Greta Halvard

Greta Halvard lived in a cathedral cut from a glacier, and people climbed for weeks to see her. Through the clear ice of her chest you could watch her heart beat, slow and red.

She was the most beautiful thing any of them had seen, and she offered each visitor the same gift: one kiss, and they would never age, never sicken, never lose their looks. Most said yes. They are still there, standing in her halls in the poses they held when she kissed them, perfect and frozen and turned toward her.

A widow once climbed the glacier to ask for her husband back. Greta told her he was happy. The widow asked how she could know. Greta said that nobody in her court had ever complained.