There were apparently quite a few formalities. We finally dismounted, and servants led away Helgr’s horse.

 

They tried to take the steeds too, but neither were willing to leave, snorting at them instead. Thruor shrugged. “Let them watch – they are more intelligent than many men.”

 

The fire giants seemed to accept this. We moved to the lists, for want of a better term. I was not sure whether this was one of those cases where the challenged chose the weapons, or what the rules were.

 

I had a feeling this had not happened often. The challenge had to be upheld. There had to be grounds.

 

And now it would be decided. As Helgr’s second, I handed her her sword. Surtur drew his blade. Their eyes met and I moved back.

 

I knew this would not take long. Not between two such combatants. A memory. Watching Einherior spar, sometimes against each other, sometimes with Freya’s warriors in the mix.

 

Thor taking on six of them at once, laughing.

 

Accepted. But I knew, somehow, I could not go back. The prophecy stood as a barrier between me and that life. Whatever else I remembered, I did not recall or had never known what it said.

 

Likely had never known. Just that there was a prophecy and the future demanded that I learn.

 

Learn lessons I had to learn on Midgard.

 

Learn to love.

 

The child I had been had had no idea how to do that. Not too much like my father after all.

 

Too much the reverse of my mother. Understanding the commitment of love and fearing it, fearing it would tear me apart. Right, perhaps, for the daughter of chaos and fidelity.

 

I had learned to love.

 

I had learned to accept that it would tear me apart. That it was inevitable, that even if it lasted it would still tear you apart.

 

That was Sigyn’s lesson. That love was supposed to hurt, and the point was that it was also what put you back together.

 

With bits of the other person in the way you were. I glanced at Kanesha, watching safe from the sidelines. The necklace glinted at her throat.

 

Then I turned back to the fighters. It was about to begin, but they held back. A pregnant moment.

 

A moment in which I sensed the entire world was in the balance. If he won, then the fight continued.

 

If she did, then it was over.

 

Yet I still felt that threat, the fire rising and threatening to burn the realms, to explode as it met the ice of Jotunheim.

 

It felt now as if this was not the solution, but I could not stop it. Not now.

 

It was far too late for that.