Viv climbed into the passenger seat once Keary and Mitch were situated in the back. Keary took up so much room that Mitch had to crouch in the footwell to keep an eye on him.

"This isn't going to be a smooth ride," Aidan said, "I might have to cheat a little? Viv, do you think you could drive?"

"Oh. Um. Yeah." She climbed out again and ran around the driver's side. Once she'd settled herself behind the wheel she looked at Aidan who'd buckled himself in the passenger seat and put both hands flat on the dash. "Ready?"

Aidan gave her a quick smile. "As I'll ever be."

Viv's eyes widened in fascinated horror as the track in front of them started to vibrate and writhe as though it were a living thing laying itself flat for a few metres in front of the van.

"Go. Please." Aidan said between clenched teeth.

She jumped a little and then put her foot down. The ride was relatively smooth and she slowly increased speed until they moved frighteningly fast. When she glanced up at the rear vision mirror, their wake still writhed and wriggled off into the darkness. She opened her mouth to ask him how he was doing it, but when she looked at the side of his face she saw that sweat dripped from his chin and he maintained a white-knuckle grip on the dash. A rock from the middle of one wheel track twitched and then threw itself off into the bush to the left and Aidan gasped and rocked dizzily with effort.

They drove on like that for almost half an hour until Aidan cried out for them to stop and collapsed back into his seat.

"Are you OK?" Viv asked.

"No, something," he turned in his seat and looked back at the mountain which shivered in the darkness. "Oh, shit..."

"What is it?" Mitch called from the back.

"They've collapsed the Sanctuary," Aidan said weakly. "It's closed."

Aidan swallowed hard. "They got out," he said firmly. "I know they did. They sealed the Firbolg inside, that's all. That's all."

"Jesus, what do we do?" Mitch asked, pale and trembling, still crouched in the footwell beside Keary.

All eyes turned to Aidan and he stared back at them with a controlled calm. He opened his mouth to say something but stopped when Vivien's hand came down on top of his and she squeezed his fingers tightly. She still shook and her eyes were wide and frightened. She looked like she was about to cry.

"We can't go anywhere Justin would know," He said carefully. "I think our best bet is some inconspicuous hotel for tonight and we'll try to attack this in the morning. The others will take the boats to Dover and they'll call in the citizens. When Dad gets to a phone he'll call the message service and hopefully, he'll have a plan." Aidan leaned forward and resettled his hands on the dash. "OK, let's go again."

They reached sealed roads almost two hours later. Mitch came forward and took over driving while Aidan and Vivien got in the back so Aidan could sleep and Vivien could keep an eye on Keary.

They turned into the driveway of a ratty hotel in Campania hours later. Mitch turned the engine off and twisted around in his seat to look at the others. Aidan's eyes were still closed and his head rested on Vivien's shoulder. When Mitch cleared his throat Aidan's eyes popped open and he looked around blearily.

"Go book us a room, just one. We're all staying together tonight. We'll help Keary in when you get back." He said.

Mitch nodded and went into the office around the side of the building. He came back a few minutes later with a set of keys. "Ground floor corner room with one single, one double." He reported, then hauled the side door open. "It's just here, we should get him inside as fast as we can."

"Viv, grab the first aid bag for me," Aidan said as they manhandled Keary up off the seat and into the room.

Vivien followed along behind them with a strangely blank expression. When they went into the room she walked into the bathroom and sat down on the floor next to the toilet. As Mitch had already cut open Keary's shirt and busily curses and orders, in equal measure, they didn't notice her absence. Aidan had put his heavy jacket on the bed under Keary so that he didn't bleed all over the sheets, but it did nothing to help with the pain. Even so the huge man made very little noise and stared fixedly at the ceiling.

"Alright, ain’t nothin' but a thang," Mitch said in an exaggerated accent. "Get the needle and thread ready," he told Aidan as he sprayed betadine liberally over the wound, turning Keary's stomach brown. When Aidan handed it to him he nodded, "you guys might need to hold him still."

"I'll be fine," Keary said to the ceiling.

"I do not want you taking a swing at me," Mitch warned.

The work was slow and terrible. Keary never made a sound, he didn't even flinch, but sweat beaded on his forehead and he gripped the blankets in his huge fists. No one said a word during that time, except Mitch who muttered under his breath non-stop. Finally the last stitch was in and Mitch put the needle and thread aside for a moment. "OK, one down. Your insides look pretty good, which is great. Your back, on the other hand, is going to suck donkey nuts. Help me get the rest of his shirt off him and roll him over."

It was during this process, which finally got some disgruntled noises out of Keary, that Aidan noticed Vivien's legs, which were all he could see of her hidden away behind the corner in the bathroom. He was about to go to her but when they tried to lay Keary on his stomach he shook his head.

"No! No that's not going to work." He grated through clenched teeth. "Need to sit up."

Aidan grabbed a stool and put it at the foot of the bed, "Let's get him up on here."

The process with his back took longer. Though the wounds weren't as deep and nowhere near anything vital, they required a large number of stitches and Keary rocked unsteadily by the time Mitch was done. When they had helped Keary back onto the bed and propped him up on his side with pillows and blankets to keep the pressure off his wounds, Aidan went into the bathroom and squatted down next to Viv.

"Hey," He breathed.

Vivien looked up at him but didn't say anything. One of Aidan's hands moved forward and covered hers gently. She took a shuddering breath and lurched sideways so she could throw up into the toilet. Aidan rubbed her back and held her hair out of the way while she coughed and sputtered into the bowl.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Mitch called from the other room.

"We're fine!" Aidan yelled back, and moved his hand to Viv’s shoulder. "You're going to be fine."

"You say that so often it's lost all meaning," Viv mumbled into the echoing porcelain.

He chuckled and nodded helplessly. "Yeah. Probably. You think you're done now?"

She nodded.

"Good, come on, try to get some sleep." He helped her up and they went back into the bedroom.

Mitch lay next to Keary who was propped up with all his supporting pillows. The other bed was a single and Aidan looked at Vivien uncomfortably.

"I'm not tired anyway," she said.

"Come with me, I've got an idea."

The pool house had a disconcerting echo which made everything Aidan said sound as if it came from far away, and the soft snick as his sabre left the scabbard was ominous in its echoed enormity.

"You look like such a badass when you draw that thing." She said appreciatively.

Aidan laughed and gave a little bow. "It's all in the swagger. You'll get there. Don't worry about looking badass, just be badass for now. The look will sort itself out."

She laughed at him and held the light shield and short sword he’d given her at the ready. "I don't know that this was the right choice." She said.

"It'll be fine. You can always change later, but to begin with, it's best if you've got a shield. They take a lot less training to use reasonably well."

"Fair enough." She looked at it and then lowered it to move her gaze to Aidan's face. "In the cavern at the sanctuary when your father was asking me all those questions about my family..." she started then frowned when Aidan looked uncomfortable. "Something happened. You two worked something out, about me, something important and," she took a deep breath and let it out in a huff. "I want to know what that was, Aidan. I mean, you don't just teach random humans to use these weapons, do you? Am I... Was my mother like you?"

"Almost certainly, yes," Aidan said. He examined the hilt of his sabre rather than meet her eyes.

"But that's not it, is it? I can tell that you want me to leave it alone but," she moved forward, dropped the shield and put her hand on his forearm. "What could be scarier than all this?"

Aidan sighed and put his weapon on the table so that he could turn and take a hold of her hands. "We don't know anything for sure, and there really isn't any way to be one hundred percent sure. It's not like we can go to a DNA lab and have them test you." He looked at her face and sighed. "Obviously we think we know who your mother is, you've guessed that much. It's just that... Well, my father thinks that we, you and I,"

"Aidan, are you my brother?" Viv breathed.

His hands tightened on hers and he nodded. "What do you think?" He asked.

They stared at each other for a long time, and finally, Viv gasped and lurched forward to throw her arms around his neck and squeeze. "Oh my god." Aidan wrapped his arms around her and started to laugh. "It's not even weird. Why isn't it weird? Surely it's meant to be weird when a basically adult person finds out they have a brother they didn't know about?"

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"I don't know," Aidan admitted and turned his head to rest his cheek on her hair. "I feel like, maybe, I was waiting for you. Viv..." He sighed and she felt him shake his head. “We can’t tell the others.”

“Why not?” She asked.

“Because dad didn’t.” Aidan shrugged. “I have no idea why, but if he didn’t say anything, I think maybe we shouldn’t either. Something about the look on his face.”

“OK,” Viv sighed and closed her eyes.

Later Vivien wouldn't be able to say how long they stood there like that, but eventually, she gave a huge yawn and he took the sword from her.

"Come on, bedtime. It's got to be three A.M by now." He led her back to the room and for half a heartbeat he thought the sleeping situation would be weird and awkward. Viv kicked off her shoes and Aidan followed suit and they lay side by side on the cramped bed. They talked in soft whispers until they fell asleep.

Mitch woke every two hours during the night to check on Keary and make sure he didn’t have a fever or split his stitches in his sleep. Vivien barely moved, while Aidan spent the night with one arm around her shoulders staring at the side of her face between dozing. A little sister. He had a little sister. He could see part of himself in the way her brow furrowed just a little in her sleep, in her dark hair and big brown eyes. He could hear himself in her soft snore. He'd said that he felt like he'd always been waiting for her, and it was true in a strange, abstract way. But now that there was a warm weight physically pressed into his side, trustingly tucked under his arm, he wondered if perhaps he'd always felt her there.

Dawn was cool and the thin sliver of light that crept in through the gap in the curtain drew a sad line on the dirty carpet. Keary groaned and rolled onto his back only to hiss and lurch back onto his side. Mitch was beside him a moment later, he grumbled under his breath and complained about patients who won't sit still.

"Lemme see," Mitch said sternly as he lifted the dressing and looked at his lacerated side. "Aidan, get me the betadine and some fresh dressing." He ordered without looking to see if Aidan was even awake. "You are not getting infected, you little shit."

"How's he doing?" Aidan asked sleepily.

"He'll be fine," Mitch said. "Everything looks fine. Obviously, I'd rather he wasn't punctured all to hell, but there's no sign of infection, his colour is good, didn't get through the meat so..." He carefully stuck the dressing down and then urged Keary to sit sideways on the chair so he could check the wounds on his back.

"How do you feel?" Aidan asked when he could see Keary's face.

"Like shit," Keary grumbled.

Vivien yawned and stretched and half sat up. "What now?" She asked.

"Now, we get on the phone and start trying every number we can remember until we find someone from the sanctuary who grabbed their mobile before they legged it," Aidan said. "Dad will know what to do."

"I'm gonna take a shower," Mitch said when he was done checking Keary's dressings.

Aidan called after him. "Don't use all the hot water."

Aidan cycled through the phone numbers he could remember and Keary scribbled down any he could recall in whole or in part. Eventually, someone answered.

"Hello?"

Aidan leaned forward and pressed the receiver harder against his ear. "Evelyn? Evelyn, it's Aidan!"

"Oh my God! Aidan, hold on, hold on a sec." Aidan put on the speaker and the others clustered around as Lud's voice came through. "Aidan? Are you there?"

"Yes! Dad! Is everyone OK?" Aidan asked.

There was a relieved sound down the line and Viv had the impression that Lud had collapsed into a chair. "We lost eight..." Lud said sadly. "Three fell in the initial attack, and three more stayed behind to hold them while... While I closed the sanctuary. The other two were taken on the water."

"I'm so sorry dad..." Aidan started but Mitch cut across him.

"My mum?"

"She's fine," Lud reassured them. "But... Keary's cousin, Thomas, was one of those who stayed behind."

Keary barely moved in response to the news. He nodded and played with the silver chain around his neck.

"I'm so sorry, Keary," Lud said down the line.

Keary blinked and held the chain in his fist. "Tom did his duty. He was a brave man, and he trusted that you would do the right thing." Keary said slowly. "We'll say his name often."

"Justin got out before I could seal the mountain," Lud said. "He only had five odd Firbolg with him, but two of them weren't monstrous, they were as they had been before the curse."

"Can you track him?" Aidan asked.

"No, but if you go to the city and find the Oracle, she should be able to help you," Lud told them.

"Wait, help us? What are you doing? Why aren't you coming in?" Aidan demanded.

Lud sighed. "We're not coming in because we're pinned down on De Witt island just south of New River Lagoon..." He explained. "There are Fomorians in the water and we can't leave. They took two warriors right off the boats before we realised we weren’t alone."

"Jesus Christ..." Mitch sat heavily on the floor. "Mum..."

"She's here Mitch, she's fine. Well, she's got a mild concussion, but she will be fine." Lud assured him. "They can't get out of the water, we're watching it in shifts. My guess is they aren't too married to the idea of getting at us. Justin must have made another deal, I get the feeling they're happy to just keep us penned up here..."

"How long can you hold out?" Aidan asked.

"Indefinitely as far as the Fomorians are concerned. My only worry is food and exposure. We've set up shelters using the boats and the supplies that we kept in them, but that's only going to work for so long. I'd say a week, possibly two if we can manage to fish a little." Lud said.

Aidan nodded slowly, "Alright. We'll find the Oracle and get Justin to undo whatever deal he's made. What other phones do you have? We shouldn't use up the battery in case we need to contact each other again."

While Aidan took a list of numbers from his father, Mitch looked shell-shocked, his eyes unfocused and his left hand trembled slightly where it hung down between his knees. Keary's eyes, on the other hand, were clear, and Viv was shocked when she realised that he was assessing everyone too. She realised this when her eyes hit his, just as he was coming around to assess her mental state. They stared at each other for a while until Aidan finished taking the numbers and took the phone off speaker.

"Mitch, you wanna talk to your mum for a minute?" He said and held out the receiver to Mitch.

Keary stood uncomfortably and grimaced as he made his way to the door. "We should wait outside." He said.

With eyes carefully averted from Mitch, the others filed out and closed the door quietly behind them. Viven moved closer to Aidan in the cold morning air and he absently put an arm around her shoulders while Keary leaned against the railing and looked off into the distance. After a while, Mitch came out with a sombre face. Vivien watched Keary struggle with a loose fitting button down shirt for a few moments before she took it from him and helped him get it on over his bandages.

"Alright, let's get going. It's still a long drive to Hobart." Aidan ushered everyone towards the car.

They sat in silence in the Tarago. Mitch hadn't slept well, and Keary couldn't be allowed to drive, so Aidan was behind the wheel with Vivien next to him in the passenger seat. After an hour or so the others had fallen asleep and Vivien felt comfortable enough to start asking questions.

"Who's the Oracle?"

Aidan glanced at her and smiled slightly. "I keep forgetting you haven't always been here..."

Viv smiled too. "When this is all over I promise you can grill me about my boring ass life all you want. You know, if you want to."

"Of course I do," he floundered for her hand and squeezed it before returning his hand to the wheel. "The Oracle is a human. Well, she's mostly human, God only knows what else is mixed up in there. Anyway, point is she can see the future. Sort of. Imperfectly. She's the only one who might be able to tell us what Justin is doing and how to stop him."

"OK, since no one asked, I assume it's common knowledge where the Oracle hangs out?" Viv asked.

Aidan chuckled. "Ah, yeah. She's a bartender at this club, 'Dirt'." He laughed at the look on her face. "I know, I know, but we're all just people, Viv. Everyone's gotta have a day job."

"What's yours?" Viv asked curiously.

"My day job?" He laughed and blushed under his beard. "I'm ah, I sing. In a band. I don't have to make a lot of money, you know, not having an actual address or anything. I've never bothered to have a place outside of the sanctuary."

"I crash with friends when I'm in town." He continued. "But I've never had a power bill or a phone contract..."

"So... You're like the dirtiest hippy ever." She laughed and he joined in, but they quietened down when Keary snorted in his sleep in the back seat. "My brother, the dirty hippy. Is it bad that if I only had one question it'd be 'what do you sing?'"

"Whatever, pub rock mostly. Shit you can scream after a couple of pints." He smiled.

"Big drinker, are you?"

He laughed. "No, not really. I mean, OK, I did get so drunk one time that I wandered around the city for like, two hours, and then curled up and went to sleep under the rhododendrons in some old ladies' front yard."

“What are Fomorians?” She asked after a pause.

Aidan’s hand gripped the wheel tighter and his knuckles went white for a moment until he let out a long slow breath and forced himself to relax.

“They’re… it’s hard to explain. Way way back, before what's generally considered even ancient history, the Fomorians were very much like us. In fact there was intermarriage, some Tuatha De have Fomorian blood, even now. But then there was this war between our people. Honestly god even knows what it was about any more, kings and thrones and who got to marry who. Anyway, we won. Yay us, I guess. But sometimes we’re as vindictive as anyone else and we cast the Fomorians back into the sea and wouldn’t let them come onto the land anymore.” He made a face and huffed out an uncomfortable breath.

“The truth is, I have no idea if they were OK guys or not. Maybe we were the shit heads in that one? But they hate us, and the feeling is pretty mutual for the most part. We haven’t seen them for a really long time though, I didn’t think they existed in this part of the world.”

Vivien played with the hilt of the sabre that sat across her lap. “And the monster, the thing that killed Kane?”

“Firbolg.” This time Aidan’s face hardened. “They are definitely the bad guys. Again, kings, land, all kinds of mythical garbage but… the Firbolg took the wrong side one time too many. Terrible things came to Erin, to Ireland, where we lived, and in order to choose the high king the Firbolg sided with demons. They lost, and as punishment for their crimes they were turned into those things. They only return to their natural shape when they die.”

With a slow nod, Viv frowned, “But Lud said that there were Firbolg with that guy, Justin? And they looked normal?”

“Yeah, I have no idea how he could have done that, but it must have been him. It was Tuatha De magic, they couldn’t have undone it without help so… Justin must have worked out a way to reverse it somehow? I have to be honest, that kind of magic isn’t my bag.”

“You just throw rocks?” She asked.

He chuckled. “I just throw rocks.”

The trip into Hobart took another three hours. Keary stayed asleep the whole time, and Mitch stayed quiet. The traffic was completely normal for a Thursday morning and Vivien looked out the window with a strange expression until she couldn't stay quiet any longer.

"Everything looks so normal." She said as she watched people walk down the street, get in and out of cars, and carry on with their lives as though elves and monsters and magic weren't real things.

"What did you think was going to happen?" Mitch asked from behind her. "Humans wander around all day doing human shit."

The car travelled down the Brooker highway into the centre of Hobart then turned up the hill into the Queens Domain. Behind the botanical gardens and tucked safely out of sight, they pulled the Tarago into the shade under the massive trees that line the rough dirt road. Aidan turned in his seat and looked at the others.

"We should be OK here for the rest of the day. The club opens its doors at 8:30 but we should be able to talk our way in earlier than that." He said. "Unless of course anyone actually knows where the Oracle hangs out during the day?" The others stayed quiet so Aidan turned around and leaned back in his seat. "Then I suggest we chill out for the rest of the day and try not to draw attention to ourselves."

“Is Keary going to be OK?” Vivien whispered some time later, when it seemed Mitch had nodded off.

“We heal pretty fast, and Keary’s a force of nature. He’ll be OK.” He smiled gently at her. “If we can go a little while without him getting stabbed that’d help, though.”