hell hath no fury like

[forewarned_is]

Desert earth cracks at her feet as she appears, at the base of a high outcropping of stone; all around her are pillars and heaps of barren rock, uninhabited by anything but lizards and scorpions, desolate under a pale moon.

Liar!

She wheels around and slams one fist into the standing stone, crying out in a rage so hot and corrosive it feels like battle-madness. Chunks of rock twice her size crack away from the pillar and fall around her, shattering when they hit the ground; none of them touch her.

Liar, thief, traitor --

She should have torn him apart. She should have gone back in there and come upon him unawares, blasted fire through his brain before he knew that he had anything to fear from her, ripped his heart from his body and devoured it --

Another wordless snarl of fury, and fire roars from her hand to smash apart a pile of crumbled stone, sending rocks flying in all directions.

And again.

Comments

[old_gods]

The spot isn't as barren as she thinks, nor as desolate.

Tiny flowers, newly born, crumple under the rocks she hurls. A scattering of them traces a line to a figure some distance away, keeping a wary watch on the destruction.

Baldur only meant to stop here for a moment en route to elsewhere; now, he can't bring himself to go.

[forewarned_is]

A boulder strikes the rock outcropping and smashes. Sparks fly.

Kali stamps one foot and then the other down on the earth, thud, thud, thud; the ground trembles, smaller rocks bouncing into the air and falling again.

[old_gods]

Swiftly, he crouches down to mitigate the worst of the bouncing. Baldur braces a hand flat against the ground as if he could hold it in place.

It does very little. The earth directly around him -- within the thickest spread of plants -- calms like a soothed animal, but nothing beyond it changes. Brief as his last meeting with Kali may have been, he knows better than to interrupt her.

[forewarned_is]

She hefts an even larger boulder overhead, turns to find a place to throw it --

-- and stops.

She's seen him.

[old_gods]

He lifts his head, meets her gaze steadily.

Slowly, Baldur pushes to his feet and gives her a small nod of greeting.

[forewarned_is]

The moonlight shows only that somebody's there; his face is in shadow.

"Come where I can see you," she snarls, her voice lower than her earlier howls of rage but pitched to carry.

[old_gods]

"It's me."

Calmly. He steps forward into the light.

"Baldur Odinsson."

[forewarned_is]

Of all people. Of all people --

With a grunt of combined effort and frustration, she flings the boulder aside.

"What are you doing here, son of Odin?"

[old_gods]

"I passed through by chance," he says, holding up a hand, "and will continue on if you wish it. No one need know you were here."

The other reason he stayed back, and did not interrupt: this destruction looked like something far too private.

[forewarned_is]

He's being so considerate of her feelings. It grates.

Before she know she intends to do it, she's striding toward him with unmistakable purpose.

[old_gods]

Baldur lowers his hand. He doesn't retreat. Before, it would have been because he knew she could not harm him; now, the reasons go far deeper than that.

There's more tension to the stillness with which he holds himself, though, as he waits for Kali's approach.

[forewarned_is]

One hand lashes out and closes on a handful of his shirt, dragging him closer --

-- and her mouth fastens on his, hard and hungry.

[old_gods]

Startled, Baldur's eyes fly wide.

(Needless to say, this is not the kind of blow he expected.)

In his confusion, he tries to pull back a step, finds he can't -- and then gasps against Kali's mouth and sweeps an arm around her, returning the kiss.

[forewarned_is]

When the kiss breaks, she draws back only far enough to lock gazes with him.

"I do not," low and husky and still angry, "wish it."

[old_gods]

Baldur swallows, hard, his breath far quicker than before.

He shouldn't ask, and can't stop himself: "Why?"

Why me, he means; it isn't as if they've ever been more than casual acquaintances, gods passing by one another and linked only by virtue of being gods. Of course, that in and of itself may be reason enough to some.

[forewarned_is]

"I am having," she tells him, "a very bad night."

Her grip on his shirt has loosened, but by now she's pressed against him.

"Would you help to make it better?"

[old_gods]

Yes, he thinks. Reason enough. But if this is what she asks, and what she needs --

(and she is very beautiful, he admits -- )

"I will help," he breathes, and brings his lips to hers again.

[forewarned_is]

So easy, she thinks in the midst of the kiss. No challenge at all.

That suits her just fine right now.

[old_gods]

They are all powerful, in some way, but Kali radiates it in her anger. She is passionate; she nearly drowns him in it, and Baldur has a clinging moment of remembering his death, sinking to the earth, rising out of it again.

He does not let himself be afraid. If she doesn't need him, she does need what he can give her.

Baldur tangles his fingers in her hair and presses close in kind. I will help.

[forewarned_is]

Later, some indefinable later, she's pacing the floor of a luxury hotel suite as Baldur dozes in the wide bed behind her.

This was exactly what she needed. It's taken the edge off her first rage, quenched it for a few hours in a different kind of fever ... and tempered it to the beginnings of something harder. Something that can take a sharper edge, that can strike a killing blow without shattering.

Her hair swirls behind her like a tame storm cloud as she turns on her heel to pace across the room again.

[old_gods]

"You're still troubled."

Not dozing any longer, it seems. Baldur doesn't look inclined to move, but his watchful eyes track Kali, his hands folded atop his bare chest.

[forewarned_is]

She doesn't turn to face him; she's come to a halt at the window, the rising sun gilding her hair and her bare skin, apparently unconcerned that anyone on the other side of the window might be looking.

"Perhaps."

[old_gods]

He lifts his head, draws in a slow breath at the sight. Calmer she might be, but no less fierce; certainly no less beautiful.

Baldur wonders how much longer she'll stay, and if there's anything he can do to make it a certainty.

Quiet: "Is there more I can do for you?"

[forewarned_is]

Now she does turn, at least her head, looking over one shoulder; the tilt of her head is arrogant, and her expression gives nothing away.

"Are you offering?"

[old_gods]

"Yes." Simply. "I am."

He pushes himself up in the bed, resting on his elbows.

[forewarned_is]

She turns back to the window, looking down at the city below them.

So easy. And if she were to tell him to, and give him enough reason -- he lied to me might even be enough -- she has no doubt that Baldur would go out from this place and try to kill Loki himself.

And Loki, because he is not a god but an angel, would destroy him with a breath.



Striving to sound indifferent: "Another time, perhaps."

[old_gods]

A short silence.

Baldur swings the sheets aside, rises to his feet, and pads toward Kali; after a hesitant moment, he reaches to touch her shoulder, very lightly.

[forewarned_is]

Too lightly. The gentleness scrapes over her banked rage like a fireplace poker through sleeping coals, stirring them to life.

She pulls away from his hand, and vanishes.