"If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." Friedrich Nietzsche.
Erik just stared at his son, the obvious answer was "No" that was not supposed to happen. He couldn't stop looking at Tor as electricity crackled around him and his mark faded back to blue. Then as soon as it came it faded away.
The electricity was gone and the mark faded back to it's normal sky blue glow. There was still a bit of static in the air as the atmosphere returned to normal.
Tor was concerned looking at his father's face and the shock and disbelief spread across it. He began to speak but Erik interjected, "Tor, are you ok?" he asked not waiting for an answer, "I've never seen anything like what you've just done. Not only did you absorb entirely too much seidr but your mark changed color!"
"I can't explain it father, something told me to keep drawing upon the seidr." Tor responded, "When I did something happened inside me. It was like there was a bottomless abyss that would have kept absorbing it forever."
"Your training can wait for today," said Erik, "We must see Asha now."
Tor agreed, surprising even himself, he needed answers too. It had become painfully obvious that there was something even more unusual about him than the fact that his soul was from another world.
Erik and Tor headed toward the Hall of the Gods and arrived shortly after. Asha was already waiting at the entrance for them and ushered them inside quickly.
"Asha, how did you know that we would be coming?" asked Erik.
"I sensed something strange coming from where you and Tor were training," said Asha, "I have never felt a force like that before, so though I wasn't completely sure it was you two, I knew someone would either come to see me or I would need to find them."
Tor had yet to speak and now found himself even more nervous than before. "Did she say she would've found me if we hadn't come?" he thought, "I should be more careful, there are still too many things I dont know about this world and myself. I had no idea she could sense our presence and what I did."
Erik explained the events of the morning to Asha and Tor remained silent for now. His mind spinning to come up with a way to hide certain things from her in the event he needed to. He was uncertain if that was even possible.
After a brief conversation Asha spoke again to Tor. "Come with me young one," she said. "Erik please remain here, little Tor and I need to speak privately."
Erik wanted to object but knew it would be pointless, he also knew that Asha would not harm Tor. He was just hesitant to let him out of his sight because of what had transpired earlier.
Asha took Tor into a room adjacent to the one he had recieved his name in those few years ago. He glanced into the room and remembered that day as a shiver ran down his spine. Though it wasn't necessarily traumatic, he remembered it clearly. It made him think about her invasion of his mind and what he was potentially going to experience today.
As Tor and the volva entered the room, he noticed that it was very different from the only other room he had been in. Though it was similar in size the room was filled with various hanging herbs and roots, assorted ingredients sat on the shelves that lined the walls. It almost reminded him of his grandfather's workshop where he created his healing potions and pills, just on a much larger scale.
In the center of the room was a cauldron with various glowing runes emblazoned on it. A faint aura exuded from it though it was not being used at the time. To the side of the room there was a small, round table and two chairs. The table held a few candles burning with a dim light, those candles combined with the others scattered haphazardly around the room provided the only light source.
Asha escorted Tor toward the other side of the room where there was an assortment of pillows and furs laid out in a circle. A small fire pit sat at its center. She had him sit on one side of the pit as she sat directly across from him. With the snap of her fingers the fire was lit and she up straight before starting to speak.
"Torbjorn Erikson, I have known since you were brought to me as a babe that there is something special inside you. I know not what it is precisely but, now is the time for you and I to discover it." Asha spoke straight to the point before continuing. "I need you to describe to me exactly what you felt and saw in your minds eye during your training this morning, I will do my best to guide you through exploring your abilities."
Tor was still a bit nervous about revealing anything to Asha but his curiosity got the better of him. He relayed the events of the morning in great detail as Asha listened quietly. After he was done she spoke again.
" Little Tor, it seems to me that you have opened your realm which appears to be a thunder realm, we will get into this further to be sure." Asha spoke softly." What's most concerning to me however, is the abyss or vortex that took over your seidr absorption...
Tor nodded as he listened to the volva, she continued speaking but his hearing suddenly became distant, he heard a whisper that sounded like it came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, it was both inside his head and in his ears.
At first he couldn't understand the words, it was like the whispers were blowing past his ears. They started soft and then got louder briefly before growing quiet again. It reminded him of someone yelling from a car as it went past in his old world.
The whispers grew louder and louder and more vicious in tone. He realized it was in a language he didn't understand. It was not the english of his old world nor was it his new language that, as far as he could tell, had no name.
Then all of a sudden they stopped and he regained his focus. It was at this time he noticed Asha had stopped speaking and was just staring at him. Similar to how his father was just an hour earlier.
"What happened Tor?, asked Asha. "Your eyes changed and you lost focus, your mark also began to glow brighter. Can you describe what you experienced?
Tor hesitated again before beginning to relay what he felt and heard. He told Asha that he couldn't understand the whispers but he knew they were trying to tell him something.
Asha sat there for some time with a concerned look on her face, she began to speak once but stopped. In Tor's mind he was going over everything and thinking " Great, now she thinks I'm mentally ill, as bad as mental health care was on Earth I cant imagine it's any better here. I'll probably be either exiled or killed, either way my death is pretty much imminent."
After what felt like an eternity to Tor, Asha finally spoke.
"Tor, it seems to me that all of this stems from your unknown mark. For us to find the answers to all of the questions we have, we must discover the ability or abilities that it brings." Asha continued, "The most reasonable way to do this is through meditation and focusing on the "abyss" as you call it. However, I don't want you to absorb seidr while doing this. You must focus on the abyss and try to understand it and become enlightened by it. Thus it will reveal its essence to you when you have achieved a certain level of understanding."
Tor was taken aback for a moment, what she told him was nothing like he imagined. He had prepared himself to be locked away, exiled or killed outright. He started to believe he may have misjudged the old seeress.
"Asha, as you know I'm very new to all this, I'm not sure that I can do as you ask." Tor said quietly.
"Child I am here to assist you, I will teach you how." said Asha, and so, that is how the rest of Tor's day went.
Aside from going out with Asha to let Erik know he would be with her for some time, he stayed in the same room practicing the techniques Asha taught him.
Tor struggled with the technique at first but, with enough time and determination, he was eventually able to master the technique in the early evening hours. It was much faster than even Asha thought possible.
Now Asha was guiding Tor through his introspection to find the abyss within him. Once they pinpointed its location she instructed him to observe it, noting down everything Tor did and told her onto a blank page of a book of runes. At the top of the page was a rendering of Tor's mark.
Tor continued observing his abyss, he was interested to see that there was no vortex this time. He assumed it was because he was not absorbing seidr while he watched it.
He stared into the inky black nothingness for a long time, so long that he began to lose track of what he was even doing. He lost himself inside the abyss and then began to feel a force tugging at him. He resisted at first but then let go as his conciousness was pulled into the nothing.
He felt the sensation of falling but there was no fear, he felt calm and warm. It was as if the empty black space was welcoming him home. Time was meaningless here, he couldn't tell if he had been there for seconds or decades.
He drifted around the space, feeling a weightlessness now. He began to feel an emptiness or yearning inside. This feeling caused a sadness at first, followed by his rage beginning to burn. Then he felt an overwhelming need to fill the void. With what he wasn't sure, but his mind told him...blood.
Then abruptly his senses focused on a light at what appeared to be the bottom of the abyss that he thought was bottomless. He was being pulled toward it as a shape began to form.
Tor could make out the silhouette of a small boy as he approached, he felt shock at what was in front of him.
The young boy was him, not Torbjorn Erikson but Francis Shepherd. It was like looking at a version of his younger self from his past life, however there were major differences.
The Frank in front of him was roughly the same age as he was now as Tor. However, once he got closer and focused on it, this image of him had a look of madness and mania on his face. His smile was twisted into something that felt like a demon had seen an insect it was about to destroy. His eyes mirrored his smile with their chill inducing glare.
They were bloodshot and wide open, a red hue present in the irises. In his pupils he could imagine the flames of destruction as they appeared to hold no kindness or satisfaction, only hunger.
Tor's conciousness was frozen, a chill running down its non existent spine. He tried to communicate with with the boy in front of him but seemed to fail as he found himself unable to make a sound. His conciousness circled the image to study it from all angles.
All of a sudden the once stationary image turned its head and stared directly into Tor's conciousness. The once bloodshot sclera of its eyes were now completely blood red, the irises black and the pupils a silvery grey.
Tor felt an force unlike any he had felt before rip him out of the abyss, maniacal laughter echoing and then fading away as he was forced back to reality.
Tor sat up straight and froze in place, shock and devastation written on his face. His breath was ragid and heavy, sweat was pouring down his face as he realized where he was. He attempted to calm himself and focused on the room around him.
He saw Asha sitting across from him, her mouth was moving but Tor couldn't hear anything other than a shrill ringing sound. The ringing in his ears was drowning everything out as if he had been too close to an explosion.
He slowly began using his breathing technique and in time the ringing began to subside, and he could once again hear Asha. She spoke in a worried tone.
" What happened Tor? she asked after noticing he could hear again.
"I can barely begin to explain it," he told her, "I was inside the abyss and was pulled to the bottom."
He was hesitant to reveal the rest even though Asha had somewhat proven herself to him. Eventually he relented and told her everything he experienced, leaving out the part about the image being himself from his past life, but including that it was him with several major differences.
Asha was startled at first, then she sat in quiet contemplation for a long time. When she eventually spoke it was a question rather than an answer.
"Were you aware of how long you were inside the abyss?" she asked.
Tor shook his head as he reminded her that he felt as if time didn't exist inside. what she told him brought his look of shock back to his face.
"Torbjorn," she said, " You have been in meditation for 5 days."