I heard birds singing, a melodious tune that I could only describe as melancholic echoed all around me.

Opening my eyes I took a measure of my surroundings. In front of me was a huge lake, a still expanse of black water surrounded by a snowy forest. The world seemed oddly frozen as I looked around me, there was no swaying of the trees and I felt no air on my skin; And while I could hear life and I saw no trace of it. It was as if I somehow stumbled into one of my father's drawings.

"Hello?" I said, not really expecting any answers, " Kyrillē?"

Well this was certainly odd. When I heard her talking about potential I was expecting something like fire breath or a magical soul sword, not a… lake.

"Is this a mind palace situation?"

"You could see it like that." Said a voice blandly beside me.

I naturally jumped at that, but I managed to barely keep the squeak at bay this time. This was getting old.

Looking to my right I saw a man sitting at the shore of the lake. He was dressed in a loose green tunic and what I could only guess to be trousers, his sandy hair was tied in a ponytail and he had a neatly trimmed beard.

“Greetings Alexandria, our meeting was a long time coming.” He continued, his voice had a regal air to it, as if I was talking to a nobility, “Come, sit.”

And I did, he was gazing at the other side of the lake, or maybe at something only he knew of. He really did sell the cryptic figure image.

“And who might you be? And where are we exactly?”

A few moments of silence passed before he replied.

“We are… in a memory of sorts, given shape by the vital energy you are linked with right now.” Yup, mind palace. “But if you want to be more specific we’re in your soul.” Oh.

“As for who I am, take a guess.” He said before turning to me.

I finally had a proper look at his face. He had high cheekbones, and a strong nose. But these features were overshadowed by his eyes. They were slitted like a reptile’s and were of a deep glowing yellow, as if I was looking at molten gold.

“Sigurd.” I whispered in awe, it couldn't be anyone else.

“It is I, indeed.” He replied in a resigned tone.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing of import. I can sense the wonder you are feeling right now, and I never managed to get used to these reactions.” He chuckled lightly, scratching the back of head.

It made sense, my father didn’t make it seem like he was a particularly self-important individual.

Temper yourself Alex.

“I see, noted. And pardon me but how are you even… Well here. I had a dream of what I can now guess to be you battling Fafnir but I didn’t think any of it was legitimately real."

He chuckled.

"The world is bigger than you think it is, take a look." He nodded at the lake.

I raised an eyebrow at that, more vague imagery? But nevertheless I listened to him. Watching the lake I noticed glowing white roots at the bottom of it, tracing back to their origin I watched as a gigantic tree took shape. At least whatever it was, it had the shape of a tree.

"Is this…?"

"Yggdrasil, yes." He sighed, "It's the name we had for our conception of it, before our meeting I would have never thought that its scope was bigger that what we already knew of it. Do you see this branch?"

He pointed at one of the branches of the tree. It branched off into nine paths and its base was enveloped by what seemed like tar.

"These are the 9 realms I claim as my home, now focus on the middle one."

“I am looking at it, yes.” These 9 realms all had a barely visible tint to them, the middle one being green.

“It is a first step but I am asking you to look inside of it, not just the outer-shell.”

I tried to do as he said, scrunching my eyes at the green-tinted one but nothing happened.

"And how do I do that exactly?"

"You are inside your own soul Alexandria. You are the mistress of this place, you only have to want it for it to happen. Be clear in your intent and focus your will to see as far as you wish."

"Okay then…" I whispered to myself.

Clear intent, he said. I took a deep breath and tried to empty my mind, willing my entire being to the single act of looking at this branch. It was odd to say the least, I remembered doing the exact same thing when I was a little kid, desperately wanting to cast spells and do magic. and here I was, doing magic.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I felt a sensation within my breast, something cool moving towards the target of my attention, but ultimately impotent."

My face might have shown the start of my frustration because Sigurd said,

"Visualisation might help you, it sure did when I was a beginner." He chuckled.

I nodded and pictured a spear in my mind's eye. Its head was a smooth, sharp thing, whose sole purpose was to clear away the path towards my target and pierce through it.

I felt the coldness within me shift, it was as if the veil that was fogging my senses was lifted up, letting me see and feel the world around me with a newfound clarity. The branch I was struggling to see much of previously now unveiled to my vision. I realised how much we were relying on the tree comparison because at a closer look it had no actual relation to trees, it was a stream of pure Creation, something so intrinsically primal I could feel its purpose by the simple sight of it.

Taking a deeper look I could make out a vast expanse of mountainous land. It was ever shifting, sometimes I could see kingdoms, the touch of man being felt in all of the land; then it was ravaged by war, giants fighting each other over ruins - And then it was back to a virgin state, unaffected by civilization.

The speed at which the land changed was dizzying, and I had to quickly stop if I didn’t want to lose myself further into it.

Coming back to myself I fell to my knees wincing, my head was pounding and my eyes felt like I was staring at the sun for hours.

"Holy shit."

“That was most impressive Alexandria, I didn't think you’d manage to go that far on your first attempt.” He said, "But I need you to do it a second if you want to achieve what you're here for."

I squinted at him quizzically, not that I could do much beside that.

"A little break would be nice, that took a lot out of me."

I took a look at the sky. It was grey, what a surprise. A sunset would've been nice…

And in the blink of an eye I was looking at a setting sun. its light reflecting on the snow, making it look like stars were lighting up the forest.

Oddly enough the brightness of Yggdrasil wasn't diminished, quite the surreal contract.

"Huh." I raised an eyebrow.

Sigurd did the same, but he stayed silent.

"Can't you just tell me instead of being cryptic about it?"

He sat besides me, that was a reprieve from my poor neck at least.

"You do seem to be more receptive to guidance, so might as well, I don't think there is harm to it."

He extended his hand towards the lake, pointing with his index finger. Yellow wisps emerged from it, covering the finger then taking the shape of a sharp jagged lizard's claw.

"What you see right now is an expression of my strength, with this one finger I can inscribe runes that can do practically anything I wish them to do, only limited by my imagination and endurance.”

He then proceeded to hook his finger and teared into the air, no, space itself; Drawing two adjacent zigzagging lines that sucked in light before imploding into a ball of golden flames. It swirled lazily in front of us before Sigurd Jammed his hand up. The ball followed this order and moved in a blur, I barely had the time to perceive its movement and then the sky above was blanketed by fire for an instant.

I was going to learn that there was no way in hell (I realised that Hell might actually exist also, weird to think that there were other underworlds out there) that I’d squander the opportunity to learn how to cast spells.

“Wow…”

“I am fairly certain that I said the same thing when I started learning it.” He had a satisfied expression on his face, it was almost smug.

“The goal of the exercise I had you do is two fold. One is to awaken your senses to mystical energies and to teach you the basis of manipulating them,”

And he was right, beside the now noticeable ball of coldness sitting within me, I could feel warmth emanating from him, it certainly wasn’t physical but the conceptual nature of it was something I could now distinguish without any effort, a small instance of concentration Stab the spear let me see a bonfire taking shape around him, it was kept at a low intensity but I was certain that he could do far more than what he has shown already.

“The other is to hasten your growth, I know your purpose in being here, and I want to give you the tools necessary to succeed in your efforts. Your talent is intrinsically linked with Yggdrasil - that we can surmise as much, it is why I am here after all. I need you to recreate the process that brought me to you to hasten your learning of runecraft. A warrior’s best tool is his ability to resolve the issues he faces, and this will serve you better than a magical sword ever will.”

“Didn’t you slay Fafnir with Gram only?”

“I nearly died doing it.” He shrugged, fair enough.

My ability to peek into other realms of existence seemed way too separated from his legend for him to be the cause of it so I could only agree. Unless…

“Are you Odin in disguise?”

“I hope not.”

That would have been even more convoluted.

“Okay then I’m ready to try again.” I said, standing up, the aches receded enough.

“Then take my hand, you will have an easier time with me guiding you.”

Taking his hand I retraced my previous steps, I stabbed, pinpointed the branch and then got to see Midgard. This time around I could feel Sigurd’s presence with me, a warm bonfire guiding me to a set of specific instances of this world. I was no longer seeing the entirety of its history but only a fraction of it pertaining to him and the places he went through. I could feel my eyes slightly heating up but it was bearable.

“I will inscribe a rune, Kenaz, the rune of the torch. With it I pass on to you my knowledge, I hope that you will use it for better reasons than I did in life.”

“Wait what do you-”

I couldn’t even vocalise my disbelief as I felt a torrent of information rush into my mind, a blistering headache took form, as if someone pressed still hot coal right into my brain. I could barely make out the streaming images of Sigurd using and learning runes during his life, but I could see so much before the pain made it impossible to discern anything. The last thing I heard before waking up was the bellowing roar of a beast in the background, and it terrified me.

—-------------

Oddly enough my awakening was gentle, before even opening my eyes I could feel the cave around me, a sixth sense that let me feel the sheer life of the world around me. It flowed through the root I was laying on, the walls surrounding me and, and… Kyrillē, she was the source of it, and I now realised how weak she actually was, a green flower laid beside me, wilting, and almost dead.