers upon layers of those who help and those who act.”
“And Veranzo?”
“I was put into contact with Veranzo by others. I do not even know if Veranzo is a member or a spy.”
“Then why do you work with him?
“The enemy of our enemy is our friend,” the man said simply. “We are trying to impede a cull of hundreds of millions of orbs here on your world.”
He is telling the truth, but we should have a conversation with Veranzo to figure out what is going on, Erin thought to Alec.
“All right, we will do it,” Alec said. Let me call my manager, Frederick, and my chief chemist, Sylvia, back in here to work out the details. We can use our down-state shop for this work instead of doing it here.”
✽✽✽
Erin and Alec walked through the front door of the Community Protection Service Station into a small waiting area. A woman sat behind a heavy glass screen.
“Do you have an appointment?” she asked, glancing up from her cell.
“No. We have come to meet with Veranzo,” Erin replied.
“He is very busy. He cannot see you today,” the receptionist began, resuming her attention to her cell, and then Erin sensed with her ring and redirected the lines surrounding the woman.
“Oh, look – he just had a cancellation on his schedule,” the woman said, looking up and smiling brightly. “Here – I will take you to his office.”
She unlocked the door from the waiting room and took them down a narrow hallway with scuffed industrial-green paint, and stopped in front of a door marked: ‘Chief Service Officer.’
“A couple of people to see you, Chief,” she said, and ushered them into the small office.
“What the hell –” said the haggard man behind the desk, but it was too late. Erin and Alec were already in his office, the door closing behind them.
“Hello, Mr. Veranzo,” Erin said sweetly. “Remember me?”
He looked at Erin and sat up in surprise. “I haven’t seen you since our little adventure last winter,” he said.
“We had some visitors this morning that you sent to us,” Alec said. “We came to find out what is going on.”
Veranzo looked at them with red-rimmed eyes. “Yeah. Them. Yeah, I sent them to your shop. They wanted some special stuff.”
“And why did you send them to us?”
“I figured you would know what to do with them.”
“Why?”
“To tell you the truth, I really don’t know what’s going on, except that things are going to get a lot worse.” He jabbed his finger towards Erin. “We had the first visit by one of your kind, and she punished everyone around here for the slightest little imperfection. My gal out front was on the floor, writhing in pain, all because she left it up to that woman to open her own sugar packets for her coffee.”
“One of my kind?”
“One of the women like you. I know you aren’t one of her gang, because you raided her ‘House of Servitude’ last winter before she showed up here, and burned it down, so I figure you must be a rival gang or something. She demanded to know everything that we knew about you, and how you destroyed her ‘House.’ I wasn’t here when she showed up, and no one else knew anything about it except what was on the news channel and social webnet. So then she goes and punishes my staff because they don’t know no more!”
“Oh really?”
“That kind of people can’t be allowed to run loose, so when this latest couple of guys came and talked to me, I decided that I would help them. They had heard about you and wanted to see if I thought that you could help them.”
“You are referring to the ‘resistance?’” Alec asked.
“I don’t know nothing about any ‘resistance.’ All I know is that they are part of an organization that is trying to thwart the evil that is going on. They told me that the witchy women are responsible for the hydras.”
“And you sent them to see us?”
“All I did was pick up my cell and called your guy Frederick; they already knew about you.”
“Are you a member of this group, the ‘resistance?’”
Veranzo crumpled a piece of paper and arced it towards an overflowing trash can in the corner. “I don’t know what ‘being a member’ means. The group has some kind of organization, but I haven’t been able to figure it out, or how big it is, or anything. Sometimes they give me a little … gratuity, you know? For my trouble.” He rubbed his chin. “They think that I am a double agent.”
“Are you?” asked Erin.
He grinned. “At least, and maybe a triple agent! Look, lady, I am out to survive whatever is happening.”
“Should we work with them?” Alec asked.
“Not my business. I linked the two of you up. I will put that in my next weekly report. My job is to report what I hear and what I see. I send a report in every week with everything suspicious on it. I never hear anything back and I’m not even sure that anyone reads it. As long as I put everything in the report, I have done my job and I don’t get punished. And I get my paycheck.”
47 – Bonded
Erin and Alec ported back to Queen’s Wood in time for dinner.
“Look, the blue bonnets are still in bloom in the meadow,” Erin said. “They’re so pretty.” No one answered her; Alec was lost in his thoughts, and Celeste and Daniel were unusually quiet. Towards the end of the meal Celeste cleared her throat.
Erin looked at her. “You have something on your mind – tell us about it.”
“I have spent all day trying to understand everything you told me this morning, and it is so confusing to me. Somehow, now I can sense peoples’ feelings so much clearly. I know there is something that hasn’t been said. I think that we need to talk about it.”
“We can do it in the study; a good fire and a glass of wine always improve a frank discussion,” Erin replied.
Daniel started to excuse himself.
“Please stay,” Celeste said. “If it hadn’t been for you, I would be elf chow, so I think you deserve to be part of this.”
The four settled down on the leather couches in the study; Alec served glasses of w
ine while Erin started a small fire in the grate.
“This is good – is it a Texas wine?” Daniel said, to start the conversation.
“Cook bought it,” Erin said.
“So.” Daniel said.
“So?” Alec answered.
“So, boss, Celeste told me about your talk this morning. About the book. She said … she said that you said that you really are the original Dr. Holden!”
“Yes,” Alec said, “yes, I am.”
“That explains why you know so much about dark energy! I am working for the master himself!” exclaimed Daniel excitedly. Alec smiled. “And the crystal flowers! I told her that they had to have been made by the same person, with the same dark energy signature, and she said that you said that I’m right – that you made them both.”
“That’s right,” Alec said. “I made one for Celeste’s mother, years ago, before Celeste was born, and the other one just recently.”
“But I don’t understand how you could be … dead … and now … not so much.”
Alec laughed. “I wasn’t dead – I wasn’t killed in any explosion. And I left years before Celeste’s mother died. I’m not sure how that story got started. Must have been a convenient way for … somebody … to explain my disappearance. I told you before – I was accidentally transported to a different world – Nevia – and met Erin, got married, and have been there ever since. Time works differently on Nevia than it does here, thanks to the greater field of dark energy, and so although it seems to me that I’ve been there six or seven years, in Earth years it’s been at least three times that much.”
“I was right,” Daniel said to Celeste. “He is a lot older than he looks.”
“Daniel wants to know a lot more about your dark energy studies, but I want to ask you about something else,” Celeste broke in. Daniel shot her an annoyed look.
Celeste looked at Daniel, and then spoke to Erin. “Daniel is sweet and well-intentioned, and all that, but he thinks I am immature and flighty. And bossy. I can sense his feelings.” She frowned at Daniel.
“That can be a problem,” Erin acknowledged, “if you can tell what someone is thinking.”
“No, I mean, I can really sense his feelings,” Celeste blurted. “Is it these rings? Because he was wearing one yesterday too. I can tell that there’s something else about these rings, and what they mean, that you haven’t told me. Why does everything around me seem so much clearer now? So crisp?”
Erin touched the girl’s hand. “Yes, there is more to these rings than I have told you.”
“I know that you can see things and do things that other people can’t do. I’ve been thinking about this all day.” Celeste leaned forward and glared at Erin.
“Are you an elf?” she said accusingly. “Because if you are an elf, I don’t want to be here!”
“Not really,” Erin said, sighing. “Although I can see why you might think so.” She sat back against the cushions. “I guess that tonight is as good a time as any to tell you what the rings are, and what their significance is to you.” She held up her own hand and looked at her elf ring. “My ring has been handed down through my family for over five hundred years. It was brought to my homeland, Theland, by my ancestor, the elf mother Lian.”
“‘Elf mother’ – so are you an elf?” Celeste asked, crossing her arms and sinking back into the couch.
“No more than you are,” Erin replied.
“You must be an elf!” Celeste cried. “That would explain a lot!”
“You can’t be an elf!” exclaimed Daniel. “Not one of those awful people who took my sister, or tried to kill Celeste and me yesterday!”
“No, I am not one of those,” Erin answered quickly. “But I do have ancestors who were elves. I am a ‘cross-breed’ – a person who has both elf blood and orb blood in her veins.”
“‘Orb?’”
“What you call ‘human,’” Erin explained. “Because I am a cross-breed, I can sense many things when I am wearing my ring. And, I must admit, I do have the ability to influence the actions of others, to a small degree, similar to an elf.” She looked at Celeste earnestly. “And here is what you need to know, and understand. You, too, can sense through the ring, and can see the lines of energy that circle every living being. And that means that you, too, are a cross-breed. You, too, are of elven blood.”
“But – how?” Celeste cried. “How can that be possible?”
“You have inherited it from your parents,” Erin said. “Your father, certainly,” she gestured towards Alec, “but your mother, I know nothing of.”
“So do you have special elf powers too?” Celeste said to Alec.
Alec smiled. “No, not really. Apparently I am also a cross-breed, but the elf tendencies only show up in females.”
“How can you be part elf if you were born here on Earth? There aren’t any elves on Earth – or weren’t anyway, until this invasion started,” Daniel said.
“Elves have walked this world since the beginning of time,” Erin answered. “They have always been here. But because they look like you, no one notices them. Sometimes elf males or females couple with others, and the results are cross-breeds. They have interbred with your human race here across your centuries. So, on your world, you will find the occasional cross-breed. Like my consort. However, on many worlds, elves stick to their own kind – a mother with her three bonded clutchmen.”
“Then your children would be part elf, too,” Celeste said, starting to understand.
“Yes. We have two children at home in Theland, on Nevia. Our little boy, Leon, is almost five, and our little princess, Ariana, is just one. Their grandmother, the Queen, is taking care of them while we are away.”
“In Theland, Erin is a royal princess,” Alec explained. “She is the heir apparent to rule our country, and Ari is next in line.”
“And now we have another daughter,” Erin said, squeezing Celeste’s hand. “You.”
Celeste sat with her head down, absorbing what she had heard. Finally, she said in a small voice, “I can tell that you speak the truth. It was easier when I didn’t know these things. I never had a father, growing up, and now I have a father. I always dreamed of having a sister, and now I have a sister. I have missed my mother so much, and now I have a mother.”
Erin took Celeste in her arms. “You are my daughter.” She hugged her tightly.
“I miss my mother, and remember her well, and the things we used to do, before I had to go stay with my grandparents,” Celeste said. “But I know nothing about her death. My grandparents never spoke of it. You said you were with her when she died, and Uncle Al said that she didn’t die in the lab explosion – what happened?”
“The Great Wizard should tell you that story,” Erin said; then, turning to Alec she said, “Celeste and I both can feel that you are afraid to tell her something. She needs to know the whole truth from you in order to trust us. Tell her the story of her mother’s death.”
With reluctance, Alec told the story of the war between Theland and the Aldermen and the horrors associated with it. He concluded by describing the wizard battle between him and an unknown dark energy wizard, and how, after he delivered a mortal wound, he discovered that the other wizard was Sarah. He recounted Sarah’s last request: for him to save her daughter, Celeste, from the destruction that Dr. Alder was about to accidentally unleash on Earth, and how he and Erin had done that. Alec was in tears at the end of the story. “I loved her,” he said to Celeste. “I truly loved your mother.”
Celeste also burst into tears and came and hugged Alec. “I could feel the pain and the love as you told me the story. Thank you, because I sensed something was missing from my past, and now I understand. Thank you – Father.
“And, Erin, thank you for everything you have done for me. You make me feel like I am family and that this is my home. I never felt like I had a home, when I was growing up.”
“You are part of my family, and our home is your home,” replied Erin.
“Are you really a princess?” blurted Celeste.
Erin looked amused. “Yes, I am the Princess of Theland and I will become queen at the right time.”
“Does that make me royalty also?”
“Unquestionably, it does.”
✽✽✽
It was very late, and Erin walked Celeste from the study to her bedroom.
“Good night, my daughter,” Erin said.
“One more thing, though,” Celeste said. “I need to ask you something else about the rings, and Daniel.”
“What?”
“Yesterday, when we were being accosted by those elves, something weird happened between me and Daniel.”
“Oh?”
“I was trying to help Daniel when he was using dark energy, and then suddenly things between Daniel and me started to feel … different. And now, I seem to know what he is thinking, and feeling, and he seems to know what I think. What is going on?”
Erin’s rod glowed softly around her neck. “Did you do something to tie the lines between the two of you?”
“I don’t know what I did. We were being followed by two people with guns and Daniel needed help, so I did something, and it seemed to help. They didn’t see us, and didn’t shoot us.”
Erin let her self sense through her ring. She felt the lines around Celeste. Her rod buzzed. “Ahh. You bonded with Daniel.”
“’Bonded?’ What does that mean?”
“It is what elf mothers do with elf men when they consort. When the bonded men are elves they call the bonded ones ‘clutchmen.’ In the elf case, a clutchman is completely under the control of a mother.”
“Are you and Alec bonded like that?”
“No. I have never tried to use the ability to bond with anyone. Your father and I can sense each others’ thoughts, but we have never bonded. When you are bonded, you are no longer two people. You merge to become less than two. I do not want to control him. I want him to be with me from his own free will and not because I control him.”
