The Balancing of Honor

What is to be said of highland honor?
This is the story of its ironbound demands.
Of how two lives were brought together
Not by chance’s unintentional deed,
But only by fate’s sadistic humor.

His ire too easily roused by sociable jest,
Filan, foster son of The Laird,
Killed his most-loved Campbell brother.
In the highland way, he gave honorable challenge
And Diarmid fell, hurt by it’s unnecessity.

Away in Rome, not all that many years before,
Diarmid’s birth-brother fled his monastery.
Escaping hypocrisy, he preferred the feel of a sword,
And stepped into adulthood as a mercenary.
On Germany’s soil, McCullouch felt his twin’s death.

In a suicidal gesture to rebalance the scales of honor,
Filan set out for Loch Awe from the borders.
Against advice, he took a kinsman and his new love.
He sought his highland family’s hall out of spite,
Not believing they would harm one they had raised.

In the highlands, fate’s hand was at work.
On that day a ship arrived in Inverary harbor.
McCullouch stalked ashore and assessed his territory.
Everything stopped and silence fell on every person.
His sword was singing in its scabbard.

By fate’s decree they met at the same Inn
Where the horrible deed had been done.
Behind a mask McCullouch gave claim to Filan’s life,
Taking wicked glee at the mystery created.
For to Filan, Diarmid had returned from the dead.

First came his kinsman’s head, still spewing warm blood.
Time and again, McCullouch’s sword tore his flesh,
Until Filan abandoned his mangled shell, and fell before him.
Stunned, his woman valiantly sought to avenge,
And only by Campbell mercy did she see the sunrise.

What is to be said of highland honor?
Diarmid gave his life in the name of it.
Filan sacrificed himself righting it.
“An eye for an eye,” seethed McCullouch,
Murdering once again in the demand of honor.

Cynthia Philippi
Story ideas and characters based on the work of Richard Brown