"The Legacy of Eire"

Though eons and millennia had passed on the Natural Plain, only one short century had gone by in the Otherworld for Michael, Saoirse, Ryan and his siblings - brothers Cian and Daire, named two warriors who had fallen in the war with Don Dorcha; and their sister, four year old Eilish.

Little Eilish was all the shining stars of twilight in her father's eyes, she was most precious to him. Her eyes were as blue and as bright as a winter's moon, with hair as blond and as soft as her mother's. Michael rules in Eire's place, as she remained a mystic recluse - though her presence was always known to be there.

The Otherworld had returned to a state very much like that before the revolt of Don Dorcha. There was no turmoil, nor genocide - the rivers of Eire were clear and clean, no longer thick and stained by human blood. Yet despite the current peaceful atmosphere of the Otherworld, Michael was not the naive. Long periods of Eire's absence always concerned him. The ideal of eternal harmony was unrealistic and surrounding Michael knew it.

Eire looked in upon Michael often. She ran her fingers across the water of her vision pool and the image dispersed. From the recesses of the blue mists of the Otherworld Eire saw and knew all of her realm and of her champion Michael. For countless moments in her eternity Eire had looked upon Michael for seemingly hours - she had through his childhood and adolescence, at the times he proved himself as a man, and all his days on the Natural Plain. She now took such happiness and pride in watching Michael with his people, his family - especially Eilish, and the unconditional love and devotion he had for Saoirse.

Eire was however saddened by the fact that Michael would never realize just how valuable he was to her, nor how integral he was to the continuum between the Otherworld and the Natural Plain. Eire knew she would never reveal herself totally to Michael, her secret to remain a whisper in the blue mists.

Millennia and Millennia ago......a time when Unicorns still dwelled on the NaturalPlain...

Eire's anguish over the murder of her husband Mac Greine had only just begun to soften. Mac Greine was her first and only love and to have lost him pained her greater that had she lost her sisters, Fodla and Banba. The Triune sisters were devoted to each other and so vitally connected on the most spiritual and cosmic level that their thoughts and emotions pulsated as one.

When the warriors of Golahm had invaded the Natural Plain, Eire's husband was slain by the warrior Amairgen with the soul of Eire's husband becoming one with the earth. Casualties followed, including the husbands of her sisters. When Eire attempted to salvage the honor of the Triune and the land, she was slighted. In the end the Goddesses reclaimed the land and ousted their would-be conquerors. But alas, Eire had still lost the love of her life, and her son - his valiant father.

Eire's grief had been greatly solaced by her happy little son. The child seemed unaware that his father had been taken from him. His freely given light and exuberance was the only aspect in Eire's otherwise empty soul.

It was Eire's love for her son that made her decision to send him away from her and easy one to burden. Many sons of Golahm had been slain in the was and the lives taken of the warriors of Eire was no compensation. Eire was the protector and mother of the land and its people. But it was the son that had grown from her that was her weakness. Should the boy be taken from her, her sisters had reasoned, her strength and power would be unsalvageable.

Eire complied and for the sake of her son allowed him to leave the blue mists that had blanketed him when his mother sang him to sleep; to leave to spirits and faeries that played with him; and the unicorn foals that he so loved riding.

The boy knew somehow that this night would be the last time he would see his mother. When she went to lay him down to sleep he clung to her clothes as though sustained his breathing. Hot tears stained his face as he tried with all the power within him to remember every facet of her being....her floral scent, the temperature of her body, the way the light danced on her hair, he lovely face and her clear blue eyes - the eyes that expressed nothing but true pure love.

Eire held him and sang to him. He fought the embrace of tranquil slumber, but soon his eyes were too heavy and Eire's enchanting melody too powerful. He was a precious babe in arms, asleep, breathing quietly and contentedly unaware.

Moments later Mac Greine's trusted and strong friend, the first chosen warrior of the Otherworld, Karl, came for the child. The little one barely stirred as Eire lay him in Karl's arms. Karl took Eire's hand and held it, reassuring her of his devotion to her and her son. Eire's soul ached as she watched her son fade from the blue mists into the heart of the Otherworld.

When the boy awoke and saw he was without his mother he did not cry or wail, but instead accepted his sense of abandonment. Though the boy was scared, he was not on his own. He knew and trusted Karl, all his affections were transferred to his father's chosen warrior.

Though only Karl knew the boy's true identity, al the people of the Otherworld embraced the child - his light touched each and everyone of them. Karl kept a continuous watchful eye as the boy grew and matured. People of the Otherworld educated him and taught him the traditional arts - dance, music, poetry, archery, sword fighting, combat strategy, marining and so on. All the Otherworld was his playground. Eventually the boy lost the image of his mother, the community was his sole family and Eire now a Goddess above him.

It saddened Karl to extremes that the boy, who had now grown into a brave youth, believed he was an orphan. Eire trusted Karl as she had he husband, she knew the years under Karl's wing had been only a benefit to her son.

It seemed that Eire's son had been unnoticed by Golahm, who spent his lives searching him out.....not for a second had he relented his search for the only heir of Mac Greine. Searching the eternal plains of the Otherworld and the land of the Natural Plain, Golahm and his minions were in a constant state of pursuit. It was inevitable that the natural divinity of Eire's son would be his ultimate downfall. The shining light of the son of the Goddess of all was too much in evidence once the Golahm warriors had seen him.

Even though the war had ended ages ago and Golahm's ultimate victory had been the murder of Mac Greine, the death of Eire's son was a revenge he craved - in retaliation for the death of his own sons.

Karl's instincts sensed the impending strife with evil. As he prepared to reveal Eire's son his true identity and the coming of Golahm, he was visited by two of the sisters of the Triune, Fodla and Banba. The Goddesses appeared from a void to stand before the chosen warrior of Eire and her entire realm, they spoke in unison;

"Our nephew has a destiny to fulfill, Karl....The son of Eire and Mac Greine is to face Golahm, alone and by his own strength and guile. We offer him the sword of his father - the first forged at the inception of the Otherworld.....a time before time existed." the sword, bejeweled with a sapphire, its blade broad and long. As Karl put his hands under the cold blade and took it from Fodla and Banba, the vanished , encompassed by the blue light of the hidden realms of the Otherworld.

Karl's confidence in the young man's strength and character was great, yet he had never faced the wrath of one such as Golahm. By virtue of the fact that Golahm had killed Mac Greine, the fight with his son would be glorious, however unpredictable.

The boy was utterly confused by the hoard of menacing warriors that had come upon them and his comrades. Karl returned just as the warriors were within 20 paces of Eire's son. Karl held the sword, are outstretched for him to take.

"Prepare for battle," shouted Karl, handing the weapon over. Within that moment the battle began and the clashing of weapons and the tearing of flesh sent a ripple of thunder through the entire Otherworld, extending into the blue mists and Eire.

Warriors fell, honorable men died along with scoundrels. The boy's training was in evidence as he stood a stronger ground and fought a braver, harder fight than any man of Golahm's. It was however a given that Eire's son would eventually come before Golahm himself. The courageous lad ceased his fighting with the warriors, to face the heinous Golahm himself. The son of Eire, despite his heart and confidence, was slain by the same abomination that had killed his father.

Karl charged Golahm, only to be faces by another wave of warriors, he fought fiercely and without mercy to reach the dying son of Eire. Golahm knelt over the boy. The fallen warrior, the only male born in the blue mists, lay perilous on the earth, the virtual body of Eire. the boy choked on his blood as he tried to curse Golahm, but the evil butcher thrust his blade in deeper - through into the ground.

"You do not even know why I have killed you?" seethed Golahm,"I have tried to take
the Otherworld and the Natural Plain for longer that you have been alive. I killed your father as easily as I do you now." The boy's eyes widened and he struggled to remain conscious, the anticipation of possibly finally knowing the name of his father, the key to his heritage and identity. The desire to know sustained him through the pain.

"Your father dies to protect the two realms, along with your mother....killing you has been a far greater victory than killing your father. Now there is nothing left to obstruct from dominating them...your mother........" Eire's name stuck in Golahm's throat and burned like and acid. Karl had plunged his sword through Golahm's heart. He withdrew it and swung it around, taking the head and releasing the immortal soul of Golahm from the body. Though he ought to have been reborn onto the Natural Plain once again, Fodla and Banba appeared and captured it.

Karl took Eire's sword from beside the still body of her son and thrust it into the ground, summoning Eire. She appeared, surrounded by the blue light that followed her from the corners of the Otherworld. She looked at Karl with only warmth and love. Burning tears began to stream down her face as she knelt down to her son, cradling his head on her lap. As the tears fell on her son's face and washed away the blood from the corners of his mouth, his corporeal entity began to fade and disperse. His soul have moved on to the Natural Plain - for its first mortal life. Without the soul inhabiting it, the flesh lost its matter.

Once her son's body had disappeared entirely Eire rose and moved towards Karl. They stood facing each other, her sword between them in the ground. Karl knew Eire's heart and it was understood that no animosity was held towards him. Her son had been instilled with courage, compassion, empathy, skill, guile and honor. Eire credited Karl solely. Her son had been raised by a man she loved as much as she had Mac Greine.

In unison Karl and the Triune placed their hands on the neck of the sword and in a blinding blue flash were gone.

Expectations that the war between the loyal of Golahm and the warriors of Eire had only just begun were dispelled by none other than the eldest son of Golahm, Don Dorcha. Don Dorcha had fought alongside his father's warriors and observed the son of Eire in battle. It was evident to him that the progeny of Mac Greine was worthy of reverence and respect and not petty revenge. As the eldest son of Golahm, Don Dorcha vowed to Eire to protect her and her realm from any challenging conqueror, such as his father was. The Natural Plain became known to mortals, by virtue of Don Dorcha, for an eternity to come as the land of Eire.

Don Dorcha became loyal to Eire alone, creating a legacy Golahm could never have conceived of. Eire and her sisters, along with Karl receded into the blue mists, as Don Dorcha took the reigns of the Otherworld.

Meanwhile Eire and Karl kept vigil over Eire's son and the lives he lived - on both the Natural Plain and in the Otherworld. He on the Natural Plain he loved, married, had children; he fought, died and ruled. In the Otherworld he was a diplomat, a warrior and a servant of Eire's. He crossed into and out of the Otherworld many times over, each time feeding a reputation as a valiant leader and a man of integrity.

For many lives over Eire's son glided back and forth between worlds, living seemingly blessed. Increasingly, he was becoming aware of the fact that Eire held particular favor towards him. As with all souls who exist between the Natural Plain and the Otherworld, when in the Otherworld they were completely cognizant of the lives they had lived. The prodigy of Karl's had never wavered from being an inspiring and honorable man. He acted in honor of Eire - of whom he was naturally grateful for such an abundant and blessed existence.

As the cusp of the beginning of Eire's son's 12th life on the Natural Plain, Karl approached Eire to propose to her that her son ought to be told the truth about from who he came. Karl reasoned that any threat of retaliation from the loyal of Golahm had long since died, Don Dorcha proving that point a thousand fold. Yet Eire was overwhelmingly opposed, despite the logic of Karl's argument. The anguish Eire had held within her over having abandoned her son was too much for her to face. She rather him never know the truth than despise her for her actions of millennia and millenia ago.

Whilst her son lived his 12th life on the Natural Plain, Fodla and Banba persuaded Eire to enable a spiritually timeless gift for their nephew.

As since the inception of time, space and matter...true love had been the constant and invariable force that bound it all together. For each soul that has ever been created its twin had also. The two eternal entities never truly parted as they changed forms, be it corporeal or celestial. They never failed to reunite as they passed from life to life. These souls were created in a realm beyond the blue mists - a place not even known by the Gods.

Eire's son had such a mate, yet he had never known his other half in the flesh....his counterpart had taken no form other than that of a divine being of pure light. "She" had always been anonymously at his side - protecting him, loving him, knowing him in his dreams.

The combined power of the Triune brought the being prematurely from the state of light into a body of flesh. Once Eire's son returned to the Otherworld for the 12th time, the soul of his counterpart's would be born into the Natural Plain.

Eire's son began his 12th life in the Otherworld...presuming this one to be as the
others. As a form of redemption Eire would grant her son the greatest gift any had ever received - the foreknowledge of who his soul mate was. He would not ever have to ache for his true love, nor wander blindly through each life who was his other half.

Eire's son was alone on a far plain, practicing wielding his sword, on an apparently quotidian day. His concentration was disrupted by the fabric of reality being torn apart before him. It was first Karl who stepped from the blue light, his hand leading Eire through after him. Though her son did not recognize her as his mother, he knew she was the gracious Goddess of all. He knelt instantly before he. She in turn came down to him and Karl disappeared back from where they had come - leaving Eire reuniting with her son.

Eire's looked intensely into the eyes of her son and spoke to him;

"Though your existence has been shrouded in the unknown - you have prevailed as my
most loyal and valiant warrior.....the rewards you deserve are not those material, nor of honor in battle......" They rose in unison and Eire beheld a portal through to the Natural Plain,"You will know instantly your purpose...and my gratitude to you is eternal."

He had not even a chance to reply before the blue light enwrapped him entirely and the image of he Natural Plain took form. He emerged into a forest, lush and dense. He was drawn to his soul mate...their magnetic pull was overwhelming. Presently he came upon a small village. It was overwhelmed by people from all over the land, gathered for the festival of Beltane. To him she clearly stood apart from the whole. As he came to the edge of the forest, they were both totally overwhelmed.....they were merely paces from eternal ecstasy...

The eons that had passed since the time that Michael had found Saoirse were innumerable. the war with Don Dorcha was still a fresh wound in the cosmic scheme or Eire's people. But the strength of Michael and Saoirse and their children; Ryan, Cian Daire, and Eilish; was the core of the entire Otherworld. Eire's progeny had established a firm and everlasting empire.

And now it has come full circle - the Empire of Eire was threatened by a silent, hidden pulse of evil. Those loyal to Golahm, whose soul was stilled under the possession of Fodla and Banba, had silently been reuniting over the ages that had passed. Don Dorcha's men had joined with the warriors of the remaining sons of Golahm. Though they were impotent at the moment...they were gaining strength daily.

Eire hesitantly approached Michael to ask him to once again sacrifice his sanctual existence now in defense of both the Otherworld and the Natural Plain. The infectious evil of Golahm had spread silently down through the ages...to all realms.

Humanity was forever entrapped in paradigm shifts...technology, ethics, society, monism's were in perennial flux. Where as Eire had maintained the Otherworld in the ways of traditional magic, as it had been in the very beginning. However the Natural Plain was no longer under her influence, logic and reason, had long outweighed the cosmic and ethereal. The only way to conquer Golahm's influence was for Michael to show us the light.....he would leave the Otherworld, and allow himself to be reborn into ours.

It was understood clearly by all the significance of Michael's journey back to the Natural Plain. His family and clan gathered for farewells. His son's were strong and confident to stand for Eire in their father's absence. Saoirse was greatly saddened that her husband was leaving, however their love was eternal....to be separated merely by alternate dimensions was insignificant. It was however no so easy for little Eilish to accept. One so young could not fully comprehend why her Da' was leaving her. Michael held her gently and himself cried at the sight of his daughter's tears...tears that reminded him painfully of when another child had cried so many millennia ago.

His seemingly innocent appearance in our present world had in fact signaled a new era in human history...though it not yet is so evident.. The love and light that has spread to the four corners of the globe, is uniting the best of Good and Love's warriors....his energy and ethereal body drawn from the Otherworld. He is the chosen son of the Ireland of the Natural Plain and the truest Legacy of Eire.

Dressed in leather and chain mail, with Eire's sword at her side, the grown Eilish arrived at the door of the Mystic's House of Darkness, where he meditated and channeled. She entered his lair, becoming completely surrounded by the total darkness inside. A flame was ignited....from the Mystic's hand it came, the flame in turn igniting the fire pit in front of him.

"You are the Mystic Shamus..." Eilish began, but was interrupted when he smiled and motioned for her to sit across from him.

The Mystic was knowledgeable beyond what his esoterically handsome and young face insinuated. His appearance was unlike her's, from a land of sun he had once come, though his soul had found it's home in Eire's Otherworld. He was a gentle sage, enlightened by the mysticism of ancient magic as old as the Triune.

Eilish did not need to explain why she had sought Shamus, him so far back in the
blue mists....he simply knew. He began quietly in a voice, echoing in ethereal wisdom, nearly hypnotizing. He brought out her memories of watching her parents dance through till morning, caught in a purest embrace; the memory of his departing; and then he showed her where he was now.....in our world, but in a different role than his past ones. He was dancing, enthralled in the ecstasy of it. Eilish saw the wonders he had created and moreover the people he had brought together. He had projected his past lives onto a stage...she saw the characters of his past......her mother, Eire, Don Dorcha, the Little Spirit and so many others. Eilish for the first time, by the grace of the Mystic understood.

Eilish left the Mystic and returned to her father's castle....there Fodla and Banba had awaited her...this was the first time any of the Triune sisters had made themselves apparent to her.

"We have released Golahm."

to be continued......in December or so.........