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Dates, Songs, and Sweaters
"It's funny how close the past is, sometimes. Sometimes it seems as if you could almost reach out and touch it. Only who really wants to?"
-Stephen King, From a Buick 8
-38-
In the days that passed since the manifestation of Holy Bell, one day, for no particular reason she could discern, Lind awoke with a strange and terrible desire.
It came without thought.
It came without reason.
It came without warning.
"I want to knit a sweater."
All this an hour before her curiosity overwhelmed her enough to call the number Urd had passed her.
"What the fuck, Pepper."
XXX
His phone was ringing.
Christ on a cracker, his phone was ringing.
It was too early to be telemarketers, which meant it had to have been one of the guys in his Team. Fuck, don't let it be Mac. Don't let it be Mac. Please don't let it be a fucking recall at fucking four in the goddamned fucking morning.
He grabbed the phone and squinted at it, but the number didn't appear as his OIC or anyone else in Team 12. The hell? His mind foggy but more alert now after his initial scare, it focused on what at that time to him seemed like the only logical option: that someone on the Team had gotten a new number after losing their phone or, worse yet, someone from out of state was calling in regards to his family back home.
Another uncomfortable thought. His brother Clyde had gotten his ass arrested several times in regards to car theft, and he knew the dumb shit was looking to get in on a gang...
Fuck.
Motherfucker on the other end better not be some goddamned paramedic or police officer reporting that fuck-up's dead body.
"Brian Jackson speaking," he rumbled as he sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes as he listened for the voice on the other end.
For a moment there was silence, and Jackson scowled in irritation as he waited for the caller to speak. "Hello?" he demanded. "Who is this?"
There was silence for a moment longer, and his irritation growing, the SEAL was just about to remove the phone from his ear when a small, tentative voice spoke up on the other end. "Jackson?"
It made the man pause. The voice was female, and sounded somewhat surprised that it'd been him to answer the phone. He pursed his lips, probing his mind for a face that might belong to the person on the other end. But phones distorted voices and this was not a person who'd ever called him before, so the man was left at a loss as to the identity of the woman on the other end. Had he been more awake, the answer would have been obvious. In fact, it would have smacked him over the head with a two-by-four and called him a bitch for not realizing it sooner, and when later he had time to reflect on that phone call he'd moan and groan at his own self-perceived idiocy. Yet that was still some-odd hours away, and so instead Jackson pursed his lips and scrunched his brow, before finally asking, "Who is this?"
"Lind."
His heart skipped a beat. His chest constricted. Butterflies of the type he hadn't felt since high school filled his stomach, and a high, almost inaudible squee filled the air. He tore the phone from his ear and looked at the phone number with wide eyes-an absurd sequence of numbers that might as well have been a one-eight hundred number being called with a phone card. He grabbed a sticky note from where he kept one in his nightstand in case of emergency calls and scribbled it all down, every last number, and reached fifty before he lost count, finished, and pulled the phone back to his ear again. The line was still counting the seconds away. She hadn't hung up on him. "Lind?" God, he sounded like a pre-pubescent boy, cracked voice and all. "Lind?!" Oh god, he'd fucking kiss Sheila when he saw her again for this one. Best fucking wingman in the fucking world. An absolute fucking goddess, that one.
"Yes...?"
A smile so large it hurt spread across his face, and with his heart racing a mile a minute in his chest, the man began to speak, and the woman on the other end began to listen before speaking in turn.
Their conversation ran long into the morning.
Jackson came to work late that day to McGuinness's scowling face, a smile on his face so large it was disturbing and without a care in the world.
It was a smile that freaked everyone in Team 12 out.
"The fuck are you so happy about?" Morisato grunted.
"I got a date," Jackson said.
Braxton paused and looked at him. "No shit," he said in disbelief. "Who's the unfortunate sugah-momma you wooed this time?"
"Lind." Jackson preened, and began to laugh as Morisato's face went slack with shock.
XXX
"Wake up."
"Don' wanna." Belldandy thrust her head under her pillows to block the light which shone like twin suns above her bed, and proceeded to ignore the grouchy voice above her head. When the person began to shake her shoulder, she responded by raising a hand from her pillow and extending her middle finger by way of a greeting. The shaking stopped, yet had succeeded in its mission of fully rousing the goddess, and beneath her pillow Belldandy sighed and let her hand drop. "Getting sick of your crap, Urd," she growled, and thrust her head up to glare at her sister.
Urd, already dressed for their morning trek through the woods, stood staring down at her with her arms crossed. "Up," she snapped. "You already know we're going to do it, so stop making this difficult for yourself."
"It's four in the morning," Belldandy whined as she squinted at the twice accursed light. It did not help that her head was pounding as well.
"It is," Urd agreed. "Because it takes me half-an-hour just to pry your ass out of bed and drag you outside before the sun rises. Now get up before I pull you out and onto the floor, Bell."
"You're a nag, Urd."
"And you're a mule," Urd retorted. "It doesn't change the fact that you're going outside with me at the black asscrack before dawn. Now move before I drag you outside in nothing but your nightgown."
"I dare you," Belldandy grumbled.
"Oh please, don't tempt me." Urd made her way to the door. "Ten minutes, max. If you're not dressed and downstairs by then, I'm sending Elegance after you and Holy Bell."
"That's low, Urd. Using the angels to guilt-trip me into waking up."
"This whole thing is for the angels, Bell. See if I don't use them to guilt-trip you."
Belldandy groaned.
Two weeks had passed since Skuld and the others had ascended back home. Following the various divine departures, Aiko had returned to North Carolina and Keiichi had returned to work. The house was once more empty of guests, and with it, the occupants began to once more settle into a daily routine they were all comfortable with. Or at least a routine Keiichi was comfortable with. Go to work, do work, come home, relax. Wash, rinse, repeat. Super simple stuff with no huge change that affected him in any sort of way. If things were still a little tense between him and Belldandy, then things were still a little tense. There were a few more walls to break down after Keiichi had died, but Rome wasn't built in a day, so the two of them took their time.
In that time, Urd had started following the instructions provided by Nebo before his departure. She took to her new duties with the solemnness of a woman holding the life of another in her hands, which in some aspects was not far from the truth. Nebo's instructions had been clear and straight to the point, and as soon as he'd departed that day Urd had set upon her tasks, the first of which had been, to the displeasure of the Norns involved, singing.
Sing with the setting sun. Nebo had written, Sing with the rising sun. Sing with your soul, that Manni and Sol might hear you and take heart as they run from wolves. Sing so that we in Asgard can hear your tune and join you. Sing with all you have so that nature around you is strengthened by your voice, and thrives beneath your melody.
A glorious task, truly. One fitting for the gods.
And an utter trial for the two sisters assigned to undertake it.
Urd hated singing in front of other people. A peculiar trait, to be certain, for the woman had a magnificent singing voice. Indeed, Belldandy would go so far as to even say Urd had the potential to outshine her if she was so inclined to it. Yet for whatever reason Urd was shy when it came to her voice. She would sing in private and she would sing while tasked with a chore when she thought no one was around, but always alone and never where anyone, even her sisters, might hear her. Belldandy never understood why. When confronted over her unwillingness to sing Urd would provide Belldandy with a multitude of different reasons every time: Urd claimed her voice was poor, or she thought she'd be scolded for it by Ansuz, or she thought she'd be teased for it by other deities who might hear her. It was hard to test the validity of the statements, yet the fact remained that Urd was uncomfortable singing in front of other people, and time had done little to change that aspect of herself.
There were a few exceptions: the Norn might be convinced to sing with a large enough group, and Belldandy had been somewhat surprised when Urd had sung with herself and Skuld during Aiko's initial visit, yet even then...Urd's voice had always been quieter, softer, always following and hiding behind those of her sisters.
Never leading.
Never rising.
Not like what Nebo requested of her.
This late in her life, the same could almost be said of Belldandy as well. Aoshima had been a cruel man, and the Norn had learned early on that any joys she'd held would be exploited and destroyed. It was what had led to her withdrawn personality upon her rescue, as she'd guarded her voice and her love of song with the same stubborn will that had guarded and protected Holy Bell from her 'husband'.
That wasn't to say she'd stopped singing altogether, of course; the children she'd first discovered beneath Aoshima's hands would not be comforted by the voice of a mortal. They'd been soothed by her songs though, and her melodies had stirred pieces of even those youths who'd lost the light of life in their eyes. Those had been healing songs, and as soon as she'd realized what she'd been doing Belldandy had made it a mission to free them from the hell she'd fallen into. A goddess could handle the abuse of decades by a mortal. Mortals were destructive creatures, and their lives were finite in comparison to a goddess such as her. She was as old as the tides of the ocean and would continue to thrive when a mortal like Aoshima was little more than dust in a grave.
Yet those children could not. They should not. It mattered little if they were of the same mortality as Man himself or of a divine or demonic nature. They were young. They were impressionable. They developed to their surroundings and could be destroyed easily by the actions of others. And so she'd sung and healed and given pieces of herself to them and watched as more and more of their personalities began to re-emerge, and then, with the help of some of the more sympathetic guards and outside parties, had done what was necessary to get them away from Aoshima.
Painful memories. Painful times. And though she'd sung for the children around her, the fact remained that Belldandy's songs had been a private and well-guarded secret for the past ten years. And now, to suddenly sing loudly and freely as she'd once done before Aoshima became a task easier said than done.
And when paired with an annoying, bitchy, self-conscious elder sister who could barely start a song in the open?
Flying pigs were a more plausible concept. Or Lind going out on a date.
That first night had been a disaster. Urd could not rouse herself to lead and Belldandy did not know where to begin, and in the end they never even got around to summoning their angels for the sunset song. It took a week for Urd to get over her initial hesitation, and from there things went a bit smoother... but Belldandy was quick to tire of Urd's excessive early-morning romps: be woken at four, be out the door at four-thirty, and begin the morning song at five as the sun began to rise. It didn't help that Urd wasn't a morning person. Less that the goddess allowed for no change in their schedule-rain or shine or weekend, it mattered not. Nebo's request to Urd had stirred something in her sister; an unfathomable drive that would not be stopped, and she took to her newfound duties like an artist to her easel. And so at four in the morning Belldandy could expect Urd to come calling, and come hell or high water, they were going out, they were going to sing, and heaven help the poor fool who got in Urd's way.
It was of little wonder why Belldandy began to dread Urd's early morning wake-up calls.
Dreadful though they were, they did help. Though Belldandy and Urd bickered and argued all through their jaunt through the woods, their Other Selves revealed a different side. In the depths of the forest, deep enough where a field of wildflowers sat atop a hill, the angels emerged for the morning song. Here, in this secret grotto surrounded by evergreens, they manifested in joy. Neither Holy Bell nor World of Elegance exhibited the irritation so prevalent in their hosts. Holy Bell appeared with a flourish, ecstatic in the dark morning and brimming with a joy that lit up the whole of her face. This morning, like all the ones before it, was greeted with the enthusiasm of one who'd been denied it, and her elation was infectious to the Norns who watched her. World of Elegance, calmer than her counterpart, emerged no less enthused by the younger angel's happiness, and as had become customary over the two-week period the entities greeted each other with a warm embrace.
Those moments were, in Belldandy's mind, the best time of the day. Something in the sheer solace the angels found in one another was heartwarming. Though her link with Holy Bell was still weak, the Norn had reached the point where she could feel the angel's warmth towards her sibling, and in those minutes where they awaited the sun's rise, Belldandy would find herself basking in its glow. That was when the irritation faded, where the resentment dissolved, and where nothing but a soothing, gentle calm washed over her. It was a feeling that had eluded her all through that past decade-even now, free as she was with her sister and Keiichi, what she felt in that moment was something no one else had quite evoked in her.
In those early morning moments, with a healing angel and her elder sister, Belldandy felt at peace.
A look at Urd showed a similar story. The goddess wore an expression of rare serenity that illuminated her face much as it did with World of Elegance and Holy Bell, and her smile was large and pure on her face. It was a look that highlighted her relation to their father, Tyr, who was also capable of such a smile when the mood hit him, though Belldandy had only ever seen it directed towards his family. Another rarity for Urd, and perhaps a tragic one at that.
Belldandy could recall a childhood where Urd looked a bit more like their father-her hair had not been so stark-white, her eyes not-so-violet, edging a little closer to a dark hazel-green, and her lineage to her mother not quite so obvious as it was in adulthood. Lost now, except for her father's smile. But then, Belldandy could say little of herself in that regard; deities had claimed she looked like Ansuz throughout her childhood. She had their father's height, she had their father's eyes, and she shared her father's morals, but little else. Everything else was pure Ansuz, from her voice to her face to her love of song. Skuld was the only one of the three who resembled their father. From her face to her hair to her quick and at times explosive temper. Perhaps that was why she'd been assigned the precarious position of the ever-changing, ever-constant future. Skuld was the image of the Daitenkaicho, and so, perhaps in the eyes of some, destined for greatness.
Bah. Such silly thoughts that filled her head so early in the morning.
The goddess rubbed her eyes, then refocused her attention on the angels. World of Elegance had shifted into what Belldandy had come to dub as 'Tic Mode', trading her exuberance for scrutiny as she crouched by Holy Bell's wings. The black-winged angel examined first Holy Bell's left wing, than her right, massaging the limb from the wing tip down, running gentle fingers along the length of sinew and tissue that connected to bone, and feeling around the bone and to the re-developing muscle gathering around it. She worked her way down the back before moving on to the other wing.
Throughout the observation, Belldandy grew aware of bits and snippets of Holy Bell's voice, most of which reflected the faces her angel made as World of Elegance performed her analysis. "Ow...tick... gah... top... tchy... Ele...!" The faces Holy Bell made were hilarious to watch, and had Holy Bell not been her own angel, Belldandy wasn't sure she'd be able to contain her laughter. As it was, instead the goddess felt a series of phantom irritations come to rest on areas of her back she couldn't quite reach: limbs that didn't exist in her body itching like mad. A pinch that was a little too sharp. A spot that was surprisingly ticklish. The uncomfortable sensation of her own muscles being moved by an invisible force.
And right when she felt it would become too unbearable, World of Elegance would finish her examination, and both Holy Bell and Belldandy would breathe a sigh of relief.
"Holy Bell is putting on weight," Urd announced. "Her ribs aren't so visible anymore. Her complexion is clearing up as well. There aren't any further signs of the crystal contamination that caused her skin to scale and threatened to lock up her joints." The woman paused, as if listening to World of Elegance's diagnosis, then continued, "Muscle's starting to build up again as well now that she's out and active. Back and chest muscles are still weak, but it's improved from what it was a week ago. Still needs to build up her leg muscles, and the muscles along her wings as well. That'll take a bit longer yet, but it'll come with more endurance and stamina, which is what Holy Bell will need in the long run."
"Still no signs of feathers, though..." Belldandy murmured, discouraged. Though she wouldn't admit it out loud, Holy Bell's lack of feathers bothered her. Of all the obvious maladies the angel exhibited, her naked wings were by far the worst; a constant reminder of how Holy Bell had suffered from Belldandy's own failures as a host. They disturbed her. The fleshy stumps looked unnatural on Holy Bell, like a strange and horrific mutation her angel had undergone that reflected some ugly piece of Belldandy's soul. The Norn had come to inspect her angel for any signs of emerging feathers on a daily basis, and each time was left in bitter disappointment with the lack of visible progress.
Urd wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Feathers will be the last thing to appear," she reminded the middle Norn. "All her energy is going straight to healing herself. Once Holy Bell's body has reached a state where it's no longer in 'survival mode', it'll spread more of that energy out. That's when the feathers will start to grow in." She rubbed Belldandy's arm reassuringly, and the elder Norn smiled. It was thin and felt forced on her face.
"I know..." Belldandy mumbled, disheartened and frustrated. To her it was the same excuse Urd always used to reassure her of Holy Bell's progress. 'Be patient.' 'They will come in their own time.' 'Don't rush it.' Well, it'd been two weeks already, and thus far there hadn't even been a hint of down on her angel's wings. Just... chicken wings. Plucked and naked chicken wings, ready for the batter and the deep fryer. "Come get the latest and greatest from Popeyes! Holy Bell Chicken Wings! Start off bland but boy do they take your breath away!" She cringed internally at the associated imagery, her mind dancing with images of Holy Bell in an apron and holding a plate filled with wings out to a cameraman.
She shoved the thoughts away before they could dominate her mind. "I suppose I am just rushing the inevitable." She sighed, her eyes following Holy Bell's wings as they stretched and fluttered at her back, moving first in small, tight clockwise circles and then counterclockwise as World of Elegance looked on. At a signal from the more senior angel, the small circles expanded into larger ones. For a brief moment Belldandy imagined those naked wings covered in white, and then frowned as she recalled just how large she remembered Holy Bell's wings had once been. They were of a size comparable to Elegance's, though unlike the Black Winged angel, Holy Bell's wings weren't so large as to drag on the ground when folded at her back. Not quite the same type of wings so designed for soaring, but close. 'Owl wings', Ansuz had said once. Large, quiet owl wings, whose approach went unheard while in flight.
Ansuz had wings like that. "It's what gave me an edge back in my Valkyrie days." Or so she'd claim. "I was a Spook. Demons called us Suharruru'ei, Quiet Death, for how we would take them out in silence. Even their senses, good as they were, could not hear the approach of an owl, and like the rats they were they were taken out before even realizing they were under attack. It's how I earned the call sign Alal. A title gifted to me by Niflheim itself. It's their word for 'Destroyer'."
Those stories had always enchanted Belldandy as a child. Back when her understanding of gods and demons and the relationship between the two was not so strong, and she'd been ignorant of her own sister's heritage. In those childhood years 'demon' was nothing but a word assigned to all the monsters of the world, and the knowledge that her angel had wings like her mother had left her with thoughts and daydreams of slaying those monsters as a 'demon spooker' herself. It had always left her entertaining the idea of following in her mother's footsteps and obtaining a Valkyrie license herself. She'd even served as an acolyte for a time under a veteran officer who'd served with her mother-not Ansuz herself, as kin could not mentor kin.
She'd gone through great lengths to learn as much as possible back then, and though the training was hard-brutal even-Belldandy had found it rewarding overall. Yet that had been before the obligation for Norn of the Present had fallen on her head, and indeed, even before she understood Urd's own position in Niflheim's hierarchy. She'd been angry back then. Angry and hurt-first for herself, and then for Urd, who'd shown such an affinity as a Tic, and even more so for Skuld, who at that time was still too young to even consider the prospect of choosing a mentor. That had infuriated her, and she'd ranted and raged for well over a year with a temper so strong that in the aftermath, when sanity had once again reclaimed her and she'd calmed enough to view the extent of damage, she'd been horrified by what she'd done.
"Bell?"
Belldandy jumped, and the daydream of Holy Bell's white wings vanished. She looked over at Urd, who offered her a smile. "It's about that time. You ready?"
The sky was beginning to lighten with the first hints of dawn. The sound of birdsong was growing more prevalent as sparrows and finches began to stir. "Yes... I suppose I am."
XXX
Of all the things that could have happened to them.
A slave ship.
A dumbfuck, motherfucking, piece of shit Viking slave ship.
He gritted his teeth as Team 12 heaved and hoed at the row they were stuck to, a scowl on his face as his body strained with the pull of the long oar that spread across all of Team 12's lap.
Tank was grinning, stupidass motherfucker he was. "See?" he asked between strokes. "Yanno what I totally don't regret in the grand scheme of things?" He was dressed in Celt war armor, his face painted and his hair and beard long like some wild war druid.
"Shut up, Tank." Piper sat next to him on other side of the oar, a Persian helmet on his head that complemented his own disguise. "Ain't no one want to hear a fucking word outta yo' mouth."
"Screw you, Jackson." Bravo muttered, his garb like that of the Britons that had also been victimized by Viking raids. "You're the one that thought it was a good idea to tour sixteenth century Europe."
"Fuck you Bravo." Jackson growled.
"Well I, for one, am certainly grateful I ate all that garlic bread," Tank continued, a stupid smile on his face that Keiichi wanted to slap. The large man looked over at him, and his smile was mad. "See? Bet yah wish you had all that garlic bread now. Carbs t' burn and carbs t' spare, an' you jus' nothin' but skin and meaty bones!"
He grunted from his own disguise, which was the unfortunate wardrobe of a Mongolian warlord which was somehow ill-fitting for a Viking slave ship. For fuck's sake, he was Japanese! Couldn't he have been a fucking samurai at least? Why a goddamn Mongol? "I regret thinking your language capabilities with Ancient Norse were any better than your poor grasp of English," he said with a British accent.
"Fuck you too, Jank," Tank rumbled. "No need to be jealous-don't forget, yer th' one who gave me all yer bread."
"At least they got good taste in women," Croaker grumbled. Like Piper, he was dressed in a Persian outfit. The row of people in front of them consisted entirely of women, all dressed in the same dirty white uniform that might have held some kind of significance with whatever culture they were from. Keiichi kind of doubted it-the uniforms were familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd seen them before. One of them, an albino woman with short, plaited hair, glanced back behind her to glare at Croaker. She spat something out in a language that Keiichi couldn't place, but all of Team 12 recognized an insult when they heard it.
The woman next to her, an even taller, slim Indian with dark brown skin, scolded her. It sounded like she called her 'Rotor', but it was hard to tell over the ambient noise of drums, waves, and a groaning ship. The two of them began to bicker, and then the overseer, a black haired Viking, Skuld, cracked her whip above their heads. The woman sitting in front of Piper, the shortest of the women with hair that almost looked blue in the poor lighting of the row deck, snarled at the overseer with a noise that reminded Keiichi of a bear.
"See, that's the kinda woman I like," Piper commented as the overseer left. "The kind that don't back down to no one and who is an utter bear."
"I am a bear." The woman turned to look at Piper. It was Lind, of course. Lind and her gang that she never brought down to Midgard. "We're going to America, you know. To the Great White North. I have family up there that will spring us."
"Are they bears?" Jackson asked.
"Polar bears and Grizzly Bears," Lind replied. "And one or two horses and seals to boot."
"What about you?" Keiichi asked.
"You know already." Of course he did. She was a polar bear like her dad. They almost ate her youngest sister once, who was a seal, not a bear, and had been guised as one when they'd been hunting one day.
"You better get ready, if you don't want to stay a thrall." The tall Indian woman was saying. "You're marines of time and space, yes? And you're on leave?"
"Yep," Keiichi said, and knew that was wrong but didn't care. "We thought it'd be fun to go treasure hunting but McGuinness can't speak worth a damn, so we got stuck on a slave ship after a mistranslation."
"What'd he say?" Another Valkyrie, this one a Samoan, looked at Tank.
"He was trying to ask for a ship from a merchant." Braxton said. "Instead he asked the man out on a date."
"It was an honest mistake," Tank said. "Could'a happen to anyone."
"At least the slavers are pretty," Keiichi said. "Two of them, Belldandy and Urd, seem to favor me. Who knows? Maybe they'll keep me for themselves."
"You have fun with that," Bravo said. "I'll take my chances with the bears."
And on his word the deck was invaded by bears. Polar bears and grizzly bears, black bears and brown bears. Panda bears and koala bears and even the oh-so-rare sun bears. Then Lind became a bear and roared.
Skuld leapt at her, "Skyrim belongs to the NORNS!" Before changing into a large, black wolf, and the two mauled each other before the other bears ate the wolf. Jackson lept onto Lind-bear's back and raced out of the boat. "Imma wife her!" he screamed, and the rest of Team 12 sat and stared amidst the dueling animals.
"Think we'll ever see him again?" Bravo asked.
"Depends on if the other bears eat him or not," Croaker grumbled. "At least he ain't with Urd. She's la Quetzlcoatl, and her blood's poison. She in the house a' the serpent and the spider. Gotta watch out for her."
"What about Belldandy?" Keiichi asked.
"Oh, she's—"
BREE BREE BREE
BREE BREE BREE
Keiichi groaned and fumbled for the alarm, slapping it with the palm of his hand. "Fukken hell…" he muttered into his pillow. "No more watching Bell play games before bed." Rolling onto his back, he rubbed his eyes and sat up, blinking owlishly into the darkness of his room.
His eyes widened. "Shit, I'm going to miss it!" The man stumbled out of bed in nothing but his boxers, pausing only long enough to grab a shirt from his dresser before racing out of the bedroom. He almost killed himself racing down the stairs while simultaneously trying to put on the shirt, and slipped into a pair of flip flops at the front door before darting outside. The air held just a hint of cool to it now; the cool of morning dew, but he'd taken to putting a plastic sheet over his lone patio chair for just such occasions. He yanked it off and pushed it to one side and sat down, listening as the morning birds went about their songs.
His heart racing, he closed his eyes.
And listened.
In the distance a voice began to rise, deep and somber and beautiful.
"Ehfer ahli mela
Etsteh uuni unda
Rane stanfilu
Howarhn flue beflordigna"
It was Urd's voice, echoing through the trees and off the mountains, a ghostly song that would have been missed through the ambient noise as more and more of the local wildlife began to stir. The next stanza began, and this time another voice had joined her, this one a higher pitch that seemed to rise over Urd's, not so much drowning it out as it did filling the pieces Urd's voice missed. Belldandy.
"Ehfer uhni mela
Wuwi leitsin denbor
Beli heilfurhei
Ailheildets e loitsig noi
Eh falaneih troifa letnafa"
A smile crept across Keiichi's face as Belldandy's voice joined in, and the solo became a duet, equal parts high and low in the roles each sister played. The words were unfamiliar; unlike any language Keiichi had ever heard before, yet bordered so close to something recognizable that the name of the language danced at the tip of his tongue. It stirred feelings in his mind, wiped off ancient memories lost to dust and time and which played shadow games on the edges of his perception.
"Lemen mwen orha mnemnaloideha
Le mwan ohen wonden lolheilben
halenhei uhrah inda ferdelan hefeh"
He'd discovered their singing by chance several days ago. Belldandy and Urd had been arguing loud enough to wake him, and his own curiosity had gotten the better of him that day. He knew about the evening songs that took them out into the woods at sunset every day, and Urd had informed him of their morning romps as well. Urd had requested he didn't follow them in those evenings, as what they were doing was for their angels- Holy Bell in particular- and he'd done what he could to respect the two sisters' wishes. The man had never had much of an interest in what the Norns did or where they went, but for whatever reason the desire to investigate had possessed him that early morning. It was a half-assed investigation, admittedly, given he didn't want to widen the rift he and Belldandy were already attempting to mend, but he'd watched them depart the house that morning.
If he'd been asked, Keiichi wouldn't have been able to explain why he'd chosen to go out to the porch that day. Nor why he'd decided to sit and wait or why that particular desire to wait was so strong that day. Yet something had guided him. Perhaps even possessed him, as he had that same sense of 'magic' going on around him that he'd always come to associate with 'Weird Norn Shit'. Regardless, magic or just sleepy, he sat and waited and perhaps even dozed before he was rewarded for his efforts. Urd had mentioned nothing of them singing.
Urd had said nothing of the sheer magic that was in their songs.
And though he said nothing to either of the Norns, Keiichi had made it a point to go out every morning and every evening and listen to that magic flow.
They were singing together now, rising and falling together like a pair of falcons traveling across a desert. And that's what the song brought to mind: Ancient and forgotten shrines and ruins of old that had been destroyed and abandoned through time. Places Team 12 had traveled through and past, architecture they'd taken shelter behind, which had defended them from sandstorms and gunfire and whose gods had long since abandoned the premises. Of children raised under new gods amidst the architecture of the old, who were told stories of Djinn and the demons that rested in the shadows.
It reminded him of Fida.
The normal serenity that filled him whenever he listened to the Norns' songs abandoned him, and all at once Keiichi was left with a pit of sadness in his belly. A face flashed in his mind's eye, one of youth and exuberance, who smiled up at him from a tan face framed by wind-mussed hair. "Keichi."
He opened his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, banishing the image from sight. His throat tightened, and grimacing, the man rolled out of his chair and put the plastic tarp back over it. The song still played its somber melody, yet for this morning, he ignored it.
It was time to get ready for work.
He had no time for memories of dust.
XXX
"Did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"Lind's gotta date."
"Are you for real? Lind? Stone-cold 'sprint two-hundred miles 'cause I said so' Lind?"
"The exact one."
"Who the hell'd be crazy enough to date her?"
"Well, you didn't hear this from me, but...My coworker's friend's boss's sister that works over in maintenance said she saw Lind call a Midgard number."
"A mortal? Are you serious? Aren't they like, diseased or something?"
"Yeah, they're born with a permanent madness called 'Perception'. Apparently it's incurable."
"Ew... is it contagious?"
"Fuck if I know."
"Does Command know?"
"From what my friend's coworker's boss's squadron coworker says, yes. And it gets worse. They're encouraging it."
"What? How so?"
"Apparently they're giving her dating advice. Can you believe that?"
"Dating advice? For Lind? She's got all the personality of a brick though!"
"Yeah, and I hear that's why they're giving her the advice. I heard a group of girls from her unit arguing on what kind of advice they should give her for a date gift. Someone said a plant, to show she's interested. Another person said it should be a cactus, since they're low maintenance."
"You're joking."
"Girl, I couldn't make this shit up if I tried."
"Lind's unit is trying to convince her to gift a cactus to a mortal on their first date because they think it'll show she's interested and that it's low maintenance."
"What?"
"That is... such a fucking Valkyrie thing to do."
"Yes."
"You know, this is why most people tend not to date Valkyries."
"Yep. Even if this guy is mortal and mad, I kind of feel sorry for him anyways. Who the fuck wants a cactus on a first date?"
"If she was sane, she'd seek outside advice. I hear she's been hanging around with the Norns a lot more recently."
"The Norns? Damn, girl's moving up in the world! How'd she get in good with them?"
"Weeell... This is just between you and me, but I overheard someone from Medical talking to one of their friends in Security about how their friend over in Fighting Wings was talking about how Lind was on a special duty assignment to keep an eye on one of them."
"Oooh...you mean the demon?"
"Not so loud!"
"Sorry."
"But yeah, totally the demon. But, like, apparently they're friends now or something? Right after the demon got kicked outta Asgard for going Tendee on Midgard? I don't know the whole story, it's weird."
"Ugh."
"Mmmhmm."
XXX
Keiichi was always gone by the time the Norns returned home. From there came potions. Topical potions for Holy Bell's wings that were applied by World of Elegance and ingestible potions Urd gave Belldandy to help strengthen both the link with her angel as well as to help Holy Bell recover her strength in general. The link potion was never that bad. It tasted like lemon and ginger and had the added benefit of waking Belldandy up in those early mornings. The second potion designed for Holy Bell were another story. If the first potion woke Belldandy up, than the second one may as well have knocked her out. The aftertaste with it was so bad that even Holy Bell gagged, and in the first few days Belldandy frequently went to war with keeping the contents of her stomach down. It was followed with breakfast, where Belldandy then enacted a small bit of passive-aggressive revenge by cooking eggs for the both of them and bacon for herself.
Urd pretended not to care.
Belldandy pretended not to notice.
A few hours later Urd had her chance to pay Belldandy back in the form of sparring, though admittedly it was something Belldandy found perverse enjoyment in. Ten years of abuse while her power was withheld by a wish had been frustrating at the best of times, downright destructive at its worst, and finally having the chance to work through that anger was purifying. Urd was experienced, and Belldandy didn't need to rein in her temper with her older sister as she did with Keiichi. If anything, Urd allowed her to work out her frustrations and anxieties without shame. Her elder sister, Belldandy discovered, had her own issues to work through, whatever they might be, and held back only to the extent Belldandy herself pulled her punches.
And Belldandy never pulled her punches.
There was something immensely satisfying about drilling her sister with a left hook while simultaneously taking an uppercut to the chin from Urd. Being dragged to the floor in a pin and then slipping past Urd's guard in retaliation awoke memories of the past; sweet memories of younger, more innocent years, where she'd drilled and fought and blocked in preparation for a Valkyrie's license that was never received. It reminded her that she'd come from a family of war deities, as the Aesir had always been a conquering people, and bloodshed was as much a part of their nature as sailing. Even on their off days the two of them came away winded and bloodied, smiling like a pair of reckless idiots as they swallowed large gulps of breath.
What's more, Urd had introduced her to a concept Belldandy had never considered ten years ago: granting Holy Bell independence.
While Belldandy and Urd attempted to tear each other to shreds like a pair of wildcats in the garage, Holy Bell and World of Elegance were allowed free reign of the house. Keiichi wasn't home and door-to-door salesmen rarely came calling. With only their host deities around, there was nothing problematic enough to force the angels to return, and both of the angels appeared to enjoy their freedom immensely. In a manner Belldandy hadn't predicted, the independence and time away from her angel actually seemed to strengthen the link between the two, forcing both parties to exercise the link like a muscle suddenly being put to use.
Here, usually after a shower that was as much about wiping the blood and sweat from her brow from sparring with Urd as it was re-purifying her link to Yggdrasil, Belldandy could hear Holy Bell's voice best. With her body aching and mind relaxed, Holy Bell's thoughts came across the link easily, and oftentimes Belldandy could make out full thoughts from her angel. Usually the angel was with World of Elegance on the roof, dozing or making origami stars as she and the other angel sunbathed. Other times World of Elegance, perhaps with some feedback from Urd during their sparring sessions, would instruct Holy Bell on a series of muscle exercises geared towards the legs, back, and chest. They were intended to build up the supporting muscles used for flight, to in include the legs, which were used in takeoff and landing. The end result would oftentimes leave Belldandy exhausted in mind, body, and soul, but it was a good exhaustion. A healthy exhaustion. The type of exhaustion that came after a long day of training and left the body sore, but not necessarily in pain.
And for the goddess and angel involved, it was a feeling most welcome.
"I can't move my arms," Belldandy said after just such a grueling session that day. She laughed. It hurt to laugh. Probably from the heavy amount of abuse Urd had put her through an hour earlier. "I can't move, Urd."
"You better get up and get walking then if you don't want to stiffen up later on," Urd advised. "I told you there's a reason we stretch after sparring, but no, you just had to grab all the hot water first," she teased.
Belldandy laughed. She could laugh at Urd's teasing, now. "At least I had some hot water this time," she retorted, smirking when Urd rolled her eyes.
"Love you too, Bell."
"I'm sure." Belldandy raised her arms in front of her and stretched, finding pleasure in the way the muscles protested the act. She fell silent, working the weighted feeling of her arms out of her shoulders as best she could. "Holy Bell's showing World of Elegance how to make origami cranes," she announced, and looked back up at her sister with a smile. "She thinks World of Elegance prefers them to the simpler stars."
"Yep." Urd nodded, returning Belldandy's smile with a large one of her own. "Good job, Bell. Elegance is impressed with Holy Bell's dexterity with paper. And she wanted me to pass on that the cranes remind her of thunderbirds. They also have those long necks."
"I see," Belldandy murmured, and fell silent, listening to the stray thoughts that at times passed incomplete through the link. It was amazing just how strong the link had grown over the span of a couple of weeks. She'd gone from almost destroying her link with Holy Bell to almost hearing sentences from the angel in less than a month. She wondered how much that improvement had to do with potions and how much of it had to do with songs or allowing Holy Bell the freedom to roam. "Urd?" The goddess let her arms drop into her lap, shifting to observer her elder sister more fully.
"Yeah?"
"How did you learn about the advantages that came with giving your angel independence?"
Urd stared at her in surprise, and then her gaze grew thoughtful. She looked off, and after a moment of silence said, "My mentor told me."
"Your mentor?" It was Belldandy's turn to look surprised. "Not Nebo?" She'd been almost certain it'd been advice passed on by the elder Tic. To hear that the knowledge had been passed by Urd's own mentor... "But she never had an angel, did she?"
"Nope," Urd agreed. "Angels were still too new to her." She shrugged. "Though she's probably a century or ten younger than Nebo, she's still pretty old, and I think the whole concept of another creature born from her soul creeped her out a bit."
"Then how did she..."
Urd pursed her lips. "Well, she was the one who got me to summon World of Elegance again after I pulled the dumbass move of sealing her, remember?" she said. "Part of it was a piece of advice she told me one day. When I was struggling to call World of Elegance back after I'd finally, well, freed her again."
"What was it?" Belldandy asked in interest.
"Her words were, 'You cannot spoil your own soul. You can only nurture it, for it is a seed that only you can grow. Plant it in the good earth, nourish it with sweet water, feed it the sun and give it room to grow so that it may thrive.'" To Belldandy's surprise a hint of blush worked across Urd's cheeks. "I don't know why, but the words just kind of... stuck with me. After I got Elegance back, I could always recall how difficult it was to call her back inside of me-like she was afraid to go back, terrified that I was going to lock her up again." She paused and looked back at Belldandy. "Remember, this was when I was still pretty young. I... wasn't exactly raging in the 'self-confidence' department way back when."
"Right," Belldandy agreed. "So... you decided one day to allow World of Elegance a bit more freedom?" She asked, "Am I understanding that right?"
"Yeah," Urd agreed. "I tried to take what Nana said to heart-I mean, she was maybe the one person aside from you whose words I actually took stock in, and so maybe I took the words a bit too literal and just decided to let Elegance do fuck all one day. 'Give your soul some space.' Well, all right. Here, Elegance: a whole day to yourself to do what you want. You come to me when you're ready to go back inside." She rubbed the back of her head, looking uncomfortable. "Aaaaand it worked, I guess?" She said. "It was weird-Nana treated her no differently from me, and so if Elegance got too close to a cauldron would get shooed away or put to work like I would be. Before lunch time she'd had enough of Nana's nagging and was almost running back inside of me." She smiled. "But it was the first time Elegance ever returned to me without leaving me with a feeling of dread, and her manifestations began to come easier for me as more time passed and I continued to give her freedom."
"I see," Belldandy murmured. "So you stopped seeing World of Elegance as an extension of yourself and more as her own separate person."
"Yeah, I guess." Urd rubbed the back of her neck. "Either that or Nana just never made the distinction between the two of us. World of Elegance never made her nervous like she did the other Tics and their acolytes. To Nana, World of Elegance was just another pair of hands she could put to use. I think Elegance liked that. Nana never saw the wing."
Belldandy held her silence. Urd's childhood had always been difficult. She'd come to Asgard the equivalent of a mortal ten year old, with a poor grasp of Highkin and a pattern of behavior that, while acceptable and perhaps expected in Niflheim, had been viewed as violent and wild by those of the Asgard elite. Tyr and Ansuz had reportedly been the only ones she'd ever listened to-one because Urd recognized him as kin and the other out of fear of Niflheim's infamous 'Destroyer'. A language barrier and culture clash had prevented Belldandy from initially befriending her; Urd saw Belldandy as weak and beneath her, and Belldandy saw Urd as an arrogant bully who refused to adapt to change. Other family members- these all on their father's side- had been quick to label Urd as a troublemaker and a black sheep: another 'Loki' set to ruin the family name through chaos and mayhem.
It'd been years before Belldandy had discovered the true nature of her estranged sister. Years of picking and prying and snooping to discover the person hiding behind that scowling, arrogant mask, and what she found was this: a scared and lonely girl who'd been ripped from her home and her family and flung into a land of enemies and strangers. A desperate and depressed child who feared learning another language lest she forget her native tongue, who feared the inevitable deterioration of the memory of her mother's face and her mother's voice, and found no solace in a father whom she rarely saw and a step-mother, who from Urd's perspective at least, beheld Urd with nothing but contempt.
In a way, Urd's discovery of her mentor had been a blessing. The more deities spoke badly of her nature, the harder Urd clung to the aspects that left her shunned, with no desire to change. No one in her immediate family expected anything good of her, and in light of that, in some ways doomed by the expectations of those around her she'd set herself down a path to self-destruction. Belldandy could actually thank a Trickster deity, Raven disguised as Huginn or Muninn, for Urd's inevitable meeting. The deity, an animal spirit with the same chaotic nature as Loki, Anansi, Veles, and Coyote, had tricked Urd into stealing a specific potion from an old woman in a desert, far to the south of Asgard where the barriers between dimensional planes grew weak. He'd then flown ahead of Urd and had warned the old woman of Urd's impending arrival, and the old woman- Nana, as Urd only ever called her later in life- had caught the past child red-handed. The old woman had demanded servitude in payment for the attempted theft of the potion, and from Belldandy's understanding Urd had then stayed on as an acolyte later when she'd shown an aptitude in her Nana's potions.
Belldandy was grateful to the old woman. She'd helped tear down the barriers that Urd had erected around herself, bridging the gap that had emerged between Urd and the rest of her family and opening the lines for communication on both sides. She and Urd had grown close with the elder's help, though Belldandy herself had only met the old woman once or twice in the time since Urd had known her. Skuld's birth had only strengthened that budding relationship between the two sisters, and had even eased some of the hostility between Ansuz and Urd after it grew apparent that her step-daughter was infatuated with the newborn.
For a brief moment, Belldandy observed Urd in a new light, comparing the child she'd grown up with to the woman before her now. In hindsight, the changes were remarkable. Urd had been setting herself up to be one of the Forgotten in her younger days- those deities who held no true class and were shunned by others in Asgard. Those men and women who'd never been assigned a mentor and held no position or representation in the Heavens, or held the roles that were assigned to those of a less-reputable source; gods of death, gods of pestilence, gods of chaos or gods mistaken for demons. To see Urd as she was now, albeit with some new restrictions on her title she'd earned through the misdeeds performed to save Belldandy... Urd had changed. And they were good changes. She'd become a good person.
Belldandy bit her lip, drawing her attention to her own recent past and looking at the woman she'd become. She'd changed too, and not necessarily in a good way. She'd been forced to change, if only for her own survival or, in retrospect, for the survival of those she'd discovered under Aoshima's thumb. A grand network of human trafficking, most of them children who'd been taken off the streets or kidnapped, with some older teens who'd been lured into Aoshima's business under the guise of fame, fortune, or travel. They weren't all girls, either. There'd been just as many young boys, those favored by a particularly nasty breed of evil, and it'd taken all of Belldandy's strength to shield all of them from Aoshima's cruelty. There were always one or two who were beyond even her saving, though. Those older boys and girls who'd been in the ring since early childhood, so broken that they did not even react to the divine grace who'd been thrust amongst them, or if they did, cursed her with vindictiveness.
"You are no god. You are a false saint sent to mock us."
"If you are so great, why allow this to happen to us?"
"Liar."
"I have always asked myself what I would say to God where I to meet Him. Or Her, should He appear as you are now. And after careful thought and consideration, my answer is this: Get fucked."
"Is that what they have you say in front of the camera?"
"You've finally answered my prayers for death?"
"May you suffer as I have."
"There is no God."
She flinched as voices of the past whispered sweet cruelties in her ear, and banished them to the dark cage where she'd come to store all such wretchedness inflicted by Aoshima. It didn't stop the way her stomach twisted and churned at the memories, though. She'd tried to give them peace. Tried to give them all peace, even if it was the final peace all mortals were destined for. Yet for those broken souls, it had not been enough.
Belldandy doubted it'd ever be enough for such dire creatures. Souls like that belonged to demons, not gods.
And indeed, hadn't they all passed into the hands of a demon already? a small, cruel voice spoke up. They were damned before you ever came along... perhaps damned because you came along, and your efforts only delayed the inevitable.
She closed her eyes against that voice. It wasn't as strong as it was two months ago, but its words still carried with it the weight of her guilt. It grew easier to bear with the passing of days, yet its weight was still heavy, and as had become common for her since Holy Bell's manifestation, Belldandy hushed that weighted voice and placed it with the other despairing voices of Aoshima's mansion, then walked out of the darkness and back into the light. She grabbed a sheet of newspaper lying on the kitchen table and tore off a strip, and began forming a paper star.
"You okay, Bell?"
She paused and looked up at her sister, who watched her in concern.
"Just working though some unwanted feelings," the middle Norn confessed, and when she smiled, Urd smiled too. The Elder Norn approached her chair and embraced her from behind, and for a few minutes silence reigned through the household. She felt Urd rest her chin on her forehead, and took comfort in her sister's closeness. "I've just been lost in thought, is all," Belldandy continued, her hands working dexterously to craft the tiny star before her. "It's strange, I suppose. I can remember all throughout our childhood how you'd come to me for help or advice on something presented to you through Asgard. You came to me when you were hurt or anxious or uncertain, and I would always provide the best advice I could, though my experience was perhaps just as limited as your own." She snorted. "And for whatever Yggdrasil-blessed reason, you actually took my words to heart. I could have told you to jump off a cliff for it would make you more liked by those of the Heaven's Elite, and you would have taken that advice to heart and done it without question, because you trusted me and took faith in what I had to say."
She crimped the edges of the star and observed it in its completion. "And now, in a strange twist of fate, I find myself coming to you for aid instead, Urd. I've gone through a difficult decade that's left me in the dark, and without thought or fear of consequence, you came running to my aid, picked me up and brushed me off and patched up all the cuts and scratches. It's been a long two months, Urd. And you've been with me through the thick of it, displaying a patience with me I dare say I've lost in the years since that thrice-cursed wish."
The Norn grabbed her sister's hand and put the little paper star in Urd's palm, gently folding the fingers around it. "I've never thanked you for what you've put yourself through, Urd." She tilted her head up, finding Urd staring down at her in silence. "Nor what I've put you through since coming here." She pursed her lips. "Not properly."
"Thank you Urd. For everything."
Urd smiled crookedly, then embraced her with more force, still holding the little star Belldandy had placed in her hands. "You're family, Bell. You and Skuld mean the world to me. I'm not about to leave you hanging when you need me most."
"I know," Belldandy said, and the smile that came to her face was honest and kind; a hint of the old Belldandy that had been buried within her as the years progressed. "I know, and I thank you anyway, Urd. I'm not out of the woods yet-far from it, I feel-but I feel like I can see the light between the trees now, and it means a lot, knowing that it's because of you and Skuld and Keiichi helping me on that path."
Urd kissed her brow. "Stop," she announced. "You're getting sappy on me, and I think Skuld cleared out the last bit of ice-cream in the house." She released her. "When did you learn origami, anyhow? I don't remember you doing that until recently."
"I-" Belldandy paused and blinked, then furrowed her brows together. "I'm... I'm not sure, actually," she said, then stared down at the newspaper in front of her. She'd started leaving at least one newspaper on the tabletop for whenever the urge to make the tiny stars overcame her, but now that she thought about it... "I don't-nobody taught me how to make origami stars." She looked back at Urd.
Urd stared at her. "Holy Bell?" She offered. "She's trying to show World of Elegance how to make cranes right now."
"Yes, I remember you telling me that." Belldandy nodded and pursed her lips. "But then... who taught Holy Bell how to do origami?"
The answer struck them both at the same time.
"Aiko." The sisters said together. They stared at each other with matching flat expressions, and then together burst into laughter. "Little shit." They said, and erupted into further laughter.
!... Lind... ere!
Holy Bell's voice caught Belldandy off guard, and the goddess sat stock straight, her eyes wide. "Lind?"
Urd tilted her head as if listening for something, then nodded. "Looks like it," she murmured. "Strange... it's the middle of the week."
Belldandy looked to her sister in confusion. "What could she be doing here?"
"Got me." Urd headed to the front door, and right on cue the doorbell rang, signaling Lind's arrival. "If you want, go and grab Holy Bell. World of Elegance is pretty comfortable around Lind and her angels, so I'll leave her be, but I don't want Holy Bell getting worked up over Lind in case she sees her on accident."
"Right." Belldandy rose to her feet to do just that and then paused mid-step. She needed to close her eyes to properly focus on the link to her angel, and when she zeroed in on it, Belldandy found Holy Bell peering down at Lind from the rooftop. She and World of Elegance both seemed calm and unconcerned with the Valkyrie below. They were both laid out on a pair of towels World of Elegance had stolen from a closet, lying on the far side of the roof as they peeked over the ridge down to the woman below.
Holy Bell?
She sensed her angel focus on her end of the link as well, feeling the connection strengthen a bit with the angel's additional concentration. The Norn felt a wordless question on the other end of the link, and asked, Do you want to return to me with Lind visiting?
There was a small burst of surprise through the link, a hint of confusion, and then denial, followed with the weak request, Ca...I...tay?
Belldandy hesitated for a moment, surprised by the request. She'd expected Holy Bell to simply return without input. Yet she'd never presented the option of allowing Holy Bell to stay outside herself for longer than Belldandy needed, and so perhaps with that Holy Bell had never found the reason to bring up the request. For a moment the link weakened as Belldandy's concentration was disturbed by Urd's voice, and her mind recalled what Urd had said earlier that day.
"You cannot spoil your own soul. You can only nurture it."
And why not? Was Urd herself not simply allowing World of Elegance her freedom and independence? Why not go the way of her sister and allow Holy Bell that same freedom?
When in Rome... She concentrated once more on the link and felt Holy Bell's nervous anticipation leak through from the other side. Yes. She told her angel. Be as you are. I'll retrieve you when you're ready.
The Norn never knew how much of her words reached Holy Bell. The link's deterioration worked both ways, and if Belldandy struggled to hear Holy Bell than it was a safe assumption that the same was true for the angel. Regardless, she seemed to catch the gist of it, and Belldandy was rewarded with a flood of joy and warmth from her other half. The goddess felt a large smile spread across her face and didn't fight it, beaming as she opened her eyes and moved to join her sister in greeting Lind.
"What's up, Lind?" Urd was asking her, stepping to one side and inviting the Valkyrie inside. "It's not often you come calling in the middle of the week."
"It's not," Lind agreed. She looked vaguely uncomfortable, but didn't say over what. "Can I speak with you in the dining room? I think I'm in over my head."
Belldandy and Urd shared a look. "Do you want us to talk in private?" Urd asked Lind.
Lind shook her head. "At this point, I'll take all the outside advice I can get." She hesitated, then looked at Belldandy. "Besides, there's something I need to give you."
The Middle Norn stared at the Valkyrie in confusion. "Me?" She pointed to herself. "What in Midgard would you need to give me of all people?"
Lind grimaced. "Dining room," she ordered, then followed it up with, "Please?" It was almost pitiful coming from the Valkyrie.
Again, Belldandy and Urd shared a look. This time in concern. "Sure," Urd announced, closing the door behind Lind. "Let's see what we can do for you, Lind."
As one, they moved down the hallway and into the dining room, where Lind plopped defeated into one of the dining room chairs. Urd and Belldandy pulled up a chair on either side of her, and with a moan the Valkyrie propped her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands.
The two sisters shared a look over the table.
"Okay Lind, we're here for you. What's going on?" Belldandy was a little surprised to hear the amount of worry in Urd's voice. She was hiding it well, but the Norn recognized it as the sort of worry Urd normally reserved for those closest to her, namely Skuld or Belldandy herself and now, perhaps, Keiichi as well.
Lind sucked in a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. "One thing at a time," she said, her voice holding the calm that was so absent from the rest of her person. "First off, for you, Belldandy." She pushed back her chair to arm's length and held out her hands, palms up. Something manifested atop her hands, and the Valkyrie offered it to the Norn.
The goddess took it in curiosity. "Is this a... sweater?" She held it out to better inspect it, finding that the object in question was in fact a sweater. A bright blue, hand-knitted sweater. A line of moose trailed across the center of it and around to the back in a long train of white. There were two holes knitted into the back. "Umm..." Belldandy stared at it, baffled, then looked back to Lind, who was slowly starting to turn the shade of a beet. "Thank... you...?"
The Norn could almost see the steam coming off Lind's face, she looked so embarrassed. "It's for Holy Bell," she said. "To help keep her warm until her feathers return." The flush on her face darkened. "The thread's a special weave Nebo recommended. It'll help regulate her internal temperature until she gets her feathers back."
Her own curiosity getting the better of her, Urd rose and walked around the table, touching a sleeve in curiosity. She whistled. "There's some pretty impressive magic running through this," she said. "This is some high-quality material here, Lind. And handwoven too..." She glanced back at the Valkyrie. "Did you make this yourself?"
Lind looked down at the table. The blush began to seep down her neckline, disappearing beneath the collar of her uniform. Her silence said it all.
"And this is for Holy Bell?" Belldandy asked once more.
"This is fucking adorable, Lind." Urd smirked.
"This is really for Holy Bell?" Belldandy said again. "My angel? Not for me but my angel?"
"You bone-headed sweetheart. I never would have thought you were the type to go out and make sweaters for angels in need," Urd said.
"And you're- this is a gift. This is a gift for Holy Bell." Belldandy still looked shocked. "I-I don't know what to say Lind."
"Then don't say anything and give it to your angel already!" Lind snapped, and at this point even her hands were turning pink. "Can we please just-"
Urd laughed and hugged the Valkyrie from behind. Lind released a pitiful wail. "I can't believe you made a sweater for my little sister's angel, Lind! You're an absolute doll, you know that?!"
"Help me," Lind begged.
Alas, Belldandy was far too distracted with the gift to her angel to notice Lind's distress. Or perhaps she took amusement in the Valkyrie's nervousness as she sought to fend off Urd's affections. "I need to give this to Holy Bell right now." Urd laughed louder. Lind cursed beneath her breath. Belldandy rose and almost raced out the back door to call her angel out.
"Urd, I swear to Yggdrasil, if you don't get off me I'm going to hog-tie you and throw you to the sharks as a sacrifice to Aga Sedna!" Lind cried.
Urd's laughter didn't fade. "But you're so cute! I can't recall a time I've seen you so flustered before! And over an act of charity for an angel not your own!" Finally, the woman released the Valkyrie, who sent a deathly glare towards her companion. Urd's smile didn't fade in the slightest. "Seriously though, Lind, thank you. That's an incredibly thoughtful gift."
"Stoooop," Lind moaned, and this time her head collided with the surface of the wooden table in an audible thump. "I can't stand it... it was nothing, Urd."
"It was more than nothing and you know it, Lind." Urd crossed her arms over her chest, taking over Belldandy's open seat. "You know Bell's gonna feel indebted to you for this, right?"
Another groan was Lind's reply. "If she wants to repay me than she can hear out what my real problem is."
"We both will," Urd replied.
Belldandy returned a minute later with a large, ear-splitting smile on her face, her arms empty of Lind's sweater. "It fits her perfectly," she said. "Holy Bell loves it. Thank you again, Lind. How can I ever repay you for this?"
Lind looked at Urd, then shifted her gaze to Belldandy. "Well..." she started.
"I need your help," Lind announced. "I've tried... just about everything, and I don't know what to do. This is... really out of my league, and everyone I've spoken with has been pretty unhelpful, all things considered."
Some of the joy faded from both of the Norns as they saw how somber Lind was, and recognizing the matter as concerning, grew serious. "We'll help any way we can, Lind," Urd replied. "You've already done a lot for us, so if there's anything we can do, you can bet your ass we'll jump on board."
Belldandy nodded in agreement.
Lind's smile was strained. "Thank you," she said. "I appreciate it."
"So what's the issue you're going through, Lind?" Urd pressed, recognizing that the Valkyrie, in her own way, was trying to avoid the subject of discussion.
"Well..." Lind sucked in a deep breath, then held her hands out on top of the table. A new object began to manifest in a cool, blue glow between her outstretched hands, and both Urd and Belldandy leaned forward in interest, matching frowns on their faces.
When the object came into existence and the blue glow of Lind's magic began to fade, neither sister said a word for a long time. As one they stared at it in concentration, both of them trying to make heads or tails of the item before them and wondering if their eyes were deceiving them. A trick of the light, perhaps? An object under heavy illusion, maybe? Or was it simply...
It was Urd who finally spoke. "That's a cactus, Lind."
"Yes," Lind affirmed. "Yes it is. A cactus. Yes."
"It has googly eyes," Belldandy whispered.
"Yes."
"Lind... why does the cactus have googly eyes?" Belldandy slowly shifted her gaze back to Lind, her expression like that of when the Valkyrie had presented the sweater to her: one of complete and utter bafflement.
"I don't know," Lind confessed. "It seemed like a good idea at the time?"'
"Lind," Urd began. "Why do you have a cactus with googly eyes?"
Lind bit her lip and scrunched down in her chair. She looked like a child playing Valkyrie in her mother's uniform with a googly-eyed cactus that was her demonic opponent. "I-I have a date," she announced. It came out as a squeak. "I, um, have a date with-with Brian, er- Jackson! And, um, I-I don't know what to do!"
And together the Goddess of the Past and the Goddess of the Present stared down at the Valkyrie from Chugach and said one word: "What?!"
A/N: And we're back. Our goal is to get back to the weekly releases, but it may slip to 2 weeks for some. Summer months are very busy with RL stuff.
For anyone so inclined, we have an ongoing thread at the "Goddess Relief Office", an AMG fansite that is still going. The url is Goddess-project dot net. I invite anyone who wants to discuss the story to stop by and say hi. We also have a TVPropes page. Just do a search for Scarred Survivors and you will find it.
Comments of a Madwoman: This interlude will cover a bit more on the characters' backstories and help perhaps fill in the occasional question that people might be wondering about regarding Bell's time with Aoshima and certain other details. Inspiration for this chapter is credited to Manly Guys Doing Manly Things and Lackadaisy Cats-two webcomics credited to Keiichi's dream and Lind's...cactus.