Under the scorching sun, Lugus's eyes burned with a familiarity as he woke up from his dreams of suffocating Danu with his fists gripped around the coral raft he had created, trying to choke it. He realized suddenly he was in the middle of the sea. He remembered he had grown his shared raft from a floating piece of fire coral he’d spotted floating in the water after rescuing the Doe Elen who jumped from a tall cliff and nearly drowned. As he gasped for air upon waking, Lugus screamed out to Danu, "What do you want? I don't have your cursed harp yet!" But each word was stifled by the collar of silence that his sister had placed upon him. He coughed and sputtered as the words fought their way out, like dusty grains clawing their way up his throat.
Elen casually mentioned to Lugus, "You shouldn't try to talk with that thing on your neck. It will choke you." She rolled her pretty amber eyes at him as he struggled to clear the dust from his throat and spat it out into the sea, Elen sat nearby on a piece of coral, hugging her knees close to her body. The two were adrift together in the water aimlessly, and had been for awhile.
Elen had been awake for a while, watching as Lugus slept soundly beside her. "You were out for quite some time. Take it easy when getting up," she advised him calmly as he coughed and slowly regained consciousness. "It took me a moment to steady my own legs when I woke up. You're probably dehydrated." She was suddenly curious and asked, "Do Tuatha Dea get dehydrated? Or do you never feel thirsty?" She turned to Lugus with interest, examining him like a fascinating specimen. "I guess you can't answer with Danu's collar on, can you?" she said, losing enthusiasm. "Isn't that just my luck? Just when I have the opportunity to ask a real Tuatha Dea questions, they're silenced by a collar and we're stuck on this small chunk of coral, drifting aimlessly in the sea." Elen laughed at the irony and added, "Just typical."
Elen’s piercing gaze turned towards Lugus as she spoke, “It rained a day ago, and I got to drink then. You’ll have to wait unless you can summon a rainstorm like Danu can.” Elen looked back at Lugus expectantly, with an angry glare, “How are you going to get us off this piece of floating coral you wizard up?!”, she suddenly yelled at Lugus from no where, “How are you going to fix it mighty Tuatha, Procter of the Wyrd’s words or whatever proud nonsense you said to Danu before she strapped that collar around your gob! You know Eriu is still missing?!”, she laughed at Lugus who was turning red fuming, “Will you smite me now with that angry scowl you’re wearing?”, she said rolling her eyes at Lugus, “After you went through the trouble of saving me and losing Eriu and the boat you were on!? That was a clever move, Mister Hero! You should have just left me to the sea. Danu would have come for me sooner or later. She keeps the water enchanted and deep so we can’t escape now that Dagda fled Brasil with her children.”, Elen said flatly to Lugus with her scathing eyes glaring him down from across the coral.
Lugus, was reminded that Eriu was supposed to be with him, and began to frantically scan the endless horizon of the sea for her. But she was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Elen watched Lugus's futile search with annoyance before rolling her eyes and offering to assist. She took a deep breath and bellowed into the void, "Eriu! Where are you? Answer us from wherever you've flown off to on Danu’s barge! Your uncle is very sorry he lost you! Come home now to our coral adrift at sea!" Her tone dripped with sarcasm as she stopped shouting and saw Lugus's furious gaze upon her with his piercing golden eyes. Unfazed by his anger, Elen simply said, "You're welcome," with a sweet smile before settling back against a comfortable patch of coral.
Lugus couldn't contain his anger at Elen's sarcastic remark. He thought bitterly, "How could she be so ungrateful when I was the one who rescued her? I sacrificed my chance to reach Tir Na n?g and to get this stupid collar off me! You’re the reason I lost Eriu! You!" he fumed internally, clenching his teeth and fists unable to shout at Elen.
Eriu was gone, and he had missed his chance to retrieve Uaithne before the Queens meeting on Inis Fáil when Uaithne would be alone upon Tir Na n?g. Lugus didn't even know which direction to go in order to return to land. “If I could find land, perhaps I could ask the birds for directions. They are sure to know the way to Tir Na n?g.”, he thought anxiously planning as he watched Elen, who seemed unaware of his presence as she lay against the coral, anger surged within him. But he refrained from yelling at her; the collar of silence around his neck reminded him to control his emotions. Instead, he clenched his teeth and held back his fury.
Lugus smirked to himself as he watched Elen laying against the coral. “I don’t need to stay where I’m not wanted.”, he said to himself with a smile, “I can just fly away.”, he thought then as he began gathering his will and his thoughts to change into a bird again.
Lugus hesitated for a moment before transforming into a sea hawk and took off into the sky. He didn't want to leave Elen alone in the open sea, but he also didn't want to stay where he wasn't wanted. “She’ll be fine. She seems to be able to manage herself.”, he thought bitterly as he watched her still ignoring him even as he changed his form to a sea hawk with silvery wings. “She won’t miss me a moment.”, he thought grinning within as he silently took off and into the sky.
Elen couldn't help but notice Lugus as he suddenly took off into the sky, his wings beating loudly. She called out to him, "Hey, don't leave me! Who will speak for you? We can't find Eriu without each other!" Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Lugus continued flying higher and further, following the waves in search of land.
With a loud shriek, she hurled her anger at Lugus. "You're such a prick, Lugus! Danu was right about you, and you're just a stupid bird!" Her voice echoed after him as he flew off into the distance and disappeared beyond the sea and the horizon.
Ignoring Elen's accusations, Lugus flew away from her, confident that she would be safe on the raft he had left for her. He needed to find Eriu and that barge, and he also knew it was necessary to inform the Wyrd Mothers of what had transpired. But deep down, he couldn't help feeling bitter about the potential shame and teasing from his brothers for being fooled by Danu, and how the Wyrd had yet to intervene on his behalf. "I'll have them handle it discreetly. They may just be waiting for me to contact them before they aid me with this collar.," he thought darkly to himself, hoping.
As Lugus soared above the ocean, he couldn't help but notice how the waves grew more turbulent and rapid beneath him. He let out a quiet sigh as he realized that he had been flying for hours without finding any trace of land. His wings were starting to ache, and he knew that he needed to rest soon.
Despite the discomfort and agony of his wings, he pushed himself onward towards the horizon in the distance. "I must be getting closer to land," he told himself, scanning the area for any signs of solid ground. As regret crept into his mind, he wondered if he should have stayed with the raft instead of venturing off in anger. But he quickly shook off those thoughts and refused to give in to hopelessness. "There has to be land somewhere. I won't give up," he declared, pushing through the air with renewed determination.
As he gazed out at the ocean's horizon, Lugus couldn't help but wonder if he was getting close to land. The current was picking up speed and a faint earthy scent lingered in the air, giving him hope that there was land nearby. But his thoughts soon turned to Elen, alone on the raft he had left her with. He prayed she would be safe until they both finally found solid ground. Yet, guilt gnawed at him for leaving her behind. "She will be brought in by the tide in a day or two," he reminded himself, trying to push away his growing sense of remorse at leaving her alone. “She’ll be fine. I just hope Eriu is alright.”, he thought, looking for her on the waves, but not finding her as he insisted again to himself everything would be well as he pressed on across the waves, still searching.
As he searched the distance for any sign of land that wasn't just a blur of water, Lugus tried to soothe his guilty conscience. "They're both brave," he thought, trying to convince himself that everything would be alright. But deep down, he knew that half-believing was not enough. "I should have stayed with her. We could have searched for the girl together. Why didn't I just stop and think?" he scolded himself, feeling angry and determined to find land as he continued flying on his unknown path over the rolling waves.
As the sun began to set behind him, Lugus noticed a change in the ocean's scent. A stronger earthy aroma filled the air, giving him even more hope that land was nearby. With renewed determination, he pushed forward towards the source of the deep scent of moss and soil that rapidly began to mix itself with the sea breeze. “I knew it! There’s land here!”, he thought excitedly as he flew toward a dark smudge on the horizon.
As Lugus neared, he could see the silhouette of an island looming in the distance. The trees and land floated up on a massive ring-like platform. This mysterious flying island seemed to emit a faint glow against the dark stone formations jutting out from the sea. Despite his eager anticipation, Lugus couldn't shake off a feeling that something was amiss about this place. The trees atop the jutting atolls appeared twisted and gnarled, surrounded by an eerie aura. A white mist and shadows seeped out from the roots of the Alder trees growing on the rocks, engulfing the high cliffs and atolls that encircled the main shore in a cloudy darkness.
The island was surrounded by a thick veil of fog that only parted in the direction Lugus was approaching from. As he gazed at the strange Alder trees, he couldn't help but marvel at how unique they were. Despite all his travels, he had never come across this particular island before. He wondered where exactly he had ended up with the makeshift coral raft he had built. "What secrets are waiting to be discovered here?" he thought excitedly, greedily considering the potential rewards and recognition that awaited him. "The Wyrd will surely reward me for this discovery!" His thoughts then turned to Danu and his desire for revenge. "She will regret silencing me, and the Wyrd will punish her if I bring back something truly valuable as a bribe."
Lugus descended onto a nearby rocky outcrop, grateful for a moment of rest after flying tirelessly. With his keen eyes, he scanned the cliffs and shore for any signs of movement. But all was still; even the wind around the island seemed to have stopped. From this elevated position, he could see the thick barrier of trees surrounding a second floating island at its center.
In the middle of the island, towering above everything else, was a massive Oak tree emitting a soft silver light from within. Its branches extended into the darkness, casting shadows and beams of light in all directions as it slowly rotated at the heart of the island. The starkly white and glowing tree was surrounded by a ring of pitch black stone, completing its otherworldly presence.
“It looks almost like Lia Fáil only smaller. What is this place?”, he thought a little worriedly. “What have I stumbled on now. It looks like something from before the wars ended..”, he thought as he took flight again to gain a closer view. A sense of unease crept over him as he pondered what this place could be and what secrets it held within its borders. With determination, he took flight once more to get a better look at this enigmatic location.
His curiosity piqued, Lugus decided to explore this strange island further. But as he took off again towards it, dark clouds suddenly appeared from nowhere and blocked out the sun's dying rays, closing him in. “I suppose I can’t go back now, can I?”, he thought feeling a sense of unease as he flew closer to the floating island’s outer ring.
As Lugus neared the shoreline, his gaze was immediately drawn to the boats neatly arranged in rows along a strip of beach shore below the turning rocks. "There must be someone living or hiding here," he thought excitedly to himself. His eagerness to impress the Wyrd with a new secret bubbled up inside him. He knew that the Mothers would reward him for this discovery. A warm smile filled his heart as he pictured their immense gratitude, and the sweet vindication he would gain by using it against Danu. "I'll show her that I'm not one to be toyed with. We're adults now, and I won't allow her to intimidate me any further!" He thought, shouting in his mind in frustration as he landed on a branch of a faintly glowing blue Alder on the outer edge of the mysterious misty island.
As Lugus gazed into the distance, he noticed a vast expanse of towering mushrooms hiding beneath the clouds that hung at the interior of the two hovering land masses, their eerie shadows casting an otherworldly aura as they bobbed in tandem in the clouds. The mushrooms stood far above the circular platform on which he sat, their roots digging deep into the ocean floor below. In the distance, he could make out a magnificent tree, its radiance captivating in the darkness as it loomed over everything and disappeared into the clouds of misty sky. Its somber silver light blanketed the entire island, engulfing both the tree and the land itself in its otherworldly and ethereal luminescence.
The mushrooms swayed gently in the breeze, emitting a soft, bell-like sound that echoed through the air. Lugus looked at the enormous stone ring that circled the glowing tree, watching as ancient Fey runes appeared from the mist and burned into the ring's surface. He didn't understand what the symbols meant. "I shouldn't be here," he thought to himself, taking in the sight of the rotating ring and surrounding fog. "What have I stumbled upon?" he wondered as he gazed at the onyx stone structure floating above the sea and encircling the luminous tree.
Lugus spread his wings and soared through the air, the powerful beats of his wings carried him closer to the ominous circling ring. He scanned the ring’s path for any signs or hints that could assist him in his mission. The dark stone beneath Lugus's wings radiated a warm heat, inadvertently lifting him higher than he intended to fly. The heat from the ring caused the surrounding air to condense into a whirl of clouds. Below, the ocean roiled and twisted, creating a sluggish vortex at the island's base where a luminous tree stood, cradling a towering and glowing crystal in its roots.
Lugus flew through the sky with ease, his wings beating rhythmically against the air. Suddenly, he spotted a massive glowing limb of the tree below him. His curiosity piqued, he dove down into the clouds and noticed an unusual light emanating from the trees ahead. As he drew closer, he saw a ghostly altar hovering in the sky like a tower. Shimmering in silver light and ethereal in form, it was suspended in the clouds with a rainbow staircase expanding over the massive crystal of salt containing a glittering forest within. Intrigued, Lugus steered towards the altar for a closer look.
Lugus landed gracefully on one of the glowing branches of the immense silver oak tree towering above him near the arch of steps where he could see everything. He watched with intense curiosity as he saw figures walking up the bends of the shimmering rainbow staircase. One figure caught his eye - a strange, silver-masked being draped in elegant ribbons of black, purple, and silver cloth. She emerged from the darkness of the floating forest beyond the tree, ascending the stairs with a shining star crystal in her hand. As Lugus observed this mysterious figure, he couldn't help but think, "She reminds me of Idunn how she shines! But who is she? And where am I? Why does she possess an Arcana stone? Those are forbidden!" His anxiety grew as he watched the masked figure approach him from the rainbow staircase.
The robed and masked figure glowed a silver light halo around their body, they shined while holding a true Arcana stone in their hands before them as the figure ascended the ethereal staircase. The masked figure led a procession of ghostly Fal Bolg warriors along with a mix of true Fal Bolg warriors up the arching rainbow steps from the forest. Lugus watched in worry as they passed by, wondering who these mysterious Fal Bolg were and how their warriors seemed to have just bathed in Inis Fáil's pools.
Lugus watched in awe as the Arcana stone glowed with powerful energy, held aloft by the mysterious figure before him. Feeling the raw energy spilling off of the stone, Lugus couldn't help but feel inferior to his brothers, Canta and Dagda, who possessed incredible magical abilities that he lacked. Panic overtook him as he realized he needed to leave quickly before being discovered.
Frantically, Lugus scanned his surroundings for a discreet way to exit from the branch he had perched on. His heart sank as he saw the Fal Bolg horde approaching up the rainbow steps towards their altar. "No birds nearby," he thought in frustration, "If only I could fly away." Desperate thoughts raced through his mind as he weighed his options. "I'm too big to fly away without being seen, and if I transform there will be a blinding flash and they'll know it's me. Damn it!" Lugus cursed himself for getting so close without considering the risk of being seen. "I should have been more careful and thought about someone spotting me instead of just focusing on finding something," he scolded himself quietly.
Perched on a low branch of the towering oak tree, Lugus observed carefully while attempting to remain hidden under rolling clouds. He was well aware that he stood out against the bright backdrop of the clouds around him, his silhouette easily visible to any passerby. Any sudden movement could give him away, so Lugus remained crouched low on his branch and prayed for stillness in the wind. "Maybe they won't notice me?" he hoped desperately. "If I can just stay perfectly still, maybe I can get through this." His heart raced as he tried to suppress the fear rising in his throat, afraid that even a small sound or disturbance would reveal his presence. As he watched, Lugus could only listen to the haunting melody of the Fal Bolg gathering at the silver altar with their masked leader.
“Hail Thee Now Our Queen of Light,
Ringing out, Shining Brightly!
Our hearts to your defense!
Take us all now by our hand,
show us Glory we can understand!
Your might above us reign!
We are the children of your seed,
and we shall see our mother freed!
Our hearts to your defense!
Theia, our hearts to you we give!
Banish from us from Tuatha might!
Return your children their silver light!
Our hearts to you we give!
Theia, our hearts to your defense!”
The Fal Bolg marched confidently up the stairs, their voices ringing out in a defiant anthem. The sound of reed pipes and aged lyres filled the air as they danced like a joyous celebration or a powerful uprising up the towering steps after their masked leader. Their determined melody echoed through the air and forests below as the mysterious figure carrying their sacred arcana stone ascended the altar steps to face the spinning black ring around the towering oak beyond the floating and Silver ornate altar.
The masked figure raised their arms high, holding their shining arcana stone and shouting to the reveling Fal Bolg climbing the stairs towards the Altar. "Hail to you, holy Oak of Salt, Círdan Oak!" The masked figure called out in a woman’s voice, the arcana stone shining even more brightly in her hands. "We praise your name and your purifying ring of Dubh íonachta!" The figure's rasping and deep voice rang out over the crowd as the host of Fal Bolg continued to ascend filling all available space on the steps leading up. "May our spirits and the seeds of our ancestors be purified in your mighty roots, just as you have done since time began, oh holy Oak!" She cried out, her voice rasping and echoing desperately to the towering tree and its glowing ring.
"Preserve our bodies in the salts of the briny sea, proud Círdan Oak! Purify all things in your burning salts! Purify our lands of our enslavement and our destitution at Tuatha hands, holy Oak of Ages!" The figure's voice grew harsher as they held up their glowing arcana stone above their head for all to see and shouted, “Free us Lord of Salt! Accept out sacrifice in grace, mighty Círdan Oak!” The other Fal Bolg watched and bowed before her, as if she were a deity or goddess before them as she ascended with her shining arcana stone before her like a holy relic.
Lugus felt a chill run down his spine as he listened to the words of the mysterious woman and caught sight of her shining arcana stone. "That's not possible," he thought, "The Círdan Oak was destroyed and the island of Dubh íonachta sank when Balor killed Ole Gran. The Wyrd said it themselves! How is it here, now?!" He screamed in his mind, trying desperately to stay hidden on the branch and avoid being seen by anyone. But then, the ring began to emit flames. Lugus could feel the heat reaching towards him, but he remained still, hoping against all hope that his feathers wouldn't catch fire from an errant ember in the wind.
Tears of radiant light streamed down the priestess’s mask as she reached out towards the towering Círdan Oak. It stood tall and bright against the tumultuous clouds before her, and she wept through her steaming mask to the magnificent tree in front of her. "We offer our tears, our hearts, our souls, and our bodies to you, great Círdan Oak. You are the Salt Mother, Severed Root of Theia, preserver of all things! Liberate us with your purest salts," she cried while her tears burned through the silver metal of her mask and dripped onto her skin. But she did not cry out in pain. She endured each fiery tear with grace, as if she were impervious to the molten metal searing itself onto her face
The figure in a mask shed tears of fire as she raised her arcana stone up high, its light matching the blazing ring around Lugus below. He shrank back on his branch, trembling. "With your mighty wheel, break and remake us when Theia's silver grace returns!", she cried out to the tree. Then, she turned to face the Fal Bolg and spoke with fervent and hoarse words, "May our seeds thrive under your sacred light as the Tuatha Dea and their golden root of Akash are forever shattered by your ever-turning wheel! Let all Fal Bolg once again know freedom beneath your sprawling branches, Círdan Oak, Guardian Tree of the Oceans," declared the woman behind her steaming mask's eye holes with a weakened but still commanding voice full of pious rage.
Lugus couldn't hold back his frustration any longer. "I have to find a way to escape and inform the Wyrd of everything! Forget Danu, this is too crucial to keep hidden!" As he watched the Fal Bolg army begin their chants of "Praise the Lord of Salt!" and "Praise our triumphant return! Death to the Wyrd! Death to Tuatha Dea!", Lugus knew he had to act immediately before it was too late. “If only I could catch a glimpse of the face behind that mask!”, he thought to himself as he hid on a nearby branch, observing as the weaker Fal Bolg were brought out one by one to face the mysterious woman with her burning arcana stone.
“Confess!”, she called out to the first of the Fal Bolg who was brought to face her. It was a small and elderly Fal Bolg who resembled a turtle with a shell far too big for him and full of holes that looked like they were made from many arrows piercing the shell. His face was weathered and scarred, and he looked nearly dead already. His bones poked horribly from his loose skin. He nearly fell over carrying the items he bore in his arms to kneel before the masked figure. She spoke again, more commanding, pointing with her fingers at him like long slender claws, “Confess and be purified in Círdan’s salt, my child!”, she said piously.
The tiny Fal Bolg lowered his head in a deep bow, struggling under the weight of the turtle shell on his thin body. With great effort, he managed to stand upright and offered a bundle of three long white ribbons tied with silver strings to the shadowy Priestess before him. "What should I confess, Mother?" he asked, his eyes watching the turning wheel in front of him with uncertainty. "I don't know what to say... After living for so long and witnessing countless wars, and my whole family crushed, burned, or starved away," he cried at her feet, "my entire family was annihilated by the Femorians and the Tuatha Dea!”, he sobbed out at the woman’s feet while she glared at him with her steaming eyes. Weighing his every word he spoke silently.
The poor broken Fal Bolg wept at her feet, clinging to the bundle he held tightly against his chest. "They destroyed everything. Our homes, our temples, our families, our whole way of life lost to their greed," he sobbed, pausing to kiss the two wrapped seeds in his arms. He looked up at the towering and imposing woman before him and continued weakly, "I am the last survivor of my clan, the once proud Druin who roamed freely in the lush lands where sparkling lights danced upon still waters. But now those lights are gone, and I am no longer welcome in my family's ancient lands. The Tuatha claim it as their own. I have no home to return to.", he sobbed at the dark Priestess’s feet.
The little Fal Bolg hung his head low and held tightly onto the two bundles wrapped in clean white linen. "I saw my son and wife go to seed from starvation. Our Tuatha master refused to provide us with food, and our fields and groves no longer yielded any bounty. None that we could claim! It belonged only to the Tuatha whose hands planted none of it!”, he shook his head furiously as he sobbed out in anger, “They wasted away before my eyes, Mother! They just faded away, and now I bring their remains with mine before I perish as well!" He gazed up through tear-filled eyes with hopefulness. "I swore I would reunite with them when Theia blesses us again, and now I will finally join them forever, won't I Mother? Círdan will purify us!?" He directed his words towards the silent figure. She said nothing, but only nodded and pointed to the ledge beyond.
The Fal Bolg then rose from before her and walked stiffly with her to the ledge she had pointed to. The Fal Bolg looked out to face the blazing wheel turning in the sky, he proclaimed loudly, “Please, Theia, make us whole again! I miss them dearly, but what must I confess on their behalf?" He shook his head in disbelief and sorrow. "Words cannot express the immense grief I carry. Please let me be reborn with my clan! With my wife and son," he pleaded, sobbing as he bowed down before the towering masked figure radiating with intense light from her burning stone.
The priestess in the silver mask unraveled each of the white ribbons given to her by the Fal Bolg. As she unwrapped them, they were filled with words written in a strange language that the man did not recognize. The words seemed to appear on the ribbon as it hovered between the Fal Bolg and the woman. Each ribbon started turning black as it bound and mingled with the ribbons from the woman's flowing robes.
"You need not worry," she rasped kindly to the sobbing Fal Bolg at her feet, lifting him back up to his feet. "Our Silver Mother hears all our prayers. I will bear your story, as well as those of your wife and son, with me for the rest of my days. It is my honor and my promise." She helped the tiny man stand up and said, "Go now, my son. Return to your clan of Druin." She led him with his bundles to the edge of the altar.
With a feeling of horror, Lugus observed as the Priestess guided the small Fal Bolg towards the edge of the altar. "Surely he won't jump?" Lugus thought to himself, unable to tear his gaze away from cycling between the churning sea below the ring and the tiny Fal Bolg shivering and clutching his family’s seeds against himself. "The energy of this ring will destroy him.", thought Lugus feeling anxious and nervously excited, Lugus watched as the small Fal Bolg wept and clung onto his bundled packages tightly. “Don’t do it!”, he wanted to cry out, but knew he couldn’t.
The Fal Bolg leaned in for comfort from the masked woman, confessing to the tall and imposing robed woman, "Mother, I am terrified. Maybe I can wai…" He wanted to explain his doubts, but before he could finish his sentence, a scream escaped his lips as he fell into the void. The woman had slyly pushed him off the ledge while pretending to listen to his fears. From the altar, Lugus witnessed the entire act with a mixture of fear and disgust, trembling beneath his feathers. He couldn't comprehend how this monstrous woman was capable of such cruelty. “They’re her own people, but why? This feels so wasteful!”, he couldn’t help thinking.
Lugus cowered on his branch, terrified as he watched the unknown woman snatch ribbons from the trembling hands of her devoted Fal Bolg. “Who is this mysterious figure behind the mask?”, Lugus watched her and her glowing stone with fascination and a sick sort of wonder. “And what did she have planned for the Tuatha Dea?”, he thought to himself. “She’s going to intend to use that stone,”, Lugus thought gravely. Shaking his head in disbelief, Lugus struggled to understand the motives of these people. They willingly stepped forward to confess their wrongdoings and face certain death. But why? The intentions of the woman were completely baffling to Lugus. "What could she possibly gain from all of this? What do these people thrown screaming off this ledge gain?" he wondered, trying to make sense of the situation.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The masked figure turned towards the waiting and jubilant Fal Bolg behind her, raising her arms in triumph with the assembling mob on the staircase. The horde gathered on the rainbow steps leading to the altar erupted into cheers. A cry of rapture filled with devout fervor escaped her lips as she proclaimed, "They have been purged! Praise Círdan's mercy! Praise Theia!" She then turned to take hold of another Fal Bolg's ribbons for purification. "Come forth, my children! Embrace Círdan's purity into your hearts!" she beckoned with outstretched arms, before turning and lifting her rasping voice to the rotating ring once more. "Renew us all, Theia! Cleanse us once again in your eternal glow!"
“This is like something from one of Dagda’s horror stories of the war.”, thought Lugus, “I was young when it ended, but I know Fal Bolg magics are terrible and powerful! The Wyrd, mighty as they are, fought an epoch against them! They are formidable! My brothers need to know this is here. That SHE is here, whatever SHE is!”, Lugus thought in his terror as he watched more Fal Bolg willingly jump from the ledge after confessing to the masked Priestess. Lugus watched as each time their white ribbons and their final stories were bound to her gowns after they said their last words to her before being thrown from the ledge falling and screaming down into the crushing sea below.
Lugus was ready to flee, but he still didn’t see an opening, but he did see something familiar, or rather someone….
Lugus’s heart nearly jumped from his chest when he saw Elen being carried up the stairs by the Fal Bolg who appeared to have just bathed in Inis Fáil’s silver pools of power. “Why is she here?!”, Lugus’s earlier guilt came crashing on him again, “I knew I should not have just left her! Now I have to save her, and this hiding spot was working, though barely!”, he admitted to himself, “I need to get her. When they push her!”, he decided then, “I’ll fly down and snatch her from the clouds then we can flee!”, he decided and nodded as he watched Elen be brought out before the masked woman.
*****
Elen was carried forward up the rainbow steps. Elen shook looking at the enormous Fal Bolg dressed in ornamental armor and bearing weapons that hummed with a power not unlike Sruth did on Danu’s brow. Elen watched the one with the two long dirks floating beside her and observed her robes bearing the marking of the Scéalaí, but all Elen knew of the Scéalaí was what all Fal Bolg knew of them and their ancient order. She knew it was destroyed by Dagda. “They’re supposed to be just stories..”, she thought feeling more terrified by the minute, “They aren’t supposed to even exist anymore! Who are they?!”, she couldn’t help asking herself despite knowing she didn’t know the answer.
“I told you to leave me in the sea!”, Elen screamed from where she was suspended midair between her two guards, “I don’t want your help! I could have found land without you!”, she shrieked at them both as they ignored her every word.
The female guard, armed with two sharp dirks - one with a gilded hilt and the other with a silver hilt - gave Elen a menacing stare as she spoke. "You are to greet Theia and offer yourself to the Círdan Oak," she said through her clenched teeth, "But first, you will give us your story. Our priestess has returned from the realm of shadows, and our powerful Círdan Oak has bloomed once more in the sea!”, she stared hard at Elen over her pauldron like an asp and she hissed at Elen, “Rejoice, Nymph! Soon your master will bend their knees, and you can know Theia’s rebirth firsthand!" The guard spoke cruelly to Elen with her fang like smile glaring at Elen, who was still confused by her words. With a furious devotion, the guard continued, "Soon, our Lord of Salt will protect us against the Tuatha, and we will be freed! Freed from them and those who serve them!" She laughed at Elen's bewildered and fearful expression. As Elen felt helpless and the tears came to her eyes, the guard's laughter only grew louder.
Elen could not escape. The Fal Bolg woman had bound Elen’s arms when her Fal Bolg soldiers forced Elen from off her coral and into their boat. They had tied her arms with a coil of rope that felt heavier each time she tried to pull herself free from it. Elen’s arms pulled between her legs and forced her to haunch uncomfortably as she floated up the wide steps between guards. “Would you untie me, please?! This is so unbearable!”, pleaded Elen feeling miserable.
“You would only try to bite someone and try to flee from us again. You are to meet the Círdan Oak, traitor”, the woman guard said coldly, “You bear our false king’s markings at your throat, as I told you! We will suffer no traitors or knee benders in our pastures, our forests, or our seas! You are likely both!”, she said to Elen and gave her a decidedly knowing look before saying reassuringly, “You will feel the Círdan Oaks purity clean you of your traitor sins and you will provide for your people instead of groveling on your knees before our oppressors! Rejoice, Nymph!”, she shouted furiously at Elen as the other Fal Bolg moved out of their way to allow their passing, but the mob of reveling Fal Bolg took heed of the woman’s words and of her saying Elen was a knee bender and a traitor. The mob began to spit on Elen as she was escorted up the stairs.
Elen was defenseless as the mob screamed out at her, “Traitor! Knee bender! Feed our Lord of Salt! Feed the Círdan Oak!”, the mob cried at her as they pulled her messy brown hair and pinched and spit more on her as she was brought up the grand and opulent rainbow steps to the silver dais floating out before the towering and glowing Círdan Oak.
Elen begged, “Please let me go! I’m no traitor! I have never even seen the war!”, she confessed and cried for mercy as the mob ignored her cries and carried her up the steps to see their Priestess who loomed above. Elen had never heard of or seen this being before and was terrified as she was being floated up along the steps towards their plateau and the waiting open arms of the towering and smoldering Priestess and her smoldering and melted mask of silver.
Elen shook in fear as they crested the last step to the altar. Elen had been raised among the Nymphs in Danu's court since childhood, and she barely knew the ways of the Fal Bolg. As she looked up at the towering figure of smoking ribbons and glowing metal, holding its burning stone that floated in midair before her, Elen pleaded to be released and allowed to go back home. “I don’t belong here! Throw me back into the sea! Let me return home!”, she begged.
“Soon, soon!”, laughed the woman guard with her shining dirks circling her head as if joining in her humor at Elen’s words, “You must tell us your story first!”, she said with her smug smile beaming at Elen and her misery.
Elen sobbed and felt her back stretching painfully from the weight of the rope. She had pulled too much in fear of the mob, and now the rope was a terrible torment pulling her body down with it’s weight while she was forced to float up the steps to the dark Priestess who waited for her. “Please let me go home!”, she sobbed in her misery. She longed for Brasil, her fellow Nymphs, and even the familiar fear of Danu; anything would be better than facing this unknown entity with burning tears streaming from its smoldering eye sockets that Elen caught a glimpse of as the towering shadow of the Priestess engulfed Elen at the Priestess’s aproach.
The priestess took hold of Elen’s long brown hair and tugged her face up by a chunk of it and shouted at her. “Confess!”, she hissed and rasped as if each of her breaths was a great labor to her. “Confess and be purified in salt!”, the dark priestess moaned out into Elen’s terrified face.
“I have nothing to confess! Let me go!”, Elen said shaking her head and again fighting the ropes tied to her wrists. “I didn’t agree to any of this!”, she charged the Priestess who hovered over her and gripped her hair painfully. “I am no traitor!”, Elen claimed once again to the horror that held her tight in her shining and gnarled hands like knives.
The priestess released Elen’s hair and gestured to her guards, and the woman guard released Elen to the ground suddenly making Elen fall on her chest and knees against the iridescent platform that shimmered in the air. Elen’s arms were freed from their tight restraints upon her falling, they had crumbled away like dry vines once she hit the floor.
The priestess spoke softly to Elen as she then pet Elen’s head softly with her claw, "You are not a traitor.”, but then she turned and addressed the mob piously, “Before the Círdan Oak, there are no traitors - only those seeking salvation." She lifted her arms towards the crowd of Fal Bolg who erupted into cheers at her words. “Be purified in salt, my dear!”, exclaimed the priestess as she grabbed Elen and half-dragged her to the edge of the altar where others had fallen to their fate in the sea below. Elen could still hear their screams echoing in her mind, and she felt her legs trembling at the thought of soon joining them. As she stood on the glassy floor of the dais, her legs gave way and she collapsed to her fear.
“Confess!”, hissed the hulking shadow made of billowing ribbons through its massive and melted silver mask. The Priestess reached out her glassy and decrepit hand with her nails like long thin crystal knives and presented Elen a roll of the white ribbon tied with its silver string. With the other hand she stroked Elen’s cheek gently with her nail and drew a drop of blood from Elen’s cheek letting it drop on the white ribbon. “Say your words!”, The Priestess commanded Elen with her voice rasping heavily, “Profess your guilt, your sadness, your last testament before our mighty Lord of Salt! Profess and know peace, my child.”, claimed the towering Priestess over Elen who shook and cried holding her bleeding cheek which was beginning to sting under her hand.
“I told you I have nothing to confess! I am just a servant! I just cook, clean, and try to stay alive like any other Fal Bolg or Nymph! You’re evil doing this!”, she said gesturing out to the mob as she accused the Priestess, “You should confess and be purified or whatever lunacy you’re telling these people!”, Elen screamed at the Priestess who made herself tower over Elen and the other Fal Bolg as the winds whipped her ribbons around her shadowy body like banners ready for war.
“How dare you speak ill of our Theia and her sacred Rites?! They have been passed down by our ancestors since the beginning of time!”, roared the Priestess at Elen, who cowered in fear. Ole Gran grabbed Elen's hair and dragged her on her knees towards the altar, shoving her head over the edge. Elen was forced to look down and see the powerful current of water churning beneath her, moving with the rotation of the massive flaming ring in the sky. “You are a traitor, corrupted by your master's lies! You must be cleansed and return to our Mother Theia to learn her truth, pitiful creature!”, exclaimed the Priestess with furious devotion. “Círdan Oak, Lord of Salt, purify this infidel of her ignorant sin!”, yelled the Priestess of shadows out into the clouds as the crowd shouted out behind her in celebration of her words.
The priestess took the ribbon with Elen’s blood and unfurled it before the ravenous Fal Bolg who called out for Elen to be purified. The ribbon floated out between Elen and the towering Priestess who waited with outstretched arms for the ribbon to change its shade. The ribbon floated and revealed itself as a shining silver ribbon hovering between the beastly Priestess and Elen.
Elen could feel herself trembling in fear as the Fal Bolg chanted and called out for her to be purified. She tried to struggle against the Priestess’s hold with her cold and glassy clear hands, but the old Priestess was too strong for her. The ribbon with Elen's blood floated between them, glowing with a silver light that seemed to pulse with power.
"Who are you?", the Priestess rasped desperately, her grip tightening around Elen's body. "Who are you?!" She shouted louder, her voice filled with more desperation and anger at her asking again.
An ancient looking Fal Bog like a withered Fox who had appeared once to have broken his back called out, “I know that shade! She’s a An Chéad Bláthanna! She is a Silver Flower of Theia!”, cried the Fox with excitement behind his pained eyes. “She is our Queen!”, he announced to the Priestess, “Do not give her to our Lord of Salt, Scéalaí! I beg you! She is our gift from Theia! Círdan has given us a true An Chéad Bláthanna! Our deliverer has come!”, he pleaded as he nearly fell over at his excitement looking at the silver ribbon joining to the Priestess’s robes.
“Deliverer!”, the Fox cried from the crowd, “Give her Theia’s water! Let her grow!”, he begged the Priestess who glared at the broken Fox on the ground pleading with her.
The mob around the Fox listened, and they too had seen the silver ribbon. Very few Fal Bolg had lived so long as to have seen a true An Chéad Bláthanna, but all knew in silver light you’ll find Theia’s might. Elen’s ribbon still shone silver against the shadows of the other ribbons on the Scéalaí Priestess’s flowing robes.
They began to chant with the Fox, “Deliverer! An Chéad Bláthanna, Deliverer! Give her Theia’s water!”, the same Fal Bolg who had spit on Elen now begged. “Make her grow!”, they cried out! “She will save us! Praise our Lord of Salt!”, they chanted at their Priestess who looked on in silence.
The steam on the Priestess exploded at the mob."There are no more An Chéad Bláthanna left! Theia’s line has been destroyed - our sacred land turned to ash, our powerful stronghold demolished by the Femorians and betrayed by the Tuatha. I even salted the ruins of Féarach Fás with the Círdan Oak's salt myself and my own tears! Their ruins are lost to us now!” The Priestess then turned on Elen shouting, “Who are you?!" The Priestess demanded Elen, her eyes blazing with fiery determination as she grabbed Elen and pulled her away from the edge of the altar.
She ordered her guards to take Elen away from the mob who cheered still for Elen, trying to touch her as if doing so would bless them somehow. “Get her away from here!”, the Priestess demanded her men, pointing at Elen with her claws like glass. The obedient guards quickly grabbed Elen and marched her back down the stairs, following the smoldering Priestess's directions. "I need to interrogate her further before she can be purified," said the Priestess as she snatched more ribbons from her followers' hands, making sure to take the Fox's ribbon first. She pulled on his tail and bent his crooked back harshly, forcing him to the edge of the altar and causing him to yelp in pain. Ignoring the distraught Fox, the Priestess commanded her guards loudly, "Take her below!" They immediately complied, dragging a confused and tearful Elen away back down the rainbow staircase.
*****
Lugus watched confused as the soldiers quickly took Elen away. He had not heard all that had transpired between Elen and the Priestess. The mob had grown too rowdy in their cheers of, “Deliverer! Praise Our Lord of Salt! Praise Theia!” The whole woods and beyond echoed with their determined cries.
Lugus watched the Fal Bolg warriors carrying Elen away and he began to panic, “I have to help her somehow!”, he thought as he looked out over the Fal Bolg on the steps near him. No one had seen him through the cloud cover yet, the Priestess began to fume after her encounter with Elen. Something had changed within the dark and towering figure when Elen’s ribbon had changed to silver when it joined to the shadowy figure’s form and her other floating ribbons.
The dark Priestess seemed more agitated to Lugus as she snatched up ribbons into her gnarled fingers from her grovelling worshipers who awaited to confess to her before throwing themselves down into the churning sea below. “Elen upset her somehow. Why did they not throw her over the ledge like the rest? Why did that thing get so upset seeing Elen’s ribbon?”, Lugus wondered as he watched the soldiers drag the screaming Elen back down the steps. “I have to follow them somehow,”, he decided as he looked down into the churning waters below him.
He gulped as he thought, “I have to just fall into the clouds. I won’t be able to see anything, but I might get away if I can navigate through all those chiming mushrooms growing down there.”, he thought as he took a deep breath an rolled himself off the branch and fell into a passing cloud.
“What was that?!”, yelled out a short Fal Bolg from the steps. “I saw something fall!”, the Fal Bolg announced to a soldier near him, and pointed his stubby finger at Lugus who quietly fell into the churning clouds. “I think it was a big bird!”, he said to the soldier who waved him off and ignored him as the mob began to move up the steps to approach closer to the altar.
The soldier snatched the weaker Fal Bolg by the scruff of his neck in a rough manner and dragged him up the steps. He bellowed, "You're next for confession! Praise Theia!" while raising his hand in salute. The disoriented little Fal Bolg was pulled along with the guard as they ascended the stairs, but Lugus had already disappeared into the clouds.
When Lugus, had tossed himself into the cloud cover, Lugus used his tunic and his art to form himself into a tiny sparrow as he flitted around the chiming mushrooms hidden under the thick and briny clouds steaming up from off the exposed roots of the Círdan Oak. “It’s growing.”, Lugus thought to himself as he watched the white shining roots expanding out into the sea. “I have to get that fool and then get out of here! Dagda and the Wyrd need to know this is here!”, he thought as he desperately tried to avoid the glowing and chiming mushrooms that kept following his every movement like they were trying to trap him in their glow.
Lugus darted around their stems and easily avoided them trying to trap him as he descended away from their chiming bulbs, but he had lost a lot of height doing so, and the air vortex of the ring might have thrown Lugus too far up again now that he was small, and this time into the fire that illuminated from the turning ring around the Círdan Oak. “I will have to fly to the other side of the outer side ring and fly through the forest. I will have to double back to find that dumb deer!”, he complained to himself. “How does she go about getting herself in this much trouble when she was left by herself in the middle of the damned ocean!? How can one person cause so much mischief!?”, he wondered to himself as he flew up and grabbed on a rock ledge to rest his wings and gain an understanding of where he was in relation to Elen.
He saw the steps the guards had taken her down, and saw that there was a platform hovering like mist at the bottom of the steps moving with the outside ring. The Fal Bolg hopped from the outside ring to the misty platform. “I just need to wait until the ring turns the full way round and I can follow the Fal Bolg through the trees!”, he realized. He began to smile in his mind, “Oh this will be easy now! I just gotta wait.”, he thought calmly as he hopped up the rocks of the ledge and gripped them with his sparrow talons, working his way steadily up to the correct height to fly off the flying rock he clung to.
A loud, blood-curdling scream echoed through the air as another Fal Bolg jumped into the sea behind Lugus. The sound sent shivers down Lugus's spine, despite the warm breeze blowing off the burning ring. He couldn't comprehend why they continued to do it. Trying to distract himself from the screams, he focused on the misty platform that was approaching him, it slowed the air with its size allowing Lugus to fly. With a powerful flap of his wings, Lugus launched himself off the rock and allowed the warm currents to carry him towards the trees hanging over from the outside of the forested ring.
With a gasp of relief, Lugus managed to land on the branch rather than being swept away by the strong winds. As more Fal Bolg continued to fall into the ocean below, the ring encircling the Círdan Oak grew hotter and brighter, it even hummed faintly in its turning. The spinning ring created a powerful storm, causing the sea water to churn beneath it.
“I don’t know what their aim is, but I have to find a way to stop this!”, he decided as he shook his fear of being burned by the expanding band of fire swirling off the black ring. He readied himself and looked at the path the Fal Bolg took to reach the platform. Lugus could see their shadow lights flowing through the forest. “I just need to follow them from above in the trees. I’ll be unseen.”, he thought gleefully as he soared up into the canopy of glowing Alder trees.
Lugus flitted through the branches and watched as the Fal Bolg made their pilgrimage to the steps through the forest. He followed the path searching for any sign of Elen. He did not see her, but he did hear her screaming still for the guards who carried her to free her. She cried out, “You can’t do this! Didn’t you see my ribbon was different I’m a Bláthanna, or whatever that Fox called me! Let me go!”, cried Elen loudly enough for Lugus to hear her through the trees.
“I’m coming Elen!”, he thought then as he raced through the Alder branches to find her. Lugus beat his wings hard and came to face a pool of crystal clear water that bubbled up from the ground and decanted into a silver basin. Lugus landed on basin’s lip and looked around for Elen. He had heard her voice coming from somewhere nearby.
“Let me go you idiots! I want to go home!”, shouted Elen’s voice from out of the water of the basin.
Lugus was shocked at Elen’s screaming voice erupting up from the water of the basin. He leaned over and looked again into the bottom of the silver pool. In the reflections on the bottom of the basin Lugus could see a chamber and Elen was bound up in it against a wall of rock-salt.
Lugus watched Elen struggling against her restraints in the water, and in an act of bravery he took a deep breath and dove into the vision after her. He sank into the water which pulled him down into the reflection and spit him out into the water of a trickling spring that flowed somewhere deep in the earth through a darkened chamber lit by only one sconce with a pale flame.
Lugus tumbled out of the spring and into a series of interconnected pools that emerged from a single, large pool leading towards Elen, who was suspended against the salt rock. Disoriented and soaked in the chilly seawater, Lugus flapped around in confusion, trying to figure out his surroundings. Eventually, he hopped onto the salty dry edge of one of the pools and shook off the water from his tiny sparrow body as he surveyed his surroundings.
Elen glared at him from where she was bound to the wall, “Is that you, Lugus?! Did you come to rescue me?!”, she whispered somewhat loudly at him, “I take it back. You’re not a stupid bird! I’m so glad you’re here! Help me get free!”, she insisted. Elen looked over her shoulder to another spring ahead of her and said in a hushed voice at Lugus, “They just left, but they might come back. That big one with the scary mask said she had questions for me. We need to get out of here!”, she said looking at Lugus with her pretty doe’s eyes full of fear.
Lugus let himself revert his form to a Tuatha. He had not been in his Tuatha form in some time, and he found his back and arms were sore when he changed, “I’m too old for this nonsense.”, he thought clutching his aching back as he hobbled over to Elen and took a look at her restraints.
Lugus noted that Elen was bound to the wall by a thick layer of salt rock. Lugus tried pulling at it, but it wouldn’t budge. Elen rolled her eyes at him trying to pull it with his hands as she said, “Aren’t you Tuatha Dea sorcerers? Shouldn’t you just be able to vanish this rock away?”, Elen asked pointedly as Lugus scowled at her question.
Lugus shook his head angrily at Elen before stepping back to see if there was anything lying around to strike the rock with, but he saw there wasn’t. Besides Elen and himself the room was empty beyond its two large pools and a sconce burning for light. He thought about dousing the sconce and using it, but he thought better of it since he still needed light to figure out how to exit from the chamber through the pool. Water enchantments he knew usually only flowed one way unless you knew the key rune, and Lugus was unsure of the other pool and where it might lead.
Lugus reached out and tried to take hold of the salt rock with his mind and tried to force the rock apart with his will, but the salt in the rock felt confusing and dazzling when his mind touched the salt. The feeling left a static and pleasant ringing in his ears at touching the salt with his mind. Lugus almost collapsed at the sound he heard before he quit touching the salt with his thoughts. “What was that?! Where am I?!”, was all he could think of as his head spun to the remaining ringing sounding in his mind from grabbing the salt with his thoughts.
“Lugus!”, Elen cried out as Lugus clutched his head in pain unable to express what he was experiencing, “Are you okay, Lugus?! Look at me so I know you’re okay!”, Elen begged Lugus who floundered around the chamber stumbling over himself at colorful hallucinations that crept into his mind following the ringing in his ears.
Lugus was lost in a dream world, deaf to Elen's words. He soared through the clouds with Sruth on his brow and Danu clasped tightly in his talons, ready to release her onto the unforgiving ground below. The Wyrd bestowed upon him their blessings and the harp Uaithne from Dagda as they declared him king of the entire Sidhe court. In this blissful vision, all of Lugus' desires came true, and he was filled with confidence and determination, he proudly proclaimed to Elen, “I will be..”, but his voice stopped in his throat as his words seized up on Danu’s collar sending him into a fit of coughing.
“What are you even going on about?!”, Elen shouted at him, “You have to get me free, Lugus! Are you okay? You’re not acting right!”, she accused him in her worry. “They can come back anytime, Lugus! Please hear me!”, she begged Lugus as he fell to his knees and started shaking his head hard against his illusion. The fit of coughing had forced him from his dream and he began to hear Elen screaming at him, “Lugus! Get up! Hurry and get up! The water is starting to move faster! Someone is coming! Turn into a bird and hide!”, she commanded Lugus whose head wobbled.
He somehow heard Elen well enough through the ringing in his ears to understand she told him to hide somewhere. Lugus nodded and tried not to cough more as he tweeted out a small chirp when he turned into a sparrow once again and flitted into the inside a pocket of Elen’s linen tunic she wore. He nestled into the empty pocket and hid as he tried to recover from touching the rock salt with his mind.
Elen saw Lugus flit into her pocket and she grew worried for them both as the waters of the spring the Fal Bolg soldiers had taken to leave began to bubble and flow freely. The water poured out the forms of the same two soldiers from before who had harassed her and stolen her off her coral raft at sea.
“Stay away from me!”, Elen screamed at them both, “Free me now!”, she yelled at them both as they both only looked annoyed that Elen would be difficult for them again.
“Which is it? Do you want free, or us to go away? I have to get near you to let you go, you know?”, said the female guard sarcastically.
Elen's voice was laced with anger as she screamed at the guards. "How could you be so cruel to innocent Fal Bolg?" But they simply rolled their eyes in response, seemingly unfazed by Elen’s angry outburst. "How can you stand here, drenched in Theia's water, and throw our people into the sea?", Elen continued to fume at them. "What kind of twisted place is this? And who do you think you are, wearing those forbidden robes?", she demanded, her hatred for them evident in her burning gaze. "The Tuatha will come and destroy this whole wretched place! I have met them, and I know what they will do to both of you!", Elen warned the guards, determined to protect her kin.
“We don’t fear them!”, the male guard with his twin axes that glowed eerily laughed, “We are not afraid of the Tuatha and their Sidhe! Our Scéalaí Ole Gran has a plan for their whole court of fools!”, he laughed out at Elen in his boisterous laugh that made Elen fume, turning her cheeks a flaming red in her anger.
Elen's frustration boiled over as she glared at her captors. "I couldn't care less about you and this so-called Ole Gran! If she truly cared, she wouldn't toss innocent Fal Bolg into the ocean to drown," she spat out angrily, receiving only smug smiles in return.
The Fal Bolg woman shook her head disapprovingly at Elen and addressed the male guard with twin axes on his back, who moved through the room like a shadow leaving a trail of black fog. "Can you believe this apostate, Scáth?", she said, gesturing towards Elen. "She's been on her knees for too long!" The woman glared at Elen, her eyes filled with contempt. "Listen to her way of speaking! Where is the lilt on her tongue?! She knows nothing of our ways." The woman charged towards Elen and pointed her finger in Elen’s face hard as she shouted at her, “All I see when I look at you is a less shiny Tuatha. You’re only worth your salt!”, she hissed.
“Sandinni! Enough!”, Scáth commanded her as he grabbed her arms and pulled the furious woman warrior, Sandinni, away from Elen.
“No, Scáth! Ole Gran cannot accept someone into our fold who is a false Fal Bolg! She wears her master’s mark on her throat and in her heart! She is not true Fal Bolg!”, the warrior Sandinni claimed furiously.
“Shut-up and do as you’re told!”, he barked in Sandinni’s face. “Ole Gran wants her brought to the Coill na Scéalaí! Do you really want to face her and tell HER of all creations that you couldn’t stomach following HER orders?”, he warned Sandinni who looked at him crossly.
“You heard that foolish Fox’s words!” she snapped at Scáth. “He called her an An Chéad Bláthanna! I refuse to address someone who kneels to a Tuatha and wears their mark as a Queen of us! We could just offer her as a sacrifice to the Lord of Salt and be rid of her. We don’t even need this stranger,” she added, glancing at Elen with disdain. Elen might as well have been trash or an insect in this Sandinni’s eyes.
"We need to take her to Coill na Scéalaí," he stated calmly, yet his tone held a touch of resentment as he went on. "Ole Gran is the one giving the orders, and I've been serving her longer than anyone. I've learned to listen when she speaks. If you want to avoid being turned into a seed, that is." He gave Sandinni a pointed look, hoping Sandinni would understand his words and comply with their task.
Sandinni snarled at Elen as she stabbed through the salt rock with a single one of her long dirks, cracking it in the middle. The salt then fell off of Elen’s wrists and around her shoulders as Sandinni seized Elen’s hair and drug her by it over to the pool the guards had come from.
Elen yelled at Sandinni, "Stop pulling me! I can walk perfectly well on my own!" But Sandinni paid no attention to her, unfazed by Elen’s biting, punching, and futile attempts at kicking her armor.
“Let’s go then.”, Sandinni said to Scáth, holding Elen hostage by her hair. Sandinni looked bored and rolled her eyes at Elen scratching and kicking. Sandinni was bigger and fully armed for battle. Elen could not harm her as Sandinni sighed at Scáth, “I got her. Let’s take her and go to Coill na Scéalaí, but know I think we should just chuck her in the sea with the rest!”
Scáth rolled his eyes both Sandinni’s smug words and Elen’s useless fighting, “It’s noted. Let’s go then!”, Scáth growled as he made his way to the spring to join Elen and Sandinni. “This should be something, but probably nothing good.”, he chuckled, “But what is these days?!”, he remarked with a deep but mild laugh, “Let’s go see what Ole Gran is gonna cook up with this one!”
Scáth looked down at Elen, locking his gaze with hers as he spoke in a low voice. "Don't mistake our lack of casting you out to sea for mercy," he stated, a grim smile on his face. "You should show us a bit more kindness and fight less. Because believe me, Sandanni and I are really your best option compared to what Ole Gran will likely cook up for you." He let out a chuckle, a glint in his eye. "Be nice, and I can be nice too. Do you understand?" He knelt before her, waiting for her response.
Elen's gaze hardened as she glared at Sandinni, feeling pure hatred towards her. She yearned to continue attacking her, biting and scratching, but she forced herself to listen to Scáth's words. "Fine," Elen said coldly as she ceased her struggle. "I'm fine now," she added with a nod, raising her hands in surrender.
“Look how fast she gives up! A knee bender in her heart, through and through.”, Sandinni said snidely at Elen who was so furious she began to weep.
“Shut-up, Sandinni!”, groaned out Scáth rising up from his knee. “Release her hair, and let’s get this nonsense over with! Let’s go!”, he announced as he marched his way to the middle of the spring and fell through it and into its hidden depths.
Sandinni let out a disgusted sigh and rolled her eyes at Elen before releasing her hair. Instead, she grabbed onto Elen's shoulder and forcefully pulled her down through the watery portal, Lugus still secretly in tow….
The unlikely group emerged from the pool of water and stepped into the covered garden of Coill na Scéalaí. The ground was covered in a layer of salt, sparkling like glass, with a carpet of silver grass growing on top that swayed gently in the salty breeze. The garden sat atop an atoll that rose above the churning waters below, with crystal-clear Alder trees adding to its unique beauty.
A thin layer of sparkling crystal light hung suspended in the air, shimmering with every quick glance. It was nourished and formed by the blinding rays emanating from the roots of the Círdan Oak, which enveloped all of Coill na Scéalaí in a dazzling salt crystal.
Elen had never seen such beauty before. Her mouth hung open in marvel at its elegance and at the flow of power radiating even in the air. The smell of the salt made her feel dreamy and relaxed as she was led forward by her shoulder and Sandinni.
“How is this all possible?”, she asked feeling relaxed by the salts and forgetting for a moment who Sandinni really was to her. “How did you make this?”
Sandinni's eyes were filled with annoyance and anger as she glared at Elen. "You witnessed how it was created," she spat, clearly irritated by Elen's presence. "Try not to contaminate the air with your unworthiness."
Sandinni turned from Elen and bowed low to the silver sphere adorned with intricate runes in strange patterns hovering above the crystal forest below. Elen had never seen anything like it before; the sphere hummed and glowed, suspended high above them in the center of Coill na Scéalaí. From its depths, a thin stream of salt flowed into an ornate fountain below, eventually building as it fell from the decanters of the fountain and became a waterfall of salt that flowed through the crystal forest into the sea below.
Sandinni forced Elen’s head down into a bow before the sphere as she said to her, “Honor their sacrifice. No matter what you think about it now that it has happened.”, she said piously looking up at the humming silver sphere hovering before them both pouring out salt. She said with a reverence, “Those Fal Bolg who cheered for you are seeds now, so honor that they lived and seeded here! Respect that if you won’t respect Theia’s gifts to us!”, she said in a hushed sneer.
Elen didn’t really know what to think as her head was meanly shoved down, but she didn’t feel like saying much of anything as the salt made her feel dizzier the more she breathed in of it. She certainly didn’t appreciate being mishandled and preached at while she was feeling so confused and sad.
She couldn't help but think about the Fal Bolg, with their aged and fragile bodies. She thought of all her kin who were denied a portion of Inis Fáil's light from Dagda and his Tuatha, unlike her for serving Danu. She remembered how they plunged to their deaths into the fiery waters below the ring, their screams echoing in her ears. She covered her ears as she still heard them crying out in the hum of the silver sphere, their sacrifice played in its hollow song.
Elen wept then for the Fal Bolg who had fallen. For the ones she knew would fall still, and she wept at how helpless she was to end any of it. As the sphere of silver and salt hung before her and hummed she bowed her head then, lower than Sandinni pushed it. “I am sorry.”, she said, meaning it. “I don’t have the words..”, said Elen weeping under Sandinni’s hand.
“Then say nothing and kneel.”, said Sandinni, as she rose from her own bowing and stated coldly, “But do what you’re good at later. Ole Gran waits for you.”, she said snatching Elen and dragging her after Scáth who waited beyond leaning on a crystal tree waiting for Ole Gran to arrive.
“She will be a while yet. Dawn is coming, but not for a bit.”, he said looking at Elen. “Have a seat in the grass or against a tree and wait. She will be along, and don’t try to rush her at all!”, he warned Elen with his eyes expanding with his warning. “You’ll be wishing for the sea if you vex her, and she’s already got your ribbon.”, he said giving her his squarely grim smile.
Sandanni looked hard Elen’s weeping and then at Scath, “I still say we throw her down into the sea with the rest before Ole Gran comes.”
Scath rolled his dark eyes, their depths like pools of shadow, at Sandanni. “We're only doing this because Ole Gran asked us to, and because we both want to continue breathing and not end up as seeds, right?” he said defensively, raising his hand in the air. “Just trust me and go with it, Sandanni!” His tone was frustrated and pained.
Sandanni’s eyes, slit like a serpent’s hissed, “This is a fools errand! Just like us waiting here! We should strike when our prey does not suspect!”
Scath sighed a dark breath, “Yes, this is foolish!”, he sighed but he looked hard at Sandinni with his benighted eyes, “It is foolish how we managed to fish the only An Chéad Bláthanna from the sea from atop a piece of damn coral. It’s foolish that Fox said anything about her ribbon.”, he looked at Elen, “It’s foolish this one is still with us, here in Coill na Scéalaí of all places.”, he laughed dryly, “But what are the odds, Sandinni?! Maybe it is a blessing from the Lord of Salt as the fool fox said?!”, Scath shook his head in disbelief, “What were the odds Ole Gran would rise from the sea and so would Dubh íonachta!? Explain it if it isn’t Theia trying to rise once more!?”, he charged Sandinni who doubted Elen, with her piercing green eyes glowing in her distrust.
“I believe in Ole Gran!”, stated Sandinni bluntly, “I believe SHE can make Theia rise, but this..”, she looked at Elen like she was garbage once more, “That thing is barely worth the salt in her.”
Scath sighed once more, “Very well, Sandinni. It’s NOTED!”, he half shouted, “Drop it, and slither off somewhere that isn’t where I have to listen to you moan about not wanting to DO WHAT YOU ARE TOLD!”, he shouted out suddenly. Scath shook off his sudden anger, “I have the girl. You just stop talking and stand over there.”, he pointed to a crystal tree further on, “Go wait for Ole Gran in the shade, eh? Cool off some.”, he said flatly as he rested his back against a crystal tree. He sighed at Elen, “You relax, too. You won’t get much relaxing when Ole Gran gets here from snatching up ribbons, best enjoy the peace now.”, he mused as he leaned back against the glistening crystal Alder tree growing in the salty and silver glen.
Elen's breath caught in her throat as Sandinni's intense green eyes locked onto hers. She couldn't help but tremble under the formidable presence of the Fal Bolg warrior, donned in shining silver scales. Without saying a word, Sandinni marched to where Scath had pointed, her unflinching gaze fixed on Elen as though she could strike at any moment with her gleaming dirks aimed menacingly at Elen who cowered in the grass near Scath and far from Sandinni and her horrible glare.
Elen tried to relax in the grass. She could feel Lugus hiding in her pocket still, but she didn’t dare whisper a thing to him, and Lugus couldn’t speak anyway. Elen sighed to herself as she waited with the disoriented Lugus in her pocket, “I just would rather be home with Danu yelling at me and the other nymphs to be amusing for her. I miss home.”, she thought as more tears came to her eyes as she was held prisoner with Lugus in the garden of Coill na Scéalaí.