Chaos God 5, page 23
part #5 of Chaos God Series
“I must look further,” Sylmarie finally said. “I will come to meet you at Castle Levi tomorrow, and we may discuss this issue further.”
What? Oh… uh… Well, I’m not there, obviously. I mean… we can meet at the old camp instead if that’s easier for you?
“Nonsense,” Sylmarie said with a smirk in her voice. “I am sure you long to return to Castle Levi to see Shalanna. I will meet you there.”
I couldn’t totally stifle the chuckle that bubbled up in my chest because she was exactly right. It felt like I’d been away from Shalanna for too long already, even though it had only been two nights. I could feel a strong pull urging me to race back to the castle right this second so I could wrap my very pregnant lover up in my arms. I smirked at how hungry she probably was for a taste of my dick, too, and heat raced along my nerves at the idea. But I kept all of that to myself.
Alright, sure… Thank you.
“You are very welcome, Levi,” Sylmarie said.
I’ll meet you at Castle Levi tomorrow, then.
“Tomorrow,” Sylmarie agreed, and then her presence drifted away from my mind like a gentle ocean breeze.
A little rush of sadness washed through me as she left, and I decided I would invite her to stay with us again. I longed to have Sylmarie near me and protected under my roof, but I prepared myself for her usual refusal. The sexy Völva had told me more than once that there was a right time for her to come and stay with us, and I knew she wouldn’t stay until that time came.
The rest of our companions were waiting near the snow-frosted pine trees along the edge of the chasm when Elora, Nae, Ayen, and I finally reached the top. Nae and Elora easily lifted themselves out of the chasm with their Valkyrie wings, and I gave Ayen a boost up. Then my best friend crouched and extended his arm down to help me out as well.
Elora tilted her head to the side, and her amber-red eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“Let us return home, everyone!” Nae announced to the wary warriors.
The group began to hike south back through the trees and mountain ridges toward the dark elves’ village, and I was pleased to see Sontar chatting with the older elf who carried the bone staff. I made a mental note to compliment her on her strength and the crucial role she’d played in the battle, and to get her name.
I lingered along the edge of the chasm and stared down at the enormous corpses of the frost giants as the front of our group disappeared between the trees, and Elora lingered beside me.
“Sylmarie?” my silver-haired lover asked in a hushed tone.
“What?” I asked as I dragged my eyes away from the enormous bodies far below.
“You laughed as we climbed out of the chasm,” Elora said in a no-nonsense tone as she propped one hand on her hip. “Were you speaking with Sylmarie?”
“Oh,” I chuckled. “Yeah, I was. I asked her if she could see more frost giants anywhere in the world. She said she’d have to look further and that she’d meet us at Castle Levi tomorrow.”
“We will be returning home, then?” Elora asked, and she rubbed her hands together like the cold was starting to get to her.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I want to see Shalanna. I’m sure she’s missing us.”
“I am certain.” One of Elora’s silvery eyebrows cocked up in a teasing smirk, and I knew she was thinking about just how horny Shalanna would be when we got back.
“We’ll spend tonight here to rest,” I said, and I gestured for us to follow the group of warriors as they departed the edge of the chasm. “Besides, I want to gather supplies to bring back to the village. I made promises, you know.”
Elora smiled back at my lighthearted tone as she shifted her spear to her left hand, and she looped her arm through mine.
“It will be nice to see Sylmarie,” Elora mused.
We hiked the rest of the way back to the village in a comfortable silence, and I couldn’t help but notice the way Lyrie kept glancing back at me.
There was a strange expression on her face that I couldn’t quite figure out. I figured she might be conflicted about me saving her during the battle, and I recalled what Nae said about her being guarded. Maybe she was angry with me for interfering, but I wouldn’t apologize for saving her life. Far too many lives had been lost during Ragnarok and the decades that had followed, and I wasn’t going to stand idly by and let one more life be lost if I could help it.
If Lyrie was mad at me, I could deal with that. It was way better for her to have the opportunity to be angry with me than to not feel anything because she’d been crushed by a frost giant’s corpse.
We re-entered the village to relieved and excited cheers from the villagers who’d stayed behind, and I was surprised when Pilla and her daughter raced up and threw their arms around Kine.
“Papa!” The little girl cried happy tears as the red-eyed archer scooped her up into his arms.
“Papa?” I breathed with absolute shock.
“Are you hurt?” Pilla asked Kine with worried love plain on her dark brown face.
“No,” Kine replied. “But some others are. Where is that healer woman?”
“I am here!” Freesia called, and she threw me a brief glance of relief and adoration before she turned to the business of helping those who’d sustained injuries during the battle. “Anyone who was hurt, come to me at once! Sontar, I would request your assistance along with Vulmar, please!”
“Aye, milady,” Sontar trotted right over, and I was pleased to see the tall elf didn’t look injured at all as he clapped his shorter friend on the back. “You missed quite a time, my friend.”
“Ah, perhaps I will have my chance to battle a frost giant yet,” Vulmar chuckled.
The people who’d been injured in the battle trudged and limped over to the healing house where Freesia waited for them, and I blew my red-haired lover a kiss as she ushered them inside.
“I am going to see if I can assist Freesia, my love,” Elora murmured, and she leaned up to give me a kiss.
“Good idea,” I sighed. “I’ll talk with Nae and let her know we’ll be leaving in the morning. I want to ask her if she can look into those books before we come back. I wonder if any of the dark elves can read.”
“It is possible,” Elora mused. “Reading was a common skill before Ragnarok, it was only after the fall of the Aesir that the skill was truly lost to so many.”
“Go on,” I encouraged my Valkyrie.
Elora smiled at me, and then she jogged over to the healing house.
Nae walked up to me after I was alone, and she had a strange mixture of wariness and relief on her scarred face. She sighed heavily as she positioned herself beside me and watched the dark elves as they were welcomed home.
“I feel as though there is more going on than what you have spoken of,” Nae said without preamble, and then she raised her voice. “Emneth, Ivaran, Lyrie, would you and the others begin preparing a meal for us all?”
“Make it a big one,” I added. “I’ll be bringing plenty of supplies to you all in a few days. Your food worries are in the past.”
“Thank you, King Levi,” Ivaran said. “We are most grateful to you and your people.”
“Emneth, will you assist me with the fire?” a male with brown skin the color of cherry wood asked the female who’d carried the bone staff.
“Emneth,” I murmured softly to Nae. “She’s the one with the blue light that’s like a physical force?”
“Indeed,” Nae confirmed. “Her power is impressive, but I have never seen such strength from her as today.”
“Well,” I said. “Magic is stronger deeper in the chasm, right?”
“It is,” Nae agreed.
“She delivered the killing blow to the second frost giant,” I reminded Nae. “It was really impressive.”
“Yes, it was.” The older Valkyrie nodded slowly, and she turned to look at me. “Levi… do you believe there to be more frost giants down there?”
“Ah,” I sighed heavily, and I scraped a hand through my blood-splattered hair. “I don’t know, Nae. It’s possible.”
I debated for a moment whether I should tell Nae about Sylmarie, and I decided the scarred woman hadn’t given me any reason not to trust her.
“I know a Völva,” I said, and I paused to watch Nae’s reaction.
“A Völva,” Nae mused in a casual voice, but she couldn’t keep the shock from her gray eyes. “Truly?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I asked her to look and see if there are more frost giants, but I think there might be something else going on down there.”
“What makes you think so?” the Valkyrie worried.
“Intuition,” I muttered, and I shook my head a bit. “I heard hissing when we first went down into the chasm. Then again when we were leaving…”
“Demons, perhaps?” Nae said, and she didn’t look especially worried. “They are not much of a concern…”
“No.” I shook my head firmly. “It wasn’t demons. I think…”
I sighed as I realized I didn’t want to say it out loud, but something inside me told me I was on the right track. Sylmarie herself had told me to continue listening to my instincts, and now they were screaming at me.
“There’s something else down there,” I grumbled. “Something big…”
“Larger than the frost giants?” Nae asked, and now her worry was breaking through the calm mask she’d held in place.
“I’m afraid it is.” I nodded.
Before we could say anything more, Ivaran and Emneth walked up with armloads of precooked chickens.
“Nae?” Ivaran asked like a little kid interrupting his mom’s conversation. “We have discussed something…”
“Yes?” Nae asked. “What is it, Ivaran?”
“We know you long to lay down your sword, Nae,” Emneth murmured. “You have defended and led us for many years, and we wish for you to have the rest you have truly earned.”
Several other dark elves began to shift over and gather around us, and even Kine had a slight smile on his dark face. Pilla stood beside him with their daughter held in her arms, and the little girl smiled brightly at me.
“I would like some rest, yes,” Nae chuckled.
“We have all come to agree,” Ivaran continued. “We would like to join King Levi’s people… if you will have us, of course?”
“I told you.” I grinned. “You’re all welcome to join our community. It would make me really happy to consider you all a part of my people, but it’s entirely your decision to make. I won’t force you to join me.”
“We do not feel forced at all, King Levi,” Emneth assured me. “We have long been isolated in this valley. Years before Ragnarok, even, we felt cut off from the world, and while this is our home, we long to connect with others once more.”
“I’m sure my people would be happy to welcome you,” I said.
Emneth and Ivaran both looked to Nae for approval before they let their happiness shine on their faces.
“I see no reason to continue to isolate ourselves,” Nae said, and her shoulders relaxed so much that even her wings lowered. Then she turned to smile at me, and she gestured with both hands. “They are your people to lead, King Levi.”
“It’s an honor,” I said, and I looked out at all the dark elves around me.
“King Levi!” The cheer rippled around the dark elves as they worked to prepare the food for our victory celebration.
Even a few faces appeared in the open door of the healing house, and they joined in the joyous shouts.
“I have one request, though,” I said in a quieter voice as I turned to look at Nae. “Would you continue on as an advisor for me?”
“An advisor?” Nae’s gray eyebrows arched up with surprise.
“Yes,” I said. “Chancellor Finnern, my other advisor, was the king of the dwarves before his city fell, and when his people joined me, as yours are now, I requested him to continue on in a position of honor. I think you deserve one, too. Plus, I could really use the knowledge you have of your people and this region.”
“I would be honored to lend you my wisdom, your majesty.” Nae smiled with a look of fulfillment in her dark gray eyes.
“Thank you,” I said, and then I called to the gathering of my people. “Let’s finish preparing this feast!”
Friendly chatter flowed easily after that as dark elves, light elves, humans, and dwarves all worked together to prepare the food. Nae remained near my side with a pleased look on her face as I returned to the darker thoughts in my mind.
Over the last several months, I’d come to trust my instincts more and more, and I was starting to wonder if the instincts Sylmarie spoke of were closer to a kind of prophesying. My dreams alone seemed to give me hints about the future that always came to make sense after the fact, and I suspected with more practice I could learn to interpret them more easily.
After a while, my thoughts turned back to the books Nae said were tucked away in the dark elves’ armory.
“Nae?” I said.
“Yes?” the scarred Valkyrie replied.
“We’re going to head back to Castle Levi in the morning,” I began. “I was serious about my promise to bring back supplies, and I need to check on things there.”
“Certainly.” Nae nodded thoughtfully. “We will of course be sad to see you go, but we will carry on until your return.”
“Speaking of which,” I mused. “Can you do something for me while I’m away?”
“Perhaps,” Nae chuckled and smirked. “It depends entirely on what the something is.”
“Fair enough,” I laughed. “Will you dig through those books you have and see if you can find anything on Niflheim?”
“I can,” Nae said, and her eyebrows furrowed. “What are you looking for?”
“Anything that might seem important,” I sighed. “What creatures are supposed to be down there, if any of the gods were supposedly the ruler of Niflheim, anything that might tell us what might be coming to consume the world.”
“Yes,” Nae sighed. “I will read through every volume we have in search of something useful.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I might get more information from Sylmarie, and when we come back to the village, we can pool our information together.”
“Do you think we will have trouble before you return?” Nae worried.
“I don’t think so…” I said, and I searched that new sense of intuition for a moment. “No, I think whatever it is will wait for us to come to it.”
“How curious,” Nae mused, and she studied me with intense eyes for a moment.
“What is?” I asked.
“The aura of your magic,” Nae said, and she gestured vaguely around my body. “It is not the same as when you arrived here.”
I didn’t know what to make of that, and my best guess was that being so close to the source of magic might have helped to give me a boost that was lingering inside me. There was no reason to think it would last, and I figured whatever lingering excess magic there was would already be wearing off.
Nae studied me intensely for another moment, and then she nodded as if she’d decided something very important.
“You will do great things in this world, King Levi,” the scarred Valkyrie said like a declaration.
Words completely failed me, and I sighed with relief as Elora and Freesia exited the healing house. Together, they walked over to join us, and they smiled at the food that was piling up around the firepit.
“How is everyone?” Nae asked my healer. “Are there any serious injuries?”
“No,” Freesia said with a pleasant smile. “All the injuries were minor. A lot of bruises, some shallow wounds, and more than a few sprained joints, but everyone will recover fully with time and rest.”
“That is very good news,” Nae sighed. “Thank you. Truly, I cannot speak of my gratitude enough. To all of you.”
“We are happy to be able to help,” Elora assured her sister Valkyrie.
“If you will excuse me,” Nae said in a tired voice. “I believe I will take my dinner to my home and retire for the evening. These old bones do not bounce back from battle as they once did.”
“Are you hurt?” Freesia demanded in an authoritative voice as her eyes tensed with fresh worry.
“No, no,” Nae assured her with a grandmotherly smile. “It is merely the issue of old bones that plagues me.”
“Get some rest, Nae,” I said, and I felt my affection for the old Valkyrie grow. She was like the female version of Wyn, and I was happy to have them both as part of our community.
Nae yawned tiredly as she piled a healthy amount of roasted chicken and rabbit stew into a bowl, and then she disappeared into her home. None of the other villagers or my companions from the castle seemed to notice her departure as they continued to celebrate today’s victory and the coming together of our peoples.
Elora and Freesia went and got food for the three of us as I selected three stone seats near the blazing heat of the fire pit, and we enjoyed our food together. The conversation was friendly and casual among everybody as the two groups shared stories of their lives to get to know each other better, and a while later my ladies’ shoulders started to slump.
“Let’s go to bed,” I murmured to Elora and Freesia as they stifled simultaneous yawns.
I led my ladies to our little house and stoked a new fire into life as they did their best to wash the dirt and blood from their arms with a washbasin someone had placed in the room.
“Oooh!” Elora sucked in a sharp breath as she wiped at her face with a wet cloth. “This is very cold.”
“Yes, it is,” Freesia agreed. “I long to return home and have a hot, steaming bath.”
“Ugh,” I groaned at that idea. “That sounds incredible. Tomorrow.”
“Yes, Elora told me we will be leaving in the morning,” Freesia said, and her teeth chattered together.
I stacked several logs into the fireplace and brought them into roaring life as quickly as I could manage, and then I joined my ladies at the washbasin. I did my best to wash the blood from my hair and face, and they were right, the water was icy cold.
“I’ll be glad to get back to the castle, too,” I sighed. “I hope these villagers will want to help us build a new village in the Black Plains. Somewhere they can be warmer and cultivate new crops.”
