Chapter 102: Chapter 33

We had spent the evening in Austreal, bonding as a family between games, movies, drinks, and food. We laughed until the wee hours of the night, little ones excited to have everyone together again. Announcing to everyone in our livingroom and kitchen that everyone is grounded to Austreal and the villages until the winter months had passed had the everyone cheering. I had my mates and children here, and had decided that travel was going to be to a minimum. I had loads of backed up paperwork, repairs, schooling, and so much more to oversee. Plus staying put when Vladymir and his mother were scheming was the best option to keep the wee one growing in my womb safe, along with the two sacked out on the couch.

I felt as if I was neglecting my motherly duties and it was time to take back control of my life. We would send out the riders once again on spurting missions once the spring flowers bloomed. I would stay behind this coming year, growing Austreal, setting up important dates, tournaments, and other events. I had picked up a good ten ledgers to keep everything straight, filing them in a specific area in my filing cabinet to make sure nothing was missed. I also compiled every citizen into a database, all known elements, powers, species, birthdays, preferred work, and so on. Visitors had certain logs they checked in as we did in Ninille, the only difference is, we also had them at the telemirrors. Another database kept track of crops, another for trades, and yet another on services. After the last round of files we had roughly went from 10 people to 10,000 people. We now had 15 tree apartments, similar to Centree. Roughly 10 floors to each tree, and 2 apartments per floor. This helped pull up off the ground and not over take the land, while providing shelter, without hacking down large amounts of trees. We had started a small tree farm, replenishing the land, and only took what was needed.

As I laid the two little ones in bed, I slipped away to the greenhouse. The moon beaming down on the flowers as their blooms sprang open. I stood by the outer wall as I saw the houses and apartments grow dark and the moon cascaded over the land. The clouds beginning to roll in as another storm had begun it’s approach.

“You look like a masterpiece standing in the moonlight.” Elre’s voice soft and gentle. “I would call it the Watchful Moon Queen.” I smiled as his hand wrapped my waist. Looking out at the breathtaking view, his eyes sparkling as he took it in. He wrapped tightly around me as his gaze switched over to me, his lips locking onto mine. He pulled me away from the wall, lifting me up, I wrapped my legs around his waist. Not skipping a beat we were in the elevator, down the hall, and in our room. The bed from his home now placed in ours. He gently laid me down as his lips caressed my mate mark, down my collarbone, claiming every inch of me. He was gentle as he inserted his member, going at an agonizing. Torturing me to beg for more, and with a smirk his pace quickened as he left me gasping. Every moan, every grunt, and every thrust pushed me over the edge time and time again. His moans and grunts of pleasure intensifying my pleasure as it sent thrills up my spine. He was forever mine, as we released together. I laid there fully sated, sleeping pulling me as Elre laid beside me. He hummed as he stroked my cheek, a small smile dancing on his lips, one blink, two blinks, and darkness.

As I woke the next morning, I stretched and noticed the bed was empty. I crawled to the edge as I noticed a pile of clothes, everyones scent still heavy in the air so I know they slept here. I gently waddled to the bathroom, relieving myself, and hopping in the shower. Once I pulled on a thick wool dress, this one a light gray, I walked up the stairs to my office. Separating every piece of paper into different piles that needed my attention, along with pulling out the ledgers to place dates of certain events. Red ledger being the highest priority and black being the lowest. With everything tidied, I sat down as I took one stack and began going through the first document. Adding important notes to a large sticky pad notebook. Once finished I would attach the note, place it in the correct database, write my final decision, and then file it. I sat their for a few hours before noticing Shura leaning on the doorway.

“Little busy bee, I have brought you food.” He smiled as I pulled the slate from my desk to accept the food. “You could have waited until later.”

“If I wait then more paperwork piles up and more work to be done.” I giggle at him. Usually Shura is quick to get to his paperwork, it was nice to see a laid back side to him. He smiled at my giggle, kissed my forehead, grabbed a stack of papers, and headed to his office. The others following shortly after, pecking my forehead, and heading to their office with a stack of papers. Of course, Granny once again had the mages shift around our offices to add another. Alex and a few of his newly high ranked knights passed through, before heading to the outlook. At this point I had the mages place a circular table up there.

“Now were the Guardian Riders of the round table.” Catching a few eyes rolls, as I giggled. Leave it to Benni to find a joke.

Pausing my paper work takedown, I walked up to the outllook, informing Benni, Alex, Grier, Garth, and Derek of the information we gained about Hifigo.

“It’s odd they are going after the much smaller areas.” Alex looked puzzled.

“I guess you hit rock bottom you got to start small.” Benni shrugged.

“The pattern I see,” I added after being deep in thought. “they are going after easily corruptible targets.” I looked up to the guardians. “You see, we took the villages because another much larger fighting village grew power hungry. I have noticed the auras of these types of souls grow dark rapidly. They are never saited, and the corruption grows more and more. The next is greed, or money hungry, I’m afraid to know what other things corrupt the soul but it seems I’ll have to delve deep in my personal library to get a better understanding.” I stood with the chin between my pointer and thumb. “I wonder if it’s some how reversible, or if their soul is lost until completely consumed.” I sat for a moment, releasing a deep sigh.

“We will start creating plans, getting with the Kings and seeing what species their kingdom has. Lazarath is harpy, eagle, and various other large predatory winged shifters.” Derek added.

“My parents kingdom are mainly demon, elves, a shifters that do well in frigid climates.” Shura chimed in startling most of us.

“Ours is vampire and shifters that do well in arid climates.” Rugan said.

“Ours is valkyrae and oni, most of our homes are built to float in the sky.” Alastar said.

“Mine is fae, elf, and nymph.” Elre said.

Derek writing everything up on the movable dry erase board, creating a circle with each name, mine was placed in the middle with the word awakened in the middle. Everyone adding tidbits of which overlapped, which shifters were versatile in various kingdoms and areas. We sat until lunch and broke away to head down to the kitchen. My head swarming with more questions. Our next step is to write various things linked to each shifter, their weaknesses, strengths, what advantage one has in a particular climate, and disadvantage in others. I was lost in thought with new questions arising, picking at my food as I stared at it lost in thought. Fingertips gently lifting my face to pull me from the thoughts.

“Breath, we will figure this out.” Alastar spoke softly as he smiled gently.

“We know that little head of yours is near exploding with all the questions.” Alex smirked.

“Please eat something, my nephew has kicked like twelve times, he’s practically screaming FEED ME.” Benni emphasizing the last bit causing me to chuckle and take a large bite from my sandwich. Everyone told jokes, talked about the storm setting in, and other things to help me keep my mind preoccupied, helping me eat the last bit of my food. We finally got back to the outlook and went back over different species, everyone writing one down and writing various notes on them. I sat looking out the window racking my brain over the various strategies Vladymir had gone over, some were so severely barbaric that I wouuld look at him horrified. At the time I was to blind to see that it was him and not just his father. The witch woman who no one understood how she had escaped, and knew exactly where I was even after being in prison, the man Gracie described giving her mother the toxic nightshade, the women at the bar, the women at the party we first met. I went over how various people got to me with such ease, such as the first torture session. The second prison escape, how he knew where I was when I was in the dungeons.

“OOF!”

“ANYA!” Rugan, Shura, and Alastar taking a defensive stance as sparks of fire popped off in one direction, while electric arcs shot another.

“Anya, I am unsure of what just happened but please calm down my love.” Lazarath spoke softly as he tried to dodge an arc. Taming my emotions, I looked down to the ground ashamed. Hands placed on my shoulders reassuring, Alex knew from the pained expression.

“Anya, he fooled all of us. We were so determined we didn’t notice, this is not only yours to bare. He will pay for everything he did to you, to our people, our families, and we will end is destruction and corruption.” Tears fell from his eyes as he felt the betrayal just as harshly as I did. His forehead to mine.

“We will get through this, little sister, we have worked so hard to build a sanctuary that he will fall below rock bottom. We will win, because your light will drown out his and his mother’s darkness.” Benni said as he laid his hand on my shoulder. “Nothing is going to stop your light, your heart won’t let it.”