Chapter 19

Tyr sighed, drumming his fingers on his desk with every ounce of agitation he allowed himself to show outwardly. As a cloud of blackened air consumed all of the rooms on the heavenly side of the building, he couldn't help but mutter under his breath. Even his own terminal had short circuited, caught fire, and then turned to ash, right before his own astonished eyes. At first, he thought it might have been his daughter that was to blame, but Skuld wasn't at her desk. She was in the lunch room, so that counted her out. Then he thought it might be a bug, that is, until he heard startled yelps, all of them making very clear just who was behind this little blunder.

Annoyed he sent a glare towards the phone, as if somehow, that would alleviate the migraine starting in his head. Belldandy warned him this might happen, but after a few days of relative peace, it was clear that Keiichi was quite displeased, and had lived up to his end of the threat after all. Tyr dusted off his desk and coughed, this was going to be hell to clean up. Thinking he could make a call to Yggdrasil, he picked up the phone, but the line was dead. "Damn it!"

Tyr wasn't the only one put off by the rucks that befell the heavenly side of the building. Skuld had been enjoying an afternoon meal, complete with some of her mother's tea when Hild and Hagall thought it would be a good idea to set a few firedrakes from hell itself loose to run amok. She was going to change their code from fire breathers, to something much less problematic when her terminal blew up right in her face.

It was only shortly thereafter that Skuld found herself in a rather awkward situation. "You do realize it'll take days to fix repair all of the damage you've caused, don't you?" Skuld asked as she was all but dragged through the corridors by Hild's hand. She tossed a glance over her shoulder at the smoke billowing out of the meeting rooms. "Mom's going to be so angry when she finds out."

"Your mother and I have colorful spats all the time." The demon brushed away Skuld's concern. "I hardly think this is very much collateral damage. Let this simply be something for your father to keep in mind next time." Hild said with a smirk. She dragged the girl to the demon's side of the office, and into her personal apartments kept there. "Keiichi asked me to retrieve you, so I have. That's all there is to it."

"Couldn't you have done it without destroying all of the terminals used by the heavenly staff?" Skuld muttered as the queen dusted the girl off, and gave her a once over to make sure she was truly unscathed. "Not to mention, you have drakes chasing people around!"

"Oh, they're harmless. They only drink from the lava pools. They can't actually eat anybody." Then, as if an amusing, if not appealing idea came to mind, her grin turned even more dangerous than before. "Well, I suppose I could have just rendered their side of the building into a pile of ash, but I thought that might be just a little crass, given the situation." She digressed it, and returned to the matter at hand. "Now then, you should take a bath before we go. It wouldn't due to have you so covered in soot!" She laughed.

"I wouldn't be covered in soot if you hadn't set Hagall loose in the office." With a sigh, she looked over at the bathtub, covered with candles, and other odd demonic fixtures. "This is a demon's bathtub." She finally said. "I think I'll just take one when I get to earth."

Hild rolled her eyes. "Suit yourself." She snapped her fingers, and the next thing Skuld knew, she fell right out of thin air, and right onto the dinner table.

"Skuld, are you alright?" Belldandy cried out, seeing that her sister had arrived. Then she took notice of the dust that covered her "Why are you so dirty?"

The youngest Norn plucked a bit of chocolate cake out of her hair and sighed. "Hild blew up the heavenly terminals we use to access Yggdrasil." Skuld reported with distaste.

"Keiichi, I thought you made her promise not to hurt anyone." Belldandy lamented, while fussing over Skuld with a damp napkin.

"I did." Keiichi retorted, still surprised the Skuld had flown out of his tea, and onto the table so quickly.

Belldandy didn't look convinced. "Is everyone on the heavenly side of the building alright?"

"They're fine." Skuld said with a shrug. "She made a mess, but that's all she did. Although, there are a few drakes setting fire to things."

"She better not have hurt anyone." Urd hissed, if looks could kill, Keiichi would have been, several times over.

"Well, of course I didn't. I swore on my very own throne not to harm a soul." Hild replied stepping through the front door. "Keiichi even promised me that if I behaved, he'd let me play with little Megumi for a while. Isn't that wonderful?"

"So very lovely." Urd groused, as she let Megumi toddle towards Hild begrudgingly. "Keiichi, you idiot, why did you let her in here."

"I told you she was going to come for a visit when I came back from my post." Keiichi hissed at her.

"Damn it, Keiichi." Urd shot a dirty look at Hild's direction. "Give me one good reason not to beat you within an inch of your life…"

"Contracts." Keiichi shrugged. "It's just for a few ours, don't sweat it so much."

Urd grit her teeth. "I'm going to the hot spring." She said as she stood, cursing Keiichi the entire time. "Hey Skuld, want to go with me?"

That seemed to brighten Belldandy's mood. "You know, it has been a while since we've had a hot spring outing." Belldandy looked at the shambles of the table, and lamented at the fact that she had a houseguest.

Finally, Keiichi shook his head. "Belldandy, go have fun." He told her with a smirk. "I'll do the dishes, so go do…well, whatever it is that you girls do when you go to the springs."

"Are you sure, Keiichi, this is quite the mess." Belldandy murmured, torn between being a proper hostess, and enjoying a hot springs bath with her sisters.

"Megumi has a babysitter, and I can do the cleaning, so just have a good time." He said, standing to clear the plates. "I promise you, the house will be in one piece when you return."

The three goddesses scurried away, Urd all but teleporting them out of the house as fast as she could. Her broom in one hand, and a bag of toiletries in the other. Keiichi just shook his head, and started the water for the sink. He cleaned the area, and even had time to toss in a load of Megumi's laundry before he put some water of the stove for tea. Hild meandered her way into the kitchen then, giving Keiichi an amused look. "Do you think that's called for, you are after all, a high ranking demon."

"In this house?" He laughed, gazing outside at the mess of leaves he would have to rake up tomorrow. "I'm still a small fish in a lake of sharks." He sighed then. "I thought Urd might actually beat the crap out of me."

"Well, that would have been amusing." Hild said with a true smile on he face. "A mother can dream, I suppose." Not that Urd would ever be so violent, but, it was cute to think about. "Now I'm almost sad that she didn't."

"Where's Meg?" Keiichi asked, not seeing any sight of his child, which was never a good sign, given her nature.

Hild looked at him as if he were stupid. "My devil has her, of course." Hild shrugged she helped herself to a bottle of sake. "It's much more gratifying to have my devil spend time with her, after all, devils are reflections of our souls." Then, she looked out into the hall. "Megumi reminds me so much of Urd at that age, minus the little fangs Meg's growing in, of course."

Keiichi felt the topic to be an uncomfortable one, and he cleared his throat. "Thanks for brining Skuld down." When the kettle began to squeal, he pulled it off the burner. "It really means a lot to Urd and Belldandy to have her around."

"I'm sure." Hild replied evenly. She could tell he wasn't sure what to do about his daughter. "Keiichi, I'm sure you can already tell, but Megumi's powers are already taking a sharp lurch towards the demonic…"

"Yeah." He said, unsure of what that might mean to Hild. He thought she would be enthused, but instead, she seemed worried and withdrawn. It was unlike her to be so unsure of anything. Pushing beyond some of his fear, he relented. There was no use avoiding the topic. "Belldandy's trying to convince Urd that she's alright with it…but I think deep down, they're both really worried about it. I thought that having Skuld around might ease the stress factor around here just a little bit."

"Oh, is that so?" Hild licked her lips, and nodded, taking a sip of the drink in her hands. "Well, hopefully Megumi settles on a choice soon. There's nothing more agonizing than a child caught betwixt and between her powers."

"When Urd decided to become a goddess, what did you do?" Keiichi asked, as he gripped his mug of tea in a vice like grip. "How did you deal with it?"

Hild remained motionless as the question flowed over her, and with nod filled with its own sense of irony, she let loose a bitter laugh. "Well, I suppose that's the reason Urd hates me." Hild replied. "I didn't deal with it. I gave her over to her father, and that was the end of it."

"Well, what do I say to that?" Keiichi sighed with a shake of his head. "I thought there was just some resentment on her end of things…but, you've holding onto things too, aren't you?"

Hild rolled her eyes. "If there's one thing I've hated about you since the beginning, Keiichi, it's that you're too damn perceptive about the wrong things." She gave it a bit of thought, regarding him with a distant, bitterly cold anger that seethed within her soul, to this very day. "I gave Urd to the heavens, and that was literally the end of it." Hild said. "I turned around, and I left her there. I didn't look back, and she didn't come after me."

…

It was fated to be a night filled with tense conversation. Things in heaven were leaving a sad, bitter impression on the youngest Norn. Urd just shook her head, as Belldandy accepted all that she'd heard, knowing there wasn't much she could really do. Even when she was by Skuld's side, Belldandy thought it wasn't enough sometimes, and the confession under then stars proved it.

Skuld's words painted grim tales. "So, then after we put the training grounds back together, I got scolded. Dad said that I should work really hard to improve my magical skill so that I don't become like Lind." She told a story about one of her most recent mishaps in heaven. "Dad's getting frustrated with me, because even if I'm really good with the system, I just can't understand the whole creation of life thing. He keeps saying I need to learn to be like you."

Belldandy smiled at that, as she floated about in the water. It was so easy to forget that her little sister just wasn't magically inclined. It wasn't for a lack of trying, it just wasn't in her skillset. "Well, that's merely because I chose to study that kind of magic." Belldandy offered cryptically. "You'll figure it out Skuld."

Urd nodded, agreeing with Belldandy. "You always do." She told her little sister, trying to offer support. She knew in the end, it wouldn't really matter. It never seemed to before, and it likely wouldn't now. "Don't worry so much, and it'll come to you."

"I don't think so." Skuld said as she dove into the water, coming up for air a moment later. "I'm just not made for magic. You guys are both so good at it." She huffed out an agitated breath, sinking back under the water to clear her head. "Besides, I just don't think I would ever want to learn creation manipulation magic." A little hesitantly, she searched within the depth of her mind finding possible future she would never dare speak about. "Some things, are just better left alone."

"Well, I won't argue with that." Belldandy laughed gently, well-schooled in the divine principles. She took a moment to consider that, and, just what her youngest sister really was. "The skill behind creation manipulation magic, is knowing when to leave things well enough alone."

"It should be left alone indefinitely." Skuld muttered. "Some things shouldn't be toyed with, and if you could see what I see, you'd know why."

"It's because I can't see the future that I'm not afraid of the consequences. I'm not biased to what I think I see. I only act within that one moment." Belldandy said softly, knowing tat's the way things should be for one such as herself. "Skuld, your power is a great gift, but I can't help but feel like it weighs you down more than it should."

"Skuld's screwed, Bell, that's just how it is." Out of the three of them, Urd was the one least interested in the events of heaven. "The past, or the future…it doesn't really matter. We've got to drag that stupid baggage around with us. We're not like you, we can't just do what our hearts tell us." The complicated committee affairs could be damned, and Urd wouldn't have cared. "You're the lucky one, you're not fated to dream about the past that can't be changed, or about prophecies that might not exist." Urd was more interested in Skuld's wellbeing.

"Yes, you're right Urd." Belldandy nodded with a sigh. "When you put it that way, it does seem like a heavy burden. I only wish that it didn't have to be that way."

"I wouldn't say it's heavy." Skuld said slowly. "I'm used to it now anyway…but, it makes me think that maybe some magic isn't meant to be used at all. That it should be forbidden entirely."

"Tyr's a big jerk anyway, especially when it comes to studying." Urd groused. "Give him the middle finger, and come back here. Between Belldandy and I, we can teach you what you want to learn."

"Urd, that's not nice…" Belldandy sighed, though she did agree with the statement about Skuld coming back to earth. "What schools of magic did you want to study, Skuld?"

"It isn't about wanting to do it. I have to do it." Skuld pulled out her report card, and gave it to her sisters. There were all types of grading scales, but what held true to all of them were goddess ranking, as that decided the classification of the goddesses. There were five classes of goddesses in total, with countless different categories. "Dad's pushing me to get a first class license…my grades are horrible."

"Looks like we'll have to work from the ground up." Urd sighed, that was a lot of learning.

"This isn't all bad, in fact, it looks like your combat magic is getting better." Belldandy said, trying to look for the bright point on the report. "It's growing in leaps and bounds." Belldandy looked over to Urd, who merely nodded. Together, they mentally cringed. They knew why that was, but also knew better than to explain it to the youngest Norn. "Skuld, have you been training with anyone from the combat division?" Belldandy asked slowly, suddenly feeling parched.

"No, but that's just it." Skuld protested. "Lind says that I'm really good. She keeps saying that despite my lack in formal combat arts, that I really should try out for combat division. The recruitment numbers are low, so they're looking for trainees." She bit her lower lip. "Dad got mad at me for that too, said that it wasn't where I belonged, even though Lind also asked him personally. She even told him that she would become my tutor."

Urd suppressed a curse.
Belldandy withheld a sigh.
Skuld merely looked as dejected as she felt.

The report card spoke of more than Belldandy and Urd wanted to accept. Fifth and fourth class immortals were the weakest of the bunch, normally hailing from poor bloodlines, or simply lacking power to gain influence. Third class goddesses were better off, and that was the most common class. They were the grunts that kept heaven moving along and no one questioned it. Those in third class lived fairly simple lives, with little to complain about.

"Skuld, you need to understand something. This was meant to happen." It was the second class goddesses that had it the hardest. "You were made to fight. It is your calling, and your fate, even if our father fights against it." Not good enough to be considered the best, they were looked down on by their superiors. They were the odd ducks in an ocean of swans. "Skuld, you should enlist in division." Urd finally said.

"It doesn't matter how right it might feel, or how good I might one day be." Skuld shook her head.

Belldandy sighed, she knew Skuld's plight well. "I agree with Urd." It would defy their father, but it was the best choice, and she knew it. "Skuld, to work in the admin offices, goddesses usually have a first class license. The problem is, you weren't cut from the cloth needed to be a goddess of that rank. That isn't what your skills are suited for."

"I know that." Skuld said, looking at her sisters earnestly. "Dad said no, and you know how he is."

Belldandy nodded, her eyes closed. "Well then, to bend to his will, you must be a first class goddess. We should begin your combat training here on earth as soon as possible."

"First class goddesses can't lie." Urd warned the middle Norn, knowing what she was doing.

"I'm not lying." Belldandy rebuked. "A first class goddess, with an unlimited license, must rank in every category with a second class skill or higher for every single test. They don't hand just anyone a first class license without being sure they're skilled enough to handle it." Belldandy said, pointing to Skuld's report card, as if that was their ace in the hole. "She's only marked as a third class in combat, she'll need to bring up her rank if she wants to become a first class goddess."

"Well then, I guess I'll help." Urd smirked.

Both she and Belldandy were ranked as special operations when it came down to their combative skill. They simply lacked a love for battle. Belldandy was too passive on any given day, and Urd feared warfare would appeal to a side of herself she never wanted to appease. Skuld however, had just enough gull, just enough tact…and just the right personality to stand up to an opponent, not out of defense or offence…yet, on pure principle alone.

"Then, it's decided." Belldandy nodded. "We'll train you to reach a first class level, if not division level."

"You guys would really do that!?" Skuld asked, hope in her voice, as she cupped her hands together, almost as if in prayer.

"Yes." Belldandy nodded. "We can begin as soon as you're ready."