Page 7 of Rise of the Morrigan

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"This is yournew mother."

Babd exchanged incredulous glances with her two sisters. Her father was an emotionally stunted man—Babd accepted that—but did he really think he was going to just replace their mother?

And with this... whatever she was?

She seemed human, for the most part. Her skin pale and smooth, without blemish. Slight of frame with long, green hair and eyes to match. The hair and eyes proved it. She was something else.

"My name is Grainne," the mysterious woman-like creature said, a hint of sadness in her emerald eyes. "I do not expect you to call me mother."

When Grainne looked back at Babd's father, at Fionn, the empathy she'd had in her eyes when she looked at Babd and her sisters was instantly exchanged for fury. She didn't want to be here any more than Babd wanted a replacement mom.

Whoever she was, she'd been brought here by force. Wherever she came from, whomever her strange people were... all she'd known before was gone. She was the prize. A bounty Fionn had claimed for himself after another one of his senseless raids of the countryside's villages.

Babd barely thought of the man as "father" even though he'd punish her if she dared address him by his first name. To think Fionn thought to kidnap a creature, presumably because she was beautiful, and gain her affection after attacking her people betrayed his arrogance.

And to think to make her a wife without any sort of consequence? She was a small woman if she was a woman at all, but Grainne had some kind of magic about her.

Fionn was playing with fire, blinded by his pride, unable to imagine the consequences that might befall him if he ever rested his eyes or turned his back to this woman. At least, Babd thought, if she were in Grainne's position she'd be looking for the first opportunity to kill the man who'd probably destroyed, or at the very least took her from, everything she loved.

That's the thing about gold, gems, and treasure. It knows no other loyalty than to whoever happens to have seized it. But a woman... whether she be properly human, or somethingelse... was more precious than gold, silver, or even diamonds. And despite Fionn's presumptions—and the blind ignorance of most powerful men—women were not a thing to be possessed at all. Quite the contrary, in fact.

Babd had seen it many times. Blinded by their lusts, men often lost all sense when it came to women. You didn't have to be magical, like whatever Grainne was, to realize the power this afforded a woman should she arrest the passions of a man in such a way. The bards told many tales of whole wars fought and whole kingdoms that fell on account of mighty men who'd fallen into a woman's snare.

Men might think they rule the world. But women have the power to destroy the mightiest of kingdoms. If the All-Father had made man to rule the earth, the Mother Goddess had made woman to rule man.

A clever woman, if she had the slightest beauty to her, needn't take up arms to do it. A well-timed smile, a giggle, or a wink was all that was needed for certain men to be taken in such a manner. Babd, through her keen sense of perception, had discovered the secret—the more powerful the man the more susceptible he was to a woman's charms.

Babd wasn't as beautiful as her sister, Macha. But Macha was too naive to use her beauty to her advantage. And while Babd wasn't as intelligent as Anand, there is a difference between the sort of knowledge that memorizes facts and the kind of perception Babd had.

Yes, that was Babd's gift. Not beauty or intelligence—but craftiness. To Fionn and even her sisters, she was good for little more than housework. Babd was fine with that. If they didn't see her, if they didn't realize what she was capable of. She'd use that to her advantage.

Not even her sisters, who had shared a womb with Babd, understood her. No one did. Except, perhaps, this mysterious woman, Grainne, whom Fionn would force to become his wife and presume to make the girls' mother.

Something about the way Grainne looked at her—at Babd, not at Macha or Anand—suggested she saw Babd for who she was. Perhaps that was Grainne's magic. Something not unlike the kind of perception that Babd had, herself. The kind capable of discerning another's true nature, their motives, and predict their next steps.

Not a prophecy. Babd was no oracle. The gift she had was better than that. Oracles do little more than reveal inevitabilities. They proclaim events fated to be. But with craftiness, with perception, Babd could discern someone's character, their motives, and from that, she predicted what they wouldlikelydo next, not what they were destined to do.

That made her more powerful than an oracle. After all, once one knows fate one is thereafter powerless to change it. But if one knows what is likely, not certain, and has a certain degree of craftiness—well, that woman could change the future and craft her own destiny.

Fionn didn't say another word. So bold—to show up and declare Grainne their new "mother" and leave, as if his word defined the laws of nature itself.

Neither Macha nor Anand would have any of it. Not even acknowledging their would-be mother's presence. They each met Grainne's cordial greeting with a cold shoulder. But Babd didn't blame Grainne. She wasn't the one who'd presumed to make herself their mother. She was, quite likely, more a victim here than they were.

A slight grin cracked Babd's face as her eyes met Grainne's. It wasn't that Babd was happy about what her father had done. But, unlike her sisters, Babd understood what Grainne was going through... and she felt that for some reason this beautiful woman-like creature understood her, too.

"Would you like me to show you around?" Babd asked.

"That would be nice," Grainne said, returning Babd's grin with one of her own.

"Don't sweat Macha and Anand. They'll come around. They're just a bit put off by the whole idea that dad thinks he can just up and replace mom..."

"I get it," Grainne said. "If I were in their shoes, I would likely act the same way."

Babd cocked her head. They never wore shoes at all in the house. One of her father's many rules.

Sensing Babd's confusion Grainne piped up. "My apologies. I used an expression from another time. A time yet to come to pass."

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