Chapter 3
"…and I had a feeling we should stop and see what that smoke was." Belldandy concluded as they pulled up outside the temple gate.
Jadwel had related an account of her afternoon, and neither of the women had shown any surprise at Aoshima's misdeeds. Belldandy had done her best not to laugh at another's misfortune, but Sayoko hadn't even tried to hold it in. Jadwel remembered, just in time, that she couldn't mention magic in front of Belldandy and the mortal, and simply told them that 'something went wrong' with Aoshima's vehicle. They'd have to make of that whatever they would. She'd deliver her full report to Lind later.
Sayoko declined Belldandy's invitation to stay, and unlocked the trunk. Belldandy removed three bags, two clearly full of various foods, the third bearing a stylized logo, its contents indeterminate from the outside. Norn and Valkyrie climbed the front steps as the car turned around and headed back to Nekomi. Jadwel would have liked to assist her, but she was still on duty and had to remain unencumbered. She felt Lind open the barrier for them, then restore it behind them.
Lind stood between the house and temple, confirming that they were who they appeared to be. Jadwel gave her a quick salute, fist to chest, and she nodded in return and resumed her rounds. Gunnr nodded to them from the porch as they approached. Jadwel stopped to talk with her fellow Valkyrie as Belldandy continued into the house.
Putting the groceries away was a matter of five minutes or so, and then she needed to stop at the bathroom before heading towards the sleeping quarters.
Tinkering sounds came from Skuld's room, silence from the others. She tapped on Keiichi's door. "Keiichi?" She waited, then hesitantly opened it and gazed at the empty room, disappointed.
She tried Urd's room next, got a distracted "Yeah?" and decided to take it as an invitation.
Urd's workbench was covered with…stuff. Vials, tubes and flasks of various colored liquids, in racks or sitting in small clusters, jars of granulated substances or irregular lumps, and a few sealed bottles of swirling vapors. Some of them glowed. Something blue and murky bubbled over a small flame, giving off faint wisps of purple fumes. There was no candle or burner producing the flame, it just was.
Urd herself was studying a matrix of multicolored luminous runes that hovered in the air before her. "Almost there. Give me another half hour and I'll know what's what with this damn potion," she said without turning away.
There were more runes, many more, than the space should have been able to contain. They extended into the higher dimensions Mara's potion forbade them to think about. A mortal wouldn't even see them. Urd used her fingertips to move a few of the runes around, flicked another one and it vanished in a tiny puff of orange smoke.
Belldandy didn't reply. She couldn't. Her mind refused to accept the things she was seeing.
Urd noticed the silence after a few more seconds and turned towards the door. "Lind?" Their eyes met and her face instantly broke into a huge smile of pleased relief. "Bell! You're back! Are you okay? Is…everything okay?"
Belldandy shook her head helplessly, denying everything about the situation.
Her sister understood the problem at once and rose to her feet. "Here, let's go to your room. Mine's kind of, ah, not fit for company right now."
Back in the hall with the door shut on all those impossible sights, Belldandy's condition improved rapidly. She accompanied Urd to her door, then asked, "Where's Keiichi?"
"Tamiya and Otaki drafted him for something about an hour after you left," she said, relieved. "They'll probably keep him out half the night, but I'm sure he'll be fine." Lind would have told her if he'd left the Nekomi Motor Club.
"Oh…"
"Miss him, Bell?"
Belldandy fidgeted nervously. "Yes. I want— I want him here. I need…"
Urd stepped forward and held her shoulders, lightly. Belldandy flung her arms around her big sister and clung tight, trembling. She returned the hug gratefully. "It'll be all right, Bell. I'm almost done analyzing the — drug. Preparing the antidote shouldn't take too long. And until then, you know I'll be here for you, right?"
Belldandy squeezed tighter, and nodded. After a couple of minutes she relaxed and stepped back. The shopping bag, still in her hand, crackled. Urd looked, recognized the logo, and chuckled. "Been shopping, I see. Whaj'ya get?"
"Some…things," she said, blushing.
"Oho! Sister mine, are you telling me you've finally decided to emerge from the Victorian Age? Show me, show me!"
"Um, they're a little…"
"Think you're going to shock me? Come on, Belldandy, you know what I wear."
She giggled. "Everybody knows what you wear."
"So, show me. Let your Big Sis see what you bought."
A short time later they sat on the floor in Belldandy's room, packages of unmentionables piled between them. Urd looked through the various items with approval, and only a few teasing comments. "Sayoko dragged you in there, huh? Well, I see you've still got your unerring sense of style. Any of these will look great on you," she said, then resumed her teasing tone. "And I'm sure Keiichi will appreciate them, too."
"Urd!" she squeaked, blushing even more.
"That's what they're for, Bell," Urd said insistently. "Not to be neglected in your closet, or wasted looking at yourself in the mirror." She chuckled and said challengingly, "Tell me you weren't thinking about Keiichi when you got them."
"Urd…" she protested weakly.
"See, I knew it. Now," she looked everything over speculatively, "you just have to decide which ones to wear first."
Belldandy shook her head. "Oh, no, I couldn't…"
"Sure you can," her sister encouraged her. "Just take them out of the packages and put them on. It's simple, just pick a couple and go for it."
She was still shaking her head.
"Come on, Belldandy, you can do it," Urd coaxed her. "You know me. I'll never stop, so you might as well give in now and save us both the trouble."
That at least got a giggle out of her.
"There's nothing to be nervous about," she reassured the reluctant Goddess. "Keiichi's not even here, Skuld's busy in her room, and the— Lind's squad, are out patrolling the grounds. Nobody but you and me."
After a few more minutes of Urd's relentless entreaties, she poked through her selection, but couldn't make up her mind. Urd laughed and made suggestions, and she wound up picking the very items Sayoko had specified as part of her 'deal'. Urd congratulated her on the choice, then spent still more time persuading her to actually disrobe, and put them on.
"You look great, Bell, just great," her big sister assured her. "Now you need to get comfortable with wearing them. Keep them on under your clothes, all day. Nobody else will even know." She giggled. "And you can try imagining how Keiichi would react, if he knew your secret."
That got a much bigger giggle.
Urd hugged her again. "I've got to get back to work on your antidote, but if you need anything, just knock on my door, let me know it's you and I'll be right out. Okay?"
She returned the hug and smiled, more at ease now. "All right. Thank you."
"You don't need to thank me. I'm your Big Sister, and I love you. I'll do anything for you."
Belldandy nodded, squeezed her tight one last time and let go. "I'll do anything for you, too. You know that."
"Course I do. We're sisters. We're always there for each other." Urd smiled, and returned to her work with a fresh sense of determination. That potion didn't stand a chance!
Belldandy stood in front of her mirror again. She looked…very different. She felt different. Trying these…articles on briefly in a store, making decisions, had been distracting. Now she had time to think, to feel. She nibbled her lip. There was a slight temptation to take them off, abandon the experiment, but…
I look good. Why did I never try this before? What was holding me back?
She put a blouse and knee-length skirt on over her naughty undies, and checked the mirror again. No trace of them showed now. She felt a little thrill, like she was going undercover, her secret unsuspected by those around her. This could be…fun.
She puttered around the house, cleaning up, until it was time to start supper. Keiichi's absence gnawed at her, much more than she was accustomed to.
Urd glowered resentfully at the complex array of runes that floated above her workbench, mocking her. She had finished analyzing Mara's potion more than an hour ago and something just didn't add up. She was completely confident that she had identified every ingredient, every production step, every incantation and application of demonic energy, the exact timing of each…she could whip up a batch herself in a few hours if she wanted to. She fully understood the accursed stuff.
So why wasn't it doing what it had to do, being what it was? Its effects were as clear as everything else about it; Mara had done a competent job of turning out a perfectly straightforward mind-altering potion. It would make any mortal reject magic, supernatural phenomena, and non-human presences. It should hardly have affected Belldandy and Skuld at all.
Yggdrasil agreed with her. She'd run simulations, after her analysis was complete, with slight variations of temperatures, timing, and other factors, and any change at all would produce something that did not match the potion sitting right in front of her. There was only one way to make what she had found in Belldandy's tea, and she had worked it out.
What should be happening was, Keiichi should be repelled from Belldandy, should be rejecting her, should have immediately repudiated his wish and removed any reason for three Goddesses — well, two and a half, anyway — to continue hanging around Midgard. That had been Mara's obsession for the last two years, and this only her latest attempt.
Instead, all three of them were unable to accept the existence of magic, Goddesses and anything else beyond the strict physical laws of Midgard. Instead of tearing Belldandy and Keiichi apart, it appeared to have driven them closer together.
Most of those effects could not be explained by the formulation of the potion that had been put in their tea.
She felt a strong temptation to go beat some answers out of Mara, but it wouldn't do much good. It might give her some satisfaction, but Mara didn't have the answers she needed in the first place. It would just be a waste of time.
She gritted her teeth. When this was over, she'd have time. Mara would find out the hard way just what Urd, Goddess Second Class, Limited could do with time, and a grudge. Demon First Class or no, she would not enjoy her edification.
I am missing something. What is it? Why didn't this dratted potion do what it had to do?
Something must have altered its effects, but what? It couldn't be the tea; the potion had been specifically formulated to blend in with this specific type of tea, so it wouldn't be detected. What else had it been mixed with? Water, and honey, she recalled. Belldandy liked to sweeten her tea with honey. It couldn't have been the water — adding hot water to tea was kind of a requirement.
Could it have been the honey? Mara did tend to be careless, and often failed to allow for the unexpected. That was one of the prime causes of her frequent failures. Interactions with substances she hadn't anticipated being mixed with her potion would not be surprising. Indeed, Urd had noted a few things about the recipe that she would have done differently.
She moved her samples of the tea they'd been drinking out front. There wasn't much; Belldandy had finished hers, and the other two had left very little. Barely enough to tell that they did indeed contain the potion, honey, and the tiniest trace of celestial magic, no doubt a residue from when Belldandy prepared the tea. Not nearly enough to determine what had happened to the potion.
There was no honey in her much larger sample from the teapot, as expected. This one was big enough for her to confirm that the potion remained its original nasty self, and would have produced the expected effects. Evidence against the honey was mounting.
Time to go find some more answers. She stretched, thankful again for her non-cracking-and-popping immortal joints, and made her way to the kitchen where Belldandy was just starting supper. Now that she knew to look for it, she sensed the faint aura of magic permeating the kitchen. The stove, the rice cooker, even the pots and knives, all seemed to exude a kind of quiet contentment as Belldandy put them to their proper uses. Two years basking in her magic had brought them all to a sort of quasi-life.
"Hey, Bell."
"Urd?" She sounded a little uneasy.
"I've run into a bit of a roadblock, and maybe you can help. You put honey in that tea, right?"
"Yes…"
"Do you have any of it left?"
"Just a little. Why?"
"I need to analyze it. I think it might have interacted with the drug, and changed its effects."
"Oh." Belldandy looked even more uneasy. "Drug interactions can be bad, can't they?"
Urd smiled reassuringly. "They can, but I think this one has already done its worst."
Belldandy opened a cupboard and took out a pink stoneware crock, decorated with a floral design. "Here's what's left."
Urd accepted the jar, and found a distinct residue of magic on it. "Where did you get this?"
"It's a gift from Peorth. Is that important?"
"It could be. I think it's…foreign." That was an understatement! Heavenly honey, made from Peorth's own Elysian Roses, by celestial bees, gathered and prepared by Peorth herself…she was surprised the magic on it wasn't a lot stronger. "How long have you been using this?"
"About a week. I've used it in a lot of things."
Urd took the lid off and looked inside, finding only a little honey in the bottom of a crock that had once held half a liter or so. That explained where all the magic had gone. Belldandy liked to use honey instead of sugar in many of her recipes.
"I'll probably have to use all of this up for analysis," she said regretfully.
"Well, there's no help for it, is there?" Belldandy replied. "I've got more honey, just not that kind."
"Thanks, Belldandy." She went on, trying to be reassuring, "I'm close. Once I figure out what happened between the, drug, and this honey, I should be ready to start on the antidote. Hang in there."
That got a wan smile. "It will be nice to have all this over with." The smile got bigger. "But don't miss supper. I know how you get when you're working on something. I'll send Skuld to fetch you, if you're late."
"I'll be there!" Urd assured her sister, with just a hint of comical desperation. "You don't have to do anything that extreme!"
They both laughed. "Only if I have to," Belldandy warned her.
"All right," Urd said, still chuckling. "Say, are you still wearing your…new clothes?"
"Urd!" She blushed, giggled, and nodded.
"Well, good for you. Before long, you'll be ready to show Keiichi." She grinned at her sister's expression. "Meanwhile, I've got to get back to work."
Half an hour later, Urd scowled at the runes again. She was close now, Peorth's honey was one of the last variables, but she'd used it all up and Yggdrasil's results still didn't match her observations. There had to be at least one more factor, something she was still missing. There was one place she might find the answer. She got up, went to the hallway, and punched a long series of numbers into the phone.
It burred twice, then clicked. "Oui?"
"Peorth, it's Urd. I've got a problem. Have you heard about Belldandy and Skuld?"
"Oui. A potion, was it? Demonic?"
"That's right. One of Mara's little schemes. She put it in the tea, Belldandy added some of the honey you gave her, and it looks like the potion reacted with it."
"Merde!" the Rose Goddess exclaimed.
"Yeah, I said something of the sort myself, when I figured it out. Thing is, I've analyzed both the potion and what's left of your honey down to their constituent quarks, and the equations still won't balance. Something's missing."
"Something?" Now the voice on the phone sounded evasive.
Urd was in no mood for nonsense. "Peorth, I charge you by your oath as a Goddess First Class, is there something I need to know about that crock of honey? You can tell me, or you can tell Father. Your choice."
"Now, now, there is no need to be so unpleasant." Peorth sounded both irritated, and nervous. "I merely cast a simple, harmless little spell on it."
"Need I ask," Urd said heavily, "what kind of a spell it was?"
"It was a love spell, of course," she said defensively. "A benign, subtle enchantment that would have no effect on those not already in love."
"And for two people who are in love?"
"It would bring them closer together."
"What if they were under a great deal of stress? Worried, unsure of themselves, even scared?"
"It should bring them much closer. They would comfort each other, support each other, depend on each other."
"And it wouldn't have more…direct effects?"
"I am a Love Goddess, not a madam," she snapped.
"Okay, okay, don't get your panties in a wad. I had to ask. If I don't know everything about all the components, the antidote could be…off."
"Oh," Peorth said, somewhat mollified. "No, nothing like that. I do have my standards, whether some people understand that or not. Anyway, love is always the best aphrodisiac."
"If you say so. And I have my own standards, whatever some people think."
"I suppose you do understand. So, do you have enough information now?"
"I think I know what happened, at least. Belldandy added your honey, loaded with celestial magic and your little love-spell, to tea with a mind-altering potion in it. Mara's not good at allowing for variables, so they interacted, both constructively and destructively, and now two Goddesses and a mortal think they're crazy every time they see magic."
"That Mara," the Rose Goddess said with asperity. "Always tres negligent. She should be sent back to Demon School, or something, so she won't be such an embarrassment to those of us who know what we're doing."
"I'm gonna school her ass, when I'm done dealing with this disaster," Urd growled darkly. "I've got some ideas—" She stopped, and focused on the matter at hand. "Do you remember the spell you used? Exactly, every detail?"
"Of course I remember!" she said, incensed. "I am not sloppy and careless."
"Okay, good. Can you get another crock of that honey, cast the same spell on it, and bring it to me? From the same batch, if possible. And try to match as many details of the spell as you can. Put the crock on the same spot on the table, even, when you cast it. I'm dealing with more variables than I like as it is."
"This is for Belldandy, and Keiichi, oui? And Skuld, of course."
"Yes. They're my sisters, and he's my friend. A good friend."
"D'accord. It will take an hour or two."
"I've got some preparations I can make in the meantime. Are you going to use the Gate, or should I dig out a camera?"
"The Gate. Your Father is being very…insistent about getting this matter resolved. Anything to do with it has a very high priority. You did notice he sent four Valkyries?"
"All right, I'll expect you in a hour or two, then. If it's closer to an hour, you should be in time for supper. Whatever that potion did, Bell's still as good a cook as ever."
"I will do my best. Au revoir."
"Good-bye." She hung up the phone. She could hear Belldandy humming to herself in the kitchen, as she often did when she cooked. She could almost pretend that nothing was wrong…
Urd shook off the temptation. Things would get back to normal when she solved the last equation, synthesized the antidote potion and got all three of them to take it. She returned to her room, but stopped at the door, bothered by something she couldn't pin down, until she realized that it was the lack of sounds issuing from Skuld's Laboratory. She could sense her youngest sister's presence inside, but she didn't seem to be doing anything. That was almost unheard-of for the Norn of the Future.
"Skuld?" she called outside her door. No answer. She slid the panel open a short ways, and looked into the room. Skuld sat staring at something she'd been building, with a confused, lost expression. Urd nibbled her lip, then opened the door far enough to step inside and closed it behind her. She knelt beside her sister, not too close.
"Trouble?" she asked, low and soothing.
Skuld seemed not to have heard her, but then shook her head slowly and said in a tortured voice, "I don't know what this thing is."
Urd looked at it again. "It looks like another one of your crazy inventions."
"I can see that. I remember building it. I know what it's supposed to be when it's finished. But I can't…" She raised her hands, spread as if to take hold of something that she expected to be right in front of her but was not there. "…I can't figure out how I built it, or what comes next. I try to work it out, I start to get it, but then it's like it takes a wrong turn off to someplace I can't follow." She finally looked away from the enigmatic device, up at her big sister's face. "What's happening to me?"
"It's the drug," she said, still soothing. "It's messing with your mind, keeping you from thinking straight. Pushing back against it won't do any good. The harder you try, the worse it's going to make you feel."
Skuld nodded miserably. "You got that right." She looked at the mysterious contraption again, then back to Urd. "What can I do?"
She smiled. "Try to put it out of your mind. Relax. Read your manga. Watch TV. Go outside, get some fresh air, look at the birds." She chuckled. "Get one of the Val— the soldiers, to give you some combat lessons. I'm making good progress. It won't be too much longer." She stood up, and turned to the door.
"Okay, Sis," Skuld said reluctantly. She really wanted to work on her inventions, but now, when she most needed to lose herself in her work, she couldn't even think about them without that confusion, that feeling of wrongness. Urd gave her another smile, and returned to her own room, her own work.
Staring at her half-finished whatsit got her nothing but frustration. She thought about manga, and TV, but neither prospect held much appeal. nor did staying in her room. She stood up, let herself out, and slid the door shut behind her. Belldandy was in the kitchen, making supper, so she wouldn't have any attention to spare. She got kind of…focused, on her cooking.
She stopped by the bathroom, not from any real need, but mostly because she couldn't think of what else to do. She made her way through the house, noted in passing that Belldandy was as absorbed in her work as she'd expected, and finally wandered out the front door. Birds were no more or less interesting than anything else at the moment. Sitting in a chair near the door, watching the yard, was one of the four soldiers who'd showed up that morning, the beautiful red-haired one named…Jadwel, that was it.
"Jadwel? Are you busy?"
"Hi, Skuld-san. Not really. i'm just on standby right now. Nothing to do unless something happens."
"Do you expect something to happen?"
"Yes. And no. It's not about expecting, it's about being ready for whatever might happen."
"Why are you here?" She took another chair, a short distance from Jadwel.
The Valkyrie smiled. "I'm a— a soldier. My commanding officer sayeth unto me, 'Go', and I go. Today, she told me to go here."
"But, why? Why send four soldiers here, to guard an old temple?"
She smiled again. "They usually don't tell us why. Defend this, attack that, guard these people until relieved. It lets us concentrate on doing the job, without distractions."
"Oh."
"On the other hand, I'm not a drone. I do think about why, during my own time, and make some guesses. Usually they're pretty good guesses. Today, my guess is we're here to protect you and your sisters while you're vulnerable."
That didn't make much sense. "Protect us from what?"
Jadwel paused. They'd been briefed about the situation — and with Lind, 'brief' was exactly the right word — and she'd spent some fifteen minutes in Sayoko's car talking with her and Belldandy. She had gotten a feel for what she could and couldn't say to a Goddess under the influence of that demon's potion.
"You and your sisters are related to some important people," she explained. "Somebody has already struck at you once, by drugging your tea. My commanders, and the people above them, are probably concerned that it might have been only a precursor to a more serious attack. We're here to ensure that such a follow-up attack will not succeed, and put some real hurt on anybody that does try to take advantage of your condition."
Skuld thought her words over. "So that's why they sent two of you out after Belldandy. You found her, right?"
Jadwel grimaced. "Not really. I was out looking for her, but mostly, I let some low-life waste my time."
"But, you brought her back."
The Valkyrie chuckled self-deprecatingly. "More like, she brought me. I was looking at a long walk back from some sex hotel that asshole took me to while pretending to help me look for her, and then she just kind of popped up on her own. She found me, more than I found her."
Skuld looked at her, puzzled. "Most of that doesn't make much sense."
She sighed. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to me now, either. That mor— on, was one smooth talker. Said he was a friend of Belldandy's, and would help me find her. I think he was lying."
"Who was the moron?" she asked suspiciously. "Do you remember his name?"
"It will be a while before I can forget that name." Jadwel said with disgust. "He must have repeated it thirty times. Toshiyuki Aoshima," She mocked his self-important tone when she said it.
"Aoshima!" Skuld blurted out. "That sleazy pervert!"
"I made the same assessment," she replied with a twisted half-smile. "I'm glad you concur."
"He's been after Onee-chan since forever. She doesn't like him, and she likes everybody. But she acts nice to him, so he keeps trying."
"Hmph. I don't think it has anything to do with her. I didn't act nice to him, and he kept trying anyway."
"Was that why he left you at the, uh, hotel?"
"Not exactly. He was stranded there, too. His car caught on fire."
"It did?" Skuld's whole face lit up with malicious glee. "Serves him right. What else happened to him?"
"Well, he was sitting in it when it caught fire, so he got completely covered in some really nasty, oily sooty crap that came pouring out." She giggled. "He was wearing a white suit, too. Was."
Skuld laughed out loud. "Then what happened?"
"I asked again, where Belldandy was, and he finally admitted he didn't know. I yelled at him one last time, and started that long walk back, and then Sayoko drove up, with Belldandy. He tried to get a ride with her, but she refused. She said he was too filthy to put in the trunk."
Skuld laughed harder. "Sayoko's his cousin, and a stuck-up rich bitch, and even she doesn't like him. I don't think anybody does, really, but he's got a lot of money so they let him push them around."
"That's the impression I got, that he was accustomed to having his own way," Jadwel snickered nastily. "Well, he didn't have his way with me. I told him to go take care of his own sexual frustrations, right there in the lobby."
Skuld laughed some more. "I wish Onee-chan would tell him that. Then he might leave her alone."
"I thought he had an unhealthy interest in Belldandy. He asked me some very personal questions about her, things I don't know, and wouldn't talk about if I did."
"That…" Skuld growled, but was apparently unable to come up with anything bad enough. "You should have beat the shit out of him."
"Believe me, I was tempted. Especially after he grabbed my leg for the tenth or twelfth time. But," she peered intensely into the young Goddess's eyes, "I'm a soldier. I'm trained to fight, and kill, enemy soldiers, and I'm very, very good at it. I could have beaten the shit out of Aoshima. I could have killed the little wanker, without even trying. But with that kind of power come heavy responsibilities. I can't go around beating and killing everybody that pisses me off, no matter how tempting it can be sometimes. Or how much I might think they deserve it. Me fighting that— that civilian, would be like a tiger fighting a rat. It wouldn't prove anything." She snorted. "Kicking his ass wouldn't even be satisfying."
"I still wish you'd beaten the shit out of him," Skuld said stubbornly.
"I think he had a bad enough day without me beating him up."
"I hope so." It was a fine afternoon, not too hot, and Skuld looked out across the temple grounds, still restless, still finding nothing she wanted to do.
Lind walked around the end of the house, watching everything at once. She gave them both a slight smile as she passed. She would continue her watch, sometimes still, sometimes moving, always by different routes, never repeating any predictable routine. In another half hour she would be relieved by Gunnr and get a few hours sleep.
Jadwel was good company, talking or not. They gazed at the small bits of Nekomi they could see, felt the wind, watched the trees sway, saw Lind walk past a few more times. Banpei was patrolling, too, keeping his distance from the Valkyries. They saw Sigel a couple of times, keeping her distance from Banpei. Skuld began to feel better than she had since…since their morning tea, when her whole life had suddenly stopped making sense. Urd and Jadwel must be right, there had been something dastardly in that tea. She could only hope Urd was right about making an antidote, too.
She'd certainly been right about getting her mind off things. By the time Belldandy announced supper, she was actually feeling relaxed.
"See you later, Jadwel. It's been nice talking to you."
The Valkyrie smiled. "You, too, Skuld-san. Later."
Supper was a rather quiet and awkward affair. Skuld sat in Keiichi's usual place, the end of the table to Belldandy's left, Urd to her right. One of them would start to say something, only to run into topics involving magic, or other realms, and stumble to a confused halt. Urd assured them that she was making progress, but was unable to provide them with any details they could accept.
Halfway through the meal, Urd felt the Gate activate. Belldandy and Skuld must feel it too, but they would be rejecting any knowledge of what that feeling meant. With the Valkyries' barrier in place, Peorth would have to be set down outside the temple compound. The most convenient place was in front of the main gate. The Valkyries would let her in, and she'd be here in a minute or two. Explaining to her sisters how she knew all that would be problematic, so she'd pretend she didn't.
When the knock came, Urd stood up. "I'll get it."
As expected, Peorth stood on the porch. "I brought what you asked for."
She nodded and murmured, "Give it to me after supper," then raised her voice. "Good evening, Peorth. We're just having supper. Will you join us?"
"Certainement, Urd." she replied with a smile.
Urd shut the door, and led the way back to the table. "Look who's here," she announced.
Peorth smiled. "Belldandy! Skuld! I am so sorry to hear about your troubles. Urd-chan asked me to stop by and consult with her about the antidote, so of course I came. If there's anything else I can do to help you, just ask."
"I invited her to have supper with us," Urd informed them. "I'm already up, so I'll get her a plate."
They all settled in to finish their meal. Peorth chatted cheerfully with them, and Urd had to poke her under the table with her toe, several times, to stop her talking about forbidden subjects. She was both regretful, and resentful. The meal ended without any major incidents, and Skuld helped Belldandy clean up as Peorth and Urd retired to her room.
As soon as the door shut, Peorth pulled out a crock of honey with a flourish. It looked nearly identical to the first one, and Urd could feel its inherent magic without even touching it. She made a quick check of the love-spell.
"Harmless little spell, huh?" she challenged the Rose Goddess. "Sucker's got some real kick to it."
"You must admit, Keiichi is un peu obstiné," she replied defensively. "It takes a lot to get through his hard head."
Urd chuckled. "You've got a point. Did you bring a copy of the source?
"Oui." Peorth gestured, and a small runic matrix opened beside Urd's larger one.
The Norn studied them both, spoke a few words, and swept them together, merging Peorth's 'harmless little love-spell' into her analysis of the potion. She took the crock, set it on her workbench and opened the lid, releasing a fresh wave of magic. She drew out a sample, measured it into a test tube, added a solution she had prepared, and set it on a little stand that placed it in just the right position in her multi-dimensional array of runes. She touched half a dozen runes with her fingertips and spoke in Yggdrasil's programming language.
Runes blinked, changed colors, shifted around, and morphed into different runes. The liquid turned yellow, then blue, then shaded slightly to greenish and stopped there. One by one, the runes stabilized in a new configuration. Two of them seemed uncertain of where they belonged until Urd touched them and spoke a few more words. One of them locked into place, the other one changed color.
Peorth looked on, impressed. This was very high-level magic, and Urd performed it with care and confidence. The Norn turned to her. "Will you cross-check?"
"Oui." She touched various runes, spoke a few words, but nothing changed. "Analysis complete, and confirmed. This is the final form of the potion that has affected Belldandy, Keiichi and Skuld."
Urd blew out a sigh of relief, set the sample tube aside, put the cover back on the honey crock and handed it to Peorth. "Take that spell off and you can give this to Belldandy, to replace what I had to use up. Oh, and there's the empty. I'm sure you can use it."
"Are you sure? From what I see here, without my spell Keiichi would almost certainly have left Belldandy and canceled his wish."
Urd just looked at her.
"Oui, oui, d'accord, the spell has done its work anyway. I will remove it before giving it to her." No more need be said; the word of a Goddess First Class was inviolate. She wouldn't try to weasel around her promise by re-casting it, or casting a different spell, either.
Urd studied the array in more detail, now that it was complete. "Looks like your honey did more than just change the potion's effects, it enhanced the stuff too. The original would have worn off in two or three days, but this beast will last more than two weeks."
Peorth was studying it beside her. "And then it will slowly fade over several days. They will become quite disturbed as their original memories and thought patterns re-emerge, and conflict with the lingering effects. Mara has much to answer for."
"Oh, believe me, she will," Urd growled. "And I'm feeling particularly creative about her…lesson."
Peorth chuckled. "Bonté divine, I think I just felt a chill."
Urd swept her hand across the runes, locking the array, then pushed it up, back and to the left, out of her way but handy for reference. She created a new matrix and placed a few standard runes in it. "Now I can get started on the antidote."
"Not really my forte, I'm afraid," Peorth admitted.
"I know, but you've been very helpful. I want you to check my work when it's done, too. You can do that."
"Oui." She made both honey crocks disappear. "Well, I'll go visit with Belldandy and Skuld for a while, maybe have a few words with Lind. Don't pull an all-nighter, or you'll make stupid mistakes and I'll never let you forget them."
"Wasn't planning on it," Urd said with a chill in her voice.
"You never do, and then the sun's coming up." She chuckled at Urd's dirty look. "I've done it too, mon amie."
She snuck into Keiichi's room, removed the love spell, slipped back out and gave the honey to Belldandy. "Urd told me about having to use it up, and asked me to bring more."
They visited, but so many subjects were verboten that they had little to talk about. Skuld was being more clingy than usual. Belldandy was distracted, and kept looking towards the front door, and the temple gate. Skuld became more and more frustrated.
Gunnr was on watch, Lind and Kara were sleeping, and Jadwel was standing by for her turn. They discussed her illuminating afternoon searching for Belldandy, and dealing with Aoshima. Peorth laughed and laughed, having been forced to deal with the would-be Lothario a few times herself.
Jadwel took her turn on watch. Gunnr retired to a side room of the temple where the Valkyries had laid out their bedrolls, woke Kara and sacked out. Peorth chatted with Kara; for her it was early afternoon and she wasn't the least bit tired.
It was well after ten when they heard the Motor Club's vehicle again. Sora Hasegawa dropped off a rather woozy Keiichi, kept out late for celebration and too much beer. It was hard to refuse 'just one more' when Tamiya insisted.
Belldandy rushed out and helped him up the steps, up the walk, into the house, and to his room.
Skuld heard them, opened her door and stepped into the hall behind them. "About time you got back. Where have you been? What have you been up to?" She sniffed. "You're drunk!"
"Tamiya, and Otaki—" he started.
"Oh, sure, blame it on somebody else." she said disdainfully.
Belldandy slid his door open, and guided him inside. She turned to go, stopped for a few seconds, then started to slide the door shut.
Skuld could hardly believe her eyes. "Onee-chan, what are you doing?"
Belldandy regarded her coolly, one hand on the panel. "I'm going to sleep with Keiichi tonight."
"What?!" Skuld glared past her to where the mortal in question looked much like a raccoon caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. All of her unease and frustration came pouring out. "What did you do to make Belldandy sleep with you I know you're going to do nasty things to my sister you perv—"
"SHUT UP, SKULD!"
Skuld froze in mid-complaint with her jaw hanging open. Belldandy might be rejecting her magic, and the very idea of magic, but she was still a Goddess First Class, Unlimited. She still had her Command Voice, and used it without thinking.
In her normal voice she said coldly, "You have made it quite clear how you feel. Have you ever thought about how I feel? Does that even matter to you? My Keiichi is a kind, good, honest, caring man and I love him very much, and he loves me. I'm happy when I'm with him, and…less happy, when I'm not. He's too considerate to say anything, but I can tell how much your incessant carping hurts him. Seeing you treat him so cruelly hurts me even more, but did that ever occur to you? Do you even care? He will probably be your brother-in-law some day, and if you continue to treat my husband so shamefully, you will not be welcome in our house. Good. Night."
She slid the door shut with a loud bang. Skuld stood before it in shock. Her face scrunched up, tears leaked from her eyes, she turned, reached out blindly and the first thing she encountered was Lind, come with inhuman speed to investigate the ruckus. Both arms clamped tight and she buried her face in the senior Valkyrie's bosom, making little strangled noises.
Lind looked down at the weeping Goddess, then up, helplessly. The noise had fetched Urd to her door, as well. She raised her silver eyebrows, pointed to the tea-room, and pantomimed putting her arms around something.
