Three things happened the next morning that made me forget about my nightmare and the unsettling thoughts that kept me awake at dawn; the first two were related to the weather. When Athena finally woke and we got up to face the day, we discovered that the snow had not stopped, and was now a little over knee deep.

Peering out the window, Athena huffed out a breath. "Good thing we planned to stay a couple of days. I don't think we're going anywhere."

"Does it look like it's going to stop?" I asked as I fluffed my hair back into place after putting on a dark green knitted pullover my mother had made for me the year before.

"Not any time soon," Athena replied, tipping her head to one side to peer up at the sky. "The cloud cover is still pretty heavy, and the snowflakes are small and thick."

I smiled. "Want to tackle the front walk?"

We spent the next two hours outside in the snow, first shoveling a path from the front door to the road, and then caught up in a snowball fight with a group of rambunctious kids enjoying a day off from school. Artemis joined in near the end, playfully dunking both Athena and I into snow banks when we weren't looking.

It took a half an hour for the three of us to dry off and warm up, by which time mother had a late breakfast and mugs of hot chocolate waiting for us. We sat around the cozy little table in the kitchen eating pancakes and drinking cocoa.

A perfect morning.

The third thing came not long after that.

Shortly before lunch, as Athena, Artemis and I were relaxing in front of the fireplace, there came a knock at the front door.

"I'm not expecting anyone," mother said loudly from the kitchen. "But then, I wasn't expecting the three of you," she added, sounding amused. "I wonder who's going to show up now. Alys, honey, would you get the door?"

I exchanged a look with Athena and shrugged, then headed for the door. Athena followed me and I felt reassured...between the two of us, we could handle pretty much anything that might be out there.

Except what I found when I opened the door. It was a tall man in a heavy black coat and cloak, wearing a broad-brimmed black fedora and a bright crimson scarf wrapped around his lower face. There was a beautiful snowy owl riding on his shoulder, and he had a staff with a crystal hawk's head topping it in his left hand. If the clothes hadn't tipped me off, the staff would have and made me smile in surprise.

"Master Tremane?"

He blinked. "Alys?" His voice was muffled by the scarf, which he pulled down to reveal his neatly trimmed goatee and warm smile. "Goodness, I hadn't expected to see you here."

"The feeling is mutual!" I said with a laugh. "Come in!"

I stepped back and he came in, his eyes flickering over Athena in an appraising - and, I thought, impressed - glance as I closed the door, shutting out the cold. He stomped the snow off his boots and set his staff next to mine beside the door, then shed his cloak, coat and hat as the owl hopped off his shoulder to perch on top of the nearby coat tree.

"I don't remember you having an owl, Master." I looked up at it. "It's beautiful."

"He," Master Tremane said, running his fingers through his straight black hair to smooth it into place. "And he's not mine."

He blushed a bit as he said it, making me raise my eyebrows in surprise. "Oh?"

At that point, my mother emerged from the kitchen and smiled brightly, blushing like a schoolgirl. "Jonathan! I wasn't expecting you today!"

Oh really.

"Yes, well," he was still blushing and shot a glance in my direction. "Well, it's almost Yuletide, and I thought I'd bring you an early gift..." He gestured to the owl.

I took a startled step back as my mother hurried over and beamed at him. "He's beautiful! Is he really for me? How did you know I wanted an owl?"

She kissed Master Tremane. Not a shy kiss, either.

I'm pretty sure my jaw actually, literally, came unhinged and dropped open. Athena silently reached over and gently pushed it shut.

"Alys mentioned it once or twice while she was still my apprentice," he replied, giving me an embarrassed look. "Speaking of which," he said to me, trying to reassert his self-confidence, "You're not my apprentice anymore. You should call me Jonathan."

My turn to be sheepish. "Sorry, force of habit."

"Athena," my mother said, "Would you mind setting another place at the table?"

Athena giggled at the looks on our faces. "Of course," she replied, and hurried off to the kitchen.

The three of us stood in uncomfortable silence for a moment as Artemis stalked over and peered up at the owl curiously. For his part, the owl looked down at her imperiously and promptly dismissed her. He was a powerful looking bird, and I didn't doubt for a second that he'd give her hell if she tried anything. She seemed to know it, because she transferred her attention to Master Tremane. To Jonathan, rather. That was going to be tough to get used to.

Finally, I couldn't help myself anymore and said teasingly, "So, is this entirely ethical?"

"You're not my student anymore," Master Tremane said quickly, "So yes. Perfectly so." Then he realized I was teasing him, smiled and ruffled my hair, messing it all up. "You haven't changed a bit, scamp. How are you? I've received good reports about you from Hollis."

I felt my cheeks warm with a swell of pride. "I've been well, sir." There. Sir was easier, and he seemed to accept it. After years of calling him Master, calling him by his first name just felt fundamentally wrong. "And I take it you've been courting..."

He laughed. "Yes. Almost as soon as you left for London, I came to see your mother."

"He'd been waiting for years," she said from where she was trying to coax the owl down from the coat tree so she could get a better look at him. "Such a sweet man, making sure everything was proper before doing anything. Do you have a name yet?" she asked the bird, who shook his head. "Well, I'll have to think up a good, strong name for you." She finally coaxed him onto her arm and stood caressing his feathers gently. "Jonathan, he's beautiful."

Master Tremane beamed. "I'm glad you like him. He's primed to be a familiar, all you have to do is bind him to you."

"After lunch," she said firmly. "You'll stay, won't you?"

We all looked out the window. The snow was picking up again.

Master Tremane chuckled. "It looks like I might not have much of a choice."

Bull. Master Tremane could teleport better than anyone I'd ever met. But I let it pass...if he wanted to court my mother, I was perfectly fine with it. He was, after all, the closest thing I had to a father, and I loved him like one. If being together made them happy, that was good enough for me.

"Well then, everybody to the table, lunch is almost ready," Mother said, then headed for the kitchen again, pausing by the fireplace so the owl could hop onto the mantle and warm himself.

Athena had just finished setting a fourth place at the small kitchen table and smiled shyly at Master Tremane as he approached. "You must be Athena," he said, shaking her hand warmly as he looked at me. "Your mother mentioned her," he added by way of explanation.

Artemis seemed to materialize by his legs and he bent to greet her as well, petting her ears. "And this beautiful creature must be Artemis." He smiled at me as he straightened again. "Well," he said, "You've certainly made a good showing of your skills and power in these two."

I beamed happily. I couldn't help it. He'd always been a bit reserved in giving praise for my achievements, so this was a powerful accolade indeed. "Thank you, sir. I've done my best."

"So I've heard," he said, sitting at the table. "Hollis has been keeping me appraised of your work for him. I have to say, I was impressed when I heard how you handled that haunting. That was a difficult problem to get on your first solo job and you dealt with it admirably."

I sat down across from him, blushing again. "I was well trained, sir."

He laughed. "So you were."

Soon the four of us were sitting around the table, replete after a lunch of sandwiches and hot soup. Artemis was dozing by the fire as the owl perched on the mantle above her, watching us all with complacent patience.

"So," I said slowly, prepared to tease again, "When shall I expect an invitation to the wedding?"

I had timed it perfectly. Master Tremane almost choked on a mouthful of tea as he tried not to spray it across the table at me and ended up wiping his mouth with his napkin as I giggled at him.

Taking pity on him, mother patted his shoulder gently. "I don't think we're quite ready for that yet," she said.

He looked relieved. "It's a bit soon," he agreed. "But who knows."

"Well," I said in my most pretentious tones, "When the time comes, you have my blessing, children."

They both gave me nearly identical looks of dry amusement.

"Good to know," Mother said.

"It's nice to have permission," Master Tremane agreed. "Perhaps we should just elope, then."

Athena giggled.

I smiled. "But really, I want you to know I'm okay with it."

The relief on their faces was almost as amusing as the expressions I'd gotten while teasing them. "Thank you, honey," mother said. "That means a lot to me."

Master Tremane nodded. "And to me." He reached across the table and patted my hand. "You're already like a daughter to me," he said, unexpectedly mirroring my own feelings towards him.

I smiled. "That means a lot to me," I said, echoing my mother's statement.

After that, we helped my mother take the owl as a familiar. She named him Apollo, joking that "We need to keep to a theme," in reference to my own familiars.

All in all, the day had expertly conspired to make me forget about my nightmare. I finally remembered it that evening while the four of us were sitting around the fire and talking idly.

I took advantage of a lull in the conversation to say, "I had that dream again last night, Mom. But it was different this time."

Athena, sitting on the floor and leaning against my legs, looked up at me.

My mother and Master Tremane both focused a startling amount of attention on me. "Really?" Mother asked.

I nodded.

"Will you tell us about it?" Master Tremane added. "Your mother told me about the first one...I hope you don't mind."

I shook my head. "I don't mind at all. I'm glad, actually, because it really rattled me last night."

I spent the next few minutes telling them about the dream in all the detail I could recall, complete with the changes at the end - the absence of my mother's image, replaced with the strange and deeply unsettling young woman. When I finished, Athena added, "She was in a sweat when she woke up. It took several minutes for her to relax enough to lie back down. And I'm pretty sure she didn't get much more sleep last night."

I looked down at her in surprise. "You were asleep through dawn."

"Only dozing, Mistress," she said with a warm smile, leaning a bit more firmly against my legs. "You know cats sleep lightly."

I stroked her ears affectionately for a few moments as she purred up at me before the warm smiles on my mother's and Master Tremane's faces became a bit embarrassing. I cleared my throat. "Yes, well...she's right, I didn't get much more sleep. I think I dozed until dawn and then couldn't shut my mind down enough to get back to sleep."

Master Tremane slowly stroked his beard, a gesture I was familiar with from my years as his apprentice. It meant he was deep in thought. Finally, he looked up and exchanged an inscrutable look with my mother. "Do you still believe the dream to be prophetic somehow?"

Mother nodded. "I do. The Druids of the Council keep mentioning that there's some prophecy they believe is related to Alys, but they won't tell me more than that." She looked as frustrated as she sounded. "Honestly, if they keep this up, I'm leaving my position. They're none too happy that I'm being courted by a Wizard anyway."

"Hollis says that their traditions aren't likely to survive more than another generation or two if they don't shed the insularity they've developed over the last twenty years or so." I shrugged. "Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing you free of them, mom."

Master Tremane nodded a little. "Nor would I. And I believe Hollis is correct," he added. "The Druids, at least those of Éire, have become too insular for their own good." He tapped his chin with two fingers for a few moments. "I'll look into it from my end when I get back to Dublin," he said finally. "If there was a prophecy made about Alys, it should have been recorded and entered into the archives. If it exists, I'll find it."

Mother looked relieved, and I'm pretty sure I did too. "Thank you," I said. "I really appreciate it."

He smiled at me. "I have to take care of my favorite student."

"You've had other students?" I asked jokingly.

"That's entirely beside the point," he replied comfortably. "You're still my favorite."

I saw mother smiling, obviously pleased by the easy rapport that already existed between me and her new beau. If I were living in a fantasy novel, I'd think his courting my mother was too convenient to be anything other than a plot point. Fortunately, life isn't like that.

There was one awkward moment that evening when it was time for bed. My mother and Master Tremane went through a highly amusing song and dance about him sleeping on the couch that lasted for almost twenty minutes - going so far as to find him a pillow and blanket - before I finally took pity on them.

"I'm fully aware, thanks to the time you sent me to spend with those Tantric mages," I said to Master Tremane, "of what men and women do together. Or men and men, or women and women as the case may be. Just promise me you'll put a one-way silencing charm around your room so I don't have to listen to it."

"You really have to tell me about that part of your training sometime," Mother said with an impish smile.

"No," I said firmly, feeling my cheeks warm at the memories. "I really, really don't."

I left them laughing and went to my own room, Athena and Artemis trailing along behind me.

As we were getting ready for bed, I felt Athena watching me and turned to find her smiling gently. "What?" I asked, amused.

She shrugged, still smiling. "I haven't felt you this relaxed and happy before, Mistress. It's making me feel good too."

I blushed. It was easy for me to forget that the bond between my familiars and me went deeper than being able to share thoughts and sense where we were in relation to one another. We could feel one another’s' emotions as well, and mine were currently strong enough to have an impact on them. I wasn't sure I was entirely comfortable with forcing my feelings on them.

"It's not a bad thing," she said quickly, sensing my train of thought. "I really like it. And your mother has gone out of her way to make me feel like part of the family...this just helps that along." She smiled shyly. "It's nice."

> Artemis observed from her place before the small fireplace in my room. She yawned. > She put her head down on her paws. > She let out a long, relaxed purr. >

Athena shrugged eloquently. "She's right. It feels perfectly natural to us. This is how it should be."

I considered that for a moment, then decided to let it go. They were right, this was how the bond between familiar and spellcaster worked. The sooner I accepted that, the better. "All right, I'm sorry. I've been kind of silly about it, haven't I."

Athena nodded, smiling. Artemis yawned again and relaxed, seemingly unconcerned and uninterested.

I laughed softly and climbed into bed. "Well, come on. Let's see if I can get an uninterrupted night's sleep tonight."

Athena slid into bed beside me and snuggled close, resting her head on my shoulder. After a moment, Artemis hopped up and stretched out on the other side of me. They fairly radiated their contentment and happiness to me, and for the first time I opened myself to it fully, basking in their love for me.

If any nightmares tried to get through that night, it was evidently enough to stop them. I slept like a baby.