Chapter 11: Accepting What Is; Hope for What Could Be
Lady Sylvara waited until the hall's doors had fully closed behind the new Princess before speaking.
“She took that better than I expected,” Sylvara said curiously.
“Yes. And did you see the way her face lit up when we told her she was being sent to the Elven Kingdom as both the Dryad Forest's envoy and the Magic Affinity Academy's first-ever Spirit-born student?” Michael asked.
“Yes, I noticed that as well,” Commander Dorador said.
“Perhaps we failed to adequately explain the current relationship between our two kingdoms,” Sylvara's secretary suggested.
“I don't think that was it,” Sylvara disagreed.
“Then what?” Michael asked. “Because that girl practically jumped out of her seat when we started talking about the Elven capital and its people.”
He considered that for a moment.
“If I didn't know better, I'd say that young Dryad is a bit of a masochist.”
“Maybe we should have gone into more detail about how badly the Elves treat the Spirit-folk,” Commander Dorador suggested.
“No. I think it's best she finds that out for herself. I get the impression our new Princess is the seeing-is-believing sort,” Sylvara said. Her expression grew more serious.
“Still, I can't help but worry about Princess Jamie's safety when she goes down there. We're only sending her with a small guard.”
“She will be more protected than you might think,” Michael said.
“How so?” Commander Dorador asked. “I also think the Royal Guard force being sent to protect the Princess is far too small.”
He frowned.
“I understand the need to abide by the treaties, but surely after the Great Betrayal, the Elves would understand us wanting to send more than eighty guards.”
“The Goddess has informed me that the Great Trees have agreed to send three Pixies to guard the Princess,” Michael said.
“Three?” the Goblin Commander shouted as he shot out of his chair. “Are we planning to lay waste to the Elf capital, then?”
“Calm yourself, Commander,” Sylvara urged, motioning for Dorador to sit back down.
It took him a moment, but he did as she asked.
Once the Commander was as calm as could reasonably be expected, Sylvara turned her attention back to Michael. She wasn't showing it on her face, but she too was surprised—and more than a little upset—that she was only now hearing about the Pixies.
“How did the Goddess get the Great Trees to agree to committing three Pixies?” Sylvara asked.
“They've committed six Pixies, actually,” Michael said. “And I'm afraid we'll need to greatly increase our herds and food production with the utmost haste.”
“Six!”
More than one voice shouted the word at the same time, including Sylvara.
Sylvara cleared her throat, slightly embarrassed at having lost her composure.
“Six, you say? What are the other three Pixies to be used for?” she asked.
Sylvara watched as Michael shifted uncomfortably in his seat before answering.
“They will be joining the army.”
“The army?” Commander Dorador repeated, clearly shocked. “The number one rule with Pixies is that they don't take orders. How is that going to work?”
“That's not quite true,” Michael corrected him. “They will take orders from the child of Nia.”
He paused.
“Also from their own Pixie command structure.”
Dorador stared at him. “Please tell me you didn't.”
“I'm sorry, but this was the only way to secure the Trees' help,” Michael said. “We could have gotten just the three Pixies to protect the Princess, but I think all of you will agree that we need all the help we can get for what is to come.”
“So I'm going to be demoted to second in command?” Dorador asked.
“A bit lower, I'm afraid,” Michael said. “Danna still hasn't gotten over the time your family restricted her coffee bean allotment for three months.”
Dorador's expression fell.
Michael continued.
“She said, and I quote, ‘Tell that prick I hope he likes counting the army's coffee bean supplies.’”
“The good news is that I've never heard of a supply officer going hungry in times of war,” Michael added sympathetically.
“That was thirty years ago! And I didn't even have anything to do with it, for Goddess's sake,” Dorador complained.
Sylvara sighed.
“Commander, don't worry. I'll make sure you're the head Goblin in charge of all supplies, not some line supply officer. I would protest this as unjust, but Michael is right. We will need all the help we can get. Three Pixies in the army will save a lot of lives.”
She'd known Commander Dorador for over a hundred years, and she knew what drove the Goblin. More than anything, Dorador cared about protecting his troops. Supplying them fell squarely into that category, and having three Pixies killing the enemy before they could kill his soldiers would indeed save a great many lives.
Dorador was quiet for a moment.
“Yes, my Lady,” he finally said. “And thank you.”
“Michael, when can we expect the Pixies?” Sylvara asked.
“Vixen arrived this morning, and the other two will be—”
“By the Goddess, Michael! Are you trying to cause a disaster inside these walls?”
Sylvara immediately turned toward her secretary.
“Jared, make sure every café in town has a large enough supply of coffee beans, and remind them about the Pixie bean limits per day.”
The Sprite didn't say a word. He simply grabbed his notes and started flying toward the door.
“Oh, and Jared—after that, start getting to work on the farmers,” Sylvara called as he reached the door.
Jared gave a quick acknowledgment before disappearing through it.
Sylvara slowly turned back toward Michael.
“You're doing this on purpose,” she accused.
After talking with Commander Dorador about the time frame he expected for the Dryad reserve forces to be ready, Sylvara dismissed him.
It was just her and Michael in the hall now, and she let the silence linger for a moment before finally breaking it. She turned to face her oldest friend. What she wanted to ask needed to stay between the two of them.
“Why did the Goddess wait so long to give us a new royal line?”
It was a question that had bothered Sylvara longer than she cared to remember. She and Michael had been friends since childhood, but this wasn't something you simply walked up and asked the Voice of the Goddess.
Not even when the Voice was a lifelong friend.
“You know why,” Michael said.
“No. Not really.”
“You told me right after the betrayal that it would take more than two thousand years for the Goddess to store enough divine energy to bring them back. She did it in half that time, Michael. And she made the Princess her Chosen on top of that.”
Michael studied her for a moment.
“Just ask your real question, Sylvara.”
Sylvara tried, but the words refused to come. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried again.
“Are we going to lose her?”
There.
She'd said it.
Sylvara wasn't sure she wanted the answer.
“Yes. In time.”
The words hit harder than she'd expected.
“That is, if the Princess isn't killed first,” Michael continued. “You know as well as I do that the Gods don't choose the long-lived races as their Chosen for a reason, Sylvara.”
“If the Princess succeeds and saves this world, she'll keep siphoning away the Goddess's power.”
“So why didn't she pick a Goblin?” Sylvara asked angrily.
“Because the Goddess wants to make sure what happened to her descendants last time does not happen again.”
Sylvara understood.
“Because Chosen are hard to kill.”
Michael didn't need to answer.
Sylvara stared at her longtime friend as a tear escaped her eye.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
“Pray that the Princess succeeds,” Michael said simply.
Jamie smiled as she took in the fantastic aroma rising from her coffee cup. The Coffee Grounds' reputation was well earned, and this place was officially her favorite spot in this new world.
Ember, sitting on the table beside her, took her first sip of coffee for the morning.
They had only been in Glenhaven for three days, but apparently it had only taken two to turn Ember into just as much of a coffee fanatic as Jamie. She looked down at Ember's bowl. Even though it was considerably larger than Jamie's standard coffee cup, it was a foregone conclusion which of them would be asking for seconds first.
Well, more like demanding in Ember's case.
“Good morning, Princess,” a Sprite woman called as she passed by the café.
“Good morning.” Jamie smiled and waved back.
After Jamie's meeting with Lady Sylvara, the Council of Elders had decided to make the announcement to the public about who Jamie was. Now she couldn't make it a whole town block without having to greet half a dozen people. In the span of two days, Jamie had somehow become one of the most recognizable people in Glenhaven, right up there with Lady Sylvara and Lady Akari.
It was odd being famous.
That hadn't even been on Jamie's bingo card.
“Good morning, Princess Jamie,” a Naiad said as he spotted her sitting outside the café.
“Good morning.”
Jamie thought for a moment that she was going to have to stop one of her guards from putting his hands on the Naiad for getting too close, but the man quickly changed course after seeing the serious look on the Goblin guard's face.
Another, please, Ember sent.
“Ember, I swear to the Goddess, if you drink all the coffee in this town, I'm going to make sure the maids stop giving you those cookies you love so much.”
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Jamie eyed her suspiciously.
Maybe I should have them do that regardless. I thought you felt a little heavier on my shoulder this morning.
Don't—you—dare.
One look into Ember's eyes told Jamie this was not a fight she wanted.
“Miss, can we get another bowl for my partner?”
“Right away, Princess,” the Fairy who had just set down two cups for a pair of Jamie's guards said.
“Say, before you go, can I ask you something?”
“Sure thing, Princess.”
“You're not in danger of running out of coffee anytime soon, are you?”
“Nope. The boss just sent away for a big order.” The Fairy floated a little closer. “I hear there's a Pixie in town.”
She said it as if that explained everything.
Jamie was about to ask what a Pixie being in town had to do with coffee when a streak of orange light whooshed past them and disappeared into the café proper.
Seeing the look on Jamie's face, the Fairy spoke.
“That would be her.”
She flew even closer and whispered conspiratorially into Jamie's ear.
“They love coffee beans. Pixies can't get enough of them.”
“I see.” Jamie decided to bank that for later.
There were already far too many other things whirling around in her head to spend much time thinking about the Pixie-and-coffee connection.
Things like relations between the kingdoms, the geography of this world, and Jamie's expected role as Princess.
She was honestly thrilled about getting to live in the Elven Kingdom, and Jamie hadn't slacked on studying the enormous tome Lady Sylvara had given her. From what she'd learned so far, the Elves and the Spirit-folk weren't getting along particularly well.
That tended to happen when one side decided the other made for good slaves.
Jamie was here to change that.
That by itself was a lot of responsibility for one person, but Jamie had an even greater duty to the people of the Great Dryad Forest. War was coming, and according to Lady Sylvara, they didn't have much time to prepare.
That was one of the reasons Jamie had focused so heavily on the geography of this world. Knowing where your friends were—and, more importantly, where your enemies were—was critically important.
Both the Elves and the Spirit-folk shared a border with the Kingdom of Chaos to the east, as did the Beast-kin. When the fighting broke out, those three kingdoms would be the first ones in the path of the enemy. According to Mike, the undead were already sending small raiding parties into the forest.
Which was why Jamie needed to deal with this slavery thing as soon as possible.
She'd read in the tome that the Elves and Spirit-folk had once been strong allies, but that relationship had deteriorated after the Great Dryad Forest lost its royal family.
Jamie was here to change that too.
She needed that alliance as strong as she could possibly make it before the real fighting started.
There were a total of six kingdoms on this continent: the Elves, the Spirit-folk, the Beast-kin, the Humans, and the Dwarves.
Last, but unfortunately not least, was the Kingdom of Chaos.
The undead were only part of what inhabited those lands, and if the forces of Chaos got their way, they wanted everyone else undead.
Jamie started thinking about the Magic Academy as she took another sip of her coffee.
“So good.”
“Good morning, Princess.”
“Good morning to you,” Jamie replied to another passerby.
Strangely enough, Jamie found that she was very much looking forward to going back to school. College had given her some of the fondest memories of her past life. Grades had never been a problem for Jamie. Back when she had been he—he'd maintained a 4.4 GPA for three of his four years at the University of Southern California. That last year, his GPA had dropped to a 3.7 thanks to her.
Ashley.
It wasn't fair to blame Ashley for his GPA dropping. Jamie knew that. He just couldn't help it. That woman had consumed his thoughts. No matter what he did, Jamie couldn't get her out of his mind.
It was one of the main reasons Jamie had broken things off with Ashley.
On Earth, you needed to prove you belonged in college. On Eldara, apparently you needed to do the same, but here you didn't take the SATs.
Here, you needed connections to the right people.
Jamie had those in spades.
She was a Princess, after all, and apparently the Elven King, whose kingdom the Academy was located in, was also supporting Jamie's admission.
No SATs required.
There was an admissions test that every student needed to complete to determine their ranking in the school, but that only really mattered if you wanted to be considered one of the elites.
Jamie wanted to think she wouldn't overdo it on the magic test, but that wasn't who she had been in her past, and it wasn't who she was now. She planned to go all out and impress those professors.
If you're not first, you're last, Ricky Bobby.
There was just one hiccup Jamie needed to deal with before leaving for the Elven Kingdom.
All first-year students were expected to be at least Level 11 at the bare minimum, but anyone who mattered was expected to be Level 15 by day one.
Jamie brought up her status screen again.
Level 4.
She'd gotten that last level right after killing Kibb.
Jamie hated thinking about that, but pretending it hadn't happened didn't change the fact that she'd killed someone she shouldn't have.
“Four, and I need eleven more,” Jamie muttered to herself.
Lady Sylvara had explained that they had a way to power-level Jamie, but it would only get her to Level 10. After that, Jamie would need to earn those last five levels on her own.
Well, her and Ember, that was.
No one could power-level her after Level 10. Someone in their thirties, like the Royal Guard Captain, couldn't simply kill things while Jamie sat safely nearby collecting experience. Technically, they couldn't even do that before Level 10.
Instead, there was apparently a system in place that allowed someone at a higher level to transfer experience to someone who hadn't yet reached Level 10.
The way it had been explained to Jamie made the whole thing sound like some sort of holodeck straight out of Star Trek. Except in this case, the things you fought were somehow generated using experience provided by the higher-level person, and killing the constructs transferred that experience to the person who needed to level.
It also sounded useful for practicing one's skills before the real fighting began.
The whole thing sounded cheaty as hell, but if it meant Jamie could safely get a head start, she wasn't about to say no.
Jamie took a long sip from her cup before setting it down.
This world had timepieces, but nothing like wristwatches. Pocket watches, though, were apparently a thing. Jamie pulled hers out and checked the time.
Looks like we don't have time for another cup, Jamie told Ember.
It's okay. I've had two already.
Jamie blinked and looked down.
She'd been so lost in thought that she hadn't even noticed when the Fairy returned with Ember's second bowl.
That bowl was empty too.
With not much time left before their meeting with the Elders, Jamie got out of her seat and motioned for her guards to lead the way.
Before leaving, she dropped a gold piece onto the table. Even after covering her guards' drinks, it was still quite the tip for their waitress.
Jamie looked toward Ember.
Ready to go meet your mom?
Just like every other time Jamie had entered the Elder Hall, she needed a moment for her eyes to adjust.
“Why do they keep the lighting in here so dim?” Jamie muttered.
“I'm sorry, Princess Jamie. The light levels in here are on account of me,” Lady Sylvara said apologetically. “When you become a Dryad as old as I am, too much light tends to make things grow that can become problematic to deal with.”
“Oh. You heard that, did you?” Jamie asked.
“You will also find that beings as old as we are tend to have quite good hearing,” Lady Akari said.
It had only taken a moment, but Jamie could now make out everyone in the hall. Mike was there, of course, along with Lady Sylvara and Lady Akari.
Standing beside Akari was a much younger Kitsune. She only sported seven tails compared to Akari's nine, and Jamie didn't fail to notice the supportive hand Akari had resting on the younger woman's shoulder.
She was every bit as beautiful as her older sister, and Lady Akari had been right. It didn't take much for Jamie to see the resemblance between Ember and her mother. Even though Ember's mother was in her humanoid form, Jamie could still see it.
“It's their scent you're noticing,” Lady Sylvara explained. “That's why you know they're related. You can sense it through your bond-mate.”
“Oh. Sorry about that,” Jamie said.
In Ember's mother's arms, Jamie saw a Kitsune kit.
He looked just like Ember, scent or no scent. Same fur, same eyes, same ears, and nearly the same face. The only real difference was his tail. Sure, Ember had three and he only had one, but that wasn't what caught Jamie's attention.
His tail was surprisingly short.
Instead of the long, full fox tail Jamie expected, it looked more like an oversized fluffy bobcat tail.
“Hello, Princess. I am Kylie—” The Kitsune woman hesitated. “Sorry. It's been so long. I am Lady Kylie, Lady Akari's younger sister.”
She adjusted the kit in her arms.
“And this is Ren.”
Kylie held Ember's brother out slightly so Jamie could get a better look at him.
Ren didn't wait for permission.
He leapt from Kylie's arms and started running toward Jamie.
Ember did the same, jumping from Jamie's shoulder.
Jamie didn't stop her.
She didn't want to.
This was Ember's moment, not Jamie's.
The two siblings met in the middle of the room and immediately began sniffing each other. It would have been the cutest thing Jamie had ever seen if it weren't so heartbreaking.
But as she watched them, Jamie felt something else. Something she didn't want to admit to herself.
Worry.
This was Ember's family. What if she decided to stay with them?
What if she didn't want to leave with Jamie?
The thought scared Jamie far more than she wanted to admit.
“Kiko!”
Jamie heard Lady Kylie call out a name, but it wasn't Ember's.
Kylie started toward her children, only for Lady Akari's supportive hand on her shoulder to become a restraining one. Kylie turned toward her sister angrily, but whatever she saw on Akari's face caused her expression to quickly change.
“My apologies,” Kylie said, her eyes returning to the two kits. “I meant Ember.”
That seemed to be the key to letting Lady Kylie go.
The moment Akari released her, Kylie hurried toward her children. In one motion, she scooped both kits into her arms and held them against her chest.
Jamie could see the tears.
She wanted to look away, to give them some semblance of privacy, but she couldn't bear the thought of taking her eyes off Ember. As ridiculous as it was, some part of Jamie was afraid that if she looked away, she might lose Ember forever.
It's alright, Ember sent. Jamie swallowed.
Now that I can smell them, I know who they are, but it's a distant relationship now.
There was a brief pause through their bond.
I know my place is with you.
Jamie almost lost it right then and there.
She finally had to look away, deciding instead to focus on the Elders.
All three were watching her with warm smiles. They could see exactly what this was doing to Jamie.
Things settled after that. The reunion continued, but little by little, the emotion gave way to something that felt more like a family gathering. Ember and Ren spent most of that time playing whatever games fox kits played while everyone else sat around the table and watched them.
When Kylie wasn't watching her kits, she was watching Jamie.
Jamie knew what was going on.
She was being judged. Kylie was deciding for herself whether Jamie was worthy of holding her daughter's bond.
More than an hour passed before Kylie finally spoke into Jamie's mind.
You're worthy.
Jamie looked across the table at her.
“Thank you, Princess,” Lady Kylie said.
“I'll do my best to protect Ember,” Jamie replied.
“I know you will.”
They made small talk for the next half hour, with Kylie asking quite a bit about Jamie's past life. Everyone in the room knew about it, but outside of the Elders and a few of Jamie's guards she'd accidentally let that small detail slip to, almost no one knew Jamie wasn't actually from this world.
Before long, food was brought out for lunch, and even that was enough to pull the two kits away from their games. Just like Ember, Ren seemed to have a bottomless stomach, and it didn't take long for the siblings to turn who could eat more into a competition.
Everyone at the table couldn't help but laugh at the two kits' antics.
The hours slipped by, and what had started as a room full of strangers slowly began to feel like family.
All of them.
Jamie couldn't help but be reminded of Sundays back on Earth, when her extended family would get together. After Jamie's mom died, her grandmother had filled part of the hole that loss had left in Jamie's heart. It wasn't the same as having her mom back, but it helped.
“You did well, Kylie,” Lady Akari told her sister.
It was just the two of them now, sitting together in the parlor of their family's residence in Glenhaven. The reunion had gone surprisingly well, despite Akari's worries over how her sister would handle things once Ember arrived.
“Would you like some more tea?” Akari asked, already lifting the pot.
“Yes, please.”
Akari poured for her.
“You were right,” Kylie admitted. “The Princess is a good fit for my daughter.”
“Yes. I foresee the two of them accomplishing great deeds together.” Akari returned the pot to the table. “I think the Goddess has chosen well for our people, and your daughter is going to do great things.”
She took a moment to study her younger sister.
Kylie was so much like their father. May the Goddess embrace his soul.
“I wasn't only referring to today when I said you did well,” Akari continued. “I'm also speaking of your marriage and the life you built together.”
“What?”
“I know—”
“It took me a long time to see it, but it was my fault for forcing you to run away. Lady Sylvara and I only wanted to do what we thought was best for you.”
“What you wanted was for me to marry that man simply because he was born into one of the last noble Kitsune families left,” Kylie shot back.
Akari sighed, but she didn't rise to the challenge. This was how things had gone so wrong between them in the first place.
“You're right. But please understand, I was new to leadership. Father was gone, and I had no one but myself to rely on.”
The room fell silent.
“You know I've always kept an eye on you from a distance,” Akari eventually said.
“I suspected as much. To be honest, I always thought you would come and kidnap me while I slept. I spent a lot of nights worrying about that.”
“Would that have done any good?”
Kylie took a moment to consider the question. “No.”
“You are so much like our father.” Akari smiled faintly. “Did you know our mother wasn't the woman he was supposed to marry?”
“Grandfather had someone else picked out for Father?”
“He did.”
“No. I hadn't heard that.”
“He was meant to marry Lady Dyla.”
Kylie's eyes widened.
“By the Goddess. That woman?”
“I know, right?”
For a moment, the two sisters simply looked at each other.
Akari sighed again.
“Plans were already in place to grant your husband a noble title.”
“What?”
“We were going to grant it when your family came back,” Akari explained. “Because the two of you ran away, we needed to wait. I hope you can understand that.”
“We planned to come back at the end of the year,” Kylie admitted.
Akari nodded.
“Because we needed to find proper bonds for our children.”
“We know.”
Akari hesitated before continuing.
“And that brings me to what needs to happen next.”
She placed two small bundles of papers separately on the table beside Kylie's teacup.
“What are these?” Kylie asked as she picked up the closer of the two.
“Tamers looking for a bond. Both are well-established Tamers seeking a new Familiar. They're both here in Glenhaven, and they're both over Level 20.”
Kylie looked up sharply.
“Why would a Level 20 Tamer be willing to accept my son at Level 2?”
“They both already have a mainline Familiar. That's also the problem with them.”
Kylie's attention returned to the papers.
“They will only accept Ren's bond if he chooses a support class,” Akari explained. She pointed toward the documents in her sister's hands. “The one you're holding wants Ren to become a Cleric.”
Akari waited while Kylie read through the documents before reaching for the second bundle.
“That one needs a tank,” Akari said. “He's willing to have Ren trained with other teams of an appropriate rank until your son catches up to his level.”
“That's no good,” Kylie said immediately. “That's a terrible way to form a bond. They would practically be strangers.”
“I know. But that's all there is in the city.”
Akari waited a moment.
“There is one more choice.”
She removed a final set of papers.
“She is level-appropriate, and she comes from a prestigious family known for producing skilled Tamers.”
“Then why didn't you show me this one first?” Kylie complained.
“They live on the western shores of the Adria Sea.”
“That is where Ren will live and train if you accept this bond for your son.”
Kylie's hand had been reaching for the papers. It stopped, then pulled back as though the pages might burn her.
“Look at the name before you say no,” Akari suggested.
To her relief, Kylie did as she was asked.
Her eyes settled on the name.
“Riversong?”
Kylie looked up.
“That's—”
“The name of Kaien's former bond mate,” Akari finished.
Kylie immediately looked back down.
“Nerina?”
“His daughter, yes.”
Kylie stared at the papers.
“She's only Level 9. Does she even have the Wisdom points to make a bond?”
“Yes, she does. And she is, and I quote, eager to make a bond with the son of Kaien.”
Kylie's expression crumpled.
“She and her father had to be told to wait,” Akari continued. “We wanted your decision before we made them any promises.”
Kylie said nothing.
“This is what he would have wanted,” Kylie whispered.
“I think so too,” Akari agreed.
Akari let her have the moment before continuing. She didn't say anything as a few tears gathered in her sister's eyes.
“I need to hear you say it. I'm done trying to make choices for you without asking first.”
Kylie looked down at Nerina Riversong's papers again.
“You have already lost one child unexpectedly,” Akari said gently. “So I'll give you the night to think this through.”
“Tell them to come.”
There wasn't a moment of hesitation.
“I want to meet them.”
Akari leaned forward and gently placed a hand beneath her sister's face. With her thumb, she wiped away a tear as it started down her cheek.