Author's Note: This story has some spoilers for the A ending, and as a mythology buff, there will be more Norse mythology intertwined in the story than normal. The rating is for mild cursing, nudity (in later parts), and blood.

Ascendant

Prelude: Hope

This is me for forever
One of the lost ones
The one without the name
Without an honest heart as compass

Nemo by Nightwish

The young man staggered out of the ruins, shivering fiercely in the chill rain. Something was nagging him, something he knew damn well was important. He rubbed his eyes, trying to remember. What happened, what was so important? He simply couldn't remember.

The wind cried like an abandoned child in the night, and that triggered it. His daughter! The young man scrambled over the rubble, frantically searching for something, anything, that would reveal where his child was. His brown eyes swept across the remains of whatever the place had once been, and heard an insistent cry over the wind.

He slid down a slick half-crumbled wall, and cried out in relief.

For some reason, the cradle that he had placed his daughter in had passed though this disaster without a scratch. Dead runes painted the walls, the ceiling, the floor, everything but the cradle itself and its precious contents. As he entered, the infant stopped bawling and cooed, waving her tiny hands up for the young man.

The young man smiled and kneeled down, to pick her up. He lifted her in the white swaddling clothes and stood up.

"Shh…" The young man whispered to the baby, touching the baby's crown of soft silvery hair. "Hush, my dear. The worst is over, whatever it is. We'll be alright, Lyra."

Lyra simply cooed and closed her eyes to sleep, a chiming sphere in her blankets soothing her.

Whispering at the World Tree, the Norns spoke.

Urd, the oldest, spoke as she gazed at the pond that healed the World Tree every morn.Her name was stolen before it could be written. That sort of theft was said to be impossible. Yet, it happened.

Velldandi, the middle child and the mother, spoke, plucking at one of the strands of fate. She is a child, an infant. Her father is one of the lost ones, and broken-hearted at that.

She was born, another so-called impossible union. She broke many rules by her first breath.

Yes. That is true. Her True Name is unknown to us. The All-Mother does not know the truth of her.

She did not die although behind her were so many broken rules.

She is very strong, even if she is unnatural. Velldandi began to stand.

Why do you go to kill her? Urd and Velldandi turned to the youngest, the maiden, Skuld.

She is a threat. Velldandi answered, gesturing in the air.

Her birth stirred the Serpent and his father in their eternal slumber. Urd added, dipping a ladle to gather some of the healing water of the World Tree.

Oh? But did they awaken? Skuld argued. She stood before Velldandi, youthful face to middle-aged face. Is she not a mortal, with a destiny like any other? Have you not spun a thread for her, eldest? Velldandi, has she not a life measured like all others? No matter what rules her father broke, is she not an innocent?

You say let her live. For all she stands for, you will allow her to threaten the world. Velldandi whispered in horror.

She did not say that.

How do you know that she is a threat? Skuld spoke in a cold voice.

Velldandi, Skuld spoke true. The child's power did stir the Serpent and his father, but the power was sealed when her Name was stolen. Urd sprinkled the roots and trunk of the tree. Wherever the water hit, the bark and roots healed.

None of us can see where her Name is hidden.

Her father hid it from all. He knew the danger of it.

We do not.

What is she?

She is everything yet nothing. All we can do now… is wait.