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12/29/04

Julius accosted Emperial again when she was on her way to Taco Bell. His greeting was so abrupt that it took Emperial a moment to realize what he was asking. "Has there been any news?"

"News? Oh, ah, nothing yet." She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear nervously. "I'm sure he'll call or something when he's done with his quest. Quests generally take a few days."

Julius frowned, which bore very little difference to his usual expression, and tilted his head slightly to the side. "When it is a quest from Yanvir, anything longer than a few days is generally a bad sign. Emperial, I implore you, do not let your relationship with Corvus blind you to the truth, nor prevent you from embarking upon another path to the future. Our future depends on you." He was unusually expressive today, turning his hands up to her pleadingly.

At that, her gaze smoldered with barely-contained anger. "Blind me? You're the blind one, Julius, and don't think for a second that Corvus is so easily brushed away and forgotten. He's not yet a thing of the past."

"But he is preventing you from contributing to the future." There was a shimmer in the air between Julius's hands and a delicate light blue flower appeared in his fingers. "I need you, Emperial, to continue to help rebuild our people."

"Oh, Juli," she gasped, fingers trembling at the sight of the new bloom. "You shouldn't have. You really shouldn't have! Corvus is not dead, and he is not so easily replaced!" She whirled on her heel, intending to stomp towards the car, but Julius's voice stopped her.

"His name is Luun, and he is a Water elemental. I should have given you a Water feien to begin with. I performed a Prophecy on this bloom, and there can be for it no other. Corvus may be dead, but the futures of hundreds of feien have yet to be decided."

"Dammit, Juli," she started, looking back at him with exasperation. "You can't just do this."

"You know it requires someone with a special soul to possess a summoner. You are the only person to whom I can turn. There must be another summoner, particularly when I can make no guarantees as to myself. If you know someone else to whom this summoner can be given, then that is fine by me, but I must insist that this bloom be sent somewhere. With Corvus gone missing and possibly dead, and the second summoner unheard from in months, I have no choice! You may be willing to sacrifice the future of my people for Corvus, but I cannot!" As he spoke his voice rose, in volume and in anger, and Emperial thought she had never seen Julius so angry before. Certainly he had been angered by Corvus, but to the point of passion? Now she felt more than a little guilty.

Softly, she said, "I will take him. His name is Luun, you said?"

"Yes," heaved Julius, working himself back down to a calm state. "He is an imperfect feien and will require extra care, but I know you can provide it."

"I didn't say I was going to keep him."

"You will."

Emperial could imagine Julius's eyes boring deep into hers from behind that blindfold. "What do you mean, imperfect?"

"Summoning without the aid of the others behind me is immensely difficult, as you know. The last feien who survived to bloom state was lacking in sight. This one... I fear what I have done to him is even worse. He will need a good and caring bond, someone who is compassionate and kind."

"I think you've mistaken me for Sally," remarked Emperial, taking the bloom from his arms. It fit nicely into her cupped hand. "I'm not sure I like what you're implying, but I'll do my best. I may yet find a creator soul to whom I can give this flower."

"You won't," said Julius, and faded from view.

Emperial stared at the empty air for several moments before returning inside the house, completely forgetting why she had gone out in the first place.

1/04/05

1/15/04

It happened suddenly, with a splash, and he was out. A tiny feien form shot up from within the recesses of the clear plastic cup, leaving behind the empty shell of his former bloom, and spat out water onto the desk.

Emperial's fingers froze on the keyboard and she looked down at the little creature. Light blue and flesh, plenty of flesh. He looked around in all directions before finally gazing up fearfully at her. "H-h-"

"Hi there," said Em, blinking twice. "I'm Em-- -perial."

The little feien took a deep breath of air for the very first time in his life. "I'm- I'm Lu- Luu-- L--"

"Luun," she supplied, and blinked again.

He clambored out of the cup and tumbled onto the desk, dripping water across the table. "You know my name?" he whimpered very softly. So softly Emperial could not make out the words.

"What?" She leaned down towards him.

"I s-said... m-my name--" He became quickly overcome and wrung hs hands together. "You knew-knew it..."

"Uh, yes," nodded Em. "Juli--"

"I wa--"

They both stopped. "You go first," offered Em, but when Luun sputtered in syllables too small to form any meaningful words, she rolled her eyes and said, "Never mind, I'll go. I learned your name from Juli. Your element, too. Did you like the water much?"

Luun looked back at the cup and the trail of droplets leading from it to his present position. "Yes, i-it was v-v-v-veh..."

A figure not much bigger than Luun drfted into the room and landed with a sudden THUMP on the table. Luun would have gone running towards the other side of the table, but his eyes went wide with shock and his legs were frozen in place.

It was then that Emperial noticed it. She was so used to the small wings on juveniles and Simon's inobtrusive pair it had not immediately registered in her mind: Luun's wings were not merely tiny. They were nonexistent.

The source of Luun's sudden terror broke into a smile. "Hi," said the nearly feien-sized boy, "I'm Peter."

The voice seemed to register with Luun, if nothing else, and he relaxed on a level so tiny it was imperciptible to the human eye. "L-l-l--"

"Luun," whispered Emperial.

"I'm very pleased to meet you," said Peter. "I have been wanting to ask youu something for two weeks now! Would you be my friend?" And the smile on the dragona's face was so invited Luun gave a very small nod.

"O-okay." Then Luun sank to his knees, emotionally exhausted, and lay across the side of Emperial's tablet. Peter, who had not thought of what he would do after asking his question, crouched down thoughtfully nearby to ponder his next move.

And Emperial only stared with a combination of horror and disbelief.

Emperial knew a great deal about fairies. More than most of the current feien, actually. There were few things that were seen as undesirable: short ears (incorrectly seen as a sign of low sexual potency), drooping ears (again, incorrectly seen as a sign of low sexual potency), and lack of wings. Emperial had never before seen a wingless feien - she knew the odds were about one in five thousand to develop the deformity - but from what she knew...

Feien wings contained a great deal of magic. They were the most magically-drenched part of the average feien's body, completely covered in prellan. Generally, the more prellan possessed by a feien, the stronger the magic, and sometimes there was even a bit of a correlation between the area of the prellan and areas of magicla aptitude.

To be born wingless was to lack the single defining magical feature of all feien. Wingless feien rarely amounted to anything in typical feien society. Heck, even elves saw wingless fairies as a sign of significant magical problems.

So somehow, Emperial had to admit this had not come as a surprise. Of the now two feien summoned by Julius, one was blind and the other...

Luun looked up with piercing light blue eyes and bit his lip.

Emperial swallowed and said, "It's very nice to meet you, Luun. A great honor."

Luun seemed confused at that statement and looked over towards the feien plant. "I-I'm suppo-supposed t-to d-d-d-do..."

"A bloom summoning?" offered Emperial. Luun nodded. Emperial extended a hand for Luun to climb onto and very gently moved him to the other table and into the pot. Peter followed a moment later, gliding easily through the air. He and Emperial watched with interest as Luun reached out to touch the plant's leaves.

After a moment, Luun turned back to them and asked the first clear thing of his life, "Where are the others?"

"Others?"

"I c-c... can't do it... al... alo..."

"Alone?" offered Peter, and Luun nodded.

Emperial cocked her head to the side, confused. "You can't summon blooms alone? But what others? There's only Julius and Corvus--" her breath caught in her throat a moment, but she quickly recovered-- "and neither of them are here."

"I need o-o-others!" whimpered Luun, retreating behind a large leaf. "I d-d-d-dunt h-have... uh... enough m-mah-m-magic."

Emperial was torn between feeling sorry for Luun and wanting to smack him to make him throw out a single sentence in a timely fashion. "I don't understand. You're a summoner. It doesn't make any sense to need another summoner, because any other summoner can do it--" She very quickly realized her mistake. "I mean, I didn't mean it like that!" But it was too late, for Luun was now on the other side of the plant, only his eyes peeking through the bunched stalks.

Luun's next words were so soft Peter had to hover practically inside the plant to hear them. "I-I n-n-need l-l-luh-luh..." The leaf Luun was standing behind began to tremble. At last he chirped out "Love!" and a whole section of plant gave a shudder.

Emperial's face lit up. "You mean a breeding!"

"Y-yes pl-please!' came the voice from between the leaves.