New Everything

[Maira]

The scene that greeted Alice when Leo finally set her back on her feet quickly subdued her. Instead of trying to bolt, she practically melted back into Leo at the sight of a very angry custos with a drawn sword pressed against her husband's throat. When the custos with the sword turned to look at her and then asked Titus, who she had only briefly glimpsed before, if she were his sister-in-law, Alice turned to look at the older man as he hovered over a woman she didn't know. Over Titus's shoulder, Alice saw her brother and sister and wondered why they were here, and just what exactly was going on.

When Titus answered affirmatively that she was indeed Alice La Serre, her attention was drawn back to him and the man with the sword who then addressed her directly. The words that came from the man's mouth left Alice stunned. Was Petros really trying to claim that Ari wasn't his?! Sure, he looked a fair amount more like her family than his but the resemblance was still there.

Once she shock wore off, Alice didn't bother to stop her gut reaction. Sure it was partially fueled by an enraged lioness, but she was partially encouraging her rise to the surface to defend the legitimacy of her son. Before Leo could stop her, Alice surged out of his loosened grip straight at Petros and the sword-wielding man. As she ran she growled out at her husband, "Ari is the -only- child you will ever beget, you lying son of a bastard!" When she finally reached the two men, Alice threw a punch first at Petros's face and then took a swipe with claw-tipped fingers at his nether-regions to relieve him of the ability to father more children.

*****

After their sister's arrival at the house, and before she charged at her husband, Adeline had taken Aldric's cell phone and left the room to make a call. She could see this wasn't going to end well and her father needed to be present to take Alice home when it was over.

A few minutes later, Adeline was greeting her father at the door and showing him to the room where all the commotion was coming from. When they walked in, the man who'd had the sword had sheathed it but was holding Alice away from a now bloodied Petros. Quickly she looked at Aldric, whose eyes were wide, and she thought she hinted a bit of pride in addition to the obvious surprise. She quickly went to her brother, but their father made his way past the man and two women who had brought Alice to the La Serre house.

*****

Upon entering the La Serre house and finding his youngest daughter in the embrace of a man he knew by sight and reputation to be a deadly custos warlord, Corin wanted to rush at the man and demand he release her. But then he saw Petros on the floor bleeding and he slowed himself. Let the bastard bleed. If he was accusing Alice of infidelity then he deserved to rot for all Corin cared.

He did still make his way toward Alice and Lord Darius, but with more confidence in his ability to not lose his cool. As he walked past a man and two women he realized that they must've been the ones that brought Alice because one of the women was holding Ari. He looked directly at the woman and smiled warmly before telling her softly, "Keep him safe, things might get strained." There was a question in her eyes, but Corin turned and closed the now short distance to Alice and Lord Darius.

Holding out his hand in greeting, Corin introduced himself. "Its a pleasure to meet you Lord Darius. I am Corin Bellamy, a minor lord beholden to the La Serre clan and Alice's father." Darius shook his hand, releasing Alice in the process and Corin told her to go to Ari which she did without hesitating.

Once his youngest child was out of harm's way, Corin's demeanor changed from pleasant and warm to cool and business-like. He also turned from Darius to Petros, and declared,"Accusing my daughter of infidelity without any proof, throwing her out of your home and shaming her enough to be scared to return to mine, and leaving bruises on her are all grounds for annulment of your marriage to her." Then he turned to Titus and requested just that, an annulment between the two youngest children of the two houses.

*****

Petros, the bleeding from his broken nose finally slowing, sputtered and growled bidding the cheating wench and her illegitimate usurping bastard good riddance. He wanted nothing more to do with her and was immensely relieved that the bastard that had been holding him at sword-point had managed to catch her before she damaged more than his nose and his pride.

*****

When Titus granted the request, first with a nod and then verbally, Corin sighed with relief and smiled. Knowing that Alice and Ari were safe, and that there would never be a more opportune time, Corin then asked Titus, "As Ari's uncle in both name and blood, and as the leader of the La Serre House and heir to the Bellamy House, which name shall he bear?"

Titus looked very confused. So did everybody else in the room.

It was finally Aldric who broke the silence. He had come forward to stand by his father and was looking at Titus with a knowing smile. "Unlike the La Serre House, the inheritance of the Bellamy title passes directly to the oldest son, legitimate or otherwise. Everybody has always thought that was me, but father told me the truth so that when you inherited I wouldn't be surprised."

Corin thought for certain that if Titus got any more confused that smoke might very well start coming out of his ears. To clear things up, he added to Aldric's statement, "After your older brother Josse was born and your mother had a suitable heir, she eventually found love with a man promised to another woman. She was already married, I was going to be, so we didn't bother making formal arrangements of our own. You were the result of our pairing. As was lady Genesis, though she came along after I was finally wed to Alice's mother."

The silence in the room was deafening.

[Demeter]

Genesis blinked and glanced around the circle of people. She smirked, just a little, at the befuddled look on Titus’ face and turned to look at her husband. “This is what this feels like.”

Please that Genesis was feeling well enough to make jokes, Darius stroked her cheek. “Not quite; I always knew who my father was. It’s the children I keep losing,” he said and turned to Corin. “Well done on concealing their parentage.”

Titus glanced around, his brain struggling to come to terms on the truth of his parentage as well as the news that he had yet another estate that he’d inherit. “Fuck. No!” was his response to that little tidbit of information. “Thanks but no thanks. I don’t need or want another estate. I’m already planning on giving this one to my cousin.”

Genesis shook her head. “Titus,” she hissed and smacked him with a wing. “That is not how you refuse to inherit what is yours by blood. My apologies, Lord Corin, but my brother’s manners seem to have faded without Mother being present. Please, is there any way for him to grant the inheritance to another blood, male relative?”

****


Leo ignored the drama surrounding the Alati and went over to Alice. With a growl to the bleeding idiot on the floor, he pulled the young mother away and urged her to sit. A wave of his hand had his daughter bringing little Ari over. “Please, sit and take care of your son. No one is going to harm him now. It also seems that your family will take you in. There’ll always be room in at the Haven Pride.”

[Maira]

Alice found it quite easy to ignore all the inheritance chat going on between her new and old family members, her world was spinning and she just needed to breathe and snuggle her son. When he was finally brought to her, she pulled him close and breathed in his scent from his hair. There was nothing that soothed her more than her son.

When Leo spoke to her about Haven, and how there would always be room for her, she didn't even look up from Ari to ask, "Can we stay there anyway?" It wasn't something she had to think about, she knew that she and Ari would be safe there and cared for. When it took some time for Leo to respond, Alice finally looked up from her son's red-gold curls. The look of mild surprise that she caught on Leo's face before he smoothed his appearance made Alice smile.

"You can say no, Leo. Its fine," she finally told the older man when he still didn't answer. Then she continued, "Its just, if Ari is what I think he is, then we'll need to be around lions. I know I certainly do, because I have no idea what to do with this other part of me..." Her voice trailed off and she waited uncertainly for Leo to give her some sort of answer.

*****

Corin laughed at Titus's reaction to being informed he was heir to another clan. And laughed even harder when Genesis smacked her older brother with her wing. After Genesis apologized for Titus, Corin just grinned and answered her, "If he doesn't want it, he first has to accept it and then will it to somebody else. The person needs to be a blood relative to the house however. And they have to be male. At this juncture, that would leave Aldric or Ari as I have no other sons or grandsons at this juncture and I was an only child so I have no brothers or nephews either."

[Demeter]

Titus looked towards his newly discovered half-brother. “It is yours. I’ll sign or do whatever but this is yours. Heck, this one isn’t even mine. Josse is alive, you know. Its even been suggested that Mother still lives.”

That, of course, gathered attention of the yelling sort. Genesis, pushing her overly attentive husband aside, shouted everyone to silence. “The Tree of La Serre has indications that my brother and mother survived whatever murder attempt was done. More so, Josse is the highest ranked of his deity, like Darius is to Hades. His daughter, Dovie, guards the Staff and she has never indicated that it has abandoned Josse. My brother, at the very least, is out there.”

That, of course, warranted a trip to the courtyard for everyone to view the La Serre’s interactive family tree. The engraving of Titus and Genesis’s mother’s name was glowing, however faintly, the white-blue of the clan. Wherever she was, the lady still lived in some manner. Josse’s name was pulsing with strong colors. Genesis tilted her head the side to observe it. “That’s new. It hasn’t done that before, has it?”

Titus, head tilted in the opposite direction, also observed the tree. “No, that’s new. Never seen it before. That’s also new,” he said pointing at a blank space on the wall. The siblings watched, heads still tilted, as names started appearing on the marble. They raised identical brows as first Leo’s name appeared and was then linked to their brother’s name. As one they turned to stare at the Lion in question.

Leo shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t overly involved in Alati politics and had no knowledge of why his name was being linked to the apparently alive Josse. “I have no idea and that’s not the only new thing,” he said while pointing at the wall.

The siblings turned back to the wall, watching as new connections were formed with Corin’s clan. Brows were raised again as a line linked Alice to Josse. It was Darius, coming up behind his wife to embrace her and rest his head atop hers, who announced their next steps. “Call Dovie and tell her to bring the staff. I do believe we have founds two thirds of the SoulShine triad,” he said with a glance at the two Lion hybrids.

***

Leo, liked the others, waited for the young woman named Dovie to arrive. While he waited, ignoring the drama created by lost heirs and newly found connections, he sat with Alice and little Ari. No doubt this Petros character would seek some sort of retaliation - he seemed the sort who enjoyed revenge. With Alice as the perpetrator of his current condition (he groaned and adjusted his position on the couch at the thought of the man’s injuries), the Lioness would surely be a target.

He might prefer peace to violence but that didn’t mean he was a weakling. Leo desired to handle confrontations without devolving into physical fights but he was a Lion and had the brute strength to back up his words. If Petros came for Alice, he’d find himself on the sharp end of claws.

Though it seemed she’d be welcomed into either house, Leo extended the invitation to remain at The Haven Pridelands. Somehow, they were stuck together. It was Alice who’d explained, with some grumbling, just what a SoulShine Triad was. He wasn’t sure he liked the idea; especially if this Josse guy was missing and not quite presumed dead. That had to be bad news.

[Demeter]

Dovie leSerre arrived on the estate under the same manner she’d once been hustled off it. Her uncle had called in the early afternoon and asked her to bring the staff to the big house. With portal travel, it only took moments to hop from the village in the french alps to the main residence but she wasn’t taking any chances. There was a reason she’d once been hustled off the property, after all.

Grandpere might have been dead, and good riddance, but there were others who carried on with his blood purity filth. And she was the defacto heir to the leSerre clan; not that she wanted it. She had enough issues running the woman’s clinic up in the Alps; she did not need or want to add running a clan into the mix. She was also presumed dead but anyone with eyes could see her name still alive on the family tree. That bit of archaic magic didn’t lie.

But Uncle had called and asked her to bring the staff. Supposedly, two-thirds of the missing SoulShine triad had been found and there was really only one way to test for this. So, she’d finished out her day, gathered the staff from its hiding place and headed out. She arrived after midnight, going ‘round the back and letting herself in through the kitchen. Uncle had told her about the fiasco prior to the big reveal and she’d rather not risk running into Petros or any of his blood purity kin.

She found her uncle in the kitchen, eating ice cream from the carton while sitting on a counter. “Bout time you got here, kid.”

“Grandpere is dead. The rest aren’t and I’m pretty sure they want my head. Let’s just get this over with. I have a clinic to run and my backup had old, arthritis twisted hands.”

Titus hopped off the counter and motioned for Dovie to follow him.

***

Leo sat on a sitting room sofa. What had the maid called this one, the little salon? He just shook his head and watched as the new arrival placed a long wooden box on the opposite sofa. He wondered if they really had to do this now, at nearly one in the morning.

Titus had said that the woman would arrive late but he hadn’t expected this late. Titus had explained that Dovie was Josse’s only child and the presumed heir to his personal wealth as well as the clan. The story of a cousin was part of the cover for maintaining the fiction that this woman was dead. Leo had to wonder just what sort of mess he’d potentially thrown himself and his Lion Pride into.

He’d napped and had urged Alice to do the same. She’s already had an eventful day without this middle of the night meeting.

Dovie could hear the staff humming as she flipped the latches on Soul Shine’s case. Though the staff didn’t communicate with her, she could sense things. The staff was eager to test these two.

As she slipped on the velvet gloves to used to handle the staff, Dovie observed the two lions. Both seemed nervous and she decided that was a good thing. She lifted the staff from the velvet and foam lined case and turned to face Leo first. “Stand and take the staff in your hands. We’ll know shortly if you are a chosen one.”

Leo clenched and then unclenched his hands. It had been explained to him that ninety-nine percent of the time, those who were not destined to hold an Icon were given nasty electric burns. A few exceptions, like Dovie who still needed gloves, had been noted but it was rare. He reached out and with closed eyes, took the staff.

Instead of the shock he’d been expecting (he was a vampiric lion for heaven’s sake, not an Alati), he felt a spreading warmth. It started at his fingers and quickly spread all the way down to his toes. He felt a building pressure in his head, like his ears needed to be popped, before it burst.

“Welcome, friend, I have been waiting for you. Hand me back to Dovie so I can test the other.”

Leo weakly nodded, dropping the staff into Dovie’s waiting hands. Titus was there to slowly guide him back to sitting on the sofa. The warmth he’d felt remained.

Dovie waited until Leo had been settled on the sofa before turning to Alice. “Stand and take the staff in your hands. We’ll know shortly if you are a chosen one.”

[Maira]

It had been a long day and Alice wanted nothing more than to return to Haven. She knew without a doubt that she and Ari would be safe there, unlike here. Sure, Titus had promised protection to her and the rest of her family as long as they were here, but Petros had insisted on staying to find out the results of the testing by the staff SoulShine. He’d muttered something unintelligible as his reasoning but Alice was sure it hadn’t been anything good. Unfortunate Alice had not been allowed to leave because being Alati-born she knew one doesn’t run from God Weapons.

Leo had encouraged her to sleep while they waited for the guardian of the staff to bring SoulShine to them, but Alice was restless. Ari has been bundled up and sent off to spend the night with her newly discovered older half sister Genesis because the older woman “wanted auntie time”. The only reason that Alice was even ok with that was because of the feeling of safety she had felt with the woman the first time they met. With Ari elsewhere and the rest of the household sleeping as they waited for the staff guardian to arrive, Alice paced her room lost in thought. She hadn’t realized how late it was when somebody finally knocked lightly but firmly on her door before opening it a crack and announcing, “Lady Alice, the staff is here. Please follow me to the little salon.”

Started to be called by her title, she thought it had been lost with her disgrace, Alice hurried out the door and followed who she thought might be a butler through the maze of a house. Leo wasn’t present yet when she arrived, he probably had actually been asleep, so Alice curled up in the window seat and watched the moon and midnight sky as she waited for everybody else to arrive.

*****

Leo arrived next and took a spot on a sofa. Then came a young woman with a long wooden case. As soon as the case was opened Alice could feel its energy begin to permeate the room. She’d only ever been in the presence of one other God Tool before, and that was Lord Darius’s sword earlier that day. Tensions had been so high from all the people in the room at the time that she wasn’t sure if she’d felt any energy from it. The energy coming from the open box was warm and comforting like a mug of chamomile tea. Fitting, she thought, for a healer’s staff.

When the young woman put on her gloves and presented the staff to Leo first, Alice let out a breath she hasn’t realized she’d been holding. She hadn’t wanted to go first. Too much had already changed for her today. In the past two days, honestly. She was tired of change and becoming part of a Good Tool Triad with a three week old baby on her hip and herself being newly divorced sounded like a recipe for disaster. How could she possibly give her newborn and two other people and the staff all of the attention that they all deserved?

Trapped in her own panic, Alice missed Leo’s interaction with the staff. She was pulled from her worries by the young woman telling her it was her turn to be tested. With a quick glance at Leo, she didn’t see any signs of pain or distress so she took that as confirmation that the staff had chosen him. Swallowing her fears Alice nodded, stepped forward, and gently wrapped both hands around the staff.

The energy she’d felt when the box was opened intensified and flowed into her body through her hands. The energy followed her blood through her body before settling in her hands, heart, and head. As she had heard was possible, a voice warmly greeted Alice from inside her own mind. “Greetings Alice. To find another of my three in the same day is wonderful. Please return me to my case, you and the others have much to discuss.”

With a nod, Alice did as the staff bid her to do before turning to look at the others in the room and asking, “Now what?”