'Till We Meet Again (1/5)
Over the coming years, Haalfrin can't stop thinking of Freyya. He goes to sleep at night imagining her at his side, and he imagines her quiet voice talking next to his ear..
At first, Haalfrin thought he'd quickly adapt and learn to be without her for a while. However, it seems that he's underestimated how Unchanging and Unadaptable the dead really are. No matter how many years pass, he still can't seem to get over her.
And so, his frustrations steadily rise, and he starts pestering the Death King more and more violently about his wife. "What world is she on?" "Is she OK?" "Are there any loopholes in her punishment that I can exploit?"
…Needless to say, the Death King has grown less and less fond of seeing this particular Death god… When Haalfrin walks down the hall, the King is frequently seen suddenly changing directions and taking another path.
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One day, Haalfrin shows up and knocks on the Death King's office door.
"GO AWAY," comes the immediate response from the other side.
To this, Haalfrin humbly bows his head to the door, "I have an important question, if you'll permit it."
"I'M BUSY."
"It'll be real quick," Haalfrin promises sincerely.
The Death god then feels a faint magical energy seep through the walls, and the office door swings open of its own accord.
Immediately visible is the Death King, sitting up straight at his desk and with his hands propped up and laying in full view, clasped together in an authoritative posture. "You do realize that I'm only this busy because of YOU," the King says calmly.
Haalfrin bows his head again, "Sorry… Anyway, sir, you know the punishment Freyya has? Is there any sort of restriction preventing me from going to see her?"
Without moving, the King replies, "I'm not able to tell you where she is. The reincarnation locations are always random."
"So...," Haalfrin asks carefully, "you won't get mad at me if I go find her?"
"As long as it doesn't get in the way of your tasks," the King responds.
"Just curious, sir, but how would you recommend finding her?" Haalfrin asks another question.
The king puts down his work angrily, pauses to calm down, and asks, "Which Names did you share with each other for your Contract?"
"Yiir, Reh, and Dra."
"Oh, so a typical marriage Contract." The king then furrows his eyebrows and says, "Ugh, you really don't know anything about this stuff, huh? Just talk to my secretary and they'll get you a few books for you to read."
Seeing that Haalfrin isn't moving, the Death King waves his hand, "Away with you."
Knowing that he's not going to get anything more out of the Death King, Haalfrin obediently turns around and leaves the way he came.
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About half an hour later, Haalfrin is sitting on a cushiony chair reading a book on the "taboos of sharing Names." Apparently, young natural-born gods read this as children. The King's steward recommended it to him.
As it turns out..., Haalfrin already knows a lot of what's in this book.
For a good chunk of the book, it talks about how sharing a Yiir Name will tie two Fates together. Their paths will always meet, and their destinies will forever be similar to each other.
There's another chapter that talks about sharing the Reh Name. He already knew that doing this will forever tie your hearts together; whether in hatred or love, the two will always be thinking of each other, with no room for anything else to compete.
This, of course, is the only reason why Haalfrin feels like he can rest easy about Freyya living a mortal life away from him. He knows very well that she's not going to go out and make a family without him in the mortal world (since she doesn't have her memories).
As for the Dra Name… there are actually a few things that Haalfrin didn't know about.
For one, sharing your Dra with another is actually a form of protection, as well as a bondage of servitude. It's a little dualistic like that.
Basically, when two people share their Dra Names with each other, the stronger party will own the weaker one's obedience, while the weaker party will receive the stronger one's protection.
Basically, Haalfrin had gone along with Freyya's wishes and obeyed her especially fervently after their marriage, because he was the weaker of the two. In return… it was literally impossible for anything weaker than Freyya to actually kill him.
'Why would she make it harder to kill me?' Haalfrin wonders. 'Didn't she want me to die?'
'Oh, yeah, when the Dra Name is coupled with the Reh Name, it also means that your bodies are shared with each other.'
'Coupled with the incredible power of luck that comes with Yiir, it literally became impossible for us to lie down with anyone but each other. All the laws of the universe and luck will rain down and prevent infidelity.'
'No wonder Freyya wanted this Contract, even though it was going to make our mission a lot harder. Our marriage was more important to her than succeeding in her mission.'
Realizing this warms Haalfrin's heart, and his desire to find her mortal form only burns hotter now.
'Well, I'd hate to leave things to chance… but everything I've read suggests that our shared Fate together will let us meet again at the right moment.'
'And when we do meet, what then?' Haalfrin asks himself. 'She'll be a mortal with no memories of our relationship…?'
'Whatever! I'll just have to woo her all over again! I'll woo her as many times as I need to and across as many lifetimes as I can find her!'
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Far, far away, on a low-hanging world on the World Tree, there exists a planet nearly completely enveloped in greenery and thick forests. The life force on this world is so thick that even burning the forests down hardly does anything but create a few months of clear fields.
Due to nature's especially strong hand on this world, the people here have learned to build their houses around the trees, and their roads weaving around the titanic roots. Even the windows in the houses are made of paper.
Inside the largest house of a particular village, is a 17-year-old girl in a green robe with red flower petals stitched in with artistic patterns. Among her people, this particular piece of clothing is the equivalent of a wedding dress.
Behind the girl is a pair of female slaves, both diligently doing her hair, putting on her cosmetics, and adjusting her clothes.
While they're doing their jobs, the bride is staring into the clear mirror in front of her, gazing at her own chocolate skin and raven black hair.
Sometimes, when she looks in a mirror, she sees an illusion of black, feathered wings on her back... but she just shakes her head at this.
Anna'ri has been seeing strange things like this ever since she was young, and she's learned to ignore them.
After becoming disinterested in her reflection, the young bride turns her head and stares out the window. The windows are wide and open, and the breeze is pleasant and cool. Yet, seeing nature's beauty just outside the door only makes her feel stiff and empty inside.
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Once Anna'ri is done being dressed up, she walks out the door and enters a palanquin being borne by 8 burly slaves. Of course, as part of the marriage ritual, she takes off her shoes and leaves them on the ground as she steps on the palanquin. This symbolizes the fact that she won't be returning home.
Even as she gets on her chair and closes the curtains, she doesn't see a single person here except the slaves tasked with escorting her.
'Where's father and mother? What about my siblings?'
Of course, they're not here, and Anna'ri smiles bitterly at this.
It was actually her sister who was originally slated to be sacrificed to the mountain god - a ferocious, man-shaped tiger. When her parents received the terrible news that their family had been chosen, an air of dread permeated the house.
However, her little sister was far more pretty than her, and she attracted the eye of one of the local lords.
Anna'ri was then enthusiastically urged by her parents to take her little sister's place, so that her little sister could marry the local lord and bring benefits to the family.
"Marrying the mountain god isn't that bad either," they had told her. "You get to live a good life, your sister gets to find love, and your younger siblings won't have to starve in the coming winter."
'The mountain god? Not that bad? Ha.' Anna'ri knew better than to believe this.
Lord Talran, the mountain god, gets a new wife every year. Everyone knows this. The catch is that he only has a small shrine with a few rooms to live in.
It's obvious what happens to all the women once they've been replaced by the next wife.
At first, Anna'ri felt that she was doing the right thing by taking her little sister's place. She remembered the cute, precocious child... and her protective older sister instincts kicked in.
'I'm the older one, so I should be the one bearing the burdens for the children.'
However, after she agreed to her parent's proposal, she noticed that her family members started to emotionally distance themselves from her. Maybe it was just her intuition, but she had a very strong feeling that they weren't grateful to her at all.
Now, her gut feeling seems to have been proven correct. Even as she's leaving now, not one of her blood relatives even showed up to say goodbye.
Feeling a wave of anger wash over her, Anna'ri parts the curtain and spits on the ground in front of her house.
The slaves bearing her all flinch in shock since this is a VERY inappropriate thing to do. To blatantly insult your parents like this is utterly disgraceful. It's the last thing they'd expect from an elegant young lady.
Anna'ri, of course, completely ignores her servants' chagrin. 'I'm about to die anyway, so who cares about etiquette or honor? Only honorable people deserve to be honored.'