At first, Trav had thought it was a little strange that the Restless-worshipping Kin usually called the town Faith, not Bruman. He’d come to learn that each of the three major Kin countries on Asgard had a hidden village of Faithful, and most of them called their home, “Faith.” The theory behind this seemed to be that if someone overheard them talking about their home, it was less likely that news would spread where all the Faithful cultists were living. Trav thought the practice was a little odd, at least to an outsider, but so would be wearing giant foam hands to football games, and he’d done that before.
When he’d first met Narnaste, she’d told him about the Church of Self, and he’d learned more about it since then. From Trav’s perspective, the Church was the true power on Asgard, and the only reason they likely hadn’t completely crushed the Faithful was so they could have a scapegoat to blame practically everything on. In Bruman, the guards had been on high alert for months after someone believed they’d seen sign of scouts about half a year ago.
If Bruman was attacked, the Faithful vowed to be prepared, especially now that they were hosting three High Masters. Along with Tiffany and the Restless with the mantle of Thanatos, since Trav was also a Restless, what the Faithful called High Masters, he couldn’t fault their wariness. Being revered didn’t bother him, either—he’d gotten used to being called Master and other titles while traveling with his valkyries. But the way the Faithful leaders in Bruman tried to coddle him, and avoid informing him of any dangers or new developments drove him crazy.
It was pretty obvious at this point that the Faithful wanted him to just stay in the village indefinitely. That might be okay for lazy hedonists like Thomas, the guy with the mantle of Thanatos. Eventually, Trav was going to need to leave, but for the time being, he planned to put in appearances and keep the Faithful happy to maintain access to knowledge and free food.
He sighed and headed for the house he shared with his valkyries. It wasn’t going to be fun to deliver the news he needed to, but he owed it to them to tell them at least some of what he was planning. After that, he was going to go alone to talk to Tiffany, and that conversation might be even worse.
***
This has been a very long day, thought Trav. He was almost to the house where Tiffany lived, and he hoped she was home. Narnaste plodded along behind him. If he didn’t already know she was irritated, he would have been able to tell by her swishing tail and twitching ears.
Over the last week, before visiting the Oracle, he and his valkyries had discussed Tiffany’s marriage proposal. At this point, he was sure he could trust all of them so he didn’t hold much information back anymore. The only one of his new friends who hadn’t been against the idea had been Jang-mi, who wasn’t a valkyrie and was just a platonic friend, not a lover. All the Kin seemed to either distrust or outright dislike Tiffany.
Thinking back to how they’d all first met, and how Tiffany had used her mantle to cow them, Trav could understand. That had probably been humiliating and uncomfortable for the Kin women, and Ysintrill. Despite the fact that she was not Kin, Trav still thought of her that way most of the time.
When he’d just dropped by to tell them he was going to talk to Tiffany, most of them had acted like he hadn’t said anything, immediately giving him the silent treatment. Of course they’d all been waiting for him to get back from the Oracle, which he’d had to do alone. They’d been together, excited to hear any news he had to give, which had kind of made things even more awkward. Thinking back, he’d kind of made the situation worse by leading with his decision, too. Yaakova had stomped off best as she could with her taloned feet.
The valkyries weren’t stupid, they had to know that he was going to talk to Tiffany because of something the Oracle had said. Narnaste hadn’t been happy either, but had still followed Trav out the door and through Faith. Other than his trip to the Oracle’s cave, one of the valkyries had accompanied him everywhere in town for the last two weeks. Besides that, his group had kept to themselves in the large house that Trav had been given to stay in.
He suspected the valkyries felt uncomfortable being called Honored Ones by the other Kin, even Narnaste. She’d even known some of the Kin in town, but she’d confided that they all treated her like a stranger now.
Trav glanced back at Narnaste and waved her up to walk with him. He needed to talk to his valkyrie, and he also needed to be busy so the town’s Faithful would leave him alone. Most of them seemed harmless, merely wanting to meet him themselves. Some seemed to be going through a crisis of faith. The gods they’d met in person had obviously been a little disappointing for some of them. Trav thought it was all a little weird, but also kind of funny. He could remember some idioms from Earth about meeting your gods or heroes that might apply.
“Yes, Master?” asked Narnaste.
Trav eyed her sideways. “What is the problem, Narnaste?”
“What do you mean, Master?”
“Well, it’s obvious that you and the others are upset. Plus, you keep calling me master every few seconds.”
“Sorry, Master.”
Trav sighed. “Seriously, Narn, I know I’ve talked with everyone about Tiffany before, but I don’t understand this reaction. Nothing has even happened yet. Plus, in the past, like when Ysintrill joined us, you didn’t have a problem with that. Why would there be an issue with me marrying another Restless? It’s not like I even know Tiffany very well, this would be political more than anything, at least for starters.”
“That’s exactly the point.” Narnaste met his gaze with her beautiful, different-colored eyes. “You don’t know this woman very well, and neither do we. When Trill joined us, we all...got drunk, remember?” She paused, and Trav briefly remembered the emberstone-fueled party in the woods they’d all had.
Narnaste continued, “There was never any awkwardness. It just happened, and we were all equal. Tiffany Erben is a High Master, like you. Even though she isn’t very old, she still did that thing when we first met, remember? I felt like I was being put down, like I was very small. Even now, it’s hard to explain. It was humiliating.”
Trav made a face as he thought about that. He hadn’t entirely considered that situation from the perspective of the Kin. During their first meeting with Tiffany, his valkyries had been less than friendly, and Yaakova had been the worst. Tiffany had used her mantle somehow to suppress them.
So instead of jealousy, this seemed to mostly be about power and pride. Now Trav understood better. The valkyries were not really his girlfriends, and they weren’t human, either. They were Kin, and his subordinates. Nothing about his life now was normal. If he was correct, he would live to be thousands of years old, and his valkyries likely would as well. He’d been thinking of his current group far too simply. While he was worried about survival, his valkyries had already moved far beyond that and were hashing out group hierarchy.
Mom was right, sometimes I can be slow, he thought. Trav asked, “If I ever did marry her, or any other Restless, what if I made them promise that they would never mistreat you?”
“You mean a High Master promise? A covenant?”
“Yes, a binding one.” Trav still wasn’t entirely sure how, but he knew he could do it with rune magic.
Narnaste was quiet for a while as she walked next to Trav, but her ears twitched even more wildly. Finally she said, “We still won’t be happy about it, but this is more acceptable. I know enough about your homeland to understand that this is all much stranger to you than it is to us.”
“That’s putting it lightly,” Trav muttered.
“You haven’t really even thought about it like this until now have you?”
“Nope,” Trav said honestly.
Narnaste nodded slowly. “As ignorant as you have been perhaps we have as well. I was raised noble, so was Yaakova, and Ysintrill is old enough to understand the way of the world. You got lucky, Master. For our own reasons, we are not exactly happy if you add more women to your household, but we three know it is a reality
. Important Kin men rarely keep a single partner. Males are all the same, and man Kin are long-lived.”
Trav could see where this conversation was going. He nodded and said honestly, “Most men would jump at the chance to have more than one lover and not be doing anything wrong. But it’s expensive and takes a lot of time to keep everyone happy. It takes a lot of energy too.”
Narnaste nodded. “Yes. You might not have thought of children, either. Families grow. My childhood was spent with a tutor. I was one of ten children and had three mothers. My father had a concubine as well. I rarely saw my parents. My family was not very wealthy, at least not enough to avoid sacrifices to maintain appearances. Please never grow your house taller than its foundation can support.”
Trav eyed Narnaste, studying her stony expression. Now a lot of things about her made more sense, maybe even the extreme sides of her personality, how she could go from sweet and gentle to stony and stern in a blink. He wondered if her background had led to her physical scars, too, but that conversation could wait.
In fact, any more conversation would have to wait; they’d arrived at Tiffany’s house.
Trav knocked and didn’t have long to wait before the door was opened and he was greeted with a deadpan, “Yes?”
“Good to see you too, Leonard,” said Trav. He still couldn’t figure the man out. The tall, pale man wore expensive-looking, formal clothing and carried a rapier. It looked like he’d begun growing a mustache. Other than that, he was entirely unremarkable. Even Trav’s Mystic Overlay using his emberstone eye hadn’t given him much information.
Suddenly Trav saw writing at the bottom of his vision.
Why can’t I see this kind of information about everyone? thought Trav.
The Oracle sent back,
Trav mentally rolled his eyes.
Leonard said, “I am assuming you have come to talk to the lady of the house?”
“Well, I didn’t exactly come to challenge you to a board game or a staring contest, Leonard.”
“I see.” Trav might have imagined it, but he thought he saw a shadow of a smile quirk the side of the man’s mouth. “Follow me, please. Her Holiness is occupied right now, but I am sure she would want to make time to speak to you.”
“Holiness, huh?” muttered Trav. The sarcastic priest had never referred to Trav as anything, never addressed him by name, title, or anything else. He stepped inside as Leonard opened the door wider then followed him deeper into the house.
The fact that he knew Leonard was a priest was actually very useful. He hadn’t really spoken much to Tiffany since he’d arrived in Faith other than small talk over dinner, or brief, private conversations about what she’d revealed to him when they’d first met.
He knew she could be ruthless, manipulative, and he wasn’t sure if he could entirely trust her. She was also very scared, and had obviously been giving him space, whether out of respect or nervousness he didn’t know—maybe both.
Trav really hoped he was doing the right thing. The fact was, maybe the valkyries were right to be nervous. Tiffany Erben was not a simple person, and likely hadn’t been even before she’d become a goddess.
Chapter 4
Leonard led them past the two feline Kin that had accompanied Tiffany before. Trav assumed they were bodyguards, and the Oracle didn’t give him any more information, so he assumed either he was right or they were not all that important. At the end of a hallway, a lizardman holding a halberd guarded a large, thick-looking set of double doors. Trav eyed the creature. Lizardmen were very powerful, and what they lacked in speed they made up for in durability. Before becoming Odin’s successor, the creature would have been impossible for Trav to scratch, but now things were different.
The lizardman hissed, but Leonard shook his head. As the guard reluctantly stepped aside, Leonard put his finger to his lips for quiet before turning to open one door a crack and slip inside. A few uncomfortable moments passed before the door opened again and Leonard beckoned them forward.
The room beyond was large, mostly empty, and dark. Tiffany Erben sat cross-legged in the center, floating about three feet above the floor.
“I let her know that we had guests,” whispered Leonard. “She will be back in a few moments, but she told me I could invite you inside.”
Trav nodded and studied the goddess with his Mystic Overlay. To his magical sight, it looked like she was there, but not there. In fact, what he was seeing, her body, was only a small part of the whole. Interesting, he thought.
It almost looked like she was stretched out, like most of her power was connected to her body by a rubber band, and even as Trav watched, it suddenly snapped back into place, and she was whole again. Tiffany opened her eyes, her expression blank and alien for a moment before she smiled. “Welcome to my home, and my scrying room.”
“Scrying room?” The question wasn’t just to be polite. Trav was legitimately curious what she’d been doing.
“Yes. My mantle belonged to Zorya. I can grow my power and center myself by returning to the stars. It’s important to understand the will of the goddess I inherited too, both to know how to gain more ability, and to keep track of who I am. One day I will likely be called Zorya, just as you might one day be called Odin.”
Trav felt like he’d been hit with a hammer. “What?” He knew all about the goddess Zorya by now. Two weeks had passed and he’d done his homework. The implications of the rest of what he’d just heard had thrown him, though.
Tiffany pulled her head back slightly as she regarded him evenly. “You have received a seed of power from one of the most powerful Restless to ever walk the continuum. Did you think you could just wander around and nobody would care, they wouldn’t notice?”
“Well, no, but I really only thought about enemies out there. I hadn’t thought of, you know, other people,” Trav finished lamely.
The goddess blinked. “You do know how Restless gain power, right?” She glanced around the room. “All of my attendants are loyal, I am assuming yours is as well.” She made the last statement sound like a question as she glanced at Narnaste.
“Of course,” said Trav. His mind was spinning. He’d connected with his valkyries in order to gain power over a short time, but he’d never really thought about how growing in power worked for other Restless. This was a massive oversight, but he gave himself a pass based on how his life had been going lately. “Please continue.” He’d come here thinking he had a strong platform to negotiate, but now Tiffany was dropping information he hadn’t even considered before.
“Faith, Travis. I believe there might be an element of that between you and your valkyries, if I am correct about what I’m sensing. There are diminishing returns for the number, but we gain a charge from loyalty. Mortals just knowing who we are doesn’t do much, but commanding loyalty is what allows us to function, even keeps us whole as we cross to other veils. This is our immutable power that stands above lesser magics or energy systems.”
“Loyalty?” asked Trav, turning the idea over in his mind.
“Yes. This is why so many Restless have begun their own religions or cults. Loyalty through religion can be fickle, but also relatively easy to achieve for large numbers.”
“Makes sense I guess,” said Trav. He scratched his cheek. “So your people here are…” He let his voice trail off.
“I brought two attendants from my home world, and found two more after arriving in Faith. There are a few more I left back home, too. My mission is to save my world, and to survive, but I will a
dmit that succeeding will greatly benefit my power as well.”
Trav nodded slowly. It seemed this was going to be a lay-all-your-cards-on-the-table sort of conversation, so he decided to follow suit. “I came to talk to you about marriage.”
“Oh?” Tiffany lifted an eyebrow, but quickly dropped the coy expression with a sigh. “Sorry, bad habit. To be honest, I was hoping that you came to talk about marriage. Time is our enemy, but I wanted to give you the room you needed to think about the matter before.”
That made sense to Trav—she was trying to save her world. He asked, “What is your world’s name?”
“Vyraj, but we all actually live in the city state Buyan. Vyraj actually has a lot of portal activity, and it was decided that the world itself was a park, protected. Buyan was built on its moon.”
“So it’s your city state that is in danger?”
“Yes. The auguries are very clear.”
To Trav, the situation made a lot more sense now. He could far more easily imagine a powerful Restless destroying a moon or satellite than an entire planet, even with an army. “Well, we’d better cut to the chase, then. I did come here to talk to you about marriage, but I have some conditions.”
“List them.” Tiffany had taken a couple of folding chairs from the corner of the room and opened them. She sat and gestured to the other for Trav.
As he took a seat, he felt much more settled. The entire situation was odd, and he hadn’t been sure what to expect while talking about marriage with a stranger, but Tiffany’s business-like manner was helping. “I want you to promise that you will support my family, my subordinates, and never betray me.
“Done.” Tiffany didn’t even blink as she answered. “I don’t really have much of a choice, Travis Sterling. You will get any assurances from me that you want—within reason, of course.”
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