After putting the shopping away, Morgana lays back on her bed in her domain, and picks up the steamy romance she bought while she was out. As she finishes the 4th chapter and the story is about to get into the first steamy bit, Ephis flies down through the smoke hole.
"Morrigan, Morrigan, Marianne is in trouble!"
Quick as lightning, Morgana disappears and in her place The Morrigan lashes out with a lightning quick hand, "What was that?"
"Harry got a message for Marianne and then told me that she's in trouble. I came straight here using your name!"
"Why isn't Harry here?"
"Garlic breath came in and said there was a troll in the Dungeon, so all the students are being watched."
Morrigu growls, her eyes burning like coals, "Return to my son and ensure that he remains safe. I will find Marianne."
"Yes my Queen!"
When Morrigu disperses into a large murder of crows, Ephis, shaking like a leaf, disappears into the mist.
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First one crow, then another and another land on the gravestones, lamp posts, and fences surrounding an old stone church just outside Dunblane. A man who is walking backwards holding a sack of salt jumps as one of the crows caws. The trail of salt scatters with the action. Cursing under his breath, he scatters the jagged line with his foot and continues to pour the salt in a circle around the church. A moment later, he passes the vicar going the other way holding a bag of iron filings. Spotting an air hole near the roof, one of the crows flies over the circles and into the church. There it sees a woman kneeling in front of the altar, praying for help, forgiveness, and salvation. Whether for her or her daughter only the woman can know.
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Morrígu steps out of the mist into a dark basement lit only by the faint orange glow of a coal brazier filled with paraphanilia that should be in one of those creepy museums about medieval torture than in good working order in a church. She barely spares a glance at the smoldering remains of a journal, or the smashed and broken remains of her symbol, and a stone with a hole in it, that are next to it in the fire. Instead she hurries over to the small form of the girl that is sitting ramrod straight in a chair lined in spikes. When the sprite appears, she almost impales it, so great is her anger. Instead she stays her hand as it abases before her, "Great Queen, thank the gods you have arrived. I tried to stop them, but they just ignored my best attempts. Please help my friend."
Carefully, and gently, she starts to remove the bindings that are holding a child of her heart in place. Initially Marianne starts to struggle, but once Morrígu removes the blindfold, relief flushes through her eyes and she stills to allow her to work. In a few short minutes Marianne is free, and Morrígu opens a gate to her home and lays the child gently on her bed. With the child now safe, she opens another gate to the phone in her mortal house. Closing her eyes in concentration, she flexes her will like she did when she built this house. Across the country, in the bowls of the BT server rooms, digital records updated to record a 30 second phone call from Marianne's home to her own home minutes after the call to the vicarage; Scottish electric records a freak lightning strike at a substation near Dunblane, and a couple of appliances throughout the village fry due to a surge of electricity. In the county offices, paperwork to certify her as suitable for foster-care is backdated 6 months with successful background checks and only awaiting interviews, that are over due.
At the same time the light begins to flash on her answer phone. A smile crosses her face when she presses the play button and Marianne's voice whispers, "Morgana, I need help. My dad's gone mad and he thinks I'm a witch. I heard him on the phone, he's going to take me to his church. Please pick up, please pick…". Picking up the phone, she dials a number, "999, what is your emergency?"
"Hello, I need the police. I've just got home and Marianne, my sons friend, has left a message saying that her father thinks she's a witch. Yes, yes I have the address. Five minutes you say? Yes, I'll be there, please hurry she's been so unhappy since Harry had to go to boarding school."
Placing the phone down, she closes the gate before facing the chair again. With a wave of her hand, a fetch of Marianne forms out of twigs and leaves. Uncaring of the damage done to the fetch, she waves her hands again and the fetch takes the place of Marianne. Finally, she pulls the journal from the dresser and places it inside one of the schoolbooks strewn around Marianne's bag. With the fetch now mewling in pain on the chair, Morrígu explodes into crows once more before reforming outside the two circles around the church.
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Shaun startles as a naked woman painted in woad forms as the crows surrounding them fly together. Beside him, the vicar makes the sign of the cross.
"Be calm vicar, she can not cross the lines otherwise we would already be dead."
Morrígu snarls at him before speaking in ancient Irish Gaelic, "Thrice you have hurt those who are mine, so thrice I curse you. First I curse you with honesty, from now until you die your final death you will be unable to dissemble. You shall always answer every question placed to you as honestly and forthrightly as you are able.
"The second curse is the curse of conscience, until you truly understand, feel remorse for, and take action to not only repent but never be the person that caused this hurt you shall relive every abuse that you piled on your daughter, you will feel her fear, anger, and despair.
"The last is the curse of mortality, every night you will suffer ever pain, every indignity, and every death that you have ever caused in the basement of this church. Come morning you shall be as hale as you were when you lay down to sleep. This curse will be lifted the day that you receive forgiveness from each of your victims.
"Thrice cursed, thrice bound, and thrice shared. All mortals in this building have been marked."
Summoning a bronze spear, she throws it overhand into the church, where it appears to pierce the crucifix and split it in two. As suddenly as she appeared, she disappears into a murder of crows.
"Shaun, what was that?"
"That, my friend, was either my daughter's patron, or the patron of the Danann's."
"What are we going to do?"
Shaun turns and points at the spear that Kate is staring at, "I fear that was a warning. We cannot risk questioning my daughter until we are sure that the church is secure against her influence. Once we have the symbols and protections in place, we will question my daughter to find out everyone that she has conspired with. Then we do what we must, as we always have done. Kate, watch the witch while we prepare."
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Morrígu sits down next to Marianne, a small portal open to the church so that they can both see and hear what happens. As they watch, a light flicks on and Kate walks down a set of stairs at the end of the basement. Her face breaks as she looks over at the fetch, and tears stream visibly down her face. Turning around, she hurries back upstairs before returning a moment later with a bottle of water and a straw.
When she comes over to the chair, she picks up three thick leather pads and places one behind the fetch, and the other two under an arm each. With fearful glances to the stairs, she unhooks the blindfold and pushes the straw into the fetches mouth.
"Drink, it's safe I promise."
Marianne looks at the portal accusingly, "Why?"
With a click of her fingers, Morrígu makes the fetch repeat Marianne's actions to the best of it's ability.
Kate flinches, "Because I can't fight him, and I don't want to sit in this chair again."
Marianne looks at Morgana, "Morgana, I didn't know, can you remove the curses from her?"
Morrígu looks down at the child of her heart, "Nay child, but she will not suffer them long I think. In time she may find the curse of honesty to be a blessing."
When the fetch finishes drinking, Kate puts the lid on the bottle before putting it in Marianne's bag. She then starts to tidy up the books while she talks out aloud. While she's tidying up, she comes across the journal. Flicking through it, her eyes widen and she looks to the stairs, terror in her eyes. Seeing nothing, she pushes it up under the band of her bra before she continues tidying.
"I'm proud of you, standing up to your father like that. I remember when I tried the same before you were born, it was the last time I ever did. His father was still alive then, and he knocked me out. When I came to, I was sitting in that chair, and I broke. I still don't know how long I was down there, but at the end they decided I'd just lost my temper and I wasn't a witch…"
Silently, Morrígu stands up and returns to her mortal home when a police car comes within range of her protections. With a great deal of effort, she returns to being just Morgana Danann.
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Morgana is pacing in the living room when the blue lights start flashing through the window, rushing to the front door she yanks it open and stands there, silhouetted by the living room light, clearly agitated. A couple of burly police officers get out of the car and pace up the path to the door, "Mrs Danann?"
"Yes, come in officers, I saved the message. Have you heard anything?"
"I'm sorry, but we haven't. The officers arrived at the address you gave and nobody is answering the door. Would you be able to replay the message?"
"Of course." Morgana walks over to the machine and lifts the tape flap before pressing one of the buttons underneath it. Once the message finishes playing, one of the officers lifts his radio, "Dispatch, we have confirmed the recording. There was the sound of an altercation at the end, so life is at risk, I repeat life is at risk."
Putting the radio down, the police officer, "Mrs Danann, do you know which church is being talked about?"
Morgana nods, "I don't know the name, but it's the one on the left as you leave Dunblane north on the B8033."
The policeman nods, "I know the one you're talking about." The other police officer leaves the front door while lifting his radio to his mouth, "I'm sorry to ask this, but what's your relationship with the young lady?"
"I've been looking after her since my son Harry was in playschool with her. Kate works you see, and I volunteered to look after Marianne until she got home from work. The photo on the wall there is from the fair in Airth Castle back in June when they did exhibition matches during the weekend. When I got confirmation that Harry was accepted to an exclusive private boarding school on a scholarship, I sent in an application to become a foster carer so that I could look after her if anything happened. What with the way he treated Harry."
"Mrs Danann, I know you're worried, but at the moment I don't need to know that. Is there anything that may help us at the moment?"
Morgana nods nervously, "It's Dr Danann, and yes, on the same day that she started at her new school. Shaun, her father, had her start doing chores morning and evening. From what she's said, I don't mean tidy your room, I mean scrub the kitchen floor by hand, prepare breakfast, and ensure that the place is spotless again after breakfast. I bought her a journal and told her to keep it. It's got a black leather cover and the pages look like parchment. I was intending to call social services if it didn't get better by Christmas. I had hoped that her parents would see how much they were harming the poor child."
"Is there any reason you haven't already called social services?"
Morgana nods, "You probably know of me already, I study Celtic history and I give lessons on the culture and religion of the era that I study. Harry and I never go to church either. Which around here is socially a cardinal sin. Shaun, however, is a regular church attendee with family that stretches back hundreds of years in this area. After reading up on some of the child abuse cases that happened over the last few years." She laughs, "At least my doctorate is good for wading through pages of dry court documents. Anyway, after reading, I realised that there would need to be a clear pattern of abuse for social services to even take note of someone like Shaun."
The police officer jots down a couple of notes, "I see, I wish I could say your fears were unfounded. Hopefully the father hasn't found the journal. Would you mind if we took the tape from your answer machine?"
"Not at all"
The police officer deftly removes the tape and places it in a plastic bag, before labelling it, "I think we have everything we need right now. If you think of anything, please phone the Dunblane police station, or visit, the front desk is manned 24/7."
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In the basement, the faint strains of sirens becomes audible as the sound of running feet crosses the floor above them. As Shaun comes charging down the stairs, Kate stands up and calmly walks over to stand over Marianne, her hands resting painfully on the spikes at the top of the chair as she covers her daughter as best she can.
"Kate, what are you doing?"
"Protecting my daughter, you broke me Shaun I can't fight against you. But I don't have to get out of the way."
"Kate, get out of the way. She's a witch and she needs to die before the police release her."
"No Shaun, I can't do that."
"Fine, then as you're in league with the devils, you will die with them."
Kate hears the sound of Shaun walking over, and the hiss as he pulls a metal rod from the brazier. She's bracing herself when the blow comes across her back, and she doesn't scream even though she feels a few ribs break. The thundering sound of people running down the stairs registers faintly, and there's shouting as the second blow never comes.
Someone says, "It's safe, you can let go now, you need to see a doctor."
When it finally registers, Kate silently starts to undo the bindings on her daughter.
"What are you doing, you need to see a doctor."
"I'm releasing my daughter, if you do it in the wrong way you could hurt her badly. I'm worthless, so it doesn't matter if I see a doctor."
