Finding Fenrir (Underworld Chronicles Fanfiction)

Clarification

Chapter 21

In the next few hours the memories flowed through me like water. I could barely hear Joexia carefully directing the tide with questions and I could feel the entity within me growing smaller and quieter. I remembered Hel claiming me from Vanaheim. I remembered the painful days I spent in a room, flailing on the floor as my body slowly pieced itself together. I remembered all of Hel's attempts to make me her lover and her enraged hurt when I denied her.

My feelings of hate did not diminish and Joexia did not discourage them even as they began to boil with greater intensity into my thoughts. He said I was allowed to have feelings. It was what I did with those feelings that mattered. The hate was there, an underlying burn that occasionally flared as I remembered my past. Ironically, Hel had indeed saved me. She put me in an uncomfortable situation and occasionally slapped me around, but now that I had the memories my Other held back...I considered her much more gentle than the rest of Asgard. True, trying to sleep with me as an added horror but she hadn't taken me against my will. Compared to Thor and the others she was a fluffy marshmallow. She probably had her own problems that led to her misplaced affections but it wasn't my obligation to entertain them. Not anymore.

I showed the Other that I could handle pain now, that the memories were also mine. He was still there, I could feel it. He didn't trust me to hold steady but I finally felt as though he was sleeping, waiting. There was still something secret inside me, something only he knew, but as much as I reached for that secret it continued to evade me and the Other wouldn't release it.

I felt raw and bitter. I felt more tired than ever but I knew that I could not rest.

When Joexia came to my side and gently laid his hand on my shoulder I didn't flinch. I turned my head in his direction and he quietly said, "I think it's time."

"Yes." I answered and reached up to pat his knuckles lightly. "I think I'm ready."

He nodded, smiling softly and I stood from my chair to walk behind the white-haired demon. He led me back to the pool where I'd left Jormungandr and before we even entered the room I heard a deep voice speaking. "I'll not hear the words of an exiled prince or his ergi offspring."

I growled at the words as I passed through the doorway to behold Hermod the Brave, god of Messengers looking down his nose at both my father and brother with his back, unwisely, to Hades. Like many Asgardians he was of medium height, roughly 6 feet, and his hair was platinum blonde with silvery streaks of "wisdom, not age" that were barely visible. His eyes were a smoky gray that flashed as he glared over at Loki and his teeth bared in a sneer toward the trickster while a muscle twitched in his strong jaw. Making a show of his musculature, the male crossed his thick arms over his barrel chest and seemed to be urging Loki to strike him. Typical.

"It isn't them making the request, idiot, it's me." Said the god of the Underworld as he tilted his head, causing the bones of his neck to crunch slightly. The look on his face, though Hermod didn't see it, told me he was doing everything in his power not to squish the very irritating Asgardian.

Hermod frowned in irritated confusion, as if wondering who was interrupting his show and turned around to come eye to eye with Hades' clavicle. He seemed to rethink his expression immediately upon tilting his head up to meet Hades' glowing gaze.

"They are in my house and therefore they are my problem to deal with." Hades continued, sharp teeth flashing as he enunciated each word carefully. "Fenrir, according to both your laws and mine, has become mine for at least another day. As his Master, I want him given the trial he was denied centuries ago. Give the Judge the message or I'll give it to him myself. If I have to do that I'll be sure that he knows about you withholding his dockets."