Bonus points if you get ALL the Easter eggs in this one!
Episode 5: For the Dress, Chapter 5
"Are you okay?" Baird, throwing down the lead piping next to the now unconscious giant, hurried over to Cassandra's side. "Your nose."
Cassandra wiped away a tickle of blood. "Huh," she muttered. "Just like old times."
"Thank you," said the Colonel, turning to Trudi. "For whatever you did to make those boxes fly. I'd have been a pancake by now without them."
"It was not me," replied the giant, nodding towards Cassandra. "I just showed her how."
"You did magic?" Baird turned to Cassandra, shocked.
"I just moved a few things around," Cassandra shrugged. "I can see it here, or sense it, whatever. This is a magical world, Eve: magic is much, much stronger. When I tap into the synaesthesia, I can see it, everywhere. I can reach out and touch it. That's all I did."
"Can you see magic in our world?" Baird looked at her sideways.
"Not as such, no," said Cassandra. "It's much weaker there. I do get a sort of odd feeling when I'm around something powerful though. Like I have a little compass needle inside my head, and magic is the magnet."
"How long has that been happening?" Baird frowned. "Since the hospital?"
"Before, I think," it was Cassandra's turn to frown. "It's sort of built up gradually. Why?"
"Just wondering," Baird shook her head.
"Why did you mention the hospital?" Cassandra persisted.
Baird shook her head again and turned away. "Just something the other you mentioned when Flynn and I went timeline hopping. Something about magic cures messing with your head."
"You were cured by magic?" Trudi looked from one woman to the other in confusion.
"I had a tumour, it was killing me," Cassandra explained.
"There is a spell for that?"
"No, she was lucky," clarified Baird. "True love's first kiss was an option. The only option, it turned out."
"Then you too have found your true love?" Trudi smiled. "When is the wedding?"
"Oh, we're not... We're just..." Cassandra floundered.
"They're taking things slowly," Eve interjected, throwing the redhead a lifeline. "They've only just worked out how they feel about each other."
"It was not obvious when you met?" Trudi frowned. "For my people it is."
"It was obvious to everyone else," suggested Eve. "Maybe that's just how it is with Librarians."
"You knew right away, when you met your true love?" Cassandra asked Trudi, eager to steer the conversation away from herself. "What is he like?"
"I knew and he knew," Trudi nodded. "But for us to marry is forbidden. So we run to his world. We hide here and in your world. We build trades for ourselves. I with my dresses, Snorri with his jewellery and trinkets. He is the greatest smith in all the nine worlds."
"Snore-y?" Eve queried. She shrugged and smiled. "He's not a dwarf, is he?"
"How did you guess?" Trudi smiled broadly. "But then, the dwarves of Svartalfheim are famous everywhere for their skill with metal and precious stones."
"Yes, that's exactly what they're famous for here," agreed Eve, with a distinctly straight face. "Hadn't we better go track him down, now that your brother is all neatly tied up over there?"
Trudi nodded. "I will take you to his forge."
They followed the giantess through more tunnels then out into broad daylight. As the sun burned their retinas, the women stood, blinking and dazzled. Trudi waited patiently for them to lower the hands from their eyes. Cassandra was the first to do so and take in her new surroundings.
"Is this still your world?" Cassandra asked, looking about her. "Wasn't it just night?"
Trudi laughed. "That was our little stargazing room," she replied. "It was not real. Snorri made it for me. He truly is the greatest craftsman that has ever lived."
Cassandra cast her mind back, picturing the room, with its moon and starry sky. There had felt like there was something not quite right. "But it had clouds!"
"An illusion, merely," smiled the giant. "It was on a night such as that one that we met, wandering on your world. The night sky here looks very different from your own. I spent so much of those early days staring up at the sky that my Snorri swore he would bring the stars and moon down from the sky to entertain me always. A brave promise, but he kept it as you have seen."
"And there ain't many men who could do that," muttered Eve.
They continued through wooded glades and sheltered valleys in the foothills of a mountain range. The grass grew tall on either side of them in the meadows, the trees bent leafy branches over their heads in the woodlands. Small things rustled and scuttled away through grasses and leaves. Birds heard their approach and flew off long before they were spotted. Eventually, they saw a mountainside open up before them in the familiar pi shaped entrance of a mine. Beside the mine was a long, low building. The smell of sulphur, and something else, wafted its way towards them.
"That smell," mused Baird as they approached the building. "I'm sure I've smelt it..."
Cassandra turned at the lack of sound and saw Eve Baird standing stock still with one hand raised up. "Eve?"
"How well do you get on with dragons in this world," asked Baird, watching the giant closely.
"Oh, do not be afraid of old Rerir: Snorri raised him from an egg. Now he keeps the forge burning hotter than any in Svartalfheim, or any others of the nine worlds. An item forged in dragon fire has many great properties."
They entered the forge and found the dwarf busily hammering away at something. When they got closer they saw that he was wearing a contraption on his head similar to night vision goggles, but with telescopic lenses. They also saw that the hammer in his hand was tiny. A toothpick could easily have been wider than its handle and an olive broader than its head. Trudi ducked under a beam and sat down by the smith. He looked round and saw her. Even before the headgear was off, both Cassandra and Eve could tell that the smile now lighting his face went all the way up to his eyes.
Trudi indicated the two women and described their adventure. The smith's face displayed calm, then surprise, then worry, then relief, then worry again, then surprise again, then ended with relief. He turned to the women and thanked them profusely.
"I have no words great enough," he said. "No jewels precious enough, to repay you for your kindness and bravery. This I will do in payment, though. My Trudi shall make for you a wedding gown unlike any other. There will be no fee. Nor will there be any fee for the jewellery I shall make to accompany it."
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Eve blushed. "Really, it's all just a part of my day job."
"Do you need a gown for the wedding too?" Trudi asked Cassandra. "I shall make one for you, yes?"
"She's my Maid of Honour," cut in Eve before Cassandra could reply. "She'll definitely need a dress."
"Then I shall make it," nodded Trudi. "It shall match the bridal gown and the maid herself. And Snorri shall make the jewellery."
"There's still something you haven't told us," began Cassandra. "If you don't mind me asking: why was your brother so eager to get you back? Surely, if you had already run away with Snorri, whoever it is he wants you to marry knows you don't want to marry him?"
"It is more complicated than that," sighed Trudi. "My family is an old one, though our power is waning. The giant my brother wishes me to marry is very powerful. They say he will be among the first to lead the rise. I do not care for power. My brother does. If I marry this man, I lose my freedom, and my love, but my brother gains much power."
"You're sure you don't need our help to send him to one of these other worlds?" Baird asked, nodding her head sharply in the direction of the caverns they had left before.
"He cannot break the bonds we used," replied Trudi. "And we have only one portal. Once you are returned to your own world, Snorri and I will send him to another."
Eve nodded. Snorri held out a hand to his beloved and, together, they led the two women out of the forge. The walk back to the caverns was pleasant, with the happy couple telling stories of their worlds and their histories. Snorri described the tale of a human smith, though with some elf blood in his veins, who married a valkyrie and forged ring after ring of precious gold, one for each day she was not with him. Trudi told the story of Ymir, the first of all the giants, and of the creation of the nine worlds. They reached the tunnels and made their way back to the cavern Cassandra and Eve had first entered. The giant was still sleeping in his bonds. They said their goodbyes to Trudi and Snorri, promising to return in due course for fittings, and made their way back through the portal into the little shop. Cassandra suggested they put a few blocks between themselves and the shop's wormhole, before calling Jenkins to ask for their own to be re-routed. They did so.
"Success ladies?" Jenkins asked from the balcony as they stepped through into the office.
"I think we can definitely say yes to that, Jenkins," replied Eve.
"In so very many ways," agreed Cassandra, grinning.
"And now, I believe, I have a fiancé to rescue," continued the Guardian. "Have you heard from them?"
"Not since they asked me to look into the mystery houses again," replied Jenkins with a brief shake of his head. "I'm still working on that. Why?"
"They may have called a couple of times," grinned Cassandra. "Mine found himself some books and Eve's got himself and Ezekiel locked in a panic room."
"They called to ask me to go and let them out," Eve expanded. "They're safe," she added, seeing the look on Jenkins' face freeze almost imperceptibly. "They're just locked in. Can you reset the door to find them?"
"Maybe," mused Jenkins. "Most likely I can get it in the same building, then you can go find them and let them out. I don't think I can link it to a door they can't open."
"Have you ever tried?" Cassandra asked, out of honest curiosity. "Has anyone?"
"Actually, you know, I'm not sure," replied Jenkins, slowly. "I have some records up here somewhere..."
"We'll help you look," decided Eve, and the two women hurried up the stairs.
Ten minutes later there was a sound and the three looked down to see the gentlemen had returned to the Library of their own accord, in safety and good fellowship They were leading a familiar old man into the office that, he proclaimed, had barely changed since his day. He picked up the small globe and threw it up in the air. It hung there, projecting the ley lines as always. Stone looked downcast.
"It just takes practise, time and a lot of contact with magic," breezed old man. In the shadow of the bookcases, Eve and Cassandra saw Jenkins freeze, looked down at the old man then back up to each other.
"Is that Leonardo da Vinci?" Cassandra hissed.
"How should I know: I'm not the one with the art history background, or dating the one with the art history background, Eve hissed back.
The globe dropped obediently into his palm. Three faces appeared at the mezzanine balustrade. Baird and Cassandra hurried down to greet their respective beaux and Ezekiel. Jenkins stayed where he was. Eve noticed a strange look on his face. One that she had seen before, as she lay bleeding into the river of time itself.
"What name do you go by now, my gentle, perfect friend?" Leonardo asked, looking up.
"Jenkins," replied the caretaker. "And there's a lot more than that you'll have to get caught up on!"
"Mr Carsen has offered to do just that," smiled the old master. "Indeed, I feel we should go do so right away. I would hate to get under your feet. It is much more crowded here than it was."
"Where were you?" Jenkins persisted. "He never told me."
"I asked him to tell no-one," shrugged Leonardo. "I was here, with my friend and protector. When he died I remained with his house and his son. Now the current son wants me dead like his father. I must find myself a new hiding place."
"The Library will make you a room if you ask it to," said Jenkins. "If you must disappear again, at least try to keep in touch this time."
"I did," da Vinci protested. "Merely not with yourself."
"Mr Jones, kindly show the maestro to the kitchen. He always looks famished. I am sure Mr Carsen will join him there presently," intoned Jenkins coldly, before turning away and disappearing into the shelves.
Without comment or argument, Ezekiel led the great Leonardo da Vinci out of the office and down the hall.
"Did you have a nice time, my darling," Flynn asked Eve. "Flowers chosen, dress bought, invitations sent?"
"You're helping me with the invitations, Flynn Carsen," she told him. "It's your wedding too."
"But you had fun terrorising Jenkins with your girly planning, organising and reorganising, yes?"
"More or less," Eve admitted. "One or two big surprises, but nothing we couldn't handle."
Unable to contain his excitement any longer, Jacob turned to Cassandra, eyes wide, smile beaming and finger pointing at the empty hallway.
"I just met Leonardo da Vinci," he whispered. "The actual Leonardo da Vinci!"
Five minutes later, having watched her boyfriend try not to explode with the excitement of meeting one of his heroes, Cassandra watched him hurry out of the office, following in the footsteps of the great master. She turned to Eve and folded her arms triumphantly.
"Well, I win that one," she grinned.
Flynn, who had been left behind when Stone hurried after da Vinci, overheard this and turned to them with a suspicious glance. "Win what?"