Having a rather exceptional memory had always been a good thing. Now Bragi hated it. Over the past few days there had been a few dark moments where Bragi had desperately wanted Thor to hit him over the head with Mjolnir to fix his brain. Stop it from looping with Nanna's last cry. Baldr's last laugh. The crackle of his brother burning. The very last sound. There was something terrible about the word 'last'. The final syllable required exiling your air.
Bragi could pick out almost any spot and remember the last thing Baldr said there. He didn't understand why Baldr couldn't say things there anymore. The bad memories haunted him constantly, and when they took a lunch break, the good ones came like a slap to the face and taunted him in the bad one's place.
Idun was terribly supportive, but the more supportive she became, the guiltier Bragi began to feel. He couldn't stand to stay in their hall. Sometimes the memory of Nanna would look up at him from the couch and smile while she ran her fingers through a much younger Forseti's hair. Nanna had loved her son. But she hadn't been able to take Baldr's loss, and in the end, that grief won her out. She and Baldr loved each other completely, and had left their only child a bunch of broken jagged 'hows' and 'whys' and a big empty hall of memories. Bragi and Idun loved each other completely.
Bragi had started to walk a lot more to take the edge off. It helped a little. As long as Bragi didn't dwell in anywhere, he wouldn't have to dwell on anything. In theory. It worked about as well as it helped. That night he had walked for hours. Along the dirt paths. The back roads that Baldr and Nanna didn't ever take. He'd somehow gotten close to the lake. After being paralyzed for a second, Bragi had turned away quickly. He began going up the hill when he saw Thor and Forseti ahead of him.
The line misery loves company hadn't been uttered yet. But that didn't make it any less true. And Bragi hadn't been checking up on his nephew as well as he should have. His words didn't help him. They became stale in Bragi's head before he said them. But they might comfort someone else. If he tried.
Bragi quickened his pace and caught up with them. “Is it too late to join you?” he asked.