Subject: [Fanfic][Lemon][Tenchi][AMS] #7 - NNF Megami Ex Machina, part 1
From: "Happosai" <happosai@jps.net>
Date: 8/24/1997, 4:14 AM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com
Reply-to:
happosai@jps.net

Episode 7 - No Need For Megami Ex Machina


     "Inside the maze of fire
      Kindled with desire
      Boiling the cauldron true
      Filled with witches' brew.

      Three Norns stand at the gates,
      Masters of the Fates
      Who keep the ancient runes,
      Howl at the silver moon."
        -- "Witches' Brew", Manilla Road



"But I thought I wasn't allowed back..."

"I'm giving you a 24-hour waiver. And I'm putting the Hugin and Munin
subsystems at your disposal."

Her eyes widened. Hugin and Munin? This must be *important*.

"If you don't think you're up to this task, I can have Freyja handle
it instead."

She gritted her teeth. "That *won't* be necessary."

"I'll be monitoring you very closely. Don't disappoint me."

"I won't, Kami-sama."

*This could be my lucky break. If this works, it might be the first
step to getting my old job back.*

She frowned. Her current (self-assigned) project was progressing very
poorly indeed. She hoped this one would go better. At least it wasn't
complicated by personal entanglements. Maybe, since it didn't involve
someone so close to her heart, she could maintain a certain degree of
professional detachment. Not get wrapped up in the means and forget
the ends. Not get carried away and make things worse.

Maybe.

Tenchi walked down the stairs, his back still smarting from his ordeal
a two days before. He headed towards the kitchen in case Sasami needed
any help making breakfast. On his way he passed Aeka and Ryoko. The
princess sat brooding on the couch, her whip stuck into her obi at her
waist. Ryoko hung morosely from the ceiling like a vampire. But both
of their faces brightened when they saw him.

"Ohayo, Tenchi!" said Ryoko.

"Ryoko, I'm not talking to you right now," he answered.

Aeka beamed. "Oh, Tenchi-sama, I'm glad you've made such a wise
decision! I will send Azaka and Kamadake to guard your room so that
she won't be disturbing you any more."

"I'm not angry about that. And I'm not speaking to you either, Aeka,"
he said.

Aeka blinked. Ryoko looked at her and smiled slightly. At least misery
would have company. "Maybe if you shouldn't whip him so hard, if you
want to him to talk to you, princess," she suggested sarcastically.

"And I'm not mad about *that*." Tenchi stopped and looked at them,
stern but sad. "This isn't about *me*. I want you to promise to stop
fighting *each other*. I mean it. Until then, this is the last thing
I'm saying to either of you." 

"But...!" the girls said.

Tenchi turned and kept on going, ignoring them. Or trying to.

In the kitchen, Sasami scurried around preparing breakfast, Tenchi
standing next to her and fetching things at her request. Sasami
noticed Aeka walk by and her eyes went wide when she saw the whip. She
smiled as she turned to Tenchi.

"Wow! I knew my sister liked you, Tenchi, but I didn't know it was
*that* much!" She quickly grabbed the notepad where she kept her
shopping list. Looking over her shoulder, Tenchi sweated as he saw her
write down "candles, matches, burn ointment" before she went back to
her cooking.

As he measured out rice for her, a thought occurred to Tenchi. He
turned to Sasami.

"Sasami-chan, could I ask a favor of you?"

The princess smiled. "Sure, Tenchi. What is it?"

Katsuhito walked in through the front door and sat down on the couch.
He looked at the Aeka's whip, but it was a few minutes before he said
anything.

"May I ask why you're carrying that?" he asked.

Aeka blushed. "It's a Juraian custom that I'm observing," she
answered. Katsuhito nodded.

"You should take care that you aren't misunderstood. Sometimes it is
very difficult to adjust to the ways of a new land, and what means
something in one place, may mean something else in another."

"Thank you very much, grandfather."

"Breakfast is ready!" announced Sasami.

Ryoko and Aeka rushed in to sit next to Tenchi, but he was already
walking out of the kitchen.

"Aren't you eating breakfast, Tenchi-sama?" asked Aeka.

He didn't answer, and continued towards the stairs.

"Tenchi already ate," explained Sasami. "Hurry up and have yours
before it gets cold." Then she started to follow after him, carrying a
basket, Ryo-oh-ki at her heels.

"Wait, Sasami, what about you?" asked Ryoko.

"I already ate, too." She and the cabbit walked and hopped up the
stairs, respectively. Ryoko and Aeka followed after them and arrived
upstairs just in time to see her place a cushion against Tenchi's
bedroom door and sit down. Sasami started playing with handheld video
game and slowly rationing out carrots to Ryo-oh- ki. The two older
girls walked up and looked down at her.

"So, what're you doing, Sasami?" asked Ryoko.

Sasami looked up. "Hi, Ryoko. Tenchi said he was trying to get you two
to stop fighting, so I'm helping him. I won't let you go into his room
and try to talk to him."

"Sasami! You will stop this immediately!" ordered Aeka.

"No," said the younger princess, a serious frown on her face. "It
makes him very sad when you two are mean to each other. It makes me
sad. And I think it makes Ryo-oh-ki sad, too. We all want you to
*stop*."

"Miya!" agreed the cabbit, as Sasami petted her.

"RYO-OH-KI!" growled Ryoko. Sasami smiled and fed the spaceship
another carrot.

"And Ryoko, Tenchi says that if you try to sneak into his room anyway,
he'll be really really mad at you."

"Ohhhhh!!!!" Ryoko groaned.

"Why can't you *both* be friends with Tenchi?" asked Sasami. "It would
be so much nicer if you were."

"I'm afraid it's just not that simple," replied Aeka.

"Why not?" asked Sasami.

Neither Ryoko nor Aeka could find a way to phrase an answer, so they
turned around and went back downstairs. Aeka walked out the door,
while Ryoko passed through the wall. They headed off in different
directions, both wanting to be alone with their thoughts in a place
that would remind them of Tenchi.

Sasami knocked on the door. "It's me, Tenchi," she said. The door
opened, and Tenchi looked out. "I think they won't be back for a
while."

"Thank you, Sasami." He sighed. "I really wish I didn't have to do
this."

"It'll be OK, Tenchi," assured Sasami. "You'll see."

"I hope you're right. I think you can go now, though. I don't want to
make you sit out here all day."

"I don't mind. Really."

"I just hope they haven't gone off to fight each other or something
like that."

Sasami thought for a moment. "If I was with Aeka, I could come get you
if they did," she suggested. "And I'd see if she tried to come talk to
you."

Tenchi considered it. "You're right. And I have another idea." He
looked down at Ryo-oh-ki. "How'd you like me to give you lots and lots
of carrots?"

"MIYAAA!!!!" answered the cabbit enthusiastically.

Tenchi smiled for the first time in days. "I thought so. OK, you can
have everything that's in the basket, right now, *if* you watch Ryoko
today. Make noise if she does anything sneaky. And if she doesn't
manage to attack Aeka or get into my room all day, tonight I'll give
you a whole *other* basket of carrots."

"MIYAAAAAA!!!!!!!!" said Ryo-oh-ki, overjoyed. This was an offer she
definitely couldn't refuse.

Tenchi grinned and saluted them. Sasami returned it, laughing, and
Ryo-oh-ki tried to. Then the two of them left to carry out their
assigned missions -- after the cabbit hastily munched down every last
carrot in the basket. As they disappeared from sight, Tenchi's face
returned to its previous frown, and he sighed again. He went back into
his room to search for a way to distract himself.

Aeka sat under Ryu-oh, staring up at the severed rope that hung from
the tree's lowest branch. She remembered Tenchi presenting his wrists
to be bound, trusting her. How he'd nodded when she asked if he
desired her, and wanted to fulfill those desires. She sighed, wanting
to be with him, trying to think of a way that she could be.

Sasami walked up and sat down next to her, smiling.

"You shouldn't disobey your older sister like that," said Aeka. "It's
very disrespectful."

Sasami didn't answer. She watched the butterflies flitting around,
sparing an occasional glance at Aeka to be sure she hadn't tried to go
anywhere.

Ryoko lay back on the ground where she'd been when Tenchi had found
her the day she'd crashed. She remembered his concerned eyes looking
down at her as he held her gently, and his voice asking her if she'd
been hurt. The touch of his hand on her lips as he gave her water. She
sighed, wanting to be with him, trying to think of a way that she
could be.

She glared as Ryo-oh-ki hopped up next to her. "Miya, miya, miya,"
said the cabbit, pretending not to notice her mistress' angry
expression.

"I'll get you for that, little traitor," warned Ryoko. "No carrots for
*you* today."

"Miya," disagreed Ryo-oh-ki.

Tenchi watched the TV screen and steered the car tightly around the
turns at the racetrack. He'd gone through most of the cartridges and
each one reminded him too much of the girls for him to be able to play
it adequately for more than a few minutes. He'd finally found one that
might divert him a bit. He'd thought carefully about all of the
details that couldn't be there.

Nothing having to do with space. That was evident immediately.
Likewise no games from his dad's extensive hentai collection, though
he didn't really play those much, anyway. Nothing with hearts in it.
Nothing where the hero rescued a girl. Preferable one with no girls at
all. Nothing with cats or swords or rabbits or flying people or
criminals or eggs in it. And nothing with whips or trees or chains or
ropes or princesses or logs in it, either. No characters with hair
colored cyan or purple, or even close. No yellow or purple shiny
objects to stare at him accusingly. He'd tried to find one that met
all those requirements and didn't have too many explosions in it. The
explosions were also reminders.

He still wasn't able to concentrate. And he was still playing fairly
badly. At least in this game when he crashed the car just spun out
without blowing up. The speakers thrummed with simulated engine noise
and tire squeals as he rounded the turn and approached the finish line
far behind most of the computer- controlled cars. Two scantily-clothed
girls waved checkered flags as he passed in 17th place. He groaned in
frustration.

One of the girls had purple hair. The other's hair was cyan.

Or, at least, it had looked that way.

He threw down the controller angrily as his score flashed on the
screen, and decided to something to read, instead. Maybe one of his
textbooks would be sufficiently boring to numb his mind and take it
off how much he wanted to talk to Aeka or Ryoko, despite his decision
not to.

He picked up his biology textbook, thought about it for just a second,
and put it down. He picked up his physics book instead. He opened it
up and slammed it shut. Whatever kind of laser that had been, its beam
was the same color as Ryoko's sword. He tried the one on literature.
He tossed it. The ancient Chinese must have had something against him,
writing all that romantic poetry. He tried his mathematics textbook.
He saw a word problem having something to do with an object suspended
from a tree branch, and hurled the book at the wall.

So much for print media. He turned off the video game, picked up the
remote control for the TV, and started flipping channels.

"Show her you care! Buy her flowers at... *click* ... in other news, a
lover's dispute ended in tragedy when... *click* ... and say goodbye
to that litterbox smell... *click* ... your tree trimmed? Call...
*click* ... per kilo, and carrots are on sale at just... *click* ...
but without Fatora-hime, the summit meeting... *CLICK* ... Queen
Emeraldas-oh, hass... *CLICK* .. with waterbeds and ten adult
channels, hourly rates... **CLICK** ... then visit Manabe-sensei's
Bondage Emporium in downtown... **CLICK** ... BUT PLEASE, KOSUKE,
SPEAK TO ME, I BEG YOU, I'M SORRY!!"

Tenchi muted the TV and put his face in his hand, groaning. When he
turned back, the screen showed what looked like some kind of phone sex
commercial. A very attractive woman stared out of the glass, a number
flashing below her. Angrily he flipped the channel.

The screen stayed the same.

He blinked. He switched the channel again.

The screen stayed the same.

He flipped it several more times. Still the same. He tried punching in
a specific channel. No change.

"TV must be broken," he decided. He pointed the remote to switch the
thing off.

The woman's hand came out of the TV and grabbed his wrist.

Tenchi had become quite accustomed to weird things happening, given
the people living with him, but this was a new one to him. The remote
fell from his fingers as he stared in disbelief.

She held onto him as she squeezed out of the TV set head-first and
stood in front of him. Tenchi found himself staring into her cleavage
for several long seconds before he shook his head and looked up.

Her eyes were green and looked like a cat's. Like...

He shook his head again.

Her hair was long and white, her skin bronze. She had some sort of
markings on her face, like tatoos or something. She wore a black tunic
that was tight and loose in all the right places, and a matching cape.
She tossed her hair proudly and smiled. Time to tell him what she was
here for, and who she was.

Goddess. Norn. "The Cupid of Love", she'd said once to Keiichi
Murisato.

Or, as she liked to think of herself sometimes, Romance Engineer.
Passion hacker.

Much more hacker than engineer, actually. She preferred spur-of-
the-moment inspiration to formal procedure. She didn't like things to
be hard-and-fast. Design methodology, that is. And she didn't care for
things to be rigid, either. Meaning implementation guidelines.

She could find and exploit the holes in anyone's emotional security.
Crack the passwords to their hearts and open them wide. Discover the
private keys to unlock their souls and expose everything they'd
thought they'd kept safely hidden.

And she'd pulled some masterful hacks in her time. Such as the devious
Trojan Horse attack she'd sprung on her sister's boyfriend, when they
first met.

She frowned. Sure, *that* one was running sluggishly and way behind
schedule. At least it *was* still running. Maybe she needed to throw
some more-powerful hardware at it.

Well, OK, *most* of her projects were going poorly. Quite a few had
crashed rather disastrously over the years. And during one very
memorable one, the primary data files had wound up deleting
themselves.

She tried not to think of Romeo and Juliet. They weren't exactly what
she could call successes.

She looked down at the face in front of her and groaned in disgust.

*Oh, great. ANOTHER one.* 

This project promised to be a real *project*. But her usual
cheerfulness quickly asserted itself. "Hello, honey," she said in a
sultry voice. "I'm here to fix *all* your problems!" 

She bounced with every step as she went over and sat down on his bed.
Then she crossed her legs, and smiled at him seductively. She patted
the mattress next to her.

Tenchi swallowed hard and very deliberately stayed in his chair.

He glanced at her chest, and her eyes. The revealing way she was
dressed. He considered her demeanor for a moment. And how she'd passed
through the TV screen as if it hadn't been there.

"You're not Ryoko's sister or something, by any chance?" he asked.

"No, I'm Belldandy and Skuld's sister," the woman replied. She got up
and shook his hand. "I'd give you my business card, but I haven't
really... needed one for a while. I'm Urd. And, like I said, sweetie,
now that *I'm* here, all your problems will be over *real* *soon*."

For some reason, Tenchi was skeptical.

"I'm here to fulfill the wish request you sent in," explained Urd. "It
took several days to process, due to the rather old- fashioned
interface."

Tenchi looked very puzzled. "Wish?"

Urd sighed, wondering why men always had to be so *dense*. She reached
over to his desk and tapped the daruma doll.

"You can really do something about *that*?" he asked her, his voice
full of disbelief.

"Yes, if that's what you want," replied Urd. "But there are other
things you can have, if you want them instead," she said with a warm
smile, leaning forward to give Tenchi an unobstructed view  down the
top of her dress. He tried to tear his eyes away as Urd's breathing
made her breasts rise and fall and rise and fall. "I'm sure you'll
think of something, won't you, honey?" 

She was curious to see how easily he could be tempted. After all, it
would be so much simpler and enjoyable just to get him to change his
wish instead of having to put all that work into making sure that...

"Urd..." said a voice in her head.

Tenchi exhaled and wiped the sweat from his brow as she backed away,
muttering something under her breath. "I want Ryoko and Aeka to stop
fighting," he said. "Can you do that?"

She patted his cheek. She admired his resistance and the nature of his
request a little, despite how inconvenient it made things. "Sure,
sweetie. Don't worry." Urd reached down and held her cape open on one
side. "First we need to review some archives, though."

Suddenly, projected from the black cloth Tenchi saw himself looking
down at Ryoko, who lay amidst the wreckage of her crashed ship.

"What's this?"

"Like I said, sugar -- archives. I gathered up some files from
Yggrasil's storage so we can review them, before I go ahead with your
wish."

"Yggrasil?"

"Just watch, loverboy. Just watch."

She looked down into her cape as the past shimmered inside its folds,
and they watched. The action sped up and slowed down at various times,
depending on what Urd wanted to see.

Observing a few of Ryoko's attempts at near-rape, Urd smiled. "Oh,
very *good*," said Urd. "A woman after my own heart!" She watched some
of Aeka's subtle, seductive shyness. "I don't go for that, myself, but
she's obviously skilled at it." An image of Tenchi appeared. He was in
his bed, trying to squirm out of the grasp of two Ryokos. The goddess
shook her head sadly. "Oh, *please*. It just doesn't get more pathetic
than *this*!"

"Excuse me?" asked Tenchi, his pride ruffled a bit.

"You actually tried to *escape* that? You're worse than *he* is!"

Tenchi blinked. "Worse then *who* is?"

"Never mind." She continued, next viewing Ryoko all over a
desperately-struggling Tenchi in the hall. "I take it back. You *can*
get more pathetic."

"Look, lady, I was *scared*. What would you do if a *guy* did that to
*you*?"

Urd thought about it for a second. "Good-looking, or bad- looking?"

"Just keep going," sighed Tenchi.

He saw Ryoko kick him into the closet. Then he saw her sit down, and
his eyes widened.

Ryoko was crying. Pain was etched deep into her face as she sat for a
long while. For about as long as it had taken him and Aeka to...

She must have heard *everything*. Why'd she stay there? It must have
hurt her a *lot*.

He looked, and saw. She was glancing around. Probably making sure that
no one showed up and interrupted. He saw her get up and fly into his
bedroom, holding his pillow as she convulsed in sorrow.

Mercifully, the scenes changed to the time he'd been with Aeka, then
his night with Ryoko. Then they saw the incident where Tenchi had
first met Oujo-sama. "Now, *that's* impressive," said Urd, grinning.
"She'd give Yoshino and Nakano some definite competition!"

Tenchi winced a bit as he watched himself being lashed. Then he
noticed something that he couldn't have seen then.

Aeka was crying?

He looked closer. She *was* crying. As if she were inflicting pain not
on him, but on herself. It seemed that every time she whipped him, she
sobbed.

Tenchi sat down and turned away so he wouldn't see anymore. He almost
felt like crying himself. Out of grief, because he didn't want to see
either Ryoko or Aeka in pain like that. Out of guilt, because he knew
he'd caused it, a little, perhaps. And out of frustration. How could
he get them to stop hurting each other over him, when they didn't seem
to have any qualms about torturing *themselves* for the same reason?

Urd put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry to have to tell you,
sweetie, but it's your own damn fault."

Tenchi looked up, his face pained. "I didn't want to hurt *either* of
them. Really. How was I supposed to know it would end up like this?"

"Let me see if I've got this straight. For several months you've been
in the same house with two very attractive girls?" asked Urd.

Tenchi nodded.

"One of whom tried very hard to get you into the sack on a regular
basis?"

He nodded again.

"And the other one tried just as hard to stop *her*, which meant that
she wanted to do the same thing but was waiting for you to have the
guts to make the first move. Right?" 

Tenchi suppressed his anger at the insult, and thought about it. Then
he nodded again. 

"And for some weird reason you can't really explain, it wasn't until
last week that you slept with *either* of them?" 

Tenchi blushed slightly, then nodded. 

"And after taking such a bizarre course of action, defying everything
that's natural, you're actually *surprised* when something bad comes
of it?"

"Look, I *said* I didn't mean to hurt them!" argued Tenchi. "Ryoko
seemed more like she was trying to *kill* me than sleep with me, and
Aeka didn't seem to want to."

Urd shook her head in disgust. But then she smiled. "You know,
loverboy, it sounds like your problem is that you don't understand
women very well." She got up and started walking towards him. "Maybe I
should teach you some things. It'll go much more smoothly then."

Realizing what she meant, Tenchi started backing up into the wall. Urd
sat down on his lap and pulled his hand between her thighs. Tenchi's
eyes bulged. He managed to squirm out from under her but tripped and
fell onto the ground.

Urd rolled her eyes. "This is *exactly* what I've been talking about!"
she said wrathfully, pointing down at him. "That's *not* how a man's
supposed to act when a woman comes on to him! No *wonder* you've
caused them so much pain!"

"All I want is for them to stop fighting," replied Tenchi. "If that's
not what you're here for, then please leave."

Urd shook her head again. Obviously this boy needed some *serious*
loosening up. She knelt over him, smiling, and pulled one of Tenchi's
hands onto her breasts despite his squirming. Then she bent down to
kiss him. He would stop struggling any moment now. There was no way
any man with a drop of testosterone in his veins could possibly resist
her, Urd knew, and in her mind she considered what position that she
was going to...

"Urd...!" warned a stern voice in her mind.

"I was just *playing* with him a bit, Kami-sama," replied Urd.
"Really!" She disengaged herself and got up with a reluctant sigh.

Tenchi stared up at her for a moment, running math problems through
his brain in an attempt to get rid of an almost-painful erection. For
some reason, though, he kept thinking of the equation for the surface
area of a sphere.

The goddess cleared her throat. "You want them to stop fighting.
That's right? Nothing beyond that?" she asked.

He nodded. "That's all I want. If it happens, I'll be very happy," he
answered.

"I have enough data to proceed from here, then," said Urd. "I'll be
back in a while. Just leave your TV set on." The requirements phase
was over. Time to start on the design. She climbed into the screen and
was gone.

Tenchi jumped, startled, as the TV resumed its normal operation. Loud
opera music and explosions blared from the speakers while
green-painted helicopters swept over a beach, firing rockets and
machine guns. He paused a moment. Nothing specific in *this* remind
him much of Ryoko or Aeka. Except the general level of violence. So he
resumed changing channels, wondering if the woman named Urd had merely
been some kind of weird daydream.

Up in the Heavens, Urd walked around aimlessly for a while, very glad
to be back. Even if it was temporary. After a little while, though,
she decided to go log in to Yggrasil so she could start on her project
in earnest.

While she went to find a terminal, Urd mused on the nature of her
task. She frowned. Human hearts were always interesting to work on,
but they could be such a pain sometimes.

Generally they were robust systems. But try to get them to multitask,
and more often than not they'd crash disastrously, bringing down all
the programs involved.

Or possibly worse, the result might be a runaway Saotome Syndrome. The
catastrophic effects would propagate outward from the hub, following
the connecting branches, until every node involved started to exhibit
bizarre, unexplained phenomena and that entire section of the network
broke down in the subsequent chaos. The office was *still* trying to
fix the original one.

Well, at least that wouldn't happen this time. This was a fairly small
and isolated subnet she was working with. Just three major nodes, not
a couple dozen or so, thank Kami-sama.

In any case, she needed more data. And she knew exactly where to get
it. A little trans-dimensional snooping was in order.

Shortly thereafter, Urd sat in front of a terminal and scrolled
through the myriad realities. They diverged in all directions,
interwoven in tangled, fractaline chaos. But also like fractals, there
was order, if one looked for it. And when that common thread of order
was found, it would be a powerful tool to rework any of the many
universes through which it ran.

Urd watched and listened. On her lap lay a cat, an angora tom with
hair as white and eyes as green as Urd's own. Urd scratched
Schroedinger behind the ears. He purred, and she fed him tidbits.

She examined several dimensions and bypassed them quickly. After a
while, she found one where someone named "Sakuya" figured rather
prominently. Urd studied it a bit, then went on. It didn't seem very
hopeful. Then a voice caught her attention.

"Using a woman as your shield, COWARD?!!!"

Urd rubbed her legs together unconsciously. Heroism always turned her
on a bit. This could be interesting.

"If you lay a finger on him, you'll be sorry! YOU'LL BE SORRY!"

"Well, I'll tell you what we can do. We can go save *him*, since he
went to save *you*..." said an angry, contemptuous voice. Then it
paused, and when it spoke again it trembled with disbelieving fear. 

"Is he... dead?"

"This isn't over *yet*. Let's go!"

Very promising, thought Urd with a nod. Very promising indeed. This
could very well be what she sought.

"Why isn't she using her full power?"

"You mean she's *not*?"

"If she was, this would be *over* by now!"

One figure swooped and snatched another from beneath a shower of
falling chunks of stone.

"Ah, so *that's* why."

"'That's why,' what?"

Urd smiled. So it *would* work. Perfect. And the kid definitely had
the Sixteenth and Seventeenth runes carved on him. Deep.

"If only you had left these women behind, you could have remained
*alive*."

"I would rather *die*, than forsake any one of them!!"

Urd's breath caught in her throat. Words like that were very rarely
spoken. And even more rarely were they sincere. She'd already found
the necessary data. But this confirmed the validity of the wish,
beyond doubt.

A few hours later, after devising her basic plan, she consulted with
Kami-sama.

"I'm going to need to use the Brisengamen for this," she said.

"The Brisengamen? Why?"

"Since I'll be putting all my power into my attack spells, I need some
means of protection. Otherwise, it's not going to be pretty. The
Brisengamen should be enough. I hope."

"Are their combat abilities *truly* that formidable?"

"Quite." Urd played back the data she'd gathered.

"Hmmm... I'll leave the decision up to Freyja."

Urd winced. She wasn't going to enjoy this. Not at all.

(continued in part 2...)


Hassheen!