15 Sergei

As quickly as it had begun, the whirling and darkness stopped and I ended up falling on top of the young man with a thud as we landed in a soft field of lush green grass. I could hear the sounds of distant waves crashing on a shore and looked around us. We had landed near the edge of some very tall cliffs--cliffs I remembered from my dream on the train. I recognized them now from the pages of my DK guidebook I'd been browsing last night.

"The Cliffs of Moher," I exhaled as I looked toward the young man, "I recognize them..."

"Yes, precisely right," he responded as he brushed grass off of himself. "I am Sergei."

"Erin," I said and looked to him expectantly, hoping he could explain something about what the hell was going on around me lately.

Sergei looked at me with a lopsided grin, "Erin," he repeated.

"What is happening to me? Where were we and what did you just do to get us here so *interestingly*? Why does so much strange stuff keep happening around me? Where were we just now? How do I get back to the school? And what did you mean when you said I'm the heir? Heir to what? Crazytown?" the words spilled from my mouth all at once and my emotions making the pitch higher and higher.

"Slow down, slow down. First things first, it's nice to meet you. Second, you really don't know who you are?" he asked inquisitively.

"Uh... I know I'm Erin O'Malley and that I grew up in Ohio, and I'm studying in Galway for the next year," I said with a slightly smartass intonation.

"Erm.. sorry, I didn't mean to sound so pissed off, I just genuinely have no idea what on Earth is going on. Things have been strange since the moment I set foot on this island. I'm just very overwhelmed right now," I apologized. I had no reason to be angry at Sergei, he had apparently whisked me away from the mass of spectators at the market.

"Ok, so you actually believe that you're just an average human from Ohio and you just happened to end up here by chance, I gather," he looked at me incredulously. As I nodded, he paused again and seemed to gather his thoughts.

"Well, Erin, I have news for you, and I'm afraid it's going to be unsettling if you genuinely believe that you're just a student... and that you just happened to be studying here. When you arrived in the market, I believed that you were just another one of 'us' that is a sort of supernatural. Humans cannot even see the market, even if they're standing directly in the middle of it. Also, a key to the portal is required as well as the passcode. The fact that you landed in the middle of Salthill Market is proof of exactly who you are," he explained, looking at me as if I were a bit slow on the uptake.

"Go on," I prodded. I was still completely dubious but I really had no choice but to hear him out. I had always felt a connection to something "more" than what could be seen but believing that I was somehow inhuman--some paranormal creature--felt absurd. But considering the morning I had--or rather the last few days I'd had, I listened intently.

"So, you have been missing since you were a small girl. Your parents had gone to the states to visit that year's 'Conference of the Fae Folk' and something dreadful happened. When our community received word that your parents were gone, it was too late. You had been placed in an orphanage and a lovely family had begun the adoption process. We could not bring you back here because what had taken your parents would have stopped at nothing to end you as well. Not to mention the kidnapping of a pretty little girl doesn't go unnoticed over there by the police and media. Your new family wasn't told of your true provenance because it would have placed you in grave danger. We placed wards on you, rendering you anonymous to all," he looked at me curiously as he spoke. "

"We had hope that someday, our anonymous little heir would return to us, but it had been so long that many of the community believed you to be lost from us forever," he'd continued, leaving me even more confused than when he'd started.

"But my parents were killed in a car accident and there was no one to claim me, my adoptive parents only told me on my 18th birthday. This is all too crazy, too much," I felt tears beginning to fall down my cheeks and I couldn't help the confused sob that escaped my lips. I hated crying in front of other people, but there was no holding back these tears--the tears of everything I knew about myself and my entire world falling apart.

"I.. I don't understand-- I'm not human... But my parents, if they weren't human how could they just *die* like that?" I asked, trying to tackle one problem at a time though the thoughts of everything Sergei had told me were swirling in my mind.

"Your parents' death was no accident, nor were they ordinary supernaturals-- and yes, that's an intended pun." he tried lightly joking to lighten the mood. "your mother was a goddess-- the keeper and protector of the magical realm in Ireland. She has been known by many names, Danu is the best known. Your father was her Magium, her protector. They had both lived many lifetimes and in this one, they had you, a daughter--the heir to the realm over which your mother presided and protected. Since their deaths, our way of life has been under assault. It's the reason for all of the protections over the market and why I knew the moment I saw you--that you could not be a human, and that you could only be the heir. You are the only one who would not have needed a portal or key or any other trickery to find us," he spoke gently, trying to be patient but began to feel a prickle of concern at getting Erin somewhere safe and protected.

"I ported us here because it was the first place that came to mind when I needed to get you somewhere away from the crowds at the market. But now, I need to bring you somewhere truly protected and then we can continue to talk about all of this," he said as he looked around warily. He softly placed his arms around her narrow shoulders and suddenly the world began to fade and become empty again and they were tumbling through the void.