Disclaimer: The Sookie Stackhouse Series is the creation of Charlaine Harris. Don't sue me Charlaine! I love your books.
A/N- Eithne is pronounced āth-na (long a sound) by most people in Ireland.
Understanding
II.
When I showed up at the house, Claude didn't even complain. He simply stared at me and took my hand gently, drawing me inside. I did not speak. Claudine came home from work but for once no remedy she had in her arsenal appeared to suffice. Niall, perhaps instinctively sensing the depth of the situation, rapidly made arrangements. I was moved to a safe location. I slept several days, with no knowledge of where I was. I was lost. Mute.
On October the 4th, Ieiunium Cereris, we waited at the Crossroads on a ley line that ran through a verdant area outside of Little Rock. At midnight, Eithne began to emerge in a shimmering cloud. Claudine and Niall bowed their head to her and she moved forward to see me clearly with her kind eyes.
"But there's hardly anything left to her?" she said wide-eyed, in a soft brogue.
Claudine, holding my hand in hers, raised my hand to her face and pressed the back of it against her wet cheek.
"She has not spoken in the days she was with us. She does not eat. She cries in her sleep. I can do nothing to help her, to reach her."
Eithne turned to Niall and said, shaking her head soberly, "You and Pythia have waited too long. This will be long in the repair."
I remember the warmth of her hand in mine, as she me guided back across some unseen portal. And then for days, I remembered no more.