Chapter 8

ROYAL SPARTAN ESTATE

FERAVOMIR'S RESIDENCE

"So tell me child, how does it feel being Androcles Leonidas's Soulmate?" Helen asked as she bent over and lifted the small watering can and poured some small amounts of water into the row of incredible blue and purple flowers, "The one who holds his very essence."

Sadi stood just behind her admiring the rows upon rows of multicolored flowers that adorned the rear of Helen's villa. Her home was spacious and only one level like the rest of the buildings on the estate, but it was comfortably furnished and it was all hers. The bright awning covered patio was large and lined with flowers and plants from half a dozen different worlds that Sadi could determine just from first glance.

Helen had refused vehemently when Martin had ordered this villa built just for her only three hundred meters from the main house. Her argument was that he and his Queens needed their peace and solitude at times and having her so close would only intrude upon that. He and his Queens had won out in the end however, and now Helen felt more peace and serenity than she had ever felt when she was here among the pines and flowers. She decided Martin had known this was how she would feel and that is why he had this home especially built with her in mind. There were many rooms she almost never used, but he had included a large meditation chamber and equally large kitchen for her to practice and refine her already extensive culinary skills. They were skills that Helen loved to explore to escape her role and duties as the First Oracle of their people. She had spent many hours with Gallais here in her kitchen as they had developed and created new foods and dishes, as well as improve old ones. All of the items that she had kept hidden in her cave were now displayed for all to see, some of them dating back nearly four thousand years, even past the time of Martin's father. The patio area of her villa was covered with a sturdy wooden awning that was draped with blooming vines of yellow and pink flowers and the myriad scents filled Sadi's head.

"I think I am still trying to wrap my hands around it." Sadi answered finally. "It ... it all happened so very quickly Feravomir. I don't ... I don't think it's possible to put it into words really."

Helen stood back up and turned to look at her. "Did it happen quickly? Or does it just seem that way because you have been waiting so long for this very thing to be. Now that you have it, you don't know what to do because you have found what you have been searching for all these years."

"What do you mean?" Sadi asked.

"Sadi, have you ever stopped to consider that perhaps everything that has happened in these last years is preordained somehow?" Helen asked looking at her. "Our people were very spiritual once upon a time. Violent yes, but very spiritual." She told her with a wise smile. "We believed there was a purpose to all things happening. The events of your life have brought you full circle Sadi Leonidas. Perhaps the road you walked was laid before you a long time prior to you ever being born."

"Are you saying that even before I was born, even when I was a small child, that I was meant for Andro somehow?" She asked her face puzzled and confused but inwardly rejoicing at those words.

Helen shrugged noncommittally. "You tell me." She said. "When you conducted the Gravinolfgreksaan, did you or Andro stop to look at the moon and see that it was Vada Assirina Cormunn? Or did it happen instinctually, without any conscious thought; as if some instinct was guiding your actions." She settled to the bench and patted the stone top next to her signaling for Sadi to sit down.

Sadi didn't hesitate and moved to sit beside her. This woman had been a guiding force in her life after the events on the Island Palace and Sadi had come to look at her as the mother she never had. "It just happen Feravomir. Something inside me, inside us, that something inside us ... that instinct said to do it."

Helen nodded her head. "No doubt the same instinct in Andro triggered as well. It was identical for his father and Aricia you know, as it was for King Resumar and Eliani. You do not plan to become Anomes Sadi, and it only truly happens to those who are meant to be together. I believe the only one outside of the King and Andro to have found their true Soulmate is Daniel Simpson. He and Anuk were meant to be together long before they ever actually met, and probably long before the comet ever came to this planet. Perhaps because of how closely tied together Daniel and Martin are and the path he has played and continues to play in the future, as well as that of his children. For it to happen, your blood must call out for each other in a way it normally does not. Not everyone finds their Soulmates Sadi. In fact, the majority does not ... but that does not mean they do not love those they are with completely."

"I don't question that I am Andro's Soulmate Feravomir." She stated. "I relish it more than I can ever put into words. What he makes me feel, it is beyond anything I could have ever imagined. And when we ... when we join our minds, it is indescribable."

Helen smiled as she looked at her. "That is good, because the scuttlebutt around Sparta among the older generations is that you remind them of Gorgo in your demeanor and how you treat others, excluding your beautiful blond hair of course. That is very high praise considering who I am hearing it from."

"Being compared to Lady Gorgo is the ultimate compliment and honor I could receive Feravomir." Sadi said with some embarrassment. "Though I don't believe I will ever come close to accomplishing what she has in her lifetime so far."

Helen grinned. "You never know." She said with a glint in her eye. "I knew you were special the moment you came to my school Sadi." Helen spoke. "And not just because Elynth and Andro had touched you. You already had the ability inside of you child because of the pureness of your blood, you were just never guided on how to use it. I had initially hoped you would stay on and perhaps take on the role of an Oracle but when I saw what was in your heart, I knew you were to walk another path." Helen laughed. "Forgive me I am becoming overly philosophical in my old age."

Sadi chuckled. "Do I walk that path now Feravomir?" She asked after a moment, "Now that I am together with Andro?"

Helen met her eyes. "Do you?" She asked. "You know, Androcles will one day surpass his father in what he can do Sadi, and Martin Leonidas is perhaps the most incredibly powerful Mindvoicer Canth and I have ever had the experience of knowing. And yes, I still speak to Canth even though he is gone. He is as much a part of me now as my own self." She said with a smile. "Most would consider me crazy for saying that."

Sadi smiled. "After experiencing what you have in your life Feravomir, crazy is not a word I would attribute to you."

Helen chuckled. "Spend as much time as I have around this family and you might start to rethink that position."

Sadi met her soft laugh with a smile of her own. "You are not the only one to have said that."

"You know of course that Androcles became aware while still in Aricia's womb?" Helen said taking her hand.

Sadi nodded. "Yes."

"He knew and understood all that was happening around him and he used Elynth as his conduit. It is something that none of us can explain, nor have we ever been able to determine how it happened. That is what allowed him to reach out to you as he did that night on the Island. You are the only person he has ever done that with child." Helen spoke softly. "He is wise beyond his years, though there are times when he tends to let his father's passion for things override his own feelings. You were the first and most important step Sadi; the first step in Androcles finding his very own path in this life. You have a piece of him; you will see a piece of him that no one ever will. Not even his father. He and Elynth will accomplish great things together in the future and you will be beside them in those achievements for you are now part of them."

Sadi nodded slowly as she looked at her. "I can feel the influence and power of their bond all of the time now. I felt it then as well, on the island when he spoke to me as a child. It sweeps through me even now, stronger than ever Feravomir, encompassing me. It is glorious to be honest."

"I don't doubt that, you are part of them now. The joy their bond brings them they will naturally share with you. You had enormous potential when you came to me Sadi." Helen spoke looking at her. "On your own and with the proper schooling, you would have become nearly as powerful as Aricia now is, and she is still growing in many respects for she is not that much older than you. Your skills and abilities will grow quickly now that you and Andro have come together and you must be prepared for that Sadi."

Sadi nodded her head. "I have felt my awareness expand Feravomir. Far beyond anything I have known up until now. I can feel the strength and focus flowing through me like never before."

Helen's eyes smiled at her. "And it will continue to grow and expand." Her dark eyes twinkled in the sunlight that reached through the awning overhead. "Yet you are here now because you and Andro are feeling as if you are not yet complete somehow. You and Andro are wondering why you have been feeling this way these last two days. Why you are feeling it even now? It stems from this young woman you both have recently met, doesn't it?"

Sadi grinned and shook her head. "I truly hate it that you can do that. You know what others will say or what they want before they do, even when I studied under you." She said with humor in her voice. "It is so eerie."

Helen laughed and took her hand tighter, squeezing it. "This young woman, Carisia is her name I believe. And Anthar is her dragon. She is what brings you here now?"

Sadi nodded. "Andro..."

"Sadi you and Andro are Anomes. You speak with one voice child. You do not need to refer to him in the third person any longer. When you speak ... he speaks. It is no different with Martin and Aricia, and I truly do not want to spend ten years pounding it into your skulls as I had to do with theirs. They were so very obstinate at times."

Sadi looked at her and couldn't help but laugh. She nodded her head after a moment. "She affects us in a way we have never felt. When we are in her presence, separately or together, we both feel it. It happened with me yesterday when I saw her in a shop in Sparta, and then last night when we were together at Gallais's Retreat. It happened again today when Andro was with her at the airfield."

"And what does she make you feel?" Helen asked.

Sadi met her eyes evenly. "She makes us feel whole." She answered. "It is ... it is so very strange. After ... after we conducted the Gravinolfgreksaan, the sense of oneness Andro and I felt just lying in each other's arms, it was glorious Feravomir."

Helen nodded. "No doubt."

"But with her, with Carisia, it is different. We were so very happy that we had finally found one another that we missed it." Sadi spoke shaking her head, "The void that is still there. We feel potent and more cognizant in her presence. And we can feel the same perceptions coming from her as well. It ... it is almost as if we have found a long lost gem that fits into a much larger jewel somehow. Finishing it and making it whole again." Sadi looked at her. "She fills that void."

"So she completes you both?" Helen asked.

"Feravomir we don't know her." Sadi said softly.

Helen smiled gently. "Your eyes, your heart and your voice tell me different Sadi. You have seen her before. Both of you have."

Sadi nodded slowly, "In our dreams Feravomir." She said finally.

"And dreams are the windows to our souls Sadi." Helen spoke. "What you feel ... what you both feel ... it is not wrong child."

"But Andro and I are Anomes." Sadi spoke meeting her eyes. "How could ... how could both of us feel the same thing for someone we don't even know? Someone we have never met? And feel it in such a unique way; with such power and clarity? We should only feel this for each other. Shouldn't we?"

"She has been in your dreams." Helen said calmly. "Tell me, in your dreams, have they been separate? Are you and she together or her and Andro? Or are the three of you always together?"

Sadi shook her head, not at all put out by the intimate nature of the question, at least not with this woman who she had shared so much over the years. "They may start out that way, but we always end up together without fail Feravomir. They are..." She said softly, almost as if she was embarrassed to admit something.

"Tell me." Helen said squeezing her hand.

"They are such exquisite dreams Feravomir." Sadi said gently with a smile. "It is almost as if I can feel what is happening in the dream; her touch and her scent. Her scent is like sweet rose petals that have freshly bloomed. And we always end up together."

"Like Soulmates." Helen said softly.

Sadi's jungle green eyes grew wide and she looked at her. "Feravomir ... how ... how could she be our Soulmate? I ... I thought it was ... that it could only be two. Andro and I have found each other already."

Helen nodded her head. "Yes you have, but like the pieces of any puzzle, the puzzle is not complete until all the pieces are together."

"Feravomir she is a vampire." Sadi said quickly. "She is a ranking member of the High Coven."

"Yes she is." Helen answered evenly. "And so is Bella ... so is Nyla ... and so many others who have a deep and abiding love for whoever they are with. This fact matters why? Do you see an enemy when you look at her? When you feel her coursing through your being, do you feel an enemy? Does Andro?"

Sadi shook her head quickly. "No."

Helen met her eyes. "Vampire or wolf or elves, all life Sadi, we all have souls. How we live our lives will dictate who we are inside Sadi, you know that better than most."

"So ... so what do we do?" She asked. "It ... it only grows stronger each time we see her Feravomir."

Helen shook her head. "I cannot tell you what to do Sadi, you or Andro. I can only guide you and hope I guide you in the correct direction."

"Then guide us Feravomir." Sadi said quickly. "Do ... do we pursue what she makes us feel?"

"That she is a woman does not deter you or alter your perceptions of her?" Helen asked her. "Based on what you have said, if you pursue this course, you would be sharing her with Androcles. Your Anome. Is that something you can handle?"

Sadi shook her head quickly. "I ... I have experienced such a relationship before with Teeria." She answered. "It was brief but very intense. It is not something I have searched for Feravomir but it is not something I will dismiss out of hand. As for sharing Andro with her, if she is meant to be with us, meant to be part of our lives as you suggest is possible, I cannot just dismiss that. Not with the strength of the emotion that apparently is there between us and certainly not if she is meant to complete us. What if she is meant to be both our Soulmates? We can not turn away from that."

"You would not feel this way if there was not something there Sadi." Helen spoke looking at her. "I believe, and this is only my opinion mind you, I believe it was meant to be this way long before Andro or you were even born as I said earlier. That is why what you feel for each other is so very powerful and pure. That does not mean however, that there is not meant to be others in your lives as well."

"Others?" Sadi gasped in shocked.

Helen nodded. "Yes ... others. One never knows what will happen or why. Is Carisia meant to be sharing your lives with you, even as you and Andro share everything now? Are there meant to be others? Do you explore this, or do you let it pass and always wonder why it is you felt these things? Why that void is always there? That is a decision the three of you have to make but always remember the rule by which the King has lived the vast majority of his life."

Sadi nodded slowly. "Never fear the unknown or the treasures it could bring you." Sadi looked at her for a long moment before finally rising to her feet. "Thank you Feravomir." She stated.

Helen got up and took Sadi's hands in hers. "I am always available to you Sadi Leonidas, no matter the topic. You are a powerful woman Sadi and now that you and Andro have come together, your abilities will only grow stronger as I have said." She said with a smile. "I only hope you will take me up on the offer."

Sadi smiled at her words and finally told her what she had always wanted to tell her. "I have no mother Feravomir. You have been the closest thing to a mother for me, more than I have ever known. I will always come to you." She said with sincere honesty and warmth.

Helen nodded and smiled. "And do drag that strapping young man back with you!" Helen said. "He still has many things to learn and absorb. I can't teach him if he is off gallivanting across the planet and the stars training members of the High Coven. He needs to make time to be here as well."

Sadi nodded with her own smile. "He told me about that." She said.

"I have been trying to pass on different skills to both him and his father." Helen told her. "They have been using their abilities to augment their already impressive physical skills and it is time they learned to do more. And so should you."

"I will insure he comes very soon Feravomir." Sadi spoke.

"Good ... for now you both will need to come." Helen said reaching up to touch her soft cheek. "And perhaps one day there will be three of you, or more. Like I said, who is to say? This Carisia, she is nearly as strong as you and Andro and there is strength and wisdom in numbers you know. I sense that she knows what it is she wants, yet she has a fear that should not be hers. These are things you will need to help her with if you decide to go down that path." Helen squeezed her hands tightly and pulled her closer. "If you decide on this Sadi ... if it feels right in every way ... don't hesitate ... don't think ... grab onto it and never let go. You have far more influence over Andro now than even his father. He is old fashion in many respects and he will resist because he thinks you will want him to resist, no matter what you both feel. Make sure he understands that you do not fear what could happen if you both choose that path."

Sadi nodded and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "I must return to the villa and prepare for my first State Dinner as Crown Princess." She said with an embarrassed smile. "I don't know whether to be excited or nervous."

Helen laughed. "You will do fine child. Andro hates these things perhaps more than his father. He will shield you from most of the annoying men and women. I will see you there tonight as well." She released Sadi's hands and watched as she made her way back into the house and towards the entrance. She turned slowly and looked at her rows of flowers, taking a long deep breath and exhaling slowly as she calmed herself.

"It is beginning." She said softly.

We knew this day would come eventually. The male voice spoke in reply inside her mind like the whispering of the winds through the pines.

"Will it be enough Canth?" She asked softly.

Only time will tell Dustha. Only time will tell. The male voice filled her head as she looked up into the sky at the bright sunshine. It is a start however. Androcles is very much like his father and grandfather, but he is more like Resumar than either of them and that is our advantage. He has taken the best of all three and blended them into one person Dustha. We can not hope to stop what is coming, but it will be the defining moment for all of them. Androcles especially. We must trust in what you and his parents have taught him and all their children. What you continue to teach them. You have accomplished far more than even I could have dreamed in teaching both of them Dustha. Trust in that training and be there for them when they come to you for council. And they will come to you Dustha.

"I thought we would have more time." Helen said.

The first son's existence has changed events. Canth spoke. We must adapt and respond or all will be lost.

"I hope you are right." Helen said. "I hope you are right."

HAIGOS CENTER

DURCUNUSAAN TRAINING FACILITY

Malic stepped through the doorway into Star Colonel Isra's office. He wore the standard Durcunusaan uniform and had just been summoned from a training class. The hours of the last few days had been crammed with learning new skills and procedures, as well as several tests. Malic detested tests and he knew he was not a good student. He hated any kind of academics and always had, perhaps because he was never very good at retaining what he was taught. His skills had been always oriented to the physical portion of his duties, duties which he excelled at.

Malic looked around the empty office taking in the comfortable but not extravagant furniture that was positioned all around. There were very few who did not know who Colonel Isra was, or what he had accomplished in his career as a Spartan and member of Mjolnir's Hand. He was widely considered one of the top five of the Bonded Pairs within the Union and his exploits with his dragon Aelnala in the last twenty-five years were well documented. He and Prince Androcles were the only members of Mjolnir's Hand to be awarded the Shield of Valor during the Evolli War, yet it was his political skills that garnered the most attention. Beside his two mates, Colonel Isra had brokered four major trade deals and welcomed two new member planets into the Union. He was the only one of those men and women rescued from Enurrua that had opted to enter the Union military, mainly because the first day he and Aelnala had met and discovered each other, their path was set. He was also well known and utterly respected by all dragons within the Union for the celebration and party he had thrown for his Bonded Sister when she and Queen Anja's dragon Miath had mated. The celebration had lasted for two days and was the talk of Sparta and Tuya for weeks afterwards from what Malic heard. It was said Colonel Isra was almost as happy for Aelnala as she had been for herself. Though an injury prevented Aelnala from carrying eggs, she and Miath were the first to come forward and volunteer to raise the three eggs that Aelnala and Isra had saved the day they met. Those three dragons were now grown and two of them, while not members of Mjolnir's Hand, were among the nearly thousand Bonded Pairs that called the Union home.

Malic stepped around to the wall and gazed at the many holo images that Colonel Isra had displayed around the office. Most of them were of his two mates and the six children he had, the rest were images of Aelnala and Miath as well as the King and Aricia. It was said that Colonel Isra was one of only a handful that could walk onto the Spartan Royal Estate totally uncontested and speak directly with the King.

Malic heard shuffling feet and turned quickly when the diminutive Drow elf female came through the wide double doors across the office on the far wall. They were doors that were large enough to fit even the King's dragon Torma if Malic was any judge of size. The Drow female pulled up short when she saw him, her amber colored eyes confused.

Aihola lowered the bundle she held in her arms as she looked at the tall Spartan. Her shimmering white hair tumbled down around her shoulders, framing dark features that were exceptionally exotic to look at. Malic knew right away who she was and he also knew she was half vampire and one of those that his father had spoken of in a derogatory nature over the years. His father considered anyone who was not an officer and member of the Fleet, especially vampires, to be beneath him. He thought all the ground troops were nothing but brutes, and those who flew on dragons to be the worst of them. Vice President of the Union Aihola was nearly as well known as Colonel Isra, and her history and that of the Drow elves within the Union was one of the most sought after history classes among both Fleet Academy students and students from the many universities that dotted the Union.

"Madam Vice President." Malic spoke formally bowing his head in a show of respect to her position.

Aihola smiled at him and set the bundle on the chair as she came further into Isra's office. "Hello ... I'm not sure I know you."

Aihola's half vampire and half wolf ears detected Roluth lifting off once more to take Tarifa to the Senate Building and her office. Though more than twenty-five years had passed since her new life had begun, Aihola blessed the morning sun every day for what fate had brought her. She was the child of a vampire father and the Drow elf Queen; her father turned into a vampire by the hated witch Yuri during her many years of experimentation on the Drow people. Many of the experiments performed on her people were of a sexually deviant nature once it was determined that they were not the soldiers the Coven had been trying to create. It had been Tarifa and Dysea who had set Aihola on the path she currently followed, and without them and Anja she would never have rid herself of her affliction. She would never have discovered the love she and Tarifa shared, and together they would never have found the man who had so claimed their hearts.

Aihola and Tarifa's love for one another and their combined love for the violet eyed Spartan warrior who rode a dragon was the basis for the content of dozens of romance novels written and sold throughout the entire Union. She and Tarifa thought them gaudy and quite unrealistic while Isra only laughed and loved them even more fiercely than he already did. They had six beautiful and strong children with Isra, and Aihola had long ago accepted the fact that when either she or Tarifa spoke, it was with one voice.

"I am Enomotarch Malic Ma'am." He replied quickly meeting the gaze of her eyes, which were absolutely incredible to look at. The light danced in the corneas of her amber eyes and made her seem more animated and alive. Half vampire or not, her long, silky like white hair combined with her amber colored eyes and what was obviously an incredibly shapely figure made this elven female exceptionally attractive, even to him.

And that surprised Malic.

"I arrived at the beginning of this week." He finished speaking as he brought his mind back to the present.

"Ah ... studying to become a Durcunusaan I see." Aihola stated as she walked around Isra's desk as she had done thousands of times in the past years to the low counter behind his chair where she poured herself a steaming mug of tea from the ever present carafe that Isra always had in his office.

"Yes ma'am. And then I intend to ride a dragon as a member of Mjolnir's Hand," Malic stated proudly and pulling himself to his full height of six foot two.

Aihola looked at him with a smile as she sipped her mug and turned back to face him. "Very lofty goals Enomotarch Malic," Aihola spoke confidently. "I commend you."

"You ... you are bonded to a dragon as well, are you not Madam Vice President?" Malic asked stepping closer and finding her voice soothing in some manner.

Aihola nodded. "Tarifa and I both," She answered. "It's been twenty-five years now that we have been bonded to Roluth and the feelings and sensations that fill us everyday have never faded. We ride as often as we can."

Malic's eyes narrowed somewhat. "You ... you are bonded to the same dragon?" He asked somewhat taken aback at this knowledge.

Aihola nodded. "Yes."

"I ... I did not think that was possible." Malic said.

Aihola chuckled at his confused look for it was something both she and Tarifa had dealt with in the past. "Tarifa and I share a unique bond with each other. We fell in love before the Battle for Earth. During that battle I was injured badly. Tarifa saved me by allowing me to take her blood to heal my wounds. It formed a very powerful Mindvoice bond between us, a bond that only grew in strength when Isra came into our lives. Our love is as strong now as it was when we first discovered each other. Over the years together it has blended our minds and consciousnesses together. We are essentially one person and that allowed us to bond with Roluth together."

Malic allowed himself to breathe deeply and he detected the peach scent wafting from her, as well as the wild cheery blossom scent that was her own. It was very hard to miss the spicy smell of deep timber that permeated her entire being, and Malic knew that scent belonged to Colonel Isra. The three scents were entwined more deeply than he thought they could be considering she was half vampire, but then he detected the smell of the wolf in her blood and realized that some of her elven genes had been turned to that of a wolf.