Diary of An Adventuress

Athena looked at the map she had drawn in her notebook. The entrance had to be around here somewhere. She looked back through her notes to see if anything that she had described explained the scenery she was looking at around her. She knew she was close. She scanned the landscape to see if anything stuck out. The rain had just begun to fall as she tilted her head to see the second floor of the ruins.

Athena Carson-Bennett was no stranger to adventure. When she had finished her masters degree in Archaeology she had been ready to jump right in and get out there on a dig. To find evidence of old cultures and understand the past. It wasn’t until much later she realized that she was just another millennial that the world had left behind. There had been no job on a dig site. She hadn’t even been able to get on as a lab technician doing the cataloging from a dig site after all the excavating had been done. She had settled for several part-time jobs to pay the bill the best of the three her job at the library. The library at least meant she was surrounded by people that loved to read as much as she did.

It was that job that had placed her on her current path. One night, a year ago to the day, she was closing up the library she saw something out of the corner of her eye in the fiction section. Athena went to tell the patron that it was time to bring their selections to the checkout counter but didn’t find anyone there. What she found turned out to be much more mysterious. She found a little black notebook sitting on the lounge chair. When Athena picked up the book she had no way of knowing that it was the first step in her new life.

Athena opened the notebook to see who the book belonged to and was flabbergasted to see her own name inscribed at the top of the letter enclosed within.

Dear Miss Carson- Bennett,

We have decided that you are the perfect candidate for our challenge. You know the old ways and would appreciate the life we have to offer. What you need to know that fairytales and history are far more entwined than you would ever have imagined. Many modern day humans feel too advanced to believe we were ever anything more than legend. Humans love to feel their culture is the most superior ever.

I am High King of the Cluricaun House, Lochlan II. My kin are the Fey of legend. You may start to think that this is all a giant ruse. Your education no doubt will have us passed off as Irish mythology, however, we have been here all the time just beyond the veil. Two millennia ago our abilities were cited as magic. In reality our gifts all have science driving them. That science still hasn’t been discovered by any modern society despite the information revolution. With this in mind you can imagine what we looked like to others all those years ago, when what we really were is an advanced civilization.

Assuming that we are correct about you, you are probably wondering where we have been all this time and why you haven’t heard of us? Or why I would be telling you any of this? It is quite simple really. Every year the various houses of the fey choose their champion from your realm to participate in the quest. It is quite simple we provide you with a clue which you will find enclosed on the pages in this notebook and the treasure required, in this case a prepaid card with $20,000 on it to finance your quest. Should you figure out the clue when you reach the location it will lead you to the next clue and so on. The final clue will lead you to our feast to celebrate the cumulation of the quest. Should you manage to reach the feast there is more treasure to be had. You have a year to finish this quest and your resources will be allotted in proportion at each leg of the quest. The rest is up to you. I hope that my faith in you hasn’t been misplaced.

Yours Sincerly,

King Lochlan II of the Cluricaun

Despite the lunacy of everything contained within the letter Athena didn’t doubt its authenticity. Hadn’t she always wanted there to be more than what met the eye? She had always loved stories of mythology, magic, legends and lore. She had eagerly listen to all the folk tales she could when she was on vacation and liked to believe that there was something beyond what we could see and that those who truly believed would one day get to see. The real question was could she just pick up her life and follow a path when she wasn’t sure of the outcome?

When she really thought about it she knew that she was going to do it. It was a matter of packing things up as quickly as she could to get going. She was at a disadvantage not knowing how many steps there would be along the way. If they were giving her a year then it would take some time to figure this all out. She checked to see if anyone was watching her as she carefully opened the first page in the notebook. When she looked all she saw was a sketch in the book. The exhaled her breath this wasn’t going to be as easy as she hoped. How was she supposed to figure out a picture? She closed the notebook grabbed all the books she could on folklore and went home to figure it out.

***

Athena stared at the picture for what seemed like days willing the picture to make sense. It was feasting fairies sitting around a table. Was this some sort of illusion to the end of the quest? To where she wanted to be? If that was the case how could she be at the end before she began? She took a sip of her tea and thought it over. What if she decided to treat this as if she were on an excavation. She had been working the problem with assumptions in her mind, breaking the first rule when looking at historical evidence. She needed to be looking at the problem as if she had no knowledge of where it was going to lead.

With this new thought in mind she decided to look at at the background of the picture for more clues. It was while she starred at the seemingly ambiguous ruins that they suddenly made more sense. They weren’t just any ruins they were the ruins at Blarney. She had seen those ruins when she had visited Ireland a few years ago. Then they had been crowded with people waiting to kiss the Blarney Stone to gain the gift of eloquent speech. She had waited in that line for what seemed forever only to chicken out at the very last second. It had been the thought of leaning out of the ruins of the castle that had changed her mind. She had always regretted that action. How many times in your life were you given the opportunity to kiss the Blarney Stone?

Athena pushed away that nagging feeling of regret and turned her mind back to the picture. She may have a location but she didn’t have any more information. She stared absently at the picture of what she assumed was her benefactor. What would cause a High King to be feasting on the road as it were? Presumably they had a grand home somewhere. So why drag your entire court out to a castle ruin? Especially one crowded like that? She had waited for ages to get in anywhere at Blarney with all the visitors running around. The letter had said that they hid beyond the vail but what what did that really mean? Did it mean they were simply in hiding in plain sight? That they lived close by to ordinary human beings? Were that the case what would draw them out of hiding? It would have to be something extraordinary.

She pondered this line of enquiry when suddenly she remembered something she had read in a story as a child. The book had been a work of fiction but that didn’t necessarily mean that the facts weren’t based in some grain of truth. In the book the good fairies always celebrated Beltane as the beginning of their summer tour. If the court were to move around the country to celebrate the summer season it could make sense that they started at Blarney. That still didn’t explain how they could do so without being seen. Unless of course they did so at night… Night did afford the cover of darkness. It was also a remote place so it would be unlikely that tourists were meeting at the castle at night.

If their quest were to begin on a feasting date then Beltane made as much sense as anything else. Athena looked at the calendar on her phone that meant she had less than a week to get herself to Ireland and figure out how to be at Blarney castle after dark. She smiled as she picked up the phone to call to enquire about flights. It was high time for an adventure.