The Fate of Xon

Dahlia and Daniel had spent the entire evening in bed, alternating between the most passionate of lovemaking and the softest of caresses. An hour before the others were to meet them at their apartment, they managed to climb out of the bed to dress and get ready for their night with their new friends. Daniel, as the fastest of the two, cleaned up first and pulled on his normal attire of sapphire blue tunic and dark pants. Dahlia, with a little help from Daniel, washed her body as well as her ankle length hair, and pulled on a white silk dress. It was plainer than her High Seer dresses, but at the same time, it screamed royalty and power.



As she stood in front of the mirror getting her long hair up in a series of complicated loops and curls, there was a knock on the door. Daniel kissed her quickly before heading through the bedroom, passed the kitchen, and into the main room where the front door was located. He opened the door and smiled, calling behind him. "It would be that group of unsightly ruffians we call our friends, Dahlia. Hurry up."



Brendan, Sarah, Gabriel, and Aurora were escorted into the main room while they waited for Dahlia to finish. Daniel turned to the group and smiled. "Anything new happen since we saw you this morning?"



Sarah and Aurora, both looking like completely different versions of the Goddess to Daniel, nodded. Sarah was the one to speak for them. "Aurora and I are now living together, seeing as no one really wants to live with a Tiger. And apparently, Gabriel is living with Brendan for the same reason."



The guys nodded. Gabriel ran his fingers through his hair before speaking in his quiet tone. "I caught the Head talking with the two guys who were assigned to live with Brendan and managed to avoid questions about why I needed to live in the dorms by offering to live with Brendan. Now I get the whole school experience with a roommate that I can actually stand."



Brendan laughed at Gabriel\'s first joke since they had met him. Gabriel didn\'t laugh or anything like that, but the slight glitter in his eyes made everyone know that he was joking. He turned just in time to see Dahlia come out of the room, though it was Brendan who spoke first. "Wow, Dahlia, you look incredible. Good enough to eat." He caught Daniel\'s gaze and held his hand up. "It was just an observation. I have no intent on trying to steal your woman." He paused for a moment. "Or to eat her for that matter. Besides I have my eyes on someone else." He playfully winked at Aurora who blushed bright red.



Daniel laughed and went to Dahlia. He took her hand and they turned to the others, eyebrows raised. Everyone took the cue and stood, gathering their things, and straightening their clothes. They headed out the door and down into the streets. They walked toward the higher priced area of town and Aurora was worried, but Daniel put her worry to rest when he told her that tonight, everything was on him.



A few hours later and the six friends were sitting around a table in the nicest bar in town. They had all had a few drinks with dinner, but they were still drinking even now. They began to tell each other stories about their lives, even Gabriel who finally opened up after getting a bottle of whiskey into his system, and were a little shocked at the similarities in their lives. All of them were orphans in some form or another, even Aurora who had been raised by a couple acting as her parents was technically an orphan. They had all had a hard life, whether because of their status as royalty or , in Dahlia\'s case, as High Seer, or as the impoverish, like Gabriel and Aurora.



In the little time that they had all spent together, they knew this friendship, this group that they were with now, would be together forever. It was as simple as that. They got along without argument or strife, spoke freely about things they had experienced in life, and knew how to truly live life with each other. It was the first time in all of their lives that they could be normal, happy people, and they all loved it.



They finally decided that it was time to head back to their respective beds. Dahlia and Daniel, along with their bodyguards who remained always in the shadows, insisted on walking the other four home. It was late and they had heard rumors about all the bad things that could happen in the big city after dark, so they weren\'t taking any chances with their new found family, for that was what they were. They were a group of misfits who had found each other and, in a single night, became a family.



They walked in a large, loud group through the empty streets. Aurora, after a few moments, stopped and frowned. "We need to sing a song. That\'s what we need to do. Anyone know any good songs?"



Brendan shrugged, wrapping his arm around Aurora\'s shoulders. "Not any that you guys would know. All the songs that Sarah and I know are from the Court. Most of them aren\'t even in a human language. They would sound just like a bunch of growls to you guys." He then proceeded to demonstrate by growling low and feral. Sarah picked up behind him in a higher pitched growl, and people in front of them fled.



Everyone laughed, then stopped as Aurora began to hum a soft song. Dahlia stopped in her tracks, with everyone else doing the same, and she tilted her head to the side. She closed her eyes and began to sing to the tune.



"Little child, of Mystic make,

Sleep all night, and don\'t you wake.

All my life I yearn and ache,

You in my life is no mistake.



Mountains tall protect you head,

While you sleep inside your bed.

My heart without you would be dead

Believe in all that I have said.



Marble strong and bright and true,

A crystal lake of sparkling blue,

All majestic in their view,

But none describe my love for you."



Dahlia stopped at the end of the lullaby and then realized what had just happened. She wheeled on Aurora, giving her a glare that had frightened hundreds of Mystics who were almost as powerful as herself. She got right up in Aurora\'s face, with Daniel and Brendan trying to hold her back, and spoke extremely low in a voice that sounded calm and collective, but was actually her most dangerous voice. "How do you know the lullaby of the Royals of the Outskirts?"



Aurora, shocked as sin that the lullaby she remembered from before she had apparently lost her memory, shook her head, backing away from the angry Dahlia. Was it bad that she knew it? Was it a crime? What was wrong? She began to stutter a response to the angry Seer. "I ... I ... my mother ... before she died ... my real mother, I mean ... she would sing it to me ... it\'s all I can remember."



Dahlia went slack in Daniel and Brendan\'s arms. They barely had time to catch her before she began to convulse. Her eyes, when opened, were a solid white, her irises and pupils disappeared in the Vision. She could hear Sarah, Aurora, and the bodyguards yelling in horror. She could even feel them all gather around her, but that was only for the briefest of moments before all senses were engulfed in the Past.



Her mother was running toward her. She was scooped into arms she remembered all too well and tossed into the air. Her father was the one who caught her, laughing at the surprise on her face. They sat her down, and, in hushed tones, told her that they had a secret to tell her. Dahlia, only just barely two years old, nodded carefully. She had been declared the High Seer, so she knew all about secrets. She listened intently as her parents told her of their dilemma and how they wanted her to help them solve it. They were to have another baby, something completely illegal to the parents of the High Seer. She tilted her little head to the side, praying silently to the Goddess to give her a vision to help her parents. Within a few minutes, she knew that the child her mother carried would be important to the future of Xon.



The vision shifted and she was suddenly floating in the air, disembodied. She watched as her parents came out of a store with a beautiful brunette with pale blue eyes. She was only two or three years old, but she had intelligence and energy in her eyes. She pulled on the King\'s arm, dragging him deeper into Starlight City. She called them Mommy and Daddy, and so they were. This was the child in the first half of the vision, Dahlia knew that, but it wasn\'t until her mother spoke the child\'s name that it all clicked for her. "Aurora, get back here." Aurora ... her sister.



Dahlia awoke from the vision screaming. She sat upright, putting her hand to the locket of her parents hair around her neck. She turned her eyes, slowing fading from white back to green, around the group. Brendan, Gabriel, Daniel, Sarah, and the Aurora. Her eyes stayed on Aurora, and she burst into tears, diving into Daniel\'s chest.



She began to speak in the language of the Mystics. Daniel understood about half of it, turning to the others with a look on his face. Gabriel was the one who caught his eye. "Gabriel, a little help here, please. I can speak a little Mystic, but she\'s going to fast."



Gabriel, looking as shocked as the rest of them, had followed everything Dahlia had said and was just baffled. He turned to look at Aurora, then back at Dahlia and Daniel, before finally turning and settling his eyes on Aurora. "She says that she had a vision of her past, of your past, Aurora. She knows who your parents are. But, more importantly to you in this time, she knows who your sister is."



Aurora, now a little excited in spite of her fear, knelt beside Dahlia, trying to get her attention, seeing as she had stopped talking. "Dahlia, who is she? I need to know. I need to know who I am, where I came from."



Dahlia, finally gaining control enough to speak English, turned to Aurora. "That lullaby is the key. It\'s been the key your entire life, and you didn\'t even realize it." She shook herself out of it and moved a little from Daniel, facing Aurora. "That lullaby is passed from royal parents to their children in the Outskirts. No other people, besides family, are to know it." She looked around at the others for a moment. "That means you guys. You\'re now family, so you cannot repeat that song, ever." They all nodded and she turned back to Aurora. "You know that song, and I know who your family was, is."



She pulled the locket from around her neck, having had it given to her when she was six to give to her sibling whenever they were to finally meet. She held it out to Aurora. "I was told by my mother and father when I was six, before they were killed, that I was supposed to give this to my sibling when we met for the first time. We have finally met, so I\'m giving it to you."



Aurora fell back onto her butt, looking bewildered at Dahlia. She wasn\'t the only one looking at Dahlia that way. Everyone seemed a little shocked the fact that these two who looked so different could be related. Daniel looked like his entire family, Brendan and Sarah were almost identical twins, save for height. It was just unusual.



Brendan, of course, was the first one to point that out. "Um, I don\'t mean to bust your bubble, Dahlia, and I know that you\'ve seen this in Vision, but you and Aurora look nothing alike. How are you sisters?" He seemed to think about it and spoke again. "I also thought that it was illegal for the High Seer\'s parents to have other children. How did they get away with it?"



Dahlia sighed and and looked at the locket in her hands. "I look like our mother with light hair and cream skin. She looks like our father who was all brunette, pale blue eyes, and pale skin. And as to why they had another child ... I told them to. Aurora is going to be important to Xon and myself in the future. I knew that even then." He nodded, satiated. All attention went back to the shocked Aurora.



She managed to reach a tentative hand out and take the locket from Dahlia. She opened it carefully, looking at the blond and dark brown locks of hair in her hand. She noticed something behind the hair and moved the pieces gently to the side. Under the hair, there was a picture of a brunette man and a woman with blond hair that had a slight tint of red to it. She gasped as she began to remember that hair caressing her face as she was kissed goodnight. She could remember the stubble on the jaw of that man, her father, as he tickled her to get her up in the morning.



Tears sprang to her eyes as she closed the locket. "I remember them. I remember her smell, like the sweetest of roses. I remember his boisterous laugh and the way his hands held me when he tried to teach me to dance and I kept falling. I remember the promise that one day, when Dahlia was older, I would get to see our true home." She turned to Dahlia. "They spoke of you all the time. It was always talking about going home to you so we could all become a true family."



She held out her hand toward Dahlia, who took it without hesitation. Dahlia, taking the initiative, pulling Aurora into her and Daniel\'s arms. They both hugged her to them, though it was Daniel who broke the tension by speaking. "Welcome to the family, Aurora. I could definitely use a babysitter back home."



Dahlia and Aurora both laughed, having heard all about the dozen or so siblings he had back home. They jointly pushed him away playfully, standing with their arms around each other. Dahlia pulled Daniel back to her side and kissed him. "Okay, I think we have had enough surprises and shocks for the evening. Let us all just crash at mine and Daniel\'s apartment. We have two extra rooms, one for the girls and one for the guys. That way, no getting into trouble with your Heads for coming in drunk."



They all conversed, finally deciding it was the best idea. Even with the shock and the revelation that Dahlia and Aurora were sisters, everyone\'s mood was improved as they headed back to Daniel and Dahlia\'s place. Tomorrow would be a different day, and it would definitely be better.

* * *

Unknown to the group of friends, they were being watched. From the moment they left Dahlia and Daniel\'s apartment building, a shadow had watched them move throughout the streets toward the restaurant. He followed them into the place, ordering though not eating, and watched as they began to eat and drink, listening it to their conversation as they ate. Without knowing it, Dahlia and Aurora had made his job a great deal easier in finding eat other, though it probably had something to do with Dahlia\'s visions.



He waited until nearly ten minutes after they had left before he began to follow them again. It didn\'t take him long to catch up with them, even keeping out of sight. He watched as they entered one of the best pubs in town. Again, he waited nearly ten minutes before following them in and finding a booth near them. He listened to the conversations about their families and them all being orphaned. Pity welled in his heart, but it wasn\'t there for long, overwhelmed by the monster within him.



When they left, he didn\'t even wait. He went out the back and watched them cross the street and head down a dark, empty street. He could see the bodyguards plain as day, so he stayed as far back as he could. He began to hum lightly, but it wasn\'t until he heard a female voice join him that he realized he had been humming the lullaby of the Outskirt royals. When Dahlia began to sing, he knew that something big was about to happen.



Slipping into an alley, he did a run around came up in front of the group so that he could hear them better. He watched Dahlia get angry before Aurora mumbled an explanation. It was when Dahlia passed out that he had to stop himself from running to her. He dug his nails into the brick of the wall behind him and watched her struggle in the arms of the Prince of the Desertland. They were staying in the same apartment, which he didn\'t approve of, but he couldn\'t reveal himself just yet.



When Dahlia sat up, he released his grip on the wall, though he frowned at her crying. What was going on? He had to get closer, so he climbed the wall quickly and got onto the roof above them. He arrived just when they were revealed as sisters. He watched the dismay, scared that he had lost it all, his family, his freedom, his cure.



When they seemed to realize what was happening and accepted it, he released the breath he had been holding and watched them move down the alley toward Dahlia\'s apartment. He rolled onto his back, knowing where they would all be tonight, and looked up at the clear stars. It was happening. He was so close to the cure that he could taste it on his tongue. Dahlia and Aurora were the ticket to helping him. After all, his daughters\' blood mixed with his own blood as well as their magick would be what cured him from the disease that was being a Soul Seeker. Emery was just hoping he had the courage to ask them for help, and that they could accept him.