Page 71 of North Is the Night
“Aina—listen to me now.” Her hands hold my face still, not letting me pull away. “We can stop this—all this pain and suffering, all this mindless death.Youcan stop this. But it’s your choice. It has to be your choice.”
“How?” I whisper, my trembling hands wrapping around her wrists.
“Tuonetar is overconfident,” she replies. “She believes she is untouchable. And she loves nothing more than a game. She’s like a cat, Aina, taunting her prey before she eats it, scaring it to death. She wanted to taunt Tuoni, to show him her power. He wanted a wife to share in his vision of a peaceful Tuonela, a true partner and queen, a helpmate, a friend.”
“I don’t understand—”
“Tuonetar imprisoned him with that promise,” Loviatar says over me. “Only his wife can set him free.”
I lean away from her touch. “Then... surely, only Tuonetar can set him free.”
The witch smirks, dropping her hands from my face. “Tuonetar is not his wife.”
My heart stops. “What?”
“They are not married.”
I don’t even realize I’m still shaking my head. “But my mother always said—”
“Has your mother divined the secrets of the dead? Has she crossed the veil in body or soul? Has she sat at our table and heard our stories from our own lips? Who is she, to know our natures?”
I’m unsure of how to respond. In the end, stories are all just stories, I suppose. This wouldn’t be the first time someone got the details wrong. “I’m sorry.” Reaching out, I take her hand. “I will listen. Loviatar, please tell me your story. Help me understand.”
She relaxes. “Tuoni and Tuonetar were made by the will of the All-Mother to fulfill a divine purpose here in death, as we all were. Tuoni was not made a king; he is a god. The title of king is a mortal appellation. But it turns out there is power in your mortal ideas.”
“Is he not your father, then? Is Tuonetar not your mother?”
“He is my father by choice only,” she explains. “He protects us and tends to us like his own children. In turn, we honor him as our father and our king... or we did.”
“What happened?”
“Tuonetar became obsessed with being queen,” she goes on. “At first it was enough to rule at his side, balancing his inclinations towards peace and mercy. But with her chaos came delusions of grandeur. She wanted to be queen without a king. She wanted all powers of death vested in her. She became impossible, intractable... until she had to be stopped. Tuoni was right to try.”
“But he failed.” I drop my hand from hers.
She nods. “He is broken, Aina, but not beaten. He will fight her, and he will win, but he cannot do it alone. She thought to mock him with her curse, binding him with the promise that only his wife can set him free—when he is not married and has no chance of marriage while bound.”
“And then she taunted him,” I whisper. “She brought girls from life into death only to kill them in front of him?”
“It is complicated,” she replies, her expression veiled. “But yes.”
I close my eyes, wincing against the pain of this truth. “All this time... all these girls... and she’s just tauntinghim. We mean nothing. Our lives, our families, all our hopes and dreams, taken from us to feed her need for pain. It’s too cruel.”
Loviatar grips my shoulders. “Then stop it. The maiden must come willingly, Aina. She mustchooseto marry him. She must choose to be his wife.”
“What?”
“Tuonetar believes no mortal would ever choose such a fate,” Loviatar explains. “Not if they only see this rotten nightmare, this world she’s created.”
I pull away. “No, I only ever wanted tofreehim. So that he would free us. If I marry him, I’ll be trapped here forever. She’ll kill me in the end—”
“No—”
“Yes,” I cry, “shewill. You know she will. She’s too powerful.”
“Tuoni would protect you.”
“As he’s protected you?” The words are spoken in haste, and I have no choice but to watch as her mask flickers, revealing her pain and rage.
