A Sinner's Eden

***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Astra***

We left once the meeting was finished.

I wondered whether we should have used the chance to reveal our connection with Gaia. I even used our secret communication method to discuss the matter with Magnus, but he was adamant about not doing anything.

And he was right in a way.

There was no doubt a selected group of people like my parents or Thalia would believe us, but as for the rest of the Council of Elders or the matriarch? Without some solid proof, there was no chance it would not cause more trouble than it was worth.

Maybe we could get the matriarch on our side if we allowed her to rummage through our minds. She might be able to at least confirm that we believed in our story.

The downside was our exceptionally high resistance to psychic influence. I wasn’t sure whether the Matriarch was capable of confirming our story without allowing her complete access. Which sounded like a bad idea. Not that I didn’t trust her after she had taken our side against her mentor, but allowing a psychic of her level such access was always a risk.

Not to mention, neither Magnus nor I knew how to lower our defences at this point. We weren’t trained psychics. The only thing we could try was to reduce the number of active sub-personalities, which also wasn’t the easiest of tasks.

After months of using them, some of them had faded into the background of my mind to such a degree that getting rid of them would have been on the same level as asking me whether I could consciously stop my heart. Or to stop a reflex which was already ingrained.

Right now both of us are socially well established and our opinion had some significant political pull among very powerful people. Adding potential accusations of insanity or hallucinations would allow people to question our judgement and put what we had worked so hard for in jeopardy.

“Should we head back home?” Magnus asked, interrupting my thoughts as we walked in the direction of the wormgate.

“Oh, I heard from Mom that the transports with Balthasar's people are supposed to arrive today, so I would like to wait here and greet Thalia,” I replied.

“Right!” Magnus nodded. “I am interested to see which mutation they got and you are still injured, so I will wait with you!”

“You don't have to mother me if there is something else you want to do.” I waved a hand to show him it wasn't necessary. “I can walk just fine.”

“There is no doubt you can, but I still want to talk with Mark, now that you reminded me of their return,” Magnus replied without hesitation and pulled me closer to link arms.

He was a little overprotective of me in my opinion, but in the end, I had no ground to argue if he wanted to meet up with Mark. So we waited together on the flagship’s deck while we watched the ongoing repairs from a spot where we wouldn’t be in the way.

It took three hours for the transport fleet to arrive. They brought Balthasar’s people with them, requiring another round of political greetings between the elders, the matriarch and the ancient. To greet her old friend, Mary also reappeared from wherever she had chosen to go into hiding.

For once, Magnus and I wisely avoided the centre of attention and went to meet with Thalia and Mark. Ginevra and Thiago were also present, but they excused themselves quickly after delivering the bare minimum of social niceties, lest the elders might decide to recruit our short-term teammates for another mission.

I greeted my friend with a careful hug after warning her of my injury. Walking around on my own was fine, but I still avoided being squeezed or bumped into at all costs.

Sadly, Thalia seemed strangely subdued till we managed to get away from all the hustle and bustle of our leaders and people trying to disembark from the ships. Getting Balthasar’s people settled would be a logistical problem I wanted no part of.

The people from Magnus’s organisation had been almost completely drafted into clan Aerie by now. Some had joined Hochberg.

But there were still several thousand former prisoners from the Tibet Gate, including gate staff who had been present during the raid. It didn't have to be mentioned that many of them were not happy with their current circumstances. On top came the problem that the recruiters from Hochberg, Aerie, and Jeng weren’t overly enthused about adding such people to our ranks in large numbers without properly vetting them.

Yeah, juggling this issue was not on my agenda.

“There is something important we have to talk about,” Thalia said once we were away from the crowd and on our way to the wormgate.

“Is it about your new mutation?” I asked. “I wondered when you would bring it up. Please tell us hunting that white stalker gave you something good. Can you reclassify as a juggernaut now?”

“It concerns our mutation,” Mark admitted. “But we really shouldn’t talk about it in public. How about we go to your home to discuss the matter? The Frosts have adequate information security, don't they?”

“Why not?” Magnus said. “I am sure Isaac will be thrilled to meet you.”

On the way I kept questioning the two about what was going on and which mutation they got, but both kept mum till we reached the inner estate of my family.

As soon as we stepped over the doorsill, Thalia jumped us and since Magnus stepped in between, he was the first she got a hold of. Lifting him at his breastplate she started shaking him as if he were a plush toy. Her words came out in a rapid staccato fire, barely discernable from each other. “Tell us everything you two know about Gaia or by the feisty bitch herself I swear I will do something stupid because I don’t know whether I am turning insane or not!”

“You- know- you- should- try- to- calm- down-” Magnus tried to talk, but being shaken like an angry child’s plushy didn’t make it easy.

“You saw Gaia?” I asked. “You talked to her?”

“We had very fucked up dreams the last few days,” Mark admitted while running both hands through his hair. Looking away, he muttered, “And I told Thalia eating another intelligent bipedal creature was too close to cannibalism for comfort. I am sure the meat was bad, or infected, or something.”

Thalia dropped Magnus who landed elegantly on his feet, using the leg extensions of his armour to smooth the landing.

My friend threw up her hands in a beseeching gesture and turned to her partner. “I told you those things have nothing to do with humans, so it isn’t cannibalism! If something tries to kill and eat you, returning the favour is only fair!”

“There’s still bad stuff you can get from eating closely related creatures,” Mark protested, convinced of his knowledge. “Same reason why eating apes got humanity all those nasty sicknesses which it took us till the third century to get rid of.”

He shuddered. “What if there are little worms in our heads, slowly burrowing their way through as we lose our minds little by little?”

“I told you, nobody on Tirnanog ever died of disease – not counting the Mycelium’s spore infection!” Thalia shot back.

“Does it matter whether a worm or a mushroom nibbles at your brain?” Mark asked, horrified at the thought.

“Mark, we are immune against the Mycelium if you haven’t noticed!” Thalia used her fingers to count. “There are the nanites for viruses and bacteria. We have the starfish mutation which allows us to regenerate anything. Then there is the bloodvine mutation which by itself should kill any critter trying to invade our bodies and allows us to – practically – return from the dead! Believe me, I am the biology expert. You do the stuff you are good at!”

“What is he good at?” Magnus asked unhelpfully while nodding along.

“Lying on his back and allowing me to ride him.” Thalia replied unapologetically before adding after a moment’s thought, “And kill stuff.”

Strangely enough, Mark didn’t argue the point at all. “I am also very good with numbers and statistics!”

Magnus threw his male compatriot a meaningful grin before turning back to Thalia. “Don’t forget the white stalker mutation which allows you to dream of a goddess and behave strangely.”

I lightly whipped him with a few of my filaments corded together. His armour was protection enough to negate any damage, but he needed to understand he was very insensitive right now. “Don’t try to make it worse for them! Can’t you see they are taking it badly?”

He shrugged and cracked his knuckles. “I am just wondering why the bitch wouldn’t tell us that she now has two more victims to play mind games with. We should have a few words with her once we go to sleep tonight.”

“Wait, you two are seeing her too?” Mark exclaimed, sounding surprised. “We aren’t going insane?”

I nodded. “Yes, we think she is real. She helped us several times with stuff in the real world and she trained us on how to use our abilities to their fullest. Is still doing so in fact.”

“Or at the very least she is a very powerful expression of a passive psychic talent,” Magnus added. “The only other explanation is that she is indeed an energy-based entity embodying all of humanity. In other words – the closest thing to a god.”

Thalia grabbed her chest, seeming close to hyperventilation. “Oh, gods. She is real. She is really real. By… I told her she is a saggy-titted idiot!”

“Uuh…” Magnus clicked his tongue and shook his head with obvious ‘fake’ sympathy. “That’s bad. Very bad. Did you kick her too?”

Thalia frowned. “No?”

“Hit her?” my partner questioned further. “Perform any other act of futile violence on her radiant self?”

My friend slowly shook her head. “I only called her… things. Waking up in that island mansion with a strange woman trying suggestion techniques on us was quite the kicker.”

Magnus nodded sagely. “Then you might get away with twins, depending on her mood. Though, I have yet to find out how she weighs insults against physical attacks. Depending on what you said, she might ramp it up to triplets or quintuplets.”

“What!?” Thalia screamed.

I covered my face with a hand and drew in a deep breath. “Magnus…”

He ignored me and kept going, “Well, I called her names and kicked her when she went 'mental suggestion mode' on me and her reaction was to saddle us with triplets.” His face scrunched up for a moment as he thought about something and then whispered, “If you play nice with her, she might decide to undo the whole egg thing. Also, please veto the seasonal fertility thing. I suspect Gaia got a little too enthused about improving the whole birthing process for her new take on the human species. She refuses to listen to Astra or me on that point. She argued that having the female fertile for three months of the year allows for much better population control. If you ask me, having to be careful for three months in a row is just asking for something to go wrong.”

Contrary to having to be careful almost all the time, I thought to myself.

Thalia and Mark looked at each other with trepidation.

“Unless she decided to play around and the deed is already done,” Magnus rambled on unapologetically. “As I see it, Gaia is the most powerful entity reasonably imaginable, but even she can’t turn back time. At least I don't think so. If she could, she wouldn’t bother with trying to get us lesser lifeforms to do her will.”

“Magnus.” I cleared my throat to get his attention.

“Yes, dear?” He looked at me.

“Why don’t you go and get me some of those pain meds the doctor left for me in case the wound acts up.” I reached for my chest, wisely not mentioning that I had tried them and found the painkillers to be utterly useless. “I think running around all day long wasn’t such a great idea after all.”

It looked like our poison resistance recognised painkillers as poison.

He sighed. “Of course, dear. But don’t believe for a moment I don’t understand perfectly well you are trying to make me shut my mouth. I still think Thalia and Mark should know exactly what they are dealing with when they interact with Gaia.”

Magnus raised a finger. “I will now walk off very slowly and get those meds and when I get back I will run my mouth again.”

I turned to Thalia and smiled at her. “Why don’t we go to the living room and discuss everything?”

Halfway down the corridor, my partner turned around. “Come to think, where do you have those meds?”

I smiled. “Oh, I think I forgot where I put them. Why don’t you start by searching the bed and the bathroom?”

Maybe that bought me ten minutes tops to talk with Mark and Thalia before Magnus got back to freaking them out.