"Wait a damn minute. I thought grandma can't breathe out fire?" Alek looked at her cousins with confusion. She didn't remember if it was Minaki or her father who had told her about that since she wasn't exactly concentrating. "Sorry for my language." She hastily added when she realised she was with kings and queens.
"That's what I thought too..." Rin looked at the queen next to his brother with confusion too.
"Lady Mikoto likes to keep it a secret since it is an alternate weapon." Queen Paleine looked a little surprised since the grandchildren seemed to have been oblivious.
"Oh. But I think our mums would have known. I mean, they are mother and daughter. It's kind of weird that even mums don't know what their mother can do." Jin didn't look convinced by what the queen said.
"That's because there hasn't been a war or battle since your grandmother's reign. Hence, not knowing about it is completely normal." She replied calmly.
"Ah. That's a good thing, right?" Alek asked.
"It is. She is a peaceful person. Because of her, many battles have not occurred." Irving told them with a smile he was glad that his tribe was under the protection of her.
"Anyway, what do you think about my offer?" Queen Paleine turned to look at the next head of Minazuki.
"The main reason we came here is to know more about Himawari No Kaze before we go and meet them. I think it would be amazing to learn from you but, first, I have to meet my grandma and the tribe. So if you are willing to offer me the same way you do now after I am one, then will you ask me that again?" Alek felt really bad for rejecting the queen of nymphs' offer. She knew that she was a very nice person.
"Then I will wait until then. You are always welcome to my castle." Paleine told her with a smile.
"Thank you."
"You are welcome on mine too!" Tinka chimed in cheerfully.
"Also mine."
"And mine too." Terance and Irving told them.
"Thank you." Castor told them with gratitude.
"Sorry for the intrusion but, for you to contact them, I think you should give them the location. Also, it's twilight." Celeste came to Irving's side and kneeled while in the air.
"Oh yeah. We almost forgot. Here." Tinka made a movement with her hands and, a pink wave of heat came out of her hands. It slowly formed a magical symbol in the air about the size of her both hands. She manipulated the symbol for a little while before it became smaller and smaller before it became the size of her ringed thumb. "Take it." She handed it to Alek.
"Thank you?" Alek just put her hands around it carefully as if it was made of a bubble. "Uhh, what do I do with this?" The symbol wasn't becoming anything apart from just floating in the air.
"Do you mind having a tatoo?" Tinka asked all of a sudden and Alek almost squashed what was inside of her palm.
"Excuse me?!"
"What is your opinion on tatoos? Would you like to have one?" Tinka asked in the same tone.
"Some tattoos are pretty. I have thought of getting it but, I don't have any. I am kind of scared of putting tatoos." Alek replied while looking into her palm. The magical symbol was doing fine.
"Would you like to get one?"
"I mean if it's pretty them maybe...?"
"That's settled then. Where do you want it to be?" The pixie queen looked around the girl's body.
"Maybe in the centre of the chest?" Alek answered without thinking too much. One of her favourite books consisted of people that were descendants of an angel and men. They had special tattoos on their bodies that gave them supernatural abilities. One of the characters in it had an angelic tattoo on her chest that looked pretty. The mark itself was already pretty but, when it was on the middle of the chest, it looked sexy and pretty.
"Got it." Tinka turned into her original form and flew to Alek. She then took the symbol from Alek palm and held it in hers. In her size, the symbol was the size of her upper body, but she managed to hold it using all of her arms. She took the symbol to the centre of Alek's chest before placing it. The mark passed through the fabric and burnt her skin. It burnt for a few seconds before settling in like a pink tattoo on her chest.
"Sssss." Alek hissed as it burnt her skin. She then pulled the hoodie to check what had happened to her skin. "What the heck?!" She saw the mark on her chest and, the redness was starting to cover the area.
"That mark will bring you to my realm when you wish." Tinka told her. She had already shifted back and was looking at the girl affectionately.
"Will it ever come off?" Alek's head was still in her hoodie.
"I can remove it if you wish. But once I remove, I cannot out it again." She replied.
"Wow." Alek was stunned. "Will it have a negative effect on my body?"
"No. It is basically a normal tattoo apart from the ability to teleport you to my realm."
"Ahh." Alek nodded and pulled her head out of her cousin's clothes. She then looked up when she heard her cousins' hiss.
Paleine's hands were on Jin's wrist while Terance was doing the same thing to Rin. When they removed their hands, she could see marks, a little different from hers, were on their skin. Jin's was black, while Rin's was a dark shade of green. Because Alek had been concentrated on herself, she didn't see her cousins getting the same thing done.
"Wow." The twins looked at the freshly imprinted tattoos on their skin with admiration. They had thought of getting one but, when they really thought about it, they knew they would regret it. But this one was a different story. The mark that the nymph queen looked simple yet delicate and stunning. It consisted of marks of all kinds of nymphs plus trees and water. The mark that Terance put had a symbol of wood and elf in the middle circled by water.
"We four have taken a vow long ago that connects each other's realms. You can shift realms using the marks. But in case, we put what would be the main. You would be under our protection," Tinka put her arms around her husband and told Alek.
"You would be under mine." Terance told Pollux.
"And you would be under mine." Paleine told Castor.
"Thank you." The three said in unison as they stared at their marks.
"Can everyone see this? If it's a supernatural thing, would it be visible to... mandanes?" Alek asked Tinka.
"I can put a spell on it if you don't want your friends to suspect anything? But I cannot hide it from supernatural beings." The pixie replied. That mark surely looked pretty on Alek and, she knew it.
"That would be wonderful." Alek smiled and, Tinka murmured a spell that would shield the mark from non-supernatural beings. "Thank you."
"Do you wish the same?" Queen of nymphs asked the person she had put the mark on.
"No, thank you. It looks cool and beautiful. I would like to show it off." Jin replied and touched his tattoo.
"It's a bit feminine. You would not mind that?" Paleine had a smile on her face.
"No. I am used to feminine things an they look cute." He had a sister, after all.
"The same goes for me." Rin told Terance before he could ask.
"Okay. So I think it's settled then. Once again, you are always welcome. Also, these marks we put on you, if you wish to contact us, then just say 'connect' while thinking about us or the mark. That would make us be able to communicate with each other. It is like a mind link." Terance told them.
"Got it." Rin and Jin nodded.
"Connect." Alek mumbled as she thought of Tinka next to her.
[Yes?] Tinka turned to look at her with a smile.
"Woah, I guess this really works." Alek was surprised to happen this easily. She wished that shapeshifters could use this method too. It would be thousand times easier and less time-consuming. But thinking about it properly, that would make her body covered in tattoos if she wanted to talk to them through minds. That was something she didn't really want.
[It does.] Tinka wiggled her eyebrows.
"Alektrona, Castor, Pollux. I believe it is time." Jesper spoke all of a sudden and, they snapped their heads toward his direction. How the heck did he know their full names and names they didn't tell?
"How did yo-"
"We all knew your names." Tinka cut of Rin and answered what he was going to ask.
"How-"
"We are kings and queens, my dears. Why wouldn't we know?" She tilted her head and asked them. Her words somehow convinced them.
"Escort them out." Irving told his guard with a smile and, within a second, Celeste came and pulled the seats so that they could get off.
"Thank you." Alek told the fae and, he nodded.
"I'm sorry that I cannot escort you out." The king of Sibhruion looked extremely sad.
"The king has another meeting in ten minutes." Celeste replied before going to the door and bending it open.
"We are leaving too." Queen Paleine told Celeste and all apart from Irving began walking to the door.
"We'll see you soon." Terance told his friend as he and others left.
"Bye Irving!" Tinka waved her hand while the other held onto her husband. Jesper and Paleine nodded.
"I will drop you off until the entrance!" Irving couldn't bear to see his friends leaving for freedom. Why did he need to be the only one to suffer?