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Eric looked slightly guilty as Sookie and Godric hurried in and found the little princess enfolded in his arms, her shoulders shaking. Godric waved off his child's contrite expression, his face clearly indicating he felt in no way threatened by Eric's affections.

"Dear one... I need you to tell me what you saw." Godric said softly. "You knew the boy was coming here, what did you see?"

"It's different now..." She sniffed, slowly leaving Eric's arms to take Godric's offered hands. "I don't know exactly what will happen."

"Different how? What did you change?"

Cassandra took a shaky breath and tried to pull herself together. "It's been quiet for a while, but then, this afternoon... everything started to get really confusing. It kept changing, like someone couldn't decide what to do."

"That might have been Hoyt," Sookie said "trying to decide if he'd come or not."

"Maybe... then sort of all at once, lots of things fell into place. At first it seemed like the wolves would come, and everything went very badly, but then the boy was here, and instead we ran..." She bit her bottom lip and swallowed hard. "We were somewhere else, outside... and I told the boy who I am..." She started to cry again. "I don't know why, it was like I had to do it, and everything hurt a lot and Jessica was crying and Eric had his sword ready..."

"So I will kill the boy before the night's end..." Eric mumbled. "We should send him away, Jessica would be most put out if he dies."

"You can't!" Cassandra grabbed his hand. "If you send him out tonight he'll die anyway and then... I don't know but SOMETHING... I'm too close to it, I can't see myself properly." She started crying in earnest again. "It's a curse, it's not supposed to be useful..."

"It's alright," Godric told her gently. "We'll work it out, somehow..." His expression as he looked from Eric to Sookie over Cassandra's head said plainly that he had no idea how to make it work out.

"Godric, we need to move." Eric said after a moment when it became clear Cassandra wasn't going to pull herself together on her own. "She saw them coming here first which means they know."

Godric nodded. "You are right, of course. Sookie, could you get Jessica and Hoyt ready to move please... Eric and I have things to discuss."

She couldn't help feeling slightly put out at being ordered from the room, and had it been Eric who'd said it she'd probably have argued. As it was she chaffed a little internally as she hurried back to find Jessica and Hoyt still thoroughly enraptured with each other.

"Jessica, we have't get ready... Eric and Godric say we don't have much time..." She said, figuring she should at least start with someone who already knew what was going on.

Hoyt looked from Jessica to Sookie and back, his face worried. "What's goin' on?"

"We can't explain everything!" Sookie said quickly, noticing Jessica opening her mouth. "I'm sorry, sorry, I didn' wonna be rude, but you can't tell him Jessica, you know you can't."

With a pout Jessica nodded before turning back to Hoyt, "I need you to trust me..." she said softly.

"Course I trust you... what d'you need me to do?"

With a little sob Jessica flung her arms around his neck and pressed her back into in. "I love you so much!"

"Guys... I know this is comin' think'n fast but you gotta get movin'! Hoyt, I'm real sorry but you'll have to come with us. It's not safe to send you off on your own, I'm so so sorry, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have let you come here... now you're in all this too, and I can't even explain it." Sookie said sadly.

In the library, Godric and Eric were having a hell of a time trying to calm their prophet, who was bordering on catatonia. She blinked too much and in between answering questions she stared vaguely straight ahead as though she could see something there.

"There's a man..." she said suddenly, her voice still vague.

"What man, dear one? Can you describe him?" Godric asked her gently, keeping his voice soft and calm.

"He's old... impossibly old. Maybe as old as I am... and he's empty. So empty... he wants things." She frowned in confusion. "Nothing important, just things. Objects he likes, things to fool himself into thinking he's connected to the world." She blinked for a moment and looked at them both, her eyes slightly accusing. "You know him... both of you, but he only knows Godric. He's been waiting for you, two thousand years he's been waiting for you. He knew you'd come... knew you'd be ungrateful for the gift he gave you, so much more than what he took. All this time he thought you'd come around, it hurt him that you didn't... he doesn't understand..."

"That's enough," Godric told her. He cupped her cheek gently and turned her face to look at him. "Does he know about you? Can you see?"

She shook her head, "not yet... but he will. I didn't tell you before..." she swallowed hard and bit her bottom lip.

"Tell me what? What's wrong?"

"I can't see myself... not in focus, not ever. Except once... the other night, when we were... I mean when I..." she blushed furiously and was unable to meet his eyes. She just couldn't say it in front of Eric.

"It's alright, just tell me what you saw."

"Me... it was a vision about me. I was hurt and you were crying and everyone was there. Everyone who's here now, and the man... the one you both hate, and Bill was there." She hiccoughed a little and wiped at her eyes. "I think it has to happen... Something let me see it, bent the curse so I could see it and make it happen."

"What would have the power to do that?" Eric asked, not liking the sound if it one bit.

"Another God," Godric said softly. He looked up at Eric in wonder, "which means he still has it, and more importantly that we have to get it back."

Eric's eyes clouded over and he frowned. It had been hundreds of years since the God's had last had any real power in the world. The few immortals that were left kept to themselves, finding the folly of man at the most a moment's distraction. He had no desire to reintroduce that kind of complication into his life, ignoring completely the fact that it could restructure the world as they all knew it. "I am more interested in ensuring the nest's safety," he said at last. "Russell would not be above 'collecting' living beings if he felt they were of value. He will want Sookie and Cassandra for his 'collection', and that must not be allowed."

"Indeed. Cassandra... do you know where he is?"

"No," she answered softly, and then with great difficulty added, "but I can take you to where he'll find us. They're going back to Bill Compton's house... This man, Russell, he's very interested in a book he thinks he'll find there."

"He wont find it. We have it, but at least we know where he will be... I can have a small army," Eric was cut off when Cassandra doubled over and cried out, her own hands closing over her mouth to stifle the noise.

"NO!" She hissed angrily, in a voice that wasn't her own. "No army, no interference. No others!" Then she collapsed.

"What the hell was that?" Eric demanded, even as he went to his knee's to help prop the unconscious girl up against Godric's chest.

"You know no less than I." The older vampires attention was entirely on his lover, who seemed even more pale than usual.

"Is it a warning we can afford to ignore?" Eric asked after a moment's pause. "If the old ones are taking a hand in this, the consequences for us all could be extreme, for good or ill. As much as I do not relish the return of old powers and old ways... the boon for helping a God could well be Cassandra's freedom."

"I have considered as much." Godric looked deeply troubled as his hand smoothed Cassandra's hair back from her face. "She was always a distant Goddess anyway." He said, more to himself than anyone else. "Though I confess, if it were Hade's himself I'd be tempted to help him anyway if it would mean her freedom."

"Then it is settled." Eric stood and moved to a bookshelf, carefully swinging aside the entire thing to reveal a safe embedded in the wall. He opened it and retrieved a long-sword which he secured tightly around his waist.

"Thank you..." Godric whispered from the floor, still unable to take his eyes from her face.

"You would do the same for me."

As he knelt on the floor, cradling his lover in his arms, Godric could feel his tattoo's itching. The great stylised snake which writhed up his back to the base of his neck felt hot and agitated. The chain across his chest, the great yoke, felt heavy and uncomfortable for the first time in almost two thousand years. He knew, as he had known when he was alive, that he was called to service... he just hoped he was ready this time.

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Teaser: next time on 'Ancient Children' – Is Godric's loyalty stronger than his love? What is the extent of Bill's betrayal, and more importantly, what power on Earth is stronger than the will of a mad God?