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 Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 2:52 pm
Anubis had felt the warm weather arriving for weeks now, and it had finally arrived. Gone were the cold nights when he could wander the snowy streets and find young prophets struggling with the chill. Thinking of winter made him think of Abbot, and how much Abbot loved Christmastime. Not the holiday itself, no, simply the irony.
Anubis's back spasmed momentarily as he walked the streets in the warm twilight. Abbot was dead, killed by Blacksuits. There was no reason for it. Abbot hadn't known anything about the game, nothing important, nothing more than anyone else knew. But for Anubis, it had been a particularly strange experience. Though he had given up his player status and most of his powers to his son, Abbot was still considered a pawn by whatever powers governed the game, and the night of his death, Anubis had encountered the man on his way to the lands beyond. It was his duty as a referee. He had to call the outs.
"I screwed up, huh?" laughed Abbot, seeing the Jackal god. He cut a gruesome visage. Half of his head was shattered.
"Three strikes, you're out," said Anubis sadly, going through the motions of weighing the man's heart. It balanced. A life of great consequence, if not a good one. "Well, everything checks out."
"What's that mean?" asked Abbot, staring at the balanced heart.
"You're free to go," said Anubis, motioning into the foggy dark ahead of him. He handed Abbot his heart back. The man began to walk. Anubis would miss him.
But tonight Anubis was on a mission. He hadn't even finished drying his tears when a trio of goddesses had appeared before him and demanded he deliver, of all things, a white feather to their prophet. They looked Scandinavian. Anubis had never met them before, but he knew them to be the Norns.
His quest had brought him to the Harbor. This time of year it was almost a nice place to be. The Norns said the girl's name was Svana, and she looked pretty normal. Following that, then, Anubis was intently sniffing auras, but there weren't many kids out this time of night anyway. Not after the recent weirdness.
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 10:59 pm
Summer, such as it was, was on its way.
That was a good thing, as far as Svana was concerned, though for different reasons than most of the kids she knew. For one thing, there would be far less rain... which meant far fewer puddles she could accidentally look at. Far fewer little windows into the disturbing.
The girl was perched on the slightly slanted corrugated tin roof outside her own second-story bedroom window. Her mother had thought the building material 'added character'. It made the whole house boom like a drum when it rained. Svana appreciated the warning.
Now, she sat on the edge and kicked her feet back and forth, thinking of absolutely nothing. "Ikivana tinsa mytlek tun, suriyana tinpa su~" she sung, off-key, to herself. She'd never met anyone who knew what the words meant. Her mother swore that the little ditty was an ancient spell of good fortune, but her mother said similar stupidities about a lot of things.
Still, it was catchy. And comfortable.
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 4:21 pm
A strain of song floated by on the breeze. Anubis's oversized ears pricked up. The words were nonsense to him, or at least not a language he recognized. (And Anubis knew a lot of languages.)
Something about the song intrigued the god, though, and so he turned down a street of brightly-painted houses. The singing grew louder, and Anubis began to sense the aura of a nearby player. He paused by one house, where the singing was loudest, and looked up. A pair of legs dangled off the edge.
"Good morning!" called Anubis. "Would you happen to know a Svana?"
Either this was the girl, or she was nearby. The aura was unmistakably close.
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 7:39 pm
Svana jumped, then quickly pulled her legs up out of reach, hugging them to her chest. Just in case. Should she answer? There were some people in the harbor area that she'd really rather didn't know her name.
For a moment, she just stayed quiet, holding her breath - but then, and she couldn't quite say why, she opened her mouth to reply. "That's me... what d'you want?" She peered down at him dubiously, from what she thought was a safe distance. He couldn't grab her from there, if he was one of those... at least not without giving her several seconds on which to scream and pound very hard on the tin roof. Svana had several protective and well-built brothers, after all. What good were they if not for situations like that?
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 8:03 pm
Anubis sighed and held up the white feather like a peace offering. Taking the human form of a large, black man never got any easier. At best he was intimidating with overtones of "sketchy". At worst, well...
He swallowed, clearing his throat, trying to sound official. "I'm a judge from The Game," he said. "And I've been sent by a trio of women called The Norns to give you a feather and invite you to play."
He cringed. That hadn't sounded good to him.
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 8:19 pm
Svana frowned at him and scooted a little further up the roof. "I dunno anyone called that..."
yes you do
The frown deepened. "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." She paused, looking at the feather.
I'm not supposed to take presents from strangers either-
not this one
This time, Svana visibly twitched. "Go away," she whimpered, pushing back as if to go higher up the slope of the roof, but her foot slipped and she instead slid down almost to the edge. She caught herself just at the edge, her face pale.
That hiss of thought sounded - felt - like her problem. But there wasn't any water around! Nothing! There was no reason-
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 3:40 am
Anubis cringed and readied to catch the girl should she fall, but luckily it didn't come to that. Really, this task was better suited to Persy, who didn't look nearly as intimidating at first glance. Besides, the kids had to find Persy, not the other way around. He mostly dealt in kids who were obviously touched, and this girl was... not so much.
"Simply speaking," he sighed, "You were born to play The Game. You were selected by a trio of goddesses to be their prophet."
He held the feather higher.
"Taking this means you're in."
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 1:11 pm
What this man was saying sounded like... well, the kinds of things her mother said. Shiny, pie-in-the-sky daydreams, her dad called them (when Mum wasn't around, of course). "Game? What game?"
Goddesses?
Shiny, pie-in-the-sky daydreams, but the idea made her heart skip a beat nevertheless. The idea not of being cursed, but being chosen, being special - not stupid 'the dreams I had told me so' special, but really, truly special. Special in ways that made sense to people outside her own head.
"Is it their fault I can see things?" she asked, quietly. The question was part hopeful and part test. How much did he know? Part of her was still wary. He could be a kidnapper. A bad man.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 1:46 pm
See things? thought Anubis, trying to recall what sorts of goddesses the Norns were. He didn't know. They weren't from anywhere near his Pantheon. But it was possible. It sounded like a power.
He feigned knowledge and nodded.
"In preparation for you joining the game, they have given you some powers, and you'll get more as you progress," he said, hoping to sound authoritative. "Each player receives powers suiting the deity they serve. I know a young man who used to live around here - Fish is his name - who can breathe underwater."
He didn't reveal Poseidon's name. Persy would claim that gave her an unfair advantage.
He twisted the feather gently.
Take me, Svana! it seemed to cry.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Svana folded her arms firmly over her chest. "Tell me what kind of 'game' you mean, or I'm going to scream, and my brothers will run out and beat you up," she said, firmly.
But she gave the feather an uneasy look. She could feel the soft pressure, the whispering she couldn't make out inside her head, that usually meant she needed to stay far, far away from puddles because if she saw one-
Bad. Things.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 2:05 pm
Anubis sighed. His job never got any easier. "Like chess, okay? But with people instead of pawns, and the players are gods, and the winner decides the fate of the universe."
Across the street, a trio of workmen were pumping sea water into a ballast tank of a truck. Some sort of commotion had broken out amongst them, and in the midst of it, a hose slipped, sending water arcing through the air in glorious rainbow droplets before it pooled on the pavement.
Anubis growled unhappily. He was now soaked and smelled strongly of krill.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 2:28 pm
Svana flinched away from the sudden spray of water as if she'd been struck, then closed her eyes and clapped her hands over them, shaking her head violently back and forth. "No, no, no, no, no!"
But the movement set her off-balance, and she felt herself begin to slide - reflexively she dropped her hands to grab at the rooftop. Reflexively her eyes opened.
Caught the shine of a puddle.
just look
Images that went beyond mere reflections were playing across the surface. For Anubis, Svana merely stiffened, her eyelids twitching as if in the midst of REM sleep. But for Svana, the images curled and lifted upwards, wrapping around her to replace the entire world.
No...
... a tree?
It was a tree, a massive tree, its roots set around the city, its branches arching impossibly high overhead. The air smelled sweeter than she'd ever dreamed possible, and leaves drifted down through the air.
Beautiful.
the most beautiful thing in the world, human child.
There was someone standing next to her, and Svana jumped. It was a shock to even be able to move; usually, she was utterly passive as the visions marched past her horrified gaze, held by some unknown force, helpless to intervene in whatever was happening.
No, not someone. Three someones, but only one was truly distinct. Svana had a vague impression of a strong profile, a helmet winged and feathered. She could not really focus properly on the figure.
"Who... who are you?"
I am Verthandi. We - my sisters and I - have chosen you. You never liked our gift, did you?
"Gift... I..." Svana paused. Then her hands clenched into fists at her side, and she could feel her nails digging painfully into her palms. "You! You... you did... it's..." She couldn't find the words, and ended up opening and closing her mouth like a fish.
Yes. It is time to learn to use what we have given you.
Svana swallowed, hard. "My... my sister DIED because of you!" The words came out in an angry rush.
Oh, child. No. What you see does not change the future. It is only you, yourself, who can do that. And look... look at this one. This future. The figure raised one hand to catch a falling leaf. So beautiful. Yggdrasil will grow again, if only you will fight for it. For us.
"I-"
Suddenly, the vision was gone. She was at the edge of the roof-
Svana screamed, flailed, failed to catch her balance, and fell.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 2:40 pm
"Woah!" yelled Anubis, bolting forwards to catch the girl. Whatever had happened in the seconds between the water hitting the ground and her slipping, it had thrown her for a loop. It wouldn't do for her to get injured before she even joined the action! He threw his arms out and braced himself to catch.
"Ooof!"
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 2:45 pm
Svana was bracing herself to die when she felt strong arms under her, and she clung with relief to her rescuer, instinctively. "Oh! Um..."
The feather was right there.
take it
She could almost smell the sweetness of the breeze under the tree's branches. Almost.
Svana took a deep breath, then reached out with one hand and snatched the feather, pulling it in close and giving the man a defiant look. "What now?"
good girl. The whisper in her mind was starting to sound like words, now.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 2:57 pm
Anubis was relieved that the girl was okay, and equally relieved that she had finally taken the feather. He set her down lightly and brushed himself off. "Like I said," he stated, "I'm a Judge and a referee in the game. I call the fouls and I..."
He swallowed.
"I call the outs. Hopefully, I won't have to see you again."
He thought for a moment.
"That feather is important," he said. "Don't lose it. Do you know where the greek section of Middling is? Find it if you don't. You can take the tube trains to Parthenon Station. Anyway, there's a florist's shop there called Seasons. The owner, Persy, is an information broker for the Game. If you need anything at all, she's there to help you."
Anubis thought of how Persy had looked when he'd seen her earlier that day. Her colors had returned with the spring, and she seemed... Happier. Des seemed happier, too. If the Jackal God hadn't known better, he would have suspected...
Never mind. It couldn't be.
"Did you get all that?"
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