Kieran

  “What do you mean by that, exactly?” Evie asked.

  Kieran didn’t answer her immediately, instead opting for the dialogue choice that looked best. He had a few options that would further the conversation without actually moving forward, but at this point - especially after [áine’s] huge hint in her last statement - Kieran was pretty sure he understood the basics of what had happened.

  He may not have the full story or know the details, but he had a pretty good idea of what the basics were.

  Caoimhe responded, “I see. So you can’t talk about the [Contract] then.”

  [áine] grinned and tapped her nose. “Truly, [Curses] and [Contracts] alike can be brutal, unforgiving things. As can old men when they trick you into things they don’t truly understand the scope of.”

  With a small laugh, [áine] visibly relaxed in her chair. The zoomed in camera on her also relented, suddenly turning the whole atmosphere from the potentially dangerous ‘boss fight’ into a similar looking scene to the chat with [Scathach].

  “I cannot talk about the [Curse] that has stopped flight in the [Human World]. The restrictions are a little bit archaic in structure, however, so I can work around them if I try.” [áine] waved a hand, turning what had been wooden chairs and benches that looked at home in the garden around the table into far more comfortable, plush affairs, then shifted so she was laying idly across the seat, her legs dangling over the armrest on one side.

  “Oh, this is much better!” She said, stretching out across the suddenly plush armchair.

  “The fuck?” Nyx asked, and her question was echoed around basically the entire party. Even Kieran was surprised at the sudden shift in personality, despite getting a feel for the situation. He was wondering if he had somehow been both right and entirely off base all at once.

  “I think she was just messing with us,” Kieran said. “I suppose we were warned that the Fae might?”

  “I had expected some genuinely malicious tricks, sure,” Ash said, “or at least whatever would pass for that in a video game. Not…this.”

  “So!” [áine] said, angling to view the party from her relaxed posture, “Obviously, I had to get some fun in before we really had our talk. Color me surprised that you came to the conclusion you did - however wrong it may be.” She looked vaguely upset as she said the last bit, as though she was forced to add it, but brightened up again as she changed the color of her clothing, muttering about what the ‘color of surprise’ was.

  “Oh boy.” Kieran sighed.

  “I won’t lie. This is far more what I had in mind when we were warned about dealing with Fae.” Marissa said flatly.

  “Right?” Evie asked. “Zany, scatterbrained, a little…not all there?”

  “Yeah…”

  [áine] settled on a powder blue, then addressed the group again. The new dress color clashed horribly with her hair. “Now then, I’ll get right down to it. My plan was to help you all along. I had planned to scare you into a trial by combat, deliberately lose, and then lay out the terms of my assistance.”

  She lept back upright in her chair, looking excited. “How-ev-er,” she sang, “you’re cleverer than I had expected, mentioning [Fae Contracts], and not backing down after I told you it was a [Curse]. So! While I can’t exactly explain the whole situation to you, I’ll give you what I can.”

  She lightly picked a few of the snacks off the table, tossing one into her mouth, and several more into the air around her, where they began to slowly orbit her head. “As I said, I can’t speak about the [Curse] with anyone that’s not an old man. But, let’s go over what I can say, right?”

  “For starters, unlike a [Fae Contract], a [Curse] can actually be broken. [Fae Contracts] are basically sewn into the fabric of reality itself, so once they are agreed too - on purpose or not! - they are forever binding. [Curses], on the other hand, could be altered by their caster, or even dispelled all together. The better ones can’t usually be broken by anyone other than the caster, though, just so you know.”

  Kieran was trying to keep track of what [áine] said. She was clearly talking in negatives to avoid the ‘no talking’ rule, and when Caoimhe had the chance to respond and ask a question, he saw one that interested him immediately.

  “I thought [Contracts] usually hold you to the spirit of the rules, not just the letter?”

  “Ah, yes. This is a secret, and you shouldn’t tell anyone, okay? But there is a hierarchy to the rules of both [Worlds], and while [Fae Contracts] are very high on the list, a Fae’s intrinsic nature ranks higher! So, even under the rules of a [Contract], we can play tricks.” She laughed, the sound carrying a slightly evil edge to it.

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  “So, as it were, if a Fae is powerful enough, their nature as a trickster can bend the rules. Just a bit. Now then, as it stands, the [Curse] that has been placed on the [Aes Sídhe] cannot be broken. They will forever be wingless.” [áine] smirked, “But, you see, you said you’re not the [Aes Sídhe]. You are not your ancestors. So while you are blanketed by the same [Curse] that affects them, agreeing to a new one - more specific to the new generation - could overwrite the weak hold it has on you.”

  Kieran considered that. The game’s lore on [Fae Contracts] was fairly light, but nothing that [áine] had said seemed completely out of place.

  “Y’all, I’m so lost.” Jazz said.

  “She’s been talking in negatives, right?” Firo asked. “Admittedly, she swaps between the lies and not lies on a dime, so it’s not the easiest to follow.”

  “If I’m following correctly, you’ve got it right, Firo.” Kieran said. “My understanding right now is that she agreed to a Fae Contract, and that’s what stopped the Aes Sídhe from being able to fly. She keeps talking about it as a curse, because she isn’t allowed to talk about it freely. But also, Fae Contracts are permanent. She can’t just agree to break it, so no matter what they do, the Aes Sídhe will never fly again.”

  “But she’s suggesting a new Contract could give flight back to the descendants of the Aes Sídhe. Which would be most of the average people on the human side, except for some of the oldest people remaining.” Nyx said. “I get it.”

  “Oh man.” Evan said, “So like, the PCs and average folk will get flight back, but the big heroes and gods of the world won’t because they’re part of the Aes Sídhe.”

  “Yeah,” Kieran said. “That sets up one hell of a setting. Hopefully the gods aren’t the jealous type.”

  “You’ve read the classic myths, Caoimhe. You tell me they’re not the jealous type.” Evie said.

  “Yeah, they are. Almost universally.” Kieran chuckled.

  “Oh boy.” Firo said. “Those are some boss fights to look forward to.”

  “No kidding. I imagine we’ll focus on the Fomorians for now though, still.” Marissa said.

  “So, chosen envoys of the old man, the plan is basically as follows. You, the descendants of the [Aes Sídhe], shall be known as the [Daoine Sídhe], a people separate from your ancestors. You shall have your wings remade, and once again be gifted with the ability of flight. And, perhaps, even the ability to cross between the [Worlds], as once was common.”

  “There’s no way it’s that simple.” Evan said.

  “Well, she did say that the plan was originally to fight us, but Caoimhe impressed her.” Nyx said.

  “I hope we get to fight anyway,” Jass said. “I guess I appreciate them putting so much story in my raid series, but like…that’s not what I’m doing the raids for, you guys.”

  “That’s fair. The non-raid players are gonna be pissed if they miss out on a ton of important story stuff because it’s locked behind raids.” Evie said.

  “Wouldn’t be the first time. They’ll have to watch playthroughs or guides I guess.” Ash said.

  “Or practice and ‘get gud’.” Evan laughed. “God, I hate saying that, but it’s a legitimate stance to take.”

  While the party chatted, Kieran was looking over the dialogue options, as he was apparently still in charge of running the cutscene. Thankfully, there was no longer a timer before he had to respond. If anything, he was half tempted to let [áine] just run through her idle animations, because they were rather delightful. She was poking at her floating snacks, and directing them around the air like a musical conductor.

  “How would such an agreement work, exactly?” Was the question he settled on to ask. It was a bit broader than the others, but he was hoping for a decent explanation from [áine].

  “Well,” she began, continuing to direct her food around in spirals, “for starters, the new agreement would need to be a [Fae Contract] in order to be more powerful than the previous [Curse]. I will be one anchor point of it, which is fine. For my part, I will allow the newly established [Daoine Sídhe] to once again use their wings.”

  “To be clear, this sort of sweeping magic is very temperamental. It will roughly allow anyone who truly believes themselves to be one of the new [Daoine Sídhe] to have access to whatever this agreement allows, so long as they are not under the lock and key of the previous [Curse].”

  [áine’s] grin then widened past the natural lengths of her mouth, nearly reaching her ears. It was incredibly unnerving. “I want to make this crystal clear. The old man already knows, but you can help spread the word - for someone to be considered among the [Daoine Sídhe], they must renounce the [Aes Sídhe] and the [Tuatha Dé Danann]. A person cannot be part of both.”

  Kieran immediately understood what she meant, and from the chuckling and “Oh, shit” in chat, at least a few of the others did too.

  This would effectively mean that while just about any normal character on the Human side could conceivably gain the ability to fly, it would also technically rob the current leaders - the [Tuatha Dé Danann] - most of their forces. At least in name.

  [áine] really was quite clever. And vindictive, too. She was simultaneously helping those she viewed as her enemy while taking further revenge, but in such a way that no one would really have any right to complain. Especially if she had the backing of the [Dagda], who was ostensibly the leader of the [Tuatha Dé Danann].

  “Is this wise? Aren’t we basically signing off on starting a war here?” Firo asked.

  “I think we might be, yeah.” Jazz said.

  “If the Tuatha manage to repel the Fomorian threat, there’s simply no way they let this slide.” Nyx said. "I bet the rest of the base game updates - and maybe the first expansion - is dealing with the Fomorian invasion. After that, we move into fighting the Tuatha allies we had up until then.”

  “Oh, man. I wonder if players will get to pick a side.” Marissa said.

  “If we do, I’m sticking with áine. I would die for this crazy lady.” Evan said.

  Kieran just shook his head. “Are we just going to agree to her terms, then? I’m not on a timer anymore, and I have a bunch of questions in front of me I can ask.”

  “Feel free to pick, then. You’re the biggest lore fiend among us; if you want to gather intel, I’m fine with that.” Ash said.

  “Seconded.” Evie said, and other agreements followed.

  Kieran took that chance to cycle through some of the available questions to see what some of the responses were. Most of the party was chatting about plans for the following day or the weekend while [áine] answered his selected questions shockingly patiently.

  She used a lot of circular speech to avoid talking about the [Fae Contract] that she had agreed to with the [Dagda], but at the same time, she was about as direct as Kieran imagined she could have been. Where she was able to tell directly opposite lies or clarify something through a purposeful opposite, she did so.

  It seemed that, thanks to their party getting through her ‘questioning’ scene while using the ‘correct’ answers, he was basically able to conduct a lore gathering hunt.

  From what Kieran was able to put together, he surmised that whenever [áine] and the [Dagda] had talked after the First War while [áine] was still upset. Evidently, she had been angry and vindictive, and verbally agreed to some things that she felt she shouldn’t have, and the [Dagda] had locked her into her angry ranting with the [Contract].

  Obviously, she couldn’t say exactly what her angry demands were. But she did mention during a response about how flight was as essential to a Fae as life, and they viewed losing their wings as equivalent to death.

  Kieran suspected that the [Dagda] had tricked her into equating the two during the conversation, and got her to then say that she wanted all of the [Aes Sídhe] dead as recompense for their treatment of the Fae. The [Dagda] was then able to twist her language into an agreement that ‘killed’ the [Aes Sídhe] by removing their ability to fly.

  There were other tasty bits of lore that [áine] was able to drop as well, such as how a Fae’s wings were essentially a crystallization of magic leaking from their bodies that they could control. It allowed them to interface directly with the magic around them, which was why Fae races had such high affinity for magic.

  The related, and more interesting tidbit about their wings, was that it was that interfacing with magic in the atmosphere that allowed those with wings their enhanced flying ability. Because, in fact, Fae beings didn’t actually ‘fly’ in the way animals could, but rather rode magical currents in the air, and manipulated them to their needs. It made sense, then, that wings that could directly interact with magic around the body would help immensely with flight control.

  Of course, Kieran and many other lore enthusiasts online had imagined something like that was the case from the beginning. While Mag Mell was a game, of course, most Fae were clearly too large to actually be carried aloft by their wings. And that was before considering any sort of gear like weapons or armor.

  While Kieran was going through a string of questions related to the way Fae society worked and [áine’s] position as Queen, Marissa broke his concentration by calling his name. “Yo, Caoimhe. We’re starting to run up against our end time for the night. You almost done?”

  Kieran blinked at the screen, and brushed his mouse down around the bottom of his screen to check the time on the PC’s toolbar. She was right - they barely had fifteen minutes left in their night.

  “Relax, Bisky,” Nyx said, “All of this lore has been super interesting. And Caoimhe has been nice enough to go slowly enough through the dialogue that I’ve been able to get some great notes.”

  “Oh.” Kieran said with a chuckle. “I didn’t realize you were paying attention to it, Nyx.”

  “Hey, I was too.” Firo said. “I’m shocked they let [áine] just lore dump on us like this.”

  “I genuinely think it might be the ‘loot’ from passing her dialogue ‘trial’,” Kieran said. “Going by how she was acting when we first arrived, I don’t think she would have treated us this way had we ended up fighting her like she supposedly originally had planned.”

  “I’m inclined to agree with that.” Nyx said. “And while I have been truly enjoying all this new lore, I suppose Bisky is right. We should wrap up the Q&A session.”

  Kieran sighed, looking at the remaining few lines of questions he hadn’t gotten to go through yet. “Yeah, alright. I’m sure all of this will end up online, anyway.”

  “Man, going through here has me absolutely dying to know how this whole raid series works when you’re not doing it in a dedicated party like this. Like…is there a “canon” through line or something?” Evie asked.

  “There must be. Especially if the raid will be unlocking flight for everyone.” Marissa said.

  “In a weird way, I can pretty easily see how this agreement we’re about to make can be used for everyone too. They can just drop a quest somewhere that players can take that involves them learning some vague information about the situation that leads to the PC vowing to become a [Daoine Sídhe] and gaining flight.” Nyx said.

  “It does actually make sense in that way, yeah.” Marissa dais.

  “Alright, let’s wrap this up and let everyone get to bed.” Kieran said as he clicked on the option to move on.

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  Sword and Snow, so in a few weeks, my post schedule will be changing a little. Just a heads up!