Chapter 24

She sat up and stared at the white wall before her. Bridget watched her and waited. Bevin just held her phone, but she said nothing. Bridget watched her as she blanched whiter. She wanted to know what Bevin's grandfather had told her that would affect her that way. Bevin' eyes glossed over for a second and then another convulsion took over her body. Bridget did her best to lay her back down on the couch and keep her from falling off onto the floor and hurting herself.

Bridget was starting to get scared for her. This was the second violent attack that Bevin had where her body shut down and convulsed. She didn't know what to do for her. She couldn't think of anyone that she could take Bevin to see either. They would have to figure it out on their own and hopefully before something had happened to Bevin, too.

"How long was I out this time?" Bevin asked, coming around.

"Less than five," Bridget told her.

"I don't know whether that is good or bad. I just want the headaches to stop. It would make things easier on me if I didn't have to worry about them," Bevin told her.

"Dude, what's up?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Your accent, Irish, it's changing," Bridget stated.

"Bloody Hell, I think that has to do with the headaches too."

"How so?"

"Are you sure that you are ready to hear this?"

"I don't think I really have a choice at the moment, do I? I know too much as it is. You might as well tell me because it might help with my research online," Bridget explained.

"It seems that I am actually around nineteen hundred years old."

"So that affects your accent, how?"

"Well, it seems that I am starting to regain all...and I do mean all, of my memories. I think that is why I am having the black outs. I am slowly remembering things because the spells that the Banshees put on me are wearing off. Once they are completely gone, my transformation will be complete and I will have the memories of every life that I have lived here."

"You okay"

"Uh, no."

"I don't think that I would be either. That is a lot to take in. Did he give you anything useful? You know, besides telling you that you are… a well...an old magical person?"

Bevin laughed. Leave it to Bridget to find something humorous about the situation. She knew that Bridget was trying to help in the only way she knew how, by being a friend.

"Yeah, actually he did. He told me about the tea that my Grandmamma used to make for me. Evidently, it was some potion that they created in order to stop or slow down the changing process."

"So this has happened before?" Bridget asked.

"Not that I can remember," Bevin replied sarcastically.

They both laughed. Bridget made sure that she was righted on the couch before she went into the kitchen. She didn't get her water this time. She got her a Coke, figuring that the sugar couldn't hurt and it would give her some energy.

"What do you want to do now?" Bridget inquired as she handed her the Coke.

"I think we need to find out where we can find some of these ingredients. I know what some of them are because I've heard of them before. Others, I am not sure if it is a folk name or an actual name of the product. I think that we might have to go to different stores to get it all."

"Well, what do we need?"

"Don't laugh."

"I won't. Just tell me what we need so I can make list and check where we can get it. I am assuming that he gave you the recipe for it as well."

"Yeah, he did."

"Alright, let's have the first item on our list," Bridget stated.

"Valerian root," Bevin replied.

"That is a sleep aid. We can get that in a variety of places. Next?"

"Belladonna."

"That's a poison. That might be a little more difficult, but if it's needed, we'll find it. What else?"

"Cactus water."

"Seriously, cactus water. Where are supposed to get that? I mean are we supposed to juice an actual cactus and if so, what kind?" Bridget questioned.

"Yes, we are supposed to juice a cactus. Granddadda only told me that the drier the climate the better the juice was for the tea. I don't know of any dry areas around here to get that. And, I really don't feel like driving to Mexico to get some cactus. But, that isn't the best one, Bridget."

"So...we'll look into that. What else is there? I mean there has to be some crazy stuff, right?"

"Yeah, well, if you can tell me where we can get Dragon's Breath and Dragon's scale we'll be doing good. But, those are the most exotic of the things that we will have to find. I am not sure that we can get the other one though," Bevin stated.

"Why? What is it? Do I want to know?"

"Drops of Poppy."

"Is that like opium?"

"I have no fucking clue. I just got the list. I guess the internet is going to have to be our teacher, but I am not bloody well flying home just for Granddadda to make me some magical tea," Bevin replied a little more forcefully than she wanted.

"Nobody is telling you to fly to Kildaire, Bevin. I just think that we need to think this thing through. Your grandfather just gave you a laundry list of things that we need to find to make this 'herbal' tea for you. I think that we can find them if we look hard enough."

"I am glad that you are enthusiastic, but where do you propose that we find something called Dragon's Scale? And, did I forget to mention that it has to be powered? Where would you even begin to look?"

"Do I look like an expert?"

"No, but you do know how to find things on the internet faster than I have seen anyone else do it."

"That may be true but that doesn't mean that I can find all those ingredients in a timely enough manner to make that tea for you. Isn't there something that we can use that will work faster? Did he give you a quick remedy or something?" Bridget asked her.

"No, all he gave me was that recipe. He did say that I used to drink it once a month or so. Grandmamma sent me here with a premade tin, but it didn't last me that long because I didn't know I was supposed to space it out."

"Well there is that, but then again, I think that she would have sent you more if she hadn't died."

"True, but then Granddadda knew that I would need it. He could have made it or had Shannon make it. They could have mailed me some. They should have known that I would have run out by now."

"I am sure that they weren't thinking about that. You even said that your grandfather didn't think that the legend would come true in his lifetime. He thought they were just stories, too, until he met you. I wonder if he knows what any of the tattoos say. We should have asked him."

"I am not really in the mood to call him back about this," Bevin replied.

"I didn't mean right now. We need to figure out how we are going to get this stuff first. I can work on the translations later. They aren't as important as you are."

"I bet I know what this one says," Bevin stated pointing to one of the ogham tattoos on her right arm.

"Yeah and what's that?"

"Be careful about meeting strange men. It'll change you. Your kingdom awaits," Bevin said sarcastically as she finished off the soda in her hand.

"I am sure that there is a warning label on you somewhere, but I haven't found it."

"Have you figured anything else out?"

"It seems that they thought of your body like a papyrus."

"Meaning?" Bevin asked.

"It pretty much tells your story. It just some basic outlines of your journey. There is a lot there about the River Shannon. I don't know what that has to do with anything besides that it is in the heart of Ireland. It seems to play an important part of your story though."

"Great, more magical waters. Just what I needed. Is there anything else there that could be concrete? Anything that could lead us in the right direction about all of this? Anything useful?" Bevin inquired.

"Besides the one here that tells us that you are 'The Sorcha,' yeah, I think so. There seem to be a few are or they could be spells, but I can't tell. They aren't just in ogham. They are in ancient Gaelic, Irish and Scots. It seems that you would really have to know to understand what they are saying. And, frankly, I don't speak any of those."

"Do you want to call Seamus once you get them all figured out to a degree?"

"Do you think that is wise considering how fast you are gaining all the tattoos and other stuff?" Bridget asked.

"I don't know if it is wise, but he would know what they say. We need translations. We need to get ahead of this somehow."

"Well, let's start with the tea."

"Is there something that you aren't telling me?"

"I just think that if we can slow down your transformation, we can spend more time on trying to dissect the stories and the myths. I can't keep catching you when you pass out from gaining memories. We need to slow this down before something happens to you."

"I understand that. I don't want to get hurt either, but I am worried about something my Granddadda told me, too. He told me to be wary of a woman named Mara."

"Who the Hell is Mara?"

"I have no idea, but whoever she is, she isn't good. He has told me some stories about her, but I don't remember them as well as I think he would like me to. He seemed afraid of her and afraid for me. I don't know where she plays into all of this. I need to know more about this prophecy and legend to figure out what the bloody hell is actually going on. I can't keep walking around blindly about this."

"I know that, Bevin. I am trying to help. You have to believe that," Bridget replied.

"I do. I just wish that none of this was happening. Why couldn't I just have a semi-normal life?"

"What is normal anyway?"

"How the fuck should I know? I am some sort of mythological creature from another realm. I have no idea what normal is, because I am so far from normal that I am fantastic. Nothing that I thought I knew about my life is true and nothing that I know about my real life is making any sense to me, either. I need some sort of order, some sort of goal to look for. I need direction before I go crazy."

"Well, you do know that you met your husband-to-be?"

"Not helping," Bevin stated.

"Well, we know that he was at the horse trials. How hard could it be to narrow it down? We'll just search the other teams for eligible bachelors. I mean how many NCAA equestrian teams could there be? We were in brackets. So, we just need to narrow it down to schools in our bracket for the meet."

"There were four hundred teams there, Bridget. There were fifty teams in our bracket before we got down to the final runs. I doubt that we need to expand it that far. We should narrow it down to the eight teams that actually rode for the championship."

"So, eight teams of roughly ten riders, so that is only about forty different guys it could be, right? How hard would it be to narrow down from there? Anyone strike up your fancy from those teams? Anyone that we need to look into more than anyone else?"