Chapter 14

Sebastian was leaning against the walls that marked the entrance of the Twelfth of the Ram. The Horsemaster's house was just on the other side of the wall, but nobody was home. The place had been empty when he had first arrived, so now there he was, protecting himself from the sun in the small shadow cast by the wall.

"Sebastian?" A voice asked. It was Carlo.

"Oh, hello. Yes, it's me."

"What are you doing there?" Carlo asked intrigued. It was not like he was surprised to find the young man there, he was now a regular visitor for them, but the fact that he was on the ground probably ruining his fine clothes was what had him intrigued.

"I was waiting for Elliott."

"That much I figured, but why here? You could have waited inside my house or the stables." Carlo said. Maybe they were not like the best friends in the city, but Carlo now trusted him and considered him a nice acquaintance.

"I didn't want to intrude." Sebastian said. "Besides, there's no one home. I knocked."

"That's odd." Carlo said. "Mother should be home. But maybe she went to see her friends again. She hates to be home when all we do is talk about the Stellata. Anyway, Elliott is in the stables. We just came back. You should find him there, he's grooming the horses. He's pretty good at it. I'll go see if I can find my mother. She must be at the Lioness."

"Okay, thank you." Sebastian said, already walking to the stables.

And in fact Elliott was there. He was grooming the horse named Arcangelo. Sebastian knew it was the horse the Ram would be running in the Stellata.

"You're such a champion." Elliott was murmuring to the horse. "Aren't you? Yes you are! Look at that face, it says champion of this year's Stellata."

"Well, I don't know if he has written that in his face, but he's certainly a fine animal." Sebastian said, approaching him.

"Seb!" Elliott exclaimed pretty excited with the sight of the Smythe man. "I thought I'll see until later. Is Marcus with you?"

"No, I'm on my own. I just came here to share something with you. I'll be back later with Marcus like we promised, but I couldn't wait to tell you this."

"What is it?" Elliott asked curiously.

"I finally talked to Blaine. I shared with him Marcus' plan and do you know what he said?"

Elliott shook his head.

"He's going to help! He didn't share with me the secret to make the talismans or anything, but he said he would talk to you soon. I asked him to hurry because of what we talked...that the best day to do this is during the Stellata."

"Really?" Elliott asked. "He's going to help?"

Sebastian nodded.

"Oh my God! That's amazing!" Elliott exclaimed, jumping up and down and grabbing Sebastian's hands so the young man did the same thing.

After some minutes they laughed at their own silliness and stopped jumping while still holding hands.

"We're going to save your brother, Seb." Elliott said with tenderness.

"Thanks to you."

"It's nothing, but thank me when we have done it and he's safe and sound in my small apartment in New York." Elliott said.

Sebastian leaned over and left a soft kiss on Elliott's cheek. "Thank you." He whispered into his ear and walked away, leaving Elliott flustered from head to toe and holding his breath.

o-o-o-o-o

Kurt and Blaine were back in their chambers. It was such a relief for both of them to be fine again that they both felt light as feathers while they enjoyed the afterglow of their passionate reconciliation.

"There's something I didn't tell you." Blaine said absentmindedly. He was distracted, leaving strange patterns on Kurt's back.

"Should I worry?" Kurt asked, raising his head to look at his husband.

"No…" Blaine confessed, "well, maybe a little."

"What is it?"

Blaine took a deep breath. "Sebastian knows we are itineranti." He blurted out.

"What!?" Kurt exclaimed. "Are you crazy!? Why did you tell him!?"

"I didn't." Blaine said in self defense. "It was Elliott."

"What!?" Kurt asked even more confused.

Blaine sighed. "It's a long story."

"Then you better start." Kurt urged him. "Tell me everything."

Blaine nodded and started sharing everything that had happened in the past few days from the moment Sebastian and Marcus had revealed that they knew Elliott, to his last conversation with the oldest of the two.

"Wait a minute. Let me see if I understood everything." Kurt said, trying to grasp the story. "Sebastian and Elliott know each other, they are even friends you say, and Marcus wants to be one of us?"

Blaine nodded. "Yes. Elliott was, in fact, the one who confirmed your identity. They became friends once when they had lunch in Santa Fina or that's what Sebastian told me."

"Of course!" Kurt exclaimed, he was putting two and two together. "That's why Elliott loves it there. I mean, the town is charming and everything but very small and quite frankly not that amazing, but of course that loose-lipped New Yorker couldn't keep his big mouth shut! No, he had to go and spill the beans to Sebastian! As if that were to get him into his pants!"

"What?" Blaine asked confused. "Do you think Elliott likes Sebastian that way?"

"Why else would he reveal such secret?"

Blaine thought about it for a minute. Picturing Sebastian, who was so aloof, polite and tidy for a man with someone like Elliott who was the exact opposite wasn't something easy. They were like the opposite sides of a coin. "I can't picture them together, I mean they are so different, like Elliott is this sophisticated shy man and Sebastian is just...well, you know how he is."

"Those combinations usually work, just look at us." Kurt said, smiling fondly at his husband. "But never mind them! What is that of Marcus wanting to be a itinerante!?"

"He thinks that becoming one of us is his only way to have a better life. Sebastian said he tried to persuade him, but he's determined to do it and Elliott already said yes so…"

"So you promised to help too." Kurt stated. He knew his husband all too well.

"I didn't have much of an option, actually." Blaine confessed. "He's a great kid and his father wants him to be ordained. He's truly desperate."

"Ray is not going to be happy about this and let's not talk about my grandfather." Kurt said. "I can already hear their lecture about my grandfather's sacrifice to keep the space-continuum thing working and how we can't go through life creating new itineranti whenever someone needs help. But that's the less important thing in all this, I mean, what is Marcus going to do once he's there? That world is hard, much more for a kid who's had a life full of luxury—and in a different century."

"Sebastian told me that Elliott offered himself to take care of the boy there. He said he could live with him. Apparently the person with whom he lived, his room something-"

"His roomie." Kurt said.

"That one, moved away so he has the apartment all for himself."

"But they will need papers and money and-"

"I know, but Sebastian said that Elliott had already thought about all that. He said he had everything under control."

Kurt frowned a little. He was deep in thought. "In that case we can't say any of this to Ray or the others. If Marcus' plan is to go there permanently then there's no need to alert the others, right?"

"This means you're going to help?" Blaine asked, tenderly caressing Kurt's face.

"Of course!" Kurt said, kissing Blaine. "We are a team. If you're there, I'm there."

Blaine smiled broadly and captured Kurt's lips again. He didn't want to be away from Kurt ever again.

o-o-o-o-o

Sebastian and Marcus arrived to the Ram a little bit past lunchtime. Sebastian had promised Elliott that they would come down to see him so they could keep planning Marcus' permanent move to the other world. What they weren't expecting was to find Kurt and Blaine there. The Princes were standing next to Elliott as they talked. Sebastian noticed that they looked happy, Kurt had one of his arms around Blaine's waist and his head rested on his husband's shoulder. Apparently whatever was wrong between them was now fixed.

"I didn't know I'd see you both in here." Sebastian said, approaching the group. Marcus was still in the carriage. "I mean-" he hesitated a little.

"Kurt knows everything," Blaine explained, "and he's going to help too."

"Really?" Sebastian asked looking at Kurt.

"Yes." Kurt said. "We all deserve second chances, including you Sebastian."

"Thank you." Sebastian said, blushing a little. "Hmmm, Ells could you help me get Marcus out of the carriage?"

"Sure!" Elliott exclaimed already walking toward the carriage.

"We'll see you inside the house." Blaine said. He along with Kurt had noticed the new familiarity between the two young man. Kurt's theory about them liking each other seemed very probable.

Elliott and Sebastian helped Marcus climb down from the carriage and together the three men entered the empty house. Cesare had received an urgent letter from a friend and Carlo hadn't returned from the Lioness where he had gone to look for his mother.

Once they were all comfortable and with a glass of wine in front of them, they started to talk. The conversation? Marcus' translation to the other world.

"First of all," Blaine said to Marcus, "as you already know, you will need a talisman."

With that Marcus realized that what his brother had said was true. They were all really going to take him to Elliott and Kurt's world. No, he corrected himself, to Elliott's world. There was no doubt about it, Kurt was a Talian now.

"How can I get one?" Marcus asked simply.

"Elliott will have to bring you one." Kurt said. "It has to be something from the other world, brought from there to here. Then when you're ready to do the journey, you must hold it in your hands and fall asleep in Talia thinking of the other place. You should wake up in Amerighi, I mean America, in the twenty-first century. And from there well...that would be Elliott's responsibility too."

Sebastian and Marcus looked at Elliott as if he could solve all the problems they were going to get.

"Well, what sort of thing should it be?" Elliott asked. "Mine is a horse, you Kurt said yours was a notebook. But they were both from Talia. I won't know what I'm looking for in New York."

"May I see the horse?" Marcus asked.

Reluctantly, Elliott drew the little model of the winged horse from his pocket and showed it to him.

"A cavallo alato!" Marcus exclaimed excitedly. "The Rassenans used to have them. Wouldn't be wonderful to see one for real?"

Elliott and Sebastian exchanged conspiratorial glances that didn't go unnoticed by Kurt and Blaine.

"You told him?" Kurt asked Elliott.

"Told who, what?" Marcus asked, but nobody was paying him any attention. All the eyes were fixed on Elliott.

"Maybe…?" He said coyly.

"I didn't tell anybody." Sebastian said in self defense. "I've changed, Kurt. You can ask Blaine. I'm not the same you once knew. I thought you believed in second chances?"

"I do and you're right." Kurt said. Blaine had already told him all about Sebastian's redemption. "It's just that the more people know about her the more she's in danger."

"Who is she?" Marcus asked. He was the only one who wasn't understanding the conversation.

"A horse...a horse that was born here in the Ram." Blaine said. "It's winged."

Marcus made the good fortune sign. And to distract him for inquiring any further about Merla, Blaine went on about the talismans. "But let's get back to what we're here for. We don't have much time. Cesare will be here shortly and we won't have another chance to be all together. In fact, we can't be seen together. If something goes wrong it would only raise more suspicions if they knew we are all sort of friends."

"Yes, of course." Sebastian said.

"We were talking about the talismans." Kurt said. "There are no rules for the objects that will work as talismans. For example Raymond's talisman is a silver quill that my grandfa-I mean, Doctor Lombardi brought him."

An idea was beginning to form in Elliott's mind.

"He also brought Cesare's, and Mel's, and the talismans of countless other itineranti from Talia to the other world. It's something we do. We've both been trained to bring them. It's a very heavy responsibility, the itineranti that comes using your talisman is, in some way, your responsibility."

"Have you brought talismans?" Elliott asked.

Both Kurt and Blaine nodded. "I brought one for Blaine when we first met. We were planning on escaping to your world, then Blaine made my engagement ring a talisman unintentionally, and then well…" Kurt hesitated, he didn't want to reveal what were their talismans ever since they got married, "I got a new talisman when I moved here to be able to do the travel the other way around and see my family."

"Is it dangerous to bring one?" Elliott asked. "I barely understand how this works so correct me if I'm wrong but, can't this whole thing affect the space-time-continuum-thingy? I've seen enough sci-fi shows to know that one most never temper with the space-continuum."

"It could," Blaine said, "but it won't because thanks to the founding father of the brotherhood that can't happen anymore."

"What did he do?" Elliott asked.

Kurt and Blaine looked at each other, that was a story that they had just learned not so long ago. Back when they had first met the first itinerante, he had mentioned something about he not being able to make the journey back to the other world anymore, but he never said why. Later when they had attended the University of Padavia, the old man had revealed the story. He couldn't go back because he had realized that the only way to keep the portal stable in both worlds was if he remained in Talia. He had deducted that a few years after he had moved here permanently, but had confirmed his suspicions the moment Kurt had appeared for the first time in this world. For years he had been monitoring the portal, waiting for someone to come from that world and tell him that his theory was true. That if he didn't travel then the worlds, although separated for over 400 years, were in sync.

"He's the one who discovered this kind of science." Kurt explained. "Back when he was the only traveler he discovered that the portal between both worlds was quite unstable. For years he tried different things to stabilized it, but nothing worked. Finally, he made some research and discovered that the only way to keep the worlds from speeding between each other was if he remained in Talia. All the itineranti that come from here have always travel to our time, but Doctor Lombardi was able to go back to his time. That obviously made the portal unstable, so he stopped traveling to test his theory. When I showed up here, he could confirm thanks to the information Ray shared with him that the portal was stable between both worlds. Then when Blaine became one of us the portal didn't change either so he pretty much confirmed that in order for the portal to remain stable he had to sacrifice himself and never go back to the other world."

Elliott, Sebastian and Marcus looked at each other.

"But well, let's keep the history lessons for later." Blaine said. "If Marcus is planning on staying there and be what Doctor Lombardi calls a translated itinerante then there's no need to go too deep in technicalities."

"Yes," Kurt agreed, "let's forget about that. From what Blaine told me, now you know the basics so you'll be fine. You'll be a itinerante for a very short period of time. Elliott will bring you a talisman and it will be destroyed once you're there, just as a precaution. We can't risk it. It'd be like a one-way ticket."

"Wait...but before we keep with this. I need to know something." Sebastian said. "Are there any risks?"

"There are always risks." Kurt said. "When we first did it we didn't know what we do now, so you can say we were really lucky."

"What are the risks?" Sebastian asked, and Elliott looked equally interested.

"Every travel is a risk in itself." Kurt explained. "First, the talisman could chose not to work for a certain person so having it won't be of any help. And second, if the itinerante makes the journey and dies in the world where he has no shadow then…"

"Then, what?" Sebastian asked in anticipation.

"His body disappears from both worlds." Blaine said.

"Disappears?" Elliott, Sebastian and Marcus asked at the same time.

Blaine nodded. "It vanishes...like air."

"Has it happened?" Elliott asked, a bit worried. He still didn't know anything about this brotherhood he was a part of.

"Once…" Kurt said, "Raymond's wife made the trip and never came back."

"Oh." Sebastian and Elliott whispered at the same time.

"It doesn't matter," Marcus said, "I'm willing to take any risk."

o-o-o-o-o

When Kurt and Blaine made it to the Smythe's palace it was already way past dinner time, so they just walked to their chambers trying not to draw a lot of attention. The conversation with Sebastian and his brother hadn't lasted long, but when the Smythe brothers had taken off, Blaine and Kurt had decided to make it up for the lost time in the past days and had a walk together through town. They had enjoyed some refreshments and had dinner at one of the inns. Obviously, all the Remorans had recognized them, so they had returned to the palace carrying a basket with goodies and gifts that the people from town had offered them. It was hard when they were just surrounded by friends to remember that they were also the Princes of the Kingdom and therefore, they had one of the highest positions among the inhabitants of all the cities of the Kingdom.

"I can't feel my legs." Blaine confessed as soon as they were inside the room. "That's why I love Bellezza the most. You can always use the canals to move through town. Here is either by horse or walking. No wonder why everyone is so fit."

"I know." Kurt agreed, he was already taking out their pajamas so they could change. "The first time Carlo took us to see the town I felt the same thing."

They changed in silence just enjoying the domestically of the action.

"B?" Kurt asked, when they were getting into bed.

"What is it, my love?"

"There's something about what I said yesterday night that wasn't a product of my jealousy/stupidity attack." Kurt said and Blaine frowned confused. "I really want to go see my dad. I don't know why but I think that something's not right."

Blaine thought about it for a minute. He hadn't admitted that he was worried about Kurt's family too. He had tried to remain positive. And although he would like to go and make sure they were okay, he was aware of the risks. They were, after all, in Smythe's territory and although Sebastian and Marcus were the exception of their family, Rinaldo and Francesco still lived there.

"You know we can't make the trip from here...it's too risky."

"I know," Kurt said, snuggling closer to Blaine, "but maybe I could just go by myself and you-and you could stay in here to keep an eye just in case?" He said tentatively. "This won't be like what we did when we arrived here, I promise. I'll just check that they are okay and be back here as soon as I can."

If that conversation had happened a day ago Blaine would have panicked with just the idea of letting Kurt go to that world on his own, but now he was sure that the whole thing that had happened between them had been just a misunderstanding. They both belonged here, to one another, there was no doubt about it.

"Fine," Blaine said, "but remember that you can't stay there too long. The race is in a couple of days and things are going to be far more complicated here. You can't miss breakfast, your grandfather is here and we were also invited to the procession tomorrow. It starts at noon so you'll have to be here for that too."

Kurt nodded.

Blaine removed his ring from his finger and placed it on top of Kurt's wedding band. "Say hello to your father and Carole for me, okay?"

Kurt smiled and kissed his husband quickly. "I love you, I'll be back in the morning."

"I love you too." Blaine said, hugging Kurt and helping him sleep.

So this is it for now. I hope you've liked it. I told you the boys would be fine, I just needed to shake them up a little bit for the sake of the story.

Anyway, regarding the next update. I'm still not sure if it will be up this week or the next one. The upcoming chapters are hard to say the least. We have reached the angsty part of the fic and because of that I'm re-editing the chapters. I warned you at the end of OUAD and in the summary of this fic about some tragedy and stuff happening so expect some drama. The main characters will be fine but there'll be major warnings for the next update. I'm really, really nervous about it but at the same time I'm excited to see what you guys think. I'll try my best to update as soon as possible but either way have some patience :)

See you soon!