Chapter 1
The sky was a deep indigo, cloudless and speckled with stars and a full disc moon. It was a calm night, nothing raging in the atmosphere, all was serene. Evadine looked upwards, her gaze focusing so hard it was as though she were trying to strip back the night. Her soft breathing whispering in unison with the light breeze that made her hair gently flap against her neck. There she stood on the vast lawn, her bare feet engulfed by the overgrown blades of lush grass and she wore the nightdress she had made herself. It was the kind of style that she wore at home; down here everything was so very different.
A man silently opened the French doors and stood watching her, seeing that though the moon shone down silver upon her, her own hair gleamed with little flecks of gold. It was not an earthly sight that hair, it was of another world, he knew that but he knew her too. Its length was shorter than when he first met her, she had cut several inches yet it still draped majestically past her shoulder blades.
"Are you alright Evadine?" He called and she turned to face him, those endless violet eyes and that haunting beauty she had almost overwhelming him. Her appearance was so majestic and her eyes speaking of a soul so deep that it was clear she was not human. In public she would wind up her hair and dress how people of Earth did, blending in. But now, draped in the silken fabric and glowing like some distant star she truly was the best of another world.
At first her face betrayed a kind of loss, some part of her was clearly absent but at the sight of him she smiled.
"I am well Yvan, go inside to Isabelle, it is only the moon."
Yvan Hendelman paused a moment still a little reluctant but then he retreated, closing the doors softly and returned to the warmth of his wife.
"Staring at the sky again?" Isabelle asked.
"She rarely does it now, in fact it must be over a year since I last found her doing so."
"What do you think she left behind?"
"I don't know. Something vital, it haunts her you can tell. I see it in her eyes sometimes when we are working, but if I try to see what it is I seem to become as lost as she is."
"We are very much in love with her my darling." Isabelle said embracing him and Yvan laid back on the bed with her. He cupped her cheek with his hand.
"She is our family."
Outside a sudden heavy breeze was snaking itself through the trees, shaking them to a strong whistle. Evadine turned her head to them, she watched the branches wave wildly for several seconds then still again. When all was quiet she laid down on the ground, her arms stretched out. Closing her eyes she became conscious of nothing other than herself. Her lungs pulled in deep drafts of air and then expelled them. She repeated this action several times until her mind was clear and on the last she squeezed her eyes even tighter shut and her fingers clung to the grass.
Out of nowhere her mind seemed to pierce reality and a great pain dominated every part of her body. All over felt a like a knife was cutting to the bone before twisting. Evadine bit down on her lip so hard she tasted blood but that was such a small part of consciousness over the agony that now seemed to have become soul deep. Her brain and the tips of her fingers seemed to become her centre points, but this rush that was determined to fill her as well as the pain wanted to leak from her eyelids so she screwed them all the tighter shut. Urges to cry out to realise the pain also filled her as she became engulfed and overwhelmed by it, but she would not. The pain increased to a crescendo, when unable to take anymore her arms snapped to her sides, her eyes flew open and the breath was thrown from her lungs. An invisible force seemed to leap from her body, lurching her into an upright seating position.
For two or three seconds she panted and felt pain give way to exhaustion and she fell back against the grass as though boneless. All was quiet, that gentle breeze lapping, the silver moon illuminating all around, then she heard it. That rogue breeze rushing through the trees making them quake just as before, the same sound, the same length of time, all was the same. She stared into the inky blue sky and whispered.
"Did you see?"
Evadine imagined somewhere far above and beyond someone was answering her, but it would not be the person she hoped. How right she was for on the bridge guarding the gateway to Asgard stood Heimdall shaking his head slowly. He would have to tell Odin all he had just witnessed.
Evadine still lay on the grass, her exhaustion opening her mind to the past and she remembered lying boneless and bleeding, when Loki had shown the strength he had without realising it was she. Her mind recalled the look of rage turning to horror in an instant, how light had brought realisation and guilt in his eyes. For long moment he had looked at her, those blue eyes accounting for his brutal action. It was her punishment of course, she had taken the step to go and be with him. Nothing between them beyond shared glances and times on the balcony had occurred and yet she was ready to give herself up to him. The fact he had never asked was what drove her to take such a step. When he had lifted her away from the spot she had caught sight of the patch of blood where her head had crashed to the stone floor which had sealed her fate. Healed she might have been but revealed and vulnerable she had become, they had found out what she was.
She had seen Odin many times at various celebrations, but she had never stood before him and been addressed directly. It was his wife that could not help but give her away, there was something in that blood, something about the way her hair gained its glow as she healed that betrayed her as different. Odin asked her several things about herself and how she was involved with Loki. It was here she realised that part of Odin feared his 'son' in some way but whether love was keeping that at bay she was not sure. Evadine did not answer in too much detail, nor would she tell them more than they had discovered for themselves.
"What are you?" Odin had asked at last, impatient.
"I am the line between morality and immortality, I believe."
This had not satisfied and she had been sent back to her place, but she knew that that had not been then end, she told Loki as much.
"They will likely strike a blow against you my dear before you strike out at them and they won't see themselves doing it."
When she returned to Odin the following day she was given a choice, she refused and so she was banished. Her first feeling of being exiled from home was laid on grass just like this, she was still dressed as an Asgardian but she had laid for an endless amount of time just looking upwards at the sky, waiting, hoping to return and realising that she would not.
Then and now her thoughts were always the same, she did not allow herself to hurt or pine for any reason other than one; Loki?
