Christian knew he was acting more than a little crazy, but he couldn't help it; it was just such a relief to have his grandfather here. Seth, in turn, hugged him tightly, before going in search of his luggage.

While Eric and Christian packed Seth’s single suitcase into the trunk, Seth reached into the pocket of his coat, and withdrew his hand with a small snake coiled around his fingers and wrist. The scales gleamed in an intricate pattern of black and gold and several kinds of green, as the snake raised its head to look around.

“Hi, Vadin,” Christian said. “Hope it was a good trip.”

The snake slithered off Seth’s hand, growing as it did so, and reached the ground at a considerably larger size. Light flickered around it, and then it was a man, age impossible to estimate, tall and slender and with facial features and skin tone suggesting India where nagas had originally come to this plane—except for the shimmer of gold and green in his black hair, and the snakelike slit-pupiled eyes. “Travel is worth it for the destinations only,” he said philosophically.

“Then let’s get you home to your current destination,” Eric said pragmatically, slamming the trunk closed.

Vadin looked in his direction. “You’ve certainly grown since the last time I saw you.”

“So I’ve heard. Too bad that lapsed for so long. Growing up around Chris would’ve been interesting, I bet, but life happens and I think it’s harder for kids to do distance friendships. Chris’d probably be more computer literate if we had, though. Shall we?”

“Ah, yes, I’ve heard about this project to put Chris’ list of liminals on a computer.” Seth and Vadin slid into the back seat from either side, and Christian took the front passenger seat but turned halfway in place.

“Well, it’s a lot easier to add to it and make corrections,” Christian said. “I’m scared I’ll mess it up and lose everything but Eric keeps doing backup copies on his computer and on a couple of floppy discs that are kept in different places along with the disc he gave me to always save a copy on.”

“I learned the hard way,” Eric added dryly. “There’s normal disc failure, and then there are liminals that increase the chances of disc failure. It’s all just magnetic, after all. So multiple copies of anything valuable, kept well apart, and an up-to-date printed hard copy just in case.”

“Even with the extra effort to do that,” Seth said, “it sounds like it might be worth it and still save some time.”

“Definitely,” Christian said. “Now Eric showed me how, it’s also easier to search it when I’m trying to remember something. I can add key words or phrases to tag things, like stressed pets or three knocks or whatever, or just search the basic info and notes I added. It’s a lot easier to share, too. One of Eric’s cousins does a lot of work with elementals and nature-inclined liminals, and Eric has us sharing things back and forth by email. It’s all a lot simpler since Eric suddenly handed me my own laptop, instead of asking to borrow his or worrying whether he needed his main computer for school.”

“My mom’s partner upgraded,” Eric said. “She needed one a while ago that was a lot more powerful, and she’s just as happy this one’s being put to use instead of cluttering up their apartment. For Yahoo mail and a database, her old four-eighty-six Thinkpad and Windows 95 work just fine.”

“I assume that’s English,” Seth chuckled.

“Sorry. Translated that means, it’s not fast or powerful, it won’t be able to handle doing a lot of things all at the same time or playing newer games, but it’s a super-stable reliable little workhorse that’s not going to give Chris much grief and will probably keep going for as long as I can find the parts to maintain it.”

“That’s easier to understand, and sounds sensible for a novice.”

“We need to get you and Mom and Dad doing email,” Christian laughed. “No more waiting for letters to get back and forth across the Atlantic. No good for sending books and things, though.”

“Give it a few years,” Eric said. “Anyway, anything I can do, I will. I do telephone tech support for most of my family, and you know that’s a lot of people. Why not add Chris’ family too?”

“Maybe we’ll take advantage of that,” Seth said. “The world is definitely moving in that direction, much more than I would have believed a decade ago. It might be turning into a new survival skill. I’m not dead yet, and I hate feeling left behind.”

Eric laughed. “I haven’t been able to convince my Gran to get one yet, but I’m still working on it. She’s slowly weakening, since it would make it easier to keep up with the whole tribe.”

“World-changing inventions take a little time,” Vadin said. “This one... I can see the potential for immense good and immense harm. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see how it goes. Knowing humans, it will do both.”

“Probably,” Eric said. “But we can try to keep the balance tilted towards good.”

On the way in the house, Christian saw Seth pause at the front door briefly and lay a hand on the frame, his expression an odd mix of emotions that Christian couldn’t read.

Mark was waiting in the living room, on a large cushion on the floor; next to him, Sid paused in tearing the fur off a toy mouse, and looked up to see who it was that had come in.

“Hey, baby,” Christian greeted the cat, dropping to one knee to rub the line of his jaw, eliciting a happy purr. “This is Sid.” He’d done his best to explain to Sid earlier that they’d have company for a little while, and the company would not be threatening or dangerous to Sid in any way; it looked like Sid had been able to grasp that and was accepting the visitors calmly.

“He’s a beauty,” Seth said, lowering himself carefully to one knee so the cat could sniff his fingers. “Hello, Mark.”

Mark nodded amiably. “Hi. Welcome home. Or back. Or whatever. Either the rest of your stuff is in the car, or Chris managed to pass on his trick for making more space inside than outside.”

“The second one,” Seth chuckled. “Extremely useful while flying. Everything I need for a couple of weeks, all stored comfortably in a single suitcase.”

“What's the point of being a witch if you can't make life a bit easier?” Christian asked. Of course Mark knew Seth and Vadin, they'd found him, somehow that had never exactly been explained, but Christian had never really pictured them all in the same room. He was too used to the idea of Alexandra being his and Eric’s secret.

Come to think of it, with his parents and his mother’s friend Iambe, and Margaret and Jade as well, she wasn't quite such a secret as he tended to think.

“Silly me,” Mark said dryly. “Chris sent me a text message when you were close. The kettle is probably hot by now, if you want something to drink.”

“And there are chocolate chip cookies,” Christian added. “Eric made them. They’re a lot better than the ones from the bakery.”

“Although possibly not as good as the stories I’ve heard about yours,” Eric said.

“I’d be surprised if they’re all that different,” Seth said. “Recipes were one of the things that travelled back and forth between Ruth and Margaret. A cup of peppermint tea and homemade cookies sounds wonderful. I’ve been trying to shift my sleep schedule ever since we planned this, so I’m hoping the jet lag won’t be too bad, but I’m not realistically expecting to escape it entirely. No summonings are going to be happening on my part for at least a couple of days. I’m not risking inviting someone powerful and offending them or making a mistake.”

Mark shrugged. “Since it would almost certainly also be a threat to Chris at that point, if you mess up, I’ll take care of it. That’s my only job, right? Killing other liminals?”

“No,” Vadin said, and his voice was calm, without the edge that had crept into Mark’s on the last sentence. “That was the bare minimum you agreed to. Or, maybe more accurately since fighting and killing are natural for a lamia, the bare minimum was to exclude Chris and keep anything else from threatening him. Taking it past that was your choice, and it has obviously been good for Chris. Possibly it’s been good for the city as a whole, which is not normally a phrase used in regards to lamias.”

Shadows rippled, and Alexandra curled the fingers of one hand into claws; Sid batted inquisitively at the dangling wrist-laces of her blouse, then swatted the mouse under the loose folds of her long skirt so he could dig it out again.

“Yes. This is my territory and my witch and I will protect both from anything I consider a threat. No matter what it is.”

Seth threw a worried look in Christian’s direction, and took a step forward. Christian laid a hand on his arm to stop him; clearly uneasy, his grandfather did so.

“Understood,” Vadin said. “We’ll be here for a visit and a summoning and then we’ll be gone.” He tilted his head to one side. “Lamias and nagas share territory more comfortably than some, but not typically the same house, so thank you for tolerating that.”

Alexandra’s hand uncurled, and she reached over to steal Sid’s mouse and twitch it under the edge of her skirt so he could hunt it. “Chris asked.”

That seemed like the right moment to step in. “I think we’re all going to have to be a little patient,” Christian said. “It’s a big house but also five people. Eric seems to have vanished, so I bet he just took your suitcase up to the spare room. Let’s go see about the tea and cookies. I’m never going to skip an excuse to steal one of Eric’s cookies.”

Vadin nodded. “While we’re here, there’s something I want to check in the library.”

In the kitchen, Christian pushed the large plastic box of cookies into his grandfather’s reach, then checked the kettle.

“I’d really rather they didn’t fight,” Seth said. “From what I understand, that could get messy.”

Christian shook his head. “She had no intention of fighting. That was just a hiss-and-poofy-tail warning about boundaries. Which I think Vadin gets.”

“Are you sure of that? Her intentions, I mean.”

“She was wearing a long skirt and a blouse. She changes her clothes to shorts and no sleeves so she can move more freely, if she's actually going to fight. And Sid didn't react. If Lexa had been about to attack, he would've run for cover. Pretty much every liminal species out there has learned to instinctively be wary of lamias.”

Seth glanced at him. “She's really that dangerous?”

“Yes. There isn’t much she couldn’t kill—a handful of the more powerful liminals would be a challenge for her, but even something that could win would pay for it. But she listens to me. And Eric, now, but I'm not sure whether Eric could stop her if she were really genuinely angry. It’s complicated. You couldn’t have found a better ally to back me up in bad situations, even if she’s much more than that these days. But we’re pretty sure that there are some things that Vadin and Iambe didn’t actually tell you and Mom and Dad about lamias beforehand. Probably because on paper, there’s a list of good reasons why witches don’t typically have lamia allies. Most of them think about absolutely nothing except sex and violence, and most other liminals are at best wary and frequently actually scared of them. Alexandra’s different, and I think Vadin knew that somehow. I have some questions for him, while I have him in reach.” He handed Seth a mug of peppermint tea. “Whatever it is, I think Jade knows it too, but she’s not admitting it and I’m not going to badger anyone pregnant or with a new baby. Who is an adorable little fluffball, by the way. Anyway, I’m absolutely safe from Lexa, which has nothing to do with that bloody binding since I removed that over a year ago, and I know how to read her. She’s going to be stressed, having Vadin here, but she knows why and she promised me and I trust her.”

“Okay, that is... there are several things in there I need to think through properly, once I’m feeling a bit more grounded. Ultimately, did we in ignorance leave you in danger?”

“No. The opposite. She’s saved my life multiple times, and some of those times, most other liminals would have had trouble or failed completely. Now and then she gets hurt doing it, but that doesn’t stop her.”

“Then the rest can wait. You’ve been doing well without us.”

“Yeah, right. That's why I have incredibly vicious rumours circulating about me and all my friends, and am generally about ready to go screaming mad and jump off the roof.”

“They were persistent with Ruth and me, too, although admittedly not quite to this extent. Apparently your father didn’t worry them much, which just goes to show you how little appreciation people living in big cities tend to have for the power of the earth. They’ll give up and resign themselves to another Terevan generation being unwilling to join their club.”

“Eric and Margaret have both said that too. They don't look likely to do it anytime soon.” The relief at having his grandfather here lost out to the frustration and depression that had been deepening steadily of late. “I didn't do anything to them except refuse to play their game, and they’re trying to completely ruin my life to bully me into it. This isn't fair.”

“No, it's not. Not everything that happens is fair. You know that.”

“I know,” he sighed. “But I can still wish that they'd just leave me alone. I have much better things to do with my time. Although, I have lots of it, since no one's calling to ask me to do housecleaning. I mean, I need to work more on shapeshifting, so maybe I can do more than just change to the exact female mirror of me, and so help me I'm going to figure out how to tap into the nodes without killing myself.”

“Ease up,” Seth said, with a hint of amusement in his voice. “In less than two years, you've learned more than some witches ever do in a lifetime, including some impressively diverse and uncommon tricks. You don't need to master everything overnight. You have many years yet to spend researching anything you can dream up, and I have no doubt you'll learn everything a witch can learn. Don't lose your perspective simply because you're unhappy at present. This will pass, and you can spend the rest of your life here with your friends and the library.”

“I'll try. But right now, it's really hard not to just curl up in a corner somewhere and hide and wait for it to stop.”

“But you haven't. Be proud of that.”

“I'll try,” Chris repeated.