Children Of Myths, Act One: Scotland

Do what you must

When the engaged couple went out early in the morning, dressed and with weapons ready, they found some eyes on them from both the Sidhe and the soldiers.
No one said a word, although some were clearly scandalized and others (basically all the Fairies) proud of them.

"You did it on purpose, right?" Connor elbowed Saraide who shrugged nonchalantly in response.

"I'd say you needed it, or am I wrong?"

"No no, you're not wrong" Artica cracked her knuckles and stretched as she did "Best evening of my life so far"

"Excellent. Now let's finish this thing and go home."

The half-Fairy finished fixing her joints and then tried again to channel her magic downward instead of upward and walk across the surface of the lake to deep freeze it to the location of the Circle.

As Eljin had said, it wasn't that far away from shore but she'd had to go around quite a long way to create a single block.

"Is this enough?"

"Yes, come back here, now your purification skills will be needed" The Elven Captain made room for some of Brigid's Sidhe to implement the second part of the plan, that is, to melt enough ice to create a tunnel suitable for carts and horses to pass through .

"Captain..." One of the human soldiers came to Evans' side "Do you really want to ignore the matter?"

"What are you referring to?"

"Those two young ones are not married, and I don't think Miss Neivers wants to procreate at this time. They sinned by lust and..."

Evans took a deep breath before giving his subordinate a stern look. "It's not our place to judge, especially at a time like this."

"But..."

"Let them have a moment of joy, while it lasts. The battle is near..."

"Yes sir, you are right"

Evans waited until the tunnel was ready to give the order to move and receive permission to pass through the Circle from the rest of the Sidhe.

Artica started walking over the portal together with three of Brigid's Fairies; under the, an icy and black surface appeared instead of a transparent one.

Before any disaster could happen, Artica released her magic inside and the other three melted everything to free the passage, then something unexpected happened for the first girl: she fell inside with a little scream and it seemed to her that the world turned upside down on itself.

She found herself standing in a river frozen solid with black ice except for the crater she and the other three had made.

"What. The. Fuck. Just. Happened?"

This had never happened to her before, maybe it was because the Water Fairies used it? Did they dive in and emerge on the other side?
Both she and then all the humans and horses experienced that terrible sensation of being spun upside down and had to stop for a moment to recover from the brief dizziness and nausea before moving on again and contemplating the mountain not far from them.

There it was: Mt. Sgùrr Biorach, completely black and covered by leaden clouds. The pillar inside must have been as big as the one at Ben MacDui, if the sorcery had expanded that much.

Eljin gathered everyone and started dividing them into groups.

"Artica can't fly yet, so I'm counting on the members of Brigid's court for the reconnaissance flight. You must find out where they are, report, and then get the attention of as many acolytes outside as possible. Then, a second group will go in"