Chapter 23

It was a rowdy crowd at Marx’s house that night.

When you have a family as large as the Picton family, it guarantees a large crowd. Celebrating the return of three missing members was also a good excuse for a party.

It was just as well that Max senior had built a large, covered patio area out the back of the house to accommodate the family when they had the odd get-together. He had built several large grills, and long, serving tables were placed down two sides of the inner seating area.

If the weather was good, the people could spread out into the garden if they just wished to stand around and talk. Since it was springtime, the weather could be unpredictable, but it wasn’t a problem that night.

David and Blair had fun catching up with another Earthman. They were gratified to learn that the Japs had been defeated and Timor was not under their control anymore.

They were saddened to hear that while the Allies had won the war, there had been other wars that had taken place since that fellow Australians had died in.

They weren’t worried about hearing of technologies way beyond their understanding. They never expected to go back to Earth as it was. Jax was saddened that she had ripped them from their homes, but the boys simply hugged her and said that she was their home.

Larry said that he missed his wife Denise, but he had also accepted that she would have moved on if she believed he had died when his plane went down. While they had been close, they weren’t the perfect couple.

She hadn’t always been happy to help him fill his odd needs. Since he had been changed, he was a much happier man. He smiled as he looked over at the brothers who had become his lovers. He also knew that since they all now wore magical items, they would need each other even more.

Jax’s soft chuckle had him grinning as he was quite sure she knew what he had been thinking. While he’d not had a magical book to help him, he did find people who aided him and told him a lot about the needs of magical people.

He now knew that the brothers being magical was why they had gravitated towards each other. The fact all three of them loved changing gender made them very compatible.

While the brothers didn’t like to couple, they were happy to share him. He knew interesting times were ahead for the three of them and wondered if they could find a fourth to even things out for the brothers.

“So, Jax, why did you say I should go to the Sister Islands?”

Blair blinked and said, “The man you seek is there. Um, I get this picture of huge ants?”

“So, Gazza is on Ant Island?” Larry asked.

“Yes. Um, someone else would be happy to know that you are here. Oddly, I get a picture of a big black dog. I think that he is a relative of yours and the man you seek. That’s it,” Blair said with a grin.

“Psychic Mage, huh?” Larry commented.

“I have my moments,” Blair grinned.

They stayed for another week.

Mostly it was to hold classes for the new mages and novices. Blair and David were surprised by just how much magic they did without thinking. They also realised they didn’t always use the same spells to do similar things.

It was a fun time for all the new magical people. The Nix had also gotten in on the act as they had their own methods of doing some very basic magic. Jax had retrieved them from the ship at their request. The Nix had settled into Marx’s house with little fanfare.

The kids loved the Nix, and Jax was sure the feelings were reciprocated. They had all helped the Nix furnish a large house inside the huge tri-trunked, beernut tree in Marx’s large back yard. It was the only beernut tree they knew of on the island and had always been there.

Jax had hollowed out several rooms for the Nix in each of the different trunks and provided hidden doors at different heights for them to use. Jax never mentioned the special room she made inside the tree.

The nursery had a little shield over the doorway that the Nix could fly through, but their grubs couldn’t escape. She had hung two large crystals in the room that pleased the Nix. She had also made small copper light sconces and used tiny crystals to provide lighting for them in the other rooms.

David had even put one of his Hyrodenzer soaked crystals into their sacred fire holder in their main living room. The team had also shielded the backyard around the tree so predators and people wishing to harm the Nix couldn’t access the area.

The Nix were there to stay. The urge to lay their eggs had come upon them.