“What do you mean ‘entreat Fenrir?’” shouted Astveig in a voice that very much defied her title as librarian.  “You can’t reason with a wolf!”

 

“Fenrir spoke to me,” I said.  “I heard his voice in my head when he attacked me.  He speaks English, interestingly enough.”

 

“Well, you’re not bringing that dog in here!  It’ll chew the books! Some of these are older than the entirety of mortal history!”

 

“Really, is it even house trained?” Billie asked sarcastically.

 

“That’s not funny,” Cat said, crossing her arms and trying not to look Billie in the eyes.  She was still a bit emotional from earlier.

 

“Right,” Billie said sheepishly.  “Uh, sorry.”

 

Well, that was awkward.  “I believe Fenrir can be reasoned with,” I said, trying to bring the conversation back on track.  “I think he’s only working for Loki because he doesn’t know better. Asgard imprisoned him, and Loki set him free.  His father is the only person who’s ever shown him even an ounce of kindness. If we can show him a greater kindness, then we may have a shot of convincing him we’re not his enemies.”

 

“And how are we supposed to do that?” asked Arey.  “We can’t even find it.”

 

“I have an idea about that,” I answered, “but you’re not going to like it.  We know Fenrir is looking to capture me, preferably alone. My suggestion is that we use me as bait.”

 

Gasps could be heard around the room.  “That’s an enormous risk to take,” shouted Astveig.  “You could barely make more than a couple jumps on the training course!  How are you supposed to face down the Godwolf alone?”

 

She had a point.  “That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?  I need to train. I need to be stronger if I am to have any hope of surviving one on one with Fenrir.”

 

“Oh, wonderful.  Are you actually willing to stick around this time, or should I have one of those revolving doors you Midgardians seem so fond of installed?”  Astveig’s quip conjured a chuckle from Cat. It was good to hear her laugh again.

 

“No,” I said with a smile.  “I’m sure that portal device works just fine as one.”

 

“Well then,” said Billie, “I guess we’d better get to training, yes?”

 

****

 

“Ooh, how does that work?” asked the ever-curious Cat as soon as Astveig began to work her magic to create the training course.

 

“Huh?”  Astveig’s concentration was briefly broken by Cat’s question.  “Don’t distract me while I’m casting a spell.”

 

Cat took that as a sign to be quiet and immediately made a “zipping my lips” motion.  She then turned around and appeared to be staring at the backs of her hands. Astveig went back to casting her spell, and in a moment the training course was once again floating in the air like a mountain of platforms and posts.

 

I took my mark, preparing to make my first of several attempts at this all-too-absurdly video gamesque.  Arey lowered a flag, and I leapt for the first platform. I made it to the second platform and was on my way toward the third when I heard a “bang.”  I flinched, and fumbled my jump, plummeting a good thirty feet face first into the snow. As I dug my head out of the snow, I looked around for the source of the noise, and saw Cat smiling gleefully despite the fact that she had somehow gotten soot on her face and her hair was messed up.  It looked like a small explosion had gone off right in front of her.

 

“What the hell was THAT?” I asked.

 

“I did a magic!” came Cat’s excited response.

 

“By Surtur’s radiant balls, girl,” exclaimed Astveig.  “How much magical training have you had?”

 

“Absolutely none!” replied Cat with a grin so large you could see it from space.  Did Jötunheim have a “space?”

 

“How is that even possible?” Astveig wondered aloud.  “Then how did you do that?”

 

Cat giggled.  “I just imitated you.”

 

I looked at Cat incredulously.  “You mean you just did magic by watching Astveig?”

 

“How did you know to access the magical conduit?” asked Arey.

 

“The what now?” Cat replied, her face betraying her confusion.

 

“I think she means the button… thingy,” I offered.

 

Arey nodded.  “Yes, to put it into much more crude terminology.”

 

Cat just shrugged her shoulders.  “Iunno. I just did what Astveig was doing and played with it a bit.”

 

“In all my centuries,” said Astveig, “I’ve never heard of anyone simply figuring it out from watching someone else with no instruction whatsoever.”

 

“What, like it’s hard?” said Cat, doing her best impression of Elle Woods.

 

Astveig didn’t seem to get the reference.  “It’s unheard of! Here, I’m going to cast a basic spell.  Then I want you to mimic that to the best of your ability.”  Astveig brought up her conduit again, then moved her fingers to interact with it.  A small whirlwind spun some of the snow up off the ground. Then Cat moved her hands in a similar movement, and another whirlwind spun up.

 

“Astounding,” said Astveig.  “She must be a magic prodigy.  And a mortal, too! We live in strange times, indeed.”

 

“So,” said Arey, “What are we going to do about that?”

 

Astveig thought for a moment.  “Arey, do you think you could take over monitoring Chris’s progress?  This mortal needs training, and I think I’m the best one for that job.”

 

I spent the rest of that afternoon running the training course.  By the time the sun began to set, I had nearly managed to reach the top.  Meanwhile, Astveig took Cat into the Library to do… witchy things? I mean, I wasn’t actually there to see what they were up to, but I like to think it involved a cauldron, chanting, and Shakespeare.

 

****

 

“Hey, Chris, check this out!”

 

I sat at the dining table in the kitchenette, eating some sort of steak that Billie had prepared for dinner, when Cat accosted my ears with her excited greeting.

 

“Whoah,” I exclaimed, just about choking on the bite I’d taken.  “You startled me, Cat.” I took a moment to catch my breath before gesturing for her to continue.  “What are you so excited about?”

 

The smile on her face practically emitted actual light.  “Look!” She placed her hands in front of herself, moving her fingers, apparently working some magic.  After a moment, something began to form in the air between her fingers. It was solid and transparent, and it was perfectly crystalline in shape.  Then she stopped moving her fingers, and plucked the crystal out of the air, handing it to me. It was cool, but not icy. It was like a perfect ice crystal, except it wasn’t made of ice.  It had a slight greenish tinge to it.

 

“You can keep that,” she said.  “I even made it the color of your eyes!”

 

I was awestruck.  My friend and roommate was conjuring crystals out of thin air after only an afternoon of magic tutoring.

 

“It’s beautiful,” was all I could say.  And it truly was! I’d never seen such a perfectly clear crystal before.

 

Cat took the seat next to me.  “I’ve been thinking about what Agent Chandler said.  You know, about your documents and stuff?” Oh boy, here it comes.  “I think we need to give you a new name.”

 

“I was afraid you would say that,” I said, sighing audibly into my dinner.  “I’m not even sure why it scares me so much. After everything that’s happened, you’d think I’d be used to hanger at this point, but something about making things ‘official’ just seems so…”

 

“… Final?” Cat finished for me.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Well, what if we kept it close to your original name?”

 

I rolled my eyes.  “What, like ‘Christine?’  Isn’t that a bit cliché?”

 

“I was thinking something a little different,” she said, tapping the crystal she’d given me.

 

“Oh,” I said, realization dawning on me.

 

“I mean,” Cat went on, “it makes sense.  You’re a ‘frost giant’ now, after all. You look like you’d blend in if you ever went to Antarctica.  Not that you’d go wandering around in the snow butt naked.”

 

“Hey, I can do what I want!” I joked.

 

“What about a middle name?” Cat wondered aloud.

 

“I always liked ‘Louise,’” I said, finally leaning into the situation Cat had put me in.

 

“Ooh, I like that!”

 

And just like that, Crystal Louise Wilcox was born at a dinner table in a library, with gravy dripping off her chin.