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Pre-Edit Count – 1,835 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: It’s Time by Imagine Dragons

Previously:

She lays her head down on his chest, and he holds her close with one arm as his other hand runs through her hair, enjoying this calm from the storm they had just weathered together.

Now:

The person who had been waiting for the tempest to calm inside the room grins again at how happy the two are with each other.

Warlow sends a blast to the two lovers, ‘I am back, if you think you can pull yourselves away from each other to deal with the real issues.’ He is smirking, waiting for it…

‘At least this time he waited, Lover.’

‘Oh, he learned his lesson from last time, didn’t you, Warlow?’ is the reply he had been waiting on.

He cannot help the laugh as he relaxes back in the seat he made appear while he was waiting for them to finish. Not bothering to reply to the two, he just looks up into the sky that is amazing to see.  The two worlds hanging in the air that were once inhabited as this one was, but now are waiting for their people to come back to them.

This planet has been cleaned of the past, just as those two above him. His eyes look out on the mountain and the plants that actually look tealish in the light of the early morning. Shaking his head at the sheer beauty all around him, he cannot imagine a reason that this world and the ones above were abandoned for Earth.

In his mind, there are no comparison.  Yes, there is no silver, iron or many other resources that there are on Earth, but to leave this world altogether?  No.

He sighs as he listens to the life all around them as the royal couple make their way out to him.

Sookie comes over and, hugging Warlow, she asks, “How was your visit?”

He smiles at her, “It was as to be imagined.  You know I hate going to that world anymore.  Also, your grandfather is trying to find me whenever I show up. Seems someone found the contract and is thinking that I may have taken you.” He ignores the fact that he left it out in plain sight for them to find. It took them long enough.

Eric just laughs as he waves and another chair shows up. He moves it over to sit and holds Sookie when she moves to his lap.  “You mean I am not the bad guy?” The sarcasm is very evident in his voice, letting them all know what he thinks of that solution.

The two had laughed when it had been reported that Eric was the one who stole Sookie in the middle of the day.  No one cared how impossible it had been at the time, but then, none of the idiots were worth the concern of the two in front of him.

Warlow leans back taking a deep breath of the pure, clean air.  “Roman is warned to cleaned house as you directed me.  Your brother is fine, Sookie.  Still getting into trouble as usual.  Nothing seems to change in that town of yours.” He rolls his eyes.  Jason is a waste of space but Sookie still cares enough to look over him.  To make sure she doesn’t go popping to Earth to check on him, Warlow has a group of people watching the town she grew up in.

Remembering what had happened when he checked in on Eric’s side of the ‘family,’ Warlow lifts his head back up at Eric.  Growling slightly, he informs him, “I will hurt your child if she tries to grab me again.  So far I have allowed her games, but now that it is coming to time for us to deal with everything, I will not play anymore.” He is tired of the ex-whore.  He has no idea what Eric sees in her; she is petty and self-involved.  But he respects that she has been there for Eric when he could not be.  Just as he respected Sookie’s Gran for the same reason.

Nodding his head, Eric shrugs his shoulders as he replies, “I understand.  She needs to learn to stand on her own.  She still throwing a fit that I seemed to be under the spell of the fairy twat?” Feeling her anger through the bond, Eric sends her amusement.  He has always known Pam was self-centered, but this has been an eye opener into the psyche of his only child.  It only reminds him of how Godric told him to only turn those he feels a pull towards.  He had felt for the blond when she had given her ultimatum, but she had not taken her second chance at life as seriously as she had taken the opportunity to have it.

Warlow laughs as he remembers the fit she threw when Warlow finally told her where Eric was.  She had demanded that she be taken there and was informed that without bonding to one of the original inhabitants, or her True Half, that she would burn.

All lies, but Eric had asked that she not be brought while he was in training.  He had not needed the distractions from the massive amount of information that he and Sookie were learning at the time.  He had even learned new fighting techniques he is endeavoring to build into his muscle memories.

Needless to say she had ruined a room with that announcement.  Eric had ordered her to chill her ass out, or else.  That ‘or else’ had tempered her for awhile.  Until she realized that Eric no longer was just hers since he had to have bonded, according to what Warlow said was the only way for him to go there.

She was not one allowed to know the truth, obviously.  Warlow had his own people watching her since he is not as trusting of her as Eric seems to be.  In his mind, Pam seems to hate Sookie for no known reason. Beyond the fact that she is taking her maker away from her.

Bringing his mind back to the here and now, “I am wondering, what are you guys planning to do?  Just walk into the Authority and expect them all to kowtow to you?  I know you are the High King and Queen, but they don’t know that.  All they have been those stupid prophecies from the Betrayer.” He growls the last as he always does.  It infuriates him that his Maker had not only betrayed him and done the unthinkable at the time only to prove she could, but all she had done to make herself the savior.

Resting her head on Eric’s shoulder, she looks over Warlow’s shoulder and smiles. “Welcome, Aedan.” She greets one of the teachers who had worked hard in training them on what magic can actually do.

Walking up as he stretches his wings, the black griffin blinks as he greets them, ‘Morning, you two.  Did Warlow get you up?’  He looks over the two students in front of them.  They had to be gifted to have learned his lessons in magic to the level they are practicing now.  They are masters and only learned that magic existed in reality a month ago.

Warlow rolls his eyes at the subtle reminder. “What?  They were done; I didn’t even show up until they were done.  I listened to you guys and all that stuff.” He shakes his head and goes back to watching the planets above.  They have fascinated him from the beginning, but only from this view.  The view from the other planets were skewed slightly, especially Techno, as Sookie and he called the one.

However, he could not escape the reminder of what Aedan was talking about. Interrupting the two Soul Mates had instigated a lengthy discussion with Warlow, Eric, and Sookie about the type of bond and they had needed to be often reassured. It is a living entity and needed to be ‘fed’ and assured of the love of the two it tied together. Warlow had been getting bad about disturbing them, and not ‘letting the light show happen’ as he called it.

The advisors had quickly informed them that the light show as he calls it is the bonding process.  It is what started the changes in the two, where Eric is able to walk in the day and Sookie to heal as fast as he does. Instead of having to wait however long it would take for them to reset to the original template of their types, they had instead started reverting as soon as the bond was formed.  It is how the two of them can be who they are now that they are together.

The two most powerful mortals in the universe.

However, while it may seem as though they are all powerful, there are limits to it as there is to anything.  Their limit is that they have to be physical often.  It allows the light that is in everyone to be shared with each other, giving them the abilities they share now. The changes would not go away, they are permanent, but the abilities the two have fostered, the magic, the strengths, and the sheer power they command would be affected.  It is one way to make sure that they would not fight against each other and tear apart the worlds.

And no matter what others think that the Vampires have no light, well, there is a reason that Yin Yang is shown as black and white.  It had been one of those ideas they had been shocked came from this world.  It had only been the beginning of the signs that the Earth and their home planets are as connected as they now know.

Sookie is the white while Eric is the black.  Or as Warlow had joked once, the red and blue.  He always thinks it is hilarious that their colors mix to make the royal purple.  Which happens to be their color for the monarchy they rule.  He again mocks the fact that Earth tried to make their own version of the fated couple.

Sookie settles into Eric as they wait for the rest of their advisors to show up.  There are not any other Fae or Vampires in their council yet.  Warlow doesn’t count since he is there in another role, though he has all the rights of the council behind him.

This is not going to be the final council, but until they move on to Earth and begin integrating them into their monarchy, there is no way to get the other races.

The last of their council, the dragon Erisel and her rider/mate Doreial, make themselves comfortable and they look to Warlow for the news.  This meeting needs to hear the latest information before seeing if their plans have to be tweaked further.

Sitting up, he begins on something he knows has bothered Sookie and Eric, “I still haven’t figured out what is going on with the fae.  They had tried to steal some hybrids, but I quickly stopped that from happening anymore.  However, from what I gathered, Mab took your grandfather Earl, Sookie.  I would suspect by now, that she has given him the parasite fruit.  As you know, he cannot return to Earth, nor should he.  The time difference will rip him apart.  But he will be safe here.  By the time we get him here, his body should be able to adjust.  Then drinking from the Pool will make the parasite leave his body.” The pool is one of the mysterious places that their world has.  It is made of pure magic.  The liquid magic that can only be drunk from at the spot.

There are notes on how so many have tried to transport the liquid given its many positive uses.  Lenix thinks it is for that reason that it is like that.  Magic works that way often in defying what should be.

No one is happy with this news from Warlow. There are grumbles as the centaur warrior Julian stomps his feet. “What the hell is she trying to do?”  He growls.  The changes to the Fae race are more than he thought and often cannot understand the reasoning behind some of the wars.

Which should tell you something since the centaurs are warlike; in fact, their bodies are made for war in a way none others can match.  Their society has made war into an art form.  For them to not understand the reasoning…Eric had often chuckled looking back over the wars he had participated in.  There had often been no real reason.

Warlow shrugs. “I have no idea.  I may have someone to talk to if I can ever figure out how to get a message.”  He looks over at Sookie, “He would be an actual relative Sookie.” He smirks at her, knowing how it bothers her to find out how closely related the so-called Fae are.

She shudders in Eric’s arms, and they all laugh.  It has been a long road for Sookie to accept who Warlow is to her and to Eric.  Nevertheless, slowly she has accepted it, for as it had pointed out, magic is involved as well as Prophecy.  Neither would make it an issue.  Magic and Prophecy will break reality itself to do what is needed.

“Hn. There is much needed to be done to right the issues facing us.  We will have to face a world that none of the creatures on it will understand that they have been lied to for their entire existence.  Too much of that world is based on our own cultures, but how much has actually followed?” The long-haired demon, Norio asks them.

The demons and what they really look like had been a shock to Sookie as what she calls demons — and what Eric thought of as a demon — is nothing like the reality of the species. They often were large variations of animals, to have the very simplified version.  If a 10ft Japanese dog that has lightning through its fur is simplified. It made it apparent that the ideas and what even Eric knew of demons were somehow perverted.  Warlow tells the council that the Japanese are the ones who kept the idea faithful.

A movement from the council brings Sookie’s attention back to now and she nods at Norio’s comment as Warlow looks a little uneasy.  He is not looking forward to the next piece of information.  It will affect Eric and Sookie personally, but the implications may stretch into the council itself.

The phoenix, Lenix, cocks her head to the side as she finally asks, “What is it, Father?”

Warlow sighs; might as well as tell them.

“I think I am close to finding out what happened to Godric.”

At that, both Sookie and Eric look up at him, their faces fierce.  Neither has liked that once they talked about Godric’s passing, none of the Council had heard of a vampire or even back when they were Dark Fae ever burning blue.  In fact, they all knew of a spell that did what happened to Godric, but none could figure out who cast it.  The power needed for the spell was not one that a mage would willingly give up. It frequently left them as weak as a newborn afterward.

Since then, the council has all, for both of the Liege’s sakes, searched for Godric.  He would be an honorable addition to the Council, and in fact, no matter what others on Earth or elsewhere think, the position of honor is for him.  If he is still among the living.

“I think Niall had something to do with it.” The words drop into the meeting and set off fireworks as they react to it.

Sookie growls, “Fucking Niall!  Why is it I hear his name all the time? What does he have against us? He is not the King!! He is a fucking Prince!” She growls as she thinks of how much this one name has seemed to cause so much havoc in her life and she has never met him!

“And the great grandfather of yourself, milady.”  The wise sound comes from one of their elder, the Kitsune, Shadoe. The Kitsune is one of the few who has the ability to understand Technology and Magic.  His race thrives on the capacity to use both.  They had been overjoyed to meet the Fae, who had the same abilities that they did, and they mourned the loss of them when the war had broken out.

The creature glows in the dark as his blue lines show up against the darkness of Erisel, his old friend.  “He thinks he understands prophecy and methinks he tries to grab onto anything to hold onto power.” Watching his mistress, Shadoe waits to see how she takes this.  He had sworn himself to her alone, in addition to his oaths to the High King and Queen.  He feels she needs someone to be able to lean against and is more than willing to do so for her.

His attention is brought back as Warlow growling informs them, “Never!  I had named him a traitor when he attacked me.  I am the elder of his tribe!  He has no right to try to force any of our tribe to any other!  I had claimed Sookie before she had been born, and he seeks to try to destroy everything with his pettiness!” That had been one of the first things he had done when he had found the transgressions of Niall when he returned to the planet they called home before their fight had destroyed it.

The rest of the council is not any easier with the naming of the traitor.  He has done much to make them work harder to fix issues.  Most of the faults that they are dealing with go back to him and his machinations.  They all murmur their thoughts.

Eric’s voice, however, stops the voices, “If he has anything to do with Godric’s disappearance, there will be vengeance.”   His voice is harder than anyone could ever remember and full of determination.

There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the High King had just spoken.

Final count: 3,085

Fairfarren~