Chapters:

Prologue

Dedication: For all those who have felt the sting of unrequited love, may it all fade to sweet oblivion when your heart is accepted by its one true desire.

Vexed: Prologue

MALICE

Now. Somewhere...

Ragnarok they call it. The end of days. The gods of the Norsemen threatened their devoted with fear such as this to command their loyalty. If you keep a man afraid and offer them salvation in return for nothing more than their useless faith, you will command that man until the day he dies or is lucky enough to fear no longer. The gods, one by one have either fallen from their perch high above the animals that walk the earth, or have fallen into line following the strongest. They have aligned themselves for the inevitable, the ever approaching end. Odin promised his faithful an eternity walking the halls of Valhalla, his kingdom in the next world. A kingdom of glory for those who would offer their mortal lives up to him on the battlefield. Lies. Puppets. Humans are just puppets. To what end are they needed depends on the one in need.

Some humans are more special than others. For that reason, Ragnarok came early. Odin threatened it would be the end of all that there is. His faithful believed him, blinded by their fear of destruction and hope of salvation. Ragnarok would not and could not be the end of all. The world is much larger and much more important than the Norse god and his kingdom. Today was the end of days for Odin, which was the means to which I have gone to achieve my goals.

A woman hit the floor in front of me and shattered my reverie as I leaned against the stone wall staring into the darkness. Such an action would have caused me to lose my temper on any other day. He knew he was pushing the limits of my displeasure by throwing her at my feet.

Her hair was matted in an equal mixture of blood and sweat, though not her own blood. I could smell two distinct scents gently rising from her. The stone floor and the expansive stone walls made her every move echo. Her agonizing sobs annoyed me terribly as she twitched and shook with fear, making the shadows from the torchlight dance along the the expansive cavern.

“Are you not going to praise me for a job well done?” he asked me. There was very little light in the room, but he managed to position himself so that I could easily see his prize. Not the woman. His prize was gripped tightly in his hand. This was his way of giving me warning. He was a male of average height and build. He wore plain clothes, a dark colored shirt and pants with a heavy coat made of furs, all of which were splattered with dried blood. His eyes were blue, and his blonde hair was no longer than the base of his neck, but not much more. He was not a formidable looking man, but the large stone hammer gripped in his right hand was.

“I expect a job well done. To give a compliment for what is expected is to promote failure,” I said back to him just before I pushed away from the wall I was leaning against and kneeled over to inspect the woman. She kept her head down with her hair surrounding her face like a hood. Her dress was made from skins and other primitive woven fabrics. For all her weeping, I was expecting to see more damage done to her flesh. Loki was kind to his sister-in-law. I peered up to him with a smirk on my face and noticed his pained eyes on the brink of explosive anger.

“It was not without loss,” he said, the tone of his voice was wavering with hidden pain. “I lost my son.”

“Which?” I asked him. I really did not care.

Jormangand.”

“Hm. Children are expendable. Make another,” I told him. The knuckles on the hand holding the hammer went white with rage. I truly did not care much for his worm son. The giant snake who could stretch the length of the world and bite its own tale. It was foreseen and written that this would come to pass. The great and mighty Thor would fall after taking nine steps away from the dead carcass of Jormangand. Fall from the vile venom that burned inside his veins from the fateful bite of the slain worm. If it was foretold, unshakable destiny, then why all the remorse? Why feel pain over something that was not in one’s ability to control? Why expend sorrowful energy when nothing could have deterred the outcome? I learned long ago that control was all that mattered. Control was everything, and potentially, anything.

“Tell me your name,” Loki demanded. It was not a question, it was a certainly a demand. I could feel the other eleven sets of eyes around me peering through the shadows. I knew all twelve of their names, including the maniac standing before me now with hatred burning through his eyes like spears of fire aimed directly at heart.

“No. My name remains with me,” I told him. After all, the ruse must go on. This was not the first time Loki challenged me. I cannot blame him for his frustrations. He spent an eternity as a follower. Equal to his king, Odin, but he was never the one who ruled. Now he takes my orders. Always a bridesmaid, I suppose.

He flinched.

Before his flinch turned into a charging rage, the rock floor below him cracked under pressure and several decayed and skeletal figures grabbed him tight, rendering his lower body useless as if encased in cement. He gave out a frustrated groan and bashed at the dead hands with his new hammer. For every hand he smashed to dust, two more took its place. At last, Loki’s body relaxed and ceased his struggling.

“Your name will be revealed,” Loki said over heavy panting. “When it is, your power over us will be gone.”

“Perhaps,” I said to him in a bored voice. I have waited too long for this moment and cannot wait any longer. Loki is powerful, and has completed the most important task yet. If I was not so sure I would need him, I would let the dead have him. That would truly be poetic considering the amount of humans he has killed or tricked into death over the centuries.

I placed my hand beneath the woman’s head and kindly lifted her eyes off the floor and up to mine. She was older than I expected, but the traces of beauty and grace were still there. Her eyes were swollen from the never ending cascade of tears falling from them. She leaned back as I pulled her chin higher, kneeling before me with fear. I backed away slowly and allowed myself to summon a pair of hands from inside the earth to hold her arms. I did not want her to do anything to ruin this moment.

Frigg,” I said her name. Her trembling eyes snapped to attention at hearing me. Something as simple as knowing a name can give you all the power you could ever desire over a creature. The trick was learning their true name. Creatures like us, we tend to acquire many names the longer we live for the very purpose of burying our one true weakness in time. “Today your kingdom fell to the fate you yourself had foretold centuries ago. I am curious,” I said to her as I walked a few steps back to my dark place and leaned once more against the wall. The darkness helped me to think and remain calm. “Do you know why I have sought your company?” She looked at me in shame. Her entire kingdom and family was destroyed this very day, orchestrated by me, all so that her special gift could tell me what I needed to know.

“Yes,” she answered through a choking lump in her throat. The look of recognition on her face was very interesting. She can only see the answers to questions she has been asked. This is an unfortunate limitation to her precious gift. Had she this information prior to today, she may have changed the fate of her dead kingdom.

“Tell me,” I asked politely. She turned her head slightly, bracing herself against my words with a visible look of pain making her lips tremble.

“The girl will be born one-thousand nine hundred eighty years after the year of their Lord. She will have hair as red as hell-fire and eyes as green as emeralds. Seek her on the new continent in the realm of the great empire no less than twenty years from the time of her birth. It is only then that she may forfeit what you seek,” she explained, the answer flowing from her freely.

“Once found, how do I make her forfeit?” I asked her. The problem with a Seer, and moreso with one as old and wise as Frigg, is that they do their best to tell you all you want to know, but leave out the one thing you absolutely need to know.

“To gain which it is you seek, she must first love you. You must make her yearn for you with all her heart. Captivate her mind with all your charm. She must lust for you with her entire body. And she must need you with every ounce of her soul. Once that is obtained, take her to the holy land that was lost and locked away. There you may acquire what it is you seek.”

At that, I was satisfied. I took two purposeful steps toward her and slashed her throat clean to the bone with sharp nails on my left hand. She bled out quickly, her life force was draining away, but I made the task final and thrust my talons deep into her chest, and ripped out her heart. It was only a matter of time before one of mine became brave enough to ask her my name. The eleven sets of eyes left, retreating back to the comfort of the shadows. I let the dead release Loki, who left my presence in defeat. He had just destroyed his former kingdom, and lost one of his sons in the process, for nothing except the trophy hammer he had hoped would give him an advantage over me. Sometimes, even a god can be merely a puppet.

I returned to my shadows against the cold stone wall and begin to think. For thousands of years I survived in the dark black void, listlessly passing the centuries without aim and restlessly searching for a destiny that evaded me. Destiny was now mine. My path was now laid out in front of me, giving me purpose in this world where purpose was limited. This was my time, and it all begins with one special girl.




Next Chapter: Chapter 1