The worth of the treasures that lay around was beyond anything Einar had earned so far, yet there were more valuable items ahead. He saw weapons made of fine Arbalt steel, glowing runes appearing on more and more of them. Some had mystical gems embedded in their hilts or in their cross-guards, raw power emanating from them. They were far better than his own, some swords wreathed in flames, others crackling with lightning bolts. Einar almost reached out a few times to grab a weapon or a jewellery but he always pulled back his hands as soon as they neared the edge of the stairs.
‘None of these are real.’ He kept repeating it to himself trying to close his eyes, but he couldn’t. It was at this moment that he realized something. He hadn’t blinked once since the start of the trial. His eyes were wide open the whole time without ever needing to close them for a second. ‘Looks like the gods don’t want me to cheat.’ The seeker thought to himself as he kept going on. Trying his hardest to keep his draconic greed at bay, the young giant kept on ascending the stairs until he managed to leave behind the treasures and mystical weapons.
Soon enough, he reached a point where one of the steps glowed with a silver hue. ‘The second stopping point.’ He understood its meaning but kept on walking. Barely five steps later a cold wind began to bear down on him. At first, it was just slightly annoying, which turned into unpleasant. Soon enough the wind became cold enough to make his teeth chatter as his armour and clothes began to frost over. It was bitingly cold, unlike anything he had ever felt even though he survived many harsh winters. He could feel his arms and legs becoming heavier and slower, making each step a chore.
His stubbornness kept pushing him forward even when his vision started to blur from the cold that suddenly disappeared as if it never existed. Einar found himself perfectly fine with no ice or snow on his armour, no chilling cold in his veins. His relief was short-lived as he was soon hit by a fiery heat. At first, he was sweating, and then the air became hot enough to singe his skin. His armour heated up, sealing him in a cage of scorching agony that tortured him with every step forward. ‘This isn’t real.’ Einar growled, pushing forward without stopping even when flames began to appear around him, burning him alive. A quarter of an hour or so later the flames sputtered out and the heat disappeared without a trace.
A gentle wind picked up around him as rain began to fall, clouds appearing above him. Soon the clouds began to rumble and lightning struck the stones around the stairs. The rain picked up and turned into a torrent that beat down on him, the lightning bolts striking closer and closer to the seeker until one of them arced his way, an arrow-sized branch of the lightning hitting his left shoulder. Einar almost staggered back as his body convulsed for a moment. He had never been struck by lightning before, but then again, he never met anyone who had survived such a thing.
More and more small lighting arcs struck him, trying to push him down the wet stone steps as his own body fought against him due to the jolting pain. ‘This. Isn’t. Real.’ The giant tried to convince himself, pushing aside the sudden waves of pain, his body shaking and his consciousness wavering. Long and arduous minutes passed by before the storm disappeared like the biting cold and scorching heat did before it. Einar’s consciousness cleared up and he found himself looking at the weathered stone altar. He did it, He finally pushed through the trial and... something was wrong. The seeker couldn’t say what was it that made him feel that way, but he knew for sure that something was awry.
Einar tried to recall the words of the mysterious voice and the events that happened during his long walk. Thanks to reaching the top of the stairs, he was... content? That was it. The young giant pushed through regret and lust. He pushed through greed and pain yet there was one last thing the voice mentioned. ‘Contentment.’ Einar whispered as he looked at the altar ahead of him, still unable to blink and took another step forward. The raised leg didn’t knock into the altar as one would have expected but moved through it, the mirage breaking apart as Einar stepped up onto another stone step that was glowing with a golden light.
The world around him shattered as he felt something push him forward, his body leaving the stairs and reaching the top. He collapsed on the hard stone floor, panting and shaking, his eyes bloodshot. The sun above him barely moved from the sky, making him realize that he had likely only spent a few minutes with the trial, even though it felt like hours. As he looked back, the endless stairs were gone too, only about twenty steps standing between him and the dirt-covered ground.
“Regret can chain a man,” the voice returned in his mind. “But it can also motivate them. So can lust and greed.”
Einar finally felt the weight lifting from his body and the eerie sensation of death that was breathing down on his neck had also disappeared.
“Challenges and pain can change people, either breaking them or raising them up,” the voice continued. “But false contentment is the greatest threat of all. It can stop one from reaching their truest desires or their greatest potential. Never falter and never back down. Do not bow to false greatness and do not be content with what you can get with little effort. True power requires hard decisions and sacrifices.”
With the strange lecture over, the voice disappeared for good and a purple flame appeared above the altar. It spread across its surface, burning brightly for a moment before it disappeared, leaving behind whatever the seeker was deemed worthy to gain for his suffering. The first reward the giant noticed was the head-sized purple cloud that floated just a bit above the altar. Einar pulled out his drinking horn and held it out toward the cloud that flew above the horn and filled it with a deep purple nectar that sparkled like the night sky. He drank it in one go and felt his head clear up, his thoughts becoming more grounded as he reigned in his emotions. Putting away the horn, he looked at the other four treasures.
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The first one was a small stack of old golden coins, just like in the previous trials. He added the coins to his steadily growing pile, turning his attention to the next item. It was a granite rune stone with a glowing symbol on it he couldn’t recognise. The third item of interest was a... scroll? The seeker was surprised to find a rolled-up sheepskin scroll amongst his reward but as he unfurled it to have a better look at it, his eyes widened. The scroll had a set of drawings and words on it which he made out to be a forging draft for a headband.
‘A headband?’ Einar did find it strange that he never got a helmet with his armour but... a headband? He knew that thanes and jarls wore fancy headbands during feasts or celebrations but it was rare for a warrior to prefer that compared to a good helmet. The drawings made it out to be something between a warrior’s and a shaman’s headband with runes covering its surface. ‘Perhaps Rúna could get a better sense of what this thing is for.’ He thought with a sigh as he put away the scroll and turned toward the last item on the altar.
It was a metal badge that looked like a round shield with an eye carved into it with a purple gemstone giving it its colour. The badge ended up in the world eater pouch as well before the seeker finally let out a sigh of relief. Now that he survived the third trial, it was time for him to make an offering to the gods and ask for their blessing. Einar began to take off his armour, spreading its pieces out on the weathered stone altar before pulling out the damaged armours he scavenged from the draugr and the drake’s scaly hide.
“I pray to you, Harald, All-father of the gods. I offer you the armour of my enemies and the hide of a mighty drake as a sacrifice and seek your blessing to aid me in these dangerous lands.”
Several seconds passed before a golden thunder struck from the clear evening sky, hitting the altar. It caught on fire, the golden flames devouring his offerings over a minute. When the fire went out, he found himself staring at his armour which was now quite different from how he remembered. It still looked similar to how it was before, but now the leather scales of his kit were gone. They got replaced by the scales of the drake, the metal parts shinier and thicker than before. The weight of his armour increased somewhat, but the feeling Einar got when he put them on was worth it.
He felt... protected. It wasn’t just some empty sense of safety one would get from wearing armour. It felt heavier and mightier than that. His kit was now beyond what a mortal armour could be. ‘Thank you, All-father!’ He mouthed a silent prayer before placing his axes, sword and seax on the altar, covering them with the blades and axes he got from the draugr he fought in the feasting hall of the ruined keep. He put most of the drake's teeth and claws on top of the piles as well. A sudden thought stopped him for a moment and he reached into his pouch. The seeker pulled out his share of the drake’s firestone, unwinding the fiery cord from it before placing the mystical stone on the pile.
“I pray to you, Steinar, God of War and lord of all battlefields. I offer you the weapons of my enemies along with the claws and fangs of a mighty drake as a sacrifice and seek your blessing to aid me in the battles that await me in these lands.”
Once again, silence filled the air for a few moments before a crimson lightning with gold edges struck down at the altar from the clear sky, burning away the pile of offerings. The flames burned with the furious red for a while, then they got snuffed out by the gentlest breeze the seeker could notice. Einar stepped closer to the altar, finding his weapons lying there, their edges gleaming with a sharp light. Their surface was smooth with no sign of rust or any scratches, their touch reassuring the seeker as he felt their weight.
The most noticeable thing was that the dragon head pommel of his sword was now more refined than before, the dragon’s once empty mouth now biting on a small red stone. As the seeker held the blade up, he could feel it thirsting for his attention and his spiritual power. He let it trickle into the weapon and watched as the gem flashed with power before the edge of the sword caught on fire.“A fire-blessed weapon.” He muttered in surprise as he watched the burning sword in his hand.
His father often told him tails about the mystical weapons wielded by the heroes of bygone times so he knew full well the value such a weapon had. It would take a master craftsman as well as either some rare and precious materials or a rune of primal fire to create a weapon such as his. ‘Thank you, Steinar! I will use this blessing to fight even mightier battles than before.’ He made the silent vow before calming his blade and sheathing it. He summoned his bow and placed it on the altar along with the bows he took from the draugr, one of the branches he got from the fiery fig tree. He also placed the drake's fiery cord on the branch along with a claw and fang before he began to pray once more.
“I pray to you, Ysra, goddess of the hunt. I offer you the bows of my enemies and the trophies I gained from a mighty drake as a sacrifice and seek your blessing to aid me in my future hunts and battles.”
Silence followed his words. Dead silence. Einar started to think that his offering wasn't worthy of the goddess, but a bright green lightning with golden edges struck the altar, covering it with flames that reminded the young giant of the forest's leaves. Some time later the flames died out, leaving behind a bow made of somewhat reddish wood and a glowing red bowstring. The bowstring was strange, slowly pulsing with a faint light as if it was the heartstring of a slumbering beast. It had a faint green line running along it, the reward from his first trial.
He held the bow with a firm hand, drawing it to its full curve while summoning a spirit arrow. Einar felt a similar call from the bow as the one he felt from his sword, the pale bluish arrow turning a fiery red once he heeded the weapon's call. When the arrow was let loose, it burned through the air, scorching the ground not far from the bottom of the stone structure he stood on. ‘I thank you, Ysra, for this boon. It will prove useful against my future enemies.’ He said in his mind while dismissing his bow.
With his arms and armour out of the way, the giant began to pull out the organs of the drake from his world eater pouch, along with a few bones, some flesh and a small piece of its remaining hide. He also placed the drake's man parts on the altar along with his drinking horn before stepping back.
“I pray to you, Elvine, goddess of fertility and healing. I offer you the flesh and innards of a mighty drake as a sacrifice and seek your blessing to aid me in these dangerous lands.”
His words were almost immediately answered, but not in the way he was expecting it. No lightning struck from the clear sky this time. Instead, small motes of light appeared in the air, forming butterflies made out of a faint green light.