Chapter 11

The sound of the raindrops hitting the window made it nearly impossible to get up, but Katherine forced herself to climb out of bed and go wash her face. The rain that had been gathering for a couple days had finally decided to come down, rolling thunders and all, just because she didn't have her notes with her. Could she do it by memory only?

Katherine put her hair up and washed her mouth before heading downstairs and picking an old bottle of glass with a replica of a boat sailing on dark-tinted water inside. She had intended to use the glass dome with the miniature castle for that, but it had stayed at home, so that was as good as it got. She only had to wait for the lightening to start now.

"Good morning." Tamlin was already at the stove making porridge, and Katherine could have hugged him for it.

"Mother bless you, Tamlin, good morning. This smells so good."

He smiled, pointing her to the teapot.

"I've made tea."

A female could get used to that. She snatched his cup from the counter instead.

"You are wonderful." She praised, taking a sip "No sugar?"

"You can add some, if you want to."

She shrugged.

"I can drink it like this."

"What are you doing with this?" He looked down at the bottle she had laid on the counter.

"I wanted to try something. If there's lightening."

Tamlin looked out through the window towards the tiny patio and backyard. It seemed Allie had been taking care of it, the flowerbeds were in bloom and free of weeds, even though the fence was in need of repair.

"This looks like it's going to go on for a while yet." He frowned at the rain.

"I hope the girls are well."

Daphne had gone to stay the night at their place, so at least Allie wasn't alone. It was just a storm, there was nothing for two adult females to worry about, but, still, Katherine was uneasy. If only…

"Can't you winnow?" She turned to Tamlin, who was now serving the bowls.

"I'm probably tracked." He scowled.

"Shit."

"I can make a run there, if you want me to."

Of course, the beast. But she wouldn't send him running in the rain just to ease her mind when there was no reason to believe there was anything amiss.

"There's no need. We'll wait the rain out."

Tamlin hummed an agreement as she picked her porridge bowl. It had been so long since anyone had made her breakfast Katherine had even forgotten what it felt like.

That decision taken, there was little to do but to haunt the house and wait for either lightening to start or the rain to end. Tamlin lit up the fireplace and picked an overly-dramatic romance about two young lovers whose families had a feud which meant they could never be together, what they solved by dying in a spectacularly stupid fashion.

"Are you really reading this?"

"It gets me every time." Tamlin sighed "The poor kids."

"I'm quite sure this was supposed to be a satire of melodramatic romances."

"I'm quite sure you have a heart of stone." Tamlin retorted, turning back to his book "Should I spoil this for you?" He pointed to the book in her hands.

"Have you read it?"

"No, but it's either the mistress or the butler."

Katherine had read the suspense twice already. The killer was, in fact, the butler.

"Hm."

"It's always the mistress or the butler." Tamlin justified, not looking up from the tragedy.

Katherine put the book down and got up to check the fire.

"Did I really spoil it for you? I'm sorry, I've never read it, it may be someone else."

"It's the butler." Katherine smiled at him "I've read it twice already. I'm bored as all hell, that's what it is."

She heard the thud of Tamlin closing his book.

"What do you want to do then?"

"You don't have to entertain me, Tamlin, go back to your star-crossed lovers." She gestured the book he had put aside.

"Do you ever let anyone do anything for you?"

Where did that come from? It felt like a personal attack.

"You've just made breakfast."

"I didn't ask your permission for that, it wouldn't have been granted."

"I've let Marguerite take me to the tavern." She insisted.

"Once in how many years?"

Tamlin was more observant than she credited him for, but being the mother of a family was like that, always caring for everyone, including herself.

"I take care of myself." She explained, taking a sheet off the notepad and balling it in her hand.

"That cannot be very healthy." She looked up startled to hear a female voice.

She saw herself sitting on the couch, the tunic and trousers too large on her body, her hair in the same style she had worn the night before.

"You can change your voice?"

"Did you think I was acting with Dan? I can change my very blood."

"Was that supposed to be my voice?" She frowned.

"It is your voice."

"It's not!"

"We always sound different than we think we do." Tamlin´s smile was strangely charming on her face.

"You sound like a fifteen-year-old."

His smile widened.

"If you say so."

"You can have my powers?"

"No, that is another thing entirely." Tamlin frowned "What powers do you have?"

Katherine waved her hand. At first, she didn't trust him enough to let him know, and after it had never come up, until now.

"Healing, a tad. Standard Day magic. This." She tossed the ball of paper she had changed into a flying paper butterfly towards him.

"Nice." It was the strangest thing, looking at herself in the third person "But… I thought you came from a family of farmers." The butterfly landed on Tamlin´s hair – her hair – and batted it´s wings gently.

She smiled at that, going back to the couch.

"I am a farmer born and bred. The Tsakiris make the best goat cheese of Spring and Day." She measured her palm against his changed one. A nearly perfect fit "Do you have to think all the details or does it just happen?"

"I have to work everything. I thought only the nobles had healing powers."

He must be obsessively attentive to detail then. She held his jaw and turned his head one way and then the other. Tamlin had even replicated the spot she had behind her ear. He had kissed her there, that night.

"Did you? I assume you're right." She drew back, suddenly aware that it was his jaw she was holding, no matter how much he looked like herself "How far do your powers go?"

How thoroughly did he shift into her skin? She noticed the curve of her breasts beneath the tunic.

"How did it end up- oh, never mind." She wondered if he had been about to ask how did that power end up in her family before he came up with the answer himself "I don't know what you mean by how far, but I could grow wings and a tail if I wanted to, become taller or really short, change my hands for talons, pretty much anything."

"It's… impressive really."

Tamlin waved his hand – her hand – dismissively.

It bordered the unholy. Could he decide to live as a female? Would he bleed? Could he carry a child? Could he turn into a duck?

"What are you thinking?" Tamlin probed.

"Could you turn into a duck?"

He bent forward in laughter – a thunderous version of her own laughter – and she felt her face hot. It was a valid question.

"That's the first time anyone asks me this, and that is something. I could."

"It seems I have entertained you. What is your true form then?"

He shifted back into the male she knew, the tall, broad faerie that occupied so much space. In her curiosity, she had ended up sitting much closer to him than she usually did, and even though Katherine was by no measure a small female, he was huge when compared to her.

"Really?" She pressed.

"Yes." His brow furrowed "Why?"

Katherine shrugged.

"What a waste. A boundless shape-shifter and you're born handsome."

Tamlin laughed at that, and she found herself laughing with him. It was odd having him for a friend, but at the same time so very easy. It was no wonder that Allie had taken to him so quickly.

The roll of thunder was followed by a blinding flash, and Katherine jumped to her feet to take her boat-in-a-bottle. Could she replicate the spell by memory alone? She could try now. It wasn't an especially hard spell, more the sort of thing an aspiring artisan would do, something that could be taught to a talented youngling.

It wasn't hard to call back the feeling of the sun in her veins even as she stood in the rain, she had felt it day after day working in the fields. Sun to cast, music to bind. Katherinee hummed a rhythm, not bothering with words. It was easier that way. She felt the glass vibrating as she trapped a piece of that storm there, rocking the boat on the tinted water. Pretty.

The storm winds danced between her fingers, and Katherine chuckled for the joy of it. Feeling bold, she lifted a hand towards the clouds and started recasting the wards around the Town House, weaving the pliant storm winds into them. To protect, to guard, to keep. It was overwhelming, playing them again after so long, her old friend the wind. She would never forsake it again – forsake herself again.

As she walked back inside, Tamlin was waiting, a towel in his hands.

"Did it work?"

She exchanged the towel in his hands for the storm-in-a-bottle. Mother bless Tamlin, for getting her that towel, she would end up getting used to him.

"You've captured a piece of a storm?"

Katherine nodded, putting the towel around her shoulders and taking the pins off of her hair to dry it. Tamlin would likely think her silly for being so fixated on such a useless spell, a children´s spell, but it meant the world to her, to be doing it again, taking back on the talent she had inherited from Grandma, that she had spent her girlhood trying to perfect, as a means to honour that female she never met.

"What for?" Tamlin puzzled at her.

"Because I can."

It was a blunt answer perhaps, but it was the truth. She ran her fingers through her hair with a drying charm, making the curls soft and fluffy again. Tamlin was still examining the lightening over the storm-tossed boat.

"You're… talented."

"Thank you."

"Did you have fun?" Allie asked, taking the saddle from Katherine´s hands to the wall.

"It was wonderful." Katherine sighed "How was everything around here?"

Allie chuckled at that.

"Nothing new since yesterday, mum."

Katherine looked her child over with a sweep of her amber eyes and seemed to decide the tone wasn't offensive.

"Good. Tamlin and I have a lot of work to do."

Tamlin had been watching their talk from the stall where he brushed Rain.

"How did you find our local tavern?" Allie inquired, turning her attention to him.

"Great music, greater food. No wonder it has been standing for so long."

"You had been there before, then?" Allie arched an eyebrow at him.

"Ages ago. My family was still alive."

Katherine hadn't been born yet, he guessed, and he had already been on the road for a long time. It was strange to think about the difference in their ages, specially when she was undeniably smarter and leagues more competent than him.

"That was before my time." Katherine confirmed "Tamlin, can you brush Noble for me, please? I have to change out of this." She took the skirt of her dress and shook it to make her point.

"I can do it." Allie volunteered.

"I want to show you something." Katherine took her child´s hand.

"Don't worry, brushing one more horse won't kill me." Tamlin reassured.

"I owe you." Katherine pointed at him as if marking it.

"Please don't start keeping score, I'd be forced into servitude."

She laughed lightly, an easy laughter that brought up the dimples in her cheeks and, from the corner of his eye, he saw Allie taking a double look.

At least he was capable of some good, if he could make Katherine laugh. It had been hard to keep his eyes off of her while they rode back to the farm. He had gotten used to the farm-wife, Allie´s mother, but there was so much more to her. Of course there would be, she hadn't been born as a mother and farm-wife, but he hadn't really had the chance to see it since...

He wouldn't be thinking about that night.

It was a good thing, that at least he got her laughing. The world was surely merrier for it.

Katherine heard Allie catch her breath as she walked towards the old trunk in the corner of her room.

"Are you going to open it?" Allie´s eyes were wide as saucers.

"Yes. I want to show you some things. I'm surprised you never asked."

"Dad told me you didn't like to talk about it."

Katherine froze.

"When was that?"

"When I was about… seven or eight? And then again shortly before the war."

Kiril knew what was in that trunk. Why did he assume she wouldn't want to tell Allie about it?

Because she didn't talk to him about it.

The bitter taste in her mouth would not spoil her moment. She didn't talk to him about that because he didn't respect it, but of course she would want Allie to know some of who she was before. If she had died all those years ago, he would have given the whole trunk to the fire and never thought twice about it.

"What is it, mum?"

Katherine shook her head.

"Your father… didn't understand."

She lift the lid and picked a cream-coloured dress, one of the fancy ones, for a dinner party or some night entertainment. Perfect for dancing.

She unfolded it on the bed and Allie gasped.

"Mum, that's beautiful!"

"It's a night dress." She took another one, a simple dress for working in the farm, light and loose, of a sturdier cloth "This one is for work."

Allie ran her fingers over the fabric as if it were a relic.

"Is this your trousseau?"

Katherine hummed an agreement, reaching for the purple dress.

"This dress was brought all the way from Day. Grandpa Titian really did splurge on it." She unfolded the rich plum-coloured silk trimmed with gold "It's the finest I have."

"Oh, mum!" Allie sighed.

"Do you want to try it on?"

"Can I?"

"Of course, go ahead."

Allie picked the dress as if it were a fainting maiden and carried it into the bathroom. Under all the dresses, snugly protected by the books, there was the leather-lined wooden box. Grandpa had burnt a poem on the goat leather inside, Grandma´s favourite, about the sacred nature of dancing. That case guarded her tambourine, her old neglected friend that Grandpa had gifted to her when she turned fifteen.

It wasn't the time, not yet, but soon…

Soon she would be dancing again. If she still knew how.

Somehow, she felt that she would unlearn how to breathe before she unlearned how to dance.

"I'm sure it looks better on you." Allie walked out of the bathroom, and Katherine had to press her tongue against the roof of her mouth not to cry.

The purple had her looking like a marble statue and set off the gold in her hair and the green streaks on her hazel eyes.

"Stop, mum, if you cry I'll cry." Allie took a deep breath, fanning herself with a dainty pale hand.

"You're so beautiful." Katherine tried to keep the tears from her voice.

"Why have you never worn this?" Allie took the skirt in her hand while Katherine dug into her jewellery box for her armband.

"You know, New Hope is a small town, and your father... Folks here don't always understand." She made a gesture with her hand, for lack of words. Pearl Valley was a port town, different appearances and attires were common there. Not so much here.

"You would have caused a duel if you ever wore this." Allie chuckled "But it's a shame, it must look gorgeous on you."

"Here." Katherine took her hand and pushed the armband up to her child´s thin arm "It's a bit too big for you."

"That's how it's worn!"

No wonder Allie didn't know, Katherine had never had the opportunity to wear the delicate spiral of olive leaves.

"Let me fix your hair." Katherine pushed Allie towards the vanity.

She had never had the chance to do that, Allie had never shown any interest in her Day heritage, but it was half her fault for keeping it mostly hidden. Now, looking at her in that finery, Katherine felt there would never be a better moment.

Allie´s softly wavy hair was easier to coax than her stubborn curls, but it didn't have as much volume, which was no problem, given her child´s more delicate structure. She braided it away from her face and rolled the braids low behind her head, and, by the time she had finished, a paler version of herself stared through the mirror.

"I never realized how much I look like you." Allie frowned.

"Neither had I. How odd." Side by side, they could be sisters.

Allie chuckled.

"How is it odd? I'm your daughter."

The colouring was different, but the shape of the eyes was the same, as was the arch of the eyebrows and the mouth.

"You've always looked much more like your father." Katherine smiled at their reflections "I didn't notice that you also look like me."

"A bleached version." Allie mirrored her smile.

Her child. It was so ridiculous that seeing Allie in her clothes had inked it into her brain in such a way, but she hadn't only carried Allie, some of her had transferred to that precious girl. She had seen it before, Allie´s mighty temper didn't come from Kiril, but somehow that moment made it really click.

"My family was still alive."

Her heart broke for Tamlin. How desperate it must be, to live without a family, without that love. She found herself sending a silent prayer for the Mother, that Tamlin may build a family for himself, to never be alone again, to one day look at his child in the mirror and see some of himself. Until then, they would be his family, for as long as he wanted.

"Oh, mum, stop, you're going to get tears on the dress."

Katherine sniffed and wiped her face with her sleeve.

"You're too beautiful, Alanis."

Allie got up, tall as a queen, and threw her marble arms around her.

"Thank you. For showing me."