I looked over to Ethel who was quiet on the table. She had repositioned herself so her back wasn’t to me anymore. In the weird human, cat-like way she raised her chin in a silent ‘yes.’ I made eye contact with James and held my hand out to his. The moment we shook hands, I said, “Deal.” I hoped I wouldn’t regret accepting his help.
“Where do you want me to start?” I asked James the minute we dropped our handshake.
“From the beginning...”
“REMEMBER HOW WE TALKED about Sigyn and holding the bowl over Loki the other day?”
James leaned back again on the couch and folded his arms behind his head. That must be his favorite position. “Of course.”
“Well, that is not the whole story...”
“...That is common mythology...” James interrupted me.
I held my palm up to him, hoping to silence him. “This is a long story, so if you interrupt everything I say, then we will never finish.” His jaws clenched, but he stopped talking.
“As I was saying, what you were taught, is not the whole story. You know it as Loki was being punished, and Sigyn was saving his life. Well, you are wrong. Sigyn desperately wanted a baby. No matter what she tried, she was infertile. In a final, desperate attempt, she reached out to the Serpentine Oracle for advice.”
I stopped talking when James’ hand shot in the air. “I don’t understand all of your words. What is an oracle?”
Huh. I didn’t think about the fact that my life was as strange to him and his was to me. “An oracle can mean many things. But this oracle offered insight to the gods. Sometimes the insight would come as good fortune, sometimes as wisdom, and sometimes as fertility. At any rate, the Serpentine Oracle always comes with a price – temptation. The Oracle told Sigyn, if she offered servitude to Loki for one full solstice cycle in the form of saving his life, then on the first following Winter Solstice, she would be fertile. Here’s the deal, she told Sigyn the baby born from the Winter Solstice will have the ability open different portals at any time...” I rolled my eyes when James’ hand shot in the air again. At this rate, I was pretty sure he was being a smart mouth about me telling him not to interrupt.
“I know I went in a portal during your so-called hunt. But what is a portal?”
I have to give it to him, he was asking legit questions. “A portal is an opening to a different layer...” I smiled when his eyebrows shot up. “The world is full of many layers. We live on a layer. The gods on a completely different one. Truthfully, there is an unknown amount of layers. Now, there are spells that can cast portals to in between layers, like the hunt. But there is no one way to cast a portal directly from one layer to the next, until the oracle told Sigyn the baby born from her serving Loki would have that ability.
“To be able to do that, the individual would have an ability unlike any other. They would be able to visit the gods or the God or whatever layer they wanted to find. Power was Sigyn’s temptation. She convinced Loki to sit under that mountain. She held that bowl for three whole weeks, stopping that Serpentine poison from dripping down his body. On that final week, Sigyn dropped her arms. It wasn’t the poison dripping down the mountainside that hit Loki, it was the poison from the bowl. It fell on Loki. It caused him so much pain, he blew up Mount Vesuvius. Loki was the reason Pompeii was destroyed.”
I stopped talking for a few minutes to allow James to process all of this. With one sentence he dropped his arms from behind his head. By the time I said Pompeii, he was fully leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees.
“I am confused. What does this have to do with Ethel?”
I looked back over to Ethel. “You want to answer this?” She just shook her head ‘no.’ I guessed she was still mad at me. I shrugged my shoulders. She was going to have to get over it or get under it.
“Here’s the kicker to this whole story...” I continued, “...By now you figured out Sigyn failed. Her actions affected this layer. You see, the Serpentine Oracle is forbidden because a snake never tells the truth. Sigyn was already pregnant with Ethel before she ever visited the Oracle. Because of their visit to the Oracle, Odin, along with other gods, banished Sigyn and Loki out of their layer and into this layer. Why, you ask?”
James actually smiled at me and nodded his head. “Ethel and I can’t figure out why. The only time I have ever met Odin was the other day, and then wasn’t the time to ask.” James dropped his smile. “What Ethel and I have found out for sure is Sigyn and Loki have figured out a way to make a coven of creatures from other layers. They are only fertile on the Winter Solstice. You see, they are making an army to take into the gods’ layer and take it over. Their missing piece is how to train Ethel on opening the portal.
“Sigyn and Ethel were sparring with swords a few months ago. She got Ethel good and sliced her arm. When Ethel’s blood hit the ground, a teeny-tiny portal opened up. After that, Sigyn acted like a true mother to Ethel. It was weird, because Sigyn didn’t care one way or the other about her. The day before the last Winter Solstice, I read Ethel’s future, except I couldn’t see a future. I saw all the stuff she did in the past, but I couldn’t see her future. I knew she was going to die. We heard rumors for years about a Death Seer in and out of the prison system. We needed confirmation of who was going to kill her, and you were easy to find. Now, you are all caught up and can speak freely.”
He took a deep breath. I had a feeling he was about to ask a million questions. “What is Ask and Embla?”
I got excited and clapped when he asked this. “Good question because this directly relates to who you are. When Odin banished Sigyn and Loki, he created two creatures from his own ribs. Ask and Embla were put on this layer to keep an eye on them. But they were mortal. Originally, they worked together, two pieces of a whole. Several thousand years later and neither of them have memory of the other. Odin created them with the ability to see death and life. Death has the ability to yank evil creatures from this layer to the Dry Lakes—the layer of true death. Death is the more powerful of the two and has the ability to change forms, like your lovely skeleton face. Life has the ability see true intentions and life deeds. Life comes with Death Flames. I guess when together, they have the ability to summon Odin. But, I don’t know if that was because we were in an in between layer or if it will always be that way.”
“So, we are like brother and sister?”
I laughed so hard I snorted. “Um...no. We were created to be the perfect complement to each other.”
James exhaled loud. “Thank the fucks. I thought I lusted after my sister.”
“You lusted after me?”
“Focus, Violet,” Ethel said from across the room.
I put the back of my hand on my forehand and did an Oscar winning southern belle voice. “Lawdy, stop my beating heart. She speaks. Get out the vapors, before I pass out.”
“You’re not funny.”
I looked back over to Ethel. I laughed when she turned her back to me again.
When I sobered up, I turned back to James. “Do you have any more questions?”
He clenched his jaw and drew his eyebrows together like he was in serious thought. “Just two.”