A flashback presented Alicia Crimsonmane in her routine, entering a classroom full of kindergarten students. The children had just eaten their lunch during their lunch break. When they saw the adorable girl in glasses enter the room with her bag in hand, they immediately assembled toward her like a swarm of insects, finding the most delicious nectar in the complete garden.
"Hurray, the storyteller's coming!" shouted a rather delinquent child.
"Miss Alicia has come! Miss Alica has come!" said another child.
"Miss Alicia! What epics do you want to tell us today?"
She had just walked in, but she was already overwhelmed by the kids surrounding her. With a grin, she greeted them by saying, "Oh! No way. How could the snotty bairns surround me like this? There's no way you will conquer me!"
"Attack! Defeat the giant with a sword!"
The enthusiastic screams of the children trapped in imaginative sense grew louder. Each of them raised the spoon they thought was a claymore and pretended to defeat "The Giant".
"Ah, no...! I have lost! I'm about to fall!" Alicia made a kneeling gesture and then slowly lay down, implying the giant had fallen to the army of men. The kids sat on the floor and chortled with the girl.
A few kids tugged at Alicia's school uniform. "Miss Alicia! Don't just lie there! Come, tell us something!"
"Don't want to!" Alicia pointed to a spoon belonging to one of the students. "Unless we make a truce! Sheath your swords and put them back in the chest!"
A bunch of astute bairns, indeed. Responsively, they dispersed, packed their lunches, and sat quietly, waiting for the bespectacled inspector to pass the tidiness and cleanliness criteria to their respective tables.
Now that the class had become a proper one, Alicia brought her bag to the front and greeted the teacher there. The teacher responded warmly and let Alicia straightaway take over the stage. The girl put down her bag and took out the wooden figures one by one onto the table.
"New toys!" some of them seemed excited.
"Naw, these are not just toys, dear," Alicia replied, "These are historical figures. See this one-eyed, half-naked old man here? This is Wuotan. This red-bearded distended lad wielding a hammer? This is Donar. Then the beautiful woman riding the wild boar—you call her, Frouwa."
Those sitting down were not familiar with such names mentioned earlier. Alicia understood their mannerism.
"Do you know what epic I'm about to tell you?"
"We don't know, Miss Alicia!"
"My dear children, I will tell you a story—a saga. A saga about the war of destiny. The feud between the two ancient nations; the Aesir and the Vanir!"
Alicia raised the figure of Wuotan and the other two figures. "Introduce Wuotan, Willihelm, and Willo. They were the founders of a small tribe with strong and fierce warriors as its inhabitants! They call themselves the Aesir.
The Aesir did a massive expansion to the eastern peninsula of Europa, a snowfield, the home of the Children of Svyatogor, the big-bodied human race."
"Giants!"
"Giant, yes. A known Anthro race besides humans, elves, and dwarves! The Aesir gave birth to warriors, but they weren't completely barbarians. Their wild nature and sense of morality were completely controlled by the three wise brothers. Without them, the true people of Aesir would be sheep without shepherds. Only they were not sheep, but rather, wild canines. But in the eyes of other peoples, they were still barbarians. Many stay away from this tribe, but not seldom did they admire them, too. The giants were one of these groups and asked to unite under the banner of the almighty Aesir. The Aesir, who used to be just a nameless grassland colony, became a dignified kingdom!
However, there was another kingdom, famous for its strength. The people who called themselves Vanir, a race of elves, living in the magical wilderness named Vanaheim—Home of the Vanir men. Vanir was a single monarchy with incomparable weapons of war. Why, you ask? Because Vanir had something that Aesir didn't have: magic power. And the Aesir desired magic to tread more land.
As the purest and wisest of the race—so they claimed—the Vanir felt concerned for the people of Aesir. Would they continue to plunder more civilisations and if so, for what? Solely to satisfy their lust for war and robbery?
Seeing these dilapidated human beings, they couldn't help but think that the human race was destined that way. Galloping from land to land and leaving anything but life and order. Then the elves thought, "Maybe we don't need to attack them. We can teach them our lifestyle, teach them science, and a little magic. Surely their destiny could change without bloodshed! We believe humans can find peace with nature, just as elves do!"
So Fruowa, one of Vanir's superiors, was sent to cross the Bifrost, the bridge of millions of colours, which separated the centre of Aesir civilisation, Asgard, from the outside world. Fruowa assorted with the Aesir and lived with them. Who would have thought, the elf actually really loved the people of Aesir, despite being despised by the world itself. The Aesir might find killing and looting their passions, but they held a solid spirit of kinship and high social values. She had never seen such compactness even in the holy elven shrine.
The more confident she was in magic, Fruowa hoped the Aesir would stop their useless conquest and live with contentment without worrying about their needs. Perhaps she could make the nation live happily ever after! So Fruowa came as a teacher, teaching science, magic, the ideal lifestyle according to the Vanir customs. And indeed, when they became acquainted with magic, the desire to raid villages and plunder settlements began to be suppressed. In fact, they could make anything possible with magic.
Alas, the people of Aesir were too complacent with the knowledge taught to them. They were rather greedier than usual. The elves might be wise, but not impeccable. Their calculations were missed. Once shed blood and sweat in pursuit of bliss, when they had a steady life, they were even more sinking into a pit of misery. They wanted more food, more gold, more power, and more indecent thoughts to be granted.
The greed of the Aesir destroyed their own people. They clashed, fighting over resources and magic. The atmosphere of brotherhood that used to be firm was now being torn apart by fellow countrymen. The kingdom began to divide.
To overcome the deepening divisions, the three brothers delivered advice. Fruowa was captured and accused of infiltration at the behest of Vanir. She was considered to have intentionally given the Aesir magical powers so that they could be destructed from within. Wuotan, in his rage, came to the princess's residence personally and threw a spear into her heart!"
The children gasped.
"Miss Alicia, that's horrible!"
"That so? But Fruowa didnae die!"
"Oh really?"
"That mage had too many loopholes to allow herself dying from a spear. Wuotan was frustrated. Not giving up, he sentenced the princess to be burned alive!
This baseless accusation broke the princess's heart. She pleaded in confusion as the flames devoured her. She sobbed loudly in deep sorrow when she was burned a second time.
But the third time the fire spread to her body, she dissolved into wrath. True, Fruowa was burned three times, yet her soul remained in her beings. Giving up on the Aesir, she purposely released herself from the shackles and then disappeared from the Aesir crowd.
It turned out to be in accordance with public opinion. The Aesir could not be saved. Their blood was cursed from the nativity. Nature's mistake when creation took place. So it was the task for Vanir to quell the infelicity of this universe. The Aesir must be annihilated! They then prepare the instrument of judgment for the Aesir: a Divine power, pure Arcane. Unbeknownst to the Vanir, the giants of the Aesir alliance had actually learned black magic from Khaos, and spread it throughout the people—"
A child interrupted Alicia, "Miss Alicia! Who was the first to use Khaos' magic?"
"That's for another story, Herod," replied Alicia. "Now, shall we continue the story again?"
There was dissatisfaction from the wondering little boy. But the story was about to enter the climax. He nodded in agreement.
"Fine, let us continue. So. Where were we? War was inevitable. The Aesir came from the land of ice and snow—from the midnight sun where hot springs blow. They were led by Wuotan's son Donar, oaring to Vanir. They shouted blazing screams, raising their hammers so that a wild smoldering passion would drive their ships to new lands—lands of evergreen Vanir, their dream.
The people of Vanir greeted them with a hail of spears in the middle of the ocean. The Valkyrie armies, led by Fruowa herself, strode with their flying horses, sending their curses under the sky. Aesir arrows couldn't reach the sky too high, but Valkyrie spears could plunge deep into the ground.
But Aesir welcomed all of them with joy. Their fighter nature released once more thanks to Khaos' magic. They rowed the ships while fighting off the Vanir hordes, singing and crying "VALHALLA, I'M COMING!" How big their desire for Valhalla, their promised Neverland from Wuotan's imagination.
Njord, one of Vanir's superiors and Frouwa's father, awakened the sea, creating a colossal wave to drown them all. Then Skadi, his wife, shot her arrows to turn the vast ocean that engulfed the Aesir ships into a giant block of ice! Such extraordinary magic was made possible thanks to the pure Arcane flowing in their veins. But that didn't mean the people of Vanir were allowed to be arrogant. It was an error on their part in the first place to teach magic to the opposing party.
Black ink oozed from the skin of Wuotan's hand, casting dark magic on his spear. He created a spell that could make his spear, Gungnir, pierced the flesh of the elves to the world's ends! Nothing could ever stop his mighty javelin other than a command from the one-eyed himself!
His son, Donar, summoned lightnings and gathered them to his hammer. He inherited the Thunderkeeper's magic to donate flashes of sky electricity directly to his foe-men! Not to mention the giant representative, Logi, the giant with brotherly accord with Wotan in blood, blurring the elves' vision, making them see each other as Aesir warriors, thereby slaughtering each other! Wotan's other brothers, Willihelm and Willo aided the battle by eradicating the enemy's intelligence and sensory abilities, which made the Vanir elves look like war puppets. This great battle became a flaunter for both sides to show their extraordinary magic!
And so the Aesir ships kept coming from the snowy east lands for years. As they continued to sweep the water with their threshing oars, their only goal was the Western Shore.
The Vanir continued to hold them at sea, even though the lands of the West and the East were not far apart. But all the same, they still didn't feel safe. Exiting the shores of Vanir meant dealing with the fleshy, corrosive souls of the Aesir. The influence of Khaos also began to permeate Vanaheim's border wall. Panic broke out among the residents. They started to lose faith in their might, even in pure Arcane. Understanding the elves' desperation, Frouwa left the battle and chose another way. She headed for the source of pure Arcane power in Vanir—a gigantic tree called the Tree of Life and Knowledge. She and the other two witches plucked its flowers and made threads from them."
She lowered the wooden statue of Frouwa. Alicia took out another object from her bag—a yarn spool. She pulled a string and stretched it out long.
"See this thread? Long ago, the elves had a forbidden mystical knowledge called Seidr. This is high-level ancient magic, children. They know not just the future with a yarn. By knitting threads with Arcane mights in them, they can manipulate the fate of a person or a nation. They can control the future, determine the life span of a creature. With this magic, they are the gods of tomorrow with prophecies, blessings, and curses! Witches with threads. Do you remember the person who was described as such in our previous storytelling?"
The dark-skinned girl stood up instead of raising her hands in excitement. "Och! Oh! I know," she said, "Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Three twin witches from Eretopeion!"
"Clever girl!" commended Alicia. "This is an ancient spell that should not be cast haphazardly. Only issued in the most emergency. So this is one of the forbidden spells. But if she wanted Vanir to survive, she couldn't help but use it.
Fruowa and his two maids knit the Arcane threads. Each connected thread signified the flow of one event to another of one's fate. Fruowa wanted the Aesir and Vanir to make peace someday, then the nation of Aesir ought to be destroyed in this realm, no matter what.
And the spell worked! Moments after the spell was activated, the elders from Vanir and Aesir decided to have a truce to halt the never-ending war. The Aesir had to accept themselves purified with Arcane to remove the influence of Khaos. Everyone accepted it, except for the giants who became the avatars of Khaos in their midst. They thought the Three Brothers had lost their way, and threatened to restore the banner of Aesir might, under the rule of the Children of Syvatogor. Since the Aesir people were all unworthy to hold the Arcane might, they inevitably have to face their own brethren with the power of Khaos as well.
The Vanir couldn't help much due to the heavy war losses. They left Aesir alone. The giants took control and slaughtered the Aesir people. One by one, the Aesir area was fallen to the giants' hands. How soft was the Aesir field; even in snow, yet so green, they whispered tales of gore. The blood was shed from the Aesir warriors who declared the tides of war, but were calmed by the giants. The Children of Syvatogor claimed to be the overlord of the east.
Not a single human being was left alive because they thought they are weak and easily disoriented creatures. Until in the end, when a gigantic army emerged from the southern plains of Asgard, Wuotan, Willihelm, and Willo summoned Khaos and succumbed to it. Khaos smirked upon them. It devoured Asgard and its inhabitants in the darkness, to the eternal void. The leader of the giants, Surtr launched a mass slaughter of the remnants of the Aesir population that was not embraced by Khaos. Thus, the Aesir people had known was no more, replaced by the cruel giants. The only fertile land belonging to Aesir was gone, merging with the land of the giants through the endless snowfall.
After hearing such news, Fruowa and the two witches regretted it. They ran away from Vanir, tore off their luxurious clothes, and decided to torture themselves in exile for the rest of their lifetime. This was penance for playing god. They indirectly had committed genocide against a nation with the holiest power in the world of thaumaturgy, acting as a "fair" judge for a time. Pure Arcane, like Khaos, possesses immense might and enables them to do things beyond human imagination. Tormented by hatred, Fruowa changed the destiny of an entire nation, not caring if each person was guilty or not. Is divine might that terrible to change the destiny of everything?
Or… with or without Seidr, one's destiny has actually been designed since the creation of space and time?" []