I woke up in total darkness. A constant sound of water dripping onto rocks told me that I was probably in a cave. When I realized that the net around me had disappeared, I reached for the wand in my pocket. The movement reminded me with a pain like thousand burning knifes that my arm was broken. I used my left arm instead to grab it. "Lumos". Still lying on the ground, unable to move, I looked around me. My first thought had been correct. Above me were stalactites hanging from a white rocky ceiling. The cave seemed to be so huge that I was unable to see the walls with my wand. "You should probably tend to your injuries first", came a high whisper from the distant darkness. I was startled. "Who are you? What are you?", I whispered back. I got no answer. I conjured a ball of light, illuminating the whole cave. There was nothing in there except for me. Finally I decided that the mysterious talking darkness was probably right. Every movement was followed by extreme pain, but in the end I managed to repair all my broken bones with the "Sanaos"-spell, indeed a very difficult piece of magical work, even more when you are in agony. After the last bone snapped back into place, I whispered "Ignis fatuus", bathing the cave in light again. I got up to search the place, but as soon as I had straightened up a bit, a voice came from a distant corner.

"Are you looking for me? You better rest a bit before you move." I spun my head to the source of the voice. In the corner, a rock formation started to shiver and got up, turning into a small humanlike figure, covered up completely in a veil the color of the rocks. Without making a sound it floated towards me. "You were greatly hurt", it whispered, so close to me now that I could hear it breathing. "What... who are you?", I whispered back, raising my hand to touch it, to unveil its face. The figure fled back to the corner instantly. "I think they call me bean chaointe here. But in reality I am no one. Bound to this earth even though it is not my home. I must stay until here is no one left to hold me here. But the time will never come", it breathed, floating above the ground. "Who holds you here?", I asked, standing up now, very slowly. "My family. I am here to guide them to another place". Angrily I wondered why magical creatures always had to talk in riddles. "Do you know anything about the strange things happening here in this town?", I asked, walking slowly towards the veiled figure.

"I do. But I am not here to tell. I can only tell you, you are in danger. You have come to the wrong house."

"Why the wrong house? What is it about the O'Neills that made this man so obsessed? What kind of secret can Dáiríne have that causes so much trouble?"

"This place is filled with legend and myth. Some of them are true, some of them are false. And some of them still succeed in making people obsess ove"I could have guessed. What do you know about the young man who disappeared, O'Neill?"

"I have stopped crying for him", came a last whisper, and with what seemed like a gentle breeze, the figure disappeared.

I waited for at least another hour for the creature to reappear, searching all the places in the cave, but there was nothing to find except for small bones that must have belonged to birds or other animals that had ended up here. I realized that the cave had to be much bigger than what I could see here, because there were many little side tunnels that had obviously collapsed some time ago. None of them were passable anymore. Disappointed, I began to crawl towards the entry of the cave, a rather small hole in the middle of the forest, hidden by coppice and stones. Just as I had pulled my legs through the opening, embracing the sunshine after hours of damp darkness, I could have sworn I heard a whisper behind me, "You will see me again". My head swirling with thoughts and a rest of dizziness, I tried to burn the picture of the entrance into my memory, so that I might find it again. However even after the first few steps I took down the hill, I realized that it made no sense. I would never find this place again.

While walking down the hill through the forest, just hoping it was the right way, I thought about everything that had happened. Obviously everything that had happened here had something to do with Dáiríne. And apparently it was somehow connected to some old legends. I decided to ask Dáiríne when I came back to the inn. I also wanted to reread all the old myths that revolted around this area, even though I knew that this would probably not bring me any closer the solution of the riddle. And just when I had reached the river, all lost in thoughts, I nearly stumbled and fell into the water. Suddenly something had become very clear to me. "I stopped crying for him", the figure had said. Wasn't there an old mystical figure in Ireland that would cry for people just before they died? And wasn't it said that they would howl in front of the dying person's house? And, I thought as I waded through the water, weren't they sometimes sighted sitting next to rivers? The pieces fell together like a jigsaw in my head. An omen of death, just like the grim or the raven or a black cat, connected to one family over generations. It was not the reason for death, but a sign. It was a banshee.

So Shane is dead, I thought, walking back the path to the town. Dáiríne must have known about the banshee. It was the day she stopped wailing that Dáiríne declared him dead. And he was probably killed by the man who attacked me today. Or was it yesterday? How long was I gone for?, I wondered as I looked at the sun. It was morning. I must have been in the cave for at least one night. I hope Dáiríne isn't too worried. I just couldn't stop wondering what her secret was. After all, I thought, I was more confused now than I had been before.