It was sliding toward night as we waited at the top of the hill for Síle to fetch us some extra cloaks and let the guild know we'd returned.

"I disrespected your journey, my friend," Jack said to me. He was still staring toward the Starweave buildings. "I've just gotten cynical. Sorry."

I gave him a hug.

"I might've said the same thing you did, honestly," I replied quietly. I looked at him with a grin. "I bet I could get you in to look at those buildings if you want. They were made by past Starweaves."

"Oh really?"

His mood seemed to have turned on a dime to "Christmas is coming".

"Are we really far north?" Jen asked. "The aurora seems so bright."

"Ah ha!" I said, raising a finger as if to make a point to the class. "That is not actually an aurora, borealis or otherwise. It's called Danna's Breath, or the Leys, and it's a visible part of the magic lifeblood of this world."

"Huh, cooooool," she said.

"Speaking of cool, B-R-R-R-R," I heard MacKenzie intone off to the side, sounding somewhere half way between a horse and a cat purring. "It may not be that far north, but it's plenty cold at night, just like home."

I was about to ask if she wanted to borrow my cloak when I saw someone waving one of those aether lanterns downstairs. Some squinting resolved someone into Síle with a big bundle of fabric over one arm.

"Your saviour has arrived," I announced grandly. "Let's head down."

"Well, it's not much," I said as everyone walked in the front door of the guest house, "but home sweet home!"

I was, of course, joking. The house was very much... much.

"This is so different from Saillvert architecture," Mom said to herself as she looked around. "Of course, that was also a long time ago."

"It feels almost disappointingly normal," Dad said.

"Nah but this is really interesting!" Jack exclaimed, walking around after depositing his shoes in a cubby. "This entryway is almost contemporary European, this slightly pointed arch has an Arabian feel to it, and that fish pool is like... totally Roman. If it caught water, anyway."

A knock came at the front door, and I went to answer. It was Bastien and Maela.

"Hello, Alyx!" he said in Clair. "I heard from Síle that you've brought some friends from La Lune. We would be excited to talk with them."

"Being that we're the La Lune people at the consoeurie," Maela said with a smile, "I'm sure you can understand. But it's up to you."

"If it helps, I brought some dinner," Bastien interjected with a twinkle in his eyes.

I laughed and ushered them in.

Dinner was mostly sandwiches and some juice, since that's what the kitchen had at the guild that late, but no one complained.

Bastien spoke to Mom in Clair, pretty floored that someone else from Earth knew Clair, and that she'd essentially come from the past. Síle joined in on that conversation, and I felt really pleased that Mom and Síle already seemed like family with each other.

Hey, Mom, I brought a girl home...

Maela chatted with everyone else in what English she knew. They were suitably impressed that someone on the Shanaclair side knew English.

Eventually, everyone was tired, and Bastien and Maela excused themselves, moving toward the door. I walked them out.

"Thank you again for the food and the company," I said to them.

"It was our privilege," Bastien said, patting my shoulder. "We learned so much tonight."

"I'm glad," I replied.

"We have a weekend coming," Maela said. "But please, come to the guild at the start of next week. We must begin your training. It has already been delayed too long."

"I will."

"Oh, that's also when the guild will start posting guards over here," she followed up.

"Got it. Wait, guards? Why do I need that?"

Bastien waved a hand. "It's a formality of station," he said with a smile. "It's not like we have much crime here. Just let them feel useful."

The guest house was spacious, but not that spacious. We had to do some doubling up.

Síle and I took one bedroom. I saw a few raised eyebrows, but if anything happened there, I wasn't going to be the one starting it. Mom and Dad took a second room. Jen and MacKenzie took the third. And that left poor Jack to sleep on one of the sofas downstairs.

We found washrooms, filled up water bottles from the tap, and said our goodnights.

More adventures tomorrow!

In my dream, I had been walking around the University of BC campus looking for people, unable to find anyone. What I did find, when I turned around, was the face from the Gate. I jumped, and then I calmed down to study it. It was definitely still creepy, but I couldn't help but think that seeing it out in the daylight made it so much less creepy. We stared at each other briefly in a strange sort of standoff, and then it suddenly popped like a balloon.

A bang that might have been from the face exploding, or something pounding against the bedroom wall, startled me awake. For a moment, I was unsure whether the sound was real.

"Síle?" I mumbled, looking over. But she was already awake and standing up. I could see a glow forming around her hands and faltering. She looked terrified.

I thought I heard MacKenzie yell angrily, and I pushed gently past Síle to slide open the door into the hallway. MacKenzie was facing off in a martial arts stance against an intruder dressed in black. The intruder stood in their own martial arts stance near the top of the stairs, and they were brandishing a dagger that faced behind them.

"Get back inside, dumbass," MacKenzie yelled. "Barricade the door!"

I closed the door, as she said. I pushed the dresser in front of it.

"Why?" I muttered, terrified myself at that point.

Why was someone trying to kill one or more of us?

Why was I still so weak that I couldn't even help by using magic, even as I was supposed to be the strongest?

One final, loud thump sounded at the door, and then a suspicious silence. Had the intruder taken down MacKenzie? Or had she taken the intruder down? What was that martial art she was using?

I felt like I had nothing but questions.

Síle was still sitting in terrified shock, trembling slightly. I forgot about everything else and held her.

"All right," I heard MacKenzie say eventually. "Come on out."

I stood and pushed the dresser back out of the way. I opened the door onto a wild scene.

Mom and Dad had their heads poked out of their door, looking down the hallway. Jen was walking out of the room she'd shared with MacKenzie, looking frightened. Jack started up the stairs but thought better of it when he saw the mess.

And the intruder was prone on the ground, obviously passed out.

"I was up to go pee when this chuckle-fuck," she gestured, "came crawling up the stairs. I'm lucky I was out here, and lucky I've studied Aikido."

"We're very lucky you were here," Mom said. "You saved our lives."

I ran to get my phone to call the cops, before I realized the several levels of futility in the action. When I came back out to the hallway, I was gratified to see several others looking at their phones.

"No signal, huh?" Jen said. She started laughing. I couldn't tell if it was hysterical laughter or just rueful.

"Gadí! Gadí!" I heard someone yelling. I looked over, and Síle had opened the hallway window that looked out over the roundabout. "San téach! Gadí!"

It was my turn to laugh. Of course she'd know what to do.

Thief! In the house!

I turned back around to the assassin and stared at him. Stared. Hard.

"Guys, he's not breathing," I said, worried.

MacKenzie looked troubled, but she leaned over and held two fingers against his neck, standing up afterwards.

Dad raised his eyebrows as if to ask, "Well?"

"No pulse," MacKenzie said, looking slightly ill.

"Everyone, downstairs," I said, trying to inject some order into the situation. It was my house, in a manner of speaking. "Let's get some tea."

"Bless," I heard Mom utter under her breath like an oath, and I had to stifle a laugh in spite of the situation.

I had filled a kettle with water and placed it on the stove, but I had no idea how to... make it go.

"Síle?" I called sheepishly, and she walked over. I waved helplessly at the stove.

"Danna's sake," she said, laughing. "Silly Alyx. You'll have to learn these things sooner or later."

I didn't want to sound churlish by pointing out that that's exactly why I was there in Fleuve Clair, with shadowy assassins coming after my family.

Síle was weaving her hands and fingers around, and I could see something like strands of fire forming into a cat's cradle. She moved her hand as if laying it on the metal pad on the stove, and it began heating rapidly.

She was starting to say something as she turned around, but I forestalled it by grabbing her in a fierce hug, one she returned after a second of startle. Then she was rubbing her face on my shoulder and shaking.

"I just froze up," she said in a suddenly broken voice. "I could've stopped this, I could've held him. Damn it. What's wrong with me..."

"Nothing is wrong with you," I said, feeling slightly shaky myself. "What's wrong with me, bumbling around and opening the door on a fight? Pulling my phone to call the police, no magic to help, either..."

Síle suddenly stopped and gently pushed me away.

"Yeah. You're right," she said as if on the edge of an unhappy revelation. "No magic yet, no guards yet, no trouble getting inside."

"I don't like where you're going with this."

The kettle had finally started singing.

"Me either," she said finally, while I got cups out. "Me either."