Such Dangerous Seas is a short story written by Seanan McGuire. It is a bonus novella included with the text editions of Be the Serpent and shows Titania and Eira setting their geas upon the Luidaeg after the destruction of the Roane.
| “ | We all that are engaged in this loss
Knew that we ventured on such dangerous seas. |
” |
–William Shakespeare, Henry IV Part II | ||
Plot[]
520: Luidaeg is looking after two dozen of her Roane grandchildren. It is Moving Day (Beltane/May 1) and Titania is coming into ascendance. The young Roane are collectively struck by a horrifying vision, which Luidaeg soon realizes is the death of the rest of their species.
Luidaeg confronts Eira about engineering the destruction of the Roane. Titania, who was hiding behind a curtain, hears all and Eira uses this as evidence for Titania to bind the Luidaeg. Titania curses Luidaeg to tell the truth.
523: Luideag visits Titania and Eira in Broceliande with the intention of killing Eira. She realizes she cannot prove that Eira was the one who engineered the destruction of the Roane, and therefore cannot justify Eira's death to Titania. Eira uses this confrontation to show the Luidaeg as a danger to her.
Titania keeps her imprisoned in place for a full day and night as punishment, before Luidaeg breaks free. Titania compliments her power and gives the Luidaeg a choice: Promise of her own free will never to harm Eira, or Titania will bind her. Luidaeg admits she cannot promise never to harm Eira. Titania, using what she learned from the Luidaeg's undoing of the stasis spell, crafts a new binding to protect any claimed descendants of Titania, and force Luidaeg to grant requests for a price.
Eira makes the first request, to be given the iron knife that Luidaeg carries, but declines to pay the price. She also asks for the Luidaeg to stay away from her grandchildren for seven years, so that they might grow up without her. In exchange, Eira must not hunt Maeve's descendants for that same time period.
568: Luidaeg has stayed awy from her grandchildren even after her seven years were up, knowing how much her absence hurt them. She has wandered in exile, practicing her craft and getting better at deals. She has not seen Maeve since the binding, knowing her mother's rage would be all-destructive.
In her mother's wood, Luidaeg meets the merlin Emrys.
Characters[]
- Luidaeg, called Nimue by Emrys
- Eira Rosynhwyr
- Titania
- Luidaeg's Roane grandchildren, including:
- Ulchel, son of Aulay
- Tibbe
- Suanach, son of Merraid
- Emrys, who would become Merlin
Mentioned
- Firtha, the Luidaeg's youngest and favorite daughter. She had no children.
- Aulay, the Luidaeg's favorite son
- Amphitrite
- Sigil: downward trident and kelp
- Maeve
- Oberon
- Black Annis
- Anglides (as Annie)
- Alswn, Firstborn of the Coblynau
- AElfweard, Luidaeg's human lover and father to the Roane
- Unnamed Siren
- Unnamed Kraken
- Raidne, Firstborn of the Sirens
- Erda
- Malvic
- Jibvel
- Blind Michael, then called Mug Ruith, Firstborn of the Tlachtgae
- Acacia
- Sigil: green moth and yellow acacia flower
- Keiko Inari
- King Arthur
Locations[]
- Cailleach Skerry
- Brocéliande, Albion
- Celyddon, Cambria
Mentioned
- Avalon
- Air Kingdoms
- Summerlands
- Paimpont Forest, Brittany
- Emain Ablach
- Caerleon, where Maeve holds Court
Trivia[]
- The Luidaeg's Roane children were all through one human partner, AElfweard. They lived together for a hundred years out of time in the Luidaeg's skerry. Eira convinced a Siren to lure AElfweard away from the skerry, where time immediately caught up with his body.
- The Luidaeg retaliated by banishing the Siren from the sea; she now flies on feathery wings and retains were Siren abilities.
- Hope chests were used on the Luidaeg's Roane descendants to make them full fae.
- Titania bore and abandoned numerous infants, even in those early days. The Luidaeg fostered Titania's Firstborn children long before becoming a biological mother herself.
- The Luidaeg wears her hair bound specifically to spite advice that Titania once gave Eira, that long unbound hair is a status symbol of luxury.
- The Luidaeg notes that Oberon's claimed descendants can ride their own blood.
- The night-haunts are descended from the Luidaeg's unnamed sister.
- The Luidaeg theorizes that she is stronger than Eira, for Eira runs to Titania any time they might be in conflict. The Luidaeg does not know of any Firstborn stronger than herself.
- Ordinary fae cannot See the Firstborn. Seer Firstborn cannot See the Three.
- Oberon, when faced with conflict between his wives and/or children, attempted to be as fair as possible and not play favorites.
- Luidaeg proposes that the Three should be divded into thorns (instead of roses), water, and blood, since all Three parents carry roses.
- Eira is obsessed with winning Titania's admiration and attention.
- Luidaeg is claimed by Oberon.
- Luidaeg believes that Eira is a grand planner but not a deep planner: she doesn't not prepare contingencies, and if something in her plan goes wrong she panics.
- Luidaeg believes that Titania's childen hunted down Erda for her protean nature. She dares not look for definitive proof lest Malvic and Jibvel destroy Faerie in their fury.
- Eira engineered the destruction of multiple Seer races. Luidaeg wonders what she saw that scared her so badly.
- Blind Michael's children, who would have produced the Tlachtgae race if given the chance, were all killed.
- When Maeve refused to retaliate on his behalf, Blind Michael set aside his given name and swore never to return to her.
- The Kitsune were attacked but Keiko Inari was able to protect them and retreat to the mountains for safety.
- The Ysengrimus were eradicated.
- The Peri were painted as monstrous and isolated from the rest of Faerie.
- The Lamia were nearly eradicated.
- The Korrigan and Kilmoulis, and their Firstborn, haven't been heard of in years.
- Blind Michael's children, who would have produced the Tlachtgae race if given the chance, were all killed.
- Maeve's thirst for vengence can be so great that the Luidaeg did not dare tell her of Titania and Eira's actions. She feared Faerie would not endure the fallout.
Quotes[]
Seer predictions[]
- "Killing Eira would not break the bonds I labor under, would not free me from Titania's frozen reins, but one will come who can release me, who can unbind me. I have Seen her, distantly, in the cracked and broken mirror of the future. Eira's death will change much about the form she carries -- Eira is to do something terrible in the years to come, something so brutal and unforgiveable that I could not See it clearly even as I approached Broceliande, and that terrible thing would result in Faerie gifting us with a new bloodline, one intended to repair so very many of the failings of the past -- but not everything. We were flawed. We were failing to live up to what the Heart required us to be. She would come whether Eira died this day or not. Perhaps in a different form. Perhaps sooner, or farther in the future. But she would come, and one day, she would set me free. I would not be bound forever." -Luidaeg
- "My death was the one thing I knew I would be able to see even in the presence of my parents--my death, when it came, would shake mountains."
Bindings[]
Oberon forbid Eira from directly harming those claimed by Maeve, or directly harming the Luidaeg.
Titania placed the following bindings on the Luidaeg:
- The inability to lie to any but her own descendants
- "Faerie springs from three wells, and they are sometimes joined, and sometimes separated, but I care for those I claim. You are forbidden to raise hand or power against any child of mine whom I have publicly named my own. Any descendant of theirs is outside your authority. You will not harm them, will not touch them, save under the conditions I give you. Should you try, your bones will shatter beneath your skin, and they will not be restored until you win the true and uncoerced forgiveness of the one you have done harm to. Every breath will be an angony, and even transformation will not restore you. My children, and their children, are forbidden to you."
- "They call you the sea witch. A title of convenience, I think. A title of respect. Let's change that. A true sea witch serves any who comes to them, out of greed and the desire for chaos. So I give you this, Antigony of Albany, yours to keep and carry, to nurture and protect: Whenever you are asked for anything within your power, whether it be casting or query, you will tell the one who asks you yes. You will do whatever is requested, no matter how dangerous or disasterous it would be for the one who asks you. You may set a price for your services -- witches are paid, after all -- whether it be in coin or blood or favor. You may harm my claimed children when they are fool enough to come to you, but you may refuse none, and the prices you set them must be fair. (...) Whatever is requested, whoever requests it, you must obey."
- "Save for family, save when the debts are already too deep to allow the people you treat with to escape you ever, nothing comes free. You can give the smallest token as a taste of what bound power can do, but you can't do great favors or tell great truths. Nothing comes for free, little sea witch. Not your power, and not your favors, and not your freedom."
- "You are further forbidden to mention any of this to your father, or to my sister. It would be seeking your emancipation without payment, and so I forbid it to you."