Jan 20 2007, Author's Nonsense: How I love WoW…but apparently I like all you readers cause I'm taking more time away from leveling just to write more of this fiction. I bet the readers of my other fictions are getting annoyed with me by now… . , Oh well. This I'm having fun with…but enough babble I'll get to the chapter.
End of Chapter 11:
The mischievous sparkle in those tired amethyst eyes sent a shiver down Lenneth's spine, what was it this madman had in store for her world? More frightening, she was starting to wonder if the overachieving mortal wouldn't manage to do everything he hinted that he would. He'd certainly managed so far after all.
Chapter 12: Nipping at Heels
"So just what did you do with Loki?" Lenneth asked, at least an atrocious fate for the one that had murdered her beloved wouldn't do to much to disturb her.
"He thought he was rather a clever sort so I gave him a more befitting form in which to practice his wiles. The battle was unexpectedly difficult however in the end it was the same…" he gave her a small shrug, stretching his arms out and lounging across the whole of the couch when Lenneth made no moves to join him. Closing his eyes as if he meant to get some rest after the whole of the encounter.
"What form…" Lenneth prodded, playing along with the necromancer's game out of some sort of morbid curiosity. "…did you give him?"
"Why a kit, that would be a baby fox my dearest Valkyrie." Lezard answered, opening a single purple eye to glance her way. Not having the slightest clue of the shiver that simple but alluring look sent along his Valkyrie's spine. "He's rather adorable now surprising enough. I gave him to Mystina as a gift for keeping an eye on the tower while I'm gone with you for at least a few days. She was quite taken with the little guy, I figure he's being dutifully tortured about now."
"You…gave Mystina…Loki?" Lenneth stuttered, lips half turned into a smile she refused to fully allow. She was both highly amused at the choice and mortified that Lezard would dare such blasphemy against the gods.
"Well…yes. I told her that was it's name." He smirked at her, pushing himself up to his side, cocoa colored hair falling onto his hand where his elbow was propping his head in place. "Certainly my goddess can't say the man doesn't deserve his fate."
"He's a god Lezard…" Lenneth disputed, wondering idly if it was just for the sake of arguing with him; she held no love for Loki after all. "You can't just treat him like that…even if he isn't the most deserving of a kind fate he should be receiving his souls punishments in Nebilium."
"A former god. Who had apparently ducked out of any discipline in hell in favor of seeking out ways to use you against me." he corrected first, starting to go further but then yawning and shaking his head. "…but the whole business is over now. You are safe and he has taken on a body that suits him. Mystina has a new pet and I am exhausted. I suppose asking you to lay with me would be a little too much?"
"I'll decline." she scoffed coldly, glancing out a window and toward the snow-capped mountains outside. The setting sun casting northern prisms of light across a water-painted sky in such a picturesque way that it was difficult to believe that the scene wasn't a part of Asgard even just looking at it. As if a piece of her world had been plucked away and settled down to create this flawless landscape.
"I hope you like the surroundings, I figured you'd enjoy the pastoral setting." He commented, voice a little heavier with sleepiness than she was used to hearing it. He hadn't started to slur words just yet but he was taking a little more time to pick out what he was saying.
She finally returned her eyes to Lezard to find him on his back again, those deceptively attractive eyes closed and his face relaxed as he continued to get closer to the sleep that he apparently needed - a disturbing thought by itself…gods shouldn't actually require rest after all. She frowned a one of his bangs that was completely out of place, shifting her weight and taking her feet at the urge to fix the small imperfection.
"Hey, Lezard." She didn't risk leaning over to fix it herself. "You shouldn't fall asleep there…there's a bed in the back room there that you should use…"
Her words managed to reach him though they were fuzzy and he was quickly losing his grasp on coherent thought after the expenditure of energy some of the days events had entailed. He certainly didn't care for the prospect of going to bed alone when he knew that Lenneth would be sleeping out here without him. He held up a hand to motion her closer, smiling a little when she followed the request without any argument for once. He figured he'd pay for the action in the future but he took her hand and pulled her down onto him, pulling her head close as she immediately started the protests and struggling.
"Sleep my beloved." he whispered into her ear, the magical suggestion holding heavier sway than the spell normally would thanks to it being the body of his design. He petted her hair a little as she went limp against his chest, the weight he knew wouldn't be comfortable once he woke up but future agony would be worth the moments of her warmth against him until he fell into the release of unconsciousness.
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Blonde hair swayed behind her, curling and uncurling as the goddess floated around the reassembled water mirror, confused by the sight that had been given to her after she'd activated it. She was still stewing over the little scene pictured before her of Lenneth sleeping soundly on Lezard Valeth -that horrendous mortal- without a hint of struggle or problems. They were simply sleeping next to each other, cuddling without a care in the world. She didn't know if she should curse Lenneth for being a traitor, curse Lezard -more- for doing something to her or curse them both for being so carefree when she was resisting urges to rip her hair out.
She wanted to teleport to the place with the mirror but feared it might be some sort of fake image that he was fooling her with, that the upstart had managed even to boggle one of the great treasures of Asgard with his black magic's. She waved the unwanted picture away and demanded to be shown the other Valkyrie instead, perhaps they had made more progress than she. She wasn't prepared to see them battling with a horde of monsters.
All of them had taken injuries of some kind, the worst amongst them was Hrist; she'd taken the brunt of the attacks and was still holding off many though they were loosing quickly on the small plateau where they had mistakenly set up camp of some kind. Freya didn't recognize the landscape but she wasn't about to take the time to wonder how they'd come into the poor circumstances, her swaying hair starting to rise as she pointed at the mirror and commanded more magic's to pull the group of losing adventures back into Asgard, her float lowering a little closer to the ground after they appeared, she was starting to wear from all the effort she'd been expending lately.
"What in the…" Rufus paused as he was about to release an arrow at what had been a large toothed vampire turned clean tile. The rest of the group pausing in the middle of dodges or attacks as they realized that they were safe again.
Arngrim sighed and settled himself down to sit and catch his breath, Hrist and Silmeria put away weapons and bowed slightly to Freya, Rufus and Alicia joined Arngrim's respite on the floor. Brahms immediately looked uncomfortable but straightened as his wounds started to heal, narrowing his eyes at the uncomfortable situation he'd been thrust into; he much preferred the horde of demons to Freya.
"What's going on?" Hrist asked first, looking back toward the mirror and the confused looking demons still tearing apart what had been their camp a little while ago. "I appreciate the sudden removal from that hell but when did the water mirror get repaired."
"Not long ago." Freya replied. "I found the pieces and managed to get it together. I searched for Lenneth first but that man is somehow confounding the mirror's magic."
"No mortal can do that." Silmeria replied, "even he has to be subject to that as was Odin and all gods. It is a piece of our universe."
"Then explain this…show me Lenneth." Freya demanded. Watching in irritation as it shimmered then shifted as if it had been touched by the water it was named after, the surface refocusing to the annoying scene of the two hugging while they slept.
That sight elected several moments of silence amongst the rest of the shocked onlookers, Arngrim actually made a slightly disgusted face for a moment. Alicia was slightly slack-jawed with Rufus, the two Valkyrie managed to keep a mostly distinguished response where Brahms actually smirked a bit at the annoyance it caused in Freya.
"Then this must be the scene." Silmeria announced. "We should go now while he's resting, we don't know when we'll have a chance like this one again. At the very least we should be able to get Lenneth back."
"Which will do little good if he's still capable of coming and taking her again." Rufus pointed out. "While I'm sure he didn't expect us to survive that hell of his I doubt we're in the condition at the moment to take him on…even if he seems to be sleeping. Gods don't sleep do they?"
"He's not a true god." Freya reminded with a snap, her temper fraying with all the problems as of late. "Slumber is more necessary for those without the power of a full Aesir. If he is actually resting like that he's also weak right now for whatever reason it was he expended that power. At the very least we should be able to take him by surprise and if we don't finish him as a threat now…I hate to admit it but we may never be able to."
"Oh come now…give me more credit than that…" the mocking voice had every head snapping around to face the now hovering Lezard Valeth, the royal blue and bronze fabric of his expensive outfit billowing our around him as he leveled his superior amethyst gaze onto them, steeple ling his fingers with a silent glee at whatever he had up his sleeve. His form was partially translucent and had a silvery outline because of the astral projection he was using to be there with them.
"Lezard…" a few of the present party said the name at once, making it more of a collective exclamation.
"Yes, it's a pleasure to see you all as well." He assured with his arrogant voice, sweeping his hands out a little wider in a small bow. "You know, it's not very nice of you to spy on people. Clear."
He waved and the mirror returned to it's original state, obeying his command as if he had been it's master from the beginning. A few people took back up arms but he didn't react in any way, instead he just watched them scurry about him. "However, I don't think that I'm the person you should be concerning yourself with; why is it that Hel would allow Loki to leave Nebilium I wonder? Don't worry about him though, he's taken care of…but I'd imagine you need another image to the peaceful one of my sleeping with my angel. Mirror, show them the goddess Hel."
The sterling glass rippling and then reforming to show the rotted half of the death goddess's face as she rallied with troop's that were climbing up the life tree. She was already in the steps of leading a war against Asgard and they weren't even the slightest bit prepared for what would've happened should she have taken them by surprise.
"Why…why are you telling us about this?" Freya demanded suspiciously. "If she had taken us by surprise we wouldn't have been bothering you for some time I'd imagine."
"However pleasant that idea is do you really think that my Lenneth would forgive me if I let all of you just fall prey unwittingly to Hel?" Lezard asked with a sort of sigh in his tone. "I can't just let you all get killed without lifting a finger."
"Yeah, that was happening when your horde's of demonic minions were attacking us a little bit ago." Arngrim commented with sarcasm.
"Why leave us there and save us now?" Brahms asked more out of curiosity - it didn't really matter to him if Asgard fell to the army of Nibilium after all.
"You assume my minions were going to kill you." he answered as if speaking to a child that might not understand him. "Besides, why do you think Freya found you? Do you really believe she had the power to reassemble one of the treasures by herself? She had aid in her little escapade to put it back together before she found all of you. Why on earth do you think my mortal form needs the sleep? Fixing unique massively powerful artifacts is rather draining on a person. Even the blonde goddess here seems to embody the effect…though I used more power than her during it's recreation."
"You…" Freya bristled a little then turned away. "…are lucky I need to prepare for war…get yourselves healed and prepared for battle."
She commanded the others before heading away herself, Hrist hesitated but nodding toward Arngrim and followed after with him.
"You set this up…" Silmeria said calmly to the floating necromancer. "A war between Nibilium and Asgard gives you time to do whatever other steps you need to set up to keep Lenneth. You won't get away with this Lezard; you cannot force her to love you…this you already know."
"Ever the searching soul Silmeria, your power doesn't work on me however…you can no longer see into my soul unless I choose to bare it." Lezard mocked her with his cocky grin. "Why do you assume I need to have time to set anything else up? Seems to me that you all continue to underestimate me…and as you could tell by your little spying on me; Lenneth didn't seemed to be forced to lay with me. Seems she's warming up just fine without any force, you all simply needed some distraction so I wouldn't have to be the cause of your demise. Your status as her friends save you from my wrath whenever you try to interrupt me, I simply wanted you all to understand that. Though, if you'll excuse me, even my spirit is in need of some rest…the mirror won't show you anything else I don't want it too. You had your chance to leave me alone without the need of my using the failsafe I installed in it's re-creation. Now your privileges have been revoked…continue to pester me and my goddess and things will only grow worse for you. This is the only warning I'll give. Consider it generous."
He faded away with a laugh before they could offer any response, turning back toward each other and having little to say in face of the unwholesome promise he'd given. They all knew that any threats from the deadly magician wouldn't be idle should they choose to cross him, time to discuss or consider the implications of what would happen with Lenneth they didn't have time for though - not with an army heading toward their steps…
End Chapter
Man, that chapter was hard to write! Heh. I enjoyed it but I think I might go back and fix pieces of it later on. I want to finish my whole fiction before I go back and start fixing pieces but I'm always happy to hear suggestions for when I eventually do.
-Aura
To my reviewers:
LotornoMiko - Heh, I didn't much care for the Xenosagas…personal preference I guess. Never got into them very heavily. And who knows, I hope I don't have the same idea for originality's sake but if we do then I guess we do think alike…somewhat frightening considering how twisted my brain is. But good to know I'm not alone.
Lezard Valeth - I really don't remember set parts of most of the games…I remember I got the A ending and I know I saw the dialogue but after a while things just get jumbled for me. So it might be related to that, I remember lots of things that were never fully explained in either game (but especially one) just not where those things were in the games.
