A Kind of Magic

The tall, pearlescent spirals of The Lightly Perch loomed over me like beautiful fingers digging at the sky. Each building and spire stacked like several fat snail shells sitting atop one another. Great, darkened windows sat in the high towers above, connected by long and wide dark blue walls of the same pearlescent material. The whole thing looked like a fantastic castle sitting on that round, floating, blue stone disk in the sky above Blue Veil. The light from the purple and pink spiraling galaxy above illuminated the ground as if it were a moon hanging crooked in the sky, twinkling in the night.

I had no idea what time it was. I’d been walking around the grounds of the temple for hours calling out to Robin in the hopes that I would find her. I listened hard to see if I could hear her calling back from the distance. All I heard was the wind blowing gently through the grounds, whistling through the tunnels below and the parapets above.

I inhaled a slow breath and let it out fast, attempting to steady my nerves. I could guess it was a little after lunch back home from the feeling in my stomach. And from the fact that my hands were starting to shake. I hadn’t fixed since Stagger gave me my dose last night. That thought alone put an uneasy feeling in my gut.

“Shit...” I said out loud, quickly walking towards the blue stone road leading up to those wide, intricate double doors at the castle’s face.

I had walked around its entire perimeter a few times hoping to find my sister. Now that I realized that wasn’t happening, I decided inside might be my only chance of finding her.

I was a little frightened. The last time I was here was so long ago. Back then The Lightly Perch was where Perun had hidden the Heart Fire. I remembered that much. I had found it by accident. That night, tired and sore from Gozen practicing her deadly skill on me, I decided I was through being the floor she walked on.

I wandered for hours in the Labyrinthian halls of Valhalla. It was pure dumb luck that I found that fountain. Even dumber luck that it happened to be connected to the fountain here. Thousands of miles between them and yet, somehow they managed to...

“Wait a minute,” my brain was trying to work something out.

I squinted, thinking about that again. If the fountain in Valhalla was connected to the one here, does that mean it worked the same way in reverse? I couldn’t think clearly. Partly because of the stress and worry about my sister, and partly because I could feel the sickness creeping in.

I raced for the door.

Hopping up the wide and shallow steps, practically running for that brilliant handle of pearlescent blue, my hands wrapped around it. I stepped back wide and pulled but the door didn’t budge.

Anchoring one of my feet against the opposite door I pulled again, this time harder than before. I pulled until my elbows and shoulders ached but the door didn’t move. I stumbled back, letting go, falling onto my ass with a huff.

I didn’t know what else to do. Sitting there looking down at the one shoe I still had on after Robin tore into me, I frowned with concern. I couldn’t help but think that none of this would have happened if just one time in her life Robin had just been my sister and helped me instead of finding a reason to hate me. It had been that way since we were kids though, I don’t know why I expected anything different.

On the other hand, I did something that I don’t think I would have ever been able to forgive someone for.

I killed my baby sister.

I was on the verge of tears when something tapped at a place in my mind. I felt a memory awaken inside, something ever so familiar about this place. Not just the memory of being here or seeing the temple against the spiraling galaxy in the sky above, but something specific.

Something...

I looked up at the door again. Then higher still at the opulent shell sitting above it, that seemed to glimmer with a quiet fire inside. If I wasn’t staring at it directly I would have missed it. A word came to mind. Like I had said it once before.

“Bokk. I’m ... I’m here to see the brothers Bokk.”

There was only silence as wind swept across the Lightly Perch, whistling through the great stone arches shimmering in starlight.

My shoulders sank.

Turning around, I walked to the edge of the first step and sat down on it, wincing from the pain in my back, feeling my head start to throb as the beginnings of a migraine began. I thought about where I was again and worry traveled through my stomach like a kind of nausea. I was a long way away from the Tambourine Man.

“Well, Charlie... I guess you had to quit sometime,” I said to myself, suddenly regretting every decision I made to skip out on rehab.

I thought about every opportunity I had to stop. The many days I spent begging myself to quit.

And being too weak to.

“I should have listened, Juli,” I whispered.

She was right. I should have kept going to my meetings.

The wind whipped harder at my body and I realized only then just how chilly I was. I hugged my knees to my chest.

“What am I gonna do?”

A light splashed down around me, throwing my shadow down the stairs. My head lifted, eyes wide, turning around to face the door. That shell was glowing like a porch light. I heard the mechanisms in a series of locks start to move and I looked around for someplace to hide. All I could find were those grand arches almost a football field away. I stood, facing the doorway, realizing if something was going to hurt me, I didn’t have any way to get away from it.

I felt my pulse quicken, my shoulders moving up and down faster as fear trapped my feet in place. The door opened wide and comforting amber light spilled out, casting a lean figure into silhouette.

“Who calls on the brothers Bokk, eldest of the Sons of Ivaldi?” His deep, gravelly voice said.

I could feel his eyes on me even though I couldn’t see them through the shadows cast over his face.

“Uh-... I do. I’m uh,” I didn’t really know what to say. “I need help. I don’t know where I am. I mean, I know, but... I can’t find my sister and I’m really scared.”

I put my hands on my sides for a moment, trying to project the confidence that I didn’t have. My hands ended up getting tucked under my arms as the chilly air got to my fingers, making me shiver.

“I know your face,” the man said, opening the door wider.

“Yeah... it seems like a lot of people do. Can I please come in?”

I could see his head nod in the darkness.

“You are always welcome here, Siobhan Aoibheann.”

“I’m not her. Trust me... me and her are worlds apart.”

“I know, child. You’re not the first to return. Come inside.”

His voice was slow and comforting. I didn’t feel so bad being the first cat he had to drag in from outside. I thought for a moment he might be talking about my sister.

“You brought someone else in?” I asked, walking through the door as he stepped aside.

“A few over the years.” He said, as I got a good look at his face.

It was so familiar. He was bald except for his deep brown beard. It had strands of gray in it and was braided into two tassels on his chin. His lean frame in the light clothing he wore seemed solid, sturdy and spoke to the age in his voice.

“Anyone else today? I came here with my sister.” He shook his head.

“Only you, I’m afraid,” My stomach sank.

“I’ve got to find her fast. I know she’s alone and scared. She won’t understand what’s happening.”

He nodded in understanding, “Who brought you here from the other world?”

“It’s that obvious, huh?” I said as he closed the door.

The warmth inside washed over me. I turned to look around, my eyes cast up at the vaulted ceilings inside of the gargantuan shell-like building.

It was pearlescent on the inside as well, though much more white. Ornamental carvings were in the ceiling depicting the great war of man. The many ages from the Golden Age to the Bronze Age. The Age of Blood. The pictures told stories of great weapons and powerful gods breaking the world apart. I saw the picture that detailed the day that Midvalley Broken Crowns and Fenris shattered Blue Veil. In it, the great wolf howled a great, burning howl that whirled into Midvalley’s great typhoon, the two forces crashing into the heart of what I knew to be Old Settler’s Place. The original birthplace of man.

In front of me was a long, wide hallway. Carved wooden pillars held up the beautiful structure inside of the strangely shaped castle. Shined wooden floors extended out in front of me down that hall and another crossing it where I stood going in the opposite direction in a wide T. The entire place looked old and rich with history, yet comfortable, cozy and warm. The kind of place I could lay down on the floor anywhere and go to sleep.

Just then I remembered what supplied the heat in this place. The forges of Ivaldi deep in the heart of the Lightly Perch.

“Yes. As I said, you are not the first. Come. Let’s get you warmed up by the fire. Are you alright? You appear injured.”

He led me down one of those brilliant halls and I followed, still rubbing my hands together. The hallways had sky blue walls to the left and right of me. On those walls like a fat pinstripe running parallel to the floor was a seemingly never-ending stained glass painting depicting the history of the forgefolk.

“I’m okay. I mean, as okay as I get. I got beat up and thrown out a window, so...” I said, trailing off as I looked around.

He stopped and looked back at me, nodding.

“I don’t think we’ve ever met any other way. You seem to have always known pain.”

“Yeah... from what I can remember, her life wasn’t any better than mine. Worse actually.”

“Any slave of Gozen Morrow is bound to have a hard life. Of all the slaves at Demonhead, you were by far the one that suffered the most.”

We continued down the hallway until we came to a set of large double doors. My guide pushed the wooden doors open into a grand hall with row after row of thick, ornate wooden tables with pearlescent accents and reliefs throughout them. On one side of the hall, one of the biggest fireplaces I had ever seen crackled and billowed. It filled the vast chamber with warming light and my body seemed to release every knot of tension in it when it fell over me. Great white paper lights sat overhead lending the room a peaceful dayglow.

“I will get someone to tend to your wounds.” He said and I nodded, walking over to one of those long tables.

I slid into the bench seat on the end, resting my arms on the table and dropped my sore face into my palms. I rubbed my eyes groaning at the pain, remembering how Robin had used me to redecorate her living room. No matter how often it happened I couldn’t shake the feeling of helplessness. It was demoralizing being at the mercy of another person. Thanks to NEST and my poor decision making skills, it was a position I was often in.

Sitting there with the fire warming me, I was embarrassed about my wounds. The soreness in my upper cheek let me know I’d probably have a black eye again come tomorrow. A badge signifying to anyone that looked at me that someone got the best of me.

“Thank you,” I said, lifting my head to look over at the lean man.

He stopped on his way back through those double doors to look back at me.

“You are most welcome, Siobhan.”

“I’m Charlotte, by the way,” I said as politely as I could, “Charlie.”

“Charlie,” he nodded. “I am Sindri Bokk. Head Forgemaster of the Lightly Perch.”

My voice was a little hoarse from screaming for my life in Robin’s apartment.

“Hello, Sindri. It’s so strange. I feel like I recognize your face. I know you’re a friend. But I...”

“I know, child. Reincarnation is never easy. Especially after the lengths Siobhan went through to make sure you are here today.” With that, he was gone.

An hour later a woman from the Elder Library had come to help me get my clothes off and doctor my back. She brought me a light blue gown to cover myself with while she doctored my wounds. She was kind enough to understand and not ask me what happened to my face. My guess was that she thought I didn’t want to talk about it because I was avoiding her eyes. What she didn’t know was that I avoided everyone’s eyes.

“Alright, you’ll be right as rain in a few days.” She kept looking at my hands.

They were trembling as I pulled my gown back down. My head was pounding.

“Thank you. Is there someplace I can lay down?” I asked.

“Are you cold, Love? In front of this great big fire?” She asked, smiling.

I looked up at her and nodded.

“Yeah... but not because of the temperature.” I said and she nodded knowingly.

She studied me without a word between us before she reached down and took up my left arm, extending it to look at the crook of my elbow. Shame dropped my shoulders and tied my stomach in knots. I glanced up at her face and looked away.

“Oh my days,” she said, and I felt her gentle hand find my cheek. “How long?”

I hesitated and she got to her knees, her eyes searching my bruised face.

“It’s alright. I understand. How long has it been, Love?”

I winced. My eyes started to burn as moisture rimmed them. I didn’t want to tell her. I didn’t want to say it out loud. To confirm what kind of a burden I was about to become.

“About half a day,” I sniffed, trying to stop the tears, “and I’m gettin’ real sick,” I said, swallowing back disgust at myself.

“Alright. That’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is,” both of her hands took my face and she made me look at her. “Listen to me. It’s hard enough getting through life the way you are. Reincarnation is never easy. It takes its toll in different ways on everyone, but don’t you think for a second you’re the only one. We’ll help you get better.”

I nodded, “Thank you.”

“Do you prefer a bed or the bathroom?”

I didn’t want to say.

“There’s no shame in it. I’m here to take care of you, but you have to be honest with me.”

“Bathroom.” My stomach was turning.

“Alright. Come on. I’ll get you some nice warm blankets and some pillows.”

She took my hand and led me through those gorgeous wooden halls. We went up a flight of stairs that I struggled to navigate. I could barely see them as I moved. Muscle memory carried me upward, my head was throbbing so heavily it felt like my brain was swelling. My joints hurt, my muscles hurt. Cramps were starting to grab at my thighs by the time we made it to that small bathroom.

A young man in a white long sleeve shirt and pants walked towards the two of us. He had a white cloth hat on his dark-haired head with a red cross on it.

“Chanticleer. Do me a favor and get some blankets from the Medici’s. Pillows, some water, and tonic.” My guide said as she turned to face him.

Chanticleer kept looking at me. I turned my head away from him, my face tearing up as I started to sob. I could tell he recognized me. Recognized her. It hurt inside to destroy Siobhan’s memory in the minds of the people that loved her by being what I was.

She hugged me to her as my shoulders trembled.

“I’m sorry.” Is all I could manage.

“It’s okay, Love. What’s your name, Dear?”

“Charlie,” I choked out.

“Well, Charlie, my name is Starland, or Star if you like. I’m a Medici, a librarian, and a friend. This is Chanticleer. He’s training to one day help people as well.”

Starland pushed the bathroom door open with her shoulder and helped me in. I felt my stomach lurch as I crumpled to the floor in front of the toilet, leaning on it as my stomach muscles slammed tight and my back arched upward. I threw up harder than I ever had in my life. I wretched so hard it hurt. Liquid filth spewed out of me as my stomach evacuated itself through my mouth and nose.

“Oh-- ... god... God,” I wretched again. Starland rubbed my back as my muscles struggled to settle. I gasped and huffed on my knees like a wet cat. I fell away from the toilet on my side, gagging.

“Chanticleer, go. Fetch me my things.” Starland said and the young man rushed off.

“I-,” I coughed hard, throat slime and puke leaking from my face. I must have looked awful. “Can’t breathe... can’t-”

Starland helped me back up to the toilet but not before I’d puked down my front. The second bout made it into the bowl and it hurt so bad I started sobbing again.

“It’s going to be a very long week for you, Love, I’m sorry to say. Your body is needing for something you can’t give it.”

Moments later and two more violent episodes in the bowl, Chanticleer came back. I wiped my face on a towel, my hands starting to tremble so hard I could barely control them. He handed Starland something that looked very out of place. It was a small device with buttons on the face and a small screen right above it.

I definitely didn’t remember technology like that when I left. Of course, I was in no state to ask what it was when she pulled from its side a clear piece of what looked like square plastic. She placed it on my forehead and it felt sticky and adhesive. With nothing connected to the pad, she looked at its face, reading it’s screen.

“You’ve got a bit of a fever, Dear. I suspect it’s from the exertion,” she said, looking back at Chanticleer “Quickly now, make her a place to lie down.”

All I could give her was a nod. I couldn’t speak. She helped me clean the vomit off my face and chest and I sat back against the side of the bathtub taking steady breaths. My head felt like it had been split open. The light hurt my eyes. I squinted up and Chanticleer tapped a pad on the wall, putting out the sconces I thought were gas powered.

“Thank you,” I said, my voice hoarse.

“Sure,” he replied, his voice gentle as a breeze. “Are you really Siobhan Aoibheann?”

“Chanti! Not right now you starstruck fool.” Starland swatted at his arm.

“Sorry,” He said.

“Forgive him. The whole place is in a bit of a titter at the moment. News of your being here has spread like fire in a cane field.”

I looked over at Chanticleer, my eyes were sunken, my face pale.

“I used to be.”

“You still are, Love. Don’t quit on yourself so soon.” She smiled at me and I nodded. I looked over at the pallet Chanticleer made for me and crawled towards it.

“Oh, right. You’ll probably want to lie down now.” Starland moved out of my way as I crawled to the soft, thick, dark green blankets on the floor.

I fell face first into those cool, fat pillows. At that moment, nothing felt better in my life. The cool of the pillows against my aching and bruised face soothing my skin, the soft blankets under my nauseated stomach. I wanted to lay there in that moment until I died. I let out a long, deep sigh, enjoying the temporary contentment.

I knew I wouldn’t get any sleep that night.

“I’ll bring you something light to eat in a little bit. I don’t imagine that’ll be the last time you throw up. Trust me when I say you’ll want to force something down. It’s a lot worse on an empty stomach.”

I nodded as best I could against the pillows as Starland stepped out into the hall.

Chanticleer came further into my little space. He squatted down and I turned to face him. In his hand was a rubber bite plate.

“You’ll want this. Seizures aren’t uncommon. We’ll stay with you through the night to make sure you don’t hurt yourself.”

My eyes wandered for a moment, looking around at this strange bathroom so far from home. I looked at Chanticleer, then Starland, and like a baby bird, I opened my mouth.

He fitted the rubber bite plate and I bit down on it.

I’d never had a seizure before. I found myself wondering if they hurt or if they just felt like I lost time. It scared me to think that I might find out.

* * *

The next three days blended together into one long nightmare. My body rejected everything. I even threw up water. I had to force myself to keep the chicken broth Starland brought me down, but I eventually lost the fight against it as well. My stomach muscles felt like a car ran over them. Every time they tightened up on me I screamed from the cramps and curled into a crying ball.

By the second day I’d torn all of my clothing off and sat crumpled in the corner of the tub and the wall in my underwear. That little spot had become my home. The place I tried to hide from the misery of my situation. Starland held me through one body rocking seizure after the next, my jaw clenching, eyes rolling back in my head, foaming at the mouth. When I was able to speak, I would sit in my little corner deliriously talking to people who weren’t there.

Like my Daddy.

I needed my Daddy so bad.

What little sleep I got was plagued by nightmares. In my head, my memories and my fears clashed together into one. I’d see Gozen Morrow, the Owl Queen, again with Robin’s face in some strange amalgam of the two people that hated me most. They would laugh at me, mock me, beat me. I dreamed of being in the ring with Robin and absolutely at her mercy, my little frame in boxing shorts and gloves getting battered around while she tore me apart and called me names. Telling me to suck it up and stop being a crybaby. To take what I deserved.

They always ended the same way. She would punch me out of the ring and I would fall through the floor like it was made of liquid. I’d float there bleeding as I sank to the bottom and died.

Beaten to death just like she promised.

In other dreams, Gozen would be standing over me, stabbing me and laughing. Over and over again, Robin’s face within her white hair, ramming that vicious Atma Sword into me while I screamed and begged. I would wake up screaming, fighting, thrashing. Starland would always be there to hold me down. I must have hit her too many times to count but she was always the bright, gentle center of my harsh universe.

Memories would come back to me when I was awake. Of Gozen’s cruelty. I remember how she liked to hurt and humiliate me. She always wanted Siobhan to cry.

She never did though.

She would strip me down naked and make me sit on my knees by her throne with a leash around my neck and act like I wasn’t there. Pat my head, choke me with my leash and tell me to bark like a dog.

I refused and she would starve me.

I remember the feeling of shame when I, so desperate for food that I’d do anything, opened my mouth and barked like she wanted me to. It went on for years this way until I learned my place. Until I learned to put my pride away.

She never broke me to tears. I don’t know if she got tired of trying or was satisfied with knowing she had beaten the heart out of me, but I never stepped a toe out of line.

I remember being in awe of her power. Her speed. I would see it first hand as she perfected her battle technique.

On me.

The only thing keeping me alive was fear. Fear of dying. Not knowing what happened when your soul left your body. If souls even existed. Like all those people that died in my home town in the frozen lower lands that her Valkyrie laid waste to. I was deathly afraid of the Underworld.

The first time I ever disobeyed her was the only time. I stole her sword and left Demonhead. Down the mountain, Titan’s Teeth. The one that used to be called Mount Olympus, right into the labyrinthian palace at the heart of Valhalla. I remember finding The Heart Fire and then nothing.

Nothing until that night when I emerged from the blank spot in my memory, standing at The Lightly Perch as Gozen’s Valkyrie came for me. The elite guard wasn’t there; her strongest who defended the Bright Throne, but many Valkyrie soldiers, the Corsairs, were. I fought them for two days here.

Until Gozen arrived.

With Midvalley.

Gozen did everything in her power to get me to tell her where I moved the Heart Fire. I wouldn’t cry. She hurt me until the pain was all that I knew. When she realized I wouldn’t talk she assumed I didn’t know anything, but I did. Somewhere in my head was the answer.

I suddenly remembered that dream I had about falling from a really high place. I fell from here. She ran a spear through me and threw me from the edge of this place like garbage.

It made sense that I didn’t remember her face. I never wanted to see it again.

By my fourth day, I was managing to hold little things down. I dared not push myself too hard. Bread mostly, and soup. I asked Starland to start locking me in the bathroom. I wasn’t having seizures anymore, but I was definitely craving. I was having thoughts of escaping, going in search of drugs or alcohol.

Sindri would come down now and again to talk to me through the door. I’d hear him set his chair down in the hall and it made me smile.

We talked for hours. About anything really. I remembered his brother, Brokkr. I asked him why he and his brother had different accents. He said he was much older than Brokkr and grew up in a different part of the world.

He liked to ask me what Earth was like. He seemed to really like the concept of baseball. He said they had a similar sport here but the object wasn’t to run around bases, but to catch the runner. I told him it sounded like football and baseball mixed.

That started a whole new conversation about football.

I didn’t know as much about that one though.

“My memory is fuzzy about a lot of things here,” I said.

“That’s only natural,” He said, “Siobhan told me she managed to hide her memories.”

“Did you know her long?”

“No. She came here in search of answers. She had a lot of questions about death. I think she knew what was coming. She put on a brave face but I could tell she was very scared.”

“She was?” I asked, feeling somewhat comforted by the thought of the great Siobhan being scared.

The shadow she left behind for me to live in was almost suffocating sometimes.

“Yes. I could see it in her eyes. I think that’s what made her powerful though. Her power came from her fear.”

“How does that work?”

“Fear is the body’s way of warning us of danger. Siobhan’s senses were made keener by it. And I suspect yours as well. When you are scared, are your actions automatic or reactionary?”

I thought about that question for a while.

“I guess... automatic.”

I looked down, lifting one of my hands, watching it tremble. I still hadn’t gotten past the shaking. Sometimes I’d climb into the tub and just let the water crash down on me to clear my head. To stop it from racing through every scenario I could think of for how to break out of here, get back to earth and score some more heroin. To make myself feel good again.

My mouth was so dry.

“Mm... I think you share that with her.” He intoned.

“So did you guys make all of the weapons the gods and celestials use?”

“Most... not all,” Sindri said.

“Which ones are you most proud of?”

Sindri groaned in thought.

“There’s a question,” He laughed.

“What?”

“Well, I’ve never been asked it before.” There was a long silence from him. I could hear a light crackling sound like fingers scratching at a bristly old beard.

“Probably the Wolves Bane,” he said with his deep growl of a voice.

“Wolves Bane? What’s that?” I asked.

Groaning, I crawled for the sink, pulling myself up on it to fill my little wooden cup with water. I drank from it slowly, my throat aching from screaming and throwing up. My neck felt fat on the inside, scarred and torn. It hurt to swallow but I forced it down.

“Not what’s that. More like what are they, to say more accurately.”

I gasped a plaintiff sound of pain after getting the last sip down.

“Oh. What are they?”

“They are three.”

I filled my little cup again and crawled back over to lean against the door on my blankets.

“Three weapons?”

“Sort of. Three tools, really. One a weapon. A great hammer, Mjolnir.”

“You made Mjolnir?”

“Yes.”

“Shit. What were the other two?”

“Gungnir. A spear that has the power to grow to a tremendous size at will. And when thrown can never miss its target.” Sindri said, chuckling as if he’d just enjoyed a fond memory.

“Gungnir... yeah. I remember seeing that spear. At the first uprising. The Minute War.”

“Mm, yes. And lastly Gjallarhorn.” He said with finality.

“Gjallarhorn.” I nodded, the word familiar. “The horn that broke the world.”

“That’s what they call it. A little dramatic if I’m asked to be honest,” he chuckled.

“Well,” I said, “it can summon the beast.”

“Fenris isn’t summoned by the horn. He’s agitated by it. It’s the only thing that can both wake him up and put him to sleep.”

I took a small sip of my water and I felt my stomach start to turn again.

“Why are they called Wolves Bane?” I asked, crawling towards the toilet, feeling my insides churning.

“Because the three tools were made from one of the very claws of Fenris himself. And are the only things capable of killing him.”

“Is that true?”

“I don’t know, child. No one has put them to the task. As it stands all three of them are in the possession of Perun’s Valkyrie elite guard.”

My back snapped upward like a cat’s hackles, spitting up my water into the bowl. My sore stomach, swollen throat tissue and aching eye sockets throbbed with pain from the pressure I exerted on them over the past week.

“I’ll fetch Star, child,” Sindri said.

“Wait...” I gasped, coughing into the toilet.

“Mm?” I heard him grunt.

“Did you ever see it? Perun’s wolf.”

“Fenris?” Sindri asked. I could almost hear him thinking.

“Is he really the size of a mountain?”

“It depends,” Sindri said after a long pause.

“On?” I slumped over next to the toilet, laying on my back on the floor, trying to catch my breath.

“Fenris grows with Perun’s rage. It consumes all, growing with each life that it takes. Its howl builds power from what it eats. The great wolf bellows great breaths of green fire from its maw that burns all that it touches. It wields the power of Perun’s jealousy for Creator God Brahma. That is where it gets its name. Fenris of the Covetous Jealous Fire. Lord of Wolves. I saw the wolf when it first ate the heart of Brahma. It stood nearly 22 arms high. I suppose that’s around 40 feet.” He reasoned, and I heard him drag his chair away, “By the time the sun set and rose again, it was the size of Mount Olympus.”

“Oh my God... Sindri?”

“Yes, child?”

“I have to find my sister. Every day that goes by she could be out there being eaten alive by this world.”

“It is a fool’s errand going after your sister. Blue Veil has her now.”

“I have to try.”

“Perun is the real threat. If you want this world and earth to be safe, you’d do well to start with him.”

I heard his footsteps as he walked away.

I managed to crawl over to my blankets and fall into them. Starland had been kind enough to bring me fresh linens and clean underwear. She helped me bathe, sometimes even helped me eat when my hands shook too badly to do it myself.

I found myself wondering if I would ever be strong enough to make the decisions Siobhan did. Or to fight a wolf the size of a mountain. What would my story be when I died? Would I still be the coward I am, or would I live up to everyone’s belief in me?

* * *

By my eighth day in the bathroom, I was eating whole meals. I graduated to a bit more chicken in my soup. I even managed to keep down half a sandwich. I wasn’t out of the woods yet, but Starland had decided I had enough with the bathroom.

“How are you feeling, Love?” She always had such a kind voice.

“I’m okay. Better.” I nodded. She was never afraid to sit with me on the floor by my favorite little corner.

“Are you ready to come out and see the day? It’s really beautiful outside.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready.”

“Why do you say that?”

“If I’m honest with myself, I’m afraid to. If I go out there and see a sky I don’t recognize over a planet I only vaguely remember, I’ll have to accept the fact that this isn’t a dream.”

“Why would that be so bad?”

“Because what if it is? A dream I mean. If I wake up in my apartment and this never happened... Then that means I’m still...”

I felt my eyes start to water.

“I don’t wanna live like that anymore.”

“Oh, Dearheart. Come here,” she said, hugging me to her. “You’re past it. You’ve beaten it.”

“I hope so, Star. I’m tired of people treating me like a piece of garbage.”

She held me while my tears wet her shoulder.

“You have to understand. It never goes away,” she said, rubbing my back. “You have to find something else to fill the hole, Love. It won’t be easy, but you’ve got to. You’ve just got to for your own sake. You’re not a piece of garbage, Charlie. Treat yourself better.”

I sniffed and she pulled away, cupping my face in her hands, looking me in the eyes.

“Let’s get you dressed and go see the sun.”

It only occurred to me then that Starland’s voice was familiar. She had the same accent as Siobhan.

“Starland... where are you from?”

“Me? Oh,” she looked at me and smiled. “I’m from the Icy Moor. Actually, most of the forgefolk are. I’m the only one from a place called Khione Valley though. My family, like just about every family there, were farmers.”

“Oh... why did you leave?”

“The same reason everyone does. I didn’t want to be a farmer and I hated the cold. A tenure here promised me a great education, a career in medicine and an opportunity to become one of the noble forgefolk.”

“I remember Khione Valley. I just never knew what it was called. Did you lose your family there too?”

“Aye, Love. My grandmother, before I was born. I never got to meet her. We all lost someone when the Valkyrie came.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t do it. I owe my life to the ones who survived. The Valkyrie came at the command of the Lightning Emperor.” She said.

“Is Khione Valley gone?”

“Mm, no. It’s been rebuilt. Tyranny will never stifle strong hearts. Now come on. Up you get.”

It was hard but I found my feet. I was so thankful there wasn’t a mirror in my little safe haven. I wouldn’t have lasted the week having to live with myself. Or with Orcus’ all-seeing eyes. He had been haunting me since I was a child. Looking at me with those accusatory eyes. Mouthing words to me from the other side of the glass from that iron helm.

Starland brought me some clothes to wear and after a quick shower I put them on. I pulled on the gray shirt and pants from the Medici’s office with the red cross on its breast and followed her through the Lightly Perch. The soft boots she had given me to wear were comfortable and I couldn’t help but wonder if they were Perch craftsmanship as well. There was a spring in her step that I wished I could match. I was still a little uneasy.

We made it to the door I came through eight days ago and she smiled at me.

“Are you ready?”

I nodded. She gave my shoulder a reassuring rub and pushed the front door open wide.

Sunlight splashed into my face, blinding me. I squinted and lifted a hand against it. She walked me outside onto the porch and down the steps into that brilliant blue sky. I thought the night I got here that we were at the edge of it, but I was so wrong. Blue went up high, high above. Two moons were still in the sky beside the telltale remnant of that galaxy swirling high above in purple and pink. The sun felt good on my face. My skin felt alive.

I felt like the world was pouring into me. Nausea subsided as I heard Starland walk over to the panel beside the door in that pearlescent blue coral wall. I hadn’t seen it in the night time when I got here, but there were odd buttons on it, like little oval pieces of candy. She tapped one of them and the square of concrete I was standing on lifted ten inches.

“Whoa!” I said, nearly stumbling.

She stepped on top of it with me and it lifted all the more. Our concrete square started to move and I braced myself against the gold and white pearl railing that lifted up in front of us. Then the section of concrete was off. Racing towards the edge of that large disk, my curly head of damp hair was whipping about, puffing out atop my head as it dried.

I could see the landmasses of Blue Veil start to peek up over the edge of the disk as we neared its edge. By the time we got there, I was looking down into the spectacular view of the planet I once called home. My eyes could see farther in the sunlight.

Large islands had running through them an interwoven, sparkling band that wound its way in and out; a river floating in the air. Sparkling like a stream of silver as the rolling surface of that tube of water danced in the sunlight.

Its name came to me from a memory.

“The Silver Ribbon.”

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“The most amazing thing I ever saw,” I whispered.

I felt an itch on my ear. I reached up to scratch it only to find an earring where the sensation was. Right in the cartilage of the shell of my right ear about halfway up.

“Did you pierce my ear?” I asked, my lip curling as I looked at her.

“No, Love,” She said, staring at me as I scratched at the earring. “That’s your multi-tool.”

“Wait, I thought it was a scarf.”

“It can be whatever you want it to be. As long as it has a programmed set of parameters anyway.” She answered back.

“Programmed... what? How do-.”

“Oh, right. You won’t know, will you? The power of the Heart Fire that lives in this world, the very blood of Blue Veil. We’ve been harnessing it for years now. Well, almost a century, really. Funny how magic and technology end up feeling like the same thing. Heart Fire is a fuel source. It’s what powers the forge,” she gestured at the Lightly Perch, “It powers your multi-tool. It powers you. And every other God for that matter.”

“God?” I asked, the word sounding alien.

“Only Gods can be reincarnated, Charlie. Whatever Siobhan managed to get her hands on... it made her what she was before she fell from the Perch. She found the source of Heart Fire.”

“I know,” I nodded, “it’s just so hard to think about. I haven’t felt exactly god-like. Unless I’m the god of getting my face kicked in.”

“Actually, I don’t think Siobhan was alive long enough to figure out what her gifts were. She was a god for only a few days and in that little bit of time she did more good than any other before her.”

“By dying?” I asked, almost sarcastic.

“Sometimes that’s what it takes.” She rubbed my back as we looked down at the Silver Ribbon. “She’s what the people of this world needed. A hero. A martyr... in the end they’re both the same thing. She taught us all to fight back against tyrants. Here on the Perch, she fought back Valkyrie Corsair’s for two days until Gozen bested her. She’s why we chose to light the fires of our forges here instead of Mount Olympus where we used to be. This place was just a temple of thought and reflection for the forgefolk back then.”

“She lit a fire,” I said, nodding my head down at the great expanse below.

“That she did.” She tapped a button on the railing and the concrete turned, taking us back towards the Perch.

“What if I’m nothin’ like her, Starland?”

“And so what if you’re not?” She smiled.

“Bein’ brave ain’t exactly what I’m built for,” I shook my head. “I spent my life gettin’ by, not gettin’ ahead. I can’t think of one thing I’m good at.”

“You’re good at losing,” she said, getting the first chuckle out of me in days.

“Yeah... definitely good at that.”

“I heard you talking about sports from earth with Sindri. I like what you said about golf. I think it’s a lot like you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sometimes par is good enough to win, Love.”

I stepped off of the lowering platform with her as we headed back towards the front doors.

She opened them and I stopped, taking another look back at that beautiful sky.

“I hope so, Star,” I said, concern on my face. “I really hope so.”