Bright Tail

by Zenina Masters

  The midnight velvet of his skin would have glowed with embarrassment if it could. “Ah. That slipped my mind.”

  “So, why would you lie?”

  Teelion leaned back. “You and Lothan’s family have always had a connection.”

  “I was trying to get them to stop abducting young women, so yes. Killing them would have been a waste of magic.”

  “Yes, well, he was nervous about going off to find a mate without your authorization. Do you know why that would be?”

  She shook her head. “I have authorized a few of them in the past when they chose women who were bordering on a suitable age. I raised the brides for a few years until they were ready and had been given all the options.”

  Teelion looked at her in shock. “That was you?”

  “I have been around a very long time.”

  “The Bride Maker is a legend. Every fey male hoped to fall into your good graces.”

  “I didn’t select them; I just educated them. They chose the life with the fey, and the fey swore to protect and encourage the women’s education.”

  Teelion grinned with admiration. “And you didn’t hesitate to remove the women from the warriors who hadn’t upheld their end of the bargain.”

  “Three times was enough to get the point across.” She tapped her finger on the table. “So, Lothan is at the Crossroads and you won’t contact him?”

  “You may know the ins and outs of that place, but I am a mere drow with few contacts in that other world.”

  She snorted. “Well, I can see that I got dressed up for nothing. It was good seeing you again. I wish you well.”

  She rose to her feet, and he matched her.

  “Lady, I would be honoured if you would dance with me down below.”

  Seerya cocked her head. “You cannot be serious.”

  “I am usually serious.”

  “One dance, and then, I am gone.”

  Teelion beamed, his white teeth glowing in his black velvet features. “It is all that I have ever wanted from the universe. A dance with the Bride Maker.”

  She rolled her eyes and took his hand as he led her down to the pit of dancers. A nod had the music changed to something slow and formal, and she danced with the dark elf elder.

  He pulled her close on one of their formal passes. “You know they think you are one of us.”

  She felt her lips quirk. “It’s the blue and purple hair, isn’t it?”

  “That and you glow in the dark.”

  She sighed. “Ah, that.”

  He laughed and twirled her around the dance floor, sending the observers scuttling to the edges.

  When the song was over, applause broke out and she went up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Goodbye, Teelion. I am going to remember you when I return.”

  He blinked and whispered, “Where are you going?”

  “It is time that I rest and start over. I will return to the world after my people are gone. The weight of my memories holds me back.”

  Teelion looked like he was going to cry. “Can we talk about this privately?”

  She chuckled and walked away. “My mind is made up. I am just missing one part of the equation, and now, I am going to get it.”

  She could feel his magic reaching for her, but it couldn’t touch her. She was older than he was, and he knew the loss that she was experiencing.

  She passed the humans like they were leaves on a tree. She saw them and ignored them, while they trembled in the powerful wind of her presence.

  She had to find a transporter. She needed to get to the Crossroads.

  Seerya was almost to the door when Teelion caught up with her. “Lady Seerya, wait.”

  She paused. “Yes?”

  “Allow me to help you get to the Crossroads. Even your power does not allow for transporting.”

  She inclined her head. “Thank you, Lord Teelion. The help will be welcome.”

  “Please, come to my office. I believe that the Crossroads would like to be warned of your arrival.”

  She grinned and started laughing. “You are probably right about that.”

  She took his arm again, and they left the curious gazes of the humans, heading for a zone with more privacy.

  * * * *

  Teal’s palms were sweating as she and Tony worked to contain the power that was being sent into the Crossroads.

  It was a relief when the young woman stepped forward, but Teal was a little surprised. “Lady Seerya?”

  The woman with the blue and purple hair smiled and nodded her head. “I am, Guardian. I am very old and humans were smaller when I was born.”

  Teal blushed when she realized that she was staring. “Sorry. I just wasn’t expecting you to look so normal.”

  “I have let my hair change with the times, but the rest of me is stubborn. Now, you know why I have come?”

  “I do. He isn’t available right now.”

  Seerya frowned and power swirled around her.

  “Dira is eager to have a visitor. If you come with me, I will take you to her.”

  Seerya lifted the bag on her shoulder. “Very well, I brought the gifts after all.”

  A voice from behind Teal spoke. “My wife and the children are eager for your visit.”

  Teal was incredibly relieved. “Mak. This is Lady Seerya.”

  “I gathered as much.”

  The one true sea monster passed Teal with a light touch on her arm and a smile. The weight of her power was incredible, but it was such a relief when she walked on.

  Mak offered his wrist, and Seerya settled her hand on it. Her modern clothing was quite the contrast to her courtly mannerisms. She had been around so long that even the Shifter Council thought she had died or faded into legend. In all her years, if anyone had ever told Teal that one day she would meet the sea monster, she would have called them a liar. Today, she understood some of the whispered legends about her.

  Seerya had gone from being a shifter and become the power of the sea itself. That power was currently carrying baby gifts to a dragon and her children in a cottage near the woods. It was a weird day to say the least.

  Teal wondered who would come to the Crossroads next.

  Chapter Three

  Seerya had to admit that motherhood suited Dira. “You are glowing, Dee.”

  The dragon looked up with delight in her eyes. “Seerya! What—you look wonderful.”

  Their hug was a collision of ancient energy that rippled through the landscape.

  Mak wandered over to where his children were lying in the afternoon sun, crackling with power.

  Seerya smiled. “Oh dear. Did they catch the magic?”

  Dira exhaled upward and blasted her hair away from her left eye. “I would not put it past them. They are probably going to do something stupid with it later today.”

  “So, you are enjoying motherhood?”

  Dira urged her into one of the comfortable chairs set to watch over the babies rolling around on the lush grass.

  “I really am. I didn’t expect to hit it this hard after so many centuries, but Mak is worth the effort and the girls are going to be one helluva legacy.”

  Seerya looked over the babies fighting to roll to their tummies and crawl. “You are going to be in trouble when they start walking.”

  “I know it. So, what brings you here?”

  “I am just visiting for a short time until I can reclaim an icon that I handed off to the fey a few centuries ago.”

  Dira nodded. “Right. Why are you reclaiming it?”

  Seerya leaned her head into her palm. “I am so tired of watching those I love fade and wither to nothing. I can’t take it anymore, Dee. If I cannot die, I want to sleep, and I can’t sleep if my icons can be called upon at any given time.”

  “Do you have the others?”

  “I do. There is only one left, and it is here. Apparently, Lothan is unavailable right now.”

  Dira frowned.
“What does that mean?”

  “Well, either someone is trying to keep me here longer, or Lothan is having sex. It doesn’t matter. A few more hours and I will have my icon back and be able to return to the human world and their legal hoops.”

  Mak looked up from his place next to the babies. “You have legal issues?”

  Dira chuckled. “Seerya is the mind behind Bright Wave Coffee. She also provided the energy that I needed to craft the Isthmus as part of her treaty with the Shifter Council.”

  Mak smiled. “I have spent thousands at your establishments over the years. You put out a quality product.”

  Seerya inclined her head. “Thank you. I do try.”

  Dira smirked. “She’s a faceless billionaire.”

  “I have a face. It is just ridiculous for someone my age to look like this.”

  Dira laughed. “I love the hair.”

  “It came on in the last century. I can’t dye it, and it won’t go away.”

  “It suits you, and don’t fret about the agelessness. You were born a mythical shifter. You have to accept that you won’t age.”

  “I accept it, and that is what is driving me to sleep. I want to wake up with the world new and all of those around me just as new. I want to start over.”

  Dira’s expression softened, and she threw out a distraction that Seerya could see a mile away. “Did you bring something in that bag?”

  “Well, I did bring gifts. Let me see.” Seerya dug in her bag, and she pulled out the first bottle. “I knew that they didn’t need power or wealth, so I thought a little luck might not be amiss.”

  She held out the glowing bottle of green and blue energy. “May I put it on them?”

  “Please. If they will be adults the next time they meet you, this moment is yours.”

  Seerya took the luck vial and the others to where the babies were rolling back and forth on their blanket. She sat on the fabric, and Mak moved away.

  “Hello, little ones. My name is Seerya, and if you grow up to hear tales of sea monsters, it was always me. I have been in the water a long time, and I have collected a few things for babies like you. Babies who have the chance to make the world better.”

  She opened the first vial and turned it with her index finger over the mouth of the tube. “This first one is luck. It tickles.”

  She stroked a drop on the forehead of each infant, and the children giggled.

  “The next one is something that folks don’t put much stock in, emotional strength. It is a hard thing to find, but knowing that you have it will let you forge through all that comes your way.” She stroked a drop across each chubby cheek.

  The babies giggled.

  “Your parents will teach you wisdom, it comes with time, but I am going to offer you cognition, or the ability to think faster.” The bright red vial pulsed with eagerness.

  Seerya pressed the final drop gently between their eyes. “Thinking on your feet is a skill that will help you to flourish and help you with those around you. Finally, I give you the doorway to empathy. Each of you will choose when you open your mind to it.”

  She picked them up, one by one, and kissed their cheeks, whispering words in ancient languages. When she set them down, they stared at her with bright blue eyes and slowly smiled.

  Dira was grinning with tears in her eyes. “Where did you get those?”

  “I traded a few for the use of the icons for five centuries. Others were given to me by adventurers and swashbucklers. Sailors will pay anything to gain safe passage home.” She sat in the chair that she had previously vacated.

  Mak ran over to check on the babies, but the girls were back to rolling over onto their bellies and kicking their feet.

  “Thank you for your trust, Dee.”

  “I know you only have their futures at heart. Despite yourself, you always look out for others.”

  Seerya rubbed her face with her hands, ignoring the tingle of the magic she had just put on the babies. She had absorbed a lot of it over the centuries, and it didn’t have any effect on her anymore.

  “One more icon and I can rest.”

  Dira reached out and touched her arm. “How long have you been wanting to rest?”

  “Three hundred, maybe four hundred years? There was one of my family who needed guidance then another and another. I had to stay on.”

  “What is different now?”

  Seerya laughed. “Women are citizens, they have the vote, they can own businesses and succeed or fail on their own merit. I do not need to tilt society in their favour anymore.”

  “None of your line was shifters?”

  “Not before me and not after. I was a completely random occurrence.”

  Mak called out, “Which sea serpent are you, if it isn’t too rude to ask?”

  Dira answered, “All of them. She has circled the globe.”

  He met Seerya’s amused gaze. “All of them?”

  “Well, there have been a few large mermaid sightings that were attributed to me, but since she is here now, it is pretty obvious that it isn’t me.”

  She smirked. “I have been painted, carved into prows, made into mythical monsters that have been hunted by locals and strangers alike, and still, no one puts me together with the naked woman walking out of the waves.”

  Dira added. “Or on them.”

  “Right. That too.” She chuckled.

  Dira smiled. “Would you like some tea?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Dira got to her feet and rubbed her hands. “I am out of practice. This is going to be fun.”

  Mak gathered the babies up in his arms and smiled. “It is time for these ladies to have their nap.”

  She followed her hosts into the house that looked astonishingly like a castle in the woods and helped Dira get things ready.

  In less than half an hour, tea was served complete with tiny sandwiches and little cakes frosted with silver.

  The afternoon spun by in a whirl of laughter and memories shared with Dira’s unicorn.

  When the light began fading, Seerya smiled. “I am going to go in search of my elf. This was lovely, and I hope to see the whole family again one day.”

  “I hope it is sooner than you are planning, Seerya.” Dira hugged her, and Mak did the same.

  “It was interesting meeting you, Seerya. Thank you for the gifts for the children.”

  Seerya nodded in acknowledgement and left her friend and her family.

  She could hear Mak ask, “Did she really give them magic?”

  Dira laughed. “Enough to save a world or burn it. We will have to teach them which to choose.”

  Seerya smiled and walked back to the Crossroads as the moon began to rise in the crimson sky.

  She had a dark elf to find.

  When she asked about Lothan at the Crossed Star, the serpentine bartender smiled and said he was due at any moment.

  “I would order a drink, but I am not here as a guest, so my ability to pay is limited.”

  “What would you like?”

  She looked from side to side and whispered, “A Shirley Temple.”

  His grin showed long fangs. “I can manage one on the house.”

  He had the cocktail together in moments, and when she took her first sip and smiled, he inclined his head and went on to the next customer. Business was just picking up, so she headed to a small booth on the side and waited for her prey to come in.

  Three dark elves wandered through before she found the one that she vaguely remembered. Lothan had been dressed in the formal garb of his people, and she had been wearing weeds. They had made the exchange, and she had guarded the women under her care.

  If the icon had matched the women, she ensured that they knew they had a choice. Destiny would wait. The elves could afford a few years.

  Dark grey skin that absorbed the light was the hallmark of Lothan’s clan. She remembered him as having white hair, but now, it was slate grey with silv
er highlights. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt that showed off his most identifying feature. The shooting star with the bright tail glowed against his skin.

  She finished her cocktail and got to her feet, walking over to his table and tapping her nails on the surface. “Lothan, you may not recognize me, but that object around your neck once belonged to me, and I need it back again.”

  He gripped the huge, carved green pearlized surface. “This was given to my people by the mistress of the seas.”

  “It was handed to your ancestor by a sea monster who wanted your folk to stop preying on the young women in the villages. They wanted the random kidnapping to stop, so with this object, you could find women favourable to the fey, and from there, the attacks stopped.”

  “They were not attacks, they were seductions.”

  She snorted. “Whatever they were, the icon was part of the exchange, and now that your folk are free to seek mates where they like, I would like the icon back.”

  His dark eyes stared at her as if he couldn’t believe she was real. “No.”

  “What?”

  “I have no proof that you are who you say you are, and this pendant is a treasured possession of my clan. You are merely an attractive lure to remove it from us.”

  She looked at the way he was fondling the carving, and it struck her that he had brought it here for a reason.

  She sat next to him. “You can’t find your mate without it.”

  The moment she sat, the pendant started to glow.

  Lothan stared at the glow in shock, and his surprise was secondary to Seerya’s.

  Between clenched teeth, she muttered, “That’s impossible.”

  He smiled slowly. “Apparently not.”

  Chapter Four

  Seerya stared at the steady and powerful glow coming from the pendant. “It is probably reacting to my proximity.”

  He shook his head. “No, you were next to me many times in those early years as the icon’s custodian. This is definitely different.”

  She blinked. “I thought you did not recognize me.”

  “I have always known you the moment you came into my view. Since the day I was given this honour, I have known whenever you were near.”