Chapter 16

The rain comes down hard, and I close my eyes, letting my face be pelted. The sound calms me, but as I feel the water running off my body, I flashback to my dreams. A sea of red, the hands, dragging me down. My eyes snap open and I sit up quickly my heart racing. Looking up, I scramble away from the cloaked figure looming above me but pause as they bend and offer me their hand.

"Come, Asta, out of this storm." A familiar voice floats from the dark hood, and my panic ebbs.

"Sigrid?" I ask weakly, and take her hand. She has to support me as we walk back to her cabin. The door opens itself and we step inside, out of the wet.

"Child, are you all right?" I stand there in a daze unable to form words. She grabs my face in her hands and studies me, worried.

"Follow me." She leads me to a bathtub filled with warm floral-smelling water and helps me undress. I feel awkward as my clothes are removed, but quickly it is replaced with relief as I get into the warm water. I allow her to help wash my hair, and as she does, the water begins to bubble. I close my eyes and try to relax, but the images of red keep haunting me.

The longer I'm in the water, the less I'm in pain, and the tension in my body begins to lessen. The water turns dirty very quickly, and she helps me out and into a soft warm robe. She sets me onto a chair in front of a wooden vanity with golden inlay, and I can see my full self for the first time. My hair is now long and black, my eyes looking almost a blue-green, and the blue patches on my body have faded significantly.

Sigrid comes back with a towel and begins drying and detangling my hair, then braiding it back out of my face. Once she's done, she moves me into the main area of her home, then lets me lay on her soft sofa, and hands me a cup of tea. She sits down opposite me, sipping her own tea. Setting the cup down, she gives me a small smile.

"It seems your life is changing faster than you can process." She half-jokes, and I snort.

"So is my appearance." I set down the cup and try to stand, but I find my legs don't want to work. She moves to help but I flinch away. "Look, I'm thankful for your help, Sigrid, but it's not safe here, with me, and-"

The sound of a door opening interrupts me, and I turn to see three small cloaked figures coming in, and when they drop their hoods, my heart sinks. Brant, Nyra, and Frena walk towards us, carrying a basket. I back away, but Sigrid shoves me gently down onto the couch and walks past me, meeting her kids.

"Thank you, darlings. Now, it's late, go on to bed." She tries to shuffle them off, but they whine.

"We want to play with Asta." Frena whines.

"In the morning. Now, off with you." She hugs each of them, and they walk slowly off to bed.

"Now, about what you were saying," she says, walking past me and back to her seat, "You are safe here, in fact, this could be one of the safest places for you to be."

"But the kids-"

"They will be fine. Now you, on the other hand, will not be alright if you don't sleep, too. And no arguments!" She says, seeing me open my mouth to protest. She drinks the rest of her tea, and I reluctantly do the same.

"I've done bad things," I say quietly, and she unfolds a blanket.

"We all have things in our past we aren't proud of, some of us feel damned for our past," She throws the blanket over me, adjusting my pillow, "But I think it's how you move forward. Don't dwell on what you've done, focus on what you're going to do to make your future actions better."

With a flick of her fingers, the candles and lamps dim down, and she kneels down, taking my face in her hands once more. "Sleep. Nothing ever gets done when you are so exhausted you can't think straight." With that, she smoothes my hair and leaves for her bedroom, the rest of the lights flick out, leaving me to the light of the fire.

I wake to the early morning sunshine, and I just lay on the couch and stare up at the ceiling rafters. They are wrapped with pretty flowering vines, and some even look like they're moving... I sit up, squinting, and see that one vine isn't a vine at all, but a snake, emerald and shiny and looking down at me. The snake flicks his tongue and looks back to its rafter, and I watch it for a while, but the sound of the kids shuffling out makes me look away. I greet them and look up, but the snake is gone.

The children play around me, and I play with them, too, after seeing my blue arm has gone back to normal. Sigrid comes out a little while later, holding a pretty blue gown. I take it, thanking her, and go into the other room to get dressed.

The dress fits perfectly, and I immediately fall in love with it. The sleeves are split down the middle but have ties that give me the option of putting them back together. The dress is outlined with golden embroidery, and the neckline is low but not revealing. I step out of the bathroom, and Sigrid sits me down on a chair and re-braids my hair. When she is finished, she shows me to a mirror and I see that my hair has grown to elbow length, although she braids it back into two intricately thick braids on each side of my head. I also happily find my skin is free from blue.

"See? There is no more blue left upon you, so come! Let us drink and be merry, and celebrate this day!" We walk out with the children, into the quickly-forming crowd. Men and women dressed in a rainbow of colors dance in the clearing I had fallen into, and people bring out food and drink, setting it onto the decorated table.

As she walks, I cling to her like a needy child, not having the best time in the fray. Music floats on the wind, and I try to take comfort in it. We sit and eat, laughing at the jokes tossed around at the table. I eat and eat, once again surprising myself at how hungry I am. When I begin to slow on my eating, I feel a tug on my sleeve.

Looking down, I see Nyra, standing there, a big smile on her face. She tugs me towards the group of dancing and playing people, and I allow myself to be guided by her. We weave between the people into a group of kids, all playing and dancing around. She releases my sleeve and motions for me to pick her up, so I do, and we begin swinging and dancing, and she starts laughing, and I smile in turn. It had been so long since I had played with kids, and spinning around with them, it makes my heart happy.

We dance and dance, and dance some more. After the kids fall down in a giggling heap, I pretend to crumple to the ground with them, and that makes Nyra giggle even more. As the sun reaches its peak, I leave them and walk back to Sigrid to snack on some fruit. I munch for a while, not paying attention to the conversations surrounding me. Looking over to the crowd of dancers, I have to do a double-take, because there, standing on the outskirts of the group of people, stands Loki.

My heart races as I turn to Sigrid and tap on her arm.

"Yes?" She asks, turning to look at me, her expression turning to worry when she looks to me. "What's wrong?"

"Loki is here. He's over by the man in the yellow robes." I glance back, looking at him, thankful he hasn't come any closer to us.

"I cannot see him, darling, though I doubt his presence is a threat." She says, sipping her mead.

"He is for me! I escaped from somewhere where his, uhm," I search for the right word, panicking, "Brother's coworkers were holding me... I did bad things, and-" I glance back and lock eyes with him, and panic hits me like a bag of bricks.

"Remember what I told you last night. Now breathe, child, breathe." I look back at her as she places a hand on my shoulder, but has to take it away quickly, wincing. I look down and blue is spreading down up my arms. She stands and we rush back to her home, and I try to keep myself together until we are safe in the house.

As soon as she closes the door, my panic ramps up. What if he's here to take me back to the prison at the compound? What if he's here to neutralize the threat I pose? What if the giants followed me here, and an attack is going to occur because of me?

"Please, you have to help me. Please, my heart is running a million miles a second and it's hard to breathe, please-" I wheeze, and she wraps me in a blanket and helps me to a chair.

"Breathe, you have to breathe. You have to calm yourself, this panic you've thrown yourself into is causing you to turn blue."

"I'm sorry, you're," I take a shaky breath, trying desperately to calm down, "You're right."

I try to regain my breath, but memories flash in front of my eyes. The piles of dead, my parents, the red sea. She has to catch me before I collapse to the ground, but the blanket slips and she recoils from my skin.

I catch myself and land on my hands and knees, and one moment I am staring at the floor and the next the hollow husk of my father. The flashbacks fill my head and I can't look away. The event plays, over and over again, and I cry out, begging it to stop. The visions keep flashing in-front of me and only end when I feel a sudden calm wash over me. I shift to a sitting position against the lounge chair and look up to Sigrid.

"Darling," she gasps, "You have to control. This spell will only last for a little while, after that it will rush back like nothing interrupted it. Breathe." I look around and see a chair that had been right next to me has exploded into shards of fabric and wood, and patches of frost dot the floor.

"What is happening to me?" I beg for an answer but knowing damn well I won't like it.

"I think you may know, deep down. You come from a place with knowledge of this universe. You may not realize it, but you know. It's who you are."

"Then I want to be someone else!" I cry, hugging my knees to my chest, "I want to go home! I want this to be-" I am interrupted by the door swinging open, revealing Frena in the doorway. Her eyes go wide as soon as she sees me.

"Frena, now is not a-" Sigrid begins, slowly walking towards her, but Frena backs away, then starts screaming. At the sound of her shrieks, the music stops and people make their way toward the cottage. I scramble to my feet as people reach the doorway, gazing upon the situation within.

"Monster!" She screams, terror on her face and her finger pointing to me.

She's right.