Needless to say I woke up horribly stiff. With Thruor checking on me.
“He got clean away, right?”
“He did. You did well, though.”
“Not well enough. I’m starting to think it is so much not my task that I should go do something else and let the rest of you try without me. Or…or just stay here.”
I was still exhausted. Not sure why I was quite so tired.
“That’s blood loss talking.”
I shook my head, “No, I was already thinking.”
“Shut up and drink this.”
She had, of all things, a thermos flask. It was full of some kind of heavy, meaty soup. Probably just what I needed right at that moment. So, I shut up and drank.
“Okay, so, Surtur is terrified of what he’s being asked to do to stop this. He’s going to redouble his efforts to cause the end,” Thruor said, finally, while I finished the soup.
“And everything I’ve done has made it worse.”
Except the one thing I had not done.
“No.”
“Say one thing that’s made it better.”
“Got rid of the demons.”
“Which were here because of me.” Maybe it was still blood loss talking. I felt pretty useless. A good fighter, and maybe more than that.
Just not doing the things that needed to be done in the right way. “Where did he go?”
“He camped in the foothills. At least he has to find his horse.”
I laughed. “Then maybe we still have a chance.”
But with what weapon? What we needed, I thought, was something more sophisticated. Mike’s magic gun wouldn’t do it.
Well, maybe it would, but he had never been a sniper.
“To do what?”
“Give him no choice but to come back up here on his own,” I said grimly.
“He’s never going to do that.”
“He is if he thinks it will change the outcome. If he thinks I have found a way to save Muspelheim without having to reset the cycle and without him dying.”
I was not sure how to achieve it, but I knew who would be.
That person was not here. So, I had to come up with the answer myself.
Still, when all else has failed, it’s often worth asking yourself exactly what Loki would do.