"What do we tell Goliath?" Doctor James asked. "I don't even know where to start."
The two of them were standing in the hallway outside of Elisa's, or Nell's, room while Kierstin helped Nell get dressed in clothing that was as foreign to her as the country that she now found herself.
"I will talk to him, lad," Hudson said. "If Elisa...er, Nell… is well enough to be by herself for a time, you should go get more rest. I have a feeling we're going to need your help again soon."
Doctor James nodded. Holding out his arm, he clasped Hudson's wrist. "Thank you, friend. Please," He said, releasing Hudson's wrist, "Let me know if you need anything."
"I will," Hudson agreed. "Now go."
Kierstin exited the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
The doctor put his arm around the shoulders of his future wife, and led the two of them towards their private quarters.
Hudson walked back down the hall, only to hesitate in the door of the bustling room where friends and family were working together to fix whatever had been done.
"Goliath," Hudson called out. "Come, Lad. You are needed elsewhere for a time."
Goliath frowned at the elder. He got to his feet and followed Hudson without question until he realized where they were heading. "Elisa?" He asked.
"Now lad," Hudson wanted to prepare him, but had no idea of how to begin. "Somethin' has happened…"
That's all he got out before Goliath abandoned his calm, cool composure. Afraid that Hudson was about to tell him that something had gone wrong with Elisa, he ran to be by her bedside.
What he found, however, was Elisa sitting upright in a large chair. "Elisa! When did you…" He stopped abruptly. Something wasn't right. Her posture wasn't as straight as normal, her head bowed and not making eye contact. "Elisa?" he asked, feeling suddenly frightened.
Elisa looked up, and Goliath gasped.
Instead of her normal beautiful brown eyes, he stared into ones that were a brilliant shade of purple.
"Please," she said in Gaelic, then switched to a heavily accent and hesitant English. "Please, Can you help me get home?"
-{- -{- -{- -{- -{-
"So, you're telling me that Elisa is not Elisa," Beth said slowly. "She looks like her… well except for the creepy eye color thing. It sounds like her, but our Elisa is somewhere in...I'm sorry," Beth said, frustration on her face. "She is somewhere in an early AD version of Castle Wyvern?"
"Yes," Goliath responded heavily.
"Oh," Beth said sarcastically. "Glad it's nice and easy."
"Tell me about it," Brooklyn said. "So, how do we get Elisa back?"
"I do not know," Goliath said, gravely.
"And what about the eye thing?" Skyler said, glancing at the Elisa-but-not-Elisa woman sitting huddled in a large chair by a fireplace. "That's worrying."
"I think," Angela said slowly, "That the longer Elisa is caught in the past, the two women are experiencing each other's lives." Angela took a breath and continued. "But the longer it goes on, I'm afraid that they really will completely switch."
Angela angrily swept up the page with the spell on it and began stalking from the room. "I'm going to talk to Demona. She's the only one who can fix this."
Silently, most of the Gargoyle clan followed her.
Leaving Hudson and the remaining humans to watch over Nell.
-{- -{- -{- -{- -{-
Angela stormed into the dungeons, and walked right up to the iron bars.
"Is this it?" Angela demanded, holding the page out of arm's length of the cell. "Is this the spell that you cast on Elisa?"
Demona gave a put upon sigh, and took her time approaching the bars.
"Is. This. It?" Angela ground out.
Demona tilted her head as if in thought.
"Yes," She said slowly. "With a few minor word changes to make it a little more effective."
"How do you reverse it?" Angela demanded.
"I don't know," Demona shrugged. "I never bother to memorize counter spells. I'm more of a cast it and run kind of girl."
Angela snarled, eyes glowing red. "Where did you find the spell?"
Demona shrugged. "I gather spells here and there. A good part of the time, the books have been damaged, so parts are missing, or I only find loose pages. That one," Demona flicked a finger towards it, "Is probably one of those loose pages that I have found and collected over the last millennium. I honestly can't remember where that one came from."
Angela dropped her arm to her side. "I wish I could believe you," She said quietly. "But I have already wasted too much time hoping that you would do the right thing."
Turning, the clan left their former clan mate locked in her iron cage.