Meanwhile in Midgard...

It was almost ten o'clock in the morning and Elizabeth knew that she shouldn't be late to this reading, especially after over three weeks of absence.  She had been in hospital with pneumonia, was very poorly and at some point the doctors even thought that she wouldn't make it.

She didn't remember much from the time in hospital, her fever had taken the better of her and caused her to see things that weren't there. The feverish dreams had been disturbing. She didn't even recognise her own parents when she woke up from a deep, two day sleep. Now she had loads to catch up on.

She approached the library and cursed when she had to rush past it rather than to go inside and borrow some books she needed for her group project. She had planned to sort this before her lessons because she wouldn't have the time afterwards thanks to a check-up appointment at the hospital.

Here illness came at the worst possible moment. The first group project was already underway and she would have to work twice as hard as her fellow students to get the results her parents expected.

Whose idea was it to study law? Legal systems, laws of obligations, Constitutional law...all this would have probably been very interesting for someone who was...interested. Especially now, after a three week break, it slowly started to sink in that she had chosen the possibly most boring and least suitable subject for her. In retrospective, she hadn't really chosen it in the first place. It was a case of her parents preaching and whispering in her ear whenever they had the chance, mentioning on countless occasions how little money scientist make on the whole and how unpredictable her life would be if she was to study a science.

She dreamed of studying neuroscience and becoming a researcher of the brain, learning and discovering what is still undiscovered, understanding why we are who we are. The picture her mum painted of her potential life studying the human psyche was bleak indeed. Partying her way through her university years with all of her alternative weirdo friends, joining philosophical discussion groups, smoking recreational drugs, living forever in a house share that smells of dirty laundry and opium sticks....and it didn't get any better from there.

Elizabeth wasn't sure whether she was weak having given in so easily or whether she secretly believed her parent's opinion of how her life should be. Stable. Successful. Traditional. The best way of achieving exactly that was to study something "solid" as her parents liked to call it, so she went along with it. They would have been happy with economics or finance, so they said, but law seemed a little more exciting. She applied for a prestigious university in London and got accepted.

During the past three month she had learned to appreciate the beautiful grounds in which the university was set. The heart of London and yet so green with lovely kept parks surrounding the facilities including one of the biggest libraries in the city. The buildings themselves were full of charm and history and ghost stories. Elizabeth loved that.

She felt very much part of the campus but sometimes wished she'd stay together with the majority of her fellow students in the student accommodations. She envied their sense of community. Being flatmates had bonded them. Shared bedrooms and 1 bathroom for the whole corridor didn't sound very appealing at the beginning but now she imagined the sense of freedom, of student life it must evoke.

Her apartment wasn't far from University at all, but her lifestyle as different as could be. Her parents rented a luxury 2 bed flat for her including own Juliette balcony. It was beautiful but also a bit lonely. Those thoughts made Elizabeth feel bad and ungrateful. She didn't want to be the rich girl moaning about how well off she was so she tried to invite friends over as often as she could, hosted dvd nights and get-togethers . She was very fortunate.

Hot from rushing she made it to the hall 15 minutes late. Her attempt to silently slip in failed and many heads turned around to see who dared to be late for this highly anticipated reading. Dr Peter Haywood, an expert in his field, was a guest speaker from America. Elizabeth looked around to find a space, there seemed to be nowhere for her to sit but a voice quietly called from the left block "Pssst, Lizzy, over here!"

"Oh hi!" she whispered and started to squeeze past several students to take a space next to the dark haired girl.

"You are late Liz, one would have thought you slept enough in the past few weeks."

"Very funny, but not everyone can be Diana Banks, prime example student beloved by all the Professors and destined to become the next Lord Chief Justice of England."

"You're a cow" Diana laughed quietly. Both girls giggled. A bit too loud as heads turned again and even Dr Haywood looked up this time.

"Would you like to share the source of your amusement with us?" his voice monotone, almost bored.

"Apologies, we didn't mean to disrupt. We will be quiet now" said Lizzy, looking apologetic. Then she sat quietly, her face resting in the palms of her hand, trying to concentrate on Haywood's words echoing through the hall, amplified by the microphone on his desk.

Elizabeth's brain felt like scrambled egg, nothing made sense and her eyelids grew heavy. The professor's voice was sleep-inducing, she thought. Looking around, the majority of the other students appeared to feel the same but Diana was bright eyed and eagerly taking notes.

Then the light in the room changed. Suddenly it was darker in the blocks where the students were seated, the stage with the guest speaker gleamed in a red light. There was a strange humming. A vibration. Feeling much more awake in an instant, Lizzy looked to her right but her friend didn't seem to have noticed the change. Neither did the other students. They were still starring glassy eyed at the guest speaker, reading out changes in the legislation of human rights in the past century. The humming grew louder and then, out of nowhere, a dozen tall, broad-shouldered masked figures appeared. What on earth was going on? Lizzy was frozen with fear. The men were dressed like ancient warriors in leathers and fur. One walked up the steps and into her direction. Everything started to spin, Lizzy felt dizzy. Dr Haywood still read out facts from his area of expertise. The warrior had almost reached the row she was sitting in. "What is this, what on earth is happening?" the words kept racing through her head. Now level to her row of seats, the warrior took a leap in a nonhuman like way and landed heavy on the table right in front of her. He was huge and the table slim, but he managed to balance with a grace he shouldn't really have considering his body size. As he stretched out his arm and reached for Lizzy's throat she screamed. She screamed like never before. A scream able to penetrate the bones and mark of everyone around her. She screamed and screamed and then words came to her from a distance.

"Lizzy, please, Liz it's okay. You are okay. I'm here."

She knew the voice. It felt familiar.

"Liz wake up. Please."

Diana's voice, a hand on her back.

"It was a dream Lizzy, only a dream."

She opened her eyes. The hall looked normal. No darkness, no blood red lights on the stage. No warriors.

"I'm sorry" she said, confused. Dr Haywood had come upstairs, together with one of the teachers from the course, Mrs Brooker, who sat in the front row to hear the reading.

"Miss Hazelmere, are you okay?" Mrs Brooker asked.

"I'm fine...I think. I fell asleep."

"Miss Banks, would you please accompany your friend to the student café and get her some water...or coffee perhaps."

Diane only nodded and nudged Lizzy. Together they left the hall with confused and startled stares on their backs.

...

"What happened?" Diana looked at Lizzy.

"It was a dream. Something felt strange. I don't know, it was the light and the sounds....it felt like...not out of this world. Then men appeared and they were wearing masks made of animal skulls and strange uniforms. I'd say they were warriors. Ancient ones. It was horrible. One of them tried to get me."

Lizzy looked sad and frustrated. She had similar nightmares and worse when she was laying in hospital with high fever. In some dreams, the doctors turned into demons and instead of medicine they would give her poison. Sometimes it wasn't the nurses, but her own parents who came to visit. She clearly wasn't over it. Her body was weakened and going back to University today might have been premature. But she had to come back as soon as possible. Every day she missed was lost time and lost time would result in worse grades. She couldn't fail. She didn't want to disappoint her parents and waste their money. The fees for law school were hefty, never mind accommodation in London and the cost of living in general. She was fortunate enough not having to take out loans like most of her peers, even though she wouldn't have minded it. It might have been better actually and taken some pressure of her. At least she would be wasting her own money now.

"Dreams are only that, dreams, Liz. You need to rest. Your body is clearly telling you that you are not ready yet."

Liz rolled her eyes, sight but had to agree.

"Yes Miss, I'll go grab some lunch and then head to the hospital. They want to take my blood again. You should go back to this thriller of a reading. I don't understand why everyone was so excited to her this sleeping pill talk."

"He's an expert and renowned for his work." Diana said with her typical serious, dutiful voice "...but I have to agree, he could make use of his vocal chords a bit more."

Both smiled and Diana hugged her.

"I'm glad you're back Lizzy. I was so worried. Take it easy, okay?"

"Sure. Enjoy the rest of the lesson. You should hurry anyway, or else you might have to ask Reece for the notes."

Both laughed and with a wink Elizabeth left.