"We should be getting back soon." Lyze said into Freya's breast as she cuddled him, helping him calm down. "Quite a considerable portion of the night will have gone by now. And I must return to the Dungeon while you return to bed."
"How goes your first expedition?" Freya asked him. "Are you enjoying it?"
"For the most part, yes." Lyze said. "It never gets old, having to explore newer parts of the dungeon and tracking down the multiple monsters it houses. We've had a few bumps here and there, but it is exciting all the same."
"I'm glad to hear it." Freya said. "It seems like you were created for adventure Odr. You are at your happiest when the unknown is upon you."
"I'm just enjoying what life I have." Lyze said. "Most people don't get the opportunity of joining a Familia like ours, much less go into the Dungeon and see the wonders that it has to offer. Is it any wonder why Ottar likes it so much?"
"Yes. He is quite enthusiastic." Freya said with a fond smile as she was reminded of her captain and perhaps favourite child. "Ever since I found him as a little boy, he has always been so curious and eager to explore the beyond, to continuously step out of his comfort zone and take the greatest of risks all in the name of adventure. You remind me of him quite a lot actually, Odr."
"In what way?"
"Like you, he was also very frustrated at how much stronger others seemed to be than him and he made it a life-long obsession to supersede them all. Out of all that have come out of my Familia, I have never quite had a child like him, one so stubborn and powerful. I truly am very lucky to have him."
"He's quite devoted, that's for sure." Lyze said. "Of course, from my point of view, that also is no point of coincidence."
"Why do you say that?" Freya asked in surprise. "Don't tell me there are stories of him too in your world too."
"But there are." Lyze said. "Ottar the Simple, Freya's favourite protégé. He communed with her over a hörgr, and upon it made several sacrifices to her. There was nobody more pious and devoted to her than he and his station was elevated to a great degree by her. From a normal human man to the mount of the goddess herself."
"Human?" Freya raised a brow. "But my Ottar is a Boaz."
"And that too is no coincidence." Lyze said. "Freya bestowed upon him the ability to hide his true face, behind the face of a great and powerful boar. And she would ride atop him throughout the realms as a secret protector, advisor and a death-trap upon those who meant her harm. And he was her closest friend and confidant. Much like our Ottar huh?"
"Just what kind of world do you come from Odr?" Freya asked. "I would most certainly want to see this place for myself with how much our reality coincides with fables and legends of your world."
"My world is the last place you should even think of going." Lyze said. "I can't even imagine the horrors that would take place if it did."
"Oh come on, after all this time of being nice to me." Freya pouted. "Now you're treating me like some sort of plague."
"If I had thought of you like so, I would not be relishing the warmth of your skin Freya." Lyze deadpanned. "Put it to enough that I know my world and I know it would be in the best interest of us all that you never got there. You couldn't anyway. Our Laws would not allow you to exist."
"Fine then." Freya conceded. "Anything more that you know which I should also be aware of?"
"Oh yeah. When Ottar would become a boar, he would as a matter of fact take on another name to conceal his true identity. Hildisvíni."
"That's...that's the name of Ottar's magic." Freya breathed. "The things you bring me Lyze, is just so, so..."
"Bizarre? Coincidental?" Lyze offered. "May I remind you exactly who my master was?"
"Actually, you never really have told me much about him." Freya said. "What was he like?"
"Oh, he was a vicious asshole alright." Lyze grumbled. "A sadistic cruel bastard who took pleasure in torturing me day and night for a period of three years. He made me train in several different environments, had me undergo numerous trials, made me fight monsters I was in no means ready to fight. And he never let me use healing magic. I could practice it but I could never be allowed to heal myself after I was wounded in battle. Hence the piece of virtuous tapestry you see before you today." Lyze gestured at his scar ridden body.
"I have often wonder what it would take to make so hideous and cruel looking scars." Freya said as her fingers traced all the ones on his shoulders and his back. Her index finger poked along the uneven ridges of one particularly nasty one. "Which one was this?"
"That was not from a battle. In fact, that one happened even before I met him."
"How?"
"I was a pauper in Daedalus, you know that. Once I was asleep on a wall as a young boy, and at the time, the memories of my past life had not yet come back to me. So my young and idiotic self found himself rolling backwards off the wall and into the grit and rocks below, creating canyons in his back, which healed very poorly and the mark of which remains today."
"That does not sound nice." Freya grimaced. "Young skin is so easily marred. So delicate and fresh. Did it hurt much?"
"It felt like a blacksmith was pressing his brand into my back the whole time." Lyze said. "But by now I'm used to that kind of pain. I survive the breaths of hell-hounds these days, so burning sensations barely faze me anymore...up until a certain point of course."
"Well you do love fire Lyze." Freya said. "Your soul is quite literally a flame."
"Lord of the Flame." Lyze said sarcastically. "Would probably count as a good suggestion the next time they want to change my alias in the Denatus."
"I'll make sure to put a word in."
"Good for them, not me! Don't you dare..."
"As you wish my Odr." Freya laughed as she leaned down and pressed her cheek to his while sighing. "I had fun. Thank you for coming to see me."
"And thank you for accommodating me with my selfishness." Lyze said warmly. "I really do appreciate it."
"And I will stop at nothing until your heart is mine." Freya said.
"If there is even one for you to take." Lyze stood up and turned around to face her while pointing to the scar over his heart. "I could not even possess one for all you know."
"You would not be alive then if that were the case, no matter what crazy well-spring of power you have." Freya then grimaced. "What caused that wound though? It looks to have been much too deep for you to just survive it."
"It's from the time I got impaled on my own sword." Lyze said. "Put under a geas, I drove Excalibur into my own heart and twisted it like the turn of a key. And thereby waking Chaos up to the reality of the word once more and condemning myself to more than a lifetime's worth of torture at the hands of Nekros the Nobhead." Lyze said.
...
In a far removed plane of existence that overlooked all this happening, Nekros stared at his apostle with disappointment, an his mouth pulled up in an unamused expression. His maid who was standing to the side, eagerly awaiting to serve him, hid a grin behind her mouth as his eyes flicked over to her momentarily, looking at her dryly before looking back at Lyze.
...
"I can't imagine anybody would be happy at being slighted like that behind their backs." Freya said to Lyze. "Especially if he is so tyrannical as you portray him."
"Oh he knows alright." Lyze said. "The perv has no limit to his nosiness when he wants to eavesdrop on people. But I think our time is done here. Go on, go put your clothes back on. We don't want to return to your bedroom in your current state and then give Ottar the wrong idea when we just drop in."
"Coming Odr." Freya chirped as she hopped to her feet. She then took a long look at their surroundings and the planet they were standing upon. "These powers of yours Lyze, they are so wonderful and mysterious. To think that you could just create all this by in a matter of moments just by thinking of it. You outshine even old Ptah himself."
"Ptah?" Lyze raised his eyebrow again. "That forgotten nobody Egyptian god who never sticks around his pantheon but is always running of somewhere and shirking his positions? That Ptah?"
"That sounds much like his old self." Freya laughed a little, although Lyze noticed that her mood had dropped ever so subtly. "But not anymore. The relevance is that Ptah is a Primordial and perhaps the strongest out there. He had the power to create things by speaking of them and yet you outshine even his own power Odr. That was why I brought him up."
"...You don't sound to happy at saying his name though. Do you...have some sort of bad history with him?"
"...He abandoned me when I needed him, when I thought he was my friend." Freya said as she rubbed her arm while all of a sudden sunken in shadows of the past. "Much of my suffering could have been avoided had he come to my defence instead of focusing on his own comforts. And I kind of...made him do something bad by guilt-tripping him. I will admit that. But as a result, our relationship was forever strained. I do hope the best for him though."
"Sounds like nob, that's for sure." Lyze said. "He's not descended is he?"
"I don't think so. And to be honest...he's much too lazy nowadays to even bother taking proper care of himself, much less a Familia." Freya explained. "I doubt he will ever descend."
"Well if he does, then I pity the retard that joins him and thinks it's a good idea." Lyze said as he shrugged off the subject. "Looks like we can't expect all our loved ones to be there for us now, can we?"
"I certainly thought so." Freya said sullenly as she slipped back into her nightgown. "I was so sure that he'd help...but he just-"
"Don't worry about it now." Lyze said. "You're here now. That's what matters most of all. Leave him alone in the past. It's not worth the reminiscence."
"I guess not." Freya said before she was forced to duck down as something came flapping out of the treeline behind her with a shower of feathers and an abundance of shrill shrieks. "What was that?"
The bird having been surprised at Freya being in its way when it took flight took an awkward turn to avoid her but in doing so, messed up its flight path and took a nose-dive straight at Lyze. The boy just held out his hand and caught its wings between his thumb and finger, allowing both him and the goddess to see what it was.
"It's a screech owl." Freya exclaimed. "Hades loved those birds. Said they fit his vibe and whatnot."
"Makes sense he would." Lyze said as he helped it stand on his forearm, while stroking its head gently to get it to calm down. "In my world, the Screech Owl was Hades's Sacred animal. I personally love them too. Out of all owls, I like them the most."
"Really?" Freya put on a wry smile. "Those horns of his don't really make him look all that friendly."
"They are actually quite friendly for the most parts, so long as you don't push yourself into their personal space." Lyze said as the owl began trilling while it closed its eyes to the rubs it was getting. "The Screech Owls have always been my favourite due to a book series I read in my old world."
"Books that made you love a specific type of owl?" Freya raised her brow. "What books were those?"
"It was quite a long series. It was commonly known as the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, and to summarise, it talks of the adventurers of this owl in a world where instead of humans, owls were the dominant species on the planet. It had a few political connotations about it. It was basically the ideals of liberalism and democracy against fascism when you look at it through the eye of an adult. But nonetheless, it was very enjoyable as a children's story."
"And I suppose that this main protagonist owl was a screech owl?"
"As a matter of fact, no. He was a Tyto alba, a Barn Owl called Soren. But his hero and inspiration was an old war hero and general who fought a fascist and puritan leader, wounded the bastard and drove his people away for a time. A screech owl called Ezylryb by his own people, but during the Battle of the Ice Claws where he made his name famous, he was called..." Lyze suddenly trailed off as realization struck him with a jolt. So sudden did he realize what he was going to say that his body jerked a little to prevent the words from coming out of his mouth.
The boy's eyes widened in shock at the revelation he'd just been given as the owl opened its eyes to look back at him, wondering why it was not being given any more head rubs.
"He was callled...?" Freya questioned. Her Odr lifted his head to look at her.
"His name was Lyze of Kiel."
---
"I enjoyed my time with you Odr." Freya said delightedly as they reappeared in her room. "Let's do it again okay?"
"When I find the time." Lyze said as he stared at the owl in her arms. "You really want to keep that thing?"
"Why not? You said it was your favourite kind of owl right? And you can't exactly take it back into the dungeon now can you? I'll give him back when you return."
"Fine by me I guess." Lyze said he turned away. "To think I may have been named after an owl of all things."
"But your parents of this world named you though." Freya said. "They couldn't have known. And besides, your name is Lyzof Keele, not Lyze of Kiel."
"They sound exactly the same Freya. Say what you want but I don't think it's any coincidence." Lyze said. "My master probably had a hand in it somehow. Anyway, I'm going now."
"Come and see me again Odr." Freya encouraged.
"When I get the chance. Although, considering we'll be crossing the Third Line and entering the Deep Floors, I don't think I've got much of an opportunity."
"You truly are entering dangerous waters." Freya nodded. "The Deep Floors are the real trials of the Dungeon. From that point onwards, progress becomes very slow and exponentially more dangerous the further you go on. I know you are powerful Odr. But please be careful."
"I'll be fine." Lyze said as he wrapped his blindfolds around his head again. "We've had a few hiccups here and there. But all is well so far."
"Take care all the same." Freya put a hand to her chest and frowned. "For some reason I have a bad feeling about all this."
"About what?" Lyze turned to her with surprise. "What's there for you to worry about?"
"I don't know, it's just...something doesn't feel right." Freya said. "Call it a goddess's intuition...or even a wife's intuition...but I can't help but think something bad is about to happen."
"...I'll take note of it." Lyze said. "If you really feel like that, then I'll try to be extra careful."
"That is all I can ask of you Odr." Freya waved. "Take care."
"Bye." Lyze replied as the spell whisked him away.
Freya then lifted the screech owl and looked into its dumb little face.
"How am I going to explain where I got you? That aside, I just realized I don't have a name for you. Let's brainstorm it, shall we?"
All she got was a trill in response.
---
Lyze reappeared in his tent once again in the earliest hours of the morning. It was still much time before the Familia would get up again to resume the expedition. Looking to the futon, he saw Ais all wrapped up with her knees drawn to her chest, as if she were missing some source of comfort but was now relying on herself.
Lyze shook his head and kicked off his sandals before slipping into the futon. Like it were out of a reflex, Ais turned to face him and wrapped her arms around his body, even as she continued to snore softly. Lyze wound himself into her embrace properly and then returned it as he started to feel drowsy.
Even as cosmic conduit, one still needed sleep.
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