Sunday turned out to be a perfect day for a barbecue: sunny and warm, not hot, with just a hint of a breeze, a few fluffy clouds drifting lazily overhead.

Oblique had demanded a return to her dragon-form, with a small modification or two, largely the absence of the webbing linking arms to sides. But, otherwise, she was back in tiny scales, black that shimmered with every colour of the spectrum, especially in the sunlight. She'd found a rather short skin-tight strapless white dress to wear, with a slit up the back to allow her serpentine tail more freedom; it did a lot to emphasize the scales, along with curves that were definitely not reptilian.

Miranda preferred to keep her tabby stripes, and Van made no effort to convince her otherwise. She did look cute, in her back-slit denim shorts and a red tank-top.

Oblique picked up the huge bowl of potato salad she'd made the night before. The trunk of the car already held the other part of their contribution, a liberal assortment of cans and bottles of juice and pop. "I think we're all ready. Is there anything else?"

Van slung his backpack—with towels, swimsuits, and the like, plus sunblock for him and Brennan—over one T-shirt-clad shoulder, and shook his head. "I think that's it." He gave Miranda a one-armed hug, reassuringly. "Relax, Randi, you'll be okay, I promise."

"If you say so," she said doubtfully, but she came out to the car with them.

The sensitives had the back seat—Miranda obviously suddenly realizing why the car windows were tinted as dark as legally possible in the back. Oblique grumbled a bit about getting comfortable with her heavy tail caught under her, but squirmed until she got settled. Miranda stayed very quiet during the ten-minute drive; Van worried about her, wished he could make her feel better, but said nothing. Which left Brennan and Oblique to fill the silence, which they did.

The house Van and Brennan had grown up in was very large and very old, and had been in the Donovan family for a long time. Kerry, her sister, and their mother had lived here as long as Van could remember; he missed his grandmother badly, but she'd proven a few years back that no mage power could fight cancer, no matter how great the strength of will. To add to the grief, her sensitive who had been with her for almost fifty years suicided immediately afterwards.

But the house still stood, next to the lake, screened from the road by distance and a wall of trees.

Van parked next to a car he recognized as his cousin Grania's.

"Finally." Oblique was out of the car in a heartbeat, her tail swishing as she worked the kinks out. "The things I go through to look good..." But she said it mostly under her breath, so Van and Brennan could pretend not to have heard. Miranda passed her the salad, and got out; Van popped the trunk before he and Brennan followed suit.

The front door opened and Richard came out. No... Van did a small mental shift. Tinker, not Rich.

Miranda stared at him, eyes wide. Van tried to see him as Randi might, and thought he could understand the amazement: Rich was big, larger even than Van or Brennan, and at the moment, he was a muscular tiger, quite a lot furrier than Oblique usually preferred, black stripes and white belly and brilliant golden-orange, and completely naked except a wide studded leather collar. Not that anything showed, since cats had everything tucked away neatly inside. The massive humanoid cat was definitely impressive.

"Lady Kerry is in the back yard, my Lords," he said, eyes low, perfectly respectful. "My Lady sent me to bring inside what you brought."

"Thanks," Van said. "It's all in the trunk, except the bowl Oblique has."

"Yes, my Lord." Tinker relieved Oblique of the heavy bowl, and picked up one of the cases of pop with his other hand. Van didn't miss Oblique's admiring look, or the way her tongue ran along her lips. Or Tinker's wink in return. But he pretended he hadn't seen.

"Pride?"

Miranda shook herself, and hastened to join him. "My Lord?"

"Come."

Brennan simply glanced at Oblique, and she came, as well, around the house to the back yard.

The picnic table was near the gas barbecue, but currently was bare; half a dozen lawn chairs and a couple of blankets had been arranged on the grass, not far away.

Kerry was in one, her greying hair pinned up, the body under her swimsuit and robe softening noticeably these days. Aiden, who was first cousin to her and Shvaughn and Brennan, was nearest her, long thin legs stretched out in front of him, long thin fingers wrapped around a glass. Shvaughn herself, hard and fit, and her daughter Grania, slightly overweight but voluptuously curved, with long wheat-gold hair, were relaxing in two of the others.

Kerry greeted them with a warm smile. "Perfect day for a picnic, isn't it?"

"Absolutely," Brennan said, claiming a chair; Van took the last. "Hi, all. How are the kids, Grania?"

"Doing wonderfully, thank you."

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"They're home with Meta?" Van asked, already sure of the answer. Grania had two sensitives, but one of them stayed home to raise her beloved small twins. Usually, the entire household came, but if Meta and the little ones had been present, there'd have been no overlooking them.

Grania nodded. "They have a new wading pool, with a slide, and they're having a grand old time. Meta just never seems to get tired, I'd be lost without her. How could I concentrate on everything else if I had to worry about them, instead of knowing they're in the best of hands?"

"Glad to hear it," Brennan said. "And I can just imagine how much fun they're having splashing around. How's your newest play coming, Kerry?"

"I think it has a lot of potential, although we'll have to wait and see, we've barely started."

"Make sure we get tickets, hm? Oblique? Get me, oh, a can of root beer, and a glass with ice in it?"

"Yes, my Lord," Oblique said, but she waited a heartbeat, her gaze flicking from Miranda to Van.

"The same, but orange," Van told her.

"Yes, my Lord," Miranda echoed softly, and followed Oblique in the direction of the house.

The mages chatted about Kerry's theatre, Shvaughn's art, Brennan's garden, Aiden's studies in European history and recent trip to Scotland, Van's counselling, Grania's restaurant and children, Neely's absence due to a ju-jitsu tournament. Oblique and Miranda returned, with the requested drinks; Van accepted his with an off-hand, "Well done. Sit," and returned to the conversation. Miranda obediently knelt at his feet, just a little to one side so she wasn't in the way if he chose to move. Oblique must have given her some of the finer points to go with the technical rules. Normally, Brennan would have sent Oblique to the kitchen, to help the other sensitives, but that would have left Miranda alone with six mages; Van was grateful he didn't.

Kerry stretched, lazily. "Is anyone else getting hungry?"

"I think I could go for some good food," Aiden conceded.

Grania echoed the stretch and stood up. "I imagine Unity's finished making hamburger patties by now."

"Your way?" Van asked, with interest. Grania mixed something into the meat she refused to divulge, but it made her burgers, especially barbecued, heavenly.

"Of course my way. There are hot dogs, too, for anyone with no taste. Or for the sensitives, if we run out of burgers." She grinned, and departed in the direction of the kitchen, her long strides making her colourful cotton skirt swirl around her ankles.

Grania being by far the best able to take charge of the food, the others left her to it. Brennan got up and went for a walk with Kerry to take a closer look at the flowers he'd planted earlier that spring, in and around the rock garden he'd started designing back in his teens and had been perfecting ever since; Oblique was told to stay where she was.

Shvaughn leaned back in her chair, took a sip of fruit punch, and looked Miranda over thoughtfully. "Cute little thing," she told Van. "You've had her, what, a couple of weeks?"

"Two weeks this Wednesday."

"You're doing a good job training her, she's well-behaved for a new one."

"Thanks. Oblique's a good example for her, that helps, I think."

"I imagine having had a taste of harsher treatment would also help."

Van felt Miranda wince slightly. Yet, in public, most mages felt free to make comments far more callous. It was one of those things they had to get used to until changes could happen. "Oh, probably. She's smart enough to figure out when she has it good."

Unity began to bring condiments and dishes out to the picnic table, while Grania carried a platter heaped with burgers to the barbecue and opened it to reveal foil-wrapped potatoes already inside. The sensitive was all sleek glossy feathers today, her chest white, her back black intricately marked with white, her head black and her eyes red. That looked familiar from somewhere; it was the white on the sides and back of her neck that triggered sudden recognition. Loons were a familiar sight on the lake, he should have identified her more quickly than that. The collar around her neck was black suede, almost invisible except for the metal plaque riveted to it; otherwise, she wore no more than Rich.

The sound of a vehicle coming up the driveway startled all of them, mage and sensitive alike; Kerry gestured to everyone to stay, and circled the house to the front. No one should be here, uninvited. Mundanes meant sending the sensitives all in the house in a hurry; the response to other mages depended on who they were.

Kerry came back around the house with four people. Shvaughn and Aiden both half-turned to see; Van didn't need to, he could see from where he was, two in khaki denim, two behind who were silent and visibly tried to take up as little space in the universe as possible. He saw Brennan, by the rock-garden, go very still. Grania simply glanced over her shoulder, and went back to piling potatoes in a shallow bowl.

"I'm sure we have enough food for guests," Kerry was saying, her tone artificially bright.

"We were in the area and thought we'd stop by," Brock said casually. "A good dinner is an unexpected bonus."

Van felt both fists clench, and fought the instinct to bolt to his feet. Miranda shivered and inched a little closer, but didn't otherwise move. Trusting him to protect her, he thought, and felt sick at the thought that he might not be able to. Oblique bent a rule and shifted position so she was closer to Miranda, but dared not actually touch.

Shvaughn got to her feet, gave Van a quick reassuring smile while her back was to the hunters, and made a gesture, blocked from them by her body, that he interpreted as stay. At least he wasn't alone; his family would do everything in their power to keep him and Miranda safe. Van didn't think any of them had any doubts exactly why they'd really chosen to appear here and now. She turned away, strode across the grass to the hunter team.

"We didn't think busy folks like yourselves would have any interest in a small family dinner," she said. "Of course you're welcome to join us, Grania always makes far too much food. It comes from running a restaurant, I suppose, she's used to thinking in bulk. I suppose you didn't bring anything to swim in, the lake's lovely today."

"Now that I have you alone and we won't bore the others," Aiden said, his tone light, "maybe I can get your thoughts on the social dynamics in Ireland and Scotland as Christianity was introduced. There's a considerable difference between knowing the facts and knowing why people acted the way they did, and frankly, I trust you more than any of the works I've read on the subject."

Van forced his attention away from the hunters, fixed it on Aiden instead, grateful for the distraction. Staring at the hunters like a cornered rabbit was dangerous in itself. "I don't know that much about the subject, you'll have to tell me what it is I'm giving you thoughts about." It was a subject they could keep going on for hours without ever straying into heretical ground—they'd had similar discussions before—which was probably why Aiden had suggested it. Brennan abandoned the rock garden in favour of rejoining them, listening intently and asking questions to clarify details and offering a thought or two of his own. Oblique, properly, shifted position again so she was near him.