Veldrix looked around in silent amazement as they gazed out at the city from the balcony of their extravagant inn room that was ridiculously priced for them. It was an amazing room, though, that reflected the eastern culture outside. Pale colors with earthy undertones only broken by bright splashes of blue that reflected the lake the entire city spread out and floated upon.

  Everin still slept in the impossibly soft bed they had decided to share, his rainbow fur standing out in stark contrast to the cream silk bedding.

  Vel had debated about trying to get a separate room and distance theirself more from the Rebel Fox that had threatened to revolt against the royals they served. They knew that Everin was only trying to give himself a reason to stay, though. So, Vel decided to try and enjoy the time they had together, however long or short it may be.

  The sun was just rising now, and they only needed a fifteen minute nap to be fully rested and ready to go while Everin was getting in his hour. Vel had learned to fill most of their time when others slept with other activities, like reading or going on patrol walks, but the royals had also been Ruby Caste and preferred filling that time for them.

  For now, though, they were simply enjoying looking out over this fantastical city that was brimming with even more magic and life than Blomstra. Many of the buildings were simply massive flowers that had been grown by Lilen’s main body. Similarly to Presley’s World Tree, Lilen’s World Devouring Lotus sat at the center of the city and was a towering lotus blossom whose roots spread deep and vines stretched wide covering a massive amount of acreage over the millennia of growth the floraval had.

  None of the buildings were very tall however, their inn being on the taller side for the fabulous view. They could even see a couple of the floating sky islands in the distance that had sparkling waterfalls spilling over the edges just enough to create a myriad of rainbows.

  This city was the most sprawling Veldrix had ever even heard of. Blood moons made the need for fortressed walls more of a requirement to ensure a location lasted beyond it. Tulimeir had been designed with that in mind from its inception, but most were like Blomstra, where new walls would be constructed as the city grew beyond the last.

  Here, however, Lilen was the wall. The edges of her outstretched vines were a fantastic deterrent from stray monsters and anything that was potentially strong enough to be a threat to her would have the local Casters as a fighting force to support her.

  Aside from the shopping districts, life here was relaxed. Simply enjoying the natural beauty and strolling along the paths and various bridges that connected the islands and large floating leaves together, or enjoying a leisurely boat ride between it all.

  Veldrix sighed as they took in the fresh air and wondered if today would be the day that Helen would deign to visit. They knew relying on her to actually show up was a gamble, but they didn’t really have any other option with the Keeper of this new Labyrinth making searching for her theirself a literal impossibility. Easily able to alter the path or move the bridges or simply warp the space they stepped into next, as soon as either Veldrix or Everin tried to leave this particular island, Lilen ensured that they found themselves right back in front of the inn.

  “Do you think she’ll bother to show before our last day tomorrow?” Everin’s voice drifted to them and Vel turned to look back at the rainbow voxen lazily sprawled out across the bed. “Not that I’m complaining about getting to spend more time with you,” he added with a smirk, before shifting into a frown, “But it’d lower my already low opinion of her if she doesn’t.”

  Vel chuckled, “You haven’t even met her yet. Don’t let my handful of stories paint a false picture for you. Helen means well and has always tried her best to support me… in her own way.”

  Everin just narrowed his eyes at them and sarcastically said, “Yeah. Sure. Really supportive to leave your sibling as a slave so you could run off with a princess.”

  They let out another heavy sigh before turning back to the tranquil view and rebutting, “It’s not exactly like that… I would appreciate it if you could not talk about that incident and try your best to be kind to her.”

  “If she even shows,” Everin quipped, and they couldn’t argue that. After a few moments, he suggested, “How about you go down and put in a room delivery order for breakfast for me?”

  Vel quirked a brow at the specific order and asked, “Just for you? You don’t even need to eat in this Ruby Caste zone.”

  He gave a wicked grin as he teased, “I figured you could just have me for your own breakfast.”

  They snorted a laugh, but moved to rejoin him in the bed. “Well, I guess we might as well keep enjoying the wait until our time is up.”

  It was almost midday when an unexpected knock came at their door. Everin was almost convinced by this point that Helen was going to completely ignore their request for a meeting and stick to the idea he indeed already had in his head of the irresponsible trouble-maker. How anyone could claim to love their sibling while allowing them to be subjected to what Veldrix was enduring was completely beyond his comprehension. If she claimed to love and care about Veldrix at all, he would have called her a self-delusional liar.

  As Veldrix opened the door to welcome her, the tinkling voice was more beautiful than Everin wanted to admit. “Lil V!” the woman exclaimed before wrapping her arms around Vel’s neck. “I can’t believe you finally left that monarchy to come see me! Was it to introduce me to this Avatar I heard about? I know I told you I wanted to meet anyone you got serious feels for, but I thought you would have written a letter first or something and definitely not picked a clergy member, especially one associated with the Rebel. They must be pretty special to convince you to leave Aino’s impossibly irrational parents.”

  Well, Everin’s opinion of her increased slightly with those few sentences, but he still refused to believe she was nothing more than a manipulative—

  “He is special,” Veldrix softly replied, and completely derailed his own thoughts with the admission. “I’m glad you came to meet him, but he’s not the only reason I’m visiting.”

  “Visiting?” she asked with a tilted head full of wavy blue hair that glinted like tinted metal. “I was hoping you were planning to move here to live near us.”

  “Us?” Everin couldn’t help but ask in confusion.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The smile she gave him was almost blinding as the Obsidian Caster squealed. “Oh my gods! Is this him?! He’s adorable! Look at those tails!”

  “He’s not a doll, Helen,” Vel retorted with a shake of their head.

  “He should be! I bet you could make a fortune with little plushies of him! I’m so happy for you V!” She flitted over to him to sit across the table from where he and Veldrix had been playing cards while waiting and chatting. Everin could suddenly correlate the Fae ancestry to this new creature before him as she smiled mischievously at him and said, “I am so happy you convinced V to abandon that good for nothing monarchy. They’ve never brought a lover to meet us before—oh, us being me and my wife, Aino. Perhaps, they told you about us? She was a princess of those horrible royals that planned to auction her off to the highest bidder.”

  Helen gave a dramatic sigh and got a dazed look of loving affection as she added, “We met when I was visiting V after they decided to be a knight there and it was love at first sight.”

  “And you just ran off with the crown princess on some passion-filled whim with no care about what was left behind?” Everin bitterly asked.

  She waved a hand with dazzling blue nails through the air, “Please, her parents didn’t even care. They just completely disowned her and kept on like nothing was wrong in the slightest. We’ve been traveling the world together since! Exploring ancient ruins and fantastic magical anomalies. After almost three hundred years, I don’t regret falling in love with her in the slightest.”

  Everin blinked in confusion for a few long moments before turning his head to stare blankly at Veldrix. There was no possible way she didn’t know that the cost of her wonderful life full of love and adventure was what Veldrix had been denied.

  They simply shook their head, sat at the table between him and Helen, and asked, “Have you two finally decided to settle down here, or are you just exploring this current magical anomaly? I know last you wrote you were complaining about Aino getting baby fever finally.”

  Helen dramatically sighed, “Yeah. She’s been asking for a decade now to pick a place to have some little gemlings of our own to raise, but it’s so hard to decide which place would be best for us. This place is quickly winning, though, with the benefit of privacy from the clergy it offers.”

  “Don’t you already have children?” Everin asked in another bout of confusion, “You’re the first Tourmaline Gemite, not the only one.”

  Helen scoffed and got a slightly disgusted look on her face, “Please, those aren’t my kids. They belong to the Cultivator’s clergy. Those first hundred they borrowed me for are not my family. It’s not like I really understood what I was being signed up for, you know?”

  Everin frowned, “No, I don’t know. Surely the Cultivator wouldn’t just make kids without your consent.”

  She chuckled, “Oh, I signed the paperwork, but it’s not like they actually explained the ramifications of doing so. I’m sure someday one of their clergy will approach you too, Avatar. The chance for a new subspecies of voxen with a Radiant Attunement will be too tempting for them to pass up.”

  He glanced back at Veldrix and thought how odd it was that they viewed this aspect of their upbringing in such opposite ways. With the idea posed, however, he wasn’t sure if he could agree to whatever the Cultivator might offer him in return for a similar chance at a new species. Would he be able to agree and distance himself from those first children as unrelated, or would he feel obligated to them like Veldrix so obviously did?

  Helen turning back to Veldrix pulled him from his thoughts as she asked, “So, if you’re not here to talk about settling down with us or introduce your new boyfriend, why did you come all the way here?”

  Veldrix turned to him with a questioning gaze, and Everin spoke up with the reason that Scholar had shared with him beforehand in case her whispers couldn’t reach him here like her other clergy. “Scholar was hoping that you could help us with removing a Soul Cage from a Ruby Caster who’s been trapped in a cursed stasis. It’s a Soul Reaper device that was successfully implanted but tied to a Crystal Caster at the time and seemed to have unexpected results.”

  The tourmaline gemite just stared at him for a few silent moments as though waiting for him to add any details before she prompted with a sad but knowing smile, “Let me guess, Scholar made an oopsie with alien tech and sent you here to have the Arcanist hopefully clean up her little mess? Is she hoping for some ancient magic item to get rediscovered that can fix the issue? She really should learn to test things on a smaller scale first before risking someone’s life. A goddess should be more responsible with her clergies’ actions.”

  Everin felt his anger flare at the slight but not because he disagreed with her assessment of the Scholar, but with her labeling anyone else as irresponsible. “You’re one to talk,” he said, unable to halt the slight snarl in his voice.

  Her look of surprise was immediately followed by the feeling of her aura all around him but Veldrix was the one who spoke in a warning, “Drop it, Ev.”

  Helen’s momentary anger was replaced with confusion at Vel’s response and she turned to ask them, “Drop what? What is he talking about V?”

  He just stared incredulously at the garnet gemite as he realized that Veldrix hadn’t told Helen. They had silently suffered and watched their sister have the life they could only dream of, a life unburdened by guilt or responsibility.

  “It’s nothing, Helen,” they blatantly lied, “He’s misunderstanding because of my own lack of communication.”

  She gave a small huff but smiled again as she playfully scolded, “I’ve told you to get better about that. I swear those blood-thirsty nobles at the court you play at being a knight with are making you worse at talking with people. Aren’t you tired of pretending with them?”

  That made Everin’s fur bristle as he bit back, “Veldrix is a knight! They’re not pretending! They actually care about those people and the garnet—”

  Veldrix held up a hand to forestall him and interrupted, “That’s enough, Ev. If you can’t calm down, we can go discuss things elsewhere now that I know what Scholar wanted Helen for.”

  “Calm down?!” he retorted, “You think this isn’t calm?!”

  “Wow, I never thought you’d be one to fall for such a hot-head, V. I mean, I get that he’s cute but I always thought you’d go for someone with a softer touch and quieter mouth like yourself.”

  Everin stood then and had his own moment of complete irresponsibility as he yelled, “Their quiet mouth is the entire reason you’re able to take advantage of them and condemn them to a life as the royal breeding stock!”

  Veldrix stood in response and yelled back at him, “Go cool down, Avatar Starlark. You had no right to say that.”

  Helen just stared at them in shock before asking, “V, what is he talking about?”

  He glared at Veldrix, debating about storming out, but if he had wanted to start a rebellion, he needed to know Helen was willing to fight for their sibling, “Veldrix traded their own body to let the royals replace your princess with a new heir. That’s why they left you two alone. While Vel’s been protecting the garnet gemites in the Capital, you’ve been the one playing and galavanting around the globe.”

  Veldrix’s face contorted in a rare show of anger as he spoke, but he wasn’t going to back down from this. He turned to look at Helen then and added, “Perhaps you should be more responsible about how your actions affect those around you.”

  As he looked back at Veldrix, waiting for the angered yells, he was surprised when Vel simply frowned and said, “Hypocrite,” before turning and leaving the building by theirself.

  The accusation made him replay his last words and he realized too late that Vel was right; he hadn’t realized beforehand how his forced confession to Helen had just destroyed the joyous bond of love and trust between the two siblings, which he felt shred into pieces in that very moment.