The Abyssal Valley
Arc Three of Part One

This arc focuses on Morrighan’s adventure in the territory of Connacht, the Land of Valleys. Like the title, this arc focuses on the depths of Morrighan (and in a subplot, Cliona) as she is pushed into increasingly testing trials and tribulations. She is forced to increase her resolve and become stronger if she doesn’t want to fall of into her own abyss of self-doubt and despair, and battles with this throughout the arc. The stakes are raised, and she’ll have to put much more on the line.

Chapter 8: Vice and Virtue
While it starts as what appears to be a buddy comedy romp with Yseult, this chapter quickly takes a sharp turn into harsh realities, as Morrighan is exposed to the greater evils of man en masse. In addition, she kills another human for the first time, and having a code so sternly set in not taking the lives of her own, its starts a light mental breakdown she has to sort through.

Morrighan wakes up in stocks next to Yseult, having been somehow easily apprehended by the Inquisitors from wherever the Branches left her. Yseult brags of how she was clearly caught after a long pursuit but how Morrighan was found unconscious outside a bar reeking of dogs and shame. Cue escape shenanigans and Morrighan punching Yseult straight across her face the minute she's out of bondage. The city of Breun, the world’s cesspool of crime and debauchery is a nearby trek and they escape there. Morrighan learns of how depraved humans can be firsthand, as her somewhat sheltered life beforehand never did. At the end Morrighan is put in the position of questioning her morality and code, and kills another human for the first time after witnessing a group of men in the midst of a murder.

Chapter 9: Heresy
This A/B chapter digs into the psyche of both Morrighan and Cliona, who are two different people set in their own ways, and what happens to them when pushed to their limits. Morrighan tries to keep herself together in her side of the story, as the lives of the man she killed in Ch.8, the guardsman she got killed in Ch.7 and the countless lives she never saved, she’s under great duress. Same with Cliona in her plot, as she’s excommunicated from the only life she’s ever had, with no one but Morrighan to turn to for help now.

Iollan’s prying investigation brands Cliona a heretic and threatens to brand Marcus as both have been withholding information about Morrighan from him. Marcus assists Cliona in fleeing Cobh and sends her to where his intelligence indicates Morrighan should be heading. Less because he thinks Morrighan can help her, more because he doesn't know if he can trust the Guard because by all accounts nobody should've known he was holding out info. Meanwhile, Morrighan traverses the Athlone Wastes, a desert plain left over from a ravaging wind god. Unprepared for the heat, and still reeling from her murder in the last chapter, she begins to severely hallucinate about her role in the world, if what she’s doing is even helping anyone and can’t stop seeing the faces of images of those she couldn’t save.

Chapter 10: Slaughter
The flashback and the conversation make for a more informative chapter than most, bt not without it’s own sense of progression or arc. It focuses on Morrighan’s M.O. and why she does what she does, from the inciting incident of her mother’s death, to the ensuing journey she’s taking to fulfill the promise she made to herself years ago.

Morrighan gets stabbed and left for dead by Donn, the God of Slaughter, who kills a hunting party and Morrighan’s horse. While dying, Morrighan deliriously remembers her childhood, revealing one of the faces from Heresy to be her mother. She remembers her death as she died bleeding out in the cold, as Morrighan made her vow to never let this happen to anyone she could save. Cichol saves her, though only after contemplating if it might be a better deed to let her die. They have a conversation about the nature of a hero, their roles in the world at large, and what will become of the ongoing conflict with the Tuatha. Morrighan is taken to a nearby town and has her wounds treated.

Chapter 11: Radala
[Needs a new plot]
A few days after waking up from the events of “Slaughter”, Morrighan helps the two children of the woman who looked over her deal with a puca that seems to have run amok. It turns out there are two creatures that have been fighting each other for a while in the town, a puca and a shapeshifting hobgoblin, the latter is the creature actually causing trouble for the people of the Connacht . Morrighan forges a connection with the puca and names her Radala, and after taking out the shapeshifter, Radala becomes her steed.

Chapter 12: Vanity of Auberon
This is the culmination of all of the hardship Morrighan has endured for the last four chapters, all leading up to this. Here she’s a much more resolute person, she takes much less shit and navigates between the world of fairies and man with the same air of authority. Auberon, a snarky and conceited Fairfolk prince, combats that sense of authority, trying to exert power over her and keep her down. This struggle is what drives the chapter, and eventually gives Auberon his fascination with Morrighan.

On the front of a skirmish between The King of Plains’ forces and a relentless fairfolk brigade, Morrighan has to traverse the forest and deal with Auberon, a fairy prince and infamous warmongering asshole, who has been fighting with the King for weeks. Auberon however, will not let her pass and tests her, seeing if she’s as formidable as they say/is a spy for the King of Plains. Morrighan is a solid fighter, and this is very amusing for Auberon because he thought that this task would've been boring. This leads to it ending up that Auberon was merely toying with Morrighan out of fascination and amusement, he already knew she wasn’t a spy, and asks discovers to retrieve information planted by the King from her bags. Morrighan laments that this entire incident just wasted her time.