The Appearance of Alisasila

It was in the midst of the pre-wedding commotion that the doorbell rang. Garen looked up from the pile of bedding he was attempting to fit through a door while carrying and gave Lily a pleading look.

“Your hands are free. Could you go see who that is?”

Lily nodded and headed downstairs. Meanwhile the doorbell ringer grew more and more insistent before cutting off completely just as Lily reached for the knob. Muttering about junior high school kids, she jerked the door open anyway, and was about to yell something about bothering people trying to put a wedding together when she realized that the person standing on the step was most certainly not one of the neighbourhood pranksters.

She looked to be about seventeen, for one thing-- too old for middle school. If it weren’t for her red hair, Lily might have taken her for a gypsy by her dress, which consisted of a long flowing gauze skirt in an eyesmarting purple paired with a pale yellow blouse too short and sheer to be considered decent even with the green bikini top worn underneath. The girl sported more bangles and trinkets than any sane person would own, much less wear all at once, and a row of mismatched hoops and crystals dangled and jingled from each ear. The bright hair, which clashed horribly with everything else she wore, was bundled loosely into a braid haphazardly fastened with a violet scrunchy, much of it escaping in coppery tendrils to frame a face that looked very much like that of Lily’s fiance, right down to the mossy-green eyes.

“Ah-- I’m not sure--” Lily began.

The girl smiled. “Let’s start with ‘hullo’, shall we?”

“Sure. Hullo.” Lily giggled nervously. “Oh dear. You must be a friend of Garen’s. What’s your name?” The similarity was so striking that Lily strongly suspected her to have some blood-relation to her fiance, although he’d never mentioned having relatives and they certainly hadn’t talked about inviting any.

“I’m called Alisasila. Is-- Garen around then? I haven’t seen him in ages.” She winked conspiratorily and leaned in for a stage whisper. “He doesn’t know I’m coming.” Definitely a relative, if the name was new to her. Lily knew that “Garen” was simply a nickname that he’d gotten to using in the seventeenth century and never discarded. Whoever she might be, Alisasila smelled rather strongly of honeysuckle.

“He’s just upstairs, getting the extra rooms in order. With all the guests arriving next week there’ll be a lot of people staying here, so we’re a bit busy. Would you like to come in?”

“Why yes, thank you. And if I could impose on you for something to drink, it’s been a bit of a hike.”

“Oh! Yes, of course. Come on in. Is tea alright?”

And so the two retired to the kitchen where Lily began puttering about for kettle, cups, and tea bags, chattering about the wedding preparations and how everything seemed sure to go wrong at the last minute.

“He asked that awful old man to do the ceremony, and I can’t get him to change his mind,” she complained between sips of raspberry zinger. “I suppose we do owe him a lot, and Garen owes him even more, but my parents are going to be here. I never told them about Garen not being human, and now that he is I don’t plan to. I know that it’s Jeremy I have to thank for that, but honestly. I’ve never seen him in anything other than a nightshirt, shawl, and slippers, and he’s just so-- well, odd--”

“I’m sure it will turn out fine. There’s some powerful force that’s been messing with Garen for a very long time, but it looks like it wants to see him happy at the moment. I wouldn’t worry so.”

“Just-- the sheer number of unknown variables and loose cannons. It gives me a headache. I put my foot down when he asked about his friend Dhui acting as best man. Dhui scares me a bit, quite frankly, and I suspect we’d have had trouble prying him away from Rhiannon anyway. We agreed on Pyry and he said that he would, but he’s so uncoordinated he’s practically a safety hazard. I love Garen to death, but why can’t he have any friends who are normal? Or at least pass for normal.”

Alisasila smiled gently. “It sounds like you certainly have a lot on your mind. I don’t suppose Garen is being terribly helpful with that.”

“Oh, he tries. He’s so careful and attentive I think he’s afraid I might disappear if he so much as blinks. It’s sweet, that he’s that terrified of losing me again. But you can’t really talk to someone like that. I’m worried if I say the wrong thing he’ll think I’m having second thoughts and flip out that he’s doing something wrong. Besides, Jeremy may have turned him human, but he’s still as infuriating as ever.”

A loud sneeze sounded from the hallway, followed in quick succession by another. “Someone talking about me?” came a shout. Garen’s slightly tousled head poked through the door, grinning. The grin slid away to be replaced by an expression of pure horror when he saw Lily’s guest.

“M-- Mom?!” he squawked.

Lily turned toward Alisasila, who grinned. It was a very familiar grin.

“WHAT?!”

Garen opened his mouth and closed it, then opened it again. “Mom, what are you doing here?”

“I just wanted to meet my future daughter-in-law,” Alisasila replied, without turning a hair. “He never writes,” she told Lily. “And I haven’t seen him in centuries. He didn’t even tell me he was getting married, I heard it from his brother--”

“Someone else I purposely didn’t tell--” Garen muttered.

Lily’s head was spinning. “You have a brother?”

“I believe he heard it from Dhui--”

“Traitor. And after I forgave him for trying to kill me.”

“You and Dhui quarrelled? Oh, poor baby--” She turned to Lily again. “You see how out of the loop he’s kept me? I’ve missed so much of his growing up. Is he any good in bed?”

“Mom!”

Alisasila chuckled at Lily’s shocked expression.

“Don’t worry, I’m not interested in seeing for myself. I never did have much interest in my own type, and he’s rather too short for me--”

“Mo-om.”

“I meant it purely out of curiosity, youngling, to see how much you take after your mother. Looks like it’s quite a bit, even if you are a slouchy lover.”

Lily laughed as Garen tried desperately to find words to refute his mother’s pronouncement, but took pity on him nonetheless.

“Actually, he’s quite satisfactory, um--”

“Alisasila will do fine, dear.”

“Alisasila. He’s very good,” Lily finished. Garen’s head sank into his hands with a groan.

“I’m outgunned and outnumbered,” he muttered. “I’m going to kill Dhui next time I see him, him and his big gossipy mouth.”