First World (12 page)

“What is it that First World people do? You know, for jobs, money?”

Brace shifted in curiosity. “What’s money?”

I wondered if I looked as shocked as I felt.
I glanced between them.

“You know, little pieces of paper, that you use to buy things you need – food, houses, clothes – some people have more and they are rich, others are poor and
... have less.”

Brace laughed, like he thought I was kidding
, before sobering slightly. “You’re serious, aren’t you? How can a piece of paper be worth anything? Does it have some type of magical property?” He shook his head. “No, of course it can’t on Earth.”

Lallielle
shuddered. “That sounds horrid. What happens if you don’t have enough of this ‘paper’ for the basic essentials?”

I bit my lip; in a matter of seconds they’d made something that was so
fundamental on Earth sound absolutely ridiculous.

“Before the dark days, if you
couldn’t find a job and therefore didn’t have any money, you ended up homeless and living on the street.”

The horror grew on
Lallielle’s face.

“So if you don’t have money, then how did you get this amazing place?
And the clothes?” I gestured around me.

She
blinked a few times. “Well, we all have talents; every person is expected to contribute to the upkeep of society. The higher in demand your skill, the more you can barter and trade for other things.”

Did she just say barter and trade?

Brace helped her explain. “You remember those specialties I described in the forest?”

At my nod
he continued.

“Well
, that was just a small insight into First Worlders’ skills.”

My mind was getting a little blown right now. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the concept.
But it would be all kinds of awesome to live in a world where everyone has an important skill to contribute.

Lallielle
spoke again, her gentle voice easing my confusion with a subject change. “Would you like to know some of the memories of your baby-life?”

Looking up
, I faced her, curious as to what she would say.

“You were born on the first day of the first month, year two million.” She
started eagerly, smiling in remembrance. “You were a beautiful baby, with these incredible and unique green eyes. They were so large, dominating your entire face. You have grown into them quite beautifully.”

At this point, I’m sure my
‘unique’ eyes were flashing disbelief. She was sweet-talking me.

“You hardly ever cried, just stared up at me
with your emerald eyes.”

I shrugged off a sudden urge to cry
, stupid whacked-out emotions. My life before I was four was a blank; as if I hadn’t existed before the age where I could retain my own memories. But now there was something, a moment, a memory.

“What’s the date now?” I cleared my throat to help force the words out.

“Twenty-first day of the twelfth month,” Brace answered.

I was surprised that their time-frame was comparable to Earth.

He grinned at me.
“I presume it’s just a few days until your eighteenth birthday.”

I had to have Lucy back by the time I turned eighteen. It just wasn’t happening without her.

Deciding to sit again, I clasped my hands in front of me. My birthmark flashed at me.

“
Quarn asked me about my birthmark.” I glanced up again. “Why did he ask that?”

“
Aribella, my girl, that’s the mark of your mother’s royal line. A matriarchal inheritance. But you also have a mark of my family. And I’ll bet old Quarn didn’t ask you about that one.”

I spun around in my chair to find the source of the deep voice echoing
through the room. My eyes widened in shock. A man – I think he was a man – stood there, his colossal proportions filling the doorway. He topped out at a minimum of six foot ten, and a glowing light encircled him. He moved further into the room, and I drank in every detail.

He had shoulder-length fiery red hair, a deep rich blood red, even more potent than my own.
But it was obvious where my hair color had originated. Flashes danced through his eyes, the color of newly turned autumn leaves, burnt gold. He was intimidating, a strength and power unlike any I’d ever experienced. The longer I stared, the less potent was the glowing, until I barely noticed it. Had he dimmed his glow somehow?

He moved to
Lallielle. They embraced, as if they hadn’t seen each other in days. The love between them was intense. For a moment I swear an intertwining aura circled them in waves of pink and silver. I shook my head. This ‘crazy’ thing I was starting to do was a little concerning.

Was this my father?

This larger-than-life – possibly glowing – man-giant?

Lallielle
’s stories all implied that she’d made all the decisions alone.

Where had this colossally over-sized person
been during everything?

He laughed loudly then, a deep husky woof. He even threw his head back as if there was nothing he did that was half-hearted.

“I can read your thoughts, daughter, especially when you are projecting so strongly at me.”

I froze.
Did he just say ...?
What the eff?
“Can everyone read my thoughts?”
Surely not. Brace would have known we were from Earth and that I thought he was the yummiest thing since chocolate chip cookies.

“No,
Josian is special.” Brace said it laughingly, interrupting my inner monologue.

Josian
turned and flashed some type of hand signal I didn’t understand. Grinning broadly, Brace reciprocated.

My parents moved closer
before they sat on the floor. It looked kind of ridiculous to see such a stunning couple sprawled on the ground.

Josian
was even more intriguing close up. His rich golden skin continued to glow lightly. He was like a sunrise.

“
Josian is your father and he can read your thoughts because he’s ... more special than anyone you’ll meet on First World.” Lallielle snuggled into his side as she talked.

She was dwarfed by him as he clasped her left hand
and raised it to his lips to kiss.

“Your mother is being overly generous
toward me. I’m not special, just different. I’m not from First World and am far older than any creature that walks these worlds.”

Of course he was
.

His lips twitched minutely.

Shit ... crap ... stupid mind-reader.

“Stop reading my thoughts – they’re private
– and it’s rude.”

He held his free hand up in surrender, but his eyes twinkled with unshed laughter.

“So if you’re not from First World, then where?”

His engaging smile never wavered
. “I’m a part of an ancient clan of ...” He paused, his expression thoughtful. “Deities – for no better explanation. We are Walkers and for many millennia we have wandered the galaxy, explored worlds and defined cultures. We were the teachers of mischief and mayhem. We do not age or die.”

My jaw dropped open.

He grinned broadly. “Now the majority of my family sleep. They wake at different moments throughout history. In many of the major moments on record – throughout all seven of these worlds – Walkers were involved.”

His entire
demeanor softened as he stared into Lallielle’s eyes. “A few of us have found our reasons to settle into worlds.”

The autumn of his eyes deepened to a rich vibrant gold as he touched
Lallielle’s cheek.

I just had one thing to say.
“A deity? Come on, you’re some type of god?”
Give me a break.

I’ve never had much interest in religion.

Yeah, I’ve heard the stories. I figured they were created to scare people. I’ve never encountered any actual evidence of their existence.

Lallielle
elbowed him. “He wishes.” She looked at me. “There are no confidence problems amongst Walkers.”

He winked at me
. “Deity’s not completely accurate, but it’s close. Our people have been worshipped as gods over the years.”

“So what are your powers?” I had an amusing vision of
Josian in red-and-blue Superman tights.

His grin
ning mirth did not waver. If anything, there was an extra twinkle in his molten eyes. Had he just seen my mental pictures?

“We cannot control or create worlds. Our key abilities lie in
world-walking and adaption. We can live anywhere and we can walk between any of the worlds. We do not need anything to keep us alive – food, water, shelter, oxygen – nothing.” He shrugged. “And we are strong, heal easily and are almost impossible to kill.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I glared at
Lallielle. Why had she sent me to Earth for safety when my father was this alleged god?

For the first time
Josian’s face dropped slightly.

Lallielle
, picking up on this minute change, looked at him questioningly.

“She wants to know why I didn’t save her,” he answered quietly.

Lallielle patted his arm and smiled.

His expression lifted
a little. “I was a bit of a scoundrel, moving through the worlds, seducing women and then moving on.”

He didn’t sound embarrassed; it was said as simple fact.

“Your mother changed everything; finding her was finding home. But of course at the time I was strong willed and hard headed. I resisted the feelings, fought against bonding and left. I had no idea she was pregnant. I had no idea I could even mate with humans. We might look genetically similar, but I’m not human. I was ... I believed it wasn’t possible. Luckily Lalli is from the oldest and strongest of First World. No other could carry my power to term in a child.”

His
mesmerizing eyes flashed.

“I will never forget what I’ve done, the pain I’ve caused. I left your mother in a deteriorating world, pregnant and alone whilst I threw the equivalent of a temper tantrum across the universe. I’m only grateful my brothers knocked some sense into me pretty quickly.”

Lallielle chuckled then. “Keep in mind ‘pretty quickly’ to these immortals was actually three years here.”

He turned his face away
and sighed. It didn’t in any way indicate a weakness; but there was a sense of tired.

“Time means something very different as you witness thousands of years pass. By the time I
returned to First World, Lallielle had already made the difficult decision of hiding you. I missed my chance and Earth is a contradiction to any other planet: such a magic void that I could not find you.”

He shook his head.

“And yet you sit here before me and it’s the same as always: you emit no energy signature. You should be shining bright with power, but besides the occasional thought – nothing.”

I was relieved to hear that. I didn’t need powers on top of everything else.

“I wondered about that.” Lallielle said quietly. “And Josian, love, you must stop blaming yourself.”

She
turned back to me while leaving a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“When I first met your father, I instantly fell in love with him. He was unlike anyone I
’d ever known. At the time I didn’t know of the Walkers, but it soon became apparent he did not think or act as a human would. He was arrogant with his power – they’d wandered as Gods among people for too long.”

She
laid a gentle kiss against his cheek.

“I’ve told
Josian many times that, in leaving us, he was humbled. No matter his power, everyone has a weakness – his love for you and me – this is what changed him enough that he can live a normal human life.”

“What about Sam
?” I was trying to work out the logistics.

“
Samuel is your half-brother.” Lallielle’s features paled, the life draining from her eyes. “He has been lost to us for a year now. Born of drama. He has always walked a rocky path.”

I opened my mouth to ask what the hell she was talking about, but she continued.

“Before I met Josian there was a mesmerizer that lived here in Angelisian. He was a master at deception; no one realized he’d been driven insane from his power. He somehow started to believe that I was his destined mate. He held me prisoner for two years.”

She swallowed.

“I wanted to die for almost every moment but I didn’t ... I survived. In the end, when Samuel was born, I could not let my baby be raised there, so I waited for the perfect moment, and I escaped. My dreamer abilities counteracted some of his mesmerizer strength.”

Josian
growled quietly. The animalistic rumble filled the room.