It's all in the name, kid

Apparently, everyone but John knew who this was, as they all became extremely quiet and didn't dare to say anything. Svenja and her husband (?) became extremely pale as they looked at the newcomer and fell to the ground in a humble position. In fact, everyone fell to the ground including Brunhilde who pulled John down with her... Who the hell was this guy? His clothes looked like a hobo while his face looked pretty well groomed.

It seemed like John wasn't the only one confused about the stranger, he was just the only one keeping quiet as Moria inquisitively asked, "And who are you, intruder? What are you doing at this meeting?"

All of the men and women in the hall looked at her like she just slapped someone in the face. Svenja was obviously about to reprimand her when the man himself took the floor with a grizzly, dark voice, "It is alright, daughter of mine. It reminds me how little my name is known in today's world. It's always 'God this' and 'God that', no love for any names anymore. The boy doesn't know my name either; I can see the confusion in his eyes. Tell me, young one. You said that you have skills that give you information about people, what does it tell you about me?"

John shrugged his shoulder uncertainly, "Uuuhh... I'm not sure how much I can trust that, but it says your name is Mr. Wednesday," to which the man loudly laughed.

"Your eyes are quite special then. You haven't perhaps been to some wells in the last couple of days? They're supposed to be... eye-opening." A chuckle went through the rounds to which Mr. Wednesday knocked his staff on the ground, "Now, rise, my children, no need for you to crawl in the dirt before me, I'm just an old man, looking for a chair to sit on." The people around got the hint and brought him a chair while they also returned to theirs. His look was still glued to John though, "Now then, John Newman, tell me who I am. Use your knowledge and your intelligence to figure it out."

Was this some kind of challenge for him? Why did the man even bother with him right now? There was still the matter of Astrid... But okay, if the man wanted to play a little guessing game, then John was up for that. "What do I get if I can find out who you are?"

Mr. Wednesday chuckled at that, "You're a cheeky one, I like you. Very well, if you can properly find out who I am I'll grant you some... insight."

With a nod, John turned to Brun and asked, "Brun, who is this man?"

At that moment, the realization of his earlier error hit him like a ton of bricks. It was so easy, but why did he not get that? The man looked amused at the expression of John, "Looks like you had some kind of epiphany. Do you know who I am yet? If the girl told you, that would be boring."

John shook his head at that, "No, no... It's something unrelated. But you want me to get this on my own? Okay, let's do that. You're obviously important in some way, or the people wouldn't bow to you as they did. But you're obviously not well known enough to be universally respected, which I get by Moira not knowing who you are. So I would guess that you're either someone important from the clan Gjoskenholm or someone that has some kind of Norse roots?"

The man nodded appreciatively, "Good thinking, continue."

Whereas Moira asked at the same time, "How do you know my name, Mage?!? Do you know more than you let on?"

Moira's outburst was ignored for now as John continued his train of thought, "So, the question is which of the two you are. You look old, frankly older than anyone in this place, and the way you talk makes it seem like you're even older than you look like. I'm going to assume you aren't entirely human then, which isn't that farfetched since this is something relating to the Abyss and seemingly everyone in the Abyss seems to be not fully human..."

The crowd seemed to like that thought as they started to laugh, and so did the old man as well, "You're not wrong there. Pure humans certainly are in the minority in the Abyss. Now, I will give you a hint to get your thoughts rolling a bit: I am not blood-related to the people in this clan."

At this point, John had stood up and was pacing back and forth to concentrate on the question, "So, you're not blood-related, but you still call them your 'children', which probably makes you some powerful being from the Norse mythology? I'm honestly not that well versed in that kind of mythology, but I know two names from there thanks to Svenja: Odin and Freya. Freya sounds like the name of a woman. So I'm going to shoot into the dark and say you're Odin. Can't really do anything with that name though..."

The man nodded appreciatively, "Well done, that was some good deducting. Yes, I am Odin, as to who Odin is, I shall give you a brief summary: I am the All-Father, the god of knowledge and ****, the One-Eyed that never misses his target. I am the one that watches everything. And I see much more than you do, John Newman," at that last part he began to laugh, seeing the fear grow on John's face; "Relax, I am not your executioner. I know you acted out of good heart towards my children. Which brings us back to the topic at hand: Astrid. This young boy just pointed out that you were about to throw out a young girl who could do nothing about her fate."

All of clan Gjoskenholm looked rather uncomfortable now that they were on the receiving end of a scolding. Svenja couldn't bear to look into the eyes of Odin while answering him, "Y-yes... That is correct. Because we didn't want to insult the oaths of our predecessors."

Odin sighed at that, "And do you know what they didn't have? Foresight. They acted how it was appropriate at the time. Maybe the banishment of Titania was even a mistake back then, but do not take the past as an excuse to make the same mistakes today. I have made that error often enough in my long life, so learn from my experience. Astrid is innocent, now the only question is, are Astrid and Titania the same person now?"

That was a question John could answer, "They don't appear to be. Titania kept calling Astrid 'the girl', and she said that Astrid would always be the dominant soul... I'm not sure if I trust her word though..."

Odin nodded satisfied to that, "Titania was a lot of things, but she wasn't a liar. If she told you that she wanted to stab you in the chest, then she did do that. She was a fierce fighter, out for her own piece of eternity, but she was always bound by her word. So, Astrid is the one in control, most of the time. Then the course of action should be clear: Astrid stays with the clan, for now, and will get training to control either her powers more or will be trained to suppress the trigger that draws out Titania. Anyone against that suggestion?"

Murmuring reluctantly, none of the clan members raised their hand. Moira raised her hand at that, however. Odin was a bit surprised to see her, and he asked, "I'm not sure what your objection really counts here for, but I'm interested in listening to your input. So please speak your mind, young Brighton."

Moira rose from her seat once the floor was given to her, and looked directly at John while she spoke her mind, "I don't think it's a good idea to give the girl into the hands of her clansmen. The emotional attachment to her family will surely trigger again what has happened before, as will any prolonged interaction with Newman, who still should be punished for meddling with powers he doesn't understand. I say that Astrid will be put under the protection of the Order, will receive training from us, and will then be returned to her family once we deem her safe for the world."

That suggestion (or was it even a suggestion?) resulted in the outrage of a big part of the clan; the two elders remained silent, however. As the ruckus died down again, Svenja stood up and looked towards the redheaded paladin, "Your suggestion is sound, how long do you think this training will take?"

Everyone in the room was shocked that Svenja even considered this, most of all Brunhilde, who was storming to the front of the table, rage evident on her face. "Are you seriously considering the idea of this little princess? Odin just said to not make his mistakes, and now you want to make your own? She's my gods dammed sister, and I will not let her be taken away by some goody two shoe organization that basically wants us to disappear!"

Now it was Moira's turn to get angry, "Mind your tongue, Valkyrie! We let you work in this town so that you can help the people where we can't. Do not make us regret this! You have already broken our trust by working with an unknown rogue mage," at which point she looked at John, who tried to look as innocent as possible.

"Leave John out of this. He is not the problem right now! The problem is your 'holier-than-thou' shtick that led to this situation in the first place because you were adamant that there was nothing wrong with Astrid when she was clearly fucked up in some way! Now you want to blame this on the guy that actually caught your shit, so you come out of this without dirt on you. I have seen the damage that Titania did in that Barrier, that's nothing that a noob like John who almost died in my hands could do, so it's something that slipped through your findings. Now you want to shut the evidence of your fuck-ups away. Like we would ever see her again after you take her!" Tears were running down Brun's face by now, "I just got my sister back after she has been missing for six fucking years, and now you want to take her away again? It's not fair. Would you want to give your sister away like this if you had one?"

That thought seemed to somber a lot of the moods around the room, most of all Svenja and Moira who looked really remorseful by now, "I-I'm sorry... I didn't think of it this way... I just saw the problem of her losing control, and then we would have to deal with that. Okay, how about something else: The Order knows someone that has similarly strong powers that are triggered by emotion. My initial thought was to train Astrid along with her on Order grounds, but if it is this important to you, then maybe there is a way to keep her with you, while still trying to contain her powers in some way. Is that acceptable?" Both Brun and Svenja nodded at that.

Moira seemed satisfied with that outcome as well, "That works well since that person is with Astrid right now anyway. I will tell her to bring Astrid here, and then we will discuss how to deal with that in the future. Now I want to bring the topic back to the other point that I tried to bring up during this, and that is the problem of Newman. He can't be an unaffiliated mage in Springfield, that would both raise too many questions and give him the opportunity to do too many dumb mistakes."

On that front, all of the men and women around him seemed to agree. That upset John a bit, "Hey! I'm still here, and I'm perfectly capable of not fucking up!" to which Svenja shook her head.

"This is not really about you doing anything stupid, but it's about you doing things without supervision and consequences. We need to bring you into either some organization or our clan so that you have certain rules that you can live by in the Abyss. It also will give you some kind of work that could help you in the future. Any ideas?"

John could see the point that she brought up, but that didn't mean he liked it. He didn't want to be on the leash of someone bigger than him; he had enough of that during his school life. Then an idea struck him, "How about these 'Fateweavers'? They sounded interesting when I heard of them. The whole 'Barrier creation' thing is something that really interests me, seeing as how many different Barriers there are and how different from real life they can be!"

Svenja thought about that for a moment, "Hm... The Fateweavers would certainly like someone with the powerset that you have described. And they are very respected. Very well, I will talk with some representative of the Fateweavers so that they can put up an evaluation for you. Does that sound acceptable, Ms. Brighton?" to which Moira nodded.

"The Fateweavers are respectable enough so that the Order thinks that they would keep Newman in line. I will, however, keep an eye on him until the Weavers decide on what to do with him."

At that point, Svenja then slammed her hand on the table for the last time, "Very well then, we shall do it like that then. I will contact the Fateweavers about John's evaluation, while you will watch over him and contact your suggested trainer for Astrid. I think that covers everything that I had in mind for tonight, and if no one else has anything to bring up, this meeting is over." Then all the clansmen and -women stood up and filed out of the hall. The only people left now were Brun, Svenja, Moira, and Odin.

Odin looked like he wanted to talk to John, as did Moira, while Brun was waiting for him to finish his business so she could take him home again. Svenja was just waiting for everyone else to leave so she could lock the hall up, as she said herself.