Tír nAill : Part Four

8.

Tommy, who could not believe what had just transpired spoke first, saying only “Aye, right.”

At this response the dog laughed, a deep masculine laugh, icily sardonic, with a hint of malevolence. “I see the rationalist glamours of this era have left you unprepared for interactions with ones such as me.”

Tommy might have been unprepared but the same could not be said of Kelly. Upon seeing the huge dog she had taken one knee. Now she spoke. “Your Eminence, we are honoured by your presence. How can we serve you?”

“That's more like it.” The dog said, with obvious satisfaction.

Tommy was horrified, Andy and Norma, who'd heard the voices had come rushing out of the room to be confronted by this scene. Both were as dumbfounded as Tommy. The dog, upon seeing them both, sat on its haunches, saying nothing. There was an uncomfortable silence, which felt, to Norma, confrontational. It was Tommy who broke it. “Alright, Kelly, what the fuck is going on?”

Kelly shrugged. “This is Lord Keragh n'Asean. My sisters and I serve him.”

“You knew about all of this?” Norma gasped.

“She did.” The dog replied. “This spell was not entirely unpredicted.”

Andy, who just realised the dog was talking just shook his head and said “fuck this” before dropping the crowbar and heading back down the corridor. Norma stopped him grabbing his arm. He didn't resist.

“What do you mean, spell?” Norma asked.

“The Druids of Mantik were not able to do this on their own. The gate they opened to Tír nAill was a fleeting thing. The magic that caused this is of a different order.” the dog answered.

“What do you mean?” Norma asked. “Are you saying they were helped?”

“Helped.” The dog repeated before laughing again. “This level of intrusion was not predicted by them. It is a ramification of their confinement and attempts at haruspecy of members of the Sidhe.”

Norma had to try and translate that. The gist of it seemed that they had captured some of the others and dissected them, and so, the Sidhe had taken some revenge. “So how do we stop it?”

“We?” the dog asked. “You cannot, I may be able to, for a price.”

Norma had no interest in negotiating with the creature. “Yeah, thanks but no thanks.”

Kelly interjected. “Norma, this is...”

Tommy cut her off. “What is this Kelly, how do you know about this dog?”

“I belong to a church, an old church, Lord Keragh n'Asean is one of our… uh… patrons.”

“Ahhh, the Sorority.” the dog stated.

“Yes Your Eminence.” Kelly replied.

“Are you part of this mess?” Norma asked vaguely.

“No.” Both Kelly and the dog replied.

“I was speaking to Kelly.” Norma said to the dog. “You are obviously involved.”

“Like you I was drawn here by curiosity, nothing more.” the dog replied.

“We came here to stop this.” Norma insisted.

“You do not have the means, this is no mere channelling of lightning. What has transpired here is beyond your ken.” the dog said.

“We'll see for ourselves.” Norma replied.

“Yes, you will.” the dog replied.

Norma let go of Andy's arm and began walking. “This changes nothing, come on.”

She walked past the dog, Tommy, Andy and Kelly followed and the dog turned and kept pace behind them. Norma could hear its nails tapping on the concrete. It was a disturbing sound given the suffocating silence. It was beginning to get on her nerves as they reached another doorway, this one torn off its hinges, and almost completely shredded. Behind it was a bloody heap hidden under a stained laboratory coat. Past the door, off to the right was another room, Norma assumed this was the server room and as they passed her assumption was borne out. The servers were all burned and smashed, the place was utterly devastated. Beyond was another stairwell descending into the dark. It was at this point Kelly decided to speak again. “You know, I think we should seriously consider letting Lord Keragh n'Asean deal with this.”

“Shut up Kelly.” Norma answered.

“But I can hear that noise, surely you can hear it now?” Kelly protested.

Norma could indeed hear it, it was loud enough that there was no ignoring it. There was no mistaking it, a groaning of some kind after all, though she could not discern whether it was mechanical or organic not without going down the stairs. “Yes, I can hear it. Come on.”

Tommy stopped her. “Are you sure about this?”

“You now?” Norma asked, exasperated.

“Come on, this isn't normal, this is like the scene in a horror movie when you're shouting at the screen for them to turn back.” Tommy answered.

“Then turn back. You decided to come with me, I never asked.” Norma snapped back.

“Okay, take it easy.” Tommy said. “I'm just saying that we don't know what's down there.”

“No we don't.” Norma began.

“I do.” The dog added.

“Do you?” Norma asked angrily. “You care to share that information with us or are you…” She stopped, exhaled, then continued. “Never mind, I can't believe I'm arguing with a fucking talking dog.”

“If you prefer, I could change form.”

“No… just… it's fine, stay as you are” Norma sighed.

The dog chuckled, which made her feel even more irritated. Norma turned and said “You lot can do what you want. I'm going down.”

She didn't wait for protests or answers, she began going down the stairs. Andy scowled at Tommy and went after. Tommy shook his head in disbelief looked at Kelly who seemed wide eyed and dazed, then the dog.

“After you.” it growled.

Tommy walked down the stairs, shaking his head. “This has got to be a bad dream.”

Norma had stopped at the bottom, waiting for the others. “Tommy, shine the torch down the hall, will you?”

He did as she asked. Another claustrophobic moss covered corridor. The ground was so broken and cracked that mounds of damp dirt had spilled through. “It must be down this way. Loug Systems.”

The way was treacherous and stank to high heaven, a rotten smell of putrefaction and dampness. As they continued through the corridor the groaning sound increased in volume. About 100 yards down it the tunnel opened into a large square room filled with broken electronic equipment, half destroyed machinery and a jungle of cables. It was from here that the groaning noise was being emitted, but they could not yet tell by what, since the room was mostly dark. None of the equipment seemed to be working.

“Come on.” Norma insisted. She ventured into the room with Tommy and Andy close behind her. Kelly decided to stay at the threshold with the dog. The torch, bright as it was, hardly illuminated anything, the room was so big. Norma let Tommy lead them through the maze of shattered technology, corpses and strange flora sprouting up from the cracked concrete. Tommy was trying to locate the source of the eerie constant sound.

He swung the torch about methodically, looking for a path through the ruined machines and walked this way and that until they were deep within the pitch black room. His torch hit upon something in passing, something big, bulbous and entirely out of place.

“What the fuck?” He said and immediately aimed the torch back to where this thing was. Illuminating it revealed a great swollen cyst roughly the size of a watermelon. It was wet, red around the edges but seemed filled with a viscous pale green fluid, indistinguishable from pus.

The thing was encased in clear plastic and had multiple wires attached to its surface which webbed outwards through the box and into different strands of cables and pointing directly up from the top centre of this diseased mass was a thin shaft of wood, half buried in the swelling blob. It was also festooned with wires. It was this foul thing that was groaning, not from any vocal cords but rather from some kind of shuddering vibration.

“What the fuck is that?” Tommy exclaimed.

Norma who was equally as disgusted, answered. “Oh God, I have no idea. It that's what's been powering this place?”

“Eye of Balor, Spear of Lugh.” The dog said, appearing right beside them. “Old power, from an old story. This artefact has no business being here. Mantik must have been using it in their magic.”

“Science.” Norma snapped.

“A reductive endeavour, a form of haruspecy, divination by tearing something apart and examining the remains. A cult that worships a hypothetical average and dismisses the commonly unique. Is that what you suggest is being practised here?” The dog replied, mockingly.

Norma was about to tell the dog he'd not been let out much but couldn't be bothered getting into a debate with a dog. People were dead, it wasn't the time. “So you know what this is, what it does?”

“I do.” the dog answered. “However they have been using it for something quite different. This is a component of the ritual.”

“Ritual magic, right?” Norma asked.

“Can't be any worse than anything else so far.” Andy quipped, trying to ground the conversation back in reality.

Norma walked towards the gelatinous orb in the plastic box and tugged at many of the wires detaching them from the eye, again she did it and again until the wires were all freed from their attachment. This had no effect other than that of causing the strange mass to wobble slightly, though the groaning noise did stop.

“Now what?” she whispered to herself.

“We should get out of here, maybe try and find another station.”

“There is only one station, I think. I mean, my dad said the place was a maze but everywhere was connected it was just that it had so many different entrances that people thought they were all separate. Said there was miles of rooms and corridors. So it might be tricky.” Andy said.

“We need to find where the aperture is, if it's not already closed, we need to shut it down.” Norma said, reminding herself as much as the others.

“Lead on chief.” Tommy said, clearly looking to get out of this room and away from the horrible eye thing.

Lead on, she did. They kept going down to the end of a corridor where they found a heavy iron door with a heavy lever mechanism that opened it. It took Tommy and Andy several minutes of pushing and thumping at it before it finally moved and unlocked. They were greeted with what had once, recently, been a large office space, lots of little cubicles with tables and screens and phones and water-coolers and… and staff. What bits were left of them, were everywhere, scattered, splattered, stuck to shards of broken timber, smeared on the shredded corporate posters. None of them spoke as they slowly weaved their way through this abattoir, it was just too grim. The room had two doors other than the one they had entered through. Both had corridors stretching off from them. One was in such a state of disrepair that Norma immediately knew that was the one they had to follow, the one that would take them to the gate, or aperture.

As they approached a dark blur darted out past them from the doorway, something lean and sharp and fast. Tommy spun the torch to see where it had went. Dark stony fingers wrapped around Andy's neck, a twinkle of knife edge against the side of his head. Behind him a snarling mask of tree bark, stared.

Norma couldn't help but think the thing looked scared, nervous perhaps. It was certainly on edge. “It doesn't want to harm us, let it go.” she said, and turned away.

Tommy removed the torch beam from it and as if sensing they were no threat, the creature shoved Andy into Tommy and ran. They continued down the corridor. About twenty feet in it ended in a junction going left and right. Norma was beginning to figure out what pathways the devastation had spilled out from. In this case, left.

The strip-lights swung like hanged men, pipes and wires bloomed from beneath plastic ceiling squares no longer in place. The walls were collapsing in some places, crumbling rubble had tumbled out of them, scattered across the cracked floor. It did not lot at all safe, but that was the way she was heading. The place was tight, uncomfortable to walk through but fortunately only a few yards long before it came out at the remains of a dining area. The place had not been as busy as the office when the leakage had started so there were fewer bodies but still too many.

Over the other side of the room was, what appeared to be a main entrance, it's doors destroyed, the dark corridor behind it was twice the width of the others they had navigated. Norma wanted to say something but as she was about to she noticed the others seemed to be listening, as if questioning whether or not they could hear the same faint echoes of singing that she was struggling with. It was like the slightest hint of something there. “Can you hear it, then? The song?”

Tommy Andy and Kelly nodded together.

“It the one that came down the phone earlier, isn't it?” Andy asked.

“Yeah, sounds the same to me.” Norma said.

“Me too.” Tommy added. “That's where we're heading, right?”

“We're heading towards the Aperture, we've got to close it. I wouldn't be surprised if the song was coming from there though.”

“Right.” Tommy said. “Let's do this.”

He marched across the room, taking the lead by a metre or so. Norma and Andy followed quickly after with Kelly and the dog once again bringing up the rear. In the next corridor they found a cave in. It wasn't a bad one, and they could manage to push the mud and rocks out of the way easily enough, but it once again reminded Norma that the whole place might just collapse in on itself for all she knew.

After clearing their way they walked another three or four yards to a crossroads. On the ground lay a sign which had come away with a large chunk of plaster from the wall still affixed. The singing was more noticeable now, still distant enough for it to be almost drowned out by most other noise but definitely there. She determined that The Aperture was straight ahead, given the sign said Sector Two and the corridor in that direction looked more like a cavern tunnel.

She explained her thoughts and Tommy agreed, Kelly however had something on her mind. “So what's the plan here?”

“We turn off the Aperture and this all goes away.” Norma said. “We hope.”

“Right. And how do we turn it off? It seemed like the power back there was out anyway. So...”

“We'll figure it out when we get there. Are you sure you're okay, Kelly?” Norma asked.

“I'm fine, it's… I'm fine.” Kelly replied, in a way that suggested the opposite.

They had to crouch at points to get through the next tunnel. It wasn't a corridor. Halfway down they had to stop. They could hear talking, a haunting, menacing series of hissing whispers. This was followed by seven black robed figures pass slowly by at the other end of the tunnel. Norma hoped they hadn't been spotted by the wraith-like things. They waited there in the dark for several minutes listening to their shallow breathing, their heartbeats and that plaintive, pain-filled wail of a song.

When she was confident they had gone, she whispered okay, let's move.”

Tommy turned on the torch. Andy and Kelly were still there and looked fine, but increasingly unnerved. Norma couldn't say she blamed them for that. It had been a very, very strange night. They exited out into another corridor slowly, cautiously. It was then she noticed the dog had vanished. She chose not to mention it at all. From this place they continued straight again, ignoring the corridor those robed figures went down. The song kept growing louder, more wailing. It was a dirge, it's melody always slightly wrong, slightly off. It was like having earache, sobbing and being lost all at the same time. It was like listening to the grief of a mother who'd lost her child. Norma was not enjoying the experience.

Eventually they came to a wall which had “Section 2” Painted on it and exited, predictably, into another ruined corridor. This one had the novelty of destroyed drinks machines and so they helped themselves to some of the sticky but intact cans inside. It marginally raised their mood. The song reminded her of a tale she had once heard about a wind that wailed through through the hills driving people suicidal.

It was Tommy who noticed the light. He switched off the torch at first, just to make sure, and there it was right down the end of one long corridor, a ghostly hint of white light. He was sure that was their destination, Norma agreed and so the four of them walked down the corridor until they were facing a large room that may have one contained aircraft, from the size and style of it. High above their heads were three white light-bulbs barely illuminating the room. They didn't need to do much. In the centre of the room was a set of standing stones. They were glowing with some kind of clear light that made them look brighter than the dim room. Each was attached to a series of computers and long cables weaving across the floor into the dark.

In the centre of this set of bright stones was the singing woman. She had all manner of sensors and wires attached to her, like a spider plugged into its own web. She was white as bone, her head was bowed as if weeping, and her hands raised above her, between which was a large circle of boiling air, a swirling swarm of atoms and molecules unfixed from any normal view.

This was it, this was the wormhole.

9.

This was not what Norma had expected at all, not some wailing woman inside some standing stones. This was absurd and that song was getting on her nerves. She stood there just staring at the woman, who refused to look up. This wasn't anything she could deal with, this… this was magic. The feeling that she'd been struggling with even before she'd arrived in Duntreath, that boiling, leaden nausea in the pit of her stomach.

“So what now?” Tommy asked.

Norma did not know what to say. Should they try and remove the woman, subdue her, kill her? She had no idea what to do next. Luckily, Andy did.

“There's something coming through, move.” He said.

Norma looked up at the portal which had stretched, like a membrane, and it did indeed look like something was coming through. Norma took several steps back as Andy stepped in front of her. She recalled the cleaver still in her hand and as the creature was spat into our world she gripped it, in case they had a fight on their hands.

They had. The creature knew immediately where it was and attacked immediately, making a lunge for Andy, he instinctively swerved out of the way and the creature swung its sword past him and right at Norma. She staggered backwards, the taste of blood already in her throat and the stinging pain in her nose causing her eyes to water. Luckily it had only sliced the tip of her nose as it overshot and fell past her. Kelly had already placed her foot on its head and was swinging the wrench down like a golf-club. It connected with a crack and then blood spilled out from what it had as nostrils. The creature slumped.

“You're getting handy with that.” Tommy joked.

“Aye, well… the Unseelie are not welcome here.” Kelly said. She stood back, her face bearing the look of someone who had said too much.

“Unseelie?” Norma said. “Where did you hear that?”

“You should've maybe just asked, Norma. This was exactly what it was like at school, you never took me seriously.” Kelly complained.

“What? What are you talking about?” Norma asked, somewhat surprised.

“You, you always thought you were smarter than everyone, well guess what, you're not.” Kelly said.

“Okay… this really isn't the time and place, but I made you feel like that, I'm sorry.” Norma said.

Kelly, whom it seemed had ran this conversation through her head many times, had not, it appeared, predicted that answer. “Yeah well…” she began before realising she had nothing. It was clear her outburst had left her feeling short-changed.

“So, what's going on here Kelly?”

Kelly stared right into Norma's eyes as if searching for something, then looked away and sighed. “Her name is Arwyl. She's been here for years, a slave or a prisoner, of Mantik. It's not important how she came to be here, nor what they did to her, suffice to say, she's the portal, well her song is.”

“How do you know this?” Norma asked.

“Haven't you guessed? I'm in with the wrong crowd. That doesn't matter either. All that matters is that we stop this, right?” Kelly responded.

Norma nodded. “Right. So do we cut the wires, smash the stones?”

“No! We don't smash the stones.” Kelly stated emphatically. “That's dangerous. They're charging her but keeping her channelled. The wires are just for readings. We need to shut her down.”

“How?” Norma said.

“Easy.” Kelly said. She swung the wrench into her palm. “We kill her.”

“What?” Norma gasped.

“She's the danger Norma, she's the one causing this, all the Aos Si roaming around outside, like the ones that attacked us, the ones in the hills? They're an intrusion force. We've had no issue taking them down, so why is she any different?” Kelly argued.

“They attacked us, like you said. This woman has done nothing.” Norma responded. She couldn't believe Kelly's attitude.

“She deliberately opened a portal to let her masters in the Unseelie plan for this day.” Kelly insisted.

“Who is this Unseelie?” Norma asked.

“A court who do not have mankind's interests at heart. Those who think we're their cattle.” Kelly answered.

“Mantik tortured her, look at her.” Norma said. She looked down too. The woman was clearly is a bad state physically and mentally. Her ribs were so obvious, there so many wires in her skin. Dozens of rows of tiny little wounds.

“It is a tragedy. If we don't stop this, we're facing a worse one, you know that.” Kelly answered

“There's got to be some other way.” Tommy said.

Norma winced as he said that. She knew there was another way. As she was thinking that, she heard the clicking padding sound of the dog's paws, as it entered the room.

“What do you think they are going to do to you, Norma?” it asked.

“Why are you here?” She said, scowling.

“There are moments where history itself is soft, Norma. Small pockets of time and event that are so strange and unique they can never be completely explained. Many of these have wonderful or catastrophic ramifications. I'm here as a sight-seer.” the dog joked. “And you never answered my question.”

“I have no idea what they want.”

“I do.” the dog replied. “They're bored in there, Those of Faerie do little but play the same roles over and over again without change, some are bored of this state of affairs and want to return to the old ways, out here, with them, once more, in charge.”

“So we just kill this woman and then it's all done, is that it?” Andy asked, as if surprised the discussion was continuing.

“That would seem to be the consensus.” the Dog said.

“It's not the consensus. Tommy, you can't just want to kill her, can you?”

“Hey that's unfair, I don't want to kill her. It's a security issue.” Andy protested.

“I can't believe this. There has to be another way. Tommy?”

Tommy was frowning, deep in thought. He shook his head looked angry with himself and then said. “No Norma, my family's back there. I don't need to know what these creatures are to know they're hostile. I'm sorry, I agree with Andy and Kelly.”

Norma stood there, stunned. She'd been outvoted, was no longer in charge, she couldn't stop them. They were going to kill the fairy. She couldn't just let them kill her. “an… Hour.” she stuttered.

“What?” Kelly asked.

“Give me an hour, please, let me see if I can sort this out?” Norma pleaded.

Kelly scowled and looked at her watch. “One hour.” she said.