On the Subject of Magic

After dinner, Colman sat out with the people of the community. The Walking People were telling stories, the wastrels and the unfrocked priests were drinking and the panhandlers and robbers were arguing about who had gotten the greatest spoils that day. What Colman found most alarming is that while the panhandlers were indeed panhandlers, they were also frauds in one way. Be it faking lameness or blindness, the fact was there was not a man, woman or child among them that was actually lame or blind.

To the Leader of Dublin's Walking People, Colman inquired: "Does FitzGerald ever feign lameness or blindness?"

The Chieftain of the Walking People did not look up from the dog he was petting. He merely said: "Never! He is much too proud to pretend to be a blind man or a cripple, both of whom are people who considers to be beneath him."

"How did a man such as him ever manage to get elected as leader of this community?" asked Colman.

"The leaders who elected him were much like him, related to him or both." Replied the Chieftain. "My predecessor was an individual who was most like him."

"Your predecessor was a man who never should have been elected as the leader of our people here in Dublin." Commented Ruby, as she took a seat next to Colman. "That FitzGerald seems like a man who only wants to bring sorrow to a world already filled with so much."

"Perhaps he is hoping to be immortalized by some poet or playwright." Suggested Colman, turning his head to look at Ruby.

"Would you be volunteering then, lad?" asked the Chieftain of the Walking People with a laugh.

"Of course, not!" exclaimed Colman, having absolutely no intention to do such a thing. "FitzGerald can be forgotten when he is dead!"

"He would probably just use that magic flute of his to get you or someone else to immortalize him." Commented the Chieftain of the Walking People, quite nonchalantly.

"What magic flute?" asked Ruby, her tone half curious and half frightened.

Colman was wondering the same thing. He had lived in Dublin for a decade and seen FitzGerald many times in those ten years. He had never seen FitzGerald carrying on playing any flute. What talk was this of a magic flute?

"They say it can control whoever hears it!" replied the Chieftain of the Walking People, turning his attention away from the dog.

"How did he come by such a thing?" inquired Colman.

"It was given to him."

"By who?" asked Ruby, curious to know who could have given FitzGerald such an instrument.

The Chieftain of the Walking People opened his mouth only to realize something frightening. He did not know whom had given FitzGerald the magic flute. If he knew not who had given the flute to FitzGerald, then he also could not answer where it had come from.

Sighing, the Chieftain of the Walking People merely answered with the obvious: "I do not know."

"Have you ever seen him with it?" Colman asked.

"I have not."

He knew not who had given the flute to FitzGerald, knew not where it came from and had never seen him with it. By all logic, that probably meant he never heard FitzGerald playing a flute either, or alternatively, the Chieftain of the Walking People may have heard someone playing a flute and believed it to have been FitzGerald playing that alleged magic flute of his.

"Colman, Master Gardiner said that once upon a time there was no differentiation between magic, religion and medicine." Uttered Ruby. "What would you think he would have to say about this alleged magic flute of FitzGerald's?"

"He would probably call it hearsay and nothing more." Stated Colman. Indeed, that was indeed how things seemed to be. "Honestly with what he has told me and his desire to defend Ireland from pythonesses and mages, I wonder if these people are nothing more but people belonging to a different religion than he brands as such. Rather hypocritical, I must say. His studying of alchemy has resulted in him being called a mage by some of the townspeople."

"I've never heard him referred to as a mage!" exclaimed Ruby, shocked that a man of the cloth would be referred to in such a way.

"You have not been in Dublin long, Ruby." Commented the Chieftain of the Walking People, once more petting his dog's head. "The people of Dublin are fools. A man wants to defend his kingdom from mages and they call him a mage simply because he studies alchemy. Only way I would think it would make sense would be if he was indeed a mage and he wanted to be the only mage in Ireland."

Colman could do naught but nod. What the Chieftain of the Walking People said was true. That was indeed the only way it would make sense.

"Perhaps he is though by way of simply being a man of a different religion." Suggested Ruby.

"He did change from Catholic to Protestant after the gunpowder plot." Commented Colman. "Privately, he could still be Catholic."

Was he though? Colman could only wonder. All Irish other Irish be they Gaelic Irish or Old English had held on to the old religion, remained Catholic, but Gardiner alone had joined this new religion brought over by these New English, these Protestants. Wherefore? What reason had Gardiner to convert from Catholicism to Protestantism? To keep within the good graces of King James? His ancestor Henry Court-manteau, a villain hated by the Irish just as the Tudors were, had wished Thomas Becket assassinated, but would King James go so far as to have a man of the cloth murdered solely for being a different religion?

Alas, Colman knew… No… He must have had an error. Saint Patrick's Cathedral was an Anglican church, in other words Protestant. The current dean Thomas Moigne and his predecessor John Rider were both Anglicans, never would they have allowed a Catholic man to join them unless he converted, so Gardiner must have converted earlier than Colman had thought, though he did remember four years prior Gardiner being asked if he was Catholic, to which the clergyman had responded he was Protestant. Why then did Colman think he had been Catholic up until that point?

Alas, he knew not. All he could do was acknowledge his error and tell Ruby and the Chieftain of the Walking People of it. To his surprise, the Chieftain of the Walking People merely said: "People have been thinking William Gardiner is Catholic for years, lad. Even those who know he is Protestant still think he is secretly Catholic. There are many like you, boy. Your mentor merely reconfirmed his Protestantism in your presence after the gunpowder plot, it does not mean he had just converted."

"But what if he secretly Catholic?" inquired Ruby.

"Then he better hope that Bloody Bess doesn't rise from the dead, or he might find himself burned at the stake." Joked the Chieftain of the Walking People.

"Master Gardiner was compeers with Bloody Bess!" objected Colman. "She never would have had him burned at the stake!"

"The Queen of Scots was her cousin." Returned the Chieftain of the Walking People. "Look what happened to her."

"Queen Mary plotted to have Bloody Bess assassinated."

"My point exactly." Uttered the Chieftain of the Walking People. "They were tied by bonds of blood rather than friendship and look how things ended with them? If kin can be that way, what is stopping friends from being that way as well?"

"Not all kin and friends are like that!" objected Ruby.

"Of course not." Acknowledged the Chieftain of the Walking People, keeping his eyes on the dog. "Though there are still some who are."

Neither Colman nor Ruby had an argument for that. It was true, sometimes one could not even trust their friends or their family, but at the same time it did not mean they were all untrustworthy. Gardiner had told Colman that his friendship with Bloody Bess had been built on mutual trust and respect, his friendship with Ruby would be built on mutual trust and respect. If Ruby would not have him as a lover, he would gladly be her friend. Friend, lover, in a world so full of tragedy both were things that were needed.

"Have you any friends or family, sir?" inquired Colman.

The Chieftain of the Walking People looked at Colman for a moment, uncertain of what to say, before answering: "I have no friends, my boy, and I turned my back on my family years ago. With how some can be, I dare not take the risk."