III The Hanged Man
¡Norse AU! Inspired by American Gods and also by Heroes of the Valley. Let’s say that I’ve interpreted this prompt quite literally.
Caith looked at him, upright and pliable like an ash branch, but in here eyes could be read the doubt. Fear, maybe.
Njall had never seen her frightened, not when their village was burning and they were just five or six years, not when the warrior chief had struck her with a backhanded slap because she had stolen a blade and not, when he, Njall, had shown her what he could do with a handful of signs scribbled in the dust. Caith had not been frightened even when the creatures had appeared the first time and had started to kill. She was never frightened.
«It’s madness» she pontificated, her knuckles holding on the rope. «You are not Odin. You’ll die».
«We are all going to die» Njall retorted tersely. «You know it. If we stay here and do nothing, they’ll kill us all. We don’t know what they are, your arrows don’t hurt them, nor the fire».
«And your suicide will solve this, oh sure!»
«I am not killing myself» Njall stressed those words with all the confidence he had. «It’s a ritual, and you know it very well. A way to gain knowledge. And I am not the first one: that ancient mage tried and-»
«And he died!»
«Not because of the ritual!» Njall exhaled. «Look, if you are here it means you want to help me. Don’t you?»
Caith stared at him harshly. Just above her eye there was a little scar that cut vertically her eyebrow; it came from a shove by Njall when they were children. Caith had fallen with her face on the ground and had hit a rock hidden in the grass. They both had cried, that time, Caith because of the pain and Njall because of the fear.
«Fine» Caith straightened her shoulders. «Take off the tunic and let’s start».
The worst part, Njall presumed, was the beginning, as it was for all the things: getting used to the position, the blood running to the head, the air coming more and more laboriously, the rope sawing his skin. Caith, of course, had made perfect knots and had not left him any escape. In that position, Njall could only see her legs, moving nervously back and forth. Then they stopped and suddenly Caith’s face appeared near to his.
«Well, hung you’re hung. I’ll come and check-»
«No! You can’t come here during the ritual, Caith! I must be alone».
Even upside down, Njall saw perfectly the terrible scowl appear on Caith’s forehead.
«And you’re asking me to leave you like this… and alone for nine days? Do you realize what you’re asking to me?»
«I do. It’s a necessary sacrifice to gain knowledge. And the gods’ grace». Njall hesitated. «If you are my friend… If you are my friend, you’ll understand».
Caith’s eyes tightened, then her face disappeared abruptly from Njall’s vision.
«Goodbye, then. I’ll be back in nine days».
During the following hours, Njall tried to focus on something else, for example all the spells and chants he knew, the runes, the symbols; then he tried to not take offense for Caith’s coldness and to not regret sending her away: she was like this, and the ritual had to be done like this too, there wasn’t much to do about it.
The tree Njall had chosen had grown under a cavern, all twisted up to find the few rays of sunlight that filtered from above; so, Njall was quite protected, but it was impossible to know how long had passed. Maybe he fell asleep (or better, lost consciousness) despite the pain, because at some point it was pitch black and cold. He felt like someone had set fire to every single tendon and he gasped like a fish outside water.
He tried to convince himself that this was the hardest part.
After immeasurable time spent trying to cut himself from his own body, wondering why he had decided to do it, Njall gave up: he started to think about Caith.
It wasn’t that he didn’t care about his village and the people; but he couldn’t deny that she was the first reason. Caith was a warrior: she had already fought with those creatures, using blade and arrows and it was just a matter of time before a night ended bad. They were monsters emerged by their nightmares, unstoppable. And hungry for human flesh.
He wondered if Caith knew.
He had his lips completely dry and split, and it seemed like he had no more blood in his veins. He wondered how he could still be lucid.
Any pain was gone, his body was in peace. Maybe he didn’t have a body anymore. It was a relief, anyway.
So Caith was right: he was dead.
«Well, I wouldn’t say» said a voice.
Njall said naked feet drawing near him. Funny, he didn’t feel his body anymore and yet his downturned vision was the same as before.
«You’re not dead at all» went on the voice. «But the nine days are gone, little mage».
«Who are you?» Njall was amazed to hear his voice firm: he would have expected it to be broken, weakened by pain, hunger, thirst.
«Who am I? Haven’t you sacrificed yourself for something? For the gods? I am here. I have seen your sacrifice and I’ve accepted it».
A face appeared above his: it was the same colour as terracotta, all resolute dark eyebrows and sharp features.
«Are you ready?»
Njall didn’t have time to ask for what: suddenly he was on the ground, free from the ropes, and it was as if every pain, every sorrow came back all together.
He started to shiver uncontrollably, coughed, tried to get up and collapsed again.
«Now stay calm» said the voice. «Your friend is coming».
Hesitant steps. «Njall? It’s not possible…»
In a moment, Caith was beside him, putting on his shoulder a cloak, wetting his lips, holding him to warm him. Njall tried to croak out something.
«Very sweet, nothing to say».
Caith turned suddenly, still holding Njall. He tried to figure out who the third person was. He saw that he was young, and grinning. Sunlight shone on the jewels his hair was braided with, tied at his ankles and wrists.
«It has been a long time since I saw someone so pig-headed, you know» his grin widened even more and Njall, even if he was exhausted, worn out, thirsty, felt a vague surge of danger.
«What did you do?» whispered Caith, and, addressing the naked-feet youth «Who are you?»
«The one who accepted his sacrifice» squatted down like this, he seemed a young wolf ready to attack. «I have many names. You call me Loki».
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I drew this while I was sitting without the Internet for 2 days because of the russian shelling (these days I had to prepare for the last state exam👍anyway, I passed it successfully and now I'm free for a while), because the only available references for drawing were books and a folder with memes
So, bunch of ukr memes but it's a BartSeq👇
(You'll never believe which meme Kitty represents lol)
"I like the way it burns" for Bartimaeus (more in alt)
"It feels like God is punishing us for something" oh yes, Stroud often does that
Some silly sketches: Bartimaeus grimacing copies very important Minister Mandrake™ explanations, but does so in a guise of Kitty, and just Verroq (i love him, and i still can't draw him properly)
"Get out your 5 hryvnias" and "Verroq, you have a boring face, no one will give us money", or The Mercenary needs to be paid for his services, and Lovelace is raising money for a big coup, but if their faces are boring, no one will give them money (alt for more as always)
And finally... This. Just this. I have nothing to say, it's just a fcking legend. A legend that speaks: "It was me who stole the chumadan (mispronounced «suitcase»)" («spyzdyv» (stole) here is an untranslatable swear word that means "to steal").
It was Kitty who stole the staff.
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