We all sat in silence for a long time. Then we finally spoke with Kate, Odin, and Loki, to fill them in on things here. But did it matter anymore? I guess the goodwill we were building with Queen Nerthus was positive, our request for sanctuary was worthless now because of just two solitary minutes.
When we finished with them and signed off, we heard shouts outside and the sound of the gates of the great wall moving. We moved out to a flurry of activity as someone shouted, “Our Queen has returned!”
Chapter 13 – Naming
The celebration was an awe-inspiring sight as it seemed the entire City Tree was involved and every Elf in it was in attendance at the base of the tree.
Jania shared that the naming ceremony usually involved only the Nightwalker Watchers, the emerging adults who had completed their Sund, and their immediate friends and family. But this one was different because “Everyone wants to see the kleshnie who the Queen had commanded to complete the Sund. Never in history had non Elves walked the night in Sund. That it in effect, if the All Mother accepts them, they will be of our people. Citizens.”
Then the silly Elf screwed up her face. “Either that or it's because of the news mother says she will share about the future of the Sund, and the war with the Dökkálfar.” She shrugged and tucked Samantha's hand in the crook of her arm. “Oh, and you're out of chocolate in your pack, Artie.”
In my...? I blurted, “Hey! Stay out of my things, Elf-girl!”
Her eyes widened into those innocent Elf eyes she used to get everyone to melt. “It wasn't me, it was that other crazy Elf who looks like me. She's an impeccable dresser though.” She struck a pose.
Sammie rolled her eyes and patted Jani's arm, “What am I to do with you?”
The Elf-snot just smiled and laid her head on her girl's shoulder.
I looked around at the others of our peace contingent, and they all wore their best, accented with chains of flowers, small twigs, and moss that random Elves gave us as we passed by. The Three Embers and Inatra looked amazing in Valkyrie and Valkfela dress armor, which Odin had sent through the Bifrost in a wind rider, accentuated by Elven gifts. Tych did they all look sexy.
There has never been a time in my life that I had been so embarrassed as when the Three Embers turned in that perfect synchronicity and Essa smirked, “Auntie Artemis, you'll need to learn to shield your thoughts from those of us who possess the evolved nanites. We can hear you. You are worse than mother about hiding your umm... feelings.”
Zeus' balls! I wanted to die just then. A snickering Kara stepped beside me, nudging my shoulder with hers. I looked down at the smug Valkyrie, then cocked an eyebrow appreciatively. “You clean up nicely yourself, lady.” Holy hotness, did I just have a thing for people in dress armor? I... the girls all giggled and I wanted to sink into the ground as I yelled in my head at my Verr. “Hera's tits! Please stop sharing my every thought with them?”
I felt a sense of amusement when my Verr scrolled a response in my vision, “Far Striker only needs to ask.”
I blurted out loud, “I'm asking!” To the giggles of the Embers. Gah!
Aphrodite came to my rescue. “There's nothing wrong with sharing your thoughts with such delicious looking people. Oh, the naughty things I could do for them in my bedchamber would have them all...”
“Dite!”
She giggled and looked around seductively to all the blushing women, actually licking her lips. Ha! Take that all you wretches! She turned that seductive look on me and unleashed it full blast, by the Tree of Ages, did my panties just drop as all my most interesting parts heated in anticipation?
I swallowed and concentrated on placing one foot in front of the other. She looked good enough to eat too, with her hair streaking many colors to broadcast her amusement, arousal, and mischievous intent, most of it that golden brown I loved so much.
Once we got through the seemingly endless masses of Light Elves, we stepped up to the base of an ornately carved, stage-like platform nestled into the roots of the City Tree itself, all of the murmuring and shouts around us suddenly silenced. Everyone in the shadow of the tree took a knee when Queen Nerthus ascended steps on the back side of the platform to stand in front of an amazing, ancient, living, carved table which had green leaves and blooming buds all over it.
We all took a knee as well as her personal guards flowed up the stairs and formed a wall of gleaming metal as a backdrop for their queen, their pikes and swords gleaming in the sunlight that filtered down through the City Tree.
A murmur flowed through those gathered, “Allr lova til allr móðir. Dróttning Nerthus ór alfheimr.” We joined in.
She looked around, as one would a room full of their own children, a wistful smile on her lips. Her crown was now one of gleaming silver with what appeared to be live flowers interwoven with the carved silver vines and flowers.
She nodded once and everyone stood, that same silence almost eerie, broken only by the chirping and chittering of thousands of birds and small animals who also called the tree and forest around it their home.
She regarded us and her people before beginning as Breem and Kalimish came up the stairs behind her to take their places two paces back and to her left. Breem wore lavish robes and held a scepter with a carved, foot long feather at its tip.
Kalimish? He looked dapper and handsome with a cape hanging down behind him, his tunic smartly pressed, and a small crown of flowers woven around a simple silver circlet on his head. I was impressed, and could finally see what I had been looking for in the man since we had learned he was Jania's brother. I could see the family resemblance, not just in the eyes, now that he held himself with surety and purpose.
I had to smile when one last person ascended the stairs, and how the royal guards went into motion to swiftly provide a chair for her to observe the proceedings. I waved at Ree, the Gatekeeper of the Green Palace when she smiled as her eyes settled on us when she had looked out over the crowd. The old Elf winked at us and sat prim and proper in elegant, her glistening robes accented with moss, twigs, and flowers.
Nerthus began, the hollow behind the platform, formed by two huge roots as they rose from the ground to support the base of the gargantuan tree, seemed to amplify her voice naturally, “People of Allrbus, citizens of Alfheimr. We stand here on this historic occasion, in the shadow of our beloved Tanalus tree, which bears the weight of our civilization...” Her tone softened as she placed a hand lightly on the beautiful table before her. “Where Queen the First, Shalanya, has been laid to rest, to watch over our people in eternity's embrace...”
Someone in the crowd yelled, “Shalanya!”
And like the soft roll of a tide coming in, gentle but unstoppable, the rumble of the crowd responded as tens of thousands of voices said, “Embraced back into nature, forever remembered. Queen the First, Mother of us all.”
I blinked as I realized it was no table on that grand platform, it was... a tomb. And what I thought were carved vines with living, flowering vines mixed in were roots growing up from the tree itself to encircle that tomb... it was truly alive. This was the resting spot of the hero of all Alfheim, the one who delivered them from the years of The Suffering and restarted the Ljósálfar civilization.
She was part of that mammoth tree now and forever, and as Nerthus had said, would watch over Elf kind as long as that City Tree stood sentinel. I appreciated the Elvish culture more and more each day I stayed amongst them.
The All Mother smiled, inclining her head in acceptance, then continued, “To bear witness to the Naming.”
A deafening cheer went up and she allowed it for a few seconds then held her hand up and the crowd silenced, the excitement and nervous energy all around us was a palpable thing. She looked toward our group and asked, “Would the initiates of the Sund please come forward?”
Though she knew it was coming, Samantha paled and swallowed hard, then gleeped when Intark looped an arm in hers on one side and Dite did the same on the other.
The two smiled encouragingly to her and half walked, half dragged her with them to the platform, Elves parting the way for them as whispers flitted through the crowd like ripples on a still pond.
They reached the wide carved wooden stairs that were inlaid with stone treads that spanned the width of the ancient platform, then ascended the steps, Samantha finally finding her feet and her courage and strode more confidently with our friends.
They stopped at the other side of the tomb as the queen strode over to meet them, turning them with her own movement to face the crowd. Two Elvish court pages seemed to appear from nowhere behind her, being as unobtrusive as a whisper on the wind.
I looked down to see Kara beaming with pride as she looked on at her little girl, and Essa grabbed Kara's hand as we all watched the proceedings.
Nerthus was a very theatric showperson it seems, as she paced in front of our people, looking out over the crowd who seemed to lean in closer as she passed in front of them. I realized I was leaning too and grinned at the fact.
Then she stopped beside our three intrepid companions and said to the crowd, “The Sund. It was a rite of passage created as a means to welcome the younger generations into the fold at their Ripening, to usher them into adulthood appreciating the sacrifice the Heroes of the Night are subjected to each time the sun leaves the sky. We have enjoyed peace and prosperity while a war has raged under the stars as we slept, safe in our beds.”
She stepped to the edge of the platform above the steps, a hand out as if beseeching the crowd's indulgence. Breem had nothing on their Queen. “The Sund wakes them up to the unpleasant realities of our world so that they may appreciate what we have and have built here and the other City Trees on Alfheimr that we may thrive as a people.”
Then she dropped her hand to her side almost in defeat as her tone softened. “But it seems that we have been deceived by circumstances, not under our control, and this war we have fought since the days of Queen the First, Shalanya herself, is the result of our inability to communicate with ones who were once our brothers and sisters.”
She looked back at Intark in apology and said, “You see my dear Elves, it seems we were not the only victims of the Andskoti who had invaded our world from the skies and enslaved our people. And it is because of this travesty, this tragedy, that I Queen Nerthus of Alfheimr, as Queen Shalanya had said so very long ago, say, no more!”
“This Sund will be the last. No longer will we send our younglings to see the horrors of a war that should never have been, as we, with the help of the kleshnie before you, have forged a temporary peace with the Dökkálfar who we had believed were our enemy for so long.” There were gasps and murmurs going through the crowd.
The look of pain and sorrow on her face brightened as she looked back to Sam. “It was the gentlest of all kleshnie who had used their kleshnie magics to enable me to communicate with Koar, the local leader of the Dökkálfar, the Dark Elves who before the Andskoti were the friends of the Ljósálfar, and walked in the shadows of day and darkness of night with us.”
Shouts rang out and the crowd started to surge forward a bit as accusations flew, but Nerthus was unbowed as she snapped, “Silence!”
After a moment's hesitation, the crowd settled and I noted the warriors and guards popping up at the fringes of the massive crowd just in case violence cropped up. That was the last thing we needed now.
She exhaled and centered herself then addressed the dissenters as she swept an arm to include everyone, including up into the tree, where I had just noticed thousands of Elves gathered in the lower branches as well.
Then she spoke as if it were to misbehaving children, with restrained patience. “While our people were enslaved by the Andskoti for so many generations, the Dökkálfar had suffered a worse fate. They were hunted like animals for sport. Their people had to retreat deep underground, where even the magic of the Andskoti could not find them.”
She tilted her head in sorrow. “They were on the brink of extinction, when a few brave Dark Elves formed a selfless group of men and women called the Kalfrea, who would run in the night, under the moons and stars, to draw away the hunting parties so that their people might scavenge the woods for foodstuffs to feed their starving kin.”
She opened her hands, showing empty palms to all as she said, “Then one day, the Andskoti left Alfheimr, and the Dökkálfar could once again walk the night. But they are simple people, and do not have the luxury of our much more advanced technology, tools, and ways.”
She walked past our people again, stopping a moment to place a hand on Sam's shoulder before continuing. “So when they stumbled upon our farms and pastures, they believed them to be the gardens of the Gods they worshiped, put there to feed their people so that they would not pass on without leaving their mark upon the world.”
She walked to the edge of the platform and sat on the top step and her eyes were brimming with unshed tears causing a wave of sorrow through her people that I could almost feel. “They believed that to stay in favor of these Gods of the Fire Sky, who had saved their people from starvation, that it was their duty to protect the gardens at night.”
She stood and paced back over to the side of our people, “So you see... because we no longer shared a common language, we each saw the other as the enemy raiding the gardens and were each protecting those same farms. All these years of war, of bloodshed and death... for nothing. All because we both wished to feed our peoples.”
The murmuring in the crowd had changed in tone to that of shock and even horror at the revelation. But then their All Mother stood tall, her chin held high in pride, and her voice carrying proud and true, “We Ljósálfar are a generous and Elfmane people. And I will be in talks with the Dökkálfar in the coming days to extend that Elfmanity to our friends who walk the night, to provide them with foodstuffs and show them how to create farms of their own, to verse them in agriculture and herding. To work with us tending the fields at night. Until such time as they can support their own and again walk by our side as our lost brothers and sisters.”
She held a hand high, a fierce look on her face as the crowd roared out in cheers. She looked like a proud mother as her people affirmed her words. She gave them their outlet for celebration for a minute, then raised her hand again, silencing everyone.
Their All Mother looked full of mischief when she asked, “Were we not here for a Naming?”
Shouts of “Yes! A Naming!” seemed to flow from one side of those gathered to the other as she grinned.
Then she shrugged and asked, “Then let us be about it.”
She stepped up to Intark and said to him, “My daughter, Jania Sure Step has spoken of the... the Ragnarok often, telling me that those who were once the ruthless Andskoti, the enemy, had found new purpose in the worlds in the stars as protectors.”
She shook her head with disbelief before saying more gently, “I did not believe a saber raptor could change its markings. So I had to see for myself this great ruse your people had perpetrated on the other races of the worlds in the stars. I thought to expose your true nature by calling you to Sund. Then your bloodthirsty nature would be laid bare for all to see.”
She grinned at him as he scratched the back of his neck in discomfort. She put out a hand and one of her pages placed something in it as she told Intark, “I was first impressed that you made no move to even defend yourself when you first arrived here, and my Elves...” She pointed an accusing finger at the crowd and they laughed nervously. “...took it upon themselves to pummel you with rotten food and belittle you. Then at Sund, when told not to kill when we determined something was amiss, you restrained yourself and only used minimal force to keep the Dark Elves away.”
She shrugged and said, “You showed me that even the worst of us can change, and if you are an example of your race now after all these countless generations, then perhaps it is time to call you Ragnarok instead of Andskoti and try to move on in peace.”
She looked at the c
rowd and beamed as she said to our big man, “For that reason, I am proud to have stood Watcher for your Sund, and welcome you into the fold of Ljósálfar as one of our own, Intark, the Giant of Allrbus!”
She tried to lay a carved silver vine adorned with a daisy-chain of flowers over his shoulder, but he was too tall as the crowd roared out, “Intark, the Giant of Allrbus!” Then the cheering started. Intark was actually blushing then he knelt so she could reach his shoulder to place the designation of citizen over it.
Then the All Mother moved beside Dite as the crowd quieted. She smirked at my girl and said as she glanced down to where I stood and said to her, “Olympian. If I were a younger Elf...” She gave her a sly smile and said, “And I was over my husband's death five years back...”
Dite stood taller, cocking her eyebrow, her hair coiling up and spiraling pink and purple. Then the teasing Queen chuckled and added, “And you were not so smitten with Artemis...” The gathered Elves chuckled at the teasing woman who was their Queen as I gaped at her. The woman was as bad as my girl!
I had to cover my mouth to hide my smile when the pinks in her hair turned to blues of disappointment. She would never hear the end of this from me, that someone had out teased the Goddess of Love.
The Queen smirked and held her hand out, and accepted another silver vine. “You were almost as big a surprise to me as our Intark was. I fell for your act of being a vain temptress with only seduction on your mind. And I knew that Artemis could fight for her people, but I admit to selecting you for Sund just to take you down a peg.”
She chuckled. “Imagine my surprise when I found that under that tempting exterior, lies a fierce warrior. I can see where lulling others into a sense of superiority can loosen their tongues, open themselves up to attack by you. A great tool for a rogue, or assassin.”
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