Riddle and Secrets

December '09 was the last update? Goodness!! Major apologies for not keeping my promises (DHpt2 is on dvd for goodness sake!)

Hope I've still got interested readers

To say I've agonized over this chapter it is very short, but this one(35) and the final chapter(36) hold a lot of information that ties into the final chapters of "Coming Full Circle".

CHAPTER 35
Hanna '12

The walls came apart as they had all those years ago. Stale air rushed out kicking up sand and dirt. After brushing dust from her robes, she stepped in and turned slightly with a glance over her shoulder.

“Are you coming in this time or are you going to stand on the threshold?”

Gideon hesitated and Kiya grinned. “You are curious, you know you are, else you would not have brought your drawing tablet,” she baited from the room’s center. “I will protect you.”

“I have every confidence you will.”

He stepped into the room for the first time, and got to look around as much as he wanted. His hands moved swiftly across the stiff paper as he sketched the etchings on the wall where his nose was all but pressed against. After a time he looked over his shoulder when he heard his wife chuckle.

“What?”

She grinned indulgently at him. “You are like a child when you get around things like this.”

“Well I…what’s that?”

Kiya spun around to what Gideon pointed at. “Her crypt.”

“Only hers? It isn’t your average size crypt for one individual, unless she was royalty. The dimensions are wrong.”

“What are you talking about?”

Gideon took Kiya’s hand and pulled her across the room to him. “Come. Stand here and look.” Leaving her side, he went to where she had stood. “This is not a cut out in the wall, it’s something more. See here, the fissure in the wall? It starts at half the wall’s height and…yes, it does not end at the floor.”

Kiya now stood at his side. Hands curling over the lip of the open tomb, she peered in. “I did not do this the last time. I – would you look at that?”

After she lit the tip of her wand, he too looked in. At first there appeared to be just a cracked slate in the foundation until her reached in and swept the thin layer of dirt, to reveal a jig-saw pattern in the rock.

Kiya hoisted herself up until she half her body hung over the edge.

“Be careful, please,” Gideon warned as he took hold of her ankle.

She only laughed as she prodded at one of the rocks. Nothing happened. She pressed another and heard the grinding of rock against rock. “I think you have again dis-“

“Kiya!” Gideon shouted as his wife’s ankle slipped from his grasp. He levered himself up and followed her through the hole without hesitation.

It was a long way down as the stale air rushed passed his ears. Every bone in his body rattled when he hit the earth. There was no light to be seen. He was completely blind. There was no sound to be heard. But as he thought he had lost his hearing, he heard scuffling to his left, only it hurt too much at the moment to move to investigate the sound.

A faint glow assaulted his eyes forcing him to shut his eyes.

Cool hands touched his face. “Gideon? Gideon, sweetheart, are you all right?”

“No…no…my arm…”

“Yes, I see. Well, this may hurt…a great deal.”

Gideon ground his teeth as his arm was yanked from under the weight of his body. “Kiya, please don’t – arrgh!”

He nearly fainted when he heard his bones snap back together and into place after a rap of Kiya’s wand against his arm.

She touched his forehead, brushing his hair away. “You’re bleeding, let me –“

“No, I am better. My arm was the worst of it.” He sat up and rotated his healed shoulder. “Where are we?”

She wiped at his brow again and studied him. “I do not know. Are you sure you are all right?”

He took her hand and squeezed reassuringly. “Yes, you healed me properly. Let’s see where we are.” She stood with him. “You made no sound when you fell.”

“Yes, well, I have fallen in many holes in my time. I see no point in wasting precious breath or giving off my location. It is a rule of survival all Aurors follow.”

“So we should not be talking now?”

“If we were to be attacked they would have shown themselves by now. Are you sure –“

“Kiya, I am fine.”

“You know you Muggles, fragile and all.”

Gideon studied his wife’s face in their limited light. “You’re joking with me, that means something isn’t right.”

Kiya swept her wand around. “My magic is weak. I am surprised I was able to heal you. And I cannot Apparate.”

“What?”

She brought her wand back. “I have never been able to not Apparate anywhere I wanted or needed to be. That is not true…once…it happened here, but there I was not able to use magic at all.”

“You have used magic, even if it was weak as you said. Where were you before when your magic was weakened?”

“The Spirit realm.”

“The –“

“Remember when we met and I told you about the Arch – well, we may be near something like it for magic to work so feebly.”

“I hear something. It sounds like…water or sifting dirt, possibly?”

Because her wand was in tuned to Kiya, her wand brightened more than ever so that she could investigate.

Gideon walked slowly to the sound. “It’s sand. It’s a wall of sand.”

“Don’t touch it!” Kiya shouted when Gideon raised his hand.

“Remember who you’re talking to,” Gideon said with chuckle. “I don’t touch unknown things with my hands…especially when there is magic at play.”

“I forgot, ever the explorer.” She went closer to the falling sand. “It does not pool.”

Gideon looked at their feet. “No, it does not.”

He walked around the narrow wall. He looked up and down the falling sand. “It appears to have no origin either,” he murmured, coming around to stand beside Kiya again.

“Let’s leave this and try to find a way out.”

He took her arm when she started to walk away. “Do you know what this is?”

“Is it something we can determine later? Come.”

“Hold on. One second,” he murmured. He bent down and picked up a rock the size of his fist. Before she could stop him, Gideon tossed the rock into the rolling sand where it paused in midair and crumbled as it was slowly sucked into the wall. “Hope that didn’t hit anyone.”

“Gideon, what are you talking about?”

“As a Necromancer I’m surprised you do not know what that is.”

“Please enlighten me, but do so quickly,” she said distractedly, looking up and around thinking she could possibly levitate them back up through the darkness.

“Adara told me about Time Turners when she was working in the Ministry.”

“So you believe this to be enchanted sand?”

“Possibly more, but what else could it be?”

Stumped for an alternate answer, Kiya stopped and took a better study of the wall. “All right, you have my attention.”

Right after she said it, the rock Gideon had thrown rolled out at their feet.

“You have really got my attention,” she said, backing away from the rock that rolled to the tips of her shoe.

What came out next had them both backing away speechlessly. It was a man. He was rather tall and noble looking dark features. He paused and took notice of Kiya and Gideon. The man twitched a long spidery finger and a light illuminated the area by an unknown source.

“It was only a matter of time,” the man said with a sigh.

Gideon waggled a finger in his ear, while Kiya watched the man with suspicion.

“Your voice –“ Gideon started, rubbing his ears again.

“My voice is not usually heard by the likes of mortals. I imagine I sound quite normal to the lady there who holds an instrument of magic.”

“Who are you?” Kiya asked, looking up at the man.

“I have many names, but that is not the question of the moment.”

“Oh, I think it is rather an important question,” she said, as she angled herself between her husband and the mysterious man.

“I will not hurt you – either of you. I fear she had inflicted enough damage. I can get you back to your proper time –“

“That’s very kind of you,” Gideon said, moving around Kiya. “Are you the Keeper of time?”

When the man laughed, even Kiya held her ears, copying Gideon who had clapped his hands over his, grimacing in pain.

The man stopped laughing. “My apologizes, I do not mean to inflict pain. I did find great amusement from your question.”

Gideon brought his hands down. “That’s all right.”

“You did not answer him though.”

“Why should I? I do not know him.”

“I know you, and I get the feeling you know who my wife is.”

“A mortal knows about me?”

“I do,” Gideon said, sound very self-assured. “And so does she, if she would stop and think.”

The man stepped closer to Gideon. “Please, mortal, tell me about…me.”

Gideon craned his neck to look the man in the face. His fingers itched to touch the man’s fascinating clothes which swirled with dark colors and no fixed style. It was as if they evolved on their own from different eras.

“You are an entity. You exist as a myth or legend in books – Keeper of Time. You are called Father Time in many cultures in story or song. In others you are known as one of the Fates…though you are most commonly given female attributes.”

“I am as you say, an entity. I can be either or other.” Impressed the man now studied Gideon as he was being studied. “Go on.”

“I’ve figured we are nowhere and everywhere at once, that’s why Kiya’s magic does not work properly. We exist but at the same time, we do not.”

“I believe your word is Paradox.”

“Indeed.” Gideon nodded.

“How would we go about ‘existing’ again?”

Both men turned to Kya, it was Gideon who answered. “He must release us. After all, this is his domain, yet he cannot mess up the Grand Design – Destiny.”

“What is the payment?”

The entity straightened to his full height. His eyes glowed like moonbeams from within his being, outward. The light went out and he looked at them. “A year is payment enough.”

“Which year?” Both Kiya and Gideon asked.

The man chuckled again but quickly stopped when his guests winced in pain. He sobered and the light came back to his eyes. He focused on them again. “I wish to take the year at the end of your life, mortal.”

“And mine?”

“One of the years in which you have already lived will suffice.”

Kiya peered at Gideon with disbelief. He took her hand in his. “What do you think?”

“I think he is like a fabled Genie, Gideon.”

“Tricky, yes. I mean, for all I know I am to die next year which means I never leave this place.”

Kiya nodded. “And one of my past years could mean anything from losing my children, to not catching a dark wizard.”

“It is a chance…”

“Gideon, it could be a year where we do not meet,” Kiya said.

“I’d like to believe Fate isn’t that cruel when it comes to love.”

The tall man sniffed and shifted quietly at Gideon’s words.

“I will hate you for all eternity if you are taken from me, Gideon.”

Her husband smiled. “I would find you again.” Kissing her fingers, he turned to the man. “You may have them, our years for our placement in our proper time.”

“Very good.” The man crooked his finger and it parted the wall of sand behind him, as a rope would drapery. “You may go.”

Together, Kiya and Gideon stepped through and found themselves outside the temple they had entered.

Kiya glanced at her watch and discovered it had stopped. She tried winding it to no avail. “Let’s go home,” she said quietly. “I do not wish to be here anymore.”

“Are you all right?”

She shook her head. The deal they had just made unsettled her greatly. “Let’s go home,” she repeated.

Gideon ripped the page from his typewriter and skimmed what he had just typed. He frowned at what he had typed. He had debated for weeks as whether to incorporate the unusual meeting into his book. It had been weeks ago, but with his wife gone on a mission it remained a bothersome event in his mind. An event that had sparked an idea.

He needed to speak with Kiya, but unfortunately he had not seen his wife in almost two months’ time.

Caliban, the new dog Jabari had given him at Christmas, shot to his feet. Gideon grinned when the dog disappeared like Enyo used to do. Gideon sighed, he would miss that old dog.

“Gideon? Gideon, are you home?”

He got up and went to the top of the stairs, he met his wife and Caliban halfway. He took Kiya’s face in his hands and kissed her, while Caliban barked excitedly around them, tripping over his puppy paws.

He pulled away and said, “It is good to see your face.”

“Not as good as it is to see yours.” She took his hand and led the way to their bedroom. “I came to see you and to take a real bath.”

“I’ve been needing to talk with you. It’s something important.”

“And I want to discuss you coming back to England with me, I need you closer. So will our granddaughter.”

“Has something happened to Cythera? She should never been allowed −”

“Not yet, no, she is fine, but we – Adara, Mikolas and myself – have come together and our visions are leading up to a very big battle. The battle I foresaw long ago – it is upon us.”

“The young man has returned?”

“Harry? No, he has not. He was last seen in December by Remus Lupin, and has yet to resurface. But all visions are pointing to late spring, and all will be…well, what it will be.” Kiya began removing the long coat she wore and tossed it across the bed. “I want you as far as possible from all of this, but Ana and Cythera will need you close. Mikolas has asked that you stay at the house where you will be as fully guarded as you are here.”

Gideon frowned as Kiya pulled yet another dagger from her person. He had counted four. “Kiya, how many –“

She glanced up and grinned. She lowered her leg and dropped the skirts of her robes. “That was the last one. So will you leave with me?”

Gideon picked up one of the sheathed daggers. The well balanced instrument’s handle glinted in the lamp light. “Yes, I will go with you.”

“Great. Why not get some things together whilst I bathe and then –“

“Kiya, there’s something I need to talk with you about.”

“So you have said,” she said as she tested the warmth of the water in the tub. “What about?”

“Camara.”

She made a face but nodded. “Can I do this first?”

He nodded. “Yes, but it’s rather urgent.” He stepped back, closing the door to give Kiya her privacy.

Kiya stepped from the tub with a sigh. She wrapped a towel around herself reveling in the luxury of something so every day. She studied herself in the mirror and saw a faded bruise she had acquired a week before from a boot to the chest in a hand-to-hand combat. She ran a hand through her short hair, scattering water when it sprung happily back.

She was tired. Weeks of bitter cold, living in tents in the mountains had taken its toll, making her feel aged. She wanted to live again. She wanted to be with her husband – her family as much as she was sure Harry Potter wanted his life, a normal life he had never really lived, back. She turned away from the mirror and stepped into the bedroom.

Gideon sat on the bed and watched her go to the wardrobe.

“You have packed then?”

“Years of travel has allowed me not only to pack lightly but to be ready in an instant.”

“I see,” she said, pulling a fresh set of robes over her head. “What was it you needed to talk to me about?”

“I have been working, as I have had time on my hands, and I think I’ve stumbled across something that you need to know about Camara. It may affect everything or nothing.”

Kiya crossed the room, folded her leg and sat beside Gideon. “That is a little broad, is it not?”

“Yes, however – Well, come to my office, I need to show you what I have been working on.”

“All right.”

In his office, Kiya waved her wand and plates of fragrant chicken over couscous. With a second wave, a carafe of coffee appeared on the desk. “Have you eaten?”

Gideon shook his head. “No, I was going to eat later. Rose had invited me to dine with her and your brother but I started working and lost track of time.”

“Well you can eat with me,” she said, handing him a plate which he set aside.

“In a second,” he said as he searched his desk for his diary where he kept most of his notes. He moved some of his sketches and found the book under them.

Kiya studied the drawings. “These are the drawings you did from the crypt in Egypt.”

“They are,” he said absently as he thumbed through the book in his hand.

“Gideon, you sound agitated, what have you found?”

“I know at the time you didn’t want me going with you, but I’m glad I did.”

“Gideon, I enjoy having you at my side, I just did not care for our last excursion ended.”

“But it was our last excursion that sparked my thoughts, especially after I put it to paper because I have stumbled onto a few inconsistencies in her history.”

Forking a bite of food into her mouth, Kiya said, “She has been one large inconsistency since the moment she showed on my parents’ doorstep. I have not seen her in decades, since before I had my children. What have you found?”

“Remember telling me what you suspected the Riddle boy was after when he killed Pierce – these Deathly Hallow items?”

“Yes.”

“I think she searches for them as well. She has partnered herself throughout history with witches or wizards of great power. She has followed the power in hopes to possess them. She can never possess these magical items, Kiya.”

Kiya set her plate aside. “That would explain why she sent me to Cassandra for the premonition portion of her mentoring of me. She had always claimed to be a Necromancer, but I learned later and on my own that visions were/are a large part of Necromancy.”

“You have worked with or met a number of powerful witches and wizards in your time – in fact, you are one,” Gideon said. “Someone must have put you in her path because you are a powerful witch in your own right.”

“How, then does her image appear in that crypt, and proclaimed herself to be my beginning?”

“I have theories,” Gideon said slowly.

“Theories?”

“Yes, something the Keeper said, and I picked up on it when he said ‘she’ but I think you were too distracted to notice.”

“Refresh my memory.”

Gideon picked up his recently typed page and adjusted his glasses. “He said, ‘she has inflicted enough damage’. The Keeper believes in and is about balance. Camara has dealt with him and has disturbed the balance of things. I think he wanted or made you question who she is in order to meet him. He was asking for your help without voicing it out right.”

“My help?”

He nodded. “Yes, he did not know me, but he knew you. He requested a year of each of us…”

“A year I’m waiting to realize what he has taken.”

“Unless dead people start showing up or you suddenly develop abilities you never had, you will never realize what year is missing from your life.”

“I – abilities? What do you mean?”

“He wants balance, I think you will acquire abilities to help create this balance. He wants Camara.” Gideon studied his wife. “Have you acquired something, Kiya?”

“I may have come from that temple with a few new abilities that I have discovered in my months away.”

“Like what?”

Kiya went to the windows and opened them. She stretched out her hand and a wall of dirt rose, blacking out the window. She crossed the room and took up a bone, and gave Gideon a questioning look. After giving her ascent, she held it at one end and Gideon watched as the other end disintegrated until it was sucked into the dirt.

“I have never been able to do that. I could always raise things and set them back, but never like this.” Kiya dropped her hand and the dirt fell. She set the other half of bone on the desk. “Also I saw Mikolas a few days ago and we talked for the first time in months. He told me of his concerns about Ana and Cythera, and then he told me of how, when he was younger, his father had worried a time when I had been away.”

Gideon rocked back in his chair.

“Pierce died in an accident.”

“Yes, protecting you.”

“No, Mikolas was five and Pierce died in a duel.”

“A duel?”

“Yes, with my future son-in-law’s father. How ever it happened, Pierce is murdered.”

“Irini’s father-in-law?”

“Yes.”

“But she still marries –“

“Yes.”

Gideon shook his head. “So that was destined.”

“Apparently.”

“The battle you are about to do with this dark wizard will not be the end.”

“It would appear to be.”

Kiya turned from Gideon to peer out the window, she could see her husband’s reflection, and it looked worried. She put a smile on her face when she angled back. “Why are we remembering two histories?”

“Clearly we are supposed to remember in order to help ourselves or others in the future.”

“Now that doesn’t sound like fair balance to me.”

“A number of things in life aren’t fair, but at least we know your part of the deal has been fulfilled so we don’t have to concern ourselves on bigger changes like never meeting or any of the other things we were worried about.”

Her smile dimmed a bit. “Try not to worry for me.”

He went to her and took her hands in his. “That’s like asking me to stop breathing.”

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