The Hrimfaxi either didn’t notice our presence or were secure in their safety. That security was probably based on their numbers. To attack one would incur the wrath of the herd. But I wasn’t planning on attacking them. I would instead tame the Herd Leader.

It would be impossible for the rest of the herd to retaliate once I was ensconced on the back of their Alpha, at least I hoped so. I still used Ag, Tia, Balfour, and the Azi-fey to help isolate him. Their tactics of dashing and harrying the beasts were effective enough that I could use my strength and agility to separate the Alpha from the herd.

We intended to tire the entire herd, forcing them to respond to our incursions until they didn’t have the stamina or energy to respond. Our plan didn’t last long. While the Hrimfaxi were animals, they were also godlings, created with their divine nature, giving them the ability to tap into the Divine.

Their stamina was endless, but more importantly, they were more intelligent than mortal herd animals. When we first began trying to scatter them, they ignored our presence and gathered in a cluster. The young and old were ushered and confined to the center of a defensive circle that was unsurprisingly effective.

The Alpha was brave enough to make forays from the defensive circle they had created. It was during one of these charges that I gleamed an opportunity and struck. He acted as most horses would who have never been ridden, bucking like crazy.

It became a dance of dominance as each of us refused to back down or give in. I was determined to tame the Hrimfaxi, to make him mine and a symbol of my Divinity. I wanted to grow my myth, the legend for which I would be remembered. I would be known as the Sidhe who infiltrated Asgard and claimed an Asgardian godling on my path to Godhood.

If I found a similar opportunity in Olympus, I would take it. When I returned to Talahm and the Tuatha de Danann were released from [Sleep], I would have my place as part of the Pantheon.

The first new God to ascend. A new God of [Illusion and Glamour]. The God that had dared Asgard and Olympus, stealing from Odin and Zeus in the process.

The Hrimfaxi was intelligent, smart enough to realize that bucking was useless. I was agile and robust enough that I could endure any wild gyrations he might devise. He started using other methods to try to dislodge me.

He would charge forward, fast as light, only to stop abruptly, hoping to send me flying forward. He started dropping and rolling on the ground, hoping to force me to be crushed under his weight. He began leaping acrobatically, moving in ways no mortal horse could ever hope to emulate. His leaps became barrel rolls, somersaults, even managing to jump high enough to perform a pike dive.

I responded to each of his moves, some easily, some clumsily. My magic helped me to ignore those instances when my physical abilities would fail. The Hrimfaxi’s movements were impressive and only made me more determined to tame him and make him mine.

He never grew tired, his stamina refilled by the Divine energies of Asgard. Our battle of wills might have lasted for all eternity if I didn’t cheat. As a Sidhe [A Rank King], I had the ability to create two bonds; I used those bonds with Ag and Tia. Now that I was an [S- Rank] Demi-God, I had two additional bonds I could forge.

There was a difference between the bonds now that I had formed a [Domain]. When I bound something using my [Domain], whatever I bound became a part of that [Domain]. They became an extension of my soul, a part of me. A part that could be stored within my [Domain], an area that served as my private realm.

The Hrimfaxi would never have the freedom that Ag and Tia had. They retained their abilities, possessed their intellect, and their individuality. For the Hrimfaxi, those traits would be subsumed and made more of an appendage, another part of me.

This type of bond would create a gestalt between us, one on which the Hrimfaxi would rely. His actions would be controlled by the hyper-mind that the gestalt would make—a mind that was impenetrable to attack from within and one that I managed completely.

I grasped the part of the Hrimfaxi that I intuitively understood to be his soul, pulling both of us into my mind-space. A space that was slowly transforming, one that I had never entered before but knew instinctively existed and how to manipulate now that I had ascended to Demi-God.

The Hrimfaxi’s soul blazed with power, the eons that he had lived forging his soul into a behemoth of controlled energy. I would have lost if this contest of wills were to take place in any field other than my mind-space. I would have lost badly enough that my mind would have been destroyed.

It was only because I had catapulted our contest within my mind-space that I stood a chance. And it was still only a chance. If I had realized how powerful the Hrimfaxi was, I might never have risked trying to capture it.

I was forced to draw upon my bloodlines. My body had acclimated to the powers of Beleros and Cyronax over the years and answered my commands as an extension of my will. The ability to control the power over shadow that I had gained from Cailleach and the secrets of vitality I had gained from Arianrhod was still new to me. They should have been the least effective of my attacks, but shadow and vitality blended together to create a stealth attack that worked.

Not as an attack, so much as bait. The Hrimfaxi was drawn to the energies contained in my vitality attack. It resonated with the majestic animal in some manner, a familiar spark of creation he recognized.

The Hrimfaxi became distracted, more interested in tracing the tendril of vitality I was manifesting than protecting himself or attacking me. I used his distraction to encase his soul, knowing how to claim the spoils of this battle even though I’d never entered my mind-space before.

The Divine was predicated on the weft and weave of all creation. My blossoming understanding of my own Divinity gave me insights into the fabric of creation, my experience filtered through the lens of my Domain.

I knew encapsulating the Hrimfaxi’s soul was the first step to creating a gestalt mind. The creation was made possible as the animal was distracted, hungering for the vitality I was manifesting as bait.

The final step required me to change reality, to transform the soul I had captured into a seed. A crystal seed faceted and polished by my Domain. That crystal seed took up position in my mindscape, serving as a satellite to my core.

The seed transforming, growing into a moon that blazed with the aura and power of the Hrimfaxi. A moon that would revolve around my core until the Universe ended. Together we were more, and a symbiotic relationship formed, one that allowed me to draw upon the divine genetics that Hrimfaxi had been born with.

The genetics of a creature formed within the blazing fires of creation. One that existed on a level beyond what even a Sidhe King could match. The DNA strands of godlings and Gods were written in the stars.

Constellations that reverberated throughout the cosmos.

I watched as a new constellation was taking shape. One that was slowly forming in a Galaxy claimed by the Tuatha de Danann Pantheon.