"So have you told your family about me at all?" Nadia wanted to know as soon as they left her father's home.
"I did happen to mention you, but you can't really talk openly over electronic communications of any type as it's too easy to eavesdrop on such conversations," Aeon said, as he and Nadia walked hand in hand.
"But why would anybody want to?" Nadia asked naïvely.
"It might not necessarily be them wanting to, it might be by mistake, as some people like to hack for the fun of it, but then, the damage would be done. That person who overheard us might try to blackmail us in order to keep our secret, and my family would have to take action and track them down. My mother and aunt would then have to take that person's memory, and that is such a pain in the rear that its just better if we're cautious," Aeon explained. "It's just safer for us to not mention anything sensitive over such communications. Trust me, I've mentioned you quite a bit and while I never called you my mate, they know me well enough to know that I never would've mentioned you so frequently if you weren't very important to me. They're very intelligent people, so they know what you are to me, even if they have yet to meet you."
"I'm looking forward to meeting the people that you talk so affectionately about," Nada said sincerely. "Getting to see some of the states is just a bonus."
"I'll slowly show you the world, as we have infinite time," Aeon told Nadia. "Yes, I've stuck mostly to Egypt over the last couple of hundred years, but I have taken a few trips to visit family just not recently. However, you deserve to see more than the sands of Egypt. You deserve to see mountains, plateaus, valleys and everything else that makes the world so beautiful. There are a lot of places I would like to take you to in our centuries together."
"I'm looking forward to every second of it," Nadia said with excitement in her eyes.
"That I'll now be linked to the Medjai through marriage makes me happy, as they're an honorable people," Aeon said. "That they've kept their honor and integrity through thousand of years is really saying something."
"You really think it does?" Nadia asked.
"Trust me, it does," Aeon said. "So many people lose their honor, or their integrity or both. It also might be they never had it to begin with. Life can grind you down and spit you out if you let it. When you've been around as long as I have you realize I'm right you just need more experience in the world then here in Egypt. That's not to say, you don't have a little bit of experience in how evil people can be, because you did live in Alexandria where your husband was murdered, but I doubt very much you saw how depraved and dishonorable a lot of people could be. Of course, I won't say that there haven't been a few Medjai that have betrayed their tribe likely for money or maybe for revenge, because they feel as if they have been wronged, but that doesn't mean that they aren't honorable for the most part. Every society has a few bad people that just betray the lessons that they are taught in childhood and think they know better."
"You know you're right, though I never thought about it like that before," Nadia said.
"You just never realize how privileged your life has been, despite the loss of your first husband," Aeon said. "You've never had to worry about money for instance, as Azim made sure you were taken care of. You could've stayed in Alexandria and been fine, as living here in Egypt is a lot cheaper than most other places. You, perhaps, could have gotten a job, one that doesn't require a college education."
"I would've loved to have gone to college, but the Medjai for the most part just don't do that, especially the women," Nadia said looking regretful.
"At least you were taught to read, write and math and trust me, some people aren't as lucky to even learn that much, and were never sent to any school. Even in this century, illiteracy is still a real problem in some third world countries," Aeon said. "It is mandatory to go to school at least through grade 12 in the states, but college is optional, which is not so in every country. There are many people in this country that aren't even taught the bare basics, so be grateful that you do know how to read, write and do basic math."
"I know you're right," Nadia admitted. "I know I'm very lucky that my father insisted that all Medjai children be taught how to read and write whether they were female or male."
"Our children will be sent to a private school when we have them. That's what my parents do for all their children as you simply get a better education when you have to pay to attend," Aeon said. "Also, you need to be aware that you'll never die in childbirth once you're immortal like I am."
"That's a bonus. That's still a problem here in Egypt unless you can get to a hospital and even then it is still possible for you to die from giving birth, because the baby is faced in the wrong direction or for some other medical cause," Nadia said.
"That will never happen to you I promise," Aeon said. "We actually have several doctors in the family now that deal with that kind of thing."
"I would love to meet them, but that's for later," Nadia said. "I need to meet your family first, and then we need to get married before we even think about having children."
"I completely agree on that," Aeon said not bothering to argue as whatever Nadia wanted he would do his best to provide, because he loved her so deeply just like his father loved his mother, or his siblings, loved their own mates.
"So, when are we going to head to meet your family in the states?" Nadia wanted to know.
"Soon, as I need to make certain arrangements and contact my parents to let them know we're coming," Aeon said.
"So what are their names? You never have said," Nadia asked.
"I wasn't deliberately keeping the information from you. It just hasn't come up," Aeon said. "Their names are Jazzlyn and David Rossi, though my mother goes by Jazz and my father, Dave."
"I think you did mention your mother's name while we were talking with my father," Nadia said, "though you never did mention who your father was until just now. I believe you said that your mother owns a bakery and was a bakery witch."
"You're absolutely right," Aeon agreed. "There is also the two people I consider my aunt and uncle, even though they're not technically related to my family, and that's Aaron and Shonda Hotchner."
"Yeah, you said something about your mother and your aunt knowing each other since childhood going all the way back to when they were mortal," Nadia remembered what Aeon had told her.
"That's exactly right," Aeon approved, smiling giving Nadia's hand a gentle squeeze so happy to have her at his side.
The two of them continued to walk, holding hands, saying nothing else just enjoying each other's company.
~~~Aeon and Nadia~~~
Florida
United State of America
Several days later
"Welcome to our home," Dave greeted Nadia cordially as soon as he opened the door.
Dave was a handsome man with his black hair and beard with no signs of grey as he hadn't bothered to use hair coloring for this meeting like he and Jazz had had to do sometimes in order make themselves look a few years older.
Aeon looked like his father Nadia noticed immediately with his black hair and dark eyes and light skin. He also had his father's height, but his mother's nose, and cheekbones and the shape of his eyes.
"Aeon, you need to come home more often as your mother and I haven't seen you in probably 20 years," Dave told his son. "I mean, you never even come home for Christmas or Thanksgiving."
"I'll try to do better dad," Aeon said giving his father a rather mischievous grin.
"At least you did call every few weeks so we did hear from you," Dave conceded. "Come in as lunch is ready. Your mother went all out since she knew you were coming."
"You will enjoy my mother's cooking Nadia," Aeon told his mate, smiling. "You already know she owns a bakery, but she's quite a good cook as well, which is something I believe I mentioned on several occasions."
"Well, I know you can cook as we've been to his house in Cairo a few times and he fixed either lunch or dinner, so it stands to reason that he learned those skills from here at home," Nadia said.
"Dad is actually a really good cook as well and it's mostly him that taught me everything he knew, as my mother was always busy at the bakery," Aeon said.
"You also told me that at least once," Nadia said smiling. "He's told me a lot about his family."
"True, I did teach you and your siblings how to cook, though I had help with that task, so it wasn't all just me, but your mother did teach you all how to bake, even if you didn't inherit her bakery magic," Dave said.
"It just happens that way sometimes," Aeon explained to Nadia, who nodded.
"Yes, Aeon explained sometime back, that while your wife has bakery magic he got the talent to heal and he said it does run in your wife's family," Nadia said.
"It does, but it just doesn't show up every generation," Dave agreed. "Of course, most branches of her family aren't immortal and the talent isn't dominant, so it's not surprising that it shows up so rarely. Only three of our children have gotten it, and they're all of different generations."
"That's what, Aeon said," Nadia agreed, as Dave led the way into the dining room where Jazz, Aaron and Shonda were waiting.
"Everyone let me introduce you to my mate, Nadia. Nadia, this is my mother, Jazzlyn Lincoln Rossi, and my godparents, Aaron and Shonda Hotchner."
"It's nice to meet you Nadia," Jazz said rising to shake her hand.
"It is it's very nice to meet you, as Aeon actually has to come home for a change," Shonda told everyone shooting her godson a look. "You would think he didn't care about us at all since we never see him, not even on major holidays."
"I already promised dad, I'd do better about that," Aeon said holding up his hands in self-defense. "At least I do call every few weeks so that you know I'm OK."
"That's true he does," Aaron said, even as he shook Nadia's hand. "You'll have to forgive the family drama. I'm afraid our family thrives on it, as a little excitement makes life more interesting. When you're immortal it's good to have a little drama now and then."
"I actually think it's really interesting," Nadia said.
"I'm glad you think so," Shonda grinned.
"Let's eat, and we can save the conversation until afterwards as we wouldn't want the food to get cold," Jazz suggested.
"It sure does smell wonderful," Nadia said, and she spoke nothing but the truth as the smells circulating smelled great.
"Wait till you try it," Aeon said, as he pulled Nadia's chair out for her before sitting down beside her.
"So Aeon, I see you didn't need us to help out with the explanation like normal," Jazz told her son.
"Under normal circumstances, whenever one of our children's finds their mate, we usually get together to explain the situation to them after a terrific meal," Dave told Nadia who had no idea what Jazz meant.
"Months later, of course, not right away but we didn't have to do that this time," Shonda said.
"No, you didn't, but the Medjai know about me at least about my magic, so it was totally different situation with time," Aeon explained.
"The Medjai?" Dave asked.
"They're an ancient tribe that used to be guards and protectors of the pharaohs in Egypt," Nadia explained.
"Egypt is a very magical and mystical country and the Medjai are still around and protect the buried city of Hamunaptra. There was a high priest, many thousands of years ago that went as bad as it's possible to be, and he suffered the worst fate that they had at that time," Aeon tried to explain. "There is a book called the Book of the Dead that could bring him back to life, and it is buried somewhere in Hamunaptra. The Medjai still patrol where the city is buried beneath the sand and scare away anybody that wants to dig out there, like archaeologists and the like who are fascinated by the legends of the buried city and of the treasure room that is said to be buried beneath the sand with gold and jewels galore stored there."
"There is a legend amongst my people of where my ancestor, Ardeth Bay, actually fought and defeated him with a lot of help, of course," Nadia added. "This was way back in the 1930s."
"You know that's really fascinating," Aaron observed. "I mean all of us in this room believe in magic, so it's not really a stretch to believe in ancient curses, or a dead man coming back to life with the help from an ancient artifact."
"Yes, it really is," Dave agreed with his friend.
"Anyway, the Medjai have known about me for a long time, though it's mostly only Nadia's ancestors, as they have been chiefs of the tribe for centuries. Most of them know about my magic, but not about my immortality, as one is not connected to the other. Only the one that will become the next chief of the tribe is told that piece of information, and they always swear to never reveal it."
"No wonder you have basically made Egypt your home," Jazz told her son. "To have such a situation to where the people of that country, actually believe in magic and other supernatural forces, well, I can understand why you don't do like the rest of us and simply move from city to city when it's time to start over."
"I have hidden with the Medjai a few times, decades apart of course, as not everyone believes in the supernatural over there, but still, it's as perfect situation as you can expect. I was their healer whenever I hid with them, my way of paying them back for letting me live with them for a time," Aeon said.
"He's always welcome whenever he decides to appear and in fact, not long ago, he helped my niece Amira to get over the desert sickness faster. Desert sickness is fatal in a lot of cases, so my father had a couple of Medjai go to Cairo to ask for his help."
"It's very possible, she would've survived, even without my intervention, as she is young and strong and that helps a lot when it comes to that type of illness. Still, I was happy to help when Nasir asked me to, and really all I did was boost her immune system to help her fight it off more strongly. Once her fever had broken she began to rapidly improve, and it was only a few days later that she was able to get out of bed," Aeon explained.
"I would say it's a great advantage that you can't get this desert sickness or any other type of illness," Shonda noted.
"Exactly and one reason Nasir called on me, as he knew I couldn't catch it," Aeon explained. "For one thing it could have spread to the rest of the tribe as it is contagious, so I can understand why Nasir wanted my help. I mean why have such an advantage as I represent and not use it when you need to?"
"That's true," Jazz agreed.
"I'm glad I stayed in Egypt now or Nadia and I never would've met," Aeon said. "She did used to live in Alexandria with her husband, but he was murdered years before we met."
"While I'm really sorry about what happened to your husband, I'm glad you were unattached when you met my son," Jazz told Nadia.
"An immortal will never be happy again if someone who is there mate rejects them," Dave told Nadia, "so I'm certainly glad that didn't happen, as Aeon would've sought his own death if you had."
"I know, as Aeon explained. That would've been a tragedy, I realize that now," Nadia said. "I never imagined I could love anyone ever again after Azim, my husband, was murdered. I now know I was wrong about that. Azim wouldn't have wanted me to mourn him forever and would've wanted me to get married again, fall in love again, have those children that we never had a chance too."
"It took quite a lot of effort to convince her to even let me court her," Aeon said.
"That's very true, and he had to be rather creative when it came to things like dates when I finally did agree," Nadia said.
"Oh, why?" Shonda wanted to know very curious as to the answer.
"Because the Medjai live in a village that is a day's ride out into the desert by car, and as well hidden from most people ever finding it," Aeon explained before Nadia could. "We did go into Cairo, but it was always overnight and we were usually gone for at least three days as that gave us time to actually go out to eat if we wanted or go to a vid. She stayed at my house in the guestroom whenever we did that. There is certainly more entertainment in Cairo than there is in the village, where Nadia was born and raised, as they live a rather simple existence out there with no electricity. Also, they always get around on horseback, and my jeep was the only vehicle parked at the edge of their village. Flying anywhere near the village is forbidden, so I had to drive the roads, which makes the journey longer."
"I had gone back home after my husband was murdered, because I didn't know what else to do and while Azim left me well set when it came to money, I needed time to put the pieces back together," Nadia said. "I didn't want to stay in the house we shared, too many memories of us living there together. I sold the house, and my father made sure I wasn't cheated of a fair price. He rode into Alexandria just to help me out after he heard about the murder. I had to make a decision to sell the house or keep on living there. A lot of men can cheat a woman out of what is rightfully hers unless she has a man to protect her and I'm sure the same as true in other places, not just in Egypt."
"I know exactly what you mean," Shonda said with a wistful question. "My father might not have been murdered, but he died before his time, because he was ill, and there was no cure back then. There was no magical healer to help him out, as one hadn't been born in the small town that Jazz and I originally came from, not for our generation, or even my father's generation. Aleah, Aeon's sister, though she's a few generations older, was the first healer born into Jazz's family for quite awhile."
"True," Jazz agreed. "We hadn't had a healer in our family for hundreds of years before my oldest brother Brian was born, but since our family is immortal, it was bound to happen sooner or later if we kept on having children."
"That there's only been three healers born in hundreds of years ought to tell you that the gene is recessive not dominant," Aeon said. "There's no guarantees that any of Aleah's children or my own will get that particular gene, but I suppose we'll see."
"You, Aleah and Ariana have more of a chance of it happening whenever you have children, then anybody else does," Jazz told him, "simply because you are the three that got that ability. It will be more dominant for your branches of the family then for mine, but that's not to say, that a lot of your children won't get my bakery magic."
"I think we don't need to worry about children right now, as Aeon and I need to get married first," Nadia said, blushing at the conversation topic, as you didn't really talk about that kind of thing in her society, especially with people who were nearly strangers to her, but then she understood that the rules were different here. "It would bring to shame to my father if I got pregnant before we were married, as my culture is a lot different from your own."
"It used to be the same here, but that was before the 20th century," Jazz said. "Standards have changed a lot ever since 1960s and Woodstock."
"In a lot of ways, the Medjai are still pretty primitive. They have no use for most technology, and still ride horses to patrol Hamunaptra," Aeon said. "They still carry swords and knives, but also know how to use guns, the old-fashioned kind, if they have to to scare away people from digging, where that ancient city is buried."
"Why change something when it works?" Nadia said, and everybody nodded as that was a good point.
"That's true," Aaron said.
"It's time to move into the den everyone, Dave and I will clean up later," Jazz and announced what the food was essentially gone into everyone's belly. "I hope you saved room for dessert Nadia as I fixed a chocolate pudding cake, which is one of Aeon's favorite.
"That's true and I haven't had one in years, as it's not the type of thing they sell in Egypt or at least I've never discovered it there," Aeon said. "They do have honey cakes, though, which are oat cakes baked with honey, and also drizzled with it. They are absolutely delicious, though not as good as your baking mom."
"Those bakers in Egypt don't have my bakery magic I'm sure, which is what makes my desserts so good," Jazz said.
"You need to come home more often if you want your mother to make your your favorite dessert, son," Dave told him giving his son a look. "Your mother would happily make you whatever you wanted if only we got to see you more often than we do."
"True, I would," Jazz agreed with Dave, which wasn't really a surprise. "If it got you to come home every few years instead of every couple of decades, I would make as many deserts as you wanted me to, as it would give us a chance to see each other."
"You'll be seeing more of me from now on, as Nadia has never been out of Egypt and she wants to do some traveling, to see things she has read or heard about, but never had a chance to see for herself," Aeon said.
"That's true," Nadia said. "I never had a chance to go to college, and if my father hadn't insisted that all children be taught to read and write, whether they were females or not, then I would probably be illiterate too."
"In most places illiterately isn't a problem, but I suppose it's different in places like Egypt," Aaron said. "Shonda and I have never lived there or even been just on vacation."
"Neither have Jazz and I," Dave said. "We've traveled the world and lived in a lot of places, but never in Africa we did live in Alaska at one point though, which is much colder most of the year than it is in other places."
"It must be really exciting to live in so many different places," Nadia commented.
"It can be, but I can also be a bit of a pain," Shonda said, and Jazz, nodded in complete agreement.
"Trust me immortality is not all it's cracked up to be and having to move every generation is one of those pitfalls," Jazz agreed with her best friend. "Starting another new bakery every time we move and getting it established is also a major pain in the rear, but it has to be done, as I don't do well just sitting around."
"None of us do, though," Shonda said.
"That is so true," Dave laughed.
"Boredom is also a major pitfall of being immortal," Shonda said, even as she rose and headed for the den with everybody else following her. Aeon, helped Nadia to her feet, and then gestured at her to follow the others while he took up the rear.
~~~Aeon and Nadia~~~