Billie and Arey sat in stunned silence in Crys and Cat’s living room after what they had just seen on the television screen.

“I feel compelled to reiterate,” Rick said, “that this footage is top secret, and no one is supposed to know about it.  Even showing it to you I’m taking a massive risk.”

Arey shook the disturbing imagery from her mind.  “Then why show it to us at all?”

“You saw what that was, didn’t you?” Rick said.  “It looked a lot like one of Crys’s constructs, except red!”  Rick massaged his temples with one hand. “Please tell me Crys hasn’t gone rogue or something.  You said she’s not here. Where is she?”

The coffee table growled in their minds.  “She’s in the Underworld, seeking an audience with my half sister, Hel.”  Fenrir’s “voice” implied they’d woken him from his nap, which he was taking in the most discreet form he could have chosen in this room.

Billie immediately took his feet off the table, realizing Fenrir probably wasn’t pleased to be supporting his heavy, black boots.  “This is bad,” he said with a sigh. “It’s not Crys, but in some ways it might be worse.”

Rick fixed him with squinted eyes.  “What do you mean?”

Billie stood and walked to the other end of the room.  “I don’t know who this person’s identity, but I suspect I know what they’re doing.”  He turned toward Rick and Arey. “Tell me: how much do you actually know about Yggdrasil?”

“The World Tree?”  Rick thought a moment.  “Just that it’s said to contain the nine realms.  I don’t think I could list them all off the top of my head at the moment, but I know we’re in Midgard, and Asgard and Jötunheim are in there as well.”

Billie nodded.  “What we often don’t talk about is that there are things older than the gods.  Things beyond which even the gods are capable of fully understanding. This cosmology encompasses ancient things that have existed since the dawn of the universe, and possibly even before that.

“There is an… entity.  To call it a ‘creature’ would be a stretch of the definition of that word.  I don’t even know exactly WHAT it is, but it seems to have some semblance of a mind and will of its own.  The Asgard called it ‘Nidhoggr.’ The Olympians knew it as ‘Echidna.’ Some today might simply refer to it as ‘Entropy.’  It is said to gnaw at the roots of the World Tree, and its blood can create hideous monsters.”

“And you think this person might be this… Nidhogg?” asked Rick.

Billie shook his head.  “No. Nidhoggr could never be here.  It’s so massive that simply being in close proximity would obliterate this entire planet.  Its blood, though…” Billie pondered a moment. “Crys has some of Nidhoggr’s blood. It was a key part of the betrothal ritual.”

Arey seemed to catch on to Billie’s line of thinking.  “Could someone have been trying to create another Bride?”

“No,” said Billie.  “The betrothal ritual is prophecy magic.  You can’t fulfil a prophecy that way multiple times.  But if someone drank the blood of Nidhoggr… they could become an avatar of it.  A vessel for the blood.”

Rick scratched his chin.  “So, you think we’re dealing with an avatar of Nidhoggr.  But who would do such a thing? And why?”

Billie shrugged.  “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Do you think it could be Loki?” asked Arey.

Billie scoffed.  “No, Loki would never be so foolish as to bind himself to Nidhoggr.  He has his own schemes, and Nidhoggr would be a threat to those. Loki isn’t above using Nidhoggr to further his own goals, though.  Whoever this avatar is, it would have to be someone Loki could manipulate.”

Rick stood from his seat on the couch.  “Right. I’ll let MAB know about this, and hopefully we can start putting together a profile to keep an eye out for.”  Rick mimed tipping his hat to his friends, and gave the coffee table a pat before taking his jacket off the coat rack and heading out the front door.