Another Day

The days pass as they should; it breathes the peace and chaos that we, living beings, attempt to manage. To control. We, individually, can't control the fate of the world itself however.

"It's time to stop running, Sundī!"

That's the Allfather speaking, his fuse really is short. Previously, before me having to escape the royal halls of Asgard; I, Sin, was sent as an emissary for Death and the organization, D.E.D, the Dominion for Executing Disruption centralized in Niflheim. The job was given to me by Death temporarily and I planned to do the best I could to settle things diplomatically.

It began with the dark elegance of the main quarters of D.E.D where all the high ranking officers, guardians, and enforcers stood to receive their personal missions from Death them-self. Then, Death called me to the podium and exclaimed "I have chosen Jackal to be my personal enforcer. His first task is to negotiate a treaty with the pantheon for work stations in all the accessible parts of the nine realms in exchange for certain demands approved by myself." I felt my non-existent blood run cold, but my mission took priority. "Hey, don't be that way, Jackal." said my close associate, Omega. "Things could be worse; this could be your chance to redeem yourself in the eyes of the public~" said my other associate, Dama Muerte. Neither know of my true identity, just my relationship with the Aesir and, to an extent, the world. I use various forms of communication such as writing and telepathy, but all of them have their own limitations for obvious reasons. I used telepathy to say "Thank you; I'll be making preparations, so I'll be seeing you two on a later date." I left before either could get a word in. I went to receive the intel of the mission and I dressed for the occasion, though along with my regular attire Death provided me a robe along with scythe, oh the nostalgia; the preparations were made and my transportation group set out.

The time flew as various distractions, lethal and non-lethal, rose to impede our group; they, oftentimes, involved bandits, monsters(real and ones formed from illusions,) and biomes. We eventually had to stay one night in the deepest depths of a forest in Vanaheim; this led to a rebellion among our enforcers. My group of four versus a small party consisting of two lesser reapers and the top enforcer, Megami. She asked everyone "Are we really going to assist the Prince of Calamity in a mission against the Aesir?"

"No, I refuse to play a part in this plot! I implore you all to see the evil that is in our organization!" I wonder where she got that information, I guess it was right to bring the spare cloak and scythe Death provided; I guess they really are the clairvoyant they claim to be. Now all that was left was to isolate Megami and erase her memories.

"Show yourself, Tsumi." I think I'll play with her head a little. "I'm right behind you" she turned quickly. "You should be cautious of who's listening, carelessness like that could get you killed." To her, we had our eyes locked on to each-other; in reality I was watching and staying a close but safe distance. She remained calm as the "threat" began the lengthy questions. "Care to explain yourself; do you mean rebel against Death?" She remained still-faced as she said "I don't have to answer to you; you're planning to twist our orders and kill them all." I decided to take control of the questions as to not have any complications. "And what would killing the Aesir gods do to help me? You're not even sure if my goals correlates with the so-called Prince of Calamity not to mention if he even exist." I could feel a chilling resentment from her after I said that. She said "I don't know you, not by name, not by face, not even by your ideals and goals. I can't trust you." I couldn't deny that. She quickly added "You also carry a sword everywhere you go, isn't that a little unusual for one who's referred to as the esteemed Jackal?" I chuckled and replied "Many Soldiers carry extra weapons in case their current one breaks and, of course, you never know what could happen." I need to get information out of her, I'll use that temper she has against her; she does hate being questioned. "Mind if I ask why your doing this now? This is the first you've tried this despite the multitude of missions we've been in together." She was in disarray as she was searching for a proper answer, good. "Why do you single me out anyway; those reasons you made up can be explained if you asked me about them prior to now, could it be that you wanted the position Death is planning to give me?" She was mad. "You're the quietest and the most reclusive of the high-ranking enforcers. How can you even make such an accusation despite your previous claim?" I responded "And despite everything you still made your accusation about me; just tell me the truth and we can fix the problem we're in." I believe I may have messed up, I continued however. "I simply ask that you confront me to receive information rather than making conclusion by yourself and reporting those conclusion." She snapped. "I'll decide what I want; I don't care if I have to end one of my peer's lives to achieve my goals; you aren't worthy of being Death's personal enforcer." She pulled out her multiple kunai and readied for battle. Checkmate.

The illusion faded and Megami was cornered. "I told you to be cautious of who's listening" She froze. "Megami, you along with your accomplices shall be punished for disrupting an important mission." The three traitors gathered together, fearing the inevitable. Megami had tears falling from her mask, as each tear collided with the soil she lost hope of leaving with her life. I removed my disguise and carved onto a nearby tree: You have two choices: you kill them or we kill them as you watch. Megami's eyes glistened with her doubts as she searched for the best answer. She finally said "You and your goons kill them." Shame and anguish showered her face. We began to cut and bludgeon them, starting with their legs and working our way up. We avoided fatal areas and when we were ready to kill them I got the lesser reapers to back down; I made several dull cuts on both the traitors' necks and let them slowly die in front of Megami. She broke as the two martyrs showed their disgust and hatred. She cried out "Why!? Why are you doing this; just end their misery already!" I stood there watching coldly as she cried in anger and sorrow; I still felt nothing for the people around me.

Some time passed, we all disposed of the two bodies. The group was divided on whether or not to kill Megami, but I erased the groups memory of her involvement. I sent everyone to rest for the night, but I didn't sleep and neither did Megami. We both did what we always did: sharpen our weapons, set traps to stop any intruders, salvage anything useful. We didn't say a word to each and after everything was done we spent countless hours in cold, empty silence until Megami broke the silence. "Hey... um, do you hate me for what I tried to do?" I held no words as I couldn't say what exactly I felt. What was she expecting me to say? The awkward silence rose to replace the faint sentiment. The time passed; I "broke" the silence this time "You said that you know nothing about me; you want to make a deal? You show me your face and I'll show mine." In hind sight this was a stupid idea; she agreed to it. I removed my modified jackal mask; she began questioning me. "Are you from a tribe or clan, you have very odd marking on your face. I was confused; is having markings unusual? "My people are born with these marking, each one of us are born with a unique pattern that can change occasionally." She lighted up and asked " You look like most people, what makes your kind different from most? You seem like you're a kitsune but most don't have those marks." I felt some irritation after that and bitterly responded "I'm no kitsune, I can do what they can but I'm not the same as them." She was puzzled after that but refrained from asking any sensitive questions. She eventually realized it was her turn to reveal her face; she hesitated but took off her crudely-made noh onna-men mask. Is she human? I analyzed her for a good ten minutes until she got uncomfortable. She asked "Aren't your going to say something like 'you're very beautiful' or ask some sort of question?" I responded without listening "What kind of creature are you?" She looked unimpressed as she said "I'm a yuki-onna, why?" I responded "You have the look of a human so I asked in case you were one." Now she was absolutely baffled. She asked "What's a human? I've never heard of such a creature." I should've said nothing. "Are they powerful? What magic can they do and where do they live?" She was beyond ecstatic, made me feel warm; her questions could have been toned down a bit though. I just had to tell her the truth though. "Human aren't the strongest and most lack any magical potential and likely don't use it now that the source of their magic, other living being with magic, had fled from Midgard; I'm not sure about now but before they were one of, if not, the most adaptive of all the bipedal creatures. I don't believe that's exactly a good thing though." She thought about what I said for a while until giving up. "Why wouldn't that be a good thing?" I responded "They did anything to succeed, they tried to destroy certain species like the lycanthropes and the tsuchinoko and even parts of the world they lived in." She was appalled but felt like that was familiar. I noticed her conflicting emotions and tried to mediate it. "They also created many great things by observing others: they created the music you and many others listen to, they made the the idea of flying machines and even the clothing we wear came from them; they created many things but also destroyed many things, it's a boundless cycle for them." She better than before at least; she then asked grimly "So why do we look human, there has to be a reason, right?" I sat thinking of a good answer to ease her mind. I told her "For beings like myself, we were spawned from their fears and beliefs; your kind started as humans and turned into what you are now through the elements and your humans' death. Let's stop talking now, it's likely that you won't like it if we continue talking about humans and the various actions surrounding them." She was hestaint but she said "Alright, no more talk about humans but can we still talk; it's feels very odd to not have any noise in a giant forest under a lunar eclipse." I was skeptical since I've always worked under it and she has worked with me several times. I waited for her to ask a question or say something. We sat there and nothing happened at our expense. Dawn crept it's way into our vision and we both sloppily put our mask back on. The reapers who were dormant had risen to see us together with our mask misplaced; their mouths displayed a little smirk shortly after, that made me feel mildly annoyed while she was incredibly embarrassed. I didn't know what they were thinking but it still infuriated me. We both readjusted our masks and tried to act appropriately. I counted our groups' numbers as Megami searched for "stragglers" she said. All were accounted for, so I signaled our continued voyage to Asgard.

The constant illumination of Asgard's entirety shone a blinding gold hue. This was unusual to me, I suppose it's due to the event we are a part of. The gates opened and the servants of the Aesir greeted us warmly, something I felt wouldn't last long, but we still pressed on with hope in our eyes. We, luckily, were allowed to rest since almost a whole day pasted after the act of rebellion. All of us were separated and treated well by the servants since the majority of the Aesir were dealing a classified problem or mission. We spent our time waiting and serving ourselves to food and drinks, I knew we were being monitored since we were denied exiting the chambers and halls of the main area, away from the Einherjar's combat quarters and areas where the Aesir spent their time. I spent my time in the archives in search of information on current events, these came to my attention: the discovery of the virus "Tenebris Necrolos" in Svartalfheim, the rising of foreign pantheons, and the new prophecies revolving the various foreign entities that have appeared in the nine realms of today. I was prohibited from looking beyond the covers when I was finally found by the Valkyries and denied from exiting my room without an armored supervisor for their own safety. I chose to leave for the library and read some of the available books involving magic, even tried and succeed in lighting several candles at once without using a medium to replace my voice. I wanted to continue testing the spells but I was interrupted by Megami who wished to practice in the open area of the library; I hid and kept an eye on her from the shadows. She said "Who else is here?" shortly after my supervisor signaled her supervisor. We met and after an idle conversation involving why I came here, we sparred to test each-other on our skills. She was more oriented towards proper fighting tactics and spells while I used my agility and "cheap tricks" to make-up for the lack of range my sickles had compared to her kunai which were attached to her wrists and fingers. I got an earful thanks to my disregard for honor. I simply do what I can with what I have at my disposal; things could be different if I could speak to do spells rather than use natural-born abilities to combat others on equal grounds. Things went that way for a while; we left it off as a stalemate but we were both very disappointed for different reasons. The time pasted as I continued my reading and testing of chant-less spells while Megami wandered around in search of poetry judging by her reading. The servants eventually sent us to our rooms, most likely to sleep, but I remained in the darkness of my room writing, reading, and testing on how to optimize the spells in the book aptly-named "Spells for The Dumb" by Mimir. The fifth day came, I grew concerned, so our group chose to investigate to find out we was happening for the Aesir to be away for such a long time without any word about their status. We escaped the vision of the supervisors and began questioning the kitchen staff and other people with the except of the servants as I feared they were not to be trusted, after tireless asking and searching for answers we met at the top of the main building to monitor the servants as they searched for us and discuss our findings and, hopefully, get some answers. The information we received confusing as some of the questioned spoke of war while others say there's going to be a search for "something of untold potential." Something especially odd occurred when two from our group asked the same person, a different answer came as the questioned reacted violently to seeing both of the reapers at the same time after they asked; something was wrong and most can't give us a proper answer. I began asking for suggestions on what to do. Megami said "Let's try to break into the archives and search through the latest of the scriptures." Another said "We could attempt to get information from one of the people searching for us or, perhaps, even the Valkyries." I disagreed on both, they aren't the worst, but there will be major consequences if we fail; most of our solutions held high stakes with the exception of escaping but that had its own consequences and the majority of our group were unhappy to hear that as an option. The predicament we were in escalated since we were spotted, we fled to find a vantage point. We then discovered that the interstice known as the Bifrost ultimatum had fallen apart, no other beings foreign to the nine realms could enter it. Isolation. We couldn't leave through the normal Bifrost either, we were forced to stay and wait until things die down.