View from the Mountain, pt 4

'Tis but a few seasons to immortals.

Mariah leaned against the broken wall outside the cottage, Lucius's words echoing in her heart.

Twenty-five years, she thought. Longer than I've been alive, and it's no time at all to him. How long? How long until Miranda feels the same way? How long until I'm wrinkled and old and she'll still be young and beautiful and... A few seasons. Why would she stay? Can I really ask her to?

She was suddenly aware of Lucius, standing quietly beside her. 

How long had he been there? Had he noticed her tears, amid the rain on her cheeks?

"Down there in the valley," Lucius said conversationally, gesturing down the mountainside, "are the ruins of a castle, that belonged to Lord Volpe. Famous fellow in these parts. He was mad about topiary. 

"Actually," he added in a confiding voice, "he was just a bit mad.

"Long before Volpe’s forebearer built that castle, on that same spot was the great hall of a king. King Hengest. Now, you could walk from one end of Hengest’s kingdom to the other and be back to his hall in time for supper… but Hengest was fair and just. A good fellow. They named the place after him - Hengest's Ford. 

"Before Hengest’s ancestors became kings, on that same spot was the cottage of a farmer named Baegla. He raised chickens. A fine fellow was Baegla. In fact, he gave me my very first chicken.

"I knew them all, you see. I saw them come, live their lives, raise their families and pass away to be all but forgotten, save for the echoes their names left behind, by the time the next came along."

"Merde, we must seem like nothing to you," Mariah sighed. "We’re completely insignificant."

"You are magnificent," Lucius said. "Do you know what gives life meaning, Mariah?"

"I’m twenty-one," Mariah said. "I barely know how to do my taxes."

"Well, that’s alright, because it isn’t taxes," Lucius smiled. "It’s change. Change gives life meaning. Without change, Baegla would still be down in that valley tending to his chickens… the same chickens, every day. Forever. He was a fine fellow, Baegla, but so was Hengest and, in his own way, so was Volpe. I mark my life not in years or deeds but by the fine people I have known."

"But they’re gone," Mariah said.

"As you will be, someday," Lucius nodded. "Don’t you think she knows that? She’s a Seer. There is no more inevitable Moment than death. She knows and she has chosen. Chosen her life with you because you give her life meaning. That is your gift to her. To all of us. 

"You are magnificent, Mariah. Never feel the lesser, especially in the company of old immortals."

Standing there, looking out over the valley, the river and the town, Mariah found herself thinking about them. About Baegla and his chickens, whose name lived on in the Bagely River. About Hengest and his little kingdom of Hengest's Ford, now Henford. About mad Volpe and his topiaries, which the people of Finchwick still made on the village green. Most of all, she thought about this strange, quiet man beside her, this ancient immortal who had known them all, who remembered them, and valued them, long after everyone else had forgotten.

Miranda loves me, Mariah thought. She'll love me long after the rest of world has forgotten me. 

I matter. 

View from the Mountain, pt 3

"So, Aadi and Jordan are coming to the wedding," Miranda said.

They were making their way along the gently twisting path up the mountain. The rain had started a little after they'd left Mill Lane, but Aadi had insisted they take umbrellas. Rain, Aadi said, was as common to Henford as Bohemian Rhapsody was at a karaoke night. 

"That's good," Mariah replied, distracted. She'd managed to get a handle on her feelings. Alright, so maybe her insecurities were writhing like a pit of snakes, but she had put a lid over that damn pit and the snakes were staying down under it. Mostly. 

"I told Aadi I'd pay for the plane tickets and hotel and all," Miranda went on. "They tried to refuse, but really, they can't afford it, and I can. So, why shouldn't I pay. I mean, they can't come if I don't. So I will. Simple. Right? Right. I'm right."

Mariah nodded her agreement. Of course, she knew all this already, but she let her lover ramble. Miranda was clearly trying to distract herself from her own fears and doubts.  We all have our ways of dealing with things, Mariah thought.

Soon, the rumbling sound of a waterfall, cascading down the higher slopes of the mountain, filled the silence. The path turned gently to reveal a clearing, with a small cottage and sheds surrounded by a low stone wall that Mariah realized with a start were the ruins of some older structure. 

A man, neatly dressed, his long hair falling in waves around a calm face, stepped out to meet them.

"Welcome," the man said courteously. 

"Are, are you Lucius Tempest?" Miranda asked.

"So they call me," Lucius nodded.

"I'm... I'm Miranda," she continued. "Miranda Silveroak-Goth... Gwen... Gwen Silveroak, is my mother. Well, she's married to my mother, and they both raised me so..."

"Miranda?" Lucius's face warmed with a wide smile. "Truly? Look at you! A woman grown. It seems only yesterday a child played by the riverside."

"This is Mariah," Miranda said. "We're getting married."

"Welcome, Mariah," Lucius said warmly. "You are both most welcome here. Please, I have a warm fire and fresh bread inside. I may even have some cider left. Will you join me?"

"Yes," Miranda laughed. "Yes, please."

-------------------

The inside of the cottage was, as promised, warm thanks in large part to the fire burning in the antique wood-burning stove. The bread, thickly sliced and topped with a mixture of honey and butter, was so freshly baked as to still be warm and delicious. 

A grey tabby cat had given them a considering look with imperious eyes before disappearing deeper into the cottage with a disdainful flick of the tail. 

To Mariah's surprise, a familiar small blue fairy had flit into the room, accepted her own smaller slice of bread with butter and honey, and now sat on the kitchen shelves watching them. 

"Of course, Bluebell has told me stories about you," Lucius was saying as he refilled their mugs of cider. "About you both... and about Gwen and Cassandra. Still, the last time I saw you, you were just a girl. Can it have been so long ago?"

"Well, I'm twenty-one now," Miranda said.

"Twenty-one?" Lucius laughed. "I remember when Gwen was twenty... toddling about Glimmerbrook Watch and just at the age of asking 'why' about everything... but of course, I forget you were born in the mortal world and grew with the passing of days and the turning of seasons."

"Right, the whole 'time is different in Glimmerbrook' thing," Mariah mused.

"... and for old immortals like me," Lucius nodded. "Even living in the mortal world, like I do, I've lived so long that the days and years tend to blur together."

"Is that... I mean," Miranda started, then blurted out. "I've never met you. Now you're saying you saw me playing the river... but never... not once?"

"Gwen made it clear that she didn't want me to be involved," Lucius said, a little sadly. "Bluebell kept me informed and yes, from time to time, I would look in on her and later on your mother and you. Still, I kept my distance."

"Like the night the vampires came to kill us?!" Miranda snapped. "You sure kept your distance then too. Why didn't you do anything!?"

"I watched over you all, for years," Lucius said firmly. "Stroud and his Dark Court knew I was here, knew I was watching. So, we watched each other, the draugr and I. We watched you, and we waited. There is nothing so patient, Miranda, as old immortals. 

"Still, even a witch cannot be in two places at once. That night Stroud and his followers attacked, I was not here," Lucius continued. "Gwen had, by then, reached the fullness of her strength. Your mother had fully embraced her own power, and you... you were beginning to grow into your own. The three of you were on the verge of becoming the new Guardians of Glimmerbrook Watch. The Witches' Council believed my protection could be spared. 

"I was called away, to investigate a serious matter in the Great Western Desert. It proved more... challenging... than any of us expected." Lucius seemed to study his mug of cider intently for a moment. "In my absence, Stroud took his opportunity. Perhaps he would have moved anyway, determined as he was to prevent the restoration of the Guardians. It didn't matter. When you all needed me, I wasn't there.

"When I found out what happened, I was prepared to march into Forgotten Hollow and burn Stroud Manor, and all within, to the ground." Lucius's voice remained calm and even, but Mariah saw his knuckles go white against the ceramic mug in his hands. "I was... restrained. The Council did not want to risk open war with the Dark Court. I was reminded that you... all of you... had survived. Vengeance was your right, not mine... and vengeance you justly had. Still, I would have spared you the pain of it, had I been allowed."

He took a long, slow breath and drank his cider. 

"I'm sorry," Miranda said softly.

"You have no cause to be," Lucius said with a sigh. "It is I who should ask you for forgiveness... but I cannot even do that. I know I don't deserve it."

"Well, I forgive you anyway," Miranda said. "You should talk to Gwen. It's been twenty-five years. That's long enough, even for immortals."

"'Tis but a few seasons for immortals," Lucius smiled sadly.