I close my eyes, prepared for the worst, but instead of a terrible impact, we bank hard right, and then dip again.When I open my eyes, we’re in a cavern I didn’t even know existed, and then we’re droppingagain.
“Where are we going?”
Hush.
It takes several moments of terrifying drops and spins around tight corners, weaving through dark caves before we finally stop.
“What is this place?”
Ice shimmers in all the corners, and it drips from the roof.I shiver, but not just from the bone-chilling cold.In the center of the enormous cavern, there’s a pillar of what looks likepure gold.Streaks of gold, twisting veins and lines snake toward the column from all sides, above and below, all of them angling into the solid pillar.I slide from Freja’s back and walk toward it carefully.
Ice patches covering the ground make the already rocky floor even more treacherous.Our training helped me become more sure-footed, but it’s still slow as I make my way toward the pillar.Even if the strange, bluish, glowing ice didn’t provide enough light, I could almost follow the gleamingly jagged lines of gold from the floor toward the column.
In the very middle of the pillar of gold pulses a strange, sparkling stone.It’s large—the size of my fist—and almost circular, if it weren’t angular around the edges.
I reach my hand toward it.
Don’t, Freja says.That’s the heartstone.
I blink.“That story’s true?”
Jörð and Veralden Radian?Freja nods.It’s true, at least, the part where they met.
“What does that mean?”
Freja’s sigh is tired.Your people tell a very different story than mine.Yours is a story of ill-fated love—Veralden wanted to stay with his beloved, but he couldn’t.As a creature of sky, he had to move on.But after he left, he sent his children to her.It was his way of staying with her forever.
“It’s tragic, but also kind of beautiful,” I say.
The vanir tell a different story.
I never heard that.“What is it?”
Veralden Radian traveled to earth, and he met Jörð, and he was entranced, just as in your tale.But Jörð was uninterested.She was wise, and she knew someone like him could not stay.She refused to have anything to do with him, but our great lord Veralden was stronger.Because he was more powerful, he did what he always did, forcing his attentions upon the weaker Jörð.
“That’s awful.”
Freja shrugs.In your tale, the stone was left here out of love and desire, a gift to the children of both of them.It’s a symbol of the bond between star-crossed lovers.
“In yours, it’s a...”I shudder.“It’s what?Some kind of curse—stuck here to torture Jörð forever?”
Which one is true?I’m not sure we’ll ever know.The one thing I know for sure is that the stone’s very powerful.My father built Vanaheim here on purpose.He could never best your Odin—ice always yields to fire in the end.But with the heartstone underneath us, Bjorn has always been able to enforce his version of the story—the sky children take from the earth children, just as their father before them.
“The war really never will end,” I say.“No matter who we kill.”
I tried to remove it once,Freja says.She looks...tragic, as thoughof courseshe tried and failed to betray her own father.I’ve always liked the æsir version of the story better.I’ve always thought the world would be better if itwastrue.
“But?”
I nearly died, down here in this cave.When my father found me—he knew what I’d attempted.Rather, he thought I was attempting to steal it to besthim, not to defeat him and join the æsir, but he hasn’t trusted me since.When we returned, he told me he wishedI’dbeen the one to die, not Freyr.
“That’s horrible.”Tears well in my eyes.“I’m sorry for Freyr’s death.I know it was my brother’s fault.”
She shakes her head.It’s this—all of this.The stupid stone.My father’s agenda—to subjugate all earth children.It’s never going to end.
I don’t know what to say.
She turns toward me.Unlessweend it.Together.
