The moment their names left my lips, the three shadows shifted. Not like before,not the subtle movement of darkness. This was a transformation. Their forms rippled and reformed, pulling inward, condensing, becoming more solid.
Theo became a tall man with silver hair and sharp features and skin the color of charcoal. He wore a simple black coat and looked like a bodyguard from a movie, the kind who speaks five languages and can kill a man with a pen.
Yhani became a woman with warm brown skin and curly hair and eyes that held starlight. She looked like a nanny. A terrifying, magical, probably-immortal nanny, but a nanny nonetheless.
Jeo became a young man,almost a boy,with sharp cheekbones and restless hands and a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He looked like trouble. The fun kind.
They were all still clearly monsters. Something about the way they moved, the way the light bent around them, gave it away. But they looked human enough to walk down a street without causing a panic.
They were also grinning like children on Christmas morning.
"Seven hundred thousand years," Theo breathed. "With so many 1030 ancestors, and finally. Finally, I have a name, 1030 have a name, my ancestor will be so proud."
I raised a brow. "You couldn't have done that before?"
"We could not. Only the Queen can grant us names. Only names make us real."
I filed that information away for later. Right now, I had bigger problems.
"Okay," I said. "Theo. You said I hava a ring. The ring. The one my former self supposedly prepared. Where is it?"
Theo reached into his coat, which apparently had pockets that defied the laws of physics, and pulled out a ring.
It was beautiful. Delicate. Gold band, purple gem, the same symbol from the scroll carved into the setting. It hummed with power. I could feel it from across the room.
"Your subspace storage," Theo said, handing it to me. "The size of a mountain. Filled with everything you accumulated over seven hundred thirty thousand years. Gold. Diamonds. Gems. Mana stones. Weapons. Relics. Healing potions. Everything."
I slipped the ring onto my finger. It fit perfectly.
And suddenly I could feel it. The storage. A vast, impossible space folded into the tiny gem on my hand. Mountains of treasure. Armories full of weapons that hummed with ancient power. Libraries of spell books. Vaults of potions and elixirs and things I didn't have names for.
Seven hundred thirty thousand years of hoarding.
At least I was going back to Earth rich.
"There is one more thing," Theo said. "You promised to bring us with you. To Earth. In case you needed... nannies, you said. For your children."
I stared at him.
"I agreed to that?"
"You signed a scroll."
"You're not making that up?"
"I would never."
I looked at Yhani. She smiled at me, warm, genuine, the smile of someone who genuinely liked children and genuinely wanted to help.
I looked at Jeo. He was still grinning, but there was something softer underneath it. Something that looked like hope.
"Fine," I said. "You can come. But if any of you eat my children, I will personally feed you to that three-headed dragon I apparently killed for fun."
"You killed Kaelthar because he insulted your crown," Jeo said cheerfully. "The boredom thing was just a joke."
I did not need to know that.
Theo chanted something, old words, heavy words, words that made the air itself tremble, and a rift opened in front of me.
Not purple this time. Silver. Swirling. Like a whirlpool made of moonlight.
"Your clothing," Theo said. "The spell you designed seven hundred thirty thousand years ago. The form you wore when you first arrived here."
He flicked his fingers.
The golden gown vanished. The crown disappeared. The shimmering light around my skin faded to nothing.
In their place: a pink t-shirt with a small hole near the collar. Brown pajama pants. No shoes.
Exactly what I had been wearing when the purple light took me from my apartment.
But the body underneath was different.
The t-shirt was tight. Not uncomfortably,the fabric had stretched to fit,but the woman inside it was not the woman who had worn it before. My curves were sharper. My waist was smaller. My arms were toned in a way that suggested I could punch through a wall and not break a nail.
I looked down at myself. Then at the three shadows, who were very carefully looking anywhere else.
"This feels like cheating," I muttered.
"You designed the form yourself," Theo said. "You said,"
"I don't want to know what I said. Let's go."
We stepped into the rift.
One final glance back. The throne room. The diamond ceiling. The golden pillars. The thousands of monsters still recovering from my tantrum.
Theo. Yhani. Jeo. Grinning like they had just won the lottery. Like this was the best day of their seven-hundred-thousand-year lives.
Like they were finally getting a vacation.
I stepped forward. The world tilted.
Then…..
Lights. So many freaking lights. Cameras. Boom mics. Phones held up by hundreds of hands. A wall of faces, reporters, soldiers, scientists, civilians, all staring at the rift, all waiting for something to come out.
They were not expecting a woman in a holey pink t-shirt and brown pajama pants.
The moment I materialized, barefoot, disoriented, still holding the ring with the mountain of treasure, the questions started.
"Who are you?!"
"Are you a survivor?!"
"What did you see in there?!"
"Are there more of them?!"
"The military is approaching, please stay calm,"
"Is that blood on your shirt?!"
I opened my mouth to answer. To say something. To explain that I was just a mom who wanted to get back to her kids.
The lights were too bright. The questions were too loud. The ground was too hard and too soft at the same time and my head was spinning and I could still feel the power humming under my skin and the ring on my finger was heavy with centuries of treasure and Theo was saying something behind me and Yhani was reaching for my arm and Jeo was laughing,
And I fainted.
Right there. In front of hundreds of cameras. Live. On every news channel in the world.
The last thing I heard before the darkness took me was a single voice, cutting through the chaos:
"Mommy?"
A child's voice. Small. Scared. So familiar it broke my heart. I tried to open my eyes. I couldn't. But I would. And when I did, I was going to find my daughters. Even if I had to tear the world apart to do it.