Every Villain is a Hero

Chapter Thirteen

Norse Proverb: The eyes of a maid, tell true, to whom her love she has given.

Chapter Thirteen

If possible, Lisa felt even more nervous about being on Asgard the second time, than when she was bonded with Loki. She had a feeling that her life was about to change in a very big way, and she didn’t like that idea one bit.

‘Try to relax,’ Loki told her as they approached the palace on horseback.

‘Good advice, considering that you don’t want to be here any more than I do.’

It was true, he had a sense of foreboding over his own fate, but he had faith that Thor would do everything he could to keep Lisa safe.

They dismounted and the warriors led them not to the throne room as expected, but to Frigga’s rooms.

“What is the meaning of this?” Thor asked his friends.

“Your father told us to bring you here,” Volstagg said, and the warriors took positions guarding the door, two either side.

Thor and Loki shared a look, then entered their mother’s rooms, Lisa practically being dragged in by Loki.

Odin, while still grand and powerful, looked more human as they entered. His back was to them as he perused the book shelves and his staff was missing.

“Come in,” he told them.

“Father, what are we doing here?” Thor asked.

Odin turned to them where they stood by the doors; he looked rather more haggard than Lisa remembered but then, she hadn’t been this close to him before.

“Sit.” Odin gestured to a cluster of chairs, where a jug and goblets had been laid out on the middle table. “We have much to discuss,” he said as he took a seat and filled four goblets with drink.

All three sat on the sofa opposite Odin and picked up the goblets that Odin handed them, although only Thor took a sip. Lisa was so nervous that she wasn’t sure she could keep anything down at the moment, while Loki was wary of poisons or drugs. Lisa tried to read Odin’s mind but she was unable to; he was as blank as a marble statue to her.

“As you know,” Odin began, “the universe is not eternal; there was a beginning and there will be an end.”

They listened closely, though they had no idea of his point.

“When I traded my eye for wisdom, I saw that not only is there an end, but that the universe repeats itself, on an endless cycle. The same events inevitably leading to the end of the universe time and again.”

“Father-”

Odin held a hand up to stop Thor. “All in good time, my son.” He sipped his drink. “Those Who Sit Above In Shadow showed me a giantess living in Iron Wood, Angrboða, who would give birth to three children, and those children would be pivotal in bringing about Ragnarok, the end of the universe. I searched for her, day and night, for centuries, but could find no trace of her. Then word reached me of a pregnancy in Jotunheim, with the child to be named Angrboða, and I sought to kill the mother, before the offspring could be born.”

Lisa recognised the name Angrboða, from when her mind was rebuilding itself.

“Frigga convinced me not to, for the child was surely innocent and undeserving of a death sentence. She convinced me to send the family to Midgard to live among mortals, reasoning that humanity’s influence might make Angrboða less predictable to Those Who Sit Above In Shadow, who manipulate events in each cycle to ensure that the Ragnarok occurs. I also hoped that it might teach her some humanity and that she in turn would pass that onto her children and possibly, their father.”