Chapter 19

In all her life, Mikasa had never regretted her lycan blood. She'd never cursed the moon or resented the change. But finding herself standing on the Island of Glass, a place of mystery and magic, of age beyond the knowing, and not being able to speak had her cursing the damn timing.

She smelled flowers and citrus, sea and sand, the cool green of grasses, smoke from torches flanking a path winding up a high hill where the castle stood, shining silver, beaming with light. Felt the warm, soft breeze, a balm over the chilly wet.

And the desperate need to run as the feral energy of the change churned inside her. She quivered with it even as Eren crouched beside her, a hand light on her neck.

"Don't run, not yet."

Instinct, intellect crashed and clashed inside her, yet another battle. But his eyes, strong and green, held her still. Then she braced, muscles coiled, prepared to attack and defend and she scented something...other.

Beside her Eren reached for his sword.

They flowed from dark to light, the moon goddesses of Annie's vision and art. Still gripping his sword, Eren straightened. Bertoldt laid a hand on his arm.

"Sheath your sword, Eren. They're of the light. Can't you feel it?"

"Just how do you say hi to a god?" Armin wondered. "I mean one who's not trying to kill you."

Historia solved that puzzle by running forward, wet hair flying. "Hello! We're so happy! You're so beautiful. You look like my mother, and like grandmother. Like the pictures Annie drew. We're very wet, and, oh, I have some blood." As if brushing lint from a lapel, Historia rubbed at the blood on her arm. "I'm sorry we're so messy."

"Well, I guess that's one way," Armin murmured.

Rose smiled. "You are very welcome here, Sons and Daughter of Glass." And she laid a hand on Historia's arm, healed the gash as she kissed her cheek.

"Oh, thank you. We brought the stars for you. Annie has them. She has some blood, too. And Armin, he's my mate. And Bertoldt has blood and burns. The moon is full here, so Mikasa had to change very fast to her wolf. And this is Eren. He stabbed Marley with his sword and she fell into the sea. Now the fighting is done, and we're here. I have so much happy."

"You are joy," Rose told her. "And you are loved," she said to all.

"You are courage." Sina stepped forward. "And you are valued. We will talk," she said to Mikasa, "but I can see you must run. Be free, she-wolf." Then she looked at Eren. "On my honour, she will be safe, and she will come back to you. Always."

The wolf turned her head, looked at Eren. Then bounded across the sand and into the dark.

"She will always find her way to you, and you to her."

"You are strength and valor." Maria stepped to Bertoldt, kissed his cheek. "Power and light. You are respected, and have all our gratitude."

"We are your children."

"Blood of our blood, bone of our bone. Heart," Maria added, laying a hand on Bertoldt's, "of our hearts. Daughter." She turned to Annie. "Will you give us the stars?"

"Yes."

Each goddess held out a hand. As the glass around the stars shimmered away, each star floated to the hand that created it.

Pulsed, pulsed, stilled. Vanished.

"Are they back in the sky?" Historia looked up.

"Not yet," Rose told her. "But safe."

"Don't mean to tell you your business," Armin began. "but wasn't the whole deal about putting them back up there?"

"We're not done," Annie said. "We're not finished yet."

"I didn't end her," Eren said as he studied Annie's face. "She's still out there."

"Your sword struck true." With one hand on the hilt of her own, Sina faced Eren, warrior to warrior. "As you are true. But your steel was not the sword that brings her end. Until her end, the stars wait."

"She cannot reach them now," Rose assured them.

"But she can reach us, even here," Annie said as truth pumped through her. "Now the rage heals her wounds, and once healed, her madness will be complete. She will crave our deaths like wine."

"But not tonight." Maria raised her arms high. "See what I see, know what I know. This night is pure, and the Children of Glass are welcomed home."

"To take another journey." Annie's eyes darkened as she saw, and she knew. "Beyond the circle of power where the Tree of All Life shelters the stone, and the stone shelters the sword. One hand to draw it, and one to wield it, all to end what would swallow worlds."

"But not tonight," Maria said again. "Tonight you will have food and drink and rest. We will tend to you."

"She is safe." Sina laid a hand on Eren's arm when he hesitated. "And will be guided to you."

As he glanced toward the hills, shadows under a star-gazed sky, he heard her howl. The sound of joy and triumph echoed after him as he took the winding, torch-lit path with the others.

The palace, rising high into the night sky, was as Annie had foreseen. Gardens of colour and scent, musical fountains, rooms with a fairy-tale gleam that glowed with light and glinted with sparkle.

No one approached them as they followed three goddesses up a sweep of silver stairs strewn with flowers and white candles as tall as a man. Jeweled ropes dripped from the ceiling, raining light as they traveled along a wide corridor into a large chamber.

An elaborate sitting room, Eren supposed, decked out with curved sofas and chairs in the same jewel colours as the ropes of light. Tables held food, platters of meats and fruit and bread, cheeses and olives and dates. Desserts all but bursting with cream. Wine and crystal goblets.

He thought of Mikasa's fast. Her hard luck with all the food and her not here.

He didn't question that his clothes, his hair and body, so thoroughly drenched by the storm and the sea, were now dry and comfortably warm.

They didn't walk in a world of logic now.

A fire crackled invitingly, and though light seemed to emanate from the walls, candles flickered.

From somewhere, soft as a whisper, came harp song.

"You have questions. But the body, mind, and spirit must be fed." Maria poured wine into goblets. "And rested. Your chambers are prepared for you, when you're ready."

"There is beer." Sina poured from an amber bottle, offered it to Eren. "There will be food for her in the chamber you share when she wakes."

"And if I go out and look for her?"

"You are free to go as you please, as she is. As all are. Might I see your sword? And you mine," she added when his eyes narrowed. She drew hers, held it out to him. I forged it when I was very young, tempered it with lightning and cooled it in the sea. I named it Gerechtigkeit."

"Justice?"

She smiled. "I was very young."

He accepted her sword, gave her his own.

"It has good balance and weight," Sina decided. "It still carries her blood."

"Apparently not enough of it."

"My sword, despite its name, was not meant to bear her blood. I envy you that. I would like to spar with you."

Eren arched his eyebrows. "Now?"

He saw a warrior's gleam in her eye before she glanced back where the others filled plates, tended wounds. "My sisters would object, but perhaps tomorrow."

"You have an advantage."

She exchanged swords with him, sheathed her own. "Warrior to warrior, not god to immortal."

"No. You look like my mother."

That warrior gleam shifted to compassion he hadn't expected. "I hope a time comes when you find comfort there instead of grief. Eat, soldier, the food is good."

Now she turned to Armin. "The demon, the human she turned, is dead."

"Yeah."

Eren's head whipped around as the others stopped to look at Armin. "Reiner's...dead?"

"We've been a little busy for the recount." Armin rubbed the back of his neck. "He went for Mikasa...again."

"Those damn marks on her throat," Eren added.

"She shot him, knifed him, body kits. I went for the head shot." He gulped some wine, struggling a little. Reiner had been human once. "It took three. Magic number."

"He is no more?" Historia asked softly.

"Evaporated to steam." Armin sent Bertoldt a wan smile. "You're probably gonna clean up the skeleton."

"We are sworn not to do such evil." Rose lowered her head, then lifted it. "But she has broken all oaths. And he became her evil. She turned him because she saw what he had. What was human, she destroyed. Not you, Armin Arlert. You ended a titan."

"To save a friend, a sister." Now Sina turned back to Eren and from her pocket she took a key. "This will guide you to you bedchamber when you retire."

"How will she find me?"

Surprise, and perhaps a little disappointment, moved over in Sina's eyes. "You should trust her, Eren Jaeger. You know as well as everyone, even the Fates, that as long as your heart beats, there is nothing keeping Mikasa Ackerman away. She will always find you."

"Now you have food and drink and comfort," Rose began, "we will give you privacy. If you have a need for anything, you have only to ask. Eat and rest well, and we will be with you on the morrow."

"No harm will come tonight," Maria vowed. "And nothing will disturb you. Be welcome here."

When they were alone, Eren picked up the beer, sampled it, decided he sure as hell couldn't complain about that.

Armin lifted a hand. "Can I just say, holy shit? I'm not sure my brain's caught up with the rest of me, but, I'm pretty sure we're sitting at our own personal banquet in a castle on the freaking Island of Glass. A castle, in case you didn't notice, that's made of freaking glass."

"Shit," Eren said.

"Back at you, dude. I had a good look, a good, if sneaky, feel. Plus I tapped on it. Glass. Magic glass, I bet, but wow. Plus, a god just poured me a drink."

"They're very nice. We made them happy, too." Historia bit into a little cream cake. "I like this food."

"She's right about the food," Armin said to Eren.

"Yeah, I could eat." But he walked to the glass doors, opened them to look out on the hills.

"She's fine. I can feel her." Annie leaned against Bertoldt, sipped wine. "She's more than fine. She's absolutely thrilled. This is a world few have seen, much less explored, and there's still an archeologist inside the wolf." Rising, Annie filled a plate, walked over to Eren. "Eat."

"Eat, drink, and be merry?"

"Tomorrow's coming either way."

She went back to Bertoldt.

He stroked her hair. "We found the stars, we found the island and returned them. And we should have known, I suppose, such things come in threes. So we've one more to go."

"I must have missed the heart." Disgusted, Eren sat, brooded over the food.

"I don't think so." Now Bertoldt brushed his lips at Annie's temple.

"It's the sword," she said. "Yours could hurt her, and enchanted, make her bleed, but it can't end her. We have to free the one that can, and will, from the stone."

"Somebody'll play King Arthur," Armin supposed. "Hope it's you, man, as you're the best here with a sword."

"We will have one more battle."

"Don't say one more," Armin said to Historia. "It's bad luck. Let's just say, we're taking a hike tomorrow."

"I like to hike."

"We'll make our own fun."

They talked late into the night, or what felt late, and still Mikasa didn't come back. Eren let the key guide him, it simply drew him along the corridor to a wide, arched door that opened when he stepped up to it.

He hoped to find her there, waiting for him. But there was no wolf curled by the fire or stretched out over the enormous bed.

Once again he went to the doors, flung them open to a balmy, almost tropical breeze perfumed with night-blooming jasmine and citrus. The room held a curved love seat in a nook, two wing chairs in front of the fire, a sturdy writing desk, she'd like that, under a window. And the massive bed with a soaring headboard carved with symbols. He recognized some, German, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Mandarin.

If his translation could be trusted, all symbolized peace.

He wouldn't have minded some damn peace.

He took off his sword, leaned it on the side of the chair. Poured himself a couple fingers of what he discovered was whiskey in a slender bottle, and settled down by the fire to wait for her.

He should've been annoyed, and couldn't figure out why he wasn't, or not particularly. She'd have run off that energy by now, and should have come back. But she was still out there, sniffing around, he supposed, literally, exploring her brave new world.

So he sipped his whiskey, brooded into the fire, and with a soldier's mind went over every step of the battle looking for mistakes.

He didn't hear her so much as feel her, and turned his head saw her standing just inside the terrace doors, scanning the room with those beautiful eyes.

"About bloody time."

He rose, walked to the bed, tossed the bedding aside. He stripped to the skin, and rolled in. A moment later he felt her leap up, land beside him. Curl against him.

And finding his peace, he put an arm around her and slept.

The change came at dawn with the sun breaking the night with soft pinks, strong reds, rich golds. It moved through her, pain and beauty, helplessness and power. She shuddered with it, gave in, gave all as one became another.

And on a sigh opened her eyes to find Eren's on her.

"What?"

"You're beautiful."

Still half dazed, she blinked. "Huh?"

He rolled onto her, covered her, and his mouth was hot, indescribably tender on hers. Her system, her spirit, her body, barely through the glory of the change, trembled anew at the fresh assault on her senses.

She could barely breathe and his hands stroked over her skin, molded her stunning breasts, skimmed down to her hips. His mouth followed.

She flew up, clung, clung, clung to that edge of impossible pleasure, then let it go to take the fall.

Helplessness and power, pain and beauty.

All she was responded, gave back. Here, too, was change, a merging of two into one. They rolled over the bed, grasping, finding, taking.

He could still smell the wild on her, all but feel it beat inside her. When her mouth met his again, strong and fierce, he surrendered to all she was.

And all she was, was his.

Lust burned. Love shattered. Need beyond the physical overwhelmed.

When she straddled him, those eyes like melted silver, her body curvy and glowing in those streaks of morning, he was lost.

So she took him, slow, slow, glorious torture. Then stronger, deeper, until her breath caught on moans and her heart thundered under his hands. And driving, driving, fast, wild, and straight into the heart of the storm.

She slid bonelessly down on him, rested her head on his chest. Her lips curved when his arms came around her, as they had around the wold before they'd slept.

She'd have slept again, warm and content, if not for the sudden and desperate hunger. She hoped to God there was food of some sort close by.

"You watched me change," she told him.

"It's not the first time." He stroked her hair. "It's magnificent. Oddly arousing."

She snickered at that, then her head shot up as she sniffed the air. "Food."

"There's a kind of sitting room where-"

"No, here." She rolled off him, leaped up.

On a table were platters, that hadn't been there, eggs, grilled meats, bread, glossy pastries.

He pushed up to his elbows. "Tell me that's coffee."

She sniffed a pot as she stuffed bacon in her mouth. "Tea, but it's strong. I'm starving."

He watched her eat, still naked, still flushed from sex, her hair tousled and shaggy, her hands grabbing greedily.

"I'm in love with you."

She glanced back. "You said it aloud."

"I'm in love with you. Damn it."

"Sounds more like you. Better get your ass up if you want any of this."

"I've been married. Twice."

Mikasa paused, deliberately poured tea. "That's not surprising in three centuries."

"The first was about forty years after...after. She was young and sweet-natured. I shouldn't have touched her, but I did, and more than once, and with that she...She got pregnant. I couldn't ruin her. I had ruined her."

"So you married her. Did you tell her?"

"No, I didn't tell her. And I didn't need to, as it turned out, as both she and the baby died in the birthing."

"I'm sorry." In that moment, she felt his grief as her own. Dull and deep. "I'm so sorry."

"Not uncommon in those days. I swore I'd never touch an innocent again, such as she had been. And didn't. More than a hundred years and I married again. She was a bit older, not innocent. A widow. Barren. We enjoyed each other. Her I did tell, though I doubt she believed me. Until she grew older, and I didn't. And she grew bitter with it. I had soldier's work to do, but I always came back to her. And one day I came back to her too late. She'd hanged herself, and left a letter for me. Cursing me."

Mikasa nodded, sipped some tea. "I'm sorry. It sucks. For the first, if I got pregnant, it's now the twenty-first century. I'm strong and healthy. For the second, I'm not vain, and I'm not stupid. And over all that, I don't need marriage."

"I do. With you."

She choked on her tea. "Say what? Eren Jaeger, is that you?"

"It's stupid. It's a mistake. We'll both regret it."

And looking at her, just looking at her, he didn't give a shit.

"I want the pledge. For a day, week, for fifty years or if you live to a hundred and four."

"You're serious? You're asking me to marry you? Right now?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" He rolled out of bed, stalked over. "Give me the damn tea."

"But I'm all aflutter."

He shot her a viciously dark look. "I didn't love them. I cared for them, both, and I pledged to them. I honored the pledge, without love, as I thought love wasn't necessary. Or possible. I love you, and I'll damn well have the pledge and make it."

"I could say no."

"You won't." He slammed the tea down. Then closed his eyes a moment. Opened them with his heart in them. "Don't. Please don't say no. Give me this one thing."

She reached up to frame his face. "Do you understand I don't need this to stay with you, to love you, to accept you'll go on after I stop?"

"Yes. I don't need it to stay with you or to love you. I need it because I will and I do. I need it because in three and a half centuries, you're the only woman I've loved."

"Okay."

"Okay? Just...okay? That's your answer?"

"Yeah, okay. I'm in."

He shook his head, then lowered his brow to hers. "What a pair we are."

"It works."

"It works," he agreed. "I guess you'll want a ring."

"Trewth, the Angelo-Saxon root of betrothed. Means truth. The ring's a symbol of the promise. I appreciate symbols."

"I'll find something." He drew her in. He'd found her, hadn't he?

"It'd be nice to stay here." Skin to skin, heart to heart. "But."

With reluctance she drew back. "I've got some questions, and the first is, where are the damn stars?"

"Safe, we're told. I'll fill you in. We should get dressed, find the others."

"Great. Where are my clothes?"

"Couldn't say."

Her brows knitted. "Didn't you get them?"

"Considering the situation, I didn't think to pick up after you."

"Well shit." At a loss, she looked around the room, then walked to a delicately carved wardrobe. Stared at the contents. "You've got to be kidding me."

Eren studied in turn, smiled. Inside hung a black dress about ankle length. A white corset and brown lace boots as well.

"Seriously? You get the cool leather pants and I get a Maid Marian dress?"

"It's that or naked."

"Let me think about it a minute."

She wore the dress, and scowled at herself in the mirror. "Where am I supposed to put my gun, my knife? Where are my gun and knife?"

"We'll sort it out." Eren strapped on his sword. "You look beautiful."

"I look like I'm going to a Renaissance fair." She tugged uselessly at the bodice. "That's a lot of landscape. Why are breasts such a thing?"

"I'll show you later," he said and went to answer the knock on the door.

"Good morning! Oh! Mikasa!" Historia swirled in. "You're beautiful! How pretty. Do you like my dress? Isn't it wonderful?"

She did a spin, sending the skirts flying out, all sea blue and silky. "Armin said it's like my eyes, and yours is like yours. Annie's is so pretty and ice blue. Everyone is in our sitting room. We're to wait until they come for us. We're going to meet the queen." She took a breath, focused on Eren's face. "You're happy! I can see you're happy. You're with Mikasa." She threw her arms around him. "You must get Mikasa a ring now."

"I'll work on that."

"Will I do the stand-up at your wedding?" she asked Mikasa.

On a laugh, Mikasa stopped feeling awkward in the dress. "You bet your ass."

"Come, come. There's more food. And coffee."

"Coffee? How'd you get coffee?"

"Annie asked." Grabbing Mikasa's hands, Historia tugged. "We have only to ask."

"I missed that memo."

In the sitting room the others stood, Annie in a flowing pale blue velvet, Bertoldt in the dignified black of a sorcerer, Armin in a blue dress shirt and brown tanned pants.

"Nice threads," he said to Mikasa.

"Middle ages prom dress." She studied him as she beelined for the coffee. "You got a Han Solo deal going."

"I know, right? I'm liking it."

"So, sorry I had to change and run last night, but Eren caught me up. Marley's like a bitch cat with nine lives, and the stars don't go up until we finish her off." She gulped coffee. "And so a pilgrimage to the sword stone, an Arthur the Young twist. Then we freaking end this thing."

"That sums it up," Bertoldt agreed. "May it be so simple."

"I need my weapons," she began, then turned when a young man in trews and doublet stepped to the door.

"My ladies, my lords. Queen Ymir requests the honor of your presence."

It wasn't every day you met a queen, Mikasa though as they followed the page up the wide stairs. It wasn't every lifetime you met the queen of a magic island who'd ruled for more than a millennium.

She'd expected the huge double doors, but had assumed to find them guarded. Instead they were flanked by glass urns of flowers.

She'd expected a kind of throne room, and the size met that description, along with what seemed like acres of clear glass floor. But the décor struck as simple, flowers, candles, colourful fabrics, and a throne, clear as the floor, more like an elegant chair than royal.

Then again, a chair of gold and jewels might have seemed simple compared to the woman who graced it.

She was radiant.

Topped with a diadem of jeweled glass. Short, deep brown hair spilled over her shoulders and white gown. The tiny clear stones scattered over it sparkled like diamonds. Perhaps they were. Her beauty stole the breath. Luminous perfection in a sculpted mouth, in vividly hazel eyes, and high, keen cheekbones.

When she smiled, Mikasa would have sworn the light shimmered.

The three goddesses stood at her right side. On her left sat a massive white wolf with eyes of bright gold.

Historia swept into a fluid curtsy. "Mother of magic, queen of the worlds, Ymir who is radiance, we are your servants."

"You are welcome, Children of Glass. You are welcome, Guardians of the Lights."

She rose, glided down the three steps from the throne, crossed to them with her hands outstretched. She took Historia's, kissed Historia's cheeks.

"Wonder of the sea, you have our love, our thanks. Traveler of time and place." She kissed Armin. "You have our love, our thanks. "Hunter of the moon." And Mikasa's. "You have our love, our thanks. Warrior of forever, you have our love, our thanks."

She moved from Eren to Bertoldt. "Son of power, you have our love, our thanks." And last to Annie. "Daughter of visions, you have our love, our thanks. I would give you more than this, but your journey is not yet complete. Will you finish it?"

Annie answered as Ymir's hands still held hers and the words rose up in her. "We will travel the path of the gods to the circle of power, and beyond to the Tree of All Life and the stone and sword. We will fight the last battle, light against dark.

"I can't see who wields the sword, or if the sword strikes true. I can't see the end of Marley, or our end."

"You cannot see, but you will take the journey?"

"We've pledged to it," Bertoldt answered.

"It's an oath," Historia added, then looked at Armin.

"All in." He kissed her temple. "Ah, Your Majesty."

"We could stay here." Mikasa drew Ymir's attention. "The guardians are on Glass, and the stars, and it's within your power to move the island to another place, even another dimension. We could stay, potentially without interference from Marley for a couple of centuries. Or so I've read in several records."

"You are a scholar and a seeker, and what you say is truth. Is this what you would wish?"

"No, I just wanted verification. No disrespect."

"I would give you time. You would enjoy learning more of us, more of this world. Digging."

"Very much. But there isn't time, not here and now."

"Not here and now."

"Then we finish the journey." Mikasa looked at Eren. "So say we all?"

"We finish. My woman needs her weapons."

Mikasa's eyebrows shot up, not just at the my woman, but because he spoke in German.

"In the chamber you share when you return, and garb suitable for what is to come." Ymir laid a hand on Eren's arm. "You have only to ask. Such as our love, our gratitude. Only ask."

The queen stepped back. "It is our greatest hope that you will return here, victorious, and together with all of Glass, we will watch the stars shine."

Get ready for the finale! I don't own anything