Thirty Five

This is how the reign of Nidhogg ends -

Sometimes, looking back, it seems like Iza and Edvard have been talking more months, planning and strategizing and predicting. They have explored all the possibilities in the way things can go, including all the ways things can go wrong. They have discussed ways to minimize the damage, to protect the land and the villagers, to get through the upcoming battle unscathed. Until now, all of their talking has been nothing more than conjecture.

The time for conjecture is over.

Róża and Kaldr are sent to the space just between the fjords and the larger ocean. Being connected to water, it only makes sense to give Kaldr the biggest advantage possible with a large body of water that can be manipulated and frozen. Róża and Kaldr will be part of the final line of defense for the villagers evacuated in the boats, and they will also be responsible for putting out any blazes from the incoming dragons.

Steinn and Jakob are instructed to cover the area between the village and the docks. Steinn is large enough to be a deterrent for other dragons and strong enough to take down any who come his way. The stone-like quality of his scales and Jakob's accuracy with his slingshot allow for a flexible defense that will allow the pair to help the remaining warriors in the village from the skies. If necessary, Steinn and Jakob will also be able to assist Róża and Kaldr.

Jasper and Emebor have more challenging tasks. With Leiptr's speed and Dyngju's aggression, they are ideally fitted for herding any incoming dragons around. In particular, Jaspar and Leiptr seem keen on guiding dragons right into Emebor and Dyngju's direction like a trap. Jaspar is cunning enough for the trickery and Emebor is ruthless enough when he wants to be that she almost feels pity for the incoming dragons.

The Chieftain and the Raiders will be scattered throughout the town in whatever place gives them the best advantage. She can see some warriors clambering to the tops of longhouses, while others seek higher areas. Some of the clever ones talk about using the livestock as bait to lure dragons in. The Chieftain, for his part, stations himself near the center of the village, right around the areas that have seen the worst damage from previous battles.

Iza, Eko, and Edvard have a vastly different role. While everyone else is set on defense as it comes – with the strict instructions to not kill any of the dragons if possible, on the chance that they are as innocent as Iza believes – the remaining three have a different goal.

It has long been decided that although Edvard will not have his own dragon, he will be riding with Iza for a significant portion. This is for two reasons – the first is that the need to keep Edvard's seidr secret is very real, and the second is that Iza anticipates needing additional support. She does not know how exactly she is meant to break Nidhogg's chains, but she suspects that the process will leave her vulnerable, and there is no way that Eko can protect both of them by herself. After all, they are planning to fight Nidhogg head to head. Although Nidhogg must be very strong, Eko is herself a special dragon and Edvard is the son of the greatest wielder of magic ever born. Iza need only rely on them to keep Nidhogg occupied while she figures out how to get rid of the tyrannical dragon.

This is the plan. By all rights, it is a good plan and covers every line of defense. Iza is confident that, if everyone manages to hold the line, it will work just as she anticipates. Even Edvard is certain, the strategist in him unable to see any particular weak points.

Yet even as the directions are given and they all mount the dragons and spread out to their designated areas, Iza feels her hands go a little numb. It is a good plan, but is it good enough? Will it work? She does not know and with Alise sitting in a boat on the ocean, she does not have anyone to ask. Not even her odd instincts are giving her any clue.

Belatedly, Iza realizes she is nervous. She has not been nervous for a long time. She has not needed to be nervous lately – her strange intuition has quelled any anxiety.

Today that intuition is absent. Or perhaps her anticipation is too great that she cannot feel her own intuition.

Iza tries very hard not to think of disaster and tragedy as she mounts Eko's back, Edvard climbing after her to bracket her back with his strong chest. Between the two of them, they have two bows, a replenishing quiver, a series of throwing knives, and Edvard's longsword. With Eko, they are armed with the abilities of half a dozen dragons. They should be fine. If anything, their group of three is better prepared than anyone else. After all, they also have Edvard's seidr on their side – and as hidden, as secretive as this weapon may be, she knows that Edvard will not hesitate to use it when the need arises. This is, after all, another reason why they decided that Edvard would ride with her. Should he need to use his magic, it is better to use it as far away from the others as possible. Gods willing, if any of them see Edvard's bright green magic, they will chalk it up to Eko and another of her surprising talents. Because dragon battle or not, Edvard does not need to reveal his seidr until he wants to – if he ever wants to.

"We are ready," Edvard murmurs into her ear. He carefully arranges their weapons to be in the easiest reach, giving them both the most flexibility possible, and then he settles his arms snugly around her waist.

Iza smooths her hands over the strong forearms locked around her hips, taking in the scars and callouses on his hands as she breathes in deeply, then releases a slow exhale. "I know," she says back to him, and she feels it in her bones how much she trusts him to keep her together while she muddles through whatever it is she needs to do on this most important of days.

With Edvard at her back, she cannot fathom failing and she cannot fathom falling. He will catch her and support her, wherever they land and however this ends. She basks in this confidence, in this complete trust in another person, allowing herself this last moment before the chaos begins.

Iza sets her eyes on the mountain, which rumbles in the distance, a fine trail of black smoke rising from the peak as dragons lurch from the rock, circling and circling as they wait. Iza pats her hand down the side of Eko's neck, the smooth iridescent black scales warm beneath her palm. Fly when you are ready.

Of course, Eko returns, serene and confident even as their bond buzzes in anticipation. Eko's wings flap twice, a slow, barely restrained movement as the others scatter to their designated areas. Eko's tail lashes once, her two-toned eyes settled on the highest peak – and then she launches into the air, graceful and powerful and strong, a streak of black in the early morning light cresting high over the tops of trees –

And that is how the battle begins.

At first, there are too many dragons to count. It reminds her of crows when they are in the sky, all converging on one spot, all moving in one mass – only the dragons are massive and ferocious and move with an intent that means all Eko can do is dodge and block. This is the plan, after all. Although they may be going into the depths of it, they never had any intention of facing these dragons in a fight. No, that honor goes to the riders, who will keep these dragons busy until Nidhogg is taken care of.

Eko twirls around dragons, spinning sideways and banking sharply, and it is all Iza and Edvard can do to hold on. Edvard has his sword drawn, allowing the blade to graze the scales of any dragons that come too close, a trail of green seidr clipping along the cut and making scales fester in its wake. Iza focuses on keeping her balance, knowing that Edvard is relying on her to keep them both seated as Eko manuvers in airborn acrobatics.

Just when it seems like the cluster of dragons would never end, there is a sudden break – and they are nearer to the mountain than they are to the village, with only a handful of glaze-eyed dragons standing between them and the peak where Nidhogg sits. At the same time, Iza and Edvard reach for their bows; Iza aims for the tender place beneath wings, relying on immobilization, while Edvard laces his arrows with seidr, effectively knocking back and stunning the dragons he hits.

Eko swerves around the dragons, opening her maw to release all manner of breath – fire and lava, ice and electricity, a sonorous roar that leaves dragon wings trembling. When a dragon releases its own breath in retaliation, Eko is quick to erect her amber shield, buffering the attack away. One time, she even manages to absorb a new power, and returns a howling gust of wind so strong the pale dragon that attacked them is thrown through the forest, taking down several trees. That dragon does not get up again, and neither do many others.

Together, Eko and Edvard are a lethal combination. It is all Iza can do to help bait dragons with her arrows, drawing them in out of sheer annoyance from the way her arrows sink deep into scaled hide. Once close enough, either of her companions disarm or otherwise injure the dragon, continuing to clear a path to the mountains.

Eko chirrups triumphantly when the last of the dragons between them and the mountain have dropped to the forest below. This is only the first battle, Iza cautions her dragon, sweat on her skin and her limbs shaking from adrenalin. She is not made for fighting, she knows. It simply is not her nature. Still, she must forge on. We still have the war.

But at least we have won this battle, Eko is quick to reply. And the others are winning theirs.

Indeed, if Iza were in the village, she would see a scene of bloodthirsty chaos, a place of battle cries and spilt blood as human and dragon collide. But she would also see that the tides are in their favor – their strategy is working. She would see Jaspar and Leiptr chasing down dragons who flee, she would see Dyngju and Emebor ruthlessly cutting down those in their path, she would see Jakob and Stein swooping between Raiders to bodily thrash attacking dragons, and she would see the wall of ocean-ice Kaldr and Róża have built as a barrier between the fjords and the villagers on the boats. If Iza were in the village, she would see first the shock and then the pride on her father's face as the fruits of her labor bloom. She would see bloodshed, but she would also see a fair fight. She would see a hard-won victory, a historical battle in the making. She would see and she would know.

But Iza is not in the village. She is at the mountain, astride her bonded dragon with the love of her life at her back, and she is glaring up at Nidhogg, silently daring him to come from his peak.

Nidhogg obliges, and malice strikes as bitterly as ice through the air.

She had not understood before how Nidhogg could so gravely injure a dragon as impressive as Dagmar, how he could blind her and make her cower and have her hide away. She thought the malice in his name was only there for the cruelty of his nature. She did not think that Nidhogg's malice would be palpable – but it is, a tangible weight in the air, a great crushing pressure and a thunderous sound that makes the ears pop and a piercing, razor-thin shriek from between great teeth that is as blinding as it is destructive.

Nidhogg's malice is something that strikes against all the senses at once, unforgiving and unforgiveable.

It is a magic unlike any she has seen before. Not even the surprise of Edvard's seidr can measure up to the sheer unbelievability of Nidhogg's ability.

It is a miracle and nothing more that the combination of Eko and Edvard's magical shields are enough to protect them from the onslaught, which indeed blackens everything that crosses its path. This malice – it is a physical thing, something which steals the life and joy and light out of everything. It is fear and death in a corporeal form. It is enough to blind, to inspire meekness and cowardice, to destroy everything it touches.

Eko's shield flickers, the flap of her steady wings stalling for long enough that they dip in the air. Iza touches Eko's neck and Eko rallies her energy, but internally Eko says, I cannot withstand another attack like that. He is too strong.

Iza can only agree. Eko knows her strength better than Iza, and if Eko says that she cannot create another shield strong enough then Iza can only believe her.

Wrapped around her back, Edvard heaves out a huge breath. "That was strong," he says, voice close to her ear and just loud enough that she can hear him over the rush of wind that comes with Eko's evasive flying.

"Too strong?" Iza shouts back, but she already knows the answer. For all that Edvard is Lokison, he is still only half a God – and not even the Gods are ready for Nidhogg. Even if Eko, Edvard is no even match for the Malice Striker.

And Iza, who is a Halfling with no tangible magic, is not a match at all.

Iza tucks further between Eko's wing, making the distribution of weight easier for her dragon to out-fly Nidhogg, who stays resolute on his mountain peak, and feels a brief, terrible moment of utter despair.

Iza has no seidr. She has no magical ability aside from instinct. And yet, she is the Changemaker and she is tasked with breaking Nidhogg's chains. Chains that, from what she can see, have to be metaphorical considering she sees nothing physically chaining Nidhogg to the mountain he has stolen.

How is she meant to do anything, when not even her closest allies are strong enough to withstand more than one direct attack from Nidhogg, who does not seem to have even reached the tip of his own power? With so much weight on her shoulders, Iza gives in to this moment of discouragement – it is all that she can do to trust Eko to keep them afloat and Edvard to protect her back so she can just think.

There has to be something. There is always something.

Bidden, her mind stretches back – back – back to when this all began. Back to a different dragon battle on a dark, cold, stormy night. Back before she came across a mother who had sacrificed her life to protect her egg. Back before she stumbled through the downpour with only lightning to illuminate her way. Back to when she was inundated with a tremendous, blinding, nerve-racking sort of pain unlike any she has ever felt – back to when she was writhing on the muddy ground and staring up at the storming sky and wondering how she is alive. Back to that moment where all of her muscles were seizing and her skin was burning and the only thought in her mind was how to expand her lungs just enough to take another breath.

Back to the moment when Thor struck her with his mighty hammer and the lightning thundered through her body and left a wicked scar on her chest. A scar which, now that she is paying attention to it, aches keenly.

Strangely, the realization that follows this remembrance is dull – as if it is something she has always known but had merely forgotten about temporarily.

True, Iza does not have her own seidr and she is not like Edvard who can call magic so easily to his fingers. But that does not mean that Iza has no magic at all. In fact, she has been carrying a certain kind of magic in her blood since she was conceived – and in the recent months, she has been carrying a different kind of magic with her, a new burden that she had not paid any attention to. A magic that she can see writ plainly on her skin.

The mark of Thor is not simply a scar, after all.

But the problem is that Iza has no way of accessing that power. It is in her skin, but she cannot grasp it herself. For all that she carries this magic, she might as well not even have hands for all the good it does her.

Yet – Iza does not need to touch the magic herself. No, even if she could, hers would be a clumsy attempt that could only lead to disaster. And this is a type of magic that only has a one-time use. There can be no error, and that means that someone else has to take this magic from her and help her use it.

Circle to his blind side for a cover, she tells Eko, settling herself more firmly between wings. Eko responds immediately, banking to the side right into a vertical nose dive just behind one of Nidhogg's great wings. Such a large dragon of course has many blind spots, but none must be more evident than the ones behind his own tail. Eko finds refuge near one of the lower peaks, just out of a line of sight that will last for only a few short moments before Nidhogg wizens up.

"Iza? Eko? Why are we here?" Edvard demands lowly. He cranes his neck around, surely searching for their massive quarry, but Iza is quick to grasp his hands, twisted around on Eko's back just enough to see his strong profile.

"I need your help," she says quickly.

"Anything," he says, as she knew he would.

Iza takes Edvard's hands and slides them both to her chest, just beneath her collarbones where the scar over her heart begins to spindle away into thin lines. His hands are hot on her skin and rough from callouses, but she only presses his palms closer to her scars. "Do you feel that?" she asks. "Can you feel anything? There is something there, but I cannot reach it – but you can, right? You feel what Thor left behind?"

Edvard is tense first, unsure about so much sudden contact with an area that is nearly intimate, but then he relaxes into Iza's forceful hold. He puts more pressure on her skin, long fingers spreading over the top of her chest, his brow furrowed in concentration. A weak glow of his own green magic spreads over her skin, and then Edvard inhales sharply. "This is…"

"This is how we break the chain," she tells him, a confirmation. "But I cannot do it alone. I cannot touch this magic."

"I can," Edvard says, his mind already catching up. "I can extract it, help you direct it."

"We just have to get close enough," Iza agrees.

Leave that to me, Eko says confidently, wings already flapping with great power. Eko's dual-toned eyes are sharp as she rises high, high into the air, far above where Nidhogg's claws are dug deep into the mountain.

By the time Eko deems herself high enough and is circling, waiting for the opportunity to dive, Iza has drawn an arrow on Loki's bow. Around her grip, steadying her aim, are Edvard's scarred hands, which are now alight with a violent swirl of vibrant green and a crackling, stinging blue that he leaches from her skin – Thor's magic, which had been well-hidden in her scar, now extracted and imbued in the only weapon that could possibly withstand a God's full power.

They only have one shot –

Eko abruptly drops into a steep dive, her course unerringly targeted straight at Nidhogg, who snarls and growls and stretches his wings out, an awful cloud of dark miasma building in the maw of his mouth –

They only have one shot –

Iza shifts onto her knees and Edvard follows, his strength supporting them both against the wind as the magic he juggles grows brighter, stronger, more turbulent –

They only have one shot –

Eko screeches, answering Nidhogg's aggression with her own, a brilliant mixture of all the abilities she has borrowed coalescing between her teeth, which she releases with a spark of fire and lightning and ice and molten heat –

They only have one shot –

Iza pulls back another inch on the arrow, watching as the flint-tip is bathed in the full might of the magic stored in her body as well as Edvard's own –

They only have one shot -

Eko's power meets Nidhogg's right in the middle with a thunderous explosion that booms through the air, elements and darkness clashing against each other – and right in the middle, a small opening, just enough room –

They only have one shot – and when Iza loosens the arrow, she aims it directly for Nidhogg's eye.

The arrow imbued with magic sinks deep into a slittled black pupil, destroying the eye so totally that Nidhogg slips right off his mountain peak. An eye for two eyes, and Nidhogg's bloody rein ends with a rage-filled shriek, a great tumble, a desecrated eye with magic that ravages half of Nidhogg's face right to the bone.

Eko swings around, circling wider now as they all watch the morbid stillness of Nidhogg's body at the base of the mountain. Iza holds her breath tight in her lungs, but she already knows that the single arrow was not enough to kill Nidhogg – just like she has known that killing Nidhogg was never her objective.

The arrow and the injury are enough, however, to break Nidhogg's chains. Or rather, to shatter the bonds represented by the chains completely. Because as soon as Nidhogg falls, several strings of black miasma emerge from his body and dissipate in the air – and from far away, a cry of dozens of dragons finally freed can be heard – and then it is not long at all until the newly-freed dragons turn their anger on their once-tyrant. A hoard of free-thinking dragons arrive, returning from the village now that their minds are their own, and immediately descend on Nidhogg.

Iza watches it all with wide eyes, sinking back against Edvard's chest weakly, her limbs trembling. The dragons are vicious now that they are free and Nidhogg, already injured and now without the power he drew so much strength from, cannot fight back quickly enough.

Nidhogg flees, his massive wings carrying his bloodied body far up into the clouds – and well beyond the clouds, Iza thinks, if her instincts are right.

Nidhogg's chains are broken and he will not return, she knows that much. Defeating him is not something for Iza to do – that is best left to the Gods themselves.

Dizzy, Iza closes her eyes and surrenders to the bone-deep exhaustion that suddenly takes root in her body. The world around her grows dim, the rush of energy she felt during the battle fading into nothing, and she allows herself to drift away, confident that Edvard and Eko will see her to safety now that her role in all of this is complete.

And so it is, as it was always meant to be.

Because this is how the reign of Nidhogg ends – not with a bang, not with fire, and not with a terrible death – but with a release, a shockwave of destiny and seidr so fierce that Nidhogg can only flee, can only return to the celestial realm he once fled from.

But as the reign of Nidhogg ends, the Twilight of the Gods begins.

Ragnarok has been foretold by the Norns for eons. The Gods knew it to be something inevitable, something that they must battle through so that they may be renewed and reborn. Something that must be suffered in return for the immortality and the gifts they enjoy. But with Nidhogg being detained by chains of his own making, the delay of Ragnarok continued, and so the cosmos did speak to a Norn and told her that she must make a change.

And so, as Nidhogg flees to the celestial realm and that awful, malice-ridden worm begins to gnaw on the roots of Ygdrassil as he was always meant to do, it is Skuld who watches on with her sisters. She watches as the Twilight of the Gods begins, as Ragnarok destroys and dismantles and remakes, as the Twilight ends and the Gods absorb what destiny as wrought. And then she watches as her daughter – the singular Skuldsdottir, the Changemaker, Izabela of a small Viking village called Forks – recovers from her own battles.

Skuld watches and she smiles.

Verdandi turns to Urd. "You know, I think our Skuld might be happy."

"Oh? Is that what that expression means?"

"It is called a smile, sister."

"Does Skuld know how to do such a thing? Surely the world must be ending."

Verdandi laughs. "Surely it must – although, did we not just see a world end? Ragnarok has come and it has passed. Those left after the Twilight of the Gods and those who are reborn from the essence of the Gods…they are a new world."

Urd, always somewhat callous and cynical, hums. "I suppose that might be a reason to smile."

Skuld turns a fierce two-toned gaze on her sisters, one eye a brilliant blue and the other a warm amber. "I smile because, as a mother, I have seen that my daughter has found her worth."

"And her match – in a Lokison," Verdandi says with an upturned nose.

"Well, he has adored her for ages," Urd mutters, wrinkling her nose. "Not just in this life, but in previous ones, too."

"And lives in the future," Skuld adds, much more peacefully than her sisters. And even though the Izabela's of the future will not be her own daughter, she vows to watch over them as if they were. After all, she missed much of her Izabela's life because of circumstance and duty and the unwillingness to interfere with fate. She will be glad enough to continue to watch over the soul of her daughter in whatever form it takes.

"What of her life now?" Verdandi asks after a moment. "What of our lives now?"

"We are Norns," Skuld says. "Although the Twilight of the Gods has come and gone, we still have our duties. We will play the same roles we have always played, watching over the past, the present, and the future. And when destiny taps at our shoulders again, we will be there to oversee the newly woven fates."

And because they are Norns, Verdandi and Urd can only reach the same conclusion and agree.

"Still…" Verdandi's voice is soft amid the smoke, blood, and poison still seeping through the cosmos as the remaining and renewed Gods recover to rebuild. "Will you visit her?"

Skuld only smiles.

A/N: The author is giving you a serene smile. The author is very proud of how this plot came together and the twist she hopes surprised most of you! There is probably only one regular chapter after this, an epilogue of sorts to be posted soon.

If you have ANY requests for missing scenes or questions that the characters can answer or for future takes, submit them now. I won't be taking requests after 2/20/2020.

Norse stuff for this chapter - Ragnarok, AKA the Twilight of the Gods. Okay. So basically, Ragnarok is the celestial equivalent of the end-times and is thought of as the Norse version of a total apocalypse. Nidhogg plays a big role in Ragnarok because his eating of the World Tree (Ygdrassil) puts the entire universe out of alignment, makes room for some treachery, and signals the start of some really fucked up myths (such as Loki being tied to a stone and fed poison from his dead child, Jogumund, by his wife Syn as a retribution for Odin and sometimes Thor). Most scholars agree that Ragnarok didn't kill all of the Gods, but the majority of the well-known Gods did die after Ragnarok, thus signaling the end of Odin's reign and the Golden Age of Norse Mythology. After Ragnarok, there aren't a whole lot of remaining Norse myths, which can be attributed to Norse paganism being passed over for the embrace of Christianity.

BASICALLY, Iza's whole role in this was to kick-start the end of the reign of Gods, as has been foretold by the Norns. That's right, our girl is basically responsible for the end of the world - or at least the celestial world of the Gods. But the Norse have always been very frank about the death of their Gods, making them imperfect and able to die and not all-powerful. It's all very interesting that the entire culmination of Norse mythology is Ragnarok - like, the whole point of all the stories is the end-times.

Anyway! As always, be brutally honest. I can take it.

~Rae