A life for a life chapter 10

Thanks everyone! Even though you haven't reviewed, I know that you are all getting your dose of this fan fiction because the traffic graph tells me so. Anyway, thank you to the estimated 4 people out there who have read every chapter, so thank you for being so supportive of my fic. I love you. There have only been 63 views in total over 2 weeks, so you 4 are very important to me. Sorry about the delay, I was at camp. Anyway, enjoy this chapter.

The ringing of bells woke the half asleep princess. Alicia knew who was coming; the cold, eerie presence and glimpses of a bad purple wig told the princess that the queen of the undead was here to make sure that Alicia was at least considering her deal.

Alicia shifted in her bed so that she could see Hel standing in front of her, the dark goddess turned around like Freya always had during Alicia's short meeting with her. Hel's feet floated above the ground, her long robes had bells on some parts of the hem, which just touched the ground; it reached below her. On the wooden floor below the goddess, a fiery seal of some sort stayed in check, its flame did not burn the costly robe or the wooden floor. The seal was round, it had three symbols inside it that Alicia didn't recognize, the others were extremely strong runes, and she could only recognize some creation runes and some runes that she had heard of, the einherjar mages who once travelled with her had told her about those runes. Those einherjar were full of knowledge, they had lived in the past when humans lived in touch with the land around them, and when they died, they saw the world through the relic they were sealed in, then, when Silmeria was awakened, they observed the world through her eyes and gained both Alicia's and Silmeria's knowledge.

Those einherjar had shown her these runes, she recognized one, from the east, it represented death and destruction, and it countered creation runes. Another was a shadow rune, it could create illusions and it was commonly used in the underworld to stop Odin from entering, it came from the south, Aegis told her once that it came from a foreign land in the far south where people had ash and dirt colored skin and scraped colors into their skin with blades covered in pigment. Another was a never ending knot from the west. Each was strong enough to kill any entity in all of existence three times over. Alicia could only imagine what lengths Hel had gone to in order to obtain these runes. The goddess scowled at Alicia. "I would kill you right now if those souls didn't follow you even in death."

"Is that how little life means to you?"

"I don't know anymore, I have not been alive for a long time."

Alicia stared at the goddess in the purple wig. The queen of the undead had a flicker of sadness in her eyes when she said that. The goddess was a master in both lying and hiding her emotions. Was life so precious that Hel would like to live again? Was Silmeria's gift to her so sought after?

"Are you thinking about my… Offer?"

"Yes, but I haven't decided if I'm prepared to kill."

"Well, I have all the time in the world. You on the other hand, are mortal. If the offer was made to anyone else in the mortal plane, they would agree, but you, you're an exception, you carry the purity of the goddesses who were inside you."

"I told you, I will think about it," that was a reckless and dangerous way to speak to the goddess, Alicia realized.

Hel did another turn, then left, leaving the sound of bells to echo down the dark, empty halls of the holy castle. Proof that the dark entity had ever been there was on the wooden floor boards. A brand from the seal was left there.

Alicia could feel her eyelids growing heavier, was she under a sleep enchantment? She no longer cared. She drifted into the sleep.

A voice sang a song a sweet song to her. It was deep, and was less sweet than Silmeria's voice, but it was strong and clear. A dark haired woman sat on a tree. At first, Alicia didn't recognize her, then the woman opened her eyes, she had piercing golden eyes. Hrist. The Valkyrie looked so different without her armor; she looked more delicate and gentle.

"When will the princess

Who is trapped in the coils of night escape the shadow of darkness and return to the light?

When will the heir to the damned kingdom put down her burden and live with her head held high?"

The lambs which gathered around the tree crowded around Alicia. She felt as if she was the center of this goat song.

Then Alicia felt her eyes open.

Hey! Nobody reviewed, so I won't do more snippets, you probably didn't like it, but I'm not doing it mainly because of my lazy attitude, I'm really tired.

Anyway, I love you all and please review. I really hope you like this fic, but numbers are inconsistent. So I'm not sure if you guys like this, thank you to the 4 who read every chapter. Also, do you think that I should have a day every week when I post a new chapter?