Day 13 of Midwinter, Sunrise

The Deep Realm

Annwn

We eventually reached a section of the city that appeared to hold apartments and other living areas. Cai opened a door to a nondescript room. Inside was a mishmash of items from Annwn and Ériu, including a blackened mirror on the wall and armor stands.

Off of that room, we passed a smaller room that looked like a bathroom. Though there didn’t seem to be any modern plumbing inside of it, I could hear running water coming from what I could only describe as a stone trough. We passed by the bathroom, coming into a living area with furniture that looked like it had come from 1980s Earth. A broken clock hung on the wall.

A tingling sensation in my mind broke my attention away from the decor. The tingle began to move up and down my body. I looked at Cai and saw him studying me. Was this what it felt like when someone tried to identify your boons and abilities?

“You know you could just ask,” I muttered.

“I could, but this is easier. You picked the Battlesmith domain classification? Interesting.”

I sat down in a chair that sported faded neon orange leather. “What did you pick?”

“You could just identify me,” he said, also sitting down.

“I could, but I’d rather you just tell me.”

He gave a half chuckle. “I chose Mancer Savant. It allows me to manipulate energy from one form into another. I can also absorb the energy around me more easily.”

“That’s amazing,” I said, truly meaning it. “Why do you think energy control is associated with our domains of Chaos and Harmony?”

“After I was granted mastery over the domain of Chaos, I wondered the same thing. I was told that Chaos is just the amount of randomness in energy or objects.” He motioned to his chair. “Harmony does the opposite. It strives to stabilize energy. I learned that energy fluctuates between disorder and stability on a large scale, but also on a smaller scale. So small in fact, that you can’t even see the little bits.”

He was describing atoms and molecules, he just didn’t know it. And though I hadn’t gotten a full, formal education on Ériu, I had absorbed much of the underlying scientific laws just by being on Earth.

“That makes sense,” I said. “Have you learned how to use your boons to go into a fairy trance?”

He stood again, grimacing. “No, but from what I know of their trances, it would be very helpful.”

He paced around the room. “I appreciate what you said to Tadg, but I know that you still don’t fully trust me.” I started to interject, but he held out his hand to stop me. “...which I understand. That is why I am going to show you something that I think will help.”

“What is it?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Some of us born of the Pool can obscure or completely shield our power ranks from others. But there is a way to see them.”

“So far, the only one I haven’t been able to see is Ruadan’s.”

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Cai smiled at that. “Yes, even I haven’t been able to crack Roo’s actual domain. I suspect that has to do with the nature of his domain. But it is actually Nuada’s domains that I want you to crack.”

“Why?” I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but I felt a bit suspicious.

“Because if you can read Nuada’s domains, you will see that he has multiple domains--his given domain and the one that belongs to the man he murdered...Bres.”

“So, if you kill a god, you somehow take their domain? How do you know that?”

“Because,” Cai continued, his tone solemn, even remorseful, "when I killed Lugh, I earned his domain.”

It clicked then for me. If Cai could teach me to fight past whatever power rank protections the Tuatha had, I could read King Nuada’s domains, therefore proving that he was the one that had killed Bres.

“I will teach you." Cai stood still. "Focus on me, brother. I want you to do what you normally do with your Identification ability, only I want you to focus on specifically my domains. Nothing else. I will resist you.”

I looked at Cai, and I did what Morias had instructed back in the Straits of Segais. He had said it was like discovering a person’s eye color or reading their t-shirt. But this time, I zeroed in on the piece of information I wanted.

“Good, I can sense you scanning my rank notifications. I think of this next part like singing. You can tune your voice to certain notes when harmony is required. Tune your mind’s eye to my domains.”

I did as he instructed. I could see part of his power rank, but it appeared blurry to me. I attempted to roll that picture around in my mind and as I did, it slowly began to come into focus.

Name: Cai Maccán

Domains: Harmony and Harvest

“Excellent,” Cai said with another grimace. “You broke through. Well done.”

I eyed my brother. Now that I looked more closely, his expression seemed tight. “What is going on with you?”

“You can see my discomfort, can’t you? It has gotten worse since we ran out of Súg.” He lifted his shirt and showed me black burns running the length of his torso.

“What happened?”

“I have had them since the night of the Cold Moon. I can’t remember much from before I went into the Pool, just random images.”

I thought back to my time in Hy-Brasil, and the visions brought on by seeing our mother and our brú. I remembered the woman clad in black who had stolen my memory. She had wrapped the web-like black material around Cai’s body before he had pushed me through the doorway.

“You saved me that night,” I said, recalling vividly the pain that spread out across my body from the touch of the woman, whoever she was.

“I did? I have only little flashes of memory here and there. I can picture mother and father, but I don’t remember their names.”

We took a few minutes to talk through my visions of that night. I learned that the black burn marks on his body would heal temporarily when he was either in the Heart-shaped Pool or applied Súg. I wondered why he had both the injury and the memory loss, whereas I had only the memory loss.

“Let’s maybe agree to stay away from that woman in black,” I said as we laughed off the painful memories of that night.

When the silence that followed the laughter stretched to its limit, he asked me a question. “What will you do now?”

I thought about my options. If they would allow it, I could go back and check on my friends in Gorias, or I could go confront King Nuada. A third option was to stay in the Deep Realm with the Fomorians. “Before I answer that, can I ask what you plan to do with Tadg?”

Cai's face gave nothing away. “He is a bargaining chip, nothing more.”

I thought about Tadg's current physical state. The Fomorians had shown Tadg their displeasure about his side of the war by applying their fists on his face. Liberally. And my little outburst hadn’t helped his overall health… Wait a minute. What was I doing? Why was I worried about a man who would likely turn me over to his father as easily as he did Brigid?

“Will he die here?” I felt a knot form in my gut.

“The King and his armada will eventually find their way here. When they do, they will either take us up on our peace offering,” he pointed in the direction of Tadg’s prison cell, “or they will continue on their path of oppression...”

“…And you will kill Tadg,” I finished for him.

Cai gave a nod, and the knot in my stomach grew into a full-blown boulder. For whatever reason, those terms didn’t sit well with me. Sure, Tadg had acted in blind obedience to the crown, but was he truly evil? I didn’t think so. My mind began trying to find a scenario that my gut could live with.

I turned to Cai. “What if there was an option that used Tadg as a bargaining chip AND didn’t risk his life?”

Cai couldn’t hide his amusement. “I think I know what you are going to say,” he said. “But there is something I’ll need you to do.”