The Celtic Mirror Chapter 3

  Chapter 3: Of Magic and Anomalies

It was exactly 7.56 a.m., and the first pale light of dawn was already breaking when Professor Simoon Gale, exhausted and his clothes damp with frost, opened the front door of his house at number 42 Ether Drive. A bleak, grey light, typical of that first morning after the winter solstice, filtered lazily across the entrance hall, heralding a bitterly cold day.

From the kitchen, a warm steam drifted out to meet him, laced with the rich aroma of freshly ground coffee and that distinct air of cosy serenity that only a home built with deep love can possess.

Aura, his wife, was softly humming a fado, patiently planning in her mind how she would spoil her son, who had just returned from Egypt. More than anything, she was thrilled that Anemo was coming home with dear Remi on his arm.

"What a perfect alignment of the stars!" she thought to herself. "After all the scheming Anna and I did to bring them together... and those little rascals didn’t give us the slightest hint! He-he!"

She performed a light pirouette, cafetiere in hand, before pouring the rich, steaming liquid into her porcelain teacup. But the fado froze instantly on her lips, and she stood petrified for a second at the sight of her husband. Simoon looked like a tormented spirit newly released from God-knows-what dark depths on the longest night of the year.

'Simoon! My dear, are you alright?'

She set the hot cafetiere down on the table and rushed to meet the professor. Taking his hand as if he were a lost child, and with her heart now pounding like tribal drums, she guided him to the table.

'Come, let us have some coffee.'

'I... I drink my coffee with salt... just like Anemo,' the professor said, his voice hollow, his eyes sunken into his sockets as though staring into another world entirely. 'We must talk, Aura!'

Aura Gale—a woman who, behind her apparent elegance and fragility, possessed a fierce inner strength, that "Goddess Durga" her son so fondly teased her about—handed the professor a cup of coffee and the sugar bowl containing the pink salt that Anemo only used when he came to visit.

'Let us talk then, Simoon! Where are the children? Have you left them at number forty-nine already?'

Simoon took off his heavy winter coat, let it drape over the back of the chair, and, wrapping both hands around the hot cup, began:

'Sit down. What I am about to tell you... will not be easy to digest. I have not been to the airport, Aura.'

Aura smoothed the folds of her champagne-coloured silk dressing gown and sat down opposite her own steaming cup of coffee.

'What do you mean, you haven’t been to the airport? Anemo was supposed to fly in from Cairo! You told me you were going to pick him up! What is happening, Simoon? Where is our boy?'

The professor took a short sip of the bitter coffee, trying to find the words for an explanation that would sound like sheer madness to a rational mind.

'Anemo has made it to Ireland, Aura. But not by plane. You see, there is so much more... Do you remember the white Angora cat that Remi left at Anemo’s house?'

'Of course,' Aura replied, completely bewildered. 'That beautiful thing called Bise.'

'Well, my dear, that beauty was actually Remi herself, transformed into a cat by an ancient artefact I brought back by accident.'

Aura blinked repeatedly, convinced her husband had lost his mind from utter exhaustion or lack of sleep, yet she maintained a perfectly calm voice:

'Right. Where are the children now? Have they gone straight to Anna’s?'

The professor sighed deeply, wondering just how much more Aura could take of this fantastic, terrifying chain of events.

'Well, due to bureaucracy and international travel regulations, they were forced to take an alternative route.'

'Which means?'

Simoon swallowed another mouthful of coffee and continued, his voice growing steadier, drawing courage from his own words:

'There is a network of time mirrors across the globe. These mirrors are springs, basins, fountains, water portals. My colleague in Egypt, Shehrazad, is the one who discovered them. The children chose to return to Ireland using one of these mirrors...'

'And the cats? For heaven's sake, Simoon! Why did you take the cats with you? I don’t understand a single thing.'

'Calm down, my love! An anomaly occurred. One of these water mirrors is located right inside the Oweynagat cave in Roscommon... that is where I went last night.'

Simoon paused, measuring his wife's reaction carefully, and pressed on:

'Anemo, Remi, and the cats are in the past now, somewhere in Ireland's Celtic period... and they left a message for me there, carved in Ogham script.'

'That is impossible! What you are saying makes absolutely no sense. You left this house with the cats in the back of the car! How can they all be lost in a barbaric past, completely devoid of civilization?'

'The cats sensed the portal's energy, Aura. They bolted inside before I could stop them.'

"I don't know exactly how it happened..." he murmured to himself. Simoon took another sip of his coffee, choosing to keep the detail about the flooded cave gallery to himself. 'The message simply said: "We have travelled into the past, Father! We’ll keep trying!"'

Aura stood up, thoughtful and calm, and began to pace across the kitchen tiles while organizing her "Goddess Durga" thoughts.

'Phone your colleague, the epigraphist! Tell her we will buy her flights to come over immediately!'

***

Meanwhile, in Cairo, Shehrazad was preparing breakfast for her twins when, for no apparent reason, the kettle slipped from her hand, spilling the hot, mint-infused liquid across the reddish marble tiles of her kitchen. From the deep pocket of her linen dress, the faint trill of her phone rang out, and a cold shiver ran straight down her spine.