Chapter 14

As soon as they leave the mist, Kali immediately gives in to the song in order to destroy this dark person in front of her. Morgana brings her own weapon up in time to block the incoming blow even as she releases her own bindings and glamours while starting to pull deeply on her domain.

To start with, the battle seems to be going in The Morrigan's favour, as her ability to shift in and out of the mist gives her a much larger tactical advantage than Kali's berserker dance of death gives her. It doesn't take long for that advantage to erode as Kali sprouts first one additional set of arms, then another and another, until she has 5 pairs of arms, all working together.

For three days and three nights their battle rages ceaselessly, neither being able to gain an absolute advantage over the other, hard-won experience and discipline against the chaos of the destroyer. At the dawn of the 4th day Kali steps through the mist and stabs her sword through The Morrigan's back.

As it goes through her mantle, Badb explodes into a murder of crows taking over as the dominant aspect of The Morrigan. No more is she The Morrigan, a battle tempered queen. Instead, she is the now the chaos of battle, death, and fate. Where before the fight was one of skill against destructive power, now it is a whirling maelstrom of chaos, with each crow transforming into a crazed, sword wielding, woman who takes strikes against Kali whenever the opportunity arises. Each crow also disappearing into the mist, or a puff of feathers when struck, only to reform some where in the crow darkened area.

Over the next week, Kali proves that her reputation for defeating Asura that others are unable to is not for show, as she starts to use the mist more and more to both avoid attacks as well as making her own. Eventually, the two of them lie, utterly spent, in the middle of the field of the dead.

Morgana looks over, "Are you; ready to; talk now;"

Kali looks back, "Too tired. I can see your light now."

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Kate hesitantly steps out of the mist into the Hogwarts infirmary with Marie holding her hand. While she doesn't yet have the full control over her magic and traveling through the Otherside that she needs. Airmed and Marie have deemed her good enough at pushing her magic into the mist for this trip.

Poppy looks up from her paperwork and carefully puts down her quill when she sees the towering woman that's just appeared.

Kate licks her lips before she speaks, "Madam Pomphrey, I just want to say thank you for trying to look out for me."

Poppy shakes her head, "You're most welcome dear, I'm glad to see you came out of the ordeal healthy. Now, one moment I'm just going to cast some diagnostics on you."

"Madam Pomphrey, I have a request."

Poppy lowers her wand, "Go on?"

"Would you be able to teach me?"

There's a clatter as Poppy's wand falls to the floor, "I'm sorry?"

While Poppy retrieves her wand, Kate starts to explain how she ended up in the situation in the Main Hall. Haltingly starting with meeting Shaun and the chair.

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Padma stoically sits next to Kali's statue in Nepal, alone, as Kali's followers and petitioners make their sacrifices. Kali never normally misses this, but now she's missed three days. She's so lost in thought and worry about Kali that she doesn't even notice the man wreathed in darkness until he's leaning over to sacrifice a goat. By which time it's too late for him, as her eyes snap open, red iris' immediately locating the man. The sword that Kali gave her appears in her hand as she lunges forward and, with a single swipe, takes his head. As the rest of the crowd cower back in fear, she raises the head over her mouth and drinks some of his blood before returning to her seat.

While she's sitting there, her eyes return to their natural brown and she struggles not to vomit as she realises she's stroking the hair on the head.

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Dora and Marie have both spent an inordinate amount of time at Hogwarts over the last 8 days. Finally, Harry looks over at them both during a study session, "Where's Mum?"

They both glance at each other, and Dora speaks up first, "Um, she's in her domain, fighting Kali."

Padma looks up alert, "We need to stop them!"

Marie grimaces, "Really, we don't. Both Dora and I have looked into the domain and almost died in the process. Did you hear about Morgana's fight with Mannan? That's like a gentle spar compared to what's happening now. Honestly, I think the only person that might possibly survive going there is Harry here. That's only because he's had what, five, or six, years personal training from Morgana?"

Harry nods, "Seven years now. But I don't have the magical training that Mum has. But if things are like that, I don't think I'd be poking my head into the main part of the domain. I'd probably enter from one of the protected areas, like the Flamel's cottage, or the shrine to women."

Dora and Marie glance at each other with a sour expression on their faces. Ruefully, Marie says, "I guess that's where experience trumps age then."

Dora nods, "Seems so. Anyway, how are classes?"

Marianne looks up smiling, "They're great, you can do so much with Potions and Herbology. We're going over the fire protection potion, and there's also a strengthening solution coming up. I'm not sure what the point of the hair-raising solution is."

Dora grins, "It's usually used with the hair restoration potion so that you can tell when you've drunk enough."

"Um, ok…"

"Don't worry, you'll probably understand when you're older. What about the rest of you?"

Hermione glances up from her book, "It's all fine, except Defence. We've had two lessons, in the first the Professor released a bunch of Cornish Pixies, though I think they looked more like Gremlins from what Evie has said. The next lesson, we were talking about banshees, and absolutely nothing matched up with other sources."

"So, what's the correct approach, and who could help you with this issue?"

Hermione looks up at the ceiling as her eyes move left and right while she thinks, "I think you need physical hearing protection as well as a silencing charm, as the banshee can sometimes break through magical measures. Something they have in common with Mandrakes as it happens. You would then need to locate it's lair during the daylight, as they don't exist while the sun is up. Having found the lair, you need to confront it while it awakens and find it's anchor point. That's as far as most of the books go, as it is a well-kept trade secret amongst monster hunters."

"Hermione, I was talking about your Defence class, not Banshee's."

"Oh, um sorry, write a complaint? Maybe talk to Professor Flitwick?"

"And?"

Hermione looks confused, "Shouldn't that be enough?"

Marie rolls her eyes before gesturing at everyone else in the study session, "Talk to other people about doing the same thing. One person is an anomaly, 40 people is a problem. Once is coincidence, 20 times is a pattern. I know you're only 13, but it's still something that's important to know. If you are the only person complaining, then it's likely that you'll be ignored. If it's only one small group, that can also be ignored. But if everyone complains, and they complain repeatedly, institutions tend to investigate things."

"Is this another of those things that's never written down?"

Marie looks up at the ceiling and sighs, before looking back at Hermione, "Yes, Hermione, it is."

Later on, Professors Sprout, Flitwick, and McGonagall will get the first of what will eventually become a deluge of letters about the Defence class.

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Kali runs out of the mist into a private house built into the mountain near Mundeshwari Temple. The same place that her Lord Shiva has been living since his ill advised journey to the centre of Christian worship.

"Lord Shiva, look! I can visit now, and I've found someone else that can calm the song. Though she's not as quick as you are."

Shiva has just enough time to brace himself when Kali catches him in a 10 armed hug, "I've missed you, have there been any Asura that you've had trouble with? How's Parvati doing? I've got a new chosen, her names Padma and her sister's called Parvati. I think Padma might actually survive to take on some of my prayers. Why haven't people been praying to me recently?"

Shiva reaches up and pulls Kali into a kiss, causing her to fall silent, "It is good to see you again Kali. Especially while you are of sound mind. Parvati has missed you these many years. How have you come to be here?"

Shiva looks at his consort, that he hasn't seen in centuries, as she chatters on happily about the things she's learnt and discovered. If only he'd been able to discover the secrets behind these traps…

"…I could now go and deal with that darkness in the north east."

Shiva pulls his attention back to the conversation, "Kali, I think you should first seek to learn what has transpired there rather than just wiping it off the map. The gods are no long ascendent, and you know what you're like while you're in the presence of darkness."

Kali leans back, "Huh?"

"Time has moved on, my consort, and so have our people. When they pray to myself and Parvati they tell us of their lives and desires. If you go in, will you be worse than the problem? I have heard them asking if they should call for The Morrigan, or Airmed, or even an Aoibhgreine, maybe"

"I know The Morrigan, she's the one who fought me till my song quieted."

Shiva stares at her, speechless.

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Mihaela desperately clutches at the stone, given to her by Morgana. Any hint of atheism she had when she was given it has been dispelled by repeatedly seeing responses to prayers, sometimes even her own. While she was supposed to be on a flight to Geneva to receive some medals and a promotion a few weeks ago. She chose to stay with her men after they heard about the incoming siege and refused to evacuate Srebrenica. It was probably too late for them to evacuate now, as they've started shooting at supply planes entering the area.

Morgana appears in front of Mihaela, "You prayed for me? Why not just talk using the stone?"

"The people in the town behind me are all refugees from the surrounding area. I know they're Muslim, but they're just people and the Serbian army wants to kill all of them. Can you protect them the same way you did the other town?"

Morgana narrows her eyes, "Why should I help people that follow the same religion that wiped out my own people?"

Mihaela points behind her, "Because they didn't wipe out your people. They don't know better. All they want to do is live their lives."

Morgana crosses her arms, "If that's true, why did they not seek out the sanctuary? Or even pray to one of us?"

"Because there's an army between them and the Sanctuary. Some of them have tried to get there, only to have to run from the Serbs. It also doesn't help that the Sanctuary is protecting Serbs from Croats either."

"I could just open a portal to the Sanctuary, and they could all leave."

"Morgana, there's 20,000 Bosniak's in that town. Even if we let them all through, Sanctuary couldn't handle them all. There's also no guarantee that the Croat's wouldn't treat them the same way they're treating the Serbs that are filtering into Sanctuary."

"Mihaela, even if we wanted to, we couldn't protect that town the same way we protected the Sanctuary, we had three of the Tuath Dé and it almost exhausted all of us. We'd need a massive sacrifice in order to do that, and human sacrifice is frowned upon these days."

"Use me then. If it will keep innocent people alive and safe, use me, use my life."

Morgana's dagger is suddenly out and pointed at Mihaela's heart, "Are you sure? You only have one life, and if you give it to protect these people, who will protect everyone else?"

"I could die to a bullet tomorrow, and they'd be left vulnerable. If my life is the cost to keep them safe, then that's what I signed up to when I became a soldier."

Morgana waves her hand and creates an illusion of a stone alter with a burning brazier beside it, "Lay down on your back, with your head towards the brazier."

Shaking, Mihaela does so, once she's lying down Morgana sighs, "Oh Danu, why must mortals be so quick to throw away their lives?" Walking over, she easily grips Mihaela by her body armour and hoists her to eye level, "Fine, you're willing to sacrifice your life, then wait right there."

Sitting her back on the altar, Morgana disappears into the mist for a few minutes.

When she returns, Morgana angrily shoves a crab apple at Mihaela, "Eat! Every single bit, including the core."

Obediently, Mihaela does so, choking down the extremely sour fruit. As soon as she finishes, and starts doubling over with cramps, Morgana picks her up and vanishes into the mist. After an indeterminable amount of time, they appear in a land shrouded in darkness. There, Morgana unceremoniously dumps Mihaela on the floor.

"This used to be the domain of Aífe, rival to Scáthach, and mother to Cú Chulainn's only son. She came to Ireland after her child, and stayed to mourn. On her own, she gained enough fame amongst my people that she was able to carve out a domain in the Otherside. This domain. She was known as a protector, a teacher, and a warrior. You were so willing to sacrifice your life? Well done, you can either die here pointlessly, or you can find Aífe's power and join with it, leaving your mortality behind. No longer will you be Mihaela, you will be Aífe, also known as Mihaela."

Mihaela opens her mouth to object, but Morgana leaves in a swirl of mist.