Freya Valdis's Arc

Chapter 7 of 11

Aezrath stood cornered in his dim hall. Freya faced him with the cracked lantern raised. She had broken his seal. She had named him. But now she needed the truth, and truth was the one thing a god could still twist. "You cast me down," she said. "Tell them why." Aezrath's blue eyes moved to the others. His voice came smooth. "She froze a living world. Ten thousand dead. I judged her as any god must." It was true, and it was a wall. Freya had no way to push past it. Elsa gripped the carved pixie. Torrent Iron stood ready by the wall. Freya searched the god's face for a crack and found none. He would drown her guilt in his own story until no one saw the rest. Moira stepped forward. Feathers drifted from her crown, blue and gold. She had promised to stop her brother, and now she showed how. "Tell them the whole road, Aezrath," she said. "Or I will." He went still. "Sister. This is not your judgment." "I see every road," Moira said. "I saw the one where you spared her world." She turned to Freya. "He knew your frost was spreading. He could have warned you. He chose silence. He let the world freeze so he had cause to cast you out. He wanted your seat in the cosmos. That is why he sealed the sky so fast." The hall dropped colder. Aezrath's fire guttered. "You cannot prove a road not taken," he said. "I am fate," Moira answered. "I do not guess. I know." She lifted her hand. A thread of light spun from her fingers. In it the others saw a world of green, then white creeping over it. They saw Aezrath watching from his hall, doing nothing. They saw him lift his hand to seal the heavens before the last being died. Elsa made a small sound. Torrent Iron turned his heavy head toward the god. Freya lowered the lantern. Her guilt did not leave, but it changed shape. She had killed the world by accident. He had used those deaths on purpose. "You wanted my place," Freya said. "You let them die to take it." Aezrath did not answer. His silence was the answer now. The vision held in the air, plain for all to see. Freya stepped close. "You will not judge me again," she said. "Not while I know this." She turned to Moira. "How do I make him give it back? My seat. The cosmos he stole." Moira's smile faded. "That road is harder," she said. "And you may not like where it leads." The god stood exposed before them all. His lie was broken. But Freya saw a new problem open, and Moira would not yet name its price.