Damien's life continued the same as before. Hunting was somehow bringing him enough money to make his simple life easy, and his friends supplied everything else he needed, especially considering some of them had influence.
Damien was already good friends with Adrian and was a frequent visitor at his noble hunting camp, but when he met the young lord Anselm himself, it felt like winning a huge prize.
"Welcome to my humble home, your lordship. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Damien's tone was formal and full of respect, but his smile was genuine and friendly.
Anselm returned the smile, but his whole face betrayed uncertainty. "Uncle Adrian told me..."
"I told him he should live a little." Adrian finished for him lightly. "And I told him I know someone who might help. Are you with me? Let's take the lord on a proper hunting expedition."
Damien's smile widened when he assured both men how delighted he would be.

The hunting trip soon turned into pure fun, as Adrian persuaded his young nephew that the felled deer must be properly celebrated. Damien didn't know how - or how often - was the ale and wine brought to Adrian's camp, but it was enough that they were always there and always good. A few drinks were enough to really liven up the atmosphere, even originally shy and rather meek Anselm suddenly eager to show his fighting skills.

The three men soon forgot both passing hours and flowing wine. Adrian was completely in his element, Anselm seemed almost surprised by the fun he was having and trying to keep up with his friends and Damien was still amazed by who he was socialising with and unable to believe his luck.

All until Anselm suddenly went very pale and sick.
Damien's first thought was panic - did something happen to the young lord? And, even more importantly, would he be blamed? But then Adrian was there saying something about his mead being very strong and a good night's sleep making everything all right and Damien remembered his own experience from not so long ago.
He frowned in sympathy as Adrian was leading his nephew back home.

The worry Damien might have felt for the young lord however passed soon. After all, his own experience clearly showed hangovers were not lethal and furthermore, there were completely different things on his mind before long.
Anna was always around and she was always fun. They would spend hours talking about anything or nothing at all, laughing all the time.

And when winter tightened its grip and it got too cold to stay outside, there was warm fire in Damien's little house, and enough privacy to do anything they wanted.
It was mostly Anna who pushed their relationship forward, unafraid of any consequences. Damien found himself dragged along, trying to keep up and not look like a little boy in her eyes. Often he cursed his sheltered upbringing and the nuns who brought him up, but he was determined not to let that hinder him.
Anna just called it endearing.

Damien woke up one night to strange sounds in the woods surrounding his house. At first he wanted to dismiss the howling as a lingering part of his dreams, but it continued even when he came fully awake, only growing closer if anything.
He quickly dressed and went to investigate. He was a man, a hunter, certainly not one to be afraid of a wolf or anything else living in the woods. Actually, the fiercer the wildlife was, the better story the adventure would make when he would tell it to Adrian, Anna and his other friends. He went out to investigate and there, just outside his house, was indeed a wolf, a dark shape with eyes glowing bright yellow.
Damien was captivated, coming closer and closer to the animal almost against his own will. The wolf didn't seem afraid at all, not when Damien came so near he could touch it, not even when he tried to chase it away.

Instead, the wolf followed Damien when he walked around the house. It didn't look threatening, not really, even though the glowing eyes were strange and a little frightening. And it certainly didn't behave like any normal animal should.
Running out of ideas, Damien eventually brought some scraps of meat, leftovers from his meal that day, and offered them to the wolf. He was nervous at first, frightened of the animal's sharp teeth, but it ate calmly and there seemed to be intelligence in those strange eyes.
And then, after it had eaten all the scraps Damien could find, it just left, with no more explanation than when it had appeared.

No matter how hard Damien thought about the encounter, he didn't come up with anything else than his original puzzlement. Soon, however, he had completely different worries when real winter came and everything was covered with snow. Damien found himself spending more and more time getting enough wood to keep his house warm and be ready for any necessary repairs.
Winter would be hard, work never stopped and there simply wasn't enough time to dwell on something that had nothing to do with either.

Delia, meanwhile, was enjoying all the fun winter and snow made possible for her. The thickness and quantity of the stuff fascinated her so much she didn't even mind the cold. She spent all of her free time outside, building snowmen or snow houses.

What she loved even more, though, was when she had friends to play with her. She was becoming rather popular in her classes and often invited other children to come play with her. Soon she was considered the snowball champion even amongst older kids.

Still, the freezing weather meant more need for firewood, and Alysanne finally gathered courage to venture out of her house to help gather some. Tomas let her go without much interest and Alysanne herself didn't think much of it. After all, she was only going to the very edge of the wood, gather some fallen branches and return.
She definitely didn't expect to meet Alvin again, but that is exactly what happened.
He looked just like she remembered from happier times, before all the trouble and his exile, from the time that now seemed almost a lifetime ago. Her heart was racing, but a small part of her still couldn't believe it was really him, still thought she was dreaming.
Then Alvin came closer, looking nervous and determined at the same time. He breathed her name and she almost broke down sobbing.
"Are you all right? How... where have you been?" She wanted to ask if he had been punished and how bad it was, but she felt too guilty to say it. Still, his robe could only mean he was forgiven, didn't it?
"I was contemplating the nature of temptation and ways of dealing with it." Alvin replied with a smirk. "Nobody wanted to ruin the reputation of the Church, luckily for me, probably. We're just pretending nothing happened." There was anger in Alvin's voice, but when he looked at her, his expression softened again.
They just stood there for a while, unsure what to say or do. Alysanne reached out to touch him, but then she drew back. She couldn't. No matter of what her heart was telling her, she had learnt her lesson, or at least she was desperately trying to remember it. She couldn't betray Tomas again, not when things were slowly getting back to normal...
"I... I have to go..."
She fled without looking back, too afraid she might lose her resolve if she did.

Alvin was back in his role, but privately he was far from forgiven. He didn't know if he had made the mistake of showing any signs of still being in love or if Lorentz just wasn't the sort to forget any transgression, but the older priest was constantly after him, looking over his shoulder with a glare, always reminding him of his sin.
Alvin was trying to think of Alysanne and tell himself it was worth it, except it wasn't. Not when she belonged to someone else and definitely not when she didn't even want to see him again.

He must have let some of these feelings show on his face, because suddenly Lorentz slapped him hard.
"You unrepentant..." Another slap. Alvin grunted, keeping himself from fighting back. "...sinner. I will do something about the girl's bad influence, but meanwhile you must focus on resisting her temptation."
Alvin expected another stinging blow, but instead Lorentz turned away and walked towards the front of the church.

Alvin watched his back, seething with anger. How dare he pretend he had perfect knowledge of the Watcher's will. He knew nothing about love and  only wanted to spoil it for everyone else. And to imagine what he could so to Alysanne...
Suddenly the anger was too much to bear. It bubbled up, flowed through him and completely filled his mind for a moment. Alvin didn't really realise he was doing anything until he was murmuring some words he only half understood in the direction of the other priest.

Only when he released the strange energy flowing through him did he notice Alysanne, who was standing close to the door and staring at him in shock. At first he didn't care much, but as the anger was fading, he begun to realise how horrified she looked.

He glanced again at Lorentz and for a moment couldn't believe his eyes. The second priest was frantically waving his arms around, desperately trying to drive away a swarm of bees. Alvin blinked a few times, but the bees were still there, inside the church, in the middle of winter. A few more moments before he understood what had to have happened.

Lorentz was too busy to look at him, but it could be a matter of seconds and Alvin didn't want to be there when it happened. When he saw Alysanne slipping out of the church with a frightened look he turned and ran after her.
"Wait! Alysanne!"
The girl turned, but there was still fear in her eyes. "What... what was that?"
"I don't..." Alvin made a few more steps toward her, only to lower the volume of their conversation, but when she drew back he could feel his anger seeping back. "Something to teach him a lesson to leave us alone." He said.
"I never knew you could... that was magic, wasn't it? Where did you learn something like that?" She drew back one more step.
"Never mind that. I did it for you, too, don't you see that? I thought you would be overjoyed, after what we've both been through."
Alysanne's expression was only growing more incredulous with every word he said.
"I... should be overjoyed from hurting someone? In a church?"
Alvin just stared at her, challenging her to continue.
After a while of silence she just shook her head. "It's like I don't know you anymore."
She turned and walked off, leaving Alvin looking after her in disbelief. Didn't she see that he loved her?