When my vision cleared, I was alone in a deep patch of woods with the crow - a small grove of trees that was untouched by the eternal winter of Siberia. The simmering warmth of a hot spring bubbled with sulfurous cheer, subterranean geothermals keeping the bright flowering green of the land around me in perpetuity. I almost felt ashamed to show up to this place carrying weapons. It was just so serene and pristine that it felt like I was polluting this place by just the implication of warfare.

"Thank you… Mr. Crow? Mrs. Crow? I'm sorry, I don't think I ever caught your name." I addressed the black creature as it twisted it's neck, nibbling at its wing with its long beak. It ignored me entirely as I continued to speak to it. "Are - are you the Keeper? I'm really trying to speak to them."

"While I am sure that bird has many relevant thoughts. I am afraid that he is just a normal crow." Spoke an amused voice behind me. "There are, after all, creatures not imbued with great powers in the world."

I turned around to face the speaker, coming face to face with something that resembled a human in only the vaugest sense of the word. It was bipedal, with two hands, two eyes, and a mouth - but that was about as human as it got. Instead of a nose it had a ridge of wide fins leading up the ridge of its face, gill-like protrusions that opened and closed in irregular motions. It's body was wrapped in a shimmering metallic gown that wrapped up to their necks and down to stubby fingers.

I relaxed. If this being was powerful enough to translocate me in an instant, it easily could have done me harm when my back had been turned. "Quikinna'qu I presume?"

"No." The woman replied, smiling a mouth full of dull - slightly-greenish, yellowing teeth. "We are merely contemporaries. The humans call us Nemes, but they give the title to others as well. We do not own it."

"Neme? You mean Elves?" I smiled in reply. "You don't resemble any Elves of the Summer or Winter Court I've ever seen."

"One does not choose their name. It is given." The woman shrugged. "You may call me Crow if you like. It will suffice while we wait."

"Who are we waiting for?" I replied looking at a boulder next to me. I considered sitting in it briefly before dismissing the idea - sitting down had caused me enough difficulties for one week.

"The others. There must be a judge and a witness." She looked up. I followed her gaze and came to realize that the trees were just utterly chock-o-block full of birds. Not just birds, birds that had absolutely no business in Siberia. Next to owls, hawks, doves, and crows were a cavalcade of brightly colored parrots, toucans, and songbirds of every description. There was even a particularly large, gamey, and sullen looking buzzard that sat exhaustively on a limb as starlings flitted around it's head chatting animatedly. I empathized with that buzzard more than was strictly healthy.

"You need witnesses?" I swallowed, a sinking feeling hitting my gut. "Witnesses to what?"

The woman never broke her calm demeanor of friendliness as she said. "Judgement."

"I'm on trial? For what?" I scoffed.

"Honesty." She held her palms up placatingly, displaying the rough sucker-covered palms of her hands. "You are, after all, a Goa'uld. We would be foolish to take you at your word without proof."

"Then why give me a chance at all?" I balked at the implication, furious that they were just lumping me in with every other Goa'uld without even giving me a chance. And then logic caught up to me - right, most of the Goa'uld were apathetic, evil monsters. Not everyone would just assume "reverse possession by Wizard."

That damn logic at it again, ruining perfectly good indignation

"If we did not give people a chance to prove us wrong then we would never have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes." She clucked her tongue disappointedly. "We once had such high hopes for your people, Warden. I wish to see them learn as well."

"You're the First People aren't you? The ones who came before Humans." I inquired, curious at this magically powerful being I'd previously known nothing about.

"Yes and no." The woman smiled. "We came before you, but we are not the first thinking beings of this world. We found a common cause and common friends, so we were invited to visit their home as we protected their friends in ours. We take their lost friends and help them find homes and safety where they can live in peace."

I furrowed my brow in confusion, trying to get a sense for ambient magic in the air only to find the simple stillness of the cool Summer breeze. "Why can't I sense any magic?"

"Because you use magic, Warden. You aren't part of it. Nature isn't something to bend to your will and shape to your needs." She walked over to me and gently patted my arm. "It doesn't make you a bad person, but you're at conflict with everything - especially yourself. You are young."

"Where are my companions?" A terrible thought occured to me. "Have you already judged them?"

"No - no child. Our place is not to judge their truth. They aren't asking to see the Keeper. You are." She clucked her tongue. "So quick to assume the worst because you lack better methods."

"They're unharmed?" I replied. I wasn't going to let this go until I got a direct answer. There was always the possibility that Crow was lying to me and they were already dead, there were some supernatural beings who got off on that sort of thing. I didn't think that was the case though. Tera West wasn't unnecessarily cruel.

Then again… I had helped kill her fiance. That was the sort of thing that potentially made someone a touch irrational.

But… no. No, my gut was telling me that she, and consequently Crow, were on the level.

I trusted my gut. So I believed her when she smiled and said, "They will be returned to you, whole and well. We have no need to harm them."

I blinked, my eyes struggling to focus on the tree line behind her. It was as though there were huge sections of the forest that I couldn't see. Hell, I couldn't even look at them. Every time I tried to raise my head to get a clear picture of them my eyes crossed and I got dizzy drying to pick a patch of the tree line that was safe to look at.

"It's ok." Crow patted my back soothingly, leading me over to the pool. "You're fine. You're going to be fine. Try looking in the pool first. Look at the reflection first and your mind will help you fill in the gaps."

I followed her instruction, staring into the glassy pool as runnels of steam streamed off it. At first my eyes still refused to look at the trees, but slowly I was able to focus on the spots of the woods that I couldn't look before. Beneath the birds were huge, hairy figures with apeish faces and long fingers. If not for the snowy-white fur and bright-red Macaque-like faces, I might have mistaken them for the immediate family of Strength of a River on His Shoulders. Yeti - the Forest people of the frozen north.

A whole tribe of Yeti. Stars and Stones, I don't know if any Wizard alive had ever seen an entire tribe of Yeti. There were old men as aged and craggy as the mountains. Young men, broad of chest and just starting to grow silver towered over me. Women, rough hewn as though from the very earth itself with babes in their arms. Infants! Of the Forest people? Young apeish boys and girls peeked out from behind their mothers and fathers, curious to catch a glimpse of the strange man with the starry eyes.

I looked back at crow, open mouthed, only to find that she'd reverted back to her avian form. She crooned to me, saying, "Good luck," before flying back to her fellow birds. It occured to me that she'd never specified if she was there to be the judge or the witness.

Well, when in doubt, be polite. I waved to the Yeti, and greeted them convivially in Russian. "Hey there. Thanks for inviting me."

One of the smaller children shouted back. "You're welcome!" with rampant enthusiasm to the collective amusement of the Yeti. His mother shushed him, batting him back behind her leg with a long paw and an exasperated sigh.

"Well - that pretty much ruins the illusion of dramatic tension." Groused an aged voice that rumbled like the echoes of hoofbeats through a cave. A particularly aged and singularly apeish Yeti walked out of the crowd, leaning heavily on a staff that was effectively just a discarded tree-trunk carved in elaborate runes. He plodded forward, walking around the children of the tribe. His skin hung loosely as though he'd once been made of thick muscular bulk but had since withered away with age, flapping as he walked.

He was bowed with age, bent like a shrimp, but he still towered over me as he plodded over to the boulder I had elected not to sit in and plopped down upon it. He groaned as his knees clicked and snapped his fingers. Several of the adolescent Yeti, still a full head taller than I, came over to us with a large iron brazier and filled it with dry logs. He waved them away, snapped his fingers, and ignited the logs with an effort of will before looking at me. "Will you join me by my fire?"

"Yes." I agreed without hesitation. If this being intended to judge me as his guest there was at least some hope of succeeding at his challenge and an above average assurance that Crow had been genuine that they intended us no ill will.

He leaned in, narrowing his eyes as he sniffed the air twice and scoffed before speaking English in a vaguely Inuit accent. "I'll be damned. The wolf was right. Strength of a River on His Shoulders' human friend made the damn fool choice to become a Goa'uld."

"You know my smell?" I replied, mildly bemused.

"I know River Shoulders and that son of his he tries to have and not have at the same time." The man pawed at his ear, pulling out some sort of insect and popping it in his mouth. He chewed it wetly as he made another gesture to his children. They came out with fish on skewers and started setting them around the fire. "He doesn't want to burden his child with tradition. But it seems mean not to let the child at least have the opportunity to choose to walk the mortal path."

"That doesn't really answer my question." The cooking fish started to make me salivate. How long had it been since I'd last eaten? Hell, it had to have been days. "Is that Tuna?"

"Salmon. Here, have some caviar." He summoned more of the children to bring us stone bowls full of salt-cured roe and thick pieces of bread and cheese.

"Oh, God that's good." I spoke between salty mouthfuls. In retrospect, I might have been a poor host to River Shoulders by comparison.

"I know. We've got some ponds we keep for ourselves. Learned some of the industrial fishing stuff from our fuzzy friends in town. We're better with animals than most." He flashed a mouth full of surprisingly white teeth. I noted idly that he'd gotten braces. Orthodontia for a Yeti, would wonders never cease.

He let me finish my plate before he answered my question. He'd devoured his own in moments. "Well there, as to your question. Please understand that I don't mean it as a slight, but you smell. You have a particular odor to you that wasn't strictly normal even before you went and became a Goa'uld - a subject I might add that we're not done discussing - but it clings to the people you meet. River Shoulders stank of you for a month after meeting you. Well, that and Burger King but it seems that you've given up that habit."

"Don't remind me." I groused. "I know that people's scents are distinctive but is mine really that distinctive?"

"It's the magic, son. The bad stuff. It sticks to you." The Yeti replied. "We can smell it. Not just that it's there but why. "

"Oh." I replied, ashamed.

"Oh, don't feel too bad kid. You smell better than most Wizards for most of history. It's just this new batch that have lucked into not having had anything too terrible come about." The Yeti waved off my worries and then blinked. "But I'm forgetting my manners. I am Quikinna'qu or Big Raven if you prefer. Most just call me the Big Grampa or Gramps."

"Gramps." I practically choked on the name.

"Well, hell - I'm probably great-great-great-great-times god knows how many gramps if we're going to get technical about it. I never quite got around to figuring out how old I am because we hadn't quite bothered with numbers when I started to be." He pulled a toothpick out of his fur and started fishing chunks of bread out of his braces. "So I'm not going to get up in arms about someone realizing the patently obvious. I'm old and ornery."

"Harry." I replied, holding out my hand. "Harry Dresden. But I would appreciate it if you and your people did me the courtesy of only calling me "Lord Warden" when strangers are around."

"Lord is it?" Scoffed the Yeti as he clasped my armored hand in his gigantic paw. "Well la-dee-dah."

"I didn't pick the title." I replied.

"No, traditionally some damn fool invents it then another inherits it." Gramps picked up a skewer and gestured for me to do the same. I picked it up and bit into it, my eyes rolling back into my head at the simple pleasure of eating. "I would quite like to know how you managed to become a Ascended Goa'uld Lord though."

"Heka tried to possess me." I spoke through a mouthful of fish. "It didn't take. A friend of mine saw what he was doing and sort of… reversed the process. One thing let to another and I ended up accidentally triggering a ritual."

"Kid, do you mean to tell me that you reverse possessed a snake and used his ritual to steal his divinity?" The Yeti asked before hooting with laughter, choking on a bite of tuna as he struggled to eat and laugh at the same time. "Oh - that is too good. Oh. "Warden" I give my word that my tribe and I will keep that secret - if only because we get make fun of the Goa'uld for not getting it."

"Thanks." I paused, realizing that there was something that I really needed to mention to Gramps before we got down to business. "Oh - before I forget to mention it. The Genoskwa escaped from Archangel when the Fortress fell."

"A Genoskwa." The Yeti corrected me. "And we know. But I appreciate the heads up."

"There's more than one of those lunatics?" I squawked.

"Young men make mistakes." Gramps shrugged. "Some learn from them. Some repent. Some don't. You know that, Harry."

"Ah - so, your people will be safe?" I replied in relief.

Gramps bit his lower lip in thought at my reply, snapping his fingers so that the boys would bring us each a mug of something that smelled somewhere between alcohol and battery acid. "I think I've decided I like you."

I sniffed the booze that had been handed to me, unwilling to offend my host by turning down the drink. Time to put my godly constitution to the test, I supposed. I downed the drink with him, my eyes watering as I drank the overpowering concoction. My vision swam as I finished the mug, wheezing at the strength of it. "Holy crap that has a kick to it? What was it?"

"Grain alcohol mixed with a couple a' things that make it stick for people like you and me. It'd kill a human outright, but you're made of sterner stuff." Gramps reached over the fire and slapped my back with a lanky arm, helping me cough. "It'll put hair on your chest."

I wondered how literal that statement was as I caught my breath and got to the matter at hand. "Gramps, I'm here for a Chariot to get to Buyan."

Gramps let out a long whistle at my request. "I like you, Harry - but you're asking for one hell of a lot. It's not an accident we've been keeping that from people. It's dangerous. You're already a kid playing with deadly power you don't understand. And you want me to hand you a weapon I don't think I could use safely."

"I have to go to Buyan." I insisted. "It's important."

"Is it?" Gramps mulled over my insistence before letting out a long, low growl. "What is it that Koschei has done now?"

"He has the Archive." I replied. "Thoth's Archive."

"Well - crap." Gramps brow ridge raised at the implications of that. "Yep - that would qualify as important given what Buyan is and how damn old Koschei is."

"You know how old Koschei is?" I blinked.

"His mother gave birth to him when she was young - so no. I'm not that old." Gramps grunted in disgust. "But just because he's my elder doesn't make him my better. That man is full of hate and death. I can't say that leaving a woman with him makes sense even if she's got power."

"Child." I corrected.

"Excuse me?" Gramps voice darkened.

"The Archive. She's six." I replied.

"Bitch of a mother..." Gramps snarled. "To do that to a child. This - this is monstrous, we've tolerated his temper tantrum for long enough. Pity will only go so far."

"You'll give it to me then?" I asked excitedly.

"No." Gramps held up a finger as I began to protest. "Hold on there kid. I didn't say I wouldn't help. But it's not mine to give. That's why we're meeting. So that I can decide if you get to meet the one who can let you have it."

I blinked in confusion. "But - why couldn't they just ask me themselves?"

"Power comes at a price, kid. The more power you get the less freedom you have. Koschei is the last of his people on Earth, last alive near as I can tell, but they're still around. They still listen and they still act. Some help when they're allowed." He gestured to the hot springs. "The Zoryas - they're the ones you need to convince."

I followed his gesture and had to close my eyes at the sheer brilliance of the light coming from two figures floating along the water's surface. Beautiful, shimmering shapes like some sort of invertebrate water creature made from sunlight and birdsong caressed the water's surface. The spun and danced through the air, jellyfish like tendrils of solar energy coalescing and re-shaping into the forms of two stunningly beautiful women with pale skin and hair made of pure sunlight.

I stared at the two beings of pure light, utterly gobsmacked. My mouth - apparently in no need of a functioning brain to operate, connected the creatures of light with something I'd seen nearly a year ago. "I've seen one of you before. On Nekheb - one of you fought a Shoggoth."

"A debt was owed." Spoke one of the women, in a voice that rang with subtle music to it.

"You wish the ship." Spoke the second, matter of factly. "Will you use it to kill Koschei?"

"If I have to." I replied.

"Do you want to?" Asked the first.

"I - yes. Yes I do." I replied, choosing truth. "He took a freaking kid."

"Do you know why?" Asked the second. "What one could accomplish with her knowledge and Buyan's power?"

"Lady, respectfully, I don't give a shit. There is a six year old child in danger." I stood up and stared her in the eye. "Now - what do I have to give you so that you'll give me the tools to save her."

The looked at each other, smiling wickedly before regarding me. "The price has already been freely given. Your patron is eager to support your mission. She sends her love."

My heart caught in my throat as I dared to hope. Lash? "Who paid it?"

"Our role has been met, Wizard." Spoke the first as she waved her hand and a long, cylindrical grey, tube appeared on the soft loamy earth. It was angular on both ends, with odd geometric patterns along its length. As the craft appeared the two figures disappeared and along with them the yeti and the birds.

"Wait. Who paid it?" I shouted at the sky as the flickering motes of sunlight dissolved into the dark night's sky. I looked at the empty clearing around me then shouted. "And where are my friends?"

There was another flash of blue light and I suddenly found myself at the center of my compatriots. Kincaid blinked in confusion, looking from the skewers of fish, to the roaring fire, to the metal cylinder, and finally to me. "Uh - Warden… what… what exactly happened?"

"Apparently Crow gave us ship and dinner." Marchenko replied picking up a skewer of the fish and digging into it. "No mayonnaise, but we can't have everything in life."

Ammit sniffed the air and made eye contact with Kincaid, apparently the both of them could still smell Yeti on the air. She growled in English. "Deal finished?"

"Yes" I replied.

"Food safe?" She inquired.

"Definitely." I responded, starting to fiddle with what appeared to be the entrance to the cylinder.

"Good enough." She grunted, sitting next to Marchenko and taking a skewer.

Kincaid shook his head and leaned against the cylinder. "Apparently I need to pick up ornithology. Crows are damn useful it would seem."

"It wasn't the crow really." I replied cryptically. "It was the Raven."