Rite of Surrogation (1/4)

Almost immediately after Freyya falls unconscious, Haalfrin perks up and feels a dozen or so VERY strong Auras – all approaching his location fast.

Before he can even think about what to do about this, the space above him warps, and an array of many different colored Aura's shine through. One after another several gods start slipping through their portals.

Of course, the only god here that Haalfrin recognizes is the Death King himself – that too is only because he can feel the strong Death Aura on the man. The rest are complete strangers.

In unison, all the gods here look straight at Freyya. 'What are they planning…?' Haalfrin wonders as his fingers inch over toward the necrocrystal blade at his hip.

There's a long moment of silence, as all of the gods look at each other and wait for someone else to make the first move.

Once a god in the back (an elderly man with a long white beard) tries stepping forward, the Death King holds out a hand to stop him, "Stay back."

The elderly god looks up at the Death King and squints his eyes. "She's within my kingdom's territory. I have a right to at least inspect the culprit."

"Wrong. She's in Dasraman Lareen's territory," the Death King replies tersely. "The man just barely lost his divine mantle and his kingdom, and nobody's agreed yet that this solar system is yours." He gestures down at Freyya. "Besides, she's my Reaper. That makes her my responsibility."

The old god steps forward and looks the Death King in the eye. "And what do you have to say about that? Hmm…? How are you going to take responsibility for letting a Death god wreak havoc in the Mortal Realm?"

Another god steps up – this one a red haired woman with 7 feathered wings on her back arrayed in the colors of the rainbow (some lesser Felkin goddess). "You'll be needing to hand over the weapon your Reaper used to cause much damage," she says as she points down at the Black Scale lying beside Freyya.

"Agreed," the bearded god says as he nods his head. "Drawing on the power of Elshirothe is a dangerous thing. In fact, the Council needs to be warned about how the Archdemon's scales can be used for such a thing. We can't let any of these scales float around among the masses anymore."

"Yes, gives us the Scale," another god in the back chips in.

Another random god crosses his arms and huffs angrily, "At the very least, the criminal should have her Divine Mantle stripped from her."

"ENOUGH!" A black burst of power pulses from the Death King, and the other gods recoil in fear at his Aura. "Maybe I've put off visiting the Mortal Realm for too long? All these children seem to think they can talk over me. They even think they can tell me what to do with my own subordinates."

"But-"

The Death King interrupts the speaker, "If you have a problem with my final verdict, then feel free to whine about it to Emperor Imho'Reeth. I guarantee that he's not going to march down the World Tree into the Death Realm just to get any answers from me."

Feeling more than a little disgusted, the Death King waves his left hand, and a dozen portals open up beneath all the other gods. In a mere instant, all of them are the subjects of a reverse summoning spell (also called a "banishing" spell), and they're sent back to where they came from.

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Now that all the pesky gods are out of the way, the Death King lowers himself to the ground from his hovering position, and he steps toward Freyya.

When the King sees his Reaper barely holding onto her breath, and when he sees the hideous scars over her heart, the man glances over at Haalfrin.

When the King's sees Haalfrin – the culprit of his Reaper's suffering, his fury in his eyes and the livid burning in his spirit is unmistakable.

Yet…, when Haalfrin notices that the King's fury is only directed at him – not Freyya, Haalfrin lets out a sigh of relief. 'It seems that Freyya has a boss who cares about her. That's good. I'd hate for her to get in more trouble over me.'

Haalfrin expects the Death King to slap him into oblivion, imprison him, or at least lecture him for putting his Reaper in so much pain.

Instead, the King looks on at Haalfrin with a placid, controlled expression. The King's self-control somehow makes Haalfrin feel much worse.

And so, rather calmly, the Death King looks away from Haalfrin and says in a low voice, "You know… you and Freyya have put the Mortal Realm in a hot mess. At first, everyone thought that Elshirothe herself had returned."

The King glances down at the scale next to Freyya. "If it weren't for that thing's power keeping all the gods away, then a horde of god would've flooded into this solar system and stopped your battle."

The old monarch looks up and chuckles cynically. 'Heh,' he thinks to himself, 'I'm sure the Mortal Realm's troubles are just starting. There are hundreds of gods who have bits Elshirothe's scales and shed claws…'

Before, everyone thought that these remnants of Elshirothe were merely had a bit of extra mana in them. Until now, nobody knew that you could literally draw on Elshirothe's powers and Names with these things.

'No doubt, there's already an army of scholars trying to figure out what Event these kids were Mantling. Then, there'll be huge rounds of pointless bloodshed as people fight over these scattered scales. How typical.'

Putting all these thoughts aside, the Death King steps forward, bends down, and puts his hand on Freyya's forehead. "Well, girl…you've messed up. I'm going to have to take you both back this way – can't make exceptions for this kind of thing."

Suddenly, a pair of chains flies out the King's pockets, and they snap shut around both Haalfrin's and Freyya's hands, knees, and necks.

For the first time since these gods have shown up, Haalfrin glares at the King and says calmly, but firmly, "Doesn't Freyya need medical treatment, not chains? She's seriously injured."

The Death King completely ignores Haalfrin, though the man can feel that the fury in the King's spirit cools a little at Haalfrin's words.

Feeling SLIGHTLY less angry at Haalfrin now, the King starts conjuring a teleportation spell around them both.

Once the spell is complete, they both slip out of that Realm entirely, and they immediately appear inside a strange and luxurious… structure of some kind.

The structure is built in a long, rectangular shape, with long, cushioned seats lining the walls and a red carpeted walkway in the middle. Just behind the armchairs are large windows with black curtains covering them.

Haalfrin immediately leans over and parts one of the curtains. Through the window, Haalfrin is greeted by a spectacular view of the World Tree. 'What's this place…? What was it called…? It's been too long… Ah. It was a tree crawler.'

By the time Haalfrin realizes where they are, the Death King is already walking down the walkway toward a door on the far end of the train cart.

The King crosses his arms and speaks aloud – seemingly to no one in particular, "Hey Das! Take us back home." He looks down and winces, "I mean… my butler… whatever your name is."

'I still forget that Das isn't my butler right now…,' the King sighs in frustration.

With that out of the way, the Death King arrives at the door, opens it, and leaves Haalfrin behind.

Haalfrin looks around awkwardly – unsure of what he's supposed to do, or where he's supposed to go.

Looking to the side, the recently deceased Haalfrin sees Freyya propped up in one of the recliner chairs.

'He left her here… so I suppose I'll stay here too.'

Haalfrin walks over and sits down next to his wife. He reaches a hand out and interlocks his fingers with her. 'I wonder when she'll wake up?'

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After several hours of riding the Tree Crawler, Haalfrin is still sitting at his wife's side – unmoving. By now, the Arkin man is starting to feel a little hungry.

(If it had been before he met any Arkin, he'd have wondered why the dead need to eat. However, he's spent so much time around High Humans that he's not particularly surprised at this.)

Despite his stomach crying for attention, Haalfrin doesn't feel like bothering anyone about his plight. To him, going a little hungry isn't even a big deal.

Plus… just the idea of leaving his wife's side at this time just feels inappropriate.