A little world-building from Meribel
She sloshed through the melting snow drifts to the coffee place on the corner and found a table wedged between a young Asian woman tapping away at a laptop and a bearded hipster reading the Racing News. Inside the first thick black envelope was a blank sheet of flimsy, off-white tissue paper. Before it could dissolve she tore it into tiny pieces and stirred them into her coffee, where it was instantly transformed into a milky, viscous sludge that clung to her spoon. The movement of the sludge sounded like whispers, and Violet hunched over the cup to hear it over the steady wash of conversation around her. The single voice became three, each silken, woman’s voice slightly out of phase.
Under a sky of painted stars
the tears of the Goddess will appear
Let none who live consume their light
Lest a brother’s sword unsheathed draw near
A silver teardrop formed on the surface of the sludge, followed quickly by three silvery spirals arranged in a triangle. Violet pushed the cup away and sat back, gulping deep breaths to steady herself. The Morrigan’s voice, three women speaking as one, was as unmistakable as it was unwelcome.
Tears of Danu? The Tears of Danu were a myth! No one believed there was a potion that would allow one of her people to travel from anywhere in creation to Danu’s throne. It was ridiculous. Why would the Morrigan bother to get the King to assign the Guards to investigate a garbage prophecy?
But what if it was real? Or worse, what if Meribel got to it first? If Meribel got the Tears and a weapon strong enough to raise against her uncle Lugh, she could unify the exiles trapped here and her father’s loyalists back home. Or more likely, she’d just murder Lugh and dance over his body out of spite – once a pirate, always a pirate. It was enough of a pleasant mental image to calm her, and she smiled as she stirred her coffee again. Danu’s symbol vanished, and soon the viscous sludge dissolved too, leaving only a bad cup of coffee clouded with clumps of paper.
Knowing how the Morrigan liked to get Lugh worked up, this was probably a false alarm. If she could prove the Tears were a myth the case would close itself. It was like the Guard told her – all she had to do was settle this bit of business cleanly, and the Captain would punch her one-way ticket home. She left the coffee shop feeling better about life than she had in ages.
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