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Valkyrion

1/18/2010

A buzzing from the floor forced Jason to open his eyes.

He lashed out with one hand before realizing it wasn’t the alarm clock. He looked over at Iris, but she didn’t even twitch. The noise would probably wake her if he didn’t answer the phone. He pushed the blankets back and got up, trying not to disturb her. His phone was still in a case clipped to his belt. It stopped ringing as he picked up his pants. He glanced at Iris again. She rolled onto her side and curled into the fetal position.

He went out into the other room, closing the door behind him.

“Lucky girl, that Iris.”

Jason jumped and looked over to where Mina was sitting at the kitchen counter. She was wearing the tattered shirt Iris had lent her and nothing else. Her reddish hair was more or less tied back. He’d forgotten she was here. He fumbled with his pants, feeling heat creep up his neck and face. Dammit, he was too old to be this flustered and men weren’t supposed to blush.

“I like a man who blushes.” Mina was trying not to laugh. “Settle down.” She took pity on him and stopped teasing, “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.” She smiled, appreciating the view. He wasn’t a bad looking guy. Iris could definitely do worse. He didn’t have the defined muscles she liked, but he was no couch potato either. She remembered noticing his looks when he’d interviewed her over a month ago. She’d been too freaked out by the lava in the street to flirt much.

Jason figured out his pants, pulled on his shirt, and went to join her in the kitchen, trying to get his embarrassment under control. “Sorry about that. I forgot you were here.”

“Not a problem. I made coffee.” She poured him a cup, “Although I’m going to have to have a serious talk with that girl about the lack of creamer in this house.”

“I don’t think she was expecting guests.”

“She still sleeping?”

“Yeah,” he sipped at the coffee, “she sleeps sounder than anyone I’ve ever met. How long have you two been friends?”

Mina sipped at her own drink, wrinkling her nose a little at the bitter taste. There was only so much she could do with milk and sugar. There wasn’t even a bottle of chocolate syrup in the cupboard. “We’ve known each other for about eight months; since I started working at the law firm. We haven’t really been friends until recently.” She sipped again and tried to think of a way to explain it. “You don’t know, because you didn’t know her…before.” Mina was still having a hard time with the concepts of Norse deities, so chose to ignore the issue. “She had this wall around her.” She pushed her hair back, trying to word things in a way that made sense. “But she was so fragile. I tried to be nice to her, but I didn’t want to be the one responsible for breaking her. Then when she came to work that day…after, it was like she was a totally different person. I don’t think she’s even aware of it.” Mina shook her head. History wasn’t important. “So, what are we going to do?”

He raised an eyebrow at her, “Wyoming?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Me neither.”

“Okay, so we’re agreed. How do we convince her?”

“I’m not sure if we can. If you were convinced you were doing the right thing, would you let anyone tell you otherwise?”

“It depends on who was trying to tell me.” Mina frowned, wondering if he could tell she was lying. She wasn’t arguing that Iris was doing the right thing, just that she could do it alone.

The bedroom door opened and they both turned to see Iris wandering out, looking tousled and grumpy.

“Are you two still here?”

“I made coffee.” Mina wasn’t going to try and reason with her until the other woman had a chance to wake up.

Iris frowned, sighed, and headed for the bathroom, “I guess I won’t have to kill you, then.” She shut the door behind her.

Mina turned to Jason, “Is she always so pleasant in the morning?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve only been over a couple of times.”

“You mean you’re willing to follow her around and save the world and you’re not even getting laid?”

The bathroom door opened again, “I heard that. And there’s a big spider in here. Jason, will you come squish it?”

He got up and went over, kissing Iris on the temple as they crossed paths. She sat down next to Mina and accepted a mug.

“You fight dragons and you don’t want to kill a spider?”

Iris shrugged, “I don’t like spiders, that’s all. They’re yucky.” The coffee helped her focus. “Why are you still here? You need to go home, right now.”

“You know I’m not going to. You need me.”

“No, I don’t.” Why was Mina being so stubborn? The fear which Iris had managed to dull last night was returning. The hot coffee wasn’t having any effect on the cold in her stomach. “Look, why are you being so stubborn? I just want to get you, both of you, out of here and someplace safe.”

Mina set her mug down and leaned on the counter, “That’s just it, if this is going to affect the whole world, where can we go to be safe? I would much rather be out trying to do something about it then sitting in a hole waiting to die.”

Iris couldn’t think of a good comeback to that one. And Mina could tell. “Iris, there’s something I learned a long time ago that you don’t seem to understand.”

“What’s that?”

“You only regret the things in life you don’t do. And if I went and hid somewhere and watched the world end and didn’t try to do anything about it, I would regret it.”

Iris sighed and realized she was trying not to cry. What the hell was wrong with her? She was the Aesir’s champion. She should just hit them both over the head and get on with whatever she needed to do. She sighed again, realizing she wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all herself. Iris wanted the help. She’d been fighting alone for the past month. She didn’t want to do it anymore.

There was a thud from the bathroom that made them both jump. Jason emerged a few second later, “That was a big spider. For a minute there, I thought I was going to need one of your axes.” He kissed Iris and sat down next to her. “So, is there a plan yet?”

Iris sighed and frowned, trying to ignore the nervous cramping in her stomach, “No. I don’t have a clue what to do.” It was almost a relief to admit it, “I need to get back to the Tree, but I don’t know how.”

“Tree?”

“The World Tree, you must have read about it last night. It exists in all nine planes simultaneously. If I can get to it, I can get back into Asgard.”

“What then?”

“I don’t know.” Iris was willing to die fighting with the Aesir. It would be a better death than sitting around waiting.

Mina leaned on the counter, trying to follow the conversation. She didn’t know anything about deities and didn’t much care. If they wanted her to plan a battle strategy, that she could do. She could plan the practical aspects of the trip, but was willing to leave the metaphysical aspects of the plan to Iris.

A sparkle from across the room caught her eye. She straightened up and wandered across the room. Iris and Jason were still discussing something about a tree and didn’t notice her. Sitting on a shelf next to some DVD’s was a pair of boar tusks, what looked like a pair of teeth from a saber-toothed cat, a black folding knife, and something that sparkled in the sun. Mina could see it was some sort of jewelry, maybe a necklace or a heavy bracelet, thrown into a heap among the other items. The silver and gemstones shone like fire against the shelving. Mina couldn’t help herself. She picked it up and held it between her hands in the sun. It was a necklace, bigger than she’d thought at first and too heavy to be costume jewelry. There were three strands of silver and sparkling stones, with a single large stone in the center, connecting all three strands. The center stone was unlike anything Mina had seen. It seemed to be changing color in the sunlight. The clasp opened in her hands and before she was aware of what she was doing, Mina was putting the chains around her throat. They settled comfortably around her neck, cool and pleasant against her skin. She began to work the clasp closed again.

“Mina! What are you doing?”

She looked over at Iris, feeling a little guilty. It was rude to play around with other people’s things, but she couldn’t help herself, “I’m sorry,” she was still working the clasp, “I’ll take it off in…” The clasp slid shut and Mina dropped her hands, her voice failing.

“Mina, what have you done?”

Mina looked around the room, but everything had changed. She could see everything. She could see the shimmering atoms making up the air and the furniture. She moved a hand in front of her face, watching the air currents as she moved. “Wow.” Her breath billowed out in front of her, pushing aside the air in the room. Mina felt as though she could reach out and touch the individual molecules. The motes of air slipped through her fingers, but she was sure she could touch something a little more solid. Iris was saying something, but Mina ignored her, reaching for the metal legs of the coffee table. Something akin to joy began welling up in her chest. She could feel the individual particles of metal. They were elusive, but Mina was sure she could work them. She bit her lip and stroked the outermost layer of metal. She felt it come away on her hand, a microscopic layer of iron coating her fingers. She rolled it together, trying to make something that Iris could see. A lump the size of a pinhead dropped to the table. As it fell, the spell Mina was under was broken. The pleasure evaporated and she became aware of Iris yelling at her. She could still see the separate molecules of everything, but it wasn’t magical anymore. The sensory overload hit her and Mina closed her eyes against the sudden migraine. Her stomach rebelled and she ran blindly towards the kitchen sink and began puking. She continued retching even after there was nothing left in her stomach.

After a few minutes the spasms quieted and Mina was able to take a full breath. She became aware of something rubbing her shoulders, but didn’t dare open her eyes to find out who it was.

“Here,” Iris’ voice was next to her, “drink this.” A glass was put in her hand and Mina sipped at the water gratefully, rinsing out her mouth.

“Are you alright?”

She rinsed and spat again but didn’t open her eyes, “I think so.”

“Good.” Iris smacked her on the side of the head.

“Ow!” She opened her eye involuntarily, cringed, and blinked a couple of times. She could still see the molecules of the air, in the counters and the walls.

“How stupid are you? Haven’t you been paying attention to anything?”

Iris’ breath sent waves rippling through the air. Mina ignored her yelling and blinked a couple more times, trying not to pay attention to the individual details. The effect was amazing.

“You should see this. It’s incredible.”

Iris sighed, “You haven’t heard a thing I’ve said, have you?”

“What?” She smiled at Iris. Now that the initial shock was over, the necklace gave her the most astounding view. Everything was moving, shimmering; she could see the currents in the air, the molecules in the floor and walls. The floor looked so fragile that Mina was suddenly afraid she would fall through. She looked away, trying not to think about it. The most disconcerting thing was looking at Iris and Jason. They still looked the same, but their skin and hair was shimmering with individual atoms. Mina raised her hands and looked at them. She still looked normal. The only other things that looked normal were Iris’ earrings, armor, the valknut at her throat, and the hammer lying on the coffee table. Mina knew the earrings and the armor were magical; she seen them working, but the hammer was something new.

“Where did you get that?” She pointed.

“What?” Iris blinked at her, “The hammer? I took it off a dwarf the same day I got that necklace. Why?”

“It looks different, like your axes. It doesn’t move.” Mina didn’t know how else to describe what she was seeing.

Iris sighed; it was impossible to be angry with someone when they couldn’t be bothered to pay attention. “You’d better sit down.”

The couch looked fragile, as though the atoms would split apart under her weight. Mina sat down carefully. Jason was already sitting there, rolling her tiny lump of iron between two fingers.

“What the hell just happened?”

Iris shrugged, “You tell me. I took that necklace off an elf. I can’t touch it; apparently you can.”

“Apparently.” She looked around, watching the oxygen atoms move as she breathed, “I can see everything, every atom. I can see the air moving. Everything is still solid, I can’t see through the couch, but I can see what it’s made of. Everything looks that way except your earrings, your armor and necklace, and that hammer.”

Iris nodded, that would explain how the elf had been able to pull a sword out of the air. She was manipulating the elements.

“I don’t know anything about this sort of power. We need to get it off you before it causes any damage.”

“How did you do this?” They both looked over at Jason, who was still holding the tiny lump of metal.

Mina’s stomach rolled a little, remembering the effect creating that lump had on her, “Some things look more solid than others, I just reached out and touched them. That’s what made me so sick.”

“Somehow I don’t think that necklace was designed for humans.”

Mina touched the center stone, suddenly reluctant to give up the new way of seeing things. It was weird and hard to get her mind around, but it was also beautiful. The ability to work metal with her bare hands was more power than she’d ever imagined. It made her sick, but maybe with practice she would get past that.

Iris could see her hesitation, “Mina, we have to take it off. We don’t know what it could do to you.”

She sighed; Iris was probably right. The necklace didn’t belong to her anyway. Mina reached up and began feeling for the clasp. “Could you help me with this? I can’t see.” She turned around and could feel Iris gingerly working the clasp.

“Um, Mina?”

“What?” She didn’t like the other woman’s tone.

“I can’t get it off.”

“What?”

“I can’t get it open. Here, let me try something else.” She came around in front of Mina, grabbed the necklace and yanked it.

“Ow!” The metal dug into the back of Mina’s neck, pulling her down.

Iris frowned, “Crap. That worked on the elf.”

Mina straightened up, rubbing her neck, “You mean you can’t get it off?” Trepidation mixed with delight.

“Here, let me try.” Jason stood up and began working the latch. After a few seconds he came around and stood next to Iris, “No good. I can’t get it either.”

Mina looked from Jason to Iris. He was frowning and Mina wondered if he was considering power tools. That was her brothers’ answer to everything. Iris was frowning too, but Mina didn’t have a clue what she was thinking. “It’s okay. It’s not hurting me. Everything just looks a little weird.” That, at least, was true. Mina was thrilled to have a little more time to explore what the necklace could do. She doubted Iris would share her enthusiasm.

“I can ask the Allfather about it,” Iris said at last, “if I manage to find him.”

“I’ll ask him myself. One more reason I need to come with you.”

Iris opened her mouth, stopped, then shut it. She put a hand to her head, “If I didn’t know better I’d accuse you of doing this on purpose.”

Mina sighed; she’d intended to go along, but this just added one more problem. Iris was having enough problems without her causing any more. “I’m sorry, Iris. I was going to come with you anyway, but I didn’t mean to make things more complicated.”

Iris sighed. She was irritated, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it now. She should have known better than to leave stuff like that lying around.

There was a knock at the door. Iris looked from Jason to Mina. Their tension mirrored hers. They weren’t expecting anyone and Iris had no idea what sort of magical noise Mina putting on that necklace caused. Anything could be coming to investigate. She sized up one axe and went to answer the door.

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