WOLVERINE'S WORLD - THE QUESTIONS OF A STORM PRIESTESS

It a good five hours until sunrise and a storm was sprawled all around us. Lightning flickered on every horizon as thunder steadily growled and boomed. The rain was thick and heavy, but at least it wasn't cold.

"This will give us cover," I told Olivia and Rahne. "We should get moving."

Rahne nodded. After a moment of tired hesitation, Olivia spoke up, "What I said before is still true. I'll slow you down."

I didn't deny it. "Let's put in an hour of travel. Then we'll consider our options." I was hoping that once Olivia got moving, sheer stubbornness would make it impossible for her to give up.

Olivia glanced up at the sky. The rain slapped against her pale face and washed her white mohawk down the back of her head and neck. She was examining the sky carefully, as if it was a friend that she hadn't seen for a long time.

"I could attempt to modify the storm," she suggested thoughtfully. "It would ease near us, but be stronger at a distance."

"Try it," I agreed. That was good. If Olivia decided she was doing something to aid our escape, she'd be far less inclined towards self-sacrifice.

We slowly began working our way south. Rahne led the way. Olivia leaned against me for support. Her eyes turned into a whirl of dark-gray, flecked with blue and white electricity, as she sought to master the storm.

After three hours, I was essentially carrying Olivia. Meanwhile, Rahne continued to scout ahead. She was quite good at finding deer trails and shallow fords. I'd told her to keep us close to the river-bank and away from the roads that paralleled the Huds river.

Olivia had managed to establish some control over the storm. Around us, the rain and wind were fairly mild. But just a few dozen yards away, the storm was far angrier.

We twice had to go to ground when dark-elf scouts passed by. They were three-elf teams of lightly armored skirmishers. They moved well in the woods, but were obviously hindered by the weather. One group passed within ten yards of us, but thanks to the storm didn't spot us.

I silently thanked both Olivia and Lady Ororo for their assistance. Rahne and I could take a small group of dark-elf scouts, especially with the advantage of surprise, but that might attract unwanted attention.

As a wet and gray dawn broke, we finally found what I'd been looking for. It was a small point of land that jutted out into the Huds river. It had been cleared of trees and obviously used repeatedly as a camp. It was currently abandoned. On the edge of the clearing, we stumbled across a mostly-intact lean-to. We took shelter underneath it as we considered our next move.

"What is this place?" Rahne asked curiously as Olivia promptly curled up in a corner of the lean-to and closed her eyes. As soon as she did, the storm around us intensified.

"It's a rendezvous - a place where fur-trappers and river-merchants meet to trade," I answered. "It has the advantage of being just outside the reach of the Point's tax-collectors."

Rahne nodded. Her red hair was plastered down around her face and the remnants of her dress was clinging to her body like a second skin.

"Check the riverbank, including any creeks," I told Rahne. "See if you can find a raft or a dugout. There are usually a few left in the area. They might be hidden in the brush, or even buried."

Rahne nodded and vanished into the rain.

I began rubbing Olivia's hands and feet, trying to keep her warm.

"When you're done with that," Olivia told me sleepily, "please draw a warm bath - and make sure there's a good selection of oils and scents. Then get me a bottle of your finest white wine and a good selection of fruit and cheese. Oh, and I'd prefer a younger and prettier attendant."

A wry smile crept over my face. "I'm sorry, most honored lady, but none of that is available at the moment."

"The management will hear of this outrage," Olivia sighed.

"What happened last night?" Olivia whispered to me. We were still in the lean-to, waiting in the shadowy morning light for Rahne to return.

"What do you mean?" I asked. There was no harm in conversation. The storm would hide our words. Besides, I knew there was nobody in the near area except for us.

"This storm... I can tell it isn't natural," Olivia said. "It's been generated by someone, and it's huge. Only a few of the followers of Lady Storm could even begin to attempt this. And it rolled in just before you began walking in your sleep."

I hesitated for a good half-minute before responding. "I had a strange dream. Lady Ororo came to me and we spoke."

Olivia also considered her words for some time before speaking again. "What did she say?"

"She seems to think I should reconsider my life as a seeker."

"Do you think it was real? Or that it was just a dream?"

I raised my hands helplessly. "I asked the Lady the same question. Her answer was essentially 'yes'."

Olivia shook her head tiredly. "You move in rare company, James."

"That's part of my job," I replied with a sigh, "but I must admit that it has been much more dramatic lately."

Olivia was silent for a while.

"Tell me about you and Emma," she said finally.

That surprised me. "Why are you interested?" I asked.

"I'm curious to hear your opinion of her."

I shrugged. "Actually, I think a great deal of Emma, but I suppose it would be wise to assume that I'm just part of her mission."

Olivia grunted. "She's broken more than a few hearts in her service to the Lady of Fire, but I do think she honestly likes you."

"How well do you know her?" I asked.

"We were acolytes together, and we became friends. We were initiated as priestesses in the same ceremony. And once we were released from our vows of celibacy, we spent a lot of time with each other."

Emma and Olivia were so different that some might find it hard to see them as lovers. Actually, it struck me as quite possible. There is something to the ancient idea that opposites attract.

"How long were you together?" I asked.

"About a year. Then our duties took us in different directions. We drifted apart."

"Are you still friends?"

Olivia let out a long sigh. "I hope so. But what she has become - all of the spying, lying, and play-acting - makes it hard to know the truth about what she thinks and feels. I fear that her calling has changed her."

"It sounds like we have some of the same concerns about her."

Olivia chuckled. "It does, doesn't it?"

Rahne was back.

"I found a raft," she reported. "I put it into the water and it floats, but that's about all I can say for it. It's pretty old and beat-up."

I nodded. "It'll have to do."

Rahne looked skeptical. "Should we be on the river in this weather?"

Olivia's eyes darkened again and the storm began to ease around us. "Have some faith, young lady," she told Rahne.

Rahne and I carefully helped Olivia onto a three-log raft. As she settled in, I handed Olivia her hammer-headed polearm. Despite her weakness, Olivia simply refused to leave it behind. However, in the process of awkwardly boarded the raft, she'd left it leaning against a shore-line stump.

Overhead, there was a bright bolt of unusually strong lighting. In the flash, I caught a glimpse of a symbol that seemed to be engraved in the steel head of the pole-arm. It was a short-handled hammer with a large and blocky head. It overlay a lightning bolt. The emblem seemed to glow in reflection of the lightning overhead.

I made a point of not reacting. And I moved my body to block Rahne from catching a glimpse of what I'd seen.

The thunder from the lightning bolt rolled over us as the lightly glowing symbol faded away.

Olivia quickly took the weapon from my hands and laid it down beside her on the raft - flipping the hammer head around so the side with the mystical engraving was no longer visible.

There was a look on her face that I can only call shame.

I cut some long poles and we used them to push away from the shore. As the current caught us, we lay down and piled tree boughs over us. It would never have worked on a clear day with good visibility, but thanks to the rain, we were once again nothing more than river debris.

It was mid-day. The hours had passed in tense silence and the rain softened as the storm began letting up. We kept to our cover under the tree boughs. Our progress down-river had been slow, but steady. Every now and then I had to stick a pole out from underneath our cover and use it to work our way around some obstacle.

I'd just finished shoving us clear of a mud-flat when Olivia spoke up.

"Tell me about that elf woman who's your wife," she said suddenly. "There's this terribly romantic tale about you saving her life by breaking into an evil lord's dungeon and marrying her."

I didn't think Olivia could see me roll my eyes, but I did it anyway. "That's the gist of the story."

"And she abandoned you afterwards?"

"More or less. I suppose neither of us took the marriage seriously. It was just a tactic to free her."

"You suppose?" Olivia asked. One of her fine eyebrows was raised questioningly.

I just shrugged.

Olivia let that go. "The way I heard the story, she's back and begging for your forgiveness. And she's steadily chipping away at your fortress of righteous anger by providing an unending stream of exotic elvish sexual favors."

Rahne stifled a giggle.

"Anna doesn't beg for anything - least of all forgiveness," I replied stiffly. "Also, I'm not angry at her and the only sex we've had since she returned was to fulfill a burial ceremony. Who's telling these tales?"

"Are you joking?" Olivia laughed. "'The Tale of Anna and James' is becoming a favorite of the market-place story-tellers. You can hear the basic story from any tale-teller for a few coppers. Try Sarah Many-Voices if you want to hear a good rendition of the erotic version, but that costs a silver-piece per customer."

"Oh, for the love of the Old One!" I growled in disgust.

"If we make it back to town, can I borrow a silver piece?" Rahne asked innocently.

"No," I said flatly.

"Yes," Olivia countered with a smile that lit up her otherwise exhausted face.

By my estimate we were a mile north of the river fort when our raft began falling apart - the ropes holding the logs together were old and frayed and had begun to disintegrate in the water. So we grounded our crumbling conveyance and clambered ashore. The rain was now just a drizzle. The sky was still overcast, but I thought the morrow would be a clear day.

"I have another question," Olivia said as I helped her down the trail that Rahne had found for us. She was moving easier, but still needed aid.

"Why am I not surprised?" I said with an exasperated shake of my head.

Olivia didn't seem even slightly offended by my response. Actually, I didn't really mind. It was important that Olivia keep putting one foot in front of another. Her questions - and my answers - seemed to be helping.

"It's a question that some might consider indelicate," she continued.

"My relationship with Rahne is purely innocent," I replied quickly.

Olivia gave me a hard look. "I know that! And what made you think my question was about that?"

"You've been rather curious about the women in my life," I pointed out.

"That's fair," she conceded, "but this question goes beyond that."

"So what is it?" I asked.

"There are a lot of strange stories about you, James. And some of them go back a long time. Just how old are you?"

I was tired and preoccupied and Olivia was a person with the knack for making you want to answer her.

So I told her.

For a long time, Olivia was silent.

"Is that true?" she then asked me doubtfully.

By then, I was beginning to think better of what I'd just said. "Perhaps I was just joking," I hedged.

Olivia nodded, but there was something speculative in the expression on her face.

"If that were true," she mused. "I mean, if you were really that old. Why... you might even be old enough to have met Logan himself."

"That's possible," I agreed.

I remembered a voice - low and strong. A pair of hands picking me up, tossing me in the air, and then catching me. A gruff laugh, short white hair, and a pair of dark eyes. He was smaller than my father, but somehow he always seemed to be the biggest man in the room.

"You might even have met Lady Ororo herself. In the flesh... not in a dream or vision."

I said nothing.

I wish I had, but I did remember the days of sadness when word came that she had passed.

"You would have seen so much," Olivia continued. "The Doom war. The unification of the Temple. The signing of the Wilder accords. The Phoenix rebellion. The final Weaponex crusade. The breaking of the Creed horde. The rise and fall of Sinister... dear Goddess, you would even have survived the Burning!"

Again, I said nothing.

Sometimes I'd been a bystander, sometimes a participant, and sometimes a person who helped make the decisions - good and bad - that determined the course of history.

Olivia fell silent. I waited for her next question and wondered how to respond.

To my surprise, there was none.

A patrol from the Point contacted us about fifteen minutes later. Rahne led a band of Blood samurai and Folk archers back to us. They looked like they'd been in a recent fight.

"Priestess Olivia!" the eldest samurai said with a quick half-bow - it was no time for formalities, "We had orders to watch for you."

Olivia stopped leaning against me. She stood tall and proud and suddenly it didn't matter that she was smeared with mud, half-covered with bruises, and without her formal armor. She was once again a Hammer of Lady Ororo.

I watched carefully for any sign that she was about to collapse.

"I take it you know about the dark-elves," she said as she examined the battered warriors.

"There have been running fights all along the frontier ever since last night," the leading samurai said angrily. "We were getting the worst of it - our patrols were all spread out when they hit us - but then a storm came in. That allowed us to break contact and get reorganized."

Olivia glanced upwards in silent thanks.

"Take us to the fort," she ordered.

The frontier was abuzz. On our way to the fort, we encountered crossroad pickets, alert-looking patrols, and long columns of marching troops. To my experienced eye, there weren't enough warriors to take on a full legion of dark-elves. And we also had nothing that could handle the Destroyer.

On the road leading to the river fort, there were several shrines - they were the last thing a soldier saw before leaving the fort, and the first thing he or she saw when coming home.

Olivia paused before the one dedicated to the Lady of Storms and bowed her head in silent prayer. Our escort waited at a respectful distance. Rahne and I stayed with Olivia.

Then Olivia knelt in front of the statue of the Goddess herself and kissed her stone feet. "I'm sorry," I heard her whisper. She was so quiet that even Rahne and I only barely heard her.

Rahne gave me a puzzled look.

I didn't say anything.

I was pretty sure that Olivia wasn't apologizing for anything she'd done. She was apologizing for something she planned on doing.

Sometimes, even the most worthy run out of choices.