A/N:
A bitty Celtic pronunciation guide for some of the words I've used.
Sidhe = she
Tír na nÓg = tear nah noge
Dian Cécht = dye-in ket
Fear Síorghlas = far sheer-ghlahss
Samhain = sah-win
Thank you so much for reading. I hope you are enjoying it! Always love a review. :-) Beta's the ever-lovinest Ashlanielle
10 How Now Spirit?
The strength of the Song increased tenfold upon entering the stairwell. Descending the steps cut into the stone is akin to walking into the middle of a rock concert for Dougie's poor echoing mind, unused as he is to the remembered cacophony of living amongst his own kind. He scrambles to raise nearly forgotten shields between his consciousness and the living Song below him, still unsure as to its source.
Several minutes later, as he continues descending the steps, he appears to get no closer to the brightness below. Stopping, he closes his eyes and feels along with his mind instead. Long disused skills are coming back slowly, and the inside of his brain feels a bit tender from the intensity of the Song; but as he slides his awareness forward, he realises he's in a circular room and he's been walking around it—a simple illusion.
It must be a safeguard, he thinks. A small trickle of fear shivers along his nerves as he remembers illusions once being used as weapons. He is still millions of years beyond those times, and with a shake of his head at his silliness, finds the next hallway and continues down a new staircase. He does this routine twice more before he finally reaches the bottom of the passageway and the source of the Song. Peering around the last corner, he sees a room—filled with people.
A long room, lit with the cool light of crystal torches. In the centre is an enormous table set for a feast, and sitting around it, are a company of people like and unlike his own Tanu. They are tall and slender in their true forms, similar to himself, but their features are almost catlike with tilted eyes and pointed ears. They almost seem to glow from within. They are stunningly bright and beautiful, clothed in flowing gowns of diaphanous fabrics in shades of either pastels or darker earth tones.
At the head of the table are the obvious Lord and Lady of the gathering, seated upon a dais slightly above the rest. They are two of the most beautiful beings Dougie as ever seen, and certainly of those assembled. The Lady is clothed in shades of pale pastels and gold, crowned with a wreath of leaves and stars upon her long flowing locks of red gold. Her Lord is dressed in robes of greens, browns, and silver, crowned with a stag's horns and stars that match her own in his black hair.
Dougie slowly enters the hall, feeling like he's wearing a burlap sack in his simple silver and blue robe as all assembled turn to him. There's nothing he can do for it, so straightening to his full height a moment, he bows low to the assemblage, arms crossed over his chest and head bowed as he bends deeply at the waist, awaiting acknowledgement to make his introduction. A hush fills the room as the Song in his mind sparkles and quiets in anticipation and surprise.
He is maintaining the position for what is just about too long, when he feels the brush of fingers on the crown of his head and the snapping into place of a new link to his presence among these people. The previously near deafening Song is suddenly bearable as it is now shared amongst them all and the pressure he'd been feeling building around him, is just as suddenly gone. Looking up before straightening, he sees that the Lady is standing before him with her Lord, and the rest of the assembled personage is on their feet turned in his direction. He can feel their excitement tinged with sadness through the newly imparted connection.
"I am Titania, Queen of the Sidhe," she intones. Raising her hands, she faces her people as she begins speaking. "As I foresaw at my ascension, when I first looked within the sacred Pools, Great Tana would return one of our Ancestors to us and this would herald the Age of Man—when we Sidhe must honour the treaty and fade from this realm, continuing our journey to Tír na nÓg. The way has been prepared. Here is Dugron yth Duat, last of us that was Tanu, first of us to reach these shores and this new home—Earth. Honour him!" she cries as she turns back him and kneels with her King at Dougie's feet.
"Honour Him!" the rest of the Sidhe echo as they too kneel to Dougie.
Feeling profoundly embarrassed and more than a little awed by her words, Dougie stands awkwardly looking around himself and at the bowed heads of the other Sidhe. She must have picked his name and origins directly from his mind, and he hadn't even noticed—that's just a little terrifying.
"My Queen, please, I was but a humble anthropologist. It was mere chance that I survived," he tries to explain humbly, but there are tears in his eyes as they return to their feet.
"Dugron, it is not only who you were, but who you are that we honour. Please join us. This is my King, Oberon, and this is the Moon Feast; your timing is perfect as it has just reached full. Do not worry about your friends. Time passes differently within the Hill than beyond it. We will return you only moments after you entered the Long Stair," she says, smiling. Turning, they lead the way back to the dais where a third place has been set between them.
As he follows them, they first circle the other Sidhe at the gathering so they may all greet him. The people he passes are all smiles and small touches. At each brush of a new person's fingers, a new strain is added to the symphony that the Song is writing in his mind as they continue in the sunrise spiral that will end at the dais.
Dougie is nearly overwhelmed by the reception. It is good that he has had a little practise with the TARDIS and the Time Lords in his mind, or he would probably be comatose. Thankful to not further embarrass himself by fainting, he sends another prayer silently winging outward.
Finally reaching the dais, he notices that he has received another gift and finds himself standing in a set of robes the shades of twilight, all blues and purples with hints of both gold and silver. Confused but grateful, he looks to Titania, the question in his eyes. She only smiles, obviously pleased with his reaction.
Seating themselves at the gorgeously set table, Oberon remains standing. Raising his hands, he begins to speak in a deep and resonating voice, "People of the Sidhe, Great Tana has blessed us this Moon Feast. It is the Way for us to share what has happened in the previous Moon pass, but this time, I ask that we have a Great Sharing as we do at Samhain. Dugron has been separate from us this great span of Years. He knows not what happened from when we were still Divided—Tanu and Firvulag. He does not know the Sidhe. Let us share with our brother our story, and beg of him to share the tale of our beginnings. We know only whispers of the Time before the Ship."
"Remember Brede Shipspouse!" the assembled Sidhe intone as one.
"Will it be a Great Sharing?" Oberon asks formally of the gathering.
"Aye!" is the immediate and excited response.
"Dugron, will you accept our Sharing and Share as well your memories of far Duat?" Oberon asks him directly, turning toward him.
"Aye!" Dougie responds enthusiastically; confused but happy to share what he has to offer and to receive such gifts. It is more than he could have ever hoped.
He has no idea what's about to happen, but he can feel the rise of energy in the room. The King and Queen stand to either side of him, arms raised. The rest of the Sidhe raise their left hands, palm up, but place their right hands on the temples of those beside them. In the air above the table between them, an image begins to shimmer into place.
Titania looks down at Dougie with a gentle smile. In his mind he hears her true voice, "Please remove your torc. You will not need it here."
Dougie hasn't had his torc off since he'd received his adult one on his name day. Even so, he tentatively reaches up; it clicks open at his touch and he sets it aside. Not having the familiar weight against his collar bones sends another frisson of fear down his spine, which is instantly wiped away as Titania and Oberon place their fingers gently against his temples. He almost cries out, but is unable to move at all as the history of his people on Earth unspools directly into his mind and into the airspace before the assembled Sidhe.
Falling into a limbo of timelessness, it is either seconds or an Eternity as they relive their history for Dougie and receive their origin story from him in return. Soon though, a screaming darkness claws its way upwards, engulfing him, and he falls.
Dougie slides forward through shifting and multicoloured layers of light reaching for the star that he's been chasing, but it resolutely remains just out of reach. Frustrated but determined, he makes a colossal effort to reach the star and suddenly captures it between his caging fingers. With a shout of victory that turns to a cry of pain, he abruptly feels like he's being squeezed through a very small hole and toward a very bright light. Fearing he's somehow died and is being reborn, Dougie struggles to awaken. Abruptly, he sits straight up, panting from his exertions. The light around him slams into his skull as a million daggers behind his eyes. Snapping his eyes shut again, he falls back with a groan onto his bed as he hears a female voice next to him.
"Dugron! Please rest! You are not quite well yet." He hears small steps pad quickly away "My Queen! He awakens," she calls from where the door must be.
"The light, it is so bright. My head…it pains me," he's able to grind out to no one in particular.
He feels the warmth in the room lessen a touch as many of the lights are extinguished. Breathing a sigh of relief, he feels cool fingers on his brow, and a cup held to his lips as he's helped to take a sip of some sort of nectar that immediately takes the pain away.
Cracking his eyes open a slit, he peers up into a pair of pale lavender eyes and it is Titania herself who sits by his side, administering to him.
"My Queen," he says weakly, trying to rise.
"Please, you silly man, stay down. We have much to apologise for. In our haste and joy, we nearly killed you. It was only the skill of our Dian Cécht that saved you. You are and are not at all like us. If we had been less hasty, we would have seen."
At the mention of Dionket, Dougie's eyes get wide, remembering the Master Healer that had left Duat with him.
"No, no, of course not," Titania answers his unspoken confusion. "It is a title now for our master healers."
"I see," he says sadly. It was silly to think he wasn't alone.
"You are not alone in as bleak a sense as you are feeling. We are cousins, but we are not brothers," she says, obviously able to hear his thoughts as easily as his words. "As you accidentally shared your entire story with us, including your recent history, you should know that your friend the Doctor is known to us, though not in his current regeneration, but in his past and our future. We call him Fear Síorghlas, the Evergreen Man. He has explained to you the essentials of what we became, but we no longer remembered what we had been. Thank you for that gift. We will Share it with the rest of the Sidhe when we finish moving to Tír na nÓg."
"My Queen, what is this Land of the Young? I have not heard of it," Dougie asks curiously, thankful for the relief from his aching head, as it is now swirling with questions from this new information.
"We have evolved, as you would call it, and we are well aware of all the dimensions we exist within. We enjoy an immortality that will soon no longer have a place here in this reality. Tír na nÓg is out of phase with this plane of human existence. We will all move there so as to no longer interact with the humans, they will only be antagonised if we remain. Long ago, we made a truce with them after many years of fighting. We would prefer to keep it, which is fitting since only we remember it," she explains with a small sad smile.
"Do you still have our Sharing? Do you remember what happened to our people here?" she asks, obviously worried that they may have damaged him.
Looking inward, he sees he does in fact have this new history, but it is raw and he isn't feeling up to exploring, just yet. Recognising the signs of Redaction in his mind, he senses that extensive work was done, and most of it has not settled yet.
"I believe so, my Queen. My head feels like has been cracked open and the contents stirred vigorously," he tells her with a smile, intending it to be joke. Instead, it is her turn to look embarrassed.
"We are truly very sorry for our actions. Great Tana must not be through with you yet, my cousin. You fought to live, and Dian Cécht was able to not only repair the damage our Sharing created, but also…enhance your mind. We cannot make you like us, that is beyond even our skills; but he was able to give a great gift, Dugron. I hope you see it as one, as it is only a gift if the one it is given to views it as such."
Arriving at her side, Oberon places a hand on Titania's shoulder and smiles a warm welcome down at Dougie. "Welcome back to us, Dugron. Dian Cécht was able to raise you to full operancy. You are no longer reliant on your torc. We felt it was the least we could do for you when you were determined to survive our rude lack of restraint towards your wellbeing," he tells Dougie, grinning.
Dougie is well enough to know when he's being teased, and he grins back at Oberon's joke.
"I…I do not know how to thank you. I have had it my entire life; as you know, natural operancy was not possible for us, the Divided. I know your gift to me will grow as my understanding of it does. The Doctor…" Dougie pauses, eyes widening as it occurs to him that he might have missed his ride.
"Be at peace, Dugron. Time flows as we wish it to in the Hill. We are not in sync with the outside world. It has been several days for you in here, but only minutes for your friends. In Tír na nÓg it is the opposite. We try not to bring mortals there often because of it," Oberon explains to him. "But enough of that. Rest. You missed the feast. We still need to feed you or you may speak poorly of our hospitality. Dian Cécht will also wish to see the fruit of his labours." Reaching out and touching Dougie's hand lightly, he takes his leave.
Laying a hand against his cheek a moment, Titania stands and follows Oberon so Dougie can get more rest.
He hasn't felt so cared for since he was a child. Thinking of his parents, Dougie falls asleep remembering his mother's palm against his cheek and the comforting buzz of belonging in the back of his mind.
A/N: I borrowed part of the idea for this adventure of Dougie's from the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures: Autumn Mist. It is an unfortunately written little book that is actually still a bit worth it. The story is interesting and many of the details fascinating, if poorly executed (IMHO). I hope you enjoy this take on the Sidhe. Thanks for reading!