Day 3 of Midwinter, Sunrise
Port Cóelrenna, Straits of Segais
Annwn
We woke up surprisingly early the next morning. The three of us had slept in hammocks in the bunk room of the ship, which was called The Stern Beauty. We had been told our quarters weren’t yet prepared for our journey across the Straits of Segais. When they were, we’d be able to store our things in a more private room with multiple bunks.
Coming on deck, I got my first look at the crew in the sunlight. Though they appeared to be mostly human-looking, I noticed that even the most Earth-like beings had a slight point to their ears. There was a mix of skin colors and ear shapes, but not genders. There was only one woman I had seen so far. She was a black-haired beauty with large, dark eyes. And freckles… really lovely freckles… I had never found freckles attractive before that moment.
Fíadan elbowed me. “You got a thing for Fern?”
“What?” I startled, embarrassed I’d been caught staring.
“That’s her name.” Fí’s voice was mortifyingly loud. And worse, when Fern looked in our direction, Fí waved to her.
“Damn it, Fí.” My cheeks were flaming. “How about a little more tact?"
“First of all, I don’t know what ‘tact’ is. And second, if you’re gonna be in this world, you need to learn how to swear correctly. I’ve heard better cursing from a day-old brownie.”
“I think I know how to swear,” I said, trying to hide from the breathtaking woman who’d clearly noticed us talking about her.
Fí shook her head in disgust. “In this world, damn is dwal. Shit is chet. And the big mother of swears is farth. Ya got that?”
“Yeah, I got it…Go farth yourself.”
“I’m so proud of you.” Fí seemed truly pleased with me, or possibly herself. It was unclear.
Captain Cristo gave me a nod from across the ship. I returned the gesture.
I motioned to the crew. “Are they all changelings?”
“Most of ‘em, yeah.” She gave a cursory glance around the ship. “Possibly one or two other kinds of shifters. There might be one or two humans.”
“And are all changelings sons and daughters of the Tuatha?” I found myself thinking of the changelings that guarded the Heart-shaped Pool.
“Nah, not all. Of course, it started that way, but eventually the changelings wanted to have offspring… and then their offspring wanted to have offspring, and so on. This has gone on for thousands of years. Eventually, the Tuatha blood got so watered down that most of the changelings can’t even shift anymore.”
“What do you mean, ‘shift’?”
“You know, change their appearance and chet.”
“So how does the whole ‘having offspring' work around here?” I asked. “I haven’t seen any children, and you said rule number two is that nothing ages in Annwn. Where does everyone come from if that’s the case?”
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“You ever hear of changelings back in Ériu?”
I thought back to the stories Morias had told me…only half of which I’d actually listened to. “Yeah. Fae creatures would take people’s kids, I think.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Um… they aren’t creatures, despite what the histories tell you.”
Morias walked up behind us. He’d clearly heard our conversation, given he began to recite another poem:
Come away, O, human child!
To the woods and waters wild
With a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than,
you can understand.
Morias shook his head. “I tried telling Yeats that changelings aren’t actually fairies, but he never listened.
I turned back to Fí. “I didn’t mean any disrespect, Fí. I just meant that changelings would exchange real human babies for their sick children or sometimes enchanted blocks of wood. At least that’s how the stories went.”
“Enchanted blocks of wood.” Fí snorted.
“I’m sure it happened a time or two over the years,” Morias shrugged. “But for the most part, changelings never take a child before it has grown into adulthood. The whole point is to age the changeling before bringing them to Annwn.”
“What do they do with the human baby?” I was completely confused.
Fí gave me a look. “There is no human baby.”
“I don’t understand.”
“They are changelings, Bren,” Morias explained. “There are two ways for changelings to be born. In the first, a male changeling shifts to resemble a human man and travels to Ériu to impregnate a human woman. Or, a pregnant female changeling comes to live among humans until the child is born and raised, but at a cost to her longevity.”
“This makes my brain hurt to think about.” I rubbed my temples. We were alone along the right side of the ship, which I think was starboard? Honestly, I knew next to nothing about ships.
“Anchors aweigh!” a voice nearby yelled.
“I’m gonna go make sure these wave junkies are jibbing the mast and ruddering the deck,” Fí said, before flying off.
I just looked at Morias. He shrugged again. “Anyway…” He put something small in my hand. “I believe NOW would be a good time to give you a deeper understanding of the magic here in Annwn.”
I looked down to see three interconnected rings in my hand. “What is it?”
“Those are the interlocking Rings of Identification. They were crafted for me by The Dagda himself.” Morias voice was proud.
“Thank you.” I was still unclear what the Rings did.
“Each of the bands does something different. The first expands your rank notification to include your personal attributes.”
“Like my charming personality?”
“Something like that. The second allows you to identify magic items… but if I remember correctly, you must concentrate on the item before it works as intended."
“Is it like Sting from Lord of the Rings?” I turned the Rings over in my hands. “Does it glow blue?”
“Sort of…the aura glows a different color depending on the kind of item it is. And speaking of Sting…”
Oh no. I had done the one thing a person should never do around Morias. I had mentioned a book, though I had been talking about the movies.
“I have always believed that Sting was the knife that Túrin Turambar gave to Sador as a gift when he was a child. It was clearly a blade made in Gondolin…”
“Hold up.” I held up a hand. “Did this happen in that other book you’re always talking about?”
“The Silmarillion, yes!” Morias smiled as if I’d just given him a gift. ”And Sador was Túrin’s manservant, just like you used to call me.”
It was my turn to shake my head. “Can we get back on track?”
Morias looked a bit disappointed but nodded. “The third thing the Rings allow you to do is get rank notifications of other people.”
I slid the Rings on my right ring finger. There were three loops of interlocking knot work that spiraled around my finger. But nothing changed. “How do I activate it?”
“Concentrate on someone and study them like you would if you want to see their eye color or read their t-shirt. It will become second nature after a while.”
I looked around the ship. My eyes found Captain Cristo and I concentrated on him. It took a moment but soon I heard the new information. It came in the same voice as my “rank notifications.”
Name: Tadg mac Nuadat
Race: Changeling
Current Power Rank - Level 20
Current Progression Status:
Physical Progression +25
Mental Progression +22
Spiritual Progression +20
As soon as The Dagda’s voice stopped talking in my head, I turned to Morias. “I think we have a problem.”