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]

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.