Ok, um... [He tries to think through it, and gets distracted.] Which...oh. Baldur. Yes. Alright, well, he'd had some dreams, I think, in which he died, and Frigg had them too, so she asked utterly everything to protect him, except for mistletoe, but I only worked that out, I mean. She was saying it was everything, but I asked. There was a sort of challenge, and Baldur was so good that it felt as if it pressed upon me. Held up as a sort of, well, I wasn't good enough, with the fire, and I'm not good at all. And being ignored, but mostly, it was how everyone was with Baldur, always, tossing things at him, attacking him with swords, and nothing could ever hurt him.
So I had a sprig of mistletoe forged into a proper arrow, a dart, and I meant to, well, prove. I mean, how silly, to make everything safe but that one thing, it's terribly poisonous at all, let alone the arrow, but I just. It was something impossible that I wanted to do. I like impossible things. I like...well, you know, I mean, it wasn't. I wanted to prove it wasn't. But I wanted it, I didn't want anyone to be in trouble for it, so I had it made by someone, but I made the idea, but I gave it to Hodr, who was blind, to shoot. So it would be no-one's fault, and it could just be a clever thing I'd done. Baldur would think it was clever too, you see? But Hodr shot and pierced his heart, and he died and it all went wrong.
[He stops and breathes a moment, and then sighs, deeply.] I wouldn't have wanted...I mean, I ran for it, I had to, and I think they tried to get him back and someone refused to weep for him. I wept for him. I don't know who didn't, why would they think it was me, I didn't want him to die in the first place? It wasn't me. But they caught me in my own net, and bound me with my son's entrails under serpents, all of them dripping onto me and eating away at my face, like my shoulders, burning and melting through and Sigyn brought a bowl, though she wasn't meant to, but I could only fill it so full, holding it up until it had to be emptied, you know. It was...everyone would come and ask me things. That was the cave.
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So I had a sprig of mistletoe forged into a proper arrow, a dart, and I meant to, well, prove. I mean, how silly, to make everything safe but that one thing, it's terribly poisonous at all, let alone the arrow, but I just. It was something impossible that I wanted to do. I like impossible things. I like...well, you know, I mean, it wasn't. I wanted to prove it wasn't. But I wanted it, I didn't want anyone to be in trouble for it, so I had it made by someone, but I made the idea, but I gave it to Hodr, who was blind, to shoot. So it would be no-one's fault, and it could just be a clever thing I'd done. Baldur would think it was clever too, you see? But Hodr shot and pierced his heart, and he died and it all went wrong.
[He stops and breathes a moment, and then sighs, deeply.] I wouldn't have wanted...I mean, I ran for it, I had to, and I think they tried to get him back and someone refused to weep for him. I wept for him. I don't know who didn't, why would they think it was me, I didn't want him to die in the first place? It wasn't me. But they caught me in my own net, and bound me with my son's entrails under serpents, all of them dripping onto me and eating away at my face, like my shoulders, burning and melting through and Sigyn brought a bowl, though she wasn't meant to, but I could only fill it so full, holding it up until it had to be emptied, you know. It was...everyone would come and ask me things. That was the cave.