Duty

Getting a Sithern to grow was more than just planting the seed in the ground and adding a bit of water. I'm not sure if anyone knew exactly why a Sithern decided to grow. Each of them had its own peculiarities. But they did share some commonalities. Magic, intent, and need the linchpin for any successful sprouting.

As a Kelpie Lord and off-planet Plenipotentiary, the Sithern was attempting to create a space that would suit both roles. I still hadn't had a chance to tour the world that had bonded with me, so most of what existed was in a state of flux. Except for the public areas that the Sithern had created to mimic Hindu temple construction, the rest would grow and evolve to meet the Sidhe needs. Expanding as we grew.

[System Message: Saor o Shlabhraidhean has requested permission to establish protocols and include the Sithern Talahm Embassy as part of the Tuatha de Danaan network.]

[Accept request: Yes/No]

I knew I would have to sit down and go through a list of Sithern System menus at some point, this System prompt reminding me of that duty, but that would have to wait. In the meantime, I clicked yes, and yes again when System asked if I wanted to establish teleport features between the two Sitherns.

Sithern teleport adaptations were able to ignore space and distance, they didn't require a teleport relay to reach the vast distances between planets and solar systems. As long as a Sithern was part of the network, people who had permission could teleport between worlds, galaxies, or universes. The drawback was that individual permissions had to be granted. Even now, I had to allow King Teigh permission to access the portal. His name was the only one besides mine, for the present, that was white-listed, giving access for each of us to use the portal as we pleased.

That would change after this meeting, I was sure. My hunch was born out when King Teigh contacted me through my M-AI. "Irvin," he said, his greeting abbreviated so that he could get to the meat of the matter, "Lord Aesin, Herd Patriarch Garr, and your parents will be joining us. Please give them permission to use the portal."

It was strange hearing him make a request of me. Our last meeting had not gone well, and he had all but banished me from Talahm. At the time, I resented him and his decision, but in the few short weeks, I had been on Derva my understanding of what he had done and why he had done; it had changed.

I wasn't being punished, and although I was certain he hadn't meant for me to gain my current position, I was sure that he was hopeful that something would break me from the fugue I had found myself in. This wasn't banishment, it was desperation, his flailing and grabbing any opportunity to make sure I had a future.

His threat more desperation, a request instead of command was a concession to the Sithern and Fairy's intervention in my life. Events had changed who I was, except for one thing, I was still a member of House Teigh. Once he had arrived, his position as Ranked: King would be reflected in my own position. I would be a son of House Teigh, Heir to his House above all else. The title of Plenipotentiary would be held in abeyance until he left the planet.

As King, he would have been within his rights to open a passage to Talahm through the Summerlands, something I thought Lord Clive had planned to do. We had recently learned the trick of bridging worlds through the Summerlands by using creating a bridge of portals. It allowed us to ignore the quirks of time that sometimes happened. As long as two portals were open, time fluctuations could be ignored.

One person would open and hold the portal here, while another entered and opened a portal in Summerlands to Talahm. The only trick was to have a person open the second portal that had a Portal: Talahm saved the location to a place you wanted to reach.

King Teigh had created a tier of diplomatic aides that were trusted to save a location within Saor o Shlabhraidhean Sithern. Every new Embassy was required to employ a half dozen of these Sidhe. It allowed the movement of goods and people to occur without using a planetary portal, making it easy to hide who and what was moved between worlds.

I had no idea where Lord Clive had decided to host a meeting. The Sithern was too new for anyone to know where anything was. But the Sithern knew, and that was all that mattered. As bonded Host, we were connected, and where I wanted to go, it made possible. Halls moved, doors changed, and between one step and the next, I was delivered to a conference room that was apparently going to serve double duty today. A reunion with my King and family, and a meeting about the events that had installed me as Plenipotentiary.

I was the first to arrive, not surprising since the Sithern used folded space to change its structure for me. There was a problem with my early arrival, one that presented itself when I moved to take a chair. The table was an oval in shape, as Host, the chair at either end of the oval should have been mine. But Lord Clive was still technically ambassador, so protocol said that he and King Teigh should be afforded those chairs.

It wouldn't have been untoward of me to take one of those positions, as Heir I outranked Ambassador, but I was here to learn diplomacy. Ignoring Lord Clive's position was not politically savvy. I decided it best to adhere to protocol, it cost me nothing in the end, so selected a seat on the opposite side of the table, in the exact middle facing the door. It was about as neutral a position as anyone could take, without being too obsequious.

Technically, I should have been at the Portal to great King Teigh when he arrived, but Lord Clive had expedited this meeting without discussing it with me. If I had known he had planned this meeting, I would have waited to give portal permissions until I could greet King Teigh. This was possibly the last time Clive could do something like that without asking my permission. Until we met face to face, any real power I had was held in abeyance.

There was no warning before the door opened and Huig, a Ranked: Knight that was part of King Teigh's honor detail, moved to hold the door. I was still standing, having decided it safest to wait before sitting. King Teigh was the first to enter the room. Protocol would have him move to the head of the table and wait for everyone to enter before sitting, but he had never been one for protocol.

He had spent years trying to abolish bowing, to no effect, the act was too engrained into the Sidhe mindset. The changes to Sidhe and Talahm under his rule had been progressive and effective, but there were some things that would take longer than a few decades to abolish.

The Tuatha de Danaan faction that King Teigh had created was a beacon of hope and refuge for the lost and marginalized. It accepted all Sidhe, refusing to countenance Seelie or Unseelie bigotries, and the Sidhe that found safety and sanctuary within his faction were determined to express their gratitude. They refused to ignore the bow, believing it the least that they owed this King who had saved them.

He moved around the table to where I waited, ignoring protocol as I expected to embrace me. His action making it clear of his support and that this meeting would ignore politics and begin as a meeting between Teigh, Head of House, and Irvin, Son of House Teigh. His Majesty Teigh Mac de Beleros y Cyronax, the adopted father of Irvin A'Teigh, was here to congratulate the son of his House, and one of Heir.

At least one of them.

Ryu was the acknowledged Heir of his body. That acknowledgment gave him precedent in the line of succession. He would inherit House Teigh in some distant future, perhaps millions of years from now. A grandson, one of millions technically, he had a greater chance of inheriting than an adopted son.

The re-population of the Volar-fey had spread King Teigh's bloodline to every corner of the planet, so Ryu's claim could be challenged, if it was widely known that it was Teigh's blood and magic that had given birth to that first swarm of Volar-fey.

It was strange hugging him. He had never been demonstrative, always reserved, and this was only one of a handful of times I could remember him relaxing his defenses long enough to hold me. I'd gotten the impression, at times, that he didn't really consider himself one of us. That he spent his time observing the rest of us, trying to understand why and how we acted as we did.

There was always a certain wariness with his interactions with the rest of us, that many would attribute to his Rank, I had always thought the reason was discomfort. I think he honestly believed there was something different about him, something that demanded he keeps himself isolated.

"Your Majesty," I said in greeting, stepping back from his hug and kneeling, "It is my duty and pleasure to inform you that House Teigh grows. A daughter has been born. A direct descendant, the blood of my blood.

"System acknowledged," I continued.

"A child created by the confluence of energies during Revel, baptized by Fairy, and placed in my trust as the primary parent," I explained.

"House Teigh increases," I informed him, as was my right and duty as a son of House Teigh.