early afternoon
Madrid, Spain
Somehow, I can't really help feeling good about how today went, even though it started out not well at all. "Not well at all" being another phrasing for "we had to get out of our beds really early in the morning to go kill a dragon."
Well, also, it's another phrasing for "seeing Galvin killed and then resurrected", as well.
The archive folks must think I'm completely nuts, with the various materials I've gotten them to pull out for me recently. I had them send me up Aru's file from when he was Headmaster. I was mostly curious about what Beatrice looked like, though I was also looking for anything else unusual about his stint as Headmaster. I found what I was looking for, on both counts. Beatrice looked very much like Epona, so there's a good chance she was my half-sister, at least. (Mother, your libido is going to kill us all some day.) It explains a few inconsistencies in Aru's behavior when we first met him, as well as a little comment Armand made to me a few days ago. It looks like Aru's second, Jonas Shorl, set the two of them up, if I'm reading the fact that Jonas assigned Beatrice to the care of Aru's personal horses correctly.
That would be an interesting thing to get the whole story on. Jonas set Aru and Beatrice up, and then Armand and Aru noticed her at about the same time, it sounds like. That must have been frustrating for Jonas, unless he knew Beatrice well and knew what her choice would eventually be.
The wedding portrait that was in the files was signed by Jonas, and it was her striking similarity to the portrait of Epona I have on my wall that prompted me to get that portrait for a comparison. When I set down the framed drawing, I overbalanced the pile of papers, and the drawing fell to the floor, and I saw the back of it for the first time.
It was signed by Jonas Shorl, and dated 1253.
Nothing here quite adds up; I'm missing something important. Jonas was listed "presumed dead" after Aru's decimation of the Temple in 1066. What on earth was he doing alive in 1253? Even if he was a dragon and somehow survived the slaughter, why wouldn't he have resurfaced elsewhere afterwards?
This afternoon, I sent Matthew (my night guard; he usually shows up early for his shift, which means that he gets to go fetch stuff for me on occasion) down to the archives to ask the archivists to compile a list of people named Jonas that we currently have in the Order, on the theory that if he's still in the Order somewhere, he's probably still using at least his first name. I also asked him to peek at all of the drawings we have around the Temple here and see if there's any more of Jonas' work.
(I'm finding myself becoming fond of Matthew. He's not much older than me, and he hasn't had all of his ideals trampled on quite yet. He's an interesting contrast to Gavião, who's the only other paladin I've worked with extensively. He's also a reminder for me that there are quite a few people who believe that I can and will solve all the problems of the world. Eventually, he'll figure out I'm merely mortal, just like him. It's hard to be around me much and not realize that. At the same time that the expectation that I'm going to fix everything is exhausting, it's also a little bit heartening, even if I know it's based on the fact that I occupy the position I do and not because of me personally.)
Anyway, we have ten people named Jonas in the Order, which is odd because Jonas isn't a particularly common name. We do have one in Madrid--a 15-year-old stablehand named Jonas Beryl--and the rest are scattered all over Europe. And there was a short list of Jonas Shorl's drawings around the Temple, dating from 1152 to 1276. He's still around, in some capacity or another--but who is he, and how did he manage to survive?
After having a brief conversation with Mother and hearing that it was going to be my choice to either destroy the Ark and kill my father, or use the Ark to release him and then be subject to the Ark's sense of humor about granting wishes, I finally went to bed. I was both avoiding and looking forward to dreaming, since I'd decided that I was going to go find Galvin and see where he was and how he was being held. Dream didn't take me directly there, instead showing me Marcus and several dwarves that he seemed to have borrowed from Queen Shoraz, Arnie's aunt, heading towards the side of a glacier somewhere in Finland, north of the Arctic Circle.
The oddest thing happened--Aru showed up. He talked Marcus out of attacking him, and then joined him in going towards the glacier. (I almost envy Aru his immunity to cold, sometimes. Though I love the summer sun too much to spend too much envy on it.)
How did Aru know he was going to be needed? Gaius didn't know that Gavião had sent Marcus off after Galvin, so he couldn't have told him. I am starting to have certain suspicions about Aru, and I'm honestly not certain I like the direction that my suspicions are taking. If nothing else, this has the potential to be *very* embarrassing...
Anyway. Inside the glacier, Galvin was hanging in chains, and Nikodemus was indulging in a little bit of "parading his plans aloud in front of the captive". Nik wasn't all that bright, honestly, or else he would have figured out that's a stupid thing to do. If I thought I disliked Nik before, I started hating him the moment I saw that he'd hung Galvin about fifty feet from the floor in chains, with what looked like a very nasty shoulder wound. That bit about hoping he'd be unharmed as long as they thought he could be useful? I overestimated Nik's potential for subtlety, I think. And Nik, evidently, doesn't realize that people who hurt people I love tend to come to a bad end these days.
Aru, Marcus, and the dwarves attacked Nik. Unfortunately, when things go wrong in a battle between dragons, they go *very* wrong--Aru, in redirecting Nik's breath weapon away from himself, managed to make Nik's lightning hit the ceiling, near where the chains that Galvin was hanging from were attached.
Galvin's scream was echoed by my own. Dream had both of his hands on my shoulders, keeping me still. I could do nothing but watch, helplessly, as the roof of the cave started to fall and Galvin dropped to the floor. Dream kept hold of me, telling me that we were here to witness, that there was nothing I could do.
Nik broke free and escaped, bringing the rest of the roof down. Marcus, just before a large chunk of ice hit him, managed to slice one of Nik's wings off of him. Aru sent a message off to Gaius, and I attempted to leave as well, but Dream still held me there, saying, "Just a few minutes longer, Callas."
I watched, numb with grief, as Aru checked Marcus--he was battered, but would live. And then I saw the thing that Dream had held me there for. Aru, for the first time in three centuries, prayed to Epona. And she answered.
And Galvin returned to life.
In that moment, I understood a number of things that I can't quite put words to yet, and might never be able to. The one I can articulate is that it is for things like this, moments like this, that I am on this road through the shadows. This is what I am meant for, these are the turning points that make the rest worthwhile.
And then I felt Dream take my hand, and I turned to him. He said, "We can go now, but you needed to see that."
And I woke.
And then I remembered Nik. Who was on his way to Versailles to tell Morgan that Arumaga had betrayed the Council. I believe I have *never* dressed quite so fast in my entire life. Gaius had already woken up the rest, and after a few somewhat confused explanations (I'm not exactly at my best right after waking up, and the scene I'd just witnessed was sort of difficult to distill down to a few sentences) we were flying down the road to the Madrid gate, to hit the Versailles gate just after Nik gated there.
We were missing Riyor and Strawberries--evidently, Riyor got into *something* and broke a number of his fingers, and is going to be recovering for a few days.
My world focused down to exactly one thing--hurting Nik as much as I could. Not even, particularly, stopping him from reaching Versailles, but paying him back for Galvin. Hurt me, spoil my plans, start a war that involves my Order--fine, that's the way of the world. Hurt people I love? That's when I get pissed.
And, fortunately, Nik's not immune to fire.
It was the first time I'd ever been involved in a running battle--being on horseback turned out to be a distinct advantage for me. Gavião managed to wrest St George's Lance away from Nik, and we all threw all of the damage we could at him. Tamsin, appropriately enough, delivered the killing blow, and Nikodemus died a scant fifty yards from the gates of Versailles.
Aiden's body had gotten destroyed *again*, and Tamsin popped him into Nik's body, in large part so the other side couldn't resurrect Nik. (Note to self: look into ways to destroy large bodies. Dragon bodies are difficult to move. We can't always count on Aiden's body to be destroyed during a battle, even if it's happened the last two times.)
Then something odd happened. Gavião started walking towards the gates of Versailles. Gaius tried to stop him, but he was radiating some sort of field that kept anyone from getting close. He went right up to the shimmer that marked the edge of Morgan's protection spells, unsheathed Excalibur, and swept the sword through the shields.
The shields shattered.
And every single window in the palace of Versailles exploded outwards.
Gavião said in a voice that both was and was not his, a voice that wasn't loud but carried a very long way, "Modred, there is nowhere you can hide." I recognized that voice from a dream from long ago. The voice of Excalibur.
Then Gavião blinked, shook himself, sheathed Excalibur, and said, "Well. We should probably go, now." I could hear the plink and crash of glass falling on stone, and had to agree.
Gaius said that someone had come through the gate during the battle, and I turned to look--there was someone wearing Marcus' cloak and carrying his staff. I frowned, remembering that less than an hour before Marcus had been unconscious, trying to figure out how he'd managed to heal himself enough to get over to us. And then he pulled back his hood. It was Galvin.
I completely forgot any semblance of dignity, and basically tackled him. Very, very happy to see him alive and evidently whole.
After I remembered that I'm supposed to be an adult now, we hightailed it through the gate and back to Madrid. We elected to take the rest of the day to recover, and I had a long talk with Galvin about things. That was after the kissing and making up, however. Things were a little bit odd at first, and his sojourn into death seems to have changed him slightly. More about that later, though.
I also made official Marcus' new position--that of Head Druid of the Temple of Epona, a new position that outranks the regional Headmasters but answers to me, Gavião during wartime, and Epona herself. We'll see what he does with it. I'm hoping he decides to work with me instead of against me.
I owe both him and Aru a debt that I'm going to find it difficult to repay. Having Galvin back is worth anything I can do for those two. (I also owe Gavião for sending Marcus in the first place, but I have more opportunities to do nice things for Gavião, like saving his life when he needs it, so.)
I'm going to finish this and then go see if I can find Jonas Beryl. I might as well start checking out all of the Jonases, and this one's close at hand. There's some other things yet to do, but I put them off because my talk with Galvin needed to come first.
More later? Quite possibly.
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