"I am sorry. For many, many things," he nodded to Roff and me before he disappeared.
"Holy crap," I stared at Roff in shock.
* * *
"Look, there's Mom." Nissa bumped Trik's elbow and he turned to stare. Ry and Tory, sitting next to Trik at the dinner table, turned as well.
"At least she's feeling better," Ry sighed as Queen Lissa entered the dining hall, closely followed by Roff. Someone else was with them.
"Oh, my gosh." Nissa scooted her chair back hastily.
"Nissa?"
He was beautiful. At least as handsome as his father, if not more so. Tall, too, with wings pulled tightly against his back. Toff's dark hair was brushed back from his forehead and his face split in a wide grin as he caught sight of Nissa. In seconds, she was running toward him, shouting his name. He caught her up and whirled her in a circle, making her laugh with joy.
"Well, I'll be filled with damnation," Ry exclaimed. "Do we know why this happened? Do we know how this happened?" Ry turned and stared at Tory and Trik.
"No idea, bro," Tory grinned.
"It's wonderful," Trik breathed. "Absolutely amazing."
"Your mother says Nissa may not date until she's fifteen, and will only be allowed to go on supervised dates until she's seventeen," Erland Morphis sat beside his son. "And if I know young people at all, everyone involved will immediately find a way around all that."
"I heard Zellar got away," Tory said, changing the subject.
"You heard correctly. But I have information that even your mother doesn't have yet," Erland added. "I'll tell her later. She's not the only one who saw Griffin before he left."
"What did he say?" Tory asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
"That Zellar is not her problem. That someone else will come who will make Zellar a target. Lissa has to put chasing Zellar out of her mind."
"Mom probably won't like that," Ry observed.
"Well, I have to convince her. To me, at least, it all makes a weird sort of sense. Look—Nissa's playing with Toff's wings."
Ry, Tory and Trik turned in their seats to see Toff's smile as Nissa carefully lifted a wing away from his body.
* * *
Lissa's Journal
Once Erland presented his case, I agreed with him. If Trik ever learned who his father was, it wouldn't be a good idea if I were the one who handed Zellar his death. I heard through some of Erland's less than savory contacts on Campiaa that Zellar had given up his idea of revenge against me and disappeared from everybody's radar. I suppose that after he'd witnessed Gren and the Ra'Ak's deaths, he wanted no part of me anymore. Norian was still tracking him, but the trail had gone cold. I pushed the thought of it away as my pregnancy progressed. I failed to understand, too, how Gavin still found me attractive after I was eight-and-a-half months along and waddling like a duck. Some of the others were disappointed when they learned who the father was, but I had a long life before me. They all had a chance, I think.
When my due date came and went, and then Christmas came and went, I started to worry.
"The child will come, have no fear," Karzac announced one morning. He was checking on me every day, which annoyed me no end.
"Gavin gets to carry the next one," I muttered.
"Lissa, the next one could be someone else's. That's a long list of mates you have," Karzac pointed out with a wicked grin.
"You know, you may be getting that sense of humor anyway," I tapped his chest. "Uh-oh."
"What is it?"
"Hey, you're the doctor here. I think I just wet the bed."
"Lissa, your water broke. We may have a baby before the day's out."
"Crap. And I wanted pancakes for breakfast."
* * *
Lissa's Journal
Seven hours later, Gavril Tybus Montegue made his way into the world. I may have threatened Gavin several times while I was in labor, but he ignored my offer to remove certain parts of his body when a contraction hit. I screamed and grunted and pushed, although Karzac only requested the pushing part. Karzac just shook his head at my yelling—apparently, he'd heard similar statements for more than fifteen thousand years.
I slept after holding my son for a little while, until someone touched my cheek.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi."
"How's the baby?"
"Fine. Has a good set of lungs, not unlike his father. Looks like when they want to yell, that's exactly what happens."
"Knowing Gavin, I am not surprised."
"Me either, actually."
"I heard that another one showed up." He changed the subject abruptly. I wasn't surprised about that, either.
"Yeah. That's what Belen says, anyway."
"No way to tell who?"
"Don't even know the sex," I sighed, struggling to sit up. He and I were connected, all right. Had always been connected. I lifted an eyebrow at my great-uncle. "You mean you don't know either?" I stared at him.
"We aren't supposed to know." He raked fingers through light-brown hair. "We're supposed to find one another, though, when the time comes."
"Well, I guess the time hasn't come yet," I pointed out. "Griffin did say that he was sent from the future, so this one could have bent time to get here. Come on, you know we're not prepared right now. And the third one hasn't shown up, yet."
"I guess you're right," he grinned.
I just want to go on record, too, and say that when one of the Mighty grins, it's like turning on the sun during a really dark day. Who knew, too, that at the end, I'd not only know one of the Mighty, I'd be related to him, too—at least in a corporeal sense. I grinned right back at him.
The End