Chapter 100

The destruction and surrender of Oonagh’s main army as well as the capture and then execution of her leading general sent shockwaves through Tír na nÓg. Areas that were thought to be firmly under Oonagh’s control, suddenly weren’t and the liberated areas swung firmly under the control of the reformed Seelie court.

Despite Mage Sofya’s attempts to censure Morgana for the losses in the siege, the majority of the Council simply didn’t believe that Morgana was culpable and the crystal memory videos whilst upsetting a good few of the more weak-stomached Mages gave the lie to the accusations that Morgana had been reckless with our lives. Indeed there were a good few Mages who were more than a little put out by Sofya’s ‘cowardice’ when she had been caught up in the siege. This was ameliorated somewhat by the actions of two of her aides who had joined the defence. Sofya also tried to censure and charge Mage Clara for murder as the chosen instrument of Diamantu’s execution by the Seelie court. In this the Council was having none of it. Many had had seen just what the spirit of Diamantu had done to Clara’s personality and memories. The only one who ended up facing censure over this was Sofya herself, much to her anger and annoyance when she realised just how little support she had over it.

Diamantu’s execution finally rid Clara of the demons haunting her life and she requested a transfer to the Enforcement Office which was granted and hence a permanent place on my team for military service.

Journeywoman Mage Kate was confirmed as Roxanne’s journeywoman and was immediately placed under Mage Benjamin’s instructions. She was withdrawn from my squad for a period of rest and recuperation. He also got Mage Alice and Mage Henry placed under his temporary care along with several others who were not dealing terribly well with the loss of so many of their friends and colleagues.

The army of the forts was also temporarily stood down during this time as Verenestra consolidated Queen Titania’s hold on the liberated lands and increased her army several-fold to deal with any incursions by taking volunteers from the ranks of the Sidhe who had laid down their arms to pledge allegiance to Verenestra from Oonagh.

This standing down gave us the time to bury our dead, mourn and grieve as well as celebrate their lives, Æsir fashion. Morgana herself was told by Benjamin to go home and spend some time with Jude as she often enough went into a spiral of despair once the action was over and she considered the losses. She was about to refuse when Jude with his usual impeccable timing stepped out of a portal and simply took her by the hand and led her back through, tears streaming down her cheeks, yet also signs of relief in her demeanour.

Arch and Jemima, took a leave of absence and visited Loegria, taking the Loegrians, though not Dorry, with them. The reason Dorry was staying was to visit her friend Ketty on our Earth and celebrate the birth of her child, well, once the child decided to arrive that is.

Mage Xi also returned to Loegria, though elicited a promise from me to return at some stage and go over the emergence of Jukar in finer detail. Whilst I was not particularly happy to have my memories trampled over again, I didn’t have the heart to turn her down as she’d overcome her fears to be a staunch comrade-in-arms.

Vaniralla Freya was forcibly removed from Tír na nÓg by Rowenna when I let slip the fact that she was pregnant. I’m told Ferrimoot believes he owes me a big favour. I’m hoping it will be big enough to keep Freya from killing me next time we visit as she apparently was seriously ‘put out’ by the removal.

Tu’tar had returned to Mazdan to visit his family along with those members of his clan who had come to fight for Verenestra. He promised to return soon, or even sooner if he was needed.

Róisín, Abi and I returned home to be joined by Brianna and to greet Imelda who was now a permanent resident there. Róisín in particular needed time to mourn as Emily had been a very close friend of hers, and their forays into the London nightlife were legendary in the Department for Investigative Studies. Abi had been somewhat shielded from the losses as she’d been working with the Seer group (as opposed to Adsila who had been our point of contact with the group) but still felt deeply the loss of so many Mages, though without the sheer combat fatigue Róisín and I felt.

Brianna had been working on Loegria, co-ordinating the MAGES group in their efforts to clear out a rats’ nest of spies and potential traitors within the government of Keltogalla for its Archon. It had taken quite a while as they’d often had to wait until a traitor acted or at least received instructions to act before they could step in. In the end though they’d succeeded and Keltogalla now had good governance from its offices of state which eased the pressure upon its Archon to go back to the previous system.

Hence Brianna also needed a break and we often just sat out in the shade enjoying the summer sunshine and putting our woes to rest. Or rather the ladies did. I had unfortunately the issue of Jukar trying to take up every spare second of my life when she wasn’t under training or I wasn’t in the bedroom, which was an area that Róisín had promised death upon anyone not a partner entering. However hiding in the bedroom was a little beneath my dignity (most of the time), so, whilst the ladies relaxed and chattered, I ended up getting the interrogation from hell routine.

“So how did Diamantu die?” Jukar asked me after she’d finished going over the basic safety techniques with Imelda. (Imelda had finally got her to the stage of not setting fire to herself, which meant she’d reached the stage of setting fire to everyone and anything else.)

“Clara beheaded him,” I replied with a sigh.

“Sword or axe?”

“Force blade.”

“What’s a force blade?”

“You use your powers to create a blade of pure force.”

“Why don’t you use them all the time?”

“Last thing you need is a break of concentration in a fight and suddenly you don’t have a weapon,” I chuckled. “Though we do use it to reinforce an existing weapon to punch or cut through armour.”

“How do you do it?”

“Ask Imelda.”

“I’m not telling you how until you get past setting fire to, or melting anything I ask you to practice on,” Imelda chuckled.

“But it sounds cool!”

“Prefer cold steel. Much more reliable, particularly if used with a force blade,” I replied.

“Roxanne says she’s going to train Kate up to the stage where she can kick your butt for her,” interjected Abi.

“Don’t know why, she gets a lot of pleasure doing it herself. I’ve never once even come close to landing a practice blade on her,” I replied with a smile.

“Will you teach me to fight?” Jukar asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“You’re an apprentice, it’s up to Imelda to do that,” I replied.

“I choose you to begin her initial training,” Imelda yawned, trying to hide a grin.

“What!”

“Goody!” Jukar almost screamed.

“Have I upset you or something?” I asked a now openly grinning Imelda.

“John, you’re constitutionally not suited to sitting around doing nothing for a long period of time, unlike us ladies ... save for Jukar,” Imelda replied. “Now I’m giving you the opportunity to hit Jukar with a stick and you object?”

“Well, when you put it like that,” I chuckled.

“No hand to hand though, she’d like that too much,” giggled Róisín.

“And I do mean teach her, no taking out your frustration out on her,” Imelda added.

“He can take out his frustrations on me anytime,” Jukar added with a smouldering look.

“Down girl, you aren’t a partner and you aren’t ready to go there yet,” Róisín chuckled.

“Yet?” she queried.

“We’ll see. John’s being a bit stubborn, but he’ll come round eventually,” Róisín replied, getting nods from Abi, Brianna and Imelda.

“No I won’t!” I retorted simply making them laugh out loud.

“Yes you will, now go teach her how to at least wield a sword, but ensure you do it in the Null circle or she’ll get excited and set fire to the villa ... again,” Imelda ordered.

“Yes dear,” I sighed, realising I was in a battle I wasn’t going to win ... at least not with words.

The Null circle was something I’d set up when we’d originally moved into the villa and it was specifically to help us train with various hand to hand and bladed weapons. Roxanne had helped design it and although it looked simply like a shaded courtyard, any Mage entering it would know exactly what it was by the loss of their powers. It was surrounded by padded marble benches which, if you lifted the padding, contained various practice blades of various types, all wooden with balanced lead centres to give the weight and feel of a real blade.

“Have you any experience with a weapon?” I asked Jukar after taking her through some stretching exercises.