Intertwining Destinies

Chapter 10

From his roof perch, Prince Nuada looked down with delight at the chaos below. A great many of the accursed humans' transportation vehicles, they called cars, lay upended and smashed and in the upheaval of the street surface.

He watched the crowd of people screaming and running for their lives through the wreckage as they tried to escape the flailing huge branches of the forest god. "They will remember this," he thought with vindictive pleasure.

His bubble of happiness was, however, short lived as he watched the forest god incredibly diminishing in size, before his very eyes! He saw the woman standing behind the god with her palms pressed firmly to its side, her eyes closed in concentration. The god shrank down until it was once again a green seed, and taken into the hand of the woman. It was the most mystifying act of magic he had ever encountered. Humans were incapable of such feats. Even his own kind would need to delve into the darkest of dark arts to manage something like that.

He watched his sister being ushered by the fish creature into one of the enemy's trucks. Nuada decided at that very moment to reserve a special hatred for that creature who dared to touch his sister's hand. He looked back at the strange female, who had removed her coat and weapon and was now looking back in distress toward the demon's team. Then she turned away, and fled the scene.

He decided to track her down and learn the source of her powers. He could go after his sister, later. He knew that he would always find her, no matter where she might hide. Black and silent as a shadow, he leapt across the rooftops of buildings to follow the woman. Once farther away from the chaos, she hailed a taxi. He continued to follow, even as she departed by car.

The woman got out of the taxi in front of a large house. She sat down on a set of steps and fumbled among the dead potted plants until she found a key. Standing up, she unlocked the front door and went inside.

Nuada didn't immediately go after her. Instead, he stepped into the barren garden and surveyed the area with the intent to learn as much as possible about his strange new enemy, before facing her head on. He knelt on the ground and stretched out with his mind to sense if there were any fae nearby. A couple of curious gnomes popped their heads up from the ground under the dead rose bushes. They looked like brown muddy potatoes with thin arms and legs.

"I am Prince Nuada Silverlance, son of King Balor and I come in peace, my friends," he called out to them softly.

One gnome approached him with caution. He nodded encouragement and stretched out his hand. It finally came near enough to touch his boots, and Nuada said, "Hello, little one." Two others followed. Nuada gave them his genuine smile, and the gnomes were mesmerised by his elvish beauty in the dark moonlit night. "I seek information about the people who live in this house," he told them. "Can you tell me?"

The gnome who had approached him first, volunteered to answer. "It is Mistress Bruttenholm who lives here, now. The year before this, her father Master Bruttenholm had also lived here. No one else."

The name of 'Bruttenholm' rekindled his memory, as this was also the name of the human associated with the discovery of the third crown piece. Is that why the woman was present near the auction room on the day of his attack? Back then, she had seemed as puny and pathetic as the rest of her kind, and it hadn't taken more than a blow to the head, to bring her down.

Nuada stood up and looked again toward the house. It appeared as a mere human's dwelling, and a light could be seen in one upper floor window.

"Can you get me inside, my friends?" he requested. The gnomes responded with a high-pitched sound which humans were unable to hear. Soon, a little two-headed creature came into sight. It looked up at the prince and made a silly bow. Nuada maintained an impassive face, though he wanted to laugh. To the creature, the gnomes explained that Nuada wished entry to the house.