Lugh charged into Rua's office, not even noticing the broken glass all over the floor as he skidded to his knees beside his wife. Donnacha was there trying to comfort her but quickly got up to stand beside Donagh who arrived out of breath just behind Lugh. He had ran all the way when Donagh found him with the news that Rua was home. Whatever was wrong was so bad she had smashed the window with her magic and what had once been meticulously tidy on her desk was now scattered across the room. Her two favourite guards watched for only a moment before turning around and closing the door behind them.
Rua's face was stained with tears though the sobbing had for the moment stopped. He picked her face up into his hands. "What is it Rua? Heramacles, what happened?!" She looked glad to see him and threw her arms tight around his neck. "It's Holy Isle." Her voice sounded so hollow. He waited but she didn't continue. Beginning to feel nervous, he brushed away the tears that had begun again and asked. "What about Holy Isle?" There was a haunted look in her face and his own drained of blood. "What is it? Tell me!" "Benedict. Benedict Darkendale." She spat the name out, then saw Lugh's confused frown and tried her best to explain. "He was a Lion - he's Unliving now and he's... I don't know how he did it - maybe they're all working together - but he's taken Holy Isle!" Something inside him froze. Holy Isle was such a safe place, so everyone said. How could it simply be 'taken' without a fight? Ruairí was there. They made him stay. "What do you mean, taken Holy Isle? Rua you have to start making sense!" That light hit her eyes - the one that always made him feel uneasy. "I mean he's taken it for his own! I was there! I saw it! I saw all the people he killed, all the Unliving!" "Rua!" Lugh gripped her arms tight so that he might keep hold of her and let nothing harm her. It was he that noticed he was holding her too tight - that haunted look was still over her eyes as she continued. "He said the children at the school haven't been harmed. Not yet anyway. But if we do anything... it was just so horrible. I wanted to tear him apart there and then but he'd just have killed me - or worse - and I'd never get them back." It made no sense, no sense at all. It was supposed to be safe. She said it and he believed her. "But how? How can this just happen?" She glared at him, and though he knew the anger wasn't directed at him, it still stung. "I don't know! He waited until everyone was at the moot and he just took it! He was there waiting for us - we went to get the bandages like we always do and he was waiting." "He took Holy Isle?" Lugh brought himself back to his feet and looked down on her. She wanted them all there. First Bláithín, then the others. She wanted them to be Lions and look where it got them. "Yes. He killed everyone - there was nothing we could do - I was so sure the three of us were dead too but he wanted his message sent back to the crowns." Lugh's arms tightened across his chest. The controlled tone of his voice was tighter still. "My children are on Holy Isle with some Unliving monster. The 'safest' place for them, is it?" Rua could only blink up at him. She seemed surprised. She liked her ritual circles so much, she could make use of them now. "Get up. We're going to Holy Isle and we're bringing them home like we should have done long before now." She stared stupidly. "Get up!" Before he knew what he was doing, his hand scooped down, grabbing her arm roughly and dragging her hard to her feet. It wasn't him, was it? Had to be someone else hurting her like that. "Lugh stop it!" She broke off his grip and stepped away, rubbing her arm. "Calm down a moment-" "I'll calm down when my children are home!" "If you don't calm down right now, they're never going to get home! Don't be an idiot - if we go there now we'll never see them alive again! Benedict made that very clear!" Her words cut like ice and his look grew cold as he spat his back out at her. Benedict was the one he wanted to attack, not her. But Benedict wasn't there. "Are we to just sit here and wait, then? Sorry Rua but I can't leave them there like that." Her face couldn't have gone any whiter (or perhaps it could but he didn't want to think about that). "I didn't want to leave them there either but there was nothing I could do! I can't help them if I'm dead." She stepped towards him, trying to reach him but he didn't want those hands touching him, didn't want her calming him, he wanted to keep the fire in the pit of his stomach... "It's going to be okay, Lugh. They're not the only children - not the only people Benedict is holding hostage. Everything is being done to help. Lemming has a plan and it's going to work." Lugh's eyes flared at the name. He'd heard it before. Daragh had told him about the Prince Bishop - and the dozen other things Lemming liked to call himself. All of it was worrying. And he was another damned ritualist. "I don't want that mad man anywhere near my children!" "Benedict will be dealt with-" "I mean this 'Lemming' idiot! What's Fraoch doing about it? He'll see some sense and get in there." "Good Heramacles, will you listen to yourself? I've told you, if Fraoch - or anyone goes storming in there, they're all dead! 'You'll find yourself swamped by three foot high zombies' - those were his exact words to me! I didn't want to repeat them but you're giving me no choice!" That knocked the wind out of Lugh. He staggered back a step until he found the edge of her now bare desk. Repeating the words seemed to open up a vein of anger in Rua, for her cheeks burned as red as her hair and her voice showed no signs of lowering back down. "And Lemming is neither mad nor an idiot! He's kind and helpful - he just thinks a little differently, that's all. And that's what we need right now!" That got the bile back in Lugh's throat. "Is it? How about late night suicide trips after his skeleton lords? Do we need more of those?" Rua looked back at him stunned. Was she really so foolish as to think he wouldn't find out? It made him wonder what other stupid things she was doing. "There I was guarding your precious circle when Daragh asks me am I not worried you'll go chasing after skeleton lords with House Demetus again. I tell him he must be mistaken - you wouldn't be so foolish - and you would most certainly have told me." "There were more than enough of us there. It wasn't that important." Lugh's face turned bright red. "Not that important?! Rua I've heard about these people! Especially this Lemming! He's not right - what in Heramacles' name was he doing with a skeleton lord in the first place?! You think just because he's a ritualist you can trust him - like that Tarkis, and Samuel. They're going to get you killed." She frowned. "Who's been telling you about Lemming?" "Not everyone is as tight-lipped as you, Rua. There's plenty of stories for those who want to listen." "Not all stories are true." His eyebrow raised. "Then please, tell me this one isn't." She looked away. She couldn't even look at him through all the lies she told. "You went to those games a month ago. And I have to hear it from gossip on the street. I thought you cared more about Caillte than that - to drag her into all that with you." Her eyes shot back to his. "Stop it! I do care about her! But there were enough of us! We had no problem at all defeating it! We needed it!" His eyebrows rose several inches or so it seemed. "How could you possibly need to try get yourself killed?" "It was a problem we could fix! We needed it! And it was a month ago!" "I see." His tone grew quiet and icy. How could she think these things didn't matter? She didn't know the nights he lay awake wondering if she were alive or dead out there. Wondering if she even remembered he was waiting for her. "What do you see, Lugh?" He fixed her with a stare. "It used to be when you needed something, you came to me." "And I still do!" He shook his head. "No. You run to Cosaint. Or Tirahn. Tarkis. And now this Lemming." Rua sighed and let herself fall back against the wall by the broken window for support. Her eyes closed and there was a tremble in her voice as she spoke. "Tirahn is probably dead. And neither Cosaint nor Tarkis would deign to waste their time on me anymore." Her eyes opened again, the self pity now joined by anger. "Everyone that matters to me - including my own son! - is either yelling at me or walking away from me, so yes, maybe when Lemming is the only one offering me any hope or any friendship I'm going to take it!" Lugh blinked slowly, a calculating look on his face. It was time she faced the truth. Daragh didn't seem to think it would be wise - that she was too far gone into the madness the Lions brought to see it, but he had to try. It was Rua, he had to try. He tried his best to speak gentle. "Then perhaps you should listen to what everyone is telling you. You've changed and not for the better. You're leaving everything behind for these ridiculous rituals that create more problems than they solve. These people tell you they're your friends but where are they all now, Rua?" He looked her up and down, then at the mess around them. "Every time you go near these Lions you come back to me in a worse mess than when you left. They're slowly killing you, can't you see those rituals they keep pushing you into are slowly killing you-" "No one ever pushed me into a ritual circle - I do that on my own." Infuriating. His knuckled went white around the edge of the desk as he tried to hold onto his calm but the look of defiance on her face made it all flood out. Everything Daragh said was true- they took her from him and made her into something very different just so they could use her - and she actually thought it was her doing! "Is that supposed to make it better?! It's still their influence! They're the reason you've changed so much! They're why you risk your life over and over, why you're hardly ever home - and when you are it's at that damned circle! They enticed you with titles and positions until you became theirs." There. He said it. From the look on her face, she could hardly believe it. But she'd be forced to examine it now, she'd see- "Is that the problem? I'm not yours anymore?" He closed his eyes. She didn't get it at all. "I only took control of your life because you wouldn't. I never wanted to - but I loved you so I took care of you and gave you everything you needed. I never pushed you into anything you weren't ready for - not like they do." She shook her head then, looking altogether weary. The white streak shone out at him as a constant reminder that one day they would push her too far. "Who says I'm not ready?" "You do. Look at yourself. Look at your hair for Heramacles' sake! That sort of thing doesn't just happen." Her voice was weak, barely audible now. "You don't understand-" Lugh frowned. This was where he should hold her and apologise for the quiver in her voice and the tremble in her shoulders, but this time he couldn't do it. Something inside changed. When he spoke it was with a calmness he never knew existed. "I understand better than you think. I've had a lot of time to think, Rua, and this is partly my fault too. I've let it go too far. I was so happy when you came back from the first Gathering with such an excitement for these rituals. I was worried then but seeing you so happy and finally choosing something for yourself... I've done my very best to support you. So much so I didn't want to see the harm it was doing to you and our family. But I can't avoid it any longer." Her voice filled with fear. "Lugh, you're taking this out of all proportion." He nodded. She should be afraid. She had to see how close she was to the brink. Had to see the damage she was doing to them. "I was, yes. Used to be that seeing you smile was worth the danger. But now our children are in trouble because you'd rather keep them miles away from us in a strange place than waste time you could be with your circle taking care of them yourself." He could have thrown her from the walls of Armengar and she could not possibly have looked more hurt. Lugh did his best not to notice, he tried not to feel the pain of his own heart breaking. But it was the only way. Only one way to make her stop the insanity, only one thing she might possibly care for more... he prayed to Heramacles that he was right. "I never wanted to do this, Rua. Never wanted it to come to this. I love you more than anything but that's why I can't watch you let these people destroy you bit by bit any longer. Please. Tell the Lions to find a new Master Ritualist. Tell the Sirene to find a new dupe to sit in that circle." The look in her eyes was so sorrowful. He thought for a moment she would accept... but no, there was the tiniest shake of her head. "I can't do that. You know I can't." The breath left him, stunned by an answer he didn't want to hear. So what now? What could he do but carry through? "Then I can't stay to watch. I'm sorry, Rua. Truly deeply sorry." "Lugh please don't do this." She almost sounded desperate. He shook his head and turned from her. "You have a decision to make. You need space to make it." When he was at the door she called after him. "But what about the children? When they come home - they can't come home to this!" Lugh turned around, an odd look on his face, trying to read hers. "Is that the only reason you don't want me to walk out this door?" "Isn't it good enough?!" His heart might have stopped there and then. Was that all she had left for him? "It's good. But it's not enough." He stepped out the door and closed it quickly behind him, battling harder than he ever did in his life to keep composure. It all flashed before him so fast. Liam and Oisín's annoying little sister who wouldn't leave him be, the sweet kid that made him smile despite himself, the beautiful young girl that captured his heart, that first night with her that was worth every second of the wait, those nervous hours of hearing her cry and waiting for their children to be born, the day she came back from the Gathering full of joy and possibilities. And now he walked away alone. He wondered if she might fare better. After all, she at least was a Lion.