Rundimahair: A new hero for a new adventure by Larry Forkner (summer books .TXT) 📗

had followed a woman named Danu and participated in the slaughter of innocent people.

Fortunately, the great Creator of all life cursed Danu and her followers. After the slaughter of the innocent humans that Sean had seen in his dream, Danu and her followers became known as the Tuatha immortals. While they could battle against the Angels of the Sidhe, the fallen angels of the Tuatha immortals could no longer harm humans in any way.

There was no way that Sean should have had access to memories of a tragic event which occurred thousands of years ago. The fact that he’d been blessed with such insight lent much credence to her father’s belief about Sean. The belief that he was truly the one they’d been waiting for.

She wanted to check on him again to see what else was hidden in his mind, but she worried about the consequences. Ashling was the absolute best at searching through the myriad pathways of anyone’s mind. She could wander through a person’s mind without them ever knowing she was there. The problem was it always left an enchanted trail. It was nothing a normal human would ever notice, but others with immense magical gifts might possibly find those trails.

The malevolent forces she was protecting her people from might well have such gifts. Ashling was very good at covering her enchanted tracks. She had also learned that the malicious sorceress who now ruled the Tuatha immortals was adept at finding traces of magic-especially very powerful enchantments.

The dark sorcerer’s name was Grainne, which meant dark blade or sword. Grainne was a descendant of Danu, who’d birthed the sorcerers known as the Tuatha race.

Almost from the very creation of the earth, Danu had used the powers of darkness to battle against the Sidhe. In the beginning, their success was very limited. The angelic powers of the Sidhe held secret powers the followers of Danu couldn’t overcome.

For centuries, the Sidhe used their powers to protect the human race against the Tuatha immortals. As long as they held together, they were invulnerable to the dark powers of Danu and her people.

Unfortunately, Danu was very powerful and beautiful beyond description. She eventually seduced male members of the Sidhe to join her followers. Together, they begat children with the angelic powers of the Sidhe mixed with Danu’s terrible, dark powers. The mix of powers eventually allowed them to destroy the monastery in Sean’s dream.

Danu’s warriors had been instructed to bring the ancient records to her before burning the monastery. Despite their best efforts, angelic fire flared up out of the hidden archives. All of the Sidhes magical history went up in flames, along with many of Danu’s warriors.

Without those records, Danu and her followers were limited to a basic, very dark strain of sorcery. That didn’t mean it wasn’t incredibly strong and effective. It was nearly the equal of the original, pure enchantment with which Ashling was very gifted.

Danu’s form of sorcery, mixed with the power of the fallen angels, was very deadly. It didn’t delve into the many nuances of the higher enchantments, but in many ways it was an unstoppable source of pure evil and destruction. In truth, it was terrifying to contemplate how very powerful she and her mixed-race followers had become. Left unchecked, their dark sorcery could eventually destroy nations or even an entire world. This was why the Creator took away their ability to harm humans with their dark powers.

The Sidhe had eventually managed to banish Danu to outer darkness. Even though her dark, immortal soul would never die, Danu was consigned to a place of such despair and hopelessness that she would gladly have chosen eternal death over her imprisonment in outer darkness.

After pondering the terrible history between the Tuatha immortals and the angelic Sidhe, Ashling felt a sudden, urgent need to check on Sean again. Despite her reluctance, she did a quick mind link with him. He’d been home for over a month, and Ashling prayed his memories would be free of Rundimahair and her people. To her relief, his mind was clear and at peace while he slept. She didn’t take time to delve deeply into his mind tracks but felt reassured that Sean was going to be able to move on with his life. Any possible lingering memories would surely disappear as time moved on.

* * *

It had been another tough week for Sean. On the one hand, his real estate business was booming. This company had been the main focus of his life since he came to work here as a teenager. What had started out as a part-time, after-school job had quickly become his hope for the future.

Sean begun a hands-on education, in wheeling and dealing in real estate, with the owner of the Oregon Development Corporation. His name was Bill Stanton. At the time, Sean was only sixteen and still in high school. Bill had hired him to run errands and help around the office as needed.

Sean’s life to that point had not been ideal. He still had no idea who his absent father was. His mother had been a beautiful woman, who’d gotten pregnant when she was only nineteen. She was ill-equipped to care for a sickly infant because she too seemed to be sick most of the time. As Sean grew older, he realized that her sickness was mostly due to drug and alcohol dependency.

There were times when she could be a kind and thoughtful mom, but as Sean grew up, those happy moments became few and far between. It always seemed like his mom was a lost soul, who simply couldn’t deal with the realities of life. She was always dreaming of a better life somewhere, but she could never find it.

Sean had been in and out of foster care for much of his life. When he was only nine, his mom disappeared for a year. He was placed in foster care with a good family who were always kind and patient with him.

His mom finally