Duality : Book 1 of Codex Elysium

Chapter 12 (edited)

Chapter 12

2900 years ago

Asgard

For many years Balder had been dreaming of his own death. The nightmares haunted him night after night. The god was tall and handsome. He had golden hair and blue eyes. All over the nine worlds he was regarded as one of the fairest and well-loved of all the gods. The years of nightmares were taking their toll, Balder looked worn out. He had heavy black bags under his eyes and walked with a stoop. Loki had been in Asgard all this time, monitoring the situation. He was one of the twenty-six gods that made up the Aesir so he had every right to be there. Odin had called a meeting in his great hall, Valhalla. The gods had sat around the table and argued over what to do for many months. Loki had always attended the meetings but had sat silently, listening to everything but never contributing. Eventually the gods began to compile a list of absolutely everything that could kill or cause a god to die. The list was long and extensive it included all the elements, sicknesses, animals, insects, plants, every known weapon. On and on the list, went. At the bottom of the table an old god named Braggi sat, he was the wordsmith for the gods. It was his duty to record all that was said at the meetings and day-after-day he wrote furiously as the list grew and grew. Loki was seated next to the old wordsmith and there was no love lost between the two of them. As Bragi worked away, Loki would lean close and whisper taunts and insults in the old god's ear.

Eventually the gods were satisfied that they had listed everything possible from the all nine worlds. The next task was to make everything on the list swear an oath not to harm the god Balder. Only then would he be truly safe from harm. It was Balder's own mother Frigg who took up this task. She left Asgard and was not seen for a very long time. Eventually Frigg returned to Asgard, she was exhausted and well-and-truly worn out. Standing in a beautiful garden surrounded by many exotic plants and trees Frigg gathered the gods and announced that the deed was done. Nothing could now harm Balder.

"Well we should put that to the test," said Hermod.

He picked up a large pebble from one of the borders and threw it as hard as he could at his brother's head. Balder didn't even flinch as the pebble bounced of his head and dropped to the floor.

"Hmm... I didn't feel a thing!"

Balder touched the spot where the stone had hit, there was no mark or scratch on him. Loki stood to one side scowling at Balder.

"I think we should double-check this."

He bent and picked up a jagged lump of rock and hurled it with all his force at Balder. Once again, the stone bounced off the god's head and left no mark. Loki cursed quietly and turned away. Laughing and joking the other gods began picking up rocks and throwing them at Balder. Nothing they threw hurt or harmed the god in any way. Cursing and muttering to himself Loki stalked off out of the garden.

As the days and weeks passed the gods began to make a sport out of the invincible god, rocks turned in to darts and other sharp objects, still nothing harmed Balder. Hermod was a well-built god with long flowing black hair. He had the same blue eyes as his brother but his looks were more rugged than handsome.  He drew his mighty sword and shouted,

"enough of these silly little games, let's have a true test!"

The other gods looked at Hermod cautiously then stepped back as he advanced on his brother. Loki always attended the sports but never joined in. Mostly he stood in the shadows of some great oak trees and scowled at the proceedings. Now, as Hermod advanced with sword held high, ready to strike, Loki watched intently, surely, we were going to see blood now? Maybe even a severed limb? The sword flashed in the summer sunlight as it came down with as much force as Hermod could muster.