Part the Fourth

For years the leader of the Crannog Nialls, who we called Righ or Rian, had been chosen by council meeting in by the clansmen and women, and on a regular basis. But it was not always this way. Many years before, a king of the House of Thunder of lineage from earlier Righs, had been deposed by the clan, as was their right. It was then that the clan decided to elect their leader from valued clan members.

However democratic, Ehlana had been an unlikely choice, but she had been hand-selected by the earlier Rian. Lia had stepped down due to responsibilities to her daughter, Magad, called Magdalena, who was to be married to a noble family of another clan. But Ehlana was unlikely, as she was only half-Niall—her other parent was from a Dani fishing village across the waters near the land of the Jutes.

There was another woman named Saoirse, known as the Red, or Red Woman, was a child of Coirpre, from the lineage of the cruel, deposed Righ. She saw Ehlana’s ascension to Righ as an opportunity to back her son as Rugh and to restore the lineage. While Magad was married, the Crannog remained joyous and celebratory, while Saoirse amassed her followers and supporters, awaiting the celebration's end.

Magad had not long gone with her new husband when the Red Woman arrived, threats and demands in hand. The messenger of Siobhan, a fosterling by the name of Kern, had been at the Crannog to offer the Siobhan and the family of Mananuan’s blessings, and was still there while the population of the Crannog swelled with the Red Woman’s retainers, but quickly set off upon hearing the news to report the events to the Brugh.

Even as Magad was handfasted at the Crannog, Siofra and Pol were handfasted at the Brugh. And soon after Arwen departed the Brugh, The Red Woman arrived at the Crannog. And Kern returned home, with the bitter news.

Eldrich left the Brugh alone, in the evening on Moss’s horse; but in the morning, Feargus, Moss, and I departed in anger at the arrogance of the woman. But Saoirse, the Golden Warrior, from whose womb I had burst two decades earlier, quietly decided that it provided an opportunity to put her own mark on the clan leadership.