Buffy walked through doors that opened for her. They led into another room that changed during the night. The sitting room was done in white with the ring's symbol engraved in green. Buffy's dress was the perfect foil for the new room.
She walked over to sit in a small chair, then looked at Sholto. "You can let them in now." Sage fluttered close to smell her scent. "Tink, sit down and quit sniffing me."
"But, Lady, you smell so good. What is that scent?" His eyes closed as he inhaled deeply.
"It's me, Tink, my blood." Sage's wings stopped moving causing him to fall like a stone. Buffy tossed a pillow to soften his fall.
"Sage," Merry rushed over when she entered. "What happened? What did you do?"
"I think he OD'd on the scent of my blood," Buffy deadpanned.
"What do you mean the scent of it? Are you cut? Did you share blood with someone?" Hundreds of scenarios raced through Merry's head.
"Merry, Merry, smell her it's like the sweetest wine. I can't explain it, just smell." Sage crawled back to his feet straightening his yellow kilt.
"Oh, for goodness sakes, we have more important things to do this morning, than whether or not I smell like a Happy Meal with legs."
Merry inhaled and her eyes went wide. Last night she felt the power present in Buffy but, today, it was a living, breathing entity. "Buffy, why are you so much more today?"
"Well that is a fine good morning. Fine last night I was tired okay. I woke up, spoke to the Valar, had a little chat with Mother Nature, came here, kicked Andy's ass, put down Drac, and to finish it all off I had to accept and join the Mound to the Sithin. Kinda takes a lot out of you, plus I was out of practice. Today what you see, smell and feel is all me. The complete, wide awake and fully rested me."
"By the consort," Doyle muttered. If she did all that when she was tired, what is she capable of fully rested?
"If everyone needs to take a big whiff, go ahead, come ahead with your noses at the ready." Buffy sighed. Her soft sigh washed over them like a cool breeze. It comforted them like a warm embrace.
"Could you do that again?" There was a hopeful puppy look on Galen's face.
"You look like Peter Pan. Actually, you remind me of a dear old friend." Galen brought Haldir to mind, with his mischievous smile and twinkling eyes.
"Lady, I would be your friend or trained puppy, if you'd do that often." Buffy laughed and everyone including Merry felt a rush of sensual pleasure hit their bodies. They immediately started to glow.
"Oops, my bad, sorry guys. I'll have to watch that around you, won't I. You seem to be even more, uhm, easily stimulated, than what I am used to."
"No need to change on my account." He fluttered around Buffy's head.
Sage would swoop in close to inhale then dart back out again. Buffy narrowed her eyes at him. So, you want to play, huh. She ignored him and turned to speak to Sholto. Sage flew in again but Buffy's hand shot out in a blur of green and white. She plucked him from the air.
"And you Tink remind me of someone else who always ended up in trouble. Now land somewhere and be good or I'll trap you in a bubble until we're through." Sage nodded and flew to the safety of the other side of the room.
"Merry, who is the proud poppa bear?"
"I am Lady." He stood proudly, back ram-rod straight with one hand on Merry's shoulder.
Buffy looked from him to the auburn-haired princess. "Very well, I need to talk to the two of you alone."
"No," he answered, "we discussed it last night. We decided that we all have a right to know the child's future."
She looked across the sea of faces. "Please, sit, this will take a little time to tell. I plan to join the two courts together." The others started to protest. "Let me finish. The fey are fading for several reasons. One, Sho discovered this morning. The fey don't respect their magic. The blood lines are weak, since the power is cut in half between the two courts."
"But how do you plan to join them? The Unseelie, by its very name, is everything the Seelie see as impure. They will never accept us. Taranis, their king, will start a war before he lets that happen," Frost stated, matter-of-factly.
"Calm down, Mr. Freeze, that's my job. I have to bring the worlds of magic together. If I don't when my hundred years is over and I join my mate, the world of fey and all its magic will go with me. It will be destroyed."
"What do you mean? We will cease to exist?" Merry's face was pale and she squeezed his hand.
"Yes, the piece of me that exists in every creature of fey will disappear. When that happens so does the host. I have a hundred years to try and teach you how to live a different way. To change thousands of years that evolved to this place and time. Do you understand what my quest is all about?"
They nodded at her speechless. Their entire world could disappear if this one woman didn't succeed at what seemed to be an impossible task.
"What is my role and that of my child?" Merry asked.
"I want to place you as Regent once I step down. You will hold it in trust for your child. There will be Stewards from the other kingdoms, but they will ultimately answer to one ruler - your child. While you are regent, I will train the child to one day wear my ring of power."
"I would be a figurehead, not a true ruler."
"The same authority if Andy had been truthful with you. I'll be there as an Enforcer. You'll be putting new laws in place. Merry, you understand this world better than anyone. Your father taught you how to negotiate its pitfalls. That knowledge is a greatly needed asset. If you took the Unseelie thrown, once your child became an adult were you going to hold onto it or give it to them?"
"I don't know. I hadn't thought that far ahead."
"Merry, be truthful. You aren't immortal and in many ways are happy about that fact. Once you passed away, who would take the throne - your consort or your child?"
"My child of course," she answered without thought.
"And if that child wasn't ready yet, your consort correct. What happens if your consort decides the power is nice and the throne is comfy?"
"But they can't, it has to be by bloodline to assume the throne," Merry stumbled over her answers.
"I would ask your friend, Aquaman, about that. They call him, the Kingmaker, don't they? Ask him why sometime, Merry. You should learn the history behind this court and its rulers."
She looked at Doyle and Rhys, the oldest of her lovers. They looked away refusing to meet her eyes.
"Merry, if I promised you a hundred years of life, that you'd live to see your child on a united throne. Would you accept?"
"Be careful," Doyle warned as he moved to get closer to her.
"Yes, I would accept." Merry ignored them all. She would live a hundred years with her child. It was more than she expected last night.
"And you, would you accept, the same as her consort?" He looked at her, then at Merry who watched him, whose doubts and fears showed in her eyes.
"Yes, I would also," he answered, squeezing Merry's hand.
"But, you are immortal." "What are you doing?" Voices objected one on top of the other.
"Shh," Buffy hushed them. The room fell into silence, while Buffy watched the expectant parents.
"Merry come here." She walked forward and Buffy placed her hand onto the princess' cheek. "Look at me, Merry." She looked straight into Buffy's green eyes. Buffy pulled her close kissing her.
Merry opened her mouth in surprise, then closed her eyes when the most intense pleasure washed over her body. She floated on a cloud, warm air rushed over her body, caressing her everywhere. She felt her skin and eyes start to glow. Merry opened her eyes to look at Buffy. She thought she'd never seen anything so beautiful in her life. She could stay in this place looking at Buffy. Her body shown in a golden light with another opalescent white light bound around it. Her eyes were forest green and welcomed Merry to enter.
She fell into the green pools to see a forest unlike any she had ever known. It was made of trees grander, than even the great Redwoods. Their trunks resembled the gold and white of Buffy's skin, with leaves the color of her eyes. Walking forward, Merry saw beautiful grand homes built into the very trees themselves. Stairways wrapped lovingly up and around the trunks. A huge creature that appeared to be a living tree bowed before a tiny child. The child was something out of a dream, with golden hair, white glowing skin, huge green eyes and delicate pointed ears.
The tree carefully plucked the child from the ground and settled her on its highest branches. The little fairy child laughed and talked to the tree. Birds stopped singing, whenever her laughter rang out through the forest. Merry blinked only to find herself back in the room staring at Buffy. She didn't glow, but wore the same smile as the fairy child.
"It was you that child was you. That was your world." Merry whispered looking at Buffy in wonder.
Buffy tenderly touched her cheek. "Yes, Merry that was a happy memory, and now it's yours. You can peek back in that world when you dream, if you wish."
Merry shakily sat down in a chair. "What did you see, Merry?" Kitto asked, from beside her chair. Her hand automatically began to brush through his hair. "I saw a forest like no other, it was magical, beautiful. I saw Buffy as a tiny child, no more than three. There was a tree that walked and talked."
"His name was Treebeard. He was an Ent."
"You were different somehow. Your ears were pointed like Doyle's, and when you laughed the birds stopped singing."
Buffy nodded, "Yes, I was born an elf in the Forest of Lothlorien. I left when I was five and returned several thousand years later, looking like I do today."
"So, we come from Elves?" Galen grinned at the thought. He always wished he had pointed ears like Doyle's.
"I will explain more, later. Will the proud papa, please, step up?"
He walked up to her cautiously stopping mere inches away. Her hand went to his face without a word she drew his mouth to her's. Her breath entered his strong body. He stiffened in her arms as his body responded; it grew hard with want, need and desire. As her breath rushed through him, it filled every cell of his being. Opening his eyes, he fell into her world.
He saw her fighting some strange dark beasts, unlike any he had ever seen in his long years. Watching her fight was like seeing a deadly ballet. She was everywhere and nowhere at once. The power, strength and skill she displayed was amazing and frightening. Buffy moved almost blindly through the black creatures leaving none behind her. She floated in the air, a cloud of crimson fire shooting from her body. It shot into something that looked like a giant eye. When the eye exploded it washed over the others fighting melting the remaining dark creatures into the Earth.
"Are you okay?" He heard Buffy ask. "What was that? You were...what did you do?"
"What did you see? Tell us," Merry demanded.
He turned to her and she gasped. "What, what is wrong?"
Merry walked over to place a hand on his cheek. "Your face, can't you feel it? Your eye, Rhys she healed your eye."
He felt his face. The scar was gone. In its place was smooth flawless skin. Rhys turned back to Buffy. "Why?"
"I saw your pain. Being a parent will be hard enough, you shouldn't have to doubt yourself, too. I'll tell you a secret, children love you regardless of what you look like. It's much you love them that counts."
"Could you explain what I saw?"
"Merry saw me at the beginning. It was only fair to show you how you the fey were created. It was a spell that started a chain recreation, but I didn't know it at the time."
"My mate and I lived several hundred years with Man then left for Valinor. It is a place only accessible to the Elves and a few others. Legolas lived for a thousand years, until an accident took his life. I wasn't allowed to follow him. I tried to continue without him, but my heart wasn't in it. I chose to sleep vowing not to wake until we could be together."
"Rhys, saw the spell that ended up creating our forefathers and therefore us." Doyle pieced everything together.
"Just how old are you?" Galen looked for signs of age.
Buffy's tinkling laugh tickled their spines. "When I returned to Middle Earth more than 7000 years had passed. Where I was time passed at a much faster rate. I don't even know how or when Middle Earth merged into Earth. My best guess is maybe a million or two." She shrugged her shoulders. Her life seemed endless, like one of those clown scarves. No matter how hard she pulled it never broke free and ended.
"You really don't want to rule this world, our world, do you?" Kitto edged closer looking up at her with trusting eyes.
A hand went down to lift his face up. "No little one, I don't. Kit, what happens to you?"
He looked down with fear on his face. "I go back to Kurag and my master."
"What do you want to do?"
"Stay with Merry or you."
"Is that all right with you, Merry?" Merry nodded, her worry for the little half-Sidhe weighed heavy on her heart. "If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be Kit?"
"To be accepted, to be Sidhe." His voice held a note of anger for everything he'd endured.
"Kit, come give me a kiss."
Buffy pulled him onto her lap. Looking into his huge blue eyes, Frodo sprang to mind. The little hobbit went to Valinor with her parents living to the ripe old age of 500.
Pressing his lips to hers, Kitto wrapped his small arms around her neck. Buffy felt his tiny fangs and gave him what he needed, her blood. When the scent hit the room, everyone caught their breath. It carried the scents of earth, sunlight, power and an unimaginable dark wild magic. Sage was beside himself as he grew to his larger form. His hands worked, in near a maddened state, on his hardened flesh to find release.
The others, including Merry, felt the pulse of Buffy's heart low in their bodies. Each held onto the one next to them forming an endless circle of glowing Sidhe flesh. Their eyes closed as they screamed when their orgasms flooded their bodies. It was wave after wave of almost endless pleasure. When it finally stopped and their breaths returned to normal, standing before them was a Kitto unlike anything they could have imagined. He stood just over six foot tall with broad shoulders that tapered down to a slim waist, and long curly hair that went to his knees. Kitto's eyes were black fading into to a deep navy blue and at the center, his original dark blue remained. His pupils were slits like Barinthus'. His beautiful mouth looked even more tempting, smiling at his friends.
"Kitto, you are beautiful," Merry said. She started to go to him but Rhys held her back. Merry forgot she wasn't allowed to touch her former lovers. She sat down, but couldn't take her eyes from Kitto's face. "You must stay Buffy. She is the only one Kurag will release you to."
"That isn't true anymore; Kroger has no say over what Kitto chooses to do. He can do what he wants. Hopefully, people in this room will help me change things for the better. If Kitto would like he is welcome by the Mound and the Sithin."
"That is like the third time you have said that. They are the same thing." Frost said exasperated.
"Oh, really Mr. Freeze, how do you know?"
"Everyone knows that." He crossed his arms with a smug look on his face.
"Right Dreamsicle, who told you? Can you speak to either? Nope, didn't think so. Merry, you said before that the Mound welcomed you. When you stepped into the Sithin did it feel the same?"
"No, but Andais."
"Nope, Andy was its mistress, but it was an agreement, a partnership. She didn't own it or rule it. The Mound is the outer shell and the Sithin is the gooey center. They work together but are separate. The Sithin can't survive on its own while the Mound can."
"So, Andais was what, its anchor or hook?" Sholto asked. He was so quiet, the others forgot he was there, Buffy hadn't.
"Yep, the Mound didn't need or want Andy anymore. Didn't you wonder why the roses were dying? For being so old and ooh powerful, you guys sure are gullible. The roses were part of the pack between her, the Sithin and the Mound. Merry bought her some time when the roses recognized her, but it wouldn't have lasted. Not with what she planned for your child. She broke even your basic laws which you have what a whole three. The last attempt on your life was put in motion before Cel was imprisoned. Andais knew and ignored it, since only a month remained of his punishment."
"What happens if the Sithin doesn't bond with someone?" Merry asked the question on everyone's mind.
"If not caught in time it would absorb everything inside."
"By the Consort," Doyle said. "Is that what happened last night? You bound it to you? The rose light we saw and the room smelled like roses."
"She was magnificent," Sholto said proudly.
"Yes, I bound them to me there wasn't time for anything else. Andy was trying for an end run. The Sithin didn't know what to do and the Mound was angry. I kinda made them shake hands and play nice. Sage, if you are through spanking your monkey, would you go get Nicci?"
Everyone laughed at the little Demi-Fey who just regained control of his body. "If a Demi-Fey were to drink your blood, Lady, what would happen?"
"Depends, you can't get what I don't give, since each of you carry a part of me inside. It would be controlled by what I wanted to happen. If I wanted you to simply disappear, you would."
"Disappear to where?" Sage's grew face heavy with curiosity.
"To nothing, as if you never existed." Buffy leveled a look at him to let him know she meant every word.
"You can do that with just a taste of your blood?" Rhys asked incredulously.
Buffy looked him in the eyes. "Ry, I could do that with but a single drop," she paused, "or none at all."
"Then why don't you just make the ones disappear that you don't like," Frost asked.
"You volunteering." She raised an eyebrow. "You're pretty to look at, but so far you seem to be a major pain in the ass. The reason I don't is because no one should have that much power, have no choice, to have no rights, no control. That is why, Tinseltown."