GxG 28
There was a beat of silence upon Hrist's declaration, Kunou and I glancing at each other. It was hard to miss the gloating in her eyes.
The list of humans with Divinity is pretty short, mostly demi-gods and the directly blessed. I've never met a god before, but the Divinity in her soul seemed too little for something "demi-god" so I had bet on our mystery woman being a missing priestess of some sort.
Kunou bet on her having a distant Divine lineage instead.
I knew it was a sucker's bet going in, but I am going to embarrass the hell out of Kunou when she cashes out her one free day of butler services.
I look damn fine in a tuxedo and my many general knowledge motes give me the foundation to combine with impeccable body control for a premium butler experience.
The glance only lasted a moment before we turned back to Hrist.
"So how did you..." Kunou waved her hand at Hrist, failing to find words tactful enough for 'how did you turn into that frothing monster?'.
"Ah." Hrist's breath hitched before she wrestled it under control. "Yes, that is the least I can do. Let me start from the beginning."
"You don't have to right now if you don't want to." I offered. Honestly anyone could see the poor girl was barely holding it together. Can't say I would be much different if I was turned into a monster like that.
"No, I want to. Talking is better than thinking right now." She warbled out before clamping down on her emotions again. Maybe some sort of trained response?
"If you're sure." Kunou comforted, her eyes going soft with something indescribable.
"To clarify at the start, my name is Hrist, but I'm not the Hrist, Shepard of Valhalla. It's more like a family name and a title." Hrist began, glancing at us to see if we were following along.
"Wait. What do you know about the Norse?" Hrist quickly followed up.
"Nothing." "I know they exist, probably." Kunou and I replied at the same time.
"Oh then I really need to start at the beginning. Most of the humans who work for the Norse are actually Walkures. It translates directly to 'Half-God' but in practice it means more 'you had a divine ancestor or two a long time ago, and your family has kept in favor so you carry a divine spark too'." She started explaining, making cute gestures with her hands. I'm pretty sure she is used to more formal lecturing with actual teaching tools by the way she moves.
"That makes sense. Meanings change as time goes on." I nodded along as she lectured.
"Exactly. My family can trace our roots to the original Hrist, which is why we have the tradition of using that name once we officially graduate as Valkyries."
"Wait, graduate? As in school?" Kunou asked in disbelief, which was pretty in character for her. I remember little Kunou trying to dodge lessons, and Yasaka hadn't managed to fully tame her by the time I visited the second time.
Hrist let out a small chuckle, distinctly different from the warbles in her voice earlier. "Yes, as in school. Valkyrie training has been standardized over the last few centuries. It has helped remarkably with training efficiency." She almost had a smile on her face, probably thinking about her school days.
"Anyways, I graduated to a formal Valkyrie and was given a mission to escort a soul back to Valhalla. I wasn't sure on the specifics, but I know it was a more clandestine mission. I was supposed to get in and out with the soul, no fuss. Easy right?" Hrist's voice tightened as she continued to talk.
Kunou and I just listened in silence.
"Even though nobody except my handler and the Gods who gave the mission should know about it, there was a devil waiting for me instead of my target. I had only just graduated, barely cresting Mid-Class. I was overpowered and pieced in minutes."
"I don't even know who pieced me." Hrist sobbed out. "He just said to call him 'Master' and that I was a fine addition to his collection." She let out a horrible distorted laugh from how absurd the whole thing was.
"Wait, you don't know? I thought the whole point of the Pieces was those rating game things. The televised blood sport." I inquired as Kunou gave me a flick with her tail for being insensitive, but it seemed to be the proper thing to do as Hrist was able to focus on the conversation again without spiraling.
"That is the official reason for those evil things." Hrist spat out with venom. "But there is nothing stopping someone from just... not competing." Ah, so that's how she was hidden then. Other races can get the rating game recordings easily enough, and if she showed up on one after going missing it would raise questions nobody wants to answer.
"I suffered for years under that animal. Thankfully he got too drunk during one of his masquerade parties to show off his 'prized collection' to his friends and left a ward open. I took that chance to cast a random teleport back to earth and landed in America." Hrist was blatantly furious thinking about that devil, but she was obviously overjoyed to escape.
"Why didn't you contact the Norse when you were back?" I asked. It didn't make sense, she was free. Why not call home and get everything fixed?
"Two reasons. The first is that my teleportation spell, for lack of a better wording, was tuned for the Norse dimension. Teleporting out of the Underworld like that had terrible turbulence which left me badly wounded upon arrival."
"The second?" Kunou leaned forwards, but I already had an idea in my mind what it was.
"I didn't know if I could trust who picked me up." Hrist replied calmly, but there was steel in her voice. Kunou seemed confused for a moment before letting out a small "Ah.".
"I spent a long time thinking over my capture. It was one of the few things I was allowed to do. It just didn't make sense unless someone sold me out. The only people who knew I was going there were my mission handler and the God who called for the mission in the first place, and it wasn't the handler."
"How could you trust a person over one of your own gods?" Kunou seemed baffled at the idea, but she is in a unique position in her Pantheon. Her mother is the Divine Messenger, while also having to deal with the mortal squabbles of her faction, which has given Kunou a skewed perspective on divine relations.
"Because it wasn't the normal handler that time. Ross was substituting for the week." She explained like that made it obvious why the handler wasn't the problem.
"Ross?" I simply asked back.
"Rossweisse, Odin's favorite. There is no one more trustworthy than that poor girl, she doesn't have the time nor energy for treason." Hrist had her first real smile bloom as she nodded to herself, obviously thinking about this 'Rossweisse'.
"So why didn't you contact her then?"
"I had no way to ensure it made it to her, and I was bleeding out in the middle of some unnamed forest. My options were not many." She let out a small laugh that came out as more of a scoff at her own joke.
"Then what?"
"Then I started changing." Ah, I almost forgot that's how this story ends.
"Ironically, turning into a stray is what kept me alive. The mutations patched my injuries. In an eldritch 'grow weeping tentacles from every wound' kind of way." She turned and looked me right in the eyes, gratitude overflowing.
"And then I found you." I said.
"And then you found me." She nodded.
[LINE BREAK]
"Mom, we got a guest." I called out as we entered my house, Hrist in tow.
She seemed stable enough to bring around my family, and I wasn't going to leave her alone in the woods at my base. That seemed like an idea that could have negative consequences.
"Daddy!" Hana's voice echoed and I could hear her peeling across the house. A stealthy spirit she was not.
"You took forever today. I went to the park with grandma and then worked on my senjutsu at home after. I can almost make the not-flower plants pretty too!" Hana was rambling about her day at a mile a minute after diving into my arms.
"That's wonderful, you have to show me later." I coaxed her down after a few seconds, and she finally noticed the other people.
"Hi Miss Kunou, did you have fun spending all day with Daddy again?" As Hana has grown into her own person, she has gained her own opinions on certain topics.
One of those opinions was that Kunou hogged too much of my time, and her solution to express that was pure, unadulterated sass. The kind of sass a child who hasn't quite figured out what is impolite to say can spew at a moment's notice.
It's like when a kid asks someone "Why do you look like that?" and you can't exactly get mad at them. But Hana is a Sage, and getting verbally brutalized by her is just that much more funny.
"Oh? A new pretty big sister?" Hana finally spotted Hrist, who was now standing in the doorway awkwardly.
"Yes, this is Hrist. She will be staying with us for a few days. She was hurt pretty bad, so be nice to her, okay?" I squatted down to her eye level, speaking gently but firmly so she understood.
Hana isn't a bad child by any possible metric, but all kids cause problems. That's what kids do. I need to make sure she doesn't pull anything.
"No surprise flowers?" Hana asked with real sorrow in her voice. Maybe she is a little bad. Just a smidge. Kunou and I may not be the best influences at times.
"No surprise flowers." I nodded. Hana's manipulation of non-flowers struggles to the level of only a genius practitioner. Considering she's only around five years old, that means she's still struggling.
Given her nature as a flower spirit Sage though, she can manipulate lotuses, and to a lesser extent all flowers, like they were part of her body. Her new favorite trick is 'surprise flowers' which usually involve some application of plants stringing someone up like how she saw on the morning cartoons.
I got an earful from my mother the first time she got caught in Hana's 'rabbit trap'.
"Ok, I'll be nice." Hana nodded obediently before scurrying deeper into the house, but who knows if she meant it.
"This is her?" Came my dads voice this time, seeing me nod before walking away to give us space. He was thoughtful like that.
He knew all about the stray devil fiasco, so he was at last partially invested in this whole deal.
"That's your daughter? You seem so young." Hrist's voice was filled with confusion.
"Youthful indiscretion, you know? I haven't seen her mother in years." I replied slightly dramatically. Should I be playing my usual bit on a very traumatized woman? Probably not.
Won't stop me though, it is one of my favorite things in the whole world. Always makes me giggle, especially when they find out I was screwing with them.
"I've tried to step up, but I can't bridge that gap." Kunou has also decided it would be hilarious to play the awkward step-mother bit.
It's like idiot to idiot telepathy. I love that woman so much.
"Uhh... I'm... sorry?" Hrist was utterly confused on how to react to what she sees as our weird family drama.
"Nah don't worry about it. Come on in." I replied cheerfully, totally stunning her with the sudden mood shift.
Since it was dinner time, my mom set another place at the table and we had an enjoyable meal.
It was slightly awkward as my parents didn't know how to interact with Hrist at all, but for different reasons.
My dad was treating her like a war vet, but the cultural differences were making it weird, while my mother just had no idea how to fathom what Hrist went through.
After dinner Hrist asked to bathe and then turn in for the night, which was fair since she had been through a lot today.
While she showered my mother cleaned up the guest room while I played with Hana who was in a jealous mood.
My Little Flower is easy to pacify, she loves me too much to stay mad. Kunou smirking at her the whole time didn't help though.
Hrist finished cleaning herself and was directed to her room. She thanked my mother and closed the door.
Everything was fine for a few minutes before it started.
Heart wrenching.
Wet.
Ugly.
It was at that moment that I realized that I had forgotten to soundproof the guest bedroom since my deal with my dad was for his bedroom, and I did Hana's while I was at it.
That meant there were no formations to block out the wails coming from Hrist's room.
Kunou and my mother made eye contact before heading over, while Hana had a scared look as she snuggled into me.
There was nothing I could do but hold her back as I carried her to her room.
Since she was gripping me so hard, I had no choice but to spend the night.