by Amy B. Nixon
Marcus distracted me from my anger by placing dark piles of something pointy in front of each of us. Dry tree branches?
“What has been broken can be pieced back together, and what has been damaged can be healed,” he explained in an even, almost sleep-inducing tone.
The last time I tried to fix something broken and heal it, I made an undead creature that attacked another person in front of everyone.
“You will use the healing incantation Helbrede.”
The guard made us practice on dead wood all morning. Some of the others managed to stop the decaying process. Two necromancers even succeeded in salvaging the entire thing. And then there were those like me, who didn’t do anything, apart from repeat the incantation like a broken record.
As it turned out, knowing a magical word didn’t mean uttering it would automatically produce a magical effect.
“Ah, Miss Dustrikke.” Marcus clicked his tongue after seeing my lack of results. “I expected more from a natural-born Elemental. Let’s try again, shall we?”
“Helbrede,” I said quietly, trying to put every single thought into the dead piece of wood, but nothing happened.
“Concentrate and try again.”
“Helbrede,” I repeated. Nada.
“Concentrate. Let the eitr flow through you like a stream.”
Once again – nada. The Eitrhals pendant, hanging under my clothes, felt much heavier than it really was.
“Mr. Aagard, why don’t you give it a try?”
He had already transformed most of his dry branches into healthy-looking ones – smooth and leafy, as if they were freshly cut from the tree.
Marcus touched one of them, and my heart went into a savage, rapid rhythm. The deep green-colored leaves turned to yellow, then brown, shriveled and slowly disappeared, leaving behind a fully naked branch. Once fresh and smooth, the wood darkened, cracked, and shrank down to a chipped, crooked, completely lifeless twig. Stunned and immobilized, I saw decades’ worth of decaying unravel before my eyes over the course of a few wild heartbeats.
“Helbrede.”
I had watched the guard’s deadly touch, wide-eyed and not daring to blink even for a second. Now, I witnessed the life and growth from Aagard’s spell take its place, erasing all traces of withering and decay, until Marcus’ deed was completely reversed.
Magic. It was pure magic.
“Outstanding work,” Marcus praised him before turning to the others.
I couldn’t do anything with my twigs for the rest of our exercise. All the confidence and determination I had decided on building vanished. The guard instructed the ones who didn’t do so outstandingly to take their branches and practice on them.
I kept my head low during lunch, and while eating in breaks, I tried to practice on a twig. Despite wearing the Eitrhals, I couldn’t make my magic flow through me.
Filled with annoyance, embarrassment and a fear of failing, I impatiently waited for the afternoon to pass. In view of my stint on Tuesday, I had to keep it together and not screw up with the material I had missed from Dann Nordstrøm’s lecture.
When I entered his auditorium, he perched an eyebrow. Was he not expecting me? I was sure I hadn’t gotten the day wrong.
“No purple sheep today, Miss Dustrikke?”
Did he have to remind me? I took a deep breath and bit back the bad, bad word I was planning on pronouncing. If I kept going like this, I was going to have to go browsing for Zen self-help books soon.
“Professor... or is it Mister? Ph.D.? D.Sc.?” After all, Maksim had mentioned His Excellency had taught in two schools before bringing his lectures to Nordstrøm Island. “Is there a special rank before Nordstrøm?”
He chuckled. Just like he had done in the entryway on Sunday and after his lecture on Tuesday. Sudden, almost startling, velar and raspy. It was impossibly annoying.
“Most of our residents simply call me by my first name – Dann. You can use that if you’re comfortable with it, as I don’t have a suitable degree which calls for addressing me with an academic rank.”
“Dann,” I cut to the chase with a wry smile. “Don’t we have more pressing subjects to discuss than my wardrobe malfunctions?”
“I was simply trying to get your mind off any anxiety you might have. This isn’t a magical quiz or test, but merely a chance for us to go over the missed material.”
Presumptuous dick.
“I don’t have any anxiety. Despite being raised like a mortal human, I know I’ll eventually catch up on all magical things.”
He lifted his hands in the air, palms facing me, as if he was giving up, then gestured towards the tables across his desk. I silently accepted the invitation and tried to set my thoughts in order. The last thing I needed was to mess up because of my irritation.
Looking at a blank spot on the wall somewhere above his head, I started listing the realms in no particular order.
“The nine basic realms of Norse cosmology are Midgard – our planet Earth, Asgard – home of the Aesir and some Vanir deities, Vanaheim –homeland of the Vanir, Alfheim – the realm of the Ljósálfar light elves, Svartalfheim – the realm of the Svartálfar dark elves, Jotunheim – it’s where the Jötnar giants live, Nidavellir – the dwarves’ kingdom, Niflheim – the world of ice and mist, and Muspelheim – the realm of fire.”
“That’s correct.”
I secretly sighed with relief. Even memorizing the strange names had taken me quite a while.
“The white ash tree Yggdrasil’s roots, stem and branches serve as a link between the realms. Apart from Yggdrasil, there are other ways Midgard connects with the other eight realms, as well as with worlds beyond them. The most common connections are places with intersecting ley lines, which form interdimensional portals. Manmade portals created by supernatural creatures can also form a link between worlds. Wanderers can Wander into foreign realms. Some Varg werewolves can also jump from one world to another, teleporting other creatures with them.”
I paused for air just before I was about to add the Bifröst Bridge.
“May I interrupt you?” He interrupted me with a question about interrupting me. I knew it was because he was polite, but it was still an extremely strange thing to say. “You had to report to me only with the material you missed from the lecture to which you were late. No one expects of you to recite everything written in the book I referred to you.”
“Oh! I’m sorry if I’m wasting your time, I just had to go over the entire volume to get a better grasp of the subject.”
He inhaled sharply, then froze on the spot, staring at me without blinking for the longest time. Wow. Aurora bitched out on me, her uncle thought looking at me was beneath him, and her brother got creepy around me. To say fitting in with the Nordstrøms was hard would have been an understatement.
The guy finally blinked. “You read the entire volume?”
“I skimmed some parts. Anyway, the material I missed was about the Bifröst Bridge. It spans from Midgard to Asgard, which is one of the reasons behind its nickname Aesir’s Bridge – because it connects Earth with the heavenly plains of the Aesir and the few Vanir who live there.”
He nodded. “Can you tell me something particular about the Bifröst’s appearance?”
Oh, crap! How could I have forgotten? And to think I called myself a Marvel movie fan…
“It shimmers like a bright rainbow,” I added quickly, “but it’s actually glowing in three colors, which overlap, giving it the rainbow effect. Literature describes it as the sturdiest bridge that ever existed, because the gods locked magical wards within its red, green and blue colors, and they’ve kept the nature of the wards a secret for obvious reasons. There have been speculations, claiming the particles consisting of red hues are embedded with protections against invasions of fire and ice giants, but those are just theories.”
“Precisely,” he confirmed, crossing arms over his chest. “If you want to learn more about realms beyond our own, I can give you a list of books you can find in
the castle’s library.”
“I actually need to catch up on other things. Is this all for today?”
He nodded, but as I was about to stand up, his next words nailed me to the chair.
“Can I ask you a personal question?”
I hated personal questions.
“You can ask; doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”
“Fair enough. I’m curious how your family hid you for so long from the supernatural world and from your true self. Adaline informed us there was a suppression spell involved, but didn’t you ever speak to other family members or wonder about any relatives outside of America?”
“Some families are small; and when people move away, they don’t always keep in touch,” I replied vaguely.
Truth be told, I had heard about some cousins in Europe, but my aunt always said she had lost their contacts over the years.
“What about your supernatural abilities? Haven’t you wondered why you never got sick when humans around you did?”
“Nope. I had a healthy diet deprived of McDonald’s and junk food, I often attended Pilates classes, and I wore warm clothes in the winter.”
“I don’t mean getting sick only from a common cold, but from any illness in general. Didn’t you find it unnatural?”
For the almost-two weeks I had spent here, I already loathed the fact that everyone knew me as a good-for-nothing late bloomer who didn’t have a clue about necromancy. The ones who saw me differently thought I was about to become a dark witch and go on killing sprees because of my Draug. Dann’s questions were becoming as unnerving as those two angles.
Moreover, I had always had a severe problem with authority, so my irritation at him only increased with each passing moment.
“I thought I had a strong immune system, I led a healthy lifestyle, and cyclamate is officially banned in the US. Are we done now?”
“My questions have indeed been too personal,” he said with a stony face. “You can go.”
“Can I ask you something?”
I just couldn’t stop myself from uttering the words, even though they were a bad idea. After I had seen how amiable he could be with his audience, his actions from the first morning I saw him bothered me more than before. And it wasn’t just him. Aurora and his uncle were also being indiscreetly put-off by something in me.
“Ask away,” he said with the same expressionless face.
“Why did you laugh?”
“When did I laugh?”
“On early Sunday morning in the main entryway, when I was with Maksim Larsen. Why did you ridicule me while lurking in the shadows?”
He took his time thinking of a response. I could feel myself growing more and more impatient by the second. I hadn’t asked him about fixing segment tree implementations in a Python code, so why was he taking so long?
“I didn’t ridicule you, Learyn,” he said my first name with a reassuring tone, but it had indeed felt like mockery back then. “I understand why’d you see it that way, but not everyone is laughing at you because you’re new to this world or due to some minor incidents.”
Uh-huh. Everyone who wasn’t horrified by me was indeed laughing at me for the stupid situations I got myself into.
“Why?” I demanded, suppressing my desire to also ask about why he’d been creeping up on me.
He was a lecturer and a Council member, and he basically owned the place, so he had the right to creep up on anyone. Still, neither of these factors could make me let go of the embarrassment, irritation and uncomfortable feeling of being invaded.
“I laughed because it was surprisingly refreshing.” His eyes drifted somewhere else as his mouth curved in a half-smile. “Newcomers usually don’t get so heated over… hmm, our interior designer’s abysmal level of ignorance, as you put it so gracefully.”
“Well”, I smiled cynically, “I’m sorry for tarnishing your interior designer’s refined taste in eerie décor and sexist slogans. Next time, hire a marketing agency’s expertise, and you won’t stumble upon such surprises.”
His own grin slowly faded. “Duly noted. Learyn, please try not to get on my sister’s bad side.”
Whoa! I definitely hadn’t expected that last part.
I’d had my fucking fair share of Maksim, Monika and now him telling me not to get on a Nordstrøm’s bad side. Fine, it was their castle. Fine, I was under their roof. But if they wanted to be worshipped despite the way they acted, these people were born in the wrong century. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to pretend I was okay with their behavior.
“A, not to sound like a first-grader, but Aurora started it. B, she was trying to be a bully. C, I don’t plan on enduring someone acting like that towards me or anyone else, regardless of their last name. And D, I get how I’m new here, while you Nordstrøms are privileged and all that, but all of you need to act a little less high and mighty and a little more humane.”
He stood silent for what felt like an impossibly long time, during which I hoped he understood me correctly. But when His Excellency – the excellent lecturer, fighter and Council member – finally opened his mouth and spoke, things got even worse for my short fuse.
“It’d be wise to remember you’re living in the real world and forget the things you know about the way the mundane world works for humans. You’re not the first to make this transition late in life. The sooner you shake off your past beliefs, the safer you’ll be; and by that I don’t mean safer only from my sister.”
“And why would you give a shit about my safety? You don’t even know me! My point was that you’re all acting like people here should be your robotic royal subjects!”
“First and foremost, that’s not the proper way to talk to your lecturer. Everyone on the Council strives towards providing safety for all Nordstrøm residents, and that includes you.”
Was he for fucking real?!
He had been acting all creepy and shit from the moment I set foot on this island. He even made fun of my remarks and joked about my purple PJs. He refused to acknowledge his sister’s unreasonable and disgusting behavior or his uncle’s weird revulsion around me. Being on the Council, he knew how said Council barked commands on my life without explaining what the Eitrhals even was, or without being bothered by Brühl’s incompetence for playing mentor!
And now, despite being almost my age, he was speaking to me in a fatherly and condescending tone about the real world and my safety? Without even grasping the gist of the real problem! The fact that his family owned the place didn’t mean he, his sister or their uncle had the right to get away with it!
Oh, and on top of everything, he was nagging at me about how I should speak to a lecturer? This wasn’t even an educational institution!
“I call a snobbish dick when I see one, whether he’s my lecturer or not. And you know nothing about me, my life or my transition, so take the preaching down a notch, and back off next time you’re lurking in the shadows!”
There! I gave him a piece of my mind.
As soon as the initial moment of ignorant bliss passed, I wanted to hit myself for speaking.
“Dismissed!”
His raspy voice cracked in the air like a whip. I jumped in the chair, stood up and darted for the door.
FML! I managed to get myself into trouble again!
Damn my problem with authority, my stupid overemotional side, my freaking short fuse! And damn me for letting myself become such a mess after my ex-boyfriend’s bullshit! I was supposed to start with a clean slate here, yet all I had done was dragged my mental garbage with me all the way to Europe.
I tried to get it together when I flung my bedroom door open and saw Monika. My expression must have betrayed me, since she lifted her nose from a book she was reading and furrowed her brows.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t make me use my Sentinel powers on you. You were so all over the place during your nightmare, that it was a real challenge to calm you. I’m a little scared of what I might sense
now.”
“Oh, Monika, no! Please, I don’t need a babysitter trying to get me in line each time I’m not shitting rainbows. And you have your own life to live. Stop worrying about mine.”
“Thanks, grumpy. Is it Aurora that’s still on your mind?”
Aurora, her brother, her uncle…
“Nope, mostly some magical stuff.”
“Speaking of, you keep skipping scheduled evocation exercises. You do know the Council made them mandatory for you, right?”
How could anyone forget? I sighed, grabbed a towel and sought escape from chit chats under the shower.
Death in Demisemiquavers
My aunt hadn’t been kidding when she said Nordstrøm Island would be different from every other place I’d been to. Good thing I had nothing good left in my old life, otherwise I would have lost my mind in here.
As if things weren’t nuts enough already, the insanity bar jumped up when Geira Brekke called out to me after the book club meeting on Monday.
“Walk with me, child.”
We headed for what seemed to be the way to the Dining Hall. She didn’t say anything for a while, but then her words surprised me more than her request to join her for a walk.
“How is your aunt Adaline?”
“I… I didn’t know you two know each other. She’s doing okay.”
At least I guessed as much, since she hadn’t said a word after sending me halfway across the world, whether through a phone call or some other type of communication.
“Thank the goddess! I believed her to be lost.”
“Why?” I asked before I could stop myself.
She smiled woefully.
“I hadn’t heard from her in decades, until one horrible night eight years ago. When we learned the news of her younger brother Eivind’s disappearance that night, we received proof all of your close relatives had met the same fate, including Adaline.”
Icy shivers crept down my back. I knew far too well which night she spoke of. The same night I learned I could never say Mom and Dad again, because both of them had died.
“My parents supposedly passed away in a plane accident,” I finally admitted, looking up at her. “My aunt didn’t have enough time to explain what really happened to them before she sent me here.”
