113 — ASGARD RUINS
Far from the sad clear sky of the North, the night in Greece was made up of owls hooting in the darkness and a curiously heat wave out of season. In spite of that, the forever starry sky gradually received the inconvenient visit of heavy clouds. The Sanctuary region remained in a state of alert, with double vigil on the roads that led to Rodorio and, mainly, to the foot of the mountain of the Twelve Temples. Among the inhabitants, the excitement of the summer gradually turned into distrust, as very little was reported by the guards who served the Master-at-Arms, and the stories among the fishermen also became increasingly confusing. The certainty that the mission of the Hope-of-Athena across the Seven Seas was a success was disappearing with each passing day without any news.
Despite the distrust, life went on normally on the pier, but the late afternoon conversations in the main square already brought, in addition to local gossip, also questions and rumors about the developments of new divine threats. The feeling of uncertainty above the mountain was also not very different, where each Gold Saint remained alert and apprehensive for Seiya and the others on the seas.
Saori was in her room that night, changing clothes to go to sleep, while listening to two happy voices through her cell phone's speaker. They were telling her the news about the outside world. From the door, she heard three sharp knocks from someone waiting for her to get ready; she immediately paused the audio and answered.
"Just a minute."
The door opened and Saori let out a startled scream.
"Mii!" she complained, covering herself with a towel.
"I thought you told me to come in."
"I'm changing!" protested Saori, throwing a pillow towards her friend who bent down and saw it crashing against the wall. "Close that door!
Alice closed the door with a half-smile on her face.
"You could get blind, you know that right?" asked Saori, mockingly.
"I know. Shiryu told me that that's how she got blind."
"Alice!" Saori reacted, absolutely shocked by her friend's audacity.
"I swear by everything that she really said that." she replied, laughing.
"I don't trust you." Saori replied, smiling.
The audacious friend threw the clothes back so that Saori could finish dressing and saw that the cell phone was on the bed with an audio message paused.
"Were you listening to them again?"
"Ah, Mii, it's so good to hear that they're okay." said Saori, sitting on the bed with a happy face. "Deep down, I really wish you, Seiya, Shiryu and everyone could live in peace just like them. To have normal lives. Being only a couple of young teenagers. Doing stupid things all around."
"Seiya already does stupid things as a Saint."
"You know what I mean." said Saori, a little thoughtfully. "Because of me, all of that was stolen from you.
"Don't even begin or I'll call Ikki." Alice threatened with her finger raised. "And besides, think about the price both of them had to pay to have this normal life."
"Yeah, I know." Saori agreed, taking a deep breath and remembering Eris's curse on both of the girls.
"But I also miss our singing nights with Kyoko, remember?"
"Yes!" Saori reacted, excited. "What was that song she always sang along?"
The two sang two verses and a chorus together before bursting into laughter, remembering times when they were younger and, perhaps, freer.
"Those nights in the dorm. I had no idea that all of this was going to happen. I couldn't imagine." reflected Saori, sitting on the bed with a lost gaze.
"It's so good to see you happy, Saori."
Saori looked at her with a smile on her face, but it slowly faded as she remembered what came into her life and, after all, who she was. Alice noticed the change in her friend's expression and quickly tried to change the subject.
"Why did you call me here?"
"Oh." Saori seemed to remember, getting up from the bed and going to one of the shelves.
She opened a drawer and took out a large book that caught Alice's attention.
"What is that?"
"It's a book written by Nicol." said Saori, excitedly, already sitting down leaning against a pillow.
Alice also climbed into bed to read with her friend, as they did on long nights of studying when they were younger at the Kido Mansion, often with Kyoko.
"It is a record of ancient Athena who reincarnated in the Sanctuary. It is not possible to know if all of them are actually listed here, but it is a compilation kept by the ancient Pontiffs to which Nicol had access in Pope Zion's archive."
"Amazing."
"Mii, you won't believe it." said Saori, with a smile on her face. "There was an Athena who reincarnated as a man."
Alice slapped her hand over her mouth and took the book from her friend.
"God forbid!" she reacted, and Saori started laughing.
The Owl quickly flipped through the tome to see how many entries there were until she reached the end.
"Hmm. Look, it seems that the last Athena was named Sasha." said Alice, pointing to a note in the book, and then broke into a smile as she turned the page. "Look, your name! But the pages are all blank."
The two looked at each other and Saori answered happily.
"So I can write my own story."
Alice smiled and so did Saori. Nicol was really special, even if full of mannerisms and rules.
"Oh, that's amazing, isn't it, Mii?" said Saori, thinking far away and, in a way, a little relieved. "Nicol said he would try to do something like this when he saw me confused and lost at Cape Sunion. He is very attentive. He's always worried."
"That he is, but he also knows so much."
"I just found this book." said Saori, getting up. "He must have left it in my quarters before leaving, but I only came to find it now, as I was so worried about Aldebaran that I didn't come here much. It's so important to me to know who all these women were."
"This is nice, Saori." Alice replied with a sleepy smile on her face, when she saw her friend leafing through the pages of that diary.
"He's not back yet, right?" asked Saori, worried.
"No. Master Mayura thinks she can hide it from me, but I know that she's starting to worry about it."
Saori took a deep breath and Alice pulled her back to the bed.
"Come on, I need to know everything about this Man-Athena disaster."
Saori laughed and the two lay together on the bed to read that book from cover to cover; Saori stared into her friend's eyes, waiting for her to realize that the absurd idea of a male Athena was nothing more than a joke. That night, they slept happily.
And that night was the night that Siegfried's fell.
The central square of High-Asgard received the entire population of the kingdom after the end of the battle that echoed through the stone streets, such violence and destruction carried through the courtyard of Valhalla until culminating in the fall of a sea galleon that was sailing through the skies; stories that would be told forever in that region. For all the inhabitants of the country came to the gathering, regardless of where they lived: the lower city, the dry farms in the southernmost region or even in the heart of the caves, where some of the most miserable people sheltered. Everyone now entered the city, warned by the palace guards that the summoning was unrestricted for any and all children of Asgard. There were a few elderly people and a few children, many men and women with their faces suffering in the even more arduous cold.
As everyone arrived, chatting and talking to each other in the square, they noticed that a girl seemed to be waiting for them with a simple, light blue dress and the deep eyes of someone who looked like she hadn't slept in months. Hilda waited until the last Asgardian arrived. She, who knew them all, looked at all the eyes that stared at her that morning.
Her voice was firm.
"People of Asgard." she began, with immense respect. "We are those who endure the deepest of penances in this abandoned corner of the World. I am honored and I make my life a servitude to our God Odin to chart the course of his suffering people. Therefore, it is also my most divine duty to ask everyone here, loudly and for everyone to hear, under the Colossus of Our Lord Odin, my most painful apologies."
Most of those people looked at their lady still confused, although a good part already knew better about the immense invasion and battle that took place in High-Asgard.
"I am sorry, People of Asgard, for the tortuous path I chose to follow a few months ago and which came to a tragic end on this day that I speak to you. The day Asgard lost irreplaceable, valuable and brilliant children."
With all the respect that the ceremony demanded, no one dared to interrupt her lady when she listed the victims of that day.
"Míme. Alberich. Syd. Siegfried. Sigmund."
And each name that was announced by Hilda, a different group seemed to react with great sadness, because although the God Warriors were distant among themselves, each of them was valuable in their own way and had great trust and affection among their people. Their deaths were deeply felt.
"These are just a few who became stars under our sky. "Hilda continued, her voice trembling. "And many others lost their lives in these last months in which my eyes became cloudy and walked a path of war, far from our hearts."
Her seidr finally manifested around her body, making her hair fly with its energy; she extended her right arm off the platform and closed her eyes. The snow that fell very subtly from the white sky converged in her right hand in the form of a wonderful sword, which Hilda held by the blade, just as Odin did in its colossal Statue.
"Odin. Give us your strength. "she began her prayer with her eyes closed. "Let me do right all the terrible mistakes I made. Give us the path to save Asgard, even if it costs me my life."
Freya was on the steps of the side staircase that went up from the fountain square to that courtyard where Hilda spoke to her people; her eyes filled with tears for her suffering sister.
"We are from the far north of the world. Isolated by ice and snow, but we accept all this sacrifice with great strength to protect our wonderful Kingdom for Odin."
Hilda opened her eyes, speaking from her heart to the sky.
"Noble God Warriors, I will never know if it would be possible to apologize to each one of you. I could see and feel everything while under the power of Nibelungs. And the Ring forced me to see how each of you suffered. All your pain and tragedies. Poseidon not only made me fall for his trick, he also stained my heart."
The Valkyrie gripped the sword even tighter with her hand, which was bleeding from the sharp blade, letting drops of her divine blood drip into the frozen fountain beneath her.
"And it's my fault. For I have been blind. I could do nothing and Poseidon's vile trick made my deepest desire to give you a little light and love, tarnished with evil. My deepest desire to serve Odin took me away from the people I was supposed to protect. And I know I caused a lot… a lot of pain."
She then looked at her people, her injured hand on the sword blade was still dripping a lot of blood and the bright aura around her also took over the sword she was brandishing when her last words were heard.
"Asgard, please listen to me. I don't know if you can forgive me, as your children lost their lives only because they dedicated their deepest loyalty to me. I know that I am a sinner and within my heart there is no room large enough for the regret that hurts me and that will follow me for the rest of my life. Our history is marked by suffering and penance, and this will be mine. As long as I'm alive."
"You are Hilda, the Voice of Odin. "said an old man among the crowd. "Odin has already punished you enough, Milady."
And then he knelt.
And after him all those who were in the square did the same.
Hilda cried.
"Odin, please protect this Land!"
The sword bathed in her blood lit up with the colors of the rainbow and a column of light carried it from Hilda's hand to make it disappear, while the Lady of Asgard fell to her knees near the parapet, being helped by her sister youngest, Freya.
Among the kneeling crowd, however, a man smiled beneath his hood.
There was great commotion in the central square of High-Asgard, but Hilda fell into the lap of her younger sister, Freya, and then the master-healer of Valhalla rushed to the other side of the stairs: a very tall man, with dark hair and a very pale skin, wearing a light tunic and a cape for the cold. He took Hilda in his arms, as he had done many times in her childhood, and entered the enormous halls of the Valhalla Palace; Freya stayed there to serve the people of Asgard, because in her sister's absence it was her responsibility to look after them.
And while the children of Asgard looked for answers in the central square in front of the entrance to the Valhalla Palace, beneath the Colossus of Odin, in the outer courtyard destroyed by the battle and next to the rubble of the Galleon, the Athena Saints were spread across the ruins in silence. A cold wind blew from the top of the mountain, as if trying to carry away the misfortune that had befallen that land, lifting the hair of those young warriors.
They were exhausted and in pieces, not only in spirit, but the state in which they found themselves was terrible. Each seemed to suffer from their own sadness; Shaina and Geist were together on the edge of the abyss beneath Odin's Colossus looking at the bottom of that place, where Surtr's Cave was. Shaina was now wearing all of her Ophiuchus Cloth, cracked in some spots, while Geist was wearing her overcoat with golden details, now very torn. Seiya no longer had the sea coat that Saori had gifted him with, but both he and June were the only ones with their Cloths in perfect condition; The two were sitting together with Lunara, listening to her about what had happened since they separated and briefly telling her what justified all that sadness between them. Shun, Shiryu and Ikki were silent next to each other, with their Cloths badly damaged, especially the Dragon Shield, which was destroyed.
Among everyone, however, Hyoga was the one who seemed to be in the worst condition.
His shoulders slumped with exhaustion, as his body sustained the strength of the Sapphire for all that time, depleting him of almost all his energy, not to mention the surprising presence of Odin in the Balmung Sword that he had to brandish. His eyes were hollow and lost in a horizon where there was nothing; his spirit shattered by feeling that the last blow with the Balmung Sword had been the last act in a chain of failures that Hyoga seemed to relive one by one in that moment.
The trap in the Palace taking him by surprise, Alberich's manipulation that made him use the strength of the Sapphire and wear a God Robe, the destruction of the God Warriors without him being able to do anything to protect that Land and fulfill his Master's wish. A desire passed through letters that he no longer knew which ones were real or fake, but to which his heart still clung. And finally the destruction of the Relic of the Seas.
"It wasn't your fault, Hyoga." Shun tried, showing up at his side and trying to break him out of his trance.
The boy finally seemed to wake up from his daze and slowly looked at Shun with his suffering eyes.
"Who else could it be, Shun? I destroyed the Relic."
"There was no way for you to know." Shun tried again and Hyoga swallowed.
"That doesn't change the fact that I was the one who destroyed the Relic. The Relic that I should have Sealed, I destroyed!" he said, angry with himself, while, one by one, his friends approached with great difficulty. "Seiya, June, Geist and the others must have gone through terrible ordeals to seal all the other Relics across the Seven Seas. All Relics around the World. And the only one that was my responsibility, instead of protecting it, I not only destroyed it but also took away the chance for all of you to fulfill your mission. Athena's mission."
There was a deep sadness in his eyes.
"I destroyed the Relic." he repeated, almost like a maniac, but he spoke in his firm, deep voice. "And I fought against my friends! I let myself be fooled like a child. I ruined Athena's mission and put Asgard at risk."
"Hyoga!" said Shiryu, but he didn't seem able to hear any reason.
"And now Poseidon will awaken." he said looking into the beyond.
"We will fight if we have to. "Seiya said, confidently.
"You wouldn't have to, if I hadn't failed." said Hyoga, again disgusted with himself.
"Enough!" Shaina shouted from a little distance away, next to Geist.
They all looked at her, as she walked to the center of that circle of friends.
"There's no point crying over what's already happened. What's done is done. If Poseidon rises, we will fight. And that's it. What we need to do now is return to the Sanctuary and rethink our steps."
A certain silence fell among everyone upon hearing Shaina's firm voice, after all, she was indeed their superior.
"I will not return to the Sanctuary." Hyoga said firmly, looking at Shaina facing her mad gaze.
"What do you mean by that, Hyoga?" she asked.
"Asgard is now in danger because of me." he said, stepping firmly. "If Poseidon rises to take the Earth, this will be the first place that will be attacked."
"You can't be sure of that. What if Poseidon attacks the Sanctuary, which is where your duty as a Saint belong?"
"Listen to me, Shaina, please." Hyoga straightened up in front of his superior. "While I was on this Land waiting for Seiya's arrival, a Mariner Lieutenant of Poseidon invaded the forest next to the Valhalla Palace and it was thanks to the strength of Odin's Sapphire that I was able to fight him and defeat him in combat. Otherwise I would already be dead."
"A Mariner Lieutenant?" Seiya asked, curious.
"Yes. Of extraordinary strength. His Armor was pearly and deep blue like the ocean. Poseidon's warriors are extremely powerful."
Seiya immediately looked at Geist, who stepped forward.
"We also encountered these warriors on our travels. They are certainly Poseidon's Mariners, who have resurfaced to fight alongside the God of the Seas."
"And now with the Relic destroyed, I'm sure that these Mariners will come to this land. But they will no longer come alone like they did then." said Hyoga.
"Asgard is not the responsibility of the Sanctuary." Shaina barked, firmly.
"But because of us, Asgard no longer has the protection of the God Warriors." Shun recalled, deeply sad between them.
"That's what happens in a war." she said, but Seiya was the one who confronted her with a firm voice.
"Now, Shaina, the Sanctuary has the Gold Saints and the protection of Athena. Asgard has no one!"
Seiya's voice seemed to echo throughout Asgard; No one answered him, as he expected, as everyone remained in a tense silence. When looking over his shoulder, at where everyone was looking, Seiya noticed that Freya was at the exit of the Valhalla Palace that led to that outer courtyard, certainly hearing the end or perhaps the entire discussion.
She stepped towards them and spoke like the Princess she was.
"Hyoga is right that there is a great chance that Asgard will be attacked if Poseidon decides to take over the Earth. And Seiya is also right that this land lacks its warriors. But Asgard is a much braver and steadfast people than you can imagine, Pegasus Saint."
"I'm sorry, Princess Freya, I didn't mean to..." she silenced the boy briefly with a delicate gesture.
"Although our sentries and guards are valiant and courageous," she said, looking directly at Ikki "the battles that Poseidon will make us fight are beyond our current capabilities. Still, we will fight to the last man and woman if we have to."
"It won't be necessary." Hyoga said, placing himself in front of everyone.
"I can ask absolutely nothing more of you, Athena Saints."
Freya spoke to all of them, but her eyes remained on Ikki, distant from everyone, as she tried to maintain a certain distance from that emotional group of boys and girls.
"The boy spoke for all of us." Ikki replied from a distance. "We won't let those damned Mariners take over this land."
Shun smiled back at his sister and even Seiya felt confident seeing that Ikki would fight with everything if she had to. Freya spoke again between them.
"It is said in ancient stories that our people and the children of Poseidon visited each other along paths now lost among us. But if what Hyoga said is true, then I can only believe that Poseidon's followers know the ancient bridges that lead to our land."
"They could invade any time." Seiya concluded, and Freya agreed with him, regretfully.
Freya, however, looked torn as she looked at Shaina and her furious eyes.
"In any case, even though Asgard is in danger, even though I recognize and have no words to thank you for your courage, Athena Saints, I need to insist that you return to the Sanctuary."
"What do you mean by that?" asked the Master-at-Arms, suspiciously.
Freya remained silent for a moment to choose the best words while looking at Shaina.
"My sister Hilda, unfortunately, is in a lethargic state after having endured Poseidon's spell for all this time. But before she fell on her subconscious to rest in the palace, she told me something at her bedside. Something that is important for you to know."
"Say it at once."
Shaina faced the princess close, while the Athena's Saints, even Ikki, stood up straighter to hear the revelation.
"Hilda wanted you to know that Syd's Shadow's invasion of the Sanctuary was only possible with the help of a Saint within your lands."
Shaina's blood seemed to boil at that very moment as thousands of questions were asked at the same time. All around the same theme.
"Who?"
But Freya didn't know, nor did Hilda confide in her, as it was really something they had no knowledge of. In the background, far from everyone, they heard Ikki's mocking laugh, who was still leaning against a fallen pillar.
"What are you laughing at, Phoenix?" asked Shaina, angry. "Aldebaran was almost killed, I didn't hear anything funny."
"Now, Shaina, you should know better than anyone." she replied, looking at the Master-at-Arms. "Saori is not exactly unanimous like Athena in that Sanctuary. I'm not surprised that there are traitors among those who should protect her."
Shaina let herself be carried away by the anger of that moment and her hair stood on end, crackling with the electricity of her cosmos; Ikki may have stepped over the line with the wrong person. The Ophiuchus Saint jumped towards her and broke what was left of the pillar Ikki was leaning on in half, standing up to face the girl a foot away.
"What are you trying to say, Phoenix?"
"That there is a traitor in the Sanctuary." Ikki said, with her eyes closed and a brief smile on her face, and then said closely to Shaina: "In the Sanctuary. Not here."
Shaina had anger in her eyes, but was separated from that insanity by her friend Geist, who appeared at her side to prevent the two from confronting each other right there. Ikki left her alone with her anger and walked away to the other side of the group, resting her leg against the wreckage of the Galleon, placing herself close to the group of Bronze Saints, as in truth it already seemed very clear to her what the next steps would be.
"Geist." Shaina said, close to her friend. "I need you to stay here with them."
"I'll do it." she agreed.
The Master-at-Arms turned to face the group of Bronze Saints that were supposed to be under her command; Her gaze was unable to disguise her discontent with absolutely everything that had failed in that mission, because, deep down, her fury was with herself.
"I will return to the Sanctuary." she announced to everyone. "What happened here is not the kind of thing you share in letters. I want to be in front of Athena and Master Mayura in person."
The Bronze Saints nodded, as she continued with fire in her eyes.
"I will find the traitor."
"Give him all your rage." Ikki asked her.
Shaina didn't respond.
Three days passed.
The Athena Saints stayed in the mansion of the mountains at the invitation of Freya, where each one occupied themselves with their conscience. And although the invitation was extended to everyone, Ikki didn't stay with them and disappeared; something the Princess found to be her way of doing things. Shaina also did not accept the invitation and posed in the huts near the port, from where she closely inspected the boat that was being prepared for her to leave, while her head was filled with anger.
The climate in Asgard, on the other hand, seemed to have been blessed by that passionate prayer of Hilda before fainting, as the snow stopped, the clouds even became less thick and those suffering inhabitants were blessed with longer nights where they could have some well-deserved sleep. There were even those who swore they saw the crown of the sun among some clouds that wavered in the sky.
But the governess of Asgard, Hilda, the Voice of Odin and Representative of the Highest God on Earth, did not wake up for a moment during those days; after a brief conversation at her bedside with her sister, she closed her eyes and passed out in a state of deep torpor experiencing terrible nightmares, absolutely exhausted after being possessed by the force of the Nibelung Ring and enduring as much suffering as in those days. Freya stayed by her side as much as she could in Valhalla Palace, with the high-healer.
June took care of Hagen in Freya's absence, also tormented by Ikki's Phantom Strike, while the other Bronze Saints attended to their injuries and absences, as it had been a long time since they had seen each other. Seiya and Lunara shared all the adventures they experienced across the Seven Seas with their friends, with maximum detail and, perhaps, some exaggerations.
And although Hyoga had his friends by his side, the guilt of having been deceived by Alberich, by destroying the Relic, even after having had the great honor of holding the Balmung Sword in his hands, still weighed heavily on his chest.
"The Relic would be destroyed one way or another." said Freya once, when she again caught him with his head down next to the fireplace of the mansion. "The Ring would never leave my sister's hand, except for her destruction. No power on Earth other than the Balmung Sword would be able to break its spell. And no power on Earth would be able to defeat Hilda with that Ring. It was a no-win scenario. From the moment Hilda placed that Ring on her finger, the Relic could never be sealed again."
"But if I had known…"
"You didn't." said Freya. "Nobody did."
"Alberich knew." Hyoga replied, once again feeling deceived.
Freya looked deeply at him.
"Yes. Alberich knew." she pondered.
"Alberich also knew that we were all made of fools. Including himself. Those were his last words before he died."
"Alberich was an extraordinary Counselor. Better than anyone, he knew how to play with people very well. To please. Manipulate, dissuade, persuade. He was anything but a warrior. A truly brilliant mind. For him to have been deceived…"
"Only a mind even more brilliant than his."
Freya looked back at Hyoga, both confused, but distressed that there was someone as cunning as Alberich still in the shadows.
"In any case, Hyoga, I will find the whole truth." assured Freya, approaching him.
"What do you mean by that?" Hyoga was surprised.
"There are many gifts from Odin in the Cave of Surtr. One of them will tell us the truth. But for that to happen, my sister Hilda needs to be back on her feet and healthy."
"And how is she?"
"Better every day, but still very, very weak. Andreas, Valhalla's master healer, is watching over her."
The conversation between the two in that wooden kitchen was interrupted by Shun's sweet face, which appeared through the door announcing the presence of palace guards outside. Freya went ahead and, together, they went outside where Seiya, June and Lunara were already waiting for them.
"Princess Freya." began the guard. "The vessel's preparations have already been completed."
"Thank you very much, Einar." and then turned to the Athena Saints. "It is time."
They all left Freya's mansion and walked to the port of Asgard, located in the extreme south of the lower city, which was the place where Seiya now remembered being deceived by the God Warriors and taken to the dungeons. They crossed the courtyards of the lower city where Freya was greeted by the population who seemed to be experiencing their best days in many years, with the cold much less intense and some particular miracles, such as the return of some animals to the lower forest, which allowed the hunts to return.
Even the sea seemed calm and the ice floes in the distance barely moved, unlike the animosity that had been in the ocean a few days earlier. Geist supervised the final preparations at the port, although the Asgardian dockworkers were very skilled and as knowledgeable about the sea as her privateer friends from Tortuga. Shaina watched the preparations from a distance, filled with anxiety to return to the Sanctuary; Geist found her lost in thought as she approached her friend.
"They are coming."
Shaina didn't respond.
"I still think it's more prudent for me to go along, Shaina."
"No. They need you here." she finally replied, as if coming out of a trance. "And besides, it can't be the hardest thing in the world to sail from here to Greece. If you can do it, I'm sure I can too."
Teasing was not uncommon between the two in calmer times, but at that moment, Geist felt that there was something wrong with her friend.
"Why did you come to Asgard, Shaina?"
She looked back at her friend and tried to hide her feelings by looking away at the sea.
"You should wear a Saint Mask if you want to hide something from me." Geist said, in a serious tone that Shaina mocked for a moment before responding.
"It was needed to warn the Saints about Syd's Shadow."
"It is reckless that the Sanctuary sent its Master-at-Arms in a time of crisis. It could have sent any other one of the Silver Saints."
"No-one could be trusted."
"Tell me the truth, Shaina." said Geist, seeing that her friend was beating around the bush without being able to deceive her. "You dreamed that dream again, haven't you?"
Shaina finally broke her posture and looked back at Geist, confirming her friend's suspicions; but Shaina leaned on the railing again to look at the preparations at the port.
"I haven't seen him for years." Shaina said only to her friend. "And now it's the second time in weeks that I've dreamed that same damn thing again."
"And did he say anything this time?"
"No. As usual."
Geist noticed that Shaina took longer to respond. She found it strange.
"The man of light." reflected Geist, looking at the icy horizon of Asgard. "I remember how desperate that used to make you."
"Shut up, you're just making this up now." Shaina reacted.
But the truth was that Geist wasn't making anything up, as she remembered well how much that intrigued the young aspiring Saint in the tiny dorm they shared in the Sanctuary; of how many times she would get up startled at night and herself, younger, would help her get her bearings. And in exile, it was not uncommon for a night raven to bring a short letter from Shaina straight from the Sanctuary to her, where she reported having been visited again by the strange figure of light. And then months would pass without anything happening, only for her to be visited again one random night of the year.
Geist placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, worried, and Shaina let her posture ease for a moment, giving her a look of almost incomprehensible tenderness. Then Shaina looked over Geist's shoulder and her countenance once again hardened like the Master-at-Arms she was.
"Doesn't matter." Shaina said forcefully. "Here they come. It's time to leave."
The two looked at each other. There was no room for great demonstrations between them, but they found in each other's eyes all the consideration and understanding they needed. Geist was absolutely certain that Shaina would arrive in Greece sailing alone, even if to do so she would need to hit every port in the world before getting it right.
"Don't forget the wind." warned Geist one last time.
Shaina nodded and then the two went down the stairs to wait for the group that arrived next to the boat. And as soon as Seiya and the others appeared at the port wall, they saw a portentous schooner in the water ready. Everyone stopped in front of the two Silver Saints and it was Shaina who deliberated her last orders in that icy land.
"Geist will remain in Asgard and coordinate the defense of this Land until the next orders from the Sanctuary are sent."
Everyone nodded without a single word.
Shaina turned her back on everyone and boarded the beautiful schooner.
Geist looked back at the ragtag group of Bronze Saints and knelt before Lunara, holding her small shoulders in the Captain's strong hands.
"Lieutenant Lunara." she began gravely. "You are brilliant and fantastic, young one."
The little girl couldn't help herself and hugged her Captain as tightly as she could, leaving Geist disconcerted.
"Go back safely, Lunara." asked the Captain, finally standing up.
Seiya then knelt down to the little girl, kissed her on the cheek and gave her a long, tight hug; He adjusted the sleeves of his own fur coat that Lunara was wearing and then made a promise:
"I'll be back soon."
"You better be! Take care, Seiya, I know you always end up getting hurt."
"Come'on, it's not like that, Luna. At least this time no one will poison me."
"Hey!"
"And if I do get hurt, I know you'll take care of me when I get back. You and June."
"With a huge needle!"
"No needles!" he protested, making him and the little girl laugh.
They hugged again.
"I'll come back in one piece this time."
"Liar."
He laughed and hugged her again.
"Bye, Lunara. See you when I see you."
"Bye, Seiya."
And the little girl continued saying goodbye to each of them before getting into the schooner to continue the journey with Shaina back to the safety of the Sanctuary of Greece. But before she got on the schooner, someone else came in to say goodbye to Shaina.
"Hey." he called and the girl seemed disconcerted to see him there.
"What do you want here?" she replied, sharply, looking back at the sea.
"I came to say goodbye, Shaina."
"You're wasting your time."
Seiya recognized that she was absolutely furious, perhaps with herself, upon discovering a traitor in her army. But she dedicated herself as much as any of them and Seiya learned to recognize that.
"Here." he held out a piece of dried meat. "It will help you with the sea sickness."
"Shut it, Seiya." she reacted, irritated.
"It's also good not to keep your eyes fixed on the boat. Try looking at the sea, that will reduce the feeling of nausea."
Shaina didn't answer him for a while and didn't look at him, but ended up taking the dry meat that he had offered her.
"Now get out of here."
Seiya smiled and returned to stand beside his friends, but not before saying goodbye to her.
"See you soon, Shaina."
She did not answer. Her heart was beating fast.
And soon they saw the vessel being released from the dock and finally gaining a little distance from them amid many farewells in the distance. But even in the distance, Seiya heard Lunara's voice shout into the air:
"Captain's log. I am Captain Lunara!"
"Shut it, girl!"
The boy experienced laughter for the first time with June by his side, and even Geist seemed pleased to see that Lunara was going to make Shaina's life a misery from there to Greece.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: The result of the battle and Asgard's sadness in the face of Poseidon's manipulation of the Mariners. I wanted to give a conclusion to the Asgard phase, while placing the important elements for the Saint's' next step, in addition to throwing Hyoga into the depths of a sadness that could come back against him in the future. We'll see.
NEXT CHAPTER: RAGE OF THE WATERS
Poseidon's rebirth brings chaos to the planet.