The Tear
A piece of fantasy (fiction) for your Odin's Day
Three people gathered around a hole in the side of a high rock. It wasn’t so much a hole as a void, a non-space that shimmered when you looked at it just right. These three people- not the only three who knew this hole was there, but three of a very small number who did- called this hole The Tear. It was a tear in the fabric of worlds- dimensions some might call it; whatever name you gave it, it was the material that made up the physicality of worlds, where you and I exist.
This Tear did indeed lead to another world, another dimension called The Otherworld. Not the most unique or descriptive name perhaps, but what else do you call a world that is not your world? This, at least, was the reasoning of those who named it long ago.
Of the three who stood around The Tear, one was a girl, a young woman, really, Elena. Elena was a pretty girl- anyone could see that, though it was not a thought that often crossed her mind. Coming to the close of her sixteenth year, she had a sharp intellect and an even sharper sense when it came to detecting the things that came out of The Tear- an ability that served her well in the work she did, the work she was born into.
Elena tossed a dark tress of hair over her shoulder and looked at a tall, dark-skinned man, who held a trident-like spear, who stood guard over the Tear.
“Rhys, tell me again. Exactly what happened?”
The tall man called Rhys frowned. His knuckles paled as he gripped his spear, as though afraid he might be called to use it at any moment.
The third of their group, a woman named Katrin, who had pale brown hair going to gray, twisted her hands underneath her cloak. She looked at Rhys, worry creasing her brow. “How bad is it?” She almost whispered the words as though afraid to receive the response.
Elena was nervous too, surely as nervous as they all were, but she did not show it. Her pale, heart-shaped face gave nothing away; it showed only firm determination.
Rhys looked Elena in the eyes. His face was large and wide, threatening to anyone who didn’t know him. But Elena knew- she knew the warmth that lived behind his dark eyes. “There’s been a breach.” He inhaled slowly. His torso, bare despite the biting end-of-winter air, expanded. It seemed to take him an age to continue. “It’s unclear if it was just a blip as we know sometimes happens, or if…” he paused, eyes widening and nostrils flaring; his eyes shifted infinitesimally to either side and he lowered his voice. “Or if it was one of them trying to break through.” His dark eyes moved from Elena to Katrin, solemn and serious. “It’s why I called you here. You and not your father.”
“Understandable,” Katrin whispered. She glanced at Rhys, but kept her gaze locked on Elena.
Elena stared back at Katrin- the woman who wasn’t her mother, but the closest thing she had to it. “I know you don’t like it, Kat, but I must.”
Katrin gave a reluctant nod and stepped aside, leaving Elena free to move towards the Tear. Elena felt it almost as soon as her first step was complete. A dark presence. She felt it like sickness in her stomach, a deep uneasiness in her gut. This sensation- this darkness- was always somewhat present around the Tear, present because that’s what lived on the other side of that shimmering surface. But Elena had never felt it so strong. Not like this. Never like this. Her face must have given some indication of how strong it was, how wrong it felt.
“It’s as I feared then,” Rhys said.
Elena looked up at him from under her dark eyebrows. There was no point denying it. She nodded.
Rhys exhaled. For the briefest moment Elena saw despair flicker across his dark face. As though it had an accidental shadow- a glitch- Rhys stood taller, resolute, prepared for whatever might come. “I suppose it is no surprise. We’ve known for a long time this day would come.”
Katrin and Elena nodded in unison.
“I should get closer,” Elena said. “I might be able to feel more- get a better idea of what they’re doing.”
“No.” Katrin gripped Elena’s arm and pulled her back from the Tear. “You know as much as you need to know. We go to Ainsley and your father now. Elias should be back from his hunt.”
Elena considered fighting Katrin but decided against it. She could find out more tonight. She would find out more tonight, though it bothered her that she hadn’t seen this coming. More than bothered- it frightened her. I should have seen it, she thought. I should have gotten some clue. She didn’t say this, of course. No need to give Katrin more to worry about. Katrin was strained. Everyone was. Winter was holding on with an insistence that felt almost vengeful. Food stores were depleted and there was no sign that the ground would thaw any time soon to receive seeds for this year’s crops.
Elena chewed on the inside edge of her cheek. The spot was going raw.
Rhys bid them farewell. He would remain at his post until his brother Rowan came to relieve him. A lonely job, Elena thought, waving goodbye to the tall, dark man she’d known all her life. “Do you think Rhys ever gets tired of guarding the Tear?” she asked Katrin as they made their way home.
“Perhaps,” Katrin said, waving to Rhys. She turned a solemn face to Elena. Katrin was a beautiful woman, somehow becoming more graceful and attractive with age. Wisps of white hair framed her oval face, which held a gentle kindness Elena wished she possessed. Katrin was warm. You could feel that warmth when she looked at you with her pale blue eyes. Elena marveled at those eyes, almost translucent, such a contrast to her own dark ones she’d inherited from her father. “I imagine he misses the southern lands. But he’s made a family here. He has friends. Us. I think Rhys is happy with his life in the north. Why do you ask?”
Elena took her time to answer. She’d learned early on in her life not to speak too quickly, to consider her words before letting them out. If you weren’t careful, you might let something slip you later regretted. “I suppose, I meant, do you think he feels lonely guarding the Tear? It’s just him and his brother, day in day out, standing guard in front of that thing. I think I might go mad if it were me.”
Katrin nodded. “Yes, I suppose he is lonely. He has company enough, though.”
“But he can’t leave,” Elena said. It was something that bothered her. It had bothered her for as long as she could remember. She’d always felt like the Rhys and Rowan were trapped there, always on duty. The same every day.
She reached her mittened hand out to brush the snow dusted fir trees that welcomed them into the forest. The rocky, baren landscape disappeared behind them as they entered the quiet cover of their forest home.
“We all have our job, our task. Each of us is bound in some way to the work we must do here,” Katrin said wisely.
Elena sighed. It wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear. “We all have our roles,” she mumbled.
“Aye, and Rhys has long made peace with his.”
A long silence stretched out, made thicker by the deep quiet of the forest that curled around Elena and Katrin. The weather was not warm enough to bring the small creatures out of their winter dwellings. The persistent cold kept the birds from singing their first songs of spring. This lack of sound and movement so late in the season was eerie. Life should be stirring, but it wasn’t. The air was calm, not even a ripple of wind to shake the branches or let on that anything stirred beyond the heart of winter.
