– T A Y A H –

"Up here, Ashrive." The demi-god called as I closed the warehouse door.

I glanced up and saw her hand offered down to me from the roof. I sighed and clasped my own in hers. She pulled me off my feet easily and flush into her own body. Her eyes flitted between my own briefly before she stepped back.

The night's stars lit up around us in the cold, dark sky. Her furs didn't move much in the calm air. But her expression was strangely at ease. Nothing of the irritation and glares she had shown my mortals in the room moments before.

"I can think better when I'm further from all of it." She supplied the silence, casting her hand to the city below us.

I nodded walking to the edge of the shipping warehouse and looking across at the many lantern lit streets and tiled houses that looked so warm against winter. She joined me silently and looked across the land of mortals too. I wonder what she thought.

"We can leave if you think it's best." I murmured.

"No." She said simply. "I think you're right."

I raised an eyebrow turning to her, but she remained watching the horizon. Her silver eyes burning their own path.

"We keep finding trouble for ourselves whenever we take a different path." She stated, glancing at me briefly. "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we had just stayed in Vayleron instead of crossing the sea?"

I thought about this in silence for a few slithers, turning my eyes to the faraway rooftops and the great castle in the distance. 

"I'm infinitely glad for whatever brought me to where I am with you." I shook my head, smiling as she stilled beside me. "There were so many mistakes John, Kaden and I made in our lives. So many stupid and selfish things that still caught a God's attention and sent me you. Out of all the Valkyries."

She watched me considering this too.

"You're suggesting it was fate?" She asked in slight shock.

I shrugged and met her gaze. "I certainly didn't believe it before you. Then my fate changed because of you. So many damn times I lost count. Falling in love with you seemed as natural as you crashing into the world in a ball of lightning."

This made her chuckle. I felt her hand slip into my own and her fingers wove through mine.

"I used to think love was only a mortal condition." She murmured, making me watch the horizon again. "That they were all cursed to burn so bright for such a short time so naturally their emotions would follow a similar path... then of course a mortal scoundrel showed me otherwise."

I snorted and nudged her with my shoulder. "I deserve a great prize for opening an immortal's eyes in such a way."

"I think Odin did bestow you with such a gift. You decided to leave it on the immortal realm." She finished with a bit more exasperation. 

I thought of the chrome shield that rippled in bright blue energy. It called to me. Whether I wanted it to or not.

"I'm fairly sure it was that gift that put me back on this realm in the first place." I muttered, thinking more intently of it now. "It wouldn't surprise me if this was an elaborate plot from our favoured god all along you know–"

"Tayah. Odin did not throw an excess amount of power unto you only to send you to the realm unprepared..."

I glanced at her flatly while she even considered her own words. We both laughed quietly.

"Wouldn't be the first."

"Or the last." She agreed.

I turned to her properly and wrapped my arms around her waist tightly. She reacted instinctively and set a hand behind my head with another around my back. Her warmth surrounded me and the furs kissed my cheek as I leant into her neck.

All of the hard glares. The cool demeanour and biting words were played well on the outside. But she reserved this for me alone. A warmth that held me together and kept me safe.

I sighed deeply and smiled into her neck making her shiver.

We stayed like this for possibly many slithers. I wasn't concerned with counting the moments with her.

"Sit on the edge with me." She murmured near my head. "I wouldn't mind watching the day rise with you at my side."

I nodded into her soft fur that endlessly smelt of that pure pinewood and jasmine. We drifted to the edge of the roof and let our feet hang over the edge. The darkness gave no indication of the impending morning but I didn't care if it would be hours or slithers.

I leant heavily into her shoulder while she wrapped an arm over my shoulder and leant her cheek against my head.

"You know that thing you once did with the lighting at your feet?" I asked suddenly.

It caught her off guard and I felt her laugh under me. "What?"

"When you fought the Odians at sea." I clarified. "I saw you literally walk on pieces of light at your feet..."

"Oh, that. Yes, quite skilled wasn't it?" She mused.

I elbowed her and she grinned. "It's similar to focusing your energy into single points like shapes. But in such force that it can support your own weight. You could do the same with your fire elemental." She said in certainty.

I smiled when a strand of her hair brushed against my face.

"I have to wonder how much I can do with my own power compared to yours... since I'm so watered down compared to one of the original Valkyries." I teased.

She sighed heavily and made to move, causing me to stop her quickly with my arms and laugh. "I only jest Stormbringer–"

She pushed me onto my back and let her head land on my stomach. I giggled more and she pretended to ignore me, even drawing her hood low over her eyes.

"You will never let that one pass will you?" She asked under the hood.

I stared up at the stars with a smirk. "It never mattered to me how powerful you are. I still didn't take any of your shit as a mortal and I sure as hell won't now."

This made her laugh loudly. I rolled my head to the side to watch her pull a hand over her face.

"How could I ever intimidate the great Tayah Ashrive? Honestly not even the Underworld itself phased you." 

"Realistically one thing can scare me." I responded suddenly.

She turned on my stomach and watched me with those bright eyes under the hood. I met them as I spoke.

"You."

"That's not an answer." She murmured.

"Losing you."

She moved then. Closing the distance above me and hovering without letting any of her weight drop onto me. She drew a few strands of my hair to the side as she watched me intently.

"I've seen the rise and fall of Aries. The fall of Empires. The fall of continents and the rise of countless immortals. It's going to take a lot more than your drunk mortals and a mad Odian to keep me from you, Tayah Ashrive." She whispered the last part with more dark in her eyes and promise than the Gods themselves.

I swallowed as I took in the glorious being above me. Swearing her existence to me like it was that simple. But I didn't doubt it for a moment.

"I guess I'll have to believe you." I got out breathlessly.

There was no disagreeing with a force of nature like her anyway. And I didn't want to. She nodded, seemingly satisfied and jumped up from me then to my disappointment and her amusement. 

"Come, let me teach you a few things while we wait for the sun to grace us." She called to me as she turned her back to the edge again.

I shook my head as I got to my feet and watched her. Her hair caught in the wind as she turned again and the moonlight hit her skin. With those starlike eyes watching me and the soft furs rushing by on her shoulders I found myself struck again. Staring like a dumbstruck fool as a Goddess caught my eyes and smiled knowingly.

Could she love me as I loved her? Truly. What realm let that happen...

She let the light of Odin tangle around her fingers and light up her face in the night. Her eyes growing brighter and I could still only stare at her beauty that tangled with her power.

Gods save me.

* * * * *

"How much gold do you have left?" I asked the men as I walked into the kitchen later that morning.

John was working on another curious looking leather pouch surrounded by powders while Kaden was carving a chess piece with his dagger. John didn't look up as he answered.

"Half a bag."

"Saddlebag?" I asked in shock.

"A wee pouch." Kaden grunted as he set a piece down and picked up another wooden chunk.

I froze in spot as Kára closed the door behind us.

"You spent it all already?" I growled.

John snorted and flicked some powder my way. "This place wasn't cheap nor was our voyage back once you left us in Zanos."

"We had six goddamn saddlebags." I reiterated for them.

"Guess you shouldn't have waltzed off to Valhalla then." He finished as he focused on the pouch in his hand. I flicked a spark across the room and it exploded before him in red smoke. He stumbled back out of his chair and grabbed a knife at his hip and flung it at me.

I plucked it out the air before it could land and twisted it between my fingers as I approached him. He spat more powder out in a cough before swearing some more and going for the sink basin.

"I preferred you without the damn magic tricks." He muttered, washing his face while Kaden remained focused on carving a rook.

I didn't miss the light chuckle that left my immortal behind me who watched our show under her hood at the wall.

"How are you planning on making funds?" I asked him as he washed.

"Rigged–fights." He grunted.

I glanced at Kaden who was smirking intently now at his rook in his massive hands.

"And I suppose you're in on this?" I demanded.

"Never, little Tayah. Good as gold." He grinned, glancing at me with a wink.

"He fights the poor sods." John supplied.

I palmed my face. The immortal however walked past me and moved to sit at the table Kaden worked at. He cast  her a wary look when she plucked up a piece and gazed at it intently.

"I remember these."

Kaden nodded as he cut off another wood chip.

"Back when Tayah destroyed–uh taught you chess." He corrected as he set down the rook.

I sighed and and leant my hands on the back of her chair as she leant over the pieces and nodded interested.

"In my opinion, you sacrifice early on. That way they're still trying to come up with a strategy by the time you have pushed forward enough to open em up." He told her as he moved to another piece of wood.

"Your carving is quite skilled mortal." She actually complimented Kaden.

He too looked shocked for a beat before realising she was serious and nodding proudly.

"Aye. My mother taught me."

"Let us play." She told him.

He cast his eyes down quickly. "Just a few more pieces and I will happily beat you."

Kára folded her arms with a smirk, keen for the challenge. I rolled my eyes and moved to the kitchen counters to join John. He was mostly clean now.

"Come Sir John, where's that wine?"

He scowled at me, clearly still fighting that distrust and losing. His brown eyes had warmed a touch and he nodded his head at a top cabinet. I pulled it open and found a few dozen bottles hiding beyond.

"Odin above." I muttered. "Are you opening a bar too?"

"Can never have too much of the good stuff." He snorted, setting down the rag and pulling the bottle out of my hands and pointing to another cupboard.

"Get us some mugs wench."

When he turned his back I slapped the rag across his neck. He swore colourfully again but continued to the table with the bottle.

When we were all sat around the table with mugs full of wine I smiled. Kaden was finished up on the last piece of the chess board while Kára quickly grilled him on the strategy of it all. Then on the reasons for his strategy.

I clinked my mug into John's and pried a genuine smile out of him which made me grin.

"I knew you'd warm up to me." I told him over the edge of my cup.

"It's your fault I cooled." He retorted.

"Please. We were barely off realm a season."

"You could have written." He complained, drinking more.

"I'm sorry they don't have messenger birds flying across the realms." I scoffed. "Odin sends us instead."

He seemed more interested in this turn of conversation now. He pressed forward on his arms and watched my face closely. "So the god is... something?"

"More than you can imagine. Cloaked in black but I do not know if he has human form." I murmured thoughtful. "You can sense his presence unlike any other. And he can manipulate time itself. I've never been before such power that made me feel so small." I said honestly.

"He... manipulates time." John repeated in a daze. 

I turned the wine around my cup as I thought back on it. "When I... I was close to death." I told him slowly as his breath caught and he watched me closely. I even noticed Kaden stop his carving and watch me too. I already knew my immortal listened. "I was off realm... in a land of the dead. The Underworld itself. Anselle had me in the clutches of her power and dropped me before the soul rivers. I was at sure death. Unless I was immortal. Odin froze the time itself around us to offer it to me. That was it. Oblivion forever or..."

I glanced at all of them as they watched me back with unreadable expressions.

"Life. In this form."

John let out a long breath and ran both his hands through his hair. Kaden looked too shocked to even move.

"I had no idea, Tayah." He whispered to the table. "I blamed you for it."

I set a hand over his shoulder and made him look at me.

"Things are never as simple. You couldn't have known." I told him earnestly. 

"You could have had more faith in her character." My immortal muttered beside me. I elbowed her.

Kaden chuckled and leant back in his chair. "Whether you left us by choice or not was not the point. John just missed you too much."

John smirked over at the giant of a man and sunk the rest of his wine suddenly.

"Cheers to that you human pine tree."

Kaden threw his back too and burped heavily. Kára glared across at him like she would take out his tongue and I simply smiled at those I loved the most around that table. I would burn the memory into my head because it meant too much to me to lose.

"Cheers to every one of you mad and reckless people at this damn table. I wouldn't change a moment that brought us together. Damn the odds and damn the rules." I stated as I threw my own wine back and the men grinned at me.

It was our old mantra and it still held well over time. The only difference now was the immortal at my side that threw me a secret look and captured my free hand under the table.