Midnight Eclipse (Paranormal Viking Romance, Completed)

Chapter 27: The Long Road

After having finished telling us the story about his encounter with Gudrun, Björn leans back with a wistful smile on his face. Remembering Gudrun brings joy to his features that I haven't observed before. He looks younger and less burdened. The hundreds of years that have passed since that night flies away. Six-hundred years seem like yesterday.

Reveling in the last moments of his story, Björn picks up Mikk's flashlight--which is positioned on the floor of the cave--and lets its sheen dance across the cave walls. I realize that seeing the light like this, in his human form, must be a rare occurrence for him. Luckily, artificial light doesn't seem to make him switch shape. Whatever curse befell him didn't account for such inventions.

"Reminds me of the lights on the sky that night." He gazes toward the halo on the wall, seeing something neither Mikk nor I can discern. "In this time, with all your modern inventions--I've seen your fast-moving metal carriages and giant sky ships--have you figured out why the lights dance in the night sky on these shores? Or is that still a mystery of the gods."

I actually don't know the answer. In the back of my mind, I have a vague recollection of hearing the explanation of the northern lights in science class ages ago or on one of those endless nature documentaries Stefan liked to watch. Maybe something related to atmospheric pressure?

"Storms on the surface of the sun," Mikk explains, luckily. I suppose he probably runs winter tours lit by the northern lights, giving tourists a scientific explanation of the phenomena. "Particles get thrown toward Earth and pulled toward the magnetic poles. That's why the northern lights are only visible close to the North and South pole."

Björn gives him a puzzled look. He probably recognizes about three of those words. Science has moved forward a bit in the last six hundred years. Although I can't say I understood much more either."So you're saying it's the sun god who throws the lights toward us?"

"Something like that," Mikk agrees with a smile, realizing his audience. "The sun god throws the lights toward the edges of the planet."

"Well we're are certainly at the edge of everything." Björn nods, pulling a hand through his hair. "I guess we should be happy the sun god gives us something."

"The northern lights must be beautiful," I muse, trying to imagine such a sight. I've only seen it in pictures. "I've never seen it. Stockholm isn't far enough north for such wonders to be visible."

"Well if you... you know, stick around here, maybe," Mikk mumbles, with a blush on his cheeks. He looks down at his hands as he speaks.

I realize I have stumbled into a hornet's nest I don't want to touch right now. Although I guess one should never touch a hornet's nest. It's more like an adorably chunky baby seal that we shouldn't stop to coo at right now, because then we may never stop. We don't have time to coo at baby seal now, dammit! We need to solve this ancient Viking mystery first.

Then we can admire all the baby seals. Together.

So I just nod. "Maybe," I say, non-committedly. "It would be nice."

Björn looks at Mikk and then at me with a befuddled look. Perhaps he's feeling like a third wheel. Or he's not accustomed to relationship drama after spending six-hundred years in a cave.

"You're not from here?" Björn asks, perhaps as desperate as me to change the subject.

"No," I reply. "I'm from Sweden." Seeing the non-reaction on his face, I add, "The old lands. Where your ancestors came from." Well, his ancestors probably came from what is today Norway or Denmark, via Iceland, but it's close enough. It's not like those countries existed back then anyway.

"I didn't even know those lands still existed." Björn nods as he tries to take in the information. "They forgot about us and we forgot about them. But I guess in the end, we all meet here. At the end of the world. The old, the new, and the forgotten." He nods toward me and Mikk but doesn't clarify who represents what. "Because after all this time, I'm still here. I'm still waiting."

"What are you waiting for?" I ask Björn. I'm curious about why he's still here, in this cave, after so many hundred years. Even if he can't die, he could have left. Bears are known for being able to migrate great distances. When the ice lays thick he probably could have found a way to walk all the way across to the Canadian tundra. Hell, he could have reached Bering's strait and wandered over to Siberia in that time. He could have made his way back to the old lands, where I hail from.

"For her to come for me," he states, in an infuriatingly mysterious tone.

"Gudrun?" I ask. "What happened to her? Did she leave for Vinland with your daughter? Her visions can't have been true though, since you weren't on that ship."

"How do you know I wasn't on that ship?" he asks, a smirk on his lips. His eyes glitter with mischief as he refuses to give us clear answers. It seems he may be enjoying this. It must be nice to finally be able to tell his story to someone, and he does it with flair, adding all the cliffhangers and red herrings. But he never gives us clear answers to anything. The answers are all lost to time. This must be how he felt when talking to Gudrun--the mistress of enigmatic answers--on that cliff, so many centuries ago.

"Well, you're here," I reply, because, duh.

"Perhaps I took the long road." He shrugs, fiddling with the flashlight between his fingers as if it's a dagger. The light flickers rapidly across the wall, making me feel like we're at a rave party. I wonder what Björn would think if I took him to one of those. "Perhaps I'm still on that road," he continues, putting down the flashlight with the beam upward so it highlights his face.

I try to read his hollow and pale features, shaped by time and lack of sunlight, in the glow of the beam. What does he mean? And where does he think his path will lead him? Vinland is long gone or rather turned into the modern marvelous states that make up the US and Canada. I doubt Björn would be able to acquire a passport to travel there. Regardless, whatever he's looking for must be dead and forgotten by now, paved over by cityscapes and asphalt.

"Please tell me what you mean, Björn," I plead. "I can't help you if you don't tell me."

"You sound like Gudrun now," he says, twirling the flashlight again. This time, the beam hits my face. Björn looks startled, starting at my features before reaching out a hand to touch my cheek. "You even look like her," he mumbles, tracing his fingers along my cheekbones.

Concerned about what is going on, I look toward Mikk. He stares at me as well, a look of wonder on his face.

"What are you looking at?" I ask. "What is happening?"

"Your face," he mumbles. "It's glowing." Unable to properly explain, he pulls out his phone and turns on the mirror mode. On the small screen, I observe my reflection. But is it really me? It's more like a mix of the woman I know as myself--Saga--and a magical woman from another time. Because right underneath my eyes, runes shimmer faintly in blue. Just like on Gudrun.

"It's because of the midnight eclipse," Björn says, removing his hand. "The walls of time and space are crumbling, just like the first time. Gudrun's coming back for me, just like she promised. And you will help me meet her." He looks toward me like he's just had an epiphany. "She always told me to follow the saga. I think I know what she meant now."

"What did she mean?" I ask, not as enlightened as him. I'm starting to wonder how tangled up in all this I am. And then, it dawns on me. 

Perhaps I'm not here by happenstance but by fate. Perhaps this was all meant to be. Perhaps I am the saga.