Danu’s Guest
Unusually the front door of the pub was locked. The AI that was always watching could only hear faint cursing from the rear courtyard, a long-neglected space that held the casual debris of centuries. Danu stood defiantly as she wrestled with something that had probably been a picnic table in a previous life. Now it was home to the thousand varieties of bugs, moss and lichen that a wet climate could produce. She smelled of rot and sweat and it was raining again.
It didn’t help that she could have done all of this with a thought, a simple wave of the hand but it had surprised her to know that she didn’t want to. That she thought better and faster when she did something physical. Finally, she wrenched the stinking mess into her wheelbarrow and propped the spade against the wall. Just because she could she ordered all the wildlife to hop out and find somewhere new to infest. A stream of obedient critters began flying, crawling, hopping and lurching out of the barrow and out of her sight. Of course, that was the moment that Sean stuck his head around the door, his eyebrows raising as he witnessed the odd parade.
He paused for a moment. It was never dull around here anyway. “Danu, you have a couple of guests.”
Danu raised her stained hands and grimy fingers, “Do I look like I want to open up? Tell them to come back later.”
Sean shook his head, “I’ve got a feeling about these two. I think you’ll want to meet them. Why don’t you clean up and I’ll settle them in front of the fire? Nip up the back stairs if you don’t want to be seen looking like a scarecrow.”
Danu took a breath. Sean's instincts were honed by a lifetime of judging people and general weirdness. She trusted him and it would give the bugs time to bugger off. She warned the rest of the courtyard to start packing and join the exodus while she was busy. She’d have a dry day tomorrow, even if the weather satellites didn’t know about it yet.
“Alright Sean, I’ll be down in a few minutes. Pour me a pint, I think I deserve it.”
Sean nodded and made his way to the front door and the unlikely pair. The man looked in his mid-thirties and was in his opinion, frazzled. He looked like he had half dressed in the boring clothes typical of the XCC representatives that occasionally sidled in but he had been forced to grab a hat and jacket from home. So this was done in a hurry.
The boy looked about nine, with straight brown hair and wide green eyes that flickered around constantly. His clothes were…odd. Sean couldn’t pin it down but there was something going on. He gave up on his scrutiny, aware that his guests were getting wet. “Danu says she’ll be down in a few minutes. Come inside and dry off, the fire is lit and I’ll get you both something to drink.”
The man stepped in quickly, his tanned skin might mean he wasn’t used to Irish drizzle. That gentle rain that manages to soak you from the inside out. The boy just gave a serious nod and entered carefully. Sean closed the door behind them and silently wondered who had turned up this time.
The two newcomers stopped as they entered the bar properly. Most people did, the ones with any kind of spark in them. The XCC man hesitated and then moved swiftly to the welcoming fire and its ancient reassurance. The boy stood with those wide eyes taking in the deep history, the scents of hundreds of years and the thousands of lives that had passed through. He turned to Sean and asked in a clear, piping voice “Is it always this busy in here?”
Sean looked around the empty pub. This was definitely going to be one of those days, “Well son, this is as quiet as it ever gets in here. Maybe when you are older you can stay late and find out. Come on, I’ll get you a Coke.”
The boy seemed to consider that. “That would be interesting. Thank you.” Then his eyes seemed to light up and he moved to the bar and hauled himself up onto a barstool.
Sean watched him take the place where Aireen had first sat, the place where Danu had announced her existence. He wanted that bloody chair out of here but Danu wouldn’t part with it or explain. She had just shrugged and told him in that sweet voice that “It belongs right where it is.” He called over to the boy, who seemed to be examining the bar closely, “Son, go over to the fire and warm up. Plenty of time to sit at the bar when you're a bit taller.”
Without protest, the boy jumped down and made his way to the bench.
Danu took a quick shower and tied her hair back. Normally she would just let it dry itself but apparently she had guests so she did it with a thought instead. Then she dressed. She pulled open her closet and smiled, amazed by how many clothes she now seemed to possess. She could have pulled them from the very air but some of her people had such great skills that she preferred to buy them. If she concentrated she could feel the tailors and dressmakers' every decision, every choice they had made along the way. Out of simple whimsy, she pulled out the first dress she had ever made herself, the one that reminded her of her father and her very first day. Some little bell was ringing in her mind telling her that it would be appropriate.
The mirror told her she looked exactly as she wanted, so with a nod to her reflection she headed downstairs and whatever new adventure had arrived.
Sean went behind the bar and carefully poured a Coke. He’d find out what the XCC wanted in a minute but he wanted to settle the boy first. He dropped ice and lemon into the glass and searched about for a straw. Bloody things always got moved around. When he was satisfied he carried it to the child and placed it on the table, “There you go, enjoy. Would you like some crisps with it?”
That seemed to be a bigger question than Sean was expecting. After a pause, the boy said, “I believe so.”
Sean gave up and grabbed a couple of packets from the wall and brought them over. The child seemed intrigued so he left him to it and indicated to the man to follow him to the bar. Once he had taken his familiar place he asked, “What can I get you? It’s a dirty old day to be travelling.”
The man hesitated, “This had definitely been a day. I’ll get a pint of lager, please. Will Danu be long? I really need to talk to her.”
Sean began filling a glass, “Yes, I’m sure you do. We get that a lot. She’ll be down when she’s ready but I don’t imagine it will be too long since I’ll be pouring her pint next. You interrupted her gardening, but I don’t think she’ll be too sorry to get in out of the rain herself.”
With that, he began pulling a pint of stout and let the man stand there for a moment. He realised he was being uncharitable to the man, it probably wasn’t his idea to be sent to bother Danu but it was always someone. He relented a little, “The boy seems nice. Is he yours?”
The man seemed surprised by the question, “No, just my responsibility for the moment. He's quiet enough until he starts asking questions, then it gets complicated quickly but he is polite.” He glanced over at the boy and seemed to speak only to himself, “Wherever he's from.” He left Sean to finish Danus's pint and went back to the fire. In a moment he was staring into the flames with his concerns roiling in his mind.
Whatever Danu was expecting when she arrived, it wasn’t what she got.
Sean saw her descend the stairs in the same green dress she had worn on her first day and his eyes opened a little wider. He sometimes forgot how beautiful she was, how her presence filled the place. She seemed to hear his thoughts and flashed him a quick grin that said everything that it needed to.
Then the boy spotted her and lost his solemn composure as a huge smile filled his face and he leapt up from his seat, running quickly to Danu and grabbing her around the waist in a tight hug.
Danu held her arms free for a moment, lost. Not many people would grab her unexpectedly in case something important suddenly fell off. Only her parents had ever truly embraced her and she was thrown for a moment. She gently put her hands on his shoulders and smiled down at the young face. She could swear she saw the child's eyes glisten with tears, “Well, nice to meet you too, young man.”
The boy seemed to pull himself together a little, “Oh, I’m sorry, it's just that I’ve heard you sing for so long and now you’re right here!” He seemed to remember something, “Your Dad told me to find you here. He said that you were beautiful and clever. He said you should talk to the man first, ‘cause he said they always send a man. Mine seems worried. Is he okay? What were yours like?”
Danu smiled, “Oh, they were worried too.” Oh Eddie, what have you sent to my door? “When were…never mind, we’ll have a long chat in front of the fire after I talk to your man. Okay?” The boy gave her a happy smile, “Sean gave me coke and ice and lemon and two kinds of crisps so I can wait.”
Danu patted the boy's shoulder and smiled, “Well that sounds like a good start. Tell him to give you hot chocolate if you would like to try something else while I find out what the man wants.
With the turn of speed that all small boys are born with, he vanished and resumed his seat in front of his prizes.
Danu didn’t have to wait long as the man hurried across to her, his drink forgotten on the table. She waved at him to sit at the bar and waited as Sean brought over her pint. She was beginning to think she was going to need it. Sean carried it over with a slight toss of his head. “Getting lazy girl.”
She just shrugged, “Yes. You might as well grab the XCC his pint and make the boy a hot chocolate before you come nosing around to listen. Just keep an eye he doesn’t wander for the moment.”
Sean snorted, “Don’t be telling me how to suck eggs. I’ll keep an eye to the bar while you sort out…whatever needs sorting. I’ll make up the guest rooms when your settled, I imagine the young lad won’t want to go anywhere else after that greeting he gave you and the XCC chap is probably under orders.”
She could hear the questions unasked in his tone but he knew as much as she did for the moment.
The man seemed to settle as he made himself uncomfortable on the barstool. Danu reckoned pubs probably didn’t feature much in his world.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
She gave him a calming smile, “Relax, you got him here in one piece. Tell me what you can and who you are, exactly.”
“I hate to say he’s your problem now because I haven’t much to tell you about his plans. My name is Gary Sumners, I’m just an entry officer for the XCC working out of Dublin Spaceport. We hadn’t had a landing so I was just filling in endless forms when the boy turned up. He just walked in, past the security doors, past the scanners… past things you are really not supposed to be able to. He arrived at my desk and told me he was there to see Danu. That triggered a whole new set of alarms, as you probably know, and then in the next minute half of the XCC was rolling up.”
He took a deep gulp of his beer, his brain now grasping that his long day might be nearly over.
“So all sorts of people start asking the kid questions but he wouldn’t answer anything beyond that he was here to see you. He seemed to think we were all very dull. I have kids his age so I gave him a chair and a packet of the lollipops that I keep handy for crying children. He just told everyone that he wanted to see you. They offered him a shuttle to take him here but he said he wanted me to take him. He said he had been told there would be a man and I was the only one who had been nice to him. So I grabbed a few things from my locker and here we are.”
Danu could feel some of the stress leave the man, “I imagine your vehicle is now a full AI working for Intel and I’ve got half-a-dozen battleships overhead right now.”
The man's eyes gleamed a little, “More. Try the whole home fleet. He flew in without a ship and landed undetected right into Earth space. If you listen hard enough you can probably still hear the screaming from here.”
He had forgotten who he was talking to. She did listen. He was right, the babble was beyond belief so she cut into the chatter, “Please. He was sent here by my father and I have him sitting in front of the fire drinking a coke and eating crisps. I’ll call you if I need you so you can all stand down or go back to sleep or whatever. Leave this one to me.”
Sumners looked slightly startled as whatever implant they had fitted him with gave an indignant squeak and fell silent. “Okay, that's not something I’ve ever seen happen before.”
Danu shrugged, “We have a treaty. They were getting very close to the edge of what I am willing to allow and I don’t like people playing with guns around my pub.”
“So the treaty is…you won’t do anything unless you want to and they don’t do anything you don’t want them to do. Nice. How did get them to agree to that?”
“Oh, that. I turned off Yellowstone before it exploded and shattered a few meteors that were going places they aren’t allowed. They got really friendly around then.” She looked at the man, obviously tired, “Gary, go and talk to Sean and get settled into your room. I’ll talk to the boy. You can join us when you’ve had something to eat and have explained to your family why you’re on the other side of the country. This is in my hands now.”
It didn’t seem that her words registered as he stood up and went to find Sean, just a slight hitch in his walk as his brain caught up with his ears. He kept going.
Danu grabbed the waiting hot chocolate that Sean, in his prophetic way, had made two cups of. She figured the one with all the marshmallows and sprinkles was for the lad and the one full of baileys was for her. She needed to give him a raise, except he was already ridiculously wealthy. She hadn’t told him that the garden out the back was for him, so that was going to have to do. It's why she wanted to do it by hand. He would treasure her sweat more than any miracle. Lazy indeed!
She plonked the hot chocolate in front of the lad and settled beside him with her own mug steaming away. He looked confused and then suspicious, “Why is my one lumpy?”
She grinned, “Yours has extra sweets in it because Sean likes you. I’m his boss, so I don’t get any.”
The boy seemed to struggle with that, “You can have one of mine if you like.” The childhood unfairness was very clear to him and was very obviously battling his enthusiasm for sweets.
She laughed, “I’m joking! Sean made me what he knows I like and he gave you everything he knows that growing young men like.”
With that cleared up the boy took a hesitant sip and found a marshmallow. From his face, he approved. “This is better than the coke!”
Danu nodded, “After the wet and the cold it is, not always in the summer. That's why we have both. So, what's your name?”
The boy frowned at that, “I don’t know yet. Your dad said you would find it for me.” He nodded towards the empty seat where the musicians usually sat, “Your friend there told me you were clever with names. He said he never told you his one and you still worked it out!”
Danu didn’t drop her hot chocolate, she just took a long minute, “The man who sat there was deeply loved. I’m sorry you didn’t get to meet him but he was very old and he wanted to see what happens next. He had very firm ideas about that.” The first time she had ever admitted to knowing his name was when she had carved it into his gravestone.
The boy nodded quickly “I know, but he loved you so some of him stayed put. He likes the music.” His eyebrows seemed to squeeze together to explain, “You know how time is squishy? Like you can pull on one bit and push on the other? Like when I came here, that's how. I pushed it one way and pulled the other. Like the ships do. I used to watch them all the time but they always just kept going. I was getting sad until I heard you sing. He’s like that, in the squishy bit of time, just listening to the music. He says you can have his name now.” The eyebrows released as he seemed content with his explanation, confident that Danu now understood.
Danu didn’t often feel like crying. She had cried at that man's funeral, the loss of so much music and joy. “Well, that's perfect timing because I know a boy looking for a good name, the name of someone who loved his music and his family. His friends.”
She reached over and grasped the boy's wrist.
“How would you like the name Michael?”
The boy seemed to think about, his mind trying on for size. Somewhere behind those green eyes, a decision was made. “It is a name you loved. I will wear it proudly.” The boy stood up and stiffly offered his hand, “Danu, it is very nice to meet you. I am called Michael.” He tried to say it solemnly but he couldn’t stop the giggle at the end. Danu took the offered hand and turned serious, “Welcome agra, Michael of the stars. My home and hearth are open to you now and forever.” Then she smiled with the power of her local sun.
A little later Michael was trying to fish out the last marshmallow with his tongue and making odd slurping noises when Danu interrupted his sport, “Well I’m not listening to that for the evening! Come on, I’ll show you how to make it.” The boy looked surprised and just held out his hand, a fresh cup appearing from nowhere. “Like that?”
Danu shook her head, “No, you can use that trick some other time. This is how my people do it, so that's how I do it. Unless I’m tired and alone. Otherwise, I’m just reminding them of things that they don’t want to think about very much.”
The cup disappeared and Micheal stood up and followed her, “My people don’t make much of anything. Mostly other people. They don’t talk much either.”
Danu took in the information, “Well mine never shut up. Let's make the hot chocolate properly and go from there.”
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Sean led the XCC chap up the stairs. He still remembered when he would have had to pause at every landing. Not anymore. Danu had told him- with a straight face- that it was because she had made the stairs shorter. He suspected shenanigans. Finally, they reached the door and he fumbled with the lock. “Don’t mind me, the system is cursed. The XCC have strip-mined the gear in here so many times that I think your shower may be sentient.” He sniffed, “They don’t do that anymore, not since the coffee machine had a breakdown and started crying. Danu needs coffee, it would be better to start a war directly than make her drink instant again. She told them it's a breach of the treaty.”
The door, reluctantly, admitted that Sean probably had the right to enter and opened. “There you go. It will sulk for the night and leave you in peace. You can order food from the system, Comms are open and you’re on the XCC penny tonight. Knock yourself out. The bar is where I left it- I hope- and you can call me if you want anything. We’ll see you down there when you’re ready. Take your time.”
Gary seemed torn for a moment but then asked, “We both know the XCC is going to blow up my Comms the moment I’m alone. Fine, that's the job. What the hell do I tell them?”
Sean was about to smile and wave when the image of the boy pulling himself onto that chair returned and he remembered how far he had come. “You tell them that Danu is looking after it, that the boy is one of her people, one of her own kind. I know her better than most and she will rip them apart if she thinks there is a threat to him. She will also crush him if he is not what he appears.” He tried to explain, “For her, she is the Earth. That's not an expression, it asks her things and it does what she wants it to. Us, the plants, animals, the…everything. She is willing to die for us and she will not see us threatened. She can barely endure us being careless. I don’t worry about much but the day the XCC tries to force her to kill or wound someone, that is a day I don’t want to be here. Tell them that.”
Gary nodded, “Got it. She is not a weapon, the boy is under her care. Hurt him and she will become one.” He shook his head and rubbed tired eyes, “Sean, when I woke up this morning I had sixty Fay arriving and some lost luggage. This shit is way above my paygrade.”
Sean grinned at that, “Looks like you got a promotion. Imagine what it was like for me.”
Gary laughed at that. “Nope! You should be in the XCC, not me.”
Sean flashed his eyebrows, “You think they didn’t try? What have they got to offer me? Danu is young and idealistic. XCC is grinding the same groves it did when I was a child. I’m rich, old and protected by the most powerful ally mankind has ever had. I picked my side, I’m just sorry that they sometimes think that there have to be two. If you ever have to make a choice like that, stick with the one that will stand right in front of you and fight and not the one that shouts orders from light-years away. I’ll see you at the bar.”
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Danu slid the fresh cup towards Michael and said, “Isn’t that more interesting?”
The boy seemed to consider it. “Are you like this all the time?” He suddenly seemed to realise that he was probably being rude. “I’m sorry…I mean are you always trying to look like your people?”
Danu lifted her own drink and began to move back to the fire, “No. Only when it doesn’t matter. I save the ‘I’m the planet you’re standing on’ for the important stuff. You need to understand that I was born with a vast people, a people that fill the stars. I don’t have what you have, what my mother had. I didn’t grow with them, I didn’t know them until they were already powerful, prideful and someone like me existed only in their imaginations. In the words of a poet, I tread softly because I tread on their dreams. So I stay here and enjoy my world, I fix what I think needs to be fixed but they are adults and I don’t interfere with other people's lives unless I absolutely must.”
She waved him to sit down, “Don’t confuse that with how I speak to power. A soft voice in a loud room is soon lost and my people are very loud. But they know, they are clever and they are beginning to love me as much as I love them. I’m not in a hurry.”
Michael seemed to take that in easily, “My people are much simpler. All they want to do is mate and eat and sometimes both at the same time. I tried to, you know, squiggle a few of them but they just grew more legs, a hard shell and hid under rocks.”
Danu had to keep her face straight for that one, “If by squiggle you mean you speeded time up? That happened so many times here that they actually have a word for it. Give someone a few million years and they turn into crabs or try to. Definitely wasn’t your fault.”
The boy looked like he had just passed an exam, “So it wasn’t just me? Cool! What’s the word?”
“Carcinisation. Look it up the next time you try anything like that. Tell me, where did you learn your manners? Actually, where did you learn to find Earth? My father couldn’t find directions with a map.”
Micheal seemed to jump a little at that, “Oh, I almost forgot. I can’t tell you her name, I promised, but when I was trying to come here I got a little lost and I heard someone singing.” He looked like he was afraid to offend Danu but she simply nodded, “So I was in, you know, the underneath and I heard someone singing. She was singing alone and really, really softly but I was afraid I was going the wrong way so I moved to the above.”
Danu poured some extra baileys into her cup, “My humans call it the Between but I prefer your terms, go on…”
“So she got really upset when I appeared but then I told her I just liked her singing and was passing by and she almost stopped shooting at me.”
That made Danu lean forward and put her cup down, “Almost?”
“Well she kept sending what she called ‘probes’ but they were just little weapons so I sent them back. Then I asked if she was okay ‘caus we were nowhere…it was just the boring dark. She said the dark was where she lived, that her people guarded important things. She was very cool. I told her I was going to visit Earth and she said that was one of the important things she guarded and was I sure I’d be welcome” He looked a little anxious “So I told her it was okay because I was going to see Danu. I mean, I wasn’t lying but I don’t think if I said your Dad told me to go she would understand.”
Danu nodded, “I think you were very wise.”