Forbidden Time

-An unknown amount of time later-

As Freyya and Yiirkavar travel through Nowhere, the landscape around them constantly changes. One minute, it's an endless dune of white sand. The next moment, it's a land of rolling mountains. The next, she even sees an endless city sprawled out, which is filled with little people.

"Wait, people live here?" Freyya asks with a raised eyebrow.

"No, they don't." Yiirkavar sounds very firm on this. "Notice anything different about those people?"

Indeed, these people don't look normal. Instead of being made of flesh, they all seem to be made of black ooze, and they have glowing eyes of various colors.

"Did these poor people get trapped here?" Freyya asks urgently. "Did the Void do this to them? Shouldn't we bring these people out?"

"What's the point?" Yiirkavar shrugs. "These are people living lives that never got to Be. Think of every possible event that never got to happen, and people that never got to be created."

"Every choice you make destroys countless other possible futures," Yiirkavar asserts. "Those futures all come here when they're no longer possible."

He shrugs. "I like to call these the 'Impossibilities'." (Very creative – yes)

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For what seems like an eternity, Freyya and Yiirkavar travel through Nowhere. They meet countless 'people' along the way, and they see countless sights that no one else will ever get to see.

Apparently, Yiirkavar has a specific order to follow on which Impossibilities they travel through. At the end of this path is a bastion of true Existence that he hid Drakavar's past and future in.

Of course, he was so careful in hiding it because he didn't want the White Yiirkin (someone he despises) to ever find it.

At last, after what seems like an eternity, Freyya and he are running up to a large white dome. Behind them is an army of alien creatures from a race that never evolved in the first place – some type of fish people with dexterous fingers and crocodile heads.

"Why did you have to put the exit right behind an Impossibility like this, Nomad!?" Freyya shrieks in anger.

After so long travelling with Yiirkavar, she'd long grown comfortable with the Elder God. He acts so much like a friend with everyone that it was hard for her to keep acting formal to him.

Of course, Yiirkavar had insisted on being given a nickname, since to him, 'Yiirkavar' is just a title, and it sounds too stiff to him.

In the end, she comes to call him 'Nomad'

"It's not my fault!" 'Nomad' laughs back at her. "Oh wait, it is. I designed this path. Well, we're at the end anyway. Let's jump through."

Given that Freyya is taller than him and has longer legs, she reaches the white barrier first. The moment she slips inside, she feels a warm breath of air.

Right after she gets inside, Nomad stumbles in after her. They both fall on the ground – exhausted, and they stare at the blue sky together.

"…You can let go of my hand, now," Yiirkavar / Nomad says. "We're not in Nowhere anymore."

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Once Freyya and 'Mr. Nomad' step past the white barrier, she feels a rush of fresh air and she feels the sun's comforting, golden glow. "Ah. This is refreshing…" she smiles peacefully.

After she opens her eyes again, she looks behind her and sees that the barrier she came through is now gone. She then turns to Yiirkavar and smiles cluelessly. "Who are you?" she asks.

Yiirkavar rolls his eyes. "You can call me Nomad."

"Have we met before?" Freyya asks with a childish grin.

Nomad sighs wearily. "I thought this might happen," he mumbles before looking up at her and speaking more clearly. "Your name is Freyya. The Time in this place, and the Time you came from are completely separated by Nowhere. That means the memories of both universes can't cross over into each other."

Freyya doesn't seem to understand what he's talking about, since she's lost all of her memories. So, Nomad takes a few minutes to explain to her in detail what happened to her.

"So you're saying that I have a past, but because I'm in a separate universe with a different Time, I can't remember that past?" Freyya asks incredulously.

"Correct," Nomad nods. "Your past can't come here, because your past doesn't exist here." He then points towards the village down the road. "Just the same, the Time spent here can only exist in this universe. The moment you go back to your own universe, you'll have forgotten everything about THIS place."

"What am I doing here?" Freyya asks.

"You're here to learn a few things that you need in order to make a Mantling Ritual."

"What's a Mantling Ritual?" she asks.

"Hmm… Let me explain…"

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For the next decade, Freyya and her 'mysterious companion' travel across this universe and appear in countless timelines.

Since the people and events here Exist in the truest sense (unlike in the land of Nowhere), she and Nomad are forced into countless little adventures – most of which involve being chased by the locals, and a few of their tribes trying to capture Freyya once they find out that she's a goddess. Her being a goddess came as a surprise to herself too… of course…

What's even more frustrating to Freyya is that she had to learn the language here. She could've learned a lot sooner, but she's forgotten all of her translating spells, and Nomad seems to be unable to cast conventional magic.

Of course, at the center of each of their adventures is a young, black haired little girl with golden eyes. "Isn't she so adorable?" Nomad would always whisper next to Freyya whenever they managed to find her.

Of course, in order to not disturb the Timeline, Nomad and Freyya have to keep their presence a secret from young Drakavar, which is frustrating for Freyya at times.

Frankly, she sees a lot of unpleasant things happen in Drakavar's childhood that she'd have liked to try interfering with.

Sure, they help the little girl out in little ways, but they never allow themselves to be seen by her.

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Sometime during their long journey, Freyya asks Nomad, "Why are you here, helping me? What's the point of this Mantling Ritual, anyway?"

"I've told you over and over again. It's so that you can be with your husband and claim his soul."

"Are you sure this 'Haalfrin' even exists?" Freyya crosses her arms menacingly. While observing Drakavar, she'd seen enough people lie and betray others enough to become wary of such things. Is Nomad trying to use her for his own selfish designs? Is she being tricked somehow?

What makes her even more suspicious is that while he claims to be an all powerful God of Time and Space, he still drags her along and acts lie SHE'S the one who has to do the Ritual. Since this is a Yiir spell, shouldn't he be able to do it himself? Why does he need her?

Nomad is… speechless from her questions. Since Haalfrin and her past with him doesn't exist here, he can't exactly prove that he's speaking the truth. The best he can do is reassure her; perhaps being a little honest with her will make her cooperate.

"Freyya… I'm a Kindred God. Gods like us can't cast spells," he confesses to her. He almost wants to chuckle when he sees her shocked expression. "What? Haven't you noticed that I always use prepared spell scrolls whenever I defend myself?"

"W-why's everyone afraid of the Kindred Gods if they can't cast spells?" Freyya stammers – still not sure if she should believe him.

"I'm 'Yiir-ka-var'. I have infinite Yiirvar in my soul… That's it." He plops down on a log and beckons for her to sit next to him. "I've told you all about video games, right?"

"Right!" Freyya chirps happily. "I really want to play them! They sound fun!"

Too bad those things don't exist in this Timeline.

"Well, Kindred Gods are basically min-maxed characters. Imagine that the 7 virtues of the soul are 7 stats your character can have. Dra is your power stat, and Yiir is your dexterity stat. I have maxed out my Yiir stat, but I have nothing else. Most spells require a mix of different stats to cast."

He points to her heart. "Power, or 'Dra', is the ability to change things. Mantling rituals change someone's Fate. I don't have any Dra in my soul, which means I can't change anything directly like you can."

He wiggles his feet. "The most I can do is be everywhere and anywhere I want, whenever I want. You could say that I'm the freest person in existence."

Freyya realizes now that Nomad telling her about this weakness means that he really trusts her. Seeing as how he reached out to her so genuinely, Freyya decides to trust him back.

Of course, the only reason Yiirkavar was willing to expose his biggest weakness is because he knows she won't remember any of this when they leave.

"Ok," she stands up, "where to next?"