November, 2165
Edinburgh, Scotland
MAEVIS POV
Maevis was carefully looking over the timeline that they had carefully crafted, informing Tom of it when he had come around inquiring about what they had learned. "1766, you think she's gone to," Tom said as he looked at the timeline. "But if there's a difference of five years, it won't still be 1766, will it?"
"No, it'll be 1770," Maevis replied. "We don't even know for sure where they were in 1770. We only guessed that they're in North Carolina."
"Funny ye should mention that," said Rory suddenly, having entered through the front door of Maidie's flat. "I had te have this specially ordered, but it was a book I found on Scottish settlers and estates in North Carolina from 1750 to 1800."
"Is it? That's oddly specific. What did you find?" Maevis asked him, eager to hear this piece of information. Rory made his way to the table and pulled the book out of his satchel, opening it up to a bookmarked page.
"'Mount Helicon, now known as Grandfather Mountain, was settled in the 1740s and 1750s by Highland Scots following the failed Jacobite Uprising ending in 1746 that exiled many of them. One nearby settlement called Fraser's Ridge provides yet another example of a Scottish name in the surrounding area,'" Rory read, and Maevis's eyes widened as she made the connection.
"Fraser's Ridge… That has to be the Ridge. It's in North Carolina, yeah?" Maevis asked him, and he nodded.
"Aye, in the Blue Ridge mountains," said Rory, watching as Maevis went back to the timeline.
"Is there any information in there about when it might have been settled?" she asked him.
"Er… no… This was all about Fraser's Ridge that was mentioned in the entire book. I've read it through three times to make sure of it," Rory told her, and Maevis huffed.
"Damn it…" she said.
"I can look more in detail. I have access to all sorts of records," Tom chimed in. "You said it was called Fraser's Ridge and that they lived there in the 1770s?"
"Aye, that we know fer certain," said Rory as Tom made note of it in his phone.
"I'll have a look through the records and see what I can come up with," Tom said to them.
"And I'll let Elton know that we've found something," Maevis replied.
It took Tom about a week to come up with some information, which he then presented to Maevis, Elton, Rory, Morgan and Maidie together. "I've found a deed for the land," he said, and then cleared his throat as he read the document. "'In the interest of bringing…' Well, I'm not sure what this word says. 'Forage? Forase'?"
"Let me see?" Elton asked, taking a look at the document and shaking his head. "I've no idea wha' that says."
"Oh well, it's not important," said Tom, continuing on. "'In the interest of bringing… agriculture to a Province still lying in a state of Nature, and in Encouraging Settlement with much Advantage to be made… therefore we have given Grants and… something… unto the said James Fraser a certain Tract of Land containing Ten Thousand Acres, lying and being in the County of Rowan within the Province of North Carolina and…' Well, I don't know exactly what all of this says, it's so faded, but I believe it lists where exactly the borders of the land lay, then it goes on to say that it'll be passed down to his heirs and that he can defend the land, and then he signs it here." He set down the document on the table and Maevis took a closer look at it.
"James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser," she muttered, touching the document gently.
"Looks like it was signed on the fifteenth of February in 1768," Rory chimed in as he looked at the document. "It sounds like they werenae in Scotland long after 1766."
"Look who else has signed it," said Maidie, looking pointing out a name further down on the document dated the same day as Jamie's signature listed under 'Heir Apparent'.
"'Archie Brian James Fowlis Fraser'," Maevis read, and then she froze, suddenly seeing another familiar name that she had yet to see below Archie's, signed much later on the eighteenth of January, 1771. "Elton…"
"Huh?" Elton asked, looking up from the table.
"No… Your name, it… it's here…" Maevis replied, pushing the document to him and pointing it out, and Elton gasped lightly. There, written in ink right below Archie's name, was the name 'Elton Thomas McGinty Fraser'.
"No… No, no, no. This is too weird. No ," Elton exclaimed, shoving it away and standing up. "There's no way tha's me."
"What? But it's yer exact name!" Rory said to him, but Elton shook his head.
"No. I don't care what tha' says, it's some sort of cruel joke, but it's not me," Elton said rather loudly.
"It was all original, Elton. No new names were added to this document following 1771," Tom told him calmly, and Elton scoffed.
"It has te be. That isnae me," Elton snapped back at him. "Look, I was all fer helpin' Maevis te find this information out, but I wasnae lookin' te find out anythin' involvin' me. Nope."
"But Elton, they're your parents, too," Maevis said to him, but Elton seemed too upset to be reasoned with.
"No, my parents live in Aberdalgie and run a farmer's market! These people arenae my parents, they're yers , Maevis," Elton said, grabbing his coat and throwing it on.
"Elton, we're twins. They're your parents whether you like it or not!" Maevis said to him in an effort to stop him.
"Well, I dinnae like it!" Elton snapped at her.
"Do you mean to say you never wanted to come with me to find them?" Maevis asked him as he reached the door.
"Maevis, I never planned on going back in time. My life is here. It's safer here . I'm not goin' te the year seventeen-fuckin'-sixty-six," he snapped at her, turning to look away from the shocked and hurt expression on her face. "Now I've had enough of this… I'm glad ye've found the answers ye were lookin' fer, but I wasnae ever lookin' fer this. I was helpin' he, and tha's all I was doin'."
"Do you mean to say you don't care about Mama at all?" Maevis asked him, following him as he threw open the door.
"Maevis, I dinnae even ken her! I've never met her! I believe ye when ye say we shared a womb, and I've seen my actual birth certificate, but I'll no'… I'll no' travel four hundred years te meet her. I willnae. I have a life here, not there. I dinnae ken who that bloke is, but he isnae me. I have te go, I have a train te catch," Elton said to her, leaving through the open door.
"Elton! Elton, wait! Please!" Maevis called after him, but he wouldn't hear her. He stepped into the elevator and then he was gone. "Goddamn it!"
"Maevis, darling," Tom said to her, trying to draw her into his arms to embrace her, but she pulled away from him and shoved him away.
"No! This is all your fault!" she shouted at him. "Had you not been a selfish ass and given my brother away, I wouldn't have lost him! He would still be here now helping me find my mother, but no! You just had to be a selfish ass!"
"Maevis!" Maidie exclaimed, exiting her apartment to follow the two of them into the hall.
"I don't want to hear it, Maidie," Maevis exclaimed. "I've lost my brother because of him." With that said, she stormed down the hall to the stairwell, throwing open the door and disappearing into the stairwell. She made her way to the ground floor, hoping to run into Elton, but he was already gone. Fighting off the urge to cry, Maevis went for a walk in town, hoping for a chance to clear her head.
She walked for hours, and when it began to snow, she continued on, not giving a single damn about the weather. When the snow shifted into rain, she ducked beneath the cover of an awning, waiting out the rain so she could continue on. The awning belonged to an occult shop, and Maevis turned to glance at the items in the window to pass the time when her attention fell on a book titled 'Journey Through the Stones: How To Travel To Distant Lands Through Faery Hills ' by an author known as Geillis Ibister. "'Journey Through the Stones'…" Maevis muttered quietly, and then she went inside.
She picked up the book and turned it over, finding nothing but reviews on the back about how interesting of a story the book tells. She sat down in an armchair and opened the book to the forward, which was written by a Gillian Edgars:
These are the musings of a witch known as Geillis Ibister. It is a witch's name, so a name that I will assume.
Strange, but whatever. Maevis flipped to the first chapter, which talked about the history of the stones and of people who had disappeared around faery hills and stone circles, as well as people who failed and died doing so. The next chapter was about how travel could be achieved on the eight pagan sabbats on the wheel of the year. The strongest times to travel, according to Geillis Ibister, were Samhain on the first of November, and Beltane on the first of May - those were both dates in which her mother had disappeared on. The next strongest dates to travel were Yule on the twenty-first of December and Litha on twenty-first of June - Maevis's birthday. Both were solstices, the Winter Solstice and the Summer Solstice. The weakest days to travel, besides any regular day of the year, were Ostara on the twenty-first of March and Mabon on the twenty-first of September, the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes…
Maevis jumped up and went to the cashier, purchasing the book and rushing out of the bookstore to the nearest coffee shop. She sat down, put her earbuds into her ears to block out any sound and pulled out a pen, taking notes on the inside cover of the book. Mama travelled on Samhain and Beltane. All have passed - Yule is next. How to travel on Yule?
She flipped to the section of the second chapter about Yule, which went into the ancient pagan roots of the sabbat and talked about how it was essential to ancient people for tracking the sun and the seasons. She went to the next chapter, which talked about herbs and how they could be used to prepare one to travel on the sabbat. For Yule, Maevis needed to consume blessed thistle, chamomile, cinnamon and oranges daily for a month before the sabbat - it was the twentieth of November, so she had plenty of time.
The next chapter was on gemstones. Some gemstones were important to travelling on Yule like orange calcite and sunstone, but other gemstones were important for steering.
'It's important to find the life path number of the date you wish to travel to. For example, the 16th of April, 1746. Add first the numbers of the day - 1 + 6 = 7. Then add the numbers of the month - 0 + 4 = 4. Then add the year - 1 + 7 + 4 + 6 = 18, then 1 + 8 = 9. Finally, add up all of your single numbers: 7 + 4 + 9 = 20, then 2 + 0 = 2. The life path number for that date is 2, so you want to use Howlite to help you steer. But of course, there are many dates with a life path number of 2, so I recommend using Howlite along with Peridot (7, for the 16th), Moonstone (4, for April), and Rose Quartz (9, for 1746).'
Maevis marked the page with a napkin and wrote down the date she wished to travel to - 1 November, 1766. She wrote down first the day: 0 + 1 = 1. She consulted a chart next, which featured each gemstone and its associated life path number. 1 - Garnet. Next, she went with the month: 1 + 1 = 2. 2 - Howlite. Finally was the year: 1 + 7 + 6 + 6 = 20. 2 + 0 = 2. 2 - Howlite. Finally, she added up the three numbers together: 1 + 2 + 2 = 5. 5 - Aquamarine. So she needed two Howlites, an Aquamarine, a Garnet, and Orange Calcite and Sunstone to travel at Yule. God, how did her mother do this without doing any of this? Perhaps travelling on Beltane next May would be easier… No. She needed to go now, to see her mother.
19 December, 2165
Christmas was drawing nearer, and so was the time for her to go to Craigh Na Dun. She had been consuming the herbs daily and had had a bracelet made with each of the gemstones she needed to travel, with citrine thrown in to ensure she passed through the stones on Yule. "I've found somethin' else," said Rory, approaching Maevis, who was seated at the table looking at a map to the approximate location to where Fraser's Ridge was located.
"What'd you find?" Maevis asked him, and he seemed to have a strange look on his face. "Rory, what is it?"
"Um… Well, it… probably isn't going te… make ye very happy," Rory said to her rather awkwardly.
"Out with it, Rory," Maevis replied rather impatiently.
"Oh, all right," he said, and then he pulled out his phone and pulled up an image of an antique newspaper dated to January of 1776. The center of the paper featured an obituary.
"Why are you showing me an obituary?" Maevis asked him.
"Keep readin'," Rory replied, and Maevis read on:
" 'Unfortunately, such is the lot of the human… race? That scarcely a month… something… without our having to undertake the painful task of recording the loss of estimable men and women. We have today the unhappy obligation to relay the following. It is with grief that the news is received of the deaths by fire of…'" She froze, not sure if she was reading the name correctly, and slowly, Rory bent down beside her to finish reading it.
"'It is with grief that the news is received of the deaths by fire of James Mackenzie Fraser and his wife of a conflagration that destroyed their home on the settlement of Fraser's Ridge, on Sabbath evenin' last. Nephew of the late Hector Cameron of River Run, and a man whose integrity of conduct was a leading feature of his moral character, Mr. Fraser's tragic and untimely departure from this earth will bring sorrow te a multitude of people with whom he was acquainted. Born at Broch Tuarach in Scotland, Mr. Fraser's strong affection for the Province of North Carolina was no less than that which he held for his native land: made manifest in his efforts to advance agriculture and improve the estate granted to him. His dearly beloved wife, Mistress Catherine Fraser, a renowned healer known throughout North Carolina, now rests from her own labours in her endeavours te assist him. It is with respect that Mr. Fraser and his wife will-'"
"That's enough," Maevis told him firmly, silencing him. She sat frozen in place, unable and unwilling to move. Her parents were dead… For eight years, they built a home for themselves only to die in a goddamn fire. She had to warn them. Not only did she now have to go just to be with her family again, but now she had an obligation to spare their lives and warn them of what was to come. Her parents would not be dying in a fire in January of 1776. Maevis would make damn sure of that.
21 December, 2165
Craigh Na Dun, The Highlands, Scotland
In the middle of the night, Maevis had left Maidie's apartment to catch a taxi to Craigh Na Dun. With her was a bag containing any extra herbs that might help with her passage as well as her bracelet of gemstones and her mother's eighteenth century clothes that she had returned in. She arrived at the stones just before dawn, paying the cab driver and making the climb up to the stones. The buzzing flooded her ears, calling out to her, begging her to touch them so that she might pass through. Quickly, she changed into the clothes, wrapping her uncle's tartan around her shoulders and leaving her backpack with the book, her phone, and a note to Rory, Tom, Maidie and Elton, if he would hear it. She rested it against a tree on the hill - it was brightly coloured and stuck out very clearly there among the greenery. Once she was dressed, she took off the gemstone bracelet and clasped it firmly in her hand, standing before the tallest stone at the center of the circle.
She would be leaving behind everything she knew for a world unknown to her - as her mother had done when she returned to this time. Granted, she was from this time, but she must have felt so lost. Quickly, from her pocket Maevis pulled a printed copy of the newspaper article and the drawing that her mother had done of her father, meeting his eyes in the sketch with her own.
"I'm coming, Mama… Dad… I'm coming to see you… Wait for me, please?" she said to the picture, and then she put them away in her pockets again, then squared her shoulders and faced the stone. "I'm ready," she said quietly to the stone. As dawn approached, the stone began to become illuminated by the Winter Solstice sun. Maevis stepped forward, closing her eyes tightly and taking a deep breath…
…and then she touched the stone, and the buzzing fell silent.
