Calm Before the Storm (27 page)

Irina was surprised to learn that Tani’s
idea of shopping involved a quick visit to Paris. Amazingly Earth fashion was
considered some of the best in the universe and she wondered what Versace or
Dolce and Gabbana would think if they realized their clothes were to be found
all over the galaxy. It was while they were trying on dresses in a Paris
boutique that Cassi discovered something disturbing. In fact it was Tani who
first discovered it.

“Stand still, Cassi!” Tani ordered,
watching her trying to pull a short strappy number over her head.

“What?” Cassi stopped moving, hands high in
mid-stretch. Tani dropped to her knees and rubbed her fingers across the back
of Cassi’s thigh. “Goddamn!” she said.

Cassi dropped her arms and turned round.
“Tani! You know I love you right, but some people might get the wrong
impression about us!” Irina, who was peeking through the changing-room curtain,
raised an eyebrow at their antics.

“What’s up?” she asked Tani, curious at the
bemused expression on her face.

“I wonder how long that’s been there,” Tani
said thoughtfully, spinning Cassi around to show Irina something that made her
gasp in amazement.

“Now this is just getting weird. What’s
going on, you two?” Cassi turned to confront them both. Irina could only stare
at her in shock. “Cassi.” Irina took a deep breath. “You have a Taijitu on the
back of your thigh.”

Cassi snorted in disbelief. “Are you trying
to get your own back on me for forcing you to try on that strapless dress you
didn’t like?”

Irina shook her head, screwing up her face
in pain. “It
was
bad but I wouldn’t joke about something this serious.”

Cassi narrowed her eyes and looked at Tani,
who was all but jumping up and down with glee. “It’s true. Look!”

Tani spun her again, back to the mirror,
twisting her upper body around so Cassi could see the backs of her legs. Cassi
looked down to where Irina was pointing and looked as if she were about to
faint with shock.

“That’s impossible!” Cassi shook her head.
“I can’t be an Esseni!”

“Why not?” asked Irina.

Cassi bit her lip. “I think someone would
have mentioned it to me before now. I’m not exactly a spring chicken!”

Tani laughed. “Calm down, Granny, and let
me concentrate.” She stood staring at Cassi intently, her eyes searching. Tani
sucked in a gasp. “Er, Cassi.” She paused as if trying to think of a way to
soften the bombshell. “I think you should know I’m also getting an aura reading
from you.”

“What?” shrieked Cassi, a heated blush in
her cheeks. “That’s even more impossible!”

“I wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t
been actively looking for it,” said Tani. “It is faint, but it’s there.”

Irina drew her brows together in confusion.
“What does that mean?” she asked. Tani winked at her as she gazed at Cassi’s
embarrassed face. “It means that our Cassiopeia has not only met but has been
in contact with her partner duality…close contact.” Irina was completely
bewildered now.

“The aura becomes stronger if you cross
paths with your partner duality but,” Tani said, stressing the next part, “the
Taijitu only manifests if the Esseni pairing kiss or have more intimate contact
of some kind.”

Irina gasped finally understanding. “Oh. So
that’s how you knew about Tyr and me after we first kissed at the police
station.” She looked at Cassi who was now pacing the room in agitation. “I
wondered how you knew.” More enlightenment as Irina pounced on Cassi, offended.
“You kept this really quiet, Cassi. Who have you been kissing? You usually tell
me everything.”

“I haven’t kissed anyone!” fumed Cassi,
still pacing.

“Maybe he kissed you?” said Tani.

Cassi frowned. “No way. I’ve been
abstaining from guys for a while now,” she said shaking her head.

“Think back,” urged Tani, “You must have
had a little lip action recently. Unless the Taijitu has been there awhile. You
wouldn’t have noticed it where it is.”

Cassi thought hard. “Oh my god!” she cried
so loudly that Irina could have sworn she saw a bulb light up above her head.
“It can’t be!”

“What!” cried Tani and Irina in unison.

“Antares!”

“Antares? No way!” said Tani. “You’ve known
him forever.”

“Yeah but I’ve never kissed him before.”

“Well, when did it happen?”

“On Ophiuchus, after the battle.”

“Oh yeah, I remember.” Tani smiled. “He was
kissing everyone.”

“Thanks for rubbing that in,” said Cassi.
“There’s got to be some mistake. I have no attraction to him whatsoever. He’s a
great guy, good-looking, but chemistry? Nada!”

“Well join the club!” laughed Tani. “Looks
like you’re one of us now!”

Cassi scowled. “This is unbelievable.
Usually potential Esseni are identified when young. I’m two thousand years old!
Surely my mother would have mentioned it before now?”

Irina couldn’t help laughing at Cassi’s
confusion. “Maybe you should ask her?” she said.

“Right,” said Cassi, “that’s it. I need to
get to Auriga. Mother-daughter conference.”

“We’re going anyway,” Irina reminded her,
“for the bonding ceremony.”

“Let’s get a move on then—no time to
waste!”

* * * * *

“But how can I be an Esseni?” Cassi stared
at her parents, utterly confused by their lack of reaction to her news. They
were in the family home on Auriga surrounded by familiar comforts from Cassi’s
childhood, yet everything appeared surreal to Cassi as she watched her parents
sitting impassively on the other side of the room. Her mother glanced
surreptitiously at her father’s face. “Mother!” Cassi looked accusingly at her.
“Did you know about this?”

Terra stood up and slowly walked to stand
in front of her. “Cassi.” She paused, taking hold of Cassi’s hands. “We did
know.” Cassi’s jaw dropped. They had known about this! And said nothing!

“For how long and why didn’t you tell me?”

Her father spoke. “Since you were a child,
but there was something unusual about your Esseni signature, something we’ve
never come across before.” Cassi frowned, eyes flicking between her parents.
“What do you mean? I don’t understand.”

“We knew you had the potential but we
couldn’t tell which essence you might be holding.”

“But that’s often the case,” said Cassi.
“We don’t yet know what essence Luc is holding.”

“True, but I expect you have some idea by
matching his signature with previous Esseni.”

“Well yes, but what’s so strange about
mine?”

“Your signature has no equivalent. We have
literally never seen anything like it before.”

“How is it that no one else noticed my
signature?” asked Cassi. It was odd. Surely someone would have mentioned it.
Terra pointed to the necklace Cassi always wore. “I gave you that necklace on
your eighth birthday.” Cassi nodded, remembering her delight in the small black
diamond-shaped pendant.

“It’s made from chemosh shell. Even a piece
that small can block an Esseni signature.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We didn’t want you to feel pressured—or to
be constantly looking over your shoulder for your partner duality.” Terra
paused. “We didn’t want it to affect your relationships—for you to feel you
couldn’t have relationships with others.”

Cassi drew her brows together. She
understood that her parents had been protecting her. She knew how hard it had
been for Tani knowing that there was someone out there that she was fated to be
with. Even so… “Do you still have no idea what essence I’m holding?”

Tellurus’ eyes flew to her mother’s again
and a strange look passed between them. “Tell her, Terra.”

“We have investigated your signature over
the years, eliminating all the dualities that have been identified. There is
really only one conclusion.”

“And that is?”

“You are perfect balance…Harmony. Your aura
has manifested as white-gold, Cassi. You hold the essence of Gaia herself.”
Cassi had never been so shocked. It was the most insane thing she’d ever heard.

“But…but that would mean my other half is
pure…Chaos!”

“I believe so,” replied her mother calmly.

“Who the hell is Chaos? It can’t be
Antares.”

“Why Antares?” asked Tellurus.

“Well he was the last person to kiss me, on
Ophiuchus, but it was just a quick ‘thank god you’re still alive kiss’ after a
battle.”

“Has he a Taijitu?” asked her father.

“I can’t check. He’s been sent on an
undercover mission.”

Tellurus took Cassi’s hand. “It’s unlikely
to be Antares,” he said. “I know him well enough and he’s never been identified
as a potential. But then it is also possible. If an Esseni dies, the essence
they hold will move on to someone else. It could be that Antares was a
potential but a very faint one.”

Cassi sighed in frustration. “But I haven’t
kissed anyone else recently.”

Her mother spoke. “You may have had the
Taijitu for longer than you think. Perhaps it was someone before Antares?”

Cassi flushed with embarrassment. What a
conversation to be having with your parents! “Mother, I really haven’t kissed
anyone in a long, long time.”

“How long?”

Cassi shrugged. Better get it over with. “A
few hundred years.”

Her mother’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh!
Are you sure? It must have been more recent than that. You would have noticed
it sooner if it had been there that long.”

“What do I do?” asked Cassi helplessly.

“I think the best thing is to continue as
if nothing has happened. Live your life as always, Cassi. If it’s meant to be,
it will happen.”

“But Chaos! That’s just…”

“Scary?”

“Crazy!”

“I know.” Her mother hugged her close. “But
Tyr is War and he’s not so bad, is he?”

“No he’s not, but he loves Irina. I mean he
really
loves her.”

“And who is to say that Chaos won’t love
you?”

“Ready?” Tyr turned his head and beheld the
best view in the universe. Irina. Gorgeous, beautiful, sexy Irina. Standing by
his side, her small hand in his, she beamed at him, her impish grin making his
heart skip as it always did whenever those molten amber eyes locked onto his.
That grin took his breath away. Every time. God only knew what he’d done to
deserve her, but he was never letting her go.

They were in the portal hall on Auriga
waiting to return to Vega, having completed the public part of the Realignment
ceremony. Now all that was left to complete Realignment and ensure the balance
of their essences was the final private bonding between them. And Tyr couldn’t
wait.

The last hour during the ceremony had been
torture, standing so close to Irina and her luscious curves but unable to
touch. The ceremony itself had been beautiful and emotional. Tyr had never felt
so close to a person in all his life. Had never expected to. After a lifetime
alone on the streets holding himself apart from others, never opening up fully,
even with Sal and his family, he had found the one person who could breach his
defenses. They had stood together, surrounded by friends and that was another
thing he had never expected. He suddenly had friends, people who were happy he
was alive, were glad he had survived and some like Borealis and now Antares who
even seemed to like him.

Irina could feel the permanent smile etched
on her face. In her wildest dreams she could not have imagined a more perfect
ceremony and Tyr; well he was just breathtaking. Even now, the butterflies in
her chest were causing that aching sensation as she gazed up at his strong
stubborn jaw, desperate for a taste of him. How did he have the power to melt
her bones like this? She forced herself to think other thoughts. There was no
way she was going to make fool of herself going through the starportal with
him, even if they were bonded now!

Swallowing, her throat dry, Irina focused
on her memories of the ceremony. It was something precious she would remember
forever. Her first glimpse of the ceremonial circle had been awe inspiring.

The circle sat, like most things on Auriga,
at the top of a high peak above the city of Magellania, open to the golden
light of the sun’s rays. Although it was a public ceremony, they had been told
to choose only eight people to stand with them as witnesses, including Tellurus
who was to officiate.

Shaped like an eight-spoked wheel, the
ceremonial circle was cut deep into the rock. The center of the wheel could be
reached only by accessing one of the eight spokes that formed bridges across
the gaping chasms in between. The inner circular floor of obsidian and white
marble carried the Taijitu symbol, the half-black, half-white design, sparkling
in the glow of the three Aurigan suns. The boundary edge was surrounded by a
circle of eight alternate black and white columns, crossed by lintels that
created a doorway to each of the bridges.

Two cylindrical plinths rose out of the
black and white circles that represented the yin and yang energies. Irina had
been led by Tellurus to the white half of the floor and told to place her
pendant on the black yin plinth. She was clothed in white, a form of balance,
representing the opposite yang part of herself.

Tyr stood across from her, magnificent in
black silk, a perfect complement to the inky darkness of his hair that had
lengthened and hung loosely, curling against broad shoulders. She watched, her
heart full with pride, as he removed his own pendant from around his neck and
laid it on the white yang plinth. How she longed to run her fingers through
those tousled locks while pressing soft kisses on his throat! She blinked to
focus her attention on the ceremony. Damn Tyr for being just too sexy!

Tellurus had taken his place at the
entrance to one of the bridges and Irina tried to focus on the seven chosen
witnesses, smiling at each of them as they filed across the remaining bridges
to stand for them. Cassiopeia, Luc, Merak, Terra, Cerri, Tegid and Tani.
Friends and relations. Family. Most important of all, Tyr, her love. Now her
life. Tellurus began.

“We meet within the circle that binds us
together to align the balance of all things. The universe is infinite and
precious containing the yin and yang of existence. Ten thousand things
carry yin and embrace yang. They achieve harmony by combining these forces. I
ask each witness here to swear in blood to the truth of this alignment.”

Tellurus then withdrew a small bowl and knife. He sliced the
knife across his palm curling his hand into a fist so that his blood dripped
cleanly into the container. The same process was repeated by each of the
witnesses as they mingled their own blood together, a symbol of unity.

Tyr and Irina then cut into their own palms. With one hand
they clasped their pendants over their respective plinths and then, reaching
across the space that divided them, each took the other’s bleeding hand, warm
blood mingling, sending electrical pulses shooting through their veins. The
connection was intense. Irina could feel the draw of Tyr’s blood, a magnet to
her soul. Tellurus walked to each plinth adding half the blood in his container
to the hands that held the pendants.

“Do you as Esseni of War and Peace also swear to the truth
of this alignment?”

“We so swear.”

“As yin so embraces yang and yang encircles yin, let the
truth be witnessed.”

At these words, Irina felt a tremendous surge of power
circulate through her, the electrical pulses that had tingled before now pulsed
with an indescribable fire that flamed white hot, lighting her up from the
inside. The heat radiated outward through her palm to her own pendant and
through the hand that held Tyr’s toward his. As the energy found its target,
the empty chamber of her crystal filled with a red essence that matched Tyr’s
own. The opposite took place in his, Irina’s blue essence taking the place of
the void.

The energy began to pulse and throb, creating ripples that
began a journey outward, radiating from the center of the circle, a continuous
oscillation spreading far beyond the confines of the ceremonial circle. Irina
watched in awe as the luminescence spiraled away, washing waves across the
Aurigan landscape. Tellurus had told her it would continue its path, extending
across the whole galaxy to realign the essence of War and Peace, now
intermingled and joined as one in a continuous relationship of balance and
harmony.

They each took their own pendant and placed it around the
neck of the other, knowing that the final affirmation of their joining was to
be a much more private affair.