Twelve paces to the nearest door. Bragi could see it just past her. The skald had distracted him, then the dress had distracted him, but now all he had to do was walk around her and he could escape. He could go to the next town past the next town, and then keep going. He could walk until he touched ocean, and then he could swim. Bragi didn't know how she had found him. He wasn't even sure where he was exactly and the only person he'd seen with any sort of frequency over the last months was the same person that these skalds thought he was....and oh. Bragi knew he shouldn't have trusted himself.
It was alright though. All Bragi had to do was get out through that door behind her, before she could stop him. But her hand was on top of his. The one Bragi didn't use anymore, because he had broken it. Three months ago, he'd been right handed. Now he was left. Her hand had no business anywhere near Bragi's right hand. She had no business anywhere near him in a red dress with her hair over her shoulder in a way so beautiful that, once, it would have made him gasp. Not after he'd promised he'd go. Not after Bragi had already gone. He used his left hand to remove her hand from his right hand. He wasn't surprised about how much willpower this took. How not surprised about how hard it was to remove her hand was exactly the reason Bragi should be running out the door.
But he didn't run out the door. Bragi stood there. Paralyzed. He stood there, and he raised an eyebrow. She was asking him about....the play? The last thing Bragi had heard from that voice was 'I'm glad you'll be gone.' He'd heard it more times than she'd said it. Then after a few weeks, he'd stopped hearing anything in that voice at all. Now she was talking to him like during the past three months she'd joined the skalds. He was confused, and that shocked him. Bragi hadn't been confused about anything in the last two months. He'd forgotten what it was like.
“I found the time” Bragi said. He didn't add anything to that. If he wasn't so focused on being polite, his tone would have almost sounded curt. Bragi looked everywhere except in her eyes. She was the opposite of Medusa. If he looked in them, he might not be allowed to be stone any longer. Sometimes it was much worse to not be stone. He almost asked her if that was all, but then stopped. He didn't want to know if that was all. Bragi just wanted to make sure it was all. But his feet wouldn't move.