The good thing about not being human is that I don’t need anything. It makes leaving everything, or almost everything, behind easier. I can simply replace anything I want. That isn’t an issue.
The problem is the underlying fact that I am now leaving to protect myself.
Yes, yes, I know… securing my position. Blah, blah, blah. I’m over that now. I’ve moved on to angry. Unfortunately, it’s mostly at myself and I really don’t like that. Of course, it would be directed at the right person if I knew who that was. My only clue so far is “Big Daddy,” which the siren whispered to me at the Ataraxis Tavern.
The snowman totem in the glass jar sits in the seat beside me. I want to know right away if anything changes with it. Four additional calling card totem jars are in the trunk, packaged carefully within a spell which also contains all the loose Valkyrie hairs. At this point, I can only hope I’ve gotten them all. There’s a little known myth about a trickster who’d fallen for a con himself and had to pick up each individual leaf off the surface of the world. But, just as he’d finished in one area, leaves were falling in the opposite hemisphere. The trickster was never freed from his curse because there were always leaves falling somewhere. I’ve been beaten at my own game before, but I am not going to let it be that way with the Valkyrie hairs. Yes, I needed a hundred and forty thousand for my task, but I’m not going to worry about leaving twenty or thirty behind.
I step on the gas, ready to head out on the open highway. I’m not quite sure where I am going. Instead of taking the highway, I keep on and take a back country road lined with houses.
Midgard is not that big of a planet and it’s flooded with too many humans now. I remember when there were just a handful and the gods crossed the Rainbow Bridge on a daily basis. Odin loved to go and teach the humans. Zeus, though he’d never admit to using the Rainbow Bridge, spent his fair share of time among the humans too, usually with the females. I played in the warm oceans long before humans started building vacation resorts there. I danced with the goddess Pele in the volcanos of Hawaii. Frey, along with his sister, Freya, and I hunted through the mountains after dwarves who tried to remain on earth after Odin banished them away to their tunnels. There isn’t a place on Midgard that I haven’t already been. Even in my banishment, I travel all over the world on my mission and relish in the ever-changing landscape.
Worse, I know that my stalker has to be thinking the same thing I am: there is no where I can hide in this realm nor can I leave it. I am pretty much trapped. Trapped until he decides to make his move and send me somewhere else, which will infuriate the gods of Asgard when they think I have escaped. I really will be hunted then.
I have to calm down. Inside my shirt pocket I reach for the Rune I’d dropped in there right before calling my attorney last night. After sending the Minotaur back to his home realm and realizing I needed to decide what to do, I had drawn another Rune. Algiz had gone back into the batch. What had come out this time was Ansuz. I almost laughed when I got it. After all, this was considered my Rune. Generally, it means to be prepared for your life to be turned on its ear because a new life is unfolding. It would seem that the greater influence which moves through the fabric of the universe does indeed have a sense of humor.
I am so busy focusing on the energy of the Rune and trying to see if it has anything further to reveal to me now, I almost missed the bolt of lightning flashing in the valley below. “Not overly fond of what follows,” had been a brilliant line that captured the essence of my relationship with my brother completely. But more like the punch line of, “He’s adopted,” which so many people had found so funny truly encapsulated the truth behind mine and Thor’s relationship. One of the Muses had definitely been whispering in Joss Whedon’s ear. When I get my full powers back, he won’t be a god. He knows too many of my family secrets.
But I know the one I need to watch for is more than a mere human who has sold his soul to a Muse in exchange for making entertainment.
Of course, Ansuz also reminds me to remember my Divine nature. I know I should have been expecting Thor’s visit.
I pull the Phantom off the road and let the engine idle. He’ll find me any moment now.
I reach over and pick up the little snowman encased in glass. How symbolic, I now thought. A big man stuck in his snow globe world. The more I look at this, the more I realize that my stalker has a sense of humor too.
I tire of waiting. Did Thor think that I had all day?
Restless, I climb out of the Phantom and lean against the warm hood. I cross my arms over my chest and my legs at the ankles. A couple cars slow as they pass by. I don’t even acknowledge them. Actually, I only now realize that I’d stopped by a golf course. What a fun way to wile away my time until Thor arrives.
I watch a guy step up to tee off and take his practice swings. Only when he shuffles forward to actually hit his ball do I give a little wiggle of my fingers. Right in mid-swing, his club seems to turn to jelly. A vibration goes through the metal as it solidifies right before tapping the ball, which comes off the tee, but plops down almost instantly on the ground and bounces all of three glorious feet. I enjoy the look on his friends’ faces as they laugh at him. Epic fail!
“Still at it, I see, Loki,” Thor says as he steps out of his chariot pulled by four goats with long curved horns. I hadn’t noticed him descend.
“Nothing has ever quite topped the time I had you all dressed up as a bride in veils to make the giant think you were Freya come to marry him in order to get Mjollnir back from him,” I reply with a smile.
Thor hefts Mjollnir, his hammer, onto his shoulder and gives a click. His goats take off, soaring into the air with Thor’s chariot behind them. Thor moves around to the passenger side and gets in. I start to get in, but see another guy on the golf course teeing off. His ball launches off the tee. It probably would’ve gone far if it hadn’t seemed to hit an invisible barrier and drop to the ground suddenly just inches beyond the first. Oops, twitchy fingers.
Bad me.
I get in and put my feet on the brake and the clutch. Thor has the snowman in his hands. “Cute,” he says, pointing at it. “Looks just like you.”
I shift the Phantom into first gear and pull out, still not completely sure where I am going. “What news do you have for me?”
“Can’t I just come from Asgard for a visit?”
“Yes, you could. Would you?”
Thor laughs, deep and rumbling like distant thunder. “Of course I would, Loki.” He raises the totem jar and puts it in the back seat. “Odin sends his greetings. He wishes there was something he could do to help and he hopes you realize why he can’t intercede against your pursuer.”
“Because any action on his part would prove my banishment is merely a show,”
“What is happening to you here is known to many on Asgard,” Thor says as though this admission is painful. “There are some who still speak out against you. They believe this is the real punishment you need and have forbidden Odin to interfere.”
“How does Mother feel about it?” I ask. I have to know. Frigga had always been one I could count on to help me when I needed something. She hadn’t attended the hearings when I was being charged. Of course, I was accused of killing her son. My mischief may have made many people feel like I had wronged them, but I always respected Frigga. I feel my hearings might have gone differently if she’d been there and I could’ve looked her in the eyes to let her know I hadn’t done it and wouldn’t hurt her like that in the whole of eternity. After all, she was the first one to say that I was mischievous but never malicious. It would hurt to know if I had completely destroyed her trust in me. Rip me to pieces and throw every piece into a fire.
“She speaks neither your name nor Baulder’s ever. But the others, it is causing a tear in Asgard. Some fear it may lead to civil war.”