The fire has dimmed to embers. The child is almost asleep in her father's arms. He holds her lightly and places a kiss upon her brow. Here where the spirits are quiet he lays her down to sleep and covers her body with a fur. She squirms for a moment and then says sleepily 'Daddy, tell me a story' His face is cloaked in the growing shadows and he thinks for a moment before turning to her. 'I will tell you a story I myself have just learned rós bheag. It is the story of a great queen who once ruled our people. She lived many years ago and now nobody even remembers her name.' He shifts off the stone he had been perched on and edges closer into the fire, his body shielding that of the nearly sleeping child. He takes a tattered book from a pouch on his belt and opens it, his eyes adjusting to the light. As he begins to read even the quiet dead of this place cease all noise and the child to hear the tale. He begins to piece together a story for his daughter out of what he can make out in the ancient text. He doesn't know how much of it is true, but the spirits respect his tale and that gives him strength.
'Many years ago, before our people came to this place, there lived a beautiful queen who ruled over our people, Delalaria the Red. In those times our people were not plagued by the Calebii and we did not live in this citadel. The queen loved her people very much and would do anything for them. When her people fought wars she went to battle with them and she knew the secrets of powerful magics. It has been written that she could strike a man down with a simple glance and that her words could turn enemy against enemy. But it has also been written that this queen was lonely and she bore no children save her people, whom she loved with all her heart. Yet she was still lonely. One day a handsome man came to Delalaria's great castle...' he pauses as he tries to read a section of text, before shaking his head and resuming his story '...he went before the queen and prostrated himself. "Oh great and noble Delalaria," he said to her "I have come because my people whisper of your power and beauty but also of your loneliness. I have brought fine gifts to honour you, and I seek only to spend one year and one day in your divine company in the hopes that I would ease your solitude" With these words the stranger beckoned in a train of servants. They brought gifts of every kind to her. Things we have never seen in this place. Giant birds that come when you whistle them, great beasts that could sing as beautifully as a maid, fish that live on land and many more wondrous creatures. They also brought her the finest clothes and the richest foods, and gold and jewels for the queens hair and throat. Delalaria was delighted with this worldly stranger and begged him to stay with her for one year and one day. That night she presented him with a feast. There was the best food and maidens to sing and men who did tricks with fire. The bard came and told tales of Delalaria's people and when he was done the handsome stranger thanked the queen for her hospitality and left before she could say a single word. I will tell you the rest of the story tomorrow night.'
The child stifles a yawn and the man lies down on the ground beside her. Soon they are both asleep and not a sound can be heard but the rhythmic breathing of the sleepers.
***
The next night as promised the man resumes his story, having that day decided how to piece together what was left of the true tale. However this night the pair are in their home among the rest of the Armengarians and the dead are restless and noisy. As the man begins to speak though, their sighing becomes less troublesome as if they too strain to hear the story.
'The prince returned the next morning bearing yet more extravagant gifts and so it went for the next three months. Every morning he would appear with gifts more lavish than the last and every night he would disappear before the queen could question him. However on the first night of the fourth month he remained and asked for quarters in the castle, which the queen, of course, granted him. That night the queen questioned him long into the night. He told her that he came from a kingdom very far away but that he had travelled to her kingdom because she was so terribly lonely. With that the queen bid him good night and did not allow him to see her for seven nights. During this time she prayed to her ancestors seeking their advice on this man. Over the coming months the queen and this man went riding together often. They hunted together and, as her people watched, their queen blossomed. The kingdom grew rich with her love the land knew great peace. On the first night of the ninth month the queen again questioned the handsome stranger long into the night and this time she learned that he was a prince in his own land and that he hoped to bring tidings of peace from her own land to his. Delalaria again went and prayed to her ancestors for guidance for seven days, at the end of which she entertained the stranger once more. This time however they talked of wars and ruling. They discussed armies and battle and magic. She revealed to him all the secrets arts that she held in her heart for it was now his anyway. He in turn told her of the power of his father's army. Delalaria knew however that her people could defeat his and her pride bit deep causing the prince to retire. By the last day of the year the queen was overcome with terrible grief for in two days the prince was to return to his own people. Nothing could console her and she refused to talk to the prince.' The man stops for a moment as the child clambers into his lap 'Go on daddy. What did the prince do?' she says resting her head on his chest. 'What could he do? She didn't talk to him until the next day. Then she stayed the entire day with him and in the night after a great feast, they kissed. The next morning however the queen awoke to the sound of screams coming from the city around her castle.' The man's voice grows harder and his eyes grow dark with anger, this is the only part that he is sure of. This is the only part left fully intact in the parchments he found. 'She ran to her alabaster balcony and looked out over her kingdom. An army, like a swarm of black ants, was washing over her land. She summoned the fullness of her devastating power only to find that none of her magics could affect these soldiers. Then using magical sight she looked to the head of the army. There was her prince.' These words are almost spat. The little girls face is not distraught but rather angry. Hatred is alive in both of the figures and the air screams for blood as the dead struggle against their shapeless bonds. 'Her magic was useless. She had failed the people she so loved. Her weakness had brought about this attack. She ran screaming into her chambers tearing at her hair, her eyes wild and her hands like claws. She sobbed and beat at her breast. She moaned and tore at her eyes. She ran through her palace like a beast gone mad. Finally she found herself in her own chambers once more. Now with a baleful gleam in her bloodied eyes she flung the traitors gifts into a pile, and with a word set them alight in a towering pyre. Screaming she leapt upon the flames but before they consumed her she proclaimed a dreadful curse. "Let the enemies of my people beware for I shall always look over them and my power will destroy those who seek to harm them. My spirit shall never rest" These words she said and no more and as she was consumed by the hungry flames so too was every soldier who had come to harm her people. In the end there was only the prince and as he surveyed his dead men Delalaria's flames took him too.'
The two sit in silence for a while, tears streaming down their faces. The dead would cry if they could but instead whisper sorrow in the ears of the living. They remember and they mourn their queen. Soon they are both asleep and the dead have forgotten or if they remember it is only a shadow of a memory from a time long ago.