Aireens Arrival
Danu scrubbed the bar surface harder. She wiped the polish with her cloth and saw her own slightly worried face reflected back to her. An unthinking glance took her to the pumps but they needed no work and she certainly, definitely didn’t want a drink. All was well in the pub, the small world she had chosen for herself.
The problems hadn’t arrived yet but she could feel the progression of panic as her mother drew closer. It was a very ordinary kind of human panic. The panic would be quickly turned into solutions and terse conversations, not chaos. Humans swam in chaos, lived in it and absorbed it almost as fast as they caused it. Today it was like a wave rushing across the land as her mother arrived, a crashing change that was leading to her door.
She poured herself a pint of Cork’s finest and decided that she was done kidding herself. She informed her customers that she would be guests only tonight, then cracked into the Comms of the thousand AI and Intel that were watching her and told them, in the most obscure dialect of Irish that she had learned so far, that all was ready.
Today she would finally meet her mother.
Her dad was so excited he could barely remember that he was dead, determined that this would go well. His coffin must have been spinning fast enough to generate its own microclimate since the village was now filled with some very out of season flowers. She took a long draft of her stout. He was still a romantic and he had never stopped caring about his wife. Being dead was less important to him today. Today was something else.
----
XCC were usually more amused than angry. Earth had never had a genuine goddess before and that, in the end, was what they had now. Sure they classified her as a ‘Xeno/ Human hybrid Ambassador (Special Circumstances)’ but her abilities were impressive and growing. They even had contingency plans if it came to battle, an exercise demanded by Fleet and slightly ruined by the fact that Danu had read them and added corrections and footnotes.
An entire section of their office was dedicated to understanding her, understanding why she would buy a pub and settle down in an obscure village, in a small and unassuming country. Some of Earth's finest minds had concluded that she liked it there and provided you didn’t piss her off, she had no plans for conquest. The bar bill from ‘research’ had been raised more than once in exasperation. How did she keep getting the AI drunk?
Today was not such a day. Today they watched as Aireens shuttle landed. They were
aware that she could have stepped out into space and flown herself to Earth if she had chosen to, but she was as polite as her child was. Today was something else.
-----
Aireen felt old drumbeats and heard whispered songs on the wind as she landed. She saw the men in dark suits and thinning hair waiting as before and then felt her daughter’s first touch.
To step on the land, to feel a new heartbeat within and recognise the sound was enough to silence her. To hear it beat like a human's heart did, a sound she had listened to for far too few years. It had been the sound that had lulled her to sleep for a beautiful moment. A tear formed in her eye as her human shape demanded expression and she let it fall, falling onto the soil of her child, onto the soil that held her singer. It resounded across the world and something new entered her mind. Love, compassion, fear… Her daughter had heard that single tear fall and the world tried to wrap herself around her mother.
She took a deep breath of the heavily-scented air and raised a smile that she sent directly to her daughter even as the dark-suited humans approached. Their inexplicable sadness had passed but she decided to cut them off, “Thank you for meeting me. I’ll see you all there. Excuse me.” She went to walk past them until one caught up with what she had said and interrupted, “Ambassador, we have a vessel waiting…this way please.”
She didn’t stop, merely turned her head. “That's fine. I’m taking the bus.” and walked off.
She didn’t bother to explain why she wanted to duplicate her first voyage to Earth, mostly because she didn’t quite understand it herself. The humans had worried then, but not like this. She didn’t care and she wanted the time. Time for herself and her memories.
She waited with the others, all oblivious to the thousand scrambling forces that were now struggling to get tickets, information, anything. The bus AI was suddenly bumped up to full awareness and told to watch her, satellites redirected and Intel demanded. No doubt armageddon-level weapons were being deployed. It was the human system in full and flamboyant display. The bus company was bought and sold twice and its insurance was now covered by the XCC. It was Fleet insurance and now covered the destruction of entire worlds. She watched it all happen from the pleasant dullness of the queue. She felt her daughter smile back.
She found her window seat and remembered. She opened a thought to her child so that she could follow but she didn’t add much editorial.
She watched the green fields turn to stone. She saw the new forests springing up to join the old, the glinting eyes of the deer and the swift birds that circled high above. Today was all sunshine, brightly lit and beautiful. Her last journey had been grey and heavy with rain. Even now clouds passed quickly but still carried the threat of spring showers. The hedgerows turned to walls of piled and craggy rock, each one a reminder of the older and more bitter songs. She felt the slow beat of time in a way that only one person in her long existence had taught her and listened to the beat. Her mind turned to older things as the landscape played out like postcards from the past, the songs playing loudly in her mind.
Today she would meet their daughter. Today was something else.
-----
Danu was serving one of those customers that she referred to, between herself and a chosen few, as the ‘awkward squad’. The regulars that ignored any Comms, any requests, and were all firmly convinced that they could or in some hazy past had done it better. She handed him his pint, smiling professionally as she mentally marked it of his quota. Normally he was four beers, no whiskey and don’t ask for more or she would exile him for a week. But not today. Today was something else.
He grumbled to the indifferent universe, “Bloody cops are all over the place. Four of them asked me where I was going! I told them I’d let them know when I got there. The cheek! Anyway, cheers. Where’s Sean? All I see these days is yourself.”.
She wiped his spillage off the bar. “As I’ve told you, Sean is retired. He’s out in the stars with all the rich folks, living the dream.” Actually, Sean was currently asleep upstairs until he took over later, certainly not to be bothered by this idiot.
She leaned in, “And you were there at the party when I bought the place off him. I think you drank half a keg before I kicked you out. Drink that one down on the house. I have guests coming and you make the place look untidy. I’ll put a few beers aside for you tomorrow if you don’t make me call a geas on you today.”
The irritating customer suddenly became a lot more polite, “ Ah now, no need for such things. I’ll be on my way. Free beer tomorrow, sure isn’t that the promise we all wait for? I’ll be out of your way in but a moment.” He took a deep and enthusiastic sup from his pint to show willingness. Inside he recoiled a little.
The problem with this witch was that her geas worked and if she threw a curse at him he wouldn’t be able to drink for a week, or worse. Sean hadn’t had more power than his fists but this one was different. He had spent a week on the toilet at home the last time because he had perhaps been a little less than accurate in her bathrooms that normal politeness required, according to her anyway. And it had taken him an hour with a mop, an actual mop, to clean it up or it would have been two weeks.
He finished his pint and left swiftly.
It took a while but then her guests did start to arrive, shuffling in slightly confused but respectful. Danu asked little but she had made the world a better place for many of them. Small problems disappeared if you told her about them, and aches and pains often just disappeared. More than one child had suddenly been offered a position or an opportunity long wished for.
More than one elderly man was still hale and hearty when medical logic was somehow defied. In the small world they lived in they noticed the shuttles, and the strange visitors and they all knew that a curse from her would stick. Those petty bullies that were the bane of every village wouldn’t set foot in her pub more than once or they learned their lesson quickly. Tonight was for her and they came willingly. She might be a witch from the older times but she was their witch and they loved her. Everyone arriving carried an instrument and they began setting up and settling in as the beer flowed across the bar.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
It was going to be one of those nights.
Then the last guests arrived, a very elderly man accompanied by his two grandsons. One of them carried a battered fiddle case in one hand and a worried look everywhere else. Danu looked closer. The old man was well beyond his time, his system failing or failed at every level. She had already done some work but this time she would have to do an entire rebuild. Then those sharp eyes looked at her and clearly said no. He might have gotten off his deathbed for this but he would make no deals with the fairies. Not tonight, not ever. She showed empty hands and bowed, “For tonight only, please, my mother is coming to see you. No price to you or yours on my honour as a Sidhe of the court. I seek only to honour her with your music.”
The old man grinned at that, “Aye, I always knew you were Sidhe. Tonight then, for the blessings that music brings us all and at no cost to my soul. And may my name be forever hidden from you, Danu of the stars. I will pay my way in music and nought else. My respects to your father and my thanks for your hospitality.” He returned the bow, his old body making it surprisingly elegant.
Danu read his system and began repairing the worst of it. She owed the man and even the Sidhe pay their debts. Probably. She still hadn’t read all the stories and mostly they seemed to be angry Viking magicians. She began with his blood pressure, his heart, and his lungs. Humans were so fragile. He would have one hell of a night at least, even if it was his last.
His grandsons were watching and listening. Then their grandfather took a deep breath, recovered the case and stood tall. They had that same stupid look. More believers, damn it.
She shook her head, “Boys, I’m serving beer here so are you going to order drinks or block up my door?”
------
Aireen was still humming the bars of a long-treasured song when she arrived. The heartbeat had got stronger as she had drawn closer, her daughter's voice filling the world. It seemed to be one of wry amusement, with no malice to those that she served. Or could be made to serve her. She had no memory of her own beginnings, she had never had parents that she recalled. She just was, like any sun or a moon. She hadn’t realised she was lonely until Eddie had turned up and made her fall in love. She didn’t even know that love was an option until that night. And it had led to this, her meeting a daughter. Born from the love she had discovered, born from Eddie. She had become annoyed when his voice had demanded that he was both dead and a new parent, I mean pick a lane! But he had convinced her and had driven her here. She couldn’t deny the voices she could hear.
She walked into the pub and silence fell. Then a bright voice, the voice of Eddie and springtime spoke up, “There she is! This one is from dad, he insisted!”
Sean handed her a whiskey even as her beautiful daughter looked at the elderly man she remembered so very, very well and began, “Okay, Raglan Road. Ready?”
Danu smiled at her mother from across the pub.
“One, two, three…”
A new face arrived, a stranger in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Aireen and Danu were busy staring at each other without a word and Sean had his hands full with the locals so he began with, “You might have picked the wrong place tonight, friend. This is a private party and all the guests are already here.”
The stranger just smiled and raised a battered fiddle case, “No, I’m in the right spot, I reckon. I was invited, although I expect they might be surprised to see me tonight. Danu isn't the best on the little things. It’s Sean, isn’t it?”
The stranger offered his hand and Sean took it reluctantly, “Aye. She said nothing to me about you and we get a lot of tourists.” He pulled his hand away and glanced at the two lads, grandsons of his other guest of honour and they nodded. This stranger would be ‘escorted’ out of the door in short order if necessary.
The stranger just sat himself down and smiled up at him. “Give me a moment, I think this thing needs a bit of a wax. And I’ll have a pint of stout when you're ready. “
Sean was about to order him from the bar when the man drew out the fiddle. It was the fiddle. The one that anyone in the county would recognise. He drew back and checked across the room. If this stranger had taken Aireens fiddle he would have to stop a murder…
The man grinned, “Now don’t worry. There’ll be no fighting tonight. The old man is welcome to his fiddle and I brought my own. I think they might be related but I’ve had this since I was a child and learning my first tunes.”
The two grandsons had picked up the atmosphere at the bar and were now standing directly behind the stranger. Looming. Sean kept himself still for the moment, he had already seen a lot of strangeness happen and not a single ounce of malice. He would see nothing ruin Danu's big moment, certainly not a wandering player with a glib voice. “You sit there and enjoy your pint. If I hear a raised voice or a complaint, you’ll be out that door before you can blink.”
The stranger nodded in agreement, “It won’t be from me. Thanks for the pint and the patience. I’ll make myself useful in the meantime.” He smiled up at Sean as he applied the rosin to his bow.
As Sean finished pouring the pint something persuaded him that there was no ill-will here. He nodded the two large men back to their seats. Why was it always the oddities always that chose that seat? He might ask Danu to put it outside.
------
Aireen joined in with the second chorus, her tears now falling freely. She was less subtle than her daughter and time had begun falling away from the singers and the pub had begun growing stronger and larger until Danu frowned at her and she realised she was being rude and left her people and home alone. With an apologetic nod, she stopped and stepped forwards with her hands out. They were both still singing,
“I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret sign that's known
To the artists who have known the true gods of sound and stone
And word and tint without stint for I gave her poems to say.
With her own name there and her own dark hair like clouds over fields of May”
The musicians faltered as the sheer power of their song overcame mere mortal men, with the two women's eyes and hands now locked in wonder, with billions of years of life bending the very gravity of the planet even as Danus hold on her world pulled tighter and millions of people found themself on the verge of tears.
Then the trance was broken as a fiddle picked up the tune from behind them. A voice that rang across the years. Aireen stopped in shock and turned towards the bar, her hand tightening on her daughter's fingers.
A scruffy man with a battered fiddle winked at them both and sang on, his voice cutting across time and death itself,
“On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had loved not as I should a creature made of clay
When the angel woos the clay she'd lose her wings at the dawn of day.”
-----
Danu moved faster than any human could even dream about and stood in front of the stranger with rage filling her voice. Flowers began to wilt for miles around as men dropped their tasks and cursed aloud. Some sought shelter, some sought weapons.
“Who are you? And what are you? I told the XCC to stay the fuck away tonight. I will have none of your tricks here! “
Aireen interrupted, “Danu, love. You know him. But..this is him. Eddie. Your father as I met him, not as you saw him. As I remember him.” Her eyes grew dark, as she fought against the words, her loss suddenly here again.
The rain, the grey sky… the pain. The loneliness. Suddenly she was angry as well and pushed forwards, “What the hell are you doing here?! Why did I have to bury you if you could do this?!”
The man simply smiled, “Now, love, we have been over this. Eddie is long gone, resting well enough where you left him. But did you really think I would miss tonight? I’ve spent long enough in your head to learn a few tricks, so I made an effort. You look as beautiful as always and now there’s a pair of you in it.” He looked at Danu and then back to Aireen, “She’s something, isn’t she? We have done well.”
He looked at Danu and grinned, “Hello, daughter of my heart. I see you never did stray very far and I approve of your choice, you have done the impossible and improved the place!” He winked at Sean, “It's grand to see all four walls standing at the same time.”
He brought up his fiddle, “Now, as I have explained, for the last time I hope, I’m just a memory. But your mother has a very good memory and a little touch of mischief in her. Anyway, Agra, if I hadn’t been here for the last verse you might have melted this planet to gas and I’m quite fond of it. Shall we share a few tunes before I turn into a pumpkin?”
He turned to Sean, “Throw us out a bottle of Jameson's and a few glasses. I don’t think you need to worry about the bill tonight. Mind you put up a glass for yourself, I’ll be wanting a wee chat about things tonight.” His smile carried a little hint that it wasn’t all going to be sunshine and free beer.
Aireen stopped. It was him, to the last bad joke and aside. This was the man that she had loved and lost and now she was furious. She fought to put it into words before she dragged down the buildings around her, drained the lakes and uprooted all that her daughter had built.
It was Eddie that stopped it. “Aireen love. Take a deep breath of Danu’s air. We humans have a word for what I am, an Avatar. I seem to recall you letting me think you were one until I was already lost in your heart. The man you loved left you this, sent you here, to keep the dark away and remind you that you are more than a spinning ball for life to happen upon. You have a family now and you will never be alone again. Danu is as you are, immortal, but also human as he was and I am. You need never be alone again. Meet us in the music, meet us in the songs and share a whiskey with me, my love.”
Eddie looked across at the other musicians, now lost to whatever was happening and smiled at them, “Drinks are on me tonight lads, how about another? Then I wouldn’t mind taking on ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’ if you’re up for it!”
The old man, his eyes as sharp as ever, smiled back and with a small smile nodded to his grandsons, “Always nice to see a family sort themselves out.” He nudged his fellow musicians, “Ready?”
“One, two, three…”