Odin pounded a fist onto the table. “That is enough! We are here to discuss options, and we can't do that by shouting at each other.”
“I will not destroy my cloak!” Freya shouted, the Valkyries nodding and shaking their fists in agreement.
“Then you fade to nothing. Or even worse—to irrelevance!” Odin roared.
Freya took a step back.
“And you women!” Odin pointed at his shield maidens. “You owemefealty, not Freya! Remember who you serve.”
The women bowed their heads, murmuring, “Allfather.”
“All right, all right.” I laid a hand on Odin's shoulder. “Let's not forget who the enemy is.” I looked around at the gods whose relics were in the machine. “I know how much it is to ask that you destroy your own relics. But Odin is right. It is that, or we lose everything.”
“We need to understand this machine before we act,” Athena, standing beside Hephaestus, said.
“I understand it, Athena,” I vowed. “And I think this is our only chance.”
“I already lost my mirror, and you don't see me weeping about it,” Amaterasu said. “God-up, you cowards.”
“My axe,” Shango whispered like a child. “It's everything to me.”
“You can form a new one,” Odin said. “You know it intimately.”
“It won't be the same.”
“No, but you will have an axe and your life,” Odin added.
Shango grimaced and nodded.
One by one, the gods agreed to destroy the machine in the only way we could—by slipping in through the back door.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Torr took us through the Aether in yet another vein of Internet since we weren't sure if Ala Mmuo would let us in. We also had a huge group coming with us, even with my Intare, the Vilcacis, and most of the Froekn staying behind. Luckily, the territory recognized my touch and let us in.
We left the tracing hut to find the territory calm. Although no souls wandered the grasslands. I assumed they were hiding in their homes. I certainly would have been.
We found Agwusi where we left her—covered in gold chains on the floor of the machine room. Fenrir snarled when he saw the chains and picked her up.
“We'll watch over this one out here while you handle things.” Fenrir carried Agwusi out of the room.
“What are you doing?” Agwusi cried. “Vervain, you can't destroy it. If you do, you'll destroy the realms!”
The gods went still, staring after her. But it was no revelation. We had known how dangerous this would be.
“All right, everyone who isn't connecting with a relic, get out,” Odin said. “All but you, Vervain. You're the only one who can communicate with this thing.”
As the relic owners drew closer to the machine, the other gods retreated to the hallway and the living room. Agwusi's warning shouts echoed down to us a few seconds longer before they suddenly stopped. I glanced at the door. Fenrir wouldn't kill her, but he'd take great pleasure in knocking her out.
“I'll go first,” Odin said. “I'm hoping that once I disconnect the condenser from the other relics, we'll be able to remove them without destroying them.”
My eyes widened. I hadn’t considered that the mirror broke because it had been bonded to all the relics. “Good idea.”
“Do you really think so?” Freya asked.
“I said, I hope so.” Odin stepped closer to the machine. “Nothing is certain with this machine.”
I glanced at the remains of Amy's mirror, still scattered on the floor beside the machine. “I hope so too.”
