Tales of Vanaheimr

[In the heavenly abode of Vanaheimr]

On the throne made of gold encrusted with precious stones sat an angel twilled in silken robes and aesthetic pearls. But his face looked grim and sullen.

His jaws had hardened, and his narrowed eyes had been glued to the glass orb levitating in front of him. With his hands, he was time and again rotating it as if trying to locate something.

The sound of the anklets of someone approaching took away his attention momentarily, but he didn't bother to even lift his eyes in the direction of the sound. Perhaps he knew that it wasn't worth his time.

"Lord Nubeous! Would you care for some more wine? I freshly brewed them with my own hands today." Asked a nymph with a seductive look in her eyes. Her skimpy rayon-clad body left nothing for imagination. But Lord Nubeous didn't even glance at her.

He simply flicked his index and middle finger, wanting her to disperse.

Disappointed, she drew back her hand that held a glass of wine. Her lips parted to ask him something, but seeing the worry line etched on his temple, she didn't dare. Lord Nubeous was not someone to be played with. So pouting her face, she walked out of the palace but met Lord Oberon at the entrance arch.

"A filled wine bottle being returned from the palace of Vanaheimr? How did that happen, Nymphadora?" He asked with a light chuckle on his face while his eyes traced the peaks of her bosom.

Enticing Lord Oberon with her coy eyes and seductive stance, Nymphadora sighed and deliberately adjusted her bustier with one hand and said, "Ask your brother. He shooed me away as if I was an untouchable. He didn't even look at me or taste my handmade wine."

"Is that so? How can he dare not have a look at a beauty like you? What is keeping him so occupied, Nymphadora?" Lord Oberon asked as he lightly glided his thumb over her lower lips, smearing her freshly applied beetroot stain, but his eyes slowly glided down to her bustier, which she had deliberately lowered during their conversation.

With her index finger, she slowly traced a path along her bosom and inched closer. This sultry little act of hers made Lord Oberon's hand slip from her lips and trail down along the arch of her neck.

"Oh, Lord Oberon! Stop being so naughty. What will others think when they see us like this. I don't want others to think ill of you."

"You don't?"

She shook her head.

"Really?" And he made her lips part with his thumb, which she lightly licked with the tip of her tongue, bringing a smile to his face.

Batting her eyelids, she lowered her voice and said, "Yes, Lord. I don't want people to think you have an eye on something your brother desires."

"Enough!" The enraged voice of Nubeous echoed like a spring thunder.

"I asked you to leave. What are you still doing here?" It was loud enough to rattle her bones, so lowering her eyes, she immediately ran away.

"Brother! That's no way to talk with a woman," Oberon whined as he walked towards the throne.

"You consider her a woman? Huh!" He lamented and looked in the direction of his younger brother dismissively.

"If I wouldn't have known you, then I would have said that you sounded jealous, brother," and a light chuckle escaped his lips, but the moment he saw the orb in front of him, his grating chuckle disappeared from his face and was replaced by a pale look.

"Is that the one given by ..."

Nubeous nodded.

"What happened, brother? What do you seek?"

Nubeous bore a grimaced look on his face upon hearing that question. But he could understand the predicament of his brother. There were no forces in the universe that dared to hassle him, for he was the indestructible one. The most powerful angel of all.

He had been blessed with a Herculean physique and hands that could cast spells like miracles. His barrel chest was something that every nymph of Vanaheimr desired to rest on, and the tales of his crusades were something that even his brothers were jealous of.

Yet here he was, eyes glued on the orb in search of someone. Desperation, yes, that's what he would like to call it.

"Do you know what is happening around you, Oberon? Or lust is all that you desire for?" He lamented.

Lord Oberon momentarily lowered his head and then spun an excuse, "I was just… I just…"

Ignoring the illogical reasons that his brother was about to give, Lord Nubeous spoke, "He is decreasing his sin counts fast, Oberon!"

"Who Morpheous?" Lord Oberon exclaimed in disbelief, raising his brows quizzically.

"Then who else?" he barked.

"But didn't we cast a spell to increase his sin count to a behemoth? Wasn't that enough to keep him bound to earth for decades?"

"We did, but he has found a way," Lord Nubeous muttered. Each and every nerve of his body raged in anger because of the defiance shown by his youngest brother---Morpheous. The one who was a thorn in his path.

"How is he getting rid of his sins? What is he doing?" Lord Oberon asked.

"Doing what he always does. Healing people around him," and saying that, he cast away the levitating orb.

"He can still heal? Didn't father burn him with the bolt of death?" Lord Oberon asked.

"It's remnant power. Not powerful enough for here, but sufficient for a miracle on earth," he muttered with gritted teeth.

"Then what do we do? If he removes all his sins, he might be able to return to heaven one day!" 

Hearing his ominous words, for a moment, Lord Nubeous felt like snapping his fingers to slit that uncouth tongue of his brother but refrained. For he still feared God, their father. Sometimes he couldn't believe that such a lousy fool was his angelic brother. Drinking that surge of anger within him, he spoke, "If he has found a way to decrease it, then we will find a way to increase it!"

"But how brother? We cannot cast a spell from here. Father would get to know." Lord Oberon asked as he paced around.

"Who said we are going to cast a spell from here? We will cast it on earth!" And a devious smile etched on his face. "A single act would set his counter back. And he will be stuck there till eternity."

"So you want him to commit sins of earth?"

"I do?" Lord Nubeous spoke with a devious expression on his face.

"But will he commit sins? He is the noblest of all of us!" Lord Oberon remarked.

"He has already started to! And I will make sure he commits even more. Earth will become his living purgatory."

"But how will we cast a spell on earth?" Asked Lord Oberon as he stopped pacing around.

"Not we. You. You will be going to earth!"