Prologue

His breakfast, which was dinner for Onni, finally revived Lalli enough for him to remember the question he wanted to ask his cousin:
-The weird new dream area. Whose is it?
-The foreign mages who were expected to arrive today.
-You said "mages". There is only one area.
-This why they are here. This area should normally be two. Mages from both Iceland and Norway apparently ran out of ideas on how to separate them. It was the side effect of a new rune meant to deal with ghosts, so they came over here to see if any of us could help. Any idea is welcome at this point, so feel free to go give it a look.
-I'm not interested.
-Okay. How is your present for Tuuri going?
Strictly speaking, it wasn't his present. But Lalli had checked the cupboard before leaving, and it had looked almost finished.
-Good. Should be ready in time.
Onni spoke again:
-The woman among the foreign mages came here with her husband and daughter. The two of them only speak Swedish and Norwegian. Tuuri has been the one showing them around. First time I've seen her smile like this in a while. Maybe you can try talking to her again.

It had been five years since the paperwork that would have let them participate in that expedition had ended up in the river. Lalli hadn't even known what it was, except that there had been a couple papers he had needed to sign. He had had no problem taking them to an office he was going to walk by on the way to scouting anyway. But the schemer had known, and made sure that every single sheet ended up in the water. Lalli had been the one who had been yelled at by Tuuri, and hated by her for it ever since. There had been one consolation from the schemer before he had seemingly disappeared from Lalli's life almost as suddenly as he had come into it: at least, Tuuri was alive. Lalli had done his best to be grateful for it despite the situation. Then something that the schemer hadn't seen coming had almost killed Tuuri instead. There had been multiple causes, but Tuuri's mind had caught mostly onto those that wouldn't have happened if she had been able to go on the expedition. It had been Lalli's fault that she hadn't been able to go on the expedition. Her health had fortunately gotten better since, but her grudge towards Lalli hadn't.

And all this for what? For the schemer to only show up around Tuuri's birthday, gather materials during Lalli's scouting shifts, make her a present and deliver it to her with complete disregard for the bad status of their relationship? Meddling with Lalli's life didn't come without a price for the schemer. For every minute he lived Lalli's life, Lalli was entitled to a minute of his. The schemer knew that Lalli could jump in and act unlike him for long enough that even his idiot husband would notice that something strange was going on. If that happened, the situation could reach the ears of someone from whom the situation was best kept hidden. At least, that was what Lalli suspected to be the real reason. The schemer's official reason was that he didn't want Lalli to see too much of who he was giving up on meeting so Tuuri could live. Lalli honestly didn't feel like he had given up on much. Knowingly choosing Tuuri's life over getting to meet that idiot would have been an easy choice for him, if he'd had any say in his actions at the crucial moment. In fact, when Tuuri had tried to do the paperwork again, he had refused to sign anything by his own initiative, which had only worsened her initial contempt towards him.

Lalli's thoughts got interrupted by the sound of two bowls being placed on the table at the same time, then two people taking turns speaking Icelandic, while Onni answered to them in a slightly annoyed voice. Lalli was finished with his meal anyway, so he decided to leave before the newcomers noticed his presence and tried talking to him. He however had to do a double take when he noticed the one who had come to sit next to him. Red hair that long, a male voice. Lalli had seen him one of the times he was collecting some of the "debt" the schemer had towards him. The one who had come to sit next to Onni at the other side of the table was a brown-haired and hazel-eyed woman around his own age. Nobody he remembered, be it from his own life or the schemer's. Once he had checked this, Lalli decided to leave swiftly. Next thing he knew, some idiot bumped into him and two bowls of food shattered on the floor. He quickly heard a child's voice, followed by a woman's:
-Papa!
-Emil!