Episode VI - Homecoming
There is an old saying, "expect the unexpected", which does not make sense if you think about it. If it is unexpected, how can you expect it?
Unexpectedly Crandal had handed me over to two Americans, by the names of Fox and Dana, who were the American observers to the operation that unexpectedly captured the Spirit of Fidelity on the pretence she was a terrorist, and unexpectedly they turned out to be decent human beings. I thought the yanks were supposed to be the gun ho bad guys
They used their influence to get into the complex where Fidelity had been tortured, and all they got out of her was that she was 15 and not 16 after all. (Angela at the coffee shop will kill me on that one).
The next bit of unexpectedness, was that the Spirit of Fidelity had a human father who was something in the Irish military, bud sadly he had been killed in action some years previous, so unexpectedly the head of the British operation was ordered to release her into the care of the Americans, as Fidelity apparently has been declared a citizen of the Republic of Ireland,
Funny how things can turn out, unfortunately on our way to the airport to catch a plane to Ireland we have just encountered the head of that organisation, who seems to be a sore looser, but worse an Egyptian god with a grudge against the whole of the Mystical Realms.
Worse of all, Myself, Fidelity and Dana are now trapped between him and a dimension door that has unexpectedly opened up.
With what looks like a platoon of trolls
Mr Blue, or Set lifted up his machine pistol and pointed it Dana and Fidelity, then noticed the dimension gate with the trolls coming through and froze. I looked back at them and recognised the unit. They were a snatch team, similar to the one that had snatched me and the Spirit of True Love back to the Mystical Realms in 2001 on the charge of interfering in the affairs of mortals.
Had the Prince Low Troll decided to have Fidelity arrested as well? Was there another troll in power.
I turned back to the other threat, Set and ran between him and Dana and Fidelity. I could see Dana reaching for her side arm, but a flick of Set"s left hand and the gun was wrenched from her grip. Then he looked back at the dimension gate. The trolls had arrived, along with a hooded figure.
"Not another Drow" I thought.
A big troll approached Dana and Fidelity.
They were arresting her after al, but wait, he whispered something to Dana and placed himself between them and Set.
A big troll approach me and grunted "Quick get behind me Hooman", then added "Prince Low Troll says consider this payment towards his life debt"
I was stunned, for once the trolls were here to help us, I ran back to Dana and Fidelity, "Take her back to Fox and check on Crandal" I shouted.
Set was livid and went to spray us with machine gun fire, but his gun too was wrenched from his grip. I then noticed that the hooded figure was a real elf, not a drow, a dark elf.
A big decorated troll stepped out of the dimension gate and stood next to the elf, this was the troll captain, then in perfect English addressed Set. "Spirit of Malice, by the power of his Excellency the Prince Low Troll, you are under arrest for the interference in the affairs of mortals and for the murders of several Mystical Realms citizens"
Set was angered, and for a moment forgot about us, "I am NOT the Spirit of anything, I am Set, a god of Egypt" he screamed, then he hurled a fireball towards the captain. The fireball ricocheted off of some field and then headed towards us. Fidelity screamed and instinctively put up her hand, and suddenly the fire ball exploded against an invisible shield.
This ability was not just limited to cyber space then. Fidelity went white and feinted, the shield she had instinctively put up had drained her. Dana caught her as she fell.
"Do you want to add resisting arrest to the charge list" Boomed the Troll captain.
At this Set started to grow two large fire balls, one in each hand. "Tell your pathetic Prince Low Troll to mind his own business, I have a few humans to incinerate and if he yields power to me, I might just spare your vile little realm" Set shouted back.
"Do it" The Troll captain whispered to the elf, who shot a large electrical bolt of energy at Set. It bounced of a force filed Set produced, and blasted a door in the airport corridor to smithereens.
"I am no Spirit of True Love push over" Set sneered and looked in our direction to hurl a final fire ball, "She wont save you now Graeme" he directed at me. "Say good bye" he added"
BANG BANG BANG
Set fell to the ground, the fireballs, just evaporated, and lying on the ground was Mr Blue, with three bullets in his chest. I looked round and there was Fox, with his automatic aimed at where Set had been. Fox had made use of the distraction of the Trolls to be able to get his gun out, aim it and pull the trigger three times.
"Get the Spirit before it get"s away" yelled the troll captain
The elf brought from his cloak in his right hand what looked like a small crystal rod and pointed it just above the body of Mr Blue. Then I saw some black haze form above the body, which screamed as it tried to get away. The elf walked forward chanting in some language I could not recognise, it was not the straight forward elvish I remembered from my times in the Mystical Realms. The black haze seemed to be fighting some current trying to draw it into the rod, and a wind picked up in the corridor. The elf then pulled from his cloak in his left hand what looked like a glass dagger, and spoke more arcane language. The haze tried to send a wind at the elf, but the elf, with sweat pouring from his brow stood his ground, as the haze was slowly drawn into the rod.
Once the this was done, the elf turned to the troll captain and in elvish, told him, "I have this prisoner"
"
This prisoner" I thought, maybe I was right the first time and they were arresting her as well, after all a few months ago Yagel had taken her invisibly to a TV reality game show, when she thought she was the Spirit of Fancying, to "make two people fall in love" which she could not do. The two people she was supposed to use her power on, were unaffected, as her power was just to encourage people to be faithful. I had suspected Yagel had done this, so Fidelity would think that the trolls would come after her if she did not stay with Yagel, the drow who had murdered her mother, the Spirit of True Love. The Prince Low Troll must have won the civil war in the Mystical Realms and was now restoring law in that dimension.
I walked over to the Troll captain and looked up at him. "Please", I pleaded don"t take Fidelity, "she has suffered so much here, and I promise she has not done any interfering since the Prince Low Troll let me take her to the world of Mortals"
The troll captain, looked down at me, and then ordered the other trolls to return with the elf through the dimension door.
"Sir" I continued "I beg you; she has been living as a human these past three months, only interacting as normal humans do, and her biological father was human"
The troll captain seemed to ignore me and walked over to where Fidelity was lying unconscious. Fox trained his weapon on the Troll.
"I have no orders about any other Spirit, major or minor" The troll captain informed us, "but she is not fully human yet, she needs to find her human soul for that to be." Then the troll captain pulled from a pocket what looked like a small green vial and handed it to me.
"Healing potion" he muttered and then he walked around to where Crandal was lying. Crandal looked up at the troll, and coughed. As he did so, I saw blood coming from his mouth.
"So Strang" Crandal spluttered, "You made Captain" Then Crandal, reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out a wallet, and said "Graeme take this please quickly"
I took the wallet, and as I did so, Crandal closed his eyes. Suddenly there was a rush of wind, and Crandal turned to ash. He was dead
"He was a great warrior for a Leprechaun" Commented the troll captain. He saluted and turned back to the Dimension gate and entered through it.
The gate closed
He was gone.
Dana went to check, Mr Blue, but he was dead.
I checked through the wallet, it had the contact details of the couple who had adopted the Spirit of Fancying as a baby; they were living near Shannon in the Irish Republic. Crandal had known he was dying and did not want this information to be lost when he died, I wondered if perhaps I had misjudged this leprechaun.
At this point, the armed police arrived, and Dana and Fox held out their ID badges. Apparently they were from the FBI.
I went over to Fidelity who was looking very pale. I pulled the stopper from the vile and put it to Fidelity"s lips for her automatic swallowing reflex to kick in, which it did. As I looked at her, I could see the colour return to her face. I took off her sunglasses Dana had bought her to hide the black eyes she had received at the hand of Mr Blue when all he could beat out of her the fact that she had been lied to about her age. I could see her bruises heal before my eyes, along with the black eyes. With in a minute, her face was as if she had never been touched.
Another gift from the Prince Low Troll I supposed, and it seemed that under him the trolls had become more honourable than some of my fellow humans.
Fidelity"s eyes flickered open, so I smiled at her and told her "You saved us Fidelity, thank you".
Fidelity slowly sat up and I handed her back her sunglasses, which she hastily put on, not realising her face had been healed. I pulled from my pocket an old mirror compact I had once got in a high end Christmas cracker, and suggested Fidelity look in the mirror as her bruises had gone. She took the compact and slowly opened it and took off her sunglasses to see that her face had been healed. I explained about the potion, and how the troll had given it to me for her, she briefly smiled at me and whispered "Thank you Mr Troll"
We were at the Heathrow police station for two hours, whilst Fox and Dana sorted out paperwork. Apparently Mr Blue had gone AWOL after we had left. He had also served as a young marine at Suez where he had encountered some Egyptian artefact, which Fox suggested had allowed Set to take him over from time to time. Dana thought that he just had a Set fixation, because Dana was able to spot that Mr Blue showed the signs of a brain tumour. Don"t ask me how.
I just told the police, that I was accompanying Fidelity to find her long lost sister in Ireland. I was not sure they bought it, and I heard them in the background refer to child services.
Fidelity just sat quietly, feeling her face and silently crying. It seemed to her, so close and yet so far
Then the door opened and in walked someone who looked like they were suffering dwarfism.
No way could I be fooled, this was another leprechaun.
The leprechaun went up to the front desk and waved some ID badge and put up a folder of papers. He then said his name was Shamus McTuckle.
Fox came over to me and told me how he and Scully would be sorting out things with the British authorities, but that this new guy, Shamus was going to take Fidelity and I to Shannon on a private diplomatic flight in a Gulf stream G200.
[img=400x200]http://www.civilaviation.eu/images/Gulfstream/Gulfstream_200G.jpg[/img]
I shook hands with both Dana and Fox, Dana wished us a safe trip and Fox told me that I would have made a fairly passable field agent, and if I ever wanted to teach about the Mystical Realms at Quantico, then he would recommend me.
Fidelity gave Dana a big hug and said thank you for the clothes and how nice it was to wear something warm.
That cut me up, I had failed to notice how Fidelity had been shivering in just her uniform when I had been able to collect her from the coffee shop where she worked Dana told her to look after herself and get some weight on. Fidelity gave Fox a hug as well, as he was the big man who had carried her so she did not have to walk in bare feet on sharp gravel
These two Americans really put me to shame
We left and Shamus guided us through security to a private area where we waited for the chartered flight to Shannon. I asked him if he was G2 as well, and Shamus responded that he was in the diplomatic service and that Crandal had been his brother.
It was early evening by the time we got to depart, and we taxied out to the runway, and waited for our take off slot.
Fidelity sat at the window, looking out. She looked like any other 15 year old girl, it was hard to realise that this was the human embodiment of the virtue being faithful to a partner, part of what true love is about. I sat next to her, so she might have someone to be there for her. Shamus sat across the isle. There were no other passengers on this flight. We were very privileged.
As we sat on the runway waiting for our take off slot, Fidelity stared out of the window at the rest of Heathrow and the other planes, then she turned to me with tears in her eyes and asked "What if my sister does not want to see me"
Shamus overheard and from his seat told her, "Oh but she does, she has waited all her life to see you and her family are driving out to meet us"
"Remember Crandal said so in the car this morning" I added
Fidelity was silent for a moment, then sniffed "I liked Crandal, I will miss him"
"We all do" Shamus said wistfully, he was a good brother and a fine G2 officer.
Then Fidelity asked "What do you mean about my sister and her family" then remembered what Crandal also had said. "Oh yes the people who adopted her"
"Yes indeed" confirmed Shamus then added, "They also adopted a little boy as well, a human child whose parents were killed in a car crash when he was a year old"
I put an arm around Fidelity to reassure her things were going to be ok, she gave a weak smile and wiped her face with a paper serviette she had found from somewhere.
We eventually got our take of slot, and Fidelity went almost white with fright as we accelerated down the runway, hitting first V1, when the front wheels lifted, and then V2, the point of no return when we took to the sky.
After a few minutes, we reached the cruising altitude. Fidelity was tired as it had been a long day, and closed her eyes to try and sleep. A member of the cabin crew came around with a blanket, which Fidelity accepted and wrapped around herself. With in ten minutes, she was fast asleep. A member of the cabin crew came round with coffee for Shamus and myself, and as I sipped I reflected on the day"s events which seemed so improbable.
They had been able to match Fidelity"s DNA to a dead G2 officer quite fast something seemed odd
I broached this with Shamus, who glanced out of the window and then started to explain that they had found out from contacts in the Mystical Realms that Fidelity was still alive and that a mortal had brought her to the world of Mortals. Through spying on the Americans and the British,
Allies tend to spy on each other as much as their enemies they had known of the Counter IDE programme and the Facility in North London. The DNA profile was real, and Fidelity"s father was a G2 officer, but there was something unique about identical twins, of which The Spirit of Fancying and The Spirit of Fidelity were, they had identical DNA. Their inside agent had planted the profile from the Spirit of Fancying, or Caer as she preferred to be called, just in case they reached Fidelity before G2 did, so that as soon as Fidelity"s DNA had been processed the "Match" could be flagged. They had also set in place the high level diplomatic pressure to order her release, should she be captured, but it could not be triggered until Fidelity"s DNA had been processed, which unfortunately took longer than they expected.
I raised the issue of the beating Fidelity had received, and Shamus explained that the agent could not prevent it without blowing her cover, but record was kept and sent to the appropriate sections with the Irish government to lodge either a formal protest or use as leverage. Shamus had also known of the reputations of the American observers and was confident that their report back to the Americans would equally prove embarrassing to the British.
The world of espionage in our world, was just as devious and labyrinthine as any faction in the Mystical Realms could ever be
I looked down at Fidelity, then turned back to Shamus and asked "Fidelity has the ability to emphatically encourage people to be faithful, how does Fancying actually work, how do you make two people from disparate backgrounds fall in love?"
Shamus thought for a while, then replied "Caer, has the empathic ability to allow others to see past any outward front and see the part of the other person that is most in harmony with them, so they can see that the person may be attractive, but"
"But that is not enough for true love to develop" I interjected.
"Well that too, but I was going to say, Caer has never chosen to use that power"
"For fear of the trolls or who ever is running the show?"
"No, she wants nothing to do with this power and has two hearts desires"
I was intrigued, I suspected that one of them was to meet her long lost twin sister, but what was the second. I could not work it out, so I asked.
"Why" Shamus responded, "She wants to be fully human, with a human soul and no longer to be a minor spirit of virtue"
"Is that possible" I asked, but Shamus did not reply.
Fidelity stirred briefly in her sleep, but settled down again. Out of the aircraft window I could see the night sky. We would get the warning about landing soon, so there was time for one more question, so I asked if the Spirit of Fancying, or Caer"s adoptive parents knew that their daughter was a minor spirit of virtue, Shamus told me that the whole family knew everything. The parents, Shaun and Felicity O'Docherty had always been honest with their children, that they had been adopted, but had told them that they had been picked because they had wanted them and that made them special. The leprechauns had at the appropriate time revealed Caer"s true heritage, but the O'Dochertys did not care, they loved her all the same. Caer apparently had grown up to be a well adjusted teenager, confident in her parents unconditional love.
It sounded so saccharine that it did want to make the most hardened cynic, as I am, want to reach for the sick bag, but this was the way it was. A total mirror image of Fidelity"s life until now. All Fidelity had known was pain and under my care, neglect.
The seat belt sign lit up and we were told we were now descending to
Shannon International Airport. I gently roused Fidelity who was still quite groggy from sleeping. As we came into land, once again she was momentarily gripped by panic. This had been her first ever flight in a fixed wing aircraft, I discovered that during her flight in the helicopter, she had been sedated so she would not be any trouble.
It seemed to take forever to taxi to the stand at the terminal, but then we were disembarking at around eight thirty in the evening. We spent around fifteen minutes for the luggage to come through and then, following Shamus, who got us through immigration and customs on diplomatic privilege or something like that, we made it to the cathedral that was the arrivals hall. Fidelity insisted on trundling her new suitcase. There was a large crowd milling around, as this was Ireland"s busiest airport.
"FIDELITY"
I looked round to see where the sudden scream I heard came from; it was the sound of a teenage girl with a definite Irish accent.
"FIDELITY" came the scream again, but nearer.
Then I saw, the spitting image of Fidelity in a pastel green hooded sweatshirt rushing towards Fidelity. It was the Spirit of Fancying. Fidelity was taken by surprise when The Spirit of Fancying, embraced her long lost sister, crying tears of joy. Fidelity dropped the handle to her case and gazed into the face of her twin sister. "Spirit of Fancying" she said nervously
"Yes it"s me" The Spirit of Fancying replied excitedly, and then added in a calmer but kind voice, "but I seldom use that title, please call me Caer"
Fidelity returned the embrace and burst into tears, "I missed you" she cried, "I missed you so much"
"I missed you too Fid" Caer replied, also in tears, then drew back slightly to look Fidelity in the eyes "can I call you Fid, it so much more cooler name"
Fidelity nodded and smiled, she was happy to be there holding her twin sister.
I broke my gaze from the pair; I felt guilty for intruding on this private moment and saw a man in his early to mid forties approaching, with brown hair and wearing a dark red jacket. Just behind him was a woman in her early forties, with bright red hair with a ten year old boy with blonde hair in her hand. It was the rest of the O'Docherty family. The man, Shaun, came up to me and grabbed my right hand.
"Thank you for saving and bringing us Caer"s sister" he said, then to my surprise gave me a big bear hug. When he released me, then told me, "You don"t know what this means to Caer, Thank you"
Felicity came and shook my hand as well and proffered me thanks, introduced me to their adopted son Timothy, and then told me that they had an empty holiday flat on their farm, and I really must come and stay for the weekend at least. Timothy was about ten years old, and just stood their smiling and holding on to his mother"s hand.
COUGH COUGH
Our thoughts were all shattered by Shamus giving a loud staged cough. In all of the high emotion I had forgotten about him. The Leprechaun wandered up to the twins and then spoke to Caer
"Spirit of Fancying" he started
"Please Mr McTuckle its Caer" Caer insisted
Shamus was determined to use her proper title as the embodiment of the virtue of seeing the good and attractive qualities in everyone, "Spirit of Fancying, to be reunited with The Spirit of Fidelity has been one of your hearts desires"
"Sure was" Caer replied and held on to her sister"s hand
"And mine too" added Fidelity, looking at her sisters face, by instinct Caer looked at Fidelity"s face simultaneously.
"And what was you other hearts desire?" Shamus asked
"To be fully human, to have a human soul" Caer replied, her voice cracking with emotion.
Then Shamus turned to Fidelity, "Spirit of Fidelity, is that your wish too?" then added for clarification "to receive a human soul, to be fully human and no longer a minor spirit of virtue"
Fidelity looked at her sister"s face then answered, "If Caer wants it, then I want her to have her soul" Then after a pause, and bursting into tears again "I don"t want to be a minor spirit, because it keeps getting me hurt, please I want to be fully human"
Caer let go of her sister"s hand and gave her a big hug. These sisters had been apart for just under fifteen years, and yet it seemed like they had never been apart.
Shamus stood back for moment and then asked "Spirit of Fidelity, Spirit of Fancying, do you have your talisman"s of permanence with you"
[img=100x200]http://ravenmoonlight.com/catalog/images/talisman_clay_blackgod.jpg[/img]
The boy looked up at Felicity, still not saying anything. Felicity smiled at him. Shaun and I just stood by as well watching Shamus address these two minor spirits of virtue in this formal way, what was Shamus up to.
The two spirits each pulled out almost identical talismans that they had around their necks. One was the mirror image of the other
"Now hold them together" Shamus instructed, "It was the Spirit of True Love"s last gift to you"
"Shall we Fid" Caer asked Fidelity
"Yes Caer" Fidelity replied.
The two spirits clasped the hands holding the talismans together, and suddenly a bright yellow light erupted from their hands as the two talismans met. The ball of light grew and engulfed the twins. Then the bottom of the ball of light lifted to form a ring of light, and then the ring lifted above the twins as they gazed up. As we all gazed in wonder the ring of light fragmented into many star like lights and as they started to dissipate, in the air two small balls of white light grew to the size of a soccer ball, and then each one silently descended on to each of the twins.
Then the light show was over.
"Wow that was cool" the Timothy uttered; "Way to go Caer and Fid" he added punching the air with his free hand.
Suddenly both the twins started to fall backwards away from each other, as they both feinted. I rushed to catch Fidelity and Shaun rushed to catch his adopted daughter before they hit the floor.
By now a crowd was gathering and some helpful person asked if we wanted to ring for an ambulance.
"Give them air" shouted Shamus angrily "Give them air"
The twins were out for about two long minutes, the talismans crumbled to dust in Caer"s and Fidelity"s hands, their job was done. They were Minor Spirits no more; they were normal human teenage girls of fifteen.
Shaun helped Caer to her feet slowly; I did the same with Fidelity.
"I"ve got my soul, I've got my soul" Caer exclaimed excitedly.
"We so happy for you Caer" Felicity said, her voice cracking with emotion.
"You"ve longed for it for such a long time" added Shaun as the two parents hugged their daughter.
I noticed Fidelity starting to back away, I guess she thought that this was a now a private affair for Caer, her adoptive parents and her adopted brother.
Caer looked up and noticed Fidelity standing in the cold as it were and called out to her "Fid come here, it would never have happened with out you
sister"
Sister, Caer emphasised that word sister in a manner that seemed to be sending a message to her parents
Caer left the group hug, and took Fidelity by the hand and drew her back. Felicity and Shaun came round to include Fidelity in the circle.
I stood watching, with Shamus by my side, I felt I was again intruding in a private moment, but something told me I needed to be here.
Caer spoke up, first to Fidelity "You"re going to be part of this family, because Mummy and Daddy are going to adopt you too" then she turned to Shaun, "Aren"t you Daddy"
"Of cause Caer, that was always the plan" Shaun replied
"Ever since we knew you existed, Fidelity, you always had a place in our hearts" Felicity told Fidelity, "If you will have us" she then added.
"I want another sister" Timothy chipped in
Fidelity looked up at me, and it seemed like she was asking for permission from me. I walked over to the group, as I did so they broke the group hug formation, then with my voice almost cracking up I told Fidelity "Go for it, it is where you belong. I"m, sorry I was not there for you all the time"
"yes please" Fidelity replied and broke down again. Caer gave her a sisterly hug, "I don"t want to go back to that hostel, please I don"t want to go to that hostel again" she kept repeating. She was so overcome that they had to help her to a seat to calm down.
"Your coming home with us Fid and we will be sisters forever" Caer told Fidelity and she was crying too, although with tears of joy.
The former spirits of virtue, the daughters of the murdered Spirit of True Love, my first client from the Mystical Realms had now got each other, had become human at last and also a loving home, although this part had been part of Caer"s life the longest.
I picked up Fidelity"s case and followed behind the family.
"Why are you so hard on yourself" Shamus asked me
"I feel I let her down" I replied
"Who, Fidelity or the Spirit of True Love"
"Both," I replied "They let me go free in 2001 and I left The Spirit of True Love behind to be murdered and it be made to look like suicide. And I did not make enough time for Fidelity or find out why she hated the hostel. Shamus, she was starving to death in front of me and I never bothered to notice"
Shamus thought for a moment and as we reached the door to leave the airport for the fresh air he pulled me aside, motioning Fidelity and the O'Docherty family to wait. Then spoke to me.
"Graeme, with the Spirit of True Love there was nothing you could do, the Lord Low Troll was a tyrant, unlike his son who is a bit more reasonable these days. And none of us knew of the Spirit of Lust"s involvement or how Yagel had penetrated the elven enclaves. As for Fidelity, you had a child thrust on you with no experience and you did what you could, Fidelity was still under Yagel"s thumb and too afraid to ask for help even though he was dead. Trauma has that effect. And as for Fidelity"s capture by the British, well that was my cousin"s fault, he lead them to her. You must move on. Fidelity is going to have a loving family to help her heal, probably better than that troll captain"s healing potion."
As we walked out into the night I could not help notice that there was a Salvation Army band playing carols. It was there last one and it was Hark The Herald Angels Sing.
We all stood around singing the carol, except Fidelity who did not know the words and Caer, who just stood there holding her hand. Then apart from Shamus, who went elsewhere, we left for the O"Docherty Farm.
The end
For Now