She feels it as soon as she enters her temple. It´s about 3 pm, which means Kalighat is closed to the public, while the pujaris present food offerings to their goddess. Too bad for them that said goddess has been out with Baldur for the past six hours and has already eaten as much as she enjoys. She doesn´t even need food anyway, but the she thinks the offerings cute and considerate, so sometimes she takes them to please the mortals. As a goddess of death and destruction, it´s nice to have someone who honestly cares for you.
That´s why she loves Kolkata. It´s one of the places where she is viewed as a protector of humanity, rather than a destroyer, as a godly mother, who uses her wrath against demons to save her children. She can´t necessarily say she agrees with that interpretation of her character, but sometimes it´s just relaxing to have people believe in you like that.
At least being at Kalighat is better than hanging out with Baldur, she muses, while crossing the temple to reach her secret private apartments, carefully hidden from human sight. She is not sure what her priests would do if they found out that their goddess from time to time lives next door to them. Actually she has been playing with the thought of revealing herself for years, but somehow she never pulls through. It´s better to just watch the mortals she reminds herself. Interacting only brings difficulties for both sides.
The feeling she had since she entered gets stronger while crossing the temple and has become a rather persistent itch in the neck, by the time she gets to her apartment. It´s a strange tingle, not really threatening, somehow familiar, somehow even positive, but she wishes it to be a real intruder, someone she can kill without hesitation. She can still feel Baldur beneath her, one of the most boring times she had sex in her whole existence and she is incredibly frustrated with him and with herself. Why does she even suffer that boring idiot or a Norse god in general for that matter? Norse gods are all either boring or stupid or annoying or all at once.
She wants to kill someone slowly, throttle him and dance on his dead body. Anything to get the frustration out.
Anything.
The tingling is getting rather annoying too. She pushes the door wide open, fire licking over her hands, ready to kill. "HOW DARE YOU INTRUDE..." she begins in her true voice and stops herself right there.
He is casually sitting on the bed, back leaning against the head piece, brown hair tousled, arms crossed behind his head and that old smug grin on his face. "Kali. Is that any way to greet your lover?"
She slams the door shut, throwing a fire ball, that hits the wall close to his head, but the Norse god doesn´t even flinch.
"I didn´t even see you for fifty years, Loki! Fifty years! I´m not some mortal girl you can have your way with for one night and then leave on the roadside! I´m Kali, goddess of death..." "...destruction and whatever", he finishes neglecting. "I know your record"
The next fire ball hits so close, it makes even Loki flinch.
"Come on", he gasps, playing hurt. "You didn´t even miss me a little bit?"
Kali hisses in frustration, determinant not to give him power over her ever again. "No, I didn´t. Go to Asgard where you belong, Loki, or I will drag you. You know I will"
Loki´s grin doesn´t change a bit, but there is something in his eyes, just barely visible to Kali, who is able to read him like no one else. Is he afraid of going to Asgard? What has that idiot gotten himself into now?
"We don´t need to make this complicated, do we?", he drawls on, but Kali is seeing through it now. "All the way to see you and you want to slam the door into my face" Let me stay"Is that the way of goddesses nowadays?"I need you"The world really has become a dark place" Please
"Stop making a show", she hisses, thinking of Baldur. Good, little, boring Baldur. Baldur who would never dare dropping in bold like this, or disappearing for fifty years in the first place. Baldur, who is so predictable, so in love with her, in so way over his head.
Gods don´t hold much on monogamy and are almost expected to cheat on people. The only real rule is not to cheat your current partner with someone from his own mythology, as this just causes too much trouble.
But that is exactly what Loki is.
Trouble.
Trouble, a whirlwind, an explosion. She thinks about her lame sex with Baldur, about how tame she has become over the last years. Loki is rattling on and on, but she doesn´t listen. He is trouble and trouble is what she needs right now the end her frustration. There is no decision. There is none needed.
She is at him in a blink, shutting him up with a kiss. He responds immediately, playing with her tongue. Their clothes come of quicker than humanly possible.
Sex with Loki is a horrible idea. But that is kind of the point.
She has lost all track of time, when they finally pull apart. Not for the first time she asks herself why she even does sex with mortals anymore, when she can have something like that. It´s way different god to god. Way more spiritual and intimate if it´s done right, spirits almost dissolving into each other, feeling the other one in ways mortals can´t even imagine. Which doesn´t mean, she doesn´t like the bodily part. Good thing Loki is good at both. Better than she would ever tell him, no need to boast his ego even further.
They are lying between the tangled bedsheets, Loki surprisingly quiet, almost snuggling up to her, while her hands trace up and down his back, an excuse to get her hands on his shoulder blades. Lokis shoulder blades are just fascinating and it took her way to long to figure out that they haven´t got anything to do with his bodily form. She has known him in three different bodies and the shoulder blades always remain the same.
Too big to be human and with these weird knobs she can´t quite make sense of. She always thought it just had to do with him being a Norse god, like her having multiple arms in her true form, but Baldur hasn´t got those knobs as she knows now. Fascinated by the mystery, she places her hands right over his shoulder blades and presses. Loki jerks around instantaneously, hissing in a mixture of mild pain and surprise. "I thought this was a massage, not torture", he complains, shifting away slightly.
"You can have torture too", she gives back unblinking. "I can cover some weird tastes, you know that" "Yeah, good old times", he gives back smirking as usual and moves closer again, maybe eager for another round, but she pushes him away.
"Not before you tell me, why you are here! And don´t invent some heartbreaking story on how you missed me, because if you had you could have dropped by any time these past fifty years! Do you have trouble with Odin again? Or is it the Christians? Don´t tell me it´s the Christians!"
There it is. That vulnerable side Loki always tries to hide, which he is worse at than he thinks, blinks up for a moment and his whole being starts feeling incredible young for god. Then it´s gone, although she doesn´t miss that he has recoiled a bit and is suddenly wearing underwear. "You could say I´ve got family problems", he finally gives away. "And I really need somewhere to crash, so if you don´t mind..."
"If I don´t mind being your emergency program, you mean. Fifty years and you think you can just drop in again and that´s it?" She´s now wearing underwear too.
"Hey, it´s you who started kissing me", he shoots back.
"You used tongue"
"You enjoyed it"
"You started taking of your clothes"
It´s like the old days, right after Mercury hooked them up for fun. Lying in bed, arguing about everything and nothing, till someone escalates. Baldur is boring, but at least he is uncomplicated. Loki can make a fuss about everything and anything and normally Kali likes discussing endlessly with him, but right now she don´t have the nerves for his attitudes.
"Alright", she interrupts Lokis vivid description of the last hours, really hoping her apartment is still soundproof. Otherwise her priests have to be pretty scandalized by now. "Just tell me why you are really here and I will maybe let you stay"
"I told you. Family problems. Thor can be annoying as hell"
She knows he isn´t lying. Not a word. But he isn´t really telling the truth either.
Anyway there is no way of getting the truth out of him now and there also is the prospect of spending the day with someone else than Baldur. There is no way she is going to let him get away with his act, but that can wait for now. Despite herself she is surprisingly glad to have that Norse idiot back in town.
"Alright" She gets up, now fully dressed. "No more sex then. Want to come to the market with me?" He is looking up at her sceptically, clearly expecting a trap. "Where´s the trapdoor? I love Indian markets"
She doesn´t want to smile at him, but her bodily form is betraying her. "I know you do. No trapdoors" "Oh" He seems stunned, but his trademark grin is back. "In that case..." He is up and dressed in the blink of an eye, holding the door for her. "Mylady"
Kali hits him on the back of his head for it.
Although their conversation has been on English so far, the moment they exit the temple, Loki starts chattering in fluent Bengali, seemingly relaxing in the mass of people on the street. Kali lets herself fall back a bit, just to watch him. It´s surprising how easy he fits in, even though he looks clearly European. He is another person in the east, more relaxed somehow, like everything that´s bothering him has fallen away. He always was a runaway at heart, she muses. Maybe that´s why he never liked taking her to Asgard.
Loki turns to her and she allows him to take her arm. Humans are swapping around them, bustling, shouting, living their petty little lives. And Kali, the black one, the destroyer, doesn´t mind. She and Loki don´t stand out, just another couple on the way to the market and she strangely likes it.
Seeming mortal, going under. A part of the whole. It´s facinating.
"You will stay for Holi, I hope", she says, while they are strolling about the market. Loki suddenly seems very interested into exotic flower arrangements. "Loki!" "That´s five months", he whines. "I can´t possibly plan five months ahead" "You are immortal!" "I don´t like bonds" "You really do" "Just for the record, I wasn´t the one who started talking dirty" "First time in ages" "You started kissing!" "That´s nothing compared to what you started!" They could have gone on for ages like that, but the flower merchant is looking at them rather peculiar, so Kali wrestles Loki away into a more quiet corner. So much for seeming mortal.
"You will stay for Holi though", she starts again, after Loki has bought her a new ceremonial knife and she has gotten him three portions of Jalebi in return. She still can´t decide if it has been a good idea ntroducing Loki to that particular sweet years ago. At least the fried dough dipped in sugar syrup it an easy way to get him happy and ready to actually listen. "Alright", he agrees, almost relaxed, wolfing down more sugary mess. "But if I stay with you for Holi, you must come for Eid al-Fitr" "Deal", she answers laughing. "If I hadn´t seen you in the US, I would never believe you are European" He shrugs. "European feasts are boring. No colors, not enough sugar, just family gatherings. More like torture if you ask me"
But he still looks happy and even though Kali would never admit it out loud she is so glad about seeing him like this, she almost kisses him right there and then. Yes, Loki is trouble, Loki is a bad idea and sometimes you just want to hit him in the face, but it´s worth it. And she knows that it´s worth it, since that Holi, when they were a fresh couple.
Introducing Loki to Holi has been a good idea, Kali knows as they stroll down the streets together. Loki has been excited for twenty-four hours straight now, first buying more paint on the market than any human being could possibly carry, then being surprisingly quiet and happy at the bonfires, then insisting on being up and on the streets at four o´clock, carrying a whole arsenal of paint. "No use of your powers", she reminds him again about the Hindu gods golden rule for Holi. "If you get paint in your face, you get paint in your face" He just grins at her, like a happy puppy. "Don´t worry. Where would be the fun of it elsewise?"
The streets are filling rather quickly. Apparently Loki isn´t the only one in the city yearning to start the color spectacle and it´s not long till everyone is throwing paint. Kali gasps as the first fistful hits here, looking around for an attacker and finding a small, giggling girl, filling her fist again. She could smash that mortal child within the blink of an eye, but she doesn´t. Not today. It´s Holi and Holi is meant to erase differences just for one day. Just for one day in India the caste doesn´t matter. Neither does rich or poor. Or god or mortal.
By the time she is finished with her attacker, the little girl is screaming with delight. Her hair is plastered pink and green, while Kalis dress has become blue and orange. When the girl runs back to her family, because she is out of paint, she turns to wave and smile at Kali. And Kali smiles back without thinking and moments like this are what keep her up all over the year. Moments like this are what makes life worth living after too many years to count.
That is when she remembers Loki. She turns around and finds him cornered by a group of street boys. The Norse god is double over, covered over and over with all colors of the rainbow and making strange noises, she has never heard him make before. Her first instinct is to pull the boys away and get him out of the trap, but then he turns and looks at her.
And she realized he is laughing like she has never seen him laugh before.
This isn´t the typical smug Loki grin. This isn´t his sarcastic laugh. This is genuine honest laughter, coming right from the heart. He is shaking with laughter, tears streaming down his face, if he were human, he would be choking on it.
She realized with a pang she has never seen him truly happy before and then with a warm feeling that it´s the most beautiful thing she has ever seen.
That is when Kali really falls in love with him.
She make her way through the street boys, pulls him upright and kisses him on the mouth.
He tastes like salt, sugar and paint. All around them the street boys are cheering and pelting them with more paint. She doesn´t care. It´s perfect. For once in her existence a moment is just perfect.
Holi creates memories that keep you alive all over the year and that Holi created memories able to keep Kali alive forever.
Lokis genuine laughter, as he looked up to her, face smeared with orange, pink and yellow.
That perfect kiss.
All the other pagan think Loki and Kali were just together for sex and fun. They thought it fun to hook them up, never dreaming that it could become more than a crazy joke. The trickster god and the goddess of destruction. A couple of fun weeks nothing more. And there wasn´t more, till she heard him laugh.
Kali pulls herself out of her memories to see him smile once more, but suddenly she realizes that that isn´t the only reason. Her body has been on high alert for some time now, quicker to pick up danger than her consciousness, instincts honed over thousands of years taking effect.
The same tingle she felt early in the temple, but more threatening this time, more intense somehow. Her eyes flicker over the market, taking it all in.
Humans bustling everywhere, going about their business, shouting, talking, making a lot of noise, nothing out of order.
Loki is next to her, munching his second portion of Jalebi already, seemingly unaware of any danger. It´s often she who senses danger first. His reflexes are fine, she has found in the past, and he never really lets his guard down, but she is the goddess of destruction and sometimes it takes one to know one.
There!
Now that she knows what kind of danger she is searching for, she sees them all. Five of them at least, possessing the bodies of businessmen, traders and shopping housewives. And they are slowly making their way through the crowd, towards the two gods.
She nudges Loki with one hand, while grasping for the knife Loki bought her only minutes ago with the other. Yes, it´s only a ceremonial knife in theory, but in Kalis hands everything can be deadly and Loki would never buy her a knife that can´t be useful in some way. She hates being able to only use two arms, but that is the price of a human body. If it comes down to it, she can at least still use her fire.
Loki turns to her, still eating sweets and seeming perfectly content and she hates that she has to destroy that precious mood, but she can´t let him run into this unprepared either. "Judeo-christian demons. Five or six as far as I can see", she announces casual in Ancient Macedonian, a language extinct for more than 2400 years as far as the mortals are concerned and therefore the emergency language of many gods, when they have to discuss certain topics in a crowd of mortals or don´t want to cause a panic.
For one second fear and resignation flicker over Lokis face and he nearly drops his Jalebi, but experience and training soon get the better of him and he answers just as casual: "There are to many humans around. We have to get them away from the crowd" "Or we could just leave", Kali answers, but she already knows that he won´t. There is no way of knowing what the demons will do to the mortals when frustrated and although Loki can play the part of not giving a fuck about mortals (or anyone at all) very convincingly, she knows he won´t let that happen.
And neither would she. Not in her country, her city, to her people.
Some Indians see Kali as protector and sometimes she needs to prove to herself that they are right.
Together with Loki, she pushes towards the exit. The street will be just as busy, but from there on, she has a few quite places in mind. If they can hold the demons of that long.
"That doesn´t make sense", she tells her companion. "They are clearly following us and specifically us. Why would christian demons be interested in a Hindu goddess and a Norse god?" Loki remains uncharacteristically quiet and Kali gives a sigh, old anger rising up again. So that´s why he is here. Family problems maybe, but there is something else, as she knew there would be. And she even guessed this one.
"You didn´t provoke them or anything, did you?" "No, of course not", he gives back, insulted like only Loki can be, when he is clearly the one who is wrong. "If anything they provoked me"
"Could you just stop picking fights with the Christians?", she hisses back, at the end of her patience, feeling more betrayed than she would ever admit. "It´s not like this is the first time that happens, it´s not even the first time you run to me, because of it. The Christians are an arrogant, crazy pack, just leave them alone, Loki! Or if you can´t do that, don´t come hiding with me, pretending you are coming because you like me again. I tried to be fair, but you really just use me as emergency drop off"
"It´s not like that", he tries to save himself. "I really wanted to see you and… damn it, Kali, I´m not picking fights with them! I never did!" "Then why does it seem like every Christian demon hates you, even though they rarely bother other mythologies?", she shuts him down and wants to punch him for that stupid fake grin, that is back on his face, replacing the real smile from earlier, the one she loves, but they have spent to much time fighting and now the demons are on them and there are still way to many humans around.
Even though she really has enough of Loki at the moment, she moves to cover his back, so he can do his tricks, without being surprised by more attackers, while she stabs the nearest demons with her new knife. The good news is, that it indeed works against demons. The bad news is, that mortals don´t react too well to a stabbing in a market. This is why she hates crowds when she fights.
A panic is quickly building around them and now mortals are definitely going to die and she hates the stupidity of the whole situation. She stabs another demon and sees Loki pushing two into a pocket universe and just as she thinks that that should be almost all of them, she suddenly realizes that it isn´t five or six demons attacking them.
More like fifty or sixty.
"Loki", she shouts over her shoulder. "What on earth, did you do to them?" He refuses to answer, letting one of the demons run into a storage room, that wasn´t there previously and vanishes soon after.
Kali shots a look around, analyzing the situation and not liking it at all. Too many demons. Too many mortals stuck in the fight. None of the demons seem to have a way of killing her or Loki, but still, she doesn´t want to get run over by them and starts to contemplate either leaving the market, or showing her true form. Mortal bodies definitely don´t have enough arms.
And suddenly Loki is moving away from her, shouting: "Everyone close your eyes" in Bengali and there is a bright light, so bright that even Kali can barely face it, definitely bright enough to blind mortals with it and through the light she hears screams, sees Loki fighting in a way she has never seen him fight before and above his shoulders…
Well, she thinks, surprised by her own calm, at least that´s an explanation for his shoulder blades.
When the light retreats, the market is eerily quiet. Mortals are lying everywhere, whimpering from shock, some of the faster ones already up and running towards the exit, some of them deathly still, with their eyes burned out.
The being calling himself Loki is standing in the middle of it, eyes wide open, seemingly shocked by himself.
Kali walks right up to him and places the knife against his throat.
"I don´t know too much about Norse mythology", she tells him, trying to hide the tremor in her voice and trying to ignore the vacant look in his whisky-brown eyes "but I am pretty sure Norse gods aren´t supposed to have wings"
Sekkiera isn´t the only one allowed to review ;)