Baldur's Dream
by Seawalker
He is a swirl of ashes on the water
Congealing, rising, light breaking
From the dark cloud on the wind.
His ship re-forms and he leaps
Aboard its prow. All is destruction
About the battlefield. Fire-lord blasts
The ground in flames still, far away
Like smoke on the horizon. He seeks, finds,
The bodies of his kin, although he knows
He should have kept his eyes to himself.
Kneeling, weeping, he feels her come,
Like a cold breath of icy wind, like
Inevitability. He has been her guest
All these years, centuries, she has fed him well
But he could not bear to bring her the cup
At her stirrup when she rode away yesterday
To slay his kin, on a boat of countless
Loyal dead souls. He was left alone
In the dark place, with wife and brother,
Clinging ghostly to each other.
"Be glad, my chick," she says, her voice
As rough as mountain whisky. "If you'd
Been here, you'd be lying here as well."
He knows it is true; after all these years
There is no lack of understanding in him
About the machinations of father, uncle,
Both of whom lie dead on the field today.
She, too, has lost her father this day,
He remembers, and bows his head.
She does not gloat. She never gloats.
"Is there aught that could have been done?"
He asks, voice tired. Being embodied again,
It is hard work. He has forgotten how hard.
"Of course," she says. "They always had
Their choice. So did mankind, all along.
They could have honored the wilderness,
Not polluted the elemental powers,
Brought a balance between nature and
Civilization. But they did not, and here we are."
Her bone hand grips his shoulder, hard. "Get up.
There is much cleaning to do, and we need to
Start now. Fetch a broom, a shovel, anything.
There are worlds to move, destiny to scour,
The stuff of universes to push about. As your father
And uncles once did, now it is our turn. We
And the few who are left. You breathe again,
So start working. You have no excuse."
He hears her limp across the field, bone foot
Dragging through the corpses, in a cloud of crows.
He rises, and the dawn glows. "Bring that over here,"
She calls. "I need to see what I'm doing,
Lamp-boy. If you clean this place up nicely,
Perhaps I'll even let you pretend you are
A king."
Artwork by Ciano Von Jo.