What Am I?

"Where am I?!"

After being swallowed by the flames, Frigga found that she had not died and was completely unharmed. She was still wearing that pale blue gown, splendid and immaculate, without the slightest tear or speck of dust. Even the bun atop her head was not the least bit disheveled. It was as though none of what had just happened had ever occurred. But Frigga discovered that before her eyes... there was only darkness!

It was a silent space of absolute blackness, with only herself within it. She looked around blankly, then finally closed her eyes calmly. So this was the world after death?

Frigga now believed that she had died in those world-ending flames, and that this was the other realm every dead person would reach. As for why she had not fallen into eternal, unconscious slumber, she believed it was punishment for her.

Frigga slowly sat down, buried her head in her knees, and began to sob softly. She was not mourning her own death, nor was she grieving that she would never see her loved ones again.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, everyone. I was too useless." She was crying for her subjects. She had failed to fulfill her duty as royalty. Her subjects had entrusted their loyalty, their fates, even everything they had, to the royal family.

Yet the royal family had not only failed to bring them happiness, but in the end had even failed to shelter them. As Queen, she had enjoyed the reverence of her subjects every day, yet at the critical moment, though she had been right there, she could not even keep her people alive. She truly was useless!

Frigga remained immersed in self-reproach, endlessly punishing herself with that boundless pain. But her guilt and suffering were not merely punishing her.