Day 9 of Midwinter, Sunset
Caisleán Corrán, Findrias
Annwn
If gavels had been a thing in the Findrias council room, Cian would have wielded a ginormous one. My brain made a thudding sound when we left that oh-so-friendly room. The reason? They had proclaimed me worthy enough to travel with The Morrigan to Flamebright to bail out their cousins. Even though I had already been of that mindset, I do believe that was either lost on the older generation or unimportant to them.
They forgave me my earlier audacity in removing myself willingly from their “care”… if care meant my imprisonment in a room for as long as it took the immortal council to parse out what to do with me. Ériu had saved me from that fate earlier in the day, and now she accompanied me out of the room after this latest verdict.
“Badb said you would come back,” Ériu stated, her face tranquil. She seemed as though nothing would disrupt her deep calm. Even as her uncle had yelled at her, she had remained unruffled, seeming as if life itself just rolled off of her. She smiled at me. “I may not have the gift of prophecy, but it was clear to me as well.”
“I’m happy to be so predictable.” I grumped. I was sure my face looked as if my sarcasm were a sour food I was forcing down, but all-in-all, I really was happy to see her. She had been consistently kind to me and seemed above the politics of Cloudfair.
She ignored my tone, instead addressing the question I had been wanting to ask but hadn’t. “This morning, when I went back to your room, Monty had already gone.”
I nodded, feeling a surprising pang of sadness. “I get a notification when I rank up that tells me when my minion is out of range. I would imagine he gets one as well.”
She didn’t say anything. She just kept walking forward as was her way. We continued in silence for a few minutes. When we began climbing a set of tower stairs, I couldn’t take the silence anymore. “Where are we going?”
“I was following you.”
“What?” I said, before seeing her smile widen. She was messing with me.
“I am taking you to my favorite spot in Findrias. It is the place I go when I want to feel the strongest connection to my realm.”
“Do you mean Earth?” I asked, using the non-Annwn word for my world. It got too confusing when I was thinking about Ériu while I was talking to Ériu.
“Yes, the whole of that realm is mine to govern, only my strongest entrance and egress is from what you call Ireland. The voices and the goings-on get more fuzzy for me the farther away from Ireland you go, as does my influence.”
“Why is that?
“It has to do with the flow of magic from this realm. Ireland has more concentrated anchor points than any other place on Earth.”
“Morias said your name actually means Ireland… or rather Ireland means YOU.”
Ériu continued to climb the tower. “Yes, the modern Irish form of my name is Éire.”
“Ah… Éire land. I get it,” I managed between gasps. How many stairs WERE there?
We rounded the spiral stairwell once more, finally reaching the top and stepping into the open air. The night was cool and damp this far up on the castle tower. Ériu walked out into the darkness.
Around us, I could see the small lights of the castle and the city surrounding the main keep. But this town felt so different than Flamebright. While Flamebright’s keep was surrounded by a sprawling city, it still felt distinctly separate. Here in Cloudfair, I couldn’t distinguish where the actual castle ended and where the surrounding city began.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“What does Caisleán Corrán mean?” I asked.
“The castle here, on top of this hill…”
“Hill?” I interrupted, laughing. “We must be 2,000 feet above the waves.”
She paused after I spoke. I realized then that I had interrupted her. Morias was right, I needed to be better about listening. “Forgive me,” I said. “Please continue.”
“Caisleán Corrán means Castle of the Scythe. That should come as no surprise.” Ériu pointed to one of the banners flapping in the wind. It contained a green background with a white sickle (or scythe).
We walked farther out onto a landing area, high above the city. Ériu looked at the stones making up the floor and closed her eyes. She held out her hands as if feeling the wind and began to walk forward slowly. She suddenly stopped and motioned to me. I allowed myself to be pulled into the spot she had found, instantly feeling a slight vibration in my bones.
I could hear whispers of unfamiliar voices. I even saw glimpses of places I had never seen before. I saw rugged, flat rocks interconnect to form an almost gray highway and a dark forest where a pine and yew canopy formed a trail system beneath. I saw emerald green pools of water dotting a green and brown landscape with waterfalls and coastlines that I had only ever dreamt of.
I could hear Ériu’s voice, but I could no longer see her. My vision seemed to exist elsewhere. “What you see are the anchor points between this realm and the next. They have been called sacred spaces for thousands of years. These are the thin spaces between realms. They are connected, you see, the magical and mundane, the bright colors of Annwn, and the muted colors of Earth. The land of the aged and the land of the young.”
As she spoke, I watched the landscape change before my eyes. My senses straddled the realms and I saw the anchors between unlike worlds. Slowly the night sky of Annwn returned to me, and I saw the goddess wreathed in the dim light of the tower.
“Why did you bring me here?” I asked Ériu, though I had my theories on the matter.
“This is the calm before the storm, Bren. You are walking into war. But you know that already, don’t you?”
“I do… but that doesn’t answer my question.” I paused, considering my words. “Will you tell me why you chose to show me those things?
“There is order sometimes in disorder,” she said at last.
I had a feeling I knew where she was going with this. “Balance can come from opposing forces,” I said, piggybacking on her words.
Ériu smiled and nodded. I smiled back at her and shrugged. “The Dagda thinks that Cai and I form a duality.”
“That very well could be,” she said, coming closer. “Or, it may not be. I would imagine you will discover the truth in time.” She paused and took my hand in a comforting gesture. “There will be many here in Annwn that will place labels on you and will try to judge you based on their narrow worldview. But we are something new to them.”
“We?” I asked.
She nodded. “I am a bit of an anomaly myself.”
“Why is that?”
“Because my father was the product of a love union between Tuatha and a human. That makes me…”
“Human!” I blurted out. “You are part human.”
She smiled excusing the interruption (again). “And now you see my connection to Earth. It is a part of me.”
“Did you come through the pool? Or did you have to earn your place in the family, like Ruadan?” Normally, a birth like what Ériu was explaining would result in the birth of a changeling.
“I was born as all second-born, including little Roo, but my domain was assigned right away.” Ériu guided me back down the stairs as she talked. “I wish I could have experienced time in Hy-Brasil.”
“Hy-Brasil is where the greater god of life lives?”
“Yes. Danu is her name. Mother to the Tuatha. Mother to former High King Bres.”
The pieces were coming together now. I had learned some of this story from Morias and some from Nemain. Ériu was now connecting the pieces. My question barrage was about to commence when she suddenly changed the subject.
“Nemain will take you from the safety of Caisleán Corrán tonight. You will travel with Nemain and her Fiacha, meeting up with the forward company just off of the Slí Draíochta…”
She was going to continue, but I stopped on the stairs and interrupted her yet again. “Wait… wait. Slí Draíochta? Isn’t that the road between Cloudfair and Flamebright? When we set out from Gorias, Roo kept us off of the main road for the most part.”
“That is correct. It means Path of Magic.”
“And who are the Fiacha?” I asked trying to wrap my mind around what she had said.
“The personal Ellyllon guard of the Morrigan.” Her face wrinkled for the first time, but only slightly. I nearly missed it in the darkness of the stairwell.
“Not a fan of the Fiacha?”
“Their tactics are sometimes… questionable.” She continued down the stairs. “We are late, and Nemain will wish to depart soon. You must reach the others in early Nightfall. Tomorrow will be a taxing ride to Gorias.”
I exhaled. Ériu continued to hold my hand, leading me through open rooms and gardens, until we arrived on the short green grass of the stadium floor I had seen from the secret passageways of the castle.
Waiting for us in the center of the field was the goddess of frenzy herself. Nemain gave me a wicked smile, and I felt the suddenly renewed fury begin to churn inside of me once again.