Chapter 15: The Dinner
The storm had completely died down by the time the five visitors, now all freshened up, followed Eithne through the fort’s night toward the great house of the chieftain, the Rí.
The reddish glow of the torches lent a mystical atmosphere to the round fort, projecting towering shadows onto the earthen walls.
Mistral paced elegantly like a dandy behind Eithne, leaving Anemo and Remi immediately in his wake to play their role as a couple with children to the very end. Sirocco was once again the little ginger boy in Anemo's arms, and Aeolus was a brooch carefully pinned to the writer's chest.
Mistral's stomach grew noisy again, and the tomcat felt compelled to apologize.
"Oh non, pas encore! Excusez-moi, mes amis... My loud stomach has become a harbinger of danger. Do you remember, Remi?"
But Aeolus immediately rebuked him:
"Don't jinx it, Mistral! You're just hungry, that's all. Breathe, be calm, everything will be fine. This beautiful girl is Remi's friend now, and..."
Eithne turned her head toward the anxious cat, then raised her eyes to the "brooch" that had just called her a beautiful girl, and smiled warmly.
"You must not fear, it is just a dinner. The Rí, my father-in-law, is a good and wise man. He welcomed me and my brothers into his home after our parents passed away." Eithne sighed deeply, and a shadow briefly crossed her smile. "His wife, Rorria, is also a woman with a great soul. Everyone calls her Mama Rorria, and to her, the title of mother is more precious than the title of queen."
The chieftain's house was the most imposing flesc in the rath, located centrally to be roughly equidistant from the other circular dwellings. Though initially they seemed scattered at random and without any topographical rule, they possessed, nonetheless, a logic of the place; perhaps, seen from above, the interior of the circular fort would have given the impression of a spiral or of concentric, imperfect circles shaped by the land.
"I'm nervous!" Remi whispered, squeezing Anemo's arm. "Eithne, please don't leave us stranded! We only need to survive for a few days, until the water recedes from the cave. Please!"
The young woman offered her guests another wide smile and, after hanging the torch upon the wall of the flesc, she pushed open the heavy door of the house.
"The Rí awaits you, distinguished guests!" she added, propping the open door with her own body as she gestured for them to enter.
Just as in the guest flesc, they were met by a warmth and a blend of aromas that this makeshift family was now learning to associate with the concept of home.
Gathered around the fire, seated on polished wooden logs, were the members of the chieftain's extended family—and, by extension, Eithne's. In one corner, on thick straw mattresses and deerskins, lay the children under five, while the teenagers, who in their culture were already considered adults, had taken their places around the hearth alongside the Rí and his wife, Mama Rorria.
Eithne and Connal's three-month-old infant was sleeping in a cradle carved out of a rowan trunk. Along its smooth edges, the signs in the Ogham script were deep and slightly uneven. It was clear that one of the older boys of the house had practiced the tip of his knife there, mastering with quiet ambition the intricate lines of the ancient alphabet.
The sight of the markings instantly lit a bulb in Anemo's mind: "If one of the twins knows how to write, I could ask him to write a message for Father," he thought, and suddenly the burden of the role he had to play as convincingly as possible became a little lighter.
Eithne's father-in-law, the old Rí of the settlement, immediately stood up from his tall log, which was covered in sheepskins. He bowed his head in respect and made a wide gesture with his arms.
"Welcome to my home, O People from Beyond," he spoke in a powerful, yet warm, slightly raspy voice.
The old man solemnly pointed toward two massive logs placed in the warmest area, right by the fire. These were the seats of honour, upon which Anemo and Remi sat with a sinking heart.
As she took her seat, Remi forced a wide smile onto her face, but it froze instantly the moment she read upon the people's faces—especially those of the children—not just fear, but true terror.
"They think I am a vengeful deity," the writer thought, instinctively sensing that she had to win their trust, particularly that of the children. So, she kissed little Sirocco, who was now Siro again, on the forehead and whispered softly as she undid the Collar of the Two Skies from his neck to entrust it to Anemo:
"Let the collar help Anemo, and go to the children. Look, Boo is waiting for you!"
The boy did not wait for a second invitation; he shot like an arrow toward the group of children, where Boo already seemed to be a minor celebrity.
"Let children be children!" Remi added, and with a wink toward Eithne, she resumed her role as the Morrígan—a character she desperately hoped to make believable, yet humanize just a little.
***
The people had put out on the table—or rather, arranged in a circle around the hearth—the very best they had, despite the scarcity of early spring.
Upon the hot stones beside the hearth, the sun-bread (Bannocks) was baking, a symbol of nature's rebirth on the occasion of the spring equinox. Then there were bowls holding a steaming stew of barley and oats, enriched with rare pieces of smoked pork, wild garlic, and young nettles. Hard-boiled duck and wild goose eggs were laid on a bed of green moss as a sacred symbol of new life; there were chunks of aged cheese, dried in wooden tubs, goat's milk infused with wild mint, and warm mead (Leth), the fermented beverage of honey and water, flavoured with dried herbs and served in stag horns.
"Mighty Morrígan, distinguished guests, please deign to bless this dinner at the dawn of the luminous season, my beautiful family, and our tribe so sorely tried by fate!"
The Rí's voice died away, and a solemn, yet somewhat awkward silence fell over the room for both sides. The hosts feared the wrath of the gods, while the "gods" feared that the hospitality of the locals could turn into hostility at any moment.
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