It had been a few days since Russ had seen his newest protege and he wanted to check in on her. He'd revealed a whole new world to Genny; he just needed to know if she'd thought about what he'd said and showed her. Being almost dinner hour, he stepped through the doors of the old familiar deli and glanced around. A wave of nostalgia washed over him and he had to close his eyes and smile. But the moment was short lived as he found himself a table and was waiting to be served.

It wasn't actually that busy in the deli today - probably too hot for people to drag themselves away from their air-conditioning. Despite the heat, however, Genny had taken refuge in jeans and a half-sleeved top. Her gloves covered her to the elbow, so no skin was showing apart from her neckline and face. She barely glanced up as the door chimed, waiting until the figure seated themselves before she moved over, tugging her 'book out of her half-apron. "Welcome to O'Dell's, what can I get y - Hello!" Her face opened in a sweet smile as she recognised Russ from a few nights before.

Russ looked from the menu and smiled brightly when he recognized his server. "Well, hello to you, too. How've you been?" He lay the menu down and tented his fingers over it. "Been thinking about things?"

Her smiled turned slightly awkward. "Well, it's a little hard not to," she admitted. "You know, dangling something like that in front of a drunk person isn't exactly fair." Her smile relaxed once again. "I have tried, though."

"Well, good. Trying is the first step to actually believing." He smiled warmly and sat back. "May I have some cocoa with marshmallows, please?" Russ put on his most charming of smiles, which he found very easy to do in her presence. "That would be most kind."

That smile of hers widened in cheerful relief as he smiled at her. "One cocoa, coming right up." She didn't even bother to write it down, dropping her own coin into the till to pay for it as she bustled past to create a chocolate sensation for her friend. Her friend ... it was still odd to think that out of one evening, she had got herself two friends. Returning, she placed the mug in front of him, gesturing shyly to the chair opposite. "Mind if I join you?"

When the cup was delivered, he inhaled the sweet aroma. "Oh, I love a candy bar in a cup." His eyes opened and he smiled once again. "Of course, take a load off. Nothing like cocoa, except cocoa in the presence of such a lovely young lady."

She blushed faintly, her glance down dislodging the locks of raven-black hair hooked behind her ears to fall about her face. "You don't need to flatter me," she assured him with an embarrassed smile. "Really, I ... I know you're probably disappointed I haven't made any progress, or anything."

Russ took a sip of the cocoa, then put the mug down on the table. "It'd be flattery if I were lying. But I'm not. And since it's my opinion, there's no argument that can make me change my mind." He gave a firm nod and he continued to smile as he spoke. "And you thought about what I said. You said you even tried. That's a lot of progress, if you ask me."

"I still don't really understand how it's possible," she admitted, neatly avoiding the subject on which they were going to disagree. "How could no one in my family have ever learned how to control this, if it was possible?"

Genny gasped as she felt his fingertips almost meld to hers. She could feel him taking what she was trying to show him, but she couldn't stop it, caught up in the flow. He saw too much, really, for a first test, but at least he put an end to it. Pulling her hand back, she pushed the glove back on, swallowing. "Are you sure that was me, and not you?"

"I'm positive. I didn't put any effort into that at all. I neither encouraged, nor discouraged the flow. I merely stopped it. In time, you'll be able to do the same." He was a happy Russ, his student was much more apt than he originally had imagined. "Have you given any thought to delving into other things besides auras and pasts?"

"I, uh ... I don't really get much choice," she explained quietly, tucking the end of the glove back under her shirt sleeve. "When I use it, I have these dreams; only they're not dreams, they come true. And I think I made a bond with my dad - I felt it when he died, even though I was miles away."

"If you believe you have choices, then you will." He smiled pleasantly and pushed his mug to the side. He then pressed his fingertip to the table and said, "I do believe that another mug of cocoa will be right here." No sooner did the words leave his mouth did he pull his finger out of a steaming mug of cocoa. He licked the whipped cream off of his knuckles. "When you start to believe, Genny, the sky's the limit."

Genny blinked, and stared at the little display of magic. "If you can do that, why go through all the waiting for people to make cocoa for you?" she asked in amazement. "Does it even taste different?"

He pushed the mug across the table to her. "Try it." And then he sat back with a shrug. "Gets lonely when you do everything for yourself. I like talking to you, Genny. You're a nice girl. So if a cup of cocoa is the only excuse an old man like me has.." he shrugged and grinned guiltily. "Then I'm caught."

"You're not old," she laughed softly, lifting the mug to taste the cocoa. "Well, I mean, yes, you are old, but you're not old old. Just ... an old head on young shoulders," she managed finally, dredging up something her father had often said about her.

"Genny, look at me." for her eyes only, he let the facade down. His face melted into that of an ancient. His hair was white and only grew in small patches. He was covered in liver spots and his eyes were tiny triangles in a smiling face. All of his teeth were gone. "Sthee? Old."

She watched in fascination, her blue eyes wide as the facade melted away. "Why do you hide it?" she asked softly, reaching across the table to wrap one gloved hand about his fingers. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, it doesn't change who you are."

When her fingers wrapped around his, the facade swiftly moved back into place. "Would you have looked twice at the old man you just saw? I use my face as a way to blend into society. Most people ignore the old." He had a sad tone to his voice. "So I stay looking young to become an active part of society; the rest of the time I look like an old hermit." He chuckled then. "Which is what I really am."

"I don't look at faces at first glance, I look at auras," she reminded him. "It doesn't matter what someone looks like. The prettiest face can hide the worst heart in the world. Trust me, I know that."

She laughed quietly, shaking her head. "If I ever learn how to control this," she added onto his comment, choosing not to agree or disagree with him. "Why are you so concerned about me?" she asked then, her expression curious. "We barely know each other."

"You will. And I see a lot of myself in you. You see, there are people born with magic flowing through them and there are people who don't. Those that have it can do anything they believe they can do. Those that don't become vaudville magicians who pull rabbits out of hats and cut ladies in half for a living." He chuckled softly.

"Anything?" Genny laughed disbelievingly. "Right now I'd settle for an off-switch." She shook her head as she giggled, glancing up at the clock. "Uh, I'm clocking off in a few minutes. Did you ... did you have any plans for the rest of the day?"

He understood completely and laughed softly. "No, no plans. Unless a certain young lady would care to escort an old hermit around town?"

"Only if that certain old hermit would allow a young lady to buy him dinner," she laid down the condition as she stood up, her own smile warming. "Give me a couple of minutes, I'll be right back." And she was gone, slipping behind the counter and out of sight.

"I would be honored." He stood when she did then sat back down. Russ gazed down into the cup of cocoa he suddenly had in his hands. A slow smile came to his young face as he saw his true reflection.

A few minutes later, just as she'd said, Genny reappeared, bulk in her jean pockets suggesting there were now keys and a wallet tucked away in there. Her hair had been released from its unsuccessful plait to coil about her shoulders. She moved over to Russ' seat and bowed, offering her elbow. "Would sir mind taking one's arm?" she teased impishly.

He watched her, dark eyes dancing as she reappeared. "Now wait a minute. I'm old, but I'm spry." he chuckled and took her elbow anyway. "So where are you going to take this old man for dinner? Remember, the food must be soft." he joked as they walked out of the deli.

"Well, that rules out Italian, then," she chuckled, hugging his arm. It wasn't so much one person supporting the other as friends with arms linked as they walked along. "How did you meet Dirk? Correct me if I'm completely off on this, but you and he don't seem the friends type."

They strolled through the market, casually. The sun was beginning to set and a warm breeze gently blew his hair from his face. "We were in a fraternity together for a short time. A friend of a friend of a friend kind of thing." He shrugged then and laughed. "He was so gullible back then. All I had to do was waggle my fingers and he'd run screaming!"

She giggled at that; it wasn't hard to imagine Dirk frightened, even if she hadn't been there at every moment in his life when it had happened. "Did you have a different face, when he knew you before?" she asked softly. "I only ask because, well, I don't recall you in any of his memories."

Now that he had to laugh at. "Have you ever heard that your mind represses anything it can't handle?" He waved his brows and grinned smugly. "He could never handle me."

"It'll happen if it's meant to happen." It was a quiet response, but one she did actually believe. If she was supposed to meet someone and pass on this curse of a gift to a child, then it would happen, no matter what she tried to do to stop it.

"Very good answer." He turned then and they continued their stroll. "Some day, Genny. We all find love at least once in our lives, if we're lucky."

"Luck isn't supposed to have anything to do with it," she smiled, hugging his arm still. "It's supposed to be fated when you fall in love and who with, and for how long it'll last. It takes some of the blame off the couple when things go horribly wrong."

"I call bullshit on fate. I mean, sure, some things are fated. Like when you became friends with Dirk, it was fated that we'd meet. He's a bit of a matchmaker sometimes and a meddler. Though, he does mean well I suppose. But I don't truly believe that there's some higher power that deems who should meet who and all of the details that are involved. I know I wouldn't want that responsibility and all of the deities that I've ever met were too lazy to play that kind of chess game."

"Matchmaker?" Genny actually squeaked, startled firstly by what now seemed to be Dirk's assumption that she needed help in that area at all, and secondly by the fact that even knowing this, Russ was flirting with her.

"Yeah, but don't hold it against him. He thinks he's helping." He eyed her carefully and laughed a little nervously. "Do you think he is?"

"Matchmaking?" Genny pondered the question, wondering how to phrase her answer in a way that wouldn't give offense. "I-I-I don't know," she stuttered. "I mean, I suppose it's a nice gesture and everything but ... until recently I didn't even have friends. I'm not equipped to, you know ... relationships."

"Friendships are the best relationships. An old adage goes 'Lovers come, lovers go but friends are forever.'" he smiled warmly and placed his hand over hers at his elbow. "You remember that."

She smiled, mostly in relief, and nodded slowly. "I'll try to," was her honest answer. Then she giggled a little, a memory arising of a rhyme her father had liked to tell her that touched on life experiences that could arise from being match-made. Shaking her head, she grinned. "Are there magpies in RhyDin?"

"Magpies? I'm almost sure of it. What creature isn't here?" he gave her a curious grin and laughed. "That reminds me of Heckyl and Jeckyl."

"Heckle and what?" Her face turned towards his, touched with a curious smile at his comment. "I've heard of Jeckyl and Hyde, but not ... what did you say?"

"Heckyl and Jeckyl. Back on earth they were an animaged pair of magpies that got into a lot of trouble." Russ chuckled at the memory and gently pat her hand. "I suppose you've never seen a cartoon?"

"No, I've seen cartoons!" she laughed defensively. "I'm not a total recluse. Maybe we just didn't get that cartoon in England?"

"Well, I lost. Had to eat the first thing..." he cut off once they entered the shop, but laughed all the way to the hostess stand.

"You're not seriously telling me you're that old," Genny denied with a laugh, half-bowing to the host who gestured them toward stools at the food bar.

"Shall I reveal myself again?" He waited for Genny to crawl onto her stool before he slid onto his own. "One thing I'm not is a liar. There's no honor in it and there's no point to it. The truth has a way of coming out."

"But ..." she turned to stare at him in shock. "That's over two thousand years!" The look on her face was one she would be most embarrassed to find out could be summed up best with the words confused and adorable.

"I told you I was ancient?" he shrugged and crinkled his nose. "Even I'm not sure how old I am. They really didn't keep track of anybody who wasn't important. And I was never really important. I just was there."

"You mentioned the Black Death," Genny managed quietly, reaching out to pluck a couple of dishes from the conveyor belt in front of them, setting one before him. "You must have been in Europe for that ... did you spend much time in England?"

He looked down at the food put in front of him and grabbed a set of chopsticks from the cup nearby. "Wherever it was safe, that's where I was. If there was even the slightest rumor that there was to be a revolution, witch hunt or plague, I left as quickly as I could. No sense in being a dead wizard, hmm?" he plucked a roll from his plate and chewed on it thoughtfully. "You must think me a coward."

She watched him as he spoke, already chewing on the first thing to hand. "No," she said, swallowing. "No, I don't think you're a coward. Everyone's running away from something. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories, I'm sorry."

"Oh, don't worry about it. There's a lot less running in this day and age. Seems it's cool to be a magic user nowadays. These younger magicians have no respect for the ones that came before and paved the way so it could be cool." he shrugged and took another bite.

She nodded as she ate, trying very hard not to ask the question she was now dying to ask. After all, you didn't grow up in Glastonbury without a very good knowledge of certain myths and legends. Eventually, however, she couldn't hold it in, turning to look at him as she burst out excitedly, "Did you know King Arthur?"

At the asking of the question, he put down the chopsticks. "Oh yes, I knew him. Good guy, great ideas, bad planning and execution of them." he shook his head with a grim look on his face. "All he really wanted is to be loved."

Genny's jaw dropped. "You mean he isn't a myth, he was really there?" she asked in astonishment. "You- you're not Merlin, are you? That would be so cool, but seriously ... are you?"

"Not a myth and no, I'm not Merlin. He was a crazy old coot, even back then. I see him from time to time but I don't listen to him very much. I mean, listening to Merlin is what got Arthur into trouble in the first place." Russ laughed with the memory.

"Morgan le Fay." He sighed her name and leaned his elbow onto the counter, hand to his cheek. "She was... something else."

Genny choked on her rice, dropping the chopsticks to her plate as she groped for a napkin. "You knew le Fay?" she managed eventually, speaking through the paper as her eyes grew wide and vaguely startled.

"Well yeah. Are you alright?" He pat her back gently to help ease the choking. "I mean, who in Camelot didn't?" He frowned slightly and pulled his head back on his neck a bit. "Are you alright?"

"Sorry, it's just ... I never thought I would ever meet anyone who actually knew Morgan," she said thickly, swallowing hard to clear her throat before removing the napkin from her mouth. "She's, uh, she's quite a legend where I'm from."

"She was quite the legend in Camelot, too." There was a bit of a sly grin and he shook his head. "She definitely loved magicians and magic. Boy did she."

"There are so many different versions of her in legend," Genny commented mildly, playing with the food on her plate with one chopstick. "I mean, she's supposed to have had something to do with my family, but that's hardly going to be true, is it?" She hoped he wouldn't catch her out in the lie by omission; the origin of her bloodline was not one blessed with glory.

"Well with each telling stories grow taller and branch off, depending on who is doing the telling." he gave her a curious frown and placed his chopsticks down onto his now empty plate. "Well, she only had one son, that I'm aware of. And I don't think he multiplied. Perhaps if you gave me your ancestor's name, I may know the truth about them."

"Uh ..." She shifted awkwardly for a moment before giving in. There wasn't really much chance he knew the name, was there? "Mortegar," she told him quietly. "He was the founding of our bloodline, apparently."

Now that was a name he hadn't heard in a very long time. His face went ashen and he turned his stare down into the empty plate. "And how are you related to this.. Mortegar?"

"He's my ultimate grandfather," she shrugged lightly, her head tilting in concern as she noticed the unhealthy hue of her companion's face. "Russ, are you alright? You don't look well."

"Oh no." Russ curled his arms onto the countertop and lay his head within their protective realm. "Oh no, no no no. Why? Why me?"

"Russ?" For the second time, Genny's food was forgotten as she twisted, laying a hand on his shoulder in concern. She'd never seen anyone change colour that quickly; he looked like he was going to faint. "What is it, what's wrong? Are you ill?"

"No, not ill." He sat up with a sarcastic laugh and ran his hands over his face. "Ask me why I left Camelot."

"Do you want to tell me?" she countered the order quietly. "I won't ask, not if it's something you don't want me to know, you just think I should. It's none of my business, really." But she couldn't help the intense curiosity that had now arisen as she watched him.

"She's the problem with my family, not you," Genny said rather fiercely. "She's the one who seduced her own brother and arranged the battle where he was almost killed. She's the one who used you to make her second son. Morgan le Fay is the worst thing that ever happened to England. But she's not your fault."

"No, it was Merlin that put the idea into her head about a son with blood so pure that he could never be defeated. She tried to make a God and failed. Then she was convinced that she'd create a super powerful wizard. She felt Merlin had betrayed her, so I was next in line." He shook his head and looked up at Genny. "But I didn't know."

She held his gaze for a long time, seeing for the first time a strange similarity between his looks and those of her father, and her grandmother. It wasn't anything specific, more a cast of the eyes, or the forming of an expression. But the similarity was there. "You aren't to blame for what she did to us," she told him quietly. "You probably don't even know what happened to her, do you?"

"No, I mean I've heard the stories, but nobody really knows, I don't think." He shook his head and took another step closer. "But I really don't care. You are a reprieve from the punishment of a bad, bad mistake."

"I don't understand," Genny confessed quietly. "What do you mean, a reprieve? Aren't I a punishment as well, because before you knew the truth you flirted with me?" Her brows rose, offering him a stern look.

Russ lifted his head and it was the face of the ancient. His dark eyes shone in their deep pits and his liver spotted hands held her shoulders. "No, you're not a punishment. You're proof that what a person believes does come true. I had believed for a long time that if I lived right that a decent person would be born into the line. You, your father and grandmother are proof that what a fool believes can be so."

"You're not a fool." It was an instant, deeply-felt denial, spoken as she moved toward him. Her hands took his gently, blue eyes gazing fiercely into dark. "No one in my family is a fool. They might behave foolishly at times, and make silly mistakes, but I won't let you put them all down because of your own pride. Don't you know how much it means to me to have family that doesn't blame me for my own father's death?"

"I don't know your father, but I am sure you had nothing to do with his death." It still was shaking Russ to the core. Le Fay's son had procreated. The living, breathing proof stood before him. His son had survived, that was a shock, and he had an entire lineage that shared his DNA. It was quite a bit for an ancient to take in.

"My mother said I should have seen it coming," Genny told him, not even trying to gentle her explanation. He had to understand. "My sister agreed with her. They threw me out, on the day of the funeral, because they called me a freak. But now I've got family that understands. Please, you have to understand."

"You couldn't have." He shook his head, locks falling into his eyes. "You were too young. You only saw the past." He was blinking rapidly and his words were barely breathed out. "They were wrong."