The sound of ice cracking resounded loudly along the fjord. Upon lifting his fists, Randulfr looked at the blood that was dripping from his hands and painting the white hair of the woman below him.
The color of that blood was close to the shade of red the Murdering Wolf saw when he felt death closing in. It was a nuance of red that became brighter once it got into contact with the air, and then slowly turned dark.
Looking at him filled with terror was a pair of eyes belonging to a woman who had presented herself as Edda—a name made up, or maybe a name she had taken upon herself to hide whom she was.
Just like a violent tide, the rage and fear that had taken Randulfr over vanished soon enough. If they would have started vanishing one second later, below the man would have been not a woman, but a corpse. One whose beautiful face would have become unrecognizable from having fists smashed into it. That was the nature of the Murdering Wolf. A man who could be called human no longer, he was the most feared individual walking the lands of Fjordheim, having piled up countless deaths to his name for no other reason than madness.
That's what the people around the country thought, and while they were not completely wrong, calling it madness failed to put into fair words what was going on with this man, for he was not lacking reason but rather control over his own body, which would do anything for the sake of survival.
"Giulia…"
Not long after regaining his sanity, Randulfr looked at the woman 'he' recognized from another life. Although her hair was now of a bright white, stained only by the blood dripping from the fists that had struck the ice around her, her dark eyes were something 'he' could never forget.
Those eyes stared back at the man, fear slowly fading away and turning into anger. As they both calmed down, the woman who had failed to kill him became clearly displeased.
Giulia pushed into her arms, trying her best to slip away from under the heavy man.
"Ah… sorry!" Randulfr said in an obedient tone and got on his feet.
To repay his kindness, Giulia quickly pushed herself away from him, not letting her eyes off of the Murdering Wolf.
"Look out! The wave—" he tried to warn her, but it was too late. A tall wave swallowed the woman for a moment, and when it grew tired of her, it left her on the shore to deal with the algae and a couple of crabs.
"Here… Let me help you with those…" Randulfr said, rushing towards the lady and reaching for one of the crabs that was dancing joyously on her.
The moment his hand got in too close, a slap resounded throughout the fjord. The slap was meant for the man's face, and it left a red mark in the place it had reached.
"Get your hand off me! You monster!"
Startled by the smack, Randulfr took a step back. He looked with wide eyes at the woman in order to confirm once more that he wasn't mistaken.
Truly, her body was nothing like the fragile one 'he' remembered. This woman, even if poorly fed for the last couple of years, had a shredded body that looked like it could rip out another fjord into the land were she to try.
However, while a body can be forged, a face is harder to change. Randulfr looked at the woman's face, and that's when his gaze softened. There was no mistake about it. While her facial features were sharper than those of a 15-year-old girl, she looked just like in Leo's memory, back when the young boy was having less-than-pure dreams about how the two of them would one day go back home tipsy, ending up together after a ball that would take a couple of unexpected turns.
Maybe the memories put him in a mood too relaxed for the signs the woman was giving, or maybe he was getting overly familiar because of times only he knew about, but Randulfr decided to step forth once more, reaching for the face he held dear.
"Stay where you are! That… That alone I will not allow!"
Screaming sense back into the man once again, Giulia grabbed a piece of ice from nearby and pointed it at her own neck, the pointy tip making a small cut into her scarred skin.
The moment Randulfr saw that, he froze on the spot.
"Giulia! Stop that! What's this about? What are you trying to do? When did you get here? Why are you here? Why—"
"What are YOU trying to do?"
Once the Murdering Wolf asked his first question, many others followed. It was like a lid that once popped out couldn't be put back because of water pressure. Still, those questions were interrupted by a single one that was boomeranged back to him.
To Giulia's one question, Randulfr didn't have an answer, for he himself wasn't sure what he was doing anymore. From Giulia's perspective, he's been acting like three different people. That was bound to raise doubt, all the more since he already had a bad reputation in this life.
"And how do you know that name? The only ones who should… No! I've had enough of you!"
"You've had enough of… who exactly? …"
Giulia ignored Randulfr's pitiful attempt at a joke and continued.
"I will not let you defile my body! I'd better take my own life with this—"
As she spoke, Giulia pushed the ice shard into her own neck, but her eyes widened when she noticed it wasn't sharp anymore. She dropped it and looked around for another, but Randulfr had already taken care of the rest, pushing them into the ocean with his water magic.
"That's ice for you… It doesn't keep its shape for long," the man pointed out, partly happy that she didn't do anything stupid but partly disappointed in her lack of awareness.
As requested, Randulfr took a couple of steps back, spreading his arms to show he had no ill intent.
At the same time, the man sighed. However many questions he had, he understood that the answers wouldn't come easily.
*****
On that day, it was fate that had prevented a tragedy. Were things to happen at a different pace, it wouldn't have been surprising for only one of the two travel partners to leave the fjord alive.
It was thanks to his quick reaction that Randulfr now stood on top of the cliff hugging that valley, looking at Giulia, who kept herself busy with setting up her tent. As he looked at her, a burning anger ate away at the man's heart. It wasn't anger directed towards the woman, but towards what she'd become.
It was a stormy night—a night that wore a shiny dress of lightning. On such nights, Randulfr considered it unwise to sleep down in the fjord, but he couldn't convince Giulia to bring her tent up with him.
"You should be happy you're far from that crazy bitch!"
"I was wondering when you'd pop up. …"
The one Randulfr spoke to was, in a way, still Randulfr. More precisely, it was the one who should be called The Murdering Wolf. Two minds that shared the same body and often managed to cohabitate were now at odds because of that woman down below. One yearned to be next to her, to talk to her, and to ask her what had happened. The other one only took over when the situation was dire, doing everything necessary to ensure that foolishness wouldn't pose a threat to his life.
"Now now… Are you really the one to talk about suddenly popping up?"
It was now the Murdering Wolf's turn to point out the ridiculous.
"All of these memories flooding our mind… What exactly is going on here? Who are you really?" the Murdering Wolf asked.
"Me? Last time I checked, I was a Fjordheimer called Randulfr. Can it be that those memories were a bit too much for you to handle, and you've gone mad so easily?"
"Really now? Can you still call us Randulfr after you've defiled our mind with so much filth?"
A gale of cold wind brushed over the cliff, chilling the already cold air around Randulfr. He took a deep breath of that cold air, using it to cool the flame inside him down.
"It won't work… Usurper. I'm not inside you for you to freeze me to death. I am you~"
For 'him,' it was the first time dealing with a split personality, and it angered him greatly. Every word spoken by the Murdering Wolf—he couldn't refute them as much as he wanted to, for he understood that these were words spoken by both of them.
There was no point in trying to explain that he was in fact Randulfr. There was no point in explaining to the Murdering Wolf that he had just awakened, not taken over. There was no point, for the other voice knew all of this already, yet chose to try and steer the man's heart, yearning for more control over the body they were both governing.
Randulfr knew that those thoughts were in fact his own. Even as he tried to seal them away, they gathered together to form an alliance. That alliance became another voice, and that voice transformed the man into the Murdering Wolf—an out-of-control monster that killed at the slightest provocation.
"So… are you going to give me an answer?"
Fortunately, it's been many times that the man has had to deal with that voice, and the one thing he learned to do very well was to ignore it.
"No… I don't think I will."
Thus, the Murdering Wolf went silent for a while, leaving Randulfr alone with his thoughts. Still, that didn't quench the distress within the man.
The sky shot bright bolts of lightning—bolts that the man knew a lot about from a past life. Randulfr doodled with his finger, and the lightning moved to his will. At least one thing was certain: the progress made in Inyankara hadn't been washed away.
With his finger, he used light to draw into the dark clouds. The white lightning turned purple, and it started bending in unnatural ways above them.
Of course, Giulia also noticed the unnatural phenomenon, but that was fine. No, that was exactly what Randulfr wanted, for what he wrote in the sky was meant for her to see.
GIULIA
The sky spelled the name of the woman looking at it, written in the Reman alphabet so that she would have no trouble understanding it.
With his little work of art completed, Randulfr looked at the lady captivated by the sky. He watched her as she parted her arms and she opened her mouth.
"Gods! What is this painting meant to show me?" she shouted—a shout that made the man's heart stop.
"Hehehe~"
In the back of his mind, the sly voice of the Murdering Wolf resounded once again. He laughed because he knew what Randulfr was testing. It was a test that had given a clear result, only not the desired one. Hence why Randulfr's eyes closed and he let his head fall.
"I guess that clears some things up…"
The girl failed to read her own name, not understanding the alphabet it was written in. This simple hint tied into another one that was weighing Randulfr's mind heavy. He wanted to write it off as a coincidence, but now it stood out all the more. And he brought it to light in the form of a question:
"Why did Randulfr know nothing about Rema until the awakening? …"