HELA HALF-ROTTED Chapter 7

Chapter 7:  CORONATED

For a while, the daughter of Loki lay on the cold ground, able to move but unwilling to expend the energy to do so. She missed her mother and her father and her brothers and her home with a longing so sharp that it physically pained her.

She cried for a long while, first out of shock and fear but then of confusion and panic. Where would she go? What would she do? Thor and Tyr were long gone; those men had their fill of her presence enough for a lifetime, she thought.

I'm all alone and have no one and I just had my twelfth birthday last winter.

Occasionally, spirits wound their slow way past her, some of them curling themselves around her thin arms and legs, or caressing her face. They were too cowed by the recent presence of Death to sing. She moaned and batted them away. As desperately as she hungered for comfort, she did not want their comfort. She wanted her father's strong arm about her, or a kiss and a cuddle from her mother. Bereft, Hela curled into a knot and continued to cry.

A hand touched her from behind, and she shot up shrieking.

Before her was the shade of a young woman -- one long dead, Hela guessed -- who held out a thin gold crown in one hand and smoothed her hair with the other. Hela jumped back, away from the dead woman's touch.

"Please don't fear me, young lady; I am Modgud who guards the gate for you."

Hela stared at her.

"You were too busy crying and fighting with those who brought you here to notice, but I have sat for ages before the entrance to the land of the dead, refusing entrance to those whose bodies draw breath and whose veins pump blood."

Hela sighed and her shoulders slumped. "I am sorry for being so rude. It has been a terrible day and I am not myself."

Modgud smiled and deftly stepped forward, placing the crown on the girl's brow. "There. Now you are our queen, and I will take you to your home."

"I am the queen?"

"Yes. You are our queen. Allfather Odin has proclaimed it."

"I have a home?"

"You have always had a home here, like you have always been here," Modgud answered.

"I'm afraid you've lost me," the girl said. "I don't understand you."

"It doesn't matter. Come with me and we shall get some food and drink into you. I hope you don't mind the cold; it never warms up in Niflheim."

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Over the weeks and months that followed, Hela learned that what Modgud had told her was true; the sun did not shine in Niflheim. She sorely missed the warmth of the sun on her skin. Because she was so thin, she was usually cold and it seemed that in this new realm she truly was unable to warm up.

She also missed seeing the stars. When she was a little girl, she and her mother would look at the great constellations and dream about what lay in the heavens so far over their heads. Now, when she looked up she only saw the underside of the realms that lay above her.

Her mother had indeed come to Niflheim, but she had not remembered her daughter. The shock of losing her children had been too great and Angurboda's mind had anesthetized itself, merciful for her but heartbreaking for Hela. Resigned, Hela placed Angurboda in some pleasant place and just let her be.

One grim day bled into the other. Night after night the new queen lay in her cold bed, praying that her father would come to rescue her. Of course, she had neither seen him nor heard from him since her exile to the land of the dead.

Another of Loki's lies, she thought.

Hela had stopped concealing her left side, learning that the dead found her bizarre appearance a comfort as it more closely matched theirs both before and after their deaths. She now understood exactly what Death had meant when he said that her face suited her. It certainly befitted a death goddess, and that was exactly what she had become. She had also stopped crying so much because there was no one to commiserate with her. Modgud was a servant, not a friend. She sorely missed Ullr and wished him well every day with all her heart.

Ruling the land of the dead was not difficult. While the victorious warriors went to Valhalla, Hela's reapers brought her the common folk; mothers and children, deathbed warriors, the elderly, and those whose life threads the Norns had cruelly cut short.

Hela used her youthful imagination to create places they would like and formed them right out of the mist that made up her realm by sheer force of will.  There was a vast meadow for the children, with sheep to hug and butterflies to chase and strawberries to eat. These little souls would never grow up and Hela wanted them to be happy. Mothers who died in childbirth and otherwise were destined to care for them, to ease their hearts as well as the children's. The elderly were placed in a warm room with a roaring hearth where they could recount their stories to one another for all eternity if they wished. The men were put to work at their chosen tasks, if it would please them, which helped put her new realm to rights. They would soon build her a fine castle, Elvidnir, destined to become the showpiece of her new city of Helheim.

Hela's duties over those who spent their dissolute lives in evil tasks were far more difficult. She was not a cruel girl and did not enjoy giving pain to others. However, it was as much her job as making the righteous happy, so she performed it without complaint or hesitation.

The location she conjured for the evil ones she named Nastrond, or the shore of corpses. There, murderers and rapists and thieves and other criminals were continuously gnawed by Nidhoggr, a great and louring serpent. While Hela spent a good deal of her time touring her vast realm, she rarely visited Nastrond.

Eventually, her father came to visit her. Mindful of Lord Death's warnings, Hela kept a close watch on him and his attempted manipulations. Loki, too, resented the gods of Asgard. After all, he and his daughter were Jotuns, not Aesir. Blood called to blood and Loki's ties to the frost giants strengthened over the decades as his loyalty to the Aesir became more attenuated.

Hela's appearance and health remained the same. She had tried numerous enchantments to improve them but her nature was immutable and unchanging. She still limped, and exhaustion still plagued her. She had the ability to kill with mere touch if she wished, but did not enjoy killing things. Death had strengthened her, augmenting her own powers with his own.  

Hela did not have mirrors in Elvidnir, nor reflective surfaces of any kind. Even as she grew into womanhood, she was still that twelve-year-old girl at heart who hated her appearance and wished with all her heart that she could be beautiful like the ladies of Asgard.

As the years passed, Hela became more astute and more resolute, accepting her fate while resenting it. She spent many hours in her loneliness weaving elaborate revenge fantasies upon those who had tormented her in Asgard. She was a goddess and the daughter of a god, yet no one from Odin's realm communicated with her in any way.

Until the day Hugin, the raven Hela had left with Allfather Odin, flew to Helheim and delivered the message that she would be receiving a godly visitor.

Ullr.

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Of course, Loki wasted no time traveling the nine days to Niflheim to elaborate upon this news personally.

"Seems that Thor's stepson Ullr has gotten himself into a bit of trouble," the trickster-god crowed, eating his meal with great relish. Hela did not have much to offer as crops did not grow in Niflheim, but she tried her best and managed to set a good table. "Allfather went into one of his hibernations and Ullr took the throne. Well, you can imagine Odin's reaction. As punishment, he ordered Ullr to your kingdom."

Hela sniffed. "Lovely," she commented. "Odin is always so charitable."

Loki looked at his daughter's strange face. "Yet, the idea pleases you, does it not?"

The death goddess shot him a look. "I haven't seen Ullr since I was a child. I know nothing about him. Why do you ask?"

Loki grinned, knowing he had hit a sensitive spot in his daughter's heart. "He is god of winter and the hunt. One of those types who enjoy tromping around in snowdrifts shooting buck and carving snow caves. Quite the charmer, in fact. Handsome. It should please you to look upon someone who isn't a wraith."

Embarrassed by her own feelings, Hela said nothing and avoided eye contact with Loki. "Why must you chafe and vex me? Why don't you go back to Asgard?"

Loki laughed. "Go ahead and enjoy yourself in this stinking wasteland, daughter, by yourself and consumed with resentment. I will be leaving soon. By the way, how would you feel if I arranged for another of Asgard's finest to join you in your kingdom, to lighten your heart and relieve your solitude?"

Hela's eyes widened. "What are you prattling about, old man? Who are you going to kill?"

Loki grinned. "Baldur the beautiful," he replied.

Hela's jaw dropped. "You are insane, Father. It will bring on Ragnarok!"

Loki smirked. "What do you care about the end of the world? Your world ended when Odin sent you here. You might as well enjoy the ride while you can. Baldur is the god of beauty and spring and he annoys me to no end. All that radiance. All that joy. It curdles my blood."

"Father, don't do it. The gods tolerate you, but if you engineer Baldur's death there will be no end to your punishment. They may even kill you."

Loki grinned once more. "Then I can come to Helheim and annoy you for eternity. Don't worry, child. It is just a thought in my head at present. In the meantime, enjoy Ullr's company and dream of what you could have had if those damned Aesir hadn't tossed you into the land of death." He stood up abruptly. "Well, I am off. Pleasant dreams accompany your sleep."

"Idiot," Hela murmured as the trickster god strode out of her hall.