All you have is your fire (OPEN)

[Baldr]

Baldr had questions. He meant to ask them, but he didn't want to appear ignorant or rude, so he thought for a long moment about how to phrase them. There were some people who liked talking about their religion, and there were some people who got huffy and offended when you asked them questions, like they thought you were insulting them when you were really just curious about the things they believed.

"I wonder why your god only had one son," he said aloud, after some contemplation. "It would seem that he could have done the work a lot faster if he had made several sons, and sent them all to tell you about his forgiveness." He looked over at the other man, and also wondered why he was cold, because here Baldr was, wearing nothing at all on his top half, and he hadn't noticed the cold until just now when it had been mentioned. But then...he had never had to worry about the cold harming him before now. Could he freeze to death here? What happened if he died in this realm? Why had he not thought to ask Hel any of these questions before she had sent him away?

"If you are cold," he suggested, "we ought to find some mead. It is not the sacrament of the church, I am afraid." Whatever that was. Perhaps that was a very fine vintage that Claude Frollo was accustomed to, and he had sophisticated tastes like a nobleman might. "But whenever the wind is cruel and the winter is hard, mead warms the hearts of many men. Someone in this place must surely have mead." Surely Hel was not cruel enough to send him to a place that didn't have mead. That seemed like a terrible thing to wish upon a person, even if that person was technically dead.

"I am the god of forgiveness as well," he said, after another short moment of silence. "I think perhaps your god and I would get along. Do you think your god would forgive someone for tricking someone into slaying his own brother whom he loves very much and would never want to harm?" It didn't matter, he told himself, because Hodr was probably facing all kinds of wrath and judgment from their own father, despite Baldr's conviction that none of this was actually Hodr's fault. But Baldr had already forgiven all parties involved, and he thought it would make him feel better to know that someone else would have agreed with him.

[Claude Frollo]

Was there no end to the blasphemy of this creature? More than one son? And then to question the lords decision; Frollo had struck down others for less; it was a miracle he had not broken yet. He had to keep reminding himself that the demon did not know any better, or at least he suspected it did not know any better. Perhaps it had forgotten what it was like to be in the light, for all demons were angels once were they not? It had forgotten and it was up to Frollo to do the lords word and see it back there…if that was indeed what the lord wanted…The minute the lord said he wanted it struck down instead then he would gladly do so…although it would be difficult…

As he mentioned…he was finding the man quite…amiable…

“The lord works in mysterious ways, but I have always viewed it as a greater sacrifice on the part of our lord, to show us how much he loves us to sacrifice something so precious to him as his only son,” said Frollo as calmly as he could, “his love, his mercy and his forgiveness.”

Was the creature now trying to get him drunk? “I have no love for mead, but thank you, it is only a minor chill and as I said, I am recovering,” said Frollo, with a side long glance at the creature and after a moment’s contemplation he shrugged his coat off and held it out to the man, “although since there is currently no mead you would do well to don this until we find some, or perhaps better clothing.”

Charity. That was why he had done it, it was good to show charity to others, and also the action would not hurt in placating the creature. It felt wrong to help the demon but if he was to be successful in this conversion he needed to at least show it some kindness and get it to trust him. The rage had started to swell again at the mention of being ‘a god’ however abated slightly when he made mention of being able to get along with Frollo’s god. Granted, the demon may have meant as equals but Frollo saw it as a start. If he could get it to think well on God then that would be a good first step in pushing him towards understanding that he was not one.

He frowned at the question and said, “An interesting scenario. Fratricide is a grave sin indeed as we learn in the parable of Caine and Abel. Caine slew his brother and offered him as a sacrifice when god favoured Abel’s offering. On discovering this God punished Cain to the life of a wanderer bearing a mark that meant no man could kill him, forever living with the guilt of his brother’s destruction.”

Thinking about it a little longer he added, “however if a man is to show forgiveness for the crimes that he has committed, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, so long as he seeks redemption and seeks the lords light…he might be forgiven his sin and still admitted into the lords embrace.”

[Baldr]

The things Sheriff Claude Frollo was saying were not doing much to make Baldr feel better about his brother's situation. This Caine person had killed his brother on purpose, but he had also done it as a sacrifice to his god, and his god had cursed him forever for it?

"This Caine sounds misguided," Baldr decided aloud. "But perhaps his heart was in the right place. Sometimes, people offer human sacrifices to my father, and he has never specifically asked for such a thing, but he does not punish them for it." He said all this as he was pulling on the coat that had been handed to him, working his arms into the sleeves with a little effort. It was a bit snug around the shoulders, and he wasn't sure he would have been able to button it, but he didn't try, electing instead to leave it open in the front. "But then, it is true that the people sacrificed to my father volunteer for it, and it does not happen often at all."

He glanced back over at Frollo, and wondered for a moment whether this man ever questioned his god. Baldr thought that was one of the unavoidable things about any faith, you had to ask questions about it or you would never really own it. "Sheriff Claude Frollo," he said, still a little distracted by the coat. There was some odd stitching he wasn't used to, and the fabric was different as well, and he was fascinated by the whole garment. "Let me tell you what has happened to me, and then you can decide what you think is deserved or not." He kept talking as they continued walking.

"My brother and I are twins, but he is blind. He is the god of darkness, so darkness is his specialty, I am not sure if that is because he is blind or if that is the reason he is blind. But that is not my point. When I was in Asgard, I could not be wounded by anything at all except for mistletoe, and it was a game amongst all the gods to throw things at me, because they would only bounce off and I would not be harmed. But Loki, who hates me, tricked my brother into killing me with a weapon made of mistletoe. He did not mean to kill me, or know that he was doing it. Do you think that your god would still think this a sin?"

[Claude Frollo]

Frollo was beginning to get the hang of this. Rather than balking at every blasphemy that was uttered by the demon he needed to accept that it was ignorant, that it did not know better, and work from this position. It is not it’s fault that it has not heard of these things before, that it believes itself a god, and it is up to him to bring this creature back into the light. Which is why when the anger threatened to surface at the mention of Caine’s heart being in the right place he responded calmly.

“The story is to indicate that it is wrong to kill ones brother as opposed to the wrong kind of sacrifice, it also highlights the dangers of jealousy,” he said, mimicking the words of one of the priests that taught him at the monastery, “Caine was jealous that God showed favour to Abel when he believed his offering to be better, this led to him committing the most grievous crime of killing his brother and was then forced to live with the guilt of his crime. It has…little to do with the actual sacrifice.”

He listened to the creature as he spoke about his story and tried not to think on it as he would one of the cases, and desperately tried to ignore all the mention of being ‘gods’ and suchlike. No, he would think of it as the ungodly peasants of Paris come before them with their crimes and judge it accordingly.

“An interesting case indeed. Your brother did not mean to kill you so there was no intent to do so, although it would appear that you have…got better, which means was he actually successful even if he had been attempting to do so,” said Claude, mostly speaking out loud as he went over the particulars of the case, “so has a crime been committed, well he has harmed you even if it were by accident, and we would definitely need to speak to this Loki to find out his intent…a few questions my lord. Was your brother afflicted with blindness before or after the incident? And would you say that your brother exhibited remorse following the event?”

[Baldr]

The whole Caine and Abel story made a bit more sense when Sheriff Claude Frollo explained further. So it wasn't the sacrifice itself, it was that this man had willfully killed his brother presumably without permission. That made sense. And it relieved Baldr a little because it became clearer that his and Hodr's situation was very different from the one in the story. Hodr had never deliberately schemed to kill him, or tried to offer him as a sacrifice to their father, or anything preposterous like that. Hodr was as much a victim in this tragedy as Baldr himself, as far as he was concerned. And as for Sheriff Claude Frollo's other question, well, the answer to that was easy enough.

"It is Loki," he said, as if that explained everything, and then, perhaps realizing that it didn't, added, "his intentions are never good. He is god of trickery and mischief and it is his whole purpose to bring as much chaos into the world as possible." That was a bit strong; Loki certainly had other purposes in life, but Baldr was fanning the fires of justice here, he needed to impress upon Frollo the fact that it had been entirely Loki's doing, and not Hodr's, that had sent him here now.

"My brother has always been blind," he elaborated. "I do not know of his remorse, because I was dead, and did not witness it. The next thing I knew I awoke and I was with Hel, who sent me here. But I know Hodr. We are brothers, twins, and while he is god of darkness he is not evil, he is the truest friend I have ever had, and..." And I miss him terribly, was what he was going to say, but he held it back. Sheriff Claude Frollo did not need to know that, and did not need Baldr's emotions to sway his opinion in this situation. "I know he mourned. And he likely has blamed himself, as has our father, because Loki has a way of escaping blame for the things he does."