Haalfrin and Frey (2/2)

"There are two possible reasons she knew about our meeting," Haalfrin says while holding up two fingers. "One is that she's in possession of my Yiir Name; divine beings like her can get a lot more information out of Name Runes than mortals like us. She definitely saw more of my timeline from my Yiir Rune than I saw myself."

"The other reason," he continues, "is actually something I'd have never known unless she had accidentally let it slip."

Instead of continuing on, Haalfrin looks down and suddenly goes silent. He's not sure if he should tell her this… He thinks about it and realizes that nothing terrible happened when Freyya told HIM, so it's probably fine if he tells Frey too.

"What is it!?" Frey asks anxiously.

"A long time ago," Haalfrin carefully explains, "Das took me to the Death Realm. I've already told you that story, but what I didn't tell you was what Das told me after the trip; he said that he wanted me to take his place as the god of Decay after his retirement. He tried to guilt trip me into accepting a peaceful death by saying that the world would be thrown into chaos with no Death Reaper to take his place."

"…That DOES sound pretty bad, Haalfrin."

"That's exactly it!" Haalfrin continues, "I had brought this up to Freyya the next time I saw her, and she laughed it off. She let slip that when a Death god dies or retires that his / her replacement doesn't have to be ready right in that instant."

"Huh…?" Frey mumbles, "Wouldn't things go bad if an heir isn't ready in time?"

"To gods of their stature," Haalfrin explains, "time is irrelevant. Whenever the next god-candidate with death affinity gets his / her 7th Name, they're moved through time to the moment when the previous Death god's seat was vacated."

(A/N: Refer to Chapter 72 – Freyya's Cake, Volume 2)

Haalfrin sits back and flicks his hand casually as if recalling a fond memory. "Ha! She was so quick to reveal this to me because she was worried about me feeling guilty about Das's retirement. She wanted to reassure me that the god of Decay position isn't in any danger of being empty."

"Wait…," Frey pauses. "What does that have to do with… Oh… Oh no…"

"…Right…," Haalfrin smiles with a tired face. "That means Freyya isn't necessarily from this timeline. More than likely, she's from the future. If she's from the future, then she obviously knows about our present… as if it were her own past."

Frey looks down and grips her skirt tightly. "Haalfrin… I… Am I…"

Haalfrin holds up his hands and thinks, 'If it were before, I'd keep silent. Telling her about her own future does make me a little anxious, since if even Freyya wouldn't do it, then there must be a good reason not to. Maybe being in love makes people more stupid, so I'd be really happy if she knew the truth.'

Finally, Frey manages to spit out her words, "Do you think I'm Freyya?" Why else would he profess to love her more than anyone, yet avoid comparing her to the Crow goddess?

Haalfrin looks her in the eyes and says, "No. I KNOW you're Freyya."

"How?"

"When Freyya and I exchanged Yiir Names, I saw parts of her past. I saw her grow up in that very cabin we found each other in. I saw her, as a child, be kidnapped by some fellow Crow clansmen. I saw them cut her wings off and sell her off to some humans. I saw her work in a prison deep underground, and I saw her up until the moment when a horde of spectral black hands rose from the ground and failed to kill her. It was that incident, where my Wills took my Death Aura, that was the catalyst to her getting her Yiir Name."

Haalfrin looks down and finishes, "I know how we met. On the hotter days, when you wear shorter shirts, I've also seen the 2 scars on your back; you weren't trying to hide them, after all. Your eyes also glow blue when you use magic, so that means you're a Rehkin, not a human. Most importantly, you look exactly like Freyya, and you were coincidentally 'named after the Crow goddess' your parents worshipped. Since the Crow Clan are the only Rehkin Clan dedicated to worshipping Freyya, then that means you are more than likely a Crow."

He was going to keep prattling on about how Freyya's suspicious behavior only makes sense if she and Frey are the same person. For example, Freyya would always get jealous / annoyed (Haalfrin can't tell the difference between those emotions) whenever ladies other than herself would be close to Haalfrin. However, the Crow goddess has known about Frey's attachment to him for a long time, yet she never made an issue out of it; it's like she approved of the girl's feelings for Haalfrin!

However, he immediately shuts his mouth when big fat tear drops start to fall down Frey's cheeks. She curls her body and painfully starts to cry.

"Why… Why didn't you tell me?" She wipes her eyes, "Never mind. You already explained that you were worried about messing up the timelines – that things would happen that aren't supposed to happen."

Seeing that her sobbing is getting even more out of hand, Haalfrin gets up to his feet, sits next to her on the bed, and puts one arm on her shoulder. "Why are you sad?"

Through her sniffling, she bawls out, "If I'm the Crow goddess, then that means that the moment I get my 7th Name, I'll be whisked away to the distant past, and I won't be able to take you with me."

Haalfrin knows that he can't do anything about that, and that helpless feeling is terrible. So, the only thing he can do is… keep quiet and give her cake? He's not really sure.

While his helpless thoughts swirl in his head, Frey wipes her eyes again and says resolutely, "I'll do it. I'll go with the Crow clan and become their goddess."

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Given that Haalfrin is on a tight leash, and that Fisco is holding the other end, he doesn't know when a good time to go to the Crow Clan would be. Plus, given his fond feelings for Frey, he's not exactly in a hurry to part with her.

Frey must feel the same way about leaving, since she never tries to up and leave on her own. The two of them have very long lives ahead of them, so it's not an urgent matter to send her away.

Of course, a few things change between them; the two of them act differently around each other now.

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Faylin and Myra are walking down the hall together when Myra spots Haalfrin's tall, lumbering figure darting out of his room. "Look," she points out, "Haalfrin seems to be pretty busy; he's always leaving his room in the middle of the night."

Faylin calls out, "Oi! Haalfrin! Off to another 'water break'?"

Haalfrin just scowls light-heartedly at her and walks away on stiff legs.

"Why's he walking funny?"