Disclaimer: I do not own Oh My Goddess, someone else does. I just play with it. I'm also poor – suing will probably cost more than you gain.
Summary: Urd's early childhood – through Hild's eyes.
AN: This is a one-shot set in the same world as my story Ah My Demoness! and provides background information for it, but both stories can stand alone.
Was this love? Hild wondered as she watched the infant sleeping beside her. This warmth in her heart, the knowledge that she would do anything to protect this tiny life? She had never felt this way before, not even for the child's father. He has entertained her, even made her happy, but in the end she had left Him. In the end she had hated more of Him that she had liked.
In the end this child was the only lasting result of their relationship. A child that had her mother's tan skin and white hair. No one could doubt that this was her daughter, her heir. Hild already knew that when she was older the resemblance would be striking, especially from a distance.
She gently touched on of the purple triangles on the newborn's cheek, smiling as the small head instinctively turned in an attempt to suckle.
No, only the colour of her emblems hinted at the infant's Father, and even that was a vague link. Even those of pure heritage were sometimes born with purple markings, their alignment undecided. After all, gods and demons were cousins. Mostly the children's powers settled after a few years to match the environment in which they were raised.
Pulling her finger away from the reaching mouth Hild continued to watch her newborn daughter sleep with a maternal smile which would have shocked any who saw it. Such contemplations could wait for another day.
She was seven days old now, her eyes already changing from a newborn blue to a luminous violet to match Hild's own. Old enough to be named, old enough to be Presented to the Council, and Hild didn't dare wait any longer. She held her position not only through power but through intimidation. She couldn't afford to show weakness, couldn't afford to let anyone know how much the idea of her daughter's vulnerability hurt her.
She opened the door to the Council chambers with a wave of sheer power, her arms occupied with holding the child wrapped in a blue blanket, her face an intimidating mask.
"Demons and Demonesses, I present to you my daughter and heir, Urd."
Hild frowned slightly as she read through the report on her screen. Lucifer was up to no good again, she saw. Would that damn fallen angel never learn his place? She ruled here, no one else. Perhaps it was time for another lesson? A few years in Hell should do the trick.
She smirked, a small part of her mind noticing how the others currently in Nidhegg control flinched slightly as she did so, and typed up the order, sending it to Personnel before she started on the next file.
A gurgle turned her attention to Urd, who was floating beside her in a basket. Purple eyes met her own and the infant smiled, hands waving up at her.
Hild smiled back and her subordinates relaxed as her mood lightened. "Are you hungry, Urd-chan?" she asked as she picked up the feelings coming from her child. She reached over and took the infant into her arms before jumping off her chair and floating to the floor. "Let's get you fed."
On her way out she blasted one of the operators with a lightning bolt when she saw his disappointed face. As if she were going to give those perverts a free show! She displayed her body on her own terms, not those of a minor demon.
Urd was too old now to take to work, too prone to wandering off now that she was finally mobile. It just wasn't safe. Lucifer was not the only one who wanted her position and her only child was just too tempting a target.
So Hild left her behind, separating from her for the first time.
Well, not entirely. She left a portion of herself behind, in the form of a young girl, and while most of her was occupied with reports another part of her was chasing a madly giggling Urd around the living quarters in the Fortress, and telling her stories when the child's energy waned.
Hild's fist clenched in anger, electricity sparking across it, as she read the report. Had her seals not been restraining her power the room would doubtless have been destroyed simply by the bleed-off caused by her emotions.
It wasn't that He had found another lover. She had been the one to leave Him, after all, and although she had been more or less celibate since then it had been more through lack of opportunity than lack of desire. Even if the only available candidates weren't backstabbing demons she had Urd to think of, after all. Between her daughter and her duties she didn't have time for anything, or anyone, else.
No, what had enraged her were the reports of His new child. Young Belldandy's birth was being celebrated throughout Heaven, His Firstborn child. Meanwhile He refused to even acknowledge His true Firstborn – a child with far greater potential than this infant would ever have – simply because she wasn't 'pure'.
Hild watched Urd sadly. She had taught her about what it meant to be a demon today, preparing her for her future duties, but a part of her, a part that she did her best to ignore, knew that they were duties that Urd might never take up.
Her first act of magic had been demonic, performed out of pure frustration and anger, and tapping into the pishogue that was Urd's inheritance from her, but her emblems had already began to lighten, shading towards blue. There was still time for things to change but there was a distinct possibility that she would lose her child to her father's people.
"Mama?" Urd asked, holding up her book. "What does that say?"
Urd frowned in concentration as a ball of black lightening formed slowly between her hands. The markings on her cheeks, which over the last few months had shaded ever closer to blue, became purple again, then swiftly darkened until they were nearly pure red.
Hild smiled encouragingly. As she had suspected, Urd's alignment was not definite yet. If she could encourage her towards using Pishogue rather than Mana there was a distinct possibility that she would become a demon after all.
"Well done, Urd-chan. Now, release it at the target."
The explosion was little more than a flash of light, raising some dust but not really causing any damage. It was still impressive for someone her age, however.
Which just made things more puzzling. Urd's demonic abilities were stronger than her divine ones, even if that greater strength was only a small amount when compared to her full potential. She also accessed Pishogue far more easily. So why was she tending towards her divine half?
Hild looked over at Urd, who was carefully placing ingredients in a cauldron, and wondered where this talent for potions had come from. It certainly wasn't from her, and somehow she doubted that it was from her father either.
"It's a love potion!" Urd informed her happily.
Hild blinked. Where had Urd gotten the idea for that one? She was going to have to watch her Nidhegg access more closely. She was obviously reading things she shouldn't be.
A Norn?
Hild blew up the couch in disgust.
How had her daughter, her heir ended up as a Norn, one of the prophesised Goddesses of Time? This was all His fault.
Another piece of furniture exploded.
She was not going to let this happen. Urd was her child. He had refused to acknowledge her daughter's existence and now He wanted to take her away from her? No.
Urd's place was here, with her mother.
She firmly squashed the nagging little voice that pointed out that this explained why Urd's markings continued to shade towards blue despite her best efforts.
Urd looked up at her, eyes shining with love and trust, and Hild's heart clenched in pain, knowing that those feelings would soon be extinguished. For a moment she almost relented, but she quashed that impulse relentlessly. For both their sakes, this had to be done.
"Come Urd-chan," she said softly. "We're going on a trip."
Urd's eyes lit up with excitement, almost glowing. She rarely left the fortress. Even before the recent assassination attempts Hild had feared for her safety.
"Really?"
Hild's heart broke a little more as she forced herself to smile. "Really," she replied. "There may even be other children there."
Urd grinned. "Cool!"
"Mother?" Urd asked, as she looked around with awe. She had never seen anywhere with so many growing things, so much green. Home was mostly red and grey. "Where is this?"
"Your new home."
"We're staying here?"
"Just you."
"Why?" she asked, tears forming in her eyes. "Was I bad? Why are you sending me away?"
Hild forced her voice to remain cold, detached. "This is for the best, child." One day you will understand.
"Mother…"
"Dry your eyes," she ordered. "You have been taught better."
Sniffling, Urd obeyed, her expression settling into a neutral mask, although the pain in her eyes nearly broke Hild's heart.
"You are to stay with your father from now on," she continued, taking Urd's hand in hers and leading her forward.
She forced herself not to look back as she walked away, feeling Urd's eyes on her.
"Come child," He said. "Would you like to meet your sister?"
A single tear rolled down Hild's cheek as she heard them walking away, only two things allowing her to keep going. The knowledge that Urd was safer here, safer if no one thought that she cared, and the hope represented by the fact that Urd's emblems had never turned completely blue. The hope that one day she could get her daughter back.