Omphalos (Hiccelsa)

Chapter 32

Someone is putting their hands over Ophelia's lips in the dead of night. Without a shadow of hesitation, Ophelia jabs forward, her fingers connecting with the flesh under the jaw, shoving upward hard. The person falls back onto the grass, grunting in pain. It's only then she realizes whom the noise belonged to.

"Calder?" She hissed, and she sees his slumped form on the ground. He looks up, his eyes wild and angry.

"What in the name of Odin?" He coughs in a hushed whisper, rubbing his neck.

"I think I should be asking you that!" She demands, "Scaring me like that..."

Calder pursed his lips. "I was trying to wake you without causing a scene." He said pointedly, "Waking anyone else."

Ophelia has a thousand retorts hanging off her lips, but purses them instead, looking at him hard. "Fine. I'm up. Now what?" She asks. He motions for her to follow him silently, and she has the fleeting thought of maybe it would be unwise to follow him. He is, after all, still a son of Unn with a tendency in his family to break.

But this is Calder, and Ophelia likes to think she'd know him well enough that whatever might happen, she'd be able to see it coming. Therefore, she stands cautiously and follows him out of the sound area that the sleeping camp lays. He was on night guard anyway, so there's no problems with avoiding one of their teammates, although she's still not sure why.

"What?" Ophelia yawns, crossing her chest.

"I sense something's going on between Jor and Ull." Calder said bluntly, and Ophelia raised an eyebrow.

"You mean like...lovers?" She scoffed, "Jor's engaged."

"Maybe, I don't know." Calder shrugs helplessly, "I just...tonight...they were giving off some weird vibes. I know it's been weeks, but their edginess...they were the only ones." He said in a frustrated tone, running his fingers through his hair, "Something...I don't..."

"I admit," Ophelia cut him off, "I was a little freaked out by the things going on tonight too. Jor isn't usually like that." She agreed, really thinking hard. The idea that Jor was unfaithful had never entered her mind until now, because Jor was too softhearted for that. Ophelia deep down believed the furthest that could happen was some strong pining, "So what now? We keep them apart in the searching?" She questioned.

"Actually, I think we should put them together again tomorrow." He said, and Ophelia's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wha-,"

"There's obviously something happening. I don't know what. Jor knows something, whatever it may be, and together-only those two- split up. But I think we should follow them."

Ophelia was silent for a moment.

"So you don't trust your brother, then?" She asked softly, recalling his brother's hurt eyes at the accusation that he couldn't trust him.

"Great Thor, Ophelia." Calder looked pained at the question, "I just...I can't trust anyone. Not when my entire life, I've been taught that no matter how good or how deserving you are, you will be left. Betrayed." He said, "Don't you see it too?" He asked.

Ophelia shrugged, biting the inside of her cheek, "I can't even recall my real parents." She sighed, "It feels like less of a betrayal because they also didn't choose for what happened to me. I didn't choose it." She said, and then took a staggered breath, adding, "Neither did your mom."

The words stiffened Calder's back. "Yeah, well," He snapped sourly, "We needed her, and she still died of something no one knew of. Left us as orphans. She was supposed to be the good guy, but hell..." He looked out into the forest. It hurt Ophelia to see his reaction. Elsa's love had been enough for Ophelia to have, at the very least, a rather optimistic outlook on life. Proof that even after everything is ripped away, there is still love. In Calder, it seemed to have gone the opposite way, and in that moment, Ophelia wished more than ever that he could consider Elsa a mother too, so that her love could be enough for him. But she knew it wasn't. That much was clear.