Das's Worry
Far, far away in another world, there is a large black palace with spacious halls a hundred feet high and floors made of silver. The halls are unadorned, with only the intricate carvings on the walls serving as the gloomy, black decorations of this dark palace.
Alone in these empty halls is a refined-looking man sweeping the floor.
Despite having the magic to clean everything instantly, the old man appears deep in thought as he pushes the broom along more by muscle memory than active thought.
There's loud clicking on the silver tiles, and the old, commonly dressed man looks up to see an imposing figure in black robes and a silver circlet around his head. The Death King, in his regal robes, looks over at the man and says, "Das, I told you that you don't need to work here. You're a high-ranking god, and you're well above sweeping the floor."
"Do you begin all conversations this way?" Das chuckles. "You don't have to bring it up every time we see each other."
The King shrugs and replies, "Sorry, friend. You know how dead souls are; we don't change our thoughts very easily. It'll always be weird seeing a god sweeping the floors."
The real reason the King hates having Das work as a common servant in his palace is because of the weird look foreign gods give him when they see a high-ranking god sweep floors. Isn't that a little inappropriate? Does the Death King not treat his subordinates well?
"I'm sorry, my king," Das replies without any apology in his voice. "You already know that I was a noble in my mortal life... but that was way too stressful. Living like this is soothing in its own way."
The king shakes his head at this, then says to Das seriously, "My friend, I have some news for you from that small world. That human you're interested in... I've just learned that Freyya has interfered again. She's sent a dragon after your heir."
The broom handle suddenly snaps. "What?" Das says with a measure of calm unbefitting his true feelings. "I'm this close to retirement, and that little Crow can't just leave the human alone?"
If Haalfrin dies in a bloody battle, all of Das's plans would be thrown out the window!
Das blinks slowly and asks, "Why are you telling me this, my king?"
"Well, I promised you two I wouldn't interfere with this matter," the death king replies, "However, you're my friend, I don't think it really counts as 'interfering' if I at least remind you that you need to stop being complacent with that mortal. You haven't won yet."
Das's breathing quickens, and he lets go of the broom, which vanishes into thin air. Then, he snaps his fingers.
Suddenly, his legs grow stronger, and he runs as fast as he can straight out of the palace before teleporting back to his own house…
(After all, using magic beyond a mortal's threshold in the palace is forbidden. Teleporting THAT far away is something beyond a mortal's capability, so Das had to leave first.)
When he arrives at his house, not much of the place is in clear view – just a rather small room with only a plain wardrobe and a single bed.
Das opens the wardrobe and walks straight into it. There's an entire storehouse inside the average-sized wardrobe.
Inside the wardrobe, he finds a book resting on a pedestal. The book itself is strange in that it appears to have an infinite number of pages… Well, it DOES house the death dates and fates of all magical beings on its pages, so there has to be a lot of room on it!
Das opens the book's first page and utters a codeword for the enchantment on the book.
"Page 6,453,001,921,999." The book flips so fast that it defies all logic, and there's an impossible number of pages in the books. It's as if the pages sprout into existence on one end of the book, slide in place to the other end, then disappears again.
Once his book has flipped to the right page, Das pulls out a magnifying glass and looks at the tiny names etched onto the page, which are listed in alphabetical order. "H...h...h... Ah! Haalfrin!"
Das then puts his finger on Haalfrin's Name and uses time-scrying magic to deduce a few things while spending a bit of his accumulated Yiir.
After divining the mortal's future for a bit, he steps back in horror. "Oh, bollocks! His Fate with me is dangerously low! How did Freyya do it?"
What Das doesn't actually know yet is that Freyya and Haalfrin had already exchanged Yiir Names, meaning that they now have a strong Fate with each other.
Without that Yiir connection between herself and Haalfrin, Freyya's stunt with getting Dakka to hunt the mortal down would never have worked. In fact, Dakka never would have been lucky enough to make it past the human stronghold into Haalfrin's world in the first place.
And with Dakka actively hunting for Haalfrin, the beast has drained more out of Das's blessing than all of Haalfrin's outside exploits combined.
Das slams the book shut and strides out of the wardrobe. He's going to have to think of something... and fast!
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While Das is furiously thinking of ways to mess things up for Haalfrin and Freyya, the archmage receives a letter from King Galver saying in simple terms. "The kingdom has paid a high price for keeping Haalfrin safe. As payment for not giving up the boy to the dragon, he'll have to make himself useful and contribute to the country equal to the losses our people had to take."
Of course, the actual decree was full of flowery language and a page full of royal greetings, but that was the gist of the message.
Kalastros curls his lip in frustration, and he crumples the letter before burning it in his palm. 'Prince Kanus!' he growls out his frustration, '…If that little brat sends my disciple off to get himself killed, I'll skin the brat alive!'
Of course, who else could be behind this other than Crown Prince Kanus? Haalfrin publicly at least has a connection with Prince Tallus – his unwelcome rival.
Barring that, the only reason the king would be willing to get rid of the kingdom's future archmage is if he was paving the way for his favorite son!
Alas, the decision came from the royal family… so the fact that Haalfrin is now to be sent out on missions is set in stone.
Knowing there's nothing he can do to fight, this, Kalastros hands over the letter to Bayviir reluctantly and says, "Bring this to my disciple right now."
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After an hour, Mister Bayviir comes running back in panic and blurts out, "The young master is gone!"
Kalastros freaks out at this, "What? He hasn't run away in years!? Is now really the time to go looking for fights again?"
Bayviir quickly pulls out a note and explains in between deep breaths, "I found this on his bed. I can't read it, sir."
"It's fine," Kalastros waves his butler away. "This is in the language of one of the Rehkin tribes I taught him."
The archmage peers at the letter which reads, "Our mutual friend, Das, came by and said that he needed to show me something, and that it was urgent. He didn't give me an option, really, but he gave me time to write you a letter at least. I'll be back as soon as I can."
Ah... The archmage had almost forgotten that there was a pair of death gods trying to meddle with his apprentice.
Kalastros looks down and taps his feet anxiously. 'I hope those gods don't do anything serious to Haalfrin. I don't trust either one of them.'