Bernie’s Mum and Da were peasants who lived at the mercy of a lord or a chief. In Scotland, the clans were ruled by chieftains and they gave prestige and livelihood to the people who may or may not have been related to them. Laird (lord) and Chief are interchangeable. I used the word laird in the book. I made up the name McTigue, there is no tartan under that name as far as I know (actually, tartans weren’t worn yet). Bernie’s parents would have worked for the chief in exchange for a small bit of land, their croft. I don’t know what Bernie’s da did, he was already gone when we meet Bernie. Her mum would have perhaps supplied herbs and helped with gatherings; cooking, watching the kids, and clean up at the laird’s mansion.

It’s not unbelievable that a wanderer from the Ming dynasty in China just happens to show up. People were moving around quite a bit in those days. Of course, he was summoned by the Slig Maith Queen. The martial art that he teaches Bernie is called Bagua, and is used for fighting as well as for meditation. It is almost magical how it uses the elements; earth, wind, fire, water, plus thunder, mountain, lake and heaven. The form is very physical and not easily mastered. You can find teachers on line. But I suggest checking out energyarts.com first. Bruce Franzis is a taoist educator and master at several forms of martial arts. I’m not sure what he would say about my use of the smallest particle as the basis for Bernie’s magic. But who knows? Maybe that is the magic of the future? As well as the past…