Chapter 4

Characters returning from Grace and Owen:

Grace O’Malley,

Heroine, former prostitute, 5’-2’’ tall, 110 pounds, 34D-22-34, 21 years old, alabaster skin, long flaming red hair, bright green eyes, some freckles, very cute, has a large but untrained Talent and little knowledge of Magic

Owen O’Connell,

Blacksmith, Grace’s lover and soon-to-be Husband, 5’-9’’ tall, 150 pounds, 25 years old, light auburn hair, gray eyes, quite handsome, has a large but untrained Talent and little knowledge of Magic

Old Joe,

A semi-retired farmer and Grace and Owen’s handyman, 5’-9’’ tall, 145 pounds, late 50s or early 60s, gray hair, brown eyes, a small Talent

The 12th of February finally arrived. This was the day that we had been waiting for, and which all of the plans now had as their start date, but we would see how accurate that was. Robert and I had made a couple of quick trips to Statesboro in this new Reality to see how the town looked in 1907, and had been shocked by how primitive it was compared to what we had seen, not just in our own time, but in videos that our ancestors had taken over the years. Still, this was what we had to work with, and we would have to deal with it as best we could.

This afternoon we dressed in the clothing that the Eternal Flame had provided, before I transferred Robert and myself directly to the yard in front of the house at the end of Plantation Lane. I was feeling a bit self-conscious, as I had started to show and these clothes did nothing to hide the fact.

Upon arriving, I carefully looked around at the uncut grass, but it still wasn’t quite spring in Bullock County, and there wouldn’t be much grass cutting yet. I took the time to study the house, the yard, and the gates plus their fences. To one familiar with the original house and its surroundings, there were minor changes everywhere, but they didn’t amount to more than just that -- minor details.

The house on this property in the Third Reality was completely different than this one, or the one in our Realm which was from the Original Reality that it had occupied. The one in the Third Reality had also lacked the gates and their fences initially. Cullen Mac Callister, Cousin Jillian’s Blacksmith Husband, the one with the huge Talent, had eventually built both the gates and the fences, but to a somewhat different and more flamboyant design than either of these other two.

“There are only a few slight differences,” I told Robert who may not have been able to see them, as he wasn’t as familiar with the original Founder’s House as I was.

We went up on the front porch, and I knocked on the front door. They would, of course, have opened for me, but it wouldn’t be polite to just walk-in on the residents.

The door was answered shortly by young woman of about my height, but a bit lighter than I am, as she was a smaller, more normal size woman of this period. She had the same long flaming red hair, and bright green eyes that I did, but her skin was a much lighter and creamier white than mine was. Her few visible freckles made her appear much like me, as she also appeared to be close to my age. What wasn’t visible to others was the large, but mostly untrained Talent that she possessed.

“Good afternoon Grace O’Malley,” I said, as she opened the door.

“Who are you? How do you know my name? I don’t remember meeting you, and how did you get through our gates which are locked?” she demanded. I just smiled at her before answering.

“I’m Margaret Kathleen O’Connell, the Ninth, and this is my Husband, Mankato Two Wolves. He is usually called Robert however,” I told her with another smile which only added to her confusion, and she stood there for several more seconds in confusion and dismay.

“We didn’t come through your gates,” I told her. “We’re Wizards, and we transferred here,” I finished and saw that she was quite shocked.

“What can I do for you?” she asked with some trepidation.

“It’s not so much what you can do for us, but what we can do for you, and your soon-to-be Husband. Owen will be here in a minute when he finishes with his fire. May we come in? We have a lot to talk about with both of you,” I told her. She didn’t know what to say and allowed us to enter the house.

“My, the house is a bit chilly this time of year,” I said in the hallway before closing my eyes, whispering the air exchange spell, and drawing its sign in the air. Seconds later, the entire first floor of the house had been warmed by summer air that had replaced the colder winter air, and that was when Owen joined us.

“Let’s go into the small parlor and have a seat. We have much to talk about, and I’ll explain what Clan O’Connell can do for you, and what we would like to accomplish in this Reality,” I told them. They appeared ready to listen, as we all moved into the small parlor.

Once seated on the sofas in there, I began to explain what we could do for them after introducing Robert and myself to Owen.

“I’m Margaret Kathleen O’Connell, the Ninth, and this is my Husband, Mankato Two Wolves. Mankato in the Lakota language means Blue Earth, but he prefers to be called Robert,” I told him repeating what I had told Grace, and reached out to shake his hand, as I could feel his large Talent directly that way. Robert also shook hands with him and I could feel his delight after he had.

“The first thing that we can do for you is to arrange for your marriage. One of my Uncles is an ordained Minister, and he married Robert and me just a month ago on the 12th of January.

“If you like, he could marry you right here in your own chapel. I’m sure that my wedding dress would fit Grace,” I finished.

“Yes, we have been worried about that,” Owen said when I had finished. “What about a marriage license though?”

“The Eternal Flame, will arrange to have one issued in whichever county of Kentucky that you wish. It will also be dated in November of last year,” I told them.

“But how?” Grace asked in confusion.

“The Eternal Flame, who is our benefactor and the source of our Magic, created time and is not bound by it, and He can move backward and forward in it at will. Going back a few months is no problem for Him at all,” I assured her.

“The second thing that we can do for you is to teach you to use your Talents and to do Magic,” I told them next to looks of surprise.

“Do Magick, like in the book that I read?” Grace asked in an enthusiastic voice.

“What book have you read?”

“The book from the bookcase at the cabin,” she answered and rose to get the book, and presented it to me. I looked at the title and the author’s name before smiling.

“This was written by one of my ancestors many years ago by our time. He did have a penchant for spelling Magic with a ‘K’,” I told her with another smile.

“There are many other books on Magic available, and we will supply you with a number of them. You have already been visited many times by the ‘Book of Dreams’ which has taught you much of the basics of Magic, although you don’t realize that yet,” I explained, but was interrupted by Owen.

“What is this ‘Book of Dreams’?” he asked.

“It’s a book that teaches you Magic while you sleep. It has introduced all of the O’Connell Children and a number of others to Magic for over four centuries,” I explained, as I held out my hand and said, “Book appear”, and the ‘Book of Dreams’ instantly appeared in my hand startling both Owen and Grace.

“That looks like the book that we have seen vanish a number of times when we awoke,” Grace told me recovering quickly.

“It does tend to disappear just as you wake up,” I agreed.

“What is this Talent, that you mentioned?” Owen asked.

“The Talent can be difficult to explain. It isn’t something that you can see like catching a baseball, but when yours is active you will be able to detect the Talent of others. As a Blacksmith, it allows you to feel how the hot metal is responding to your hammer and to adjust what you are doing to achieve the desired results. For many smiths, it’s an unconscious sense, and they just feel what to do. For those with an active Talent, it allows them to do many things that lesser smiths can’t and to achieve remarkable results,” I finished, but could see that he still needed a fuller explanation, and the answer came to me in a flash, perhaps from the “Book of Dreams’ which I was still holding.

“Think of your Talent as a pipe through which Magic flows, just as water flows through a pipe, and just as there are many sizes of pipes, so there are many sizes of Talents.

“Using this same analogy, the spell is like a bucket or a tank which must be filled with Magic before it will work. There are spells that require very little Magic to work, and they can be thought of as small buckets or even a pot. Other spells require more Magic to work and could be thought of as anything from a barrel to as much as a large tank that requires a huge amount of Magic to work,” I finished.

“So one’s Talent would define how much you could do in Magic?” Grace asked.

“Only to a certain extent. There are spells that require more Magic that any single Wizard could handle. In a situation like that, a group of Wizards can join together to cast the spell, and it’s like several pipes were used to fill the container. They can also accumulate the required Magic by joining hands and touching each other before casting the spell. In a case like that, those with the Talent would see them begin to glow as the Magic accumulated, and if enough were gathered, they could appear to be brighter than the sun from the accumulated Magic,” I explained.

“Thanks, that’s much easier to understand,” Owen told me with a smile.

“There is one other thing that I need to tell you,” I said turning to Grace.

“You are pregnant with a male child,” I told her with a smile, to a look of shock from her.

“How can you know that?” she demanded in a shocked voice before mellowing some. “I have felt a bit queasy in the morning this past week, but didn’t think it was that. I thought that my time of the month being a little late was the problem,” she finished quietly. Owen was staring at her in shock.

“In addition to my Talent for doing White Magic, I’m a Mage and have a Talent for using Green Magic, which is the Magic of the Earth and growing things. It allows me to sense how things are growing or will grow, and to heal both animals and people of certain maladies. That is how I can sense the child growing in your belly. However, to sense my own twin girls, I needed the help of Robert’s Sister who is a Healer, as I could not detect them myself. This is one of the reasons that Mages are so often found as twins, so they can care for each other,” I explained.

“You’re having twins?” Grace asked. “I thought that you were just several months pregnant.”

“No, my twins are just a bit older than your son is,” I told her.

“Your Husband has been rather silent,” Owen observed on recovering from learning that he would be a Father shortly.

“He’s Lakota, and the strong silent type. When he has something to add to the conversation or to start one, he will speak right up, and you will definitely know when he is angry,” I told him with a little giggle.

The house had cooled down again, and I repeated the air change spell to reheat it, and that was when Joe, the man they had hired to assist them, entered the room. He was no more than three feet into the room, and we had all turned to look at him, when he froze in place with a shocked expression on his face on seeing me.

“Miss Margie, is you a ghost come ta haunt us?” he whispered in a trembling voice.

“Hello, Joe, I’m not your Miss Margie. However, I am an O’Connell. I’m Margaret Kathleen O’Connell, the Ninth, and this is my Husband, Robert Two Wolves,” I told him.

“But you be de spittin’ image of Miss Margie before she got too old and her hair turned gray. I first met her and Miss Katie when I weren’t more den a boy,” he said in a whisper.

“The O’Connell women in all of the Realities carry many of the same genes, so that we all have similar appearances,” I explained before adding, “You’re just in time to learn what Clan O’Connell wishes to accomplish here in Statesboro.” As I finished, he cautiously moved into the room and sat on a wooden chair some distance from Robert and me.

“The Clan wishes to establish a School of Magic in Statesboro. There is a piece of land south of the present city that is being acquired for it to be built on.