“Beautiful, great, I love it!” Heidi paused. Her comments were only half sarcasm. It WAS beautiful here by the pond, but why the hell wouldn’t Kara talk to her before they got here?
Kara was standing on the huge slab of granite beside the pond. She was still puzzling out how to approach it. She knew she had irritated Heidi. She didn’t do it intentionally, but……..
Kara stared at the water rippling on the pond a moment. She was listening to the voice in her head. Sometimes it sounded like Garen, sometimes Bekka. There were other voices in her head as well. Some of them only came out when she was frustrated and tempted to lash out or do wrong things, self-destructive things. This time, the voice she heard was the one she longed to hear again, even if only one more time for real. It was Christian’s strangely timbered voice, soft and comforting, yet powerful and insistent.
“I will be without fear in the face of my enemies
I will stand brave and upright that the Lord may love me
I will speak the truth always even if it means my death
I will protect the helpless and do no wrong”
Heidi wasn’t sure what was going on with Kara. It was like she didn’t even hear her talking. She was still staring at Kara’s back when she turned around. Kara was wearing a sad smile, a few tears on her cheek.
“Heidi, I can’t tell you where it came from. I don’t know. I woke up and drew it. It was burned into my brain. It kept burning and burning until I could draw it right. It kept burning until I found an artist who could do it justice. It only calmed once I had it on me, a part of me.” Kara faltered a bit. “It sounds crazy when I say it, even to myself. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. I don’t want you to think I’m crazy.”
This was in no way what Heidi was expecting. She had dealt with enough delusional people and Kara didn’t seem to be one of those. Kara was telling the truth, or at least the truth as she knew and believed it. But the design! Each part so intricate! Each precisely skewed in just the right ways from their norms! Why?
Kara could see Heidi believed her, but she could see some other things going on behind her eyes. Those eyes! A small part of her saw the uniqueness of her eyes when they first met. She could see in those eyes so much depth! Right now what she saw in them was confusion.
“Why does it mean so much to you to know the source of my tattoo? Is it tattoos in general you have an issue with or is it something special about mine?” Kara asked gently.
This broke the spell. Heidi started chuckling.
“No, I have no problem with tattoos in general.”
She reached down and slid her pants leg up, revealing her calf and the list of names emblazoned there.
“It was the very rare, very particular configuration of your particular tattoo that has me in knots.”
“Why?”
“Do you know the symbolisms meaning? Of the particulars of your drawing?”
“It’s a combination of a symbol for the Valkyrie and a Nordic compass. What is so unusual? I have looked and seen them apart several times.”
Heidi took a deep breath. Where to start. Her neckless. She pulled it out from under her shirt so Kara could see it.
“Kara, come look at this.”
Kara moved closer. The emblem on the medallion Heidi was holding matched exactly the one on her shoulder. She didn’t have to look very hard. When she saw it, she knew it to the core of her being.
“So you have the same symbol. So mine isn’t that unusual? What’s the issue?”
Heidi tucked it back away.
“It was given to me by someone I knew who was an actual believer of the Norse religion. It isn’t some internet stamping, pressed ten for a dollar in Hong Kong. He ordered it especially for me. It is, for his religion, a true holy symbol, made and blessed for its message. The wings, you were right, they stand for the Valkyrie, Odin’s chooser of the slain, the collector of the most valiant and true warriors on the battlefield. They were also Odin’s messengers and warriors. They were for Odin like God’s Angels are for him.” At that, Heidi took a deep breath.
“The other is a combined variation of the sigils for the Helm of Awe and the Compass. Each emblem around the edge has meaning. How the sigil is oriented within the encompassing wings of the Valkyrie have meaning. As he explained it to me, when combined and orientated as such, it has the following meaning. With the compass, as long as your heart is true to itself, you will never get lost even if you cannot see your way, with the power of the Helm of Awe, you will defeat your enemies, and the wings ensure the other Valkyrie will protect you and always bring you home to Valhalla.”
Kara could hear how choked up Heidi was towards the end of what she said. Wait. What was that last part? The other Valkyrie? So this symbol means she is ………?
Heidi started talking again. “He called me his Valkyrie and he meant it. I was always around with him when people were dying. It was much more polite than the others who just looked at me like I was a death sentence or a harbinger of doom on their trips.”
Heidi shook herself a bit before she continued. “It is just such a rare and specific combination. I haven’t seen anyone else with it, either in person or the internet, and believe me, I’ve looked! I don’t know why you have it, but it must mean something.”
Heidi was quiet now, just staring out past Kara to the pond.
A few moments of silence followed, broken by Heidi answering Kara's unspoken question.
“I got him home, escorted him all the way. That’s a Valkyrie’s job.”
They stood there by the water for some time, both lost within their own heads and their hearts, the water soothing the pain.