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Chapter 59 Dreams of the Past

  Lady Valentina of House Armstrong kicked off the blankets as she tossed and turned in the huge, too hot bed. She laid for a long moment, feeling the slightly cooler air wash over her form. Her green eyes popped open and she stared up at the canopy with annoyed expression. The nightmare floated in her mind as she remembered what happened a few days ago before she arrived in Camelot with Tristan.

  Tina sensed more then she saw the arrow slicing through the air, leaving a trail of her spiritual energy before the empowered arrow slammed into the stack of black powder barrels.

  BOOM!

  Tina’s eyes widened as she watched the barrels disappeared into the blooming flower of red, orange, yellow. Her gaze followed the flower as it reached into the sky before she felt the heat wash over her. At first, it was a sensation of a warm sunny day then it turned into the feeling of stepping under a too hot shower, before it transformation to the ‘Holy shit! That’s Hot!’ feeling and finally, Tina felt the burning feeling of standing too close to a open flame.

  She shook her head before she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She stood up and glanced over at the fireplace. She blinked, her lips parted and stared at the still roaring fire. She thought the fire would have died out or at least burnt itself to embers. The flames flickered back and forth like it was just brought back to life. She stepped around the bed and walked over to the fireplace, stopping once she was a few feet away from it and knelt down to peer into the fire. She raised an eyebrow as she didn’t spot a fresh log. In fact, the fire should have been embers now. She frowned as she spotted a faint blue color in the heart of the fire. She hoped she was imagining that. If not, something else was going on.

  “Why is it so hot?” someone whined.

  “I don’t know, Luke,” another voice spoke up.

  “Open up a window,” a third voice drawled.

  Sighing, Tina turned on her balls of her feet and turned her attention to the bedroom door. She slowly stood up and walked over to the door, leading to the common area. She paused. Her hand floated above the doorknob as she thought about who else would out in the common room.

  Genesis. Her bother.

  What she said the night before drifted through her head.

  “I think I will be staying in Avalon for a bit longer then I thought I would.” She started to rumble, before she stood up and twisted on her heel, with a giggle, “I would have to let mom and grandma know what was going on so they didn’t have to worry. Plus, Tasha would probably want to come with me since it was summer vacation.” She stopped and shifted from side to side.

  She glanced at the red head general, sitting rigidly. “Mom probably won’t like it since it would mean Natasha would have to start her training early and I would be in charge of it. On the other hand, it would explain the Ninja. I thought those guys came from Japan and from the way Ralph and his team were dressed, they might be have been from the early 20th century, but I don’t know. That would required more study and the fact I would have to go with them to their village then I would be dragged to the Estate to meet Freya, for whatever reason she had to hired them to kidnap me, in the first place.” She hummed. “Perhaps, after words, I could head home and explain things with mom then take Natasha with me when I come back. Oh, the possibilities!”

  She grinned widely enough to cause her cheeks to hurt. “I can’t wait to start exploring this world. I don’t know if mom and grandma would like to make it a family trip. Mom always complained that we haven’t took one and she wanted to visit a few places she had while growing up. I know she had said she wanted to share those places with her kids. Of course, Aunt Nami would probably want to come along. Perhaps, I should call her when I get home and explain what happened.”

  She paused and thought about it. “Perhaps, not. She will rip me a new one for what happened and summon me to the compound for some more hellish training with the Detectives.” She glanced down at the stone floor. “I won’t mind seeing them again, but not while I’m supposed to be going back through training with Aunt Nami. They would get a laugh out of it for bit before they would get roped into training me.” She sighed. She let out a giggle. “Maybe I can finally start healing from the heartbreak.”

  Tina winced as she silently hoped Genesis wasn’t in the common room. She knew she would have to face him, eventually, but he might need some time to figure things out on his end with the new knowledge of her identity. It was touchy situation. She took a deep breath. There was no point in hiding when they will have to be seen together, outside of the White Hall Wing, since they were family. She let out her breath out slowly and twisted the doorknob, pulling the door toward her.

  In the common room, Tina spotted the six boys sitting on the couches. She walked out and crossed her arms over her chest. She peered down at the nearest one - Ichigo, if she remembered correctly. He had his legs over one of the armrests and rested his back against the other one. His red hair was messed up like he just rolled out of bed. She couldn’t see his face with his back toward her.

  She turned her gaze to another boy, Marco. He sat on the end of the couch. His legs stretched out and his bare feet on the table. His blond hair looked like he had ran his fingers through a hundred times, making some parts stand on end. His blue eyes reflected the roaring fire in the fireplace. She glanced at it to see a small blue flame at the heart of the fire. She frowned. It was just like in her room. That was strange.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “I wonder what has caused the fires to take on a blue heart,” she mused out loud. All six boys jumped in surprise. Ichigo spun in the chair while Marco jerked his feet from the table and planted them on the carpet. Luke let out a squeak as he fell over the far armrest, hiding behind side of the couch. Andrew scrambled to his feet and glared at Tina, standing in a protective stance. Seth stood up in a graceful fluid motion from his seat in the middle of the couch. Tina resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow at that. The last boy, his name began with L, right, slipped from the end of the couch opposite of Luke and closet to her before he twisted around to stare up at her with startled expression. “I know adding certain chemicals to the fire will turn it blue, but I doubt you boys will have any of these chemicals on you.”

  The six boys gave her a blank stare until the one closet to her spoke up, “What are Chemicals?”

  She turned her attention to him, explaining, “It is a substance with a define composition that changes into a new substance.” She was rewarded with a blank stare. She went on, “Take this table,” she walked forward and bent down before she rapped her knuckles on the surface. From the looks of like, it was some of wood. The sound of her knocking echoed around the room. She opened her fist and cupped the edge of the table, trying to lift one end up. It was some sort of heavy wood. “We all know this is wood. It will burn, but it make take a few days to burn into ash, right.”

  “Yeah, I have seen Yule logs take up to a fortnight to burn to ash,” Seth commented. She glanced up. The tone he used suggested he knew what he was talking about like he had seen it.

  “Yule Logs changes substance from a log of wood to a fine ash,” she said, “This suggest there was a chemical reaction between the fire and the wood. The wood couldn’t handle the heat the fire produce so the wood had to change to something else.”

  “So, it is magic,” Luke spoke up with a wide grin.

  “Yeah, it is a form of magic called science,” Tina gave him a small smile. “Anyway, why are you doing up already? It has to be close to 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning.”

  “It’s too hot in our room, Miss,” Seth explained, “The fire in our hearth is acting similar to this one.” He waved toward the fire. “Ichigo even opened up the widow, but it doesn’t help.”

  Tina nodded and stood up, looking around. She was sure the Maid had left a pitcher or two of water. She walked toward the dinning table and looked for water. She eventually found it in a small room off the common area. She wrinkled her nose as she smelt something when she entered the room, but she didn’t stick around to figure what the source of the smell was.

  She walked across the room and went to the room the boys were using. Heat washed over her as she stepped into the room. She gasped. It felt like it was close to a 100 degrees in the room. She glanced to the window and saw the horizon in the distance where a thin line of sunlight appeared and the sky lightening up from the darkness of night. She would have to remember to pray to Sol in a few minutes. She turned to the fire and saw it had a blue flame as its heart. She walked over and tossed the entire pitcher over the flame.

  Loud hissing echoed through the air. Smoke clouded Tina’s vision for a brief moment. She waved a hand in front of her face and turned away, walking away from the fire. She spotted the youngest trio poking their heads in.

  “There you go, boys,” She spoke to them, “It should be cooler in a couple minutes. It will be easier for you to sleep if you are interested in getting more sleep.”

  “I think it would be best if we be on our way, Miss,” Ichigo said as he walked up to the youngest trio. Tina spotted Luke crossed his arms over his chest and pout, giving Ichigo a glare. “Thank you for saving Luke yesterday.”

  “You’re welcome, Ichigo,” Tina started, “Would you please stay until breakfast?” Ichigo opened his mouth, but she held up a hand, “Please. I don’t know your situation or how often you are able to get fresh food or who is willingly to help you survive.”

  Ichigo sent her a glare as the youngest trio teamed up and gave him puppy eyes. Marco stared at Ichigo with a hopefully expression and the last boy, the one with name beginning with L, hugged Ichigo’s arm.

  “Maybe I can talk to the cooks to toss together a bag with enough food for a couple days,” Tina suggested, trying to get them to stay. She would admit she was worried. They were too skinny. Ichigo looked like he was around 13 years old instead of being closer to 16, according to Genesis. Most 16 years olds would be either working for the Military or with a Master of a Trade. “You don’t have to worry about where you are finding food or what you will have to do to earn it.”

  “Please,” Luke grabbed Ichigo’s arm and pleaded with his older brother.

  “Fine,” Ichigo sighed as he rolled his eyes. Apparently that was it - Luke’s pleading - to make Ichigo to agree to stay for breakfast. “We will stay through breakfast and you better give us what you promise.”

  Tina cupped Ichigo’s shoulders and noticed he stiffen. She ignored it as she stepped and hugged him. “You are doing the right thing - staying for breakfast and getting extra food.” She whispered in his ear, “You are welcome to stay as long as you want to if you don’t want to leave.”

  She stepped back and walked by the group of boys, heading to the front door. She paused when she heard the doorknob rattled and Kagome stepped in. The Maid had dark shadow under her eyes as she blinked in surprise to see Tina standing a few feet away from her. Tina raised an eyebrow, “Are you alright, Miss…Kagome, right?”

  The Maid blinked again and slowly nodded before she curtsied before Tina, saying, “My deepest apologizes, my lady, my brother’s son didn’t sleep last night and kept the entire house up.” She stood straight and looked at Tina before she finished, “Yes, my name is Kagome.”

  “How old your brother’s son?” Tina asked, deciding to use the same phrase as she did. She didn’t know if the word nephew was used in Camelot or not.

  Kagome seem to freeze. Her eyes held a note of panic before she blinked it away so fast that Tina thought she had imaged it. She spoke, “He is 4 months old.” She paused for a heartbeat before she asked, “What can I do for you, my lady?”

  “Ah yes,” It was Tina’s turn to blink and mentally scrambled to the reason why she was approaching the door. “Could you please run down to the kitchens to see if they are open? If so, Could you please bring up breakfast to us? Also, I do have special request for the kitchens - gather up any leftovers from this morning or food that will last a few days, placed it in a medium or large bag for these boys to take with them.”

  Kagome curtsied again, saying “As you wish.”

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