Edited on July 6, 2015. I'm currently working through this story and making slight adjustments to the story in order to fix certain inaccuracies that started popping up later in the story.
I own nothing of the Black Jewels Trilogy or any following novels. All rights go to Anne Bishop. Thanks for reading!
BJT:ANW
Chapter 11
Sitting in the carriage, riding the Winds towards Jaenelle's home, the Hall, Arina looked expectantly at the older woman. "You said that you would show me how to see the Dream beneath the flesh today," she reminded Jaenelle eagerly. "Why not right now?"
Jaenelle shook her head in quiet amusement at Arina's excitement. "Aright," she agreed with a smile. "Why not indeed?" Jaenelle stood and beckoned Arina to follow her into the small private room in the carriage, explaining "It will be easier for you to focus if you aren't being watched." The others all made various noises of embarrassment and turned their heads away, avoiding looking at Arina when she twisted around. Arina made a face at them as she closed the door behind her. A pulse of Jaenelle's Twilight's Dawn rendered the room silent as the outside noise cut off. Jaenelle pointed to the bed, and Arina obediently sat down, excited to start, and pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged. Jaenelle called in a chair and sat across from her.
"The first step is to find your own place in the Abyss," Jaenelle began. "Every Witch has one. When you are there, everything will…how should I put this…fall away, all the influences from this world. It's very peaceful. You find out who you really are when you are there," she added, her expression dreamy. "While you are here in this Realm, or any of the Realms, there is so much pressure on you, it's almost easier to hold the illusion around yourself. In your case, of course, it is much deeper than an illusion, but for me it's easier to look like a normal human here in the Realms, but almost impossible there. When you find your own place in the Abyss, like the Misty Place is for me, then I believe that you will know what to do to find your spirit." Jaenelle shrugged and smiled wryly at the look on Arina's face. "I'm sorry that's the best I can say," she added, "But I've never had a situation like this before."
"Oh, I know," Arina muttered darkly. She rolled over what Jaenelle had said in her mind, thoughtful. "What do you mean, my 'place in the Abyss'?" she asked finally. Jaenelle smiled and held out her hand in invitation instead of responding. Arina took it, and closed her eyes when Jaenelle did. Instantly an odd, falling sensation rushed over her, before everything went still again. Cautiously, Arina opened her eyes. She gasped silently in shock at the sight that greeted her, very different from the small room she had been in before.
The round stone space was surrounded by towering walls, with an alter set up in the center of the small circle. Mist coiled around the stones and curled up the girl's legs as she stood looking around. Arina slowly turned in place, looking up at the walls and feeling the press of the Darkness—heavy, but not as oppressive as it seemed like it should be, if you judged by the swirling, misty atmosphere.
"This is the Misty Place," Jaenelle's voice murmured from the shadows. It was different than Arina was used to, more spectral, with a midnight and lightning edge to it. Arina turned back around to face the direction the voice came from, somewhat wary.
Jaenelle—the Dream Beneath the Flesh—smiled at Arina. Eyes wide, she took in the pointed ears, unicorn horn, claws, and faun legs. She wasn't wearing any clothing either, so Arina got a very good look at the changes in the woman she knew to the one standing in front of her. Still, they were the same person. "This is my place in the Abyss," Jaenelle continued. "But not yours. Do you know what to do from here? Where to go?" she asked.
In response, Arina closed her eyes and concentrated, reaching out with her mind. After a minute of focus, she began to feel a pull. She couldn't say what direction that the tug had come from, only that it was there, and strong. Opening her eyes again, the young girl met Jaenelle's sapphire eyes with silver. The woman smiled at her gently and said, "Go."
It was like she had been holding a rope that connected her to the ground, and letting it go also removed gravity. Following the tugging feeling, Arina felt like she was rising up at the same time as going down, falling and rising simultaneously. Downside up is upside down, she thought giddily. She closed her eyes again to concentrate on the feeling, and found that she was rushing upwards. Absently, she wondered how she was going up, and then more importantly, why she was going up. The Abyss and the Webs were down, descending into the darkness. That had been drummed into her head for as long as she had been here.
Arina's feet touched ground at that moment, and her thought process derailed in surprise as she snapped open her eyes and looked down. It wasn't precisely that she was embarrassed to find herself almost entirely naked—she just hadn't been expecting it. Although she really should have been, considering that Jaenelle hadn't exactly been wearing any clothes. Arina found that she was wearing a very sheer "gown," or long and formal looking dress, that interestingly enough left her back bare. She couldn't imagine why, but there it was. She smiled, amused at the idea that her modest former life in the United States on Earth had contrasted with her new surroundings in the very open sexuality in the Realms enough to give her a full set of clothing—a full set of clothing that was almost completely see through. It was an oddly funny, though pointless, gesture. Arina had to smother a giggle.
Refocusing and looking up again, Arina took stock of her surroundings. It was so very different in almost every way from Jaenelle's Misty Place, Arina couldn't believe that they were both almost the same thing. Her bare feet rested on rough stone, but it was very different from the stone circle of the Misty Place, where the stone was smooth. Instead, it was natural, the rough rock of a cliff top or rocky beach. Ahead of her, the ground sloped down gently, and to the left and right the slope appeared to be circular in shape, forming a great half dome beneath her feet. It was filled with a pool of perfectly clear water, and at the bottom of the pool glittered stones of every color: silver, blue, gold, black, bronze, red, green, purple…they shone in the depths, even down what had to be fifty feet, still perfectly clear and bright. The water was still, and there were flat white stepping stones stretching out from the edge of the pool all the way to the middle.
Arina caught her breath at the sight in the center of the pool. Her earlier thought came back to her—Downside up is upside down—as she stared in astonishment at the waterfall in the exact center point of the water. It's falling up, she thought dizzily. And indeed, the water was rising up in a smooth column, rather than the crashing fall that she had witnessed at Starfire Manor. The stream rose up towards the sky, shimmering with an inner glow, and Arina tilted her head back to follow the path of the water, and found herself staring into the Darkness and the depths of the Abyss.
Instantly, she spun around to see what was behind her, and found a towering ash tree perched right on the edge of a cliff edge. Beyond it there was a steep drop, and Arina cautiously approached the edge and stared down. Below her spread the Webs of Power in reverse: Black, Ebon-grey, Grey, Red, Sapphire, Green, Opal, Purple Dusk, Summer Sky, Rose, Tiger-Eye, Yellow and White. Shaking her head in disbelief at the sight, Arina turned back to the equally amazing site of the pool, then paused.
"You will know what to do," Jaenelle had told her. "You will find out who you really are."
Arina closed her eyes and reached hesitantly for her Jewel. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, and so she was neither surprised nor disappointed when that didn't do anything to help her understand what to do. Opening her eyes again in resignation, the first things that she saw were the stepping stones gleaming on the water's surface. Acting purely on instinct, Arina stepped out onto the first of the stones. The hem of her gown trailed in the water as she continued from stone to stone toward the rising flow of water in the middle of the pool By the time that she had reached it a few minutes of careful steps later, she had decided to call the strange thing the waterrise—it was simple and neat, and it worked. She stared into the smooth surface of the water at her reflection for a long moment, and then sank down to her knees without looking away.
Silver eyes set in a heart shaped face with high cheekbones and golden skin stared back at her. The reflection showed long, slender, elegant limbs on a tiny frame, and long black hair with bronze and copper streaks. Her body was well proportioned, slender but muscled, and her breasts, clearly seen through the sheer gown, were fair sized and firm, but not excessively large. She was a beautiful girl.
Arina stretched out her hand to touch her reflection, almost in a trance. She lay her hand on the surface of the water very gently, not breaking the surface but resting against it as though it was made of ice instead of water. Ripples spread from her hand over the water, blurring her reflection for an endless second.
A shiver ran through her skin in the second that it took her image to reform. A low ache spread through her legs, rear, and back, throbbing slowly. Her head pounded in sharper pain, her jaws and the crown of her head the worst affected. Her hands ached as though they had been frozen and were now being warmed up, with the same burning pins and needles sensation. Her vision wavered even as the reflection blurred. Then her vision had cleared, and she was once again looking at her reflection in the mirror. Unbidden, the words of one of her favorite Disney songs suddenly came to her: "Who is that girl I see/ staring straight/ back at me. Why is my reflection someone I/ don't know?"
Arina tried to focus on the changes to her body, but her mind kept shying away from the idea in quiet desperation. Oh get over it, she told herself sharply in frustration. It's not that big of a deal—besides, I always knew I was different. Why am I so very afraid of the proof? Oh. Well, when I put it that way…
The silver eyes that she was so used to seeing in the mirror were still silver, but now they were slit-pupiled, like a cat's eyes, and gleamed slightly in the reflection of light from the waterrise. When her mouth opened in silent shock, Arina found that her teeth were somewhat sharper, and her canines were very much longer and sharper than before. They were almost but not quite fangs, exactly, but still very eerie, and too close to really call them anything but fangs. But while the eyes and the fangs were definitely weird, they weren't glaringly obvious changes. Perhaps that was the reason that she focused on them before any of the other changes, which were very obvious.
Arina had a moment of total confusion as she stared at herself in the water. It looked like she was wearing a costume headband from Earth, almost exactly like the one Sara had worn for Halloween one year, before the drugs. She had dressed as Cat-woman. Arina stared at the cat ears on her head, confused. She couldn't imagine why she would be wearing fake ears, because they wouldn't even have them here. That's about when the fuzzy pointed black ears twitched slightly in response to her shock and fear, and she felt the twitch. Forcing herself to relax, Arina watched in fascination as the ears—her ears—came back up and pricked forward. They were dark black and pretty small and delicate looking due to short fur. She could vaguely remember stories about people with ears sort of like these, but different. They were called Kitsunes, she remembered, Japanese fox spirits. They were women from the legends in Japan, who had fox ears and tails. She stopped breathing for a moment as she realized what she had just thought. Tails.
Arina's eyes flickered down, closer to waist level. Now that she knew what to look for after the ears, she could feel new limbs—the ears for one, but more than just those—limbs that she could move at will. Her ears twitched back slightly in nervousness and, almost in response, a long slender black furred tail wrapped around her waist, coming into sight. One of her neighbors had a black cat once, several years ago, and her new tail reminded her of the cat and its tail. It had the same long, thin and muscled appearance, though on a larger scale, of course. It was very elegant, the tail, she had to admit. Unusual, but very elegant looking. The ears and tail were not actually like a Kitsune, she thought, more cat-like than fox-like. Foxes were bushier, and she thought that they had longer fur than her ears and tail did.
Reaching out to grab the tail, Arina was momentarily derailed by the sight of delicate looking claws on her fingers. Flexing her fingers, she watched wickedly sharp claws slide out of her hands. She stared at them in awe before shaking her head to snap herself out of it. She had seen the same thing on Jaenelle's hands, so at least there were some similarities between her and the older Witch.
Absently, she wondered where the ears and tail came from, knowing that Witch was shaped by the Dreamers of the realms. She knew that there were kindred cats—the tigers and the Arcerians—but tigers were striped, and Arcerians were solid white, not black. But her ears and tail had to come from a big cat, so she started running through different breeds in her head: tigers, lions, cheetahs, leopards…and stopped on black panthers. Big, solid black jungle cats. Arina thought, then shrugged, resolving to ask Jaenelle if she knew about any kindred panthers in Kaeleer, and resolved to check around when she got back to Hayll and the jungle, where they probably would be living if they existed.
The shrug brought her attention back to the largest change in her body, the most visible and dramatic, that she had been trying to ignore the most because it scared her the most—and excited her the most at the same time.
Wings.
Huge, beautiful wings that spread out from her shoulders in a fan of golden-brown feathers, cresting in a pale white gold at the top and darkening to a deep brown-black at the tips. They reminded her somewhat of the Eyrien wings, but at the same time not at all. For one thing, they were feathery, not membranous. The shape was different as well, more hawk-like than the bat shape of the Eyrien race. It was only that the Eyrien's were the only humanoid race with wings.
In a sort of daze, Arina reached her mind toward the wings, spreading them out with a mere thought. They extended to sixteen feet from tip to tip in a stunning display of color and power.
Her mind skipped from change to change rapidly: wings-tail-eyes-ears-fangs-wings-claws-tail. Finally she just started laughing almost hysterically—yes, she had expected something of a change in appearance, especially after seeing Jaenelle in her true form, but this was something else entirely. It was truly unbelievable, how different she looked. There were the same basic traits—same skin and hair, her body shape the same, but the changes were just so huge they couldn't be overlooked. Jaenelle didn't look that different when she was the Dream and when she had it hidden.
She knelt there, staring at her new reflection, for a long time, trying to come to terms with this latest radical shift in her world view. Twinges of pain ran through her frame every few minutes, and that was the only reason that she could believe that the change had truly happened, and wasn't just a dream. It was like having a stich in her side, only all over her body, coming and going and then finally fading away.
Finally, Arina roused herself out of her trance. There was no way of knowing how much time had passed while she had lingered, dazed and staring at her reflection. Arina pushed herself back to her feet with a painful groan. She had been kneeling for so long that her legs had stiffened up alarmingly. Straightening up sent flashes of white hot pain down her spine as her legs burned. With a slight moan, Arina realized that her legs had elongated. They were still human—with feet, not claws or hooves, and still with human bone structure—but unnaturally long. Her moan turned into a resigned sigh. It looked like it was only about an extra six inches, so not as bad as it could be. And she knew that she was still going to be shorter than Lucien and a majority of the other boys. It was amazing, how tall all the boys were. Then she had only been about 5'2", so she was pretty small, despite how long her limbs had been before. Now her legs were over 3 feet long, and she was only 5'8".
Looking around the cliff, Arina began to wonder for the first time how to leave and get back to the Realms. Going up would only take her deeper into the Abyss, and below her the Webs extended across the Darkness. But she didn't wear the Black yet, so how could she cross the darker webs when she only wore the Red? Twisting in place so that she faced the edge nonetheless, she forced herself to think logically. How had she gotten here, to the cliff top waterrise, if she didn't go through the webs in the first place? She had after all risen to reach her current position, so she had to have come from below. Therefore, logically she must be able to pass through the darker Webs to get back to the Realms. Except she had come from another Witch's place in the Abyss, and that meant that nothing was certain. Still, the Abyss ended above the White Web, so that meant she had to go down anyway, and just hope that being Witch would protect her. She would need to ask Jaenelle after this how she was supposed to get to and from her place—the waterrise.
A feeling of mounting anxiety was coming over her, making her twitchy. Arina couldn't shake the feeling that she needed to get back to the Realms as soon as she could, though she didn't know why. It was nothing more than a chill running down her back, the "someone walking over my grave" feeling. Grimly, Arina approached the cliff edge, somewhat nervous. Still, she had gotten here, so she had to be able to leave somehow, and this was her best bet.
Witch leapt lightly off the cliff, hair flying and eyes closed as she plummeted downward. Her wings snapped open instinctively, catching air and slowing her descent to a glide. Arina opened her eyes, looking down as she swept down toward the Black Web spread out below her. Tilting her body slightly to the side, Arina began to spiral in an enormous circle.
Going through the Black Web was like dropping through a sheet of icy water. Shuddering violently, Arina pulled her wings closed in response. Immediately, she plummeted through the Ebon-grey and Gray Webs, both of them seeming to be even colder than the last.
Finally she hit the Red Web. Arina's world shivered around her, and inverted yet again as she stopped in place. Without warning, the Red, Grey, Ebon-grey and Black Webs extended below her. Above her head, the Sapphire Web glittered brightly with the other Webs visible through the openings. Arina groaned in realization that she hadn't needed to go through the icy baths. She could have simply willed herself to the Red Web, or even back to the realms. Oh, well. She'd get the hang of it eventually, she was sure. But for now, icy chill or not, she was just glad that the darker Webs hadn't hurt her.
But now, it was simply as if she had descended down to her Web in order to gather all her power for a particular spell. She rose upwards out of the Abyss, no longer needing her wings, eager to return to her body.
BJT:ANW
She came back to awareness with soft silk around her, and a warm heaviness above her, resting on her. Arina stayed still, blinking her eyes open slowly. A shadowy ceiling arched high overhead, gleaming a pale white in the scant light. Fighting off a bewildering exhaustion, the Queen turned her head to find Lucien slumped over in a chair, sitting right next to the huge and utterly unfamiliar bed that Arina was laying in, fast asleep. Still, his hand was resting on the quilt, as if he had fallen asleep while reaching for her.
Turning her head in the other direction, Arina tried to redirect her attention away from the gorgeous male. There was a bookshelf next to a neat desk by the wall, stuffed full of books. The desk was covered with massive piles of paper, organized into different groups of piles. Close to the bookshelf there were practice sticks and bladed sticks, a sword, and a few knives hung on the walls within easy reach. There were glass doors leading to a balcony as well, though she only saw them when she lifted her head straight up and looked toward the foot of the bed. A wardrobe stood against the wall behind Lucien, one door hanging half open, revealing more clothes than she had ever imagined a boy could own. She also found two separate doors—one for a bathroom, and one that would lead out of the rooms and into the rest of the Hall—because that was obviously where she had to be.
Considering the psychic scent that permeated the room, matching the male sitting next to her, it wasn't hard to guess whose room she was occupying at the moment. Arina wondered if she had been put in Lucien's room because they didn't have one ready for her, or because he insisted on it. She turned her head back to look at Lucien again. Even asleep, he looked strained and wan; his clothes were wrinkled, his hair was a mess, and he looked like he hadn't been eating very much. Judging from the light coming through the patio doors, it was late evening. A budding suspicion formed in the back of her mind.
Arina went to sit up, propping herself up on her elbows. She didn't get any further before a bolt of crippling pain slashed through her entire body. Desperately, she bit back a scream, trying not to wake Lucien up, clamping her teeth together and letting out a long hiss instead. The girl stayed rigidly still, trying to regulate her breathing and calm her racing heart, a thin layer of sweat breaking out on her skin. When she was still, she ached in a whole-body-throbbing-ache; it was only when she moved, it appeared, that there was blinding white hot pain. Once she regained control over her body, Arina closed her eyes, took a deep preparatory breath, clenched her teeth again, and jerked herself into a fully seated position.
The pain and weight on her back almost pulled her back down.
Arina carefully turned her head—seemingly the only thing that she could move without hurting herself—and blinked at her wings. They looked darker now than they had on the cliff top, and she would have thought it was the lighting, but they also appeared to be shiny somehow. Carefully, Arina slowly touched one of the arching appendages. Her hands were now clawed, and throbbed mercilessly as she moved her arms, but she persisted. The Queen began to understand what had happened to her when she brought her now damp hand back in front of her. Her wings were wet, she realized, which was making them heavier and causing part of her problem. Feathers tended to absorb moisture if thoroughly soaked, and hers were definitely soaked, and they locked the moisture in. But she then she really looked at the water on her hand and realized that it was tinged with red. A chill ran down the girl's spine as she considered just how bloody her wings would have had to be to still have blood on them after the kind of washing they must have gone through. Now she really understood what had happened—while she had been having twinges and flashes of pain down in the Abyss as the changes occurred, her body, still in the Realms, had also been shifting. The changes had come from inside her, the deepest part of Arina's being, and in order to get out, they had to break through the skin. It must have been excruciatingly painful, if what she was feeling now as any indication. And very, very bloody.
She sighed and looked over at the balcony doors again, trying to gauge the time more exactly. It wasn't exactly dark yet but definitely getting there, so it was either very late evening or the beginning of nighttime, but was it still Saturday night? Or as she had begun to suspect, Sunday night—or later? There was really only one way to find out.
"Lucien?" she asked gently, nudging his hand, her voice scratchy and horse from over use. Her eyes widened in shock. Had she been screaming?
The male jerked awake with a gasp, lurching forward instinctively. "Arina," he rasped, reaching for her arms. "You're awake. What are you doing? You need to rest," he scanned her frame anxiously as he babbled, relaxing slightly when it seemed like she was fully intact. "Are you alright?" he managed.
She gave him a tense smile, her new teeth peeking through. "I'm fine as long as I don't move, though I ache pretty badly. What happened?"
Lucien hesitated. "I'm not exactly sure what happened," he admitted. "My mom does, I think, because she is Witch and a Healer and she saw everything that happened." He paused again. "I only know that it scared me to death," he whispered, eyes tight. He curled his hand around hers very gently, not squeezing at all, just touching. The Warlord Prince took a deep breath and smiled at Arina, trying to erase all signs of worry from his face to reassure her. She gave him a skeptical look in response, and Lucien managed a shaky laugh.
Lucien glanced out the doors as well to check the light, and then called in a watch. "It's about eight," he told Arina. "Everyone is likely done eating but still hanging around. Do you want to go downstairs and ask mom your questions?" he asked. "And eat, of course." he added.
Arina couldn't quite hold back a grimace. The thought of getting up and moving even a little bit made her want to scream. But at the same time, she really needed to talk to Jaenelle and figure out the details of what happened, and at the same time, she didn't want to stay in bed forever. She hesitated, and bit her lip slightly in an instinctive worrying gesture. She stopped quickly when she accidentally bit through her lip, having forgotten about her new, very sharp, teeth.
"I can carry you," Lucien offered. Arina hesitated for another moment, but really couldn't see another way around it. Stubbornly ignoring the sly whisper in the back of her mind that said Oh yes, please, she nodded and reached out her arms to him nervously. Smiling somewhat triumphantly, Lucien leaned forward and slipped his arms underneath her after folding back the heavy quilt. He paused for a moment as he considered her wings and then curled his arm around so that he was supporting her back right below her wings and allowed one of her wings to curl over it. Arina wrapped her arms around Lucien's neck, squeezing her eyes shut from the pain flashing down her back and her legs and her arms even as her legs folded down and hung limply as her resting place disappeared. She hissed out a breath, holding onto a rigid control. Lucien muttered an apology but didn't stop moving, knowing that delays wouldn't help her at all.
"'S ok," she mumbled, resting her head on Lucien's chest as he walked down the stairs. She told herself that she did it because it lent her more stability of position, not because it felt good.
Lucien couldn't help but feel intensely happy and hopeful at the gesture that proved Arina's trust in him. It was a little thing, but every little bit counted in the end, and considering how wary she had been before she left, this was a good sign. After all, giving him a hug had been the best that she could offer only three weeks (and two days) ago.
Lucien paused at the door of the drawing room where Jaenelle's circle had gathered. "Hey mom," he said, coughing slightly first to get their attention. Everyone in the room turned to face the pair in the doorway, several of the women fighting down smiles at their appearance. Jaenelle, Karla and Gabrielle immediately got up and came over to the door, somewhat concerned with Arina's tight expression. "Arina wants to know what happened," he explained, ignoring the mutter of "Arina can speak for herself," from the girl in his arms.
"Ah," Jaenelle said.
"Where is everyone?" Arina asked, turning her head to face Jaenelle while still leaning against Lucien's chest. "All my people, that is?" Jaenelle and Karla exchanged wicked smiles at the admission that the teens that were their children belonged to Arina, who probably didn't even realize what she had said. The gleam in Lucien's eyes suggested that he had noticed though.
"All the children are up in the rumpus room," Gabrielle told her, smiling brilliantly. "We want to check on your condition before you go and see them, though. Put her down on the couch," she directed Lucien. Karla glared Daemon off the couch, and Jaenelle's husband got up, rolling his eyes, and leaned against the wall.
"We have a rumpus room?" Arina asked, eyebrows raised.
"Well, that's what Papa called it, based on what he heard from the room while we were growing up," Jaenelle explained as she motioned to all the women in the room, smirking. Everyone laughed.
Lucien gently set Arina down on the couch, moving as slowly as possible so that he didn't jostle her too much. She still made a quiet sound of pain though, and he winced. "Sorry," he muttered again. She smiled gently at him and reached out to take his hand as he perched on the arm of the couch beside her. He covered her hand with both of his, relaxing a little bit.
The three healers fussed over Arina, speaking softly to each other as Arina drifted in and out of focus. Eventually, Gabrielle left for a minute and came back with a healing brew to drink, and the three of them seemed to be done with their poking and prodding for the moment. The worried expression's on their faces had lessened somewhat, to everyone's relief.
"What's the verdict?" Arina asked after she was propped up against the back of the couch and sipping at the honey-sweetened brew. Daemon and Chaosti had helped her spread her wings over the couch to dry—more accurately, they pulled them open as gently as they could when she couldn't move them very far voluntarily—and also because she wasn't sure how she was going to sit with them folded yet. Her hands were still shaking slightly from the pain, but the drink was doing a good job at numbing the pain to a more manageable level.
"You are going to hurt for a few weeks," Karla said seriously. "But by the end of this week it should be more manageable. By then, the actual damage done by your change will be mostly healed. It will still be fragile, and sore, but not as bad."
"After that, it will mostly be muscle pain," Gabrielle said, taking over the explanation. Both Arina and Lucien were listening intently. "The drastic changes in your body mass and shape has created entirely new muscles as well as causing major alterations in existing muscles. Either way, you need to learn how to use them and build them up in order to regain free movement and get rid of most of the pain."
Arina nodded in resignation. "I know. And getting them into shape will hurt. But as long as it doesn't make me start screaming in pain just by sitting up, I can deal with it."
Lucivar chuckled. "That's the spirit," he encouraged. "It probably won't be as bad as they are making out. Jaenelle completely rebuilt my wings when she was seventeen, and I was flying again a month later."
The three Healers turned frozen looks on the man, who just shrugged at them. "I'm just saying, she isn't going to be starting from nothing, which is what you are kind of making it sound like."
"Yeah, you're going to have to teach me how to fly and help figure out how my wings work. I'm not sure how different they are from yours," Arina told him bluntly, "But you are the only one with wings—and enough experience to actually help," she added. "Daemonar and Andulvar wouldn't be as useful as you."
"I aim to please," Lucivar teased. Marian grinned next to him. "You're going to love flying," the hearth witch told her. "It's exhilarating."
Arina smiled back at her, returning the enthusiasm, before turning back to Jaenelle. "What happened to me?" She asked. "I mean, I know my body changed physically, causing a lot of damage while I was in the Abyss. I felt twinges of pain, little aches while I was there, not a lot of pain. So what happened here while I was there? How did the change happen?"
Jaenelle sat down in an open armchair and looked at Arina thoughtfully before speaking. "After you left the Misty Place, I returned to my body to keep an eye on you," she began. "I wasn't quite sure what to expect, so I wanted to make sure I was on hand and ready for you to wake up. About half an hour later, you started shaking. I pushed you down so that you were laying on the bed, worried that you would fall and hurt yourself if you were still sitting. The strangest part was, despite the way you were shaking, your face was perfectly calm. I realized that you're mind had completely abandoned your body, and that you were completely unaware of what was happening." Arina's eyes widened as she heard that. Suddenly the ice baths made more sense in that it was her mind reconnecting to a damaged body. She refocused on what Jaenelle was saying. "Your eyes were closed, so it took me a few moments to realize that you were weeping blood. After that, it was only a couple of minutes before you started choking as your teeth began to change and your mouth filled with blood as well." Jaenelle sighed, running a hand through her hair distractedly. Daemon moved to settle on the chair beside her, and wrapped an arm around his wife. She took a deep breath before continuing. "I panicked. Whatever I had been expecting, it wasn't that. I screamed for Karla—"
"Scaring years off of my life in the process, and terrifying the girls," the Glacian Queen inserted.
"—and called for Gabrielle to ready the healing room. By the time Karla joined us, your head had begun to bleed as your ears changed. Through it all, you appeared to be perfectly calm, despite the shaking of your body and the blood loss. It was when your hands began to shift and the claws emerged that you started making any noise at all. Even then, it was very quiet. We thought that we had stabilized you when nothing else seemed to happen, even though you were getting louder. We figured out later that it was your legs that changed in that period. It seemed like you had stabilized when nothing else appeared to change. We were almost to the Hall by this point, and we relaxed." Jaenelle paused again.
"Everyone was waiting outside for you to arrive." Gabrielle took over again. "After I got the message from Jaenelle and Karla, we were all on edge, so when the carriage appeared, we all sort of froze. Naturally, that was when you started screaming. Because you hadn't been screaming before that, even Jaenelle and Karla froze in surprise. Then Lucien, Daemonar and Farostel all rushed forward and picked you up. Daemonar was the one who realized that you were growing wings—though Lucien almost killed him when he vanished your shirt, before he realized what was happening to you." Arina shot a glance at Lucien, who just shrugged sheepishly. "That all happened on Saturday night."
"What day is it now?" Arina asked, apprehensive.
"Right now, it is Monday night."
Arina blinked in shock, opened her mouth, and closed it again.
"The entire transformation took about twenty four hours to complete, so it was Sunday evening before you stopped screaming," Jaenelle said.
"Oh," Arina murmured. She looked down at her hands. She couldn't even imagine it—there was no way that it could have taken so long, or at least, that's what she had thought.
"And then you sank into a deep healing sleep until just now," Karla finished the telling. "That's pretty much everything that happened, in a nutshell. We have activated healing webs while you were sleeping, and will continue to do so every night while you sleep, until your body is less fragile. That will help the most in your healing," she added.
Arina nodded slowly as she processed the information. A quiet knock interrupted her thoughts, and she looked up in surprise. Beale, the Butler of the Hall came in carrying a tray covered with food, which he set down in front of Arina before leaving silently. The smell of the food was enough to wake up her stomach, which promptly growled—alarmingly loudly. Arina blushed as the adults smiled and laughed quietly.
Grimacing, Arina reached for the fork, ignoring the burning in her fingers. She picked up the utensil clumsily, moving it slowly to the correct position.
"Do you need help?" Lucien asked.
"With my fork? No, I can feed myself," she snapped. "But I won't be able to eat all of this alone, so you can help me clear the plate," she added more gently.
Lucien made a faint sound of disbelief, but went to sit closer to her anyway. She was proud enough to neither want nor ask for help, but considering the look on her face now, she would need help pretty soon, wither she wanted it or not. Lucien smirked slightly as he noticed that there was only one of each utensil. Someone had planned this.
Arina started eating pasta determinedly. Lucien leaned forward to avoid bumping into Arina's wings, resting his elbows on his knees. He found that it was an uncomfortable posture for him to hold for very long, though, so he slid to the floor and leaned against the couch instead. The adults in the room made excuses and cleared out, leaving the two teens alone in the room.
It didn't take Arina long to drop the fork with a sigh. "I'm sorry," she muttered. "That seems to be all we are saying to each other lately," she added under her breath.
Lucien didn't respond immediately, instead reaching for the fork and eating a bite of the pasta. He made an appreciative sound before he said "I've done the same exact thing, when I've had big healings and needed help afterwards. I don't like asking for help." He smiled wryly at her. "So it's a perfectly reasonable reaction."
Arina smiled faintly for just a moment before sighing in surrender. Lucien fed her a bite of pasta, grinning widely. "Watch it, boyo," she snapped, paring her sharpened teeth in a savage smile. "Behave. Don't make me bite you."
"Yes ma'am."
BJT:ANW
Despite the embarrassment of having to be fed and being completely incapable of taking care of herself, it didn't take long for the pair of teens to clear the tray off and wish for more. Lucien did behave himself, understanding Arina's frustration at her own helplessness. She enjoyed the quiet peace in the room as they ate, neither speaking.
"Are you alright?" she asked once they were finished, looking down at Lucien worriedly. "I was unconscious for everything that happened, but you weren't. It must have been really hard for you," she added, her voice dropping. Lucien turned and buried his face in her nightgown with a slight shiver. She laid one of her hands on his head very gently, mindful of her claws.
"Yes. No. I just…I was so scared," he whispered. "If you had died during the transformation, if I lost you then, already…" the boy trailed off, shaking his head.
"Was there really danger of me dying?" Arina asked, surprised.
"I've never seen my mother so concerned," Lucien said simply. "It was a very real possibility."
"I'm sorry," she said again.
"You are still alive," Lucien said, pulling back slightly to look at her, and she slid her hand down to his cheek. "And the situation wasn't anything you could control, help, or avoid. It wasn't like you were doing something reckless or going off on your own. You were with one of the greatest Healers in history, and it was something you had to do. You did everything you could, this happened despite that. I can't be angry with you about this, it isn't your fault."
"That's good," she said, smiling. "I don't want you angry at me. Now, I need to find the rest of the circle, and say hello to the rest of the boys. I'm sure that they've been worried, too."
Lucien groaned. "Do we have to?" he muttered, dropping his head back onto her legs gently, his voice plaintive. Arina restrained a pained hiss at the impact, breathing out slowly. He really didn't want to leave this room, and under no circumstances did he want to share Arina with others, especially the other Warlord Princes. They might be his friends, but he didn't like them enough to share.
"Yes, we must," Arina said tartly, glaring down at him. "Well, I am at least. You can just drop me off and leave if you like, though—I'm sure someone would be willing to help me back to a bed."
Lucien growled at her and reached for Arina before hesitating. He wasn't sure how to pick her up with her wings still spread out the way that they were. Noticing his hesitation, Arina leaned forward. Focusing tightly, she managed to pull her wings back a little bit, before she lost control of them and the movement just stopped, whimpering involuntarily. "This has got to get better soon," she gasped out. "You're going to have to help me fold them back in."
Lucien blanched at the thought of causing her more pain, but understood the necessity of it. Gingerly, he reached for one of her wings. She didn't make a sound through the process, but her breath hitched a few times, and Lucien kept up a constant stream of apologies the entire time. Finally, her wings were folded tightly against her back and they paused for her to get her color back and wait for the pain to fade again.
Eventually, Lucien picked her up, and again she curled into his chest with a sigh. "Did you change your mind?" he asked hopefully, but with no real expectations.
"No. Upstairs, Lucien, to the rumpus room!"
"Alright, alright. I'm going."
BJT:ANW
AN: Wow, done! That was my favorite chapter to write, I have to say. I've been looking forward to Arina's transformation into her Dream from the very beginning. I tried to work in some quality Arina/Lucien time, so let me know how I did! I'm not all that good at writing that kind of stuff…
Please leave a review on your way out!