The energy was still high as we reached the overlook of the plains.

 

Things were different from the way we had left them. The dwarves had managed to block the entrances, and there were mages, working on new ones. I sensed they were also trying to get to Jotunheim.

 

On the interface, ice and fire would meet and fight as they had in small skirmishes for thousands of years and always would.

 

They could be friends, even lovers, but we were meant to be opposed. I wanted to apologize to Angrboda.

 

Then I knew she had known all along. She was not a fool and she was absolutely a mother. A mother to monsters, but a mother nonetheless.

 

I thought of Skadi, frost giant and goddess. I thought, oddly, of her relationship with and separation from Njord.

 

She knew about loss. She also knew about relationships that were doomed from the start.

 

Yet, she had not loved him. She might have mourned a might-have-been, but she did not mourn a love that still shone in her heart even though it could not be.

 

Well.

 

I had been warned. “They’re…”

 

“Working on Jotunheim. I can tell. But not trying Asgard yet. Once they open something there…”

 

“Please tell me the one I sensed was you.”

 

“Of course.”
Which meant he’d left Kanesha where?

 

“You left her with my mother,” I mock-accused.

 

A grin. “Maybe I did.”

 

That was actually scary. Or would be if I thought I would see her again. But… “Loki. Who’s task is it to kill him?”

 

“I can’t tell you that.”

 

“Be…be careful.” I thought he was evading because he had decided to do it himself, to turn on one who had, I knew, been a long term friend.

 

“Who, me?”

 

“You, trickster.”

 

A laugh. “You are the one who needs to be careful.”

 

“I know, although if the barriers are down far enough…”

 

“…then it stops mattering.”

 

“So, you be careful.” I grinned at him, albeit weakly, then turned my face towards the army.

 

“Wonder how many of them we can get to mutiny,” he mused.

 

“A lot of them are conscripts.” I smiled. “Let’s give it a try.”