Chapter 39
Bevin sat back at the table and waited for Bridget to join her. She still couldn't see a damn thing but she knew exactly when Bridget sat back down. She was amazed at her how quickly her senses took over because of her lack of sight. It was amazing, almost as amazing as the fire in her blood. She couldn't explain the feeling. It was like it moved from her heart to her soul and through her mind all at the same time.
"Do we still have some of my tea ready?"
"Yeah, I made a batch when I made the other one. Do you need some? I can get you a cup," Bridget told her.
Bevin could hear the catch in her voice and knew that she wasn't happy about the situation, but she also knew Bridget enough that she wasn't going to say anything about it either. She just smiled in reply and already knew that Bridget was going to get up and pour her a cup before she answered.
"Thank you," she replied when Bridget put her hand around the mug.
Bevin took a slow and methodical sip. She could feel the fire in her blood subsiding. A calm came over her and she wasn't sure she liked it. She had grown accustomed to the feeling in her body. She could only wonder what it would mean for her when she was finally unleashed to her full potential. She took another sip and relaxed into her chair some more.
"Do you know when they will get here?" Bridget asked, breaking the silence.
"Soon."
"You're sure that we don't need protection from them?"
"They aren't Mara. They may seem a little unorthodox when they get here, but trust me. One of the women is an old family friend. My mother sent her."
"But, what about the tea?"
"She is going to need me. Her journey here has been a long one and crossed man realms. She needs my help as much as I need hers right now. I am afraid that you might not be able to cope with this as much as you think you will. I am more scared for you, than I am for myself right now," Bevin told her.
"Why are you scared for me?"
"I know that you can handle yourself, Bridget. It isn't that at all. Things are going to get a well … a little fantastic. It will become very overwhelming before things actually start making sense. I just want you to be prepared for that. You will learn things that will confuse your more than make you understand. Can you deal with that?" Bevin asked her.
"I've already told you. I am not leaving you. I don't know why, but I can't."
"What do you mean?"
"I know things may get weird. I'm prepared for that. Well, I think that I prepared for that. Let's just see how things go, alright? Don't start pushing away the people who are trying to help you."
"I am not trying to push you away, Bridget. I just don't want you to get in over your head with this. I know l keep telling you that I am giving you an 'out.' and I am, but I don't want to see you get hurt."
"What are you talking about?"
"I seem to have gained another ability," Bevin stated matter-of-factly.
"Like what?"
"The power of foresight," Bevin replied.
"The power of what?"
"I can kinda see the future."
"Oh, is that all?" Bridget mused.
"I am sure that you find this laughable, but Bridget, I am being serious."
"I can tell."
"Why are making light of this?" Bevin demanded.
"Because, I can see what all of this is doing to you. I am not worried. I might not be as prepared for all of this as you are it seems, but I think that l can handle it. Give me a chance. I know I might not perfect and I have no absolute clue what the Hell is really going on, but give a me chance."
"I will, Bridget. It is just that... I don't want you to get hurt. Things might get dicey. All I know is that the future keeps changing. I don't want anyone getting hurt because of me and this damn prophecy."
"Wait, what are you talking about?"
"The prophecy of my legacy...I am supposed to save my home realm. You've been researching the tattoos on my arms, remember? That is what I am talking about," Bevin replied.
"No, the part about no one getting hurt? Have you seen something happen to me? Is that why you are trying to warn me off?" Bridget asked.
"No, I haven't."
"Then, what's the problem?"
"I haven't seen you past them coming for me."
"Oh...like I disappear or something?"
"You just aren't there. There is an upcoming battle, but you aren't in it. It is like you just vanish. I can't explain it. I have tried to figure out what happens, but you are just gone. It doesn't make any sense to me. I don't want anything to happen to you. You are good friend and you don't deserve this."
"Thank you, but l doubt that anything major happens to me. Come on, who would want to kill me? I can't tell them anything that they don't already know about you. Listen, I am not going anywhere. Maybe you cloak me or something, couldn't that be it'?"
"Maybe, but I doubt it. I don't have that kind of power. I just I don't want anything to happen to you. Can you understand that? I feel like I've drug you into this. I feel responsible for you, now."
"I can take care of myself. Don't worry about me, okay. We'll deal with whatever comes."
Bridget didn't reply. She just took a drink of the soda in front of her. She knew that Bevin could hear her, but she didn't know what else to say. They were waiting on the mysterious women. She would have to wait and see what happened. She couldn't explain why she wasn't in the future that Bevin saw.
She didn't have a reason for anything that was going on, but magic, and magic wasn't real.
"Stop thinking about it," Bevin told her.
"I can't help it. I want to know what is going on. I want to know what is happening. I can honestly tell you that I am not happy about you not knowing who is coming for you, except for the fact they are an old family friend. Do you realize how old that would make them?"
"I do. That is why I said things are about to get really fantastic, as in fantasy, not good. Understand?"
"I get that, Bevin. I really do. I just wish there was some assurance that things are going to be okay."
"We don't have that in life. Why would you think that we would have that with this? This isn't exactly how I planned to live my life...well, this life. You know what I mean," Bridget replied.
Bevin sipped her tea slowly and regarded what Bridget was telling her. She wasn't afraid of what was to come, because she took everything one thing at a time. Bevin didn't understand her passive philosophy towards her life, but it worked for her. She couldn't fault Bridget for it. She took another sip and slowly let her breath go.
"Feeling any better?"
"I feel the same as I normally do, except for the fact that I can't see a damn thing. Is that what you wanted to know? All the tea is doing now is slowing down the process. It can't stop it. The Pendragon has been born and will be tapped soon, I think. Once he is tapped, there will be nothing that can be done to stop my transformation into the Sorcha. It won't stop until it is complete or I'm dead."
"Have you seen that far?"
"I really haven't tried. It kinda freaked me out that I was seeing the future to begin with. I mean at first it was just minutes. Then, over the last few days, hours really, I am getting whole days. I can't stop the visions. But, outside forces are changing things. I see the changes in the visions. I can't describe all that to you, but l can tell you that you are still gone. That much hasn't changed."
"Well, we'll deal with it when the time comes, okay? Let's not worry about something that isn't set in stone. Everything happens for a reason. This too will have a reason. I'm sure of it. We just have to wait and see what happens." Bridget told her.
"I just… "
"Stop worrying about me!"
"I'm ... it is just that… "
"No, there is nothing about me that you need to worry about. You are the one that is going through this shit, not me. I need you to focus on you for now. Who knows what is going to happen? No one does and that is the point. We don't know what is going to happen. You keep telling me that two women are coming for you, but you can't tell me when. We don`t know that they are actually coming. The future is meant to be changed. So, right now, worry about you and how we are going to deal with the situation we've been handed. You are blind and are getting more tattoos by the hour. Let's deal with that for right now. When something else happens, we'll deal with that then," Bridget commanded.
"You're right."
"I know I am. Now, let me see your right thigh. I want to try to translate the tattoos there."
"My thigh?"
"Yeah, Bevin, it's new. I can tell which ones are new because they look raw and fresh. Hold still while I take a picture of it. That way I can upload it into the laptop. It makes it easier to compare to old Ogham and Celtic writings. Give me a few minutes and we'll see what this one says," Bridget said.
"Okay, then."
Bridget took the required pictures of the tattoos and then left Bevin to her tea at the table. She knew that her friend meant well, but she was scared for Bevin. She wasn't going to leave her alone until she knew that everything was going to be okay. Bevin didn't need to know that. She was going to be there for support. She had been since this mess began and now, she felt like she needed to know what the ending was going to be. It was like she was part of the story and she needed to know how it ends.
She sat at the computer desk and uploaded the photos to her laptop. She made a mental note to prepare it for a trip. If the women coming were going to take Bevin with them, then she was going to go, too, along with her laptop and their research. She trusted Bevin's gut, but it just seemed odd that an "old" family friend would be coming for her ... now.
She pulled up her files on the Banshee Pendragon legends. She pulled up the pictures and tried to start matching the Celtic knot work to the pictures that she had saved. She had learned that each knot meant something different and over the years the meanings had changed. That made it harder to decipher some of the tattoos, but they used the context of what runes and Ogham were around to pick the era in which the tattoo was likely given and what the meaning may be. It made the research tedious in their limited time until the mysterious women showed up and took Bevin.
Bridget sighed. She was afraid for her friend. How could she not be? The young woman that she'd met during orientation for the equestrian team was now a mythical hero. She was actually, if the tales were true, over two thousand years old. That was hard enough in itself to grasp, but to learn that she had magicks and would save a fantasy realm for certain destruction with the aid of her husband-to-be was all just a little much. How could anyone deal with that? Bridget didn't think that she could, but Bevin was taking it all in stride and worrying about her instead. It just didn't make any damn sense.
Suddenly, she realized that the pictures were lining up. She had found a match with the triquetra. She knew that it meant the Holy Trinity for Christians and the Triple Goddess for pagans, but she didn't know what it meant for Bevin. She wasn't from here. What would the triangular knot mean for her?
She kept digging through her materials until she came up the article written by Dr. Seamus. It was called "The Morrigane." She immediately pulled up his website.
Her jaw hit the desk. This was the last symbol before the Pendragon would be united with the Sorcha according to the legends. It was simply called The Morrigane Mark. It would appear before the Pendragon would meet the Sorcha, telling those who were near, that the time had finally come for the rebirth of a united Avalon in the Land of the Youth...Tir Nan Og.
"Um...Bevin," Bridget stated.
"Yeah?"
"I think that you are going to me your husband sooner than you thought."
"What do you mean?"
"The newest mark is the last according to the legends that Seamus has found. It is called the Mark of the Morrigane. The Goddesses of the Fae have marked you as the Pendragon's lover or wife depending on the translation. You have passed the tests required of you, but the Pendragon must still earn the blessings of the Morrigane and the Merlins. In the tales they are referred to as the Ravens and the Wolves. 'The tattoo will mark the Queen's approval of Pendragon, who has yet to earn the blessing'."
"Well shite! I wonder what that means now. Could he be on his way here?" Bevin asked.
"I doubt it. He doesn't even know that you exist. He is just as lost in this as you are. I'm sure."
"We don't know that though."
"No, we don't," Bridget conceited.
She scrolled further down into the story on Seamus' pages. She was trying to find out as much as she could about the Pendragon, but there wasn't much there. She decided to Google it. All she got was the normal tales about Arthur and the wanton tales that he would come back to save Britain again, making it a ruling nation. She was getting nowhere fast and she knew it.
Then, she remembered the Ogham that were near the Mark of Morrigane. To anyone else it would have just looked like hush marked scars, but due to Bridget's want to help her friend, she knew what they were. She had spent too much time in the last two weeks trying to translate other Ogham symbols on the rest of her body. She found that it had become an easy language for her to learn. She could read the symbols and almost translate them back into perfect English.
"You found something?" Bevin asked breaking Bridget's thoughts.
"It seems that I have," Bridget replied.
"What?"
"It seems that you are going to meet your mother. She is the daughter of the Morrigane and only she will know the Pendragon by sight. She has to give her blessing upon him and set his trials in order to earn the Pendragon title. He is not of your realm, but he is not of mine, either. He seems to be a special child with three houses, whatever that means," Bridget told her.
"Three houses? Is that what it says? It actually says that he comes from three houses?"
"Yeah, the male child of the Three Houses shall undergo the Rites of the Pendragon. Once completed he will take the title and earn the markings. The Merlins will come for him and teach him the ways of the Youth and he shall be crowned the King of Avalon with the blessings of the Morrigane."
"Shite!"
"What?"
"My mother is one of the Morrigane," Bevin slated.
"Okay, we established that. What's the problem? I thought it would be a good thing."
"It would if I knew who she was."
"Do you think she is one of the women coming for you?"
"No, she isn't with them, but I think I know who they are."
"Who?"
"I think that they are related somehow to the Three Houses."
"How?"
"They are the figure heads of them. The houses are families. They are the matriarchs of the clans."