“So...” Eliot began worriedly when Claire made her way to the bedroom. “How did things go with Sean?” he made himself ask, despite his very real fear of that answer.

“Good,” she said a little too quickly as she avoided eye contact by taking a seat at the vanity, instead of next to where Eliot had been studying more spells atop the bed before her return to the room.

Eliot gave her a look filled with doubt, “I know you’ve never been much of a liar, but that answer does seem rather... unbelievable,” he dared, though gently.

“No. Something good has come of all of this,” Claire denied, though her voice shook.

“And what could that possibly be?” Eliot asked with continued doubt.

“It may have taken three hundred years,” Claire began with a heavy sigh, “but Sean has finally figured out how to live without me. Summer taught him that.” She scoffed quietly. “She really is magical. Now he finally knows just how much easier his life is without me. And that’s something he had to learn, so he can do what he needs to do when the rest of that prophecy finally unfolds. And I could never teach him that. She could,” Claire finished with a sad shrug to disguise her slight sniffle.

“Pushing past the fact that you still don’t believe that I’ll be able to save you...”

“Eliot...”

“If he really does think his life is so much easier without you, as you say, then why did he even come here tonight, Claire?”

Claire shook her head in the face of his trying to use logic against her. “My only guess is closure. When we finally find someone who can actually read Sean’s mind, maybe we’ll find out for sure, then.” She sighed again, “I mean, I guess Hollister could do it. Maybe you could ask him when you go back to England, right?”

Eliot narrowed his eyes at that, “Why would I go back to England?”

That’s when Claire finally looked back at him, “Because you promised to, after you saved me. Didn’t you?”

“How...” he began, then he looked quickly back up at her, as that answer suddenly dawned on him. He paused another moment and swallowed hard. “When did you start doing that?”

Claire looked down in shame, “Guess I really am losing my humanity after three hundred years.”

“I have trouble believing that one too, Claire.”

She sighed heavily, “I needed to know. I needed a real reason to blame her, to hate her, and...” another sigh. “There was nothing there, Eliot. She is actually a good person who honestly did just fall in love with Sean. Not that hard to believe, is it?” She had to pause another moment, “And she ended up teaching him what he needed to learn, just like I said. So, I suppose that's all that really matters, in the end,” Claire shrugged helplessly, her voice trailing away as she did.

----------------------------------------

It was the final afternoon of that first year of the new century when another visitor approached the gate in front of Eliot’s new home. Summer took a deep breath as she stepped up to the gate and found Eliot outside in a garden full of rare and obscure plants, much like the one she had kept at her father’s house.

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“This place is really looking nice,” she attempted to break the ice as she stopped outside the gate to greet him.

He turned back to her and took a few steps toward the gate to allow himself a moment to find his own greeting that late afternoon. “Yes, I’m a kept man now. Like mother like son, I suppose,” he stated with a wry smile. He referred to his mother having inherited a great deal of wealth from first her family, then continuing to be even further supported by Eliot’s royal father. It seemed the emperor still wanted to have a positive relationship with his favorite mistress, if not his illegitimate son.

“You’re making jokes. Should I take that as a good sign?”

“Were you looking for some other sign?” Eliot asked, keeping his expression as jovial as he could.

Summer sighed deeply, “I think I really messed things up, El.”

“Things?” he repeated with feigned ignorance.

“I’m trying to be open, here,” she replied, attempting to take on a scolding tone which was undermined by the sadness in her voice.

Eliot let out his own breath as he moved to step through the gate and join her on the walkway that ran past the home. “So, what did you think, or hope, would happen when you went to speak with the wife of your mind reading lover?”

She looked down again, “I was just hoping to find some way to fix things I suppose.”

Eliot narrowed his eyes at that and leaned back against the gate in thought. “It looked as though you and Sean were pretty happily entangled for most of the last year. So what exactly was it that you thought needed fixed?”

“Come on, Eliot. Sean and Claire were barely speaking, then this,” she gestured to the home. “And you and I were barely speaking either,” she added more quietly.

He sighed sadly. “Did you think it would be easy for me to just talk to you the way we used to, when I saw how Claire was feeling every night? Honestly?” he asked with more gentleness than accusation.

Summer’s eyes remained fixed to the ground for a long time before she made any other statement, “You saw how she was feeling,” she stated in a whisper, more to herself than to him.

“Was there a question there?” Eliot asked.

“Claire never said anything to me though. Not that I could blame her,” Summer added more quietly. “But Sean never did either and I thought that if he didn’t say anything then... I mean, if there was really a problem...” she just shook her head.

“What should I say, Summer? What were you hoping I’d say when you came here today?”

Summer sighed heavily, “Sean’s been acting differently since Christmas Eve now too, and I... I was just...” she sighed with defeat, “I don’t know, honestly, Eliot. I just...” She simply looked downwards again. “I want to fix it. It’s kind of what we were made for, isn’t it?” she asked as she looked up again to give him a sad, but hopeful look.

“You think there’s a spell or enchantment to fix this? Or did you just want to travel through time and try and fix it that way? Because that always goes well,” he added with a wry sarcasm.

“So am I just supposed to give up and leave things like this? I mean, it’s all my fault, isn’t it?”

“I think you can spread a little of that blame around, all things considered,” he added in the same quiet tone.

“Still... I feel horrible and Sean definitely doesn’t seem to be feeling that happy himself. And I’m sure Claire’s not happy either. Which likely means you’re not happy. Everything is a horrible mess now, Eliot. There’s got to be some way to fix it.”

Eliot sighed deeply, then moved to give her a gentle hug before speaking, “All I can tell you, Summer, is that Sean and Claire have gotten through so much, so many terrible, horrible hardships, and they still got through them all. And they’ve done so for three hundred years.” A pause. “I mean, she gave up her very life for him. And he gave her immortality so that they could be together for eternity, literally. I don’t think we’re the ones who can fix this. They’re the only ones who can. And we just have to trust that they will, eventually,” he finished as he squeezed her more tightly, hoping his words would be as true as he was trying to assure her they would be.