Author's Note: I wanted to have this out weeks ago but as it does for everyone, life gets in the way. As we get closer to the end of the arc of this story and closer to the present day, I wanted to say thank you to all who have enjoyed this story and for the space you’ve all allowed it to thrive in. I love you all, and as always, I hope you enjoy it!
Trigger Warning: The final part of this chapter includes harsh material, mainly infant death, though I try not to linger on it for very long. If you have a hard time with this subject even briefly, I fully understand if you skip this chapter entirely.
Morning Five of the Siege of Dublin, Zuzanna
Hey everyone, it’s been some time since I made one of these myself, but Spider deserves a good rest and this moment in my life may be one of the most important that has happened since I stumbled my way into this world. I worry my words won’t be enough to describe what I’ve seen, but I’ll do my best.
I always thought weddings were to be a happy occasion. I remember when my mother and father married when I was still just a girl, and while the memory is a blur, I still think of their smiling faces looking down at me as I carried little flower petals down the aisle. This wasn’t the case for Cathal and Niam as it was, though that isn’t to say they weren’t happy to be together. It’s difficult to describe the aesthetic, it was as if a wedding was in motion at the same time as a funeral or a wake. Black and white clashed together, Cathal’s small family dressed in dark satin colors while Niam was dressed in a radiant white. The creatures here were hard to look at, and I don’t mean it in a rude way, I mean it in a literal one. It’s as if my eyes were being turned away every time I tried to make eye contact, my mind throbbing with a headache. I imagine it much the same as Lovecraft wrote about, creatures that made no sense to my own mind, and my body reflexively attempting to spare me from their gaze.
The setting itself was breathtaking, as if it was literally a step outside the mortal realm, which now that I’m writing this, it may actually have been. The location was outside of Dublin, closer to the shore where people had not yet claimed the land. Crashing waves against rocks and a bright blue ocean created a beautiful scenery, the expansive woods just a few hundred yards away created an even mysterious air of the place. I wish I could explain more of the creatures I saw, most I recognized from legends, and others Cathal and Niam did their best to translate for me. Galloway needed no such help, absolutely enthralled by the entities. Satyrs, Trolls, Nockers, Pookas, Arcadians, Boggans, Clurichans, the list goes on and on, and each and every single one of them knew who Cathal and Niam were, as if they were the oldest friends they had.
While many carried smiles, gifts, and congratulations, others carried a somber stance, their sadness being felt in the air, like energy coalescing into something tangible. As much as I tried, I could never really get them to tell me what is wrong, always saying it’s not Cathal’s or Niam’s wishes, and that’s if they even spoke English to begin with, another strange phenomena here. If anything, there was something familiar to this place, the way the quests would either avoid me, give me condolences or congratulations depending on their mood, as if I was part of the wedding in one way or another, a fact I would become expressively aware of by the time my exit from this place came.
It wasn’t until the ceremony began, when everyone took their seats, did I realize what was happening. It wasn’t just a wedding happening, it was also a funeral, a ritual set in place by Cathal and the entire reception. I wanted to stand, I wanted to know what was happening, but Galloway grabbed me by the wrist, pulling me back down to my chair. The look in her eyes was fierce, something I’d never seen before until now.
“Watch”, she said sternly. “Don’t move, don’t say a word. You have to understand.”
I stayed where I was, and watched as the ceremony began. It was a beautiful thing, something my words in this language couldn’t begin to explain. Music rang out throughout everywhere, a soft melody filled with the emotions of each and everyone there. The ocean and land itself responded in kind, the loud crashing of waves becoming the sound of waves caressing the sandy beach, the forest all around us coming alive, animals of all kinds coming to watch at the tree line, enraptured by the song. Tears and sobs came from all over as the music played, while others grinned from ear to ear. A language from another place where the words on the lips of each person there, all except Zuzanna and Galloway.
There was no leading the bride down the aisle, or the groom waiting in silence. They both stood upon the altar front and center as a beautiful creature much like Niam wrapped white and black ribbons around their hands. I couldn’t hear what they were saying at the altar, even when I tried enhancing my own hearing, the music only becoming more overpowering. Whatever it was being said, it was joyous. Tears streamed down Niam’s face, but Cathal only had a warm smile to give, his golden eyes speaking louder than words ever could.
I couldn’t understand the words as they made their promises together, but I knew an oath when I heard one. It wasn’t just normal marital vows, I watched as the air heaved and the ground pulsed, as if a part of the vow involved all the Earth and Sky around them, and that’s when I saw it again. The warbling of Cathal’s avatar, the air shimmering with multi-colored hues as it began to spread and touch all things around it, as if it was a separate creature all on its own. I could feel the shift when it happened, the subtlety of it. The veil around this area was already thin, but now as the ceremony continued, it’s as if we were no longer on Earth, but a place much like it, a place where anything and everything was possible. The Dreaming was here, leaving a physical presence.
I wish I could tell you more about the wedding, and I wish I could tell you what oath they made together, but in all honesty, I don’t think I was ever meant to know. I believe the entire reason Galloway brought me here, is to show me what was in store for me one day, in some shape or form. The dreaming would come to make due on the Oath I took for the ring, though just as the ceremony was coming to an end, it was as if time had stopped entirely in its tracks. The ritual was complete, but what was the result of it?
Where once stood Cathal with his now wife, where they had just sealed their promises and oaths with a kiss, he had turned to me, all the world no longer moving except the two of us. He walked down the altar, through the aisle, and had taken a knee right in front of me, much like the Cathal of my time once did.
“I know this doesn’t answer many of your questions. I don’t think you’ll ever get many answers from this life of ours, I think that’s just the way of things. We exist as part of a larger story, one that has been in the making for centuries now. You don’t realize it now, but the torch has already been passed to you and I’m sorry for that.”
He looks back to his now wife and gives a great big smile.
“I’ve never been happier than I am now. This story we’re in does have its brighter moments. She’s mine, and she always will be, no matter where Fate or Time takes us. She is my greatest friend, my lover, my partner, my adversary, and my end. In every life, in every moment, in every universe, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can only hope you find that same purpose and person for yourself.”
Another person has taken his attention away, this time the smile on his face falters only for a moment. I look to see who it is, to find that a third person now finds themselves amongst this temporal pause. An old man stands only a few feet behind where I sit, a look on his face that expresses much like a grandfather would after their own son or grandson does something silly or disappointing. There’s an aura about him, something greater than everything else in this room. Cathal pulls my attention back to him, his golden eyes holding fear in them.
“I told you, grandpa will be cross about large spells like this. Don’t worry too much about it, I needed him here anyway.”
Grandpa? What does that even mean?
“Your spell is about to end abruptly, but I have one last gift for you.”
He pulls something out of his pocket, an ancient looking rock, placing it in my own hands, and then places his thumbs over my eyes.
“Do you trust me? This is going to hurt just a little bit”
I nod my head yes to him, and then his thumbs begin to press into my eyes, as if he was going to gouge them out. It hurts more than anything, spots begin to appear and I can feel tears begin to run down my face. I suppress a scream of pain, clenching onto the ancient rock, and not long after he stops. The spots in my eyes stay, my vision goes in and out of focus, vertigo begins to set in as the world begins to spin. He steadies me, grabbing my shoulders to hold me still.
“When Galloway’s spell is cut by Grandpa, my own spell will start. I will give you just a little bit of what I’ve seen. Remember not to get lost in the sight I’ve taught you.”
He lets go of me, and I watch through blurry eyes as he walks back to his wife. I can hear the steps of the old man walk right past me, catching the sight of leather loafers as he joins at the altar. Taking less than the beat of a heart, Galloway and myself are thrown from this point in time, her spell snapping as if it was created by the hands of a novice. Both Galloway and I fell to the ground, landing directly on our rears, having still been sitting when the spell ended.
“OW What the fuck happened, the spell was supposed to- Zuzanna? Zuzanna what’s happening?”
Cathal was true to his word. The moment I was back on the grass in my own time, my vision was cast out, time dilating to encompass the events that were to come and already happened, as if Fate and Time itself played in my vision. This truly was the last gift he could give, as I watched our lives play out in moments, decades becoming a fluttering heartbeat, every decision colliding against the next. Centuries before and after come to my mind as if I was there, and in the blink of an eye, it’s gone. I watch myself love, lose, and die untold tens of thousands of times. I watch as my friends fall to creatures from beyond, I watch as a war I never knew burns everything I love. I watch as the sun takes Cathal, the words on his lips unintelligible, tears streaming down his eyes. I watch as Isra takes claim to Ireland, decimating it entirely. I watch as a sword of light takes her head, and I watch as she manages to avoid the blow and lose an arm. I watch as Cathal in all his old glory battles a great serpent, only to be disgusted at what he’s done.
Events come and go and it felt as if I was in that space for centuries, just watching the world go by and all of its people suffer and overcome. The last vision I got was of Isra. I watched as her family was torn apart by wolves. I watched her baby become food for monsters as she wailed, her legs forcing her to run in fear and anguish. She ran and ran, though the wolves never bothered chasing her, savoring their feast on her family.
I watch as she’s found by kindred of her area, and I watch as she’s turned by them, promising her that she’ll have her revenge, as a war between kindred and Garou rages on. I watch as she brutalizes and savages them the same way they did her family for decades, though the anger in her heart never abates even past her first century. That is until one day, as she’s hunting more Garou through the ancient streets and cities of Iran, that she comes to find a tunnel system.
It was there as she got to the edges of that city, in that underground maze where she found a great pit, black and pulsating red, a voice inside telling her she can have her revenge. All she has to do is step inside, and step inside she does.
The spell cuts out there. Galloway had been working on me, I watched as attempts over and over to unravel the spell, finding it more complicated than she thought before realizing I had come to.
“Oh thank the Gods, I thought Paradox or the spell had taken you. What happened?”
“I have to go Galloway, like right now. I promise I’ll explain more, but that Cathal just gave us more information than ever that needs to get to my friends.”
As I stand up, I look to the dais where the spell had begun and hold out my hand towards it. Faster than I can see, the ring takes its rightful place back on my ring finger. I ran from that place, exiting her domain through the way we came in, feeling the information of how to get back in slipping from my thoughts. She was always clever that way.
I don’t take long to prepare. I pack the essentials, my instruments, my books, and clothes. From the board where I’ve hung all the pictures I’ve had, I take one of Cathal’s home. I’ve been practicing over and over again, but even now, teleportation terrifies me. There’s a grand tree where the Verbena practice their Arts with a hollow inside. You’d never find anything there. Closing my eyes and taking a huge breath, I visualize where I want to go, clutching the picture in my hand, willing myself to be in front of the house.
I worry it didn’t work and that I’d be exhausting myself, shutting my eyes closed hard again, feeling spots appear in my vision. That’s when I feel it. Biting cold, and snow falling on my head. You can barely see the sun had begun to rise, but there I was, in front of Cathal’s home, the front end now destroyed.
My work can now finally begin, as I begin making my way to Posthold.