Episode One Hundred and Thirteen
With Gwen she tended to find things faster if she just stopped thinking and followed her feet. She felt a pull from a place she had not visited for months, a place that she had really only ever traversed in her dreams. She had spent time in the area when she was wandering the earth trying to find a purpose, but she had not gone to that exact spot.
It was called Rugar Woods and even the muggles could sense the magic the place gave off. To get there she had to apparate across the Atlantic Ocean and she wandered around the campus for awhile, listening to the oblivious conversation of students going to and from classes. The sun was setting in front of her and she knew that it would soon be time to enter the woods.
She walked slowly in the direction of the burning red sun, unnoticed but for her odd cloak, even though it was certainly cold enough here to wear one. Her breath rose in steamy puffs as she breathed softly into the frozen air and took in the iced over academic buildings that gave way to dorms, that gave way to a long parking lot and at last she was standing before a thinning circle of trees.
She looked before she stepped inside and noticed right away that any muggle walking by this place after having parked their car would never be able to see what she was seeing now. It was like walking into a faerie grotto, the air was abuzz with electricity and the power was surging down to her very toes. They could feel it, yes, but they couldn't see it like this.
She noticed a tall dark figure standing in the middle of all this activity. "Jeremiah." She said with a small shrug. She shook her head and gave a tiny laugh. "I never in a million years imagined that my mother's lies would lead to this."
She stepped over the threshold of ley lines, holding the magic curtain that hid this fabulous view from the non-magicals. She felt it close again behind her and approached the figure she knew to be her father at a slow pace. She wasn't in any mood to rush this.
"You found me." He said, taking in his grown daughter.
"Once I shut up and listened, it wasn't hard at all. You were here all along, watching in the shadows. Mom based my dream world on this place and you were never far away, lurking and leering."
He lowered his hood to get a better look at her, but what he really did was give her an opportunity to look at him.
His hair was gingery, like her own, like Henry LeFey's hair had been. He had enigmatic eyes that could be gray, could be green, she couldn't tell from where she was standing. He definitely stood with her stance, his back straight and tall, but she had not inherited his height. Instead she had inherited his facial gestures, his frowns and smiles, the exact angle of his raised eyebrow.
There was no doubt by simply looking that these two were related by blood. They had a very fey quality about them, dark and haunting. They left you wanting to know more, but realizing that you could never pin them down long enough to do so.
"I would never leer at my flesh and blood." He said, stepping dangerously close to her.
She pulled out her wand. "Don't fall into the belief that this is a friendly meeting." She said pointing the wand at his chest.
He raised his arms in surrender. "It seems Henry and Beorc taught you well."
Gwen shook her head at him. "I need to know a few things from you."
"Like what?" He said amicably.
She continued her cold stare despite all of his efforts. "Who the hell am I?"
"You are Guenivere." He said. "Fabled princess and queen."
"The man at the cafe said something similar."
"Yes, an old friend. I sent him to warn you. It worked because now you're here and itching to know why you alone can destroy the Dark Lord."
"Me?" She said, feeling that somehow he was right, but not wanting to believe.
"Well, you and perhaps your good friend Potter. But I don't care who does it, as long as someone gets the job done."
"That's not all I want to know." She said, not wanting to delve into the Voldemort subject just yet. "What happened to my mother?"
"Your mother?"
"Yes, they never did establish a cause of death but I'm willing to bet…" She trailed off, her eyes grew cloudy and she felt a vision rising to her. She saw Jeremiah, his wand extended and her mother facing him bravely.
"The death eaters didn't kill my mother." She said deadly into the arctic night. "You did. She was getting close enough to the truth to make you nervous. She had put together the black box and she hid it. She knew you'd be coming for her."
"Did you figure that all out on your own?"
She brushed off his comment, as was her habit when she had something to get clear and bit her lip. "What I don't understand is why you don't want anyone to know I'm your daughter."
He sneered, something like an evil smile. "Come on Gwen, put the pieces together, they're all there. You're powerful enough to bring down the dark lord. You were created very intentionally. I spent years looking for the right couple, a father with his own secrets so that you'd never suspect it was really me and a mother with power and great evil on her family tree. Your parents were the perfect fit."
Gwen stared at him un-amused. "So you made me with a purpose."
"A dark purpose Gwen. You've felt it before. I could tell you'd finally figured something out. The flames were licking at the base of your spine, the terrible fury of the unsellie."
"Quaint poetry father, but I want to know why."
"You are going to take out my only competition for world domination."
Gwen scoffed. "You think I'm going to bring down Voldemort so that the order of Leandre can take over?"
"Not just Leandre. This if for all the unsellie. The fey have been strongly misrepresented and this will strike a blow to all those fluffy bunny believers who think we all have wings and grant wishes. The unsellie will rule."
"Not if I have anything to do with it."
"Yes, I understand that very well now. Leaving you in the care of Beorc and Henry wasn't exactly my best plan. Henry wasn't really a death eater, not in spirit anyway. He was a dreamer, an idealist. It rubbed off, didn't it."
"I'm glad to say that it did." Gwen replied indignant. "He was my real father, regardless of biology. He stayed after all his mistakes, he made it up to me."
"He tried to kill you."
"You were there." Gwen yelled. The sudden revelation gave way to the fire in her belly. She looked at him with deadly fury. Her jaw was set in a hard line. "You used the Imperius curse. You made him do it."
"You are getting good." He said, his admiration obvious. "My only mistake was not using the obliviate spell on you as well. Though I supposed you would be too young to remember."
"You know better than anyone that the fey have long memories."
"Indeed I do. A miscalculation on my part."
"So where does that leave us?"
"With my intense curiosity. You have faced the Dark Lord before. He returned to hiding that very day. Whatever transpired between you?"
"He led me to you."
"Ah indeed. But you didn't finish him off like I had hoped you would."
"I tried to."
"And it wasn't enough?"
"Maybe I didn't really want to kill him."
"Maybe not." He replied. There was no surprised in his voice, something Gwen took immediately to be a clue. He had been expecting her to say as much and that meant he knew something more than she did.
"Maybe I wanted to see you first. He's sown so many lies, but I thought, why lie to me?"
"And he didn't lie did he?"
"No." She said with an icy chill.
"Does that seem odd to you?"
"Very."
"Doesn't quite add up does it?"
"No. It doesn't. I suppose you'll tell me why."
Jeremiah looked at his daughter with wicked amusement. "You're supposed to be the smart one. Figure it out."
She took a deep breath. "I'm tiring quickly of your games." She said heavily. "Either tell me or leave."
"You are connected to the Dark Lord but you can't figure out how. You really want to know?"
Her fist clenched around her wand and tiny sparks spurted out of the top.
"I guess you do." He said.
