Champions of Serenity :Gathering the Circle

Chapter 18

Tris sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. Her hair was wet from the soaking she gave herself to stop the last effects of the Demon rage that had consumed her the day before. She looked over the newly scoured ground around Drianne and turned her head aside.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner, Drianne. Something happened yesterday that slowed me down. I came as soon as I felt the first bite of that axe.”

A slender branch moved to caress Tris’s hair and then down her face and under her chin. When Tris looked up to meet Drianne’s gentle eyes, the Dryad gave her heart sister a smile.

“You came, Tris, and you were here in time to save me. But what happened? Something in you has changed; both Noshtra and I can feel it.”

Noshtra chose that moment to join them and sat down, laying her head in Tris’s lap sharing her comfort as Drianne was. Both the Dryad and she-wolf knew how hard it was on Tris to go into her Demon rage and then pull out of it.

“I’m not sure what it was, Drianne. One minute I was walking along, picking up the scent of that patrol and the next it was like…. No, it wasn’t like, it was, someone else joining me. Here, inside my head and soul.” Tris touched her forehead and then drew her hand down and touched her breastbone.

Both the Dryad and she-wolf shared a look above Tris’s head. When the infant Trisinda was given into their care by the Goddess Serenity they were told that a day would come when Trisinda would have to leave their care and take up the mantel of the Goddess. Serenity had told them they would know when that time came and it was up to them to help Trisinda place her feet on the path Serenity had laid for her.

“Peacock, you know that Noshtra and I have never lied to you about anything. Even the difficult questions you have brought to us.”

Tris looked up sharply at Drianne and then down at Noshtra. This wasn’t what she was expecting. She had something life changing happen to her and they were talking about lies and questions.

“Before you go off on Drianne, Tris, listen to what we have to say.” Noshtra said, placing her forelegs in Tris’s lap as well, as if holding her in place.

Trisinda looked from one to the other of her heart sisters and saw in their eyes something she didn’t like. She found sorrow and fear. The new part of her, Debra, understood that something was going to happen. Tris found this very disturbing having never been burdened with emotions herself until this point.

“Trisinda, when we took you in as a baby….. Well you see, we knew you were different and that….. Oh nuts and berries, Peacock, I don’t know how to say this.”

Tris turned to Noshtra as Drianne stumbled over the half-sentences and her own tears.

“Sure, leave this to me. Isn’t that always the case?” Noshtra grumbled and then met Trisinda’s eyes. “What Drianne is trying to tell you, Tris, is that you have a destiny. Serenity has chosen you for some purpose and it is time you left our protection and found out what that purpose is.”

“Thank you, Noshtra, you always did have a way with words that I’ll never have.” Drianne said and used a tiny branch to wipe a tear from her eyes. “Peacock, I don’t want to let you go, but Serenity….she….well….”

“She’s a Goddess and when a Goddess tells you to do something, you pretty much have the choice to do it or die. I understand, Drianne.” Tris stood and walked a little way down the path and looked around her home, thinking. It explained this merge with this woman named Debra, if it were true that she was chosen of a goddess. It would also explain why she was the only one of her kind and the dual nature of her very being. She was chosen of a goddess and not just any goddess, Serenity patron goddess of Sandeenai.

She returned to Drianne and Noshtra and sat down again. Leaning back against the warm bark of the weeping birch, she pulled an apple from her cloak pocket. “I’ll leave first thing tomorrow. Today, I must rest and contemplate what this all means. I will be back, Drianne, Noshtra. Don’t worry about that. This is my home; it will always be my home. I will discover what it is I must do, do it, and then come back here. I don’t ask for much, I just want to be left in peace.”

Serenity smiled as Chaos entered her home and welcomed him with open arms. The stars in her eyes reflected the crimson and eggplant of her brother’s robe in such a way that for once, they didn’t clash. “To what do I owe this pleasure, Chaos?”

“The merging has happened.” He stated abruptly and then turned from his sister and looked out over the soft grass of her lawns and the animals at play in her gardens.

“You didn’t come to me just to tell me that, Chaos. I knew before you when it happened. They are my chosen, my champions, and there is very little that happens to them that I don’t know. Even when my brother cares a little too much for one of them and is jealous of another.” She offered a glass of a sweet clear wine.

Chaos blushed and took the wine. He started to toss it back and then stopped and sipped it. “I don’t…”

“I know, Chaos. It’s hard watching all of this and knowing that this was set in motion eons ago. I know you have waited for this day as much as I have. And I know that the actuality is much different than what you were expecting. It’s easy to allow for impossibles in a prophecy but very difficult to see them actually fulfilled.”

“You sound like Father.” Chaos grumbled and sat the empty glass down on a crystal table. “What are you going to do now?”

“I? Do? Nothing. The prophecy and my champions will find each other as it was ordained in the beginning. Until that time when I can bestow my gifts upon them, I will wait and allow them to learn and grow as they will. It is their differences which is their strengths. They need time to blend those differences and that can’t happen if I interfere.” Serenity set a small plate of very pale sugared rose petals next to Chaos and refilled his wine glass.

“Order finds its own path, Chaos. It always has and always will. A river will follow its banks, wind will follow the contours of the land, my champions will find each other and the prophecy.”

“How can you have such trust, Serenity?”

Serenity laughed softly, simple joy filling the sound and making it a symphony of its own. “Chaos, I have you as a brother, how can I not trust? Be at ease, your minion will not be able to stop what Father set in motion. Even without my gifts, my champions have abilities of their own that will make it hard for anyone to stop them when they set their minds to the purpose. You have seen this and you will continue to see this.”

Chaos gave his sister a kiss on the cheek and left to brood in his own home. He couldn’t be as easy as his sister about this. Greshinea was just too out of hand to predict anymore.