 
True Majik

By

Sheena Bandy

Copyright 2006 Sheena Bandy

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

## Chapter 1

In a matter of hours, Maji would be a virgin sacrifice. They picked out one newcomer each year, one who'd never done ritual magic, to tribute for the city's prosperity. The first time for her blood to spill on the altar and she would belong to the spirits forever. She listened to the crickets chirping outside.

'Is it worth it?'

She crawled out of bed, pushed her nightshirt back down from where it had ridden up throughout the night, and ambled over to the window. The night air was still cool but had lost most of its chill from spring.

Maji could see the city's halo through her window of her cabin near the sanctum. There had been many virgin women who'd taken the knife before her. The city had grown tall into the sky and the people had become more cynical.

A precious few still believed in the rites that had brought them such good fortune. It would be a thankless and probably unnecessary ritual. She was only here for the monetary reward anyway.

'Back out.' a voice in her head offered.

Maji crawled back between the covers and traced her fingers along her unblemished stomach. It would be covered in a telling scar soon, like the bodies of all the other women who'd made the sacrifice before her. A tattoo but more painful.

'Is it worth it?' She asked herself as she slowly drifted off to sleep again.

The alarm went off and Maji sat upright in bed. She turned it off and gave a good scratch to the healing sunburn on her scalp. She had given herself plenty time this morning to prepare for the ceremony, roughly four hours. When the time came, she would be led into the Circle and placed on the altar in front of the coven that founded New Salem.

'I hope it doesn't hurt too much.' She thought to herself before plopping back into the pillows. Who was she kidding? She was gonna lose it in front of everyone. She had been so ready for this a few days ago. Why did she have to get cold feet now? She sighed and rolled over, pulling the sheets around her. It wouldn't hurt to stay in bed just a little while longer. She could think just as well there as she could sitting on the porch swing or at the bar in the parlor.

"Marjorie! Wake up!" came a frantic echo through her sleepy haze, "Yer gonna be late!"

Maji fell from the bed and ran straight into the shower, tripping on the mat and tumbling into the tile wall. She turned on the tap and washed as quickly as she could in the still cold water. She pulled the shampoo from the showerhead basket and poured some in her hand. She skipped the conditioner and turned toward the spray of water, washing the soap off. The priest wouldn't care either way but she cared. A lot.

When Maji got out of the shower, she dried herself off and walked into the living room. Jakob waved to her and led the way to the Circle.

'It's worth it. It's worth it. It is worth it.' Maji silently chanted to herself. It wasn't working. She saw the gathering around the circle waiting for her.

"You'll do fine." Jakob said over his shoulder. The way he said it, it sounded more like

"Try to keep up." Maji breathed deep and walked up to the altar.

The altar was cold despite the early summer sun. She reached out and was given a quick squeeze to her hand.

The chatter around the circle wasn't as distracting as she'd hoped it would be. And it started to quiet down the closer they came to the ceremony. It had become a countdown of sorts. She squeezed the hand that held hers and waited.

She rolled her head back on the stone altar. She was ready to be cut open already. She wondered how the others could make this look easy. Of course, the ones she'd seen had been experienced. She was a Virgin Sacrifice. She had never been sacrificed before.

"It won't be long, now." Jakob said. She followed his gaze and saw the priest coming toward the Circle.

'Oh God.'

"You'll be fine."

The priest approached the altar and looked Maji over. Looking for doubts, she guessed. He nodded and took the tools from the table behind him. In his left hand, he held a silver goblet, and in the right hand, he held a crystal knife. She'd heard that it would hurt.

Seeing the knife in the priest's hand, she didn't doubt it. She leaned her head back and calmed her breathing. If she panicked, she'd bleed more.

Several members of the crowd started yelling encouragement. They couldn't know they were making it worse. The priest held up his right hand, knife shining in the sunlight, and signaled for quiet.

She took several deep breaths and forced her body to relax. The priest wouldn't be aiming to hurt her, right?

Wrong.

Maji threw her head back in agony as she felt the blade ripping through the flesh of her stomach. The stream of blood ran down her side and into the goblet. She may have blacked out for a moment, but soon a bandage was applied.

She saw the priest step away with the goblet held against the sky.

"Our city will be prosperous for another year!" The priest proclaimed. The crowd began to cheer. Maji looked at Jakob, who had not left her side, and at the man who was holding her hand. She realized she'd never seen him before.

She watched as the man reached into his jacket and pulled out something small and black. She was too deep in her haze to recognize it until he pointed it towards the priest and it exploded with sound.

She screamed and rolled away from him.

Jakob caught her before she hit the ground. The cup fell to the floor and rolled towards the crowd. She could see her blood streaked in the dirt and wondered what would become of the city without it.

"Did you really think we would let you perform such a horrible act against God?" The man said quietly, "Ruining one of God's lambs with your black magic!"

Another shot and the knife shattered into a million pieces. Shards scattered, some covered in her blood. The priest backed away, staring at the gun-wielding man. His gaze shifted to Maji, still crouched on the ground in Jakob's arms. His eyes dug into her and she knew what was coming next. One more shot rang out and the old man fell to the ground, his own blood mixing with Maji's.

The stranger ran and jumped into a car that was waiting nearby. Maji looked at the blood on the ground. She wanted to believe that the cutting was enough for the city's protection but the gunman had already proven her wrong.

The crowd started shouting, screaming, crying. Their words were lost to Maji. She felt Jakob lift her up and carry her back to her house. He locked the doors and windows, closing the curtains.

Jakob took her hand.

"We need to leave here." He said. "They're saying your blood was cursed."

The Coven held her responsible. Maji felt her stomach turn. She had failed to protect the city with her blood. Her ceremony had brought this tragedy.

"Don't worry." Jakob said, "They won't catch us."

'So we are running away.'

"I'll have you somewhere safe before they can think of what to do. I'm sure they haven't noticed we're gone."

Maji rushed into the bathroom and promptly ejected the meager contents of her stomach. She'd eaten nothing but raw greens for days and she'd had nothing but water to drink. The acid burned her throat on its way back up and Jakob pulled her hair back in time to save it from being soaked.

She was led into the bedroom and Jakob resumed pulling things out of the closet for her. She sat on the bed and it creaked. He stilled. Maji could tell he was drawn up and ready to strike.

"You should go pack your own things." Maji said.

"I'll stay here with you." He answered.

"But your things?"

"Don't need 'em."

Maji watched the man shuffling through her closet. The ceremony had gone so well until the end. Her sacrifice was in the goblet. She had done her part. It just hadn't been enough to protect them.

"Are you alright to run? It is a fair distance to the station." Jakob zipped up the bag he'd packed for her. When he joined her on the bed, he pushed her hair away and kissed her lightly on the temple. She sighed and leaned against him. He had a gift for making the endangered feel safe.

"You live on the way." Maji said, "We can pick up your things."

He didn't reply. It seemed they would have a shorter run, a short rest, and another run. Maji tried to ready herself for it but the longer they waited the more her head spun and the more she feared she wouldn't be able to make it.

"I'll make sure everything's clear." Jakob said.

He opened the door and looked out. He took a few steps out and looked around. Maji peeked through the open door and saw that he Circle had been evacuated. All was quiet in the Coven. The city would be mourning the death of their leader for some time. Maji hoped they would be prone to overlooking their disappearance.

"Are you supposed to be detaining me?" Maji asked.

Jakob's mouth twitched. "I'm supposed to be protecting you."

She stepped out and stood by Jakob's side. His cabin wasn't too far and it was fairly out of the way from the city proper. They would have a safe path there. It was the run to the station that Maji was worried about.

"Alright?" Jakob asked, looking at the skyline in the distance.

"Yeah." She touched her stomach where the knife had cut her. It still hurt but she didn't think that would stop her.

"There's no one around." Jakob said after a pause, "I think we can walk to my cabin."

Jakob started down the hill and Maji followed. The only sound for a while was the crunching of dry grass beneath their feet. The road stayed empty and the city silently mourned.

When they reached the cabin, Jakob opened the door and picked up a bag from the entryway. He had already packed.

'How did he know we'd be leaving?'

"I always leave after the ceremony." Jakob said.

"Every year?"

"Since I came here." He wiped some sweat from his lip, "I only stay long enough for the ceremony. If it were in the Fall, I'd be gone all summer."

"So you're gone from July to October?" Maji asked. She knew he was back by October. He had been there the night she arrived.

He opened his back and checked its contents for the last time.

Though they knew they would not be back, neither brought anything personal. Since the move, Maji didn't have anything to bring. But Jakob had plenty of things he was leaving behind. He insisted they would just slow them down. Maji didn't argue.

Jakob shouldered both their bags and headed toward the station. They would be there in short order if they ran. She brought her pace up to a light jog and soon Jakob was following her lead. She wasn't quite burdened and her legs were just as long, so she was somewhat faster. But she was tired and out of shape. She slowed her pace a little and they jogged side by side until they reached the station.

The station had been evacuated and there were no trains leaving that day. Jakob took across the tracks and down the hill to the service booth. A small dirt road ran a little ways away and then descended through a tunnel in the next hill.

"What is this?" Maji asked.

"It's the underground road. The built it so the soldiers could cross the border."

A remnant of the last war. Maji didn't know much about it and had only ever been to the station. Jakob led down the road and into the tunnel a ways and pulled her to the side of a railway car.

"Get in." He said.

Getting in the cart was not an easy task in the darkness. Maji strained her eyes and felt with her hands. Suddenly, she could see. Maybe Jakob had turned on the lights. But he was still feeling his way around for the switch. She reached over and turned them on for him.

The lights came on and the car started to move. They were well down the tunnel before Jakob broke the silence.

"Can you see down here?" He asked.

"My eyes adjusted."

He just kept his eyes on the path ahead of him, because that's where the light was.

"Not perfectly." Maji amended. "Just shadows. Enough to get by."

The darkness at the edge of the headlight said there would be some ways to go before they got out of the tunnel. The shaking of the cart on the old rails made her heart pound and her head spin. But she could feel the adrenaline fading and the rune on her stomach start to burn.

She put her head down on the chair and closed her eyes.

***

The setting sun was right in Maji's eyes when she opened them. No longer in the cart, though she didn't remember waking up to get out. She looked over at Jakob, focused on the road ahead of them. She sat up in the passenger seat and he gave her a side-glance. Investigating the source of the movement. She smiled but he'd already looked back to the road.

Maji pulled down the visor and closed her eyes. The wind was blowing through the window hard enough to whip her hair around and ring in her ears but she could still hear the birds settling down to roost and the radio that Jakob had turned down so she could sleep.

They kept driving until the sun had long since passed beneath the horizon. Maji kept expecting Jakob to stop for the night, but he just kept driving with determination.

Occasionally, he'd get cross eyed and pull over and walk around the car he'd or stop at a gas station to fill the tank and relieve himself. He didn't stop at a rest site until the next morning, when the sky was getting lighter with the dawn.

"The safe house is another ten hours from here." Jakob said quietly, "Let's get some rest."

"Yeah, I don't think they'll catch up with us now." She said.

"We weren't being hunted or anything." He said. "You'd be exiled at worst for what happened."

Maji stopped. "Why'd we run, then?"

"I needed you to the tunnel before the adrenaline wore off." He said.

Jakob went to the door of the little cottage and knocked lightly. When no one came to answer the door, he pushed the welcome mat aside and pulled out the key. She looked around the small cottage and noticed the lack of personal effects. Jakob put their things down by the door and turned on the lights.

"Whose place is this?" Maji asked.

"Road house." Jakob answered, "Free territory."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Travelers can stay here as long as they share."

Maji looked around and felt how small the place was. There was no way they could comfortable house more than five people.

"Not many people take this road so it's not crowded here."

"Is it out of the way?" Maji took her own shoes off and sat down on the large single bed.

"Not really." Jakob joined her on the bed and let himself fall back on the bedspread,

"Maybe ten minutes..."

Maji was going to ask where they were going but he'd started to snore and she was still just too tired. She moved him onto the pillows and curled herself up next to him.

When she woke up, Jakob had apparently kicked his clothes off during the night. She left the bed and took a cold shower, rinsing the heat from her skin.

Maji finished her shower and realized too late that there were no towels here and her clothes were by the front door. She went into the main room to shuffle through her bag. Jakob was awake, gathering his clothes from the floor around the bed.

"Sleep well?" She pulled out her panties and put them on.

He grunted. "You?"

She hummed and continued dressing.

He found the last of his clothes and and went to the shower.

When Jakob got out of the shower, she was standing outside in the warm morning air.

They'd only slept for a few hours, and the sun hadn't had time to heat the air yet.

She went back inside when she heard Jakob messing around in the kitchenette.

"We'll stop for breakfast on the road." He said, putting two cups of water in the coffee maker.

Of course.

"We'll stop at a real restaurant." He said, "I'm sick of gas station food."

When the coffee maker finished, Jakob handed her a paper travel mug full of coffee. He fixed his own and started putting everything away in their bags. She rushed over and snatched her toothbrush and toothpaste from her bag before he got a chance to take it out to the car.

He was waiting on the bed when she was done.

"Ready, now?"

He'd already put all their things in the little silver car. Maji looked it over for the first time in the daylight. It wasn't a model she recognized, and it was only big enough for two.

Their bags went in the back seat. She could still see the discoloration on the back end from a wreck it must have suffered years ago. One of the tires was newer than the rest. So was one of the blinkers. Paw prints from animals of various sizes walked across the hood, rusted from sitting out in the rain. The car was not impressive but it might get them where they were going.

Maji got in and buckled up. Jakob checked a few things around the cabin and turned off the electricity and water. No sense running up the bill of whoever was paying for that haven. When he got in the car, he took one more sip of his coffee before putting it in the cup holder and pulling out.

It would be ten hours before they reached their destination. Jakob drove for another few hours before they came to a town and stopped for breakfast. Maji looked at the menu, sickened by the smells from the kitchen.

"I'm not hungry." She said, putting the menu down.

Jakob ordered more than she thought he could eat and pulled her close to him in the booth. She hadn't wanted anything, but when the food finally came, she dug in with him.

There was more than enough to fill them both. Maji felt her strength coming back as she finished three eggs and a couple waffles. Trust Jakob to know what she needed.

Shortly, they were on the road again. It took longer than he'd guessed with a stretch of construction and a drunk driving checkpoint. They'd also made a few fuel stops and some breaks to stretch their legs. Just shortly before sunrise, they made it to the house.

## Chapter 2

The house was hidden in the middle of a man-made wood. The largest trees were all planted in a grid around the property and saplings sprouted in the spaces between. The house itself was small, though not as small as the cottage. Maji carried her bags inside while Jakob walked around to the power box. She heard the air conditioning turn on and turned on the lights.

Jakob followed her in and carried his bags into an adjacent hallway. He put them down inside the door of one of the rooms and opened the door across the hall. Maji followed him inside with her own bags.

"This'll be your room. The bathroom's at the end of the hall." Jakob put her bag on the bed, "I'll go order dinner."

"They deliver out here?"

"There's a pizza place in the next town. It'll hold us."

He disappeared across the hall. Maji sat on the bed and felt the air conditioner blowing against her skin. She took off her shirt and lay back against the soft bedspread. The ceiling was white with a sprayed on texture and the walls had a paisley border.

Maji could feel herself on the verge of napping. She got out of bed and wandered into the hallway. Jakob's door was open, but the room was empty. The suitcases were sitting empty on the bed. She went back into the entry way and into the living room. Jakob was typing on a computer. Maji approached quietly and moved into his line of sight.

And he just kept on typing.

Maji plopped down on the couch next to him and looked at the screen of unintelligible numbers. She couldn't keep interested in that for very long. She stretched out on the cool sofa and drifted off for a bit. For a while, the only sounds were the click click click of his typing and the tick tock tick of the clock, before the doorbell rang with such a racket that it made Maji jump.

She started to get up but Jakob had already put down his computer and headed for the door. She sighed and sat back against the couch and listened as her companion discouraged any small talk from the delivery boy and paid for their dinner.

He put the pizza on the sitting room table and went back to his laptop.

"Aren't you gonna eat?" Maji asked. It had been nearly eight hours since their breakfast.

He shook his head and kept working.

Maji took a slice of the pizza and sat down at the table. The toppings weren't her favorite and the crust was too crunchy but pizza can be like that sometimes and even when it's bad, it's still pretty good. She grabbed another slice and stopped at that. It would still be there tomorrow.

She touched Jakob's shoulder on her way to bed.

She'd promised herself a shower but it just didn't happen. She threw her clothes in a heap on the floor and climbed into bed.

The sheets were cool against her skin and the floor was filled with flowers. The lights were all off but she was not blind in the darkness. She reached up from her bed and touched the ceiling that had been far away before. She rolled over and draped her hand over the edge. She splash in the water. A sea of petals and glitter. She sat up beneath a sky of silver clouds.

'A dream?'

Maji looked down into the water. Streams of light swam beneath the surface. She reached down and the stream moved through her fingers. Lengths of liquid ribbon drifting into the horizon and weaving into the sky to twinkle with the stars.

She fell into the waters and was carried into the horizon, flying, rising into a sea of stars. She was glitter in the darkness, surrounded by light, shining. She gasped for air, suffocating.

Maji woke with sheets sticking to her skin. It was time for a shower.

She climbed off the bed and put on the baggy shirt she'd worn before. She snuck to the bathroom at the end of the hall and locked the door. She tossed her shirt to the floor and turned on the taps.

The water was lukewarm when she stepped in the shower. Maji turned the knob further and blasted herself with scalding water. When her skin was pink and heated, she dried off and went clad back to her room.

The air smelled like panicked sweat. Maji crawled under the covers to wait out the rest of the night.

The clock on the nightstand said three am three am three am. Flashing at her. Outside, wild dogs barked. She curled up again and forced herself to sleep.

***

The wind blew her into the stars.

Maji pulled her arms and legs up toward her and waited for the fall.

But the fall never came. She kept moving upwards into the darkness.

***

The phone was ringing. She'd assumed no one knew they were there. She got out of bed.

The body odor had dissipated. She retrieved her nightshirt from the bathroom. She could hear Jakob talking. It must have been an old friend. Maji opened the door to her room.

"Oh!" Jakob said, "That's her!"

Maji stopped.

"Maji!" Jakob said, "Phone's for you."

Confused, Maji took the phone. The voice on the other end was talking like they'd known each other forever. He passed his condolences on her father passing last year.

Something she hadn't told anyone in her new life.

"Do I know you?" She asked.

"Not yet."

Maji frowned.

"But I know you." He said.

She turned away from Jacob and wrapped her free arm around herself.

"Who are you?"

"You will know when you're ready."

Maji looked at Jakob. He shrugged his shoulders and looked away.

Dial tone.

"Who was that?" She asked.

"You'll find out." Jakob went back to his work.

Maji sat down on the couch and watched the numbers flashing across his screen. He probably hadn't been to sleep yet.

She got off the couch and went back to her room. She heard Jakob grunt a farewell behind her. She eased the door shut behind her. She could smell fresh laundry. The bed sheets were clean and pulled back. She was sure she hadn't left them that way.

She was too tired and the bed looked so welcome.

And finally, Maji did not dream.

***

There were flowers. She could smell them. She opened her eyes to the pale pink sky above. Blades of red grass blew around her. She sat up and looked around. Tall trees and bright orange flowers. She reached out to pick one and it burst into flames at her fingertips.

'Where am I?'

She got up and rubbed the bloody grass stains off her palms.

"You are in Astral. The training ground."

Maji spun around. She stared at the woman that appeared. Long blond hair, slim hips, perfect shapes and angles, curves in all the right places, clear blue eyes and long dark lashes. An angel in the nightmare.

"Who are you?" Maji asked.

"You'll know when you're ready." She said.

Maji wanted to punt a mountain.

"Then what can I call you?" She asked.

"You're catching on, Sleeper." The woman said, "You may call me Trina. I will be your teacher."

'What could you possibly teach me?'

"Yet another thing you'll know when you're ready." Trina answered. Her voice was like warm honey.

This ascended nonsense was too much.

"Then why am I here now?" Maji asked, annoyed.

Trina splintered and broke apart into static sunlight.

She sat back down to the ground. The rough ground dug into her bare bottom and Maji realized she was no more dressed than the night before.

And she had fallen asleep naked.

The trees in the distance made it look like autumn but the air was hot. Maji could feel her skin already starting to heat. She got up and headed for the trees. They would at least promise shade.

The flowers burst into flame as she stepped by them, leaving a blazing path toward the woods.

Only a few feet under the canopy, she found herself surrounded by darkness. She could only feel her way around and the trees were covered in thorns.

"God damnit! What is this place?"

Small animals moved around her feet, running from her path. Maji continued until she saw shards of light coming through the trees. She made her way through the rough path of thorns and bushes to reach the clearing.

It was just like the one she'd left.

Her hands were bleeding from the thorns and covered in stains from the red grass.

Maji fell to her knees and let her hands rest open in the sunlight.

The light hurt her eyes and she lowered her head. Her knees were numb, but she stay put.

She remained with her eyes closed and her hands at her sides, waiting for Trina to return.

"You are learning, Sleeper."

Trina stood on the grass in front of Maji.

"Help me." Maji said.

"You've not been here twenty minutes." Trina said. "You need more time."

"I'm lost." Maji said. And scared, she didn't.

Trina vanished again, like a dropped call and Maji lay on her side. That woman knew where they were and how to get back. But she would make no move to help her. Rain began to fall. If she did not wake up on white satin, she would wake up in black mud.

Maji woke afraid to open her eyes. It was hot, which was not a good sign. She wept until she heard footsteps.

Trina stood above her. Trina down on Maji and motioned for her to rise.

She obeyed.

Trina looked her over. She smiled sadly and vanished again.

Maji looked back at the trees surrounding her. It was the only way she could go, but without light, it would do her little good.

She kicked a couple of fire flowers on her way into the woods. She listened to the sounds of the animals, the trees, listening for the sound of running water.

The trees were just as unwelcoming as before, all thorns and and tangled vines. She touched lighter than before and felt her way around. She heard something moving through the grass beneath her. She reached down and touched the edge of a flower. As with all the other flowers, this one burst into flame and she could see the scales of a very large snake.

The colors were different but it had the pattern of a Boa. She patted the ground for another fire flower and got a better look at the snake. The light only lasted long enough to see a dark rodent hanging from its mouth. It swallowed the rat and slithered off in search of better prey.

Maji reached up into the trees and broke off a limb. She ran the branch along the ground until it hit a fire flower and sprang to life. The plants around her were shining and black but the shapes of the leaves looked like poison oak.

'Just what I need.'

Maji moved through the brush and the trees seemed to change the deeper into the forest she walked. They were still covered in thorns but some had velvety leaves or fruit.

She picked a piece from the tree. Maybe the fruit was poisonous. She hadn't felt hungry yet. But she didn't know when she'd come across fruit again. She rubbed a smudge off the skin and took a bite.

The skin was sour, but the rest of the fruit was sweet like candy.

Some animals would be around if the fruit was good. She lowered her torch and searched around the bushes.

Perhaps not.

The bushes were filled with thorns and fire flowers. Maji gave up the search for possible meat and grabbed a few more pieces of fruit. If they were poisonous, she would know before she had to get more. She saw an opening ahead of her, tiny streaks of light were buzzing with insects.

Maji left the trees and walked along her flaming path to stretch out in the warm, red grass. Her feet were sore. The red might be the grass or might be her own blood. She was soaked with sweat and the wind cooled her off just enough.

Trina appeared in the grass beside Maji.

"Are you ready, Sleeper?" She asked.

Maji was hot and tired and her whole body ached. "Just shut up."

Silence.

"You know, you aren't that great." Maji grumbled. "You're only better off cause you've been here before."

She was working her way into a good pout when Trina reached her hand out to help her.

"You're ready." Trina said.

Maji took the hand and was pulled up to her burning feet. "What's that supposed to mean, anyway?"

"You've settled." Trina answered. "You're fully realized in the Astral Plain."

Maji fell back into the red grass. She could go to sleep just like this or possibly bleed to death. Or perhaps those fruits had been poison.

"The fruit here is sedative." Trina said.

Maji grumbled nonsense and fell asleep.

***

The air smelled less like flowers and more like dust. Relieved, Maji rolled over on the soft mattress and opened her eyes. She hadn't woken up at Jakob's safe house.

The walls were all a wooden, not white like Jakob's guest room. Outside the window, the sky was pink. Maji sat up and stretched out her legs. Her feet were covered in sores but clean.

Trina appeared with water.

"Where are we?" Maji asked.

"My cabin."

"In Astral?"

"Of course. You can't carry someone else out of Astral."

"Why am I here?"

Trina examined her. "I'm not sure. I was just sent to receive you."

She put a glass of water in Maji's hand and walked out of the room.

Maji drank the glass and settled back down in the bed.

After a few hours, Trina returned. Maji hadn't been able to sleep.

"Did you sleep?"

"Not really."

Trina poured another glass of water for Maji to sip.

"You said you were going to teach me. What, exactly?"

"Magic."

## Chapter 3

'I already know Magic.'

"So what do I need to do?" Maji asked.

Trina smiled. "Remember everything you've learned so far. Every spell, every ritual."

"Okay." Maji knew it all like the back of her hand. Habit, really.

"Now hold still." Trina put her hand on Maji's forehead. Her fingers were cold.

Trina shook her head, "You've never learned magic. Just imitation."

Maji was belligerent. She'd done ceremonies. She'd been a sacrifice. She'd sacrificed others. She'd worked hard and read so much. She knew Magic. She worked Magic.

Trina hummed and walked away. Maji fell back to the pillows. She closed her eyes. She was exhausted. She had to everything. Cause she'd been wrong. She'd always been wrong.

And damn that hurt.

***

When Maji woke up, Trina had pulled a chair next to the bed. A large book was sitting next to her, closed.

Maji sat up.

"We'll starting from a pretty basic place." Trina pushed her hair from her face. "What is the first thing they tell you to do when you learn magic?"

"Draw a circle."

Trina shook her head.

Maji thought about it. She didn't remember much about her first lessons. They hadn't done much. They just read for the first few months.

"I don't know. We read a lot of books. I don't remember what we did."

"You read." Trina said. "You can't learn magic from a book. It's unnatural. You have to learn it by doing it."

Maji looked over at the book sitting on the bed.

"That's an encyclopedia." Trina said, "You'll need it."

Maji wasn't eager before but she certainly warming up to it now.

"Magic itself is a little different for each person." Trina said, "I can't lead you through it."

"Activation is the first step." Trina said, "Maybe you were in danger or maybe you were subjected to magic for the first time. Either way, your magic was awakened to protect you."

Maji frowned. "I thought you said it wasn't real magic."

"Occasionally, magic will leak into a ceremony. Especially if someone like us is involved. "

"Shortly after activation, they bring themselves here for development."

Maji frowned. "So if everything I know is imitation, what is real magic?"

Trina smiled briefly. "I can't put it into words. That would over simplify it."

"Then show me."

Trina helped Maji out of bed and led her outside. The red sun beat down on her bare flesh and she wondered how Trina had managed to remain so pale. Perhaps it was the Magic.

Surely Maji would have developed sunburn by now.

'Yep, prolly the Magic.'

Trina's hair fell around her shoulders and her eyes closed. Wrinkles formed around her eyes. Gold hair turned white and white skin turned grey.

Trina opened her pale blue eyes that no longer held their shine. "Cosmetic Magic."

"How do you do it?" Maji bounced on her heels. Oh, the things she could do with that!

"Well, it can't really be put into words..." Trina repeated, twirling a stringy white lock around her finger. "But it's mostly Will..."

Maji closed her eyes. It was just like the meditations she'd used her whole coven career.

She calmed her spirit and awakened her body. Just basic meditations. If it worked for the ceremonies she held in the coven, it would work for real Magic.

This time, it was different. Her breath started coming out slower and less steady. She swayed some, as her every muscle relaxed into the calming vibrations of her energy. She leaned into her own force, the sun no longer bothering her no longer pale skin and the heat no longer bothering her cool nature. She felt at one with the world of Astral, even if it wasn't her own world.

"It doesn't change what you 'are'." Trina chimed into Maji's meditations, "It can only show what is within you."

Maji sighed and looked for everything that was her. Her essentials. She reached out and found her arms, legs, hair, nails, and every part that was she.

Maji could feel something farther than what she'd always had. Part of her but new. She reached out to the unexplored regions. Her back stretched, muscles tightening and ripping. Her bones separated and spread. Maji cried out as the skin ripped open, blood running down her sunburnt skin. She tried to lean back, to ease the pressure, but was met with more pain as her shoulders relocated. She spread herself down on the ground, sprawled on her stomach. She felt something heavy on her back, pushing her chest into the hot, dry dirt.

All at once, Maji's body relaxed and the bloody new appendages relaxed into a better position.

***

When Maji woke, she was clean and covered in the bedspread again. The soft cotton sheets felt good against her chest and stomach, but something was wrong. Why was she on her stomach? She tried to roll over, but felt something brushing against her back.

She reached her arm back and touched what felt like feathers. She looked over her shoulder to see the wings. She felt for them as before. They twitched and moved in a numb way as if they'd fallen asleep.

"Oh, you're awake." Trina entered.

"Did it hurt you the first time?"

Trina put another pitcher of water on the bedside. Seeing the water reappear, Maji realized that in the few days she'd been there, she'd not eaten more than the sedative fruit. "Also, why am I hungry? I haven't been for days." She asked.

"You aren't a physical body. You don't need food."

"What? But I'm hungry."

"I think drained is the better word. You'll recover soon."

"So where is my body?"

Trina ran her hand against the wings. "In bed, I'd assume."

Maji had never played with Astral travel but she'd been told how it worked. The body was resting in bed while the person wandered the non-physical plane. Time was also faster there, according to other witches she'd asked.

Maji sat up and spread her wings. They felt heavy. There were places between her feathers that felt like they needed grooming and itched slightly. She pulled them back in and perched on the side of the bed.

Trina got up and left the room so Maji could rest.

## Chapter 4

Maji woke to a strange noise outside. The door had been slipped closed and the pitcher of water refilled while she slept. She got up to see what was disturbing the tranquility of Trina's little cottage.

"Trina?" Maji stepped into the sitting room to find a stranger sitting there. Trina was nowhere to be seen.

"Maji." The man's voice was familiar. "I've been waiting, Dear."

"Who-?"

"You may call me Morpheus."

"Call me Maji. Not Dear."

Morpheus stood. "I will call you whatever I please."

Maji couldn't help noticing how attractive this asshole was. His dark hair and brown eyes. His dark tone. She could imagine how nice they would look pressed against each other. But he was still an asshole.

Her feathers twitched in anticipation as his breath ghosted over her lips. He smelled like coffee beans and something spicy she couldn't place. The smell excited her.

She could feel his lips just centimeters from her own. If he would lean down a little further, she would be in heaven.

His lips ghosted across hers. "I'm not interested." He said.

He was gone far too quickly. Her heart was still pounding and she was sure it would stop at any moment. Teasing bastard.

"Trina's working hard to teach you." He lifted his jacket from the chair, "Try to be worth her effort."

Morpheus took his leave.

When Trina returned, Maji was still excited and annoyed at the great mysterious asshole.

"You spoke with Morpheus."

"Is he just a dick?"

"He's rich and powerful. He lords it sometimes."

Maji didn't like it.

An itch in her wing reminded her that there were more important matters.

"Do you have a shower, perhaps?" Maji asked.

Trina pointed to a room down the next hall.

Maji enjoyed a cold shower like a heavy spring rain. She shook her feathers and stretched her wings as far as she could in the smallish shower. She then turned the heat up little by little until the bathroom filled with steam.

She got out and shook her wings out. She saw someone standing behind her in the steam and jumped. Her wing flew to the hazy intruder. The looking glass shattered and shards of broken mirror fell to the floor.

Maji's wing was cut and bleeding on the glass. She moved her wing away from the destruction and saw her reflection. A broken Picasso.

She'd changed some since her Transformation. Her hair had gone lighter, almost red, and her eyes had brightened in an unnatural way. She wasn't the plain, unremarkable girl she'd always been.

Trina was waiting in the kitchen when Maji came out of the bathroom.

"Sorry about the mirror." She went to the table and sat.

"We should talk about Morpheus." Trina started.

"So, he's a Mage."

"One of the best..." Trina answered.

"Why was he here?"

"I called him to fix your wings."

"Fix them?" Maji touched the freshly wounded wing. Several feathers fell and evaporated into air.

Trina got up and grabbed hold of Maji's wing. She steadied a hand on Maji's shoulder and ripped the wing away. Blood drifted like smoke. The wing dissolved into clouds and broke apart in Trina's hand.

"You know, you could be as powerful as he is."

"What makes you think that?" Maji braced herself as Trina took hold of her other wing.

"You transformed. In the real world, too." She pulled off the other wing. "It takes lots of power to do that."

Free of the weight of her wings, she left her chair and paced the kitchen. "So my body sprouted wings in bed?"

''They were removed and healed.'' said a voice in her head.

It was the same voice she'd heard on the phone and the same voice that woke her from her sleep. Morpheus, the great douche.

"Am I going insane?" She asked.

"Morpheus' voice in your head?"

Nod Nod.

"That's to be expected. We are in his dream after all."

***

The red sun was visible under the door of the bedroom. Maji got up and found clothes sitting on the end of the bed. She got dressed and went into the kitchen, where Trina was waiting.

"How can I have not woken up yet?" She asked. "Am I in a coma?"

"Time is different here. You may have just not woken up yet."

Maji sat down and looked at Trina.

"Do you like him?" Trina asked.

"What?"

"Do you like him?"

Morpheus was a jerk. He was unpleasant and rude and, yeah, handsome, but that wasn't important. She didn't even know who Morpheus was or what he was really like. She couldn't be bothered with an ass she'd met once.

"No. I don't think I do." Maji said.

Trina just nodded and started the training. She gave Maji a few moments to prepare, meditation and relaxation techniques. Maji focused and reached out to everything, ethereally, and felt her wings reappear. This time, it wasn't the ripping sensations that had torn through her the last time. This time, her wings did not even feel physical. She looked up and saw Trina nodding her head. Cosmetic Magic.

Maji took a moment to flaunt herself, before removing the Cosmetics again. It did not seem as hard as when Trina had done it, though Trina had probably been keeping hers on for a very long time.

Maji doubted that she would want hers to stay on for any long time.

"You did well." Trina said, "Morpheus will be pleased."

"Why is it so important to please him?"

Trina graced Maji with a sad smile and went inside.

Maji followed her inside and took a shower. The cool water washed away the magic remains on her skin. She knew it wasn't a real shower and that the layer of energy on her skin wasn't really there, but it felt damn good.

When she walked outside, she was glad that she'd taken a cold shower. It. Was. Hot.

"Are you ready?" Trina asked.

"Just let me adjust."

Maji lowered her gaze to the red grass and let her eyes adjust to the bright pink light.

She'd never had any thoughts on Pink as a color until now. She now knew that it was the color of Hell.

"You've got the cosmetic magic down. Try disappearing."

Maji relaxed and felt for all her limbs. It was like cosmetic magic backwards. Just like she let her wings disappear before, she let her entire self.

"Now appear with your cosmetics on."

That might have been easier than reappearing without it. Maji reappeared with wings and all.

"Now wake up."

Cool air touched her skin. Soft sheets. Trina faded as the ceiling fan came into focus. The sun made the curtains glow and the house was silent.

Jakob could have gone to bed at any hour. Maji climbed out of bed and stretched. She didn't feel well rested at all. She snuck from her room and down the hallway. She hadn't felt hungry most of the time she was in Astral, but she was starving after. She toed softly across the tiles in the kitchen and opened the fridge.

Jakob left her some pizza. She and her empty stomach thanked god and spirited the stale, cold slices back to her room.

Holding a slice of pizza with her teeth, she opened the door. She hadn't looked at her bed before, but it was covered in blood, spread out on each side like a Rorschach blot.

"I thought you might need proof." Morpheus said, taking the second slice of pizza from Maji's hand.

"Hey, that's mine." Maji told him, but her mouth was full of pizza and it fell on deaf ears anyway.

"It's rare that someone can completely transform themselves in the physical realm. Admirable."

Maji turned her back to the vanity and looked at her reflection. Long, pink scars stretched down her shoulder blades. and under her nightgown.

"We removed the wings and healed you." Morpheus' hand rested on Maji's arm.

Maji was led to the bed like an invalid. She forced her arm away from him and sat down away from him. She was handed a drink and felt the bed dip next to her. She sipped.

Fingers traced the scars on her back and she drank the water in deep gulps. The fingertips traced down her spine and an arm wrapped around her waist. She was pulled into him and didn't have the strength to pull away. He held her against him as she fell back to sleep.

## Chapter 5

Maji woke with a start. There was something cold around her neck. She touched it and found the thick metal collar. No lock and no switch to open. Just a solid band.

"It will keep your magic in check." Morpheus said.

She looked around. She was nowhere she'd been before.

"We can't have you hurting yourself again." He said.

Maji moved away from him. "What are you up to? You were a complete asshole last time we met and now you're spooning me and giving me kinky jewelry?"

Morpheus laughed.

"You said you weren't interested and now you suddenly are? What is your problem?"

"This isn't about being interested or not." He still gave her a good look over, "This is about control. You need someone who can reign you in."

"And just what do you mean by that?"

"Your magic will only work when I allow it." He said. "You should try to make nice with me."

Maji kicked him off the bed.

He got up with as much dignity as one can have after being kicked out of bed and left the room. Maji reached out and for her wings but felt nothing.

She got up and tried the door. It wouldn't open. She pounded on the door and then fell to breaking things around the room. There weren't a great many nice things to break and she wore herself out. She crawled back on the bed and curled up in an angry huff.

Eventually, bored and annoyed, she fell asleep.

She woke up spooned.

"Morning, Pet." Morpheus hummed.

"I didn't invite you back to bed." She said.

"This is my bed."

"You locked me in here. I'll be happy to leave."

"You need to learn some respect. You don't want me to have to teach you."

"Shove it, Asshole."

'That's Master to you, Pet.'

She tried move away, but his hold on her prevented it.

"I know my rights!" She said.

"From now on, Pet," He said in the cold voice he'd used over the phone, "You will earn all of your rights."

Something about the way he said it made tremors run down her spine. She froze as the room went dark around her. She tried to look around, and cried out when not a speck of light was showing. She reached for Morpheus, but her hand was slapped away.

"You will earn your right to see." He said, "And you will earn your right to touch."

"Like I would want to touch you." She said. But still, she shivered with the thought.

She felt something click against the collar and pull on it from in front of her. She cautiously followed the pull and felt the stone floor go to carpet, then to tile, then to a fuzzy kind of rug. Finally, the pulling stopped.

"Sit."

There was no room for argument, so she sat.

"This is your place." Morpheus said, "You will remain here unless I tell you to move."

She snorted. And felt his boot connect with her side.

"You will answer me when I speak to you." He said, though not sounding angry.

"Yes."

"Yes What?"

"Sir."

The boot again.

"Master?"

She stayed there until she heard the door close. She started to crawl around and feel with her hands what was around her when she felt the boot connect with her side again.

Morpheus had not yet left.

Before she could even try to get away, she was hauled up and stretched across the bed. He hit the backs of her calves with something that felt an awful lot like a wooden switch.

"What the hell!? You can't just beat me like that! I'm not your slave!"

She tried to get up, but her body felt glued to the bed.

He hit her again.

"Stop it! No!"

Again.

"I said no! This is now an assault!"

He hit her until she stopped talking.

When he finally let her down, she sobbed some and stayed in place. When she heard the door open and close again, she didn't move. She stayed still and compliant until she fell asleep in an uncomfortable heap on a very fuzzy rug.

***

The hairs in her mouth were an uncomfortable sensation as she was shaken awake by the edge of a black leather boot. She opened her eyes, expecting for light to embrace her eyes as she tried her darnedest to embrace the morning. Being blinded, such was not the case.

'Treela?'

'Not. Quite. Wake up.'

Maji struggled into a seated position and felt the edge of the boot run gently along her ribs. Apparently, terrorism was his game. She inhaled the scents of coffee, which she now saw as a bitter, angry smell, and that horribly putrid musk.

"I told you to wake up." He said calmly, as the boot knocked her across the rug.

Maji immediately climbed to her feet.

"Yes, Master." She said when she remembered.

Heavy boots stepped across the tile floor that surrounded her fuzzy boundary. He crossed the room and sat down on a very comfortable sounding bed. Her muscles ached jealously at the thought of a soft mattress.

"Did you sleep well, Pet?" He asked, the tone in his voice suggesting that a 'no' would not be the best choice of answers.

"Yes, Master." She lied, her back aching.

"Good. Because that's where you'll stay." He said. There was laughter in his voice, "If you're good, you may earn some bedding."

His voice was not reassuring.

Maji felt a strange tug on the collar and angrily followed it over to the bed. She was pulled up so that she was sitting, straddling him. She felt the tug slightly downwards and followed it as much as she could until she was resting her head on his chest. Only when she let out a sigh did the tugging end.

"Do you want to earn your place?" He asked.

"Yes, Master." She lied.

'Transform.'

Maji didn't want to transform for him. But he was in control here. She closed her eyes and tried. Part of her was afraid of the pain that would come with Transforming. She reached out to her every part; her arms, legs, chest, and wings, but nothing resulted. She continued until she slumped exhausted against him.

His laughter filled her ears.

'I see, my collar is working.'

Maji wanted to scream, to pound her fists into his face until she was soaked in his blood. She let out a frustrated sigh and felt strong arms curl tighter around her. Comfort? No, it wasn't that. It was colder than that. Just control.

The hands left her suddenly and she followed the chest she was leaning against until she was lying on top of him, horizontally on the bed. She tried to lift herself from his lap. He grabbed her and kept her down.

"Without Magic, what do you think you can do?"

She tried harder to get away but he was much stronger.

'You will obey me,' He said in the back of her mind, 'or you will not be well taken care of.'

Maji didn't care, she just wanted to get away from him. She wanted to get her eyesight back and run like hell. If she could manage to rid herself of the stupid collar, she could Gate her way back to Jakob's safehouse or maybe to an unknown place where Morpheus could never find her.

But where would she go? Morpheus was even in her head.

Morpheus pulled her down closer to him and she could feel every inch of him under his clothes. To her surprise, he wasn't aroused. She'd certainly expected. She didn't know whether to be relieved or insulted. She felt him tense up as a warning and forced herself to relax into his touch.

He calmly stroked her back until her relaxation was no longer forced. Maybe he wouldn't hurt her this time. Maji did not know when she'd started doing it, but she found herself leaning into his gentle caresses. She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and realized that, while he was completely uninterested, she was on pins and needles. She felt his hand pause at her lower back and snake down her bottom to cup her inner thigh. She gasped at the contact.

And jumped at his laughter.

'Like it more than you want to, Pet?' His tone was mocking and dangerous. All she could do was follow the template he'd given her the night before.

"Yes, Master."

She allowed him to roll her over, onto the bed. She did not feel comfortable being under him, but his disinterest made it more tolerable. He stepped back and reached for something at the side of the bed. She felt the first strike against the bottom of her foot.

She pulled but couldn't move her ankle from its exact spot.

'Who do you belong to, Pet?' Morpheus asked, punctuating each word with a rather sharp crack of the cane to one foot or the other.

The cane hit deep into the muscles and Maji cried out, trying to get away from the pain.

"Answer me." He said, hitting in the sensitive arch of her foot.

"You, Master." Maji sobbed.

When the beating stopped, she could feel the skin there tingling. She didn't know how much more of the punishment she could take. Morpheus returned to her side and reached down to where she was positioned so submissively. She could tell he appreciated the pose, even if she wasn't truly submissive in taking it.

Morpheus opened his mouth and latched onto her throat with his teeth; he pressed down harder and harder until she whimpered from the sensations.

'You are mine.' He drawled in her mind, his mental voice taking the purr he'd always used with her before, in Astral, "You will never forget your place."

Seeing that he had effectively shown his Pet how the game was played, Morpheus pulled her away from the bed and back to the fur rug. She hadn't been obedient enough give her the reward of sleeping with a pillow or blanket that night, but he did make sure that she was far enough away from the edge of the rug that she would not roll off, onto the cold tile floor.

She would crawl back to the bed and attack when he fell asleep, she promised herself.

But his snoring that night went uninterrupted.

***

Maji slept soundly until the sound of the door closing shook her awake. This time, she did not need reminding of her place. She'd been there long enough to know the routine.

Morpheus came in every day, sometimes with food and water, and would talk to her, or hold her, or bathe her, or just sit and look at her. As long as he wasn't punishing her, she was fine with whatever he wanted to give her.

Just because it wasn't punishment.

"Pet." He said. He rarely greeted her and he only initiated speech if he wanted her reply.

"Yes, Master?" She answered like a good Pet. Maybe she would get a pillow tonight. She liked the pillows. She dreamt of smothering him with them. But she never dared approach the bed without his lead.

Morpheus sat down on the bed and she crawled across the floor to his feet. She had long ago earned the right to see, and the right to leave her rug. She still had to sleep on it, but she could leave it during the day.

Morpheus patted his lap.

'Master?'

'It's alright.' His mind voice sounded softer than usual.

Maji climbed onto Morpheus' lap and strong hands guided her to lean against his chest.

She had lost quite a bit of weight since he'd captured her. More weight than she'd ever really had to lose. She was light and skinny; fragile, now. Morpheus liked her that way.

It made her too weak to get away.

"You've been a very good Pet." Morpheus said.

"Yes, Master." When in doubt, she always went back to the template.

'Do you miss your Magic?'

One of the rare moments she wouldn't have to lie. "Yes, Master."

Those strong hands that held her on some days, and held her down on others. Today, they started to pull apart the silver collar that kept her magic away from her. She gasped as she felt herself filling up, finally complete again. She had tried many simple spells in the beginning; heating charms, conjured clothes, and healing spells. None of them had worked. She felt her fingertips tingling with the power she'd been denied for months on end.

And something else. Feelings and thoughts she'd thought were fading away, pain she'd thought she'd gotten used to. She wanted to scream and break things. Break his face wide open and dye herself red with his blood.

She looked at Morpheus. Her Master.

But he wasn't her Master.

And she was not a Pet.

She pulled away from him. He let her stand on her own.

"Months of this sick game." She said. "Conditioning and mind numbing?"

He didn't answer.

"You make me act like your pet for months and now you give me my magic back?" She felt her wings burst from her back. Her nails grew long and thick with rage.

She swung at him. He stopped her with sturdy grasp.

"I did not give you magic to fight me." He said.

"It wasn't your magic to give!" She swung with the other arm.

Again, he grabbed it.

"Do not forget who is in charge here, Marjorie." he said, "I can always bring the collar back."

Maji stopped fighting but her hate was sharper than ever.

"Good girl." He said, letting go of her hands. "I am in need of an assistant. Mine has been, well, let's say disposed of."

Maji held her tongue.

"You will run his errands for me and occasionally assist me with my own errands."

Maji wondered how hard it would be to disappear on one of these errands.

"Say yes sir."

At least it wasn't Master. And at least she could actually feel her disgust. "Yes, Sir."

***

"Maji?" Morpheus called from behind her. She'd been spending quite a bit of time in the library lately. She couldn't deny what favors Morpheus asked of her, but the rest of the time could be spent doing whatever she wanted. And she never wanted his company on her own time.

"Sir?"

"Do you remember when I used to feed you?"

Maji turned around in her chair, marking her place in the book she'd been reading. She looked at the dish in his hand and noticed that it was filled with all the things she'd liked in her time as his Pet.

"I remember, Sir." She said, without enthusiasm.

She saw Morpheus' face fall as he waited for her to initiate some kind of contact. She'd spent months learning to be a good Pet, to be content with being nothing more than that.

She'd spent months with a collar that numbed her emotions and altered her thoughts.

And for two years, she'd been his assistant. Seen him banish monsters and devils and keep all the witches under his control.

In all that time, he'd never been interested in her. At least, not like she'd been interested in him.

She looked at the plate in his hands and wondered if she was still interested or if it was just an echo of his mind games. Everything was a mind game with him.

And he wanted her to act like a Pet again.

"Just for play, right?" She asked. "And no collar?"

"Yes, Pet." He said. "Do you want me to feed you?"

She didn't know what she was doing. She shouldn't still want this. But something was aching inside her at the name.

"Yes, Master." She said as she fell into the smile in his eyes.

## Chapter 6

Maji woke up next to Morpheus. She placed a light kiss on his cheek. He stirred a bit, but kept sleeping.

She untangled herself from his arms and got up to take a shower. She stepped into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She was still skinnier than when she'd first started out, but she'd filled out some since her days as a Pet. Her hair had grown out and was now long enough to braid. She didn't have much to her, really. She'd always had blue eyes, though they'd become darker in the last year, and the hair on her head had been red once, but now looked like more of a dull brown color. To her, she wasn't much to look at.

But at least she had Morpheus. He had to see something in her to keep coming back.

Though it was probably the lure of power.

She was very powerful.

After her shower, she came back into the bedroom to find her lover missing. This was hardly abnormal. She looked at the freshly made bed. Not even wrinkled bed sheets were there as a reminder of her activities the night before. It shouldn't bother her, and normally it wouldn't, but this was turning out to be a strange morning.

She felt sorry for Morpheus. He had no clue.

Yet.

Maji sat down on the bed with a sigh. She was more tired than usual this morning and she was much more emotional, too.

'What's wrong with me?'

Maji looked at the clock on the wall. It was still far too early to go out on the errands. She rolled back under the covers and let herself have a little nap.

And then slept till noon.

The afternoon sun found her rushing through her morning abrasions. When she had woken up, her stomach was trying to escape through her throat. She finally stopped vomiting, brushed her teeth, and went to the library. If she had an assignment or an appointment, Morpheus would leave it there. Just like he always did.

The table had an old looking book on it and a plate of strawberries. They were magically preserved. She wondered how late Morpheus had expected her to be. He normally only did so when she was going to be out later than usual and he wanted her dinner to stay hot.

Something was up with her, and it seemed that he knew it.

'And he still had to leave this morning!' She grumbled, taking a strawberry off the plate and putting it in her mouth.

She bit down and felt the juices explode in her mouth before she looked at the book that was sitting next to the plate.

And saw that she needed something Hard.

She conjured a glass and summoned the scotch from the cabinet above the study table as she stared at the torn cover of the book. She poured the amber liquid into a tumbler and lifted it to her lips. She tipped the glass and felt cool, clean water wash down her throat.

'The Hell?'

'I would rather you not be drinking, Pet.'

Something was wrong. She tried to shoot him a mental glare, but ended up shooting specks of her arousal at him. She could feel the amusement coming back at her and she downed the rest of the alcohol-turned-water from the tumbler. She put the Scotch away and sat down in front of the study table.

Her stomach turned and she pushed the strawberries away.

'God, what is wrong with me?'

She could feel sympathy coming from her lover.

'I'm coming home, now.' Morpheus' mind speech was the only way he could get through her psychic defenses; especially from a distance.

Maji wanted to tell him no, that she didn't need him here, but she couldn't do it.

The house was too quiet. And she was sitting in her room, thinking about the rougher times with her and how he'd been responsible for all of them. When he finally showed up, which took him longer than it should have since she knew damn well that he could have Gated, she was fuming at him.

Morpheus approached cautiously, well aware of the dangers of an angry witch. He'd had to deal with her wrath once or twice in the past year and she had never been this angry before. She'd never been this emotional before. Something was definitely wrong.

He mind touched hers softly. Suddenly, her previous arousal was back at levels she couldn't ignore. She jumped towards him and took his lips in a violent kiss.

Morpheus started to kiss her back when she tugged on his shirt. She wanted him out of it.

She took her lips from his and started to take off her own clothes.

He dropped his trousers and stood in nothing but his boxers and the silver chain he always wore around his neck. She had examined it curiously the first time, back when she had been a Pet. It was a simple knot, like any Celt would wear, but this one was different.

She had sensed the spells within since the beginning, like she had sensed the spells around her own old collar. She bypassed examining it this time, though she felt something more than the usual shielding and empowering spells, and went straight for the tight dark nipple next to it.

A strong hand took her by the hair and pulled her lips away. She hadn't expected him to resist her advances, like he had the first day. She looked questioningly into his eyes and saw strong resolve and steeled will power. He would not be playing games with her today.

'You shouldn't be coming on to me right now.' His mind spoke.

'Why not?'

'There are more important things now.'

Maji backed away and examined him cautiously. He hadn't treated her this way since removing her collar. He stared her down and she returned to the bed, pulling her knees up to her chest. She didn't know why his refusal hurt her so much, or why she was taking it so personally.

"You're in a fragile state, right now," He said, looking at the ceiling rather than at her, "you can't afford to be reckless with yourself."

Maji knew what that meant. Forced celibacy. Her eyes started to wet. She looked at him and he finally met her eye.

And he was frowning.

Though she was upset with him, she wouldn't refuse a comforting touch. It was always her favorite thing. Lying in bed, holding each other. Her hair brushed against his chest as he reached down to caress her stomach. She pushed all her questions into his mind and he pushed some of the answers back.

Answers she didn't like one bit.

'Surprise.' He mind spoke.

She was furious. She wasn't ready and he hadn't asked her. And now, she would have to carry his child? Maji conjured clothes to herself and stormed out. She couldn't stay away. She could never stay away. But she could get a break, at least. Before she broke his face open.

She Gated herself into the city. She needed to walk around in the anonymity of normal people. Think about things.

The streets were less crowded than on the weekends when she usually went into the city. Housewives shuffled their young children down the street and tourists walked past, lost.

She lingered on Morpheus' betrayal. There were no accidental pregnancies. If they'd wanted a child, fertility magic had to be cast. She'd always expected someone to bring it up or a discussion to be had before that happened. She didn't know how he'd cast a fertility spell on her without her noticing. But he had.

Her wandering took her into the art district. If Morpheus went out to pass the time, she was unlikely to run into him here. She went into a gallery to escape the heated summer air. She walked quietly past all the other visitors, past the Dali copies, and into an unoccupied area of the gallery.

She sat down on the cool tile floor and buried her head in her hands. She was surrounded by portraits of babies and small children. Bright blue eyes, uncolored by time and human growth, looked out at her from the pictures. They were cute, but she was not ready for a child.

She heard footsteps coming and got up. She didn't want to be kicked out for squatting in the gallery. She looked up, expecting to see the owner of the gallery, but watched Morpheus approach.

"Pet, you should not have run out on me." he said.

"I had every right."

"You cannot go out on your own, now. You are carrying something of mine with you."

She was itching to curse him. She could feel her magic gathering. In her uterus to be precise.

Maji strode past her lover and out of the gallery. She found an empty alleyway and Gated back to their house. The bathroom always had special locks on it to keep him out. She closed the door and set up the energy locks.

She turned on the shower and stepped in. Water scalded down her back. Her hair fell over her face and she watched the drips fall to the floor until the water got cold.

"Maji?" Morpheus called from the bedroom. She didn't answer. Her hands and feet looked like prunes and her back and arms were covered in gooseflesh from the cold.

He'd trapped her. She'd only ever heard of girls doing that. She turned off the shower and pulled a towel around herself.

Maji went back to the bedroom where Morpheus was waiting for her on the bed. He wasn't looking at her. He was reading the book he'd left in the library for her. She sat down and looked at the cover.

Your Magical Pregnancy.

Morpheus looked at her over the book.

"You're cold." He said.

He lifted the covers up to let her under. She scooted under the covers and looked at the book. "I want an abortion."

Morpheus frowned. "Rest. We can discuss this later."

***

Maji woke up and glared at the arm stretched across her stomach. Her protruding stomach. When had that happened? She couldn't remember anything from the last few months. She looked around. There was a pram sitting in the corner of the room. Elliana was written in pink paint on the frame.

Elliana found Maji's bladder and pressed on it. Maji pushed Morpheus away and got up.

When she got back into the bedroom, Morpheus was watching her from the bed.

"What happened last night?" She asked. "I can't remember anything. And how am I so big?"

"You're a normal size for third trimester." He said.

"Last I remember was deciding to get an Abortion."

"You changed your mind." He said, "And it's too late now."

Morpheus put his arm possessively around her and almost immediately fell back asleep. She stayed awake.

She didn't remember months of her pregnancy. The baby kicked and she touched the stretched skin. It was smooth and tight. Like she'd been using lotion on it. But that wasn't like her at all.

She could feel the air changing, the cold front hitting outside. It always seemed to whistle when it got colder. The front would come in and they would have the sounds of a bean sidhe's shrieks all around their house.

She wondered if the baby would be born with magic. Would she ever hear the bean sidhe shriek, like her mother and father had. Would she feel the burn of the mourning ladies' acid tears, like her mother and father had.

The sunshine greeted her sore and tired eyes. She pulled the covers up to shield her from the light. Morpheus rolled over and spelled the blinds shut. Why hadn't Maji done that? She tried to summon the bottle of water on the nightstand. It didn't move.

Her magic was all protecting the baby.

Without the sunlight to bother her eyes, she was perfectly happy to crawl out of the blankets and feel the cool air on her partially clothed skin.

"We have to see the Healer today..." Morpheus mumbled, shifting some and starting to work his way out of bed.

Maji decided not to move.

He spelled the bottle of water of to the bedside and handed it to Maji.

'Do we have to?'

'Yes. Get up.'

Maji felt the weight leave Morpheus' side of the bed and finally, with extra effort, followed.

"We could do it ourselves." She said.

"You wouldn't let me." Morpheus went into the bathroom and started to spell everything she would need to get ready. She waited until he left to get ready.

How much easier life had been with magic.

Maji climbed into the tub. Morpheus must have transformed the shower into a large tub. She let herself sink into the shoulder deep water. She appreciated how the water held her stomach up, releasing the pressure on her back and shoulders. She relaxed into the jet behind her and stretched her feet out to let the opposite jets caress her ankles.

She would be happy to see the back of this pregnancy business.

Bubbles started filling the tub. They smelled like lavender. She rinsed them along her arms and scrubbed with the loofa until her skin tingled. She pulled the plug and climbed out of the tub.

The appointment with the Healer was probably a good thing if she'd forgotten the last two trimesters.

"Almost ready?" Morpheus asked.

Maji found nothing but maternity clothes in the closet. They looked like they'd never been worn. She put them on and stretched the material over her stomach.

"You have some tests this morning." Morpheus reminded her.

Tests Maji hadn't even known about before. She slipped on her sandals and slowly made her way down the stairs. She was a little hungry, but it was more wanting something specific. Hard to tell what. She felt like eating chocolate pudding and sushi, and pickle juice popsicles.

Morpheus opened the door for her and went out to the car and held the door to that. He was more helpful than she could ever remember him being. She knew it wasn't for her as much as for his unborn child.

When they finally got to the clinic, Maji waddled up the driveway and let her partner open the door for her. Her ankles were starting to ache and swell.

Morpheus helped her down into a chair in the sitting room and had a word with the Healer before Maji was to be ushered into the examination room. She lifted her feet off the floor and felt the heaviness in her calves grow.

The examination room was cold and stuffy. She wondered if that environment could really be good for her child. She sat down on the cot.

The Healer pulled out his Crystal focus and started running it along her sides and stomach. A few times, she felt the baby kick the skin below the Crystal.

"Have you been using Magic on her?" The Healer asked.

"Yes. I've been using Magic to help her get around the house..."

"No more of it." The Healer grunted.

After a few other tests, the Healer let them leave and they got back into the shiny black car they'd left waiting at the curb.

Before Maji had even recovered from the tests, she felt the car slow down and turn off the main road that would have led them straight back to their own comfortable home.

The car pulled into a spot in the parking lot. She looked at the very fancy restaurant. Her stomach growled loudly.

"I'm hardly dressed for this..." She said.

"I'll leave a good tip." He said.

He led the way into the building and smiled at the hostess. Maji's condition got them a quick seat and even quicker service. Half an hour later, Morpheus paid the check and they walked out sated and calm.

Until they got home.

The stairs were a challenge without the use of Magic. Maji wondered if it wouldn't be better to move everything downstairs. She would have to convince Morpheus. When she got up to their room, she was sore and just wanted to crawl right back into bed. She needed a bath, too. But the day was nowhere near done and Morpheus wouldn't have her awake and restless all night.

But she could still have the bath.

Maji hobbled toward the tub and turned on all the jets. The water helped to ease her soreness and she let the jets soothe her aching ankles.

She poured some of her lavender bubbles into the tub and watched as the foam rose from the whirlpool in the center of the water. The smell filled the bathroom and the water held up her stomach and heavy breasts.

She'd woken up heavily pregnant. It was a tough day.

## Chapter 7

The morning started slowly. Maji just couldn't seem to get herself back to normal. She felt Morpheus leave their bed and heard him walk into the bathroom. She rolled over for a moment and felt Elliana kick her in the side. Ellie was really active today. Maji put her hand on her swollen belly. It was quite a bit bigger than yesterday.

Morpheus came back fully dressed and started to leave. She heard him walk out the front door and sighed. It sounded like he had moved their room to the first floor for her. Did he do that while she was asleep?

Maji got up and waddled her way over to the bathroom to soak herself in her tub for a while. She looked at the mirror and jumped. She looked like a completely different person. Her hair was sticking all different directions in greasy, tangled strands. Her eyes were sunken and her skin was pasty. She looked several hours dead.

She turned on the tub and watched it fill up. When the tub was full, she eased herself in and sat down to let the water jets ease her aches and pains. She would add the flowery bubbles a little later. At the time, she just wanted to ease the kicking and shifting that was going on in her body.

She had to shift positions a few times to adjust to the new position Ellie had taken.

She got out of the tub and took her dressing gown from the hook. The floor was cold under her feet, but her swollen ankles were happy for the relief. She moved into the kitchen to make breakfast and felt something wet spill down her thighs. It was time.

She panicked. Her water had broken but it couldn't be time yet. They'd only gone to the doctor yesterday. She had at least a month left.

She went to the phone and called the Healer. Then Morpheus. The black car pulled up to the curb and the driver put down towels and loaded her into the backseat.

When they got to the Hospital, the staff put her in the maternity ward to wait while her body got ready for the birth. She hadn't been to the classes or read the damn baby books.

She hadn't even gotten used to the idea of having a baby yet. She screamed for pain killers but none were allowed. She was to have a natural birth.

Morpheus showed up in no rush and sat down in a chair by the bed. He looked preoccupied. She made herself smile and make nice with him.

"Has the Doctor said anything?" She asked.

"No."

She looked out the window. She couldn't remember any of the pregnancy but she'd carried it to full term. It felt like she'd been asleep the whole time.

A nurse came in and checked her over.

She didn't want to have a kid. But it was too late now. She was stuck.

She sighed and leaned back into her pillow as the nurse poked around, hidden by her protruding gut. Maji looked at Morpheus. He was checking something on his phone. She tried to reach out to him, but without her magic, he was unreachable.

The nurse checked her dilation and left. It would be a good while longer.

"Morpheus?"

He didn't look at her, but she had some of his attention.

"Will you stay with me?"

"Where else would I go?" He said.

She wasn't sure she believed him.

He got a call and went out in the hall to take it. Maji tried to hear him on the other side of the door but couldn't. She felt inside for her magic tightly wrapped around her child.

She could feel Ellie's frustration and impatience. It was getting close.

The nurse came back in and Maji could see that Morpheus wasn't outside the door anymore. She tried to stay calm and quiet while the nurse measured her.

"You should be ready any time now." She said.

Maji leaned back and squeezed the bedrail as another pain hit her.

She watched the door for her AWOL partner. Maybe he'd gone down for coffee or maybe he'd gone to send the driver on an errand. He'd be back soon.

Maji screamed.

She was pretty sure she'd just died and was spending the first of eternity in the fiery pits of hell. She turned and kicked and yelled at the stupid baby to "Fucking Stop It!" but nothing worked.

The door flew open and a startled nurse rushed in. She was shouting about Maji's failure to call and checking her over again. The nurse ran out of the room to call the doctor.

The baby was coming.

When the doctor came in, he looked beneath her gown and positioned himself there immediately. She pushed. She could feel her muscles straining and the alien slide of a large mass inside her. She howled with pain.

Her magic bundled around the child in her womb. She pushed hard and felt the mass disappear out of her body. The doctor gasped and held the child up. A nurse put a pump over the child's mouth and cleared her lungs. Ellie screamed.

Exhausted and hurt, Maji fell back against the pillows. She let the nurse position them and sobbed when the baby started to nurse. She could feel her magic coming back. And the baby's magic electrified the air around her.

She'd created this somehow. She felt warmth toward the baby. More than she'd expected to. But it wasn't the kind of love a mother would have for her child. Not the kind of love Maji would have wanted to have for her child. But it was like the love of an aunt and that would have to be good enough.

Most of the staff left. One nurse stayed behind and waited until Ellie had finished eating and fallen asleep. The nurse lifted the baby and wrapped her in the receiving blanket.

Maji could feel the magic coming off her newborn child in waves.

She reached inside herself and felt the link between herself and her powerful child. It was stronger than she'd thought. She noticed something else. Something was 'missing'.

Her power was much weaker. The baby had taken most of it.

'Necessary Transference of Power...'

Maji was starting to fall into a quiet sleep when she felt her baby leave the room to go to the nursery. She could feel Ellie's condition as vividly as her own. She reached out and soothed her child to sleep before falling asleep herself.

When she woke up, it was to the uncomfortable cries of her child in her head. She reached out to sooth her and reached for the call button to ask for Ellie.

But the nurses took too long to answer and Ellie took care of the matter herself.

By Gating. To god knows where.

## Chapter 8

Maji spelled herself clean and got up to get her clothes out of the cabinet. Her back hurt and she was aching below. She'd used magic, so there was no bleeding, thank god. She had to find Ellie and she couldn't do that wounded. She Gated to the first place she'd ever gone, the training ground in Astral, and looked around the grass. She reached out to feel for her baby but found nothing.

It felt like the connection between them had been cut somehow.

She Gated directly to Trina's little cabin and hammered the door.

Trina answered without her cosmetic magic. She looked sad and torn down. She let Maji inside and closed the door behind her.

"You're looking for Ellie." It wasn't a question.

"You know where she is?"

"Not anymore." Trina said, "Morpheus took her."

Maji's heart leapt. Her partner had been waiting here for Ellie to Gate. He might even be back at the hospital or he could have taken Ellie to the Healer to get checked over. Maji's head was light with relief.

Until Trina embraced her.

"I'm so sorry." She said.

Apparently, Morpheus having their daughter wasn't a good thing?

"What?"

As much as she wanted to believe that Ellie was safe and secure in her father's arms, her head was filling with doubt. She wanted to believe, but she wanted even more for Ellie to be safe and secure for real.

"Morpheus wanted the baby." Trina said. "He wanted your power in something he could control."

Maji felt the familiar knot in her chest. The one that appeared every time she pieced together Morphius's tricks. "I can't remember any of my pregnancy."

Trina squeezed her tighter. "You were asleep. The whole time. I didn't know where you were and I couldn't find you to wake you up."

She let go and Maji fell onto the sofa. She looked up at her friend as the tears started. Not for her baby, who was now with the parent who wanted her. She cried for herself and for the discarded future she'd been promised with him.

Trina was wrapped around her. Small words of comfort and security, although the situation was still hopeless. They waited for the tears to ease.

'I have to find her.' Maji said.

She wasn't sure why. Maybe she wanted her. Maybe she wanted him to not have her.

'I know.' Trina sounded more sure than Maji felt.

Maji gated back to the home she'd shared with Morpheus for her nine months of sleep and the three years before. She'd been a captive the first time she'd woken in that house. The sick slavery of Morpheus that continued long after the collar was removed. And then the Stockholm Syndrome after. She threw the door open and walked in. She couldn't feel her baby anywhere. Not in this house. Maybe not on this planet.

Maji kicked open the door of the guest room she used to call home. The guest room still had the fuzzy rug on the floor and the blue tile she'd seen first when he'd returned her sight. The fireplace that was never lit but always gave the room a draft. She looked through the desk that he'd used when he had no interest in her.

It was a good a place to start. She'd avoided the guest room from the moment she was allowed out of it.

There were notebooks and schedules and calendars from years back. Things that he'd done business with and, obviously, didn't want people to find if they searched his public office. His office was the next stop but not the last. She would search every corner of the house and then every corner of the universe to find her daughter. Not that she knew why.

Most of the notebooks were useless. She shuffled through the pages of appointment information and different names and phone numbers he'd taken. She would have to find a better way. She opened the bottom drawer and found a laptop.

Maji pulled the computer out and put it on top of the desk. The wooden cane rolled off to the floor. She looked at it, distracted, while the computer started up. The screen was the same as Jakob's: flying code with in a language she didn't know.

Jakob's safe house would be her next stop. She might as well take the laptop with her.

Images started popping up in the background. All pictures of her during her time as a pet, back when she'd been blinded. She started going through the files.

'Pet.' snapped an intimately familiar voice in her head.

Morpheus.

'Where are you? Where's Ellie?'

'Had a change of heart?'

Maji felt something prying through her mind and tried to block it out.

'You're getting what you wanted. You don't have a child. You didn't even have to carry it. And you won't have to deal with it again.' He said.

'It was still my body!' Maji tried to track him. 'You took advantage of me and took nine months of my life away!'

She reached out to him but he was gone. She felt her magic coming back some, restless and desperate, forcing itself out through her skin, She could no longer feel his presence at all and she still couldn't feel her child, even through the maternal link. She knocked the computer off the desk and sent it flying into pieces, hitting every wall and breaking many of Morpheus' possessions.

'He didn't have Ellie with him.' Trina said.

'Any clue where he'd leave her?' Maji asked.

'Jakob may know a place.'

Maji Gated into the sitting room at the safe house. She'd been Gating more naturally since she'd gotten her powers back. She didn't think she'd gotten more powerful but she was doing more than she ever had. Maybe she'd gotten more skillful.

Jakob was planted at the desk. He looked up at her, never stopping his typing.

"I don't know where she is." He said, "I'm not sure I'd be able to tell you if I did."

He forced his hands away from the keyboard. "I'm not sure why you would come here."

She wasn't sure either. The other mages had always been under Morpheus' control. Now would be no different.

"I need to find Ellie."

"Why?" He asked.

She didn't answer. She knew she couldn't just toss out some cliched reason. It wasn't because it was her child. It wasn't because Ellie was in any danger. She couldn't put her finger on it. She wasn't even sure what she would do once she did have Ellie back.

"Morpheus will take care of her." Jakob said. "We know that."

"We do?"

"The Necessary Transferal of Power." He said, "Ellie has all of your raw power. If she isn't healthy and happy, she won't develop the skill to tap into it."

Maji thought back to the first meetings with Morpheus. She was too powerful and he must have known. He couldn't control her so he took her in and molded her into what he wanted.

But she was still resistant, so he used the Transferral of Power. Ellie, as his daughter, would be easier to control.

"Alright?" Jakob asked.

Maji didn't answer. She felt a calming magic inside her. She reached out to the source and felt Ellie. Well, her own power inside of Ellie. She couldn't tell where but she could feel her.

Ellie felt like a missing piece of herself. But she was safe and she was important enough that Morpheus wouldn't dare hurt her. Not that Maji ever thought he would. But her magic called out to her. Did Ellie have some of Morpheus's magic too? Did it call out to him as desperately?

She decided to go back to the house she'd left in such a wreck. As long as the baby was fine, she could rest. Finding her would take time and she had plenty of that.

She Gated back to the house. The mess she'd made was already cleaned and she could smell dinner cooking. One of Morpheus's servants was still here. She went up to the bedroom upstairs and collapsed onto the bed.

After all, Ellie was just going to grow like a normal child would. She wouldn't remember this like her mother would. She would be alright. Maybe they would both be alright.

***

Maji woke up sore to her toenails. She sighed and rolled over in bed and felt the cool satin bed sheets brushing up against her sides. She wasn't in her own bed.

She looked around at the room that she'd been in before this whole mess began; before she'd known she was a mage. The room smelled like sweat and dust, the same way it had before.

Had she been displaced? Had it all been just a bad dream?

Maji left the comfort of the bed and rushed into the sitting room where Jakob was working on his computer, typing away unintelligible digits. She sat down on the couch and watched him.

"Can't sleep?" Jakob spared her a glance over the top of the monitor.

"Who called?" She asked.

"My boss." Jakob shrugged.

"Who's your boss?" Maji asked.

"Allison." Jakob looked up, "She has me work on special programs in the summer."

'She?'

Jakob went back to work and Maji got up to shower. The water pressure had gone down. Maybe Jakob had taken a shower earlier. She picked up a bottle of shampoo and held it to her nose.

Coffee and spice.

'Maybe it was just a dream."

Maji washed her hair quickly. She forced back the ache in her chest and blinked away the tears. It had just been a dream; a bad, horrible, wonderful dream. She rinsed the familiar odor from her scalp.

Her bed was still sweaty. She pulled one of the covers over the sheets and fell down on top of it. Had the dream been real, she would have just cleared the odor from the sheets and the air around her with magic.

"Maji?" Jakob called from the other side of the door, "Are you alright?"

Maji didn't feel much like talking.

"You seemed a little off, before..."

"I'm fine."

That was as much as she could stand of being awake. She felt the first tears and sacrificed herself to the sandman.

***

Maji woke up with a dream just barely out of reach. But the harder she tried to remember, the further away it drifted. She rolled out of bed with a thump and rummaged through the bag Jakob had packed for her.

Maji got dressed and strolled barefoot out of her room. The sitting room was every bit as bare as she remembered. Jakob was still sitting in front of a laptop, punching in digits.

Not bothering such trivialities as asking for permission, she flopped down on the couch and reached for the remote. She turned on the screen and saw people screaming and banging their heads to hard music and flashing lights.

Maji flipped through the channels. It was like she'd seen everything that was on. She went past several music stations, talk shows, documentaries, and soap operas before she found something she could deal with: cartoons.

Animations, to say the least. These cartoons were definitely not for children.

"Porn?" Jakob asked.

"Yes. Yes it is."

When you don't want sex, you'll find that even the best porn has the ability to be repulsive to you. When you've been chaste for nine months and your hormones are exploding inside you, the worst porn is like a mirage in a desert.

So Maji found herself watching animated characters, perfect and unrealistic, doing more and more raunchy things to each other. She was just on the edge of rutting against the couch like a bitch in heat.

Jakob eventually left his laptop and went into his bedroom. Maji considered doing the same. Not going to her room; going to his. But she settled for flipping the channel onto something more appropriate. If she was going to seduce Jakob, she'd do it with a bit more class. She switched it back to the Animal channel and settled in.

The Sharks were gathering around a whale the biologists had found fermenting on a beach and dragged out to sea. The sharks acted like every other species does when drunk and started to pair off.

Maji gave up on television and went to take a cold shower.

She opened the door and chucked her clothes to the floor and turned on the tap. The water ran firm over her shoulders as she took deep breaths. She sat down in the bottom of the tub, looking at an unexplained burn on her left foot.

A knock on the bathroom door had her up on her feet. She'd stayed in there longer than she'd thought. She got out and heard a more frantic knock on the door. She grabbed the towel and opened the door. Jakob ran past her and straight to the toilet.

"I'll only be a moment." He said quietly, turning away from her and towards the toilet.

She'd never thought she'd be stuck in this situation with anyone but Morpheus. Who wasn't even real. Awkward didn't begin to cover it.

"You don't mind me being in here?" She asked quietly, "Or that I'm naked?"

"I've seen you more intimately than this." He said, "And I'm fairly sure you've seen my piece before."

That made sense. Kinda.

"Still." She said, covering herself with her hands.

"Don't worry." He zipped. "You're really not my type."

He turned around to face her. His apologetic smile said it all. She'd never have guessed that Jakob was gay. Not that she believed the stereotypes. But Jakob was so - well, butch. He stepped out and left her to her shower.

Maji turned off the water and put her clothes back on. The edge was off and now that she knew Jakob's preferences, there wasn't any danger. She tied her hair up on her head. She didn't really care how she looked.

Jakob had returned to his spot in the sitting room and the television was turned off again. Maji sat down and could feel him eyeing her. Computer programming required concentration, apparently. Who knew? She would have to get some books to occupy her.

But the remote was tempting, sensuous buttons on the tabletop. She wondered if she could manage to keep the volume low enough to avoid bugging Jakob.

"Do you have any books?" She asked, stretching out on the couch.

"The library's through there." He pointed.

The books on the shelves were really sub-par. She missed the afternoons spent in the library of Morpheus' mansion, not that it was real. She missed doing research about different kinds of ghouls and demons. She could remember so vividly the missions she'd been allowed. But they were all just a dream.

Unreal memories brought her down. She sat in an armchair and pulled a book into her lap. There were no books on magic but there were plenty of technical manuals and cyborgs, which she'd researched before, were partly tech.

She'd learned so much, experienced so much. None of it was real. She'd never captured a Banshee. She'd never led an army against the cyborgs. She'd never fallen in love with a horrible man and she'd never had a baby.

Did she wish she had? After not wanting it and then being forced to have it, did she wish that had been real?

It still felt like a part of her was missing, calling out.

Maji tossed aside the book. She'd fallen asleep and dreamt waking in Astral. She didn't know what could have lodged that in her subconscious. That's all dreams were, right? She got up to make one more round of the library. Nothing caught her interest. She drudged back to the bedroom and forced herself back to sleep again.

'Maybe I could get a computer.' The internet was bound to be more interesting than this library.

She felt her stomach growl with enthusiasm. The kitchen was at the other end of the sitting room. She opened the fridge to find the rubbery, thin pizza from the night before.

Nicking a few, she went back into the sitting room where Jakob was still working. She looked onto his screen for a moment, just to watch the code scrolling past.

She scoffed at him and went back into the little library. She'd be spending most of the time in there. Just like in the dream. She sighed and ran her fingers along the edge of the books until one of them caught her attention.

'Lucid Dreams and Astral Travel'

Magic?

Maji picked up the book and began to read though it. She didn't get very far before a knock on the door interrupted. She got up and went to the library door. Easing it open, she found that the knock hadn't been on the library door at all.

The entryway had four or five guests standing in it, greeted with shaking hands and one armed hugs from Jakob.

She went through the sitting room, peering down at the computer screen as she passed to see commands running themselves. Jakob handed over her shoes.

Everything went by too fast. They were in the back of a truck and everyone was talking.

"What's yer name?" One of them shouted.

"Maji!" She shouted back.

The rest of the ride was wind blown hair and shouted conversations. She was ready for the truck to stop by the time they got into town. She looked around for a bookstore. She could possibly find more books like her Astral Travel guide, and perhaps she could learn to do some real magic after all.

The truck stopped in front of a little grocery store. Maji was bored already.

"Ready?" Jakob offered a hand to help her out of the bed. She landed on the ground with a scratching of gravel and stumbled forward.

"We need groceries and light bulbs," Jakob said, "didn't you say something about books, Maji?"

It wasn't long before the basket they'd found was full.

"Books're over there." one of the boys pointed.

The book section was small. It was sharing the magazine rack and most of the books were Romance novels lonely old housewives liked to read. Maji knelt down on the tile floor and browsed through the titles, stopping occasionally to read the backs of them. There weren't many interesting books and none of them could teach anyone anything.

She headed back to find the others. She looked down the aisle and saw a very familiar set of blue eyes looking down the aisle at her. She leaned in close and looked at the face of the baby and felt the pull in her chest. She needed to see a professional about this.

She turned the corner and found them, every last one, staring at one wall in an aisle that stood second to the last in a row.

A wall full of fireworks meant for Independence day.

This did not bode well for the woods they were living in. She took one of the boys by the arm and tried to lead them away from the aisle. But they wouldn't budge. She pulled on Jakob's arm but he shrugged her off. She stood between the boys and their explosives.

"What?"

Maji wanted to smack him and drag all of them away but didn't. They were her only way home.

Jakob checked the price tags and they all shifted away from the aisle. Once they'd paid for their groceries, they all piled back into the truck and headed back to the wood. She listened to the shouted conversations of the three boys sharing the truck bed with her and started to drift off. She put her head back against the brim of the truck and let the air at her ears drift her off towards sleep.

HONK

Maji woke with a start. She didn't have time to look around before the screeching tires and spinning world and shards of flying metal took her from consciousness.

***

Maji woke in a very white room. She looked around and saw that she wasn't the only one there. She was one of five. The other four were all still unconscious, the curtains pulled around their beds, but she could tell who they were. The three boys from the back of the truck- plus one. She looked at the shapes of bodies through the semi-transparent curtains and recognized the largest of the four: Jakob.

They'd both survived! She looked pretty rough, she could tell from the bloodied arms draped across the blue coverlet. When the others woke up, they would have to face what had happened.

Not that she even knew what happened.

The next few minutes brought a nurse with a jug of cold water with a bent straw. Maji asked for some orange juice. She was assured she would get some soon. She expected to have to wait till mealtime nonetheless. She took the offered glass and drank. It had been too long a night and she felt that somehow the worst was yet to come.

She didn't know how long she was out or how long the others would be. She could be in for a long wait.

The sun came through the window and right into her eyes. 93 million miles away and it still had perfect aim. The nurse closed the blinds without having to be asked. Maji tried her best to smile but she was too tired and in pain. Everything hurt. She leaned back on the pillows and drank some more from the glass. It tasted sweet and tangy. Not like orange juice, but close. Like something she'd had before, in a dream, or in a world far, far away.

Astral.

Just as before, the juice from the fruit put her to sleep quickly. She was falling away from the world she had been in and into another one, a different one. Flying, falling. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't keep it up. She had to be awake.

Which she was very shortly thereafter.

Just not in the hospital.

Maji looked around her. The familiar Astral cottage. She didn't know what happened. She looked at her arms. They were healed. It could be a dream, she realized. But she felt solid, unlike last time she'd been in Astral. She could feel her breathing and she was actually hungry.

Trina was there, as though summoned. She wrapped her arms around Maji's neck. She seemed so real, but Maji was sure she couldn't be. Maji looked out the window. It was a very different landscape than Astral's. It was a frozen wasteland. The inside of the house felt like Astral and looked like Astral, but this certainly wasn't Astral.

"Maji." Trina pleaded in the strange voice she'd had at first, so far away and distant, like it couldn't quite reach.

Maji woke in the hospital room again with a nurse standing over her bed. She looked away from the nurse as quickly as she could and felt the woman start to tend to wounds.

When the nurse finished, Maji settled down and waited for something to kick in and send her back to sleep. She could tell the boys hadn't woken up yet.

When the next seize of sedatives took affect, Maji let herself fall prey to the darkness.

She could hear screaming in the distance. It sounded familiar, like someone she'd known all her life. She followed the sounds to the lee of the hill. Some baneful creature, a woman as it seemed, screeched and howled and clawed at the shields around a hooded mage. She recognized the scene immediately.

That mage was herself.

She watched as the shields broke loose, as they had. Herself was thrown back by angry black nails. She grabbed a few chunks of raggedy grey hair.

The Bean Sidhe continued her rampage until the past Maji was lying bleeding on the ground. If Maji hadn't experienced the scene herself, she would have worried for the life of the wounded mage. At any moment, however, Morpheus would appear and save his minion. He always had.

Not that he was any safer than the Bean Sidhe.

Maji looked on as the Bean Sidhe screeched and screamed and howled her sorrows, soon followed by the tears of the cursed demon. Tears that were leaking from the red eyes, down the thin, white face.

The tears pooled along the figure's chin and dripped lightly down to the ground around Maji's feet, steaming as they struck the clean earth.

One drop hit on the toe of Maji's left foot, and Maji felt the burn anew. The burn that remained, all this time later.

The burn that had been real.

Maji woke up shaking. She hadn't dreamt the mages or Morpheus or Ellie. And she'd been living a life that wasn't a dream at all. She looked over at the curtains of the other beds and saw that they still hadn't moved. There were no clocks to tell her how long she'd slept or calendars to tell her how long she'd been away.

She got up and looked down at her bare foot, where the teardrop scar still tinted her skin. She got up and summoned her clothes. Her magic was weak but it was certainly there. Even the Gating that she'd done after Ellie was born hadn't been so draining.

She decided that Gating wasn't the best idea. She'd have to walk. She had no clue where she was going or how she planned to get there, but she had to move quickly. If she hadn't dreamt the magic, that meant that either she'd been kidnapped or this was the dream.

A dream she couldn't wake up from.

She went down the hallway, hoping to find an elevator or stairwell somewhere. Something was wrong. She had to get away from that place as soon as possible.

Maji tried to reach for her daughter, but even her own magic seemed out of reach. She found an elevator and climbed aboard.

The ground floor was waiting rooms and financial offices. Typical for any hospital. Maji headed straight for the door. No one seemed to notice. Outside, Maji could see nothing of the city where they'd crashed and when she turned around she saw no trace of the hospital either.

She saw empty hills, canyons, and cliffs, but no civilization anywhere. She marched forward, trying to feel for her child, as far out as she could reach. She could still just barely feel her powers, somewhere off in the distance. She kept walking.

The grass didn't bend beneath her feet, and the wind held her still when it blew against her. If she stopped trying to move forward, she wondered if the wind would push her backwards. She continued to push, beaten down and blown about. The hot sun, far hotter than on Astral, came down on her. She could feel it burning her flesh till the blisters rose, burst, and rose anew. The sticky, wet air soaked her lungs as she heaved for breath.

The landscape steadily changed from the hillside of neatly cut grass to orange ground and pink skies. A canyon at sunset. The sun still high, but the color of the sky was sunset.

Maji could see the smallest trail of cool water snaking through the chasm. She swallowed around the lump in her throat and took a blind dive into the canyon. The heat receded and something cool and slimy engulfed her body. When she opened her eyes, she saw the ground still quite a ways beneath her. Something was holding her up.

The matter beneath her began to shift slightly and she slid downwards, towards the wall of the cliff. She could feel the moving mass around her, taking her in and pushing her back out. It was an odd sensation. When she finally hit something other than air and the slick surface of the dome, she was standing on a small path along the side of the cliff.

She stepped back and felt something slimy brush against her elbow. She spun around and saw moss. Dripping, dark green moss. There'd been no water atop the cliff. The water was only down at the bottom, in a tiny river.

'A spring?' Maji looked around the small overhang to the path she'd fallen upon.

Small puddles of fresh water littered the orange rock, dripping from the green moss. She knelt down by one of the pools and cautiously cupped her hands beneath the surface. Like everything else here, the water could be a trap or a dream. But the heat was broiling and there was no other water to be had.

The jump had been a whim. A chance that she might be deposited in a less hostile place.

The water was cool to her lips. Most of the thirst she'd felt before vanished. She drank a few sips and sat down to look over the edge of the path at the river below.

The smell of the moss, dripping water. She felt herself slipping away. She was helpless against the fatigue. But she would be no help to her daughter this way. When Maji opened her eyes again, she no longer saw the bright pink sky or the orange overhang of the cliff wall. There was a greenish sky, bruised with brown clouds.

She sat up and glanced around her new surroundings. She could see nothing of the cliff. Instead, there were fields on every side, stretching off to the vivid yellow horizon. The sky was really a pale blue in the center, radiating out to a pale yellow along the ground. The clouds looked green in the odd light, casting their shadows in upon themselves. Maji watched them float upward until they were so small that she could barely see them. Just as soon as the sky would clear, the water around her would boil and steam, though they didn't feel hot. The sky would once again be filled with plumes of green-grey cloud, floating ever upward.

The pools around here were brown and filled with the moss she'd seen on the cliff side. She got herself out of the puddle and tried to dry herself off with some of her dwindling magic. No use. She would just have to stay wet and muddy. She looked around at the rising clouds and saw that one of the pools hadn't stopped boiling and the cloud above it was looking very weighed down. It hadn't even started floating away with the others.

Maji watched as the cloud began to sag and started pouring down shining rain, cooling the pool below. Drops of mirror fell heavy into the mud and moss and reflected the odd light up to the now silver-lined cloud. She waited for the rain to end and stepped over to the pool.

The pool had become a liquid mirror.

She looked down at her reflection. Her wings shimmered with silver tips and her eyes were glowing the blue that she'd passed to her daughter. Her hair had returned to its fiery red. She pulled a lock in front of her eyes. It was only in the reflection.

The sounds of boiling puddles erupted around her. It was probably a good idea to keep moving. She dodged several plumes of rising smoke and found herself in a strange kind-of-rocky landscape, where the sky was now clear blue and the grass green. The ground was sprinkled with small pink flowers and paths of mountain rocks sticking from the soft earth.

A sign stood at the edge of the grass, telling her to keep on the path that ended with the sign. She didn't know to handle the situation. Was she supposed to fly? She looked at the scattered rocks and sighed. She didn't know why she even cared about the sign. There was no one around to enforce it. She stepped forward, past the sign and into the soft green grass.

The grass was about up to her knees, and the wind made it dance across the hills. The rocks looked like breaks in an ocean of green. Maji took a few long strides across the lawn, feeling the blades crush under her feet while the surrounding brushed against her skin. She realized she'd lost her clothes somewhere along the road.

"Kee-off-rass!" Said something from behind her.

Maji spun around at the sound of the squeaky voice. When she saw nothing, she froze and waited for something to happen: probably something awful.

"Kee-off-rass!" The high pitched voice screamed again, a little to her left. She turned around again, but saw nothing.

Whatever this thing was, it wanted her gone. She turned and fled, keeping as low in the grass as she could. She could hear the scuttling and squeaking of lots of little voices behind her, at her sides, surrounding her. She heard a few voices start ahead of her and she froze in her path, pouncing down into the green sea.

"Kee-off-rass!" The creatures squealed from all around her, pounding into her naked hide; the fuzzy balls pounding mercilessly with their soft but strong bodies.

Maji looked up to see one of the creatures looking down at her and saw the pink fuzz and the almost purple tips blowing in the same breeze that shifted the blades of grass. What she had thought were flowers were the strange creatures that now pummeled her with such fluffy fury.

Maji pushed several of them off, sending them flying along with the breeze. She jumped to her feet and sprang into a run across the grass. She winced as she stepped atop several squeaky squirts and slipped onto a large and very painful rock.

"Kee-off-rass!"

Maji crawled up the rock when she realized that she was no longer being pursued by fuzzy, pink punks.

"Cute, eh?" said a voice from her left. She turned and looked at the boy, who was sitting on a nearby rock. She couldn't think of the things as anything but cute, but cute was supposed to be a good thing and they were decidedly not good things. She nodded and looked back as they fell to the grass in small clusters.

"What are they?" She asked, looking back to the small boy.

The boy was almost albino. Fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. Hitler would have come in his pants.

"They're Puffs!" The boy said, "They won't attack you if you don't step on the grass."

"Thus the sign." Maji said.

"That's why I put it up, yep!" The boy nodded.

"You knew about these things?" she asked.

"Of course. They're mine!"

"Yours?" Maji was skeptical. "How are they yours?"

"I made em." He said, watching the fuzzy puffs blow in the breeze.

Maji looked out at the boy's creations. "That must have taken a lot of power." She said.

"You really are new around here. Who are you?" He asked.

She didn't have to answer. He was taking it straight from her mind. Along with the rest of her story. Several memories brushed against her mind as the boy delved deeper. Mother, Lover, Partner, Servant, Student, Sacrifice.

The boy looked sad for a moment. She wondered if he was a mage, like she was.

"You must be very powerful." she said, "I can't even reach my powers."

"What?" the boy tilted his head, "You're in Astral. You shouldn't have any problems here."

"What?"

What could be blocking it then?

Reading her mind, the boy hopped from his rock to hers and put his hands gently around to the back of her neck. He frowned and closed his eyes. She could feel his power moving through her and through something at the base of her skull. Then, on something distant. Something far away.

"Do you feel what I'm doing?" he asked.

"Kind of." She felt something cold brush against the strands of hair on the back of her head, moving upward. She leaned into the touch, but the touch did not get firmer. She just felt it distantly from far away.

"You're wearing a Collar." he said, removing his hands, "And you've got a knot."

"A knot?"

"Your Silver Cord has a knot in it." he said, impatient. "You really are new here, aren't you?"

"I need to get back to my body." she said. "How do I get the knot out?"

"You have to find a gap between Astral and the waking world. You can project to your body and untie your knot from there."

Maji jumped away from the rock she had fallen on and onto another rock, further across the grass.

"I'm going to find my way back to my body." She said.

She could hear the boy following quickly behind her, but she paid him no mind as she leaped from one rock to another. She jumped to the edge of the grass and heard the lot of squeaky voices squeal a solid "Kee-off-rass!" before she sprinted onto the dirt path.

"Wait up!" the boy's voice echoed behind her as she kept up her pace. She knew that, with his short legs, the boy couldn't hope to keep up with her. Nevertheless, Maji refused to slow down. She would find someone else and find her way back home. Then she'd get the child, that missing part of herself, and escape to safety.

And kill her ex. That was important, too.

## Chapter 9

Maji slowed down at last when she saw the weedier plains come into view. She didn't know where she was going and she'd only come across one person for directions and they'd been vague. She kept moving on blistered feet.

"Wait!" someone shouted from a ways back. Maji stopped to let them catch up. It wasn't the boy she'd met before.

"Thanks." The younger girl said. "I've been looking everywhere for-"

She stopped and looked around, breathing deeply.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, fine!" the girl said, "Yer a mage, right?"

Maji didn't bother to answer. Of course she was a mage. Even if her magic was only coming in waves.

"Well, not everyone here is." The girl threw up her hands, "Some aren't even Human!"

Maji started walking again. The girl followed her.

"You know, I think they're sex demons!" She said, "Y'know- Incubi."

Maji had dealt with a few incubi over the years. When they weren't in a specific person's dreams, they got nothing out of seducing someone. Even if the Incubi were around, they'd have nothing to do with Mages.

For a while, they were both silent, though not companionably. Maji sped up a few times but the girl kept pace admirably.

"You got a name?" The girl asked.

"Yes." Maji said.

The girl sighed but kept walking.

Maji stayed silent through most of the girl's attempts at conversation. She had more important things to worry about than a teenager who reminded her too much of herself.

Soon, the weedy pasture turned into a rocky hillside, and to a very green, clean looking field. Maji was slightly hesitant to step onto the grass, though she saw no evidence of the Puffs. She watched as the younger girl jumped out and started heading towards an odd looking sanctuary. Maji slowly started to follow, observing the centerpiece carefully.

The spot was like a small, thin pyramid. The stone was a pale grey and the steps were short in size and large in number. There were steps on each side of the pyramid and at the top, there was a block with a plain-looking wooden door. The girl was quietly climbing the steps and Maji took a moment to admire her pale skin and black hair, falling lightly against her shoulders. In Astral, the girl wasn't as powerful as Maji was but she was definitely better looking.

The girl reached the top of the pyramid as Maji reached the first step. She saw the doors on the top of the pyramid spring open and sighed to herself. She would have told the girl not to go in, but what kind of hypocrite would that make her. She watched as the teen disappeared through the door before climbing to the top. She looked through the passage and wondered where the girl had been taken.

One step and Maji found herself floating in an abyss of stars. She had read about this place, and recognized it immediately. 'Astral Core'. They weren't really stars here, but doorways to dreams. She didn't know how she was supposed to get around in the core. Maybe it would be instinct. She would see those she knew differently, right? She looked around at all the grey, blue, pink, purple, red, yellow, and white doorways and made a note of the aura colors that could easily guide a knowledgable incubus.

There was no sign of the stray teenager anywhere, so Maji had to just let it be their parting. She didn't need to worry about another child when she had one of her own, filled with the missing parts of her own magic. She let herself fall through the space between dreams until she fell into an open doorway.

She didn't really care whose mind she ended up in as long as it was somewhere other than Astral Core. She wondered how she would return to Astral Plane. It was too late to worry about it. If she didn't figure it out herself, there was little opportunity to learn about it in the Core.

She felt wet and slimy as she fell through the gate to a very angry dream. She could have wished for a good, happy dream. But a nightmare was just as well... The mysterious hooded figures couldn't hurt her, anyway. She heard a child screaming and saw monsters run past her as they continued their pursuit.

If she remembered her research correctly, the best way to get kicked out of Astral was to finish a dream. She would need to wake the child up. A nightmare was better for that, right?

The monsters that were chasing the child were hardly works of art. They might need a little help. She was sure she could scare the child into an early morning.

Maji took a moment to admire the scenery of the horrific landscape she now inhabited. The air was cold and foggy and the sky was thick with black clouds. A few leaves still clung desperately to the limbs of the trees, fighting the breeze with their last bits of late autumn strength, while their comrades littered the ground beneath them. Distant lightning flashed and thunder crashed, and shocked the world to life. The wind howled against the thunder claps in a symphony of terror for any child as young as the subject of this nightmare.

The small child's screams grew quiet as the small body fell over the horizon, her blond hair whipping violently behind her. Maji wondered just how far the nightmare would reach if she were to head away from the frightened child; likely not very far. She hadn't read much on the subject of normal peoples' dreams, as she was neither a succubus nor a normal person. She'd never thought she'd need it.

Maji started walking away from the subject of the nightmare. She'd been expecting something horrible to happen when she got far enough away but the horizon just kept expanding in both directions.

She never would have thought she'd come across the child's past life. Of course, all children are naturally closer to their past lives but she'd never expected to find it at the edge of a nightmare.

But there was a house standing above the woods ahead and Maji knew she'd be going inside.

The front door looked normal enough as Maji walked up to it. The door creaked when she pushed it open. The room was covered in pedestals and statues and the floor was a rusty shade of red. In the dark, it looked like blood. She kicked a pillow out of her way as she walked toward the cushioned seats.

The seats looked as though the owners hadn't occupied more than the very edge of the cushion, leaving a small indention instead of the wear you'd expect from seating. She sat down like a normal person would sit and felt the center of the cushion squish under her weight. It felt like a violation, like she'd painted her name across the walls.

The sitting room was less interesting than she imagined the rest of the house would be. There was nothing here that could be used in the tormenting of a dreamer. She went to the hallway to the west and saw that she had literally dozens of paths to choose from. The hallway was lined with brightly colored doors and went on as long as a football field.

Maji picked a pair of oak double doors that led to a hallway that led down into a strange darkness. She fretted as she continued down the dark corridor, vaguely aware of the inclines and declines, tilts in different directions as the hallway went on. The change was subtle; another might not have noticed it at all. She was sure she'd started walking on the ceiling when she saw the end of the hallway.

Stairs. Stairs that led up to a metal door, like the emergency exits of a theater.

Maji was so glad to see some kind of exit to the hallway that she ran up the stairs and threw the door open with an echoing crash.

And found herself in the sitting room again.

She would not punch the wall. She would not punt the vase to her left across the room. She would not scream and kick the air and throw a temper tantrum. She was a full grown mage. A mother, no less. She was an adult and it was time to act like one.

Ignoring the sobs that were currently rising in her throat, Maji picked a staircase and left the sitting room again. She followed the stairs to a door that led to a hallway that had tons of doors that all seemed to lead to stairwells. Recognizing the hopelessness, Maji picked a door at random and went right up the stairs.

By the time she saw the end of the staircase, she felt like her legs would fall off. She had taken a few breaks to rest but it wasn't enough, really. She approached the door with caution and leaned against the perpendicular wall. This house was Hell and and a half. She caught her breath and gave her legs a bit of a rest and slowly opened the door, eyes closed.

And stepped out to where there was no floor.

Maji clung to the doorknob, kicking back at the ledge she'd stepped from. She was too high up to see the ground, but she could see flashes around her. She knew she was up much higher than she could survive if she fell. When her foot finally caught the doorway, her fingers threatened to break loose. She swung herself back to the top step and slammed her face against the wall she'd been leaning against. She slid to the ground and took a few moments to recover.

'I'd hate to be looking for a bathroom in this place.' She thought to herself as she slowly caught her breath and slowed her pulse.

Her trek down the stairs was somehow even longer than her climb up them. She was heavy with defeat. Maji worried memories of lengthening staircases and spiraling corridors, back when she was an assistant. She reached a door on her left, not all the way to the bottom. She was sure it hadn't been there before.

The door opened to a suite with red satin and purple carpet. Maji stepped inside to take a peek out the window to the left of the bed. She found herself looking straight down into the chasm behind the house, where she'd almost fallen at the head of the staircase. She recognized it immediately, because who could forget something like that, and wondered how she'd ended up facing the chasm she'd been walking away from.

Maji moved away from the window and ran her fingers along the soft spread on the bed. She suddenly felt very very tired. She could see and feel the dirt from her walk and the mud crusting on her feet from walking outside, and moved slowly towards the bathroom that accompanied the suite.

And saw her own, familiar bath within.

To say that she hadn't missed her bathtub terribly would be a terrible lie. To say that she'd been expecting it in some little girl's nightmare would be an even worse one. But she was tired and her legs hurt. Her mind was cloudy. It couldn't hurt to just stay here and wait for morning.

She threw her suspicions aside and lowered herself into the already full, steamy bathtub. She'd always found it hard to say no to a hot bath and her aching legs didn't allow her any protest. She let her head float in the soapy water and her legs swayed with the waves as she turned the leg jets on.

'Almost perfect.'

Something was still missing. But as the water moved and bubbled, her mind wouldn't focus on it any longer.

Maji let out a heavy breath that she didn't know why she'd been holding. She took a moment to look at the pearl décor. Morpheus gave her this bathroom for her own. And she'd made it almost pink. She'd transformed the bathroom upstairs on all her romantic occasions, dark with candles, so he would go inside. She'd been such a fool.

Maji took and deep breath and let the water sweep the stress away. Tactile and bubbling, she had something to focus on besides her thoughts. She pushed good things through her mind with force and thought about the bubbles. Nothing but the bubbles.

The water finally grew cold and Maji reluctantly climbed out. She curled up on the soft satin sheets, pulling the bedspread around herself. She felt like she could stay there forever. The smooth sheets put her to sleep, without dreams and without thought. Calm, restful sleep.

She rolled over, waking to realize that she was no longer surrounded by satin but by cold concrete. She opened her eyes and white walls surrounded her. The view from the window had changed as well.

Maji crawled from the white painted floor and knelt by the window to look out. She could feel something pulling her from her chest and knew that it was not her silver cord. This was something else. Anxiety rose like bile in her chest as she gazed at the charred landscape. The lavalanche structure of the ground spread out to the horizon, seeping and burning.

'What happened here?' She asked, sitting down on the bare concrete floor.

"Magic happened here." said a shaky old voice.

She spun around to face the stranger. The woman was clothed, Maji was glad to see, so she was either a figment of the nightmare or a fully trained Succubus. Maji looked her over, trying to figure out which. The woman looked familiar but not instantly recognizable.

There was a shimmer like cosmetic magic and for a fraction of a moment, Maji could see through it.

"Trina?" Maji asked in a whisper.

The woman nodded, a patient smile on her face.

"Your Cosmetic Magic-" Maji was going to ask why she'd changed, but Trina bid her to be silent.

"If you go out that window, you will have stepped into Astral." Trina said, "But while you stand in this room, so you're still in this girl's dream."

"How do I get back to my body?" Maji asked, wringing her fingers together slightly.

"Your Silver Cord must be pulled." Trina answered almost instantly.

"How do I get that to happen?" Maji looked at the window leading to a very bleak piece of Astral.

For a while, Trina was silent. Maji walked to the door that led to the bathroom before. She opened the door and looked at the storm of the little girl's nightmare. She turned back to Trina, who looked anxious and tossed a black metal object toward Maji.

A handgun.

She would have to shoot the child to get back to her own body. Maji had never used a gun before but she had a pretty good idea how they worked. She wondered if, when it came down to it, she would be able to go through it. This little girl hadn't done anything wrong. She'd been a random dream that Maji had fallen into. And for that, she would die in her sleep.

And then there was Trina. She didn't know why one of the mages would help her, even if it was Trina. Morpheus had turned his back on her and taken away her powers. She'd been cast out by the leader they didn't dare to disobey. But Trina was here, in disguise. Trina gave her a ghost of a nod and Maji stepped out into the storm.

She walked down the same path back and over the horizon where the little girl had run. It felt like it could have been days ago to Maji, but it was probably only minutes. Dreams only lasted minutes.

She trekked through cold mud that squished between her toes and reminded herself that it would all be over soon. But it was raining and then it was snowing and it wasn't her dream but she felt the cold all the same.

Maji saw the fuzzy outlines of monsters through the snow. Though they were every bit capable of killing the small child, they stood above her and just tried to look scary. She had curled into a ball at the base of a stone wall and was weakly sobbing into her hands. Maji remembered when she was small and frightened. Her heroes had betrayed her too, as all heroes eventually do.

Maji marched towards the monsters and noticed that they were paying no more attention to her than they had before. She stepped between them and looked down at the sobbing child. She was kind of pretty, but not a beauty queen. She had brown eyes and a few freckles. Her face was splotchy and red. Maji lifted the gun and pressed it to the little girl's forehead.

And hesitated.

She looked at the monsters that had been chasing the girl. One seemed to be male and the other female. Were these supposed to be her parents? Maybe this little girl had been abused. And now Maji, the only Human looking being here, was going to shoot her in the face. She closed her eyes and listened to the choking sobs. This was gonna suck.

She breathed out and pulled the trigger.

And time stopped.

The child and the nightmare evaporated as a tug at the base of her skull pulled her away from all of it, away from Astral, and straight to her body.

But it couldn't pull her all the way inside.

## Chapter 10

'A knot in my Silver Cord.'

Maji could see herself, her body, as it was suspended in the clear glass coffin. The coffin floated among other coffins in the otherwise bare room. She looked through the other coffins at the mostly unfamiliar faces. They all wore the same kind of silver collar that was welded around her own neck. She squinted to see one of the faces in a far corner - a face she thought she knew. The girl from Astral.

The girl's collar was gold rather than the silver like all the others.

With the knot keeping her from going back into her body and the collar keeping her from using her powers, Maji saw no option but to abandon her body here and go find her daughter.

The hallway outside was filled with gold. Gold frames on gold tinted pictures, gold rails along gold speckled staircases, and gold vases sitting on gold rimmed pedestals at every available spot. She wondered why there hadn't been hardly any gold in the house they'd shared. She had to stop herself from thinking about the girl with the gold necklace. She knew what that meant and she would only feel worse if she lingered on it.

Maji climbed the staircase and realized that she couldn't hear her own footsteps and that made the house way too quiet. She listened for some kind of sound from anyone, though she'd be better off if she were completely alone. Just herself and all the others, frozen in the crystal coffins.

'There must be someone.' She thought. She finally reached the top of the steps and went through the door. She'd been keeping her eyes down, by habit, so all she saw was the red carpet that stretched from wall to wall and the golden embroidery on the rug atop it. There were voices coming from the end of the hallway, barely audible. She followed the rug to the opposite wall and straight through to the other room.

"Elliana, you know better than that!" said a spiteful old man, "Your father's word is law. You must obey him in all things."

"But Ana said-"

"I don't care what 'Ana' said." the man said, "Your little imaginary friend does not have more say than Lord Morpheus."

Maji stormed through the room and threw her fist right through the old man's neatly combed hair. So this was how Morpheus planned to get her power under his thumb. Was it because her reeducation failed? She turned to her daughter who seemed to be looking right at her. She noticed the silver collar locked around Ellie's neck. Was this a punishment or were they keeping the child from using her powers?

She was so much more grown up than Maji'd expected. She was a good two and a half feet tall and her hair was long. Had it been years since Maji was put to sleep?. Ellie had her father's nose and Maji's eyes. She had curls that could have come from either of them but black like her father's and skin the color of coffee.

'Can you see me, Ellie?'

The girl tilted her head. 'Are you my Mother?'

Maji looked her child in the eye. Technically, yes. She was her mother. But she didn't remember carrying her. She hadn't seen her grow up this far.

The old man was still shouting and ranting above them, but it didn't matter. They were having- a moment? She was supposed to be telling her child how much she loved her and how badly she wanted to just hold her. She was supposed to throw her arms around Ellie and hold her tight. But she didn't do either of those things.

She did cup the child's cheek and watch the skin turn pink with the chill.

Ellie looked back to the teacher, who had paused to expect an answer.

"You're lying." The child said calmly, "Father can't control my powers. He can numb them and he can lock them away but he can't make me use them."

"His control of your powers is not the point." he said, "You must obey him in everything else and your powers are no different."

The doors behind her opened and Morpheus stood primly in the doorway.

"It's time for your training, Ellie." Morpheus said, crossing the room faster than should have been physically possible.

"Father." Ellie addressed, standing up as straight as she could, almost teetering backwards.

"Have you been giving Professor Smith trouble?" He asked. His voice was just rough enough voice for Maji to tell he'd hit the brandy already. That only happened when he was stretched too thin.

"She refuses to do the training exercises." Professor Smith answered.

Morpheus rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. "We talked about this, Ellie. It's just like your tutoring. If you don't do your training, you'll lose privileges."

Ellie huffed and looked right at Maji.

And Maji realized that this wasn't abuse. It wasn't a father trying to control his daughter's mind. Maybe it was just a kid refusing to do her homework.

But then why the collar?

She swiped her hand through her daughter's and told her to run as fast as she could. She didn't know if Morpheus could feel her presence, but if he could, she would try her best to distract him.

Ellie ran a few paces while Maji threw her fists into her former lover, ashamed of the feelings she'd had for him. Her punches were met with no response as he walked right through her and advanced in long strides after his child. Her breath caught somewhere in her nauseous stomach as Ellie tripped and fell to the ground in a frightened sobbing heap.

"You've been a bad girl." Morpheus growled, plucking the girl from the floor as though she weighed no more than a feather and carrying her to her room. "I'm sorry sweetie, but you've forced my hand."

Ellie kicked and struggled, but was no match for the very large man that her father was. He bent her over his knee with his hand on the small of her back and raised his other open hand above his head. Maji held her breath as that titanic hand came down on her child's bottom, and winced at the 'crack' and accompanying cries from the impact.

The ritualistic beating went on for long enough to have Maji shaking on the floor in impotent rage. She waited for Morpheus to walk away before she crawled over to comfort her child. She looked at the face swollen from crying, still dripping wet. There was nothing Maji could do.

She sat on the bed while her daughter tucked herself in. Slowly, Ellie began to drift off to sleep. Maji had the perfect opportunity.

She touched the sleeping child's temple and found herself standing in Astral once again with her daughter standing in front of her.

In one smooth motion, she picked up the child she didn't even know and cradled her in her arms. Maybe it was the magic they shared that pulled Maji toward her daughter, but she couldn't bear the thought of not holding her any longer. Here, they were safe. Here, they were together. Here, there was no Morpheus.

Ellie relaxed into the embrace and Maji immediately started to rock and hum to her baby like she was never able to do before. It had to be the magic causing this. She had no logical reason to feel this attached, but she felt sick that she hadn't been there to watch Ellie grow up and that she'd allowed the collar to be strapped on the child's neck.

"Talk to me." She said. She wanted to hear her daughter's voice, saying sweet things. She wanted to hear innocence and happiness in that voice, though she knew that she wouldn't. She wanted to hear that voice anyway. She wanted to hear her and she wanted to show her how much she loved her, to show her Ellie joy.

The joy she felt in holding her daughter, her missing piece.

Even if it was just the magic pulling them together. It was something that should come naturally for a mother. If it didn't come naturally for her, the magic was there to help. But there was something artificial and fake about the way her heart beat faster when she looked at those blue eyes, so much like her own.

Maji closed her eyes and listened to the soft breathing of the small figure in her arms. This wasn't what it should be like to hold her first born child. But was this special for Ellie? Did her child feel a connection more real than her mother felt?

Her own mother had been there when Maji was little, but she'd left when they were barely older than Ellie must be now. Maji had no idea what she was doing with a child. She couldn't pretend that the road would be smooth even if she could be a mother now. Were the years before now so important or were the years after, which Maji had missed with her own mother, enough to raise Ellie right?

Love or no, Maji was her mother. She had a responsibility. She couldn't just walk out.

A noise behind her froze the tension in the air. Ellie's breathing quickened and Maji turned to face the intruder. The girl she'd lost in the Core was looking down on them. She smiled at Ellie and was received with a hero's welcome. Ellie bound from her mother's arms and threw herself around the waist of the pert teenager.

"I'm Ann."

"Ana keeps the bad people away!" Ellie said.

"Morpheus' been up to some of his old tricks. Certain people are taking notice."

Maji could only imagine how many of Morpheus' enemies would go after a little girl to get to her father. Morpheus would do the same thing to them, without hesitation. She ran her hand through her daughter's thick, dark curls. It helped but didn't chase away the fact that her daughter was in danger. She had been for a while.

They had to get her somewhere safe, soon.

"Do you think Trina could help?" Maji asked, "She still has her powers! I don't and I don't think you do."

"Frankly, I think anyone we asked would help." Ana said. "But Ellie's body will still be in danger."

Maji felt back to her body and could still feel the collar around her neck. It never stopped her from reaching out to Morpheus. Maybe it wouldn't stop her from reaching out to Trina.

"You know, I used to have some wicked powers!" Ana said, "I think if someone can get the collar off of me, I can get us through Morpheus's wards."

Maji heard a strange noise from over the nearby hill. She reached for her child, like she would reach for any child in danger. She pulled the teen towards her as well.

'Maji? What's happened?' the voice of her former mentor rang in her mind, making her jump.

'Ellie's asleep.' she wrapped her arm around Elliana, 'We've got her here in Astral.'

There was a mental nod and the connection cut.

Maji turned back to the sounds that had not only failed to get clearer but seemed to be getting closer. Maji hoped Trina would be joining them soon. If that sound was any of the types of Astral beasts Maji was thinking of, they really needed someone with powers intact.

A crack like thunder was heard over the hill and hundreds of mice scurried towards them, cutting to each side like around a three. Maji watched as the number dwindled and most of the rodents had fled the scene. They'd been scared of a bunch of mice?

'It wasn't mice when I got here.'

Maji looked up to see her mentor walking languidly down the smooth grass of the hill.

Trina no longer looked like and older, ragged version of herself. But without any glamour at all, she looked nothing like the angelic beauty that had overseen her own Newling training. She had brown hair and a flatish chest. Trina looked like a real person, proportionate and imperfect.

Maji could feel her shoulders finally relax as the stronger, unleashed mage joined them. Ellie buried her face in Maji's shoulder but no more scared than the average little girl was with a stranger. Maji rubbed her hand across the child's back in small circles. It was strangely satisfying to feel the muscles relax under her touch.

'It's rude not to introduce us.' Trina chided.

'Have you ever known me to have manners?' Maji responded.

"Anaral, dear," Trina waved her hand in blatant dismissal, "Would you go take a peak over that next hill and tell me what you see, please?"

After a good huff, Ana went. She climbed the hill and peered over at the horizon. Maji could hear Ellie's breathing quicken as Ana got farther away. Ana let out a word too grown up for Ellie and bolted down the hill.

"What is it?" Maji asked, clinging Ellie closer to herself.

"Giant. Thing." she said. Ana was out of breath already. Physical materialization took power and that was one thing they didn't have much access to.

On the other hand, they had the 'giant thing' to deal with.

Trina didn't seem too concerned, so Maji shook the concern from her own mind. There was surely nothing to worry about.

Ellie relaxed too, apparently reacting to her mother. Ana seemed to be having trouble calming herself, but she'd taken a knee and was breathing. Maji used the chance to send query to her mentor, a pressing questioning.

'It's really just Ellie.' Trina said, 'She expects danger around every corner. There was nothing there till we had to wait to see if anything was there.'

'Her powers?'

'She seems to be able to use her powers here, even though she couldn't use them in the physical plane.'

'Even with the collar?'

'She is your daughter.'

Maji could hear the large steps coming towards the hill that shielded them from whatever beast her daughter had created. She watched the hill, waiting to see evidence of the things Ellie had seen at such a young age, haunted by her father's enemies. She heard Trina mumble something by her side.

Something familiar.

Ellie fell limp into a deep subsleep. She wouldn't be creating anything as long as she remained in that state, which left the three of them free to worry about real dangers. Trina moved to calm Ana, who was still in panic. Maji closed her eyes and pressed her face against the face of her sleeping child. She could feel the power going back and forth between them, like water through a grate.

Ellie was beautiful asleep. She looked like her father but soft in a way that Morpheus would never be. Maji kissed the child's forehead and soaked in the feeling of the small, warm body in her arms that felt so right.

'Enjoying yourselves, ladies?' came the deep tones of her former partner ringing through her head like a loud siren in the deep of night.

'Until you showed up, Morpheus.'

'Don't you know it's rude to have a party and not invite someone?'

Maji backed away from the man who'd appeared quite too close to her and felt a boot connect with her side, as it had so many times when she had been his servant. Ellie slipped from her arms and Maji reached out to her only to be met with another blow from Morpheus' boot. She didn't know how the man managed to be so damn powerful, even when his magic was powering the suppression collars. Professor Smith took the child into his arms and disappeared with a whish.

"Kidnapping is also a bit rude." Morpheus said, approaching Maji.

"I could say the same to you." The pain from Morpheus' previous blows to her side made is painful to talk.

He tsked, shaking his head, "Didn't I teach you better than this?"

Maji's retort was cut off by a boot to her left cheek. When she looked up, Morpheus had disappeared and Trina was lying impotent on the ground. Ana crawled to the older mage and helped her up. Wounded, but she wasn't dying.

Anaral looked up at Maji, her eyes shiny with tears. Maji never would have pictured the perky teen in pain but everything was too real. She choked on the air that still reeked of expensive coffee and tried to wrap her mind around everything that had happened.

"What now?" Ana asked, "What about Ellie?"

The truth was that Ellie wasn't actually in danger with her father. She was maybe even happy when she wasn't resisting homework.

Maji curled her knees up to her chest and hid her face. She didn't know how long she'd stayed there, but it was long enough for Trina to recover a bit.

'Don't worry, Maji.' Trina said, though her telepathy betrayed her feelings. She was more worried than Maji. "We'll get her back."

Maji searched the feelings Trina sent though their link. There was a trace of something she couldn't grasp. Something far back and kept away.

'We won't.' Maji stood from her spot. 'She's safe, physically, with him. We just need to be with her.'

Ana climbed slowly to her feet on shaky legs and stared into Maji's eyes.

No words came through but Maji could feel the sentiments. Anaral would follow her to the ends of the Earth for Ellie.

"Are you coming?" Ana asked Trina, aloud.

As if she needed to ask. Trina reasserted her Cosmetic Magic and beamed with her angelic smile and perfect hair.

Like so many times she'd gone on missions for Morpheus, she had herself a team. They were ready and willing and devoted to their cause. The two of them stacked their hands, Trina's magic wrapping around them. Maji reached out to lay her hand on top, as she had so many times as the leader of the team.

She felt a familiar tug at the base of her skull.

The glass coffin no longer surrounded her and the knot no longer bound her Silver Cord. She gazed hazily up at the soft white ceiling until a dark figure obstructed her view.

"Wake up, Pet."

Maji screamed and reached to claw at the collar, but her body was still too numb. He lifted her with little effort and placed her on something soft. Her mind was so blurry. She let her body relax into the soft cushion and embraced the touch of strong hands in her hair.

Something reached out through the haze, some from her reaching for something lost. Ellie.

Maji sprang up, throwing the hand away from her head. He tried pushing her back to the bed. She pushed him away with strength she didn't think she had and raced from the room. She was no more clothed than the last time she'd been here, though the reality of muscles, unused and cold, slowed her. She threw herself out the door and into the hallway. Magic buzzed through the tiny silver ring around her neck.

"Pet!" Morpheus called. The name had lost all its charm. "Marjorie Knight!"

Maji chose a direction and ran. She didn't know how fast Morpheus was. She'd never tested it. And she didn't know how much slower she'd become in her months of pregnancy and her years of instillment. But still she ran. She threw open doors that she knew led to more hallways, stairways, and corridors. She threw herself through mazes and traps doors, throwing herself away from her disgruntled ex.

'Maji?' Trina's mind voice called in her head, past the collar and past the loud sounds of her own racing thoughts.

'Trina? I can't find Ellie, and he's after me!'

Maji felt Trina break away for a few moments before Ana's presence appeared, stronger than she'd ever felt it. Had Ana lost her Collar? She heard rapid, heavy footsteps following her own. Morpheus was catching up.

'I'll be there in a moment!' Trina said.

'No! Get Ellie! Help her!'

'But Maji!'

'Go!'

Maji cut off the connection and refused every attempt to connect. She kept him chasing her for as long as she could before she fell exhausted in a room without an exit. This would be a good place to die.

## Chapter 11

Elliana's heart raced as she ran through the hall. She could hear Trina and Ana behind her. She'd been given her powers back, or maybe she'd broken loose of her father's control, so her speed and agility came back as well. She wished she knew how to do real magic and not just the pathetic tricks Professor Smith had taught her.

She had to save her mother! She wasn't entirely sure why. Something inside of her pulled her forward. Trina'd told her what her mother was doing and Ellie couldn't let that happen. She had to go find her. She could feel her mother straight ahead of her, like she felt her own arm. She was weak and tired but still alive.

Which meant that her father was toying with her.

Her father who'd always been there for her. Her father who'd put a collar around her neck to dull her magic. Her father who loved her and protected her. Her father who'd locked her mother away so she'd never know her. Her father who loved her. Her father who was going to kill the only thing that felt right in this world.

Ellie was far from sure but something pulled her forward.

"Ellie!" Ana rounded the corner behind her. Ellie didn't want to wait but she couldn't just leave them there. Even if she'd never met Trina, she felt something there. Maybe she was just feeling her Mother's connection. She slowed down slightly. She could feel her mother's power steadying. As far as she could tell, Father wasn't hurting her. He's probably talking. He always talks.

Where did that thought come from?

Ellie stopped and looked back to the others. There was something happening within her, like a growing. An outgrowing.

Her body felt tight and unnatural. Not her own.

"Ellie, it's alright!" Trina gasped, "She'll be fine till we get there..."

"They're in the next hall." Ellie said.

"If we storm the room, he'll kill her." Trina studied her for a moment, concerned. "If we sneak in, we may be able to save her."

Ellie had little choice but to follow them. She let Trina and Ana go ahead of her and followed them silently. Trina kept looking back at her as if she were a puzzle to be figured out.

Ellie could tell where her mother had stumbled along the hall. She could tell what had happened, where, and how. Things she should be able to feel along the carpet of her manor. She could feel her mother's fear and she could tell it wouldn't be long before Morpheus did kill Maji. But there was nothing she could do. She wasn't just marching towards the fight, she was already in it.

This hallway was darker than the others and pieces of glass crunched beneath their shoes from a shattered lighting fixture. Was it Maji's doing or Morpheus'? Ellie took Ana's trembling hand and felt it relax. When had she become the strong one? She reached out and tried again to touch her mother's power. She found nothing but resistance. It wasn't just the collars. It was a bit them, yes, but if Maji reached back, they would touch.

Her mother knew how badly it hurt to know and see and feel what was happening but not be able to help. Of course she knew all about helplessness! She knew what it was like to have a loved one in danger and not be able to do anything about it. Maji had seen her newborn child taken away from her and then was locked away in another world. Of course she knew helplessness! And Ellie could feel all of that in her.

But still, she wouldn't reach back. She resisted the pull of her very own magic and refused to reach out to her daughter, whose magic felt like a missing limb to her. Ellie had always felt this, a numb ache in her spirit. For seven years, she'd felt it and felt it sharply when her mother finally woke. And her mother was resisting her.

Ellie looked down at the small shoes that had been put on her feet and felt really out of place. She felt that she should be bigger, older, and better in the time that she'd lived already. Sure, she was short and didn't eat like her father told her to but she doubted that the feeling was just for that. She should not be this young. She didn't feel this young.

"Ellie!" Ana whispered, signaling for Elliana to join them in a wooden doorway that she knew all too well led to the room where her mother was cornered.

"Father's in there." She said in a voice that sounded entirely to high to be her own.

"Can you get us a position?"

Ellie tried her best to show Trina the scene that unfolded behind her own eyes.

Her mother on the floor, shaking with pain. Her father standing over her, horrible light in his eyes, terrible power in his hands.

Trina threw the door open almost immediately. Morpheus spun around and unleashed what he'd been holding for Maji in their direction. Trina deflected it, though not easily, and Ana took Ellie and got away from the battling two. Maji would have distraction enough to escape.

Several crashes later, Trina fell into the hallway with Morpheus sauntering out behind her. Her cosmetic magic was gone and every wrinkle and flaw was stripped bare. Ellie looked into the angry dark eyes of her Father and felt something turn in her stomach, conflicted feelings for the man who'd cared for her all her life.

But there was the pull deep in her chest. She charged on her own father with fists flying. She closed off all her connections with anyone but him and forced all the power she could through that connection. All the anger and hurt that was flooding in through that hole deep inside her. She threw herself into every hit, every kick. She bit, she clawed, she tore away at his shields. She fought like a cornered animal, desperate and scared, filled with emotions not even her own. When she finally finished, she saw that he stood before her with barely a scratch on him, while her knuckles and wrists and knees and toes were broken and bruised and bleeding.

The tears swelled up in her eyes as she fell to the ground, torn between relief and frustration that he was unharmed. She reached out to her mother but she found nothing. She searched the room with her mind but found no trace of the woman she'd fought so desperately to save. She reached out to Ana, still curled up, terrified, against the walls, and found nothing but hurt and memories.

A younger Morpheus, his hand outstretched to her, "You will be mine."

An unchanged Anaral, taking his hand, "Yours."

A ring. A Collar. A satin sheeted bed.

And then nothing but Astral.

The memories stopped and Anaral shot herself at Morpheus like a bullet from a gun. She threw as many punches as she could until Morpheus had her pinned against the wall. The golden collar hummed with the effort of holding her back. She turned her head away so Ellie wouldn't see the tears as she lost consciousness.

Ellie felt it too. The haze of magic filling the hallway as Morpheus, unburdened by the need to protect himself, put all of them to sleep. She let herself go back to the safety of Astral, where Trina and Ana were already waiting.

Her mother was barely there, like a projection losing power. She hadn't been able to stop her father from hurting her. Ellie was pulled into bruised arms and buried her face quietly into a shaking shoulder. She felt almost whole, like if she could just crawl inside this magic, so close, she could be complete. Trina's hand combed through her hair.

"Be calm, little one." Trina whispered, putting her hand in Maji's hair, "I think I see now."

Ellie watched her, curious.

"Reach out to every part of yourselves." Trina said to mother and daughter, "Physical, Mental, and Spiritual."

Ellie looked to her mother and saw the slightest hint of a nod. She closed her eyes and calmed her breathing. She didn't know exactly how it all was supposed to work, but she felt something like instinct kick in. Like she'd done it a million times before. She reached out to her fingertips, the alien ones and her own which reached out further than her childish body, and to the tips of her toes, much further, longer, stronger than the ones she'd been stuck in.

She reached through every strand of hair, every shed of skin, and every bead of sweat. She reached her entire self and felt the painful constricting, stretching, and readjusting that she knew was what she had really been reaching for.

She felt something inside her: a familiar presence that had always been there but always out of reach. Like a missing piece of herself. She let it flow through her, change her, and make her better. She was better.

A tear hit Ellie's face. She looked up into her mother's eyes. Her real eyes.

Maji felt her spirit reaching out for its missing piece, buried in the body that should be her daughter.

But it wasn't her daughter. Never had been. The missing piece of her own soul, forced into a body that should never have been.

Ellie stood on longer legs and pushed her hair from her face. She'd changed so drastically, grown so fast. But every part of her knew that this was her. This was right. Her skin was pale and her nose was too large. But it was hers. And Maji's.

Maji pushed herself from the grass and put her arm around Ellie's shoulder, as if to kiss a warrior goodbye. Elliana felt for Anaral and found her slowly drifting in and out of consciousness. Still alive, unafraid but not able to hold on much longer.

But where was Morpheus? Morpheus who had ripped her from her whole, put her in a body fake as a doll, and raised her as his own.

Elliana searched her links for her father. She could feel him in a safely locked room with a comfortable chair. His breathing was slowing. He was coming in after them.

"Mother," Ellie said, stomach coiling with how right her voice was, "Maji. Ana needs help."

Trina closed her eyes and focused, "She's alive but she needs to be moved somewhere safe. She didn't get gated to the safe house."

Ellie searched her mother's mind, the missing whole of her own, and found the Safe House where Jakob, their friend, had been waiting for their return. If they were hurt, wounded, or unconscious, they would be automatically gated to him. They must have cast the same magic on her but not Anaral.

Morpheus lifted from his body and appeared on the Astral Plane with the three of them. Even with her increased height, Ellie was much shorter. He towered over her and felt for her through the link.

"You think a Transformation will help you?" He asked.

"I don't." Ellie said, "What good is another Transformation on a fake body?"

Morpheus shifted. There was nothing left he could do, no way to salvage what he had lost, and he knew it. When Morpheus lunged at her, Ellie was ready for him. He used the same kinds of magic that he'd used before to defend himself. But Ellie was stronger and faster this time. She met him blow for blow and found herself still standing when he fell back.

"I can't let you walk away from this." She said.

Ellie took Morpheus by the hand and pulled him back to her. She assessed their entire beings till she could feel everything, mental, physical, and spirit. She closed her eyes and heard his sharp intake of breath as she took him to the one place she knew where he would have no power.

It was a place she'd once created for herself. A place where he was immaterial.

Maji watched as her daughter and former lover disappeared before her eyes in a puff of smoke. She reached out and felt her daughter's strong, stable energy. Matters were well in hand. Elliana was not alone. She had never been, really. Maji needed to follow them. She searched the link and knew exactly where they'd gone.

She closed her eyes and felt her entire body disappearing into the Hell that she'd seen before. The ground was the same charred black that it had been the last time she'd seen it. Anyone who didn't know better would assume that a volcano had erupted itself to rubble.

She looked along the horizon for Ellie and Morpheus. She knew that the battle had been fought before they'd come here and that Elliana had won. Ellie, that missing piece of herself. The girl who now looked like a clone of herself. The girl who kind of was a clone of herself.

She found Ellie several yards away, standing over a begging, broken man. Maji rushed to her clone's side and took in the torn clothes and singed hair that damaged her appearance. Ellie herself, however, seemed unharmed.

"What happened?" Maji gasped, taking a burnt strand in her hand. At least they could be told apart now.

"One last attack." Ellie said calmly, "And I stopped him."

Maji looked down at her ex, bare without his cosmetic magic. She remembered her own weakness, the weakness at his hands, when he had suspended her body and locked her magic away from her. She'd been stripped bare too. But now he was exposed and she was strong.

Maji saw Ellie's hand wrap around something that was barely visible, like a thin, silvery thread, at the back of Morpheus' neck.

His Silver Cord.

With a small nod, Maji gave her permission. Ellie was a part of herself, wronged just the same. It was at her discretion to do what had to be done.

Ellie took the Silver Cord from her own neck and wrapped it gently around his. This was the only way. He snapped his jaw open in a silent plea.

With a smooth movement, Ellie ripped his Silver Cord and bound it to the spoiled land beneath them. The hot black rock took the Cord immediately into itself. He would be in prison there, forever. His mental screams echoed through Astral as he struggled against the rock that slowly crept up his Cord. The charred blackness chipped off in places but continued to climb. The hand he held around the Cord was soon covered with ever climbing crust.

Elliana and Maji watched as the black rock consumed him completely. His screams silenced as the hard soil buried him deeper and deeper, further from the surface. When his cries had died out completely, Maji looked at the resolved face of her other self.

Ellie's silver cord tied her to a fake body. A body that wouldn't exist without Morpheus's magic. Ellie was tied to nothing.

Maji pulled on her own Cord to take them to the safehouse. Trina was waiting there for them.

"Is it done?" She asked.

"At a price." Maji said.

Elliana's form was fading in and out. Without Morpheus's magic, she was little more than the piece of soul taken from Maji, doomed to run dry and fade away.

The funeral was quiet. Mages came from all around to see with their own eyes. Some with dread for the next leader to emerge, some with relief at the end of a tyranny. Maji shook hands as condolences came in for her lost daughter, found in the same room as her father. Cause of death: heart failure. For both of them.

As the crowd finally dispersed, Maji felt a strong hand grip her shoulder from behind. She grieved the life that could have been more than either of the official deaths. Only a few people could really understand. She squeezed Jakob's hand.

She couldn't help but remember his frightened eyes the morning all of this began. Her sacrifice and the sacrifice of her coven. Then she'd sacrificed Ellie, too.

"I know where you want to be." He said softly, "We'll join you shortly."

With that, Maji was dismissed.

She went upstairs, where there was no one to bother or distract her. She sat down in her usual, straight backed chair, and opened her eyes to the small cottage, a tiny piece of Astral she'd created for herself and her other self.

Ellie was barely there at all anymore. She was a clone, yes, but a different person entirely. And she was scared.

It wasn't long before Trina, Ana, and Jakob were able to join her. It was quiet, then. There was still one last decision to be made.

"If we become one again, you'll get my personality too." Ellie said. "You won't be the same."

"I know." Maji said.

"You don't have to do this." Ellie said.

Ana, who'd known Ellie long before she knew Maji, wiped her nose on her sleeve and sniffed pathetically before looking up with a smile and sad, sad eyes, "She's right. You have the right to choose. Everyone deserves that."

"I've made my choice." Maji said, cupping her clone's cheek. "Neither of us will be like we are now, but we'll both still be here."

"It will be like dying." Trina said. "You won't be you anymore."

Maji stood before her clone and three friends with a decision in her hands. They all knew what her answer would be, and they all knew which path she would choose. Ellie looked at her with that steady gaze that Maji had never been able to pull off. She was a different person. Maji would be a different person.

Could Maji make that sacrifice?

"It won't be much longer." Ellie said.

Her hand was disappearing completely down to the wrist.

Maji pulled Ellie onto her lap and felt her through their link. It was stronger than any link she'd ever had. She felt every inch of herself and reached out to feel every inch of Elliana. their fingers intertwined and Maji's sprit curled around her missing piece.

Ellie closed her eyes and let go of herself.

Maji reached to the back of her neck and wrapped their silver cords together. If this didn't work, it would be the end of both of them. If it did, it would still be the end for both of them. But it would be the beginning of something else. Would she remember any of this? She wasn't sure. She didn't think so.

The cords were wrapped tight. Just one tug and they'd both go into the same body. They'd both be Maji.

Maji closed her eyes and let out a long breath.

She pulled.
