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What is it with women and regularly complaining about a man's fashion sense and then asking that same man if they look good or sexy?! There is just no-win answers! Even when they truly look god damn good and sexy!
Jane is happy about her two new pairs of high-heeled shoes that were ordered before the wedding, plus a pair of over-the-knee leather boots inspired by the movie Atomic Blonde, and just general Midgård fashion. But how would I know she isn't entirely happy with the outcome of the boots? At least she chalk them up to 'research and prototypes', and yes, she truly does make designs for the shoemaker and has an agreement, and mainly uses her own silver earned from paintings for the new shoes, even though earlier this fall, I gave her a budget to use for her own projects.
It's not something I would expect, but I've realised that Iselin and Jane seem to share an interest for shoes. I hadn't thought about it before Caecilia mentioned it during after sex cuddling, but Iselin has been acquiring more and more shoes. Boots, summer shoes, winter shoes, wedding shoes, indoor shoes and two pairs of clogs-slippers. And now she has four pairs of 'proper' heels. A pair of wedge heels like Alith, and three pairs of high heels in different colours and shapes, one which are stilettos with leg laces. Iselin has often used high-heeled shoes in bed when we cuddled or had sex, but not when we're going to actually sleep because both Jane and I have told her that her feet need to rest, beside not being cosy. After the first surprise, I have to admit it's kind of logical. Iselin doesn't have Jane's and my sexual or pornographic association with heels. And if have you never truly learned to take off your shoes when you are indoors, because socks don't exist and dirt, uninsulated wood or stone floors are cold, and sometimes wear shoes in bed if your feet are cold, why wouldn't you wear high heels in bed?
When I visit Iselin's bedroom to ask her about shoes, I find her lying on her stomach on bed reading something, cross-legged and wearing stiletto heels as she hums something, and she gets a seductive and happy smile when I approach and kiss her. God damn I'm a lucky man! So I sit beside her on the bed and ask her about her shoes. Iselin looks ashamed while say she is sorry and asks for forgiveness for her wastefulness, but all the high heels are just so beautiful, especially the thin stiletto heels, and they are mainly indoor shoes while the others are for outside.
Clearly completely fascinated about the shoes, she explain how the shoes and high heels are different and for different use. She really describes each pair in detail, and when she casually mentions how she was 10 years old before she got her own pair of proper summer shoes, I understand that she, as the daughter of slaves, naturally had a simple and poor childhood, and sees good looking proper shoes as a proof of wealth - that she is important and rich. Even more so if you have many shoes to chose between. I suspect that Swedish style clogs may be more appreciated than I thought. I truly understand why Iselin was so quick to like stilettos, because to her they are shoes she can wear indoor, when I don't like people to wear most types of shoes indoors, and especially stiletto heels are so obviously an unnecessary expensive luxury, because they're not shoes for working in. Even though she has actually worked in them when she has helped me in the workshop. She also clearly likes how they change her posture and makes her taller and closer to my height.
I suspect Iselin loves shoes more than jewels, and when I ask her, she is completely stumped by the question, and her confusion as she don't know how to answer is probably an honest answer.
Shoes are much cheaper than jewels and generally more worn and useful, even stilettos, so if Iselin wants to wear pretty shoes and feel luxurious and rich, I won't stop her as long as it doesn't get out of hand. I just ask her to try to limit herself to a few new shoes each half year, if she can, as she needs to consider her reputation too. Iselin is cutely embarrassed, as she reluctantly and with her face buried in a pillow, admits that she has already ordered four more pairs of shoes; two slightly different pairs based on Jane's newly improved over the knee model, and two high heeled platform shoes Jane designed specifically for her. Iselin eagerly assures me that she won't buy any more shoes before summer.
I just feels goey in my heart for Iselin's happiness and clear love affair with shoes, and I have every right to make my marvellous, intelligent and lovely wife feel rich and luxurious. She is after all a Furstess now, and it's also nice to know what I can get her as a present, as long as I check that she doesn't already have shoes like that. If shoes are her only personality flaw, I'm happy, so I just lay Iselin down on her bed and kiss and hug her, happy that she's my wife.
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The day I've dreaded has come, and I'm just grateful that Iselin waited more than a week and a half since I promised she could ask me anything, and I would try to explain. Of course Iselin asks such a simple question, with such massive implications: How was Midgård created and does the same apply here?
She knows enough to understand that what she asks will have big consequences, but it might change everything. Her view of the World. Her view of herself. Her view of life and religion. Iselin still wants to know. So I look for some information and take notes so I can explain it well enough, then we sit down so I can answer her, the best I can.
I don't know why Midgård and Alfheimr are so similar in life and nature, but as she knows, I have theories. Most of what humans in Midgård have figured out should be true here because the worlds are so similar. So I open a couple of pictures on the tablet plus a PDF file, and start explaining about the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, the expansion of the Universe and the formation of stars by gravity, and how about 4.5 billion years ago the solar system and Midgård were created, which in my Swedish language is called Jorden, and in Jane's language Earth. Both mean almost exactly the same thing.
Earth's gravity made it grew, and ever increased gravity pulled more rock and meteorites, and as gravity compressed everything it got heated, from friction between the masses and radioactivity. Everything became a big liquid mass as it melted. As heavier things like mainly iron but also gold and other metals sank down and formed a core in the center, the process reinforced itself. The Earth gets a magnetic field due to the molten iron core that moves and the created magnetosphere protects the Earth's surface from most of the Sun's harmful radiation. The northern lights glow for the first time, but there is nothing living to see them.
The solar system is still a bit of a mess, and a smaller sister planet in an unstable orbit hit the Earth and the combined mass splits into a cloud in space, but enough stayed close enough that gravity gathered it back together and the Earth formed once again and started to slowly cool, but now the Earth had a Moon, which is the remains of the sister planet with some of the combined mass.
Space is very cold and comets consisting of ice and randomly formed organic molecules bombard the Earth, and about 100 million years later the oceans have formed. There is still no life at all, not even mould. The Earth's surface is a completely sterile environment, but there is rock, lava and ocean's. Another 300 million years pass and the molecules have joined together to form amino acids and other organic chemistry. In small hot springs there begin to be organic molecules, alcohols and sugars that provide proteins and self-replicating chemicals and RNA and the basis of life. It is 4 billion years ago and life has begun to emerge in its most primitive form.
Microscopic organisms thrive in the ocean's coastal environments, forming mats and algal life. The Sun is smaller and not as hot as today, but the atmosphere is full of carbon dioxide, which is part of what we exhale after our bodies use up some of the oxygen we inhale. Carbon dioxide keeps the atmosphere and surface warm, like a greenhouse. Fewer and fewer comets hit the surface and life adapts. It is 3.2 billion years ago and the first photosynthesis begins to take place. Carbon dioxide and water are converted into oxygen and glucose, which is a type of sugar, with the help of the Sun's energy.
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It is 2.2 billion years ago and the amount of oxygen has increased and increased. But the simple microbial life that exist is not adapted to use oxygen, and is poisoned by it. Half of all life on Earth dies. But some organisms adapt and evolve. Organisms that create a protective outer shell. A membrane around its core. Those organisms continue evolving and become better at surviving and more efficient at converting things into energy - into nutrition.
It is 1.6 billion years ago and these cells clump together into organisms consisting of many cells. The cells work together to become more efficient at living and reproducing. Some cells begin to specialise, leading to more complex life.
It is 700 million years ago and the first simplest small animals exist, like jellyfish and similar life, but almost all life has been in the oceans until now. Not on land.
It is 540 million years ago and the Cambrian explosion occurs. Where before there was no life there is, and it is constantly adapting to new environments, becoming more advanced and more diverse. Many will end up in unsuccessful evolutionary alleys and disappear, but the diversity is enormous, and life competes with each other, becoming even more advanced varieties.
It is 240 million years ago and Dinosaurs walk the Earth. Lizard-like animals and birds but some are larger than whales and the largest are longer and taller than Thrymheim's main building. Their huge fossils and bones can still be dug out of the ground today, but the bones have since long turned to stone. The reason the bones are deep in the ground is that million of years of foliage, dust and such have accumulated on top and become solid ground. Fortunately, up here in the North is a bad place to look for huge fossils.
It is 66 million years ago and a meteorite - a huge stone around 10 km in diameter - hits the Earth's surface at the Yucatan Peninsula, which is a third of the Earth's circumference away from us, at a speed many times faster than sound and creates a crater that is about 180 km in diameter. The devastation is world changing and all the rock, soil and dust is thrown up high into the atmosphere and darkens the Sun. The shock wave probably travelled through Earth and made huge Volcanic eruptions darkening the Sun even more. Day becomes like night and three quarters of life dies - plants and animals. There are no more huge Dinosaurs, as they are dying of starvation and other things. Small mammals like squirrels, rats etc fill the void left by the Dinosaurs and these are our earliest ancestors. They do not lay eggs like Dinosaurs did, but give birth to live young which are given milk. Our cat Krosp is genetically more in common with us than chickens, birds and lizards that are from the line of Dinosaurs and lay eggs.
Mammals expand and evolve across the Earth. They grow and change, and one of the genera that forms is apes, which evolve and become our ancestors. 5 million years ago, a branch of these apes broke away from the others and developed a little differently, and 300 thousand years ago, the first human walks on Earth in the warmest, nicest parts of Africa at the equator. They are quite intelligent and fire has already begun to be used for light, heat and cooking. Languages have begun to emerge from grunts and sounds.
Humans evolve, and 60 thousand years ago humans migrated out of Africa, slowly migrating and gradually adapting to new climates, new challenges. Hunting and gathering. Following animals for the seasons. 6 to 12 thousand years ago, humans stop wandering around and lives on what he finds and hunts. Humans began to cultivate the land and keep animals. It is what is now called the Stone Age because weapons and tools are made of stone. Knapped flint is used as points for spears and knives, simple pointed stones are shaped into axes. This happens at different times in different regions, but the tools and weapons make life easier and open up opportunities. And of course creates small Wars.
6-8 thousand years ago, copper began to be melted from stones and the first metal tools were created, and humans had found an alternative to flint, stones and bones. The first real civilizations began to grow in the more livable parts of the world. The wheel, mathematics, bronze, sailing and boats, earthenware, and so on are created later, and slightly different in different regions. Agriculture and logistics allow people to gather in cities that grow. Iron is discovered 1500-2500 years ago, and civilizations grow, religions grow larger, military and political power emerges and this is roughly the era where Alfheimr is.
We feel a year is long, but if we shrink the entire existence of the Earth to one day, then every second is 52,000 years. Civilization as we know it has existed for about 1/10th of a second in the lifetime of the Earth, less than the blink of an eye, and humans have only existed for 6 seconds. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
In geological time, this is the best time on the world, because later the Sun will get hotter, the CO2 content will increase, so water will evaporate faster, and there will be stronger weather and more rain. The water reacts with CO2 in the atmosphere to form a mild acid that rains, dissolves rocks and erodes the soil. But CO2 reacts with silicon in the soil and is washed into the oceans. The sun gets warmer and the process happens faster and faster. CO2 level begins to fall, and fall, but it keeps the Earth's surface cool and habitable. But photosynthesis needs CO2 to work, and animals need greenery to survive.
In 400 million years, the CO2 level will drop to the point where animals and plants will have problems, and the forests and large animals will disappear first.
It is 900 million years in the future and the CO2 level has dropped until photosynthesis can no longer work and plants die. Animals die. The world is again just rock and water without life, only a few simple microorganisms exist. The temperature increases, and the water evaporates faster. The oceans are getting saltier.
The Moon has slowly moved further and further from the Earth and no longer influences to stabilise the Earth's axis, and the angle starts to get bigger and bigger. Seasons and shifts become more extreme. Eventually, the Earth's iron core solidifies and the Earth loses its protective magnetic field. The Earth's surface temperature is then 100C and the oceans are boiling. The Sun's UV light breaks up the water vapour and the hydrogen leaves the Earth, while the oxygen falls down.
It is 2.5 billion years in the future and the Earth is a lifeless stone without water, just waiting for the Sun to enter the next phase.
It is 5.5 billion years in the future and the pressure in the Sun's core has increased, and the Sun begins to expand.
It is 8 billion years in the future. The Sun has become a red giant type star, and the Sun has grown past the Earth's orbit. the Earth has been swallowed by the Sun and no longer exists.
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I have to repeat it and there is long interrupts to explain something, but Iselin is shocked. She already knew some bits, but this is a lot to take in.
We spend the rest of the evening talking about different things and I show her the pictures that I have. Try to explain to her how Midgård know this. Or like how religion was created to explain the world and events. Religion is a comfort in a big scary world where you don't know what will happen. It's hard for her to understand all I've said, but she finds the truth so much more amazing, so much better than the stories religions have made up to explain. She really wants to find the fossils of large lizards and be able to see the remains for herself.
Iselin likes that I can't actually explain why Alfheimr exists and how Jane and I got here. There is still knowledge that not even Midgård has figured out yet, and many or even most in Midgård still have some form of religion and believe in Gods. The fact that she now know 'everything' does not mean that she has to stop believing in everything, because that is what Faith is, and Midgård cannot explain everything. Iselin stand firmly with me for my plans for future test areas to test my thoughts on dimension travel. Within that scientific field, Alfheimr may be ahead of Midgård. Iselin both hope and not, that there is other humans here in Alfheimr.
Iselin is very keen that everything I told and explained to her MUST be written down in books, and we have already made plenty of notes, but she wants it to be with as much evidence as possible so that the Elves themselves will be able to test and see if it is true in the future. We have had discussions about carbon-14 tests and Darwinism.
I play Nightwish's 'The Greatest show on Earth', which is about the history of Earth, and translate is as they sing. Especially Richard Dawkins words about the odds of us being here. We should be damn proud to say 'We were here', because we bet all odds, and I tear up when Iselin really seems to understand and whispers, "I'm here", followed by her looking me in the eye and proudly and tearfully repeating it.
"We are here."