Time absolutely flew.

It was, in part, because everyone was so busy, but Alice was mostly just... happy. She was happy with her life, her circumstances, and her husband. Six months after the day she met Xavier in deer form, Alice could say that she didn't regret the decision to take his hand.

Not that her happiness had anything to do with Xavier at all.

Their house went up in record time, adding a fourth residential building to the community very quickly turning into a small village. Florian took over as the resident hunter and trapper, freeing Kaz to work on his true passion— writing novels and articles. His written work was very quickly taking off, too, and it was a good source of income.

Ellie continued her apothecary work, and Alice was learning alongside her. Missy stuck around, too, and was a willing participant in testing some of the herbal remedied designed to help animals with their scrapes and scratches. The little possum often got into trouble and needed a bandage or two, and she'd even approved one of the stinkier brews as almost immediately helping with the pain.

Alice was well on her way to finishing her veterinary studies, and she hoped to set up a clinic in town at some point, but that would have to be in the future. For now, her favorite days were ones like today, when she and Florian were able to sit in peace together.

Ellie and Alice had just finalized a new herbal tonic recipe, and Ellie was testing it out in the kitchen of her home. The smell of dried plants filled the air, and Florian held her around the waist from behind, unwilling to let go. Touch had become very, very important to them after the initial circumstances of their meeting. It was a way for them to make sure that all of this was, indeed, real.

"So did y'all ever figure out if you're sayin' you're married?" Ellie asked, eyebrow raised as she worked on pounding the life out of a few herbs with a mortar and pestle.

"We are," Alice said, smiling brightly as Florian pulled her in for a kiss.

The silver-haired witch sighed, pouring the herbal concoction into a pot of boiling water.

"Well, dammit" Ellie huffed. "I was gonna ask if you'd be my maid of honor, but I guess you're gonna be the matron of honor now."

Alice absolutely screeched, barely managing to wait until Ellie finished pouring the herbs into the pot before she bear hugged her friend, practically knocking her into the kitchen counter.

"Oof— we can talk details later!" Ellie grunted, patting Alice's back. "I just wanted to check—"

But a knock at the door cut her off.

That was... strange. Beyond strange, really. Whoever got this close would have needed to get past the wards, so they likely weren't dangerous. There were simply very few visitors that made their way this far from Boone, though, especially after word got around that witches resided on Howard's Knob.

Alice and Florian exchanged glances as Ellie went to answer the door. She opened it, but rather than conversing through the crack, she stepped out onto the porch... and then was gone for long enough that Alice become nervous.

"Who do you think it is?" Alice whispered, walking towards the door. Florian shrugged, following along as he looked over her shoulder.

It took until they were only a few steps from the door to see the silhouette outside. At first, Alice didn't recognize it, but she could hear the frustration in Ellie's garbled voice, and decided it was time to intervene. Maybe she'd be able to help out or shoo them away.

When she stepped onto the porch, though, Alice almost turned around and went right back into the house.

Out of all the people she thought might have been outside, Alice never would have guessed that her mother was waiting outside the house.

Olive Little stood in front of the porch steps, not quite ready to step close to the house, but certainly present. She had the same wild hair as her daughter, though it was graying a little, and she wrung her hands anxiously, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she waited.

"You don't have to see her if you don't wanna," Ellie said, keeping her voice low so that only Alice could hear.

"Nah," Alice said, setting her jaw. "Let her talk."

Florian caught her eye, silently asking if he should stay or go. As an answer, she grabbed his hand. She might be able to handle talking to her mother, but she didn't want to do it alone.

"Momma," she said by way of greeting, her tone flat. "How'd you find me?"

"Asked in town," she said, brushing a curl out of her face. "It broke, didn't it?"

Alice swallowed, pushing down the flare of anger and sadness and panic in her chest.

"What broke?" she rasped, deciding that playing dumb was best for her sanity.

"You know," Olive insisted, nodding towards Florian. "He looks just like him."

"He's not him," Alice snapped, stepping in front of her husband protectively. "You leave him be."

"I don't plan to hurt anyone, honey," the older woman said sadly. "I did more damage already than I could ever dream."

Well, at least she was lucid enough to realize that.

The longer she stood there, the more Alice realized that her mother looked legitimately different. She seemed tired, as always, but less angry than normal. Instead, it was like the anger had been replaced by sadness and anxiety, almost like someone else had taken over like Xavier did with Florian, but... no. That was her mother.

Perhaps that was the scariest part of all. The change was so severe that it made her wonder if this was even the woman who raised her at all.

"He took my pain from me," her mother admitted. "The grief over your daddy, the grief over your sister. I thought I was gonna die every day from feelin' that pain. I couldn't take care'a you— your sisters were doin' it all. And... I thought a life with him might not be bad for you."

The bargain that Xavier made must have broken with his death. Olive Little was free now, but all her pain had returned to her as well... and none of it had ever truly been processed. Her mother was holding a twenty year old hurt, plus more, and that seemed unfathomable even to Alice.

But her mother had also done this to herself, and she'd willingly traded her child for that relief.

Some part of her wanted to forgive. She couldn't, though. She just wasn't ready, didn't want to put her trust in her mother again, and couldn't see how this could end in any way but with pain.

Yes, her mother was hurting. Alice was hurt, too, though.

"Okay," Alice said, squeezing Florian's hand a little more tightly.

"It don't make it right, the way I treated you," Olive said carefully. "That's what happened, though."

"I can forgive you," Alice said softly, "but I'm not ready to forget."

"Do you... want me to come back?" Olive asked carefully. There was hope in her voice, but Alice couldn't find it in her to respond to it.

"Not now," she said, but she couldn't bring herself to say more.

It was the most positive thing she could bring herself to say. She didn't want her mother to move in with them, certainly. She liked her independence, and she wasn't ready for the paranoia of having a parent around, especially a parent with... Well, with the history they had.

"Letters?" her mother asked.

Alice paused for a moment.

"Letters are good. I think I can do that one," she said, nodding. That much did feel alright. It settled in her chest in a way that felt normal, not painful or afraid, and she thought that maybe it could be a good step forward for the two of them.

"So he's...?" Olive asked, looking once again towards Florian.

"My husband. Maybe you'll hear the whole story one day," Alice said calmly.

She hoped to be able to tell it, but she couldn't. Not now. They needed more time.

"Okay." Her mother nodded, seeming satisfied enough with that. "If you feel like it, this is my address. Your sisters are there, too. We... we miss you."

Olive Little held out a folded piece of paper towards her daughter. Alice took it, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything back. It was nice that they missed her, she supposed, but too many bridges were burned and broken between them for her to want to come back. Yet... a part of her did want to go back, at least for a little while. She wanted to see if they could be the family she wanted.

And if not, she had all the family she needed right here.

"Have a good day, momma," she said softly.

Alice forced herself to breathe. She forced herself not to crumple the paper in her hand, but to tuck it safely into the pocket of her dress, and she forced herself to watch as her mother walked away and disappeared over the hilltop.

A strange sense of nostalgia, numbness, and a deep sadness washed over her all at once, and she was very glad Florian was there to be her rock in this moment. They kept each other grounded, anchored to reality. When he woke from sleep with nightmares of being trapped in Shadow form, Alice was there. When she flashed back to years of her childhood that instilled a sense of self-loathing, Florian was there to snap her out of it.

Now, it was no different. He kept her safe and sane as she watched over the hill, still staring after the silhouette of Olive Little had disappeared.

"How do you feel?" Florian asked, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"I... don't know," she admitted. "I don't know what to feel."

She didn't want to lose her mother forever, if she could avoid it. Then again, it might already be too late. Only time would tell. In any case, letters were an olive branch she felt she could actually accept. It would allow contact without too much closeness, and maybe with some work... maybe they could be okay one day.

And, speaking of forgiveness, there was someone else she had to see.

"I'm goin' on a walk. Want to meet up in a bit?" Alice asked, turning to her husband. "I could... maybe talk about it a little. Maybe."

She was starting to learn that talking was good, even when it felt hard.

"By the creek to the north?" Florian asked. "I finished making a new bow, and I'd like to try it out."

"I'll see you there, sweetie." Alice pulled him down to her height, kissed his cheek, and leaned against the porch railing for a minute.

Her hands were shaking, and she hated it. She wanted to be stronger than that, but she also had to admit that facing her mother was its own kind of strength. Unfortunately, there was no easy answer to the problem. There was no quick solution, no way to simplify everything they'd both been through. All she could do was try.

Taking a deep breath to settle herself, Alice marched on towards Hartley's house.

In the time since her return from the Shadow Court, they had very much patched up their relationship. She considered Hartley a friend now, and could very much admit that her previous attachment to him resulted from... Well, he was largely the only eligible man she'd interacted much with since relocating to Howard's Knob.

Alice was happily married now, though. And she liked their relationship much better as friends than she ever would as romantic partners.

Hartley sat on his porch, a glass of wine in hand. He wasn't typically one to drink, but every now and then he appreciated a good glass of something-or-other. Prohibition was still in full effect, of course, but that didn't stop mountain folk with the right tools. He also insisted that he'd been alive long enough that the government couldn't deny him a glass of alcohol once a month.

Clearly, it was his day to indulge just a little.

He looked content. Not inebriated, but at peace, perhaps pondering something as he scribbled in a blank notebook that sat in his lap. When he noticed Alice, though, he stopped scribbling and looked up.

"You look like you're doing well," Hart said, smiling as he took a sip from his glass.

"I am," Alice said quietly.

And she was, really and truly. A small smile played across her face as she thought of everything that had happened to her in such a short amount of time. She felt more like herself than ever, and after spending two months at Howard's Knob with Florian, she felt even better about their potential future together.

He was a good man. Florian wasn't just kind, he was also a hard worker. He loved to laugh, and he loved the outdoors just as much as Alice did. He even asked if it was possible to learn animal speak if you weren't born with it, but Alice was still working on a solution to that one.

"Are you gonna be okay, though?" Alice asked.

"What..." Hartley trailed off, looking a little lost for a moment.

Alice gestured to the place where the mark on her arm had once been. It was no longer there, of course, with the blood vows dissolved and Xavier trapped as the watch slowly unraveled his spirit thread by thread.

She shuddered to think about it, and generally tried to avoid wondering what it felt like inside that thing. Whatever was happening now, Xavier had done more than that over the centuries.

Hartley got the point, though. He took another sip of wine before he answered, like he needed it to steel his nerves, numb his emotions, or both.

"I'm working on myself," he said with a sad smile. "It's all I can do at the moment."

"You really think she's gonna come back?"

"I don't know," Hartley admitted.

"What if she's not the same?"

"That's not the point."

"Then what is?"

"The point is that I want to do everything in my power to give her the peaceful life that she wasn't granted the last time around," he said slowly. "It's my fault she didn't get a chance for that before. It's the least I can do to make sure that she gets it now."

"Atonement," Alice said softly.

"Atonement," he agreed. "Among other things."

"Hart..." she said tentatively. "Are you doin' that for her, or for you?"

He didn't speak for a long moment. Alice leaned against the porch railing, not quite feeling like she wanted to sit down, but she did desperately want to know the answer to this. She wondered if he'd even really thought about it.

In the end, Hart downed the rest of his wine before he spoke.

"I'm not sure I know anymore," he rasped. "I can't separate my soul from Kalia any more than I can separate the right half of my body from my left."

"How does that work when you're... like you are now?"

Separated.

"Not well," he deadpanned. "But it makes room to process the things I need to process on my own. It makes room for the work that needs to be done... until I meet her again."

Again?

Alice wondered how it was even possible to meet someone again after death, but she was a little afraid to ask. Hartley was old. He'd seen many things. It was even possible he'd seen many people in different lives— literally. This was clearly a sensitive topic, though, so she chose not to press.

"The college is finally getting that Other Studies program off the ground," he finally said, straightening his vest. "They've asked me to join."

"You think you'll do it?" she asked. It would probably be good for him to have something else to do. Though he worked as a professor, she often wondered if his heart was in it. He loved teaching, but he might be happier working with a group of young Others to help straighten out their lives in a new world. Maybe it would give him a sense of purpose.

"I think it would be a service to my community, and perhaps an opportunity to atone for other things. Things unrelated to Kalia."

Alice's eyes narrowed as she looked him up and down. "You think you'll ever tell anybody what those things are?"

Though their friendship had grown, there were still many things that Hartley wouldn't talk about, not to anyone. He huffed a little, staring off into the mountains spreading out far beyond their home.

"Maybe. For now, that's between me and the Creator."

Hart closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, clearly finished with the conversation.

As she turned to leave, Alice saw the needle on the compass around his neck begin to turn. That was strange, though. Perhaps the magnet was off?

A question for another day.