"You can't call me Uncle Mike until you get the age right," Michael insisted, glaring at Serenity as she stared at him innocently.
They were sitting on a set of willow chairs that were growing out of the ground in a shaded forest grove. Taxti was helping Aurora work on her cloning magic. Joline was talking with Melody and Harnketi on the other side of the grove. Harnketi must have been using magic to block sound, because he couldn't hear anything from their little group. Leesha and Cormic were standing a few feet away, wide grins on their faces as they watched Michael face off against Serenity.
"I think you'll find that I can call you Uncle Mike," Serenitydisagreed critically. "See, watch: Uncle Mike. That's logic."
"Don't you have school or something," Michael asked plaintively.
"It was cancelled," Serenity replied brightly. "Apparently, when the President gets abducted by an advanced entity, it's a big deal. They were also afraid of collateral damage when they launched an airstrike on the circle, so they evacuated everyone in the county."
Michael gaped at Serenity in astonishment, leaping out of his seat. "Wait, what?"
"You say you're not old, but now you're making me repeat myself," Serenity teased with an impish grin. "Which part would you like me to repeat, Uncle Mike?"
The leprechauns were bent over holding their knees for support as they laughed uproariously. Michael didn't even notice them as he focused on Serenity.
"The President was abducted?" Michael demanded, aghast. "Who abducted him?"
"The Creator, apparently," Serenity answered with a shrug. "He was asking Shelley and Jessica for information about the Creator, so she appeared in the room with him and asked what he wanted to know. Apparently, he called her a demon and tried to banish her in the name of Jesus. She didn't like that, so she took him on a little journey to teach him perspective. Everyone in the government started freaking out after that and decided that it was Rhapsody's fault."
"When's this airstrike supposed to arrive?" Michael asked hollowly as he fell back into his seat bonelessly.
"They called it off when Rhapsody paid them a visit and said she was going to banish them to another world if they didn't start playing nicely," Serenity replied with a chuckle. "You should have seen it. A few even wet their pants."
"How did you learn about all of this?" Michael asked suspiciously.
"We were curious what Shelley and Jessica were talking to their bosses about, so we did some scrying to spy on them," Serenity explained without a trace of guilt. "It sounded like it would be more interesting on the other end of the line, so we switched to watching the President. It was definitely more interesting on that side of the line. We didn't find out school was cancelled until we teleported there and everything was locked up. We went back home and got on the internet to figure out what was going on."
"How did the public find out the President was abducted?" Michael asked with a puzzled crease to his brow. "I would have thought they would keep that a secret."
"Taxti said it was because they needed an excuse to launch an airstrike on US soil," Serenity replied vaguely. "Who knows why politicians do anything?"
Michael rolled his eyes as she finished. Serenity was eleven going on sixteen. His eyes were drawn over to Taxti as she laughed at something Aurora had said. She was not what he had envisioned when he thought of a faun. He thought they were supposed to have furry deer or goat legs. Taxti's legs were completely hairless. Her bare legs were a marvel of inverse design, with a pronounced, backward bend above cloven hooves. Every line of muscle spoke of explosive speed, like a coiled spring. Her slit dress made her legs distractingly visible.
She glanced over at him and winked when she caught him studying her again. He blushed and quickly looked away. There was something overwhelmingly sensual about the beautiful faun that made it hard to think straight when he was in her presence.
"Are you blushing?" Serenity asked him innocently.
Michael glared at Serenity. If he didn't know better, he would have said she was taking lessons from Rhapsody on teasing.
"Can you hold that look while I get a phone?" Serenity asked quickly as she fished around in her pockets. "That glare while you're bright red makes you look mean as hell. We need a pic."
Leesha and Cormic dissolved into another fit of laughter as he sat in sullen silence. It was so much worse because it was an eleven-year-old humiliating him.
"Don't you have some magic lessons to learn or something?" Michael asked acidly.
"Aw, don't be cross, Uncle Mike," Serenity pleaded in a contrite voice. "I'm just teasing you. Didn't Mystery ever tease you?"
"She wasn't much of a teaser," Michael replied with a sigh. "She had two moods: moody and moodier."
"Why was she so moody?" Serenity asked curiously.
"Our parents were kind of assholes," Michael answered with another sigh. "Bad things happened to Mystery, and they didn't have her back. It destroyed her sense of safety and trust until she met Rhapsody and Harmony."
"What happened to her?" Serenity asked, her eyes full of concern.
"Things that should never happen to a kid," Michael replied shortly. "What have you been learning from Taxti today?"
Serenity stared at him silently for a moment as she realized he wasn't going to give her any details. She let out her own discontented sigh as she slid down lower in her seat.
"Nobody tells us anything," she complained sullenly. "They won't tell us what happened to Mom or Aunt Harmony either."
"Maybe you should be grateful for that fact," Michael told her pointedly. "Sometimes it's better not knowing the kinds of things humans will do to each other."
Serenity stared at his hard eyes in silence before her own eyes filled with tears. Michael cursed his careless mouth as tears began leaking down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry, Serenity," Michael said with a wince, his voice gentle. "I just don't want you to dwell on those things. They've moved on to happier memories. Let it go and help them enjoy the time they have now, rather than reminding them of less pleasant times."
Serenity nodded as she wiped at her eyes. He suddenly realized how she must feel, knowing something horrible had happened to her mother and aunt that she loved so much, but not knowing what. It was difficult for him to empathize due to his own dislike of his parents. He could see how much Aurora and Serenity loved their mother, however. It was the way it should have been for Mystery and him.
"Mystery used to show up at all my basketball games at school," Michael told her with a reminiscing smile, hoping to change the subject. "At my height, I was practically forced to play basketball. Our parents never showed up for anything like that, but Mystery wanted me to feel supported, so she always showed up. Even though she struggled with depression, it never stopped her from being my big sister. She always tried so hard to turn all my birthdays and other holidays into big events. I'm ecstatic that she's finally found the support she's never had in life before now. Your aunt and Rhapsody have finally brought her beautiful spirit out of hiding and made her feel safe. You have an amazing family, Serenity."
Serenity smiled tremulously and nodded her agreement. "I suppose you're family now too, Uncle Mike," Serenity told him in a brittle voice. "I guess that makes you pretty amazing too."
"It's true, I am pretty amazing," Michael agreed with a confident grin. "You know, Michael means 'like unto god',"
Serenity rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "You're a godless heathen."
"According to my Xbox gamer tag, I'm actually God's Owner," Michael declared condescendingly.
"I dare you to say that to Deighvy," Serenity grinned challengingly.
"Uh, on second thought, maybe not," Michael said quickly, looking around warily.
Michael turned his head as he heard voices coming closer from the trail that connected to the grove. Agent Black and Agent Monroe were discussing something humorous, if the grins on their faces were any indication. They paused when they saw the others, looking surprised. Michael gave a friendly wave as Serenity jumped up and ran over to them.
"Hey Jessica and Shelley, did you hear the news?" Serenity asked excitedly as she gave them a quick hug. They stiffened as Serenity hugged them, tentatively returning her hug as if it was an unfamiliar custom they had heard of but never tried.
Michael chuckled as the thought occurred to him. They were going to get a lot of practice with hugs in the near future. Serenity and Aurora were hug monsters.
"What news?" Shelley asked curiously as Serenity released her.
"They cancelled school today because the President got abducted," Serenity informed them conspiratorially. "Then they were going to drop some bombs on us but had a sudden change of heart. They evacuated the whole county."
The two agents looked stunned at the news, sharing troubled looks. Shelley pulled out her phone and tapped on it for a while before rolling her eyes with a sigh.
"I'm kind of hoping they push their luck, and Rhapsody just relocates them to that other world," Jessica declared in exasperation. "They are seriously like a bunch of ignorant children. Can't they think beyond their own lust for power long enough to make an intelligent judgement? You would think they would spend a little more time gathering intelligence before making such rash decisions."
"Just let it out," Shelley told her partner supportively, a small smile on her face.
"Sorry, that's been building for a few days now," Jessica sighed with a rueful smile. "I needed some kind of catharsis, or I was going to explode."
They were interrupted as two versions of Aurora ran over and hugged them. Shelley hesitantly returned Aurora's hug while staring at her clone in confusion. Jessica was likewise staring at the clone hugging Shelley in perplexity.
"Thanks for getting us out of school today," both versions of Aurora said at the same time as she stared up at the bewildered agents. "Now I had time to finally figure out how to clone myself."
Shelley looked down at Aurora awkwardly as the preteen held onto her and grinned up at her face.
"You're welcome?" Shelley replied, more a question than statement.
"Rhapsody said you two have been deprived of physical affection too much in life, and that we're supposed to give you lots of hugs," the Auroras told them through mischievous grins. "That works out well, because we love giving hugs."
Shelley tittered nervously as she hesitantly pat Aurora's back. Michael grinned as he watched the nervous agents with amusement. He was just glad that he wasn't the brunt of their mischief.
"So here's how it is done," Aurora informed them patiently. "I wrap my arms around you, and then you wrap your arms around me and pull me in tight, like you mean it. Ready, set, go!"
The Auroras pulled the two of them in tightly and this time they received a proper hug back.
"You got it!" The Auroras congratulated them with broad smiles. "It's nice, isn't it?"
The two agents had amused smiles on their faces as Aurora released them.
"It is pretty nice," Shelley admitted with a warm smile. "Thanks, Aurora."
"Any time," The Auroras smiled back at them brightly. "And I mean any time."
Michael covered his mouth to hide his smile as he watched the agents slowly softening under Auroras' onslaught. They didn't stand a chance against the affectionate bundle of energy.
"So, you can clone yourself, huh?" Jessica noted in fascination. "What kind of practical application would you use something like that for? How real is the clone?"
"It's great for multitasking," Taxti answered as she joined them, looking the two agents up and down appreciatively. The two of them flushed scarlet under the frank appraisal. Michael stared at the agents curiously. Were they celibate over at the NSA or something? These two were nearly as bashful as he had heard Harmony used to be.
"For instance," a Taxti clone spoke up from behind the agents, eliciting a startled gasp from the two of them. "If you're working on a project and you're short on time, cloning yourself to make an extra set of helping hands can be extremely useful. Then there are all of those times when you curse whoever designed the human body to only have two arms. Now you can just clone yourself, and voila, you've got four hands. As far as sensations, it depends on how much focus you put into your clone. Most human magic users might be able to make a clone like Aurora's that contains enough substance to embrace a person, but that would only be after decades of discipline and practice. Making a clone requires you to split your consciousness and control two bodies simultaneously. Adding sensations to that clone is beyond all but the most skilled human magic users. That's mainly due to how short human lives are. By the time a human has attained the discipline to make a clone with sensations, they're almost dead."
"How is Aurora already able to make a clone if it takes so long to master?" Jessica asked with a frown.
"Serenity and Aurora are special cases," Taxti answered with a fond smile at the two girls. "They are very old souls, so learning new things is aided by their soul memories. They are already advanced enough to partition their minds and think with two threads of thought simultaneously. This is a skill that very few humans throughout history have ever mastered. As world trees, Harmony and Mystery will be able to split their thoughts into dozens of threads before they complete the transition to world trees. They'll eventually be able to achieve thousands or even millions of threads. Rhapsody is a classic example of what they could achieve someday. She could create millions of clones that were completely realistic and capable of sensations. I would guess that Aurora and Serenity will be able to handle close to a dozen within the next two years. Their transition to becoming world trees will be much swifter due to the skills they are developing right now."
Aurora and Serenity beamed at Taxti, their excitement at becoming world trees almost physically palpable.
The two agents wore mirror expressions of intrigue as they studied Aurora and Serenity.
"Is it rare for older souls to incarnate here?" Shelley asked curiously.
"Extremely rare," Taxti replied gravely. "So rare, in fact, that Rhapsody had to invite them from far away to come and help save this world. In the half-million years that Rhapsody has been a world tree, they are the first souls to incarnate here that have surpassed fifty incarnations. These two have incarnated so many times that I can't actually count it, and I'm pretty good at seeing how many times a soul has incarnated."
"Really?" Shelley asked in fascination. "How many times have I incarnated?"
"Just over thirty," Taxti replied with an impressed smile. "You are nearly old enough to have been a candidate for a world tree. Before Mystery and Harmony's family came here, you two would have been the talk of the magical realm. Most souls incarnate at most, three times in the mortal realm. You two are very special."
Michael bit back a grin as he watched the two women flush with pleasure at the statement. He had no interest in knowing how old his own soul was. He could feel what he thought of as a heavy weight that echoed into eternity.
"How old is Uncle Mike?" Serenity asked curiously. "Maybe that's why I think he looks so old. Maybe his soul is really old."
Taxti smiled at Serenity's statement and nodded. "You would be correct. Mystery didn't come alone into this world. While he isn't as old as Mystery, I would hazard a guess that he is near your age."
"So can I call you an old lady now?" Michael asked with a triumphant grin.
"Only if you want your legs put on backwards," Serenity told him sweetly.
"You can do that?" Michael asked in amazement.
"Declan taught her how to do that," Taxti sighed, rolling her eyes. "Leprechauns used to think it was funny to put people's legs on backwards when they were disrespectful. They used to put people's faces on their torsos as well. They had a very anatomical sense of revenge."
Aurora and Serenity stared at Taxti in horror, their eyes full of disgust.
"They put their faces on their torsos?" Serenity demanded in revulsion.
"Yep," Taxi nodded with a laugh. "They only did that to humans who were extremely offensive. You would think it would have been a lesson to the rest of them, but the humans never learned. The worst offenders usually ended up with their faces on their backs."
"How hard is magic to learn if you don't have an ancient soul?" Jessica asked curiously. "Rhapsody mentioned that humans would be able to use magic again after all of the world trees were active again. Can anyone learn magic, or do you have to be born with the gift or something?"
"Anyone can learn magic," Taxti assured her with a smile full of promise. "When Rhapsody is finished with… whatever it is she is doing, we were planning on unlocking your magic potential. You too, Michael."
"We'll be able to do magic?" Jessica asked in awe, her eyes becoming watery.
"Yep, you'll all be magic users," Taxti nodded with a wink at Michael. "Then you can learn what else clones are good for."
Michael felt his face heat up as Taxti caught his eyes and held them with a look of sensual promise.
"Ew, gross," Serenity made an indelicate sound, her face screwed up in disgust. "There are still kids here, Taxti."
"What's gross about dancing with your clone?" Taxti asked innocently.
Serenity stared at Taxti suspiciously. "That's not the way you look at someone for dancing," Serenity declared, her face making a valiant effort to look knowledgeable.
"How old is your soul?" Michael asked Taxti curiously.
"The same age as Rhapsody's, Michael," Taxti answered blandly.
"Did we know each other in other lives?" Michael asked with a frown. While Taxti's physical form held no sense of familiarity at all, there was something about her presence that felt extremely familiar, now that he was looking for it. He felt the same thing with Aurora and Serenity. He felt like they were people he met in a dream every night but forgot the dream upon waking. The sense of nagging familiarity was like an itch he couldn't scratch as the whispers of a dream teased his waking mind.
"Probably," Taxti replied, her black eyes flickering with some repressed emotion.
Michael swallowed as he stared into dark eyes surrounded by a face of fantastical beauty. He had dated a fair number of women over the years, but none of them came even close to matching the exotic beauty of Taxti. He normally felt comfortable around beautiful women, confident with his own appearance. That comfort went out the window when facing the ageless and beautiful faun in front of him. He suddenly felt like he was back in junior high with his first crush staring him down.
"Are you two going to need to get a room, or were you just staring into each other's souls?" Joline asked dryly. "I've noticed a distinct lack of structures or rooms inside of the circle, which I'm guessing is due to the fact that nobody sleeps."
Taxti's eyes swiveled over to Joline with a smirk as she faced the woman that looked like a shorter clone of Harmony. Even her voice sounded like Harmony. "We have structures all over the place in the circle, we just rarely go into them. The entire inner ring of the circle is honeycombed with dwellings. I think Rhapsody assumed you would just be going back to your own home, so she didn't set anything up for you here. Would you like a room, Joline?"
She finished with a seductive wink that Joline affected not to notice. Joline had clearly been around Taxti long enough to have grown used to her constant seduction attempts. Michael wondered what would happen if any of them called her out on her advances. He felt an almost irresistible urge to try it, just to see where things went.
"Considering I need a chauffeur to teleport me back and forth, it might be nice to have somewhere to call home inside the circle," Joline admitted with a wry smile. "I'm not sure how long it will be until we can actually start using magic at the rate we are growing."
"Why don't I get you, Michael, Shelley, and Jessica set up with rooms," Taxti offered, glancing at Michael with a suggestive leer that he found strangely familiar.
"Yeah, I could dig that," Michael agreed with a suggestive wink back at Taxti.
She stared at him, all pretense at being seductive gone. "Did you just wink at me suggestively, Michael?"
All eyes turned to Michael. He felt his ears burn as he stared back at her in confusion. The confusion only lasted until she threw back her head and laughed. Even her laugh sounded seductive, a rich, throaty sound.
"You're a shameless tease," Michael accused her with a glare.
"That's true," Taxti agreed with a pleased smile. "As I've told Rhapsody, I have no shame."
"Taxti, how can you tell if you are talking with a clone?" Serenity asked curiously, her eyes staring into Taxti's eyes intently.
Taxti tilted her head as she stared back at Serenity in silence for several seconds. "Let's save that lesson for later, shall we?"
Serenity continued staring at Taxti intently, her eyes full of suspicion. "We could talk about it while we walk."
"Oh, bugger it," Taxti muttered in exasperation. A moment later she and Serenity vanished.
"Uh, what just happened?" Michael asked in confusion.
Aurora's face was white with worry as she stared at the place Serenity had vanished. A moment later, she vanished as well.
"Harnketi!" Joline shouted urgently.
Harnketi flashed over to them in the blink of an eye, her expression concerned. "What's the matter?"
"Taxti's acting weird and she teleported Serenity away somewhere," Joline said urgently. "I think Aurora followed them. Do you have any idea what is going on or where they went?"
"She's taken Serenity?" Melody demanded as she hurried over to them, her voice filled with sudden panic.
"Everybody calm down," Harnketi told them soothingly. "She teleported her away because she doesn't want you to hear what she has to say. They'll be back as soon as she is finished with her private discussion."
"What were you talking about that caused her to teleport instead of just asking for privacy?" Melody asked anxiously.
"She asked Taxti how to tell if a person is a clone," Michael answered with a frown. "Taxti didn't want to talk about it, but Serenity pushed her on it."
Harnketi's expression suddenly became guarded. "Oh, yeah. Well, she'll be back soon."
"What do you know, Harnketi," Melody asked intently, her eyes staring at the other woman curiously. "I can tell you know something."
"It's a secret that only Rhapsody can reveal," Harnketi replied reluctantly. "All I know is that it is very important that it remains a secret."
"Secret from who?" Melody asked with a puzzled crease to her brow.
"From you, Melody," Harnketi spoke gently, her gaze pleading. "From all of you. It's very important that you don't know. Please."
Melody stared into Harnketi's desperate eyes searchingly before she slowly nodded. "I trust you, Harnketi."
Harnketi closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. A moment later, Serenity reappeared with Taxti and Aurora. Serenity looked stunned. She kept looking at Taxti with wide eyes, then back at Aurora.
"Serenity, are you okay?" Melody asked quickly, rushing up to her and resting her hands on Serenity's shoulders.
Serenity looked into her mother's worried eyes, and she quickly nodded, her eyes flickering toward Taxti and then back at her mother.
Michael thought he might die of curiosity. Something momentous had just happened right under his nose, but he had no idea what it might be. Maybe he could get some answers out of Serenity. As soon as the thought occurred to him, Taxi's eyes found his. There was no sign of seduction or playfulness at all. She stared back at him levelly until he looked away. She hadn't said anything, but somehow he knew that talking to Serenity about whatever she had learned would be a bad idea.
He sighed in frustration. He felt like he was trying to put a 3D puzzle together while blindfolded. All of the pieces were there, but they were useless to his groping fingers so long as he remained blindfolded.
"On to the housing, my little pork pies," Taxti called out, as if nothing had happened. She pointed at Melody and smirked. "You too, sugar buns."
Michael blinked at the hypocorisms, staring at Taxti oddly. He hadn't heard her use pet names before. True, he hadn't been around her long, but it still seemed out of character.
"Everyone stop looking at me suspiciously," Taxti sighed dramatically. "Let's just get over to the domiciles and get you all some rooms to call your own before Serenity causes any more problems with her too clever little head."
Serenity blushed as everyone looked at her. Aurora hadn't said anything since returning. She had a bemused expression as she followed her sister in a kind of trance.
Michael didn't even notice the beautiful foliage as they moved through the forest on a trail filled with exotic plants and glowing flowers. He couldn't stop thinking about the odd sense of familiarity he felt with the others, like they were old friends from a long forgotten game he had played decades ago.
Then there was Harnketi's odd behavior. She obviously knew what this secret was, but made it sound like the fate of the world hinged on their not knowing about it. Maybe it did. He had fallen in with the most important and powerful person on the planet. It was easy to overlook that fact because Rhapsody was so personable and silly. It suddenly hit him that he was hanging out with the most powerful person on the planet. Even when he pronounced the thought in his head, it didn't feel real. It felt like he was just playing in a fantasy game with people larping as fantasy characters, even though they were performing real magic and shaking the world with their decisions. What would it take for this to feel real?
"Uncle Mike, where did you grow up?" Serenity asked curiously.
"In Crescent City," Michael answered with an inquiring look down at his… niece. "Why do you ask?"
"What's the earliest memory you can remember?" Serenity asked, ignoring his question.
Michael creased his brow as he searched his memories. He frowned as he tried to zero in an on early memory. It was like seeing a box of old photo albums and then when he went to pick one out, the box turned out to be a mural on the wall that just hinted at memories. He could see that the memories were there, but when he tried to grasp one, he just hit the wall.
"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Michael demanded, feeling a tendril of fear worm its way into his insides. Was he just a character in a game with a backstory tacked on, but no real history?
Taxti turned back to stare at Serenity reprovingly. "Serenity, didn't I just ask you not to talk about this?"
"I was talking about something else entirely," Serenity replied defensively. "I didn't say anything about the other thing."
"You are way too smart, young lady," Taxti declared with a wry twist of her lips. "Some things never change."
"Taxti, what the hell is going on?" Michael demanded again, his voice rising in volume as fear took root in his gut.
"Well, you're inside of a fairy ring and we're getting you a room to call home while you are here," Taxti answered calmly. "That's what's going on."
"You know that's not what I'm talking about," Michael growled in frustration. "Why are my childhood memories just footnotes?"
"Because you needed a memory blueprint to allow your soul to be seeded into this body," Taxti answered with a resigned sigh. "Happy now?"
Michael scowled as he tried to understand what she had said. It just reinforced his first impression that he was some kind of video game character with a crap backstory.
"You are the architect of the body and memories you are currently using, so don't look at me accusingly like that," Taxti scowled back at him, the expression looking incongruous on her beautiful face. "Now that's as much as you're getting from me. You already know too much. You two might already be steering us toward disaster with your questions. I'll tell you what I've told Harmony. Enjoy the life in front of you and ignore the past or questions about the future. You'll get your answers in time, so just live the life that's here right now. I can't stress enough how important this is. Please, for the sake of all life on this world, just bury your questions and enjoy living in the present."
He stared into her pleading eyes, feeling the wind leave his sails. He sighed in frustration as he nodded in assent.
"The answers will come, Michael," Taxti told him gently. "Please just be patient and know that somewhere deep inside, you know that this is all part of a plan that you participated in crafting."
Harmony, Mystery, and Rhapsody suddenly appeared in front of them. Mystery had a look of such joy that he finally let his probing thoughts go and tried to enjoy living in the now.
"Sorry, everyone," Rhapsody apologized contritely. "I totally spaced getting you all set up with somewhere to call home while you're inside the circle.
Michael noticed Serenity staring back and forth at Taxti and Rhapsody with a calculating gaze. He shifted his mental gears and ignored whatever secrets Serenity had dug up. His sister was happy for the first time in decades and he was going to support her in any way he could.