Alice stared up into the darkness late at night later that week, sleep eluding her. There was just so much to think about.
The twins had chosen to enter the world of magic, but seemed disappointed that they would not start spell casting until they turned sixteen. That was just like them to want to start turning themselves invisible, burning things up, or moving them with the power of their minds as soon as possible. She hoped they could be patient enough to not try to do any of that on their own. She suspected that if they did try, their dad would suspect they had gotten into the gunpowder without either his permission or his supervision.
It would only happen once.
Still, Alice suspected she had a couple of budding Red mages on her hands.
Their grandfather had arranged a meeting that Saturday, so they would finally get to meet. Apparently there was a small wizard-owned tea-room in town that he had rented out for the occasion. She was a bit nervous about that, for several reasons.
Who was their grandfather? She really did not know anything about him. What kind of wizard was Edward Carleton, or what kind of man was he for that matter? Would he like them? Would they like him? Did he know what had happened that January morning?
Even if he did, she suspected that she would have to explain the whole ordeal for the benefit of her siblings. She had told Clark that she had had an 'accident' at school, the repercussions of which she was still dealing with, but had not gotten any farther when their mom had returned from the grocery store.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a small knock on her bedroom door. "Sissy?" a small voice asked.
Alice sighed. At least the four year old had remembered to knock. "Come in Nancy," she said, putting on her lamp so her sister would not trip over anything on the way in.
The little girl peeked around the door, and then came in shutting it softly behind her. She was dressed in a lilac nightgown, and padded carefully around the creaky floorboards in her bare feet to come and sit on Alice's bed. Nancy's long hair was so blond it was white, and she had big blue eyes. Alice guessed that her sister would be a knockout when she was grown.
"What is it?" Alice asked.
Nancy drew her legs up and hugged them. "I was having scary dreams again. Can I sleep with you?"
"What makes you think that I can keep the scary dreams away?" she asked. Her sister was almost too cute for her own good. Alice tried not to spoil her too much, but sometimes it was hard not to.
"My friends said so," Nancy answered.
Alice's eyebrows went up. "The invisible ones?" she asked, and her sister nodded.
Her sister played often with her 'invisible' friends. There were no children her age where they lived, and considering her next older siblings were thirteen now and more apt to hang her dolls than to play nicely with her, Alice did not think that 'invisible' friends were that big of a deal. However, this was the first time she had attributed any advice as from them.
"What did they tell you I could do to help you with dreams?" Alice asked, starting to get curious.
"They told me that you are getting bigger, so the bad spirits that give me scary dreams won't come near you," the child explained.
Alice considered what her sister had just told her. Maybe it was just childhood fancy, but there was also the possibility her sister possessed some measure of White magic already. A qualified mage should investigate the matter. She could write to Potsdam, but she would be seeing her grandfather in a couple of days anyway.
"Ok," Alice said, holding out the blankets so her sister could crawl under them with her. She hoped that Nancy would be too tired to kick tonight. Nancy took a few minutes to find a position she liked as Alice shut off the light and moved over in the bed. Her sister's feet were cold.
"Alice?" Nancy asked.
"Yes?" Apparently the child was not as tired as she could wish.
"When am I going to meet my new brother?"
Alice froze. Nancy could not possibly know…. She knew that she had not told anyone in her family about her marriage. She forced her body to relax, and tried to speak in as calm of a tone as she could. "A new brother? Mom isn't having a baby."
"No, not a baby," Nancy insisted, "your husband."
"Why do you think I have a husband?" she asked.
"Well…" Nancy considered. "There's a ring on your finger, but it's not the kind of ring you can feel with your fingers. It means that you're married."
"I see. Anything else?" she asked, wracking her memory for anything that sounded like this in White magic class.
"There's a…line…connecting you and him. I can sorta feel…." The child went quiet for a long minute. "He tries to protect people from hurting themselves. He's very sad sometimes, isn't he? Something very bad happened to someone and he thinks it's his fault. Are you going to make him happy again?"
This was not just a child's fancy, it was much too specific. Alice considered asking Nancy not to tell her parents that she was married, but her sister was not good at keeping secrets. On the other hand, if Nancy told them that she was wearing an invisible wedding ring and had married someone that went around protecting people they would think Nancy was making things up. It was not that Nancy lied, but she had a lively imagination. Their parents might ask if Alice had outright said that she was married, and Nancy would admit that she had not and that would be the end of it.
"Come on, let's go to sleep Nancy," Alice whispered, "and you can dream of your own hero coming to rescue you and carry you off into the sunset like in the movies, now that the bad dreams can't get you."
Nancy started to whine for more information, but Alice managed to lull her to sleep, humming her sister's favorite lullaby.