WOT. The castle. Wagner family's holiday.

[random_xtras]

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The great hall of the castle stood empty, its far corners and the uppermost reaches of its carved and fabulously vaulted ceiling forgotten in shadows. All was silent but for the soft scrape of a footstool's feet as it walked toward a side door.

Then, suddenly there were people in the room.

Kurt looked around, blinking, his arms tightening on Wolfen as Stephan clung to him in amazed silence. "Vhat...."

Beside him, Jabez broke her silence with a soft, "Wow."

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[random_xtras]

"After ye've had a good rest." Joy sighed as she read the brokenness in the other woman's body language, though she was reassured a bit by the way her family- even the frightened teen- were gathered around her supportively.

"Are you tired, Meine Leibe?" Kurt looked down in concern, his tail snaking around Sal's waist.

Another sigh. "Not particularly," she said. And she wasn't. She just felt like sleeping because... because she didn't have to think when she slept. She hadn't dreamed since the war ended.

But when she was awake she couldn't stop thinking about what she had done.

"No," she reiterated, trying her best to smile. "I'm not."

"I'd best be goin'," said Joy. "Remember, if ye need aught jes' ask anythin'."

Kurt turned to look at their hostess with a smile that was echoed from where Stephan had hopped over to Jabez's arms. "Thank you, Joy. Vill ve see you later?"

"Maybe." She twitched her ears in a smile, then turned and left the room.

"Needs silver things for her wings," said Jabez thoughtfully, her own silver things jingling softly as she moved her tail.

Sal turned and watched Joy leave, waving slightly. And then she sighed again, turning her gaze back to what was in front of her.

She wasn’t sure how she should deal with what she was seeing. This place was so strange, and it bore no resemblance to home. Despite the fact that her family was around, and that they were all safe and in one piece, she was still frightened and still wanted to go back. The beautiful spectacle in front of her did nothing to quell her fears that she wouldn’t be able to go back to her island, wherever it was.

“So everything floats,” she said, “and we’re in a very pretty castle. But apart from that, what makes this place any more relaxing then back home?” There was bitterness in her voice.

"Can I go outside 'n play?" asked Stephan innocently, looking up at Sal. "It's not raining."

Sal smiled down at Stephan. "Soon as I figures how t' get outta here, sure."

Kurt turned as something gently tapped his elbow, then blinked at the broom that was bekoning them toward the door they'd come in through. "I think some... vone... vants to show us the vay."

Sal shrugged. "Okay." She tore herself away from the window and grinned down at Stephan again. "Let's go."

The trip that the broom led them on was a short one. Kurt took Sal's hand as they came to the big old iron-bound door, then gently pushed it open to find a grassy garden courtyard that looked very commonplace but for the tree floating in the sky above them. More normal trees: apples and cherries heavy with fruit, stood here and there in the yard, intermixed with raised beds of herbs and medicinal flowers. One of the apple trees bore a knotted rope on one branch, which waved its tassled end invitingly as Stephan made excited happy sounds and rocked forward so that Jabez stepped onto the grass.

Sal watched, slightly amused, as Stephan barreled toward the rope swing, but was quickly forced to do a ninety degree turn toward a fountain, where a few fat koi fish were observing everyone placidly.

She smiled, but didn't laugh at the little boy's sense of absolute wonder as he poked one of the fish gently between the eyes.

Stephan gasped with delight as fishy lips gently nibbled little fingers and looked up at Jabez with shining eyes as she walked over to hunker next to him. Then he squealed and started to chatter as the broom brought over a head of lettuce in a net bag and showed him how to rip peices and feed the big fish by hand.

Kurt watched, then guided Sal over to where a bench sat in a mossy nook, chuckling as Wolfen stopped emoting NO and looked around, then abandoned ship to go and see what had her nephew so excited. Nearby Wilcox lay and watched everyone, panting and scrubbing the grass flat with her tail.

"So," said the blue man softly, ignoring the beauty all around him to look at the beauty at his side.

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Sal broke away from him and took a step toward Wilcoxe and petted the dog behind her ears, then turned to Kurt. "So what?" she asked quietly, deciding that the bench would be uncomfortable. So she just sat on the grass.

The place was peaceful, but again it did little to calm her mind. There was a beautiful cacophony of soft noises, but the noise in her head drowned it out.

He followed her and gently gathered her into his lap, wrapping her in his arms as he thought of how much he missed the conversations that they used to have. But he wouldn't push her. He could remember what it had been like shortly after he'd killed his brother.

"I love you," he murmured.

"I know you do," she said. "I love you too."

And then, inexplicably, she was crying.

"Ach!" His arms tightened as he turned her sideways, one hand going up to stroke her hair as he lay his cheek against her forehead.

"What the hell is the matter with me?" she asked quietly, not really talking to anyone.

Kurt kissed her softly. "It's alright, my Schönheit."

She shook her head. "It's not," she said firmly. "I should be taking care of you lot, not being so ... weak like this."

Still, she held onto him for dear life as the warm, gentle breeze lifted the tree leaves.

"You're not being veak. I nearly died vhen... mien brother died."

"But you cared for him." Sal shook her head. "There was no love left for Shasta. I'm not that much of a forgiving person. I should just realize that I saved your life and get on with it."

"Love or no, vhen ve take a human life it takes a part of our own vith it." He kissed her gently on the bridge of the nose, trying to fill that broken place in her soul with his love.

Then he made a soft sound and just wrapped himself around her and rocked. -Ach, Gott sie Danke. Thank You for this voman und these kinder... so much more than I deserve.-

She smiled back at him, still sad. "I keep hopin' you'll save me from this," she whispered. "But it ain't workin' so far."

The breeze picked up again and she shivered.

Kurt leaned down to look at her face, his own dark with sadness. "Ach, Leibe."

"Hm?" She met his eyes, still not feeling exceptionally talkative.

"You did it for me," he said softly, laying his hand on her cheek. "You did it for our kinder. If you hadn't done it... if she had gone on to kill others, vouldn't you have been nearly as responsible as she for those deaths?"

"I didn't have to kill her like that," she whispered, her eyes wavering and suddenly seeming to stare right through him. "That... that makes me a sadist. I wanted her to just die. There was nothing noble behind it. I'm just as bad as she..."

"If you vere a sadist she vouldn't have died so qvickly und cleanly. Sal, your own grandfather doesn't hold it against you." He nuzzled close, breathing in the scent of fire and the sea that always seemed to cling to her.

"There's a reason," she said bitterly, "that they call that one of the unforgivable curses."

"Nothing is unforgivable," he countered softly.

"I begs t' differ."

"Nothing," he said firmly, frowning down at her.

"Then I should have never killed her in the first place."

Kurt gave her a gentle but thorough kiss, then looked her in the eye and said rather bluntly. "It vas us or her. She vouldn't have stopped vith just us. You stopped vith her. It's done. It's over. Und ve still love you."

"Fair enough." She folded her arms and scowled slightly.