Chapter 3: What was your name again?
It took every inch of resolve the soldier had to keep the shock from reordering his stolid façade.
"The woman we're looking for would be at least forty. This girl is barely eighteen."
"She is two hundred and twenty-nine years your senior, child."
The woman in question sat up slowly.
"Misca, I am perfectly capable of answering for myself." She turned to Heero with her face a swirl of confusion and old grief. "How is it that you claim to know my son? He died years ago."
"We don't know that for sure, Qay."
"If he was alive he would have come back a long time ago." She retorted, cowing Laki, who still sat beside her.
"He couldn't. Until yesterday, he didn't remember anything before his seventh year." Wufei had entered the room earlier, unnoticed, and was just now making his presence known. "You were right, Yuy, but now we're trapped in a house full of women."
"Wufei Chang, we meet again."
"Onna, it's Chang Wufei, and what are you doing here?"
"I live here. I am the head of this coven, so I believe the question, Wu-bear, is what are you doing here?"
Heero and Laki turned to the blonde in confusion. "Wu-bear?" They inquired in unison. Wufei glared at her but did not respond to either query. "Misca, the fact that I dated your sister does not give you the right to her pet names. Where is Harmonie by the way?"
"She decided to become a hermit. I think she's somewhere in the Sahara right now."
"Chang, when did you date this woman."
"Before I married Nataku, when I was a student here on Earth. I met her and this demon in Shenghai."
"hn?" He just raised an eyebrow at his companion.
"Can you really know my son?" The question caught Heero off guard; Qahlen had been so quiet since Wufei came in that he had almost forgotten she was there.
"Can you really be his mother?"
"I guess you have the right to an answer." Her tone had softened considerably, since he'd mentioned Duo. "My sisters and I are witches, as Ireland's High Order, we are immortal, here to preserve the balance between the supernatural and the mundane. Two hundred years ago we failed to keep that balance and Ireland has been deserted ever since. Only Misca and Harmonie have bothered to visit the humans since that time."
"If you haven't left in the past two centuries, how do you explain the fact that Duo was born on L2?"
"Duo was born here."
"But how—"
"If you want the answer, I'm afraid you'll have to hear the tale from the beginning, when Roan's ship wrecked on these shores."
"Roan?"
Laki leaned over and whispered, "Duo's father".
"Oh"
"Twenty-six years ago, a storm like few have ever seen ravaged this isle. A one man freighter wrecked near Castle O'Shea, on the other side of the wood by the marsh . . ."
Heero and Wufei listened to the woman's story in wonder as she described the life their friend had spent a decade trying to remember. When her tale was nearing its tragic end, her eyes filled with tears and she couldn't finish.
"I'm sorry . . . I haven't . . . I can't . . ." The one called Laki, put her arm around her friend and began leading her from the chamber. As they reached the door, Laki turned and addressed the travelers.
"I hope for your sakes that you speak the truth. If you put her through this for a lark, I'll personally see that you---"
"Laki, please just take her upstairs. This is no time for threats and accusations." The rebuked witch then continued down the hall, slightly cowed, but still obviously planning the end of her threat.
"Now, Fei-chan," the blonde began, "What are you doing here?"
"She never answered our question, I'm not going to answer yours."
"Wufei, don't patronize her. If she requires an answer of us, before the tale is finished, then we'll give her what she wants."
"Yuy, I know this woman, she won't tell us anything if we actually want to know it, because she likes to see people squirm. You could tell her everything there is to know in this universe, and she still wouldn't tell you how Maxwell ended up on L2. I doubt she even really knows."
"My proof has already been given, Chang. May I remind you that yours has not even been offered. And I can assure you that I do not know how Duo came to be on this colony you speak of. I only know why and who sent him there. Now, if you will be so good as to tell me how you claim to know my nephew, Mr. Yuy, I will be glad to tell you what I know."
"Nine years ago, Fr. Maxwell of the Maxwell church Orphanage found a small braided boy wandering the streets of L2 . . ." Heero told her everything up to the events of two days before. When he finished, the witch smiled and nodded.
"Eon always did like to torment Qay." Tears threatened to begin in her eyes but she fought them down. "Now that I know your story, I shall finish where my friend left off:
Qahlen and I had left that morning to settle a boarder dispute between the ghosts and a small band of banshees. When we returned that evening it was too late. You see, many years ago another witch lived among us here. Like everyone else, her village had tried to burn her. Sentrie never forgave the human race for that. When Roan came, she took an instant disliking to him. Each day her hatred for him grew, though she rarely let it show.
By the time she finally struck, he had lived with us almost ten years and she could no longer stand his presence in her world. With her hatred for the father, came an even stronger loathing of the son. When we arrived, Roan was already dead and only Laki stood between Duo and a death worse than any Fate could prescribe him. Together, the three of us subdued Sentrie and sentenced her according to the laws of the isle. Death for death. She was dutifully tied to a stake in the courtyard. Just before the fire was lit, she cast one last spell. Duo disappeared without a trace, we assumed he had been killed and his ashes cast upon the winds, so as to ban his spirit from this realm. But if what you say is true, then she simply sent him a few years ahead and a few light-years away."
"Why would she leave him alive, if she had risked so much to kill him?"
"No one can answer that. A great wind came through as she burned. We got no answers then. And we probably never will. Tomorrow, we shall all journey to the Castle O'Shea. I suggest the two of you get some sleep." She got up to leave but stopped when she heard the two arguing.
"Yuy, we are not traversing that wood with three women. It's dangerous enough for two soldiers. Besides, Maxwell's probably back to normal by now. By the time we get there, he won't remember any of them and all of this will have been a waste of time."
SMACK! Wufei clutched the side of his face and glared in disbelief at the boy who had just slapped him, too shocked to retaliate and too confused to speak.
"You will not dishonor him in that way again. You and I owe him our lives many times over and giving him the one thing he has spent his entire life believing he could never have is not a waste of anything." With that he turned and exited the room following the blonde sorceress.
Laki held her friend as her tears soaked the left shoulder of her pale blue gown. Stroking the long brown hair, she vowed to kill the two downstairs. Kill them and dispel the spirit who had given them Duo's name. Qahlen straightened up and dried her tear-stained face on the long belled sleeve of her traveling cloak. Laki looked at her strangely until she finally heard footsteps in the corridor. She'd forgotten how much Qay hated to cry in front of any one, it was a sign of how the strangers had gotten to her that Laki had actually seen those rare salt drops on the ancient conjuror's face. Her thoughts were interrupted by the faint creak of old hinges as the door opened behind her.
"Did you send those bastards on their way?" She said without even bothering to turn around.
"No, the 'bastards' are still here."
At the sound of the young man's voice Laki turned to face him, placing herself between him and her friend, as a shield.
"Haven't you done enough damage? Leave, go back to your friends and await your boat. Leave and never return."
"I can't."
"You dare defy me!" Laki raised her left hand and began a low chant. Heero just stood before her without even a hint of fear. The tips of her fingers began to glow with a green energy, when a thin pale hand clasped her wrist.
"No, Laki." Heero could just see the top of the other woman's head, but he could hear the commanding tone in her voice. Walking around the other woman without releasing her wrist, she placed herself between Laki and the young Japanese.
"Why are you protecting him?" Laki's eyes begged for understanding, and for something far more frightening.
"Laki, destroying him won't bring either of them back. Roan died protecting Duo, don't kill the man who's trying to bring him back to us."
"I thought you had learned by now not to trust people so blindly."
Qahlen dropped her sister's wrist as her eyes filled with a blood red mist. "And I thought you had learned long ago who it is you reside with here." She turned to face the soldier at her back, and gasped in shock.
Heero fought to keep his resolve as the witch turned to him with blood in her eyes. He was certain his death lay in those scarlet misted spheres, despite her protests to spare his life. Suddenly they widened in disbelief and once again she started falling toward the flagstones. This time he managed to catch her before she fell too far. Laki glared at him, trying to hide her own alarm. Apparently fainting wasn't as common as it seemed. He gently placed her on the four-poster bed in the far right corner of the small room and exited keeping his back to the wall so as to keep from presenting the other woman with such a tempting target.
Misca, who had watched unobserved from the hall, sent the bewildered youth to an empty room before joining her sisters in Qahlen's bedchamber. Laki was still standing in the same place with one hand raised, remnants of her unfinished spell silent upon her lips, and a look of concern breaking through her shocked paralysis.
"Laki," Misca snapped her fingers in her face. "Laki, snap out of it."
"What did she see? What could have frightened her that much?"
"Well, if you'll stop standing there like a St. John's sacrifice[1], we can find out."
"Yes, yes, of course." Together they went over to the bed, where their sister was beginning to stir.
"Well, Qay, if you're done with the theatrics, do you mind telling us just what it is you've seen."
"All in good time, Misca," She answered, her voice a mix of pain and joy, "all in good time."
/~\~/~\~/~\
----------------------- [1] On the Feast of St. John, a village would burn a straw figure dressed as a witch
It took every inch of resolve the soldier had to keep the shock from reordering his stolid façade.
"The woman we're looking for would be at least forty. This girl is barely eighteen."
"She is two hundred and twenty-nine years your senior, child."
The woman in question sat up slowly.
"Misca, I am perfectly capable of answering for myself." She turned to Heero with her face a swirl of confusion and old grief. "How is it that you claim to know my son? He died years ago."
"We don't know that for sure, Qay."
"If he was alive he would have come back a long time ago." She retorted, cowing Laki, who still sat beside her.
"He couldn't. Until yesterday, he didn't remember anything before his seventh year." Wufei had entered the room earlier, unnoticed, and was just now making his presence known. "You were right, Yuy, but now we're trapped in a house full of women."
"Wufei Chang, we meet again."
"Onna, it's Chang Wufei, and what are you doing here?"
"I live here. I am the head of this coven, so I believe the question, Wu-bear, is what are you doing here?"
Heero and Laki turned to the blonde in confusion. "Wu-bear?" They inquired in unison. Wufei glared at her but did not respond to either query. "Misca, the fact that I dated your sister does not give you the right to her pet names. Where is Harmonie by the way?"
"She decided to become a hermit. I think she's somewhere in the Sahara right now."
"Chang, when did you date this woman."
"Before I married Nataku, when I was a student here on Earth. I met her and this demon in Shenghai."
"hn?" He just raised an eyebrow at his companion.
"Can you really know my son?" The question caught Heero off guard; Qahlen had been so quiet since Wufei came in that he had almost forgotten she was there.
"Can you really be his mother?"
"I guess you have the right to an answer." Her tone had softened considerably, since he'd mentioned Duo. "My sisters and I are witches, as Ireland's High Order, we are immortal, here to preserve the balance between the supernatural and the mundane. Two hundred years ago we failed to keep that balance and Ireland has been deserted ever since. Only Misca and Harmonie have bothered to visit the humans since that time."
"If you haven't left in the past two centuries, how do you explain the fact that Duo was born on L2?"
"Duo was born here."
"But how—"
"If you want the answer, I'm afraid you'll have to hear the tale from the beginning, when Roan's ship wrecked on these shores."
"Roan?"
Laki leaned over and whispered, "Duo's father".
"Oh"
"Twenty-six years ago, a storm like few have ever seen ravaged this isle. A one man freighter wrecked near Castle O'Shea, on the other side of the wood by the marsh . . ."
Heero and Wufei listened to the woman's story in wonder as she described the life their friend had spent a decade trying to remember. When her tale was nearing its tragic end, her eyes filled with tears and she couldn't finish.
"I'm sorry . . . I haven't . . . I can't . . ." The one called Laki, put her arm around her friend and began leading her from the chamber. As they reached the door, Laki turned and addressed the travelers.
"I hope for your sakes that you speak the truth. If you put her through this for a lark, I'll personally see that you---"
"Laki, please just take her upstairs. This is no time for threats and accusations." The rebuked witch then continued down the hall, slightly cowed, but still obviously planning the end of her threat.
"Now, Fei-chan," the blonde began, "What are you doing here?"
"She never answered our question, I'm not going to answer yours."
"Wufei, don't patronize her. If she requires an answer of us, before the tale is finished, then we'll give her what she wants."
"Yuy, I know this woman, she won't tell us anything if we actually want to know it, because she likes to see people squirm. You could tell her everything there is to know in this universe, and she still wouldn't tell you how Maxwell ended up on L2. I doubt she even really knows."
"My proof has already been given, Chang. May I remind you that yours has not even been offered. And I can assure you that I do not know how Duo came to be on this colony you speak of. I only know why and who sent him there. Now, if you will be so good as to tell me how you claim to know my nephew, Mr. Yuy, I will be glad to tell you what I know."
"Nine years ago, Fr. Maxwell of the Maxwell church Orphanage found a small braided boy wandering the streets of L2 . . ." Heero told her everything up to the events of two days before. When he finished, the witch smiled and nodded.
"Eon always did like to torment Qay." Tears threatened to begin in her eyes but she fought them down. "Now that I know your story, I shall finish where my friend left off:
Qahlen and I had left that morning to settle a boarder dispute between the ghosts and a small band of banshees. When we returned that evening it was too late. You see, many years ago another witch lived among us here. Like everyone else, her village had tried to burn her. Sentrie never forgave the human race for that. When Roan came, she took an instant disliking to him. Each day her hatred for him grew, though she rarely let it show.
By the time she finally struck, he had lived with us almost ten years and she could no longer stand his presence in her world. With her hatred for the father, came an even stronger loathing of the son. When we arrived, Roan was already dead and only Laki stood between Duo and a death worse than any Fate could prescribe him. Together, the three of us subdued Sentrie and sentenced her according to the laws of the isle. Death for death. She was dutifully tied to a stake in the courtyard. Just before the fire was lit, she cast one last spell. Duo disappeared without a trace, we assumed he had been killed and his ashes cast upon the winds, so as to ban his spirit from this realm. But if what you say is true, then she simply sent him a few years ahead and a few light-years away."
"Why would she leave him alive, if she had risked so much to kill him?"
"No one can answer that. A great wind came through as she burned. We got no answers then. And we probably never will. Tomorrow, we shall all journey to the Castle O'Shea. I suggest the two of you get some sleep." She got up to leave but stopped when she heard the two arguing.
"Yuy, we are not traversing that wood with three women. It's dangerous enough for two soldiers. Besides, Maxwell's probably back to normal by now. By the time we get there, he won't remember any of them and all of this will have been a waste of time."
SMACK! Wufei clutched the side of his face and glared in disbelief at the boy who had just slapped him, too shocked to retaliate and too confused to speak.
"You will not dishonor him in that way again. You and I owe him our lives many times over and giving him the one thing he has spent his entire life believing he could never have is not a waste of anything." With that he turned and exited the room following the blonde sorceress.
Laki held her friend as her tears soaked the left shoulder of her pale blue gown. Stroking the long brown hair, she vowed to kill the two downstairs. Kill them and dispel the spirit who had given them Duo's name. Qahlen straightened up and dried her tear-stained face on the long belled sleeve of her traveling cloak. Laki looked at her strangely until she finally heard footsteps in the corridor. She'd forgotten how much Qay hated to cry in front of any one, it was a sign of how the strangers had gotten to her that Laki had actually seen those rare salt drops on the ancient conjuror's face. Her thoughts were interrupted by the faint creak of old hinges as the door opened behind her.
"Did you send those bastards on their way?" She said without even bothering to turn around.
"No, the 'bastards' are still here."
At the sound of the young man's voice Laki turned to face him, placing herself between him and her friend, as a shield.
"Haven't you done enough damage? Leave, go back to your friends and await your boat. Leave and never return."
"I can't."
"You dare defy me!" Laki raised her left hand and began a low chant. Heero just stood before her without even a hint of fear. The tips of her fingers began to glow with a green energy, when a thin pale hand clasped her wrist.
"No, Laki." Heero could just see the top of the other woman's head, but he could hear the commanding tone in her voice. Walking around the other woman without releasing her wrist, she placed herself between Laki and the young Japanese.
"Why are you protecting him?" Laki's eyes begged for understanding, and for something far more frightening.
"Laki, destroying him won't bring either of them back. Roan died protecting Duo, don't kill the man who's trying to bring him back to us."
"I thought you had learned by now not to trust people so blindly."
Qahlen dropped her sister's wrist as her eyes filled with a blood red mist. "And I thought you had learned long ago who it is you reside with here." She turned to face the soldier at her back, and gasped in shock.
Heero fought to keep his resolve as the witch turned to him with blood in her eyes. He was certain his death lay in those scarlet misted spheres, despite her protests to spare his life. Suddenly they widened in disbelief and once again she started falling toward the flagstones. This time he managed to catch her before she fell too far. Laki glared at him, trying to hide her own alarm. Apparently fainting wasn't as common as it seemed. He gently placed her on the four-poster bed in the far right corner of the small room and exited keeping his back to the wall so as to keep from presenting the other woman with such a tempting target.
Misca, who had watched unobserved from the hall, sent the bewildered youth to an empty room before joining her sisters in Qahlen's bedchamber. Laki was still standing in the same place with one hand raised, remnants of her unfinished spell silent upon her lips, and a look of concern breaking through her shocked paralysis.
"Laki," Misca snapped her fingers in her face. "Laki, snap out of it."
"What did she see? What could have frightened her that much?"
"Well, if you'll stop standing there like a St. John's sacrifice[1], we can find out."
"Yes, yes, of course." Together they went over to the bed, where their sister was beginning to stir.
"Well, Qay, if you're done with the theatrics, do you mind telling us just what it is you've seen."
"All in good time, Misca," She answered, her voice a mix of pain and joy, "all in good time."
/~\~/~\~/~\
----------------------- [1] On the Feast of St. John, a village would burn a straw figure dressed as a witch
