Centennial Spiral

Costly Protection

Riagán and Saoirse, the original tale

Before the Norman conquest when the lands of the Emerald Isle were sparsely inhabited by warring clans, there lived a couple in Southern Ireland- now County Kerry. Riagán Ó Conaill the ruirí-overking and his wife, Saoirse. They lead their people and raised their family.      
     Riagán and Saoirse both held powers from the ancient Druids in their veins. They were linked body and soul, able to live and dream together. They could share feelings and memories. They were never completely apart, and were strong. As they grew older and more settled, they became proud. Their kindness and compassion for people diminished. They lost the ability to see the value in those who did not live and believe as they did. They placed their love and family above everyone else. Yet, they were not the only ambitious and powerful people in the land.
     One day as Riagán made his way through his mór túath-overkingdom, he heard a growing panic around him. He felt a darkness creep inside him when he realized he could not see his wife, and they were not within their own túath or kin-group. Soon he was surrounded with those who worked closest with him and heard them cry out that his Saoirse had been taken. He closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears to block out the chaos, and focused on his love. He could see landscape flying past, he could feel the painful rhythm of a galloping horse beneath. He could taste the metallic taste the blood in his mouth, and his eyes flashed open. Saoirse had been assaulted and bloodied.

Riagán saw red, as though her blood coated his eyes. He had recognized the scenery from his vision. He ran to and pulled himself on the back of his horse. He called for all the men in the surrounding area to ride with him. Within moments the first group of twenty-five men were riding with the rest to follow.
It did not take them long to catch the band of men who had his love. The battle was over in less time than it took him to rally men to his side. Riagán surveyed the bloody field and counted less than twenty under equipped and very young men dead. Before his mind could make any sense or question he felt her and turned. Saoirse was running to him. Her dress was torn and filthy, her hair was loose and soaked in bloody mud. Her face was cut and bruised. His heart dropped to his toes to see her so molested. When she reached him he caught her in his arms and held her tightly. He ran his rough and bloodstained hands down the length of her back, her sides, pressed her middle to his own to check her reactions. She did not appear to be seriously injured. He pulled back and held her away from him, he looked into her light brown eyes and knew she was not broken. Her spirit was strong and her honor yet in tact.
It made no sense, a small band of untrained, under-equipped, boys had come to take a ruling warrior's wife. They took only her, not his young, beautiful maiden daughters, no property or gold. A new fear seized him. He pulled Saoirse to him, kissed her forehead despite the blood, and put her on his horse. He went to his men and spoke with them, he shared his fear. They had emptied their baile-village of all protection. He could see the truth register in their eyes. Their families were vulnerable.
They all mounted their horses, he holding his wife in his arms as well, and rode as fast as they could back to the baile. As they rode Riagán knew the strategy behind the attack. The baile that was emptied was not his own, but the one furthest from the one he and his family inhabited. It was the baile closest to the Ó Garbháin territory who also had kin further to the east. This could be a declaration of war. War would mean his sons would have to leave his home, his entire family would be in danger. He had obligations as a ruirí, and every person in his mór túath were his kin and could trace their lines back to a common ancestor. His mind wanted to break with rage and retribution. Holding Saoirse in his arms allowed him to think more clearly, he was not seeing red as he did when she was not with him. He weighed the risks and acceptable sacrifices, decided what he would be willing to do to protect those that were most important.
When they reached the baile it was immediately obvious it had been overtaken. Men stood with torches ready to destroy the wattle and daub round houses.  Riagán listened as the chieftain, Jarlath Ó Garbháin, demanded that he withdraw dominion over the baile and forsake the people of that túath or war would be waged over his entire mór túath. Jarlath went on to describe how they would start with Riagán's own túath, targeting his children. How Jarlath's warriors would avenge the young men thus slain by raping his daughters hoping to put sons in them that would replace those lost , and making his own sons slaves. He watched as Jarlath stared malevolently at Saoirse as he talked about his plans for her.

Sensing his distress, Saoirse squeezed Riagán's arm to avert his focus. She was looking at a haggard old man dressed in tattered robes, standing alone on the hill beyond. She pulled his attention to her and together they looked at the old man, and recognized an aura of other worlds. Together they wondered what kind of sign it was that he was watching over them. Together they used Saoirse's gift to know what the choices of today could mean for their future, and saw they could abandon these families and save themselves and their children. However, if they chose to fight, their family would not all be spared. She could not see exactly who would be taken from them, but she knew their family would not be whole. Riagán squeezed her waist and pulled back into himself.
He descended from the horse and yielded to Jarlath, and removed the stag of his family from the ráth or ringfort that circled the baile. He heard his people cry out, weep, and beg for protection. His own grief was muted with the certainty that his family of his own creation were at risk if he did not turn his back on these families. He could hear his heart pulse in his ears, the world around him smudged, and the sounds of his kindred muffled. The red crept over his eyes and his chest heaved rapidly. He heard the soft voice of his wife in the back of his head, very far away. He turned to look for her and his vision focused on her fair skin, and waving locks of dark hair. Her lips were shaping the sounds that made up his name, though no-one else would have heard her over the chaos and emotions around them, he could. He ran to her, jumped on the horse behind her, and put the baile to their backs.
A fortnight passed before the old man on the hill came to visit them. Saoirse knew he would come, knew he had an important role to play in their future. She didn't know if he was dark or light, but she knew that they could not avoid him. She saw him coming out the window in the moonlight long before he knocked on their door. She allowed Riagán to take her by the hand as they stepped out of their own round house and moved to the coals remaining from their cooking fire.
The old man took a seat on a stone near the fire and smiled a toothless grin. His hair was long and dirty, his face withered with age and weather-beaten. He began to speak of things Saoirse could not reconcile within herself and her beliefs. Her mind began to spin.
Sensing her distress, Riagán squeezed her hand and willed her to focus. The old man was explaining to them that their love was special and strong, and designed before they were born. They had found protection for their family together, but that protection had come at a cost. The oppression and suffering of their kinsmen would mark their souls. They were designed for greatness, but their souls were young, and unfortunately they had much to learn. The man, Tadgh, foretold that their souls would be reborn every one-hundred years to learn the lessons they needed. They would search for each other in each life, and they would always find each other, however, until they both gained all the wisdom they needed they would not be allowed to live as one. He foresaw many lives torn apart by their immature souls trying to reunite.
Tadhg turned directly to Saoirse and addressed her reserve. He knew she had been swayed by the priest, Patrick, and his new one god, and had abandoned the ways of her ancestors. He told them she would always be the one that pulled them apart, that it would be Riagán that would have to make her believe. He told them their lives were no longer in danger, and the rest of their days would be comfortable, but that is was Riagán's task to make Saoirse believe in the purpose of their next lives. The price of her defiance of the truth would be lifetimes of pain and frustration, fighting to regain what they now enjoy.
He smiled one last time, threw his head back and chanted to the stars, and stood to leave. He looked to the round house with a sinister grin and lamented that the children that were born within that house would be the last for many hundreds of years. One of many sacrifices they would have to make to atone for the lives they left behind in this one.