Wish's End
by Tremor3258
Chapter 2-Through the Gates...
OMG Dark Divergence Fic-you've been warned
Disclaimer-Dark Horse and Pioneer have the U.S. rights to this material, and are greatly appreciated for their excellent translation job.
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Belldandy's occasional excesses and grief didn't extend to changing the landscape itself. Heaven was still a beautiful place, though the people tended to move quickly and quietly through its well-tended gardens, their perfumed blossoms going unappreciated. It didn't seem appropriate to appreciate beauty under such an ugly master.
Morgan felt perfectly at home among great things simply left aside by Heavenly decree. Still, Heaven's security force was learning internal security on the ground. Everyone ignored the gardens, besides maintenance, so they didn't think anyone would be there. Avoiding the gardeners would be easy, as a new species of humanoid butterfly would probably attract some comment. So, she sat quietly on a limb several meters up in the canopy, with her knees against her chest as she tried to be as unobtrusive as possible.
"Morgan!" shouted a young voice from below. "Morgan, are you here?" Morgan sighed and buried her face in her knees for a moment, praying for continued inner strength. Gods and goddesses seemed to be genetically incapable of subterfuge, and it was almost physically painful to have watched Skuld's initial attempts at being sneaky. After months of careful effort, she could keep a straight face when denying she knew anything about treason against Mistress Belldandy, though Morgan feared what would happen if Skuld was forced to rely on her new talents in an actual field test.
However, thoughts of future stealth lessons were cut short when Skuld showed up with a height of about five inches. Morgan jumped down silently from the tree, crouching in front of the junior goddess, who was holding a scaled-down bullhorn to her lips.
"Morgan!" Skuld shouted though the bullhorn with relief, knocking the fae back a step. Skuld quickly switched off the bullhorn and shamefacedly dropped it into a pocket on her baggy dress. "I'm sorry," she whispered, sounding pained. "I was afraid of being spotted right now."
Morgan rubbed her chin, "Well, the smaller size assists with that, but the bullhorn damages the effect." Morgan paused when she saw Skuld's eyes start to fill with tears. "Skuld, what's wrong?"
Skuld's gloved hands furiously wiped at her eyes, "It's nothing!" she insisted. Morgan, taking a cue from Urd, simply waited patiently for a moment as Skuld fought for control of her emotions.
Unexpectedly, the dam burst, and Skuld began to cry. Morgan was shocked and felt guilty. bit out of practice with handling children emotionally, Morgan awkwardly scooped up the mini-goddess and patted her on the back uncertainly. A few minutes passed as Skuld dealt with the load she had been under the best she could.
"Sorry," she said as the sniffles ceased, sounding more throaty than usual, "I'm not usually like this." That brought on a fresh round of crying. When she finally calmed down, Skuld explained, "I met Belldandy in the Well." Skuld shivered, "She froze most of me, this is as big as I can get, and I used up almost the rest of my power just teleporting here from the Well!" Skuld sighed, more in control but still depressed.
"Will you be all right?" Morgan asked. If Skuld's emotional fragility was caused by being in two places at once, she shuddered to think what the long term effects were.
"Maybe eventually," Skuld said after long moments deliberation. "Well, anyway, you have the information, right?" the young goddess asked with forced cheerfulness. Morgan held up the glimmering data cartridge she had filled. "Excellent!" Skuld said, leaning forward to touch it. As she did so, she closed her eyes and her forehead emblem began to glow, the cartridge brightening to match. After a moment, Skuld's head stopped shining as she pulled away, looking shocked. After a moment, she fell backwards, as her legs kicked up in the air as she began to laugh wildly.
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Four hours later, Morgan and Skuld appeared in a different area of Heaven amid a shower of green sparks. Morgan quickly flew down to land on a roof and ducked down, and checked on her passenger, who appeared a bit grumpy. Skuld's levity had been burned away by impatience. "We could have walked here in under an hour! What was the hold-up?"
Morgan held the tinny goddess up to eye-level. "Security's still at full alert from our break-in. Considering how unique we look, you should just be glad I managed to slip us through the screens at all sometime this decade."
Skuld pouted, but replied, "So why did we have to make three separate stops on Olympus Mons? It's a bit shocking suddenly having to not breathe without warning." Skuld looked a bit green around the gills with remembrance.
Morgan looked surprised, "Aren't they teaching you brats anything these days? All those old fire spirits foul up energy signatures. It makes a good transfer point if you don't mind a little cross-dimensional nausea," she explained with the ease of someone who wasn't bothered by such things.
"They don't go too far into theory work before your power comes all the way in, all right?" Skuld said testily. "So why the multiple stops? Couldn't you get by all the screens?"
Morgan looked uneasy, and she admitted softly, "We may have tagged a tracer on our first return trip, and I had to lose it. This is a well protected area of Heaven, however. We need to be about it quickly."
Skuld nodded and stood up in Morgan's hand, looking around the area they had landed it. It was a much more ramshackle part of Heaven, with rough-hewn log houses on either side of an unpaved street. Large, muscular people clad in rough leathers walked up and down, on various businesses. Many of them were carrying heavy two-handed weaponry, generally axes or maces. Skuld spent a moment murmuring to herself, and power posed as she exclaimed, "I know where we need to go!" before covering her mouth with her hands as the need for silence caught up with her, though it didn't stop her from bristling when Morgan's soft exhalation of impatience brushed her neck.
"Sorry," she ground out, "Head up this street a half mile in the direction away from Heaven's main administration district. There'll be a large lodge structure. According to the data transferred from junk files to the main console, that's where the person we're trying to find li-er, resides," Skuld directed. Morgan nodded, taking to the air and flying over the roofs. Skuld prepared to comment, but she noticed the people below were pretty blase about airborne humanoids. Evidently, it was a more common occurrence in this area than Skuld had anticipated. Skuld shrugged and leaned back in Morgan's palm. At least this would mean PART of the journey would be getting over with soon.
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"I think 'large' was insulting it," said Skuld in hushed, reverent tones, "Do you think it'll be mad?" Morgan shrugged helplessly. The lodge Skuld had directed them to was made of hand-hewn logs stacked together, and then daubed to fill in the air spaces. The trees were the size of old-growth forests. Not trees FROM old-growth forests, but trees the size of forests. The lodge stretched up into the skies overhead, and passed out of sight in either direction.
"Now, my question is how we didn't see this thing from all over Heaven?" said Morgan, still sounding stunned.
Skuld refocused, able to answer such an easy question, "Easy, Heaven's n-dimensional matrix means that you can walk from one area of more normal space to the other while appearing to go to another one entirely." Skuld perked up as she exclaimed, " I've heard a rumor that if you walk up the steps to the Council chambers in a certain way, you open the door onto the universe's best hot springs resort."
Morgan blinked in confusion, "What does that have to do with the lodge?"
"Nothing," Skuld admitted, "I just could really use a soak for about a year..." Skuld sighed dreamily.
Morgan coughed softly, and Skuld shook herself out of it as she felt the muscles in Morgan's hand start to clench from frustration. Skuld stared at Morgan's face, but she didn't look as irritated as she did worried. A surge of irritation was quickly overcome by fear. "You're not sure we escaped, are you?" Skuld asked in quiet realization.
"It's not that!" Morgan snapped, before saying in slightly softer tones, "Though I'm a little worried. Your sister's quite clever." Morgan sighed and looked at the lodge, "I just want to get this over with. Let's get out of here, get your sister somewhere close to sanity, and get me paid, all right?" Morgan flapped forward gracefully, though the way she slammed the door open via telekinetic force was anything but.
Inside the lodge, visible through the pall of smoke from cooking fires and pipes, a group of large hairy men, many wearing a variety of armor, were busy feasting on a variety of roasted animals. Little silverware was in evidence, mainly knives to carve off sections. Lovely women flitted around the table, refilling drinks and making sure they didn't lack for food. The air was filled with hundreds of people boastfully shouting at once, though the group nearest the door almost went silent at Morgan's entrance.
A shorter man, carrying an axe, walked up towards the door, shaking grease off his fingers as he sized her up. "My lady, I do believe you've taken a wrong turn somewhere. However, if you come inside and stay awhile, I'm sure we'll-" The man broke up, seeing the tiny Skuld held in Morgan's hand, looking around the area with distaste. The warrior bowed deeply, "Pardons, young goddess, I did not realize you traveled with a servant."
Skuld straightened up, and yelled to cover the sound of Morgan's stifled laughter. "Yes, that's right, but, um, there's a boon you can give me today."
"Do we ride?" said the man eagerly, a loud and bloodthirsty howl being raised by the interested surrounding men.
Skuld was bent backwards by the force of the roar, and, despite ringing ears, pressed forth bravely. "No, that day's still a long way's off." Skuld muttered to herself, "And hopefully not in my lifetime." Skuld continued again more loudly, "I seek the wisdom of one of your warriors. I beseech you: direct me to the one called Keiichi Morisato!"
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Author's Note: And there's our end spot for the day... Relax, all will be explained in time, or next chapter, whichever comes sooner! I apologize for the delay.
