Marela looked blankly at the other alchemist. What could she say? They were free to choose how they lived, as long as they did not hurt others.
"He will go with me so you will sever all ties with him. No longer dictate his life, and no longer stipulate the necessity to reside within an illusion. Sever ALL ties."
Caremela nodded respectfully. "As you wish Grand Mistress."
Marela stood stock still looking at nothing in particular. As she thought the false stalagmite rose, shrank a bit, and then disappeared.
"Come back with me. I see that you will not obey our rules."
"Our rules are stagnant Grand Mistress. We were created to experiment."
"Most of us were created because of experimentation not to experiment ourselves. True Alchemist, of all beings, should understand the dangers and the responsibilities of experimentation. We are the affects of causes."
Marela stopped speaking, she looked at the Alchemist before her. She had known this individual since their creation. She had always known that Caramela was unstable and their views were highly controversial but she hoped that they would calm with time and experience.
All true Alchemist valued life, no matter the form, and when a true Alchemist was created they refused to destroy them. They hoped they would integrate and be productive in some way shape or form.
And who was to say what was right and what was wrong. Were things always supposed to easily defined or should they all be measured along a lateral scale?
But they always said to extinguish life was always wrong, no matter the reason for it.
Marela was ready to destroy Caremela without question and without consulting the rest of the governing council. This being was going to cause her Amethyst pain if she allowed them to continue.
She would not allow her family to be hurt in any way.
"Marela. Your thoughts are way too loud. Calm down. Bring them here and we will decide this later. I will confine them so do not worry about that."
Marela smiled, her eyes narrowing. She hated when Anabel so easily heard her thoughts. She had a sneaking suspicion that Anabel was always in her mind listening but never saying anything.
There was silence and Marela shook her head.
"Come with me. You will be confined and once your creation is safe we will go to the council."
Caremela simply nodded.
Anabel and Allistar healed Solnm but he did not regain consciousness.
They had all returned to the shop within the illusion. Amethyst lay beside Solnm on a vast bed in a room above the shop and refused to leave his side.
"Both of our children are very stubborn."
Anabel shrugged even as she was deep in thought. "They are our children. Stubbornness and arrogance are only natural.
"I think we should exit the illusion. Our presence may be causing an issue."
"But Marela has severed those ties."
"I know but perhaps Solnm's system hasn't understood this yet."
Allistar nodded. "Then let us exit. You need to confine this Caremela anyway. Maye they are still exerting some influence."
"If they are promise that you will kill them daddy."
"Promise."
Anabel frowned as she and Allister faded from the illusion.
She had known that Amethyst was included in their mental conversation but the hatred she felt from her stunned her a bit.
Allistar kissed her mind and sent a sense of comfort flowing through her body. "I have passed on more bad traits to our children than you have. I am sorry for that."
They formed a few feet before Marela and Caremela like 3D puzzles quickly put together piece by piece.
Before their forms were complete chains of black light wound around and through Caremela. They flared three times and then disappeared. Anabel smiled.
"That spell is even better than I thought."
Marela frowned. "When did you create a spell that confines and binds alchemical processes so securely."
Anabel shrugged.
"You know I perform a lot of alchemy and you know I have been working to bind the processes to make it a little safer for both of us."
Marela nodded. She knew everything that Anabel said but she had thought it was impossible. Now that she thought about it she remembered when Anabel had told her she had made a break through and Marela dismissed it and Anabel merely shrugged and did not speak about it again.
Marela shook her head at herself.
"Were you planning on teaching me."
"Of course. I was waiting on you to remember and ask."
Anabel returned her attention to the illusion.
Allistar took her hand in his and her sight became more acute. She saw the threads that extended to Caremela but had been cut off by her confinement spells.
She pursed her lips.
"They still had magic extending to Solnm. It seems to be a curse but…"
"It is not a curse. It is a fate spell that continually breaks and then restructures fate to what I feel is correct."
Caremela spoke while examining the binding spell she was under. She frowned and looked up at Anabel.
Anabel smiled at her look of confusion and shrugged. "It's a good spell isn't it?"
Allistar looked at Caremela with a wry smile. "I hope they try to escape."
Anabel laughed. "You truly know me too well."
She swept her hand forward and the illusion formation changed slightly. The illusions within the formation became more substantial. They were more realistic and their rules were a bit more binding.
"Amethyst. I will need to strengthen the illusion for a moment. I need to connect this illusion to Solmn then take over the duty of defining him and his fate and then end it all and allow him to exist on his own accord. Do you want to come out of the illusion or do you want stay.
"The process will most likely make you feel as if you pass at least one lifetime inside."
"I am staying inside mother. Please save him. He is awake but he can sense the difference in his existence."
"Okay. Tell him I already have control but he is still under the direct influence of the original spell."
Anabel began restructuring Caramela's spell. She began casting fate spells that would unknot Solnm's fate ties.
As she worked she felt Marg pull her as if she wanted to come to her. Anabel allowed her sorrow brill to do as she saw fit and continued slowly unknotting Solnm's fate.
Amethyst laid beside Solnm. It seemed like she and her mother had spoken a mere few moments ago. But here she was lying beside a man she now felt she could never live without, a full seven moths pregnant, and thinking about their two stores and six fishing boats.
She suddenly felt annoyed that she thought about their business non-stop and her beloved merely fished and played with their three year old son like everything was so carefree.
She felt the baby stir in her womb and as she smiled, placing her hand on her swollen belly, she froze.
All of this was an illusion. The sense of the illusion cracked in her mind but everything around her remained the same. She took a deep breath and allowed her hand to glide across her abdomen.
"How were you able to exist like this for so long?"
Tears welled up within her eyes as Solnm stirred next to her. He sat up and pulled her to him in one smooth motion.
She allowed herself to be drawn into him as she felt his kisses run down her neck and shoulder.
"I am sorry love. Please exit the illusion. I hate that you are so sad. This is all I have ever known but I do not want you to be tortured or feel any pain because of me."
"I can not leave you."
"You will not be leaving me. I perceive the illusion and reality as if they are one. I will be able to communicate with you whether you are inside or out. For me it is the same. The illusion is one city and reality is another and I can see both. I can not fully visit the other but I know and understand them both as if they are transposed upon each other. And I can "astral project" to reality.
"Go my love. I will be okay. We are always be together, always as one."
Amethyst sighed, smiled, then kissed him passionately on the lips. She rose from bed, a bit clumsily, forgetting about the baby inside her for a brief moment.
"I am opening the shop by the docks this morning. Ellana's daughter is sick and she is taking her to the doctor."
Solnm was out of bed in an instant and he pulled her to him again. He felt the baby move within her and he suddenly understood how this could be so painful for her.
For him illusion and reality were blurred concepts and were not completely divisible. For her there was a clear delineation. There was true and false. Real and fake and once they finally left the illusion all they were experiencing now would be relegated to falsehood.
"My love. Please exit this illusion. I was selfish in wanting to spend this time with you. I did not understand your perceptions I only thought in my own terms. Please forgive me."
"I am not leaving. I am staying here with you and that is final."
Solnm sighed deeply.
"I hope you can forgive me in time."
He kissed her deeply and when he stepped back and she was completely out of his grasp she was standing next to Marela.
Her eyes went wide but Marela put a hand on her shoulder and she almost instantly calmed.
"He did you a favor. You are already mourning a three year old and an unborn child that we would consider to have never existed. When he pushed you out an illusory you replaced you. He will not be alone."
Before Amethyst could respond a shadow flickered near her and a whisper brushed against her ear.
"I am always by your side my love. Please forgive me quickly."
She again felt his kiss and decided to allow him this once. Just once.
Both Marela and her mother laughed as the thought left her.
She shrugged.
"Mother please hurry and return my husband to me. I have to punish him for the next two decades."
Allistar smiled. "That is shorter than I would have guessed."