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[i_am_elizabeth]

I do not know if I run from ghosts or after them. My walks grow stagnant and always lead away, circle about the crossroads where the head was found and the block remains. I know it is there, for I have dared twice since to look upon it, and though the visible stain of the queen's blood is gone from the dirt and absorbed into the bitter wet brown

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[oscaroscaroscar]

With the wind as nasty as it was, Felix normally would have stayed indoors. He'd been known to catch the flu from regular old trade breezes, and would have been more than content to confine himself to the Compound or the Winchester were it not for one thing: he was already a walking contagion. He'd had chicken pox as a child and had gone through it all over again a few years back with Edna and Leonard, he knew the signs. After having run into that young woman with the telltale red bumps a few days prior, he knew it was upon him once more. Sure, it was said that having it once made you immune to further infection, but who really knew? This was obviously some terrible, deadly strain from an alternate dimension. He couldn't dare remain in close quarters with others, it was unconscionable! No, it was better to just commit himself to the elements and either ride it out or let the disease claim him.

"Oh, ma'am!" he called to the regal-looking woman on horseback as he absently scratched at his arm. No marks had actually appeared as

[i_am_elizabeth]

I start, so deep in reminiscence I should not have known anyone real was there at all, and turn England about to look down at the man from my seat.

"Not safe?" I squint into the foam and gentle spray, gusting up off the waves.

"I have weathered more terrible storms, sir." And welcomed them. "I assure you, the sand may sting but more ferocious bites have been felt in worser winds." I urge England up some way, so he is between the wind and the man's person, and try not to look overly amused.

"And if it is so dangerous, what could have moved you to venture out in to it?"

[oscaroscaroscar]

"Self-imposed exile!" Felix exclaimed seriously, more than slightly impressed by her overall manner. She exuded such an air of gravity that he couldn't help but stand just a little bit straighter in her presence. And he already had fantastic posture. "Honestly, this wind is just dreadful! Especially for the skin!" It would take ages to undo all the damage he was surely doing to himself.

That was, if he survived.

[i_am_elizabeth]

I lift my hand thoughtfully. I have managed to keep my skin so far unspoilt by the sun, but I had not given much thought to the wind.

"I fear my vanity cannot hold me much to such worries any longer. Trouble a young beautiful girl with the though, sir, for I fear it wasted on us two."

[withoutasea]

In the wind, Jenny found that the sea reminded her of the place where she was born. She stood on the sand, in tall boots designed for riding and a white shirt that whipped and pulled back against her body. She too was veiled, in gypsy colours over her dark hair, which kept it mostly back from her face and, in time, she turned and watched another Queen of England ride towards her across the sand.

[i_am_elizabeth]

Sitting full in England's saddle, no longer urging him so but letting him stride at his leisure through the shallows toward Gwenivere, I smile.

"It strives, does it not? This wind. Though I have not yet seen a storm to match the thunderous power of home's."

[withoutasea]

"And I never saw a storm in Camelot to rival the ones I knew when I was in my wild youth," said Jenny, with a little smile. "They said that my husband ruled even the weather."

[i_am_elizabeth]

"I myself have sworn by the wind and found them willing and well time in their aid," I say, smiling wryly, "so perhaps there is truth to it. As dependent as England is of the sea, it should be that ruler's right, perhaps, to summon them, above any other's."