Tearful Reunion

The stoned wall was cool to the touch as Nissa lightly dragged her palm across its rough surface. Although she had calmed down, thanks to Fenrir, Nissa couldn't find sleep and spent the rest of the time caring for her equipment. Now she found herself walking through the same hallway that came from her dreams. Every step mirrored the ones she took a life time ago as she walked through the same hall, and just as before, that led her to the same door. The atmosphere was polar opposite to the first time she came here. Quietly opening the door, Nissa stepped into the room and reflected over the difference between the two contrasting areas.

After the enemy was driven from the city, this room was purified and returned to its original purpose: a quiet room dedicated to silent worship of their Goddess instead of the unholy jail cell for its heart.

The silence made her wonder the differences this life had from the previous. In this life, as soon as Nissa was able, she mustered a force to free the heart. She even succeeded in driving the enemy out of this location, but the heart wasn't here. The way the enemy was set up indicated that they were close to opening their massive portals, but the stolen source of their power was nowhere to be seen. Nissa would have pursued the matter further, but their border had quickly fallen and the desperate fighting that had ensued, diverted her attention to her struggling people.

Nissa sighed, all of her currently gathered information indicated that it never existed, and Halvor firmly vetoed any proposal for her spies or scouts to leave the limits of the wall he made. So any new information would have to come through the survivors that he promised to bring in the coming weeks. "Survivors... " She muttered under her breath. Some small part of her heart yearned for her separated family members to be apart of those he found alive, but... it hurt so much when faced with their cold dead bodies.

Steeling herself, Nissa took one last look around the empty room and returned to the hallway trying to put those difficult emotions and thoughts behind her for now.

The sounds of clawed foot falls echoed next to her as Fenrir silently took her side.

'Hmm, He's not talking.... Interesting.' Nissa thought.

As Nissa stepped outside, her two stalwart guards, that were posted near the exit doors, joined her as they moved back towards the city proper. The buildings she passed, looked vastly different than before the last battle. Shopping stalls, and even the giggles of children betrayed the dire situation of weeks prior. Nissa greeted those who hailed her, and returned salutations of her own, but she was still in her own thoughts until she noticed Fenrir's ears perk up as he turned his head towards the west.

Noticing his sudden movements, she stopped the group and was curious to what he would hopefully say to them. After a few moments of silence, Fenrir then turned towards Nissa and excitedly said. "Seems boss has found some survivors. He'll soon be dropping them off near the wall, where he first showed up."

She then quickly sent Gareth, one of her guards, ahead with the message to her Command Tent and then started to move to the designated area in a hurried pace with her remaining guard Anna in tow.

"I didn't think there would be any left." Nissa admitted in a small mutter, but her ever present furry companion heard it.

"Of course Boss would find them! Me and my Cousins are quite practiced in these particular jobs." He lightly proclaimed.

Nissa chuckled as they passed by the last set of houses now showing her a stretch of torn field that separated the city from the new imposing walls. The place she was heading was quite visible as its black scorched earth was seemingly a permanent reminder of Halvor first appearance. Surprisingly, another group was already stationed near the cracked soil, and a certain black haired man was beckoning her with his raised hand. His metal clad fist tapped his chest plate in salute when Nissa drew within conversation distance which she promptly acknowledged.

'Wynfir will never stop saluting me.' She bemoaned to herself as she returned the salute and turned towards the marked dirt.

A few minutes passed before Wynfir quiet spoke up saying. "Did the wolf say how many are coming?"

Nissa shook her head "No, only that they'll be here soon." Wynfir sighed before letting the silence resume between the two. Before long, Nissa sensed a familiar magic pool in front of her and moments after that, a silvery oval grew into existence. The bottom half seemed to dissipate as it touched the ground. Once it stopped expanding, the result was a large silver half oval the length of ten feet. It was silver in color and its surface calmly shifted like a smooth flowing river.

The unfamiliar feeling of its magic drew her attention until a hobbled soldier, supported by another, stumbled through its rippling surface. They weren't the last though, a quickly increasing flow of people continued to come through each one armed in a different manner: as soldiers or as survivors. Wynfir quickly took charge of the incoming group and directed the survivors towards the healers or other management officers.

Nissa even saw a small group of children being shepherded by the arriving group. Their emotions sang of loss and sadness, but was now being replaced by melancholy as their new situation looked hopeful.

'Thank you Halvor.' Nissa thought to herself before her ears caught wind of on an ongoing conversation from the most recent survivors that emerged from the portal.

"... Lady Orla is right behind us. Make sure that..."

Nissa caught her breath. 'She wasn't dead?!... she's alive?!'

Avoiding to hit the wounded, Nissa pushed through their tired forms until she was at the precipice of the silvery gateway. Then with bated breath, she waited. Before the prior battle their army had been forcibly split when the enemy cut her off from both her left and right flank. The right flank was commanded by her mother. The agony and hopelessness of her supposed loss was quick to join the ever crushing pressure she felt before Halvor appeared.

Nissa gaze found a familiar form emerge from the portals depths in the shape of a woman whose love, strength, and wisdom had supported her through both life times: Her mother.

Lady Orla Leifdottir was the embodiment of a warrior. Her blonde colored hair was pulled together in a tight ponytail that revealed a tired beautiful face. Yet despite her fatigue, Orla was tensed ready to continue fighting at a moments notice. Orla's disbelieving violet eyes roamed over her tired troops until they locked onto the matching colored eyes of her daughter.

Nissa's eyes quickly filled with tears.

"...Mom?" That one whispered word shattered the frozen moment and they rushed to one another. Orla's hug was just as strong and lung collapsing as Nissa remembered, but it didn't matter because she returned her own just as fiercely.

As they continued to hug, Orla spoke as if waking from a terrible dream "I thought I lost you Nissa. I rushed back here as quickly as I could... Praise the Goddess for letting me see you again." Nissa gratefully nodded in her mothers shoulder as she also quietly included Halvor in her thanks for his part in saving a piece of family she loved.