Girl, There’s A Better Life For Me And You
Raven
5th of November, 1975 — Lost Name
Grimnir and his companion strode over, half-finished pints in hand, and arranged seats next to them. Jo’s astonished face followed them as they passed her but they ignored her completely.
“I’m afraid you’re about to lose your name, Elizabeth Jennifer,” said the companion.
Raven’s anger rose while she stared at Grimnir’s companion.
“Are ye goin’ to steal it?” she threatened.
“No, not me. Not my style at all.”
He scanned the frozen ones and pointed one out. “See her? She’s called Susan Janet Ballion.” He pointed out another frozen customer. “And that one’s George Perez. He’s an American. Everyone here will dream about this but those two’s dreams will really affect them. They’ll both dream about you in particular. Susan’s sense of self will change and you’ll be responsible for that, but that’s nothing in the long run. George, however, his creation will steal your name.”
Raven didn’t respond. The companion continued. “He’ll dream about you and his dreams will be, well, steamy. He won’t be able to get them out of his system until he creates a character based on you and,” he smirked, “he’ll call her Raven for some reason. You can’t fight her, so you’ll lose your name. Just as well, Elizabeth Jennifer, Raven’s such a pretentious name anyway.”
Raven changed tacks. “Which one are you?” she asked of Grimnir. “Wodan or Odin?”
“Why just the two options? I’m all of them, naturally. Believers’ backgrounds and geography play a large part in their conceptions of me. I’m happy to oblige. And you’re exhausted. Please re-energise yourself. I assume you can do that.”
Raven nodded, took out a bar of something unrecognisable from inside her cloak and started to eat. She didn’t like being told what to do, even if it was to help, so she used the time to think up a response.
“So you’re Zeus as well then?”
There was just a flicker in the one eye but that was enough for her. She had scored a hit on a god.
“No, of course not. That’s silly.”
“So why….”
“Oh no. I’m not going to be dragged into a debate about this. It’s not for your kind to know anyway.” He continued before she could argue the point. “We’ll sort all this out, don’t worry about that. No one will be harmed and nothing will have happened here.”
“That’s a start.” Raven was aggressive. “Why are you here anyway? Your time’s past.”
He laughed. “We never went away. The Christians never took it all, especially the hamlets and the lonely places. Until the Evens came along. They wanted them for their own ends.”
“Go on.”
Christianity shot itself in the foot when the Adversary was created. They only concentrate on the endless war between themselves and quickly forget us. We just insert ourselves where they think their enemy is and their tactics are all wrong, so we hold our places easily.”
“Y’wantin’ a complete comeback?”
He laughed. “Do you know how much work that is? No, we aren’t making a takeover. We have our place and we’re protecting it.”
Raven nodded and turned to the companion. “So you’re Loki then. Or do you prefer Luka?”
He smiled a thin-lipped sarcastic smile. “Loki.”
“And why are you here? Surely your dad can take care of this?”
“I’m the best one for this job.”
Mr Harbinger felt he had to talk. “Will these people be alright?”
Loki answered. “Oh yes. As soon as you leave, everything will revert to normal.”
“How can it? Raven here seems to understand but I don’t. At the very least there’ll be stories.”
“We control their minds now. Mrs Evens did that to them but we took over when Elizabeth Jennifer…”
“Raven.” The interruption was angrily automatic. She’d been through this before.
“… kicked their arses.”
“Why don’t you speak like gods?” Raven was now deep in thought although she did seem to be following. Mr Harbinger knew what it was like to be interrupted and was trying to give her the space she needed for whatever she was thinking about. She had his trust now.
“How do gods speak?” Loki was amused.
“Impressively.”
“No. Some gods do that but not us. It’s embarrassing, don’t you think? Wandering around the landscape with penetrating, booming voices reverberating in people’s brains. Not our style.”
“Where do you come from?”
Odin interrupted. “Not relevant, Mr Harbinger.”
“What’ll happen to the Evens?”
“I don’t know. I assume their boss will punish them, but it’s actually his fault for not assessing the local conditions correctly in the first place but you know they’ll cover their arses and blame the staff. That type always do. The Evens were cheap labour and simply nowhere near good enough. They had a budget and the Evens were all they could afford, I suppose.”
“All right then, what happens now?”
“Ah, we just have one problem to solve before we can get back to normal.”
Mr Harbinger saw Raven nod. This was what was keeping them here. He was afraid but had to ask. “What problem?”
“It’s you, Mr Harbinger. You’re the problem?”
“Me? I won’t be a problem to anyone. Do you think I’ll try and tell this story?”
Raven cut in. “I’m sorry Mr Harbinger, but you are the story. I hate to say this, but you can’t leave here.”
Mr Harbinger was old and starting to become weak but he wasn’t ready to go just yet. ”I don’t think I can stop you, any of you, if you want to kill me, but I’ll fight anyway. I’ll fight to the last beat of my heart.”
The two gods left it up to Raven.
“You don’t understand Mr Harbinger. You’re already dead. The Evens enchanted you to continue functioning for their own reasons but I still don’t fully see why.”
Odin took over. “Mr Even was returned to answer for his failure as soon as you left the Even Stephen. Mrs Even suddenly found herself in charge and scrambled to hold it all together and deal with the infernal bureaucracy. She immediately sent Jo to induce you to return and to break your soul as a contingency measure in case she was required to take you later. Jo did that with straight mental manipulation. Gertie killed you when you gave her the lift in forty-seven but she also ensured you didn’t know about it.”
“Souls are real? Why did she do that?”
He sighed. “Mr Harbinger, they failed with you. Your mind was, is, too strong for their abilities. You were worth a lot to them if they could induce you into their ways voluntarily but they couldn’t. Jo was successful in inducing you to return because she used mental manipulative force and when you did, Mrs Evens was in control of her situation and then simply wanted rid of you, so she had Gertie kill you. Destroying your soul was an additional measure to ensure their opposition couldn’t track you so they could do what they wanted any time they wanted. They do, usually, work to rules. This was pure spite, which, to be fair, is what they do. They wanted to see you realise your life, your very existence, taken from you before they took you properly. All your efforts, your business, your wife, would all fade away before your eyes. They’re not very nice daemons.”
Mr Harbinger was silent for a long while. “My wife and life’s work are an illusion?”
“Gertie killed you all that time ago and they kept your body in stasis until now, so they could have some fun. They aged and revived you outside a betting shop and made you see what they wanted you to see and remember what they wanted you to remember. They planted the memories you have of your business and your wife since forty-seven.”
Tears formed when this information was absorbed. “What happened to Vivien?”
“We don’t know Mr Harbinger. You never returned to her in forty-seven. She had to absorb that and get on with her life.”
“But you’re gods, aren’t you? Why don’t you know?”
“Despite what you may have heard, we don’t know everything. But, I can find out for you. The question is, do you really want to know? It won’t change anything for your wife at all.”
Mr Harbinger thought for a while without bothering to wipe the tears from his face. “I’ve always thought it’s better to know than not. Living under an assumption you can verify is just stupid. I’ll help her any way I can if I can, but I can’t even try and help her if I don’t know her present circumstances.”
Odin nodded. “Have you considered the possibility she’ll never know you helped her if you actually manage that?”
“That doesn’t matter. I’ll still help her if I can. So, can you help me here?”
Odin nodded again. There was a loud cawing from outside. “Impressive, Mr Harbinger. That’s why they couldn’t convert you. I’ll try.”
Nothing else was said and it took a while for Mr Harbinger to think of anything else. Eventually, he said, “I don’t feel dead. Is that because I don’t have a soul any more?”
“Technically, you’re undead.”
“A zombie?”
“A Revenant,” answered Raven.
“A Draugr,” answered Loki at the same time.
“Can’t be a draugr,” said Raven. “That just protects its burial…”
“This just doesn’t matter,” interjected Odin. “Mr Harbinger isn’t interested in the specific definitions. Zombie is good enough.”
Raven looked embarrassed. “Sorry,” she said.
Loki just shut up.
Odin turned to Mr Harbinger, “Forget about the stories you’ve heard. As for not having a soul, don’t worry about that. It’s nothing, just a few sections of your junk DNA that did nothing anyway. We don’t bother with it.”
“That’s how I spotted you on the way here,” Raven added. “It’s not every day I see the soulless dead walking ’round the toon, even when you include the football supporters. I resolved to deal with you after I sorted this place out. I should’ve guessed you’d came here.”
Mr Harbinger heard and understood it all but really wasn’t interested. He saw confirmation on Raven’s face and resigned himself.
Everyone became silent for a minute or two until the birds outside broke into loud caws and screeches again.
“Mr Harbinger,” said Odin, “your wife was distraught when you failed to return in forty-seven. She fell apart. Eventually, in forty-nine, she pulled herself together and started going out again. She met a man and married him in nineteen fifty. They had a child soon after. The child was stillborn and your wife died during delivery. I’m sorry.”
Mr Harbinger sat stock still as he absorbed this news. Finally, using the back of his sleeve, he wiped his face.
“Where is she now?”
“I do not know, Mr Harbinger. All I can say is she’s not with us.”
“Can’t you even say which one she went to?” Mr Harbinger didn’t want to mention names.
“No, Mr Harbinger. I cannot.”
Mr Harbinger stared at the large muscular one-eyed man in the blue fedora before rising to his feet and walking out the building. Raven started to stop him but Odin prevented that with a hand on her arm.
“I thought you’d stop him,” accused Raven. “I can’t let him wander ’round the toon…”
“No need,” answered Odin. “We can deal with him later. We do have other things to decide right now.”
They all looked at Jo, who was being a good girl and sitting quietly while taking everything in.
Loki was for the direct approach. “Why not just kill her? She’ll go back and get her punishment there.”
Raven didn’t like that. “I don’t like that,” she said. “We have an agreement. And I don’t like killing in cold blood.”
“Her being spellbound won’t last forever. She’ll return. You know that. And daemons don’t change. You’ve been in her mind so you know as well.”
“That’s not quite true.”
“It’s true enough for this situation.”
Raven nodded slowly. “I still don’t like it.”
“She only helped you to avoid returning to punishment. She did try to escape before. She took off when Mr Harbinger dropped her off at the hamlet. But she did break his soul and induce him to return later as she was instructed. She thought that would give her more time to hide but she was caught and punished despite that. She still thinks she can make it as a lone agent. There’s nothing we can do to her that’ll permanently change her. And if we can’t do that then neither can you.”
Raven hated being told the truth when it meant she’d have to do something she didn’t want to do. Especially by someone like Loki.
“But she wants to be a lone agent and she’s tried before. That means change.”
“It means internal change. That’s rare but it does happen. And the change will be to benefit her, not others.”
“I know that but change is change. She can learn. Her wanting to work on her own proves that.” Raven suddenly smiled. “Maybe there is a way. I can send her to exile under a geas to stay there permanently.
“You still can’t change her nature. She’ll cause havoc wherever she’s sent.”
“We’ve just agreed she can learn. And I’m thinking of a place I read about, River City in America. It’s far enough from here and I know I’ll never go there. It’s weird. So weird I’m sure they can deal with the likes of her.”
Raven stared at Jo during this speech. Jo stared back without even a flicker of emotion to display her thoughts.
Raven didn’t see Odin’s imperceptible nod, but Loki did.
“She’ll have to let you do that. You can’t force her.”
“I do know that,” replied angered Raven. To Jo, she said, “Do you accept these terms? If not, I’ll kill you now.”
Jo nodded her head.
“Okay. Any resistance and you’re dead. Even automatic resistance. You understand?”
Jo nodded her head again and visibly relaxed while Raven approached carefully. She gently laid her hands on the side of Jo’s head again and stared into her eyes. There was a judder as both of them seemed to reject the interface but Raven forced it through.
“I’m sure you can get there yourself,” said Raven after Jo had been freed. Jo nodded and left. Never to be seen again, Raven hoped.