A symbol of loss
Lucky for those who had feared for her risking her life in childbirth, Daria did survive the risky time after the delivery when there were so many risks for complications that could have taken her life. And no less than four months after the birth of their son, Daria and Vlad got officially married in a wedding with the blessing of Athena.
"I want my Saints to feel that there is something in this world worth protecting, and that this joyful union of two persons in love to symbol that."
Over the six months following said wedding, Daria did notice that Irina was beginning to act a little unlike her usual self. A careful little questioning of Ragnhild and Skadi gave a few clues about how they had witnessed similar behavior from herself when starting to fall in love with Vlad.
"Well, she does have a softer side well hidden for most people, so I think it is quite logical that only we who know her really well can tell this little change. As long as it is not some two-faced rogue who plays with her heart just to make her a…conquest," Vlad commented when Daria told him of why her sister did act a little strange.
"I really hope that it is not some of the Christians around here who aims to make her convert to that faith in the hope that she will be too blinded by love to realize," Daria admitted with a shudder of unease, looking like she suddenly felt very cold at the mere idea, "It is not very nice to hear our gods and goddesses be called demons, and that we are pagans that will go the Devil in hell after death, because we do not follow White Christ. If someone was to ask me, what does a male God truly know about the woes of women? What offer of comforts and strengths can this male God offer to women, when he has not undergone pregnancy and childbirth himself? Our Norse culture allows women to own property, request a divorce and reclaim their dowries if their marriages end. What will happen to really unlucky women if those rights are taken away by the faith of White Christ? Will they have to stay with an abusive or neglectful husband, with no way out of that sort of living hell? Will they no longer gain respect for being the ones taking full responsibility for the house and the farm when he is absent for some reason, and be viewed as stepping over accepted lines simply for having to take her husband's place full time if she is widowed?"
Some rather good points about being averse towards the Christian faith, Vlad agreed as he allowed Eric to use his own pant leg as support for standing up on his unsteady feet. While he hailed from the area that one day would be known as Ukraine in the future and followed Slavic mythology as his own faith, he could see why Daria feared the more negative side of life for women in the Norse homelands if they abandoned their ancient gods in favor of the southern, Christian God.
"Oh, look behind you, dearest. We seem to have just gotten to know who it is that has caught the heart of your sister."
Turning around, Daria had to cover her mouth to not shout in surprise and joy at spotting Irina with Hiresh in the middle of a not very chaste kiss.
Since Irina was known as a "harsh beauty" in line of her being a brutal and unyielding warrior among most people in the Sanctuary, the eventual reveal of her being in a romantic relationship came as quite a huge shock for many.
"What? She is human, just like me, of course Irina was going to eventually make someone fall for her out of the blue , it just needed to be someone who managed to look past the first impression of her. Just because we serve Lady Athena, does not mean that we both are sweet motherly personalities or friendly," Daria stated in annoyance when too many repeats of this shocked disbelief was asked straight to her face.
"But…but…Virgo Hiresh of all people?!"
Losing her remaining patience over how they failed to understand that the sisters merely had different tastes in lovers, Daria grabbed a distaff made of iron next to her and used a tiny amount of her Cosmo to make a huge crater in the ground with the distaff, scaring the doubters into silence.
"Have you never heard about characteristics like good is not nice because being native can end up a disaster in the long run? Or someone that is cruel to be kind because it may be the only way to teach someone the more unpleasant side of life? Some really important lessons in life are best learned through bitter experiences. Nice is different from good. And, even more damningly, neither "nice" nor "good" are necessarily the same as right!"
Showing herself a good example of "beware the nice ones" saying, Daria ended up chasing around some of those people with her distaff held above her head as a clear warning of that she aimed to hit them with it, yelling and cursing at them for disrespecting her younger twin by thinking that she was completely heartless.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
And yet, everyone in the Sanctuary knew that those happy times would come to an end. In the middle of autumn, in the year 996 A.D, the Holy War of this era broke out.
"Leaving Eric at our paternal relatives that are living near Uppsala?" Irina asked as the sisters took a chance to talk.
"Yes. I am scared that if Hades sends the Specters to attack the villages around the Sanctuary, our house may be one of the homes ruined in the attack. Even if it is only temporary, I want to keep my child out of danger where I or Vlad may not be near to protect him…"
Nodding in understanding, Irina could see the point. She too, had been worried about her nephew, who at the age of three years, sadly had a habit of running off from the adults to explore something that caught his attention, and it was far too easily to imagine him ending up in the middle of a attack where a Saint or civilian needed to protect the young child from a enemy.
"Both Vlad and I have tried to make him stop that habit, but he is so stubborn and sometimes refuses to listen to either of us…" Daria signed, feeling like a poor mother despite that she was not spoiling her young son and was very clear with him facing punishment or other consequences if he did disobey his parents.
"He will learn, sister. He can not keep doing this poor habit of running off without a thought or not thinking things through. Not if he wants to live a long life and avoid death at a young age…"
Right now, they could only do their duties as the Gemini Saint of this era and try to ensure that Athena would come out as the winner of a Holy War once again, even to the cost of their lives.
Even with the fast speed to travel north to Scandinavia and the Temple of Uppsala in Sweden where the relatives of the twin sisters lived, Daria and Vlad knew that this might be the last time they saw their son while being alive, for the Holy War tended to cost Athena many Saints fighting for her.
"Eric," Daria said in a steady voice while trying to not reveal that she was almost crying as she took the face of her son between her hands so he was looking straight at her, "Mama wants you to be nice and behave now while you are here. Mama and Papa will come back soon, Lady Athena asked us to do something for her and you are too small to come along."
"Not small! Papa, I want to come along!" her son complained, but Vlad remained firm in this, as he and Daria had talked about it long before the Holy War had started.
"Adults only, son. You would only be in the way for me and your mother."
Of course, it did slightly hurt as Eric kicked his skin in anger and then started a loud temper tantrum, but in the end, they left him with her relatives who promised to take good care of Eric for them until either parent or Irina came to bring Eric back to Greece.
"We will have him back soon, dear, it should not be too long before we are all back home in the Sanctuary again."
Daria nodded, trying to ignore the loud crying of Eric after them in the growing distance.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
Yet on the way back to Greece, the married couple became aware that something was following them. And neither one had a good feeling about the people who came closer.
"Specters?"
"Most likely, I am afraid."
Now, had Daria been a civilian woman, Vlad would have been more afraid for her safety if there were several opponents, but as the oldest Gemini twin, she was used to fighting without her Gold Cloth if Irina was out on a different mission. Besides, she had not used her pregnancy and motherhood allowing her battle skills to get rusty. She did not dislike the lifestyle of a Saint so much that she only did the minimum training needed to use Cosmo, after all.
"Well, time to use some spinning, it seems."
Picking up her drop spindle out of her belt, Daria began to spin a thread of Cosmo just like how she would do when spinning wool or other fibers into thread, and threw the thread across nearby trees and bushes like a spider web. This way, the enemy would not be able to sneak up behind them so easily.
"Please, be ready with the Gemini attacks, darling."
"I will."
Standing back to back, they heard the sound of running feet come closer.
At the same time, somewhere in Central Asia:
"That cursed Judge and his men! I hope that my secret collection of real weapons will delay their return to life, by having their limbs cut off and the same with their heads, before they were nailed to the ground by swords and spears!"
Irina was carrying the injured Hiresh on her back, running as far away from the group of Speacters led by Garuda Aiacos as she could get before using her dimension travel to reach the Sanctuary faster.
"You did well in surprising them…"
"Do not talk, stupid!"
During the battle, Aiacos had managed to break both the right arm and leg on Hiresh, before the Virgo Saint and the younger Gemini sister had teamed up to kill him. Still, even with his defensive attacks, Hiresh knew that he needed medical attention from Aziz or the other healers in the Sanctuary now, because he feared that there was inner damage beyond his broken ribs and hip on the same side.
Opening the portal near the Aries Temple, Irina rushed towards the hospital building.
"Aziz?! Aziz, please! Hiresh is injured!"
With the Virgo Cloth carefully stripped off him to see the full damage, it was impossible to miss the huge amount of blood on the clothing Hiresh wore.
"So many broken bones and the loss of blood despite how you tried to bring him here as soon as possible…Irina, do not expect Hiresh to join in more fights during the reminder of the Holy War, I am afraid," the Taurus Saint admitted, and she nodded weakly, pale from seeing the injuries herself.
"We managed to pin down a Judge and those under his command, at least…" Hiresh smiled in victory, before groaning in pain from moving himself more than intended.
"Well, you are going to get willow bark tea for the pain and treatment for those broken bones, my friend."
Irina was about to say something, before making a sound like she was about to throw up.
"Excuse me for a moment, my stomach is reacting to the smells of medicines in here! I think it is a delayed reaction to all the blood during the battle…"
Hurrying out from the treatment room, they could hear her emptying her stomach out on the compost pile.
"Well, some of those medicines are quite strong in smell, and coming directly from a battle, it is no wonder that she feels the need to empty her stomach. It is different from the annual slaughter of animals, after all."
Rinsing out her mouth with some water to remove the taste of vomit and then spitting that out, Irina suddenly felt something that alarmed her:
Her Gemini mark on the left shoulder felt like it was burning, just like it had done three years earlier when Daria had been risking her life during the birth of Eric.
"No…not now! Not the Curse of Gemini acting up!"
Her heart going cold in terror for that Daria could be in mortal danger, Irina knew that she had to find her sister.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
It was Griffon Minos, another of the three Judges, who turned out to have been chasing Daria and Vlad with his men.
"Cosmic Marionette!"
As Daria had revealed her rank among the Saints of Athena with a Galaxian Explosion, it was her he aimed to trap with his threads, leaving Vlad to fight alone against his men.
"Daria!"
"Vlad?!" Daria screamed in horror at seeing her husband being forced to flee a distance away, the men of Minos blocking his path, and she tried to not scream in pain as the Judge broke her fingers, hands and arms, one by one, all to make her unable to use the attacks of the Gemini Saint.
"Quite a nice catch for me today, one of the Gold Saints. But…I wonder which one of the Gemini ones?"
Glaring at him, Daria responded by trying to throw herself backwards, for all that proved to be in vain with his threads controlling her body.
"That hammer necklace…" Minos said when noticing something that Daria had dropped to the ground right before he had caught her, "you are hailing from the nordic pagan people, I see. Those who have not understood the might of Jesus."
Of all the times to be reminded of her dislike for White Christ, this had to be one of the worst, Daria privately thought.
"What does a male God truly know about the woes of women, compared to Goddesses who share the same gender? What offer of comforts and strengths can this male God offer to women, when he has not undergone pregnancy and childbirth himself?"
No matter how much her body hurt from him breaking various bones, Daria knew that she had to withstand the pain until she either found a way to free herself, or Irina arrived…
"Daria!"
Being one of the most powerful Silver Saints, Vlad managed to defeat the other Specters and now rushed towards Minos, aiming to break the threads which trapped his wife.
"Pagans who do not know the might of the Son of God…will go to hell!"
In horror, Daria saw the threads from Minos' other hand wrap themselves around the neck of Vlad, and out of desperation, she opened the other dimension in trying to save him, by trapping Minos inside.
"Another Dimension!"
But in that same moment, Minos acted as well.
"Go to hell, you two barbarians!"
With a forceful pull on the threads, he snapped the neck on both Daria and Vlad.
Inside the other dimension, Irina felt the Cosmo of her sister explore and then vanish, and the mark felt like she was being burned with a white-hot iron straight out of the forge.
"Nej, nej! Daria! STORASYSTER!"
Following where she had sensed the Cosmo of her sister just a moment earlier, she opened the portal.
"Daria! Daria!"
What met Irina as lighting gave her some light in the night darkness, was a sight that she would never forget:
The broken bodies of her sister and brother-in-law, both hung up on two trees, acting like an improvised crucifixion and a mockery of how the Vikings would do animal offerings to their gods. And around them both, was threads that revealed who their murderer was.
"No…no…no…"
Collapsing to her knees as she began to cry in realization over what had happened, Irina let out a raw scream in grief over that once again, the Curse of Gemini had separated a set of twins during the Holy Wars.
"MÅ GUDARNA FÖRBANNA DIG, GRIFFIN MINOS! JAG KOMMER ATT FÖRFÖLJA DIG OCH HÄMNAS MIN SYSTER!"
Her Cosmo explored from her grief and anger as she screamed, over and over again. Then, finally after driving herself to exhaustion and having no more bitter tears to shear, Irina felt numb as she forced herself to free the two bodies and bring them home to the Sanctuary.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
The Sanctuary of Athena:
"I am sorry that we have lost Hiresh, Lady Athena…"
The Virgo Saint had fallen unconscious not long after Irina had disappeared to search for her sister, and death had taken him without him waking up again. Going by the amount of injuries that he had suffered in his last battle, Aziz had guessed internal bleeding as the cause of death.
"Where is Irina?" Athena asked, crying in grief over losing another one of her faithful Saints against Hades. Suddenly, they all could sense an explosion of Cosmo from far away.
"That was her Cosmo…"
"That amount of unreleased power can not mean anything good…"
Soon, a portal opened up, and Irina showed herself, carrying the bodies of Daria and Vlad.
"No…do not tell us that they…!" Scorpio Ragnhild whispered in fear, rushing down to meet Irina. From the way Irina looked at them with an empty look in her eyes, they could tell what had happened.
"I am so sorry for Daria and Vlad, Irina…"
But Irina did not respond as she slowly walked over to the bed where a white sheet now covered the body of Hiresh, and then looked at Aziz with a pleading look, to which he could only shake his head in confirmation.
"An internal bleeding, I am afraid, and one which I could not prevent."
At those words, it seemed like something broke in Irina.
"No…"
Then, she felt something in her own body, and something warm along her pant leg which was not the rain from the place where she had found Daria and Vlad. Strange cramps, which caused her to gasp sharply.
"...m-my stomach…hurts…."
"Irina…" Ragnhild asked with some dread when she, as a fellow woman, had a faint guess to what was about to happen, "when was the last time you had your monthly bleeding?!"
Her eyes widening in horrifying realization of what the Scorpio Saint meant, Irina collapsed to her knees as the other woman rushed to her, and a few maids as well.
"Get out of our way!"
"Is there a spare room we can borrow?!"
"No other man present now than Aziz, you hear that?!"
Against her weak protests, Irina was brought into another chamber and the door closed shut for the sake of her privacy.
Athena and the others did not have to wait long, before Aziz came out with a sorrowful look on his face. There was silence within the chamber, apart from the broken sobs from Irina who laid on her side, her back against the doorframe.
"Irina has unfortunately suffered a miscarriage, and she was about 12 weeks along. The child would have been one last gift to her from Hiresh, if she had not lost it today with the rest of her family."
It was the 2th november, also known as All Souls' Day and the Day of the Dead, in Christianity. A date which Irina would forever come to associate with the loss of both her twin sister Daria, brother-in-law Vlad, her own lover Hiresh and the unborn child that Hiresh had conceived in her womb.
"You are going to regret this day, Minos…and the role you played in stealing my loved ones away from me!" Irina whispered between her tears, holding the iron hammer of Thor that Daria had worn, between her palms and finger so hard that its sharp edge was cutting up her skin and making her hand bleed. This oath of revenge against the Judge was something she intended to keep, no matter how long or short her life would be.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
Author note: White Christ is what some of the Vikings called Jesus when meeting the Christian peoples in Europe.
Given some of the rights that Viking women had in their culture compared to other women in Europe at the same time, such as owning property, asking for a divorce if not treated properly, and they shared responsibility for running farms and homesteads with their menfolk, and they were also protected by law from a range of unwanted male attention, I think Daria would present those Viking women who realized that becoming a Christian, risked to mean being trapped for life to a cruel husband with no legal way out sans either death or widowhood.
What Irina screams in Swedish, translated to English: MAY THE GODS CURSE YOU, GRIFFIN MINOS! I WILL HAUNT YOU AND GET REVENGE FOR MY SISTER!