You know, I never really believed in angels.  Despite being raised in an ostensibly Christian household, I was never really religious.  Angels were just an artistic depiction of someone’s idea of a divine entity. Your perspective probably shifts when you actually BECOME a divine entity, but I honestly haven’t had enough time to ponder it since being promoted from comic book sales schmuck to goddess of monsters.

 

And yet, here I was, staring at an honest to gods angel descending from the heavens.  My head was still ringing from the repeated blows - and very likely concussion - that Fenrir had given me, so I couldn’t really see straight, but I could see a woman in the sky, backed by white, feathery wings, and a gleaming, silver sword.  As she got closer, the double vision merged into one and I could see her more clearly. She looked a lot like Arey. I didn’t know jötnar could be angels.

 

She landed on the ground before me and brandished her sword at Fenrir.  She no longer had wings. Where did those go? That’s when I saw the others: riding white, winged horses, Billie, Astveig and Cat landed on the beach a few yards away.  Billie was singing something about a clarion call or some such nonsense. As they touched down and leapt of their horses, the horses flew off and then vanished into thin air.  Billie finished his song, then rushed over to me and helped me to my feet while Arey kept Fenrir busy.

 

“H-how…?” was all I could get out amidst my still-ringing skull.

 

“Cat portaled to us as soon as she was a safe distance away,” Billie told me.  “Astveig opened a portal back to where we were, and I summoned the pegasi to fly us here as quickly as possible.”

 

I tried to nod, but it just made my head hurt more.  I realized now was also probably not the time to point out that pegasus was from Greek mythology and not Norse.

 

“So,” roared Fenrir’s psychic voice, “your friends have come.  I suppose now you’ll want to kill or imprison me.”

 

“W-what?” I sputtered.  “No!” I broke out of Billie’s arms and stumbled over towards Fenrir.  “No, we are not here to imprison you again,” I said as I fell down into a sitting position before Fenrir.

 

Arey’s sword spun in a flourish, but gestured for her to stop.  “No more. We don’t want any more violence.” My words were slurred by the state of my head, but I spoke clearly.

 

Fenrir retreated a few steps.  “You would be fools to not kill me here,” he growled.

 

The dizziness I was experiencing hit a peak, and I couldn’t hold in the vomit any more.  One more to add to the messes we make on these beaches. “We don’t want to hurt you,” I said, wiping the strings of spittle off on my sleeve.  Ugh, I hope my super suit is machine washable. “My friends will protect me if I’m in danger, but if you wish to leave, we won’t stop you.”

 

Fenrir opened a portal, and slowly stepped toward it, keeping one eye on Arey.

 

“Are you sure about this, Crys?” asked Billie.

 

“Let him go,” I said.

 

“He could come back at any time and lay another trap for you,” he said.

 

“I’m counting on it,” I replied, as Fenrir stepped through the portal and disappeared.

 

****

 

Astveig opened a portal for me and Billie to get home through while Arey escorted Cat back to her car.  I lay down on the couch in our house, while Astveig worked some sort of minor healing magic on me, mostly to assess the damage.

 

“Well, you have a concussion, and a lot of internal bleeding, but thankfully no broken bones.”

 

“Well, that’s good,” I said to the stars swirling around my head.

 

Billie brought a mug of something in and set it down on the coffee table.  “You don’t have any proper tea,” he said, “so I had to make do with the peppermint tea you had in the cupboard.”

 

I pointed an accusing finger in the general direction of where one of the Billies was standing.  “I’ll have you know that peppermint is the MOST proper tea.” Billie stepped slightly towards his left to line himself up with my pointing finger.

 

Billie and Astveig shared a glance at each other, then both simultaneously said, “Sure, Jan.”  Oh, Astveig, not you too?

 

Astveig turned back to me.  “Just get some rest and take it easy.  I can do some magic to help you heal, but without more severe injuries, all my magic can do is speed things up a tiny bit.”  She sniffed the mug. “And get some decent tea,” she added.

 

I have the best friends ever.

 

****

 

I don’t know how long I slept for, but when I woke, Cat and Arey were there.

 

“No, see, it’s a game about having adventures in a fantasy world,” Cat said, flipping through her hard cover copy of the Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook.  “You make a character that you play as, and your friends make their characters. One other person takes the role of ‘Dungeon Master’ and controls the environment you play in.”

 

“Yes, but how do you WIN?” Arey asked.

 

Cat sighed in exasperation.  “It’s not that kind of game.”

 

“Hey…” I groaned.  My head was no longer ringing, and the double vision was gone, but I still felt like I had gone for a ride in a clothes dryer.

 

Cat placed her book down on the table and rushed over to sit beside me.  Arey followed, but remained standing.

 

“Hey there,” Cat said.  “How are you feeling?”

 

“I feel like I’ve been trampled by horses, and then elephants, and then horses again.”

 

Arey shook her head.  “That certainly doesn’t sound pleasant, but thankfully you’re alive.”

 

I shook my head.  Every turn of my head felt like a vice was tightening around it.  “Fenrir wasn’t trying to kill me. He was trying to take me alive.”

 

Cat hugged me gently.  “It sure doesn’t look like it from how badly bruised you are.”

 

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t making it easy on him.”

 

“All things considered,” said Arey, “You fought well for someone with almost no training.”

 

“Oh, and I think I discovered a new power,” I exclaimed, trying to make light of my condition.  “I summoned a huge troll beast to protect myself.”

 

Cat’s eyes went wide.  “No way!”

 

I nodded.  “Yes way! But I couldn’t sustain it, so it disappeared almost as quickly as I’d realized I’d done it.”

 

“Impressive,” said Arey.  “We’ll have to experiment with that and try to train that up as well.”

 

“Any sign of Fenrir yet?” I asked.

 

“None,” said Arey.  “I suspect he has fled to whatever den he has been hiding in.”

 

“Most likely,” I replied.  “By the way, where did you get that sword?  The one you were swinging when you rescued me?”

 

Arey shrugged.  “I had it stored away in the Library in case of emergencies.  That seemed like a worthy emergency.”

 

“Well,” I said, “you certainly seemed to know how to use it.  You trained with it much?”

 

“I had some of the best sword tutors among the Guardians of Yggdrasil,” she said.  “I even managed to teach Astveig a thing or two, though the sword was never her specialty.”

 

We carried on with Cat and Arey’s previous discussion of D&D, with me and Cat making a valiant but doomed attempt to explain tabletop roleplaying games to someone whose life up to now had basically been one run by the worst DM ever.  Before long, Astveig joined in the discussion, and I’m reasonably certain she understood the premise just fine but was intentionally playing dumb just to be frustrating. I’m starting to realize that Astveig is not as humorless as she seems, her humor is just very, VERY dry.

 

It was some time around sunset that Billie came in with the pizzas he’d promised to get us.

 

“Uh, so, there’s a motorcycle parked in the driveway,” he said, placing the pizzas on the kitchen counter.

 

“Oh no,” Cat muttered, as her eyes went as wide as an actual cat about to pounce.

 

I had a feeling this was coming.  I walked to the front door, opened it, then walked out to the front yard, everyone following my footsteps.

 

“Hello, Fenrir,” I said.

 

“Hello,” was Fenrir’s sheepish reply.

 

“I’d ask why you’re here, but I feel like I kinda already know.”

 

“I know what Father would do if I came back empty-handed,” he said.  “You were right. He only wants to use me. And yet, you set me free, even knowing I was still a threat.  Why?”

 

“Because I don’t want to be like Loki or the other gods,” I answered.  I made sure not to look Billie in the eye as I continued. “If I killed or imprisoned you, I’d be no better than them, and if that were the case, then I might as well give up the fight now.  I’d rather be dead than do what they’ve done.”

 

“I think I understand,” Fenrir’s psychic voice said with what is the closest thing to a psychic sigh that I could imagine.  “So… what do we do next?”

 

I shrugged.  “Do you like pizza?”