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 Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:04 pm
The young woman looked at the stone and reached out to take it from Iyes, no Saangrigor? That was what he had called her. She held it in the palm of her hand for a moment and stared at it. It certainly wasn't just a lump of rock, it felt ... alive. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but there was definitely something about it, like a niggle in the back of her head, a voice, though it was an indecipherable whisper.
"But, what could I possibly have that a goddess wouldn't?" She asked. "How can I be worthy?" As if the whole situation was not strange enough, hoe could she play host to a goddess.
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:16 pm
"That you feel worthy or not of such a thing is, to be honest, irrelevant. You are the one who matches her perfectly and the one she not only wants, but needs. There is something, deep down in your soul, that she lacked. Something that eventually caused her to fade away."
Honestly, he really, really was not the best person for this kind of thing, though he was at least trying. More than anything, he wanted to know the one within this stone, and what he had forgotten about her. Even now, no name, face, or even the sound of her voice came forward to be recognized.
The female Underworld was an enigma to him. An enigma... And perhaps even a glimpse of hope. Perhaps she could help him, take back what had been his brother's job and what he now had little choice but to carry to the best of his ability.
Maybe.
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:28 pm
Alva closed her hand around the stone and looked up at the god for a moment. So fate then? She thought, and really if this was reality what better honour was there than to sacrifice yourself in the name of the goddess. It was better than the endless riding, starvation and being at the beck and call of her brothers.
"What do I do?" She asked, did she have to literally sacrifice herself? Was there some sort of ceremony?"
"You die." Saan replied bluntly. "You take the stone into yourself, it becomes you and you become it and your life force aids the rebirth of the goddess until eventually you are no more."
Alva breathed in deeply and glanced back to the barn again.
"I should tell them."
"I wouldn't, no point really. It would be better to leave and not look back" A slightly cruel grin crossed the Valkyrie's lips. "When dealing with the Underworld a mortal should never look back."
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:49 pm
"Yes, it is perhaps best to simply vanish." Cruel, perhaps, but the others would simply believe them dead. Better than to watch a slow downward spiral... perhaps.
He remembered what had happened in between his host and his lover.
"There is a better place for you, once you accept the stone. The place where the gods gather."
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 4:06 pm
Alva smiled a little and nodded as if convincing herself that this was the right way. If what they said was true, then it was the only way. They had not told her particularly how she should accept the stone, though it seemed to be telling her itself. She looked down at herself, she was wrapped up from head to toe in warm clothing. She reached under her thick cloak and unlaced her shirt a little under it, she then placed the stone over her heart and held it there, feeling a little stupid.
Nothing happened for a moment, then she felt the most excruciating pain, her skin began to burn but with cold, not heat. She did not cry out, though she wished to very much, she was a Hrith, Hrith were strong, cold, they did not cry. Alva instead, gritted her teeth and closed her eyes tightly, her knees feeling like jelly. She collapsed into a heap on the snow breathing deeply as she waited for the pain to subside.
Slowly, she rmoved her hand, the stone did not come away with it. It was part of her now.
Finally
The word appeared to be inside her head, she could feel the force within it, the mana as some might call it. She looked to the god and the Valkyrie as the voice, rough and barely a whisper rasped a name.
"Valyrmora, that is her name." Alva said softly, trying to compose herself. "Kvaen af Valr."
Saangrigor knelt on the snow and offered help to the girl, aiding her to stand slowly.
"You are doing a good thing Alva." She said in a rare moment of encouragement. She wanted to see Valyrmora reborn. "The Pantheon, which way is it?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 6:55 pm
Ankou had moved to help the woman once she collapsed, but the valkyrie was quicker. Perhaps better that way, honestly.
"Valyrmora..." No, the name did not seem to ring any bells, at least not at first glance. A voice, though... A female voice, tied to that name. He remembered her voice, but not what she looked like.
How confusing.
"It is not on this world, but getting there will be simple enough." Sanngrigor would have weathered a soul path quite easily, but it probably would not be the case for a newly implanted host, so he would not risk his... did that make her his sister... ?
"It would be better to leave before anyone sees us, however." Once they found some empty ruins he could simply hop back and go open a door for them.
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Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 2:45 am
Alva steadied herself using the Valkyrie's arm. Her head was spinning a little and of course her chest ached where the stone had burried itself. She did feel different, as though she was not alone, though the goddess had said nothing else, no doubt she too was tired, fuzzy after spending so long lying dormant.
There was another world? Though that stood to reason, why would gods live on this forsaken plain? She tested her own balance, though she felt weak, not a typical feeling she was used to, the sick and the weak did not last long in her clan.
"Let's move." Sanngrigor replied, it was easy for her to wear her old name as she had no real one that she could remember, just the name given to her by the Hrith, the mocking Iyes.
Alva nodded and began to walk with her.
"Where are we going? How do we get to this world?" She asked as they began the trudge through the fresh snow. It still felt surreal, to be charged with aiding the rebirth of a goddess, to be leaving all she had known. Her family would worry, they would search for her, she imagined they would assume that Iyes had kidnapped her or something and taken her back to the icy lands of the north. She would miss them of course, though really there was not much love lost between them all. They looked after their own but she could hardly describe her mother as nurturing or her father as caring. In the wilds of the borderlands it paid to be hard and uncaring. This new life would be an adventure, a new world, a world of gods. She would die in the end, yes, but giving your life for the life of a goddess, there was nothing that could be more important than that.
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Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 11:28 am
Ankou would lead the way though the slowly plains, and if the two ladies looked down, they would realize something - the Spirit Guide did walk, but he left no footprints in the snow at all. Had it not been for this chance encounter, they would have never known the god had been there at all.
"There are gateways that can be opened in between worlds, though I must do so from elsewhere." He had little need for such things normally, as he mostly traveled alone, or with the valkyries in effort to get them used to the soul paths once more.
A few minutes would have him find ruins that would be suitable enough. "You two just wait here. It will not be long."
And then he vanished, as if he had never been there at all.
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Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 12:41 pm
Alva noted the lack of footprints that the deity left in the snow. The only trail would be that of herself and Iyes, her clan would follow them if they could when they woke only to have the disappear to nothing. They would become folklaw. She stopped by the walls of the ruins and watched the god as he vanished to nothing. For all she knew this could be some trick, lured off by the North woman and this man, but a mortal could not vanish into nothing, no living being could.
“He will return as he said.” Sanngrigor replied, keeping her eyes and ears peeled.
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Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 1:11 pm
It barely took a minute, to be honest. One of the open doorframes started to glow lightly, just barely visible among the paleness of the snow, but the god's reappearance would be tell-tale. "Over here."
He would let the two go though first, and then bring up the rear to be able to close the door smoothly after them.
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