Into Mag Mell.

With Derek's blessing, the rest of us jumped the cliff and found Gunnar clutching the Eye of Balor and surrounded by mounted warriors pointing spears at him. A fiery red-haired woman of some Celtic race seemed clearly in charge and was interrogating Gunnar angrily in Irish, which Gunnar doesn't speak...Gunnar was trying to explain himself in English when we suddenly appeared.

I addressed the Celtic woman in Gaelic, asking her if she spoke English.

"Of course I do!", she spat back at me with a...Galway accent? "...and I want to know what this damned Ostman is doing here in Mag Mell with that accursed Eye of Balor!!"

I explained to her in brief all that had transpired with Caleb and that we could not leave the Eye behind at the Loch, it was no longer safe there. I learned the woman's name was Cordelia, and that she was a Scion of Manannán mac Lir. She was commander of the mounted cavalry here.

She demanded to know who was in charge of our group. I tried explaining we made our decisions democratically, so nobody was technically in charge, but Cordelia just scowled at us with contempt. To my surprise, Nate stepped forward and stated that he would be our group's spokesperson. Just as well. Nate might make a better ambassador, actually...we Irish can be at each others' throats often enough, and Derek and I had nearly come to blows because of our outsized egos, so maybe a neutral outsider would be best, I thought.

"Come with me", Cordelia told Nate. "The rest of you will wait until we return from our audience with Manannán mac Lir."

To the mounted horsemen she commanded in Gaelic: "Watch them until I give the all clear."

We were ushered to an unoccupied house and invited to wait inside, which we did for the better part of an hour. Nate returned and briefed us on his audience with Manannán mac Lir, and his conversation(s) with Cordelia. Mag Mell was expecting another huge push from the invading Fomorians within a week. We were given a map of Mag Mell to study by the General Staff of the human Milesians here in Mag Mell.

I say Milesians because that is the most accurate way to describe the Celtic society here. Since death is unknown here, there are Celtic persons in Mag Mell with memories all the way back to the time of the original struggle of the Milesians with the Tuatha de Danann and the peace agreement which followed. Strictly speaking, I'm half Milesian myself, insofar as I'm an Irishman, and my mother is a mortal Irish woman, a Celt. There were Irish here from nearly all periods of Irish history who had by accident or intent found their way to Mag Mell. There were men who had fought at the Battle of the Boyne, right down to men who had fought alongside Michael Collins, in the original IRA.

One thing Derek had warned us about was that firearms and explosives do not work in Mag Mell...the magic of this place utterly prevents them from functioning. So I would rely on Gae Bolga in the battles ahead in this place.

We determined that recovering the original Chain of Lugh, which was believed to be hidden in a nearby temple outpost that had been overrun by Fomorians recently, would be a great morale boost to the Milesian and Aes Sidhe troops in the battles ahead. I reluctantly agreed to let Aisling fly with Nevermore on a reconnaissance mission to the outpost, to determine the Chain's most likely hiding spot. Aisling had always been nervous around Nevermore, but Laurel reassured her, as did Nevermore himself. When they came back, Aisling seemed quite happy and seemed to have had a grand adventure. She reported faithfully what she had seen and I planned the outpost raid with Camila and Jack.

It was agreed that I would fly and carry Camila to the outpost and wait for her in the foothills. Jack would make his way overland, through the mountains to join us.

However, Camila radioed for help in searching for the chain not long after going inside. Jack and I managed to sneak in--just barely--without being spotted. I found a mangy, dying dog that I took to be the Hound of Lugh. I determined sadly the creature did not have long for this world. We found a brilliant tapestry that seemed to depict the chain but could not seem to locate the chain itself.

Camila called Gunnar on the walkie-talkie and elaborated what we'd found so far. Gunnar asked around among the Milesians and Cordelia, and told Camila to have another look at the tapestry. To my amazement, Camila took her combat knife and stabbed the tapestry and began to pry and tear, and before long what I took to be an embroidered image of the chain revealed itself to be the actual Chain of Lugh, embedded in the fabric itself. We exited the outpost unseen and made our way back to camp.

We planned for battle. One of the Milesian generals raised a point that the others dismissed and chided him for bringing up again. It was new to our band, so we pressed for details. The Milesian general stated that what was really needed was a fertility god to re-vitalize the land...that would ensure long term success in our venture. Nate volunteered that his divine Dad was a fertility god. I averred that the Tuatha de Danann had its own gods for fertility...but when I thought about the two options...Danu or The Morrigan....neither seemed quite right. The look of horror on Laurel's face and Nevermore's involuntary squawk at the merest mention of The Morrigan gave me pause. I decided I needed to pray to my father Ogma for some divine guidance.