Chapter the Thirteenth: Charms and the man.

Bran, was there. His form, just behind my eyelids, would not let me leave the place before he told me of something important.

<"Daniel, you approach the time of your testing. Matters are coming to a head, the one you must defeat is becoming aware of your presence. Your little demonstration with the trio of thugs was noticed by his infernal seeing devices.

He has gained three angry new lieutenants."> <"Why can you not tell me where he is? What he is doing?"> I asked, perplexed by his inconsistent abilities.

<"There are others who have woven powerful protection around his person. You are our chosen one, he is theirs. You must take care to protect yourself, and be careful with those you love, his power is such that they must be hidden from him."> <"How so?"> <"Your love is your greatest strength and also your greatest vulnerability. You must endeavour to protect those you love. I am unable to help you there, you must provide for them yourself"> <"But how? How am I able to protect against things I know nothing about?"> <"You must learn quickly. Your people have memories of the ways, search out those who would provide you with the knowledge."> <"But where would I find them?"> I was getting worried by these turns of fortunes.

<"You are already with one of them, help her to help you. Her people know the ways but they have lost the means to remember... I must be gone for his magic will find us all if I continue here, good luck."> With that he blinked away and I was wide awake. Really, wide awake. Sara gave a small scream with the solid way I woke her with a shake.

"Wha... ? what's up, is everything alright?"

Her training kicked in and she was almost immediately alert and composed.

"What is it Danny? what's happened?"

I started to tell her but soon realised she needed to understand a lot more so I had her hold my hands and I set up another linking.

"Oh wow!" She started, as the full flood of information started to stream between us. I felt her questioning as the full history of my deeds became clear to her. Valerie, Amy and all the other things that were a part of me.

I saw the paths that her life had followed too, and once again realised the love that this close communication could build. We were becoming entwined. Opening my eyes, I looked across at Sara, there were streaks of tears that fell down her side of her face, like the arms of a pair of silvery eyeglasses. She looked to be both heartbroken and elated by the experience and I rolled on my side to touch her face whispering her name. She was simply beautiful. Her eyes looked into mine and she smiled like the sun. Our mouths met and we began to share everything.

<"what does he mean when he says I am the one to help you? How can I help?"> <"It has to be something that you know, or have done, or seen. He talks about 'your people' does being Irish give you anything?"> <"Well, there's Guinness..."> she joked. The connection between us flared with the humour. <"But I guess the old folk lore is obviously based on truth. I can't say I know much of it, if only we could talk to my daddy and see what he can tell us. He was always telling us stories about the 'little people.' Although I have to say, that queen didn't seem too little to me. 'Under endowed' isn't how I'd describe her figure!"> <"Let me see if we can find out what you know from those times when you were a kid, we just have to get closer together and look at your memories..."> Sara looked a little concerned until she realised what I meant by 'closer.' She gleefully opened her thighs wide and pulled me onto her. I slid my stiffness into her warm embrace once again and we made love as totally connected as it was possible to be. Together, we began to riffle through the memories she had from her childhood. I saw her father as he was to her then, a big giant of a man, full of warmth and wisdom. He held us both in his arms and we were swamped in the security of his embrace.

It's amazing just how much 'stuff' a person has heard and seen in their lifetime and not remembered. But the images are still there, just awaiting one of Proust's "Madelines" to bring them to consciousness. Sara had grown up on a farm out in the wilds of the beautiful rural countryside of Ireland. I envied the way her family had built such an intricate net of security and love about their whole way of life. She immediately admonished me for such an unwarranted emotion with her compassionate touch. Her mother and father were constant in their affections and we both revelled in the memories of them. The search took us back to my lover's first views through her newly opened eyes (and I'm pretty sure we could have gone back even further but I'm not positive that we could have made much sense of that.) and we ran forward with all that was said and sung and seen by her baby eyes.