Summary:Astryd returns home after the battle with Balor. She's not in good shape. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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An overly large raven lands heavily on the outdoor table in the Kerensky's backyard. It's wings are ragged and torn, it's feathers tossled and burned.
It stands unsteadily for a moment letting out a caw in the direction of the house. Then topples unceremoniously to the ground, where it just lays there. Twitching as it tries to move.
The raven will hear, but not see the sliding glass door in the back open. She'll feel but not see the shadow fall over her. And the hands that pick her up and bear her inside. "I've got you, raven…" A deep voice murmurs.
She's placed on the couch, wrapped in a blanket. Too big for the bird and too large a space but Fenris knows that the shape of the raven might change in the near future. She feels a cloth with hot water touch her feathers, wiping away the ash and grime and blood.
"Just lay still. I'm here."
"Fenris …" It's squawky sort of voice but definitely Astryds. "… Fenris …" she says again as he lifts her. "… it hurts…" she had just fought like that, with Shield and Sword, against a host of Fomorii. Not that the God-Wolf would know that - exactly.
"You answered when I called." He had. She had felt him.
"Don't leave me." The hot water and sponge against her feathers cause her tremor. Some of the blood is hers, Fenris came sure of that - but not all.
As the grime is rinsed away, he can see the extent of her wounds. See the place on her chest where Balors beam had hit her.
"It was Balor."
"Of course I answered. You did not think I would send you there and not be listening, did you?" Fenris cleans the hot cloth in the basin near by and runs it over her feathers again. Soothing her small muscles and probably stinging some of her wounds.
"I'm not going anywhere, don't you worry." He says quietly. "Balor. And the Fomorii." He knows the name. He's met the being that Astryd fought. "He was trying to start everything." The Tuatha have a story similar to Ragnarok, so it is in some ways not surprising that he was involved. And in some ways very surprising.
"He meant to stoke suspicion with Amaterasu and Hod's murder and have everyone at eachother's throats. Then he'd only have to wait."
"I did as you bid …" Astryd lets out a very avian sound of pain as the water continues to cleanse her. The mark on her chest has burned the feathers away. It looks like it might have scarred or branded her. "… I stood in the way of the light. It did not hit Hod or Baldur, the Midgardians and other Asgardians stood with them."
Some of the battle is hazy to Astryd. It was nearly a berserkers frenzy that beset her.
Slowly, the bird begins to change to leave the blonde Valkyr looking ragged and worn stretched out on the couch next to Fenris.
He can see that brand now.
"I did not think you would not hear me, but I prayed to you, my Lord." not to Odin.
"You've been marked…" Fenris says, touching the marking gingerly. It's not very large but then SHE isn't very large right now. On the right side of her chest. That would be… over her heart. What power was being used that would do that, he wonders.
"You did well, Astryd." He says. "I know it wasn't easy. But you did what had to be done." He smiles slightly. "Why would I not hear you, Astryd? We've been together a long time. I know what your voice sounds like."
"It burns…" the bird completes it change, becoming the human form that the Valkyr usually prefers. "I can feel it's touch on me." she says quietly, placing a hand over his where it touches that mark. It can't be anything good, given that beam was meant to kill Hod where he stood.
Fenris might recognise it as a celtic symbol for luck, almost. It's been inverted though as it burned into her skin. An inverted symbol of luck over her heart. What could it mean.
"I will always prayer to you then …" the blonde says quietly. "What do the weaves of fate tell you now, my heart? Have we averted the disaster or is there afoot that we need to be wearing of?"
"It looks like a curse… perhaps." A luck curse? Over her heart. He's not sure off the top of his head. He has likely seen something similar, in over two thousand years of studying the ways of the mystical he has seen many many things, but they are not always at the top of his memory right away. He may need to think on it.
"We have averted disaster for now. The forces that were at work have receded. But Those Who Sit Above are still weaving fates and playing games and the loop his closed tighter since we have been forced to attend to these matters."
The Old Wolf sighs. "You look rough, raven. I imagine you feel it as well."
"A curse, my heart." Astryd tries to look at the mark but groans in pain instead. "You don't recognise it?" It's possible he has something in the books he's collected. If not, they both know people who can help. "Was Balor then who infiltrated Rahm-Tek? Bast won't be happy about that."
"If the loop has closed tighter, then we must be careful and we must find a way to get it to loosen again." The blonde moves painfully, trying to curl about him a little, whimpering as the wounds tug and pull.
"I feel like I was trying out for Valkyior again, my heart. That green girl that I once was." It's unlikely that the Asgardians will know what she sacrificed in this fight. It's unlikely that Astryd knows her self.
"Did you keep the hot tub clear of fur, this time?"
"Perhaps. There's only one way to find out isn't there? Shall I carry you there?" Fenris says quietly, rubbing the Valkyrie's shoulder a little bit. The tub is just out back and it is… very enjoyable when you're sore. Cut up? Well that might be another matter but he'll let her be the judge of that.
"I don't know. It's an open question in my mind whether or not this was Balor's idea to begin with. What has been happening has pointed to someone with a lot of connections and a lot of resources. And that's not the Fomorians generally. I think they were… brought on board as muscle, personally. That's what I'd do."
"Please, my heart…" The water will probably sting but it can't be worse than she how feels now. "As long as I have company, I'm sure I can bear it. Then maybe you can take me to Neverwhere." She'll probably be asleep long before that.
"You don't think Balor planned this?" If the Raven had been thinking she might have thought of that. "I heard Loki suggesting that the Asgardian's go on a rampage against Celts." She sighs. "If someone bought Balor and the Fomorians in, they must have a lot clout don't you think?" She knows her God Wolf though and looks up into his eyes.
"Was it another Pantheon? Or is someone playing politics at our expense?"
Fenris picks up Astryd and takes her over to the tub. He may have known this moment was coming, because the tub is already on and bubbling. It only takes a couple moments to lower her into the water and then a couple more to join her himself. In the hot tub she doesn't have to move. She can just lay there and soak in the hopefully soothing heat.
"I don't think that's wise but the Asgardians will do what they do. I doubt the Tuatha themselves have anything to do with this. It would be like attacking Asgard because the Jotun did something…" He sighs. "At any rate, it's possible another pantheon was doing this but they're as much creatures of this world and realm as anyone else. It has to be someone who thought they stood to gain something from blowing everything up. And that usually means someone who is dissatisfied with the way things are."
There's a hiss of pain as the water closes over Atryds body, seeping into the wounds that she's taken. When joins her, Astryd leans her head against his shoulder, content for the moment to just sit there.
Astryd doesn't mention that their bethren, with the exception of Sif hadn't noted her presence there. It had been rather fraught and Hod had been injured. Sif will visit at sometime, soon the Valkyr thinks.
"They were rather incensed at the affront of the attack, my heart, and you know that they're warriors at heart." She nods carefully at the God Wolfs thoughts. "It does not make sense for the Pantheons to be doing this. What of Mephisto or one of the others?"
Fenris wouldn't be surprised at all if Sif visited, or indeed the other wayward Valkyrie. Call it a hunch but he finds it odd that there are so many asgardian warrior women in one place here.
"It makes sense perhaps for some in the pantheons to be doing this. And it may be that there are things afoot we know not of. But this feels to me more like the efforts of an outsider."
Fenris slips his arm around Astryd's shoulder. "This is a game. The grandest, cruelest, most complex game ever played. And almost everyone has a stake in it. If you think you can get something out of the game, you don't upend the table, do you?"
Perhaps the other Valkyr would visit. Astryd and she had certainly found common ground and the blonde will probably cook up a storm, if she can stand.
With his arm about her shoulders, Astryd settles even more, her eyes starting to drift shut. She feels safe, if sore. Fenris won't let anything hurt her "My thoughts exactly, my heart. But who? Shall we follow the leads that we found at Basts then and see where they take us?"
It's the only concrete thing they have.
"I think that's really the only sensible thing for us to do. But we may have to devote some time to disrupting fate before hand. I don't like how tight it has gotten."
It's not clear if this is part of the plan for Those Who Sit Above, or if things are just working out in their general favor because they often do.
"We will contact Bast when you're feeling a bit better. And when I have investigated this mark on you." Fenris really does want to know about it. That magic should have been meant to kill. Not do this. The fact that it did means something he did not expect has occurred.
"Disrupt fate, hmmm?" Astryd says sleepily "What are you thinking we should do?" She knows that it doesn't touch sometimes to have sweeping changes but what they do can become problematic. Still she accepts this because its they agreed to do all that time ago.
It's what they need to do to stop Fenris becoming the The Destroyer.
"I will feel better in a day or so. I'm a hard bird to kill…" the blonde murmurs. "And I assume you'll have devoured all the books in your library and monstered some others about the mark." He's right though, something rather unexpected had occured.
"Now, will you take me to Neverwhere tonight?" He won't have to, she'll be asleep in a few minutes.
"What we have to, of course Astryd. I'll read the weaves. I think we should start in Staten Island. Fate might be easiest to handle there." He'll have some more concrete actions to take soon. She's right. What they do can be problematic. But they do it because the alternative is even more so.
"Of course I'll take you there." He might take her there to sleep. He can tell she's drowsy and despite the fact that she's hurt, he's highly amused by it. She can sleep anywhere. He's told her that before and it is still true.