The Duelist 9, page 12
“Shay.” I couldn’t help but say her name with a sort-of chuckle, and I pulled back from the hug only far enough to look at her and smile. “It’s already just as significant to me as it is to you. You’re my wives. I love you. It’s as simple as that.”
I’d never put much stock in the traditions of marriage back on Earth. The diamond ring, the white dress, the big party with the cake and a hundred guests. I mean, I liked a party, but I didn’t see how any of that made a marriage any more or less real than two people going down to city hall, getting a certificate, and signing their names in the registry. It was fun, of course, but it didn’t automatically hold significance.
So, if Zoie and Shay believed I was married because I’d killed their former… eurgh, their former masters, then I was married. I loved them, and whatever traditions they felt were important, I would be mindful to respect them also.
“You promise?” Shay sniffed again. “You won’t feel… more married to Amaya? Or… or less married to Zoie and I?”
“Of course not,” I swore, and Zoie murmured agreement from where she was still crouched in the water, but now she stood up and reached out to hug Shay, too. Despite the fact the cat-woman was streaming rivulets of water, Shay didn’t seem to care in the slightest, and instead she sighed into Zoie’s embrace.
Zoie petted Shay’s hair and made a sympathetic noise before she pulled away, and then I fixed my phoenix-wife with a wry look.
“How did you find out that my world’s traditions are different from Aventoll’s, anyway?” I asked.
A light pink blush dusted itself across Shay’s cheeks, and her gaze darted over to Amaya, who had watched this exchange with a slightly nervous expression and now stepped forward to touch Shay’s arm sympathetically.
“I… may have shown Shay some of the… mental breadcrumbs you left in my mind,” the oryx-woman told me. “Including what information you have about marriage customs in your world.”
“The ceremony is entirely different to here in Aventoll!” Shay frowned fretfully. “The things Amaya showed me, marriages like that are reserved for nobles, and even then it’s considered… perhaps ostentatious to make such a fuss over something that is expected to occur several times in a Duelist’s lifetime.”
“Well, to be honest, I thought they could be a bit over-the-top, too,” I said. “Like, a little party is one thing, but some people go like, ludicrously all out.”
I’d seen adverts for that sort of trashy daytime TV, where people who were impossibly out-of-touch spent more money on a wedding than most could ever hope to spend in several years of marriage. That had never appealed to me, it just spoke of obscene waste.
“So, you would be happy with something more restrained?” Shay asked, and I could tell the idea of something totally outrageous sat uneasy with her and Amaya, since the oryx-woman shuffled a little nervously.
“Don’t feel the need to reel yourself in,” I said teasingly, and I took Shay’s hand in one of my own and Amaya’s in the other. “I want it to be what you want.”
“I would like a party,” Zoie interjected.
“Party!” Nova agreed with a nod.
I got the sense Shay and I had been talking too quickly for her to follow much of the conversation, especially since we’d been talking about abstract concepts the Lakuna Children maybe didn’t have too much use for. I couldn’t imagine their culture putting much stock in a wedding ceremony.
“I want it to be a celebration.” Shay nodded firmly and took Amaya’s free hand in her own. “You’ve just been released from the stricter doctrines of the Order, we need to make a fuss over you now that you’re free to marry.”
“I… wasn’t exactly obeying those doctrines very closely.” Amaya flushed a little and ducked her head, and then she cast a shy glance at me. “Not toward the end, anyway.”
I grinned shamelessly as I recalled exactly how we broke those doctrines before I refocused on the task at hand.
“We should still make a fuss,” I said. “You deserve it.”
“You do,” Zoie agreed. “So few augur-mages get the chance to fall in love and marry as you-- and presumably Anwaar-- have.”
She looked over at Shay with a knowing expression, and Shay chuckled.
Nova, however, squeaked.
“Augur?” she asked and looked at Amaya with wide, horrified eyes. “Maya? Augur?”
“Well, yeah, Nova,” I said gently. “Didn’t we tell you? Amaya’s a member of the Order of Mercedes. She and Anwaar form an augur-mage pair.”
Nova jumped out of the tub with such speed it was almost like she’d teleported out of the water. One moment she was sitting submerged, the next she was standing by the bathroom door, with her arms raised like she was preparing to flee.
Which, I realized a moment later, she was.
There was no other word for her expression than ‘terrified.’ She stared at Amaya like she expected the oryx-woman to suddenly dart forward and try to rip Nova’s throat out with her teeth-- something Nova herself had tried to do to me, once.
“Nova, honey,” I said. “What’s wrong?”
Nova didn’t take her attention off Amaya, and she shook her head quickly, with her eyes still wide. She was shaking, I then realized. It wasn’t from the cold of not being in the water anymore, she was genuinely petrified.
“Nova,” Zoie said and gently reached for her, but Nova flinched away as if Zoie tried to burn her.
“No!” the siren-woman cried out. “No!”
“What’s wrong, darling?” Shay asked. “You’ve met Amaya already.”
She had. It had been only hours ago, and Nova seemed perfectly happy. She’d giggled and called the oryx-woman ‘Maya,’ and Amaya had seemed similarly enamored.
What changed?
“Bad!” Nova shook her head again. “Bad luck! Bad-- omen!”
I glanced over at Amaya, like maybe she would have some answers as to why Nova was suddenly behaving like this, but she looked as confused as the rest of us. And slightly hurt.
That I could understand.
“Amaya’s lovely, Nova, you have nothing to fear from her,” I tried in a gentle tone.
“I mean you no harm,” Amaya murmured, but when she took a tiny step forward, Nova flattened herself against the bathroom door and gave another shrill cry.
“No! Bad!” she wailed. “Witch! Witch!”
I didn’t miss Amaya’s flinch, or the dismay that painted itself across Zoie and Shay’s features. I could tell that ‘witch’ was hardly a compliment, but something in Shay’s expression was especially knowing. There was the grimness of some uncomfortable confirmation in her emerald eyes.
“She’s not a witch, Nova,” I said. “She’s an augur. And she’s only ever used her abilities to help people. You have nothing to fear from her.”
“Witch!” Nova insisted, and this time she screwed her eyes shut tight, like she couldn’t even bear to look at Amaya.
A moment later, she turned tail and rushed out of the bathroom altogether.
“Nova!” Zoie called out.
“Oh, Mercedes,” Shay sighed, and she looked like she was about to actually start crying, not that I could blame her.
Today really was turning into an emotional rollercoaster.
“I’ll get her,” I said firmly. “Amaya, please-- don’t take it personally. Nova… she’s really sweet, you saw that. She’s just… confused, I guess.”
“I understand,” Amaya said, though she sounded understandably downcast. “There are… some in Aventoll who are wary of gifts like mine, and the Lakuna Children would understandably be one such group. Their relationship to the land and the sea and the very Heart of this world has always been quite unique. They are not of the Order the way the other peoples of Aventoll are.”
“Still…” I stepped forward and hugged her tight. “Don’t think anything of it. We all know you’re sweet and gentle and wonderful. Nova’s smart, she’ll see that once we calm her down.”
I supposed it made a backwards sort of sense. The Lakuna Children, as evidenced by their mermaid-like biology, felt so at home in the water, despite the threat of the Ocean’s Knowledge. They probably saw the Ocean, and by extension, its Knowledge, as something cursed and dangerous. So, someone who dabbled in that Knowledge, when it was generally assumed that consuming the water would turn anyone mad, would naturally be someone the siren-people were wary of.
I kissed Amaya’s forehead, between her glossy horns, and she leaned into the touch.
“I’ll go talk to her,” I said. “You stay here and let Shay pamper you, like you deserve.”
“Like the bride deserves,” Shay confirmed with a nod.
“I’ll come with you, Alex,” Zoie said, and she reached for her clothes to pull them back on. She was the one who knew Nova best, aside from me, and while I didn’t want to make the siren-woman feel ganged-up on, I also didn’t want her to feel like I was lying to her. Having two people tell her the same thing, that Amaya was harmless, was more likely to convince her than just one.
“Sounds good.” I smiled at my cat-wife, and I gave Amaya one last squeeze before I let go. “We’ll handle this. Don’t you worry about it.”
“I trust you,” the oryx-woman said. “And I trust Zoie. I just… it’s been a while since I’ve encountered those… prejudices. And Nova seemed so sweet and kind.”
“She is,” I said. “She’s not used to how a lot of Aventoll works, I think. She was so sheltered.”
I knew why she’d been so sheltered, and honestly I didn’t want to think about it anymore than I had to, but now I realized maybe I should have. Of course, someone who’d grown up in a culture that was already so small and isolated, even before you factored in her pervert of a father, who would obviously have a vested interest in keeping her uninformed and docile, would not know a great deal about the outside world.
“I don’t hold it against her,” Amaya sighed. “Please don’t let her think I would. If she’s to be part of your-- our-- family, I want her to feel comfortable with me.”
“You’re too sweet,” Shay told her with a smile. “You absolutely deserve a proper marriage, you delightful thing.”
Amaya blushed deeply, and it comforted me to see her looking happy, despite what had happened.
Now, I just needed Nova to feel the same.
I grabbed some pants, and then Zoie and I left our phoenix-wife to pamper Amaya, and we set about finding where Nova had run off to.
She was in the hallway near the entrance, as it happened, and she looked more than a little lost. I could see the conflict in her maroonish eyes, because of course the Manta had come to represent a place of safety and comfort to her, but now that was juxtaposed by the danger she perceived in Amaya.
“Nova,” I said gently, and she whirled around to face me. “Are you alright?”
The siren-woman’s expression was desperate and distressed, and she backed away from Zoie and me, but slowly, like she was unsure of the decision even as she moved. The doors along the side of the hallway, that let out onto a long, wide balcony, were open, and her partially-dry indigo-colored hair blew across her face as she moved into the range of the breeze.
“Please, Nova,” Zoie said, in a similarly gentle tone to me. “We want to help you. Why are you so scared of Amaya?”
“She won’t hurt you, if that’s what you’re worried about,” I said. “She would never hurt you. She’s part of our family, just like you are. Family keep each other safe, right? We care for each other.”
“Safe…” Nova murmured, and I felt something hopeful blossom in my chest, because it seemed like she was coming around, but then she shook her head again. “No! Bad omen! Witch! Witch Maya!”
“She’s an augur, not a witch,” Zoie corrected. “Her abilities allow her to be closer with people, in their minds. She touched Alex’s mind, and mine, and Shay’s. If she was a threat, we would know. We would have seen it in her mind.”
Nova only looked more upset by this.
“Tricks!” she said. “Witch twists minds!”
“She hasn’t done that, Nova,” I promised. “Believe me, I know what it’s like to have my mind fucked with, I really do.”
That was why, when Mozz, a lizard-girl and Nova’s own half-sister, had tried to shove me into the Dark Realm, she’d fallen through the cracks in my mind and been dragged along with me. I was fine now, thank Mercedes, but it had been an unpleasant time to have to meditate just to keep my mind from splintering apart.
Nova seemed a little less suspicious when I said that, so I continued.
“I’ve had my mind invaded,” I said. “I’ve had it… cracked. Damaged. But Amaya doesn’t do that, she would never do that. You have nothing to fear from her.”
For a moment, I was really convinced I’d managed it, managed to convince the siren-woman that she had nothing to fear from the augur. But then, a second later, I realized I must have mentally jinxed it or some shit because she screwed her eyes shut and shook her head again.
“Witch Maya!” she wailed. “Bad! Danger!”
And before Zoie or I could try to convince her otherwise, she turned away from us and ran out onto the balcony.
We chased after her, but only so far, because Nova didn’t check her speed in the slightest as she approached the balcony’s railing. Instead, she jumped up and over the barrier, and as she arced gracefully through the air, her green legs transformed into a shimmering, scaled tail.
By the time Zoie and I reached the edge of the balcony, Nova was already too far beyond our reaches. My hands closed around the metal rail, and it was cool and solid against my palms where only minutes before I had been caressing Nova and Zoie’s warm, smooth skin. I leaned over the side just in time to see Nova vanish into the water, tail and all, with a flawless dive worthy of the Olympics.
“I could follow her,” I said, and I was already mentally visualizing how I could climb up onto the rail of the balcony and jump into the water. “This isn’t the Ocean, and even if it was, we already know the Knowledge doesn’t harm me like it would you.”
Zoie worried her bottom lip, and her cat ears flattened against her head with concern.
“Alex, you’re not Lakuna,” she said. “Nova can swim much faster and deeper than you. Even if this isn’t Ocean water, there’s no way you could hold your breath for long enough.”
I winced, because she was surely right, I’d already almost drowned in this lake once, but then something sparked in my mind.
“Maybe not,” I said. “Maybe-- my time-trance ability. I could use it on myself, but like… partially.”
I could bring people into my bubble with me, like I’d done with Nova, so maybe I could leave myself partially out of it.
“What?” Zoie asked, and one ear perked up, which turned her expression from worried to confused.
“I can slow down time so it looks to others like I move quickly,” I said. “Quicker than trained warriors-- so quicker than Nova could swim, for sure. Maybe if I do that, but leave my lungs outside the bubble, my oxygen will last for real time, but I can still move fast enough to catch her.”
Zoie looked unsure. I knew it wasn’t because she doubted my skill with this strange ability, but the limits of the ability itself. Bringing someone else into my time-trance was one thing. Leaving my own body partially out of it was another.
“I could certainly move quick enough that I could take another breath,” I said, in an attempt to assuage her concern. “But we can’t just leave Nova out there. She’s terrified, and she doesn’t even have anyone besides us.”
“Of course not,” Zoie agreed. “But… oh, Mercedes, be careful, my love.”
I smiled gently and reached out to touch her cheek.
“Always,” I swore, and my cat-wife leaned into my touch with a soft purr as her blue eyes gazed into mine. “There’s no way I’m risking dying when we just found out you’re pregnant. I wouldn’t miss our kids for the world.”
“Okay.” Zoie flushed, even despite the worry that lingered on her face. “I trust you.”
I leaned forward to kiss her lips before I finally pulled away. She was still nervous, but she knew I was competent. She was the one who’d trained me, after all.
Then I climbed up onto the railing, and I was just about to dive into the water when the crystal-blue of the sky above turned blood red.
Chapter 10
Panic shot through me even as I remembered there was no real danger. It was a learned response, from all those times that a Red Sky Event had preceded swarms of demons rising up from the earth, bent on destroying everything in their path.
But Shay, as the Incarnate, had healed the Heart of Om, so despite how I tensed at the scarlet sky, no demons arose from the beach below us.
“Alex,” Zoie said gently, and she reached out to touch my arm. She could not doubt see how on edge I was, and I reached up to cover her hand with my own.
“It’s okay,” I told her with a smile. “I’m okay.”
I might have been okay, but the native residents of the Island, like the Tatabo and the Okoba, weren’t. The moment the words left my mouth, a chorus of panicked cries arose from the shore below, and Zoie and I looked down to see the beginnings of what would surely become a terrified, frenzied mob.
“They don’t know,” I realized. “Shay’s healed the Heart, they’re safe.”
“Shay’s busy with Amaya,” Zoie said. “You’re her husband, and the Ambassador. You should be the one to explain it, I think.”
“You’re right,” I agreed, but that didn’t mean I wanted to start shouting ‘attention people of Om’ from the balcony of the Manta like I was some kind of self-important would-be king.
I needed to find Elder Elmer and explain it to him. He would know how to go from there.
There was no time for a controlled, dignified descent that someone with a title like ‘Ambassador’ would probably be expected to execute, so I patted Zoie’s hand one more time before I climbed up onto the railing and dove off. I landed in the lake and then swam to the shore. It only took me a couple of minutes to reach the beach around the lake, but in that short time, the amount of people had increased massively.
