Chapter Forty-Five

Post-Battle

The next morning, there was a celebration – less than ten people died – and none of them were Fae. I was lauded as a Hero… again, though on a lesser scale than aiding in the defeat of the Blight.

The Fae all showed up at my room first thing in the morning.

I was still naked in bed and had zero care that they all came into the room – I had a blanket covering me though since one of them was my brother.

Ash spoke first as he sat on the edge of the bed, "So – Danu is now in range of Ferelden. You can see it even from here if it were clear out."

Galaxia nodded, "It's high enough above the water to be seen all the way to Orzammar on a clear day."

Gale grinned, "Speaking of Orzammar – that's where my family is headed after this. I was chosen as the official Liaison to Orzammar and the Dwarven Empire."

"Do you have an Earthen Mate?" I asked.

He nodded, "Yeah – she'll love living below ground… something I should know?"

"Yes – in 9 years, give or take, there will be a civil war in the land called Orlais and since they provide a lot of Orzammars' food supply while Ferelden recovers from the Blight… they'll need the extra help."

"… My son will be of age to help his mother at that time too – he's an Earth Sylph."

I nodded – that was good. Ash spoke again, "And I'm to be the Liaison to Denerim – since I'm your biological brother and a minor prince due to that when you take the throne. It's a mostly empty title – but I'll be called something to do with your Court of Beings once you ascend."

"And I – as the one who won the Tourney to be your Secondary Mate – will be directed to stay near you. I am aware that I won't be mating with you – so mostly, I'll pretty much be your liaison to Danu while you're away from the lands. My 4 mates will come too." Plume looked sheepish.

"Do you all want a room together in Kirkwall – or will you be sleeping separately?" I asked; I needed to know so I could make plans. I knew Mag and his mates would like a room together – but not everyone did.

"Usually a pod – grouping of mates who are all mated to each other – will share one large room or even just one bed. My pod is no different in that respect. If I had been your Secondary Mate, then I would have just moved between rooms if I was going to share with you on a specific night. One room with a large bed will do," Plume said – he seemed relieved I wasn't upset about it.

I shrugged, "It leaves extra rooms for others then – one room for me, one for Magmas' Pod, and one for yours still leaves another 17 bedrooms."

Yes – the mansion was a 17 bedroom house. It had two dining rooms big enough to fit 40 people in each, a huge kitchen that I would be updating for electric lighting and heating, and three closets in every room that were all walk in. I could make it so that one closet was a bathroom – that might go over well; I just needed to figure out how to arrange the plumbing.

This wasn't even taking the library into account – or the walk in cloak room in the entry hall, the pool in the cellar, the wine storage in the cellar, a drawing room for entertaining guests, the study connected to the Master Bedroom, the garden off the balcony of the Master Bedroom, the armory, and the Treasury. I was going to convert the treasury into the water filtration area – for the bathrooms – since I used the royal treasury and could access my Danu Storage-house easily.

I was eager to see this massive house – since I wasn't sure what I was going to do with such a massive place to begin with. I was more than glad that Plume and his Pod would be moving in – that was less space for me to dust all the time.

Plume smiled, "We would greatly appreciate that."

"And if you want; I know how to go about implanting for surrogacy – meaning that if your mates are interested in having children, then I know how to help you have them. You just need to find someone who would agree to carry for you."

He froze for only a moment before his face lit up, "That would be amazing – I know two of my mates were disappointed that none in the Pod was female. And before they told us who the tourney was for, it was those same mates who pushed me in hopes we might… gain a child. I will let them know! We will begin the search for a… surrogate mother at once!"

The others all looked confused. Bear said, "You can do that?"

I nodded, "I know my degree was in Gender Reassignment, but I worked with In Vitro Fertilization specialists at one point when I was interested in doing that. I know how to do it – I was just never certified to do it. There's quite a bit to it, but to me… it isn't difficult. The Surrogate would also need to be willing to donate her own eggs in the process…"

"I know a pod of all females – we might make a deal where our Pods go in jointly to have the children and both see to the raising…" Plume looked contemplative. It was news to me that a Pod of all females might exist – but then, if all males in a pod were possible, why not have all females in one?

I smiled, "Just a warning – IVF can have the potential for multiple births off the eggs and sperm I would collect to do it. I know – such a hardship…"

My sarcasm was well received – most of the guests in my room laughed.

"It would likely be prudent to have all 5 women implanted with embryos – using mixes of which father is used. You never know what the body might accept or deny in these cases." I added.

"We will table this topic for now – but I will have my Mates bring Sapphire and her Pod to Kirkwall. They will certainly be interested in talking about the possibility of getting children without a male Secondary Mate if nothing else," Plume was hopeful – and excited.

I had only offered because I'd seen a vision that this would work… but I wasn't going to tell him that they'd get ten children all at once… let that be a nice surprise for both Pods. I was sure that 10 Fae could handle 10 children – all Sylphs except one Fairy; and 7 would be male while 3 were female.

Bear said, "What is Gender Reassignment?"

I gave a quick explanation before adding, "The newly made bodies don't give children the way they look though. A male could – in theory – get pregnant… I've heard of that happening a time or two… not always a good thing depending how far the surgeries progressed by the time it was discovered. There was one story about a child born that way that was given up for adoption – kid had four dads and no moms."

A few sniggers rang out – and more than one grin. I yawned, "Sorry – I was up late finishing the 'Book of Shadows' by guards requested. It goes in depth on Wicca to explain every aspect; from rituals and festivals to the everyday things. Little things – like collecting a shiny rock – are in there too. Examples of all kinds – I dedicated one chapter to a Green Witch I heard about who kept plants that she named after her friends and if one wasn't doing well, she talked to the friend it was named after; more often than not, there was something troubling the friend."

Drake looked amused, "That is… actually somewhat nice – I like that. You say the book is finished?"

I nodded, "Finished it last night – I was unable to sleep after Fen died so… I will have it sent to a publisher by courier this afternoon and we should have copies out by next month."

"Or you can send it back with me – I'm to report directly to the Queen as her Mate. She'll take care of getting it published and distributed to Thedas too." Bear smirked. Oh – shit, he was a Prince?

"That makes you the Earth Prince, right?" I asked – making my voice confident since he was Earth-Born. He nodded, "That's right."

"Well… it's nice to know."

"Nicer to know that I don't have long left with my mate – your arrival announced that. Most don't get such a warning," Bear looked a bit pained. I wilted, "I… I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry – you can't help when you're placed here. Storm sort of expected this to be a shorter rule – you were found as the Vessel far too soon. She was only 150 ish when you were born. I'm young too – 55 years old. I found her so early and I'm losing her too soon. I plan to make the most of it though – no more than 4 years left, if that. I'll live on through your court as an Advisor to the Crown past her death – as will my 3 remaining 'Princes'."

"Three – I thought there were four; and that one was a Princess," I was confused.

"The Water Princess died last month – Cancer though we aren't sure what kind. We aren't advanced enough to stop or even spot cancer until it's too late." Ash muttered.

I flinched, "I can't help with that – all I know about Cancer came from having it; and looking it up later. I'm able to change someones' gender and help with pregnancy – but Cancer isn't something I can help with. And the treatments for it didn't always help anyway. They were dangerous too – you treat it by poisoning the body in a way. Since my Cancer was so advanced, I chose not to go through that at all – I was better off just dying painfully than extending the pain for another month or two when it might not even work."

Gale looked a bit sick, "Poisoning?"

"Yes – I'm sure you have an ore here that makes people sick by getting close to it? It would be a yellowy-green or silvery-grey with a glow?"

"We do – it grows in one mine on Danu, and no one is allowed to go near it. We do not even experiment with it," Plume acknowledged.

"That's called Uranium – and the reason it makes people sick is due to Radiation. It poisons you and can give you cancer. Ironically – that's how to cure it if it's caught early enough – Radiation Therapy."

"How does that make sense? Radiation causes cancer so by all means; expose the cancer ridden people to more of it? How did your people learn that?" Obsidian looked upset.

"There was a whole thing where people were using Uranium to build weapons – it was bad and ended badly too. The plant where they were using it exploded and so many people died. 134 station staff were hospitalized from the Radiation, 28 died in the days to months following, and approximately 14 suspected radiation-induced cancer deaths followed within the next 10 years. Among the wider population, 15 children gained thyroid cancer and another 100 people died and were undocumented until later. The eventual total death toll in the decades ahead from Chernobyl releases varies, from 4,000 fatalities when only counting people in the three most contaminated states, to about 9,000 to 16,000 fatalities when assessing the total continent."

"How does that mean they learned to treat it with radiation?" Obsidian pressed.

"They had to stop the spreading – so people who were either already exposed or dying of other things went to help clean it up and build something to keep the radiation contained. Some people with cancer in the early stages came away 'randomly' better – the same had happened with people in a bombing site where my home country dropped radioactive bombs on people in another country. People started piecing it together – The two nuclear sites in Japan and then the one in Russia… early stage cancers were going into remission. Yes – it sometimes came back, but that was rare. It made advancements in Radiation Therapy for people with cancer in the early stages. Late stage – like I had – was still a death sentence that might be extended, but if the cancer was caught early enough, you might only lose your hair in the treatment and feel weak for a long time. Japan had pieced it together first, I think – which makes sense as they had two sites and more older and dying people willing to step in to save the younger generation. Humans on Earth – a lot of them were very odd. A lot of things were discovered by accident like that."

"It was… an accident? Your people didn't simply expose dying people to radiation in the hopes it would get better?" Rain asked – looking slightly more relaxed than Obsidian at the moment.

"Yeah – a Childs' toy called the Slinky was made when a man was attempting to make a meter designed to monitor power on naval battleships; a drug to cure bacterial infections was made when a man was searching for a "wonder drug" that could cure diseases – he didn't find what he was looking for until he threw away one of his experiments; Chocolate Chip cookies were made when someone ran out of bakers' chocolate and hoped the chunks of chocolate would melt to make a chocolate cookie, but they held their shape; someone discovered that you could restart a dead Heart with electric currents when it was stopped due to cooling – and that led to the artificial heart called a Pacemaker; a cook invented Fireworks when trying to cook. Some brands of chocolate were an accident too."

"That is… comforting – that your people didn't endanger others for the research…" Obsidian muttered.

"Sometimes they did – there was a woman called Typhoid Mary. She was prone to illness called Typhoid Fever – but she never showed any symptoms. Many were infected due to her denial of being ill. She was forced into quarantine on two separate occasions on North Brother Island for a total of 26 years and died alone without friends. The thing about that is one doctor had already made a theory about the illness – and set out to prove it with Marys' help; and without her knowledge. They did unethical things to get their samples to look at – yes, the research benefited the medical field greatly, but it wasn't even legal. That was… well, it was only one example of people fucking up and getting celebrated for it. I hated it – but since it was done before I was born, there was nothing I could even do about it. When those things happened after I was old enough, I did try to protest it – many times, it wasn't enough."

"… I don't think I'd like it there," Bear said casually.

"I'll tell you something I once told my friends – I can recall saying 'I don't want to live on this planet anymore,' more than once."

Obsidian said, "I just… I don't think I could abide people using other people… for research…"

"… Then I should keep Antarctica to myself… Ash – you're my brother so turn around while I get up and dressed."

He promptly turned around and I got my hands on one black tank-top, black denim jeans, combat boots and a black leather jacket. Ash – once he was okay to turn around – said, "Yeah – you revolutionized our manner of dress too – the pants you like, all those unique top styles, and the boots… I love the boots."

"I sort of noticed that, actually." I had too – 3 Fairies in plan T-shirts, 2 in tank-tops and 2 in button-ups; they all wore denim or stretch pants; and they all wore combat boots. Colors varied from Fae to Fae, though.

"The dress styles are nice too – the queen liked the long puffy skirt style dress with the sleeve straps hanging off the shoulder." Bear grinned.

"That is a ball gown – and I was sure the Fae would have something similar…" I muttered.

Ash nodded, "We do – but the lacy over-layer and the way it keeps its shape even without a metal under layer? We don't have that. My female mate liked the shorter dress – the one that goes to the knees with a sharp neck-line."

I shrugged, "Have you worn a tux for her – the suit style I sent with that one." He had been talking about the dress I wore at Redcliffe back when Aedan was getting the mages for saving Connor.

He grinned, "She's never been so… passionate before – I think she liked it."

I nodded, "It… women back on Earth adored when men would dress in a Tuxedo – it's so hot. The first time I mated with Alistair, he had been wearing a Tux and I was having a lot of trouble concentrating through evening meal."

We all began heading through the halls – I was hungry.

I froze when a vision hit me – this vision was from Earth; my family…

I had fallen to my knees as I came out of it – crying. I wasn't sure who, but someone began running in the direction of my room. My heart was broken – and while one set of arms had wrapped around me at once, another set replaced them not long latter.

I heard Alistairs' voice calming me, "Love – love; I'm here; it's okay now; I'm here…"

I whimpered and pressed into his chest – half wondering what he had dropped to come and comfort his neurotic mate; half not caring because I needed his arms around me.

It didn't take too long – only around 20-25 minutes for me to calm enough to talk.

Alistair asked, "What happened, love – Plume wasn't sure when he called for me in the palace."

"Oh, no – he went to the palace?" I asked. Alistair gave me a soft smile, "You should have seen the looks he got when he burst into the throne room calling for 'Dragon King Alistair' and saying the Princess was having a melt-down. I'm sure I'll get asked about his purple hair when I return – and the Princess too. They'll think she's in Denerim at the moment because of this."

"I… I had a vision – of my Earth Family…I know what happened now." I was shaking. Alistair looked up to the Fairies surrounding us, "Has she eaten?"

"No, your Majesty – she hasn't," Gales' voice sounded contrite.

"Get her something, please? I can tell this is going to be hard for her to say and I know she's passed out once from lack of food before, so we need to keep her well fed to avoid that."

Gale headed off –melding into the winds around the Keep to move faster.

My voice wavered as Alistair pulled me into his lap, "I was the target – m-my books had started selling well, I guess. I was about to be a best-selling novelist – and my… my publisher didn't want… to share the profits. He set the fire… to kill my whole family. T-the vision showed him being caught… when he tried to shoot my son and hit Alex in the arm when Alex dove to protect him. I-I never thought I'd say that I was upset that the Death Penalty was abolished in the third month of the year I died. Fuck; at least… at least my family will be financially well off – they'll receive all the royalties from my books on top of that life insurance policy. I just watched Alex get shot saving our son… I…"

Alistairs' arms tightened around me, "I'd do the same – you know that."

I snorted, "What threat would ever get close to our children, love? Let's face it; the nobles of Denerim would bend over backwards – most of them – to protect our children when they find out who the new Queen is. Alfstanna would take down a threat with a glare if she thought they were after my kids. That's not mentioning the Fae guards they would have. But it's just… I felt Alexs' fear, pain and…he hadn't moved on yet. He was still mourning me – and Levi… Goddess, Alistair; he was clutching a picture of me. He was scared of the bad man with a gun and clutched that picture like it would save him."

Alistair was stroking my hair as Gale returned with a plate of food. I took it.

Alistair said, "You did worry that he'd forget you – isn't this a good sign?"

I nodded as I picked at my food, "It is… I'm just… scared for them. I was the target; I was the reason they were in danger. This was my fault…"

"My love – your books helped pay bills; you said that. You could never have predicted that the Publisher would go rogue like that – not with your powers of clairvoyance so weak in that world."

I sighed – logically, he was right; I never would have been able to predict that. Still, it was nice to hear it from him.

He held me while I ate and made sure I was completely calmed before heading back to do some explaining – Ash went with him since that was where he was assigned anyway.

Bear had taken the book with him to get it bound and begin making copies for Thedas and Danu.

Obsidian, Rain, and Cosmo all headed back to their cities.

Ash was in Denerim – and yes; I had gotten an update about people asking about Plume and the Princess. Ash also found it hilarious that there was a Mabari named Ash in the Kennels – she was almost ready to give birth. Ash also had taken the unfortunate duty of telling Alistair what happened to Fen.

Gale headed off for Orzammar – his family would meet him there when they could. I had given Gale an official note saying who he was and why he would be in Orzammar – he was the official liaison there, after all.

As for Plume… he had contacted his family, and they would meet us in Kirkwall in a few weeks – they were packing – and so would Sapphires' Pod. The potential for children was far too great of a lure for them to say no.

I was also told that Plumes' and Sapphires' Pods would depart back to Danu after the IVF (they knew it would be successful because I had told Plume I'd had a vision… I just hadn't told him how many kids would appear) – and that Obsidian would take over as my 'Liaison' so that the two Pods could focus on child rearing.

Obsidian had no mates at the moment, so he would be the 'best option' to act as Liaison. In reality, I was sure this was so that Obsidian could look for his mates – and I had no trouble accepting that.

It was only two days after my meld-down that I was packed and collected Anders, Plume and my Guards – all the Fae were in disguises – and we began our walk toward Amaranthine.

5 days we walked to get to Amaranthine… there, at the docks, we took ship to Kirkwall. It was a passenger ship – a large one – so I shared a room with Plume and Anders while my guards all shared a room.

That first night, I called Aedan and let him know that I had taken Anders and the notes he had written me. He lamented that had I waited just a few more days, he'd have been able to see me off.

He wished me luck and expressed his condolences about Fen.

Alistair – who talked to me each night on the Fairy Mirror – told me he'd see me soon.

He sounded mischievous about it. I tried to ask, but he wouldn't tell me what he meant and I was unable to force a vision in my grief over Fen and my Earth Family.

I actively snuggled with Plume and Anders – I needed it to keep the nightmares away and Alistair wouldn't argue about that.

Anders was a terrible snuggle partner though – he moved away from the warmth of snuggling and more often than not… he wound up on the floor scooting away from me. Plume on the other hand, was perfect.

Plume and I both being the 'little spoon' made it slightly awkward until we found our comfortable positions.

It wouldn't take long to arrive in Kirkwall – and I still had a decade of adventures that awaited me.