Practical Magic...4

When Cal and Deeds first announced to their family and friends they planned to marry there were a few who worried that a pairing of two warriors would end in heartbreak. Tempers would flare, patience would be tested or the ever present possibility of an early death always loomed. Deidre wasn't worried. The life of a warrior was a hard one, she had already lost friends from school and her father had lost many friends and co-workers as well. The possibility of an early death was something that all those called to be a warrior understood.

When she was home visiting her family soon after the engagement she spoke to her mother about the life of a wife of warrior. How was she always able to be calm when her father left on patrol? There had never been a point in Deidre's childhood where she could remember her mother worrying about her father returning from work safely and it had always made her and her siblings feel as though they had nothing to worry about either. Deidre wanted to know how to project that sense of calm if she and Cal ever had children. Even though she knew that each and every time she or Cal walked out the door it could be the last. Her mother just smiled and told her she should probably talk to her sister. 

Instead Deidre went to her Aunt Dot. "Did you tell Mom how Dad would die?"

"Always an interesting conversation starter aren't you, darling?"

"Did you?"

"Fine, we will save the chit chat for later. What have you been taught about prophecy regarding death?"

"Any vision of the future is just a possible outcome. Even the fact of telling the vision can set in motion a series of events that would change the outcome. Prophets are not fortune tellers who can pick a vision of the future out of thin air and so knowing when or how someone will die is not a possibility. Death is unpredictable and true visions of a person's demise are unlikely to happen more than a few days before the death occurs."

"Very good. You remember your lessons from prophecy classes. So why would you think I could tell your mother when your father would die?"

"Because I also know there are many things about being a warrior that only other warriors know."

"Always a smart girl."

"Well?"

"Conversations between sisters are just that. Conversations between sisters. Did you have anything else?"

Deidre smiled at her aunt, "No, I just wanted to know how mom was always so calm. I believe I know now. Thank you."

"And will you be having a conversation with your own sister?"

Deidre shook her head, "No. I know Cal loves me truly, you or Joy would have told me by now if that weren't true. I know that I love him. I know that no matter how many years we have together they won't be enough. I don't want to know anything that would make me act differently, greedy with his time or mine. I know enough to know that we are meant to be together and any time I have with him would be better than time without him. That's all I need."

Aunt Dot hugged her niece fiercely, "Always a smart girl."