"I know you and the boys are not ready, so I don't plan on dying anytime real soon, Sharon, but with each month that passes, the margin between this life and the one on the other side gets thinner. I am blessed to be one of those who can actually experience that and know what it is. I have Cassie and her training to thank for that.

"Before I moved up here to take care of Cassie, I was like Big Bill. I was so full of fear and ignorance that what I knew scared me, so I denied what I knew. For the longest time, I thought you didn't have the same gift. Over the past few years, though, I've come to realize you just didn't think you were entitled to the gift, so you never claimed it. But I have watched you in the graveyard, watched you with Mjolnir, watched and also listened with eyes closed as you play and sing.

"So one thing I want to say is this; It is time to start your training. I'd like to start tonight.

"It is also time I told you that the farm belongs to you and Louie.
Quiet. Let me finish. You, because part of the magic resides in the land, and it is particularly strong here, at the head of this holler, where two long ridges meet. You will come to recognize the magic is always strongest at such places. places like New Orleans, at the mouths of great rivers, are not the starting points. They are simply the basins where all the magic from the beginnings of such things accumulate. It all begins in places like this. The heads of tiny hollers, the beginnings of creeks where mountains meet and water runs downhill. The places where mist and soil, and the echos among the hills begin. The places where oceans once stood, only to be pushed out by the upheavals of the heart of the earth. That is the true home of magic and mystery and creation. that Mississippi delta may be home of the blues, but remember, it was first the final resting place of the dirt of these ancient and fey mountains.