Fallen shields

Hands of the throne

  He sat upon his throne with a heavy head, ten hands caressing his body. He felt the bones of it beneath his war-scarred hands, muscles knotted under the stresses of the day. His was a simple jarldom, naught more than an abandoned district in Midgard. But it was home to many outside of normal society, the rejects of the world. Aldis could understand this... he was an outcast himself.

  "Mmmm... Master? Why do you think so... do I no longer entertain you?" Spoke two voices as one

  Movement at his feet brought him from his thoughts. Twin female figures floated away from Aldis, moving around him with the flowing grace of mermaids in a sea of air. Their dark skin shimmered like streams of liquid obsidian. Hazelnut eyes look longingly at Aldis from behind choppy black hair.

  "Since when do you care about the inner intimacies of me and my own thoughts?", Aldis asked with a sarcastic purr.

  Getting up from the throne, joints popping as he moves, Aldis walked past the two shadowy forms. He walked down the throne's dias and headed for the double doors that opened out into the corridors, the chiseled writhing stone forms of the columns soon giving way to steam era walls and lifts. Everything in this dark citadel of snow and night was made to keep up with the industrial demands of the outside world. The Dwarves did need to do something of course. How had it all gone so wrong? In a matter of just seven short years? How had he lost so much? Was he really so powerless? Could anyone man, immortal or not, really have done what he had almost completely failed to do? Did he really do as well as he hoped? These were things that could not be answered now. Only Odin could know... and Odin shared his secrets only when the time was right.

  Aldis pushed past the large double doors of the throne room and out into the corridors, glass orbs filled with a luminescent liquid hung from the ceiling and walls at irregular intervals, making one's shadow jump and dance like some exotic demon. He turned a corner and found a large room with trees and Grass. A snowflake landed on his cheek. He must be outside. It could be hard to tell here. He looked up at the sky. Always overcast. Squinting in the dim light, Aldis could just make out the forms of Valkyries flying overhead. He smiled to himself. Such a beautiful world.

  Aldis finally found a pair of large doors standing out in a field with no frame to be found, cast of stone and carved with Yggdrasil spanning the length of both. He placed his right flat in a small dip at the seam.

  "Hníga", the doors groaned as they slowly opened. Aldis walked through the doors onto a concrete walk. This world is not so beautiful. He stepped forward onto an empty streets and sidestepped some dead animal.

  I believe this is a good morning for a cup of coffee.