Another Early Morning Arrival

Dana sat still as stone in the third row aisle seat of the empty plane, a glass of ginger ale with lime at her elbow, and her knuckles white as snow on the arm rests. It was the third such flight she had made in her lifetime and the second in the last half year. It was no fault of her own that second flight, but she could have stayed in Ireland, but it held too much emotion, not to mention mystery and fear.

Six months ago, she'd received a call in the middle of the day, a very distraught quiet unintelligible Gerald was on the other end. It took her a good ten minutes, but she'd managed to pull from him that Lady Erin was quiet simply dead, true dead, or at least he assumed the large pile of ashes that used to be her bed and bedroom contained Lady Erin. Sebastian could not be reached, and he knew not whom else to call.

Dana threw things in a suitcase, left a note for Amir, and drove her little car to the airport. Along the way she arranged a flight, with an extra attendant as the dashing foray into the sunshine required blood for healing. She'd arrived to her home, nine long hours later, to find a very dead Gerald, a strangely burned room, and an otherwise empty manor. It was incredibly eerie.

Over the next months, she cleaned the place out from top to bottom, kept what she wanted, sold what she could, gave away what she couldn't. Never did she find Sebastian, or the person responsible for Lady Erin's Death. She did find the note Gerald left her. Him taking his own life, did not surprise her. She wasn't certain how long a familiar could live with out its master, and so she buried him with Lady Erin's ashes. Along the way she did everything she could to find Lady Erin's killer, and her good friend Sebastian, even taking a short trip to Spain, to find only his staff occupying his home.

Now, well, there wasn't anything left for her but sadness and fear in Ireland, so she returned to the only other place she'd ever called home. She knew she should have called Amir and Bao and Ysabel, but she just never seemed to be able to make herself pick up the phone, and she could only hope Amir had gotten her note and if he hadn't, well that was just as well. She was quite certain she was fit for no one's company and would likely remain that was for some time.

It was with little relief that she disembarked from the terror capsule, and climbed into the limo as her driver and the plane staff wrestled with her bags and boxes. A few of them ended up in the passenger compartment with her.

They made their way through the dark and busy streets of Nachton, and Dana rolled down the window to breathe in the scents, and felt a knot in her chest ease a bit. With the city smells blowing around her, she called ahead to Heolfor. Her near dawn arrival wasn't heralded by trumpets and fanfare, just a dark suited man and the welcoming lights of the entry hall.

She left the driver with a small thanks and a tip, to help the young man deal with her things. It was not how she preferred to interact with people now, but it was all she had in her. Still dressed in black, this time a skirt suit, she made her way to her rooms.

Dana wasn't sure what she expected to find, but it comforted her that the little green dragon still cast his light over the room. She walked to the little set of shelves, pulled a bit of black lace from her purse and put it over the portrait of Lady Erin. Then beside it she put a small clock, one that had been on her Lady's desk for as long as she could remember, stopped at the time of Lady Erin's discovery by some unknown hand.

After her things had been brought to her room, she sat silently in the dark, snuggled into the corner of her favorite chair. The slim phone programmed with the numbers of those important mocked her from its perch on the table.

Tomorrow...she would make contact with the living tomorrow.

((Dana Out))