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A few months had passed in the highlands. The lionesses and their cubs had all weathered the time well, as had Jon-Tom. The only new development was the birth of three extraordinary lynx cubs. The three healers were delighted about being pregnant, once they got over having learned it had happen unbeknownst to them. They each had one child; three boys and three girls. No my math isn't askew.

Jon-Tom felt that there was nothing wrong with the lady's unique characteristics. After all, he had tested every part of them and found them lacking in nothing. What he had felt bad about was their lack of an ability to procreate. He fixed it in them with a tilt towards the female genes, but in their (and his) children he caused both traits to be dominant. They were fertile as either male or female. He knew this, and he told the new mothers about it. As healers, they were not easily swayed. "You are either male or female. You cannot be both!" was the complaint. He had to remind them that the cub's father was a human from another world, who had children all over this world that ranged from equine to feline to avian. With magic, anything was possible. Seelini was doubtful. "I would like to believe you, but what assurances do I have?"

"None," said Dari, "except the word of your lover and your king. I know him to be honest. If he says it is so, then it is so. If that isn't good enough for you, then wait until the cubs mature. It should be easy enough to tell then!" Later, Dari spoke to him privately. "I'm sorry that they are so adamant about it. Their entire life has been a disappointment in regards to their fertility. Now you have given it back to them, they are afraid of leaving a legacy of freaks." He glared at her. She hastily added,  "Their words, not mine. I have tried to assure them it will work out, but they can be hard headed." Jon-Tom got up and marched out, heading for their rooms. He didn't knock, but strode in with a determined look on his face. "Come here, the three of you."

They lined up in front of him. "Now look here. I have never once called you a freak, or an oddity, or anything of the sort. You are unique and even then, you are all the same." He heard a gulp or two. He felt like the principle in a grade school. "Who was the first lynx?" They were startled by the question. Seelini answered. "No one knows." "Correct. Who was the first feline?" Silence. "There are sometimes no easy answers to even the simplest of questions. You are lynx, yet you are not lynx. Who's to say that from this point onward, your line won't become something else, something more wonderful than your present species, with even greater potential?"

Crasic spoke defiantly. "Your majesty speaks kindly. But we are legitimately concerned. It was the reason we were upset with your gift. It is more wonderful than you can imagine, but what kind of life is there for our children if they live a life like ours?" Jon-Tom was getting angry. Before his rage broke free he got it under control. After all, he knew what they did not. "You want me to hand you assurances that your children will go forth and do great things? You want to have the comfort of knowing where your lineage will go? Well I can't give you that, not so plain and simple. There are sometimes no...simple...answers." He grabbed the two outer ladies by their heads and pressed them to Seelini's in the middle. He pressed his head against hers. "Now relax!" he ordered.

They were locked that way for the better part of thirty minutes. When he released them, it was for a twofold reason. One, he was done enough for them to see the truth. The second reason was a cub's plaintive cry. The room they had been conceived in now served as their nursery. The ladies came out of the trance, tears flowing down their face. "Oh, is it really true your majesty?" "It's as true as the future can be. What happens is up to each individual, and the fates be damned. I have defied them before, and I will do it again before all is said and done." Ghertu went to look in on the infants. Seelini was at his feet, kissing them. His rage broke loose. Reaching down with a powerful paw, he pulled her up off the ground. "Don't you ever do that again! You wish to thank me, which I do not need, then do it in a more proper manner." He added hastily, "When the time is more appropriate! For now, see to our children please." His voice had dropped to normal on the last words.

The two lynxes bowed, wiped tears from their eyes and went to their cubs. Jon-Tom strode out, quietly shutting the door behind him. "Boy, sometimes this place gets to me. This whole planet needs straightening out!" "Is that so?" said a voice from behind him. He knew it right away. "That's what I said Talea. Sometimes it seems so hard trying to do the right thing around here. There are times I want to give up." He wasn't expecting the kick in his ass. He should have. "Look here husband. I did a lot of harm in my old days. I find that now I can make up for it. I feels good. Don't go getting discouraged just because someone has some fears about their future. It's not like you know any more than they do." He turned and kissed her, all the while rubbing the base of his tail. "I wish that were true." He walked away. They didn't find him for hours. When they did it was on the plains, sitting exhausted next to a pile of the yellow lizards. The final count after they hauled them to the palace was one hundred and ninety three of them. He had apparently needed a release of frustration.  As it was he refused to talk the rest of the day. And the next. And the next.

He did take time to play with his children, who by now he knew by name and scent. They were growing up fast, he thought. But then, he had little to judge by. Rundain had developed faster than a regular horse, and Jon-Tom had not been able to spend as much time with him as he would have liked. His own human son grew at the painstaking rate a human child did, though he matured much more quickly that had his father. The tigresses and Aerie had grown up without him. Now that he had a chance of redoing things, something else popped up. It was damn depressing. But regardless, he wasn't going to waste what time he had. It was as precious as every drop of blood flowing through his body.

His change of mood was highly visible. No one, not even Talea or Dari, was able to find out the cause. Only Seelini had an idea. She spoke to the queen quite candidly. "It might our fault mistress. We were so concerned about our future and the future of our children, and our children's children, that we may have overstepped our bounds. The king was kind enough to allow us a look into the future." Dari stood up, alarmed. "What?! Scrying is at best an imperfect art. You can see the possibilities, but not the end outcomes. Why would he do that?" Seelini lowered her eyes. "He did it for us. It is my fear that he saw something in his own future that he did not like."

A cough caught their attention. It was Jon-Tom. "Very astute Seelini. I did see something. And like Dari said, the end outcome is rarely visible, for it doesn't happen until the sequence of possibilities has been exhausted." Talea ran up and hugged him. "What did you see husband?" He wet his lips. "Nothing I plan on telling you. It's bad enough for one to know it, much less two, or three, or more. This must remain with me until the end." Talea stood back, worry in her eyes. "And when will that be?" He sighed. "That will be up to me, but time is running out. If I don't act within a year's time, all of this will be for naught." He turned and walked away.

His fatalism was obvious. He made a proclamation that he would bed each lioness once within the next two hundred and three days. Each was to have a full night, with the qualification that none of them ask him any questions. Talea was first, being his original wife. "Jon-Tom, I know you said that I was to ask no questions, but I must. I don't want to lose you after all of this. Is there something I can do to help?" He smiled. "Now that is a question I can deal with. Yes, dear, there is something that you can do. Trust me. What I have awaiting me is going to be the toughest thing ever. I, who called up Mnexma from the cosmos, I who helped to defeat the insects, I who have saved more lives and lines and beings than anyone else, must now sacrifice it all for an even greater good. I cannot tell you more than that." She understood and made certain he understood that she did. Their love making was a wonder for both of them. She found it hard to tear herself away from the warm feeling that she could feel settling down inside her. It was like part of him was being left behind.

Dari remarked on it too, when the ladies got together on the second day. "I wish I knew what he was up to!" Talea agreed. "Me too. Can't you look into it with your magic?" Dari sighed. "Alas, no. I am too tied up in all this. No one's future is harder to read than your own. The second hardest is anyone you are close to. All I will see will be snatches of imagery that will mean nothing to me until after the fact." Talea stared her in the eyes. "Then try. It will be better than knowing nothing!" The queen settled into a trance. She was in it no longer than a few minutes when she opened her eyes. "This cannot be!" "What? What is it?" Dari had tears in her eyes. "The earth mother is dying!"

Talea wasn't prepared for that. "Who?" Dari wiped away the tears. "The earth mother. The world on which we live. It's dying. She has been putting forth all her energies to keep it alive, but now she herself is fading." Talea had always considered herself a practical girl. "That story is a lot of baloney if you ask me!" Dari whipped her head around. "My line has been the protectors of the heart of the world for generations. If the heart stops, the world stops. If the world stops, everyone will die. There aren't enough wizard's alive who could restart it once it stops." Talea still wasn't sure of that, but Dari said it with such earnest that she felt a chill run down her spine. The two made a pact to not discuss it with anyone else, not even the king.

He, in the meantime, was spending as much time as he could with his various mates and children. It was rather sad, he thought, that there would be a parting soon. The cubs were really too small to ever remember him. He would make up for it by never forgetting them. Night after night, he made love to the ladies, hoping that when the time came, they would figure out how to become themselves again, should they chose to revert back. It hardly mattered for him. No matter what form he chose, he would still come to the same fate.

And so it went, for the next six months. The farther time went along, the more nervous he got. His last night with the last girl found him torn between the pleasure he was feeling and the dread from his upcoming purpose. Come morning, he kissed her on the head and returned to the throne room. He sat down and made a proclamation.  "I, Jon-Tom, King of the Hidden Highlands of Sorenthu, hereby command that the queen, Lendari, show me the location of the Heart of the World!" Dari quailed. "My lord, I cannot do so." "You can and you will, for you once promised me you would. If I cannot ask this of you, I must demand it." Her head hung low. "So be it."

He was half expecting a long journey. She lead him to the royal bed chamber. Pulling aside a rug, she exposed a long panel in the floor. He grasped the recessed handle and pulled. Dust and debris fluttered down into the darkness. "As you can see, Jon-Tom, I have not dared to open it for a long time. There has been nothing I could do to help. Why are you now suddenly so adamant about seeing it?" He gave her the evil eye. "Dari, you know why. You have always known why. You lacked the strength to fix the problem, or so you thought. That fact is, the problem has never been for you to solve. It has taken a long time for this day to come, but now it is here." He continued on down in silence.

The stairway was cold under his feet, at least at first. The farther they made their way down, the warmer it got. Neither of them carried a torch, but there was a subtle ambient light that made progress easier. The problem was, it seemed like the way never ended. Each stair led to another stair, and so on and so on. It was a surprise then when he stepped around a curve and into a cavernous room. It was lit by a reddish glow. In the center was a slowly bubbling pool of lava. He watched it in fascination. A bubble would begin to rise; stop, and then retreat back into its depths. It was like watching a beating heart, albeit a slow one.

"The Heart of the World?" he asked, already knowing the answer. Dari nodded mutely. He continued. "And now it beats ever slower. And if it stops, we stop with it." "Yes Jon-Tom, it does amd we will. I used up much of my magic trying to keep it going. I am afraid that it may be too late." Jon-Tom was watching the pool, but spoke to Dari. "You're such a liar!" She was offended. "Your majesty, how dare you say that?" "Because you told my wife that it couldn't be restarted once it stopped. You never said it couldn't be helped while it still lived." She wondered how he knew. "Yes, that is true. But I cannot help anymore. Even with  the added power you have given me, she is too far gone."

He was walking around the pool. "Do you even know her name?" Dari was confused. "Whose name?" Jon-Tom pointed to the pool. "The owner of this heart. You told me once that she had no consciousness. It goes to show how far your power has slipped over the centuries." "Jon-Tom, are you trying to say that the planet is sentient?" He smiled. "Yes. And no. Your body is not sentient, your spirit is. When you die, your body remains as an empty shell. You enter the universe as a gneechee. That is the sentient part of you. This planet is a chunk of rock. Inside is a being you refer to as the earth mother, though she has been given many other names. And you are correct. She is dying. If she dies, we all go with her."

Dari was staring at the pool with a new wonder. His power was well past her own after all of these years. She had never connected with the entity like he apparently had. "Jon-Tom, why can you sense these things and I cannot." He patted her head. "Because Dari, you were never meant to. She needed the right person, and it took a long time for her to find him. Then she had to pull him across the universe and set him on a course where he would learn magic, test his mettle, hone is courage and loyalty, and finally come here to the end." The queen shuddered. "But you were here once before! Why didn't you help then?" A voice emanated from the walls. "Because he was still too raw. He wasn't prepared to be who he is now. You, last daughter, should see this to be true." Dari nearly wet herself. She leaned into Jon-Tom. "Who was that?" "That was Kuja-Yotay, the one you have been trying to protect for so long."

Dari walked forward and put her hand on the warm wall. She could feel things that had never come to her before. There was sadness and joy, pain and suffering, happiness, emptiness, and a thousand other emotions she didn't know existed. She pulled her hand away. One emotion stuck inside; emptiness. Here was the true goddess. And she had been alone for ten thousand eternities. She stepped back and confronted Jon-Tom. "I though you told me that your wizard friend pulled you over?" He shrugged. "He did. But I wasn't who he was looking for. I turned out to be who Kuja-Yotay was looking for. She acted through Clothahump to bring me here. It was a long shot, but she has made it work.

The voice echoed around the room. "Yes, that is true. I needed someone not of this world, not tainted by the fates here." Dari shot a questioning glance at the spell-singer. "Yes Dari, the fates here are as real as you or I. They decreed that this planet will die." She gulped. "And will it?" He got the biggest grin on his face. "Those son of a bitches have been messing in my life for years, and now I know why. So today, its my intention to give them a dose of what they deserve." He walked forward with his arms outspread. He started singing acapella. Before, he needed his duar to make magic, but now the gneechees were swarming the cave. They collected around him and formed a spire from his feet to the roof of the cave and beyond. They twisted and coalesced into a double helix, twisting like a drill bit.

Thousands of feet up above, the spire of light shot through the palace floor, though the roof and into the sky until they faded from sight. A rumble could be felt underfoot. Underground, Jon-Tom was lost to Dari's vision. All she could see was the intense light. Through it all his singing she could hear, filling the cavern and penetrating the rock. It was lovely. As she listened, she picked up a background voice accompanying it. It had to be the goddess. The column moved forward until it came to the edge of the pool. Dari went to exclaim "No!" but it was too late. The spell-singer stepped into the lava and sunk, pulling the gneechees along like an anchor line. She watched in horror as the lights disappeared below the surface of the lava. She could not measure the passing of time, but she knew that it had been a good hour before the last of them vanished into the lava. Jon-Tom was gone. She sat on a rock and wept. It would be a long climb back up and she was in no rush to tell anyone the news.