Bastardized Blessing
As the days tick past, Haalfrin only moves from his sitting position to hunt meat in the woods. Whenever he hunts farther than usual, he always sees Crow Folk in the distance with his enhanced eyes. They always scurry away upon seeing him.
'Huh,' Haalfrin realizes one day, after spotting Crow Folk yet another time, 'I guess Freyya is actually tall compared to her people.'
Indeed, after he got another close look at them, he noticed that they were all ridiculously short people. The men average around 4.5 feet tall, and the women - about 4.
Meanwhile, Freyya stands a little over 5 feet off the ground. Compared to the rest of her race, she's practically a giant.
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Other than his quirky discoveries, Haalfrin spends most of his time trying to calm himself in the face of the pain Freyya's Yiir Rune is placing on his soul.
Every day, Haalfrin anxiously checks his soul Gate, and he sees his Yiir Rune contorting more and more by the day as if it's in immense pain.
'I don't get it,' he wonders one day, 'Our Yiir Names are supposed to be compatible? Why does it look like my Yiir is trying to fight hers?'
What makes 2 Yiir Names compatible is if your Fates are destined to entwine. His own Fate showed him becoming a Warrior god and fighting Freyya's battles in the afterlife – leading all the doomed souls that belong to her into war.
This Fate is the reason they were able to share their Names together and still be fine! What REALLY changed?
Then, it clicks to Haalfrin, and he smiles mischievously. "Eh heh, Freyya. You're a clever girl."
Indeed, the only thing attached to Haalfrin's Fate that would separate his Fate from Freyya's is Das's Blessing of Luck.
"I've had that stupid blessing for so long that I actually forgot it was there."
Das's "Blessing" had been silently veering danger away from Haalfrin for so long… and it's keeping Haalfrin and Freyya from realizing their Destiny together.
"Well, let's see what I can do about that."
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The first thing Haalfrin does is go into his Soul Realm again and study his Yiir Rune more in-depth. Since he's already figured out that what Freyya's Fate Rune is suppressing is actually Das's Blessing hidden in his own Fate, he needs to figure out how to use this situation to his advantage.
During the coming days spent reading his Yiir Rune over and over again, he starts to notice a gradual change in his Rune.
Names are always momentarily exposed when they're read, which means that since Haalfrin is constantly reading his Fate Rune, the damage from Freyya's Fate is far more direct on his soul. It's like stripping off your armor and exposing your bare chest in a sword fight.
Hence, Haalfrin keels over, and the pain is multiplied several times.
Still, like a hammer beating the impurities out of molten ore, the silver and black divine light of a Death god starts leaking out of Haalfrin's Rune. What was once previously integrated deeply inside him is now slowly being purged from his soul.
Realizing that he actually has results now, Haalfrin grits his teeth and smiles through the pain. 'Just a bit longer, and Das's Blessing will be squeezed out of my soul forever.'
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Drop by drop, the black and silver energy leaks out of his Yiir Rune in the sky. Like a leaky ceiling, it drip-drops onto the ground and makes an ugly pool on the floor of Haalfrin's Soul Realm.
Almost as soon as the Divine Energy of Das's blessing starts collecting on the ground, thousands of Will wisps come from their aimless wanderings in the distance, and they converge on the pooled energy.
Even though Haalfrin doesn't understand what the Wills are saying, it's very clear what they want. "AWAY!" he furiously shouts through the pain, "THAT'S MINE!"
Of course, the Wills who are most eager to absorb the abundant Divine Energy are the Bandit Wills, though even some of the more morally upright Wills can hardly resist the temptation.
Haalfrin ends up having to stand up and cruelly outstretch his hands. All the Wills scatter as he exerts his authority as the Ruler of this Realm. "QUIET DOWN, OR I'M ERASING YOU ALL TODAY!"
They all know the commander is livid now. Like little children caught stealing cookies, they all slink off to their own corners and try to pretend they don't exist.
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Many more days pass, though Haalfrin has no idea how many, as he's stuck in his Soul Realm. This place has a boring cloudy sky with no day-night cycle.
In all honestly, Haalfrin appreciates there being no way to tell time here; it's less distracting.
During the times Haalfrin has to sleep (or when he gets too exhausted having his soul hammered on by Freyya's Yiir Rune looming above him) Kaalhyme, Kalastros, and some of his other most loyal Wills gather around him and stand vigil over the growing pool of divine energy.
Whenever one of the more daring Wills tries sneaking forward, the loyal ones alert Haalfrin, and he beats down the would-be thieves.
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Finally, the pain in Haalfrin's soul starts to lessen as Das's influence on his destiny becomes fainter and fainter.
Of course, it'll be impossible to completely get rid of the god of Decay's Blessing, but he's certainly removed enough of it to make a difference.
The reason you can't remove the ENTIRE blessing is the same logic as why you can't get ALL impurities out of a metal just by smelting it. The fewer impurities there are in the metal, the more exponentially hard it is to squeeze out any more.
Just the same way, the biggest release of Divine energy happened at the beginning of the procedure. From there, the amount of Das's Divine power coming out became less and less. It was a steady stream of drops first, then a faint dribble, then a barely noticeable leak.
Still not satisfied, Haalfrin keeps going on and on as much as he can until no more Divine Energy is noticeably coming out. If he had to give an estimate, he squeeze out more than 50% of it, though it could be more.
After all is said and done, Haalfrin stands up and stretches his sore limbs. "AH! It feels good to have THAT over with!"
Now that the Blessing is effectively gone, the oppressive hostility from Freyya's Rune has been replaced with a warm comfort akin to a loved one's embrace.
Then, Haalfrin looks down at the pool of Divine Energy liquidated on the ground. 'Now,' he licks his lips with greed in his eyes, 'what will I do with you?'
He looks up and ponders that question; he was so focused on bearing the pain earlier that he hadn't thought any further about it until now.
After a while, he gets a great idea. "I'll just put the Das's Blessing into my Dra Rune instead! Eh heh! That's such a great idea!"
To clarify, a Name Rune is like a volume of text describing your identity in the universe, and a god's blessing is like another chapter added to that Name.
Das's blessing is a potent power that Haalfrin wants, and he knows that he has to put it into one of his Names in order to make use of it.
However, if he puts it back in his Yiir Rune, then he'll have undone all his work. No, he has to put it in another Name - his Dra Name!
Yes. The Dra Name is the safest bet.
(Now, remember that the soul gate is shaped like a 6-pointed star; on each point is written a Rune of your Soul. How Runes are positioned on the star compared to each other shows their relationship to each other.)
The 2 adjacent Runes can create the one in the middle, like how Fel (change) and Syl (law) can create Dra (power).
[Image of Dra, Fel, and Syl Runes in comment]
The 2 other Runes sharing the same triangle are inherently similar – like how Dra (body), Reh (Spirit), and May (Mind) can often be interchangeable. After all, Spiritual things can physically manifest, and damage to a physical brain can affect your mind and spirit directly.
[Image of Dra, Reh, and May Runes in comment]
…And finally is the Rune relationship Haalfrin cares about the most right now.
The 2 Runes on complete opposite ends of the Gate are … well… opposites. Getting more of one will often reduce the other. They repel each other most of the time…
[Image of the Dra and Yiir Runes in comment]
…kind of like how Dra (power) and Yiir (luck) seem to hate each other. The more Power you have, the more capable you are of controlling your own path, rather than letting Fate direct you. The stronger your Fate is, the more easily you can subvert the mighty through unexpected ways.
Why else could intrepid (stupid) young heroes sometimes manage to slay dragons? In every instance, they get lucky… Or, if you look at it the other way, the Drakin are incredibly UNLUCKY; they have the strongest Dra of any beings, yet their luck is utter trash.
"Anyway," Haalfrin shakes all these thoughts away, "if I put Das's Blessing in my Dra Rune instead, it might work opposite to what it was intended to do."
With a wide grin on his face, Haalfrin carefully lifts up the black/silver water with a spell, and he carefully guides it in a long funnel up to the sky again. Surgically, he slowly feeds it into his Dra Rune.
As he does so, his Dra Rune starts to glow momentarily before going soft again.
Once the entire pool of Divine Energy is gone, Haalfrin plops on the ground. For some reason, handling Divine Energy himself was more exhausting than enduring the pain over the last few weeks.
Still, no matter how tired he is, Haalfrin can't help but feel pleased with himself.
He may not know exactly what he just did, but he is sure he did the right thing.