The rest of the day came and went, and after dinner Saoirse and I were sitting by the fire in her cottage while she did her writing practice for tonight. Every part of me was aching, and my normally soft hands were now stinky and covered in blisters. Partly from the farm work, and partly from Saoirse making me help with the dishes tonight. I’m too delicate for this sort of physical labor, I wanna go back to my techno-cave!

Listening to the scratching sounds of the charcoal calmed me down. I decided to start a conversation.

“Saoirse,” I began. She turned to me. “What is Cill Rois? Is it just a town, or something bigger, like a province?”

Saoirse looked confused.

“It’s a town. This is Thomond lands.”

“Right, yeah. And Thomond is in Ireland, right?”

“Yes. In Munster.”

Munster… that didn’t mean anything to me. Though watching the sun set over the sea this evening did help me figure out that we were on the west coast of the island. I’ll admit that all I knew about Ireland at the time was that it was the first British colony, they had a big famine once, and that Dublin, the largest city on the island, is on the east coast. Oh, and they won Eurovision seven times. I wanted to learn more, so I decided to ask an expert.

“Can you tell me about Ireland? I don’t actually know much about it.”

Saoirse thought for a moment, then looked at me.

“This is a great, big land. Very… green. Lots of rain. Old, and Catholic. But much of it is ruled by them… the English.”

“What do you know about Dublin?”

She thought for another moment.

“Dublin… is a very big town, but far away from here. Made by… s-sailors, who came on big boats. Lots of trade. Center of English… pow-er in Ireland.”

“Have you ever been there?”

She stared at me like I’d just said something ridiculous.

“No. It takes many days to go there.”

Huh, maybe she wasn’t much of an expert after all. And I know Ireland is a lot smaller than what she thinks it is. I decided to switch gears a bit.

“Okay, what are the largest towns close to here?”

“Inis,” she said, now a bit more enthusiastically. “Only one day to go there. And Luimneach, two days. Da and Seán went to Luimneach once, and Bríd went to Inis after she wed. But I have never gone. I am here from birth.”

It finally sunk in that she had never left her hometown in her life. She was probably born in this very cottage, too. In my time I’m sure Ireland has highways and stuff like most other countries, but I guess I’d forgotten that that’s not a thing here. It’s probably a lot harder to travel in this time.

“Oh!” I exclaimed, suddenly remembering something. “What about Shannon?”

“The river?”

“What river? No, I mean the town. That’s nearby too, right?”

I remembered hearing about Shannon from a documentary about European airports I watched once. I knew one other thing about Ireland, yay!

Unfortunately, Saoirse seemed to have no clue what I was talking about.

“I don’t know of a town with that name,” she said, shaking her head. “This river is called Shannon, Cill Rois is on the mouth.”

“Oh.”

So either I misremembered, or Shannon the town doesn’t exist yet. But, let’s see if we can broaden my host’s mind a little. I’m sure someone as brilliant as her will be able to grasp the full scale of our world.

“Hey, watch this.”

I grabbed a piece of charcoal, and started drawing a fairly accurate map of Europe.

“What is this?” asked Saoirse, her eyes wide with a hungry curiosity.

“This is Europe,” I said. “You see those two islands to the left? The bigger one is Britain, the homeland of the English. And the smaller one… that’s Ireland.”

Saoirse stared at the map in disbelief. She stayed silent for a whole two minutes.

“But… it’s so small?”

“It is.”

“What is all of this then?”

I smirked. Time for some fun.

“Down here is Spain. Do you know Spain?”

“Yes. Their boats are here, under the sea.”

“And to the north of that… ” I moved my finger up. “... is France.”

“I know France,” said Saoirse, nodding. “Priests go there to learn.”

“In the center is Germany, but I guess you’ll know it as the Holy Roman Empire.”

“The priests speak of this as well, but not good things.”

“They do make awesome music though!” I exclaimed. Saoirse simply nodded.

“What is north of the Empire?”

“Scandinavia,” I said. “Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They make awesome music too, especially Sweden. Do you know them?”

Saoirse nodded.

“Very cold there. Many sailors… with big boats. They made Dublin, Corcaigh, and Luimneach.”

“Sailors with big boats? Do you mean Vikings?”

Saoirse didn’t seem to understand what I said. I decided to continue, and moved my finger down.

“So I know this part as Italy– which also has awesome music— but you might know it as where the Pope lives.”

“Yes, Rome.”

“And across the sea from there…” I moved my finger to the right. “... is Greece.”

“There are stories of Greece in the Bible,” said Saoirse. “But I didn’t know it was real.”

“It is, though!” I said, laughing. “Archimedes, Euclid, Zeno… a lot of great scholars came from there.”

Saoirse pointed to the center-right of the map.

“What is here?”

“That’s Poland, Czechia, Hungary, the Balkans…” I continued moving my finger through the east, but I could tell she wasn’t familiar with any of this. “... Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia…”

I stopped to look at Saoirse, who simply shook her head. I figured that was the extent of what she knew of Europe. I then decided to try and broaden her mind even further, so I drew a map of the world.

“What’s this now?” asked Saoirse. I smirked at her.

“Remember Europe? That’s up here. This is the rest of the world!”

Now Saoirse’s mind was visibly blown.

“Ireland is so small…”

I laughed.

“You asked where I was from yesterday, right?” I said. Saoirse nodded.

“India.”

“Well, here it is.”

I pointed to the subcontinent. Her eyes widened.

“But… it’s so far away. How did you come here?”

“Uh…”

I can’t tell her the truth. Not yet, anyway.

“What are these lands?” asked Saoirse, pointing to the left. I felt relieved by the distraction.

“That… is America. Do you know it?”

Saoirse nodded.

“The New World. A great, unknown land. Danger.”

I laughed again, this time while shaking my head.

“Hah… you’re not wrong!”

Saoirse glanced at me, then stared at the maps again. Watching her looking at this information that was probably not even public yet was extremely funny. I even drew New Zealand on this, humans only reached it about 300 years ago!

Wait…

“Saoirse.”

She looked up at me, a subtle look of awe in her eyes. Her bright, beautiful, blue-green eyes…

“I’m so sorry.”

I quickly snatched the maps I’d just drawn and threw them into the fire. Saoirse looked at me with horror.

“W-why…?”

I hated to do it. But it was necessary. If anyone found these maps here the paradoxes would be devastating. Saoirse was glaring at me now… she probably thinks I’m some sort of madwoman.

“Again, I’m really sorry,” I said. “Someday I will tell you why I did it. But not yet.”

Saoirse nodded her head slowly. I could tell there was a feeling of… defeat. I promised myself I’d tell her the truth soon. I don’t want her to hate me.