Loki of Vanaheim (Part 3)

Legends (LOKI)

I wanted no part of it. None at all. I knew better than most that whatever Regin saw, it was his fate to face and not mine.

"Father," he cried, shaking by the time Hriedmar reached the center of the room. "Please, there is no time to waste."

"Calm yourself," Hriedmar said. He put a heavy hand on his son's shoulder and looked into his face without blinking. "Take a few breaths at least."

"How can you ask me to be calm? Didn't you hear me?" Regin yelled for the whole room to hear, "I've seen the carnage. I've felt his...his putrid stench upon my own tongue. Death follows him, and we're the next target. He—"

Hriedmar forced his son's gaze again by raising his otherwise timid voice. "What did you call him? Gorr? What would he want with us?"

Regin's face blanched almost white beneath his dark beard, as if some ghost inhabited his skin. "I saw it all. The death of his world...he prayed for relief from famine and sickness while wandering the failing lands of a realm with no name. Hoped some god or goddess would appear and prove his endless worship wasn't in vain. But his blind faith kept him isolated. Alone, he watched his wife and child perish." Tears streaked his cheeks which he wiped quickly, though they didn't let up. "His pain burned me. Cursed me. Gorr cursed any and all in the higher realms and blamed them for his misfortune, certain no other revenge was possible until he witnessed a battle between gods. He knows we're not invincible. Rage has come alive within him, giving him a power unlike anything I can describe. The last words I heard were a promise of his aim—to rid Yggdrasil of all Aesir and Vanir."

The men surrounding us murmured in flat tones and a thick cloud of uncertainty settled over us. I searched Freyr's face for anything—assurance that the boy was mad, for instance—yet he looked at the floor, not at me. A bead of sweat came across his temple and was quickly lost within his beard.

No, Uncle...surely, you don't believe this nonsense?

A frantic young woman entered behind the older minder who announced what had been seen in the women's room. Her flowing golden hair made the blue of her dress even more vibrant, like spring flowers that had opened only hours before. They matched her eyes. Lighter than Vali and Sigyn, yet unmistakably beautiful just the same. She panted while standing in place by the door.

"Idunn," Regin said, rushing through the crowd to reach her. Their embrace sent my own heart to the base of my throat. "You saw it, too, didn't you?"

She wept into his arm and clutched him tight enough to make her fingernails appear like daggers piercing his leather ensemble. "I'm frightened."

"Nothing will happen to you. If I have to send you far away—"

"No, I won't do it," she screeched, pulling him in even tighter. "Did you see his sword? It's part of him. A monster."

Hriedmar clapped only once, yet it was as jarring as a crack of thunder, and everyone turned to face him. "My people, we must have faith of our own. If he means to challenge us, let him come. I fear no foreign threat when we have magic on our side."

"So does he," Regin yelled, caressing Idunn's hair as she continued to sob against him. "She's right. He and his weapon are one being. It's more than a sword—spikes emerge from his body with minds of their own. There's no way to disarm him. The best chance we have is to call a council of defense and ask the river for assistance."

The men erupted into yells at this, some in support of Regin's vision and the need to use their greatest resource, and some who vehemently argued that the river was not to be trifled with after already giving Regin and Idunn a glance at the future.