#freyvar

When her eyes opened in that space from before, where the ground was cracked beneath her feet, with something glowing beneath. Now, Freydís was able to recognise it for what it was- that is, that it was magic, just the same as the magic she possessed. What exactly this place was, she still wasn’t sure, but she felt more connected to it now. It felt somehow more comfortable now.

The voice was no longer just that, as the same figure which had met her here before walked out from behind her, still just as mysterious, hooded and hiding her face. “See?” she said, seeming rather smug. “You did know how to see me.” Freydís rolled her eyes, unable to help herself.

“I did,” she replied. “But we’ve spoken like this before.”

The figure hummed and chuckled softly. “We have,” she confirmed. “But I think you have called me here for a purpose haven’t you? What is it you wanted with me?”

Freydís swallowed a bit. The truth was that she had wanted to ask something of this figure which was always with her, but how she had known that… It was baffling, at best. At worst? Outright concerning. “I don’t know where to go from here,” she confessed. “I mean, I do know, but I can’t do it.” 

“You must,” the figure advised. “If you won’t, everything is lost. Surely a few moments of their pain will be forgiven? Ivar has done far worse to you, and they have done far worse to each other. Why not take this chance for all of you? For those in the future who you will save from this fate you are already suffering?” 

“Then you are saying that this sacrifice is necessary for the greater good?” Freydís questioned for clarity’s sake. The figure nodded.

“I am afraid so,” it replied, and stepped forward, brushing a hand through Freydís ’s hair. “There is no other choice if you wish to put an end to the schemes of those who wish to play at weaving fate.”

Freydís nodded reluctantly, and took in a deep breath which she let out slowly. “Then I have work to do,” she almost whispered. The figure hummed, and then suddenly Freydís was waking, and she adjusted so she would land on her feet when she returned to the ground.

It was a dreadful thing, realizing what she had to do to her husband and his brother. But if she was going to find the information she needed from either Dr. Schmidt or Professor Andersen, she wasn’t sure she had much of a choice. So, she began the work of preparing her space, creating little fires all around herself in a circle by burning various sticks and leaves. Then, laying out her book in front of herself, she began to write the runes around herself which would allow her access to the right minds- even as wrong as it felt.

Her search began, seeking out the paths she needed to make it through to Ivar or  Björn- whichever she got to first. They both had that final connection, she was almost certain of it, and if  Björn didn’t for some reason then she was certain that Ivar would, and  Björn would have the connection to Ivar. They were the final pieces of the puzzle.

Being entirely alone meant that there was nothing to break her focus or her concentration, and that made the process all the quicker and more painless for those she had already been through. They would barely notice anything, aside from perhaps being reminded of what had happened the first time she passed through their minds. This being the first time she was connecting to either Ivar or  Björn, however, they would feel the full force of the spell, only to be relieved once she had finally reached her ultimate target. She just hoped they’d recover well enough.

When the spell finally reached Ivar, Freydís crawled her way into his mind just as she had with every other mind before his, and he cried out from shock at the sudden sight of her, and pain from the violence of the action. But that wasn’t the only shock- not by far. What shocked him beyond that was how grey her skin had become, the deep black around her glowing red eyes. Her teeth seemed almost like fangs as she cried out at the effort it must have taken to get into his mind. Not to mention how thin her fingers had become, looking more and more like ink dipped claws than anything else. What had happened to her? What had happened to his wife?

By the time she left, Ivar suddenly could see his surroundings again, and it was only then that he realised he had lost sight of anything but his own mind until then.  Björn was kneeling at his side, but it did little to soothe Ivar, who was shaking and suddenly very, very cold. 

“Was it Freydís ?”  Björn asked, and Ivar managed to look at him, his heart pounding wildly in his chest. But still, he managed a nod. “What did she do?”

“I don’t know exactly,” Ivar answered, trying now to sit up. “She came into my mind, and…” A chill ran through him. “She didn’t look like herself anymore.”

 Björn opened his mouth as if to answer Ivar, when suddenly he too cried out, and collapsed to the ground. His hands came to his head and he clutched at it, screaming from whatever pain he must have been in. If she was doing to him what she’d done to Ivar, then he knew the pain  Björn was in. Ivar grimaced a bit at the thought. 

Unfortunately, all he was able to do was wait for  Björn to come back. Or, rather, for Freydís to release him the spell she had captured his mind in. Whatever it was she wanted, she had needed them both to find it, and then apparently she had it as  Björn seemed to snap back into reality. He looked up at Ivar, eyes wide with horror. 

“You’ve seen her,” Ivar surmised, and  Björn nodded slowly.

“What has happened to her?” he questioned, barely getting the words out as he tried to shake off the pain.

Ivar swallowed, his eyes clouding with regret, along with many other things- one of which was grief. “That book,” he said. “I think she has gone too far into it, and it’s corrupting her beyond what we could have ever imagined.”

 Björn was quiet. Ivar could tell he was thinking hard, which he may once have teased him for, but now he couldn’t find the levity to do so. Eventually,  Björn asked him, “What do you think she was looking for?”

Well, Ivar certainly didn’t struggle to answer that. After everything they had been through, unless there was some sort of memory of Kattegat she sought, there was really only one thing that bound her and Ivar to  Björn. That facility which had raised them from the dead, where she and her husband had first met Doctor Schmidt and Professor Andersen; where they had first been reconciled with each other.

“The facility we were kept in,” he said to  Björn. “She wants a way in. My memories of jt aren’t quite enough, we have mostly the same memories, but yours… They trusted you more than they ever trusted us. My mind was just her link to you.”

“We should warn them,”  Björn said, staggering to his feet quickly as he now had a mission in mind, but Ivar shook his head.

“No, they deserve whatever she would do to them,” he decided. “I won’t save those who have caused us pain, not when they will cause that same pain to others.”

 Björn huffed in irritation. “Then what do you suggest we do?” he questioned sharply.

Ivar’s answer was simple, but first, he needed information from  Björn. “You do know the way in?” he asked.  Björn nodded. “Then we meet her there. Those people deserve whatever she would give them, but I cannot let her repeat my mistakes. I fear we would never get her back.”

He could tell  Björn was unsettled at the prospect- at all of it, really- but he could also see that  Björn was resigned to this. “We needed to get in anyway,” he figured. “May as well let her help us.”

May as well let her help us…

Ivar couldn’t help but wonder when his wife had become someone he and his brother, the legendary Ivar the Boneless and Björn Ironside, feared. What would they call her when history told their story? Their names were known already, but she had only once been Queen Freydís , defined by her marriage to him. The image of her eyes still burned in his mind, glowing red as she showed her power. No, she wouldn’t be Queen Freydís any longer. He thought something along the lines of Freydís the Scarlet was far more appropriate, now. He figured they’d see exactly why when they met her again.

Unfortunately, time would prove Ivar right. When Freydís arrived, she had the information she’d taken from  Björn’s mind floating around in her own. That meant it was easy enough for her to get in, but it could only get her so far. What she had was a map now, essentially, but she didn’t have anything near an already cleared path into the facility.

She made surprisingly quick work of detonating any firearms pointed at her, turning the blasts back on them once they’d been fired. It wasn’t long before witnesses stopped trying to fire on her, knowing what she would do, but she hadn’t gone to spare those working in that facility. Freydís had gone for blood. 

The hallways were flooded with red light as she fought through, alarms blaring in her ears to call out, ‘Invasion! Intruder! Danger!’ in their own high pitched, squealing ways, but Freydís didn’t stop. The warnings were about her, and were proven necessary when she wrapped magic around the throat of one of the guards, and used it to sever his head from his body with a single pop! The nearby guards gasped and cried out from shock as she then made his body turn on them, lifting his gun and firing a quick round. Their screams fell silent as she dropped him, and stepped over their corpses.

Her face now coated in a smattering of blood, Freydís stalked through the halls. The gunfire must have been significant enough a warning, because everything had gone still. No defenders rushed out to meet her, push her back and out. Anyone left had hidden, which meant she now had full access to the entire facility. Perfect.

Freydís stalked through the halls, searching each door for what she knew she needed. Any door that was locked to her, she simply decreed was not, and so every door was open to her. Eventually, she found what she had been looking for.

Doctor Schmidt was the first to face her. “Freydís,” she said. “Before you do anything rash…”

“Anything rash?” she repeated, laughing in the woman’s face. “Believe me, I am being perfectly reasonable.” Without waiting on an answer, Freydís reached out and took Doctor Schmidt by the throat, lifting her almost violently into the air.

She heard a familiar gasp of, “Freydís !” and turned to see Professor Andersen standing there, his eyes wide with fear as he looked at the two women before him. 

“Ah, hello,” she said with a cold chuckle. “I don’t suppose you can help me, can you? I’m looking for information, about those you have brought back from the dead like myself, like my husband, and  Björn Ironside. Do you have it?”

Professor Andersen opened his mouth to answer her, but Doctor Schmidt hissed out, “Give her nothing.”

Unfortunately for them, Freydís ’s mind worked quickly. She figured that Doctor Schmidt was willing to pay with her own life, if it meant keeping these secrets from her, but what about the life of another? Would she sacrifice Professor Andersen to the same end? She suddenly dropped Doctor Schmidt in favor of lifting Professor Andersen in the same fashion, deciding to find out.

“Do you still wish to give me nothing, Doctor?” Freydís asked, looking back to her. “Now Professor Andersen’s life is on the line, will you give him up to save your secrets?”

Doctor Schmidt swallowed, but her eyes hardened. “Kill him,” she said. “I won’t tell you anything.”

Freydís turned to look at Professor Andersen, whose wide eyes reflected the betrayal he felt at Doctor Schmidt’s words. “And would you give your life for her secrets?” she asked him. “Or do you want to give me the information I seek, and save yourself?”

Before he had the chance to answer, the most familiar voice yet yelled, “Freydís , put him down!” She turned to see Ivar and  Björn rushing in, horror written across their faces. Ah, so they had seen what she’d done to get this far. Oh well, she supposed that couldn’t be helped.

“Why should I?” she questioned. “You know what they did to us, to others like us. Why should I give them any mercy now?”

She watched Ivar swallow, noticed how  Björn kept an eye out, likely to be sure no one snuck up on them, and she tried to keep an eye out herself, as well. “Because you won’t ever come back from this,” Ivar told her. “I have always admired you for the path you never took. Don’t take it now.” Freydís turned back up to look at Professor Andersen, the fear he regarded her with, and even as a dark voice whispered in her ear to snap his neck, she remembered a night from over a thousand years before. She’d had this sort of fear when Ivar took her by the throat, when she had demanded to know what he’d done with Baldur.

Her magic weakened around him suddenly, and she let him drop to the ground. As soon as she did, she heard Doctor Schmidt scoff, “I knew you wouldn’t have it in you.”

“Did you?” Professor Andersen asked her, around each breath he managed to take through his choking. “Did you know? Or did you know there was a risk?”

“Of course I knew,” she said, but Freydís ’s eyes narrowed a bit. 

“You’re lying,” she accused. “You couldn’t have known. I did not know myself until I released him.”

Doctor Schmidt huffed, as if irritated with all this. “Alright,” she said. “I knew there was a risk. But it was a necessary risk.”

Professor Andersen shook his head a little. “I wouldn’t have taken that risk,” he confessed. “Even though you told me not to tell her anything, I still would have done it if it would have kept her from killing you.” He took a deep breath, then stood to his feet as he looked to  Björn, Ivar, and Freydís in turn. “But I won’t let my loyalty stay in the wrong place,” he told them. “I’ll give you everything you need.”

Freydís was stunned, but she wasn’t about to question his sudden change in heart. “You’ve made the right decision,” she said, and when he nodded, she saw no hesitation in his eyes. She felt no lie in his heart, when she looked, and she nodded in return.

They left Doctor Schmidt behind- Freydís ,  Björn, Ivar, and Professor Andersen- to go down the hall to what seemed to be an archive of sorts. There, Freydís watched as their guide went into a drawer to pull out a thumbdrive, which he then plugged into one of the computers. She kept an eye on everything he did to be sure all he downloaded to it was the information they needed, no trackers or anything of the sort. Fortunately, it seemed he did exactly as he was meant to, and was soon handing the thumbdrive over to her.

“It doesn’t have any sort of lock on it so you won’t end up without access,” he said, “but that does mean you need to be careful not to-”

“Not to lose it,” she finished for him, and nodded. “Thank you, Professor.”

Professor Andersen nodded in return as he released the thumbdrive, which Freydís pocketed and stepped back. “Good luck.”

“You too,” Freydís said. She didn’t imagine there was any version of this where Doctor Schmidt didn’t retaliate against him for what he’d done, and it was for that reason that she really appreciated his assistance. Doctor Schmidt had expected him to die for their research just as she had been prepared to, but he made a different call. He’d turned the tide in their favor in that moment.

With little else to say, Freydís turned back to  Björn and Ivar, and the two looked to her for their next step. Seeing they were ready to go, she turned and put out her hands, magic flowing out from them and pouring into a sort of cloud that hovered before them. She stepped through, expecting for them to follow. As soon as they were, she closed the portal to shut the facility behind them. They would soon reach the end of their efforts now, and it would only be a matter of time.

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