Another time, another place:

37,921 BCE:

Somewhere against an inland freshwater sea that never existed in our reality. On a continent that existed hundreds of thousands of years ago, Anna-Marie blinked and found herself sharing a body with who she migh'tve been if she had been born-

Oh, who cared? The scent of the incense, while thick and heady, was enough to make her choke. She didn't know these plants-

But Annipata Marusi, the newly wedded wife, did. Some of her favorite scents were added to this yearly celebration. Theirs was a pastiche of combined religions in the area, a small and proud nation, but a nation of an amalgamation of deities. Wariness dulled as her coughing did, and acceptance swelled as she faded into this persona. She was Annipata Marusi, and accepting it was easier than fighting. She knew what to do, after all.

But what she didn't understand was how she was so tired, so exhausted. Why had she suddenly felt that way? The drums had just begun, horns blaring as some strange powder was thrown into the fires. Those pyres hissed, and flared wildly as it created furious sparks and bright lights, she had suddenly been taken by a strange memory that had no familiarity to her.

She was in the sky, talking to - pain! So much pain! Only her heart hurt more than the agony her body received. Her husband(?) was there, he threw a large metal spear with one hand, something he should not do. More memories, faster, practically a blur as it shifted superficial differences and deeper meanings. The lens of her thought changed, but the core stayed the same. A group of people she found who were family. Yes, that always seemed right, correct. It was her reality and it set her a little more assuredly on her metaphorical, mental feet.

But then more memories came to her; an even faster rush. There was urgency behind it. -Magneto, must tal- but then the thought fell apart like sea foam. A pulse of strange memories hit before her head cleared a little further. She remembered a deep jungle, one she had never set her physical feet on in this reality, and a desperate fight that fell to a desperate loss. A beloved stranger strapped to a wall next to her great teacher and dead-but-not-friend. Friends in a…cage? And beams of sunlight that hurt.

The memories burst like soap bubbles, and she groaned a little with a sudden swell of fatigue and pain. She accepted it and she briefly, delicately, touched her left temple with her free hand. Why had she felt so weak suddenly? Why did she hurt so badly, from feeling fine mere heartbeats before? What sorcery was this? It was as if she carried the weariness, of life experiences of more than just her-

"Are you well, beloved?" her newly wedded husband asked her as he lifted her hand to his mouth. His lips, so recently added rouge to, ghosted over her knuckles. She knew he wanted to do more, but the two of them were painted, primped, and set in enough heavy clothes, wigs and hair extensions that they were practically more set pieces than people. It was almost too much to move even their arms. Fortunate indeed that their arms were so close to one another that they could touch, the very idea that they could need to go through this entire panoply without even some human contact was a horrible idea. It was a long day of specific behavior and activity; and being so close to one another

She could remember someone praising her beauty and strength, but it didn't seem…sincere? Annipata Marusi felt she didn't like the pale man in her memory, some amalgamation of memories from half-remembered dreams? She didn't like the memory of him and banished it almost as quickly as it formed. Afterall, it truly didn't matter, she needed to respond to Agnat.

"F-Fine," she managed, and turned her head ever so slightly to see a glint of wary concern and a hint of the love he only allowed himself to show when they were alone in their chambers. She managed a wink, though it was a dangerous endeavor with her lashes. They had been enhanced, lengthened then each individually painted with such care and so many layers that keeping her eyes open was a chore.

Denied, their marriage having hurried its timetable by a full season and a half, their expected time of privacy for their post-wedding activities - often called a fed-moon - was not to be theirs alone. This was due to the fact your wedding was to supply you with enough to comfortably live roughly a month before any profit from your prior business or activities were affected by the…activities of your wedding. That way, your first month with your betrothed could have your attention spent on more delightful things than economics.

For the rulers of a nation, affairs of the state were far more important. In a land rocked by the previous two centuries by almost constant war, followed by a near successful coup d'etat during the previous generation, then the passing of the crown to not only from his father's firstborn son in sudden, unexplained abdication for a life spent in isolation to an esoteric faith from the north, but then the early death of his second born son…

Angat handled the pressure of state suddenly thrust upon him and his newly found wife with grace and dignity. She knew that he had expressed his honest, earnest relief that she had done the same. However, they weren't allowed the luxury of exploring one another, finding a new equality of life with one another, never known, lives only arranged. Still, despite the praise, she envied his placid calm as life continued to make change without care for their input or concern.

But had hers? Had anyone's? Life was like the furrowed land behind oxen and plow. The farmer stepped upon the turned soil, and none had any real control any more than the soil, the seeds, the man, or the ox.

Annipata's brow and nose wrinkled at that unwelcome thought. The apparently violent action almost upset the elaborate rope of braids her hair and extensions had woven into its own impressive example of a coronet that her actual symbol of royalty peeking through to show its heavy golden weight endowed with raw, rough cut gems of some deep green nature that complimented her own eyes. Their people had only just discovered them, and it was for this very reason they were expanding on their traditional celebration of the renewal of the land.

Angat had the previous crown worn by his mother, the prior consort, remade in gems to honor her different complementary hues. She set herself straight swiftly, however. Annipata Marusi was not about to make herself a spectacle. She was now a ruler, and she'd make damn well sure she'd lead in a way that would make her family, her ancestors, her husband, and most importantly herself, proud.

She would.

Marusi didn't see any concern on her husband's face as the curtains swept back in layers of thinly woven cloth pleated in thick, sweeping fans. The bright light of an early spring noonday spilled into the triangular-shaped hall that led from the inner halls of the royal keep, and into public streets.

It was time.

Theirs were a people who were proud and believing they were autochthonic, sprung from the welcoming earth in the deepest parts of their sacred forests and groves. Theirs was a belief that lay in the lifeblood of a planet, the express of life's abundance in the universe; for did they not prosper in the land of plenty? Theirs didn't know of poverty or strife, for they had mastered the art of alchemy the very year she had been born.

And in that year, the year of her birth, she was born under all the portents and signs that her partner, Angat had been. It was thanks to this that his life extended now long enough for her to live her first 50 on her own, and learn to master her own abilities. She understood the inner workings within the books of brass, iron, camphor, steel, silver, platinum, and gold. She knew what they were about to do as well. It was just that they needed to adjust the ceremony, now that they two of them were forced to merge their metaphysical, spiritual, and now temporal realm.

But worries of the state weren't for today. They would be for tomorrow, and her mind should be on this only. This was to pay homage to their gods. It was time to break the bonds reality shackled them to, push beyond what they were and take place with what they ought to become. But, before immortality, came thanks.

'And that was what we were for, wasn't it?' She thought to herself as they were paraded through their lifted streets made with aqueducts of energy. Rainbow light poured through every structure attached to each structure, building energy, powering the city further, giving access to areas of life and satisfaction for all, no matter their familiarity with the alchemical arts. A mixture of the magics of reality, religion, and science, their sorcery had merged into their very blood before the empire became the republic and became the constitutional monarchy.

'Until t'day…' she thought to herself, her pulse quickening as the pair ascended the steps towards the cathedral at the center of their megalopolis. They were at the large exhibition room where the two continued to the consoles they themselves created over the last two decades. They knew them, inside and out.

And now, as they waited for the…well, rather flowery speech delivered by her dearest of four brothers, Kurtan to conclude. When it finally did, nearly a quarter of an hour hence, they rose in a symphony of coordinated movements, to music that seemed to exist for only the two, and they began their work. Despite their heavy robe, and the sudden weakness in her arms - and Angat it seemed to have a terse tightness to his painted lips that echoed hers, they persevered. By the end though, both were breathing heavily, and as their hands came to pull the final burnished brass handles, the energies they had sensed for so long bathed the room - and them - in a rainbow hued beam that was refocused through a diamond prism into a bright white glow.

Standing at the center of the beam, the pair had offered their bodies to their gods, to take for their own, to guide their people in a new direction of a scientific age. The light bathed them, and for a moment, it was good…healing. It felt, in a way, to do more for her than three nights of good sleep. She felt reinvigorated in a way she felt that a part of her desperately needed.

Closing her eyes as the light filled all with power, she felt her senses expand, and reality…bent. Accustomed to it, she rode the changes easily, and let the universe guide her as they focused the energies of all elements through themselves.

Annipata Marusi felt reality lay out to her like her mother Irine said her visions felt when she meditated on the scrolls from the cold west. She saw the immediate future, and it was with full confidence she put one hand out, catching a purely wooden spear. "Mistletoe," she thought to herself as she broke the wood with a surprising amount of strength that she had never displayed, or even known she had possessed. Something in her that knew wood grain in an intimate way - another reality? - and identified it even as she saved her husband's life.

"Give 'em a taste, b'loved." she breathed, and she wasn't sure if it was her then, her from any of the myriad realities that scanned across her - their, our eyes - that cast her free hand towards Angat, who stood beside her. His hand met hers while his other extended outwards, and his eyes flared with a blue never seen in this reality before - and so did the power.

It crashed into the would-be assassin and with a blending of all the noise that could exist in one moment of time. It should have sounded like a deadly roar, something incomprehensible to all in reality, but in truth, it was more of a glissando, a merging more perfect than could be conceived. Thwarted, the man's body was separated into three sections: one from head to upper torso, one of hips and legs. The third was completely no longer in existence.

It wasn't the only assault, though. Despite the assassin's inability to complete his first objective, enough life was left in him to spike a killing "spark" ball. There was an unknown variety of these devices and could cause any sort of damage. This one created the tiniest of black holes, collapsing in on itself, and causing damage to the main console.

Annipata Marusi knew that this was to happen, and more importantly, she knew what to do; it was partly because she knew this was the best outcome. They had thought their device was ready to start this power transfer, and while it was, they hadn't considered the power load. 'If it wasn't for the other me…' Annipata Marusi reflected as she and her husband-king managed the energy output with a skill that they shouldn't have - the rest of those covered in the light were already struck dumb by its strength. 'Ah don't think I woulda thought t'do this. Or been as willing.'

And so, as the light swallowed all, Annipata Marusi smiled as she knew that the next time they tried this, the gods would be truly pleased.

A/N: The new stone they found was a medium-to dark colored jade.