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  Brett had to leave and get back to his company. The four of us were left to plot our course. Roni, the most organized of us, tried to set out our most immediate concerns. Short term goals were finding somewhere safe to live, checking that my VDR headset still worked and then going through the offers to determine our next steps.

  We pledged to stick together, but none of us felt safe in the penthouse and provided that the headset still worked, we had a lot of experiments to plan, but not here in the USA. We also needed to be able to document the changes that Roni and Katie were going through to keep their US identity. Our best security at the moment was publicity. To keep that going Roni was going to sort through the interviewing offers. We needed to remain firmly in the public eye until we could arrange better security.

  All that we had to do was almost overwhelming. We booked a suite in the Beverly Hills Hotel and Katie arranged for VDR entertainment security to deliver our headsets. If my headset didn't work our entire business was stopped before it had got started. We also booked the hotel restaurant so that we could invite Vee's parents to join us.

  I was now in a hospital gown as was Vee. Katie was going to go back to the penthouse to gather our clothes but I thought it best if we tried to stick together as much as possible, so Roni went with her. Vee and I cuddled in her hospital bed. To wake up and find that your body had been violated while you were sleeping must be hard to deal with. I wanted to find Dr Sinclair, turn him into a woman and leave him to the tender mercies of someone just like him. And that was when I was being kind. I am not a violent person and much preferred healing people than harming them, but if I allowed my mind to go back to what had happened to Vee, my blood tended to boil.

  Emotionally, Vee was a mess. She tried to put a brave face on but I could tell she was on the verge of breaking down. When we saw her parents this evening I was definitely wearing waterproof mascara. She was going to need to see someone. I think I had been working out my problems by chatting to Myra. Maybe that would help her too.

  Katie and Roni returned with our clothes, but none of mine fit. Three days in terms of transformation is a long time. Since they had pretty much just emptied our clothes into our suitcases, I was able to go through some of Vee's clothes to find something to wear. We had to stop to get some snack food. I was practically skin and bones and needed feeding up and Katie needed as much protein as we could get into her to build her muscles. Then finally to the hotel. Our headsets were waiting for us with a security guard who had refused to do anything but hand them over personally.

  Vee's parents had arrived and were travelling to Brett's house. Somehow, he had pulled some strings and got the pilot to announce that we had been found safe and well. They would get a bit of rest and meet us at the restaurant. I had to speak for Vee as whenever she tried to talk to her mum she broke down in tears and nothing intelligible came out. I had to hold her for a while for her to calm down.

  We had a couple of hours before we were due to meet them so we faced the headsets together.

  “What do you think, Tia?” Roni asked.

  “Everything rests on these babies working. The sooner we know the better. Did anyone tell you whether they thought they would work or not?”

  “From the video, we saw that Katie had her headset pulled off first. In theory that should have caused the others to automatically log off and if that happened correctly, you should be able to continue where you left off. That's what Joshua said, anyway,” Roni said.

  “I don't know whether we should. I mean in the storyline a lot is going on at the moment. The next day is the adoption ceremony followed by the bonding celebration. We can't go for the full seven days, it would take too long. The most we could do was three, that would leave us an hour to get ready,” I said.

  “But if it doesn't work, my conversation with my parents will be very different,” Vee muttered, but we all heard her.

  “Let's do it,” Katie said decisively. I don't think her personality had changed, just her true self was now better able to express itself. She had a confidence that had been sadly lacking.

  We settled ourselves all on the king size bed. It was a bit of a squeeze, but comforting at the same time. Still, I felt uneasy. “I'm not sure I can do this,” I said. “I feel vulnerable going under with no one watching over us.”

  We were quiet for a moment. Then Roni said, “Katie and I have been in VDR lots of times in the last three days, but this is the first time you two have since we were attacked. I totally understand. If we could get someone from hotel security to stand outside our door, would that make you feel better?”

  “It would make me feel better,” Vee said.

  “Me too,” I added.

  Roni got up and called the concierge.

  A few minutes later there was a knock at the door and this huge man turned up. He had to squeeze through the door. “Hello, ladies. I'm with hotel security.” He showed us some ID. “I'll just wait outside here until you let me know you feel safe.”

  He shook our hands, his huge hands dwarfing ours, then squeezed back through the door and stood with his back to us as we closed the door. We gathered ourselves back on the bed and with a lighter heart I put on the headset and hit resume.

  Chapter 3

  I woke up lying in the corridor on the way to our suite, just like I had collapsed along with the rest of us. The maids were hovering over us anxiously.

  “Are you alright Princess?”

  “Err.. yes. I think so. Yes, I'm fine. Is everybody OK?” I asked.

  “Yes.” or a form of it came back from everyone.

  “Let's get back to our suite.” The resume point had worked. We were in business.

  Roni and Katie went to the suite next door, so we said goodnight and settled in our suite. The maids undressed us and washed us. Vee was very clingy and not up to our usual activities. So we settled into bed for a cuddle.

  There was a knock on the door. One of the maids got out of their bedroom and answered it for us. Myra was there looking worried. She came in and sat on our bed. I was still cuddling Vee and Myra stroked Vee to try and comfort her as well.

  “I think we need to talk,” Myra said. I didn't know what she wanted to talk about, so I just nodded my head.

  “We know that some strange things happen and we try to ignore them and pretend they don't concern us. But you collapsing in the corridor means we can't ignore them anymore. Let me tell you what we have noticed and then hopefully you can explain what is happening. Sometimes when you go to sleep, anyone you bring with you disappears and reappears the next morning. You asked us to keep rooms empty for humans to magically appear the next day. What is happening?”

  I know she was only a character that I had created in my mind, still, she had become closer to me than my real mother. I am not a very good liar anyway so I knew I was going to tell her the truth, but at the same time, I couldn't tell her that she was not real.

  “Err...Well, I suppose you could say that I travel between worlds. When I am not here with you, I am in another world. Similar in many ways to this world, but also very different.” Then I thought about what she had said. “Do I disappear occasionally?”

  She looked at me thoughtfully. “No, but you go into a deep sleep. After we first transformed you, we had to carry you to my rooms and nothing I could do would wake you. I couldn't detect anything wrong, so I just left you to wake up naturally. I'm not worried about when you are here. What happened in this other world that caused you to collapse and Vee to be so hurt.”

  “We don't really know. We were knocked unconscious and when we awoke, I found that Vee had been hurt.”

  “How was Vee hurt?” She muttered a prayer and held her hand over Vee. She was obviously shocked by what she found out as she gasped. “NO!”

  “Will she heal?” I asked hopefully.

  “We will do a healing together,” Mum said decisively.

  We held our hands over her and did the most basic spell of healing. “By Lagbit's will, I he
al thee.” This time I felt the power of the spell coming through her hands and into Vee. I don't know how exactly, but I managed to add my energy to hers and after a few minutes I somehow knew that we were finished. Simultaneously, we withdrew our hands.

  She did some kind of checking again and said. “Her body is healed but her mind is still traumatised.”

  “Is there anything we can do for that?”

  “The only thing we can do is remove her memory of it. She would forget everything from when she collapsed here.”

  “Would that work?”

  “Yes. Her mind would be healed, but you would still need to tell her what had happened to her and she will still find it distressing.”

  “What do you think Vee?”

  “Please. I feel broken.”

  “What do we do?” I asked.

  “It would be better if she dressed as she was and we performed this in the corridor where she fell.”

  The maids came out to help and we redressed in our gowns and returned to the corridor. Vee then lay down and I cradled her in my lap and mother held Vee's head between her hands and chanted. I could feel Vee relax like she was falling asleep. Then mother took her hands away and Vee woke up.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “I will tell you later, beautiful. Everything is fine now.” Then I gave mum a big smile. “Thanks.”

  “You're welcome. I think I need to know more about your other world. You definitely need more protection when you are in this other world. I will talk to the royal mage and see what we can do. Go and get some sleep, you have a big day tomorrow. We will continue this conversation later. Do you know when you are travelling back?”

  “It varies. This time we are here for three days before we return,” I answered.

  Myra kissed us both with a smile. “Before then we will need to talk. Right now, relax and sleep, I'll see you tomorrow. It's going to be a great day.”

  “I'm looking forward to it.” We hugged and kissed and returned to our rooms.

  I explained that we had done a memory spell that she had asked for, to remove a mental trauma and that I would need to tell her everything that had happened, but not tonight. We had three days before we logged off, so we had plenty of time and tomorrow was a big day.

  I can't say I was particularly in the mood for any bedroom antics, but since Vee couldn't remember anything bad, she certainly was and decided to seduce me. I tried to resist, but, she is a terrible temptress and I fell to her wicked ways. A few thoughts flickered through my mind, like, if I could heal Vee, could I heal others without having to transform them into elves. Another experiment, I suppose. I drifted off to a snugly sleep with my bonded in my arms. Normally, I like her spooning me and holding me in her arms. Tonight, I felt the need to have her in my arms, so we fell asleep facing each other, legs tangled together.

  Our maids woke us up to begin our normal routine. At Taigoa practice Katie joined us and wanted to try and follow our steps. I told her we would keep it up in both worlds. I told her what we had done with Vee and for her to tell Roni. We would have to fill Vee in about everything later, but definitely before we returned to the real world.

  We returned to our rooms and ate a few snacks while they prepared a bath for us. The bath was filled and scented, but we weren't given too much time to enjoy it. Our hair was washed, bodies scrubbed and these beautifully scented oils rubbed into our bodies and then scraped off with this blunt wooden tool. It felt amazing.

  I was then dressed in this elaborate lavender coloured dress. They did this eye makeup to really bring out the exotic colour of my eyes. Then we were taken to the front entrance of the Lagbit church. Vee, Roni and Katie were all in white dresses and sitting in the front row. Queen Mary or the high priestess, was conducting the ceremony. Her bonded, Kayla, was also dressed in white and sitting next to my three girlies. The only ones left in the church were my mother and me.

  The first part was very simple, I held both of Myra's hands in mine, facing each other. Mary put a hand on each shoulder and did a short speech along the lines of 'we are gathered here to witness....' I was too nervous to concentrate too much on that. Then Queen Mary brought a tiara with a rainbow gem to go over my forehead. A necklace with another two rainbow gems, one over my throat and the other over my heart. Then she placed a chain around my waist with another gem dangling towards my groin.

  “Do you accept all the privileges and responsibility that comes with being a Royal Princess?”

  “I do.”

  “Will you look after our people, care for them and protect them with wise and careful guidance?”

  “I will.”

  She turned to her daughter. “Will you look after your daughter Tia, care for her and protect her with wise and careful guidance?”

  “I shall,” she replied.

  “You have my and Lagbit's blessing.”

  Kayla led the girls over to us for hugs of congratulations. I was a bit confused, it didn't seem like an adoption ceremony. I had to return all the rainbow jewels.

  “Mother, was that an adoption ceremony or was it something else?” I asked.

  “Our culture is a bit more relaxed than the human one. If you say you love someone and are bonded then you are treated that way. We celebrate it, but we don't need to get married as some humans do. The same with adoption, normally all we need is someone who says I want to adopt you and the other to agree. However, this is a case that has never occurred before. It is our belief that Lagbit changed the eyes of the first priestess who became our queen. You will find no other Elves with lavender eyes. My mother and I thought it prudent to do a ceremony under Lagbit's eyes, in his church, to confirm his approval of our relationship.”

  “I know what you mean. I have felt that you have acted like my mother for some time now, a ceremony to confirm that was not really necessary. To confirm legitimacy makes more sense.”

  “It was more than that. If someone disrespects you and your office, Lagbit has the power to intervene on your behalf. It has happened before, although not for a long time.”

  “So what is happening for our bonding celebration?”

  “Your maids will get you prepared in your dresses. There is a Royal coach that will take you through a set path through our city ending back here. The gates will be open to the public and you both with have pride of place in the audience chamber. Seated in the Heir thrones people will come and pay their respects, while food and drink will be passed around continuously. Soft music during the day and dancing music at night. It will be fun.”

  And so it was. We were dressed and then arranged in the Royal coach drawn by two beautiful white horses. We had a slow progression through the capital, with cheering crowds and girls and women throwing flowers. We smiled and waved. I was glad they had fed us before we started or I would have been starving. There was a carnival attitude to it all. As we travelled we could see food sellers on the streets and everyone was dressed nicely.

  When we passed through the gates to the palace the crowd followed us through. We were helped to carefully dismount and given a few more bites of food and sips of drink and set up in the Heir thrones. People would approach, bow or curtsey and move on. The music was amazing. Vee reckoned we should get some musically talented people to bring it to the human world. Since it was coming from my mind it was probably a copy from something I had heard, but we wouldn't know that unless someone with more knowledge came for a visit.

  When the dancing music started the party really kicked off. Finally, we were expected to get off our bottoms. There were no formal court dances, just couples swaying to Elvish music with songs sung in Elven. I wondered if Roni and Katie at least understood the words. We occasionally worked our way to the edge of the dance area and had some nibbles or a drink and then worked our way back in.

  Everyone called me Princess and was careful to treat me with respect. I tried to graciously receive it, with a smile and a nod. I don't think I disgraced anybody. Vee and I were getting a lit
tle worked up with the close dancing, so when I could I asked Myra when I could drift away unnoticed.

  She laughed and told me that I could leave at any time. It would definitely be noticed, but considered a good sign of a good bonding. So we slipped back to our suite. For once the maids were elsewhere. I hoped that meant they were out enjoying themselves. We helped each other out of our dresses and slipped into bed. We went to sleep, eventually.

  It was a great day. Some parts were a bit boring but we could see that we were making the people happy and that made us happy.

  Chapter 4