Chapter 22
Tino
I was stress packing my bag while Tair sat with his already packed and ready beside him on the bed.
Willow’s words still ran through my mind.
“The council found our safe base and attacked last night. Several mages were executed for treason. Our other safe location is ready for us, but they need us there immediately.” We were given an hour to grab our things and return to where the portal would be opened.
We were returning home.
“Baby?” Tair said, and the word baby had my heart pumping faster. Damn, how could he still affect me so much? Not that I complained.
“I’m fine,” I assured him, ignoring the endearment. We didn’t have time for me to show him just how much I liked it anyway. “I’m just not ready to go back yet.”
“Me neither,” he sighed. “Ever since the talk about our families being threatened… I guess I’m not ready to face all that yet.”
“Fuck,” I stopped packing as horror filled my every vein. My mom and dad… They were innocent.
“Sorry,” Tair said, jumping up from the bed to hug me from behind. “We’ll do everything we can to protect them.”
“I know,” I sighed, returning to packing my bag while Tair kept hugging me. He was just so damn perfect.
The front door opened and since no one had knocked, I knew it had to be either Silver or Xarius. It seemed they both hated wasting time on knocking, whereas Niam and Wilston were both too polite to just barge inside.
“Ready to go home?” Xarius asked us, leaning against the doorframe to our bedroom.
“Yes, or as ready as we can be, I guess.”
He sighed. “We all feel the same trepidation. At least Niam and Wilston don’t care what happens to their family members. Silver even said his grandmother dying was a blessing. Now they can’t hurt her to get to him.”
I felt sympathy for Xarius then. He still had his mothers who loved him, and one of them was even a leader in the council.
Leah had helped him and guided him with his other mother’s help to find us and get our powers.
She wasn’t with the council. She was with us.
A hidden ally. But that also meant she was the one in most danger.
“It’s go time!” Silver called from outside.
We walked with Julie and the others back to the portal, and even though it was a beautiful day with birds singing happily, we felt anything but. Our familiars were beside us, ready to protect us if danger awaited on the other side.
Willow greeted us at the portal. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to train more before returning, but we hope we’ll have enough time before a war breaks out.” Her words of war weren’t exactly reassuring, but I was looking forward to it being over.
“Where’s Nujik?” Silver asked, ignoring the war comment completely.
“He already went through the portal to make sure they’re ready for us.”
I guessed that meant nothing was stopping us from walking through. I exhaled, trying to calm my fraying nerves. It would be fine. Our family would be fine. My brothers and I would survive this.
“Ready for the true leaders!” A man called and that was our cue. With my hand firmly connected to Tair’s, we walked through the portal, returning home to the Realm of Mages, a place I had once thought I’d never return to.
Seeing thousands of mages bowing as we returned to our home world wasn’t what I’d expected, however, it was the sight that greeted us and with it came the familiar scent of Loine leaves. I’d missed the scent of the trees.
Instead of a campsite similar to the one we’d just vacated, this looked more like a compound.
The houses and buildings were more modern, and from the vastness of space surrounding us, it looked much bigger than I’d visualized it would be.
This was supposed to be their other safe location, so just how big had the previous one been?
We were still surrounded by forest which I truly appreciated.
I wasn’t a big fan of concrete and city air.
The compound looked to be run by solar panels on top of the roofs and seemed to be self-sufficient, if the greenhouses further to the left were any indication.
It even looked like they held animals far out, and small enclosures and tiny houses could mean chickens and possibly goats, too.
“Welcome to Hunu Bridge,” Nujik said in greeting, standing tall next to the portal. “This isn’t as big as our other location, but just as functional.”
“Do you have other locations than this one if they happen to find us here?” Xarius asked, looking around warily.
Nujik sighed and I could tell last night’s attack had affected him; his eyes had dark circles under them and he seemed more…
defeated in his stance. “We only have this place that’s safe and big enough.
We were smart when we started building both places, knowing this day would come in the future.
This was actually where we wanted Silver to grow up. ”
Silver frowned at that, looking towards the enclosures in the distance.
Was he picturing what it would’ve been like spending his youth here?
It was a huge compound, but it was still separate from the world around us.
Tair and I had grown up in a small town, also removed from everything else, or at least it had felt that way.
Before my dad was offered, or forced to relocate with us, all I’d known was our small town.
The city where we ended up had opened my eyes to so much more.
Would growing up here really have been that bad for Silver?
I bet it wasn’t vastly different from Altair’s upbringing in our hometown.
He told me they’d never moved away from it, and that he never got any friends there after I’d left.
It wasn’t easy finding kids our age there, only five others were from the same year, making the school years difficult since we had to share classes with either older kids, or younger.
Diverting my gaze from Silver to the many buildings, I had to wonder if we’d all been better off growing up here.
We wouldn’t have been so alone, so different from others.
At least I’d had the fortune of Tair’s friendship for a while, whereas the others didn’t seem to have had that.
We were interrupted from speaking further with Nujik as the other mages came through behind us.
Nujik guided us over to the side where the kneeling mages thankfully began to stand.
It was a trip seeing thousands bow, many of them several feet away from us.
I think I even saw a few down near the enclosures.
“When everyone has passed through safely, we’ll show you around.
We won’t waste time on an announcement. Training is our main focus for the rest of the day.
” I rather liked having Nujik decide for us, it felt freeing just doing what I was told.
I wasn’t opposed to ruling after this whole ordeal was done with, but the stress of the last couple of days had me tired of making decisions, of thinking what would be best. Following orders was a relief.
It took ten minutes for all the mages to join us, and in that time, we’d remained quiet, my hand still latched on to Tair’s as we took in our new home.
“Come,” Nujik said, walking to the right, bypassing another building.
We followed silently, still curious as we looked around at the buildings and mages standing by.
They looked like we were walking gods, which we definitely weren’t, but seeing as they waited for us to take over our world and make it better, we might’ve been as good to them as gods would’ve been.
“This is the kitchen and eating area,” Nujik gestured to a large building with only one level.
“You’ll eat or collect your meals inside.
See it as a sort of restaurant where they offer a buffet.
There’s takeaway plates and boxes if you don’t want to eat with the others.
I believe you’ll be much too tired to socialize most days, so we’ve come up with a way for you to order food too, which will be delivered to your home. ”
“I love that,” Xarius sighed happily. I couldn’t agree more. I was already dreading eating inside a big loud building with so many strangers. I much preferred for us to be eating in private, just our small family of seven.
“And that green building is the clinic, if you need a healer, there’s now two available.
Not that I think you will, not with how powerful Altair will become once back to his full strength.
” I smiled proudly as Nujik spoke of my soulmatch’s powers.
I still hadn’t tried out my ability for me to truly know what I was capable of, but I knew that together, all of us, were a force to be reckoned with.
“And over here,” he gestured as we turned to the left, passing by the clinic and a few small houses.
“This is the general store for small supplies you might need. They’re all free of course, so it’s more like a storage space where you can grab what you need.
Soap, toilet paper, deodorant, etc.” We then turned down another street, passing a few bigger houses.
“And that’s your house in the end.” Nujik smiled brightly as he pointed to the end of the street where a three-story house stood proudly.
Five small houses stood close, like they were a part of the property, but still not close enough to be ours.
“Who lives in the small homes surrounding it?” Silver asked, just as confused and curious as I.
“Your guards,” Nujik replied matter-of-factly.
“Guards?” Niam questioned.
“We believe it’s safer, that when you sleep others will watch over you and alert everyone if something is amiss. The attack yesterday took many precious lives and had you six been there…. I fear for what our world would’ve come to if any of you had been taken.”
I swallowed hard, not knowing what to say to that. It did make me relax further knowing we would be protected while asleep, but they had been attacked, and knowing that also meant we could be hit here at any moment.
“What about wards? Should we add our magic to this one?” I asked.
“Every mage that has passed through today will need to offer some of their magic to help ward off attacks, and that means you six too. I feared maybe you wouldn’t be up for it, Altair, but I can offer some of my magic to you if that’ll help.”
Tair shook his head with a polite smile. “I have enough for this,” he assured Nujik confidently. I squeezed his hand with mine.
“I think it would be best if you added your magic before entering your new home. I believe you’d all like a few hours to explore and relax before eating and training.”
“Are we training after lunch?” Niam asked.
“Yes, we cannot delay the training any further. I have already told the kitchen to deliver your food and then I’ll come and collect you myself when it’s time for your first training session here.”
I really was glad we had Nujik; it even seemed like the others appreciated that he told us what to do and when.
Xarius and Niam had been on the road the longest trying to find us all.
They’d been the ones making decisions from where to go, to what to eat.
I’d had my doubts if Xarius could stand getting ordered around, but it seemed he enjoyed having a break from it as much as I did.
“What about me?” Julie asked warily. She’d been awfully quiet ever since we’d been told to leave her home world behind. But even after Xarius had asked if she truly wanted to go, she’d said yes without any hesitation.
“You can watch them train and practice being their anchor while they do so,” Nujik explained with a soft smile. He’d taken a liking to Julie, and like with all of us, she’d somehow gained a place in his heart, even in just these short few days.
She chuckled. “I meant where am I sleeping, although it’s nice to hear I’m still needed.”
“Oh, my apologies! You’ll live with the others, of course. There’s a room for you too.”
Julie seemed pleased with that, relaxing her shoulders as the worry eased away. Had she feared we would be parted from her? No wonder she’d been tense. A new world and then believing she would be by herself?
“We should really get to it,” Nujik reminded us, so we raised our hands and added our magic to the ward, just like we’d been told.
It was still odd, using magic like this.
Silver had explained more about wards than Nujik and Willow had, offering easy explanations so we could make them ourselves now too.
Tair and I were still new to all of this, but it seemed the others knew exactly what we needed to hear and learn so we wouldn’t feel behind.
“Perfect!” Nujik clapped his hands with a pleased smile. “Go inside and get comfortable. Food will arrive in two hours’ time.”