Waking up, Matthew found himself with his head resting on a pale white pair of legs, with someone gently rubbing his forehead. “Foolish child,” Hel whispered softly from above him, “there was no reason to push yourself beyond your limits for that lowly worm.”

“She’s not a worm,” Matthew muttered, disagreeing. Stretching, he slowly sat up and turned to face the unnatural beauty before him. Staring for a brief moment at the perfect feminine form before him, Matthew slowly shook his head from side to side and asked, “So you’re going with this form today, Mother?” Looking left and right, he could see the two girls laid sleeping on either side of the altar, while he was now sitting atop it with the goddess Hel casually sitting naked before him.

Looking slightly puzzled, Hel gently asked, “Do you not like it? Would this be more to your preference?” As she asked, the flesh slowly seemed to melt off her body, leaving nothing more than a pristine white skeleton sitting behind on the altar. “Mortal’s tastes are hard for me to judge,” the skeleton admitted. “Since you have those for mating, is this form less distracting?”

Shaking his head slightly, Matthew couldn’t help laughing lightly to himself. Hel was so powerful, and yet sometimes she seemed so innocent -- almost childlike even, to him. “I like the flesh and boobs more,” he admitted honestly. “Any true blooded man would. Bones belong to the dead, and aren’t something most of the living want to be around. It reminds people of their own mortality and of the losses of their loved ones who have already passed on.”

The skeleton reached up, slowly stroked it’s lower jaw, and then nodded as if it was contemplating his words. Organs and muscles slowly regrew back over the bones, in a disgusting process which ended with the unnaturally perfect female sitting on the altar again before him. Matthew couldn’t help but laugh as the body continued to change, aging slowly, only stopping once it had became wrinkled and old.

“Much better,” he said, smirking slightly. “You’re as beautiful as ever, Mother,” he flattered shamelessly, and then frowned slightly, asking, “What did you mean when you said Jennifer was a ‘lowly worm’?”

“She carried murder in her heart,” Hel informed him, reaching over to gently push a strand of hair out of his eyes.

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Matthew told her, the frown growing slightly larger on his face. “In fact, being willing to kill is a good thing while the game is going on,” he told her, honestly.

“Not if it’s my child which she harbors murder for,” Hel replied icily with a snort.

“Your child? Which child,” Matthew asked, confused. “Me?”

“You’re the only child I currently have walking the middle world,” Hel reminded him gently.

“Why’d she want to kill me?” Matthew was more puzzled than worried or angry. He’d played the game for a while now. Lots of people had either wanted him dead, or tried to kill him. Why would he ever fear death, when it simply meant that he’d get to come back here and spend more time with Hel?

“Some foolish notion that you broke her future,” Hel informed him, waving a hand dismissively. “It doesn’t matter now. I’ve corrected the issue.”

Alarms instantly went off in Matthew’s head causing his face to wrinkle up in worry. “What have you done, Mother?” Staring over at the old woman sitting in front of him, he was filled with a sense of dread.

Saying nothing, Hel simply lifted a wrinkled finger and pointed over to his left hand.

Staring down at it, Matthew was puzzled to see a glittering set of crystalline runes tattooed around his wrist. “What is this, Mother?” He had spent enough time with Hel in the past year or so to know that complaining, bitching, or whining wouldn’t get him any answers, nor would it change anything. Only be remaining respectful and calm, would Hel bother to stay with him and possibly give him some answers.

“It’s the end of that one’s shackles,” Hel told him, smiling slightly to herself as she pointed a finger down at Jennifer. With a thought, she activated Matthew’s gift, causing the dark glow to appear around his eyes which allowed him to see perfect in the dark and to observe the souls in the creatures before him.

“Oh hell…” Groaning slightly, Matthew’s eyes opened wide, looking down at Jennifer. Dozens of shackles and chains, seemingly made of the purest ice, wrapped around her soul. There were shackles at her neck, wrist, ankles, waist, elbows, knees, and forehead, and all were connected with fine frozen chains. A thick band of ice ran under her breasts, a second band ran above them, and frozen chains of ice encircled them, leading out from the center to trail to another clear band which encircled Matthew’s wrist.

“What have you done,” Matthew asked, trying to catch his breath. Dread filling his heart, he quickly shifted his gaze to the other side of the altar. Giving out an audible sigh of relief, he was happy to see Rebecca was shackle free laying in the floor nearby.

“At first, I was simply going to break her,” Hel told him matter-of-factly. “To dare to come into my home, come to my altar, and have my child ask to bind her spirit here for all eternity, while harboring anger and murder for my child?” Snorting with disgust, Hel glared down at Jennifer and a wave of energy made her body spasm as frost seemed to spread from the shackles, freezing her soul.

Biting his lip, Matthew winced as he watched, but said nothing. It’d do no good and might just make matters worse, if he tried to intervene. “You said, ‘at first’,” he prodded gently, trying to distract Hel and draw her attention back to him and away from Jennifer.

Hel glared down at Jennifer for a moment longer, then let out a slight snort. Lifting her head back up, she smiled broadly at Matthew. “I had started to break her,” Hel admitted remorselessly, causing Matthew to shiver slightly at her words, “but then I thought of a better way.”

“A better way?” Matthew asked. Any way had to be a ‘better way’ than being tortured and tormented by a goddess until one’s soul shattered into thousands of pieces and then was reassembled as a blank, mindless slate.

“I’ve shackled her and put restrictions upon her, for you,” Hel told him, magnanimously. “You need not fear now. The shackles upon her soul will stop her from ever attempting to harm you, or those you may mark like the other one here.” Glancing down, Hel indicated Rebecca with her eyes. “Even thinking of working against you or harming you will bring her intense pain. This one is one you never have to fear again. I’ll pulled the fangs from the snake,” Hel told him, laughing merrily.

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Matthew agreed. He hadn’t thought that he’d have to be afraid of Jennifer before, but in its own way, it was a relief to know that he’d never have to worry about her betraying him or working against him in the future either.

Nodding to herself, Hel seemingly took his words as praise. “There’s more,” she told him, a bright twinkle shining in her old eyes. “This one can’t refuse you either anymore. Give her a command, and she’ll obey it, no matter what it may be. Even if you were to ask her to cut her own babe out of her stomach and skin it, she would obey you.”

“That’s…” Matthew struggled to find the word for what it was. Too much? Over the top? Insane? None of which were the proper ones to use when replying to a goddess like Hel.

“Thank you,” he finally answered, lowering his head slightly before the old woman. “But isn’t that the same as if you would’ve shattered her and rebuilt her spirit?”

“Not at all,” Hel told him, waving her hand slightly from side to side to brush off the idea. “You still have much to learn, my child. I simply bound her flesh to you. You may do whatever you wish with her body. Her mind, I shielded and protected. It’ll always be her own.”

“I wanted her to think about her anger. Think about her offense, coming into my home and harboring ill will towards my chosen,” Hel informed him coldly. “Her body is yours. Her spirit will forever be shackled to you and to this place, as you wanted, but her mind? Her mind will forever be her own so she’ll know the punishment I’ve bestowed upon her.”

“And if I ever wanted to set her free,” Matthew asked, shivering. “Would it be possible for me to ever free her from her bonds?”

“For you? No.” Hel snorted, shaking her head from side to side. “No one may remove what I have done, unless I undo it myself.”

“And if I was to ask you to remove them,” Matthew prodded, gently.

“I’d refuse,” Hel told him bluntly. “She has been judged and punished. There is no reason for me to undo that judgement.”

“Everyone deserves a chance to change,” Matthew persisted. “In time, she might realize the error of her ways and reform. Wouldn’t it be better for me to have a true, loyal follower, than one forced by the bonds of slavery?”

Frowning, Hel half rubbed her chin and glared at him. She wasn’t used to be questioned or pushed. If it was anyone besides her champion, she’d have them strung upside down and skinned by now. “Very well,” Hel agreed. “Perhaps she can change her heart. Perhaps she can become a true companion and walk faithfully beside you.”

“I, however, can not be bothered to waste my time and effort rejudging a punished soul all the time. I shall give her one chance,” Hel informed him, pointing a finger down where Jennifer laid crumpled on the ground. “I shall judge her again in not less than a year’s time.”

“Thank you,” Matthew said, respectfully bowing his head deeply before her.

“But,” Hel continued, “should I not find her heart changed when she is tested, I will not test her again for another hundred years!”

“I… I understand,” Matthew agreed. Jennifer had one chance to calm her heart and drop her anger towards him in the next year. If she failed at that, her spirit would stay chained and trapped his for at least another hundred years. By that time was up, they’d all be dead of old age – and the dead can’t change their fates. Sin in life, spend an eternity in hell afterwards. Do great deeds in life, spend an eternity in paradise. Only the living could possibly change their fates.

Jennifer had one year to lose her hatred, or else she was going to be enslaved to him forever!

And just how the hell was someone supposed to quit hating someone they already wanted to murder, and who now held absolute control over their bodies?!

“Thank you,” Matthew told Hel respectfully, bowing in her direction. “It’s a lovely present mother.”

What else was he supposed to say in such a situation?