92 — THE IMPRISONED PRINCESS
In Lower Asgard, as the region was known beyond the fortification walls where Valhalla Palace stood, was where the miserables lived. Where hunger devastated families and took, day after day, the elders, as well as the newborns, in what was undoubtedly the harshest winter in its history.
The sharp and icy winds sometimes gave a truce and the population went out to the streets to exchange, seek help from each other, throw themselves in the taverns or beg mercy in the temples and shrines of the region. In the center of an abandoned square of their tents, the population gathered to receive an insufficient amount of bread and mead that came from distant farms or even from the palatial stock. There was no uproar or confusion, just the silent acceptance of a people who knew very well their destiny on this Earth.
And as the crowd jostles in line and then spreads across the square to speak to acquaintances or even to laugh at some old or invented tale, a sweet and beautiful music spreads across the square, played by a sensible violinist who, sitting on the roof of a tall bandstand, played the sorrows of them all.
As soon as the distribution of food was over, the men and women scattered in the square slowly fell silent to listen to that beautiful lament that the violin was singing; his high-pitched voice, his precise and long notes, while the young man with long fair hair, but dirty, played his Nordic violin without saying a single word, for the solfeggios of his instrument were enough for no one to have any doubt of the pain that silenced him in the chest, as it was a common pain for everyone there.
The silent crowd, however, was gradually taken over by a hubbub among them all, for among them was a foreigner. That was an abandoned people and, therefore, they did not received any visitors or tourists; it was very rare for the single road of its entrance to welcome any entourage, especially in a terrible winter like that, so those who didn't live there easily stood out. And that foreigner even tried to hide his identity under a tunic and a dark hood.
The crowd parted from him and a clearing formed with a single figure in the center, a foreigner who was much smaller than the inhabitants of that inhospitable region. The violinist stopped playing his tune and looked at that curious figure; his voice was deep, though he had a delicate face and a shining instrument.
"Who's there?"
All eyes were on that figure, who looked like a child next to them all. His voice sounded sweet under the hood:
"I want to see the ruler of Asgard. I come from very far." replied the intruder in common speech, not understanding exactly what the violinist had asked him.
"And who shall I bring before our ruler?" asked the violinist in a language the boy could understand.
The foreigner took off his hood and replied with his name, revealing himself to everyone.
"My name is Shun."
The fiddler came down from that high roof gracefully and landed in front of the boy; he was a little bigger than Shun and looked him deeply in the eyes. The sweet eyes and calm face showed exactly what Shun was: a peaceful visitor. As that musician who, like Shun, also had a sweet and calm face, although his voice was so much deeper. He stowed his harpinger violin on his back, the bow at his waist, and asked Shun to accompany him.
Under the prying eyes of that suffering population, but with a piece of bread to take back home, the violinist escorted the foreigner down the main street to the footbridge of the upper city fort, where the stones he walked on were even different and more refined. But the truth is that hunger and misery had not spared those who lived there, although they were few, they were few as hungry and miserable as those who lived beyond the bridge.
It was a short march from there to Valhalla Palace, so they were soon traversing the cold, dark corridors of the ancient building to the huge double door that preceded the Hall of Hilda, the governess of Asgard. The guards all straightened their postures as the violinist approached with that foreigner and no detachment made any move to interrupt or question what he was doing walking in Odin's Palace with someone from so far away. As were the calm notes of his violin, so was his artistic heart; beside him, Shun remembered that these were a people of peace and that was how he preferred things to unfold.
When they entered the huge hall of Valhalla, the impression was that they had interrupted any kind of conference, because the voices stopped talking and the eyes of Hilda and her advisors immediately fell on that pair that entered the room. The violinist walked over to the huge pyre of fire burning on the floor and knelt before letting his deep voice echo through the wide hall.
"Miss Hilda, I have before you a foreigner who has appeared among us at the square of the lower-city."
A silence ensued in which only the sound of burning flames could be heard.
"But what is the meaning of this, Mime?" asked Siegfried, one of the three counselors in the hall, immediately placing himself in front of the violinist. "A foreigner in this Hall? At Valhalla?!"
"Alberich is not here." said the violinist calmly. "And the foreigner would like to speak to our ruler. I see no reason to doubt his character."
Siegfried looked at Mime kneeling with his eyes focused on Hilda, as if his loyalty there was not to the warrior, but to her. In every way, this was wrong and Siegfried knew that Mime, of all the counselors, was perhaps the most distant among them. The huge warrior seemed to keep the displeasure he felt inside him, as if not to let a visitor like that have access to Asgard's inner crises.
"Go back, Mime. We'll take care of this." he said simply.
The violinist bowed to Hilda, to Shun and disappeared, closing the double doors behind him. Closer, Shun saw how suspicious Siegfried's eyes were as he saw Mime disappear into the Palace; but when the door closed, the huge warrior looked at the boy, who was a piece of straw next to him.
"I come with a request." Shun said with his sweet voice.
Behind Siegfried and beyond the flames of the fire, the voice of the guardian Hilda echoed in the wide hall.
"Siegfried, take care of this for me." she said, rising from her throne to retire to her quarters.
"I am an Athena Saint." Shun said, immediately attracting their attention. "I come a long way with a request."
Not only the attention, but Siegfried, Hagen and Sid immediately placed themselves in front of the boy; Hagen on one side, Sid on the other and Siegfried, who was already ahead of him, on guard, ready to take the boy down if necessary. Shun raised his arms in a clear sign of peace, but the atmosphere immediately became tense between them. Hilda, standing and ready to leave the room, sat down on her throne again, as if curious as to how the event would unfold.
"I am Andromeda Shun, a Saint of Athena. And I come to you, people of Asgard, for we are on a quest across the Seven Seas to seal the Relics of Poseidon, as it is not his time to rise." he began, while those interlocutors listened attentively. "Two Saints of our Sanctuary came here to this Kingdom through the Path of the North. They are Cygnus and Raven, and unfortunately we have not heard any news from them for quite a while. Nor have we heard anything from a the crew of a vessel that should have arrived in this port a few days ago."
There was still an icy silence between everyone.
"Therefore, I am here on Athena's behalf to request help from the Kingdom of Asgard so that we can find them and then seal Poseidon away."
A certain confusion arose among the counselors ready to fight, in which they mumbled words in their own language among themselves, in a clear suspicious tone, but then Shun understood absolutely nothing of what they were talking about. It was Hilda's voice from the other side of the fire that rose to his glowing presence, silencing everyone in the hall.
"Lies!"
Everyone looked at her, including Shun.
"You are here to curse the Relic of the Sea and stop Asgard from marching into the light."
Her strong but clear accent was understood by the boy.
"That's not true, we have nothing against the Kingdom of Asgard. Our only goal is to seal Poseidon away."
"Siegfried." called Hilda, her voice bright. "Take this trespasser and put him with the others."
The order was decisive, so both one and the other councilors knew they had to abide by that order. The Andromeda Saint immediately guessed what could have happened to the others and regretted his fate; he did not object, for he was outnumbered here, and although the other councilors were not tall and strong like Siegfried, it was clear that they were prepared warriors. Shun allowed himself to be handcuffed and taken to the dungeons of Valhalla Palace.
Princess Freia was yet another night arrested in the barracks at the entrance to Asgard, which had been given a larger contingent to cover its constant misdemeanors. Even though she had been arrested for the first time many days ago, this did not in the least lessen her eagerness to preach her ideas to the inhabitants and try to lead them into a revolution, so that every other day she spent the night in jail. They way she passed that night, she had already lost count of how many others had slept away from home. In the morning, however, the cell curiously opened and another prisoner was thrown into it.
The guard locked the cell with a clang, and Freia knew at once that she was a foreigner by her dress, hair style, and all.
"Who are you?" asked the Princess in the common tongue, suspiciously.
But the foreigner didn't answer her and sat down on a stone bench against the wall, not saying a word to Freia or even the other dying man at the back of the cell. Inside her, the Princess felt chills, for the presence of a foreigner there in the prison was not a good sign, after all Asgard never received visitors, much less in times like these.
The old man in the background barked something in his own language, attracting Freia's attention.
"Tell me where are you from?" she asked the foreigner, but again she found a wall of silence.
That girl's eyes were fixed on the stone wall in front of her and Freia noticed that an arrowhead pendant gleamed on the foreigner's chest; she had seen it before. One of Valhalla's councelors had an identical arrowhead and it made her shiver. Again the old man in the cell shouted slogans, but Freia asked him to shut up and he respected his Princess.
"You're an Athena Saint, aren't you?" she finally asked.
Finally the foreigner looked at Freia, taken by surprise, but again she was silent.
"What is an Athena Saint doing so far from her Sanctuary?" asked Freia.
"It's none of your business." the girl finally said.
"I'm the Princess of Asgard, so it is my business."
"And what is a princess doing in a prison like this?" the girl asked.
"That's none of your business."
The foreigner let out a smile with that absurd dialogue and again placed herself in silence leaning against the wall, as if thinking about a thousand things.
"I will tell the guards who you really are and then you will be imprisoned in Valhalla where there is no way you can escape."
"So there's another prison you can't escape from?" the girl asked, guessing part of what she was supposed to do.
Freia immediately realized that she had said too much; the girl then stood up, ready to leave without any problems, when the Princess placed herself between her and the door.
"Please tell me!" she said and, for the first time, gave voice to the questions that the old man in that cell between them was trying to ask. "Is this really an invasion of Sanctuary?"
The girl looked at Freia in surprise, as if the idea were terribly absurd. And then to the apprehensive old man at the back of the cell, his eyes torn between fear and hunger and age-old courage; she guessed there was a story here long before her arrival, where she was just another piece in a picture she didn't fully understand.
"No, this is not an invasion." he replied, testing his words on the Princess's reaction.
Freia's eyes, however, were still a little suspicious, for what other reason would an Athena Saint be among them, even if arrested. But arrested in a place incompatible with the strength that the ancient stories of Asgard told about the bravery and haughtiness of the warriors of the Sanctuary of Athena.
"It is said that with a wave of the hand they were able to tear the sky and that with just a kick they would open cracks in the earth." said Freia, remembering the Legend of the Saints, so faithfully recorded in the bibliographic halls of Mímir, in the Valhalla Palace where Freia loved to spend her days and some nights when she was still admitted where she had grown up. "What does an Athena Saint is doing in such an ordinary prison? You certainly could have resisted."
"I certainly could." she agreed. "But I come in peace."
Princess Freia noticed almost a certain disappointment in the girl as she confessed such a peaceful spirit in her, but she couldn't ignore the fact that even though she was a warrior as the ancient legends sang, she could only be there if she hadn't really resisted the guards of Asgard and effectively got carried away. On the other hand, the Saint recognized the fiber of that Princess who, without a doubt, was much smarter and more sagacious than the clowns who had taken her prisoner.
"Tell me, princess." she asked Freia, the two of them facing each other. "How many 'invaders' have you had in the last few weeks?"
Freia looked at her and even in that dark cell they were in, the Saint's eyes held a certain glint that pressed her against her fears and anxieties. The Princess wasn't wrong, so she knew the Athena Saint would like to test her so she could better understand her people and discover secrets for her mission, whatever it might be. And even if it wasn't really an invasion, Freia needed to watch over Asgard forever.
"I will not say." replied Freia decisively.
The girl tried to stare at her as if weighing that answer. And the biggest weight of that lie was not even in her unshakable eyes, but in the terrible state that her dress was in.
"The Princess seems to have been here a long time." she observed. "I don't think you know anything about what's really going on."
Freia was silent, imagining that her silence could throw the Athena Saint off track, but in truth she could say nothing, for the girl was absolutely right. And when her eyes averted from her dark eyes, the Athena Saint continued walking to the cell door; she put her right hand on the metal top where the lock of the cell kept them there, and with horror both Freia and the old man at the back saw how the metal seemed to melt at the girl's touch.
"Wait!" asked Freia from behind her.
If it wasn't an invasion, at least the presence of that Athena Saint caused great strangeness to Princess Freia and even though she had been expelled and alienated from Valhalla Palace, she was still Hilda's sister and weighed on her a certain authority and responsibility towards the people of Asgard. The metal stopped melting, as the girl chose to listen to the Princess's words, always hoping that there was more there to help her on her quest.
"What are you really doing here?" asked Freia, unarmed and honestly concerned with discovering only what was going on beyond the walls of that prison.
"I already told you I come in peace." she replied simply.
"We knew that the Sanctuary of Athena would deploy Saints here." Freia said, arousing her curiosity. "That's why many in Asgard believe it's an invasion."
"Is that the only reason you get visitors?"
"We don't get visitors." replied Freia decisively.
The imprisoned Saint then turned to her once more to tell her the whole truth.
"Do you want to know why I came? Well, I'll tell you, Princess." she began. "I came to find the whereabouts of friends who were sent here before me. In a single mission: seal Poseidon."
The name haunted even the old man at the back of the cell, who did not understand the language they spoke; but the name Poseidon needed no translation as it inspired fear in every corner of the world.
"Seal Poseidon?" Freia asked, as if something too big had been added to her thoughtless theories.
"Yeah. It is not his time to wake up, but something mysterious is taking place in the Seas. We want to seal the last Relic in Asgard so that Poseidon can go back to sleep in the Ocean."
"Last Relic of the Seas?" Freia asked, even more confused. "What do you mean?"
If before Princess Freia had her eyes closed and her posture severe as if she were guarding the defense of Asgard in her body, now her posture was completely disarmed and her eyes searched the ground for the answers, because her mind was actually rereading in her head the many tomes that she had studied, as well as the many conversations and debates she had had.
"I see." the mysterious girl laughed to herself. "You think that the Sea Relic you keep here in Asgard is the only one that exists, for you should actually know that there are seven of them. Six of which we've already sealed across the Seven Seas. And now the one in Asgard is the only one left. And that's why we came here. To seal Poseidon."
Freia sat down on the stone bench where the prisoner had sat before, for she had been filled with so many doubts that it was as if she had been buried by all of them at once. The Athena Saint insisted on pouring even more so that Freia finally fell defeated.
"Other Saints were sent before me and so a vessel must have docked to trade the Relic of the Sea with the people of Asgard. We haven't heard from any of them for a long time and that's why I came here. To discover their whereabouts and then seal Poseidon." she said, stern in her speech. "So tell me Princess. Where are these invaders?"
Freia answered the girl and her speech was distant and a little disappointed.
"I don't know. Ever since I stood against the plans of Valhalla, I've been kicked out of the council and it's been a while since I've known what's really going on in Asgard."
"So that's why you ended up here?" asked the other, but Freia did not answer, as if ashamed of her lot.
Seeing her deep in confused thoughts, the Saint turned to the door and melted all the bolt that held them there. Freia behind her and even the smart old man got up.
"What's your plan?" she asked.
"I'm going to find my brother." said only the girl. "And then I will seal Poseidon."
"You can't!" Freia said again, trying to stop her from leaving. "Valhalla believes Sanctuary will attack Asgard. You will be hunted by the God Warriors."
"God Warriors?"
"Yes. The Seven God Warriors who are summoned by Odin to fight when Asgard is put in danger. They are Warriors capable of performing miracles that do not owe anything to the Legendary Saints of Athena."
"I understand. If we have to fight to make that happen, then we will. But our mission is to seal Poseidon, if you don't want bloodshed to happen in these lands, tell me how I can find the Relic of the Sea."
Freia stared at the girl clouded with doubts, for there before her the Athena Saint asked her for one of the greatest secrets of Asgard, but then as Princess of Valhalla, it was indeed her duty to try to prevent her people from dying; After all, wasn't that what she was fighting for and wasn't that exactly why she was jailed? After taking a deep, resigned breath, she finally confessed.
"The Relic of the Sea is the greatest treasure of Asgard, but it is buried with all other treasures in Surtshellir, the Cave of Surtr. The only way to get there is to cross the Corridors or Old, which is guarded by Hilda. She will never let you pass."
"Another princess?"
"Hilda is Odin's Voice. The one who rules the lands and the people of Asgard."
"Your sister, I imagine." guessed the girl and Freia fell silent again.
"Yes, Hilda is my sister. In other times, it would be enough for us to tell her the whole story and she would guide you through the Corridors of Old to seal the Relic of the Sea."
"But…"
"Something terrible has happened in Asgard and my sister is no longer the same. She will never allow you near the Corridor or even Surtr's Cave."
The answer before her, however, was the profound silence that echoed through the stone cell as her Fire Cosmo manifested itself powerful and bright, casting shadows at the bottom of the prison. In Princess Freia's eyes, there was no doubt, because no matter how old stories were told about the Saints of Athena, that fire that burned around that foreigner would be the monumental force that she would use, if need be, even to take down Hilda for her mission.
"It's useless. There is no force on this Earth that can defeat my sister Hilda. Not anymore. Your fire can melt all the locks of Asgard, but it will do nothing against the power of Polaris Hilda."
The Athena Saint opened her eyes into the fire that was her Cosmos.
"It won't be the first time a miracle has been performed in Athena's name." she said menacingly.
Freia felt, perhaps for the first time, an enormous ice in her stomach, freezing the courage she had felt until then; and it was the fear of losing her sister that made her get up and hold the girl's flaming arm, lest she leave. Even if her sister was Odin-on-Earth, as they said, and perhaps fully capable of reducing that girl to ashes, the mere possibility that her sister would be injured by some miracle terrified her at that moment.
"No, please don't do anything to her!" he asked with frightened eyes.
On the other hand, the girl felt disturbed that her murderous streak might once again show without her even having control; as if an old version of herself still lived on in her expressions, so that a stranger would easily guess her murderous thoughts. Her cosmos softened and she touched the arrowhead she carried in her chest, remembering the hope one had once felt beside her.
"Can you convince her?" the girl asked, but Freia shook her head.
"She doesn't listen to me anymore." she said very sadly. "She doesn't listen to anyone anymore."
There was something deep there and the Athena Saint's inquisitive eyes was all she could do to show any sign of commiseration with that tattered princess. Freia felt bitter that her words would not be enough to defuse a situation that seemed destined to be tragic.
"One morning, after praying as she always did every day begging for mercy to our Father-Odin for the sake of our suffering people, Hilda received a gift from the All-Father. A Gold Ring. The Ring of the Nibelungs."
The girl was still staring at her.
"Since then she has become a completely different person."
"Possessed by the ring?"
"The Ring is said to be a gift from Odin." said Freia.
"You don't seem to believe it."
"Just as you say this is not Poseidon's time, neither are the circumstances under which the Ring should be used." said Freia. "It's wrong."
"This is a matter we cannot interfere with. It's an Asgard affair." said the girl.
"For as long as Hilda is wearing that Gold Ring, you can't go near Surtr's Cave." said Freia determinedly. "Please help me Athena Saint."
The Athena Saint was torn between the open cell door and the cry for help behind her from a princess in rags, who was crying out not only for her, but for an entire nation. The prisoner they shared the cell with decided to leave the two of them there with that impasse and opened the broken door letting the flame light from the corridor fall into the cell, revealing Freia to the girl: her blond hair greasy, her face smeared with soot where her eyes gleamed like precious gems, her once-white dress completely grimy at the torn edges, and wounds on her wrists often locked in tight shackles.
She might not have been a warrior, but the Saint recognized immense fiber and courage in that Princess. The girl closed her eyes and asked resignedly.
"How?"
Freia found herself seen for the first time in many weeks; someone finally listened to her. She was no longer just an ungrateful or crazy Princess talking to tavern bohemians. She took a deep breath and told her what a warrior like her could do to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
"The Ring is cursed. You can't convince her to take the ring off of her own volition. The Ring of the Nibelungs is such a strong presence that the wearer never feels compelled to abandon it."
The Athena Saint waited patiently.
"The only alternative is the Balmung Sword." said Freia, with pain in her face. "The Balmung Sword can break any spell there is. Including the Ring of the Nibelungs."
"I imagine the sword is also in Surtr's Cave."
"Nobody knows. Perhaps." said Freia. "But to obtain it, you must gather the Seven Sapphires of Odin. The Sapphires that give strength to the God Warriors of Asgard and the ask the Lord of the Aesir for it."
The Athena Saint glanced at the square window of the cell where a cold wind howled outside.
"Then we'll have to fight anyway."
"There is no peace among the God Warriors." Freia confessed as if confiding a secret that should never be exchanged with a foreigner. "Maybe there's a way to get the Sapphires without any blood being spilled."
"Perhaps." replied the girl.
"Perhaps." Freia repeated with a broken heart.
And then she sat down on the rock, desolate.
"For weeks I have tried to warn and ask for courage so that our people are not thrown into a war against neighboring countries." she lamented. "And now I've given you the recipe for a war within our own walls."
"The Sanctuary doesn't want to attack Asgard. It is for peace that we fight. All we want is to seal Poseidon."
Freia looked at the girl and chose to believe; she nodded and saw the fire cosmos rise again inside that cell and break through the stone wall to the snow outside. The Princess immediately understood that she had let the old prisoner escape first to occupy the guards while she escaped by another exit.
"I don't know if we'll see each other again before the end." she spoke to Freia behind her and then added gravely. "I hope so."
"Wait, what's your name?" she asked finally.
The girl hesitated for a moment, but answered her with her back half out in the cold white snow.
"I am Phoenix Ikki." and finally left.
The Princess remained alone for a few moments inside that cell invaded by the snow that was blowing outside. She closed her eyes and prayed alone before leaving the cell for the snow as well.
"Have mercy on our people." she asked Odin and Phoenix.
At a point far from the center of Asgard, where a plain is covered with snowy northern pines, a God Warrior alone patrols the entrance to the Realm where a road was hidden under the layer of snow that covered it. His protection is gleaming and deep orange, while his face is hidden by a mask leaving only his pale eyes visible; the protection of the God Warriors of Asgard is called the Divine Robe, as it is a gift given by Odin to his Seven most valiant warriors to fight in his name.
With the arrest of a strange visitor from afar that turned out to be the Andromeda Saint Shun, sent from the Sanctuary of Athena, Palace Valhalla has issued a warning to all of Asgard to have its borders heavily patrolled and prevent new unwanted visitors from reaching the Palace. That main entrance was the main road through which Asgard received entourages in times of old, long, long ago, when the region was still a strong pole of trade and influence throughout Europe.
From that road ahead rose a dense forest in which the trees intertwined until reaching in the distance a huge mountain range that leads to the southernmost part of Europe. But there was something in the air that bothered that God Warrior and he walked towards some trees that seemed to move strangely, as if an animal too big was in their branches.
He sneaked up to the spot, but ended up stepping on a dry branch on the ground, which sent the birds in the tree flying away from what they thought was a predator. The God Warrior looked at the tree and then heard a voice accuse him on that cold afternoon:
"Who's there?" a familiar voice asked. "I know you're there, there's no use hiding from me."
The God Warrior then realized that there was someone hiding among those pine branches, who had also guessed his presence on the perimeter. With his icy northern cosmos, the warrior hit the tree, splitting it in half, finally revealing the figure hiding in its trunk. She landed gracefully in front of him, immediately putting herself on guard. Behind, where the trunk of the tree clattered in the snow, the God Warrior saw two Urns fall to the ground.
It was an invader.
He immediately jumped towards that girl and threw his best punch to hit her, but then the invader dodged before she was hit, jumping across the snow. The God Warrior stood up, surprised and satisfied.
"Well, very well, Shiryu." said the familiar voice beneath the mask.
Those two people there knew each other very well, as Shiryu soon recognized.
"Hyoga?"
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: I changed Mime's harp to a violin, as I wouldn't like to have two 'identical' characters, already thinking about Orpheus later, to whom the harp iconography seems stronger. I chose to put a violin for him, as it is also a very traditional instrument from Norse mythology and also very beautiful, keeping the essence of the character. Imprisoning Freia comes from the same idea as Soul of Gold in which Lyfia is imprisoned and talks to Aioria; in this case, I put Ikki to be the person that Freia will tell about the objective. It couldn't be Hyoga, because after all… Hyoga became a God Warrior just like in Durval's movie. =) It was quite difficult, but fun, looking for a solution to this puzzle. Maybe it sounds 'strange' for Ikki to be in that position, but I tried to keep her personality in a role that she clearly plays against her will. I also wanted to highlight Shun seeking a peaceful solution.
NEXT CHAPTER: A FAMILIAR GOD WARRIOR
Shiryu needs to fight a friend in the snows of Asgard.