Cinderfella 2: A New Life - 51. Chapter 51

I pulled Seth from the others while he gathered himself. “I saw her, too.”

Seth grinned nodding. “She was beautiful, wasn’t she?”

I nodded kissing him. “She really was.”

That’s when Christian came in and froze looking at Seth’s tear stained face and my comforting him, Ryan’s look of uncertainty…then saw Demetrius and Lukus. Christian’s eye narrowed. “Okay, what’d I miss?” He looked at Demetrius and nodded. “Hello, Demetrius.”

Yannick came closer to Christian. “You know him.” It wasn’t a question.

Christian nodded. “We’ve deal with each other in the past.” He looked at Lukus. “I’m not really familiar with him.”

Lukus smiled. “Lukus.” He held his hand out to Christian.

Christian shook Lukus’ hand. “I assume you’re like Demetrius since you’re here and no one else would be allowed in here.”

Lukus nodded with a smile. “I’m guilty.”

Christian looked at Seth who was still remembering. “Is something wrong?”

I smiled at Christian. “Seth just saw his mother.” I explained smiling as I held Seth’s hand. “I did, too.”

Christian’s eyes widened, but he knew Demetrius could do impossible things. “Oh.”

Then I looked at Demetrius. “I know you’re supposed to be a child of Lilith, but you’re immune to most…if not all illnesses children of Eve get. Is there something in your blood we can use?”

Demetrius shrugged. “I suppose there is, but I doubt you could successfully add it to yours. Just as we can’t have children with the children of Eve. I’m sure our blood kinds would not be compatible.”

Dr. Warren frowned. “Can we at least see it?”

Demetrius shrugged again. “Sure.” He held his hand up. “Be gentle, please.”

Ryan came over. “Just a little is needed.” He brought up a vial of liquid. “This is the best cleanser, so hold still.” He put some on a clean cloth and cleaned Demetrius’ finger, the pulled a needle out of liquid I assumed was the same he’d cleaned with and jabbed Demetrius’ finger.

“Ow!” Demetrius yelped. “That hurt!”

I grinned. “Don’t be a baby.” Demetrius looked at me crossly.

We all pulled up our sleeves to show where we’d all being stuck so we had little sympathy. What Demetrius had was a little stick to the finger. I thought, that was a very sensitive spot and it did hurt more.

Demetrius looked and nodded. “Well, yes…you’ve all done your parts. I’ll do mine.”

We didn’t know what to expect when we saw Demetrius’ blood, but it really looked…just as ours did.

Dr. Warren shrugged. “I don’t see where you’re any different than other men.”

Demetrius smiled with a shrug. “Hey, I just know there is a difference. The problem is you can’t see close enough.”

Ryan’s eyes widened. “There’s something smaller than this?”

Demetrius chuckled. “Of course there is. Just when you think you’ve seen as close as you can, you invent something to look closer and see there’s so much more! Ain’t God great!?”

Yannick smiled. “I’ll have to agree with you there.”

Then Ryan explained how his needles were made. They weren’t completely iron. Well, they were, but they added other alloys. That made this new metal easier to keep clean and thinner and much stronger. He was going to show our metal works how it was done and how soaking the needles in the solution kept them clean to use.

“Metals are the one thing we do best.” Yannick said proudly.

I grinned, patting him on the shoulder. “Don’t sell yourselves short. We wouldn’t have a chance without your knowledge.”

Ella, I found out hadn’t been too enthusiastic about meeting the Creid, but finally consented to lunch with them. It was after meeting Yannick and Ryan she was pleasantly surprised. And Yannick was at his charming best.

That night when we returned to Royal Valley we again had dinner, Ryan went to spend time with Darrin and Yannick spent time with Delta as she had concluded her duties for the day.

Seth and I got ready for our evening bath as we started by heating the water. Seth had been a little withdrawn most of that day, which I understood. It was later in the steaming water I had to ask him.

“Are you remembering more?” I asked quietly.

Seth seemed to be thinking about something and looked up surprised I’d spoken. “What?” Then he smiled shaking his head. “Not really. I keep thinking about my mother. I can’t understand why I couldn’t remember her. She loved me and I loved her. How could I forget her?”

I moved from the side of the tub I was on to sit next to Seth. “Lukus said he opened a gate. There are going to be things very unpleasant. That’s why you blocked them out. You were too young.”

Seth nodded. “But I remember her now.” He smiled and chuckled. “I can even remember her voice and her smell.”

I chuckled lightly. “The great thing is I do too.” I stroked the side of Seth’s face. “And your father! He was so young!” I looked at Seth seeing much of King Alexander in his face. “You look a lot like him, both you and Sam.”

Seth chuckled. “Well, we are his sons.” He shrugged at the logic of his statement.

“But to see Sam before he was even born!” I grinned patting his abdomen.

Seth looked surprised. “You really did see them.”

“Of course!” I said smiling. “She had this long dark brown hair, Sam got most of that. You got King Alexander’s black hair. I’d say she was about seven months pregnant then.”

Seth nodded. “I remember that.” He smiled enjoying that we could talk about it together.

We again made love and then cleaned up. It was later that night when Seth suddenly screamed! I shot up turning to him immediately.

“Seth!” I called as Seth screamed more, his eyes wide, but not seeing where he was and then he looked at me. His eyes focused on me and began to tear as he just whimpered. “I was having….I don’t know…a nightmare? But it was a memory, I saw the flames! I remember the heat!” He said in an agonizingly pitiful voice. “I remember the fire.”

It was only a matter of minutes before we heard the pounding on our door.

“Seth! Erik!” I heard Yannick’s voice. “Is everything alright?”

I looked at the door. “Come in, we’re fine.” Yannick wouldn't be satisfied until saw and confirmed we were alright.

Yannick came in with his sword in hand ready to take on whatever enemy was here. He was bare chested and had thrown on pants quickly, but he was ready to take on whatever threat!

“Seth just had another memory.” I explained. “This one was very bad.” I pulled Seth to me putting my arms around him.

Yannick looked around quickly and then turned back. “Oh, okay.” He smiled at us. “We were told more memories would come.” He walked over to Seth. “But I see you’re well taken care of. I’ll leave you to Erik. I’ll let the guards downstairs know what happened.” He touched Seth on the shoulder and left.

I pulled Seth and myself back down on the bed. “Easy, Seth. I can only imagine what you went through and that wouldn’t even come close I know, but I’m here. I’ll never leave you. I’ve got you.” I spooned up behind Seth as he pulled my arm closer to his chest.

“It was so hot.” Seth cried softly. “Worse than I think the fires of Hell are. She died! But I never saw her. It was horrible!”

What could I say? There was no comfort I could give him in words, but I remember thinking, that is one memory I was glad not to share with him, but if it took some of his pain away, I would gladly do it. All I could do is hold him.

Seth was very quiet the next morning. He didn’t seem to be interested in anything, not even his morning coffee. The only thing I could do was touch him to show I was still there any time he needed me, but he was dealing with the memories alone.

Back in A’Dore, we began getting more of the bloodliquid. Volunteers were guards and palace staff, who all were uncertain when they saw the needles. Even the toughest guard was a little wary upon seeing the needle and size! It was a needle, but even the toughest was leery of it! The Spinner was duplicated and sped up the process having several now. Then we had to give our bloodliquids again to add to the ones given. Now, for those of us who’d had it before, we knew how it felt and did it a little more readily than before. The problem was we couldn’t give but so much. It would go bad even with the cooler.

Ryan put the new batches of bloodliquid in the cool storage. “We’ll test some before we give it, but I’d say we should have a working batch soon. We can start giving it to more people.”

Seth wrinkled his brow. “We’re doing this for children, too, right?”

Ryan nodded. “I think parents that have the children while they have the little warriors in them already, will pass them on by birth, but we need to check to be sure. But we know it will wear out in a few decades. Will it pass from mother to child? We’ll see.”

“But children have such small veins.” Seth said a little worried. “It will hurt when we give them the warriors!”

Ryan nodded. “Yes, it will, but it will save their lives.”

I frowned. “But what about babies? Their veins are like human hairs.”

Ryan chuckled. “Yep, except for one.” He tapped his head. “On the head is a nice, large vein we can access. They won’t need much of the bloodliquid and those little warriors will be able to reproduce. I’ve done it before. It can be done.”

Seth nodded. “But we’ll have to take this to Blethos’ capital. How will we do that and keep this bloodliquid cool? It’s a few days journey.”

I shrugged. “We’ll have to pack the liquid in a container and pack around the container with ice.” I touched Seth’s arm. “But we should deliver this. You need to explain what this is and why to Sam.”

“I’m sure the palace in Blethos has a Dr. Warren of their own.” Yannick said. “We’ll bring a Seer, show him what we’re fighting and how to make more of these warriors.” He looked at Ryan. “And we have to bring this back to Creid.”

Ryan nodded. “Well, when you return, they’ll have a source for the warriors. You. You’ve been involved in making more and know how. It’ll be easier.”

I sat on a high bench. “But Len Na will know after we start. She will have people working for her. They’ll try to stop us.”

Yannick nodded. “We’ll have to be ready.”

It was only a couple days before the batches were ready as we saw the little warriors had multiplied in vast numbers and then we started to give it to the people that worked the palace in A’Dore for no other reason than they were here and so were we. Those same guards who gave their bloodliquid now wasn’t too sure about getting stuck again. I explained that the same thing had happened to me, Seth and Christian and this was to save their lives. Then we had to deal with Ella.

“I don’t understand, Christian.” Ella said to her husband. “You’re fighting a disease we don’t even have yet?”

Christian nodded. “Yes. One of those...godparents out there is mad at the whole human race and is sending an illness to wipe us out!” He brought her to a Seer. “Look at what we have and what we’ve done.”

Ella looked at the blood and what else we’d found and the little warriors.

“This way it may stop the illness or at least allow us to recover if we do get it.” Christian was pleading with her to understand.

Ella couldn’t deny what she saw, but turned to Christian. “And you’re putting these in our children?”

Christian nodded. “I have to or they’ll die. They’ll die, Ella! We have no choice. This is the only way.”

Ella nodded. “I see.” She looked at some of the needles in a container of the cleansing liquid. “We’ll have problems.” She shook her head. “Many people won’t understand and will refuse to believe and won’t allow it.”

Christian nodded. “If we explain what will happen if they don’t…”

“They may not understand. Many are very simple and uneducated.” Ella stressed. “I see what’s involved. I’ve seen what’s in the blood and I was terrified I’d lose you when you first got sick, but until it happens to people, some won’t understand. They can’t!”

Christian nodded. “I thought of that.” He sighed sadly. “I can’t make them. If they refuse, they will die. Even if they consent after getting sick, I’m not sure there will be enough time.”

“But they may have children!” Ella said in terror.

“I can’t make them allow their children to be protected. They will die, too.”

Ella gasped at the horror of the idea.

“Please don’t allow our children to die. They must have these warriors.” Christian begged.

Ella shook her head. “No.” Then she sat down. “Not unless I show them I did it, too.” She held her arm out. “Put those little warriors in me first.”

Christian smiled kissing Ella deeply. “That’s my queen. I love you, Ella.”

And she was a queen! She watched as Ryan brought the needle and Pusher to her and inserted it carefully after cleaning her arm. Her expression never changed. Now we had to deal with my nieces and nephews! I cringed with what I witnessed with them, knowing I would face the same with Toby and Dennis. Thomas was growing up just as his father had. I knew he’d be a heartbreaker as he got older and it was beginning to show now. He only had a couple of years before he was a teenager and all the drama that went with those years. But to show how grown up he was, he bared his arm and took it. Although he didn’t want to see it. Ada and Ana cried. It hurt! But Christian and Ella were right there, telling how much they loved them, how this would keep them from getting sick and comforted them as they were given the warriors. There were tears from Christian, too! It had to be agony hurting your children, but knowing if you didn’t they’d die. He was going to need major comforting after this! Then there was Edward! You’d think we were cutting his arm off!! This time neither Ella or Christian wanted to be involved more than comfort afterwards, Seth gave him the warriors telling Edward he was brave and a good boy and he swore he’d never hurt him, but this was to protect him because Seth loved him. I doubted if Edward cared about all that. It hurt! But, Seth was his favorite uncle, remember? More of people Dr. Warren trusted were shown how and they began giving the warriors to staff’s and guards’ families.

I sighed as Seth and I looked out in the palace courtyard where members of family belonging to the staff were having the warriors inserted and there were those after seeing what was happening, refused to have them inserted running off with the guard or staff chasing after them to get them to comply. “This is a mess.”

Seth nodded. “It sure is.”

I turned to Seth. “If Len Na didn’t know, she’ll know now.”

Seth nodded again. “I don’t think we can get to the whole world in time.” We watched as a woman was about to get hers inserted and just as she was sitting, she started screaming and pulling away. We didn’t have to hear to know what happened. Her husband, a guard thrusted his arm out telling her he had them inserted. But she screamed anyway and tried to get away, he grabbed her back as he slapped her to stop her panic, then grabbed her in a hug as he talked to her…no doubt telling her he wasn’t going to lose her and if she didn’t she would die. He kissed her gently and I knew he was pleading as she sat down. The man that had the needle and pusher ready cleaned her arm and inserted the needle.

“We may not.” I shook my head. “But, if I understand strategy, and I had to learn it…part of learning to be a leader…” I chuckled as Seth’s eyes rolled on that one. “….the attack will be started here. Blethos will be next.” I shrugged. “And probably in Royal Valley.”

“It’s still morning, so we better get back to Royal Valley and start with our boys and then the rest of Royal Valley, but we have to get this to Sam. I won’t lose him.”

I pulled Seth into an embrace. “We’ll do our best.” I kissed him. “We’d better go back.”

And it was just as I suspected it would be. Toby watched as we told him and signed what we were doing and why to make sure he understood. He seemed to understand, but he didn’t like the idea of getting stuck. Who did? Now Dennis heard and immediately said…

“No!”

I knelt down in front of Dennis, this was enough. I took him by the arms firmly and looked directly in his face. “This has got to happen, Dennis. If we don’t, you will not only get very sick, you will die. I won’t let you die. Say no all you like, but this will happen!”

Dennis looked at Seth. I had never talked that seriously to him before.

“It will happen.” Seth nodded. “We’ll make it happen. You won’t die.”

I don’t know if it was the tone or the fact that both his parents were united in this, his protests stopped.

I smiled. “Daddy had it done and so have I.” I showed my arm where it was healing. “We’ll get this done and over with.”

Like Edward, you’d think we were taking both of their arms off! But Seth and I both inserted the warriors in our sons. Once that was done, we comforted both, rocking and rubbing their backs to calm them down. I told Dennis again and again that I loved him and couldn’t let something worse happen to him. That I had to do it. I was sorry it hurt, but it was done and please forgive me.

“Kitty.” Dennis said in a pitiful whimper.

I looked down at Dennis puzzled. “What?”

Dennis looked at me sniffing. “I want Kitty.”

Toby raised his head from Seth and signed. We found a stray kitty at school. He’s just a baby. Doris was picking me up and had Dennis with her. Dennis and Kitty love each other.

I looked at Seth, who merely shrugged. “We’ve been gone a lot. I had no idea.” He smiled kissing the top of Toby’s head. “Do we want a cat in the house? Arthur hated animals.”

I chuckled. “Well, that’s all the more reason to go get Kitty!” I held my hand up to Dennis. ”But he needs to be checked out. He could be sick.”

Seth frowned. “Who does that for animals?”

I got up kissing Seth. “And who has a farm we know and has animals? It’s their livelihoods.”

Seth nodded with a grin. “Garth and Bent.”

I pulled Dennis up, kissing his cheek. “We’ll go get Kitty and take him to Garth’s and Bent’s. If he says Kitty is healthy and not sick, of course you can have Kitty.” I looked at Seth. “If for no other reason than to tell them about Len Na and to get their brood in.”

I watched my son’s smile weakly. He had been traumatized! A kitten would just cover a little of that trauma, so what was the problem?

“What if Kitty isn’t healthy?” Seth muttered to me softly.

I looked at Seth frowning. “One crisis at a time, Seth.”

“I hope Bent and Garth can understand.” Seth said a little hopelessly.

“If we can’t convince them, we don’t stand a chance with anyone else.”

We rode to the school on horseback. Both Dennis and Toby loved riding on horses. Sitting in front of me and Seth, they rode happily, but when we got to their school, it took a few minutes before Dennis looked and saw what his heart desired.

“Kitty!” He pointed from where I held Dennis.

Dismounting I looked to see a little black cat. Not just a little black, but solid black! Maybe eight weeks old. I looked at Seth, but put Dennis down who went right to Kitty and Kitty didn’t back away and wasn’t scared. He knew Dennis. “Pick him up and let’s go to Garth’s.”

He did saying something soft to the little cat as he stroked the fur. I tucked Kitty in a satchel where Kitty could look and see where we were going, but not get out.

Garth and Bent lived a little away from Royal Valley, but it was easier as we didn’t have a wagon.

We arrived and saw Garth out in the field getting ready to come in for the afternoon. He looked up and waved to us and I heard him shout Bent’s name and then pointed toward us. I felt a little guilty having not been out here. The house where Garth, Bent and three children was charming. It was a house built by necessity. What clearly had been one or two rooms was now several, but Carrie, Garth’s deceased wife had fixed it with the woman’s touch and since Garth married Bent, there were additions made by two males, but it had a definite charm!

Bent came out waving as he wiped his hands on a cloth.

“Hi!” Bent greeted happily. “You guys haven’t been out here, have you?”

I shook my head. “I only knew where you were. I’m sorry we waited so long.” I hugged him. “But this is a little important.” I dug Kitty out of the satchel. “It seems Dennis has formed an attachment to Kitty.”

Bent drew back a little in…fear? “A black cat?”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, come on, Bent! Don’t be so superstitious! It’s just a kitten!” I held it up as the kitten to my face where nuzzled close to either smell my nose or just to get a scent. “It’s really a sweet cat.”

Bent frowned. “But it’s a black cat!”

Garth came in smiling. “Hi, Seth! Erik!” He saw our boys. “Dennis, Toby.” Then he frowned. “You’re here because…?”

Seth nodded. “Two reasons. First there’s him.” He pointed to the cat. “Or her, I didn’t look at the plumbing. Dennis loves the cat and we wanted to know if it was safe to keep him…or her.”

Garth nodded taking the cat carefully. “Did Bent react badly to him?” Then he smiled looking over the cat. “And it is a him, by the way.” He looked at the cat closely.

“But it’s a black cat, Garth!” Bent repeated not understanding why no one else had a problem with the idea.

Garth rolled his eyes as he continued to look Kitty over. “He had a tough time with Whiskers, too. And she’s not even black!” He pointed to a gray cat on the floor who was interested in the new cat in her house. He handed Kitty back to me. “He looks fine, but this could have waited for when we came in town. You rode out here to have me look at a cat?”

“No.” Seth shook his head. “Can we sit down?”

Bent nodded and waved to a room with a place to sit. Sitting Dennis down to play with Kitty as Toby tried to coax Whiskers over to him. That’s when we explained about what happened in A’Dore and how we discovered the little creatures…then I explained about Len Na.

Garth frowned after we told them to whole story. “So, this…whomever…is going to send sickness to the human race!? Why?” He asked loudly.

“I’ll explain more, but believe me when I say, the threat is real. I’m getting Kitty because we had to protect Dennis and Toby! Kitty is compensation to Dennis.” I pulled Dennis’ sleeve up to show where we’d stuck him. “It’s going to happen. We both value you as friends.” I stressed. “And with all the strangeness that’s happened in Royal Valley, do you doubt it could happen?”

Seth pulled Toby’s sleeve up to show his. “We came to you first.” Seth said seriously. “I’ve got to go to Blethos Capital and get Sam and Terry to do it and their children. I won’t lose them and we don’t want to lose either of you. We plan to tell Zek, Gabe, Curt, Daryl…everyone! This is going to happen.”

Bent looked at Garth. His mind was working, but he looked at Garth’s face as Garth tried to accept what was…unbelievable. Bent looked back. “This is just so….impossible!”

I nodded. “But it is. If you come by the manor, bring the children, we’ll show you what we’ve got. You’ll see for yourselves. If for nothing but so you can say you’ve seen what we’re against and convince others to go along with it.”

Garth nodded. “We’ll be there at first light.” He said like it was decided.

“Garth!” Bent said cautiously.

“Bent!” Garth said back suddenly. “These two have been our friends for several years! They’ve never led us wrong! They stood against charges brought before the king, Seth’s own brother, putting their lives on the line when others like us were brought up on charges for loving each other! They got the law taken away allowing us to marry! Erik helped with the measles…”

Bent kissed Garth if to just stop Garth from going on. “I know that, honey, but I was worried about the kids!”

Garth smiled and bumped his head on Bent’s. “We have to get this done. I can’t lose them or you.” He put his arm around Bent. “We’ll be there at first light.”