Chapter Nine

It was Cierra's turn to be silent as she waded through her thoughts. Why had all of the people like her died off? Or had they simply disappeared? Was there something more nefarious behind their disappearance? Could the Menace or something similar have killed off those who were 'shiny' like her? She tried to think back, had the Menace recognized her? She couldn't remember.

She sighed, frustrated. Her own thoughts plus Goldie's final comment of 'It's all in the past' didn't sit well with Cierra. It was another one of those topics that left her with more questions than answers.

She was about to ask for more details when Goldie spoke again.

"To prove your trust," Goldie started, "Why don't you find one of Freya's tears?"

Freya's tears? Cierra's confusion must have shown on her face because Goldie continued.

"Legend says that when the goddess Freya lost her husband, she wandered the realms looking for him, crying tears of gold and amber." Goldie paused, letting Cierra absorb this new information. "It's one of the few divine artifacts that there are more than one of, making it easier to find. Plus, it'll match your skogkatt so well." There was a hint of amusement in her voice again.

"Wait," Cierra was having a hard time believing her ears. "Are you telling me that gods and goddesses are real, and they travel through here?" At 'here' Cierra gestured with her hands at the area around her.

"Quite a few beings used to dwell in the dream realms, some of them even used to be mildly pleasant." She paused thoughtful. "If you were to meet one now, I would suggest waking up."

Cierra, unsure of when she had stood up, was now pacing around the dark space. Where before she had felt exasperated at the situation, she now felt an inkling of something new. Gods and goddesses being real felt ridiculous but knowing other people like her used to exist and experience the same things she was experiencing now was exciting. Maybe, if she looked hard enough, she would find someone else like her roaming around, undiscovered.

Goldie continued, either not noticing Cierra's pacing, or choosing to ignore it. "You will know a divine object when you see it, as they carry a small fragment of power from their creator."

Cierra had finally stopped pacing. "And how does this prove I'm trustworthy? Technically anyone could hunt down these objects, right?"

"Not just anyone," Goldie answered, "Can hold a divine item. A Bringing of Nightmares, for example, cannot corrupt it with their power." Goldie paused, "Not even I could hold a divine object for too long."

Confused, Cierra asked, "But then how am I supposed to hold something not even you can?"

"All humans can hold them." Goldie answered. "You'll see."

"But—" Cierra started, wanting to asking how exactly she would be able to see if an object was divine but Goldie interrupted her.

"It's time for you to go."

Cierra woke up, head still in her hand, her coffee cold on the table and her neck aching.

The rest of her morning was spent Googling. Cierra was determined to understand who Freya was, what her tears looked like, and where she might find them. A part of her wondered if she might even run into Freya herself if she tried hard enough. Goldie's warning to run if she ever met a higher being was still in the back of Cierra's head, but how could a goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and war be that bad?

The war part made her a bit cautious, but if she was being honest, Freya sounded hardcore. She went to war, looked luxurious while doing it, helped with fertility issues and was faithful to her husband, Od, to the point of mourning him for decades, if not longer. Cierra was having a hard time thinking of any reason to not simply look for Freya and ask for a tear rather than going around the dream realms searching for one that might, from what Cierra had recently learned online, be at the heart of some ancient gold mine or laying at the bottom of a sea.

Not to mention, if anything went awry, Cierra would just wake up.

She scratched Cid, who had long since laid down in her lap while she was researching, behind the ears. After a bit of hunting, Cierra had found that the skogkatts and Freya were directly connected.

"Did you know," Cierra said, "That long ago you would have drawn Freya's chariot?"

Cid ignored her; his eyes half closed.

Already a plan was forming in her mind. From what she could tell, she had two choices. She could either look everywhere for a tear, or she could find Freya and ask for one. If she went hunting for a tear, who knew what she might run into along the way or who was already in possession of whichever tear she found, but if she chose to find Freya, it was likely she would simply be directly teleported near somewhere Freya was. Cierra had nothing to lose, if Freya said no, then she was back at square one and would go tear hunting, but if Freya said yes, then Cierra would have saved herself a lot of trouble.

The choice seemed obvious.

For the first time in a while Cierra was excited to go to sleep; she wasn't hunting down answers or a person, but a goddess and an item. It reminded her a treasure hunt, and that sounded fun.

The only real problem was she still had to finish her calculus homework before bed. There were only two more weeks of class and then the exam before senior year started in August. Cierra tried to think of what she was excited about in her senior year but came up blank. The only thing that was going to change was that the classes were going to get harder and then she would graduate. In fact, she was fairly certain she was completing Calculus and moving into Calculus II.

There was prom, and while that was exciting, it wasn't looking as if it would live up to the giant party that Hollywood made it out to be. Neither her nor Dawn anticipated having dates, and even if they were, Cierra was certain prom wouldn't be nearly as interesting as searching for a literal goddess.

At that moment her phone started to ring, interrupting her thoughts.

"Hey Dawn," Cierra answered, hoping she sounded normal and not like she was just given a borderline supernatural task. "What's up?"

"Scream Squad VII! Is! Out! In! Theaters!" Dawn squealed, "Can you believe we almost forgot?"

Scream Squad III was the first movie Cierra and Dawn had ever seen in theaters together, back as freshmen. It had been terrible, with cheerleaders in various compromising positions being picked off by a madman at the state's yearly cheer camp. They had immediately gone home and watched the first two online. Ever since, the movie had been a staple in their friendship, with them discussing who, what, when, where, how various people would get taken out.

"From the trailer, I'm betting Cindy and Ash go down first, in the shower." Dawn trailed on, a thousand words a minute. "You know they always like to get the shower scene done in the beginning."

Over the years they had gotten it down to a science. There would be the sexy shower murder, the couple who got lost in the woods and would run away in different directions, the gym locker annoyances where two or more cheerleaders from an opposing team would bully an opposing member and whoever was left in the locker room at the end would die. The only thing that changed was who the murderer was and if he or she got caught.

"So, are we thinking it'll be a return of the murderer from V or someone new?" Cierra tried to match Dawn's excitement, "I'm hoping it's a whole opposing squad this time, like a group effort."

"Ohhhh, that would be new!" Dawn agreed, "So, we're going tonight, right? I've already almost bought us tickets for tonight at 9, just looking for the go-ahead Captain."

"I don't have any plans, all systems clear." Cierra joked.

"Yes! Done! If you pick me up at 815-ish, I'll pay you back with Snowcaps." Dawn knew Cierra's theater food weakness and exploited it whenever she could.

"Deal."

Cierra hung up, feeling a bit more lighthearted than she had expected. At first, Dawn's call had seemed like an interruption, but now, Cierra found herself excited to spend some time with her friend. What did it matter anyway if she went out with Dawn? It wasn't like she wasn't going to go to bed at all.

Suddenly, Cierra felt like she was living in two separate worlds, one where she watched movies with her friend and was tortured by calculus, and another where she was like a pirate, hunting down objects, trying to uncover truths.