Ascension Chapter 15

    The full moon cast a blue light over the village cottages but the Guild hall was already ablaze with candlelight when they arrived. Loki held open the door for the others to file in. Colum spotted them right off. "Ah Loki! Chris!" He called over the music. "Come on, join in!" Loki saw Fin on the podium at the end of the hall with the other musicians, working the fiddle, his hands a fluid grace as they flew along the strings.
              Chris waved at him, "I've not visited the food yet, and I should like a mug of ale before I attempt anything so elaborate."
             Loki nodded absently, he had been unable to take his eyes off Eidra from the moment he'd walked in the door of the cottage and he felt proud to have her on his arm. They watched the couples dancing in the middle of the floor. She saw Cormac on the other side of the room and waved to him, he returned the gesture and started to make his way to them.
           "He still has a slight limp from that ankle injury, poor man." She leaned to Loki so he could hear her over the music.
            "Eidra, yer lookin' lovely tonight." He bowed, "Loki, you are the most fortunate man here."
             "Thank you, Cormac, that I am."
             Cormac surveyed the dancers, "D'ye think I might beg the favor of the next dance with her?"
             Eidra looked at Loki who gave her a nod, "I trust you will bring her back in one piece, my friend."
             Cormac chuckled, red in the face, "I'll treat her like a china doll....milady?"
         Loki smiled at her and stood to watch while her and Cormac took to the floor with three other couples. It was then that he saw one half of one couple was Angus. His smile dimmed as they all began to dance around in a circle, his attention centered on where she was at all times. They circled four times around the floor, then stopped in a square with two couple paired off  to circle around one another, switching partners back and forth while the other couple kept time, clapping their hands. Loki knew then that Angus had told him to ask Eidra to dance, he was sure of it as Cormac and Eidra were then paired off with Angus and a short blond girl to dance around each other.
           He let a low growl in his throat as he watched Angus twirl Eidra around the room and hand her back to Cormac, not once but twice. He was taking careful note of the movements as well; there would be no one else dancing with her tonight lest it be him.
          The dance was lively, her cheeks were flushed by the time they all bowed to one another and the room erupted with applause. She shook Cormac's hand with a smile and moved through the crowd to Loki, Angus's eyes following her all the way, a fact which was not lost on Loki.
          He took Eidra's hands, "You are grace defined."
           "Thank you." She took a deep breath and wiped her forehead,  "I am going to fetch us some cider."
           He shook his head and guided her to a nearby chair, "You sit, I shall do the fetching."
           He looked above the crowd, spotted the banquet table and made his way toward it, nodding to people along the way. Siobhan who asked where Eidra was, Loki pointing in the direction he had come from, Fin who was taking a break with the musicians for a mug of ale. He scanned the crowd for Chris and Sally but they were nowhere to be seen. He finally reached the cider bowl and was in the process of dipping out two cups when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He stiffened and turned to see Angus smiling at him.
          "Loki, ma boy, I didna know you were here."
          "I am. I accompanied Eidra here to the reel."
           Angus raised an eyebrow, "Now then, you didna' dance wi' her. I thought she was alone."
          "I allowed her a dance with Cormac." He set the mugs down on the table, his hands were starting to shake with anger and he didn't want Angus to notice, instead he brought the dipper down to them, staring at their contents.
           "Allowed it? I didna' know she needed permission. Then I guess I'll have ta ask you if I might have the next dance wi' her."
           He rounded on Angus and growled, "You may not have the next dance, or the dance after that. If you wish to ask, you may do so but rest assured she will not accept."
           All at once, Angus dropped any pretense of congeniality, "I'll wager she will. Look at you, dressed like a peasant, wi' the affected manner of the gentry. You are too proud of yourself,  I've knocked many a man down a notch twice your size."
           Loki took a step towards him, the mugs forgotten, "I am a prince of the realm." his voice was low, menacing.
           Angus roared with laughter, people had begun to notice their heated exchange, "Where is your scepter then? In your breeches?"

           Eidra had sat there, waiting for Loki, watching the dancers. At one point she heard voices raised above the music but ignored it as merrymaking revelers. Another shout drifted across the room and people started to glance in that direction. Eidra stood up then but being short, she ventured a step onto the seat of the chair and raised herself higher above the heads of the crowd. What she saw made her nearly lose her balance as she set her feet back down on the floor and began to push her way through the crowd.

               Angus's head bounced off the guild hall wall, his teeth clacking together but the shock was short lived as he immediately responded to Loki's hard rush, his arm across Angus's chest, with a jab to Loki's side that broke his hold as he gasped for breath and stumbled back, pain radiating from where he'd cracked his ribs, making his vision swim for a few seconds, enough time for Angus to grab him by the arm and toss him face first into the wall he'd been against a moment ago. "I saw the way you held yourself, you give away all your weak spots!" Angus yelled.
              Loki's foot came up just before his body contacted the wall and he propelled himself backwards with a fast shove, toppling Angus to the floor behind him. He landed across Angus's chest, dropping his weight as hard as he could and swift turning so he was straddling his chest. "You whoreson! You think you can best me?" He came across Angus's jaw with a right hook that would have  sent a weaker man to sleep off the encounter as a bad dream but Angus readjusted his jaw, reached up before Loki could retract his arm and grabbed him by the front of the tunic, pulling him forward quickly to unseat him then tossing him to the side while he tried to regain his feet.

        Chris was standing outside the hall talking with Sally quietly while they shared a mug of cider. They had taken a wooden platter outside and shared the food they'd piled upon it. Chris saying that he could not remember a nicer night in recent times.
          A young man from the village burst through the doors to the interior of the hall  a short ways from them, looking out into the night at another man who'd come outside to relieve himself of the cider he'd drunk, "Phillip! Oy, come on. There's a fighting goin' on. Hurry yer arse!"
         Chris paused only a moment then jumped up from the bench they'd been sitting on, nearly spilling Sally to the ground. "Excuse me, Sally, my dear. I believe that is our cue."

              Eidra made the edge of the circle just as Angus took Loki by the front of his tunic and tossed him to his side. She had been about to yell to them to stop fighting when something flew through the air and clattered to the floor, skittering to a stop at the toe of her slipper. She looked down and it took all her strength to stop her legs from buckling beneath her. The object was at once familiar to her, as familiar as her own two hands and yet looking at it seemed as if she was dreaming for it could not be here and yet it was. She bent down and picked up the Uruz, feeling the hum of power at her trembling fingertips, the same throb of power she had felt whenever her father would take it out to show her.
             He would allow her to hold it but briefly, sometimes with tears in his eyes. She had asked him one day why he seemed so sad and he had finally told her that she would never be able to possess it. That she could never become a woman.
            She looked up at the two men before her, still grappling on the floor and at the top of her voice, she shouted, "Stop it!"
            Her cry stopped them in mid swing, Loki looking up at her, a bead of blood at his lip where Angus had caught him with a fist. As he realized what she was holding out to them, his hand flew to his neck and she knew.
            The hall was silent, Chris pushing forward to the edge of the crowd.
             "Where did you get this?" Her voice shook as violently as her body. Loki stood and started towards her but she backed away, "Where?!" She repeated, louder this time.
             "Please, Eidra give it back to me." Loki held out his hand but she slapped it away. Shock was plain upon his face, he stared at his hand in disbelief.
              "Answer me!"
              "You gave it to me." He swallowed drily, wincing at her response.
               "No! I never possessed it. I was never meant to have it. I would have remembered something like this and if by some miracle It had come into my possession, I was to give it to the man I loved. I cannot ever imagine giving it to you!" She was shouting now, tears streaming down her face.
                "Why would I give you such a treasure?"
                "Because you loved me. Please, Eidra let us talk of this in private."
                 She strode up to him, anger fueling her feet, "How did you come by it? Did you steal it? Did you force my father to give it to you in some twisted dealing?"
                He made to put his hand on her shoulder and she shied away as if he'd been about to poison her, "You are a liar, how can I believe anything you say?"
               She watched as a tear rolled down his cheek to match her own and she felt as if she was going to be violently ill. She bent forward and took a deep breath, feeling his hand touch her back, she swung her hand at him, "Do not touch me!"
              The people of the village had started to back away slowly, affording them a small bit of privacy save Chris who stood nearby with Sally, mouth open, speechless.
              "Eidra, I speak the truth. Why else would I come here to this village to find you?"
                Eidra stood straight, "You are a mage, I have no doubt you have enchanted me. Likely you  put the visions into my mind so that I would fall in love with you!"
               "I used no spells, no magic why would I do such a thing?" He opened his arms, "I love you, Eidra."
             She felt a fresh spate of tears begin, "I could never love you! No one could ever love you! You are a liar, and a thief!"
               "Eidra, no," He moaned, "Do not say that."
                "Get away from me!" She backed further from him, her hand clutching the Uruz tight to her chest.
                "Please." Loki cried, his voice cracking.
                 "Get out of my sight!" Eidra screamed at him, turned, looking about her at the people, Cormac, Siobhan, Sally, Fin still on the podium with his fiddle under his arm then she shoved her way through the crowd, Sally close on her heels, calling her, "Eidra wait!"
                 Chris turned to speak to Loki and kept turning until he'd been completely around, but all he found was Angus, still standing there, his mouth hung open like a trout.
                  "A fine mess you've made of it all, you blaggart." Chris muttered at him as he started to push his way to the outer door of the guild hall.


                Once out of the hall, Loki had gone to his knees on the ground beside his horse, the pain of her words so great he could not catch breath, his tears dropping to the dirt before him, he could only moan, his arms wrapped around his stomach. He lurched to his feet finally, taking the reins, hauling himself up into the saddle and turning his horse, he spurred hm into a gallop, out of town to the cottage he and Chris shared.
                 Chris threw open the doors of the guild hall a minute later looking for any sign of Loki, seeing his horse missing from the hitching post they'd tied up at when they'd arrived.
                "Hell and damnation!" He loped over to his horse to unhitch him, staring him in the eye, "Why didn't you stop him, you old nag?", mounted him and kicked in his heels.


        Loki was kneeling in the light of the lantern hanging by the front door, folding his second tunic and stuffing it in his pack when Chris came charging inside.
             "Loki my boy, you were gone like a shot." He panted hard, trying to catch his breath, leaning forward on his knees. "What are you doing?"
              "Packing." He picked up a pair of breeches from the end of his cot.
               "Whatever for?" Chris reached for the poker beside the fire and began to move the logs around, feeding the fire, brightening the cottage interior.
                "I am leaving." He started to cinch the top closed.
                 "Leaving?" Chris cried, "To go where?"
                 "I am returning to Asgard."
                 "But you can't? What of Eidra? You cannot leave without her."
                 Loki looked up at him, "I will return to Asgard alone to bear out my own curse for as sure as your beloved Sally is, so am I."
                  Chris walked over to him and patted his shoulder, "Wait a bit longer, my son. Do not give up hope."
                  All at once, Loki was on his feet, hands into fists at his side, "You old fool! How long have you hoped? How many nights have you lain here with none for company but the sounds of the clucking chickens and the howl of the wolves. How many seasons have passed in this fashion? How many grains of sand have slipped though the hourglass? Enough to cover the shores of this cursed island? Enough to cover the shores on the whole of Midgard? And yet you talk to me of hope."
               Chris felt his throat burning as he held back angry tears, "An old fool I may be, but better to be an old fool than to run away, turn tail like a coward, for you see that time has won out, Sally tolerates me now, talks to me, who knows what might be next."
               Loki bent over and picked up his pack, "You are blessed with patience but I can bear no longer the pain of living without her." his shoulders abruptly slumped forward, the pack dropping from his shaking hands, he sat down heavy on the cot, his face in his hands. "Chris, I am weary, so very weary."
              Chris sniffed, wiped his eyes with a hand and walked over to him, placing a hand on his head, "Loki, if you must leave, do so in the morning. I will accompany you to the shore and see you off but you are truly exhausted. If this be the path you wish to take, so be it but it would not do well to lose your way in the darkness and wander this vast island endlessly."
              Loki hesitated, nodded and leaned back against the wall, "I have failed."
              Chris looked down at the floor, "I suppose 'tis possible, I am sorry, my son."
              "I should have shown the Uruz to her in the first place." He felt the spot where it had lain on his chest for the past five seasons and he closed his eyes. "I am ready to go home." he stood and lifted his pack again then. "I take my leave of you, my friend."
              "Ah, Loki." Chris rubbed the back of his head. "Are you sure, my son?"
               Loki gave Chris a tired smile, "I am, this was a foolish venture. The only good thing to come out of it has been meeting you." He pulled Chris into a one-armed hug, the other occupied with his pack. "I hope you find happiness with Sally."
              Chris couldn't speak, he knew he wouldn't be able to do so without breaking down so he nodded his head until Loki was out the door and only then did he sniff loudly, pulling a kerchief from the pocket of his breeches and wiping his eyes, standing there watching the fire in the hearth for a long time afterward.

            Eidra had groped her way blindly through the throng of people in the hall, making eye contact with no one until she reached the far door where Chris had come in, strong armed it open into the night air, dropping to her hands and knees and purged the contents of her stomach onto the cold wet ground. She felt soft hands at her back,  
          "Oh dear, Eidra." Sally murmured. "Let us go home. I've lost me appetite for merrymaking."
           Eidra stayed in that position for a long time, sobbing as Sally knelt beside her rubbing her back until she could bear it no longer. "Come, me legs are numb straight through to the bone."
            She made her feet and then pulled Eidra to stand, supporting her.
           "Sally, what do I do?" She sobbed as she allowed Sally to steer her around the outside of the Guild Hall and down the road to their cottage.
            "Forget him, forget he ever existed." She squeezed her shoulders with the arm she had around her.
             She still held the Uruz tightly in her hand when they walked inside the cottage and Sally lit a lantern as Eidra sat down her rocking chair, her sobs having dwindled to hiccuppy breaths.
            A few moments later as Sally was stoking the fire, there came a knock on the door, gentle, and Eidra jumped up from the rocker as Sally walked to the window and peered outside. "It's Fin."
           She opened the door to him and he bowed, "Might I come inside?"
           "By all means," She curtsied and he chuckled at the gesture.
          "Thank you." He walked to the rocking chair where Eidra had sat down once again and stood before her, hands clasped.
           "I didn't think it would turn out to be so interesting a night."
           "I would have chosen a different word." Eidra replied, her voice hoarse.
            "Let me see the medallion if you would." Fin held out his hand.
             Her fingers uncurled around the opal stone ever so slowly as she looked at it, the inner fire glowing like rainbow moonlight. She placed it in Fin's hand.
            Fin held it then, closed his eyes, and Eidra glanced at Sally.
            "Have you not had any revelations associated with this stone?"
            Eidra looked to the fire, her vision beginning to blur, and she blinked as another tear rolled down her cheek "Only the ones he put there."
            Fin opened his hand, "You don't really believe that do you?"
            "But what other explanation must there be? Why can I not remember what I see, why do I look at the images yet am not able to feel them?"
            "Half of your soul is gone, it lies somewhere else and it is the key to your memory. Did you have a vision with the stone in your hand?"
            She thought back to when she'd pushed her way out of the guild hall, the memory coming quickly, sharp and clear of her tying the Uruz around Loki's neck, of him lying beside her, leaning over her, between her legs, and she shut her eyes, put her hand to her mouth.
             "He tells the truth, Eidra. He is the one who can restore you. Do you love him?"
             Eidra nodded her head vigorously, her eyes still closed.
              "You must go to him and tell him this before he loses all hope." Fin took her hand, closed it around the Uruz.
               "I said such horrible, hurtful things to him." She pressed her hand to her chest, standing from the rocker and walking to the peg by the door to fetch her cloak. "What if he rejects me?"
               Fin smiled, "You are the reason he was here."
               Eidra fastened her cloak, "Sally, I must go to him."
               Sally hugged her fiercely, "Go then, hurry."
               Eidra grabbed the lantern from beside the door and ran from the house and out to the barn, nearly tripping more than once. She reached the barn, snatching the saddle from the stall fencing and turned to the roan who was stamping nervously, "Come Rose, we have ground to cover."