Bear’s fists clenched and unclenched for a moment, then stilled.

  “You have—” He spoke a word that was not in English, which the System surprisingly did not translate. Bear seemed to realize that after a moment. He snorted, still angry but slightly amused despite himself. “You have guts, I mean to say,” he continued. “Did your—did the Spider not tell you to cooperate with me? I was under the impression that was why you had not taken a more hostile attitude to a stranger of unknown allegiances in your land.”

  “Anansi and I aren’t like that,” James said. He resisted the urge to give a smug smile, but his tone was acid as he continued, “He doesn’t give me orders, just occasional advice. I don’t think he would want to ruin the beautiful relationship we have.”

  The masked man shook his head, and the anger seemed to drain out of his frame. “I suppose that explains it. No one has taught you respect yet. You have yet to learn your proper place in the world the gods have given you. There was a time when humans understood the workings of the universe on a different level—a wisdom that came from your simplicity—”

  “You preferred us subservient,” James said flatly, cutting him off.

  We aren’t going back to kowtowing to gods, no matter what they call themselves, he thought. Humanity will gain the ability to stand on our own two feet. Our independence. It was an almost thoughtless, instinctive reaction, but it was a strong one nevertheless.

  “Hm.” Bear paused a moment, then continued, not taken aback at all by James’s directness, “You might very well interpret it that way. And I lack the time to educate you properly. I could tell you many things. I could tell you that Ragnarok is a time of wolves, when the monstrous wolf Fenrir breaks free and kills my father, and sets the world aflame, when two other great wolves eat the sun and moon, when an army of the dishonored dead marches on your world… an event that I would think you would want to delay or prevent if possible. But I have always preferred not to speak unnecessarily. Even if I enjoyed idle conversation, I do not have the time to argue now, and the truth is, you do have the leverage to demand some form of reward. You are a fairly important human.” Those words were grudging. “So, let us cut to the chase. What do you want? Knowledge or power for your reward?”

  James tried to imagine what questions he might ask, but he cut himself off before he could get too imaginative with it. There was only one piece of knowledge that he urgently wanted.

  “If I chose knowledge, would you be able to tell me how to change fate? How to avert something that is destined to happen?”

  “What do you mean? How is it that you believe you know what the future holds?”

  “I was shown bad visions of my future by a Wraith, and one of them featured my wife’s death.”

  “If something is meant to happen, then you generally cannot prevent it,” Bear said. “Fate is not so easily unwound as that. You personally are something of an exception. The Chosen Ones of deities often have some degree of ability to warp fate for their own lives, but that does not necessarily mean you can do something even as modest as preventing the death of your own family members.” The masked man’s voice sounded sympathetic. “Even most gods do not know the future. The balance of powers in the cosmos is such that—” He shook his head as if recognizing that the explanation would take too long if he continued. “Tell me, James, were you present in the vision where your wife was dying?”

  James shook his head. “I didn’t see myself anywhere at least.”

  “Then it becomes even less likely that you can affect the outcome. If this were your fate specifically, as I said, you might have some ability to resist it… Otherwise—hm, perhaps if the Allfather was here, he might be able to help you. But my father is preoccupied elsewhere now. Do not expect him to turn his eye on you. He is responsible for more than any other god can bear. All I can advise you is what I have advised in the past, to crush your enemies before they can destroy what you love. Those of us whose fates are written already cannot always do that, but when you can…”

  So, he’s Odin’s son. The Allfather was one of the most distinctive epithets in all of mythology.

  “Since I cannot provide the information you desire,” the masked man continued, “will you choose power? My time runs short, and I have yet to even outline the scope of your task.”

  “Yes, that’s fine, I choose power,” James said flatly, deflated.

  Damn it! How am I going to save Mina when even the gods don’t know how it can be done?

  “Very well. I will give you—”

  “Wait, wait,” James interjected. “Just, um, I want some assurance that you will never take back the power you’ve given once you grant it. Even if I later do something that you disapprove of.”

  The words came out almost automatically—James was too careful, too much the lawyer still, to take on any task for the promise of compensation, with no apparent method of collecting. He did not expect he would be able to count on good will from this divine being to secure this grant of power in the future, and he was aware that blessings could be revoked. James imagined that was the form this power up would take.

  This time Bear snorted and shook his head. James couldn’t tell what the masked figure actually thought until he spoke. With a certain grudging respect in his tone, Bear said, “I swear on my divinity that I will not revoke this power once granted, as long as you fulfill the task I set for you.” His voice rang, and the air around the two men shuddered with power as he spoke.

  James no longer doubted whether he stood in the presence of a demigod, a divine emissary, or a god. The figure before him was certainly a deity, though one trapped in a humanoid shell. He could speak with the voice of a god when he chose—and he was certainly no angel.

  He’s definitely only able to access a tiny fraction of the normal power that a god wields in that form, though, James thought. He had Anansi as a frame of reference—a deity who James had stared directly in the face, in as close to a true form as James’s mind could comprehend. This god seemed far weaker, though James knew the Spider God was not known as a physical or magical powerhouse among the gods. I wonder if I could actually take him on in this body…

  There followed a silent speculation as to how much experience a god would give if James defeated him.

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  “Your task is as follows,” Bear continued, oblivious to James’s wild thoughts. His voice sounded tired and ragged as he spoke now, as if making the promise not to revoke his grant of power had taken a lot out of him. “Fjalar, the clever rooster, is set to be born into this world—into the territory that was your former nation—soon. The red rooster heralds the end of the world with his crowing. You must prevent this.” The god raised a hand to the side of his head, nodded to himself, and continued, “In one week the cock will hatch from his egg. Four months hence, or five at the most, he will be capable of crowing. If he crows and welcomes the onset of Ragnarok, the end of your world will be set into motion. The fate of all mankind rests on your shoulders. Do you accept the task of preventing this disaster?”

  Four or five months? James thought. That sounds like plenty of time! That will be well after I get back from the World Leaders’ Summit and the Victors’ Tournament… I can search before, during, and after those events.

  Bear stood silently, masked face pointed in James’s direction. The masked god’s gaze reminded James that Bear had just asked him a question.

  “Oh, I accept,” James said immediately.

  Of course I accept. I probably would have had to do this anyway, even if you didn’t reward me.

  “Swear it.” The god’s voice rung with power again, but it felt almost like a fire about to die, weak and brittle even as it exerted itself.

  “I—I swear that I will find Fjalar and prevent him from crowing.” The task sounded slightly absurd to James as he spoke the words, but he forced himself not to smile. The moment felt deadly serious, and as his eyes found the place on the mask where Bear’s eyes should have been, it hit James that for the first time, he was not fumbling his way toward more power, fighting for his own life or that of his family, or trying to become a leader among his small community of survivors.

  No, now he was actively taking on a task—admittedly in part for promised compensation—that was meant to change the fate of the whole human race.

  I’m supposed to save humanity.

  All the amusement and all the irony in James’s soul dried up for a moment, along with the inside of his mouth, as this thought occurred to him.

  “Then I grant you my blessing, on the condition that you earnestly pursue this task, understanding that if you fail, it will be revoked. Receive the blessing of Vidarr, the Silent Aesir, God of Vengeance and Strength, and Slayer of Fenrir.”

  Every word seemed to carry its own weight.

  Fenrir is the same wolf he mentioned kills Odin. If this ‘Vidarr’ guy slays Fenrir, does that mean he’s stronger than Odin?!

  The air around James seemed to move and fluctuate. James noticed the light that had been holding absolutely still under the influence of Vidarr’s power shudder once, like there was an interruption in the supply of Vidarr’s energy. Then time began to move again. The chirping of birds that James had not noticed before resumed. A slight breeze touched his skin. He heard a crackling of twigs as his mother, in the distance, took a step forward.

  And a System message suddenly flickered into place before James’s eyes.

  It blinked hazily in and out of view for a moment before solidifying, as if the System was wrestling with whether the message itself was a mistake.

  [You have been offered the Title of Blessed One of Vidarr. Accept? Y/N]

  James didn’t need to guess what the cause of the strange behavior by the System might be. Vidarr was not supposed to be on Earth. He had said as much. He had spent all his remaining power to offer this blessing to compensate James for taking on his dirty work. The god would not be able to remain here much longer, as he had already acknowledged. The fact that the time stop that Vidarr had put in place vanished so quickly suggested that things had already become quite unstable.

  James quickly selected ‘Y.’

  There was a sound of strange music playing—of words that James did not understand, because the System did not translate them, and of drums and a stringed instrument unfamiliar to him. James felt a surge of power, not unlike what he had felt when Anansi blessed him—and almost as large as the power that he had felt flow into him from the Spider God.

  Please don’t take this as an insult, Anansi, James thought. He had not had the chance to consult his patron about him taking on a second patron deity. But he doubted the Spider God would have any objection. Anansi understood the necessity of James accumulating a great deal of power to himself, and it was Anansi himself who had suggested that James should trust in ‘Bear.’

  [Required conditions met. Title obtained: Blessed One of Vidarr!]

  [Patron deity Vidarr has granted additional Titles: Pillar of Creation, Avenger, and Silencer.]

  James felt more substantial than he ever had before. Like he could fight Fenrir himself, bare-handed, and win.

  It was pure adrenaline, he knew.

  Then again, maybe…

  Vidarr suddenly began talking again, the god’s voice coming out in a rush.

  “Do not think to betray us, human. It would be calamitous for both my family and your species.” There was a desperate quality to his voice, and a weakness, that James had never observed in Vidarr before. The words were less carefully chosen; the divine grace that James had not fully understood before was almost abandoned.

  James attributed it to the fact that the god’s presence was fading. The Fisher King, observing the Silent Aesir’s body language, could easily see that he was on the verge of collapse. His body seemed thinner in his all black attire, as if the outfit might fall away, and there would only be bones and dust underneath.

  The god went on, now punctuating his speech by gesticulating, jabbing his index finger forward with each word. “If you fail us, there is another, younger and stronger than you, who we will empower in your stead.”

  For a split second, James almost wanted to ask, Well, why didn’t you approach him, then?

  But then reality shifted just a little more.

  [Unauthorized presence detected! All mortals hearing this message, please take cover! Expelling all involved unauthorized presences!]

  A loud System message practically screamed inside of his mind and appeared before his eyes. For the first time, the text was all angry red, and every sentence ended with an exclamation point.

  “What in the—” James’s mother’s voice broke in, indicating that she had seen and heard the System message too.

  But James did not even turn to look in her direction. He was transfixed by the sight in front of him, more ominous than any System message he could imagine.

  Vidarr’s body had frozen in place as the System’s message rang out, finger still pointing at James as if in mute accusation. It seemed like the god was literally paralyzed. Perhaps he was.

  It felt strange to imagine an impersonal force strong enough to stop a deity in his tracks, but Vidarr had spoken as if the System had power over where he could and could not go. Looking back, even Anansi had never spoken derisively of the System’s influence over the universe. The way he talked about it, the System was a sort of mediating force within the divine community—almost the same sort of regulatory role it now had for humans.

  More importantly, even as those thoughts ran through the back of his mind, James’s survival instincts blared a loud warning at the language of the System’s message. It seemed to herald incoming violence.

  The little hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and his eyes darted around for a moment, looking for visual indicators of a threat. And finally, James threw himself to the ground, just conscious enough of his mother’s presence nearby to hurl himself in her general direction.

  There was a deafeningly loud sound as if the sky was falling.

  Then the whole world seemed to explode around them.