Tales of Alavern: Something old, something new
Prologue
The Great Mother sighed loudly as she sat down, watching as Ulfric the Wild glared silently at her. She knew that this was going to be a difficult meeting considering how their last encounter had gone, but she certainly hadn't expected to be given the silent treatment of all things. Especially not from
him
, the warrior god known for his volume and verbosity. Granted, the last time they had been in proximity to one another it was because she was demanding that he command his warriors to release her daughters from slavery. He hadn't expected her to punch him hard enough to knock him out, and had been forced not to seek vengeance by the other gods.
"Do you intend to sulk like a child for the rest of eternity, Ulfric?" she asked, trying not to growl in her irritation.
"No, just until
you
go away." he responds, his voice deep and gravelly like a wolf's growl.
"I may have ended that fight, Ulfric, but I certainly did not
start
it. You did, when you commanded the kings of two nations to unite in order to enslave my people." she growled right back. "I
tried
to be reasonable, to solve your
clear
violation of divine rules with words but you forced my hand!"
"And had you defeated me in
honorable
combat, I would have happily yielded to your request but instead you attacked me with a coward's fist!" he yelled, standing up with his eyes now glowing an eerie yellow.
"I should not have
had
to request it in the first place! The Verni are
my
people! You had no right to push two armies to commit the atrocities that you did on them! If anyone here is a coward...!" she shouts, interrupted when both she and Ulfric become frozen by the power of yet another deity. They step forth, the Nameless One, older than all other gods and the direct parent to most of them. The Great Mother being one of their first children, conceived in times immemorial with a long forgotten mortal.
"Enough." They said simply, letting the two gods go and simply standing above them. "You have had this same argument for far too long already. You both broke rules. Ulfric by turning two kingdoms against your daughters, and
you
by directly interfering in that war when you imbued your daughters with strength and healing. We have long since settled this, by compromise. You were allowed to sequester the Verni as you did, but their legendary powers were stripped from them."
"And the humans of our world have
suffered
without the other natural gifts of the Verni, Nameless One! The Verni are invulnerable to most diseases and live far longer than most humans. If we simply could have bred that in..." Ulfric started to say, drawing the Great Mother's ire once again at the thought of her daughters being used as mere...
breeding
stock.
"You have no right to feel that way, my child." The Nameless One spoke to the Great Mother, clearly able to hear her thoughts. "You took a human from an entirely
different
world specifically for the purpose of being used for breeding. You are quite lucky none of us ever considered that anyone would be insane or desperate enough to dive into the Source of All as you did, else we would have prevented your efforts. It shall become law that doing so in the future will be forbidden."
The Great Mother hung her head, shuddering at the loss of Earth and the men she had planned to bring from it to help aid her daughters in securing their future. Without them, all she could rely on was her new son,
his
new son, and possibly... She stopped herself from even finishing that thought. The men of their world had proven to be little more than animals. If she were allowed to, she would take
all
women from under their oppression and free them just as she did her daughters so long ago.
"Well, it would appear you are both a coward
and
a hypocrite." Ulfric said to her with a sneer. "So much for your vaunted moral superiority."
"
Enough
, Ulfric. Your point has been well made time and again, but our decision stands. None of us are to directly interfere in mortal affairs any longer. We always end up doing far more harm than good." The Nameless One commanded, obedient silence following their words. The Great Mother felt herself fill with a sense of dread. Her plans had been shattered by the one person she could never go against. There was nothing more to do here, so she left in silence to check up on her island. She hoped that looking in on her sons and daughters would lead her to a solution that her people so desperately needed.
Chapter 1
The soft cries of a baby's discomfort echoed in the small room that Cyrus sleeps in to be near his son, Brian. Getting to his feet, Cyrus shuffles over half-asleep to Brian's crib to check on him. He barely made it to the crib before the door is forcefully thrown open by Megara, who rushes into the room with arms full of baby supplies and medicines. Cyrus couldn't help but chuckle as he holds up a hand to stop the Head Physic from blitzing towards the crib, halting her in an instant.
"Meg, I
really
need you to relax. At the very least let me see if Brian's just being fussy before you start assuming he's caught some strange
man
disease." Cyrus says to her, gently picking up his son out of the crib. Brian shuffles gently in his father's arms, opening his eyes and making a grumpy face. "What's the matter, little buddy? Did you have a bad dream?"
"I do not believe infants can dream, my ki...Cyrus." Megara chimes in impatiently, pacing a little as she looks over Brian as best she can.
"You also didn't believe that a male child could be born out of the Mother's Pool, or that the Verni would stop trying to kill me." Cyrus replied with a cocky, tired smile. He heard Megara quietly pout, which made him chuckle again as he started checking his son over carefully. With no smell emanating from Brian, Cyrus doubted his crying was potty-related. Given what
usually
put his son into a fit, it probably meant...