Nightshade: Chapter XX
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XX–The Warden and The Calling
Orion looked out from the King's dining balcony, slowly turning the silver ring on his middle finger as he watched the waters of the sea below. The debris was nearly clear now, few villagers drifting out on small ships in search of material.
He gripped the yellow parchment with the missive from Callonwood with swirling letters. He knew he had to leave sometime, so why did it suddenly feel as if he was running away?
Angeana approached his back, touching him softly with affection. “She skipped our meal again. That’s the third day in a row. Perhaps you will speak to her after the hearing today?”
He glanced behind himself where servants cleared their breakfast from the long dining table. He did not blame her for wanting solitude from them all. Many of the truths she believed were upended, confronting her with how little of the past she knew for herself.
He had to focus on his missive hearing. There he would officially accept his task and be reassigned to Callonwood as a response to their request for reinforcements in holding the Caraxe path for Vertan. “Thinking for a while will do her good. She cannot act recklessly in her position.”
“Perhaps.” Angeana held the railing, viewing the city coast below as the waterfall bellowed. “I do not understand you sometimes. You say you fear being responsible for her yet you take it on so effortlessly.”
Orion sighed. “Because I am used to leading, mother.”
“Because you care for her. And you know you would do anything she asks. That’s why you’re afraid to speak to her.” Angeana watched him as he opened his mouth to argue, but closed it instantly. “It is not all duty to you. I know my son.”
Orion felt his cheeks warm as he scrunched his brows. “Mother…”
“Okay.” She said as she stopped her pushing. “You are not the only one who would do anything for their love. For your father I did many things, things that I would never have dreamed but for his happiness. This journey you are to take…it is a long one. A lonely one. And you will not be the same afterwards. Use this time to your benefit.” she stopped her leaning and patted his tunic before leaving him to this thoughts.
Orion breathed in the breeze and released his worries. His fear, his withholdings–would only delay the inevitable.
But she was not ready yet, and neither was he.
Lefelgd joined Orion’s side as he looked out onto the waters of the sea. Though its surface was calm and reflective–its waves hardly rolling through the belt of blue, deep within it trouble and turmoil stirred.
“You stayed quite a while on this visit. I am surprised it has taken you this long to ask for your missive.” Orion looked over his shoulder at his father as he joined his side. “Is your mother requesting you run away now that Noë knows?”
Orion shook his head. “Don’t blame her.” Knowing Noë, after reading the journal she would be jumping at the opportunity to venture long before she was ready. But first she had to learn constraint, control over the void before even thinking about starting her fated journey. And he would give her the space she needed to focus and do just that.
The distance would do them well.
Sensing he struck a nerve he touched Orion’s back lightly. “But you are running. It doesn’t matter why.”
A breath held between them as Orion doubted his actions. “I’m not ready to guide her, and she is not ready to be led. It is kinder to do this. If I led her this way–If something happened to her–”
Lefelgd sensed his doubt.
He knew it was true, but maintained his surprise. His son was seldom afraid of anything. To hear him so concerned over his partner in fate touched Lefelgd’s heart.
He sighed, touching the seal on the missive. “Come.”
Orion followed his father down the tower, arriving in the throne hall below where noble elves had begun to gather for his official departure hearing. There they stood overtly dressed, chains and livery collars showing their trusted wealth as they appeared before the royal family.
He searched the small crowd, scanning for midnight black hair. By the long windows he found her, looking out its panes, unconcerned with the fairings of court as the elves chattered amongst her, glancing at her several times over with whispers.
She stood draped in pale pink, a one shouldered gown adorned with pearls sitting firm on her hips and loose among her legs. Even in despair she was a vision.
Noë felt eyes on her and turned to the raised thrones, Lefelgd and Angeana now standing before everyone as Orion arrived behind his father, taking his place standing by his side with Aolis and Oncinth standing to their mother’s right.
She gave Orion a quarter smile, happy to see him looking so well. A doublet of royal blue laid on his tan skin, his hair darkened from its slickened back form to appear neat. He returned her smile and bowed his head incrementally to show his respect to her. She looked back to the window as his face hardened again before the nobles.
She had very nearly told Angeana no when she sent a servant to request her presence at the hearing today. But when she had thought to protest the servant had pressed on, informing her it had to do with Prince Orion.
Curiosity alone had led her to attend, yet still she felt she was not ready. The burden of discovering her task was wearing on her, and she was finding it harder and harder to shut the voices of others out of her mind and maintain the quiet.
Her father was out there and all had known but her.
Even Orion.
Somehow she had to save him, keep her promise to Tihala, and end Fimbulwinter not just for one realm, but all nine.
Baldur’s guide was cryptic and all consuming. She had no way of knowing where to start or how to get there, only that she was to have help from the fates through their vessel–Orion.
She took deep breaths and shut her eyes as she felt the cold dispersing to her fingertips.
Orion’s eyes narrowed as he saw her hair curling white at its ends, her eyes hidden as she squeezed them shut amongst the murmuring. ‘Noë?’ he called within his mind, hoping she would hear it.
She opened her eyes and looked to him, hearing him louder than all the others as their thoughts collided against her own.
She focused on his alone.
He saw her head turn to him, a pearl drop earring swinging against her lobe and neck, her hair pulled halfway up into a crown on her head. ‘The void is yours. It can only do what you allow it to.’
Incapable of fighting him, she nodded.
As she looked away, Lefelgd began to address the nobility as Orion stood unconvinced beside him.
The night of Tihala’s visit had shaken her, and she still had not recovered. He doubted she ever would.
“Thank you all for attending. Today we recognize and thank the protection and service bestowed on us by Prince Orion and fulfil a request for assistance from our brothers at Callonwood.” At the mention of their human compatriots many of the elves spoke in hushed whispers in detest.
Noë shut their hateful comments away as she heard it for herself.
Orion was going to Callonwood.
She looked at him on the platform, question on her concerned face as he looked back at her. ‘You’re leaving?’
He did not answer for fear of disappointing her further.
Noë’s lip lifted in anger, clearly stating her disappointment as she turned away from him and out of the throne room towards the east wing.
Compelled to go after her, Orion stayed in place, meeting his mother’s concerned gaze as she watched Noë leave.
Noë climbed the steps to the living quarters two at a time, eager to hide in the confines of her room high up where no one could reach her, or cloud her thoughts with their own.
How long was she to suffer? To be taunted with the paradise of others while her own laid out of reach?
This divine place she had at once been enraptured by was quickly turning into a prison just as she once believed the cottage to be. After some time, she heard the door open and shut.
She felt his presence slip against her own as he neared, holding her shoulders as she leaned on the terrace over the valley.
“For how long?” she said finally working up the strength to speak.
Orion did not know.
“I was due there right after I brought you to Tiere, but…I stayed longer than expected. It may be some time before I can return.” More undead dwellers were trying their hand at Vertan’s entrances each day, and Callonwood was carrying a heavy burden. “I stay there months–years at a time occasionally.”
“Years?” she said in outrage as she turned to face him. If she needed him to start this journey, how was she to put it off for that long?
She caught herself as her questioning turned selfish.
If a settlement needed him, of course he should go. The hope he inspired in the humans was clear. It was as Lefelgd said, Orion was the finest help Callonwood or any settlement could hope for.
She turned her gaze to the journals she left on her bed, Aren circling outside the window high up against the mountains. “I still don’t understand.”
He saw her confusion as she tried to make sense of it all.
He took her palm within his own. Noë felt a tickle in her upturned palm as his fingertips made a circle within it. Round and round, pale meeting tanned brown.
“Our realms sit here, tied together on a fine thin golden line, circling around Yggdrasil at their own pace. It is by fate they are strung, and by fate they are led. They round once, then again–maybe longer this time–and again–perhaps shorter now, over and over again in balance as it was in creation and will be even in death.”
“How many times have we been around?” she questioned in whisper as they drew close, entranced by his motion within her palm.
“There’s no way to know. But we are not the first, and we cannot be the last.” he stopped circling and swept her palm as if his fingers were water trickling down her wrist. “And from our circle pours life into worlds beyond our realms fed by the waters of the Three Wells of Yggdrasil. Wells in which live the Norns, threading the gold line for our realms and for each lifeline within it–yours and mine. And with their creation they foretell an ending, an ending that has come and gone many times with little to fear.”
“Ragnarök.” Noë said confidently.
“Ragnarök.” he confirmed, stopping his hand's descent down her wrist. “Beginning with Odin who sacrifices his eye to see the future for his own gain, to assume control over what he could never hope to grasp. He leads the Gods to their own ends, and falls despite his attempt to cheat fate. Surtr appears, vengeful above all, tearing the veils between realms and igniting the bifrost, covering Yggdrasil and all realms in fertile ash from which the next will grow. Imrad finds peace by fire from its long-suffered war and all begins again.”
She furrowed her brows. “But that did not happen this time. My mother sacrificed herself so that we could live.”
He nodded. “In each turn fate varies here and there, perhaps a name or face changes, but all happens as it should. And occasionally it diverges–as it did with Aztrit’s sacrifice–widening its berth as the cycle is disrupted by the choices we make. Perhaps this time it is Hel that takes greedily, attempting to control the void she discovers through hatred for her father, but the next it is Odin that succumbs to the void, returning over and over for answers as his only love and daughter die, ending the realms prematurely from his frantic action, taking the fight to Surtr instead of lying in wait in an attempt to rewrite what was meant for him.”
“And which is this?” she spoke as he paused.
“This is a tale seldom told as Hel attempts to control the void only to realise she is its slave and its true master is that of her own blood. In her attempt to force this mastery she seals away the wells, drying them and ceasing the rotation of life before it may come to its end. For it is through the void that each well is connected.”
He looked outward. “Somewhere throughout the realms lies Udarbrunnr, well of the Norn Urd, keeper of the past in which we mourn. Hvergelmir, well of the Norn Verdandi, keeper of the present in which we find peace. And Mimmisbrunner, wells of the Norn Skuld, keeper of the future in which we seek wisdom. Each world has a well, but only three are the origin of the Norns.” He released her hand. “And only a Herald can take you to them.”
She looked into his eyes. “So you do know where they are? Right now?”
“Think of them not as physical spaces, but as moments that we seek permission to enter into. There are gateways in which you make your request as it is in Helheim where Urd’s Well of Mourning can be sought. In this cycle it was Hel who gained access to Odin and diverged him to drink from the well of mourning instead of Skuld’s Well of Wisdom; turning his mind to her own devices and turning his face to slaughter her kin–your father, and his own–your mother, to gain access to you.”
She looked onto the valley as Aren soared above the ravine, wind pouring between the mountains shielding them. How long would it take for Hel to find her here?
In every way she was unprepared, with no control over the power she was given. How could she protect anyone near her when Hel eventually caught on?
Now she understood why he had made her swear to not go seeking her. It seemed that so much could be solved if she went to her on her own accord: her father could be freed, and realms reset just as they should be instead of the extended period of war and starvation they faced now. But they would be reset to Hel’s design and without mastery of the void, Noë would be incapable of defying her.
“Okay, we discover the wells and then what?”
He watched Aren soar alongside her. “And then, you reset them. One by one–leaving Helheim for last–and restart the cycle.”
She felt her heart pound, stress increasing her heart rate as she thought on the epic task. “What happens to everyone living? To you?”
He leaned against the terrace railing, folding his arms across his chest.
He spoke honestly. “I don't know. I suppose it's up to you. I’m just to lead you there.”
She sighed into the wind, feeling the cool air passing her cheeks. There was so much to discover about what was happening around them, so many questions he felt she would never have answered. How had Baldur known this was all to unfold? Was she just following maddened scrawlings from a God she knew only through her aunt's stories?
“Do you know if I’ll be able to save my father? If…maybe I’ve done it before?”
He looked at her quietly, knowing where her mind was heading. “Not all things are meant to be saved.”
She shook her head, “But I could save him, right? If we’re going to Helheim anyway?”
“Only to gain access to the well, prolonging our stay right under Hel’s nose would be incredibly dangerous–”
“But she wouldn’t expect it, would she?” Noë challenged.
Orion hardened his stare. “Yes…she would. You are your mother’s daughter. Freeing your father is predictable and unsafe. Noë, you cannot be this reckless–”
She closed her eyes tight as she heard her aunt’s words through his lips, “Don’t you dare tell me not to be reckless. This whole journey is reckless and I cannot be faulted for wanting to save my father.” she opened her eyes to meet his refusal as he shook his head.
He brought his face close to her own, wanting her to hear his every word. “I will not take you to your death. Do you understand?” He saw fight in her silver eyes as she silently defied him. “Your father knew what was in store for him, and accepted capture for your safety, and you still want to throw it away.”
Noë felt her eyes tear as his voice took a razor's edge to her resolve. “I want to save him and I can’t do it on my own. Why can’t you understand?”
He let go of his frustration and took her shoulders in his palms with a sigh. “I do understand.” He brought her into his chest as she began to cry.
He stroked her soft hair, his heart hurting with her own. Nothing was final now, they had a while yet before decisions were to be made. For now he would allow her to keep her dream of her father alive and well.
Noë felt his presence mix with her own as her mind filled with his vision. There in the mead hall she saw her parents dancing together, lit by lanterns hanging before grand multi-coloured glass mosaics, joy clear on their faces as they celebrated amongst elves and man alike.
She clung to Orion’s doublet as he shared his memory, giving her hope that one day she would see them like that once more.
To be continued...