Leif stared into the void.
"He told you about that," He turned back toward the bar.
"You know, when I left that day, I was full of anger. I thought living in Midgard would be better, but it's really the same. I thought it was a race thing, you know, bad gods and good humans. But powerful people here are just as bad. And no matter how strong you are, you can't do shit. I'm watching this country get destroyed by its leader, just like I watched Odin slowly destroy Asgard," he explained.
"And it sickens me. I've always had this feeling of powerlessness, and it eats away at me. No matter how strong I am, I can't just hit things and make everything better."
"You can now! Odin isn't the one controlling Asgard anymore. You would actually be helping things get better," Tachi replied.
"Stop that. That's not how it works. It's not just about people. You know, after all those events, I still had hope. I met a guy in the '90s, his name was Chuck. A great guy. One of the best I've ever met. We became very close friends. He had a band, and they were fucking great. But one day the news came. Brain cancer. He died, faster than I could've imagined."
he sighed, "That's when I understood it. We'll never be able to change anything. We're just witnesses. I am a god, one of the strongest, and yet I couldn't stand up for my brother in Asgard. I am a god, yet I couldn't save a friend from a sickness."
Tachi had defied the destiny the Norns had foretold for him. Leif, on the other hand, had abandoned any idea of fighting it.
"If something is meant to happen, just let it happen. Don't try to change things. You can't. And it'll just make you feel worse. Trust me."
Tachi lowered his head. 'I knew it was going to be hard, but I never thought he had sunk this deep.'
Tachi stood up. "Billy, I'm leaving."
"Don't take it like that," Thor said.
Billy stood up and left some money on the bar, "I'll walk you out for a bit."
The two of them walked toward the exit, leaving Leif alone where they had first found him.
"Wait," Thor shouted before they stepped outside.
They turned around.
"Who are the gods who attacked you?"
"Loki, Freyja, and Tyr," Tachi replied before leaving for good.
Leif watched them disappear, then started drinking again.
—--------------------------
Tachi and Billy walked silently through the streets.
"Sorry you couldn't convince him," Billy apologized. "You know how he is."
"Yeah, don't worry. Njord's story kind of made me forget who I was actually going to talk to. Leif might be the loneliest man in the world," Tachi replied. 'And godhood doesn't help that.'
After walking for a while, they finally reached the outskirts of the city. From there, Tachi could take off without risking being seen by hundreds of people.
"So, this is goodbye," Billy said, extending his hand.
Tachi shook it. "Yeah. Sorry. I'll try to come more often, but the job of Pillar takes up a lot of my time."
He began to rise into the air, waved one last time to the native, and they parted ways.
Tachi flew east, toward Norway, where he was expected.
—--------------------------
He lifted his head and saw only the fire.
The horrible pain in his stomach prevented him from seeing clearly. Huge figures stood within the flames, laughing.
"?gnineppah s'tahw !soren"
"?shit gniod uoy era yhw"
Around him he heard screams,indistinct, incomprehensible, except for his name.
"Soren!"
"…Soren."
He woke up screaming and sweating. His heart was beating abnormally fast. He was panicking.
Fenrir jumped to his feet. "Are you okay?!"
Soren looked around frantically before slowly realizing. "It was a dream," he murmured.
"Soren, are you alright?" Quorthon asked worriedly, gripping the bars of the cell, trying to see him through the shadows.
"Yeah… I'm alright, I think," Soren replied, scratching his head.
Fenrir quietly sighed in relief. "What happened? A nightmare?"
"I don't know. I think… it was a memory."
"That's unlikely. Memories are always linked to an energy explosion. Our bodies can't contain the amount of power we suddenly gain when it happens. You've never had one before?" Quorthon explained as he sat back down.
"Yes I did. I got a fragment of memory once, and I know what it feels like. But I swear it looked like it. Except this time I couldn't understand what the voices were saying. They were talking, screaming, in an unnatural way."
'I didn't recognize the man's voice from my first memory.'
Soren leaned against the wall and tried to recall the first vision he had ever experienced. The only detail that remained clear in his mind was the village, primitive compared to the city of Bergen.
"You told me you had many lives, Quorthon. How old are you?"
The wolf laughed. "I don't know exactly. I lost track, you know. Time passes differently between worlds. But I guess I'm more than a thousand years old, if we measure it in Midgard's time."
Soren jumped. "A thousand years?! How is that possible? And what do you mean by Midgard?"
"I know, I don't look like it. Gods age differently. It's not linear. We age normally for the first two decades, then it slows down a lot until we reach our peak age, which varies from god to god. After that, we age even slower," he explained. "And I already told you about the different worlds yesterday. Midgard is the human world, the one where we were born. Do you need another mythology lesson?"
Soren suddenly thought of Tyr without really knowing why. "Can you tell me about the red-haired guy? The one with the golden glove."
"Tyr?" Fenrir laughed, "He made quite an impression on you, huh? Of course I know him well. We're old friends!"
"You're friends and he doesn't care about you being in a cell?"
"He's not exactly happy about it. But you know, he likes being righteous. And I kind of deserve being here just for who I am. Tyr isn't a bad guy, in fact he's a very good person. Do you know why he has a golden glove?"
"No idea. Why? It looks cool, I couldn't stop looking at i—"
"Because I bit his arm off!!"
Soren didn't even have time to finish before Fenrir dropped the story and burst out laughing.
"WHAT?! YOU BIT IT OFF?!" Soren shouted in shock.
"Long story short, some lives ago, the gods had an obsession with imprisoning me. They tried several times. They failed. Then one day they came with a rope made by two little bastards and proposed a game. I said yes, but i felt something was off, the rope was as thin as a silk ribbon. So I said i'll do it only if one of them put his arm in my mouth. You know, I was still a wolf back then."
"And what happened?!" Soren asked eagerly.
"They all looked terrified. I thought no one would say yes. But Tyr stepped forward. He put his arm in my mouth. I told him I'd bite it if they tried to screw me over. They wrapped the rope around my neck. I moved a little to get comfortable, and suddenly the rope tightened. The more I moved, the more it hurt. I looked Tyr in the eyes. We were friends. He had plenty of time to pull his arm back. Yet he didn't move. Instead, he looked at me and smiled. He had given his word, and he didn't lie. I really didn't want to hurt him, to be honest. But how could I not keep my own word after such an act?"
Soren smiled. "That's crazy, but didn't he trick you? Why did you hesitate? I would've bitten him the second I understood,"
"Well, I wasn't exactly a nice guy back then, you know. I'm often described as the embodiment of chaos. I don't think it suits me anymore, but it wasn't entirely wrong at the time."
"And what do they say about me?" Soren asked.
"Mmmh… a big ass snake. So big you can circle the world while biting your own tail. But it doesn't really matter. We're creatures, not gods. We have the possibility to become whoever we want. Who do you want to be, Soren?"
'Who do I want to be?' He hesitated for a moment. "I don't know. I don't even know who I am right now."
Quorthon sighed. "Listen. Your situation is difficult. But who you are now, or what people say you are, shouldn't stop you from deciding who you want to be."