This Beautiful World

Chapter two. Long and very inconsistently written, but who cares! I finally finished it!

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Chapter Two: Aileen O'Marly

The little girl sat on the top of a small wall that ran along a dusty road. The road twisted and turned, and finally found itself at the mouth of a small open air market. If you followed it in the opposite direction, you would see a castle. Not just any castle. Not the “friendly, jovial king” sort of castle. This castle practically screamed “overly dramatic evil dictator”. And that is why the people in the town avoided it. Even the road would rather not be concerned with that end of its existence.
But back to the girl. She was quite a good looking child. She was pretty enough, with blonde hair that arranged itself naturally into curls, and a cute frilly dress, all in all a standard child. But even though a good many people walked by her on their way to the market, none bothered to speak to her, and she did not bother to speak to them. One can be sure they were curious about such a young child on her own, but all of them had their own lives to deal with.
These people were the Cory, a very cheerful and, for the most part, peaceful people. They had a tendency toward stoutness and ruddy complexions, and they took great enjoyment in their strong spirits and hearty food. For this reason, the delicate, blonde little girl did not seem to fit in among them. Even so, they could not leave her there to be snatched up by the Gael who came at night. This other race was one that would rather not be talked about, but it must be known.
The Gael are the opposite of their co-inhabitants. They tended to be very tall and slender, and monstrously cruel. They saw lordship fit for themselves, and oppressed the Cory whenever the chance arose. Due to their nocturnal schedule, they could only get their hands on a Cory silly enough to be caught outside after dark, but then, you would be surprised how many silly people can exist on a world.
Although it was just past noon, as more and more people began to pass by the girl on the wall, more of them became concerned for her future if she were to continue in her quest to become part of the scenery. And so it was that eventually someone did stop by to talk.
“An’ just wot is it that has you so morose, Lassie?” Saoirse O’Marly was a rotund and brisk woman. Closer to forty than thirty, her dark auburn hair was already streaked with grey.
The little girl looked up for the first time.
“I don’t have anyone.”
“Anyone…as in yer ma and pa?” The little girl shook her head in response. “Wot happened to ‘em then?”
“They’re dead.”
“Dead…poor thing! Wot’s yer name, Lassie?”
“Aileen.”
“Well, Aileen, ‘ow about ye come with me, and we’ll see wot we can do, eh?” Aileen pushed herself off the wall, causing a little cloud of dust to arise from the road.
“Okay.”
“Now, I’ll tell ye, my name is Saoirse O’Marly, and my ‘usband Finn can be a pretty wise man. We can see if he might ‘ave an answer to yer troubles, eh?” She lent the young Aileen her hand, which the girl gratefully took, and the two of them walked down the road together.
The O’Marly house was quite a pleasant cottage, fairly typical for the region. It stood behind a pretty little garden, and in front of a modest field. Finn O’Marly, found sitting at a sturdy wooden table, was slightly older than his wife. Hard work in the fields had tanned him, and given him no few amount of wrinkles. What hair he had left with color was a brighter red than his wife’s, and his chin was covered in an impressive beard. When his wife came into the room, he set down the small wood carving he was working on and peered at Aileen in interest.
“Now, wot’s this pretty stray ye’v brought home?”
“This ‘ere is Aileen. She doesn’t have any parents, nor a place to rest, poor lass. We were wondering iffen ye could give us some advice?”
“Well now. I say we first ought ta get a decent meal into the poor thing. That ought ta be followed up with some clean frocks and a fair bit a rest. Does that work for ye, lass?”
Aileen nodded and walked over to Finn. “But where do you get those?” she asked. He looked at her closely. “’Ow old are ye, Aileen?”
“Five!”
“Wow. Five, eh? Then ye must know all sorts a things. But, we’ll ‘ave to teach ye some practical things, eh?”
“Yes! Then I’d know more. More than other girls!”
“That’s the spirit, lass. An’ I’m sure Saoirse ‘ere can teach ye to make a fine stew, that’d fill all our bellies.”
“I’m sure I’ve never ‘ad a better student. Ye’ll catch on a might quick. So, we’d better get started, eh?” Aileen beamed. “Yes! I can learn better than anyone! You’ll see!”
It wasn’t until later that night, with Aileen soundly asleep on a straw cot that Finn and his wife actually sat down and talked about what to do with her. The two of them were hardly rich, and could only barely pull ahead each year, what with the taxes demanded by the Gael. Not to mention, neither of them were as young as they once were. Still, they were kindly folks and could not bear to turn the poor child out, and so it was decided to adopt her. First thing the next morning, they took her to the town hall and she became Aileen O’Marly.
As it turned out for them, having Aileen around wasn’t nearly as difficult as they thought it would be. She did try her best not to get into everything, and always was eager to help with new tasks and chores. She made friends quickly with the other young children on the street, and despite her appearance, she managed to insert herself into life quite easily.
The only trouble came from her rampant curiosity. Like so many children her age, Aileen was curious about many things. And most had simple straight-forward answers. However, she could never be satisfied with being confined to the house when the sun when down just because it was dangerous. What was dangerous? She didn’t know. It simply was. And this had her curiosity piqued more than anything. After a short time of living there, she had to know why she was not allowed to wander outside, or go past the northernmost edge of the market.
“Old people make a fuss out of everything. I bet they just don’t want me going outside because they do really fun things when I’m asleep.” Aileen said to herself. She climbed out of bed, put on her shoes and tiptoed across the floor. Opening the door proved a more difficult task. The hinges were rusted and squeaky horribly. Aileen jumped at every sound, heart pounding with the thrill and fear of getting caught.
Once outside, everything seemed to be cast in a newer, more exciting light. Trees that she had seen everyday suddenly looked like monster and witches, grabbing for her with spindly fingers. Boulders looked like predators preparing to pounce. Delighted by this find, she wandered down the road, toward the abandoned marketplace and the castle.

She walked down the road, through the market, and down the road some more. To her it seemed as if she walked for hours upon hours, each filled with discoveries, although in reality it was closer to forty minutes. And it was at this time, halfway between the market and the castle on the hill, that she met them. As you see, the Gael host had chosen that night to ride forth, looking for victims and entertainment. For the Gael, these two things are not mutually exclusive.
Tall already, the thin slightly monstrous looking animals they road only accented their heights, making them seem to tower over the small girl. They surrounded her before she had a chance to react and try to run. After exchanging looks, the apparent leader simply hoisted her up onto his saddle, and the whole group turned back around to the castle.
And so she was borne, down the road, up the hill, and to the castle door. No amount of struggling could cause her kidnapper to loosen his grip. For such a skinny and frail looking person, he was surprisingly strong. He was very adept at getting off of his animal. She didn’t even feel his position shift, but it must have, because then they were on the ground, and she was being carried through the castles huge wooden doors.
Outside of the castle it was quiet as the grave, but once those doors opened, she was deafened by the cacophony that greeted her. There were oil lamps every where, it seemed almost as bright as daylight. More of the tall beings were there, more than she could possibly count. There were also other races, acting as servants. Some looked to be members of Finn and Saoirse’s race, and others seemed to be more beastlike than human, and there were others who couldn’t even be described with that. Every member of her captors’ race was drinking and shouting, some of them were dancing, and some doing unspeakably cruel things to the serving creatures. Many we missing an eye or a limb, some were covered with scars, and even worse were the once covered in still bleeding cuts.
Seeing this caused Aileen to redouble her efforts at escaping. She twisted and squirmed, screamed, kicked, hit, and bit, but nothing stopped the man holding her from carting her through that terrifying crowd. He seemed to not even notice the fit she was throwing. It took quite a while to shove through the crowd, but eventually they arrived at an area clear of people. Against the wall, in the middle of the empty area, was a throne. Guards surrounded the throne, but it seemed to Aileen that the woman sitting on that chair was more than capable of fending for herself. A normal man would take one look at her smile and the look in her eyes and run away in terror. It was in front of this woman that Aileen was dumped, unceremoniously, onto the ground. The man who had been holding her got down on one knee and lowered his head.
“We found this,” her captor spoke for the first time, “wandering outside on its own. I brought it back to you for inspection, Lady.” His voice held a great deal of respect, and even after he finished talking, he remained kneeling.
The lady looked at her, and Aileen looked back. As much as she would rather be anywhere, anywhere else, but here, she was not about to let them know exactly how terrified she was. This seemed to amuse the lady, for her smile grew even broader.
“It seems that ceremony is coming up soon, Faolan.” The man, obviously Faolan, simply nodded quickly, but said nothing to interrupt his queen. “I believe that this child would make a wonderful centerpiece, don’t you?”
“I agree, my Lady. And certainly, using one of their own would hold them better than using mere livestock.”
“Precisely. Very well then. We will use this girl as our sacrifice in the Right of the Oaks that is coming up. Please escort our guest to her room. We don’t want her to escape before her debut.” And then she began to laugh. Faolan stood up quickly, and grabbed Aileen’s arm. As she was lead out of that room through a small door next to the throne, Aileen thought that she would never forget that sound for as long as she lived.
The room she was put into was small and rather drafty. It had only one door, a ponderous slab of wood that was locked as soon as she was past the threshold. There was one window, but it was small and covered with bars of a strange metal. Besides which, the room was so high above the ground that she would never consider trying to escape that way. There was nothing in the room light enough for her to pick up and use as a weapon. For all intents and purposes, it appears that she was stuck there.
Not having much else to do with her time, Aileen pondered. It was now clear to her that things were dangerous at night, but even so, the whole thing had an air of adventure around it. Of course, she did not know what the Right of the Oaks was, or what the word sacrifice meant, or else she may have been a little bit more worried. To her, and her childlike sense of invincibility, it did not seem and unreasonable thing to wait and simply see what would happen. It’s not as if she had any other options!
The sun rose to find the O’Marlys in chaos. Aileen was missing, and it’s not as if they didn’t know who took her! The whole of the village gathered just outside of the marketplace to have a discussion. From the beginning it was madness. Cries for war were intermingled with the crying of children and shouts to up and move the whole village away.
No one could get a control on the mess until Aeon Baine stepped in front of the mob. He was the oldest member of the village. Although everyone in the village loved him, they often overlooked his store of wisdom as merely tales for children, and of course, the children did love him for this purpose. But aside from that, he had lived quite a long time, and knew quite a lot of information. And it was he that brought the crowd under control.
For a time he simply sat on the wall, nearly the same place Aileen had been sitting only a few months before, in fact. After a time people began to look at him and things gradually quieted down. And then he spoke.
“Listen to yerselves, bleatin’ like sheep! ‘ow can ye get anything accomplished when all of ye talk at once? Ye aren’t even listenin’ to yerselves, let alone other people. There must be a much better way to get to the bottom of this.”
“Oh yeah? Like ye ‘ave all the answers? Wot do ye say we do, then?”
“Well fer one, stop thinkin’ wit yer arses and start thinkin’ wit yer brains. Ye ‘ave them fer a reason. We know that wee Aileen was taken by the Gael. We also know that there is no way into that castle.”
“Are ye saying we should jest five up?” another crowd member demanded. Angry murmuring arose.
“No. Pay attention. Some of ye may remember a certain event coming up.”
After a long silence someone offered “The Right of the Oaks.” Aeon nodded.
“I’ll bet my beard that’s wot they took the lass fer. An’ on that night, they all leave the castle. We can try to rescue the lass then.” He paused for a moment. “As fer the actually plannin’ of the event, I’ll leave that to someone who ‘as knowledge of such things.” With that he abandoned his post on the wall and melted back into the crowd. After that, discussion of plans went underway. Things got a little rowdy at one point, but they managed to solve the problem on their own this time. As evening forced them back into their houses, a good plan had been developed. Now all that was left was to wait. The ceremony took place in two days, on the night of the full moon.
The remaining two days were spent preparing weapons and sharpening old ones in preparation for the attack. A successful attack had never been carried out on the Gael, but then an attack had never been carried out when they were preoccupied either.
For Aileen those two days were filled with boredom. Food was delivered at random intervals, although she didn’t trust it enough to actually eat anything she didn’t recognize. She had never noticed the door until it was closing, so escape was still not an option. She couldn’t think of anything to do that would change her current situation.

The full moon began its ascent into the sky. For the first time since she had been shoved into her current cell, the door opened fully. For a time Faolan and Aileen simply looked at one another. Then he said “Come.” When she failed to move, he stored forward, grabbed her arm and hauled her out of the room. “When I tell you to come, you will come, little girl. The Lady does not like it when people balk her.”
“I don’t see why I should come with you. You’re mean.” He smiled at that.
“You should come with me, brat, because you are the star of the tonight’s show. You don’t want to be late for your own performance.”
Aileen allowed herself to be led down the stairways and through the twisted hallways. Eventually she realized she was in the room that she had first been admitted too, but it was completely empty. Without its inhabitants the entry hall seemed like a completely different place. As soon as she was lead out of the doors, she saw that, once again, everyone had simply been on the other side. The lady, all of her attendants, and all of the members of her court were astride those strange beasts, waiting to ride out. Without a word Faolan mounted his beast, still holding onto Aileen, and the whole group turned and followed the lady.
They arrived at a large grotto. In the middle was a stone slab. This was stained, and Aileen had no desired to know with what. The light from the full moon cast everything in a soft light. As one the whole company dismounted, and Aileen was passed from person to person and then suddenly, she was standing in front of the lady.
“What is you name, child?”
“Aileen.”
“Well, Aileen. Do you know why we are here?” Aileen just stared at her. The lady continued on regardless. “We are here for a very important ceremony. Our kind can not survive without another race to feed off of. Once every seven years, we perform this ceremony and it keeps the lower races tied to this land, so they can not escape us. Every time we need a sacrifice to pay for this effort. That’s your job. It’s your blood that will tie them to us for the next seven years. Aren’t you lucky?”
“No. That’s mean. I won’t help.”
“My dear, I don’t think you really have a choice.” Two of the lady’s guards broke out of the mass and they forced her over to the stone slab and held her down in spite of her struggling. The lady walked towards her, holding a heavily ornamented knife made of the same metal that the bars over her window had been made of. She began to speak in another tongue, reciting the words for this ancient ceremony. However, as she went to spill Aileen’s blood, an arrow came whizzing out of the surrounding woods, and interrupted.
For the Cory had been lying in wait even when the Gael arrived. They simply waited until all of the attention had been focused on the lady before they attacked. In the few seconds of confusion that the arrow had caused, the whole village poured out of the forest brandishing swords, spears, knives, and the occasional pitchfork.
It did not take long for the Gael to react. Much more used to fighting, they quickly reached for their weapons before realizing that the most dangerous had been left back in the castle for the duration of the ceremony. Each member only had as many knives as they had bothered to carry on their person.
Once the men holding her down had joined in the fray, Aileen took the chance to bolt. She fairly leapt off of the slab and bolted into the woods. Bushes caught on her dress and branches raked her face but she kept running. After a time it became obvious that she was no longer running through woods but down streets. Eleanor came to her senses to realize that she had no idea where she was or how to get home to her mother.

Chapter three. This one is another like the first. Pretty short, but there wasn't much to say.

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Chapter Three: Eleanor Murray

“After that you wandered around for a while until you were found by a police man who managed to return you to your family. I’m sure they were overjoyed to see you, since by that point you had been gone for a month.”

“And you really think that I believe something that ridiculous happened to me when I was five?”

“Our sources are very accurate, Eleanor. The agent on that world-“

“Yeah. No. That sounds like a Professor of Irish Mythology’s drunken dream. Things like that simply don’t happen. Not even talking about your “story” for a minute, I thought you were against worlds interacting, but you said you had an agent? Now what the hell is that?

“Don’t you pay attention at all? I already told you that normally when people are born with the ability to cross worlds we make them into agents for our organization. They work mostly on their world of origin. Besides which, why do you think it’s impossible? Quite a bit of mythology comes from fleeting visits to other worlds. Of course they were not seen as such at the time.”

Does he ever shut up? It doesn’t matter what he says, there is absolutely no way I can believe that I was kidnapped to be used as the sacrificial goat. For one thing, how would a ceremony like that even work? Why does spilled blood equate to bonds? And why am I even thinking about this? There is no point, since I know it isn’t true anyway.

“Well, I don’t remember any of it. Isn’t this ‘drug’ you injected me with supposed to put me in a more lucid frame of mind and enhance memory? My brain is functioning just fine, thank you, and none of what you said rings a bell. I refuse to believe something so completely and totally ridiculous.”

“Hm. Maybe we didn’t give you a strong enough dose. It’s a rather complicated drug, you see. We’ll increase the dosage before the next report.”

Oh wonderful. More drugs. At this rate they’re going to give me an overdose and I’ll probably end up hallucinating all this stuff. Then they’ll think that they’re been right all along and shoot me. Fuck this. This whole thing better be a dream, or I am going to sue the pants off of these guys after I manage to get away. Provided I do manage to get away. Ugh, this is so lame.

“Well, that dose should take care of all of the problems. So we’ll move onto the next incident. This one happened when you were seven. You spent two weeks as Irina Ionavich…”