We are onto chapter two of the reread, which is primarily set-up, but we meet Morrigan for the first time and the chapter focuses primarily on her when she brings news of dire portents. If you read further, beware of spoilers. Also, don’t expect my language to be pure as the driven snow, as Atticus’ is not! Index to the reread is here.  We begin after the jump. 

Summary

Atticus cleans up after then fight, which no one has noticed. The Morrigan, Celtic Chooser of the Slain and goddess of war, shows up in crow form with a creepy voice. She and Atticus have a bargain: for as long as he is Aenghus Óg’s enemy, she won’t let him die (as long as it’s not obvious what she’s doing).

She warns Atticus that Aenghus Óg is coming for him, but after some probing, Atticus realizes she doesn’t know that for a fact. Atticus doesn’t want to leave, even though the portents from her casting of the wands weren’t great. She makes the point about his weakness being the fairer sex, including her naked goddess self, turning Atticus into liquid Jell-O. (But only because he’d temporarily removed his amulet for cleaning.)

Their back and forth on whether he should run again is interrupted by a couple of college-kid stoners, who promptly get on the Morrigan’s bad side by coming on to her. Because she’s naked. She promises to kill them… later so as not to get Atticus in trouble and mess up his store.

Atticus is firm on his decision to stay put. He has lots of protections set up, including his amulet, and he is tired of running. After showing the Morrigan said amulet, she demands he teach her. In return, Atticus bargains that she will never come to claim him in death, essentially granting him immortality.

She warns him that Aenghus Óg is sending some Fir Bolgs to confirm his identity. Then she gets naked again and kisses him. With his amulet on, he turns into solid Jell-O rather than liquid Jell-O. Then she flies off as a crow.

Commentary

While there isn’t a lot of action in this chapter, it does show us our first interaction between Atticus and the Morrigan, whose relationship is hugely important for the series. They aren’t close by any means, but they do have a sort of partnership. Atticus is wary of her, understanding the fundamental differences between them. He observes:

The Morrigan’s ideas of sport and mine varied widely. …She hangs out with Kali and the Valkyries and they have a death goddesses’ night out on the battlefield. I, on the other hand stopped thinking war was glorious after the Crusades. Baseball is more my kind of thing these days.

He is not afraid of her exactly, they are working together, but he manages to keep his badassitude to a minimum. Barely. When he disregards her advice and her crow eyes flash red…

…that I admit, made me a bit uncomfortable. She really wasn’t my friend. One day—and it could be today—she would decide I’d lived far too long and grown fare too cavalier, and that would be it for me.

She is willing to listen to him, as she doesn’t kill those college kids, but delays her retribution. Atticus doesn’t even bother trying to persuade her not to kill them.

He is completely overwhelmed by her seductress aspect when not wearing his amulet, but it’s not all because he isn’t protected—or because of her goddess magic. He’s just flat out attracted to her.  We know from future books that the Morrigan develops feelings for him. I don’t really remember the progression of their relationship, but I don’t think she’s gotten there yet. We’re in Atticus’ POV and he’s oblivious to any kind of feelings she might be having as her own person rather than a “goddess” most of the time.

Still, I have a hard time believing she doesn’t have some affection for him, even at this point, because she seems to spend a lot of time and attention on him. Atticus would say that it is a mutually beneficial relationship, but keeping him safe for so long because he drives Aenghus Óg into “twitching spasms of fury” seems a bit one-sided to me. Perhaps it’s because I don’t remember what drove her to hate Aenghus Óg.

We only have one real glimmer of her potential feelings:

The Morrigan’s expression softened and she grasped my chin in her fingers, pulling my mouth to hers. Her black robe melted away into nothingness…and they heady scent of everything desirable to a man again filled my nostrils, though the effect was muted since I was now wearing my amulet. She kissed me deeply and then pulled away with that same maddening smirk on her face, knowing the effect she had on me, magically assisted or not.

It’s the “expression softened” that really jumped out at me. She could just be toying with him. Or she could be expressing some of her affection now that whatever he feels would not be controlled by her magic.

In any case, their relationship makes a fundamental shift by the end of the chapter. She agrees to champion his true immortality—he won’t have to fear she’ll let him die on a whim. And he agrees to be her tutor in the realm of his iron amulet and magic charm necklace. Atticus has never been in a position of any kind of power over her. Not that even as the Morrigan the student, she’d ever been in anyone’s power, per se, but it will be a role reversal of sorts.

One other note: How cool is Atticus’ amulet? He spent 750 years perfecting it and the magic charms that go with it. Aenghus Óg’s constant attempts to kill Atticus may have forced the precautionary measures, but Atticus has some serious badassitude when it comes to his craft as a druid. He may know another genius besides Galileo and Van Gogh. He might look at one in the mirror everyday.

Next time: Oberon, the faithful and hilarious Irish wolfhound!