"The Twisted Key" by Antony M. B. Sadler (Drig)

All stories have a beginning. This one starts, where actually many do if you trace them back far enough, with a tree. Not just any tree, but the world tree, Yggdrasil. One whose roots burrowed into the underworld, shaping those nether regions where giants and monsters dwelled, as surely as the topmost branches built the lofty heavens. Thereby providing perches for the gods and goddesses, to peer down upon the new world, and meddle. Many a tale has branched from the one tree, but we will concentrate on the limb that was paramount for both Yggdrasil and mankind.

Now Yggdrasil saw itself in a different light from the gods that saw it as a toy to use until it could be played with no more. It knew that though its birth came about through the slaughtering of Ymir by Borr and his sons, Odin, Hœnir, and Lóðurr, it could be destroyed and replaced if the fickle gods united and changed their minds. For surely how much trust should one place in them that killed Auðumbla’s only sibling. Who began the war with the giants by killing their cousin Loki’s parent.

It needed to be less remote to aid in healing the scars. Scars caused during the meetings of the ever warring gods and giants, where the worst casualties were upon the world. Though its boughs wove above the entire world, separating the heavens from the sky, it was rooted on one, small island, remote from the rest of the world’s land. There was little enough room on the island for itself, let alone to allow saplings to be born and grow. Elsewhere, there was plenty of land that saplings could grow upon, further away from Yggdrasil. The saplings would provide it additional presence to thwart any attempts against scarring the world.

However, there were problems in dropping seeds and hoping, as was tried first. That attempt yielded most of the seeds to fall on swampland, oceans, river, and deserts. The few that landed on arable soil and were not eaten by birds and mammal, made one small grove. This first copse of nion, grown away from Yggdrasil, was harvested by Odin for bows, arrows, and spears. The pain was far greater than any the serpent, Jorgmungander, eating out its roots, had ever caused the tree. In fury for butchering its children, it hung Odin from its branches.

It also chose to create more nion trees, but having learnt from its mistakes gave them guardians, developing ahead of the seed in the samara fruit. It couldn’t be beside its young, so it gave each samara a nymph to protect the keys to new life within. Each nymph guided her samara fruit as it fell. Each dropped to good land. Forests of nion grew strong over the entire world. Seeing its children, plentiful, protected, and strong, Yggdrasil took pity upon Odin. It hoped that he had gained wisdom from his folly, and decided that a lost eye to a raven was adequate payment for the first copse. It released him.

Odin ignored the offer Yggdrasil made upon his release. That of being dual guardian to the nion by merely splitting that which was always one by giant into two as was the god’s way. He wasn’t going to harvest the trees, but wouldn’t tie himself to their protection, refusing to look at what Yggdrasil told him he would enjoy to see. He was free and had a score to settle with a raven.

The giant Loki, parent of Jorgmungander and the great wolf, Fenrir, was displeased with his nemesis’ release and set to plotting a way to get the two to disagree once more.

~~~

It was a typical meeting. The fires raged in their stone walled pits. The three brothers with father and grandfather sat within the halls of Vallhalla, reveling and jostling. Mead, previously milked from the goat, sloshed onto the wooden table and stone flooring from overfilled mugs that clashed into one another with their owners’ cries of, “Ves heill!” Through one of the small high windows, venting the room of smoke, a small raven sailed into the hall and seeing its master, sank to the table and perched before the one eyed god.

It hopped this way and back, to avoid fists and mugs that swung and thudded, it was sure not too accidentally, where it was last perched. Finally using wing to avoid a bone flung at it, the raven angrily croaked and gained the one eyed god’s suddenly sober attention. The eye bored the raven back to its perch upon the table and silence echoed loudly within the unnaturally quite, cool, vast halls.

“Well then, offspring of a tiny thief, dare you like your ancestor, speak first?” Odin asked softly.

The raven, refusing to show any fear, lifted its head to gaze unflinching into the single eye.

“You are one that I sent to watch our cousin. Give me your sight and explain your early return,” Odin stated.

Above the carcass of mutton, blue sky and towering mountains appeared. The gods watched a mountain soar toward them and tilt. They were banking to one side of the crest, obviously as the bird had been previously. Down the far side they plummeted into a gully, and other ravens could be seen as the narrowing space brought them into closer formation. One slipped in and out of vision while three were always in the front, so this raven must be one of the first hatchlings to be awarded such prominent position of rank. The craggy gully blocked more and more of the manes light, from the horses pulling Sol through the heavens. Lengthening shadows fell on top of each other darkening the grey.

Suddenly part of a shadow shifted across the rest, then a huge maw with glistening, bright, sharp canine teeth leapt before the assembly. As the front two ravens were swallowed by Fenrir, a crash filled the halls that had stilled to silence.

Odin’s laughter was joined by Borr’s and  Hœnir’s, as Lóðurr picked himself up from amongst the splinters of his chair on the floor. They turned back to watch the flight as their red faced colleague found himself another seat. Búri smiled slightly at the tussle and returned to his meal and mead, paying least attention to both of the displays.

So the mission, reduced now to first hatchlings at best, continued to fly and seek the sight Odin had demanded of them. The black of the one lead raven blended well with the now near black shadows of the underworld.

They were expecting the second sudden attack, so none lost their seating as a stone fist hurtled into the bird providing them the vision. Flashes of colours and swirling unclear items danced before their eyes. Then they were surprised to see the manes light at a different angle sifting through nion trees standing to either side of a river flowing from the falls directly in the center of the vision. To see Loki standing on earth, and not the netherworld in which they thought him to stay was astounding. By the fall of the water over his head, and the pool at the base of the fall he had chosen this spot for quite some time as home.

Having barely had time to grapple with the audacity of the giant to show this as his home of some time, the giant wrenched the raven’s mind to contain its speech in a way that would enable him to talk directly to his cousins. “Fenrir thanks you for the snack, and awaits her chance to eat you too, Odin. If you could see fit to send larger game as your messenger, I would be very thankful of a meal myself. The Nether world is ours. Stay with yours in Vallhalla. I will not allow your spies access.” As the message ended, and just prior to the vision ending, a bank of golden hair rose from the pool.

“What was that? Don’t stop! Show what next you saw,” Odin demanded of the raven. Unfortunately there seemed some memory damage as the raven’s next vision was of flying back to Vallhalla.

~~~

It had been raining for several hours, the waterlogged leaves of the nion trees no longer provided shelter and large puddles were forming on the ground. Dancing barefoot, thrilling in the cold water splashing over her face and body, Meliai twisted between her trees. Nothing could distract her from her happiness. She silently cursed her foolishness for thinking that. For no sooner had it been thought than she knew she must move through her glade to its edge, where once had stood the burnt-out trunk of his tree.

Her mind’s eye superimposed the long decayed dead tree over the twin trees that now stood in its place. The twins had stood for nearly four hundred years here. She wished her memory would provide his nion tree in its glory days; vigorous, demanding, a huge majestic tree that had housed many wild animals. Unfortunately, though she knew it had once looked this way, she could only see it as the burnt out husk that it became after he was murdered.

Turning away from the type of pain that had destroyed many of her sisters, she looked back at the twins. Soon, yes soon she would let them be. Finding solace in that thought she left the area, resuming her dance. A dance not as vibrant as it had been previously, but there was a measure of joy back in her step. Finding herself at the center of the glade and beside her current tree she wound down her dance. Turning her face to the sky above the sweeping canopies of green leaves, she let the rain fall and blend, with her tears, now allowed to flow freely.

The cool, splashing drops were both refreshing and soothing. She could feel the roots of her tree lying beneath her feet soaking up the moisture as she felt her face was doing too. Life waxed within her forest, and Meliai rejoiced in these trees that were hers. For the oldest alive, their parents parents were born from the keys she had guided to fall here so many years afore now. How they loved the gentle rains that came in late spring. It is time, wait no longer. Give them the chance to live some of their lives forward even at the risk of them losing that life. It is time for new life. Let them be. Let them live. The song chorused from the forest, the trees taking up the chant and turning it slightly as they passed it on. The rustling leaves of each tree similar and yet distinctly different from their brethren as they joined the whispering chant.

Meliai walked up to the tree before her and melded with her current home. Sitting within, she released her mind to the forest. The rainy wet day was the perfect day for new life. Having accepted that it was time she allowed her thoughts to wander, as her physical being had previously, to the edge of the glade where her twins grew strongly. She released the walls that she had built around the zygote moments after it had split and allowed them to resume their growth. The twins, her only offspring given to her from the man she loved so dearly two days at most, prior to his cruel murder. Allowing her tree to provide nourishment for the three of them she slipped into dreams, showing the twins their father as they blossomed.

The nymph began sharing with them the joy of her youth. She started before the time of their father, with a god central to their father’s birth and death.

~~~

Meliai remembered the first day the giant came as the start of happiness. It was joy that had come out of great despair. She had chosen well and her saplings were all two years old, when Thor had chased Fenrir through her glade. Several trees had been burnt by the lightning strikes from the god’s hammer, but the one that pushed Fenrir back into the underworld took off a huge chunk of the mountainside overshadowing the edge of her glade. The upper lake, previously contained, had fallen down. The deluge beginning to drown her trees as Thor left for other animals to hunt, oblivious of the destruction he had caused.

She had been wallowing in self pity, and he had lumbered in and held back the lake. Shock, fear and surprise had been replaced by joy. They had conversations over the next few years as her trees widened and a pool formed where Loki allowed the lake to fall down in ever increasing quantities. The pool became very deep and the small stream from it a river, so that in time he would be able to leave as he eventually must when spotted by the Gods, as his child, Fenrir, had been by Thor.

She had told him that she held neither him nor Fenrir responsible and was thankful that he had cared enough to stop her young charges and self from drowning years earlier. He had modestly denied her thanks stating that his giants were as much at fault for the war that had been waging since the gods killed the first born giant, his parent, Yamir. He had warned her that worse than Thor was a god with one eye that her mother hated and had tried to hang from her branches when he destroyed the first nion trees she had birthed. He used ravens as spies and she should not tolerate their presence within her forest. Knowing from her mother of the deed Odin had done, led credence to this giant’s tales and she believed every one, even those which were at odds to Yggdrasil’s. Surely no child of this hero could eat the roots of her mother. More like, as Loki said, Jorgmungander being overly large had trouble while being chased by the devilish gods to avoid breaking some of Yggdrasil’s roots. Though he tried hard not to, and suffered greatly from the destruction done, he must run from them that unfairly set on him and seek his demise.

Yes these gods that called themselves good, were god killers, world destroyers. She would not suffer them in her glade. Here, she was goddess. Here, she held power. Here, they would find no acceptance. She was more similar to Loki and the giants than the Gods for she had a single parent. Yggdrasil was both her mother and father as Yamir had been both mother and father to Loki. Yggdrasil was born from the corpse of Yamir so in some ways they had the same single parent.

“Meliai, I am sorry but I must leave.” Loki told her. “His raven just left as you surfaced from the pool.”

It took her some time to realize what he was telling her. She had been investigating the pool for the last two days as he had requested. He had told her that he thought it deep enough if the need ever arose that he must leave, and that she should bind the rocks and earth while he moved away to test their fix. She beneath the water had noticed him leave for several hours during the second day as he had said he would and return. She had taken stock of the pool and underwater banks, strengthened those areas that were in need, and been thankful that at last the threat of flooding was gone. She didn’t want Loki to leave. Unfortunately, it seemed that now that he could rest, her glade saved, he had to leave. He had been hidden long enough to solve her problem, but could not stay long enough for her to offer any thanks.

It was with tears that she saw Loki leave her glade.

Over the next two days Meliai checked the edges of the pool, from the surface to its depths, for any sign of weakness. Though she planned to ease up on the frequency of her inspections, this would be a task that became routine for the survival of her glade. It was while leaving the pond on the third day that she met him.

“Please remain in the lake, and I will join you. Never have I seen such beauty, and I would be honored to learn your name and spend time with you.” Odin told her.

Initially she thought to swim to the far bank, but this was her glade and she would not show fear. “I know your name, though I will not use it, and will not share mine, with you. If you put one foot in my pool I will drag you into its depths, and unlike my mother, I will not release you. Both you and those like you are not welcome within this nion grove. Note that your spies will never nest or perch within a nion tree of mine.”

Odin was shocked, the meeting was not going the way his imagination had played out in both his night and day dreams that this beautiful creature had captivated him in since he first was accidentally brought to know of her existence. Then realization softened his thoughts and he told her.  “The giant that you have allowed to live within your glade is a trickster, and I must think he has spun lies to twist you from reasonable thinking. His offspring devour your mother. Yes, she did hold me captive, but realized that I must be released to stand against those you have been consorting with.”

“You are not welcome in my glade. I am encouraging the roots of the nion trees to grow up along the surface. In time, there will not be a safe place for you to stand. I will not suffer the murderer within my presence. Leave before I and my trees attack.”

“You have suffered a giant to live within your glade, yet stand against the gods. Speak your next words carefully or I’ll harvest this nion,” Odin ultimated.

“If the giant had not arrived and dwelled here, there would be no glade, thanks to Thor, who destroyed the side of the mountain. If you dare to kill more nion trees, you prove me right and my mother wrong. Whether my words are acceptable for you or not, you and all gods are not welcome here; leave now. This grove of nion will not be as easy as the first you murdered, to kill.”

“I leave now, but I shall return. I plan for you to dance and entertain me within the halls of Vallhalla. I am Odin eldest of Borr, and a minor nion goddess shall not defy my wishes. I will find proof of Loki’s deception, and you will apologize to me for the disservice you afforded me this day,” Odin remarked prior to stalking off. Anger and confusion were waging emotions over how badly this meeting had gone.

See my little bairns and remember this upstart god, Meliai informed her twins, if ever you have cause to deal with him be polite and wary. If he ever leaves filled with emotion as I have shown, know he will return as soon as he has cunningly planned your downfall. His memory is long, his wit is keen, his wisdom and knowledge are dangerously deep, and he might attack you just for you being the children of my husband and me. Guard your tongue when his spies are near. Now I will teach you the powers of illusion that nion provide as a first defense against the foes I unwittingly made for you.

~~~

Odin was furious. He and the daft goddess were being played by Loki. How well his cousin knew him. Determined not to return in a state that his brothers might use to their advantage, he chose to walk within the world and try to work out what the trickster had done and why. Hugin, he forced to his newly named raven, show me the next nearest nion grove. When he was shown the location he changed his previously aimless path, to head toward it.

Within a few hours he had traversed the miles and was at the edge of the second glade. Not wanting a repeat he chose to be more polite and hailed the trees. “Children of Yggdrasil and their guardian, I am Odin, son of Borr, and wish to converse, and see how I might be of help to you.” He waited as the trees passed his message on. Then Odin was shocked to see the goddess of his dreams approaching. Was she guardian to every grove?

“Well met lord, and please enter, and your friend may perch within too. I fear he looks tired on the wing above you. My name is Meliai, and I am guardian of this grove. It would honor me if you would enter and rest.”

“Do you jest? You just chased me from your last grove and forbade to suffer me, when I had done you no wrong. Do you wish to apologize now for the disservice you did me? Or will you pretend it never happened?”

“My lord, I know not what mine sister has done to make you vex your anger here. I hope I may be able to recompense you the disservice she provided. My mother, Yggdrasil has told me, and I thought all of my sisters, of you and how we should aid the gods. I can only think that she, unlike myself and mother, has not forgiven you the destruction of the first glade of nion trees. Know that if you do not harm my trees I will provide succor for you and the gods as my mother has asked. Are you sure you did not damage one of my sister’s nion trees?”

“I did not. How can you be identical to your sister? My two brothers are little like me,” Odin asked, still dubious that this was not one and the same goddess.

“All of my sisters are the same as me. We each are named Meliai, we are separate and vested with only our own glade to protect. I can only hope you accept my hospitality and will apologize for my sister, but cannot say I knew of what happened outside of my glade. In time I can try to dream with my sister and find what and why she did you such disservice that you have such anger for me. However, if she is diseased she might not even sleep to the same seasons as me and I will have to hope Yggdrasil can find out what is wrong. Mother though is slow in replying, she is of her own seasons to be sure. Most likely I will need mother’s help on finding out about my sister, for surely if she treated you so wrongly, without cause as you state, then she is diseased.”

“Please enter and let me try to show the hospitality you deserve from the Meliai of the nion glades.”

~~~

Odin cursed the cunning of Loki. For though every Meliai was identical in beauty, it was that they were identical except for the one that Loki had diseased against him, that prevented him from being happy. Over the years he had visited from grove to grove becoming increasingly jaded. Initially he had taken a Meliai from here and there to Vallhalla, but later he vainly cantered on his eight legged charger across the world to the next glade of nion, vainly hoping that the Meliai there would be different. He was always disappointed. He wouldn’t fall trap to his cousin’s scheme, somehow, if Loki could change a Meliai, then he should be able to change one too.

His brothers, worried about him, were always bringing goddesses to Vallhalla, but not one was near the beauty of a Meliai. He avoided the hall and the constant battle, becoming increasingly aloof. Surely he was wise enough to be able to do what Loki had, and create his own Meliai.

Loki had changed the Meliai by giving her a second thing to care for, in addition to the Nion. The easiest change would be to have one bear him a child. Unfortunately being of Yggdrasil, the Meliai were asexual as were the giants and Odin could not impregnate one as he could a normal goddess and give her a child to care for. However, he could split the sexuality of one Meliai. She would be so different then from her sisters, and he could have a child with her and he would have his unique Meliai that loved him.

Happy at last, he turned his stead toward the third nion glade he had ever visited.

~~~

Yggdrasil had made the Meliai with the weakness of being split by Odin because it hoped to catch the help of the god in the protecting of its forest. It had made the Meliai after searching Odin’s mind while he hung from its branches in a form that was perfection to the god. Unfortunately being asexual it did not understand the desire of uniqueness. Loki though asexual too, due to his great cunning, did, and made each of his children different for the purpose he desired and the strength against unique gods this awarded him. He had Fenrir taunt Thor and lead the battle to one grove of nion and set the wheels in motion for a scheme that would pit Yggdrasil against his foe.

Odin didn’t disappoint him. He pulled man from the nion tree thinking to make the Meliai of a grove female, and the split occurred in every nion glade across the world. Yggdrasil had not understood a god’s need for a single partner, and thinking it wise had given Odin many partners to aid in the protecting of the world.

~~~

Meliai entered once more into the dreams of her growing twins; they would be seven with the winters thaw. Meldion and Arianrhod, your father was born from his tree as were men from trees within my glade and all my sisters’. Odin angry at Loki took the men from the other glades and taught them war of bow and sword, I gave mine to Loki to help defend him. Your father uncovered my folly a few centuries later and returned and then I vainly tried to dream with my sisters but we were too dissimilar. Your father found that I had been tricked and how Loki actually reveled in the chaos of destruction. Slowly I was able to make Yggdrasil see the errors of its ways, and it taught my sisters, but such wounds the earth had suffered. My sisters were able to call back some of the men from the service of Odin. I was unable to bring back any of the men I had given to Loki.

“What of Odin?” Arianrhod asked.

Meliai glanced and saw the twins awake. Ruffling her daughter’s hair she replied. “A few years later Odin came to me expecting an apology, and my love. I did not love Odin and saw that there was no cure as Yggdrasil had hoped for the world from this vain, selfish god. Daftly I told the peacock how I felt of him, and the love I had instead for your father. He destroyed your father. He burnt his tree to the husk. My sisters and the men they were able to call back from Odin and myself have tried to temper the waged war between god and giant ever since. Our free men protecting the forests and trying to awaken the enslaved men from the nightmare they unknowingly breed.”

“If all of you are Meliai, however your name is Gwn, why did you name me Meldion instead of Gwndion?” her son asked.

“I am Meliai. Man incorrectly calls me Gwn, but that is not my true name. There are few Meliai left, so many refused to chose a new tree when their chosen man died. I wanted to name you as my son and honor who I am. In a time when Gods change names and sides, having a name that is not unique is advantages. There are several Meldions and Arianrhods, but you shall be the greatest. Both of you have nearly four hundred years of safety stored in the past. Living those years later backwards will enable you to protect your tree for its full life and fix the mistakes mankind makes. This is a power I give to you that is greater than any gods. With it, and your ash wands of illusion, hopefully the wounds of the world can be healed.”

Translations

Nion – ash

Ves heill!!! – a Norse toast, meaning be well and be in good health