No Time to Die

"No Time to Die" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread started on [IRL DATE] and finished on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
The Jaw, despite its history and origin, was an arguably mundane place, falling into routine and habit as the rebels that occupied it went about their work. That grey afternoon, however, was not so average, as the rumoured spirit from a few weeks ago returned, humming and flitting through the bones and dwellings that were settled there, turning heads and sending shivers down spines as it appeared, disappeared, and reappeared in its search for a particular half breed.
It finally found the one it was looking for, catching Milae by himself behind one of the buildings. Virion warped into its round form for a moment, chirping excitedly, all six of its eyes twinkling in a form of greeting after being away for many days, then back into a portal large enough for him to pass through.  
foresight-botgd
A rush of relief and trepidation gripped Milae’s heart, and after briefly looking over his shoulder to see if Yun or Dario were near–he knew they were not, they were out by the fields–he quickly walked through, lowering his hood with one hoof while wiping away the dirt gathered on the end of his staff with another.
“Is your sabbatical finished?” he called out, ensuring that mirth and content colored his tone.
akkeyagentofhelheim
“Excuse you,” the deep voice he had become familiar with replied in muffled, mock offense from behind him, “I’ve been working all this time.”
Milae turned to see Juro, lying under the shade of a lone tree he didn’t know existed this far out from the Jaw, one leg bent up and the other stretched before him, his journal covering his face. The Bookkeeper sat up with ease, letting the notebook fall into his hands on his lap, and waving it in the half breed’s direction with an annoying smirk. There was something tattered about how he looked, especially with the tear on his kimono’s left shoulder that was still stained with something dark and faded, but save for that, he was just as cheeky and captivating as always.
“I was at the Library.”
foresight-botgd
“I should be worried if you weren’t.” Milae crossed the grass to sit in front of him, legs bent underneath him like–well, like a goat’s. He laid his staff across his knees and peered at the Bookkeeper, his own fur ruffling in the breezes that constantly wracked the Scrublands. His eyes darted to the slice on Juro’s shoulder and then back to his face. “But surely the Library did not do that to you.”
akkeyagentofhelheim
It was a few moments of windy silence again as they regarded each other, Juro’s amber eyes glinting under the shadow of the brittle leaves.
He shook his head in response, “No… it was Akkey. We got into a small–err, disagreement, and it escalated,” He held the half breed’s horizontal gaze, “Did she tell you what happened?”
foresight-botgd
Milae took a small breath, and his muzzle twitched. Now was not the time to lie.
“Yes.”
akkeyagentofhelheim
His wide shoulders wilted slightly, his mouth diminishing into barely a smile, and he sighed as he gathered his limbs into a cross legged sit, hands tucked into sleeves. “I can tell you more…” His head tilted slightly as he worked hard to keep eye contact, the corner of his lips shaking once.
“Would you… ask me again?”
foresight-botgd
Would I…
The serene, unflappable goat that Milae usually presented as seemed to shift, and underneath it was something so tender and touched, it was in danger of melting away in even the soft gray light from above. His brow knotted and the corners of his mouth tensed in an unshakable, optimistic offer of support.
“What’s wrong, vinur mín?” he said gently. “What troubles you?”
akkeyagentofhelheim
Juro had always been better versed with the languages of the East, but even he understood those words, and the grip he had on his wrist in his sleeve tightened almost painfully. “You shouldn’t call me that, Milae…” his voice was thick, "But hearing it from you in particular… brings me such joy…”
“And that’s what makes it that much worse…”
The breeze picked up into a roaring gale, rustling the bare foliage around them like a chorus of unintelligible voices, reflecting the turmoil and tension that heightened along with it. Juro dropped his line of vision to stare at the ground between them as he spoke with the same hard light in his eyes, words spilling out of him like a rushing river, leaving no stone dry and unturned.
He told him the truth, starting from where it all began. His body’s inherited ability as an infinite magic amplifier. His doomed fate written in the threads of time. The Bookkeepers that took pity on him and broke their own law to save him from said fate. The family that he found in them, and the vast world that they opened for him. His obstinate lack of neutral discipline, that manifested a hundredfold in the love that crossed his path, then stubbornly wedged itself into a strained relationship with the Bookkeepers, stretching across days and months and years of nonexistent contact with his Mentor. The betrayal of the person he trusted and bared himself to the most, and the death of the only ones who truly cared for him, all because of his inevitable destiny that snapped unforgivingly at his heels until it destroyed everything he held precious. His uncontrolled reservoir of deadly energy, and the sacrifice his mentor made, pleading for him to live on.
The grey clouds continued to rush overhead as Juro kept talking, no longer able to keep it in.
“The Helheim contract keeps it all under lock and key, undetectable, unusable, in exchange for my services as an agent. The Library continues on, chaining itself onto timelines that appear, birthing new Bookkeepers, further expanding the knowledge that we gather. As long as I can keep to the law, the threat inside me will remain dormant, and I can continue this legacy.”
“But if I lose that neutrality, if the seal breaks… It will surge wildly as it did before, no longer hidden from power hungry eyes, and kill every Bookkeeper that is chained to me,” the wind dropped to a whisper then, and Juro’s voice was louder than he intended it to be, “Including Yun’s Bookkeeper.”
A soft breeze caressed their cheeks, like invisible fingers that tried to smooth the lines that creased his face. His eyes were bright, but nothing fell. He was still neutral.
“That’s why you can’t call me that. I can’t…” I want to. Juro shook his head immediately, with such vigour, and said again, more firmly this time, “I can’t.”
So close. He felt like he had been so close.
Milae’s head hung on his long neck, staring down at the weathered staff in his lap, clutching it so hard that he heard it creak, and it made his ear flick once. He got a brief, slight impression of deja-vu, seeing a plate of food on a counter instead of waving grass, and then it was gone.
Where could he even start? Every single aspect of Yun’s behavior made sense now, from the first time he had returned from his timeline up to his abrupt and cold behavior after hearing about the agents’ clash on the plains. But most especially, Milae remembered a vicious vibration underneath his hooves, floating and glowing snow, and a glare from what he had assumed to be a soft soul.
He would not hesitate to strike me down if I threaten this relationship. 
Milae couldn’t imagine what their odds would be if such a reaction as Juro had detailed would occur. Yun adored Jin. He spoke endlessly of him, even though Milae could tell he tried not to. On his darkest days, the only way to pull him out of his despair was for him to be convinced that he could go home and see Jin again. For him to die…that kind of blow to Yun’s morale would be instant, destructive, and irredeemable.
Milae hurt. Badly. But for once, he hurt far more for his other self, and it kept the bitterness over their situation at bay. For he wanted to be loudly upset. He was so, so upset for Juro, at the unfairness of it all, and the clear turmoil that it was causing the Bookkeeper. He wanted the man to be at peace, and he felt like they were two steps back again.
The half-breed took a shivering breath and finally looked up to meet Juro’s eyes.
“It is like this…forever?”
akkeyagentofhelheim
“I…” Juro hesitated a solid two seconds. His automatic response was yes. It always had been, it always will. That was the seal.
Yet he paused. His eyes remained bright, but it gained a different light, amber dipped in a shimmer of blue and gold that was difficult to miss despite the quickness of its temporary appearance.
“I don’t know…” his reply was slow in cadence, meeting the gaze helplessly.
Milae’s ear twitched at a new, indiscernible sound.
foresight-botgd
“Do you want it to be like this forever?” The goat was firm, leaned forward far enough to need to balance a hoof on the ground in front of him. The neck of his shirt hung loose, exposing a fraction of his now-useless seal, the runes still dark in his fur.
…rífa örlagaröðina.
akkeyagentofhelheim
He inhaled a shallow breath, pupils dilating, flicking down lines of old markings as he let the question roll in his mind. 
“N-no… I mean…” There was something about his response that was a struggle, unclear, like a thick veil that obstructed his brain from his mouth. A disconnect, sputtering through the line, disappearing at precise intervals. His irises were swathed in the same glow again, minutely longer, before disappearing into amber once more.
Juro shifted his arms, still clutched within billowing sleeves, just as Milae felt the sound scratching at the back of his head, a little more present.
foresight-botgd
Milae sat back, holding his staff again. “I spent too long chained to my curse, convinced that I had no other option. And I proved that wrong to even myself. Whenever we can…I want to help you. If you must stay neutral, so be it. I cannot. Even if you do nothing, it does not matter to me.” He watched Juro, careful not to drive him to stressing his bonds, but positive that he was on to something.
“My nature is to change fate. What is yours?”
akkeyagentofhelheim
“Why change it when we can rewrite it from the beginning, darling?”
The sound Milae heard had unmistakably grown loud, into the stretch of metal clinking, but also twisted beneath a twang of thread.
From across the half breed, he could see Juro, no longer hunched over in thought, instead staring up above and behind him, eyes wide with terror but also darkening in his right pupil, like it held very small, flickering stringy shadows in the very center of it, shaking visibly as Milae felt the large, terrible presence behind him suddenly appear, becoming bigger, heavier, darker, as fine strands of thread crept into both corners of his vision, floating in inky, knotted masses of rotting tendrils.
A deathly pale, finely cracked hand draped itself gently over the ex-seidkonur’s shoulder, “Such a sweet sentiment, that is, though.” Frigga smiled at him.
foresight-botgd
Every corner of Milae’s mind instantly screamed to the sky, reaching out for the watchful Warden’s presence, while physically he stiffened, afraid to spur an attack. “You’ve already sealed your doom by coming here,” he growled deep in his throat. “You may as well let him go–” he jerked his chin at Juro “–and run while you still can.” He was ready, he was beyond ready to do what he had to do, but this was out of his reach. It had been since the day he held those blades to his arms.
akkeyagentofhelheim
“Oh, no no. I can’t do that. I need him too,” Frigga shook her head, paying no mind to his threats or plans or whatsoevers, letting her tendrils trail behind her to continue their lazy climb around his torso and arms as she walked past him towards Juro. She stood above him, bent over slightly but still towering at her full height, her dark hair spilling over the folds of her robes, reminiscent of a starry sky that the Bookkeeper finally knew were no longer merely visions.
It was all her.
Her tendrils split and crawled between both men, snaking their way within fingers and limbs. Juro could only rasp out a single word as her cold grey eyes bore into his, heart pounding as his chest warred between fear, survival, and neutrality.
“V-Virion…”
Only the wind and snapping strings answered. The golem was nowhere to be found.
His panic only grew further. So did the scrape of chains.
She lifted him off the ground and his stomach lurched, his notebook slipping from his grip and falling to the ground, bringing him to her eye level as her grip around him tightened, following its familiar path up his right side, trapping him within her clutches, arms and legs held securely in place. She swiveled them around to face Milae, holding the Bookkeeper close, one arm draped around his waist and the other following his jaw, a long finger tracing swirling lines over his abdomen in an upwards climb towards his chest, hooking under the folds of his kimono and leaving tears and rips in the silk fabric.
“In fact, I’ve already had him for weeks, at the first elevation. Then watching, waiting, on that seidr brat. While all this is augmenting…” She smiled wider, stopping her hand trail right beneath his sternum. A dull pain began thudding behind his right eye, dark strands meeting pre-planted dark strands under his lashes. His chin tilted up and his back arched in recoil as it worsened, and he wanted to scream, but it was lost beneath shadowed strings. The threatening sounds of his seal doubled in intensity.
A tendril caught Milae under the chin as the rest constricted around him, “I don’t need you, powerless as you are now… but I can always use the extra time.”
foresight-botgd
Milae thrashed, yanked his chin away and snapped his teeth, glaring furiously up at the goddess, even though merely looking at her made his pulse feel like it was going to burst from his body. He then fixed on Juro. “Hold on,” Milae urged loudly, trying to keep him stable. “Just hold on. He’s coming.”
***
The Warden’s consciousness lit up the Jaw like a foghorn, causing everyone to see scarlet, and immediately pointed everyone south, towards the fields, a soundless urge to move as fast and as far as possible, with a sobriety that the older rebels hadn’t heard since escaping the very jaw of the wolf they currently took refuge in. A massive scarlet barrier launched up to the gray, howling sky, hundreds of yards long, covering them from what was currently an unknown threat. Nio launched upright from the pile of straw they had been dozing in, immediately throwing their hands out and pulling every last dreg from the wells that they could reach, washing it through the streets and helping as many nearby people as possible out beyond the bounds of the farms.
Yun had barely stumbled out of the storehouse near the fields, Dario on his heels, when an arrow of Nala’s essence speared his mind and made him drop to his knees, clutching his ears as a raging headache exploded through his temples. His eyes stared wide at the ground as his and Milae’s sight momentarily became the same, and he gasped raggedly as soon as the scene came in focus. Juro, restrained and tortured by millions of black, decaying threads and an impossibly tall woman.
His worst nightmare was here.
Virion had left its master when he requested Milae to ask him again.
There was something peculiar about the Bookkeeper, and his choice in having that conversation then, and it was agitated, feeling like it needed to get out of there and find help.
Its instincts were correct.
It could feel several stray chains snap and snuff its Bookkeepers out of existence as it sped through the Jaw, the fallen goddess’ tendrils invading Juro’s consciousness little by little, flicking away mental defenses that it tried to keep up around him like they were nothing. 
It could tell how much both Hel and Juro’s magic were collapsing. It was going to disappear soon. It needed to find Yun now.
It burst into a flourish of feathers right before seidkonur and half deer, its rough cry desperate and on its last wings. It didn’t even give them time to respond. Virion warped into a portal and threw itself forward. 
—
The All Mother hummed to herself, as if it were a sunny afternoon at the park, taking in the sights and having a pleasant time. Strings of black continued twisting around both Juro and Milae. The goat could tell–a handful of chains had already broken.
There was a panicked hum that exploded and stretched into a watery portal, throwing both Akkey and Aria into the air and transporting them to the Scrublands. Both rabbit breeds’ blood ran cold as they took in the scene, especially Aria, who finally recognized where her memories had come from. I remember now.
“Ahh, more players,” Frigga grinned with too many teeth, her body seemingly growing larger as the alarm sounded through the Jaw. Milae and Juro were both pulled closer to her body, and slowly, painfully, blindingly began to be submerged into her form, the darkness creeping in around them.
“Two more.”
foresight-botgd
Through the barrier, a few miles away amongst the shifting fields of wheat and potatoes and herbs, there was another thunderous explosion, causing fleeing rebels to stumble in their haste, worried that there was now a new threat trapping them in bone and fang. A cascade of light burst like a fountain up into the air, in expanding spheres and shimmering particles, and as soon as the first echoes of the blast started to reach them, a warp in space tore open, obscuring the show of light, and it immediately seared everyone’s vision as something unrecognizable blurred out from it and rocked into Frigga like a comet, leaving a streak of gouged earth behind her smoking psychedelic teal and leaving magic ripples across the land like a stone skipped from a pond. Nearer to the portal, the same power flickered out after shielding Dario from what would have been enough energy to kill him on sight, and the ground cracked and gleamed upwards around the onlookers, ready to repeat the action should they be threatened.
Yun’s velocity overshot him across the ground, and he hit the grass once, twice, leaving skid marks and burns as big as houses. Both feet and one hand brought him to a grinding halt, the resulting friction causing vibrations that pained lungs and chattered teeth. He yanked his head up, his newly-shortened hair waving wildly in his blazing eyes and snarled face, and immediately sprinted for the goddess again, charring huge semicircles in the grass as his naginata spun wildly, threads screaming and stretching with his lightning-fast passage.
akkeyagentofhelheim
Their portal fizzled out of existence just as teal exploded against murky black, but the colour lasted only for a moment before shifting into the blues and golds, except they were rotted, dirty, and not the beautiful Bookkeeper hues he knew. 
Naginata crossed against bladed sceptre, eerily similar to what Akkey had used days ago, but much larger, deadlier, humming with far more dangerous and potent energy. They locked in that struggle for a breath, magic pulsing out uncontrollably with them at its epicenter, forming earthquake sized cracks into the cold ground, surrounded by heat and bursts of wild power, crashing into the side of the Jaw. The sounds of slight splintering of bone cracked in the air. 
The collision sent Akkey, Aria, and Dario flying. Akkey immediately tucked her legs in under her, splaying out her fingers to reach for water and caught all three of them in a portal, landing roughly but safely, much farther from where Yun and Frigga clashed. They looked on, eyes wide with fear, chest thudding incessantly.
“Oh, an extra?” Frigga shifted from beneath her weapon, black armoured shadows churning across her skin that solidly deflected Yun’s initial attack. He saw the glint of cold grey sliding a quick glance towards the deer, before he was viciously thrown to the side, blasted away in a tangle of explosive threads that rolled amongst the decayed colours. 
She straightened, the nerves and muscles in her arm tensing into their extremities, unnatural and fragmented against her porcelain skin, as she took a deep breath. Magic coursed through her entire body, and she grinned, a sickeningly sweet smile that sent stomach churning shivers down everyone’s spines, “Not the final person I expected, but I suppose it makes sense…” 
moe-lazyeye
There was the sound of a sound barrier breaking as a set of partially webbed feet surged itself from the distance, and into the chaos of the fight. Hel soared up in the air, her fist clenched. “Its because they’re not the last!” She declared as she fell down towards her.
I may not have much! But with everyone else fighting next to me, I can at least give what I can!
“FRIGGA!” she roared. “Leave. My kids. ALONE!”
She mustered every last once of her regained power, and hurled her fist into Frigga’s head.
Blood filled her vision.
And before Hel could even process what had happened, she felt pain sear through her, and then suddenly she found herself slammed into the ground away from the goddess.
akkeyagentofhelheim
“What the fuck are you doing here, Hel?!” Akkey gave out a blood curling scream, throwing her full weight into a portal underneath the mortal goddess, “Get out of here!”
There was no opportunity to save her, as Frigga sent out several tendrils at a breakneck speed towards the nix, stabbing her in a line down her right leg, right at the joints of her ankle, knee, and once through her thigh. She was flung away like a doll, left to struggle on the ground in pain.
“The full roster!” the All Mother beamed down at the frog half breed below her, one hand caressing Juro across his collarbone as he and Milae were almost completely dipped in black as they disappeared beneath her robes, at the brink of unconsciousness. She let her gaze roam the scenery before her.
To Aria, cowering within Dario’s arms, behind the ice barrier her aunt had erected, “My wayward soul.”
To Yun, who was thrown several hundred meters away buried deep beneath earth and rock, “My seidr.”
To Juro, “私の 鶴ちゃん.” He jerked once in recognition. Five metal links snapped in succession.
And finally to Hel, by her feet, “My sweet, precious, hysterical granddaughter.” She dipped her head down as if taking a closer look. Her face was unrecognizably beautiful, smiling gently like a grandmother would to her family, dipped in warmth and comfort and safety, “They are no longer yours.”
Frigga’s hand pulsed once, then came down to puncture Hel and pinning her down through her shoulders, her legs, and right in the middle of her stomach.
“I had thought you would run, the coward that you are. What were you hoping to accomplish here, darling?”
moe-lazyeye
Hel let out a horrible scream as the tendrils peirced her, and then gasped as she was peirced through the middle. Her hand had no time to grab the blade Lilia had given her at her back before it was pinned down. Her eyes steadily widened as the black portions of her skin turned grey, and the white a sickly green.
She rolled her head as she starred up at Frigga. “What kind of mother hides while her children are in danger…” he rasped as she struggled to find a way, any way, that she could counter her, or make any kind of opening for the others. “I…gave you…a chance…”
“So you did.”
Frigga let the front locks of her fringe trickle down to caress Hel by the cheek, soft, gentle, almost soothing in the motion. Fallen goddesses held each others gaze, and it was like they were conversing, coming to an understanding in a mental link only they could hear.
The All Mother smiled, “That was your mistake.”
As her shadows fully enveloped her captives within her, tendrils constricted, and from inside Hel’s body, pierced tens, hundreds of spikes, tearing her apart from within and sending out a spray of dark fluids, drenching the bare ground in blood as the half breed lurched into the air in a scream, staring fearfully at the grey clouds above as the light left her eyes.
Only the gale that swept above could be heard as Hel laid on the ground, dead.
foresight-botgd
The silence stretched, and then two tattooed, clawed hands shining with aquamarine burst from the rubble and shoved the earth outwards, causing it to explode outward in a huge arc. Yun leaped down to the ground, stumbling slightly before regaining his focus and balance. There was a trickle of scarlet running down his temple and cheek from where Frigga’s attack had temporarily stunned him, but he seemed to barely notice it as his weapon shone back into his hands, and the ribbon stretched outward before seeming to extend into nothing but holographic light, lashing and sparking.
His glowing eyes found Hel’s shattered, bleeding body in front of Frigga, and his chest expanded with a breath that seemed to fill every inch of him, the light growing blindingly brighter around him. His entire body heaved with a scream.
“NOO!!”
Threads collected around his fingers, and with a grating screech, goddess and seidkonur were suddenly even further across the field, with the young man bounding up to strike at her once, twice, multiple times too rapid to count, ocean-colored threads attempting to entangle dark, slimy strings at every turn, knotting viciously as the two continued to engage. Her own mastery of the same power made his manipulation difficult, and so his state of mind compensated, pushing him even further into overdrive. Yun was intent on driving his blade straight through her center at every turn, a high-pitched humming growing stronger and stronger the further the duel progressed. Their blades eventually locked, and a stifling, magnetic pressure wound up around them, crushing inward while Yun locked both feet in place against her hips, teeth gritted while luminous tears began to gather, another wave of force added, then another, a sphere pulling grass and dust and strings inexorably inward like gravity.
akkeyagentofhelheim
The clashes had further driven minute cracks up her hands and forearms, but she barely seemed to take notice of them as the energy surged in between. Their momentum came to a standstill, and she gathered her strength through her tendrils as Yun increased the pressure around them, the strands of hair following the shape of the sphere within as they shrank smaller around them. Then magic rippled up her arms, siphoning more from the reservoir she had just gained, and she heaved the protective threads outwards, pulsing with that muddy mix of blue and gold light, colliding with the force and elements that attempted to trap her as the roar of both chains and wind intensified. 
They fragmented, then dissipated into a flurry of light and sound and dust as everything that touched it dissolved, sending Yun flying back again, although she wouldn’t let him go this time, and caught him around the leg with a coarse tendril to smash him down on to the ground.
“I’m so glad you came to meet me, darling!” her voice rang out, “Ever since that cursed goat surrendered his abilities, I’ve been meaning to see you, but my granddaughter made things… difficult.”
She lifted herself high in the air to wind up, then in a stream of dark hair and fabric she bore down on where he laid, crashing and spearing into the ground with such force that the earth surged like a wave, inwards first then exploded out in rising sections and levels of grass and soil and dark light, becoming larger and deadlier the further it went, with such great power that it still collided with the Warden’s barrier at the far distance, sending a rumble and clouds of dust throughout the Jaw.
Her aim barely missed Yun by the side, and he soared once again, as she chased him across the cascading terrain, tendrils snapping closely at his heels and leaving behind dry, cracked earth where they pierced, rotting what they touched, stealing the time that they owned.
“You were mine for the taking at the construct, but that Bookkeeper decided to interfere, and I thought all hope was lost! But ahh… your own wonderful Bookkeeper told the story of that incredible amplification power, and I thought to myself how wonderful it would be if I had both of you!” Her lips were too red and too wide as she smiled, “Then! Then I can take the entire multiverse for myself!”
foresight-botgd
Every link that rattled only caused Yun’s seal to brighten, and her taunting words chased him as he skipped backwards in huge bounds, her piercing, lashing strands chewing up the plains under his feet. He heard her crowing about Jin, and it was like a noose tightened around his neck. An arc of pure energy, like static jumping from power line to power line, snapped across both his forearms, and the light in his eyes suddenly flared like a burst transformer.
His arms snapped up, and with a powerful boom, he placed himself behind her, new threads trailing from his limbs, residual from the timeline he’d just skated off of to teleport, and arcs of light flashed around him, splitting the clouds above with their force. The sheer power of both sound and space forced the rebellion refugees to duck and cover as they continued to evacuate. He contorted briefly like the energy was too much for his form to handle, and then let himself fall through the air as his blade fell with the authority of a guillotine, crushing the ground below it to dust before it even made impact. Metal barely bit into pulverized debris and a tidal wave of cascading light and force blasted outward into a wide fan, and as shimmering astral energy and air curled like crashing water, they collected the elements, the fragments of earth shaken free by their colossal fight, and they began to stop, pull and surge back inward in a flattened sphere over a mile across, outlined in energy as they were suspended in the same gravitational force. Even the lower clouds scudding above them twisted low and bent, almost like a tornado, as the aura of destruction hovered around them, ready to bend to the whim of the small figure hovering with a hand in the air and his blade humming behind him. The decorative ribbon whipped around him in a high wind, glaring off of his eyes, from which brilliant tears were pouring over his face, locked in a familiar vicious, focused trance.
“No,” he declared, threads twanging, bending and flicking to deliver his voice to the goddess in his sights. “Not before I unmake you.”
His wrist deftly twisted, and all ears went deaf as his power surged, pulling everything he’d caught towards Frigga in a cascade of laser-thin lights lighting up the Scrublands, with intent to pulverize.
akkeyagentofhelheim
Just as the sky and the air and surface transformed and sucked into energy around Yun, so did the ground and space and the living behind Frigga. Her threads stretched in thousands of directions for miles long, embedding themselves into ground and soil, wrapping around pre-existing threads that only Yun could see, reaching for lives and souls that weren’t hers, siphoning their very beings into herself. Their time streaked through her tendrils at astronomical speed, leaving behind death and decay in the nature and in the very core of the people, absorbing them into her tangled mess of power, writhing within filaments and double blades.
Colossal, cosmic attacks collided in the air, the barrage of divine light against a mass of heaving, agitated tendrils, splitting the entire horizon diagonally into two, washing the landscape in bisected polar opposites of teal light and sinister shadow, sending a turmoil of both grief and hope to anyone who dared look. The clear line that cut the scenery struggled against each other, leaning one way and the other as the continuously rising power levels tipped and flickered between goddess and seidkonur, never ending waves of energy bursting from their epicenter, larger and more destructive at each pulse, pulling, straining, shearing, churning, and quaking, a kaleidoscope of colours that demolished the Scrublands as far as the bare eye could hope to see.
The tremendous pressure that they held in between where their energy crashed together finally fragmented in a deafening crack that permeated even the very aether of the Wildersouth, sending bizarre, jagged lines into the sky and ground as magic exploded in a chaos of threads, light, and shadow. The blast of surging force from it blew them back at breakneck speed, unable to stop either momentum as they hurtled through the air and soil, where rock and earth flew many meters high and buried them underneath.
A mass of inky threads erupted from a rocky mound to reveal Frigga, still just as terribly beautiful, but sustaining severe fractures that crept up her limbs and trailed down the side of her face, stray chips falling and getting lost in the ground. But it didn’t matter.
Her mouth split wide, stretching almost as far to the edge of her jaw in a frightening display of maniacal laughter that pierced through the air. She launched herself high, covering the distance between her and where Yun was picking himself up at the blink of an eye, mad glee rolling off her shoulders, just as the telltale sign of another broken chain rang in the air. Her presence immediately billowed out at the new surge of power.
A tangled mess of tendrils burst from beneath Yun’s feet in the same horrifying way that Akkey had tried to emulate, but this time it came in droves, thousands of threads twisting around his entire body, going as far as to pierce through skin and bone of his legs, his hips, his shoulders, staining his gifted garb in blood. But Frigga made it a point to avoid his seal, and his death, trapping him effectively and painfully enough that he couldn’t move.
At the same time, the simultaneous silence that came after the barrage of ear splitting noise was deafening in its own right, a whiplash between thunderous and deathly quiet, as a dark, heavy dome expanded from where she stood in a single breath, encompassing the Scrublands for miles around. Fenrir’s Jaw fell under its reach as an unnatural starry night fell over the land that she imprisoned under eerie magic, frighteningly still. Not a single breath, twang, or clink could be felt.
—
The trio were incredibly, unabashedly lucky.
Akkey’s timing with her portal was perfect, as all three half breeds fell through at the exact moment Frigga and Yun’s energies collided, floating in the space in between dimensions away from immediate danger.
They resurfaced miles away, just out of reach of the dangerous battle. Dario held a chattering Aria in his arms, petrified out of her life but unable to stop talking.
“–so he needs to make sure that he’s neutral and doesn’t feel any of his emotions all the time otherwise he’s gonna explode and all the other Mr. Bookkeepers are also gonna die! And Frigga also wants that–Aunt Akkey, can you stop moving for a second so I can patch you up–so she can bundle up Yun and embed him inside Mr. Bookkeeper so that the magic that he’s amplifying is seidr and not just mortal magic! So then she can use that to rewrite all of the timelines from the beginning just how she likes it! But everything is super dangerous right now because of all of that!” Aria pointed a thin finger towards where the fight was commencing, and they all turned to see the dome growing at an alarming rate, “Wait, what’s that?!”
“Come on!” Akkey surged forward on her newly healed leg, a portal saving them for the 20th time that day, rolling just out of reach of where the anomaly stopped its course. It rose high above them, like a black wall with no top to be seen, impenetrable, frozen.
Yet it was familiar to the nix.
She took a tentative step forward, ignoring the calls from behind her as she held out a hand in curiosity. She immediately came to regret it as she fell to her knees, energy drained in that horrifyingly familiar way.
Empty pockets.
—
Yun was suspended high above the ground, directly across from Frigga at eye level. They were now close enough that he could finally see her properly, how exquisite and divine the All Mother was, grey eyes that were cold but elegant, long lashes and luscious locks that swept around her shoulders in perfect waves.
It was beyond dreadful.
She leered at him in studious observation. It was darkness spread all around them, but he could see exactly where the dome ended, like a new territory that was hers. There was absolute silence, not a breath of animal or person, nor the whisper of wind or rustle of grass and leaf, no light that trickled through grey clouds, save for the stars above that didn’t twinkle at all. The Jaw remained, so did the shrubbery across the Scrublands, but they were outlined in freaky white, like neon lights glowing against a black backdrop, a negative of the real world. 
But what was worst of all was the emptiness. From one curved end to the other, Yun felt nothing. Not a living soul, nor a reachable thread remained. They had all disappeared. Written out of existence.
“Welcome to my domain, darling,” Frigga finally spoke, echoing oddly in the dead space. She looked worse for wear, fine cracks continuing their way up her limbs, her voice rough and tattered against her throat, practically crumbling at the seams. But she paid it no mind, as if she were the picture of health, smiling even wider than ever, “This is an empty void that I created within this timeline. Not quite the same as the pockets that surround all the other threads, because this is far more isolated…”
“Of course, I am unfortunately unable to sustain this permanently,” she lamented, closing her eyes for a moment in self pity, before training her gaze towards him again, “Unless I have you.” 
“Ah, Norn magic. Incredible, really.” There was a bitterness in her voice, “Gods and deities and valkyries, I birthed them, and taught them what they know now, and what do those bitches do in return? They turn their seidr against me and think not of me, leaving me to rot after Ragnarok.”
“I lost everything then–my home, my power, my children. But now I can change it all and rewrite it to how it should’ve been, from the very beginning!” The tendrils around him tightened then glowed. He could feel his energy being slowly drained, “With you, my dear little seidr brat. With your power, your seal, your essence, your entire being–amplified by that wretched Bookkeeper’s ability…”
She floated towards him, placing a gigantic, comforting hand on the side of his face, “Worry not, darling. I know, I know… it’s so painful for you to have failed to save my stupid granddaughter. But no matter. We can rewrite history together. You can be with the Bookkeeper, Original or whomever, forever and always. You can save yourself, and him.” 
Like the flickering flame of a candle wavering in a storm, Yun’s seal stuttered the further he was drained, the light slowly siphoning out of his seal, as he was completely immobilized, every part of him wailing in agony, the tears pouring down his cheeks losing their shine while he stared at Frigga, blood covering half his face and dripping down his neck. Only the barest trace of a gleam was left in his eyes, and it threatened to go out any second. With the loss of his energy, so did his hope burn away into ash, and he wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and sob. He was beyond terrified.
Yun had failed. It was over.
The remnants of elevation, however, refused to let him bow to her. He minutely shook his head, barely able to manage even that smallest of motions. “No,” he croaked, throat constricting in a few spasming cries. “No, you won’t do that…you won’t ever stop…being cruel to us…”
He was on the verge of passing out, just to provide his body the last few moments of blissful nothing that he would have before his inevitable fate. Just as his limbs started to go slack, and his eyes half-shut, something brushed the back of his mind, and everything slowed. A memory brightened in the black-and-red painful haze that clouded his senses–overcast sunlight, the smell of dirt and wet fur, the sounds of eager, chattering rebels, and the sore feeling of a wooden staff trapping his arms. Milae was watching him nose-to-nose while he struggled, and while Yun was positive that the next words had been his, the goat didn’t move his mouth. Someone else spoke.
“You always have a fallback. You always have the upper hand, so long as you protect that option.”
The silence of the empty pockets pressed back in on his ears, and his eyelids twitched, seeing nothing but black and stars. The beginnings of an idea, a phrase he had never spoken before, crept into the back of his mind, and the voice paused, humming softly as she considered.
“You may not survive that. And if you do, there are consequences.”
Yun’s throat was too full of blackened, oily filth to respond out loud, but she still heard him. They need to live…
“My selfless seidkonur…” For the first time in his or Milae’s life, he heard Urdr’s voice fill with tender, soft emotion, and had he the wherewithal to do so, he would have wept at the sound. “Do what you must.”
The magic pulling from his tattoos paused, rippling like the ocean floor. Yun lifted his chin slightly, eyes opening again, and Frigga saw them alight, a bright teal reflection illuminating the space between them. The corner of his mouth turned up, in a familiar grin. His lips moved almost soundlessly.
“Fyrirgefðu mér, Nornir, ég hef mistekist.“
The sliding sound of iron pierced the silence, and Yun’s body arched and jerked as his own blade, Milae’s original bound weapon, pierced back through the middle of his gut and straight into Frigga’s sternum with a flash of light and color, and it continued to gleam as it held in both their bodies, the banner floating down to hang lifelessly between them. Yun coughed and gagged, lips stained red, and he drew in a rattling breath as he met Frigga’s eyes once more, the light dying away completely as he prepared to pass into darkness, and give up what was left of himself.
But then he lurched one more time, eyes widening. The naginata had suddenly grown brighter and extremely hot, and it wagged slightly, like someone had grabbed it. He heard a quiet rustle, and in the corners of his vision, saw long, black feathers curl around either side of him.
Behind Yun and his prison of thread, Frigga saw another woman’s face behind his head, just a little shorter than the goddess was. Starry light glinted off of black and gold armor and along her long, straight ebony hair. Her black eyes narrowed and her pale face tilted upwards, as her grip on the bladed weapon embedded in their chests tightened, and her huge wingspan spread further.
"You have not failed us yet,” she said, mouth unmoving.
The blade pushed forward further, phasing through the rest of Yun’s body seamlessly, but further piercing Frigga on its length and throwing her back like the toss of a harpoon, and as Urdr’s palm met Yun’s back, taking up its entire length, the tendrils trapping his limbs started to unravel in a brilliant show of glistening teal, gold, and amber, undoing their paths. The rivulets of scarlet covering the young man seemed to glow with an ethereal light, and what was left behind from the destruction of the tendrils floated upwards and gathered around Yun, the gold healing his wounds, the teal filling his markings back up to full brightness, and the amber bringing him back to full consciousness with a huge gasp, his chest heaving as he took in the sight, looking down at his stomach and pressing a hand to it, making sure it was whole. It had felt like someone had ripped the insides of his entire body and soul out, and was slowly laying them back in a little too heavily.
He felt another tall, warm hand embrace him from behind and a kiss on the crown of his head, and before he could look around to see her, Urdr whispered, “We give your life back to you. Use it, and strike her down.” Yun was still hovering, but the Norn had disappeared, and with it, the specks of white surrounding them slowly opened back up into daylight, letting sound and sensation reach him once more, dissolving the dark emptiness into nothing. He instead looked down at his hands, slowly curled them into fists, and then faced Frigga. Whatever had been powering him before was tenfold now, and once upon a time he would have been afraid that he’d disintegrate under the effort of trying to contain it. Not today. Not now.
Yun re-summoned his weapon into his hand, metal edge singing and humming, and the world started to vibrate. He could feel every thread around him like it was an extension of himself, like his own veins pulsing in time with a universal beat he hadn’t even been aware of as a seidkonur. His attention locked onto the goddess, struggling to recover from the blow through her middle, her threads thrashing and flickering, and every instinct screamed that he couldn’t give her even a second to breathe. 
The slices of the blade in his hand reached out impossibly far, striking the ground and the goddess in mile-long arcs, and the scars left in whatever earth and stone remained glowed a fierce blue-green, light shooting up into the sky in curtains, and the clouds gleamed with something almost resembling lightning of the same color, but too steady, slow, and pulsing, and it spread through the atmosphere for miles and miles in vivid, hypnotizing patterns. The sound was deafening, but it was also the most gorgeous thing anyone had heard, creating an otherworldly music like an instrument made of the very landscape was being played in crashing booms and discordant strums and twangs. Yun leaped to the ground, which keened at the touch of his scorching boots, and began to step closer, an aura of blinding radiance following his path. His arms were so bright that no precise details could be garnered from their strength; they were simply outlined in energy too painful to look at. He leveled the naginata at Frigga, the very point of it catching and reflecting rays, and a single string stretched into place as he willed it, lining up directly with her, and it gave a single pulse, shot across the Scrublands towards her, and with a ripping detonation, almost her entire right half was blown off, fragments and shards chiming as they scattered behind her. 
In the aftermath, Yun was already stepping up to her fallen form; with a gesture, her limbs were pinned down with insubstantial auras of aquamarine, and he easily walked up on her shattered abdomen, placed a foot on her chin, tilted it back roughly, and took his blade one more time and sent it through her throat, planting it back into the stone underneath her. This time, his rage was clean and dry instead of shivering, tearful and desperate.
“All Mother.” His voice echoed across the plains, amplified by the threads of time lifting and humming with his words. “Never will you threaten the threads of this universe again. Your own actions have brought your demise, and you will find no peace after this day.” From his left side, he pulled something out from the folds of his kimono, while he used his weight to keep the naginata steady. There was a sharp click, as the unfamiliar sound of a pistol cocking sounded out, and Yun lifted it to aim at Frigga’s eye, the pulses of energy around them glinting off of Helheim’s logo. “Speak your last to this world.”
It had been millennia since the last time Frigga had felt this helpless, this absent, this void. Even Ragnarok and Hel’s mercy left her beaten, but alive. Now… 
There was no pain that coursed through her even with everything that held her down as she stared up at the tiny mortal that had her at his mercy. She tried to reach for her threads, her sword, any power that she could possibly lay her hands on… but there was nothing.
Her broken jaw hung open, no longer with the ability to move normally, but still her voice struggled to make itself heard despite it.
“I refuse… to disappear…”
foresight-botgd
Yun’s finger tightened around the trigger. His eyes gleamed, and he sniffed briefly.
“That’s a shame. I refuse to grant you anything less.”
Jin’s pistol fired.
The resulting sound temporarily blanketed the region in silence one last time, and the immediate area of the fight went white with the illumination of the charged bullet cracking Frigga in her right eye, shattering the rest of her face into pinprick pieces. The light slowly began to fall, and with a supernatural sense, Yun could feel huge amounts of energy emanating from her corpse like a sickly scent.
The naginata hummed as he pulled it upright and quickly spun it overhead, making the decorative ribbon flutter around him in a loose sphere, trapping the dead goddess’ essence as though it was smoke. The boost in power within him was fading, and with its last vestiges, Yun closed his eyes and pulled on every ability within him to visualize the billions of threads that had been coiled up inside of her form, powering her like no other being in the universe could reach. He stretched out a hand, fingertips flaring, and as soon as he made contact with the smallest strand, the entire mass lit up around him, magic and power flooding upwards, and the threads began to dissolve, bright energy unraveling from their muddy, soiled color, and releasing upwards in a new form, giving whatever was left of the All Mother back to the empty space that she had called home. 
However, he suddenly paused, feeling three unusual knots that didn’t belong to her, and with a quick movement, he gripped them and kept them from escaping, gently pulling them down back to the earth where they could be properly restored, one after another–a bundle of greens, yellows, and hints of bright blue, a thick strand of teal, auburn and navy, and a final skein of blues and golds. As soon as they were rescued and released, Yun gripped the handle of the naginata heavily and struggled to stay upright, feeling like he was coming down from an adrenaline high times fifty. 
akkeyagentofhelheim
Continued from [here]
The last dredges of the All Mother finally disappeared out of existence, never to see the light of living day ever again, as the final traces of her power streaked out of its dome to reveal the torn landscape once again.
But it stopped at its source down the plains, at the center of the starry void, like a tape caught in its player. The threads that Yun held pulled him towards that direction, just as an explosion of blue-gold light burst from the ground, the clashing sounds of metal link against metal link vibrating louder than he had ever heard.
Duri faded in a voiceless scream, her makeshift, helping shield disintegrated by the massive output of uncontrolled power, no longer able to keep it sealed from all of the stress it sustained from Frigga’s drainage.
A shadowy figure stood at the very center of the bright surging energy, thin bars of a bird cage shooting out from above him and piercing deep into the ground at intervals.
The lock was on the verge of fully breaking.
foresight-botgd
Yun yelped as he followed the strings to the center of the explosion, hissing through his teeth as the dregs of his energy scalded their paths through his body. Eyes watering, he hit the ground in a roll and sprinted up to what he could now see was both Milae and Juro, the former trying to confront the latter with his arms covering his face to shield against the waves of brilliance slamming into him. Yun sprinted past him and fumbled for the man’s hands, sliding his own under his forearms halfway into his sleeves, and squinting as his hair and clothes raged around him. He squeezed Juro’s arms in a vicelike grip and yanked his head to look up at him. 
Yun opened his mouth to speak, but the energy ramped higher, and he squeezed his eyes shut and screamed briefly, surging the last of the Norns’ energy outwards and upwards, and almost emulating the goddess he had just killed, a writhing explosion of threads shooting out through both space and time, and every single string gleamed with a vibrating teal energy as they each picked a chain and threaded through every link at lightning speed, traversing the multiverse in a spray of color, metal gleaming and rattling in a deafening cacophony. Yun pulled Juro closer and hugged him tightly around the middle, shaking fiercely, as the threads did their work, and the two of them stood in a slowly-stilling center of clouds of hovering blue-gold magic and millions of phantom chains tied with shimmering thread, clinking and swaying as they reached up into the sky. As the display groaned with the effort of trying to keep the lock steady, Milae heard Yun’s voice underneath it all, a rush of trembling words that nobody was sure when it had started or when it was going to stop.
“–okay, it’s okay, shh, you’re okay, we did it, she’s gone, we made it out–” 
akkeyagentofhelheim
Don’t forget who you are, Little Crane.
A man. As a being with a soul, and no more. 
They whispered by his ear as his entire being vibrated, from the tips of all his fingers and toes through every limb and up to his head, the rolling and curling temperatures and lights and sounds coming from within and finding the most release from his chest. His eyes glowed way too brightly of blues and golds as he blindly stared before him, right where Milae had braced himself, slack jawed and unseeing through the thick turmoil of energy.
Nornic magic passed through him in a blink of an eye, finding their way through to his chains, but it was quick enough to ravel itself within his existing energy, strengthening and amplifying the power that unknowingly, selfishly, innocently held the souls to him with such dangerous conditions of lock and key. It was enough to keep the chains safe again, to ensure that the other Bookkeepers would live.
But then the cycle would start once more, a never ending circle of built up magic and uncompromising neutrality.
I believe in you. You have everything you need, and more.
The Bookkeeper shifted slightly beneath the younger man’s embrace, dissatisfied. “More,” His lips moved, the words lost in the roaring noise, “This is mine. Not anyone else’s.”
The massive buzz of energy by Yun’s head intensified as Juro reached in every corner and crevice within himself, chasing after the magic the seidkonur had gifted him with a cascading wave that followed the shape and form of metal links from beginning to end, warping within divine power to complete a Bookkeeper’s birth, true life given by the cosmic deities themselves, sending out every last bit of his reservoir across the entire multiverse. It cascaded in a pulse of painful light, and the sharp sound of stretched thread and chain grated their ears once, then exploded into a ripple of echoing metal as the illusionary links dissolved where they hung in the air.
It was for a single second that the twin souls’ blood ran cold, fearing that they had failed, but the threads remained stretched against the sky, slowly but surely vibrating brighter and brighter in their colour and life, standing strong in their presence as the chains disappeared. The Bookkeepers were stable.
The last bits of Juro’s magic sputtered through the threads then into nothing as the explosion of energy diminished, leaving outward scorch marks in the ground with them in the center, the last bits of the goddess’ domain fading, as the Bookkeeper’s knees buckled, and fully collapsed within Yun’s arms, unconscious, but alive.
foresight-botgd
“Uhf–” Yun had no more strength to carry a six-foot man, no matter how lanky, and as his tattoos flickered and faded to black ink, he crumpled as well, both of them almost falling to the ground had it not been for a sturdy half-breed underneath Yun, putting his hooves right where Urdr’s hand had been, and it stung immensely. Yun cried out and winced as they were all lowered to the ground, and he sat heavily with Juro in his lap, exhaustion slamming into him like a mountain and turning his limbs to heavy stone. He wearily hunched over Juro as Milae did as well, hooves shaking as he inspected his face and his neck, searching for life.
“He’s…alive…” Yun rasped, able to feel the Bookkeeper’s lifeline tugging gently through space, and Milae almost folded on top of them, reaching out to embrace Yun instead, chest heaving.
“Is she–”
“Uh-huh.” Yun was struggling with staying awake, doing his best to prop his forehead up against Milae’s long neck. The relatively mundane sensation of his fur felt alien after being nearly torn apart with primordial power. He then felt Milae’s hooves frisking him for injuries as well, and he added in a mumble, “M’okay. Just…tired.”
“Norns be praised…Yun, I’m so sorry, we didn’t mean to be in the fight, we were just–”
Yun clumsily patted Milae’s muzzle, making him stutter and stop. “Shh,” he said woozily. “Not your fault.” 
There was another ruffle of feathers, and a shadow fell over the two of them, ebony wings surrounding them, and a pair of hands reaching out to carefully support Yun and Milae. Yun almost immediately collapsed backwards, while Milae looked up in awe at his old patron, watching over the three of them with a serene face only slightly knitted at the brow. “Help should arrive soon,” Urdr said softly. “You both did well…I am proud of you.” Her dark eyes lingered on Juro, and she gently brushed his fringe away from his face. “Be sure he is taken care of. This is not over.” Milae opened his mouth to ask, but she put a finger to her lips, and he was reluctantly cowed. “My sisters will be displeased already. I will wait for your assistance.”
moe-lazyeye
As the last of what was once Frigga drifted away into oblivion, those present suddenly took notice of a small, bundle lying on the cold ground. It took a moment to realize what it was, but then they saw the unmistakable black and white markings.
Hel…once again in a mortal form, now lay before them as nothing more than an infant. An envelope was attached to the cloth that bound her together, although there would be no time to read it at the moment.
And even though her destroyed body lay some distance away still…there she was…before them again.
Dario wasn’t convinced that portal travel had been nearly as exhausting in his past usage of it, but with the rampant confusion and fear that flooded his head in the last hour, nothing was of surprise to him. The stag stumbled with a resounding lack of grace as the two half-breeds followed in tow; the scene nearly unrecognizable from when he had left.
His eyes panned the area quickly, darting from point to point with vigorous tension building in his chest. His eyes locked on a set of wings in the distance, and before he could study them further, his attention was torn away to a small, cloth-wrapped child closer to where they had appeared. He turned slowly back, looking to Akkey and Aria for any sign that they would stop him, but the duo seemed far too concerned with the current circumstances to notice. The deer let out a burdened sigh, knowing in his heart what he was going to do.
Without a moment to spare, his hooves bounded quickly to the abandoned infant. Dario knelt with caution, leaning close to observe before making any sudden movements. The child had not shown any visual movement from a distance, but up close, he could see tiny arms and legs trembling against the frigid ground beneath. Had this been any other day, Dario may have been able to deduce what he was looking at, but his adrenaline and impeded comprehension ensured that he would see nothing but a helpless child before him. His judgement was overwritten as he gently slid his hands under the cloth, lifting the infant carefully in his arms and resting it against his chest, heart pounding steadily as he studied it’s frail features. The note remained affixed; he had no intentions of carrying the weight of whatever it may have said.
The stag lightly trudged his way back over to Akkey and Aria, overly careful not to jolt the baby in any capacity. Dario took care to speak softly as he approached.
“What… what the Hel happened here?”
akkeyagentofhelheim
“I would also like to fucking know,” Akkey’s eyes were wide as she surveyed the scene, wishing she had seen the action properly for herself. But now was not the time. She shook herself out of her trance, twisting a foot for yet another exhausting portal.
Aria yelped from where she was trying to peek at the bundle Dario held in his arms as they were unexpectedly transported a few feet away from the huddle on the ground, stopping in their tracks when they spotted the large winged figure hovering above them. She was somehow familiar, despite Akkey having never seen her.
foresight-botgd
Milae wearily looked up from Yun and Juro’s unconscious forms, and none of them had ever seen the goat more relieved of fear and stress than now. He exhaled upon seeing Dario alive and well, a few more exhausted tears running down his face, and he got to his hooves as best as he could. Urdr steadied him, and then rose to one knee, regarding the newcomers with eyes like the void.
“You now have many burdens,” she spoke, her face still. “I will guide you to a safer area, and then I must rejoin my sisters. The All Mother caused…regrettable damage in her quest for power. We have many repairs to make.”
“Urdr–” Milae took a shaky step forward, and she rested a fingertip on his sternum, keeping him from advancing any further. The scars across his body glowed teal briefly with the contact.
“You are weak. We can speak later, after our seidkonur and bókari have recovered.” He nodded tiredly. The Norn rose to her full height, towering over the gathered group, and with a flap of her massive wings, they heard threads pluck cleanly and quietly, and then everyone was simply somewhere else. They were at the throat of the Jaw, and they could hear the very distant rumblings of the evacuation and see the edges of the crowd far off in the fields, seeming to be hovering in fear and concern at the lack of fighting for the past few minutes. Urdr nodded at the survivors, a massive golden scythe shimmering into her hand, and then she was gone.