October 22, 2002 – 15:00
Frank opened the door and saw a man he had never seen before. He noticed a slight resemblance to Audrey: same eyes. Lizzy was resting in her room and he didn't want to disturb her.
"Does Lizzy Hudson still live here?" said the man, in a timid voice.
"Yes, but she's not available to talk at the moment. Who are you?"
"My name is Pier Glozo… I know her well. May I come in? And who are you?"
Frank didn't want him to come in, but he didn't want to talk about Audrey in the open.
"Sure. I'm Frank, her nephew. Audrey is my cousin."
Pier tried to pass the door, but couldn't. Frank remembered Coralis saying something about warding the place against elemental intruders.
"We can't talk in the open air like that and I don't know when my girlfriend will be here to let you in through the wards. Is Audrey with you?"
"No, she isn't, but I wanted to talk about her."
"I'll give you my cell number. What about you call me when you're in a safe place to talk and I'll put you on speakerphone if Lizzy is around?"
"Sure. Your girlfriend is… like us?"
"Yes. She told us all about… your people."
Pier left and Lizzy came out of her bedroom as Frank closed the door.
"Who was it?"
"Audrey's father, but he was alone. He said he wanted to talk about Audrey, but he couldn't come in. Whatever Coralis did to protect your apartment is clearly working."
"Is he going to come back? What did he have to say? I don't want to see or talk to him, I just want my baby girl."
Molly walked out of Lizzy's room.
"I gave him my number, he'll call me when he gets somewhere he can safely talk. If you don't want to talk to him, I won't put his call on speakerphone."
A few minutes later, Louis and Stephanie walked in carrying bags containing food, and trays with paper cups filled with coffee.
"Did you hear from Coralis and Sebastian?" said Louis.
"Not since they arrived in Rimouski, but Audrey's father passed by wanting to talk. He will call me soon," said Frank.
"Damn… these two are efficient. Was Pier sweating?" said Louis while depositing food and coffee on the living room table.
"I believe he was," said Frank as his phone rang.
It was from an unknown number he assumed was Pier's. He looked at his aunt. She closed her eyes and nodded. Frank answered and pressed the speaker button.
"We're listening," said Frank.
"Listen… I had no idea that Lizzy knew about our world… how did she find out?"
"My girlfriend had to tell her all about it when Audrey received the admission letter from the Winisk Elemental School, and she's not the only elemental we know," said Frank.
"Oh… I didn't know she would receive it too… I thought I'd be the only one to receive it… I thought WES would be sending someone to collect her when she wasn't there at the beginning of the school year… Look… I don't know how Blue Thunder got involved in… our family affairs… but is there a way you can call her off?"
"Why would I do that? You had Audrey kidnapped from her school," said Frank, realizing at that moment that not only Pier didn't know that Blue Thunder was Audrey's legal guardian, but he also didn't know that she was his girlfriend.
"Like I said, I had no idea Lizzy knew about our world."
"Why didn't you tell me when we were together?" said Lizzy, tears coming down her eyes.
Molly tried to comfort her.
"I couldn't. I wanted to tell you, but the night I was going to… my mother stopped me from coming to see you. I wanted to visit you afterward, but I couldn't find the courage to do so. I needed to know if our child was… like me… so a year ago… I decided to come… but I was afraid about how you'd react."
"How did you find out that Audrey was an elemental?" said Frank.
"One day, back in November, I followed her to school. Uh, I don't know how much you know about us… but when it comes down to our own child… we know… I didn't need to touch her… I knew by being close to her… Anyway… I need you to get Blue Thunder to back off. What do you want?"
"I will not do that, no," said Frank, carefully choosing his words. "Like I said, when Lizzy and Audrey received the letter from the school, my girlfriend was the one who had to explain to them what it meant, along with another elemental we know well. The CMMA got involved. They assigned her a guardian. Blue Thunder will not back off until Audrey is returned to Lizzy."
"She's my daughter too. Blue Thunder is… causing a lot of problems for my family at the moment."
"You should have thought things through before you took her from school. According to the CMMA, you lost all rights to her, so my girlfriend is now her guardian. If you want to do things the right way, and still get to see Audrey, return her to Lizzy and deal with the CMMA."
"How about this? A traditional duel: Audrey's original guardian against her new one. If yours wins, Audrey goes back to Lizzy, full custody, as it was. If mine wins, she stays with me and Blue Thunder backs off."
Frank thought about what he said while looking at his family. Pier seemed genuinely afraid of Blue Thunder and didn't seem to realize that she was, in fact, Audrey's guardian. He knew that Coralis didn't want to publicize her relationship to him for his protection, but thinking about how powerful she was, he knew she could easily win against Audrey's original guardian.
"Deal. When do you want to do it? Today?"
"Tonight at 21:00. I'll send you the coordinates of a location."
Pier hung up.
"We're getting Audrey back tonight," said Frank, looking at his aunt, her face buried in his mother's chest.
"You really think your girl can win? Or is it just me not grasping who Coralis really is?" said Louis.
"I've seen and heard enough to know that she will win. You heard how afraid Pier seemed to be of her. I don't know what she and Sebastian have been doing to his coven… but he sounded desperate and you know what she's been doing since he took Audrey. I don't think he realized that Blue Thunder is my girlfriend, or he would never have tried to make that deal with me."
An hour later, Coralis and Sebastian returned. Frank told them about his conversation with Pier Glozo.
"YOU AGREED TO WHAT?" said Coralis and Sebastian, at the same time.
They looked at each other, colour draining from their face.
"He sounded desperate, all he wanted me to do was to get you to back off. He is afraid of you but doesn't seem to know that Blue Thunder is Audrey's new guardian and thanks to your protectiveness, he doesn't know that she is also my girlfriend."
"Frank thinks you can easily win this, or is there something he didn't know?" said Louis.
"There are a lot of things he doesn't know on that topic," said Sebastian, still standing by the entry door. "Either Pier has been taking advantage of Frank, assuming his girl wasn't a strong one, or he is blatantly disregarding our laws and customs. Probably both."
"It's my fault, I never told Frank about what a traditional duel is, or much about our customs and rituals," said Coralis.
"You know, he is not wrong," said Sebastian looking at her. "You can win this."
Coralis looked at Frank.
"A traditional duel is a fight to the death."