A/N: FLASHBACKS
**Part 1, A Couple of Years Before Chapter 1**
"What exactly did your grandmother tell you?"
Fintan said, eyeing Sookie curiously. Adele had allowed him to come over so that Sookie could ask him questions about the charm he had given her the night before, the green compact she was holding carefully in her lap.
When he first arrived, Sookie had answered the door, but was quiet – she stole only one glance in his direction before looking away. Adele insisted that Sookie mind her manners while she ushered her granddaughter and Fintan over to the tan-colored couch to sit next to each other. Adele then excused herself and went into the kitchen. After a few moments of awkward silence, Sookie rose to cross the room, pacing as she asked him a flurry of questions – about fairies, about himself, about her telepathy.
Fintan had only met his granddaughter the night before, but he could tell that although she had had a hard life, she was a still loving, caring, and ultimately good-hearted young woman. He found he was amazed by her, admired her.
Sookie had more light in her than any faery he had ever met and it would serve her well once her powers came in. Fintan could tell, given the intensity of her spark, that she would in fact be very powerful. He was counting down the days, even though it was five years away. Adele had agreed that Fintan could become a permanent fixture in Sookie's life once her faery side matured, and he was eager to train her how to wield her magic.
"Gran said it's a love token, and that y'all made it by tying your lives together to protect us from the fairies."
Sookie said slowly, trying not to leave out any of the brief explanation her Gran had given her. She was grateful she could ask Fintan about all of it – she felt, even though she trusted her Gran inherently, that she had held back, been a little too cloak and dagger about what the heck the little green compact really was, and how it actually worked.
"Ah…my dear, it is much more than that."
Fintan knew he would incur the wrath of Adele – because he had told her some little white lies and she was only a room away, surely listening at the door – but Sookie needed to know the truth. She had to understand and appreciate the cluviel dor, the cost of its magic; if she used it by accident… he refused to take that risk.
"Sweet child, come sit down next to me; there is much I need to share with you about the gift I gave you the other night."
Sookie crossed the room to sit on the couch next to a man she had recently learned was her blood relative, her grandfather. It was awkward, discovering that her life had, to an extent, been a lie. She sighed, steeling herself for what she worried would be more bad news.
"The gift I gave you has been yours since you were a young child, although it was previously kept out of your possession. It is called a cluviel dor. While imbued with the most potent of faery magic, it appears to be nothing more than a useless trinket to someone who does not possess the faery spark. Because you have the spark, its magic is visible to you, and because it belongs to you, it hides you from all faeries – like the cloak in that movie with the boy who is a wizard."
Fintan very much enjoyed human movies about magic.
"Your grandmother was correct; we created this with love, but it was a bit more complicated than that. Cluviel dors are the product of a great forfeiture… no, let me back up a bit. Faeries do not live forever, but our lifespans are nearly immeasurable. We are not immune to death, but it does not find our kind easily – and often we live what feels like forever. We covet our lives like the greedy covet their money – does that make sense?"
Sookie nodded. She had no idea that Fintan could have lived for thousands of years, but she understood what he meant.
"All magic comes with a price – never forget that Sookie – and this item was no exception. Cluviel dors contain the most powerful magicks in existence, and it is by design that the it shields you from the faeries – even when it is not on your person – because a faery would quite literally kill to get their hands on one. They are rare, extremely so, because of what it costs to make them – a price that few faeries are willing to pay.
Only a handful have been made because they require a sacrifice – and quite a large one. Every faery has the capacity within them to create a cluviel dor, and while it does not have to be forged by love, one had never been made for any other reason.
You see, I am only allowed to find you and it, despite its magical cloak against faeries, because your gift contains a piece of me. No… it is best if I explain it this way…
When a creature of almost infinite age – like a faery – ties his essence to another but of fewer years – like a human – he is giving away his most coveted possession for someone else – for love – sacrificing himself in a sense. This noble act captures the attentions and sympathies of the Gods. In that moment, they smile on him and the most powerful of magicks coalesce with the sacrificed piece of his lifeforce and transfer into an object – a cluviel dor."
Tears glistened in Sookie's eyes and she thrust the green compact she had been thumbing back towards him, bidding him to take it.
"Please take it back; there has to be another way."
Fintan sighed and closed his hand over hers, placing her hand, with the charm, back in her lap. He continued softly.
"No, it is yours, and it is imperative that you know how to avoid activating it. The cluviel dor is not intended to be a cloaking device – that is merely a happy side effect of its magic. At its heart, each cluviel dor contains the power to grant a wish. Once a wish had been made, the object is consumed and all of its magic disappears – including its cloaking abilities. If you are holding it, do not even think the words 'I wish' unless you have no other choice – even then you must be careful what you wish for because you could change the entire world without meaning to."
Fintan watched as Sookie dropped the object and buried her face in her hands, crying. She wept for his loss, and he was moved by the depth of her emotion for someone she had only met the night before. He reached out and patted Sookie's hand with his.
"My dear, do not fret about it so; it is already done, and even if I could undo the magic, I would not. Your grandmother is my heart and I do not want to live one day in this world if she is not in it. It is a gift that we made out of our love for each other and for you, and you deserve this gift – never doubt that. Had I a thousand lives, I would give them all to keep you safe and Adele happy. It was an easy choice, and one I will never come to regret."
Fintan waited for Sookie to head off to work before phoning his demon friend, Desmond Catalaides. He asked him to come over so they could talk about Sookie.
"I'm so mad at you right now."
Adele said, as she swept out from the kitchen with a pitcher of homemade sweet tea in her hands; she had been eavesdropping from the other room, listening intently as Fintan explained things to Sookie that he had not told her. She had not expected that Fintan would make her granddaughter cry; she would not have encouraged the conversation – her Sookie had already been through so much in the past 24 hours.
"You had no right, Fintan! You upset her; you scared her!"
Desmond had not yet arrived, and Fintan was counting down the minutes – until then he was subject to the entirety of Adele's ire.
"She needed to know, Adele. You cannot keep her in the dark about everything. You do not know that she would not have made some silly wish off-hand while holding the cluviel dor – do not forget, the faeries will take her the second they find her. She has to know how to protect herself, Adele!"
Adele fell silent for a moment; he was right, but that did nothing to abate her anger. Or her guilt; she knew he could have lived a long time, but not basically forever.
"If you had told me… I would not have let… IF YOU HAD TOLD ME… You never said it was a wish, that we were handing her a magical freaking bomb – that you GAVE UP ETERNITY for us!"
Fintan responding, shaking his head slowly, "I want for you what you want for her – happiness, and it's made you happy, to know she will be safe. I know it has. And the cluviel dor does just as I promised, it cloaks her from the faeries. But yes, I did not tell you its real power or the depth of my sacrifice. I am sorry I hid these truths from you, but I love you so dearly," Fintan moved towards her and cupped her cheek affectionately, "Can you understand I've done this all because of the love I have for you?"
"You gave up forever for me, for us?" she said quietly, tears falling from her eyes as the weight of his actions became real to her.
"Yes, my love… Don't cry, don't cry… Shhhh…" He enclosed his arms around her and whispered into her hair, "You are my everything; my heart. You have given me everything – a family, love, peace. What I told Sookie was the truth – I do not want to live one moment without you in my life; it was an easy decision for me. The years before, when you were still with Earl – those were the hardest out of my 700 some-odd years. It was then that I realized the only times I had ever felt alive were the times I had spent with you."
"They were hard for me to, but I had a duty; I made a vow…"
He pulled back and raised a finger to her lips to ask for her silence.
"I never once begrudged you your ideals or beliefs. You are a great woman, Adele; and an amazing mother and grandmother. You are always doing the right thing when it comes to Sookie. She has a light like no one I've ever met – that is not the faery in her. That is the Adele Stackhouse in her."
"Do you think she'll be okay?"
"Sweetheart, our Sookie is as strong as they come and five years from now, she will be a force to be reckoned with. She is going to have so much power, she will not even need that silly charm to protect her," Adding quickly as he watched Adele frowning at his words, "But it still will; it always will."
"Hello?" Desmond shouted from the foyer, having knocked for several minutes with no answer.
"Plus, with Desmond as her godfather, she'll be well-taken care of for the rest of her life. You know that he has already promised to do everything in his power to shield her from the supernatural world after our deaths, treat her like his own. Do not worry, my love; no harm is going to come to our baby girl."
**Part 2, Not So Long Before Chapter 1**
Sookie never saw Fintan again after he had explained the cluviel dor, but little did she know he had not left her life until he was forced to.
Fintan knew that a vampire had been silently stalking Sookie for the past two years, and he liked it – more than he wanted to admit.
Over two years ago, Fintan had discovered that a vampire had tracked Sookie home from work, lurking out in the woods behind the farmhouse. It was the same vampire that Sookie had introduced herself to just the night before. Sookie was inside, which meant she was safe – mostly. Although to this day Fintan did not know why, he had fought against his baser instincts and left the vampire his undead life. Instead he chose to cloak himself – and his scent – to watch the vampire who eyed his granddaughter with so much interest, following the vampire each night as he shadowed Sookie.
The vampire never noticed Fintan, and he was not sure if he should count his blessings or fear that much more for his granddaughter, who was the sole focus of a predator. But the fear had dissipated quickly.
Over the next months, Fintan witnessed the vampire protect Sookie repeatedly from all sorts of troubles she inadvertently wandered into. The vampire never once approached Sookie, and Fintan found it curious because although the vampire seemed enthralled by her, he acted as if he was very much afraid of her. Fintan had taken to calling Sookie's vampire 'the Silent Knight' – because he did not know the vampire's name and because that's what he was, an invisible force guarding her at night from the ills of an unforgiving world.
Secretly, Fintan began to hope that the Silent Knight would continue to watch over Sookie after he and Adele died. They had agreed that Desmond would assume responsibility for Sookie's protections – and it was true that he loved her like a daughter – but Fintan had grown to like the Silent Knight. He was strong; he was scary, and he was obviously was in love with Sookie, so much so that he denied his own vampiric nature. Fintan was surprised and impressed that the Silent Knight could exert an unbelievable amount of control over himself, act as though Sookie's sweet-smelling faery blood was no temptation at all.
But it seemed the Silent Knight had nothing but surprises in store for Fintan.
When the Silent Knight killed one of his own kind, who had wandered into the woods outside the farmhouse, Fintan almost dropped his cloaking – he could barely contain his shock, or his awe. After that, Fintan didn't follow the two of them as closely; he felt comfortable leaving Sookie's care to the Silent Knight, confident he would keep her from harm.
It did not escape Fintan's attention that he was entrusting the safety of his precious kin to his people's enemy. It was an odd world, Fintan often thought to himself, getting odder still.
In the midst of it all, Adele had somehow found her own vampire to keep her company when Sookie wasn't home – a tall blonde with a sharp tongue named Pam. Fintan hadn't met Pam, but he watched her with Adele the same way he had watched the Silent Knight with Sookie. He could see that they had a true friendship; there was no deception there. Fintan laughed at his own previous misgivings about vampires. Perhaps they were like faeries or demons – not each and every one of them was bad at the core.
Fintan and Adele never mentioned the two vampires to Desmond, not because they were hiding it per say, but because it never crossed their minds – it was as if the vampires had become part of their everyday lives. Fintan thought it might be time to tell Sookie about vampires, especially since Pam had mentioned to Adele that in a couple of years vampires intended to reveal themselves anyways.
But Adele staunchly held onto her belief that it was best only to tell Sookie what was absolutely necessary. She stated plainly that if the Silent Knight was content to hide from Sookie, as he had been for two years, then it was proof-positive that even the vampire agreed Sookie did not need to know who or what he was. Fintan could not think of a single counter argument, and so he let it go. His family was safe, and he was happy.
Fintan had always paid too much attention to Sookie and Gran and too little to Jason, his non-magical grandson who did not live at the farmhouse – ignoring him almost entirely. It had completely escaped his notice that Sookie's brother had become a drug addict and a thief, stealing not only from his family, but from other junkies.
When Fintan sniffed out a vial of vampire blood in the house, he didn't even think of Jason. He assumed the blood belonged to one of the two vampires with an invitation to Adele's home. He didn't understand vampire rituals, but it felt high-handed to him like his family was being claimed – the stench would have been noticeable to supernaturals even a mile away. He trusted both vampires, but in his opinion, scenting the house was going too far.
Fintan took the small vial in hand and enclosed it inside Sookie's cluviel dor – magically blocking all traces of the smell – before returning the small compact to its hiding spot behind the dresser. Adele agreed that it would be best to confront the two vampires in a couple hours when the sun went down, and Fintan could not contain his excitement that he was finally going to meet the Silent Knight, even if he wished it was under better circumstances.
But time was not on their side – Jason's enemies were already en route to the farmhouse with Sookie unconscious and locked in the trunk, searching for the very thing Fintan had too cleverly hidden – and before the sun set in Bon Temps, Fintan and Adele were granted entry to the Summerlands, the faery afterlife.
A/N: I may explain later why Fintan was not able to save Adele, but honestly, it's not a scene I'm eager to revisit...