Cern really looked at Sedna for the first time. "I'm sorry," he said, "In all the excitement I didn't properly introduce myself. I'm Cern Stewart. And I've just now learned that we of the Stewart line go by that name to honor our heritage."

Sedna nodded to him, closed the book and put it back on its shelf. Then she said, "Sit, and I'll tell you what I know of Cernunnos. Most of it I've gathered from reading scholarly research. The conclusions the scholars come to are mostly sheer guesswork, and some of it is flat wrong. But a fair share of it is guided by intelligence and intuition. So there may be a few helpful clues for you."

"Clues to what?"

"Clues to the true nature of your heritage. Clues to how your line became Stewarts, and to whatever deeper meaning that may hold for you."

Cern took a seat next to Dema, and reached for her hand as Sedna settled into her own chair facing them.

"Most modern scholars consider Cernunnos to have been a nature and fertility god. He's known by that name in Celtic tales of an antlered god, but he has even older shaman origins. There are paintings and carvings in caves and on cliffs in places all over the world that could be images of him.

"He is thought of as a protector of animals, and the one who lays down the rules of the hunt and the harvest. He is the guardian of the forest. It is said that his antlers symbolize the spreading treetops of the forest as well as his animal nature. He is thought to pursue evildoers, in protection of the land and its indwelling spirits. To modern Wiccans, he embodies uncorrupted masculine energy that is in balance with the natural world.

"He and his companion snake represent the first father and first mother. His fire animates her earth, and together they generate the dance of life. Theirs is the life that never dies, for it is self-originating."

Cern had begun to look increasingly uncomfortable as Sedna's revelations about his supposed ancestry got more and more high-sounding. But finally he relaxed, and said, "That's a lot to live up to. I'm glad the guy is only my namesake."

"You've done a pretty good job of living up to it already, as far as I'm concerned," Dema said.

"In truth, what I've described as the way of Cernunnos is simply the way of the shaman, or of any person who seeks to live in harmony with the land," Sedna told him. "We all live on many levels. The overall effect is the sum of many small actions, just as the dance of atoms forms the stuff of life."

"Then you aren't trying to tell me that I am Cernunnos."

"You know who you are. I don't need to tell you that. But your name, your possession of an ancient torc, and the stag-horn illusion you project suggest a deep connection to the Cernunnos of legend. Knowing about him may help you explore the meaning of your own ancestry."

Cern waved a hand above his head, as if feeling for the presence of the antlers both Dema and Sedna could plainly see. "How can I be projecting an illusion and know nothing about it?"

Dema said, "It's more usual than you would think. As my mother would say, all we see is illusion." She told him about her recent experience with ghosts, and how Naga had explained that everyone's perception of the material world is an internal construct, reflecting the signals that arrive in the brain via nerve channels. Ghosts, she had proposed, are nothing more than an overlay on that construct that derives from non-material perceptions.

"Non-material perceptions?"

"Like all the things you are aware of in the forest, perception on a spiritual level."

"Oh, right."

"Everyone does it. But we don't merely perceive it, we project it."

Cern got it. "We're all ghosts. We just us happen to have bodies."

"Right. We all unconsciously project who we are, and we all perceive the projections of others. We add that internally to the body perceptions. Normally the two sets of perceptions agree, and we don't notice the ghost part. Even when we do, it's usually just what people call an aura."

"But in my case, I project antlers?"

"Yup."

"Then why doesn't everyone see them?"

"Why doesn't everyone see ghosts?"

"Oh, right. We don't want to see ghosts. We ignore most non-material perceptions."

"Even for people like me and Sedna, its not a normal thing to see them. It requires a special state of mind. We call it going into the shaman dream."

"Or the forest dream."

Dema nodded. "But when you put on the torc, you started to project more strongly. That's why Sedna couldn't miss the antlers." Sedna nodded at that.

Cern turned to Sedna. "So this Gundestrup cauldron, does that mean my ancestors came from Denmark?"

"Well in the first place, it wasn't Denmark two thousand years ago. And for another, like the Lamia, your earliest ancestors were probably tribal shamans. The god attributes have no doubt been added to the legend over the centuries. If you look at the rest of the decorations on the cauldron, you'll find all manner of Celtic motifs. It may be that none of your ancestors ever ventured anywhere near the site where the cauldron was found."

"So all we really know is that whichever one of my ancestors picked the name Cern, he probably knew about Cernunnos. And whoever inspired that particular image was probably someone like me, and possibly one of my very ancient ancestors."

"Someone like you, and someone like Dema."

Dema looked at Cern, recalling her reaction to seeing the image. "You and I may not have been there to pose for the artist who made the cauldron, but it's like Sedna told us. There is a connection between us that the image is meant to convey. A very deep one."

Cern looked back at her, with an expression of tender devotion that melted her heart. "And I want to explore every crevice of it," he said.