Summary:Returned from the Underworld, Fenris and Astryd talk. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Sif had been safely returned to Midgard and settled in a guest room for the evening. Whether she's still there, Astryd doesn't know. She's been recovering herself. With the geas has been removed from the Valkyr, she's still tired and exhausted but at least it's not getting worse.
She'd fallen asleep not too long ago on the couch, a book on her chest and the TV playing softly in the background. One of the latest movies that's streaming. At least she's not snoring? She should wake soon, she needs to prepare dinner.
"Wake up, Astryd." Fenris says sitting down next to her. He has a plate of hot tamales in his hand, with rice and beans and covered in salsa and melted cheese. He made dinner so she didn't have to.
"You've been asleep for a few hours. I would have thought that you might find yourself invigorated but it seems that you are still recovering."
Astryd stirs and stretches as Fenris wakes her. Her eyes opening slowly as she smiles. "You made dinner. Have I told you lately what a lucky Valkyrie I am, my heart?" She looks better, so that's something.
"Maybe I'm just taking advantage of the fact that I was so tired and catching up. Is Sif still here, do you know?" The blonde sits up, making more room for Fenris and letting him put the plate of tamales in her lap. "Are you concerned I was invigorated after the fight?"
She had taken a sword slash to her side, after all.
"And how are you? No ill effects from our adventure?"
"Not recently no. Say it again." Fenris smiles, teasingly as he sets the plate down on her lap.
"Less concerned that you are than I was at how tired you were when we got back. And no. I got lucky this time. Sif on the other hand…"
He shakes his head. "I have never seen her look scared. Not like that. Anyway, no she's not here. We secured her a lift back to the embassy."
He lets that hang for a moment and then loops an arm around Astryd's shoulder while she eats.
"Tell me how you're feeling?"
"Then I shall tell you, presently." Astryd returns the tease, kissing his cheek before she starts to eat. "These are good. Which mortal of yours was it that taught you the recipe?" There is the faintest look of relief that crosses her face when he says he was unaffected.
It's selfish, she knows it, but she thanks their stars that Fenris is.
The news of Sif chases that look away and she shakes her head. "She's a right to be scared. She's not dealt with magic as we have. Her strength is her sword and buckler and this will be … foreign. Being so far from home can not help either." beat "We shall have to help her, Fenris."
It's that easy. Astryd is in the womans debt.
Leaning into his frame, the blonde considers the question. "Like I might recover, my heart. Not bone wearingly exhausted and feeling my life force drain from me. Relieved you are well. Worried for Sif. But Angry too. Someone set this up, Fenris. Nudged fate towards this, I wish to find and rend them."
There was more done, wasn't there, when that mark was on her.
"It was that sweet spanish inkeeper we stayed with back when we travelled through the penninsula." Fenris chuckles. "So no mortal of mine though I daresay she might have been willing to be had we not been together at the time. Still, she taught me this and I am glad you approve of it. As would she be, I think."
Fenris gives Astryd a fond squeeze about the shoulder. "We know who it was. Right now we must consider what was done to Sif and why. What might affecting her spread throughout the web of connections she has. And what will that wound do to her. I've not seen it's like in… well, since before you and I found eachother on Earth."
Meaning he saw something like it, long ago in the early days of his exile.
"Ah her. She was sweet and very good cook." Astryd doesn't comment on whether it was 'his' mortal. "I do approve very much. I like when you cook for me." he doesn't often, because she enjoys cooking a lot. But when he does, it's done with care.
"What did you see, my heart? There was a thousand years I wandered before I found you again. You must have seen a lot, but that you remember this, means it's memorable." They know who did this, yes. She still wants to hurt them.
She considers his words, looking up from her food. "You think the magic marked her in a specific way? That is was just random chance?"
"Mmmhmmm. Dulcinea, I think her name was." Fenris reminisces for a for a moment and then focuses back on Astryd.
"I saw someone who had tried to cut such a cord but suffered a backlash like that. The resulting wound had frayed his own fate so that he only half existed. He ghosted through life, never remembered by more than a handful of people. Everything he did was attributed to something else, or someone else. It was heart wrenching to watch. Nearly every connection he ever made faded within days if he did not attend it constantly."
Will that be Sif's fate? Fenris doesn't think so but it does illustrate how dire those injuries can be.
"She dived in front of you. I think it was her own stubborn will to protect."
Astryd lets Fenris reminisce. He is the 'old wolf' after all and the food is delicious.
"I do not think that is to be Sif's fate, my heart but that sounds horrible. To live but only half exist." She shakes her head. "She did indeed. She surrounded me, in fact. Tempted fate to mark her. I owe her a great debt, Fenris. Her actions meant that I didn't have to lose you."
It has been much on Astryds mind. The story they heard. If Fenris hadn't insisted they see Sedna, the Valkyr might have faded - better that than to live without her partner.
"How do we help her though? Work out what was done? You're more a sorceror than I and even then … " Fenris really isn't one.
"And I am not much of a sorcerer. Or any of a sorcerer. I do know quite a bit of magic but…"
The Old Wolf trails off and looks at Astryd. "Yes, we owe her a debt. And it will not be easy to repay. To reknit a fate, or to heal a soul? Those are rare magicks and they are not gifted to people but at a heavy price…"
That's IF they can find someone willing to do it in the first place. Fenris knows a couple of places to start but they're not people he really wants to speak to. Folks like the Norns and the Moriae.
"We… may need to speak to Bast. It's possible one in her Pantheon can help."
"No, you're not but you know more than I." The blonde settles in next to the tall man, resting her head on his shoulder for a moment before eating again. The tamales are very, very good. "But you don't know enough and you don't know this type of magic." It's often the same answer for many things.
"As long as you think I was worth it, my heart." It goes without saying that Astryd thinks he is worth the debt they've occured. "There is a human mage I have heard of who might know how or might know someone, perhaps I could locate and visit him."
The mention of Bast gets a quizzical look. "You don't seem keen to do that, Fenris. She is a friend and we have helped her recently. What is it that I'm missing there?"
"This type of magic is rather rare. I know the basics of this but manipulating people's fates is not something I was interested in knowing how to do. I was interested in knowing how to fight it." Fenris points out quietly.
"If you know someone who could help that would be of interest to me. And to Sif as well I dare say. As for Bast herself, the problem is that she can't help us. Not by herself. We'd need to talk to Anubis. Bast would just be getting us an introduction. Also, I believe she has placed an agent in this city. She seems a bit distracted."
"Bast is often distracted, Fenris. Comes from a being a Cat Goddess." Astryd smiles. "But I take it the agent in the city isn't all that well disposed to us?" The mention of Anubis gets her nose wrinkling a bit. "He's so … He might speak to us." How they came to be friends with Bast is a mystery really.
"I know of someone, my heart. I'll see if I can locate them. Maybe the spirits I've helped will know of someone as well." Though that can be tricky, as Fenris well knows. The dead don't have the same perspective of time.
"I'll look up the Sorcerer tonight, if I can and attempt to visit tomorrow." The food is nearly gone, she most certainly was hungry, and the blonde looks up. "And what plans did you have for us tonight?"
"Oh I don't think her mortal agents are a danger I just don't know how much attention she'll be paying. Anubis may well speak to us yes but he is very set in his ways." Judge of the Dead rather than their lord. He knows a great deal about the mortal heart and soul. He can help them certainly. The question is will he want to. And what will he demand in return.
"No particular plans. I wasn't in fact entirely sure that you wouldn't sleep for the rest of the night. Would you like me to make some plans?"
"Well it's a start. Will you see to the agents and not try to scare them too much? We could always a sacrifice a cat to get her attention." Astryd's joking of course. "Speaking of set in their ways…" The blonde presses a kiss to Fenris' cheek and rises, ready to take her plate out to the kitchen.
"I'm feeling much revived and I'd like to go out. You don't need to make plans … Will you take me dancing? Or Hunting? Both are good."
And wildly different. "We should visit Sif in the morning as well."
"We should yes. Well… you should." Fenris is not at all sanguine on his prospect at the Asgardian embassy. They may or may not let him on the grounds. Even Astryd is still a citizen. An exiled one but all the same. Fenris? Fenris they never viewed as anything but a monster.
"Dancing then? I know of a few good places that still do it properly. Shall we?" They can get some wine while they're out too. Ah, clever mortals and their spirits.