-----Somewhere in the Underworld------
The death filled chill washed over me again as I continued to travel through this desolate wasteland. Its climate; so cold that it felt like a searing heat against your skin. Everything was covered in ice and snow. It never shined or warmed up. Only storms of hail and icicles.
"We are almost there, just a little further" voiced the snake-like demon wrapped around my upper body. I walked a little more before I saw it.
The crack. I stood at its edge and tried to look across.
The edge of the Underworld.
I looked out but all that was left was a gaping reality shrouded in darkness.
"It is the weakest part, am I right?" I questioned my companion.
I felt his body uncoil from my forearm as he slithered out of the coat's massive hood. Jormungandr reared his horned head and looked out towards the abyss.
"I never said it was the weakest part. I said it heightens transportation spells when the rest of the Underworld dulls or explicably extinguishes all magic and enchantment. The only flaw in Ymir's design.
"Shall we begin?"
Jormungandr turned his head towards me and gave a nod.
My fingers danced over the three rings on my hand, summoning the subjects of my plan.
They appeared in a whirlwind on smoke, dust and lightning. Demi-gods born off the Underworld. Calling this place home since their very existence.
Khaos, Nyx, and Deimos. Triplets in their own right.
Indistinguishable unless you knew where to look, and few could tell them apart without the marks that clearly distinguished them.
The symbols ingrained into their left eyes only seen by those transcended form the original.
"Hela" Deimos greeted. The only respectful one in the bunch.
I tipped my head slightly in their direction.
"I called you to grant a longing in exchange for a favour" Their scrutinizing looks made it abundantly clear where they stood in this proposition.
"I will send you out of here…" The stiffened visibly
"…all I ask is that you protect my daughter"
Khaos scoffed. "Why should we believe you, you are stuck here like all of us.
My gaze drifted to Deimos. He had a blank expression almost bored as he looked at me not uttering a word. He was the one I needed to convince the most.
Jormungandr reared his head out of the cloak's hood. Looking straight into the eyes of the deities. I watched them tense at the sight of the ancient serpent.
He began talking in a language I did not know off. A language I came to realize was older than time itself. You didn't learn it you were born to speak it.
Their eyes lowered, emotions fluctuating as the conversation wore on. Soon they returned back to normal and looked at me. Whatever the serpent told them clearly worked to gauge their mind to the severity of the situation.
"We will do it" Deimos was the first to respond.
"Anything to get out here" Nyx added.
"You will find my daughter by the jade pendant she wears infused with my essence" I paused.
"Look for me and you will find he. Keep her safe for me till I return to Asgard"
They nodded.
"It is time to go. The realm of the gods awaits." Jormungandr commanded. His eyes were glazed over.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Valia grew in Iduna's court presented as a priestess-in-training. An old child she was, didn't quite fit in and left to her own devices as soon as she understood what she stood for in the goddess' arrangement of affairs.
She slowly learned that she wasn't liked here. Not because of some sort of power play but solely because she could do things no one else in the realm could, not even their goddess.
At the age of six, she learned to change her eye colour to something 'normal' and to wilfully dampen the glow of the markings that littered her skin.
Each year one marking would change, indicating a new goal or fear or event. It could be absolutely anything but some didn't change. They remained the same, never glowing, never shifting. Always there.
Valia was excluded from most of the activities of the temple on account of her being unusual and an outsider even if she grew up there. They always reminded her that she was never born there and did not belong.
On her tenth birthday, she discovered how to talk to departed souls, those who still roamed the realms. Learning how to summon them to her at her beck and call. In doing so she uncovered that she was bound to a departed soul, Alyuna.
Alyuna was the parted life of a great warrior and therefore taught her to defend herself. Alyuna talked with Valia on occasion about almost anything and everything she had learned when she still lived millennials ago.
What intrigued her the most was her elongated fangs and an ability to manipulate memories of others if they looked in her eyes long enough or tasted her blood.