"To think he'd use it to write her name…"
The one who spoke was—used to be a proud, powerful woman. Now, she was looking at Randulfr from the heavens as the man took control of her energy. She spoke his name out loud, and the second she did so, the scar on her cheek started burning.
"Nayavu…"
But no matter how much she looked at him, she only saw her old pupil—the pupil whose life she took with her own hands.
"Aren't you staring an awful lot… What? Still not used to your new powers?"
Of course that wasn't her problem, for the god who once went by the name of Ayanda was no pushover. The moment she had fully become a god, knowledge of everything in this world flooded her mind all at once, yet it took her only a couple of seconds to regain her senses. That's the mental fortitude this god had developed in her days as a human.
With a solemn look, Ayanda turned back towards the one who questioned her. All that stood before her was a murky image she couldn't make heads or tails of, but there was no doubt that this god was one of her colleagues.
She waved her hand over the clouds that had been drawn on and erased the name inscribed there in purple lightning before answering.
"Of course that's not an issue."
"Good. It would be truly unfortunate to hear that someone such as yourself has trouble after ascending to godhood."
The voice of that phantasm was distorted, leaving no hint of the owner's identity or authority.
"It's only been a little while since you've joined. Well, Time isn't around right now, so it's not like we know exactly how long, neither does that matter here."
As per that god's words, time matters little for their kind. Although Nayavu and Randulfr lived more than a hundred years apart, for Ayanda things felt awfully linear, as if it was just yesterday that she pierced the young man's chest.
"So, is there anything you want from me?"
"That man… Why are you looking at him?"
Ayanda took one more glance at 'him,' but instead of giving a straight answer, she shook her head.
"I was just thinking that he may be worthy of taking my place one day. That's all."
"Oh… Ayanda. It's much too early to decide this. At least let an elemental beast form before you come up with other less than stellar ideas."
Unwilling to speak another word about the cursed one, Ayanda stood silent, her solemn look piercing the thick shadow in front of her.
"Well. You've made the right choice back then. And for that, I'll take your word at face value. Please, stay here a little longer. Enjoy your nation. For what it's worth, it's thanks to your old mentor that this place has come to favor lightning."
Leaving those words behind, the entity faded away as if blown by the wind, and Ayanda was left alone. Despite the seemingly kind words received, she had little interest in the nation of Fjordheim.
She turned around and looked at Randulfr, who was looking at his lightning-controlling hand with a disgusted look.
"But something tells me he'll like this place even less than me…" the god sighed.
*****
Through her eyes still closed, she envisioned the life she'd lived up until not long ago.
In that dream ripped from her past. She was a thrall—a slave tasked mainly with taking care of the longhouse, among many other less demanding tasks.
As light broke through from above the stone wall of the fjord, it was clear that dawn had long passed, and her sleep was now stretching well into the morning hours.
Though her rest was peaceful, a part of her brain urged the white-haired woman to wake up. With a heavy heart, she let go of her restful sleep and slowly opened her eyes. The last thing she'd left behind in her dream was the face of the Jarl—the previous master who had used her services until not long ago.
There, at her side, just a couple of centimeters away from her face, a scary-looking man stood, staring with his blue eyes into hers.
From seeing the face of her old master to seeing the face of her new one so close that she could feel his breath, the shock was too much for the woman to handle. She jumped out of her covers as fast as she could, making sure to keep the man within her line of sight at all times.
"Slept enough yet, Your Highness?"
What kind of lame joke was Randulfr trying to make? Giulia didn't know nor care. If anything, the way she had been called annoyed her. Why would she be called that when she'd never been anything else but a mere thrall? Was her master such a scum that he would laugh at her social standing?
Giulia shook her head. She had gotten sidetracked. There was something much more important that she had to confirm, and that was the man's reason for getting so close to her.
"You, what did you do to me?"
Completely ignoring Randulfr's kind smile, Giulia shouted at the man who'd taken her on this trip, patting herself down to check whether he'd laid a hand on her.
Upon checking herself, she confirmed that her night attire had been untouched. The same went for her covers, which she'd violently pulled from under the man's knees.
But if Randulfr had done nothing to her, then what reason did the man have to be there?
With her question still unanswered, Giulia kept staring at the man nicknamed The Murdering Wolf. She hadn't taken her sights off him for all this time, yet it was only now that she'd noticed the expression he was wearing.
"A… aa…"
With confused, round puppy eyes, the man with long, bloodstained blonde hair stared at her, his gaze clouded in thick confusion. Uncharacteristic of his looks, he had a most playful allure going on about him, almost like a dog bringing a dead rabbit to its owner's feet. Looking at him, Giulia was left making weird sounds, having lost her coherence due to her own confusion.
"A… aa…"
The same was the case for Randulfr, who hadn't spoken a word since asking his first question of the day.
Baffled by the other's actions, both of them stood still, silence being broken from outside the tent by the sound of water smashing against the stone walls of the fjord.
It was thanks to the noise that Giulia started paying attention to her surroundings, and the second she'd done that, she felt a meaty smell coming from nearby.
Finally, she looked where the smell was coming from, and that was from Randulfr's hands. In them, the man held a roasted bunny on an improvised wooden platter. The meat was still steaming as the heat coming from it clashed with the cold air inside the tent.
"Are you hungry?…" Randulfr asked, placing the platter next to her.
At that moment, Giulia's cheeks turned pink, and the reason had nothing to do with cold.
*****
"So… how is it?" Randulfr asked with his breath held, hoping that his question hadn't kicked the hornet's nest once again.
Wolfing down her meat, the woman he had up until now known for being a refined young lady nodded her head as a sign of approval, barely taking the time to compliment his cooking.
"It's good," is all she said between bites.
One good look at her told the man that this lady was in her mid-twenties. That was the range Randulfr had come up with by correlating what he was seeing with how fast someone so badly treated would age. In truth, she looked much older than how the princess Giulia should have looked at that age.
She had ragged, dirty clothes and white hair stained by mud. Whether that mud was from their fight or it had been there for much longer, the man couldn't tell, for this was the first time he actually had a chance to look at the woman he was walking together with.
The way she ate was far from elegant, the only difference between her and a wild animal being the fact that she at least held the food with her hands. Just in case, Randulfr did place a knife beside her, but Giulia looked at it with doubtful eyes and decided to ignore it in favor of savoring her meal.
"So… Giulia…"
"Hm?" the woman made sounds with her mouth full.
"What happened?"
The Fjordheimer decided to be bold with his question. He didn't beat around the bush and went straight to the point the second he felt Giulia let her guard down.
At that moment, the woman stopped moving, not minding the food that fell out of her open mouth. She looked at the man with wide eyes that seemed both questioning and nervous.
"…What happened with what…?"
"What happened with you? How did someone like you end up in this position?"
For some reason, Giulia calmed down upon hearing the rest of the question, as if it wasn't the one she was expecting.
"Oh… Well, where else would I be?"
"Pardon?"
"You were the one who bought me. Why do you ask me such things? Am I not to serve you?"
"No, I mean before I bought you. Why are you a thrall, Giulia?"
"Because nobody has freed me?" the woman answered as if it were a matter of fact, tilting her head a little.
"You know that's not what I mean…"
As they spoke, Randulfr decided to try a little trick that would catch the lady off guard and stop her from feigning ignorance.
While Rema was a nation best represented by water magic, there was a certain special perk specific to the royal family. Ever since the nation was founded, and as long as the original royal blood still ran through someone's veins, that someone had an affinity for wielding ice. This affinity would be trained in secret, and only the most trusted nobles would ever get to know about the powers the royal family could wield in times of need.
From what Leo had once been told, this type of training was pretty harsh, and it was mostly focused on defense, for that was the best way such magic could serve the crown.
Because it was a harsh form of training, it would get to a point where magic responses would become a reflex. Luckily for the royal family, this trigger was often weak, and for anything to be seen, it required liquids being there to freeze, so it mostly went unnoticed.
'He' was aware of this little fun fact and decided on taking advantage of it when the time was right.
As such, Randulfr brought a small water jet from the ocean into the tent, splashing it on Giulia's back. The woman jumped on her feet and turned around soon enough.
"Where did that come from?" she asked, and Randulfr took advantage of that moment and checked her back.
"It's wet…" he said in a low voice.
"Of course it is! Something splashed on me!" Giulia continued, but she swallowed her words the moment she turned around to a pair of worried eyes fixed on her.
"Giulia… What happened back in Rema?" Randulfr asked, circling back to his original question, but the answer he got was much more dusturbing than the sad backstory that could have been.
"Rema? What is that?"