Chapter 36 - Meeting in the dream space

This was the first time Hati felt so uncomfortable during a conversation. After all, he had never needed to almost beg for anything. He just took what he wanted most of the time.

But now, his fate and the things he wanted were entirely in the hands of another. It was a feeling he hated and his pride baulked against, but it was a necessary feeling nonetheless.

After all, motivation was the cornerstone of any powerful Einherjar, and a desire to never leave your fate in the hands of others was powerful.

Meanwhile, Sif was conflicted. She loved her son, or at least the person she thought he was, as he had clearly pretended to be less mature than he was during his younger years. But how much of what he had shown was real? 

Was the entirety of her son a lie, or was there enough real for her to love him as she always had? First, she needed to know more.

So, she sighed heavily and asked, "Is there any more you failed to tell me?"

Naturally not wanting to hide anything from her at this point, he answered, "I… believe I have three sin shards in me. I don't have any confirmation, but I don't see what else it could be, to be honest. Luna actually has the other half of my pride shard. I also have a wrath shard and a lust shard."

Since he reached this point, he decided to just throw it all on the table. It actually felt kind of good to finally have someone to tell all this to after 16 years.

If it was possible for Sif to look any more shocked than before, it was happening now. "But that's impossible; three sin shards would have driven you insane. Even one sin shard should have been impossible for me not to notice!"

Hati gave a helpless look and said, "You should have seen me in my youth back on Earth. I don't know how it happened, but it seems that, during my reincarnation, my sin shards got suppressed in much the same way that your parents did for you."

Luna looked sceptical as she asked, "You don't know?"

Hati shrugged and said, "I never said I had all the answers. There are still plenty of things about this reincarnation that I don't know, like how it even happened in the first place. In my recollection, I was simply living my life until I was killed and then woke up here."

Sif closed her eyes and seemed to be thinking deeply to herself. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and said, "Fine, you said you still see me as your mother? Well, the fact is that I don't want to lose my son either. 

But unfortunately, trust like that doesn't simply grow back after it's gone. But there are ways to expedite the process." At this point, she extended her right hand towards Hati. "I will give you two options:

One, I help you leave this place, and we never see each other again. Or two, you take my hand, and I will do something that might bring back some of my trust for you.

I will not tell you what I am going to do, only that afterwards, I will help you see your father, and I will work hard to continue considering you my son. So? Will you put your money where your mouth is and show that you still trust me like a son would trust a mother?"

Hati's first instinct was to refuse. It was an instinct that was built up after fifty years of turmoil in his previous life. But he squashed that instinct. No matter what, he refused to believe his mother would harm him.

Besides, if he just left, what would become of Luna?

After hesitating for a second more, his eyes shone with determination as he put his left hand in Sif's right. Seeing this, Sif smiled and said, "Good!" Then her eyes glowed for a second, and Hati sagged down in response as he was suddenly fast asleep.

Sif sighed and said sadly, "What a mess." She bent down and stroked Hati's cheek. "I really hope you didn't lie. What would I even do if you turned out to be some kind of ancient evil come back for revenge? Kill you? Could I?"

She sighed again and picked Hati up in a princess carry. "Well, let's not think about that now. First, I should involve Belphi in this."

She walked from the library to her bedroom while carrying Hati. When she arrived, she locked the door, erected multiple red shimmering barriers and then put a disc with runes on the floor before she took a seat on it while hugging Hati.

She closed her eyes, power thrummed, and when she opened them again, she was back in her soul world, with Hati standing next to her.

When Hati opened his eyes, he was surprised to find himself in an open space with a lot of green. The last thing he remembered was grabbing his mother's hand in the library.

The place was beautiful, but you could still instinctively feel that it was artificial. Probably because there is no animal life here, not even insects exist here.

Simulating life costs a lot of energy, so Sif and Belphegor usually didn't bother with it.

Hati noticed Sif standing next to him, so he asked, with no small wonder in his voice due to this artificial world, "Mother? Where are we?"

Sif looked at Hati, wondering how she should act with him until this situation was sorted. But she decided just to be casual. She spread her arms and said with no small amount of pride and warmth, "This is my dream space. 

In the real world, we are both sleeping. That is all I did when you took my hand." She then started walking in a specific direction and said, "Come, let's go meet your father."

Hearing this, Hati stopped in his tracks and exclaimed, "What?"

But seeing that Sif didn't stop walking, he quickly went after her and asked, "If you had the means to talk with Father all this time and even to bring me along, why have I never spoken to him before?"

Sif's expression was hidden from Hati as she said, "Well, first of all, this is the first time I've taken anyone in here with me as I wasn't even sure I could until now. I only decided to try because I didn't want to make any decisions about what you told me without his input. And I want you there for it.

But even if I had known about this option from the start, we might have still chosen to wait so that your first meeting would be in the real world and not an artificial one."

Hati nodded and said, "That makes sense. But how are you doing this? I thought you couldn't interact with my soul without my having a soul core?"

Sif nodded, "That's true, but I'm not interacting with your soul. The sloth shard gives me some control over sleep and dreams. What I've done is simply link your dream to mine. More or less, anyway."

"I won't pretend to know how a sloth shard works. I still need to discover way too much about my own shards." Hati said while chuckling.

They continued to walk in silence for another few minutes before they came upon a large house reminiscent of their home in the Fenrir compound.

In front of the house was a man dressed in a simple blue tunic with black pants. When Hati saw this man, the first thing he noticed was his light blue skin and the horns of the same colour, shooting into the sky from the man's short black hair.

The man was handsome with somewhat lazy eyes and, although not as tall as Hati's full-grown height back on Earth, was still a small tree with his 1.95m (6'4) in length.

But he also felt an oppressive feeling that he had never felt with anyone else, not even his great-grandfather Erik. But the feeling left almost as soon as he felt it. 

The man smiled and waved when he saw them approach, and when they got close, he tried to approach Hati, saying, "Haha, little wolf, this is a surprise!" but Sif stopped him. 

"Eh? Little wolf, I'll greet you in a second. I don't know why or how he is here, but I'd like to greet my son for the first time!" He said with some surprise in his voice. He had never known Sif to be this needy.

Sif shook her head and said with some sadness in her voice, "It's not about that. I need to talk to you first. Inside." She then looked at Hati with a little sternness in her gaze and said, "Wait here a moment, alright?"

Hati simply nodded while continuing to look at this supposed father of his with curious eyes. He figured introductions would have to wait, though.