Tale of Destiny I: Nodonn
He was uneasy with the entire matter. It was unprecedented, if not remarkable. He and his counselors had little doubt that it was unintentional. The lady had no idea what it was that she had done, and in that neither did anyone else know. His changeling niece's human son was due any day now.
Nodonn was vexed, as much as the Sun King ever got vexed that is.
This situation was hardly critical, and on the face of it rather innoculous. Having opened negiotations with Sand, his niece.. Sidhe enough to be called a blood relation, he had made a pact for alloyed tools. Now, the time had come to enter formal allied relations. Sand, she was ambitious and he knew sooner or later he would covet her friendship rather than enimity. So, with a certain reluctance to change his people's isolationism, he broke tradition and extended the hand of friendship to Corilaine. It constituted a change, but one that he had come to grips with as inevitable.
His grand-niece (immortal as he thanks to an infusion of Oberon blood in that line), had a son.. Jayson. Sand would not depart her own country, but she would send him in her stead. A comely youth for human, though he was one eight the True blood, they had met on one other occassion. Well, after doubly assuring that there could be no trickery, or any mistake.. he had found Maevir. How she had flaunted her.. disdain for all that the Aeravyn stood for! Yes.. she had checked, curious what her human goatish lover had done with the child. Harven named the changeling after himself, arrogant bastard. Maevir after all this time would not come to him, or their kin, but stayed in seclusion. Sand, and Jayson in a unrecognized sense were of her brood, her grandchild (as human described the relationship), and the boy.. who would prove to be immortal as well.
At least that made him and his mother superior to the sons of man. At least he had that to be thankful for.
So, he had his servants make ready to host the boy, the Prince of Corilaine. A true King, he wanted to present all that his lands were.. and yet, how to put this delicately..? Not make the visit too long? His advisors came up with a good suggestion for once, why not have representatives from all over the dominion of Aeravyn come and present themselves to the Royal guest? In that way there would be no need to drag the manling all over the dominion, and still they would play the perfect hosts. A good excuse for a celebration, and Nodonn thought to himself.. too long since a really good excuse to call the Grand Tourney.
He had smiled at the thought. The regular Tourney came too infrequently, but this was enough justification to call for the great games, the jousts, the rituals of summer.. Even with the manling, what parties there could be!!
Yes, diplomacy and obligation could have it's rewards..
Then, this had happened. With the harvests due, the delegates of the Lands Under had been reluctant to assemble a reception. His Highness the Bright Eternal had been most annoyed, was this not a command? Was this phrased in the form of a request? Baah! They were hard workers, and if he demanded they sendone in the middle of the peak of the grape season than someone would suffer, the vinyards need all hands available. Such a community depended on all it's members, and they were unlike the other Sidhe.. They were 'agrarian', and at the same time they turned around and made it seem like nobility, and the Sidhe True's customs were something to be tolerated, not revered. Forcing the issue would accomplish nothing, so he dispatched a missive that he expected at the very least that they send a gift and something demonstrative of their lands and culture.
They had complied, and his sages indicated that a new Maker had written a personal letter to the manling Prince, and sent a bottle of a particularly fine vintage. Yet it was hardly a token, and Nodonn would have had words with someone over the miserliness of the effort. His delegates however begged that it was not out of stinginess, but rather haste that the offering was so small. They said the missive was to include an invitation to further accept the hospitality of the Lands Under.. if the Prince so wish.. Nodonn waved it off eventually, what was done was done, he could only be so concerned about the entire affair. No doubt the man would be impressed regardless of the small details.
Shortly after it arrived, his personal mage had alerted him to something. The letter and wine had the aura of a Making. This new Maker had empowered it somehow! Frowning, Nodonn asked what was the nature of the Making? He was displeased with the answer, it would have to be unsealed and read to know that. That action alone would release the Making on the reader, probabaly as was intended. There was no other way, as far as they could tell. A Making was not sorcery or conjuration, it was a wild and natural magic, a thing of creativity and spirit, it couldn't be redone or replicated by sorcery.
The Sun King faced a delimma, should he withold the Making (an act heretical- but then Nodonn had already seen beyond the scope of any lesser Sidhe) for fear of it's effect, or did he *dare* not tender it to whom it was intended?
Of course, the King had another means of acquiring information. He had Ancient Brede. The Ancient One could tell him something, surely? If not the contents and the effect, then at very least the outcome?
Gathering his closest advisor and mage, and his personal Champion, the Sun Spear, he personally climbed the winding steps of the Tower of Mysteries, up to Brede's quarters, sometime's called the Room with No Doors or Windows. Brede lived there, above Nodonn's Castle of the Sun, in close proximity to the Court and in his own way.. complete seculsion. He was attended by his own nursemaids, and except for Nodonn himself (who went where he pleased) he saw no visitors. Actually, the people had forgotten the Ancient One lived, and that suited Nodonn just fine. He would have none disturb the peace of his personal prophet save himself.
The Room with No Doors or Windows, was actually several rooms, created long before Nodonn's time that blocked all telepathy, trump, and other powers even more arcane. In this place the Ancient One could rest and dream untroubled by the thoughts of those around him, or visions unsought after.
Of Brede.. Brede was not Sidhe. Brede was not one of the ancient progenitors of the Sidhe, the Tanu. Legend out of time, said that the Tanu brought Brede with them to the Lands of Song, and when they passed beyond the Veils- they left him behind to be cared for by their children, the Sidhe. Brede was just Brede, a singular being, with no others like him. He appeared to be Sidhe, but there were differences. The Ancient One was so telepathic, in his millenium of existance, he could no longer control it well. His eyes were violet with no discernable pupils. Balding, with the sharp pointed ears of a Sidhe he looked like an ancient oddly beautiful goblin. He had another feature no Sidhe had regardless of his age.. he had facial hair, a soft straggley white beard. His teeth had fallen out, and he needed assistance to move around, and slept a majority of the time. He was sustained on moistened soft bread, and broth. What did one expect from an alien being, as old as the Gods?
Ancient scrolls were once written that in the misty old ages that terrible Dworkin, the King of Amber had once come to see Brede, in a time before Clan Aeravyn ruled the Lands of Song, and Clan Donn did instead. It was written that the Ancient One had wept and cried, and would not see him, but bid him to leave him peace, the visions too terrible to behold. The King of Amber had respectfully withdrawn and never again did return to the Lands of Song.
Nodonn's Father had burned those scrolls, and told Nodonn of their secrets on his deathwatch.
Nodonn pampered and kept Brede for one reason, if not for fear of retribution, and that was because the Ancient One was prescient. Brede saw the futures.. arrayed before him like all the possibilities of Shadow.
Brede would know.
They woke him gently, and when he was sufficiently roused, the Sun Spear (his spear appropriately doused) guided the tenders from the place so that the three Lords could speak to the Ancient One in private.
"Ancient one..? It is me.. Nodonn.."
"...Nodonn? .." The Ancient One stared confused, but not for long.
"What is it that you wish me to see, Nodonn?" he croaked.
Nodding to his mage, Nodonn accepted the sealed missive.
"This was sent from one of my people to the son of a neighboring world.. a-"
"A human, Nodonn, I see him now.. golden boy.." interupted the old thing. None save the Ancient One would have the tremity to cut the Sun King off in mid-speech. The Sun King did not object, the pay off was so much greater than any slight.
"Yes."
A clawed hand reached for the envelope. "I sense Calliope's handiwork. She has touched this thing."
Leaning closer to hear him better, "Can you tell me why?"
The being blinked at the King. "I know nothing of the Muses, they are inscrutible to me.." it whined. "You know that Nodonn.. I know only what is, what was, and mostly what might be."
"Then what might happen, will it do him harm?"
"Without it.. in ninety of one hundred times, I see him dead within a season. With it, he only dies in the scarcest of occasions. No.. it is meant to be, that he have this."
"Does this.. Syanda.. does she know the man?"
"Not now."
"What is she to him then, or he to her?"
"Nothing now.. but I-- it.. it is remarkable.. In almost all times, if he opens it.. it will lead him to her bed."
Nodonn set his perfect jaw. "So, that is what it is.. they seek to form their own power faction by stealing an outlander Prince! They use the power to snare him!"
The Ancient One shivered and moaned, and Nodonn calmed himself. "No.. no.. she is a woman-child, sweet, guileless. You are wrong Nodonn, you are wrong.."
The mage touched the King lightly on the sleeve, and whispered lightly in the raven haired Nodonn's ear. The King nodded at the suggestion. "What is the result of the union?"
"There are too many posssibilities. I see another woman. Gold hair child, and behind her are other women.. There is too much to see.. In the shortest of times, she will teach him compassion, and to be less selfish, that is the best that I can say."
"And what happens to the Land of Songs, if I withold it from him?"
"Your ruination Nodonn, the Land of Songs will be no more.."
Nodonn frowned, paling at the ominous prediction. "If we give it to him, then we are saved?"
"Most of the time.."
Raising his hand to the King, the Spear silently asked if he might a question. With a wave of his hand, Nodonn granted his consent.
"Ancient One, revered master, what can you tell us about this man?"
The old creature laid in it's bed, thinking, then it began to whiper. "He is tied on all sides by strings. He is like a fly in a web. I see a tall Queen. There are three other Queen's. A human child with hair of Gold, who dreams of him nightly. It is a confusing thing.. he will be pulled on all sides, and one of the strings is Nodonn's. He is marked by the Father who Robbed the Wyrm, however, and he will give him free will, but that itself is a hard path. So many paths lead to and from him, I cannot see around him!" The old creature began to shriek, "I see a dark man! I see an evil man who would blind him!" Brede clawed blindly at the air, "Nodonn! I am tired.. please?"
Shaking his head, Nodonn pressed, "Who would threaten me? My Lands?"
"Dragons..." Nodonn frowned, but that was nothing new to hear. "And Doors! I see Doors!" Brede began to shake and cough..
The mage leaned to the King, "I think we have exhausted him enough today, my pardons my King."
He nodded, "Yes.. this is proving too much of a strain on him.." Turning to the old being on the bed, "Brede, we leave you now.. You must rest, and dream peacefully now."
The Ancient One closed it's violet eyes and nodded imperceptibly. "Nodonn? Can you have them bring me some broth please?"
"At once Brede."
The King and his companions turned to leave, but at the door the old creature called out, "Nodonn?"
"Yes?"
"You must give it to him.. It belongs to him. He must take it, it is his."
The King looked puzzled, "I will Old One."
"It always was..."
Uneasy, Nodonn instructed his chamberlin's to return the gift with the others. What choice did he have? He had to attach as many strings as he could to the boy. All he could do is try to assure the boy thought kindly of his great granduncle.. he had to..