Darkness descended upon my vision as we drew near to Skogtårn-i-Sør. I found the blindness unsettling, but Riodhr assured me that I had lost nothing: I was merely unaccustomed to dealing with hostile darkness like that of Jormundgandson, whose domain we now approached. I asked if this was why Unn had been unable to connect with the living things of the village, and Riodhr confirmed the connection.

Riodhr had also indicated the darkness could be pushed back, with effort and intention. I began to focus on the light: the now-waxing moon, the glow of my Heart’s Compass, and all sources of light that attracted me. Slowly, my inner sight began to return: indistinct and incomplete at first, but recognizable, and with brief moments of absolute clarity.

It was a vision of my parents that finally parted the clouds.

A second scene followed close upon this, while I was still overwhelmed with emotion and before I could block it out: my parents, arguing bitterly.

My father was insisting that he - they - should go out after us, beyond the wall. Should try to bring us back.

My mother merely looked at him with a strange mixture of rage and sorrow, and between gasping sobs she told him what they both believed: “It’s too late for them, Knut.” Her eyes said she blamed him for our disappearance; his stooped shoulders and hollow eyes said he agreed with the indictment. I could barely stand to see how my powerful papa had withered from within.

“It was my job to protect them,” he said, “and I failed…”

A second vision followed quickly on the first, almost before I could gather my defenses against it. I saw my father standing amongst the villagers, his shoulders still bowed and his head hung in disgrace as the signet and robe of a village elder were stripped from him while the Village Chief explained his shame to the assembled crowd: to have lost not one but two daughters to the Outside World…to the Skogkatts…this was a sure sign of his unfitness to lead in the village:

“If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of Freya’s people?!”

The vision faded and left me drained in a way I had never imagined I could be tired.

Helpless to dispel my parents’ sorry, I raged against the knowledge of it instead: “Let me die now, Riodhr, if this is what my vision gives me!”

I did not feel guilt - that had been alchemized out of me at Hathor’s temple by my sister’s forgiving touch - but the unadulterated sorrow struck a crippling pain through me, so I could not imagine ever moving again. Even drawing a breath was a sharp pain I wished to avoid.

“Focus on that which you wish to heal,” Riodhr advised, and so I did…one breath at a time.

By morning, I was able to stand, don my armor and ride to the southern perimeter of the Skogtårn-i-Sør wall.

************

Once again, the arrival at this wall seemed anticlimactic by comparison to all that led up to it. Both the Market and Labyrinth gates were located in the north perimeter, accessible only to the people of the Folkvangr, so there was nowhere I could seek entry to the town from this position. Nor did I imagine I would be granted access to the town, even if I were able to reach one of the gates. Instead, I decided to do the only thing that had ever worked for me when I didn’t know what else I could possibly do: I sat quietly and waited for whatever “teachers” might show up. It took until nightfall for them to arrive, but I was not disappointed when they did.

High above Skogtårn-i-Sør, a full moon was bright in the sky; I smiled to recognize Hathor’s form in the constellations and moonbeams above me, and a particularly bright one directed my eye to a place where it picked out a rune hidden in the texture of the wall. “Touch me,” I read aloud, and placed my hand up on the stone. I felt a slight buzzing when I first touched the wall, then silence. Walking along the wall, I continued to trail my hand searching for any sign of response from the stones, but everywhere the silence was as dark as a the first. It struck me that the silence was almost too complete…that even in repose, the stones should not be so completely dark and devoid of life, and I tried to look into the stones beyond the dark curtain. This new pressure brought forth a quick response…but not from the stones.

Beneath my feet, a dark smoke began to curl and coil, arising from beneath the foundation of the wall; I fell back from my position, and at Riodhr’s urging, remounted on his back. The smoke began to coalesce quickly into a writhing serpentine body large enough to encircle the entire wall, and a flat, broad serpent’s head began flicking a dark tongue out in search of my heat.

“Who dares disturb my watch?” hissed Jormundgandson. “Who dares speak to the stones of my wall? No Southerner may pass my wall!” he hissed.

“And I am no Southerner,” I declared; surprised by my own boldness, yet compelled to continue, I added, “I am Astrid of Skogtårn-i-Sør, daughter of this city, and Lady of the Labyrinth. I command you now to open the Pilgrimage Road!”

I sensed Jormundgandson’s assessment as he probed me for any hint of deception. At last he admitted: “So you are, Astrid of Skogtårn-i-Sør. And so you may have…passage for yourself alone…as a daughter of the city. But you cannot command me against the charge of the Elders, little girl alone. Who are you to undo what they have commanded?”

“I may be alone, but do not mistake me for a girl. I am a shield maiden of Freya,” I challenged him, ”And in Freya’s name I command you to give me the road, and release the stones of Skogtårn-i-Sør to me.”

At this, Jormundgandson began to writhe with rage, and I felt his grip break from over the stones, which had been listening to me all along. Now they broke out in joyous response: “We hear you, we hear you!” they said, “Now show us where you want us to go!” Before my eyes, the entire wall began to glow, and the stones began to lift away from one another with centuries of pent up energy.

Before I could command them, however, a new threat from Jormundgandson drew my attention away. Even diminished as he was, Jormundgandson was a formidable foe, and struck at me repeatedly. I defended myself with my sword, and Riodhr moved quickly to evade the vicious attacks. Again and again he missed, and even I was astonished.

“Freya protects you well,” he acknowledged, and withdrew when he saw he could not touch me this way. “So have your road and have our stones…but you shall have no pilgrims along the South Road, oh Astrid of Skogtårn-i-Sør, unless you are Hathor’s champion as well!” And with that, he abandoned the solid snake form with which he tried to attack me, and with breathtaking speed a dark vapor sped upward to swallow the crown of Hathor herself: in an instant, the full moon’s light was blotted from the sky.

Stolen novel; please report.

Without her crown, Hathor’s power would be weakened, leaving her lands and peoples vulnerable in the south, weakening the link from Hathor’s Temple to Sessrumnir…leaving my beloved sister Brenna at risk.

“You mistake me once again, o Wise One,” I mocked him, “For I come from Hathor’s court as well. Hathor, I call on you now in the name of Brenna of Skogtårn-i-Sør: come forth and defend your own! Reclaim your crown from the Jormundgandson, the pretender and the usurper of your crown.” I cast down the bracelet from my shield arm, and instantly a golden serpent sprang to life; as quickly as Jormundgandson had swallowed the moon, so quickly did Hathor’s golden serpent take him by the tail and swallow him whole, forcing him to release Hathor’s crown as she constricted herself around his darkness.

As the last bit of his darkness disappeared, I was surprised to see a white heifer also popped out; she, however, seemed to take it all in stride, and walked calmly down some invisible hillside to continue her interrupted dinner of grass from the lush green common at the heart of the town.

Two great figures now approached the town, each one at least fifty feet tall: Hathor from the south, and Freya from the north. Falling into a trance, the goddesses spoke as if with one voice to the dark serpent trapped and suspended between them in midair:

> Who do you think you are, little snake?

> The son of a trickster I say.

> What do you think you can really take

> From the Queen of the Cosmos?

> I watched you with unsleeping eyes,

> And sent my daughters to test your heart

> And you slithered in with your fear and lies

> To tear my dominion apart.

> Son against mother, and father against all

> Daughters fleeing from the wicked wall

> Kill the communion and shatter the grail

> Darkness to darkness…destined to fail

> Begone from my kingdom

> Go back to your own, Jormundgandson

> Go back to from whence you came and

> Never darken my dominion again

And that is how Skogtårn-i-Sør was saved.

**********

The trance departed from the goddesses, and the golden bracelet fell back to the ground at my feet, where I stared at it with a kind of stupefied fascination. The stones, meanwhile, still hung expectantly in midair, and as my eyes followed the graceful spiral of the golden coil, the stones themselves took the cue. Suddenly, a wonder of beautiful spiraled columns, graceful archways and delicate spires full of light filled my inner vision, and so they formed a gorgeous arcaded thoroughfare through the very heart of the town from the South Road to the Labyrinth Gate. The gate itself had opened up into an archway, and the forest drew back to reveal a restored and gleaming Pilgrimage Road.

The work of rebuilding wall into a ceremonial pathway and accommodations for pilgrims was done almost instantaneously, and the Goddesses vanished as soon as the work was done. The villagers had hidden inside during the great battle with Jormundgandson, but the brilliant lights and the jubilant energy of the stones and living things released at long last from Jormundgandson’s oppression drew them irresistibly out into the streets, and what they found was me, in my brilliant Shield Maiden’s armor, standing at the heart of a village miraculously transformed and gleaming with light.

“Freya, Freya!”

“It’s Freya”

“It’s the Day of the Labyrinth! Come see!”

To my surprise, Freya instructed me not to correct their misperception, but to deliver a message on her behalf, instead.

> Beloved people of Skogtårn-i-Sør, hear me now!

The crowd was instantly, almost disturbingly silent.

These many years ago, your village was lost to me. At a moment of great triumph, when I made ready to welcome the envoys of the Goddess Hathor to my halls at Sessrumnir, the liar Jormundgandson sowed seeds of fear and hatred among you, and tricked you into allowing the creation of a wall that divided our dominions, just when we were about to unite them in friendship and alliance that would bring prosperity to all.

The Day of the Labyrinth has come and gone, and those who were meant to go to Sessrumnir have done so. It is not for you to come…not yet, anyway. Instead, I charge you to make of Skogtårn-i-Sør what it was always meant to be: the chief gateway to Midgard, and a celebrated host to its pilgrims, the chief jewel in the ring of Sessrumnir. Make me this oath of service!

And in unison, three times, the people of Skogtårn-i-Sør did make their oath. It was a this solemn moment that the imperturbable cow wandered nonchalantly up to front of the Town Hall where I was addressing the crowd, and suddenly her purpose, too, became clear to me.

As a covenant between our realms, Hathor has entrusted to me Bat the heifer. As part of your oath, I charge you now with her care and keeping. For as long as she consents to stay with you, consider yourselves blessed, but should she ever leave you beware, for I will know it means you have broken your oath to me, and I will find a service more suited to your fearful and hateful hearts.

Immediately, Corrinne stepped forward and began organizing the sisters in a plan to create a suitably grand and comfortable accommodation for Bat the Heifer; and I knew in time, they would manage to distort her care into some new ritual that bore no resemblance to the normal and comfortable life of a cow. So long as they did it with love, though, it would probably be alright. After all, if the ancient heifer wasn’t perturbed by a score or more of centuries in the belly of a dark serpent…I didn’t imagine the people of Skogtårn-i-Sør could drive her off.

************

After the assembly, my first thought was to find my parents and reassure them that everything was alright. The first one who waylaid me, however, was Sassa - the mother of Unn. “Lady Freya…” she said, putting her hand on my sleeve.

In this intimate moment, I turned and she could see my face; her eyes went wide when she recognized me, and I could see she was about to announce me to the entire village.

“Sassa…no. You are not to tell them what they have not seen for themselves.” I instructed her; and she turned back toward me with a quizzical look.

“Sassa, a prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home. You are not from here - that is why you can see who I am.”

“Oh,” she said quietly. “Well, I am glad to see you again, dear Astrid. I have felt so terrible, knowing how I blamed you for Unn’s death, I probably drove you away…”

“I know something of that myself. I am going to give you something better than the guilt you carry in your heart like a stone,” I said, and placing my hand on her heart I drew out a beautiful little figurine of three laughing children: Unn, and Brenna and me. “Look how beautifully you have treasured us in your heart!” I said, exclaiming at the exquisite piece as I offered it to her.

“Oh, Astrid! What have you done? My heart feels so light.”

“Then you can hear it now, can you?”

“I can…I can hear…”

“You can hear someone calling you from Sessrumnir, dear Sassa.”

“My Unn? She is alive and well in Sessrumnir?”

“You have been here long enough, Sassa. Go to her now! And Godspeed to you.”

And with a brief, fierce hug, Sassa was gone.

***********

I made my way through the crowd without further recognition, dispensing perfunctory blessings on babies and villagers who approached me with reverence I loathed, instead of recognition and welcome that I craved. I found my parents at the outskirts of the crowd, sitting together in shadow and holding each other in wordless grief. When I approached to speak with them, they could not even meet my gaze.

My heart broke, but I spoke to them lovingly from within the disguise of Freya.

“You are not joining in the work with the villagers,” I said. “Why not?”

“We are not worthy of this work,” my father said.

“My lady, how can you speak with us thus? Surely you know our daughters defied you…”

“I know no such thing,” I replied. “I know your daughters are waiting for you, if you will only go to find them. The wall, as I said, was never of my choosing or making.”

My parents at least met each others gaze at this, and my mother looked up at me after receiving a wordless assent from my father.

“You speak the truth - you do not mock us?” she said in amazement.

“You must take the road south to to Hathor’s temple in Dendara. This is the beginning of your mission.” I said. “The rest of the mission you must discover for yourself. This Heart’s Compass will help you find your way.”

I silently willed her to recognize me as I slowly removed the compass from around my neck and handed it too her, looking deeply into her eyes. Sassa had recognized me, after all, so why not my own mother? She took the compass with a smile, and bowed deeply, reverently to me.

“My lady, we will accept this mission. We are forever in your service…and in your debt.”

And I was only a little bit heartbroken as they walked away; because I knew that, in time, the compass would bring them back to me.