We Meet Again!

Hi, this is Bree again. I have some great news! :-)

Guess who's sitting here with me? Well, since I can't hear your guess, I'll just have to tell you. It's Cécile! She's safe and sound, and right beside me as I type. We're all very relieved.

So... what happened, right? We were all wondering. Just after sunset on Christmas Day, Cécile finally showed herself in person, and explained the situation. They had figured out The Elders were coming, so they managed to get out of the house before it burned. At that point they split up, but they stayed in communication with each other. Cécile shadowed me and Blakeney, for mutual safety and with the intention of contacting us when it was safe to do so, using the signal with the ballet slippers that she and Marie-Grace had agreed upon. Meanwhile, Marie-Grace is off doing some sort of mysterious research, but Cécile assures me that she's safe too.

When Cécile first showed up, she just kind of stood awkwardly in the doorway, like she expected me to be mad at her. I threw my arms around her and squeezed her tight, and told her I was so glad she was okay. That made her smile, but she said, "I just wanted to make sure you knew that we were alright, and to check that you girls are safe, too. We won't put you in danger with our presence."

"Are you crazy?" I asked. Then I realized that didn't sound very kind, so I clarified, "I mean, if we're all in danger, it's safer to be together. We can protect you." Then I further clarified, "We want to protect you and Marie-Grace, because you're our friends."

Cécile looked worried. "You understand the danger, Bree? The Elders are powerful, and they will not hesitate to harm you, neither because of your age nor because you've done nothing wrong."

I couldn't help laughing. "Yeah, I kinda got that impression when they burned your house down for no reason when they were feeling frustrated." Then, more seriously, I added, "It's worth it for our friends. We'd rather have you here, even if it's a risk."

She smiled, and squeezed my hand. I took that as a yes. :-)

So now Cécile and I are hanging out. She's a lot of fun! I'm introducing her to the wonderful world of television, and she's teaching me about classical music. What a trade-off for her, huh? ;-)

We can rest easy knowing Cécile is safe with us... well, at least with a couple of family members... and hopefully Marie-Grace will make it back safely, too. From the conversations I've been having with Cécile, I think they're open to being permanent additions to our family, which would be awesome.

I hope you had fun holidays, everyone! As a preview: Our next post will (probably...) be a guest post from Miss Cécile herself, filling you in on how their story began.

Love,
Bree