Archive of Our Own ^beta

DG stared at the necklace Azkadellia held up for everyone to see, brows furrowing.

“A color for every occasion!” She finally exclaimed beaming at Azkadellia. “I made that for you for your birthday.”

Jeb watched the royal family relax slightly and knew he was as well. DG didn’t always remember things from before and it always hurt them all a little when she didn’t.

“It’s certainly got a lot of colors,” Cain drawled from where he was leaning against a wall not far from DG.

DG, glaring at his father the entire time, touched one of the beads with a slightly glowing finger. In a matter of seconds the entire necklace was the same color.

“I,” she informed them primly, “will have you know it took us forever to get that spell right!”

Us? Jeb frowned. Azkadellia had told them that DG had made it herself. He spared a brief thought to his grandmother and uncle who had chosen to find an inn to stay at instead of coming to the palace. He almost smirked when he thought about surprising his dad for once.

“We thought you had made it,” Lavender said slowly, voicing his previous thoughts and drawing his attention back to the conversation. “Someone helped you?”

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them,” DG informed the room. “Tilly and Croun helped me get the spell just right.”

“Who?” Ahamo asked, frowning.

Jeb twitched slightly and knew he was also frowning.

The girl, Glitch’s new daughter who apparently didn’t have a name, something that made Jeb’s blood boil, gave a small squeak drawing their attention to her. She immediately flinched back and curled in on herself. For one heart wrenching moment another little girl overlapped her. One with brown hair and bright brown eyes who flinched at every noise and cowered at every touch. Of a tiny coffin and the bruises that no amount of makeup could hide.

His eyes met his father’s across the room and he knew he wasn’t the only one biting back a growl. Forget where she had come from, she was going back over their dead bodies.

“My little lamb has the answer!” Glitch announced doing a little jig to celebrate.

“Maybe.” She blurted out. “I’m not sure though.” Her voice got smaller. “I could be wrong.”

“Won’t know till you say.” Glitch told her cheerfully. “You’ve got a theory and how do you know if a theory is right?”

Her face lit up, red eyes glowing brightly. “Test it! You have to test your theories to see if they’re right, wrong, or partially right.”

Glitch tapped the tip of her nose and ignored the slight flinch as he plopped down on the couch facing her his legs crossed underneath him. “So let’s test your theory. You believe you might know who Tilly and Croun are. Tell me your theory and why you think it’s valid.”

The young girl, a part of his brain was thinking of and discarding names as he watched and listened, turned and mimicked his posture. “Theory of the identity of Tilly and Croun presented by me, states that Tilly is a Light Dancer and Croun is a Shadow weaver.”

“And,” Glitch prompted. “What is a Light Dancer and a Shadow Weaver?”

“Elementals of light and shadow,” was her prompt reply. “A common form Light Dancers take is that of a young girl or boy, they have light colored, but not white hair, with white eyes and no pupils. Shadow Weavers prefer animal forms such as felines or canines, and are often pranksters and have only one common feature, their dark coats that are constantly flickering as if going in and out of shadows.”

“Huh.” Glitch said. “But as elementals a young DG wouldn’t have been able to see them.”

“Normally correct in this case it would not be.” She was getting more confident as she spoke.

“Why?” Glitch asked tilting his head slightly.

“Because Tilly and Croun were known for three things throughout the realms.” She held up on finger. “Their love for the princesses.” Another finger went up. “Their power.” The last finger. “And their age.” She put her hand down. “It is widely known that Tilly and Croun are among the oldest elementals alive. Some even believe they were alive when the Unknown Chose the Seven, though it’s never been confirmed. It is confirmed that they are among the strongest elementals alive, and the only ones who are awake.”

“Their strength would have allowed DG to see them?” Glitch guessed and Jeb could practically see the gears turning in his head, and decided to wait to ask about everything else

She nodded. What about Milly for her name? Jeb discarded the name with a small frown, it didn’t really fit, as she continued. “It is well known that elementals with enough power can choose to show themselves to those they deem worthy. Another theory is that, given how much time the royal family spent at Fanaqua, and the proximity to the Betrayer’s prison, she might have begun to awaken as a Guide.”

“What’s a Guide?” Cain asked, voice tight. She flinched and Cain dropped his guard and moved slowly toward the couch. When he was still a little ways away, he dropped down till Jeb could see only his eyes and the top of his head over the couch. “Sorry sweatling.” His voice was calm and gentle. “Didn’t mean to startle you. Just don’t like not knowing things about DG.”

She glanced up from under her hair and Jeb could almost see Cain melting. “You’re her Champion, and mate.” Her voice was soft again, and trembled slightly. “You’re worried.”

Cain nodded. “I love my wife lots and lots,” he told her and Jeb delighted in the blush that exploded over DG’s face. “And my wife has a way of finding trouble wherever she goes.” His voice was long suffering. DG squeaked in protest. Cain ignored her. “Not her fault though. She’s just got a big heart and wants to help others which means she isn’t shy about diving into a problem to try to fix it. Problem is it’s my job to watch her back when she does and it’s really hard to do that if you don’t know what you’re supposed to be watching for. Can’t help her if I don’t know what’s wrong or how.”

The small girl nodded slowly. “Knowledge is its own power and you need power to keep her safe.”

Jeb blinked.

Huh.

He’d never thought of it like that before. Given the looks everyone else wore, he knew he wasn’t the only one.

“That’s a real neat way of saying that.” Cain told her. “I really like that.”

The blush was evident even on her dark skin tone.

“A Guide is lots of things,” she told them slowly. “Their heart seers, realm walkers, anchors for their Sentinels, and lots of other things I don’t know. The most important part though is that they are sensitive to bad things and when someone or something is a threat they can start coming into their gifts. Their gifts are meant to help them defend themselves and others. Being able to see and talk to an elemental would enable them to ask for assistance or to stop them if they were the threat. Cause the Betrayer was a really big threat she could have started awakening as a Guide.”

“What makes you so sure she is one?” Jeb asked gently, as he fought back the frown that wanted to form.

“All Chosen are.” She stated. “They have to be in order to interact with those they're supposed to be helping and protecting. They were the first and only Guide’s till Lady Heart gifted others with the ability.”

“I know that title.” Azkadellia muttered with a frown. “Where have I heard it before?”

“Might be one of the things in that necklace,” Jeb said tilting his head toward the necklace she still held. “You did say it was all the memories the,” he paused for a moment then with a small nod to himself continued. “The Betrayer didn’t want you, or anyone else to have those memories. Maybe she wasn’t able to pull everything you found out of your memories after all.”

Azkadellia blinked then nodded.

“Wait,” DG blurted out. “What?”

“Azkadellia, trying to find a way to stop the Betrayer dove into her memories, cause they were an open book to her, and found a bunch of stuff the hag didn’t want her, or anyone else to know. So she took the necklace you made, tore the memories out of both of them and then hid the necklace.” Jeb summarized.

There were several long moments of silence.

“I’m making you a new necklace.” DG declared breaking the silence and the tension.

“How do we get them out?” Ahamo asked, eyeing the necklace.

“That’s the easy part.” Azkadellia informed them. “The hard part will be dealing with them once they’re in my mind.”

“Nope!” DG declared jumping up as Jeb growled. “You’re not putting any more of her in you.”

“I’m not going to let you do it!” Azkadellia informed her also rising. “I’ve already had her in my mind, I know what to look for.”

“Neither one of you will be putting that things memories in you.” Lavender ordered. “I will not have you be contaminated by it any more than you already have been.”

“We need to know what’s in there.” DG argued back.

Azkadellia dropped the necklace to the table. “Whatever is in there could mean victory or defeat. We need that information.”

“Which is why I will take the memories.” Lavender told them.

Kalm eased himself slowly past the women and toward the table.

“Absolutely not!” Azkadellia denied sweeping one hand from her middle out as if sweeping away the idea.

“Are you crazy? You can’t do that. We don’t know what it will do to you. Your light is still recovering and the kingdom needs its queen.” DG placed her hands on her hips as she spoke glaring at her mother.”

Kalm picked up the necklace and began to retreat.

“Either one of you will make a great queen.” Lavender told her daughters.

“We really, really wont.” DG half sung.

“You are-”

“Hated and or distrusted by most of the kingdom, or have little to know knowledge of the kingdom, the land, or the policies.” Azkadellia cut in.

“And now we have the responsibility of being the Ladies of Light and Night,” DG added. “And from the sounds of it, that’s a full time job.”

Kalm now free if the women moved to a large mirror they had set up in the room so the women could work on transforming and magicing clothes.

“So you expect me to rule for eternity?” Lavender demanded.

“Of course not.”

“No!” The two young women were almost in unison.

Kalm set the necklace down on the foot stool before dragging it over to the mirror.

“DG, Az, and queen forget what talking about.” Kalm told them as he settled down on the foot stool turning the women’s attention to him. “Also silly. Just need read memories, not keep them.”

Jeb nearly bit his lip to keep from laughing at the identical blush all three women now sported.

“Kalm read necklace, show what see.”

“Will that hurt you?” Azkadellia asked, moving toward him with a swish of her dress.

Kalm shook his head. “Memories not evil, pieces of Betrayer evil. Kalm be fine.”

“Raw?” DG asked.

Raw was already nodding. “Kalm young but powerful. Kalm will do well.”

“You stop if you need to, understood fuzzy?” Jeb asked also moving to stand near the mirror as everyone also moved forward. “You’re not to hurt yourself, and if something doesn’t feel right you back off.”

“Kalm understand.” Kalm assured them face serious.

“Raw, can you monitor him? Pull him out if he gets trapped or something happens?” Cain asked then glanced at Kalm. “Not saying it will fluff ball,”

“Cain wants Kalm have back up.” Kalm’s voice was sure and confident. “Want make sure Kalm safe. Kalm know think good idea.”

“Raw think so too.” Raw told them as he moved behind Kalm and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Whenever you’re ready dear heart.” Lavender said gently.

“Just remember,” DG added. “Nothing in there is worth your safety and well being.”

“Search for anything about Lady Heart to start with.” Jeb told him. “That should narrow it down for you.

Kalm nodded, took a deep breath placed a hand on the necklace and the other on the mirror. Slowly the mirror fogged then began to clear.

The large city bells tolled. Three hours had passed. Kalm leaned heavily against Raw, eyes already sliding shut the room echoing its silence.

“Fucking hell!”

Everyone whipped around, Cain drawing his gun, Jeb and Ahamo their knives, Glitch falling into his fighting stance, the women calling up their magic as Raw grabbed Glitch’s daughter and pulled her behind him even as he moved to stand in front of Kalm.

A man stood toward the back of the room where the shadow’s were deepest. His hair was a deep black and cute close to his head, his eyes a dark red, as broad in the shoulder as Cain and taller than him by four or five inches. A sword with dark hilt, a ruby set into it, hung at one hip, his clothes, shades of gray were lost but not baggy until they cinched tightly at his arms. Black boots that shone ended just under his knees.

“Who the hell are you?” Cain growled low, gun never wavering.

A cat, the largest Jeb had ever seen, the size of a pony prowled from the shadows, a low rumbling noise filling the room.

“Croun.” DG whispered behind him as the cat moved to Cain.

The large animal rubbed its head against Cain’s chest, forcing him to lower his gun before doing the same with the others, ending at DG where it sat and calmly regarded the man across the room.

“Fucking hell.” the man whispered eyes wide. And Jeb, well Jeb would be the biggest fool in the world not to agree with him.