Explaining to Maire and her brothers what had happened in the forest had been an exercise in frustration, to say the least. Between her and Eoin attempting to explain their perspectives of the event and the other four interrupting with questions and comments (necessary or otherwise), the process took far longer than Ashling would have considered appropriate and even after all of the back and forth, Maire still seemed skeptical.
It was only when Ash finally showed her grandmother the burn on her hand that the disbelief in Maire's eyes disappeared. She reached out and took Ash's wrist, bringing the injury closer to her for inspection.
"Well," the older woman began, releasing Ash's hand, "This is something that will need to go before the Elders."
"Elders?" Ashling queried, bringing her hand back to cradle against her chest. The numbing that Eoin had done with his magic was beginning to wear off and the burning ache was returning.
"They are our strongest and wisest druids in the garrán. Hopefully, our collective knowledge will shed some light on the situation. This way, please." Maire turned on her heel and began to walk across the main hall, but instead of ascending the stairs as she had the night before, she approached a door next to the rightmost staircase that no one had noticed before. The door didn't have the grandeur of the main door entering the keep and almost blended into the walls that surrounded it.
The entire group followed dutifully behind Maire through the door and connecting corridors, the same ancient stonework here as in the hallways with the bedrooms. As they ventured deeper into the keep, voices began to bounce off the walls around them. Louder and louder they got until it became clear that the voices were arguing with each other.
"The garrán needs to be told about this!" One voice, a woman, called, her voice incredulous. "They have a right to know!"
"It will only cause panic," a male voice, deep and dripping with condescension, answered. "There is no need to unnecessarily cause an uproar."
"The garráns of France have all but fallen. Only a handful remain and none strong enough to fend off another attack from the scáthanna," the woman countered. "I would call the uproar that news would call wholly necessary."
Ashling froze at the woman's words and turned to meet Eoin's eyes, the warning of the Mórrígan ringing in her ears. Garráns across Gaul have already begun to fall to them. Untold numbers of druids dead. Soon, the dark will reach Inis Fáil. You are their last hope.
Eoin, too, looked worried. Their fears that the goddess had spoken the truth were confirmed. And to hear that it was the same monsters that had attacked Ashling's home that had been the ones to decimate so many lives? It made her blood turn to ice. Her family was lucky to be alive.
Maire stopped at the room where the voices were coming from, pushing open the old wooden door. Pausing momentarily before stepping inside, she called loudly: "Excuse me, everyone. I have an urgent matter to bring to this chamber."
"Ah, Matron McCoubrie. Please, join us," the male voice rumbled. Maire moved forward to fully enter the room, followed in short order by the McCoubrie brothers, Ashling and Eoin bringing up the rear.
The room was bright, more of the floating orbs of light that Ashling had noticed in the main hall floating in the ceilings. There was a great round table in the centre of the room, bringing forward the round table of Arthurian Legend to Ash's mind.
Standing in the room were three people, two women and a man. The woman closest to their group was older, though younger than Maire, maybe mid-fifties. She was slim, dressed in a pretty light blue dress. Her pitch-black hair hung in waves and made her dark brown eyes look almost black.
"Aunt Imogen," Eoin called, smiling at the woman before moving to embrace her.
"Eoin, my favourite nephew!" Imogen laughed, hugging her taller nephew with equal enthusiasm. "I had heard you were back home." Ashling was a bit surprised that this woman was related to Eoin. Though now that she saw them standing next to each other, it was as easy to tell they were related as it was her and her siblings.
Continuing with her scan of the room and leaving the two to catch up, Ashling turned to the second woman who was standing next to the windows on the far side of the room. She was about the same age as Imogen but with dirty blond hair and freckles. She, too, wore a dress, hers a dark green and floor length. Her face was beautiful, though it was thin and angular, giving her a bit of a sharp look. However, it might have also been the sneer on her face that was doing that.
Finally turning to the man sitting at the table, Ashling decided that he was quite sophisticated looking. He wore a navy suit jacket with a white collared shirt and matching dress pants. He had well-quaffed, salt-and-pepper hair and was cleanly shaven with fierce blue eyes that rolled over the new occupants of the room with an obvious disdain that put Ashling on edge almost instantly.
Ok, so the only one that seemed nice in any sense was Eoin's aunt. Tough crowd.
"Children," Maire began, turning to address her grandchildren, ignoring Declan's disgruntled scoff at the term of address, "May I introduce three of the members of the Elder's Council: Imogen O'Connor whom, I'm sure you have put together, is Eoin's aunt." Maire nodded towards Imogen as she introduced her, the latter woman turning to smile at each sibling in turn before zeroing in on Ash.
"It is so lovely to meet you all!" Imogen greeted. "I have been looking forward to this moment for a very long time! I was just saying to Alma the other day that-"
"Maybe you all can chat later, Imogen," Maire interrupted, before moving on, leaving Imogen looking a little sheepish. Maire then nodded to the blonde woman.
"This is Cordelia Foley." To which the other woman only inclined her chin slightly, allowing her to look even farther down her nose at them. "And Liam Doherty." He didn't even twitch to acknowledge them. Rude.
"Everyone, these are my grandchildren: Declan, Cian, Seamus and Ashling." Maire pointed to each one of them in turn after which all four of them replied with a quiet greeting of "nice to meet you". Their parents raised them with manners, after all.
Finally, the man, Liam, rose from his chair at the table and walked to stand in front of Ashling. Eoin, who had returned to his place next to her after greeting his aunt, placed a hand on her shoulder protectively, as if ready to pull her back and away from the councilman.
"So this is the little girl whose hands the fate of our very existence lays in," he drawled, dragging his eyes up and down Ashling in a way that made her very uncomfortable. Suddenly glad for Eoin's steady presence behind her, she leaned a little into him for support. "I must say, I am a bit disappointed."
"You and I both, Liam," Cordelia crowed from her place by the windows. "A little witch with no idea how to even use her powers? What is she going to be able to do that all of the strongest druids in the world couldn't?"
Ashling knew she was being cruel on purpose, trying to get under her skin, for some purpose or another. But, there was also a part of her that knew Cordelia might be right. What could she do? She had no idea how to use her magic to grow a simple flower, let alone save the world. How could she even defend herself from their intentional cruelty if she, too, thought as they did?
It was Maire who jumped in. "Enough. We have more important things to discuss at the moment."
"More important their our impending demise?" Liam droned again, turning from Ashling to face Maire after one more sneer in her direction. "And what would that be, exactly?"
Maire drew herself up taller and stood with an air that screamed "I am the leader here. Respect me," before stating: "How about the fact that my granddaughter has had a direct conversation with the mother goddess?"
Well, that ought to wipe the smug look off that asshole's face.