"Oh, good!" exclaimed the Elder, as he saw the Leader and his daughter on the tower's balcony, "you two are back."
He then became speechless as he saw the third figure stepping out of the shadows.
"You?.." he faltered.
Five minutes of succinct explanation from Goliath, with all the clan members, Liz, Matt and Mary present, were enough to render everyone momentarily speechless, while Demona bowed her head lower and lower, clutching his hand for support. The Second was the first to recover.
"You are bringing her back? You are actually..." his voice trailed off, and he was left mute with indignation for a second, then recovered: "Goliath, I'm your second in command, and I can't just let this slide. I think you lost your mind."
"Don't – you – dare," growled the Leader warningly.
"I will be a poor excuse for a brother if I won't dare! Goliath, you will be murdered in your sleep!"
"She has been here for weeks and weeks," Goliath's voice was even lower, more dangerous, "surely it was time enough for you to realize she now turns to stone at daybreak, just as we do?"
"I understood your wish to help her recover... it seemed like basic decency, after all... but this – Goliath, think of what she had done!"
For the first time, Demona lifted her head, and her eyes were hollows when she spoke in a broken voice:
"You can't have thought of it more than I have, Brooklyn. All the days since I was first brought here, I... you can't imagine what I have been through."
"What you had been through?" he laughed derisively, "Don't expect me to shed tears of sorrow for all your hardships! It was all your fault to begin with!"
Humiliated, pained, desperate, she still stood her ground, and in a faint whisper she replied:
"I know."
"Oh, you know! That settles that, then. Since you admit you were wrong, we can now safely welcome you back with open arms! Well, luckily, you can't have the same sort of power over me as you unfortunately seem to have over Goliath. I am never buying your excuses again. Never!"
Demona swayed on the spot as though he had slapped her, then replied:
"Fair enough."
"It makes no difference," Goliath said menacingly, placing a hand on her shoulders, "nothing and no one will ever come between my Angel and myself again, and no one will remove her from the clan's home. Those who share Brooklyn's opinion on the matter, are advised to keep it to themselves."
The Second angrily turned on the spot and marched away without saying another word.
Now it was Elisa's chance to speak, and she seized it despite Goliath's explicit warning.
"As your partner through the NYPD," she began in a tone of deadly calm, "I must warn you that our work together might be forced to come to an end because of this. As your friend..."
Her words were punctuated by an audible sarcastic huff from Demona's direction.
"… As your friend," she continued, trying to sound calm, although her voice had begun to shake, "I pray to God that you know what you are doing, Goliath, because it sure as hell doesn't seem so!"
And without waiting for his reply, she followed in Brooklyn's footsteps and was gone.
Now the Elder was approaching them, and his expression was almost satisfied. His voice, when he spoke, was very soft:
"I cannot pretend I hadn't anticipated something like this, lad," his gaze passed from the Leader to his love, "lass."
It was clear she was fighting the urge to hang her head once more, and her breathing was fast and shallow, but she resisted.
"I know you two since hatchlings," continued Hudson, "and I have always been sad about what happened between you. I am... I am happier than I can say, but I hope you do understand, lass, that this really is your one last chance."
He held out his hand, and Demona squeezed it with both of hers.
"I know," she said breathlessly, "I know, and this is more than I -"
"Don't waste it, then," said the Elder abruptly, but with a wry smile.
"Well," said Goliath when they remained alone, lifting her chin, "this wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Better than anything I deserved," repeated Demona with a sigh, "Elisa's reaction was predictable. So was Brooklyn's," she added glumly.
"Oh, he will come around," Goliath said reassuringly, "don't forget, he has a certain happy event to anticipate."
Slowly, Demona began to smile.
"I almost forgot."
"Vidar will be back," Goliath said pointedly, "I am certain he will be pleased to see you, but I'm not so sure he will be happy to hear the explanation of your continued residence here."
"Oh, my love," she looked half-exasperated, half-flattered, "why do you even bring this up? Surely you couldn't think even for a fleeting moment I would really accept his proposals?"
"Back then, I looked at it... almost as certain. I suppose I have been..."
"Blind," Demona finished for him, wrapping her arms around his neck, "but then again, not nearly as much as I."
...If Vidar was disappointed when he came back, he took it very stoically, and congratulated his momentary rival in a manner befitting a friend and a brother. He embraced Goliath and expressed his joy in the approaching union of the two clans.
On the night of Brooklyn and Aslaug's bonding ceremony, Vidar, who was given the honorable task of conducting the celebration, got up, cleared his throat, and smiled down wistfully at the young couple.
"Tonight, we are celebrating the union of two faithful hearts, who are just beginning to walk down the path of learning what true love and loyalty mean to our kind. Not the fleeting, flippant connections humans call "being in love", as though love is merely a state of one's soul. No... for most of those who represent our kind, once they find their love, it becomes their soul. I speak from experience," he gave a small, sad smile, "I shall never forget what it used to be like, being with the mother of my two beautiful daughters, and she shall never cease being a part of me."
There was silence; everybody was listening with rapt attention.
"True love is like a diamond," continued Vidar, "it endures forever, untainted in its brilliance. But it is also so much more that I'm failing to grasp a proper comparison. I am speaking of love that cannot be worn out, tossed aside, given up on, exchanged, replaced, dented by the tides of life or the winds of time. And I thought it would be proper to point out," he went on, "that a perfect example of such love is here with us tonight," he gestured towards Goliath and Demona, who simultaneously opened their mouths to protest.
"If I gave them a chance to speak now," Vidar smoothly continued talking above their heads, "I'm sure they would begin to enumerate their many mistakes and weaknesses, point out their long estrangement and even enmity. But the fact remains that, after so many years, they are sitting here, their love as ardent as on the night when their bond was first forged."
They smiled almost shyly, their linked hands pressing tighter to each other.
"I don't envy the circumstances of your life," Vidar went on, "and certainly wouldn't wish them on my dear daughter and her beloved. But if there is one lesson I wish them to learn from you, it is the constancy of heart – despite everything, despite seeming hopelessness, despite the darkest hours that are possible to imagine. It is the lesson that love is one's soul, and giving it up means living but a half-life."
He now looked directly at Brooklyn, and despite anything the lad could have thought of the idea of learning lessons from Demona, he gave a curt nod.
Demona was weeping silently with mingled joy and grief. Angela was dabbing at her eyes too; in fact, there was no dry eye among the females, save Elisa, who was standing in the corner with her arms crossed, a frown upon her face, her mouth a thin, skeptical line.
There was an unexpected knock on the hall's door, which sounded very loudly in the silence only occasionally punctuated by a stifled sniff.
"Who on earth?.." began Hudson. Yet Goliath recklessly got up on his feet, approached the door in a few quick strides, and opened it.
A young man was standing in the doorway – a tall, black-haired, blue-eyed, broad-shouldered man heavily leaning on a walking stick. Goliath heard a sharp intake of breath from his wife behind his shoulder.
"You!" she gasped, rendered almost mute with fury.
"Me," replied Jason Canmore, quite calmly, "I got here as soon as I could be up on my feet again... though the limp will probably never be quite gone," he added, wincing slightly.
"And what the hell," said Demona, her eyes catlike slits, "are you doing here?"
"The same thing as you, I presume," said Canmore, looking her straight in the eye, "trying to bury the hatchet... or at least, to find out if it is possible," he now faced Goliath.
"Is this a trick?" frowned the Leader, scanning Canmore's figure.
"See for yourself," said Jason, "I am unarmed, and in no fit state for fighting. I regret all that has happened, all the pointless many-centuries vendetta. You have to understand that my siblings and I were raised with the conviction that your kind are monsters. But after meeting you, something within me was shaken, and after talking with Elisa while I was in the hospital's bed..."
"You mean, you went to visit him and didn't tell us?" Goliath whipped around and faced Elisa, who looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"I... that is to say, well, Jason had no one to visit him, and I..."
"Elisa opened my eyes. I believe now that you are creatures of honor," said Canmore, "that is why I came here alone, vulnerable. I am at your mercy. I trust you will not hurt me, even if you won't feel immediately able to accept my hand of friendship."
He extended his hand, but Goliath didn't take it. It was obvious he hesitated.
"Why should we believe you?"
"I would sooner believe me than her," Canmore replied, casting Demona a quick glance. It was obvious he didn't miss her hand on Goliath's shoulder. "I am but the last link to this chain of miserable cruelty. She was the one started it all."
"I will not take reproaches from you, Hunter," spat Demona.
"We can talk later," finally said Goliath, not taking his eyes off Canmore's face and carefully weighing every word, "I will, for now, ask you to stand aside, Canmore. In case you hadn't noticed, you are gatecrashing a bonding ceremony."
Canmore's eyes widened.
"I hadn't realized!.. That is really – I mean – carry on, I will just find a place right here in the corner, yes?"
He placed himself near Elisa, who gave him a quick look and averted her eyes. He, on the contrary, didn't take his eyes off her.
"You look wonderful," he whispered, "you know, in the time since I was released from hospital, I sometimes have felt sorry that I am now not convalescent enough for you to visit me."
"I have been busy lately," replied Elisa quietly, not looking at him, but at the young couple, "and I think I have already told you more than once, Jason..."
"I know," he promptly said, "my memory is as good as ever, Liz. And yet... you cannot deny that more wonderful things have happened," he said in a low voice, pointing with his eyes at Goliath and Demona.
Liz didn't reply. When the ceremony was over and the young ones have been wholeheartedly plunged into celebrating – eating, drinking sweet light mead, singing and dancing – Goliath, Demona, Hudson and Korian approached them once more.
"I want to believe you," Goliath said without preamble, fixing Canmore with a piercing stare, "I'm hopeful I will have base for believing you. But you have to admit, this is... quite an abrupt turn."
"Exactly," nodded his wife, "what tangible evidence are you willing to offer to prove this unexpected change of heart?"
"I haven't thought of that yet," answered Jason, smiling pleasantly and looking directly at her, "what about you?"
"Impertinent," hissed Demona, but Korian broke the tense moment by approaching Canmore first and holding out his outstretched hand.
"I do not yet have any proof of your sincerity, Canmore," he said cheerfully, "but one thing we have in common – I, too, would rather trust you than my sister."
Demona looked furious, Goliath calculating, Hudson amused, Elisa uncertain. Canmore, however, openly smiled back and firmly shook Korian's hand.
"To the end of ten centuries' pointless enmity!" he toasted, raising a goblet he procured from one of the tables, "And to a new era, in which anything will be possible!"
The others drank in silence, Demona through pursed lips. Promptly, Hudson cleared his throat.
"It seems to me we forgot an important tradition, lads and lasses," he said, "each of us is supposed to give our own blessing to the young couple."
As everybody swarmed around Brooklyn and Aslaug, Jason lingered behind a pillar with Elisa and stared at her with those dazzlingly blue eyes of his.
"So," he said, after draining the last of his wine, "assuming we will yet have time to get a couple of hours of sleep tonight, are you up to have breakfast with me tomorrow morning?"
"Breakfast?" Elisa looked slightly taken aback.
"Yes, well," he grinned, "got to pick a time when I'm dead sure you won't be hanging around with these guys," he gestured towards the clan.
"Alright, then," Liz replied, smiling, "I will go out for breakfast with you, Jason, because this is a meal least likely to be mistaken for a date."
"Mistaken by whom? By me?" Jason raised an eyebrow, "Or by him?" he lowered his voice and looked in the direction of Goliath.
"I... but..." Elisa spluttered.
"I'm not that stupid, you know, Liz. When you told me there is someone else, and that things are kind of complicated, did you really think I wouldn't be able to put two and two together?"
Liz bowed her head, sighed, then looked right up at him.
"I know it was madness," she said quietly, "I think I always knew, all along, that it could never be."
"I can understand, somewhat," said Jason, "he is... admirable. But to speak of something more..."
"I'd rather not speak of it at all, not here and now, anyway," Elisa replied tartly, "and not tomorrow either," she added when he opened his mouth to speak, "otherwise, our breakfast arrangement is off."
"Deal," nodded Jason, flashing a smile at her.