As soon as I entered the ruins a rejuvenating power washed over me. I felt like I’d just had a good uninterrupted nap.

A familiar croaking sound reached my ears. The raven...er crow, glided down through the air above the ancient ruins, black and sleek, moonlight reflecting off of its clean feathers. The closer it approached, the larger it got, its wings extending stretching out, its head growing bigger and bigger, its beak shrinking however.

I had a million questions in my mind and wanted to recoil, but I knew this crow. I’d seen it before. Several times in fact. It appeared to me that one evening in front of Mom’s house and again when Donn the Red had me dead to rights. Oh, and in a nightmare when I spoke to my sister.

The crow’s wings extended and turned into a black cloak falling down the shoulders of a tall, beautiful, and pale woman. Wind rushed about her behind her descent, blowing her wild hair, billowing her cloak. She was an indeterminate age, neither young nor old, but her cold and piercing eyes had seen hundreds of years, maybe thousands.

“Hello Sean O’Farrell,” she said. “Walk with me.” It was a command, not a request. Bare ivory feet stepped out, and I followed as we moved deeper through roofless corridors laid bare to the night skies.

“Do you know who I am?” she asked.

“Not by name,” I said. “You’re the one who helped me at Tech Duinn.”

“Yes,” she admitted. “I am The Morrigan.”

She announced her name, or title rather, as if it held some weight to it, as if I should know exactly who she was. Though I had been studying Celtic mythological monsters, I had not been studying actual Celtic mythology or legends. So I nodded my head and acted like I understood. “Why have you been helping me?”

She walked slow, almost gliding across the ground and I walked side-by-side with her as we talked. “I pity you,” she said. “You’ve fallen under a curse.” She pointed at my chest, at the Keening, the remnant of the Banshee fight that occurred in this very place. “Without my guidance you’ll never live long enough to remove that from your chest.”

At the mention of my Keening, my heart skipped a beat. Thus far, no one had been able to help me or was knowledgeable about how to get rid of it. “How?”

“There is a way to heal you, but it is only found here, in Tir na nOg. Before you take up that quest, you must learn to confront the fear within.

“I’ve watched you from afar Sean, for a time now. I know that you have a deathly fear, an almost irrational phobia of water. It’s this fear that you must confront head on. If you ignore it, you will never grow strong enough to take the journey deep into Tir na nOg to remove the Keening.”

I started to not like the way this conversation was going. If this required swimming, diving, or hazing, I was not up for any of that. I’d rather just keep the Keening. It amplified my internal monster sensations anyways. Forget the fact that it made them aware of me too. “The Keening isn’t that bad. I’ve learned to cope with it.”

She came to a complete stop mid-step under an archway, half of her face falling under a shadow. “Sean, this is more personal than you know. You’ve always suspected that something supernatural claimed your sister’s life...” She stepped lightly over rubble now coming to the edge of a large puddle.

“Hey,” I said, spotting something familiar. I bent down and plucked a strip of bloodied fabric from the water. It was the cloth that I’d used to clean my blade of the Banshee’s blood, and ultimately the deed that undid her.

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The Morrigan took the cloth from me and held it up with her long fingers. It erupted into flame, the center black as the night sky, and the tip of the tongue a deep scarlet. Then she cast the burning strip into the puddle. “Look,” she commanded.

The puddle rippled then became deathly still. Then, faintly at first, coming into focus I saw my sister Anna. She walked along a shore under moonlight.

Transfixed I watched in horror as my sister took slow steps into the water. This wasn’t a memory. We were literally scrying back through time, watching the event unfold as if it happened presently. It was almost exactly as I remembered except the waterline was broken by the head of a haggard horse. I could hear a soothing male voice coming from the mouth of the horse.

“Come girl. Find rest in the peaceful waters. Brought to life in the restful waters of mother’s womb. Find peace in the restful waters of death.”

My sister, tempted by the soothing promises of the horse obeyed.

“No,” I said, squinting first, then looking away. I knew the rest. I’d lived it. Shortly I would arrive on the scene, moments too late. My throat got choked up. “The Kelpie?”

The Morrigan stared back at me, daring me to contradict her. But I knew in my heart it was true. At the time I would not have seen the Kelpie. My vision would have been shrouded by the monster’s Glamour, the truth veiled to me.

Last night at Lake Herman, I thought the trauma I associated with water had brought on the vision. But the stallion and I were connected on a deeper level. I had re-lived the very moment of my sister’s death when the Kelpie attacked me. And now I knew why.

Sweat formed in my palms and I balled my hands into fists, tightening them until my arms shook.

“Yes Sean, the anger is good. But you will need to focus it for the trial ahead, to face your fear. And without the proper sword you cannot hope to end the Kelpie and avenge your sister’s death. There exists a sword, Fragarach, its very essence forged of water. With this sword you could destroy the Kelpie.”

I gritted my teeth. “If what you’re saying is true, I’ll hamstring that roan. And maybe geld him while I’m at it.”

That brought a smirk to her face, if only for a fleeting second.

“Tell me where to find the blade.”

She took up walking again and I fell in step with her. “The blade dwells in the depths of Tir fo Thuinn.”

“And where is that?” I asked.

“It exists in the water realm of Tir na nOg, an aquatic world beneath the waves.”

I snorted. “Figures.” I surprised myself by asking, “How do I get there?”

“You’ve been fighting aquatic beasts, no? They have been escaping their realm into yours through rifts. After the next monster attacks, you will have moments, minutes at best to get through the rift to the other side.”

“How will I breathe?”

“Speak with your hobgoblin. I’m sure he’ll find a way.”

“Where’s the sword now?”

“It is in the possession of one of the self-proclaimed kings of the sea world, Manann mac Lir.”

“The King of the Sea?”

She sighed as if irked. “A king of the sea. He and the Fomorian, Tethra, maintain an eternal feud as to who is king of all Tir fo Thuinn. You will have to obtain Fragarach, The Retaliator, from mac Lir.”

A king wouldn’t just hand over his sword to little ole’ me. The Morrigan seemed to read the look on my face. “If he gives you trouble, tell them I sent you. He’s indebted to me.”

Who was this lady that Tuatha de Danann kings owed her favors? Probably not someone to mess with. But I wasn’t really thinking clear. My emotions got the best of me. I thought of my sister’s plea in my nightmare. You need to avenge my death. Kill the monster that killed me. I’d thought my subconscious had dreamt that up out of guilt. Now I knew there was truth to it and who the killer was. But the Kelpie had a huge advantage over me. Its very essence was made up of the thing that I feared most. But now that I knew of a sword that was the very bane of its existence, I stood a chance at taking the thing out.

“What’s in it for you? Why help me at all?” I asked.

The Morrigan gave me a knowing smile. “Consider this a kind gesture, a favor.”