Inga noticed the table jolt and frowned—he smiled at her and shrugged. “Sorry.” He rubbed the grit in his eyes.
With her chin tilted up, Inga turned to Gurid and asked for a drink. Her daughter Gisle sat next to her, much too interested in her porridge to notice Finn arrived.
Finn reached across the table and tried to pick a slice of the brown bread from the wooden platter.
His fingers passed through the bread!
He tried again. Nothing…
He couldn’t pick it up.
He pinched carefully, his fingers passing right through the loaf! His heart started to beat faster, his drowsiness gone.
“Father?” he poked his hand directly into the plate of food with no effect. He stirred his hand around, grabbing and flailing at the slices.
“Father!” he shouted. “Help!”
No one answered or even noticed him.
“Mother!” he cried. “Willa…?”
No one seemed to hear him. He stood, he waved his arms and backed away from the meal. Everyone continued with their conversations, his father teasing Willa in front of Espen, a blush blooming on her cheeks. His mother bent over Inga to ladle some weak homebrew into a mug by her plate. He hurried around the table to them.
As he rounded the room, Yeru plowed through from the outside, leaving the door ajar. Pulling her wrap from her shoulders and flinging it at the pegs, she waddled determinedly across the room to Gurid’s side. Much to Finn’s surprise, she didn’t seem to see him either, and as he stood in her way, she walked right over him. Or through him… He cried out in surprise and stumbled back from her. She didn’t even notice him as she bowled him over…Breathless, Yeru whispered in Gurid’s ear and Finn watched his mother’s face go white, her smile fixed and stony.
“Ah, please excuse me, Lady Inga. I…um, it seems I must attend to a sick child.” Inga waved her hand in dismissal—and Gurid rushed to follow Yeru back to the door.
Finn stood stunned.
He called for his brother Cub, and felt tears well up in his eyes. His heart thumped madly in his chest. Is this a dream? I have never had a dream like this before…he pressed against the wall, and suddenly feeling conspicuous, he ducked into his sisters’ sleeping alcove, not really feeling the curtains as he pushed through them. Inside on the floor sat his little sister, playing with a rag doll. At his entrance she looked up.
“Finn?” Relief washed over him, and he crumbled to the ground next to her.
“Hildie,” he signed, “oh Hildie, I’ve had the strangest dream…”
But Hilda wasn’t looking at him, she was watching the curtains that swayed slightly from his passage.
“Hildie?” His sister hummed to herself but didn’t answer. He put his hand out in front of her face. She didn’t notice. Stumbling back to his feet, Finn turned and darted back into the main hall. Sticking to the wall to avoid people, he panicked. He ran to the door and stumbled against a whicker broom, knocking it to the floor with a clatter. He bent to pick it up, but like the bread he couldn’t grasp it. He tried to kick it, to no avail. How did I knock it over? At the table, Espen glanced at the broom that had noisily fallen, but no one else seemed to notice. Wrapping his arms around himself, Finn crouched in the corner.
“I’m here,” he cried, “I’m right here….”
No one can hear me.
He sunk to the floor and sobbed.
His collapse lasted an indeterminate time before he climbed shakily to his feet. The door opened as Tima entered with an armful of firewood and Finn slipped out the open door into the courtyard. Sticking to the edge of the buildings, his hands behind his back to feel the rough-hewn wood solidly behind him, Finn crept around the barn and back to the shed where he felt certain he would find his brothers. Cub would know what to do.
As he rounded the stable, a voice called to him.
“Thorfinn Agneson!”
There, on the apex of the roof stood a man!
The same little man who told him to go home the previous night. The jewel on his strange hat sparkled in the morning sun.
“Thorfinn, I see you are here.” He grinned and made a wide, expansive gesture.
“Welcome… to the Realm Between!”
Chapter 6
The Realm Between
Ah, the boy is panicked, he thought, look at his face. See how he pants like caged cur.
“Calm down, little Thorfinn, be calm, be calm…
“BE CALM!
“Look, you are fine. Look here, look….” He jumped down from the roof and pointed in the open shed door. “Inside there, it’s your mother and your brothers and that old biddy storyteller, and you, there… you are sleeping, only sleeping. Be calm, Thorfinn Agneson.”
He led the boy to the shed and stood him under the X-frame. In the open door, Finn squinted at the dim scene. His Mother shuddered on her knees, silently weeping, and Yeru muttered and paced, forming weird symbols with her fingers. Cub leaned against the small table and frowned while Sorven sat on his heels looking glum. Before his mother, nearly indistinguishable in her shadow lay a boy who looked… he looked a lot like Finn, his eyes closed in sleep, his hair white as snow. Finn turned, his face contorted with emotion, his eyes confused.
“Where…what?”
“You wonder where you are, what is this place, eh? And, you wonder who this is, who knows you and your place so well. Ah, well, I have been watching you for many moons, little Thorfinn, many, many moons.” He touched the jewel in his turban with two fingers, lifted one arm over his head with a flourish and bowed in a deep, practiced sweep.
“I am the honorable and most awe inspiring Ragacheep Nanawan, high oracle to Emperor Justin, he who followed Anastasius Dicorus of the blue and black eyes, that most miserable and stiff-necked evangelist. I, Ragacheep, as a mere child just your age fled the battles between the Valabhi and Hun, across wild Persian lands, and found refuge in the Holy Roman Empire and the greatest city in the world. Armed with dedication, intelligence and of course native talent, I rose from my humble beginnings to study at the world’s university and through art and ability, became the most renown seer in magnificent Constantinople, a wanderer of realms and instructor of Alchemical Physics! Ragacheep Nanawan, respected and beloved!
“But you, my young friend,” he paused and grinned, “you may call me Raga.
“Ragacheep Nanawan was my given name when I lived with both feet firmly in your world, this place you call ‘Midgard.’ Given name, just as you are known as Thorfinn son of Agne, son of Ironfist—not my ‘true’ name, of course. One never shares one’s ‘true’ name. Once you learn your true name you must keep it your closest secret because those that know it can use a true name to compel the most deep and powerful commands. Irresistible, in fact, but that doesn’t matter, since we don’t know your true name, only Thorfinn. Thorfinn, a fine name at that…Ah, there is so much to tell you, so much to teach.”
Finn stumbled away from the shed door, holding the side of the barn for support, still pale and trembling.
“Now, let me see, it seems you should sit. Yes, I can see it on your face, you need to sit and collect your thoughts while I help you get your bearings, so to speak. Here, this will work well, and I,” pressing Finn to sit on the ground, he looked around and then nimbly jumped up to an open shutter and perched there, “This is a better spot for me, yes, a better spot, for reasons that you soon shall understand.”
Finn’s eyes grew round—this man had leapt high above his head and sat on the top rail of an open shutter, perched as if he weighed nothing! The shutter barely moved as he jumped astride it.
“Is this a dream?”
“Ah, a dream? Yes, I could see you asking that, all a passing fancy, just a pleasant daydream.” Finn inspected his companion. The stranger was like none he had ever seen before, nut brown skin and dark black eyes, the oddest wrap for a cap and a dress like a woman, with a brocaded stole embroidered with strange runes around his neck. Short for a man, he looked much shorter
than Cub. Sitting above the window, he straightened his long dress and crossed his legs, his shoes yellow and ending in a curled toe. And above his forehead, mounted on his strange cap was a red jewel in a gold setting. It flashed as he wobbled his head.
“Thorfinn Agneson, let me welcome you again,” Raga made another grand wave and fluttered his fingers, “to this, the Realm Between. Yes, welcome, welcome.” Raga bobbed his head. “No, I am afraid this is not a dream. How to best explain? Best start with that Celtic witch Kella. You remember her, don’t you? Just last night you spoiled her plans…”
“Kella?” Finn wrinkled his nose, “I thought her name was Kellanthia…”
“Poppycock!” He snorted, “That is nonsense promulgated by that old git who weaves lurid hearth tales to frighten children and the simple-minded and is now working your Mother into a lather over there in that shed—it’s all foolish and unfounded superstition. You should know better—after all, where’d they get horses? Think they carried them on their tiny ships? Each retelling of that story had so many of the details wrong! That mysterious invention evolved and changed for each audience as well, why it’s a wonder you ever found the real witch at all!
“The fact is Kella was only a simple Celtic witch of limited powers, still practicing the old ways hunted nearly to extinction by the Romans and the Saxons and now these new Christian monks. Her true name was Kella,” he nodded matter-of-factly, “and she had barely mastered first level transitions into the Realm Between when your grandfather and his companions raided her wattle hut, set her afire and stole her measly possessions. Frankly, your granddad was less a hero and more a conquering thief, but no matter, no matter, that is the way of histories, always glorious when written by the victorious. After sixty years of herbs and spiders and arcane whisperings, this Kella had no more ability than a novice from where I hail. She was lucky to escape into the Realm Between before they took her head. Certainly not enough power to wield a real curse, you know, a curse with a deep bite, yet given years to plot she was deviously inventive, wasn’t she? Finding that night mare and tricking it to feed on your brother? They are uncommonly rare. She had hatched up a good plan, I give her credit, using your brother to gain a physical body and leave the Realm Between. A good plan, a good plan. If she had been successful, well, your family would have had more difficulties with her here in Midgard, I can tell you that!
“Not that they will ever see the likes of Kella again. On the other hand, you might…” Finn caught his breath, his eyes wide. “No, not any time soon, she ran away after that resounding pummel you dealt her, but she still wanders this Realm Between and she harbors no love for you, my little friend. You ruined her plans for a triumphant return and revenge most sweet! Be on the watch for her return, young Thorfinn—she will seek your demise, have no doubt.”
“I …I can’t touch things here,’ Finn held up his hands, “What is this place? Why am I here?”
“All fine and reasonable questions, I warrant. Let’s start with how you got here. It was all because of last night and yes, it was the witch Kella you can blame. Do you remember when Cub had punctured the night mare and you spilled the cauldron of your brother’s blood? When the witch, who was only partially in corporeal form, punched through your physical form in anger, she tore your spirit from your corporeal body—in the concepts of you north men, she pulled your ‘hug’ from your ‘lich.’”
“You were there…?” Finn muttered suspiciously. This stranger spoke in fancy words that were difficult to follow….
“I WAS there, sitting in that tree at the top of the knoll, watching all from a safe perch. You and your brother should be proud, for ones so young, you fought with aplomb and determination. It was a joy to watch you vanquish that miserable hag. Never the less, she separated your hug from your lich. This means that when you are awake, your spirit will precede you, an unconscious ghost, entering rooms first, knocking about, always floating nearby…yet, when you sleep, your consciousness will shift to your spirit and you are free to wander the Realm Between with me.”
“‘The Realm Between?’”
“Ah, now that’s a harder concept to impart, as you are not versed in the basic scholarship to allow discourse on the physics of multiple universes and access via alchemical and arcane arts. But you are a smart lad, you can grasp the fundamentals in this way. You are, of course, instructed in the basics of your Northern cosmology, how the world was made and the nine realms, eh? You know, Midgard, Asgard, Niflheim, Muspelheim, Jotunheim, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Svartalfheim and Helheim?” Raga named each and counted on his fingers. Finn nodded in understanding. “These realms are real, I assure you, they truly exist. The nine, and many, many more. It was their allure that originally drew me to study and then travel to them. We can access them through this Realm Between, a place that is not quite ‘Midgard,’ a land that seems to be Midgard but is just on the outside of our home realm. A place between realms. Do you understand?”
“I...” Finn nodded, not truly understanding but afraid to say.
“What else vexes you?”
“In the hall, I bumped the bench and knocked over a broom and, but I couldn’t pick it up and no one heard me when I called. They can’t see me.”
“Ah, yes, this is true. In the Realm Between you travel as your hug and are as a ghost to those who remain in Midgard. Some will recognize your spirit as you pass, especially the most sensitive or those closest to you will always ‘feel’ your presence—and you are truly close, as this Realm Between is not far separated from your home realm, not like other realms where time runs different and one can get profoundly lost. When you pass people, they will sense you. Some will fear you. To describe the feeling is difficult, but your passing will raise the hairs on their arms like a woolen cloak in the dryness of mid-winter. Your passing will make cats leap and hide, dogs will know you have entered a room and always bark and whine. Really a nuisance! Many smaller things you will learn as you gain experience in this realm. But the fear you raise in people stems from ignorance and misunderstanding—Take care those frightened folks don’t try to harm your lich, your Midgard body as it slumbers. Your lich is your host in Midgard and the only way you can reside there, at least until I can teach you how to call and inhabit a familiar.
“As for moving objects, when we are in the Realm Between, it takes a unique type of concentrated effort to affect items or touch people in the physical realm, from the Realm Between to Midgard if you will.” He waved his hands in the air as if clearing away smoke, flicking his fine, long fingers. “Of course, we can move objects in Midgard from this realm, but it takes practice and clarity of mind. Not that it isn’t easy to do by accident and that is the key to understanding how to influence the physical from this Realm Between. One must be elliptical in one’s approach, to use your mind to influence the physicality in the nearby realm, not focus intent on the actual object or the movement, instead imply that the movement should occur.” A bit of straw lifted from the yard and danced before Finn, hopping back and forth mimicking the movements of Raga’s hands in the air. When he dropped his hands to his lap, the straw drifted back to the yard. Finn reached to touch the straw as it fell, but it merely floated through his fingers to the ground. “Don’t try so hard, you have to picture it in your mind…”
“I don’t understand.”
“No matter, little Thorfinn, no matter,” the strange man smiled, “You will understand soon enough. It comes with practice.
“However, young Agneson, listen carefully to these words. Should you find an object here in the Realm Between, a thing that exists both here and in Midgard, this is a rare treasure no matter its form and you must always seek to hold it as you return to your lich. Find a private and confidential place to safekeep such items. These are few, difficult to find and may provide profound assistance in the fullness of time.”
Raga smiled—Finn’s breathing steadied, his hands stopped trembling and he seemed to pay attention. Raga sighed, really such a timid soul, it is no
t clear the boy understands all my wise counsel. He continued, “My young Thorfinn, I foresaw all that has passed, our meeting and your triumphant victory over that minor witch. I wasn’t the Emperor’s most trusted oracle for no reason. We shall be fast friends, you and me. We shall accomplish great things together. Know that I traveled across continents to reach you, I have traveled across the centuries for you, and I have come to prepare you for the glorious path that lies before you. For 8 moons I have personally kept watch over you, each day and night, as you traveled, at your chores and at your play, I have examined you, I have observed you in quiet times and in the loud celebrations, and I know you, young Thorfinn. I, Ragacheep Nanawan shall be your teacher, it is ordained.”
“But…,” Finn looked quizzically at the man perched on the shutter. “I’ve never seen you before last night.”
Raga laughed. “Ah, my boy, my dear boy, but you have seen me…in Midgard I am majestic and black as midnight, and you will recognize me when you see me again, as the scales have been lifted from your eyes and you will now recognize anyone who wanders the Realm Between like us. Just call my name and I will come to you, here or in Midgard.”
Finn opened his mouth to ask more, but suddenly he felt uncommonly tired, and felt a hand shaking his shoulder, shaking him awake from a deep sleep….
Yeru
“Wake up child.”
Yeru gently shook his shoulder. Slowly Finn opened his bleary eyes and shuddered in a deep breath. She leaned close over his face, holding his cheeks in both hands, kneeling at his side. Sorven and Cub looked anxiously over her back. The sun had risen enough that it no longer shone directly into the room on his pallet, but the day was bright, and the room filled with chilly air from the open doorway. Cub nodded at him.
“There he is,” Yeru purred. “How are you feeling?”
Finn looked from face to face. “Tired.”
“We were worried about you.”
“Yes,” Cub said, frowning and knitting his brow. “You’re having some bad dreams, right?” Cub nodded at his little brother in a slow, meaningful way. Yeru looked scared, her face pale and her mouth slack, worry lines creasing her forehead. Cub made a sideways movement with his head, followed by an insistent nod to Finn. Clearly Cub tried to tell him…
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