I stare at Damian in disbelief, my brain nearly coming to a complete halt at not only his revelation, but nonchalantness of the delivery. As I stare at him, he looks everywhere but at me. He even starts kicking nonexistent rocks on the ground, anything to keep from looking me in the eye.

  “Ouch!” Damian cries out as Ygg karate chops him on top of his head. “Okay, okay. Sheesh.

  “Look, here is what happened.” He starts to explain. “I kind of, maybe, manipulated things so that a particular human was born with an affinity for soul manipulation magic… On the same level as what the Elves have, because I thought it would be funny. On top of that, sh-,“ Ygg gives him a glare, “they inherited shadow affinity as well, meaning that they have a dual affinity. This also mean that you aren’t the only one, and I’m the cause of both cases of this happening, though it really was an accident in both cases.”

  He glances at Ygg who nods for him to continue.

  “So… I thought no one would ever find out about the human, or rather the original human, with dual affinities but someone did... In fact, King Bandaerl is the one that found out, though I’m not sure how because the Elves don’t fall under my jurisdiction. This led to him seeking out this individual and training he- them in the art of soul manipulation. How was I supposed to know that my actions would lead to a snowball effect ending in the murder of one Beira Braemar by the individual whom I accidentally gifted with a second affinity at birth, I can’t see the future.”

  “You didn’t accidentally gift them with dual affinities, Damian.” Ygg says coldly. “You intentionally gave them one they shouldn’t have and didn’t bother to check if they already had one to begin with.”

  “Fine, I’ll concede that point.” He says with a huff. “Anyway. As I have mentioned to you before, Beira is important to me for reasons I can’t go into because of rules. So, I tried to replace her hoping nobody would notice, which is where you come in. Unfortunately, as we now know, you had an affinity of your own, which led to there now being two people in the world with Dual affinities. Not only that, because King Bandaerl found out about the first individual, the god of whom he falls under the purview of has now found out that this is possible. Luckily, she still hasn’t figured out how it is possible, but it’s only a matter of time before she figures it out now that there is a second individual with dual affinities, you. That also means, soon, all the other gods will know as well, if they dont already.”

  “What about the S-soul Drain ritual?” I ask.

  “What about it?” Damian looks at me as if I had grown another head.

  “Wouldn't that also cause s-someone to have dual affinities as well? Potentially even more affinities than t-two.” I point out, thinking I'm clever.

  “Not quite. The affinity in that case is actually tied to the gem that holds the soul. It is only a temporary thing. When the gem is destroyed, the host of the gem loses the affinity.” He explains. “This case is different because the two of you both have two affinities tied directly to your souls, they are a part of you both, permanently.”

  He glances at Ygg again who takes over.

  “What this means is that you are in more danger than you were before.” Ygg explains gently. “If Damian hadn’t consulted me about what he did and the resulting fallout, we wouldn’t be having this conversation and you would be in the same danger but without knowing it.

  “I wanted you to come here for a few reasons, the first of which was to meet you. Because you are not fully of this world, I couldn’t properly sense you, but that issue is now resolved. Second, I felt you deserved an apology from the person who got us into this mess, even if he has trouble making it sound genuine. Third, I felt you needed to be warned. The other gods are going to come looking for you because they will want to know how to make more people who have dual affinities, for better or for worse. If it had only happened once, it would just be an anomaly, but two times this close together? The others are bound to take notice. And fourth, to extend to you what meager protections I’m allowed to give without violating the rules.”

  Ygg, reaches out and takes my left hand into hers. I feel a tingling sensation crawling up my arm and look down to see vine like tattoo moving up from my hand. As it grows, it coils around my arm until it disappears under the short sleeve of my dress. I feel the tingling reach my shoulder and then it calms, vanishing as if it were never there. On the exposed skin of my left arm, I can see a thorny vine laden with roses that are an icy blue with golden tips. At the tip of the vine, it splits in two and both tips rest on the back of my hand. One of the tips bears a pure blue rose while the other bears a golden one.

  I wonder how I’m going to cover this up. Long sleeves are ok, but I don’t want to have to wear gloves all the time too.

  “Don’t worry, it won’t be normally be visible on your body.” Ygg says, as if addressing my thoughts. “If it does appear, that means you are in immediate danger and need to take steps to protect yourself. I wish I could do more than this, but, whatever one god does to a mortal, opens the door for other gods to do the same freely as well, which is why the rules are in place. That is one of the reasons what Damian did is such a huge deal. At the very least, if your assassin comes for you again, you should have a little bit of a heads up.

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  “Okay, we have kept you long enough. It’s time for you go back to your father so you can continue on your way to Aberling. I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Beira.” She smiles as her and Damian slowly face from view.

  I feel the real world settle back in around me as I open my eyes. My father is standing nearby, watching me with an oddly proud look in his eyes.

  “It’s a little disorientating the first time, but you get used to it.” He says, grinning. “If you are wondering how long you have been standing there, it has only been less than a minute, but time flows differently in that place than it does here.”

  I look down at my left hand and notice that the skin shows no sign of the tattoo that had been gifted to me by Ygg.

  “Alright, lass, lets get back to the carriage before your mother complains about us wasting too much time.” He gently places his hand on my back, guiding me back the way we had come from.

  When we reach the caravan of carriages, my mother is standing outside, her arms crossed. When she spies us coming out of the tree line, she arches an eyebrow at my father and wordlessly climbs back into the carriage. As I climb back into the carriage, I see that ‘Taken by the Dragon King’ had been returned to where I left it and looks as though it had never been disturbed.

  I know that mom had been looking at it, I saw her pick it up. Was she embarrassed by what she saw her daughter was reading? Does she think that a story about a relationship between two women is weird?

  I glance at my mother as I get settled into my seat and move the book back to my lap. She gives me a knowing smile and then turns her gaze toward my father as he clambers in. I feel heat rising up my neck and flood my face as I use the opportunity created by my father’s distraction to check that my bookmark is still in the same spot I left it.

  Good, it’s still there and doesn’t look as if it has been touched.

  I give an inward sigh of relief and turn my head to look out the window, hopefully hiding my embarrassment as the carriage door shuts.

  Soon we are underway, the carriage rumbling along the path for a while before rejoining the well-maintained road. We make good time, all things considered, and arrive in Larkinshire just as the sun dips below the horizon.

  The town is surrounded by a medium height wooden wall that runs from the edge of the loch on one side, all the way to where the land meets water on the other side. The wall is broken up only by the occasional watch tower and the modest wooden gates that guard the roads into and out of the town. The west end of the town is elevated high above the majority of the town, which sits on level earth only a few feet higher than the water level in the Loch. The west end, from what I can see, appears to be mainly housing for a small battalion of soldiers and housing for traveling officials. As we ride through, many of the soldiers that we see stop what they are doing and salute the carriage that we are riding in until we pass.

  As we near the large cliff that drops down toward the town proper, we turn off, heading toward a large house that rests on the edge of the cliff overlooking the town. Before our arrival, I had expected the town to look more akin to what I thought of as a fishing village, but as it turns out, it has a proper port which houses larger ships than I had expected. The loch itself seemed to stretch for as far as I can see towards the northeast and there appears to be a fog rising on the water’s surface as the last of the sunlight fades.

  As we pulled up to the house and exit our carriage, we are greeted by short, fat man who appeared to be very fastidious in his dress, to the point that his appearance practically screams ‘I’m the Mayor!’ He greats us enthusiastically, almost overly so, bowing so deeply at the waist that I’m afraid he may lose his balance and topple over.

  “Your Grace, how lovely to see you!” He exclaims; a broad grin stretched across his face. “You are looking as healthy as an ox, My Lord Duke. Oh, and here is Her Grace, our ever-lovely Dutchess. Your beauty has only magnified since last I had the honor to lay eyes upon you.”

  My father and the man embrace in a not quite friendly hug while my mother puts of a false smile that I have come to call her ‘I’m only smiling for decorum’s sake and would rather be anywhere else as long as you aren’t there’ smile.

  Geez, I wonder what he did in the past to elicit that response from mom.

  And then his attention turns to me.

  “And you must be The Lady Beira. My Lady, tales of your beauty have only captured a fraction of the how lovely you really are. You very nearly outshine your gorgeous mother, I can see why Prince Angus has taken such a shine to you.” He smiles in an overly joyful fashion but I can feel the lewd look in his eyes practically undressing me on the spot. He holds out his hand to me as if expecting me to rest mine in it. I can guess exactly why.

  So that is why she reacted like that. Oh, she is now giving him that look that says he better be careful if he doesn’t want to lose his life. Thank you, mom!

  My mother notices me looking and gives an almost imperceptible shake of her head and I drop the hand that I hadn’t realized was automatically rising toward his. A look of disappointment crosses the mayor’s face, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead, he just plasters a shit eating grin on his face and turns back to my father.

  “Your Grace, I have had the house prepared specifically for you and your family. Please, if you need anything, anything at all during your short stay here, just let me know. I want to make sure your stay is as comfortable as possible.” He says, continuing to present that smarmy grin to my father.

  “Yes, well, I am sure everything will be just fine, Thaddeus-“ My father starts to say.

  “Um, that’s ‘Mayor’ Thaddeus. Mayor Thaddeus Timbelton.” The mayor interjects, interrupting my father who just gives him a polite smile before continuing.

  “’Mayor’ Timbelton. We will be leaving at first light tomorrow, so make please sure that the south gate guards are prepared. And thank you, Mayor, coming to greet us personally. It truly means a lot to me and mine.” With that, my father ushers the portly mayor towards the street and bids him a good night.

  I yawn and fight the urge to give a little stretch. Who knew traveling all day in a carriage could be so exhausting? My mother notices my yawn and calls one of the servants for the house arranged by the mayor to show me to my room and I don’t protest. Even though I am a bit hungry since I haven’t had anything to eat since lunch, I collapse on the large bed provided and find my eyes instantly growing heavy as sleep claims me.