London, 1348

It is the 1400's. They are in London, and Andrew is dying from the Black Death. The healers of the Asclepieion told Alan not to come near him, because it is highly contagious, and besides: Andrew is not a sight for any eyes to see.

The Black Death disfigures its victims. It starts with boils, and ends with rotten flesh, black and bloodied. Alan, who has ignored the doctors, doesn't even recognize Andrew anymore. There's only a mass of human suffering that lies on the bed (their bed), and Alan hopes that the man he loves has already escaped from the physical Hell that his body has become.

"Andrew?" he says.

Only a moan, in answer.

Alan sits next to him until he dies (which is a mere matter of hours), and then he cleanses and purifies himself. His magic is strong enough to protect him from the plague; Andrew's was, too, before he siphoned it off to help the sick orphans.

He leaves the body where it is. It is unimportant, because bodies are only vessels for the soul, and Andrew's is long gone. Someone will be by to collect that rotted mass that lies on the bed; Alan will concern himself with the spirit, and for that, he must go to the witch.

The witch lives outside the city. Many have come to her to find a cure, but she always refuses: if she treats one she must treat all, for equality is a tenet of her profession, and she does not have enough magic to heal everyone. Others have come to her to ask her to rid the city of the plague, but she declines: even she is not powerful enough.

Alan comes to her to have his fortune told. "Tell me what happens--not in the immediate future, but in all my lives, and Andrew's."

That is how he learns that the foreboding he felt when he first met Andrew is pre-knowledge. His soul already knows the truth, because it has stockpiled the memories of past lives, the memories of all Andrew's deaths.

"He dies young," the witch tells Alan. "He is born, fulfills his role, and dies. That is the path his soul will take in every life."

"What role must he fulfill?"

"It differs, but its purpose is always to help those who are oppressed, and beaten."

"And what is my path?"

"You are born to help him, and to guide him." She looks at him with compassion, but no pity. "And to mourn, because you love him."

Alan is summoned to the Asclepieion soon after he goes to see the witch. Noah Beccaria, its head, makes him an offer.

At first, Alan is hesitant to accept it. "Immortality? Why do you want me to accept that?"

"Our Guardian was killed," Noah says. "We need someone to replace him, and you are the best choice."

"Your offer of immortality isn't very appealing, if the last person who accepted it is dead."

"His wounds were too severe--he died of blood loss before they could heal completely."

"Who attacked him?"

"We don't know yet. As the new Guardian, you would be responsible for finding out."

"You want me to accept immortality, and then throw it away by hunting for someone--or something--strong enough to have killed a Guardian?"

"We'll give you help."

"You probably told your Guardian that, too."

Noah Beccaria frowns at him. "You owe this to the Asclepieion, Alan. We saved you, remember? And we saved Andrew, too."

"Andrew is dead now. It doesn't matter."

"I'm sorry about that." Noah doesn't look sorry; he only looks determined. "But if you were immortal, if you were a Guardian... you could save him in his other lives."

Alan's eyes widen fractionally. "How did you--never mind." He shakes his head. "It won't help. It's his path to die early. There's nothing I can do about that, no matter how powerful I am."

"Nothing is unchangeable. Fate is malleable. Haven't we taught you that, Alan?"

"But--"

"You can save him, Alan. You can save so many others, too, as their guide and protector. Andrew would want that, and the Asclepieion expects it--we gave you your life, and now it's time to return the favor."

Alan is swayed by the possibility that Noah presents to him. He struggles to keep his mind clear, and to think of all the catches and flaws in this offer. "Even if I save Andrew...he will die from old age."

"There is always room for more than one Guardian," Noah says. "And Andrew owes us, as well. He would accept readily."

"So in his next life, if I save him--"

"We will grant him immortality, like you."

Alan closes his eyes, and says, "Let me think about this. I'll come back to you in a week."

But he knows, and Noah Beccaria knows, that the answer is already a "yes."

The Asclepieion's motto is simple: To heal the injured, to protect the weak, and to give aid to whomever needs it. It fulfilled its duty when it rescued Alan many years ago, when he was an orphan boy running in the streets wild and starving to death. It did not fail several years after that when it took in Andrew, whose family had all died from cholera. Alan took a liking to him immediately, despite the feeling that there was something wrong with this boy, that he was transient and fleeting.

True to its name-sake, the Asclepieion is a society of healers, and many of its members are prominent, well-known doctors. It takes in anyone, but its special attention is to those who possess the Gift. The ability to connect with and direct the energy that gives all living things their life is present in both Alan and Andrew. But while Alan is a warrior who protects the weak, Andrew is a doctor who heals their wounds. He has compassion and sympathy for everyone, and directs his magic with a gentleness that contrasts with Alan's forcefulness. He never hesitates to help anyone; even when Alan begs him not to expend all his energy on the houseful of children orphaned by the Plague that the Asclepieion has taken in, he doesn't listen.

Andrew is forever helping other people, and never stops to think about himself.

"The Guardian's purpose is to protect the Asclepieion, and its members," Noah says to Alan when he comes back at the end of the week. "You know that there are those who would destroy us: it is your job to stop them. You will be responsible for guarding the Elders, and advising the heads. You will also be in charge of training those who show potential to be the new leader, and of bringing us candidates if you think they can pass the test. Do you understand?"

"I do," Alan says.

"Your ceremony is in three days. Purify yourself. Meditate. And cut off all ties with anyone not of the Asclepieion, because you will never see them again in this life."

At the ceremony, Alan swears his loyalty to the Asclepieion as its Guardian. His soul is bound to his body with spells of iron, and his body is gifted with the ability to never age and to heal itself from injuries. It feels like fire is scalding him, but there are no marks when he is done.

Noah Beccaria says, "You know your first task. Find the one that killed your predecessor."

In a month, Alan comes back from the hunt, successful, and the Asclepieion welcomes him as their Guardian, the pact truly sealed by the blood he has shed in their protection.

Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1620

It has been a grueling journey, marked by a range of diseases from pneumonia to tuberculosis, but the Mayflower has finally landed. Andrew is only fifteen, and his family is dead. Alan disembarks the ship with him, careful not to be too affectionate with the young boy when there are so many people about.

He has chosen to come to the colonies with these Puritans, telling the Asclepieion that it would be well to set up a branch here. Magic is not appreciated, of course, but doctors are. Besides, Andrew was on the list of passengers, and Alan didn't want him to make the grueling journey without protection. It's been sixty-six days of hell, but now they are on land and Alan is beginning to have more confidence: he can save Andrew. When the boy is old enough, Alan will tell him about the Gift that he has, and induct him into the Asclepieion.

"Alan?" Andrew stands next to him, unsteady on his feet from so many days on the rocking ship. "Alan, are you going to stay with me?"

"Of course," Alan says. "I wouldn't abandon you."

Andrew smiles. He has known Alan since he was a small child; he is a family friend, and the one reason Andrew was reluctant to cross the ocean with his family was because he didn't want to leave him. When he sees Alan standing on the dock, waiting to board the Mayflower, he can't contain his cry of joy, which earns him a clap on the head from his father. Alan smiles, and pats Andrew where his father's hand hit him; some of the stinging pain subsides. "I thought you said you couldn't come," Andrew says, "because of business."

"Things have changed," Alan says mysteriously. "I'm coming, now."

Even when the voyage becomes one long hell of death and privation, Alan stays with Andrew. When his little sister, and then his mother and father, become infected with pneumonia, Alan does not avoid them. Andrew does not know what he would have done if he didn’t have Alan by his side, to comfort and steady him. He doesn't know what he would do now, if Alan were to abandon him. But Alan has promised, and Andrew is reassured: he will be safe, as long as Alan is here.

Andrew has always known he had an unusual gift for healing, but the day that he brings a small rabbit back to life, he is frightened. He runs to Alan, who takes him by the hand and brings him deep into the forest.

"It's not a curse," Alan tells him. He plucks a flower from the ground; it is autumn, and the petals are withering. But in his hands, the flower blooms, luxuriates as if it is spring. Alan hands the flower to an amazed Andrew and says, "It's a gift, Andrew, and I'm going to teach you about it."

Andrew is sixteen, and knows that he cannot tell anyone about this gift. His lessons with Alan must be kept a secret. His ability to knit skin and muscles, to purge the body of poisons and illness without any medicinal tools, can be construed as witch craft. The frenzy of the witch hunts has not reached these colonies yet, and neither are they often targeted towards men. But that doesn't mean that magic would be welcome, or seen as anything other than the work of the Devil, so Andrew keeps quiet about everything.

"Never use your magic to save someone where others can see," Alan counsels him. "I know you'll want to, but it's not worth it: they'll kill you, and you'll lose the chance to save others. Do you know what I mean?"

Andrew nods, and studies normal medicine as well, from the local doctor. He will take over when he is old enough, which isn't that far away.

Alan feels that he's going to be safe, safe enough for Alan to leave for a while. Some weeks after Andrew turns seventeen, Alan tells him that he's going back to England for a little bit. "I need to take care of some business," he tells people, but to Andrew he says that there are preparations needed for his induction into the Asclepieion.

The morning that Alan has to leave, he walks deep into the forest with Andrew. Andrew kisses him on the lips, shyly: it is their first kiss, at least in this life, and it is chaste. Alan smiles and strokes his hair. "I love you," he says. "Don't miss me too much: I'll be back soon."

"All right," Andrew says. Then he adds, "I love you, too." The words feel right to him, as if he's said them many times before.

Alan kisses him one more time, and then he leaves.

There is an outbreak of cholera in the colony while Alan is gone. The doctor dies, and only Andrew is left to take care of everyone. Everyone is begging him to save their loved ones, to save them, and he is overwhelmed. Knowing that normal medicine won't be enough to help him save these people, he breaks Alan's rule and uses his magic. He is careful not to let anyone see him, but he is discovered anyway. It doesn't help that he is dragged off in the middle of treating a patient, and that the patient dies as a result. The colonists blame the death on him, and he is shot by the dead woman's husband before the thought of a trial crosses anybody's mind.

When Alan comes back, nobody can meet his eyes. They know that Andrew was as good as his son, so it is with fear that they tell him that Andrew is dead. It is only after he was shot that they realize that all those he treated, save for that one woman, have gotten better, and the guilt has plagued them for many weeks. They try to tell Alan that Andrew died from the cholera, but he knows the truth: he can read the deceit in their heart, and the truth in their minds.

He wishes he could leave and let them all rot. But the Asclepieion needs him to stay, so he does. He speaks to nobody, though, and becomes a hermit; and everyone in the colony forgets that once, Alan Halifax was a happy man.

Valley Forge, 1777

"The snow is so beautiful," Andrew says.

"The snow is bloody cold," Alan retorts. "And you're going to freeze to death if you keep standing there. Come to the fire."

Andrew smiles and crouches next to Alan in the snow. "You shouldn't be so grumpy, Alan. You'll bring everyone's morale down."

"Everyone's morale already is down. It's winter and we're stuck in this valley with no food, no medicine, no supplies whatsoever. Come spring, the British will probably whip us because we'll all be starved half to death."

"We'll be fine," Andrew says with all the confidence of an eighteen year-old. "We'll make it, somehow. We'll win."

"Why are you even in this war?" Alan asks. "You don't like fighting."

"It's for independence; it's worth it. Besides, someone needs to take care of all the soldiers."

"You have very little supplies to work with. Don't start to squander your magic away."

"I'll try not to. Don't worry so much, Alan. You're here. What can go wrong?"

Even four hundred years later, Alan still thinks that he can save Andrew. It will take more than a hundred years, and another war, before he realizes that there is nothing he can do. It's not that Fate is unchangeable; it's that Andrew refuses to change his course in life. Right now, though, Alan thinks that if he sticks with Andrew through this winter, and through the rest of this war, there's a very good chance that he will live to become a Guardian. Still, he wants to be cautious. "A lot of things can go wrong, Andrew. I want you to be careful."

"I will be," Andrew promises. He smiles and pats Alan on the hand. "I love you, all right?"

Alan smiles and says, "I love you. You know that already."

He wishes that this is enough to save Andrew, to protect him.

Andrew met Alan when he was sixteen, one Sunday morning. The Father is droning about Christ's message of love and piety when the door to the church opens and someone slips inside quietly. Heads turn, and several of the young ladies can't refrain from whispering to one another.

Andrew glances at the stranger who had just walked in. He is tall and good-looking, with tanned skin and long black hair tied neatly at the neck. His face is young and unlined, but his eyes are dark and hundreds of years old: they have seen too many things. When Andrew continues to stare, they flicker over to him, and there is recognition; Andrew blushes and tears his gaze away, embarrassed by his own rudeness and excited by the intensity of that gaze.

"Isn't that Alan Halifax?" Andrew's mother whispers to his father. "What is he doing back here, after so many years?"

Andrew's father shrugs. "Who knows? That man comes and goes as he wants, and it's better if nobody knows what his business is."

After mass, the man named Alan Halifax walks up to Andrew's father and introduces himself. He has heard that John Ackerman runs the best inn in Boston, and a friend suggested that he board there while he is in town. Andrew's sister, Lucy, is delighted to have such a handsome man stay in their inn; she blushes and giggles whenever he smiles at her. Andrew also flushes when those dark eyes flash to him, but he is silent and only distantly polite.

It comes as a surprise to him that even though Lucy is the one who coquettes with Alan, it is Andrew whom Alan finally kisses one hot summer night, in the safety of his room.

Alan tries to stop Andrew from enlisting in the army as a doctor when the war starts, but Andrew will have none of it. Even after Alan tells him about the Asclepieion, and about how they are expecting him to become a Guardian, he says that this war and these men come first. So Alan has no choice but to wait until everything is over, and try his best in the meantime to keep Andrew safe.

Valley Forge is a cold and bitter place, though, full of men who are dispirited and men who are dying. Andrew is hard pressed trying to attend to all of them with the few supplies that they are given. He and the other doctors, the women, and the relatives of the soldiers, are doing their best to keep the army together so that they will be ready when it is time to fight again. Alan helps as well, because he is part of the Asclepieion. It has grown here in America, and many of its members are among those who are providing aid. Some of them tell him that this rag-tag rabble will be blessed with someone who can drill them into a proper army soon enough, but Alan only shakes his head and wonders how many of these men will make it that far.

At some point, he starts wondering if Andrew will make it. The younger man is exhausted. There are dark bags under his eyes, and he is losing shocking amounts of weight. Still, he continues to work, treating the outbreaks of typhus, dysentery, and pneumonia. Alan keeps warning him, and Andrew keeps ignoring him, until the day he comes down with pneumonia. Alan cradles him in his arms at night and tries to take care of him. Andrew won't let him use any magic, though, saying that there are more serious cases and that Alan can't afford to waste that energy. The only thing Alan can do is cradle Andrew in his arms at night, talking to him about the summer they spent together before the war started. He tries to find words to describe the farmland, the flowers, the cool rivers: everything that they saw together. As Andrew fades, though, he hears less and less of the words. The only thing he can feel is Alan's arms around him, warm and comforting.

It is the feeling that surrounds him as he dies for the third time in Alan's life.

London, 1918

Alan is visiting the witch again when the news that the U.S. has entered the war reaches him.

The witch is not really the witch. She is a reincarnation, but unlike many who do not remember their past lives, she remembers every detail, including Alan. "You were a fool to agree to be the Asclepieion's Guardian," she tells Alan. "What use is immortality to you? Andrew is still dying, isn't he?"

"Maybe I can't save him," Alan says wearily, "but I swore my loyalty to the Asclepieion as its Guardian, and I cannot go back on it. That's what I'm seeing you for: business."

"What kind of business?" the witch asks.

"Irene Beccaria says that she had a dream about the new head of the Asclepieion. She says that he's not a Beccaria; he's not even European. She wants to know who he is, and when he will come."

"So you can train him?"

"Yes."

The witch nods and gestures at a chair. "Sit there. I'll tell you when I'm done."

Alan sits and waits, and when the witch comes back she tells him, "Irene Beccaria's Gift is strong: she's seeing things ninety years in the future. Your new head won't be along until then."

"What can you tell me about him?"

"He's not European, like Irene said. He's from France's Indochina, but you'll find him in America. I don't know his name yet; it's too far ahead to tell, but I do know that he's a fire-speaker."

"A fire-speaker..." Alan brushes some of his hair back. "That's a difficult art to master."

"It is. And what's more, he'll have a healer with him. He'll be a gifted one." She looks at him. "I think Andrew is meant to teach him."

"Do you think he'll live long enough for that?"

"Yes."

Alan sighs. "Thank you. I should go back now; I should start looking for Andrew, before he decides to enlist in this war somehow.”

The witch looks at him, and it is the same look she gave him nearly six hundred years ago. "Don't try so hard to protect him, Alan."

"Are you trying to tell me something that I don't know?"

"America is entering the war," she says. "Your Andrew has enlisted."

Alan pales. "No--that's impossible."

"These things don't have to be possible," the witch says. "They simply have to be true." (1.)

The turmoil of these years have prevented Alan from finding Andrew earlier. The Asclepieion is being attacked more frequently, by what appears to be a small group of people who call themselves the Mara. Alan knows that there are multiple meanings to the word mara, and most of them have to do with death and destruction. He knows very little else about them, though, and is unsure about their purpose in killing the members of the Asclepieion. The other Guardians know as little as he does; but they are all exhausted from protecting the Elders, the head, and the temples of the Asclepieion.

Alan wonders how old this Andrew is as he scries for him in a bowl of water. He wonders what he could be thinking, enlisting in another army. He wonders if he will be able to save him this time, or at least to offer him immortality so that he will not die. He is beginning to realize, though, that Andrew will not accept the offer. He is not meant to be a Guardian; he is a healer, and he chooses to do what he can to save lives. Even if Alan were to tell him that he could save more lives if he were immortal, he would not give up the family and friends he has. He might love Alan, but he can't give up the world for him, and that hurts Alan.

Finally, he finds Andrew's location. He is in France, and Alan leaves immediately. He finds the camp where Andrew's regiment is stationed, and fights his way through the crowds to Andrew. "Andrew!" he calls out when he sees the boy. "Andrew--"

Andrew looks up. "Hello. Can I help you?" Then he blinks, and says, "Alan?"

"Yes...Do you know me?" Until now, Andrew has not remembered anything about his past lives. Every time, Alan has had to introduce himself all over again. But there is knowledge in Andrew's eyes now, and Alan wonders if it is possible to start remembering past lives, simply because there are so many experiences that they start to overflow.

"Yes... You're...you're from my past...somehow." Andrew frowns. "I don't remember ever meeting you here, but somewhere else...somewhere very long ago."

Alan stands in the chaos of a war station in France, surrounded by soldiers who jostle past him impatiently and nurses who tend to the wounded flowing in from the battle field. "Yes, you know me. Andrew, you can't be here. It's too dangerous. You should leave--" He knows even as he says it that Andrew will not leave.

Andrew shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Alan... But I have to be here." There is a shout, and as if that is his cue, he says, "I have to leave now. Maybe we can talk later."

"We can't talk later," Alan shouts, vehement. "We won't be able to. Please listen to me, just this once Andrew. Listen to me and don't go--"

"I have to," Andrew says, and he hesitates before reaching out and clasping Alan's hand in his. "I don't understand how I could know you, if I've never met you before... but I feel as if there's something I should say." He frowns. "Something very important...it's slipping my mind, though." There is another shout and he starts pulling away. "I'm sorry, but I really have to leave. If you could give me your full name--is it Alan...Halifax?--I'll find you again, and I'll remember--"

"I love you!" Alan cries, because it's too late for introductions, and taking things slowly. "Andrew, I love you, don't go, please don't go, don't leave me--"

Andrew blinks, and some of the confusion in his eyes clears. "I love you, too," he says automatically. He seems surprised, and then repeats, "I love you, Alan. But..." He pulls his hand away from Alan. "I have to leave. Good bye."

"You don't have to, you fool. Don't you see? You're always throwing your life away for other people, and for once can't you think about yourself, and about me--"

Andrew throws his arms around Alan, then, even though there are hundreds of people around them. He kisses Alan on the lips, and he says, with the conviction of hundreds of years and many lives: "I need to go, Alan. I need to help." He kisses Alan again, and says, "I love you," and then he leaves, and disappears in the crowd of people.

Alan cannot find his body, after the battle. There is nothing left to bury.

Vietnam, 1972

Vietnam is Hell. Alan is forced to battle the mosquitoes and the heat; he is forced to bury Andrew's body, which has been left behind by the retreating army, in a tropical forest far from home, because he has orders from the Asclepieion to stay in Vietnam and find someone important.

Andrew didn't want to go to this war. He didn't agree with it, and he was tired of wars after fighting in two. But he was drafted, and didn't believe in avoiding duty. "What do you want me to do?" he asks Alan as they lie in bed together, the night after he receives the letter. "Go to Canada?"

"You could. Everyone's doing it."

"No. That's not right."

"It's not right for you to be forced to fight in a war you don't even agree with."

"I'm going, Alan. Please don't try and stop me."

"You're an idiot," Alan says, getting out of bed. "A complete idiot."

"I know," Andrew replies softly. "And if you left me for someone else, I would understand."

Alan turns around and glares at Andrew. "You--" he says. "You are such a fucking martyr," and he stalks back to the bed, grabs Andrew, and kisses him roughly. "Start thinking about yourself for once. If you don't take care of yourself, then how can you take care of others? How?"

"I'll be careful," is all Andrew says in reply, before kissing Alan back.

The Asclepieion sends a message to Alan after Andrew leaves. Go to Vietnam, they say. There is someone he needs to find.

"The new head isn't even born yet," Alan points out to the messenger. "He's probably not even a fetus, at this point."

The messenger just looks at him stoically. "Go to Vietnam," he repeats. "And find her." He means the young woman whose image he has branded into Alan's mind.

Alan grits his teeth and does as he is told. At least this way, he can keep his eye on Andrew...

It doesn't help in the end, of course. Alan can feel Andrew dying even as he arrives in Vietnam, and only has time to locate his body and bury it before he has to go find the young woman. When he does, he sends a message back to the Asclepieion, "I've found her. What do you want me to do?"

The reply is, "Take care of her. Make sure she comes to no harm, especially from the Mara."

So Alan spends the next three years hovering over the girl named Nguyen Quyen An. He keeps her safe when the bombs fall; when the soldiers raid her village; when some creature from the Mara tries to snatch at her as she runs down the darkened roads of rural Vietnam, and he is forced to reveal himself to her. He can see that she has the Gift, but it isn't particularly strong or unique. The only reason he can think of for the Mara and the Asclepieion taking such an interest in her is because she is going to play an important role in the future head's life--probably as his mother. She is calm, and has a good head on her. She accepts Alan, accepts that he is supposed to protect her, and learns what she can from him. He stays by her side until the war ends, and tries not to think about Andrew.

It isn't hard: Quyen looks nothing like him. She has dark hair, dark skin, and black eyes, where Andrew was blonde, fair-skinned, and green-eyed. Her frame is small and lithe, and she rarely speaks unless spoken to; Andrew was tall and broad-shouldered, and he liked to talk. Alan focuses his attention on keeping her safe, so that he won't remember the way Andrew smiled, or the feel of his arms around Alan as Alan dozed lightly.

When the war ends, he makes sure she crosses the ocean without mishap, even if it makes him seasick and nauseous. The Mara are very strong on the refugee boats; whoever they are, their power feeds on despair and death, and there is plenty of that among the hundreds of people trying to flee to America. Shapeless, formless monsters plague the ship were Quyen huddles in a corner, suffocating with a hundred other people in a cabin that is meant for only thirty. Alan is exhausted by the time the ship docks.

"Are you going to stay with me?" she asks in Vietnamese as they stand in the refugee camp that has been set up in Signapore.

Alan remembers how, hundreds of years ago, Andrew asked him the same question. "I can't stay here," he replies, in the same language. His Vietnamese is almost fluent. "But I'll be back from time to time to check on you."

People jostle around them. They cannot see Alan, or hear him. Neither do they notice that Quyen is talking to anyone. Alan is still cloaked in the spell he has used the entire trip, a spell of invisibility and inattention. "Do you have business with the Asclepieion?"

"Yes. Don't worry: you'll make it to America safely."

"And after I do?"

"I'll still be here. It's my job."

She nods, and watches as he melts into the coming twilight. She does not say good bye, but wishes she does: she thinks it would have done Alan Halifax some good, to know that there is someone alive who cares for him.

Alan keeps his promise to Quyen. As he waits for the years to pass and for Andrew to be born again, he visits her. She is adjusting slowly to America, to the rapid English that she has only barely grasped. He is there when she graduates from college, and when she marries a man whom Alan distrusts from the beginning.

"Do your people marry?" she asks him as he waits to walk her down the aisle. She has no father, and she insisted that he be the one who gives her away.

"We can," Alan says, "but I don't want to."

True to her nature, she does not ask any more questions. Instead she says, "You're going to be my child’s godfather."

"All of them?"

"No. I'm only having one."

Her clairvoyant skills have always been true, even if mediocre, so Alan believes her. "A boy or a girl?" he asks as they walk down the aisle.

"A boy. And when Andrew comes back, he can be the godfather, too."

Alan glances at her. There is only serenity on her face, and he doesn’t ask her how she knows about Andrew. "Andrew's probably going to be his age, or younger."

"It's okay," she says. "I'm sure he can be trusted, if you love him."

Alan nods, slowly, and takes his place when they reach the altar. Everybody is staring at him: he is the only white person at the wedding, and nobody can understand why Quyen chose him to give her away. He avoids all their gazes and closes his eyes as the priest drones some nonsense.

When Andrew comes back, he thinks... He doesn't wonder if he can save Andrew, this time. He only wonders how long Andrew will live, how long he can be happy for.

Quyen's son is born in due time, and she argues with her husband when she tells him that Alan will be the godfather. Alan gets to hold the small bundle in his arms, and feels something like affection for the tiny, wrinkled face that peers up at him and promptly starts bawling. The Asclepieion has told him that Andrew will be reborn again sometime soon; the Mara seem to be receding for now; and Quyen looks contented and happy.

"His name is Ethan," she says.

"Ethan," Alan repeats.

"Say hi to him."

Alan says, "Hi, Ethan," and feels a little ridiculous. But the baby stops crying, and even smiles at him a little. Alan surprises himself by smiling back.

From the bed, Quyen says, "That's the first time I've ever seen you smile, you know."

Westminster, California; 2007

Life is moving along. Alan Halifax, who cut off his ties more than six hundred years ago, is building new ones.

It is the twentieth century. He is standing in the auditorium, among hundreds of other people, and watching his godson Ethan graduate. People are cheering and clapping, and he claps, too, when Ethan's name is called.

He stands next to Quyen, and when the ceremony is over, he murmurs, "He's not here yet."

"He's not going to come," Quyen says, calmly. "I already told you that."

"Ethan is going to be disappointed."

"He'll pretend like he's not. You know him. He doesn't like his father."

Alan just sighs and waits for Ethan to find them. As he does, he feels someone tap him on the arm. "Yes?" he asks, looking down.

The boy who smiles at him takes his breath away. "Hi, Alan," Andrew says. He is so young, maybe only fifteen or a little older.

"Andrew?" Alan's eyes widen. "Andrew, what are you doing here?"

"Ms. Nguyen told me that you were going to be here," Andrew says, and waves to Quyen. She waves back. "Besides, I have friends who are graduating."

"You knew?" Alan gapes at her. "You knew that Andrew was going to your son's school, and you didn't tell me anything?"

"Surprise," Quyen says dryly.

Alan looks at Andrew. He says, "Hi. Um."

"Can I come to lunch with you guys?" Andrew asks.

"Are you going to die?" Alan asks, as an answer.

"Not right now," Andrew says solemnly. "Maybe not for a long time."

"Do you promise?"

"Promise," Andrew says, and clasps hands with Alan. "And guess what?"

"What?"

"I love you."

"I already know that, you idiot," Alan says, and smiles. Life is moving on, and his world seems a little wider with Quyen next to him, Ethan running up to them, and Andrew holding his hands. "I love you, too."

1. This line is adapted from some lines in The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman. The exact lines (as said by Will Parry) are, "You think things have to be possible? Things have to be true