"Fifteen, my well-toned arse!" Ethan exclaimed, outraged at the claim coming from the boy on the television screen.

"He could be," Kat said defensively from where she and Megan were sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Giles reluctantly turned his head on Ethan's lap to look blearily at the screen. Last night's equinox celebration with the full Devon coven down in Westbury had left him feeling rather, well, fragile. He'd been hoping to catch a little sleep on the sofa while the other three watched Ethan's birthday 'porn' on this, their last day in Devon before returning to London tomorrow.

Megan, ever the voice of reason, pointed out, "I doubt they'd be allowed to use a real fifteen year-old in this role."

On the screen, a man with dark, tightly curled hair and a way of moving that reminded Giles strongly of a young Ethan, was just entering a loft flat with a younger, obviously nervous blond. "Looks fairly young to me."

Ethan's hand moved slightly on Giles' hip. "Young yes, fifteen no. He's about six-foot tall! Also, a boy who looked like that wouldn't have to slum it with that slimy bloke."

As Giles watched, the 'slimy bloke' as Ethan had dubbed him went to the fridge and took out a bottle of water, which he promptly poured over himself, shaking his head and sending water droplets everywhere. "Oh, I don't know," Giles said mildly. "He seems to have a certain style."

"He's such a poser... oh, pretty though." Giles could hear the smirk in Ethan's voice as the man on the screen took his shirt off, revealing a slender but toned body.

"You said it!" Kat piped up, leaning forward and staring avidly at the screen.

"Try not to drool on the carpet," Giles told the both of them dryly.

"They're kissing!" Kat squeaked. Giles felt more than heard Ethan's quiet chuckle at the girl's reaction.

Megan shot the other girl a look. "What did you expect them to do? Play charades?"

"But, but... it's so hot!"

"She doesn't say that when we kiss," Ethan remarked dryly to Giles.

"Yes, I so do!" Kat defended herself, her tone then changing to one of disappointment as the scene shifted. "Oh, they stopped."

"All right, now he can do better," Giles opined, watching the two characters who were now on the screen. "Actually," he added, looking up at Ethan, "that big bruiser looks an awful lot like the pillock who you had thrashing you when we first met."

"Considerably less hair, but yes," Ethan agreed. Then, apparently in response to a questioning look from Kat, he added in an amused tone, "Ripper rescued me from an unpleasant situation. He broke the git's arm for me, which was very obliging of him, I must say. It was love at first sight, of course."

Before Giles could comment on that inaccurate summary, Kat asked, "Why do you call Giles 'Ripper' sometimes?"

Memories of the incident that had led to Ethan bestowing the nickname upon him flashed through Giles' mind; he winced at the thought of sharing that particular story. "I don't know if you're old enough for us to answer that," he told them. As an afterthought, he added, "And I didn't break the git's arm for Ethan, I broke the git's wrist because he was coming at me with a knife."

"I like my version of the story better," Ethan said, and Giles could tell he was pouting good-humouredly. Then Ethan straightened up in the seat rather abruptly. "Oh, look. Porn. Now this is more like it."

Silence fell in the room as Ethan and the two girls seemed captivated by the two naked men onscreen and the conversation they were having while... keeping their hands busy.

Until Megan turned around and asked, "So what is rimming?"

Giles felt Ethan twitch. "Ask your father, dear."

Turning his head to look up at Ethan, Giles asked, "Assuming you meant me, does that make you their mother?"

Ethan smirked down at him. "You seem determined to get me in drag, Rupert." He paused, biting his lip, and then added, "Again."

Feeling both girls' eyes on them, and knowing that the whole question of rimming had suddenly taken a backseat to this new titbit of information, Giles smiled. "It wasn't like I held you down and forced you into a dress."

"You told me which one to buy. Well, nick..." Ethan, who had been staring fondly into Giles' eyes, seemed to suddenly realise they had an audience. He looked up and said, "Eyes front, you bad girls. Watch the nice porn."

Only it wasn't porn anymore... the action having somehow diverged into a hospital room and a woman with a baby.

"Gay sex doesn't usually lead to that," Giles murmured for Ethan's ears only as the girls chattered back and forth amongst themselves, trying to pick the plot back up.

"No, I'm lost," Ethan admitted, not that he seemed to care much as he was looking back down at Giles, stroking his hair. Ethan's lower hand had moved a little up Giles' body and was now resting just above his belt buckle, the fingers slipped between the buttons of Giles' shirt to tickle his skin.

Giles almost felt like purring under the light touches, closing his eyes and enjoying the attention. "We'll have to watch it again, when we're not so... distracted."

Since their transcendent experience on the cliff-top together, Ethan had seemed a little different somehow to Giles. Obviously, Ethan was now restored to full health, but it wasn't just that. Ethan seemed lighter, more at ease, more... comfortable in his own skin. He was increasingly physically affectionate, although Giles had to admit that probably applied to himself as well; their growing bond made it very difficult to keep their hands away from each other. But with Ethan, it was more than just that, although it was difficult to define how.

It was almost as if Ethan was becoming the man he should have been, had Chaos not taken over his life, and Giles was finding that he liked that man very much. They fit together better than they ever had previously; the friction that had always seemed just below the surface simply wasn't there anymore.

"How are you feeling now, dearheart?" Ethan asked very quietly.

Giles opened his eyes to look up at Ethan. "Quite content," he replied, reaching for Ethan's hand where it lay on his stomach and entwining their fingers. "You seem to have the magic touch." His mouth quirked into a smile. "No pun intended."

"Yes, I'm not sure that magic touching would be all that wise in the current company, knowing how such things normally end up." Ethan's eyes twinkled. "I must say, I enjoyed last night. We should go out more."

Despite his worries about how well he would be accepted, Ethan had ultimately been deep in his social element at the full coven gathering. Giles hadn't seen Ethan dance for a very long time, but he now had new memories to cherish of Ethan moving through the smoke from the huge bonfire, somewhat drunk, and full of the same catlike grace he'd always possessed.

Giles hadn't been the only one to notice; Ethan had had no lack of dance partners, or partners for other things if he'd been so inclined. Giles had found himself watching with pride, but also a little... disquiet.

It wasn't jealousy because he was certain he could trust Ethan not to stray, but after a while, Giles hadn't wanted to watch him moving so sinuously with other people. This... possessiveness, he guessed was the best word for it, eventually led him to join Ethan among the celebrants, dancing and losing himself in a way that he hadn't since the old days, and rarely even then.

Which went a long way to explaining his condition when he woke up this morning.

Ethan, of course, had woken up complaining more loudly than Giles, but following a sturdy breakfast and a lot of coffee, he had seemed remarkably free of adverse side effects from the night before. He certainly seemed wide-awake now as he focused on the screen again. "Ah, the porn's back. That boy has a lovely arse, don't you agree? Oh..."

Giles glanced back at the TV and had to fight the urge to do a double-take.

"Ohh, so that's what rimming is," Megan said, staring.

"That's slightly more porn than I was expecting," Giles murmured.

"Well, they don't actually show it..." Ethan said. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. He was fidgeting under Giles.

The scene had changed to something more innocent, and Kat turned round to look at them, a bright expression on her face. "So do you guys ever do that?"

"Watch Doctor Who?" Giles asked, deliberately misunderstanding and referring to what was on the screen now.

"That rimming thing," Kat clarified helpfully. Megan looked around to hear the answer as well.

Giles opened his mouth then closed it when he realised he had no idea what to say. He looked up. "Ethan, why don't you field this one?"

Ethan's eyes widened, and he seemed about to protest, but then his eyes fell back to the screen. "Oh look, more porn," he said weakly.

It worked. Both girls looked back to watch the simulated anal sex... Until the inevitable moment when they turned around again, and Kat asked, "How about that? Do you do that?"

"Okay, that's it." Ethan twisted on the sofa in order to reach over the side, forcing Giles to lift his head. Ethan's hand reappeared with the television remote, and he turned the box off. "You girls can watch this on your own if you like," he said, and there was a strong tone in his voice that Giles didn't think he'd ever really heard before. "But not with us. And there will be no more questions about my sex life with Rupert. Do you understand?"

Ethan sounded like... a Watcher? A father?

Giles found he was staring up at Ethan again, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the girls were staring too.

Ethan prompted the Slayers. ""Yes, Ethan. We'll do just what you say, Ethan, and we'll stop gazing gormlessly at you as if you'd transformed into a gorgonite demon." He looked down at Giles. "And you can stop that too."

"Me?" Giles held his hands up in mock defence. "I'm just lying here listening to you take charge."

Ethan wriggled uncomfortably, clearly not too happy with the idea. "Shh," he said and placed a fingertip over Giles' mouth.

Megan giggled and stood, pulling Kat with her. "That, I think, would be our cue to leave. Before you two start doing things we're not supposed to ask about."

Kat, frowning deeply, seemed about to argue, but then appeared to see something in Ethan's expression that stopped her speaking. She followed Megan to the door.

"Kat?" Ethan called softly. When she turned, he said, "I love my birthday porn. Thank you."

She smiled, looking much happier, and the two Slayers left the room, closing the door behind them.

"It can be a bit disconcerting, can't it?" Giles asked, after watching Ethan for a moment.

"Shut up," he replied mildly, staring out of the window.

Sitting up, Giles shifted so he could wrap his arms around Ethan's waist and pull him back against him. "It happened to me too," he said conversationally.

"Rupert, whatever are you talking about?" Ethan asked, ever so slightly waspish. "You've always been 'in charge'."

Giles ignored Ethan's irritation and dropped a kiss at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. "Suddenly discovering you feel more than a professional responsibility for young people is disconcerting," he elaborated in the same tone. "Took me totally by surprise when it happened to me."

Ethan shivered a little at the kiss, and Giles could feel the other man relaxing almost despite himself. "It was one thing feeling responsible for their well-being, quite another to find myself, the arch-corrupter, turning into a prude."

Swallowing the laughter that threatened at that description, Giles assured Ethan, "I don't think you're a prude."

Ethan wriggled around in Giles' arms to face him. "I am not a figure of fun either," he asserted, seeming to sense the amusement Giles was repressing, but the corners of Ethan's own mouth were twitching upwards.

"Oh, I don't know," Giles teased. "I find you quite a lot of fun."

Ethan looked hard at him for a few moments, lips twisted in a wry expression, but then he laughed. "I suppose," he said, after kissing Giles, "We should think about getting ready for our big important visit this afternoon."

As it hadn't even been noon the last time Giles had glanced at the clock, and their meeting with the coven Seer wasn't scheduled until around tea time, he wondered exactly how much getting ready Ethan thought they were going to need. "It's a bit early yet, isn't it?"

"Oh no," Ethan assured him, his fingers travelling down Giles' chest and unerringly finding a cloth-covered nipple to play with. "We are going to need every single minute available if we're to be ready on time."

A tiny thrum of arousal went through Giles from where Ethan touched him. "Have something in mind, do you?" he asked, his voice becoming a bit huskier already.

"Perhaps," Ethan said, twisting his fingers just a little cruelly. "As you seem to find the idea of me 'in charge' to be somewhat of a joke, I should amuse you further." He leant forward to flick his tongue over Giles' lips.

The thrum of arousal got a little stronger at the suggestion. "I'm at your disposal," Giles murmured tilting his head back and offering his throat in a submissive gesture.

Ethan seemed to hesitate briefly, but then licked slowly all the way from Giles' breastbone to the tip of his chin, before kissing him hard. Giles felt a hand sneak around behind his neck and fingers knot into the hair above his nape.

It was easy to get lost in the kiss, in Ethan's touch, but Giles made sure to let his lover keep control. Ethan's tongue filled his mouth, and Giles found himself being pressed further and further back into the sofa.

As he made it to a prone position, Giles moved his legs to accommodate Ethan's weight on top of him more easily, which coincidentally pressed his growing erection against Ethan more firmly. He kissed Ethan back enthusiastically and lightly rested his hands on Ethan's hips, but Giles was still careful not to take the lead from him.

Which all made it a bit of a shame when Ethan stopped suddenly and sat up.

"What...?" Giles began, automatically reaching to pull him back down again.

Ethan avoided Giles' hands. "I'm sorry. I... I can't." He stood up. "This isn't..."

Giles immediately stood and silenced the words with a kiss. "It's all right," he murmured, pulling Ethan up and tightly against him then letting his hands slide down to cup Ethan's arse. It was obvious that the problem was concerning Ethan taking charge. There was, at the back of Giles' mind, a flicker of disappointment, but it was hardly noticed.

It didn't matter how he and Ethan came together; having Ethan in his arms and pressed up against him this way was much more important.

***

Ethan was feeling perhaps overly fastidious. There was free-range humanitarian farming on the one hand, and there was just letting all the animals wander wherever the hell they wanted on the other. This was the latter, and there was what he horribly suspected was pigshit on his shoe.

The Coven seer, apparently, lived in a ramshackle building in the middle of a fenced off plot of land within which dangerous wild animals –well, pigs, goats, geese and chickens, and, ah yes, a donkey– roamed as they would.

Ethan walked very close to Rupert as they made their way to the house, hoping for protection should any of the swine become aggressive. Rupert glanced sideways at him as they walked, his entire manner amused. "City boy," he teased.

Ethan shot him a look. "What of it?"

"You're looking at the animals as if they're a pack of hungry hydrin demons, and you're the first food they'd seen in a month."

"Geese can be vicious," Ethan insisted. He was pretty sure he'd read that somewhere. "Although they make nice eating." He grinned toothily at the nearest large white bird, and to his surprise, it honked and ran away, starting a little flurry of fowl fleeing from them. He turned to Rupert, still grinning. "Do you think they understand English?"

Rupert stared at him without speaking for a long moment. "I think," he finally said slowly, "it's more what they saw than what they heard."

Ethan blinked, and then, having a sneaking suspicion what Rupert was seeing, he opened his magic senses up to his own body. "Oops," he said, when he found and corrected the fox-eyes he was currently sporting. "Um, I guess all the feathers just brought it out in me."

He was going to have to talk to Ian about that before they left Devon tomorrow. His mentor had been training Ethan to shape-change into what Ian called Ethan's 'heart-beast' and what Rupert called his 'spirit animal'. But it wasn't meant to happen accidentally.

Apparently thinking along similar lines, Rupert said mildly, "I'll buy you a pair of sunglasses when we go back to London."

"Good idea." Ethan chuckled then swore as he narrowly avoided stepping in another pile of something disgusting.

They reached what passed for a front door in the broken down house. "Keri?" Rupert called out as he pushed the door open and stepped into the dim interior.

There were, predictably, roosting chickens inside. There was also a very strange smell, and from further in, Ethan thought he could hear... bubbling?

"Come in, come in," a female voice called from the next room. The owner of the voice appeared in the inner doorway a few seconds later. She was young, younger than Ethan had expected given what he'd heard of her,. She looked little older than the children Rupert had shepherded in Sunnydale. She was dressed in a long, chocolate brown dress over which an apron was tied. Her hair was sandy brown and gathered up in a bun at the nape of her neck, although wisps escaped to curl around her face.

She wasn't pretty; her features were too sharp, her nose too long, her hazel eyes far too knowing to ever have that word applied to her. But she had a presence that was impossible to ignore, and an air of power that made the hairs on Ethan's arms stand up.

"Nice place you have here," he said with a vacuous grin.

That brought her attention to focus on him, and Ethan could feel his knees wanting to buckle under the weight of her stare. Without moving her gaze, she smiled and spoke, but not to him. "Rupert. I see you've finally found the treasure you lost."

"If you'd been a little more specific as to what treasure you'd been talking about, I might have been more prompt," Rupert replied with good humour.

"Ah, but then you would have missed the journey, and that is the most important part." Finally, she turned to look at Rupert, and Ethan let out a breath of relief at being out from under her eyes for the moment. "It's good to see you, Rupert," she said with a smile.

If Rupert was as uncomfortable under her regard as Ethan had been, he didn't show it. He returned the smile and reached for her hands. "Likewise. You're looking well."

Ethan wondered if anyone would notice if he slunk off to the car. He took a cautious step back just to see what would happen.

Keri squeezed Rupert's hands, and without looking over at Ethan, asked, "Are you going to introduce me?"

"I'm starting to wonder if I need to," Rupert replied, but nonetheless, he let go of her hands to turn and reach out to Ethan.

Unsuccessfully disguising his reluctance, Ethan allowed himself to be pulled closer to the woman again. He decided trying to look her in the eye wasn't worth breaking out into a sweat over so instead gazed at a broody chicken nesting on an ancient armchair. "So just how much of this livestock was once human?" he asked casually, as if talking about the weather.

She laughed, the sound like warm cashmere against Ethan's ears, and although her aura of power didn't fade, it no longer seemed quite so intimidating. "My talents lie elsewhere from transmogrification," Keri told him, still smiling. "I read the patterns; I don't change them."

Ethan understood immediately what she meant. In his own limited fashion, he could view the past and near future of a given pattern, just enough to know how to twist it. Keri, he imagined, saw a great deal further. He moved closer to Rupert and gave the seer an uneasy smile. "That must make for an interesting life."

"We all have our paths to walk," she answered without really answering at all. "Some of us just take longer to find them."

He frowned at the criticism he heard in her words if not her tone. "Didn't you just say that the journey was the most important part?" He turned to Rupert, who was considerably more relaxing a visual prospect. "And what was that about lost treasure?"

"It was something that Keri told me last time I was here, that I had to seek out the treasure that was lost. That was the wording, wasn't it?" Rupert looked at Keri for confirmation.

She nodded. "You have an excellent memory, Rupert."

Ethan privately thought that Rupert might as well have read it in the horoscope column of the Daily Star if that was how non-specific she'd been. He kept his thoughts to himself however. The odd smell was intensifying, and he didn't think he needed visionary ability to know what was bubbling in the next room. "I think your cauldron may be boiling over, sweet thing."

Keri gave him another of those mysterious smiles and disappeared back deeper into the house.

Ethan relaxed a little once she was gone, although not a great deal as this house was too much like something from cautionary Russian folklore. He wouldn't be at all surprised to feel it lift up and start running around on huge chicken legs. He turned and leant into Rupert, no longer trying to hide how... disturbed he felt here.

Rupert wrapped his arms around him and nuzzled his cheek comfortingly. "It was you," he said.

"What? Oh." Ethan suddenly understood; Rupert was referring to the missing treasure. "No wonder it took you so long then. Mislabelled goods."

Rupert chuckled. "We've got the right labels on everything now."

"I think my current label reads 'doesn't belong here'," Ethan confessed. "The fox in me feels like he's trying to masquerade as a hound in the huntsman's kennels."

"Keri has that effect on people." Rupert's hands were moving lightly over him, rubbing Ethan's back in soothing circles.

"Not on you apparently. Oh God..." A small pig was snuffling its way through the door. Ethan moved so Rupert was between him and it.

He knew he was being what the Slayers would undoubtedly term a 'wuss', but he felt what he felt, and every instinct inside him was telling him that this was a dangerous place to be. It was, apparently, his day for nancyish behaviour anyway, after he'd failed to take charge during their sexual escapades earlier. He knew he'd disappointed Rupert, however hard his lover had tried to hide it, but he was what he was.

Something deep inside Ethan needed Rupert to be the boss of him, and while Ethan could mock-dominate in play for short periods, as soon as things became more serious, he needed Rupert to take the reins back. He didn't like to think about why this was as he strongly suspected he wouldn't like the answer, which would probably involve the fact he didn't trust himself as far as he could, um, toss a caber.

Feeling like the weak man he apparently was, Ethan mumbled in Rupert's ear, "Can we get this done with quickly then go somewhere... free of livestock?"

Rupert turned so he could kiss Ethan then smiled affectionately at him. "This won't take long, love. We can even stop for a bacon sandwich on the way back."

Ethan felt an evil and appreciative grin forming on his face. "Hear that, Babe?" he said to the pig. "That's the sound of your mum sizzling." Which was possibly not the ideal thing for him to be saying when Keri walked back into the room.

The look she bestowed on him was amused, but that didn't make Ethan feel any better. "So," she said, wiping her hands off on her apron, "you're here for dream interpretation."

Ethan looked expectantly at Rupert.

Rupert opened his mouth to answer, but Keri held up a hand to stop him. "Tell me about the dream, Ethan," she bid, her gaze having never left him.

Ethan felt his eyes widen, and he had to bite his lip to stop himself making an urgent request that she go and do something obscene. "Really, I don't think I'm the one to talk to about this."

Keri smiled at him. "You are the perfect one to talk about it," she told him. "Rupert lets his training get in the way of his instincts. You've lived by your instincts for far too long to do that."

"I seem to be doing a good job of not listening to them currently," Ethan replied petulantly, but he sighed and closed his eyes, leaning his head on Rupert's shoulder. He obviously wasn't going to be allowed to leave until this was done, so he might as well talk.

He thought back to the dream from the night of his birthday. While Rupert and he hadn't discussed it in great detail afterwards, they'd shared enough of the imagery to feel convinced that they had both been in the same dream. Ethan's memory of it was still pretty clear. "Rupert and I are standing on a stage within the symbol for infinity, which is chalked on the boards. There's an audience."

Rupert wrapped his arms around Ethan in a loose but supportive embrace as Keri asked, "What are you feeling in the dream?"

Grateful for the contact with Rupert, Ethan didn't look up. "I don't remember any particular emotion until Rupert leaves the stage. Then the audience starts throwing things, and I feel... scared, but not of them. It's almost as if I wasn't really aware in the dream, until he leaves me to fend for myself."

Rupert made a sound in his throat. "That's not right."

Ethan opened his eyes and looked up. "I believe it is."

Rupert shook his head. "I didn't leave, you did. I was chasing you."

"No," Ethan said slowly. "I was definitely the one trying to find you. In my dream, at least."

"Interesting," Keri murmured.

Rupert turned his attention to the seer. "Interesting?" he repeated.

"You had the same point of view. You see the same weaknesses in yourselves, and the same strengths in the other. You fear the same things, and that fear in the past has led you both to do the very thing you're afraid of."

Ethan wanted to argue as there was no way he could believe Rupert saw in him what he saw in Rupert, but again he let discretion rule him and simply carried on with his account of the dream. "I ran after him, through the wings. There was some confusing stuff with racks of costumes and huge masks, like carnival heads; then I was following Rupert into the star's dressing room.

"You both fear losing each other behind the faces you show the world," Keri said. "It's a fear that has merit, and one you should guard against."

Ethan moved closer to Rupert. "No more masks," he muttered, before continuing with the retelling. "I sat at a dressing table and smeared grease paint across my face. I was... upset. I asked my image in the mirror where Rupert was, and my image answered that he was behind the curtain. There was a changing screen in the room. I pulled back the curtain and there was a full-length mirror beyond. Rupert was in the mirror, beckoning, so I went through the looking glass. Only to find myself drowning in deep, dangerous waters."

"It was the same for me," Rupert said softly. "Except I was where Ethan was, and he was where he saw me." He hesitated and added, "The drowning in deep waters part was very similar to a guided meditation I did a few weeks back."

Keri nodded. "The symbolism holds from one to the other."

"That of being overwhelmed by things outside our control." Ethan looked emphatically at Rupert. "It was Chaos, that thing in the depths. Certainly, it was other things as well –my inability to cope with losing you, and apparently, your fear of your own magic, but it was intrinsically, intensely Chaos. I'd know it anywhere."

"You are more right than you know," Keri told them, voice solemn and serious.

Ethan wasn't at all sure what that meant, but he wasn't sure he wanted to know either so didn't ask. This was the worst bit of the dream; the part he had genuine trouble replaying. "In order to save myself from the Chaos in the abyss, I threw it my heart, which kept it distracted. I was still going to drown, but at least the maelstrom would not have me." He shut his eyes once more, hugging Rupert tightly. "Before knowing that we shared the same role in the dream, I had assumed this part was about something I once did to Rupert and why, followed by my years of incarceration."

"I had thought it was about... back then," Rupert said haltingly, his voice soft and full of regret. "In the cemetery. When I..." Ethan hugged him tighter still.

"Lies and fears are Chaos' weapons clouding the path. You've both made decisions that ignored your heart's wisdom." Keri's voice warmed with her next words. "You're both far less likely to make that type of mistake again."

"Rupert rescued me," Ethan continued, not totally clear if he was talking about the dream or real life with those three words. "I, er... There was a malignant forest, it felt like... cancer. But it couldn't hurt us because we were together, and we drew the Infinity symbol around ourselves again and the forest burnt away. And that was really it apart from a brief scene involving our spirit beasts, which we more or less lived out a few days ago on a cliff-top."

"It was a true seeing," Keri said after a moment's silence. "You were always meant to walk the same path. Now that you've joined your destinies, you will have more of these... signposts."

Ethan snorted softly. "Love, magic, destiny..." he murmured very quietly by Rupert's ear.

"Indeed," Rupert murmured back, the smile evident in his voice.

"Pay attention to your dreams," Keri bade them. "Discuss them when they come. You have it in you to interpret them, but only if you approach them together. Remember what this dream is telling you – you are connected, and you're strongest when you work together."

Her eyes took on a distant look, her voice becoming more powerful and commanding. "You are going to need all of your strength. The seasons change. Even the most deeply hibernating bear eventually awakens. The pattern frays and threatens to unravel. Nothing will be sought by dark and light. Nothing is the key – turn it one way and the threads will be warped and torn; turn it the other and the bear will howl its rage in the wilderness. You will have to do much more than watch; you are the guardians and the defenders. All is a maze, and only those who have touched its substance will be able to find the end. The dark is jealous and solitary; it does not understand selflessness or love. It does not understand the light. That, ultimately, will be its downfall."

"Bugger," Ethan swore softly. Everything else Keri had said, he could have come up with himself easily enough, and it could just as easily have been confidence tricking as genuine insight. But there was no doubt at all that that long spiel had been the genuine article.

The room had developed a chill as if the use of power to see the future patterns had drawn the heat from the air. The pig was now trying to leave the room in a hurry, and the chickens were plumped out as if it were winter.

Ethan himself was chilled inside by Keri's words and the future they seemed to indicate. He had, to be honest, rather been looking forward to a long and easy married life with the man of his dreams. Her prophecy –as it clearly was one– made it all too clear that relaxing was one thing the future was not. He screwed his face up, not bothering to hide his displeasure.

Destiny was all very well in theory, but Ethan was rather decidedly fond of free will.

***

So concludes Smoke and Mirrors. The story continues in Sleight of Hand