Amehana's Workdesk AKA Teresa Garcia's Workspace

The water passed by, and Kirsty found herself falling deeper into a reverence for the passing of time. She saw creatures of bygone eras from time to time but they did not notice her, or at least chose not to interact. Testing a theory she put a hand out beyond the path and saw a school of very large, savage looking, and toothy fish turn toward her as one. She promptly pulled her hand back within the ley line’s boundary. At one point she saw a large shape roving ahead in her path that by its size and shape could only be a megalodon. Kirsty did not repeat her experiment.
Her blood ran cold, but she tucked that fear into herself as far as she could. It was not Mara herself in that ancient form, but an actual shark. It continued on, away from her path, and she thanked Mara not to have to face such a creature in combat. There would be no rebirth after the devouring nor regrowth of limb with an ordinary shark.
The water began to change after passing through where the megalodon had been. Another cliff rose above her, promising that even further above and beyond would be another continent drifting away from the chasm. In this area columns rose above in challenge to the geology, and the bones ceased. Kelp danced in the current, waving colors from brown, to red, and to green. Fluorescence danced along the blades and revealed strange markings and eldritch sentences.
Kirsty sighed deeply and hung her head a moment, hanging in the water at the boundary. She rubbed her nose a moment and pinched the bridge, then shook her head and continued on after checking her pouch, net, and makeshift spear were in order. The kelp forest parted for her along the ley line, guiding her through the columns to an archway. The cliff disappeared, leaving only the archway.
Kirsty backed up. The cliff reappeared. She groaned.
“Ok. I get it, Mara. I get it. You don’t have to follow the rules of geology in a time pocket if you don’t want to. Right?”
She swam through the archway and into the warmer, shallower water beyond. The cliff disappeared as before and revealed a much shallower plain. The kelp forest continued dancing and she observed schools of fish going about their business. The ley line led on and as she followed it the sound of whale song grew louder and louder. Smaller voices joined larger voices. A chill sent her fur on end, and had she been sunning on a beach she would have puffed, but the water held her fur to her body.
“Calves… Birthing ground? Oh no…”
A ghostly white pod came to view much closer to the ley line than she wished to see it in case she were mistaken for a roving shark. Even if she vocalized, if something spooked them, and made clear she was more of the seal variety of creatures that was unlikely to sooth a panicked bunch of mothers. The tusks were half as long as she, but it was clear how they behaved with the calves these forms were still female. She stuck to the ley line, not wishing to risk leaving it.
One of the calves saw her and tried to make toward her, but was headed off by the cow. Her warbles and clicks intensified, and the calf clicked and vooped plaintively, attempting another stride toward Kirsty as Kirsty continued making her way away as unobtrusively as possible. The discussion faded behind her, and she sighed quietly. Sea unicorns were beautiful and majestic, but she didn’t want to outwit one. She certainly did not feel confident about out-swimming one.
Another song began to fill the water, impelling her instead of merely whispering in her blood as it had always done. As the floor sloped more and she grew aware some of the columns became sea stacks it seemed that they became more numerous. She found herself hastening through the water more and the terrain changed again. Sea caves opened before her now, encrusted with the usual sort of crustacean life. Impulsively she shot into the one she felt the song from the loudest and could not stop herself from dancing with the water.
She shot out into a large semi-roofed cavern. Light filtered from above, bathing everything in blue. She turned around slowly, taking it all in. Columns supported the roof here and there, but the skylight reminded her of the cenotes her parents had told her of in their travels. “I know this place…” the thought whispered through blood, bone, claw, and fur. “I’m here.” Kirsty’s eyes fell at last on a box at the far end which she had not noticed when she entered the temple.
The rough stone box sat on a dais of equally rough stone glowing palely in the light of the filtered sun, neither of which she could be sure of exactly what sort. She made her way toward it slowly, keeping her reverence for Mara firmly in mind lest she risk offending her. She paused in front of it and made the sign that she had learned early in her life above where she could feel the seal of the box and she sang the only phrase her mother and the Book of Seals had been allowed to teach her to help in her quest, a song of reclamation of Self, then set her hand lightly on it.
A large creature whooshed by, grazing her side with a horn in the process. Kirsty barely caught the exhaled breath, only managing to keep half of what she’d drawn in before. Her hand left the stone as the salt began to sting the unexpected wound and her blood entered the water. Kirsty saw the tail flippers of the narwhal bull from before speeding away, and then it turned back toward her faster than she expected such a creature to be able to move in such a semi confined space. She dodged as best she could before hearing a voice and the whale song.
“You have finally found your way. Now you must win it as you may.”
They spun through the water together, he seeking to gore and she shying away at the last moment. The more she ducked and dodged the faster the attacks came at her until she flung her net trying to entangle him. The momentum swept him past again and she clung as the net slid over tusk and she found herself hauled along and slammed against him. Her instincts told her to encase her legs around the bull and hold on so that she could perhaps get her spear into him to defend herself. Her current form instead more firmly held her tail and gave her no purchase but the net.
A pillar slammed into her as the whale attempted to use it to jettison her and she felt a rib crack as her breath whooshed from her lungs. The whale song came again but her ears rang too loudly from the blow to decipher what he said. She jabbed her spear after clearing the pillar, more stinging scrapes than whole skin but the angle struck wrong and all she did was make a gash in his side. The giant flicked and both she and her net sailed ahead of him. Her head hit something hard and the rest of her rolled to distribute the remains of the blow, knocking something heavy askew in the process. She felt the shift and groan of stone on stone in the water only briefly before she was rolling to avoid another attack and raising her spear to perhaps strike a blow of her own. Mara watched from the shadows in an alcove as her favorite bull tested Kirsty’s resolve, a half smile slowly spreading over her normally sternly set face.
The water seemed to have more light to it, but she assumed that was the head blow speaking. The bull had pulled off again but was swinging around for another attempt, flippers passing close enough the current moved her. She tried to remember what she had learned of dealing with large water creatures from the silche’s net and spear hunts under their many varied conditions and techniques but nothing useful sprang from her muscle memory nor from her intellect. Her eye fell on what she’d slammed into.
It was the shining stone box, lid now partially askew. She laid her spear and net atop so that she could thrust the lid open a little further, releasing more of the light. Pelts lay rolled, seemingly more than should have been in such a small space.
“Which is mine?” She shot a look around but the bull seemed to calm as he finished his turn.
The blood hung in the water from the pair of them, the stains slowly fading. The sea unicorn dipped his head and floated in place, watching placidly.
Kirsty looked into the box again, more confident she was not going to have to go on another ride or get gored by a tusk. Grey, brown, black, red, white, mottled and plain skins all shifted around as she watched, trading places. Finally, a small shining white one with a bit of greyish blue markings on the left flipper where a wrist and her deities’ markings might be came to view and she reached for it, forgetting her net and her spear.
Warmth suffused her as she drew it out and unrolled it and her hair streamed out all around her as the currents shifted. Large blue eyes gazed back at her from the head of the skin as if to reproach her for having gotten so lost so easily so many times. Her own voice filled her head with chastisements in Gaelic, followed by the more resigned English she used in school, “But… what is done is done. We go forward together.”
Eyeing the openly lurking whale she slipped the skin on, slipping the head over hers and lining the eyes up with her own. Time began to flow normally and she could feel as her head came together, no longer divided. Net and spear lay forgotten on the box lid as she shifted fully into a proper full seal form. The whale watched as she wove through the water carefully then slid closer to gently prod the box lid. The stones groaned as the lid slid shut. The light returned to its previous low level filtering through the water.
“Do you feel better with your sealskin, Kirsty?” Mara’s voice cut through the elation, bringing a chill despite the youthful gentleness.
The white seal blinked. Where there had only been a whale before there was now both a whale and a far different view of Mara than what Kirsty had ever seen. There was no trace of the usual shark visage. Instead the deity floating and tending the wound of the sea unicorn was clearly a selkie like herself, and somehow more white than her own fur. No blemish colored her anywhere, and she shifted freely between the various permutations of selkie form. One moment she was a full seal, another halfway between with ash grey hair feeling out the water around her and a seafoam skirt swirling about her tail, and yet another she was nearly human save for the same sort of half pelt obscuring things from view she and her mother possessed, explaining at last where her half-pelt fuzz came from and why. Impossibly large eyes turned Kirsty’s way, shifting through all the myriad colors of the sea.
“I suppose… I feel mostly the same as I always did though a little less pulled thin. More in one place than before?”
“Then that is good. Treasure that feeling because there will always be times that even with it you will feel pulled in more than one direction. You’ll have to get better at setting a course.” Mara finished tending the narwhal and patted his side then watched as he went to rejoin his herd.
“I don’t think my path should have been so tangled.”
“No. It shouldn’t have been and I cannot blame that boy you are so set on. I expected better of your wayfinding but I think your path was influenced by more than just your own inner turmoil and the meddling from Finmen. You’ve passed your quest, of course, and you can be fully initiated now and when you return you will find the sealskin you wear now will transform into the white cloak you received so long ago.” Mara frowned a moment and settled on the box beside her. “I’m curious. Can you remember when you began your tests? From the beach?”
Kirsty settled on top of the box where this softer Mara gestured her to do so and tried to remember. “My memories are conflicted… I can remember entering the water and discarding the cloak, and the dress where you asked them to be. I can remember having to fashion a spear. I… am not sure anymore if this is the net I made earlier in the year or if I had to make it along the way. But there are other memories. Another start. It’s all tangled.” Kirsty looked up at Mara, who now bent over her and curtained her with the tendrils of her hair.
“And what are those memories?” The deity’s face was cool and gentle, a soft smile, but now fangs glinted just at the edge of her lips.
The little seal inhaled deeply and sifted carefully. “The Examining Lintel stone at school. I was offered a choice at the stone by the sorters involving splitting my attention between my present time and my future because I was always thinking ahead to it and worrying.”
Mara nodded thoughtfully and bit her lip. “They have been known to interfere, or more accurately one of them in particular has been known to make some waves not of my control.”
The goddess reached down and stroked the seal’s brow, Kirsty crossing her eyes momentarily to look where she reached. Her eyes slid shut just as quickly while the fingers wove over her brow. Though her eyes were closed she could see as various strings were untangled, neatening the balls and ropes of assorted colors that had become wrapped around her. The process was repeated at her heart and again by her tail flippers.
“Should you have a child, whether with the boy or another, you must tell them NOT to strain forward in time, with or without help, when it comes to such quests. You are not the only one that has done this. It is dangerous and does impact how time flows on the quest. I’m sure you are aware how differently time already works when it comes to movements in realms like mine.” The voice was gentle, but somehow more dangerous than when coming from her shark guise.
Kirsty opened her eyes. “Should I have not?”
“Yes. You should have not. You will grow old too soon if you do it again. The brain of those who are incarnate can only withstand so much. Tell me, are there times in classes where you had headaches, perhaps nosebleeds, the last year in school?”
She blinked, surprised why Mara was asking about things so long ago. “They aren’t, they are now.” Some deeper, extremely tired part of her answered. Kirsty reached a fin up to her nose at a sting. A vice clamped at her head and she leaned into the warm shoulder beside her as an arm slipped around her.
Mara frowned and the fingers rose to Kirsty’s forehead again.

 Kirsty found herself emerging into a library once through the passage. She looked around the dimness, filled with the scent of old scrolls. How the paper, papyri, and parchment could survive underwater she wasn’t sure. On the same note, she could no longer tell if she were underwater or not. She moved a hand experimentally through the atmosphere surrounding her and noted the thickness and the thinness moving her fur. Was it both at once somehow? How?

“I place her in your charge. The wounds came as a result of man, you carry some of their blood, thus it is my hope that you can begin her healing.” The young aspect of Mara waited for Justin to release his hold on the unconscious Kirsty, then gently placed Etain into her son’s arms. “You bear her blood, it will be well, though long.”
The young aspect frowned as she looked on them, her eyes glazing as information exchanged between herself and her elder self. The assimilation process already begun that aspect grew less and less substantial as she dematerialized.
“You’ll have to make sure your mother gets back to the human world safely, and to be safe yourself. There are two beings seeking for her that although they are on her side for now they are not on yours. Mimir will see you a threat, and like this your own father will not recognize you.” The elder Mara’s voice fell soft and sorrowful. “Perhaps one day he will, if your efforts are successful.”
Justin held his mother carefully and inspected the delicate, frail creature. Etain was already slipping back into sleep herself and had her hand curled in some of the random seaweed and tangles that always clung to him. “But she did.”
“Mothers usually do, that’s part of the curse.” Mara cast a glare at the clergy still in the room that tried to find some sort of dignity. At her glare they slipped out the doors, seeing the darkening brought on by their reliance on ritual and eavesdropping. “And here so near where souls and skins are granted, the veil cannot hide the essence from the gateway.”
“What do you mean?” Justin turned his head to the side and regarded the deity.
As Amehana and Vadise found their way home, facilitated by the passage between her mirror and the doors, Mara gestured to the gazing shell. Justin very carefully rose, still holding Etain, and peered curiously in. Rainbow hued liquid, heavier and stranger than the seawater that surrounded them, rippled and flowed with its own currents before forming another form of mirror. From within a young man, pale and healthy, peered back at him from deep sea-blue eyes beneath teak colored hair. There, not a trace of the taint that disfigured and overshadowed him marred him. In that pool Etain’s face mixed with another that he knew from the times he spent around Seal Point. A younger, thinner version of Finnol bore up under its own cares.
“Remember, we’ve known you before you were even pupped.” Mara’s smile was gentle, though with its own menace.
“Even stolen, you are yet ours.” The fragmented aspect of the Lady agreed, visibly trying to reconnect with her greater whole and still unable to find her main self. She sighed and hugged herself.
“Peace, sister. Ride our priestess. When she is returned thus so shall you.”
“I would stay to see the pup placed in the box for the transformation.”
“And so you shall, but not to see her emerge.” Ven’thrith soothed. “Time has been messed with on her and horribly tangled, who knows what staying that long would wreak on you, on my Acolyte, or on the Priestess.”
Mara gently swept up Kirsty and carried her across the chamber. Space moved around the occupants and though the others did not move they too were all swept through and behind the veils that curtained off the stone box. Though it was as small as a jewel cask at first it grew swiftly large enough to accommodate even the largest man or largest seal. Mara fed Kirsty to the sarcophagus, then closed the lid with more than a flash of fang.
“The child dies and the woman live so long as she has the strength to rise.” Mara’s voice was a literal purr now, filling the hall in unseen dimensions. For a moment Justin saw primordial creatures swim through the room and be absorbed into the shark goddess, now no longer hiding her true form from him. Though she was unhidden his own mind still filtered her, and the Megalodon gazed at him with the eye of life and death that few of her priests, and usually only those drawn to the Hunt, ever Saw.
Justin grimaced. “What happens if she dies in there? That’s my sister.”
“Then she is in the box to be reborn again at some other point, just as any of you are whether you earn the right to have your skin with you or not. It would sorrow me, and put a very large dent in my hopes and plans, but she would be Home.” The eye pinned him. “In my long experience those of your blood are stubborn and do not die easily. A little pocket dimension box won’t harm her.”
“No,” broke in Ven’thrith, “It’s the narwals that might. They’ve kept some of your uncles in the past. She’ll be out at some point though I’m sure.”
“Why are you so sure?” Justin kept from spitting, but only barely, well aware that if he offended right now he would put not only his life but that of his mother on the line before the Old Ones. “Is she a Chosen or something?”
“Aren’t you all?” Ven’thrith’s voice was far milder than expected. “We need our entertainment and we have our favorites, but you Mortals also have a habit of Choosing yourselves.” He cocked his head, listening to something Beyond Justin’s ears. “Seems someone feels a change.”
Caught in the quantum entanglement caused by a mischief laden and halfway well-intentioned snake, in the medical wing of Cair Carrick David wiped Kirsty’s glistening forehead with a moist washcloth and squeezed her hand during his visit. At another point in time, in what was his future David looked up from his own quest toward the sea beneath the moon and howled, disturbed by the lessening of the tides hitherto unnoticed in his veins.

Amehana and Vadise stood outside the closed doors, a high tone filling both their ears. Their sudden arrival surprised the guards, who lowered spears at the pair. Vadise pushed Amehana behind him as he drew his katana. The doors glowed in response to Amehana’s alarm and began to screech at the affront to their enchanter, swiftly taking on their proper color with her presence.

“Well, I was right about the location. I didn’t see a thing about spears at the doors.” Amehana looked around him as Vadise and the guards sized each other up.

“Who are you and how are you here?” Their clipped tones dropped like weights.

“This is my mate, Amehana Arashi. I’m Vadise.” His tone insinuated how he’d not let anything harm her.

“The gates called me.” She added simply gesturing. “And now you’ve angered them.”

“Lies. They’ve made noise the entire time we’ve been on shift.” The elder of the pair rebutted.

“Then you are deaf, or not got a drop of dragon’s blood in you.” She slipped around her mate and marched between the surprised guards to kiss the doors, soothing them. They reacted quickly, trying to prevent her from reaching the doors, but met with the ground before they could touch her.

They gave a gentle chime as her lips met the surface of the doors and audibly unlocked. Vadise sputtered. “They could have killed you!”

“You wouldn’t have let them dear.” Amehana smiled at him and stepped back. “I suggest you move boys. They’ll spring open and move you themselves otherwise. Enchanted doors really don’t like sharp things pointed at the one who enspelled them, though my mate’s dislike is much more.”

The pair scrambled away as the doors opened, Vadise putting away his sword and taking Amehana’s hand. He squeezed, silently displaying his continued displeasure and worry. She squeezed back and looked him in the eye. “And you were worried I didn’t need you.”

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. She swatted lightly with her tail as she pulled him into the room with her, the doors closing again before the guards could get their senses back enough from the confusion the doors had been casting on them.

The pair made their way through the room, Vadise keeping his hand near his sword and his grip on Amehana’s hand, he relaxed when the occupants of the next room beyond did not challenge, but nodded instead.

“You called Mara-okamisama?”

“You are late. I’m glad you brought a minder.” Mara gestured the pair over to her small group.

Vadise’s eyes narrowed when he saw Justin, and grunted.

“I … had some important self care that could not be put off.”

“I am glad you did come, both of you.” Mara looked the fox over. “He suits you. You’ll need him.”

Amehana blushed, but kneeled behind Justin where she was pointed. Mara likewise directed Vadise to sit with her. He locked his arms around Amehana, managing to get her in his lap, decidedly unhappy that yet again there was that boy… and that she was touching him. She twined her tail around his and squeezed, and he relaxed somewhat.

“Your wife WILL jolt when she helps force the gate so they can be pulled back here. Be prepared.” Mara whispered into his ear. “I’m sure you smell her unease. She’s not done this before at this extent, but she has to learn and I do need her element.”

He nodded and tightened his grip with thoughts of the cracking mirror back home. He could feel his mate wrapping herself around him and the way she stuffed the shivers down. Likewise he latched onto her as best he could and felt her stretching her energy to feel the barrier.

“Amehana, at my command I will need you to channel the storm and strike the directional lock.”

Amehana nodded, glancing at the young ones bridging the gap. Still feeling around, she eventually found it and then worked her will into the storm between the worlds. She smoothed what she could and ignored the temptation to explore it. She could do that later now that she was aware of this shard and could find it again at her leisure… with her mate to keep an eye on her in case of mistakes.

Justin kept his grip on Kirsty while his tutor and her mate settled behind him, well aware of the fox’s displeasure. He tried not to take it personally, knowing that if he ever were lucky enough to have a mate of his own he would be just as protective. It was harder and harder to hold onto Kirsty’s spirit with how far she ranged. The scent of blood filled his nose and he glanced down where a scrape had opened in her side.

Amehana and Vadise also looked, the fox tightening his grip on the dragon. Justin cursed under his breath. “Come on…”

Something in the storm changed a few moments after and the scent of ozone filled the room. Amehana’s connection to the storm strengthened, static running over her form and that of her mate through their connection.

“NOW! PULL THEM THROUGH!” Mara’s scream in the chamber echoed and crashed, a whip crack driving stopped time forward again. On the surface the seas roiled and foamed.

Amehana gathered the force and channeled it where sea, sky, and gate met, striking the key of blood in the lock to activate it. Her roar announced the breach as pain lanced through her body, but the energy of the storm also filled the crack that was forming in her soul and her mirror as quickly as it was spreading. Instinctively she held the gate open, sensing the more major deities also reaching to hold it open with her. There was no time for relief. While holding it open she had to resist the pull on her own soul into that realm between realms.

Justin reached with his soul and pulled on his sister, panting with effort and instantly covered in sweat. The added soul weight of his mother added another strain. He felt the strength of others with him, added to his, the priests and priestesses assisting.

One beat. Two. Three.

A ripping sound, the tearing of a veil.

The barking of a young white seal as she humped her way onto the shore, fought the pull of the waves. Then back into her body. She convulsed and buried her teeth in him. Justin yelped but did not pull away.

Another flash of lightning and clash of thunder. The deities released the gate which slammed shut. Mara’s young aspect stood just their side of where the gate had been clasping a pale Etain to her, then sank to her knees. Ven’thrith kneeled next to her, rocked them both gently, and pulled them both into a tight embrace as the young aspect sobbed quietly.

The scrap of the Lady that had clung to Kirsty separated, stood visible and looked around tiredly. Weakly she tousled Justin’s hair and nodded at Amehana and Vadise. 

The elder aspect of Mara clutched at the scrap and crushed her with a cry. “Another piece of you home.”

Amehana let go of Justin and leaned back into Vadise, shaking. She turned around in his lap and buried her face in him as the lightning still traveled in her body. He stroked her back and tried to ground her as well as he could. “It was so… old…” He kissed her cheek and held her until the trembling stopped and she had processed the leftovers.

“I want… my children…” Etain’s voice cut through the room despite it’s weakness. Her hand lifted toward Justin and Kirsty as her eyes opened.

Ven’thrith released them and Mara’s young aspect carried the selkie priestess to the pair. Etain shakily touched each in turn, lingering longer on Justin and looking into his eyes. She smiled.

“Stop biting, Kirsty.” In her exhaustion Kirsty still heard, and released.

Ven’thrith’s footfalls echoed in the halls despite the water cloaking all about them. He reveled in the bend of the physics his presence wrought and the confusion in his wake as they followed. Selkie lights and crystal lamps floated or thrust from the walls of the halls of the Outer Paths where the normal activities of the Temple occurred. White, grey, blue, green, brown, black, and subtle hues without names swirled and lurked in these worked barriers shot through with gold, silver. Occasionally some jewel would be set to relay some vital impulse to another point in the Net and then out into the surrounding city.

The door to one of the innermost sanctums rose before the group accompanying him. Flanking these were a samebito and a selkie, one male, one female. Both wore the silver and pearl armor of the guard. These were felt before they were seen visually and Ven’thrith allowed the mists of illusion to fall so that they too would be seen.

The vast sweeps of solid shell swung open for Ven’thrith and his party on his approach, startling the guards waiting outside them as much as those accompanying him. The doors knew him, remembered him, greeted him as an old friend. How many times had he passed through these doors when seeking out Mara when she mourned, or come to these chambers when the moon was just so and she needed that bit of insanity to get her through to the next cycle? He’d been with Mara when she had admired them at Seiryuu’s Palace o long ago when they had paused to take in the wonders of that Sea King’s city and tradesmen. The doors even still bore the slight purple blush that was only obtainable by the crafters when Seiryuu’s distant granddaughter kissed them to give the shade so prized. The color was rare as it was rare for Amehana of the Arashiryuu to make the trek to see that side of her kinship in those days. The door deepened the hue the nearer Justin came. Ven’thrith raised a brow and made a note to explore how this reaction might come about and what it might mean that they warmed to him.

All of these things flashed past in less than a breath, even as the honor guard laid sight on him.

“I’m sorry La- Lord Ven’thrith. They work—” The samebito guard that spoke seemed not to have had the post long. His voice squeaked. Or perhaps that was a result of Ven’thrith hirself. Most never did seem to know what to do or how to react to hir being seen sometimes male, sometimes female, and sometimes someplace in between. Perhaps it was even Justin’s presence as the spear pointed so quickly. He kept the male form firm. He was needed this way for now, he would not give in to the comfortable and be shi.

“I know. But their focus must now change. Leave this lad alone as well. He belongs to me. There will be no trouble.” Ven’thrith looked sternly at the pair of honor guards. The looked away, paling as they avoided locking gaze with him to avoid his gifts.

“My lord.”

Kirsty whimpered in Justin’s arms, twitching, hands hooking like claws as she grasped whatever nightmare she now rode between the weft of the Tapestry.

He led his small party through those doors. A net swept over them as they each passed through, and he nodded imperceptibly as the fabric of Mara’s skirts brushed and searched. He kept his heart and mind open, or as open as he ever kept it to anyone including the Sea. Pearl, coral, and smoothed stone greeted them and twisted away as the atmosphere thickened and the incense curled in thick wisps from impossible containers. Seasilk and bead curtains for decoration and for covering the doorways into the innermost rooms swayed in the current. The one for Mara’s Throne, which led further through yet another passage to the Bed and Stone Box of Souls, beckoned and opened. Ven’thrith did not follow yet. The group around the silver seashell held his attention. As he expected Mara’s servants were gathered around the gazing bowl before the Middle Dias. If he was right then they were busy watching where the conscious piece of Kirsty was questing. Whites and blues swirled around the various merfolk representing the various aquatic races in their clergy garb. His lip curled.

Though they usually could not help it they certainly seemed like a pack of voyeurs to him. Perhaps they had discovered the treachery of one of their own and were working to find and detain her. He doubted it though. Each had their own agenda, and the jockeying for position within the ranks was an ages old problem. The High Priestess and her mate were the ones he felt the most trustworthy, and it was her scowl that was the deepest.

His eyelid throbbed and twitched. He would look soon enough, and then likely want to lock himself away from the child races for awhile.

Mara’s Presence began to coalesce upon her Dias. Her servants hadn’t felt her yet, so occupied were they with the visions of the bowl. He addressed the gathering swirl of essence and gestured at Justin bearing Kirsty, speaking gently, as if waking her. “Leannán, we have a problem.” Ven’thrith paused a moment before continuing. “Some good is coming of this mess that can help us part the Veil a moment though.” His Voice, now unfettered, rolled through the chamber with the same undeniable force of the moon’s pull.

It was Mara’s Voice that truly sent the Clergy fully into their bodies once more. “I am glad of that. I’ve found the shard of me that I sent to find her, but I see no way home yet. Justin has done well returning to me.”

Justin shuffled before the light and water that was taking her time forming into a body that he could relate to. Several of the men and women in robes shot him looks and curled their lips in disgust. Other glared at him as if their gaze could force him to fire. He certainly felt like jumping in a fire right now, or hanging himself from a tree to dry out and blow away in a passing breeze.

“You will cease.” Mara’s voice addressed her servants as she finally took form. Her features shifted and darted so that at any moment you gained an impression of all creatures of the sea. “Some of you have forgotten that those under his curse were once all mine, and that any of you are as vulnerable as a stolen child or an Avowed.

“He said to bring her. So I did.” Justin offered awkwardly at the introduction to his side of Ven’thrith’s elbow.

“You’ve done well.” She stepped to the side and gestured to where she landed on her Dais. “Lay her here please. There is so much Interference that you may need to give your blood, more if some has already been taken.” Her eyes swept over Justin, then she pulled a smirk to the Moon. “You move fast.”

“The effect of her purifications on his was still fresh. I thought it better to take him instead of taking the risk.” Ven’thrith answered her implication.

“I give no quarrel so long as he is shared.” A strange energy flared between the pair of deities, bristling fur or scale of everyone gathered and drawing bumps on the flesh of the octopids. Mostly placid, the energy coiled around each and the young Finman, visible as the smoke of arcane incenses. Even with the placidity there still existed a dangerous current with the tang of blood and steel.

Justin stuffed down his uneasiness just as he did when before the Ealdormen when they quarreled. He did as she bid, laying Kirsty down on the dias. He couldn’t quite bring himself to separate from her so he stayed kneeling with a hand on her shoulder. The scent of crushed seaweed and muffled fear flavored the water around her. Kirsty’s eyes darted and jumped under their thin lids and he wondered what she saw in whatever sort of swoon this was. “What is so special about her that I was sent to capture her? She’s just a girl.”

“We have similar goals and games for where these two must be. I can share. We already share.” Ven’thrith reminded, a small smile flitting like a silver fish across his lips.

The atmosphere broke. Mara nodded. Her feet padded softly to stand by Kirsty’s other shoulder and she looked down. Skirt hems lapped at her like waves on the shore, washing gently. Justin looked up at the deity when a slim hand descended on his shoulder. His breath caught at how young she looked. Mara’s eyes were still on Ven’thrith.

“Something will need done about Raechel. I believe her to be part of this. It was her name she cried before we brought her here.” Ven’thrith laid the morsel out carefully. Sharks bit, and Mara was, after all, the mother of them all.

“Do what you need. Nullify it. I will do what I must.” To the guards she spoke, her voice iron and steel. “I need Bethrise and Raechel. Bring them.”

Her guards hastened to obey, dipping obeisance before leaving. Justin noted that some of the robed figures still in the room seemed displeased that none were directed their way as well before the withdraw.

Ven’thrith nodded in reply to Mara and knelt down. “Marvelous, Justin. Keep contact with her.”

His hands passed over the small form as his eyes refocused. Either the room took on the glow of the moon or her own light reacted to the signs he made and the strands he pulled and straightened. Some snapped when he touched them. He listened to the tones as the sphere moved in this world, and some of the other worlds, the gentle trickling chimes and the great screeling wheels. Discordant tones pulled his attention back to the room itself. His eyes, now open to the cosmos and bearing them just as much as those of Mara or Hearne, fell on the stiff interplay between the guards, Justin, and Mara’s Bloodbearers.

He suppressed a sneer. Jealousy had wrought too much damage already. Yet, the child races never learned. Not that his kind did either.

The noises grew in volume again and the threads came back into focus. Behind all of this the heard the sounds of a loom, a spinning wheel, the carding of wool, the sharpening of shears. “Are you listening, Ladies? This will be touchy work.” Ven’thrith sighed and went back to reaching out for Kirsty and following the threads that branched off of her. The hands of the Weavers worked around him, unseen to the others, or at least he assumed them unseen. Whether they saw through the Bending that always swathed him and into that place beyond where they currently existed was not his concern. There were too many threads to slip through without leaving damage.

They could fend for themselves.

If a few more joined him in realizing that there were things even beyond his generation of Deities and beyond this particular creation was not his concern. His concern was the girl, her mother. For Mara. For her sister. The more strongly he wanted to do something for them, the more strongly his gender swung toward the male, for now.

The Weavers whispered to each other and to him. Hurry, it has to be done before they come back in here. You know how they are.

Defending their cosmic weaving had to have driven The Weavers more insane than the original moon deity was reputed to be. Theirs was not a job nor a fate that he wanted.

Finally Ven’thrith found that piece of consciousness and soul that he sought in time. She had been several people over several incarnations, sometimes even parts of people. Sifting through all of the various glowing mini stars and moons of those carrying hir DNA took up more time than he would have liked. Sometimes he felt the pull of the sea or the call of a still lake and he had to tear himself away from the lonely reaching arms as he sought through time for this single light. That would not be such a loud call if Hearn would spend more time with them instead of engaging in those hunts, he growled to the ancients. Or take them along. He held himself to one form, one self, painfully.

The ever changing hands patted and brushed him as they worked the loom, wove the pattern with the unknowing aid of each person and each thread. His hands closed around the version of Kirsty that he sought. Raw, unpolished. Her light flashed and slashed at the dark, not yet rounded and polished by lessons and life into a smoother orb for her current life.

Rough little pearl.

He inhaled, secured his grip on the time and phase he needed to keep his self within. Another set of eyes opened to look within the time her mind occupied. His world became less twining yarn, shadowy forms, dancing fingers, and more staccato flashes of intention. He pushed harder, slipped enough in that his opened eyes focused. The film-effect cleared and smoothed into something more normal as he increased the energy he used.

Ven’thrith watched her travails with a smile. Spunk and determination carried her through. His eyes narrowed jealously when the Cailleach’s Hound came in answer to the formerly lost Black Gate, but this he suppressed already knowing the role Taranis would play and had played in what was more recent for him. His head shook, remembering Taranis’ concurrent incarnation. This was fitting, and not an intrusion. It had been and thus would be, and he giggled internally as the Hound’s confusion over the connection he felt mounted. One day he would get to play with these threads more.

For now, he watched, detached. Patient. He had to watch for the Time, the Space, the Hole Between. At each of these internal proper capitalizations he sat and allowed the Power Ripples to spread and set the Web, the Tapestry to dance. He would not interfere with what was happening until he saw the perfect moment for the trick. She was still in the test even if something had influenced it beyond bounds that it logically should have taken.

Kirsty gave herself, flared into a blazing star to his eyes as she leapt with the intent to protect those that had been with her. The blood of his Ladies he could smell and feel activated, and for those in the room around her body the water twisted at it reacted to the blood just as that around her body in the time projection did. The rewriting was strong, demanding, insistent.

If only they could get enough of ones like her bred at once and deploy them on the map. Seeing the oceans forcibly reset and confusing the humans while undoing all of their damage to Mara and the seas would be a thing of beauty and likely the most massive confusion in centuries yet.

She leapt again after her attempt at knocking the falling debris into Raechel failed. The light flailed against the dark glow that came from the Tainted priestess riding the kraken. Not for the first time he wondered what would happen if this Taint finally found a way into Mara’s heart itself.

Here was the moment. His hands shot for the twisting and yowling ball of fur. Blue blazes met his eyes as she hissed, spit, and clawed in his hands in panic. Ven’thrith spoke a few words and pulled her through the hole, pulling Raechel through as well by the connected cords and slammed each into their own bodies as the Weavers finished with that part of their design. He was gratified when Kirsty jolted up and shook off Justin’s hand, her eyes starting wilding about the room while Mara sighed in relief. He sent her into real sleep quickly after a swift reassurance.

Better that she not hurt herself yet. There was plenty of time for that later on. Justin’s hand went back for Kirsty, and he nodded at the question in the boy’s eyes before locking eyes with Mara and sharing all that he had Seen, not only from this Viewing but from others as well. He held onto her essence with hir own, sliding physically and unable to hold the rough male form fully now that the immediate need had passed. In return Mara passed to him all the knowledge she was willing to share.

Ven’thrith had the impression that so far she was pleased with Kirsty’s performance, even if her testing was full of interference.

While the deities silently conferred, keeping the mortals out of whatever they were Speaking to each other, the High Priestess and Lore Keeper carefully inspected the Finman under Mara’s Hand. The gesture was not lost on her. This same gesture had been used with each of them at times, and she could remember the first time of feeling that hand on her own shoulder. How had he been able to penetrate so far though? He had been quite far in before Ven’thrith had collected the lad. Certain lines evoked the girl currently beneath the Moon’s spell, others reminded her of Etain, or the less often seen but always working for them Finnol. Was he of the Blood? Was that how he won into the Labyrinth?

Could he be the beginning of a cure for one of the plagues they fought?

Too many questions, and several other eyes that glared with distrust and envy. Was the Taint spreading?

The eyes of both Deities fell on her, captured her own eyes. She fought not to look Ven’thrith in the eye and failed. Galaxies spun and shook her core. The shifting waves of Mara’s were far less alien to her. What would they want when they spoke?