You're My Idiot (Blitzstone)

4. Hearth Can't Recognize Flirting, Apparently

Hearth POV

My senses were immediately assaulted with the strong scent of deep fried food and garlic, and the blinking of many multicolored lights. I suppressed the urge to gag and instead pulled my scarf up my face a bit.

A woman with long caramel-colored hair stood at the black counter. Her name tag read Alice. Blitz greeted her and asked to see her boss. Her face remained unchanged, then Blitz provided the poker chip. She smiled and signed, Follow me. A knot of tension that I hadn't realized had been forming in my chest loosened. Blitz had raised his eyebrows slightly but nodded contentedly. Alice led us through a door that said Employees Only, hopefully to not murder us. Tall and muscular as she was, I didn't doubt her ability to toss us around like rag dolls.

I somehow ended up walking next to Alice, who spoke and signed at the same time, with graceful and fluid motions. "I'll translate for you," she reassured me, winking. I just thanked her. I knew that Mimir could understand me, but I couldn't understand what he was saying easily. When I had been at his well I had understood him only due to the ancient magic the well possessed.

There was something about the way Alice walked that was familiar, graceful but with purpose, straight and elegant posture, like she was gliding across the floor rather than walking.

We passed by numerous doors down a long hallway, finally coming to a stop in front of a seemingly insignificant door on the left side of the hallway. Alice then swiped the poker chip through a card reader, and the door opened before us. Electricity ran through my veins. This was it, the final stop before we were let loose into the unknown.

The room was about the size of a bar room, dotted with small round tables with stools and armchairs, the occasional couch. Against the far right wall, atop a platform, stood a huge ivory bath tub, gilded in gold. Next to the tub, and all around the perimeter of the room, stood arcade games. Pachinko machines, pinball, pac-man, you name it.

Floating atop the water of the grand tub was our good friend Mimir, who was so still he looked like, well, a severed head. I glanced at Blitz, who took a deep breath and glanced back, a small smile gracing his features. Together, we stood before Lord Mimir in all his bubble bath glory.

Alice stood the closest to the platform, still signing as she spoke. "My lord, your clients are here." I resisted the urge to laugh or roll my eyes, or both. I really hoped we weren't expected to call the boss lord. Is that what they called us, clients? I guessed it was accurate enough.

At first, Mimir didn't move at all, and I thought maybe he had drowned in his bathtub or something, if that was even possible. But then the Capo coughed up a few bubbles and blinked a few times. I looked to Alice for what he was saying, but zoned out a bit as he talked about his pachinko business and blah blah blah. Then he got serious.

"Now, as you read in the letter, the demigod you must look after is named Magnus Chase. Fourteen years old, blond, kinda skinny, needs more protein, yaddah yaddah yaddah. You know that he's a Norse demigod and that his mother was killed by Fenris' doing. You know that if he gets into the wrong hands, Ragnorak could begin very soon." I glanced at Blitz then, who had a dark cast to his eyes. His own father had been killed by Fenris himself. On our journey to Mimir's well, Blitz and I had ended up sharing some very personal memories.

"The death of Natalie Chase occurred only a few days ago. Magnus has been on the streets here in Boston since then. But his destiny could change the fate of the nine worlds." Blitz and I had been told all of this. "He's the son of Frey." Now that was new information.

My pulse immediately quickened, and a spike of adrenaline rushed through me, like my blood had been spiked with espresso. Frey was the patron god of Alfheim, the only being the elves saw as being higher up than them. I couldn't help but sign, Son of the Frey? This was a dumb question, I knew, but that practically made this kid a celebrity, in my eyes.