A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

While Liv was frozen in fear of her daughter suddenly disappearing again, Erik looked on with a grin and Astrid blinked as she looked at her waking mother.

"Mom!" she exclaimed again, before lunging forward and wrapping her arms tightly around Liv. "Are you okay?! How do you feel?!"

But Liv didn't answer. Instead, she remained frozen in place. "I— Uhh" she stammered, her hands trembling in the air.

Erik could see she was afraid of even touching her daughter, lest she suddenly disappear.

Not that Astrid noticed. She had her eyes closed, simply relishing in the feeling of having her mother back.

Liv's gaze flickered towards Erik with a hint of pleading, as if seeking confirmation that it was alright to touch her daughter. That she wouldn't just disappear. That the scene of her daughter's death really was a misunderstanding back then.

Seeing her look, Erik nodded. What else could he do?

As if a dam broke through and a veil was shattered, Liv started crying. Tears streamed down her face, and her arms finally wrapped themselves around Astrid. "My little firebrand… My angel… I thought you were dead!" she muttered, her body shaking.

Astrid started crying as well now, despite the bright smile on her face. "I'm fine, Mom! Better than ever!" she exclaimed, tightening the grip around her mother's body.

At this point, Erik was starting to worry they might be trying to merge together. But rather than stop them, he just chuckled softly and stealthily left the room. 'Let's give them a little time together,' he thought.

So, while the mother and daughter pair reconnected, Erik moved out into the living room and took a seat on one of the sofa's. "I could use a break from forging anyway," he sighed contently.

As soon as he sat down, Elora appeared out of a cloud of light specks and deposited herself on his lap. "Good!" she exclaimed with a smile. "Because we've had far too little time to relax alone together lately!"

Erik could only nod a little regretfully. "You're right, little ember", he sighed.

There was no denying he had had very little time alone with Elora in the past year. Between preparing for their confrontation with Sigurd and developing his relationships with Emily and Astrid, the last eleven months had been hectic for him.

"How about after this whole thing with the Dominion and the Enclave is settled, we take a few days just to relax and unwind a little?" he proposed with a smile. "Since this thing was settled pretty quickly, we still have more than three weeks before our covenant with Katya requires us to rescue her brother, and it's only a two week trip to England."

"Oh?" Elora wondered, snuggling against his chest. "I'm interested, but I figured you'd want to move on to Africa as soon as possible. In fact, I can feel the desire to kill Edda and find your mother burning inside you now."

Unsurprisingly, Elora was right. The training from these last eleven months was necessary, but the entire time, a certain restlessness had been growing in Erik's heart. This detour to Finnmark had taken far longer than originally planned.

At first, he had two reason to come here: paying respects to the place he grew up in and the people that died there, and to find clues regarding Edda's location, because he didn't trust that mysterious dream and its claim that Edda was in Africa. But it had spiraled into interceding in a war.

He didn't regret coming, of course. Setting aside his major gains in getting access to this dimension, he also met Eira, reunited with Astrid, and found out more about himself.

But none of those things took away his desire for revenge, nor to reunite with his mother, and the fact it was taking so long had started to weigh on him.

So he sighed with a hint of lament, "I know…" but then grabbed Elora's chin and softly kissed her lips. "But I've waited this long… I can wait a few more days. My lovely wives deserve that much at least, especially you."

"Good answer," Elora grinned while savoring her protector's taste on her lips. "I guess I'll have to keep you around for a little while longer."

"Woe is you," Erik chuckled before kissing her again.

In the next hour or so, the fairy and werewolf stayed cuddled up on the couch, simply spending some slow moments as husband and wife.

Finally, Elora whispered in his ear, "They're coming, so I'll make myself scarce for now," before disappearing in a cloud of light flakes that were absorbed into Erik's body. Your journey continues with empire

"Hmm?" Erik muttered through their link, a little surprised. "Why? It should be fine if Liv finds about you, right? You were in your large form anyway, physically no different from a normal human if you hide your wings."

Elora's response was casual, with a mental shrug, "I listened to their conversation in there, of course. While my future sister-wife was unable to hide her intentions to marry you, she doesn't seem to have mentioned the fact you have multiple wives at all. I just don't want to ruin it for her."

While the young vampire may not technically be married to Erik yet, Elora had already placed her in the 'family bracket', meaning the fairy actually cared about Astrid's feelings and wishes.

"Huh…" Erik mumbled in response. "I guess I'll do the same than."

Neither of them knew why the young vampire was hiding this, since harems were supposed to be common in the Dominion, but they decided to play along. 'She probably has her reasons,' Erik thought to himself.

A few minutes later, the door to Astrid's room opened, and the mother-daughter pair walked out hand-in-hand.

Liv was clearly still weak, but she looked far better already. Before, Erik felt depressed just being near her, but that woman had all but disappeared. In her place was a beautiful, vibrant, mature woman with a bright expression.

Yet, as soon as her eyes fell on the casually lounging Erik, they narrowed, and her expression darkened. "So I hear you finally came to your senses, Erik Gunnulf, but what makes you believe it isn't too late already?"