I was visiting Alice in the north, possibly we were in Finland, but certainly we were high up in the Arctic Circle. And I was considering to move there to be with her but Dee was also there.
They shared adjacent apartments in the same building.
Dee had moved there a short time before my arrival but had already collected items from the local hunters which she stored in her apartment on the second floor.
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They had a dark, sacred feel.
There were some runes, antler felt covered sticks in the shape of the alphabet, some of which were laid out on a blue and white animal skin that covered a wooden couch . And the runes had been pulled from a muslin cloth bag which contained the rest of the letters. The selection provided the mood for the day.
There were other items too, that Dee had collected from the mysterious hunters. They included a heavy wooden chest, varnished orange brown oak, on top of which was a large piece of dark grey splintered wood. The remnant had been extracted from the sea. I picked it up with both hands, to examine it closely, and etched in the wood was an inscription in a foreign language.
“You must be careful of these things,” Dee told me, ”…and never take them away.”
I held the chosen runes carefully and took a closer look. And when it came time to go, I put the runes back in the bag and was about to follow Dee out of the apartment when I thought to bring the bag with me.
We descended the steps out until we were on the ground floor. The front entrance was lit with a watery light. I looked at through the door and suddenly thought it would be a bad omen to take the bag, as she had said.
I told her to wait up and I leapt back up the stairs, two steps at a time, to her apartment, to return the bag and place it back on the couch.
Photo via RawPixel
