FAREWELL

Sognefjord should have been a happy place. It should have been a place to celebrate a hard won victory against the Titan Mikaboshi and his devious plans. But for Professor Talibah Carter, Tobias, Doctor Solomon Rider and Aerik Scion of Thor the beautiful waters of the lakeside held another importance.

Each one of them was silent as they waited for the last rays of the dying sun to spread, blood-like upon the shimmering waters, fading as the light collapsed against the slow creep of night. It cast an axe-like shredded radiance across the mountains in the distance, their snow-capped peaks dusted with a slight breeze as the fading light flickered and plunged the lakeshore into a grey twilight.

Mallory's body floated in the carved boat at the edge of the dock, serene, against the bob of the wooden vessel. It was a small Viking-style burial barge and it had been bedecked with several offerings, most notable of those was a small figurine of the Egyptian Goddess Bast.

It should have been a quiet ceremony, Aerik had paid for these preparations upon the event of his death, and he never expected to need them so soon. He had known her only a short time, they had promised each other so much and now Fate had ripped her cruelly away from him, he found himself wondering if she were a trick of her father, Loki.

He cast all of those wonderings aside as he placed his booted foot against the barge. With a sudden soft kick he sent it into the water as the small gathering multiplied, slowly from the crest behind him others came. He smiled a little upon the sight of the Scion of Baron Samedi, Mombasa.

The Voodoo Priest simply nodded his head and tipped his top hat, bright green eyes winking softly in the twilight. He watched the barge sail into the cold lake and saw it slowly drift lazily off into the centre.

Aerik took his longbow and notched the arrow, the tip had been prepared earlier. His companions watched in silence, the Scion of Anubis, Solomon gave a short prayer in his father's name.

The arrow tip ignited as Tobias lit it with Aerik's lighter; the young Scion stepped back and allowed his friend to pull the bow back. Aerik's face grew grim as he felt the string beneath his fingers.

"Lo there do I see my father," the arrow inched back a little.

"Lo there do I see my mother, my sisters and my brothers," his voice was a dark tone against an even darker sky.

"Lo there do I see the line of my people back to the beginning," Aerik's voice was joined with that of another from the old land.

"Lo they do call to me. They bid me take my place among them."

"In the halls of Valhalla. Where the brave may live, forever."

A single tear rolled down Aerik's face and he let the arrow fly, it sailed straight and true until it struck the specially treated barge. A conflagration began that lit the waters with its bright orange and red flames; soon the whole vessel was ablaze.

From the opposite shore it seemed like nearly two-hundred flaming arrows shot forth into the water around the barge and Aerik nodded in the direction of the hidden mourners, perhaps fellow Norsemen who had come to pay their respects to a fallen Scion, perhaps something else.

"Now we drink in her honour," he said to the assembled and led them to a specially prepared feast, "until we can drink no more."