Inside the Ymir, Sweiza’s curiosity soon overtakes her. The first room was large and grey; but everywhere they walk now, it is a bright white or an off eggshell color. She’s never seen such a thing in her entire life. Could this be one of the metal ships she’s heard so much about? There are supposed to be some north of Valhalla. Now that she thinks about it, weren’t the Sentinels supposed to be aboard such ships? Actually, she remembers in her dreams that she was walking on such a ship. But didn’t the Ymir come from beyond the sky?

“This ship flies?”

Salmira stops. She eyes the girl once. She blinks; she nods. “In a manner of speaking. I would explain it, but you wouldn’t understand the science behind it.”

Sweiza’s hands go to her hips, she lets out a puff of breath, “Try me!”

She hurries on over to Salmira and makes it clear she wants to continue walking; less out of respect and more out of just wanting to get this errand over—this ship is a bit unnerving with the all white interior. Well, not all white, maybe a few shades of light grey here and occasional streaks of blue to keep it interesting… and is that a door? What’s behind it?

Sweiza stiffens once and continues walking. Thankfully Salmira is nice enough not to read her distracted mind. How embarassing!

“You are familiar with a ship’s sails?”

Sweiza nods. Ship sails use wind to move.

“Most people think ship sails use the direction of the wind to move—but this isn’t true. Pressure differences above the sails allow the ship to move forward in any direction it so chooses—even against the wind.”

Sweiza feels her mood sink. She is wrong… again.

Salmira’s eyebrows show interest in the girl; she has a feeling the girl had that widespread belief instilled in her. Silly humans!

“Sprite use a similar, but enchanted way to fly around. They use ‘magic’ for lack of a better word, enchant their body and will themselves to move in the direction they desire. In a manner of speaking, it is similar to how a fish can rise or fall in the water. However, you still need a way to control the direction.”

Sweiza blinks. The Sterling Blue had such a thing—a rudder. “A rudder?”

Salmira turns over to her and nods, “Yes Miss Serif, A rudder. It is possible for a ship to do the same with its sails. Regardless, this ship uses something called a Tachyon Drive. It uses time travel, or rather fields from outside of this dimension, and uses it to pull itself forward. This ship’s engine uses an an anti-gravity gyro system to change direction or move within a planet; it works by a similar premise to the Tachyon Drive, but it isn’t as powerful.”

Salmira waits for it. A joyful expression crosses the Goddess’s face as Sweiza is left beyond confusion. Silly humans!

Sweiza shakes her head and continues forward.

“Miss Serif, if I could ask you not to dart off too far ahead. Our destination is beneath us, not forward.”

Sweiza stops, turns around and blinks in confusion.

“We are only in the outer hull of the ship; these channel locks are meant to seal incase the ship takes damage.”

Again the girl is left confused. She doesn’t know what a channel lock is.

“What is a channel lock?”

“If a ship takes damage it will seal compartments in the outer hull to prevent it from sinking. However, the Ymir does the opposite. These keep air inside and from getting out.”

It doesn’t make sense to the girl.

Salmira ignores the girl and takes eighteen paces forward. She stops in front of a small door on the floor. Sweiza notices just in front of Salmira a set of bars which look like a ladder; upon walking closer she sees they are bolted to the wall. Is the whole ship metal?

Salmira taps her foot several times in front of the small door and it slides open. Salmira clasps different rungs of the ladder and sets her footing and starts climbing down the ladder. Just as her head is above the floor, she turns and looks up at Sweiza. “This will not be an easy journe. We have to go down about one hundred and fifty decks.”

Sweiza looks up and sends a puff of air up at her hair. She looks down and sees Salmira has already descended halfway through the next deck’s ladder. She jumps onto the ladder and hears a familiar chirp and then a voice.

“Wait for me!”

Sprite comes charing up from the corridor they had just walked.

“Where were you?” She looks up at him suspiciously.

“Looking around. It’s so…. white!”

Sweiza rolls her eyes, “Let’s go Sp… Dewey. We have a long way to go.”

Sprite salutes with enthusiasm and follows her down the ladders. He’ll have an easier time of moving around with his ability to fly.

She notices he seems to be having fun. At least one of them is…

—

Sweiza remains quiet; the only thing that echoes in the distance is their footsteps. Corridor after corridor, ladder after ladder; white walls with the occasional light blue and gray pattern, a white ceiling, and then nothing but drab grey floor. Occasionally a black and shiny window breaks up the view; the only thing even providing light appears to be coming from brighter windows in the ceiling. Sweiza has seen them in more expensive homes in Maria Village—the ones that don’t use candle light—she wishes her family used them.

Occasionally Sweiza looks up at Sprite; they don’t say much. Instead they follow the woman in front of them—the woman that put them into this monstrous maze to begin with. Salmira seems to know where she is going; she only stops to look back occasionally to make sure the duo behind her are following her. Eventually they arrive at a fork in their path. Salmira’s arms cross once—the first time Sweiza has seen her do it—Salmira taps her foot once and then heads to the right. Sweiza scoffs at it once, she herself is left handed and would have chosen the left path. She hears a snicker from Spite behind her, those two both know each other well enough to know what Sweiza is thinking.

—

After about two hundred paces, the trio finds themself at a four way intersection. Sweiza looks at the intersection and then to Salmira. A red light pulses from Salmira and flies down the three forward corridors. A red light comes flying back from straight ahead—Salmira takes that corridor without hesitation. Another thirty-five feet and Sweiza almost knocks into Salmira. The woman turns around, looks them over once and gives them little attention. Her attention is on one of the black windows mounted into the wall. Salmira’s eyes flash red and the black window suddenly comes to life. Strange shapes, lines and symbols appear on the window—some of them do not look unlike the Futhark that Sweiza had experienced with the Lukas and Vecna incidents. Several patterns change. Salmira’s eyes flash red again and the screen dims. She looks over to Sweiza.

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“We’ll need to double back to the ladders. We still have about one hundred and twenty floors to clear.”

Sweiza looks up in disbelief. She swats the air behind her when she hears a snicker from Sprite.

—

Another twenty ladders later and nothing changes. Sweiza starts to feel tired.

They find themselves at another fork in the road. This time they go left—a very good choice in Sweiza’s mind. They find themselves at another one of the black windows. Salmira performs the same procedure as before. However, this time she mentions, “We must go straight about two hundred feet and then use another ladder system.”

They go down another thirty ladders and Sweiza suddenly charges ahead of Salmira. She halts in front of her and holds her hand up while stomping her foot. A big smile slowly creeps up on her face, “Snack!”

Salmira backs up against the wall and her arms cradle. She eyes the spritekin and human and their ‘food’. Silly humans and their pets!

After lunch they follow the arranged path. After two hundred feet they cross down another set of thirty five ladders. At once, Salmira stops at the ladders underneath them and walks the path. Another fork and another terminal. By now Sweiza knows the drill. By her reckoning it is about seventy-five more ladders to go. However, her body and muscles are starting to get sore; her mind is wandering. How much longer?

“Salmira, how much longer?”

Salmira’s eyes flash red, but suddenly dim. She steps back from the window. “I’ll be back in two hours. You two rest.”

Suddenly Salmira turns into a bolt of lightning and charges straight for the black window. It pulses red and several strange symbols, lines and shapes appear on it. It dims just as quickly.

Sweiza and Sprite eye each other intently—Salmira is strange and crazy! What does she have in store for them? More importantly, how many secrets is the woman hiding from others?

“Crazy to be camping inside of a metal fortress!” Sweiza says it with some glee—Sprite simply shrugs at her.

Her tent is pitched in an awkward fashion, but it works. Salmira didn’t say anything about nasty creatures out and about, and Sweiza doesn’t remember seeing any. Salmira is most likely nearby, so it shouldn’t matter… much…

Sweiza’s thinks about it for a second longer, but her thoughts betray her as she creeps into darkness as the land of sleep takes her…

—

Sweiza finds herself in the middle of a large metal room with two floors—a lower deck and an upper platformed deck. The entire area is quite dim, save for different lights—multiple lights in fact—all over the area. Sweiza’s head moves to follow a large red light that slowly brightens and fades every ten or so seconds—it follows the entirety of the platform between the first and second decks, and then also follows the crevice between the ceiling and the second deck. The floor is lined with the same dark color of metal, but different shapes and lines have been engraved along the floor—they seem to make a pathway of sorts. What look like workers around tables are arranged around much of the first deck—there are a few on the upper platform as well. What catches Sweiza’s attention is at the front of the room—a large blue map. Her curiosity calls out for it…

“Go ahead Miss Serif…”

Sweiza abruptly turns around, Salmira is standing behind her. Sweiza looks from her to the map. She takes her chance and walks over with caution for the other workers in the area—the workers have a variation (in different colors) of the same uniform that Salmira typically wears—pink, red and white. At the map she sees something familiar—the Midgard and Muspell continents. Below them is a large landmass that she assumes can only be Niffleheim. Based in her experience the landmasses further west are Myrkvellir, Bothnin and Jotunher (in that order), and then further east she assumes what must be Vanir and Alfgard—however, there are several landmasses under each other and to the southeast of Midgard, that she cannot account for. What are those… and what is…

She sees something further off in the corner contained in a sphere. It is something akin to a tree—it says Yggdrasil on it. She looks back at Salmira whom seems uphased by what is going on around them. When Sweiza turns around she sees the top of the map reads “Avalanche—SAL IV”. The map fades and a new one comes up; it show several spheres at the edges of circles; there is one large sphere labeled SAL, with the rest of the spheres labeled SAL I, SAl II, etc. The one labeled SAL IV has six smaller spheres circling it.

Again Sweiza looks back some feet behind her at Salmira. Sweiza chances a call. “What is this?”

“You’re in a dream aboard the bridge of the Ymir—that is a map of the planet you know as Avalan.”

“Huh?”

“This all happened some time ago. In fact…” Salmira ushers the girl over to observe something peculiar just off center. What looks like Salmira’s exact twin is sitting in a chair—nothing is different about her, they look exactly the same. Sweiza cocks her head at the sight. There is something rectangular to the side of Salmira; there is an old man talking on it, he has a gruff voice with some growl to it—he is dressed in what Sweiza can only describe as highly decorated bronze armor. The Salmira behind Sweiza pushes her forward—Sweiza hears a funny conversation within ear reach.

“…and yet I walk amongst them…”

“You walk among them because you rebelled!” The second Salmira does not sound happy.

“Because I seek wisdom? I have hung from the tree and drank from the well; I traded my eye to know of things to come…. And I know a great deal of what is to come.” The man speaks slowly, but he is otherwise smug and haughty to the second Salmira. He stands up from his throne and taps a spear’s end to the ground.

“Odin, you are insane, you’ve been corrupted!”

“Am I—or do I bring clarity to the nine realms under my watchful eye?” The man again taps his spear end to the ground. “What do you do ‘Oh Goddess of Light?’—hide in the sky monitoring progress? You are not worthy of the name, ‘Goddess’.”

“Odin, I’m not going to argue with you.” The second Salmira’s stance chances into something more controlled and firm—she will not allow Odin to get the better of her.

“My insight tells me you will change your mind.” Odin again taps his spear to the ground below. He looks over at a woman approaching from behind him.

The second Salmira scowls—arguing with Odin has always been pointless. Just what is he up to?

The second Salmira’s eyes open in surprise when she sees the woman. She looks like Salmira in a similar uniform, but with an affinity for blue—blue hair, blue eyes, a blue and silver uniform similar to what Salmira wears.

“Lyra, what is this? He’s the enemy!” The second Salmira’s shouts echo through the metal room; she has lost her composure and now stands at the rectangle image in front of her.

Sweiza is left to watch—it dawns on her the rectangle is like a scriving mirror.

“My Lord, we are ready for the transfer.” Lyra’s voice seems unnerved, while depressed. She gives Salmira no attention.

Lyra closes her eyes while looking down. She holds a dagger and a strange notebook; she bows while kneeling down in front of Odin. She holds the two objects up for him—he takes the dagger and stabs it into the notebook and drags it across. He looks up at the second Salmira with an extremely crooked smile.

“You will walk among us. You will see. I will see. They will all see…”

The rectangle pulses a strange white light and then fades. The room they are in shudders and rumbles; Sweiza has a hard time keeping her footing. The workers around them do not fair much better. The second Salmira has fallen to the ground; the original Salmira remains upright.

A panicked Sweiza looks around at what is happening. Several workers are panicking, two have run over to the second Salmira to help her up. She dusts herself off and barks something inaudible. Sweiza only hears, “…forced crash…” from one of the workers. She doesn’t have time to process this as an otherworldly force grabs hold of her and rights her to stand.

“As you can see Miss Serif, I was betrayed and backed stabbed by the ship’s super computer, as well as my sibling.”

Sweiza shrugs shaking her head. “Is there a point to this?”

Salmira steps out of the way to show the blue map in the distance. It reads, “Crash Imminent, Fifteen Minutes, Trajectory—Valhalla. A picture of a long object is circled with a dashed line to a pulsing multi-circled object in the far east of Midgard—Sweiza knows that location is Valhalla. This thing is going to crash?

She looks up nervously at Salmira. Salmira shakes her head with her eyes closed.

The second Salmira begins barking orders. Workers around the room scatter moving from desk to desk trying to make sense of what is going on—papers fall on the ground and notebooks drop, pencils scatter and a bottle in the distance rolls from the second-story platform and smashes as it hits the ground on the floor.

There is a large chim and the map changes to red. Different mountain ranges appear in the continents; the ocean disappears and also reveals many mountains and underwater trenches. The second Salmira walks towards Sweiza. Sweiza freaks out when that Salmira walks right through her. Turning around to observe her movements, Sweiza watches as the second Salmira eyes the map. She points at multiple locations. She taps her foot and her hands go to her hips. She turns around with a frown.

“This trench. Right here.” She barks it to the workers. Her hand is at an area between Midgard, Muspell, Niffleheim and Myrkvellir. It is the Ginnungagup.

The room shudders again and there is a groan.

The second Salmira runs from the map to the center of the room and the white rectangle appears again. Sweiza sees a worker and hears gibberish. She doesn’t understand the language.

“What do you mean?” The second Salmira seems distressed.

“I think that is enough for now Miss Serif.” The original Salmira snaps her fingers and the situation around Sweiza begins to fade. Sweiza feels weak as a strong pull surrounds her. She drops to her knees as everything fades to black.

—

…ongoing to be continued…