Aliease's life review has left Betty very unsettled so she is taking Greta's advice and spending some quality time by herself, or so she thinks. More parts of the puzzle are discovered and both a new friend and teacher and a villein find there way into the fray to save Haven.

Betty

I awoke with a shudder; I was truly surprised to be in my bed and not in Scotland sleeping on a rock. This dream was a cue; I should follow Greta's sage advice and take the opportunity to just rest.

After checking on the kids, finding them still sawing logs, I returned to bed and enjoyed the quiet for the time while I had it. It was about 9:30 when I awoke again finding my bed had been infested by my two sleepy little ones. Mommy’s bed was still an option in our family and to be honest , especially on days like this, it is truly a slice of heaven. I know this will fade as the girls get older, but for now I am going to bask in its warmth and hugging and snuggling [huggeling] both of them.

Quiet shouldn't and doesn't last forever so soon my little ones were awake, needing food, and activity. After a double quick time assembling ourselves we took a short jog over to the Dragon for something to eat. Bob as usual was preparing a treat for us even before we got into the door. I swear that man has a powerful sixth sense for what I am hungry for any time of the day, he even has the greatest skill of all he makes the calories in the food optional so I can eat guilt free.

Louise and Samantha joined us at the diner requesting my two to join them for an overnight to Blessings where Louise had relatives who owned yet another B & B.
This was a cousin of Louise who has two children Crystal and Anna's age. There was a ton of stuff for them to do, from clothing shopping for Anna, and horse riding for Crystal. Both of my kids were popping off like bottle rockets threatening to break all the glass in range of there shrill high C over high C voices. I was able to send Samantha with the kids back to our apartment to pack for this junket to parts in unexplored Blessings. They respectfully walked across the highway then took off running like the devil was on their tail.

Louise promised to pick me some smudge sticks for my cleansing rituals. I needed some sweet grass braids and a couple of locally published books about the region’s legends, lore and history. Local publications sometimes have things the larger publications overlook or ignore.

“What are you going to do with all this free time?”

“I am going to take a long walk in the woods and do nothing for a few hours.”

“I will believe that when I see proof of it, Betty. You never do just nothing.”

“I can and I do, you know how hard it is being a mother how much time do you have to do nothing?”

“That's my point exactly, I bet you will go home and start cleaning right after you take a half hour walk that you cut short because of guilt.”

“You’re on; what's the wager I can do this?”

“Two pounds of your hazel nut coffee, if you do and two pounds of vanilla almond if you don't.”

“Buy that Heavenly Brew now I will be collecting it when you get back.”

Soon Cleo came to our table with a picnic basket for Louise and the kids so she was off to pick up the kids. She promised me to call when she got to her cousins to let me know things were all right.

I was about to leave when Marge came out with a sack lunch for me, calling it “walking food.”

“I do not want to see you for at least four hours preferably five hours women. Greta told me her marching orders for you today, and I am going to be checking on you. See you tonight for dinner.”

“You got it, what's for dinner?”

“Marge's silence and her mischievous grin made me suspicious but interested, damn she knew me to well.”

It had become a very pleasant day not to hot not to cool and with the suns rays back lit illumination projecting through the tree canopy of leaves it was a stunning view full of the fall colors. I was able to just let myself go into the wind experiencing but not analyzing or thinking, just being here unencumbered by the burdened of being human. Eckhart Tolie has written volumes about the human propensity to over use their analytical mind skipping over the necessity of simply being in the present moment. There is a huge amount of information and experiences within our environment available to those present in the moment that our over use of our intellect blinds us to.. Our thinking is not us, it's not who we are, it's a side effect of our mind that we identify as our selves. Our selves are so much more than our thoughts, it is so vast it is immeasurable. But we are so busy chatting our selves up we never notice what we are missing.

The self is ever so much more hard wired, connected to the world that our incessant bad habit of constantly thinking blinds us to. Maggie repeated it a thousand times a thousand before it began to sink in.

“You can not fill a cup if it is already full. You need to be open and empty before you can receive.”

That was my first lesson of being a Witch, simply being fully present with out the constant chatter of thought distracting me. Then and only then could I sense the threads of energy as I touched them. Then I could feel what these threads were connected to, and how my intent would alter their vibration creating this effect or that occurrence. That is what separates the mundane people from the talented, the individual’s ability to sense the still small voice within that informed you what was presently singing around you. It is that understanding which has kept me from being totally trampled into the dirt by the herds of stampeding sheepel running from their own self created disasters.

Walking among the trees allowed me to bleed off the excess nervous energy I am surrounded by every day. Emptying my senses of the constant chatter of my own thoughts and the thoughts of others. This was when I sensed the singing of another, deep within the woods far away from Haven proper. I had been walking for a considerable time before I was able to locate the source of the harmonious singing, and when I did I could scarcely not believe what it was I was seeing.

There in the flesh was a member of the race unknown to the common people of modern times. This was one of the Tuatha Dé Danann or Faerie's, these ancient people are now quite secretive and extremely cloistered. The only reason I found this one is that they allowed me to.

What was before me was a total vision that was unearthly in its beauty. Her clothing was so fine, it could not have been sewn by human hands and her physical beauty was beyond anything I ever experienced, She continued singing in Gaelic “Siúil a Rún" a very ancient song common to Ireland and Scotland. It is the lament of a young women whose true love has gone to war, then what she would do, even dishonorably, to get him back.

I gathered up my pluck and advanced into the gathering of stone embracing the space which she occupied.

“I bid you Merry meet and good day my lady, how is it I may serve your needs.”

“A bit more brazen than James suggested you would be when we met. Good, that shows courage to face the unknown, something you will need now you have accepted this station as yours, Betty.”

“How is it you wish to be addressed my lady I do not wish to start out on the wrong foot, by being impolite.”

“Presently my full name and title is of no importance. You may call me Fay. I will be your teacher in this next phase of your life. You have accomplished much in these few weeks since you have gained solid dependable ground on which to walk.

A bit of advice for you to consider; it is very good, that you can think of solutions on the fly, but soon you need to start shifting from the putting out fires, to more long term tactical planing, The present rekindling of your township’s neighbors is an example of the type of activities of which I speak. Then there is, assuming the proper frame of mind to be truly successful at this endeavor.”

“Frame of mind is important but please be more specific; that is a very broad subject, my Lady Fay.”

“It truly is, especially for your situation, and it will demand a lot of you, may be making you highly uncomfortable in the changes I seek, nay require.. As a leader there is an edginess you need to develop, people need to follow you, not continuously debate your decisions. Now that your elven blood lines are becoming dominant you need to learn the how and why of command and leadership.”

“I was afraid you were going to say something like that. But if I am going to accomplish anything in Haven and the surrounding region I must toughen up on giving orders. I take it there is more to this.”

“Your guess is spot on Betty, there is so much more that needs to be learned including the fine art of when being a complete and total bitch is called for. Alease's appearance in your life is not just an exercise on how to weird you out, it is the next step in your awakening to being one of the unseen. You will be very powerful when you accept your birth right and that requires control, focus, and an iron will.”

“I do accept Alease is one of me from a past life's, she is just being a bit disorienting. The immersion is so total I have some problems coming back to this existence. Hell I was talking to my kids in Gaelic the other morning. I don't need them to think I have goon around the bend.”

“Yes; it was a very important lifetime that what you learned then needs to be integrated with in your total being, that is if you want to live.”

“Point taken and recorded, will there be more of this to look forward to in this transformation. Whoa, back up, you did say I am becoming an unseen ? And what about this Elven blood line asserting itself?!”

“I was wondering when that was going to strike a nerve. Yes this has always been a part of you and now it is surfacing, and just in time. You are a bridge between many of the communities within our larger fellowship, it was not chance that you were drawn here by your own free will. You are to take on the responsibility of being an arbitrator between many of the now isolated bands of the unseen.

That depends on whether you survive this first test of preventing Haven from falling into the wrong hands. You must talk to James on this subject as he has hinted at before. As Alease you were most successful taking the fight to the Romans, so this little dust up should not even force you to break a sweat“

“Fay, that is easy for you to say. All of my life I have only known being a Norm' now I am becoming something that only existed in story books. How am I going to wrap my head around that, and how am I going to explain this to my kids?”

“Step one: trust your self, step two: seek advice from your truly and James; step three: stop thinking like a Norm. step four: relax I have done this myself. Following our advice will get you past the hard parts. All the rest will come easy peazy. Or at least that's the plan ?”

“BEINGS you are the woman with the plans when do we start?”

“We already have, my dear.”

That is when I noticed a blurring in my vision which when it cleared I was tempted to say 'Toto we aren't in Kansas any more' , but I kept quiet not wanting to look like a total fool. We were standing in a high grassy rock encrusted meadow that I immediately recognized as belonging to the Scottish highlands. There is a scent and feel to every place on Earth I have visited, and here is not different.

The feel of magical energy hung heavy in the air and pressed in on me like water in a swimming pool. Many of the rocks show signs of distress from some form of abuse. There were rips and tears in the peat floor between the rocks and spots where the grasses did not look quite like they should. Some of the tufts were intertwined in interesting Celtic knots with different colors for the many elements, some were way too tall for normal, that was when I saw several stalks working in unison snatch a bird out of the air pulling it down into the center of the plant.

I looked at Fay who was most amused by the expression on my face.

“I thought it would be wise to take you to someplace safer for you to practice until you develop a little more control over your abilities.”

“Fay, what are these strange plants and did I just see one catch and eat a bird?”

“They are the results of many years of mistakes or accidents. Some are purposely created as tests of a student’s control. A few are the result of some one's warped sense of humor like that Bird Trap Bush.

This space is separated from the norm’s world by an isolation fields created by Quantum forces. What happens here stays here, for the most part, and time here moves at a different pace. A week spent here means seven hours have passed in Haven. We find that very helpful in recovery from injuries.

Let us away to my home I would love a cuppa and a nosh, would you care for that?”

“Yes I would, is this something I will need to get used to?”

“Yes, is that a problem?”

“ Do you have something stronger than tea?”

We worked for three days on several extensions of spells I already knew, my weather influencing was expanded by a factor of four. It was frightening how much energy is packed into even a small storm. I just wish I could give some of this sense to those who deny Global Climate change they would become converts to the fact of the matter.

I was working on control when a lightning discharge got away from me and exploded a substantial large boulder The two of us were a half a mile away from it and we still were showered by small stones and some wind bloom dust.

“Now that was something unexpected, Betty. And you were arguing that you weren't that powerful.”

“I never had such an experience in my life what the hell just happened?”

“You gathered the energy properly, contained it nicely, then an unexpected change in the cloud cover pulled things apart. You sensed that and pushed the event far enough away we only got dusty not smashed.”

“But I destroyed that boulder?”

“Betty, don't fret so much, look around most of the smaller stones here were much larger stones in the past, there has been eons of apprentices doing their best to make gravel out of a mountain none have succeeded. Heck I shattered an entire cliff face throwing a temper tantrum when mom was training me. That is why we are working here. But I think the next thing I need to teach you is a projectile shield spell just in case.”

It has been three days and nights and we are starting the fourth day, I am feeling wonderful. Fay's castle is nothing like the average third or fourth century castle keep. It has windows not just shutters and by craft the stone inside is warm and comforting.

The people who work for her are like family, the mood is quiet and contemplative most of the time. There is however, a time for cutting loose and having fun outside for the help, and down in the dungeon for Fay and my self. There I could cut loose with no worry concerning any one getting hurt. The practice hall is very large with high ceilings and was lined with the hardest known stone then shielded with protection warding's that taped and stored the expended energy to light and heat the castle.

It was the fourth night when I met Fay's mother, this is one night that will stay with me for the rest of my souls existence. We were in the practice hall and I was targeting clay pigeons using low level projection cantrips. I had hit nine out of ten targets when the room went dark and gravity ceased its duty of sucking us to our floor. I had played enough X Men danger room simulations to know to make my self a hard to hit small target. I cut the holding spell that suspended me in the middle of the air and attached my self to the ceiling making it my floor. I shifted my sight to the infra red showing me two people in the room with me. One I recognized as Fay by the outline but the other person was just a faint red purple blotch. I continued to move tossing trip, tangle, spells. There were a couple of heavy projection blasts that hit where I had been but so far so good. I then tried something new, ripple the floor. It was met by a grunt then a static discharge that affected an area not just a spot. I bit my lip because a near miss made it hard to concentrate.

My next tactic was to put my self into a no gravity environment so I could fly through the room. Once away I gathered all of the debris in the room and flung them at the purple blur. That had the result of me being swatted like a fly and pinned to the wall.

“Well, well, what have we here, a talented fly per chance?”

“No mother that is my new apprentice Betty White Owl I was speaking to you about her recently.”

I had Hidden one spell within a talisman around my neck. A simple port spell to behind Fay on the other side of the room.

“Well, you are imaginative are you not, apprentice, I like that in a student. You are the first to even evade capture for more than thirty seconds. You might just have some talent for this vocation.”

“I beg your pardon my ladyship but you have me at a very great disadvantage in that you know my name but I haven't been properly introduced.”

“Betty white Owl I wish to introduce my mother, Morgana La Fay.”

Fay rattled this off as if she were introducing me to her neighbor or car mechanic. Then the coin dropped in to my empty change box. I am being tutored by the daughter of the most infamous Sorceress ever known and I was going toe to toe with her; what the hell was I thinking.

“Betty my dear child you were thinking, and kept your head. What you did was keep out of my reach for about ten minutes with out killing anyone including your self, that is a record time. I am not offended in fact I AM QUITE PLEASED by your performance. If it was any one else but myself you may have been the victor. As it is I would never hurt a member of my family who was just very imaginatively defending herself. I just ended the performance so no one would get hurt. And you still surprised me in very good form Betty, you did the near impossible with what you had to work with.”

“Sorry but this is not how I imagined this would end up. How may I address you my lady?”

“Morgan is my common title among family.”

“Family????” my brain was swimming in shock and awe, Fay continued.

“Mother, I think she is in shock maybe this is time for some tea and explanation? “

I was drinking a cup of coffee with a shot of brandy in it listening to the explanation of what was just revealed. Fay broke the quiet by putting her hand on mine. Morgan was sitting across from me with a warm smile on her face,

“Betty, with the closeness that develops between an apprentices and there master, among sorceresses it is custom that you become a member of the master’s family. There are ceremonies to be performed but my mother agrees you are worthy of the station and the training you are about to receive.”

“How are you with your children having another Grandmother and Great Grandmother” Morgan quipped.

“They will love it I just need to leave it until it is going to happen for me to discover just how I am going to explain to a soon thirteen year and ten year old they now have a magical relatives, great grand mother.”

“That's the easiest thing to handle; both of your kids already know so much more than other kids do, there is also the fact they share your genetics so it is a great possibility they to are talented, so there training can start early.”

“Morgan I think I am living in the Chinese curse, May you live in interesting times.”

When I got back to Haven it was only three o clock in the afternoon on the same day I left. This was going to take some getting used to but I do feel rested and no one here missed me. The great thing was I had four days rest so I was ready to work. After a quick check for messages I went to my office and made myself a small pot of coffee.

I loved the quiet of my office it made concentration on difficult tasks easy. So I started to cast about for something fun to dig into that's when the two heavy letter boxes slid off what I had them perched on under my desk finding the toes of my right foot, this event was punctuated by comments that would peel paint off of a house. After I recovered enough to actually look at the offending boxes I noticed these were the boxes I set aside during the mad dash concerning our township incorporation. I had sufficient work at the time and that was a life or death decision. These two old war department boxes were on the lowest priority.

Now this was a bit of fluff I could dispose of in an afternoons work and get on with the rest of my real work. Or that was the way the plan was supposed to go, Where it went was someplace very different, it was a game changing discovery that for some reason didn't freak me out but amused me. Where else would I find that this little sleepy town held a well kept secret. The town of Haven was first the home for an instillation constructed secretly by FDR during the depression to store the paperwork for the new social security program. But WW 2 hijacked that and it was re-purposed into a military food rations plant. Then after WW 2 ended and the cold war race for atomic superiority it was re-purposed again for a regional government bomb shelter designed to carry an undisclosed amount of people safely through an atomic shooting war with Russia or China.

All of this was underground utilizing all of the undermining from the hundreds of mines that ran under Haven. I read that the running joke when the original owners sold the land was the place was considered so badly undermined if some one dropped a five pound rock hammer the entire town would sink into the earth. This was partially true enough for the government to decide to utilize this in the construction of this BUNKER IN THE BASEMENT.

Betty

When I realized that what I was looking at was real and not just a silly proposal I laughed until I wet myself. Why should I not expect Haven to have a few quirky secrets I hadn't unearthed yet, this complex was just the cherry on top of the Ice cream Sundae that was Haven, The original document repository was of modest size but the food processing plant was huge. This place made most of the powdered eggs the service people consumed during the war. That was just the tip of the iceberg of what went through here during the war. The loading and unloading docks were underground and trees covered a lot of the route up to this location. During the war the entire town worked here utilizing the vast amount of food produced in the valley and the surrounding area.

After the war our priorities shifted and at first conversions of the old food plant used what was there directly. The Governor of the state and several of his key officials and judges were to be sheltered here. But the power of Russian weapons increased and so did the importance of keeping the state government safe. The facility was constantly under construction from 1956 up to 1966. After that equipment was added and new technology replaced old upgrading the facility to house a small city of people serving the state and federal government in case of an atomic war.

There was still a lot of the old food plant undisturbed since the war as the food plant rambled sideways the shelter went down deep. I had only the time to scratch the surface of what was present in this bonanza of information but what I could figure out with just what we were siting on top of more potential useable real estate than we could have ever dreamed of. In Jimmy Carter’s term of office the township had built for them this township building from which the state could monitor emergency services under severe environmental conditions that was where my apartment was constructed along with several other units to allow the Township Government to continue functioning in case of a natural disaster.

The bomb shelter facility was maintained until 1999 when it was decommissioned. In 2001 the keys were given over to the township with the warning to not get lost down there.. I wanted to research this out a little more before revealing what I had uncovered so I very carefully locked away my treasure in my own safe I inherited with the office. It looked to be over a hundred years old but it was so sturdy I felt that things were safe from the honest people. It was getting late and I wanted to get to the Dragon for dinner; then an early bed time, since I have a feeling things are going to pick up tomorrow.

That evening I talked with the children who made it to Blessings and were having a blast, With everything happening lately I was worried about they’re feeling forgotten. But contrary to my worries both were thriving in this new environment making new friends and discovering all the stuff we take for granted as adults for the first time. Their enthusiasm for the world was refreshing and allowed me to process what was going on with me and not worry about they’re feeling neglected

My world was swirling and racing around me at such a pace if I hesitated or paused for even second I would only hear a ripping sound as I was shredded . I was in a process which only ran one way, so regardless of my emotions, it had to be done. There had been a number of times in my life where I had to hold my emotions in a freezer just to get through a situation or event. This is a skill that I developed to perfection when I was still trying to play at being a man. I have had to go past frosty to Arctic frozen pulling my concentration into a very special sort of compromises.

I had to allow for relevant details to come through into focus while filtering everything useless out, like fear or worry. I was flying through a nebulous cloud following my own internal compass that traced a random appearing and circuitous course, through the nebula skirting the obstacles and finding what I was looking for.

You must navigate solely by using your intention that you will find what you need to find. Then by your intuition alone know that you have found the correct thing person or event. All as you move from each relevant event to the next. I fully understand what I am trying to say, but no matter how much or many times I explain it, it still sounds confusing.

There are two types of the unseen those who hide behind there wealth and think they are powerful. And the unseen who are cloaked within their knowledge and are powerful.
Phaedrus The Elder

Amanda Shelgrem

“Madame Shelgrem as your account manager I will not insult you and therefor assume you are you aware that this large a withdrawal will cost you a very large sum of money, outside of the amount you have requested. I know this project is very dear to you but the cost?”

“You fool, money is not the point. I have more wealth than some medium sized countries, so I can easily afford it. And you are correct this project is very dear to me. I am attempting to recover the property my fool relation great uncle Armon just gave away. My ancestor was stupid enough to give this property to a bunch of do good's who have no right to that valuable a resource that they squander by just sitting on it.

So just do as I told you to take your commission and be done with it. Also, Mr Bartholomew, thank you for looking after my interests; my father has always trusted you as do I.

Oh by the way please find a solution to this Betty person problem, she is in my way and I want her gone understand Mr Bartholomew.?

“Yes implicitly, Mrs Shelgrem I do.”

“Do this for me sir and you will be properly rewarded for your services, But do this expediently sir, before I am forced to take matters into my own hands.!”

“Poppy be a dear and show Mr Bartholomew out would you?”

The banker’s departure was a signal to Athena to continue her postponed conversation with her mother, but Amanda beat her to the punch,

“Oh where was I, ah yes. I am not going to allow some human vermin to infest my families land. This fight is about the proper order of things. I and mine are on top so it follows that they and theirs are on the bottom.

A blank block of marble in the quarry is just slightly more valuable to me than it is inside of the mountain that gave it birth. Now it is for me to carve this blank into an image of my liking. I desire my own oases and playground, A kingdom if you wish to call it that. I will be Queen and the little people who I want to remain will be my subjects.

That my dear daughter is what the New World order is about. This will be your inheritance. That is what I am training you to take over for me and continue. Our family were respected royalty before and we will be respected royalty again. To do that I must first recover what is by all rights ours.”

“Mother I am very moved you wish to raise me above the rabble, but the time for royalty is done and the time is for Democracy. We are a thing of the past. And this Betty is the future, she worked her way up out of poverty and has helped many people weather the economic storms. She should be praised for helping them become independent productive people rather than welfare dependent.

"The poor are poor for a reason, they serve as a warning about what happens when you displease your betters. Democracy in the hands of the poor disrupts this natural order. But the great thing is Democracy is so easy to destroy because it has historically existed for such a short time. But there has been royalty for eons longer than Democracy. It's an inconsistent spot here or there where some fool smears and drains some of their cheap blood to install some form of it.

Then it is left to people like us with more common sense to pop there fragile illusion and then clean up the mess they made returning things to normal. That is what is important here and now I have the means to rectify this deplorable situation. And that entire 6000 plus acres will be a monument to my correct thinking.

It is the power over people that's my goal; the power to make them bend to my will. I am their better, and now like the past I want stability, and certainty that what I build will stay put for you to inherit, my Princess.

And no one certainly not a worthless red skinned freak of nature, like this Betty, is going to get in my way of accomplishing that, If I had my way I would put a bounty on the heads of anyone who tries to organize people to stand in the way of Manifest Destiny; any one or thing especially a community organizer who are even lower than a labor organizer. Who do those communists think they are, their silly concept died with Nehru jackets.

Athena was very tired dealing with her mothers triads and pipe dreams.

Poppy had been her nanny since she could remember and she has always been her rock and really her mother. Athena found herself alone in the kitchen making a pot of tea for herself. Poppy came in a hurry.

“Athena this is a treat but I need to get your mother’s lunch finished before the Queen of Hearts says off with her head.”

“Poppy let me help you with that just tell me what to get and you do the proper arranging and finishing I need a little break from Mom's rarefied atmosphere. I need some grounding. “

The two women worked like a team and in very little time the lunch was just about completed with the exception of a few finishing touches.

“Poppy there is something very wrong with Amanda she has no compassion and she is proud of it. What am going to do with a kingdom of people who hate me and my mother for her craziness.”

“You are like your name Athena; there is much wisdom behind those beautiful eyes. What I say can never leave between the two of us, comprendi.

Yes I agree your mother suffers from an emotional sickness which has choked off her heart. She can't seem to love or accept love. She has been fighting in the mans world so long she has emotionally become one and like your Grand Pa Pa she has sold her soul to reach for her success.

I just pray that I have given you over the years enough love that you do not fall into the same pit that has swallowed the other members of your family.
We will talk more later my child”

Just then the buzz and flashing light showed the Queen was in her dining nook awaiting her food. With a kiss on Athena’s cheek Poppy was gone.