I blink.
I couldn’t remove it.
“You said.”
It’s encased in gold—that’s Jörð’s domain.I think she placed it here, and that means it can only be removed by an earth child.
She could be manipulating me.Her father might have put her up to this.He might want the heartstone to be portable so he can take the fight to Ásgarðr.Things like this always have a cost—she’s not asking for a small favor.
I think our only hope is to remove it together.Earth and sky.Will you help me?
I think about what she’s said—if it’s all true, she may be right.Among the vanir, there won’t be likely to be many sky-earth pairings that aren’t fueled by hatred.We may be the first...and we could easily be the last.I reach for the bond, and I close my eyes.
I’ve spent so much time shielding from it, so much time hiding, so much time being as separate as I can, that I’m not sure how to use it, not properly.But it feels...it feels solid.It feels...honest.
I think she’s telling the truth.
“If your father finds us here, after the first time?”
He’ll kill us both,she says.If anyone saw us, if...
She’s risking as much as I am.That decides me.I reach for the stone, and then I hesitate.It’s encased in earth.An earth child can remove it...but how?My hands won’t do it.They’re weak and soft.But the swords she had crafted for me—they’re a joinder of two worlds, as we are.They’re metal, smelted from the earth.
But they’re also magic from the sky that allows sky to be harmed.
And I used them to protect her from the earth children who meant her harm.My own people.“You’ve betrayed your own people—and I’ve also betrayed mine.”
But only to try and help both,she says.We have done what I hope Veralden Radian and Jörð would have wanted.
Before I start, I say a prayer.“Jörð, we don’t know what you’ve endured, whether it was a theft or a loss.Either way, I’m sure it’s painful, and I know there’s great power, great magic, in this stone—the product of your loss or your wound.But no matter what happened, your children are struggling, and so are his.Freja and I are here to try and fix it.We want to change things between our people.We want to do it with your help and your blessing.”
I wait, and I’m not sure why.What am I hoping for?It’s not like the goddess of the earth is going to talk to me.Just as I’m thinking what an idiot I am, the heartstone begins to glow.The gold pillar around it lights up, too, turning almost red.I unsheathe my swords, and I plunge them into the gold on either side.
The sword blades melt in a hiss, the steam burning my face, and I jump back.
You are my child.You’re a child of earth, but you saw the beauty in the sky.
So much for the vanir’s claim that Jörð didn’t love Veralden.
Because of your sacrifice, because of your open heart, I give you a gift of the sky.
Pain blooms across my shoulders, like someone’s stabbing me, and then it spreads outward, radiating through my entire body until I’m bowed backward, almost insensate in my agony.
And to Freja, sky child who loves my own earth bird, what should I give?
For some reason, Freja looks atme.
I shrug, and I notice my shoulders are now—I have massive white-feathered wings on my back.
You have to answer her,Freja says.Quickly.
“I want her to gain an understanding,” I say.“Just as, through her, I knew kindness from the children of the sky, I want her to know what it’s like to be a child of the earth.Then she can know, as will I.”
A wise gift requested by a wise child.My chosen child.Granted.
As my pain begins to ebb, I watch Freja’s body stiffen, her head curling inward, her limbs contorting, and then there’s a sound like the shattering of ice, and Freja becomes...like me.A child of earth.Her hair flows down past her back—white, silver, red, blue, golden, and brown.Iridescent like her scales, it ripples outward.She’s clad in a gown of the iciest of blues, and when she opens her eyes, they’re the exact same color.
You’re my chosen now, so I shall name you.Gullveig, my golden bird.My sky child is the same but also new, so you shall be known instead as Freya.As your father made you, and as I shaped you.Both of you must serve as promised.
