– T A Y A H –

As I let a slither of my power glow before them I watched their faces.

Each one of them. Disbelieving. Weighing the possibilities. Considering the next actions. None of it calmed the rage in my blood. The way my power called to me and not to end things amicably. They dared to draw steal on the immortals responsible for saving them and a boy of infinite more value. If was not for his safety I was not sure how I would end this...

The war lord growled something across at me and Yanu tightened his grip on my tunic. My power rose to the threat and the fire grew more hungry. The dark haired man flinched and I resisted a smirk.

His expression froze for a slither and I threw Kára a quick look. But to my surprise she too was frozen in place–the only possible explanation was...

"Greetings, again. Daughter." The many voices spoke beside me. I managed to resist the flinch. It was hardly a shock. I had done the one thing no immortal should ever–I had done many things that broke promises and laws since...

"Odin." I spoke with more calm than I felt.

The hood of shadows and smoke tilted and paced before the crowd of unmoving mortals. Suspended in a bubble of captured time. Our own reality for a moment.

"You seem to take delight in causing problems for the realms." He noted in a tone absent of emotion. It was not accusatory or angry. It simply was.

I lowered my hand and let my power dissolve. Then I moved away from the boy that stood clinging to nothing now. I met what I could only assume was the God's stare. Nothing but a black absence of light under the hood.

"You know what my intentions were." I stated.

"Indeed. Yet you did not fully understand my own. Nor did my Stormbringer it seems."

I stayed still and patient. I would let this god speak what was often missed for once. I had no intention of rushing in-between sentences. I wanted it spoken plainly for once. The cloak looked down over the glaring mortals, arms pressed behind his back.

"I think you have known for quite some time that you are irregular. Not only in your immortality and come to being." He began, considering the small, meaty humans. "I considered this when you ripped a rift from Valhalla to the mortal realm by accident. Then again when your power reacted to my relic in quite the way it did."

"So the gifts weren't just to help me defeat a power crazed immortal." I murmured.

The hood tilted again almost in humour.

"Stormbringer could have destroyed that immortal with no outside help at all. You know this. The relic and cloak were to confirm what I already concluded." 

"And what exactly is that." I asked slowly, feeling the endless fire simmering under my skin.

"You are an original."

My spine went rigid. As if a poker had gone through me entirely. Then the words circled my skull in a storm. Original. Impossible. There were only two left. One was Kára and the other... unknown to me–

"I do not understand."

"Yes it even surprised me, daughter. Although I do not believe you to be my daughter. Rather Ares offspring to be more specific."

I choked out and my brows pinched. "Ares was destroyed. Kára was there–you confirmed."

The god paced to the fireplace to watch the frozen flames stand in their raging golds and reds. Consuming nothing for a moment–until time was set free once more.

"The gods are never destroyed, Tayah Ashrive. Their existence is dependant on the existence of the energy. Much like a lingering ghost in every flame that touches your hand. Ares exists just as Hades does in Stormbringer's relic."

I watched something to make sense. Some rush of realisation to grip me while I grappled with the truth. No other was here to see it.

"Then he–does–will he hold physical form again–is this my doing?" I demanded, talking an unconscious stride towards the towering cloak of darkness. His head turned to me.

"When Ares fell his physical form was dissipated as would steam in the wind. This does not mean eradication. Just as it does not for the other gods. But I have not seen a reincarnation of originals for any of the gods. Not until you. Not until a mortal was able to survive contact with a relic. Not until she could cross the realms and seek out dreams of another Valkyrie. You Tayah Ashrive are of a new mould. I only concern myself with what this will mean if your creator were to enter the physical realms once more. What will become of you." He finished slowly.

Significantly.

The implications were endless. My existence was an abboration from the beginning. Infected with the life blood of a power mad god. One that could seek out the physical realms again. Because of me.

"Tell me–" I swallowed, pressing a hand against the wall now and avoiding setting my eyes anywhere near the other original in the room. "–what does this mean. What am I to do–I will not be manipulated again. Please." I got out through a heavy breath.

It was like the feeling of it all over again. The emptiness. The helplessness. The feeling of my limbs being controlled once more and carrying out unforgivable action–

The god materialised at my side and set a hand–or a figment of one–on my shoulder. I was too lost in the depths of despair to truly flinch in shock. The familiar feeling of darkness was wrapping cold fingers over me. I wanted to sink my hands into the ground until everything blackened with me.

"You must steal yourself. It is very important that you stay present. Stay constant in your control of yourself. Your mind will cloud but your resolve will not. The gods are only as powerful as their Valkyries. That is the curse and strength. We may manipulate time, reality, scent and feel but your thoughts will always be your own immortal. Remember this. Remember that your mind and heart cannot be swayed. I will not force your part any longer. But you must choose where your allegiances lie." The voices finished in a loud murmur. A dark lightness. A promise to be broken.

I was lost in a daze to the words. To the meaning of it all.

The world around me came crashing back into reality and the mortals stared wide eyed, suddenly turning to see me lean against the wall as if suddenly teleported rather than simply back in the realm of time they were.

Kára even stiffened in shock and stared at the space I was no longer. A black furred man lunged for Yanu who was also dazed. He secured him by the neck and moved him behind the group of guards. It gave me little comfort. The boy was now safe.

This illusion of false family had gone on long enough. As they shouted out more aggressive commands I made my decision. I didn't meet Kára's burning gaze as I fused a portal right in front  of me. There were gasps but I cared not. I stepped through and was instantly on the other side of the raging mortals.

I scanned the hall for the ones I sought. There were many wounded.

The men called out as they caught sight of me pushing past civilians caring for the injured or too drunk to stand.

"John! Kaden!" I shouted.

I fused another rapid portal as the mortals chased me. I appeared twenty feet away and scanned the room with an emptiness inside me. I finally caught sight of him at the other end of the room crouched over...

I flashed out of the space again barely feeling the power leave me. It only increased the hole filling me. The knowledge that the power was only growing... Only becoming greater inside me because a god was strengthening.

I stepped through the ring and appeared beside Kaden. He was murmuring something as he tightened a cloth against John's forehead. I finally felt something. I grit my teeth and dropped under his prone body. His eyes were closed but I could hear his heart. He was alive.

"Come." Was all I said.

Rising with John in my arms and Kaden staring with nothing but anxiety and fear rippling over his features. The mortals were shouting once more seeing us on the other side of the room like an endless cycle of appearance and disappearance. But I had no more reason to linger near them. I turned my gaze looking for her–

But her own signature of power buzzed beside me before I needed to bother. She stepped through the ring and looked down at John in my arms.

"I will handle any mortal that crosses our path. Go." She stated flatly, cracking bright white light into her hands.

I carefully adjusted John in my arms and turned to the stone arch at with the doors that civilians had already rushed through. Mortals. I was so far from them now. I had wished for an end to the unstoppable and consuming power of it all. The responsibility of timeless existence.

An original.

Kaden threw the doors aside and we walked out of the great hall with another original covering our backs. There was not much blood leaving John. I looked down at his handsome face with a mop of hair covering it. Then I looked to the heavy, beast of a man that had a great two-headed axe in his grip and a stern look at any who crossed us in the cold night.

I used to be one of them. Us against the realm. Against all the odds. The Three Lions.

What was I now.

* * * * *

The rain came down hard in the night sky as we slipped into the backdoor of a stable. The heat inside hit us with the many warm bodies of horses in their stalls. It was the only thing any of us could think of instead of drawing more eyes in the city tonight. 

The heavy smell of straw and horse gave me a pang of familiarity despite the endless weight of what I had learned. What I had become.

We found an empty stall among the rows of horses that whinnied lightly or slept. I lowered John carefully against the fresh straw bed and crouched beside him, propping his back against the wood. I pushed his long dark hair off his forehead and scanned the blood source. A shallow cut along his hairline but more from a collision than blade... possibly a club or mace swing.

His heartbeat was steady. I glanced at Kaden with a calm nod.

"See if you can find a pale of water. He's just out cold, a wet rag would do him good." I murmured.

Kaden glanced at John's unconscious face with a worried frown before nodding and rising in search. I let out a long breath and dropped into the straw to sit beside him.

Kára still roamed the shadows checking entrances and listening for mortals that may lie within. I stared ahead unseeing. I think my eyes were on the brush in the corner. Though they didn't acknowledge much past that. The smell was a wonderful distraction. A fresh slap of the past that I hadn't realised how much I wanted until now.

I thought of Parsnip. His glossy chestnut coat and ever ready snorts. His star on his forehead. The way he had the same opinion of John and Kaden's ridiculousness as I did. I felt my eyes burn but I didn't want to linger on that. I wanted to remember how good that damn horse was to me. How he had taken me surely in the direction of death before this all befell us. A noble mount. Now I could only hope he was treated well where we had left out mounts in Vayleron.

The heat travelled down my cheek and I dragged in another breath that broke on the way out. I didn't bother to wipe my eyes. I had lost Yanu tonight too.

A shadow moved around the stall door until it caught a slither of light through the stalls. Kára rose and drew back her hood, "I think we will have no trouble tonight–" she froze suddenly seeing my face. I wiped my cheek quickly and nodded looking away.

But it did not appease her at all. She dropped down before me quickly on a knee and rested a glove near my leg.

"Tayah, please tell me what happened. I felt his presence earlier. I know he spoke something to you." She murmured, darting those burning eyes between my own. She didn't even need to say the name. We both felt when a God was present. 

I pinched a piece of straw between my fingers unable to meet her eyes.

"I really didn't know–how much I missed Parsnip until just now." I sniffed, with a humourless chuckle. 

Kára watched me silently before dropping down completely and crossed her legs before me. I would have laughed at her position if it weren't for the gut wrenching hole that was widening inside me. How could I possibly begin? Everything she had prepared me for was because I wasn't an original. Because I would never have to be responsible for that sort of power. 

"Out of all the names and that was the one you chose..." She murmured, plucking up her own piece of straw and wrapping it around her finger suddenly. I was focused on the movement of her fingers. So mundane for once wrapped in dried grass instead of lightening. I bent forward without fully recognising my movements and rested my head in her lap.

She didn't pause or seem shocked at the move. I felt her hand simply move back across my hair and run her fingers carefully along my braids. I relaxed my shoulders slightly despite the awkward position I had dipped my body into–but I didn't particularly care. 

I heard heavier footsteps and didn't raise my head when Kaden returned. I heard him pause before continuing to John's side.

"We truly do look like a sorry bunch." He muttered.

Kára continued running her hand through my hair like she hadn't heard me. For once, I didn't have an answer for Kaden either. I listened as he slowly set himself down with a grunt in the straw.

"You're not hurt?" I mumbled into Kára's legs without bothering to turn his way.

Kaden sighed deeply and I heard water slosh briefly before a cloth was ringed out.

"Fear not, little Ashrive. Trees are built of sterner stuff. John however–" the cloth moved and pressed. "–all the charisma and no sense in a fight."

I nodded against the warmth of her legs. We were silent after that. Only save for the occasional horse snort or drip from the cloth. When my neck had finally started to ache, I raised my head. I met her eyes in the dark. Kaden was already passed out next to John, who was reclined down next to him in the straw now. 

I pressed my bare hand to her cheek and watched her.

"I want to tell you everything. Just not tonight." I whispered, dipping my forehead forward until I could rest it against hers. "Not tonight..." 

She drew her hand up behind my neck and nodded against me slowly.

"You do not need to carry your fears and worries tonight, my immortal." She whispered near my lips. "I am here beside you tonight. The realm does not matter outside these walls. The gods do not even matter." Her words made my eyes burn again as I held her closer to me. "–all that matters is that you lie here with me now. The past and future do not exist." She murmured, drawing me down with her into the soft straw beneath our cloaks.

And I believed her. I watched her as she watched me for many slithers between the stalls of horses in a wide city hidden in the mountains. Nothing else mattered but the now. The here. The present where my immortal lay with me and my mortals. Morning was for another time. Another realm. Another immortal. 

This immortal wanted to enjoy the warmth of the soft animals around her and the burning star-like eyes of the goddess before her.