Taigh Nikola (Nikki's House)

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Nikola
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Re: Taigh Nikola (Nikki's House)

Post by Nikola »

Again with the “daughter” bit, she thought darkly but said nothing. He used it more as a title than a term of endearment and it grated at her. She knew he was not her father, yet he seemed to know her. He spoke her name…her full name. No one ever used her full name. Few even knew it. That he did know and now used it brought her to full attention. She frowned at his question, but saw that he expected an answer.

“I don’t know much about my own family. I know that the couple who raised me were not blood kin, but I do not remember before I came to be with them. I mean, I sometimes have snatches of what might be memory, but they might just as easily be memories of dreams.”

She looked at him again, wondering how he would know her or why he would have watched her since birth. Perhaps he had known her true parents? Perhaps he even knew if they yet lived somewhere beyond Secfenia. He seemed to be waiting for her to continue and she moved uncomfortably under his gaze, reaching for a fallen leaf and holding it by the stem, twisting it this way and that as she remembered certain dreams.

“Sometimes I have the same dream, or close enough to the same to perhaps be a memory of some event long forgotten.” Her eyes grew distant as she recalled those dreams. “There is such a sense of loss when I wake that I’ve often wondered if the dream was not a memory trying to resurface. But then the dream fades and the memory fades with it, but the sense of loss remains.”

She looked up into his eyes again. “That’s all I know.”

Her eyes left his to sweep around the small clearing, smiling slightly as she noticed her little house still visible on the edge. Yet there was a sense that with every moment spent here, the house was in danger of disappearing and with it, any chance of returning to the world she knew. Yet her curiosity was in full swing now and she asked the most obvious question, at least to her, that came to mind.

“Who exactly are you, Vaelen, Lord of the High Vale, King of the Mystic Mountains and High Sidhe of the Summer Realm and why should you concern yourself with me, a mere human and why do you name me daughter?”
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Vaelen
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Re: Taigh Nikola (Nikki's House)

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The Sidhe watched the girl as she answered his question, nodding as she spoke truth. He, of course, knew precisely what had happened to her family, but he did not know until now how much, if anything, she remembered. Her memories, and her power, had been sealed by her mother, also of his line, just before she sent the child away for safe keeping. Those seals had remained intact until she had come of age. He had heard reports of the words she often spoke aloud when the dreams came and had known the seals were failing. Her power had not revealed itself until some two years ago. She still did not understand it, did not really know how to use it, had no idea even what it was. That first release of power had drawn his full attention and, he feared, the attention of others who would hunt her down and kill her if they found her.

When the man Bannon had died, he had sent a single sidhe to take his place as guardian. Taking on the guise of a human steward, Iris had served her purpose well. Once that power had been unleashed, he had sent a unit from his own Sidhe Guard to keep watch. Their captain, Zhaneth, had been ordered to remain hidden in the space between their worlds, close enough to watch, but to not interfere unless the hunters came. So far, the hunters had not come.

How to explain what she was? Who she was? How to explain a history that spanned several human generations? The past stretched well beyond the human woman he had loved once. That had been several human lifetimes ago, but seemed like only yesterday to him. He kept his grief at her passing to himself, following the progress of the line they had created together as time flowed by.


“Words will be difficult for you to absorb,” he told her. “If you will allow it, I can show you.” He hesitated a moment before speaking a warning very softly. “You will not simply see it, but it will be as though you have lived it. There is much joy, but there is also much pain, and grief beyond words.” He waited then, leaving it to her to decide whether and how she might learn of her own lineage.
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Nikola
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Re: Taigh Nikola (Nikki's House)

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Nikki nodded her assent, wondering exactly how he would be able to show her. She was sitting cross-legged under the tree and he now lowered himself in front of her, mirroring her position. He took her left hand and placed it over his heart. Then he lifted her right hand and pressed it to his left temple. She watched him, noting a look of sadness underlying the calm determination in his eyes. His hand went to either side of her head, covering each temple then closed his eyes and went still.

At first nothing happened that she could tell. A gentle breeze lifted a wisp of her hair and blew it about her face. She was about to lift a hand to tuck the errant lock behind an ear when it began. At first she felt much disoriented, not understanding at all what she was seeing and it took some time to realize that she was seeing through his eyes, as they were his personal memories. Her eyes closed as she watched the memory unfold. No, “watch” was not quite the right word. She lived it as he had stored it in his memory.

Niamh was the human girl who caught his eye and ensnared the heart of a Sidhe. He hid his true self from her at first, revealing himself to her only after he had taken her to his bed. Although her family had forbidden the union, he continued to steal her away into his realm so that they might spend long days and nights together. In his way he had loved her as purely as any Sidhe could. Her eventual death dealt him a blow that shook him to his core. Nikki could sense the pain that lived deep inside the Sidhe, now just below the surface but somehow she knew that once this was done it would once again be buried deep within him. She realized that the pain he had warned of was his own.

A child had been born of their union. A girl that Niamh called Muireann. Muireann’s Sidhe heritage flowed strong and true in her blood. Niamh died before the girl had come of age and before Vaelen could claim her, Niamh’s family had hidden her away from him. By the time he found her she had been given to wife to Brádach Ballintyne, 3rd Viscount of Caernach. In her mind’s eye, she watched over Muireann as Vaelen had done, staying just out of sight, intervening only as need dictated. Brádach was not a loving husband as Vaelen judged love, but he had been a good man and had sired six children with Muireann – three boys, three girls. All shared her Sidhle blood with varying degrees of strength.

Nikki saw each of them, would recognize any of them were they to appear on her doorstep tomorrow. Lorcan, dark curls and clear blue eyes, tall and strong. Rufus, tall and slender, was more a diplomat than a fighter like his brothers. He got his blonde hair from his mother, but his dark eyes were from Brádach. Osier shared Rufus’ looks and like Lorcan, he was a warrior. Unlike Lorcan, Osier tended to be hot-headed and frequently went off half-cocked. Where Lorcan was akin to calm, deep waters, Osier was a volcano, stewing and dark until a trigger caused him to erupt. Vaelen had been fond of all three of the boys, but Osier’s death had struck him especially hard.

Vaelen had not sensed much Sidhe in Ailana, the youngest daughter, and so had not watched her as closely as the rest. She could still see the girl’s face as he had last seen her, but she had gone. Disappeared. No one really knew what had become of her. He turned her mind’s eye to the other two girls and soon she understood why.

Linnea had been married off to the Marquess of Montesta, but somewhere along the way had fallen in love with a poet. The man had no family to speak of and Vaelen either did not know his name, or considered him to be beneath his need to know, Nikki could not quite discern which. The two had enjoyed an illicit affair that quite frankly reminded Nikki of Vaelen’s relationship with Niamh. From that union came two girls, sent away to Fenia for safe keeping before the poet was removed from the equation and Linnea was forcibly brought back to her husband. Nikki could not tell from his memories whether the poet had extricated himself or been forcibly removed but suddenly he simply was not there. The faces of the two girls were known to Nikki. She had only met Lexi briefly, but Aida she had come to know fairly well. She longed to linger on that familiar face, but Vaelen’s memories kept moving forward and turned from Aida and Lexi to Linnea’s forcible return to her husband, Warrick Grimstad, 4th Marquess of Montesta in Vesunia. No names were spoken, but she knew them as Vaelen knew them and at the sound of the Grimstad name Nikki’s heart leapt and sank nearly simultaneously. Three children were born to that union. Warrick The Younger, born before the poet came into the picture, and the twins, Casimir and Camelia, born after her return to Montesta. She had heard of Warrick the Younger’s treachery and seeing it now through Vaelen’s memories seared her heart for the family he had betrayed. Casamir and Camelia she had known. Camelia had been a gentle soul, but it was Casamir who had become her friend and was someone she had learned to turn to for counsel and encouragement. He had adopted her into his family after learning she was alone in the world. They had not been especially close, but she had come to consider him a sort of brother, although she did not remember having ever told him. His passing had been hard for her and now, she realized, it had affected Vaelen as well. Seeing Cas through Vaelen’s eyes now, she saw the Sidhe blood bright in his veins, contributing to his deep sense of justice and law. Vaelen had been proud of him, had high hopes for him, and he had closed off yet another section of his heart at Casimir’s passing.

The last daughter that Vaelen showed her was the eldest of the six children. Aeslin, 2nd Viscountess of Caernach, had inherited Caernach upon her father’s death as the lines of inheritance in Avienna were through the eldest living child regardless of gender. She married a man she loved, Nikolaj and he took her family name as his own to honor her father. He was the second son of a second son and had no inheritance claim on his own family lands so it had made sense to him to throw in his lot with the Ballintynes. There was something familiar about the two of them. Something Nikki could just almost touch, but then fell away as she reached for it. Vaelen’s memories called forth a child, a girl, upon whom the couple doted. There was a muddle of emotion before Nikki realized she was looking upon herself. With a gasp of realization the veil parted and she knew the man and woman whom Vaelen’s memories named as Nikolaj and Aeslin were the same from her dreams, the faces just beyond memory to whom her heart cried out at night.

The memories swirled and changed. War was ravaging the land that was once Alaria. Montesta was situated on the Vesunian side of the border while Caernach was in the heart of Avienna. The couple she knew as Bannon and Rose had been summoned to the private chambers of Aeslin and Nikolaj and there Aeslin had bound the memories and potential power of her young daughter and gave her to the older couple to spirit away. Nikki heard her parents tell her they loved her and would find her one day and then the memory changed. Visions swirled amid the clang of steel on steel as Vaelen showed her a glimpse of the war that erupted, the enemy breaking through mere hours after Bannon had left the estate, heading for a ship to sail to the unknown lands of Oen Bravia, following the legend of Queen Juana who had traversed the seas generations earlier.

A sob tore from her throat as the memories stopped and she fell into Vaelen’s arms. She had caught a glimpse of her parents’ deaths. So soon after just having “met” them was more than she could bear. Her own memories of Casimr, Camelia and Aida came crashing back, and she sobbed her grief into the unfamiliar arms of the man…no, the Sidhe…who, with Niamh, had begun their line. Recent events in Bravia and beyond mingled with the pain and grief of those memories just revealed.

She did not know how long she wept but when at last she came to herself she found that Vaelen was still holding her as a father might hold a beloved child. She sensed in him a grief akin to hers. She reached a hand up to touch his face, tracing the dim track of a tear that had traveled down his cheek. There was a hardness in the Sidhe, a fortress against his pain as she understood it now. Yet as he closed his eyes at her touch, she realized there was also a gentleness there, and that gave her strength.

She stirred and he lessened his hold on her, allowing her to sit on her own. She remembered his words of warning. “There is much joy, but there is also much pain, and grief beyond words.” He had known the truth of those words, and he had not been wrong.


"You did not lie," she told him and swallowed the lump rising again in her throat.
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Vaelen
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Re: Taigh Nikola (Nikki's House)

Post by Vaelen »

Sharing the memories had taken much out of him. The process pulled much from his store of magic, but it was the reawakening of memories long buried that drained him as fully as the expenditure of the magic. There was simply no way to share memories without reliving them one’s self. Many he had just revisited had been buried deeply for decades and the pain of the sharing, of reliving them was every bit as painful and taxing as he had known it would be.

He had known the girl would be able to join in the sharing, but had not known whether she had the ability to fully comprehend. It had become apparent to him early in the sharing that her ability, her magic, was even more powerful than he had known. At some point in the sharing he had felt her spirit begin to break, whether in response to her own pain or his he could not say, and some portion of his being had reached out unbidden to bolster that part of her. To his amazement, a portion of her being had accepted that touch and reached back, finding his heart and a bond had been forged.

He had ended the sharing before it was complete, fearing that with the depth of her sorrow, he might not be able to bring her back to herself. It had not been his intention to bond with his great-grandchild as the humans would have named her. It had only been to give her a glimpse into whom she was and where she had come from. He had, thus far, only showed her human history. Someday he might share with her the history of his own people, but today was not that day. When he ended the sharing she had collapsed into his arms. He had been surprised and felt more than a little awkward at that, but the bond between them softened something in him and he had moved her so that he held her as one might hold a beloved child. For that was what she was…his child, although not of his direct making. As he looked down at her, he recognized a little bit of Niamh in her and he held her more closely, an odd tickling sensation traveling down his cheek as she sobbed out her grief in the arms of a Sidhe king.

He was dimly aware that Zhaneth had emerged from the shadows, offering to take the girl from his king but Vaelen shook his head and Zhaneth returned to his post as the sobs finally began to subside. Her eyes were red and swollen, her cheeks flushed and streaked with the tracks of many tears when she opened them to look up at him. As Niamh had done so many years ago, the girl reached up to touch his cheek. The bond between them flared and he closed his eyes against the torrent of emotion that yet threatened to overwhelm him. He was still locking those raw emotions back into their lonely prison when she stirred in his arms.

Immediately he lessened his hold and she moved, pulling away to find her seat again, facing him as before. The look she gave him was one of knowing, of understanding, still shrouded in pain, yet he saw that she understood that much of the pain she had just endured had been a reflection of his own. Yet he also knew that much of that pain was her own.

At her words, the edges of his lips curved slightly upward, appreciating the enormity of her simple statement. He took a deep breath and shrugged slightly.


“I am Sidhe. We cannot lie. We may evade truth, hide it, or even twist it to our purposes, but we do not lie.”

He studied her for a long moment, feeling the bond between them and wondering whether she was aware. He would not speak of it as yet. He still needed to work out for himself exactly what had happened there. He had heard of such bonds, but as far as he knew there had been no such bonding between Sidhe and human in his memory. Of course, he reminded himself, she was not fully human.

To his surprise, the sharing had gone both ways once she began to recognize the names and faces of those she had known and loved in her way. He wondered whether the sharing, and the subsequent bond, was not making her pain, already present, more intense, more raw. Only time would tell. She would be vulnerable for a time yet and she would need to learn to control her power, to wield it properly. He had touched it, felt the undercurrent of raw untamed energy and even now suspected it had been partially responsible for the bonding. But for this moment he pushed those thoughts aside.

He looked around at the glade in which they sat, noting the frayed edges of the magic that held his realm apart from the one in which she lived beginning to heal itself from the tear she had created with her wild magic. This part of the glade would be forever changed here in this realm, but even more so in hers. There was still a little time, but not much. Yet when his eyes found hers again, he found he could not yet say what needed to be said about that.


“You survived, and are still whole,” he told her, searching her haunted eyes for traces of the fire that had lit them when she first stepped through that portal.
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Nikola
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Re: Taigh Nikola (Nikki's House)

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“Survived? Yes, I suppose I did,” she shrugged, her eyes dark with the pain of the encounter. “Whole?” she asked softly, and her next words were quieter still. “I think that is yet to be seen.”

She had seen him glance around the glade, a look of concern in his eyes, but he had said nothing. She still felt connected to him somehow, but she did not know why. Perhaps he had not fully released the sharing? That felt gone, but she had never even heard of such a thing before, so had no clue how it worked or what kind of residual energy it might leave behind. Perhaps it was just the realness of the memories they had shared. She did not know. She cared, but was in no mood to ask a dozen questions.

“So what now?” She brought her eyes back to his. “Where do we go from here?” She recalled tales of fairies who toyed with humans and played tricks on them then made their memories disappear. Would he do that to her now? She thought not. Else why expend so much energy and bring up so much raw pain to share those memories with her? She wondered at how she knew, but she knew with a certainty that he had expended a great deal of energy in the sharing.

“I am grateful for the knowing of my family. The human side, at least. I am beyond grateful to know that I even knew some of my family, even if we did not know we were blood.” Her eyes misted and she blinked fiercely to keep her emotions in check. “But what do I do with this now?”
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Re: Taigh Nikola (Nikki's House)

Post by Vaelen »

Where indeed, he thought to himself. That would be her decision. As he studied her, a knowing began to stir in his heart. He listened to the stirring and as a result began to see this one with new eyes. Amused, he wondered how the Sidhe of his court would react to one with human blood on the throne. That would certainly upset things, he thought wryly. She would need to be protected, even more than he had already ordered. She would need to be trained and that could take years. He wondered whether her human side would prevent her from living long enough to ascend to his throne when the time came for him to vacate it. Perhaps she might provide another heir at some point that would insure the survival of his line on the Summer throne. All these thoughts were considerations for a later time. Right now, the glade was beginning to heal itself in earnest.

“What you do will be entirely up to you, daughter,” he finally answered, keeping his thoughts to himself for the moment. “Look around you,” he told her and was rewarded to see that she did so, and even more satisfied to see that her eyes lit upon the healing already taking place between the two realms.

“Your house has been pulled here and when the glade has healed itself it will exist no longer in your world. I will hold it back for a time, but only briefly. The longer the rift remains, the greater the danger that powers from either realm will escape into the other.”

He was satisfied to see a hint of understanding in her eyes. “You must go now. Take what is most precious or most needed from your home and leave it. I suggest you return to your family estate, at least for now. You may yet learn more of what you seek there.”

He rose to his feet and offered her a hand. She took it with both of hers and they were now standing face to face, her hands in his. The former brightness of her sapphire eyes had not fully returned, but some of the darkness had lifted. He towered over her and lowered his head to look into her face as she tilted hers to look up at him. He realized he still held her hands in his, but curiously did not wish to release them just yet. Emotions he had locked away still teased at him, likely the aftermath of the sharing, he thought. He would need time to get them completely under control. For now, he saw her as the child of his line that she was and to his surprise that pleased him.

“I never thought to meet you face to face, Nikola Ballintyne. Now that I have, I find I am pleased. We will meet again, if fate allows, but please…” he paused and glanced around the glade before looking back at her, his slips curved into a wry smile, “…do not tear another portal into my realm again. You are not alone. Now go.”

He released her then and took a step back away from her when she hesitated. After a moment she nodded and turned, walking back to the little house that had been her home since the human, Bannon, had brought her to Bravia and settled in Paz. As she disappeared into the house, Zhaneth stepped out of the shadows to his side.

“Watch her, Zhaneth. You and your company. She may yet be your queen. Protect her as such.”

Zhaneth’s eyes betrayed his surprise but he stood to attention and bowed. “As you command, my King,” was his only response.

Vaelen visibly relaxed as the girl disappeared within her home and he turned to Zhaneth again.
“Help me hold back the healing to give her time to leave her home. Your warriors will need to guard the rift but I need your strength. Too much was spent just now.”

Zhaneth nodded and began to lend Vaelen his strength, his warriors already in place and watchful. Vaelen trusted Zhaneth as he trusted few of the Sidhe, including those of his own court, and placed his strength in the hands of this most trusted captain as he sent out his magic to slow the glade’s healing.
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Nikola
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Re: Taigh Nikola (Nikki's House)

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A part of her did not want to leave so soon, but as he showed her how the glade was beginning to heal itself, she understood the wisdom in his bidding. She left him, this Sidhe who called her daughter though in truth he was more like her great-great-grandfather, and returned to her house. When she looked behind her into the glade, she could see him still standing where she had left him, watching her retreat. She did not wave farewell, but a slight smile curved her lips as she turned her back on the glade and the Sidhe and entered her house.

Here, the wooden beams seemed to be alive as though trying to rejoin the tree from which they had been carved. Quickly she ran through the house, tossing first what must be taken followed by what she did not wish to lose. With each passing moment the sense of urgency sped her steps. When she had everything she could carry in her bag, she took one last look back at the glade, but it was gone, along with about half of her house. She hurried out the front door to the stables to where Starr was pacing back and forth, obviously aware that something was changing. Tossing the bag to the side, she threw on blanket, saddle and reins then tied her bag to the back of the saddle and mounted. As she led Starr toward the path toward town she stopped and turned back to see her house disappear completely into the forest. A flurry of activity within the forest continued for a time then stopped and the forest grew still.

Gone was the house she had loved so well, where Bannon had raised her after finally reaching Paz and settling down. Gone were the tangible reminders of him and the life they shared as she grew up under his care. So much had changed, so much was gone. Where to go now, she wondered. She considered John’s house, and knew she would be welcome, but he would not be there. He was never there anymore. What had shown such promise several years ago now consisted of her working in the castle while he wandered the wilds of Secfenia. She sighed. No, she could not go to John.

Vaelen had suggested she return to the Grimstad estates. She had not been there since before Aida had died. Memories of her family, all lost to her now, made her heart hurt and she had avoided the estates. Now, perhaps it was time to go back, to go home. They were hers by rights as the remaining living relation. She nodded to herself as she made her decision and turned Starr toward Paz and the long trip into the hills of Bravia, far from city life and all the worries of the castle. She would pick up Iris along the way and close down her workshops in Paz. How long she would remain at Grimstad Estate she did not know, but she knew her fate awaited her and her path led there first.
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