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"Kian is one of the most magically powerful fae in this world, and he couldn't find the altars. Something about them being in the sea and his power being drawn from the land. Not sure. I couldn't follow the conversation when it got heavy with magical theory. Sugar?"
Ella nodded. "Two, please. What do you mean by altars?"
Freya brought her over a steaming mug and set it in front of her. "How well do you know your mythology?"
"I'm okay. My grandmother loved it, so I know lot of the stories," Ella replied.
"Does the name Fomorian mean anything to you?" Freya placed a plate of ginger biscuits on the table and took a seat opposite Ella.
"They were an ancient enemy of the Celtic gods. They were like the Titans in Greek myth, from the earth and seas. Monsters and magic. They fought the gods, and the gods won, throwing them out of Ireland forever," Ella replied.
Her grandmother loved the story of the battle of Ireland and had told it to her often as well as anything about Cu Chulainn and Lugh Silver Hand. Mananan and his magical self-navigating boat was another favorite.
"Some of the details are different, but the core is true. Mananan and his brothers did fight the Fomorians and kick them out of Faerie. The problem is, a faction of the exiled came here," Freya explained and munched on a cookie. "There is a crazy Fomorian mage running about the United Kingdom at the moment, setting up altars that drain the magic from the land around it. Oberon, Mananan's brother, managed to break the mage’s power in the forests, but the sea is still being affected. That's what my uncle hopes you will be able to find for him."
Ella took one of the cookies and bit into it nervously. She was getting pulled into something that was world changing. Her intuition was telling her that she was exactly where she needed to be, but the rest of her was overwhelmed.
"If you are going to freak out, I suggest doing it now before the others arrive," Freya said, her smile going wide.
"I'm not freaking out," Ella lied. "I'm processing. This is a lot, and if I'm being honest, I don't know if my power is strong enough to find something like a Fomorian altar. The sea is also difficult because water can block magic. It's ever-changing and has less obvious markers."
Freya frowned. "What do you mean?"
Ella took a sip of coffee. She had never talked to anyone about magic except her grandmother. "What I mean is, if I was looking for a person and I got a flash of where they were, I could look around them. Are they in a pub? What type? Is there anything hanging on the walls that might identify it? These are things that are easy to use to narrow down where that person is. The ocean isn't like that. It has none of those things. I could see the altar, but there could only be blue around it. How would you find it?"
"With difficulty," Mananan said from behind her. "I still think you will be able to narrow it down better than any of us can. You have a connection to the sea. You are the right person for this. I know it."
Ella swallowed the lump in her throat. No one had ever had that kind of conviction about her abilities before.
"Out of the way, big brother," a woman said, moving around Mananan's massive bulk in the doorway.
"About time you got here, Chrissy. Ella is a seer like you," Mananan replied.
"Then she's going to be in excellent company." Chrissy was a beautiful black woman with the most amazing curly hair Ella had ever seen. She didn't just smile at Ella; shebeamed."Well, aren't you adorable. It's going to be great not to be the shortest person anymore. What have you caught her up on so far, Freya? Is there any more coffee?"
"In the pot. And she knows about Fomorians," Freya replied.
Ella was watching them, bemused. They were a family, and you could tell. Chrissy was a small whirlwind of positive energy as she swept around the kitchen.
"Excellent! That's one of the hard parts done," Chrissy said, joining them at the table. Mananan seemed content to lean against the wall behind Ella, like a big, imposing shadow.
"What's the other hard part?" Ella asked her.
"The family is dealing with a problem on a world scale," Chrissy replied. She helped herself to the ginger cookies. "It's more likeworlds. Our world and Faerie are connected through weak spots that allow travel through them."
"Like Stonehenge?" Ella guessed.
"Exactly like that. Both lands have always been symbiotic, through those gateways and the flow of magic. That's been broken, and you are going to help us fix it," Chrissy replied.
She went on to explain about her own surprise prophecy on how the worlds needed to be fixed through land, sea, and sky. The Formorian altars had to be destroyed, the lost animals and plants restored, and the gateways fixed so magic could flow freely through them once more.
Mananan and his brothers were leading them, but the whole of their tangled extended family were on a mission to save the worlds.
Ella's head was starting to ache by the end of it. "I'm going to need more coffee," she said finally.
Mananan reached for her cup, and Ella passed it over. It was hitting home more than everexactlywho had pulled her from the sea. And now he was making her coffee.
"Are you going to puke? Because I'd understand. I wanted to puke when I was told I could help with this too," Chrissy said. She reached out to pat Ella's hand and pulled back at the last second. "Sorry. It's a habit."
