Daelen’s story was enough to persuade Catriona to trust him at least to some extent. Still, she wasn’t done negotiating. All of her experience as an information trader came to fruition with this meeting. She revealed that the place he was looking for was overseas but would say no more unless he agreed to take her with him.
“Why would you ask such a thing?” the shadow warrior demanded, incredulously. “I can’t put you in danger like that!”
“I’m putting myself in danger,” she countered. “You’ve got nothing to do with it. If you refuse, I’ll simply find a way to go there by myself, but it makes more sense to go with you.”
Daelen did not immediately get to answer, as a storm flared up around them. As before, Cat knew it wasn’t natural. Daelen knew it, too, and both were on their feet instantly.
Out of a shimmering blue portal, flew Daelen’s dark clone. Cat had never seen him before, but now that she had, she understood why he was called that.
Catriona had some experience with the relatively new medium of photography. Only a few days ago, she’d enjoyed a day out in Gaggleswick with Dreya and they’d stopped at the newly refurbished studio, where they’d had a few photos taken together. In comparison to the ‘real’ Daelen, if one could call him that, his dark clone looked like a three dimensional photographic negative.
The dark clone landed, ready to confront Daelen.
“Hello, you!” he greeted them, in a cheery voice that was at odds with his sneering expression. “What’s this? Have you traded in Mr. Bony for a human pet? I can see why you would. She’s way prettier.”
“Actually, I’m half-Faery,” Catriona shot back.
“Really?” the clone remarked, drawing out the word. “Shouldn’t you have wings?”
Catriona wasn’t sure how much of the bile she felt rise up inside her, in response to the casual racial slur, came from herself and how much was transmitted from Dreya, via their sympathic link.
At first, Daelen couldn’t understand how his dark clone had managed to get the jump on him. Then the shadow warrior remembered his visitor from the future telling him about someone interfering in Time. It was why he’d been asleep in his other world when he should have been here. If this Time meddler had shut off the system that alerted him to Kullos’ activity, it made sense that alerts for his dark clone would also be disabled. His visitor had said it wasn’t Daelen’s fault, but the way he saw it, he had really screwed up this time.
Ordinarily, the village surrounding Justaria’s home was quiet, but already, the word was spreading about this confrontation and people were fleeing the scene.
Still, Catriona stood her ground. Dreya was in her head, offering to teleport her out of there, but Cat told her no. Having learned so much about Daelen, this was an opportunity to gather information about his dark clone. Then, just as Dreya returned to the background, another voice thundered into her mind.
‘Catriona,’ came the voice, ‘it’s me, Daelen. Sorry for barging through your defences. I promise I can’t and won’t read anything unless you project it to me, but I need your help. My clone loves the sound of his own voice – please keep him busy while I talk to you like this.’
‘Alright,’ Cat agreed.
Catriona could tell this connection was painful for him, and choosing to trust his good intentions, asked Pyrah to ease off on her barriers, but not take them down. After all, if Daelen could get in her mind with effort, his dark clone could, too, and Pyrah didn’t know if she could block both at the same time.
She gritted her teeth against the dark clone’s words and used them.
“No wings on me, I’m afraid. Speaking of which, can you fly around like him?” she asked, indicating Daelen.
“Of course, little pet,” he returned.
“Can I see? Please?” she begged. “I asked him, but he was all mean about it,” she pouted.
“Aww!” the clone remarked in mock sympathy. “Is my brother being mean to our little pet Faery? Don’t worry – I’m way nicer than him, and I’d be happy to show you how I fly.”
With that, he flew all over the place, as if it were the most impressive thing in the world.
‘Excellent, keep him busy,’ Daelen approved. ‘Listen, this shouldn’t have happened. This is all wrong. I’m always alerted before he appears so I can have Michael fighting at my side, but he’s still locked in his tomb.’
The dark clone got bored of flying, then, and landed once more. Catriona applauded with feigned enthusiasm as he took a bow.
“Any other requests, little pet?”
Cat was getting really sick of him calling her that, but kept a smile fixed on her face as she asked, “What’s your name?”
“My name?” The clone seemed thrown by the unexpected question.
“Yes, of course. Well, I can’t keep calling you ‘dark clone’ now, can I?”
“Little pet,” he replied with exaggerated patience. “My brother obviously hasn’t explained the word ‘clone.’ You see, we were split from the same being – Daelen. The original was Daelen, he’s Daelen, and I’m Daelen.”
‘If my clone and I fight all the way to Michael’s Tomb,’ Daelen continued in Catriona’s mind, ‘we’re going to leave a trail of devastation right across Elvaria.’
‘Can’t you teleport?’ Cat wondered.
‘Not with him here, we can block each other’s powers,’ Daelen explained. ‘That’s why I need Michael in the first place.’
Meanwhile, Cat kept up her performance for the clone, laughing self-deprecatingly.
“Oh, but that’s just too confusing for my poor little mortal brain. Why don’t I call you Nelead?”
“Nelead? What kind of a name is that?”
“It’s an anagram,” Cat clarified. “In fact, it’s Daelen in reverse, and you’re kind of the opposite of this Daelen, so I thought it kind of worked. Frankly, it’s either Nelead or Fred.”
“Call me Fred. No, wait, don’t call me Fred. Actually, I’m warming to your anagram idea, but I don’t like Nelead. Let me see, what could I use…”
He spent the next few minutes running through and rejecting various anagrams of Daelen, talking to himself and completely ignoring druidess and shadow warrior.
‘That should keep him busy.’ she told Daelen, mentally. ‘Pyrah’s willing to bite him if it will help.’
‘It wouldn’t stop him while he’s at full power, and if anything happened to her, he could ravage your mind in a second.’
‘So, you need me to get Michael for you? I have a friend who could teleport me there.’
‘The defences won’t let you pass without the right power signature,’ Daelen told her.
‘Actually, I have a sort of tool, a staff, that has higher planar energy inside it.’
The shadow warrior didn’t know how that was possible, but he didn’t waste time arguing. ‘Don’t bring it out in front of my clone.’
‘Wasn’t planning to,” she assured him, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. As if she’d casually wave her most precious possession around under the dark clone’s nose. She just wanted to know one thing. ‘Will it let me in?’
‘Maybe,’ Daelen allowed.
‘Maybe? We don’t have time for maybe. There must be a way to make sure I get in.’
“I’ve got it!” the dark clone declared, suddenly. “Aden-El!”
‘Really?’ Cat remarked in her head. ‘That’s what he’s going with?’
“Aden-El!” she enthused aloud. “That’s perfect!”
“You know what’s even perfecter?” Aden-El asked.
Cat shook her head.
“You can call me Aden for short.”
“Aden,” Catriona acknowledged. “I like that. Well, my name’s Catriona, but you can call me Cat for short.”
“Me-ow!” Aden quipped.
‘You never told me your nickname,’ Daelen complained, good-naturedly.
‘I just did,’ she shot back. ‘Any bright ideas, yet?’
‘There is one way, but there are risks to you. I can’t allow it.’
‘Not your call,’ she insisted. ‘Be clear. Be concise. Get out of my head for thirty seconds. I decide.’
*****
You will recall, gentle reader, how I told you shadow warriors Descended to the mortal plane by shedding those parts of themselves that couldn’t fit and leaving them safely back on their home plane. In much the same way, it was possible for him to temporarily keep a part of himself, his essence, inside a mortal’s body. If he did that with Catriona, the security surrounding Michael’s tomb would recognise that part of him and grant her full access, including the authority to wake Ossian Miach Kaidool.
*****
He had done it only once before, Daelen explained, seemingly distracted by the memory. Long ago, when he had a relationship with a mortal woman called Rose. Catriona even reminded him of her in some ways, although Rose had been quite a lot older…
‘Don’t care about your past girlfriends!’ Cat sniped, interrupting his reminiscence as she continued to engage Aden in a mixture of small talk and flattery. ‘Just tell me the risks. Quickly.’
Daelen snapped himself out of it. She was right, of course. He couldn’t imagine why he’d distracted himself with such thoughts at a time like this.
‘If you’re quick, it should be OK, but the longer you’re exposed, the greater the chances of serious complications.’
‘Like what?’
He answered her as best he could, telling her everything it could mean for her. As he quickly listed the potential consequences, her eyes grew wider and wider. When he was finished, Catriona swallowed, nervously, but quickly composed herself.
‘Thirty seconds.’ she insisted. ‘Out of my head. You promised.’
The instant he left her mind, she reached out to Dreya. Some of these complications could affect her, too.
In the end, though, Dreya simply projected ‘Support,’ telling Cat it was her choice, and she would back her either way. She could either agree to help Daelen or let Dreya teleport her away and leave the two shadow warriors to it.
“Are you alright…‘Cat’?” Aden asked with feigned concern. “You seem to have turned quite pale,” he continued, still with the most pleasant tone, sugar coating his poisonous words. “You’re not coming down with some disgusting Faery disease, are you, little pet?”
Catriona told Daelen her decision.
‘Do it. I can’t let anyone else’s home and family be destroyed like mine was.’ Besides, the chance to learn about a shadow warrior’s true nature was irresistible.
‘You’re sure?’
‘Completely. I know the risks, and I want to help. How do we do this?’
‘Just follow my lead.’
Speaking to his clone for the first time, Daelen told him, “I’ve had quite enough of you calling her that! She’s not ill – you’re upsetting her. Catriona is no-one’s pet. She’s my girlfriend!”
“Yeah,” Catriona nodded, “it feels like I’ve known him forever.”
‘Thank you, Cat,’ came Daelen's voice in her mind, ‘and I’m sorry about this. It’s the only way. This means nothing, it’s just what we planned, OK? It’s nothing more than that. I’m sorry. I swear, it means nothing.’
‘Do it,’ she insisted.
With that, he kissed her full on the lips, and she kissed him back with equal passion. When he broke the kiss, she was reeling from the multitude of unfamiliar sensations. There was a piece of Daelen StormTiger inside her, and she could feel it.
‘You’re sure that was nothing? It sure felt like something to me.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he repeated.
‘It’s OK,’ she assured him. ‘My choice, remember?’
Meanwhile, Aden looked ready to throw up.
“Yeurch!” He pulled a face at the sight. “That is truly disgusting. Snogging your pet? Kullos is right – it ought to be illegal, consorting with lower life forms. Thought you’d got it out of your system way back, but looks like you’ve had a relapse. Yeurch!”
Daelen powered up, apparently enraged. “How dare you speak about Cat like that! I’ll tear you apart!”
‘Cat, get ready to fly.’
Daelen pulled his beam cannon out of his pocket dimension and fired it at Aden, who shielded, quickly and powered up his own version, firing back.
‘Now! Go!’ Daelen shouted in Cat’s mind, who immediately shifted to her falcon form and took to the sky.
However, she couldn’t resist the urge to at least do something to Aden, after all she’d had to put up with.
Shifting back and standing on her Windy Steps, she fished a pebble out of a pouch and called out, “Hey, Aden!”
Glancing her way, he saw her repeatedly toss the stone in the air and catch it again.
“Let’s see if you can catch this while you’re flying! I’ll be so impressed if you can!”
“You’re going to throw a stone at me?” Aden scoffed. “What do you think that tiny thing’s going to do?”
“You’ve lost perspective, Aden!” Cat shouted back, throwing the pebble and asking the wind to guide it straight and true. “Far away things may look small, but when they get closer…” the stone grew into a boulder about the same size as Aden himself, “…they’re much, much bigger!”
She laughed as it slammed into him, but then, not being foolish enough to wait around for any retaliation, she retook her falcon form and flew away.
Daelen smiled. Her intervention distracted Aden – only for a moment, but it was enough for him to get on top in the fight. Hopefully, he would be able to keep his clone on the defensive and thereby minimise the damage to the local area.
“You see?” he grinned. “My new girlfriend’s amazing!”
*****
Cat flew only a short distance to the FaerWay Tavern. The name and winged sign rankled her even more after Aden’s remarks, but it was the nearest, best landmark for Dreya’s teleportation. Otherwise, they might waste more time trying to find each other in some other, less specific location. Dreya materialised just as Cat shapeshifted. She took her hand and, thanks to that physical contact, Dreya was able to teleport them both to a secluded spot, as close as possible to Michael’s Tomb, without setting off any defences.
Once there, Dreya handed Cat a map, showing the Rhynas Desert, overseas, as Catriona had thought, on the continent of Northern Alloria.
When Cat thanked her, Dreya simply shrugged. “It’s only a map.”
“You know I don’t mean just for the map. I mean for everything. For…you know.”
“I know, but I am going to ask for something in return.”
“Better be quick – Daelen needs Michael’s help.”
“It’ll only take a moment,” Dreya assured her. “I just want to propose something.”
“Didn’t our whole relationship start when I proposed to you?”
“It did,” Dreya agreed, “Now I’m asking you.”
“Propose away, then,” Cat invited her.
“Keep me a secret. Let me be a rumour, a story, nothing more. I’ll be the ace up your sleeve. I can strengthen our link so I can be at your side in a heartbeat wherever you are.”
“You make that sound so altruistic, Dreya,” Catriona remarked with a wry smile, “but I know you better than that.”
Dreya returned the smile. “Better than anyone, and I’ll keep nothing from you. You’ve convinced me to stay my hand for now, but I’m still not ruling it out.”
Cat understood. “If it comes down to it, surprise could be key, and you know I won’t stand in your way. Just please, give me as much time as you can to gather information.”
“Have you ever known me to be reckless?”
Cat laughed and shook her head. “Never. That’s more my thing. Alright, my answer to your proposal is ‘yes.’ I promise. From now on, until the time is right, you’re my little secret. Actually,” she considered with a mischievous grin, “I think I kind of like that.”
“Shall we seal it with magic, then?” Dreya asked.
“Absolutely,” Cat agreed.
The word had barely left her lips before Dreya stepped forward and kissed them. Catriona returned the kiss, tenderly at first, then with increasing passion.
Cat thought back to the first time they had done this. The night she lost Mandalee. She had been devastated, inconsolable. It was all her fault.
*****
Dreya was a revelation. Cat’s feelings had already started to surface, and she’d begun to realise how Dreya felt, too. The way she expressed it was unconventional and not everyone would understand, but that didn’t matter. That night, once Cat began to calm down and recover, they had shared something special, sharing not just their magic, but their bodies, too. That was the first time Catriona had seen the Faery woman beneath the robes, and a million things about her suddenly made sense.
There on her back, were a pair of tiny, vestigial wings.
Growing up with the Faery, Catriona knew that prejudice was not a uniquely human trait. Faery such as Dreya always took great pains to hide their wings – literally, because strapping them down was painful. Most modern Faery claimed to consider it barbaric, but still, if anyone ever found out, such individuals were often the object of scorn, bullying and discrimination. Therefore, they might well choose the pain of the strapping over the pain of rejection.
While Dreya never talked about her childhood, Cat could guess how it must have been. The stares, the comments, perhaps even violence. All of which the child Dreya had been powerless to stop. It was beyond her control. But the child had magic, and as the child grew up, she swore she would never be powerless again. She would be the Greatest Mage Who Ever Lived, and she would be in control of her life. Always.
“You are beautiful, Dreya,” Cat had told her. “All of you, everything about you is absolutely beautiful.”
“Flesh is fleeting,” Dreya insisted, “magic is all.”
“No, it’s not,” Cat disagreed. “Actually, I think a balance of the two is just about perfect.”
“With you here, I think you might be right,” Dreya accepted.
*****
That night was beyond anything either woman had ever experienced before. And after what they had agreed today, it would likely be some time before they experienced it again. This kiss would just have to sustain them both until then.
But this kiss wasn’t just a kiss. It was a kiss that sealed the binding magic, ensuring the promise could not be broken, except with another kiss to release her from it. From this moment, Cat would find ways to hide any hint of their relationship. Until they could meet again.
After a moment, the magic subsided, and they broke the kiss.
“How was that for you?” Dreya inquired.
“Magical!”
“And how did mine compare to the other one?”
Cat made a dismissive noise. “Pfft! The other one? That was just an essence transfer. It meant nothing.”
With one last, brief embrace, Cat took off towards Michael’s Tomb, and Dreya teleported back to the Black Tower.