Á Íslandi 16

And still I have not used all the prompts, we were given for Wednesday 16, so I continue.
The prompts were:

Sweetheart    
Succotash    
Semi-stable    
Solace    
Singularly    
Solution   
     and/or
Married
Lately
Diet
Denied
Squash
Urban
For this instalment, I used no new words.


Susan packed a bag with a few necessary things, and a hand of bananas. Then she hurried to the portal room and jumped through the portal to Iceland. 'How good we insisted that Finnbogi connected these portals again,' she thought to herself fighting off the dizziness. The portals under the mountains were not scaring any more and Susan went quickly to the room bearing the name Schiltach over the door. She braced herself and went through. When she opened her eyes she stood in a clearing not far from the  small cottage where Ella's granny had lived. 'I wonder who lives there now,' Susan thought. 'Ella's granny can not be alive any more. Well I won't find out by standing here.' She picked up herself and walked the short distance to the door that held so many memories for her and knocked. The nameplate bore Ella's last name. An elderly man opened the door and said: "Guten Tag, kann ich Ihnen helfen?"
"Erm, ehh, Ja, bitte!" Susan said gathering together her German. "My name is Susan Thorsen from Denmark. I come looking for Ella. I know her from long ago. She said to visit if I ever come here again. I came, today. Her grandmother lived here. I thinked you may help me."
"Come inside," the man said. "She lives here."
"Here, in granny's house?"
"Yes. But now she's at work. Will you wait for her, and would you like some tea, you look tired."
"Yes please, I'd like both. I'm rather urgent." Susan said, mixing up the language.  
"Wait a minute. Susan you say. And from Denmark?" Susan nodded, suddenly feeling hope soaring inside.
"Ella told me a lot about you. Oh, sorry I'm her husband. My name is Walter, pleased to meet you. Are you one of us?"
"I am what ... oh, yes I am."
Walther drew his wand and cast a pell, Susan recognized as the Mál sameinast.
"Thank you," she said in Danish, "My German was getting rusty."
Walther smiled. "A bit! You were in a hurry, you said. I surmise you need our help in some way. Ella told she went to Denmark many years ago and found you, but that you did not know her, and did not know what you were."
"That's true. We slept as we call it for many years, but now we're awakening. Something bad has happened, and I need Ella's help."
"Let's go and find her, then. Tea can wait. She's working at a local hotel, her shift is over in half an hour. Then you can sit by the river and talk, while I do the shopping," Walther said, and opened the door to the passenger seat of his newly polished grey car for her. While they drove through the woods, Walther told Susan  "Ella's Granny died many years ago and Ella's parents are dead too. But all her sisters and brothers are alive. They all married and had children, only not us."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Susan said. She took a banana from her handbag and began eating. "Sorry. I always get so hungry from going through the portals."
"You used the portal? It's not a trap any more? That's good news indeed."
Susan's heart almost stopped as Walter parked the car at a green and white timber-framed inn with flowers everywhere. "Ella works here?" Susan said "This is the very inn I stayed at when I met her."
Susan got out of the car and looked up. And there, under the eaves a grey and green gargoyle figure hung. "Cerina," Susan whispered. (* see note)
Together she and Walther went into the inn. He embraced Ella, dressed in a dirndl-like dress still. "And my dear," he said, "can you see, who came to visit you?"
Ella looked at Susan and looked once again: "Susan. Is that really you?"
"Yes. It's me!" Susan said. "And what more is, I'm ME again," she said smiling at Ella.
"I'll leave you two to reminiscing," Walther said. "I think you won't miss me for some time."
Ella embraced him again and then turned to Susan: "Come let's sit on the terrace and then you tell me all about it," she said.
"I'd love to," Susan said, "and I will, but not now. We have a serious problem in Denmark." And as quickly as possible she told Ella of Torben, Tristan, the Mondrian at the summer party. their reawakening, the strange things happening and their growing suspicion, and final certainty of Liisa's identity. She told of Sandra, of Rasmus and her children and ended by asking what became of the copy of Griffon's Bestiary that her granny copied.
"Aww," Ella said. "what a story. We followed it a bit from the sidelines, but then so much happened here with granny and all, she fell ill, and died not much later. Then I met Walther. My oldest sister inherited this house first, and she took all the magic things, as I could not use them. Walter was disappointed, but well it is our granny and not his. I'll phone my sister and ask what happened to all those old papers."
Susan sat looking over the river and up at the gargoyle while Ella called her sister and spoke much and quickly for a long time.
She looked downcast when she finished the call. "My sister told me that all her books and notes were stolen not very long ago. Someone broke into their house and stole what they could find of magical things, not the cauldron and such, but rare ingredients, silver spatulas, all granny's books and notes. She did call the police and also asked the magical society for help. But none were able to say anything. Only one, an old wizard, told her that the thief was a woman from the North. She took that to mean the north of Germany, but Norway would be just as plausible."
"I feel doubly stupid now!" Susan exclaimed. "Of course it is Liisa. I just hope that some of the papers are in that bag of things Hilde found at Liisa and Rasmus' place. We might be able to find the rest with a thorough search of their house. I really have to get back. I'll send you a full report and photos and ... even better, why don't you come and visit us, won't you?"
"Yes I see. A visit is a wonderful idea. I would like to meet everyone again, and see all the children. I'll get Walther to take us home."
Walther came quickly and returned Susan and Ella to the small cottage in the woods. Susan spent a precious but short time reminiscing with Ella before she tore herself loose and hurried through the portals back to Birch Manor.

She returned, totally exhausted in the middle of the afternoon tea break. She grabbed a stack of muffins and cookies and sat herself in a a table in a quiet corner.
Knud came over and poured her a mug of tea, grinning broadly. "You're back. Wonderful. Did you find Ella?" Susan nodded, her mouth full of delicious muffin.
"We have been busy making classes and finding out who will teach what. I'll return later and hear more. Enjoy your break and get your energy back, you look like you need it," Knud said and tousled Susan's hair affectionately.
She sat eating her way through her loot, savouring Hilde's baking and the hot, sweet tea when Fiona and Marit, Rasmus and Finnbogi returned. They joined her at the table, and began eating as well. Soon Rasmus and Finnbogi looked at one another, and Finnbogi said: "Susan, you stink!"
"What!" Susan said. "Sorry, I took a shower this morning as usual, I have been busy, a trip through many portals and a talk with Ella and her husband. Now what kind of welcome is this?"
"No," Rasmus said, "It's not a physical smell. It's a magic one. You smell, I'm loath to say, as if you had been rubbing shoulders with my wife, Liisa. Whom did you say you visited?"
"Ella in Shiltach and her husband, Walther. Ella is not a witch, but everybody else in her family are. Walther is too, he cast the language spell at us there."
"Will you let me feel you," Finnbogi said. Susan nodded, and Finnbogi placed his hands on Susan's head. "Yes, male, he is evil. I wonder none in Ella's family has found him before now."  
"They are all potion-masters," Susan said, "and the Germans are not as all-round trained as we are. They believe in specializing. The portals! I told him they worked again. Can you make the ones under the mountain into traps again?"
"I will do so at once," Finnbogi said and rose.
While he was away, Susan drank her tea and tried to still her anxiety. Hilde came and joined them.
"What is the news about Sandra?" Susan asked, as much to think about something else as from genuine concern for Heidi's Mum.
"It is a curse," Rasmus said, "or maybe a potion. Something magical at least that's sapping her energy, leeching her magic and strength.. We did bring her here, and Heidi, the twins and all the rest will follow later in the afrernoon, when they have finished packing."

Hilde told Rasmus what his daughters had said about Liisa's pink medicine. "Could it be the same potion, only working more damage in an old, frail lady than in two healthy girls?" she asked.
"It could well be," Rasmus said. "Let's wait for Finnbogi to return. I feel hopelessly inadequate, I have so much to learn. Raw powers are not enough."
"You have learned much already," Susan said. "That realisation took me a year at The Farm."
Knud came back and sat down with a cup of tea. "Do tell of your visit to Ella's. Could she help us?"
Susan recounted the visit. And halfway through Finnbogi returned. He looked grey and worn, and bade Susan continue as she made a move and sat down silently and ate.
When Susan had ended her narration, she turned to Hilde: "Hilde, all the things, you found in Liisa's hideout, where are they?"
"They are here, in my backpack," Hilde answered. "Somehow I did not want to leave them unattended." She opened her backpack and pulled out an ordinary looking shopping bag. "Here they are. Let's have a look."
Inside the shopping bag were several old books, a leather box containing small, stoppered bottles with writing in flowing German Script, a bunch of old wands and silver stirring implements kept together with rubber bands and an assortment of strange, small objects marked with staves - the Icelandic, magic runes. In the bottom more, bigger vials were rolled into a woollen baby blanket.
"Ella's things," Susan exclaimed.
"And lots from our museum!" Finnbogi added.
Susan went through the books and wads of papers: "And here's the notes from Gryffon's bestiary!" she exclaimed triumphantly holding them aloof.
"Can I see?" Marit asked. "I have an idea what kind of potion could do the damage."


- - - - - -
* The story of Susan and Cerina the gargoyle can be found here: Susan in Paris.