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“It’s just not fair.It wasneverfair.And I don’t give a good, great Goddess be damned what all the assholes say,somethingin my very long life should be fair.It should.It really should, and I’m gonna make it that way come hell or high water.Hel is just as much a freak as we are, and don’t even get me started on our brothers.We’re a merry band of fuckin’ freaks!That’s what happens when you fuck with the laws of nature.Not even our asshole sperm donor, the almighty Trickster god, could escape cosmic justice.So, why are we the ones who had to pay the price for his inability to keep his dick in his pants?Huh?Huh, Tveir?Tell me why!”

But her twin couldn’t answer through the gag Einn had Magically shoved back into her mouth when Tveir had questioned her judgement in taunting Hel.Even better, Einn didn’t care.Life was infinitely better when her twin couldn’t answer, couldn’t comment, couldn’t be overbearing, demanding, and pretty much the biggest pain the ass to ever draw breath.

Throwing her hands in the air, she shook her fists while spinning on her toes, changing directions before she smacked headlong into the farthest stone wall, and continued to rant.“I mean, she’s half dead and half alive.What the fuck is that?She looks like a gods be damned rotting corpse on the left side of her body and a fuckin’ storybook princess on the right.”Coming to a screeching halt, she snapped to the left, marched toward Tveir’s cage and stopped exactly five feet from the Black Iron bars.

Seething, breath hissing in and out through her gritted teeth, spittle flew in every direction while her jaw was clenched so tightly that the bones cracked and popped, but she had to rant.She had to rave.She had to get it all out to be ready and able to carry out the final steps of what she was calling her Grand Plan of Justice.

Leaning as close to the Black Iron bars as she could without melting the flesh from her face, she looked directly into her sister’s cold, black eyes.Shaking with unspent fury, pushing every hard fought syllable through her gritted teeth, she sneered, “Tell me that’s not as freaky as a frog’s ass.Tell me whyshegets a godhead, a crown, a Magical cape, and her own Realm.Tell me whyshegets to sit on the Norse Pantheon with all those other fuckin’ assholes, and we’re stuck here!”

Another step closer, the caustic scald of the bars making her sullen cheeks burn and her bulbous eyes water, Einn barely felt anything as her resentment fed the hatred that had been simmering for centuries deep within her soul.“We’re older.We’re smarter.We’re infinitely stronger.And there’s two of us!What the fuck is wrong with the world, with our father, with the fucking Omnipotent Beings Fate and Destiny?Aren’t they supposed to be taking care of shit like this?Don’t they make sure everyone gets a fair shake and the life they deserve.There’s no fucking waythisis what we deserve.No…”

Throwing her arms open wide, she did one complete revolution to the right.Stopping with her right hand in the air along with her left foot.“Fucking…”

Switching arms and which foot was on the floor, she spun to the left.“Way!”

Stopping so quickly that her egg-shaped torso went one way, her head with the other and enough of her dry, brittle, carrot-colored hair flew through the air that she could’ve filled three throw pillows, a couch cushion, and a child’s ragdoll, she was forced to drop her right foot to the floor to stay upright.But none of that stopped Einn.She wouldn’t have cared if she lost all her hair, her nails fell out, and her clothes evaporated into thin air.She was done being ignored.She’d had enough of empty promises.She refused to spend one more unnecessary second locked away from a world she’d only experienced through stolen glances and Magical trips to Earth that she was forced to keep hidden from her father.

Einn was going to say her peace.She was going to rid herself of the bad juju, the bad feelings, the last pangs of devotion she felt to a father she only saw twice a year and do what had to be done.But first she had to ask, “Aren’t we do some of the Cosmic Justice, T?Aren’t we?”

Slamming her hands against the bars, ignoring the caustic burn and acrid scent of burning flesh, she roared, “Damn right we are!But where is it?Huh?Where is it, dear sister?I’ll tell you where it is.It’s nowhere!That’s where the fuck it is!Nowhere!Nowhere!No-fucking-where because Daddy Fucking Dearest made sure we never got anything that should have been ours.No one even knows we exist except, well, I suppose out mother because we’ll she gave birth to us!But don’t even get me started about that!Who the hell is she?Where has she been all these centuries?Who fucking cares?She’s not here.Not fucking here.And that’s what matters.So, let me be crystal fucking clear, the fucking buck stops right here, right now!Just you wait and see, T!Just you fucking wait and see!I’m done playing Miss Nice Einn.It’s time for some Twin Justice, and I’mma gonna get it for both of us!”

Not waiting for even a nod of her twin’s head, Einn did an abrupt about face and stalked to the smaller counter on the right side of their workshop.Grabbing the handle of the middle drawer with more force than intended or needed, she ended up juggling the wooden box without a lid to keep from dumping her most precious treasures all over the floor.

“Son of a two-headed oxen’s backside, why the hell does this always happen?”

“Because you refuse to take your time and do things right the first time,”Tveir’s nauseating, nasal, uppity and antagonistic voice slashed through her mind.“How many times have I…?”

“Shut.The.Fuck.Up.”With echoes of the last bellowed word still reverberating off the stone walls of the workshop of the home their father had built for them when he dumped them in a hole in Time and Space, Einn threw her right hand over her head, launched a popping, crackling, and spewing ball of Magic at her sister, and added, “Ahhh, blessed silence.”Looking over her shoulder, she cut her eyes to the left as far as she could and snickered, “And just try to get out of that one, T.Just try.I double dog dare you, ‘cause you can’t.I’ve been workin’ on that little doozey of a curse for three years.There’s no counter curse, no antidote, and no way out unlessIlift it, and I’m not likely to do that until I’m bootscootin’ through Time and Space.”

Loving the look of betrayal and failure on her sister’s face, Einn started to hum as she turned her attention to the mess on the floor.As soon as everything was back in its place, the drawer was returned to the tracks, and stowed away where it was supposed to be, she picked up both Rainbow Stones, hers and T’s, and set them side-by-side on the digital scale.

The vibrant play of color–every hue of purple, blue, green, yellow, pink, red and orange imaginable–diffused through a single perfect crack down the center and created an immaculate rainbow.There was only one place in the world the stones were created in nature, and that was Asgard, the place of Einn and Tveir’s birth, the place their father called home, the one place in all the universe Einn wanted to go.

“And I will,” she vowed.“Just as soon as I fill this stone…” She took the largest off the scale and held it tight in her left hand.“…with the true, undying love Daddy’s favorite little princess feels for her One True Mate, and then I will fill this one…” Taking the other stone in her right hand, she squeezed until the points of the flawless facets dung into her flesh.“…with the heartbreaking anguish pouring from that useless Omnipotent Being known as Hope’s broken, shattered, decimated heart after he’s watched the only woman he will ever love lay dying on the white sands of that stupid fucking island.”

Slamming the sides of her closed fists together, she stared into the brilliant kaleidoscope of color and sneered maniacally, “And then I will combine the stones with the sheer Force of the soul-crushing sorrow and devastating defeat of each and every one of those Amazonian Dragon freaks as they die by my hand.I will create the largest, most powerful Rainbow Stone in existence and then I will crush everyone who ignored me, acted like I didn’t exist, forgot about me, and left me for dead.”

Slowly stalking to the farthest corner of the room, she turned, snapped her gaze to the left and stared into the terror emanating from Tveir’s eyes.Laying the palm of her right hand on the cold, damp stone wall, she whispered, “Opna.”Then repeated the Old Norse word in English, “Open.”

The rough, raw scratch of rock sliding across rock filled the chamber.So excited that goosebumps jumped to life, danced up and down her sallow, gray arms and legs and a single drop of sweat rolled down her crooked spine, she refused to look away from her twin.

Reveling in the feel of the snide smile spreading across her face, she slowly nodded, “Yeah, that’s right.I got secrets hidden all over the damn place.”

Waiting until Tveir finally blinked, Einn slowly turned first her head then her whole body until she was poised at the entrance of what she called her War Room.One foot in front of the other, a shiver shook her ample frame as she stepped through the Mystical security veil and entered her inner sanctum.

Without so much as a glance to either side, she headed straight for the gigantic, stainless-steel workstation she’d appropriated from some unknowing, dim-witted human during the last trip to Earth.Leaning forward, she held her breath as the twinkling red like scanned both her irises.Once the bell chimed three times, she stepped onto the platform, pulled out the lime green and black chair she’d swiped from yet another inhabitant of the third planet from the Sun and placed her plump patootie on the cushion.

Pushing an intricate series of buttons, turning explicitly placed knobs, and flipping four switches in perfect sequence, her hands were poised over the tabletop as the panel before her slid open and out skated a large silver box.Placing her the thumb of her left hand and the pinky finger of the right onto the appropriate touchpads, she smiled brightly when the Twinometer 5.0 came into view.

Shiny and new, untouched by anyone’s hands but her own, Einn was so giddy with excitement that her hands shook as the tips of her fingers skimmed the tungsten barrel.Designed to loosely resemble her favorite hero from Earth television, Dirty Harry, the Twinometer 5.0 was a marvel of design and ingenuity if she did say so herself.

“And I do,” she giggled.“I really do.I outdid myself, and I tricked my arrogant, asshat of a twin at the same time.”

Wrapping her crooked, sinuous fingers around the flaming red polymer grip, her swollen, knobby knuckles popped and cracked, and her palm tingled as the Sorcery she’d poured into every molecule of her creation registered her as the one and only creator, owner, and user.Ever so gently lifting the Twinometer 5.0 from its velvet lined cradle, she spun the chair to the left, extended her arm and took aim.

Closing her right eye, she looked through the laser sight and targeted a tiny Scrub scurrying toward a crack in the wall.Pretending to pull the trigger, she imagined the kick and resulting tremors that would soon ignite the muscles in her arm and shoulder.

Out of the chair and on her feet, she let the Twinometer 5.0 slowly lower to her side as she marched to the opposite wall.Once again placing her palm on the wall, she waited until the safe she’d installed only six months before clicked opened before reaching inside and retrieving an intricately etched white ash box.