The darkness and silence seem to amplify your voice, which echoes into the indeterminable distance for a long moment before fading away. When nothing immediately happens, your mind begins to conjure images of what form the inevitable response might take: hidden lights suddenly blazing to life; mysterious figures appearing from the darkness; or a terrible voice calling your name...

You really hope it's not that last one.

You're considering activating your enhanced senses to take a closer "look" at the darkness when you turn around and find three chairs that weren't there before. They're both wooden, lightly upholstered, and somewhat fancifully designed, with patterns of leaves and crawling ivy along the back and arms. Two of the seats, set side-by-side, appear to be sized for you, although the one on the right has a very low back; the third seat, facing the other two from a few feet away, shares that particular quirk.

Then Navi emerges from the darkness. None of that "voice from nowhere" business she was pulling off before; she's actually there. Again, you note the familial resemblance between her and Briar, though you're also a bit surprised to find that Navi is only about a head taller than you are - say five-foot-six, not counting the wingtips, which look like they'd add another foot or two of height when fully extended.

The Great Fairy slips into the single chair, and gestures at the other two. "Both of you, have a seat."

Without a word, you take the seat with the high back. Briar hesitates for a moment, then settles into the one next to it.

*POP*

"Gwah?!" Briar exclaims, as she goes from a couple inches tall to almost four feet, and nearly knocks her chair over due to the start of surprise. "What the heck?!"

"Sorry, dear," Navi apologizes, "but this situation demands a face-to-face discussion."

Briar glares at her mother for a moment. "Could have warned me," she mutters, arranging her skirt a bit more comfortably.

There is a pause. Then Navi speaks.

"First of all, Alexander, you completed the trial I gave you. Not without some... surprises... along the way, or a few mistakes. I really thought you were going to fail the last test - but you didn't. You have successfully demonstrated that you have the ability to look after my daughter, as well as the willingness to listen to her advice when you need it. So, congratulations are in order."

You're sensing a "but" in there, and from the way Briar tenses at your side, she hears it, too.

"That having been said-"

Okay, a "but," or something like it.

"-when, exactly, were you planning on mentioning that you happen to be Ganondorf's reincarnation?"

Navi's green eyes are very, very hard right now.

You take a slow, deep breath.

"After you got to know me, at least. I mean, there's no good way to tell someone something like that. I told Briar two years after she started living with me, and she had an understandably major freak-out over it."

You glance and gesture at Briar, who nods sheepishly.

"I think any Hyrulean would be justified with a much worse reaction," you continue, turning back to Navi. "And respectfully, Ma'am, I don't know you. I had no way of knowing how you'd react, I couldn't think of a good way to tell you - because, as noted, there really isn't one - and I was frightened of doing it at all, so I didn't plan on telling you, at least not until I had assurance that you'd give me a chance. And given the lengths you went through just to test me BEFORE you knew about my past life, I don't think that's unreasonable. I mean, if I'd told you before I proved my character during the trials and before the Goddess's visible sign of attention, would we even be having this conversation?"

You break off there, aware that you've been babbling slightly and were getting a touch accusatory towards the end. Not that you aren't entitled to some anger, after everything Navi's put you through, but mouthing off to a friend's mother who happens to be a Great Fairy is not a smart thing to do.

Fortunately, Navi seems to have followed the babble without difficulty and not taken umbrage.

Gained Young King E (Plus) (Plus)

"You're right, young man," she replies. "Had you told me up-front that you were Ganondorf's reincarnation, we wouldn't be having this conversation. And I will admit, whatever conversation we DID have, without the benefit of the trials speaking in your favor, would not have been a pleasant one." Navi sighs and sits back in her chair. "Quite aside from being one of the residents of Hyrule that you mentioned, I have very strong personal reasons to be... poorly disposed towards Ganondorf, or anything - anyone - connected to him. I hope you will understand that I make no apologies for that, nor do I intend to change that aspect of my behavior."

You can see why.

"My personal issues notwithstanding," Navi continues, "the point remains that you DID complete the trials I set before you, you DID demonstrate a measure of favor with all three of the Goddessess, and you DID face down and dispel a manifestation of Ganondorf's evil - one that that would not have had the chance to manifest as it did, if not for my particular choice of tests. You've earned the right to be my daughter's partner, and moreover, you've earned a measure of my assistance. The question now is, what form should the latter take?"

Beside you, Briar sits up straight, as if she's about to speak, only to fall silent when her mother glances at her.

Navi then gives you another direct look. "You can imagine that my personal preference is leaning STRONGLY towards giving you something that would assist you in preventing or triumphing in any future encounters with... your darker inclinations. However, when a fairy of my rank bestows a gift on a human, it's traditional for the human to state their desire, and the fairy to shape the gift accordingly. So, Alexander Harris, of Sunnydale, California..."

"...what do you want?"

You reject the idea of putting a seal on Ganondorf almost out of hand. You know from talking to Briar that it's been tried before, and long-term, it didn't work - and that was a seal placed by half a dozen Sages, who may not be Great Fairies but are still no slouches in the mystical department. Not to mention that your experience with Ambrose has soured you on the idea of having any more mystical bindings placed on you, even if they really are for your own good.

Increasing your resistance to further corruption is another option that you quickly dismiss, mostly because it feels too... passive an approach. Yeah, it's a given that the remnant of Ganondorf buried within your soul is going to try and exert its influence over you, and it's pretty likely that it will succeed a time or two in the future, even now that you're aware of the problem and on guard against it. Still, the idea of just sitting there and letting that infection do as it wants is repellent. You prefer a more proactive approach.

With that in mind, it comes down to a choice between getting Navi's help in fighting off Ganondorf's future influence, or pushing back the effects his essence has already had on you. And after some thought, you decide to go with the latter option.

You CAN fight Ganondorf on your own, with a little help from your friends; you just got done doing exactly that. What you CAN'T do yet is repair the metaphorical and metaphysical damage the influence of the King of Evil has had on your development. Your brute-forced spiritual abilities are shield and sword, not medicine, and your magic isn't the best-suited to healing - and it's far better at repairing actual physical wounds than deeper, more intrinsic problems like this.

Hyrulean fairies, on the other hand, are very good at healing. And a Great Fairy, well...

Gained Farore's Favor E (Plus)
Gained Nayru's Favor E

Slowly, you describe your reasoning to Navi and Briar. You see them nod wordlessly several times, but neither says anything until you've finished, or for a long moment afterwards.

Then Navi smiles. "Good choice. Let's get started, then, shall we?"

For the purposes of this "gift" - which is really more of a ritual spell - Navi explains that you'll have to let your magic and other esoteric powers lie at ease, so you can't directly observe what it is she'll be doing. That said, she has no compunctions about describing the procedure to you. Given that it will be affecting the mind and the spirit as well as the body, the rite is derived from fairly advanced principles of a wide range of spell styles - namely Abjuration, Conjuration, Necromancy, and Transformation - some of which you can see your way to adapting for other, non-magical purposes. Not too surprisingly, the procedure also calls on the three Goddesses: you make a point of listening carefully to the invocations Navi uses.

Gained Abjuration C
Gained First Aid F (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Hyrulean Theology E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Mental Defense E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Knowledge F

Navi spends the better part of ten minutes going over the details of the ritual with you, and then starts making preparations, the first of which involves relocating the three of you from the "dark room" to another shadowed chamber with an elaborately worked stone floor - one that happens to include a large pool of crystal-clear, bubbling water, surrounded by pillars and arches of pure white marble.

You stare in amazement at the first honest-to-goodness Fairy Fountain you've seen in this lifetime - for all of ten seconds. Then Navi makes you sit on the floor and meditate for a good half an hour to get in the proper frame of mind and spirit.

Gained Meditation D (Plus)

While you're doing that, Navi is doing something that involves chanting and gathering LARGE amounts of magic. Even through your closed eyes and mental focus, you see a few glows and flashes, and when you emerge from your trance-state, the faint glow of the Fountain's waters has noticeably increased. You can see motes of energy floating about above the pool on the streamers of vapor that rise from its surface - not actual fairies, though they surely resemble them. Navi stands on the water at the center of the Fountain, head bowed, hands clasped, and chanting as if in prayer, her wings and her aura fully extended. The Great Fairy's presence fills the chamber, the rich azure light of her being revealing the thick moss clinging to the unworked stone walls and the stalactites hanging overhead.

"Alex," Briar says in a hushed tone, under her mother's ongoing chanting, "take off your shoes and socks, roll up your pant legs, and step into the pool."

You comply in silence, awed and a little scared by the intensity of Navi's gathered power.

Then she raises her head and stares at you with her BLAZING GREEN EYES.

You... kind of lose track of what happens after that.

And maybe consciousness.

...

But you didn't squeak like a mouse.

No matter what Briar says.

When you come to, your feet are dry, your socks and shoes are back on, and you're standing in a... not-really familiar patch of dry earth, not too far from a road, and with a somewhat more familiar town lying off in the distance. Briar is hovering before you, back to her usual size, and you can't quite suppres a start when you sense Navi's presence - diminished from the A MINOR GODDESS AM I level you experienced at the Fountain back to what you first encountered when she made contact.

"Well, then," the Great Fairy says. "Here you are, more or less back where you started. I took the liberty of dropping you a bit closer to Sunnydale than you were, though you still have a fair walk ahead of you. Sorry about that, but this really is as close as I can stand to get to a Hellmouth without a VERY pressing reason." Her tone is that of one who's smelled something truly foul and is just polite enough not to make a scene.

"It's fine, Mom," Briar says. "We appreciate the lift."

"So, Alexander," Navi says then. "How do you feel?"

You take stock of your condition.

Gained Past Life Experience C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus) D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Spiritual Damage has become Minor Spiritual Damage

"Better, ma'am," you reply simply. "A lot better. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now, you've probably noticed that those abrasions on your soul don't feel as serious; that's a side-effect of the healing magic I used. The damage is still there, it's just been soothed a bit. Follow the treatment plan Briar helped you come up with, don't overexert yourself, and you'll be fine."

"Understood, ma'am."

"Right. Oh, and when you get home and see yourself in a mirror, don't panic if you don't look any different. That change will happen gradually, in time with your body's natural development."

You nod.

"Well, then," Navi says. "I need to be getting back home. Both of you, take care of yourselves. Briar, I expect to hear from you somewhat more regularly in the future."

"Yes, Mom," Briar sighs.

"And Alexander?"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"I'll be watching."

With that, Navi's presence fades away.

Priority, Mission: Interdimensional Postman, complete! For real!
Gained Divination C (Plus)
Gained Summoning C (Plus) (Plus)

Well. Now what?

No sooner has Navi's presence vanished from your senses than it occurs to you that you could - and probably should - conduct one last ritual cleansing before you dive back into the spiritually-toxic environment of the Hellmouth. A Great Fairy's assistance would have been really helpful for something like that, so naturally, you only thought of it AFTER she was gone.

Annoyed at your lack of foresight, you give yourself a thorough once-over in preparation for beginning the ritual - and then you stop, blinking in surprise, and give yourself a mental smack at having overlooked something ELSE fairly significant.

The amazing thing about high-level healing rituals is that they heal EVERYTHING. The body, the mind, the soul - all of it. And while Navi wasn't specifically aiming to root out the Hellmouth's influence on you, it would seem that she doesn't distinguish much between the power of a Demon King and the power of a portal to a Hell-dimension. The ritual didn't completely purge you of the Hellmouth's taint - you've been living on top of the thing your entire life, and your parents before you, so some of the poison has worked its way pretty deep into your being - but you're probably "cleaner" now than you've been since the day you were born.

Three cheers for Great Fairy Fountains?

Anyway, that matter pre-emptively dealt with, you lock down your mystical abilities - noting in passing that your summoned sword has disappeared - and begin jogging in the direction of Sunnydale's town limits. Once you've hit your stride, you decide to talk to Briar about the planned binding ritual. You're counting Navi's allowance of Briar being your partner as parental consent for the ceremony, if it was truly necessary, and you've got most of the necessary reagents covered, some of them two or three times over. Your main concern at the moment is whether or not it would be appropriate to invoke the Golden Goddesses for the rite.

Briar doesn't think so. "It's not like either of us are members of the clergy, or we're building a temple or something," she says. "Familiars fall more on the wizardly side of magic than the religious."

That answers that, you suppose.

Eventually, you pass the sign that welcomes all and sundry to Sunnydale. Not too long after that, you are back in your own neighborhood. The extended jog has worn you down a bit in the physical sense, but considering that you started out fresh from a major magical healing, the end result is no worse than if you'd spent an hour or two engaged in light physical activity - such as, for example, jogging. So that works out just fine.

Gained Endurance E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Speed E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

After going through a proper cool-down routine, you head indoors in search of your family and a drink. You find Zelda and your mother camped out on the couch, watching kiddy toons - although your sister has Plushie Altria tucked under her arm, and looks to be working on her afternoon nap. Moblin is lying on the floor nearby, and raises his head and wags his tail proudly when he senses your return. Your mother nods wordlessly when she sees you.

Tiptoeing into the kitchen for a glass of water, you check the time. It's 1:38 pm. So you've been away from home for seven hours, as far as your family's concerned. The Goddesses only know how long it's ACTUALLY been.

It occurs to you that you didn't eat the bagged lunch your mother gave you, and in fact, spent the better part of a day of subjective time hauling it around the Silent Realm.

Cautiously pulling the bag from your dimensional pocket, you peer inside. Nothing appears to have spoiled, and you know that your stored items are protected from external forces, even the passage of time to some extent. You could probably eat the lunch if you wanted - and you are rather hungry.

You get out the bagged lunch, which due to the properties of your dimensional pocket, looks just as fresh and unsquashed as it did when your mother handed to you this morning. Or several days ago. Unpacking it, you find a juicebox - fruit punch - an apple which has lost that fresh-from-the-fridge coolness but has yet to bruise or wrinkle, and a Tupperware container with two sandwiches pressed inside. Opening the latter, you give the sandwiches a tentative inspection.

No mold. They don't smell off - actually, they smell like peanut butter. You were half-expecting mayo, which would have resulted in a no-sale; preserved or not, there's no way you're eating day-old mayonnaise.

Gained Looking B
Gained Scenting E (Plus) (Plus)

You're about to try scanning the lunch for corruption when it occurs to you that you're being needlessly paranoid. The food was tucked into one of your stuffspace pockets. You've been keeping your reagents in similar dimensional spaces specifically because it will prevent them from being contaminated by the Hellmouth or other external factors. Therefore, while the lunch probably has some taint due to having been prepared in Sunnydale, there's no way that it's been poisoned by your brief brush with Ganondorf's power. You've been eating Hellmouth-flavored food all your life without suffering distress, and since the lunch clearly hasn't spoiled, there's absolutely no reason for you to hesitate about eating it.

So you don't.

After polishing off the late meal, tossing the empty juicebox and paper bag in the trash, and rinsing the Tupperware out and leaving it on the dishrack, you fetch Moblin from the living room and take him out in the backyard to play, like you promised.

Gained Animal Handling E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained King of Beasts E (Plus)

In between playing fetch, wrestling, and just running around with your dog, you give some thought as to whether or not you should sit down with your folks and watch the tapes of the World Martial Arts Tournament. You've been meaning to do this for a while, and sooner is probably better than later. On the other hand, you've had a REALLY busy day, and it might go better if you had witnesses to back up your story - Cordelia and Lu-sensei, ideally. It's a little sudden to just be asking them over for that, though...

After some thought, you decide that you've had MORE than enough excitement for one day. Showing those tapes to your folks and then giving them real-life follow-up proof that what they've seen isn't just editing tricks and camera work is going to change how they look at the world, including you, and the odds of them taking something like that calmly are too small to even consider. You'd much prefer to be rested and have a plan of action for how to go about the whole thing, and for that, you really want to talk to Briar and Lu-sensei in advance. At least one of them HAS to have tried to introduce a normal person to the world of the supernatural before, right?

You play with Moblin until Zelda wakes up - at which point she runs out into the backyard to join in. Your mother is able to keep an eye on the three of you from the kitchen, where she sits for perhaps an hour, making a phonecall or two, before getting dinner started.

The rest of the evening passes quite normally and comfortably. You briefly discuss your plan with Briar before going to bed: she agrees that it's a good idea to talk to your teacher about how to break the news to your folks; but she also adds that she's got no clue on the matter.

"Most adults can't see or hear me, remember?" she points out. "Kind of makes it hard for me to talk to them about anything, let alone giving them life-changing news like this."

The next day is Sunday. Your family doesn't attend church, instead usually spending Sunday mornings at home, sleeping in late, having "brunch" - usually a mix of leftovers from the fridge and take-out - and just taking it easy around the house. Even with his recent overtime, your dad doesn't work Sunday mornings, although he'll be at the garage most of the afternoon and early evening.

If you wanted to, this would be an ideal time to meet up with Lu-sensei, provided he doesn't have plans of his own. Or you could wait until your next lesson, and talk to your teacher then.

After dinner, you slip upstairs for a few minutes and make a quick phonecall to Lu-sensei, hoping to arrange a meeting for Sunday afternoon. As it turns out, your instructor in the ancient art of ass-kicking can spare you a couple of hours. You make a mental note of the time, thank your teacher, and then hang up and go back downstairs. It's movie night on one of the local networks, and this week, they're broadcasting Disney's Aladdin - suitable for Zelda, and not too kiddie for your tastes.

It's even somewhat instructional, highlighting important magical lessons like why you should listen to the ancient guardian spirit when it says, "Touch nothing but the lamp," the dangers and subtleties of making wishes, and how turning yourself into a snake - even a colossal one - never helps.

Though if you ever meet a genie that acts like Robin Williams...

Anyway, Saturday night passes in a pleasant blur of family bonding. Sunday morning is similar, although with your parents sleeping in late as they usually do, it falls to you to ready breakfast for yourself, Zelda, Moblin, and Briar. Cereal, toast, milk, and juice - and fresh kibble and water for Moblin - are the limits of your culinary expertise, but they suffice.

Gained Cooking F

Then it's a couple hours of TV, surfing past all the televangelists and boring newsmen to find the cartoons. Your mother wakes up around nine and has a heartier brunch cooking towards eleven, which is when your father finally rolls out of bed. After taking his time to enjoy the meal, he's off to shower and dress, and is out the door and off to the shop by half-past twelve. You follow your old man's example towards one o'clock, finally changing out of your sleepware. You've already let your mother know that you'll be out for a couple of hours, talking to Lu-sensei.

Since you're in no great hurry, you walk to your teacher's place at a mundane speed. It's only a twenty-minute walk, and you get there at about ten to two.

Lu-sensei lives in a small apartment on the edge of Sunnydale's commercial district, just above the converted shop where he holds his classes. It's a pretty sweet little set-up; your master owns the building outright, and has converted the rooftop into a neat garden, complete with pool of water and sand pit for meditation or special training purposes, and even a little stone walkway. There's this one loose flagstone that will dump a careless person into the pond if they stand on it wrong, and while you and others have complained about it, Lu-sensei has never gotten around to repairing it, leading you to suspect he put the stupid thing there on purpose, for some unfathomable reason...

Anyway, as you get close to the building, you slow your pace, blinking in surprise as you sense a very faint magical signature around the training hall. You can't see Lu-sensei through the large windows at the front, which provide light and free advertising whenever a class is in session. It's a bit odd for him to not be there waiting for you when he knows you're coming ahead of time.

The unexpected presence of the ward puts you on your guard.

Gained Watchful C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

Being mindful that you are in Sunnydale and need to fly under the radar, you slow your approach to the training hall and focus on your passive senses, monitoring the mystical emissions of the building and its occupants. You fail to pick up anything in terms of ki; between the Hellmouth, the walls that are in the way, and possibly the ward, there's simply too much interference for a passive sweep. Your Mage Sense is more productive, but only in that it's picking up anything at all - specifically, the presence of the ward. When you switch to Mage Sight, you're able to tell that the ward encircles the entire building - or at least all of it that you can see - and is particularly focused on a series of symbols worked into the Oriental-themed diorama painted on the outer wall's ground floor. Even Mage Sight can't tell you much more than that in passive mode; much like the portal to Faerie you investigated... was it really only yesterday morning?

Huh. It was. Man. Doesn't feel like it. Could this be a result of is that legendary "man out of time" phenomenon traditionally associated with meeting faeries?

Anyway, like the tripwire that was strung across the portal, hidden under a layer of non-detection magic, the ward around Lu-sensei's building was clearly set down with a mind towards concealment. It gives off next to no energy that can be picked up over the Hellmouth, at least not by an idly passing pedestrian, be they mundane, magical, or demonic. And on top of that, even though you're now close enough to see the studio-slash-dojo where Lu-sensei does most of his teaching through the front windows - which provide light, a sense of space, and free advertising whenever a class is in session - you can't see anyone inside.

Having reached the limits of what passive senses can reveal, you shift over to active scans, being careful to control your energies and keep your eyes hidden from casual view.

Gained Concentration C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Ki Concealment D
Gained Mana Concealment D

Ah, that's better. Lu-sensei's familiar ki signature is in the back room where he keeps the weapons (both wood and steel), and reads much the same as ever. He's the only presence in the building. As for the ward, it's a straightforward work of Abjuration. From what you can tell, it seems designed to extend the "threshold protection" of Lu-sensei's private residence over the entire building, forming a barrier that will prevent vampires and other weak demons from entering. There's also an Illusion worked into it, the structure of which makes you think it's meant to mislead spells of scrying about who's in the building and what they're doing. Beyond that, there's also a fairly high-level Abjuration pattern that doesn't look like anything Briar's ever described for you.

The whole warding array has a feeling of age about it. Nothing compared to Briar's portal up in the mountains, but it's been here for years at least, possibly a decade or two. Which means that whatever the indecipherable segment of the ward does, you've been exposed to it several times a week since you started taking lessons here.

That seems to be the limit of what you can learn at the moment, without resorting to spellcasting - and given that you're now standing in front of the training hall, with about a dozen other pedestrians and a few moving vehicles in view, you'd look more than a bit suspicious if you started making magic. For that matter, you've delayed outside long enough to get a look or two already; after the last couple of years of kung fu lessons, you're pretty well-known in this part of town, particularly with your recent local celebrity status. Hellmouth effect aside, the only thing that's prevented more open curiosity from the adults going by is the fact that it's a Sunday, and Lu-sensei's lessons are usually weekdays. Showing up now, outside established business hours, is something that you could reasonably be expected to be a little uncomfortable about it.

Taking a breath and standing up straight and tall for the benefit of anybody who's watching, you open the front door to a tinkling of small bells and stride in.

"Hello?" you call out. "Sensei?"

"Back here, Alex," your teacher replies from the storeroom.

Leaving your shoes near the door and your coat on one of the many conveniently-placed hangars, you cross the length of the hall and peer through the open door at the back. Lu-sensei is just stepping back from the right-hand wall, a sheathed sword in his hands, evidently freshly lifted from an empty pair of hangars.

"I hope you don't mind, lad," Lu-sensei says, briefly lifting the sword for emphasis. "I was planning to do a bit of overdue maintenance on some of these pieces while we talked."

"That doesn't sound like a problem, Sensei - though on that note," you add, "were you aware that there's a magical ward of some kind set up around the hall?"

"Ah, you finally noticed that, eh? I was beginning to wonder..." Lu-sensei pauses, looks closely at you, and frowns.

"...sir?" you ask after an uneasy moment of silence.

"Alex," your martial arts master says slowly, "you seem... different than you were at our last class."

Uh-oh. Have the physical effects of Navi's purification ritual advanced that far, that quickly? Or is it just your teacher's kung fu master senses picking up on the more subtle effects of your recent Great Fairy-enabled spiritual healing?

It honestly never even occurs to you to try and hide your latest adventure from your teacher.

Gained Filial Piety E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

"Yeah, about that... it's kind of a long story. We might as well sit down."

Lu-sensei taps the hilt of the sheathed sword against his shoulder. "I'm going to want the Stick after hearing this one, aren't I?"

"...no comment."

"Right." He points to a small fold-up table resting against one wall. "Bring that out front, will you?"

Heeding the request, you haul the table out into the main hall, while Lu-sensei follows after fetching a wooden case. He unfolds the table, sets the case and sword down on top of it, then sits himself down on one side and gestures to the other.

"Have a seat, Alex, and let's talk."

You do so. For the next hour, you provide Lu-sensei with an in-depth review of everything you got up to on Saturday, starting with your upstate trip to the portal, continuing into your encounter with Mrs. Lawson, then the incident with the presumed Winter Court fae, and finally your meeting with Navi and everything that came about as a result of it.

Lu-sensei listens to it all impassively, as he draws, disassembles, and carefully cleans the pieces of the sword, whose slender blade - with its wavy, dark green patterns along the flat - fairly glows to your senses, even when they're turned down. Briar drifts over, idly curious, and spends a few minutes inspecting the weapon as you continue to talk. Perhaps halfway through your account, Lu-sensei has the sword reassembled and re-sheathed, after which he packs up the cleaning gear and gives you his undivided attention - just in time for a blow-by-blow retelling of your trip through the Silent Realm. Partway through, he asks you to summon your Blessed Sword, assuring you that the wards on his building will hide the energy of the spell and the power of the weapon itself.

"Are you sure, sir?" you ask hesitantly.

He raises the sheathed sword for a moment. "Nobody has tried to challenge me for the Jade Dragon or obtain it more directly since I had the ward placed. That was almost seventeen years ago, and this is a fairly powerful and significant weapon. If the ward has been able to conceal its presence all these years, I think it can handle another divine blade for a minute or two."

Not an inaccurate assumption, you have to admit. So you go ahead, summon the sword, and let Lu-sensei inspect for a moment. Then you dismiss it and get on with your tale, which, at length, you complete.

Lu-sensei closes his eyes with a sigh.

ENLIGHTENMENT! VIA SHEATHED SWORD!

...one of these days, you tell yourself through the pain, you're going to figure out how to dodge that.

"That," Lu-sensei says flatly, "was for being foolish enough to run off and put yourself in mortal peril, again, without even telling anybody capable of helping you what you were really doing."

"Yes, Sensei," you reply. "But Navi did say she'd send me back safely."

"I was actually referring to your decision to run off to the mountains and meddle in arcane matters," Lu-sensei points out.

"Oh."

"Normally, I'd be just as ticked about you making deals with a major fairy," the old man continues. "Especially one that apparently has reason to be poorly predisposed towards you. However, you've clearly come out of the experience better off than when you started, and given that there's apparently a divine trinity of creator goddesses looking over your shoulder - which I really would have appreciated knowing about beforehand!" He pauses to take several relaxing breaths.

"Sorry about that, Sensei," you apologize. "I didn't really have any proof before this."

"Indeed." Lu-sensei lets out a final exhalation. "Where was I? Oh, yes. As I was saying, given the circumstances, I think I can let you off with a stern warning against making future bargains with greater fae, no matter who they're related to. No offense to Briar."

"None taken," Briar replies, with you repeating the statement for your master.

"Now, as for the other individuals you met... I don't know of this 'Mrs. Lawson.' From what you've said, she seems a sensible lady. If you decide to get in contact with her again, I would appreciate a warning beforehand - and ideally, I'd like to be present at any meetings you agree you, if only to get her measure more directly and assure her that you aren't simply running wild."

"Yes, Sensei."

"As for these Winter Court characters... I don't recognize the ones you described, and I haven't had too many dealings with the Fae lately. They avoid the Hellmouth, as I'm sure you're aware. That said, if the information you acquired is accurate and they do have an active presence up the coast, you'll want to avoid the area and keep a lower profile." Lu-sensei frowns. "That would put a damper on your martial arts career, unfortunately, but if making a greater name for yourself in the community would result in attacks from angry Unseelie, I can't see any acceptable alternative."

It's your turn to frown at that. You hadn't yet decided whether or not to accept some of the tournament invites and requests for exhibition matches you've been receiving since the World Tournament, and while you were diffident about the decision, the idea that you'd be forced to decline on account of angry fairies rankles. Lu-sensei does have a good point, however.