The water seemed to be coming at me ever faster and then, suddenly it wasn’t. I felt a brief sharp pain followed by an odd pulling sensation in my upper back as my downward momentum ceased and I hovered roughly twenty feet above the surface of the water. I looked down for a moment in stunned surprise before the strange sensation of motion at my back and the brief bursts of moving air against my arms caused me to snap out of my stunned reverie enough to look behind me.

The cause of those sensations was the pair of graceful and delicate white wings flapping behind me. It was the strangest feeling in my life, stranger than being a girl was at first and stranger than when Danu had infused me with her divine essence to change me. I couldn’t just feel the effects of those wings, I could feel them. I could feel the air rushing against the soft white feathers and I could feel the muscles in both them and my back that were making them move.

“Blessed Mother… what the…” I gasped as I stared at one of the moving wings in wonder and confusion.

~You called upon your dove aspect to protect yourself, my daughter. I believe that I told you not to let Tiamat get you in the water. If she pulls you into the deep and away from the moonlight then she will have the advantage. You would still be able to draw from your nature and magick aspects but not as well as you could otherwise, and her aspects would give her a distinct advantage. You must attack her heart, that is her weak spot,~ Danu’s voice advised. ~She comes, and she is intent on your death. You must defeat her here and now.~

“Dammit. Okay, so I’m going to be learning to fly and trying to defeat the dragon queen at the same time. Oh yeah, this is going to be fun,” I thought sarcastically to myself. “Oh well, at least if she’s coming here over the open water then I’ve gotten her away from where we might hurt innocent people. I’m still too close to the city though, those city lights are still too close for comfort. I’m not sure if I want to risk AOEs but it should be safe to let loose with single target attacks out here.”

I quickly drew and spoke the sigils for a trio of spells. “Kaida ikandiir ysoldir aentuire! Kaida liantuir ophaíne! Kiara ikandiir aeluine aentuire!” The first two spells were of course my Magick Armor and Aegis spells that I had used earlier, though this time I wouldn’t be trying to limit how much mana that I pumped into them. I was going to need them at full power if I was fighting a Goddess. The third was a spell that I called Radiance.

Magick Armor was basically an envelope of hardened mana that covers the target’s body and protects from physical damage, while Aegis was a bubble that did basically the same thing but stopped physical attacks and projectiles further away from the body for added safety. Both of those were useful while I was being shot at. Radiance was similar to Aegis but I had designed it to protect from less corporeal attacks such as spells and things like dragon fire. I had a feeling that I might need it now but it had a small side effect. It was a bright ball of light around me so it was a bad idea to use it unless I really needed it or wanted a lot of attention.

Subtlety had kind of gone out the window the moment that Tiamat had chosen to come after me personally, so I needed to pull out all the stops here. I barely had the spells in place before Tiamat came at me roaring flames. My Radiance spell held but it was down by about a quarter of its full power from when I had first cast it and those flames were hot. I couldn’t keep taking hits like that, I needed to be quicker and dodge her so I could hit her with my magick.

The dragon goddess followed up by once again trying to slap me with her giant forefoot, like a volleyball player going for a spike, in an attempt to send me down into the drink. It was only panic and instinct that saved me as I felt my new wings beat the air to carry me out of the way of the blow. Okay, so now I knew what it felt like to flap my wings, I just needed to do it consciously and try to get some air. I was still far too close to the water for my comfort after Danu’s warning.

Instinct saved me once again as I tried to gain altitude and only just managed to avoid a swing of Tiamat’s massive tail. Okay, so stop flapping and lean in the direction that I want to turn. I was totally learning here, I just hoped I lived to use these lessons another day. The good thing was that even though I was smaller, I seemed to be quick and more maneuverable in the air than the monstrous dragon that I was fighting. The bad thing… she was fucking huge. She took up a lot of sky and I didn’t want to even think about how thick those scales likely were.

Another problem was that I had to go for her heart to take her down. At her size it was going to be difficult just penetrating that deep with an attack, not to mention that getting into a position to do so would put me in a position for her to use more flame attacks or take another swing at me with that massive draconic fist of hers. I wished the others were here, but I couldn’t risk it in this fight, even if they could somehow manage to get past that fear aura or whatever it was that Gods had going for them.

I managed to get above her, feeling the moonlight and drawing on its power. I needed to try an attack spell and get a feel for how strong she was. “Luin’tierre hannira utaera!” As soon as I finished speaking and drawing the sigils, a bolt of lightning that lit up the night sky even more than my radiance spell flew from my outstretched hands to strike Tiamat’s massive draconic form.

The air practically shook with her roar of anger but the attack seemed to do little more than singe her scales. She stopped in a hover and turned her serpentine neck and head to send another jet of flame toward me. I barely managed to dodge and save my magical protections from taking another beating. “Surrender now, little Demigoddess, and I will make your death a quick one.”

“Geeze, I get it, you and Danu don’t get along but what did I ever do to give you a hard-on for killing me?” I snapped back as I mentally prepared another pair of spells. “Tierre kiara tala-aeluine utaera!” My scattershot spell peppered Tiamat’s face with a barrage of countless basketball-sized blue balls of flame. There were so many that their brief screaming sounds filled the night air with a chorus of high-pitched shrieks that was almost like music, punctuated by the staccato drumbeat of the projectiles pounding on her scales.

“Aes’Suvas soldis utaera!” I quickly drew and spoke the sigils of the second spell while she was getting a face full of the first one, sending a massive icicle at least twice my size hurtling toward her chest as quickly as I could. I only succeeded in pissing her off more and the ice shattered against the thick scales on her chest.

“Danu and her children,” Tiamat spat in fury, her scaly muzzle still smoking from my scattershot spell. “Constantly undoing all of my work, smothering the freedom of chaos with your attempts to bring order and balance! Order is an illusion! Balance is an impossibility!”

“Shit! Okay, ice isn’t going to be enough to penetrate those scales. I could try to shred her wings, but even if that worked it would probably only piss her off and force me to fight her on ground level. Too many people could get hurt that way and fighting a pissed-off dragon backed into a corner is never a good idea. She’s not just a dragon either, she’s THE dragon. If I force her to fight on the ground she could take out most of the city. Hell, she’d probably do it just to spite me and cause chaos. I need to weaken her and maybe limit her movement before I can try a direct head-on attack like that again,” I thought to myself as I tried to come up with some sort of plan.

“Kaida kiara tala-fluivhas miska!” At my command, gargantuan chains of golden light appeared, wrapping themselves sinuously around the dragon goddess, binding her body and wings tighter and tighter cutting off her ability to fly for the moment. With us being over water I hoped that the impact and waves caused would do less damage than if she hit the ground directly.

I quickly drew my swords, hoping to drive them into her chest as she fell from the sky but both swords snapped at the hilt. Dammit! My Pájar might be an asshole sometimes but he was still my Pájar and he had those made for me. I had hoped that the enchantment I had placed on them to make them preternaturally sharp would make them able to pierce Tiamat’s scaly hide since they had worked on her creations earlier but it seemed that it wasn’t enough to slice open the dragon goddess herself. My Vorpal Blade spell might work if I had the time.

It seemed that I didn’t have that time as Tiamat’s fury loaned her the strength that she needed to break my chains of light and she batted me aside like an errant tennis ball sending me spinning through the air and trying to right myself as she did the same. My Aegis spell was now down by over half of its power, and I grimaced at the thought of taking too many more hits like that. By the time I had managed to get my wings steadied enough to put myself into a hover and get a look around, Tiamat had already done the same and her massive maw was opened to deliver another torrent of flame as she flew toward me.

I grinned as an idea came to me and quickly started drawing and speaking the sigils for a variant of my Icicle Shower spell. “Kuorüis tanuus tala-aeluine utaera!” As I finished my casting a barrage of razor-sharp and jagged pieces of sea-green energy-sapping crystals the length of my arms emerged from in front of my outstretched hands and were launched through Tiamat’s gout of flame to embed themselves in the soft tissue inside the massive dragon’s muzzle and the back of her throat. Landing that attack was worth my Radiance spell being down to about half power as Tiamat screamed in pain and fury.

I was actually feeling like I might have an advantage then and was about to cast a follow-up spell when, of course, the shit hit the fan. I only had a moment to catch the malevolent glare that Tiamat threw my way before she launched herself higher into the sky with a series of powerful wingbeats. “What the hell is she doing? Going up there is closer to the moonlight, I’ll only be stronger up there.” And then I saw the anti-collision lights of a commercial plane flying above us, probably circling for a landing. “Shit!”

I flew upward in pursuit of Tiamat as fast as my wings would let me, but where my wings seemed to allow me to maneuver better at high speeds and avoid her attacks, she was built for power and raw speed. She couldn’t maneuver worth shit in the air but on a straightaway, she was faster than me. I could only watch on in horror as she tore the right wing off the plane and sent it hurtling downward.

I needed to think of something fast. I probably had the raw power to easily teleport the plane safely to the ground but that wouldn’t stop its momentum or spinning and the results would be disastrous. No, I needed to take control of its descent and try to ease it down to the ground. “Kaida siashe!”

Once my spell was cast I grabbed hold of the plummeting 737 with my thoughts, slowing both its spin and descent as I flew downward alongside it, trying to ease it to the ground on the closest beach that I could find, unfortunately, that was the same beach that I had started out at. This was a minor spell but it took a lot of concentration to hold and control something so big, especially while calculating and casting a second spell. I had managed to get the damaged plane righted and slow its momentum enough to safely teleport it to the beach below so I quickly cast the spell as a look above showed Tiamat diving toward me in all of her terrifying glory. “Kaida liantuir tala siashe yasrin!”

I had just enough time to see the people through the plane windows staring at me and the oncoming dragon goddess in confusion and terror as the plane vanished and then to see it appear safely on the beach below before I heard Tiamat gleefully say, “So predictable.” An instant later her massive draconic fist slammed into me from above, the force of the blow sending me crashing like a missile into the beach below.

“Ouch,” I managed to groan as I climbed out of the small crater that my impact had made. That blow, and the resulting impact with the ground, had killed both of my physical shielding spells and that wasn’t the only damage. I was pretty sure that one of my wings was broken and I hurt all over. “Kaida liantuir ophaíne!”

I barely had the time to re-cast one of the spells before Tiamat landed half in the water and half on the sand and gave me a draconic grin before making for the plane and its occupants. “Going for the innocents to try and generate a little chaos and so I’ll try to put myself between them and you, Tiamat?!” I called out derisively. “Some goddess of chaos you are, that’s so predictable! No wonder you don’t have any worshippers! It must really piss you off that I, a mere Demigoddess, probably have more believers than you!”

My taunting worked, she was pissed and came right at me, snarling in fury. “You are bleeding and broken, you cannot hope to stand against a true goddess. I will finish you now and once I have taken your essence I will lay waste to this world and bathe it in chaos,” she said as she approached and her mouth glowed with the flames that were to come. I just hoped that those crystals did their job and were sapping her strength.

My Radiance shield could still take another hit or two from her flames, so I ignored the flames that assailed me as once again I cast a spell to contain her. “Kaida kiara tala-fluivhas miska!” Once again, golden chains of light appeared around her, quickly wrapping themselves tighter and tighter around her, entangling her wings and legs, and wrapping around her muzzle to cut off the flames before my shield could fail altogether.

“Kaida kuorüis poshe thren’dhal!” I quickly cast the spell as I limped toward her and a long-bladed sword made from energy-sapping crystal appeared in my other hand, its edge razor-sharp and humming with powerful destructive magicks. With the moonlight bathing me from above I could feel practically my whole body tingling and there was a brief moment where I had to smother a yelp of pain as my wing reset itself. “Goddess did that hurt! What the hell?”

~Your aspects fuel your powers, my child. You are no longer mortal and as long as you are exposed to one of your aspects you will heal rapidly from any injury that is not immediately fatal,~ Danu’s mind slipped into my thoughts to explain. ~You must hurry and finish her off, she is still close to the sea and can draw on its power. You have weakened her, but her aspects strengthen her as much as yours do you.~

“Damn, I am ridiculously overpowered,” I mumbled to myself as I avoided a lunge from Tiamat’s massive head as she struggled against my chains. I had considered using Nature’s Call but I wasn’t sure if seaweed and tree roots were going to be able to hold her. I just hoped that my Vorpal Blade was going to be enough to pierce her scaly hide and end this.

I dodged another wild swing of her head and neck and once I was close enough to her massive chest I thrust my magicked blade as hard as I could. It sunk into her flesh, burying itself to the hilt and eliciting a muffled roar of pain and outrage as I released the destructive magicks along the weapon’s edge and sent them into her heart. Tiamat began to spasm wildly for a moment before going completely still. I instantly regretted having to kill her when she was bound like that but if I hadn’t done so, she would have had another chance to kill both me and the innocents in the plane and further up the beach.

I didn’t have long to think about it as I felt a slight rush of energy. I could feel a portion of the divine essence from Tiamat being transferred to me even as her massive corpse faded from sight. It didn’t really feel like a lot of essence though and after a moment there was no trace of her. ~Great Mother, what is with the vanishing corpse?~ I asked.

I heard Danu speak in my mind once again after a snort of distaste. ~The other gods will not let Tiamat’s body fall into human hands. They claim that it is to enforce our rules about gods not appearing to mortals…~ She trailed off leadingly and I could almost sense Her rolling Her eyes.

~Yes, because they did such a great job of that when she showed up to kill me,~ I replied, my distaste mirroring Danu’s.

~The others who are not in my small alliance were hoping that she would succeed, most likely. If she did they could lay the blame on her and keep their hands clean, and you would no longer be around to complicate things. As for the true reason that they retrieved her corpse, I suspect that they fear that the humans may have tried to use it to attempt to find some weakness among us gods,~ Danu offered.

~They would certainly try,~ I thought back bitterly, thinking about the black sites and what Nishalle had found there. ~They have already been trying it with various non-humans. At least she won’t be coming after me again.~

~Other gods may be reluctant to as well, now that you have bested one of us. Tiamat was weak though, you barely got any divine essence from slaying her, less than ten percent of the small portion of my own that I infused you with. It would seem that you gained one of her aspects though. Tell me, my child, can you now feel the rhythmic pull of the sea?~ my patron Goddess asked gently.

I was about to deny it but then I felt it, a very faint rhythmic pulling that reminded me of the feel of moonlight on my skin. ~Whoa… okay that’s new. Umm…. About these wings, I can’t be having them around all the time, I have enough trouble getting attention with the glowing hair and eyes.~

~Feel your wings and command them, they are tied to your dove aspect and respond to your thoughts. Just as you used them during flight, you can make them retract or emerge by thinking about it. I will leave you now, to deal with the mortals. You have made me proud this night, my daughter.~ Danu’s voice slipped from my thoughts and I found myself being wrapped in a hug as Daenyss appeared, not giving me the time to try to retract the wings. I could see Lissany and Nishalle rushing down the beach toward me along the beach as well. There were suits and cops in pursuit, though even with Lissany in full armor they couldn’t keep up with the pair.

“I am so glad that you are alright, Mistress,” my Attendant said as she held me close. “That dragon was enormous, I thought that it was going to kill you.”

“Good shooting there, Daenyss,” I told her, hugging her back. “You distracted her long enough that I was able to get her attention on me and away from the bystanders.”

Daenyss seemed about to say more as she gazed at the white wings emerging from my back but Nishalle managed to speak first. “Nice wings, Sis. What the hell was that thing?” my sister asked, slightly winded as she and Lissany approached.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I really wanted to attack that thing but I couldn’t move,” Lissany added, looking ashamed.

“That was Tiamat, a goddess of the sea and chaos,” I explained quickly. “Apparently, she didn’t care much for Danu and decided to kill me since she wasn’t powerful enough to take on the Great Mother. And nobody can blame you for not being able to move with that fear aura she was pumping out, Liss. I think that’s part of the reason that the gods made the rules about not showing themselves to mortals, their presence paralyzes most of us with fear. I think Yseil’dhraí may be partially immune though since we could handle it when Danu visited.”

Seeing the cops and suits approaching, and not looking happy at all, I took a moment away from my explanation to cast a quick force field spell over my group and the downed 737 that sat further down the beach. “Kaida liantuir aeluine ophaíne!” I was down to about a quarter of my full mana at my best guess but I had already been starting to run low and that was a power hog of a spell, even if it only lasted a couple of hours, and I did have to make it pretty big. I seemed to be building my reserves up again fairly quickly anyway though by being under the moonlight, and so close to the sea and nature in general.

The power use for that spell was so satisfying though when Jonesy ran face-first into the barrier and fell on his ass. I managed to contain my giggles though as I gave those on the other side of the barrier a stern look. “I have cast a barrier because, quite frankly, I don’t think any of you can be trusted not to shoot wildly at us and possibly injure or kill someone as we evacuate that plane and make sure that the people inside are okay.”

With our safety assured for the moment, I ignored the cursing and pounding on the other side of the barrier and sent a wind whisper spell to Venika asking her to teleport to me with Salem and Rei. I had to give them the highlights and promise them all a more detailed explanation when we got home, but right then I was more worried about the people on the plane so we made our way over and found that one of the doors had been opened and people were gathered and looking outside. I was also worried about the hit that Kinara had taken and was greatly relieved when my fiancée assured me that the Lindwyrm hide had stopped the bullet and that the cracked rib that Kinara had suffered was now healing nicely.

With that off of my mind, Venika and I flew up to the opened door as the emergency slide was being deployed by a stewardess whose eyes went wide at the sight of us. “We’re here to help, is anyone seriously hurt?” I inquired.

“I… uhhh…” she stumbled uncertainly.

“We have some people to help the injured on the ground,” I explained as patiently as I could. “I know we may look strange, but we’re here to help, I promise.”

She was slowly nodding, still wide-eyed, when she managed to finally find her voice. “Umm… everyone was buckled in for a landing. There are some head injuries and whiplash but nobody seems to have broken any bones or anything.”

“Good, you were spinning pretty bad up there and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to give you a gentle landing. Could you send down the injured first, so we can take care of them?”

Thankfully, the stewardess was right and the injuries weren’t all that serious. A few concussions were the worst of it but it was mostly just scrapes, bruises, and some whiplash. The worst of them didn’t take us long to care for between Salem and Rei. Daenyss used her minor healing spell as well and Venika and I were both able to use our spells to accelerate healing for a short time. Some of the people that we treated seemed genuinely grateful while others watched us suspiciously. Most of them were settled down on the sand just trying to deal with their near-death experience, though sadly I didn’t think that we would be much help with that.

The plane had finally been completely evacuated and once Rei finished with one last healing prayer for one of the concussed I would be dispelling the force field and taking us home. We were still waiting on my fiancée when an excitable child’s voice shrieked over the murmuring crowd and caught everyone’s attention. “That’s the angel that saved the plane from the big dragon!”

“Huh?” I was momentarily stunned as I turned in the direction of the shrieking voice and saw a little blonde girl, perhaps 6 years old, wearing a pink t-shirt and denim romper pushing toward us and half-dragging a flustered and stunned-looking woman in her mid to late thirties who must have been her mother from the similarities in their appearances.

The girl continued to move through the crowd toward us with her mother and started babbling almost faster than I could follow as the pair approached. It seemed that they had seen what had happened through one of the windows, and they weren’t the only ones. “Are you really an angel?! Mommy and I saw you out the window and she said that God saved us. Omigod! A Fairy!”

“I’m a Sprite, not a Fairy, little one,” Venika told her patiently and I had to stop myself from giggling at Venika calling someone that.

“My name is Taelya, Sweetie. I’m not an angel though,” I said, afraid that my cheeks might be glowing as bright as my hair and eyes.

“No, she’s not an angel,” Daenyss agreed in a calm voice that carried across the crowd. “You were saved by Her Imperial Majesty, Taelya nír Keshwaindyr: Chosen daughter of the Goddess Danu; Demigoddess of magick, the moon, the sea, nature, and doves; Empress of Varüus’kiel; ruler of all Fae; and slayer of Tiamat the Dragon Queen.”

My blush intensified with each new title that Daenyss managed to conjure up. What’s worse was that she had actually gotten the attention of the plane survivors, most of them anyway. The world kind of sucked right now especially with monsters and shit showing up and some people wanted a reason, an explanation for why. I could also understand wanting to believe in divine intervention after an ordeal like that but I didn’t really want to use this situation to my advantage. Daenyss was my Attendant though, she saw to my needs as she saw them, even when I didn’t.

I could actually feel the belief coming from some of those people, including the little girl and her mother as they both stared at me in awe and hope. “What are your names?” I asked, hoping to make myself more approachable and less frightening.

“I… I’m Vivian Murdock, and this my daughter Lucy,” the mother managed to get out. There was something in her eyes. She looked tired and her eyes were locked on me in a strange mix of uncertainty and hope. I hadn’t noticed before but her eyes were a bit sunken and she was several shades paler than her daughter.

“As I said, I’m Taelya. The Sprite is my friend Venika, my Attendant here is Daenyss, and these three are Salem, Lissany, and Nishalle.” I tried to be friendly and approachable and not show my concern over Vivian yet.

Nishalle seemed to scare them a bit, but Nishalle scares everyone so that’s not really much of a surprise. Lissany made up for it though by removing her helm to look less terrifying and reaching down to ruffle Lucy’s hair, her swishing tail, jaguar ears, and kitty nose and eyes immediately catching the girl’s attention as she gasped out in awe, “You’re a kitty.”

“She’s a Beastkin actually, she’s not that different than you or your mom and she’s sort of like my knight. That’s why she wears the armor,” I explained to the girl, her mother, and the other people watching the exchange in interest.

“Yup, every Empress needs at least one knight,” Lissany agreed with a smile.

The little girl’s head swiveled from me to my Guardian in awe. “Girls can be knights?”

“Girls can be anything we want, Lucy. We just need to work hard and never give up on our dreams,” the jaguar Beastkin said seriously before ruffling the girl’s hair again.

Rei returned from doing that last healing prayer and was approaching when she stopped abruptly, her eyes locked on Lucy’s mother. She quickly sidled up beside me and whispered in my ear, “Tae, that woman is dying. She has one foot in the grave already. Her spirit is fighting but if I can see it without using a prayer, it’s probably bad.”

“Do a scan to see if there’s anything that you can do for her here,” I whispered back while Vivian’s attention was on Lissany being an awesome role model for her daughter.

Rei began to pray, mumbling silently beside me and a moment later she let out a long sigh. “It’s Cancer, Tae, really advanced and all through her body. I’d say she has a month or two, at the most. I don’t think that I can do anything for her and, at this point, all a doctor could do is make her comfortable. We could…”

“Get her in a F.I.T?” I finished. “It could probably save her, and I think that she knows she’s dying so she may accept our help if we offer it. Let’s see how she reacts to us and the offer.”

I walked up with Rei’s hand in mine and spoke up to get Vivian’s attention. “Vivian, I’d like you to meet my fiancée, Rei. She’s a Kitsune but she’s also a Priestess of Inari, and a Healer.”

Vivian was surprised by the fiancée bit and Rei’s ears and tails definitely caught her attention but I couldn’t see any signs of disgust or even discomfort, just the weariness that showed when she smiled and said, “It’s nice to meet you, Rei.”

Rei seemed to see the same things because she tenderly placed her hand on the woman’s shoulder and asked, “How much time did the doctors give you? Does your daughter know?”

“They said three months,” the woman replied with a despondent sigh, her voice barely loud enough to carry to me and Rei. Fortunately, we both had excellent hearing. “That was four months ago. I’m living on borrowed time. Lucy doesn’t know, she thinks that we’re here for a vacation. I’m trying to get one of my husband’s relatives to take her in when I’m gone but we’ve never really gotten along, less so since he died. Do you… you’re a healer… can you do anything for me?”

Rei shook her head sadly. “There’s nothing that I can personally do for your Cancer, it’s too far advanced. There is a way to help you but it will depend on how open-minded you are. We could take you and your daughter to Varüus’kiel, we have the means there to help you.”

“This is a real place? I’ve never heard of it. I wasn’t sure if your friend was just entertaining Lucy,” Vivian said uncertainly.

“Every word that Daenyss said was true, even the unbelievable stuff,” I told her seriously. “Varüus’kiel exists, it just isn’t on any maps yet and only the invited may travel there. Most of the people living there aren’t Humans, we do have some Humans living there but you would have to be comfortable with being around people like us all of the time.”

Vivian was just as serious as she raised an eyebrow. “People like you? More Demigoddesses, or just kind people who seem to care about others? You saved all of our lives and put yourself in danger doing it, and all of you helped the injured afterward instead of just leaving us here. Lucy half worships you and your knight already and my kid is a pretty good judge of character. If you can make it so I can see my baby grow up, then I will pay any price.”

“You wouldn’t need to pay me anything, just raise Lucy right and be a productive member of our community. We’re still getting ourselves established so everyone contributes how they can,” I explained, relieved that she seemed to be as open-minded and accepting as I had first suspected.

“I doubt that you’d need any doctors if your people can heal by magic, especially if you have techniques that can save someone as far gone as I am. I’ll be happy to do whatever I can though,” she offered.

Rei’s eyebrows rose as Vivian mentioned being a doctor and she asked, “What type of doctor? We’ve been thinking of having hospitals with both medical professionals and healers of the magick variety once we’re all set up.”

“I have a lot of experience as an OB/GYN but most of my work for the past few years has been as a reproductive endocrinologist,” she replied. “OB/GYNs are usually fairly useful, even in smaller populations, so I can probably contribute.”

I blinked in stunned silence before turning to Rei who was grinning like a fox, the ears and tails just made it more obvious. I could feel my own lips curling up in a smile as I said, “Let’s get you and Lucy to Varüus’kiel, my people are going to loooove you, Vivian.”

“No kidding,” Nishalle said with a smirk, showing that she had been following the conversation. “She might just have a line of Fae waiting for her when she’s finished baking.”

I purposely strode over to the barrier where Jonesy was slumped on the ground on the other side looking very pissed off. I gave him the universal gesture for ‘I’ll be watching you’ and told him. “I guess you found out that we took all of your toys away. It’s over, either you put an end to the black sites and experiments, or I will put an end to you and everyone else involved. This is your only warning and I suggest you take it.”

I returned to where the others were waiting and mentally tagged Lucy, Vivian, and all of my people before turning to all of the plane passengers that had been watching us in interest but were too uncertain to come to talk to us beyond getting their injuries looked after. “It’s been lovely meeting you all, please remember to show love and kindness to all living creatures and respect nature. This rescue has been brought to you by Taelya, that’s T-A-E-L-Y-A, Demigoddess of magick, the moon, the sea, nature, and doves.” I figured that Daenyss had already started the ball rolling with this group and a little belief and nudging in the right direction might go a long way in the future. Then I allowed the force field to drop and teleported my group to Varüus’kiel.