Page 20 of Out of Sight

Tobin smiled. “More bad men?”

“Yes, but this time, there were other people like me here who helped take care of them.”

Estelle blinked. “More like you?”

“Yes. And a woman who looks stunning in red.”

“Clothing?”

“Skin, with double pointed ears.” Arden chuckled.

Ekhart paled. “There are red djinn here?”

“At least one. She was hanging out with two green orcs.”

Ekhart’s eyes bugged out, and he looked at the other dark elf. “I think I need to speak to the king.”

Estelle grinned. “Go ahead. I need to get the briefing from Arden, and by the time that’s done, you should be back.”

Arden cleared her throat. “Can you dispose of this car? The owners are elsewhere. Forever.”

Estelle’s third smiled and nodded. “Keep an eye on Tobin. He’s poking the creepy dirt.”

Estelle moved to coax Tobin away.

When that was done, Arden, Tobin, and Estelle were alone on the property.

“Are you really leaving?”

“I am trying something new. Serin put my name forward, and frankly, officiating weddings and growing plants is right up my alley. If I am not here, the shadows should stop showing up.”

Estelle sighed. “I will miss you.”

“You can come on vacation, and I can put a flower crown on you and yours and ask the earth for her blessing.”

“Is it really a female presence?”

“No, it has the feel of any creature living, moving to survival. It is testing what will and what won’t work to get itself stronger and more able to thrive. The sky is not a male and the soil isn’t female. They are both composites of energy moving with the purpose of maintaining life and movement. Progress is the driving force.”

“Why did the elites come first?”

“Well, first, the world was betas, but then there was power to be distributed, so the elite came to become the next phase of our population, but they went sour and destroyed their females. The females needed the power to have their children safely, but the elders decided that they had power, and they were keeping it.”

Estelle blinked. “So we were a stopped evolution?”

“You are the restarted evolution. If the elite are the wolves of the population, the djinn are the dire wolves.”

“And you mages?”

“We are the Siberian tigers of the situation. Rare, independent, and dangerous. Some of us are gathering as we activate, but we can and do live alone as our powers don’t really play that well together. The dark elite are behaving; the shadow mages keep outing themselves from this side of the door. We are here to watch and act if action is called for.”

“How do you know that?”

“It came with the activation. Now, when are you going for your embiggening?”

Estelle sighed. “Soon.”

Arden pulled out a card. “Go here. Tell Udelle that I sent you and say you are about to have a growth spurt. She will give you a bottle that you take right before they begin working on you. It will make the pain far more benign.”