Private Tales Endirinn

[Brenna]

The laughter vanished. Brenna searched the Nordenwiirs gaze for any hint of whether what she had said was true or whether it was some kind of Northern sense of humour. When it appeared it was not the latter she cleared her throat and slide sideways along the bench she was sitting on submerged under the water to give Skad a place to sit.

"Well, then.... on your next birthday I will bake you a cake. Everyone deserves a cake on their birthday."

She reached for the soap on the side and began to rake it over her skin in an effort to get rid of the grime and dried blood. The healers had only stitched the worst of the wounds and a few minor scrapes complained about the sense of hygenine. Every now and then her eyes flickered to the others in the room.

"I think one of them is a Nordenfiir- I can smell his svalen," she nodded in the direction of the burly man with wheat like hair braided into plaits. "I'm not sure about the woman, but she doesn't smell human."

 

[Skad]

Skad's gaze lingered for a moment, as Brenna's words took form in her mind. It was a sentiment that she had only ever experienced in this woman's company. Kindness. Her people did not know such things, hostile people shaped by an inhospitable land. Perhaps, there were those among the Nordwiir capable of the barest slivers of compassion but she had stood proud and bloodied, at the forefront of callous ruthlessness.

And for what? For a pantheon whose will few could even perceive? Her jaw stiffened, as her actions weighed heavily upon her gut.

Kin-Slayer did not deserve cake; she deserved death.

Brenna's voice stirred her from the thought, her head turning to look upon the now and the man who one of them would likely face. A monumental challenge, and one that Skad had been more than willing to face mere seconds ago, the roots of doubt beginning to wrap around vicious Wiir confidence.

Finally clambering over Brenna, the one-eyed woman sat and stared off into the distance. Had her companion's kindness garnered weakness within her? Skad's head turned enough so that her lips could still be read.

"What if we having to fight each other?"

 

[Brenna]

Brenna had no answer to that question. If they refused the fae would kill them both, but if they fought... she had seen Skad fight. There was no doubt in her mind who would be walking out of that ring. With a sigh she sunk down in the water and tried to put those thoughts from her mind.

The fae guards returned an hour later and they were shuffled to another room to be given clean clothes before returned to their cells. It seemed their kindness did not extend to giving any of them food.

"Where will you go after?" Brenna asked as she lay on the straw staring up at the ceiling trying not to think of her growling stomach. "When free?"

 

[Skad]

As they were ushered back to their cell, Skad made sure to take a better look at their potential opponents. Brenna had already identified the nature of the man as Nordenfiir; a fact which did little to quell the growing doubt within her. The task of defeating a bear one-on-one now seemed monumental, her previous ethos of 'if it lives, it can die' fading into the shadows.

The woman received Kin-Slayer's full scrutiny. From the matted straw-coloured dreads and pale complexion, she could be presumed as northern and Brenna's nose eliminated her as another Nordenfiir. It wasn't until Skad caught a glance of Wiir runes carved upon the woman's face that she realised she was another of her own kind.

Something wasn't quite right.

With the exception of the runic carvings, the woman held no scars borne from battle and violence, her flesh an untouched canvas that might have suggested a life of peace. However, that suggestion would have been a lie.

It was a warning.

Back in their cell (and mercifully, clothed) the mood had not improved. Fatigue and hunger added their weight to the uncertainty that plagued their near future. Brenna's question did little to lighten the air, Skad's head not moving for a few lingering seconds as she sat against the wall, staring into nothingness.

"Not know," she finally answered quietly, turning her head to face her deaf companion, "can't going home now. Will be killed."

There had been only two elements that ensured the woman's safety amongst her own people. The first had been the word of Kol, a man cemented as the mouthpiece of the Dark Gods and great unifier of long-warring tribes. The second had been her fanatical devotion to their faith. Were she to return without either...

"What about you?" Skad deflected, tiredness hanging heavily upon her face, "You having family at home to going back to?"

 

[Brenna]

Brenna's brows furrowed as she read her friends lips.

"Yes... my village is like one big family. They will be missing me," what had meant to be a week or twos expedition North had turned into months. Would they think her dead and have sent someone by now to search for her? She hoped not. Nordenfiir were known to wander when the mood took them but her mother worried, as did her village, despite her ventures with the Queen last year.

"Why would you be killed? Won't Kol be glad to have you home?"

 

[Skad]

"You are good, it not the surprise," came Skad's muted retort.

It wasn't unexpected that Brenna had those that held her dear, nor that she would be missed in her absence. It simply hadn't occurred to Skad that such sentiment was commonplace, her own skewed existence a template that she had placed upon the world around her.

Love wasn't completely absent in Nordwiir society, there were many great efras passed down through generations about love.

They usually ended in death.

Kin-Slayer fixed her lone eye upon Brenna, checking for earnestness in her questions, shaking her head softly when she found that the Nordenfiir wasn't taking the piss.

"Kol is mad," Skad stated, reiterating her point made in the cave, "not my friend. Together for the cause."

A cause now steeped in doubt.

"In home I am big hated. Big fear," she tried to explain, allowing her face to crease with a sullen distaste, "many wanting to kill me but cannot because Dark Gods. I am the most true with the biggest faith. Also very hard to kill."

She paused to look over the palms of her hands, layers of ritual scarring laid one on top of the other, the most recent still struggling to fully scab over. Those same butchered hands ran down Skad's own face, as if considering the enormity of their deeds before the woman turned back to Brenna.

"I leave Lost Isles to raid south with crew and faith. If go back with nothing, they will kill. It will be slow death, but maybe it is right."

 

[Brenna]

Brenna propped herself up on her elbow as concern flooded her features. She didn't believe Kol would truly throw her out but then... if Skad did not even recognise her friend from what she had described, maybe she had met a different version of the man. Or she simply didn't know him at all.

"I saw you..." she glanced to her chest where she had all but laughed as it had healed itself. "I saw you heal how could your Gods not... favour you still?" It had made Brenna briefly question her own beliefs but then, she had met the Pale King and Abdonas. And if they existed why could other higher beings not? Whatever had healed Skad had definitely been real.

 

[Skad]

"Yes, gift from the Dark Gods," Skad confirmed with a nod, "we all get. It is..." her voice trailed off as her mind tried to find the right words in the common tongue to explain but ultimately failed, "...it is why Marga can becoming beast. Why Kol hearing voices. Why I heal."

A rite of passage, The Great Hunt. Upon coming of age their people ventured out into the unforgiving tundra of the Lost Isles. They either returned, having slain their beast and with the blessing of the Dark Gods or they did not. Skad's own hunt had been alongside her twin sister, Hella and it had transpired in the end, that what they were fated to hunt, was each other.

Only one had returned, and they dubbed her Kin-Slayer.

The Nordwiir looked up, seeking answers in the cell roof as a sense that sense of doubt wrapped tighter, squeezing in tandem with grief that she had never before known. It was difficult to look back at Brenna but she had to for the sake of reading lips.

"My gift maybe gone," she explained solemnly, brow knotted in grim concern, "I have lost faith."

 

[Brenna]

Brenna bit her bottom lip and tried to conjure some form of comforting words. To lose one's faith... she could not imagine. It was the warmth for the soul when the fires went out. It was a light in the unending, yawning darkness. Without her faith, she did not know who she would be, and she would not call herself an overly devoted worshipper. Skad... Skad she had seen pray and fight for her Gods. Had seen the gifts bestowed in turn and the vigour that had given her to fight. If she gave up faith, would she not fight?

"Because... because of your eye? Is that why you think it is gone? Skad that poison was... well, it should have killed you. Perhaps your Gods could only heal so much," she reached out and gently took the other woman's hand in hers and squeezed it. "I might not worship them, but your Gods are real. Kol... gave me my hearing back, I saw your ripped out chest heal. I cannot pretend to begin to understand why a God does anything, but there will be a reason for this. We'll find it."

 

[Skad]

"And what if no reason?" Skad asked quietly, her gaze ruminating upon Brenna's hand, which offered a gentle physical comfort that was unknown to the Nordwiir.

She wasn't wrong. The Dark Gods were evident in the form of their blessings, but beyond that what did they really know? Without the written word there was no scripture, only the spoken word of efras passed down and moulded by mouth through the passage of time. Different tribes holding different tales until one inevitability wiped out the other and with it their lore.

Did Spotta even crave chaos? Did Likami crave flesh. Haraudur blood?

What if the pantheon were mere observers with no greater influence beyond a single gift? What if they could take it away? What if they didn't care?

"Brenna," she began in a whisper, struggling to say such things, "I have done...much bad. Killing so many. What if...for nothing?"

The bloodied harvest of Skad alone could have populated a sizeable town and not just with the bodies of enemies but with allies, innocents and kin.

"Maybe I... maybe I deserving death."

 

[Brenna]

There were no words Brenna could offer to alleviate the feeling she saw on Skad's face. This was only something the Gods could fix and she willed them, prayed to those who were not her own, they did so for the sake of her friend. If Skad lost her faith here before they were free then Brenna might walk away from this alone and the thought was strangely chilling. With no words to comfort her Brenna did the only other thing the young girl knew. She shuffled closer and wrapped her arms around the woman's waist, tucking her in close to her front and stroked her hair the way her mother did when she was upset.

"Sleep. Skad. Tomorrow we fight for our freedom."

 

[Skad]

She felt a twinge in her gut as Brenna's form enveloped her own, it was a sensation not too dissimilar from the first few seconds of being ambushed from behind. A flash of alarm coincided with her stiffening form as the Nordwiir realised that the vulnerability of her soul had now been bared before Brenna.

This Nordenfiir who now coddled her as if she were a fragile, crying child had the very real chance of being the one that would end her life tomorrow.

It seemed right.

Skad's body relaxed into Brenna as she accepted such tender comfort and the face of her own weakness. Fatigue pulled at her eyelid, the contemplation of the nature of the Dark Gods having robbed Kin-Slayer of any rest until that moment. Perhaps then, it was a small mercy that within minutes the Nordwiir was sound asleep, for once casting a peaceful shadow.

 

[Brenna]

Sharing their warmth Brenna was able to sleep quite peacefully considering the events of the previous day, even if Maga's face kept swimming into focus in her dreams. Unlike the Nordenwiir, though she had killed before, she had never enjoyed it. There was a certain satisfaction to winning over a particularly skilled opponent but never in the bloodshed. It had always been where she had differed to her father who probably would have felt more like kin to Skad with his trophies and stories.

Much like the previous morning the pair were woken by fae guards who threw the scraggly remains of the previous nights meal onto the cell floor for them to squabble over. Brenna wondered, as the smell of the meat hit her, just which one of yesterdays contestants now lay before them as scraps of a meal. Rather than eat she found herself emptying what remained in her stomach into a corner of the cell.

An hour later they were being marched along the same corridors and out into the bright winter sun. Opposite them the two others were also being shoved blinking into the sun.

"Welcome, challengers," the fae said above as though any of them here had wished to take part. Brenna couldn't see his lips so focused instead on assessing the their two opponents. "To impress the king, you must not only fight your fellow men, but fae too," there was some dark laughter as the iron grates were lifted and in prowled horses crafted from nightmares. Their scaly skin shimmered in the sun but it was their teeth - their long, sharp teeth, that had Brenna muttering quiet prayers.

"You will not leave until there is one of you left. Begin."

 

[Skad]

In her dreams, there had been nothing, a comforting blanket devoid of lingering wisps of recent events. If anything, such inner peace was a sign of Endirinn.

When they were woken by the grim offering of breakfast, Skad, unlike her companion who was brought to heaving bile, had no reservations. As she picked away like a one-eyed vulture, she considered a chunk or greying gristle between her fingers. Perhaps it was Marga. An ardent follower of Likami, the Dark God of Flesh, the Nordwiir imagined that the skinwolf wouldn't have objected to being eaten. She might have even appreciated it.

Skad wasn't entirely sure that she herself would taste much better but hoped at the very least that she would get caught in their teeth.

When their time in the arena came, Kin-Slayer felt a strange sense of calm in her own sense of mortality, having opted not to partake in her usual ritual bloodletting. She once might have been impressed at the scale of the arena, never having been one to baulk at the notion of rampant bloodshed.

"Watch for woman. No scars, much danger," Skad advised with a nod towards her opposite number, "magicks, I am thinking."

A pile of weapons awaited them in the centre and with the benefit of sight Skad scouted which would be best for dealing with an array of larger beasts (and one fellow Nordwiir). The voulge, even in her seemed the best choice to keep distance from an array of teeth, claws and...hooves?

Shiny...fish...horses? What cursed abomination would appear next? She supposed at this point it didn't really matter.

Skad looked to Brenna as the fae's announcement came to its end, "All must die," she informed the Nordenfiir as the other combatants burst into life, but before she made her own scramble the raider wrapped her hand around the back of Brenna's head, gently touching her forehead against the shorter woman's for a moment.

She pulled away, her scarred visage painted by a peaceful determination.

"You must live."

With that Skad bounded away towards the scattered arms, her uncharacteristic sentimentality leaving them on the backfoot. Unfortunately, that meant that her path was cut off by one of the equine monstrosities, all teeth and fury. Not that that dissuaded the sprinting Nordwiir, who seemed as if she was destined to run headfirst into the beast. However, at the very last moment, Skad broke into a slide, the snow enabling her to glide between legs and to the bounty of weapons.

 

[Brenna]

Why did that feel like a goodbye?

Brenna watched as Skad and the others leapt for the pile of weapons. One of the kelpies had already turned towards the other Nordenfiir, scenting the animal within and seeking to destroy it, whilst the other turned to her and Skad. The fearless Nordenwiir charged on regardless, sliding between the beasts legs which earned her a thundering snarl, before springing on to the other weapons. She should be following, helping, but all she could do was stare at the Kelpie as it turned its purple eyes towards her.

A kelpie.

She had only ever read gruesome tales of such beasts and to find herself now toe to toe with one... it was a good thing she had emptied what little was in her stomach. The beast stepped towards her, sliver dripping from its monstrous fangs. What hurt fae?

The animal lunged and Brenna swore as she threw herself to the side into a roll. The kelpie smashed into the wall behind her sending chunks of stone flying. When it got up it looked even more enraged as it lunged for her again.

 

[Skad]

Fortunately, the beast's attention turned to Brenna as Skad followed through her slide and into a scramble for the weapons. Her hands grabbed the wooden shaft of the voulge, her unfamiliarity with polearms evident by the manner in which the Nordwiir tried to adjust her grip so it felt more natural.

She looked up, ready to turn on her heel and get into the fray and suddenly realised that she was not alone. No. The other Nordwiir stood at the other side of the pile, staring at her, motionless and muttering under her breath. A quick glance to the side let her know that she'd left the other Nordenfiir to clash with the kelpie on his own. Skad might have appreciated her opportunist nature had it not posed a threat to them instead.

From up close she could see that the rune proudly marked upon the other woman's face was a symbol of Spotta, a God not worshipped by those of sound mind and that was by Skad's reckoning.

But before she had a chance to interrupt whatever manner of curse was leaving rotten lips, the crash of a rampaging sea horse into a wall stole away her attention. Even in the knowledge that leaving her fellow Wiir unattended was unwise, her priorities were focused on ensuring that Brenna still drew breath by tomorrow's dawn.

Skad turned her back on the woman and burst into a run towards her battling companion/helpful distraction, holding her new weapon as if it was spear-fishing season. Did form really matter if you stuck them with the pointy end? Which is exactly what she did in the assault from behind, thrusting the tip of the blade into the kelpie's arse.

 

[Brenna]

The kelpie half yelped half roared in a mix of agony and rage as the harpoon was launched to places it probably hadn't thought, ever, that it might need to defend. As it whipped round its tail smacked into the side of the small Nordenfiir sending her flying half way across the arena. With a final snarl it leapt at Skad, teeth aiming for her throat.

Brenna swore as she hit the snowy bank and rolled gasping onto her back to clear her vision. Her mind had been racing through the fairytales she had been told to scare her into behaving, searching for some kind of clue on what would defeat a kelpie. Iron and Ash were the weaknesses of all fae, but as lesser fae the kelpies had more. There had been something about a myth with a bridal or spurs, but she hadn't been able to recall the full poem to mind - and that had been before she had been sent sailing across the arena.

With a groan she got to her feet and touched her side. If her ribs had not been broken before they certainly were now. Her eyes flickered to the stash of weapons and then fell upon the glittering net. Nobody had looked at it, favouring the weapons instead, but... Brenna raced for it and she swore, when she glanced up, she saw the fae bastard grin knowingly.

 

[Skad]

If Skad had been aiming to annoy the kelpie, then she had achieved great success, an unfortunate side effect of which was Brenna being battered across the arena by the creature's tail.

By sheer force of will the Nordwiir managed to keep a hold of her weapon but was staggered by the beast's sudden turn. It left her with little time to react as it lunged, all teeth and fury. In sheer instinct, she brought up the voulge between herself and the savage maw. The wooden shaft, however, brought little respite as it was bitten straight through in a shower of splinters.

She drew back her right arm, ready to attempt to drive the jagged wood straight into the purple gaze of the kelpie but was suddenly struck by a great shuddering chill, like an icy hand drifting up the base of her spine to grip the back of her head. Despite the fact that nothing had physically touched her, the sensation was jarring enough to force Skad to drop both pieces of the broken weapon into the snow at her feet.

That other fucking Nordwiir!

The beast lunged at her once more and caught on the backfoot by unseen trickery all that Kin-Slayer could do was throw up her hands to protect her throat.

Skad witnessed the bulk of her right hand disappear into a savage cavern of hungering teeth and a sharp screeching spike of pain followed. Her instinct reaction came in the form of a headbutt towards the kelpie's muzzle, its jaw otherwise preoccupied with tearing through the flesh of her hand.

 

[Brenna]

Brenna's lungs were burning as she hurtled across the arena towards the weapons stash. There. The glittering net was half buried in the snow where it had been discarded, just within reach...

An invisible force slammed into her chest sending her flying backwards. She hit the ground and kept going, throwing up snow and ice in every direction. The young Nordenfiir was used to being thrown and her body instinctively curled to tray and lessen the impact of hitting the ground. It still left her groaning as she tried to pick herself up but she didn't get very far before a spear came flying at her head. She threw herself back down into the snowy trench she had made and risked a glance up to see who had thrown it - only for another spear to go whistling past. She swore and began half crawling half dragging herself forward to one of the bigger banks of snow.

With a barrier of sorts she risked another glance in the direction of the weapons pile but nobody stood there. A glance to the other kelpie ruled out her fellow Nordenfiir who was now in his svalen form grappling with the kelpie. It didn't look like either one would survive much longer. Which left the odd woman Skad had warned her about but where had she--

An invisible force wrapped itself around her neck and squeezed.

 

[Skad]

The headbutt connected, and though it did little harm to the beast, it offered a degree of separation and allowed Skad to wrench her right hand from its jaws as the kelpie reared back.

Or what was left of her hand.

Pinky and ring finger were gone entirely, alongside a good mouthful of flesh from her hand, the blood already dribbling freely onto herself and the snow. Her middle finger dangled uselessly, clinging on by threads of mere sinew, and now served more as a hindrance than a functioning digit. Kin-Slayer didn't think and bit through the pitiful remainder of flesh that kept the finger attached in the ensuing seconds after pulling away, leaving her with only a forefinger and thumb.

There was no time to consider the mutilation of her dominant hand as, once more, the kelpie was upon her, seemingly invigorated by the taste of flesh. It charged and holding no further intent to grapple with the much stronger creature, she dove off to the side and scrambled towards the broken head of the voulge.

 

[Brenna]

The Nordenwiir walked towards with her hand out stretched as though the invisible force holding Brenna by the throat were an extension of her own fingers. The woman's mouth was moving in a steady rhythm but she knew too little of that guttural language to read her lips and understand what it was she said. The intention was pretty clear. Her fingers grappled uselessly against the force as if she could somehow pry it free but they fell through open air. From the woman's smirk she knew it must have looked foolish; she wondered, briefly, if the fae were laughing.

Out of the corner of her eye she spied Skad leap away from the kelpie.

"T-the net! Skad-" she wheezed, face turning purple. "-Iron. Iron .... weakness."

The mages face tightened in rage and she tightened her invisible grip.

 

[Skad]

The net?

Skad's scramble towards the voulge head was impeded by a sudden thundering of twin hooves that threatened to bruise flesh and shatter bone.

The net?!

Brenna's strangled cries made little sense to the Nordwiir, her unfamiliarity with the lore of demon horses evident as Kin-Slayer failed to imagine how she'd slay such a creature with a net. There wasn't time to ask questions, only time to move.

Forced to abandon the broken weapon, Kin-Slayer sprung to her feet and made the pivot, sprinting towards the weapon pile in search of the fabled Kelpie-conquering net, the much faster beast in furious pursuit. In her one-eyed adrenaline-tinged sight she saw a varied arsenal, her purple-faced friend and her nefarious fellow kin, whose strange chill still remained in the back of her mind.

No fucking net, however, as she had yet to catch sight of it, half-buried in the snow.

Aware that she was about to get trampled, Skad made a sharp beeline for the other Nordwiir, whose arcane focus ensured an easy target. It was, all things considered, a successful maneuver as she barrelled into the northern shaman in a running hug, causing them to both bare the brunt of the one-horse stampede that ploughed straight through them.

 

[Brenna]

The invisible hands about her neck vanished and Brenna dropped to the ground gasping and wheezing for air. She couldn't pull it into her lungs quick enough making her choke and cough as her body protested. Through a blurring vision she saw the kelpie plough into the two Nordenwiir and all but trample them into the snow. The beast didn't seem to have been able to stop in time for it continued on its war path several feet after the two bodies dropped to the ground, then it turned and lunged for another ago at them.

Brenna threw herself towards the pile of weapons even as her head swam still from the lack of oxygen and blood. To the crowds above who were no doubt roaring their enthusiasm she probably looked like a drunk, definitely like an easy meal. She stumbled, falling to one knee before the pile, and hopelessly groped for the net she had seen. Finally her fingers closed about the iron just as she looked up in time to see her kin finish off the kelpie he had been battling. He had lost too much blood and slumped down next to the dispatched fae, drawing his final breath.

Fuck fuck fuck.

She turned and raced back the way she had come, throwing the net with all her might as the kelpie reared up to pommel its hooves into Skad's face.

 

[Skad]

It felt exactly how it looked.

A stampeding rhythm of hammer blows that luckily landed upon her torso rather than cracking open her skull. Skad knew from feeling alone that bones had been crushed, the throb of pain digging deep into her shoulder blade and spine, legs tingling with a peculiar numbness. She groaned, kicking out her legs to ensure they still worked for the time being.

The Nordwiir next to her mumbled in unison, unfortunately still living but not entirely unscathed, as crimson dribbled forth from the woman's mouth.

<"So...you can bleed,"> Skad grunted, struggling to get back up to her feet to avoid getting ground into the snow a second time.

<"We shall bleed together, lost child of Haraudur.">

There was no time to consider such an omen as the kelpie returned for round two; the only thing saving Skad's face from being caved in was the sudden resurgence of Brenna with that fucking net! Kin-Slayer had braced for her swift end but instead was met with the violent scream of the beast.

The net, inexplicably, was hurting it. Suddenly, the words Brenna had choked out made more sense, although the rules of this realm remained a mystery.

"BRENNA!" Kin-Slayer roared at her deaf friend, hoping she would notice as she staggered upright toward the creature, "HELP HOLD NET!" Already missing most of her dominant hand, Skad knew she couldn't keep the kelpie trapped by herself; Spotta's wretched fucking shaman could wait.

 

[Brenna]

Brenna had heard of a thing called rodeo once. It had been one of the few stories of Southerners that had reached Faarin and had told the tale of how men in the deserts enjoyed sitting on wild horses whilst the creatures bucked and bronked in an effort to get the men off. It was some kind of sport meant to test bravery. Clutching the net on her side as the kelpie thrashed and leapt about, Brenna had to wonder if it just proved a persons stupidity.

More than once she found her feet lifting off the ground as the giant scaled beast reared or threw itself to the ground in an effort to get the burning iron off of its skin. Smoke wafted from the creatures skin as the iron dug deeper and deeper into the flesh. Eventually the animal began to slow and then finally it collapsed into the snow panting and snorting, sickly golden blood pooling into the snow. The beast looked up at them imploringly.

Swallowing, Brenna grabbed up her axe and then brought it down on the creatures head. Once, twice, thrice.