Fiona,
I have no doubts that by the time you're able to understand a little of what occurred before you were born, everything will have been told and re-told until the truth is a paltry walk in the park compared to the exaggerations being heralded about. This is a side-effect of being someone of legend; if you want to ever amount to anything beyond a mere hero, you'll want to have at least one or two myths being cycled about.
Still, the truth itself isn't that boring to recollect. It started out at JFK International Airport. Your mother, Anann, isn't known publicly for her sentimentalism, but perhaps you'll understand when you find someone to share your life with -- sometimes a week isn't enough time in the world to spend with someone, and you'll, say, purchase three additional first class tickets just so you can see them off. It was one of the few times all three aspects of your mother were in the same area and if it was advantageous circumstances that allowed us another's hour worth of whispered promises and private moments because of last-minute checkups, well ... that's the benefit of marrying a woman who makes the world work for her, not the other way around.
Ask Benjamin what I mean. After all, without knowing a few select knacks, you really can't get away with joining the Mile High Club without interruptions. Also, dear daughter, when you do find that someone and you get the urge to canoodle in public? Be smart enough to realize that drawing attention to yourself by going invisible isn't the way to do it -- not to mention we all had keen enough hearing to pick up on that false start. Your mother and I raised you to some standards one would hope.
The flight sparked one of the few situations where Benjamin's upbringing much like yours will be/has been and my own was a hindrance. When you're raised in an environment and you know pretty much from the beginning that you're so much ...more ... than everyone else around you; you get arrogant. You become blind to your own faults because really, dear, you don't have faults - not when it comes to being compared to mortal excellence. Benjamin's only fault during the flight was that he thought it was a solo job, that none of the rest of us could do anything to aid him. ... Fiona, if you ever bring home a man that prefers you to stay on the sidelines because you're a woman and clearly not capable of doing a man's job ... don't expect your mother or I to even let him live without some PTSD.
Nothing the rest of us could do ... that makes me laugh. One option? It seemed our newest member was someone with a head on his shoulders and as Kelly focused up and buckled down under my command to keep the crowd in control, I overheard that he could fly as well as Benjamin could. Well there you have it. Wuyi could easily keep a hold on the wing while the other two direct her towards the engine. Once there, Nikita's mind could pick out the parts missing or damaged and Wuyi's ability to transform the world would repair it. If they were harassed, I'm sure Tal could have been of some use fighting off whatever Benjamin had saw.
Another option: one of them could have checked on the damned pilots or crew members. Kelly and I were stuck watching the coach crowd and keeping them from flying out of their seats. I had thought that Ben had everything in hand... it was then that I realized that I gave my Band entirely far too much credit as the plane started to list terribly to one side and we started dropping in altitude. Quickly.
Now, Fiona, here's why in the future, I'll be telling your eldest mother why it's perfectly all right to let you learn battle tactics from Ann and video games: I remembered a gooey water tentacle thing in a console game that had Ann and Wuyi up all night with determination to beat it ... it was capable as a liquid to grab items and hold them aloft. Thinking on that reminded me of one of those vague lessons that your eldest mother thinks I don't listen to (I really don't but sometimes they come back to me in flashes. It's not my fault I found chemistry boring) that water was capable of becoming an ... oh, what was the term ... ah yes, amorphous solid. I left Kelly in control of the crowd (give the girl a mission and she'll not let you down. Another thing Ben should realize about our youngest member) and strode back into First Class to bark orders. We had less than five minutes before the plane would hit ground and I was in no mood for second guessing. Nikita grumbled but the man did as told (there was no other plan, and his confidence was as good as mine) ...Ben followed suit quick after. The two took the ropes I weaved and started wrapping them around the airline to add their strength as opposing force to the plane's descent. I had hoped Tal would use her fire to form a backwards jet stream to enable thrust against the plane's momentum but... she sent Cal out to pull up the tail. Wuyi climbed out to use giant wings to bank and catch like a parachute.
It was a sloppy plan and it showed ... but luck and fate smiled on us and we landed the plane ... relatively safely. None of the passengers were hurt from what I could tell and a babe I had lulled to sleep at the beginning of the flight still snoozed away in his mother's arms. I'll go into detail about the later events of Cairo in another letter. I want to address a personal event that occurred away from the Band.
The first is why your mother jokes I nearly got her tossed in as a prisoner of war and why she doesn't like Ra at all. Something about reclaiming stolen rights and 'thinking he could ever match me' ... I don't know, I tune the Matron out when she's on a warpath. Sometimes it's best to just allow her to rant. Less broken priceless artifacts that way. Moving on; after your eldest mother, we call her the Librarigan (do call her that if you want to wind up grounded for a year, dear) visited me through my dreams and after spending the dream state away in her arms, discussing the company's start during the few moments we weren't ... intimate, I brought her through to Cairo proper by waking up. Unfortunately this violated some terms, Ra swooped in and I knew right there where Ben's misogyny came from. After allowing the Librarigan to depart and save face, I paid for my transgression and spoke with Ra concerning the state of succession in Egypt: namely him, Horus, and Benjamin. Ra spoke that unless Benjamin was willing to follow the way of things and marry Hathor, that he wouldn't be ever able to step up as Pharaoh ...but ... we could aid Ra in returning to the throne; gaining us a powerful ally and allowing Hathor to be with the one who truly loves her and Ben with the one he truly loves (Tal).
The next night while the Band recuperated and planned on what to do, I used the ring to visit Ann. She had chartered a boat and I spent an hour on the ocean with the woman I love and we talked about you, and that day was when Ann decided to Visit you as soon as you were born so that you could grow up without fear of anything hurting you. I also learned some things about your mother that were shocking. Namely, that she was born long, long before the Tuatha ever set foot onto Irish soil, and that she herself is an immigrant to the Emerald Isle. If you have questions, ask them of your mother for I'll not betray her secrets more than that.
The rest of the troubles in Cairo deserve their own letters or I might as well just give you a novel to read. I need to prepare to visit the Matron because we had a squabble and well, I can't truly tell you the tale of how your full-blooded sister was conceived without completely destroying any and all innocence that you have. Don't give the letter that look; you marry a fertility goddess and then tell me how long it takes before they've ploughed your fertile soil.
Rhiannon.
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