WM [48] Time for The Talk

Bjorn sat on the box seat with Adelheid as she drove the wagon behind Joha. There were far more people on the road now that they were so close to the border. Travelers, pilgrims, missionaries and monster hunters coming and going. Bjorn couldn't help but look in wonder at the different races he had never seen before. Notably an albino woman in all white with long silver hair. She was in a delicate looking white and blue dress with the motif of winter embroidered across the silk-like material. Her eyes caught his attention most—a deep, unnatural red, like the heart of a flame against the stark coldness of her appearance.

"It's rude to stare you know," Adelheid chided. 

Bjorn hadn't even noticed he was looking at her with all his heads. He did so absently and didn't even use Identify on her as he turned his attention away from the encounter. The mysterious figure turned to him for a moment, a spark of curiosity in her eyes as they passed her on the wagon.

"If you are curious, she is a ghost-born," Adelheid continued. "Not very common in these parts and from the looks of her, she was of the Yuki clan. Which is even rarer since the temperature here is moderate and they typically hang around cold places. They are one of the few people I know who live in the corrupted lands." 

Bjorn listened to her lazily, but didn't really care. The woman had caught his attention just because she stood out because of her appearance being a stark contrast to the landscape. He tasted the air around him and noticed an unforgettable magic lingering. It was faint and if Bjorn wasn't so sensitive to it now he would have missed it all together. He stood up alert as he looked around for the source of the magic. It was druids and they were close.

Bjorn tried to convey his concern as clearly as possible through his bond with Tanisha. He needed her to know he was picking up the taste of druidic magic. He turned to face the forest where the scent was coming from but didn't see anything. His alarm worked as Tanisha appeared next to him using her Arcane Shift. She had her knives in hand, and she was ready to fight, even eager by her emotions.

"Woah!" Adelheid jumped in her seat in surprise, swerving the wagon. "What the—Tanisha?"

"Bjorn, what is wrong? Adelheid, stop the wagon," Tanisha ordered.

Bjorn jumped down and Tanisha followed without hesitation. She watched him carefully as he immediately started to write on the ground.

Bjorn wrote: I taste druids in forest. Scent is weak but they is close.

"Are you sure?" Tanisha asked. "Is it the druids that were around the town?"

Bjorn wrote: I don't know. 

Adelheid brought the wagon to a stop and even alerted Joha to stop as well. After a few minutes they were meeting off the main road. Tanisha told them what Bjorn had written and there was definite concern and anger across the other faces. Bjorn could see the desire for revenge on Adelheid's face, the druids definitely killed members of her pack even if Bjorn had led them there. 

Bjorn, however, was focused on Tanisha. He could feel her indifference to the emotions swirling around them. For her, this wasn't about revenge, honor, or even justice—it was about opportunity. The cold, calculated hunger for power simmered beneath her skin. He could feel her emotions sharpening into something cold and clinical, as though she were already planning how many kills it would take to level up, how much power she could gain.

"This doesn't change much," Joha said and took a long drag of his maya pipe. "We tell the guard at the border there is a druid encampment, then Adelheid is free to go back to her pack and we leave. We should not get caught up in this war more than we already have."

"They killed members of my pack and you want me to just run away?" Adelheid yelled, and she pointed to the forest.

"No, once we make it to the border you are free to do whatever you want," Joha said with a finality that rumbled in the air. "If you want to fight the druids do that, but Tanisha and I are leaving."

"I want to fight them too," Tanisha said.

"Tanisha," Joha said, his shoulders slumping a little. "Not every fight is ours to fight. We are merchants, not war merchants, not mercenaries, just merchants. Do you want to be drawn further into it and become a soldier? We've done our part. We've helped where we could. But we don't have to take on every battle."

"Should we have put the jeweled wing monarch behind us too? Or the druids that attacked the Isi village, or should you have just left me behind in the woods where you found me?" Tanisha challenged as she stepped up to Joha.

Bjorn scratched a message into the dirt with his talons, his handwriting clumsy but clear enough for Tanisha to read: We leave. No fighting and go.

Tanisha's eyes darted to the message, and a wave of frustration flared through the bond. She didn't respond to Bjorn, not yet. Instead, she focused on Joha.

"Those are different situations and you know it." Joha shook his head. "You're not the same girl I found in the woods. You've got a choice now. You can be a soldier, a monster hunter, an alchemist, a mage—whatever you want. But I won't follow a path that leads to nothing but oceans of blood. I've seen enough war, Tanisha. I won't go down that road again."

Bjorn could feel Tanisha's anger simmering beneath the surface, not at Joha, but surprisingly at him. She was angry because she knew he was siding with Joha, urging her to leave. She wanted to fight, to tear through the druids and rise in strength, but Bjorn was standing in her way. The betrayal stung her more than she would admit, and it rippled through their bond like a silent accusation. 

Tanisha turned to Bjorn. "You're leaving me too," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, her anger cracking to reveal the hurt beneath. "Bjorn... you're supposed to be with me. You're supposed to understand. We need this."

Bjorn actually wanted to do something about the druids too. He saw what they were doing to the wendigo, the horrors and tortures they inflicted. Even with all of that, his main concern was Tanisha, she wasn't acting like herself, she looked cold, detached, and he worried she would do something detestable. Something about her at that moment told him that it wasn't the Tanisha he had known. That she wanted to drink the blood or consume the flesh of the druids like she had done to Sabec and the jeweled wing monarch. Deep down he knew that if she did the Tanisha he knew wasn't coming back.

Joha stepped closer, lowering his voice. "Tanisha, I know you want to help," he said softly, his voice edged with concern. "But this isn't the way. You don't have to throw yourself into this war just because it's here. You've already lost so much... don't lose yourself too."

"You're worried about me losing myself, Joha?" Tanisha said with a disbelieving laugh which took everyone off guard. She opened her arms wide as if challenging them to get a good look at her. "Look at me… talk about losing myself, Tanisha, Valkyrja, Freja, Sif, mage, arcanist, alchemist, sage, wendigo, Nature's Wrath, Herne Hunter, Cernunnos. Who am I anyway?"

There was realization in her words and in the bond. Whatever was happening in her mind, whatever war was going on there was a shift. How she stood, how she looked and the cold detachment in her eyes all changed back to normal. It was as if she were two people and both were wrestling for control. 

"We all change, but you decide what that change means," Joha continued to say. "You decide if you lose yourself fearing that change or make the choice on how you move forward."

"It's easy to say when it's not you. When your mind, your body, your spirit, and your identity haven't been ripped apart." Her voice quivered, and she broke eye contact looking down at the dirt. "One after the other they were stripped from you. I am not what I was born anymore, Joha. I have forsaken the Forest Father. I have been made into this-this, fuck, we aren't even really sure what I am, but it is changing me! My mind, spirit and body. I can't trust it like I could before. Can you imagine?"

The Marks of Seiðr pulsed with power as tears welled up in her golden eyes, but she fought them back, refusing to break in front of her master. 

"Look at me," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I am not even the same species anymore. Then suddenly I had to accept that we just let Alaric go, Falko go, and we are just going to let Adelheid go too. Is it bad that I don't want to? That I want to hunt them down too even though I want to forgive Adelheid I just…" 

Joha's eyes softened as he watched Tanisha break down in front of him. He didn't need to say much; he knew that words wouldn't fix what she was feeling. Instead, he took a step forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, grounding her in that moment.

When her sobs finally began to subside, Joha spoke softly, his voice low and calming. "You're not wrong for feeling what you feel, Tanisha. But you can't let those feelings control you. You're stronger than that. You've faced so much, and you've come this far. You can decide how to move forward. You decide what those changes mean."

"I just... I don't know how," Tanisha admitted.

"You don't have to know right now," Joha replied gently. "But you do have to be patient with yourself. Give yourself time to understand who you are becoming and what that means for you."

Joha let go of her shoulder and motioned for Bjorn to get closer. Bjorn understood that Joha had to be stern in the moment so it was up to him to be comforting. There was a long pause, the only sound being Tanisha's exhausted breaths as she tried to process everything. The tattoos across Tanisha's body faded, and she let Bjorn nuzzle against her. Finally, Joha turned his gaze to Adelheid, who had been watching the scene unfold in silence.

Adelheid crossed her arms, her face tight with anger, but she remained silent, watching the exchange between Joha and Tanisha with thinly veiled impatience. She didn't care about their argument; she wanted revenge, plain and simple.

"So, that's that then? You two are just going to leave?" Adelheid said.

"Yes. It was always the plan," Joha said with certainty. "But like I said, once we get to the border you are free to do what you want."

"Fine," Adelheid growled. "Let's get you two out of here so I can do my job and kill some fucking monsters."

The wifwolf stormed off to the wagon leaving the trio to themselves. They didn't follow immediately instead they took in the moment as Tanisha pulled herself together. Bjorn didn't know how long they stood in silence, seconds, minutes, he was unsure.

"I… found out something. When I killed Sabec and drank his blood. Part of my new species required blood to free me from the Forest Fa… no, Odin's control, or chains? What I am is not a part of His plan for the Wendigo. He has a tether on all wendigo's souls. Something that allows him into us that forces us to follow him and his will. I felt that tether break and when it did… it uh, I don't know, broke part of me too?"

Joha took a deep breath, his eyes softening as he knelt beside Tanisha, his hand resting gently on her shoulder. His voice, though quiet, carried the weight of years—of struggle, of guilt, of redemption.

"For demons," Joha began, his voice deep but vulnerable, "we are born with the maya. She is more than just magic, Tanisha. She is... our mother, more so than the ones who birthed us. The maya protects us—from others, from the world, and even from ourselves. You've felt her, haven't you? Felt her wrap around you, like a cocoon of warmth. She cradles us, whispers to us, makes us believe we are invincible. She lets us be reckless, cruel even, without ever feeling the weight of it. That's what the maya does—it makes us blind to our own destruction, makes it easy to walk into a village, to kill, to burn, to destroy without a second thought."

Joha paused, his eyes closing for a moment as if remembering something he had long buried. When he spoke again, his voice was thick with emotion.

"For demons, that's who we are. It's our nature, our identity... and it was who I was. Joha of the Bloody Fang." He let out a shaky breath, the name tasting bitter on his tongue. "I was once the embodiment of that destruction. I had no conscience, no second thoughts. I didn't care about what I left behind. Maya shielded me from it, from the reality of the pain I caused, the lives I ruined. It was easy. It was always so easy, too easy to just keep going. It was... comforting."

He looked at Tanisha then, his gaze searching hers, wanting her to understand. "But despite that—despite the loving embrace of the maya that protected me from my own guilt—I decided I wanted to be better. Not for anyone else, but for myself. Being better meant waking up every morning with a purpose, with a reason that wasn't giving in to destruction. I had to look for something worth living for. For me, that became protecting the people I care about, making someone's day brighter, choosing to be kind when I could have been cruel. It became about living a life I could be proud of, not one soaked in blood."

His hand tightened on her shoulder, his eyes never leaving hers. "I know what you're feeling right now, Tanisha. I know the anger, the pain, the confusion. I've stared into the mirror, I've looked into my own soul and not know the person staring back at me. I know what it means to feel like the world around you is forcing you to become something you don't understand or recognize. I know what it's like to be consumed by that hunger for power, for vengeance, for blood.

"Joha's voice softened even more, the rawness of his emotions evident. "But you don't have to destroy yourself to get there. I'm not saying those druids don't deserve to die. In fact for what they have done they definitely do. But I've been down that road before and trust me, if you lose yourself in it—if you let that darkness swallow you whole—it won't matter how many enemies you defeat, how strong you get. You'll be lost. And once you're lost... it's hard to find your way back.

"I chose a different path, Tanisha," he said, his voice cracking slightly with emotion. "There are those I wish I told this to before it was too late for them. So, I'm asking you—no, begging you—to think about it. To choose not to let this war turn you into someone you don't want to be. You are stronger than you know, but strength isn't just about power or killing."

Tears welled up in Tanisha's eyes, and Joha could see her walls beginning to crack, the layers of anger and hurt she had built up slowly starting to crumble. He had never spoken to her like this before—so open, so raw. But she needed to hear it.

"You don't have to be alone in this," Joha whispered, his voice breaking. "You don't have to carry all of this weight by yourself. I'm here. I'll always be here and I'm proud of you. Bjorn too."

Tanisha leaned into him, her head resting against his shoulder as the tears spilled over. Joha wrapped his arm around her and Bjorn, holding them tight as she trembled against him, her sobs quiet but full of all the pain she had been trying to hide. He didn't speak. He just held her, letting her cry, letting her feel everything she had been bottling up for so long.