Chaos God 8, page 7
part #8 of Chaos God Series
To get my bearings, I focused on finding Sylmarie and Lyrie first.
Ari and Ker were easy to identify as well, and from there I was able to identify Elora’s essence, and the aura of our unborn child wrapped up in her. Freesia’s was the smallest of my ladies, and Shalanna’s magical signature was nearly non-existent. But Milo’s was large despite his small physical stature, and he made it easy to find Shalanna among the others.
After that, I was able to identify the less familiar magical signatures of Emneth and Ivaran, and then I felt like I had the orientation of the world around me lined up with the map inside my mind’s eye.
“Okay, let’s find Surtr,” I whispered to myself, and I heaved a deep sigh.
I stretched my mind out in search of the distinctive red energy of the primordial giant, but once I left behind the familiarity of my companions, I felt lost again.
“What the fuck,” I muttered.
I reoriented myself again, and then I tried to move more slowly into the vast rainbow of magical signatures of this realm. The rainbow of magical signatures seemed to shift and blur, and some of them pulsed like brainwaves over neurons. I couldn’t figure it out, and there wasn’t any kind of pattern or logic that I could find to any of it.
The worst part was, there were plenty of enormous signatures lighting up in my mind and just as many red ones. So I had no way of knowing if Surtr was on this planet or what.
It felt like my mental map was a compass, but someone was holding up a super powerful magnet around my head to confuse it. I couldn’t make sense of any of it.
“What the actual fuck,” I grumbled as I opened my eyes.
“What are you doing?” Innay’s voice came from just a few feet away, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“Holy fuck!” I gasped with surprise.
“My apologies, Allfather,” Innay said in a genuinely remorseful voice. “I did not mean to startle you.”
I looked down at the beautiful huldra and saw that a trail of flowers had popped up with each of her footsteps like they couldn’t help themselves. I could see the clear shape of each step she’d taken from the camp all the way over to me, and I saw that it had been a meandering kind of path.
I sighed as I looked into the huldra’s beautiful brown eyes, and I couldn’t help but think how they reminded me of rich potting soil.
“I’m trying to locate Surtr,” I said.
“With your eyes closed?” Innay asked, and she seemed honestly curious how I might be able to do such a thing.
“Uh, yeah,” I chuckled at the perplexed look on her face. “I can sort of… sense magical energies in my mind.”
Innay looked amazed for a second, so I continued in an attempt to explain the magical map I’d discovered in my mind.
“I figured it out on Asgard recently,” I said. “But the magical signatures of this realm aren’t what I’d expected. The place is jam-packed with magic… I don’t know what it’s all coming from…”
“The animals have large magical footprints,” Innay said with a nod. “Many of the trees do as well.”
I looked at her with utter confusion for a moment.
“Shit, you can sense them, too?” I asked.
Chapter 5
“Yes,” Innay answered as if I had pointed out that her hair was blonde. “I am huldra, of course I can sense the essence of nature here. This realm is overflowing with natural magic.”
I shook my head for a moment.
Of course she could. That’s what huldra did. They were in tune with plants so much that they sprang to life under her footsteps.
“Wait,” I said as I realized she’d been talking about the animals since we’d landed. “You can sense the animals, too? I thought huldra were just connected to plants.”
“Our connection is strongest with plants,” Innay said with a nod of confirmation. “But all living things are connected in a cycle of growth and destruction. When animals die, they turn back to the soil, and new plants grow from that soil. All life is connected.”
“That’s incredible,” I sighed.
“This world has returned completely to nature,” Innay said in a voice filled with marvel. “It is in perfect balance with itself. It is unlike anything I have experienced before. It is a paradise for a huldra like myself to feel.”
She looked back at the flower-footsteps that led back along her meandering path from the camp, and then she smiled up at me with pure joy in her brown eyes.
“The magic of nature flows freely like a river,” Innay murmured.
“It’s beautiful,” I agreed. “But it’s difficult to read.”
“Perhaps I can be of assistance,” Innay offered.
“How so?” I wondered.
“I cannot sense people,” Innay said, and she gave me a wry smile, “or giants, but I can sense the plants, and through them, the animals. Perhaps my knowledge may be useful to you.”
“Yeah, that would be great,” I said, and I hopped down from the boulder. “So… uh… what do I do?”
“Come with me,” Innay said with a lighthearted laugh.
Innay seemed more carefree than I’d come to expect from the guarded woman, and I couldn’t help but notice how her shoulders were less tense. Even her footsteps seemed lighter as she walked toward a nearby tree.
More flowers popped up every time she lifted one of her feet from the ground, too, and I made sure not to step on any of them.
“Can you sense this tree, Allfather?” Innay asked.
“You can call me Levi,” I said with a charming smile.
Innay tilted her head just slightly as a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips, but she just gestured at the massive tree.
I looked up at the huge plant.
It was nearly ten feet in diameter, and the tree’s canopy spread out over dozens of feet. Its branches were packed with bright green leaves in the shape of stars, and they almost reminded me of maple leaves.
I tried to locate the tree in the shifting and churning map of magical energies in my mind, but it was hard to lock onto anything other than my companions in the distance. There was a new magical signature I couldn’t help but notice, though.
Innay’s presence was a beautiful blend of sunshine yellow and soft purple, and it was right beside me in my mind. Her magical signature was steady like a mountain spring, and it made me smile to see.
“The tree, Levi?” Innay asked again, and she reached out to lay her palm on the rough pattern of bark. “Can you sense it?”
“Ahem,” I cleared my throat and reached out to lay my hand next to hers.
“Close your eyes,” Innay suggested in a soft voice. “Try to sense the tree as though you would sense the emotions of your lovers.”
There was something rough and sensual about the way Innay said the word lovers, and I couldn’t stop my eyes from opening to have another look at her.
The beautiful huldra’s brown eyes grew tense around the edges in a tiny expression that looked like scolding, and I fought against a grin as I closed my eyes again. I turned my mind forcibly to the task at hand, and I focused on the bark under my palm.
At first all I could feel was the hard and rough surface, and I let my mind wander over the ridges and crevices under my fingers.
“Breathe in the tree’s energy,” Innay said in an almost hypnotic voice. “This tree is thousands of years old. Its roots stretch hundreds of ells in every direction.”
“What’s an ell?” I asked softly.
“Focus, Levi,” Innay murmured. “That is not important in this moment. Breathe with the tree and feel its life force.”
I took a deep breath, and as my lungs reached the point of being so full they ached, I felt the flicker of the tree’s magic.
While the magical signatures of my lovers and other companions had reminded me of the bright lights of a map of Earth as seen from space, the magical aura of the tree was more like a bioluminescent jellyfish. The shape of the tree’s energy ebbed and flowed and pulsed, and as I focused in on the colorless energy I could trace it out along the tree’s branches.
“Wooow,” I breathed.
“You have found it,” Innay said, and I could hear the smile in her voice.
“Yeah, I have,” I murmured. “It’s fucking huge.”
“Can you follow the roots out to where they mingle with the next tree?” Innay asked.
“Let me see,” I whispered as if speaking too loud would startle the magical auras away from my mind.
I focused on the most condensed part of the tree’s pulsing aura, and I followed it down toward the ground. It spread out in a massive circular web of lines, and I started to understand why my mind had felt so overwhelmed at first.
I’d thought I was seeing an inconceivable number of magical beings when I’d first tried, but really I was seeing one massive being that just took up so much space. Innay was right, the plants here had taken over the entire realm, and their magical energy flowed freely.
A moment later, something new crossed into the path of the roots I was tracing, and it rotated like the arms of a spiral galaxy.
“What’s that?” I whispered to myself.
“A Bjørn,” Innay said in an almost silent voice.
I started to open my mouth to ask what a Bjørn was, but somewhere in my ancient memories the answer came.
“A bear?” I mumbled as quietly as I could.
“She is peaceful,” Innay said softly. “She appears to be hunting for fish in the lake nearby.”
“She’s beautiful,” I hummed.
“What else can you find?” Innay asked.
“There’s so much,” I said as I mentally sorted through all the different motions and textures of the magic around me. “It sort of mushes together like paint globs.”
“You speak strangely,” Innay said.
I opened my eyes to enjoy the look of puzzlement on her face.
“I get that a lot,” I chuckled.
Innay rewarded my charm with an instant and bright smile, and her brown eyes sparkled with the light that bounced off the purple lake. We just gazed at one another for a long moment, and I started to sense the same attraction I felt from the beautiful huldra. Finally, she broke the pleasurably tense eye contact and cleared her throat.
“What else can you sense?” Innay repeated.
I smiled as I slowly closed my eyes, and I turned my attention back to the magical map in my mind. Now that I had a better feel for how the plants and animals appeared differently than the people of Asgard and Surtr, I was able to more quickly interpret the map.
“There’s a school of fish in the lake,” I said with soft excitement. “Near the bear. She’s close, but the fish are evading her.”
“Very good,” Innay said, and I could hear the smile in her voice.
Innay encouraged me to expand my mind further out and away, and she helped me identify the various collections of plants and the animals that lived here. It fascinated me because everything seemed to weave and tangle together. The textures and motions of the plants and trees wove together with the magical energies of the animals. It was completely unlike the more distinct edges of my companions and lovers.
Innay became more charming and pleased as we worked together, and I could tell she was impressed by my abilities and how quickly I caught on. I was impressed by her knowledge of the plants and animals, and I was captivated by her beauty.
After a while we began to walk away from the ancient tree and moved further away from the camp. There was a stretch of open pasture along the lake’s shore, and we had a good view of the others while we strolled.
“Why do the plants and animals here have such strong magical signatures?” I wondered after a while. “The plants and animals aren’t anything like this on Asgard. Not even the demons seem to have a recognizable magical footprint.”
“This realm is in perfect harmony with itself,” Innay said. “This is what a realm left to its own devices will become. There have been no people here for eons, and so nature has had the space and time to reclaim this world for itself.”
“It’s beautiful,” I murmured.
Alfheim’s sun was beginning to lower toward the distant horizon, and the purple lake had begun to turn magenta as the sky lit up with the flames of sunset. It was as beautiful as any sunset I’d ever seen before on Earth or Asgard, and I wondered if this planet had any moons.
“Nature is a force of pure balance,” Innay continued. “It is people who interrupt that process.”
“Even the huldra?” I wondered.
“Yes,” Innay said with a wry smile. “We are well in tune with the energies of nature, as you have seen, I am certain…”
Innay waved her hands over a nearby bush and a series of bright orange and yellow blossoms bloomed from the branches. They were strange spherical flowers and unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
“And we do our best to live within the harmony of nature,” Innay continued. “But we cannot exist without leaving footprints behind. Even our minimal lives have an impact on the balance of nature.”
“Did the huldra come from a different realm?” I asked. “Like how elves started here?”
“It is said that the huldra have always been,” Innay said, and she shrugged her shoulders slightly. “We are a people as ancient as the Aesir and Vanir, but our histories have been lost over the millennia. Ester believes we began on Asgard, though.”
“What do you believe?” I asked.
“I feel that we have come from all realms,” Innay said, and for the first time she looked almost shy. “There is nature in all realms, so why could there not also be huldra in all realms?”
“Hmm,” I hummed as I considered the idea.
“We are the guardians of nature after all.” Innay shrugged again. “Most realms are not as…”
She gestured vaguely around at Alfheim and its beauty as she searched for the word.
“Balanced?” I suggested.
“Yes,” Innay said, and she smiled. “You understand the balance of things. The need for nature, magic, and people to strive for harmony.”
“Sort of,” I chuckled. “I don’t really understand how it works, but I could feel how out of balance Asgard was. After just a few days, though, things started to come back into a more peaceful state.”
“You have returned Asgard to a pleasant equilibrium, Allfather,” Innay said with a smile of admiration.
“I’m glad I could do that.” I smiled back at the beautiful blonde.
We walked silently for a few more minutes before my curiosity got the best of me.
“Have you lived in Huldraina your whole life?” I asked.
“I have,” Innay said. “It has always been my home.”
I had a nagging question in my mind that I struggled to figure out a polite way to ask, but I couldn’t stop the curiosity in my mind.
“I don’t mean to be rude,” I began. “I couldn’t help but notice that my brother was the only male in Huldraina… are there male huldra?”
Innay surprised me by laughing. The sound was a bright and joyful noise, and it made me want to laugh with her.
“No,” Innay finally answered. “Huldra are all female.”
“Then…” My eyebrows knitted together as I wondered more. “How are new huldra… born? Created? Are there only the ones that exist now in Huldraina?”
Innay’s voice rang out in another joyful burst of laughter, and it reminded me of the bright tinkling sound of Christmas bells. I couldn’t stop the smile the sound brought to my face as I waited for her response.
“We are born just as all peoples are,” Innay answered with a lingering giggle. “We huldra mate for love, and for life…”
The bright humor and laughter faded quickly from Innay’s face then, and I felt the air sink with her mood. The flowers all around us seemed to sag slightly with her sudden sadness.
“Huldraina was once filled with as many men as women,” Innay said. “But when Ragnarok began, Odin called them all to the fight. Vidar was the only one to return to us after those first days.”
“I’m so sorry,” I sighed as I felt the heartache of dozens of women losing their lovers.
“Wait a second,” I wondered as I recalled another detail of the labyrinth. “Did Odin call the children to fight, too?”
“No?” Innay’s eyebrows pushed so tightly together with confusion I worried they would fuse together. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I remember Delia,” I said.
I thought of the youngest-looking huldra who’d looked like she would have been maybe sixteen if she were human.
“But there weren’t any young males in the village…” I let my words fade away as my unspoken question lingered in the air.
“Oh, I see!” Innay brightened again as she understood what I was asking. “Huldra have only female children!”
“Oh!” I gasped with surprise. “Really? Always?”
“Yes, always,” Innay laughed brightly, and the flowers around us perked up again. “Never has a huldra birthed a male child. It is impossible as far as we know.”
“Fascinating,” I breathed.
I knew from my education on Earth that, at least in humans, the sex of a new baby was determined by the father’s DNA, but maybe the magic of the huldra prevented male sperm from implanting. It was an interesting question, and I wondered how my godly DNA might mix with Innay’s.
I shook my head at the sudden image of Innay’s long blonde hair draped over her naked breasts as she bounced on my cock, and I tried to swallow the desire that rose in my chest and groin.
“I uh…” I cleared my throat as I breathed through the rush of heat, and I tried to remember why we were out here alone.
It took me a second to remember I’d come away from the camp to try and look for Surtr’s magical signature on the planet.
“I’m going to check for Surtr,” I said.
“Very well,” Innay murmured.
I couldn’t help but notice her fair cheeks were pinker than normal, and her pulse beat faster at the base of her throat.
