Princess of Faerl

*Helios*

We moved Elentari to her room. I exchanged a worried look with Alaric and Belle. I couldn’t understand why Aphrodite would have done this. If she wanted Chaos for herself, she would let us wake Endymion and keep them bound. She knew as long as those two were together, Chaos would never get to Selene. It was so confusing. I rubbed my temples as the three of us turned to leave the room.

There was a loud thump on the floor behind me, and I turned to see what happened. A tall malnourished man laid on the floor. His wrists bore deep cuts, his neck rubbed raw from something that had been around it. He was barely clothed, but had strong muscles. He was barely alive.

Belle ran to the man, turning his face up to hers. “ALARIC!” She cried out, “Alaric, it’s him! Oh Starlight, Starlight, stay awake.” Her words were repeated again and again. I felt my form turning to mist. This must be the boy I was meant to be with. A smile traced across my thoughts. “Helios..” She turned to where I once was, but was no longer. His life chain having been restored pulled me into him. A real body. “Alaric, where did Helios go?” I could hear her asking, but now wasn’t the time. I pulled the boy deep into his mind, creating the zone. I called for his souls. This body was interesting. Four souls. Just like his twin. Normally only the Lunar Guardian had four. This didn’t exactly bode well. It meant we needed to be a superpower.

The four approached me wearily. They looked just as emaciated as the body. I could see where black chains had bound them to the farthest corners of the mind. It was painful to see. I walked to each, touching their foreheads and giving them a bit of my strength. We would be sharing it soon anyway, but they needed a bit of a top up so we could meditate together. I needed to know everything they knew. I needed to know all the things he had overheard. Even the smallest, most seemingly insignificant detail. I didn’t know their names yet, and I doubted they would talk to me so easily.

’Let’s sit, shall we gentlemen? We need to give our host some strength, not to mention yourselves.” A wolf, fae, vampire, and dragon. I wondered if Elentari’s were all the same. I wondered if any of them were children of Gods like Elentari’s were. But this wasn’t the time for those questions. We needed to revitalize the zone and the body.

I sat cross legged and motioned for them to do the same. Holding out my hands to the two sitting next to me, they did the same. This was going to drain me, but I hoped we would be able to save the sanity of the host. An insane reincarnation was never good. Just look at Hitler.

A glow surrounded us and I shared my strength. I had never felt this weak before. I kept going though, knowing in the end it would be for the best. The zone was starting to get brighter. A half hour passed and I was near the point of depletion when it seemed like all the lights turned on and the space went technicolored. Energy was now being produced naturally.

“Belle!” I heard Alaric’s strong voice ring out. This meant the body was coming to. “Belle! He seems to be waking up!” Fear and excitement was coursing through Alaric as he touched our hand. The beast souls looked at their hands, shocked. They recognized the touch of blood.

“My baby! Oh my beautiful boy, I’m so sorry. My boy I’m so sorry..” Belle grabbed the other hand and the souls repeated the process, but this time they all looked conflicted. They didn’t understand the apology. Her hot tears fell on our cheek. Instinctively we all wiped our cheeks even though the host couldn’t. We would replay this moment for him when he could handle it. His family loved him and missed him. He was never a doulos. He was a beloved prince stolen from his home and parents.

A silver dragonborn stepped forward, “I am Falx. I am not a god or demigod, though I am of the lineage of Bahamut. This is my humanoid form. I have been the main protector of this body while it has been maltreated.” Sad eyes met my determined ones. I then looked around at the others.

The wolf stepped forward and I stepped back with a knowing smile, “Lucius, it is a pleasure to see you. I never knew you would ever take a vassal.”

“Regardless, my Night Mother is being threatened. I answered the call to protect her. I always will.” The only description that could be used to explain his voice was sharpened steel.

A tall, pale figure with deep red eyes nodded to me, “Helios, Long time no see.” I knew that voice.

I raised my eyebrow, “Well this is awkward. Does Artemis know you’re here too?”

“She does. Every once in a while, she gives me the opportunity to help my only love, even though I cannot be with her. I would rather see her and Endymion reunited than see Chaos rob her of all she is. I made my choices long ago. I live with them today. The least I can do is keep protecting Selena in any way I can.” Ambrogio looked to the ground, unwilling to look up at me.

“Selene will be happy to know you are still thinking of her.” I smiled towards the vampire. The first vampire created by the curses of Apollo, Artemis, and Hades.

The winged man flew to me, hovering above the ground. “And I am Puck. Prince of the Fae.”

They all looked healthy, unlike hours ago when I entered this body. I was grateful to see them all. “Now we keep this up until our host is well.” We all sat down and continued to meditate, sharing energy, memories, power. In all of my reincarnations I had never felt anything like this before. The life chain was becoming stronger, tethering us and our host to this plane. The taint of Hades was slowly disappearing, soon there wouldn’t be enough left for him to trace where the host had gone. That was our hope for keeping him and his sister safe so they could train and prepare. It wasn’t going to be an easy task, but we had to do it. We had to banish every bit of Hades’ influence and aura.

As we meditated I shared with them the information I knew about Elentari and her souls. The twin bond started to regrow. It was purple, linking not only Elentari and Aranelda, but myself and Selene. It had been so long since we had physical human forms. It felt so odd, but enjoyable. The body was finally able to move and we opened our eyes.

“Oh you’re awake… Sweet Aranelda…” Belle cooed.

“Queen Belle, Aranelda is still in a deep sleep. He has been through a lot and he needs time to repair. For now, I will be moving the body about as the five of us can sustain it until he is able to become conscious. The others want to meet their sister counterparts, though. Could you please show me to where Princess Elentari is?” I spoke gently as I could, hoping that it brought comfort to the distraught queen.

Alaric nodded firmly and got up to lead the way, Belle following closely behind us. It only took a few moments to get there, all of them were a mess wondering what they would all be like if they were tolerable. If it was one of their sisters that would be there or if it would be the child of another deity. I sighed trying to block out their chatter. It was too much. I knew all the souls there would be agreeable, but these guys didn’t.

“Okay guys… remember she just saved our asses from a prison in the realm of Hades. I’ll be surprised if she’s awake, nonetheless if her souls are able to properly communicate. We will probably have to merge zones if we can, otherwise we will be simply looking at them until they wake.”

A collective sigh left the lips as we walked into the room and sat down in a chair next to the slumbering form of Elentari. No matter how we tried, we could not communicate with the host or the souls within so we stopped trying. This castle was magical. A second bed appeared moments later and we laid down keeping our eyes on them until we fell asleep.

The pixie coming in the room startled us awake. “Who are you? Why are you in the Princess’s room? What is going on here?” She cried out, disappearing into thin air. I rubbed our eyes and blinked. What in the bloody hell was that about? The pixie returned moments later, clearly with a different demeanor. “I’m sorry, my Prince. I had never seen you before and you frightened me. I am Tanz, my Lady’s assistant. I was not expecting this at all.” She fluttered in the air and bowed graciously.

“Don’t worry, Tanz. Besides right now, it’s Helios. I’m trying to give the consciousness enough time to revitalize himself and heal the host soul before he wakes.” The pixie nodded, looking over at the girl who’s hand began to move. “I’ll take care of her, I promise.” Tanz nodded and left while I moved to the chair next to Elentari’s bed. I started humming a tune I never heard, realizing it must be something important to our hosts.