Another moment, and I opened my eyes.
Chapter Eighteen
It took me a few moments to fully wake—I had been so far out on whatever realm Väinämöinen had taken me to that even though I was back in my body, I still felt disoriented. I groaned, slowly sitting up as I rubbed my head. I had the headache from hell and my temples and the top of my head throbbed like I’d been hit with a two-by-four.
“Head hurt?” the bard asked.
“Head hurts bad. Really bad.” My stomach lurched and I groaned and lay back down. “Can someone douse the light in this room? I don’t feel so good.”
“That’s normal. Think of it like getting a shot full of magic juice that you don’t normally work with—all at once. You’ll feel under the weather for another day or so, but by tomorrow, you should be back on your feet, at the least.” He leaned back, staring at me like I was a monkey in a zoo. “This should be interesting. This is the first time I’ve done something like this in several centuries. I’m a loner by nature and I avoid people as much as I can.”
“And you want me to be your acolyte? Boy, are you going to regret that,” I said, squeezing my eyes closed. “I want to go home and sleep it off.” As I turned over on my side, my eyes were growing heavier and it was easier to tune everything out and go back to sleep.
I slept the sleep of the dead—at least the dead who were at peace. When I next opened my eyes, I was in my own bed, in a comfortable nightie, and Raj was sitting next to the bed, staring at me. The curtains were closed and I had no clue whether it was night or day, or what time it was, or how I had gotten there.
My head still hurt, though not as much, and my stomach had calmed down enough to where I was actually hungry. I slowly eased my way up into a sitting position, groaning slightly. My muscles were stiff from lying down.
“Hey, can Raj tell Raven what day it is?” I said, squinting at him.
Raj grinned. When gargoyles smiled, it was disconcerting until you got used to it. “Today is Thursday. Raj knows because Acrobert and the Alphas were on TV last night. And they’re always on Wednesday evenings unless preempted by special programming.”
I suppressed a laugh. He sounded like a game show announcer. But that was Raj. “Raven thanks Raj,” I said, wincing as another pang hit my head. But it wasn’t as bad as before and I could tell the headache was winding to a close.
“Can Raj go get Phasmoria or Kipa for Raven?” I asked, shading my eyes from the light that filtered in between the cracks in the curtains.
“Raj will get Kipa.” He turned to bounce out of the room.
I lay back down, pulling a pillow over my eyes to block out the light. Curious, I reached for the spell that Väinämöinen had given me and sure enough, there it was. I could see it—feel it—and, I knew—cast it. So it was part of my arsenal now.
“Raven, you’re awake?” Kipa’s voice echoed through the muffled folds of the pillow.
“Can you get me a blindfold so I can take this fool pillow off my face?” I asked.
“Of course.” Another moment and he placed a blindfold in my hands. Technically, it was a sleep mask, but we usually used it for play time rather than sleeping. But today it would work other than as a sex toy. It did what it was supposed to do—block out the light.
I slid the mask on, then pushed the pillow away and very slowly sat up again. I was dizzy and disconcerted, but the lack of light helped settle the queasiness that had started in again when I began moving around.
“I need food. What’s today? Raj said it’s Thursday?”
“Yes,” he said, sitting on the bed beside me to take my hands. “You were out from Tuesday when you crashed in Kalevala. Väinämöinen warned us you might sleep for over twenty-four hours, and you did—around thirty-six, to be precise. It’s nine o’clock on Thursday morning. Are you hungry?”
My stomach rumbled. “Now that I’ve blocked out the light, yes. I was when I first opened my eyes but the light started making me queasy again. But it’s not bad like it was on Tuesday night after the ritual. Do you know where he took me? I don’t think it was the astral—”
“No, it wasn’t the astral. He took you to Ukko’s realm, which is out on the web not too far from where the dark matter of the universe exists. It’s on the realm where the soul of the aurora lives. While the actual physical manifestation of the lights are created by the sun, the energy behind them is found in Ukko’s realm, among a few others, and the heart of the bridge they form is found there.”
“You make it sound like the Northern Lights are entities, not just a connecting bridge.”
“That’s because they are. Or rather, it is—the aurora is a hive-minded being. It acts as the bridge for the gods, but it’s also a sentient creature that exists in energetic form. And Ukko has forged an alliance with it.”
“Is it the same thing as the Rainbow Bridge—Bifrost?”
“No, that’s connected to Heimdall, from the Norse, and Iris from the Greeks, and a few other deities. However, the Rainbow Bridge does act similarly to the aurora, though it’s more bound to Earth than the aurora is.”
He let out a sigh, squeezing my hands. “I’m so glad you came through this. I was worried.”
I thought about all that had happened. “I’m going to be training with Väinämöinen. I never would have guessed that would happen, not in a million years.” I paused, then brought my knees up and rested my chin on them. “Did you know?”
“That he was going to require you to train with him? No, I had no clue. In fact, I thought he would probably turn us away, given the mood Bear told me he was in. But…do you think you can actually follow through? It means that next month you’ll be leaving to live in Kalevala for a year. Two years, actually, given the internship afterward. I’ll go with you, of course, and we’ll take Raj. I can find us a snug-enough home. But can you live without modern technology, or access to your friends for that long?”
I shivered. The thought was daunting. But I had given my word and one thing I was good for: following up on my promises. Also, the opportunity was too great to ignore.
“Yeah, I’ll do it. I’m looking forward to it, in many ways, and who knows where this will lead. My mother asked me Tuesday, while you were talking to Bear, if I thought I could ever live in Kalevala. That one day you might want to return home and then I’d have to make the decision whether to go or stay.”
I rested my forehead against my arms, feeling worn out and yet strangely alert. The thought of training under a bard who belonged to the Force Majeure was like candy sitting on the counter with no one watching. It was impossible for me to resist.
“Väinämöinen wouldn’t have offered you the chance if he didn’t think you had the talent to go far. He’s not that generous. He’s also not into young girls, and to him, that’s what you are. So never think it’s because he wants something untoward from you. I’ve seen him train two other people in all the time I’ve known him. And that goes back long before I ever came to this realm.”