The Codex Lacrimae: The Book of Tears

Chapter 17: The Council at Mimir's Well

When no one immediately replied, Urd stepped forward. "Please, Fenris, tell us why you have followed the Hospitaller."

The youngest of Loki's children smiled a haunted smile. "I would change my fate, Fate."

"Explain," Urd said.

"You all probably know that in my home, I spend much time reading, trying to find a way to escape the curse," Fenris said with a nod toward the books and manuscripts that filled some of the wall niches by the pool. "I see here in your collection many of the same works and parchments that I pore over every day. It's been foretold that I will side with my sister and father at Ragnarok, the end of days." He crossed his broad arms over his chest. "After Fimbulvetr rages for three years—"

"Fimbulvetr?" Aurelius asked.

"Yes, I apologize, Codex Wielder; Fimbulvetr is a storm that will make the one on the mountain outside and those we saw in Niflheim seem like light flurries. Then my sister, Hela, will set sail in Naglfar, a ship that she's building even now. A vessel made of dead men's nails. Giants will be on board with her, as will an army of the dead much like that of the Wilde Jagd, only a hundred times larger. My brother, Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, will slither from the sea to battle Thor, the god of thunder, eventually slaying him with his venom. Und, I ... it is foretold that ... I will kill Odin himself, the All-Father and ruler of the gods of Asgard." Fenris stared intently at Aurelius. "I would have it be otherwise."

"We all hope that it'll be otherwise, my love," Skade added, "and that Fate in this instance can be turned aside before the end." Then her voice softened to a tone that none who'd seen her fight could believe possible. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Fenris. Ragnarok hasn't come yet, and the prophecies say nothing about the union between you and me."

"That's true enough, my little huntress," Fenris said with a grin.

Rudyick nodded at Urd. "It seems that sometimes Fate can be undone. You were at Skade's first wedding Urd. You said then that both Njörd and Skade would be together forever."

"Nein," Urd corrected, "what I said was that their union would hold until the Sarsen Stones fell."

"But, they remain," Rudyick exclaimed.

"Not those off the sea of Norfolk, they don't," Urd stated flatly. "You and Njörd took care of that."

"We were trying to stop Dietrich and the druids!"

Urd shrugged. "We were discussing my foretelling, not your failures in interpretation."

"Rudyick," Skade said, "there's no one to blame for the failure of our marriage but Njörd and me." She shrugged. "Our natures never changed. I'm from the mountains, and he from the sea. It was only a matter of time before we realized that."

Long are your lives, Mimir observed, and there is great truth in acknowledging the unpredictability of Fortune's Wheel.

Fenris squeezed Skade's hand, thanking her quietly for her support. He glanced at the reflective Rudyick, then at Aurelius and grinned. "For all the predictions of my Fate, I believe my fortune started to turn the moment that you appeared alive in my sister's tower."

Skade's face flushed with irritation, but he forestalled her with a raised hand. "I talk of my Fate, now, not my love."

He paused and looked between the Hospitaller knight and the bodiless Vanir. "Of course, I prefer to think of my actions in that moment—when I attacked you and carried us out the window—that I was governed by a recognition of the Codex Light around you."

He closed his eyes. "Mimir and the Norns know enough about me to know that there's another possibility. I might have been trying to kill you, Aurelius. The beast does not think as we do, remember that."