Amid the silence of the night Rognir stood with his back to the wind. His coat waved in the breeze, shining with a glistening metallic black colour.

He raised his hand and stared into a crystal, a Beacon, same as the countless others he had forged this past few days. Yet only this one had an anomaly to its nature. There were two beings in there, one male, the other female.

Dire looked into the crystal and stared at the two naked figures with a wondrous gaze.

“How is it so?” She asked, “She gave up her other half...did she not?” Rognir glanced her way. He smiled knowingly and then released the crystal, allowing it to merge with the pitch black sky that represented his true body.

“Cerus’ male half only died recently and had existed long before that. Furthermore, it was his half of their Ash specifically that she used to create that decoy, so she overtly tried not to convert his Ash into her own. Indeed, she chose to die before doing that, she deliberately chose not to let him truly vanish from this world.”

The male and female within the Beacon were both Cerus, her two selves, the original female one and the male one she created to serve as a protector, both existed, both died, both became an Einherjar. Even Rognir was surprised at this, but not stumped. There was, after all, a precedent for it set five centuries prior.

The pitch black god then turned his head. He watched the horizon as Rudolph stepped into view. He smiled, then waved his hand. Dire bowed, then faded on the wind. She vanished from this place, but even Rudolph could sense that she had not left it.

“In keeping with my vow, she will ensure the safety of this continent’s people in the event that Nidhogg uses a Beacon in the war to come,” Rognir said as he stepped forward. He stopped a mere few inches before Rudolph and cast him a surprised smile.

Upon the scholar’s shoulder now sat a winged woman. Skin white as a ghost, hair and dress darker than black. Her wings were many in number, not those of an angel, devil or beast, but closer to those of an insect instead. That tiny image resembled Beatrix, yet was younger by a decade. He sensed in his surroundings a multitude of these beings.

“Ah,” he said, “So this is what has become of Tyrfing.” Rudolph nodded. Indeed, he had completely overtaken that being as the dominant entity within his own body, yet he had not destroyed her sense of self. Either from pity or some sense of sympathy, he had instead found a way to co-exist with her.

The massive body that had been forged of flesh served as the basis for these thousands, maybe even millions, of hand sized winged fay. Rognir smiled as he beheld the sight, then he turned to face Rudolph and asked him, flat out, “have you made your choice, mortal?” Rudolph closed his eyes, then fiercely returned the brutal god’s gaze. 

“I have,” He said. Rognir smiled, then turned on his heels. Black wind enveloped them, yet harmed not even the countless fairy-like beings who could in all logic not resist its fearsome gales.

“Very good then,” Rognir said as he stepped forward in the wind. He was leaving, he was departing from this place in a way Rudolph could not hope to follow. The mortal man frowned, then faced Rognir.

“Am I to walk to Vesta on foot!?” he yelled. Indeed, such a trip would not be short, it would be a very long trek, even with the body he now possessed.

“No rush,” Said Rognir upon the wind, “What binds Authun are two Beacons, one in Vesta, the other in Abel. I have no delusions about you besting either on your own. Take your time, haste will not deliver victory...only opportunity will.” Rudolph scoffed. He guessed the god’s, no, the Yggdrasil’s, intent just from that phrasing.

“You plan to create this opportunity, then?”

“I do,” Rognir replied, “I shall send an army, tens thousands strong...to shatter the skulls of all of Vesta’s gatekeepers.” Rudolph frowned, then he sighed. Before long the black clouds subsided, before long the darkness was lifted and welcomed the light of the morning sun.

The man turned his head as countless tiny fairies started sitting upon his shoulders. Others, comically enough, started dangling, swinging even, from his coat and sleeves. He saw Dire sitting there, her body half formed, bathing the earth in pitch black mist. He faced her back and stared at her knowingly, she would not have revealed herself if she had no desire to speak with him.

“You’re right,” Said said, looking over her shoulder to face him.

“About what?” he replied, frowning at her seemingly meaningless utterance.

“There is indeed a large scale battle between the Yggdrasil of this world, and it’s going to occur soon...at least by our perception of time, anyway.” He turned his body to face her in full. He had indeed wondered about this matter.

Why had it been that the Yggdrasil, Rognir, would seek his aid on a matter such as this to begin with? Why not go in full force and shatter the city of Vesta into dust as Grimnir did to Eve so many years long ago?

Dire glanced over her shoulder at him, knowing full well what was on his mind. She smiled, then said to him, “Eve didn’t have a Vanir of its own to protect it,” She said. Rudolph’s frown deepened, his worst fear was realised. This was indeed a conflict between the Yggdrasil themselves, mere mortals were but tiny pieces on the board.

“There’s a Vanir in Abel?” he said with doubt in his brow, “How can that be?” Abel was created to oppose the Yggdrasil race, it was never going to serve them. Yet his doubts did not last long, indeed not very long at all. He only took an instant to recognise that not even fifteen days ago he had learned that Abel only existed because it brought merit to these beings, so was it really so far fetched?

“The Founder, Metatron, and Five Pillars, Mikhail, Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel when they set out for Alfheim to fight against the Immortals of Loki they left their kingdom unguarded. Little did they know what kind of evil they invited in.” She turned to face him, a deep frown upon her face, “Five millennia past, when few of our kind inhabited this world, Alfod, the first of us, and Asagrim, the First among us, fought over the land of Asgard.

We cannot be killed...but we can indeed be bound. Alfod built his kingdom upon Asagrim’s prison...and we built Abel upon the bones of that kingdom. Abel’s true purpose...was to maintain that prison. This, however...they in time did forget.

Asagrim was nothing if not patient. As the ages past, tiny traces of his power infected the people of Abel...and without their rulers to contain his growing influence...” She sighed and turned away, she said nothing more. Rudolph frowned, he understood her story well enough. Arms crossed, he faced the north, towards the central continent where Abel’s kingdom lay.

“Rognir fears this...Asagrim?” He asked her. She opened her eyes, yet did not face him. She looked to the heavens with a heavy eye.

“Alfod has already ascended, he is no longer here...there are none among the rest of us whom Asagrim has cause to fear.” That was all she said, and indeed all that needed to be said.

Asagrim didn’t fear them, none of them, which meant that, given how competitive the Vanir seemed to be with one another, he did not see them as competition, he did not see them as his equals. Still, he wondered, what stake did they, the mortals, have in this conflict? To him, this was the most important of questions. Yet he could not ask it.

Rognir had the Beacons of his comrades in his hands, Rognir was offering him a way to cure his daughter of her curse. These two things alone were enough to sway him towards the pitch black god’s side.