Infinite 01 - Infinite Sacrifice

gone. The sun is setting behind us and makes the colors of the darkening sky seem cool next to the last orange burn of the day. I have no world without Thora. I promised her I would always be with her. I glance down at the small second chamber and know I belong there.
    I step forward and say, “I will go with her.”
    Rolf seems pleased with this. “And so it should be.”
    He has the thrall pass him her peacock, which gives one last meow before he wrings its little neck. He bends down and places it in her hands. A smile comes over my face at this inappropriate time as I think about how she’d laugh to see that thing buried so close to her.
    I bow down beside the hole and lay my forehead on the ground, wondering what the pain will feel like and how long I will feel it for.
    Rolf and some of the other warriors laugh, and Rolf says, “You’re better off doing this after a few horns of beer. We’re not barbarians!”
    They laugh again as Gunhilda comes and slaps her arm around me with far too great a force. We sit around on the boulders in front of the simple white church with a large carved cross on the dark walnut door.
    One of the warriors hands me a beer, and as I drink, I gaze out on all the gravestones behind us, wondering if my ma is there. With the liquid loosening my tongue, I say, “Never thought I’d be buried in the same place I was taken from. I don’t think I could pick a more beautiful place.”
    One of the warriors says, “It’s a great honor to be chosen to be buried in such a way. Most thralls are left out for the wolves. They will have nothing in the afterlife. But now you will have eternity.”
    I nod respectfully while I think of being eternally a thrall, but then I remember Thora and know it would never be like that. I wonder for a moment if my ma will be there, if they’ll share the same heaven. Twilight is creeping in, and the cemetery behind the church begins to look lonely.
    Gunhilda hands me another beer, and I ask, “Why aren’t you running away now?”
    A smirk spreads, flashing gleaming white teeth. “We will just have to see about that, won’t we?”
    Then she starts slowly hopping from one foot to the other while watching me with a mischievous smile. I laugh, uncomfortable, wondering what she’s going to do, but then she picks up the speed into a jig. She begins to clap her hands wildly as she spins around the circle of warriors, now cheering and whistling. She pulls her flute from her thick belt and starts playing to the speed at which her feet are moving. I swallow down my second beer and get up to dance behind her. I attempt to follow the way she moves, but with my second beer, I’m glad to see it’s taking hold. As I twirl, it feels like the whole world is spinning, in a strange new way. I hear the cheering and her flute playing and feel like nothing matters, here nor there. Everything is going to be fine. This world is over, and I’m ready to see what the next world holds. I stop turning but brace myself for everything around me to quit turning.
    I yell out, “Another beer!” and with a cheer, I’m handed another. I throw it back in four or five gulps, let out a large belch, and say, “Let’s get this over with!”
    Gunhilda keeps playing a soft jig as we all walk to the tomb. The rune carver has already chiseled the head of a raven at the top of the stone. Everyone waits as I stare down at Thora and I think about what Toke had said before, about how we all have a choice. Death is always a choice, a choice even a thrall and every creature has: the ultimate choice.
    I choose this; my soul belongs to no one.
    I kneel down as Rolf whispers by my ear, “Repeat these words: I see my mistress sitting in paradise, and it is beautiful and green. She calls to me. Lead me to her.”
    I repeat it just as he wanted me to, and I hope to see Thora’s spirit there but see only an empty graveyard. I hear Rolf remove his sword; I take a deep breath and lay my forehead back to the soil. I clench my mother’s triangle in my hand so hard the corner sticks in my flesh. I hear the sword slicing down through the air.





* = Not present in that life

Fourth Life
    Ring Around the Rosie

Chapter 1
    Our cart has been stuck in the mayhem of the marketplace for ten minutes without moving. It is exceptionally busy this early, even for Cheapside.
    “Move your horse!” a hostile merchant hollers from behind.
    “There is no way to go, short of murder!” Hadrian shouts behind him,