“We don’t speak for everyone,” Marin said, ignoring the byplay going on between Thordin and Thom. “We suggest, but the community on the whole makes the decision. We can’t just declare that we’ll help you—or that we won’t help you.”
“Besides that, there’s an open question regarding what, exactly, would be the benefit for us?” Thom crossed his arms. “In case you didn’t notice, the world already ended and we’re already fighting a war. How is what you’re asking us to step into different from what we’re already doing?”
Why the hell are you pounding on our gate and asking us for help if we’re already in the fight?
“You had mentioned your own war, yes. This would pale.”
“Unless it’s the same war,” Thordin growled.
“I told you to be silent.”
“You also don’t speak to the dead,” Thordin countered. “Does that mean I must still be breathing?”
She swore and spun away, boots crackling against the ice-crusted snow. “Damn your eyes, Odinson! Can’t you see what I’m trying to do for you?”
“Clearly not,” he said quietly, “because I keep poking a hornet’s nest to see what it might get me.”
She twisted, glaring at him. “If I admit that you yet breathe, that you are the one I know in my heart you are, then I am honor and duty-bound to bring you back to face Ragnarok with the rest of us—to condemn you to your final doom if the stories be true. I can’t bear that.”
“So you betray me instead? Forget that I’m here, ignore my very existence?” Thordin stepped away from Thom and Marin and approached their visitor, took her by the shoulders and gave her a firm shake. “How long was it before you fell into his arms, Sif?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Wasn’t it?”
“Who told you that it was?”
“Someone I trust,” Thordin spat. “How long was it? How long was it before you slept with my brother?”
“You say it as if I had a choice,” the woman whispered, just barely loud enough for Thom and Marin to hear her. “If I hadn’t, they would have killed your son.”
ah ha.. getting down to some nitty gritty here. This isn’t another ghost woman, is it? I rather like the ghost people.
Thanks for the new post… things are coming together better for me now.
Stay warm. We just had snow for 14 hours straight. yeah Minnesota!
You’re more than welcome.
I’m actually having a lot of fun starting to reveal Thordin’s history. I’ve given you guys a lot about Phelan and Neve so far–now it’s his turn.