Page 8 of Triadic

"What about your loved ones?" asked Gabriel.

That was so complicated. "I thought I had a boyfriend, but it turned out he was cheating on me the whole time and even got a girl pregnant. My best friend, Genevieve, wanted to marry our classmate Henri, a farmer, but her parents didn't want her to marry down. So they struck an agreement with my parents that we would be married. They were going to force it on us, since my being gay was completely unacceptable. I couldn't bear to see Genevieve so unhappy, and then when I found out my supposed boyfriend got our neighbor girl pregnant, I was so mad I charged into the forest and got lost."

Gabriel gawped at me while Florian exclaimed, "Oida. High drama in the village!"

"I will not interfere in the fate of someone dying," interrupted Gwion, splashing cold water on our mirth. "But for someone who knew that precious name, I will tell you that an angel might be willing to help you."

Florian gasped, his smile wide, while Gabriel looked up at the large man. "Thank you, Gwion."

Gwion turned his gaze back to me. "If you like, I'll take your dog."

Wait…what?

"Schneewittchen? She can'tcome with me?" I asked, my heart in my throat.

Gwion shook his head. "You had an astral dog. She exists on the astral plane, not the material one. Once you reenter material incarnation fully, you won't be able to see her."

I wouldn't be able to…

My eyes burned with tears. I was already dying, and now I had to say goodbye to her. Even now when I reached out, she wouldn't come to me, because she was scared of how sick I was.

"Why is she an astral dog?" I asked, instead of giving into my emotions and letting my heart break.

"Animals will linger in the astral plane after death if they still want to experience things they couldn't during their physical lives," Gwion answered, smiling down at Schneewittchen, who was sniffing his shoes. "By treating her as a companion and letting her live as a dog, you gave her the chance to experience those things and fulfill part of what her soul was longing for so strongly that it kept her from transitioning to the afterlife. I will help her live as a dog for as long as she needs to, finishing up what you started."

"We'll take good care of her," Florian promised.

The tears fell—I was overwhelmed. "Thank you. Bye, Schneewittchen. Thanks for being my good dog. I'm sorry I scared you, sweetie."

Gwion bent down to let my dog sniff his hand. When her little nose touched his finger, they both disappeared.

I yelped and reached for her, but then my stomach rebelled, and I bent over and heaved, barely missing Florian, whorubbed my back. Once I could hear around my retching, I caught Gabriel's soft statement. "I'm calling Ian."

My stomach seemed calm for the moment. "Who's that?"

Gabriel's smile was serene. "Your little Snow White puppy found the right friends in the forest, Peter. We have an angel-in-training on our side. Guardian angels are big fans of humans living out their incarnations, experiencing what they long for, and learning what they can."

"Which unfortunately for you might mean a life of health problems considering what you're going through," Florian threw in. "Are you ready for that?"

Everything hurt, so I could imagine that would suck, but my goal remained the same. "I want to live. If my body is injured from all this, then I'll deal with it as best I can."

"That's the spirit," encouraged Florian. "Just one more visitor today, then we can hopefully get you out of the magical loop you're stuck in, so you can restart your life."

"I knew there was something going on," I said. "All my life I'd heard stories about magic, but thought they were just fairytales to entertain children. But I've seen things that don't make sense other than with the premise that magic is real."

"Welcome to a much larger world," said Gabriel with pride in his voice.

With a whoosh, a winged man stood in front of Gabriel, and my breath stilled in my chest as I realized I was looking at an actual angel, as real as anything else.

Ian haddirty-blond hair, pale skin, and stubble on his cheeks that looked more red than blond. When his gaze slid to mine, he all but speared through me, seeming to read the contents of all my secrets. But I was too transfixed by the kaleidoscopic glittering of his irises, like the multi-colored dazzling of the stained-glass windows in my home village's cathedral.

Gabriel introduced me. "This is Peter. He wants to live. He escaped a bad situation in his home village, but then got stuck in this pocket of the forest. He can run a general store, and his plan was to get to the next town and look for work. Peter also knew the name of the Antlered One that Gwion follows, though he may or may not step onto the path."

I didn't know anything about the path Gabriel referenced. I did, however, have a life to live if I was allowed to, and if my health could hold.

Throughout Gabriel's explanation, Ian watched me. Clearly he had once been a human, but he also gave off a feeling of otherworldliness that I couldn't put my finger on. He wasn'tquitefully human, at least not anymore.

"You're willing to live in that body?" he asked. "It's going to hurt."