Chapter Nineteen
AN: I apologize if Kayleigh comes across as a bit of a Mary Sue in the beginning of the chapter. I kind of needed it in order to give Tamsin and Bo a hard time.
Their night-long escapades meant that Bo and Tamsin didn't make it to the gym until eleven, having also forgotten that their "base of operations" had moved from the Dal. They had barely walked through the door before they were face to face with a smirking Kayleigh and Kenzi. "Why do I feel like we're being double-teamed?" Tamsin asked Bo warily.
"Because you are," Kenzi replied before grabbing Tamsin's wrist and dragging her out of earshot to demand all the details, leaving Bo at Kayleigh's mercy.
"So," the empath drew out as she folded her arms across her chest. "The Unaligned Succubus has gone and gotten herself a bonded Valkyrie."
"You knew about the bond all along, didn't you?" Bo realized angrily.
"Uh-huh!" Kayleigh nodded with a grin. "I'm the one Tamsin sought out for answers when she Fell."
"Tamsin told me your parents were married…they were bonded, too, weren't they?"
"Now you're getting it, succubus," Kayleigh approved. Her grin became a leer. "So if your lateness is anything to go by, I'm guessing you and Tamsin enjoyed yourselves last night?"
A dreamy smile grew on Bo's face. "Yeah, you could say that," she sighed happily.
"Did she do that thing with her tongue for you?"
Bo's flight down memory lane came to an abrupt crash-landing. "How did you…?"
"Oh, didn't you know? Tamsin and I used to hook up all the time," Kayleigh replied with a casual wave of her hand.
"But…you're Light," Bo protested, desperate for some sort of proof that it wasn't true.
Kayleigh shrugged. "Well, yeah, but we were careful not to get caught. And even if we ever did, all I'd have to do was throw down my title and we would've been off the hook. Being Valkyrsdatter has its perks."
"How long?" Bo's whisper was more of a whimper.
"Oh, a good few years. It was like a regular weekend thing."
Bo could only stare speechlessly at the empath. The empath stared back calmly, the silence growing thick and oppressive between them. Bo took a deep breath as she tried to figure out how to proceed with the conversation without absolutely losing it. Before she could make a decision, though, Kayleigh burst out laughing.
"Oh my God, I can't do it anymore! Your jealousy is just too strong!" she managed to gasp, doubled over in mirth as she was. "Yes, Tamsin and I used to hook up, but it was nothing serious, nor was it very often. It ended when I started dating Aislinn…twenty years ago."
Bo let out a long, relieved sigh before punching Kayleigh lightly in the shoulder. "That was mean," she groused.
"I couldn't help it," Kayleigh giggled. "It was too easy. And fun."
"Well, I hope you enjoyed yourself twenty years ago, because now Tamsin can't even feel pleasure from anyone but me," Bo smirked triumphantly.
"Yeah, but I can still feel pleasure from her," Kayleigh noted. "We should all get together and try it some time." She laughed when Bo punched her again before turning and marching over to where Tamsin was being intimidated and interrogated by Kenzi. "You are mine," the succubus growled, wrapping her arm around the blonde's waist.
Tamsin met her love's gaze with confusion, but then her eyes widened. "Oh God, Kayleigh told you…" When Bo nodded, the Valkyrie blushed crimson before yelling to the empath, "Bitch, I am going to kill you!" which only made Kayleigh laugh harder.
"Told you what? What did she tell you? What did I miss?" Kenzi demanded.
"Nothing that concerns you, short-stack," Tamsin replied, ruffling the human's hair. "Besides, I've told you more than enough already. Anything more and I'll be getting into the 'detailed details' you said you didn't want to hear about."
"Right. Gotcha. You and Bo had bonded sexcapades." The Russian girl stared at her best friend and daughter-figure until she was no longer able to contain her shriek of delight. "I'm so happy for you!" she gushed as she wrapped the two of them in a tight hug.
"If you're done suffocating them, we have shit that needs doing," Kayleigh called.
Indeed, a combination of training and research was in full swing. Dyson and Hale were practicing their swordplay while Aislinn was sinking arrows into a straw target. Fíonn, Lauren, and Trick were well away from the combat practice, surrounded by a massive pile of books and a few scrolls. "Do you really need all of these?" Bo inquired as she, Tamsin, and Kenzi walked over, surveying the many volumes.
"As a matter of fact, yes," Trick replied. "Very little of Irish Fae history has been consolidated; most of it is scattered throughout various other historical accounts, so we've been digging things up piece by piece."
"What have you found so far?" Bo asked as she sat down, Kayleigh, Tamsin, and Kenzi doing the same.
"We managed to dig up the origin stories of the remaining three Treasures along with accounts of what they supposedly do," Fíonn replied without looking up from the massive book in his lap. "The Spear and the Sword are straightforward enough, but the Cauldron is…different."
The succubus frowned. "Meaning?"
"Well, originally it was such that 'no one left from it unsatisfied' – in other words, it just gave you fine food and drink – but Lauren found something in the Dark Archives that claims otherwise."
"I didn't find the pages before because they weren't stored with the other accounts of the battle," Lauren explained. "I found them among the documents about Fae artifacts when I went looking for more on the Treasures."
"Tell me you didn't take the pages from the Dark Archives," Tamsin implored with a wary, almost pleading look at the doctor. Lauren smirked and held up pages of her own handwritten notes and Tamsin sighed in relief. The doctor chuckled briefly before describing what she'd found.
"Unlike what we've experienced so far, the first battles during the original tearing of the veil involved ancient sídhe, but not Under-Fae. Not at first, anyway. The sídhe fighting the ancient sídhe began to notice that the Fae they felled were returning to the battlefield within a few days, but as Under-Fae. Something was reanimating them, but it didn't bring them back to their complete selves – only their baser forms. A group of Dark sídhe infiltrated the Otherworld through one of the tears in the veil to find out what was happening."
"They went through the veil?! Willingly?!" Kenzi exclaimed.
Lauren shrugged. "They had to find out somehow, and find out they did. The Dark sídhe saw bodies being thrown into Dagda's Cauldron and climbing back out as Under-Fae. They took the knowledge back to the Morrigan at the time – also a sídhe – and he did further research on the magic behind the Cauldron. The Dark had planned to seize the Cauldron to make use of its power, but the veil was resealed with Lia Fáil before they could make an attempt."
"Did anything come of the research? Say, how to destroy the Cauldron?" Bo inquired hopefully.
"Yes, actually," Fíonn replied. "The Morrigan never uncovered the full scope of magic accounting for the Cauldron's new power, but he calculated that the way to destroy it was for a living Fae – preferably a sídhe – to throw themselves in willingly. Easy enough, except for the fact that the Fae who does it is destroyed along with the Cauldron."
"Great. So if we end up fighting an army of ancient Fae, we'll end up fighting them twice," Tamsin groused.
"We're putting you in the front," Kayleigh decided, and Tamsin smacked her upside the head.
"So what about the Sword and the Spear?" Bo prodded.
"Well, apparently no one escaped Nuada's Sword once the wielder drew it from its sheath," Fíonn began, "and 'no battle was sustained' against Lugh's Spear or the man who held it, which I guess means that battles against the Spear and warrior were very short-lived. Some accounts claim that it also shoots lightning," the gancanagh added with no small amount of fascination.
"That would be fantastic, if we had any idea where it was," Tamsin noted dryly.
"Wherever it is, best to leave it there," Trick said with finality. "We need to try to solve this without the use of the Spear or the possibility of destroying it." He looked to Fíonn. "Remember what I said about not wanting two Treasures in the Otherworld and none in ours."
"But wouldn't that solve all this?" Bo frowned. "You and Fíonn once said that it was the separation of the Treasures that caused the imbalance and the tears in the veil – that the Treasures called to each other. Wouldn't it be better to have the remaining Treasures on one side or the other?"
"Great idea, except for the fact that whichever side holds all the Treasures also holds dominion over the veil," Fíonn pointed out. "That's why the Treasures were split in the first place. The sídhe only realized that the connection between the Treasures could tear the veil was when it, well, tore the veil."
"I have a headache," Kenzi groaned, rubbing her temples.
"Except that you do realize there's only one other way to solve this without using the Treasures, right?" Kayleigh raised her hand.
"Yes, I do…" Trick ground out through gritted teeth, not looking at the empath.
"What, what way?" Bo looked between Trick and Kayleigh with confusion.
The empath sighed. "The only other way to solve this would be to take the battle to the Otherworld: to attack the ancient sídhe directly and possibly recover the remaining two Treasures."
"And kill Dagda…" Bo murmured to herself. "It's the only way I could kill Dagda without risking the destruction of the veil."
"Dagda? What does he have to do with this?" Fíonn asked, startled.
Bo looked around at the assembled group with resignation. Tamsin laid a calming hand on her shoulder as the succubus took a shuddering breath. "I talked to Aífe and…Dagda's the Wanderer. He's the one who pulled me onto the Death Train. He's the one responsible for all of this."
The stunned silence was punctuated only by the clang of steel and the thud of arrows into the target from the three still blissfully unaware Fae. "Well, that…certainly complicates things…" Fíonn commented, his voice an octave higher than usual.
"It's impossible," Kayleigh declared in breathless disbelief. "There's no way you can kill one of the Tuatha. There's no way we as a group could kill one of the Tuatha. We have to use the Treasures."
"Thanks for that vote of confidence," Bo replied with sarcastic venom.
"No," Trick emphasized again. "We are not using the Treasures. We'll find another way to close the veil."
"I wouldn't object to using the Cauldron if it means it gets destroyed in the process the way Lia Fáil did," Fíonn spoke up.
"I don't think that would work," Lauren noted reluctantly. "Maybe before it gained its new power, but not now."
"But if we do take this battle to the Otherworld, we won't be alone," it was Bo's turn to emphasize. "We'll have the sídhe behind us – sídhe both Light and Dark. This matters to them, too."
"Ok, so say we somehow do manage to defeat Dagda," Kayleigh ceded. "Then what? We still have to close the veil."
"We enlist the help of the one remaining Tuatha still living," Bo decided, recalling the family tree she had pored over.
"And that would be?" Fíonn prompted.
"Mór Ríoghan."
Glossary (good old Wikipedia):
Cauldron of Dagda: 'No company ever went away from it unsatisfied,' so it most likely provided lots of food and drink (or just drink). Its new properties were reverently and lovingly borrowed from Lloyd Alexander's The Black Cauldron and T.A. Barron's The Lost Years of Merlin.
Nuada's Sword: Also called Claíomh Solais (pronounced "kleev solesh"), meaning "Sword of Light" or "Shining Sword." No one escaped it and no one could resist it. The term Claíomh Solais is also sometimes used to refer to other swords in Irish folklore, apparently.
Lugh's Spear: "Impossible to overcome." It doesn't actually shoot lightning. I made that up.