Picking Sides
Hope everyone had a nice Ēostre /Easter/Passover/Yummy Chocolate Festival. I am currently in a partial carbohydrate coma due to the fact that Mr. Minty makes hot cross buns for breakfast for all of us every single day from Good Friday to Easter Monday. I have one more day of it until next year. I feel like crying at the thought of waiting another year for more of the spiced sugar glaze and currant filled buns. And to add to the awesomeness, teen Son1 cooked marshmallows. For those of you who would like to, he uses this marvellous recipe. I am a lucky - and sluggish - woman. :D Oh - and even awesome women turn Eric down, so stop ragging on Sookie about it.
Okay, so I presume everyone has seen Chapter 1 out on the Gollanz book site? Thanks to terilee, za and others for telling me about it - I appreciate that so much - really. I'm going to refer to it, as I speculate. I just had a brain wave when I read it, and I'm going to meander through various thoughts of the speculative variety. I could be wrong. I didn't really publish my speculation last year, but this time it seems to be sticking in my mind, so I'm putting it out there. Please to read my uncluttering of the brains, and not to take it as gospel. Standard disclaimer. Again, I could be wrong, and so far off base it's not funny. This is also for my benefit, so I can stop obsessing, hence why I don't work through things in a methodical fashion - but whatever my brain can't let go of this week.
So one of the things I've had a post about is what Sookie is going to use the cluviel dor for. That's kind of irrelevant to this post, because the cluviel dor as it gets used by Sookie isn't material to what's going on in this particular post. But I think that anyone using the cluviel dor would be using it for future or immediate events, if they were smart.
That's really because imagine if I wished I was born a millionaire with a silver spoon in my mouth - I would change who I am personally, but I wouldn't get the rush as not-millionaire me gets right now from suddenly becoming richer than astronauts. I might, in an alternative universe, have been a problem gambler and lost all my fortune because rich me didn't think the money ended. So sensibly, I would wish the money for me now. I think most people wouldn't want to monkey with history just in case they ended up in a bad situation, and didn't know how they got there. That's no fun. But it's a good start for the speculations - gives you the background of my thoughts on it, without having to repeat myself.
Firstly, the nature of the cluviel dor. Amelia said:
There hasn't been one on the earth for hundreds of years. They're
fairy love tokens, and they take a year to make, at least.
I don't think the fae can even make them anymore.
Dead Reckoning, p. 274
The bit about the Fae not being able to make them any more sort of snagged in my head. Because how the hell would Fintan make one, being that he's half fairy, and that the Fae possibly can't make them for themselves any more? This seems to have been fandom assumption - that Fintan made it, and that's the end of that chapter. I'm not so sure that Fintan did make it. I've given gifts to my husband that I didn't make - but I doubt you can buy the cluviel dor in some little boutique tea shop (Mr. Minty is a fan of exotic teas). Every gift doesn't have to be personally made by the person who gives them - they can actually acquire them elsewhere.
I don't think Fintan was as good at the fairy magic either - no matter how much he was in love with Adele. It's not out of the realm of possibilities, but it's not likely. Niall loved Fintan sure, but he was so unexceptional with magic that he couldn't even pass for human all the time. He even got the magic wrong because he was careless with details about Mitchell's body - and I'm supposed to believe that someone who ballsed up doing these things forged a cluviel dor when no one else could? Nup. Not believing of that one. I doubt his devotion enabled him to do things above his level.
I don't even believe Fintan would have devoted a year to it. He certainly wasn't on-site granddaddy, caring for his kids no matter what. He did let Sookie's parents wash away in the river, and never stepped forward. He didn't even seem to turn up at Adele's house with any regularity, other than he thought there might be a shot at getting close to her. He didn't take over Mitchell's life and live it - he only came sometimes. Fintan seems to have been mischievious, fascinated with Adele and absolutely flighty. He wasn't reliable at all to turn up on a regular basis. Fintan is a flake. So I don't believe that he was forging a cluviel dor for Adele. I figured that he'd got it somewhere, but not where he'd gotten it. That was immaterial until now.
So now to the sorta long way round. I was looking at the spoiler, and this was one of the lines that jumped out at me:
When I’d first met Bellenos, he’d been unable to mask himself as human. Now he could.
Source
Jingle jangle of bad feelings there. Bellenos said that he "couldn't pass" in the last book. And now he can pass to a crowd with his glamour in such a short period of time? Not to mention all the other bitsers there in the scene obviously passing. They're working in the strip club every night. Where are they going to go when the club is open? They kinda have to stay and work there.
Now of course, one could argue that they're sustaining themselves through living off the adulation of the customers. It's my thoughts, as discussed before, that fairies subsist off human emotions - that's why they come here to gorge themselves:
I’d decided that Claudine fed off this admiration and attention.
Dead as a Doornail, p. 22
So Claudine was doing it - or at least that's what Sookie thought - and I'm betting that that's part of the reason that Claude chose stripping. Like Fangtasia - food that comes to you and pays money for the privilege. After all - the adulation starts after you open the doors at night. So the first fifty customers get to see the true Fae faces until their engines get revving enough to get their glamour on? That wouldn't work. The power to pass has to be coming from somewhere else.
In fact, Dermot and Claude give Sookie a little talk about how fairies make each other more fairy, the longer they spend with each other:
You only have a dash of fae blood, but the longer you're with
us, the more prominent an element it is in your nature.
Dead Reckoning, p. 95
So in spending time with fairies, they all increase their own Fae qualities - and that's what Claude has been doing. But I don't think that's enough. Why all this time to spend with Sookie if they can do that with their own fairies - there has to be a reason why they're increasing Sookie's fae element. I still think it's to draw Niall out of Fae, but that doesn't mean that they're not feeding off the human with all her emotions, and her essential spark isn't amplifying any effects that they might be getting off Sookie - and she's not going to notice because she's benefitting too.
But that's a short period of time - one week where Bellenos says he can't pass, and then all of a sudden, he can. This is a rapid upgrade of what he can and can't do with his fairy powers. Whatever is going on to cause it, it's increasing at a rate of knots. This is not just gradually amping up power over time - this is hiding wings, making Bellenos normal and cutting down the net number of eyelids in the room - a lot of stuff to hide, a lot of people to hide, and just a general atmosphere of a whole lot more magic than there has been.
I should point out too that all the way through the first chapter, all the Fae were calling Sookie "Sister", as if they were a family grouping. Now, we've heard that sort of talk before - and not from where you'd expect:
Others feel more secure in a cluster, called a nest. They call each
other brother and sister when they've been in the same
nest for a while, and some nests lasted decades.
Living Dead in Dallas, p. 85
Vampire nests are all about living together and being secure. It's possible that fairies have their own version of a nest, which is all about sharing energy with each other - Dermot and Claude keeping the link going between themselves, and Dermot still interlinked with Sookie would be enough to have her being called "Sister". This is a new development too - they weren't calling her sister before. Bellenos certainly wasn't - but then he's not too interested in being real friendly. For those of you who haven't read the Dahlia Christmas story A Very Vampire Christmas from Glamour Magazine, elves eat human flesh - so he really doesn't like to see Sookie's naked skin because it's like waving some fresh blood under a vampire's nose.
But I suspect that treating her like she's part of their grouping of living arrangements is because technically, she is. She's sharing energy with Dermot, and he's taking it right back to Claude. Every time Dermot goes and shares with any other fae, he's giving some of the energy he gets off Sookie back to everyone else. I don't think there's anything inherently bad about that, in and of itself. If Sookie is emitting energy through emotion, and by being Fae, then no harm no foul - unless she got tired, or got sick from cooking with her cast iron pan, I'd be fine with that. If it's not hurting her, I'm not the sort to begrudge them that.
Now I'm going to jump onto the next bit of scaffolding for this speculation. The next part of the puzzle - which is Niall, acting as sketchy as hell. Running upstairs and checking things without asking? This also set a jangle through my bones:
Before I could say Jack Robinson, he’d glided up the stairs. He came back
down them a couple of minutes later. I spent the time sitting there with my
mouth hanging open. Even for a fairy, this was odd behavior.
Source
It seems to me that Niall doesn't trust what Dermot and Claude have been doing. Now, it seems that whatever they're doing, he wants to check up on stuff. If you'll notice, Sookie asked an outright question of Niall and didn't get an adequate answer - or full disclosure of what Niall thinks might be going on. This is why asking outright questions doesn't always mean that people tell you the full and absolute truth. Anyone who believes that doesn't understand stuff doesn't work like that. Niall is clearly hiding his doubts from Sookie, and her asking while spilling information she already has wouldn't do anything - other than let them know to step up their game if they want to deceive her. It's actually smarter not to tell everyone what you suspect is going on unless you have a chance of working it out - because if they're lying to you, you don't want them to cotton on to the fact that you suspect they're lying to you. You want them to think you're an idiot, and get sloppy. Truth does not mean full and undiluted truth, with no other considerations.
Now, it seems as if the most logical conclusion as to what Niall is looking for is the cluviel dor. It seems a great coincidence that he goes to where it was, and the fairies were involved in shifting stuff out of her attic. I doubt Claude and Dermot knew the cluviel dor was there - otherwise, why not simply take it when they were moving the furniture? If you could detect the cluviel dor from close proximity, then Claude, Dermot and probably Sookie wouldn't have had to find the hidden panel - they would have felt the energy, and ripped apart the desk to get it. But Niall knows enough to check wherever the two fairies have been focusing their time on.
Now onto the next bit. After Breandan's death, and the deaths of his followers, one would think that portal closed equals end of hostilities. Or that's what you would think - Niall is on the winning side, and humans, while shut off for their own safety is good for them, there shouldn't be overwhelming resentment to the point of this:
"I'll take Claude with me...and Claude, if you cause any trouble with your human ways..."
Deadlocked Excerpt, p. 4 Source
So now even pure blood fairies just acting like humans causes trouble? I've still got no clue as to how one 'acts' like a human in Fae, but the point is that there's supposed to be a dearth of the anti-human side, and still there's tensions simmering under the surface. That's not quite right - it seems as if there's still some sort of issue with pure fairies acting like humans. So the fact that the portals are opened or closed isn't the only point of contention that ignited the war. Since the portal is closed, and Niall's word is law, then why exactly hasn't all of this dissent stopped.
So even though Niall has closed the portals, the humans are off limits, there's still some sort of tension there. And really there shouldn't be - if portals were the only cause of the trouble. But I did notice one thing as well:
"I am the only living prince of Faery."
Deadlocked Excerpt, p. 2 Source
Shouldn't a sole Prince - the only living prince - now be the King or something similar? But maybe if you want to move up in the world, have the sole claim of power, then you need to have the one cluviel dor that's left. Maybe you want to use it to lord over the other fairies, or maybe you just want to use it as your backup plan, should you be overthrown. It would seem like something that a fairy-in-charge would have, not that the half-human by-blow would give to a woman he's got a crush on.
And we must remember what Mr. Cataliades said about it:
By the way, on no account let the riffraff gathered at Hooligans
know you have a cluviel dor, because they'll kill you for it.
Dead Reckoning, p. 316
Mr. Cataliades says "a" cluviel dor - implying that it's not the only one. However, Mr. Cataliades probably hasn't been in the Fae world for a while (noting his Cheetos addiction and such), but Amelia thinks they're really rare. And I would refer to "a" dodo bird, even though there are none left - rather than the general state of "the" dodo bird, which is now extinct. I would refer to "the" Empire State building though - since there has only ever been one. I'm thinking that "a" cluviel dor might not be appropriate because there was never just one. But what if there's only one left? That's when things get tricksy.
Maybe - just maybe - the cluviel dor isn't just a wish token. I mean, yes, it grants wishes. Maybe this powerful and rare object is a boon of Kings - or whatever the Fairies call the sole Prince. I mean, they're not human - they're not going to have crowns. We have fairy tokens of power - things that can give you power in the world in mythology about fairies - the Salmon of Knowledge, Connla's Well, Ceridwen's Magic Cauldron - all of them owned by the leaders of the time, not by peons, or by the sometimes girlfriend of the son of the man in power. Whoever owns it - even the exiled riffraff can become powerful in the Fae world they all want into so badly.
Maybe the rarity of the cluviel dor is that the one who holds the kingship is the one who holds the cluviel dor - with the threat that if he is overthrown, then he'll wish it otherwise. When you all have magic, you can't threaten other fairies with magic, and as Eric said, they're all determined survivors. The cluviel dor is powerful, and takes a year to make - so I'd say it trumps everyone else's magic. By the same token, being the sole Prince and having a cluviel dor out there that could take that away in a heartbeat would be an unstable position. It's entirely possible that fairies in general know about its existence, and would insist that whoever was leader had to have the only cluviel dor to say he was leader. Yes, it's possible to keep power by force, but it's much better to keep power by consensus.
Niall would be a logical owner of a rare magical implement, since it seems that Rogan and he were equal Princes until Rogan died, and then Breandan started agitating. Maybe that's what makes a Prince in that world - and now Rogan is dead, Breandan is dead, and so are his followers. If Breandan had a cluviel dor, to maintain his own power base, then that would explain why he was the leader, and of course, it is now lost now that Breandan is dead. Or maybe it got used up, and with Niall without a cluviel dor for a while couldn't overrule Breandan as he would have wanted to.
So maybe the cluviel dor was Niall's, and that's where Fintan 'acquired' it. I highly doubt that Niall would have given it to Fintan to give to his human girlfriend, or even gave it to Fintan. I reckon it's been stolen, not given or bought. It seems most logical that the son he loved best was the one most able to get closest to steal it. After all, you wouldn't be showing the cluviel dor around the place - you'd hide it somewhere. And you'd show the kid you want to inherit it. Maybe Fintan as a half-fairy couldn't rule - but he could have his full Fae brother by the short and curlies if only he knew where the cluviel dor was.
To bring all those points together - the cluviel dor is rare. It's not currently in possession of someone in power, but rather, in the possession of someone who's not properly fairy, and has never been to the Fae world, and can't perform magic. Being in possession of an unused cluviel dor makes you love it, and feel good about it. It's entirely possible that it makes you impossible to resist - and that it's inadvertently feeding a woman with the essential spark, helping the fairies amp up their power in a short period of time. It's entirely possible that a fairy Prince, with a cluviel dor would be unresistable, and his side would be more powerful, so that he would never be overthrown. That would be a valuable quality for a prince to have, and Niall is going round Sookie's house as if he suspects a cluviel dor is in there. And Niall could want that cluviel dor back because he wants to lord it over all the other fairies as his fallback plan - and that it's possible it contributed to the current unrest, not just Niall favouring Sookie.
What then were Fintan's intentions for stealing or taking a cluviel dor from his father? Yes, one could argue that Fintan really wanted Adele to have it, but giving one of the only ones left to a human woman you're in love with seems to me to be overkill. Particularly since Adele didn't have anything to use it on immediately. And let's look at the circumstances of this gift:
Then he came by one more time, a few years ago. He gave me this green thing.
He said fairys give it to each other when they're in love, and Fintan
had given it to him to bring here to me if Fintan died before I did.
Dead Reckoning, p. 132
He didn't give it to Adele when she had her first child, he didn't give it to her when they were together - he left it to her in his will, basically. This is not indicative that it was a gift given by a lover for a lover's purpose. If it was a lover's gift, why make a cluviel dor, or acquire a cluviel dor, and then not promptly hand it over to the one you love? I haven't got a stash of Christmas presents to be presented to Mr. Minty upon my death. It doesn't make any sense that Fintan would just finish making or finding a cluviel dor and then accidentally get killed before he could give it to Adele, but not before he could tell Mr. Cataliades to hand it over.
It should also be noted that Mr. Cataliades and Fintan are best friends - they're as thick as thieves. Similarly, they both seemed to have appreciated the human world far more than the Fae one. Mr. Cataliades is so established he has a law office, and half-demon interns, and opted to stay this side of the Portals when they closed. It seems he considers himself not part of the "riffraff" - so I'd say that he's still welcome home, while they are not. After all, he's still in contact with his family:
"Mr. Cataliades is her uncle," I said. "Glad's uncle, too?"
"Oh yes. Cataliades is mostly demon, but his half brother Nergal is a full demon."
Definitely Dead, p. 142
It's obvious, if he had his nieces come work for him as runners, that Mr. Cataliades is still in favour with his family. It seems though that Fintan and Desmond were real friends - after all, I doubt Mr. Cataliades hands out his blood to anyone who asks. Just like Fintan used the blood, he'd get his friend to deliver the one last gift, do one last job for him.
Not only do I think Fintan is not capable of making it - through magic ability or concentration, but Sookie herself points out that Adele didn't use it to save herself - never even thought of it. So why didn't she remember it, or use it to save herself? Don't bother to say the word "retcon" in your most contemptuous voice. If you hated retcon so damn much, you should have stopped reading in Definitely Dead when Bill was revealed as having ulterior motives, or back in Living Dead in Dallas when Eric became relevant to anything rather than as a bit part of "scary vampire boss". Seeing as Sookie points out in the text that Adele didn't think about the fairy stuff, CH is aware of this inconsistency:
That simply didn't jibe with her character, and I couldn't understand why I
hadn't read it in her brain during all the years that we'd lived together.
She must have thought about the circumstances of her children's
conceptions from time to time. There was just no way she could've
packed those events away for good in some attic in her mind.
Dead and Gone, p. 19
Now we know that Sookie has had an encounter with a fairy that's magically erased from her head too - Preston in Gift Wrap. One that is actually packed up - not by Sookie, but by fairy magic. Sookie can't remember it, so it's not available for another telepath to read. That is therefore easily explained with Adele being bespelled to forget about her encounters with Fintan. I think this is what happened - that Adele was bespelled to forget Fintan, which explains why Adele sings little songs about fairies at the bottom of the garden.
My money is on Mr. Cataliades being the culprit with that. If he did give Adele an invaluable token of power to hide in her house, then he wouldn't want her to remember all this, so that she'd tell the first stranger who asked innocent questions. For her own safety, and so that the cluviel dor could stay hidden. I'm thinking that not only did he wipe memories of the cluviel dor, but he wiped the memories of Fintan's love affair with Adele. That's why she never thinks of it - it was erased, like Sookie's memories of Preston. It's not because he's secretly a bad guy - it's because it's safer if Adele remembers nothing, so she doesn't accidentally tell anyone and call down the wrath of beings like Neave and Lochlan trying to find it out.
If you're going to erase a love affair, then maybe you want to include things like say "I have possession of the only cluviel dor of the royal Brigant family" too - for nothing more than Adele's own safety (at least). After all - the riffraff in Hooligans weren't born yesterday - the odds are they would have been around when Sookie was a kid. I suspect what happened is that Fintan gave it to Adele not just because he loved her, but to use her to hide the cluviel dor from his father. He used his best friend to ensure that after all that, his children would have his rightful inheritance, or just to plain old fuck over his father, who condemned him to this half-in, half-out existence.
But whoa, you say - that doesn't make any sense. But it does if you consider Fintan's seeming change of heart - the one from where he went from being happy to make two children who weren't full fairies, to the one where he was sad to make two such children. Something happened to Fintan to change his mind - and that's where all of this started. I've spoken before about how Fintan seemed to change his mind over time over what was fine and what was not. It's not inconceivable - after all - Murry changed sides too, and it seems that some big event (that we may never hear about) happened that changed thinking. That's where I think the cluviel dor came in, and Fintan's decision to hide it from his father and will it to his descendants.
I also think that one cannot look at fairies and assume, like vampires and their makers that it is a simplistic relationship. One of the other things I notice about fairies is how they follow Niall's word without any thought. There's no rebellion - you do as you're told. You don't notice Claude standing up to Niall right - even if he's being badly treated. And Claudine, pregnant, doesn't get to opt out of the fight just because she asks nicely. And I think this really says a lot about the relationship of Niall to his fairy children compared to Sookie:
"So what do you call him? Granddaddy? Popsy?
"I call him 'my lord'."
"Oh."
From Dead to Worse, p. 138
That's not what Sookie calls him - and he hasn't put any requirement on Sookie to do as she's told. Sure - he expects to be respected, but Niall has differential standards for his grandchildren - to the point that his grandchildren know it:
"Niall preferred his half-human sons."
Claude and Claudine didn't seem to blame Niall's partiality on me, to my huge relief.
Dead and Gone, p. 144
I think Niall has created a bit of an issue in his family if even his grandchildren know to expect differential treatment. And there's nothing worse than having your family go against you when it comes to if they're going to sneakily screw you over. I think that the dissent Niall caused with his children and grandchildren - well, all kids grow up and finally figure out that the real enemy is Dad, who loved them differently and created all this discord. Claude and Claudine know that and don't hold it against Sookie for being the favourite - but they may resent it with Niall - and they've only had 100 years of not being good enough.
Then there's all the questions Niall was asking about whether Sookie was having sex with Claude. Now - combined with the energy/emotion sharing, this could be why Niall was asking. But I'm thinking that part of what works in the supernatural world is what always works in the human world - you want to use someone, you make out like you care, and you treat them nice. Essentially, you manipulate them. We have seen this strategy before, after all:
"She ordered me to return to my human home, to put myself
in your way, to seduce you if I had to..."
Definitely Dead, p. 184
Sophie Anne didn't let Christian morality stand in her way, and I doubt very much that any fairy would let that stand in their way either. Remember - when you're not Christian, not influenced by Christian morality enshrined in many Western cultures, then you don't have the strictures one would suspect. And manipulation worked for Eric, right, until he fell into his own trap. If you want to see how I think Eric fell into his trap, that's lost in the deep dark recesses of I wrote a fanfic about it - I explain in chapter 2 how that all went down. It's my thought that Eric never actually intended to feel anything genuine for Sookie (as explained by his infamous "I don't like feelings" bullshit) but found himself a victim of the "Mirror Effect" - a trap for manipulators. I believe he loves her, as he says he does - but I don't think he came at it the way that standard people fall in love - like John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons rather than every other rom-com that existed.
It's entirely possible that other fairies suspect - like Niall does - that the cluviel dor is in Sookie's possession. But whoever garners her love could hope to retrieve it. So Claude is trying to manipulate Sookie into doing what he wants. It's a common thing - and hence why you have guys that act nice, because they know girls will sleep with them then, and then they can get what they want. Even if Claude isn't doing this for those reasons - I'm betting that that's what Niall suspects and fears. And thus, he wants to keep Claude close to his side, in the Fae world, to halt those plans.
But as I discussed before, there's another fairy who might have more than a chip on his shoulder - Dillon. Dillon may suspect that the beloved son who would never be king has taken off with the cluviel dor. It's possible that Dillon told Murry who told Claude that Niall cursed Dermot. As CH pointed out on her site (she's changed her username to "Maker" by the way) just because Claude says that Murry told him something, that doesn't mean it is the whole, entire, undiluted truth. It's possible that all of this discord comes from Dillon - and that includes ordering his son to get the cluviel dor back by fair means or foul.
I can see someone following his father around and resenting it - Sookie's not exactly on board with the unmitigated Niall love, so I can't think that Dillon is just dandy about it. It's worth considering too that despite his love for Niall, Claude decided to stay in the human world. It seems as if Niall rules with an iron fist - and he's not too respectful of Dillon either:
"You don't have the gloves on," Niall said to his son
chidingly, and took the trowel from me.
Dillon looked chastened. "No, sorry, Father."
Niall shook his head as if he were disappointed in
Dillon, but his attention was really on the trowel.
Dead and Gone, p. 154
That's not the same sort of love he shows Sookie. I can see that Niall could easily build up resentment - and a family member who wants to betray him, and fuck him over by making sure that he can't get power. Dillon only has to wait to find the cluviel dor, destabilise his father, and he can assume the throne. I doubt Dillon has a human friendly policy, since he comes so seldom to the human world that he forgets to wear the gloves.
Dillon has been soundly rejected in favour of his half-human (even dab of fairy human) relatives, which gives him extra motive. Not only that, but Niall has been around for 900 years give or take - Claude is just over 100 years, and Dermot is 700 or so. Dillon has been prince-in-waiting for an old man who doesn't love him, doesn't respect him and won't fucking die. I'd say that Dillon is probably about 500 years old - which is a long time to feel the burn about how lacklustre you are compared to the wonderful part humans.
Now, Claude may merely be looking out for his father's interests - Dillon says to get close to Sookie, what, Claude is going to have moral objections? Claude? I don't think so. He'd do it, just because it was mischievous, fun and he likes sex. And I doubt that Dillon will do anything much to stymie his own son, who is not power hungry. It's possible that Claude is more active in his father's agenda, but Claude has always been stunningly self-involved, so the odds aren't looking good for that.
While Claude's personal agenda might be to just get the Portals opened again, he can kill two birds with one stone by going along with Dillon's plan. A loyal Sookie will do what she's told - ask for the Portals to be opened, give over the cluviel dor - so it works for both motivations. I'd say that Niall suspects that something is going on - and all is not well in the fairy royal family. It seems that Fintan broke with his father either of his own accord, or prompted by someone else - and that someone else saw a vulnerability to exploit. Hence why it's important to track down the rumours about who told Claude that Niall cursed Dermot. Sookie's loyalty is crucial in which side will prevail - at least as far as the fairies are concerned.
So, that's where my speculations take me. The cluviel dor is more than just a device for wishing - it extrapolates out to power, due to its rarity. The cluviel dor is wanted by more than the riffraff at Hooligan's, and I think this plot to rob Niall of power was born a while ago. And the person who hatched the plot is all about moving behind the scenes and getting others to help them out. The cluviel dor is just too difficult to make, and too valuable to believe that someone thought it was a good idea to give a very rare, magical ornament to some fairy so he could give it to his girlfriend and she could hide it in a desk somewhere with no clear plan on what to do with it; and then seems to promptly forget about it all together.
My money is on Dillon. He has motive and opportunity, and I'm sure he's not against setting up Fintan, Dermot and recruiting Claude. He's also the only fairy left alive in the Fae world who would actually care about this stuff. In fact, Dillon may just have ordered Claude to build up his own faction - and use those powered up half-breeds to create a loyal army for his side. He might resent them, but if he used and abused Dermot and Fintan, I'm sure he's not against using and abusing them too. With such a small fairy population, it'd do some good to have half-fairy children to fight on your side - all the better if you can seduce Niall's favoured grandchild to pitch in and help, and also deliver the cluviel dor. That'd stick it to him for not loving you well enough.
If something like this does turn up, we'll only see a glimmering of it - as in Sookie will get incomplete knowledge and we'll have to work it out ourselves. And I'd say that if that's the case, this will be why she uses the cluviel dor - just to stop the bickering. Out of need, and also because in this sort of situation, it's damn hard to decide which side to give the cluviel dor to - high handed fairy Great Grandfather who makes policy decisions on emotional grounds, or embittered rightful heir who's been shat on one too many times by Daddy Dearest yet seeks to use and hurt people to gain power. Even if that's not part of the reason - once it's gone, there's nothing to fight over.
And that would also stop the fairies hovering around waiting for her to show the cluviel dor to them and grant them power. Once that is used up, there's no more reason to bother her and sniff around for the thing that could tip the political balance in either fairy's favour. Until that time, it could be contributing to making the fae more powerful, and more able to oppose Niall. And of course, Sookie is known for throwing a spanner into the grand political works of others just by seeing the third option no one else sees, or reacting against expectation. She's the one who, as Eric says "is good at thinking outside the box" - and using the cluviel dor up will solve this problem without Sookie choosing any side but her own (Yay!).
To reiterate - I may be completely and utterly wrong. But it seems like the cluviel dor was given to a nobody, when it's clearly a highly desirable object, not seemingly made by Fintan, who left it to Adele in his will. This scenario would explain why Adele forgot her fairy encounters, and why she has such a valuable object. Sadly, it would also explain all the fairy family concern. Sookie's the key to getting power. Unfortunately, this is not her first showing at the betrayal and using rodeo, but at least this time it isn't all about having a valuable telepath.
Hopefully she'll wish for something nice, something she wants, for all the trouble. Rather than getting used and picking a side, wanting to do what's best for others, I'm hoping that if any shade of this is true, she ends up doing what's best for Sookie, and being selfish for once. Maybe in that case, assorted supernaturals will stop trying just in case it doesn't go well for them. Here's to Sookie picking her own side.