Santa Baby

It had been easier to scry a [Fairy Ring] in what would become Canada now that Cuimhneachan had been established. With the [Portal] open, Belgara arrived once the [Revel] had finished and the Sithern had created some permanence. Cuimhneachan would continue to change and evolve as it responded to the needs of the Sidhe that would make the Sithern their home, but the broad outline of what it would be had been established.

Belgara was able to scry a new location without the need for others to support her. Without the ley-line barrier that had blocked her efforts before, she had nothing constraining her power. Tara was the only other member of the Twelve present. She had taken part in the [Revel], her connection with nature adding an earthiness to the fertility magic that had been invoked.

The area I finally settled on in Canada would become the Manitoba province. I chose a location near the northern edge of Lake Winnipeg. The region was unspoiled, the boreal forest stretching across the horizon. The Inuit population was minimal, and although technically human, all the aboriginal people of the world were treated as badly by the armies of Man as the Sidhe and any of the other fantasy races.

Man's bigotry and savagery were unrivaled when it came to how it treated those they considered lesser. It might be possible to create allies of the indigenous people. Perhaps if they were educated and warned, if the native people of the Americas knew what was in store for them, things might be different. If they were prepared and could meet the European explorers and settlers with similar technology, this world might evolve differently.

It was worth considering. And worth contacting the Gods of these people. Coyote, at least, had proven he could be reasoned within my universe. He probably knew what was in store for his people, but the Gods were constrained from direct intervention. They could bless their followers and send visions to guide and lead them, but if their involvement crossed the line, it opened the path for the other Pantheons to retaliate.

And that way led to a war between the Pantheons of Heaven. A war that resulted in Ragnarok and the world's destruction would follow. As it is, Olympus and Asgard were skirting the very boundaries of those limits. The blessings and artifacts they supplied their mortal children were only permissible because those children hadn't ascended and gained their Godhood yet.

I'd barely stepped into the area I'd selected before I knew it was the wrong place. A feeling of wrongness, a sense of foreboding, a flash of intuition that tugged at my psyche, something was trying to warn me. I think it was the falling snow that allowed the briefest flash of foresight, but I knew, with the same certainty that I knew my name, that this Sithern should be placed at the North Pole.

I didn't have such clear flashes of foresight as this one; I acted on them when I did.

It would be ironic, I reasoned.

If the Sidhe, who the humans often confused as Elves, could co-opt the trappings of Father Winter, steal the tiding of tinsel and mistletoe for ourselves, we might be able to engender enough goodwill to mitigate the savagery of Man.

We were adept at illusion and glamour, and what better way to hide than to cloak ourselves in the mantle of Kris Kringle. The Sidhe would become Santa Claus, the North Pole our refuge. For all the advances in technology that might happen, the North Pole remained an inhospitable location unable to support life.

Just as important, the poles represented a unique confluence of magnetic and magical energies. The ley-lines that crisscrossed the world all were formed and flowed with magic that gathered at the Poles at some point in time. North or South, each Pole was the well-spring from which the magic of this world originated.

The magnetic energies found at either pole shaped the structure and flow of magic. Each energy anomaly reflected and enhanced the other. The Aurora Borealis, long thought to be a manifestation of light and color as the Sun and atmosphere intersected to create the phenomenon, was really a visual manifestation of magnetism and magic dancing in harmony as equilibrium was established.

I returned to Cuimhneachan and had Belgara scry the new location. Unfortunately, there was no [Fairy Ring] to be found at the North Pole. Fortunately, one wasn't needed. The unique confluence of magnetic and magical energy could be located in only two places on the planet. She was able to use that confluence of energy as a target.

Opening a [Portal] connecting the here and there was a bit more involved. I had nothing to anchor the opening to without the [Fairy Ring]. Instead, I cast a spell that would anchor the connection by following the ethereal link that Belgara had established within her scry pool.

Once I was confident of the location, I split my awareness, opening the [Portal] on both ends, and guiding the wormholes that formed towards each other until they connected. Once the connection was made, I merged both [Portals] into one, anchoring the beginning and ending between the here and there.

I performed a quick test, stepping in and out of the [Portal] to make sure it worked as intended, before allowing Clan Lord Innis of the Loan Maclibuin, Tara, and the Sidhe interested in participating in [Ritual] to follow.

Caraid was going to take part in this [Revel]. His current form and the Sidhe of this planet were an opportunity for him. A chance to give life, to have a son or daughter, to give birth to a child that would serve as a lasting legacy for a life cut short.

Lord Innis would play the role of [Host], his attention focused on creating the Sithern [Bond] and guiding the growth of the nascent life that would be born. Tara would again act in the role of Danu. Here I enticed the powers of [Fairy] and the Wild Magic, but I also blended the potential of magic and magnetism that was unique to this location into the [Ritual]

I invoked the Tuatha de Danann, called on every God and Goddess of [Fertility] known to the Sidhe, and layered the magics that were stirring with the planet's potential expressed through the energies found only at the Poles.

The difference between this Sithern and the last was remarkable. The barrier created as the Sithern formed a bubble dimension enhanced and strengthened by the planet as it revolved, spinning across the cosmos in concert with the Sun and the Solar system. A magnetic barrier further protected the rift between realms. A barrier guided by the Wild Magic and [Fairy] to include an illusion of obfuscation.

Anyone looking at this area would find a scene of perpetual snow. An unending blizzard that could not be navigated without the use of [Fairy Sight]. [Ritual] had created the seeming of a winter wonderland, and the Sithern had expressed my ideas of Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Kris Kringle in a realm that mirrored some of the more popular folklore associated with the myth.

To tie this realm to [Fairy], the Fey created were even modeled on the elves associated with Santa. Demi-fey. Small people with talents that allowed them to craft, industrious and magical.

The Sithern was an expression of childish delight and innocence. But no realm of [Fairy] can exist without the monstrous beauty that exists as part of the Sidhe. We glorify the grotesque beauty of some of our people for a reason, and the wisps of shimmering golds and silvers that seemed innocent took on another purpose. They would lure those not warded against their magics into a world of nightmare and despair.

Those lights that could seduce and entrap would serve to punish the bad. Because, for all Santa's jolliness and benevolence, he still punished the naughty.

Sidhe were talented illusionists. We could form the stuff of dreams that would make you forsake your family and your life. But we were also familiar with the dark side of dreams, the nightmares, and horrors that saw a person locked in a world where they relived their worst fears.

Just as there could be no life without death, no light without dark. There could be no dreams without nightmares. The Sidhe were creatures of nature, and that nature demanded balance.

This Sithern would be named Breith, Birth in the old language, and would represent that balance. A place of safety and wonder, but also a place of danger and despair. I had cast the die, supplied the model for what might be. The Sithern and Sidhe would take what I had gifted and grow. What this place might become in the future would be up to them.