Summary:Fenris has been reading the threads of Fate after the disturbance in New York. Cuan comes bearing information for Astryd. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Today has been a day of great… well, the mortals would say 'disturbances in the force'. Fenris might snicker, not at the idea that there is some kind of great energy field that permeates reality from which one may read all manner of useful information but rather at the notion that this idea is a fantasy confined to movies where human actors and artists produce entertainment.
The reality of it is all to real, and infinitely more complex than humans ever conceived of 'the force'.
Fenris has been out much of today, watching and reading the weaves of fate. Much of this evening he has been working out his observations. He is just coming out of his study now, sleeves rolled up. The notebooks he's left behind. After twenty eight hundred years he has gotten quite good at separating work from life.
"Raven? Are you about?"
Astryd's in their garden, the moonlight glinting off her blonde hair. In front of her is a wolf, a beautiful grey thing, that stands as tall as her shoulders. Her hand is resting on its shoulder as its massive lupine forehead presses to hers. She's talking - Fenris can hear the murmur, even if he can't hear the words that she is saying.
At Fenris' call, the wolf looks up and past her, red eyes fixing on his grandfather. Great Grandfather. Great Great Grandfather. Something like that. He takes a step back and bows in a very canine way. "Grandfather…"
"You called Fenris?" Astryd turns to look at the man. Whatever she's been doing, she sensed it as well. The disturbance.
There's an airy quality to the wolf. Long limbed and slender. A great beast to be sure, one who's fur is perpetually ruffled by wind, even when the wind is still or the location is indoors. A descendent of a liaison between Fenris and the North Wind.
"Cuan." Fenris says, stepping out into the garden. "Still giving my raven rides, I see."
He has been for hundreds of years.
"I take it you've been doing the same as I. Watching the world shake and tremble."
"I am, Grandfather." The great wolf rises to its full height and touches the back of Fenris' hand with its nose. "I was bringing your Raven news of the Pack. Another cub has gone missing and there's a stench about it."
Astryd's grey eyes watch the pair as Fenris approaches. "Fenris, my heart, I have indeed. No warriors passed beyond today, but the feel of it was dire. I did not however feel the touch of the Sluagh and for that I am thankful."
Fenris growls slightly. "Another. And none of the pack's hunters have found the responsible parties yet. I may have to intervene personally at this rate."
Fenris' bloodlines typrically look after themselves with little or no contact from their progenitor but he does take harm done to them a little bit personally. They're his after all.
"A creature from beyond these realms has suffered a setback today. It's left fate tangled and in tatters. I'm not quite sure what will come of it but there is a loop tightening around the Embassy. That, I think, is where the next great blow will descend."
"Another, Grandfather. A young one this time and the stench of the Unseelie are upon the tracks we found but nothing more. Astryd had offered her sword and shield for the Pack. They would welcome her visit at least. Yours too, of course." The wolf noses Astryds hand and bows again to Fenris. "I'll not keep you from your Lady any further."
With that, the creature leaps into the air.
Astryd watches Cuan goes before turning her full attention to the God Wolf. "What is it you are reading to make you think this, my heart?" She winds an arm through his. "And what is it you think we need to do."
"I'm reading pieces falling into place. I'm reading champions rising up. And I'm reading monsters getting more desperate. There's a lot of fate swirlling around a very few asgardians at the moment." Fenris is sure that someone's line is going to pull taut and then snap.
"However… my line. I was going to say ours and it is in a way. You are intimately connected with the Northern Pack. They're under threat. We need todo something about that."
"They are as much my family as they are yours, my heart." Astryd guides Fenris backs towards the house now that Cuan has gone. "Our threads are interweaved, Fenris, they have been for a while. Ever since Odin expelled me from Asgard I should think."
She's quiet for a moment, glancing up to the wolf made man beside her. "You're thinking of something, I know you are. Shall I don armour and ride like the furies into battle?"
.~{:--------------:}~.
"I'm thinking that someone is probably prodding at more than just Hod. If they found him, they likely know of the two of us as well. Anything that got me angry enough might trigger an episode and something to spark an apocalypse seems to be exactly what they're after. I don't think they'll be too particular about what apocalypse. I wouldn't be surprised if someone were going round looking for four horsemen right now too."
Fenris sighs and smiles at Ardul. "I don't know that we quite have a target yet. Do we, Raven?"
"Someone has certainly involved the other Pantheons in this. Raising sentiment against the Asgardians. Unfortunately it seems to have polarised some and the lines are slowly being drawn. I feel too that some are going to use this to settle old debts. Sedna still has not forgiven me for my … transgressions. She'll want to finish our fight, I fear."
The blonde draws the Old Wolf to the patio and turns to look out into the evening.
"The horsmen, my heart, The Host and whatever else will work. The Underways are not as … talkative as I would have expected."
"We don't as you just heard. But if someone is coming for you, they'll have to contend with me as well, preferably first."
"She seems to be carrying quite a grudge over a seven hundred year old misunderstanding." Fenris says as he moves to the patio. "But I doubt she'll be moved by any words I can offer so you might indeed have to settle it. I have full confidence in your abilities but it's not a distraction we need right now. I wonder if she might be pressured into withdrawing her challenge somehow…"
The Old Wolf muses on that for a moment and then looks up at the stars.
"Whomever they are they seem smart enough not to directly try to attack me. They'll likely seek a way to goad me into anger."
Not that this is difficult. Fenris works very hard to keep his temper under control.
"You know how deities can be when you step on the wrong patch of their underworlds." Astryd murmurs, resting her head on Fenris' shoulder as they talk. "Did you hear me asking you to intervene, hjarte? You did not and nor do I expect it. This is my battle and I will fight it, should I need to." Fenris knows damn well that she can.
"It is good that you confidence my abilities …" The tone is … dry. "I think we should leave her till she becomes a problem. If we need to apply pressure, I'm sure I know a cat-goddess who might be willing to help. Unless you think there's more you can do there."
"Goading you to anger can be difficult but I feel they may be trying to do so, even now. Targetting your line, threatening what family you have. Perhaps this is what they are trying."
Which raises implications for herself.
"And when that doesn't get the desired result they'll try something else. THAT is what I am more worried about. Targeting my line is something I can deal with in a somewhat calm fashion. But the unpredictability of the situation is dangerous."
And yes that does raise questions for Astryd. As well as others. Might they try fate bending? Might they try magical manipulation? Might they try to force Fenris to assume his Destroyer Wolf form in it's full power?
Even if they ultimately fail to kick of Ragnarok a sufficiently destructive episode will have… consequences.
"Contact Bast. We need to put an end to this as swiftly as possible. As for Cuan's pack… I may have some idea where to start looking. But we're going to have to find the North Wind to do it and I haven't seen her in an age."
Fate bending is a possibility, even if it is by moving a thread in Fenris' tapestry. Or perhaps trying to remove it. Fenris and Astryd have been together a very long time.
"It is dangerous, hjarte. It is just getting more dangerous. You made yourself a target the other day, I feel." Astryd doesn't fault him for that, she had done similar by joining the fight.
"I will contact Bast. She has a job for us, after all and I haven't had any success in contacting the Thunderlord. I suspect he might be avoiding us." There's a sense of amusement in the womans voice.
"Do you know how to contact her? And is there a reason you haven't seen her?"
"She disappeared a few hundred years after our fling. I always wondered where she went but she's not the kind to really leave messages and at the time I was more interested in heading south anyway." Fenris muses on that a little bit. "I had heard that she eventually settled somewhere in Russia and had taken a mortal form again but that was just a rumor, and it was five hundred years ago on top of that."
Which is not a hugely long time on Fenris' time scale but it's certainly long enough for someone to have moved.
"She's even less involved with the pack than I was, but she was - if I am remembering her correctly - fiercely maternal. And if anyone will know who might be targeting our get, she will. Or she'll have ways to find out."
Russia…
The ice queen?
"Couldn't you keep her attention, Fenris?" Astryd winks at her companion. She'd been travelling the world at the time, on another quest. The North Wind was rather fickle though.
"I'm glad you kept coming south, we had a wonderful time when we met up. Where was that, exactly?" Sometimes the centuries just seem to meld together. "Less involved? I didn't think that was possible. You aren't the most … family oriented being I know." The blonde is teasing "Russia is nice this time of year …"
"Lots of snow and ice…"
Astryd had mentioned missing the cold and mountains.
"The Ice Queen, or Snow Queen, hmmm? Perpetuating a stereotype? I take it you have some idea where…."
"I am but a humble apocalypse, my dear. How I keep anyone's attention is a wonder and mystery." Fenris replies rather dryly. He lets that hang there for a moment and then continues.
"Siberia, specifically. I've heard rumors of a castle made of ice somewhere in the tundra up there. Fanciful stuff, spawned right out of a Disney cartoon, but there might possibly be some truth to it if Boreala is taking human form again. She always did like the Russians."
There's a short pause. "Though I have absolutely no idea why."
Fenris preferred other folk, clearly.
"A very humble apocalypse…" Astryd snickers and hugs Fenris with one arm. "… who has managed to have a Raven return to him on several occasions."
"Russians are … nice." Is all Astryd answers to Fenris' thoughts on why the North Wind might like them. "And it's cold there! Something I miss, as you well know."
"I'll be sure to buy a blue gown and crown for when we go."
"Make sure you warm up your singing voice too." Fenris teases. "And yes, I am a very humble apocalypse. In fact the most humble, meek, mild, innocent, retiring apocalypse that ever there was."
It's a joke, of course. Boasting about how humble he is. That's the kind of humor Fenris finds amusing when he is particularly hungry.
Which he must be now or he wouldn't be making such awful jokes.
"If you miss the cold, the next time we move it can be to Norway or… Japan. Oh, I might like Japan. Though I'd have to learn a new language… That'd be novel, though." Fenris hasn't had to do that in quite some time.
"I will. I understand there is a sing-a-long version of that show that I can get. I will be certain to memorise the songs, just so. And sing them for you, loud and long." Astryd tug on Fenris' waist as he continues to joke. "I think, my heart, that's my cue to feed you. Because you are indeed so very retiring."
It smells good whatever the blonde has cooking.
"Japan would be nice, I rather miss it. I can show the sights of the trek I took way back when …"
"That's right, you went there. I didn't." Fenris snaps his fingers. It's easy to forget a trip or two over the course of a couple thousand years. Sort of like a mortal forgetting his partner went to the store last week. It's not likely to come up and generally not super relevant when it does.
"We'll at the very least have to take a vacation trip then. Now I believe you said the magic word. Food. Lead on, Raven."
The impish grin of a hungry wolf is… well, something very familiar to Astryd.