Charms

Author's Note: Dedicated to Miss Candy for her lovely gifties she sent me!

Alannah loved charms. Not the type that one speaks to weave spells-although she knows plenty of those. No, the charms she loved were the jewelry-type ones. She collected them when she was a child, and had a bracelet, neatly arranged in a pattern. Gold, silver, red, black, gold, red. Keys, hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds, all neatly arranged on a thin silver chain. The bracelet was lost, as such bracelets often are, and at first she was sad, but then her Daidi left and her mind was taken up with looking after her Momma. The charms became a distant memory, and except for a few times when she wished she had the bracelet again, she rarely remembers it.

Until the day she came home from gathering herbs and saw it lying on the table. At first, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. 'Surely this cannot be the same bracelet I had as a child.' She came forward, staring at it in wonder. The chain is different, but the charms are the same. The keys, card suits, and even the blue spool of yarn are there, and while a part of her knows that those also are not the same ones, she was too surprised and happy to worry about trifles.

She picked the bracelet up, half expecting it to vanish, but it remained solid, and she fastened it around her wrist, smiling, and then turned as she heard the door open. Stayne walked in, two children in tow and one in his arms, and smiled at her. "Do you like your gift?"

Alannah nodded, and then kissed him. "I'm charmed."

He smiled, kissing her back. "That you are love. That you are."