To Maddie’s relief, the library staff was more than open and willing to share. They offered the pair an extensive list of materials to research. 

After carrying a hand-cart worth of books to a more remote study table, they sat themselves and unpacked their physical map and note-keeping journal. No matter how good the mobile phone proved itself to be in guiding them places, according to their last year’s experience in the far wilderness, it was not always helpful. The paper map was going to be their faithful companion.

“These texts are so old, I can’t make anything of them,” Maddie frowned as they opened one of the books. While she flipped through the pages she saw annotated versions of various Norse inscriptions from all across the country and beyond. However, according to Jörmun, any modern interpretation of the text was going to be useless. They had to look through the real preserved notes, which in their case were represented by photographs and scans illustrated throughout the book.

“I can,” the young man offered himself and snatched the large volume. He started to read in a whispered voice. The runes that Maddie couldn’t understand rolled off his tongue flawlessly; she found herself stare in awe.

“That was very interesting to hear,” she confessed when he reached the end of the given text. “However, I have no idea what it means if I won’t read through the notes which you advised against,” Maddie glanced to the side at her study partner, expecting clarification.

“Nonsense, really. It’s someone complaining about their wife’s affair. Likely this was a journal of some sort,” he snorted silently as he started to skim through the remainder of the book.

“I wonder if they deciphered the same in the annotation,” Maddie mused and tried to peek at the flipped page, while Jörmun was busy with the latter part of the book.

“This is going to take us forever,” the young man leaned back in his seat with a thoughtful frown on his face. He stared at the pile of books that towered over their table. Although, there was a spell he knew. Loki taught him that in secret, to absorb the content of books he never had the patience to hear his mother read to him.

“We may need to spend more than a day here, or take a massive amount of pictures and look through them as we progress with our journey.”

“We cannot even go anywhere before nailing down the destinations. There have to be some texts, even if they’re considered legends or myths,” he stood up and started to open the volumes, spreading them across the table; all under the puzzled looks of Maddie and a few other nearby people.

“What are you doing?” she hissed, a sudden panic hitting her from inside, making her gut twist. But before Maddie could take any action, the flow of time stopped for everyone around except Jörmun. He inspected with his spell all the books they had at their disposal. His mind was flowing with a vast amount of new information; it was doing that so fiercely that it caused him a headache.

Jörmun tapped his ring after stepping back into his frozen silhouette. He glanced around only to see nothing odd. His little trick worked like a charm.

Maddie’s lips pursed as a hundred words wanted to escape her mouth in an incoherent rant. She couldn’t wrap her mind around why her travel companion was now gathering back the books. He did not even bother to answer her initial question.

When Jörmun finally decided to stop from his random and unexplainable doings, Maddie set her eyes on him and stared expectantly. He looked a bit too pleased with himself for doing basically nothing, which amplified her uneasy sentiment.

“Well?” she pressed on, unable to contain her curiosity any longer.

“It’s done,” his lips split into a full grin as he pushed her way a paper with freshly written notes.

“What’s this?”

“Our approximate points of interest,” he explained calmly, feeling that more questions would follow.

“But-” Maddie started, looking at the other bewildered. When did he had the time to look through anything? How could he already figure it all out when only moments before he complained that it would take them forever to do so? Unless…

“But?”

“You used the ring, didn’t you?” she lowered her voice to a barely audible tone. Maddie watched Jörmun offer her a nod, while a smirk still lingered on his lips. “Is this not… Dangerous anyhow? Is this not going to bring Asgardians after us again?”

“I cannot be seen while I am doing that. Not even Heimdal’s gaze can pierce through the fractured reality.”

“And how can you be so sure?” she added with scepticism.

“Unless someone shows up to disapprove my theory, it stands as it is.”

“So, you’re basing your facts on nothing.”

“Look, Maddie…” he leaned towards her as he spoke. “Let me worry about these things. You will have to help me untangle the new clues I have found and place them on the map.”

“So you don’t actually have the destinations.”

“I have information on their whereabouts.”

Maddie sighed deeply. Her eyes glanced briefly at the books, then back at Jörmun. “Do you still need any of these?”

“No.”

“All right, then,” she stood up and started to gather them, placing them back in the cart.

“What I need however…” he started as he helped the girl out with the remainder of volumes. “Is your help with a diversion.”

“Now?” Maddie’s heart picked up the pace once again.

“No. When we reach back the museum.”

The girl’s mind was stormed with turbulent thoughts. She still had no idea about how Jörmun planned to take outside the museum a Skuldelev ship, which easily exceeded ten meters in length. However, hearing that she was supposed to play the distraction, in his meticulously staged plan which she knew nothing about, was none to her liking. She had a feeling that she would be left there, to deal with the aftermath, all by herself.

---

Maddie held in her hand a rock the size of her palm. She turned it on all sides, while a soft frown began to form on her forehead. She examined it as thoroughly as she could, but still could not find anything special about it. The fact that Jörmun wanted to seal the Skuldelev ship into it was beyond her point of reason. One would’ve thought that she was already accustomed to him wielding magic, but she was never ready enough to accept the tricks as they were; she always found herself question the logic behind it.

Jörmun retrieved the rock from the other as they stood before the museum’s entrance. He looked confident; unlike Maddie, whose trust in their plan was close to null.

“Do you want us to go through the details again?” he asked while giving a quick glance to the girl. Her body language spoke of nothing else but nervousness.

“I agreed to this, but I am not comfortable at all with the thought that we will steal something.”

“We will give the ship a better life than the one of rotting in a museum.”

“But should we? Can’t a normal boat suffice your needs?”

“No other boat in this world, modern or as old as time would meet my requirements; none but the one inside this place.”

Maddie sighed deeply. “Fine. Let’s go over the plan again.”

“So,” Jörmun clasped his hands together. He seemed to have been waiting for the moment to speak about his grand theft scheme once again. “We will walk inside the museum and make our way to the boat. We will look around, pretending to be interested, but all of a sudden, as you part ways with me and head wherever the guard will be, you will feel sick and collapse to the floor.”

“Then, presuming that everyone is focused on my well-being, you will touch the boat, create an illusion of it, while transferring the real one into the rock I held moments ago,” Maddie continued, internally still struggling to accept the latter bit of their plan as being a real thing.

“Precisely!”

“We never discussed what happens after this though,” she added as she failed to obtain that bit of information in any of the previous occasions when Jörmun iterated on his plan. She feared that he would see himself out without a trace.

“We get out, of course. That illusion won’t last for too long.”

“You missed this tiny but crucial detail up until now,” Maddie stared at him in shock. She knew it! She was sure there had to be a catch to it. It would’ve been too perfect if all worked as smoothly as Jörmun described it initially.

“I didn’t think it was important,” he shrugged, looking unaffected by the accusation.

“I thought we had a chat about honesty…”

“Well, I didn’t lie.”

“All right, I’ll give you that. It’s not a lie,” Maddie sucked in her lips briefly, while trying to contain her emotions. “You withheld details from me. I am part of this plan. I am ought to know these things,” she furrowed her eyebrows, while crossing her arms.

“You see… This is how brilliant this plan is! I always get distracted by the end of it.”

“And that is even more concerning! Jörmun, please tell me how much time do we have to leave the museum before anyone suspects anything?”

“The fabricated image of the boat will last until we’re about over there,” he turned around and pointed towards a traffic sign across the road.

“I need a time approximation, because we may not be able to move as fast as we’d like to.”

“Oh, this is not tied to the course of time, but to the proximity of my own self to the object in cause.”

“Mhm…” Maddie hummed thoughtfully. That was a very useful and interesting piece of information he didn’t care to disclose before. It felt to the girl as if trying to have a conversation with Jörmun was like an attempt to peel an cursed onion with an endless number of layers.

---

“Lykke til!” Jörmun wished to his partner in crime before he parted ways with her, heading for the other side of the boat, which was thankfully only scarcely surrounded by admirers.

“Good luck better be enough of a bless to pull us through this mad plan,” Maddie thought to herself after hearing his hushed words. She caught in her peripheral vision his red curls bounce on his shoulders as he took distance from her.

After throwing one last glance to Jörmun, who gave her in return the smallest nod, Maddie took a deep breath and let herself fall into a partially controlled stunt. She didn’t even need to attempt and touch for attention any of those present as she collapsed, because everyone turned around, concerned by the loud thud.

Maddie could hear the crowd chatter around her, sounding worried over her apparent unconscious state. She heard the mention of someone intending to call the ambulance, moment during which her heart jolted with panic. If the doctors came for a check and there was nothing wrong with her, what then? Would people figure out their real intentions? But how could anyone know that it was possible to trap a meters long worth of a boat in a palm-sized rock? It was ridiculous; she concluded.

Jörmun on the other hand was busy getting the illusion in place. He touched without any trouble a piece of wood of the vessel and after whispering the spell, a soft green gleam crossed the surface of the boat. He glanced around to see if anyone noticed anything, but everyone seemed to be too preoccupied by Maddie’s well-being which only meant that their plan, or rather, his plan, was exceptionally effective.

With a pleased smile and one last check, Jörmun casually let the rock slid into his sleeve. He then stuffed his hand in his pocket, where he let the charmed object fall into it safely. He eventually made his way towards where the crowd of visitors was gathered.

“Excuse me! I am sorry!” Jörmun pushed his way through until he caught glimpse of Maddie, who was now silently exchanging a few words with a woman that was holding her hand comfortingly.

The woman looked up at the fiery haired one, who seemed to stare with high interest at the fallen girl. “Do you know this young lady? She mentioned she was with someone…”

“Well of course I do know her! I’ve been so concerned with your sudden disappearance,” he crouched at Maddie’s side, brushing off a few strands of hair from her face. “I told you we should’ve had breakfast first. You were so eager to come here,” he shook his head, pretending to be highly affected by her state.

“Is she a diabetic?”

Unaware of what a diabetic person was, Jörmun immediately decided to play along the lines, only presuming that it was a disease. “She has medicine…”

“In the car,” Maddie added on a faint tone, finally pushing herself to a full sitting position. She was thankful they didn’t have something such as a car; one less way to be tracked if trouble arised.

“Should I cancel the ambulance? I am on the line with the call centre,” another person chimed in from the side.

“Please do. I will be well once I take my pill and eat something,” Maddie nodded, smiling shily. “Thank you for your intention though.”

With Jörmun’s help and while still pretending to be unwell, Maddie finally stood up. They both thanked those around and carefully made their way out, where they walked enough to disappear from anyone’s curious sight.

“You surely took your time,” Maddie protested as she finally dusted herself off.

“But it’s done,” he said with the broadest grin. “You played your role marvelously! I am so proud of you, Maddie.”

“To hell with it,” she let out a relieved sigh, glad that it was all over. However, just as she stared back towards the museum, she caught in sight the traffic sign that Jörmun marked as the limit to his illusion spell. They were well past it.

“What’s a diabetic?” he asked.

“Nevermind that. We’re past the limit of your spell.”

“Well, good for us.”

“What will happen to the conjured boat?”

“It will likely start to fade; gradually as we’re distancing ourselves from it.”

“I am beginning to think that you should’ve put some disguise on ourselves as well,” Maddie cursed low, while starting to walk rapidly in the opposite direction from the museum, partially expecting to be suddenly chased by authorities.

“That would’ve actually been a good idea,” Jörmun agreed, while trailing shortly behind the girl. “You’re becoming really good at this.”

“At what? Trying to hide myself from your reckless acts? We’re in so much trouble,” she moaned. “I am at least. You don’t even belong here. You shouldn’t even exist on this planet.”

“Which is why I have to go back to Asgard. Well this, among other reasons.”

“You need to send Eloise back. Remember that above whatever else is in your head, it’s the utmost important reason for which we’re doing all of this.”

“Of course,” he approved, without sounding too convincing. Jörmun’s brain was still deeply tangled in an internal celebration of their achievements so far. Locating the additional parts needed to finish the Skuldelev was not going to be an easy task, but at least they had the very base of it.