Aliandra: nymph: Book 1 The Nymph chronicles (23 page)

Demeter read through all the paperwork and declared it to be entirely in order. Demeter summoned the woman forward, then she signed and passed it to Ali to sign. Brand and the lady witnessed the signatures and Demeter finished it off with her seal of office. Ali thanked Demeter and they bowed and left with all the paperwork safely stored.

Ali and Brand then went to Hades to explain Ali's plan and ask for the disputed territory. Hades was feeling generous so he didn't quibble about details and he signed the contracts after he read them. The papers were quickly witnessed, stamped and stored. Ali signed off on her favor contract with Hades that his end of the bargain had been fully met. Ali sent word to Demeter that the contracts had all been signed with Hades and Ali now owned the disputed territory fully. Hades and Persephone's suits were then measured and their new suits designed and stored away. Hades asked if his act was convincing enough to warrant more time and Ali said she would grant him exactly six days of time with his suits before presenting Zeus with his armor. Hades grinned cunningly.

Ali and Brand then visited the shambling and crumbling apartments to fix them up quickly before they could bring any children in to care for them. Ali pushed her healing energies into the earth and the arid and polluted soil became healthy and clean. Trees, grasses and bushes revived and blossomed. Ali used her powers to strengthen the walls of the apartments that were situated against a sheer cliff. Ali cleaned up, painted and furnished the apartments with the required furnishings in each room. She then stocked all the supplies, children's clothing and finished her checklist. Brand had been outside working at piling up dead trees and clearing debris. Finally Ali spread out her senses to encompass the entirety of her new lands and fixed anything that needed fixing. Ali added playground equipment, toys and cleared a play area. Finally they were ready to bring in the children.

Brand and Ali 'ported all the injured and weak children directly to their beds in the apartments. They spread the word to the mothers what they were doing and assured them the children would be cared for and free to do as they wished at maturity. The mothers listened with expressionless faces. Ali said she would take in any children under two because they were too young to survive the scrum and she would return regularly to check the welfare of the children in the scrum to removed weak or injured ones to care for them. Ali asked the mothers to bring weak, younger or injured children to her territory should they them notice before her. The mothers looked at her blankly.

Ali returned to the apartments and immediately began feeding and caring for the children. Ali was so overwhelmed with the work she decided she needed help. Ali went into her window and closed it. She entered the ancient plane and met the commanders and explained what she was doing and that she required help caring for the children. The commanders asked around all the families, a mix of eight young and elderly women volunteered to come out to help Ali. They followed Ali out the window and set to work feeding, caring and healing the children as they went. There was always someone on watch to take care of any child through the night if it was necessary. As the children became healthier they remained cautious and reserved. Still not the behavior of healthy, happy children. Ali and the women remained patient, encouraging and caring as they watched over the children in their care. Ali regularly checked the scrum for children that needed her care.

As time went on, demon mothers were leaving younger and younger children in the scrum and Ali got busier. Hades heard all about Ali's efforts and was satisfied that he was the one who benefited from this arrangement because the mothers were returning earlier to full duties and underworld resources were not being wasted on raising weakling brats that would not survive anyway. Soon. mothers were bypassing the scrum and leaving their infants on the edge of Ali's territory for her to pick up. Soon the apartments were full of children and infants yet more were delivered daily. Ali sat down tiredly to figure out what else she could do to keep up with the demand.

A shabby young woman appeared and startled Ali. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"I am raising demon children away from the scrum so that they might survive to maturity. I am, Aliandra, the new owner of these lands" she replied. "Who are you?"

"I am Martris, titan to this part of the underworld. Like Tartarus, I am linked to earth connected to the underworld" she replied. "What are you to Hades?"

"I make armor for my regular work. I have a paid contract to make Hades and Persephone armor and deliver it before I deliver the armor of the other Olympian gods. Hades agreed to me having the disputed land to repay the favor of delivering the armor of Persephone early. Demeter agreed I have the land for the task of raising the children in safety, for this land to act as a buffer between her and Hades and to prevent Hades from owning the land. I have all the contracts and treaties if you care to see them" offered Ali.

"Unnecessary. You would not be in possession without the approval of Hades and Demeter. Why do you heal me? What do you want?" asked Martris suspiciously.

"I ask nothing to heal you. I heal the earth because I can, no payment is required. I would like us to be friends and allies if that is agreeable to you" offered Ali. "I will continue to heal you but I must ask you not to discuss me or my powers with others because that may endanger me."

"I will agree if you will heal me entirely" she stated.

"I accept. Step forward and let me put my hands on your shoulders. I can power you up too if you like?" offered Ali.

"Yes!"

Ali poured her healing energy into Martris then assessed her power element and powered her up. Martris stepped back in shock and waved her hand to replace her shabby clothes with a new draped dress. "You are powerful, Aliandra. More than I expected. Why are you in hiding here?" asked Martris curiously.

"I have hidden enemies and some keen unwanted suitors I wish to avoid. At the right time I will draw out my enemies but until then I must appear weak to make them confident enough to make their moves before they are aware of my true power. I do not hide here. I wanted to do this work to make amends for demon blood that was spilled at the launch of my new armor" explained Ali. "Why were you so concerned about Hades?"

"Hades chooses to torture, violate and injure my land, my body, to pillage all that he wishes. I send fire down my tunnels to chase away the demon workers. I tried to defend against his abuses but I was weak until now. Now the pain of drilling, my bleeding walls and the unending persecution stops. I have a chance to defend myself thanks to you" said Martris.

"Martris, there will come a time soon when Hades will be in open conflict with me. I ask you not to go to war alone against Hades, he is too strong. Defend yourself by all means but I ask you to patiently wait for the right time before you openly declare war on Hades. When we are ready, we will fight Hades together with our allies and we will subdue him. At this time, I ask you to be subtle about your attacks on him so that he does not suspect any major changes have taken place and does not connect us. Hades will protect me until I deliver his armor and then I expect him to attack me. At this point, I need his protection to dissuade other Olympians from coming after me. Will you agree to this alliance?" asked Ali.

"Yes, I will strike him stealthily so he will not suspect us. Until then, is there anything I can do for you?" asked Martris

"I don't think so. I was just trying to work out what I need to do. We have so many children and infants to care for we are running out of space. I was thinking about the building and how to safely extend it or build it up so we have more room for the children" said Ali.

"Aliandra, I am the earth, I am the walls of the building, I am the cliff, I am the land that you stand on. Now I am strong, I will make those changes for you now and it will be done safely, quickly and quietly. I will continue to make any changes or extensions as you need them. I will build tunnels and rooms in the cliffs for you so the changes are not obvious. Soon you will have raised an army of demons to fight Hades" said Martris.

"I cannot ask them to fight against Hades. They will be free to choose what they want to do at maturity. If they return to the underworld they must obey Hades" replied Ali.

"We will make certain there is plenty of room for them to remain here. Then they will choose to fight for you, Aliandra" rejoined Martris.

One of the older girls, about six years old, that was pulled severely injured from the scrum had developed a raging fever. Ali sat by her bedside all night soothing her and wiping her brow. When the girl went into convulsions, Ali ran a cool bath to ease her fever. Towards morning the girl went into fits and began vomiting. Then Ali was surprised when the girls body began to extend, her limbs grew until she was the size of an adult then she lay quietly and slept. Ali fetched some adult clothes and dressed her then watched over the girl until she woke. The girl looked down at her new body and stood "I have now reached maturity, what do you wish me to do?"  she asked.

"You are free to choose. If you wish to return to the underworld then you may do that. If you wish to remain here and assist with the other children's care then you are free to do that. I doubt there are many other choices for demons" said Ali.

"I will stay and assist" she said as she left to begin work.

"They mature at seven years of age? I didn't expect that" said Ali to no-one in particular.

As the months passed more children matured and chose to help Ali with the younger children. More infants arrived and Martris made rooms for them. One of the matured boys approached Ali to ask if he could send a note to his parents. Ali said he could and she would send it to them if he liked. Ali spoke to the other children and said that they too could write notes to their parents and she would have the delivered. She asked Brand if he could arrange messages from the children to be delivered to their parents. Brand messaged back 'Yes'. All the messages were handed in and Ali 'ported them to Brand to distribute. Brand 'ported messages from parents to the children which Ali passed on to the children. Once a week there was a regular exchange of messages between the children and their parents.

It was a long while before any children took to the playground or played with toys. Soon there was laughter and energy throughout the apartments and around the grounds. Slowly hope and trust returned to their eyes. Ali still felt overwhelmed with the work and had to do the accounts and sleep in her window to keep up. She worked hard but was happy. When Ali checked the scrum she found that mothers were not bothering to leave their children there but delivering the infants to her directly.

Ali paid a visit to Brand. She told him about the children's antics and the joy she got looking after them. Brand asked to visit her and the children. Ali agreed on a day and left to return to the children. The day Brand arrived the children crowded around him curiously and asked him many questions. They quickly put him to work and got him to sit down and tell them stories. The boys particularly liked Brand's battle stories. Girls confidently snuggled around him and eventually drifted off to sleep. When Ali walked in, Brand was holding a sleeping two year old in his arms and he was surrounded by sleeping children. Ali called in two matured girls and they set to work carrying the children to their beds to sleep. Brand tucked the two year old into his bed and stroked his head to settle him back to sleep. Ali then got Brand to help spoon feed some toddlers and warned him to expect it to get messy. It wasn't long before Brand had competently fed the children and he called for Ali about what to do next.

"Clean them up and release them. They will wear themselves out soon enough and be ready for their nap" she said laughingly. Ali waved her hand and the feeding area was clean again, ready for the next shift. "Maybe run around outside with the kids and wear them out." Brand enjoyed all the hands on work and running around outside with fifteen little ones chasing him everywhere. By the end of the day when most of the children were settled in their beds Brand and Ali were on a couch resting with infants gurgling in their arms and sleepy children snuggled in on either side of them.

"I didn't realize how hard you worked here" said Brand.

"It does get hectic but it is fun as hell" she laughed. "I love doing this."

"You will make a great mother, Ali-cat" said Brand seriously as he gazed into her eyes.

"Why aren't you a dad yet?" asked Ali.

"The underworld is no place for any child of mine. I chose my companions because they were barren and after being raised in the scrum I decided never to have children."