RANGE TABLE

ESTIMATED COMBAT
RANGE DESCRIPTION DISTANCE ATTRIBUTE WEAPONS
Close In range to trade 0 to 2 meters Might Unarmed combat,
blows with blunt melee weapons, pistol
objects and blades,
or grapple and strike
unarmed.
Short Close-quarter battle Out of reach — 3 to Dexterity Thrown, pistol, rifle,
distance for reflexive 30 meters bow
shooting and thrown
weapons.
Medium Range to aim and 31 to 100 meters Cunning Thrown, pistol, rifle,
shoot with a firearm bow
or bow. Maximum
modern pistol range.
Long Range to plan and Over 100 meters to Discipline Rifle, some bows, light
execute long-range maximum effective artillery
sniping and special range (standard is
weapon attacks (com- 1000 meters)
pensating for wind,
etc.).
Extreme Range of heavy By weapon (typically Intellect or dice pool Missiles, naval rail-
military weapons — 1000+ meters to of guidance system guns, heavy artillery
must compensate for weapon maximum
curvature of the Earth, — 10,000 meters or
speed of light delays. more)
Out of Range Beyond maximum Beyond maximum N/A N/A
weapon range. weapon range.

Extreme: Intellect
Firing Out of Range: Sometimes you need to shoot an
opponent who is just too far away. For each range band be-
RESOLVING DAMAGE
yond the maximum range of the weapon, add +2 Difficulty
to the roll.
C haracters gain special Conditions when injured, called
Injury Conditions.
There are four general categories, corresponding to

SURPRISE ATTACKS increasing levels of Complication severity: Bruised (−1),

W hen you want to get the drop on an enemy and maximize
the element of surprise, you must set up an ambush.
Against a single target, roll Subterfuge + Dexterity or Intellect
vs. a difficulty half the target’s Composure (rounded down).
Ties favor the player character. Against a group, roll against
the highest rating among the group of enemies. Bandmates
generally should not be surprise attacking each other, but in
the event of intra-band strife, the roll is the same, with ties
favoring the defender.
On a success, the ambushing character or characters
have a full round to act against their opponents before ini-
tiative is rolled as normal and the enemies join the fight.
Stealth cannot be reestablished in a fight without the aid of
Knacks or Boons.
Injured (−2), and Maimed (−4). Beyond that, you’re
Taken Out. Except for Taken Out, characters don’t often get
Injured or Maimed, they get Broken Arm or Crushed Skull.
Be descriptive when applying these Conditions — weapons
can only apply Injury Conditions that would be narratively
logical. If an Injury Condition wouldn’t affect your character
(say, they’re trying to shoot someone while suffering from a
broken leg) the Condition effect or Momentum generation
simply doesn’t apply.
Injuries needn’t represent actual wounds; at the
Storyguide’s discretion, they can be “Fated Injuries,” which
are curses, injuries held in abeyance, or close calls that throw
off the character and keep them off balance. Having a char-
acter dodge a hail of bullets only to catch the fateful one that
Takes them Out is perfectly in-genre.
Calculating Injury Conditions: Anyone can take the
Bruised or Maimed Condition levels (or the equivalents
thereof caused by weapons). With a Stamina rating of 1, they

120 CHAPTER FOUR: COMBAT

can take Injured (create a small box for the level). For every INJURED DAMAGE
additional 2 above (round up), the character can take one EXAMPLES EFFECT TYPE
additional Bruised Condition. Scale can add directly to this,
creating one additional Bruised Condition per Scale level. Minor Increases Difficulty of Bashing
Concussion all Mental actions and
Example: At 3 they have Taken Out, Maimed, Injured, and Firearms actions
two Bruised. At 5, they have Taken Out, Maimed, Injured, and
Broken Leg Halves movement Bashing,
three Bruised. At 11, it’d be six Bruised, and so on.
speed, and increases Lethal
Any time the character takes damage, he must take the Difficulty of all
an Injury Condition. His player chooses to take a Bruised, Agility actions
Injured, or Maimed Condition, if available. If none are Cracked −2 Defense Bashing,
available, he is Taken Out. Ribs Lethal
If the attack is from a weapon with the Aggravated tag,
the Condition becomes Persistent. Against mortal charac-
ters, lethal damage is Persistent. The four-point Critical Hit
MAIMED
You have suffered an incredibly serious, and potentially
Stunt allows you to inflict an additional Condition.
permanent, wound.
BRUISED Effect: None, beyond filling the damage level.
You’re beaten up a bit. Momentum: The Injury gets in your way later in the
Effect: None, beyond filling the damage level. scene, adding +4 Difficulty to an action.
Momentum: The injury gets in your way later in the Resolution: Healing magic, or wait two weeks.
scene, adding +1 Difficulty to an action.
MAIMED DAMAGE
Resolution: Various Calling or other healing magic; EXAMPLES EFFECT TYPE
otherwise, wait two days. Shattered Increase Difficulty of Bashing,
Knee/Shoulder all actions involving Lethal
BRUISED DAMAGE the shattered limb
EXAMPLES EFFECT TYPE
Internal Increase Difficulty Bashing,
Bruised Ribs −1 Defense Bashing Bleeding of all attacks and Lethal
Black Eye Increases Difficulty of Bashing movement
Firearms actions Acid Burns Increase Difficulty Lethal,
Sprained Increases Difficulty of Bashing of all Physical and Aggravated
Ankle all actions any time the Social actions
character moves
TAKEN OUT
INJURED You have been hurt enough to take you out of a fight.
You have been solidly hit, and are suffering from a seri- You might be dying, trapped under serious amounts of rub-
ous but still heroic wound. ble, or simply knocked out cold or too bruised to move. You
Effect: None, beyond filling the damage level. might be able to talk, but can’t make any serious efforts at
convincing someone of something.
Momentum: The Injury gets in your way later in the
scene, adding +2 Difficulty to an action. Effect: You may not take any more actions during the
scene in which you’ve taken this Condition. Any successful
Resolution: Healing magic, or wait two weeks. hit in a later scene has the same effect until you resolve this
Condition. Add three Momentum to the pool when you first

I GIVE UP
When a character faces an extreme amount of Injury Conditions or a particularly tough foe, or if they just
feel like it, the player can opt to concede. In this case, the character is voluntarily Taken Out without going
through Bruised, Injured, etc. first. The character takes no further damage, and adds three Momentum to
the pool as normal. Losing a fight should be resolved in the same way as a Condition, leading to a new
angle in a story. There are also multiple options for withdrawing from a fight; if the battle appears to be
one-sided, the Storyguide should gently remind players of these options.

FIRST AID/RANGE MODIFIERS 121

acquire Taken Out, and for every time a definite lack of your
presence in the fight harms your companions.
Resolution: The Injury that caused you to be Taken
Out, while no longer incapacitating, gets in your way in a
later scene, adding +3 Difficulty to an action.
If a character is Taken Out, they can no longer actively
participate in the fight. This doesn’t mean that they’ve been
killed outright, and the workings of Fate mean that PCs
will never be killed by enemies of a lower Tier. It’s up to the
Storyguide to judge the tone of the campaign and determine
whether or not a character has been permanently slain.
FIRST AID
A fter combat, characters can give and receive first aid. This
allows a character to downgrade an Injury Condition
to one of a lower level. Make a Reason + Medicine roll at a
Difficulty based on the severity of the Injury; a character can
only remove one Condition this way per session, through a
scene of picking glass out of bloodied arms, wrapping bandages
around burned limbs, etc.
An Injury Condition can only be downgraded once, and
only if the character has empty Injury Condition boxes of
a lower level available. The Bruised condition is removed
when downgraded. Knacks and Boons may allow first aid to
be applied more readily, more often, or simply heal the level.
DIFFICULTY
• Bruised: Two
• Injured: Three
• Maimed: Five
• Taken Out: One success per other Condition the
target has on them
SCALE
M ost combatants are similar in power and ability, but when
the sides are uneven, Scale comes into play. For the most
part, Scale works the same for combat as it does in the other
parts of the game. Scale Enhancement bonuses are additional
successes on a character’s roll, including for Defense. If the
character is an Antagonist and they would have some form of
defensive Scale, add half the dramatic bonus to her Defense.
Example: Sigrun picks a fight with Hogzilla, a nemean boar
and a powerful titanspawn. Sigrun and Hogzilla have similar
stats (remarkably enough) but Hogzilla gains an Enhancement
bonus of 2 successes to most Physical actions and +1 to its
Defense, due to its superior Scale rating. However, if Sigrun
gets into a fight with Boyd, a fellow Scion, then Sigrun will
gain 2 additional successes to all actions, since she is a superior
type of combatant.
Damage and Scale: In addition to the Enhancement
bonus, characters of a higher Scale rating can use their im-
pressive power to deal additional damage. A character with
a higher Scale rating may purchase the Inflict Damage Stunt
122 CHAPTER FOUR: COMBAT
an additional time for each Scale rank they have above
their opponent. Storyguides, be sparing when hitting an PC
and use the extra successes as much as possible — the blow
should hurt, but it’s more dramatic to break some ribs and
send the character flying a few range bands over and into
an inconveniently-placed car than put the antagonist’s fist
through the PC’s torso.
When facing opponents (including objects such as vehi-
cles) of a greater Scale, a character can only deal damage to
a target no greater than two Scale above her. For example: a
satyr (Scale 0, human-sized) with a sword can slice her way
through an armored car (Scale 2), but cannot slash a sky-
scraper (Scale 4) in half. In the case where there is a Close
between individuals of differing Scale, the entity with two or
more Scale above the other dictates the results of the conflict.
DAMAGE AND SCALE
When facing opponents (including objects such as ve-
hicles) of a greater Scale, a character can only deal damage
to a target no greater than two Scale above her. For example:
A Scion (Scale 0, human-sized) with a sword can slice her
way through an armored car (Scale 3), but cannot slash a
skyscraper (Scale 5) in half without the aid of a Knack or
Boon.
WEAPONS
AND ARMOR
H arming other characters and protecting yourself from
harm are often best done with the right tools.
WEAPON TAGS
To distinguish one weapon from another, Scion uses a
series of tags which indicate the special properties a weapon
has. Use these tags to design your own unique gear befitting
your story. A weapon may have up to three total points of
tags. There’s no point cost for damage type, but weapons
may only have one type. This section includes a few stock
examples to get you started.
• Aggravated (2): This weapon deals grievous magical
damage, such as a blade made of raw fire or lightning,
or the revealed face of a God. Aggravated Injury
Conditions are things like Burned Off Completely
and Melted Flesh and can only be healed by magical
abilities. This is meant expressly for magical and su-
pernatural sources of injury.
• Arcing (1): This weapon can be fired in an arc,
allowing shots to better maneuver around cover.
When using this weapon against a target in cover,
downgrade its rating by 1: Light cover is ignored, and
heavy cover becomes light.
• Automatic (2): This weapon is designed to fire in
bursts. It may be used to make a burst fire attack,
which adds +1 Enhancement to applying the Critical
Hit stunt. This tag may not be added to any weapon
 with the Melee or Shockwave characteristic. This
restriction applies even if these tags were added via a
special ability, such as a Knack or a Boon. After using
the Empty the Clip Stunt, the player must roll for Out
of Ammo with a -2 Complication for each time they’ve
rolled this scene.
• Bashing (0): This weapon deals blunt force damage.
The tag allows for the Broken and Battered Injury
Conditions. It cannot be used to slice or sever objects
(or limbs).
• Brutal (1): This weapon can inflict massive trauma
on a target. This weapon reduces the successes nec-
essary for a Critical Stunt by 1.
• Concealable (1): The weapon can be hidden in a
pocket, up a sleeve, or inside a particularly long coat.
Gain Enhancement 1 to any tasks involving sneaking
the weapon into a location without someone noticing.
• Firearm (0): The weapon is a gun. It must be used
with the Firearms skill.
• Grappling (1): This weapon grants +1 Enhancement
to making the Grapple attack.
• Lethal (0): The weapon deals lethal damage, which
can lead to serious injury. This tag allows for the
Scratched, Cut, or Bleeding Out Injury Conditions.
A weapon with this tag cannot inflict the Bruised or
Battered Injury Conditions.
• Long Range (1): This weapon can be fired at far
distances, extending its effective range band to long.
These weapons increase the Difficulty of any attacks
in the close and short range band by 1.
• Loud (−1): The weapon is noisy and cannot be
silenced, and will surely draw attention if fired in a
place where people can hear it.
• Melee (0): This weapon can only be used at close
range. It must be used with the Close Combat Skill.

OUT OF AMMUNITION?
Though Scion is a game of semi-divine heroes, their mortal weapons may fail them. At the end of any
turn where it would be dramatically appropriate, the Storyguide may call for an Out of Ammo check.
Roll Firearms + Cunning or Composure. A failure indicates the character has run out of ammunition and
cannot continue to use any weapon requiring ammunition or with the Firearm tag until they spend an action
reloading, which may be part of mixed action using the same dicepool.

WEAPONS AND ARMOR 123


SAMPLE WEAPONS
LIGHT MELEE
Knife: Concealable, Lethal, Melee, Thrown
Sword: Lethal, Melee, Versatile
Staff: Bashing, Melee, Reach, Stun
Knuckleduster: Bashing, Concealable,
Melee, Worn
HEAVY MELEE
Great Sword: Lethal, Melee, Two-Handed,
Unconcealable
Hammer: Bashing, Melee, Pushing
Axe: Lethal, Melee, Piercing
Spear: Lethal, Melee, Reach, Thrown
FIREARMS
Pistol: Concealable, Firearm, Lethal, Piercing,
Ranged
Shotgun: Firearm, Lethal, Loud, Ranged
Submachine Gun: Automatic, Firearm,
Ranged
Sniper Rifle: Firearm, Lethal, Long Range,
Piercing
ARCHERY AND THROWN
Longbow: Arcing, Lethal, Ranged, Two-
Handed
Javelin: Arcing, Lethal, Piercing, Thrown
Bolas: Bashing, Pushing, Stun, Thrown
• Messy (−1): This weapon does not damage cleanly,
leaving ragged wounds, or blowing apart cover. A
Messy weapon will leave behind a distinctive trail.
• Piercing (2): This weapon is meant to punch through
the protective layers of armor. Reduce a target’s hard
armor value by 1 or soft armor value by 2 when deal-
ing damage with a weapon with this quality.
• Pushing (1): This weapon is heavy, large, or other-
wise well-adapted to pushing foes around the bat-
tlefield. After dealing Stress or an Injury Conditions
to an opponent, you can also choose to knock them
prone.
• Ranged (0): This weapon is meant to be fired at
range, up to medium range. These weapons increase
the Difficulty of any attacks in the close range band by
1. It must be used with either Firearms or Athletics.
124 CHAPTER FOUR: COMBAT
• Reach (1): A weapon with a long haft, or one where
the end of the weapon can reach up to six feet or
more away (like a whip). These weapons can be used
to make Close Combat attacks out to short range.
• Returning (1): Often paired with Thrown, this
weapon returns when fired or thrown away from the
character. A boomerang is the most common exam-
ple, but a harpoon with a retractable chain would also
be Returning.
• Shockwave (4): This weapon can be used to strike all
targets in the same range band. This tag is reserved for
weapons at large Scale, or for magical effects granted by
Knacks or Boons and is not typical on mundane weaponry.
• Slow (−1): This weapon requires time and effort to
set up, reload, move, etc, such as a catapult or trebu-
chet. An action must be dedicated to the aspect of
the weapon that requires work and attention.
• Stun (1): When inflicting an Injury, this weapon can
only be used to inflict the Minor Injury Conditions
Bruised, Staggered, or Stunned, or the Major Injury
Condition Battered. When a character is Taken Out
by a weapon with the Stun tag, they are knocked
unconscious.
• Thrown (0): The weapon can be thrown out to
short range. When thrown, the Athletics skill must
be used. Unless it is also Returning, a Thrown weap-
on must be retrieved after it is tossed away.
• Two-Handed (−1): The weapon requires two hands
to use. If a character loses the ability to use one of her
hands, she cannot use this weapon.
• Unconcealable (−1): The weapon is too big or bulky
to be easily hidden. You may be able to smuggle it
into places by putting it in a container or case of
some kind, but even this might be difficult without
arousing suspicion.
• Versatile (2): The weapon is useful outside of simply
causing harm. Add +1 Enhancement when using the
weapon to perform any Stunts.
• Worn (2): The weapon is strapped to the character’s
body or otherwise worn, and cannot be disarmed.
ARMOR TAGS
When charging into a fight, it’s important to protect
one’s vital spots from harm. Characters wearing protective
gear use the following rules to determine the mechanical
effect of armored equipment. Like weapons, armor may have
up to three total points of tags. To distinguish different sets
of armor from each other, use the following tags, which are
all considered to be “Armored” tags.
• Cumbersome (−1): The armor is big and bulky,
imposing +1 Difficulty to any kind of athletic feats
performed while wearing it.
 SAMPLE ARMORS
Motorcycle Jacket: Armored, Innocuous
Kevlar Vest: Soft (1), Concealable, Resistant
(Bulletproof), Weighty
Chainmail Shirt: Hard (1), Concealable,
Resistant (Arrows)
Plate Armor: Hard (3), Cumbersome
• Concealable (2): Whether a Kevlar vest or a flaw-
lessly made chain shirt forged by dwarves, the armor
can be hidden under clothing.
• Hard (1 or 3): Hard armor grants the wearer one ad-
ditional Injury Condition box. The one-point version
of the tag gives one condition box, and the three-
point version gives an additional one. Once filled,
the boxes stay filled until the end of the scene. There
is no Complication attached to the Injury Condition
box provided by Hard armor. Armor cannot be both
Hard and Soft.
• Innocuous (2): This armor looks like an ordinary
object. Often a motorcycle jacket, or sports pads:
things someone won’t be concerned about seeing.
Relic armors may have this tag as a magical property.
• Resistant (2): The armor is designed to protect
against a certain type of damage. The most com-
mon mundane armor is bulletproof, which ignores
the Piercing tag on any weapon that also has the
Firearms tag. Armors made by Gods may be resistant
to fire or frost or acid, protecting the character from
any Complication or Condition that may come from
those sources. If enough points are available, this tag
may be purchased more than once.
• Soft (1): Soft armor increases the Difficulty of the
“Inflict Damage” Stunt by 1. Armor cannot be both
Hard and Soft, but certain effects may grant both
soft and hard armor; so long as they’re from different
sources, they stack.
• Weighty (−1): The armor is heavy or tiring to wear.
If a character performs extended feats of labor or
sleeps in it, she must make a Difficulty 3 Athletics
+ Stamina roll or deal with a Fatigued Condition (p.
XX).
DISEASES/POISONS
DISEASES
M ost heroic characters don’t need to worry about catching
ordinary illnesses like the cold or flu — they live in
a world with modern over-the-counter medicines, urgent-
care centers, and hospitals, after all. Supernatural blights
and magically inflicted diseases require a Knack or Boon to
apply and are inflicted as Complications, which last until the
target character as accrued enough successes via Stamina
+ Resolve or Survival rolls to buy off the Complication or
until the character has received medical care from a trained
practitioner. Unlike other Complications, a healer’s successes
on Medicine + Intellect or Dexterity rolls may apply to buying
down a Disease Complication. Some Knacks or Boons may
grant a character the ability to remove these automatically.
POISONS
T ypically applied via an attack (such as an poisoned arrow or
blade), poisons, venoms, or toxins all inflict the Poisoned
Condition once they inflict an Injury Condition.
POISONED
Effect: This Condition lasts a number of rounds equal
to the number of successes that inflicted it (equal to the suc-
cesses over the target’s Defense). For each round it persists,
it deals damage to the target as though the Inflict Damage
Stunt had been applied to the target until the target dedi-
cates a simple action to overcoming the poison via a Resolve
or Survival + Stamina roll. Armor does nothing to resist the
Injuries that poison might cause.
Some poisons are soporifics, or may paralyze their
target, or deal any number of other unusual effects rather
than damage. Administer the poison as you would normally.
In the event that a character is poisoning another’s food
or drink, make opposed rolls: Subterfuge + Dexterity or
Manipulation vs. an applicable perception roll. Ties favor
the defender. Instead of dealing damage that persists, this
inflicts whichever kind of effect it would supply otherwise,
resolving itself as listed above.
Momentum: Every time the sufferer takes damage.
Resolution: Overcome the poison or be the recipient
of healing magic.
125
 IV
When Eileen went out to collect the empty saucer
of cream the next morning, she found a woman sit-
ting on the back step. The newcomer was diminu-
tive, bird-boned, and might have passed for human
were it not for her eyes. No whites, just yellow edge
to edge, with a feline slit for the pupil.
“Well met, daughter of the Dagda,” she said,
dabbing at the corners of her mouth with a linen
handkerchief.
“I. Uh.” Fair folk. She’s one of the fair folk. Gran had
said there was an etiquette to these sorts of inter-
actions, but damned if she’d ever touched on what
happened when one acknowledged your father the
God. “Well…met?”
The fairy woman sniffed. “You may call me Lady
Niamh.”
“Lady Niamh. I’m Eileen.” She’d never seen a
cat roll its eyes before. Now she had a good idea
how it might look. When in doubt, she �gured, go
into customer service mode. “How might I be of
assistance?”
That did it. Sort of. Lady Niamh’s mouth quirked
up into what Eileen hoped was a smile. “I’m the
one who can assist you. My silver harp was stolen
a century ago. Bring it back to me, and I will show
you how to return to your father’s library.”
Her heart leapt at the very thought of it, then
plunged right back into her shoes. She doubted this
was the sort of thing she could pull up in the card
catalogue. “Where would I even go looking for it?”
“Put on your hiking boots, daughter of the
Dagda.”
126 SCION: ORIGIN
Eileen blinked. Was some kind of fae magic about
to happen? Were her ordinary shoes about to turn
into some kind of seven-league boots, to carry her
to where the harp was hidden?
“There are fairy mounds in the Blue Hills. You
have some walking to do.”
•••
She didn’t tell Maura she was driving south of
the city, let alone that she was going there in search
of a fairy relic. Instead, she left a vaguely worded
note about having to go pick something up for a
colleague, and ed before Maura woke up.
The day was overcast and warm, decent for
hiking but not so perfect the trails were crowded.
Eileen puzzled at a map of the trails, casting about
for anything that might suggest the presence of the
fair folk. What she wouldn’t give to have Gran at
her side, offering advice.
No Gran, though. No Gran, no Dagda, no Lady
Niamh, not even Bev.
She set off at random, onto a path that led into the
forest’s canopy. It looked empty, no hikers ahead,
and rose slowly into the hills. She had no idea
whether it was fairy-like, but it had a pleasant view
and an easy slope, and soon enough she found
herself humming as she strolled. The parking lot
vanished around a curve, and the woods closed
around her.
Other hikers had left trail markers along the way.
Eileen remembered some of them from a scouting
badge she’d earned in elementary school: turn left,
turn right, gone home.
 Wait.
The “gone home” sign was usually a circle of
rocks, with a single stone in the center. She turned
around to peer at the one she’d just passed and
swore. The path had given way from concrete to
well-trodden dirt to mostly grass, some bare patch-
es suggesting a trail. It was here, in a little clearing,
where the circle lay.
The outer ring was composed of mushrooms, the
at-topped, misshapen sort that grew out this way.
Fairy ring. She knew better than to step inside it —
losing seven years to dancing with the fairies was
a common feature of Gran’s stories. Eileen skirted
around it, giving it as wide a berth as she could and
still stay on the path (wasn’t that part of the stories,
V
“Do you think,” said the man, “you are the �rst
the Tuatha has sent after me? Do you think you’re
even the tenth?” His voice was the rumble of thun-
der in the distance. “Their children, so fragile. So
pleasantly breakable. I feast on your kind, and still
they send more.”
EILEEN BRAN - PART TWO
too? Never leave the path?). She was on the right
trail.
Ten minutes further on and she heard the music.
She’d always thought of harps as elegant, ethereal,
the sort of music you heard in heaven, or what
played in your head when you spotted your idol
from afar. This was the opposite of that, like the
catgut strings were, in fact, being removed from a
still-living cat.
A copse of trees marked the path’s end, and
Eileen crept forward, peering through the thick
branches to see who might be standing on the other
side, torturing the harp.
Plunked down on a felled tree, the delicate silver
harp gripped awkwardly in his gnarled �ngers,
was the most hideous man Eileen had ever seen.
He set the harp aside and stood, taking his time
about it. He was human-shaped, but his propor-
tions were wrong: limbs too long, face too at. His
skin resembled tree bark, and the sparse hair on his
head twisted around two jutting bits of bone that
127
 might have been horns. “Come out, little morsel,
and let me decide how best to cook you.”
Shit.
Any number of desperate plans ashed through
Eileen’s head. She could run, but the man’s long
legs would easily outpace her. She could try climb-
ing a tree, but she doubted she’d make it up more
than a few branches before he yanked her down.
Screaming for help? She hadn’t seen any fellow
hikers for over an hour.
“All right,” she said, �ghting the urge to gibber
and ee. “Fine, here I am.” She pushed her way
through the branches and into the clearing. “But
what if…” she licked her lips. “What if, before you,
uh, cook me, what if I show you how to play the
harp?” Eileen had no earthly idea how to actually
play it, but plucking a few strings couldn’t be that
hard. At least, it couldn’t sound worse than what-
ever he’d been doing to it earlier.
The man eyed her distrustfully. “You’ll try to
steal it and run.”
“If I were going to run, I’d have done it already.
I’ve done the math: you’ll catch me before I’ve gone
a hundred feet. So. At least I can hear a little music
before I die. That’s a reasonable request, isn’t it?”
Eileen glanced up at the trees, and saw the crows
gathering in the branches. For a moment, she let
herself give in to the eeting hope that it was the
same ock from this morning, that Bev was nearby
and would help her escape from this poorest of life
choices.
But, no. It was only Eileen and the ugly man. And
the harp. She inched closer, holding out her hands.
“May I?”
VI
Maura wasn’t home when Eileen got back to the
apartment. She’d left a note on the kitchen table:
Went out. Don’t wait up. The spiky letters and the
way the pen had dug deep into the paper told Eileen
she was on her girlfriend’s shit list. And rightly so.
It was just as well that Maura had gone out: Lady
Niamh was waiting on the back step, and Eileen
had no idea how she’d even begin to make that
particular introduction.
“Do you have it?” asked the fairy woman.
“I do,” said Eileen, but she knew better than to
simply hand over the harp. “I dropped it off at the
library, and you can have it when you show me the
way to the one in Tír na nÓg.”
128 SCION: ORIGIN
Still wary, he relinquished the harp. It was cool
to the touch, the strings singing softly with only the
lightest movement of the air around them. Eileen
thought something made of solid silver would be
heavy in her grasp, but instead it was light and
lovely, and if she got out of this, she swore to her-
self she’d learn how to play.
She took a spot on the fallen tree and plucked a
few strings experimentally. The man settled down
on his haunches in front of her, ready to spring.
Eileen tensed as well. Soon as I start playing, he’s
going to know. But no more clever ideas came to
her, and all she could do was hope she could pick
out “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” She thought she
remembered that from grade-school music classes,
provided the harp strings matched a piano’s keys.
What owed from her �ngers wasn’t artful. It
likely only sounded like a children’s song if you
were drunk and had never heard the song in the
�rst place. But it was better than what the man
had been producing, and as Eileen plucked and
strummed and fumbled, his eyes began to droop.
Trying not to panic, too terri�ed to rejoice, she
dredged every nursery rhyme and lullaby out of
her memory that she could. She played until twi-
light fell, and at last the man pitched over onto his
side, ground-shaking snores emanating from him.
Eileen continued plucking as she slid from the
log. No attempts at melody now, just notes played
haphazardly, her �ngers shaking with fright. She
tiptoed to the tree line, ducked through the place
at which she’d come into the clearing, and ran like
hell all the way back to her car.
Lady Niamh’s mouth pursed, but she nodded.
“Well enough. I’ll see you there.” She turned on her
heel and was gone. It saved Eileen the dilemma of
whether to offer her a ride, or ask if they ought to
walk to campus together.
•••
The crows were back, perched in a long black line
on the library roof. Bev sat on the steps, watching
Eileen approach. “I knew you could do it.”
“Could’ve used a hand.”
“Eh. You had it. Besides, that’s not how it works.
I wasn’t allowed to interfere. There are rules to all
of this.”