Ivaldi's city

Dreufey walked over to where Freyr was sitting. She held Freya's falcon cloak in her hand.

"Your sister told me to give this to you," she said.

She handed the cloak to Freyr who lay it aside, leaving the seat next to him free for her to sit down.

"You look spectacular," he said. "Even after that long journey."
"I'm exhausted," Dreufey replied. "I could do with a rest."

She decided to accept Freyr's offer to sit next to him.

"What a trip it's been!" she said. "The intensity of it. It was amazing!"
"I know," Freyr replied. "Being a falcon gets you places. It's quite a trip; but very draining."

Dreufey leant in towards Freyr. He put an arm around her, and she lay her head on his shoulder. Then she fell asleep only to wake up a few hours later alone in the sofa, with a pillow under her head and a woolly blanket across her shoulders and body.

She looked around in what was a relatively small living room with a single sitting arrangement and walls hung with prints rather than paintings. However, the room's balcony and wide view of the city made up for the spartan feel of the room itself.

Being situated high up from the ground, the place had an aerial feel to it despite high-rises all around, every bit as tall as the one she was in.

The other buildings weren't so close as to obscure the view, and they were sufficiently different in styles to make them interesting to look at. Everyone had its own characteristic, and many were hung with so many plants that they were like vertical gardens, bursting with foliage and flowers.

The red sun, still high in the sky, made everything appear in various shades of red, green and gold. It was hard to determine the actual colours of anything, including the furniture and the walls in the room she was in. It was only when she turned on the ceiling lamp by flicking a switch on the wall that she realized that her room was in various shades of blue, and not red and burgundy as they had appeared.

"How odd," she thought to herself. "Even the sky is golden rather than blue."

But her wonderings were cut short by Freyr who came into the room with a tray with two mugs of tea and several sandwiches.

"Fully recovered?" he asked.
"More or less."
"Good. We need to get you up to speed on how things work here in town. There's no time to waste, so we might as well get started right away."

Dreufey had the advantage of having spent half a century on Earth, so there was a lot of details that Freyr could skip, because Nidavellir was in many ways like Earth, only more advanced. For example, Dreufey had never lived in a high-rise apartment building. She had only heard about it and seen it on TV. But there was nothing beyond this that was new or hard for her to understand.

Apart from the living room, the apartment had a kitchen with a dining area big enough for four people. It also had two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. However, unlike the apartment that Dreufey owned in Munich, this was a rented unit.

"Nobody except Ivaldi owns anything in this city," Freyr explained. "We had no choice but to rent this place. Freya has paid for six months only, so you'll have to take it from there."
"Can I pay with my gold coins?"
"You can, but you're better off getting a job. Preferably inside Ivaldi's headquarters. Those are sought after jobs. Everyone wants to work there, so there's a lot of competition, but there are ways to improve your odds by quite a lot."
"You're using your Seidr magic again; are you?" Dreufey asked.
"Yes. You guessed it. But that's all I'm going to tell you. You'll discover in due course what my sister and I have come up with."

Dreufey finished her sandwich.

"And my gold; where is it?"
"Your toolbox, you mean? I put it into the crate with gardening tools outside. I'll show you."

Freyr showed Dreufey out onto the balcony where there was a sitting arrangement in one corner. Two chairs and a sofa were placed around a table, with the sofa doubling as a crate in which gardening tools could be tucked away.

Freyr pushed aside the cushions on the sofa and opened the crate.

"Ah! There it is," Dreufey said, delighted to see her toolbox again. "But is it safe out here you think?"
"If you don't tell anyone about this, it's as safe here as anywhere. People aren't going to risk their lives trying to get at your garden tools and rusty toolbox, are they?"
"No. You're right."
"It's safer than a strongbox as long as you keep it a secret. Nobody will snoop around out here unless they're tipped off about your savings, and even then; the crate and the toolbox will be the last place they'll be looking."

Freyr closed the lid and put the cushions back into place. "This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase: sitting on a fortune, doesn't it?" he said with a smile.

Freyr turned to the view in front of the apartment.

"You see that tall black tower over there? The one with a rotating sign on top?"
"The one with Ivaldi & Sons in yellow letters?"
"Yes. That's their headquarters. It's only two stops away by metro, but we can't use the metro because we don't have the required implant to do so."
"Implants?"
"They are little metal capsules that many here in town have injected into the base of their necks; very small things that don't bother anyone but give them access to places like the metro."
"So, I should get one of those to make things easier for me?"
"No. That's not a good idea because the implants come with some disadvantages. For one, they allow Ivaldi and Sons to track our movements. That's not exactly a good idea, is it?"
"Not for us. But there must be more advantages than disadvantages to this for most people? It can't just be about access to the metro."
"You're right. This society is divided between those who are tagged and those who aren't tagged. If you're tagged with an implant, you can do a whole lot of things that the untagged cannot partake in. There's also a widespread belief that the implant is good for people's health."

Dreufey took a moment to process what Freyr had just told her. Then she asked him for examples of things that the tagged can do as opposed to the untagged.

"The tagged can access stores and restaurants that are only open to them. They can seek employment with Ivaldi & Sons, and they have access to free health care. The untagged have to fend for themselves. I'll show you around town tomorrow, and you'll see for yourself how they live."
"But didn't you just say that I was to find employment with Ivaldi & Sons? How can I do that if I'm untagged?"
"Don't you worry about that. There are ways around this. Even Ivaldi's headquarter has loopholes that we can use, because Ivaldi does business with all of Nidavellir and the universe beyond, so he cannot impose his implant mandate on everyone. Many would refuse to do business with him if he started treating his customers the same way that he treats his subjects here in town."
"But that's awful. Why aren't people revolting?"
"For the same reason that people on Earth accept this kind of treatment. Dark Elves are like humans. They don't have the will and foresight that we have. We are Vanir gods and would never put up with this kind of nonsense. But here in Nidavellir, the tagged feel superior to the untagged, and they are positively delighted with their enslavement."

Dreufey was stunned and baffled by Freyr's story. But it was true. She had seen this same behaviour on Earth.

"Don't forget where we are," Freyr continued. "We are in the underworld, right next to Helheim."
"But this place is more advanced than Earth, so why isn't it any better?"
"You're assuming that being more advanced is equivalent to being better. That's a huge assumption, and something you probably picked up during your time in Munich."
"Things improved a lot for a lot of people during my years in Munich, so it's not something I'm just saying. Life on Earth improved in leaps and bounds due to technology."
"And many here in Nidavellir are of that same opinion. People are well off. Even the untagged live reasonably well, all things considered. This apartment, for instance: What do you think of it?"
"It's nice. I like it."
"It could be a whole lot worse; don't you think?"
"Absolutely."
"Yet, the whole building is occupied mainly by the untagged. Mostly foreigners and people on business, but also untagged elves who've managed to make a reasonable living for themselves."
"So, this building is one of those loopholes you mentioned?"
"Exactly."

The sky was changing from a golden yellow to a deep orange as the sun started setting in the west.

"But the untagged can't be very happy about the way this city has been segregated?" Dreufey continued.
"Ivaldi is enormously powerful, and he has most of the population on his side, so there's no danger of any revolt. The only one who could possibly challenge Ivaldi in some distant future is a guy named Sindri. He runs a clandestine business empire with branches everywhere, including here in town."

They were interrupted by a light breeze that brought a whiff of chilly air with it. This prompted Freyr to suggest that they go inside.

"It's weird to think that people with the ability to make the world a truly wonderful place would nevertheless choose to make it miserable," Dreufey said as they entered the living room.
"Surely, you came across people like that on Earth?"
"I did, and it always mystified me."
"Yet, you've seen it with your own eyes, and Midgard isn't even a part of the underworld."

Freyr closed the French windows out to the balcony.

"I'll show you around town tomorrow," he said. "For now, let's watch some TV."

Freyr turned on a big screen on the wall next to the French windows.

"Pay attention to the local dialect! They have a strange way of talking that you need to emulate in order to become as indistinguishable with the locals as possible."

The two sat down in the sofa where the two took turns repeating words and phrases that they found amusing.

"It sounds like they're off to some party somewhere," Dreufey commented at one point.
"Like someone sprinkled sugar onto our language; don't you think?"
"Exactly. Letsé goé to a party and eaté somé caké."
"Thatsé funny, the way you talké."

There was more to the local dialect than just adding e's to the end of words, but the tendency to make words swing up at the end was the dialect's main difference from their own Vanir dialect, and Dreufey and Freyr had a lot of fun trying to emulate it.

They kept this going until dinner time, when Freyr went into the kitchen to prepare a simple meal for the two of them. Some thirty minutes later, he invited Dreufey into the kitchen to sit down at the table by the window.

"Vegetable soup for starters and Spaghetti Bolognese for the main course," he explained. "You might also like this local red wine."

He poured some wine into Dreufey's glass, then some into his own.

"There're a few things you should know about the city," Freyr said as they started on their soup. "For one, it's a dangerous place. People get robbed all the time, so you better not wear that necklace when we go out tomorrow. Leave that here at home."

Freyr continued his little lecture by holding up a short stout rod for Dreufey to see. The thing was about twice as long as the width of his hand, with one end rounded and the other end flat.

"This is a stun gun," he said. "It freezes an attacker for long enough for you to get away. I suggest you keep this in your purse at all times. You never know when it may come in handy."
"How does it work?"
"You hold it like this. Then you push this button forward and down with your thumb."

Freyr held the rod in his hand with the rounded end pointed away from himself to demonstrate the correct way to hold it. Then he handed the rod to Dreufey.

"Why don't you try it?"

Dreufey was puzzled by his suggestion.

"Where? How?" she asked.
"On me."
"On you? But isn't it dangerous?"
"No. Just a little uncomfortable."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Come on. Shoot me."

Dreufey hesitated, but Freyr insisted, and she ended up doing as he said. She pointed the rod at him. Then she pushed the button forwards and down.

The gun gave off a cracking noise, and Freyr was suddenly frozen as if cast in stone.

"Oh my!" Dreufey said out loud after a moment's pause. "How long is this going to last?"

Dreufey reached out to touch Freyr, and she was shocked to discover that the man was as if cast in granite. Even his clothes were hard and cold to the touch. When Freyr remained motionless for another few seconds, Dreufey got up from her chair.

She went over to Freyr's side of the table where she once again touched him, this time with more force. But the man and his clothes were incredibly rigid.

Time ticked by, and Freyr remained motionless in his chair.

"Hello!" Dreufey said loudly in the vain hope that it would somehow wake the man up. But nothing happened.

When a few minutes had passed without Freyr waking up, Dreufey started to panic. She went out of the kitchen and into the living room where she looked around with no clear idea of why she was there or what she hoped to find. Then she went back into the kitchen, only to see Freyr as frozen in his place as when she left him.

Maybe some cold water will wake him up, she thought. But just as she was about to fill a glass of water, she could hear Freyr groan over at the table.

"Ouch. That hurt," he said as he gradually loosened up.
"By Odin! You scared me! Why didn't you tell me that this would go on for this long?"
"I thought you knew."
"Of course not, you moron. And you call yourself a god!"
"Sorry! My bad."
"Aren't you supposed to have all this foresight. Talk about stupid mistake."
"But I got the point across; didn't I?"
"You sure did."
"Did you notice how everything about me turned to stone, as it were?"
"Yes. I did."

Dreufey sat down at the table where she took another few spoonsful of her soup. It had turned lukewarm but was still not cold.

"The stun gun is pretty useless as an offensive weapon," Freyr explained. "Let's say someone wants to take your purse, and they use a stun gun to paralyze you. Well... they can't take your purse before you wake up again some ten minutes later. That's not exactly ideal."
"So, it's not used by criminals."
"Not to rob people. It has been used to bypass guards and the like, so it's not entirely a defensive weapon. But it's mostly used in self-defence."

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