The Generator: The Succubae Seduction (81 page)

“I helped hide her,” Shemhazau states, his form solidifying before me as the now familiar forest and stream scene surrounds us.

“Why would you do that?” I demand of the man, clenching my fists and teeth.

“Because I was afraid,” the feminine voice says. I spin around to see a young woman with Lisa’s blonde hair and blue eyes looking back at me. She’s a little taller than Lisa had been, and she doesn’t possess any of her mother’s self-confidence. I can see something in the shape of her nose and jaw from me, but her age is impossible to tell. She could be eighteen or forty, instead of only a matter of weeks old.

My heart aches with a pain I had thought mostly under control as I look at her, wanting to take her in my arms and hold her tight, but also terrified of what this all means.

“How is this possible?” I ask, turning back to my father, but he’s no longer there. Apparently this is a moment for my daughter and me, without her grandfather.

“I’m a child of your minds,” she tells me when I turn back to face eyes that are the same as my late lover’s. “I was conceived before she died, and developed at the speed of thought.” Her feet shuffle as she talks. My mind seems to struggle to understand what she’s telling me.

A child of Lisa’s and my minds? Developed at the speed of thought? I had no idea such things were possible. What then does that mean for Angela? I’d made my sperm potent when we’d been together earlier today, not three steps from where I’m standing now. Is there another child suddenly developing in here, or is it with her since she still lives? My head starts to hurt, trying to figure this out.

“Why did you want to hide from me?” I ask, trying to grasp at anything I might be able to understand.

She remains silent for a while, and just when I’m getting ready to ask again, her voice breaks as she tries to form her response. “I didn’t know you. I may have developed in your mind, allowing me to speak and learn, but I watched as you went up against the Pillar of Fire, and lived. I could tell how conflicted you were concerning having kids, and didn’t want you to hate me. What if you thought I was a monster?”

“Hate you? A monster?” I repeat her words stupidly, somehow trying to make sense of them.
How could I ever hate one of my children? Much less Lisa’s daughter?
“I could never hate you,” I tell her, still dumbfounded and reeling from the revelations that are trying to swamp me.

In the blink of an eye she vanishes, but I don’t wonder where she’s gone for long as I feel her arms wrap around my torso, hugging me tightly.

“I’m scared, Dad,” she cries into my chest. My arms go around her automatically.

A chill runs down my spine as she calls me Dad, the unfamiliar word getting applied to me. I’d grown up without my parents and in a way so had she. Can I be the father she needs me to be? What if I screw up and make a mistake?

Knowing that no matter what I do, I’ll never be perfect, I hug my daughter closer to me. “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” I tell her, knowing my words for lies, but not certain what else to say.

“That’s not true,” she chides me, but doesn’t pull away. “I don’t know if I can become the Pillar of Air like she wants. I don’t even know how to get out of your head.”

Just like that, I’m dumbstruck again. I had completely forgotten about Gaia and her plans for my daughter.

“We’ll have to find someone else,” I tell her simply, unsure just how I’m going to do that. “I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I tell her fiercely, meaning it with all my heart.
How strange
, some part of my mind wonders,
that I could suddenly grow to care so much for someone that I didn’t even know existed until just a few moments ago.

“No, I know I need to do it,” she tells me, for a moment sounding much like her mother. “I’m just scared. The worlds need me. I can’t turn my back on that. You wouldn’t, and my mother wouldn’t.”

Powerful pride fills my chest at her words; while at the same time fear for her clouds my thinking. “Where did you learn to be so responsible?” I ask her.

For the first time she laughs and my heart breaks all over again. She laughs the same way her mother used to. “From watching you, of course.”

Shaking my head, I’m suddenly embarrassed at some of the things I’d been up to. The scene with Gaia as well as being in here with Angela earlier, just to name a couple. And my daughter had been watching. . . .

“I don’t even know your name,” I tell her to get rid of those thoughts. I don’t think I’m ready to have the talk with her just yet. Or for that matter, I don’t know if I even need to have the talk now.

“That’s because you haven’t given me one,” she tells me through her mother’s sweet laugh.

My mind immediately goes blank. If this is what parenthood holds in store for me, then my children are in serious trouble! “Is there a name you’d like to have?”

Her head pulls back for the first time since she started hugging me, and I see her blue eyes sparkle uncertainly. “Yes, but I don’t know how you’ll feel about it.”

*     *     *

I stand alone, fidgeting in a circle, wearing nothing but a loincloth. My legs are buried to just below my knees in the ground. The air outside is still, much as it has been since Fujin’s death, and it has warmed enough that I no longer feel chilled in my almost nakedness. In fact, a small rivulet of sweat can be felt slowly rolling down my back as I nervously wait. Gaia had wanted me completely nude for this, but I’d refused, on the grounds that I didn’t want to bring my daughter into the outer world with me completely naked. The irony of that thought isn’t lost on me.

Becky had responded the most about the news that I had a daughter with Lisa. At first she’d been angry that I’d kept it from her, and it took some time to convince her that I hadn’t known until just barely. Then she’d been hurt that I’d chosen to have children with Lisa, Sheila, and even Blue, but not her. I didn’t even know she wanted children. I wisely chose not to tell her that I may even have gotten Angela pregnant. She refused to listen to the fact that I didn’t know or mean for it to happen in either case. Then she demanded that we hurry up, and get this over with, not speaking to me again.

“Are you ready?” Alloria asks me, stepping suddenly from the tall grass that surrounds the perfect circle around me.

I nod and sense my daughter nodding too. Now that she’s no longer hiding from me, and I’m aware of her, it’s easy to feel her presence.

Alloria holds her arms out, and I can just make out the blurry form of Air’s Mantle in her hands. “Then Lysa, I call you to come forth and take up the Mantle of Air as is your destiny.” At the sound of the name my daughter chose, a combination of Lisa’s and mine, I feel something inside me shudder. “I command you to leave the body of your father, and enter the world.”

Alloria’s commanding voice continues to implore Lysa to step free of me, and take up the proffered power. My insides twist and knot as I feel her try to break free, the power of whatever spell the elf is casting helping her.

“How will she be compatible with Air?” I remember asking the Earth Mother, remembering that only Angela had been capable of taking over for TanaVesta because of her ties to fire. Neither her mother nor I are tied to air.

“Because she is a child of the mind. She has no solid form of her own, and is the best suited for this task.” Gaia’s words had been soothing. I realized at the time that she was trying to calm a concerned parent.

“What will happen to me when I take it?” Lysa asks me, and I repeat the question for Gaia.

“I suspect that there’s a good chance that you may be blown away as she tries to wrest control of it. That’s why I have a wide open field prepared for this.” Gaia’s eyes met mine, and I realized her next words were for Lysa. “I can’t promise it’ll be easy for you, but you really are our best hope in this, and I know your loyalties will lie with the young Generator.”

A sharp pain between my eyes brings me back to the present. Something indistinct is pulling away from me, coming out from my mind and reaching for Air’s Mantle. Internally I cheer my daughter on, willing her to take up the Mantle and become the next Pillar of Air. I try to shove aside all my doubts and fears for her, knowing that this needs to be done. I still worry for this daughter that I didn’t even know I had, but after talking to her in my Mens Mundi, I know her to truly be Lisa’s daughter; strong of heart and mind.

Lysa’s shadowy hand touches the rippling item in Alloria’s hands and suddenly gale force winds knock me painfully to the ground. My not entirely healed wounds from TanaVesta throb in agony as the world seems to spin around me. I have no doubt that if my feet weren’t securely locked in rock, I would have been blown away just as Gaia had said. As it is, from the pain in my legs I half suspect that something is broken or torn.

Thankfully the gale lasts for only a few seconds, and then is gone as quickly as it’d come. Alloria bends over me, smirking, and I wonder how she’d stayed upright during the whole thing. Sitting up, I see that the grass in all directions has been laid flat, swirling out from the circle as though a tornado had swirled them down. My loincloth has vanished at some point as well.

Alloria mumbles some sort of spell and the ground around my feet opens up. I’m able to pull my legs free. Both knees hurt when I try to put my weight on them, but I manage, doing my best not to look damaged in front of the self-righteous elf.

The long walk back to Gaia’s domain is thankfully shortened by Blue’s arrival, and she carries us back up to the room where everyone else was waiting. Thankfully she also brought me a change of clothing. I try not to act too smug about Alloria having to hold onto me on the dragon’s back, and I’m sure she tries equally hard not to slip a dagger between my ribs or knock me off.

I grunt painfully when Brooke and Becky slam into me, pressing me back against Blue. I can feel Areth hugging her body against my cheek, her feet on my left shoulder, and a moment later Sheila takes the initiative and joins the group as well. I want to tell them all that I’m alright and that they didn’t have anything to worry about, but the thought of my daughter out there, trying to cope with untold power keeps me silent. At least Becky has forgiven me.

“If you three hug him any tighter, I’m going to have to consider this an orgy and join in,” Jennifer laughs.

“Only because you want to be with him, too,” Becky says and I see the large-chested woman’s cheeks burn red. Apparently the brunette’s comment struck something in her.

“Everything went well, I take it?” Jewkes states and I see that Jennifer’s comment or reaction has embarrassed the older man. I know he’s married, so why does he keep looking at Jennifer like that?

I see that Emmet is tied up in a corner, and Ondine has her head bowed, standing directly behind Thomas. Where Emmet is standing and facing me, Ondine is acting as if she’s a prisoner.

“She won’t talk to us,” Brooke whispers, seeing where my gaze is. “After you left, Thomas convinced Gaia to let her into his room and she came back out acting like a beat puppy.”

I’m torn for only a moment. Thomas has been a good friend to me, but I can’t stand seeing someone act as Ondine is. Even Sheila doesn’t act like that when she’s in full slave mode.

Gaia already knows what I’m going to ask before I do, and I see her nod my way in approval. How long has she been watching me that she can read me so well? I don’t miss the strain in her dark eyes, and wonder how much effort she has to put forth, just to be here with us right now? She’d said that two new pillars would add to her workload.

“Gaia,” I say, concerned for the pillar, “I know you’re under a lot of stress. Please rest while we recover.”

Mother Earth looks at me for a moment before nodding. A moment later she melts into the floor.

I’m surprised to see Alloria smile at me. At least, until she catches me looking, and turns it into a glare.

“Ondine,” I say, trying not to grimace at the way she jumps at the sound of her name, “I’ve got a plan in mind to defeat Aldol, but I’m going to need you to do something for me.”

“What do you need of her?” Thomas asks, stepping forward.

“I’m sorry,” I tell the older man, trying to sound as if I really am, “but I’m afraid it’ll have to remain a secret. Only she and I can know if my plan is going to work out.”

“I don’t like it,” he says slowly. “She can’t go.”

Despite how Ondine has been acting, Thomas’s statement catches me off guard.

“She . . . can’t?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. “I think that should be her decision.”

“Ondy is my woman now,” he tells me, using her name from Marchosias’s nightmare world. I detect a quaver of nervousness to his tone. “What she does affects me now, and I won’t let her do something that might put her in danger.”

“We’re all in danger,” I state, my voice growing hard as I try to control myself and make sense of what’s happening. I wouldn’t mind his attitude, if Ondine wasn’t acting so poorly. “I want to hear what Ondine has to say for herself.”

The corners of Thomas’s mouth tighten as he grimaces, but he turns to the brown haired mermaid and commands, “Tell him, Ondy, that he’s wasting his time.”

She looks between us for a moment when Thomas steps aside, and I can see indecision in her gaze. I watch as she chews on her lower lip in thought for a few seconds before dropping her gaze back to the floor, her shoulders slumped. I’m certain she’s about to agree with her boyfriend, until I hear her voice break as she speaks. “If I can help save our worlds. . . .”

“No!” Thomas shouts in a pained tone, and I can see his face begin to turn red in rage. “I forbid it, Ondy. You are my woman, and I won’t—“

He cuts off as I shoulder him out of the way, grab Ondine’s wrist, and pull her to the room I’d used as my own earlier. Gaia’s nod had let me know that she would allow Ondine to enter my room, and I hear a thump behind me as Thomas runs into an invisible barrier, trying to follow us. The look on his red face as I close the door on him is nearly priceless.

Ondine starts to talk but I hold my hand up to silence her. Placing my other hand against the wall next to the door, I close my eyes and concentrate. The scene on the other side unfolds in my mind. Thomas is raging at Gaia to be allowed into my room, but either she is resting and can’t hear him, or she’s ignoring him. Everything he yells can only be heard in my head and I realize that this room is soundproof.