Two of the best things about Aunt Mary are that she always seems to know when I'm about to descend on her unannounced, and that she is nigh on impossible to shock. So I was counting on that as I knocked on the haint blue door of her cottage, whilst looking over my shoulder at Rufus. I had no idea what to do about him. He seemed well maybe not harmless but decent, initial rudeness aside. And really who wouldn't be a bit rude, waking up with what looked like the mother of all hangovers in the wrong place, time and probably universe. Pretty good grounds for being snappy. On the other hand he wasn't exactly low profile. Right now he was running his hands over Aunt Mary's battered Ford Fiesta and crooning under his breath like it was a restive horse. They probably didn't have the internal combustion engine in Harmatia, wherever that was, but if he kept doing things like that someone was definitely going to notice.
"Rufus!" I hissed, just as the cottage door opened.
"Good morning, Emily," said Mrs Cranford, her voice full of wry pleasure. "To what do I owe this very early vis-" She trailed off as Rufus ambled up beside me. "I see."
"Aunt M-Mary, I can e-explain..." I began sheepishly.
"I'm depending upon it," Aunt Mary replied, ushering us inside.
Rufus ducked under the lintel and looked around in apparent fascination. I watched as he gave the switched off TV a cursory glance before focusing on the bric-a-brac on the living room shelves. Aunt Mary's collection of protective objects. Not knowing what else to do, I took Rufus' cloak and pointed out the sofa, hoping he'd it down. He took the hint but his gaze continued to dart around the room. Clearly a hangover wasn't a major impediment to him when his curiosity was roused. I could hear the faint chink of china coming from the kitchen. I had until Aunt Mary carried in the tea tray to get my thoughts into some kind of order.
It wasn't going to happen.
What was I supposed to say? So, Aunt Mary, you know how you told me to leave messing around with layers of reality and other dimensions until I'd, what was it? Oh Yeah! Grown into my powers a bit more? Well I kinda completely ignored the warning because well there's just nothing to do around here anymore. I mean it's so peaceful and I was curious and well here is the result; comes from another world, talks about strange gods and fair folk and weird stuff like that, dresses like Shakespeare in the park, is probably still drunk and runs at a temperature that means a normal human being would be dead. Oh but on the plus side, under that hangover he's easy on the eyes and – big bonus – not to my knowledge a mass murderer like a certain other man who used to frequent the moor. So all in all, not so bad?
Yeah, that wasn't going to go over well at all.
Aunt Mary set a tray down and poured tea for all three of us. There was a large plate of buttered toast too, which Rufus accepted politely and tore into ravenously.
Mrs Cranford regarded me over the rim of her tea cup, eyes bright and eyebrows raised.
I swallowed. "So er Aunt M-Mary, this is R-R-Rufus. He's er v-visiting...a-a-accidentally..."
"Emily, I don't believe I've ever heard such a drastic understatement in my life. More tea Mr...?"
"Merle. Rufus Merle, madam. A pleasure." Rufus stood, placed one hand over his heart and bowed, before catching up Mrs Cranford's tiny bird-claw hand and pressing his lips lightly against her fingertips. If I hadn't known it was physically impossible, I would have thought that Aunt Mary was blushing. I rolled my eyes but at Mrs Cranford's impatient expression, I began a long and stammered version of what I thought had happened.
Where was Amy when you needed her? I thought miserably. She would have a perfect theory on this. Transdimensionality or something. I watched as Aunt Mary's expression grew tighter and tighter, wrinkles pulling in like gathers in cloth. I knew that look. It meant that she thought I'd screwed up but was waiting to find out how badly before she delivered a verdict.
I was pretty sure that playing around with other dimensions would have got me in enough trouble as it was. Actually bringing someone through a tear in reality, even if I didn't do it all by myself... I let my explanation taper off and waited. Aunt Mary wouldn't say anything until all her thoughts were marshalled.
She sighed. "Emily-" she began.
"Please, Madam, I am certain it was not all Emlynn's fault. It may well be mine. I was ... er...rather afflicted last night. It could have been me." Rufus was clearly trying to be helpful.
Mrs Cranford fixed him with a gimlet gaze. "Young man do you mean to tell me that you make a regular habit of shifting dimensions when you've had a shade too much to drink?"
"Er...well..." Rufus seemed taken aback by her ferocity.
"Do you, both of you, not think about the instability you may be causing across all dimensions when you play with these things?" She scowled at both of us in turn.
"N-neither of us meant t-t-to, Aunt M-Mary. It's j-just...what if w-w-we both huh-happened to be reaching o-out at the s-same time?" I pleaded.
"An accidental sympathetic connection," Rufus theorized, now deep in thought.
"You shouldn't have been reaching at all," Mrs Cranford sighed, looking at me.
I flushed.
"However, now you've forged a link somehow, we'll have to work out what it is so Rufus can return to his own place."
"L-link?" I asked just as Rufus said "but don't you think perhaps the gods meant for me to be here?"
"The gods," Mrs Cranford said darkly, "are best off minding their own affairs. At least on this plane of existence." Catching my eye she said more kindly, "cheer up, Emily. I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of it. Somehow, you two were both reaching as you put it, at the same time and a bond was forged. As soon as we know what that hinges on, we can find a way to dissolve it. Once that is done, you should find Rufus, that you'll be drawn back to your own world without too much trouble. It is your natural state to be there after all."
"It is an interesting theory," Rufus mused. "How will we go about finding the source of this bond?"
"Emily will tell us."
"M-me? But I d-don't nuh-know..."
"Emily you remember the exercise where I asked you to tell me where an object came from by touching it?" Mrs Cranford had her old wicked sparkle back in her eyes.
I scowled. I had not been good at that exercise at all. "I ruh-remember."
"I want you to take Rufus' hand and clear your mind..."
I sighed but reached out and took Rufus'outstretched hand in mine. I noticed again how fiercely hot his skin was. And then my mind exploded.
Or that's what it felt like.
I hadn't been ready. I hadn't even had a chance to clear my mind because I was sure it wasn't going to work. I was wrong.
It was like being launched off a cliff into utter darkness. Shards of starfire flashed by me, faster and faster until the sharp edges ground against each other to form a picture. A woman. Beautiful, with long dark hair. Pain. Hot knives ripping through my abdomen. And then agonising cold...emptiness without end. An emptiness I knew well, that I had carried inside me since Mum had died. A wound I had thought was healing. Rufus' pain tore the scar tissue off, leaving me raw with fresh grief. That was it. That was the link. Grief. Loss.
I let go of Rufus' hand. Tears streamed down my face but I was barely aware of them except as a salt sting on my lips. Rufus too had tears running down his cheeks but the tears never fell; they evaporated in little hisses of steam on his scalding skin.
"Emily?" Mrs Crandford sounded anxious.
In a daze I met Rufus' eyes. "Who is Mielane?" I whispered.
"No!" Rufus leapt to his feet and burst into flame.
I fell back against the coffee table. What the holy hell...
"Quick, Emily!" Mrs Cranford shouted.
I threw myself towards the hallway and a small fire extinguisher, then paused. I couldn't use flame retardant chemicals on a person, could I?
I turned again, head whipping around, looking for something...anything...
Mrs Cranford had already thrown the teapot over Rufus, followed by her tea cup anf a vase of flowers. It didn't put the flames out but it did seem to shock Rufus back into his senses. I watched in awe as the flames disappeared into his skin. Leaving him soot stained, dripping with vase water and festooned with limp flowers. And more or less naked I realised in horror. My strange visitor might be fire proof but his clothes weren't. I could feel blood rushing into my head like water into a balloon and more and more scraps of charred cloth fell off Rufus. I flung y gaze at the carpet. There was no way I was looking up right now.
"Emily, be a dear, run and get the spare dressing gown from the back of the bedroom door," said Mrs Cranford, as calmly as if a strange man had not just self immolated in her living room. I was only to happy to obey. Five minutes later, Aunt Mary was coaxing Rufus into a very pink, very frilly, flannel dressing gown and trying to persuade him to sit back down on the now somewhat charred sofa.
She picked up the tea tray and hooked an eyebrow at me. I followed her into the kitchen.
"Er...s-s-sorry?" I said.
"Well, my morning is turning out to be quite bracing, Emily. Have you any more surprises for me?"
I shook my head and then stopped and looked at her in horror. Aunt Mary had heard it too. The sound of the front door slamming. I dashed through the living room and into the hall, Mrs Cranford hobbling behind me. Yanking the door open, I looked down the street. A flash of pink caught my eye as Rufus disappeared in the direction of the church.
I exchanged one distraught glance with Aunt Mary and then took off after him. I was now chasing a naked, man from another world in Aunt Mary's second best dressing gown through the streets of Arncliffe under the curious gaze of every early rising gossip in the village. As bad days went, this was shaping up to be high in the top ten.