Iron
by Ian Johnston

[Note: this novel is being written for NaNoWriMo, in which the only
goal is wordcount.  Not character, not story, not plot, not even
spelling.  I'm aiming for those, but the first goal is to get out a
ton of words as quickly as possible.  Please read with that context in
mind.]

[This novel, tentatively called Iron, is a sequel to Sight, which may
be read in its entireity on www.dangerpants.com.]

CHAPTER

Aurelia looked out over the path she'd just covered.  She was
breathing hard from running, her elaborate dress already torn and
soiled from the chase.  Her pursuers were nowhere to be seen, but she
knew not to trust her sight here.  The rolling hills were verdant and
beautiful, and by the birdsong which was slowly returning, she guessed
that she had finally shaken her pursuers.

She stood still for a moment, trying to will herself to See what was
really there.  Ever since being dragged unwillingly to Tir na Tuatha,
or the Land of Faerie, her second sight had been frustratingly
uncooperative.  Back in the normal human world, it had simply worked,
and she couldn't stop Seeing if she'd wanted to.

She turned back in the direction she'd been going, and continued on at
a more moderate pace, trying to pay attention to the landscape and get
a sense of what direction she was going.  Tir na Tuatha didn't seem to
follow the same rules as Earth, so her task was unduly complicated,
even if she'd had any idea about how to navigate by natural signposts
like stars or even sunsets.

Her pursuers had given up surprisingly quickly, she thought.  They
were followers of the Queen, or courtiers, or slaves, or something.
Aurelia really didn't know what the relationship was.  As she thought
back on the events of the last few days, she found herself sliding
further toward depression.

Five days ago, she had been on Earth, or in the normal human
dimension, or whatever the relationship was with Tir na Tuatha.  Life
had been going well, or at least as well as she might have hoped: she
had a place to live, was collecting unemployment, had good friends,
and was developing a relationship with a cute guy named Daniel.  Sure,
he was part fairy, but that was part of the fascination.

Then, suddenly, he was an agent of the Queen, had forced her back into
Tir na Tuatha, and dragged her to the Queen's court for who knew what
reason.  She still didn't understand that, and he wouldn't explain.
Now, she didn't even know where he was.  For that matter, she didn't
much know where she was.


CHAPTER

Back in the normal human dimension, Aurelia reflected, she had some
things she would have desperately loved to have here.  Chief among
these things was a map.  It was stitched onto a piece of cloth by a
woman who was probably her great-great-great-great-great-etc-
grandmother, who had given it to her in a dream.  Aurelia was still
unclear on what the relationship was, or how she was able to transport
things back from her dreams, but it had happened multiple times.

Having that map right now would be quite handy.

She brushed her hands across the hard, reassuring lump in her
waistband: an iron knife in a leather sheath that she had secreted
there even despite the Queen's best efforts to remove all her Earthly
possessions.  She considered the iron ring that graced her right hand
with the same appreciative thought: fairies, despite their strength,
magic, cleverness and overwhelming numbers were hurt by iron.  Stuart
had explained....

Oh, she'd forgotten about Stuart.  Stuart was a friend she would have
liked to have here.  He had helped her sort out all sorts of mythology
that had turned out to be more true than myth.  It was thanks to him
that she understood any of what was going on right now.  Stuart had
told her that the mythical vulnerability of fairies to iron was probably
based on cultural memories of an iron-age culture dominating and either
driving out or destroying a bronze-age culture with their superior
weapons and technology.  He may or may not have been right about that,
but fairies were definitely hurt by iron.

Unfortunately, it was really just enough to make them angry rather
than do any real harm.  At least, that had been her experience so far.
The effect on them seeemed to be similar to what she'd experience if
she touched a hot stove.  As far as she could tell, though, Aurelia
possessed the only two iron artifacts in all of Tir na Tuatha.  She
hoped this would prove to be an advantage in whatever came next.

She pressed on through the heather, up and down hills, occasionally
stumbling on hidden rocks.  The courtly gown wasn't helping things, but
she didn't want to get rid of it, since she didn't have any other
choices for clothing just now.  Her exit from the Queen's court had
been precipitous, and hadn't allowed her to take much of anything with
her.  She reflected on the lack of effort to retrieve her, worried
that she might just be playing into the Queen's plans.

CHAPTER

"I'm so sorry," Daniel had said.  She'd seen that the stars were
different, in a way she hadn't thought would have been possible.  "The
Queen needs to see you now," he'd said, and led her off away from the
lake they were suddenly standing next to.  Moments before, she'd been
standing next to Puget Sound in Ballard, a neighborhood in Seattle.
She'd been happy.  She'd been content with a good dinner and a growing
feeling of attachment to this strange man with the long, pointy ears,
glowing green eyes and interesting affected pan-European accent.

She'd asked what was going on, what he was doing, why he had taken her
back to Tir na Tuatha.  She'd never seen that lake before, or the land
they were traversing, but she knew where she was.  He didn't answer.
In fact, she never heard him speak again from that point.  She'd
broken down in tears after a few minutes of this silent treatment,
dragged blindly along a path through a forest that probaby would have
seemed perfectly friendly in daylight, but was cold and ominous in the
light of the fairy moon.

Daniel may not have spoken, but it was clear from his face that he
wasn't happy with what was happening.  Aurelia thought again of the
anguish that was plain in his countenance on that long walk to the
Queen's castle.  She didn't understand why he'd stayed silent, though.
It was like a slap in the face.

They must have walked for hours, although it was all a blur to Aurelia
now.  She just remembered the awful feeling of being betrayed by the
man she realized she'd started to fall in love with.  It was made even
worse by remembering the previous relationship, which had ended only a
few months before.  She'd been betrayed then as well.  The thought
that maybe she was just really betrayable only added to her black
mood.

They'd finally reached the castle a few hours before dawn (she knew
because she hadn't been allowed to sleep, instead being put through a
long grooming and bathing ritual which had lasted until after the sun
was up).  As soon as the sun was up, the castle came alive with
fairies of all descriptions, and she'd been sent to see the Queen.

That first audience had been almost forgettably inconsequential.  The
Queen had been holding a sort of early court, talking to a variety of
fairies while she ate breakfast and whispered to a goat-legged fairy
with a mischevious face who sat next to her and said nothing except as
a whisper in her ear.  Aurelia had been ushered in, forced to kneel,
and then stood there completely ignored for half an hour before being
ushered out again.  If the Queen had been aware of her presence, she
hadn't made any sign.  Aurelia had wondered if it were some kind of
test.

There followed a series of interminably boring periods where she had
been instructed by her escort, a sloppy green-tinged woman with long
stringy hair, to sit and wait in a variety of more or less comfortable
seats.  She longed for her phone as a distraction, but knew from
previous experience that cellphone signals didn't exist in Tir na
Tuatha, and in any case the battery seemed to die very quickly here.
Such possessions as she had when Daniel had transported them here were
back in her room, although she'd managed to keep hold of the iron
knife and ring as well as the gold ring that had started this whole
thing off, so long ago.  The attendants who'd bathed her had tried to
remove the rings, but the iron ring burned them, and the gold ring
simply refused to move.  Aurelia had tried to keep from looking smug
at these tiny victories.

Now, of course, the phone was long gone, along with everything else
she'd brought except the knife and the jewelry the fairies had been
unable to remove.  She would have dearly loved to have even the
impractical miniskirt and heels she'd been wearing on the date,
compared to the giant hoopskirt and bare feet she was wearing now.  At
least the hoopskirt was comparatively warm.  She looked up at the sky,
and decided it probably wasn't going to rain.

CHAPTER

Aurelia eventually came to a hut, another of the circular houses with
low stone walls and a thick straw roof she'd come to recognize from
multiple dreams and her previous unexpected trip to Tir na Tuatha.
The light was draining from the sky, leaving everything in shades
of grey and purple.  Aurelia knocked at the door despite her
apprehension about who might be on the other side.

From behind the door came a gruff call of, "Who is it?"  Aurelia
realized that she was once again hearing the ancient Gaelic with her
ears, but was understanding the meaning of the language in her head.
She didn't understand, but was glad of the effect.  When she spoke,
she was half conscious that her words were also coming out in Gaelic.

"I'm lost, and I need a place to stay the night, can you help me?"

The voice behind the door rumbled, as if in thought.  The short but
wide door swung open with a creak, and a surprisingly small gnomish
man peered out.  She'd expected someone enormous from the sound of the
voice.  "You are an odd one to be wandering the heath, are you not?"
His voice reverberated in her chest, it was so deep and rumbling.

"I'm sorry sir, I hate to bother you, but you can see I'm not dressed
right for this."  Aurelia tried to keep the tiredness and defeated
feelings out of her voice as she spoke.

"No indeed, you are not.  Enter, if you can pass the door," he said,
nodding at the skirts.  He retreated into the darkness within, and Aurelia
ducked low to pass under the lintelpiece, only slightly hindered by the
wide skirts.

Inside, the hut was dark and close, faintly illuminated by the dying
coals of a fire in the center of the space.  Aurelia could see the
purples of the dying sunset playing on the clouds through the smoke
hole in the roof.  "Thank you, sir," she said, uncertain what to do
with herself now that she was inside.

"Well, come in girl, and make yourself comfortable."  The little man
waved at a three-legged stool near the fire pit, and Aurelia sat down
after carefully pulling it back far enough that her skirts wouldn't be
ignited.  She was grateful the stool didn't have a back, having
already discovered some of the hundreds of ways in which hoopskirts were
not practical daily wear.

"Now, what is a courtly lady such as yourself doing wandering the
heath at sunset, and so far from the house of a laird?"  He stood next
to her, the level of his eyes only just above hers as she sat on the
stool.  "Truly, I have not seen such a sight in many years."  In the
dim light, Aurelia thought he was smirking, but she couldn't be sure.
His tone was even and made it sound like he was merely asking a
question.

She paused, trying to think of what she could say.  Even at the
Queen's castle, there were such varying loyalties and politics that
any comment for or against the Queen or her court was dangerous unless
you were quite sure of your audience's sympathies.  To describe her
escape and flight from the court seemed to her to be a premature
extension of trust to her diminutive hosteler.

"I don't really know how to explain it," she said, lamely.  Running
all day from unknown pursuers had been exhausting, and the amount of
self-inflicted defeat she was feeling didn't help matters.  She
couldn't muster the energy for a good creative story.

He stood, looking at her apprisingly for a minute before speaking.
Finally, he said, "I see."  He turned away and moved to the opposite
side of the fire where he did something she couldn't see.  When he
turned around again, he had something unidentifiable stuck on the end
of a spit, which he proceeded to hold out over the embers as if he
were toasting marshmallows.  "Are you hungry, girl?  You look it."

Aurelia looked at the spit with rapt fascination.  She was starving,
she realized.

"Oh yeah," Stuart had said, a million years ago, in a library at the
University of Washington, which might as well have been a location
from a dream, "if you eat anything in fairy-land, you get stuck there.
The Persephone myth is a good example, where she ate six pomegrante
seeds, and ended up having to spend six months of the year in Hades,
one month for each seed.  That was a Greek myth, of course, but it's a
common theme in most mythologies: you get taken to a foreign magical
land, don't eat anything or you get bound to stay there somehow."

She had been living with those words for five days, and had managed to
avoid eating a single thing in that whole time.  "No, thank you," she
said, her face saying exactly the opposite of her words.  She watched,
silent, as the meat slowly roasted over the fire, eventually filling
the hut with an almost unbearably delicious smell.

There had been something else Stuart had said, about where the food came
from having an effect in some of the stories, but he'd been fairly
vague about it, and Aurelia hadn't paid too much attention at the
time.  That discussion was before she was yanked into Tir na Tuatha
the first time, and they hadn't discussed it again after she'd managed
to get back.

The little man was evidently enjoying torturing Aurelia, as he made a
big show out of tearing off hunks of meat and eating them noisily and
with great shows of pleasure.  She tried to concentrate on Stuart's
words, but it didn't help much.  All the Queen's feasts had been
tempting, but for some reason not even half as tempting as this
roughly prepared haunch roasted over an open fire.

"Have you got anything I could read?" she finally asked, desperate for
something, anything, to distract her from the sight of that
delicious-smelling meat disappearing into his fussy little mouth.  The
little man looked up at her, his complete surprise showing on his
face.

"To read?" he asked around a mouthful.  "I suppose you would know
letters, being courtly.  Mayhaps you haven't been away from your court
before, girl.  We real people, we must work for our living.  We have
no time to learn letters and reading.  No, I have no reading things
here."  He resumed his meal, which was nearly finished.  When he was
done, he stood up and turned back toward the far wall, where the spit
disappeared somewhere in the darkness.  Aurelia glanced up and saw
that the sky was full of stars, with thin clouds moving slowly across
the viewport of the chimney hole.

"Now, girl, I must sleep.  You do the same."  His deep voice resonated
in her chest.  He wrapped himself in a cloak, and lay down across the
fire from her, on what she realized was a pile of loose straw.
Aurelia stood up from the stool, brushing her head on the ceiling,
picked a spot at random on the compacted-earth floor, and lay down.
She arranged the ridiculous skirts as demurely as possible, and
discovered that they would lay flat, keeping her warmer than she would
have expected.

CHAPTER

Aurelia awoke with a start.  Something was wrong.  She cracked her
eyes open, but the room was utterly black except for the stars shining
through the chimney hole.  She listened, but didn't hear anything.
Trying to make no noise, she moved her hand slowly to her waistband,
where the oblong lump of the knife greeted her probing fingers.

She couldn't hear anything, which she slowly realized was wrong.  What
had happened to the little man?  Why wasn't he breathing?  He should
have been snoring on the other side of the fire.

Suddenly her wrists were grabbed by something that clamped onto them
like pliers.  She cried out involuntarily, and suddenly saw a cloud of
emotion-stuff flying around the room like it was being blown by a
tornado.  At the center, the little man with the deep voice knelt in
front of her, his hands around her wrists, his malicious face silhouetted
in the ghastly blue-green not-light.

One of the first manifestations of Aurelia's Second Sight had been the
ability to see the emotions of others, which she saw in the form of
rays or clouds of stuff.  This stuff glowed in her vision with an odd
internal illumination; sometimes particulate, sometimes smooth and
velvety, sometimes with a quality she couldn't describe because
English didn't contain the right words.

She looked down, and saw his hand around her wrists, and realized that
her legs were cold -- he'd flipped up her skirts.  The next moments
were a blur of mad activity.

She said, far louder than she'd thought would come out, "Oh, fuck no!"
and levered herself up off the ground.  He lost his grip on her
skirts, but not her wrists, which were starting to burn with the
pressure.  She tried to grab his wrist and twist her hands away at the
same time.  He was freakishly strong, but she was a third again as
tall as him, and sheer leverage got her hand positioned around his arm.
He shrieked and released her wrists, and she cocked her hand back and
shoved a flat palm against his face, his nose cracking noisily as she
did.  She kicked, some long-forgotten anti-rape training from the
sorority taking over.  She didn't connect with a particularly
sensitive spot, but he was driven back and she had the presence of
mind to pull out the little knife.

Breathing hard and holding the knife in front of her, she backed
toward where she thought the door was, but her butt ran into solid
wall.  She looked wildly around, but her enhanced vision didn't extend
to inanimate objects, and the room was as dark as ever.  The little
man still glowed with emotion, but the color had changed to a dark
orange tinged with flecks of purple and red.  He didn't seem inclined
to come toward her, holding his hands over his face and his presumably
broken nose, his incoherent muttering voice rumbling deep in his chest.

"Stay back, asshole!" she cried, somewhere between commanding and
pleading.  She felt along the wall until she found the door a few feet
away, and after fumbling with the unfamiliar latch managed to get the
door open.  She rushed outside and fled in an arbitrary direction, not
aware of more than a desire to get away.

Somehow, the knife was sheathed and in her waistband again, and she
was on her knees, sobbing with suppressed fear and reaction.  A wave
of nausea swept over her, and her stomach tried to void its contents,
although there wasn't anything to bring up.  Finally the heaves
stopped, and she said, "Oh god," to herself.

When she looked up again, the little man's hut was nowhere to be seen,
and she didn't see any sign of him either.  It was quite dark, so she
couldn't be certain, but she seemed to be away from danger for the
moment.

CHAPTER

She woke up when the sun hit her eyes, blinking against the bright
rays.  She was in a copse of trees standing oddly alone and isolated
among the rolling heather hills, and the sun was just peeking around
one of the trunks.

Aurelia sat up and checked herself over.  All the bits seemed to be
there, and she appeared to have escaped further molestation in the
night.  She'd only barely slept, between the cold and the constant
fear of being discovered by someone or some thing, and felt like death
warmed over.  Still, it felt like a minor victory to be free and
unharmed.

"Well, what now?" she said to herself.  The trees were tall and leafy
and glowed an appealing green in the light of the rising sun.  She had
an idea to find some high ground to see what she could see, but she
hadn't really seen any so far.  She seemed to be in the land of
perpetually rolling hills, each as high as the last.

As she was sitting and wondering what to do, she saw a tiny deer come
over a nearby hillock.  It was followed by another tiny deer, and
another, until a small herd was slowly grazing its way toward her.
She watched, enraptured by the small creatures.  She'd never seen live
deer before, except maybe in a zoo as a kid.  They were so small!
She'd always thought deer were big like horses, but these little
beasts were only the size of a large dog.

She became aware of the sound at about the same time as the deer
started looking up curiously.  It was growing steadily louder:
hoofbeats from a horse.  The deer didn't seem scared, but their
attitude had changed to one of wariness, and they all turned to face
the noise.  Suddenly, they turned and bolted, and Aurelia realized that
the horse rider had crested a hill to her left.  She watched the deer
bounding away with superhuman leaps.  One of them faltered and
stumbled, and was quickly outpaced by the others.

The horse rider uttered a cry, and galloped off after the fleeing
deer.  Aurelia saw as the figure passed that it was a woman, who was
slinging a bow over her shoulder as she galloped by the copse.  She
disappeared over a hill, and Aurelia stood up to try to catch sight
of the end of the chase.

A number of minutes later, the rider came back.  As she rode closer,
Aurelia realized she had a deer slung over the horse's neck in front
of her.  Aurelia tried to fade back into the trees, but the rider made
straight for the copse.  When she arrived, she jumped down off the
horse, and Aurelia realized how small both the woman and the horse
were.  The horse couldn't have been taller than Aurelia's shoulder,
and the woman was considerably shorter than Jenn, Aurelia's best
friend, who only stood 5'2" tall.

"Ho there, girl!" she said, walking boldly up to Aurelia, looking
curiously up at the taller woman.  Aurelia fairly towered over the
rider, at 5'10".  "What brings you here, dressed as you are?  You look
like the trifle atop a cake, not like a sojourner in empty lands!
What is your name?"  The horse neighed quietly and stamped a foot
behind her.

Aurelia hesitated, and the woman said, "Zounds girl, I will not bite.
How are you called?"

"Aurelia," she finally said, cowed by the domineering attitude of the
little woman.

"Aurelia," said the woman to herself.  "You're not from these lands
are you, Aurelia."  She said Aurelia's name with the odd inflection
Aurelia had come to expect from speakers of Gaelic.

"No," she said, simply.  Her discomfort must have been plain, because
the woman laughed, throwing her head back like a parody of a movie
Robin Hood character.

"Come, Aurelia, I will truly not cause you any harm.  You cannot be
comfortable in that gown, which I see is already well-abused from your
travels.  Would you like some more practical clothing?  Well, come ye
with me, I'm sure we can make something fit, although you are right
giant."  The woman grabbed her hand and led Aurelia back to the little
horse.  The woman sprang up onto the horse, inclining her head to
indicate that Aurelia should follow along.

"I am called Laochag," she said as they set off.  "Faith, you are a
tall one, aren't you!  Aurelia.  Well well.  How do you come to be
here, Aurelia?  Where are you from?"

Aurelia thought for a moment, once again trying to figure out how to
say something that made sense without being too specific.  She had an
odd sense that she could trust Laochag, but the incident from last
night was still too strong in her memory to feel like she could trust
anyone.

Laochag replied, having apparently misinterpreted the source of the
hesitation.  "Oh now, I don't need to hear about him.  You don't
appear too beat about, he can't have been too bad, although leaving
you here by yourself without a horse and in that gown was a touch of
meanness by my lights."

"Oh no," said Aurelia, although she cut herself off.  Perhaps it would
be easier to use the convenient excuse she'd just been handed.  "I
mean, that is...  Yes, that's true.  He didn't hurt me."  She had a
momentary flash of the crunching sound as the little man's nose had
broken under her hand.  "Thank you for offering to help me."  Aurelia
couldn't think of what else to say.

"Oh, thing nothing of it, my large friend.  We'll soon have you fitted
out with something more suitable, although truth to tell it may be more
mannish than you prefer simply for you are so tall.  Perhaps one of my
ladies can whip up a dress to fit in a few days."  She paused, and
they walked along in silence for a minute.

"I needn't know your story, but whence do you come?  Surely I have
never seen a woman so tall in all my days who was not of elven stock."
She glanced sharply at Aurelia, then turned her eye back forward.
"Ye're not of elven stock, I see.  Most curious."

"No, I'm not elven.  Well, I don't think so, anyway."

"Do ye not know?"

"I'm... well, I'm mostly human."

If she had been walking, Laochag would have stopped in her tracks.
"Human?"


Aurelia flushed, suddenly self-conscious.  "Yes.  Is that alright?"

Laochag quickly mastered her wonder, and looked at Aurelia again, once
again appraising.  "Most unusual.  Humans left this land milleneia
ago."

"You don't mean this area, do you," said Aurelia, making a statement
rather than asking a question.

"Indeed I do not.  Tir na Tuatha has been separate from the land of
man for a long, long time.  You are here -- are the portals opening
again?"  They had started to descend away from the evenly rolling
hills as they walked, and Aurelia could see a thin plume of smoke
rising in the distance.  Next to her, Laochag's horse shook its head,
rattling the silver and leather bridle.

"I don't know.  This is my second time here, if that helps."

"And you, girl.  You cannot be above... wait, by my troth, humans are
short-lived, are they not?  How long does a human normally live?"

"Um, about 80 or a hundred years, I guess?"

"Really?  I had thought it was shorter, but perhaps my memory fails
me.  So, you must be about 40 then?"

"Oh god," said Aurelia, unexpectedly on familiar territory in a very
foreign context.  "No, I'm twenty-three."  Her face flushed again,
suddenly self-conscious that maybe she was aging very quickly here in
this land that bore but little temporal relationship to the land of
man.  She hadn't actually seen herself in a mirror in months, even
back in Seattle, since her Second Sight had rendered mirrors into
vision portals almost 100% of the time.

"Ah," said Laochag, casting a sidelong glance at Aurelia.  "Don't
credit me girl."  She fell silent, and they walked quietly together
for some minutes.

"What about yourself?" Aurelia finally ventured.

"What about myself?" Laochag replied, evidently not understanding the
question.

"I mean, what do you do?  Who are you here?"

Laochag drew herself up in the saddle, sitting a bit straighter.  "I
am Laochag of Drais."  When Aurelia didn't show any recognition, she
continued, "Of course.  I am Matron of Drais.  These lands are all
mine, we travel now through Drais."

"Wait, you mean you own all this?"

"They are my lands.  They are under my care and protection, and I live
from their bounty.  No one owns the land, it is simply the land."  She
gestured at the deer slung across her pommel.  "This is my deer," she
said simply, as if that explained everything.

Aurelia walked in silence, her walking pace and that of the horse
surprisingly well matched.  Laochag, had she been on foot, would have
been stepping quickly to keep up.  Finally, pointing along their path,
she said, "Is that your house up there?"

"It is.  That is the Drais manorhouse, my household resides there."
They had drawn closer to the tendril of smoke, and could now see is
emerged from a sloped roof tucked inbetween a pair of sharper hills.
The landscape had ceased being so rounded and become more sharp and
angular as they had walked along.  Aurelia got the sense that the hills
were becoming taller as well, turning into mountain shapes compared to
the previous hills.

"It looks big," said Aurelia, her attention now more firmly fixed on
the roof, which was slowly growing to include walls as their
perspective changed.

"My household is three dozen warriors, several score servants and a
number of courtiers I haven't been able to rid myself of.  I should
hope my house is large."  She looked proud, and Aurelia became more
aware of Laochag's dress: rich colors, smooth, lovely fabrics with
little hints of gold and silver accents.  Her cloak was a dusky purple
color, similar to the color of distant heather, with a faint pattern
of black and red stripes forming a tartan pattern that didn't stand
out, but became gradually more obvious as Aurelia looked.

"You like my clothing?" asked Laochag, continuing the proud look as
she gazed back at Aurelia.

"It's very pretty," she said automatically.  She thought for a second,
then said, "I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.  No one at
the Queen's court wore anything like that."

This time Laochag reigned in her horse and actually stopped in her
tracks.  She looked hard at Aurelia, sudden suspicion clear on her
face.  "Are you a supporter of the Queen, then?"

"No!" Aurelia's reaction was quick, having realized that Laochag was
no friend of the Queen.  "I escaped, they were holding me prisoner."

"Why are you dressed so, then?"  Laochag's attitude was distant and
imperious, and Aurelia was suddenly put in mind of the Queen herself.

"I don't know!  They took my clothes, and made me put this stuff on.
Believe me, this thing is not as comfortable as it looks."

"It looks most unpleasant to wear."

"Exactly."

"Hmm."  Laochag urged her horse forward again, and they continued
walking.  "You play a dangerous game, girl.  One does not trifle with
the Queen."

"I know," said Aurelia.

"Most curious.  I would hear your story.  You can trust me: my
household, lands and vassals are dedicated to her downfall.  We will
restore Mab as the rightful ruler of Tir na Tuatha though it destroy
us all in the process."  This last was said with surprising fervor.
Aurelia decided that either Laochag was a good actor, or really did
hate the Queen.

"Do you know her?"

"Do I know who?"

"Mab!"  Aurelia had met a woman named Mab on her previous adventure in
Tir na Tuatha, and had the impression that she was part of some
movement against the Queen.  Mab had saved Aurelia by banishing her
hunger, saving her from the Queen's soldiers, and eventually directing
her to a portal which allowed Aurelia to return to Seattle.

"I have met her, and I know much of her.  Do you know Mab?"

"Yes, she saved me from the Queen last time!"

"Indeed!" said Laochag, an impressed look crossing her face.  "We
must speak more of this, Aurelia the human.  For now," she gestured up
at the impressive gates which were swinging back, allowing them into a
courtyard in front of a large building with three sections surrounding
the yard, "we have arrived.  A-h'Eanraig!" she called to someone who
was hurrying up.  "This is Aurelia, give her a room and find what
clothes you can to fit her.  Dispose of this as well," she said,
hoisting the deer off her saddle and handing it to the man.  He bowed
his head, and said, "Of course, Matron.  Miss, if you will follow me,
please?  You may wish to duck your head."

CHAPTER

Aurelia descended the stairs to the dining room, looking considerably
different from her arrival.  The grace of the moment was somewhat
marred by her clothes, which were mismatched and somewhat ill-fitting,
but far more practical than the increasingly shredded ball gown she'd
arrived in.  It was considerably more marred a moment later, as she
smacked her forehead into a beam spanning the aperture at the base of
the stairs.  This was the fifth time her height had proved to be a
problem in just the last few hours, and would doubtless be far from
the last.

Laochag, who was seated at the head of the table, poring over sheets
of parchment, only poorly concealed a look of amusement at the tall
woman's predicament.  She wasn't so tall as to brush the ceiling once
in the room, but the doorways and passages in the house had not been
built to her scale.  Several of the other people in the room, who were
of a similar height to Laochag, were not so genteel in their
reactions, and Aurelia found herself blushing again, and with an
inexplicable urge to apologize for being too tall for the house.

"I am pleased to see you, girl.  I must apologize for the house, it
was not built with yourself in mind, most plainly.  Come and sit, I
will have a roast brought out.  Mungan!  Bring our guest drink and
meat!"

Aurelia hesitated, paralysed between politeness and fear of being
trapped in Tir na Tuatha if she ate any food.  Laochag saw the
hesitation, and asked, "What is it?  Surely you do not fear poison
here."

"Oh, no.  No.  No!  I'm sorry, I'm being rude.  I just... I think that
if I eat anything here, I'll be stuck here forever.  I don't want to
be stuck here forever."  Her last sentence was so internally directed
that Aurelia was surprised when Laochag responded to it.

"Faith!  Stuck here forever!  You shan't be stuck here forever, girl!
Why... Mungan, go seek the bard.  We require some history.  Meantime,
girl, seek comfort where you find it.  We will not force your hand."
Laochag turned back to the parchment, having evidently dismissed
Aurelia from her mind.

The tall woman carefully sat on one of the short benches which lined
the long table, self-consciously sitting on her hands.  A short while
later, a woman entered the room, elaborately arrayed in bright tartan
fabric, feathers, furs and beads.  She carried a collection of tubes
under her arm, attached to what looked like a small furry animal missing
its insides.

"Ah, bard Raonaid," said Laochag, looking up at the brightly-attired
woman.  "This is Aurelia," she gestured to Aurelia, who nodded.  "She
is a human."

The elaborated dressed woman, the bard, Aurelia realized, raised an
eyebrow in surprise.  She was, Aurelia saw, quite old, and she found
herself wondering what "quite old" meant for a race that considered a
human lifespan to be distressingly short.  She said, "Truly?  Have
humans returned to Tir na Tuatha?"

"Yes?" said Aurelia, not sure whether she was being asked the question
or Laochag was.  "Well, just me, I think."  She felt herself growing
uncomfortable again under the unblinking stare of the bard.

"Fascinating," she said, walking slowly up to where Aurelia was
sitting.  The two women's eyes were level, the bard standing, Aurelia
seated on the short bench.  "Tell me, human, the story of your arrival
here?"

"Not now, Raonaid," said Laochag.  "There will be time for
storytelling later, for now we have a more pertinent question.  May
she eat of our food, or will that entrap her in our land?"

The bard circled around to the other side of Aurelia, looking at her
from a different angle.  All conversation in the room had stopped, and
everyone was paying attention to the bard.  Aurelia found herself
riveted by the presence of the woman.

"The tales tell many things of humans in Tir na Tuatha.  They came as
friends, as lovers, as conquerors, and as slaves.  Truly, food could be
used to snare a human, to manipulate their thinking, to force them
into, to force them out of.  But as I recall, and I recall a great
many things," at this there was a sort of synchronized nodding from
the people scattered around the room, acknowledging a universal truth,
"food freely given and freely accepted is no more binding than any
other medium of exchange.

"In the Ballad of Chulis Mor, a man is enticed to stay as a slave in
the house of his host, and although food is part of the spell, it is
not the sole ingredient which snares him there.  The Epic Poem of
Sorcha in the Tir na Daonna tells us of a man who eats a rabbit and
three apples in Tir na Tuatha and is able to return to the world of
men the next day.  There are more examples to be found, but I think
she may safely eat so long as we are not attempting to entrap her
here."

Raonaid looked directly at Aurelia, who shrank from the intensity of
her gaze.  "Your task, girl, is to know who is trying to entrap you,
and who is not."  She turned away abruptly, and sat next to the fire,
where she blew into one of her tubes and inflated what Aurelia finally
recognized as a bagpipe.  Soon a dolorous tone filled the room, and
Aurelia found herself gently weeping at the sadness of the song.  She
wasn't alone -- she heard sniffles around the room, and when she tore
her eyes away from the bard, she saw Laochag's eyes were also bright
with tears, as were those of many of the other people scattered around
the room.

The song ended, and Raonaid arose gracefully.  She smoothed her long,
dark grey hair and checked over the various ornaments adorning her
clothing before sweeping out of the room.  Aurelia thought she saw a
very tiny nod of acknowledgement pass between the bard and the Matron
as she passed by.

"There you have your answer," said Laochag, nodding at Aurelia.  "I
can assure you I have no desire to keep you here beyond your desire,
and I can but imagine that you would like to eat.  I would be honored
if you would accept my hospitality, but I will not be offended if you
decline it."  With that, she turned back to her parchment, and once
again seemed to tune Aurelia and the rest of the room out of her
consciousness.

Aurelia kept her eyes on Laochag for a few moments, then felt that
something was expected of her.  She looked around, and found Mungan,
the young-looking man who had previously been ordered to bring a
roast.  She nodded, still terribly uncertain she was making the right
choice, and said, "Yes, please bring something.  I am so hungry."

CHAPTER

It was several days later.  Aurelia had fallen on the food ravenously,
and felt nothing more than a diminution of hunger.  She had slowly grown
accustomed to the rhythms of the house, and this evening Raonaid
approached her, asking again about the story of how Aurelia had come
to be here.  Her bearing was much less imposing this time, much more
friendly and approachable than she had been in the room full of
people.

"Aurelia, I am most curious how you came to be here, both in Drais,
and in Tir na Tuatha.  We have truly not seen a human in these lands
for thousands of years.  I know time flows only unevenly when
comparing the human realm and that of the Daoine, but I must bethink
myself that many hundreds or thousands of years have passed in your
world as well."

"I think that's right," said Aurelia.  "Before this whole thing
started, if anyone said anything about fairies to me, I would have
thought of little twinkling flying things dispensing sparkly dust from
a wand.  I never would have imagined someone like yourself, or half
the fairies I've seen here and at home."

"You saw Daoine at home?  How is this possible?  We have been outside
the world of man as long as man has been outside our world."

"I dunno, I just saw them, really.  I mean, after I was given Second
Sight by that first fairy..."  She stopped when she saw the look on
Raonaid's face.  "What?"

"You were *given* Second Sight?  What Daoine was able to grant you
such a power?  The tales speak only of those who have Second Sight; it
is never given, never received.  How was this Daoine in your world?"

"I don't know, really.  This is all what he said to me.  He gave me
this ring," she waggled her left hand to show the gold ring, "and
suddenly I was seeing all sorts of stuff.  If he didn't give it to me,
maybe he turned it on or something...."

Raonaid shook her head in evident confusion.  "Your mode of speech is
most archaic, Aurelia.  What does it mean to turn a thing on?"

"Oh, um.  Awaken, maybe?  Like you turn on a... well, I guess you guys
don't have switches here.  Oh, that word means something else, doesn't
it.  Language is really weird here -- I'm thinking in my language, but
it comes out in yours.  Sorry."

"Thank you, 'awaken' clarifies the matter admirably.  Yes, it is
possible he awoke your power in you.  May I see your ring?"

Aurelia silently pulled the ring off and handed it to the old woman.
She took it and carefully examined it, turning it over and over in her
hands before handing it back.  Aurelia slipped it back on her finger,
where it fit perfectly.  That was an odd thing: she'd tried the ring
on different fingers, and it fit perfectly wherever she'd tried it.
When she'd handed it to Stuart to try on back in Seattle, it had
hung on his fingers, halfway between ring and bracelet in size.

"The Daoine, whose name was Domhnaill, or at least that's what he said
it was, he said that the ring was mine, and no one could take it from
me.  I think he meant that I could control who takes it off, because
when the Queen's maids tried to take it off, they couldn't."

"The tales are of course rich with magical rings.  Pray continue.  You
saw many Daoine back in your home land?"

"Well, I saw lots of people who weren't quite human.  There were a few
real fairies, I mean people who were clearly not at all human, but
mostly I saw people with little changes, like animal ears or noses or
tails.  And I saw emotions, like clouds of light, or not-light, or
something.  It was really weird, and hard to describe."

"Ah, our seers have spoken to me of this.  Emotion as visible color.
I have not seen it myself, but I understand it is quite beautiful."

"Wait, you mean other people can see this stuff too?"

"Of course.  Faith, I have failed to hear the truth presented to my own
ears.  You are a seer.  We shall call upon our seer later, and see
what we may learn.  For now, continue.  How did you cross the barrier
between worlds to come here?"

"Well, it's happened twice now.  The first time, these little green
guys pulled me in, and brought me to the Queen, and yeah, she called
me a seer then too.  I got away, and found my way to a portal with
Mab's help, and went through.  I had only been gone for two minutes
there, but it was four days here.  This time..."  Aurelia paused, the
memory of her abduction by Daniel still too fresh a wound to recount
without a surge of emotion.  "I was kidnapped again, but this time by
a Daoine who I thought was human, back home.  I mean, I knew he was
different, not entirely human, but I didn't think he was an agent of
the Queen.  Turns out he was, and he pulled me in here."

Aurelia paused again, fighting back tears, and the bard looked on
sympathetically, waiting for her to continue.  "So now I'm here.  I
want to go back, but I don't think I can.  My... well, I guess she's
some ancestor, told me I was coming back here, and I got the sense I
had to finish something before I could leave, if I could ever leave."

"What is your task?"

"I have no idea.  No one gave me an instruction sheet."

"Who is this ancestor, why do you think she is your ancestor?"

"She came to me in a dream.  Well, in a couple dreams.  I don't know
for sure, it's just a feeling.  Anyway, she told me about iron, and
gave me some stuff.  I think she was getting me ready for something.
But I lost most of it when I was carried here.  She wanted me to
practice my Second Sight, but I couldn't ever get it to work here."

Raonaid looked surprised, and sat back for a moment.  "Your ancestor
gave you things which you were able to bring back with you?  This is
high magic, there are not more than a handful of the most powerful
people in the land who can perform such skill.  Your ancestor, what
did she look like?"

"I'm not really sure.  It was always dark in the dreams, and when I
saw her here," Aurelia paused at another surprised exclamation from
the little bard.  "What?"

"You met her here as well!?  So she is of the Daoine Sidhe?"

"I guess so.  I don't know.  I thought she was human in the dream, but
maybe not.  Yeah, the first time I was here, she appeared after I
escaped from the Queen, and helped me feel less hungry, I guess.  She
disappeared after that.  She was a lot older here than she was in the
dream, though."

Raonaid's fingers played unconciously over the chanter of her bagpipe
as she stared into the distance, processing this.  "I suppose," she
eventually said, "this is not too unusual.  In truth, my girl, humans
have been so long excluded from Tir na Tuatha that all we have left
are legends and stories.  Many Daoine would say you do not exist."

"It's the same at home.  No one thinks fairies are real any more."

"I hope we are not all bound for an unplesasant surprise."

CHAPTER

They talked for many hours, going over the details of Aurelia's life
before the change that had enabled her Second Sight, her life
afterwards, and what had happened in Tir na Tuatha up until arriving
at the Drais manorhouse.  Aurelia had the sense that Raonaid was
composing poetry in her head as they talked.

Eventually their conversation came to an end, and Raonaid suggested
that they go in search of the seer of the household.  Aurelia was
oddly apprehensive about this, somehow afraid she was a fake.  She
never wanted the power in the first place, and would be happy to give
it up if it meant she could go back to living a normal life, yet she
was worried this unwelcome ability would prove to be false.

A twenty minute walk around the house (Aurelia had by now learned to
duck under the various doorways, beams, lintelpieces and architectural
protuberances that caused her so much trouble at first), they found
the seer, whose name was Ailis, sitting in the courtyard, staring
dreamily into a fire burning in a small blackened copper pot.

"Ailis," said Raonaid, "this is Aurelia, the human who arrived a few
days ago.  Her story suggests that she is a seer.  I thought she might
speak with you on the topic."

Ailis looked at Aurelia, taking her in: 5'10" tall, and thus more than
a foot taller than anyone else in the whole house; dark brown hair
pulled into a plait that just curved around her neck (her hair much
shorter than anyone except the warriors, some of whom had long hair,
some of whom had very short hair, nearly cropped entirely off);
lightly freckled, pale face with grey-green eyes; patchwork of
poorly-fitting clothing, bare feet.  No one had been able to find shoes
big enough to fit her, and the silken slippers she'd worn upon
escaping the Queen had been destroyed by her flight through the
countryside.

"So, you're the human," she said, glancing back into her little fire.
"I had heard stories of you.  I see you are not as tall as two men,
which I had heard to be true."  Aurelia saw a hint of a smile flitting
about Ailis's mouth.  "But you are a seer?  That is most interesting."

"I have business elsewhere," said Raonaid, once she saw the
conversation was started.  "I shall see you anon, Aurelia."

Aurelia bid her farewell, and sat down in front of the seer.  The sun
had gone down shortly before, and the courtyard was ghostly in the
advancing twilight.  The sky overhead was descending through pink into
purple, and the first faint stars were already visible.  Aurelia
realized it was the first time she'd spent more than a minute out of
doors since arriving at Drais.

"Yes, I guess I am a seer.  The Queen said I was *the* Seer, but I
didn't really know what that meant.  Do you also see things that no
one else can see, like visible emotions?"

"I do," said the tiny woman, warming her hands momentarily at the side
of the fire pot.  "But not always.  My visions are... my own.  They do
not make sense to anyone else, I must interpret for them.  Frequently
they do not like my interpretations."  Aurelia had a distinct sense of
some ongoing conflict, hinted at by this last statement.  "Tell me,
girl, what do you see now?"

"That's the thing, I haven't really seen anything, like Seen anything,
since I got to Tir na Tuatha.  No, I guess that's not true.  I did See
that asshole's emotions when he tried to attack me in his cottage."
Ailis had visibly cringed at the strong language, and Aurelia decided
she should try to be more careful.  She was realizing over and over
that she wasn't at home, and everything she knew about how to act was
proving to be slightly wrong.  "Sorry," she said.  "Someone tried to
rape me just before I got here."  When Ailis didn't have the
sympathetic reaction she'd hoped for, Aurelia continued, "So I shoved
his nose into his face and took off."  She was gratified, and slightly
ashamed of her gratification, to see Ailis's shock at the violence
described.

"It is right to repel attack when it comes," Ailis finally said.  "I
see you did right in your case.  He was intent on causing you harm."

"Wait," said Aurelia, catching something in the way the seer said
this, "do you say that because of what I just said, or..."

"No, I have seen it.  Had I the power, I would have done much the same
as you.  Although I would refrain from describing it in such terms."
Her tone was brusque, like she was informing an errant child as to how
it should act.  "But to return to the point, you cannot See in Tir na
Tuatha?"

"Not so far.  I couldn't shut it off back home, but I've only done it
once here.  I was telling Raonaid about this, but I visited a woman in
my dreams who was an ancestor, and she was trying to get me to See in
the dream, but I couldn't.  I think she was here, I mean it certainly
looked like here.  Well, I guess I *could* See in the dream, but it
wasn't easy.  But now that I'm really here, I basically can't do it."

"Slow down, child, I take your meaning clearly enough."

"I wish you guys would stop talking to me like I'm a baby.  I'm not a
baby, I'm 23, and I've been through some sh... stuff in my life."
Aurelia paused, almost as surprised at the outburst as Ailis was.

After a moment to collect herself, Ailis replied, "I apologize, I
intended no offense.  So you understand, at 23 years, a Daoine among
the people of Drais is still little more than a child.  I myself am
nearing 1800 years in Tir na Tuatha."

"Oh, wow.  I had no idea you lived for so long.  That's amazing!
We're lucky if we get to a hundred these days, and in the olden days,
I think 40 was pretty old."

"Yes, our perspectives are different.  Regardless, tell me about what
you Saw in your world."

Aurelia briefly described the emotion-stuff, the non-humans she
saw, and the full-body visions that seemed to transport her to
somewhere else for a minute or two.  Ailis listened intently, staring
into the dying fire in her pot as Aurelia spoke.  It was fully dark
now, the courtyard lit only by the glowing embers in Ailis's fire pot.

"And now, you cannot see any of these things?"

"Well, except that once, when I was attacked."

"So.  You should know that your vision, if truly described, is very
poweful, but unfocused.  You require training if you are to be adept
with this skill."

"I don't want to be adept with anything.  I just... I just want to go
home."  Aurelia saw a faint outline of Ailis's face looking at her,
underlit by the embers in the pot.  "I mean, it's really nice here and
everything, but this isn't where I belong, you know?"

"If you gaze into these embers, young human, what do you see?"

"Um," said Aurelia, leaning over to look into the little copper pot.
"Burning coals, I guess?  Little patterns of light and dark, if you
look at it the right way."

"I see the future, or in any event, *a* future."  Ailis looked back up
at Aurelia, and the younger woman had a moment where she might have
been Seeing with her power again, and Ailis flared with a whiteish
light, laced with thin green tracers.  But just for a moment.  "I think
you are bound to this land for some time to come," said Ailis.

CHAPTER

A week passed, then another.  Laochag's household produced a pair of
dresses that fit Aurelia, one in dark green, and the other in a red
and yellow tartan with black and orange accent stripes.  Aurelia
learned, with a fair amount of flushed embarrassment, how the Daoine
Sidhe dealt with menstrual flow, fortunately before the dresses had been
finished.  She was surprised to see the business-like, unembarrassed way
it was dealt with, and found herself growing fond of the matriarchal
arrangement of affairs around her.  As she reflected on it, she was
equally surprised that fairies had periods at all, having always assumed
that just as fairytale and cartoon characters never had to go to the
bathroom, so they never dealt with other common ablutionary functions.
The smell on her arrival had been enough to convince her that these
fairytale characters definitely had to go to the bathroom.

She received lessons from Ailis, although they were so oblique and
fruitless that she wondered why they were bothering.  Ailis didn't seem
troubled by the slow progress, though, and they pressed on.  She
learned tricks to distract her mind so the visions could come without
being hindered by her conscious thoughts.  Ailis explained some of
what the emotion stuff meant, although she agreed that there was not
an easy pattern that one could master, and that it was simply a matter
of observing for long periods of time to determine which colors and
patterns corresponded to which emotions.  As she rightly pointed out,
people rarely felt just one pure emotion at a time, which made the
task much harder.

The thing which most excited Ailis was the visions Aurelia had had,
especially when Aurelia had recalled that she also had them on her first
visit to Tir na Tuatha.  She said that these visions were extremely
powerful, and most seers saw only a handful of such visions in a year.
Aurelia had seen almost a vision a day back in Seattle.

"I shall have to consult with the bard," said Ailis, "but I believe
humans were not known for their magical abilities.  You would seem to
be an extraordinary being, Aurelia Stanton."  Aurelia felt proud to be
so powerful, but a bit silly that she had essentially no control over
it.  Ailis granted that she had never heard of a seer who had so
little influence over her own vision.

"But we shall help you, Aurelia.  If you are able to exercise
sufficient control, you will considerably outstrip my own abilities.
Now, concentrate again."  Aurelia was in the middle of a practice
session with tea leaves, attempting to use them as a medium to place
her consciousness in a receptive state.  It was slow, unrewarding
work, as she had only succeeded in having one vision during all their
practice.  Even that had been surprisingly uninteresting, just a
section of grassland with no people, and really nothing but grass to
see.  Ailis had still been pleased.

CHAPTER

Laochag called the whole household together one night, after everyone
had dined.  They gathered in the dining room, which was the largest
room in the building, but still only admitted everyone by removing the
tables and chairs.  Aurelia looked out over a sea of blond, red and
brown heads to where Laochag stood on a chair to speak.  She was
standing at the back of the room to avoid blocking anyone else's view.

The hubbub in the room died down as Laochag finished a conversation
she'd been having with an advisor in quiet tones, and stood up to her
full four foot eight inch height.  She held up her hands for quiet,
and the room went silent.  Aurelia was still amazed at how orderly
this little society was, or at least how utterly devoid of dissenting
voices.

"Friends," she said.  "You know that the lands of Drais are under
constant threat.  You have doubtless already heard of the goblins who
have been found among the herds and in the crops.  Calum Mor," she
nodded at a very slight man who was visibly smaller than most other
people, and who Aurelia had learned recently was the scout in the
household, "has found the reason why.  The Queen has taken over the
lands of Ealar to the south, and has sent her goblins along to find
new lands to ravage."  There was a murmur through the crowd.

"We have ensured that her goblins do not return to give a report,
among those we have found," she smiled a bit grimly at this.  "But we
are also sure we have not caught all the scouts who have been through.
We can only assume that the Queen knows of us, and her forces may be
coming to us some time soon.

"This is your warning: we are on a footing for battle.  I will work to
prevent it if possible, but we must face the possibility that war will
once again come to our lands, and that we must fight and die to defend
what is ours."  She stepped off the chair, and that seemed to be the
end of the announcement.  The room quickly filled with discussion.
Aurelia stood alone, pondering what this new development could mean
for her.

Ailis sidled up to her and tugged on Aurelia's skirt, having failed to
engage her attention otherwise.  Aurelia crouched down, once she saw
Ailis there.  "What do you think is going to happen?" she asked, but
the little fairy woman didn't answer, instead saying, "Come with me,
we have a task ahead of us."

CHAPTER

Aurelia and Ailis crouched down over a cauldron which was slowly
bubbling over a fire in the kitchen.  The kitchen was a separate
building, almost entirely out of stone and with a lead roof to avoid
burning down too easily.

"Calum Mor isn't the only one who brings information from a distance,"
said Ailis as they'd entered the kitchen and stoked the fire.  "I will
show you another way to see the forces arrayed against us.  Your dream
ancestor tried this with you as well, yes?"  She indicated the
cauldron, which was still warming, with a simple stew of root
vegetables and entrails from a pig that had been slaughtered the
previous day.

Aurelia nodded, and said, "Yes, although I don't think it worked.  I
just remember being frustrated in those dreams."

"This is more poweful magic than the tea leaves and apple peels we've
been using thus far.  Even should you have no success here, by working
together we shall increase both our power.  We will bring back
valuable information to Laochag."

So saying, Ailis turned her attention to the cauldron, occasionally
stirring it with a huge wooden spoon.  As time passed, the stew heated
up, and started to bubble, she ground some herbs into the pot, using
her hands.  She muttered to herself, but Aurelia didn't catch what she
was saying.

"What are you putting in?" asked the apprentice seer, quietly.  The
fairy woman didn't look up, but said, "These herbs will increase the
potency of the scrying.  We must remember to pour this stew on the
fire so that none attempt to eat it."  She lapsed back into silence.

Five minutes later, after some change or signal that Aurelia didn't
notice, Ailis straightened up, and looked at the human woman.  "You
recall our lessons on concentration and visualization.  Now they are
put to the test.  Concentrate your mind on the surface of the water.
Empty your thoughts.  As before, let the water become your whole
world.  Smell the scents of the stew.  Feel the heat from the fire.
Everything," her voice was trailing off until it was little more than
a whisper, "is here, in this room, between us.  Concentrate."  She
fell silent, and Aurelia stared at the water, half hynotized by the
water and the smell and the words.

At first, nothing happened.  Even in her mesmerized state, Aurelia
simply saw the surface of the water in the steady but dim light of the
tallow candles they'd brought with them.  But, as the minutes passed,
she became aware that she was seeing something else.  At first she
wasn't sure what it was, but she heard Ailis whispering from far off,
as if Aurelia slept, "Yes, now we approach."

Suddenly, Aurelia was in a full-body vision, as she had been so many
times in Seattle.  She hovered, invisible, above a sort of campground.
At least, there were tents, in vast profusion, arrayed out through a
wide valley.  She saw people walking among the tents, speaking to each
other, drinking, singing, staring into campfires.  Fires glowed in
front of many of the tents.  The moon stood overhead, half-full, with
thin clouds passing over its face.  There was no sound, however, she
was only seeing this place.

She was surprised to find that she could identify a sort of hierarchy
among the people present.  She wouldn't have been able to describe
except as something like a spiderweb radiating outward.  Even that
didn't make sense, but she could see a pattern, where one person was
at the center, others were peripheral to him, still others were
peripheral to them, and so on.  The person at the center of the web
was tall (at least compared to those around him) and burly, with a
thick beard and an enormous gold-colored sword strapped across his back.
He was talking to someone as they sat in front of a fire,
gesticulating as he spoke.  Enjoyment was evident on his face, and
Aurelia had the impression he was relating some event that pleased
him.

As suddenly as it had started, it stopped.  Aurelia came to herself
with a start, and discovered she was lying on the ground, a few feet
from the fire.  Ailis was hovering over her, looking worried.  Her
hands, Aurelia saw, were oddly discolored.  As she returned to all her
senses, Aurelia realized there was a terrible odor.  She cleared her
throat, which was suddenly congested to the point of making it hard to
breathe, and said, "What's that smell?"

"I'm sorry, girl," said Ailis, crouching down next to her, "it was
your hair.  You collapsed, and before I could shift you, your hair
caught alight.  I got it out soon enough, but it is yet shorter than
before."  She paused, looking at Aurelia with a slightly mischevious
expression.  "What did you see?  I've never met a seer who collapsed
like that, who so completely entered the vision.  'Tis a right strong
power you have hiding in that great brownie head of yours."  She
rapped lightly on Aurelia's forehead as if it were a door, which
caused her to flinch.

"I saw... a bunch of guys?  With tents?  And there was one central
guy.  He was... connected somehow, but he was in the center.
Spiderweb.  Had a big sword.  There were lots of them, though.  What
was that?"  Aurelia stretched herself out on the floor.  "Wow, it's
never hit me this hard before.  I feel like a horse just sat on my
head."

"You just rest up, girl.  I will speak with Laochag about your vision.
It corresponds with mine.  Did you not have a sense of direction or
distance?"

"No, just... a lot of guys."

"Well, it may be that your powers don't incline that way.  It may be
that they will in time.  You saw the camp of the Queen's men, about four
leagues to the south.  Your spiderweb is most interesting, though.  I will
ask you about that further once you're back on your feet.  Rest now."
Ailis stood and walked quickly out of the kitchen, leaving Aurelia to
rest on the floor.

CHAPTER

Aurelia found Laochag and Ailis in one of the upstairs rooms when she
had recovered a bit, and returned to the house after conscientiously
pouring out the stew as Ailis had said they should.  They were
together with a number of people who Aurelia recognized as the
warriors of the household -- a roughly even mix of men and women, she
had been surprised to see, at first.  When Laochag had mentioned
warriors on their initial meeting, Aurelia had clearly imagined the
Queen's soldiers she had met in her last visit to Tir na Tuatha:
hulkingly large, hairy men, dressed in massive kilts that slung over
their shoulder, and not much else.

The warriors of Drais, on the other hand, were of a size with Laochag,
although some of the male warriors had a considerable advantage in
musculature over the female warriors.  As far as Aurelia could tell,
the Drais warriors favored bows over all other weapons, and she'd seen
them out practicing on numerous occasions, shooting thin,
wickedly-tipped arrows at distant butts.  Their bows were elaborately
curved and decorated, no two the same.

After she'd expressed curiosity, one of the archers at practice had
given her a bow to try.  Aurelia was hardly a muscular woman, and had
barely had the strength to pull the bow halfway back before she had to
gracelessly release pressure, nearly dropping the bow in the process.
This had elicited a certain amount of good-natured laughter from the
assembled archers, and some talk of getting her a properly sized bow,
if she was interested.  She demured at the time, but the idea had been
playing around the edges of her consciousness since then.

Laochag and Ailis were discussing what Ailis had seen in her vision
over the bubbling cauldron, and when Aurelia stuck her head in the
room, Ailis invited her in and asked her to join them.  She dropped
into one of the tiny chairs around the table.

"Aurelia," said Laochag, "Ailis was just telling me of her vision, but
she says you had a vision as well, which may prove useful.  What did
you see?"  She motioned to a servant, who disappeared to bring Aurelia
a glass of wine.

"I saw a camp, full of men.  There were tents, and campfires."

"How many men? Armed?"

"Perhaps a hundred?  Maybe two hundred?  I couldn't be sure.  Some of
them were definitely armed.  The guy in the middle had a huge sword on
his back."

"Ailis mentioned this.  You don't mean he was in the center of the
camp, do you."  Laochag made a statement of the question, inviting an
explanation.

"No, I could see... something, connections maybe, linking him to
others.  It was like a spiderweb: he was at the center of the
spiderweb, and others were connected to him.  Then more people were
connected to that first layer, and so on.  They weren't real
connections, not like wires or ropes or anything, they were something
I think only I... well, something that only a seer could see.  Like I
was tracing lines of respect, or who was on top of who, sort of thing.
I think the guy at the center was the leader, or if he wasn't, he was
the guy everyone actually followed, or respected, or admired.
Something like that."

"I see."  Laochag pondered for a moment.  "Did you see who this man at
the center was?  Could you describe him?"

"Yeah, sort of.  He was tall and strong-looking.  He had a beard, a
really big, bushy beard.  He was dressed in skins and these plaid
pants.  His hair was long and braided, I think it was blond, or light
brown, and his beard was red.  He was sitting at a fire talking to
another guy who was smaller, with dark hair and little swept-back
antlers."

"And was the man with antlers directly connected to the leader, in
your vision of spiderwebs?"

"Oh, I don't know.  I don't remember connections between people,
really.  I just remember seeing the connections.  He could have been."

"Well, it matters not in this instance.  You describe Muireach Ruadh.
He is a vicious fighter, and his smaller companion was almost certainly
Iain Dubh, Muireach Ruadh's bosom companion.  If you see either of
those Daoine in the flesh, your best path is directly away from them.
They work for she who has the finest coin, and at this time, that person
is the Queen; they also kill and rape for the pleasure of it when no one
is paying.  It must be he who has sent goblins into our lands as scouts.
As you said," Laochag turned to address Ailis, "Muireach Ruadh is on
the march.  He must be encamped on the lands of Ardnadorchadh, or at
least the lands which once were called Ardnadorchadh.  The Baron may no
longer control his lands, if Muireach Ruadh is there.

"If you find yourself again in a vision looking over their camp,
Aurelia, take note of as much as you can.  The more we know of their
forces, their movements, their armaments, any such information will
help us in our planning.  Ailis, I trust you will keep your sight
trained on their encampment and movements as well.  Ladies, thank you
for your assistance.  With luck, we may avoid direct conflict, but I
think the choice is no longer ours to make."  With that, it was clear
Ailis and Aurelia were dismissed, and they rose and left the room.

"Well done, girl," said Ailis when they were in the hallway and the
door had closed behind them.  "Now we must hone your abilities as
quickly as we may, for you will soon have need of them.  It takes no
extraordinary power to see that our future is most uncertain, and
every advantage we can gather to our bosoms will work in our favor."

CHAPTER


The following days were both intense and boring for Aurelia at the
same time.  Ailis had her repeating the exercises they had been doing,
but with a greater sense of urgency that Aurelia found grating and
made it yet more difficult to concentrate.  When she complained of the
pace and lack of progress, Ailis had said, "Why don't you speak to the
master bowyer, I believe she has something for you which may allow you
to distract yourself."

So Aurelia sought out the master bowyer, a slight woman with flaming
red hair and a sanguine temperament.  She was in charge of the Drais
armory, such as it was, and as such was also the master armorer,
master swordsmith, and master at arms of the household.  Her name was
Mairead Ruadh, after her red hair.  Aurelia found the little fairy
woman in her chamber, sharpening a long bronze knife with a stone.

"Mairead Ruadh, Ailis the seer tells me you have something for me?"
Aurelia wasn't sure what the armorer could have for her, but quietly
hoped it was a bow.  This turned out to be the case, as Mairead
immediately went to a cabinet, opened the door, and pulled out a bow
that was half again as long as any of the other bows in there.

"Yes, Calum told me you were in need of a bow sized to yourself and
with a lighter pull for training.  I happened to have an overlong yew
staff which I was saving for I knew not what, but this was clearly the
task for it.  Here," she braced the bow between a foot and the
opposite leg, bent it with ease, and looped the string over the end.
She handed the bow to Aurelia.  "Let us see how that looks, lass.  Do
you know anything of archery?"

"No, not really," said Aurelia, handling the bow awkwardly, as if it
might come to life and bite her.

"Well," said the fairy woman, "kneel ye down so I can help you.  In
any case, you couldna raise the bow without piercing the ceiling,
surely.  There, now place this hand here, and this hand here.  Now
pull... No, line this arm out to extend your shoulder line, and pull
across your chest, like so," she demonstrated, miming pulling a bow,
notching her thumb under her jawbone with the opposite hand stretched
away from her.  "Good, and I see the weight is such that you can pull
it comfortably.  Now, do not release an empty string, or the bow may
destroy itself.  Let it off gently, yes.  Here, take this arrow, and
try to hit yonder target," she pointed down the room, where Aurelia
saw a small round target.

"I don't think I can hit that," she said, doubtfully.  It was 20 feet
away, and only a few feet across, surrounded by equipment and tools.

"Try it in any case.  This arrow has no tip, it will do no harm if you
miss."

Aurelia drew back the bow, having to reseat the arrow several times so
it rested on the shelf of her hand, then let it loose.  It flew with a
faint hissing sound and smacked into the target.  Not in the center,
nor at the edge, but at least on the target.  She smiled excitedly.
"I hit it!"

"Well done, lass!  Try again.  Go there, retrieve your arrow, try
again."

Aurelia did so, and repeated the experiment several times, hitting
somewhere on the target each time, although with a random spread.

"Very good.  'Tis a short range and a large target, but for one
utterly untrained, you have some inborn talent.  You may practice more
if you like.  Come to me when you wish to try your luck at the butts,
and I will find you some proper arrows."

Aurelia did, shooting her single arrow again into the target.  On her
second attempt, just as Mairaid was turning back to her work,
something went wrong, and the arrow landed more than a yard off the
target, with a huge clang.  A sword on a bench leapt in the air and
clattered to the ground, upsetting a bowl of something that had been
next to it.  Aurelia's face flushed a bright crimson, and she rushed
forward to right things, saying, "Oh shit, sorry!"

"Stay!" Mairaid's voice rang out.  Aurelia halted as if she'd run into
a wall.  "Do not touch that, it is a poison!"  Mairaid walked calmly
forward as Aurelia straightened up.  "Worry not, lass, it's no great
problem, I just prefer you standing and breathing."  She smiled at
Aurelia as she passed.  She gingerly picked up the sword, inspecting
it carefully first, before tying a cloth over her mouth and donning
heavy leather gloves to clean up the spilled powder.

"I'll just... um.  Sorry.  Thank you so much for the bow, it's
beautiful!"  Aurelia backed herself to the door and hurried out, still
clutching the unadorned bow in her hand.

CHAPTER

Ailis and Aurelia were walking in the hills to the west of the
manorhouse.  They were not high, but they were barren, windswept and
almost devoid of greenery.  They walked the ridgelines, surveying the
land around them.  Ailis was giving Aurelia lessons in practical
divination and scrying, or was attempting to, without much success.
Aurelia's powers had been extremely difficult to unlock from wherever
they were buried within her.

"What do you make of those clouds there?" she asked, pointing.
Aurelia looked, and paused to examine them.  They were thin and wispy,
traveling visibly across the sky under a high overcast that made the
whole sky achingly bright without disclosing any information as to the
whereabouts of the sun.

"They look like clouds, I guess.  I'm really sorry Ailis, I wish I
knew what I needed to do."  They resumed walking, a slow meandering
walk to the north, describing a rough radius around the manorhouse as
they went.

"We need to find the trigger.  Something will release and your sight
will come forth like a cascade, like a tumble of rocks down a
hillside.  In faith, I have no idea what it is.  It may come down to
it, though, girl: I may have to dive into your head before we resolve
this mystery.  I shudder to think of it, as I have said before and
before."  Ailis had repeatedly raised the possibility of what Aurelia
thought of as hypnotizing her to explore her mind and find out why she
was unable to tap into the power that was clearly there under the
right circumstances.  The way Ailis described it, for a seer to peer
into the head of a normal person was fairly safe, but when a seer
tried to look into the mind of another seer, it invited something like
a feedback loop that could be quite dangerous to both.  She had never
done it before, but knew another seer long ago who had attempted it and
ended her days as more of a zombie than a person.

"If you think it would work, I'll try," said Aurelia.  "But it sounds
really dangerous."

"Oh, it is, girl, it is.  But I've come to the end of other ideas by
now.  Stop," she said suddenly, looking around with the look on her
face that Aurelia had come to recognize as the woman using her sight
beyond sight.  "Down, girl, down!" she said suddenly, dropping to the
ground.  Aurelia, confused, slowly got to her knees and was rudely
yanked down to a prone position by Ailis.  "Over there," she said,
pointing away from the manorhouse, to the south.  "Foreign men.
They're looking for something, but they're not sure what.  One of them
is... a bogle?  Faith, who runs with bogles who has any sense in their
head?"  Ailis closed her eyes, concentrating.  "Check if you can see
them.  Mayhaps you see something I do not."

Aurelia concentrated, trying to use the various lessons Ailis had been
giving her, but confusing several of them in the stress of the moment.
Her head ached, and a vein in her forehead throbbed, but she couldn't
see anything beyond the evidence of her eyes.

"I don't see anything, Ailis.  I don't even see them with my eyes, how
far off are they?"

"Most of five hundred yard, perhaps.  They're in the wee valley there,
it's unlikely you could see them plainly.  They haven't seen us yet,
thankfully.  That bogle, though.  We should get back."  She looked
around, apparently assessing their position.  Her head swiveled back
to look in the direction of whatever she was seeing.  "Girl, when I
say, get up and run, as low as you can, that way."  She pointed
without looking, in the direction of a fold in the hill which led
approximately back to the manorhouse.  A moment later, sotto voce, she
said, "Go!"

Aurelia got up and ran, crouching as low as she could, but still felt
terribly exposed.  She knew how accurate the Drais archers were, and
felt like she must be an enormous target running along the height of
the ridge.  She made it to the fold, and started descending.  She
heard Ailis descending behind her, but the noise suddenly changed, and
she risked a glance back: Ailis was tumbling behind her, and quickly
came to a stop, an arrow protruding from her shoulder.  Aurelia rushed
back up the hill and crouched over the fallen woman.

"Ailis!  Are you alright?  Say something!"

Ailis groaned and shifted her right arm slightly before the pain in
her shoulder made her stop with a sharp intake of breath.  "Get out of
here, foolish girl!  I am done, get yourself to the house and tell
them of this!"

Tears rushing suddenly to her eyes, Aurelia said, "No way!" and picked
up the little woman in her arms.  She was surprisingly light, and
Aurelia picked her way down the deepening ravine as quickly as she
could.

CHAPTER

"Help!" she cried, as she stumbled up to the gate.  "Ailis is hurt,
please open the gate!  Please, she needs help!"  A head poked above
the wall, then disappeared again.  With a rumble of heavy wooden
bolts, the gate swung slowly open wide enough to admit Aurelia.  She
rushed through, not sure where to go or what to do now that she'd
reached the house.

"Help!" she said again.  "Is there a..." she paused, the word "doctor"
plain in her mind, but no word was forthcoming.  "Shit!  Is there a... a
healer or something?  Ailis was shot!"  People started coming out of
the building to find the source of the noise, and several dashed back
inside upon seeing the ailing woman in Aurelia's arms.  Aurelia laid
her down on the ground and was trying to get her attention when an old
man with a long grey beard and bushy black eyebrows appeared at her
side.

"Och," he said, his voice high and reedy, "who did this?  Hold her
steady girl, I'll get the arrow out, perhaps we shall have some luck."
He pulled out a small knife and probed gently around the wound before
he looked up again.  "Para," he said, addressing one of the people
standing looking at the scene, "go fetch a red-hot iron, quick as you
can.  Sorcha," addressing another, "retrieve hot water and a clean
cloth, and see if you can find my herbal; it's in my chamber, near the
window."  He looked back down at his patient.  "Clear away there," he
said to no one in particular, still peering.  "Give me light!"

He looked up at Aurelia, who was still holding Ailis steady, ready for
him to pull out the arrow.  "Girl," he said, his voice pitched to only
reach her, "get you to the cellar, and bring the strongest drink you
can find.  I'll have someone else hold her while you're away.  Go now."

Aurelia stood, hesitating uncertainly before running off to complete
her task.

CHAPTER

When she returned bearing a flask of what was probably whisky, she saw
Ailis lying on her back, unconscious, the arrow removed and sitting off
to the side.  The old man with the long beard was calmly packing a cloth
with herbs.  There was a distressing scent of scorched flesh in the air,
and Aurelia saw a man disappearing in the direction of the forge with
a poker that was smoking slightly.

"Ah, lass, good.  Bring that here," said the man, motioning her to his
side.  "Now, pour just a wee drop in the center here," he opened up
the poultice, and she poured a dash of spirit in the center of the
herbs.  "Good, it is called water of life for a reason, we all know."
He winked at her, a surprisingly lascivious gesture which Aurelia
found jarringly inappropriate in the circumstances.

"She may live, I cannot tell if the arrow was poisoned or not.  Only
time will tell.  If there was no poison, and we can keep the rot at
bay, she will be fine.  You did well to bring her back here so
quickly.

"Tell me," he continued, "I have not seen you before, and you are clearly
not of Drais.  Whence do you hail, and how come you to be to tall and
yet not elven?"

"Oh," said Aurelia, surprised at the change of subject, "I thought
everone knew me by now.  I'm Aurelia Stanton.  I'm human."

His eyes widened slightly, and he said, "Is that so?  A human among
the Daoine?  Many, many years have passed since I heard of such a
thing.  Well, welcome to you, your presence has already done us well.
Mayhaps you are a force for good luck within our little community."
He looked down at Ailis, who looked as peaceful as one could imagine
with a lump of damp cloth tied to her shoulder, passed out in the dirt
of the courtyard.  "Ailis likely owes you her life for one thing.
Oh," he said, as if it just occurred to him, "who shot her in the
first place?  Where were you?"

"Oh shit!" said Aurelia, looking around.  "I need to tell Laochag.
There were... well, Ailis called them 'foreign men,' off that way,"
she pointed, as it happened, almost entirely the wrong direction, "and
she seemed worried.  I thought they were probably men from the camp to
the south, but I never saw them.  And she said something else, about a
boogie or something?  A boggie?  Something like that."

Laochag stepped forward out of the crowd.  "Aurelia, let us speak of
this in my chambers upstairs."

CHAPTER


Aurelia briefly recounted her walk with Ailis, the older woman's
sudden concern, and their flight from the hills back to the house.

[note: expand on aureila's connection and bond with ailis]

"Did she say how many men she saw?" asked Laochag, almost before
Aurelia had finished her tale.

"No, just that there were some, and the other thing she said, the
boogie or whatever it was.  Do you think she's going to be alright?"

"There's no way to know.  Now, about this other thing she mentioned.
Would it have been a bogle?"

"Yes, that's it!  What's a bogle?"

"It is very bad news for us.  One moment."  She went to the door, and
barked instructions out, setting patrols around the house, and scouts
into the hills.  Laochag came back and sat down in front of Aurelia
again.

"A bogle is a creature which is like the spirit of mischief incarnate,
mixed with the senses of the keenest eagle and wiliest hound.  They
are in the form of a degenerate Daoine, black and evil-looking.  They
are also hard to harm, quite strong, and willful beyond measure.  To
enlist the aid of a bogle is a sign of a deranged mind, or one who
does not know what trouble it has invited."

"Who would want to bring such a creature along on a scouting mission?"

"One," said Laochag, looking grim, "who is not on a scouting mission."

There was an ominous silence as Aurelia thought this through.  "Do you
think they're planning on attacking us?  It was only a few, I thought.
Like, four or five people.  They wouldn't try attacking a fortified
house like ours, would they?"

"It is possible, girl.  But more likely they are the foreguard of an
approaching force.  We may be in for a fight now.  It was foolish of
you to be walking so far from the house with enemy forces in the area,
but your foolishness has perhaps given us an edge.

"I must go and see to the defenses.  Do you get yourself into whatever
state you need to See, and find what you can of their movements.  Any
news you find, send to me immediately.  Time is of the utmost
importance now."  Laochag stood up abruptly, her face more serious
than Aurelia had ever seen it before.  She nodded at Aurelia, then
strode out of the room.  Aurelia sat, staring into space, thinking to
herself, "Oh shit, what now?"

CHAPTER

Aurelia stepped out into a hallway that was abuzz with activity.
Fairies were moving intently, gathering weaponry, preparing mysterious
things that Aurelia didn't recognize.  She walked slowly back to her
little room, a string of more and less vehement curses following in
her wake.

The extent of her ability to use her Second Sight in Tir na Tuatha
thus far had been a tiny handful of full-body visions, and two occasions
on which she'd seen emotion-stuff: once when the man had attacked her
as she slept, and the once she'd seen something around Ailis.  They
had not found the trigger to unlock Aurelia's power, and now it was
too late.  Ailis was unconscious, possibly dying of poison from that
arrow, and Aurelia was alone.  No others in the household knew enough
of Seeing to be any help.

"Oh god, what am I gonna do?" she said to herself.  No helpful brownie
popped up with a solution.  The room was simply silent and slightly
cold.  She dropped onto the thin straw mattress she slept on, and
tried to force herself to think of how to solve the problem, but it
was too big.  She couldn't do it.  "I shouldn't have let you get
shot," she said aloud, mourning her inability to change a thing she
couldn't have prevented in the first place.  "Shit."  Outside her
door, she could hear running feet and tense conversations passing by.

She sat like this for some minutes, mired in her own misery and
inadequacy.  As she was sitting thinking, she found her mind running
along memories that went back to her time in Seattle.  She'd been
happier then, of course.  But the dreams, where she visited her
ancestor... Something was niggling at her consciousness.  She couldn't
quite place it, though.

She was staring at her hands, her eyes focused on an infinity that had
nothing to do with were she was, when she found her eyes focusing in
again.  Her hands.  Long and slender, not terribly strong, but
dextrous.  A ring on each: the gold ring from the fairy, a lifetime
ago.  The iron ring from the blacksmith who'd hit on her in Seattle,
half a lifetime ago.  The iron ring.

It hit her in a flash.  In a dream, back in Seattle.  The woman, her
ancestor, standing in a field of heather.  She'd said, "Iron kills
magic."  Aurelia took off the iron ring, and her Second Sight came
back.  She had put it back on, and it faded out.  How could she have
been so dense!  Iron kills magic!

CHAPTER

The crowd of beings surged slowly over the hills, moving at a slow
march.  Huge, hairy men in great kilts; goat-legged men with curved
swords; bounding four-legged creatures following along like something
from a bad dream.  They were moving slowly but inexorably, and Aurelia
could tell that they were headed straight for her.

All the exercises, all the techniques, all the tricks that Ailis had
taught her: they all worked.  She'd dropped the iron ring and
the little knife with the triangular blade, which she'd kept so
religiously on her person, to the floor.  And it had all worked.

In the vision, she flew joyously around, viewing the horde from
different angles, noting what they were carrying, estimating numbers,
even at one point moving up right next to a man with the shaggy horned
head of a highland bull.  She could smell him.  She could hear every
footfall, every clink of metal on metal, every shuffle of leather
against skin.

She came back to herself, approaching gently as Ailis had taught, so
that she wouldn't return with a shock.  She settled back into her own
body and opened her eyes.  Still standing upright, exactly as she had
been a moment ago.  In her joy at discovering the solution to her
weeks' long mental block, she fairly skipped out of the room, braining
herself smartly on the doorframe.

Trying again, with a bit less verve, she hurried off to find Laochag
and relate what she had seen.  Once she had described the horde of men
and beasts and half-beasts, she went to find Ailis.

To this point, less than an hour had passed since Ailis had had the
arrow removed from her shoulder, so quick had been the procession of
events.  She'd been carried back to her own bed, on the far side of
the house from Aurelia's, and Aurelia found her there, stretched out
to her full diminutive length, still unconscious.

"Ailis," said Aurelia, sitting opposite the fairy woman who was
tending the patient, "I found the block.  It was iron.  My iron ring
was keeping the sight locked inside.  I took it off," Aurelia
consciously omitted mentioning the knife -- she still kept that as her
own secret, "and I could drop into a vision at will.  It was amazing!
Everything you taught me, all those tricks and tactics and methods,
they all worked!  I didn't even need them, it was so easy!  I've been
striving so hard and for so long, I think I was nearly at a point
where I could See even through the iron!  I wish you could have seen
me."  She took up Ailis's unresisting hand in her own.  "I hope you'll
be ok.  I'm really sorry.  I feel like it's my fault, but I know it's not.
I just want you to wake up and get better."

The woman sitting across from her leaned forward, and said, "Of course
it's not your fault, lass.  Any one of us might have been in Ailis's
place, and 'tis a right good thing you were there to help."

"Thank you," said Aurelia, looking up at her.  She continued, looking
back at Ailis, "Please get better, Ailis.  There's so much we can do
together now that I know what the problem was."  She sat back, still
holding Ailis's hand, and contented herself with gazing on her
friend's face.

CHAPTER

The Daoine of Drais were arrayed about the walls of the house,
bristling with bows and swords.  There was a block and tackle rigged
to lift a cauldron of hot oil to be used against anyone who tried
climbing the walls.  They were as ready as they could be, and even so,
a collective gasp ran through the assembled fairies as they saw the
vanguard of the incoming group crest the hill and start descending
into the valley.

With a curt cry of, "Loose!" a hail of arrows flew toward the
approaching enemy, felling the front rank handily.  But they pressed
on, continuing toward the house.  The arrow barrage continued, and the
enemy lost more and more men to the wicked, poison-tipped barbs.
Within minutes, the attacker's morale started failing, and those who
were still standing started deserting the fight, turning back the way
they had come.

The Drais fighters were not without their casualties, as well.  A
handful were hit by incoming arrows, falling back off the wall, the
fall killing them if the arrow hadn't.  One of the fire tenders in the
courtyard was killed by a falling arrow, and an arrow scattered embers
from one of the fires in an unlucky strike.  Daoine scrambled to
return the embers to the fire and douse the flames which sprang up in
the grass where they had landed.

Aurelia cowered inside the building.  They'd had some few minutes to
prepare after she'd reported her vision to Laochag, and it had been
decided that Aurelia would serve them best by staying out of the line
of fire: she was no fighter, despite her enthusiastic attempts with
her training bow.

In a trance of vision, Aurelia described what was happening among the
enemy, a runner occasionally sprinting out of the room to report some
tidbit to Laochag, who was shouting orders from the top of the
southern wall.  They would return with questions, which Aurelia could
only make out by partially retreating from her vision when shaken
violently by the shoulder.

Finally, the enemy was repelled, falling back and up the valley until
they were out of sight.  They left behind a field littered with the
dead and dying, and Laochag led the grisly task of putting those still
alive out of their misery.  The Drais poison was not quick, but it was
sure, and whoever had been attacking them would be short a few more
hands before the night had passed.

Aurelia dropped out of her vision as the last of the enemy crested the
hill and disappeared from sight.  Before she knew what was happening,
the world went dark, and she collapsed to the ground.  The last thing
Aurelia saw was the door opening, and one of the runners returning
from Laochag.

CHAPTER

"Here," said Doirin, one of the healer's part-time helpers, holding up
a steaming ceramic bowl to Aurelia's lips.  She sipped, the hot liquid
sour and oddly spicy.

"What is it?" she asked, her voice tired and shaky.  She was sitting
up in her bed, propped up some cushions which she'd never seen before.

"It's a mixture of herbs which will help you feel better," said the
woman.  "I expect you have a right powerful headache."

"Oh.  I do, it's true."  Aurelia laid back, the aftertaste of the
mixture slightly acrid in her mouth.  "How long was I out?"

"It's been several hours since we sent the Queen's mongrel lackeys
packing."  Doirin's voice was slightly smug.  She had been among the
archers on the wall, and was sure of at least two kills by her own hand.
She smiled at Aurelia, and set the bowl on the ground beside her
mattress.  "I shall leave this here, I must go attend to the other
wounded.  You got off lightly, Aurelia Stanton, but I'm told your
effort was as vital as any others'.  I pray you feel better soon."

"Thanks," said Aurelia, her hand up to her forehead.

With that, Doirin stood from the tiny stool she'd been sitting on, and
slipped out of the room.  Aurelia lay back on the pillows for a few
minutes before having another sip of the mixture, which clanged
metallically on her tastebuds.

CHAPTER

"The Queen's henchmen are gone, but they will be back," said Laochag,
addressing the household in the dining room again, "and in greater
numbers.  They have seen our defenses, and I do not doubt that they
will return with all necessary force to topple our house and scatter
us to the four winds, if they so desire.

"If we are to prevent that, we must prepare, and prepare speedily.  I
will ask you individually to perform necessary tasks, but I ask all of
you as a group: if you see some way of improving our defenses, or our
response, or any other suggestion, please pass it along to me or to
Mairaid Ruadh, who will be in charge of the upcoming work.

"You performed admirably today," Laochag continued, sweeping her gaze
appreciatively over the assembed fairies, "and with such actions, we
will survive anything the Queen may throw at us.  It has been many
years since we last had to defend our home.  May it be many years
once again."

She stepped off her stool, and the crowd's noise swallowed the room as
everyone started talking at once.  Excitement and apprehension mixed
in equal measure in the conversation.  Aurelia, against the back wall,
frowned thoughtfully, and left to find Ailis's room again.

CHAPTER


Aurelia sat thoughtfully at Ailis's bedside.  The fairy seer hadn't
awoken yet, and the room was empty except for the two women.  Aurelia
held Ailis's hand reflexively, lost in thought.

The Queen had kept hold of her for nearly five days, when she'd
entered Tir na Tuatha.  Aurelia already knew that the Queen was
interested in her from her last trip to the land of fairies.  The
surprise this time around had been how uninterested the Queen had
seemed.

In those five days, she attended any number of feasts -- staring
hungrily at the food spread before her, but resolutely not eating --
and balls and courts, but always as a peripheral to the proceedings.
The Queen barely even acknowledged her presence.  She was always
surrounded by people, though: Daoine of all shapes and sizes, from the
tiniest pixies to the biggest trolls and giants.

That was actually an odd thing about Drais: for all the variety among
the Daoine as she'd seen in the Queen's castle, the Daoine of Drais
were uniformly between four-foot-six and five feet, looked to her eye
to be in their mid 30s to mid 50s if they'd been human, and could have
been siblings or cousins.  For that matter, she realized, it's
entirely possible they *were* siblings or cousins.  It had never
occured to her to ask.

But despite the Queen's aloofness, Aurelia had a sense that the monarch
had had a keen interest in her.  It wasn't anything she could pin
down.  There was no look, no momentary glance to betray the emotion,
yet Aurelia could sense it somehow.  And it worried her.

The Queen was an enigma to Aurelia.  She found herself thinking of her
as the villian of the story, but that wasn't borne out by the evidence
she actually had.  The worst thing she'd done was pull Aurelia back
into Tir na Tuatha via Daniel (and here she felt a pang of
depression at odds with the jubilant atmosphere of the household).
Aurelia had nominally been a guest, although she'd felt like if she
tried to leave, that wouldn't be allowed.  However, when she'd
mustered the courage and taken advantage of a moment of distraction to
slip out, there had been only a token effort put forth to bring her
back, as far as she could tell.

The Drais Daoine had certainly been kind to her, there was no question
of that.  But she was having a hard time reconciling why there was a
battle going on between the two sides.  She would have asked Ailis,
whom she trusted, but felt that it was such a fundamental question
that it would be impossible to ask of anyone else without causing some
kind of problem.  She already felt like a novice in this strange
land.

As she was thus musing, Ailis shifted, and Aurelia's attention riveted
to the injured woman.  "Ailis?" she said hopefully.  But the old seer
was still unconscious.  Aurelia thought she looked a bit different,
but wasn't sure.

A few minutes later, another of the healer's helpers came in and
smiled at Aurelia, sitting down across the bed from her.  He was a
handsome Daoine with dark hair and a trim, dark beard, whose name she
didn't know.  "Does she look different to you?" asked Aurelia, looking
down again at Ailis's face.

The man looked down as well, then put his ear down to listen to
Ailis's chest.  "It may be," he said, as he straightened up again,
"that she is merely sleeping now.  I'll fetch Fionnghan and we shall
see what he thinks."  The fairy stood, and walked briskly out of the
room.  Aurelia stayed, looking down at Ailis's face in the fading
light from the window.

Fionnghan, the old healer, walked in a few minutes later, and looked
down at his patient.  He tutted and muttered to himself, probing and
prodding at Ailis, lifting her arm, then her leg, rolling her head
back and forth on the pillow.  He closed his eyes, and rested his left
hand on her forehead, and his right above her heart.  He opened his
eyes again, and pulled the bandage off Ailis's shoulder, peering at
the wound.

"It would appear," he said in his reedy voice, which echoed oddly in
the small room, "that our Ailis is improving.  She sleeps the sleep of
the tired now, not the sleep of the injured.  Will you wait with her?"

Aurelia nodded to express her assent, and he rummaged in the satchel
he'd brought with him, and handed her a bundle of dried leaves tied
with string.  "Steep these into a tea with boiling-hot water, for at least
a quarter of an hour, if she wakes.  Bid her drink the whole draught
down.  It will help her heal, and may counteract the poison, if any
was present on the arrowhead."  He looked down at Ailis again.  "Gods
willing, she will be with us again soon."

CHAPTER

Aurelia jolted awake.  The room was almost completely dark, the only
light a faint moonlight stealing in through the unshuttered window.
She was still sitting next to Ailis, whose outline was just visible in
the bluish luminescence.  She realized that Ailis's eyes were open,
and woke up further.

"Ailis!" she said excitedly.  "Are you awake?  Are you alright?  Oh, I
was so afraid you'd been poisoned!"  She clutched Ailis's hand to her
breast, and the recumbent fairy looked up at Aurelia.

"Aurelia," she said, her voice cracked and weak.  "I have thirst.  Is
there drink here?"  She glanced away, and seeing the familiar window,
seemed to relax a bit of tension Aurelia hadn't realized was there.

Aurelia grabbed an ewer that was standing on a table and poured out a
glass of water, which she handed Ailis, saying, "Here, drink this.
I'll get your tea ready."  Ailis sipped at the water, grimacing.

"Ugh," she said, handing the glass back to Aurelia.  "I hoped you had
wine for me."  Her voice sounded better, but was still weak.  "I
suppose water shall have to do for the moment.  What tea do you mean?"

Aurelia set the glass back on the table.  "Fionnghan gave me some
herbs to brew into a tea.  I'll have to kindle the fire, or I can go
use the fire in the kitchen.  He said it has to steep for a quarter of
an hour."  She smoothed Ailis's brow, and said, "How do you feel?"

Ailis paused, apparently checking in with her body, and then said, "It
would seem I still have all my pieces.  My shoulder hurts.  So does my
head.  What happened?  How came I to be here?"  She lay back, this
verbal effort having used up much of her reserves.

"You were shot by someone.  Do you remember spotting them when we were
out walking?  We were trying to get back to the house, and when I
turned around, you were on the ground with an arrow in your shoulder.
You told me to leave, but I picked you up and carried you back to the
house.  Fionnghan took the arrow out and put something on your
shoulder to help it heal."

"Oh," said Ailis, her eyes closed, "I remember the walk.  I don't
remember being shot.  Walking with you is the last thing I remember.
That explains the pain in my shoulder.  What happened while I slept?"

"Oh!" said Aurelia, her face coming alive with excitement, "I found
the thing blocking me!  I took off my iron ring, and it all worked!  I
could practically fly into a vision any time I wanted!  It was
amazing!"

"Iron ring?"  Ailis sounded confused, as if she was having a hard time
thinking about such complex thoughts.

"The black ring on my right hand.  It's made of iron.  I had it made
after my last trip here, when I wanted to have a defense against
any of the Queen's Daoine who might attack me.  Well, I remembered a
dream I had with my ancestor, when she told me, 'Iron kills magic.'
In the dream, I took off the ring, and my Second Sight came back.
When I put it back on, the Sight went away.  It was like..." similies
came to her mind, but none of them made sense in a world without
flashlights or cellphones or cars with potatoes jammed in the exhaust
pipe.  Finally she concluded, "It was like taking a dam off a river.
Suddenly everything just worked.  All the tricks you taught me worked
great, I almost didn't even need them.  I actually flew around the
invaders and looked at them up close and everything."

"Invaders?"

"Oh yeah!  We were attacked while you were passed out.  They came up
like they wanted to break down the gate, but they couldn't get in, and
I guess when we shot enough of them, they turned around and left.
Laochag says they'll probably be back with weapons to break down the
walls, but I think we're pretty safe here."  Aurelia was feeling
uncharacteristically bouyant now that her friend was awake and talking
again.

"If it was the Queen's forces attacking and they decide the want to
break down the walls, they will most likely accomplish their goal.
Listen, girl: I'm tired, and you said something about some tea I
should be drinking.  Get you to the kitchen and make it.  I am too
warm already, a fire here would be unwelcome.  I will sleep until you
return."

"Ok," said Aurelia.  She bent down to kiss Ailis on the forehead,
noting but not making anything of the warmth in the fairy woman's
skin, then she located the bundle of herbs and set off to the kitchen.

CHAPTER

Aurelia returned with the tea in its bowl, and found Ailis asleep.
Rather than waking her, she waited the requisite fifteen minutes for
the tea to steep.  There were no clocks, but Aurelia guessed it must
be near midnight.  The Drais didn't seem to set much store by time,
which was fine with her.  Things simply happened when they happened.

After she'd guessed enough time had passed, she shook Ailis gently by
the shoulder to wake her.  The sleeping woman didn't wake up
immediately, so Aurelia waited a short while and tried again.

Still, Ailis didn't wake, and Aurelia leaned down close to her to
make sure she was still breathing.  She was, but her breath was coming
in short panting breaths, and Aurelia realized that her skin had only
gotten warmer.  Alarmed, she tried shaking Ailis a bit more
forcefully, but with no effect.  "Ailis," she said, laying her hand
alongside the seer's face.  It was burning hot.  "Ailis! Wake up!"  No
movement.  "Shit," she said to herself, and got up, ducking under the
doorway to go find the healer.

Fionnghan was awake in his room, writing something by the light of a
candle.  He looked up from his work as Aurelia poked her head in,
saying, "I'm sorry to bother you so late, but Ailis won't wake up!
And her head is really hot!  I'm afraid something's wrong!"

The old fairy got up, and said, "Lead the way, child.  I was not aware
she was awake in the first place.  Stay a moment, let me retrieve my bag,"
and he slung the satchel over his shoulder, then followd her out.

When they arrived in Ailis's room, the seer had her eyes open, but she
didn't seem to be seeing anything.  Aurelia dropped to her knees
beside the bed, and tried to get Ailis's attention, but to no avail.
Fionnghan sat on the other side and felt the ailing woman's forehead.
He tsked and rummaged in his bag, pulling out a cloth which he
dampened from the ewer, then draped across her forehead.  Ailis was
making faint vocalizations, but nothing that made any sense.

Aurelia said, "Oh, I've never seen that before," and leaned down to
look closer at Ailis's shoulder.  She pulled the bandage aside.  There
were black tendrils edged with a deep purple color tracing out from
the arrow wound.

Fionnghan leaned over to look, but the light was so dim in the room
that he didn't see anything.  "What do you see, my girl?"

"These... things.  They're black and purple, and they're... Oh.
They're inside her.  I am Seeing them.  Are these what poison looks
like?"  Aurelia was speaking to herself now, horrified at what she was
seeing.  "They follow... they go here, and here," she traced along
Ailis's shoulder and into her chest, "they look like snakes, but not
like real snakes.  Oh god.  You have to get them out!"  This last was
spoken in full voice and directed at Fionnghan, who rocked back with
the force of Aurelia's sudden outburst.

"If you are seeing poison, child, it is probably already too late.
Arrow poison is rarely reversible.  I am sorry, for all of us."

"Wait, what?  You can't just give up!  There must be something we can
do!  Isn't there some magic or something?  What's the good of being in
a magical fairy land if you can'd do magic!?"  Aurelia was getting
hysterical at the thought of Ailis succumbing to poison from a
ridiculous arrow shot at her by people Aurelia had never even seen.

"Calm down!"  The words hit Aurelia very nearly with physical force.
Fionnghan subsided when Aurelia did seem to calm down.  He continued,
"I have performed what healing magic I know.  There is nothing more to
be done.  We may still hope that she is stronger than the poison,
although this is not normally the case.  People die, Aurelia, it is
part of living.  I am sad to think Ailis may be living her last
moments, but she has lived a good life, and her sacrifice and your
help may have saved us all.  If it will help you, I suggest you stay
with Ailis.  I smell the tea I asked you to make: if she awakes enough
to drink, give it to her, even cold it will be helpful.  Now, I must
complete what I was doing.  If there is a change, give her the draught
if possible.  Keep cooling her forehead.  I will return in the morning
to check on her."

CHAPTER


Aurelia spent the night sleeping fitfully, curled up wrapped in a
blanket she had retrieved from her bed.  She awoke frequently and
checked on Ailis, who had closed her eyes again and seemed to have
lapsed back into a coma.  She re-moistened the cooling cloth each
time, although it didn't seem to be doing much good.  When the sun rose
and illuminated the window, Aurelia rose as well, stretching and trying
to work out a cramp in her neck and shoulder.

Ailis remained still and quiet, eyes closed.  Her color had changed,
and now she was slightly blue compared to the previous day.  Aurelia
put her hand over the seer's forehead, and was pleased to feel that it
had cooled, and was more like a normal temperature now.

"Oh Ailis," she said, as much to herself as for any outside ear to
hear.  "Please don't die.  You're the one friend I have here who I can
really trust."  She held the seer's hand again, and passed some
minutes just gazing at her face.

The door opened, and Fionnghan looked in.  "Good morning," he said,
coming in to the room.  "How is our seer doing?"  He knelt down by the
bed, and felt Ailis's forehead, opening each eye in turn to look at
the pupil.  "She seems to be doing well.  Tell me, girl, do you still
see the poison you talked of last night?"

Aurelia realized that she didn't, and briefly wondered if she'd
imagined it.  It had been so real.  But she looked again, calming her
mind to bring on the Second Sight, and realized it was still there.
"Yes," she said, tracing the tendrils with her finger.  "There are
black things, like little snakes, sort of.  They start here, and go
here, and here, and here."  She traced from shoulder to head, to
heart, and to belly, her voice dreamy and distant.

"If that is truly poison as I have known it, then Ailis should have
succumbed.  Very odd that she has not.  Are you sure what you see is
poison?"

"No," said Aurelia, coming back to herself, and looking up at the
healer.  "I have no idea what it is.  It looks a little bit like
emotion-stuff, I guess.  I just thought it was poison because of how
it was starting in her shoulder.  What else could it be?"

"I am no expert on Second Sight," he replied.  "Alas, our most
knowledgeable person is here before us.  If you do not know, then we
would have to seek answers elsewhere."

"Isn't there anything I can do?  Can I give her blood, or something?"

"Give her blood?"  Fionnghan looked horrified at the thought.

"Oh, it's just...  Something we do at home.  It doesn't make any
sense, sorry.  I don't know much about medicine.  Never mind."

"It sounds most barbaric."  Fionnghan turned back to Ailis, busying
his hands to avoid thinking about the barbarism of blood transfusions.

Aurelia dropped into Second Sight again, and looked over Ailis.  The
black tendrils were still there, still edged in purple, still and
malevolent looking.

CHAPTER


A Daoine approached Aurelia, who was practicing her archery in the
courtyard by herself.  She lowered the bow, and looked at the little
man.  "My dear, Laochag has requested your presence."

"What's happening?"

"It would appear that the Queen's forces are moving again."

"Ok," said Aurelia, gathering up her arrows and unstringing her bow.
She was still very much a novice archer, but she found that the
practice of concentrating on hitting her intended target was a welcome
distraction from the swirl of thought and emotion she seemed to be
living in now.  It forced her to be single-minded, and the line of
thought was gratifyingly free of any questions of mortality or
alliegance.  Archery supplies gathered together, she followed the
little Daoine back up to Laochag's chamber.

The Drais leader was sitting with a few others, little models spread
out on the table in front of them.  Aurelia peered closer: the models
were shockingly realistic.  There was the Drais manorhouse, there a
model of Calum Mor, the chief scout, and there was a shaggy kilted man
with a bronze sword.  Aurelia yelped and leapt back when the model of
Calum Mor turned and waved to her.

This drew a chuckle from several of the assembled Daoine, and Laochag
said, "I forget, you are still unaccustomed to our ways.  This is
merely a glamour," and she waved her hand over the table, dissipating
the models like smoke.  Not quite believing her eyes, Aurelia looked
closer at the table, and the figures were there again, as if they'd
never left.  They didn't appear or assemble themselves, they were
simply there.

"Sorry, I've never seen anything like that.  There were Daoine who
disguised themselves in the Queen's court, but I never saw pure images
like that."  Aurelia sat at the table, where a seat had been pulled
out for her.  "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, allow me to show you what we know.  Calum Mor," she pointed at
the little figure on the table, "has reported that the Queen's
forces," here she pointed at the shaggy man, "are mobilizing again.
Here, allow me to make this more clear, as I am certain you are not
as familiar with the land here as we are."  As she spoke, a
solid-looking landscape rose out of the table, placing the Drais
manorhouse in its little valley, and showing the wrinkled landscape in
amazing detail.  Aurelia reached out to touch it, and could feel tiny
branches on tiny trees, which bent as she touched them.

"How are you doing that?" she breathed, enchanted.  "Is this real?"

"As I said before, it is a glamour.  It matters not in this moment, we
can discuss it later.  The main point is that the Queen's forces,
here, have been gathering, and appear to be getting ready to move.
Calum could not get too close without fear of being seen, but he
thought they did not have heavy siege weaponry with them, so we wonder
that they would attack us again.

"Which brings us to you.  As Ailis is still unconscious, and may never
wake again, we have need of a seer.  You have plainly demonstrated the
ability, and despite your human ancestry, you would be a boon to our
household.  We asked you for help in the heat of battle before, and
you were most helpful.  Would you agree to stay with us and be our
seer in exchange for what protection and succour we can offer?"

Laochag's voice had gotten formal, and Aurelia realized she was being
offered what amounted to a lifetime career.  She thought for a moment,
then said, "I am honored that you ask."  She thought some more, her
face creasing as she thought through the pathways open to her.
Laochag and her council of war were silent, awaiting the answer.

"I think that I'll have to think about it before I can say yes to
that.  But," she added, seeing the disappointment on Laochag's face,
"that doesn't mean I won't help now.  I mean..."  She paused again,
trying to get the words right in her head, "I like it here, and you
are all delightful, but this isn't my home.  Ailis told me when I got
here that I was bound to stay, or at least that I wasn't going to go
home for a while, but she didn't say why, and I haven't had a chance
to ask her.  And I suppose I probably never will."  Unbidden, tears
sprang to Aurelia's eyes, and she paused to wipe them away.  "But I
want to go home.  I don't know why I'm here, but I need to find out,
and do whatever it is, and go back.

"Like I said, I'll help you as long as I stay, but I can't be your
seer for all time, I guess."  She paused again before continuing.
"It's really nice here, and everyone is so nice, and I hate the
thought of leaving.  But I think I will eventually need to leave.
Maybe I need to face the Queen, or something like that, I'm not sure.
I just think staying here is the easy choice, not the right choice."
She realized as she spoke the words that she'd been thinking these
thoughts for days now, but hadn't really focused them into words until
this point.

"I think," said Laochag, "that things are about to become less easy.
I understand your hesitation, and it saddens me to think you will
depart, but now is not the time for sadness over departures not yet
come to pass.  We have more pressing business, and I will accept your
help as long as you choose to stay with us."

Laochag gestured at the nearly fully-formed miniature world spread out on
the table.  "We need to know what is happening with the Queen's soldiers.
Can you visit them with your sight, and determine what their aim is?"

"Yes," said Aurelia simply.

"Go you and do what you find needful to accomplish the task, then.  I
would know what their immediate intentions are, as well as anything
else you may discover.  Movements, armaments, reinforcements, even
success or troubles they may be having with forage are all valuable.
Do you require anything from me?"  Laochag was standing over the
table, leaning on her fists, looking determined.

"No, I don't think so.  I'll go visit the enemy camp and see what I
can figure out."

"Very well.  Thank you for your help, Aurelia Stanton."

CHAPTER

Aurelia lay down on her own bed, glass of water and joint of mutton
close at hand in case she woke up hungry or thirsty.  She closed her
eyes, and calmed her mind, dropping into the Second Sight state with
almost no effort.  Her anxiety over leaving her iron possessions in
her room had lessened with each passing day, and they were now tucked
into the bottom of a stocking folded up in her little chest.

In the cinema of her mind, Aurelia drew back, flying through the solid
stone of the Drais manorhouse, pulling back and up and up, until she
saw the landscape like the glamour model that Laochag had laid out on
the table for her.  Of course, Calum Mor was back at the house now,
which was how they'd known to check on the Queen's band.  The house
and the enemy camp were not disproportiontely large, since she was
seeing what was really there.  But she saw the camp in the same spot
it had been on Laochag's model.

The landscape spread before her in a green spread of wrinkled hills
and valleys, like a piece of cloth carelessly dropped on the floor.
The afternoon sun streamed playfully through puffy white clouds, and
Aurelia was tempted to fly up and see what the inside of a cloud was
like.  However, she re-focused on the task at hand, and oriented her
vision on the camp.  She moved towards it, more quickly than any bird
could fly, and as she drew closer, details resolved themselves.

There were several hundred men, of all shapes and sizes.  They were
rolling up fabric bundles, presumably the tents, packing chests, and
putting things away on carts drawn by stoic-looking oxen.  As she
approached, there was an odd thing she noticed: areas where no one
went, even though their path should have taken through the open spot.
They were not very big spots, but the behavior was obvious as soon as
she started looking for it.

She drew in closer, now curious about these open spots.  As she paid
them closer attention, she realized that there was something there.
It was hard to see, even in her enhanced state, but she could see a
darkening in the space where she had initially thought there was just
emptiness.  She got closer and closer, and suddenly became aware of
wooden beams sitting at odd angles.  She adjusted her mind different
ways, trying to see whatever it was.  Eventually she struck upon a
combination that made it clearest, and gazed at the structure she'd
uncovered.

It was a pair of tall triangles set up on a long base with big wheels,
and a sort of arm suspended between the triangles.  At the bottom of
the arm was a massive-looking ball of rocks in strong netting, and a
leather strap moved slowly in the breeze at the top of the arm.

Aurelia realized that she was in among the people, and could hear them
talking.  No one was doing anything so obvious as saying, "Good thing
we're going to knock down the Drais walls next!" but she had a sense
that that was indeed the plan.  One man made jokes about all the women
he was going to rape, his body dripping with purple-blue emotion-stuff
laced with black and orange streamers.  Another was radiating orange
emotion-stuff as he described the riches he planned to plunder.
The little blue woman with the black mohawk he was talking to responded
with something about slaves.

Aurelia pulled back into the air, and realized there were several
spaces people were avoiding, and aimed her newly attuned vision at
them.  She saw a thing like a tower on wheels, made of heavy timbers,
as well as another triangle-thing.  From this greater distance, the
word "catapult" was clamoring for attention, and she decided that must
be what those things were.  She'd never realized a catapult would be
so big.  it looked like one of them could fling a small car if it had
to.

She tried to count the assembled Daoine, but kept losing count as they
moved.  She decided there must be several hundred, maybe as many as
five hundred, plus a lot of baggage and draft animals she hadn't
noticed the last time she'd looked over the camp.  She couldn't decide
if this was because she hadn't noticed them, or because they actually
hadn't been there.

She looked for the connections she'd seen before, and traced the
connections quickly back to Muireach Ruadh, the leader of the band.
He was talking with a small group of Daoine, and as Aurelia got
closer, she was able to hear what he was saying.

"...will turn toward their flank.  They will not abandon their house
until it is destroyed, you can be sure.  When they do, I want you
there to catch as many of them as you can.  We can't let any escape,
do you understand?  The Queen has given special orders, we're to take
every one of those Drais bastards back with us that we can, alive if
possible.  Everyone got that?  Fionn?  Eoin?  No mistakes this time.
I will personally deal with anyone who fucks this up."  He leaned
back, and the little assemblage dispersed to their tasks.  Muireach
Ruadh smoothed his beard reflexively, staring into space for a minute
before striding to the center of the group and bellowing for
attention.

"Men!" he cried.  "We march in an hour.  Anyone who is not ready will
be whipped until they are, you hear me!?  The first to loose a stone
that hits that house of rebels will receive five gold pieces from me
and the finest maid from my slaves.  Ready yourselves!"

CHAPTER

Aurelia opened her eyes, took a deep drink from the glass of water by
the bed and swung herself up to standing.  Minutes later, she'd
relayed all that she had seen to Laochag, who listened quietly,
offering comments almost to herself as Aurelia spoke.

"So, they leave in an hour.  Do you agree with Calum Mor as to their
location?"

"Yes.  Can you show me the glamour again?"

Once again, the miniature landscape appeared, simply existing where
before there had been an empty table.  Aurelia studied it a bit, and
said, "I think they were a bit more over here."  The shaggy man, who
was hugely out of proportion to the model, took a few tiny thundering
steps to where Aurelia had pointed.

"And you said they had two clach-bhoghan," a word Aurelia found didn't
translate in her head, but she chose (incorrectly as it happens) to call
a catapult, "and a tower?"

"Yes.  They were near the back, with oxen to pull them.  And they had
all those carts they didn't have before.  The more I think about it,
the more I think they must have gotten reinforcements."  Two tiny
trebuchets and a siege tower appeared behind the shaggy man.

"Yes," said Laochag thoughtfully, studying the glamour model, "that is
most likely the case.  Thank you Aurelia, this is most valuable.  I
must go prepare our defenses.  They will be here by nightfall, most
likely, and who knows what mischief they may engage in after dark.  We
are in for a real battle this time, I fear.  Go you and see to Ailis's
and your safety.  We will have need of your services again.  Make
yourself ready as well as you can."

Laochag turned to the door and called for Eanraig.

CHAPTER

The enemy did indeed arrive by nightfall, the noise of their progress
echoing down the valley to the manorhouse well before they'd arrived.
Laochag had set out archers hidden among the rocks and trees at the
valley entrance to harrass the Queen's men, but they didn't have much
effect.  One or two arrows found their mark in the draft animals, but
the stoic beasts just kept plodding, and by the time twilight was
settling over the land, the camp was already taking shape.  They were
clearly setting up to be there for a long period of time, as tents
were going up and fires were kindled out of bowshot.

Fortunately for the Drais, the valley was shaped such that the only
flat ground was well within bowshot, so the Queen's men had to settle
across the road and up the sloping walls of the valley.  Much less
conducive to a camp than a nice flat field such as they'd left.  Still
the camp went up, and it was with sinking hearts that the Drais
listened to the threatening pipe music coming to them across the
valley.

The Drais for their part had not been idle.  There were no trebuchets
set up in the courtyard, but there was a sort of giant crossbow on a
wooden stake driven into the ground.  The archers had been set up with
glowing charcoal in copper pots so that they could light their arrows
before loosing them.  Barrels of water were stationed throughout the
courtyard to douse fires.  Setting the attacking siege engines on fire
was a major part of Laochag's strategy, since without them the
attackers had no real advantage over the fortified house.

Aurelia, for her part, was sitting with Ailis, who had not awoken
since their brief conversation after the last attack.  Fionnghan said
it was unlikely she would recover.  He had forced a draught between
her lips that he said might help, but it hadn't had any real effect.
Aurelia occasionally looked at the black tendrils, which were
spreading through her friend, growing larger and stronger-looking as
time passed.  It was odd to see such a thing deep inside another, as
if her body was transparent in some way.  The emotion-stuff had always
appeared outside of people.

She heard an odd thudding noise from the courtyard, and got up to walk
to a window where she could see what was going on.  They were on the
upper floor, about midway along the long side of the house's
rectangular shape, and she looked from the hallway window down into
the courtyard.  There was a small fire burning next to the ballista,
and Aurelia watched as the two Daoine working the crossbow-like weapon
dipped a bolt into the fire until it lit, fitted the flaming bolt to
the ballista, and quickly released the weapon's tension before it
could catch fire.  It produced the odd thumping noise she'd heard.
One of them poured a little water over the main shaft of the weapon
while the other labored at the mechanism which wound the string back.

It was fully dark outside, and Aurelia was able to see by the flame of
the bolt the path it followed, and where it was headed.  She couldn't
see over the wall to where it landed, but it looked like they were
firing into the enemy camp.  There was a cry from the wall, and the
ballista was moved slightly to aim at a different target.

She went back and sat next to Ailis.  "They're shooting big arrows into
the enemy camp," she said, continuing her sporadic narrative to the
unconscious woman.  "They're setting arrows on fire and shooting them.
It's like something out of a movie.  Well, I guess this whole thing is,
isn't it.  I'm living in fairy land and there's a battle happening
outside my window with swords and bows and big catapults.  Oh, I guess
you don't know: a movie is like a story that happens in pictures, but
they move.  That probably seems really weird to you, but maybe not.
Maybe Daoine tell stories with glamour, and I've just never seen it."
She fell silent again, and unconsciously dropped into a vision,
travelling over to the enemy camp to see what they were doing.

They were, as far as she could tell, drunk and laughing at the
incoming bolts.  Most of the bolts were well wide of their mark, and
the few that landed close were quickly extinguished.  As she was
observing, a bolt came out of the sky and pinned a man's leg to the
ground, impaling it as he screamed, and his dying blood extinguished
the flames.  Aurelia snapped back to herself, repulsed, and nearly
toppled on top of Ailis with the force of the return.  She fought back
an urge to vomit, taming it before it overwhelmed her.

"Ok," she said to herself once she was stable again, "that's not a
movie I need to see."

CHAPTER


The night was an uncomfortable one for Aurelia, and she slept only
fitfully.  The thud of the ballista flinging its bolts at the Queen's
men continued through the night, but she was able to tune it out.  The
Queen's men, on the other hand, were apparently having an all-night
party, and there was music and drumming and shouted words and laughter
all night long.  That was the main cause of her discomfort -- she
hadn't been bothered by going from a crowded city to a silent
grassland night, but hearing a violent enemy camp making festive
noises all night long was troubling.

She had returned to sleeping in her own bed, since Ailis wasn't
changing, except for the black tendrils, which only grew larger and
stronger.  To hear Fionnghan talk about it, she was amazed Ailis was
still alive, since it seemed like they could only be poison.  But the
seer was holding on to life tenaciously, occasionally spiking a fever,
but always bringing it back down.  Aurelia found herself balanced on a
knife-edge between hope Ailis would wake up, and acknowledgement that
she probably never would.

Finally the morning came, but with it came fresh terrors.  The first
rock slammed into the Drais walls just after the sun brightened the
sky.

Aurelia rushed to her window when she felt it.  The whole house shook
with the impact, and the noise was tremendous, like a car crash.
There followed a series of ground-shaking thuds, with an occasional
hit on the walls.  She didn't see anything out of her window, which
looked over a steep slope up the valley, and looked in turn out the
hallway window.

There she saw the damage that had already been done.  The wall that
most closely faced towards the Queen's camp was visibly damaged, with
a couple stones missing and many more shoved inward.  Drais were
scrambling to reinforce the wall as she looked on.

Aurelia didn't know what else to do, so she sat down on her bed, and
quickly entered her Second Sight trance and looked over the enemy
camp.  For a group that had been partying and drinking all night long,
they were distressingly fresh and energetic looking.  There was a line
of boulders ready for each trebuchet, and a crew lined up along a rope
dragging the arm down for the next launch.  The siege tower was
sitting behind them, apparently awaiting its chance, assuming it would
even be needed.

If one hit had done that much damage to the wall, Aurelia shuddered to
think what repeated hits would accomplish.

The majority of the ragtag band of soldiers were serving the big
rock-flingers, and Aurelia was horrified when she realized they were
kindling fires near the ammunition boulders.  Presumably those would
be flung soon.

She came back to herself, more controlled than after the bolt strike
last night, and stood up just as another jolt shook the building.  She
quickly grabbed her ring and knife out of her chest and put them on,
worried she'd lose track of them in the chaos that was quickly
building.  This accomplished, she hurried out into the hallway and
asked a passing Drais where Laochag was.  The diminutive fairy woman
pointed at the top of a wall, and Aurelia thanked her before hurrying
on.

She walked quickly down the stairs, reflexively ducking under the
beam, and the house shook again as she reached the ground floor.
Quickly out into the courtyard, she was looking around for Laochag
when there was another tremendous crash, and the wall in front of her
buckled, sending a shower of stones down into the enclosed space.  She
was far enough back that she wasn't in real danger, but she watched as
one of the archers tumbled back into the courtyard, falling with a
sickening and terminal cracking noise.

Aurelia once again found herself fighting the urge to vomit.  She
moaned slightly, feeling in her heart a horrible pain for the fallen
Daoine.  She wondered, on a less emotional level, whether she would
survive seeing people die, regardless of whether she was physically
injured herself.

Steeling herself against the thought, she found Laochag, and shouted
up to her, "Laochag!  They're kindling fires to throw!  It looked like
they would be ready in a few minutes!"  Laochag waved her thanks, and
said something to one of the Daoine next to her, who sprinted off to
the ladder to relay instructions.

Aurelia retreated back inside the house and up to Ailis's room.  The
feeling in the courtyard had been one of desperation and fear, not one
of a group about to win a fight.  She didn't know what was going to
happen next, but it seemed very likely that it wouldn't be good.  She
sat down next to her unconscious friend, and thought.

Her assets in this world consisted primarily of her Second Sight,
followed at some distance by a couple bits of iron, some clothes that
fit, and a starter bow with some arrows.  She could just about hit a
cow at 50 paces, so it seemed unlikely that archery should be counted
as worth much.  Beyond that, she had the personal relationships she'd
been cultivating here with the Drais Daoine.

In the negative column... well, most of it was in the negative column.
She didn't know the land or the customs, she seemed to be on the
losing side of a war, and she was uniquely equipped to survive in a
modern American city.  That is to say, she had no experience with
wilderness, much less skill of any kind.  If the Drais household was
destroyed, which seemed likely at this point, she would be on her own
again and just as poorly off as before joining these tiny people.

Well, that wasn't true, she reminded herself.  She now had full use of
her Second Sight.  At that thought, she tried to look over the black
tendrils inside Ailis, but was puzzled when she wasn't able to do so.
For some reason the vision wouldn't come.  Then she spotted the black
ring on her hand, and dropped it next to her, along with the knife in
its sheath.  The tendrils sprang into view as the room shuddered from
another impact.  Outside, there was a great deal of shouting.

Suddenly, Aurelia was not in the room any more.  She was in a leafy
glen, the sun shining cheerily through the leaves, with a little brook
babbling beside her.  She sat on soft grass, and as she looked up, she
saw she was not alone.  A woman who was familiar, but who she couldn't
place, was sitting next to her.  Aurelia recognized the feeling of
being in a full-body vision, but didn't know how she'd gotten here.

"Who are you?" she asked the woman next to her.  She wasn't alarmed,
but was very curious.  The woman smiled beatifically, and changed.
She morphed over the course of a few seconds, aging until Aurelia
recognized the face of Ailis.  Aurelia could see both the young woman
and the face she recognized, overlaid on one another.  The effect was
odd, like one moment seeing a vase, and the next seeing two faces in
profile.

"Ailis!" she cried, and flung her arms around the seer.  "Where are
we?  What is this?"

"Aurelia.  I am most pleased to see you again, but we have very little
time.  I am dying, you see.  I have only a handful of heartbeats left
in Tir na Tuatha, at least in this body."

"Oh no!  Fuck!"  Aurelia's emotion streamed from her as emotion-stuff,
multicolored and odd-looking even to her.  It swirled around Ailis,
almost like it was trying to form a protective barrier around the
woman.  "I don't want you to die, Ailis!  You're my friend.  I just
got to know you.  You shouldn't be dying now."

"Calm down, Aurelia.  Should or should not, it is happening.  Quiet
your tears for a moment.  All is not lost.  You know my torc, of
course," Ailis motioned to the thick gold-and-silver necklace she
wore.  It was stiff, made of gold and silver wires twisted together,
with small but exceptionally clear rose-colored quartz stone worked
expertly into the twisted wires.  Aurelia had often seen it around
Ailis's neck, and knew she was wearing it now, lying on her bed.

"Sure," said Aurelia, sniffling and trying to swallow the anger and
regret she was feeling.

"I will, after a fashion, live on through the torc.  When my last
breath has passed my lips, you must take it and wear it yourself."

"I don't want a necklace, Ailis.  I want you to be better!  Isn't
there anything I can do?"

"No," said Ailis, looking far calmer than Aurelia thought she would
have been if she found herself in the same situation.  "My time has
come.  All creatures must die, and you and I are no exceptions.  I
wish you long life, Aurelia," she said, reaching out and touching the
young human's face.  Aurelia put her hand up over Ailis's and they sat
like that for Aurelia knew not how long, with tears streaming slowly
down her face.

As suddenly as it had disappeared, the room reappeared around her, dim
except for the window.  Aurelia was sitting next to Ailis, her hand
and Ailis's together, pressed against her face.  The little Daoine was
very still, and Aurelia knew she was gone.  As a matter of ritual more
than anything else, she leaned down and put her ear up to the woman's
chest.  No noise, no heartbeat, no breath in or out.  Ailis's body was
just a body now, so much material with no animating force.

Seeing the necklace about Ailis's neck, Aurelia reached out, and
twisted it apart until she was able to pull it loose.  It looked too
small for her, but she tried it on, and it fit surprisingly well.  She
laid her head on the body's chest, and lay like that, hot tears
silently coursing down her face, for several minutes.

Suddenly, she became aware of the world around her.  The room shook
again, and a crack appeared between the stones, light streaming
through for a moment before it settled and closed itself.  Aurelia
stood up quickly, bending down to grab the ring and knife, quickly
jamming the ring on her finger, and the knife into her waistband.  She
looked around the room, trying to decide if there was anything there
she wanted to take with her.  Obviously Ailis wouldn't be needing any
of it any more.  There was another thud that made the floor shift, and
Aurelia decided there wasn't anything worth staying in a dying
building for.  She thought she heard a voice cry out, "Get out!"

She dashed out to her own room, hurriedly piled her other dress, a
couple pair of stockings and a knitted hat into her cloak and tied it
up into a bundle.  She debated on the bow and arrows for far too long,
finally deciding to take them, since she could drop them later if they
were too heavy.  She gathered up her few possessions and cautiously
opened the door.

The hallway was deserted, and she quickly moved to the stairs in a
half-run.  She moved down them as swiftly as she could, shifting her
bundle sideways so she could see the steps as she descended.  There
was another shock followed by a rumble, and Aurelia's world tumbled
around her and went black.

CHAPTER

Aurelia awoke, and slowly came to herself.  She could see daylight in a
direction she decided must be up, after turning her head from side to
side experimentally.  She was lying on her back, and her body seemed
to be made of one gigantic ache.  However, she was able to move all
her limbs, and it didn't seem like anything was actually broken.  As
she moved, she realized she was looking up through the stairs, which
must have collapsed under her.

She realized that the house was silent.  There was no more sound of
falling rocks.  No shouting.  No thudding of the ballista.  She could
see fallen rock and timbers, as well as bundles wrapped up tightly in
cloth and barrels, all unlabled.  She sat up, wincing at the pain from
her back.  "Ugh, I feel like a giant bruise," she said to herself as
she tried to stand up.

The footing was unstable, and it took several tries, but she was able
to get to her feet.  Her head brushed the bottom of the stairs, and in
the faint light she looked around, trying to decide if she could get
out through the hole in the stairs, or if there was a door into what
was evidently the storage room she'd fallen into.

A try at the hole in the stairs answered the question quickly, and she
nearly fell over again backing away from the small cascade of stone
that greeted her attempt to climb up onto the next lower step that
wasn't broken in.  Avoiding the hole, which suddenly looked
dangerously unstable, she checked along the wall that should logically
contain the door.  She quickly found it, and moved her hands gently
over it until she found the latch.  It moved, but the door wouldn't
budge once she'd released the catch.

Aurelia stepped back, wondering how she was going to get out.  She
could knock stones loose from the stairs until she could either climb
the pile, or simply walk out over it, but that sounded like an
invitation to getting crushed by falling stones.  The door looked like
a typical door in the house, which is to say it was at least an inch
thick and made of some kind of wood which was very hard and very
sturdy.  She thought about all the cop shows where the cops kick in
the door, but even the thought of ramming her foot or her shoulder into
the door (assuming it even opened outward, which seemed like only a 50%
likelihood) made her ache more.

So she looked around instead, and found her bundled cloak, and the bow
and quiver of arrows, miraculously unbroken, but dinged up.  She gathered
them near the door, and considered the situation.  She could try again
at opening the door, but the ache in her bones advised against putting
too much energy into that.  She could try climbing out, but who knew
how much stone still needed to fall before she had a safe path out.

Then she lit upon a third choice.  She pulled off the iron ring and
set it and the knife on top of the bundle, sat down, and left her body
to see what she could see outside.

Beyond the door, the room was clear but dusty, with nothing blocking
the door.  She went further out, and saw that the courtyard was a
shambles.  The side of the house which faced the enemy camp was almost
entirely shattered.  The wall enclosing the fourth side of the
courtyard was similarly toppled, the gate lying on its face in the
grass.  She flew further out, and found the enemy camp.  They seemed
to be packing up and loading their carts, looking unhappy.  Evidently
something had not gone right.

Aurelia realized that was she was not seeing was a bunch of Drais
Daoine captives with the Queen's men.  Evidently they failed to
capture their enemy as the Queen had instructed.  She was cheered by
that, at least.

She flew up and circled around the house, trying to figure out what
had happened to all the Drais.  They were nowhere to be seen.  She
wondered if they were all dead, but dismissed the thought when she
realized that there were no bodies.  She had direct evidence that
Daoine didn't turn into dust or mist or something when they died.
They were just like any other creature, and left behind their mortal
shell.

Puzzled, but less worried, she returned to herself, and reconsidered
the situation, contemplatively slipping the ring back on.  Now that she'd
flown around, she didn't feel so achey, and decided to try the door again.

No amount of tugging or pushing seemed to budge it, and she finally
hit upon the idea of simply throwing rocks at it to see if she could
knock it off its hinges.  It took her more than an hour, alternating
between throwing the biggest rocks she could muster and resting
(throwing rocks brought every ache back in all its technicolor glory),
but she eventually succeeded in knocking a hole in the door, which she
quickly widened until she was able push the wrecked pieces aside and
escape the little room.

She stood to her full height, glad to be out of the little room, and
stretched (ache) and twisted around (ache, ache) trying to work out a
kink in her back from bending over.  She grabbed her bundle and
archery stuff, and slung the bow and quiver over her shoulder, leaving
the bow unstrung as Maidraid Ruadh had shown her.  A quick glance out
at the courtyard showed that her virtual flight around had been
correct.  It was a mess.

She picked her way carefully through the fallen stone, looking
wonderingly at the lack of bodies strewn about.  This made her think
of Ailis, and how she wanted to give her a proper burial.  However,
the thought of trying to get back upstairs was too daunting, and she
made a vow that she would remember the seer in some appropriate way
after she'd gotten herself out of this mess.

As she got herself clear of the rubble from the fallen wall, Aurelia
heard a cry from the Queen's camp, and was surprised to see a group of
soldiers detach from the assemblage and run in her direction.  It took
her a stunned moment to realize that they were running because of her,
and that perhaps she had best leave.

CHAPTER

Aurelia scrambled up the slope, quiver bouncing against her in a way
that she probably would have found comical had she been watching it
happening to someone else on a movie screen.  She was running up one of
the numerous dry burns that creased the landscape behind the
manorhouse.  She couldn't hear her pursuers, but didn't take that to
mean much.

The problem, she realized somewhat philosophically as she made her way
upward, was that at the top of the slope she would be horribly
exposed.  She wasn't used to thinking in tactical terms like this, but
discovered as many had before her that having people running after you
presumably intent to either kill or hurt you focuses the mind
amazingly well.  None of this slowed her down, but it did make her
wonder what she'd do when she got to the top.  She was painfully aware
that this was within a hundred yards of where Ailis had been shot.

The decision point reached, she continued at her speedy pace,
breathing heavily from the climb, and tried to run with a sort of
crouching gait that was neither very effective at concealing her, nor
an efficient way to run.  However, she spotted a path that would take
her down into another valley, and followed it, glad to have the
shelter.

As she descended into the little fold in the land, she realized with a
start that it was a box valley: long easy path in, but only short,
nearly vertical walls at the far end.  It was a dead-end.  She skidded
to a halt, afraid to go back, and afraid to go forward.  But there
were trees at the end of the valley, and she thought she might be able
to hide there.  She was suddenly glad she had chosen to wear the dark
green dress today, and not the red and yellow tartan.

She reached the end of the valley, and was trying to decide on the
best place to hide when she heard a sound that caused her blood to
freeze in her veins: a hiss that could have come from the world's
largest snake.  However, it was quickly followd by a more reassuring
noise, as a voice whispered, "Girl, over here!"

Aurelia looked in the direction the noise had come from, but didn't
see anything.  "Forward, girl.  It's Aurelia, right?  Keep walking
toward me.  There, just left, can you see me yet?"  She couldn't, but
continued forward.  It was a familiar voice, and she followed it until
she was standing right next to the source, a disembodied voice
hovering around waist level behind a tree.

"Mind your feet!" said the voice.  "Come, ye'll be safe here.  Can ye
still not see me?  Och."  A moment later, Aurelia was shocked to see
she was standing next to one of the Drais Daoine, a little man with
bright blond hair pulled back into a plait and a clean-shaven face.
Aurelia recognized him, but didn't know his name.

"Oh, it's you!"

"Aye, it's me.  Domhnaill a-Drais."  He extended his hand and Aurelia
shook it.  He cried out and recoiled in pain, clutching the one hand in
the other.  "Faith," he said, remembering to lower his voice again,
"what was that?"

Aurelia looked at her hand uncomprehendingly for a moment before she
remembered she was wearing the ring again.  "Oh, shit.  Sorry.  It's
this ring.  It's made of iron."

"You really are human, then," he said, smiling despite the pain.  "I'd
consider that a weapon of war, were I you.  It smarts right enough."
He fell silent at a faint noise from the entrance to the valley.  He
faded from sight, then said, "Blimey girl, take that iron off!  I
cannot hide you with you wearing it!  They're coming, ye do not want
to be seen, do you?"

She pulled the ring off quickly, and dropped it into the bundle.  She
half-heartedly turned away and tried to hide the knife from Domhnaill
as she pulled it out of her dress, but he spotted it, his eyes
widening in spite of himself.  She quickly slipped it into the bundle
at her feet.

"Aye, and if that's what I think it is, you most definitely have an
arsenal with ye.  I'm glad we share allegiance in this battle, girl."
She didn't notice any change, but he said, "There, now we are hidden
from sight again."  At the top of the valley, they saw a head appear
to rise out of the ground, followed by another.  Two of the Queen's
men peered down the valley, and started a few feet down it, but
quickly turned around and moved off to the south, away from them.

"Now," said Domhnaill a-Drais, "we wait."

CHAPTER


It turned out to be a very boring wait.  The Queen's men appeared the
one time, and never again.  They waited for almost a whole day.

They tried to pass the time in quiet conversation, but they ultimately
had little to discuss, and were constantly hushing themselves at any
slight change in the noise environment around them.  Aurelia quickly
tuned into it, and became aware any time there was the slightest
change in the sounds made by the insects, birds, and other unseen
wildlife around them in the little valley.

The one subject that fascinated Aurelia was Domhnaill's glamour, but
the conversation was quite short:

"Domhnaill, I've been wondering since I arrived here at the Queen's
court -- how does the glamour work?  That's what's hiding us, right?"

"Right enough," he'd replied.  "But as to how it works, I think I
could not describe it in words to make it plain to you.  Do you know
the word 'cluadh?'"  Aurelia shook her head no, and he continued, "I
thought not.  It is the feeling of glamour.  It is a state of mind,
and a way to think and a feeling.  Do you know how you are able to see
with the Second Sight?"

"Yes, but... Oh, I see.  I could never describe it to someone who
hasn't done it.  Even when Ailis and I were talking about it," she
fingered the torc around her neck self-consciously, "we didn't
experience it the same way.  I guess that makes sense, then.  How did
you learn, if you don't know how to talk about it?"

"It is a matter of practice.  In truth, lass, I have known how to do
it for so long that I can no longer remember the time before I had the
skill.  Hist!" He cocked his head, cautiously listening to a change in
the soundscape, but continued after a minute.  "In any case, now it is
as second nature to me, much as I expect Second Sight is to yourself."

The conversation veered off at this point to early life, with Aurelia
remarking on the fact that there were no children in the Drais
household.  "Oh yes," Domhnaill said, "'tis right rare to see a Daoine
child, not like you humans.  I heard where you sometimes have three or
four children after only a few years.  Is that truth?"

"Well..." Aurelia considered the average Daoine lifespan, which seemed
to be more or less limitless, usually extending to 2000 or 3000 years
before obvious signs of old age set in.  "I guess you could say that.
I don't have any kids, but I suppose I was physically capable of
getting pregnant by the time I was 12 or 13."  She shuddered at the
thought.  "But most people I know don't have kids, and most of my
friends are in their early 20s."

"Twenty years, is it?  Truly, we live on different scales.  By twenty
years, a Daoine is barely finished with toddling around, suckling off
his mother's breast.  It's hard to imagine you are yourself twenty
years old."

"I'm actually twenty-three."

"Still, it makes little difference," he said, shaking his head in
wonder.  "Humans are a right odd race."

"I could say the same about you," said Aurelia, bridling a little at
the condescending tone she heard in Domhnaill's voice.

"Oh now lass, don't take it like that.  Men also took over the world
and drove out the Daoine Sidhe to our Tir na Tuatha, where we have
lived for millenia without escape.  I would not dare suggest humans
are lesser than Daoine, but they do rightly have less magic about
them."

"Do you really think we drove you out?"

"I know it.  I was there.  The memory fades a little now, but we were
driven out as surely as you and I are sitting here talking.  Oh, there
was no force involved.  But we found our way back into your world
barred as surely as if it were chained shut with iron chains.  The
belief failed, and we lost power there.  It was a sad time, but we
have found our way here and made the best of what we have."  His voice
had become sad as he lamented their expulsion from the world of men.

"Aw, that sounds so sad!  I'm sorry we stopped believing in you."

"Well, right enough, you will believe for all time, unless the world
of men saps you of your belief as well, if you return."

"I'd love to go back," said Aurelia with distant longing in her voice.
"I will go back.  I just have to figure out what's keeping me here."

"Ah, you have a geas upon you?"

Aurelia looked puzzled.  "What's a geas?"

"'Tis a form of spell or obligation.  It compels you to do something,
or not do something.  It can take many forms, but perhaps you were
bound when you entered Tir na Tuatha.  You would not know of it in
some cases, I trow."  Domhnaill's tone was conversational, but Aurelia
was suddenly very interested.

"Who could place a geas on me?"

"Could be anyone with the right spell or power.  Certain as salt the
Queen could, or many of her minions.  I've no doubt Ailis or Raonaid
could bind a soul in a geas if they needed to.  It does not truly
happen often these days."

"But... Why would someone want to do that?  Well, wait, how does it
work?  Do I just do stuff without realizing why, or do I get a shock
when I do the wrong thing, or what?"

"Sure enough, I am no expert.  It has been truly many a year since I
have heard tell of a geas being placed on a soul.  'Tis not my place to
tell you that you have a geas, come to that.  It sparked the memory,
did your story."  He froze again, as did Aurelia.  The sussuration
around them had changed, going quiet to the south, which was
coincidentally the direction the Queen's men had disappeared, many
hours before.  Aurelia found her heart beating faster, but after
several minutes it became evident that whatever had silenced the birds
and insects had passed away.

They sat in silence for several minutes, each lost in their own
thoughts.  Then Aurelia said, "How would I know I had a geas on me?  Is
there a sign or something?"  Her voice was thoughtful, less
apprehensive than before they had paused.

"Well," said Domnhaill, his voice indicating a certain weariness with
the topic, "as I recall, when a man broke his geas, he died."

"Oh," said Aurelia, detachment vanishing, her voice small.

They sat in silence for the next several hours, during which time
Aurelia thought over a good many things.

CHAPTER

The next day, having slept curled together for warmth in the coolness
of the night, Domhnaill and Aurelia awoke to a brilliant sunrise
illuminating the high clouds.  Aurelia quickly and self-consciously
disentangled herself, and stood up.  Domnhnaill seemed unabashed, and
indeed unaware that there was any reason he might feel abashed.

"Good morning," he said, stretching and yawning.

"Morning," said Aurelia, smoothing down her dress and checking her hair
for twigs.  Once sure she was clear of unintended vegetation, she sat
down again next to Domhnaill.  "How long do you think we need to wait?"

"Oh, I would guess we have waited as long as we need, by now.  The
soldiers haven't been back, and it has been most of a day without their
sight upon our eyes.  I trow they are long gone."  He stood, and
continued his stretching regimen, finally bending forward and brushing
his fingertips against his boots.  As he straightened up, he said, "Ah,
a night of sleep does a body good.  I would have liked a softer bed,
though."  He laughed at his little joke.

"What will you do now?"  Aurelia was contemplating the sky, which had
ceased showing the bright colors of sunrise, and was quickly
brightening up to full daylight.

"I reckon upon tracking the Queen's little army, and seeing what I may
accomplish toward freeing my friends.  I would wager there are several
dozen other Daoine-Dhrais hiding among these hills..."  He left off here,
cupped his hand around his mouth, and made an odd chittering noise
followed by a sort of "eek."  The noise was repeated several other
times in short succession, from different directions.  "Aye, we have
friends close.  The red squirrel serves many purposes," he said,
grinning at the human woman.  She didn't understand the joke.

"Ok," she said.  "So you'll track them down and what, go fight through
all of them?"

"Oh, perish the thought!  They are large and ungainly, and must stop by
night to eat and sleep.  We are few, and speedy.  We will harry them by
moonlight.  They took many prisoners, and cannot have them well
secured.  We will hardly need fight anyone, though I would welcome the
chance to knock a few heads about.  Laochag is among their prisoners,
and I would be right proud to be the hand that springs her chains."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense."  Aurelia stood, following Domhnaill's
lead.  "When will you go?"

"Sooner than later, I should think.  Will you join us?"

Aurelia paused, not particularly proud of her reaction to the question.
"I don't know," she said at first, wondering how to say it.  "I think I
would probably not be very good at attacking by moonlight," she finally
said.  "There's no chance you might stay here and get the manorhouse
back together?"

"Oh, not just yet.  We will in time, I am fair certain.  Will you not
stay with us, then?"

"I think..."  Aurelia paused, realizing that she was speaking her
decision as she was making it, "I think I need to move on.  I need to
figure out why I'm here, and how to get home.  I need to figure out
what the Queen wants from me.  I think she's the key to it."

"It is a dangerous territory hereabouts, are you not worried for your
safety?"

"Oh, um."  Aurelia pondered for a moment, glancing around their little
ravine.  "I guess that's a good point.  Maybe I should stick with
you..."  She paused again, hearing the sounds around them shift and
silence.  Suddenly curious, she dropped into Second Sight and flew up
in the direction of the silence.

What she saw shocked her so much that she sprang back to herself, and
fell backwards with the force.  "What was that!?" she whispered
fiercely, almost to the world at random.  Domhnaill crouched low,
having picked up on the danger, if not understanding it.

"What was what?  What did you see?"

"Up, over the ridge there.  Oh god, it was horrible.  Like a..."  She
paused, the word "zombie" failing to form in the tongue she was
speaking.  "I guess like a walking dead person.  We call them 'zombies'
back home."  The word sounded unnatural to her ears, although it was
perfectly normal English.

"A walking dead person?  Did it have a tail?  What color was it?"
Domhnaill was completely serious now, his previous good humor gone,
replaced by an intensity that surprised Aurelia.

"I don't... I don't remember a tail.  I could look again.  It was brown
and black, I guess.  It looked rotten, and it didn't have any clothes,
but it was a little shaggy maybe?  What was it?"

"Most like a bogle, to my mind."  He looked thoughtful, weighing
options.

"A bogle!?"  Aurelia recalled Laochag's warning about bogles.  Run the
other way, she'd said.  "What do we do?"

Domnnaill sat down next to Aurelia, and at a nearly silent whisper,
said.  "We sit silent and still.  Quiet now."  She followed suit, still
propped up on one elbow after falling over.

They could actually sense the bogle moving by the silence that followed
it.  Aurelia flew herself up to spy on it again.  It was as horrible as
her first sight had suggested: a nearly human-looking form, hunched
over, distorted face containing a mouth far too large for the head, and
when it opened, Aurelia saw hundreds of tiny pointed teeth.  The skin
was mottled and splotchy, black and brown, but not in a pattern like a
natural animal.  It was shaggy, after a fashion, many long, thin, wispy
hairs covering it from head to toe, but sparse, like it had once had a
thick lustrous coat that had mostly fallen out due to mange.  As she
got closer, she realized it smelled as well, she knew not of what, but
horrible enough that she didn't stick around to try classifying the
smells.

Her body, during all this, had fallen quite still and silent, even
beyond the attentive silence she'd had once Domhnaill had said they
should be quiet.  With some effort, she croaked out a description of
the beast to Domhnaill, and was able to hear his response as if through
a thick cloud.  "That sounds most like a bogle; quiet now," he said,
she was pretty sure.

She returned to her body, gently this time.  "It was turning this way
as I came back," she said, at a dead silent whisper.  

"Like as not it has scented us.  I cannot glamour that away, alas.  Can
you fight, lass?"

"I don't think so."

"If it comes for us, you'd best be ready to run for your very life,
girl.  I can hold it back for a short while to give you time."

"What?  No, I can't let you sacrifice yourself like that!"  Her voice
strained in her throat to be let loose to express the full extent of
her disapproval at this plan.

"'Twill be no sacrifice, lass.  I can disappear out of harm's way from
the bogle, but I cannot take you with me.  I am a tracker, and I have
my ways.  But the best I can do for you is give you time to escape.
But we may yet escape its attentions."  He fell silent again, as the
empty space in the sussuration seemed to grow closer.

They waited for several tense minutes until the black head appeared
over the ridge, looking down into their valley.  Aurelia suppressed a
surprised shriek behind her hand.  It moved oddly, like a broken toy,
or as if its bones weren't quite connected together very well.

Domhnaill's attention was riveted on the bogle, and he was absolutely
silent now.  He very slowly drew a bronze knife from his belt as the
bogle made its way down the slope toward them.  Aurelia didn't think it
could see them, but it seemed to be heading unerringly in their
direction.

"When I say, do you run for all you're worth, girl," he whispered,
his eyes still fixed on the approaching creature.  Aurelia's heart was
in her throat as the horrible thing came down the slope toward them,
moving cautiously but relentlessly.  As it came closer, Aurelia saw it
was larger than she'd initially thought, standing at least as tall as
her.  The stench hit her as it came further toward them, and she nearly
lost her nerve.

"Go!" came the fierce whisper from Domhnaill.  The bogle was south of
them, moving along the sloping wall of the valley rather than the
lowest point of the crease, leaving a space for Aurelia, although she
still had to run past it before getting clear to the exit of the
ravine.  She hesitated, not wanting to get close to the repulsive
creature.

"Go, I said!" said Domhnaill in full voice, suddenly standing into a
fighting crouch, knife outstretched before him in his right hand, his
left hand curled into a tight fist.  The bogle's attention swung
instantly to focus on the little man, who leapt forward with a loud
cry.

Aurelia clutched the bundle of clothes to her chest, grabbed up her bow
and quiver, and pelted up the hill.  The bogle made a horrible, ear
splitting screech behind her, and she heard a wild snarl which could
have only come from Domhnaill.  As she ran for all she was worth,
skirts awkwardly hiked up around her waist, she glanced briefly back,
and saw that the little man was grappling with the awful creature, who
was straining to get away from him, its white, beady eyes fixed on her.
She turned back around and ran and ran.

CHAPTER


Whatever Domhnaill had done, it must have worked.  When Aurelia came
to a breathless stop five minutes later, clutching her side and black
spots appearing in her vision, there was just the sound of the world.
No horrible screeching, no pursuing footsteps.  The bogle had been
silent when she'd seen it before, but it was also moving slowly at that
point.

Now that she had stopped, she found herself going over everything she
should have done differently.  She should have strung her bow and tried
to shoot the horrible thing.  She should have seen in advance that it
was coming.  She should have known more about it.  She shouldn't have
left Domhnaill to be injured or killed.

There was still too much panic and adrenaline in her to consider
incapacitating herself by going into a Second Sight trance, although
she was half desperate to know what had happened to Domhnaill.  She
cast about, trying to figure out what her immediate future held. 

She was still in the rolling grasslands that surrounded Drais, which
meant there was no shelter to be found unless she chanced across a
cleft in a hill or similar anomaly.  She climbed to the top of a
hillock and looked around.  Back the way she'd come, the hills rolled
off into the distance.  The sun was still low on the horizon, which she
knew from her time with the Drais was east.  Learning that had been
embarrassing: asking directions to the well that was outside the
manorhouse, she'd been told it was north, up the slope a little from
the house.  When she'd looked blank, the woman she was talking to
pointed, and said, "Do you not know how to find the direction?"  She'd
admitted she didn't, and there had followed a discussion of sunrise,
sunset, and the north star at night.  It was such ingrained knowledge
among the Drais that it had actually taken some discussion to convince
anyone that she didn't know how to find directions.

So, she'd come from the south, or at least south-ish.  Looking into the
rising sun, she saw mountains rising in the distance, blue with mist.
To the north, the land rose into taller hills, but not what she would
have called mountains.  To the west lay more rolling grasslands.  The
hills to the north, which looked like they also had trees, seemed like
an appealing destination.

She thought briefly of turning back and trying to rejoin the Drais, but
truly felt that if she was ever going to find her way home, she had to
break free of the comfort of eternally hanging out with friendly -- but
not ultimately helpful -- people.

As she walked northward (conveniently the direction she'd already
been going), she thought about her logic, and tried to understand what
was drawing her away from comfort and safety.  Certainly the Drais had
taken her in and protected her to the best of their ability, but that
had only extended as far as keeping her fed and housed, and did not
seem to extend to actual help.

Well, of course, that wasn't true of Ailis.  She thought wistfully of
the dead woman, brushing the fingers of her free hand over the torc
with its rose quartz stone.  Ailis had given her true friendship, and
true help, even though she'd been too late to see the fruits of all
their labor.  The thought made Aurelia sad.  It was so stupid that
she'd figured out the iron problem after her mentor had fallen into a
coma.  There was some solace in that brief, final vision, but not a
lot.  Aurelia felt that she should have had as much time as she'd
wanted to hone her skills and enjoy the company of her friend.

That was another thing about the Drais, she'd reflected as she walked.
They were all friendly, but none seemed willing to open up to her.  She
thought about the famous "Seattle Freeze" she'd heard about, but
thought that the Drais suffered from it much more than any Seattleite
she'd known.

Still, they hadn't been reluctant to be helpful.  She had learned a
great deal with them, and had a variety of useful skills she'd never
even dreamed existed while living in Seattle.  Direction-finding was
only one: she now knew how to kindle a fire from nothing, how to shoot
a bow (albeit still not terribly accurately), how to find water that
was safe to drink, and had at least a vague idea of what was poisonous
and what was edible among the vegetation.  In Seattle, she had been
only peripherally aware that directions existed, and never would have
guessed that it was possible to find safe water to drink that didn't
come from a faucet.  She certainly had never touched a bow before.

Her pace slowed, and she decided to take a break.  The sun was past
noon, and she must have walked a dozen miles so far.  She set her
things down atop a small hill, and sat down next to them.  She looked
around, but there wasn't much to see.  Just grass rolling away where
she'd come from, and taller, wrinkled hills ahead.  The mountains to
the east remained just as distant, but the northern hills were
noticeably closer.

As she sat, she grew tired, and decided it wouldn't hurt to close her
eyes for a few minutes.  The night spent with Domhnaill had been
uncomfortable, and she hadn't slept very well.  The adrenaline of the
bogle attack was still exacting its heavy toll, and sleep sounded most
appealing.

CHAPTER


Aurelia realized she was in a vision before she could actually see
anything.  It was also a dream, which she found she could discern as
well.  Intrigued, she moved into the vision, which resolved into the
very hilltop she was lying on.

She saw herself lying there, and was initially alarmed to see that
sitting next to her was another figure.  However, as she got closer,
she recognized the figure: Ailis was sitting next to her.  She swept
closer, and said, "Ailis?  Is that really you?  This feels like a
vision, but you're dead!  What is this?"  She'd never been able to
communicate with anyone in a vision before, except that one with Ailis
before she'd passed away during the attack.

"Hello, Aurelia," she said, smiling her smile.  "I am truly here.  Did
you not understand before?  I live in on the torc about your neck.  You
carry me with you in your travels, and I see you have already traveled
far.  Where is this place we sit?"

"I don't know," said Aurelia, looking around to get her bearings.  "I
came from that way, which is south, so we're north of the manorhouse,
or what's left of it.  Oh shit!" Aurelia clapped her hands to her
mouth, a tiny part of her mind wondering that she had a body at all in
this vision.  "I left your body there!  I was going to bury it, and
then we were under attack, and the whole house was shaking, and I tried
to get out, and the stairs fell under me, and when I woke up...  I was
only thinking of myself.  Oh, I'm so sorry, Ailis!"

The Drais woman, who looked odd, not quite the way she had looked in
life, nor the young woman from their last shared vision, smiled and
shook her head.  "No matter.  It will provide a tasty snack for the
ravens and worms.  I appreciate your concern, though."  She looked
around, eventually standing up to get a better view.  "It looks as
though we are at the northern extent of the Drais lands, if we have
traveled as you said.  To the east are the mountains of Uisadh.  If we
continue north, we will enter the lands of the Seorchaidh.  What is
your intention?"

"I guess... I guess I'm just going somewhere different.  I feel like I
need to move on, I can't really explain it.  Oh, maybe you can help me.
You know Domhnaill a'Dhrais, blond hair, clean-shaven?  He said I might
be under a geas.  Do you know what that is?  Is there any way to tell?"

"Oh," said Ailis, looking amused at the thought, "I am fair certain you
labor under no geas.  Usually a body knows.  A geas carries no weight
if you know not you have it.  The geas is placed by telling a person
they have it, and working a spell upon them so that if they break it,
they will die.  I trust you've had no one tell you of conditions you
must honor or face death?"

"Not that I can think of," said Aurelia, looking thoughtful as she
tried to rack her memories for such an event.  She came up blank.  "No,
I'm pretty sure I would have remembered that."

Ailis laughed, a light, tinkling laugh, throwing her head back.  "Aye,
I am most certain you would remember it.  One does not lightly forget
being threatened with death."  She paused, her mirth cooling a bit.
She looked around again, curiously.  "Why have you stopped at the top
of a hill?"

"Oh," said Aurelia, pausing to consider.  "I don't know, I guess so I
could see better?"

"Aye, you can see better.  But so can a wandering body see you better.
It is safer to rest in the valleys between hills.  I forget sometimes
that you have only twenty years to you, girl.  The lands of Tir na
Tuatha are not a children's candyland, as you must know by now.  You
must learn to guard yourself with more care."

"You know we ran into a bogle this morning, right?  I know there's
dangerous stuff out there."

"No, did you?  A bogle?  Well well.  They are uncommon enough.  I
suppose it was likely the bogle traveling with that group who shot me
through.  I am sorry you had the encounter, but your actions prove out
a lack of forethought.  You should awake and shift yourself."

"Wait," said Aurelia, suddenly concerned, "will you come back?  I don't
want to leave you again."

"Aye, girl, I am with you.  We can talk when you sleep, as now.  Never
fear for that.  Now wake you and find a safer place to sleep if you
must sleep."

Aurelia sat up, wiping her eyes.  Ailis was gone, and she was once
again alone atop the little hill.

CHAPTER


Aurelia moved herself down into the hollow next to the hill she had
been sleeping on, and dropped into a trance, mindful that she had the
peace and time now to check back on Domhnaill, and see what had passed
with him.

She flew back toward the Drais manorhouse, then traced back along the
path she thought she'd taken climbing away from the pursuing soldiers.
She found what was probably the valley they'd spent the night in, but
found no obvious sign of Domhnaill or the bogle.  There was scuffed
ground, so it was probably the right ravine, but that was the only
indication.

She cast out, circling around their sleeping spot, looking for any sign
of the little man.  There was no indication, however, and she paused,
high up in the air, wondering what she could do.

Then she remembered one of Ailis's attempted lessons, which was to do
with finding people, either inside a vision, or outside the trance.
She recited the words Ailis had said (having repeated them over and
over for more than an hour one morning, attempting to discover any
tiny scrap of Second Sight she might be able to access), and felt her
mind sliding into a different state -- words had much more direct power
in Tir na Tuatha.

The world in her vision dimmed, and as she looked around, she finally
saw what Ailis had described to her: the sight was more appealing in
one direction.  She went that way, feeling along in her disembodied
way, like a blind woman feeling her way down an unfamiliar hallway.
She held the image of Domhnaill firmly in her mind as she went, seeing
his face, his form, his clothing, even his light boots in all the
detail she could muster.  This appealing quality of the vision led her
on, and she became more confident with it, moving faster as she
understood what was happening.

Eventually, this somewhat inexplicable visual attraction led her many
miles from where they had been, and finally she saw him.  He was
sparkling in her vision, a logical extension of the visual appeal of
his direction.  He was moving slowly, his shirt off, and a bandage
wrapped around his upper left arm, which was bright red.  She flew down
to get a closer look.

He grimaced as he walked, as if he was sore in his legs or hips, and
was plainly favoring one leg.  He held his damaged arm as still as
possible, wincing any time it moved.  A look of determination was on
his face.  Aurelia felt horrible.  It looked like the bogle had savaged
Domhnaill's arm, and presumably the limping was from their altercation
as well.  She had a sudden urge to try talking, but found that once
again, her vision did not allow for communication.  She was forced to
look on as he stumbled over an uneven patch of ground, his breath
exploding out of him with the pain.

He was plainly moving toward a goal, and Aurelia ripped herself away
from the wrenching sight of his progress to see if she could find what
he was walking towards.  She flew ahead, and by concentrating on the
Drais generally, was eventually very tentatively led to a spot that
appeared to contain grass and bushes and nothing else.  She looked
to see if she could penetrate a glamour, and there was a group of about
a dozen Drais, preparing a makeshift camp.  Once again, she wished she
could communicate, but remained resolutely mute.

Recalling that she was alone and unprotected in the wilderness, Aurelia
regretfully pulled herself back to herself, hoping that Domhnaill would
make it to his friends.  When she opened her eyes, she found that the
sun had dipped low on the horizon.  A few minutes' search revealed a
spring, from which she drank deeply, suddenly quite thirsty.

She looked around, and found the most protected spot she could find to
camp for the night.  She didn't see anything she could put together a
fire with, so decided to forego the comfort for tonight.  She hoped she
could reach the more wooded hills to the north by the end of the day
tomorrow.

As she was unrolling the cloak to wrap herself in for the night, she
saw the iron ring fly away, and cursed loudly -- she'd forgotten it was
wrapped up in the bundle -- and spent a number of minutes hunting around
for it.  Almost unconsciously, she engaged her Second Sight to aid in
the search, as she might have turned on a light switch to search a dark
room back in Seattle.  She finally found it, nestled down in a tuft of
grass, surprisingly far from where she thought it had landed.  She was
surprised to see, in her enhanced visual state, that the iron had a
kind of negative presence, like looking at a little black hole in
reality.  It made sense when she thought about it, and as she slipped
the ring on, the sight of its emptiness disappeared, and it just looked
like a plain black iron ring.

CHAPTER

The night passed uneventfully, but she was cold the whole night
through, and didn't really sleep as much as fitfully nap interspersed
with periods of wakefulness.  Finally the sun rose in the east, and she
blearily looked at the sky.  It was the same sparse cloud-covered sky
she realized she had seen every day since she'd arrived.  She suddenly
intensely missed the heavy overcast and overcast of the Seattle winter.

She realized as she came more awake that her sleep had not included any
dreams.  In particular, it hadn't included any dreams with Ailis in
them.  The realization came upon her slowly, and only after mulling
the thought over for several minutes did she become concerned.  But
then, the worry caused her to sit upright, suddenly very worried that
Ailis had been wrong in the last dream: she was gone now, and Aurelia
was truly alone in the world.  It had been terrible to think that when
Ailis had died, but to be teased with a resurrection, then have that
second chance yanked from her was almost more than she could bear.  Her
face collapsed, and Aurelia sat on the ground, face in hands, hot tears
running down between her fingers.

Something made her look up, her eyes still distorted with unshed tears.
Something else was there, and she wiped her eyes quickly, having no
idea what it was.  Looking again, she saw a dark form on four legs,
browsing on the grass, its dark and hairy head moving in time as it
cropped the grass.  As she watched, mesmerised, the animal suddenly
became aware of her, raising its head.  She realized it looked like
some kind of mutant pig, like the Drais had kept in an outbuilding near
the manorhouse.  Its face was sharp, and looked shortsightedly at her.
There was a moment, human and boar looking at each other, before the
boar made a grunting noise, and took a step toward her.

Aurelia suddenly became aware of the wicked-looking tusks on the boar,
and realized she had absolutely no defense if the beast decided to
attack her.  She didn't know why it should attack (still thinking that
most animals were likely to be afraid of humans), but as the boar took
another stiff step toward her, she quickly reassessed her assumptions.
She got hastily to her feet, her cloak spreading out impressively as
she looked around.

She looked back at the boar, which hadn't moved any more toward her.
Suddenly angry, with tears still falling from her eyes, she took a step
toward the animal, and shouted, "Get out of here!  Leave me alone!
I didn't do anything to you!  Go away!"  She flapped the hem of her
cloak like wings, which was evidently enough for the boar.  It turned
around and trotted away, its thin tail swishing back and forth as it
went.

Aurelia collapsed again on the ground, all the grief rushing back, put
her face in her hands, and cried it all out.

CHAPTER

Fortunately for Aurelia, she figured out that she'd been wearing the
iron ring as she slept, and realized that must have kept Ailis at bay.
This reversed the grief to some extent, but as she walked on toward the
hills, it was with a lingering heavy heart that she went.

The sights on her walk northward were unremarkable, and did nothing to
divert her thoughts from their negative cycle: why am I here, what can
I do to get home, why did Ailis have to die, what am I doing to do
next.

She did have one productive thought: she resolved to be continuously
conscious of whether or not she was wearing her iron.  It had caused
nothing but trouble so far, but the brief handshake with Domhnaill had
proven that it would be an effective weapon if necessary.  Balancing
that defensive capability against her ability to use her Second Sight
was the challenge.  Since she could usually control when she wanted to
use the magical power, she decided to keep the ring on unless she knew
she wanted to make use of the power.

As she walked, Aurelia kept her eyes open for edible plants, but they
were few and far between.  Her stomach was complaining, but she had
little with which to appease it.  She thought back on the boar,
suddenly aware of just how much meat must be on such an animal.  It
would mean kindling a fire, and she had no idea how one went about
converting a dead boar into bacon, but those seemed like surmountable
obstacles, particularly as she became more and more aware of her
hunger.

Stopping in one of the deeper valleys that had started to appear in her
path, Aurelia fingered the bow she was carrying, and thought about how
she might go about catching an animal she could eat.  Leaving her
bundle on the ground, she strung the bow, and looked around to see if
she could find a target.  Perhaps some practice would be good.

The arrows she'd gotten from Mairaid Ruadh, the Drais master armorer,
had simple field points on them: bullet-shaped tips that went nicely
into a butt, but were probably not too effective for hunting.  On the
other hand, they were also difficult to dull, and they would survive
some abuse without their effectiveness being reduced.  

She picked a likely-looking tree part way up the valley wall, calmed
her breath as she'd been taught, nocked the arrow, drew it back, and
let it fly.  It disappeared beyond the tree, missing by inches, and it
was only with ten minutes' searching, desperate not to lose one of her
dozen arrows, that she found it submerged in the grass behind the tree.
She extricated the arrow, and decided perhaps there was a safer way to
practice somehow.  She'd have to keep her eyes open.

She returned to her bundle, left the bow strung and slung it across her
chest, and set out again.  She kept her eyes open for a better practice
target, but none was obviously standing out to her.  The ideal target
would of course be some small defenseless animal that would be
delicious spitted over an open fire, but she didn't have much
confidence in her abilities to actually hit a stationary target, much
less one that might move at any moment.

The valleys she was now walking through were proving to be frustrating,
half of them ending in a dead-end, so she had to turn around, or be
forced to climb steep walls to continue.  She felt like her rate of
progress had halved, and was starting to question her desire to head
for these hills instead of turning back and joining with the Drais.

As the light was failing, the sun having long since passed behind the
valley wall to the west, Aurelia spotted a clump of bushes bearing what
she knew to be edible berries.  She fell on them ravenously, eating
every last berry she could find.  It had only amounted to a handful or
two of berries, but it was still extremely satisfying to have found
food at all.

Taking this as a good sign, Aurelia found a clear area near the little
creek that meandered along the valley floor, and set up what passed for
her camp.  She drank deeply from the creek, since it was so much more
convenient than trying to hike up into the hills to find a spring.  She
concientiously took off the ring and removed the knife from her
waistband, setting them in with the clothing she'd brought from the
Drais manorhouse.

Wrapped up in her cloak, Aurelia looked up at the darkening sky, the
first unfamiliar constellations coming out as the sun descended beyond
the horizon.  Next to her, the creek chattered gently to itself, and
Aurelia was very nearly comforted by the sound.  She thought wistfully
of beds, which seemed like a distant, beautiful dream.  Even her thin,
uncomfortable straw mattress back at the manorhouse seemed like a
wonderful vision compared to lying on the grass, wrapped in a cloak.

As she was vacillating between whether the vision of a bed or the
vision of a feast spread on a table was the more appealing, Aurelia
drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER


Aurelia found herself in another dream-vision, and again Ailis was
there.  She flew down and hugged the little Daoine woman.  "Oh, Ailis!"
she said, "I was so afraid you'd abandoned me.  I forgot I was wearing
the iron ring last night, and it must have blocked me from seeing you."
She pulled back and looked at Ailis, who was clearly vislble despite
the utter blackness of the night.  Aurelia had long ago accepted that
the normal rules didn't necessarily apply in Second Sight.

"Aye, iron will do that.  I have not yet had occasion to mention it,
Aurelia, but I am most pleased that you found what was blocking you.
Even wearing iron, it was clear to me you had the talent, it just
required the unlocking.

"Tell me, what have your travels revealed to you thus far?"

Aurelia thought for a moment, then said, "Mostly that I'm hungry and
thirsty all the time.  I never had to find my own food back home, we
just went into a store and bought it."

"You know, girl, that things like hunger are only suggestions in Tir na
Tuatha?  The magical energy of the place sustains us as much as any
mutton or vegetable.  I believe your world is a magic-poor place, so it
may be that your expectations are set wrong for life here."

"Oh," said Aurelia, struck by the thought.  "That reminds me, the first
time I was here, Mab had me concentrate on a stone in my hand to get
rid of hunger.  Does that work with any stone?"

"Aye, after a fashion.  The most potent stones are those which are
rare: common granite has little power, but a ruby or diamond can be a
source of tremendous power."

"Yeah, the stone I was using had a strip of quartz in the middle.  It
was really smooth, like it had been polished."

"A river stone, I trow.  Quartz has more power, to be sure.  I live now
in the rose quartz of the torc about your neck, which is much less
common than white quartz.  I was never rich."  She chuckled to herself.
"Were I a rich woman, I would now be residing in a diamond, and we
would not be limited to dreams as a time to communicate."

Aurelia's eyes widened.  "Is that what happens to Daoine when they die?
Do they go to live in stones?"

"Not everyone, to be sure.  Daoine Sidhe have some control of their
souls after the body dies, however, and it is not unheard of.  It
requires some preparation and skill.  I was uncertain at first that I
wanted to pursue such a course, for it can be a lonely existence, but
knowing you would be there to carry my stone made the decision clearer.
When I first learned the skill, oh, some four hundred years ago, it was
merely speculative."  Ailis sighed, her eyes seeing things that were
not in the present.  "Things change with time, of course, even here in
unchanging Tir na Tuatha."

"Wow," said Aurelia.  She grabbed Ailis's hand, and they both sat down
overlooking the dark creek, which still murmured to itself beyond the
bank.  Once comfortably situated, Aurelia said, "Do you know where I'm
going, Ailis?"

"Faith, no, girl!  You must know that yourself.  But it may be I can
help you find your goal.  Why do you say you're going somewhere?"

"I guess I just felt like I needed to do something else.  I want to get
out, back to Seattle and my normal life, but you said I was destined to
be here.  I think my time in the Queen's court made that clear too."

"Oh, Aurelia, I never meant to say that you were bound to Tir na
Tuatha.  My knowing of the future is fuzzy at best, and it may be I was
simply seeing your time with us."

Aurelia sat, silent for a moment.  "You mean," she started, then
paused, thinking it through, "you mean I could leave any time I wanted
to?"

"I see no reason you must remain here, if you should desire to go.  It
was once true that portals littered the land, and it may yet be true.
I have not honestly ever sought one, although I know how to find them.
For all I know, we could be sitting upon a portal in this very spot."
She closed her eyes, and cast her head around, like a bloodhound
sniffing out a scent.  "Alas, we are not.  Let me tell you how to find
one, so that you may be prepared."

Ailis had Aurelia search about until she found a pair of sticks of the
right size and shape.  These were bound together with grass to form an
X shape, which Aurelia was then to spin into the air, noting the way in
which they fell down.  "This is merely an exercise to find the spot in
your mind to see directly," Ailis had explained as Aurelia was binding
the sticks together.

She gave it a few experimental tosses, but couldn't tell, based on
Ailis's instructions, how to interpret the falls.  "Can't you see what
I need to see, and tell me, so I can see it better?"

"Alas, no.  It is all within you, and were I to throw the siannsa,
only I should be able to see the outcome."

Aurelia tried it a few more times with Ailis's encouragement, but they
decided in the end that they must either be too far from a portal, or
equidistant between a number of portals, which was causing the
indecipherable result.

As they sat once again by the side of the burn, Aurelia looked over at
her own sleeping form, a few feet away.  "You know, Ailis, this whole
thing is really weird.  If you'd told me a year ago that I would be
sitting in fairyland, talking to a dead woman I was carrying in a
necklace while in a dream sitting next to my own sleeping body, I would
have called the crazy doctors for you.  I thought fairies were a cute
superstition made up for Disney moving pictures," she found that there
was no way to say "movies" without reverting to English, "and plastered
on cheap kids clothing.  Yet here I am," she motioned to the two of them,
and over to her body, which slumbered peacefully.

"The world is a wide place, my lass.  It contains many things, and I
have never seen your world.  I know only my own, and it holds wonders
beyond compare even within the small part of it I know well."

They sat in silence then, listening to the burbling water.

CHAPTER

When Aurelia awoke, she found herself feeling considerably comforted by
the conversation with Ailis in the dream-vision.  The fact of the old
Daoine woman returning had been a profound relief.  It didn't solve
many of her existing problems, but it gave her the feeling that she
would be able to find the solutions.

She was a bit surprised to find herself so rested, but then the logic
she'd been able to discover behind much of Second Sight was that there
was little consistent logic to it.  So perhaps it made sense that
sitting up all night talking to someone inside a dream would be
restful.

She found herself thinking about what Ailis had said about power from
stones, and remembering Mab's help with her hunger.  In that case, so
long ago, the matriarch had bade her hold a stone tightly and
concentrate on it, saying it would help her lessen her hunger.  And
indeed, it had worked.  She hadn't considered it at the time, but it
seemed now like a very interesting thing to look into.

She took off her boots, and rolled up her skirts, and waded into the
stream to look for quartz stones.  The water was shockingly cold on her
bare feet, but they soon acclimatized, or perhaps merely grew numb with
the cold.  She searched for about five minutes without much success.
She found some interesting stones, but no quartz even.  Just dark,
smooth stones, worn down over aeons by the running water.

She moved back onto the bank, dropping a small pile of stones next to
her as she sat down to chafe some feeling back into her poor, freezing
feet.  The day was neither cold nor warm, the same odd, non-committal
weather that had occurred every day of her time in Tir na Tuatha so far.

Aurelia found herself wondering how exactly time worked here, and how
much time would have passed when she re-appeared in Seattle.  She had
no doubt that this was the eventual outcome of this adventure, she just
wished it would come sooner rather than later.  It didn't really occur
to her, despite the close brushes with death that she'd already had,
that any moment could be her last.  Of course, that had been just as
true in Seattle, but she lived in the blissful state of ignorance, or
at least willful disregard, of her own mortality.

Feet finally somewhat warmer, and more like dry than wet, she slipped
her boots back on and examined her pile of stones.  As they dried out
in the morning sun, they became considerably less beautiful, the water
drying out and losing the luster they'd had with the liquid coating the
surface.  Once they were fully dry, they just looked like a pile of
stones.  She tossed them, one by one, back into the stream, some kind
of primal childlike satisfaction manifesting at the little splashes.

As she was nearing the end of the pile, one of the stones landed with a
splash, and Aurelia was shocked to her a shouted, "Hey!" from the
stream.  Suddenly the water grew and grew into the shape of a gnarled
and shockingly ugly woman.  Aurelia realized it was someone standing
up, the water cascading off them slowly, as if reluctant to give up
contact with the woman.  The woman stalked over to Aurelia.

"Was that you, throwin' stones intae my burn!?"

The woman had straggly, dirty hair, blotchy green skin, and Aurelia
thought she caught a glimpse of pointed teeth in her mouth as she
spoke.  Aurelia scrambled up as she came close, grabbing for the ring
and slipping it on.  The knife was balled up with the clothing she had
laid beside her sleeping spot, and out of reach.

"Yes," she said.  "Was I not supposed to?  I'm sorry."

"You have nae rights to be here.  This is my burn.  I live here, not
you."  As she spoke, the green woman moved toward Aurelia
threateningly.  "Why are you here?  Why are you disturbin' me in my
home?  I should pull you in, and we will see how you like living
underwater.  Not as well as I do, I am half sure!"  She lunged for
Aurelia, who ducked and moved awkwardly.  Aureali tripped over her skirt
as she backpedalled, falling on her back as the green woman advanced.

"Oh aye," she said, grinning a horrible sharp-toothed grin, "ye'll like
my home well enough."  She reached for Aurelia and grabbed her by the
arm.  Her hands were surprisingly strong, and she hauled Aurelia bodily
to her feet.  Aurelia beat ineffectively against the woman, who didn't
seem to notice the blows.  She was dragged inexorably toward the water,
stumbling after the green woman, before she realized she was doing it
wrong.  Calming the panic she was feeling, Aurelia grabbed the woman
with her free right hand, pressing the iron ring into the flesh of her
arm, which was green and glistening with water and, Aurelia realized
now that she was up close, weeds.

The reaction took a moment to build, but Aurelia actually saw smoke
rising between her fingers, and felt heat building up.  The green woman
screeched shrilly, her progress toward the water faltering.  She
glanced back at Aurelia, a terrifying grimace on her face.  She opened
her mouth, and suddenly all Aurelia could see was those teeth.  There
was a sizzling noise coming from the hand she had closed over the
woman's arm, and a brain-piercing scream emanated from the woman's open
mouth.  She convulsively tried to rip her arm away from Aurelia, but
was thwarted by her own hand closed tightly over Aurelia's arm.

Finally she gave up on her goal and disengaged.  She flung out her arm
and caught Aurelia a blow on the shoulder that sent her sprawling on
the ground.  When Aurelia had recovered and looked back at the water,
there was nothing to see.  It was just a stream again, and the horrible
green woman was nowhere to be seen.

CHAPTER


The next day and the next were similar.  She walked as far as she
could, found a place to set up camp, found a few berries or some plant
she thought she could eat, and slept.  There were no more run-ins with
green-skinned women, but wildlife was starting to become apparent as
she continued, and she made a few unsuccessful volleys at squirrels and
rabbits with her bow.

The hills were also growing steeper, and Aurelia started seeing signs
of other Daoine around: close-cropped fields, a suggestion of a fence,
suspiciously organized piles of stones.  She would occasionally stop
and fly ahead to scout her path, a suggestion Ailis had made one night.
They continued their nightly convocations, and it came out that Ailis
lived in a kind of suspended animation when Aurelia wasn't dreaming:
she existed, but was only faintly aware of time passing and had no view
on what was passing in the outside world.  Her own Second Sight powers
also seemed to be more limited than when she was alive, which she said
she hadn't expected, but wasn't surprised at.

It wasn't too long before Aurelia spotted the first herd of sheep, and
the first shepherd.  She saw him as she was scouting ahead in a vision,
tending a herd of several dozen dirty white sheep who grazed
contentedly on grass.  He seemed uninterested in the sheep, staring up
into the sky from his little grassy perch.  She decided to avoid him,
not knowing anything other than that he was there.  He could have been
a threat or a savior, she had no idea.

She skirted around the flock, but soon found that if she wanted to
proceed in the direction she was going, she was going to be seen.
Aurelia wished she could consult with Ailis, but the process of falling
asleep and getting into a dream vision seemed tremendously cumbersome.
It was just past midday, and she wasn't even slightly tired.  Hungry,
certainly, but not tired.

After more pointless dithering on the point than she would have liked,
she decided to approach one of the shepherds, or in this case goatherd.

The goatherd, a woman who had small curled goat horns growing out of
her head, but otherwise appeared more or less human, was slowly
wandering with the herd up a steep slope.  The goats leapt gracefully
up and down the mountain, occasionally chasing each other, or playing,
but mostly just eating anything that got in their way.  The woman was
dressed in a dirty but otherwise fine emerald green cloak, and walked
with a long staff.  She didn't seem the least bit bothered by the
steepness of the slope.

Dithering again, Aurelia couldn't make up her mind how to approach the
woman and introduce yourself.  "Excuse me, I'm the only human in the
world, do you have any food?" seemed like a questionable introduction.
The choice was made for her when two goats chased each other in her
direction, stopping short when they caught scent of the stranger.  They
bleated loudly, and the herdswoman turned around to see what was
happening.

"Oh, hello!" she said, walking toward Aurelia.  "We do not commonly
find strangers in our valley."  There was no sign of either positive or
negative reaction from her so far, and Aurelia suddenly cursed the ring
she'd kept on, which was preventing her from seeing emotion-stuff.

"Oh, uh," Aurelia said, lamely.  "Yeah.  I'm... Um.  My name is
Aurelia, hi!"  She waved her hand, feeling even lamer.

The goatherd approached, her flock following curiously behind.
"Greetings Aurelia.  Whence do you hail?"

"I'm sorry?"  Aurelia didn't understand what was being asked.

"What path brings you to us?  What origin did you have?"

"Oh, um.  I was..." Aurelia felt lost, suddenly uncertain whether she
should admit being associated with the Drais, or the Queen, or anything
else.  Her time with the Drais had only taught her of their enmity with
the Queen, and Ailis hadn't mentioned anything about heading into
someone else's territory.  "I was staying with some folks to the south,
but I decided to move along.  I wasn't looking for you, I just sort
of... found you."

The goatherd paused, suspicion now evident on her face.  "Whom were you
staying with to the south?  Ardnadorchadh?  Drais?  Seorchaidh?"
Aurelia had heard the other two names, but really only knew the Drais.  

"The Drais," she said, half ready to turn and run.  The herdswoman
didn't appear to be armed, but Aurelia didn't much trust her vision,
particularly when shackled by the iron ring.

There was no obvious change, but Aurelia thought she saw a softening of
the woman's stance.  "I am Mairi of Loch Iasg.  What brings you here,
Aurelia, aside from the whims of the wind?"

"I don't really know," said Aurelia, surprised herself at the honesty
of the answer.

"That is an odd reason to wander from friends and hearth."  The
suspicion returned a little.  By now, all the goats had gathered and
were milling about.  Aurelia had to pull her cloak out of the mouth of
one of the bolder goats, which was giving it an experimental nibble.

"I... Shoo! They were attacked by the Queen's forces.  I guess it
seemed safer to leave.  The house was badly damaged, and they
scattered.  I'm sorry, can you call off your goats?"

For the first time, a smile appeared on Mairi's face, and she said,
"You clearly have not spent any time around goats."  She shoved the
inquisitive goat aside with her stick and made a sharp, staccato noise
at it.  The goat looked to be on the verge of re-engaging with
Aurelia's cloak, then turned aside and appeared to lose interest.  "But
this time you are in luck.  How long have you been walking, Aurelia
a'Dhrais?  You must have a hunger upon you, there is little to eat
betwixt here and there."

Aurelia's face must have jumped plainly at the mention of food, because
Mairi broke into a full, loud laugh that echoed off the far wall of the
valley.  "I see that I am right.  Come, the goats have had enough for
now.  Come back to my croft, I have some sour bread and butter I can
offer you."  She turned, and motioned Aurelia to follow her.  She did,
quietly slipping off the ring while Mairi's back was turned to her.
She wound it up in her bundle, which had come loose again in any case.

As they walked, Mairi said, "As I said, we do not often have visitors
here.  Loch Iasg is but a tiny village, and outside of market days, we
have little trade.  You are welcome here, as you have no love for the
Queen, I can tell."

"Is there anyone who has love for the Queen?" asked Aurelia, doubting
the wisdom of the question as soon as it had popped out of her mouth.
Mairi didn't seem to notice anything amiss, though.

"Oh, sure enough.  Or she would have no power.  But you are not in the
Queen's territory here.  We have little pull in the rule of Tir na
Tuatha, being but a small crofting village, but you will find no love
for the Queen in these parts.  She and her thugs have made their
unwelcome way here once or twice, and we sent them packing, you can be
sure."

"How did you get rid of her?  She's got armies, doesn't she?"

"Not when she was here.  Now mind, this was ages ago, and she went away
for a long time, but returned to power recently.  I know not rightly
how it might have happened, for it was aye quick.  We only heard months
ago, and news travels slowly to Loch Iasg."

"Wait, how long was she gone?"  Aurelia found herself thinking about
Stuart's lessons on folklore and mythology, so long ago in the library
on the UW campus.  He had mentioned that one theory behind fairy myths
was as a cultural memory of Bronze Age peoples being displaced by Iron
Age cultures that invaded and took over.  Aurelia wondered if the
Queen's reign might correspond in any way with that time.

"Oh, hundreds of years, certainly.  Not more than a thousand, I should
think, though."

"Oh," said Aurelia, strangely crestfallen.  She was pretty sure the
Iron Age stuff Stuart had talked about was many thousands of years ago,
but she wouldn't have been able to say more than that the dates were
all in BC, which was definitely more than a thousand.

"Why do you ask?"

"It's an idea a friend of mine told me about.  It's a long story, don't
worry about it."

"As you say.  Here we are, welcome to my croft.  Watch your head, even
I must duck, and you are prodigious tall."

Aurelia ducked her head under the lintel stone.  The croft was almost
identical to the stone hut of the dream woman: a low circular stone
wall, no more than three or four feet high, made of dry-laid stones,
and surmounted by a tall conical straw thatch roof.  The whole house
was perhaps twenty or thirty feet across, and Aurelia was unsurprised
to see a fire pit in the center of the floor, a pile of straw off to
one side, and not much else inside.

Mairi grabbed up a cloth-wrapped bundle from a broad, flat stone, and
uncovered a small ceramic bowl, which Aurelia saw contained pale
yellowish butter.  The bundle turned out to be a partially-consumed
loaf of surprisingly fine-looking brown bread which gave off an aroma
that almost caused Aurelia to swoon.  Mairi sawed off a thick slice of
the bread with a small bronze knife, and smeared it with butter,
presenting it to Aurelia almost ceremonially.

"Welcome," she said again, "to my croft.  May your footsteps always
lead you aright."  Both women sat on the ground, and Aurelia tore into
the bread, which was possibly the most delicious thing she'd ever
eaten.

"Thank you," she said, her mouth still half full.  She covered her
mouth with her hand and looked a bit embarrassed, but this just caused
Mairi to laugh, giving off a bright yellow corona of emotion-stuff with
streamers of blue and orange.  "It is my pleasure," she said.  "Once
you've finished," said Mairi, "I shall introduce you to the others.
News of your arrival has already doubtless spread like a fire in
grass."

Aurelia finished her bread, and they stood again.


As they stepped back out through the low door, which Aurelia had to
nearly bend double to pass under, she realized that there were other
little huts nearby.  She hadn't seen them as they approached, but was
uncertain whether that was because they were glamoured away, or if she
had simply been fixed on the idea of bread and butter.

They walked from one to the next, at each knocking on the door, only to
have it instantly pulled open.  Invariably the person opening the door
invited them in, introduced themselves, and pressed something into
Aurelia's hands: tea, or bread, or dried meat.  By the time they'd
visited the last hut, Aurelia was uncomfortably full, and her head was
swimming with all the names she'd just heard, and would never ever
remember.

"And now that you have met the village, you should see our namesake,"
said Mairi.  They walked a distance, Aurelia thought it was to the
east, but couldn't be sure, as the sun had gone behind the hillside,
and came to a long, narrow lake, sitting like a silvery gash in the
landscape.  Steep hills rose on either side.  A small collection of
tiny boats was pulled up on the beach, and piles of nets formed clumps
dotted among the boats.  "This is Loch Iasg," said Mairi.  "So named
for its prodigious fishing.  You may have seen the drying huts we
passed in the village," she pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.
"We are tiny, it is true, but there is much to love here."  Mairi spoke
with obvious pride.

"It's really pretty," said Aurelia, gazing out at the lake.  As she was
looking at the sight, her eye was caught by an odd-looking bird in the
distance.  She looked closer, and realized it wasn't a bird at all, it
was shaped wrong.  A little apprehensively, she asked Mairi, "What is
that?"

"The dragon?"

"I guess so, yeah.  There are dragons here?"  Aurelia was suddenly
transported back to her childhood, when her mother would read her
stories about princesses in towers, and knights, and dragons.  It
hadn't lasted long -- her mother had taken a class, or talked to
someone, or something like that, and decided that reading bedtime
stories was a good idea.  She tired of the practice after several
weeks, but Aurelia still vividly remembered the drawing of the dragon
spraying fire at a knight all clad in armor.

"Of course.  Are there not dragons where you came from?"  Mairi's voice
was once again tinged with suspicion, although it had clearly been
tempered by their time together so far.

"Well...  I'm not actually of the Daoine."

"Are you now?"

"I'm human.  Surely you noticed."

"I knew well enough you were different to the folks from these parts.
But human, now.  I thought humans were a myth."

"Nope, we're real."

"How do you know you're human?"

Aurelia boggled a bit at the question.  "I just... am?  I guess?  I've
only been in Tir na Tuatha for a few months now.  I've spent most of my
life on Earth.  Well, in Seattle.  I'm not sure if Tir na Tuatha is on
Earth or not, in some different dimension or something."

Mairi poked Aurelia's shoulder experimentally, as if testing to see
that she were really there.  "You feel real enough.  Are you sure this
is not some trickery?  Prove you're human."

Once again, Aurelia felt the boggled expression fighting for dominance
on her face.  "How do I prove that I'm human?  Is there a human trick,
or something?"

"Humans are said to steal magic, and kidnap Daoine to be their slaves.
I suppose those would be no proof, though.  There are stranger things
in the world.  Why not a human?  Most curious.  I never thought to meet
one of you."  Mairi seemed to be taking the advent of meeting a
mythological creature with surprising detachment.

"Well, until a year ago, I thought the Daoine were a myth, too."

"Then we seem to be on equal footing, Aurelia a'Dhrais.  Although I
suppose you are more properly Aurelia the Human, are you not?"

"My full name is Aurelia Stanton, but I guess you can call me whatever
makes the most sense."

"Well then," said Mairi, cocking her head and looking appraisingly at
Aurelia, "we shall stick with Aurelia a'Dhrais, which I can say without
tripping on my own tongue.  Most curious.  Come, let me show you the
drying sheds."

CHAPTER

The village of Loch Iasg turned out to consist of several dozen crofts,
or little circular huts, none of them quite the same as the others.
There were also four drying sheds, which were drafty wooden structures
with hundreds of fish hanging in each.  Mairi's croft had a large open
pen next to it, into which she had herded her goats when returning with
Aurelia to get bread for her.  There were a number of other crofts with
similar pens, which were all empty as they had made their rounds of
introduction.

Once Aurelia had been introduced, the people of the village seemed to
relax a bit, and she saw a few of them out and about.  Before, the
village had looked deserted, and she realized that each person or
family had been waiting inside their huts to greet her.  This seemed to
be some kind of formalized ritual, but Aurelia didn't have any insight
into how or why it worked that way.

The village was spread through the valley floor leading down to the lake,
so the huts seemed to be tumbling down the slope toward the water.  It
seemed to Aurelia that there was very little to the village, but Mairi
gave her the impression of being very proud of the resources it
boasted.

She didn't see the dragon again for a few days, but then she saw it
flying directly overhead.  It was long and snake-like, and as it flew,
it was stretched forward with a faint sine curve down its body, almost
as if it were slithering through the sky.  It didn't really look like
the drawing she'd seen as a kid, but it was still undeniably magical to
see it flying over.  She was alone at the time she saw it, having been
given the task of collecting mushrooms from a nearby hillside.  None of
the villagers seemed concerned about the dragon, so she didn't worry
about it as it flew over, apparently intent on getting wherever it was
going.

Aurelia continued visiting with Ailis in dreams, and they consulted
over their new situation.

"I have of course heard of Loch Iasg," said the old Drais seer, "but I
have never been to see it myself.  The journey was too far, with too
little to recommend it.  As I recall, we traded cloth for dried fish
with those of Loch Iasg.  Their loch is said to be pretty.  How do you
find it?"

They were sitting in a dream-vision of Mairi's hut, where Aurelia was
sleeping in her cloak on a bed of loose straw.  Aurelia stood, and led
Ailis out through the wall, so they could wander through the village as
they talked.

"It's tiny, and there's not much to it, I guess.  The Drais manorhouse
held more people, and was more interesting.  You had a real livestock
house, and more of a community.  Or maybe I just haven't seen the
community here.  So far, I've contributed by foraging for mushrooms and
onions, and I helped Mairi herd the goats one day.  Goats are jerks."

Ailis laughed, and said, "I imagine you are a challenge to them.  They
will want to beat you or be beaten by you, though if my memory is
right, some goats will never be beaten."

"I'll say.  One of them kept charging at me.  I'd have to jump out of
the way, and Mairi would laugh and tell me to face down the goat.  How
am I suppose to face down 200 pound of angry lambchop with horns?  It's
like facing down a falling hammer."

"Well, I imagine Mairi is more wise to the ways of goats than either of
us may hope to be."

"I guess."  They had reached the water's edge.  The waxing moon was
high in the sky, and reflected across the water, which was slightly
wavy with the faint, dancing wind of the night.  In the distance, a
fish splashed back into the water.  "What do you know about dragons?"
asked Aurelia.  This was before she'd seen the dragon fly overhead, and
she had still only seen the one dragon from a distance.

"Some little bit.  They are large and clever.  They can usually fly,
though they are slow and cumbersome in the air.  There are Drais who
have ridden a dragon like a horse, but it is not common.  Dragons eat
all sorts of things, and sometimes harry sheep and smaller livestock.
We had only rarely problems with dragons preying on our herds, but it
was known to happen.  Is that what you want to know?"

"I guess so, I'm not really sure.  When I was a kid, my mom read me a
story about princesses and knights and dragons.  It had a picture of a
dragon breathing fire on a knight.  Does that really happen?"

Ailis thought for a moment, then said, "I have not known of a dragon
that could breathe fire, though it is within the realm of possibility.
They are not common, and I have only seen a small handful in my life,
and those I have seen did not breathe fire.  They would sometimes
negotiate to buy livestock, the more lawful among them."

"Wait, they negotiated?  How did they do that?"

"The same as any other creature, they made an offer, which was accepted
or rejected, and modified the offer until it was accepted.  Sometimes
they paid in gold, but gold is just a pretty metal.  Sometimes they
paid in goods, which were worth much more."

"But, how did they make the offer?  Did they talk?"

"Certainly.  Look not so shocked, why should a dragon not speak?"

Aurelia stood silent, looking at Ailis.  "You are blowing my mind right
now."


Ailis chuckled.  "Dragons have the same right as any creature to speak
or not, as it sees fit.  You must not be so judgemental, Aurelia."

"I'm not... Well, ok.  I just... I didn't think dragons were real, and
now they're real, *and* they can talk.  Huh.  Do they eat people?  That
seemed to be a big feature from the stories, if I've got it right."

"I would wager it may have happened, but dragons are intelligent,
they're not rampaging beasts.  I trow that your dragon of the story was
a real brute, or the storyteller had never met a dragon in her life."

"I'm almost one hundred percent sure that whoever wrote that story had
never met a dragon, it's true.  Wow.  I guess I shouldn't be so
surprised, I've seen so many other unbelievable things here.  I suppose
next you'll tell me Jesus was actually a Daoine or something, or Elvis
is still alive and living with the Queen."

"Again, Aurelia, you speak of people I have never met, nor heard tell
of.  Who are these Jesus and Elvis?"

"Oh... Never mind, I was just being silly.

"Say," continued Aurelia, looking thoghtfully up into the starry sky,
"is it possible to use Second Sight to look into the future?  Or the
past?"

"Some seers may do it, to be sure, but I never did.  Truth to tell, I
never tried."

"Did no one ask you to try?"

"Laochag once mentioned the possibility in passing, but I was afeared
to try."

"Afeared?  Why?"

"Divination has its own risks.  Knowledge of the future may lead one
into unknowing mistakes.  Even the attempt can be dangerous, and one
may become lost in the future in a way that does not often happen when
traveling as we are now, in the time that is now.  Now, you can always
find your way back.  The tether is firm, the mind may not wander
dangerously far.  Traveling across time, the tether can become
hair-thin, and just as weak.

"Now, to be certain, divination without Sight may be performed safely,
but it is a watered-down, weak broth by contrast.  The future guards
her secrets well, and does not give them up easily."

"Oh," said Aurelia, surprised at Ailis's eloquence on the topic.  "So I
suppose I shouldn't try to see what's going to happen to me?"

"I would consider that most unwise."  Ailis's face was no longer
smiling, and she seemed to be deadly serious.  "'Tis far better to let
the events of life unravel as you pass them.  We may have no special
advantage in this area without profound risk.  I have seen it tried,
and the poor seer simply ceased to be.  She died a few days later, for
she would not eat or drink.  Her mind had come loose, and found not its
way home."  Ailis put her hand gently on Aurelia's cheek.  "I would be
most sad to see a similar fate overcome you."

"Aw, thanks," said Aurelia, suddenly at a loss for words.  She laid her
hand over Ailis's, and they stood like that for a minute, looking into
each other's eyes.  Aurelia broke it off first.  "Could you tell me
about finding a portal again?"

"Yes, let us try that again.  Though, Aurelia, I do fear that if you
leave, I may not be able to join you.  It sounds as though your world
is desperately poor of magic, and without the power, it is as like that
I will cease to be.  I will be sad to see you go."

"Oh."  Aurelia paused, her face growing sad at the thought.  "I hadn't
thought of that.  I...  Maybe I can find a way to spend time in both
places.  I just don't want to spend the rest of my life here.  You
understand, don't you?  I'm not Daoine, I don't belong here."

"You have done well enough.  You have a power that you think is unique
among humans.  You found a lover who was Daoine, even in a world with
very few Daoine.  It may be that you are better suited to life in Tir
na Tuatha than you think you are."

Aurelia was silent at this.  It felt wrong, but she couldn't argue with
the logic of Ailis's words.  She had always felt a bit alienated in her
Earthly life, except for her best friend Jenn, who, she realized with a
start, she hadn't even thought about for several weeks.  But she'd
always assumed that everyone felt that way.  Maybe she really was
different.  The prophecy said she would be fairy-born, so maybe she was
back home.  She looked back at Ailis with a question forming on her
lips, but it died back.  After another pause, she said, "Let's try to
find a portal anyway.  I don't need to use it, after all, but I would
feel better knowing where it was."

"Of course.  Find your sticks again.  We will make a siannsa first."

CHAPTER

Life in the little village of Loch Iasg proved to be more enjoyable
than Aurelia had expected.  Days were spent in a number of different
activities: herding goats, sheep, or fiadh-taigheil, a kind of
domesticated deer Aurelia had never seen before; gathering a variety of
foods from the surrounding hillsides; fishing on the narrow lake;
working cloth into clothes.  Evenings were spent moving from house to
house, having a kind of communal dinner party almost every night.  The
village was intensely social and very tight-knit, and Aurelia was very
surprised at how quickly she was simply another member of the village.

Her attempts to locate a portal had proven fruitless, and Aurelia found
she didn't care too much just now.  The villagers were very friendly,
and she soon had a number of fast friends, Mairi among them.

The social order wasn't as clearly matriarchal as the Drais had been,
but it was quite egalitarian, and there was no real leader in the
village, or indeed much of a power structure that Aurelia could
identify.  Her Poly Sci trained senses pricked up a little bit at this,
but she put it down to the size of the group more than anything else.
She was interested to note herself suddenly thinking of the political
structure of the village in a way that hadn't consciously occurred to
her while staying with the Drais.  Perhaps it was the absence of
structure which attracted her notice.

Ailis didn't seem to think anything of it in their night-time
consultations.  A lifetime of relative comfort and settled living
seemed to lend Ailis an air of contented acceptance compared to
Aurelia's inquisitiveness.

Several weeks went by in this manner before Aurelia had the singular
experience of meeting a dragon face to face.

She was up on a hillside, gathering what vegetables she could find,
lamenting that they seemed to be getting harder to find.  She hadn't
seen any evidence of seasons in Tir na Tuatha yet, although she was
relatively unattuned to them at home: Seattle tends to have 3-4 months of
sunny weather, and 8-9 months of cloudy weather, and that's usually the
extent of the seasons on offer.

As she was circling the crest of the hill, looking for a very delicate
but flavorful thin-stemmed mushroom, she realized that there was
something overhead.  She looked up to see the stretched-out shape of
one of the dragons flying.  There were several dragons in the area,
according to Mairi, with whom she'd continued staying.  Mairi had
described three different dragons, who lived in different directions.
They didn't often interact with the people of Loch Iasg, and the Daoine
and dragons were largely uninterested in each other.  Aurelia's
fascination, though, was plain.

She thought this one was just flying over, but realized that it was
actually circling around, and she thought it was looking at her.  She
felt a rush of heat go through her body as she realized it was
descending, and stood in awe as the dragon circled down gracefully,
landing with surprising gentleness a dozen yards from where Aurelia
stood with her basket.  There was a blast of wind from its wings which
washed over Aurelia, carrying an alien, reptilian smell with it.

The dragon stood about six feet tall at the shoulder, although it was
hard to judge precisely, since it was clearly capable of hugging the
ground equally as well as standing at full height.  Aurelia had the
impression that at full extension, its head would be almost twice her
height.  Its wings were enormous, extending out at least twice its body
length, membranous and covered with an intricate and beautiful blue and
yellow pattern that made Aurelia think of tropical insects or lizards.
Its body was a dark rust color once the wings had folded up tight,
nearly disappearing against its sides.  The contrast between the
brightly colored wings and dull body coloring was surprising -- Aurelia
had only ever seen the dragons backlit against the sky, and didn't
realize how colorful they were.

Its head was large and triangular, something like a cross between a
horse and an adder, and Aurelia saw it was delicately patterned with a
much subtler-colored variation of the design on the wings.  Its feet
were large, and Aurelia thought perhaps it didn't have claws, but
realized that they were actually retractile, like a cat's claws.  The
body was at least 20 feet long from head to tail, although Aurelia
couldn't have said exactly how long it was.  It just seemed enormous,
far larger than any other animal she'd been close to.  She had once
lived in a trailer with her mother next to a ranch, and had fed grass
to a horse across the fence.  That horse was only a third the size of
the dragon in front of her now, if even that.

The dragon walked toward her a few steps, then paused, and ducked its
head in a very creditable bow.  Aurelia found herself curtseying in
response, almost without realizing she was doing it.

Without further preamble, the dragon said, "Greetings, human."  Its
voice was very odd, both a high whistling sound and a basso profundo
rumble that Aurelia felt vibrating in her chest.  The pronunciation was
odd, but understandable.  There was a moment of mental confusion as
Aurelia tried to process what it meant to understand odd pronunciation
in a language one did not actually speak, but seemed to intuit through
a kind of magical translation process.

"Hello," she said, not sure where to go from there.  "Golly, you're a
dragon," seemed too inane, and she honestly couldn't get beyond that
thought.  She stood there lamely for a moment before it went on.

"What is a human doing in Tir na Tuatha?"

"What?  Oh.  I guess I was dragged here by the Queen.  How can you tell
I'm human?"

"Is it not obvious?  You smell nothing like a Daoine, although... Yes,
you are part Daoine, are you not?  There is a hint.  Why did the Queen
drag you here?"  The dragon's voice was evenly modulated and
affectless, and Aurelia couldn't tell if there was any hint of approval
or disapproval in the question.

"I don't know.  I'd actually like to go home, but I can't find a
portal.  The last time I was here, it seemed like they were
everywhere."

"Ah, the transdimensional gateways.  Yes, they are sparse here.  Why
should the Queen go through the trouble of pulling a human to Tir na
Tuatha?  Although you are no ordinary human."  Aurelia was starting to
get a sense that the dragon spoke with a kind of permanent sneer in its
voice.

"Have you met other humans?"

"Certainly.  It was ages ago, but I have met numerous humans.  Yes, you
smell different, but I think you are also not panicking, and panic has
a strong scent.  Ah, and you are female, are you not?  The other humans
were male.  Most interesting.  What do you do upon the hill, human?"

"I'm just gathering food, mushrooms and herbs."  She showed the basket,
which was only about a third full despite a full morning's search.  "I
don't mean to be rude, but why are you talking to me?  I thought you
and the Daoine didn't usually talk much."

"You are not Daoine."

"Oh."

"I was curious.  I thought I had caught traces of your scent, and it
was unusual.  Are you not frightened of me?"

"No, I guess I'm not."

"But I could eat you in a single bite."

Suddenly doubtful, Aurelia said, "Are you going to?"

"No.  I am not hungry.  In any case, it makes the Daoine mad when I eat
them.  I sometimes trade for a fiadh-taigheil or a pig, though.  It is
easier that way."  The dragon looked off at something that caught its
attention.  Aurelia was surprised by the sight of the dragon's head in
profile, something about it tapping into a deep memory that she
couldn't quite uncover.  She put it down to the childhood book with the
dragon illustration.

"Do you have a name?"  Aurelia felt like a bold child asking the
question, with her basket and her skirts dragging the ground and her
plaited dark hair.

"Yes," said the dragon looking back to her suddenly.

"What is it?"

"Sgiathalaich."

"Nice to meet you, Sgiathalaich," said Aurelia.  "I am Aurelia.  Thank
you for not eating me."

"Of course.  Good day, human."  With that, Sgiathalaich turned in the
direction it had looked before, coiled like a spring, and leapt into
the air, its wings snapping open, knocking Aurelia to the ground with
the first blast of wind.  It flew to the south, rising rapidly into the
air, and was soon a tiny speck in the sky.  Aurelia gathered up the
spilled contents of her basket, and picked her way back down to the
village.

CHAPTER


Aurelia trotted out to within earshot of Mairi before she called
excitedly, "Mairi!  I met a dragon!"  She covered the remaining
distance at a fast walk.  Mairi was tending her goats, about ten
minutes' fast walk from the village.  Aurelia had covered the distance
impatiently.  There had been no one in the village at midday, and she
was anxious to talk about her encounter.

"Did you now?"  Mairi stood from the rock she'd been sitting on, and
joined Aurelia.  "How did you meet a dragon?"

"He flew down to say hello!  I was so surprised!  I was just up
gathering mushrooms, and I saw him circling overhead, and then he was
there, saying hello!  Don't dragons normally stay away from us?"

"They do, but it is not unknown.  What did your dragon say to you?"

"His name is... Oh, crap.  What was it.  Something that sounds like
tired.  Anyway, he wanted to say hello.  He said he hadn't seen a human
around for a long time, and I think he was curious.  He was so cool!
And huge!  I had no idea dragons were so big.  I mean, I knew they were
big, because obviously, when they're flying around, they look big so
they must be huge, but it's not the same as standing next to one, you
know?  And pretty!  So pretty!  I had no idea they were so colorful.
Are all dragons like that, or was he special?  Have you met a dragon?
That was so cool!"

Mairi held up her hand, as if to ward off the torrent.  "Calm yourself,
my friend!  I fail to see what temperature has to do with a dragon, but
that is another question.  As to the name, was it Sgiathalaich?"

"Yes!  That's it!"

Mairi laughed, then said, "Sgiathalaich is a she, should you meet her
again.  I have met her in the past, she is the most social of the local
dragons.  She is indeed quite beautiful up close, though I have only
met her a tiny handful of times.  It is something of an honor to meet a
dragon, even the gregarious Sgiathalaich.  They are very solitary."

"Oh, I totally understand that.  She was so impressive!  It was weird,
though, there was a moment when I felt like I had seen her before, or
some other dragon.  Maybe there's some kind of ancestral memory thing
going on, like when I met all my ancestors in that dream."  Aurelia had
related the story of her acquisition of Second Sight to Mairi one
night, after the sun had set, and they sat staring at the fire after
dinner.  Mairi had laughed when Aurelia described the dream woman's hut
as being almost identical to the one they were sitting in.  Aurelia
learned that night that this style of house was very common across all
of Tir na Tuatha, and the dream might have taken place anywhere.  Mairi
had agreed that it was almost certainly real, though.

"It certainly seems possible."  Mairi turned to shout a command at one
of her goats, and strode off to separate it from another as their play
got too rough.  "The kids are restless.  You may have a scent of dragon
still about you.  It makes the goats nervous, for they are easy prey
for a dragon."

"Oh, I should probably go.  I'm sorry to bother you, it was just so
exciting to meet a dragon.  I hope I get to talk to her again."

"It is no bother, Aurelia.  You know as well as I do, tending a flock
can be deadly boring, a small break is welcome."

"Oh, I almost forgot, I brought you this," said Aurelia, holding out a
small wineskin.  "I thought you might be thirsty."

"Thank you, friend.  Most kind."

"No problem.  I'll see you tonight!"

"Good day!" said Mairi raising the skin in salute.

CHAPTER

Aurelia's meeting with the dragon was the main subject of conversation
that night in the village.  Sgiathalaich had been seen less often in
the last few years, so it was unexpected that she should visit with any
of the villagers, human or not.

Aurelia told the story over and over as they moved between the crofts
for the evening meal.  The person who was most interested, and asked
the most questions, was an older man named Faolan.  Aurelia felt
strange classifying any Daoine as younger or older, as they were
invariably all at least 1000 years older than she was.

Aurelia finished describing the encounter to Faolan, who had been
listening intently.  They were sitting in his croft, with his wife Sile
and a few other Daoine from the village, eating a sort of spiced
oatmeal that was surprisingly filling, so Aurelia only had a small
portion: they still had a dozen crofts to go.  The fire crackled
merrily in the center of the room, and everyone was seated around it,
face underlit and wavering in the heated air between them.

"When Sgiathalaich landed, how did she approach?" he asked.

"Oh, now Faolan," said his wife in somewhere between a chiding and
amused tone of voice.

"I guess she just circled down.  I don't remember exactly."

"Did she land gently, or with great violence?"

"Gently.  I couldn't even hear her land.  What difference does it
make?"

"It is merely a curiosity with me," said Faolan.

Sile interjected, "He fancies himself an expert on our local dragons."

"Did she fold her wings in quickly, or slowly and leisurely?"  He shot
a look at his wife that Aurelia couldn't interpret.

"Fairly quickly, I guess.  I wasn't really paying attention to all this
stuff.  Should I have?"

"It is a way of judging her mood.  Dragons are not like you and I, they
express themselves in ways we are not accustomed to understand.  You
as like knew not, but I have met all three of the local dragons, who
are Sgiathalaich the red, Siubhlach the purple, and Crionnachd, the
white.  Dragons have much to teach us, if only we take the time to
heed them."

"Do you mean literally listen to them, or like study their habits?"

"We would do well to emulate dragons in many things.  Listening to them
is interesting, and I have learned from all three, but I mean to say
studying them.  Their lives are exemplary.  They are profoundly moral."

"Belabor the lass not with your mad theories, Fhaolain" said Sile,
lightly swatting at her husband's wrist.  "Pay him no need, Aurelia.
Dragons are dragons and Daoine are Daoine, excepting your presence, of
course.  Dragons keep to themselves and mind their own matters, and we
should give them the same respect."  She turned back to Faolan.
"You know you only met Crionnachd by climbing to her roost and offering
her a goat in exchange for a few minutes of her time."  Sile turned her
attention to Aurelia again.  "Crionnachd is never seen during the day.
She is ghostly white, and Faolan is of the mind that she thinks all day
like a philosopher."

"You have not met her," said Faolan to his wife.  "She is most wise."

Aurelia had the impression that this was a well-rehearsed argument,
although there was no real rancor between the two.

"How did you find her roost, if she's never seen?"  Aurelia
interjected, as much to derail the argument as because she cared about
the answer.

"That was a stroke of genius," said Faolan proudly.  "I found out where
deer had been disappearing nearby, with signs of being hunted by a
dragon, and camped there one night.  She came in the night to feed, and
I was able to speak with her.  I placed a small charm upon her so that
I could know where she was."

"I am still amazed you survived that encounter.  In her place, I would
have been most incensed, and consumed you on the spot."

"Why do you imagine I brought the goat, wife?  I already knew that
goats are a favored meal for dragons, much more tasty than Daoine.  I
was virtually guaranteed success."


Husband and wife bantered back and forth about his adventures with the
dragon for several more minutes.  Aurelia learned through the exchange
that dragons only mate every five to ten years, depending on
conditions, and the eggs are rarely viable.  Faolan had, as Aurelia
read between the lines, a desire to find an egg and save it, since the
leading cause of dragon egg demise was the dragons themselves, whose
intense morality apparently didn't extend as far as not eating their
own offspring.  It seemed to her that he wanted to try raising a dragon
himself, but in many decades of trying, had not yet succeeded.

"Their mating cycle should occur in this year or the next," concluded
Faolan.  Sile had subsided into silence at some point, rather than
argue with her husband, which only seemed to goad him on.  Aurelia had
simply listened, as it turned from questions directed at her to Faolan
discussing what was clearly one of his passions.

He was, by practice and trade, a fisherman.  He was normally found on
the lake, pulling up the prehistoric-looking fish that teemed there.
If not on the lake, he always seemed to be mending nets -- Aurelia
actually wondered if it was that difficult to simply make new ones, for
all the time the fishers seemed to spend on repairing the existing
ones.

She had never suspected this dragon fascination.

As they were walking to the next croft in their dinner rotation,
following the intricate, dancing pattern that allowed everyone to spend
some time serving others, and some time being served in turn, Aurelia
asked Mairi about Faolan's fascination.  "Did you know Faolan was so
obsessed with dragons?"

"Aye," Mairi responded simply.  After a moment, she said, "His exploits
climbing up to Crionnachd's nesting spot caused an uproar here, and in
Loch Neachd to the east.  There were those as thought he was bringing
down our doom upon us by enraging the dragons.  Of course it ended up
not being true, but the villages were no less unhappy with him.  It
took him years to live down the infamy, and there are still those who
look askance to him when he passes, though it was many years hence, and
is largely forgotten from daily memory."

They arrived at the next croft, and Aurelia repeated her own story, but
no one else had the same fascination with the encounter.

CHAPTER

It was several weeks more before Aurelia saw Sgiathalaich again, flying
high overhead.  She seemed to be on her way somewhere, and Aurelia gave
it little more thought after it became obvious the dragon wasn't
planning to swoop down and accost her again.

Loch Iasg and several villages in the area held a festival soon
afterwards, although Aurelia never had a clear idea what they were
celebrating.  Everyone trekked several miles to the east, further into
the lake country, to the village of Loch na Iolair, where the festival
ground had been set up.

It was a large field that had been liberally adorned with tents,
colored bunting, temporary fences forming pens, and a huge stage.  They
had started out in the early hours of the morning, some of the Daoine
from Loch Iasg bringing goods to trade, but many of them simply taking
themselves.  It was a merry walk, and they sang songs Aurelia didn't
know as they walked, the sun suddenly rising over one of the hills
ahead of them as the morning wore on.

By the time they'd arrived, the morning was already aging into midday,
and the villagers separated to find their own amusements.  Mairi and
Aurelia stuck together and explored the grounds together.

"Here is the wrestling pen," said Mairi, as they passed one of the
fenced-in areas.  "And there," she pointed at one of the tents,
"musicians accept challenges to play music for money or barter.
The greater the challenge, the greater the fee.  Here," she dragged
Aurelia along to another tent, "is where we may slake our thirsts,
which I have in abundance after our walk and all this talking.  Come,
let us see how you like our brandy and spirits."

They walked into the tent, which was dim inside, and warm with the
presence of many bodies.  Despite the early hour, it was well-packed,
and the sound of inebriated merriment was powerful.  They pushed up to
a makeshift bar, where Mairi ordered a pair of brandies for them.
These came in elegant, tall slender glasses which amazed Aurelia for
their fineness.  Like the cloth and woodwork and architecture she'd
seen, glasswork in Tir na Tuatha didn't match her Hollywood-fueled
expectations of a Medieval coarseness.

They toasted each other, and drank a sip from their glasses.  Aurelia's
eyes nearly crossed, and she coughed convulsively.  "What is this?
I've had straight whiskey, it was nowhere near as strong as this!"

Mairi laughed and tugged on Aurelia's lenghtening plait as a sign of
friendship.  "This is brandy," she said, simply.  She drank the rest of
hers down.  Aurelia swallowed involuntarily in sympathy, watching her
friend drink the volatile brew.  She took another sip, and found it a
bit more pleasant than the first.  Perhaps her mouth had numbed a
trifle.  Another sip, and it was actually quite enjoyable.  Once she got
used to it, the brandy had a pleasant, plummy flavor and no aftertaste
to speak of.

They got out of the hot tent after their one drink, and continued the
tour of the festival, which was now in full swing.  One of the pens
contained a demonstration of sheep herding dogs, timed by a judge with
an hourglass.  Another held competitions in riding a horse through
various obstacles.  Still another held pairs of Daoine competing in
some kind of staff fighting technique that resulted in impressively
loud blows as the staves smacked together.  Music seemed to float
through the air.

They separated at some point, Aurelia wasn't exactly sure when.  She
wasn't worried, though, and found herself some roast meat and cheese to
eat, and had another brandy.  Before she knew it, the night had come,
darkness descending on the celebration quicker than she would have
expected.  Torches sprang up, and the celebration continued.  Beautiful
floating lights like Aurelia had never seen before appeared over the
party.

Aurelia found herself standing next to a tall, thin, silent man, his
silvery hair ghostly in the flickering, shifting light.  He smiled at her,
his smile seeming to fill her consciousness until she realized they were
actually locked in an embrace, his lips pressed to hers.  Her head swam
with the drink, and when they came up for air, he led her gently away
from the crowd, but they didn't escape the noise or the light.

Without knowing it had happened, she was on the ground, arms around the
man, breath coming hot and quick, months and years and lifetimes of
isolation and yearning combining in a white hot moment as he thrust
into her, hot passion blinding her, emotion-stuff literally surrounding
them both in a bewildering swirl of colors.

Seemingly as quickly as it had started, it was over, though it had
taken days and years, and she was lying curled upon his chest, the
music and light dying down but still present as the torches paled in
comparison to the light of the rising sun.  Aurelia slept, deeply and
profoundly, and when she awoke, the tall man with the silvery hair had
gone.

CHAPTER


Sile came across Aurelia first as the morning brightened.  "Good
morning, Aurelia," she said, bright and chipper, walking up to the
place where Aurelia had been sleeping.  

Aurelia looked up at her from where she was sitting, grimaced a little,
and said, "Oh, is it?  Good.  My head hurts."

Sile laughed, then put her hand over her mouth, seeing Aurelia's wince
at the noise.  "You just need some food in your belly, unless I miss my
guess.  Did you have some drink last night?"

"I must have.  I remember Mairi gave me some brandy, or that's what she
called it, but it was like nothing I've ever had before.  I can barely
remember anything after that."  She paused, trying to sift through the
confused sense-impressions from the night before.  "Was there...
dancing last night?  Or something?"

"Assuredly, there is always dancing after the sun sets!  Such fun!  Oh,
I wish the festival could be every day, I would dance the entire night
away."  Sile was in a world of her own, clearly imagining what life
would be like with a festival every day.

Aurelia sat, trying not to let her pounding head get to her, but it was
hard.  "I'm sorry, Sile, you said something about food.  I think I
would like that."

"Oh, aye, up with you, girl.  Come, a bannock and smoked iasg-dubh will
do you a world of good."  Sile pulled Aurelia awkwardly to her feet.
As she stood, it seemed to Aurelia that every muscle in her body was
screaming at her, the soreness making her stumble, the headache doing
nothing at all to help.

They found one of the food tents, and sat down on one of the benches
with their respective breakfasts.  Aurelia had taken some fruit juice
as well as food, and was drinking it greedily down.  "Ah," she said,
once the glass was empty, "I think I need more of that.  I'll be right
back," and she walked back to get more.

When she returned, Aurelia found Sile talking with someone she didn't
know, a surprisingly overweight little man with a long fringe of hair
around his bald pate.  As she sat back down, Aurelia was introduced to
him.  "Aurelia, this is my friend Griogair.  He is from the north, a
small family of fine metalworkers.  Griogair, this is the human woman I
was telling you about, Aurelia a'Dhrais.  She's stopping with Mairi in
Loch Iasg."

Aurelia bowed slightly to the pudgy little man, who grunted and
scowled a little, and looked back down to his plate.  This seemed to be
his form of a greeting, and Aurelia didn't have the energy to be bothered
by it.  Sile and Griogair continued their conversation, and Aurelia was
content to sit in silence, chewing slowly on her bannock, a slightly
sweet oaten cake.  Her head still hurt, but whether it was the
distraction of eating, or the healing power of food and drink, she
didn't feel quite so miserable now.

As her state improved, Aurelia became more aware of the world around
her.  The food tent was well-filled, but not packed, and the same
interesting variety of Daoine was represented as she'd seen the day
before.  She realized now that the clothing styles were more diverse
than she'd been conscious of before.  The people in Loch Iasg all wore
more or less the same thing, men in linen shirts and short woolen coats
with baggy trousers, and women in layered dresses of linen and wool
with a wide leather belt around the waist.  Colors were muted, but
always with some kind of bright accent, whether it was a pattern in the
fabric, or a ribbon, or a garishly dyed belt.  All would wear cloaks
when the weather grew cold or when traveling in cooler weather.

As her gaze wandered across the crowd, in their variety of clothing
styles, Aurelia found her mind wandering as well, reviewing the clear
and later fuzzy events of the day before.  Suddenly, she froze, then
looked urgently at Sile, who was having some kind of technical debate
with Griogair.  "Sile," she said, shaking the woman's shoulder.  When
she broke off what she was saying and looked around, Aurelia continued,
"Have you seen Mairi?  Or a tall, thin guy with silver hair?"

Sile thought briefly, then said, "I do believe I last saw Mairi this
morning, that way," she pointed.  "She was talking with someone who I 
ken not.  Why do you ask, what can the matter be, lass?  You have gone
most pale."

"It's... no... I'm fine.  I just want to talk to Mairi.  Thanks."  She
set down her half-finished food, and strode out of the tent.  Griogair
said to Sile, in the wake of Aurelia's departure, "Where can she be off
to in such a hurry?"

CHAPTER

Aurelia walked quickly around the festival ground, headache relegated
to a minor worry.  She rubbed her belly unconsciously.  Mairi wasn't in
evidence, and it wasn't until Aurelia had made three nervous orbits of
the area that she spotted Mairi lounging at the side of one of the
pens, idly chewing on something as she watched two shirtless male
wrestlers grappling with each other in a practice match before the
competitions later in the day.  Aurelia hurried over and sat down next
to the smaller woman.  Mairi looked lazily over at Aurelia and grinned
a greeting.

"Mairi," said Aurelia abruptly, "did you see me hanging out with a
tall, thin guy with silver hair last night?"

Mairi caught a sense of the worry in Aurelia's voice, and sat up,
losing some of her relaxed attitude.
"Whatever can be the matter, Aurelia?"

"Just... Did you see me with a guy like that last night?"

"I cannot rightly say, by my recollection, we saw each other not last
night.  Who is this man who concerns you so?"

Aurelia sat down abruptly on the bench next to Mairi and dropped her
head into her hands.  "I think I slept with someone last night.  I don't
even know who it was."

Mairi broke into a wide grin.  "Oh, is that the whole matter?  Why,
that is expected at the festival!  I should wonder about you were this
not the case.  Look not so hangdog, my friend, why would you mourn
joy?"

"But... That's not...  It's not something I would normally do!  I've
got self-control, or I thought I did.  My god, what kind of weird STDs
do Daoine have?  What if I'm pregnant?  Oh shit, Mairi, what if I'm
pregnant!?"

"Calm yourself, Aurelia.  Look here, in my eyes.  You have done nothing
wrong.  What customs you may have at home, I cannot know, but here you
have broken no taboos, violated no covenants.  Daoine only procreate
when they choose to, the simple act has no meaning beyond companionship
and enjoyment.  Why should you become pregnant?"

"*I* don't have any control over it!  With humans, it's..."  She
stopped, and counted on her fingers.  "Shit.  The time is about right.
Fuuuuuck."  She dropped her head into her hands again, staring at the
ground.

"I think you are worried over nothing, my friend.  There is little
chance of your being pregnant."  Mairi smoothed Aurelia's hair, her
arm around the human's back.  They sat in silence for several minutes.

"Mairi," Aurelia finally said, looking up again, "I can't be pregnant.
I'm too young to have a kid right now.  I guess I always wanted to have
kids, but I thought I'd be married and settled down and stuff.  Not in
the middle of a magical land, surrounded by fairies.  This isn't
right."

"Who was your companion last night, then?  Perhaps we can find more
about him."

"I don't know!  That's the problem.  He was tall and skinny, and had
silver hair, but he didn't look old enough to have grey hair, so I
think it was just his normal hair color.  I have no idea who he was,
but I remember him being hot as hell.  I can barely remember what he
looked like.  It was that stupid brandy.  Oh god, what am I gonna do?"

Mairi hesitated a moment, containing her growing annoyance.  "First,
cease your prattle.  Lamenting the situation does us no good.  When
you've lost a sheep, you don't cry at the loss, you go find it.  The
first step is to find the man you were with.  Tall and skinny, with
silver hair.  There are not many young Daoine with silver hair, so we
start our search there."

Impressed by the change in her friend's attitude, Aurelia calmed down,
and tried to look at the situation logically.  "Ok, good.  How do we
look for him?"

"Ask our fellow revelers.  You travel around that way, I will travel
this way, perhaps someone will know this man by his description, and
can tell us more.  Come, be not so overwrought, Aurelia.  It is truly
no disaster!  Even should you be pregnant now, a child is a joy in
life, it is continuation and legacy!"

"It's also really inconvenient and a lot of work," Aurelia muttered to
herself, but Mairi heard, and lifted her friend's chin.

"If you continue to berate yourself, I will make you sleep with the
goats until you come to your senses."  She said it with a smile, but
Aurelia had a feeling she wasn't kidding.

"Sorry.  Ok, let's go see if we can find anyone who knows him."

CHAPTER

They met at the far end of the festival grounds a quarter of an hour
later.  "Any luck?" Aurelia asked.  Mairi shook her head no.

"It is curious, I had expected someone would recognize the man.  Are
you sure you have described him correctly?"

"I don't know any more.  I didn't find anyone either.  This is awful!"

"It is not awful.  You really are most curious, Aurelia.  This happens
every day.  Or do humans not couple?"

"No, no, we do.  But...  Normally I know who I'm, uh, coupling with.  I
mean, like I at least know his name, or something.  Ok."  Aurelia drew
in a deep breath, and exhaled noisily.  "You're right, it's not that
bad.  There's nothing I can do about it now.  I'll just have to wait,
and see what happens in a week."  She exhaled again.  "It'll be ok.
I'm probably not pregnant, right?  Ok."

"Do you think that Daoine and humans are even capable of producing
offspring?"  Mairi looked thoughtful. 

"Pretty sure."  Aurelia shook her hands nervously, trying to shake out
the nerves but instead making herself feel more amped up.  "I mean, I'm
at least part Daoine myself, apparently, and I saw a bunch of people
back in Seattle who were clearly part Daoine and part human.  But it'll
be ok, because I'm probably not pregnant.  Maybe I miscounted.  Maybe
I'm infertile, or maybe he was."  She paced back and forth, again, not
particularly helping herself to feel more settled.

Mairi grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to stand still.  "My
friend, you are going to wear your shoes out for pacing.  Come, let me
get you a drink."

"Oh no!  I'm not doing that again.  That brandy is where this all
started."

"We will find you some simple wine.  It will calm your nerves.  I would
swear, you are near to levitating off the ground."  Mairi grabbed
Aurelia's hand, and gently but irresistably dragged her back to one of
the tents, where she pressed a glass of dark red wine into her hand.
Aurelia sniffed it, and found it had a pleasant aroma.  She sipped, and
it was just wine.  She sipped again, and felt a little bit of the
tension leave her shoulders.  She hadn't realized it was there.

"Thank you, Mairi."  Aurelia closed her eyes and relaxed a little on
the bench they'd found.  "I'm sorry I'm freaking out about this.  I
don't normally have one night stands.  This is all a bit weird.  That I
can't remember it is making it worse.  I'm sure it'll be fine."  She
sipped at the wine again, and felt the warmth spreading gently out from
her belly.

"There," said Mairi.  "Relax well.  There is no use in upsetting the
baby."  Mairi held up her hands and laughed.  "It is but a joke!  Drink
your wine!"  Mairi's laughter rang through the tent.

CHAPTER

The remainder of their time at the festival passed both very slowly and
was over with surprising haste.  Aurelia found herself looking at every
face she came across, trying to find the man she had lain with.  She
didn't even know why it was that important to her, but it was.  She
had no idea what she would do if she found him, whether she wanted to
yell at him, or see if he was as attractive as she thought he was.

They stayed through that day, and Aurelia thought they would return
that night, but it seemed the festival was continuing through that
night, and no one else from Loch Iasg was returning until the morning.
Aurelia stayed, but was feeling so guarded and closed off that she
found herself standing outside all the celebrations looking in.  But
she was sober, and felt much safer.  The Daoine certainly knew how to
party.

Eventually she wandered off and laid down in the grass, feeling herself
winding down from the stressful day.  She was looking forward to sleep
because she definitely wanted to talk to Ailis.  She hadn't dreamed at
all the night before.


Sleep came, eventually, but not before Aurelia had lain awake, looking
up at the starry sky, listening to the apparently unending celebration
going on a short distance away.  She thought she might go mad with the
noise of it, until she realized that she couldn't hear it any more.
This alarmed her momentarily, just enough that she woke up fully again,
realized what was happening, and drifted off.

When she came to herself in the dream-vision, Ailis was there, and
Aurelia felt an odd flush of relief.  Mairi was a great help, but she
didn't share the bond that Aurelia and Ailis had.  Second Sight was
something other people truly couldn't understand.

"Good evening, my friend," said Ailis.  "Where are we tonight?"

"This is some kind of festival in Loch na Iolair.  Exhibitions and food
and dancing and stuff."

"Ah yes, I see.  It is the festival of Lugh [fix this].  Well, and are
you enjoying the festival?"

"Sort of.  I guess it's fun, but I had a real scare this morning: I
slept with someone last night, and I don't even know who it was."
Aurelia's attitude was pensive.

"Why should this scare you?"

"Oh, not you too!  Does no one here know about STDs?  Is pregnancy not
really a thing or something?"

"What are you concerned over?  Clearly something is wrong, although I
think I understand it not."

Aurelia inhaled, composing a reply, and held it for a moment, trying to
find the right tone.  "When two humans have sex, depending on the
timing, the woman gets pregnant.  This is a huge deal for more reasons
than I can possibly count.  Maybe Daoine don't get pregnant or
something, I don't know, but humans do.  And I don't want to be
pregnant.  So that's thing one.  Thing two is, I made it all the way
through college without getting any STDs, unlike about half my
sorority, so I'm pretty careful about that stuff.  Well, I was. Shit."

"And you fear that your lover could have given you one of these STDs?
Would you not have known?"

Aurelia boggled at Ailis for a moment.  "No.  No, an STD is...  Oh.  It's
a sexually transmitted disease, that's what STD stands for.  Syphilis
or gonnorhea or AIDS.  I don't even know if they exist here, but I
don't want one."

"I understand.  I would also not want one.  And you said the timing
must be right, so I assume humans and Daoine function along the same
lines for reproduction.  Do you think the timing was right?"

"I'm not sure.  It's about right.  It's not like weeks off or
anything."

"Weeks?  Really?"

"How long do Daoine cycles last?"

"We become fertile about every three years.  More or less often
depending on many things.  We may change our fertility through certain
practices and disciplines, as well."

"Holy shit."  Aurelia sat down next to her sleeping form, looking at
her own waist and hips regretfully, thinking she wasn't very excited
about losing her figure to pregnancy, on top of any other concerns.
Ailis sat next to her.

"We can tell, if you would like," she said, taking Aurelia's hand.
"Second Sight can reveal many things, including this, although I have
not yet heard tell of a seer looking inside themselves.  Perhaps I can
do it for you."

Suddenly, the enormity of the offer washed over Aurelia.  Living, even
for the day, with the uncertainty of the situation had been quite
unpleasant, but even after such a short time, she had started to
reconcile herself to the possibility she could be having a baby.  The
thought that Ailis might be able to tell her for sure was almost more
terrifying than it was comforting.  What if she really was pregnant?
What if she wasn't?  It suddenly sounded like a terrible idea.

"I don't know," started Aurelia, uncertainty and concern plainly
evident on her face.

Ailis misunderstood the hesitation.  "Oh, it is most simple to check,
lass.  It would only take me a moment, assuming I can muster the power
to do it."  Ailis had discovered early on that her powers in her new
quartz-bound state of existence were fairly limited.

"That's not... No.  I just... I guess I don't know if I want to know.
Just right now.  Argh, shit.  I don't know what I want.  Yeah, do it.
It'd be better to know for sure."

Ailis nodded, and shut her eyes.  Aurelia found that her own eyes were
shut as well, expecting some kind of electric shock.  She waited, not
breathing, to hear the answer.

"Oh," said Ailis, more to herself than to Aurelia.  "I am not able to
see.  It may be that I will have to teach you, and you must check
yourself."

"Will that work?"

"I could not say.  We can but try, and see what comes of our efforts.
It should not be dangerous."

Ailis had her recite some words, and make a sign with her hands over
her own belly.  Then she put out her hand to Aurelia, and said,
"Perhaps you should try examining me first.  It may be easier."

"Ok, sure.  What am I looking for?"

"That is a trouble, is it not?"  Ailis chuckled.  "I think to describe
it is impossible, and of course I am not pregnant, and am arguably not
alive.  We must find a pregnant subject to examine."

"I've never seen any kids here, Ailis.  Do Daoine even get pregnant?"

"Our subject need not be Daoine.  We are likely to find a pregnant
sheep or cow at the festival of Lugh [fix], so let us go in search of
one now."  So they set out to examine all the livestock pens.  The pigs
didn't have any identifiably pregnant sows, and the cattle also seemed to
be uniquely lacking pregnant cows.  They did find a pregnant goat,
however, and Ailis and Aurelia worked together until Aurelia could see
the pregnancy.  It was almost more a feeling than something visible;
some kind of sense that didn't involve vision.

"There, you see now what it is like?"

"Yes.  But I see what you mean.  I don't know if I can apply it to
myself."

"Truly.  However, we can but try.  See now what you can sense about
yourself."  Ailis stepped back and looked over Aurelia apprisingly.
Aurelia, for her part, closed her eyes and tried to examine herself.
She relaxed into the state where she'd sensed the goat's unborn kid.
She tried to turn that sense on herself, but found that she couldn't
apply it somehow.

"I can't tell," said Aurelia, concentrating hard on maintaining the
mental state.  "I don't think this is going to work."

"Very well," said Ailis.  "We will have to think of something else.
But perhaps you know more now about what may be done along these
lines."

"Yeah, I guess that's true."  They started wandering back toward
Aurelia's sleeping body, on the far side of the festival ground.  The
revelry was subsiding as the hour advanced.

"Even if you should be pregnant, is it truly such a bad thing?"

"I don't know," said Aurelia, somewhat miserably.  "I'm really really
conflicted on that point right now.  On the one hand, I just want to
get home and get back to life.  Having a kid would make that even
harder than it already is.  On the other hand," Aurelia paused and
lowered her voice, as if making an admission of something slightly
shameful, "I kind of want a baby.  It doesn't make any sense, but I
do.  Now that I've started thinking about it for real, it sounds really
cool.  And really annoying.  And really nice.  I don't know any more."

Ailis smiled to herself.  "I understand.  Change is never welcome
when it is not sought.  Perhaps it would be better to live without
knowing, in this case.  You will certainly know soon enough."

"That is true, I will know soon enough."

CHAPTER

Aurelia awoke feeling more refreshed than she had expected to.  The
talk with Ailis had helped, even though she didn't really know any more
now than she did before.  The sun was illuminating the sky, but hadn't
yet peeked over the rim of the hill to the east.  It was a lovely
sight, and for a moment Aurelia forgot her distress and just watched
the high, thin clouds brightening and losing their color as the sun
climbed.

The area was quiet, the partying Daoine having finally gone to sleep or
passed out or whatever had happened to them after all the music and
dancing of the previous night.  Aurelia sat up and hugged her knees,
taking in the welcome moment of calm.

As she listened, she realized she could hear the sound of a little burn
nearby, and decided that a splash of water on her face would be
welcome.  She got up and wandered toward the sound.  Sanitation had
largely gone by the wayside in Tir na Tuatha, and she had ceased
worrying about regular bathing some time among the Drais.  She could
still remember what it felt like to be squeaky clean, fresh out of the
shower, but she hadn't actually experienced it since being dragged from
the world of men.

The little stream was clear and cold, and felt good against her face.
The morning was cool, but between the wool dress she was wearing, and
the heavy cloak, she wasn't chilled.  She could hear the sound of
others waking and going about their various morning tasks.  It was a
most pleasant moment.

Her eye was attracted upward, and she saw one of the dragons flying
overhead, basking in the morning sun above the hill's shadow.  It was
visibly dark red, and she decided it must be Sgiathalaich.  She
resisted an urge to wave at the distant dragon.

As she was walking back toward the clustered tents on the festival
ground, she realized that the sky was more full of dragon than she'd
expected: Sgiathalaich was descending.  It was only a minute until she
was beating huge wings almost against the ground, and coming in for a
relatively gentle landing.  Aurelia was terribly impressed with the
sheer size and power of the dragon, and hadn't yet started wondering
what she wanted with the festival.

The other Daoine were coming out to see what was happening, and it was
mere moments before a crowd had gathered at the edge of the tent area.
Sgiathalaich looked around, evidently scanning the crowd.  Aurelia was
standing opposite the crowd, so that she had a dragon between her and
the group of curious Daoine.  Sgiathalaich finished her scan, and her
head whipped around and fixed on Aurelia, who took an unconscious step
back.  Big and impressive though she was, Sgiathalaich still registered
with Aurelia's primal brain as a predator, and there was no question
that Aureilia was a tasty snack based on a moment's decision.

"Aurelia the human," said Sgiathalaich, again in that odd voice with a
reedy whisper at the top, and the chest-rumbling bass at the bottom.
"You will come with me."  She advanced toward the human, who found
herself rooted to the spot, the ancient reaction to a threat
manifesting like a deer caught in whatever the fairy version of
headlights was.

"I what?" she said, not really understanding what the dragon had said.

"You will come with me," repeated the dragon, rearranging her wings to
sit more comfortably against her body.  The huge lizard moved up to the
human woman, who was still standing bound to the spot.  "You may climb
upon my back, or I will take you in my mouth, but we are leaving here.
I must show you something."  The dragon turned back to the crowd of
curious Daoine, and said in a louder voice, "You will wish to return to
your villages.  The Queen's forces are coming."  This caused a stir,
and it was less than thirty seconds before the assembled fairies had
scattered.

"Will you ride or be carried?" asked the dragon, looking back at
Aurelia.  Up this close, she could smell the awful carrion breath of
the dragon.  This as much as anything else decided her that avoiding
the dragon's mouth wasn't even a question.  She scrambled awkwardly up
on the dragon's back, hooking her legs under Sgiathalaich's forelegs
and tugging her cloak loose from under her as the dragon reared and
Aurelia was nearly thrown off by the force of their departure.

Immediately there was an immense amount of wind, and Aurelia regretted
loosening her cloak: the wind seemed to flow right through her, and the
pleasantly cool morning turned into a bitterly cold wind atop the
dragon.  She was surprised to find that the dragon's skin was warm
under her, although it wasn't possibly enough to keep the wind from
making her miserable.  She tried her best to gather the cloak back
around her and grasp it to keep it from flying free, but it was nearly
impossible to both do this and feel secure mounted to a moving,
gyrating dragon.

Trying to ignore the wind with limited success, Aurelia looked around.
Sgiathalaich's wings were behind her field of view, which meant she had
an impressive view to each side.  The tall, sharp hills of the Loch
country stood out in stark relief in the morning sun.  She was
interested to note that her Second Sight flights had been accurate, and
the few times she'd zoomed far out to take in the whole area matched up
with the reality of flying over them.  She hadn't really had any
conscious doubt, but it was fascinating to see the real thing.

The festival ground was long behind them, and they had almost made the
entire trip back to Loch Iasg, although Aurelia couldn't be sure where
exactly the village was: there were numerous long, skinny lakes nestled
between the hills and little circular crofts dotted the landscape.  The
wonder at the whole event had thus far prevented her from thinking
about why the dragon should possibly have anything she needed to show
Aurelia, but Aurelia saw something in the distance that brought it
home: there was a large crowd of people camped out in what she realized
was the same valley where she had first spotted Mairi, and thus only a
short distance from Loch Iasg.

Without thinking about it, Aurelia dropped into a light trance, and
flew her view down to the camp to look at them.  It was a similar crowd
to the small army that had attacked the Drais manorhouse, and Aurelia
realized that she recognized Muireach Ruadh, the enormous, red-bearded
warrior who had led the attack in Drais.  So, the Queen's forces had
indeed come this way, but why?  She returned contemplatively to
herself, trying to think of what this meant, both for the village and
for herself.

With the usual feeling of anticipation, she got close, and then felt
that she should be back, but realized with a rising sense of panic that
she wasn't back.  She was hovering, mid-vision, in midair with nothing
around.  Her body wasn't there.

Panic rose further: Aurelia had never been unable to find herself
before!  What should she do?  Before it had a chance to fully develop,
she got control of the panic, and tried to think it through logically.

She had left herself like normal, and flown to look at something
distant, like she normally did.  She came back also like normal, but
unlike normal, she wasn't back where she should be.  She didn't think
the vision was this literally spatial, but perhaps it was.  Certainly
she wasn't yet a master, although she realized she'd started to think
she was pretty good at it.

What was different this time?  Obviously the dragon... Struck with an
inspiration, she scanned the sky, and tried to do her person-locating
trick on herself.  She tried to think of what she looked like, and
picture it as clearly as possible, but it was surprisingly difficult,
and she finally had to admit she couldn't do it.  She quashed another
swell of panic, and tried to locate Sgiathalaich.  This worked better,
and as she pivoted around, she found the visual attractiveness led
behind her.

With a certain amount of shock, she realized that the distant dot was
actually the dragon, and they must have been flying either directly
toward or directly away from her ethereal location.  The question was
answered a moment later when the dragon suddenly bloomed in size, and
she had a confused impression of the dragon and herself melding
together and passing into each other, and she was nearly knocked off
the dragon.  She tightened the grip of her legs reflexively, and lost
her unconscious grip on the cloak, which snapped back in the wind, and
was suddenly gone.  She looked back wildly, and saw the triangle of
fabric tumbling slowly to the ground.

"Sgiathalaich!" she called forward, hoping the dragon could hear
anything over the wind.  The big saurian head inclined back slightly,
and Aurelia thought she had her attention.  "I'm going to freeze, I've
lost my cloak!"

Aurelia was suddenly dragged toward the dragon's body as if the gravity
had increased fourfold.  Her face smacked into the dragon's scaly neck,
and she threw her arms around the neck to keep from being flung off.
There was a sickening moment of complete disorientation before gravity
returned to normal.  Aurelia raised her head again, blinking against
the wind, which had suddenly increased greatly, but elected to keep
herself crouched close to the dragon's neck.  She could just see that
they were aiming for the ground, but tears were clouding her vision,
and she couldn't see more than that.

Just as suddenly, they checked their descent, gravity once again
increasing, although not as badly as before.  The ground came up to
meet them, and Aurelia realized that they were landing.  As she felt
the great lizard's shoulders flex and take up the shock of landing, she
slid gratefully to the ground and immediately collapsed: her legs
wouldn't support her, they were shaking so badly.  She was surprised to
find her cloak being draped inexpertly around her, and the dragon's
foreleg withdrew.

"I apologize, Aurelia the human.  I did not intend for you to be
uncomfortable.  I forget that your kind feel the wind more than I do."

Aurelia lay back, ignoring the heather poking into her back and
tangling in her hair.  She giggled, her body still quivering with the
strain and strangeness of riding a dragon.  "Ok," she said, feeling
incoherent.  She tried to sit up, but her abdominal muscles didn't want
to obey, so she relaxed back, wondering if she was going to be ok.
She'd never ridden an animal before, much less a completely impossible
flying lizard that spoke like a person, albeit with a weird voice.

"Are you injured?" inquired Sgiathalaich.

"No, I don't think so.  I'm just... tired.  I've never... done that
before.  How did you get this?" Aurelia held up the cloak, seeing as
she did so that it now had a talon-diameter set of holes in it.

"I can pick an eagle out of the air.  Retrieving your garment was no
challenge.  Did you hear me when I spoke of the army?"

"No, did you talk about the army?  Sorry, I left for a little bit
there, I was checking out the army.  It's the same one that attacked
the Drais manorhouse, I think.  At least, it's got the same leader."

"Your eyes are better than I was led to believe possible.  How were you
able to spy this from such a distance?"

Aurelia got to her elbows so she could look at the dragon, although her
neck also seemed disinclined to do its task.  "I have Second Sight.  Do
you know what that is?"

"Of course.  You are a seer, then.  That may explain the Queen's
interest in you."

"What?  What interest?"

"Then you did not hear aloft.  The Queen's army comes for you.  You
must leave, or your presence will destroy my country."

"Wait, what do you mean, your country?"

"These are my people," Sgiathalaich waved with a foreleg to encompass
the area they'd just flown over.  

"Oh, you mean the people of Loch Iasg and Loch Neachd and Loch na
Iolair?"

"Yes, and the half-dozen other villages.  They are under my protection,
and you are a threat to them."

"Wait," said Aurelia, collapsing back down, "do they know they're under
your protection?"

"It matters not.  They are.  You must go or be turned over to the Queen
to eliminate the threat.  My Daoine would be unhappy if you were
destroyed, and I would not benefit the Queen if I may avoid it, so
your removal is the next most appropriate choice.  Will you go, or must
I remove you?"

Aurelia had a sinking feeling as this sunk in.  "Wait, you mean I have
to leave?  How will that change anything?"

"The Queen's army seeks you.  If you are removed, they will not trouble
us."

"I'm not sure that's true," started Aurelia, but the dragon
interrupted.

"Regardless, I have decided, you will leave.  You may go willingly, or
you may go dangling from my teeth, but you will go."

"Oh."  Aurelia thought for a minute, and realized that she was once
again settling in and not moving toward her ultimate goal of leaving
Tir na Tuatha.  Being forced to leave was unpleasant because she was
leaving friends, but it was what she was planning in the back of her
head in any case.  "Will you let me say goodbye to Mairi and Sile and
my other friends?"

"If this will hasten your decision, then yes.  We will find them on
their return path from the festival.  You may say goodbye as you wish,
and I will leave you to travel, or I can take you some distance on my
back should you wish."

"I need to stop at Loch Iasg and pick up my few things," said Aurelia,
suddenly aware that she'd stopped habitually wearing the iron ring and
carrying the iron knife in the apparent safety of Loch Iasg. She
also found herself thinking that despite her lack of practice, she'd
be happier to have her bow with her as well.

"Very well, but we must make haste.  Back up with you."

CHAPTER

Their trip to Loch Iasg was indeed brief, the dragon waiting
impatiently in the clearing inbetween the crofts while Aurelia rummaged
around and located her things.  She considered the two lightweight
dresses she'd brought from the Drais household, and eventually folded
one up and stuffed it into a satchel along with her spare stockings,
the ring and the knife.  She also grabbed a wrapping cloth and filled
it with dried fish and a loaf of bread.  Then, with the bow slung over
her shoulder and the quiver of arrows attached to her belt, she headed
back out.

She was still shaky from the first flight, but had recovered a bit on the
short flight down to the village.  She hove herself up onto the
dragon's back with considerably more grace even despite her burden, and
they leapt into the air again.  It was only a matter of minutes before
they were descending to land in front of a group of Daoine walking
alongside a river, on the way back to Loch Iasg.

Without intending to, Aurelia found that her eyes were filling as she
looked on Mairi as the small group clustered around to see the strange
sight of an overtall human riding a dragon.  Aurelia slid to the
ground, and walked over.

"Mairi," she said, hugging the goat-horned woman.  "Sgiathalaich says I
have to leave, that the Queen's army is coming for me.  I think they'll
destroy your village looking for me, so she's right.  It's better if I
go.  I took some fish and bread, but I left a dress, I hope it's a fair
trade."

Mairi looked between dragon and human, clearly confused.  "What is
this, Sgiathalaich?"  Aurelia could see Faolan taking in every word of
the exchange in the background as Aurelia moved around to give Sile a
hug as well.

"As Aurelia says, a'Mhairi.  The Queen's forces are advancing toward
Loch Iasg as we speak.  I have determined that, as they seek this
human, she must go and draw her danger somewhere else."

"I have no wish for her to go!"  Mairi wasn't shouting, but was clearly
intent.

"You have no choice in the matter.  If she stays, you will most likely
be killed as they search for her."

"I'm sorry, Mairi," said Aurelia.  "I had no idea they were coming
here.  But now that I've seen them, I think Sgiathalaich is right.
It's the same people who attacked the Drais.  I think they're looking
for me."

"But why, girl?  What value have you for the Queen?"

"We have no time for these questions," interrupted Sgiathalaich.  "I
have offered to take Aurelia a distance away, but I must return to deal
with the army before they arrive at your village, a'Mhairi.  I would be
happier knowing she is far from here before I return to speak with
them."

Mairi looked like she was about to object again, but Aurelia said
quietly, "Please, a'Mhairi, I think she's right.  I need to go.  I'll
figure out a way to get a message to you wherever I end up.  I'll be
ok.  I just have to get out before the Queen can find me."

Mairi said nothing, but gathered Aurelia in a tight embrace.  "I am
sorry to see you depart, Aurelia.  Friend.  We have known each other
only a short time, but I am happier for it.  I wish you good fortune
on your journey.  If I could give you more than dried fish and bread, I
would happily do so."

"Thank you," said Aurelia, tears now falling freely from her eyes.  She
turned back to Sgiathalaich.  "Let's go."

CHAPTER


They flew for quite a while.  Despite bundling herself up as thoroughly
as she could, and the rising sun contributing its warmth, Aurelia was
blue-faced and her teeth chattered by the time they landed.  She had no
idea how far they'd come, and between the sun's height in the sky and
the disorientation of flight, she also had no idea which direction
they'd traveled.  She couldn't return on her own if she wanted to.

She slid off the dragon's back and repeated her earlier performance,
falling to the ground and laying down on her back, although this
reaction was from cold, not adrenaline.  The air was deliciously
warm, and the sun beating on her face was a welcome change.  "Ugh," she
said, to no one in particular.

Sgiathalaich moved closer, and looked at the human woman, who was
clearly suffering in some way, although the dragon wasn't sure exactly
how.  "Is there some way I can help you, Aurelia?"

"No," she said through a jaw clenched from cold, "I just need to warm
up.  It's really fucking cold up there."

"I fail to see what procreation has to do with our journey, but as you
say.  I apologize for the cold, but it was necessary to remove you from
the area.  Thank you for acquiescing.  Now, I must return and convince
the Queen's forces that you are no longer there.  Goodbye, Aurelia the
human."

Aurelia didn't say anything, but gave a tiny half-wave, her hand poking
out from inside the cloak.  She remained on her back, heedless of what
she was lying on, eyes closed.  She felt the wind as the dragon sprang
like a spring into the air, and quickly flew away.

"Bye," she said, to herself.  "Shit."

After five minutes of lying on the ground and soaking up the sun, she
finally started to unfurl, and opened the cloak.  She was surprised
when warm air flowed in, and quickly cast off the cold cloak.  She
released a gratified sigh as the sun played over her dress, which was a
dark olive color, and soaked it up readily.  She rose up to a seated
position, legs outstretched in front of her, and looked around.

The landscape was still mountainous, and she seemed to be in a shallow
valley.  There was a stream meandering through the valley.  She had the
idea that it was near noon, but couldn't tell for sure.  The vegetation
was mixed between stands of willowy trees with huge canopies, and
grassland.  It all looked unfamiliar, after her time with the Daoine of
Loch Iasg.

"Well," she said to herself, "at least this time I've got a little food
with me."  She hauled herself to her feet, and took a better look at
her new surroundings.  The valley didn't seem to slope particularly in
one direction or the other, but the burn was clearly flowing toward
what she tentatively called south.  She figured she'd get a better
sense of direction as the day wore on, and west became more obvious.

She picked up her cloak and satchel, draping the cloak across the
satchel so she wouldn't have to wear it.  Once suitably arranged, she
walked toward the burn.  As she approached, she realized something was
wrong: the water gave off a reek such as she'd never smelled before.
She didn't know what it was, but she was sure she didn't want to drink
the water.  It was a foul smell that made her half gag, and made her
think of rot.

She decided that maybe something had died in the stream, and walked
upstream to see if she could find a source of contamination.  Perhaps
the water was clean above whatever was making that smell.  The bank of
the burn was stony, but clear of vegetation, and she chose it rather
than trying to push her way through the trees and brush growing further
up the bank.

After only a short distance, she had to sit down again.  The voyage by
dragon had been very draining, both from being so cold, and from the
sheer excitement of riding a dragon.

As she looked up the stream, she saw something like a group of tiny
children frolicking by the water's edge.  She looked on, curious
about who these little people were.  They played and splashed each
other, and were so convincingly like human children that Aurelia almost
forgot that they were a third the size of human children.  She must
have shifted or made some noise then, for they all looked up like
startled animals, and disappeared.

Startled in her own turn, Aurelia stood up, and walked quickly over to
where they were, but there was no sign of them.  Whoever they were, the
little people seemed to have vanished into thin air.  Wary of leaving
herself unprotected, she decided not to risk the Second Sight trance.
In any case, she had her iron about her, and didn't feel like taking it
off.  Scratching her head, and discovering a wild mass of tangled
hair after the dragon flight, she sighed, found another place to
sit down, and spent twenty minutes untangling and smoothing her
hair with her fingers, until it could be pulled back into a semblance
of the plait she'd gotten used to wearing.

The water still smelled unpleasant, and she'd chosen a spot up the bank
for her seat.  As she stood up again, she saw another visitor.  There
was a herd of deer, smaller than the fiadh-taigheil cultivated by the
people of Loch Iasg, but otherwise similar looking.  She thought of her
last walk through the wilds of Tir na Tuatha, and how hungry she had
been.  If she could hit one, this would be an excellent opportunity to
feed herself for the next few days.  She was feeling more confident in
her ability to deal with a carcass after her time in Loch Iasg: both in
the course of normal events and during the festival, she'd seen a
variety of animals butchered, and had managed to watch for a minute or
two before having to turn away.  She knew, even in Seattle, where her
food came from thanks to a farm-to-food program she'd been through in
third grade.  It didn't make the butchering process any more pleasant
to her, but she figured as a matter of survival, she could get through
it.

She unlimbered her bow, and strung it, trying to be as quiet as
possible.  She looked over her arrows, which were by this point fairly
beat up from practicing on inappropriate targets, and selected the
least damaged one from the 9 remaining shafts.  She figured the
herd was several hundred yards away still, but that perhaps if she
was still and waited for them, they would come her way.

Crouched behind a tree, she waited with the arrow nocked and held to
the bow with her finger.  She didn't honestly know if her bow would
propel an arrow with enough force to injure a deer, even if she managed
to hit it, but she was sufficiently aware of the precariousness of her
situation to think it was worth a try.  The deer moved slowly down the
valley, coming toward her.  If they continued on their present path,
which kept them on the far side of the burn, the closest they would
come was still fifty or sixty yards away, which was close to the limit
of her range with the underpowered bow.  She didn't think they were
likely to come down for a drink, since the water must smell at least as
foul to them as it did to her.

While thus concentrating, she nearly jumped in the air when a voice
behind her croaked, "Hunting, are we?"  Aurelia spun quickly around, to
behold a withered old woman with scraggly hair, wearing a dress that
couldn't quite be called rags, but certainly couldn't be called nice.
She walked with a stick that was taller than she was, and shawls and
wraps gave her the visual impression of being bigger than she actually
was.

Aurelia exhaled, and said, "You scared me!"  The woman smiled
mirthlessly.

"Imagine how the deer will feel," she said, inclining her stick toward
Aurelia in a way that wasn't friendly, but wasn't an outright threat.

Aurelia's shock subsided, and she felt herself dropping into her more
normal mode of interaction.  "I'm sorry, I don't want to be hunting,
but I don't know where I am, or when I will see other Daoine again.  A
deer would feed me for days.  Who are you?"  She said it curiously, not
with any accusation in her voice.

The woman pulled herself upright, and said, "I am Fiona nic Chlaid, the
Glaistig of this herd.  You harm them at your peril."  She looked
Aurelia over, her head moving oddly as she wove in a figure-8 pattern.
"You are not Daoine," said Fiona, finally.  "What are you, that you
come here and try to kill my deer?  What right do you claim?"

"I don't know!  I'm not claiming any rights, I just don't want to go
hungry.  I'm sorry, I won't shoot anything, okay?  I didn't mean to
offend you.  Look, unstringing the bow.  I'll just keep walking."

"Yes, you will, stranger.  You will keep walking, and you will not harm
my deer.  And if you do, you will pay dearly."  As she said this, the
old woman had gotten closer and closer to Aurelia until she was nearly
pressed up against the taller woman.  Clearly she wanted to be nose to
nose, but was short by about a foot.  Aurelia, backed against the tree,
felt trapped regardless of any height differential.  At last she could
stand it no more, and struck out at the woman, pushing her back so that
she nearly toppled.

"I'll leave your stupid deer alone!  That doesn't mean you just get to
keep threatening me!  Go away!  Leave me alone!  You're not the only
one who can make threats, you old bitch!"  Without quite knowing how it
had happened, Aurelia found the iron knife in her hand, pointing at the
woman.

"You would threaten me!?  Idle pup!  Insolent cur!  Your fate is
chosen!"  With a blur of speed Aurelia never expected, the old woman
was suddenly in front of her, grabbing at the knife.  It surely would
have been pulled from her hand, except that the old woman suddenly
screamed in pain and recoiled from Aurelia as if she'd been bitten.
"Wretched, miserable, foul creature!  What witchery is this!"  She
stared at her hand, which was blackened and smoking.  She screamed
incoherently, and disappeared through the woods with a shocking turn of
speed.

The woods were suddenly silent after the shriek.  Nothing stirred, and
Aurelia had the sense that nature was holding its breath, waiting for
what came next.  She was still angry, but had nothing against which to
direct her anger.  It was completely insufficient to express her
frustration, but Aurelia belted out her own incoherent, primal-feeling
scream.

Out of breath, she subsided, and felt the anger slide back to wherever
it had come from.  She found the knife's little leather sheath on the
ground after a bit of hunting, and tucked it away again.  She was
shaking with reaction, and didn't quite know what to do with herself.
Lacking a better motivation, she picked up the fallen bow, slung the
satchel back over her shoulder, and picked her way out of the woods and
upstream.  It was occurring to her that perhaps she didn't want to be
around, in case the old woman returned with some other plan in mind.

CHAPTER


After another few hours' walk up the stream, Aurelia found the source
of the contamination: a partially decomposed deer, larger than those
she'd so recently considered hunting, was lying half in the water.  As
so walked past, she saw that it was thick with black flies, and the
smell was many times stronger than that of the downstream contaminated
water.  She hurried past it to get away from the smell.

There was no further advent of the angry old woman, for which Aurelia
was glad.  She had left the herd of little deer far behind as well, so
presumably the woman stayed with her deer.

Aurelia was interested to note, as she chewed on a piece of dried fish,
that she hadn't seen any houses or crofts as she'd walked.  The valley,
which was proving to be quite long and a bit winding, seemed to be devoid
of Daoine.  It was very pretty, though, and was not so deep as the
valleys around Loch Iasg.

As she walked, she kept her eyes out for any of the vegetation she'd
been tasked with harvesting in Loch Iasg.  She was able to spot some of
the mushrooms, and stopped to gather them.  she wasn't sure how
she was going to cook them, as they needed to be stewed or heated
before they were safe to eat.

The sun was dropping toward the horizon, and Aurelia started to look
for a safe place to set up camp.  She eventually found a flat spot near
the burn, and set down her satchel and archery equipment, stretching
toward the sky after the long walk.  A hawk circled overhead, hunting
small animals in the grass.  The sun settled further toward the
horizon, nearly touching the top of the hill to the west, and Aurelia
almost felt at peace.

Of course, there was a great deal troubling her, and the feeling of
contentment was fleeting.  She greatly missed her friends from Loch
Iasg, and was sad to think that she might never see them again.  She
missed the dinner ritual, which she didn't expect she'd ever be able to
participate in again.  Her mind kept flitting around the problem of her
tryst at the festival, and the possible outcomes of that.  As she'd
told Ailis, she was greatly conflicted at this point, not wanting the
encumbrance of a child on her life, but at the same time feeling a
primal and undeniable desire for a child.  But, as she thought, only
time would tell, and there was nothing to be done about it now in any
case.

She'd been completely unmolsted by animals or Daoine for hours, so
Aurelia felt safe enough taking off her iron, and settling down to have
a little Second Sight tour of her new surroundings.  She flew her
vantage point up high, looking over the landscape she was now
inhabiting.

She was in a valley that was slowly climbing toward a mountainous area
further to the east.  The sun cast long shadows over the land, bringing
the hills and valleys into sharp relief.  As she continued up, she
realized that the valley she was in was guiding her toward a lake, much
larger than the lake at Loch Iasg, although of a similar long and
skinny appearance.

Curious, she flew herself down toward the lake, and examined the area.
There was a house, similar in style to the Drais manorhouse, at one end
of the lake, and a number of small crofts scattered around above the
house, apparently attached to some tended fields and herds of livestock
she spotted.  There were no people around, but it was about the right
time for the evening meal, so that wasn't unexpected.

Seized by a sudden curiosity, Aurelia tried plunging into the water.
She wasn't, as she realized, actually getting herself wet, so she was
curious if her abilities extended underwater.  They did seem to,
although most of what she saw was darkness.  The valley containing the
lake was already completely in shadow, and all she could really see was
the sky above when she looked up.  Curiosity satisfied, she pulled back
out, and returned to herself.

Her own valley resting spot was also in darkness now, the sun fully set
behind the hillside, and the sky starting to color.  Aurelia cut a
slice of bread, and laid some dried fish on it.  It was hardly a
gourmet dinner, but felt incredibly sophisticated compared to her last
wandering time in the wilds of Tir na Tuatha.

Leaving the ring off her finger so that she would be able to commune
with Ailis in her dreams, Aurelia wrapped herself in her cloak, wedged
the satchel under her head as a pillow, and lay down on the ground.
Overhead, the clouds were descending from pink to purple, and Aurelia
amused herself watching the colors change.  Before long, the sky was
completely dark, and stars were twinkling overhead.  The last thing
Aurelia saw before she fell asleep was a shooting star passing
overhead.

CHAPTER

The dream started as normal, and Aurelia found herself standing next to
Ailis, both women standing beside her own sleeping form.

"Good evening, my girl," said Ailis as they embraced.  "This looks
nothing like Loch Iasg, you must have had an eventful day.  Tell me
what has passed while I slept."

For the first time since the whirlwind of events had transpired,
Aurelia felt herself breaking down a little bit.  Tears wetted her
face, springing suddenly from her eyes, and she said, "You remember the
dragon I told you about?  She showed up again, and told me I was a
threat, and that I had to leave."  She sniffed, finally letting some of
the sadness of her departure well to the surface.  "Oh, Ailis, it's so
unfair.  Every time I find a good place, I have to leave.  And I still
can't find a portal to try going home."

Ailis took Aurelia's hand, and pressed it.  "I know you must be
frustrated.  In what way were you a threat?  You seem like a kindly
enough person to me.  Have you been up to mischief you are not telling
me of when you are awake and I slumber?"  Ailis had a twinkle in her
eye as she said this.

"Oh, no," said Aurelia, missing the humor in her self-absorbed misery.
"I guess the Queen's army was coming for me.  Sgiathalaich, the dragon,
took me to see them.  I think it's the same people that attacked the
Drais.  At least, the leader is the same."  She sniffed again, and
wiped at her eyes trying to clear the tears.

"So you were a threat to them because the Queen's army desired your
capure?"

"I guess so.  That's what Sgiathalaich seemed to be saying.  I don't
really see how that's my fault, but I guess I get her point.  I mean, I
don't want to bring another place under attack like the Drais.  I just
wish the Queen would leave me alone.  What does she want with me
anyway?  It's not like she paid any attention to me when I was in her
court."

"Perhaps, in your absence, the Queen has realized what she needs from
you.  Have you considered viewing the Queen to see what she prepares
against you?"

"Oh, no."  Aurelia sat back, the black mood pushed back by the
unexpected suggestion.  "Is that something I can do?"

"Of course it is!  Girl, you have Second Sight.  There is no limit of
distance, and Second Sight cares not for class or privilege.  You may
look upon the Queen as readily as you may look upon the person standing
to your left."

"But how do I find her?  She must be so far away!"

"You have found others by focusing on them, have you not?  Employ the
same method in this case.  Focus on the Queen, follow the trail.  You
will find her as surely as any of the others.  You are not limited by
distance, and may travel as fast as a flitting thought.  Hundreds of
leagues may be covered in a heartbeat."

"Oh, I guess that's true.  I never think about being able to go very
far.  Or fast.  I mean, I know I can travel fast when in a vision, but
I didn't realize I could go that fast."

"There is no limit," said Ailis, looking a bit sternly at Aurelia in
the darkness, "to what you may do.  The only limits you will find have
been placed there by yourself."  She relented a bit, and her voice
softened.  "Of course, we all fight with our own limits, in Second
Sight, or any other pursuit in life.  Or, in my case," she said with a
smile, "any pursuit in death.  Hah."

"I never thought about it that way," said Aurelia.  "But I suppose it's
true.  I mean, within reason.  I don't see how I'm going to breathe
underwater or run faster than a deer or something..."

"Anything is possible.  Even these.  Do not be constrained by what you
believe is true.  I have known Daoine like you and me who could indeed
breathe beneath the waves, or outpace an arrow to its target.  To be
sure it is a skill and must be learned and practiced.  But it is not
outside your reach."

"Wow."  Aurelia just looked at Ailis.  "I can't even believe that's
true.  How can anyone breathe underwater?"

"I know not the magic involved, but I have truly met Daoine who could
perform such a feat.  It is possible, even for yourself.  If you desire
it, we can discover the necessary discipline."

"Well.  I don't need to do any breathing underwater.  But I do think I
want to check in on the Queen.  Maybe then I can figure out what's
going on."

CHAPTER

When Aurelia awoke, the sun had not quite risen over the eastern
hillside.  The air was cool, but not cold.  Her little clearing
was covered by a light mist that curled and wavered in the faint
breeze.  She got up, and walked down to the burn for a drink, splashing
the water against her face and washing off some of the accumulated dirt
and sweat of the last few days.  She had a sudden memory of the last
time she'd washed her face in a stream, and fought an urge to scan the
skies for a dragon.  There was no dragon coming to extract her from her
current temporary home, she was quite certain.

Indeed, as she climbed back up to her little campground, she found
herself furtively checking the skies, which were clear of flying
lizards.  She felt a bit silly being furtive about the glances.  She was
the only person for miles around, after all, and there was no shame in
following a curiosity.

She took up her meager possessions, and turned back upstream.  The
house she'd seen by the large lake, or one of the crofts around it,
seemed like as good a goal as any, and she set out.

Around midday, she stopped to rest, and decided to try looking in on
what the Queen was doing.  She found a shady copse of trees to rest in,
checked around for anything that might feel like jumping out and making
life unpleasant, then dropped her ring in her bag, and flew up high in
the sky to locate the Queen.  Concentrating on what she remembered the
soverign looking like, she had a faint trail, and followed it, trying
to go faster than the quick flight she'd practiced before.  It was an
odd feeling, like being out of control, but she found that she was
indeed able to travel much faster in her vision state than she'd ever
tried before.  It wasn't comfortable, though, and she ended up slowing
down again without even realizing she'd done it.

Eventually she found her way to a ruined castle, and passed through the
walls and into the improbably large world of the Queen.  The walls were
hung with rich-looking tapestries, and the halls had a small collection
of the oddly diverse assemblage of beings who seemed to congregate
around the Queen.

Moments later, having passed through numerous small rooms and hallways,
she found herself in one of the Queen's chambers.  She was sitting at a
table, having a discussion of something Aurelia didn't understand,
although she thought it had to do with people and how they were being
apportioned to some kind of work.  She listened intently, but could
barely make heads or tails of their discussion.

After several minutes of this, the Queen waved impatiently and the
Daoine she'd been talking to left the room.  She sat still for a few
moments before looking, most disconcertingly, directly at Aurelia, or
at least the point from which she was viewing the proceedings.  The
Queen smiled a knowing smile, and said, "I was wondering when you would
be joining us, Seer."

Aurelia, near panic, flew back to her body with a speed she'd never
imagined, and only remembered at the last moment to slow down before
fully returning, to avoid a nasty shock upon waking.  She opened her
eyes again and immediately put on the iron ring.  She quickly took up
the knife as well, the handle providing a reassuring weight in her
hand.  She half-expected to find someone standing over her, and
released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding when she looked
around and saw that her copse of trees was as devoid of other life as
it had been when she'd started.

CHAPTER


Once she'd gotten her breath back, and quelled the sense of panic that
threatened to overwhelm her multiple times, Aurelia stood and made a
purposeful circuit around her little copse.  She didn't know what
motivated it, but she imagined it was some kind of desire to make sure
that where she was right now was safe.  She didn't need any magical
sight to know that she must have been radiating emotion-stuff like a
lighthouse right now.  The walking with intent and purpose was merely a
way to contain the roiling fear.

Circuit complete, she returned to spot she'd chosen before, and where
she'd left her satchel and bow.  The copse felt safer than it had
before, although there was no real reason for that.

Aurelia desperately wanted to talk to someone about this, and Ailis was
the logical choice, but her desire to share and get advice on her
experience was balanced by a reasonable belief that staying awake and
keeping her ferric safeguards about her was the safest way to go.  How
had the Queen possibly known she was there?  As far as Aurelia
understood it, her vision-travel left no physical footprint, and there
was no way for anyone to know she was there.

She was suddenly glad that hadn't met too many seers.  Her experience
of human nature, as extended to the Daoine, who seemed effectively
human in so many ways, suggested that there were seers who were not
going to act scrupulously with their powers.  She shuddered at the
thought of someone spying on her, watching her doing all the little
things she thought of as private.  She had no desire to spy on anyone
else going to the bathroom or having private conversations, but how
many people shared her convictions?  How many of those people randomly
or purposely had Second Sight?

For that matter, surely the Queen had Second Sight.  How else would she
know that Aurelia was there?  Had she been spying on Aurelia this whole
time?  Was that how the army knew where to find her?  The thought was
horrifying, and gave Aurelia another reason to wear the iron ring.  She
was fairly certain that its ability to block magic was not limited to
her ability to use magic, for Ailis had also mentioned something about
Aurelia being opaque to her own sight, in their early conversations.

Aurelia now found herself wondering what other powers the Queen had.
Was it possible to teleport?  What about zapping someone from a
distance?  She thought of all the representations of magic she'd seen
in Harry Potter movies and the Hobbit movies, and all the terrible TV
shows she'd watched.  For that matter, her conversations with Stuart
had uncovered all kinds of different magic, anything from transforming
a person into a frog to brainwashing whole cities, or the Pied Piper
leading away the rats.  The possibilities were breathtaking, and the
thought that the Queen might have any of them was scary in an
indistinct way that made it even more frightening.

Aurelia realized that she was winding herself up, and tried applying
one of Ailis's lessons on clearing and calming her mind from when they
hadn't understood the problem of the iron ring.  It helped, and she was
able to wind back down a bit.  She opened her eyes again, and took a
moment to appreciate the beauty of her tree-filled resting place, with
the sun filtering through the leaves of the perpetual fairy summer.
The wind rustled through the leaves, making them quake gently, and
bringing with it the unexpected scent of cooking.

Suddenly quite hungry, the smell of hot onions and some kind of meat
roasting over a fire set Aurelia's mouth watering.  It was just a faint
scent, and was gone again in a moment, but her fears of the Queen and
her power took a second place to the overwhelming desire for a hot
meal.

Aurelia stood and gathered her things, and tried to determine where the
wind was coming from.  It seemed, once she stepped out of the trees, to
be coming across the valley rather than along it, and she contemplated
the valley wall with dismay.  It looked quite tall, and there had been
no sign of habitation at any point on her trip.  Would it make sense to
travel uphill toward an uncertain and possibly hallucinated source of
food?  She didn't have any way to carry water, and it had been almost
an hour since she'd seen a tributary of the main burn she was next to.

Still, that memory of roasting meat smell was maddening, and she found
her steps bearing her toward the wind before she'd made a conscious
decision either way.  The hillside approached, and before long, Aurelia
was climbing the steep slope.

It took more than half an hour before she topped the ridge.  As she'd
seen from her earlier aerial survey of the area, it was just further
grass and trees along the ridgeline, and into the next valley over.
There was no sign of habitation that she could see, but the tempting
aroma of cookery had several more times drifted past her nose, and kept
her pace up.

She turned around, and took in the full view.  The valley below, where
she'd just come from, spread below her, lush and green with its willowy
trees and grass.  Away to the west, in the direction she'd just been
climbing, there was a further folding of the landscape before it
descended into another valley.  This next valley over was considerably
deeper than the one she'd just come from, and she didn't relish the
thought of descending the steep hillside.

Since she was already up here, she decided to continue along the ridge
in the direction she'd already been going.  She couldn't decide where
the cooking smell had been coming from, and in any case couldn't see
anything that looked like a dwelling.  She risked taking off her iron
for a minute or two to survey the area looking for any disguising
glamour, but even this was unsuccessful, and no hidden dwelling popped
into view.  Disappointed, and now even hungrier from the climb, Aurelia
pressed on toward the big lake she had spied before.

By the time the sun was dipping toward the horizon, she still hadn't
spotted the lake, and carefully descended back into the valley she'd
been in before.  The ghostly smell of roasting meat had recurred
several times, always tempting, but never revealing its source.
Aurelia was starting to think it was just a hallucination.

She found a place to set up her abbreviated camp in the gathering
gloom, and once more ate a sparing portion of her fish and bread.  At
this rate, she'd be out of food in another day, and the heavily salted
fish more or less required the nearby presence of drinkable water if
she didn't want to be driven mad by thirst.  She sincerely hoped that
she could make it to the crofts or the house she'd spotted before the
next sunset.

As she prepared to go to sleep, Aurelia debated whether to take off her
iron ring.  If she left it off, she could talk with Ailis, but she was
now afraid that the Queen would spy on her any time she wasn't
protected from magic.  Sleeping with it on felt safer to her, and as
the stars started peering out from the deepening sky, she decided to
leave it on.  She didn't know what the Queen might want, or what power
she might have if Aurelia left herself unprotected.  Better to spend a
dreamless night for now.

CHAPTER


When Aurelia woke up with the rising of the sun, she found herself
questioning her decision to pass a night without consultation with
Ailis.  Although the seer had arguably caused the whole problem by
suggesting Aurelia should look in on the Queen, it was probably equally
fair to say that she had simply clued Aurelia in to something that was
happening whether she was aware of it or not.  Aurelia found that her
desire to confer over what had happened, and what to do next, or how to
prevent the Queen spying on her, was now outweighing the apparent
safety of blocking herself off from magic for the night.

It was tempting to let herself be overwhelmed by the situation.  She
was adrift in a sea of grass and trees, cut off from contact with
anyone she knew -- the temptation to look in on Mairi had occurred to
her several times, but she'd resisted so far, figuring that would be
probing a wound more than it would be useful in any way.  Her supply of
known food was dwindling fast.  The Queen, who persisted in Aurelia's
mind as an enemy, might be spending hours of her day spying on Aurelia.
She nearly forgot to add to the tally that she was no closer to finding
her way back to Seattle, or anywhere in the world of humans.

But stacked up against this, she had now safely escaped the Queen's
forces twice, which suggested that the Queen might not be as
all-powerful as she feared.  She was feeling, she realized,
increasingly confident in her ability to deal with situations as they
came up.  She'd successfully survived for more than a week of
cumulative time in what was for all intents and purposes a trackless
wilderness.  Much as she never would have believed a year ago that
she'd be in a land of fairies, she also never would have believed that
she would be able to survive in the wilderness for more than 10
minutes, had she even given it any thought.  Aurelia felt that she'd
learned many things in life up until the point of that great winged
fairy giving her the gold ring (which she was still disappointed had
shown no magical powers at all, although she understood a little better
now why that might be the case -- magic didn't really take the forms
she had expected).  She had learned to deal with her mom's occasionally
creepy boyfriends, she'd learned to live on her own in college and
after graduating.  She'd survived any number of events that she'd
thought at the time had been pretty harrowing.

But Tir na Tuatha, Second Sight, Stuart, Daniel, the Daoine, even riding a
dragon... They were in a completely different class to the things she'd
seen before.

On the whole, as she thought through her life so far, she wasn't
feeling too bad about things.  That was another thing: life in Tir na
Tuatha was teaching her, in myriad tiny ways, how to look on the bright
side of things.  It occurred to her that if she dropped her
one-year-ago self into her current situation, she would have absolutely
freaked out, and that reaction would purely be from being in the middle
of an uninhabited wilderness.  The other things stacked against her
would have been so far off the scale that she wouldn't even know how to
react to them.

Thinking these thoughts, Aurelia had gotten herself up, performed such
morning ablutions as she needed, had a bite of dried fish, and surveyed
the new day.  It promised to be another fine day, the only remarkable
thing about the weather being how unremarkable it was.  Stuff gathered,
she set out for her day's trek, her goal being to find one of the
crofts.  She vowed to herself that she wouldn't let any phantom smells
distract her this time.


The first part of the day was unremarkable.  She continued her walk up
the valley.  As she walked, she started to see signs of both animal and
human life starting to appear.  She spotted the little round scat of
deer, and thought she saw a couple rabbits darting away from her in the
grass.  There started to be a discernable path alongside the burn,
which was smaller now.  She thought it looked narrow enough that she
might be able to cross it without getting her feet wet if she wanted,
but when she went down to get a drink of water, the stream still seemed
too big for that.  It was an illusion, she decided, from walking next
to the wider downstream path for so long.

She didn't know exactly where she was in relation to the big lake she'd
seen in the vision, since she had been sufficiently distracted by the
lake itself that she didn't pay much attention to the approach.  After
some internal debate, she decided that it would be worth looking over
her upcoming path and the lake itself in more detail before she
actually got there.

Once again holing herself up inside a stand of trees so that the
drooping branches hid her from external view, she dropped her things
and sat down, taking off the ring and knife and placing them carefully
in the satchel.  Particularly after this morning's walk, which had
involved much repetition of the thoughts about the Queen, she felt she
had to be very careful to have her anti-magic resources available at a
moment's notice.

She dropped into the trance, and flew up through the trees, looking
around to fix her location in her memory.  It was just past noon, so
the shadows were very small, and gave her a good sense of where the
cardinal directions were.  The valley was leading her west now, having
curved around as she had traveled.

She flew up the valley, trying to pay attention to the path on the
ground that she'd be traversing.  It was hard to estimate distances
while in the vision, since the points of reference all changed and
morphed compared to her walking point of view.  She flew ahead toward
the lake, and came upon its eastern end shortly.  Her best guess was
that it would take a couple hours to get there on foot, although she
realized that she had never so consciously scouted ahead in a vision
like this, and couldn't tell if her estimate had any basis in reality.
She'd have to pay attention as she walked, and see how her estimates
stacked up against the real thing.

The lake was long and skinny, as she'd seen before, but in the midday
light, she saw more detail than her last survey had shown.  The water
was a delicate blue-green color, and as she moved over its surface, she
saw fish flitting about.  She looked to each shore as she moved
down the center of the lake, and as soon as she spotted one of the
crofts on the northern shore, she veered off in that direction, and
slowed down to take in its surroundings.

The croft itself seemed to be in a degraded condition, compared to what
she remembered of the Loch Iasg crofts.  She hadn't paid strict
attention to the buildings there, having focused more on the people,
but this building seemed to be in a worse state of repair.  The thatch
was disordered, and appeared to be blackened in some spots, where she
remembered it being a fairly evenly weathered grey in Loch Iasg.  As
she circled around, she noticed that there was no door, although the
doorway looked like it might have once framed one.  She peeked inside
very briefly, not intending to snoop, just trying to get a sense of who
might be there.  The inside of the croft, as her eyes adjusted to the
gloom, was strewn debris, and she thought that perhaps this building
had been abandoned.

She flew her point of view back out, and circled around the little
building, looking at the land surrounding it.  There was a small
vegetable patch to one side, away from the lake but out of the shadow
of the croft, but the plants in it were withered and dead, confirming
her suspicion.  This place looked like it had been abandoned for some
months, although Aurelia realized as she was making the estimate that
she'd never discussed growing seasons with any Daoine, and had no idea
if there even was such a thing.

She flew back up, and looked around to see what the next croft looked
like.  She spotted it, further along the lake shore, and found a
similar scene: abandoned house, untended garden, broken animal pen with
a fence in disrepair.  Again and again along the northern side of the
lake, she found crofts that were unused and falling apart.  This didn't
seem like a good sign.

Finally, she came to the house at the far, western end of the lake.  It
was clearly in good repair, and seemed like it was a building in active
use.  It was square-shouldered, with crisp gables on the roof and
well-tended grounds around it.  There was no one in evidence, and after
giving it a once-over, Aurelia moved on to survey the southern shore of
the lake.  Here she found one or two crofts that looked like they were
in decent shape, although the fires were out, and no one seemed to be
around.  There were several more huts along the shore, but they were
far fewer in number than the northern buildings, and the remainder were
similiarly disused.

It was a thoughtful Aurelia who returned to her hiding spot and opened
her eyes again.  What would make Daoine abandon their buildings?  The
people she'd met so far seemed to be singularly stable in their habits,
and she hadn't seen much evidence of sickness.  Indeed, now that she
thought about it, she'd never seen any Daoine who appeared ill in any
way, as she thought about illness: no runny noses, no sneezing, no
coughing.  At the festival, they even seemed to shrug off a night of
drinking with little more than a faint headache that caused a sheepish
grin of, "Yeah, I overdid it last night."

She picked up her bow and satchel, and walked onward, wondering about
the abandoned buildings along the lake.  She had completely forgotten
about her distance estimation thoughts.

CHAPTER


Aurelia arrived at the near end of the lake with less than an hour
until the sun would set, and realized she wouldn't get to the nearest
abandoned building until midday the next day.  The distances were
longer than she'd realized, and she decided her sense of distance
while in a vision needed some work.

The thought of approaching one of the unused buildings in darkness gave
Aurelia a creepy feeling, so she decided to find a good spot on this
side of the lake to camp for the night.  She'd briefly considered
trying to set up camp in one of the empty crofts, but that seemed wrong
in a number of ways.  For one thing, it felt to her like some kind of
disrespect for the dead, as if the houses were bodies that used to be
alive.

Conscious of the risk she was taking, she elected to sleep that night
with the iron off, so that she could talk to Ailis.  She wanted very
much to talk about the Queen, who had been on her mind so much during
the day's walk.

When she found herself in the dream-vision that night, she addressed
the topic straight away.

"Ailis," she said, after a brief greeting, "when I directed my vision
to the Queen, she saw me."

"What can you mean, girl?  In what way did she see you?"  Ailis looked
puzzled by Aurelia's words.

"I mean, she saw me, and said, 'I was expecting you,' or something like
that.  I freaked out and nearly slammed back into myself at full speed,
I got out of there so fast.  How did she know I was there?  Does that
mean she can trace me back to where I am?  Is she spying on me now?"

"Oh well now, if the Queen has Second Sight -- and the rumor is that she
has many different powers, including powers which should cancel each
other out, I may add -- then it is just as possible that she looks in
on you as that you look in on her.

"As to how she knew you were there, that is a question.  I have heard
tell of many senses beyond our eyes and ears of course, and I suppose
that at one point I may have heard someone relate something like this.
I belive it could be done, but I find my memory indistinct on how it
might be accomplished."  Ailis fell silent as she thought over how such
a trick might be done.

After several minutes of this, Aurelia broke in, feeling impatient.
"Let's maybe not worry about how exactly she did it.  Is there any
danger I'm in because of it?"

Ailis looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I cannot rightly say,
my dear.  To be certain, being a subject of scrutiny with the Queen can
be dangerous.  But I feel that there is nothing new in what you have
related.  Is there some development which has happened beyond this
vision you describe?"

"Not really, I mean... No, I guess not.  Just that her being able to
see me, or sense me, or whatever it was she did was scary as hell."

"I warrant the Queen has no new power over you, in that case.  You are
in as much danger now as you were before she spotted you, except that
perhaps her attention has been turned more toward you now.  There is
little she can do to you from a distance.  You have seen, she must send
an army to capture you, and you but a single girl, no danger to
anyone."

"That's good to hear, at least.  I was freaked out she could zap me
somehow from a distance."

"No.  I think we have not spoken much of magic in Tir na Tuatha, and I
forget that you have had no experience with it.  It is not some kind of
shaft to be loosed from on high upon an unsuspecting victim.  Second Sight
you know, but there is other magic.  It can be used to alleviate
hunger, as I have told you, as a source of power.  It can also be used
to change oneself through glamour, as you have seen, or to cover a
thing.  It can be used to affect the mind of another.  It can be used
to change real things, such as causing a mist to form, or calling down
rain or banishing the clouds.  There is bad magic which can cause
plants and animals to wither and die, but it doesn't work on Daoine,
who are too mindful.

"Magic may be imbued into things, but they must start magical, such as
rare gems or gold or silver.  Some wood is inherently magical, and it
is not unusual to find bows or tools which have been improved through
use of magic.  Ultimately, magic is a source of power, like a running
river, and it may be diverted to what uses a practitioner of magic may
imagine.

"However, magic does not follow logical rules, like water does.  It is
hard to control, and there are few who are skilled at more than one use
of magic.  I could count on one hand the number of skilled magicians I
have met in my lifetime, and I have lived many centuries, as you know.
Many Daoine can do one thing or another, but a skilled magician is a
rarity."

Aurelia thought this over, then said, "Can we see magic?  Is there some
way Second Sight can show it?"

"To be sure.  Did we not talk of this before?"

"I don't know.  I mean, we talked about a whole lot of stuff back
before you died, but it's all kind of a blur now."

"Well, it is simplicity itself.  Look to your iron ring when you awake.
It is the opposite of magic, which may tell you all you need to know to
start.  To see magic, you must find magic, and I would guess your
possessions do not encompass magical artifacts."

"Ah," said Aurelia, holding up a finger.  She tugged at the torc around
her neck.  "Your house is probably magical, right?"

"Clever girl!  Of course.  It is not highly magical, but you should see
the effect.  Do you attempt that on the morrow, I will be most interested
to hear the result."

"Ok, cool.  I'll try that."

"How proceed your travels?  It occurs to me that you were most unhappy
to be cast out from Loch Iasg.  Your distress seems to have passed."

"Oh," Aurelia paused, considering her response.  "No, I'm still really
unhappy about that.  I guess I have bigger problems, though.  I'm
camped at this lake," she gestured out at the lake, which was 50 feet
from where they were standing, "which is huge, and has a nice house at
one end, but there are all these abandoned buildings inbetween.  It's
actually kind of disturbing, all those empty, dead-looking crofts
falling down.  I wish I knew what happened."

"What is your goal?  Will you call at the pretty house you describe?"

"That's what I was thinking.  I'm almost out of food, and I haven't had
much luck gathering out here, and even less luck hunting.  I told you
about the Glaistig.  Since then, I haven't seen anything worth hunting.
This valley is weirdly empty."

"Aye, there are barren places in Tir na Tuatha.  There must be barren
places in the land of men as well."

"I'm sure.  It's just strange to see such an empty place, since
everywhere I've been has at least had wildlife.  I guess now that I'm
here, I've seen fish in the lake.  Maybe I'll see more tomorrow when
I'm walking.  I've practiced my archery some, I think I'm getting
better, but I'm running out of arrows.  The last time I practiced, I
broke two of them to splinters accidentally hitting rocks.  I don't
suppose you know how to make arrows?"

"Nay, that was never a talent of mine.  I left such matters to Mairaid
Ruadh.  I suppose you have not Seen anything of the Drais?  I miss
my family."

Aurelia realized with a guilty start that she'd been so concerned about
her own problems that she hadn't really given any thought to her first
protectors.  "No.  I'll look tomorrow.  Maybe I can figure out what
happened to them.  I know the army moved on to Loch Iasg, and I don't
think they had prisoners with them, or at least I didn't see any."

"Well, that is some comfort.  It would please me to know that my people
survived and restored our house.  It was a good home, amid good
people."

"It was, definitely."  Aurelia put her hand on Ailis's shoulder, and a
moment later the two women were clasped in a gentle embrace.  Aurelia
had never seen Ailis look so remorseful before.  "I'm sorry, Ailis."

"It is not your burden, my friend," said Ailis, her voice muffled by
Aurelia's chest.  "I appreciate your sympathy."

CHAPTER


The sun was well up by the time Aurelia had awoken and gathered her
senses.  She felt oddly tired, but put it down to the long walk without
much food yesterday.  She had also received a gentle reminder from
Ailis in the previous night's dream that food wasn't the only way to
keep her energy up, and she spent some time searching the creek bed for
quartz again.  This time she was more successful, and found a piece of
rock with a stripe of quartz through it, similar to the rock she'd
received from the dream-woman so long ago.

Now that she was familiar with the effect, and what she was attempting
to do, Aurelia's attempts to ameliorate her hunger with the stone were
more successful.  At least, they seemed more successful, and perhaps
that was what really mattered.  She found herself with another conflict
of magic versus anti-magic, though, as she wanted to simply carry the
stone with her (another of Ailis's suggestions), but had to leave the
iron off her person if she wanted it to have any effect.

She compromised, and used the stone when she was taking breaks, putting
the iron ring back on when she started moving again.

She did indeed reach the first of the decaying huts around midday, and
hurried past it quickly.  In addition to the visual evidence of
abandonment, there was a kind of psychic trauma about the place that
she could feel, but couldn't describe even to herself.  As she came
across the subsequent huts, which were separated, she now saw, by
fields that had been too long untended, she had the same sense of
something being profoundly wrong.  She was very glad she'd paid
attention to her instinct not to approach the huts by night, even
though they seemed to offer better shelter than sleeping under the
stars.

She still hadn't reached the far end of the lake by the time the sun
was setting, and decided she would set up camp up the slope, away from
the string of crofts.  She found a shallow ravine that housed a little
burn coming down from the hills to the lake, and set herself up there.

She finished off the last of her dried fish, and was left with a heel
of bread to eat for the following day.  As much as she believed and
understood that magic could sustain her, eating real food was vastly more
satisfying.  She was determined to look in at the nice house at the far
end of the lake, which couldn't be more than a couple hours' walk, on
her travels tomorrow.  They surely had food and perhaps she could beg
or barter for it.

Before she fell asleep, she remembered her promise to Ailis to look in
on the Drais, and see what had befallen them in the interim.  Her
trance-vision took her to the manorhouse without trouble, and she saw
that it was still broken-looking from the outside.  Upon swooping
inside, and flitting down the familiar corridors and through familiar
rooms that brought on a surprising and intense wave of nostalgia, she
found people were living there again.  She recognized many of the
faces, and rejoiced to know that her friends had survived the attack,
and seemed to be re-establishing themselves.  There was evidence of
repair work, and when she re-traced her path from the collapsed
stairway out through the gates, she saw that things looked less damaged
than she had remembered.  She had to suppress the urge to call out to
friends on numerous occasions -- to actually make the attempt and fail
was disheartening in a way that restraining herself wasn't, and she'd
never yet figured out a way to communicate while in a vision trance.

Satisfied, she returned to herself, watching the landscape scroll by
quickly, and quite surprised by how far she'd gone.  She was still
getting used to distances that were not marked out by city blocks or
miles of interstate highway.  Somehow, knowing that she'd traveled 5
days on foot (which was an odd sort of estimate anyway, since part of
her travel had also involved flying on a dragon's back for an unknown
distance) held no emotional resonance for her in the same way that
walking from Tacoma to Seattle would have, or driving across the US.

She drifted off to sleep, clasping the quartz stone and thinking of her
Drais friends.

CHAPTER

The next day, she reached the nice house after only an hour's walk, as
best as she could tell.  Unsure what she was going to run into, she had
her ring on, the iron knife in easy reach but still hidden, and her
guard up.  Passing by the final dead croft houses had put her in a wary
state of mind, and it did not escape her that the crofts were
situated such that they were probably attached to the house.  She
couldn't help wondering that the house was so carefully tended, and the
crofts so clearly abandoned and dead, and she found her mind tossing
around the image of some kind of blood-sucking parasite.

Aurelia was not particularly inclined to thoughts of class or equality.
Her early life had been distinctly lower class, growing up with her
mother who never made very much money.  She didn't think of it as being
poor, because her mother made it clear she was doing her best, and
thought they were doing alright.

She'd had to take out numerous loans to afford college, and although
they were a source of worry for her back in Seattle, her experience was
absolutely par for the course.  No one got through college without six
figures of debt, and she hadn't paid any attention to her fellow
students who protested and complained about the high cost of tuition or
low prospect of jobs.

She didn't realize it, in the way that privileged people rarely
recognize the extent of their privilege, but Aurelia had been skating
on her appearance for years.  The result was that questions of rich or
poor, discrimination or not, had simply not occupied her mind very
much.  She was certainly against racism and and classism and corporate
privilege, but only in the sense that all her friends were too.  It was
not a deeply considered opinion.

Thus it was a new line of thought that Aurelia found herself treading
as she walked past the last of the disused crofts and toward the nicely
tended house at the end of the lake.  It looked to her like the crofts
had somehow been sacrificed in order to enrich the house.  Her recent
experience at Loch Iasg had inclined herself to identify as a crofter
if she identified as anything in Tir na Tuatha, and as such, seeing the
dead crofts was troubling in an existential way she'd never experienced
before.  She found her opinion gelling against the occupants of the
rich house, and some of her fellow students' words coming back to her,
suddenly understanding words like "oppressor" in a way she never had
before.

As she approached what was clearly the entrance door to the house, she
found her fist clenching.  She paused, and took a mental step back,
reminding herself that she had no idea what the actual story here was,
and constructing stories about parasites and such was not fair. 
She was in a sense acting with too little information.

It was a calmer Aurelia who knocked on the tall door with its
impressive bronze knocker.  The knocker was fashioned to look like a
dragon with a hoop in its mouth, and the work on it was quite good.  It
didn't look alive, but if she changed the color in her mind, it looked
remarkably like Sgiathalaich.  Aurelia found herself wondering if all
dragons looked alike up close, when the door was pulled open.

Aurelia didn't know quite what she'd been expecting, but a squat,
nearly circular woman with grey hair pulled back into a severe bun and
wearing a dun colored dress was not high on the list.  She'd been
expecting a tall man with dark hair and a haughty demeanor, perhaps, or
some kind of a Count Dracula figure.  This woman had a cheerful face
that contrasted oddly with the tightly constrained hairstyle.  She had
rosy cheeks and broad features.

"Good morning," she said.  "How can I help you?  'Tis not often we see
new faces at our door!"

Rallying after the unexpected greeting, Aurelia said, "I am a traveler,
and have run out of food.  I was wondering if I could trouble you for
anything.  I would be willing to work for it, of course, but I have
nothing of value to trade aside from my skills."  She had to clear her
throat a few times before her voice sounded right, and Aurelia realized
that the last words she'd spoken had been to Sgiathalaich, several days
ago.

"Oh, my dear!  Come inside!  I'll fetch you some bread and butter."
She bustled Aurealia in the door, and showed her to a room that was
small in comparison to the house, but still bigger than the croft she'd
shared with Mairi in Loch Iasg.  "Would you like tea?" she asked, as
she turned to go out the door again.  "We have no milk at the moment,
alas."  Aurelia agreed to the tea, still somewhat bewildered, and the
little woman hurried out the door.

Aurelia looked around the room.  It was lined along one wall with
books, all bound in dark leather, and looking different than Aurelia
had ever seen before.  She'd seen libraries like this in movies, but
those books had always been crisp, precisely-made objects, and these
books seemed to be loose and amorphous.  Not poorly made, but made to a
different kind of standard.  Her gaze traveled up the walls, and she
noted a small handful of stuffed animal heads gazing down at her from
the gloomy ceiling.  There was a pair of tall, skinny windows in one
wall, but the glass was only translucent, so she wasn't able to see
what they looked over.  They were framed by curtains, but in the glare
Aurelia didn't notice what the fabric was.  Next to the bookshelves, on
the perpendicular wall, was a display case showing what looked to be
silver and gold plates and platters.  There was also a shelf with an
artfully arrayed collection of very delicate-looking glasses, something
like champagne flutes if they didn't have stems.

The room was finished out with a fireplace that seemed to span one
entire wall, in which a small fire was burning.  The temperature
outside didn't seem to call for a fire, but nevertheless there it was.
She realized as she looked again that the fire was bigger than Mairi
ever made her cooking fire, but it was so dwarfed by the fireplace that
it looked tiny.

She was interrupted in her observations by the little woman bustling
back in with a bright silver tray covered in a plate piled with slices
of bread, a delicate dish filled with butter, a silver carafe, and two
delicate looking china teacups.  The woman set them down on a table
which was situated between two low-backed chairs upholstered in
leather.  A sofa out of a burgundy fabric striped with yellow and black
faced the chairs, and all were arranged to take advantage of the fire's
heat.

"There," she said, laying out a slice of bread onto a plate, and
handing it to Aurelia.  "Please."

Aurelia found her head bobbing in a tiny curtsey, and she said, "Thank
you."  She butttered her bread with a little dainty knife, and took a
grateful bite.  It was a light, fluffy bread, and she realized it was
still slightly warm from baking.  Swallowing her first mouthful, she
said, "I'm Aurelia," and stretched out her hand to the woman.

"Oh, of course, how silly of me!  My name is Sionag nic Mhairi a Loch
Mor, but you can call me Sion or Sionag if you prefer.  I am the wife
of Peadrus mac Iain a Loch Mor, who is the master of this house.  I am
pleased to meet you, Aurelia."  She stood and dropped a quick,
efficient curtsey to Aurelia, who scrambled up to somewhat awkwardly do
the same.

"Nice to meet you," said Aurelia.  As she sat again, she held up her
piece of bread, and said, "Thank you for the bread, it's delicious."

Sionag responded with an appreciative, "Mmm."  There was a lull
in the conversation as the two women ate their bread in silence.
Sionag's expression visibly brightened, almost like she was coming back
to life after being switched off for a moment, and she said, "Where do
your travels take you, Aurelia?  How do you come to be on the shores of
Loch Mor?"

"Uh," said Aurelia, her mind still unaccustomed to the quick
calculations necessary to judge the trustworthiness of a person in a
political climate where saying the wrong thing could get you in deep if
somewhat non-specific trouble.  "I guess I'm just trying to get home."

"Oh, most worthy.  And where is the home you seek?"

"I'm, uh.  I'm not really sure."  She dithered again before admitting
to her non-Daoine status, still amazed both at how little comment it
seemed to evoke, and how the Daoine she met seemed unable to determine
she was anything other than completely normal until she told them.
Certainly if anyone had shown up at her door in Seattle and claimed to
be a fairy from a far-off land only accessible by magic, she would have
shut the door as quickly as possible, and thought seriously about
calling the police.  But somehow, here, it didn't seem to excite
particular interest.  "I'm human," she said after a moment of
hesitation while these thoughts played through her head.  "I'm trying
to get back to Earth, but I haven't been able to find any portals
anywhere nearby."

"Oh," said Sionag, a moment of doubt clearly flitting across her face.
She brightened again, and said, "How unusual!  Human, really?  Why, it
has been millenia since I last beheld a human."  She trailed off again,
and Aurelia couldn't help noticing the extent to which the rotund
little woman seemed to have two modes, the one thoughtful and pensive
and inward-facing, the other external-facing and cheerful.  She
switched between them instantaneously.  "Well," she said, switching on
again, "it may be that we can provide some assistance on your journey."

Aurelia brightened immediately.  "Really?"  She immediately forgot
about her misgivings and musings on class and oppressors and everything
else.  Here was the first person in Tir na Tuatha who'd ever shown any
inclination to help her get home.

"Oh, I should think so, just let me consult with my man.  In between
times, please to rest here.  Can I bring you anything else?"

"Oh, no, thank you.  I mean... no, no.  This is great.  Thank you!"

The little woman bustled out of the room, although her manner was
different than before, in a way Aurelia couldn't put her finger on.

Aurelia sat once again, examining the room.  The prospect of finding a
portal and going home cast it in an entirely different light, though.
Suddenly the animal heads on the wall didn't seem oppressive.  The fire
in the huge fireplace no longer looked miniscule, it was cheerful and
bright.  The sun seemed to have come out from behind a cloud outside,
as the windows seemed to brighten as well.

It was only a few minutes before Sionag returned, trailed by a taller,
but equally rotund man with huge whiskers wearing a vest that strained
at the buttons to contain his impressive belly.  His legs appeared like
sticks out from underneath his kilt, which was of a very fine cloth in
a pattern that was mostly red with accents of white and blue-green.

"Aurelia," said Sionag, gesturing to the man with the whiskers, "this
is my husband, Peadrus mac Iain a Loch Mor.  Peadrus, this is Aurelia,
our human guest."

Peadrus scowled at Aurelia, and looked her over.  She had stood as Sionag
was making the introduction, and she stood more than a foot taller than
Peadrus, even though he was himself at least half a foot taller than
his wife.  "Pleased to meetcha," he said, his body language suggesting
that just the opposite was the case.  "Human, eh?"  He gave her the
once-over again.  "Humans have gotten taller since I last saw 'em.
Where've you been all this time, then?"  Aurelia thought he was
resisting an urge to poke her with a finger.

"Pleased to meet you too, sir.  I'm not sure where we've been.  The
Daoine are considered a myth among humans now, I think we've been
separated for a long time."

Peadrus uttered a noise that, had he been a terrier, would have been
described as a quiet "whuff" sort of a bark.  "You don't say.  Don't
much feel like a myth, myself.  Well, you're welcome to stay here.
Sionag says you're trying to go home.  Best of luck, of course."  That
seemed to be that, and he turned to leave the room.  Aurelia watched
silently as the door closed behind him.

Sionag didn't seem to see anything wrong with any of this, and turned
back to Aurelia, gesturing for her to sit.  They both took their seats
again.  "We were planning on an early dinner, would you join us?"

"That sounds wonderful," said Aurelia, excitement at the prospect of
real food nearly as substantial as her excitement at the idea of
getting home again.  She wanted to ask about going home, but Sionag
didn't seem inclined to talk about it, and Aurelia didn't want to upset
her latest protector.

"Most pleasing!  We shall be delighted to have a guest to dinner.  I
will have Malmhin show you to a room where you may make yourself
comfortable."  With that, Sionag picked up a small silver bell and rang
it.  It had a bright, almost supernatural tone.  A moment later, a
rail-thin worried-looking woman in a dress similar to Sionag's, but not
as nicely made, opened the door.

"Yes, Mistress?" she said, standing just inside the door.  Aurelia saw
that her hair was bright coppery red and looped up in two long plaits,
and her face was pale beneath a dusting of freckles.

"Ah, Malmhin.  Would you please take Aurelia up to the guest room?  She
will be staying with us for a few days."

"Of course, Mistress."  The red-headed woman curtsied briefly, and
beckoned Aurelia to follow her.  Aurelia picked up her satchel and bow,
feeling suddenly very dirty and ragged compared to her surroundings,
and followed.

She was led up a narrow staircase and down a narrow hallway to a room
similar in size to the room they'd just been sitting in, although this
was fitted out as a bedroom.  White sheets covered everything, giving
it a ghostly feel.  Malmhin carefully rolled back the sheets, revealing
seviceable but not extravagant furniture.  She opened the drapes on the
single window in the room, which was one of the dormers in the roof
Aurelia had spotted earlier.  The window here was similarly
translucent, so there was nothing to see but light.

The ceiling was low in the room, as it had been in the hallway and
staircase, although the height was only relatively low.  Aurelia hadn't
had to duck, as she had in the Drais manorhouse, and she thought the
ceilings were probably normal for human buildings.  With the window
open, she could see that the walls were paneled in some kind of dark
wood.  The furniture in the room was spare: a bed covered in the dark
brown fur of some large animal; a washstand with a ceramic basin; a
sturdy-looking chair, also out of dark wood; a small table with a
scratched surface; and a small polished-silver mirror on a swiveling
stand.

Aurelia set down her bag and bow on the bed, the arrows clattering as
they came to a rest.  As she was recovering herself and wondering what
she should do now, Malmhin came back in with a tall pitcher, and set it
down next to the basin.  She also had a stack of linens in her hand,
which she laid out on the table.  "Mistress says you should be ready
for dinner at sundown," said Malmhin, her face retaining its apparently
natural state of looking slightly worried.

"Thank you.  Hey, uh.  I'm feeling a bit weird to be here.  Is it... am
I allowed to wander around and look at the house, or do I need to stay
in here?"

The color rose in Malmhin's face, and she paused a moment before
saying, "I am sure I don't know, but I'll ask Mistress Sionag for you."
As Aurelia looked at Malmhin's face in the light from the window, she
realized her eyes were bright green.

"Well, thank you.  I guess I'll wait here, then."  Aurelia waited
awkwardly while the door shut, then sat down on the bed and took off
her iron.  She was ready to drop into a vision trance when she realized
that Malmhin might return at any moment.  She didn't have the
impression that seers were too common, and she didn't want to scare the
poor woman if she happened to return while Aurelia was still
unresponsive.  Aurelia thought Malmhin looked like she was on the verge
of falling over in any case.

So, she contented herself with wandering around her room, inspecting
the walls and furniture.  She figured out how to open the window, and
pushed the frame open.  Her window looked out over the lake, and she
could see the shadows lengthening as the day wore on.  It was still a
few hours to sunset, she guessed.

Closing the window, she turned her attention to the pitcher that
Malmhin had brought in.  She realized that it was warm, and upon
inspection, contained hot water.  She suddenly understood what the
linens on the table were for, and unfolded a small one, pouring hot
water over it in the basin, and using it to wipe down her face.  It
felt absolutely divine, and to her horror, Aurelia saw the cloth come
away considerably darker than it had started.  She must look frightful.

She moved the mirror on the stand over to the window so she could get a
good look at herself.  However, the mirror didn't show her reflection,
and it took Aurelia a moment to remember: mirrors in Seattle had turned
useless after she'd gained Second Sight, as they were like nonstop
vision portals.  She impatiently jammed the iron ring back on her
finger, and returned to the mirror, which was now a perfectly normal
reflecting surface.

Her hair looked atrocious, tangled and matted, with little bits of
plant detritus stuck in it.  Her face was still streaked with dirt, and
under the dirt she could see that her skin was numerous shades darker
than the last time she'd seen it.  She realized that she'd spent the
last several months outside, in the sun.  She was tanned and never even
knew it had happened.  She chuckled to herself to think of the moisturizer
with SPF15 she'd left in Seattle.

The door opened at this point, and Malmhin poked her head back in.
"Mistress says you may see anything you wish, Miss.  Do you need
anything else?"

"Is there any way I could take a bath?"  Aurelia didn't expect there
would be, since bathing seemed to be thoroughly out of fashion in Tir
na Tuatha.  

She was therefore surprised when Malmhin said, "Of course, Miss.  I'll
draw you a bath.  It will take half an hour to heat the water.
Anything else, Miss?"

"No," said Aurelia, slightly stunned with visions of a hot bath dancing
in her head.  "No, that's perfect.  Thanks."  Malmhin withdrew from the
room, and Aurelia threw herself back on the bed, revelling in the
unaccustomed softness of the bed.  The odd, musty scents of old fur and
goose down surrounded her.

CHAPTER

When Aurelia appeared for dinner at sundown, she was transformed.  Gone
was the dirty, smudged green dress, and she was in the red and yellow
tartan dress she'd been carrying in her bag.  She had questioned
carrying it at all on numerous occasions as she walked, but it always
made sense to have a change of clothes handy.  Her hair was washed and
brushed, loose for the first time in weeks.  She smelled of lavender,
and felt like a completely different person.  Aurelia never would have
guessed that there was such a thing as a non-sexual orgasm, but she
felt like she'd passed through an orgasm of cleanliness.

The dining room was dark-paneled similar to the waiting room and her
bedroom, with a long, sturdily-built table stretching its length.
Peadrus and Sionag were seated at one end with a goat-horned man who
stood when Aurelia entered.  Sionag rose as well, and said, "Aurelia,
please meet our excellent friend Padraig mac Fhionn.  Padraig, this is
the human I told you about, Aurelia."  Padraig bowed again, and said,
"I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Aurelia."  She saw now that he
was dressed in a similar costume to Peadrus, although he was a more
normal girth, and his waistcoat didn't strain to contain him.  His kilt
looked similar in pattern to Peadrus's, although the latter was
sitting, so Aurelia could make no direct comparison.

Sionag continued, "Padraig is also passing through.  He travels for the
coast, is that right Padraig?"

"Yes indeed.  But how could I pass by Loch Mor without paying my
respects!"  He smiled a winning smile at Sionag, and Aurelia found herself
liking him immediately.  "I am traveling," he said, aiming his attention
at Aurelia now that he had delivered his compliment to Sionag and
Peadrus, "on business of the Queen."

Aurelia felt as though all the air had been drained from the room.  She
took a deep breath, but it didn't seem to help.  She looked to Sionag,
but the round little woman didn't show any signs of distress, and
indeed was beaming happily at their conversation.  Aurelia tried to
cover her shock, and said, "Really?  That's fascinating."

"Oh, surely it is," he replied, apparently having missed her
discomposure.  "I am bound for a bark which departs in five days.  It
is some luck that I was able to stop here, my horse was in need of a
rest.  He nearly lamed himself crossing a burn some way back," he
gestured over his shoulder, pointing with his thumb.  "He needs a rest,
and Peadrus has been kind enough to give me the use of one of his
horses to complete my journey."

Peadrus harrumphed at the mention of his name, and said, "'Tis no
bother.  I shall have to find a new boy, though, our last one absconded
with a silver harness some weeks ago."

Padraig laughed heartily, and said, "No bother indeed!  I have been
harnessing my horse myself for a week, it will be no further trouble to
continue doing so!"  Something about his laugh was absolutely
infectious, and Aurelia found herself liking the man even though he was
working for the Queen.

The dinner continued in much the same vein, with Padraig keeping the
conversation alive almost single-handedly.  Peadrus occasionally
interjected a cynical comment, and Sionag laughed in time with
Padraig's judicious witticisms.  Aurelia sat and absorbed it all,
charmed by Padraig's radiant charisma.

The food that arrived in front of her was odd, and she didn't recognize
a single dish.  She tried each plate, and ended up eating most of each
one, since they turned out to be almost uniformly delicious.  There was
one course of some kind of wide sausage in a sauce that tasted like
toothpaste which she couldn't eat, though, and she took only a bite or
two to be polite.  By the time the last course came out (a kind of
sweet goop with raisins, and tasting distinctly alcoholic), Aurelia felt
like she might explode, she was so full.

At the end of the dinner, once everyone had had a moment to sit back
and let their groaning clothing relax -- Padraig actually loosened his
belt, which was not a thing Aurelia had ever seen done before -- Sionag
stood.  Once it became obvious that Aurelia didn't catch the hint, she
glided over to Aurelia and drew her up out of her chair.  "Let us leave
the men in peace," she said, as Aurelia finally caught on and stood up.

"Oh, yes, of course," she said, feeling suddenly out of place again.
Padraig's easy manner had made her more or less forget the formal
setting they were sitting in.  She follow Sionag out of the room, and
they went into a different sitting room than the one she'd first seen.

It was now quite dark outside, and the bright fire was cheerful and
welcoming.  There was a table set out with candles and playing cards,
and Sionag said, "Will you play with me?  It's poor sport with only
two, but perhaps we can ask the men in after some short while."

"Sure, what are we playing?"  Aurelia was not one of nature's card
players, and had only handled cards a small handful of times in her
life.  "You'll have to teach me the rules of whatever it is, I'm
afraid."

"Oh, well that should be fine.  We'll play Clachan.  It is a simple
enough game to start."  She handed Aurelia a stack of ten cards, and
took ten for herself, then set out three on the table, face up.

Aurelia was immediately fascinated by the cards.  Each one was square
rather than oblong, and could be held any way up.  Each had an
elaborate painting on it which showed a different image as it was
rotated.  Aurelia thought it couldn't possibly be a static painting,
and thought of the moving paintings from the Harry Potter movies.  As
she rotated it and watched carefully, though, the painting really
wasn't changing, it was simply extremely clever.

With a start, she realized she had completely missed everything Sionag
had just said.  "I'm sorry, I was distracted by these cards, they're
amazing!"

Sionag looked confused for a moment, then her face switched on again.
"Oh, of course, I imagine you have not seen Fiossach cards before.
They are just a little magical, and each one shows you an aspect of your
own mind."

"Wait, you mean they're reading my mind?"

"No, I mean to say that what you see is filled in by your mind.  I see
them differently than you do.  At least, that is what has been
explained to me.  For instance, on this card, I see a stag being chased
by hounds in a rainstorm," Sionag held up a card for Aurelia to see.
It looked to her like a four-sided geometrical pattern that also had
hints of faces in it, so that as Sionag held it up, it looked like an
impressionistic image of a man playing a stringed instrument, and she
could see there were other scenes to be found by rotating to other
orientations.

Aurelia sat back, dumbfounded.  "I have never seen anything like this.
These are absolutely amazing.  How do you ever play a game with them, I
just want to stare at them all day!"


Sionag considered for a moment, then replied, "I have not honestly
considered the question.  I have always simply played.  You do have
playing cards in the land of men, do you not?"

"Well, sure.  But... I'm pretty sure they don't read your mind, or
whatever these are doing."  Aurelia leafed through her cards, utterly
fascinated.  She held one up at random, which to her appeared to be a
three-sided design showing wild animals, and said, "What do you see for
this one?"

"Oh," said Sionag, examining the card.  "That shows the flying lights."

Aurelia glanced at the card again.  "What are the flying lights?"

"Over wild fields at night, you may see lights dancing to their own
tune.  They fly to and fro like wild things, making patterns and
pictures in the air."  She smiled fondly as she described the scene.
"They are friendly, and will come down and rest on your outstretched
palm if you are still enough."

"What does it feel like?"

"There is nothing to feel.  They exist only in sight.  There is no
noise, no body there."

"What are they?"  Aurelia's sense of wonder had become fully engaged by
the playing cards, and the magical dancing lights were vivid in her
imagination.

"Well, they are simply lights.  It may be I fail to understand your
question."

Aurelia pondered for a moment, then said, "Are they alive?"

"Oh, that I do not know.  They are lights.  They move and dance and
fly.  How do you mean, 'alive?'"

"I guess I don't know.  Never mind, it probably doesn't matter.  Can
you find them around here?"

"I have never looked," said Sionag.  "I last saw them in Strontaigh...
Oh, a thousand years ago."  She smiled coyly, a look which sat a little
strangely on her cheerful, rosy face, and said, "It was when Peadrus
proposed to me."  She trailed off, smiling to herself, lost in memory.

"Oh," said Aurelia, unsure how to respond.  When it became clear that
Sionag was lost for the moment, Aurelia flipped through the cards
again.  She started seeing a pattern in the cards, where some cards
were based on a four-sided diagram or painting, some on a three-sided,
and some on a two-sided design.  Each had a theme: people, animals,
plants, landscapes.  With a bit of a shock, she started to recognize
some of the people in the cards.  There was Ailis, there Mary, there
Laochag, there a triumvirate of Drais.  She also recognized the
scenery, and as she thought about it, it came to her that of course she
would recognize the things in the cards, if they were truly showing her
reflections of her own mind.

What was interesting was that she didn't consciously recognize the
style of the paintings, and had never seen anything like the designs
before.  She wondered how cards that reflected her own mind could be so
unrecognizable.

Unexpectedly, Sionag spoke up again.  "Well," she said, jolting Aurelia
out of her examination of the cards, "shall we play?"

CHAPTER

They played several rounds of Clachan, which ended up being a sort of
memory matching game, Aurelia getting soundly beaten by Sionag.  In the
middle of the third round, Peadrus and Padraig came in and sat down,
and they changed to a new game, the name of which was never mentioned.
It involved playing in pairs, and Aurelia found herself sitting opposite
Padraig, whose bright eyes seemed to catch hers with surprising
regularity.  The game was as much about understanding one's parter as
it was about being able to choose the right card, with each player's
interpretation of the card forming a central role in the game.

They played until it must have been past midnight, Aurelia thought.
She started yawning early on, having been on the schedule set by the
sun for months now -- neither the Drais nor the Loch Iasg folks set
much store by artificial light.  The others were drinking something
that smelled highly flammable to Aurelia, and she declined, asking for
water instead.  The memory -- or perhaps lack of memory -- of the brandy
at the festival was still far too fresh.

She actually fell asleep toward the end, and awoke with a start when
the other three got up to go up to bed.  Padraig laughed and helped her
up, sending her on her tottering way up the stairs with a candle in a
silver holder.  She didn't know what happened to him, as by the time
she got into the hallway, she was alone.

She fell asleep almost immediately, and was shortly in a dream-vision
with Ailis.

Ailis took in the room they were sitting in with a certain amount of
surprise.  "I see you have arrived at the house at the end of the
lake," she said, examining the bed with its dark fur covering.  They
had discussed the disused crofts the night before, and Aurelia's plan
to ask for food at the house.

"Yeah, it's actually pretty nice.  Sionag and Peadrus are the only
people who live here, I think.  I can't remember their full names, but
I think they've been living here for a long time.  Sionag said they
were from Loch Mor, which must be the name of the big lake out there."

"Ah, I have heard tell of a Loch Mor, although I had not seen it
before.  That is where we last rested, yes?"

"Right.  Anyway, They seem to live in this house with a few servants,
and that's it.  There's another guy here, Padraig, he's a strange sort.
I don't know what to make of him.  He seems really friendly and nice,
but he said he's on a mission from the Queen."

"Did he now?  What sort of a mission, did you hear?"

"No, just something where he needs to get on a ship of some kind.  I
didn't even know there was an ocean here."

"To be sure, it is further west than we are by several days' travel, I
should wager.  A vast sea with strange lands at the other end.  I have
never seen it, but I am told that it is as a lake, but so large that it
simply disappears in the distance.  I wonder that the Queen should have
business which requires travel by ship."

"Yeah, I don't know why he's traveling that way, and he didn't say.
Maybe it's a secret."

"It is possible," said Ailis, pausing with her finger to her lips.
"Well, no matter for now.  Can we see this house?"

"Oh, sure," said Aurelia, standing from the bed, where she'd been
sitting next to herself.  They passed through the door, and Aurelia
showed Ailis the various rooms she'd visited, and they poked their
heads into some of the other rooms out of curiosity.  Aurelia has no
intention of snooping, but found it perfectly reasonable to look in on
rooms that were almost certainly empty.

It was all fine until they moved through a door into one of the
upstairs rooms, and heard voice talking.  Aurelia was ready to
immediately leave again, but Ailis grabbed her arm in warning, and
Aurelia listened to the last few words her ears had picked up.

"...think that the girl will be no problem.  She will be easy enough to
handle, Peadrus, you know that."

"Oh, trouble me not with trifles, old man.  I can dispose of her at any
point, you saw how she stuffed herself tonight.  Like a proper rube, I
do declare.  Think she'd never visited before."

Padraig, a black silhouette against the candlelight from where Ailis
and Aurelia stood in their incorporeal bodies, threw his head back and
laughed, a muted, hushed sound despite the full voice he clearly wanted
to give it.  "She did that, it is true.  Regardless, I cannot delay my
journey to deal with her.  The Queen requires speed from me, not
dalliance with little squabbles."

"I would not be so sure of the Queen's priorities, you old goat.  Your
visit may be important, but my understanding is that this girl is worth
more than any state visit."  Peadrus chuckled, blowing smoke into the
light from his pipe.

"Well then," said Padraig, slapping Peadrus on the back jovially, "do
you send her along.  You will doubtless be rewarded, and the Queen's
favors are not to be scoffed at."  Padraig radiated a faint corona of
blue emotion-stuff, which mingled and interacted with the deep brown
rolling off Peadrus like dry ice vapor.

Aurelia, thoroughly spooked by this point, fled the room and returned
to her bedroom, to the comforting presence of her physical body, sound
asleep under the covers on the softest bed she'd experienced since
leaving Seattle.  Ailis rejoined her a moment later.  She stood silent
as Aurelia tried to calm herself.

"What the hell was that?" Aurelia asked, looking up at the old seer.
"Was that me they're talking about?"

"It seems probable.  You seem to have fallen in with supporters of the
Queen."

"Augh, shit!  I have to wake up and get out of here.  I don't want to
be bundled off to the Queen like a hunting prize!"  Aurelia paced the
room, unconsciously floating a foot off the ground in her
consternation.

Ailis had to suppress a smile despite the apparent gravity of the
situation.  She'd seen Aurelia get worked up many times in the past,
during their failed attempts to access her power, and knew she only had
to wait a few minutes for the panic to calm down.

Sure enough, several minutes later, Aurelia was seated on the bed, and
they were rationally discussing implications of the words they'd heard.

"You must steel your mind, Aurelia," said Ailis.  "What Peadrus said is
true: if you ate from their table, you may well be under their power.
It is always a danger when dining with strangers."

"What should I do about it?"

"Find a spot in your mind, and armor it against all persuasion.  Into
that spot, insert the thought that you must leave under your own
power as soon as you can.  It will be very difficult, depending on how
much you have eaten.  Did you eat a great deal?"

Aurelia's face flushed, and she said, "Yes.  I ate pretty much
everything they set in front of me.  Shit!  I knew I wasn't supposed to
do that!  I knew it, and I did it anyway!"

Ailis stepped in before the panic reasseted itself fully.  "Calm,
Aurelia.  You have gone months now among friendly people who mean you
no harm.  We have not practiced the discipline, I should have mentioned
it before you arrived here."

"Ok, you're right," said Aurelia, blowing a wisp of hair out of her
face.  She pulled back her hair and impatiently tied it in a knot to
hold it away from her face.  "So, I make an armored place in my mind?"
She stood and started pacing again, on the ground this time, the
nervous energy seeking a way out.  "How do I do that?"

"Do you recall the exercise I had you practice in which I asked you to
see the coin that was glamoured away so you could not see it?  The
discipline is similar.  The same state of mind which would allow you to
see the coin will allow you to hide thoughts in your own head."

"Ok, yeah.  I had to do that a few times, although I forgot about the
coin exercise.  I know what you mean."

"You must form this place in your mind, and hide in it one single
thought: I must leave this place under my own power as soon as
possible.  When you awake, you will be fully in thrall of these people
of Loch Mor, and only the strictest discipline will allow you to hide a
thought from yourself."

"Right, ok.  So, I'll work on that.  Once I have this thought hidden
away, how do I use it?  I mean, like, how do I trigger it or whatever,
so that I can remember it?"

"I have had the most success tying a thought to a physical item, so
that when I saw or interacted with or even thought about the item, it
could trigger the thought.  For instance," Ailis cast about the room,
then said, "Ah!  If you tie it to the doorway from your chamber, your
chances will be excellent.  You must use the door to exit.  That will
trigger the thought, and you can gather your things and effect a speedy
departure."

"Ok, good thought.  Yeah, I can do that.  Let me work on this, and see
what I can get done."

"Very well," said Ailis.  The old seer grasped Aurelia's arm earnestly.
"Work your best work, Aurelia.  Your life may depend on it.  I will
walk the house, and see what I may see."

Aurelia spent the rest of the night trying to work up an armored spot
in her mind that would be triggered by the door, while Ailis wandered
the halls of the house.  By the morning, Aurelia was exhausted, but
reported that she thought she'd done it, and was confident the door
would trigger the thought in the morning.  Ailis approved, and they
parted ways, Aurelia returning to herself, shifting and turning in her
sleep as she worried about the morning.

CHAPTER


Aurelia awoke as the window brightened, the sun striking it doubly
strong due to the reflection off the lake which stretched to the east
from the house.  Out of sheer habit, she put the iron ring back on.
She looked around the room, slightly disoriented to be inside a
building after her recent walk through the Tir na Tuatha countryside.

It all came back to her as she regained full consciousness: her arrival
here at the Loch Mor house, the hospitality of the guests, the rakish
good looks of Padraig, who she felt she knew quite well after the card
game of the night before.  She was gratified to have landed in such a
friendly environment, marvelling at her luck in this regard.

As she stood and dropped the wonderfully clean red and yellow tartan
dress over her head, there was a knock at the door, and Malmhin opened
it and stepped into the room.  "Miss Aurelia?" she said.  "Peadrus and
Sionag have requested your presence at the breaking of the fast.  Will
you be ready soon?"

Aurelia looked around, decided the only thing she needed to do was
quickly plait her hair, and did so before Malmhin could interject or
offer to help.  She tied it off with a thin strip of leather, and said,
"I'm ready now!  Let's go, I'm starved!"

Malmhin held the door for Aurelia as she passed through, and they
walked down to the dining room.  Aurelia glanced back as the door
clicked shut behind Malmhin, thinking there was something she had to do
or remember about the door, but it didn't come to her, and she mentally 
shrugged and continued on.  As they walked, Malmhin said, "I will have
your dress clean and dry for you this afternoon, miss.  It was in a
terrible state."

"Oh, thank you!  That's wonderful.  I like the green a little better,
but whatever's clean, right?"

"As you say, miss."

Padraig didn't join them for breakfast, and upon asking about his
absence, Sionag said, "He felt he needed to leave as soon as the sun
was above the horizon this morning.  He was most anxious to be on his
way so as not to miss the bark."  Breakfast was delicious, and Aurelia
ate her fill, recognizing this meal a bit more than the dishes at
dinner.  The sausages, bacon and eggs were all familiar, and tasted far
better than the pale imitations she'd eaten in Seattle.  Something
bugged her as she looked at the food, but again, she couldn't bring it
to mind, and ignored whatever little thought was tickling at her mind.

As they were sitting back in the sitting room, letting the morning meal
digest, Peadrus said, "We shall be taking a journey this afternoon, to
visit the Queen.  I would take it as a singular honor if you would join
us."

"Oh, that sounds great!" said Aurelia.  A doubt occurred to her.  "How
do you travel?  Do you walk, or do you have some kind of a horse-drawn
carriage or something?"

Peadrus lifted an eyebrow in surprise, then smoothed his face again.
"We will travel by horseback.  No need to walk like a common peasant.
You have of course traveled by horseback before?"

"Oh sure," said Aurelia immediately.  "I mean, not a lot, but I've done
it, should be no problem."  She briefly wondered why she'd said this,
since essentially the only experience she'd ever had riding any animal
had been the terrifying, frigid flights on Sgiathalaich's shoulders.
However, the doubt quickly passed.

"Excellent," said Peadrus, smoothing his hands over his belly.  "We
will depart after dinner.  You may wish to collect your things, as it
may be a visit of several days."

"Ok," said Aurelia.  She spoke more amiably than she was really
feeling, but she put the discomfort down to digestion, since she had
certainly eaten her fill at breakfast.

CHAPTER


They set out after a wonderful, filling dinner at midday.  Aurelia had
her satchel with her, but at Peadrus's suggestion, had left the bow and
arrows behind, as this wouldn't be a hunting trip.  Aurelia had
suddenly developed an almost obsessive habit of checking to make sure
her iron ring and knife were with her, although she couldn't put her
finger on why.

It quickly became obvious that Aurelia had never ridden a horse before.
When invited to mount to beast, which seemed imposingly large to
Aurelia, she just stared at it helplessly.  There followed what would
have been a hilarious scene of Peadrus attempting to genteely boost her
onto the horse while she scrambled about as if she were a fugitive
climbing a wall.  No doubt upon the retelling it would evoke many a
laugh, but at the time, Aurelia found it demeaning and humiliating.

Finally, she was atop the horse, trying her best to mimic Peadrus's
riding stance.  She had to hike her skirts up to sit athwart the
surprisingly patient horse, and Peadrus turned several shades of red
while making half-hearted attempts to avert his gaze.  Sionag had
elected not to join them, complaining of an oncoming headache.  She
gave Aurelia an oddly soulful glance as they parted company.  "Don't
worry," said Aurelia, pressing her hand from atop the horse, "I'll be
back soon, it's only a couple days."  Sionag had only nodded and smiled
before they rode off.

Once they were riding, Aurelia discovered just how much she didn't know
about riding a horse.  The rhythms of riding were alien and difficult
to work with.  She quickly discovered just how many muscles in her legs
she'd never been aware of, and it was less than an hour before her
lower back and legs were screaming at her for a halt.

It took her a full ten minutes before she worked up the courage to call
back to Peadrus, "Can we stop for a few minutes, please?"  He only
grunted in response, but they stopped beside a tiny creek running down
the slope of the wooded path they were riding.  The ride had been
accomplished so far in silence, Peadrus indicating by gesture that
Aurelia should ride in front of him.  She guessed the path must have
only one way to go, since he didn't feel the need to lead through forks
or turnings.  She was concentrating so hard on riding (having received
a very cursory description of how to communicate with her horse through 
the bridle and spoken commands, once it was obvious to Peadrus that she
had no idea what she was doing) that she didn't notice the silence, but
once they stopped, she felt compelled to say something to fill the
space between them.

She asked the most obvious question on her mind, as she squatted
painfully, trying to work some feeling back into her abused legs.  "How
long until we get there?"


Peadrus, who was studiously examining a tree, turned to look at her
when she spoke.  "Not far now, we should be there by supper time," he
said, almost immediately turning away again.  Aurelia gave a little
mental shrug and straightened one leg then the other, stretching and
trying to work out some of the ache that had settled in after a
surprisingly short time.

She was still in the red and yellow dress, and it felt odd to be so
birghtly colored in the muted surroundings of the forest.  In truth,
this was a much thicker wood than she'd seen in the rest of her
wanderings through Tir na Tuatha, except when approaching the Queen's
realm.  There was something in that, but she couldn't put her finger on
it.

Abruptly, Peadrus harrumphed and motioned for her to stand.  She did
so, again towering over the rotund little man.  He waved her
impatiently to her horse.  She made a better effort at mounting this
time, and only needed Peadrus's help to get started after a couple
false starts.  It was not a five minute ordeal that left the little
fairy sputtering at the hem of her skirts, for which Aurelia was
thankful.

They rode on.  Unfortunately, the rest had not made Aurelia's muscles
any happier.  If anything, the rest had reminded her how much less it
hurt to be off the horse, and she ended up amusing herself by trying to
decide whether it was her lower back, butt or legs which would
completely prevent her from standing upright the next time they
stopped.  It was better than just concentrating on how much it hurt.

Lost in her inward focus, she was surprised when Peadrus called, "Hold
up!"  She looked around, and realized they were at another castle.
Unlike previous castles she'd seen the Queen inhabit, this one appeared
to be quite intact, and was huge.  The others had been surprisingly
small piles of rocks, but this one was hundreds of feet on a side, an
order of magnitude larger than the other piles she'd been in.

It had a squat, businesslike air about it, though.  No lofty towers or
pretty architectural gingerbread adorned this castle.  It was grey and
looked like its primary purpose in life was to absolutely exclude
anyone who wasn't supposed to be inside it.  It didn't even have the
pleasant crispness of the Loch Mor house, it was merely a damn great
fortified building.

A pair of guards were approaching them: tall, and with ratted, dirty
hair cascading down their heads.  They wore leather armor, and were
armed with brass blades at the end of long poles.  They looked ready
for any trouble, and Aurelia found herself shrinking back from them.
Whatever discomfort she'd been feeling before with thoughts she
couldn't grab hold of was now ricocheting around her head in its effort
to make itself known.  She still couldn't figure out what it was, but
she had a distinct sense she wanted to be riding as fast as possible in
the other direction.  Her body, however, didn't seem interested in
following that path, so she settled for making herself as small as
possible.

"What business have you here?" said one of the guards, addressing
Aurelia.  Her face blanched and she started to stammer out a reply, but
Peadrus cut her off.

"We come seeking an audience with the Queen.  You would be best served
by letting us through with all possible haste, my man.  This is the
Seer, sought by the Queen these many months.  You don't want to be the
one who slowed her down, eh?"  Peadrus's voice had a hint of a smile in
it, but was mostly in tones of steely command.  Aurelia felt utterly
lost, her mind seeming to vibrate like it was going to explode.

The guard cocked an eye at her, looking her up and down, taking her in
from plaited brown hair to bare calf where her skirts didn't stretch.
He looked none too impressed.  "The Seer, you say?  A moment."  The guard
who spoke turned back and trotted to the gate, into which he disappeared.
The other guard, who had not yet spoken, stood and eyed the two of them
with a sort of half-hearted suspicion.

After a minute, the first guard returned, trotting back to where they
waited, several dozen yards from the gate.  "Bring her in.  You are
Peadrus mac Iain a Loch Mor, are you not?"

"I am."  Peadrus's voice was haughty, as if he were prepared to receive
and rebuff a challenge to his own name.

"I will send a runner to announce you.  Go you to the stable there and
the boy will look after your horses."  With that, the guard considered
his duty done, and returned to flank the gate.  Peadrus and Aurelia
rode slowly through the gate.  Aurelia called, "Thank you!" to the
guard as they passed, although it still felt like her head was being
pulled in seven different directions at once.  Peadrus's little speech
about her being the Seer was troubling, or at least she could tell that
it should be troubling, and was troubled that she wasn't having what
seemed like the correct reaction.

As she slid gratefully off the horse, Peadrus grabbed her hand and
attempted to tow her bodily toward the entrance.  "Come, mustn't waste
any time."  He was pulled short as Aurelia stood her ground.

"No," she said, a puzzled look on her face.  "I feel... like... I have
the mother of all headaches.  I don't want to see the Queen like this.
Ugh, I can't think at all.  Is there somewhere I could lie down?"

Peadrus blew an exasperated sigh between pursed lips.  "We have already
been announced.  We must be seen as soon as we can.  You may lie down
afterwards.  Come, you obstinate girl, we must move!"  He yanked at her
hand again, and she overbalanced, nearly falling on top of him.

She recovered before actually falling, though, and said, "Fine.
Just... Augh."  She put her free right hand up to her temple and closed
her eyes as she straightened up.  "Let's just make it quick then."

They walked in silence, Aurelia feeling dazed.  Peadrus's soft, pudgy
hand tugged insistently, leading her through twists and turns in the
halls of the castle.  As they moved, their surroundings got
increasingly opulent, and at last they were standing in front of a pair
of liveried guards on either side of a tall, elaborately carved
doorway.  Without exchanging a word or even a glance, the guards moved
as if part of one mechanism to open the doors.


A voice on the far side of the door called out, "Peadrus mac Iain a
Loch Mor and Aurelia the Seer!"  The scattered crowd in the room beyond
went silent and pivoted to look at them.

Aurelia saw a vast hall, with ceilings so high she was a bit surprised
they weren't hidden in mist.  Candles burned on every pillar, and
numerous candelabras cast a warm light over the scene.  The hall was
oblong, with the door they stood at situated at one end.  Along the
sides were dozens of arched openings, but they were dark inside, and
Aurelia couldn't see into them.  At the far end, under a massive,
brightly colored tapestry showing a stylized hunting scene, sat a
throne.  It was clearly a throne, an oversized chair of ornate style
and rich materials, which had the odd effect of making the Queen appear
small and child-like in comparison.  At the same time, Aurelia could
see a huge and impressive Queen, in the same scale as the throne.

Surrounding her, densely up close, and spreading out as proximity to
the royal throne increasd, was a crowd as diverse as any Aurelia had
ever seen.  She spotted huge trolls; tall, graceful elves; creatures
who looked like nothing more than bipedal goats or gazelles; little
human-looking people who immediately reminded her of the Drais; and
dozens of others she didn't have time to take in.

As she looked, Aurelia realized the crowd was parting to form a path
between themselves and the Queen.  She also realized that she was
tripping after Peadrus, who was towing her bodily down the widening
path.  She was so overwhelmed by the sight, particularly after the
achingly painful ride and the buzzing in her head, that she felt like
her mind was lagging several steps behind reality.  In the daze, she
glanced side to side, trying to comprehend the vast, multicolored
variety of the crowd.

Her gaze was arrested, though, by the sight of a face she thought she
recognized -- bright green eyes glowed in an attractive, human-looking
face, flanked on the sides by long, delicately tapered ears.  He was
wearing an odd green tunic with a dark leather vest, and his hat was
not the familiar, slightly ironic bowler.  Even with the changed
clothing, Aurelia recognized Daniel.

He was staring at her, his face betraying nothing more than surprise.
His eyes followed her as she was dragged down the room, and he was lost
to her sight in the gentle milling of the crowd.

She wrenched her gaze away, reorienting on the Queen, who was looming
larger as they neared the end of the hall.  The sight of Daniel had
only increased the buzzing, overwhelmed feeling in her head.  She felt
as though, with the faintest reduction of effort at keeping her
composure, she'd start vibrating like a cartoon character who
accidentally swallowed a jackhammer.

With a jerk, experienced at a rapidly increasing distance, she came to
a halt in front of the Queen.  The magnificent, imposing figure stood,
and seemed to fill the entire hallway, but at the same time, Aurelia
could see what seemed to be a withered old woman, hunched over, with
dirty, scraggly grey hair but dressed in opulent purple and burgundy
robes.

The rushing, buzzing feeling filled her head, and as she looked around,
now almost completely disconnected from what was happening around her,
she saw Peadrus down on one knee, sweeping his arm out.  Through vision
that seemed to come to her through a long, elastic tunnel, she saw her
own hand tugged by his to bring her down as well.  The rushing buzz
filled her head, and she slid down the tunnel and under the waves until
finally, with a suppressed sigh, everything went blessedly dark.

CHAPTER

A tingling, buzzing feeling finally woke her up.  Aurelia seemed to
swim up from a great depth, and finally connected the tingling feeling
with the more unpleasant sensation of pain.  Slowly, she felt around in
her own mind and picked up the pieces: her leg.  Pain.  As she
surfaced, things became clearer.  Her leg hurt, but she was generally
aching all over.  Her head still felt fuzzy and weak, and what finally
brought her fully awake was an intense need to pee.

Aurelia opened her eyes, and looked around.  She had no idea where she
was, and the last thing she could clearly remember was getting off the
horse at the big, grey castle.  She knew other things had happened, but
it felt a little like she'd been too drunk to remember them, or
something.  She couldn't remember drinking, but then, sometimes she didn't.
That would at least explain the fuzzy-headedness, so she decided that
made the most sense.

She tried sit up, and after several attempts was upright.  To her
surprise, her headache decreased rather than increasing as she'd
expected.  However, her back and legs made her wince, and as she tried
to swing her legs off the bed, she actually gasped in pain.  A set of
muscles she never knew existed along the inside of each thigh felt
red-hot with pain, and her lower back felt as if someone had welded the
vertebrae together.  She put a hand up to her face, and brushed her
hair out of the way.

She was in some kind of room, with stone walls and a little slit-like
window through which bright white light shone.  The rest of the room
was dark, and glancing at the window had given her purple spots in her
vision.  She closed her eyes again, and gingerly rubbed at the burning
muscles along her left thigh.  As she did so, she became aware that she
was wearing some kind of britches rather than the dress she'd been in
before.

She opened her eyes again, and looked under the bed, where she found
the chamber pot.  Squatting over it caused her legs to burn anew, and
she had to hold on to the frame of the bed to make sure she didn't fall
over.  However, an empty bladder was a surprisingly substantial relief,
and allowed her a clarity of thought she hadn't expected.  She stood
carefully, not trusting her legs, hand to her back as if she were
heavily pregnant.

The room was tall enough to pass her, but just.  She looked around, her
head feeling clearer than it had in quite a while, although it was
still cloudy and indistinct feeling.  The room was indeed bare stone,
and quite cold now that she was out from under the rugs on the bed.
The bed was the only furniture in the room aside from a short,
three-legged stool that stood near the window.  The door was stoutly
built, with a little window in the middle.  She tried the latch, and
although she was able to lift it, the door didn't budge.  She looked
through the window, but the hallway beyond was almost completely dark.
Two meager torches burned dozens of feet away from the door in either
direction, but immediately outside her door was inky blackness.

Her feet finally too cold to bear against the chilly stone floor, she
retreated to the bed again.  It was still warm from her previous
occupancy, and she snuggled in, relishing the welcome if faint heat.

Aurelia took stock.  Her head was still feeling weird, but not as bad.
She was in a room with what appeared to be either a stuck or a locked
door.  She was wearing clothes she'd never seen before.  She quickly
moved her hand around and discovered that she still had her two rings,
but the little iron knife was gone, as was the torc around her neck.
So that suggested that perhaps she was a prisoner.

Her costume now consisted of what she supposed were linen pants or
bloomers, and a thin wool shirt, not really thick enough to provide any
warmth.  She had no shoes or socks.  

Her body still ached painfully from the horse ride, as getting up and
peeing had demonstrated.  She lay on the bed and thought, trying to
tease out of her memory some explanation of where she was.  As she lay
there, she couldn't work out what had happened, but a key fact was
becoming more important: the torc was gone.  That meant Ailis was gone!

Aurelia sat up again, her hand brushing the line where the torc should
have been sitting on her neck.  She had a moment of odd self-awareness,
when she realized she was angry about this fact.  In the past, she
knew, she would have been sad or mopey, but anger would have been a
tiny subcomponent of that reaction, not the main part.  She couldn't
place her finger on what was different this time, but there it was: she
was angry that someone had taken her friend, and intended to get her
back.

She looked around her little cell, suddenly inspired.  She needed to
get out and figure out what had happened to the torc.  She had the bed
and its dressings.  She had the chamber pot.  There was a window to the
outside, though she'd never get through it.  As she looked, she
realized that tucked into a corner were a pair of slippers, so she
added that to her mental inventory.

So, the first thing to make sure of, she decided, was that her door was
really locked, and not just stiff.  After all, there was no indication
of a lock on her side, just a bronze latch that lifted with ease.  She
rolled out of bed again, wincing at the pain her legs and back, but
determined not to let them slow her down.  She looked over the slippers
carefully, suddenly wary of everything around her.  They appeared safe,
and she pulled them on, grateful for the insulation against the
freezing floor.

The door, on closer inspection, was stoutly built, and was hinged on
her side.  However, it didn't look like an unusually strong door --
she'd seen similar doors, she thought, at the Drais manorhouse.  The
Loch Mor house had had much more refined and delicate-looking doors,
but she didn't think that factored in.  Certainly this was no
hollow-core prefab door in a borderline-slum apartment building on
Capitol Hill.  Neither was it a hardened dungeon door, though.

She lifted the latch again, and tugged on the handle.  Quick, sharp
tugs yielded nothing, so she threw her weight into it.  No movement.
Wincing, she braced a leg against the wall and put the strength of her
leg into it, but still it didn't budge.  So, she thought, definitely
locked, as she sat on the bed again, breathing harder from the effort.

As she was pondering her next move, she heard a noise at the door.  She
looked up to see an indistinct face looking in at her.  Unsure what to
expect, she felt a bit apprehensive as the face withdrew and there was
the sound of a bolt sliding back.  The door swung in, and a figure
dressed in green stepped in.

She realized with a shock that it was Daniel, and stared at him,
dumbfounded.  He was carrying a dark green bundle, which he set down on
the bed next to her.  He smiled awkwardly at her, and said, "Hello,
Aurelia."

It took her a moment to formulate a response more coherent than
unhinged gibbering.  "What are you doing here?" she said.

Daniel looked at her oddly for a second, then said, "Hello Daniel, so
nice to see you again."  In a slightly lower voice, he continued, "Oh,
why yes, it is pleasant to see you again too, Aurelia.  I've brought
you some more substantial clothing, as I thought you might be cold."
His voice went higher again, "How kind, Daniel, thank you!"

She glared at him, then stood suddenly, ignoring the screams of protest
from her aching muscles.  "What the fuck is that supposed to mean!  You
drag me here, then fucking disappear for months, abandoning me in a
land I never even suspected might exist, leaving me to the whims of a
mad Queen and starvation and dragons... Dragons! and crazy fairies, and
you break. my fucking. heart!  And you expect me to greet you with
pleasantries!"  She smacked him on the shoulder.  "Fuck you!  Get out!
I don't need your arrogant pity!  Go!  Get the fuck out!  Lock the
fucking door!"  She shoved him out as he stammered, trying to reply to
the torrent of words.  She heaved the door closed behind him, then
dropped onto the bed, sobs already starting as she dropped her head
into her hands.

CHAPTER

Aurelia's self-pity didn't last too long before her curiosity got the
better of her.  She stood again, trying to ignore the protesting
muscles.  She picked up the bundle, and saw that it was folded cloth.
She grabbed it by an edge, and shook it out -- it was her green dress.
Something fell out and hit the floor as she opened out the dress, and
she stooped to see that it was her iron knife in its leather sheath.

She straightened again, and looked at the knife contemplatively in her
hand.  Its weight felt good.  She'd never seriously defended herself
with it, but had a feeling that the time had quite possibly arrived
that it would be necessary.  The iron ring clinked quietly as she
wrapped her hand around the folded-over tang and pulled the sheath off.
The blade glinted dully in the light of the window, and she didn't have
to test the edge to know that it was still razor sharp.  It felt oddly
magical to have an anti-magic artifact in a literal land of enchantment.

She pulled the dress on, doing up the buttons running up the front,
pleased to have the extra layer of insulation.  The woolen shirt didn't
fit under it, so she slipped it on over the top of the dress, the dull
off-grey of the shirt looking even duller against the relatively rich
dark-green wool of the dress.  She tucked the knife into its familiar
waistband location, and sat again, staring at her hands.

So, Daniel had provided the prisoner with succor.  Warm clothing and a
weapon, possibly one of the most powerful hand-weapons in all of Tir na
Tuatha, she thought.  And she was the only person here who could wield
it without gloves on.  Her anger at him had subsided with her tears,
and in the calm waters after the storm, she found she could think a bit
more clearly.

Yes, he had abandoned her, possibly even cruelly abandoned her, to the
Queen's odd clutches.  But she would never forget his words as he did
so: "I had no choice."  She didn't know at the time what that had
meant, but she had a feeling that she was closer to understanding now.
Tir na Tuatha was full of amazing things, and she wouldn't be surprised
to find that the Queen was blackmailing him, or simply using some kind
of coercive magic to compel him to do things whether he wanted to or
not.  The simple act of bringing her the dress and knife didn't make
her trust him, not by a long shot.  But it put her in a thoughtful
frame of mind, and she was willing to consider that he was possibly
just as much a pawn of the Queen as anyone else.  Certainly it appeared
that she had an ally.

Seeing Daniel had also jarred her memory, and she remembered bits and
pieces of being dragged in to see the Queen.  She knew she had seen him
there, in the huge hall.  She couldn't remember much else of that time,
but seeing his face with his glowing green eyes and long ears was a
very distinct memory now that it had been jolted loose.

She was still sitting on the bed, contemplating her new position in
life when there was a rattle at the door again, and it was pushed open.
Someone she didn't recognize was standing there, an overbuilt hairy man
with long dark hair, wearing a dirty great kilt and nothing else.
He eyed her for a moment, as if considering something, before he said,
"Dinner time.  Come with me."

He led her down a bewildering series of poorly-lit corridors, which
eventually opened out into a small dining room with a pair of long
tables.  Seated around the tables were a variety of Daoine, the only
obvious signifier of their condition being their plain clothes: each
wore the same dull grey woolen shirt Aurelia had over her green dress.

Dinner consisted of two components, one a blanched and fairly odorless
stew, and the other being a huge round of brown bread which was handed
to each prisoner like wedges from a cheese.  Aurelia looked at her
food, and something tickled at the back of her mind.  She sniffed at
the stew, and decided she didn't feel like eating.  The bread,
likewise, smelled sour and unpleasant, and she left it on the plate.

Conversation was essentially non-existent around the tables.  There
were only a dozen prisoners there, and the presence of the hulking man
who'd retrieved Aurelia seemed to cast a pall over the room.  When
everyone was done, they were led away one-by-one, Aurelia being the
last to leave, as she'd been the last to arrive.  The kilted man said
nothing, simply leading her back to her room.  She tried asking him why
she was being held, and what his name was, but he didn't respond,
merely showing her into her cell again, and whanging the door shut
behind her.  The bolts slid home, and silence descended as his
barefooted steps receded into the distance.

CHAPTER

Aurelia slept fitfully that night.  She dreamt of Ailis, but it wasn't
the dream-vision she was used to having -- it was a normal dream, and
she could tell that the Ailis in her dream was not the real person.  It
was a nonsensical mummery show that looped and looped, never resolving
or imparting any useful information.

She awoke with a start, unsure what had woken her.  She opened her eyes
and looked around, but the room was utterly black without daylight
outside the window.  She listened, but there was no sound outside her
own breathing, and the beating of her heart in her ears.

Then she heard something: it sounded like footsteps moving swiftly down
the corridor, a quick confident walk.  As she looked, Aurelia realized
she could see the windown set into the door, and that whoever was
coming must have a light with them.  The steps came to a halt outside
her door, and Aurelia lifted her head to get a better view.

The bolts slid back, and the door swung open.  Standing framed in the
doorway was the Queen, a little Drais-sized woman standing next to her
holding up a torch, and large, coarse woman on her other side, carrying
a large bronze knife or short sword in her hand, dressed in a similar
dirty kilt to the man who'd led her to dinner earlier.

The Queen herself still had the odd double-appearance Aurelia thought
she'd dreamed, but the old crone appearance was very faint now.  The
strong appearance was that of a tall, imposing woman with raven hair
and fair skin, her body draped with rich robes and jewels.  "Come,
Seer," said the Queen.  "We have work to do."  When Aurelia didn't
move, the Queen nodded to the woman with the short sword, who jammed
the sword into her belt, and moved forward ominously.

"Alright, I'm getting up!"  Aurelia scowled as she threw off the
covers, dropping her feet to the chilled floor and seeking with her
feet for the slippers.  She glared at the Queen, then turned away,
dropping the woolen tunic to the bed before pulling on the green
dress.  When she turned around again, the coarse woman with the sword
was standing right next to her, and delivered a slap across Aurelia's
cheek.  "Never turn your back to your Queen!"  Aurelia's mind flew to
the iron knife, which she had retrieved from under her pillow as she
got dressed, and was now nestled in her waistband.  She suppressed the
thought, though, and instead mumbled, "Sorry."

"Enough," said the Queen.  "We are not here for etiquette lessons.
Come with us, Seer.  There is not much time, the moon is nearly at its
zenith."  With that, the Queen turned and swept away down the corridor,
led by the short woman with the torch.  Aurelia followed, the
swordswoman close on her heels.

They made their way out of the castle, past the gate, and walked for
nearly twenty minutes before they came to a clearing circled by the
ghostly shapes of some kind of deciduous trees Aurelia couldn't
identify.  The moon was indeed high in the sky.  There was no wind, and
no birds or insects made a noise as the little party moved to the
center of the clearing.  The silence was so loud it almost hurt
Aurelia's ears.

The little woman with the torch doused it, and suddenly the only light
in the clearing was from the moon.  It seemed to grow larger as Aurelia
looked up at it, but she decided that had to be an illusion.  The Queen
started chanting, the words registering on Aurelia's brain as sounds
with no attached meaning.  She felt like she should understand them,
but didn't.  Aurelia realized, as she watched, that the Queen's words
and motions were actually appearing in the air as traceries of light.
The Queen danced an uneven step around the little group, a thin lace of
glittering green-white light woven in the air behind her.  When she
finished the circle and closed the traceries together, she returned to
the center of the circle, and stood silently with her eyes closed and
arms raised.

The swordswoman and the torchbearer also raised their arms and stood
with their eyes closed.  Unsure what she was supposed to be doing,
Aurelia followed suit.  It didn't occur to her until afterwards that
mimicking the Queen was probably helping with something she didn't
actually want to help with.

They stood like this, arms raised, thin spiderwebs of light slowly
undulating around them, for several minutes.  Aurelia wasn't sure what
was supposed to happen, but if anything did happen, she wasn't aware of
it.  The Queen suddenly dropped her arms, and Aurelia saw the delicate
light-lace blow away as if swept up in a blast of wind.  Then the
clearing was dark, and the four women stood facing one another, the
moon casting blue-white light on their faces.

The two servants had blank expressions on their faces, and Aurelia
couldn't see the Queen's face, as it was in shadow.  The Queen threw
her head back, then spun to look at the moon.  She let out a frustrated
puff of breath, then swept out of the clearing, Aurelia and the
servants suddenly rushing to keep up.  They returned to the castle, and
reinstalled Aurelia in her cell.

CHAPTER


The following morning, Aurelia awoke feeling more like herself than she
had in several days.  She missed her dream-visions with Ailis acutely.
The anger was still there, but had slow back to a light simmer.  She'd
only been locked in this little room for two days, and was already
losing track of how much time had passed, but the missing torc made it
seem like quite a lot longer than it actually was.

She was pulled out of her cell and escorted to the little dining room
again, but by now she had realized what was going on: she had eaten all
sorts of food with Peadrus and Sionag at Loch Mor, and they had
betrayed her to the Queen.  It stung to realize, but she was glad she
understood what had happened.  A lifetime ago, Stuart had warned her
against eating the food in fairyland, and then the Drais had proven
that it wasn't the food that was the problem, it was the intent.  She'd
been lulled into a false sense of security, between running into
friendly Daoine and gathering her own food.  She kicked herself for
making the mistake, but knew that she wouldn't make it again, if she
had any power to do so.

Thus, she sat, looking disconsolate at the table with the other
prisoners, and ignored the unpalatable food placed in front of her.  At
least it was food worth ignoring.  Once everyone else was finished
eating, she was escorted back to her cell and locked in.

She'd been debating since she came back to herself whether she should
try using her Second Sight in the Queen's castle.  Exposing herself to
magic seemed risky, but she was out of other ideas.  Although she had
the knife and ring, and could presumably use them to effect an escape,
she suspected this would be a short-term solution to a long-term
problem.  She didn't think the Queen would let her escape for long, 
this time.

As she sat fiddling with the iron ring in her hand, she heard someone
at the door again.  She looked up, suddenly aware that she had no idea
what time of day it was, or how long she'd been sitting there.  The
window was still light, so it couldn't be too late.  She worried that
it was the Queen coming back to pull her into some new ritual for
whatever purpose she had, but it was only seconds until Daniel opened
the door and slipped in.

She half-stood from the bed, her anger at losing Ailis combined with
the long-standing unhappiness at how Daniel had treated her.  Once
inside, he put his fingers to his lips to indicate she should be quiet,
and crossed quickly to the bed.  She stood fully, standing to face him.
She drew in a breath, but before she could say anything, he put a hand
across her mouth.  She tried to move it aside, but he was stronger than
she was by a surprising amount.  He indicated she should sit, and when
she showed no signs of doing so, gave up.  "Ok, just... don't yell out,
ok?  No one knows I'm here.  I'm taking a big risk for you, Aurelia."

Mollified a little by this, she nodded her head yes, and he pulled his
hand away.  "Good," he said.  "Quiet conversation is probably ok.
We don't want any guards getting suspicious, though."

"What are you doing here?" she asked.  He looked unhappy, and sat on
the bed.

"I wanted to apologize."

She started to make an angry reply, but bit it back.  Instead, she
said, "Ok.  I'm listening."

"I am..." he started, looking up at her face, then down at the ground,
"profoundly sorry.  Aurelia, I can't even explain.  I'm just really,
really sorry."

"That's nice.  Why did you do it?"  Aurelia's mouth was a thin, hard
line, the only thing between Daniel and a growing head of angry steam
pressure.

"Do what?"

"What do you think.  Don't fuck with me Daniel, I'm in no mood for it."

"I will assume you mean, 'Why did I bring you to Tir na Tuatha and
abandon you to the tender mercies of the Queen,' then."

She nodded, arms crossed, radiating angry impatience.

"Ah.  Yes.  Well, that's a long story, for which we do not currently
have time.  Suffice it to say that the Queen's magic is quite powerful,
and I was compelled to act as I did.  I had very little say in the
matter."

"She doesn't seem that powerful to me.  We just had a nice little walk
in the park last night that seemed to do absolutely nothing.  The
magical spiderwebs were a nice touch."

"Ah," he said again.  "You are something of an enigma in the royal
household, honestly, Aurelia.  She doesn't seem to have any real power
over you, which, I assure you, is highly vexing to her."

Impulsively, Aurelia grabbed his hand with hers, pressing the iron ring
particularly hard into his flesh.  "Anything to do with this?"

He grimaced, glancing at their joined hands, but didn't react like other
Daoine had.  There was no obvious feeling of heat or sensation of burning.
"Possibly.  It doesn't affect me as much: like you, I am partially human
and partially Daoine.  Surely you wondered why iron didn't affect you
if you were part Daoine."

"The thought crossed my mind, but I don't care about that right now.
It's real nice of you to say you're sorry, and I guess I'll take your
word for it that she's got power over you.  So what?  I'm still stuck
in a prison cell, much more literally locked up than I ever was thanks
to your dumbass stunt of pulling me into Tir na Tuatha in the first
place.  Nice of you to put me as far away from any portals back as you
could, by the way."  She dropped his hand, half in disgust with him,
half disappointed that the iron didn't seem to hurt him much.  He did
quickly cover the affected hand with the other, she was interested to
note.

"I... yes.  I didn't have much to do with that, but I apologize for
that as well.  But that's not all I came here to say."

"Oh really."

"Yes.  Aurelia, I really do care for you.  It's made me sick, to have
you wandering the wilds of Tir na Tuatha all these months.  I couldn't
leave, though, or the Queen's agents or courtiers would suspect
something.  I belive I can help you."

"Hmm," said Aurelia, her head on one side.  "So, the Queen is able to
exert really strong control over you by your own admission, and you
really do care for me, and you have come to help me out.  What about
this sounds fishy to you, Daniel!?"  Her voice rose as she spoke, and
Daniel motioned her to be quieter, a look of real panic crossing his
face.  She finished in a fierce whisper.

"I'm sorry," he said, quietly and urgently.  "You're right, of course.
It's very suspicious.  If you don't want to trust me, there's nothing I
can do about that.  But I can help you escape, and I can get your torc
back for you.  That's more interesting, isn't it.  I don't think the
Queen knows what it is yet, but that's because she doesn't know about
it."

"Get out."  She jerked him upright, surprised at her own strength.
"Bring the torc, then we can talk.  Until then, this is all just so
much bullshit."  She pushed him toward the door.  "Don't imagine that
shiny baubles, no matter how shiny, are going to make up for what you
did.  But they're a step in the right direction.  I'll start listening
when you bring me back that torc, and I'll know if anything is wrong
with it, so don't fuck with me."  She pulled him close, her mind
reeling and surging with a feeling of power.  "That iron knife may not
have any magical power over you, Daniel, but it will still gut you like
an Iasg-dubh."  She pulled the door open and shoved him out.

"Yes," he said weakly, as she quietly but firmly closed the door in his
face.

CHAPTER


The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and day faded into night,
punctuated by the twice-daily ritual of the meal break.  Her escort
and/or guard remained as mute as before, but she passed the meal with
more of a sense of purpose.  Knowing that she might get Ailis back
provided a strong motivation.

She went to bed after the window got dark, and was in the middle of a
dream about flying an airplane that would occasionally turn its nose
back and speak to her in Sgiathalaich's deep/reedy voice when she
realized the noises coming from the instrument panel were coming from
somewhere else.  She awoke to see a figure in the room, just in the act
of closing the door.

She lay silently on the bed, not wanting to betray her consciousness.
The figure turned, just barely visible by the faint light coming
through the door window.  She couldn't tell for sure if it was Daniel,
but it had long ears, and whispered, removing all doubt.  "I have a
present for you, Aurelia."  Daniel leaned over and very gently placed
the torc under the covers next to her, apparently believing her to be
asleep.

She didn't undeceive him, continuing to lie silently as he slipped back
out of the room.  The bolts slid quietly home, and she listened as his
gentle footsteps receded down the hall.

Once he was obviously out of earshot, she quietly pulled the torc out
and looked it over as best she could in the near-blackness.  There
wasn't anything to see, so she quietly slipped out of bed and held it
up to the window, hoping to catch a few rays of the distant torches.
It looked like the right torc, from what she could see.

She had decided during her wait after Daniel's last visit that it would
be worth leaving herself open to magic for a chance to check in with
Ailis.  Now that the chance had arisen, she tugged off the iron ring,
and set it carefully pressed onto the sheath of the knife, tucked
inside one of the slippers on the floor.  Free to use her Second Sight,
Aurelia glanced over the torc, noticing the faint blurring and
smeared tracers that she'd learned to associate with magical objects.
It certainly looked like the right one.  She twisted it open, and
slipped it around her neck.

She realized that she'd been half-fearing what might happen.  Had they
made a new, identical torc with malignant magic attached?  Would it
simply constrict around her throat, choking her?  But that would be
ridiculous, the Queen had every opportunity to simply have a solidier
kill her in any number of simple, effective ways.  No need to go
through what she presumed was an arduous process to create a new piece
of jewelry for the purpose.

However, it felt right, and Aurelia relaxed as no magical sparks flew,
and the torc remained completely inert around her neck.  Despite her
nervousness at putting the iron away from herself, and the redoubled
nervousness of the risks inherent in wearing the torc, not to mention
the possibility of being more open to the Queen's magic, Aurelia was
quick in drifting off to sleep.

Soon enough, she felt the familiar sensations of the dream-vision
starting, and then she was sitting in her darkened chamber with Ailis
at her side.  Without even speaking, Aurelia threw her arms around the
little Drais woman and wept.  Uncertain at this greeting, Ailis hugged
her back and gently stroked her hair.

As the tears abated, Ailis ventured a few words.  "It would seem things
are not going as you might hope."

Sniffling and wiping her eyes, Aurelia sat upright.  She spoke, her
voice croaking unexpected.  "You could say that."

"It is certainly dark here.  I can feel that the Queen is close.  Are
you being held against your will?"

Aurelia nodded.  The two women had never had any trouble seeing each
other in the dream-visions, no matter how dark the world around them.
"I guess it's been a few days.  It seems like forever ago, but you
remember how you told me to trigger on the door before I left, to get
out of the house?  That didn't work, I'm not sure why.  They brought me
to the Queen.  It was really weird, I felt like I was drugged the whole
time.  I remember having a headache."

Ailis nodded, and said, "You were fighting yourself."

"Oh, I suppose I was.  It's hard to remember any of that.  It all seems
so distant and unreal.  But so now I'm stuck in a locked room in the
Queen's castle.  You remember Daniel?  He's the guy who brought me to
Tir na Tuatha in the first place.  He's here.  He's actually why we're
talking right now."

"How is that?"

"I guess when they locked me up, they took everything off me.  They
left the rings, I assume because they couldn't take them off.  But the
knife was gone, and your torc was gone.  Then Daniel showed up, and
brought the knife and one of my dresses."

"Did he understand the power of the knife?"

"I'm not sure."  Aurelia looked pensive.  "He apologized.  A lot.  I'm
not sure, but I think he really didn't want to bring me here in the
first place.  He said the Queen's magic was really strong, and he
didn't have any control over his actions."

"Do you believe him?"

Aurelia paused before answering.  "I don't know for sure.  But I asked
him to bring the torc, and he did.  Were you aware of anything between
when we last spoke and now?"

"No, all seemed as normal.  I do not seem to experience anything
except when we are together, or perhaps it is as though I sleep.  I
seem to have no dreams, so it is not like the sleep of the living."

"Daniel said something about the Queen not knowing about the torc, or
she would have done something with it.  But he didn't say what, and it
sounded like it would probably be bad.  Do you know what she might do?"

"The Queen is a powerful and somewhat unpredictable lady, my lass.
Only she knows what she might have done.  I am certain that she could
recognize the torc as an article with some power, but I know not her
abilities to discern what that power was.  It matters not, the torc is
back in your possession, is it not?"

Aurelia glanced toward the door before answering.  "It might.  She
pulled me out into a clearing in the woods to do some kind of ritual
last night."

"The Queen?"

Aurelia nodded.  Ailis looked thoughtful.  Aurelia said, "There were
two other people with us, we went to the clearing and the Queen danced
around and made what looked like magic spiderwebs.  She said something
about the moon being at its zenith.  Do you know what she was doing?"

"No, such magic is beyond my ken.  However, I will warrant that it
bodes ill for you that she tries to involve you in her magic.  Beware
if it happens again.  Perhaps you can use it as a chance to escape and
find a hiding place."

Aurelia made no reply, just sitting unhappily on the bed.  Thoughts of
escape and running and hiding played through her head, but didn't seem
very plausible.   Ailis brightened, seeing Aurelia's downcast
expression.  "Come, Aurelia.  Let us walk out among the walls of the
castle, and see what we may see."


They walked out through the ephemeral door, and down the hallway.
Aurelia guided them the direction of the dining room without much
thought, as it was the only way she'd ever been.  Aurelia was silent,
lost in thought, as they walked.

Aurelia finally broke her silence, and said, "How can we figure out
what she wants with me?"

Ailis concentrated her gaze on the floor in front of her, taking her
own turn to think.  "The best way, it seems, is to use your Sight.  Of
course, with your iron about you, you are much safer from the Queen's
magic, but you seem not to wish escape, and it would seem you have few
alternatives open to you."

"It's not that I don't wish for escape," said Aurelia.  "I just think
that even if I do escape, it won't last long.  The Queen isn't going to
let me go again."

"Why do you think that?  She let you go last time with little enough
pursuit.  Why would she not react the same way this time?"

"Yeah, she didn't send anyone after me immediately, but... Then she
sent, you know, an entire army!  She must have changed her mind about
wanting me back."

"Are you sure the army was coming for you?"

"Well, that's what Sgiathalaich said, and I Saw their leader talking
about it.  I'm pretty sure."

"Perhaps you are right, then.  If that is so, then Sight is your only
option.  Unless you think Daniel can be trusted."  Ailis glanced
quickly at Aurelia's face, trying to judge her reaction to these words.

"I don't know.  I mean, he did bring me the knife, and your torc.  And
he brought my dress because he thought I'd be cold.  Those were all
nice things to do, and I don't see how they would benefit the Queen."

"No," said Ailis.  "It is hard to see how arming you and providing you
with comfort would aid the Queen unless her plans are long-ranging
indeed."

Aurelia looked at Ailis, suddenly apprehensive.  "What do you mean?"

Ailis met Aurelia's look.  "The Queen is an extremely crafty woman,
Aurelia.  We can have no idea what she may be scheming at this moment.
Can you not see that?"

"Well, I can tell she doesn't make much sense.  I still have no idea
why I'm here."

"Just so.  Her plan involving you may only be in its beginning stages,
or it may be that she reaches the conclusion soon, and only needed you
at the end, so that having you roam free was no concern until now."

"So," said Aurelia, slowly, "there's no way to tell if I can trust
Daniel or not."

"That is possible.  Or you could use your Sight."

"Oh, right."  Aurelia sounded miserable.

"Why does this idea displease you so?"

As they spoke, they were passing down another long, dark hallway lined
with doors.  Aurelia examined a few as they passed, trying to work out
how to explain her thoughts to Ailis.

"Where I come from," she finally said, "there's this thing about spying
on people.  I mean, what I'm talking about, is spying on people you
used to go out with."  Seeing Ailis's look of confusion, Aurelia said,
"That is, Daniel and I used to be in a relationship.  That pretty much
ended when he dragged me here, you know?  Anyway, something that some
girls would do after a relationship ended was..." she trailed off.
"What's still confusing?"

"Are you and I not in a relationship?  You speak of it as if the words
have special meaning.  Do you mean courting?"

"Yes, exactly.  So, after that ends, some girls will spy on their ex.
That is, the person who had been courting them.  And without really
going into it, I don't want to be one of those girls."

"Surely," said Ailis, still a bit confused, "these girls you refer to
were not in mortal peril and their actions had no bearing on whether
they lived or died.  I know the behavior you speak of, although I call
it jealousy.  It is admirable to raise oneself above jealousy, and I
commend you for it, but, Aurelia, your actions would not arise out of
jealousy or envy.  You would be acting to preserve yourself.  Surely
the motivation for your action matters, yes?"

"That's true.  I hadn't thought of it like that.  Hmm."  Aurelia
thought on this as they walked.  They had moved past the door-filled
corridor, and were in a larger common room, which was empty and dark at
this hour.  It was filled with long tables and benches, suggesting a
meeting or dining room, and the two women walked through them as
though they were mere ghosts.  Aurelia had on more than one occasion
forgotten on waking that she was solid, and bruised herself walking
unconsciously into something.


"I suppose," said Aurelia after walking silently for a minute, "that
checking in on Daniel wouldn't hurt anything.  You're right, he is a
potential ally, and I suppose I am in a situation that could get me
killed."

Ailis nodded.  "Do you know where he resides?  Is he in the castle?  We
could visit him now."

"He's probably asleep now, I don't want to bother him when he's
sleeping."

"Aurelia."  Ailis gave her a stern look.  Aurelia looked back at Ailis,
and looked away with a hint of guilt on her face.  "You know as well as
I that this is a vision.  We are not moving ourselves to a place.  He
will not be disturbed by our presence, and your conscience is the only
authority to consult."

"Ok!  You're right.  Sorry.  But I don't know where he sleeps."

"You surely have not forgotten how to seek after one whose location you
do not know."  Ailis was nearly successful in keeping the exasperation
out of her voice.

Aurelia put a hand up to her face, somewhere between hiding her face
and a dope-slap.  "Yes, alright.  I guess I'm not as ready as I
thought."  She turned her head in a scanning motion, eventually
choosing a direction.  "That way," she pointed.

They walked in the indicated direction, which quickly took them through
a series of walls and very dark rooms.  They came to a stop in a
darkened room.  There was a hint of light under the door from the
adjacent room or hallway, but the room itself was pitch black.

"There," said Aurelia, "nothing to see.  Can we go now?"

Ailis, however, was bent down over something, examining it.  "Yes,
there is something to See.  See here?"  She waved over whatever had
captured her attention.

"What is it?"  Aurelia's voice was timid and small.

"See for yourself, girl!  I would swear you act like a child faced with
a wolf!  There is nothing here to harm you.  Use your gift."

Aurelia did as she was told, feeling indeed like a child.  It was
faint, but just visible: Daniel was lying in the bed, a faint corona of
emotion-stuff around him.  But what Ailis pointed out was the ring he
wore.  It was clearly magical, and she could see a kind of ghostly
thread coming off it.  The thread plunged into his chest, and trailed
off to pass through a wall and out of sight.

"What is it?" asked Aurelia, examining the thread in closer detail.  It
looked like a thin tendril of smoke, the thickness of a spiderweb.  She
marveled that it didn't blow away as they moved around it.

"That is the important question."

"Have you seen something like this before?"

"Oh, aye."

"And?"  Aurelia very nearly hid the impatience in her voice.

"It looks like a form of binding.  I would wager that the other end of
that thread ends with..."  She looked up in the direction the thread
led off, a calculating look on her face.

"Yes?"  Impatience was now clear in Aurelia's voice.

Ailis looked at Aurelia.  "You guess.  I wager you shall have the
correct answer in one try."

CHAPTER


Two more days passed, Aurelia spending her time bored and listless in
her cell.  She consulted with Ailis again, but found despite the seer's
advice that she was unwilling to use her own Sight and call the Queen's
attention to her.

Aurelia found herself wishing that the Queen would drag her out for
another ritual attempt, if only to break up the time.  The meals were
the only events marking the passage of time, and each one was
increasingly uncomfortable, as her hunger grew.  She resisted, though,
and managed to avoid the temptation to taste the Queen's food.

She had no further contact with Daniel.  Seeing the tracery of light
leading from the ring to his heart and out away into the darkness was
impressed upon her memory.  It portended no good to her, and she
resolved to stay away from him if she had any choice in the matter.  As
it happened, there was no opportunity to test her resolve as the hours
slowly slid past, brightening and darkening her tiny window.

Finally, she saw her door window brightening, and heard the footsteps
of someone approaching in the hallway.  It was after the evening meal,
so she was immediately curious: was Daniel returning?  She'd never seen
anyone going through the hallway, she realized, who hadn't stopped at
her door for some reason.  She suddenly wondered if she were in some
special, otherwise uninhabited section of the castle.

The light and footsteps did indeed stop outside her door, and she was
sitting up on the bed, ready for anything, when the door swung open.
She had taken a moment to put the knife into her waistband, and made
sure the iron ring was upon her finger as the steps had approached.

Standing outside was a veritable gaggle of Daoine: a trio of
green-skinned goblins, who, she realized, were female, and wearing
simple but pretty dresses, and considerably less unattractive than their
male counterparts; two looming kilted men with enormous knotted beards
and hair, swords in hand; and a very elegant man, tall and willowy with
a pair of bright red braids descending behind either ear.  He was
dressed in a richly dyed and embroidered long tunic, of searingly
bright royal blue, with crimson stitching and embroidery in fantastic
knotwork patterns all along the collar, chest and cuffs.

"My lady," he said, bowing slightly to Aurelia.  "The Queen invites you
to a royal ball."

With these words, the three goblin women rushed in, and nearly attacked
her, stripping off her dress, drawing combs and brushes through her
hair, scrubbing her face and arms with warm cloths, and strapping her
into an enormous and frilly ball gown.  Aurelia tried to resist, but
between their energetic ministrations and the looming swordsmen, it was
clear that she had little choice in the matter.  In the chaos,
she managed to kick the iron knife under the discarded green wool
dress, but was unable to retrieve it before being whirled out of the
room.  Ailis's torc was hurled onto the pile as well, in favor of a
necklace of delicate silver and moonstones.

Her brown hair was done up in elaborate curls with ribbons and bows
strewn throughout.  The dress was just shy of being a mockery of a
wedding cake, in white and green.  She was shod in surprisingly sturdy
pointy-toed black boots that came to her ankle and had an elegant if
blocky low heel to them, although they fitted horribly and were too small
in the toes.  She had shiny, light green silk gloves up to her elbows.
Her body was buzzing with the sudden washing and attention, and in this
slightly bewildered state, she was rushed off to the ballroom.

The Queen's ballroom was as she had remembered it from the first time
this had happened, just after being dragged into Tir na Tuatha.  The
hangings on the wall had changed, but the room was otherwise unchanged
-- an impressive feat, as the previous ballroom had been in a different
castle entirely.

The ballroom was filled with Daoine, of all shapes and sizes.  There
were goblins and animal-headed Daoine, Daoine with horns and tails and
legs that bent the wrong way.  Tall Daoine and short Daoine.  There were
even, she was surprised to see, a pair of elves standing off to one side,
looming tall and slender over most of the crowd.  Everyone was dressed
in bright colors, and the people in the center of the room were twirling
around each other in some kind of formal dance.  Music was emanating from
a small raised stage, on which were arrayed a dozen musicians playing
instruments that Aurelia didn't immediately recognize, excepting the drum.

The room was lit by an impressive number of candles, arrayed along the
walls as well as a pair of giant candelabra hung from the ceilings by
thick rope.  There were tables of food arrayed along the edges, in all
sorts of shapes and colors, none of which was recognizable to Aurelia's
eye.  The heat was impressive, even though it was cool to the point of
being cold outside the castle walls.

Aurelia stood off to one side, and realized that her escort had melted
into the crowd.  She couldn't see anyone she recognized, with the
exception of the Queen, who was sitting on a throne opposite the
musicians, and overseeing the whole affair.  The Queen once again took
no real notice of Aurelia's presence.

The song ended, and the dancers stopped, lightly clapping and bowing to
each other.  Another song started up, and new dancers made their way to
the floor, forming up for another dance Aurelia didn't recognize.
Looking around, she made her way along the wall, trying to find a way
out.  Everyone seemed so engaged that this looked like an ideal
opportunity to disappear and escape.  She was, after all, just one more
face in the crowd.

However, each doorway she came to was staffed by an official-looking
person in a bright uniform, who shooed her back into the room.  They
weren't prominent, but Aurelia also noticed a couple of the kilted men
with gold-colored swords at each door as well, and realized that there
was no way she'd be getting out of this room unless she was allowed.

She reluctantly returned to the main press of the room, which was even
fuller now.  She stood back along one of the walls, Queen to her left,
and musicians to her right.  The hubbub of music and conversation was
nearly overwhelming.  In front of her, two elegant-looking deer-headed
Daoine were discussing something that caused one of them to laugh,
pulling back her lips to reveal big, square teeth.  The other one's
tail flicked back and forth, apparently pleased with himself.  His head
nodded slightly, his antlers moving dramatically despite the small head
movement.

She felt, as she had been feeling, someone push into her skirts (at
least this time, the Queen's maids had seen fit to put her in a dress
with petticoats instead of hoops; slightly more practical) as they passed
by, and was surprised when her glance up revealed Daniel's face.

Her first instinct was happiness, both at seeing a familiar face, and
at seeing him.  But almost as quickly, the happiness was replaced with
distrust, and her resolve to avoid him after seeing the magical ring
with Ailis, which appeared to bind him to the Queen.

He seemed to see the flickering emotions.  His own face was drawn, and
he looked tired, as if he hadn't been sleeping well.  There was a
veneer of enjoyment over it all, but Aurelia knew him well enough to
see through it.

Compelled by politeness more than anything else, she said, "Hello."  He
grimaced at the word, the tone more than adequately conveying her low
opinion.  "Greetings, my dear," he replied in return.

"Are you enjoying our ball?"  He seemed to be going through a rote
exchange rather than asking because he cared in the least what her
experience was.

"It is very hot, and I don't know any of the dances," she said,
straining her voice to be heard over the din.  "So, no, not really."

"Well then," he said, offering her his arm, which she didn't
immediately take, "would you like to take a turn outside?"

It took a moment for the words to really sink in.  Outside meant cooler
air, certainly, but it also meant outside the walls!  She wondered if
he were somehow masking the ring's effect on him, and suddenly wished
for Ailis's steady presence to advise her.  However, Ailis was in a
room at least three floors down (she was unsure, they'd gone up and
down numerous staircases in their path to the ballroom) and most of a
castle away, along with her knife and her normal, functional dress.

With a slight hesitation, she took his arm, placing her right hand on
his brocaded sleeve.  He gently led the way, and thus escorted, the
guard at the door let them through without a murmur.  Although she
couldn't be sure, Aurelia thought she saw the Queen's face twitch into
a smirk as she passed from view.

CHAPTER


They walked at a fairly stately pace through the hallways, and quickly
found themselves upon a wide deck with crenelations forming a railing
in front of them.  They walked up to the serrated wall, and looked over.
There was a long, frosted lake stretching away, the rising moon just
reflected off one edge, and hills rising on either side.  The wind
whipped about the deck, and Aurelia felt a strand of her hair come
loose and twist playfully across her face.

There were other couples on the deck, but they were all keeping well
away from each other.  Aurelia and Daniel were effectively alone, with
the moonlit vista spreading in front of them.  And, despite her
desires, outside was no less inside the walls than the ballroom was.
Still, it felt nice to have the cool breeze on her face, and she was
tempted to flip her skirts a bit to get some of the cool air around her
legs as well; she decided against it, though, thinking it would be
glaringly unladylike, and she liked that no one was currently paying
any attention to them.

"Well," he said, stretching his arm out over the scene, "beautiful,
isn't it?  And much more clement than inside."

"Sure," she said, suddenly disappointed: there would be no escape
through this avenue.

Daniel dropped his voice, and leaned in close.  "Listen," he said,
keeping the light and airy affected look on his face despite the sudden
urgency in his voice, "we have to get out of here.  This is our chance,
but I need your help.  Will you trust me?"

Aurelia's acting talent wasn't so polished, and her face creased and
looked angry as she said, "Why should I?  I Saw, you're bound to the
Queen.  Why should I trust you?"

Daniel's facade dropped for a second, but was quickly restored.  "Don't
name her.  Just refer to her as 'her.'  When you hear my plan, I think
you will agree that I can be trusted.  Will you at least listen?"

Aurelia crossed her arms, her face set, but said, "Alright, I'm
listening."

"Very good.  Our first move is to return to your chambers, and restore
you to your normal clothing and effects.  I think you will appreciate
that part of this.  There is a portal near here that we can get to in
several hours' overland travel.  Less if we could get a horse, but even
on foot, it is not so far."

Aurelia interrupted impatiently, "Where?"

Daniel laughed lightly, and threw his arm out in a vague gesture past
the loch which now appeared half silver with reflected moonlight.  His
voice dropped back down to its quiet businesslike tones while his face
remained incongruously light and gay.  "You will not find it on your
own.  I also wish to return to the world of men, and you are my
conveyance.  You have a unique power to use the portals," and here
Daniel paused.  "Did you not know that?  Why, my dear, you are one of
very few beings, human or Daoine, who can pass through at will."

Aurelia's face reflected her words as she said, "I had no idea.  I
thought Daoine could go through any time they wanted to.  Wait, how did
you get to my world, then?"

"Both there and back, the Queen gave me a powerful artifact, but it
came with a price."  He glanced down to his right hand, which carried
the ring she had seen with Ailis.  The ring which bound him to the
Queen.

"I think I know," she said.  Her eyes narrowed again.  "I know the
price.  So why should I trust you now?"

He laughed lightly again, and said, "You wear your emotions on your
sleeve, my dear, you must cover them, or we will have unwanted
attention."

Aurelia flushed despite the cool air, and looked around.  The other
couples seemed engrossed in their own conversations.  Still, she took
his point, and tried to be less obvious.

With a blatantly false smile on her face, she repeated, "So why should
I trust you?"

"Because, it is my intention to rid myself of my impediments."  He
waggled his beringed finger slightly.  "And for that, I require your
assistance."  In a louder voice, he continued, "For the moment, though,
I think we should return to the ball.  There is a dance coming in a few
minutes that I should not wish to miss!"  He led her back to the door,
and she followed only reluctantly, glancing back over her shoulder in
the direction he'd indicated the portal lay.

CHAPTER


They were nearly running along darkened corridors, only the occasional
torch in its holder in the wall providing any light.  Aurelia had her
skirts in her hands to keep from tripping on them, cursing every step
in the too-tight little boots.  Daniel was leading, a small bundle
under one arm, which he had ducked into a room to retrieve.

She called up to him, "I think I'm with you so far, but I don't
understand how I'm supposed to help get that thing off your finger.  Do
I have magical ring removal powers I don't know about, too?"

He looked over his shoulder and said with a forced smile, "No, you have
an iron knife."

They half-jogged in silence for a moment, the Aurelia said, "You mean
it will cut the ring?  What if I hurt you?"

"No," he said, "your knife may be powerful, but this ring is the
greater power, particularly here.  If I wish to rid myself of the ring,
it must be cut off."

"Oh shit," she said almost to herself.  "You mean," she said in a
louder voice, "we have to cut off your finger?"

"That," he said, "is exactly what I mean.  That's why we have to return
to your chamber, and as long as we are there, we should divest you of
your uncomfortable shoes and impractical attire."  As he spoke, he came
up short, and Aurelia saw they were at her cell door.  He shot the
bolts, and pushed in the door, pulling her inside with little ceremony.

"Now," he said in a more conversational volume, "you shall change, and
I shall change, and we will rid me of my impediment.  Then, it is but a
few short hours until we reach the portal, and we are away to the land
of men!"

Daniel quickly pulled off his tunic, and Aurelia was embarrassed to see
he was wearing nothing underneath.  She'd seen him naked any number of
times, but now it was awkward and uncomfortable.  He saw her
hesitation, and said, "This is no time to be a blushing maid!  Change
into your dress, and let us be off!  We haven't much time!"

"I can't!" she said, indicating her inability to reach the lacings at
her back.  "You have to at least untie me.  I'm strapped into this
thing!"

"For the love of all that's..." he muttered under his breath, as he
attempted to wrestle with the ties.  "This was tied by a goddamned
drunken sailor!  What are these knots?!"

Aurelia lunged forward, and scrabbled under the green dress, coming up
with the knife.  She stood, looking at it for a moment, and heaved a
deep sigh.  "I hate this dress right now, but I know it is probably the
most beautiful thing I will ever wear.  I suppose the ties can be
replaced.  Cut them off."  She handed him the knife.

He took it, but dropped it almost immediately.  "I must have
something... Give me your glove!"  Aurelia pulled off a glove and
handed it to him.  He shoved his hand in partway, and used it as a mitt
to protect him from the iron as he sawed his way through the silken
cords at the back of Aurelia's dress.  Suddenly she could breathe
again, and he dropped the knife abruptly onto the heap of woolen dress.

"Don't look," she said, her voice stern.  He started to protest, but
she cut him off with a look.  With a look of exasperation on his face,
he turned around and faced the door.  Aurelia pulled the dress over her
head as quickly as she could.  A moment later, with her voice slightly
muffled, she said, "Ok, I guess you can look again.  I can't get this
off by myself."  He turned around and tugged the dress up over her
shoulders.  He found his gaze tracing the white skin down her neck to
her shoulder and the gentle curve of her now-exposed breast, and was
treated to a sharp smack across the cheek.  "Not fucking kidding," she
said, when he looked back at her face, which was hard-set.  He turned
again, and heard the sound of fabric rustling, which seemed to go
on forever.

"Are you done yet?" he asked, in gentler tones.

"No," came the frustrated-sounding reply.  "Why does each. individual.
goddamn. petticoat have to be tied on separately!"  Finally, she
exhaled a sigh of relief, and Daniel heard a different kind of
rustling.  Aurelia said, "Ok, I'm dressed again.  Get your ass in gear,
you're the one in a hurry."  She was tugging on her better-fitting
Drais shoes, sitting on the side of the bed, when he turned again.

Daniel looked down at himself, and realized that he'd been interrupted
halfway through dressing, and only had his shirt and trews on.  He
hurried into his tunic and coat, and tugged on his boots, which had
comprised the bundle he'd grabbed from his own room.  "Alright," he
said, looking around.  "Where to do this..."

"Maybe there's a kitchen," she said.  "Shit, Daniel, I don't think I
can do this.  Just because I don't trust you doesn't mean I want to
hurt you!"

"The one and only way you may trust me," he said, gentleness suddenly
suffusing his voice, "is by removing this ring from my person.  At that
point, I am well and truly yours.  But until that point, no, I am not
trustworthy.  As to hurting me, one finger is a small price to pay for
freedom.  I will bear the pain."  He paused, and Aurelia saw that he
was about to do something romantic like kissing the back of her hand.
She slapped him again.

"Eyes up here.  Let's find that kitchen."

CHAPTER


They did indeed find a kitchen.  It wasn't the unused chamber Aurelia
had been hoping for, but it was empty of people for the moment.  She
lined up a chopping block on the work surface while he went in search
of rags to bind up the wound.  They joked back and forth about throwing
the finger into a stew and hoping the Queen would choke on the ring,
but it was the tense, nervous humor of those faced with a challenge
they may not be equal to.

At last, they had all the pieces ready, and Aurelia pulled out the
little, triangular-bladed iron knife.  It was the size of a paring
knife, and she was suddenly seized by contrariness.  "There's no way
this is enough to chop off a finger.  Let me find a cleaver or something."

"A Daoine blade will not suffice," he said, grabbing her by the
shoulders.  "It must be iron.  Only iron will sever the bond.  Please,
Aurelia."  He looked into her eyes, but she had to look away after a
moment.  "Please.  This is the only way."

Aurelia looked helplessly at the little knife in her hand.  In her
perception, it seemed even smaller than it really was, barely big
enough to prick a balloon, much less accomplish so monumental a task as
Daniel was setting out for her.  She looked up at him, helplessness
plain in her face.

His mute gaze was his only reply.  Their supplies together, Daniel was
ready.  He streched his finger out on the chopping block, the ring
gleaming dully in the muted light of the unoccupied kitchen.  He took
up the wooden spoon he'd selected, and placed the handle in his mouth
like a bridle, to keep himself from crying out.  He squeezed his eyes
shut.

Aurelia held the knife, poised in the air above his finger, frozen.
She was paralyzed with fear.  This couldn't possibly be the only way.
There must be some other way than surgery to remove the Queen's ring.
How could she possibly perform this butchery on someone she (as she was
suddenly realizing) cared so much for?  He was her only contact in the
world, her only way to get out.  And he wanted her to mutilate him like
this?  It made no sense.

After a minute of stillness and silence, Daniel opened one eye, and
mumbled around the wooden handle, "You must do dhish.  Pleash, Aurelia.
Pleash, I will be free of her influensh.  We cannah waih, she may
nohice and call me back.  Pleash."

Aurelia stood, still transfixed, her eyes wide.  She didn't see
anything, too horrified with the thought of what was happening to allow
herself to experience it.  With a sudden, searing cry from her
horror-stricken mouth, the blade plunged down.  Daniel grunted heavily
around the spoon and fell to the ground.  The sickening crack of bone
splitting echoed through Aurelia's head, and it took her several long
moments to realize that Daniel was speaking to her.

"Hand me a towel," he said heavily, again.  He was pressing his thumb
where his finger used to be, and Aurelia was surprised to see blood all
over his tunic.  It was bright red.  A redder color than she'd ever
seen before.  It seemed to glow.  She was staring at it, unable to look
away.  "A towel!" he said again, nearly shouting.  Her vision closed
in, and she stumbled as if drunk to the neat pile of clean dishtowels
they'd gathered.  She picked one up, numbly dropped one around where
she thought he must be, and the world went dark.


CHAPTER


"Aurelia!  Aurelia!"  The voice was urgent in her ear, but it didn't
make any sense.  It sounded like her name.  It probably was her name.
But who would be saying it to her?  Why would anyone be saying her
name?

With a rushing sensation, she opened her eyes, and looked into Daniel's
face.  It was grey, but contained a softness she'd never seen before.
"That's me," she said quietly, to herself.

"Aurelia!  We must go.  When you cried out... I fear we have been
heard.  We must leave!"

She looked around, trying to understand where she was.  Nothing looked
familiar.  "Where are we?  What... Is that blood?"  She was looking at
his tunic, which was soaked.  He nodded quickly.

"We can talk when we're away.  But now, I need you to stand, and we
need to leave this place.  I have placed herbs on the wound, and bound
it to stop the bleeding.  I will survive, but we must now go!"  The
urgency in his voice finally pulled her back into the present moment.
"Take up your knife, you may need it.  Wipe it clean and hide it away.
I have our packet," he hoisted a small bundle of hard cheese and bread
they'd found in one of the larders.  In his good hand, she realized.
The other one, the right hand, being inexpertly swaddled in dish
towels.

She stood up, hand to her head, and grimaced.  "Oh," she said, summing
up in one word a surprising volume of information about her current
state.  She shook her head as if to clear it, but it didn't help.  A
sudden piercing headache split her head, but it went nearly as quickly
as it had come.  She opened her eyes again, and located the knife.  It
was sitting next to the finger.

Hurrying now, she grabbed it up and wiped the blade clean on one of the
towels.  Carefully, with hands suddenly shaking, she slid it back into
its tooled leather sheath on the second try, and wrapped it back into
her waistband.  "Ok," she said, although she looked far from ok.
Slightly bleary-eyed, she looked up at Daniel, who was standing,
one side hunched over, leaning against the counter.  His right hand was
tucked into his chest.

He nodded at the door, and she moved toward it.  Her head was still
fuzzy, but she could remember now: they had to leave the castle.  He
was taking her to a portal.  She was one of the only people who could
use it at will.  She was going home.  The nightmare would soon be over.

They stumbled out of the kitchen, and along the hallway.  Daniel called
terse directions whenever they came to a turning-point, and in what
seemed like mere moments, they were in the open air.  They were outside
the castle.  Outside!  Aurelia took a deep breath and exhaled, her
breath congealing before her in a misty cloud.

Daniel pulled her close, and whispered, "There may be guards in these
grounds.  We must tread lightly."  She nodded, and they set off,
alternately leading and pulling each other forward.  A few seconds
later, they had plunged into the dark wood surrounding the castle, and
the moonlight abruptly ceased.

CHAPTER


Daniel's claim of the portal being a mere "few hours" from the castle
proved to be somewhat hyperbolic.  Perhaps if they had both been in
good shape and in daylight, that might have been true, but with Daniel
stumbling along in shock, and Aurelia having to half-drag him some of
the time, it ended up near sunrise before they'd found the place.

The portal itself, like the ones she'd seen previously, was an
unremarkable spot in the woods.  She would have passed right by it.

Daniel sat down heavily on a fallen log when they arrived.  "I apologize,
Aurelia, I must rest."  She nodded, and he closed his eyes as if he
were about to fall asleep.

"Do you think we were followed?" she asked.

He hesitated a moment before opening his eyes again.  His voice was
sluggish when he spoke.  "The Queen cannot have failed to notice when
the bond was severed, but, ha-ha! she can't find me as easily now.  I
didn't notice anyone following us, did you?"

"No, but I was concentrating too hard on not tripping, and keeping you
from falling over.  Maybe you should get up and we should get out of
here.  Daniel, we're so close!"

His eyes had closed again, and he didn't immediately respond.  She
shook her head, half concerned that he'd never wake up again, half
frustrated at his inability to shake off the wound.  Even as she had
the thought, she realized the unjustness of it -- losing a finger, even
under comparatively good circumstances, had to be a huge shock to the
system.

Realizing that she finally had an opportunity to use her Sight again,
Aurelia slipped off the iron ring and jammed it over the knife scabbard
as usual, putting both down on the log next to Daniel.

Daniel himself had almost no corona of emotion-stuff, and what there
was seemed to be in dull, muted colors.  She was pleased to see no
little tendril of connection leading away from him -- apparently he had
been telling the truth about severing the bond by amputating the ring
off his body.

As she looked about the lightly wooded area where they sat, it was
immediately apparent that something important was here.  Had she been
Looking for it, she would have found the portal even from some
distance.  There was a visible concentration of magical energy here.
It didn't look like a literal portal in the sense of being a door, but
she could tell there was something big right next to them.

She looked back at Daniel.  His emotions had faded even further, and
she suddenly worried in earnest that the wound or the shock might be
overwhelming him.  She'd Seen people sleeping many times, and their
emotions rarely faded down so far as his had by this point.  She
reached forward and put her hand on his good arm, which was cradling
the injured hand to his chest.

"Daniel," she said.  "You need to wake up.  We have to go through.  I
think I need to get you to a doctor.  Daniel?"  She shook his arm.
Slowly, he came to life a bit and opened his eyes.

"What?  I'm sorry, I must have dozed off."  His voice was still fuzzy.
He sounded almost drunk.  His emotion-stuff brightened and looked more
alive, though, which she found encouraging.  Even with all her
experience in the human world and in Tir na Tuatha, she still didn't
have any clear theory what the emotion colors meant, but in this case,
brighter seemed better.

"Can you stand?"  Her voice was gentle now, and she tried lifting him
up by his good arm.  After a few tries, he got up with her help, and
was clearly trying to be more awake.

"I am ready," he said.  He looked like he wanted to fall over, she
thought, but that was the best he was able to do.

"I only know how to get myself through," she said, pausing uncertainly.
"That is, I think I remember how to get myself through.  Anyway, I'll
probably figure it out.  But my point is, I've never tried taking
anyone with me.  Do you know if I have to do anything special?"

"I am truly not certain.  With the ring, there was no difference if I
was by myself or moving with you, although I think we had to be
touching."

"Alright," she said, "I'll give it a try.  I hope.  Shit, it's been a
year since I did this, and I only did it once.  Give me a second here."
She stood still, eyes shut, trying to think back on her first visit to
Tir na Tuatha, where Mab had given her instruction on passing through a
portal.  She could remember the little dance, but the mental
disciplines she'd learned seemed very vague and nebulous now.

"I think," she said to herself, eyes still closed, "it was this?  No,
more like this."  Her shoulder shifted slightly as she talked, and she
moved in tiny steps as if dancing with a miniature partner.  "And
then," she trailed off.

"Ok," she said, eyes snapping open.  "I think I've got it.  I mean,
almost certainly.  Probably.  Let's just try and see what happens."

She grabbed Daniel's shoulder, and he jerked awake.  "I'm ready," he
said.

Aurelia closed her eyes again, and tried to step through the process as
Mab had described it.  Her feet shuffled and her free arm flapped a
bit.  Opening one eye to ensure she didn't kick Daniel, she shoved her
left foot out in front of her, rotating in a little circle.

The woods remained solid and real.  They were still in Tir na Tuatha.

CHAPTER



"Shit!" said Aurelia.  The day was already advanced, and nothing she'd
tried had worked to activate the portal.  She had been so focused on
getting to one, but had neglected to consider what would happen once
she actually arrived at one.

She sat down next to Daniel, who was lying on the ground, his head
propped up on a pile of dead leaves she'd scraped together for him.
His injured hand had already soaked through their supply of clean
towels, and she'd been down once to rinse the used ones out in a
nearby stream.  It hardly seemed sanitary, but stopping the bloodflow
was more important than an infection at this point.

He was sleeping, and fortunately looked less grey and haggard.  The
shock seemed to have passed, for which Aurelia was glad.  She huffed a
strand of hair out of her eyes, but it immediately fell back, and she
impatiently braided her hair behind her back.

Her memory of Mab's instruction and training was just too spotty at
this point to give her all the knowledge she needed to activate the
portal.  She could remember tantalizing glimpses, but the full picture
resolutely eluded her.

"What are we going to do, Daniel?" she said to his sleeping form.  "I
can't remember how to make the portal go.  I did it once.  I must still
have it all locked up in my head, but I can't find it."

She stood up again, and circled around where she Saw the portal sat,
a magical concentration that was unmistakable in her enhanced vision.
She looked at it from all angles, but the magical ground yielded no
secrets to her gaze.

Having run out of ideas, she sat down next to Daniel again.  He stirred
a little, but didn't wake up.  She was glad he seemed to be looking
better, but was worried that his wound continued to bleed.  She had no
idea how much blood a half-human, half-Daoine man could afford to lose
before getting into real trouble.

Aurelia decided to try a long shot.  She knew that Ailis would probably
at least have a pointer about the portal, but she had also only ever
met with the Drais seer in sleeping dreams.  She also knew that her
full-body visions were capable of taking her to far-away places.
Maybe, having practiced directing her Sight to where she wanted to See,
she could figure out a way to See inside the torc, in the gemstone where
Ailis's spirit lived on.

She closed her eyes, and drifted into the light trance Ailis had taught
her what seemed like a lifetime ago.  She cast about, not quite sure
how to go inside a magical artifact.  There was the stone, plain
enough, but the entrance into it wasn't obvious.  She wasn't even sure
how to look for it, as she'd only ever directed her Sight at physical
places before.

Then she remembered: she reoriented her senses to find the direction in
which Ailis lay.  The direction-finding trick had proved remarkably
reliable, and perhaps it would guide her to the passageway she sought.

She followed the sense of Ailis, but it brightened and became more
appealing in weird ways that twisted through dimensions she hadn't
realized actually existed.  It was like there was a "down" that was
also a corkscrew shape.  Only by experimenting and figuratively
crossing her eyes could she make any sense of it, and followed as best
she could.

Eventually, many inexplicable twists and turns later, she found herself
looking in some wonder at a cloudy, crystalline lattice which she
realized must be, in some way, inside the rose quartz of Ailis's torc.
There was no sign of Ailis herself, but Aurelia thought perhaps a
person's spirit might not be visible, even to Second Sight.  According
to her directional sense, she was in the right spot, and wondered what
she should do now.

As it happened, the choice was made for her.  She had a sudden memory
of the words, "What are you doing here, child?" in her mind.  She
hadn't heard the words, nor experienced them directly, but had a memory
of them somehow.  There was no associated voice, so she had no idea
who might have been the source of the words.

Feeling helpless now, Aurelia tried and as usual failed to speak.
She'd never been able to speak in the full-body visions.  She had a
moment of feeling the panic of claustrophobia, but then remembered,
"Calm down lass, form the thought.  I can see.  I'm not in truth sure
how you managed it, but you are here with me."  Then there was the
memory of a pause, and she remembered, "Yes, Ailis."

Aurelia tried to think of the portal and her inability to remember
Mab's instruction, but she wasn't sure if she was clear or not.  As she
thought about it, a tangential thought spawned wondering at the immense
clutter anyone else's mind must look like to an outsider.  She
remembered, "That is a difficult conundrum.  I am no expert at the
portals between worlds.  I have never traveled them myself."

Aurelia thought, more or less, "Oh no."  Her memory tickled with the
words, "All is not lost.  We may approach the problem methodically."
Aurelia was surprised to find her memory filling with concepts and
thoughts which were not expressed in words, but in actual, pure ideas.
They were foreign and strange, but she found she was able to make sense
of them.  She had a sudden memory of, "This is the closest I've ever
come to Seeing inside another's mind, my girl."  The source of the
words was clearly amused and pleased, proud of Aurelia.  She glowed
with pride.

Aurelia went over the concepts that Ailis had conveyed to her, and they
made sense.  They didn't seem to be the same instructions that Mab had
given her, but Ailis's approach looked like it would work as well.  The
words, "I'll miss ye, lass," registered upon her memory, and Aurelia
was suddenly brought home to the reality that with her transition to
the world of men, it was quite likely that Ailis would either cease to
exist, or cease to be accessible to her, even in dreams.  Saddened, she
started reflecting on their history together, and then remembered,
"There's no call to become maudlin, child.  Death must come to us
all, and perhaps the world of men holds magic enough that mine can be
pushed out yet another few years.  Do you get back to yourself, and get
you and your lad through the gate.  I wish you fleet feet and a dancing
spirit.  Farewell, Aurelia Stanton."

Aurelia came back to herself with tears in her eyes, but determined to
put Ailis's teachings to immediate use.  She looked around and found
Daniel lying where he had been, still asleep.  His bindings were soaked
through again, and his face was more ashen than before.

She got up, steadying herself momentarily as the blood rushed away from
her head.  The woods seemed oddly quiet, but she put the thought out of
her mind -- who knew what might have passed while she was Seeing, and
now that she knew what she was doing, she was anxious to get moving.
Daniel's life appeared to be in her hands, and she was having a hard
time putting it out of her mind that it was her own hand that had done
the damage.

Ailis's thoughts regarding the portal involved more physical objects
than Mab's had, and she set about gathering them.  Aurelia found sticks
and leaves, quickly peeling the bark from a fresh branch to tie things
together.  After some minutes, she had fashioned a kind of three-lobed
pattern, reminiscent of the triskalions she had seen in some of the
decorations in Tir na Tuatha.

Task completed, she shook Daniel, and called his name.  His eyes
fluttered, but he didn't fully wake up.  "Come on," she muttered under
her breath, wondering what to do.  She tried slapping his face lightly,
and then harder, but he still didn't wake.  Finally, getting desperate
in the face of this new development, she dragged him bodily in a series
of pulls to the center of where the portal lay, resting after each one.
"Good thing you're not a big bruiser," she said to herself.  Daniel's
coat and shoulder-length hair were pulled up over his head by the
motion, but she didn't feel the need to fix that just now.

Finally in position and with her breath back, Aurelia moved the
improvised triskalion through the air, connecting nodes of power within
the portal.  Her normal vision didn't show anything much from what she
was doing, but in her Second Sight, the effect was immediate and
obvious: big tracers of magical energy set themselves up.

Aurelia was sufficiently wrapped up in her work that she didn't notice
a line of little green goblins sneaking up behind her.  The world
started to swirl and shift, the trees smearing and fading as if there
were a mist rising, and colors shifting like a deranged Warhol painting.
Aurelia crouched down and got a firm grip on Daniel's ankle, unsure how
much of a connection was necessary to bring him along with her through
the portal.  Then she let out a shriek as one of the goblins grabbed up a
healthy handful of her skirt, scratching her hip with its claws as it did.
She craned her head around to see what it was.

The world stopped spinning and melting, and resolved into a dark and
empty field, dotted by a descending line of little metal towers that
she didn't recognize.  It was clearly nighttime.  Suddenly each tower
lit up in turn, creating the effect of a moving field of light, speeding
away from her.

Surrounding her on all sides, revealed in the sudden light that was
there and then gone, was what looked like the entirity of the Queen's
court.  The light played over them again, and Aurelia was horrified to
see it confirmed.  Hundreds and hundreds of Daoine, each one of them
lofing a sword or bow or long staff.

Suddenly, the world was filled with an unbearable shrieking roar coming
from above, and Aurelia looked up to see a 737 pass by only a few hundred
feet overhead.  She followed its path, and saw the airport.

Aurelia Stanton was standing under the approach path to SeaTac airport,
and she had just transported the entire court of the Queen of the
Fairies into the world of men.  With a roar, a full-throated, lusty cheer,
inhuman in its noise, they darted off in all directions.

END

Coming for NaNoWriMo 2014: the conclusion of the Aurelia Stanton
trilogy; as yet unnamed.