Mission accomplished

With her head full of thoughts about her future and what it might hold, Dreufey lost track of time, and she was for this reason the last one to arrive at Freya's party.

A manservant in a blue uniform, and with a spear held vertical in his hand, stood guard by the door to Freya's quarters.

"They are waiting for you, my lady," he said. Then he opened the door for her to enter.

His word of warning made Dreufey think that she might be frowned upon for being late, but much to Dreufey's relief, the gods were doing fine without her. She could see them standing outside on Freya's spacious balcony, with glasses of sparkling wine in their hands, engaged in small talk and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Nobody noticed that Dreufey had entered Freya's quarters, and this gave Dreufey time to take in the elegance of Freya's entrance hall which doubled as a salon. It had a tall ceiling, in the same style as the hallway from where she had entered. Even if only half as tall as the hallway, the ceiling was lofty to say the least. The walls were hung with tapestries with scenes of flowers, birds and other animals. They were densely embroidered with silk threads in rich colours, ranging from red and burgundy to yellow, green and blue. An open French window to the balcony was flanked by a tall window to either side; all in classic gothic style.

The room had three sitting arrangements with comfortable looking chairs and sofas placed around tables of polished rose wood. Open doors to either side of the salon revealed several more rooms.

"Ah! There you are," Freya said when Dreufey entered the balcony. "Take a glass of wine! It's to celebrate your return and the success of your mission."

A manservant, also in a blue uniform, was holding a silver tray with a glass of wine for Dreufey.

"Thank you," she said.

The servant bowed politely. Then he retreated from the balcony, leaving the gods to themselves.

Everyone was dressed in classic Vanir evening wear. Thor and Odin wore Cossack trousers with leather boots, and white shirts embroidered with flower motifs. Freya and Idun wore long evening gowns, similar to the one Dreufey was wearing, and shoes in matching colours; Freya in blue and Idun in red. Both the men and the women wore robes with fur trimmings; Thor in his usual rust brown colour; Odin in green; and the ladies in robes matching their gowns.

Odin stepped forward to personally congratulate Dreufey. He took her hand and kissed it.

"Your mission has been immensely valuable to us," he said.
"That's what I hear, but I can't remember anything special or unusual happening. I'm a little confused as to what exactly I've accomplished."
"That's understandable, because your success lies not in what happened, but in all the things that didn't happen."

Odin stepped back to let the others in on his conversation with Dreufey.

"You see. A great war was brewing."
"I know" Dreufey said. "But it came to nothing."
"And that, my dear, is thanks to you. Had it not been for you, there would have been a war on Earth, and it would have led to terrible sufferings. But you prevented this from happening by leading Adolf away from the path he was on."
"Adolf?"
"Yes. Your sweet Adolf was destined to become the worst human to have ever walked the Earth, but your mastery of Freya's craft won the day. You sent him down a different path, and disaster was averted."
"I stopped a war from happening?"
"You did. A horrible war that would have sent hordes of lost souls to Hel as well as an abundance of material for Loki to construct his demon ship, Naglfar. With your help, Hel's army of lost souls is a little smaller than it would otherwise have been, and Naglfar is not quite as far on its way to be finished."
"All because of me, and my love for Adolf?"
"That's right."

Dreufey was dumbstruck.

Odin raised his glass, and the other gods did the same. "To Dreufey!"

Everyone drank from their glasses. Then, Odin took Dreufey to the side. He led her over to the balustrade, away from the three others. From there, they could see a river flowing down the wide valley in front of them, and a small river-port with ships docked in front of the nearest village.

"I must also congratulate you on how you managed to turn Adolf into an asset for us. He did a lot to revive Norse mythology. His paintings contained many subtleties and fine points often overlooked."
"There was a demand for those painting. That's why."
"But you were the one pointing out all of this to him. I don't think he made a single painting depicting war, nor any paintings with mumbo-jumbo magic."
"You're right. I told him to stay away from all that. Not least because we don't engage in these things."
"Exactly. Well... Except for Thor, of course. He likes a good fight."

They looked over at Thor who was engaging Freya and Idun in some tall story or other. His huge body shook with laughter from his own jokes. The women, dwarfed by his enormous size, were also laughing. They were having a good time. Thor was not disappointing his audience. He was as good a storyteller as he was rumoured to be.

Odin went on to tell Dreufey how he had his two ravens spy on Loki's every move, and that this is how he came to know about Loki's plan to stoke a great war on Earth. Hugin and Munin had followed Loki on his travels to Earth, and they had listened in on his conversations with a man named Anton.

Odin's ravens relayed these conversations back to Odin. However, Hugin was not much impressed by Anton. He was not a very charismatic character in Hugin's opinion. Munin could add that the only charismatic character in Anton's circle of friends was a man named Adolf, a frustrated artist of limited talent.

It was clear from this that the weak point in Loki's plan was the lack of charismatic figures. All Odin had to do was to send someone down to Earth to distract Adolf and set him off on a different path, and that is what Dreufey did, with excellent results.

"Why didn't you tell any of this to me ahead of time?" Dreufey wondered.
"That would have served no purpose. It would've made you too aware of your circumstances, which could possibly have blown your cover and rendered your mission a fiasco."
"I made a few slip-ups while I was down there, I must admit."
"You see. It's not always a good thing to know too much."

There was another roar of laughter coming from Thor's side of the balcony, and Odin and Dreufey went over to ask what it was all about.

"What are you telling the ladies?" Odin asked of his son.
"He's been telling us about that time when he dressed up as Freya," Idun replied. "In order to get his hammer, Mjolnir, back from the Jotuns."
"Surely, no-one believes that story," Dreufey said. "How could anyone confuse Thor for Freya?"
"Trym did," Thor said confidently.
"Come on. Not even Trym could have been that dense. Just look at you; Freya, the most elegant of all goddesses, and you, the biggest and strongest of all gods. You have absolutely nothing in common."
"That's a huge exaggeration. Freya and I have all sorts of things in common. We have two arms, two legs and only one head, unlike some Jotuns. And we both have tender rosy lips."
Idun laughed. "He's right! Just look at him."

Thor puckered his lips. Then he bent down to the ladies, making little kissing noises.

"Gee! stop it!" Freya said with a giggle. "You're making a terrible impersonation of me."

Everybody laughed.

"But seriously! No-one believes any of Thor's tall stories. Do they?"
"Of course not," Odin replied. "But what is life without humour? Don't you think a good religion should poke some fun of the gods and holy men involved?"
"It's not at all how it works down on Earth these days. There's no humour in any of the religions I came across. Some will even kill you if you make fun of certain characters. Everybody's desperate not to offend anyone."
"Sounds like Hel to me," Thor said. "It's like letting one side of your body decay into a corpse."
"Could it be because Midgard lies so close to Helheim?" Idun wondered.
"Why else would they muffle half of themselves in order to appear virtuous?" Freya asked.
"You might be onto something there. Hel is not exactly fun to be around, and she's half corps and half living. Maybe that's who they worship down there," Odin suggested. "All those puritans think they worship something heavenly, and the real deity behind it all is Hel herself."

There was a moment of silence while they let the thought hang. Then Thor turned to Dreufey:

"Well, thanks for that. We had a fun time until you poked your nose into this."

Everybody started laughing again. Then Thor continued:

"To Hel with it. If they refuse to have any fun, they can all go and join Hel's army for all I care. But I'm certainly not going to spend my days in constant anguish while waiting for Ragnarok to come round to finish us all off."

Everybody agreed. They raised their glasses and emptied what little was left in them.

A manservant entered the balcony to inform the gods that their meal was being served in the dining room.

"Say no more." Thor replied. "Let's go!"

They left their glasses on the balcony for the servant to take care of. Then they headed indoors, with Freya leading the way. She showed them through several salons, every one of them as exquisitely furnished as the entrance hall.

Freya's dining room was located in the far corner of her quarters. It had a curved wall towards the east and south, set with large windows. The sky outside was red from the sunset. A table was set for five, with a generous plate of pork roast placed in the middle for everyone to serve themselves. Behind the table, there was a fireplace with a roaring fire. The room had an oak ceiling and was cosier than the salons they had passed through. The fire made it warm enough for the gods to hang off their robes on a coat rack by the door before sitting down.

One of the seats was set with a plate and a goblet twice as large as the other ones.

"That must be my seat," Thor said with a satisfied smile. "And you got beer for me! Finally, something worth drinking."
"And you got cider for me," Idun chimed in. "You really think of everything."
"I take my role as a hostess seriously. You know that."
"We do, and we love you for it."

Dreufey had her goblet filled with white wine, which she had become used to drinking during her years in Munich. Odin shared beer with his son, and Freya shared wine with Dreufey.

Freya turned to her servants.

"Thank you for this beautiful table. It's much appreciated," she said. "You may leave now. We'll take care of things from here on out. You can come back tomorrow to tidy up. But not too early, and don't hang around here in my quarters. We don't want anyone listening in on our conversations."

The servants retreated. They closed the doors behind them, and the gods sat down to eat.

"Sessrumnir is perfect for this kind of meetings," Odin said once everyone had served themselves with food. "Unlike Valhalla, you don't have spies snooping around. It can at times get quite intolerable over at my place."
"That's because you insist on keeping Loki as a guest at your palace," Freya replied.
"I know. But you know the saying: Keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer."
"You're a strong believer in that, aren't you?"
"I am. Besides, Loki has come in handy from time to time. He gave me Sleipnir, my trusted stallion."
"He didn't just give it to you," Thor said. "He gave birth to it! Loki is a slutty mere at heart."
"Oh! There you go again," Dreufey said, putting down her cutlery.
"That's actually a true story," Odin replied.
"Oh my. I got a feeling we're going to have some fun tonight," Idun said with a smile on her face.

The gods continued their meal with a stream of jokes and light conversation, interspersed with the occasional profound observation.

Then, towards the end of their meal, Freya brought up a matter of grave concern.

"Let me first congratulate Dreufey once again for her excellent work," she said. "I have many agents sorting things out on Earth, but none of them have been quite as successful as you, dear Dreufey. You make me proud to be a Vanir. You represent the very best of what we are, namely the embodiment of Seidr. Foresight and will are the most powerful forces in the universe, but only when they are combined."

"Will without foresight is of no value. It leads nowhere but to anger and frustration. Foresight without the will to change what's coming at us is equally impotent. It's only when the two are combined that we get Seidr. The two elements of will and foresight must be blended together in order for them to become a force."

Thor interjected: "Knocking someone on the head with a hammer works equally well in my opinion."

There was once again laughter around the table.

"That's right Thor," Freya said politely. "But that's not going to be enough to fix the problems we're facing. There's trouble afoot, and we have to devise a plan to stop it from happening."

< Previous chapter | Next chapter >