The Muse Manor

absolutelynot A lot had happened recently. Marriage, Motherhood, and a lot of trials had accompanied Helen's life. She'd never forgotten everything that had happened in Cittagazze when she'd worked for the Company, nor the events that had led to the severing of that connection. After all, that place, that world, had been the catalyst to her engagement and subsequent marriage to James and she wouldn't have changed that for the world.

She'd never expected to see any of her friends from Cittagazze ever again. She'd been under the impression that the windows were being controlled by someone else, someone she didn't want to deal with. Even with Janus at her side constantly and still being able to see Althea, she'd never imagined she and James might not be the only people who could see their daemons.

And so when Janus told her he could see something that looked suspiciously like a window in the basement of the Sanctuary, right where the old one used to be, she didn't believe him. He was right on the edge of their 25-foot range and it was the middle of the night. The war was over and she and James were still trying to deal with the aftermath of everything that had happened in France. The children were upstairs asleep -- though they weren't exactly children any longer, being around forty years of age -- and James was wandering elsewhere in the Sanctuary.

Helen was alone in the basement. Or so she thought.

She'd never imagined that window would become active again nor that one of her old friends might see her with red hair rather than blonde. It would be a stark change to the innocent woman they'd once known.


( a grand reunion )