A/N: Whew! I feel like a birthed a twenty pound baby with this one. Too much info and yet it's probably my smallest chapter. But, The Bond is up next so better to get the business out of the way. All the mythological and folklore names used here are factual-they do exist in lore. However, I did not necessarily use them according to their true purpose, story line, etc. I used them to fit this story. So, yes, I realize that So-and-So didn't really do this or that. It is complete and utter poppycock. Weeee! That was a fun word. Oh and a special thank you to those who pointed out my boff last chapter-BlueAdelin, murgatroid-98 and "Guest" lol. I erroneously swapped names but have since fixed it. I am trying to get better about responding to reviews but I can't if you're not signed in. I love you all and your comments. I know I sound like a broken record, but the shit you guys say or guess at, regarding the future, is just too fun. You are the wind beneath my wings. Okay, as per usual-I own nothing but a few Eric look-alikes. I have no Beta so be patient with my word, punctuation, grammar fuckery. My peepers get all begoogled when I stare at this story for too long and my brain and eyes go on auto correct a lot, so I can't see the errors. But I worry using a beta might postpone how quick I can get the chapters posted. Wah, right? Pickle smooch.

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Ch.31

As my Gran used to say, you could have heard a mouse fart. Eric and I stared at each other like we had never seen the other before. Looking each other up and down, with new...was it respect? for each other.

My grandfather looked pissed at her outburst. "Doctor, need I remind you of my position? And yours?"

She looked completely unaffected by his imperiousness. "Sorry, Your Highness, but do you deny time is of the essence here and the sooner they know everything, the sooner they can bond?"

He grunted, "No, but you will watch your tone."

"Yes, Sire." Her eyes contradicted her contrite tone. I liked the tiny old crone, we had a lot in common.

I rubbed my temples and leaned forward, Eric lightly rubbing my back. He spoke softly, mostly just to me, but the others could hear. "I did dream something like this, as a human, that support this."

"Like what?"

"To be honest, I don't recall very well. It was so long ago and I have lost many, non-essential details of my human life. What I can remember...a voyage to the Celtic Isles, whether Scotland or Ireland I don't know. In the dream, my father took me and two of my brothers..." He struggled to pull the memories from the deep recesses of his mind. Instinctively, with no conscious effort, I placed my hand on his and summoned my magic. The words suddenly began to pour out of him with ease.

"When we arrived, we were met by several women, and a man-they were all very fair, I remember thinking they looked so much like us, with their blonde or red hair and braids and the man's beard was adorned like our men often did during important ceremonies. But they were so ethereal, they had a glow about them. I couldn't grasp how unique that was at such a young age. I was possibly 5 or 6 years old at that time. The foreigners spoke a language to my father that I didn't understand at the time, but now I recognize it as Goidelic, or Gaelic Old Irish. I cannot recall the words now, as my young ears could not absorb words I didn't understand. Whatever they said, my father nodded and stepped back. The man of the group paced before the three of us, sizing us up. He never touched us, yet it felt like he was touching my head. Finally after apprising my brothers, he stopped and squatted in front of me. He said something I, again, did not understand, but they must have been kind words, because he mussed my hair and smiled and I thought it was the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. Our kind usually lost all their teeth by his age and his were perfect and bright white. One of the women of the group came forward-" Eric paused and looked at me, eyes wide as saucers, "Gods, Sookie, she looked so much like you!" I nodded, urging him on, hiding my alarm at how weird that was. "Her hand lit up and she touched me. The light went all through my body and it felt electric. Once the glow faded from me, she turned back to her people and nodded. In our language, she said to my father, 'This one. This boy is He." My father nodded, we got back on our vessel and sailed home. That was the end of the dream."

"Wow. Were there any other dreams?"

"There were many. I could fill a book with them, especially with you helping me recall them." He noticed that, I guess. "But I would rather sort through them all later." He gave me a meaningful look.

Egad, this was getting so weird.

"Okay, so my first question, Grandfather is why did you send me to Eric under the pretense of pumping him for information, or whatever, if you knew we were fated? Why wouldn't you tell me the truth?"

He looked at me sternly, "If you are completely honest with yourself, would you have liked the idea of being promised to someone you had never met?" Without waiting for an answer he went on. "If I had said, 'Sookie, you will now go into the arms of a vampire that Fate has mandated you to', how would you have reacted? No need to answer, because I already know. You would have thrown an absolute fit, fought me kicking and screaming, then set your mind to hating him, so even if I managed to force a meeting, your mind would have been soured against him. It needed to happen on it's own, and it did, so I will not apologize for any necessary deception I took part in."

Oh. Ohhhh. I felt ashamed because he was right.

"That said, however, my concern was definitely not an act. I was very worried he would attack you and kill you the moment he met you. That is their nature. I didn't know about your heritage, as I do now. I had to deeply trust that Fate and the seeings of The Ancient Pythoness were true and that you were safe. But I did not know of your ancestral link until Dr. Ludwig told me a few hours ago. All I was told by The Council most recently, was that you two must be together at all cost. I chose to tell you what they had originally told me, upon Their permission for you to live in this realm: That you were to follow through on the promise I had made them. It was merely a half truth."

"What of that, Niall? What about my history and Sookie's kin tie us together?"

"I would like you to look over the book and manuscripts" he gestured to where they lay on the desk "for the particulars. There are things that are encoded in magic that only one who is meant to read it, can. Of what I have read, the gist is this: You two were supposed to meet, or predecessors of you, were to meet much earlier than now. Eric the dream you spoke of, remembering being a child and traveling to Our Mother Land was most likely correct. You were chosen as a Lochlann and at age 12 you were to be taken back to Eire. Once there, you would live as protector to Sookie's ancestor. But the petty meddling of man interfered, via war, and your father died in battle before you reached the proper age. That one event changed Fate's plan, setting off a series of other events. You were sent off on a voyage with your brothers; put on a ship that sailed through the Norwegian and Greenland Seas. They could not follow. The serpent that inhabited those seas hated our kind, mistrusted us, wanted us banished out of his oceans."

"The Jörmungandr. you know of that beast?" Eric shot up and paced, "Middengeard. That is Midgärd?! Norse mythology has a Midgärd!"

Niall smiled, "Yes, Eric, believe it or not there were many similarities of Our people and yours in those days. Lochlanns were Vikings who lived among Us, in Our lands, or frequenting back and forth. Our Gods mingled, many have names that are similar. They shared the lands in those times. It was the humans that came with their greed for land and hate of foreigners that drove a wall between Ours and many other deities all over the world. Middengeard was one of the many realms They shared, once They were no longer worshiped or summoned, where humans could not go."

Some parts of this were familiar. I was sure I had come across it in my hunger for every book in my grandfather's library.

"And so They waited. There was no rush, as Sookie's ancestor, to whom you were originally to guard, had not yet been born. As bad luck would have it, instead of returning, you then went to the New Country, which would now be Greenland and Canada. They had no knowledge of such a place and could not risk going to an unknown territory. You were gone for many years and when you finally did return, you were very much a man. However, now you had not been raised to the Lochlann ways, taught what it meant to be a guardian to The Great Ones. Your intended had just come of age, so there was still some hope of a match. While it was debated what to do, you were mortally wounded, then turned to your vampire form. All hope for you was lost. The Great Ones dismissed you. However, a few years later, Morrìgan herself came to Them and implored Them, that it must be you to guard Her Childe. So They kept up the watch on you, waiting for you to be ready. As a young vampire, you were everything that would be expected of one who had so recently been human, self-absorbed, narrow-minded and vain. In your defense you had never been told of your fate, so never had the awareness of anything, otherwise. Frigg was sent to you in dreams to prepare you and gauge your readiness. While all of that was going on, Morrìgan, and all the other Dé Danaan Elders were fading. Christianity took over Our lands. They would make appearances when called but their powers were weakened and They mostly resided among the Sidhe in Middengeard."

I looked around at the others. They were all fixed intently on Niall's words, like it was bedtime and we were being told a story. My grandfather must have sensed my waning attentions.

"Sookie, Morrìgan had many daughters. They were dispersed all throughout Eire. In fact wherever She came upon a great warrior in battle, She often would bear him child to pass on their ferocity to benefit the future tribes of the area. These women were always warriors who would bear arms and fight along their men. They would always bear daughters themselves, thereby passing along Morrìgan through the ages and throughout the Motherland. That is your history, Sookie. You are a direct descendant of The Great Morrìgan. This is why you were fated, this is why you are so much more powerful than a mere human, fairy mix should be. Technically, you are a halfling, but truly you are full Fae, given the human side of your lineage. This is a huge honor. Truth be told, you are just as worthy of this Royal Office, as any of us."

Everyone was quiet, once again. "I would never want that. Ever."

"I know, my dear. And I would never want it for you. You would hate this life. You are meant for much greater things."

I remembered all the times he used to call me his little warrior and how I was going to do big things when I grew up. I voiced my thoughts aloud to him and he smiled at me, in pride. "I always sensed it in you, Sookie."

Getting back to business, "So you see, Eric's fate as Lochlann to Morrìgan's offspring was never realized. Her Spirit and those of all the Dé Danaan faded from this world, so Eric was not needed to protect, until now. For whatever reason, though we have some suspicions, the prophecy is now coming to pass. Whether this was predicted by The Great Ones and Morrìgan herself, or Fate has now decided the time has come and it is why you two were brought together, finally. In some twisted way, you being turned to vampire actually fulfilled your fate, keeping you alive all these years."

"What reasons do you suspect, Niall?"

"The Water and Sky Fairy need to be brought to peace. In the Old Days, Morrìgan would oversee battles, deciding which warriors lived and which died. But She could also bring peace when it was in the best interests of both parties. She is One of Us-an Elder. She would not want Us fighting Ourselves into non-existence or such few numbers we retreat to Middengeard."

"Not to sound unappreciative of my heritage, Grandfather, but I am curious, why wouldn't Morrìgan appear to us Herself? Wouldn't that be more impressive and peace-inspiring than a halfling who claims to be of Her blood? And why can't She just defeat Phaedra herself, like with the blink of an eyeslash or something?"

"Firstly, what better way for a God or Goddess to see proof of Their greatness than to see that power perpetuated by Their descendant? It's like saying They are so powerful that Their descendants, so many generations and years removed, are powerful enough to still hold weight and influence. And, like most of The Great Ones, They choose not to be directly involved in this world anymore. So They watch and oversee and give a hand when They deem it so. It is probably She who spoke to The Council, who in turn, made me promise to offer you up, when you first came to this realm. I should have suspected something then. Secondly, it is often the Will of Fate that those of this world battle amongst themselves, unless all hope is gone, then the Gods intervene. There is great faith that you and Eric can defeat Phaedra without Her help. Besides, what greater insult is there, to one such as Phaedra, to be defeated by those of this world?"

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. "No pressure, right?" I half joked, trying to keep it light, since what I really wanted to do was to run screaming from the room.

All four sets of eyes looked at me in awe, but also pity. Yeah, I pitied me too. No one had an answer.

Eric came to stand in front of me and held both my hands in his, "The answer is inside of you, somewhere. You will find it. Or you may not know until the time is upon you. There is no way of knowing. Remember what I said to you about not over-thinking and grasping for answers that are not ready to be revealed to you?" I nodded and let a tear slip down my cheek. He knelt in front of me.

"That applies to this situation even more than we knew before. But you are not alone in this. I will help you any way I can. Whether it be by my sword, or my love." I held his head to my stomach in an embrace, while he held me around my waist, in reverence. The tears dripped from my cheeks onto his head. I felt so much-overwhelmed and burdened by all I had learned, yet touched by his pledge, and now, loved. So the tears just fell and I let them. I loved him. I couldn't speak right then so, with nary a thought, my magic came to me. I pushed my love to him through our embrace. Our bodies lit up ever so slightly. His neck snapped up to look up at me in wonder. A pleasant sense of electricity and sparks passed between us, like we had once experienced during sex. We both took notice, but didn't care right then about the electricity or what anyone else saw or thought. He knew of my love and I knew of his. I held his head to me and we stay like that for a moment, impervious to anyone around us. We were Fated and now I knew why. We were like two halves of each other. We supported each other, we had the same fight and passion. He definitely had a positive effect on me, as I did for him, like no other had ever done for either of us before. It dawned on me suddenly: We needed to bond. Now. We held each other's gaze, never breaking it as Eric stood up and nodded, knowing as well, that it was time.

I cleared my throat. "We will be leaving now. Do not disturb us." I wasn't sure where this authoritative tone was coming from. "We will let you know when The Bond is complete."

With that, Eric gave a single nod, letting me know he was ready. I summoned the book and manuscripts to me and held them in one arm. In the other, I held his waist tightly, more out of comfort than transportation purposes and popped us to my room in the Palace. Finally, we could bond.