"I'm confused as to why you have brought me here, Havi. Seems like a strange place if you want to kill me," Alruna commented.
"You will see." Havi went to the back of the hall and lifted a wooden door for her. "After you."
Alruna's magic warmed her fingertips, ready to drag her out of there. It made sense that Havi had given her the stone straight away. It was to reassure her that she wasn't being kidnapped.
Alruna went down a set of stone stairs, the passageway lit with enchanted stones. Her heart began to race, which made no sense. Havi had never shown any animosity toward her. At the bottom of the stairs, there were rows of cells, their bars carved with warding runes. All were empty, save one.
"Hello, Runa, thank you for coming," Vili said from where he sat on a comfortable-looking bed.
"Havi didn't tell me you would be here, or I wouldn't have," she said. Now she knew why the treacherous organ in her chest was fluttering like a bird.
"I thought you would have come and visited me by now," Vili said.
Alruna turned on her brother-in-law. "Why am I here? What is this about."
"This is an explanation," Havi said and crossed his arms. " And...an apology."
"For what? What have you done now, Vili?" she demanded, tears already clogging her throat.
Vili chuckled. "My beautiful mate, for once, I have done nothing. Won't you look at me?"
"If I look at you, I will kill you," she growled.
"No, you won't. Look at me, Runa."
"You lost the right to call me that," she replied, but she still turned to face him. His golden eyes moved over her like they were drinking in the sight of her. The rune mark was missing from his brow, and he looked...good. Painfully, beautifully good. The longing that went through her made Alruna want to carve her eyes out.
"I know I've lost the right to many things, but you are still Runa to me," Vili said, not looking away from her. "Tell her, Havi. She won't believe it coming from me."
"Won't you sit, Alruna?" Havi gestured to where two chairs and a small table had appeared with mugs of ale.
"I don't want to sit. I want someone to start talking," she said, crossing her arms.
Vili chuckled, and the sound danced in her ears. Curse him to the darkest of Hel's realms. "I told you she would be mad."
"Fine. Stand. I don't care," Havi grumbled and took his own seat. "But it's quite a story, so prepare yourself."
"So be brief." Alruna made a hurry-up gesture at him. She didn't want to be here in the past; she wanted to be with her son, enjoying Midsummer.
"Long ago, the Norns, Freya, and I all had the same vision. A terrible darkness was going to come and destroy the world. It would eat the sun, the moon, and the stars, and the world would die in ice and darkness," Havi began.
"Ragnarök. I've heard the tales more than once."
"This version is the one that's true," Havi said, and Alruna bit her tongue. "Troubled by the visions, we sought pathways to avoid that fate. Loki was always a master of magic, and he was the one who came up with a plan. When he told it to us, I nearly cut off his head. But then, when we all looked into the future again, we saw that it was the only way to defeat the devouring darkness."
Havi had a long drink of his ale. Alruna had never seen him look as vulnerable as he did at that moment.
"My son Baldur was the light and sun that would be strong enough to defeat it. But not as he was. He had to willingly sacrifice himself in order to become a dying and rising god. Only by rising when the darkness was at its peak would he be strong enough."
Alruna had heard many a myth about the power of dying and rising gods—Osiris, Dionysus, the Christ, Tammuz, Attis, Baal…and Baldur. They were stories that were tied to agriculture and seasonal changes. They would be born in a time of darkness to bring back light and spring. The cold ice growing in her stomach told Alruna that this was going to be no folk tale.
"Unfortunately, Baldur wasn't the only one who would go into the earth. I had to openly punish Loki and lock him and his own son Fenris away," Havi continued. "My own brother had to turn on me, and I would be forced to become a villain."
"The rune mark on Vili's forehead. Why is it gone?" Alruna asked, almost too afraid of the answer.
"It was a binding spell to make sure that he played his part. He had to submit to it willingly, and he did. We didn't see you or Arne in the vision or how the rune mark would force Vili to side with Morrigan," Havi said.
Power pulsed through Alruna's veins. She placed her hands on the table and leaned forward. "You are telling me that all of his warmongering, the way he turned on me and our baby—everythinghorrible he has done was because of a spell you put on him?"
