Click. Click. Click.

“He is late…” I muttered to myself as I fidgeted with the rotating bezel of my smartwatch the sound of it just loud enough to echo faintly in the spiral stairwell I was sitting in. “It’s already past midnight, Jerry should be making his rounds…”

The door I came through was propped open while the old security guard was taking a smoke just around the corner. Something he really should not be doing, but thanks to him I could get in without tripping the alarms.

Now, you might be thinking, just where in the nine realms I might be. The short answer to that question is The British Museum. The longer answer is still The British Museum, but not as a tourist or part of the security crew. In fact, I'm not even meant to be here.

A few more agonisingly long minutes later, I could hear the door bellow open and shut followed by the sound of footfalls on the stairs leading down to the ground floor then another door opened, but not shut.

“That’s our cue, Silver,” I said to the white raven sitting on the railing next to me as I got up from the cold stairs. “Ready?” I asked, extending my arm to her to hop on.

When she was safely perched on my left shoulder, I reapplied the invisibility spell that had long since worn off from its first application when I first entered. Approaching the door with light steps, I saw that it was indeed propped open with stone just large enough to not let the door latch. I waited for the sound of a stronger gust of wind and shoved the door open resolution in a loud thud as it impacted against the side of the tower like protrusion on the corner of the building. I hopped over the railing on the other side to let the door slam shut.

“Shit! Not again!” The slightly overweight security guard cursed as he tried to open the door, but it so happened that my exit dislodged the rock holding the door open. “Why always me…”

Stifling a giggle I pulled my racer leather jacket a little tighter and walked across the ally and between the small 2 story auxiliary buildings, all the while hearing the security guard argue with his colleague over the radio, then stomping off somewhere.

“Silver, can you check which one is safe this time?” Without saying a word she took off, leaving me alone in the cold nook I was hiding in. “I swear Jtunheim doesn't get this cold…”

Breaking in turned out to be easier than I first thought. And since I have some magic I don't even need to hide in some bathroom, but it's not as simple as walking in the front or a back door either. No, what turned out to be the easiest way was to aim for one of three houses just on the south corner of Russell Square and go through those then hop the garden fence. One of the houses even had a shed with a ladder leaning on it. How thoughtful. Anyway, getting into the museum itself was a little more tricky but luckily I didn't have to do anything silly like climb to the roof to use a window like you’d see in a movie, because Jerry likes to take smoke breaks on every round he makes.

“Eris, it's the middle one. Everyone seems to be asleep.” Silver’s hushed voice broke me out of my thoughts.

Nodding, I took off my sling backpack, threw it over the fence and hoped it would land in the flower bush on the other side. Not hearing any shattering sound I made my way over the fence as well all the while cursing the anti-climb paint, but that was nothing a little magic couldn't solve later. After I was safely on the other side, with my bag slung over my shoulder again. Silver took off to check the street while I made my way to the back door, being glad that I only had to climb one fence on the way out.

Peaking through the window revealed a whole lot of darkness inside. Now all I had to do was open the lock with some magic. creep to the front door and wait for Silver to give me the all-clear. So I did just that but not before using some magic to clean my favourite leather gloves with a simple spell. Making sure to cover what I was doing I cast the two spells.

I had to drop my invisibility, to block the light my magic produces. The miniature aurora borealis is beautiful but it's really inconvenient when you are trying to be sneaky and I'm not a goddess so I can’t just use subtle magic like Mother can.

My hands cleaned, and the door unlocked I gently opened it and stepped through into what appeared to be a laundry room, then locked the door the regular old mundane way, making sure to not make too much noise and made my way to the front door.

Looking out the peephole I could see Silver perched on the little fence across the street, she was preening her feathers, meaning the coast was clear. I unlocked the door, stepped out gently pulled it shut and used some magic to lock it again.

As I made my way down the stairs Silver took flight and perched on my shoulder again and we started making our way through the park to the nearest tube station for the 40 minutes long ride home to Cockfosters.

By the time we crossed the park, I could not help but complain about the weather. “Why is it so cold, I swear it was warmer 2 hours ago…”

“No, it was not. You just spent one and a half hours inside a fairly warm museum, while it’s raining and the wind has picked up.” Silver answered my rhetorical question. “If you put on more than a skirt and some thigh highs you would not be cold.”

“I know, I know.” I sighed. “It doesn't matter, we are almost at the tube station anyway.”

And just as I said that a black luxury car pulled up in front of us, and the back window rolled down. I was just about the cuss out the occupant and accuse them of mistaking me for a hooker when he spoke up in an old raspy voice and a language I haven’t heard in a long time.

“Eris, Svipul!” He said in a cheerful tone. “Get in, the weather is not meant for walking tonight.”

The next thing I knew was that Silver took her human form, wearing faded blue jeans and a white knitted sweater and her long black hair draped over one shoulder. She was opening the door for me to get in. After a brief moment, I recovered from the unexpected surprise I got in and embraced the well-dressed old man in a warm hug.

“Grandfather! I had no idea you were in town!”

“That’s because I wasn’t.” As Silver took a seat across from us, he released me from the hug and waved his hand.

Golden light washed over both Silver and I and in an instant, we were both dry and warm.

“You know, I could have done that too,” I grumbled then flashed a beaming smile. “But thank you.”  

“You're welcome! When I saw you shivering, I could not help myself.” Saying that he tapped the shoulder of the driver and we took off down the road. “I’ll give you two a lift home.”

“How are you, and what are you here?” I asked.

“I happened to have business around these parts, and thought I might as well check in on you.” He said with a warm smile. “How is Freya’s gift holding up? I can see you are still just as beautiful as your mother was. She was a good friend, and we all miss her dearly”

I ignored the last part, rolled my eyes and said “I'm doing perfectly fine, thank you. And you asked that at least once every fifty years in the last millennia.”

That earned me some laughter, “Can't I dote on my favourite granddaughter?” then he leaned closer with a mischievous grin, and asked, “What have you been up to, keeping out of trouble?”

“I'm trying my best to keep her from getting herself into too much trouble, Allfather.” Silver answered before I could.

“Yeah, yeah. I did not get into trouble. I was just setting up a Mother’s Day present for Mother.”

He laughed at that and said “Knowing that old trickster, I'm sure he will appreciate it. But let's talk about you, what have you been up to lately?”

“I’m going to school again. This time I’m studying archaeology at the university just around the corner from where you picked us up. I love the teacher, she and her girlfriend maybe her wife, I'm not quite sure… anyway, she has been spending the last few summers touring the Mediterranean and often shows us pictures she took of ancient ruins. It's really fun and interesting to see just how much they got wrong.”

“Oh, I'm sure it's amusing.” He said with a smile. “If the tuition fee gets too much, just let me know.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that, i have it covered,” I said patting the backpack on my lap “and I won't even have to touch my savings this time.”

We chatted mostly about meaningless nothings until at around two in the morning, we pulled up in front of my house on the outskirts of London.

“We have arrived, Sir.” The driver spoke up for the first time in a crisp British accent.

“Thank you, Sebastian.” I thanked the driver, knowing full well that was not his name, but it was still funny to call him what you’d assume to be a butler’s name in some cheesy fantasy story. “Thank you for the ride, and it was nice to see you, Grandfather!” I said as I gave the old man another hug.

“It was nice to see you too Eris.” He said, returning the hug. “And Svipul, keep her safe for me.”

When I let go of the hug, Silver was kneeling, with her head down, her long black hair like a waterfall, obscuring her face, just outside the car “As you wish Allfather.”

We stood at the side of the road and watched as the car pulled away, then after it rounded the corner we turned to head inside. The house was not the biggest in the area, some people would say it’s straight-up small compared to most of the other houses, but it’s a 2-story, fairly modern brick house with an attached garage, and the tube station is just a short walk away.

After closing, and locking the door behind us, I kicked off my running shoes, dropped my backpack on the sofa, pulled off my gloves and hung up my favourite jacket. Then went straight to the kitchen to heat up some leftovers.

“Do you want anything, Silver?” I asked while rummaging through the fridge.

“No thank you. And you should not stay up too late, you have classes tomorrow.” she replied from her perch, where she was sitting in her white raven form again.

“I know,” I said as I set the time on the microwave. “I’ll just eat, take a shower and head to bed. And while the food heats up, we can check the loot.”

“You can do that tomorrow.”

“I know, but I’m waiting for the food anyway,” I said, as I picked up the bag and dumped the contents on the sofa and frowned when half of a frosted plastic capsule you’d see in one of those vending machines, rolled off the cousin and under the sofa.

“What the…” I muttered as I got on my knees to fish the thing out. “I don't remember grabbing this.”

Looking at the pile I could see the other half, but not whatever was once inside, so I stuck my hand inside the bag to feel around, and sure enough, out came one of those key chain plushies made of knit yarn, with a plastic key chain clip. It looked like a fox, with black fur and its green eyes almost sparkled.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Yes, yes, I'm coming.” I said and put the little fox on the coffee table.

After my late dinner and a quick shower, I was standing in front of the mirror in my bedroom, when Silver flew in the door and perched herself on the headboard of my bed.

“You know, you could have asked Allfather to fix that for you.”

“Nah, it's fine, I was just curious, about what Mom looked like,” I said as I studied my reflection in the mirror.

Currently, I had illusionary black fox ears and a tail. My Mom was a Fire Fox but unfortunately, all I inherited from her was her magic. Everything else came from my human father’s side unfortunately and I managed to lose the genetic lottery in that regard. Until Freya’s gift fixed those problems, along with the benefit of now being functionally immortal and not having to worry about injury or sickness.

“Eris, I’ve been meaning to ask” Silver broke me out of my thoughts, and I looked at the bird in the mirror. “Why Eris?”

“Why I chose that name?” She nodded, “At first I was thinking of Aurore but,” I said, turned to her as I dismissed the illusion, and it dissolved into waves of purple, green, and a hint of cyan of coloured lights. “I think that would have been a little too on the nose. That, and people say that I take after Mother and Grandfather, so Eris is kind of fitting too.”

“I see..” she said contemplatively.

“Silver…” I said as I set down on the bed close to her. “Has this been on your mind for the last eight hundred years?”

She just looked away, clearly blushing but you could not tell because of her feathers. “You should clean up downstairs, or the neighbours might call the authorities if they happen to look through the window.

“Odin’s beard!” I swore as I shot up, “I knew I forgot something!” and made my way downstairs.

A few minutes later with the loot packed away in a cupboard to be dealt with later, the only remaining thing on the coffee table was the fox plushie. Chin resting on my arm, in a thinking position, while I was wracking my brain to figure out where it could have come from.

While doing so, I picked it up to look at it up close again, and just asked it aloud without even thinking “Where did you come from you little fomx?”