“Distinguished gods, students and guests,” he announced, “it is my honor and pleasure to see you here tonight, to eat with you, drink and celebrate. Enough deplorable and sad words have already been said this evening, I will therefore be brief. We have experienced difficult times, but we have not been beaten, and we have mastered the challenges together. Now it’s time to look forward and enjoy the pleasures of life anew. I wish you all a pleasant festival!”
He made a gesture toward the table behind him, and Lanfei and Ull rose to open the dance. Some of the guests began to clap, but their applause was drowned by the rousing music that started playing now.
Of course, Aleri was among the first on the dance floor, and soon afterwards Enild had also disappeared. Arvid glanced at the clock and then poured another cup of wine.
Twice she was asked to dance, but she refused both times. She was glad to be able to converse with Thoke, who seemed to share her distaste for dancing. The closer the ninety-third hour came, the more restless she was. She kept wondering whether the redhead would really turn up and what he had to tell her.
Eventually Enild showed up and persuaded Thoke to dance with her. As soon as they were gone, three men with beer mugs sat down on the free seats, so Arvid scooted to the very edge of the table and felt a little alone.
When she looked over to the clock again, she discovered Nod, who was on his way through the crowd and finally sat down at the other end of her table. Arvid waved at him, but he didn’t notice her in the turmoil.
Eventually she heard excited voices somewhere near her. The table shook violently when a woman stood up with an energetic jerk. Quickly Arvid grabbed her cup to keep it from tipping over.
“Outrageous!” cried the woman before she walked away, closely followed by a second, who also looked rather mad. Arvid leaned forward curiously and peered down the table. To her surprise, she discovered a familiar face. It was the dark-haired woman she had met in the washroom. Across from her sat Nod. It looked as if the two knew each other, even though Nod looked anything but happy.
“In two hundred and eighty? No, it’s much longer ago,” Arvid heard the woman say. “At least ninety years. The company was clearly better back then.”
Not only Nod, but also the smoking man diagonally opposite of her, who had laughed constantly earlier, threw her dark glances. The woman didn’t seem impressed at all, though. On the contrary, it looked as if she was enjoying herself just fine.
“The new regulation is clearly a mistake,” she said in a nonchalant tone. “All those pig farmers and shoemakers that suddenly appear there—not that I don’t like pigs or shoes, but… people like that simply don’t belong in such a place. They lack solid education.”
“You should choose your words more wisely,” said a man next to her, whom Arvid couldn’t see properly. He sounded angry. “I’m also pig farmer and think I could very well fill a seat in the City Council.”
“I always choose my words wisely,” the woman replied coolly. “Just because you feel offended doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
The man growled angrily but didn’t reply, instead blowing a puff of smoke in the air. The fat man opposite set about lighting his pipe anew. What happened next left Arvid speechless.
The woman reached across the table, took the man’s pipe from his hand and knocked the tobacco into an empty bowl in front of them. “You smoke too much,” she said without batting an eyelid. “An apple would do you well. You’re getting a little wide around the middle.”
For a moment, the man stared at her, dumbfounded, his hand still in the position in which he had held his pipe. Then Arvid could almost watch as his face turned red and his eyes darkened with anger. Nod, who was sitting right next to him, noticeably ducked his head.
“What a cheek!” the fat man shouted so loudly that several people turned around to him. “When and how much I smoke is entirely my affair!”
“Not as long as you blow your stinking smoke in my direction,” the woman replied calmly, “and spread your foul breath over my table.”
“Your table!” roared the man and jumped from his chair. “I was here first, and I won’t let a brazen woman like you offend me!”
“You don’t say?” the dark-haired said defiantly, waving with his pipe. “What do you want to do about it?”
The man tore the pipe out of her hand with such a violent movement, the whole table shook and the dishes rattled loudly. “I’m warning you!” he thundered. “You better guard your impudent tongue, or…”
“Or what?” the woman interrupted him mockingly. “You don’t really want to use those fat, smelly fingers to beat a woman whose body you secretly desire.”
Arvid could see Nod turning several shades paler. The man next to him was furious with rage. His face got, though Arvid wouldn’t have thought it possible, even redder. For a moment she really thought he would strike—but he didn’t. With a violent swing he swept the cups and jars from the table, so that they clattered and crashed. Beer and wine splashed and foamed.
“May the demons take you!” he yelled, turned and stormed off. The other man with a pipe, sitting between Arvid and the dark-haired, rose after a moment and went off also.
Arvid could feel the looks which rested on them, although the music still played and the incident quickly drowned in the general tumult of the festival. Her heart was beating wildly. She still couldn’t grasp properly what had just happened.
Two employees came running and started to mop up the spilled drinks. Arvid rose automatically and helped pick up cups and dishes. Only now did Nod look at her directly. It was obvious that he felt embarrassed, even though he himself didn’t have anything to do with the incident.
When the table was cleared again, Arvid hesitantly sat down beside the dark-haired woman. She still didn’t know what to make of her behavior but decided to take a chance. Nod didn’t seem too enthusiastic about Arvid’s decision. However, the woman just smiled at her, as if nothing had happened at all.
Nod cleared his throat. He looked from the woman to Arvid and back again. It seemed as if he was about to say something, then he hesitated.
“Arvid, that’s… my patroness,” he finally said.
“Oh,” Arvid said in surprise, then she turned to the dark-haired and bowed her head. “I am glad to make your acquaintance. What is your name?”
“That’s the second time you’ve asked me that tonight,” the woman said with amusement.
For a moment Arvid looked at her blankly. There was again this intense feeling of knowing her, but this time it went deeper. All of a sudden it was so clear and obvious that Arvid wondered how she ever had been able to overlook it.
“You are Loke,” she blurted out.
“I guess I can’t deny that,” said the woman.
“How did you recognize him?” Nod said incredulously. “Only shapeshifters can recognize others regardless of their shape.”
Arvid shrugged.
“Don’t be silly,” Loke rebuked him. “It’s a gift that also occurs in non-shapeshifters.”
“But it is extremely rare!”
“Not among gods,” said Loke.
An employee brought two new pitchers of wine. Loke took one of them, before he could even put it on the table, and filled her cups. Arvid didn’t object, but took a long drink. She felt pretty messed up.
“So you’re patron of two students,” she said then. “I suppose Nod knew about it?”
“Of course,” Loke said. “Why do you think I have him? He should keep an eye on you. You know… take care of my investment. He’s not good for anything else anyway.”
“Take care of me? By staying as far away from me as possible?”
Loke sipped some wine and looked at Arvid in amusement. “I have forbidden him to make friends with you; that would have been too obvious. Never
theless, he was always near you. You may not always have noticed him because he… well, looked different.”
Arvid threw Nod a help-seeking look. “But… here at school all shapeshifters have to…”
“I like to take liberties with rules,” Loke interrupted.
For a moment, Arvid was speechless. Of course it had been easy for Nod to stay close to her and watch her, if he used an unknown shape. Arvid had rarely felt so betrayed.
“So you had him watch me all the time?” she asked in disbelief, then turned to Nod in sudden anger. “How could you?” she asked. “Since I got here, you’ve been eavesdropping on me in secret? Do you really think that’s all right?”
Nod swallowed. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Loke said, “He had no choice. This favor you owe me… it’s very important.” He turned to Nod. “Bugger off, I don’t need you at the moment.”
Stunned, Arvid watched Nod without hesitation rise from his seat and leave. She didn’t know what shocked her more: that Loke commanded Nod around like a dog, or the fact that he didn’t seem to mind at all.
When they were alone, Arvid turned back to Loke. “Just so you know,” she hissed, “just because you pay for my studies, I will not dance to your whistle and take orders like some valet!”
“Just like Nod, you mean? Of course you won’t. All I expect is that you keep our trade.”
“I will keep my promise. But I dislike how you treat Nod.”
“I can live with that.”
Arvid was about to make a remark, but at that moment a small group of loudly laughing and chattering people approached and took the free seats at their table. A fat woman sat down next to Arvid, and it got very cramped. Arvid instinctively moved away a bit in Loke’s direction.
“Well then,” said Loke. As Arvid turned round to him again, he was almost uncomfortably close. “Would you like to dance?”
Arvid hesitated. “With you?”
“Of course with me.”
“But… you’re a woman.”
“So what?” Loke leaned toward Arvid, who instinctively retreated. “Some people would kill for the right to dance with a god,” he whispered.
Although Arvid had observed several same-sex couples at the festival, it seemed strange to dance with a woman. She couldn’t say why she finally agreed anyway. Maybe it was the unpleasant crowd at her table, or perhaps also the wine, of which she had at least drunk two cups too many. Maybe it was also because Loke, in a nondescript way was so beautiful that Arvid had the subliminal urge to look at him some more.
Only when she had risen, Arvid noticed how slow her reactions had become from the alcohol. The room around her didn’t seem to be one hundred percent in balance anymore. When she made a remark about it, Loke laughed, grabbed her hand and pulled her with him.
Arvid had thought that dancing would be an unbearable and evil end of the feast. She had set out to just complete the compulsory dance and then stay away from the dance floor. Having overcome her first, wine-dulled inhibitions, she enjoyed herself better than she had for weeks, though. Loke didn’t follow the dance steps as accurately as Arvid had learned them from Aleri. Here and there he made an additional swing, and after a short time Arvid automatically fell in into these dynamics. She didn’t move nearly as elegantly as Loke, and yet she didn’t seem to be able to stop smiling.
Arvid had to admit that she was disappointed when Loke eventually apologized with a polite bow and disappeared. Almost simultaneously, however, she started to feel a leaden weariness in her body. Nod was gone. Aleri, Enild, and Thoke sat at a table that was completely overcrowded, and so Arvid sat down on an empty seat near the entrance.
She peeked over at the table of honor, where Lanfei excitedly chatted with Borgarr and a handful of masters loudly laughed and drank. Coth wasn’t among them or the dancers. Arvid’s eyes sought the clock. With horror she realized that the ninety-third hour had already dawned. She got up and hurriedly left the room.
When she shortly afterwards stepped outside, wrapped in a blanket, there was sudden silence. The low, dulled music of the festival reached her, but other than that, the noise of the icy wind was the only sound.
Arvid’s nervousness increased as she slowly went down the stairs and approached the fireplace. The flames had been extinguished long ago, and of the bright blazing fire, nothing but a heap of smoldering ruins remained. They spread a dull glow and a gentle heat, but no one was here.
Slowly Arvid rounded the stony round and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. When she reached the other side of the fire, she stopped and looked around. Nothing moved. Had she come too late? Arvid was about to move on, when she suddenly heard a rustling noise behind her.
Heart pounding, she turned around. At first there wasn’t anything but impenetrable darkness, but then she spotted him. A few steps away from the fire, so that the last glow of the embers could just barely reach him, stood the stranger from the orchard. She took a deep breath, then resolutely walked toward him.
“I hope you liked my little riddle,” said the man. “Have you come to a solution?” He came to meet her with unhurried steps.
“I… was able to read your letter,” Arvid said evasively.
“Obviously, otherwise you wouldn’t be here now. How do you like your new soul gem?” He gently tapped on a spot on Arvid’s chest. Automatically she looked down, only to find that the necklace was completely hidden under the blanket.
“How can you even know about that?” she asked, startled.
Her counterpart chuckled. “Isn’t that pretty obvious by now?”
Arvid looked at him with growing confusion. He looked the same as when she had met him in the orchard. He had pale, freckled skin and long red hair that was braided into small braids. His eyes were green, and this fact made Arvid stop short. His eyes had not been green when she had seen him the last time. She had searched books for descriptions of gods long enough in order to clearly remember that he had had hazel eyes. As their eyes met now, she immediately knew why. Surprised, she took a sharp breath.
“So you really have the gift,” Loke said approvingly, but Arvid felt a sudden anger rising inside her.
“In how many different shapes have I met you?” she asked sharply. “You probably think it’s funny to make a fool out of me!”
“Of course, why else would I play with you? But don’t worry. I have neither the desire nor the time to follow you in unfamiliar shapes.”
“No, that’s what you have Nod for!” Arvid said angrily.
“Right,” he replied, unimpressed. “But now that you know how you can recognize him, this will probably change.” He lightly grabbed her arm. “Walk with me. This isn’t a good place for a talk.” He turned and walked toward the orchard. Although Arvid seethed, she followed him.
“So?” said Arvid. “How many times have we met?”
“Before this day, and apart from our conversation in the town hall, only once,” Loke said. “Oh, no, wait—twice. But the first time doesn’t count.”
“Outside the shed,” said Arvid. She was surprised that it had not been more often. “And you were the blonde woman in the green dress that was here together with Thor, am I right?”
“You are. I guess it will be more difficult for me to take advantage of your ignorance from now on.”
“You bet. I’ve read a lot about you. I can’t say that I was overly impressed by it. If we are to believe the stories, it’s never a good idea to support your plans.”
Loke chuckled. “Maybe not,” he said. “But are we?”
“Are we what?”
“To believe the stories,” Loke said. “They tend to have two sides, you know? In addition, not everything that is written in books is automatically the truth.”
Arvid didn’t know what to say to that. In fact, Master C
oth had warned her about believing everything that was written about Loke. On the other hand, she doubted that all these stories were fictitious, and there seemed to be a few traits that recurred in far too much of what she had read about the god beside her.
They had reached the tool shed, but Loke went on. The snow reflected the modest light coming through the cloud cover and wrapped their surroundings in a cold gray. The closer they got to the cliffs, the more nervous Arvid felt. The terrain was steep, and she knew that somewhere down there the circle of protection lay hidden under a layer of snow.
“We should not go too far away,” she said eventually. The shed and the last trees of the orchard were long out of sight. In front of them the outlines of some rocks emerged from the snow.
“Don’t worry,” Loke said. “I have as little desire to cross the circle of protection as you.”
Arvid looked at him, surprised, but Loke now paused and gestured toward the rocks.
“Let’s sit down,” he said. “I know you are warmth-loving in nature, but I can’t risk someone overhearing our conversation.”
Arvid was freezing, yet she followed Loke’s invitation. She sat down on the rock, which was shielded by two other, larger chunks. As soon as she was out of the icy wind, she felt a bit warmer. Still, she shivered as her eyes fell on Loke, who was dressed only in a thin cloth tunic and wore neither cape nor cloak. How he could endure the cold was beyond her, but it was another question that was foremost in her mind: “Do you also feel pain when crossing circles of protection?”
“Yes,” Loke said. “The circles react to certain… properties of a soul. Interestingly, our souls are similar in some minor respects.”
“Oh? How would you know that? You hardly know me.”
Loke smirked. “For the same reason you could recognize me even though I looked very different. Do you know how and by what you can identify a shapeshifter?”
Fragments of your Soul (The Mirror Worlds Book 1) Page 19