I cracked my right eye open to stark whiteness, a whiteness so bright my eye snapped shut almost blinded.
"It's okay, you're going to be fine, just stay still." Varden's voice, thick with concern from just above me.
"Where are we?" I asked, keeping my eyes shut.
"We're in the Νεράιδα clinic. You gave me the address right before you passed out."
Cold fear gripped me as I listened to his words.
"You didn't shape in front of anyone here, did you?" I pushed myself up onto my elbow, pain ripping through my side.
"On the two guards outside the elevator, they didn't know who I was, so they tried to force me to go back to street level. But I didn't kill them if that's what you're worried about?"
"It would have been better if you had." I slammed my head down into the pillow.
"What? You would have rather me kill them, why?"
"Because those two guards are from the Asian and African Sanctuaries. They've probably already gotten word back to their High Mothers about you."
"What about me, what's the big deal?"
"The big deal is that no one in any of the other Sanctuaries knows about you. We've kept you secret ever since I found you."
"But why? I'm just a guy, sure a guy that can do some strange things but just a guy."
"Mother Zhoa, that's why." My answer was more a hiss then anything else.
"Who's Mother Zhoa?"
"The High Mother of the Asian Sanctuary and the oldest of all of us. She was alive to witness the death of the last male of our race. Once she knows you're here, she will come to claim you." I looked over at Varden with hope alive in my eyes, I was not disappointed.
"Excuse me? What do you mean, claim me?" I hid my satisfied smile when I answered.
"Zhoa has been waiting for two thousand years for a male of our race to be born. I've been told countless times about how she brags that she'll be the first, or one of her Sanctuary will be the first to birth a full Shaper child. That's why we've not told the others about you." I locked my gaze on his. "And now you've gone and done it yourself."
"Hey, that was not my fault. Not one of you told me about this, when I saw them wheeling you away from me on the gurney I freaked out. They're lucky I didn't kill those two guards, but once I formed my blade they both fell on their knees like I was some sort of second coming." Varden threw his hands up, exasperated.
"That's because to them you are." I took a deep breath and winced as pain shot from my side all the way to my fingers and toes.
Grabbing Vardens hand I continued. "There's a lot of things we haven't told you." I snuggled deeper into the mattress and began my tale. "Most of our history books only cover the time from after the death of Christ until now. All the texts before that time were lost in a fire within the library of the single Sanctuary that had been built up until the time, all except one volume."
"This single scroll had been scorched but not burnt to the point where it couldn't be read. It states that even when there were male members of our race they were very rare. Out of a thousand births maybe two or three would be male, but all of them would be Shaper, but not just Shapers, they were Ταχυδακτυλουργός, conjurers, or magicians in modern speech. They could do things that the women of our race have never had the ability to do." My voice broke on that last part. I knew what Zhoa was capable of, I would not let her take Varden from me.
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I don't know who this, Zhoa is, but I'm not going anywhere or with anyone, but you." He raised my hand to his lips, gave the back of it a small kiss then laid it back down.
"Now get some rest, even with the Faes regenerative powers they said it's going to take a couple more hours before you're ready to travel." I watched as Varden spun on the edge of the bed to face the door, his shoulders tense as if ready to spring. He visibly relaxed when he saw who was at the door.
"Heather, what do you need?" He asked the tiny petite woman whose lock of white hair framed her almost childlike face.
"You have a communication from High Mother Damaris. She sounded quite agitated so you might want to prepare yourself."
"When is she not agitated?" Varden asked as he started to followed her out the door.
"Wait for me." I levered myself to my elbows again and was in the process of swinging my legs off the bed when a pair of strong hands clamped onto my legs and held them fast.
"Oh no you don't." Before I move my feet were swung back into the center of the bed and I had a very worried face over mine.
"You are to stay in this bed until she," Varden pointed towards the tiny woman now standing in the doorway. "Says you can leave this bed is your world. I will not have you hurting yourself because you're so stubborn."
"Hey! The only reason you can say that is because I'm down here and you're up there." I thumped my finger into his chest and winced from the effort.
"And that is why you are staying in this bed. Heather might be small but she's tough, and she will keep you in this bed." The tiny fae walked into the room as Varden walked out.
She sat in the chair right beside the bed and picked the television remote from the tiny table.
"Would you like to eavesdrop in on his conversation with the high mother?" She asked as she clicked the TV to life.
"You can do that?"
"We have this entire complex wired for sound, cameras in every room. Oh yeah, we can do that."
"Do you have any idea what you have done?!" Damaris's voice roared from the flat panel display that Varden was peering down into.
"What I did was save Catherines life. I didn't have time to be nice, and this is as much your fault as it is mine. If you would have told me about this place, I might have been better prepared." Vardens voice was even and cold, the very fact that it had been emotionless made it louder than the high mothers outburst.
"Don't you try to make this my fault boy. I am calling to warn you, mother Zhoa is on her way here as we speak. When she gets here, she has already informed me that I am to hand you over to her with no hesitation. Once she's done with you she's promised to return you undamaged, if not a little worse for wear, and those were her exact words."
"I have no plans to become some old crowns boy toy and you know it. How long do we have before she gets here?"
"From right now, twelve hours. If she finds you, she will claim you, or she will kill you. She has been waiting for you for over two thousand years, and if she can't have you, she'll make sure no one else can have you either. So I would advise you to hide your relationship with Catherine, because if Zhoa finds out about her, she will kill her."
I sat bolt upright in bed, what did she just say. She knew about Varden and I yet said nothing. What was she playing at?
"We will be back to the Sanctuary as soon as Cat can move. You already have my report I presume?"
"Yes, and I am most disturbed by this turn of events. But we will deal with that later, right now a more pressing matter is at hand, and one that has to be dealt with."
A cold sweat ran down my brow and suddenly the entire room began to feel small. I had to get out of this bed, I had to do something, anything to keep Varden away from Zhoa, he was mine, no one else could have him. He was mine.
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Νεράιδα: Fae
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