Chapter Twenty-One

It had taken Cierra all of her remaining strength to get free of the monster's grasp and despite Leif and Cid, she fell to floor, unable to pick herself up.

"Cierra?" Leif bent down to inspect her new comrade but was forced to defend herself as another arm swiped at the women. With a grunt she slashed at the arm, cutting through the bark-like flesh.

The monster laughed, black oozing from his wound. "Yes, cut me," He cried out, manic, "I haven't felt pain in centuries."

The women stepped back, as the creature swatted at them faster than before. Bones were strewn across the floor as those who were too slow lost limbs, and Cierra was forced to watch as their numbers slowly dwindled.

Silva and Leif worked together to protect Cierra, and slowly the floor was covered in blood like ink.

Blue-black electricity hit Freya again and Cierra gasped as she got a clear view of the woman's face. Half of her face was flawless, rose gold eyelashes framing near translucent green eyes, mouth a natural pink pout, skin clear. The other half was filled with maggots, the skin eaten off to show sinew and tissue pulling apart to reveal teeth and bone.

She screamed and a giant hand, fingernails barely holding onto three of the fingers, the flesh completely stripped from the other two, slammed down near them. For the first time the chains wrapped around Freya's wrists became visible; they seemed to be made of a black sludge that moved, constantly pulsing as the sludge moved forward and around her wrists before trailing back onto itself, presumably anchored somewhere in the darkness.

"What have you done?" Silva demanded, "Why do you keep her here? Let her go!"

The monster laughed in reply, "Why don't you make me?"

Cierra scooted back on the floor as he doubled in size once again. The half dozen remaining skeletons struggled to get out of arm's length, gathering at either side of Cierra and Cid.

"It is time for you to go." Silva said, helping Cierra stand, "The tears are on the table." She nodded towards the gold and amber objects a few meters away.

"Take them all," Leif added, "We cannot let them use Freya's tears for their own twisted means."

"What about you?" Cierra asked, holding onto Silva's hand, and looking between the two women she wished she had come to know better over the past few hours, "How will you escape?"

"We will find a way," Silva lied, adding "We will see you again soon."

Cierra nodded, tears threatening to fall. If only she had been stronger, she could save everyone; the tigers and these courageous women about to sacrifice themselves for her.

Using the last of her strength, she half-ran half-dragged herself to the table where the tears were. Behind her the creature roared, followed by the sound of bones clattering to the ground.

Hurrying, she gave one to Cid to gingerly hold in his jaw, while she gathered up the three remaining unadulterated tears. The fifth, final tear was in worse shape than she had imagined, black dripped off the surface of it and onto the table, reminding Cierra of the blood from the monster tree. Holes could be seen where someone or something had tried to bore through the gold to the amber multiple times and failed. It looked as though the black had been poured into the holes, as if to try and corrupt the divine artifact from the inside out.

She did her best to hold it separately from the rest while not getting any of the muck on herself.

"Get down!" A voice called out behind her, and she ducked just in time to miss getting pummeled by a giant arm.

The arm came back, and Silva blocked it, losing her sword arm in the process.

"Silva!" Cierra cried out, wanting to reach out to the woman.

"Go!" She shouted, blocking another attack with her body. As she fell apart, Cierra looked for Leif, tears now falling down her face. Leif was stabbing at the other side of creature, having hacked on arm off and desperately trying for another.

Cierra closed her eyes, forcing herself to wake up as the body of the creature moved to smash Leif into a wall.

She woke up in bed, tears and snot drying on her face. Next to her, Cid meowed loudly. He dropped a golden, tear shaped bead on her lap as she sat up. Opening her hands she found three clean beads and one grey, translucent circle that looked as though part of the top half had broken off.

How many people had been sacrificed so she could get these beads? It barely seemed worth it now as Cierra looked at them. In the dream realms they had looked large and impressive, like they meant something, but here in reality they looked like nothing more than cheap jewelry.

Getting up to put them on her desk, she was shocked to find that her body was fine, like she hadn't just had her ribs crushed by an unknown creature and been left gasping on the floor of a cave like a fish out of water. Her heart sunk, at least if she was injured, she could share the weight of the pain Silva and Leif must have felt in their final moments. Somehow her injuries being healed made the events feel less real, like she hadn't truly been there, fighting alongside everyone else. Her contribution in the most recent events felt diminished. If anyone should be standing with the tears of Freya, it were the women who sacrificed so much to get them.

Cierra thought back to her last moments with Silva and Leif. They had given everything to make sure she could get out with Freya's artifacts and they hadn't even been able to save their goddess.

Cierra made a silent vow, one day she was going to cut that giant tree down and free Freya herself. It was the least she could for the women of Fólkvangr.

Cid meowed loudly from his place on the bed, and Cierra sat down next to him so he could lay in her lap. She wasn't sure how long they sat together, but sunlight was coming through the window when she finally got up.

Having gotten dressed, she headed downstairs to the garage. There had been a time, years ago, when her aunt had become infatuated with the idea of making jewelry. She had given up the hobby years ago, but Cierra was certain she had all the materials for making bracelets and necklaces laying around somewhere.

There was an entire section of the garage dedicated to her aunt's passing hobbies and endeavors: canvases and paints in the far right; a sewing kit from who knew when; fabrics; resin; a row of plastic drawers filled with needle nose pliers, wires, beads, string, colored feathers, various glues, and random metal bits.

Cierra grabbed some silver wire, string, pliers, and wire cutters before heading upstairs, unsure of what all she might need. Sitting it all down at her desk, she was surprised to find she had no idea where to start. Freya's tears weren't beads, with holes going through the middle, and after a few minutes of wrapping them in string and metal, Cierra found herself beyond frustrated.

How was she supposed to keep the beads safe when she couldn't even figure out how to make them into a bracelet? She thought for a moment of asking her aunt, but she didn't want to risk Ernǚ dropping a bead and losing it somewhere in the floorboards.

It wasn't like she could explain how priceless they really were or how she had gotten them to begin with.

She turned to Cid, "You don't happen to have any ideas, do you?"

He ignored her, instead curled up on her pillow, tail to face.

"Right," She mumbled to herself.

Two hours and three YouTube 'no hole beads' jewelry tutorials later, Cierra had a sturdy, wire wrap bracelet. Each bead was semi-encaged in wire in such a way that didn't allow them to move, and she had even taken the time to craft a metal wire wrapped 'C' in the middle to make it a tiny bit more fashionable. She had only been able to find gold wire, and that worked well, complimenting the beads and Cierra's own skin tone.

She wasn't sure how the bracelet would work in the dream realms but at least they wouldn't get lost in day-to-day life. Putting it on she felt like she was wearing her own knock-off Brísingamen.

Looking back, she tried to remember if Freya had been wearing her iconic necklace, but there hadn't been enough light or time to tell. The being had talked to someone, mentioning they had waited hundreds of years to get this far. Who had the tree talked to? It hadn't sounded like Menace, in fact the person had sounded closer to Cierra's age than like any dark, otherworldly horror.