The angle grinder whines in the quiet of the afternoon, but I don't want to make a mess inside the chapel, so I'm working outside. Thankfully, I'm wearing hearing protection, and I'm not deafened by the powerful DeWalt 4.5 inch grinder. We bought two of them, along with a lot of other tools for stone, metal, and woodworking, to the point that the first thing we did as a family after our shopping trip was to build a lean-to off of the chapel that could keep all of our new stuff out of the weather. It's not much, but it keeps our work areas dry.

I press lightly, letting the motor do the work, pleased with the results of my experiments so far. We were able to find more than enough equipment for everyone's individual projects, with Jackson's archery project needing a side trip to a sporting goods store. He's about halfway done with his second bow, his first one cracking when he made the limbs too thin and he pulled back too hard and far. He grumbled a bit about it, but Jackson's enjoying the process as much as the actual bow itself.

The piece of granite I'm working with is about an inch long and three quarters of an inch wide, held on my workbench in a padded vise that we all share. I'm using a diamond blade right now, just adjusting the angle of the face cut I've put into the stone.

When I turn off the grinder, I see Jackson's joined me, taking out his bow. I pop out my earplugs just as he speaks up, friendly and relaxed. “Hey, how's the work today?”

I hum, studying the angle of my cut and liking what I see. “Good. I might get this one finished today, and I'll only have one more to do to complete the stones for the set.”

“What are you making a set of?” Jackson asks. “I mean, you've kind of been busy out here three or four hours a day, but you've kept mum about what it is you're actually building.”

I nod. “I know. I just wanted to make sure I can actually work with granite before telling anyone, but it's coming along well.”

“What?” he asks, making another draw. “If you don't want to tell, that's fine.”

“No, it's okay,” I reply, going over to the box I'm keeping the pieces in before I made my next step. I empty them on top of the storage box we're using, showing one of them to Jackson. “That one is yours.”

“Mine?” he asks, turning over the stone and studying it. “What's it for?”

“Well,” I say, taking it back and putting it back in the box along with the other four finished stones and the one rough cut stone I have set aside for my piece, “we're having this... whatever you want to call it, Andrea's calling it a wedding, right?”

“Yeah, although I think it's going to probably be the weirdest wedding I can think of,” Jackson says with a chuckle. “Who'd have thought I would end up serving as a minister? But go ahead.”

“I was at first thinking rings, but I don't have the tools or the patience to cut the stone that small,” I tell him, going back to the stone I have clamped in right now. “Besides, I'm better at working with metal anyway. So I cut all of these into smaller pieces that I'm going to set into different metal chains we can all wear as pendants. The whole set is subdivided into three smaller pairs, one for each couple.”

“Amazing,” Jackson says, going over and looking over the four completed pieces. “I see it. The one you showed me, it's like a flat pyramid, and I can see Katrina's. The other pair, the triangular one, what's that?”

“That's for Carson and Andrea,” I tell him, setting the angle grinder aside to get out the stone polisher. The motor's nowhere near as loud, and I don't want to deafen him or force him to leave the work area. “I chose it because a triangle is the most stable shape in existence. Carson's been my stable foundation for over twenty years, and Andrea's another source. Until recently, the three of us were a triangle, too.”

“And for you and Nathan?” Jackson asks, and I unclamp the piece I'm working on, turning on the stone polisher. I've gotten the hang of it pretty well, and I'm making progress.

“Rectangles,” I say, holding up Nathan's stone. “This one I chose just for Nathan because it has more of the green flecks than the others. They remind me of his eyes.”

Jackson hums in appreciation as I turn to my work, working slowly. This first run is just to get the scratches caused by the diamond blade out. It's four o'clock before I finish up, Jackson having finished his work for the day a while back.

I go inside and wash up quickly, dumping my work clothes in the entryway to find Nathan relaxing with BA in the living room, both of them sitting back and watching a cartoon on the computer, BA giggling at the antics of the cartoon buses on the screen. “What's this?”

“Tayo,” Nathan says, shrugging. “It’s cute, and BA loves it. Katrina says it is her favorite cartoon. It's a lot different than when I was a kid. Just how in the world did we survive our childhoods?”

I chuckle and sit down next to Nathan, taking his free hand and giving it a kiss. “Hey, I had the Transformers, Carson loved those. Just wait until she gets older, and she's going to be following her mother and aunt looking like some crazy funky anime anarchist or something.”

Nathan laughs and bounces BA on his knee, tickling her belly. “Are you going to be an anime girl, BA?”

“Wabu!” She says, something she's been saying more and more as she gains confidence in her voice. “Wabu!”

Nathan chuckles and gives her a kiss on the top of her head. “Hold on baby girl, you'll get your chance.”

We sit back, Nathan being gentle and making BA laugh a lot. We exchange looks over her head, smiling. “This feels nice,” I say after the cartoon finishes, looking from BA to Nathan and back. “I hope that someday soon, we'll have a chance to do this with our own child.”

“Me too,” Nathan says, kissing my knuckles again. “In fact, I was thinking we can do our best to make that a reality over the next few weeks.”

“Oh, I'm sure we can do something about that,” I reassure him, warmth flooding my body from the look in his eyes. “So long without, and I'm enjoying every chance to catch up. Did you enjoy yourself?”

Nathan smirks, and he nods. “It was amazing. I don't want to go into details with BA sitting here, but you’re amazing.”

“So tonight?”

“Tonight.”

* * *

“Miss Sands, I'm glad you're doing some work now, but these pictures, they certainly aren't what I expected,” Robert says over the phone from his office at MCS. “They are exquisite though.”

“Thanks, Robert. I know it isn't what that client was asking for, but I'll be honest, I just wasn't able to feel that, so if they contact you again, please turn them down, tell them I'm not taking any commission pieces at this time.”

“Of course Miss Sands. So these six pendants, are you wanting them up for sale?”

“No, no those are personal. Instead though, I'm going to be working with making more pieces of the same stone. It's remarkable, and I think I can do some interesting work with it. I've got a larger piece I'm working on right now, a kind of abstract piece I'm calling Paladin. It's going to end up being about two feet tall, about eighteen inches wide, steel and some other metals with this same granite.”

I'm sitting on the stump of one of the trees we've cut down for firewood, looking forward to Friday when Andrea has her next prenatal appointment. I'm excited to see the progress, Carson told me they're going to do an ultrasound this time to see the baby's development, and the whole idea fills me with anticipation.

“Miss Sands?”

Oh, I've been daydreaming. “Sorry Robert, go ahead?”

“I said that I'd like to build some anticipation for Paladin by posting pictures of your pendants on the MCS website. Do you mind?”

I shrug, pleased. “That'd be fine. I'll work up some sketches of what I'm thinking of for it tonight, and I'll scan them in and send them to you if you'd like. I'll let you worry about price points and all that. Okay?”

Robert sounds happy as he hums in reply. “That would be great, Miss Sands. I do hope you're enjoying everything.”

“Very much so. Thank you. I'll send you an e-mail this evening.”

I hang up and get my sketch pad. I don't use it a lot when I'm doing experimental work or just having fun, but with Paladin I'm thinking of blending a few different techniques I haven't used in a long time.

I want some of the exotic look the rarer metals can create for me. In my mind, I see the granite playing a role as highlights on a medieval suit of armor. I want to create a sense of motion, of the dynamic and maybe a blend of classic with futuristic.

Sure, I know as I draw that Nathan is part of my inspiration, my muse for this piece. But looking at the paper as I see Paladin begin to take shape, I see Katrina in it, too. She keeps her hair pretty short still, and in the spiky upshot of the left side, I can see her hair, and the curves of the whole thing are just a little too feminine for it to be just Nathan.

That's fine. I'm going to do dozens, maybe even hundreds of pieces in the course of my art career, and not all of them will be for sale either. There'll be other pieces I can devote totally to Nathan, a testament to how important he is to me, and how much I love him. But I'm not able to quite tap that vein of emotion yet. It’s too raw and too close. I've had so few good emotional things to hold onto, his love is something I'm not quite ready to share with the world yet.

* * *

Andrea goes silent, staring at the six pieces laid out on the wooden tray. Finally, she clears her throat and traces the links on Carson's pendant chain. “They're... they're the finest pieces you've ever done, and I'll be honored to put it on during the ceremony. Thank you.”

“I'm proud of them,” I admit, smiling slightly. “When I finish Paladin, I hope it's as good, and can join them on the MCS website.”

Andrea looks up, concerned. “What do you mean?”

“I was talking with Robert the other day, I want to get some pieces back up for sale. So, I sent him pictures of the pendants, and a sketch of Paladin for him to put up on the MCS website. Don't worry, the pendants were taken against a wooden background, no signs of where we are.”

Andrea shakes her head, blanching. “You... but 'Lissa, the stone itself is traceable. I read about it last time I was in town, it's like fucking famous or something.”

“What?” I ask, fear striking my heart. “You must have read wrong.”

Andrea points at the green chips. “These emerald crystals are supposed to be famous. I even remember the name, it's called pegmatite, from a place called the Emerald Hollow Mine.”

“Oh no,” I reply, panic starting to take hold. She's right, I'd thought about it myself when we first got here. But, is it so famous that it's traceable? In my excitement, I'd forgotten. “Is it close?”

“In North Carolina, but about ninety miles away. 'Lissa, how long have the pictures been up?”

I shake my head. “I sent them to Robert on Monday night, maybe since Tuesday or yesterday at most?”

Andrea grabs Katrina's computer and dials the number for MCS. We're both sweating, but Andrea seems calmer than I feel at the moment, and Robert picks up quickly. “MCS Galleries, this is Robert, how may we help you?”

“Robert, it's Andrea,” Andrea says immediately. “I was just talking with Melissa, she says she sent you some pictures of pendants, is that correct?”

“Yes Miss Andrea,” Robert says, using Andrea's first name since we've never given him her last name. “Beautiful pieces. Why?”

“I need you to take them down from the website if they're up. It's very important.”

Robert gets stuffy, and I can somewhat understand. Carson's fiancée or not, Andrea has no business authority at MCS. “Miss Andrea, I understand, but I would need instructions from...”

“Do it, Robert,” I interrupt him. “Please. It's very important. Also, how long have they been on the website?”

“I've only had them up a few hours, Miss Sands,” Robert says, his tone immediately going respectful again. “There was a problem with the coding.”

“Get them off. If you have to, crash the website,” I tell him, trying to keep my voice under control. “Get them down as soon as I hang up.”

I hear Robert walking, and a door open as he moves, and then the sound of him sitting down. “Just a minute, I can do that myself... okay, it's down. It'll take me a little time to get the webmaster to remove the pictures, but right now MCS.com is offline.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe we got lucky. “Thank you, Robert. I apologize for the inconvenience, but thank you.”

“It's okay, Miss Sands. I'm sure you have a good reason.”

We finish the call, and even Andrea's fingers are trembling when she hangs up the call. “I... I'm sorry Andrea. I'd forgotten, I was so excited about the pieces. I screwed up, I'm so sorry...”

Andrea takes my hand and gives me a hug, shushing me. “You made an honest mistake. It's a pretty stone, and who'd think granite could be that famous? It was only up a few hours, and who knows if Isis or Peter's people even saw it. Even if they did, the odds of them tracing a rock are pretty remote. Come on, we'll tell the others, but what's done is done. We did our best to fix it, and besides, what does it change? Isis was looking for us before, she's looking for us now, she'll be looking for us tomorrow. Let's enjoy the rest of the evening.”