Hybridization

Chapter 169 – Loose Threads

Chapter 169 – Loose Threads

“Contact with the team was lost at approximately twenty-two-fifteen local time. Their status is unknown as is the cause of the interruption.” – Operations oversight, reporting to MI6 leadership about the raid.

Robert ran for his life. Literally.

He ran as fast as he could while trying to dodge the branches and undergrowth as he sprinted through the woods. He failed often, catching his equipment on obstacles and having to wriggle his way out of it.

He was one of three in his group, but the only one from the command team. He was also pretty sure that they were the last three from the entire force. Well, save the ones in the vans who were asking many questions over the radio that he didn’t bother answering.

He slowed down to a walk to try and get his bearings, the other two doing the same. He had no idea where he was or even how to check, but he was pretty sure that the road the cars were parked on was to his right.

“Road’s that way.” He pointed and began walking.

“Ay, fuckin wait up!” Hissed one of the others, taking a moment to adjust his equipment after the mad dash.

“Fuck you, no.” Robert immediately replied. “I am getting the hell out of here.”

“There is a process!” The man hissed back and clicked his radio. “Uhh, Base, this is Three…Charlie.” He paused, clearly trying to figure out his callsign now that the rest of his squad was dead.

Robert briefly heard some voices over his ear bud as it flopped around near his collar, having come loose while he ran. He didn’t bother putting it back in. He had a plan and was going to stick to it.

The other man continued talking. “Roger, we are RTB. Possible hostiles inbound. Count three pax.” There was a pause. “Unknown. Enemy force wasn-“

A very loud howl cut through the night and shut the man up. It sounded very close and worse, there wasn’t only one echoing through the trees. Robert immediately began running again.

“HEY!” the other man called, the one who hadn’t been arguing with Robert. “You gotta-OOOFF-AAAAAAAAAAA-”

Robert never found out what the man thought he had to do as he heard a horrifyingly familiar noise behind him. The last time he heard that noise was when one of those monsters suddenly charged out of the night and swept Adam off his feet before tearing out his throat. Apparently, the guy they were after had guards and guard dogs or wolves or something Robert didn’t care to think about as he returned to a dead sprint.

If he squinted, he thought he might be able to see a clearing ahead. It wasn’t a clearing. It was the road! Robert was partly relieved and partly shocked as he missed his next step and landed in the ditch next to the road.

Not stopping for even a moment, he rolled to his feet and began running along the road to where he thought he could see a glow from a car’s running lights. As his lungs worked like bellows and his arms pumped in counter point to his legs, he saw it was the vans.

He almost wanted to cry at the sight of the things that would take him away from this hellhole. But he didn’t, instead he kept up his mad dash and ran for all he was worth. The sound of his drumming feet and the thundering of the blood in his ears almost drowning out the sound of another set of feet pounding down the road behind him.

He knew he shouldn’t look back for fear of seeing one of those monsters, but he risked it anyway. He saw the other soldier, the one who had been on the radio, only a dozen meters behind him. He also saw it when another massive shape rocketed out of the trees and took the man off his feet in a single bound, carrying him into the bushes on the other side of the road.

Robert still wanted to cry, but for a now very different reason, yet he couldn’t as he fought to not stumble when the van’s headlights popped on. The driver was standing out of the open door and squinting at him. “Leeds? What the hell is going on?”

“Gogogogogogogogo.” Robert yelled as loud as he could as he slid around the side of the van, flinging the door open and throwing himself in the back. “FUCKING DRIVE!” he screamed.

The driver was thankfully quick on the uptake and was reaching for the gear leaver when something large and brown flashed across the headlights. “The fuck was that?” he asked while fumbling with the radio.

Another something flashed across, this one a little bigger and grey in color. Then a third that was smaller but pitch black. Robert curled up into a fetal position as he heard the screams of the drivers in the other vans being suddenly cut short. “Nonononononono…” He mumbled to himself.

The driver swore again and put the van in drive before stomping on the gas, spinning the tires on the dirt road. “Fuck it, figure it out on the way.” He was talking to himself.

Robert was just thankful to be moving at a pace faster than running. He could feel the van start to move as the tires started to catch and build up momentum. He also felt it when something very large hit the van and made it lurch to the side. The driver swore again and tried to correct but another impact forced them into the ditch.

Because he wasn’t buckled, Robert was tossed about the cabin, coming to rest against the side wall behind the driver. He was looking mostly up at the door on the other side as the van landed at an angle and not completely on its side.

The engine had shut off when the van tipped and the driver was groaning softly, leaving the interior oddly quiet. Quiet enough for him to hear the snuffling and sniffing as something crawled up on top of the tipped vehicle.

If he had it in him he would have screamed but all the energy Robert had left in the tank could only make a whimper as the door latch was pulled. The van door slid open to reveal three sets of eyes looking in, reflecting the interior light that popped on when the door was opened.

While he might not have anything left to scream or fight, he was very confident in expressing his displeasure and fear in another way. He passed out as a long arm ending in a clawed hand reached in and closed around his face.

*****

Rindi was in an immense amount of discomfort. It wasn’t exactly pain but more like when she was lying in bed and couldn’t fall asleep because her one leg felt a little too long and wasn’t touching the other one quite right. The only problem was that she couldn’t move on her own, because of how comfortable she was. Completely rational and reasonable discomfort that everyone, everywhere could relate to.

She was also very confused, as she was seeing things in one place but feeling things in another. She could feel her body being moved and vaguely hear Val yelling something. But, when she opened her eyes, she wasn’t looking at Val… or even Earth as far as she knew.

Before her was what appeared to be a lounge. It was filled with rather fancy furniture and tasteful décor that looked almost a little too out of place for the backdrop outside the floor to ceiling windows. Off to one corner of her line of sight was a broad hallway leading somewhere that she couldn’t see. While the interior was fancy, the exterior looked like one of the video games that Kristi played.

It was a scenic valley, complete with mountains, wood hillsides, sheer cliffs and a waterfall that crashed directly into a crystal-clear lake. Here and there were stunning marble and gold villas that sat perfectly perched on ledges and hills. All of this picturesque beauty was under the absolutely terrifying backdrop of empty space.

Just beyond the edge of the valley, or rather half a valley, was a star spangled nothingness that stretched on forever. It seemed that there was just a gentleman’s agreement keeping the air in and hard vacuum out.

If she could scream, Rindi would have. But she couldn’t, so she wouldn’t. She also considered other, less noble, options to express her horror but also didn’t have control over her bladder and the muscles that kept its contents where it belonged. The sound of footsteps on carpet alerted her to another noise and she heard a woman’s voice from behind her.

“What has that old bastard done now. I swear he just lets his experiments loose and doesn’t care who’s house they wind up in.” The voice was hard but clear, reminding Rindi of a shard of broken glass, clear and pretty but with dangerous edges.

Her musing was cut short when the woman spoke again. “ODIN!” she yelled. “Come pick up your project before it leaks or something.”

Rindi would have been offended at the suggestion, if she hadn’t considered it herself already, but her non-verbal disagreement was cut short when she felt a pressure descend as calmly as an old man walking down a hall.

Coincidentally, from the hall at the other end of the room, strode an old man. He was grey in all his hair, and his face was weathered but not completely wrinkled. He was wearing a tunic and trousers that Rindi thought belonged more to some of the lower worlds than wherever this was. As he approached, she also noticed he was missing an eye, or at least it was covered with a patch held in place by nothing she could see.

“Hmm, blame cannot be laid upon myself for this.” He said in a tone that made Rindi want to shiver as he leaned in. “From where have you come little half-breed?”

“Eww, a half-breed. Get it out of here.”

When Rindi didn’t say anything, he pulled out a small, gnarled stick and poked her, hard. Rindi wanted to swat at the offending branch that pressed into her cheek but only managed to wiggle a finger. She wanted to punch the smug bastard in the face and…

“Ah, she does yet live.” The man named Odin said. “I can see by her anger that the impairment is not a of the flesh but of the spirit.”

“And how do you know that?” The woman asked.

“Oh Brynhildr, you do not need to know the minds of man to see when a woman is angry at you.” He smirked as he tapped Rindi with the stick again. “Also, she is only partly here, half here and half in another place.”

Rindi wanted to ask questions about that but was distracted by her body being moved in… wherever it was that she could only partly feel while focusing on the people before her.

“So, what do we do? Where has this thing come from and how do we send it back?” Brynhildr asked her voice dripping with disdain. Though she couldn’t see her, Rindi imagined a very ugly expression on an old woman’s face.

“I suspect we are to speak with her as her cohort have done, hmm?” Odin said and made a gesture with his wand, seemingly not concerned with the answer. Rindi was lifted off the ground a moment later and floated along the hall while still in a prone position and unable to see the woman. “Come now, Brynhildr, and hear of my recent travel where I met a half-breed most fascinating. But first, some history come current once again.”

Having no other choice, Rindi listened as Odin told a tale of treachery and backstabbing. Of deals made in back rooms and fools exploited for personal gains. She was curious to find that she had heard the story before, just from a different angle.

The story Odin told was of how a great working was performed, involving hundreds of divine beings from every realm and layer of the universe. While Rindi had read the information in a report that Jay had given her, the old man told the tale from his perspective and how he witnessed the events unfold. He then began telling of a very large werewolf who was the ‘fascinating fellow’.

By the time they had traversed the long hall and reached another room, Brynhildr had completely changed her tune. “I am sorry child, I did not know this geas was laid so strongly that even we of the Aesir would be influenced.” She wasn’t exactly warm and friendly but at least wasn’t openly hostile.

Now that she was in front of her, Rindi could see her fully. Brynhildr was a powerfully built woman with bright red hair that was tied into twin braids that draped over her shoulders. She wore a gown of the finest linen, embroidered with red stitching running down the sleeves in a decorative pattern. Hovering above and wrapped around her shoulders, there was a pair of wings clad in the whitest of feathers. Rindi instantly recognized the mantle of a Valkyrie.

“Indeed.” Odin nodded and floated Rindi over to a table that was standing vertically on its end. “Here we are.” He thankfully didn’t strap her down, but did press her firmly into the poorly padded surface. “Now to bring more of you over or change what bits of you we have.”

From a drawer, the old god pulled out a stone that looked like it was partly made from putty and partly made from lava. He stretched it out into a large loop that he then placed over her head. When it landed upon her shoulders, it sinched down until it just rested on her neck.

“And a little of…mmmmhhhmm. Ah, yes.” Odin rummaged around in the drawer again and came up with a loop of some sort of vine that he added to the loop around her neck.

Rindi immediately felt something change, feeling much more clear headed and the phantom sensations she had from her real body began to fade a little more. She still couldn’t move and was mentally shouting her frustrations when Odin and Brynhildr both winced.

“Child, do not foul the air with such crass, though creative, prose.” The Valkyrie said.

“You can hear me?” Rindi asked, attempting to project her thoughts.

“Yes, I pulled more of your consciousness here and pushed your spirit away.” Odin explained while pulling out his stick again.

“IF YOU POKE ME WITH THAT AGAIN I WILL SNAP IT IN HALF!” Rindi roared in her mind, her inner felitaur surging to the fore.

“Peace. I am only inspecting not prodding.” He said and made another gesture with the gnarled wand and a shimmering oval appeared. “Mhm, yes, this could…” his words trailed off as he began shifting the oval around as if it were a magnifying glass.

“Don’t mind him.” Brynhildr waived her hand in Odin’s general direction. “He gets this way when he finds interesting things.”

“Like Kurt?” Rindi’s mind immediately made the jump to her mast- friend… definitely just a friend.

“Oh? You know the lycan?”

Rindi felt herself flush a little and saw the goddess raise an eyebrow that was followed by the corner of her lip a moment later. “I see how it is then. I won’t pry further, least I confuse your sensibilities.”

“Thanks, I guess?” Rindi was still adjusting to projecting her mental voice. It was similar to the implant Kurt used but not as intuitive.

“Think nothing of it.” Brynhildr said before she tilted her head and began walking around in counter point to Odin. “But I would know how you came to be. I sense there is some sort of kinship between us.”

“Like whom my parents are?” Rindi asked and received a nod in return. “Oh, well my father was or is, not sure if he is alive, a felitaur. I think there might be something else mixed in though since I can change my shape. And my mother was a Valkyrie.”

“Truly?” Brynhildr sounded shocked. “Does she yet live? No, you said ‘was’. What was her name? Was she orthodox or no?”

The sudden interest from the previously standoffish woman threw Rindi for a loop but she did her best to answer. “Her name was Rundila Halskier but I am not sure of the orthodox thing.”

Brynhildr frowned and tapped her chin with a finger as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I am going to assume she was not part of the orthodoxy since you didn’t give a clan name.”

“Isn’t Halskier a clan name?” Rindi had thought that was what her last name was her entire life. Why else would she have one and not just be known by the town she was from?

“No, it’s not. There are eighty-one clans. Nine noble clans with eight subservient clans below each of them.” Brynhildr paused as Odin passed in front of her with his shimmering oval while muttering about ‘the threads being tangled’. “I can assure you that none of them have any part of the name Halskier. That leads me to believe that your mother was one of the unorthodox or ‘wild’ Valkyries.”

Rindi really wanted to follow up on that but was distracted by Odin suddenly shouting. “AHA! That is why. See here, the brand had muddled things and twisted the threads of her fate.” He was gesturing to his oval as he pulled Brynhildr over. “Look there, that ring which constricts the threads. See how they have atrophied?”

The Valkyrie sighed explosively and her shoulders slumped, looking all the world like an exhausted assistant to a mad scientist. “Yes, I see it, but what does that have to do with her?”

“Everything!” the old man answered in a very excited tone.

“So, it explains her genetics?”

“No.”

“Her power?”

“No.”

“The reason she is here?”

“Not so simply put, no.”

Brynhildr made a very unladylike noise and scrubbed at her face with both hands. “UGH then WHAT! What does it have to do with if not those three things that we have been talking about?”

Odin gave the woman a very disappointed look and shook his head. “It is the reason she is like this.” He gestured at Rindi, wafting his hand in her general direction. “In such an awful state of disrepair and a complete lack of harmony.”

“HEY!” Rindi took offense to that, but the god just ignored her and prattled on about legacy and heritage that had been blended to make something completely unstable. He then went on to detail what he called a fate constrictor, something that she knew about as he described it.

“… would have been applied when she was young, likely before the matured fully. If I am right, which I usually am, then this is a slave brand from one of those Thalthian gods. A god with the aspect of order or justice if I were to guess.”

“Wait, are you talking about my slave brand?” Rindi asked, causing both of them to look at her.

Brynhildr was the first to speak. “Someone applied a slave mark to a Valkyrie? That shouldn’t be possible.”

Odin brandished his stick and came perilously close to poking Rindi again. “Ah, but she isn’t one. Or at least not fully.”

“Right, half-breed.” The woman frowned. “Well, is there something we need to do? As enlightening as this chat has been, this mortal doesn’t belong here.”

“Us? Not so much, but she needs to choose.” Odin said and turned to Rindi with an expectant look in his eye. “So, what is your decision?”

Rindi, being justified in her confusion, asked the most pertinent question. “What am I deciding on?”

“That which becomes!” Odin said, a manic smile on his face. “Paths have converged, creating an imbalance and a price has been levied without compensation.”

“How about you explain it properly?” Brynhildr said.

Odin nodded, seemingly not noticing the annoyed expression on the women’s faces and began in a less confusing tone. “If I am correct, you have experienced body discomfort, yes?” When Rindi confirmed it, he continued. “That is because your path was split and has become less than complete. One part of you is dominate, making you more comfortable in that shape.”

“In my felitaur form.” Rindi supplied.

“Just so. Your other shapes have more power, but you don’t connect with them.” Odin then turned his oval around. “What you must decide is which aspect you will keep and which you will discard. Decide what you sacrifice unto yourself. Understand?”

“No?” Rindi had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. How did she sacrifice something but still keep it?

Brynhildr stepped in at that point, attempting to translate. “You have three options. Be a felitaur, be a Valkyrie or be something new. That would likely be a blend of the two, but it is uncertain. In any event, the remaining portion will be very powerful for a mortal.” Odin, for his part just nodded along, not adding to the description. After that, they both went silent and waited patiently for Rindi to make a decision.

“These, the threads of your being, they are torn, knotted and punched up.” Odin pointed to what looked like the inside of a poorly organized sewing box stored in an invisible hourglass. “This ring is the slave brand. It has disrupted your being and needs to be removed soon. But when that happens, you will unravel unless your paths are consolidated into one.”

Rindi had no idea what to do and was having a hard time with the esoteric way the old man was speaking but she got the basics. For all her life she had always had the three parts. One that let her blend in, one that gave her strength and one that she was comfortable with. Each of them had a certain aspect to her that was part of her core identity.

She really wished she had more time to think about it and to maybe ask someone for advice. Still, she racked her brain for a solution, an answer to the question of who she wanted to be. While in that deep dive of self-reflection, one thing kept coming back to her. Kurt and the girls.

They had always been insistent on her being herself, on being comfortable with who she was. They were the living embodiment of there being nothing wrong with being a hybrid. Rindi wasn’t a felitaur any more than she was a Valkyrie. She was a hybrid, begotten by unfortunate circumstances, but still her own woman with her own heart and soul.

Taking a deep breath, Rindi looked at Odin. “I want to be myself. I am not my parents. I am my own person, and my fate is my own.”

Brynhildr snorted and an amused smile spread across her lips. “Of course you pick that. Why take the easy way when you can walk the road as we do.” She asked rhetorically. “Alright, old man, do your thing and let’s see what she comes out as on the other end.”

Odin nodded and moved over to a small console near the exam table. “A decision has been made, wise or not, right or not, is not for us to say.” Then he pushed a series of buttons and Rindi felt the straps on the table come alive and wrap around her partly incorporeal body. “You might feel a slight pinch.”