“Why attack me now?” I asked. “Your scheme seemed to be well hidden. And if you were worried about Nelag’s discovery, you could have spirited him to the continent. He would have been able to hide easily since he inherited the Sidhe gift of illusion.”

“The gift of illusion wasn’t the only trait he inherited,” Llew Llaw informed me. “He bears the curse to iron that most of our people have.

“The humans, dwarves, and elves have become reliant on the metal. It is everywhere—even the pots and utensils they use to cook with.

“Nelag would have been poisoned every time he sat down for a meal. The accumulation of iron poisoning would have started small enough. Still, with no way to clear the poison, the accumulation would eventually reach a saturation point where he would die.”

“Why not go to Odin or Zeus? They could offer protections or a [Blessing] that would see Nelag live. It would be easy enough to find an out-of-the-way hamlet that didn’t have the means to purchase iron and still used copper pots and wooden utensils,” I responded, not believing iron poisoning was the reason Nelag wasn’t hidden until he could be spirited away.

“You don’t think Odin and Zeus are in a fury already from your meddling? You destroyed the armies they had attacking our shores. You invoked the Sea Hag to fight and kill the Kraken, and you killed Zeus’s harpies,” he lamented.

“Any attempt at contacting them would be a waste of time. I’m sure Asgard and Olympus have already commanded their oracles and shamans to refuse to deal with me. They probably have been instructed to capture or kill me if possible.

“I might survive now that [Fairy] has returned, but not without cost. I am not one of the Sidhe that have even the smallest immunity to iron.”

“Why not sacrifice Nelag? There would be no way to prove you had any involvement in the treachery you committed with him dead,” I pointed out.

“[Oaths],” Lleu Llaw answered simply.

“I had given my word. My word bound me to agreements crafted from chains as strong as any metal. The chains were so tightly forged that even suicide was not an option. I had to remain true to my [Oath], no matter the cost,” he growled with fury.

“The strands of [Fate] had been used in the binding of my [Oath]. It was impossible for me to cut the strings that I had helped forge. If I tried, my soul was forfeit. I would descend to Hades to be tortured for eternity.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you would attack me?” I pointed out, not letting him ignore the main topic.

“Because Diarmuid had come to love Nelag. She had learned the truth of who he was and what I had done. She started panicking with each of your successes, sure that you would come to understand who and what Nelag is.

“I didn’t know she would order her people to attack you, not until you confronted the council with proof of her actions.

“I was as surprised as everyone else, but when she named me [Sword], she had forced my compliance.

“If I had refused, the truth of what I had done would have come out as she informed everyone present of my actions. That wouldn’t have saved her or Nelag, but that wouldn’t have mattered. Those in misery want company is a phrase that might have been coined to predict Diarmuid’s actions.

“She was used to doing her best to pull those she was certain would give her an advantage into the gutter with her. It was either a duel with a chance of winning or forfeiting everything because of her desperation to protect Nelag.

“I rolled the dice and lost,” Lleu Llaw finished.

His words did explain much. I watched as he and the other council members reacted when I’d entered the council chamber and flung the bodies before them. Diarmuid had been the only one present to respond, the only one to show even the slightest change in expression.

The attack was ill-conceived and stupid, neither action characteristics I would assign to Llew Llaw. They had attacked me near the [World Tree], at the safest point of the Sithern for me. Even if the tree wouldn’t take action to protect me, I could easily step in and out of the barrier the tree used to defend itself.

My blood had watered the seed the tree had sprouted from. My blood had been freely shared to water the roots that gave the tree purchase within three different realms. The World Tree recognized me and would never harm me intentionally or accidentally.

Diarmuid should have waited. Stalked me. Learned about me. She had acted too quickly. She and the rest of the Sidhe had only seen a few of my powers and had discounted those she had witnessed. More importantly, she didn’t understand the significance of my participation when the Sithern and [World Tree] were kindled and given life.

If she had, she would have known to attack me somewhere else. That each Sithern recognized me, remembered me as the [Life-bringer], acknowledged me almost as a parental figure. That they would do nothing to harm me or help those that would and would instead take action to protect and help me.

“How were you able to contact Odin and Zeus?” I asked. “Someone must have worked as an intermediary. Neither God would risk nor contact you directly, not on Sidhe territory. Not even if they were assured of their safety.”

“An Elf,” Lleu Llaw answered brusquely.

“Humans lump the Sidhe and Elves into the same category. They think Elves are a branch of Sidhe and find them easier to deal with.

“I’m confident that once the armies of Man had finished eradicating the Sidhe, they would have turned their attention towards the Elves. The Elves know this too, but they have agreed to treaties that give large tithes of resources so that attention is delayed.

“One of Odin’s shamans convinced an Elf to act as an intermediary. An Elf with a history with one of the Brownies. One that owes their loyalty to my House. I wasn’t aware of Odin’s involvement until the first meeting and refused to treat or bargain with him.

“The shaman didn’t seem concerned or surprised at my anger, simply leaving me with a message and a divine token. The letter warned of the [Prophecy] and promised to help me stave off the extinction of our people if I agreed to a few concessions from Odin.

“It took time, maybe a couple of thousand years before I used the token to contact Odin, but when the last of the Demi-fey [Faded] and [Fairy] vanished, I relented,” he admitted.

I understood his motivations. I believed myself better than that, but faced with the complete annihilation of my people, the destruction of our history, and our culture, a deal with the devil was something few could resist.

With the Tuatha de Danann in [Sleep] and not yet anchored to this world, losing faith would have been inevitable. And if all you knew, all you loved, cherished, and despised, was about to be destroyed, what were a few lives in the balance of that certainty?