Loki's Mark

Chapter Two

"Hey Beth, sorry I'm late, I overslept!" I exclaimed as I swept into the metaphysical shop where I worked, plopping a tower of books down on the counter as I tried to keep them all from falling everywhere. She laughed and walked over to me, picking up a couple of the books and eyeing the titles with a raised brow.

"Wow, that's a lot of Norse-inspired reading there, Cass. Did 'Loki's Fire' really spark some curiosity in the old brain?" Beth asked me teasingly, waggling her eyebrows for maximum embarrassment effect. I scoffed.

"That hot pile of dumpster fire trash? Please. No, this is uh... some personal research. I know a fair bit of topical Greek mythology, but I'm sorely lacking in the other pantheons, I figured why not start here?" I shrug, trying to play the whole thing off like it was no big deal. She gave me a brief cock of an eyebrow, but just smiled as I moved away to put the rest of my stuff in the back. When I came back up to get the books, she had very kindly already bagged them for me in one of the store bags and tied it up, so I snatched that and carried it to the back as well. Then I came out and clocked in, ready to start my shift and put last night's insanity behind me.

A little while later in the shift, we were both enjoying a cup of tea while taking a brief break, and I looked over at her. I knew that I couldn't actually tell her what I had witnessed last night, despite her beliefs she'd think me insane. Perhaps I could broach the subject in a different way, however, and couch it as pure curiosity. "You know, I came across something the other day that has stuck with me, and I wonder if you could help me a bit." I said, as I took a sip of tea and waited for her to nod. When she did, I spoke again.

"This is probably going to sound weird, but how does one... go about, getting a patron deity?" I asked timidly, eyeing her over my cup. She let out a snort and a quick bark of laughter.

"Oh my child, we have very different definitions of weird. That's actually a very common question. Of course it varies from pantheon to pantheon, and differs from practice to practice, but usually you figure out what the deity that you prefer to work with likes, then you make offerings to them and ask them to work together. Sometimes they accept, sometimes they don't." she shrugged, and took a drink.

"Okay, I suppose that's fair." I sighed, as if lost in thought. "But, can you already have one though? Like, before you ask to work with one? How would you find out? If you already did, I mean?" At that question she frowned a bit, her head tilted in thought.

"Alright, I suppose that one would seem a little bit weirder for someone who's a complete novice to the practice, such as yourself. That's also not unheard of, sometimes families who have practiced for a long time have a family deity they have all worked with. Sometimes, a connection is so strong, that the deity reaching out to the practitioner through dreams or tarot or other means has also occurred, bringing them to the path as well. It really depends on the person and the deity, honestly. It's not something that's cut and dried." A final sip of tea, and she rose from her chair. "But that's the great thing about the path, my child. We're free to define who we are, who and what we work with, and where it takes us." With a smile, she held out her hand. I took it, and rose from my own chair with a smile.

That didn't really answer my question, but it was about as much of an answer as I was going to get, unless I outright said 'Hey Beth, I think I accidentally called a half-naked Norse god into my apartment last night, what the hell do I do about it?'. I was thankful when she asked me to break down the stock that had just come in that morning, stripping down to my camisole in the stuffy backroom as I worked up a sweat sorting out all the new merchandise.

I was so lost in the task and the music I was listening to that I completely missed the first time something brushed my arm. The second time it happened, I dismissed it as my imagination or something I had brushed up against. The third time it happened, however, it was distinctively the knuckles of someone's hand sliding down the bare skin of my upper arm, in a very seductive manner. I froze for a second, then looked around. No, I was definitely alone. What the hell was that?