Chapter 48

Rule number 4: Do not make decisions when clouded by emotion, wait for a clearing and then act.
-Rules of power handbook, written by Queen Malicia of the Faerie Dells, daughter of Mab

???
Somewhere in a mountain range
Weatherlight crash site

 

Trinity opened the access hatch to the bridge, the airlock reluctantly groaned open. She had woken up to the ruins of the main deck of her beautiful ship. She avoided the broken wooden deck by levitating over it to reach the main bridge. Trinity looked at the ruin that her skyship had become, she really didn't expect that her plan to go to Earth would backfire so spectacularly. 

She looked at the bridge and saw how exposed it was, the impact had destroyed the windows and the skylight. All the girls plus Donovan were unconscious, until Trinity saw Jamie's eyes flutter open and a rectus of pain appear on her face. Then she looked up and saw Elissa floating toward her.  

"Elissa! Get me out of here…" Jamie cried out.

Trinity scowled at her playfully. "In this form it's Trinity."

The black girl rolled her eyes and shrugged, her face twitching in pain at the movement. "Yes, yes, now get me outta here."

Trinity sheathed a finger with mana materialized in the form of a blade and cut the safety belt. Slice. And before Jamie could move, she put her hand on her friend's shoulder and began healing her.

Jamie felt warmth spreading through her as golden radiance emanated from Trinity's hand. Jamie felt as the pain in her shoulder immediately disappeared. "Thank you Elissa… huh, I mean Trinity. Damn, this is confusing."

Trinity giggled at her friend's reaction. "Yes, it's going to take a while to get used to. Help me take care and secure the others, please."

"Okay."

They freed everyone on the bridge from their seats. Cassandra was left for last and Trinity regretted it instantly. "Cassie, wake up. I need your help, oh no she has a concussion."

Cassie was bleeding from her head and it worried Trinity, her regeneration and toughness should have made this impossible. Cassie was well on her way to be as invulnerable as Heracles. Seeing her in that state wasn’t good for the Elissa side of Trinity who loved her sister unconditionally.

"Here little tyke, wake up." Trinity said, trying to not panic. She let her biokinesis run through her sister’s entire body and scowled. "How is her regenerative factor off? Reactivating it."

But to her consternation, she realized that she couldn’t reactivate it, something stopped her, it was some kind of magic… "Why? This shouldn’t be happening, or... it's because of some kind of lack of demonic mana flowing inside her." 

"She won't wake up, we need to jumpstart it with pure power then. I wish I had brought my bound demons with me, this wouldn’t even be an issue..."

Trinity began to paw at the amulet at her neck, the Amulet of Semblance allowed her to polymorph into other races and even use their innate abilities and magic; it was a powerful artifact that her Patron and Ancestor Dark Hekate had given her. She had tested it thoroughly before and even shifted into a demoness similar to her handmaidens. Trinity missed Fenirael and Reinatiel a lot.

"Everyone get back, I'm going to try something." Trinity announced as she pawed at her amulet.

Danny and Bunhilda watched their Queen with trepidation, Elissa always pulled out a miracle at the last second when in a dire situation. The golden amulet shone with golden radiance as Trinity touched the middle gem. "High demon template." 

And with a flash of light there stood a two meters high red skinned demoness with long white hair reaching down her back, golden and black horns that looked more like a crown, eyes that change colors every second over solid black sclera. Her golden and red wings spread open. 

She was achingly and supernaturally beautiful and everyone stepped back when she turned toward them and smiled. She had dangerous looking teeth in her mouth. A dark aura spread inside the broken bridge and over the members of the sisterhood.

“Sister Dicinna? Elissa?” Ocima who was the bravest called out to the demonic being that was now before them.

A melodious and echoing sigh rang and the beautiful demoness' gaze fixed on the dark elven pilot. “Remember Ocima, it’s Trinity in this form.”

Ocima made a really nervous laugh as she raised her hand in a 'there' gesture. “You sure don’t look like her with those horns and eyes…”

Trinity frowned, gathered her mana and conjured an ice mirror to look at herself. “Oh.”

"I really like how I look, the Elissa part of me has always wanted to be a demoness like Malicia and Cassandra. I was raised like one, think like one… this is nice. But whatever, this isn't the time."

Trinity's clawed hands lit with fire, but not with normal flames, instead it was dark blue flames that seemed to absorb the light. Trinity gathered her hands and then placed them on Cassandra's chest and then channeled the pseudo-demonic energy into her sister's mana core. Trinity pulsed her mana twice, letting the energy act like a defibrillator and then the physiology of Cassandra did the rest of the job as it soaked in the mana.

As a joined being, and a demigoddess, Trinity's mana reserve was comparable to a gigantic and deep lake, so the drain on her core wasn't as bad as it could be if she had decided to do this while being only Elissa. Cassandra opened her eyes, they were shining completely green, her little body floated into the air as mana emitted in a Lance of light from her mouth, a sure sign that she had too much mana in her body.

Before she could fall, Trinity caught her body in her arms and held onto her. Cassandra coughed as she was finally awake. 

"Sis?" The little Dae asked with eyes fluttering.

Trinity hugged the little redhead against her and said with a relieved sigh, "You are safe, Cass."

Cassandra made Trinity let her go and she was delicately placed on the chair facing the navigation console. Trinity monitored her sister’s health, she gave a relieved sigh when she noticed that the little redhead was back at peak efficiency. 

She asked herself what might have caused this, but she was interrupted by Cassandra's question. Warily, Cassandra eyed Trinity whose arrow-like tail swished from left to right, showing how happy she was. “Since when are you a demon?”

Trinity showed with a clawed finger her artifact grade amulet. "Had to change into one to save you, little Tyke."

Brunhilda, Ocima and Danni were throwing worried glances at Elissa as they noticed the dark mana exuding from her. It had a corrupting effect that was visible, the atmosphere around Trinity was getting heavier. They were saved from taking action by Cassandra who said, "Can you change back? Please."

"Okay." Trinity nodded, but she kept looking at claws and tail, she even started to channel mana through them. It was strange to see that beatific expression on her face as she used dark magic, everyone heard her purr with delight.

*This isn’t good.* Ocima said.

Dicinna’s twin slowly and silently took out her short sword from its sheath. Ready if any trouble happened, Trinity looked somewhat impaired, she still hadn’t changed back to normal. Cassandra made subtle signs with her hand to everyone to leave it to her. Ocima and Danny looked at each other, then looked at Brunhilda and Tsarra who had their hands on their weapons.

Tsarra nodded and everyone decided to trust the youngest member of their guild; Cassandra was used to running circles around her sister and to convince her to change some of her actions. Normally that task would be Dawn’s or Dicinna’s but they were fused with Elissa to form this new being.

“Sister?” Cassandra asked with a sweet sounding tone.

Trinity looked down at Cassandra, her elation about having claws and a tail forgotten. “Hmm?”

Cassandra let her glamour fall, her tiny golden horns were now completely visible; her sclera were totally black with a green slitted pupil. Everyone retreated when they felt the two demonic auras clash; they were all back on the wall and watched as Cassandra stood from her chair, spreading her black feathery wings. She looked somehow more in control than Trinity.

An oppressive air of menace was felt on the bridge, dark energy started twisting the chair and the consoles. Ocima recognized what was called demonic energy and noticed how their rings had started glowing with white and golden light, covering and shielding them from it. The dark elf had a lot of questions, but they would only be able to be answered if Dicinna and her sister-in-law returned back to normal.

“Change back.” Cassandra commanded.

Trinity’s expression became defiant, but she stepped back from Cassandra who stepped forward. "Why? I feel so good. Powerful and more than I've ever been."

The new demoness felt as if she was before a stronger predator even if she was of short stature. Cassandra pushed her advantage and pushed her sister further into submission. "You don't have any idea of how to control those demonic instincts bubbling within you right now; so, if you don't want to eat our friends and family members, change back."

Trinity put her hands on her temples, and closed her eyes. She breathed in and out, calming herself down. Cassandra put a hand on her right arm and looked into her eyes when the new demoness reopened them. 

"Very well." Trinity finally said between her teeth and she finally touched the Amulet of Semblance at her neck and was quickly returned to her original form.

Trinity was back into her sleek armor, with her white and brown hair, she still had her pointy ears and clawless hands. 

"Thank Holaf, she’s scary as a demon." Narsenelyn the Earth Bender spoke for everyone in the room. 

The concerned party glared at the dwarf maiden. “Hey! I wasn’t that bad, right?”

Ocima sheathed her short sword, Brunhilda let go of the handle of her twin headed axe. This time, Tsarra walked up to her; a scowl on her face. “Lady Narsenelyn is right, Trinity you are banned from becoming a demon without someone who knows how to train you.” 

“I’m no Lady, Elf!” Narsenelyn shouted with a glare and a hand on her Pickaxe.

Tsarra looked behind her and saw that Narsenelyn was about to jump her for the offense; she placated the dwarven woman by turning to her and raising her hands in placation. “My apologies, Narsenelyn.”

“Hmph.” The Earth Bender turned her face and put her Pickaxe down. 

The redheaded elf turned back, then she and Trinity exchanged a look; Tsarra was quickly rising to be the go to person in the Sisterhood to counter Elissa’s most foolhardy plans, because the platinum blonde respected her. Trinity stood straight and changed demeanor, her eyes became sharper and her expression more serious. This startled everyone.

Elissa wasn’t in control anymore, Dicinna had decided to stop any tomfoolery from her wife in this situation. This event proved that Elissa couldn’t be trusted in certain situations concerning her friends and that she was too emotional. “There’s going to be some changes, I will-”

ROAR! A strident roar rang into the air, it came from outside the ship. Everyone turned to look through the broken skylight, and saw how unlucky they were.

"What the fuck? Again?!" Trinity swore.

It was at least twenty meters long, with a wingspan of one hundred meters; it was covered in a colorful yellow plumage that covered it’s body making it look soft, but the rows of teeth as it roared at them dissuaded them of that notion.

"Fuck, a lesser dragon!" Brunhilda took her axe in hands.

One of the dwarven twins cried out, “Why is it always Dragons?!”

"That thing is big!" Cassandra looked in awe.

"Prepare to fight!" Tsarra summoned her bow from her back to her hands and nocked an enchanted arrow.

 

---

 

Mountain Plateau
Crash landing zone

 

Tabitha wasn’t used to Elissa’s bullshit; somehow she found a way to fuse with her wives, blending their smells and… powers? Her aura was completely different, and then she kept changing stuff about her, such as turning into a demon. It was a bad idea, but if anything went pear shaped, the catgirl was ready to troubleshoot it.

But suddenly now, they were going to fight a lesser dragon! This was exciting, she had fought one as her graduating test. Tabitha was about to launch herself through the skylight but a hand landed on her shoulder, it was Trinity. “We need to kill it together, we don’t know if it’s alone.”

Tabitha’s clawed gauntlets were already gulping down the mana that she reflexively channeled through them, the golden sheen of the orichalcum subtly glowing. She had been so bored lately. Trinity turned to Tsarra and quickly gave her instructions. “Tsarra you organize the party, Tabitha and I are going to make it land in the meantime.”

The redhead nodded and filled her quiver with enchanted arrows from her spatial ring. The dwarven women instantly readied their weapons and started bantering.

“We are killin’ it.” Syndanelyn took out her new magic crossbow, enchanted to fire special mana bolts. She looked at her sister with a grin.

Nabideth unsheathed her sword and summoned her silver shield on her left arm. It had the emblem of Aryther embossed on its surface. “I’m goin’ tah make me a new cloak. Heard dragonhide is good fer it.”

Behind the wrecked piloting console, Ocima who was taking some of her effects was surprised by Trinity calling her out. “Ocima, sister, I want you to use your portal powers to help transport everyone in position when Tabitha and I go out.”

Ocima looked at Trinity with eyes as big as saucers. “But… I’m not as good as you are with them, sister.”

Waving her argument off, Trinity said, “This is how I learned myself, through combat. Welcome to bootcamp.”

“Argh.” Ocima lowered her head in frustration. But she quickly recovered and had a look of determination on her face. Ocima focused on the entrance of the bridge and used the arch of the door to open a pink colored portal that led outside the wrecked skyship and onto the plateau.

Tsarra shouted, “Prepare formation!”

Donovan, Nabideth and Brunhilda were the first in out as they were the most armored; they were followed by Astagith, Danny, Caroline, Emilia and Jamie who were the big damage dealers of the guild. The precog, Erika, stayed in the rear and focused on boosting everyone's speed with support spells, Enhance Ability: Strength and Haste. 

The rest of the non-combattants stayed in the back of the formation, such as Sizalda who was already readying some odd device that strangely looked like a spike with gems embedded into it.

“Tabitha, let’s go.” Trinity deployed her wings and jumped into the sky.

She was quickly followed by Tabitha who bounded into the sky using the air as a foothold.  “Rawr!”

Only to avoid being eaten by a charging lesser dragon. She quickly flickered to the side at the last second but had time enough to scratch the beast's flanks with her mana charged claws. Eliciting a roar from the lesser dragon. 

The beast turned its serpentine head toward Tabitha, it's eyes blazing with hatred. It turned directly toward the catgirl, and flickered again, but this time it was again where she had scratched him and focused her next hit that was a palm attack on the wound, the feathers flew and the lesser dragon's skin broke into a cracking spider web-like wound. Blood, a literal pool of viscous blood began to rain down from the wound.

The dragon didn't roar this time, but screamed as if someone tortured it. *It must not be used to feel pain.* Thought Tabitha.

The beast looked at her and then it began to breathe in, preparing to unleash its breath attack. The catgirl frowned, a sphere of wind mana was gathering at the beast's maw. The wind picked up toward Tabitha and the creature blasted its payload at her. Trinity appeared before Tabitha before she could get done in and… she intercepted the wind sphere with her own.

The two wind spheres clashed, there was a clear difference between the two. The dragon's wind sphere was warm and Trinity's cold wind sphere, the two spheres colliding created a convergence that instantly turned into an updraft leading to the creation of clouds. Trinity made a dangerous smile as the cloud became Grey and stormy. 

"Lightning Bolt!" She casted a spell with one hand and another, "Ball Lightning!" With her free one. 

The two spells hit the creature with such intensity that some of its feathers burned. With a screech the dragon tried to swipe at Tabitha and Trinity. But with a burst of space magic, the two teleported over the creature’s snout. Tabitha grinned then she watched as Trinity used her mana boosted axe kick to hit its snout. A shockwave spread in the sky, and Tabitha’s eyes widened when she saw the draconic monster fall down on the ground with a roar of pain.

The beast ended up creating a crater, and dust rose from it. Trinity summoned Gram, when she channeled her mana in the weapon, the sword shone with golden and white radiance, illuminating the entire sky.

“Tabitha! Help me cut out it’s wings!” Trinity shouted

Tabitha grinned predatorily. “Okay!”

“Narse! Hilda! Prepare to restrain the beast!”

It was glorious to see how the other group had organized themselves. The two Earth element wielders used their magic to create shackles of stones around the lesser dragon's limbs. The creature began to thrash, trying to free itself. 

The catgirl made a blade with her hand, channeled mana through it and converted the magical energy into an ultra-thin, two meter long blade. Trinity and Tabitha looked at each other, smiled and disappeared at high speed toward the ground and at the same moment and in sync sliced into both of the beast’s wing humerus with their weapon reinforced with Inshek mana blade.

ROOOOAAAAAR!!!! The beast screamed, the air around it trembling as a discharge of mana surrounded it.

Just in time Trinity surrounded the beast with a cage of wind that began to struggle to contain the lesser dragon’s devastating mini-hurricane. The wind barrier was vibrating with screeching sounds; and the stone and earth in the crater was getting crushed or turned into projectiles that battered against Trinity’s barrier.

In her mindscape, the three fused young women began to struggle. The three were surrounded by dozens of different colored balls full of light. They each represented an ability or power while they were in their merged state.

<Huh, that’s different, it has more power than I thought. It's becoming bothersome to contain its Elemental burst.> Elissa shared.

<A little help, please?> Dicinna, who was currently in command of the body asked.

Dawn put her hand on the ball of magic representing their magical abilities and shouted, <Let me at it!>

<Okay do your thing Dawn!> Elissa said as she gave command of their magic to her second wife.

Dicinna made hand motions and mimes encasing something in the joined digits of their body. Dawn called out, "Prison Cube!"

The wind cage was suddenly replaced by a black and purple cube covering the entire monster, cutting it off from normal space entirely. But it didn’t stop here and Dawn made a scary smile that showed on their main body's face as she conjured spikes made of shadow.  "Shadow Spike!" They pierced into the cube and despite the creature being cut off, a screech emitted from the cube.

The purple and black cube began to show hairline fractures, until it completely shattered. The lesser dragon looked furious and some of its feathers flew from its body and attacked everyone like thrown knives. Thanks to the more armored members of the guild, Nabideth, Donovan and Hilda absorbed the majority of the feather volley with their bodies, the rest were spared.

Trinity was about to launch another bit of shadow magic when Brunhilda interrupted her. "Leave some for us!"

<Listen to her, Cinna. They need the experience!> Elissa chooses to intercede when she hears Brunhilda.

Trinity lowered her hands and shouted, "Attack!"

Narsenelyn brandished her Pickaxe and slammed the end of its head into the ground. "Earth Shackles!"

Suddenly, the huge lesser dragon found its body surrounded by rings of rock constricting it.

"Have at it!" Astagith was the first to appear from wherever she was and stab the lesser dragon in its wounded flank. Tsarra shot two consecutive arrows and one of them hit the monster in its left eye. 

The pain in its eyes caused the monster to knock back everyone with an area of effect attack in the form of a gust of wind. The only people still standing were Trinity, Tsarra, Syndanelyn and the tanks of the guild. Despite suffering from wind burn, Danni incanted a spell after channeling for two seconds and the still darkened sky rumbled. "Lightning Bolt."

The bolt struck the creature where the magical arrow had pierced its eyes and the dragon made a roar and thrashed as it was getting a big jolt into its body. Syndanelyn pointed her crossbow and fired at the beast's bottom. "Have some of dis!"

Vrrmm! BOOM! A mana charged bolt struck the beast's tail and exploded it. The lesser dragon broke out from the stones ring keeping it restrained and charged Donovan, who stopped it from advancing with his tower shield.

"Hey Syn, put in less mana! We need its body as intact as possible!" Donovan shouted as he felt the powerful kinetic energy from the exploding charged mana bolt.

All he received as an answer was a maniacal laugh as another bolt hit the lesser dragon who started to weaken. This caused everyone to redouble their efforts. One of the dwarven ladies was taking great care with her angle of attack as she had appropriated one of the dagger sharp feathers of the lesser dragon and analyzed it with her scanning magic. 

“These feathers are coated with the same tough material, making them look soft, but retain their armor-like defenses.” Sizalda said after scanning its molecular structure and searched into the vault space of her space ring for the strongest superacid known to dwarfkind. Produced by a moss-like organism found deep into Svartalfheim and only able to be contained in forcefield lined magical crystal vials.

"I am tha warrior! ‘am your doom! Have at thee, vile fiend!" Sizalda said as she used a slingshot to throw the vial of acid under the dragon’s belly. 

It’s ventral scale began melting off. This was it, the beast simply gave up as the damage it had endured accumulated to rob it of its strength. Cassandra walked toward the lesser dragon’s face and revealed her demonic form and said to the creature, "The last thing we will give you is a peaceful death."

Then she blatantly fed on its emotion full of hatred and despair, until she ate its soul and added it to her reserve of strength. The Dragon’s body slackened, its white scales losing their luster and its lone golden eyes closing.

Burp. Cassandra put her hand before her mouth. “Sorry. But it’s soul was tasty! Let’s find another!” The little girl said after sucking out the soul of the monster, feeling energized to the max.

Trinity rolled her eyes, now there was no way the little girl was going to sleep for a while. Tsarra, who was at the demi-goddess’ side said with trepidation, “Trinity, your little sister is scary...”

Trinity shrugged, her white pauldron moving with her shoulders. “Well, she’s a Dae.”

"We are havin’ dragon meat taday!" Brunhilda took on a pose on a big rock that she had jumped onto, she stood there axe raised.

Everyone laughed at her exuberance. The show was interrupted by a soft golden light surrounding Trinity who then separated into three people. Dawn, Dicinna and Elissa were finally visible. They looked at each other and smiled.

"Ah Elissa and the others, you are back to normal!" Astagith clamored.

The three girls started looking at their hands and bodies. Elissa tightened her fist and seemed to focus on something. The platinum blonde looked into the sky, it was starting to darken. "Yeah there's a time limit, because we expended a lot of magic."

“It must be some kind of safety feature for us.” Dawn guessed.

Dicinna nodded. "Let’s not fuse for a while, we need more people, and we need to assess the situation." 

Tabitha ignored everyone and was starting to carve the meat of the lesser dragon, it was time to prepare the food. Tsarra had noticed her and then walked up toward her to help the catgirl.

 

---

 

Three hours later

It was over dinner and under the starlight that the Sisterhood, Donovan and the familiars of Elissa and Cassandra freed from the emergency safety stasis when their ship crashed that the Queen decided to finally ask, "Okay, we need to know where we are."

Donovan looked at his Queen and friend and put the slice of dragon steak on his plate. They were all sitting on a big ass carpet well away from where they had their epic fight with a dragon. The young man still couldn’t believe that that kind of thing was happening to him. He had expected earlier this year to become a superhero in training, but not a badass knight with magical powers fighting dragons at the behest of his hot friend turned Imperial Princess from an alien Empire in hiding.

Sizalda smelled the air, a plate with a large dragon steak on it in her hand. "There's a lot of magix in da air. So, maybe it's one of tha nine world hegemony."

“Like Vanir? I’ve been there, it’s not the same planet.” Dicinna interrupted Sizalda.

Donovan looked at the girls trying to guess where they crashed. His lesson about his new fantastical and supernatural world had just started and what it basically told him was that mages and sorcerers were bad luck. Everything became unpredictable when they were concerned; Donovan found that superpowers on Earth made more senses than supernatural powers.

But now they were stranded on another world, one that seemed similar to Earth, there was a blue sky, but three moons; there also were monsters flying, he had seen them, those giant birds called Roc. They were truly massive, grey colored monstrous birds the size of a small building with the sharpest looking claws and beak.

Donovan looked at the exchange between the dwarven women, interested by their guessing game. Like him, the girls from Earth that weren’t used to a magical world stayed silent. Dawn, though, was further ahead in her magical study so she found herself saying, “This is atypical, the atmosphere has even more mana and cosmic energy than Svartalfheim.”

Her eyes shone with a purple light as she looked into the sky; Donovan was aware that she was using what his teacher on Svartalfheim called Mage Sight, a skill firmly placed in the category of ‘spiritual senses’ and was only available when you became a journeyman mage. 

Donovan’s attention then slid on Elissa who had been silent for a while. She stood up after listening to everyone and asked out loud,  “Sanctum, are you here?”

{Yes, your Imperial Majesty?}

With rising eyebrows, Donovan heard a female voice echoing in the air. He looked for someone else to show themselves but they were all present.

“Sanctum, can you tell us where we are?” Elissa asked the voice.

A sky blue light emanated from Elissa until a pillar of light of ten meters sprung up from her body until it formed some kind of giant magical circle with numbers, geometrical forms and letters from the Greek language in the air. {Triangulation…}

For a long moment nothing happened. Until multiple threads of energy pointed at the stars and constellations, next Sanctum announced, {Coordinate obtained, Displaying location on Yggdrasil Map}

A sky blue magical hologram construct came into life at the center of the camp, it was in the form of a gigantic tree with millions of branches and innumerable leaves. Donovan looked mesmerized by its beauty. A section of the tree outer leaves zoomed in and a part of the sector it highlighted sprouted labels. 

Midgard (previous location) 

Svartalfheim

Alfheim 

Vanaheim

Jotunheim 

Muspelheim

Niflheim

Asgard (current location)

Their current location on the planet with two super continents connected at the poles wasn’t really well received. Most of the girls took time to understand how far they were from home. But to cement how fucked they were, the Dwarven ladies and the dark elves amongst them began to panic.

“We are on Asgard?” Ocima asked out loud, she didn't look happy at all, she looked down at her feet and her right hand gripped tightly onto her sword's handle.

“Goddess no!” Tsarra exclaimed with hands on her temples and began to panic, not for being stranded, but for more personal reasons, familial ones.

“Dis is bad.” Brunhilda agreed.

Svartalfheim was a cakewalk compared to Asgard. Her home planet might be full of monsters roaming the surface, but on the current one they crashed on, Monsters and other species were significantly stronger. Then there was the political situation to consider, Asgard didn’t care about the other realms since Ragnarok. They will imprison Elissa and the group to either ransom them or get concessions from her Queendom.

Syndanelyn who held her crossbow tightly, realized, “Da ship! ZHAER, is offline.”

Donovan stayed calm for a moment, Elissa would surely find a way to get them back home.

“We are stranded?” Danni asked in a little voice. Donovan did the gentleman thing by standing up and placing an arm around the shoulders of his girlfriend to give her comfort.

“Not necessarily.” Everyone heard Elissa speak, when they looked at her she turned heel toward her first wife. “Dicinna can you open a rift to Svartalfheim?”

The dark elf focused on opening a rift to the Zerloth clan hold… a red dot appeared near the folding chair she had been using but it dissipated into the mana. “I already tried earlier. But now as you can see, something is blocking me.”

Ocima, Dicinna’s twin, tried as well. The same thing happened to her, she felt as if something was interfering with her power. Then she opened two portals near their position, one leading to the bridge on the downed skyship and one into the air. It worked, and two portals shimmered open to where she wanted them.

Dicinna did the same and her portal worked well enough locally, she turned to Dawn and asked her if she was able to do anything. The asian girl shook her head, “I can’t teleport blind and I don’t know this place well enough.”

“Sanctum? What is interfering with Dicinna’s portals?” Elissa asked the disembodied voice.

A light flashed from Elissa’s body.

{Anti-planar barrier detected. It surrounds the planet Asgard. Transplanar travel is therefore impossible at the moment.} Was the immediate answer.

“Hel!” Elissa looked angry suddenly. “Sanctum, can you extrapolate why they raised such a barrier around the planet?”

{To stop infiltration, your Imperial Highness. The intelligence reports from the Zerloth clan show that Asgard is still at war with the god of evil and mischief, Loki, and the realm of Jotunheim despite Ragnarok happening one thousand years ago. Your Imperial Highness, you would need to go to Asgard’s higher authorities to lift the barrier.}

Donovan facepalmed, this wasn’t good news; there was a chance that they would be pulled into a war now. The young man tried to remember how the original Asgard was destroyed from the legends told on earth; Ragnarok was a predicted future event that told of the end of days, and adherents of the religion believed it would eventually come to pass. The event was supposed to begin after an exceptionally long winter that allows a number of imprisoned bad guys to roam free. Loki's sons, the beasts known as the Midgard Serpent and the giant wolf Fenrir, break free. They start wreaking havoc and causing natural disasters all over the world.

A lot of major gods from Norse mythology, including Thor, Odin, Heimdall, and Loki, are supposed to die and cause the destruction of the world via a great flood as well. Also, unlike in Christianity, this event isn't really the end of days. Rather, Ragnarok starts a new era, as after the death of the gods and the burning and flooding of the Earth, the world is reborn as a lush paradise to be repopulated by two human survivors. Donovan thinks that this is all bullshit, Loki was still alive after all and Ragnarok had happened already from what Sanctum told them.

Elissa clapped and stopped everyone from panicking and saying with confidence. “Okay, everyone calm down. We are going to get through this. I got you in this situation, so it’s my responsibility to get you back home safely.”

It was Jamie who spoke for everyone, they didn’t have much hope. “But how? This is a new planet and we are strangers there.”

Elissa rolled her eyes at the stupidity of that statement. “Oh please, sooner or later they will have to raise that Hel damned barrier to replenish supply or for economic reason, after all they aren’t completely self-sufficient, they sell goods to other realms, right?”

*And they look for new recruits from other Realms to replenish their numbers.* Elissa thought about what Malicia had told her about the history teacher at their magic school, a Valkyrie.

Ocima who was the one trained in being the new Matriarch of the Zerloth clan agreed with Elissa and visibly calmed down. She strode toward Elissa and her wives, putting herself at their side to show that she supported the young Queen’s argument. “You’re right, Sister. They do import armors and weapons and some of their magic ingredients with Vanaheim, Svartalfheim or Alfheim.”

Chuckling, Elissa looked fondly at Ocima. “Yeah, that’s my point.” Then she took on a thoughtful expression and said out loud, “You know, we should contact people at home to tell them about our problem.”

“That’s true, but how?” Emilia asked Elissa for everyone.

The young Queen smiled and spoke aloud, to the sapient library. “Sanctum can you still use the system from the ship to contact uncle Nick?”

{I can try, but we will have to get back to the bridge of the Weatherlight, your Imperial Highness.}

And this is how everyone portaled into the wreck of the skyship and cleaned up the bridge. Elissa placed her hand in the aperture of the dashboard controlling the ship at the captain’s command chair. The aperture glowed and Sanctum connected to the ship’s system. A rectangular magic hologram appeared, but it was flickering as if it was one of those damaged tv screens from the fifties.

The communication finally connected and instead of Nikolas Tesla, what they got was his wife, Lyla Tesla. The long haired brunette was clothed in a tight brown and gold suit, she had a lab coat covering it, at the top of her head, there were golden colored goggles with blue lenses. The woman looked at them and put on a frown, she didn’t look happy at all. “Elissa! Dear, where the hell have you been?!” 

She seemed to be in some sort of laboratory as some type of machinery was all around her. The screen flickered every second, but everything was still visible.

Elissa looked a bit sheepish at this moment. “Hey, aunt Lyla.”

Lyla raised a finger and scowled at Elissa. “Don’t ‘Hey’ me, young Lady, you’re in trouble! Kiomdra is so worried that you haven’t come back yet!”

Ocima and Dicinna visibly gulped at this announcement.

“Well there are complications… aunty.” The young Queen then proceeded to tell what had happened with Malicia and how they were now stranded on Asgard. They couldn’t come home because some kind of dimensional barrier had been raised as they crashed on the dangerous planet.

After some time, Lyla couldn't help but look at Elissa with a disbelieving look. “Elissa… this goes beyond the usual trouble you cause.”

Elissa was used to being a trouble magnet, somehow the fates seemed to always bring conflicts or troubling situations to her attention. But there was a limit to things she could take care of; training as if her life depended upon it? Fine. Getting sent to get experience on an alien planet? She did it. Take care of paperwork for her Queendom? She almost fled back to Earth because of it and she was no coward so she soldiered on. But crashing on a foreign planet that’s at war? This was too much! She wanted to be back in her bed with her wives or playing with her familiars and grooming them.

“Tell me about it… but Aunty, I don’t go looking for trouble, trouble finds me.” Elissa lamented.

Her friends in the background couldn't deny that Elissa seemed to be attracting trouble all the time. Between elves and dragons wanting to do her in for some strange reasons, now they were in deep trouble and on a planet with powerful monsters and inhabitants that were on a hair trigger because of the frost giant armies that might be invading soon. 

*Yes, invade, or else they wouldn't have raised the damn barrier at all.* Elissa thought. She could feel that Loki might have a base on the planet that he used as a beachhead from Jotunheim.

Brunhilda recognized Elissa’s expression having seen it when she had planned on how to take the dark elf city, Thafnoris, and now something brewed in the Queen’s mind. She sighed, following a hero queen was tedious. 

Lyla looked at Elissa for a long moment, her expression showed that she didn’t want to let Elissa and her friends stranded any longer. She was friends with the parents of her companions, so she didn’t want them to leave them in this precarious position. “What do you want us to do, Elissa? Do you want us to come get you and your friends? We can prepare the ship in a day for travel.”

*Kiomdra, if she was here, would have ordered Lyla to get her ship and go look for her daughters and I. Thank Hekate that she isn’t.* Elissa thought as she considered Lyla’s offer.

Elissa waved it away. “No, don’t. The Asgardians would just shoot you down. Instead, could you look for my mother? Malicia was stranded somewhere as well. I gave her a guild ring before she threw herself in the space tunnel.”

Looking at Cassandra, who nodded at her big sister for prioritizing finding Malicia, Elissa chose to give this directive to Lyla. She was worried for her mother, adoptive or not, she was her mom and she loved the Dae Queen with all her heart. 

Lyla looked apprehensive all of a sudden. “Will she be sane when we find her, Elissa?”

The young Queen rolled her eyes at this question. “She won’t kill any of you, I will send a message to her through the ring, she will know that you are coming for her. And how do you know she had lost her marbles?”

“Your father called earlier, he told Nik and I what happened.” Lyla said sadly.

Elissa’s fight with her mother was still haunting her. She had never felt so weak and powerless in all her life, no! When she got kidnapped by the French government as a preteen, Elissa had felt that same feeling. Malicia was more  knowledgeable about magic than Elissa, knew more spells, she had more control on her internal mana as well. Elissa was simply outclassed from the get go. Malicia’s manipulation of the esoteric side of the elements of nature was also what had done in Elissa in their fight; she gained powers from other external forces of different elements, never using her personal mana reserve. Being a sorceress was unfair…

There was still the fact that Malicia was simply immune to most magic and possessed immense regenerative abilities. A hunch told Elissa that Malicia was a user of Benefic forces, she must have control over force of good energy to their desire, this was a really esoteric branch of magic that her mother had refused to teach her.

This wasn’t important, what Elissa wanted to know was why Lyla was playing games with her. “Then aunty, why did you make me recount my story if you already knew?”

Lyla shrugged. “I needed to know your point of view Elissa, Heracles is really not in a good headspace at the moment, he needs to cool off.”

Elissa remembered how the fight had gone the last time, Malicia must have cursed him or something. “I see. Please don’t think Malicia would do what she did if she was in her right mind. I think something bad happened to her while I was on Svartalfheim.”

Lyla’s expression was placid, she didn’t seem to believe Elissa. The time passed and Lyla explained to the young Queen that they should find shelter and train while they were away from home. That some diplomatic measures will be employed once they get on Asgard via the portals from Vanaheim as using those on Alfheim were impossible as they too went on lockdown. Elissa knew that it was her fault that they were unavailable, so she couldn’t complain.

 

---

 

Elissa, Dawn and Cassandra had finished taking everything from the cargo space while the others had salvaged things from the kitchen such as cooking implements and plates, their clothes from their cabins and tools from the engineering deck. The skyship was now empty, but Elissa thought that she would be able to fix it later thanks to the dreamscape and the knowledge of her ancestors that it contained.

Donovan helped clear the debris of the ship, helped by Caroline and Emilia who used their telekinesis. The debris were all gathered into piles around the ship by them. It was well into the night when Elissa finished gathering all of the fragments from the Weatherlight, storing them all in her storage ring, and putting the entire ship into her toe storage ring; ZHAER had saved their lives, she wasn’t about to give up on him, she was certain that there was a way to get him back, maybe in another hull.

It was morning when everyone was done, they were exhausted after the events of the previous day. Elissa watched as the sun rose in the sky, bathing the mountain peaks with light. Sunrises were always so beautiful to her. Everyone got out of their armor and used the tents that they found in the ship and separated into groups to get some rest. The tents were all circling around the remains of the campfire from last night.

Elissa and the dwarves then started to prepare breakfast with some of their rations. Elissa was thinking idly as she cooked frittatas in the skillet. She quickly made plans to train her friends and bring them to the same level as the Dwarf at the least; Cassandra was at her side, adding chunks of dragon meat that she had diced, tomatoes and some bacon as well. They cooked for another hour to make sufficient food for everyone.

It was when they were about to eat that Elissa idly said, “So we need to turn this camp into a base, we will use this plateau to build a fortification… no, a fortress, temporary but solid.”

Everyone looked at her, then at each other wondering what crazy plan Elissa cooked now. Dawn asked her after taking a sip of water from her canteen. “Then what?”

Elissa elegantly took a chunk of the frittatas in her plate and swallowed it. They waited with bated breath for her answer. When she was done, Elissa finally spoke, “While we wait, we are going to teach you to survive in the wild and train. I trust my Dicinna and our dwarven friends at my back, but you guys are still too green.”

Everyone stopped eating, Ocima and Danni almost let their plates go. Some of the dwarves looked at the Midgardian with pity, knowing that they were going to go through hell; they had seen how Elissa trained in Aryther.

“Urgh, no! What you call training is pure torture!” Ocima vividly declined.

There was fear in her eyes, Dicinna gave her a beautiful smile, a smile hiding the sadistic glee she felt when her sister was going to have a hard time. The dark elf consort loved to tease her twin. Elissa cocked her head and said with cold logic, “Eh, but you need to be pushed. Your new body wouldn’t get any exercise with a Midgardian training regiment.”

“She has a point.” Dicinna agreed with her.

The news shared didn’t go well in the ranks of Elissa’s friends. After breakfast they were made to go meditate and to circulate their mana in their body to adapt to and use it more quickly. Elissa wanted it to be second nature to them. After showing them the exercises, the young Queen walked toward the dwarves and asked, “Hilda, Sizalda, Narse. Want to create a fort?”

“Just like ye did with tha Dragonfang Tower?” Narsenelyn asked.

Elissa nodded, then Brunhilda and Narsenelyn looked at each other, made predatory smiles and turned to the young Queen and said in unison, “We’re in.”