by J. M. Briggs
“They looked different, but it was certainly the Sídhe,” Merlin observed in a low voice. He completely ignored the villagers who were all eying them with a mix of awe and fear.
“But half-crazed,” Morgana said with a thoughtful frown. “And did you notice that when destroyed it was more like dirt rather than gold?”
“Perhaps something has gone wrong in Sídhean.”
“As much as I would love that to be true, I think it is more likely something to do with Arto’s Iron Gates.”
“That would fit,” Merlin agreed. Then he looked up towards the mountain. “But just what is it?” In the distance there were still a few flickers of light on the mountain, but rather than moving towards the village one by one they vanished into the valleys and over the hills. “And how does it change things?” Merlin added with a dark look in the firelight.
7
Reincarnates
One thing that Jenny hated about living in the Northwest was the icy chill that settled into her bones during winter. She’d grown up in San Francisco and the way that fog could cling to a person was no stranger to her, but Ravenslake always seemed worse. A soft mist enshrouded the campus, making the world hazy and the winter evening seem all the colder. Her footfalls on the cold, but thankfully clear sidewalk echoed around her despite the voices of other students who were still coming and going.
Her messenger bag thumped softly against her hip with each step and Jenny absentmindedly adjusted it as she looked up towards the library. The four-story old brick building with its metal and glass expansion was an eyesore to her, but her architecture major roommate loved it. She supposed that the library was the building on campus that represented the awkward collision of classic brick and slightly gothic buildings of the original land grant college with the new modern buildings that had been constructed as it grew. Still, she preferred the more classic look.
Walking inside, Jenny paused and let the warm air melt over her body. There were only two people at the front desk, both of them sitting behind desks and looking very bored. Jenny quickly made her way upstairs. She glanced into the nearest study room and froze in surprise. Bran was seated at the table in one of the small study rooms. His cane was propped up against the table and he was leaning back in the chair with a book in hand. His green eyes were dark with concentration and his expression was one of intense thought. Jenny lingered in front of the window as she debated with herself if she wanted to go inside.
Taking a deep breath, she knocked lightly on the closed wooden door and waved hesitantly when Bran looked up through the window. He smiled and shifted the book he was reading to one hand gesturing her inside. As she opened the door, Jenny felt her stomach flip in her gut but reminded herself that she’d spent time with Bran in Wales while the others were busy with other things. Not a lot of time, but it was something.
“Homework already?” Bran asked.
“Uh, yeah,” Jenny answered quietly. She set her backpack in the chair and began having second thoughts about sharing the room with Bran. “A paper that I wanted to go ahead and get started on. The dorms were too loud right now.”
Bran raised an eyebrow at her but nodded. Jenny slumped her shoulders slightly in defeat and shrugged. “My current roommate, a girl named Erica, was making out with some guy in our living room when I came in. Felt like a strategic retreat was in order and I wasn’t brave enough to go past them into my room.”
“Sorry to hear that; it’s too early in the semester for that shit,” Bran said sympathetically. “You’d think having separate bedrooms would keep that from happening.”
“Her room is a disaster zone,” Jenny said. A soft smiled tugged at her lips. “She doesn’t spend much time there.”
“I doubt he’d really care about that.” Bran chuckled and shook his head. “So other than an inconsiderate roommate, how are you doing?” Bran asked her. His voice had gone soft and his expression was gentle, as if he was talking to a spooked animal.
“Fine,” Jenny answered quickly. Holding back a flash of irritation, she reminded herself that Bran was just being nice and that she hadn’t exactly been easy to approach until recently. “We saw each other on Saturday, Bran.”
“I know.” Bran shrugged and looked down at his books. “Alright then.”
Ignoring him for a few minutes, Jenny pulled out her tablet and logged into the campus library wifi. She distracted herself for a few minutes by checking her emails for coursework and logged into the website for her News Editing and Production class. They were required to do ‘discussions’ outside of the classroom, so Jenny quickly did a couple of responses to questions from Professor Harper and replied to one of her classmate’s posts. It took the whole of fifteen minutes.
Pulling out her phone, Jenny checked her messages and quickly responded to a text from one of her high school friends before looking over to see what Bran was working on. There was a stack of dusty books in front of him and Jenny read their spines quickly. They were all books on Celtic mythology and Bran seemed very interested in the large green tome in his hands. He must have felt her gaze or seen her move because he suddenly looked up from the book.
“How are classes going for you?” Bran asked. He reached for his bottle of water and took a drink.
“Uh fine.” Jenny felt a touch embarrassed at getting caught staring. “Nothing too interesting yet.”
“Give it time,” Bran replied. “My classes are pretty much the opposite. I’ve already sat through several intense lectures.”
“You guys have one of Mer- Professor Ambrose’s classes together, right?” Jenny tucked a long strand of dark hair behind her ear. “You mentioned it the other night.”
“The Bible as Literature,” Bran agreed with a nod. “I wasn’t originally going to take it, but given how important mythology is to the war we’re in it seems wise to familiarize ourselves with as much information as possible.” He grinned at her. “Besides it’s nice to have one class with the others. This is probably the last one: I’m not sure if Merlin will be able to keep convincing the university to let him teach weird mythology classes for the sake of teaching us.”
“He has magical powers; can’t he just convince them that way?”
“I suppose so,” Bran said thoughtfully. He lowered the book and put his elbows on the table. “I know he’s used magic to change people’s memories in the past, though I’m not sure how he does it. We still have to focus on visualizing an effect to get our magic to work.”
“Maybe it’s just part of his greater experience.”
“Probably, but I wonder what made him decide to try messing with people’s heads for the first time.” Bran shivered a bit and picked up his pen with a thoughtful look. “I mean Merlin’s usually pretty serious about being the good guy.” He flipped the pen around in his fingers. “Course, that might just be me projecting since he’s Merlin and I grew up with Merlin in the stories.”
“Hard to believe.” Jenny gave an uneasy laugh, her mouth suddenly very dry. “It all still seems so insane.”
“Even after seeing a real dragon?” Bran seemed to relax and gave her a teasing smile.
“Especially after that,” Jenny said. Lowering her chin into her palm, she rested her elbow on the table and toyed with her phone. “Everything over there was weird.”
They lapsed into silence, but Bran didn’t bother picking up his book again. Instead, he watched her out of the corner of his eye as he studied the pen in his hands. Jenny noted that the cap was a little chewed on and almost smiled.
“Uh… you’re a reincarnation too, right?” Jenny finally asked. Swallowing, she gathered her courage. “That’s what all of that was about? That’s how you found the Chalice?”
“Yeah; I’m apparently the reincarnation of a man named Bran.” He licked his lips a little, staring at something beyond her shoulder for a moment. “I was a friend of… Gofiben I think was the name of that Iron Soul.” Bran shook his head and his eyes seemed a touch more focused. “But yeah, that’s
what helped me find the Iron Chalice. That skull had been mine and a fragment of my soul, or an imprint of my spirit, was still with it.”
“You don’t seem to be bothered by it,” Jenny said. There was a long moment of silence as Bran just looked at her. “Why?”
“It’s something I’m adjusting to still,” Bran said. He closed the book and set it to the side. “Are you still having difficulty with it?”
“Let’s see, I was the most famous adulteress in all of literature.” Jenny gave him a ‘duh’ look. “Not to mention it doesn’t quite fit into the worldview I grew up with.”
“I’m guessing by that you mean your religion.”
“I’m Catholic; reincarnation is definitely not a part of my theology.”
“You’re Catholic?” Bran asked. His lips twisted into a small smirk that he tried to fight down. “Hispanic and Catholic, there’s a stereotype,” he said, clearly trying not to laugh.
“It’s part of our culture. Though my Dad isn’t very religious.” Jenny gave him a stern look and Bran had the good grace to look sorry. “But Mom loved our religion… I guess it’s a way of staying close to her.”
“I’m sorry,” Bran apologized. “I didn’t realize she was deceased.”
“It’s fine.” Jenny resisted the urge to tug at her clothes as her earlier nervousness returned. “I guess Alex never told you.”
“No; in the moments when we allow ourselves to talk about something other than magic we tend to avoid sadder topics,” Bran said. “For what it’s worth, I lost my dad a few years back.”
“Cancer?”
“No. I’m guessing that was your mom?” Bran asked. Jenny nodded in response and Bran once again gave her an apologetic look. “No, my dad was deployed to Afghanistan. He died there.”
“I’m sorry,” she said before thinking about the words. Was she supposed to say thank you or something like that?
“Anyway, back to the topic at hand before we went off on a tangent.” Bran waved his hand dismissively before picking up a pen and toying with it. “I suppose on some level I’m adjusting to the reincarnation thing a bit easier because I come from a Buddhist background, though my family was never serious about it. Reincarnation is a principal that I’ve been aware of for much of my life.”
“Did you believe in it though?”
“Not really,” Bran admitted. “I liked the idea though, even if I didn’t really believe. Plus my branch of Buddhism is a Mahayana tradition that seeks enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. It’s pleasant to hope that we don’t just vanish at the end of this life and that we can transcend to help others. That was just always an idea that I liked. Heaven and Hell never made much sense to me, but I could buy the idea of our energy shifting or our memories becoming some sort of imprint on another level of reality.”
“So you listen to the Dalai Lama then?”
“No.” Bran folded his hands in front of him and shook his head. “My grandfather was a Korean Buddhist, which is a bit different from the Tibetan tradition. ‘Course Korean Buddhism influenced the Far Eastern schools of Buddhism, but saying the Dalai Lama is the head of our religion would be like saying the Pope is in charge of Methodists” She must have made a face because Bran laughed, but it got the point across. He shifted in his seat, leaning his elbows forward onto the table. “But like I said I never really believed. It was a nice system of traditions that my family enjoyed honoring a bit. Personally, I don’t worry too much, but one thing that I like about Korean Buddhism is that it tried to address inconsistencies within the tradition. I respect that.”
“And now?”
“I’m grateful that there was that part of me that had this idea planted when I young,” Bran said. “I think it’s made things easier. I like to think that I was reborn in order to help Alex find the Iron Chalice. My previous self and I… I’m still not sure exactly what happened in Wales, but we were able to connect and help Alex. That’s a powerful thing.” He paused and gave her a searching look. “You don’t have that to help you though.”
“No,” Jenny said. “Reincarnation… it just doesn’t fit with what I grew up believing.”
“I suppose not.” Bran nodded with a distant thoughtful look. “Christianity is based on a belief of Heaven and Hell-”
“There’s more to it than that!” Jenny interrupted.
“Jewish tradition does not include Hell; that was a Christian invention, and the threat of damnation remains a big part of the religion,” Bran continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “There really isn’t room for reincarnation in the traditional interpretation of the religion. Yet, I do know Christians who believe in reincarnation.”
“Huh?”
“One of my high school buddies once suggested to me that reincarnation is the real form of Purgatory. People who did enough good to escape Hell, but not enough to enter Heaven.” Bran shrugged. “It was a compromise that he found helped him balance the two things that he believed in. It might not match up with Church teachings, but it helped him reconcile things in his own head.”
“You’re not supposed to do that though.”
“It’s the twenty-first century Jenny.” Bran laughed with a pointed look. “Don’t worry, Alex won’t let anyone burn you as a heretic. She’s rather fond of you.”
“Bran,” she said in a warning voice.
“Yeah okay, I’m being a little shit. I think Aiden is rubbing off on me.” Bran smiled for a moment before turning serious. “Look, Jenny, I don’t think what happened in your past lives makes you a bad person. Hell, I don’t think it made you a bad person then; it just made you a person. We can’t always control the outcomes of our actions, and I know that you two weren’t trying to hurt the Iron Soul in those lives. That does count for something in my book. As for the religious questions, well I encourage you to try and make peace with it. Maybe you accept that the world is greater than people thousands of years ago could understand while they recorded their religious texts, maybe you adjust things a little in your own head, or maybe you reject those religious texts in favor of something else or maybe you give it up altogether. That’s your decision. I don’t think there’s a right answer here beyond what is right for you.”
Hanging her head, Jenny hoped she didn’t look too disappointed. There was a flicker of anger in her chest, but she’d been the one who’d started the conversation. She hadn’t really thought Bran would have an answer, but she’d been hoping for something more than that. Her religion had been something familiar and comforting since her mother passed, and even when she hadn’t been able to get herself to go to church it had still been there.
“I don’t have an answer for you,” Bran continued in a softer voice. “Buddhism might help me with the issue of reincarnation, but it doesn’t address where the Iron Soul came from or other worlds or what happens next.” He exhaled slowly, flipping the pen again. “All of our traditions and beliefs are built on the old stories that helped us understand and explain something, but right now we’re part of writing one of those stories. We’re part of the new King Arthur story; we’re part of the story of the death of a Slavic God. I’m focusing my energy on trying to help write the best story I can.”
“You’re kind of a dork aren’t you?” Jenny smiled before she could stop herself.
“A bit, yeah.” Bran nodded his head and chuckled.
Then his phone beeped from its spot next to his book. He scooped it up and with a few quick movements of his thumb, the relaxed smile vanished from his face. Jenny felt her whole body stiffen as her back straightened.
“Bran?”
“There’s been an attack.” Bran stood up, forcing his chair back until it hit the wall. He grabbed his coat and pulled it on before reaching for his things only to hesitate.
“I’ll take care of your stuff and drop it off,” Jenny promised. She gave him a smile and a weak thumbs up. “Go and save the world.”
“Thanks.” Giving her a nod, Bran grabbed his cane with an irritated look and
pulled open the door.
“Be careful,” Jenny added softly as he strode out of the study room and vanished around a shelf of books. “Look after Alex.”
8
Slice of Life
This was life now. Wake up, go to class, hang out with her friends and get attacked by Sídhe relatives hell-bent on killing them all. It was a bad television show with the writers trying to figure out what new challenge to torment them all with. Alex grit her teeth and let her magic flow down her arms as a short creature with choppy silver hair rushed her.
The trees of the University of Ravenslake Arboretum provided them with just enough cover that Alex didn’t feel too worried about releasing a blast of magic. It was difficult to focus on how she wanted the magic to act when one of the small creatures dressed in a raggedy patchwork set of clothes with long vicious looking talons lunged at her. Dodging out of the way, Alex pushed the magic and willed the dark silver sparks to zing through the air. They struck the creature on the side as it began to dodge away.