Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Chapter 99 : For We Gather Around The Flames

I fell back into the void of Jane’s memories, rubbing my head as I collected myself. Holy shit, that was a lot. She did so much in those 22 days while I was knocked the fuck out.

“I’m Peter… I’m Peter.” I told myself. While I was kind of getting used to delving and becoming other people, there was still something so strong with Jane. Maybe because of my connection with her.

I took a deep breath, which wasn’t really needed, more so that it helped calm my head down. 

“Guess she’s still looking after me and got an upgrade… Scary, and that Weles thing was so similar to Veles, too. He even had that whole shepherd motif too! Ugh, I have to ask him that, and also about Moranna.”

My head spun around with the confusing lore. I knew for a fact that gods can have conflicting stories, even in the same country, even in the same region. But I never had to deal with the idea of it like this. Who was Morana to Marzenna? Who was Jarilo? 

I thought the ritual for winter was her death, not some guy cheating. My head began to hurt in a dull pain as I conjured up a small room for me to sit in mentally as I took it all in.

There was more to this than meets the eye, I just know it-

“Peter?!” Jane’s voice cut through the void as I looked up at the door that manifested. There she was, Jane… In the… Not flesh.

“Oh uh… Hey? Sorry? I was just uh, checking in.”

She leaned against the doorframe and scoffed with a small grin on her face. “Oh you were doing more than just checking in. I know what this is.”

“You do?” I raised my eyebrows at that.”

“Yeah, I’m not a dumbass. You did something- We did something similar when we all fused. You were checking out my memories, weren’t you?”

I raised my hands up as if I were caught. “Heh… You got me, yeah I was just wondering if you were doing okay. Turns out you’re doing even better than me.”

I sighed and stared at a wall. “I’ve been asleep for the last 22 days actually. Did absolutely nothing.”

“Aww, don’t be sad about that.” Jane plopped herself down on the couch beside me. “That whole thing with Zmey was all you, that was kinda awesome I have to admit. Although uh we really did just go crazy at the end huh.”

“Hah, understatement of the year… But you did so much in the month. You literally went on an actual quest! You got quest rewards too!”

I gestured to her new form as she flexed her body with a grin on her face. “Pretty cool, right? I mean, look at you man! You don’t look like you’re living in your mom’s basement anymore.”

She reached out and gripped my arm. “Whoa, you got some muscles too. Nice.”

I laughed awkwardly. “Yeah I guess I got something too, but it feels bad that I did essentially nothing while you went and defeated a big bad boss. Someone godly.”

Jane leaned back, enjoying all the compliments as she grinned. “It feels great! But… don’t make it let you down. We’ll do great things together, imagine it.” 

Ah, it was finally that conversation. I had to take a deep breath for this one to calm myself.

“Listen… Slow down, I don’t think I can really like, connect to everyone again. I tried, I really did, almost went crazy- Plus you remembered what happened when we did that, like whole Angel abomination.”

She blinked awkwardly. “Angel? You’re calling that thing an Angel?”

“Well, I’m calling myself an Angel- you know that’s not the point.” I already saw her narrow her eyes in amusement and confusion so I went to try and move the conversation away. 

“The thing you know. We went crazy- I went crazy. I wanted to literally become one with everything. It’s something I can’t really control yet.”

“Oh? There’s a yet to that?” A grin grew on her face as I nodded. “Yes, there’s a yet to that. I’m training with Veles, god of the Nawia. He’s trying to help teach me how to control my powers and all that.”

“Oh?” She lit up, literally, her hair went on fire. “Did you see Jarilo and Marzenna?”

I shook my head as she gave a confused stare. “No, I saw Morana, no Jarilo. She’s the goddess of winter and death, and I didn’t hear anything at all about her husband- I actually went on a date with her.“

Jane grinned and slammed my back, nearly knocking me down. “See man! Look at that, picking up goddesses- Wait, Morana? But no Jarilo? At all? Breakups are tough, but eh, it’s his fault that he fumbled.“

I sat back up. “No, not even that actually. The Marzenna story that I saw from your memories does not match up at all with what I got with Morana. She told me her whole shtick was that she would be killed by Perun or Veles would defend her and prolong winter. But when she dies she’d always return to being about the next winter and something.”

Jane just stared at me with the same expression John used to give whenever I tried to explain to him one of our lessons.

“Okay listen, it’s probably just based on different stories and-“

“But…” Jane interrupted. “We have the shroud, and that shit was Magickal, like it has to be real, and it was Jarilo’s Death Shroud and had Marzenna’s Magick.”

“Well, Morana gave me a rose, three in fact so hah.” I said crossing my arms in triumph as Jane gave a snort of laughter.

“Alright lover boy, we get it. But that just makes no sense to me. Aren’t they just the same people but with different Names.”

Then it hit me, finally, I got it. The reason why they were so different, or at least, why I think they’re so different.

“Names… That’s what it is. They have different Names, they’re different people, they’re different beings. But they have the same… Function.” 

I got up, waving my hand as a whiteboard appeared in front of me. I grabbed a marker and began to draw. “Different Names, different beings. Did you notice that some people called the Harbinger different things? Of Flames, Freedom, Destruction.”

“Yeah? But I mean, people do that all the time. We give titles and shit, like in the Queen of Freedom, and Flames… Destruction sounds way too off and wrong.”

I raised my eyebrows and gave her a sigh as she shrugged. “What, you can brag about dating, I can brag about being a Queen.”

“You don’t have a people and land- Ugh, moving on.” 

I saw her smirking out of the corner of my eye while I sighed and explained.

“Yeah that, but even cars. We have Pegasi, Drako, and all these other companies. They placed a brand on their car, a Name… And Names are important, even if you describe something that’s the same.”

Jane placed her feet on the coffee table. “I never got the difference. All the cars seem the same to me, and plus, all the real rich people just use horse person to travel around.” 

’I always wanted to pay for a horse girl…‘ 

“Well yeah, to most people they’re not so different. They all blend in, but they do have certain traits that set them apart. But they’re all cars, even if they’re the same… So maybe, Marzenna and Morana are the same people? Different Names, different personalities perhaps? With their own histories.”

“Maybe they’re like uh, a hive mind.” Jane suggested in the background. “Like, maybe they’re all connected to like one main god version of themselves and then there’s like, multiple tiny versions running around.”

“Huh, that’s a good one actually. Like they’re all subdivisions of each other working under one main influence.”

I smiled to myself a bit, it felt like I just solved a great mystery, even though it wasn’t a mystery- Well in the way that it wasn’t something I really needed to solve, but it was still really interesting.

“Maybe that means there’s multiple gods in the Nawia then, multiple versions running around.”

“Or maybe.” Jane said as she started to completely lie down on the couch, hogging all the space. “There’s multiple Nawia?”

I shook my head. “That makes no sense, that would mean there would be like, multiple copies of different souls all running around, multiple Smorodinas and so on. Even Zmey, I don’t think there’s more than one of him…”

She shrugged. “Maybe there’s some that have multiple copies and some that don’t look, simple as is.”

I sighed and tapped my foot on the ground, humming to myself a bit. “Maybe… just doesn’t make much sense for it to be people. Gods I get, they contradict each other all the time, but people are static… So maybe you’re right.”

Moving back and forth with the idea, I didn’t really get anywhere. I rubbed my head in frustration before I sighed. “Maybe I should just ask the others when I get back? Go up and ask them why there are different versions of them running around.”

“Can you imagine that?” Jane stared at my whiteboard, tilting her head to get a better view. “Just doppelgangers running around with your Name. Going about their lives just, slightly different than you.”

“What a nightmare.” I muttered before sitting on a chair, looking up at the diagram, as I was far too scatterbrained to solve it currently.

“Oh, and before we go too off topic. I think I can help you with your training thing. I mean, who better to have around than someone like me! Come on, wouldn’t that be cool! I finally got an upgrade, and I think we work together pretty well.”

“Yeah I know…” I turned towards her. “But, listen, Jane. The world has uh, noticed you. It said you were building an army and stuff-“

“Yeah, that’s my crew, took down Visiliy and the Skiper, what about it?”

“They’re scared. Like… Really scared. The monsters and even the Leshy of where I came from all wanted me either out of the picture or to join them to stop you.”

She narrowed her eyes as I felt like I wanted to hide myself lest I get toasted by whatever power she threw my way. “So what did you say to them?”

“I-I said the truth… It’s complicated. I just want out of here, Jane. I’m not really the guy to plan a revolution or the guy who-”

“Oh, please, it’s not about you. It’s about the people, about who we can help and save. And why are they scared of me? What the fuck did I do to them? Did they side with the Skipers or something?”

She started to raise her voice. I didn’t like that at all. It felt confrontational, and right now it uh, wasn’t really what I wanted to do.

“N-No, Jane, they just think you’re… Kind of scary- Well, scary is the wrong word for it. They fear the Harbinger. They fear it taking them away, destroying them. They fear that you are building an army that would conquer and destroy everyone…”

Jane stared at me, absolutely dumbfounded, as she sighed. “That’s stupid, and you know that’s stupid. You of all people should know what I want.”

“I-I know… I just…”

“You just what?”