Immortal, Insatiable, Indomitable

“You’re just sensing her real feelings at last, y’know?”

The Dísir. Those bitches were here, too? Great.

“Isn’t it? We’ll make your afterlife so…interesting.”

Were those pests reading his mind?

“Here we can do that and more. We can do anything, really.”

“Then you can literally fuck yourselves,” he growled.

“Tsk. Don’t be a sore loser, Vidar.”

“You’re losers, period.”

“We’ll excuse you, poor man. You must be feeling so stupid, so used right now. But don’t feel too bad. Kara’s convoluted plan and her seamless execution of it would have fooled any of us. It was a con for the ages. I bet Loki will teach her methods in his Trickster University for eons to come. If he doesn’t join us here soon.”

Vidar turned his eyes to Kara’s impassive one.

He turned to the Dísir. “Play another one.”

“Which one? The game where we try to pretend that you’re not the laughingstock of the afterlife? The master trickster who was taken in like a wet-nosed chump?”

“Save it, hags. As we Lokians say to females we wouldn’t touch with a realm-long pole, that’s one itch I’m never helping you scratch. You’ll have to live with the excruciating fact that Kara and I gave our lives for each other. But then, that would imply that you actually feel. You don’t. You’re defective models who came onto this immortal coil stripped of vital components, so you’ll never understand why we did what we did for each other.”

“You got a mouth on you, boy. We have an eternity to…put it to good use, though.”

“Save your threats for someone who gives a shit, or looks at you and sees anything apart from pathetic jokes.”

The Dísir looked at one another, then burst out laughing.

Sigrun pretended to wipe away a tear of hilarity. “Oh, boy. Taming this one will be major fun.”

Vidar grunted in disgust. “Dream on, crones. And do your worst. All I care is that you spare Kara. Since she’s here, then you reneged on your deal, took my soul and won’t release hers. I guess I walked right into that. But at least do this one thing that might excuse your existence. End her torment.”

“You still believe the sob story she told you? Priceless.”

“Shut up and give her peace.”

“Oh, fine. Let’s go along with your delusion about what’s happening here for a minute. How do you propose we do that?”

He looked back to the indifferent Kara. Then he turned solemn eyes to them. “Make her forget me.”

“Wow, dude, stupid and stupidly noble, unto eternity and beyond.” Sigrun’s eyes twinkled at him. “You want a side order of the same mercy for yourself?”

Vidar snorted. “No, thanks, and hold the taunts.”

“You sure? We’re feeling generous in celebration of netting ourselves a first-of-its-kind life-form here, so we advise you to make use of this one-time offer—two amnesias for the price of one.”

“Don’t you dare come near my memories. Not that you can. We Lokians have parts of our memories fueling the souls you so covet. That’s where my memories of Kara and my love for her reside. Mess with those and the whole package degrades. Your choice.”

The Dísir went silent.

Then Sigrun probed, “But you can do it, can’t you? You can wipe out the memory of her and that of your love for her. Why not do it and spare yourself an eternity of kicking yourself for being such a fool?”

He looked at Kara. Her eyes were no longer impassive. There was such…condescending pity in them.

He turned to Sigrun. “That’s another thing you have no hope of grasping with your deficiencies. But if you want my answer for your records, the memory of Kara, of loving her, will be the one thing to make my afterlife worthwhile, just as they made my life for the brief time I had the blessing of having her in it.”