October 1070

I was busy working on carving a wooden skull when Elfleda came. That had been the other major project to occupy my attention over the past few days, and it was coming along well. My inspiration, and frankly only reference, for the home I was making for my daughter was Bob's skull.

But, it was a pretty damn good reference. The one time I went inside, it looked... palatial. It was a metaphorical translation, but even by the living standards of my own time, it was impressive. And over the two-and-a-bit decades I had Bob, I had a lot of time to examine his skull and the various bindings that went into it. I didn't want to recreate it in its entirety - like the personality-mirroring and loyalty bindings - but it was a good reference.

And there was a degree of nostalgia in there too. For all that he'd been a smartassed spirit, he was also my oldest friend.

I'd also done some thinking about names. I felt woefully unprepared on that aspect, but I also knew that there was no one else that could name her. Right now, I'd settled on Bonea. Maybe I would change my mind later.

I was doing some detail work and touch-ups, busying my hands to steady my nerves. I'd done all the preparations earlier in the day so that when the time came - about three hours past noon - I could just grab everything and go.

Everything, in this case, included a few furs I'd sewn together into a large rug-slash-covering weeks ago, an honest-to-god picnic basket, a few smokebombs - more recent creations, admittedly - my entire typical panoply of coat, staff, blasting rod, the force rings, and all the doodads in my pockets. And, lastly, Amoracchius.

It was as much of a last minute decision as the smoke bombs. Honestly, I still felt nervous about actually using it. But considering vampires and their minions were about, I figured it couldn't hurt to bring it, especially considering the context.

"Alright Guy, I'm leaving the house to you," I said as I strapped Amoracchius to my waist. "Don't burn anything down."

Guy trilled a bit and went back to his messy herbivorous ways. He wasn't quite as voracious as Mouse had been, but I could see the phoenix steadily biting into my finances in food-related ways as time went on.

When I brought down the wards and stepped outside, I saw that Elfleda had also decided to be cautious. Rather than wear something technically nicer, she'd put on the dress and cloak I'd enchanted for protective purposes, along with her recently updated sapphire necklace. I'd modified the shield to be more comprehensive, and had managed to get it to include one other person in the bubble, if Elfleda was holding onto them tightly with her other hand when she brought up the barrier. All in all, she could probably survive a few wizards throwing down in the vicinity, at least for a few minutes.

Upon seeing me, Elfleda arched an eyebrow and glanced down at Amoracchius, and then immediately winced and looked away, blinking her eyes a few times. "That's... different," she said. "And bright."

"Yeah. Sorry," I said.

"Well... it is fine. I'll save my question for later. Expecting trouble, though?" she asked.

"I'd rather be prepared," I said. "And I see you're the same."

Elfleda nodded in agreement.

"How's Eva?" I asked.

"Nervous, still," Elfleda said. "She's with John now, and likely will be until I come back."

I grimaced. Nothing about this situation was ideal, but I couldn't blame her either. She was fifteen, and up until recently her life had been fairly idyllic. Now real life had intruded.

Another issue I had with Gauthier.

"Well," I said with half-forced cheer. "Come on." I closed the door and brought the wards back up, and led Elfleda around to the stable addition. I saddled Shadowfax, who snorted in annoyance, and settled everything in place, the basket barely fitting into one of the larger saddlebags. Then I got up in the saddle, settled the bottom of my staff into the little stirrup-holster I'd commissioned, and offered a hand to Elfleda. She smiled, took my hand, and I pulled her up to sit in front of me.

I rode out through the south gate, and we traveled for the better part of an hour. On my myriad trips to and from London, mostly from, I did a little bit of exploring of the territory around Berkhamsted, looking for anywhere nice and picturesque. About a month and a half ago I'd found a nice, lone hillock about five minutes off the Berkhamsted-London road with a killer view, and it was this place I was heading to.

We did talk on the way there, though not about anything nice.

"What are your plans regarding Gauthier?" Elfleda asked, a few minutes out of town. "He is in France, and may be protected by an army."

"Those are problems," I agreed. "It depends on what the others find out and what we settle on."

"Others?"

"My friends. You met them," I said. "The vampire, Esther, attacked Rowena. This isn't about just me and him anymore."

"Is she alright?" she asked with concern.

"Mostly," I said. "A lot better than Cuthbert. Doesn't make it any better." I sighed. "The main issue I can see is getting to Gauthier, not so much dealing with him once we get there. Figuring out where he'll be, how we'll get there. The others could use the Ways, but in my case, I'd probably have to fly."

Elfleda looked over her shoulder at me with a befuddled expression. "Fly? How?"

"Guy, the phoenix," I said. "He can carry me."

Elfleda's expression grew even more confused. "How?"

"With his tail."

She thought about that for a few seconds, then asked, "How?"

I shrugged. "Magic, I guess."

She sighed in frustration. "Of course."

I nodded. "Just the way things work out sometimes." I frowned slightly. "You know, I forgot to ask earlier. How did Eva and you and the rest take his arrival?"

"With confusion," she said. "Eva retreated into her room after your letter came. The phoenix... Guy... stayed with her. He was very protective of her. As she did not come out of her room much, neither did he."

I grunted. "Good guy."

Elfleda narrowed her eyes at me. I smirked back.

"Your obsession with wordplay is often irritating," she sighed, turning back to face the road.

"I get that a lot," I said. "Hey, while we're talking about unpleasant business, can I bounce some thoughts off of you?"

"Bounce...? I suppose," she said.

"I'm still trying to figure out how Cuthbert got attacked. It being a complete coincidence still strikes me as unlikely," I said.

"Who else could be responsible?" she asked.

"That's the question. The Winter Queen, maybe."

Elfleda glanced over her shoulder at me. "Why do you think that?"

"Well, I figure the odds that she doesn't have eyes on Berkhamsted are below zero," I said. "So it's possible she leaked information or nudged events somehow."

"Many things are possible. Why would she be motivated to do that?" she asked.

"She puts me in a tight spot where I might have to come to her for help," I said. "A few words here and there and she engineers this situation where I'm looking to get revenge on Gauthier and stuck on the how."

"Perhaps," she said. "And perhaps not. How did you come to rescue Cuthbert? As your letter arrived the same day you left, and your horse was still in his stable, you must have left quickly."

"Yeah. I flew," I said. "She could have predicted that though."

"How?" she asked.

"I don't know how, she's the Queen of Air and Darkness. Emphasis on the Air," I said.

"Why are you intent on her being responsible?" she asked.

"Because she's been way too quiet these past months."

"And?"

I sighed. "And I want there to be some kind of logical explanation for what happened to Cuthbert."

We fell into an uncomfortable silence after that, and it wasn't until I took us off the main road that we started chatting again.

"May I ask about your sword?" she asked.

"Is that a euphemism?" I knew what she was asking, of course, but I wanted to be silly to move away from the prior topic.

She shot me an exasperated look over her shoulder. "The one on your hip, that's blinding to look at it and seems like it is made of love distilled and condensed into a solid form."

"Oh, that one," I said with exaggerated realization. "I have no clue how that was made, I had no part in it. As best I can figure, the explanation is 'God did it.'"

Elfleda frowned curiously. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Well... after Jesus was crucified, someone got a hold of the Nails of the Cross," I said. "And they were forged into a trio of swords. This is one of them."

She stared at me for a few seconds, then said, "That is one of the least informative explanations I have ever heard."

"Hey, it's not like I know any more," I said. "And I'm not sure there is anything more to it. The Nails of the Cross are POWER with all capital letters, holy relics of ridiculous significance. However you used them, you'd get something incredible at the end. In this case, super holy swords."

"And you have one," she remarked.

"Eh..." I waggled my head a bit. "Sure, let's go with that."

"Why the hesitation?"

"Well, I wouldn't say it's really mine," I said. "In the sense that I don't have any real intention of wielding it in the long-term."

"Why not?"

"I'm not really interested in the job that comes with it," I said. "Requires a lot more forgiveness and tolerance than I'd be willing to show."

"Why do you have it, then?"

"I don't know. It just showed up in my bedroom after I came back from York. I assume it's just some angelic joke. But since I can't just stick it in a stone and call it a day, I guess I'm looking after it." I paused, wondering if I should share this next bit, and figured it would be safe enough to tell her. "Not like it's the first time I've done it either."

Elfleda's expression turned very strange and confused.

"But don't tell John any of this, alright?" I asked. "If he hears any part of this conversation I am never going to hear the end of it from him."

"...as you wish."

We reached the spot a minute later. The hillock overlooked a small pond in a clearing amidst a grove of trees. The sun was starting to get low when we arrived, though twilight itself was still hours off, and the fading sunlight reflected beautifully off the water without being blinding. I spent a few minutes looking for a nice, flat stretch of hill to set up on, and then started unpacking Shadowfax. Elfleda helped me, and fairly quickly we had everything laid out on the sewn-together rug while Shadowfax went off to graze.

"It's a beautiful place," Elfleda said, lounging on the rug as walked in a wide circle, dragging my staff along the ground as I called up power. "But isn't it exposed?"

"Yes, but I'm not too worried about that," I said. "It being exposed works two ways; it means there's no cover for anyone to sneak up on us. There are the woods over there," I gestured to the southwest, "but they're far off and not really in comfortable bow range. Both of us are wearing clothes that you'd need a ballista to get through and I can throw up a shield in an instant that you'd need a dozen ballista to break. Shadowfax is nearby and I can cover him easily, and if something bad happens to him, I brewed and packed two escape potions earlier. And if for some reason those aren't an option, then rescue is only about five minutes away."

"Rescue?"

"Guy," I said. "I left a window open for him to fly out of if necessary. He can fly pretty darn fast and he can carry both of us. Pretty sure, at least."

"Pretty sure," she noted.

"Yeah. It's not perfect. Nothing is. But I spent a while putting this together, and while I would've canceled if Guy wasn't around, with him I feel fairly safe," I said.

"Why didn't you bring him, in that case?"

"Because this is a date, not a date with a bird as a third wheel," I said. I finished walking the circle, then willed it into existence. I finally let go of the energy I'd been collecting and wove a number of wards just inside to protect against basically everything. Not as diligent a setup as I used when bedding down while traveling, but it would give me warning if an ambush happened.

Once I finished I went to sit next to Elfleda, who had idly sorted the various foodstuffs I had brought along and was currently inspecting a sandwich with a bemused look.

"What is this?" she asked.

"A sandwich," I said. I explained the basic idea to her, and after a little more staring, she took a careful bite. Then she chewed, nodded, and took another bite. Then another.

"Glad you like it," I said.

"Mmm. What else did you plan?" she asked.

"In broad strokes, to sit and talk and watch the sunset," I said. "I mean you've had a bunch of questions for me since forever, and I've got some for you too."

"I see," she said, unstoppering one of the two bottles of wine I brought along and pouring some into her cup. "Shall I start then?"

"Sure," I said, taking the bottle from her once she was done.

She swirled her cup around for a bit and hummed, then took a long, slow sip. Once she was done she asked, "I believe I shall start with your scars. The ones on your face have gotten substantially lighter, and I notice you no longer wear a glove."

"Yeah," I said, flexing my left hand. It still wasn't pretty to look at, but I'd regained either complete or near-complete functionality - dexterity, sense of touch, so on. "You can thank Guy for that. His tears fixed me up. Not all the way, but close enough."

"I see. I am not sure how to feel about the glove, as I feel it added to your air of strangeness and mystery. But I am faintly disappointed at the fading of the scar over your eye. It made you look dangerous, and now it looks less impressive," she said. "How did you get it, it and the other scars you have?"

I took a deep breath, downed my cup of wine in one go, and sighed. I didn't like thinking about the skinwalker.

"It was a shapeshifting demon," I said. "I really don't feel like elaborating on it, not when I still have nightmares about it." Not when the memory of seeing it with my Sight would never go away. I had years of distance now, but in some way it would remain fresh no matter how many years I put between me and the incident.

"My apologies," she said, dipping her head. "Do all your scars come with such sordid tales?"

"Well, some," I said. I held my left hand out and let her see the burn scars. "This came from a witch. It was fairly early on in my career, when I hadn't refined my shield and it predominantly blocked physical attacks. She figured that out and just blasted right through it with fire, almost took my hand off." Granted, my shield probably would have blocked magical fire, since I hadn't been a complete idiot. I just didn't expect the centuries old walking corpse to use flamethrowers. Generally, the older monsters and beings had a poor grasp of me-modern technology and weaponry.

"And are those your only scars?" she asked.

"What, you want to see my chest that badly?"

Elfleda smirked. "If you're offering..."

I snorted, checked my wards, then shucked off my duster. Then, more slowly, I pulled off my tunic. The coldness of the air hit me all at once as the temperature-enchantments stopped protecting me and I shivered, crossing my arms together. Over the next however many minutes, it felt like at least an hour, I steadily went over every faded scar and graze and tried to attach them to a time I'd been hurt and explain the circumstances behind them. But outside of the major scars, like the abdominal wound Snakeboy had almost eviscerated me with, that was actually pretty difficult; there were a lot of encounters and a lot of wounds to keep track of, an unknown number of which had faded completely over the years. And my chest had never had that many scars anyway; I tended to get hurt in the arms and legs.

At one point, Elfleda traced a finger over the small, barely present, circular scar over my left breast, and a similar a wound in a similar place on my back. "And this?" she asked.

"Bullet," I said, letting her assume it came from a sling.

"It pierced the skin and went out the other side... and then didn't kill you?" she asked.

"Came damn close," I said. Actually, it might have killed me; however my body had been restored, my soul had departed and gone on a run-around. I'm pretty sure that didn't happen if the body hadn't technically died.

Eventually I ran out of scars on the upper half of my body and since I refused to take off my pants, that was the end of that line of questioning.

"Back in London, you asked me what I felt about you becoming sidhe," I asked, putting my shirt back on. "What made you consider making that choice?"

"You repeatedly expressed uncertainty about remaining with me as a changeling, a mortal," she said. "And as I like you, and wish to continue this relationship, I thought of a possible solution."

"I mean, I don't see how becoming a winter sidhe is an actual solution," I said. "There's no guarantee you'd remain yourself, or that you'd be free or able to be with me."

"You think I would not be able to care for you were I sidhe? To cherish you?" she asked.

I let out a long sigh. "I think you would still be able to care and cherish, even as a Winter sidhe. I just think that your definition of care and cherish and my definition would radically diverge at some point. Maybe right after you made the choice, maybe with time."

"Everything changes with time. Is that a reason to sacrifice the present?" she asked.

"No, but the Choice is not something you can just take back or change your mind about," I said. "I just don't think it's necessary, and I don't really see why you thought of it."

"...call it a difference of opinion, of perspective," she finally said.

"Sure."

She finished off her wine and stared off into the sunset for a while. I shifted position, stretched my legs, and grabbed a sandwich. I was most of the way done with it when she turned back to me and asked, "Where do you think you will create your school? Near Berkhamsted?"

"Uhm..." I drew the sound out. "I don't know. We're still figuring that out. But I don't think so. Not that close, at least."

"And you would move to the location of this new school, yes?"

"I'd have to," I said. "Why, is that a problem?"

"No, I'm merely planning for the future," she said. "Untangling myself from the earl should not be difficult. After that, though... do you think I would have a role in your school?"

"Like, as a teacher?" I asked, looking over at her. "I can't really see you as a teacher. Not because I think you'd do a bad job, but... I mean, you can't teach magic, so you'd end up teaching literacy or history or something like that and I just don't think you have the patience or interest to subjects like that to a crowd of people."

"A fair assessment," she said. "But you will need representatives and negotiators, no? Someone to argue for the school, as I did in your place with Odo."

"That, I could see," I said. "I'd need to ask the others, but I can't imagine they'd really complain." I paused. "Well, maybe Salazar. He doesn't really like me and the feeling's mutual."

We talked about Salazar and Helga and Rowena for some time, though I refrained from mentioning any of their secrets, like the basilisk and Rowena's heritage. Not that I was short of material; for all that the bulk of our many meetings had been practical and magic-oriented, we'd also chatted and joked and interacted.

I did make a mistake when I mentioned Rowena's alliteration kick though. Elfleda got into it and it just... well. It's not that annoying, all things considered, but my name is my name; I don't want to change it. Eventually though, after a long stretch of ribbing and going through all the wine, she finally took mercy on me.

Twilight was starting by this point and we'd gone through all the food and drink, so after moving things aside we lay down next to each other and watched the sun reflect off the pond for a little while. We were stretched out on the rug, propped up by our elbows, when Elfleda turned to me and asked, "Do you think we have a future?"

"Hmm?"

"If you vanquish Gauthier, if your school succeeds, and if the Winter Queen never comes for you, do you think we have a future?"

"That's a lot of ifs," I said. "And at the same time too few ifs. But, if... I think so."

She smiled faintly and leaned in to kiss me. That progressed into a make-out session, but we didn't go past first base. After a few minutes of this, I reluctantly and carefully pulled back.

"Normally I'd be completely down for this, but it's getting late," I said. "I think we should head back soon. I don't want to risk traveling through the late evening or the night."

Elfleda half-hummed, half-groaned in frustration. "This vampire business is truly irritating." She pushed herself up with a sigh, and started smoothing out her dress.

Predictably, that was when something sparked against the wards.

Author's Note: This was a very, very tough part to put out. Part of me feels like it's still too short, and that maybe some of the topics that were discussed in the London date should have been discussed here. But c'est la vie.

Now buckle in boys and girls because from here on out it's a wild ride.