The Knowing

[Rhiannon Laurent]

Rhiannon was more than a little surprised to see the way the lack of Del was affecting her. True, they didn't get to spend a lot of time together, but there was always the knowing ... the knowing he was around, the knowing he would be able to make her smile, the knowing there was something growing between them. The knowing made the days she didn't see him easier to get through.

The knowing wasn't there. She didn't know where he was, she didn't know when she'd see him ... she didn't even really know that he was alright. Rory had told her he was, but hearing it just isn't the same as knowing it.

Rhi stumbled around in a fog for a few days, trying to break everything down to its bare essentials and make sense of it all. It wasn't working. What had happened was mystical in nature and Rhi had always rather scoffed at such things. Grandma Jessie had been steeped in it. Pagan to the very core, Grandma had her potions and did her scrying, she chanted and cast spells. Rhiannon had always written it off as the delusions of an old woman. Grandma had been getting on in years even when Rhi was just a young girl. God only knew how old she was now ... or how she was still getting around and doing her thing. Even with the nonsense, as Rhi called it, Grandma had always been a strong shoulder to lean on. True, the advice on how to use hemlock and moonstones were always mixed in with more down to earth consultations, but Rhi just took it with a grain of salt.

So it was with no small amount of surprise that Rhi had found herself at Grandma Jessie's soddy, spilling out her heart. After a good dose of molasses cookies and valerian root tea to calm her granddaughter down, Jessie had sent Rhi on her way with a to-go package: More cookies, a number of different color candles and a specialized herbal mixture.

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The hour was late, the Arena had long been empty following the duels. Rhi had waited as long as she could before moving to kneel in the center of a ring. Grandma Jessie's care package, sans the cookies, was untied from its scarf and laid out before her. Rhiannon set up and lit each of the candles carefully, in a circle around her, casting the circle, as Grammy called it.

"I create this space that it be between the worlds...." Even as she whispered the words, Rhi felt at once both silly, and as though there was ... something ... different. She wasn't sure she was doing this entirely right, but Grandma had said that was the beauty if it, it was right if it felt right.

Rhiannon took out the note she'd written to Del. It was short, it was to the point, it was heartfelt. She read it aloud as she sprinkled some of the herb mixture onto the paper.

"I miss you, Del. Come back to me."

It was harder to say out loud than it had been to write. She refolded the note, the herbs gathered into the packet. A candle was tipped over it, allowing the red wax to drip down before the flame was held to the paper, lighting it aflame. Rhi watched as the thin wisp of smoke rose and dissipated, supposedly carrying her message off with it. Grandma Jessie was sure of it, Rhiannon was skeptical, but fervently hopeful.

That done, Rhi repacked up her spell supplies and wandered back to Del's house to do the only thing she could ... wait for Del and the knowing to return.