A/N: Whew-sorry for the delay and thank you so much for your patience. I will cut this note short. You know the drill-I love you guys, thank you so much for all your comments, etc. I have no beta, I own nothing, except for the goofy lil characters I whittled up. You are the wind beneath my wings.

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Ch. 33

Though he was surely still feeling the effects of our blood drunk euphoria, Eric jumped up, blocking me with his body, growling and muscles clenched, ready to attack. I teetered, trying to stand on the bed behind him and was just about to summon my sword, but then the figure started to waver in the air, becoming translucent. Before it did, I heard a familiar voice inside my head, not with my ears, "You have chosen. The scripts will tell you all", then it was gone.

An intense feeling of comfort and relaxation completely washed over me. And judging from the look on his face, Eric felt it as well. I sighed and leaned into him, as he lay us both back onto the bed. "Mmmm, do you feel that?"

"I do." He purred. We sat there in our collective puddle until the effects seemed to wear off a few minutes later. "Any idea who that was?"

The words were out of my mouth without a thought, "Morrìgan."

He turned his head sharply, "How do you know?"

"I-I don't know. I just do. Did you hear the voice in your head before She disappeared-that said we have chosen and the scripts will tell us all we need?"

He nodded but said nothing. "I'm not sure how I feel about her watching us have sex and bond. That's creepy. Though I don't get the feeling she was peeping on us the whole time."

"Don't forget, Sookie, Higher Beings don't look upon sex and mating as something dirty or kinky, or even private. Sex was had in public, among the Gods, among family for a very long time. It is only modern ideals that have retreated it to private bedrooms and made it seem unholy. Mating was often witnessed by whole families or villages to "seal the deal", so to speak. If anything, that is what She did just now-witnessed our bond, that we are finally fulfilling our roles."

"Hmm. Well, I can't change it, regardless, right?" I still felt a little violated at the prospect, but we had bigger fish to fry. "She said, 'the scripts'. I assume that means the manuscripts and book. I can only imagine what kind of info they contain. Let's take a look." I moved to get up, but he stopped me.

"Sookie, is there somewhere we could go outside and look at them? I would like to be in the sun again." He looked like he was trying to sound matter-of-fact, but I could see the underlying excitement in his eyes.

"I. Am. The biggest asshole. Ever." I facepalmed then looked up at him from under my hand. He was looking at me expectantly, clueless at my outburst. "Eric, I am so sorry! Here you haven't seen or felt sunlight in a thousand years, and I'm selfishly keeping you here, inside my chambers for the last few hours. Then gabbing on and on. Let's go to the garden-come on!" I hopped up and summoned a dress, slipping it on easily. I smoothed the shimmery, opaque fabric over my hips. I was not an overly girly girl in my fashion choices, but Fairy fabric was like no other. It felt like you were wearing nothing at all. Even my heavier workout gear felt weightless and fluid.

Eric stood up from the bed, staring at me, mouth agape and he sunk down in front of me. He didn't say anything for a moment, just giving me that same stare and I was getting a little uncomfortable. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing is the matter. You look like a goddess, Sookie. Stunning. You look of Frigg and Freya, Hera and Athena, Morrìgan all in one body. How I did not see it when you first came to me, I do not know. But I was a fool for not seeing it immediately."

I felt a blush creep over my cheeks. "Foof. I look like me-plain old Sookie. If you had come at me spouting stuff about me looking like a goddess when we first met, I would have been just a little freaked out. We weren't to know who we are to each other at that point, remember? No, it all happened as it was supposed to. But thank you for the compliment." I leaned down to kissed his cheek, pulling him up, then summoned some of Claude's clothing for him to wear outside. "Here try this on. Claude is the closest to your size. Well, technically, Kvelin is your same size, but I don't think it would go over so well if I summon his Brit armor for you."

"Yes, about him." he huffed as he slid on the pants, which were a decent fit, if not snug, much to my delight. I played innocent, knowing where this was headed,

"Hmm, who? Oh, Kvelin. What about him?" He tried the shirt on, but he couldn't quite button it, so shrugged and left it hanging open. Dear gods-he looked like a sexy pirate from a cheesy romance novel cover. I wanted to peel it right back off him, with my teeth. Gulp. Keep it together, Sook."How does that feel?"

"Extremely comfortable, despite being too small, but do not change the subject." He must have felt my state, as he looked at me sideways, then preened. "What is your relationship with the Britlingen?"

I fussed unnecessarily with his shirt, willing my hands not to undo his pants. "He trained me since adolescence. We have a student-teacher relationship and maybe a little sibling-like attitude thrown in, but nothing more."

"That's not the impression I get from him."

"Yes, well, that's his problem. I promise you, I have never felt anything even slightly romantic for him." I looked him square in the eyes. He grabbed my waist and pulled me in close. I felt every hard inch of him pressed up against me, thanks to our whisper-thin clothing, and I felt a tiny thrill at his possessiveness. I looked up at him sweetly, "Eric, I am yours and have been since birth, apparently. There has been no other before you, of that you have seen and felt" I rubbed my hips against his "the evidence. You have nothing to be jealous of", I kissed his neck and looked up at him. I felt his arousal at my words, then pride and love all coming at me, through our mingled blood. Cool. I closed my eyes and pushed my love and admiration to him. He seemed satisfied with that exchange. We better get out of here, before the exchange included more than just emotions. Clearing my throat, "Ready for the sun?"

His eyes lit up and he looked out towards the window in glee and anticipation. I summoned the scrolls and book, grabbed his hand and popped us outside.

We arrived exactly where I had intended, in a secluded spot among the roses and hanging vines. Eric looked around incredulously and while I still felt a nagging need to protect him from sunlight, he felt no such fear. I kept quiet and let him experience it how he chose. He was holding his hands and arms out, then took his shirt off to feel the warmth on his chest. I summoned a blanket and spread it out. Sitting down, I watched him walk to the roses and hold one in his hand, moving it around in the sunlight, then plucking it from it's stem. I could feel his joy and wonderment. He walked to the wisteria and buried his face in the blooms. He lay down on the grass, limbs splayed and just lay still, closing his eyes. After a minute, his eyes popped open and he came over to where I was on the blanket.

He traced the rose down my cheek and across my lips, then replaced it with his lips. "Thank you." He whispered huskily. He looked and felt so overjoyed, I felt myself misting up. What could I say to that?

So I said the first thing that popped in my head, "Anything for my Bonded." At that, he gave me a slanted smile. Then tackled me, tickling me mercilessly. Once the tears ran down the sides of my face and he deemed me sufficiently tortured, he lay on his back next to me and pulled me into his side.

"It will take time to get used to being in the sunlight. If only Pam could see it." Aww, poor Pammy. I wish she could experience it as well. "I know you have mentioned that time passes differently here. Is there a way to send message to Pamela, so she does not destroy all of Shreveport, if she finds us missing?"

"Uhhmm...I think I can arrange her receiving a message." I summoned pen and paper, had Eric write a note to Pam, since she would probably only believe it if it came from him, then sent it to Claudine with a note to see it got to Pam, ASAP. "She can pop in and out of the realm with ease, as you saw. Though, now that I think about it, I'm summoning things to and fro with barely a second thought, now. I used to have to work up to it, build up my energies. Now I just think it and it happens. Huh. I should try popping back and forth later. I wonder if it is your blood, or our bond that has given me more power."

"Possibly. Or, maybe full power has been given to you now that you know your true nature."

"Maybe it's in the books."

"Ah, yes. Let's read those."

Unrolling one of the manuscripts, the first thing I saw was what looked to be a genealogy account of the Brigants. From Danu to Brigid, the Brigants and Morrìgan went all the way back to the beginnings of Irelands ancient history, and probably even before that, judging by some of the gaps and crossovers on the page. By most entries, their were fancy f's and h's in parentheses, in what I assumed told whether the person listed was human or fae. The Brigant side, leading to Fintan all had f's; my Morrìgan heritage was spotted with h's. The tracking stopped at the mid-1800's, so I assumed it lead to my grandmother Adele, somehow. I wondered aloud if Fintan had been attracted to Adele because of her lineage, or if Morrìgan, or Fate had stepped in, to make the magic happen.

There were symbols at the bottom of the page I couldn't understand. Looking to Eric, "Have you seen this type of text before?"

"It looks similar to ancient runic symbols, but I do not understand it." I stared at it a bit longer, seeing if I could determine any type of pattern to it, but shrugged and moved on. The next manuscript was filled with miscellaneous drawings in no particular rhyme or reason. Celtic knots, swirls, a circle of monoliths on a hill-I ran my hand over the drawing, "Tamair".

Eric looked at me, "What?"

"Tamair. A very powerful place for the gods, and it's where this worship site once stood, but it's gone now." My hand flew over my mouth. Where the hell had that come from?! He said nothing, just watched me. I took a deep breath. "Okay, well this whole, me speaking without having a clue where it's coming from thing, is obviously going to keep happening so I should just get over it, huh? It's weird. It's not like someone is speaking through me, it's that I know the answers, somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain and they just come rushing out."

"It's possible we will see more and more of your knowledge come through as we learn more about your heritage." I nodded in agreement, wishing said knowledge would just hurry up already. I examined everything on the page and nothing else came over me. One thing struck me as odd, though.

"Eric, isn't this a Viking ship here?" Down at the very bottom corner was the iconic drawing of a longship, complete with serpent head and tail at the bow and stern. "Yes." We pondered that for a minute, with no conclusion.

Moving on to the book, I marveled at the cover. It was leather, hand-tooled with a lovely Celtic symbols and had metal corner edges and clasps. Inside was a page upon page of lovely script, written in many different hands, different colored inks, different languages, all adorned with illustrations and patterns that rivaled anything I had seen, even in Grandfather's library. It was stunning.

Eric looked over my shoulder, while I looked the pages over, not really trying to read any of them, just skimming them for anything that looked familiar and admiring them all. About three-quarters of the way back, I found a page that was very plain, but I recognized it as similar to Faery language, but there were a lot of words I did not know. I had a hunch it was Nissen, a type of half-Faery, half-Celtic mix I had encountered before. At least, that's what I was told when I asked Claudine what it was, when I found it in a book once. She said it was almost like a casual or slang way to write-it was quicker.

I looked at it more closely, picking out words I recognized. It seemed like a poem of some kind.

I read it out loud once, pronouncing even the words I didn't know, as best I could, and after sounding it out, I found I could understand a little more. It was about being shown...something one had already seen...but needed to see again, with new eyes? I repeated the lines again, more of it's words becoming clear. Going back to go forth and seeing all routes...? By the third pass, all the words were revealed to me mentally and I realized it was not a poem, but a spell!

Every magic practitioner knows, or damn well should, not to chant a spell you don't understand, let alone repeat it three times. But it was too late. I felt the pull of teleportation as the last word of the last line of the spell passed my lips. I didn't even have time to look up, since I was staring down at the book while reading. Damn.

The next thing my eyes registered was extreme darkness so different from the soft, filtered sunlight from a mere second ago. I switched into hyper aware mode. It was night, a bright moon, obscured with lots of quickly moving clouds. That meant it was was windy, though in my sheltered spot it was hard to tell. But it was definitely cold and damp. I was on my back, Eric was nowhere to be seen. I shot up to my feet, which felt exposed, as did my neck. My hair was high up on my head and covered with some type of bonnet . I was itchy, constricted and uncomfortable. I looked down to find very old-fashioned clothing-a heavy dress with many layers, some type of brocade belt, with matching trim and a heavy hood. This was definitely not modern garb-more like Middle Ages.

For fuck's sake! Only me, would this happen to. Was this a dream? I hoped, but I knew it wasn't. Well, no use in boo-hooing right now. Buck up and pay attention. There was no light, except for the occasional bit from the moon, peeking from behind the clouds. I heard some noise in the distance. I looked around and saw nothing but a wooded area. I slipped my hood over my head silently, grabbed the train of my ridiculous dress, cursing history and crouched into a thick part of the brush, hopefully out of sight. Whatever was on my feet, while completely impractical for the cold and wet ground, at least worked well for stealth.

I did a quick soundcheck of my powers. I reached out with my mind...yep. I found five humans and one void-Eric! I hoped anyway. The bond! I felt inward, trying to grasp for any emotion, any clue and got zilch. It was there, I felt his presence, rather, his existence, but it was very far off and I couldn't tell in which direction. Not like the night I tried to find the cabin-he felt much, much further, like in another country. Probably another time, I thought warily. I tried to summon my sword to me-nothing. I tried to summon the book-again, nothing. I ran through a few more personal things-picking smaller and more mundane items I thought might come to me and still nothing worked. I would have liked to test my teleportation but it was too risky. The sounds were coming closer, so I scanned outward again. It was the humans and the void. They were talking but quietly. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but it was definitely Scandinavian or Norse in nature. Okaaayyy...a clue. Was I in Eric's old country?

They were far enough off that I felt comfortable slipping in closer. I wove my way through the thicket until I was only about twenty feet away. I saw three of them, that meant the other two were around somewhere-I felt out with my mind to make sure they weren't about to come up on me. No, they were about fifty feet or so in the opposite direction. Probably peeing or something. I felt that void, but couldn't see it. I painfully, slowly crept through the brush until I found my target-there was Eric! He was tied to a tree on the very outskirts of the camp. And he was looking right at me. Thank god, finally I caught a break! I slowly edged closer. Thankfully, the tree line made an almost perfect circle around the area they chose to settle, so I could literally get quite close to him without being seen. The three men were focused on keeping up the fire, making a decent camp and weren't paying attention to Eric at all, which was fine with me. The other two men rejoined them and they sat down around the fire. When I got only a few feet from Eric, I could see him staring a hole right into me. But he wasn't looking at me normally. I smiled at him, to reassure him, then started to reach out to him, to untie him but something stopped me. Something was off. His pupils took up the entirety of his eyes, boring through me like he did not even know me. His fangs snapped down and he hissed at me, pulling and straining against his restraints. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I stifled a scream. I leaned back into the woods and turned quickly on my crouched knee, on guard. Before me, was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. It was Morrìgan.