Then I did detect a fire giant. I turned. Tall redhead. Smirking.

 

“Enjoying your handiwork?” I told him. Maybe I could get the cops to harass him, cause him trouble.

 

“Your handiwork. Not mine.”

 

I felt my lips twist a little. “Nobody is responsible for the actions of their enemies.”

 

“You can stop this any time you want.”

 

Not Surtur, no. Obviously somebody he trusted. “No, actually, I can’t. I know what your boss wants. I know what would happen if he got it.”

 

Ultimately, him setting fires here was less damage, less destruction than if I gave in. Ultimately, I knew I really was not responsible.

 

But I felt it, I could not help that. I could not change that. All I could do was hold firm and hope I came up with an answer.

 

“Suit yourself.”

 

A pause. “You know, there might be another way to solve Muspelheim’s problems.”

 

He turned. “If Surtur can’t come up with one, who can?”

 

He had a point on that. “Think about it. Surtur might be too close to the problem.”

 

“The next fire will be in two days,” was all he said before walking away.

 

And nothing to go to the police with even if doing so wouldn’t get him to change his target to a police station.

 

I thought of attacking him, but there had been enough destruction here. I’d catch him. Somewhere with a bit more space, somewhere less flammable.

 

Maybe he would even think a little bit about what I said. Surtur was too close to the problem.

 

Heck, I was probably too close to the problem at this point.

 

Bring more fire to Muspelheim, but from where? Hell was tainted…and damaging the balance of Hell might let more demons out.

 

It wasn’t like I could go catch an actual star that nobody was using and move it, I thought wryly. There had to be stars nobody was using, of course. They couldn’t all have planetary systems with life in them.

 

It was a silly and completely impossible idea and I tossed it away.

 

Fire was water in Muspelheim. Wasn’t exactly anywhere with a huge surplus of water, either.

 

Energy.

 

It was all about energy and wasting it. Who would know a lot about energy? Not Father Will, of course.

 

Witches? Maybe. They certainly knew more about magic than I did.