Trilithons - Etain
"Tell me about Aengus and Etain."
Daniel turned in surprise.
Sam had been silent all evening, staring up at the stars, not really interested in looking through the telescope, sitting apart from the others.
When Teal'c got up to take his turn at the telescope, Daniel sat down next to her against the large stone, but said nothing. She was in a peculiar mood tonight, pensive and reluctant to say much. He'd almost asked her if everything was okay, but decided that it was better to remain silent while she worked things out in her mind. Sam was a private person – they all were.
So he sat beside her to let her know that if she wanted to talk, he was there, but if she just wanted to think things through, then he'd be there when she came out of it.
She'd come out of it sooner than he'd expected.
"I don't remember that much about the Celtic legends you know."
"So tell me what you remember."
It was odd for Sam to be interested in myths and legends. Her memory for them was about as good as Daniel's was for the convoluted astronomy explanations Jack had been giving them all night.
He cast his mind back to the books he'd read over the years, trying to find the shards and fragments of stories and weld them into a cohesive whole.
"The Mac Og - Aengus - was probably a bit like the Celtic version of the Greek Hercules. He was the illegitimate son of one of the central gods - the Dagda - and, well, did his share of great deeds. He grew up alongside the god Midir and the two were like brothers. Aengus even won Midir the hand of the fairest maiden in all Ireland."
"Etain."
"Etain," he agreed. "There was a competition...uh, I keep thinking it was chariot-racing, but I don't think that was it. Anyway, Aengus won her for Midir."
"Like a prize."
"That is the way women tend to get depicted in histories and legends, Sam."
"Doesn't mean I have to like it."
He let that pass, grinned, and kept going. "Midir already had a wife, however, and she wasn't pleased about the rival for her husband's affections, so she started plotting to drive Etain out of the household."
"As you do when your husband brings his girlfriend into the house."
Daniel rolled his eyes in mild exasperation. He hated being interrupted when he was telling as story or legend. It was why Jack got his goat so easily. "Sam, do you mind not doing that?"
Now it was her turn to grin, "Okay. So, the wife kicked Etain out and she went to Aengus."
"Something like that. I think Aengus took her in and 'gave her all due honour'. Which reads between the lines as sleeping with her."
"And they lived happily ever after?"
"Actually, no. I think Etain left Aengus when Midir's wife pursued her again. Like I said at the start, it's been a while since I read this set of legends. We haven't exactly come across a lot of Celtic gods and goddesses among the Goa'uld pantheon." Daniel made a mental note to dig out the books and articles on Celtic discoveries and Celtic mythologies and glanced over at Sam. "What's with the sudden curiosity?"
"Sudden curiosity?"
"About the Celtic mythology." Daniel didn't say it, but usually Sam was only interested in such things as they related to military strategy - which, he had to admit, wasn't much.
"It's...interesting."
"You never used to say that before when you yawned through my presentations."
Her abashed expression was felt rather than seen in the dim starlight, and Daniel grinned. Archaeology, history, and mythologies weren't everyone's cup of tea - but he loved it. He loved researching into the tiny bits and pieces of long-ago lives and fitting those pieces together to get an idea of what life had been like back then.
He'd gotten used to the idea that his team-mates didn't always want to hear what he had to say about his discipline - it wasn't always necessary that they know the background to the Goa'uld.
"I'll let you in on a secret, though," Daniel leaned over a little. "I sometimes tune out when you're explaining stuff, too."
She chuckled. "So we're even?"
"Even Stevens," he assured her.
They sat in silence for a little while longer. She stared up at the stars and Daniel stared over at her.
He'd been self-involved lately, too busy with his own concerns to notice any of hers. They'd both withdrawn a lot from each other in the last eighteen months, slowly and gradually. It was part and parcel of the things they'd gone through over the years, their way of dealing with things too painful to face head-on.
Sha're's death and first locating then losing Shifu had thrown Daniel's life into emotional disarray. Three years of his life vanished – Sha're and everything she'd been to him, everything he'd done to try to get her back, all slipping into the maw of time.
And Sam had been coping with her own stresses of the time. First the three months where she worked day and night on getting Jack home from Edora, then having to kill Martouf. An ever-thickening shield between her and her team-mates, hardly perceptible but felt nevertheless.
So there'd been little time and less space spent with each other. And although Daniel didn't know how she felt about it, he missed their interactions. Of course, lately, it had been too easy to just let things slide, putting no particular energy into the maintenance of any of his relationships with his team-mates.
Maybe sometime in the future something would startle him out of his lethargy and his isolation and cause him to reach out to his friends. Right now, he was almost content being arm's length and uninvolved. Almost.
"I was just wondering if the legends came first or if the Goa'uld made the legends." Her sudden renewal of their conversation confused him for a moment. Then he made the connection and began pondering her question.
"We've always assumed that the legends came first and the Goa'uld followed up on them..."
"But something like this, where the story depicted in his...well...epitaph matches the legends we have on Earth..." She frowned briefly. "How did the legends get to Earth anyway? Wasn't Earth cut off from the Goa'uld long before the Irish gods came into being?"
His mouth opened to answer her, then shut again. "I don't know. Although there are tales in the Celtic histories that speak about great voyages that some of their ancestors took to far-off places. So...maybe these Goa'uld periodically returned to Earth and took slaves with them or something?"
"We'll have to get General Hammond to get some people to check out the stone circles in Ireland and Scotland," she added, continuing on in her train of thought while Daniel wrestled with his own. "While I doubt any of them are holding a Goa'uld – glowing stones and suchlike are a little too noticeable – it would be worth looking into them. If they were set up by the Goa'uld or someone else...are there any ideas on who raised them?"
Daniel snorted. "Ideas? Heaps. Actual knowledge of who raised them? None. Actually, the ideas brought out by the branch of archaeo-astronomy is about as well-respected in the wider academic community as the idea that aliens built the pyramids." He gave a self-deprecating snort.
"More aliens?"
"It depends who you're talking to."
"How about Dr. 'Spooky' Jackson?"
Laughing, he pulled up some grass and tossed it at her. "Stop that."
She retaliated by plucking her own fistfuls of the turf and hurling them at him – with, he had to admit, superior accuracy. In this case, Daniel Jackson most certainly did not throw like a girl – 'the girl' threw much better than he!
They snickered their way through the impromptu grass-tussle until Jack noticed what they were doing.
"Hey guys..." They laughed simultaneously and grinned like the children his tone of voice implied they were.
Jack muttered something to the effect of, "Can't take them anywhere," while Teal'c regarded them, regarded Jack, and turned back to star gazing.
Daniel rested back against the stone, brushing grass out of his hair and off his jacket. That had been fun. It seemed like such a long time since he'd had fun, both having nobody to laugh with and feeling uninclined to laughter.
In another moment of affection, similar to that which he'd experienced yesterday, Daniel held his hand out to her. After a moment's hesitation, she took it. And he squeezed her fingers in brief, warm pressure for a shared moment of resonance.
Maybe they were both a little guilty of shutting each other out.
And to let her back in wouldn't be such a terrible thing. It would just take a little more effort – and some willingness on both their parts.
Daniel was willing to give it a go.
*
Her companions were what he had expected. The kind of men who would be attracted to her – perhaps not as lovers, but as strength was attracted to strength.
The tall one with skin the colour rich earth was Jaffa. Of Apophis, which was unusual. Apophis had been far too involved in his own power struggles against Ra to concern himself with them. Perhaps things had changed? And if so, what role had Etain in his plans?
The grey-haired one was born of Fionn as was she, but if she and the Jaffa served Apophis, then this one would serve no master; he was too independent to be any god's servant. That one would question all things and rebel were he not handled right.
The third one was gifted. There had always been a few among his servants who could read or write – a chosen few. None had ever managed to master the written form of the Old Tongue – the language of the Gods. Yet this one had. His translations were slow and somewhat inept, but the skill inherent in learning the Old Tongue...
Could they be turned through her? Her opinion and her presence was valued by them, and she, in return, valued their presence else she had not ventured here with them.
He craved company and loyalty, and while his 'glamourie' had not worked on men so much as women, there were some who had succumbed. The gifted one might, but the Fionn-born one would not and the Jaffa were immune – they were only commanded by pride, honour and fear. Those two would have to be swayed on the strength of Etain and the gifted one. If they could not be swayed, then they would have to be destroyed.
Aengus bore no rivals to his power.
*
Sam stared at the man standing in the circle of stones before her.
She'd dreamed this last night. She was sure of it.
She was awake now.
Exactly how she'd come to be here, she wasn't sure. One minute, she'd been keeping watch at the camp. Then, in a blur, she'd found herself at the Stones staring into the midst of them where he stood.
Aengus.
He was tall – about as tall as Colonel O'Neill, pale-skinned, dark haired and dark-eyed. Intense.
Around him, the innermost circle of stones glowed faintly. The soft blue light they shed crawled over the ground inside the circle, but didn't reach more than a couple of feet outside it. Between each stone hummed a field that crackled with latent energy as she stepped closer to it.
Daniel had been right. Aengus was a prisoner of the circle, not kept in stasis but confined within the stones.
"I am glad you are here, Etain."
"I am not Etain." The protest was automatic. She was Sam Carter. Major Sam Carter, not a slave over whom two Goa'uld had quarrelled.
But the quirk of his smile worried her. "You will come to answer to it." Sam almost shuddered. In spite of the harmonic undertones there was something compelling about his voice. "I have waited a long time for you to come here."
Curiosity rose to the surface at his words. Dimly, a part of her mind questioned his insistence that she was 'Etain', but the curiosity was foremost. "How long?"
He shrugged, "The summer has come and gone many thousands of times since they brought me here."
"Your host hasn't aged."
"These stones that keep me within also renew my body daily." His face twisted into anger, "It was their way of mocking me - they took my love and the trappings of my life away, imprisoned me here and refused me even death."
They'd never met a Goa'uld before who longed for death. But then, she reflected, they'd never met a Goa'uld who'd been imprisoned alone for thousands of years. Even Marduk had managed to possess the creature that consumed his host and eventually escape his sarcophagus.
"How come we can pass in and out of the stones but you can't?"
"It is keyed to my body chemistry. All others can pass through it - but not I."
Sam blinked. "Wow." It was an ingenious way of trapping someone. The scientist in her wondered how it was done. "So, I could walk in there and walk out."
"If you wished." He studied her and Sam watched him. The invitation was clear, but Sam was more than aware that Aengus was a Goa'uld. She could feel the naquadah in him - the prickle of awareness in his presence. And you never trusted a Goa'uld.
But she was still curious. "Who were your fellow System Lords?"
"We were never System Lords," Aengus corrected her. His pale eyes held hers in the faint glow. "Not as Ra or Apophis or Heru'ur or Yu. In the larger scheme of things, we were minor Lords, commanders of mere thousands. We tired of the fighting among our masters and defected to these systems, hoping we would not be found."
Interesting. So the Goa'uld didn't all desire domination. Maybe some of the lesser Goa'uld Lords could be persuaded to rebel, weakening their masters. Sam filed that away for future reference.
"Who were they? The others."
"Lir, Dana, Fionn, Rhianna, Aoife, and Midir." The names were recited off like a shopping list - all but the last one. There the music of his voice fell heavy and flat.
"Midir was the one whose slave you stole."
His eyes ignited, not in the glow of Goa'uld possession, but in anger. "You came of your own free will, Etain. And Fuamnach was wroth with both you and Midir. You came to me for protection and comfort. You trusted me." He took a step closer to her, standing on the other side of the shielding. The intensity of his gaze was fiercer than the glare of any madman. "You trusted me."
And, looking into his eyes, Sam found that she did, indeed, trust him.
It was both a frightening thought and an exhilarating one.
Her hand came up, skimming what she thought might be the edge of the field. It was faint and fragile as starlight, but she could feel the power humming through it as her palm came in contact with the edge of the shield.
If what he said was true and the shield was keyed to his body chemistry, then she should be able to pass in and out of the shield. Even just dip her finger...
The tip of one finger dipped into the barrier area – and she felt the field vibrating around her. Gradually withdrawing her finger from the shield, she examined it.
"I told you it was possible for you to pass in and out of the field."
"How did they do it?"
He laughed. "You always asked such questions, Etain! And I could not always answer them." The laughter died to a smile. "I do not know how they did it. Perhaps, in time, you will come to understand it."
Bolder now, Sam thrust her hand into the tingling sensation of the field, through to the other side. There was almost no resistance – it wasn't even like stepping into the event horizon of the Stargate. And if she took one step forward between the two stones...
She met Aengus's eyes.
And then someone cried out her name.
It swept through her on the night air like a compulsion, turning her away from the circle's interior. Her hand fell back to her side.
The next minute, she was being dragged back from the edge of the circle with unkind hands. "What the hell did you think you're doing, Major?" She caught a brief image of the Colonel, dark eyes roused, face set in harsh lines of anger. She stared at him, frowning at the rumpled look of his hair in the sudden brilliant blaze of light that blinded them both.
"S...sir?"
"I asked you what the hell you thought you were doing!" He waved a hand behind her.
Sam turned and gaped.
The circle was dark.
*
Continued in Trilithons Part Four - Sam
