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To Court the Fèidh

Chapter Six

© Cederwyn Whitefurr

5thOctober, 2021

All Rights Reserved.

Lady Fianna trembled, she couldn't help it, her head bowed, she sank to one knee before the Fèidh Elder Council. Realising her folly, she saw the entirety of the Elder Council as they sat impassively on their stone chairs, arrayed in a semi-circle facing her.

Not just the Elders of my Clan, but the entire Fèidh Council? Such a thing is only for the most dire of circumstances, Great Stag, what have I done?

Rising, an ancient Fèidh Stag stood, his shoulders drooping and his luxurious mane silver flecked with age. Power emanated from him in waves that set Lady Fianna's heart to ice in her furred chest. Raising his gnarled staff, he slammed it down on the stone with thunderous cracks.

"SILENCE!" Come his voice, the snap of it like the peal of thunder, instantly quietening the other Fèidh who had muttered and whispered amongst themselves.

"Lady Fianna of Summerholme - " He began.

"Aye..." Come her quavering voice, her head downcast. "Such I am named."

"Bring forth the charges!"

A young Fèidh stepped forwards, dressed in ornate ceremonial armour, then unrolled a scroll. Holding it up, he began to read in a loud, deep voice.

"Lady Fianna, you are hereby charged with the following crimes against we, the Fèidh. One, did willingly give yourself to a human. Two, this human, is one of the Order - who has hunted and killed our kin for centuries!..."

Screams of outrage and anger exploded amongst the Fèidh. Some screamed for her execution there and then, some cried, some stared in shocked horror and dismay.

Slamming his staff on the stone again, the Elder restored order - but it took some doing.

"Third, said human has returned to the Order. He know knows of our existence - you have willingly betrayed the Fèidh and revealed our presence to those who would hunt and murder our kind!"

Screams of distress and rage exploded from the gathered Fèidh. Their blood hot, they were seconds from tearing her apart with their paws, so incensed and enraged were they.

Again, the Elder smacked his staff on the stone, until he finally restored order, but the angry mutterings and snarls of the Fèidh were still heard.

"Lastly, the final charge!" Continued the Stag. "You willingly taught a human Fèidh magicks, such are the charges laid against you!"

Rolling up the scroll, the Stag bowed his head and stepped backwards, coming to rest and his eyes staring straight ahead.

"Serious charges have been laid against you, Lady Fianna." Come the voice of the Elder, as he looked down at her. "As is our custom, you have been brought before us to give opportunity to refute these charges, speak truth child, are these charges true?"

Lady Fianna stared down at her cloven hooves and a tremble rippled through her from ears to hooves.

"Yes..."

Screams and rage filled the Fèidh, then one stepped forwards, her muzzle wet with tears as she ran to Lady Fianna's side, then grabbed her and held the sobbing doe tightly.

"Mercy my lord, please, I beg the council for mercy!" Wailed the older doe. "Lady Fianna is young, she is my only fawn..."

"Step away!" Snapped the Elder.

"Please - mercy!" She screamed, dropping to her knees and begging.

Two armoured guards come and hauled her back, whilst the angry voices screamed and yelled for the young Fèidh's head.

"Mother, please do not..." Lady Fianna wept.

"ENOUGH!" Snapped the Elder's voice as he slammed the staff again and again, until silence returned. "Lady Fianna, the charges have been read and stand against you, how say you in your defence? I warn you child, choose your words carefully..."

Lady Fianna hung her head for several minutes, her fingers intertwined and held before her, as she felt the bitter tears dripping from her muzzle and falling to the ground.

"Guilty...on all charges... I can not refute the charges so laid against me..."

"Kill her, burn her at the stake!" Come the screams and chants from a hundred Fèidh throats.

With a snort, the Elder smashed his staff down, the stone cracking and splintering, a loud crack like summer thunder nearly deafening the Fèidh who trembled and bowed their heads in submission to the Elder's barely restrained anger.

He was a few moments composing himself, before he looked down at the crying Lady Fianna who dropped to her knees and hung her head.

"I shall now pass judgement upon you!" He spoke quietly, but this was more terrifying than his roars. "You openly broke our most sacred of rules! Only one crime did you not commit! In your defence - you did not murder another Fèidh! Your guilty plea has granted you leniency child..."

"I am...to be spared?" Lady Fianna lifted her tear streaked muzzle.

"You are to be excommunicated and exiled! Never will you find our kind, for as the moment this sentence shall be passed, shall it be! No Fèidh shall give you aid, succour or solace, to us, you are dead, forgotten, your name, your titles and your family will be stripped and their name stricken from our history!"

"No, please, they are innocent!" Fianna squealed, begging piteously.

"I give you ten minutes to make your peace and say goodbye to your parents, before this sentence will be carried out."

Hysterical, Fianna turned towards her father and mother, who shuddered and turned their back on her.

"No...please..."

Running to her childhood friends, they too turned away from her, and Fianna wept and returned to the Elder, dropping to her knees and hanging her head. He looked down at her, then placed a paw on her head and whispered something. With a mournful cry, she felt the link to the Fèidh stripped from her - a pain unlike anything shed ever felt drove her to the ground where she lay choking and sobbing, her body wracked with agony.

"You will retain such magicks as are your own - " He spoke, as he gestured to the two guards. "Your link to us and through us, is now no more. May the Great Stag find it in his heart to forgive you!"

They come and gripped her under the arms, dragging her to the perimeter of their village then casting her over the boundary. Fianna screamed as she felt the magicks sear her fur and flesh, marking her and banishing her forever.

"No...what have I done..." Fianna wept, as she clawed at the cold, uncaring ground, the residual agony of the magicks still burning through her.

*

Alexander sat in the commissary of the Order, a dark, almost permanent cloud hanging over him and his mood. Acquaintances and even friends tried to talk to him, only to be met with sullen silence. Eventually, they left him and he sat, swirling a goblet of mead, before he snarled and clenched his gloved hand, the goblet crumpling before it fell from his fingers and he stared down at it, wide eyed and horrified.

Mead dripped from his fingers like blood, before he snatched up the crumpled goblet and stormed from the room, his mind swirling and filled with sickened horror at what he'd become...

As he passed others, then just happened to glance sideways at him and as he strode past them, he moved past a guttering and flickering torch in a sconce on the wall.

His shadow wasn't that of a human...

It was that of an anthropomorphic stag...

To Be Continued...