WOLVERINE'S WORLD - THE DECLARATION

The debris from Anna and Emma's fight had been swept against the walls of the barracks. Somebody - I suspected Benjamin and Faye - had managed to cobble together some ramshackle bunks from various parts and fragments. At least the next visitors wouldn't have to sleep on the floor.

It suddenly occured to me that I was responsible for settling the damages. After all, my women had caused all of the destruction.

Then I shrugged that off. That was something to worry about if I survived the next few days.

Anna and Emma were back from the healer. The worst of their injuries were gone, but I noticed with some amusement that the healer had left them with most of their considerable collection of bruises, cuts, and other minor injuries.

"Was the healer busy?" I asked.

"He was helping some wounded Folk archers and pioneers," Anna replied with a painful shrug. "He magicked away the worst of our injuries and then he threw us out of his infirmary and told us to go find some dark-elves to fight. Honestly, I feel no ill-will towards him - the man has other responsibilities."

Emma nodded in agreement. I noticed that she was carrying a cloth-wrapped bundle under her arm.

Then Rahne handed me a new staff.

"You just don't look right without one of these," she said with a shy smile. That made sense - after all, the first time we'd met, I'd been carrying my old staff.

The staff was a good length of wood, cut from a young yew tree. The ends had been properly trimmed and the bark carefully stripped off. The height was right for me. If it wasn't a true replacement for the staff I'd lost, perhaps in time it would grow into that role.

Yew was an interesting choice of wood on Rahne's part. It made me wonder if Rahne's true father had been a bowman. While the Blood tend to avoid bows on the battlefield, they're often used for hunting.

"Thank you," I told Rahne.

"This is fine?" Rahne asked anxiously. "I'm not breaking some secret special seeker rule by giving it to you?"

I gave Rahne a long and serious look. "Normally, a seeker's staff comes from an oak split by the lightning of Lady Ororo herself. It's then consecrated with the blood of Folk, Wilder, and Blood maidens. Finally, a Creed is hunted down and beaten to death with it."

Anna rolled her eyes dramatically. Emma just gave me a disgusted look. They were standing behind Rahne so she couldn't see either of them.

Rahne became very still. "Really?" she asked in a slightly horrified voice.

I smiled at her. "No, of course not. This will do fine, Rahne."

Rahne now had the same exasperated look on her face as Anna and Emma. Really, I had to stop teasing her. Perhaps in a decade or two... Or maybe after she married...

"Give me your hand," I told her.

She did that. I used one of my claws to open a cut on the palm of her hand. Then I did the same with mine. Rahne winced, but she didn't flinch away. Then we both held the staff, my hand overlapping hers, as our blood mingled together and stained the wood.

Anna and Emma said nothing, but their eyes were on us.

"We should go now," I said once our blood had stopped flowing.

"Where?" Rahne asked.

"To market," I replied.

"Not quite yet," Emma interrupted quietly. "I need to get ready."

"Where did you get that?" I asked.

Emma was standing in the middle of the barracks. She was wearing the green, red, and yellow robes of a priestess of the Lady of Fire. Anna was busily orbiting around Emma, a bundle of pins in her hand as she critically examined the fit of the robes. Rahne had just finished threading a pair of needles - one for her and one for Anna. Whoever the robes belonged to was taller than Emma. They were going to make some quick adjustments.

"The local Blade priestess said I could borrow this," Emma explained to me. "A Fire priestess named Saida comes here every few months to deal with questions of judgement and truth. She keeps some personal effects and clothing here."

"And she's apparently a giantess," Anna observed as she pinned up one of Emma's sleeves.

Emma chuckled and nodded her head in agreement.

"She's just over six feet in height," I interjected. "Tall, but not exactly a giant."

"You've met her?" Emma asked curiously.

"It was a few years ago in Rhodes. I was accused of murder and Saida heard the case. Some relatives of a man I killed felt I was in the wrong. Since I was a seeker, and the killing involved the will of the Old One, the local lord deferred judgement to the Temple."

Emma sighed. Anna and Rahne didn't even react as they began applying needle and thread to Emma's borrowed finery.

"And why did you kill him?" Emma asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He had a taste for children and I..." I began.

Emma grimaced. *Stop,* she said in my mind. *I can guess the rest of the story.*

I let it drop. The will of the Old One is very clear in such cases. Brutally clear. The family just didn't want to accept the truth until Saida told them to believe me.

Then Emma frowned and gave me a sharp look. *Wait... did Saida kiss you?*

The problem with mind-to-mind communication is that it can leak details you'd rather keep private. Especially when one side of the exchange is a much more skilled mentalist than the other.

*Right after the trial,* I admitted. *Everyone left the temple, but she asked me to stay behind.*

There was the ghost of a delighted smile on Emma's face. Through our mental link I caught the impression that Emma considered Saida to be a formal, stern, and matriarchal figure. Someone you respected, rather than befriended.

*That wasn't very dignified on her part,* Emma thought in obvious amusement.

I shrugged. *She said her job was to deliver justice. And I deserved more than a miserable fews hours in front of her and some mistakenly outraged relatives, answering angry questions.*

Emma's smile was now in full bloom. *And here I always thought Saida was a bit on the stuffy side.*

*In her role as a priestess for the Lady of Fire, and mine as a shaman of the Old One, a stolen kiss is perhaps an act of respect to those we serve.*

Emma raised an eyebrow at me. *So that's what we've been doing all this time? Praying?*

*I've always found our time together to be akin to a religious experience.*

Emma's smile broadened. *My, that's polished bit of flattery from such a rough character.*

Anna decided not to accompany us.

"This next part is about you and Emma," she told me. She didn't seem to be jealous or upset. She just knew she didn't have a place in what was coming.

I nodded in agreement and took her in my arms. Anna leaned into me, her arms around my waist. Her tail affectionately wrapped itself around my right fore-arm. A long and peaceful moment passed. Anna and I always seemed to be either squabbling or screwing. Quiet moments like that were precious because they were so rare.

"Does Rahne know what it means now that you've mingled blood?" Anna asked me softly.

"No," I replied just as quietly.

"That's not like you at all, Jimmy. You should tell her."

I sighed. "I'm not trying to trick her. I just created an option. If anyone tries to claim her, or use either the law or the traditions to interfere with her freedom in any way, we now have something to fall back upon."

Anna hugged me tight. "Okay," she said. "I can see that."

Two miles south of the fort there is a small crossroads trading village. It was the sort of place that always appears near a military post. It had a pair of taverns, a brothel, a small store, a stable, and about two dozen houses, huts, and hovels. It also featured a small market square.

The sun was about to set and there was the usual rush in the marketplace to take care of last minute business. So there were more people in the market than you might expect.

Standing in the center of the square, I leaned against my new staff and nodded in Rahne's direction.

In what had once been the kitchen of the barracks, we'd found a rusty serving spoon and an old iron pot that had a hole worn into its bottom. Rahne began enthusiastically banging on the pot with the spoon.

The racket was considerable. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at us. Within seconds, we had the complete attention of the forty-or-so people in the marketplace.

I signaled for Rahne to stop. She did - with a certain regret, I think.

Indulging in a bit of theatrics, Emma removed her outer robe and handed it to Rahne. The garb of a priestess of Lady Fire was revealed. Rahne took the robe, bowed to Emma, and backed away.

Then Emma stood next to me and took my free hand in hers. Emma's presence was a silent confirmation by the Lady of Fire of what I would say.

And... dear Old One... dressed in formal robes and regally considering the crowd, she was so beautiful.

I paused for a long and meaningful moment, letting everyone get a look at us before I began to speak.

"Who knows me?" I called.

There was a moment of silence. Then a dignified-looking Blood female with a silvery streak of white-gray in her otherwise coal-black hair finally responded.

"You are James," she began slowly, "and you are a seeker after the will of the Old One. I first saw you perhaps seventy years ago, while I was travelling in the company of my father and mother. It was in Bost. You were fighting alongside the Temple of Blades in their ancient struggle against the Hand."

I nodded. It is almost impossible to kill a death cult, and the priestesses of the Lady of Blades - calling upon the Elektra avatar of the Lady of Blades - remain eternally on watch for the Hand. I lend aid when I can.

But the Blood matron wasn't done with me. "Since then, you've been up and down the Huds many times. You're always wandering. Always in a fight or about to get in one. And you never seem to change."

It occurred to me that the Blood matron's words were perhaps too accurate.

There was a moment of silence, and then an older Folk female spoke up.

"When I was a little girl, there was a Howler haunting the holdings west of here. You spoke to the Howler and made him agree to leave the lands of Lord Shea. There was a celebration afterwards and you got so drunk that you gave the children rides on your shoulders - that include my brother and I. That was five decades and some years ago."

The werewolf in question had wisely avoided others, so he'd killed nobody. However, when the hunting was bad, he would take cattle or sheep - and it's a rare farmer who won't fight to protect his livestock. The inevitable confrontation would have resulted in needless deaths.

I tracked down the Howler and we shared a bottle around a campfire. He heard me out and agreed to move further north, away from Lord Shea's lands. I've heard nothing of him since, but he struck me as a decent sort and I hope he's found as much peace as is possible for his kind.

"I know you," a Blood holder added distractedly - his eyes seemingly far away. "Just over thirty years ago, you were with the Coastal Alliance during that great outbreak of Creed piracy. My son served with the Alliance and you fought together at the battle of Cape Fear. He died in battle and we met at the rites for those who were lost."

Regretfully, I didn't remember the Blood who'd just spoken, but I respectfully bowed my head toward him. Cape Fear was where the Alliance destroyed the Creed fleet. The battle was a hell of grappled ships, flames, bloody claw-point battle, and hungry sharks. At the rites for the dead, there were far too many grieving families left with nothing to bury. The sea is jealous and allows few to leave her last embrace.

"You're the seeker with an elvish wife," a Folk travelling merchant said suddenly. "They tell stories about you two. A few days ago, I saw you at the Point. You left after they found the body of that ogre. The samurai said you were probably looking for invaders from the other realms."

I nodded.

My identity was established and it was time to proceed.

"Those who spoke are correct," I announced. "I do seek the Old One's will. And I have found it."

There was a restless stir from the crowd.

"The rumors and tales are true," I continued. "The dark-elves have returned. They seek a great power and have killed samurai, ronin, and innocent travellers alike. The forces of the Point have encountered them and lives have been lost. They are to the north of here. A dark-elf encampment is less than fifteen miles away."

The crowd again stirred uneasily - the memory of the last time Svartalfheim came to Midgard is burned deep into our souls.

"Is it Malekith?" a frightened voice came from the middle of the crowd. Whoever spoke was simply saying aloud what everyone was thinking.

"Yes," I answered.

Then I paused and let my eyes sweep over the assembled Blood, Folk, and Wilder. They were now silent as they stared at me. Even babes in the arms of their mothers were quiet. The name of the dark-elf king has that effect.

"I call the Blood to war," I continued softly - there are times when there is no need to shout. "Carry the word wherever you go. The Blood are to rise as one and destroy our foe. No lord is to let pride, avarice, or calculation intrude. No holder is to concern himself with crops, livestock, and other affairs. No vassal should heed words from his holder or lord to ignore our common enemy. Indeed, there are no lords. There are no holders. There are no samurai or ronin."

All of those eyes were still locked on Emma and I.

"Now there is only Blood. And we must fight."

"Such is the will of the Old One."

My eye caught the holder who had lost a son at Cape Fear. I could see hatred and grief twisting his face. I'd also called for the war that finally ended at Cape Fear.

For a moment, I wondered how many children he had left. And how many he would have to give to this war.

The crowd was still dead silent as we walked away.