The community center was pretty quiet. And this time I wasn’t the only white person in the room – there was a freckled redhead playing ping pong, badly, against a boy. Actually, they were both pretty bad at it, and neither seemed to particularly care.
I envied them for a moment. We sat at a quiet corner, and Kanesha slid me a can of coke. I popped it carefully. I trusted her, but that fairy might still be around and shaking cans was, after all, a classic. “So, what have you worked out?”
“I think Mr. Otter is the Norse god Loki.”
I spurted the drink I’d just started to swallow. “Oh. Joy. You’re serious.”
And then I remembered what I’d read. “Big Guy’s Thor. Which means…oh, how can I have been so dumb?”
“Thea. Thruor. A valkyrie. Which explains the other biker chicks that hang out with her. They run in packs.”
I let out a breath. “Crap. You know, in Wagner, doesn’t Odin get mad with a valkyrie and exile her to Earth?”
Brunhilde. That was her name. But it didn’t feel right and besides, that was Wagner.
“That’s Wagner. He was being romantic. With rings of power and all, although there is one. The ring that produces 9 other rings a day or whatever it is.” Kanesha shook her head. “Norse gods wandering around.”
“Ragnarok.” The word came out of my mouth before I thought about it.
“If Loki’s wandering around then he’s not tied up in a cave and if he’s not tied up in a cave, that supposedly means Ragnarok’s at hand and we’re all doomed.” She was actually turning slightly pale.
“Unless somebody talks him out of starting it.” I fixed my eyes on Kanesha. Or into it. Crap. “He likes me.”
“He does, doesn’t he.” She met my gaze. “That could be why you’re important. You might be able to talk him out of it.”
And if I got my memories back I might not. I couldn’t imagine myself being angry enough about anything to take the entire world down, but what if… I let out a breath. “This is probably more than I’m supposed to know.”
“Or it’s a house of cards,” Kanesha pointed out. “I mean, there’s no guarantee that I’m right or even remotely close to being right.”
“Castles in the air, but I don’t think so. It kinda fits. I need to go back to the library this weekend and read those myth books again.” I couldn’t remember half of what I’d read.
Who was I? The first thought was the Wagner thing. A valkyrie, exiled…possibly even exiled for liking Loki. “If he did escape, then how?”
“I don’t know that one.” Kanesha recovered some color. “Promise me you won’t help him start Ragnarok.”
“I…” I wasn’t sure I could make that promise. “I don’t want to, I know that, but what if there’s stuff going on we don’t know about?”
She closed her eyes. “I don’t want the world to end.”
“Neither do I.”