Chapter 91: Aunt Gandul

Ravenclaws' Home, North of Scotland

October 31st, 1055

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"I heard that they had a son too. Do you know anything about him?"

Galdun asked Erik, who squinted his eyes at her.

"And if I do, what do you want with him?"

Erik asked the Valkyrie.

"I don't think that is really your business."

Galdun replied while releasing a little of her power's pressure, trying to scare the man into telling her what she wanted to know. But to her dismay, the man just chuckled at her.

"Your attempt at intimidation was cute, but if you really want to intimidate someone, you have to do it like this."

Erik said to Galdun and released all his magic power pressure at once around her. She immediately felt like she was drowning. The Valkyrie's perception of time slowed down and she felt her body heavy. Very heavy. Her lungs seemed to have stopped working and her heart was having difficulties doing its next beat.

*Ba-dump*

Galdun then heard her heartbeat and she was not drowning in air anymore. She then went to her knees and started to gasp for air to refill her lungs. She was sweating heavily. The man in front of her was a monster in human skin. Galdun looked up slowly and saw cold stormy gray eyes looking at her. She then gathered all her strength and slowly got back on her feet.

"Please… I just want to meet the rest of my family… I just discovered a month ago that I had a half-brother…"

The Valkyrie said weakly, almost pleading for the information for the man in front of her.

"Oh? So Valkyrie Goldun didn't tell others that she had a son, huh? I guess that was to be expected with the way that she used to treat father was anything like mother used to tell me."

Erik commented, sending the Valkyrie's head into a loop. Erik then let out an audible sigh.

*sigh*

"It's better that you enter, aunt. Our talk can take a while."

Erik said to Galdun, walking a little to the side and making space at the door for her to enter. The Valkyrie blinked slowly for some time, trying to process what she had just heard. When she finally understood what he had said, Galdun replied to Erik.

"Thank you."

Galdun said with a small smile on her face. She then entered the house. Before closing the door, Erik looked out of the house, more specifically to Galdun's winged horse. The creature was slowly walking to the garden where Selena had planted some exotic flower seed that she had gotten in Africa.

"Hey, you."

Erik said in a loud voice. The winged worse stopped in its tracks and looked to Erik.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you. Stay away from the flowers. There's an apple tree that way."

Erik said to the horse and pointed in another direction where a tree of medium size could be seen full of fruits. The horse neighed and Erik squinted his eyes.

"It's your choice, but I have to warn you, that some of those flowers are highly poisonous. And if you ruin the flowerbed and survive the poison, then I will kill you and use your leather to craft a drum."

Erik said, warning the winged horse. He then turned, entered the house, and closed the door behind him. The winged horse, who was looking at Erik, thought about the treat that it had received, looked at the flowers, then looked at the apple tree. It neighed again and trotted to where the apple tree was, deciding to stay away from the poisonous flowers.

Inside the house, Erik guided Gandul to the lounge room, and asked her to wait a moment while he got them something to drink, and went to the kitchen. Gandul stood in the lounge room alone, thinking about her possible nephew and looking at the decoration of the place. The furniture was well placed around a small low table. In one of the walls, a big fireplace could be found. It had a mantel made of solid wood and was covered with red bricks that were artistically engraved with depictions of numerous animals, magical or not. On one of the walls stood three lifelike paintings. The one to the left depicted an enormous stone castle. The stone structure looked majestic. The painting in the center depicted a couple. She recognized the man in it as being the one who was possibly her nephew. He was hugging a beautiful woman that had long black hair and was wearing a blue long dress. The couple was happy in the painting, she could almost feel it when she looked at their painted smiles. But she then noticed that he looked older in this painting. Maybe twenty years older. She then looked at the last painting. It was one of a bigger family. In it, Gandul recognized the same couple from the central painting, but it was their younger versions. With them were three more women. One of them had an identical face to the woman at her side.

'Twins?'

Gandul thought and looked at the other two women. The other two were older. One of them looked very much like the twins, while the other had hair very much the same color as the man in the painting. She was there, looking at the painting when Erik came back. In front of him, a tea set was being levitated in a tray together with another tray that had some honey cookies on it. Gandul turned when she heard him enter the room and saw his feat in magic. Erik deposited the trays on top of the central table and looked at the Valkyrie.

"I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Erik Ravenclaw, previously known as Erik Agnar'son."

Erik said to Galdun and then looked at the painting that she was looking at.

"That was painted on the day of my wedding. The beauty by my side is my wife, Selena Ravenclaw. The one who looks exactly like her is her twin sister, Helena. The older ladies would be my mother, Aria, who is sitting in front of me, and my mother-in-law, Rowena Ravenclaw, who is sitting in front of my wife."

Erik said while serving the tea that he had prepared in two cups. He then took a seat in an armchair and waited for Gandul to sit. The Valkyrie walked from where she was looking at the paintings and took her seat in front of Erik, in another armchair. She sipped the tea from the cup prepared for her and looked at Erik.

"You are my nephew then."

Galdun said while looking at Erik.

"I suppose so."

Erik replied.

"But… How?"

Galdun asked while showing a bit of confusion on her face. Erik raised an eyebrow at her question, smiled internally, and replied with the most perfect serious face.

"Well… When a woman and a man love each other a lot, they marry. My father loved my mother a lot, so they married each other. Later, I was born."

Erik replied with a serious face. Galdun was looking at him with wide eyes while hearing his answer. She then groaned.

*groan*

"That's not what I meant to ask!"

The Valkyrie said heatedly. Erik smirked a little at that.

"Then, would you please be more specific with your questions?"

Erik said and sipped his tea. It was not a good tea yet. Hestia had got some seeds for him when she visited Amateratsu. It had been his birthday gift from her last year, but the tea plants were not mature enough for harvesting yet. Galdun rolled her eyes at his request but relented because her question had been very vague.

"How do you look so young. Mother said that she helped during your birth, but that was seventy years ago. How can you look no older than me?"

Galdun asked. This time she had thoroughly asked her question without a place for misunderstanding on Erik's part.

"Hmm… It's complicated. It had to do with a ritual in which I participated. And I am seventy-three years old, aunt Galdun."

Erik replied to Galdun with a smirk on his face when he called her 'aunt'. Erik didn't elaborate on the ritual because he didn't want to spread it to anyone more. In his opinion the fewer people learn about it, the better it would be. This was his wife's opinion on the matter too.

"So you are immortal now?"

Galdun asked Erik while ignoring the part where she was called 'aunt'. Erik shook his head at her question.

"In this world, aunt Galdun, only two beings are truly immortal: Great Red and Ophis. Others are just very long-lived or ageless ones."

Erik replied to Galdun, who frowned at his reply.

"But the gods are immortal."

She said and Erik shook his head. She knew that Valkyries, like her, lived very long lives.

"Not really. Tell me, are there myths of gods being killed?"

Erik asked and she nodded her head. Inside her faction, there were such myths.

"Will a god, for example, Loki, die if they got their head chopped off or their hearts pierced?"

Erik asked again and the Valkyrie nodded her head again, this time while smiling at the image of Loki having his head chopped off or his heart being pierced. The trickster god was, maybe, the less liked god of her faction. Oh, who was she trying to trick? He was the MOST hated god of her faction.

"Well, since you agree with me that they can be killed, then you have to agree with me that they are not immortal. They are mostly ageless or very long-lived individuals who developed some kind of divinity. Devils and Valkyries are two very long-lived races too, but they are not immortals. To the eyes of normal humans, their long lives and immunity to their weapons can be interpreted as immortality, but if they meet someone with the same level of power, they can be easily killed. Angels and Fallen Angels are two examples of ageless races. They are forever in their prime form. Now, the Dragon of Dream and the Dragon of Infinity, these two, are really immortal ones. Even if someone, somehow, manages to kill one of them, they will soon come back to life. While their concepts exist, they will continue to exist. That's what it means to be immortal."

Erik said, finishing his explanation about the difference between the three types. Galdun stood there, in silence, thinking about what she had just heard. It made a lot of sense.

"But then, how about you, Erik? Which one are you?"

Galdun asked. She was curious about what her nephew had managed to do. Erik smiled a little at her and replied.

"By the results of the ritual, I'm the ageless type. After the ritual, my body had gone back to its prime. Can I still be killed? Of course, I can. But it will be a very difficult task and you can be sure that I will not be going quietly if someone tries."

"Erik replies to Galdun with a big grin, almost maniacal, appearing on his face.

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