Monday, June 20, 2011

Flawed Victory of Mag(got) Hell...

One of the problems with military history is that one can get too often bogged down in the minutiae of battle and miss the larger picture.

Of the Battle of Mag Mell, in which I was a marginally effective combatant, I can say this much...

We won. Sort of.

I commanded troops at the bridge defending the celestial chain that links Mag Mell to the real world known to humanity. My memory is a little fuzzy from having been temporarily lost my faculties from maggots and gods know what other vermin attempting to snack on my cerebellum. I still don't understand exactly what happened, and the more Laurel tells me, the more I don't want to know and wish I could un-hear the details I have been told.

I finally came to long enough to witness but not prevent the...assassination of Manannán mac Lir at the hands of Camila by means of a long-bow...carrying out a "hit" ordered by none other than Hades, her divine father himself. Hachiman showed up and tried to avenge Manannán mac Lir but was stopped by Hades himself, who said "Not this time." and stopped the vengeful Japanese god's massive Katana in mid-swing.

That battle drained the last of my temporary willpower...and just when I thought things couldn't possibly get worse, we were all paid a personal visit by The Morrigan and her retinue. It was explained to us that she, in partnership with Hachiman, would be taking stewardship of Mag Mell in the wake of Manannán mac Lir's death, until a rightful successor could be found. She also made it crystal clear that since we had disturbed the Eye from its original resting place, it was now our responsibility to re-seal it securely and we had one year to do so and that if we failed in our task we would be hunted down and killed by the combined forces of all of the Tuatha de Danann. Left unsaid is that I would be regarded as persona non grata with respect to other Tuatha and probably disowned by my own father as well, who would have little choice but to permit me to be sacrificed.

At least I can say I am really, really grateful The Morrigan did not choose to single me out as the sole Tuatha of our band and hold me more responsible than the others. She looked upon us all with equal disdain. How I did not crap myself in her presence I cannot say.

It was also made clear that none of us would be able to recover and restore our willpower as scions until the Eye had been safely sealed away again; this was part of The Morrigan's divine command to us, her demand of our labor in this matter.

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