I stood there frozen for a moment, not sure what to do or say, or even if I should do or say anything. This was so very different from the situation with Tíana, she was still a small child, born a Fae, and only related to me. Aine though, was an adult who probably believed herself human until the Veil fell and was half-sister to both me and Nishalle, and only through our mutual father. Despite all of us growing up human, we never even knew about her until recently. Did she even know she had sisters?

And what about our relationship now, as Fae? I was technically a clone of Rhaennan, did that make me her aunt? While I liked to think nothing would ever change how we felt for each other in our hearts, I was only still Nishalle’s sister biologically because our Mahair, Amoiraishe, wanted us to remain siblings and had used her own DNA in Nishalle’s F.I.T, and mine as well before Narek replaced both of the genetic samples in mine with Rhaennan’s. Would this apparent older sister of ours even accept and acknowledge our dubious relationship? Were any of us ready for that?

My scattered thoughts and my focus on the Autumn Court Yseil’dhraí and her group did not go unnoticed by a certain shiny Drakling who was being bathed. ~What’s with that face? Are you constipated or something? You don’t look very regal at the moment, and image is important.~

I groaned as Luna’s mind voice intruded upon my thoughts, wondering if it was a good idea to try to explain things to her. “You see she red-headed Fae? We’ve never met before, but Nishalle and I recently learned that she’s our half-sister. This could get complicated,” I told her.

~Oh, I see. I can help you with this, no problem. Do you see how their eyes are on me? Not that I can blame them, I am very regal and striking, after all.~ The Radiant Drakan said nothing more as she shook off the water, getting the poor Succubus who was acting as Luna’s nanny completely soaked and then walked right up to Aine and her companions, nudging the redhead toward my group and confusing all of them.

I quickly sent a mental apology to Guiyen, the Succubus that was acting as Luna’s nanny, but she brushed it off, saying that when bathing a child of any species one should expect to get wet. Still, I thanked her for being so patient with her charge, who probably wasn’t the easiest of the Drakans to deal with, before I found myself confronted with the awed group of unfamiliar people, including the Autumn Court princess. They weren’t staring at Luna anymore though, now they were all staring at me.

Aside from Aine herself, there were three others. The first was a massive and muscular Amazon woman with olive-hued skin, long black hair, and eyes that were nearly as dark as her hair. Her size made her look intimidating, and her weapons and armor only made her more so. She was wearing Guardian armor similar to Liassany’s armor when we were still in the game and a large, curved sword. She also had a massive Guardian’s shield and what looked like a larger version of a traditional Fae longbow and arrows.

None of her equipment was made of Nythrin yet, but they were fresh out of the simulation, and I suspected that it wouldn’t be long before she got an upgrade. Hadrick and the Sül’shael were pumping out Guardian armor and weapons as quickly as they could for the protectors of Yseil’dhraí and those guarding the Queens and Princesses of the courts would be getting theirs first. I could only assume that whatever Hadrick and my girls came up with for the Amazon would somehow make her even more intimidating.

The other pair were both Nymphs and looked identical, to the point that I would have thought they were twins if I had ever heard of twins among the Fae before. Bearing children was rare enough among our kind, but twins were unheard of, and it was a little strange to see since even their expressions were similar. Both Nymphs had honey blonde hair and blue eyes, figures that rivaled Daenyss, and I noted that they both had light violet nasyr taka covering their right arms, and even those were identical. It was a little unnerving, to be honest.

They were an odd group and upon realizing who I must be they all knelt and bowed their heads as they said, almost in unison, “Your Majesty.” Shit, they knew who I was. Well, of course, they did. By now there wasn’t a born Fae in Varüus’kiel who didn’t know who I was and about my connection to Danu, and word had likely spread to everyone else as well, even those in the sims.

“Thanks a lot, Luna,” I mentally muttered with all the sarcasm I could muster. “This was not how I wanted my first meeting with Aine to begin.”

~You’re very welcome,~ she cheekily replied. ~Would you have rather it started with you both stupidly staring at one another? Because that’s where that was headed before I so graciously got the ball rolling for you.~

“Yes, yes, you’re so good to me. How would I live without you?” I shot back mentally as I turned my attention to the group kneeling before me. “Oh Goddess, please stand up, this is awkward enough as it is.”

Thankfully, they all listened and stood up to face me like normal people. Well, almost. Aine’s three companions were all staring at me in awe while the princess herself looked nervous as her eyes darted between me and Nishalle. Okay, so somebody (Probably Mahair) had told her, that should make this a little easier at least. Nishalle, never one to hold back, abruptly asked, “So, did Mahair give you the whole story, or did you get the abridged version?”

Aine frowned as she considered the blunt question, though I didn’t think it was because she was angry or uncomfortable, more like she was still trying to process things now that we were face-to-face. To be fair, that was perfectly understandable because I was kind of doing the same thing. “I dunno,” she finally said with a shrug, “she told me a lot of stuff when she showed up and I didn’t believe half of it at first.”

“I can understand that,” I conceded. “It took time for me to wrap my head around the whole magick is real and the world is going crazy thing too, and that was after being immersed in a simulation of that very thing for over a month.”

She snorted in slightly bitter humor. “Tell me about it. We just got out of the simulation for training and getting used to our new bodies. I’m still trying to get used to all of this and things like you and that little dragon being real. Honestly, I don’t think I’m ready to deal with the whole long-lost sisters who are demigoddesses thing on top of all that yet. So, if you two were hoping for a tearful reunion, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but that’s not happening. I need to get used to all of this, my responsibilities to the Autumn Court, and a bunch of other stuff.”

“Actually, she’s a Drakan, not a dragon, there’s a big difference,” I gently corrected before a sigh of relief escaped me. Honestly, this probably could be going a lot worse and there could be feelings of resentment, but that didn’t seem to be the case. “That’s fair. If it were me, I know I’d want to get my feet under me before dealing with the truly mind-bending stuff too, and I know there’s probably a lot of pressure on you as the new Princess of the Autumn Court, I’ve been down that road before myself. So, maybe we should just get to know each other a little bit as people for now. We can save our sisterly relationship, if you decide you want that at all, for later when things settle down a bit.”

“Drakans, huh?” she said as if trying the word out on her tongue, “and the women watching them are…”

“Succubae, and they’re also my priestesses. Don’t believe what you may have heard about them, they’re all sweet and very loyal,” I told her. After letting that sink in for a minute, I decided that some introductions were in order. “I’m Taelya, the shiny Drakan is Luna, she’s bonded to me. This is my fiancée, Rei, and our lovers, Daenyss and Salem, Daenyss is also my Attendant. I think you’ve probably already figured out who Nishalle is, but the big guy is Pete, her boyfriend. They’re two of my bodyguards, and my two Guardians are Lissany and Harley, Liss is the Jaguar and Harley is the Unicorn.”

“Huh, from the way I’ve heard the other Fae talk about you, I thought you’d be more commanding and formal,” Aine said pensively.

“Oh, she hates all the formal stuff,” Rei replied with a laugh. “She can be very serious and commanding though, but only when she needs to be.”

“Heavy is the head that bears the crown,” I muttered, getting a laugh out of my companions.

To my surprise, Aine gave an understanding nod at that. She must have been thrust into the leadership position in her simulation, like I was, to train her for her duties as a princess of the Autumn Court. Then she set about properly introducing herself and her companions. “I’m Aine, but I guess you already figured that out. The Amazon is Dahlia, my Guardian and oldest friend, and the twins are Kara and Keira, they’re my Attendants.”

We stayed there for a while, talking about how we had gotten where we were right now and getting to know one another a bit better. Aine seemed to be feeling me and Nishalle out, but that was fine because we were doing the same with her. None of us was going to jump feet first into a relationship with each other, we all needed time to get used to each other and get to know each other as fellow Fae and people in general before jumping into something that none of us was ready for. So, we gave Aine the broad strokes of our story, and in return, she told us hers as we sat by the lakeside watching Luna and the other Drakans play with Lucy and some of the other children.

Aine grew up in Seattle and her mother died when she was young, leaving her pinballing through the foster care system for most of her youth. It was at one of those foster homes where she met Dahlia and the two ran away to tough it out on the streets together when Dahlia was seventeen and Aine was sixteen. To hear them say it, living in abandoned buildings and scraping by on what they could shoplift or buy with stolen or begged for cash was far better than their lives in foster care had been.

Eventually, when Aine was eighteen, they managed to get minimum wage jobs and scrape out a living by sharing a two-bedroom apartment with the twins, who they had met while living on the streets. I guess that lasted over a decade with them all stuck in dead-end jobs and with no way for any of them to really escape the cycle of threadbare existence their lives had become. At least they had each other, and they were getting by even if none of them were truly happy. Aine was fast approaching her thirtieth birthday when the Veil fell, magick returned, and the world went crazy.

In the few days following Christmas, she started feeling strange and going through changes. Her hair was changing color from its usual dull brown to bright red and one morning she woke up to see that her eyes were amber in color with slit pupils, eyes that didn’t belong on a human. Then there were the reports of monsters and general weirdness all over the city and the world. Aine couldn’t go to work for fear of being found out, and the others were hearing horror stories of people changing and disappearing whenever they ventured outside.

Aine decided to make a run for it, not wanting to endanger the only three people in the world she gave a shit about, but Dahlia caught her sneaking out in the middle of the night and her three friends refused to let her go it alone. With all the chaos and monster attacks in the city during those first few days of magick’s return, it was fairly easy for them to steal a car and they drove north, hoping things might be better up in Canada and that they could find a way to sneak across the border.

In the end, they didn’t get anywhere near the border. Something made the freeway impassable between Seattle and Everett. They didn’t even dare get close enough to see what it was, seeing the panic and accidents ahead of them was enough for them to leave their stolen car behind and try to make their way north by following the Cascades. After almost a week of wandering northward, avoiding other people, and running from monsters in the wilderness, Amoiraishe found them.

The Queen of the Autumn Court explained to them what was going on with the world, who she was, and her relationship to Aine, and then invited them to Varüus’kiel. None of them really believed her until she started throwing magic around to eviscerate a small pack of Werewolves that had been tracking the group, and they agreed to come with her just to hear her out in relative safety. Which was when she told them that Aine’s Fae heritage was only partially awakened, and she needed to go into an F.I.T to make the change complete. She told them about the F.I.Ts, and what they could do, and then left the choice in their hands.

In essence, they chose survival. Aine had little knowledge of her heritage, and certainly no loyalty to the Fae, until they were in the simulation, had their first skill downloads, and she began to understand and have Fae memories to learn from. Now she was trying to deal with all of this, her responsibilities to her people, and with what being Fae truly meant, something I could understand since I had been through it myself.

When she decided to go into the F.I.T to finish her transformation with some DNA from our Mahair and a Nyiir’dhraí male, her friends decided that they wanted to stay by her side. Dahlia decided to become her Guardian to protect her, choosing to become an Amazon for their great strength, endurance, and the intimidation factor. Kara and Keira decided to serve her in a way that meant that at least one of them would always be at her side.

They were identical twins before getting into the F.I.Ts, but they wanted to remain so, and Mahair had someone link their F.I.Ts so they could choose their new appearance together. Seeing the way that the twins looked at Aine, I suspected that they both felt more than just friendship for her. I hoped that they could tell her how they really felt before things became awkward between them. If they hadn’t figured it out already, they would soon discover that being Aine’s Attendants would require a level of intimacy that could make things difficult, and even painful, for them if they could not be honest with her about their feelings.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend time trading stories with them for long. Aine and her entourage would have to leave soon for the location where the new Autumn Court Glade was being built. As the new Princess of the Autumn Court, she was being sent to oversee the work and inspire the Fae of her court with her presence while our Mahair remained here with the other Queens and Narek to oversee matters that I had placed in their care.

As for me, it was probably best that my entourage and I return to the safe house in Vancouver soon. Lissany, Nishalle, Lillith, and I needed to be up early tomorrow for more Goddess lessons, after all. I had also gotten a text earlier that the big press conference that Robyn was planning for Changed Rights, and to reveal the truth about the return of Gods and magick, was all set for six o’clock tomorrow evening outside her home. For good or ill, tomorrow I would give an address that might change everything and put a big target on me and the people I cared about most, from those who would prefer to preserve the status quo.

First though, I decided to check in with Kinara and Grell. The young Countess of the Summer Court was now back in Varüus’kiel with Caitlin Summers and liaising between the new Witch and the Atlanteans who were setting up her workshop to produce her environmentally friendly and all-natural monthly supplies for the women of Varüus’kiel. As for Grell, my call came in the middle of what he claimed was a planning session between him and Ashura.

“Planning session, sure,” I told the Atlantean Artificer in a teasing tone. “Don’t you mean make-out session? That would explain all the heavy breathing. You sound like an obscene phone call, my friend.”

“I… uhhh…” he tried to reply, caught off balance. It seemed I hit the nail right on the head.

“Please, Grell, don’t try to deny it. One of my aspects is Sex after all and I understand, you and Ashura haven’t had much time together lately with you being with me in Vancouver working on things and overseeing the warehouse deliveries. Spend some time with your girlfriend and enjoy yourself for a few hours. When you’re done, give Kinara a call and she can portal you back to the warehouse,” I told him sternly. He deserved some time with his girlfriend after all the work he had been doing for me lately.

“Are you sure, Tae? I don’t want to…”

“I’m absolutely sure,” I insisted. “In the unlikely event that the warehouse does receive another shipment in the next few hours, Whisper is still there and can handle it. I’ll call her to let her know it’ll be a few more hours before you’re back.”

“You’re the best, Tae. I’ll talk to you later.” I could practically hear his grin as he signed off.

As soon as I was off the phone with Grell, I called Whisper, as I had promised. She was fine with handling the warehouse on her own for a few more hours since there hadn’t been any new deliveries since we left, and she doubted there would be any in the next few hours either. She agreed with me that he deserved a little quality time with Ashura, though I was one hundred percent certain that he would be getting some teasing about it from the tiny Witch when he got back to the warehouse.

After that, all I really needed to do was contact Lillith via our mental connection to let her know we were all heading back to the safe house. The Succubus matron materialized at my side almost immediately, along with the dozen Succubae who would be watching over the safe house tonight as we slept. When I asked her about her meeting with Xixie, she said it went well and that she was very happy with how the construction of the new Temple of the Moon was progressing.

I cast a portal to take us back to the safe house, eager to get there and into the master bedroom with my three beautiful lovers. Grell had the right idea, and I found myself wanting to enjoy some quality time with Rei, Salem, and Daenyss before we needed to sleep for the night. We had just finished a very satisfying round of sex for all of us and were considering going for round two when our tender kissing and loving caresses were interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone. It wasn’t just any cell phone though, it was Jonesy’s phone.

Daenyss and I practically jumped into a sitting position and Rei frowned and tried to steady her breathing as she reached for the offending device on the bedside table. Her expression was serious, and we were all holding our breath as she fiddled with the cell phone, answered the call, and said, “Jones here.” Hearing his voice come out of her mouth wasn’t just weird, it was a major turn-off.

I didn’t so much as breathe as I listened to the distorted voice on the other end ask, “Do you still have somebody following Reyes?”

Rei listened to whoever was on the other end for a moment before saying, “Yeah, I still have someone on her.”

“I need an update,” the voice demanded. “Has she been going anywhere out of the ordinary over the past few days? Any secret meetings with the enemy or suspicious activity?”

“An update? Well, except for that sudden visit to the Chinese restaurant where she met that self-proclaimed Empress and Goddess a couple of days ago, there hasn’t been anything unusual about her movements,” Rei replied with a questioning glance in my direction. I never realized how good an actress Rei was before now. Not only did she sound just like Jones, but she also even had the distaste in his voice right when referring to me.

I nodded and gave her a thumbs-up. She wasn’t telling him anything that he couldn’t find out through other means. Our visit to the Chans after the break-in and vandalism at the Golden Sun hadn’t exactly been low profile, especially with all the Succubae obviously standing guard on the roof of the restaurant. A few paparazzi vultures followed her and Rob there as they broke several traffic laws and got some pictures before Rob and Robyn returned home. It had gotten some attention since people knew we were supposed to be in Toronto at the time, but it was worth it to help out the Chans, get them safely to Varüus’kiel, and have them there to care for those two Huli Jing kids.

“Yes, she didn’t hide that meeting very well, did she? There hasn’t been anything since then?” the voice pressed.

“Nothing,” Rei insisted in Jonesy’s voice. “My guy has been monitoring her home and hasn’t let her out of his sight whenever she leaves.”

“The little bitch has called a press conference for tomorrow evening. Any information on what that’s about? Is the special guest she mentioned the enemy? She and her cause are starting to get a lot of support through her fan base, and that makes her a problem, almost as big a problem as the enemy herself.” I stiffened at hearing the asshole on the other end of the call talk about Robyn like that but motioned for Rei to go on.

Again, this wasn’t anything that couldn’t be confirmed elsewhere, evidenced by the caller bringing it up. When Robyn Reyes calls a press conference, that’s big news and it was probably all over the local news and the internet already. I imagined that there were already dozens of theories about what the press conference would be about. Her recent public association with me and lobbying for Changed Rights, most likely meant that I featured in a good number of those rumors.

“I can confirm the press conference,” Rei told him, following my line of thinking. “It’s all over the local news, and there are a lot of rumors, but nothing concrete. Given her recent contact with that ‘Empress’ though, I’m guessing that she’s the guest. I have no information to confirm it though.” Good, that was a nice noncommittal answer, and the way she said ‘Empress’ practically screamed finger quotes and made it clear who she was talking about.

The caller let out a lengthy sigh before speaking again, not sounding the slightest bit happy. “Keep your man on Reyes until the press conference. Call me immediately if she does anything suspicious or meets with that pointy-eared, glowing freak before then. We’re sending some specialists to Vancouver tonight; they should be there by morning. With any luck, by tomorrow night both of our problems will be taken care of, permanently.”

A chill ran down my spine at those last words before the caller disconnected the call. Rei looked like she wanted to toss the phone to the other end of the room in disgust, but instead, she just squeezed it for a moment and then let it fall from her hand onto the bed. For several minutes, none of us spoke a word. We didn’t need to. We all knew exactly what those parting words meant. There was going to be an assassination attempt on me and Robyn at the press conference.

I never thought I would ever hear someone casually mention that they planned to kill me, even if they didn’t call me by name, it was fairly clear who they were talking about. That went double for Robyn since she was one of the sweetest people that I knew. When I finally felt like I could breathe again, I asked, “Were you able to record that, Rei?”

The white-haired Kitsune, who was still looking down at the phone in distaste, slowly nodded. “Yeah, I got it, Babe. I got every fucking word.”