Belladonna

didn't matter.
    A parting of the ways. Why? There was a spark between Glorianna and Michael. She'd seen that for herself when they'd all sailed to the White Isle. If there was more interest on Michael's side and wariness on Glorianna's, well, so be it. A woman was entitled to be wary about where she gave her heart, wasn't she? And with the bridges these folks knew how to make, neither of them would have to sacrifice their pieces... of the ... world ...
    She stared at her reflection in the window.
    She'd forgotten. Or hadn't wanted to remember. A riddle. An answer. And a story about love — and sacrifice.
    She went back to her work, doing her share to provide food for the guests and residents of this house in Sanctuary. But even as her hands performed familiar tasks, nothing was quite the same. Would never be the same again.
    Travel lightly, Brighid.
    Advice and blessing from a Guide of the Heart. She would heed that advice, honor that blessing. And when the sky began to lighten, she would walk out to the koi pond and, for the first time in many years, lift her voice in celebration of the dawn.
    "Is there a reason you're here at this hour, emptying my pantry?" Nadia asked, pushing her sleep-mussed hair away from her face as she eyed the supplies spread out on the kitchen table.
    "Just need a few things," Glorianna muttered as she packed a couple of items into one of the two market baskets. "Michael will be awake soon and I didn't think about getting supplies on the way back to the island."
    Nadia tightened the belt of the robe she'd thrown on over her nightgown. "You could always just bring him around for breakfast and then do some marketing on your own."
    Too many people. Too many distractions.
    "Glorianna?"
    "I want a day with the Magician. Alone. On the island," Glorianna said softly.
    "Well, that's fine, but that's no reason to be taking all my eggs."
    "I know how to stop the Eater of the World. I know what to do."
    "Glorianna?"
    The sharpness in Nadia's voice warned her that her mother had heard what was under the words.
    She raised her head and met Nadia's eyes. "I know what to do."
    "Then we'll talk about it. All of us. Jeb can fetch Lee and Sebas—"
    "No." She couldn't have all of them around her. Not today. Maybe that was selfish — it was certainly unfair — but she couldn't face all of them. And she couldn't stand the thought that her last feelings for all of them would carry the resonance of an argument.
    She walked around the table and put her arms around Nadia. Felt her mother's arms tighten around her in response.
    "He'll be angry and he won't want to do it, so lean hard on Lee to make the new bridges that will be needed. And don't turn your heart away from the Magician. It's not his fault. Opportunities and choices, Mother. He provided the opportunity, but the choice is mine."
    "Glorianna."
    She heard the tears.
    "I love you," Glorianna whispered. "When you think of me, remember that. I love you."
    They finished packing the baskets in a silence that held too many things that were said without words.
    Then Glorianna walked out of her mother's house, walked into the dawn's light, and took the step between here and there.
    Glorianna had called it virgin ground. He remembered that much now that his brain started thinking again. She just hadn't explained the significance of virgin ground, which was going on the list of things he intended to discuss with her.
    "You've had a busy time, haven't you?"
    Michael whirled around and saw Glorianna standing nearby, holding two market baskets. Since he didn't think the Places of Light had markets, that meant she'd gone somewhere besides where she said she was going. And that was another something to discuss. They were going to have a plentiful amount to discuss, and to his way of thinking, that discussion would be held at full volume. The fact that she seemed amused by what she was looking at wasn't doing anything for him either.
    What what what?
    And now the wild child was upset again.

    He pointed to the ground in front of the new two-stone-high wall that formed a border around the virgin ground. If it could still be called virgin ground. "We need some stone there. A nice thick layer of pebbles, I'm thinking. In different colors."
    There. That should keep Ephemera busy for a while.
    He watched the ground change with a speed that staggered him. And right before he closed his eyes to shut it all out, he saw Glorianna set the baskets on the ground, cross her arms,