Chapter 30 – Another Formal Introduction?
As we fast-marched to the point where we could Apparate into the parlor of ancient Yggdrasil, we passed well-positioned spider sentries. Baalak greeted each very warmly, giving an odd-looking, four-legged hug to each, while assuring them that their seemingly endless and boring job was vital – one of their fellows had prevented Frijjo from doing who knows how much trouble. Aagog, Hermione, and I greeted each of the sentries. Aagog leapt upon their backs for a purely mental sharing of information. Hermione and I shook one leg of each.
It was a most pleasant sight which welcomed us to Yggdrasil's parlor. Both Captain Davies and Boldgog were up and moving very freely and seemingly without pain. In answer to my question of how much time had passed since we left them, Captain Davies told me that it was a full week plus half a day later. The healing energies of Yggdrasil had worked their magic.
"Speaking of magic, I feel far more magical than I did when we started this leg of the Quest. I feel truly magical – not just a Brit who can use a wand to sort-of lift half a sheet of paper two feet off the ground; I feel as though I can do real magic with my mind, even without a wand. I'm better with Barb's wand, but I can move quite heavy objects without."
I gave her one of my spare wands. "Show me!"
She lifted the table from its position on the floor directly in front of her seat and propelled it at a height of several feet all the way across the room, gently lowering it almost to the floor. It dropped the final three inches.
"That is most impressive. I'm going to teach you a few spells. We'll try 'Lumos' and 'Expelliarmus'. If that goes well, we can try others." Hermione and I spent several hours training her. She couldn't do more than cause our wand hands to shake a little, even when we didn't try to tie into Yggdrasil. Her 'Lumos' was quite satisfactory. She had learned a new trick. I vowed to spend an hour a day teaching her. She warranted a wand of her own.
"Tomorrow, we must thoroughly investigate this region of seid-space. Even with all our sentries, it's possible that Frijjo was able to find her way here and make some dangerous seid edits. I'd start immediately, but we need to converse with this Yggdrasil. Much older Yggdrasil has questions, which must be answered; so, do we."
Yggdrasil heard this discussion and had very specific ideas of its own.
I accept that you have been granted full access by the Yggdrasil and the major Aesir God of your age, but if you want to question me with that same privilege, then there are ancient forms which must be followed.
Are you saying that I must hang?
Yes, you must. So must your Muse and the little spider. That is the only way that I may truly accept you as the Mother and Muse in this time as well as in your own. As Baalak is the teacher of the spiders of my time, Aagog can be the teacher of the spiders of your time.
Odin took far too great enjoyment as he presided over the hanging of the three of us. He enthusiastically promised us that this was the traditional, and the very best, way for us to learn what Yggdrasil alone was able to teach us. He announced his determination to hang after we had finished, declaring "I am not nearly as well acquainted with this version of Yggdrasil as I should and need to be. Likely it can add to the knowledge I will need to become fully spirit." He did promise to personally continue Captain Davies' magical education, while Hermione and I were unavailable to do so. He would teach her to reach for Yggdrasil, or any of the Black Stones, to augment her natural powers. My interest was piqued when he commented "the magical circles within Yggdrasil are especially easy and important to tie into." I had been completely unaware that Yggdrasil housed magical circles. Perhaps I needed the intimate connection to Yggdrasil, which hanging would provide.
Like the modern Yggdrasil, ancient Yggdrasil supported almost the entirety of my weight as soon as I was hung. I had perhaps a minute of mild discomfort, and the sense that my blood was rushing to my head - Yggdrasil said this was a good thing which would aid my thinking - when I entered total communion with Yggdrasil. My spirit was taken on a tour of Yggdrasil's being. I was shown three circles, ovals, and vertical rather than horizontal. Each had a purple diamond at its center. I sensed at once both that each was perfectly tuned and that I could easily tie into it for magical energy to sustain both my body and my free-roaming spirit.
I traveled the vertical length of Yggdrasil. It was over two hundred miles long. It ended just before the point where Asgard was hot enough to be plastic. It told me that this was many miles beyond its original. Yggdrasil told me that it added to its length as Asgard cooled. This maintained the desired temperature change across its being. When Asgard eventually cooled completely, then Yggdrasil would either go into a permanent sleep or successfully transport itself to another world. It showed me its transporter. This was far more elaborate than any circle I had ever seen. It incorporated multiple, large purple diamonds. A trail of fine crystals stretched the length and breadth of Yggdrasil, beginning at the central purple diamond of the transporter. How was this done? Yggdrasil simply organised itself. It had close to complete control of its body. It had learned many tricks over a very long lifetime. Asgard was not the first world within which it had existed. There was a prior world, now dead.
Yggdrasil taught me how I could help modern Yggdrasil to repair and to build White Columns. Really, it was no different than organising itself. The proper materials needed to be supplied. The growing column needed to be protected, including constantly supporting it, so that it didn't prematurely split away from Yggdrasil. Any Black Stone could do this, but, as the oldest and wisest Black Stone, Yggdrasil could do it far better than any of the others. Yes, it had made other Black Stones - not all of them, but some. Again, the right materials were needed. Yggdrasil then simply grew longer and eventually divided in half, with one half needing to be transported away, then both halves growing to an appropriate length.
I learned a lot more about seid. Many of the old tricks from this time were unknown in my time. They were very useful tricks which deserved to be remembered. There was a way of forcing the moving pictures to reappear. It was complex, but I learned it. I learned knew knots. My way of seeing and interpreting colours was enhanced. I thought I acquired a bit of intuitive ability to visualize where a seid edit might be most likely to produce a desired effect and what changes were possible. I learned enough about the resilience of history, as well as the ability of differing histories to proceed side-by-side, to greatly reduce my fear that I and all those I loved could simply be edited out of existence by one such as Frijjo performing a seid-edit of my region of seid-space. I learned how to sturdily 'lock' the history of a small region of seid-space.
I have several things to tell you, before I answer your questions. I know they are really the questions of a much older version of myself. First, you must explore the area of Terran seid-space in the region leading up to your own time. Odin is correct that it is suicide to go beyond your own present. You have over-looked the need to examine other areas of your world in seid-space. I do not, I could not possibly since I never lived in your time, know of any definite problems which you must find and address. I simply know from your own mind that you lack the curiosity to explore beyond Britain, really to explore much beyond Hogwarts and your own and your friends' lives. This is a serious error. Danger can come from anywhere. Seid edits effecting people living on the opposite side of your world could result in your death. Seid edits involving any world to which you travel, they also can result in your death. The next thing I must tell you is that you must Quest to Venera and examine the path of the dark Gods. Before you travel to Vanera, or any other world, examine its spot in seid-space up until that time. Look for edits. Especially look for the presence of Frijjo, Gna, or the dark Gods. Know this about Vanera: it is a heavy world. You will weigh much more there than on any world you have visited. You must plan for that.
Now, I will answer questions from you and my older self.
"Do you know who made you?"
No. When I became self-aware, I existed in much the form which I have today. I had a list of instructions. I do not know their source.
"Please tell me about your original world and its inhabitants."
Its inhabitants called it Zandis. It was lighter than the worlds you have visited. It was almost completely water, with one island about five hundred of your miles across. I lived on the shore of that island, with just my very top above the water. Two magical, thinking peoples lived on that world.
Their images appeared in my mind. They looked very similar to the Merpeople and the Acromantula - not the same, but similar enough to be recognised as what they later became. "Of course, I recognise those peoples. They are very similar to their off-spring I know today. So, I take it that means that the spiders and Merpeople were the first intelligent and magical peoples. My people, even the non-magical intelligent humans didn't exist then. As you know, we have been fighting to keep the early Aesir from wiping out the Acromantula. Why did you put the Acromantula and Merpeople on a world, which already held the Aesir? The ancient Aesir are said to have been very magical. I am told that they became the Light Guardian.
They should look familiar. They were transported to your world, along with the first new Black Stone I created. The Merpeople survived. The spiders did not. You are skeptical. No, the Black Stone on Vanaheimer was not created by me. My unknown creator also made it, as well as the Black Stone on Venera. I left Zandis many millions of your years ago. The inhabitants of Zandis developed as they did, because Zandis contained almost no metal. I would have transported the magical peoples of Zandis to live among the Aesir on Asgard, if that is what my instructions demanded. They did not. There were no magical or intelligent creatures on Asgard at the time. What you call the Aesir began on Vanaheimer. I had no contact with that Black Stone until the first Aesir to discover me brought knowledge of its existence. The Acromantula helped me to find it. It knew of its brother on Venera. The deadly clashes between the Vanir and the Acromantula are a terrible thing, but they are not my doing. The Vanir wanted Asgard. Eventually they took it. They found Asgard by following what you call the God-ribbon. Perhaps they created that ribbon. I knew nothing of it, until the first Vanir on Asgard contacted me.
"That's why Odin brought the spiders back to Asgard. He knew it was their natural home, which his people had stolen very long ago. You must have told Odin this. Odin never mentioned Merpeople on Asgard. Do they still live there?"
Yes, there are millions of mer-people on Asgard. They long ago learned to live away from the shore of the Great Continent, even though that is very difficult for them and makes it next to impossible for them to talk to me. They cannot talk at distance. They can barely tie into me for magical power. They warred with the Vanir and then with the Aesir, who had forgotten that they were Vanir. The Merpeople were not built to fight out of the water. The Vanir/Aesir killed them if they came too close to land. As the Aesir dwindled, the Merpeople became nothing more than legend. The Merpeople like it that way.
"Why did you create the Black Stone on Terra and the other Black Stones? Why does Britain have such a full collection of the magical peoples"
That was one of my instructions. I knew that at some time they would be needed. My instructions told me upon which worlds the Stones were to be placed. Your world had barely magical humans. The Aesir found your world. That is the source of most magical people on Terra. Your world became civilised far later than the others. There were wars among the magical peoples on my civilised worlds. Elves, Leprechauns, Goblins, Giants, Trolls - they all lost wars. They were all dumped on your world. I had not planted as many Black Stones on as many worlds back then. A group of Unicorns was later sent to enforce the peace. Your world already had Centaurs. Dragons weren't intelligent, but they were powerful and an extreme nuisance on Asgard and Venera. The Acromantula killed almost all the dragons on their world. Dragons love to eat the Acromantula. The Aesir and Vanir dumped what dragons remained onto your world. They couldn't exterminate them outright, because legend said that they were almost-holy magical creatures who had been the pets of the ancient kings. The people would have objected to outright slaughter, despite the nuisance. Sending them to Terra was the simplest solution. They were transported almost constantly for half a dozen of your millennia, until there were no more.
"The dark Gods told us that they fled worlds too cold to support them in a dying region of space. They said that those worlds had Black Stones. Do those Stones still live? Are those worlds a part of Odin's realm?"
I can't know what happened in your time, apart from what I see in the minds of the three of you, but I still am certain that there is no such thing as "Odin's realm". There is one dying Black Stone far, far away who talks to me. I help it to figure out how to use its transporter to move itself to a suitable new world. Space is huge. It is very difficult to find a good world which wasn't listed in my or my poor friend's instructions. We found one such world, but it proved too far for such a sick Stone. We have picked a temporary home and are now working to move my friend. We found this home a million years ago but searched for a place which would last longer. Now we must act. My friend's current world hosts several beings without bodies. Perhaps those are your dark Gods. I should be able to tell you more, but the Black Stone on Venera keeps many secrets. You would be wise not to hang from it.
"Other Black Stones have told me that Yggdrasil is the one Stone which never sleeps. It seems that you have slept. Who runs the inhabited worlds while you sleep?
Their inhabitants run them. They always have. I help when I can if my instructions permit me to help. I may not sleep. I doze when there is nothing new to think about. After the ancient Aesir left, there was nothing to think about until Baalak found me. I spoke to the other Black Stones. Sometimes they had new information which was worth thinking about.
"Do you know what happens in seid-space?"
Of course. It is a part of me. I will say no more about how that works. If is your task to think how that may be. I am not permitted to say too much to the truly ignorant. You must prove your intelligence. Strong magic and determination are not enough. I like you, but I have my instructions.
This only slightly deflated me. Yggdrasil's answer suggested that Hermione might well receive answers which I was denied. I wasn't feeling at all petulant, but I told Yggdrasil that I did not wish to hang any longer. I hoped that Hermione's hang was already finished. I had much to ask her.
I was afraid of falling in the lake and being consumed by the carnivorous fish. I needn't have worried. I felt the slightest ripple and found myself back in the parlor. I looked around but was unable to find Hermione or Aagog. No that was incorrect. I noticed Aagog sitting upon Baalak's head. I would have missed her, but Baalak thought to me that those of us who had hung from ancient Yggdrasil must meet in the corner of the parlor, where she sat, and exchange knowledge outside of the 'hearing' of the others.
"How long did I hang?"
"You were gone a little over two days. Aagog hung for a little over a day."
"It didn't feel nearly that long. It was more comfortable than the first time I was hung. So, now I understand why the normal entrance to seid-space is through Yggdrasil. I didn't learn that the first time I hung. Odin said I hung for too short a time. The purple God-ribbon must be the basic architecture of seid-space. The one we walked upon was laid down when Yggdrasil moved to Asgard."
"Yes, when Yggdrasil explained it to me the first time I hung, quite a few years ago, that became clear in a blazing burst of insight. That was astonishing in retrospect, because I never stepped upon a purple ribbon, before we three traced back together Frijjo's path to ancient Yggdrasil. All the Black Stones are connected by the purple ribbons. The normal entrance to seid-space was created to provide access, as needed, while allowing the purple ribbon to remain hidden. Even normal visitors to Yggdrasil and to seid-space are not meant to know about the purple ribbons. One is only fit for this knowledge after much preliminary study. The God-ribbons are simply too powerful and dangerous for most seid masters. Frijjo and Gna never should have walked upon it. Nor should we have, although Yggdrasil did give retroactive permission. We must explore. We must do so with much, much fear and caution. Frijjo died, because we guard our part of the purple ribbon. Others must do the same. They will fight us."
"The path to the dead world from which the dark Gods traveled must be unguarded. We should explore. We need to find or build a map of the purple ribbon's path."
"I apologise. I said too much, assuming Yggdrasil had found you sufficiently learned and worthy. Please move back to the other side of the room, while Aagog and I discuss what must be done. Please don't take offence. We both do like you. We must follow the rules given to Yggdrasil. It is only proper."
I slunk back to my proper place in the parlor. Now I did feel bad.
"What's the problem," Captain Davies asked me.
"I'm apparently too stupid and uneducated to lead this Quest. Secrets must be kept from me. Either that, or Yggdrasil wants one of my eyes in sacrifice for its secrets."
"Oh!"
Boldgog scampered over to where Baalak and Aagog remained locked in conversation.