Asgard Awakening

by Blaise Corvin

  “Yes, New One. I decided you would want to know what I just discovered.”

  “What is that?”

  “I have located the town that Narnaste has been leading us to. It is more of a village. Either way, we will be arriving there tomorrow afternoon if we wake and travel as normal.”

  “You are sure about this? How did you know it was the right village?” Trav balled a fist. After so long, they’d arrived. Several strong, conflicting emotions warred for dominance in his heart, but he needed to verify the information first.

  “Yes.” The harpy’s expression grew strained. “I met another flier in the air. She questioned me and told me the name of the village. Faith.”

  “What? Another flier?”

  “Yes. She also said she could sense the divine on me and called me Honored One. I would like to bathe now. Her inquiries were beneath me.”

  Trav began to say something but stopped. “Are you being serious right now?”

  “No, of course not. I am being dramatic and rather enjoying myself, but it is true that I was not sure how to react. Others recognizing my significant value upon first meeting has unfortunately not been the norm in my life.”

  Trav eyed her sideways, still not sure if she was joking or not. Dealing with Yaakova could be like this, especially if she was in one of her moods. Then he remembered her report and smiled. “We’re almost there. Tomorrow we will finally reach Faith.”

  He turned. “Yaakova, you should go tell Narnaste, she—” Even as he spoke, the harpy had already transformed into her raven form, winging off toward their campsite.

  Jang-mi raised an eyebrow. “You know she’s an arrogant bitch, right? I mean, even for a Kin. I’ve said this before, but you keep really strange company.”

  Trav sighed.

  Chapter 29

  Trav had to privately agree with what Yaakova had said before. The town of Faith really was more of a village. His little group had walked into the open from the trail they’d found, and he’d gotten his first good look. After examining the place a moment longer, he conceded that while it didn’t look like much, its security seemed pretty good.

  All vegetation had been cleared around the village at least half a mile, creating a large, unnatural valley in the forest’s sea of evergreen trees. The village had been laid out in a fairly long, narrow fashion, with one end near a lake at the base of foothills leading to a mountain. Small fields surrounded the village, and it looked like crops were grown in one consolidated area. On the other side of the valley, he could see livestock pens.

  At first, he was confused by the lack of a large wall for security, but then he noticed how the defenses were actually set up. A large, deep trench circled the entire village, with a low wall on the other side that the defenders could hide behind. Nasty wooden spikes jutted outward from the fortification. Trav didn’t understand the setup at first until he spotted an inhuman silhouette at the top of one of the guard towers.

  Kin. He’d never really witnessed how Kin defended their territories, and it would make sense that they would approach security and war differently than humans. Now that he examined the defenses with fresh eyes, he spotted towers near the livestock and crops too. The guards there were probably skilled with ranged weapons or magic, effectively wielding the equivalent of heavy weapons on Earth.

  He suddenly realized that his group was probably already being watched. Despite having traveled the worn trail and entering the valley that way on purpose, Trav developed an itch between his shoulder blades. He was really glad that his group had gone out of their way to not surprise any defenders.

  The rest of the group must have felt the pressure too, and while Trav was confident they could probably escape if Faith turned hostile—maybe—he started feeling jittery from nerves all the same.

  Then he took another step and almost fell over. Whether this place had a memory shrine, he wasn’t sure yet, but there was definitely something powerful here. His Restless senses screamed at him, pulling him towards it. Whatever it was, the village must keep it very well shielded.

  Trav hadn’t known exactly what to expect while approaching the Faithful village. Their welcome party was still a surprise, though.

  A gaggle of children, accompanied by a handful of adults, had left the village in the distance and the group was heading directly for them. “What are they doing?” muttered Yaakova. Then she groaned, “I want to be flying.”

  “Stay on the ground,” Trav ordered with a frown. He turned. “Narnaste, what are they doing?”

  “I don’t know, Master. Like I told you, it’s been a long time since I came here, and we went the long way around. I was with my parents, riding by carriage.”

  “That’s right.” Trav nodded, remembering Narnaste’s stories. Based on what she’d said, there was a well-traveled road on the other side of the mountain. This meant Faith was remote, but not inaccessible for other Faithful.

  “Can I at least take my bow off my shoulder, Chief?” asked Ysintrill.

  “No. Everyone, just calm down. We’re here to talk...because they’re going to welcome us, right, Narnaste?”

  “They should,” said the canine Kin. “At least they would have years ago. You are a High Master, after all.”

  “Well, let’s hope they’re friendly,” Trav muttered. “Jang-mi Ning, do you have something to say, too?”

  “No,” said the martial artist. She’d cleaned up during their travels, even finding or making some new clothes. She looked much younger now, closer to her real age than when Trav had met her. The direct woman announced, “But if they attack us, I am running away so fast, you will think I was a stepped-on cat.”

  “That’s very reassuring. Thank you.” Trav sighed. “Let’s go meet this group and keep everything friendly. Everyone keep your fucking hands away from your weapons. I would rather not find out what those guards in the towers are probably pointing at us.”

  Everyone nodded and began slowly walking forward again. When the group of strangers was about one hundred yards away, he stumbled, almost falling over again. He’d just felt something he’d never felt before, but couldn’t mistake for anything else.

  There was another Restless nearby.

  Suddenly, Trav broke out in a sweat, gathering power. He wondered what to do, even briefly considered running away. After sucking in a breath, calming his heart, he decided to keep moving forward. Showing weakness to predators was always a bad course of action, and even without another Restless involved, plenty of Kin were watching at this point—there had to be. He warred with himself about whether to tell the Valkyries what was happening, but as they got closer, he noticed them all startle, and turn towards him at almost the same time.

  “That group has another like me,” he said softly. “Stay alert.”

  “I don’t think it is physically possible to be any more alert than I already am,” growled Ysintrill. “I am about to piss myself now. Can I please take this gods-cursed, inaccurate bow off my shoulder?”

  “I made it, so it’s actually gods-blessed. But do you think it would actually do much good?” asked Trav in an even voice.

  “No. But it would make me feel better.”

  “We made our choice the moment we stepped off the trail back there,” said Trav with a shake of his head. “It’s realistically not any safer to run away now than it will be later. We should find out who these people are and hear them out.”

  “Master, my skin is crawling,” growled Narnaste. Yaakova stayed silent but flexed her claws.

  Trav focused on breathing slowly as the two groups closed the gap. He observed carefully, his adrenaline keyed up as high as it would go.

  The approaching group had about ten children, half Kin and half human. Flanking both sides were four adults. One was human, a man wearing light clothing with a rapier on his hip. The other three were Kin, two males and a female. Two of them were feline Kin, and the last male was a lizardman. These were all common species of Kin.

  Walking at the rear
of the little group, flanked by a child on either side was a human woman, at least she looked like it at first glance. But even without his divine senses screaming at him, Trav would have suspected there was something more to her. Despite the bright light of the noonday sun, she seemed to gather shadows, her aura as dark as her clothing was light. Trav didn’t feel any ill intentions—in fact, she felt...friendly.

  That’s new, he thought. I didn’t know I could sense that.

  As he subconsciously relaxed, knowing instinctively that he could probably trust his new senses, he studied the new Restless. She was young, probably in her early 20’s, around Jang-mi’s age. She had blonde, elbow-length hair, green eyes, and high cheekbones. Her generous mouth had smile lines and sat beneath a thin, straight nose. She cocked an eyebrow at him as he studied her, and her eyes twinkled in a way that instantly put him on guard.

  The woman wore a short linen dress that seemed native to Asgard, but Trav did a double take at the spandex leggings she wore underneath. Her little jean jacket, perfect for the cold weather, was very fashionable, but also not very Asgardian. What the hell, he thought.

  With his emberstone eye open, he could see the swirling power around the woman, completely unique from anything he’d seen before. He wondered if someone examining him this way would see the same sort of thing. Her spiraling power touched the world and the people around her, and it flowed, creating random shapes, like stars, and concentric circles. Trav’s inherited mantle responded to what he was seeing, and he decided she was probably more powerful than he was, but not by a lot. She had to either be newborn or must have inherited a mantle like he had.

  When the two groups got close enough, everyone stopped, but the woman kept moving forward. Trav decided to follow suit. A few arm lengths from each other, she nearly startled him by loudly calling, “I knew that the children would be safe. Hello there! I’ve been waiting for you.” She smiled. Trav noted she had dimples.

  “Uh, hi.”

  Unlike Trav with his very obvious spear, the unfamiliar Restless carried no obvious weapons. But when she pulled a fan from her belt, Trav wasn’t sure how, but he immediately recognized it as a powerful tool. He didn’t make any sudden moves, even as she began fanning herself with it despite the cold. “Don’t be so stiff, silly. I am hoping we can be...friends. It was a long journey to get here just to meet you, after all.”

  I think she’s either showing off, threatening me, or teasing me. Two can play at that game. Trav scratched his beard and willed Hex into his hand to casually pick his teeth. The soul-bound weapon kept itself clean, but he still deliberately did not think about how many people the blade had killed before sheathing it again.

  The blonde Restless clapped her hands. She turned to the human man in her group and said, “I like his style! The other one is so uppity and boring.”

  “I am glad that you approve, my queen.” The man’s voice was so deadpan, Trav almost smiled in spite of himself.

  “Leonard, there you go again! You need to have—”

  Trav interrupted. “I would like to know what is going on. Why did you come out here to greet me—us, I mean.”

  The woman raised her eyebrows. “Leonard, this one really is different, isn’t he? The Oracle was right.”

  “You knew the Oracle would be right, Tiffany. That was why you consulted with it.” The man’s face was so impassive, it could have scratched steel. As he spoke, one of the three Kin in their group, the feline man, stifled a laugh. The children just seemed confused.

  “Leonard, that’s mean! You’re supposed to be surprised, or at least act that way.”

  Trav watched them with glittering eyes, aware that they were pretending to ignore him on purpose. He knew why, and he also knew it wouldn’t work. Unfortunately, Yaakova hadn’t understood. She loudly hissed, “New One, they show disrespect. Shall I kill and eat them? That one in particular looks—”

  The blonde Restless turned, and her friendly, somewhat silly demeanor disappeared. Her back ramrod-straight, the air around her filled with power and her voice cracked out, “Silence, creature.”

  Trav thought the cocky harpy might snap back, or even attack. He tensed to pounce on her, but Yaakova crouched, hissing as she backed away slowly. In fact, all the Kin took a step back.

  “There we go!” said the bubbly blonde, her voice carefree and casual again. “Sometimes it is necessary to discipline a neighbor’s pets if they don’t.”

  “Who are you?” asked Trav.

  “You first!” said the woman. She suddenly paused, holding up a hand and sticking her nose in the air to sniff. With a quizzical look, she cocked her head. “I can sense some sort of high-level transference on these Kin, something you have done to them. Wow. This is really powerful magic. Not many Restless could do this...hmm.” She muttered to herself for a few seconds, openly studying Trav. “You interest me a lot more now, and you were already going to be my project for the next month.”

  “Huh?”

  “I am going to toy with your heart and your time.” The blonde smiled, dimpling, but Trav wasn’t buying it.

  “The hell you are. You are going to start talking straight to me and stop bossing around my subordinates, or I’m going to turn my scarred ass around and leave. If you represent the village, we will leave for good and the Faithful miss out on embarrassing one more High Master. If not, we will wait until they kick you out before we come back. Simple.”

  She stared for a while, but Trav didn’t back down. He met her eyes and made it very clear she didn’t impress him. Even with only three bars of power available, he could make life very...difficult for her and probably escape. A line of explosions in the dirt that separated their two groups would help them run away, too. He really didn’t want to hurt kids, but he was confident that he could tweak his glyph equation to make a lot of noise and confusion without being lethal.

  Finally, she grumbled, “You are no fun. Fine. I’ll go first, and we can be all serious about this. I hope you’re happy. We’ll have to be serious about the wars in the future; it would have been nice not to be that way now.”

  “Wars?”

  The blonde ignored his question and introduced herself. “My name is Tiffany Erben. I have accepted the mantle of the goddess Zorya. May we know who you are?”

  Zorya, huh? The name was vaguely familiar through Odin’s memories but was not Aesir or Vanir. She must be from a different pantheon of Restless. Trav gave her a flat look. “And if I tell you, you will tell me what is going on?”

  “Yes. Of course.”

  “And after I tell you, will you stop pretending you don’t already know who I am?” He would have missed it if he hadn’t been watching, but the adults in Tiffany’s party tensed.

  The little blonde blew air out the side of her mouth, lifting a lock of hair off her face. “You are still a clever one, eh, Odin?”

  “The name is Travis Sterling now. You can call me Trav as long as we are not trying to kill each other.”

  “Ah, already moving to the threats then?” Her small smile had changed, becoming icy.

  “Not as long as everyone keeps behaving. Did you really expect me to trust you when you were putting so much effort into acting silly and extra cute?”

  “So you think I’m cute?” She smiled prettily.

  He rolled his eyes. “Drop it. You were hoping I’d be stupid or innocent enough to easily manipulate, but I’m not. I’m not necessarily upset about it, though. Are we going to talk or what?” Trav’s nerves spasmed. He was a hair trigger away from blowing the ground and taking off like a bat out of hell.

  The goddess glanced at his Valkyries. “Can you vouch that your weapons will stay sheathed?”

  “Yes.” He turned just to make sure. “Girls, don’t kill anyone unless they attack you first, alright?”

  Narnaste nodded. Trav glanced down at the children and mentally chuckled. At least they had no idea what was going on, obviously bored with all the adults talking and using big words. There was no
way he would have believed that Tiffany was just a silly girl when she’d come out using children as innocent little shields to prevent violence—or as a way to test him.

  The move had been cold-blooded in a way that Trav might not have understood before coming to Asgard. Now he just admired how clever she’d been. He doubted she’d really believed that he would attack her, but if he had, he would have lost the support of Faith, and probably all the Faithful on Asgard.

  This place was important. He’d long since realized he needed this village, as a base of operations if nothing else.

  He still didn’t have all of Odin’s memories, but knew enough to not be surprised by Restless ruthlessness. Most of them were bastards in some way. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t even sure if they’d all died when Odin had or not. Strangely, he’d also never really questioned the fact that the Restless as a whole knowing where he was now would be bad, he’d just felt the truth of it in his bones.

  “Alright, Trav, would you like to take a walk with me?” She glanced meaningfully at the others around them and jerked her head off to one side.

  “Some Kin have amazingly good hearing. How are we going to have a private conversation out in the open like this?”

  Tiffany began walking, not looking back. She held out her fan. “Come with me, worrywart. I will take care of it.”

  Trav stared for a few seconds but finally breathed in deeply and followed. Both groups watched him go. He hated being led around by the nose, not knowing what was going on. But realistically, if he wanted answers, he’d probably have to play by someone else’s rules, at least at some point. He mentally prepared to summon Hex any moment, though.

  Some distance away from the others, in a field with short, weak-looking grass, Tiffany came to a halt. She turned and showed him the fan. “I am going to make a bubble right now that won’t conduct any sound. Please don’t kill me.”

  Trav was taken aback, not only by the words but the sincerity and pleading in her eyes. He slowly nodded, finally understanding that she was far more afraid of him than he was of her. As he thought about it, he realized that he was physically a big, muscular man, and currently absorbing the mantle of a god who had ruled one of the most powerful and violent pantheons that had ever existed.