Page 76 of Rise of the Morrigan

A raven cawed overhead. Cú Chulainn looked up. He smiled. "She has come for me..."

"A stupid bird?"

Cú Chulainn laughed. "My goddess. She has come for me that I might love her, even in death... for she is the goddess of death and war. I suppose this end is fitting."

"You speak nonsense," Connla said. "Let me cut your bindings loose that you might face me and die a warrior's death."

Cú Chulainn smiled. "I did not want to be a warrior in life. I do not wish to be one in death. I only hope that this act brings you peace. You might not believe it, but I love you, son... I always have."

Those last words infuriated Connla. The rage boiled up within the young warrior, consuming his frame. The ríastrad overtook him, even as it had once done to Cú Chulainn that day he'd went out on the hunt... the day he killed the Fomorian.

Cú Chulainn screamed as Connla's jaws tore into his flesh. But he didn't fight. He recalled a verse of prose, he thought of the tale of Taliesin and Ceridwen. And he thought of those who'd loved him, and the goddess who loved him still. He didn't even attempt to rip apart his bindings.

With his last breath, Cú Chulainn made a plea... he could barely form his words. But the Morrigan heard him. She knew for what he asked.

The second he uttered his last syllable, one of Connla's claws sliced across Cú Chulainn's neck...

And he departed the only world he'd ever known.

Cú Chulainn's bloodcalled out to me from the ground. He'd spoken words, but his blood spoke to me more clearly than his words ever could.

"I have heard your petition, my love," I said as Cú Chulainn approached the cauldron of rebirth.

"Then you will have agreed to my proposal?"

"You agreed to marry me should I only promise to bind the vengeance that courses in Connla's veins to your blood, your blood that cries out to me still from the ground of the earth."

Cú Chulainn nodded. "Might my death teach him to hate the battle even as I did, and may he be afforded a chance for another kind of life. Give him the opportunity I never had. But most of all, let him be free of vengeance."

"I will grant your request," I said. "But now, with his vengeance bound to your blood, which now soaks the earth, it will forever cry out to me, not on your son's behalf, but for the sake of the earth herself."

"At least my son will be spared..."

"You have failed, Morrigan!" I turned and, with Cú Chulainn at my side, we stared directly at the Dagda.

"I have not failed! Cú Chulainn has agreed to marry me!"

"Only in his death. He never loved you in life."

"But I did," Cú Chulainn said. "For just a moment, before my death... I saw her for her beauty. I chose to love her."

"Your heart still belonged to your wife."

I sighed. "Is this true?"

"I could nevernotlove Emer," Cú Chulainn said. "Even if I treated her poorly. Ialwaysloved her."

"Then you see," the Dagda said. "You have failed to secure his love for yourself."

"Not true," Cú Chulainn objected. "The night before the battle, in the woods, I loved her then..."

"What you loved, then, was an illusion," the Dagda said. "Morrigan, will you now take your place at my side. Will you finally consummate our marriage?"

"I will not!" I said. "I would rather wander eternity alone than consummate our marriage, Dagda!"

"I will not elevate this mortal to godhood!"

I shook my head. "You never intended to allow me to love as I wished. I admit I made many mistakes in the pursuit of my love. But in the end... he accepted me."

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