All four brothers were staring at Olaf in intense confusion. Olaf simply sat quietly, letting the information sink in.
"Wait...So that makes you the...Second incarnation? Not counting the original Baldr." Ty said after a moment. "But how is that possible?"
Anders rolled his eyes. "He has the power of rebirth. That means that Baldrs last for quite a long time."
Olaf nodded. "That is very true, grandson. The Baldr that I knew when I was young was already nearing the end of his time, you could tell. He actually looked like an old man. All the Gods and Goddesses called him Grandpa Emil affectionately, despite none of them being related to him."
Olaf gave a sad smile, as he remembered those times when he was a child, and so knew and interested in the world of Gods. He had stumbled upon it on complete accident, but later on he thought that his child self may have been more aware about his surroundings than previously thought. But he had known Emil so well, and even went to him for advice.
Until one day, the old gentleman revealed something that Olaf wasn't sure he had wanted to know just yet. Emil had told him that Olaf himself was going to be the next incarnation of Baldr. Young Olaf had been so excited about the idea of actually knowing which God he was going to be before he was even close to being old enough to be a God! But quickly, after a few seconds of thinking Olaf had cried out suddenly, because he knew Emil was Baldr.
The old man had only smiled at him sadly, and said that his time was coming to an end. But he was going to teach Olaf all he needed to know about being Baldr, and about being an oracle. He and Linnea (who was Vor) were going to be teaching him. They were expecting him to grow up and become some great oracle who was going to live for the longest time, teaching new Gods and Goddesses about themselves and how to survive in their world.
But that had been stopped horribly early, when Magnus had died. Olaf never really figured out how it happened. Magnus' brother Erick, who was Bragi, should have been the only one who had died. Yet nearly every single God and Goddess that Olaf had befriended had ended up dying in that earthquake. Maybe it was because then, they were so close that they were family in everything but blood. But that means Olaf was left alone, without his two mentors to guide him on how to teach Gods and Goddesses. He barely knew anything.
There had been many screw ups along the way, but Olaf feels like he's done the best he could to at least teach his grandsons about everything he knew, even if that wasn't enough sometimes.
"So...They died before they could even teach you properly?" Axl asked, after Olaf told them the story about Emil.
"Yes...That's why my teachings were probably less than adequate for you guys. I wasn't exactly given much teaching myself. It became Lord of the Flies there for a few years when all the young Gods and Goddesses suddenly gained these magical powers that no one really knew how to explain." Olaf shrugged.
The brothers sat in silence, mulling over what Olaf had explained, and thinking back to their own past incarnations. It was still such a strange thought knowing that they had the memories of other people buried deep in their own minds. Yet parts of them just yearned to learn more.
But there was really nothing left to say about the matter, so the four brothers and their grandfather parted ways, returning back to their own homes, their own lives. But the thoughts of their past lives never really left their minds. It stayed in the back of their minds constantly. And even at some point you could see a brother look quickly behind their shoulder or to a certain point in the distance. And then they'd swear that they saw one of their past selves, walking along as if they were still alive. Like their memories had ended up projecting into their lives. And they could only vaguely wonder if one day they'd be projections in another's memory as well.