The following rant is brought to you by the demented mind of Daniela A. Wolfe

Well it's finally here! This is the final story in the Ragnarok Rising trilogy. As such if you haven't read Incompatible or the revised version Transfigured I would recommend doing so before reading any further. This story is the final one in the series and as such it won't make much sense unless you read the first two.

I've posted a glossary of terms (including the days/months and their English equivalents) to go along with these stories, it can be found at Bigcloset Topshelf, Fictionmania, & tgstorytime.

Shout outs go to the following people: Beyogi, Maggie Finson, Loki who served as either alpha and/or beta readers, The Rev. Anam Chara who helped edit some of the dialogue (spoken by the characters Hervor, Heime & Gilda) to more accurately reflect Elizabethan era English and last but certainly not least Holly H Hart for her superb editing prowess.

Laurdag, the fourth of Morsugur (cont'd)

I nodded off while watching the news. I don't know how long I was asleep, but it was Eva that finally woke me. "Neil, wake up!" her voice pleaded. "You need to wake up, please!"

"What?" I managed to say.

"Listen!" she said.

I did as she suggested and heard the strangest wheezing sound coming from the hallway. It almost sounded like laughter, but I couldn't be sure. I forced my eyes open and just as I did the door to my bedroom flew off its hinges, shot across the room and hit the opposite wall with a deafening thud.

Luckily neither Eva nor I were in the path of the shooting door, but it came pretty close to hitting the foot of my bed. A person stepped into my room. I say person because it wouldn't be accurate to call 'him' a man or a woman. Half his body was that of really hot looking woman and the other was what could barely be recognized as a man. His skin was falling off in huge chunks and his male eye was completely white as if it had a cataract. His male side looked so weak and frail that I was surprised he could stand.

"Our plan has worked," he wheezed with a mad gleam in his good eye.

"How fortunate that we have found you here. We have been hoping to find someone like you for a very long time," he said and started to cough uncontrollably.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Eva demanded angrily.

"Forgive us, we didn't mean to be rude. We are called Doctor Josef Mengele," he said with a cackle.

"I know who you are. You're the one that kidnapped Daniella and changed her," I said with a loud gasp. Goddess, my insides felt like they were on fire!

Mengele threw his head back and laughed, "Interesting… Is that what she calls herself now? It is true that we initiated the changes, but our formula did not complete them. We would very much like to know how these changes were finished. Is she around?"

"You think if she was, we would tell you?" I spat.

"No, we suppose not!" he said with a loud cackle. "Studying her would reveal much to us, but that does not matter now. You are undergoing a transformation. We believe your blood will be far more useful to us."

He took a step toward my bed and put his leg out to take another, but before his foot could reach the ground, a blinding white light shot into his chest. Eva had cast a lightning spell on the doctor and he was struggling against the power being used on him.

"Neil!" she said. "Run!"

I rolled off my bed and pulled the IV along with me. I tried to stand up so I could run, but I was too weak. I couldn't even so much as crawl. The familiar blue aura of a Spirit Shield surrounded the doctor, and the lightning shot out from him and almost seemed to bounce back into Eva. She was thrown against a wall and slumped to the floor unconscious.

The blue aura faded away and the doctor turned to look at me with his one good eye. More dead skin flaked away from his body as he moved toward me. "Do you see what the use of our magic does to us? If we do not find a solution soon we will die! The changes that are taking place inside you, they are the key. Your blood will free us!"

I was in so much pain now that all I could do was stare up at the doctor in horror. "Please…" I pleaded, but the doctor wasn't listening.

He walked over to where I was laying on the ground and pulled a syringe out of his pocket. "This will not hurt much," he said in an almost sympathetic tone.

He stuck the needle in my arm and waited until the tube inside filled with blood. Then he repeated the process until he had five more vials. He removed a half-full vial of purplish liquid from his coat and popped the stopper from both it and a bottle of my blood.

"If we had more time we might test this newest formula, but we are too close to death. We hope this will work," he cackled madly and dumped a small drop of my blood into the vial of the violet liquid.

The vial of purple liquid fizzled and hissed then started to steam and turned an almost sickly brown. Mengele laughed, then downed the whole tube and let it fall through his hand and shatter on the ground.

"We can feel it," he fell to his knees in a fit of hysterical laughter.

"Mengele," a cold voice said from what sounded like the doorway.

"Flint," Mengele said and fell to his side shaking with laughter.

I groaned and looked over to the doorway where a man with short cropped hair was holding a gun. "I don't know why you've chosen now to reappear, Mengele, bu–" Flint said but stopped short when the doctor started to convulse.

"Die!" Menegele suddenly howled and leapt to his feet with a clawed hand extended. A gust of wind shot out from Mengele's outstretched fingers and Flint went flying back through the doorway. He managed to fire several shots just before he slammed into the hallway wall and slumped to the ground in an unconscious heap. One of the bullets hit Mengele in his male shoulder, and he fell to the ground shrieking and clutching at his wounded joint.

I tried to take advantage of the distraction and crawl away, but I was still too weak. I looked up at Mengele's face and noticed something really weird, the skin on the male side of his face was rippling. The healthy female skin stretched across to the male side of his face and he began to change. It continued until roughly three-quarters of his face was female then it suddenly stopped.

Mengele threw his head back and giggled manically, "Our new formula works! You must come with us, we may need more samples."

Suddenly there was a pressure inside of me struggling to break lose. I gritted my teeth and screamed as blinding white light shot out from my chest and slammed into the doctor.

Mengele flew across the room and was knocked into the wall. He staggered back to his feet and I prepared myself for another attack, but it never came. He made a waving gesture with his hand and was gone as a gust of wind whisked him away.

I tried to stand, but I was feeling even weaker than before and I collapsed to my knees. I gasped as pain shot through my body and I felt myself slip into unconsciousness.

"Neil," my mother's voice said. "Wake up."

"No, just let me get a little more sleep," I replied. "I don't care if I'm late for school."

"NEIL!" my mother shouted and I practically jumped out of my skin. My eyes flew open and I realized where I was and what had happened. Daniella, Mom and Gramor were standing over me with worried expressions.

"Oh, Neil, thank the goddesses," Mom muttered leaning over to kiss me on the forehead. "You had us worried."

"Eva?" I muttered.

"Eva will be fine. The magic overwhelmed her system, her body just needs some time to recover," Daniella muttered running her hand through my hair.

"Holy crap, what happened to you two?" I asked really getting a good look at Daniella and Mom for the first time. They both looked about like I felt, like they'd been tossed through a frizzing blender.

"We were attacked, in what I presume was a distraction so Mengele could get to you," Mom said with a tired sigh.

"Mengele? How did you know about–"

"Flint told us," Gramor chimed in.

"Mom, he took some of my blood. I saw him mix it with this stuff, and he started to change," I muttered.

"Norns preserve, if that creature has found a way to perfect his formula it can only mean trouble. Especially this close to Ragnarok," Gramor said with a gasp.

"Time is running even shorter than I feared. Frigg appeared to me in a dream and told me we had a little more than four months," Mom said between pursed lips.

"Good goddesses, Aryanna, that would mean–" Gramor muttered her face turning pale.

"It means we're running short of time. It's time I make the Seidskati aware of our plans," Mom said with a soft sigh.

"What about this Mengele guy?" I asked.

Daniella sighed, "As much as I'd like to see Mengele brought to justice, he's a minor player in what is a much larger game. He'll have to wait."

Mom nodded, "I don't want you worrying about any of this right now Neil. I'm not sure how she's done it, but Hervor has initiated the changes in you. You need to get some rest. Once you're feeling better you're going to be thrown out into the middle of this."

"Mom, there's something you're not telling me, isn't there?" I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.

"Yeah, there is," she said hanging her head. "We felt it when you used your magic against Mengele, which is how we knew to come find you. I'm not sure what to make of it, but you're far more powerful than any living Spellbinder."

"What!? How?"

"Elves are more powerful than humans, and it seems that you've inherited the magic from your Elven side. That being said, I know of only one elf with even a comparable amount of power to you, and that's Hervor," Mom said between pursed lips.

"Wait! You're not saying I'm more powerful than Hervor, are you?"

Mom shook her head, "No, magical talent is difficult to measure, but I'd say you're fairly evenly matched."

I hadn't expected that, I mean, I probably should have; it did make a certain amount of sense after all, but it shocked me nonetheless. What did Hervor stand to gain by doing this to me? I know the answer had to be buried somewhere with the depths of all the secrets that had been revealed to me, but I couldn't puzzle it out. It was like trying to find a frizzing needle in a haystack.

"Mom, why didn't you tell me?!" I demanded almost before I knew it was out of my mouth.

"I keep telling myself it was to give you a normal life, but the truth is I did it for my own selfish reasons. I wanted to keep you safe and away from all the chaos, but I can't do that, not anymore, the world needs you. It would be harder, if because of my selfishness I doomed the world to total annihilation. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

"I don't know if I can do that, just yet," I muttered shaking my head.

A single tear ran down my mother's cheek, "Fair enough. Do me a favor try and get some restful sleep, okay?"

I nodded, "Okay, Mom."

Mom smiled sadly then she bent in and kissed me on the forehead, and within moments she was gone. Gramor came over, knelt beside my bed and spoke quietly, "Don't be too hard on her. Your mother has been through a lot and she cares for you deeply."

"How would you feel, Gramor? Finding out you had been lied to by your own mother? Everything I thought I knew about my life is a lie."

Gramor patted my shoulder and smiled reassuringly, "Not everything. Your Mother does love you, so do Daniella and I."

"Gramor…" I muttered.

"Just get some rest, okay? We can talk later," she muttered sadly, then kissed me in the forehead in the same place that Mom had and just like that she was gone.

I could feel hot tears rolling down my face as I glanced over at the mirror. Last time I'd seen my reflection I looked sickly. This time I looked much worse, as if I were on the verge of dying. My eyes were blood-shot and the dark circles under my eyes looked like they had their own dark circles. I had lost even more weight, and I was definitely shorter. My hair had gotten even longer and I now resembled a twelve-year-old girl on the verge of puberty, if a somewhat tall and gawky one.

I looked down at my hands and noticed that they too had changed. They had always been a bit small, but now they seemed longer and more delicate. They were without a doubt, the hands of a girl.

Goddesses! Why was this happening to me? What did I ever do deserve this? More tears ran down my face and a sob escaped my lips. I rubbed at my chest and noticed the very slight bulge of two mounds sticking out from it.

I started to undress myself, which was pretty hard because I was so weak from the changes, but I managed to get everything off. When I was unclothed I really wished I hadn't. My hips had expanded quite a bit and had a noticeable curve to them. My feet had shrunk and look very dainty. Then there were my privates. My balls were shriveled up and were almost a third their usual size. My cock was only about an inch and a half long and hung limply between my legs. Then there were my breasts. They were very small, but they were unmistakable for what they were. I was growing a pair of tits! Holy frizzing fuck!

The sight of those mounds poking out of my chest were just too much and I fell to the floor and started sobbing uncontrollably. I know breaking down and crying like a girl wasn't exactly the most manly thing to do, but give me a break, okay? I mean I am turning into a frizzing girl, after all. Oh, Hel do I really need to explain myself to a bloody book? Anyway, I vaguely remember hearing my mother at the door, but I didn't answer.

I was pretty out of it for the next couple hours. I never really did fall unconscious. I just sort of was there, but not there, you know? When I did finally come back to the world, I was in my room where I found Mom, Daniella, and Eva hovering over me. Nick Flint was there as well, but I would hardly say he was hovering over me. He was leaning against a wall on the other side of the room with a thoughtful look on his face. It was the first time since Mengele had attacked us that I'd seen him, and I really felt as if I owed the guy something. I mean, even though Mengele managed to beat him pretty easily, he had come to my defense.

"Neil, thank the goddesses. We've been so worried," Mom said when I sat up and looked at her.

"How did I get here?" I asked with a voice that sounded very alien.

"When you wouldn't answer the door we got worried, so I magicked it open and found you lying on the floor," Mom said.

"Shit," I muttered.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Eva said suddenly.

"I sound like a crenking girl, is what's wrong!" I said feeling a sense of resignation come over me. I was turning into a girl and I couldn't do anything about it.

Daniella sighed, "Its can be difficult to cope with the changes at first, but it gets easier with time."

It was about then that I realized that I my stomach felt much better. "I'm frizzing starving," I said.

Mom placed her hand on my shoulder and I felt a small tickling sensation. A moment later she removed her hand and smiled sadly. "Your transformation seems to have entered a new stage. I think you'll be able to eat some solid food now. You're going to need the nutrients to help finish the changes."

"Lady Le Fey," a familiar voice said in the doorway.

"Yes, what is it Meredith?" Mom ask turning to face the woman.

"Lord Neil's friend, the young Lord Leif Yorgenson, insists he be allowed to speak with you. He claims it is urgent," Meredith said.

"Leif wants to speak with me? What for?"

"He wouldn't say," Meredith said between pursed lips.

"Alright send him in and after that see to it that some food is brought up for Neil."

"Yes, Lady Le Fey," she said with a nod of her head and left only to return a few moments later with an extremely flustered looking Leif.

"Holy Frizz, Neil. Is that you venn?" he asked staring at me with wide eyes.

"Yeah, Leif it's me," I muttered, wincing at the sound of my new voice.

"Shi--," Leif said but suddenly stopped with a glance at my mother who was staring at him with a disapproving frown. "you're turning into a chick. What the frizzing fu– heck."

"Leif!" Mom snapped with sudden impatience. "You wanted to speak with me?"

"Yeah," he muttered. "Ah, frizz. I don't know exactly how to say this so I'll just come right out and say it. I know about the attack on your estates."

"What how?" Both Mom and I suddenly asked at the same time.

"I overheard my Mother and the head of our house talking about it," he said with averted eyes. Leif didn't have the best relationship with his mother. She treated him like many Spellbinders treated their sons, as potential breeding stock to be sold to the highest bidder.

"Goddesses," Mom muttered. "I haven't even notified the police about the attack! If your mother and the lady Aquitaine have knowledge of it, that can only mean they were in on it."

Leif swallowed hard and locked eyes with my mother, "I know."

"Dammit!" Mother growled. "More traitors! I never cared for the Lady Aquitaine, but I always believed she was a woman of principle and I hoped that she would join forces with me once she learned what was at stake."

"At stake? What's at stake?" Leif asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"That is a discussion for another time. For now I must know everything you heard your mother and the Lady Aquitaine say," Mother said.

"Well, there was talk of Jonas Talman and someone named Doctor Mengele," he said with a shrug. "I only heard bits and pieces really. I was in another room and they didn't know I could hear them. They mentioned Neil and something about a distraction."

If Mom could prove that the Aquitaines were working with either Talman or even Menegele, the Seidskati would come down hard on their House. They might even get barred from the council altogether.

"The Spellbinders that attacked you…" Grammor said trailing off with a gasp.

"Clearly they were trying to get to Neil, but we really need to figure out how they knew he was changing." Daniella added.

"Talman is resourceful," Nick said speaking for the first time. "He probably has a spy here within the estates."

"Claramae," Daniella said with a shake of her head.

"No, I hadn't notified anyone in the family of Neil's changes yet. It has to be a member of the household staff," Mom muttered.

"I need to know everything they said. Even a seemingly mundane comment could hold a secret meaning." Mom paused for a moment, and I could tell she was thinking.

"As much as I hate to suggest it," she said finally. "There is a way I could know word for word what you heard them say. I could look into your mind."

Leif hesitated, but after a moment nodded. He had to know what a mind probe would entail. He had grown up surrounded by Spellbinders. "Okay."

Mom came over and stood beside him, "This will be easier if you just let me in. If you resist me it will be much more difficult for the both of us."

Leif nodded and Mom put her hands on his forehead. Both of their eyes turned milky white and then suddenly Leif broke away from her with a loud gasp. "Venn," he proclaimed. "That was frizzing weird!"

"Would you be willing to testify before the Seidskati?" Mom asked him a thoughtful expression on her face.

Leif still acted a bit disoriented by the whole ordeal, but he managed a nod. "Yeah."

Mom nodded back and quickly shuffled out of the room.

After everything died down a bit the others filed out of my room, leaving Eva and Leif alone with me. Since, they hadn't been given a proper introduction, I did so. When I introduced Eva as my girlfriend, Leif seemed surprised. When he learned that she was an elf he was dumbfounded. Eva seemed to find the whole thing amusing, bursting into laughter at the most peculiar moments.

"Uh, so…" Leif said awkwardly. "I guess you're girl now."

"Shit, have I really changed that much?"

Eva pursed her lips, "Yes, you really have."

"Damn," I cursed.

"You actually look pretty cute," Leif said unexpectedly.

"Venn," I said with what I'm sure was a baffled look. "What the frizz?"

"What?" Leif said defensively.

"You think I'm cute? You realize I'm still a guy down there don't you?"

"It's the elf in you," Eva said with a laugh.

"The elf in her. What are you talking about?" Leif said.

I sighed and shook my head. I really didn't intend to tell him just yet. "Leif, I'm a half-elf."

"Holy frizzing Hel," he muttered.

"Shit, I mean are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

"Did you feel an unusually strong attraction to Hervor in the mall?" Eva asked suddenly.

I hadn't felt a thing for her. "No," I said with a shake of my head.

Eva nodded, "Since you are her grandchild it is unlikely she would have used her aura on you. I, however, did feel the effects."

"What? What are you talking about!" I demanded.

Eva started to laugh again. "All elves emanate an aura. For all elves who walk in the light it causes people to have strong sexual desires toward the one emanating the aura. For dark elves it makes people feel fear and loathing."

"Holy Frigg," I said. "So I can I turn it off, right?"

"I can teach you to control it, but it can never be turned off, only focused," she said with a smile.

"Shit, venn. This is just weird," Leif said.

"Tell me about it," I replied irritably.

Thinks got a bit awkward after that and we spent the next few minutes hemming and hawing at each other. Thankfully, my food arrived shortly afterward and it gave me the perfect excuse to not to speak.

"Frizzing shit," I said glowering at my reflection. I didn't even recognize the person staring back at me. A girl with long auburn hair scowled back at me from the mirror. I gulped and touched my face, and watched as the girl mirrored my movement. I licked my lips and made faces at the mirror. The girl in the mirror matched my movements perfectly.

The girl was actually quite pretty, but there was something just a little off about her face. Angular, that was the word that came to mind, her face was just a little too angular. That would change soon enough, I knew, as the changes were almost done with.

I slowly unbuttoned my shirt and looked at my breasts. They had grown a lot since I'd last gotten a good look at them. I don't really know anything about cup sizes, but if I had to give them a label I'd say they were somewhere in the medium size range. I cupped them and sighed. My now dainty hands fell away and I glared down at the strange mounds which had invaded my chest.

My waist had narrowed quite a bit and my pants now hung around my much rounder hips. I sighed and pulled my pants down. My testicles were completely gone, and an incomplete vulva had started to form around the shriveled remains of my penis.

"Goddesses be damned!" I heard myself say, but couldn't remember having uttered the words.

I was starting to feel better, well in the physical sense at least. I was only slightly dizzy and the pain didn't seem quite so bad anymore.

I looked at the mirror again, and felt anger rise up at the sight of the girl looking back at me. She wasn't me! I felt a suddenly and overwhelming urge to lash out at something and I did. I grabbed the nearest thing I could find which turned out to be a can of my acne powder and hurled it at my reflection. The force of the impact was enough to create a rather sizable crack in the mirror.

I started at the mirror and started to laugh uncontrollably. It was just so strange. Just a week ago if someone had told me that I was a half-elf destined to save the world, I would have laughed in their face. If they had told me I was going to turn into the girl, I might have been a little more willing to believe, but I would have been skeptical. It's not that big of a stretch to think that something like this might happen to me if you knew who my mother was.

I looked at the mirror and all my laughter died away. I gave the stranger in the mirror one final glare, then slammed the button on the wall to turn off the lights before walking out the door.

When I returned to my room, instead of finding Eva and Leif like I expected, I found Hervor, my mother, and some guy I didn't recognize. I knew the man for a light elf almost immediately, and I felt as if my heart were going to jump out of my chest and run a marathon as I stared at up at his face. It wasn't as if I was attracted to him, it was just that I when I saw that face I just knew he was my father.

"Holy frizz!" I shouted and stared up at him with wide eyes.

"Neil, this is Heime, your father," Mom said biting her lips.

"I-I think I need to sit down," I muttered, realizing just how weak I really was.

Mom grabbed hold of my hand and helped me back to my bed and Hervor and Heime followed us into my room.

Heime looked about as nervous as I felt as he spoke, "Well met, my child! Long have I awaited to behold thee."

"Uh, so you and Mom, huh?"

"Neil!" Mom said glaring down at me.

"What?!" I protested.

Heime chuckled and grinned nervously as his eyes darted first to me then back to my mother.

"Why am I just meeting you now?" I asked him suddenly.

"'Twas thy mother's choice. She wished not that I play any role in thy life," Heime said with a very slight bow of his head.

"I didn't want you and your mother playing games with him the way you did with me," Mom spat back with a scowl.

"What we did never was borne of malice, Aryanna," Heime said his voice growing very soft as he spoke my mother's name.

"No, it was all for the better good," Mother spat.

"Thou art quick to accuse, Seidkona, but indeed thy guilt is as evident as mine," Hervor replied blandly.

"I never manipulated anyone into conceiving a child!" Mother spat back.

"Enough! Mother, Aryanna cease this forthwith!" Heime said suddenly.

Hervor's eyes grew very wide. She titled her head forward in a very slight bow and gave Heime a knowing smile, "'Tis time to take leave of thee, my son. Stay, and bide time with the child."

"Aye, Mother. Fare thee well," he replied gripping his mother's shoulder.

"Fare thee well, my son," she said reaching up to pat him fondly on the cheek, then disappeared with a flash of light.

"Uh, okay? What was that about?"

"Honestly? I know not," Heime muttered with the a shake of his head.

"So, I gotta know, what is with all the thee's and thou's?"

Heime bowed his head and started to chuckle, "I am very old, my child, and I have passed very little time among humans since I had learned thy language. 'Tis as humans say, 'Old habits die hard.'"

"This is weird, right? I can't be the only one that thinks this is weird."

"Neil!" Mom cut in giving me that look that all women did so well.

"Aryanna, worry not. 'Tis fine."

"How old are you?" I asked suddenly.

Heime pursed his lips, "I know not mine exact age,. Our kind placeth not such import upon the number of our years as do humans. I can tell thee that I had passed many hundreds of years already when I first met thine ancestor, Morgana le Fey."

Holy, Frizz this guy is old. If she were alive today Morgana would be close to sixteen hundred years old. Heime could be well over two thousands years old, and if he was that old, no doubt Hervor was hundreds, if not thousands of years older, and it made me wonder how long I might live. Human magic users tended to age more slowly based on the strength of their magic, but my father obviously wasn't a magic user, so it made me wonder what it was that kept the guy ticking. Then I remembered something my Gramor once said about the elves being kin to the Aesir.

"You're immortal, aren't you?"

"Aye," he said.

"Am I?"

Heime let out a long sigh and pursed his lips, "I know not."

And so that's how I met my father. We had a pretty long discussion and at first we talked mostly about him as I kept asking him question after question, but finally the conversation shifted to me and it was his turn to ask the questions.

Comments, no matter how short, are very much appreciated. If you liked this story please take a minute to leave a review. Criticism is welcome, but only when presented in a constructive and positive manner.