The Mortal

Chapter 5

"The symbol for...for death?"

I hoped to God I heard him wrong.

"Yes." Loki said. "And show me those papers about..." He struggled with pronounciations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I got out the folder and handed it to him and he read the story over and the notes I had taken during the interview with the Japanese woman.

"How long ago was this interview?"

"About a week after I started drawing the snowflakes."

Loki cursed under his breath.

"What?" I asked him.

"Did you write the woman's words word for word?"

"Most of the time, you know...for quotes in the article."

"Which ones?" He asked.

I showed him the quotes that I planned to put in the article.

He cursed under his breath again.

"What is it?"

"Based on the way this woman is talking...she's a Levia."

"How could that woman be a Levia? She-"

"Levia; shapeshifters, remember?"

"How...what...?" I trailed off, unable to finish my question.

"When you started drawing those 'snowflakes' of yours, that basically draws the Levia towards you. They only took longer to find you because you were on Earth at the time. When one draws the symbol of death for the Levia, it usually means that you're calling them to come and kill you. The Levia knew you were drawing the symbol, and they knew you were going to interview someone. To find out where you lived, one of them took the shape of the woman you interviewed and the translator."

"But I didn't interview her at my house, I interviewed her in Japan, at her house."

"Did you say what newspaper you were working for? Where you were from?"

"Yes." I thought for a moment. "Oh damn it!" I said. "You're saying one of them followed me home? See where I lived."

"Yes." He confirmed.

I cursed under my breath.

"I'm sorry, Lilliana." He paused. "Why did you start drawing that symbol?"

"I had a dream about it." I said. "I liked how it looked at the time."

"Tell me about it-your dream." He said. "And be very detailed about it. Don't leave out any details."

Without question, I started. "It was a clear night. The landscape was hills and hills of snow, stretching on as far as the eye could see. Even though there were no clouds, it started snowing, but the falls snow didn't look like the regular snowflakes. It looked like that symbol." I said. "More snowflakes started falling until the sky was so filled with them I couldn't see the stars above. The scene shifted so I was above the ground, I looked up to the sky and saw that the sky looked just like the one I see when I'm at that rainbow bridge." I described. "Then the snowflakes started falling in front of me and then began to swirl around me like a storm. The snowflakes flowed a golden-white light and practically lit up the whole sky like a fire or lightbulb. The snowflakes swirled faster and faster until I could pick out a single one, they all blurred into one. Then the circle the bright snowflakes had made around me expanded a few feet away from me in all directions, gathered into a single line that looked like an arrow, and shot straight through me." I said. "Then I woke up." I finished.

"Damn it." Loki said to himself.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." He said quickly, as if that dismissed the subject.

"Damn it Loki, tell me what's going on! What is it?"

"I'll tell you later."

"No, you're telling me right now."

"It appears," Loki said. "That you've been cursed by the Levia."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"It means exactly what it says." He paused. "I don't know what that entails though. All I know is that it's definitely not good to be cursed by those." He paused again. "Get some rest, you've had an exciting day enough as it is." He stood and walked towards the door.

"Loki," I said. "About today...was that the test you were talking about earlier?"

"No." He said, not looking at me. "Don't think about it, Lilliana. Your test will come later. And besides, that didn't have to do with the people of Asgard taking advantage of you."

"Can you at least tell me anything about the test?"

"It will be between you and one person." He said, then took a deep breath. "And you won't like it at all." He looked at me, opened the door, and walked away.