Feeling a bit sleepy, but I refuse to take caffeine, so I shall power through this, and the rest of the day, through the power of tea and youthful stubbornness…I miss the days when I could just nap. Oh, and before I go, a question for you all. What was the worst experience you've ever had with a roommate, my little bro just went off to college not too long ago and from what he told me, his roommate either sucks or is an idiot. One last thing, I've having an issue with my Grammarly account, so this chapter isn't as polished as the others.

Chapter 10: Artifacts of a Bygone Era

After they handed off all that they had recovered, the group returned to their small mini village, resting in the house that Jeremiah was sharing along with Sayoko and Anya. The entire time, they didn't speak a word to Lelouch, only giving him concerned looks as he also remained silent, once they returned, his explanation of why he led them there didn't raise much confidence, but he did manage to prove he wasn't insane considering that he only listened to the voice in his head after it started directing him to go to Carreg Cennon, a castle he had never heard of, so if it was merely a part of his fractured psyche, where did it get that name?

This made his statement on his dreams, and how the figure he kept meeting telling him that the 'Wall between was damaged" hold more water as with everything they had learned, that they had seen, it wasn't something they could brush off, even if none of them could guess what it was. So for the next 2 months, they worked on that. As Jeremiah and Anya did work in the fields, preparing for winter while Sayoko helped managed the domestic side, Lelouch and C.C. spent most of their days working with Thomas to organise and translate what they found. The old man had books the two could borrow for the task, but it was slow going. Despite this, they made progress as they found that the records not only dated as far back as the 2nd century BC, but discussed a wide range of topics from Welsh folk tales, first-hand accounts of events and people, and much to Thomas's amusement, magic.

That last part drew Lelouch and C.C.'s attention the most as those sections seemed to carry the most detail on everything from incantations, rituals, spell casters and everything in between. Little reached the rest of the town on their activities, but the people knew enough to know that they were researching ancient history with some of the children that came by to see making jokes, and spreading rumours that it was of the occult, which while not inaccurate, this get the two more amused looks then they would like whenever they went into town to get groceries or help around for funds.

'C.C.' The witch put down the tablet she was translating, the two busy in Thomas's office as the man himself was busy with other affairs, and turned to her…partner, who was busy reading through some notes he had finished translating from the book next to him.

'Found something?' She asked him, getting up to walk over and read what he was working on over his shoulder.

Not reacting to her draping her arms around him, he replied. 'I've been going through these accounts of events of the area from around the 1st century BC and found this.' He gestured to a part of the text where he had paused before he summarised it. 'It's about a local lord that made a magical pact with a strange man, and afterwards, he could see the world as if it was much slower.' They had read many stories on magic, but it was mainly wards and rituals for good weather, or a God's help in battle etc, this was new.

Gesturing for him to stand up, she quickly took the vacated seat to read the translation in detail. 'Says here that he went mad within just a few years, and that his words and actions become so quick that no one could comprehend him, with the only thing that could understand being his pleas for the world to stop moving slowly.' C.C.'s gaze turned as this most definitely sounded like a classic case of a geass, and its eventual deterioration into geass runaway.

'This does sound like a contract between a code-bearer and a geass user, and if this is accurate, it would seem he developed the opposite of that boy's power.' She turned to him, having only heard a little about his fake brother, Rolo and how his power worked. 'Nothing on the Code-bearer.' She noticed as Lelouch shook his head, reaching for the bottle of water he kept and taking a quick drink.

'Not much, they didn't record a name, only that after the pact was made, he was always close to the lord and even took a sword to the chest.' That was what made this clear to him, even if it was vexing that they didn't have a name to work with, though he wasn't sure how much it would help as C.C. hadn't met many other code-bearers in her life besides the one she received her code from, and V.V. Considering the kinds of lives they tended to live, there most likely wasn't anything that they could find to connect dots going this far back.

'Must have scared the locals.' C.C. stood up and returned to her work, missing the look in her warlock's eyes as he took his seat once more.

'Wouldn't it? People tend to say dead when impaled through the chest.' He told her, recalling the first time he saw her immortality in play, and how he couldn't comprehend how the girl that had given him power just showed up, telling his…

'Still, for all these texts, this is the first account of what we can say is geass.' C.C.'s response got his attention as she went back to working through what appeared to be records of a festival honouring a yet-to-be-identified moon deity.

'That we know of, you heard Thomas, there's enough here to take us years to work through.' Lelouch turned his gaze towards the other side of the room, at the stuff they hadn't had the chance to work, and how it was more than quadruple what they had.

'It's at least not a bad read, it's been a while since I've read a genuine spell book, most of those were burned in the Reformation.' C.C.'s response got him to turn to her, confused about the issue.

'The order didn't preserve some?' He would have imagined such a cult would have done all they could to keep records on whatever instance of possible geass and code they could.

'I wouldn't know, I only took control of it 70 years ago,.' She turned to him; her eyes far more expressive than normal as if she was recalling something unpleasant. 'More than that, I decided it wasn't worth trying to protect such after I was burned as a witch the 2nd time.'

Lelouch didn't know how to respond to that, having only seen it in her memories in fragments, and after she had such a response to him intruding, he did his best to know thin'…I'm sorry I brought it up.'

'You don't need to be.' Her response didn't make him feel any better, but he supposed it wasn't about him as even now, they couldn't really…talk like they used to, not when he was dealing with too much on his plate.

This silence would continue between the two, neither sharing anything more them simple questions and observations, even after Thomas returned from his trip into town and joined them. C.C. didn't need him to say it, she knew why this was the case between them as even after all the time that had passed since Kanime island, they barely interacted like they used to. They shared a house, but it was a relationship of roommates at best. More than once, she just wanted to sneak into his bed just for the reaction but she stopped herself each time. Because whenever the thought occurred, or she got frustrated with the distance between them, she remembered what she saw that day.

It was brief, and with someone like Lelouch who even at his worst was a good actor, it was even harder to spot. But she had literal centuries of practice and had seen it. How in the moment when she and Suzaku entered C's world, after he learned the truth, in that one moment he looked at her with such a broken look of betrayal.

These days, she wondered to herself when she became the monster. She told Suzaku that she had lost most of the sensibilities that made her human but…she had always tried to hold onto the one where she wouldn't use people like pawns, trick them into thinking something about their relationship that wasn't true, because she refused to be like that damned nun that cursed her with her code but…she did that with Mao, didn't she? She couldn't but smile at her foolishness, at her cruelty. She believed that she was better than that damned nun because she didn't force him to kill her when it was clear he wouldn't do so willingly, but it would have been a mercy to end him them, rather than let his geass, the geass she gave him drive him insane.

Then she met her latest contractor, so different from his mother, yet so similar. But despite that, he truly was different from Marianne, from Mao, from every other contractor she's had. He was lazy, arrogant, vindictive and could be oh so cruel…but he was caring despite all the tragedy, not just to Nunnally, but to her as well. She could tell from her first tests of his character, how he left her to clear things with Nunnally after she let the girl think they were engaged because he didn't want his sister to think of her as a liar. Then when she stole his bed, he never made a fuss about it after she cut him off, didn't even mind when she would sneak in when he was already asleep.

With Mao, he learned that she kept the truth of geass…but he forgave her, he trusted her. With Charles, he learned that she kept the fact his father had geass from him, once more he forgave him, he trusted her.

But none of them mattered as she turned back to her work, her frown growing. She knew all he wanted to know and could have answered all his questions, but she didn't say a word. Even after he had been defeated and geass into a servant of his father, she never said a word, only telling him that she wasn't the source of his geass. Looking back on it now, how much could she have helped him? How many would still be alive? She recalled his question to her on Kanime, when he asked if they were still partners and how she couldn't answer. If asked now, she wasn't sure how she would tell him, how could she when she hurt him so badly when she had kept so much from him?

The only solace she had these days, was the assurance that was indeed human, how else could she explain the nightmares, the memories of those she had wronged coming to haunt her? Even when she dreamed of more fantastical things, there was always a reminder of that. Of the fact she became the very thing she hated.

Her mind continued to run like this for hours, the witch not paying attention to her surroundings as she translated the tablet, before moving on to the next one which they had thankfully labelled to give some means to organise them. When she finally stopped, she looked out the window at the surprisingly dark skies, when did the time go? Thomas was gone, and so was Lelouch-most likely he had gone home as she spared her watch a glance and saw the time. She got up to leave, stretching as she did so after she spent hours in her chair before she turned to where Lelouch had been working and saw he left the page open, walking closer to it, she saw that it was on one of the many pages of magic they had seen. She would have turned around and left, but there was a part of her that wanted to try something. 'What's the harm?'

Reading through what had been translated, she took one of the pens Lelouch was using the started to draw out the symbols she saw on her palm. Once she had finished that, she faced her hand towards the window, imaging power flowing through her as her code started to shine, a surprise for her but she didn't break her concentration as she imagine a snow-ball, light and fluffy forming on the outside of the window. But when she opened her eyes, she saw nothing, no ice-no snow. Snorting at herself, she didn't know why she even tried.

'Figures.' She said to herself as she walked away, turning off the lights and locking the study. What she hadn't seen, was once she turned her back, frost started to collect on the outside of the window, forming rudimentary but large and thick ice patterns. But come morning, this would be gone.

A month later, the group had four had once more left town for another journey, this time driving close to 2 hours to southern Wales where they stopped at a place called Timtern Abbey, a ruin of a church. Unlike the castle, this was close to people, the village from which it took its name which necessitated that the Lelouch use his geass to order to keep people away, and get them to believe there wasn't anything strange about them being there, a command he had to give to over 300 people so that the remaining 500 or so wouldn't rise a fuss when they returned with construction equipment and started digging on the grounds of the 800 old place of worship. 'Are we expecting another lost library?' C.C. asked as Jeremiah worked the excavator to dig through the deep dirt and stone.

'No, according to the texts about this place, the Glywysing king, Tewdrig found some artefacts which he sealed away here.' Lelouch replied, the group wearing clothing fitting of government water inspectors, was their cover as even Sayoko had changed to match that.

'Any reason why?' She asked him as Jeremiah paused, allowing him to walk into the hole and feel around, for a lack of a better world and when he was satisfied, he moved out of it and gave Jeremiah the go-ahead to continue.

'He believed they were too powerful for the hands of mortal men and wished to see them buried when his best efforts couldn't destroy them.' He replied as he had been quite interested in that while metallurgy had improved greatly since then, even a bronze age smith would be able to damage the best steel weapons. Which begged the question of what these unknown tools were made from.

'But how could he have done it here? The abbey was built centuries after his reign.' Anya asked him, the girl unamused by the dreary colours they had been forced to wear, a stark departure from the bright blues, yellows and greens she had taken to wearing.

'The abbey, yes? But it was built over the pre-existing vault.' She nodded at the response.

'Which is why we're digging?' She asked him, really wishing that this will end soon as it was just barely above 6 degrees out and it was predicted it will rain in a few hours. The November weather was just as bad as the townsfolk had told them when they first moved to Wales.

'Which is why we're digging.' He nodded as Sayoko was manning a large drilling machine which moved towards the hole and started to drill through the harder stone that lay beneath the dirt that Jeremiah had dug up.

Much to Anya's chagrin, it would be another 3 days before they finally finished, having had to take breaks whenever it got too cold to work, or rained which forced them to rest up in a local inn, one they were paying for, but Lelouch had been forced to geass the elderly couple running the place to both forget their faces and other descriptive details, only recalling that they had been visited by government employees who did their job, and left.

As Anya raged on about when snow would finally show up so that she could make a snowman, Lelouch took a step away from her and lowered himself into the 20m deep hole, once he reached the bottom. Once there, he placed his hand on the wet dirt, and immediately felt it, a sensation far stronger than it had been since they showed up. 'Stop, we're close. Grab the explosives.'

'My Lord?' Jeremiah asked, climbing down from his excavator.

'The entrance wasn't meant to be opened.' Lelouch replied, he just knew that if they dug any deeper, they'll hit the hard rock and stone of the buried vault, but they could speed things up if they blew their way in. It was crude, he knew but they didn't have time to be gentle with this as they already spent 3 days on this.

After a deafening explosion; light finally entered a vault that had been sealed and buried for over 1000 years, as the four lowered themselves into the place, having tied down ropes to their machines, they found that the room was much smaller than the library, and offered no sources of light such as places to place candles, forcing them to rely on the hardhat-mounted torches they had brought with them.

However, it was the contents of the vault that drew their attention. 'Weapons.' Anya muttered, taking in the sight of the room filled to the brim with swords, spears, axes, shields and arrows. All were covered in some dust and dirt from the fact they blew their way in, but other than that, each of them was in excellent condition.

'Bronze if I'm not mistaken, but how could any of this equate to "too powerful for mortal men"?' Jeremiah asked as he walked in, followed the rest as the cyborg picked up one blade and while he could admit it was of high quality, he doubted it would do much against his hidden blades.

'In my limited experience with geass, I can say that anything involving it has more than meets the eye.' Sayoko gave Jeremiah an amused look as she said this, getting the man to turn away, a little embarrassed as he recalled how their first meeting went down.

'Right you are,' Lelouch, not noticing this between them, agreed with his maid as he walked towards one of the blades, one that was very different from the rest as he picked it up.

'But it is strange that these weapons are all here. This right here is Egyptian, what is it doing in some secret vault in southern Wales? A vault that was supposedly built after the Romans left.' Anya noted as Lelouch held the khopesh for them to see, the blade was fine as the day it was sealed with not a single imperfection on the weapon thousands of kilometres from its place of origin.

'I see someone has been reading up on their history.' C.C. noted to which Anya brushed her off, her attention captured by a battle axe in the corner, it wasn't the double sided-two handed type she would have expected thanks to fiction and even what she had seen in noble's houses, but a smaller weapon, clearly meant for one hand while the other most likely held a shield. Still, it was large to her as it seemed like it was made for someone of Jeremiah's build, which made sense considering how warfare worked.

'I kinda have to when we're searching for ancient relics, witch.' She said over her shoulder, walking towards it and picking up the weapon, and much to her surprise, it wasn't nearly as heavy as she thought it would be, as after doing a couple of test swings, she found it fit into her hand like a well-made glove, giving her a similar feeling to when she piloted Mordred.

'We would need to look into that, but there is certainly more to this. These blades, despite being well over a thousand years old are still in excellent condition, their craftsmanship I dare say superhuman.' Jeremiah noted, taking a closer look at the sword he had and seeing that they were clearly above the rest as even the blades he had seen nobles and their guards use didn't compare.

'Yes, I've handled my fair share of bladed weapons and this,' Sayoko picked up one of the daggers, the handle cool to the touch and when she held it out, found that it was perfectly balanced in her hand, being able to remain stable like any of her many kunai. Yet despite that, she could feel something more to it, something greater than just a mere throwing knife. 'It feels like nothing I've ever used, the edge, the shine, the balance-its all top class.' As they talked, Lelouch moved deeper into the vault, past all the many weapons around as she searched for anything more, which he found when at the back, placed on what looked to be an altar, sat a two-prong spear, made from finely crafted wood and bronze, it looked far more ceremonial then for battle like the rest of them weapons present.

As he laid a hand on it, his geass activated, an electric shock shooting down his spine as his hand grasp the spear which reacted to this, bursting into crimson flames, shocking them as they moved to help him. Lelouch found that he couldn't let go of the thing, his hand clamped to it but despite the flames, he wasn't burning, even as his eyes felt like they were melting as he fell to his knees in agony, a scream ripped from his throat.

'Dammit!' He cursed as one of his contacts fell out, revealing that his geass was pulsating, the crimson bird's wings flapping erratically as if it was a wild raven trying to break out of a cage, yet despite it all, he felt the spear calling out to him. Seeing the others getting near, he raised his other hand to stop them.

'Stay!' They paused, as his voice carried with it a strength they seldom heard from him as he turned his gaze to the spear, watching as the flames broke it down, it shifting its form as it crawled up his hand like a sludge of metal and wood. 'Back…' He finished the sentence, the man starting to cry blood as whatever was happening pushed his body to its limits, but through it, he heard a voice-different from the one in his dream, this one was playful, surprised even but more than that, it was determined and assured by his presence, though he didn't know why.

'Fey and Man, Night and Day – Once joined then divided, to be joined once more' He heard this strange statement, spoken like a prophecy with the voice of a child, yet not a child he didn't know what to make of it as the flames died down, the pain receding as he took a breather, slowly rising back to his feet as he looked at his right hand, seeing that despite it all, there was not a hint of burns. But it was his wrist that drew his and the rest's attention, as there sat a thick bronze and wooden bracelet, it reached halfway up his forearm, and was covered in intricately craved…runes? No, there didn't look like runes, it was closer to the alphabet they found in the spoils they recovered from that library, but…older somehow. He inspected it, seeing that there was no latch, or breaks in it-no way to remove it.

'Did that thing just…' Anya asked him, watching his hand as if it was going to burst into flames once more, a possibility it wasn't about to discount after what had just happened.

'Lelouch, are you right?' C.C. asked, stepping closer to inspect his hand with a rare amount of care, tracing the lines of the writing on the thing.

'I rarely am these days, but concerning this,' He looked at the bracelet, wondering just what he got himself into. 'I'll live, it doesn't seem to be trying to kill me at the moment.'

'How does it feel, master Lelouch?' Sayoko asked, with Lelouch taking a moment to think about it as he looked at the thing, his one uncovered eye's geass once more stable if shining a tad bit brighter.

'Calming.'

Despite their feelings about it, they couldn't get it off him no matter what they tried, so they just had to accept that he had a new…accessory. With that somewhat resolved, they did the same as they did with the library, slowly and carefully moved everything out of the vault using the makeshift pulley system, loaded it into a truck they rented and afterwards, they destroyed the vault and buried it, going the extra step to get fertilizer and grass seeds to cover up the fact that the ever dug anything up to begin with.

Once they returned, they presented their haul to Thomas who predictable fawned over it all, excitement leaking out of his old bones at their discovery in equal amounts to the confusion to the fact there were weapons from across the ancient world. The elder made it clear that they'll need help in categorising and studying everything that had as while good, he was just one man and Lelouch and C.C. couldn't work nearly as fast as someone that studied this, which lead to them agreeing that he could contact someone he trusted as they stressed that they couldn't let this leak to the wrong people. This led to the trio working on his study, having finally moved everything into proper storage. As he sat down to work, his new bracelet shined once more, and thinking of what happened the first time, Lelouch immediately dropped the book and retracted his hand. 'What was that?'

'Boy, I hope you're trying to smoke in here! Those damn cancer sticks will ruin the text!' Thomas yelled over the bookcase between them, C.C. having moved to look at him from her spot, knowing what that could have been but saying nothing.

'…I wasn't smoking.' Lelouch replied, looking at his bracelet in confusion.

'Then what was that light?' Thomas asked him, but Lelouch didn't respond-rather he moved his hand closer to the book again and noted that the bracelet would start to glow, getting brighter when it got closer to the book. With that, he got the same feeling in his eyes from the day he first got geass, as if he was getting a strange and new urge to do something, but with full knowledge of what to do. Seeing the light, Thomas walked around to scold him again, only to pause at what he was seeing.

'Holy…' The old Welsh uttered, just as entranced as the two of them as Lelouch felt…something from this bracelet, how it seemed to be reacting along with his geass.

'It's reacting to the book…could it,' He reached for his contacts, not thinking so much as responding to this urge. With the removed, his geass shined bright, but as he turned his gaze towards the text, he found himself surprised. 'Oh.'

'Oh, what? Are we going to ignore the glowing bracelet?!' Thomas pointed to it, as while the glow had dimmed with his geass unveiled, it was still present-like candlelight in a dark room.

'I can read it.' Lelouch responded, ignoring the question as he looked through the text, it appearing as regular English to him.

'The text?' C.C. asked him, walking closer and seeing that it appeared the same to her.

'It's a record on grain stores, it's also mentioning how a recent rat infestation has them send more grain to a neighbouring village which they shouldn't be doing because the local druid told them they'll be having an especially harsh winter.' Lelouch would have continued to read but Thomas stopped him, approaching as well, though with some caution in his step.

'Give me that,' Lelouch handed him the book, one of the ones they hadn't been able to work with yet, but as he read through where Lelouch was, doing the translations in his head, he paused as he realized that the boy was right he seemed to have been able to account for small errors even he would have missed. 'Kid…what the hell is going on?' He turned his grey eyes towards the boy, who looked away to hide his geass, even if its crimson glow leaked out from under his fingers.

'…I think the bracelet is translating for me. The words changed to English.' He told him, trying to understand just what he had seen, and why this strange bracelet seemed to be the cause of it.

'And the eyes…?' He paused here, only now realizing that he had removed his contacts, having been caught in a trance when he did so, which now meant he had a choice on how to proceed, but as he looked at the old man, and then towards the many text, tablets, scrolls and books he had been directed to; he realized that he couldn't approach this like they used to. He didn't know what the wall between was, nor how it was damaged, but he knew that he-they'll need help in solving this because he had a feeling that its damage was only going to cause issues for everyone.

'You might wish to sit down, it's not a short story.'

'You gonna head down to London to fish when spring rolls around?' One of the locals asked his friend, the two wearing thick, warm clothing as they and the rest of the clientele sat inside the heated café.

'Why London?' His friend asked him, pointedly ignoring what was playing on the muted television in the corner, much like the rest of the people present.

'Well, it's gonna be a rather large lake soon enough, it's gonna attract some big beasts.' It was a dark joke, they all knew as the crater that used to be their capital was slowly filling up with water from the Thames, something that had been talked about in local news for a bit before people stopped discussing it in respect for the millions that had died along with the city.

'Maybe.' Despite that, the man smiled as it brought some joy to him on this bitterly cold January morning, it would certainly help him through the day once he finished his coffee as while most would stay indoors, he still had a business to run and who knows, maybe he'll get some costumers. As he thought about that, the door to the place opened with the bell above the door announcing a new arrival, that person being Sayoko, the woman dressed in a winter variant of her regular maid clothing.

With her arrival, the place quieted down even more as the people turned to her, but she didn't seem to notice as she approached the counter. 'Good morning, Mr Brigstocke.' And just like that, the atmosphere returned to normal as people went back to their affairs, while it was still certainly odd to see a Japanese woman among them, it had been 6 months since she and the rest of her strange group had arrived. Even with the arrival of more Japanese, relatives of hers, it barely worked much gossip.

'Sayoko, are you today?' Br. Brigstocke, the owner of the café asked him with a smile, happy to see her as she smiled at him, removing her thick coat as she sat down.

'It's a bit colder than I thought it would be today.' She replied, the wind picking up outside as the frost-covered glass showed them how much of the place was still covered in snow.

'Ay, last night's report said it would be 12 degrees Celsius, only for the morning report to drop that down to half that!' The cobalt-eyed man laughed, the tv displaying a news broadcast from their new overlord but none could hear it as he muted the damn thing 30 minutes ago, leaving only that snake's deceptively charming smile as he made a speech in front of the UFN, his new puppet legislature, Kaguya standing at her position as Chairman, but with far less power than she once held.

'I hope you have enough warm clothing, Sayoko.' The man gave her a concerned look, but she merely smiled, happy that he was so accommodating as they had struggled a bit when they first arrived, but they had found their footing.

'We do, thank you for asking. I'm just here to pick up some orders, you do make some of the best pasties after all.' At her statement, the man laughed, his cheer carrying to the rest as she rose their mugs of coffee, tea or hot chocolate in agreement.

'And don't you forget that, las!' 'Give me a minute and I'll get your usual.' He turned to walk into the small kitchen he had to collect her order, maybe he should add something extra for them, that Anya girl did help him the other day and she seemed to have a mighty sweet tooth.

With Anya herself, she was seated in Lelouch and C.C.'s living room, the three have come together to discuss something. 'So, you've been seeing them as well?'

'Not the same as you,' C.C replied to Lelouch's question, the witch has finally come clean about something she had been dealing with for a while now. 'I'm been seeing someone…different.'

'Different how?' Anya asked, taking a sip of her hot chocolate, a beverage she had already dumped 8 teaspoons worth of sugar into.

'They're…cloaked, I can't make out anything about them other than the fact they're a woman. She's always holding seeds in her hands, but she…unnerves me.' C.C. didn't know why, but whenever she saw the titan of a woman, she was always filled with dread, and she never gave her name, only saying that she be addressed as Kore.

'It must be quite the presence to do that.' Lelouch replied, as he had no such luck getting anything from his nightly guest, who now often just watched him as he sat by the river's edge, at times trying to wash the blood off his hand but no matter how long he kept his hands submerged, the crimson never washed away.

'It's not just that. You seem to always see the same place, filled with hundreds of sheep, right?' C.C. asked him.

'Rams.' Anya snorted at his correction, but C.C. didn't seem to care.

'I've been seeing a meadow, it's…beautiful, peaceful, filled with flowers. But above my head, there are always dragons flying, with a castle always in the distance, and no matter what I do, I can never reach it, the meadow…it never ends.' She told them, as aside from the nightmares, she often found herself there, Kore waiting for her with a presence that both calmed and frightened her. She would throw her handful of seeds around, and from those seeds, sprouted large flowers.

'And this had been happening for a while then?' Anya asked her, and when she got her reply, she signed as she looked wards the said, at what had got her to seek the two of them out when she would rather be messing about the snow with the children. 'Them I'm the only one who started getting these dreams after touching…that.' Her gaze landed on the axe, the same one she had picked up 2 months prior, the one that had been in all her dreams; dreams not of people but of battles, of groups of creatures of all shapes and sizes charging human lines, of the carnage that followed.

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