Dark grey clouds loomed over the grass fields of Dijkstra family farm. This summer had been particularly dry, and the grass on the fields had slowly been turning more yellow by the day. The Dijkstra family had been praying for rain to come, and now in early August it seemed it had finally arrived. Harm, the eldest son, had never been so glad to see a rainy day. But despite the weather, he spotted there was a car approaching their estate. And not just any car…
"Someone's coming on our driveway," he said to his parents.
"Can you see who it is?" his father Gerard asked. "Hopefully it's not Berend again…"
"Don't think so. He doesn't have a red car."
"A red car?"
"Yeah, and it looks quite squished… Wait, it's a… Ferrari?"
"What's a Ferrari doing on our farm?"
"Oh, I know whose Ferrari that is…"
The car stopped in front of the farm, turning off its engine and lights. The doors opened, and out of the passenger seat's side, Harm saw the familiar face of his brother Roel getting out. On the driver's side, the owner of this exotic car stepped out: the coyote F1 driver Imola Mantovani. She had been here on the farm before, where she would enjoy the summer break away from the rush of her racing career, and a place where she can safely be her true self, as she was hiding a secret from the world. The Dijkstra family was one of the few who knew about it…

Harm opened the front door, and gestured the two to come in; Roel and Imola rushed through the rain towards the house, and quickly got inside.
"Welcome home, Roel," Harm said to his brother.
"Thanks, Harm. We could've picked a better day, though," he said, looking at the rain they had just gone through.
"I just hope it won't be this wet when we're racing at Zandvoort," Imola said. "I think we'll get our suitcases out of the car later..."
"No worries, Vojek and I will get your suitcases out of the car," Harm said. "It's good to see you here again. Why did you two come by car this time? Isn't portalling easier?"
"Oh, I want to give it a spin at the TT Assen track. Can't exactly portal my entire car…"
"And it was a fun drive," Roel continued. "We've been driving from Budapest all the way to here. We took a detour via the Großglockner Pass in Austria. That was amazing!"
"I think Pa and Ma would love to see you both," Harm said. "Just take off your jacket, and leave your lugage to me."
"I didn't know we had room service here," Imola winked to Roel, who couldn't resist grinning at her remark.
The two of them entered the living room, where Harm and Roel's parents came to embrace them both.
"I'm so glad to see you, Roel!" his mother Margriet said. "How's work been?"
"Pfft! Tough, but fun," Roel said. "I've had to look through so many graphs, but hey, that's what a performance engineer does."
"I've heard you're doing a pretty good job," Imola said. "Isn't your driver - Fidèleo, wasn't it? - close to the championship lead?"
"Only 23 points away. Still possible for him to win it."
"I'm glad to hear it's going so well," Margriet said. "Please, take a seat on the couch. I'm going make some tea for all of us."
"Mrs Dijkstra, may I… you know… do the thing?" Imola asked.
"Oh, sweetie, you don't have to ask permission from us anymore for that," Margriet said. "Right, Gerard?"
"Yeah, I've got no problem with it," Gerard replied.
"Good, because it's been bugging me all day now," Imola said. She reached with both hands to the base of her neck, and lifted up her head from her shoulders. A magenta flame appeared above her neck stump, while she kept her head in her hands.
"Finally! It almost felt like I was choking. My Soul Flame craved for air!" She handed Roel her head. "Can you hold me for a minute?"
"Surely, my dear," Roel said. Imola's body was stretching herself before she sat down next to Roel on the couch.
"Ah, that feels better," she said. "Sure my body knows what's good for her."
"Your… body knows?" Gerard looked at her questioning.
"Yeah, that's part of being a Dullahan: a body with a bit more autonomy. She can act on her own if I let her, it often helps to relax my mind."
"Can your body… you know… protest?"
"Sometimes… but I usually resolve it quite quickly. Last time it happened was when she refused to put me back on her neck after I did some training with Roel. She wanted to charge her Flame for a little longer."
"Yeah, that kind of the difference between you and me," Roel said. "See, I can remove my head thanks to Sab's nanobots giving me modularity abilities, but I always have to be in control of my body, every single move, because my body can't think on its own."
"Pfew, it's dazzling me a bit, I tell you," Gerard said. "Even after a few years being in all this magic business with Harm, I still have some trouble adjusting…"
"It's OK, Pa, I'm not fully comfortable with it either yet."
Harm, and his husband Vojek, came into the living room carrying Roel and Imola's luggage and put them on the floor. The blue Carbine had a long and thin leather covered briefcase in his hands, looking at it with fascination.
"Right, there are your bags out of the car," Harm said. "But Vojek and I are wondering what's in this box," he pointed at the briefcase.
"Oh that? That's a very important thing for me," Imola said. "Give it to me, I'll show you."
Vojek handed the box to Imola's body, who opened the box in front of them. In it, embedded in soft fabric, was a rapier, with a blade glowing in the same colour as Imola's Soul Flame. She picked it up and carefully swung the blade around.
"Every Dullahan has their own personal enchanted blade, and this is mine. It has a spirit of its own, loyal to me... as long as I don't use it for evil. And with it, we can fulfill our pledge to Lucifer."
"So… have you used it to… you know… hunt down bad guys?" Vojek said.
"Several times with my sister Gosia. Although… she kinda drags me along on her odd jobs. Still love her, but she can be a bit unhinged."
"I've been training with her," Roel said, "Though… not with a fancy blade like hers…"
"You have your own blade too?" Harm asked.
"Yeah, but I can easily carry mine."
Roel reached for his pocket, and pulled out what looked like a little dagger at first. With the push of a button, the dagger extended into a full sword blade, with seams of the sections still visible.
"A retractable sword. Quite neat, huh?"
"Well, if you have been training, I'd like to see a demonstration from you two."
"Right now?"
"Yeah, why not? Vojek, dear, would you help me move the salon table so we have a bit more space."
"Of course, sweetheart," Vojek answered.
The table was moved out of the way, and Imola has picked up her head with her other hand. Roel and Imola had taken a duelling starting pose, though, it was clearly visible Roel was not really at ease. Nonetheless, he took the initiative, lunging forward, but Imola could easily block his moves. But what he lacked in finesse, he seemed to make up in pure force, and Imola seemed to have to work for this a bit more. After half a minute they stopped, and went back to a resting position again.
"There, that's your demonstration right there," Imola said.
"Well, not completely," Harm grinned.
"What do you mean?"
"I'd like to see Roel fighting headless, just like you."
"Me? Headless? I don't know if it's such a good idea, Harm," Roel was having his doubts.
"Just do it for once, OK?" Imola said to him. "I'll go easy on you."
"Right…"
Roel reached for his neck and slowly lifted his own head up. He had to get used to the sensation again of carrying his own head, and the feeling of his exposed neck stump touching the air. Holding his head under his other arm, he tried to take a stance once again, though shaking a bit from the disorientation. Again, he took the initiative, now fighting with only one hand, but Imola could parry his moves much easier this time; it looked like she didn't even find it a bit of a challenge. Meanwhile, he had a lot of trouble coordiating his moves, even missing a few times. Imola signalled to put the duel to an end by easily putting her blade on his chest, showing that she had won the duel.
"I was horrible, wasn't I?" Roel asked her.
"No, dear, you were brave," she told him. She approached him and kissed his detached head, making him blush.
"I think I've seen enough," Harm said. "But keep on training, Roel. I see you have a good master to help you," he looked at Imola.
"What in the name of Christ is happening here?" Margriet said when she walked into the living room with a tray of teacups and a teapot.
"Nothing, Ma, just a demonstration," Roel said, putting his head back on his shoulders.
"Our son does fencing training with her, isn't that quite a feat?" Gerard said to his wife.
"Very well, but please do it somewhere else next time. Now, who wants some tea?"
They moved the salon table back into place, and everyone got a nice hot cup of tea in their hands, where the family could observe Imola's peculiar drinking technique where her body carefully fed her some sips of tea, with each sip lighting up her Soul Flame a little. She enjoyed the mundanity of the Dijkstra's home. But for Roel, it was always nice to come home again, after having travelled the world for his job. It was the one thing he'd look forward to all season...

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This scene has been drawn by  bean-muffin . I really wanted to have a picture of these two together. Don't worry, Roel will get quite good at this swordfighting, even while headless...