Breefolk

And we now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast!  In case anyone was wondering, my trip was lovely, and I had a lot of fun.

Astveig shook her compass as though she expected it to do something.  “I’m not sure why I brought this thing. It’s not as if there’s a magnetic north here.”

I looked up at the sky.  There was a smoky haze that obscured an object that functioned more or less like a sun.  It was round and had that moonlike glow that the sun has when it’s obscured by thin clouds.  It hadn’t moved in the few hours it had been since we left the border. “I don’t think we’ll be able to navigate by the sun either.”

We stood on a mountain ridge.  We had climbed up here to get a better look at the lay of the land.  The landscape beneath us was bleak and lifeless, mostly made up of blue-gray stone.

Cat pointed toward the horizon.  “That looks like a building of some sort.  It’s hard to tell from this distance, but at that size, do you think it could be Hel’s palace?”

“Could be,” admitted Astveig.  “It’s also possible it’s just another rock formation.  Still, it is the best lead we have at the moment. We should make our way in that direction.”

“Seems a sound plan to me,” I chimed in.  “You know, for the realm of the dead, I kind of expected this place to be a little more populous.”

“Hel is the realm of the Unworthy Dead,” said Astveig in her “textbook” voice.  “Not all who die come here, and this isn’t the only realm in the Underworld. Not every soul arrives in the Underworld, even.  Those who die in honorable battle wind up in Valhalla, which isn’t even a realm in the Underworld. Others go to the realms of Hades or any of the infinite other Underworld realms.”

Cat’s curiosity was piqued.  “What determines which realm in the Underworld you go to, then?”

“Faith,” Astveig answered with a shrug.  “If you believe you go to Hel when you die, you wind up in Hel.  If you believe you go somewhere else, there’s a realm for that. If you don’t believe in an afterlife, you wind up in the Underworld Job Faire.”

“What’s the Underworld Job Faire?” I asked.

“It’s where various afterlives vie to get you to join them.  It’s kind of a recent development. There were a lot of lost souls after the Enlightenment.  They kept becoming wraiths - shades of a soul that had lost its sense of identity. It was chaos, so the various Underworld gods came together to find a solution.”

“I sure hope every realm in the Underworld doesn’t look like… THIS,” I said, sweeping an arm toward the barren land before us.

Astveig shook her head.  “I’m not exactly an expert on the Underworld realms, but from what I understand based on the writings in the Library is that each realm is a reflection of the god that rules it.  If that is true, then I suspect Hel is a harsh mistress.”

“Well, she sure hasn’t won this soul over,” remarked Cat as she hitched up her pack.  “I don’t know about you all, but I’m still able to keep traveling for a few hours.”

“Time flows a bit differently here in the Underworld,” said Astveig.  “The ‘sun’ doesn’t move like it does in Midgard or Jötunheim. Hel is in a constant state of twilight, so we won’t need to worry about the sun setting.  We should keep traveling as long as we can, then take a rest as needed.”

I nodded my agreement, and we ventured further along the mountain path.

****

“Just don’t look down,” I said, repeating the old adage as we made our way downward on a precarious ledge hanging over a deep chasm.

“You know they only say that in the movies, right?” Cat snapped back at me, her fear evident in her voice.  “And it doesn’t even work then!”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I replied quietly, trying to keep myself from laughing.  I never had a fear of heights, but Cat has always been uncomfortable in high places.  It’s fine when you live in the lowlands of Southern California or only going on the occasional rollercoaster, but this is the first time I’ve ever been with her while climbing a mountain.

Astveig let out an exasperated groan.  “Honestly, if I’d known you were so afraid of heights, I never would have let you come with us.”

I finally barked a laugh.  “You really think that would have stopped her?”  I looked back at Astveig, who was bringing up the rear of our little group, just behind Cat.  Astveig pursed her lips at me and shook her head, but didn’t reply.

“Okay, I get it,” Cat said with a shaky voice.  “I’m useless.”

“You’re not useless,” I said, looking back at her.  “Nobody’s perfect.”

Before I could say anything else, I was interrupted by a loud shushing from Astveig.  “Do you hear that?” she whispered.

I stood silently a moment, listening.  At first, I heard nothing but the wind whistling through the crags.  Then, I heard it: a low hissing, like someone breathing through a gas mask, only it somehow sounded like one, long breath that was filled with nothing but hate.

“Wraith!” screamed Astveig, as a massive shadow loomed behind us.  “Run!”

Without even thinking, I hustled further along the ledge, praying that my footing could remain solid.  I didn’t dare look back until the path widened into a clear space about fifteen feet wide. I was relieved to see both Cat and Astveig close on my heels.

The wraith was a great shadow, about ten feet tall.  It was mostly devoid of form, just a great, black thing.  It had the vague impression of arms, but it was like they were covered by long sleeves or a blanket.  It had two glowing, red coals where its eyes would be.

Cat showed quick thinking by using magic to cause the cliff to collapse in the wraith’s path.  Unfortunately, it proved useless, as the wraith simply past through it as though it weren’t there at all.

“Keep running, you fools!” cried Astveig.  “There’s nothing we can do to stop it!”

I let Cat take the lead this time, figuring that I’d be better capable of assisting her if I can keep her in my sight.  We rounded a bend, and kept going as fast as we could. It wasn’t fast enough. The wraith cut the corner and came out of the cliff wall ahead of us.  Cat screamed and lost her footing, slipping over the edge, then catching it with her hands before she could fall into the chasm. The wraith was just inches away from her.  I reached down to try to help her up, but Astveig grabbed my arm and pulled me away.

“What are you doing?” I cried.  “I have to help Cat!”

Astveig held onto my arm tightly.  “It’s too late. You’ll never be able to save her in time.  We need to run!”

“No…” I said feebly, but I knew she was right.  The wraith was already almost on top of Cat. Cat looked up with me.  I will never forget the sadness in her eyes as she let go of the cliff edge and plummeted into the abyss.