Since he was the last stop I had to make for the day, I suddenly found myself with four hours to kill until I had to meet up with the twins and Simon at the Chapel Fountain.
I was about to head for home to take a quick nap when my phone rang. A quick check showed an unknown caller.
I picked up the call.
"Yes?"
"Inanna. My name is Tangerine Osiris. I don't know if you remember me but I met you on Monday…"
I stopped walking. "Oh my gosh, you're Corwin's and Connor's mom!"
"Yes!" Tangerine Osiris laughed. "I'm glad you remember. Listen, is there any way you can meet up with me, even if just for fifteen or twenty minutes?"
"Of course, Mrs. Osiris. When would you like to meet up?"
"How about now?"
***
Fifteen minutes later, I was seated inside the MagiKat Coffee Shop near the Magik Bookstore with the beautiful vivacious Head of the Council of Mages.
"Good afternoon ladies!" Katrina, the owner of the coffee shop came around with two glasses of water which she placed on the woven bamboo table in front of us.
"What would you like to have today?"
I smiled and fixed my eyes on her. Katrina was a pantheran, one of a small group of hybrid lion-humans living in Topaz, and she was absolutely gorgeous.
Her tall lithe fur covered body was a deep golden color and her eyes were a bright amber, accented with silver above her brows. She looked like a summer goddess in her white smock dress and grass sandals.
"I'll have a mocha with cream," Tangerine Osiris tapped my hand. "Their caramel macchiatos are amazing here."
"Then that's what I'll have," I responded.
As Katrina took our orders and returned to the coffee bar, I snuck a glance at Tangerine Osiris.
She had the same shinny deep red hair that Corwin and Connor had but whereas they had deep blue eyes, hers was a pure emerald green.
Despite the fact that she looked like a model from the neck up, Tangerine Osiris was also wearing the black mage bodysuit and looked like a soldier from the neck down.
"Inanna—may I call you Nana? Lauren just goes on and on about you, and she calls you her sister Nana, so naturally in my mind, you are Nana."
I laughed. "Absolutely. She is such a cute little button that I feel as if she's my little sister."
"She's very lucky to have you as a sister. No—" she held out a hand at my insistence that I really was not involved with either of her sons.
"It has nothing to do with my boys. Lauren has always wanted a sister, and I cannot have any more children, so it is something that I have always thought would never be able to happen."
Tangerine Osiris laughed. "Imagine my surprise when she ran home to tell me all about you and how attached she felt to you."
She placed a hand to her heart. "The first time I met you, it was through Max. It was just an accidental meeting, but I have always believe in fate. You truly are fated to be her sister."
"You're an astrologer!" I gasped.
Only astrologers were truly aware of the gears of fate and how each gear turns and affects other gears, large and small.
"That is my field of study, yes, but ever since I've had the children, I really have not been able to follow the star charts as much as I'd like." There was something akin to regret in her eyes.
"I was just with Professor Jonesbarry."
"Ah. Edward Jonesbarry," Tangerine Osiris' eyes lit up and she smiled fondly. "He is a very old and dear friend. He was the head professor of my graduating Astrology class.
She sipped her mocha. "I used to follow Edward Jonesbarry around like a little bunny, trying to learn all I could from him. He always thought I was such a brat but he never excluded me from any of the work he did."
"You two worked together?"
"Well I wouldn't quite say we worked together. He was already Head of the Astrology department when I was still a graduate student under his tutelage."
Her warm green eyes sparkled. "But I was extremely blessed. For a very long time, I was his only assistant. He wouldn't take on any other assistant until I got married and had to quit working because I was pregnant with the twins."
She glanced at me surreptitiously. "Did he say anything about what's going on with the anomalies and the fact that we have all been called into reserve duty?"
"Yes. He said every single dimensional thread that he traced forward breaks at a certain event, and that the probability of our dimensional line's continued existence drops to almost zero."
As I said those words, I saw fear flare up in Tangerine Osiris' eyes.
Katrina approached our table at this moment with our coffee which saved us for a moment from having to speak out that fear.
Tangerine waited until Katrina had left before continuing our conversation.
"Did he say there was anything we could do to improve the odds?"
"He said—he said he threw variables in to see if there were any changes, but he was very pessimistic about the results. He said there were very little changes."
"I see…" she looked down at her coffee.
"He did give me something to keep safe though." I mused out loud. It could be nothing, but Tangerine Osiris was an astrologer. She may know something about the tiny round crystal.
I reached into my bag and brought out the box.
Tangerine Osiris's eyes grew wide. Her jaw dropped. It was as if she already knew what was inside the box.
She reached out for the box and gently opened the lid.
"Oh my God." She breathed as the sun glinted on the warm red aura of the orb. "I can't believe he gave that to you."
"Do you know what this is?"
"Yes." She stared at the sparkling orb. "This is his brainchild. In the hands of the right person, this could be something amazing."
"He told me to take it with me when I leave so that it has a chance to survive. He also said that if anyone could survive this, it would be me, Corwin, and Connor."
I squeezed my eyes shut. "I'm not really sure what this is, or what he means to be honest."
Tangerine Osiris shut the box and placed it back into my hands.
"Listen to me Nana. If Professor Jonesbarry says that you and my boys are going to survive through whatever crisis we may face, then I believe that with all my heart. Keep this safe. It is the culmination of a multi-generational effort."
"Who am I supposed to give this to?"
Tangerine Osiris smiled. "You will know when the time comes. And as for my boys…"
Her green eyes were filled with a spark that burned with hope and love. "I know that you don't know the boys well, but believe me when I tell you that they are very good human beings."
She brushed away unshed tears. "I'm not just saying that because I am their mother. They truly are good decent young men."
Tangerine Osiris bit her lip. "They have grown into very strong wizards with high integrity. My hope is that you kids will survive whatever troubles . Please take good care of each other."
I stared at her in confusion. It almost sounded as if she was placing her own children in my care.
"My husband and I will be taking Lauren out of the area tonight. I was hoping that you and the boys could come with us, but now I cannot in good conscience take you away."
"Why? And what about your sons?"
She shook her head. "I had suggested that they leave with me but they refused saying they had work to do here."
"If you insisted, I'm sure they would listen to you."
Tangerine Osiris shook her head. "I cannot insist that they leave their life's work behind on the rumor that something risky may or may not happen."
"But you are their mother," I sipped the caramel macchiato.
"Yes but they are full-grown wizard warriors with important work to do and not little babies that I can just pick up and take with me wherever I go."
She patted my hand. "And right now, their important life work is YOU."
"Me?"
"Yes. The one thing that Edward Jonesbarry did not tell you was this. One of the few variables that he introduced which gave the best results out of all the worst results, was the combination of you and the twins."
"What?" I wrinkled my brows. "I don't understand."
"The three of you are supposed to work on something together that will solve this crisis and change things around. I don't know what it is that you're supposed to do, but I do know this."
She reached out and touched my face. "I cannot take you away to try to protect you if your presence by my sons' side means that you and the boys' efforts will be the key to our salvation."
For a moment, I thought she was kidding. What in the world kind of sick joke was it to place the key to salvation on a disabled thaumaturge and two windsurfing wizards?
But her eyes were sincere so I did not dispute that thought. Nothing good ever came from destroying someone's hopes. Sometimes, it is all they have.
For the next thirty minutes we simply chatted about life in general, skirting around the large and ominous subject of the possibility of a mage war looming over our head.
It was around 3 pm when Tangerine Osiris received the message she had been waiting for all day. Her husband, Cobalt Osiris had returned and was waiting for her and Lauren at their home.
We both rose to leave but before she left, Tangerine Osiris had pressed into my hands two small gold rings. "Can you give these to the boys for me? Tell them it's from their mother."
She reached out to smooth my hair. "And since Lauren is your sister, please consider me your mother too."
I nodded as she reached out to hug me with fierce arms. The scent of lilacs and summer roses that she gave off clung to me for a few short seconds.
And in a moment, she slipped through a shimmering portal and was gone.
I stood there in that golden summer afternoon outside the MagiKat Coffee Shop, alone with the warmth of the sun on my face. The gentle breeze shifted directions and I could smell the aroma of fresh roasted coffee wafting outward from the coffee shop.
There were still the bird songs coming from the scented eucalyptus trees above me. Their warbling birdsong merged with the gentle murmurs of distant conversations from the group of mages across the cobblestone street haggling over the scarves and hats that were on display outside the clothing shop.
This was Topaz in all her glory.
At this very moment, it seemed as if paradise would continue forever. Everything felt so normal in that instant that I tried to absorb as much of the moment as I could.
All the rumbling and barely veiled innuendos about an impending war was just that—ephemeral whispers in the wind. The only reason that I even had an inkling was because due to my job, I had been going from professor to professor and gathering basic intelligence about the situation.
No one else on the street even acted as if there was anything untoward that was going to occur. Whatever that was going on was happening at the very highest levels.
Just then, several tall blonde women walked out of the Magik Bookstore with a handful of books. A dwarf in a round top hat and black vestment shuffled by with a briefcase in his hand.
I was about to walk away when a dog sniffed the ground at my feet and began licking my toes.
Wait a minute.
'Max?'