Chapter 14

the Magic War part 1: A New Hope

Osa is cuddled closely to Amy as they lie in a patch of grass in a clearing deep in the woods. The contrast of Amy’s pale skin resting against Osa’s dark skin and surrounded by vibrant green grass paints a dazzling picture in their minds. They are sweaty, and their bodies stick together after a long and passionate session of rubbing their bodies against one another and licking and kissing each other’s most sensitive places. Now, they talk of strategy as they make plans for a counterattack against Prince Rindell and his army of monsters that continues to savagely assault all the known lands in search of anyone with magic talent. In the dream realm they share, time flows slower than in the waking world. An hour of real-time sleep can be a day of unending passion. But even the dreamscape that their minds create when Osa eats one of the flower petals eventually comes to an end.

Osa wakes up in her bed, cuddled around a 5.15 kg egg that she had given birth to just two months earlier. The result of the dragon’s breeding with her. His magic being stronger than hers resulted in his sperm penetrating her magical barrier she used to protect herself from unwanted pregnancy. A secondary effect of the breeding and bonding process is that she now has limited control over fire and a psychic bond to her unhatched offspring. She gets up and gets dressed, then, placing her hand on the egg, uses her empathy on the unhatched dragon, so she sends thoughts of love and desire to her dragon child.

Osa thinks back on that first week when she had to bless the marriage of her brother, Adunbi, and his wife, Quivina. After making them abstain since the day she returned, Osa led her brother and his new wife to the sacred grove. They walked, naked, into the grove. Osa, covered in honey and gold flakes, carried a small statue of Oshun, Adunbi carried two candles, and Quivina carried six sunflowers. The grove was not large, but it was perhaps the most beautiful place Osa could imagine. The forest floor and the dirt path gave way to gently rounded stone, covered in a carpet of moss so thick that Osa felt like she was walking across every fine rug in the village, piled into one luxurious heap. The grove was very nearly enclosed by trees, small ones and large, of all different kinds, growing unnaturally close together until their trunks and limbs formed solid walls of bark and leaves. The canopy overhead was close as well, branches weaving between branches, every leaf on them huge and perfectly formed. No disease or insect could touch anything that grew here.

Somehow, the starlight grew as it filtered through the leaves, becoming something silvery-green, ethereal, and enchanting. It seemed to have no source, casting no shadows and lighting every part of the grove equally. When Osa looked over at Adunbi and Quivina, they almost seemed to glow, as if the light shone from them just as much as it shone from every surface in the grove.

It was warm as well, despite the cool night in the world outside. All around them, there was a feeling of peace and an ineffable quiet grace. Osa set the Oshun statue on the far side of the circle; she then took the candles from Adunbi and sat them down so as to make a triangle with the statue, then used her new flame magic to light them. She then took the sunflowers and placed them in a circular pattern around a raised section in the center, on which she stood when she was done.