Mythos

Prologue

A man, a woman and a mother with her child stepped into the skyscraper elevator.

Silently they stood next to each other after each had pressed the button for their exit level and the elevator doors closed with a soft sound and it slowly rose up from the ground floor. The man got out on the fifth floor, the mother and her child on the seventh. The woman, who had pressed the button for the top floor, now quietly waited in solitude, a cold, apathetic expression on her face. She only moved when the elevator skipped her floor. Her eyes wandered to the buttons of the elevator, the number for the top floor still blinking, but the elevator somehow just kept going further up. The woman barely acknowledged this supernatural occurrence with an enervated sigh and went back to facing the elevator doors in her previous unfazed manner. Then after a few minutes, the elevator finally came to a sudden halt and the doors swung open with a lighthearted ring.

Outside of the elevator doors, was, inexplicably, the most lavish garden one could possibly imagine. Magnificent flowers in all the colors of the rainbow, ravishing shrubs and trees and exotic birds singing in the distance. The woman, still inadequately impressed, stepped out of the elevator. She heard the doors close behind her but when she turned her head to look back, there was nothing but endless meadows and trees. She started walking deeper into the garden, a seemingly untouched paradise with the sun shining above it all in a clear blue sky. After a while, she heard a melodic voice singing nearby and followed it past luscious apple trees until she reached a small, sunlit glade. In the middle of this glade, sat a plump little woman plaiting flower crowns. When she noticed the visitor, she put her work aside and and leapt to her feet, her angelic blonde curls bouncing, arms spread for an embrace.

"Welcome back, my dear.", she exclaimed with a wide smile spreading on her rosy cheeks.

Her guest, seeming awfully out of place in her impeccable black suit, didn't say a word but suspiciously squinted at her counterpart.

"What do you want from me this time?", she inquired, crossing her arms in front of her chest impatiently.

The mysterious woman smiled a little wider, smoothing her long white toga and clearing her throat.

"Some people would give their lives for an audience with their maker.", she replied sweetly.

"And I am not one of them.", retorted her visitor.

Her answer was nothing but a smile.

"So why did you bring me here?", asked the woman again, a little more acerbic this time.

"Because", said her host. "I have a surprise for you, Freyja, my child."

The woman now frowned skeptically.

"I think I've had more than my fair share of surprises from you.", she said.

"Now, now. Who would turn down a gift from God."

And then she spun around and led Freyja to a little wooden bench under one of the apple trees that most certainly hadn't been there just a moment ago, sat down and patted on the spot next to her. Freyja only sat down reluctantly.

The woman turned to her, examining her face intently.

"Are both of you listening to me right now?", she asked Freyja, closely scrutinizing her face.

Freyja seemed visibly unsettled by that question but she nodded slowly.

"Good.", said the woman. "I want both of you to witness this."

Then she leaned back on the bench and dreamfully looked out in her garden while Freyja kept eyeing her distrustfully as they sat in silence for a while.