Transcendence?

***Jamaian Union, Jamai-Capital***

“~Haaah. So what do we do with you?~”

The white lady sits down in front of me and looks deep into my eyes. “~Who are you?~”

“Sera …”

Uwah. Somehow she has a very strange look in her eyes now. I look at Tjena to avoid the eye contact.

“~And how old are you?~”

“She is a little older than one year.” Tjena answers for me while she is still on her knees and holding her head.

But the white lady ignores her. “~And your real age?~”

I think a few pearls of sweat are forming on my forehead right now. Did I make a mistake somewhere? Where did I screw up to arouse her mistrust. “... age?”

“Empress, she is just …” But Tjena is interrupted by the white lady.

“No. She is not. The way she looks around is too purposeful for a one year old. And when you threatened her, she immediately went silent. A one year old wouldn't be able to control herself like that once she started crying. And a little child like that wouldn't accept a gag either. Her whole behaviour suggests that she is much older than she looks.” The white lady's smile becomes a little dangerous and I look to the ground.

“So? How old?”

Damn! I guess there is no point in denying it. “I don't know exactly. About one thousand lifetimes?”

Tjena's mouth falls open. “You played me!? The shelf! All the time you did it with purpose! But she is a baby! She can't be that old!”

“I told you about reincarnation. Didn't I? She is an ~immortal~. You may have done well in the end, Tjena. Probably she was the driving factor behind the rise of Ascathon's principality.” The white lady nods to herself.

“But she wasn't even born by then!” Tjena has a valid argument against it.

The white lady tilts her head. “So we have two immortals? What are the chances for that? I never met someone like me and now I meet two on this world? They even belong to the same family? The odds against that are just too high!”

She takes another look at me. “You should take off that fur. You will get a heatstroke. And later we'll talk.” Without my consent, she starts to undress me. “Tjena, get some servants to take care of her.”

Tjena nods, opens the door to the office and calls for assistence.

“Can I go back home? Mom and dad will turn around every stone to find me.” I look at the white lady.

She shakes her head. “After finding out who you are, I can't let you go. I have a goal for this world and someone like you could seriously hinder my efforts.”

“Mom and dad are scary you know? If they find out where I am, they will …” But the white lady interrupts me.

“I am not afraid of mortals. And forgive me if I crush your bubble, but even if you are an immortal, compared to me you are nothing more than an infant. Your parents may be talented, but a mortal is still just a mortal. I have to find out the secret behind their knowledge.” The white woman starts to gnaw at her fingernail while two female servants and three guards enter the room.

Shit. I want to go home! Unconsciously I reach for my amulet and hold it tight. This sucks … my happy life with mom and dad is going to become unreachable at this rate.

Dad said that the amulet would protect me! But nothing happens, even if I infuse my mana into it. Crap.

The first servant touches me and suddenly a powerful wave of mana erupts from my amulet and wanders into the servant who freezes up like a statue.

Everyone inside the room felt the strange wave of power and all eyes are set on me and the servant who is touching me on my shoulder. Then the servant's numbness stops and she starts to look around like not knowing where she is while trying to get a grasp on the situation.

“Arrest her!” The white lady is the first to speak and points at the servant. One of the three guards steps forward and grabs the blond haired woman at her upper arm.

The woman says nothing and smiles at the guard. With a casual and relatively slow movement she reaches for the knife in his belt, draws it and stabs the guard.

All three guards are wearing chest pieces and leather armour. Full body armour doesn't seem to be practical in this climate, so their armours are very light and protect only vital spots.

The woman stabbed the knife into the weak spot below the chest armour, where the leather trousers start. The guard looks down in shock. Obviously not fully comprehending why an obedient slave suddenly attacked without remorse.

The smiling blonde twists the knife and draws it out of the guards side.

That's the moment when the room unfreezes and everyone starts moving! The other guards draw their swords and the other female servant runs out of the room while screaming.

The blonde who touched me steps forward to attack the next guard, but the other two guards are warned and the next target parries the knife with one armoured hand.

A thrust of the sword impales the woman right through her chest! In a vain attempt, the dying blonde reaches for the guard's arm while falling over.

Everyone is still stunned while the guard retrieves his blade from the dead servant. The guard who was stabbed earlier is kneeling on the ground while trying to stop his wound from bleeding.

After having retrieved his weapon, the guard who killed the blonde draws his own knife and embeds it into the throat of his unwounded comrade who let his guard down after the servant was taken care of.

The unsuspecting victim goes to the ground with blood spurting from his mouth. The other wounded kneeling guard watches in utter disbelief as his friend's sword flashes down on him.

A cleanly severed head rolls over the floor and the remaining guard runs towards the white lady who starts to raise her hand.

But Tjena gets in between and stabs a knife, which suddenly appeared in her hand, right into the guard's chest. The blade sinks into the armour like through cloth.

“Tjena!” The white lady raises both hands and a shimmering barrier appears around her aide and the guard.

Tjena walks backwards while the guard crumbles to the ground. Then she turns around to face the white lady.

“Everything is okay. You can drop the barrier.” Tjena smiles.

“Tjena?”

“Yes? My Empress?” Tjena still smiles like everything is okay.

“How did you end up in my service?” The white lady doesn't drop the barrier. She has a worried expression and comes a step closer.

“ … ” Tjena remains silent.

“Tjena!”

“She isn't here” Tjena takes another look around until her eyes find mine and she smiles. “I want my daughter back. Right this instant, before my wife decides to pay you a visit.”

“How!?” The white lady takes a step backwards again.

“Mind magic of course. Combined with a little soul magic. Weaker individuals can be played like puppets if you pull the right strings. It works by sending your soul through an appropriate transmitter into another body.” Tjena starts to scratch her chin and looks down at her body. “I may have to introduce myself. I am Ascathon Asceron. And I think you are the Immortal Empress?”

“Release Tjena!” The white lady starts to shiver in rage.

“Of course! Right after you return my daughter. Looks like I took over exactly the right person. She seems important to you.” Tjena smiles and starts to play with her knife. “If you don't, I might do something to this body.”

“You wouldn't! What will you do without a body!”

“To be honest, I never tried this before. There are various safety measures, which should send me back to my original body.” Tjena shrugs her shoulders. “Who cares. If everything goes wrong, the worst thing that happens is reincarnation.”

That means? Dad is a reincarnated person too!? And mom!? Ah … some of their discussions finally make sense now!

The Immortal Empress says nothing. Then her gaze wanders towards me. Oh! No! You won't harm a child!

“Don't even think about it!” Tjena stabs her knife into her own leg without flinching. “I can kill this body any time!”

The Empress's mouth opens and shuts a few times without a word. “Fine. But you have to release Tjena!” She drops her hands and the barrier vanishes.

“It's always a pleasure to negotiate with reasonable people.” Tjena turns around and limps towards me. I get taken under one arm. While the other still holds the dangerously sharp knife. “If you would be so kind as to show me a Gate?”

A forced smile appears on the Empress's face. “Of course. I have my own Gate in the courtyard.” She waves towards the door and leaves the room with Tjena following.

“You know whom you are holding under your arm?” The white lady starts a discussion while we walk slowly through her mansion. Just a few steps after leaving the office, we are surrounded and escorted by soldiers.

“Of course. The little princess is my important daughter.” Tjena's voice is happy and without doubt.

“So you don't care about having an immortal as daughter? When did you find it out?” The Empress looks at us with surprise.

“Since she started talking and reading books of course. She is a devilish little monster, but so far she has done me more good than bad. She was especially useful to find out why Tjena came to spy on me. She is really good at evading mind magic. I let her be to find out what she is after. But to abduct my daughter out of the blue...” We arrive in the courtyard and head towards the Gate. Just one magician is taking care of the artefact. “By your question I assume that you are a reincarnated person too? You were really lucky with that body. I may try to duplicate that power.”

“And how old do you happen to be?” The Empress's smile looks still extremely forced while Tjena sets me down in front of the Gate and waves the magician aside.

“To be honest, I stopped counting long ago. What does it matter? If you have been everything that's possible, you don't care any more. King, hero, demon lord, good guy, bad guy. Everything becomes void in the end. There is only one thing that you can do in the end.” Tjena smiles while operating the controls and magic circles on the Gate. “Do what you want and be happy.”

“And what is it that you want to do?” The Empress folds her arms in front of her chest.

“Doing my research without interference! I want to know why we are remembering our past lives while everyone else doesn't.” Tjena gives the Immortal Empress a frightening look. “So don't interrupt my business.”

She infuses mana into the gate and a connection is being built up. The person who steps through the Gate is very well known to me. “~Mom!~”

“~Hi, Sugar cat!~”

Celestial picks me up and gives Tjena a disgusted look. “Couldn't you have picked another body? It freaks me out if you call me like that while being in that form! And I would have liked to beat that woman black and blue.”

“No problem. I already stabbed her as punishment.” Tjena raises her bloody leg and points at the wound.

Mother looks around and then her eyes set onto the white lady. “Be glad that my daughter doesn't seem to be hurt! I would have dismembered you otherwise!”

My mother turns around and walks through the Gate. I am able to look back over mom's shoulder while being carried. Not being able to control myself, I smirk and wave goodbye to the Empress.

“~Bye!~”

.