Chapter 3: The Well of Youth
"Feel deep into the Earth," Beira instructed mechanically and yawned. "Draw on its strength. It is the most powerful element. If you can wield it, you can be mighty."
Avice placed her hands upon the hardened soil and whined, trying to make it work.
The sound irritated Beira while she paced in front of the child, getting more impatient with every step. The girl was already seven years old and barely showed any signs of magic. She was truly the most untalented child she had ever had.
Avice whined again and Beira felt something inside her snap.
"Stop making these noises," she hissed and the girl started sobbing.
Beira took the girl's fragile shoulders and shook her.
"Whining! Always whining!"
Avice cried even harder.
"I'm sorry, mother. I'm trying. I'm really trying."
Beira had enough of this and left the room. This child was unteachable. She was wasting her time.
Avice ran into the tunnel after her.
"But mother, don't leave me."
Beira's nerves cracked. She turned around and threw a blast of freezing wind at the girl who buckled to the ground and shivered. This ought to teach her to make demands.
Beira pulled out her hammer out of her belt and tapped a wall to reveal a hidden passage.
She went outside and summoned a cold breeze to calm her frayed nerves. Avice was a complete failure. The hags noticed how displeased Beira was and already offered to take the child off her hands. If the worthless girl angered her even more, she might let them. She couldn't wait to get rid of this brat. Lesson learned - do not mate with the Forest Fae, it resulted in the worst offspring.
Beira called over her herd. The deer walked up to her and bowed in respect. They hadn't forgotten that she was their creator and protector.
"One day, I'll be able to enchant you again," she said to them softly while touching each of their heads in greeting, "and no hunter shall ever touch you. That day is coming. I'm almost there."
It had been several painfully long centuries since Beira was stripped of her divinity. While she didn't even notice it when she was a goddess, the passage of time was brutal now that she was mortal.
But she had found a way to persist. Despite Dagda's wishes for her to die a mortal death, Beira discovered two sources of eternal life.
The first was the Well of Youth, the water of which extended her life by a year - a secret she guarded against everyone, even her faithful hags. Then, there were children. Ever since she discovered that she could reclaim magic her half-mortal children were born with, she made it her mission to produce as many of them as it took for her to be powerful enough to call herself a deity again.
It was a learning process to figure out how the crystal worked but she had finally cracked the mystery of its properties. To steal magic from other beings, one would have to be as powerful deity as Dagda, a status she might never again achieve. But it required no effort to take it from her own children, as their magic was rightfully hers.
The more powerful the child, the more power she gained from it. She was surprised to find that the new magic she gained did not resemble her child's ability or even her former divine abilities. It seemed that fate had chosen to turn her into a new being - one with powers of a winter spirit. She had always favored this season and so she did not mind it. She fully embraced her fate and made it her mission to become the mightiest Spirit of Winter to ever walk this earth.
As she walked the snow-covered land, she looked at her withered hands. Taking power from her children had another advantage - it extended her life even further than the Well of Youth did. The older the child, the longer the effect lasted. And so Avice, who Beira was now convinced was a lost cause and would have to be stripped of her magic, would provide her with several winters of not having to travel to the Well.
Her name was known again - she was Dark Beira, the Queen of Winter. Humans got the lore wrong, turning her story into a silly myth explaining away the seasons.
Come every winter, Beira traps Bryde and keeps her prisoner until the First Day of Spring, when Angus, the Summer King, frees her and awakens Spring.
What a load of goat manure. First of all, how stupid would she have to be to trap that wench and get betrayed by Angus the same exact way for hundreds of years? Second of all, humans were stupid for feeling the need to concoct a supernatural story to explain the most natural event in this world. Seasons change on their own. No godly interference is needed.
And of course, no one ever told the story of how Angus betrayed his own mother or where exactly Bryde came from. One day she was no one, the next, she was a deity. And nearly no one remembered just how much Beira had done for this world - all the lands she shaped, creatures she created, gods and goddesses she birthed or her essential duties at the Reincarnation Wheel. Other deities stopped communicating with her and she was left alone in the mortal world, cut off from divine matters as if she was never a part of it.
And so Beira was glad that her name was known once again, and to ensure humans did not forget her again, she brought them harsh winters and unforgiving storms. While that puny race continued to reinvent itself, there was a characteristic they would never lose - they didn't forget what they feared.
There was a catch in this new fate she was given. She could only use her powers during winter months and became a helpless mortal the rest of the year. She hoped that if she gathered enough of her children's powers, she would shed this limitation and maintain her magic for the rest of the year. If only she were powerful enough.
Beira reached a pond and froze the surface of it until it became as smooth as glass. She looked at her reflection and touched her face. She was a crone again, wrinkles covered her face, her skin had a bluish hue to it and her hair was white as snow. She fixed the veil over her head, tried to hide her aged face behind it and maintain a look of dignity. This appearance was only temporary. She would be young again soon and would resume searching for a mate. If only she knew what type of magical being was her best bet, she could stop this experimentation.
Come the First Day of Spring, Beira left her home within the mountain and set off on her journey. She had moved to permanently live within the tunnels of Ben Nevis, a mountain in Scotland when her castle started crumbling and her powers were too weak to fix it. Since then, she made the mountain her home and invited her faithful hags to share it. She liked the privacy it provided. Modern human civilization had a tendency to go where they shouldn't, and without having the magic to put protective wards in place, she was bound to be discovered. She hated depending on secrecy when she wanted nothing more than to be known, but it became her reality.
With time, her mountain had become popular among humans and she had to take care to seal passages to her private tunnels and caves they connected to, leaving only a few shallow ones to the puny race. Besides, once she discovered how excited they were about snow caves, she only had to create a few of those every winter and they explored the mountain less.
She arrived on the coast, boarded the little rowboat and took a look around to confirm that no hags trailed her. Seeing that no one followed, Beira rowed the boat out onto the open water and took out a small golden locket which contained a pebble. The pebble was enchanted to roll in the direction of Green Isle of the West and she used it to navigate the unforgiving sea, using the wind to help push the boat.
The floating mountain was a mystery very few knew about. Many fishermen had told tales of seeing it but never being able to reach it. That was because the island was imbued with powerful magic which allowed it to be found only by those given one of its enchanted pebbles.
Beira received the pebble as a payment from one wizard back when she was still a goddess. The wizard gave her the pebble as an offering in exchange for a favor - he wanted the power of the Water element imbued into a permanent object. Beira recognized the value of the pebble, something the wizard was ignorant of, and so she made a comparable gift. She always had a preference for winter and so she granted him a powerful eternal ice crystal to represent the water element. She did not care what he did with it. He wanted elemental power, he got it. All she cared about was that the offering was comparable in value. Little did she know how she was going to need this pebble just a couple of centuries later.
Beira navigated her boat through the twinkling mist which no wind could penetrate and finally saw the small island emerge from the fog.
She walked barefoot through the grass, for the Green Isle never saw a season other than summer, and walked over to the Well.
Wooden ladle awaited her by the stone basin into which the miraculous water continuously flowed. She scooped up the wondrous liquid and drank her fill. She didn't know if anyone else had been using the Well. Considering that this was the only day of the year when the water had this rejuvenating property and that she had not encountered a soul on this Isle in hundreds of winters she came here, she guessed that she was the only one who drank from it, the only mortal who knew of its existence.
Beira felt the magic of the water seep into her, waiting to be activated, and so she got back to her boat and made her way home.
She laid down in her bedchamber, closed her eyes and dreamt memories of divinity. This slumber always lasted an entire day and felt like the calmest rest one could take.
When she awoke the next day, she immediately ran to the tall mirror hung on her wardrobe and appreciated her looks. Even though she had seen the effects of the Well's water hundreds of times, she did not tire of being amazed by it. Yesterday, she was a wrinkly old crone, truly deserving the title of Cailleach - the old woman, but today, she was Beira again - a beautiful maiden with golden hair falling upon her shoulders in ringlets, blue eyes sparkling as the summer sky, lovely skin, and rosy cheeks. She was an embodiment of youth and beauty.
She changed from her white crone gown to the green maiden gown she usually wore in the spring and ran out to get started with a brand new chaplet of flowers. She wanted to get a head start looking for a new mate.
In the tunnel, a little girl bumped into her and looked up in awe.
"Mmmmother? You're so beautiful. How did you do that?"
"Magic, clumsy child, and watch where you're going."
She tried to leave but Avice pulled on her arm like an insufferable brat.
"But I'm hungry," she whined and Beira tried to remain calm.
"Ask the hags for something."
She started crying.
"They said they're hungry too. I don't like them. They're scary."
Beira was frustrated with how bold the hags had become. In the past, they would never dare to joke like this. She could feel that she was slowly losing their loyalty and soon they might even attempt to take the child without her consent. She needed to become more powerful as soon as possible.
"I have a new idea," Beira said. "We'll do something together."
Avice stopped crying and her green eyes became huge and round.
Beira went back to her chamber and found the crystal.
"Let's hold it together, child."
The girl looked at it with awe and Beira chanted.
"Avice, daughter of Beira, let your power seep into this vessel."
The crystal glowed and she could already feel magic in it. Avice might have been a terrible student of magic but she wasn't powerless.
"Beira, mother of Avice, this power is now yours. Let it claim you, seep into you. So you may become the most you can be."
She absorbed the power and exhaled in relief, feeling it mingle within her.
"What just happened?" Avice asked, looking at the crystal. "I feel weird."
"You just did your final magic and I will never ask you to do more."
Avice grinned, realizing that she would no longer disappoint her mother.
"I'll be the best daughter, mother. I swear."
"I'm sure you will. Now, let's take a walk outside."
"Outside?"
Beira nodded but grimaced in annoyance at the pointless question. Avice did not notice and asked another, "Together?"
Beira was fed up with questions so she took the girl's hand and led her out into the world. She waited only a moment to let the girl's eyes adjust to seeing the sun for the first time, and then, they walked.
They walked for several hours and to her credit, the girl did not complain of hunger or fatigue, enjoying her first stroll through the forest and fields, not letting go of her mother's hand.
They arrived at a nearby human establishment, where she saw human children run around in some pointless game.
"Go, play with them," Beira said and the girl giggled in glee.
She ran toward them and introduced herself. They thought she looked strange, wearing a handmade brown tunic, black old-fashioned cloak, and no shoes but they accepted her and she had the best time of her life.
Finally, children were called home by their mothers and Avice was left alone in the playground. She supposed she should go home as well so she turned to where she saw mother last.
Beira wasn't there.