Alert
It was late at night when Magnus heard the alarms coming from the Nine Realms Alert. He’d just been winding down after spending almost the entire day at the Watch. Of course, the alarms couldn’t have gone off when the entire team was there, that would have been too convenient. Despite their constant monitoring of the Nine Realms, things were always bound to happen when Magnus was off duty.
He bounded down the vast hallway, shoes slapping the polished marble, making his way to the Watch chambers. The guards at the Great Hall open the massive doors for him and was greeted by Brandt who kept up his pace with Magnus who began giving him the background as they made their way to the meeting room.
“What triggered it this time?” Magnus asked. “Niflheim? Jotunheim?”
Brandt shook his head. “Afraid it’s a bit more complicated than that...”
Magnus threw the subset doors open to the meeting room.
Canute, Gunhild, Sigurd, Fiske, and Astrid were all gathered, awash with grave expressions. The unfortunate lot of Odin’s children responsible for keeping the realms in check. Magnus being the most unfortunate one of them all—in charge of them all due to his cursed ability inherited straight from Odin himself.
“Midgard,” Gunhild said, her glowing dark skin now blanched as she adjusted something on a monitor.
“Midgard?” Magnus asked confused as he rolled his sleeves up to his elbow. “What could be happening in Midgard that’s so important to set off alarms?”
“Take a look for yourself,” she said motioning for her brother to view the happenings on the monitor.
He sidled over to Gunhild as she adjusted the volume. He cursed under his breath as he listened closely and saw the event taking place. A golden rooster was perched under the Yggdrasil within Asgard. It was crowing.
“Ragnarök begins,” Canute muttered.
Magnus glared but knew it wasn’t the fault of Canute, he hated anyone pointing out things that he already knew. Magnus was in control of everything—he had to make sure that everything was supposed to go according to tradition. If anything were to go off track, he, too, would go off track. Magnus was a vengeful warrior and god.
“Check with the Eye, Mags,” Astrid, ever the skeptic, intervened. Her scarlet hair braided into two plaits, making her look more favorable to her Valkyrie mother.
Magnus could feel his Eye twitch at the mention, but his irritation surmounted because it had been mentioned. The Eye begged him to be used and though his conscious didn’t want to access any vision from it, his instinct told him that he needed to use it. Sometimes he would have to use it to see answers. Sometimes the Eye would seek out answers on its own. Regardless, it always made him feel like he was in a jet, G force pressing him back in his seat.
Ragnarök was inevitable. The popular belief was that it was the end of all days brought on by a war between the gods. In actuality it was just the culling of the gods, creatures, and humanity that lived within the Nine Realms—a balance brought on by the universe righting itself once more. It happened every few hundreds of years or so; Magnus had been through too many to count. Magnus hated using the Eye and more importantly, he hated when things steered of course during Ragnarök. No matter how many they have been through, all were inevitable.
But Astrid was right: he needed to use the Eye.
Closing the black eye and allowing himself to see through the light blue one, he let the visions it brought overwhelm him and he sorted through the information it showed him. He let out a gasp and a painful grunt as he gave into the Eye. He fought for focus on only the events that mattered towards Ragnarök. Images flashed in his mind but only one mattered.
A young woman with hair the color of snow in sun was arranging flowers in a vase and handing them to a man in a store. Her smile was dimply and reached her pure blue eyes, the color of icebergs and the shape of almonds. They were framed with thick black eyelashes and complimented by an upturned, elven nose. Her skin was roses and cream—more roses at the moment from working in a warm environment. Her ears were a dead giveaway. She looked familiar.
“Daughter of Freyja,” Magnus grunted as he fell to his knees, awestruck at the sight of her. She looked almost exactly like Freyja, aside from her hair. But it wasn’t her beauty that made him feel like he needed to go to her. It was something else entirely. A pull came from within his chest, making his breath ragged and heartbeat gallop and skip. Something was wrong, something that lay within the girl in his vision. She had something to do with Ragnarök, but she was also part human. Demigods do not usually cause trouble in this world, nor are they usually something of importance. To the Greeks, maybe, but not to the Norse.
Another scene in his vision featured the same girl, but this time her eyes and skin glowed brightly as power overcame her. Fenrir sinking his fangs around the forearm of Odin. Jormungandr halting the world from turning. An image of her plump lips on a red and yellow apple. An image of Yaggdrasil with pink blossom petals floating around it, Hugin and Munin, Odin’s ravens, perched on its branches. Jormunandr moving around the world once more. The woman’s face in the throes of pleasure, her naked body covered in stems, roots and vines. Freya touching the world with her fingertip. Lush plants and forests covering landscape and growing at a fast pace.
Then the images stopped, and Magnus was able to see the present once more. He heaved and gasped as he fell on his palms. Astrid was by his side as he rolled to his back, struggling to catch his breath.
“Daughter of Freyja?” Sigurd repeated as he stroked his thick beard.
“Freyja birthed recently?” Fiske asked.
Gunhild nodded. As a daughter of Odin and Freyja, she knew about her mother’s comings and goings. “About 26 years ago she gave birth to a daughter. She wasn’t on our radar, seeing as she was only half human. Odin knows there are loads of those.”
Magnus slowed his breathing and sat up. “Why was she featured in your vision?” Brandt asked Magnus.
He shook his head. “No idea, but I need to find out.”
