The Codex Lacrimae: The Book of Tears

Chapter 2: Of Norns, Brisingamen, and A Dark Elf

A half hour before an overwhelming force of strömkarlen and nixies attacked Aurelius at the river, Clarinda Trevisan turned back at the cave entrance and found herself alone.

The forest outside the cave was deep and densely wooded, with slender grey trunks of beech trees interspersed here and there with pines laden with purplish cones. Clarinda moved tentatively forward, unsure which direction to take without the Norns by her side. A fog layered itself between the trees and swirled around her feet.

She looked left, then right, but her companions had simply gone. Clarinda hesitated. She'd been ascending a now-familiar passage from the labyrinth of tunnels that led to and from Mimir's Well, and keeping pace with the three Norns as they rushed up the final paths toward the sunlight of another world, trying to arrive in Alfheim for the unexpected appearance of Servius Aurelius Santini in the Nine Worlds.

Verdandi's abrupt silence in the midst of another training session with Clarinda at Mimir's Well had got the attention of all the women.

"Yes ... I see it now, Verdandi: the Codex Lacrimae awakens," Urd had noted, feeling the tremors of the tome while Verdandi had scried the future in the flaming ripples of the underground lake with the white-eyed, All-Seeing of the Sight.

"It's a Huntsman of Muspelheim ... Morpeth." Verdandi had shook her head in apparent disbelief at the inevitability of the demon. "He's confronting Santini at the Krak des Chevaliers. He's attempting to wrest the Codex from him before the Hospitaller can use it ..."

"... but, use it he will," Skuld had continued, her eyes blank whites as she gazed into the pool, "and he comes—sisters, he'll be here in mere moments! Sooner than any could foretell. To Alfheim, quickly! He'll appear near the River Perilous—he must not touch the water!"

Clarinda had risen immediately, impelled as much by the desperation in Verdandi's urgent tone as by the dry voice that sounded next in her mind.

Go, Mimir had said, there's more here than just the Huntsmen at play trapping their quarry. Elder powers have taken an interest in the Codex's awakening. There's danger on many fronts in the forests of the Light Elves.

So, the three Norns had hiked their skirts and dashed from the subterranean grotto to get to the place of Santini's arrival before the knight himself did. Clarinda had paused long enough only to grab her quarterstaff and then ran uphill to the level of Mount Glittertind that opened onto Alfheim.

Now, Clarinda stood at the cave entrance alone. She touched the necklace and the triquerta brooch still pinned to her waist, tempted to use their power even if she didn't know how.

She reflected on the progress of her training. Back on Midgard, each night when everyone else was asleep in Khalil's caravan, she'd slip into the Nine Worlds with Urd and learn the entire maze of tunnels over the course of an exhausting month. Upon returning to Midgard, Clarinda discovered that only a single night had passed and neither Fatima nor Genevieve had even noticed her absence.

Three nights of travel across the desert had translated to three months of hard work with the Norns!

The disorientation had been staggering, filled with visits to each of the Nine Worlds and long conversations with Urd, Skuld, and Verdandi. She'd noticed early on that the other two Norns were wearing the faces of Fatima and Genevieve while at the Well, and when she'd asked why, Skuld had explained that the Norn-training would go easier if she thought herself among friends back on Midgard.

Nights and days had blurred one into the other as months passed while Clarinda learned the tasks and responsibilities she'd inherit upon Urd's death, heard lectures from Mimir about the history of the Nine Worlds and the Norns' role in them, and read spells, myths, and histories from musty tomes.