The Brigadier General

There is another character to add to the mix of beautiful souls congregating within the halls of Aes Sidhe’s court. This fellow is in a special category and although his identity has remained secret up until this point, he holds a particularly ethereal and special place in our queen’s heart.

Our sovereign and the Brigadier General met whilst she visited a friend outside the borders of Aes Sidhe. Their meeting was unplanned, unvetted, and unsuspected. What came of this chance encounter was an immediate connection and affinity for one another. The delightful part to this story, Dear Readers, is that neither person came to the party presented in full regalia. No, in this instance not only did our queen travel without retinue and dressed as a simple noblewoman (as is her regular custom at such times), but the General did exactly the same thing! They met and enjoyed one another’s company as two human beings, not as leaders in their own lands. They were coequals that day, not due to the roll call of royal peerage, but simply as woman and man.  They volleyed topic after topic at one another, and each held sway over the other in aggressive subjects but delicate deliveries. This friendship blossomed into a gratifying long-distance correspondence, for the General hails from Aethelred, the land which borders upon Aes Sidhe’s western hills.  It is a nation both wild and free, yet full of discipline and trained legions of musketeers. This description fits the Brigadier General himself, for he is a man full of contradiction in form and figure. A bard, a philosopher, a guardian of the mountains and beasts that lie within his borders, a strong man with a boyish charm… these are all various facets of this complicated jewel of Adam. On the other side of the cut gullion he presents to the casual observer:  focus, fearlessness, a military drive composed of steel and gunmetal gray. He is intense, foreboding, and possesses a superior intellect. He is a true warrior-poet, bound by honor and blessing to balance the cruel realities of the earth while living by the standards of the heavens.

Recently, our Royal One received news that the General was going away for a long period of time beyond the shores of either Aethelred or Aes Sidhe to a desolate place full of violence and hatred… a place where the denizens despise the very concept of Aes Sidhe, or Aethelred, or any other judicious and beloved land. Oh horror! to a place of dust and rubble, where one can barely trust the sight before one’s own eyes never mind the sight beyond. And finally, to a place where the General knows he will be vilified as Enemy.  He leaves with a full tiger’s heart, but he leaves behind a fretful ally queen. He does not want her to worry, but worry she will. For how can she not? He has besotted her, and she him.  It was not intentional, but things don’t always happen the way we mere mortals plan them. Life often makes other decisions for us while we stare off in a different direction.

Now, Dear Readers, one could pull from this story the notion that our beloved queen has met her match. Fair of face, strength of body and character, honor, grace, intelligence, good humor… these are the very traits she seeks in a partner, and the Brigadier General embodies them all.  But we are deeply saddened to report on the queen’s behalf that There Is A Canonical Impediment. It is no one’s fault, not the queen’s, not the General’s, not Hera’s. But it exists, nonetheless, and so our story will have to remain unresolved to the secret desires of the Solo Queen or her sage counterpart. As friends they will venture forth, this man and this woman. But it is with perfect certainty we commit here to parchment that she will wait and worry for him while staring up at the stars during the coming months, and he will think of her while staring up into a different sky MMMMMMMCCC miles away from their shared borders.

Life is not always fair, Children, but our queen will take succor with this situation as best she can...

The picture is burned at the edge
And you’re looking away
Looking for what’s next
And strange how through time we look the same
Your eyes and mine looking away
Too scared to see human remains ~Tom McRae