The pair was slowly but surely gaining distance from Oslo as they travelled towards their next destination. Whilst in the train, Maddie found herself holding the charmed rock in her hand. It now had etched in its surface a simplified representation of the boat it supposedly contained. She handed it back to her travel companion and looked him in the eye; she was now more accustomed to his pink irises and reptile-like pupils.

“Are you a hundred percent sure that the spell worked? I won’t return the museum and attempt at stealing anything again. I am also pretty sure nobody will fall once more for the trick of myself fainting,” she tried to excuse her way outside a potential repeat mission.

“If I failed to make it work, it wouldn’t be now engraved into the rock,” he safely placed the item back in his pocket, then laced his fingers on top of the table.

“You know, I was thinking of something…” Maddie started.

“And what would that be?”

“Why didn’t you use your ring to stop the time instead of causing all that commotion?” Maddie asked and saw Jörmun’s lips curving in a smile.

“I enjoy putting up a show.”

“So bruising myself in the process was part of your sick entertainment?”

“Well, yes, but not quite,” Jörmun lowered his voice as he went on with his explanation, making both of them lean closer to each other over the table. “You see, when I use the ring I basically step between multiple realities, choosing to walk out of the frozen state into a new flow of time.”

“And could this have affected the spell?”

“It risked for the spell to be lost in a scattered way, in the multiverse, and trust me- that is the very last thing we would like to happen.”

Maddie nodded deeply, digesting the new information. He was up to a lot more than he was giving out. He was capable of a lot more than it met the eye. Learning such bits only cemented further the girl’s opinion on him; she felt as if she was striding further and further away from his real self with each information she was given to learn.

“Do you, Midgardians, have a way of dealing with time travel?”

“Oh, we wish we did. If only other minds than my own knew you can do it, that ring wouldn’t be on your finger for too long,” she threw a quick glance at the emerald decorated piece.

“Not that it would be of any use to anyone that cannot wield magic.”

“Well, they wouldn’t know that. They’d take it and break it apart in the hope that they will make it work.”

“What if they were to find out?”

“Then you’d likely be kept along with the ring, as a slave to their experiments.”

Jörmun snorted silently at first, then erupted into a roaring laughter, growing ever louder, to the displeasure of those around. Maddie was half under the table, sinking with shame while kicking him in the hope that he would calm down.

“Could you shush yourself?” she hissed, while her face gained a shade of red matching Jörmun’s hair. She could tell how judgemental were the glaring eyes of those around, without even daring to meet them.

“I hope you realize that this has to be the silliest thing you have said in your entire life,” he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, while still chuckling silently.

“And why is that? You know, humans can be pretty cruel beings.”

“Maddie, I am the Midgard Serpent. I cannot be contained in a cage or whatever other imprisonment means you have here.”

“I have no doubt that you have some cards up your sleeve, which would stop that from happening, but for what’s worth, let’s not let any of it to happen. In case you forgot, I am involved in this as well and I will be dragged along into any trouble you may fall into. However, I do not hold the same power you do, so I will rot somewhere until the end of my days.”

“It’s not on my list to unravel any of the ways of my doings to the wider audience,” he reassured her while finally leaning back into his seat. “You are safe.”

“Am I really?” she shoot him a tired glance, recalling in a flash thought how they stole a Skuldelev; a relic of a culture’s past.

“You have my word.”

“I wish that meant something.”

“I didn’t abandon you at the museum, did I?”

“Probably because you still have use of me and not because you suddenly decided to be considerate.”

“Probably so.”

---

Maddie walked into the small balcony of the room they booked for the night. She handed Jörmun a carton juice with a straw. She watched amused how he stared at it puzzled.

“You drink it,” she invited him to do so by sipping from her own. Maddie expected a reaction to come soon after he tasted the juice; it wouldn’t have been the first time he grimaced, displeased with the flavour. However, he appeared to be actually enjoying it.

“At last! Something not terribly sweet, nor bitter,” he concluded with a soft appreciative nod.

“It’s Elderflower juice, with honey.”

“It’s good,” he added, then sat himself on the wooden floor of the balcony; it was too little to accomodate a table with chairs. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” he glanced at Maddie who soon after followed his example and sat herself cross-legged in front of the open door.

The girl took a moment to answer. She was not even sure what she was supposed to be ready for. Perhaps it was the right moment to ask for details. Generally, it was quite difficult to extract any information from him. It led Maddie to believe for a few times that he was making the plan up on the way, rather than ahead of time as he claimed to.

“It depends. What will we be up to except a walk through the neighbouring mountains?”

“Well, I can’t tell.”

“You can never tell,” she half-rolled her eyes, displeased with the answer. He had to anticipate something.

Jörmun shuffled his legs on the floor, looking preoccupied with a thought. He was truly not aware of all they would face during their journey to retrieve the remaining Skuldelev parts, but he was knowledgeable of some potential bits and pieces.

“There is something, but you may not be pleased with the level of detail. You probably expect something highly accurate,” he sipped from his drink while carefully studying Maddie’s hands. She was nervous again; he noticed how she always bothered the skin around her nails to the point of hurting herself whenever she encountered stressful situations.

“I’ll take whatever you have to say. It’s better than nothing, I guess?!” she gave up on her expectations, ready to accept what she was offered to hear.

“Very well,” Jörmun placed the carton on the floor and brought his hands together; his fingers hovered softly over the emerald stone of his ring. If he said something that would make Maddie stand up and leave, he would have to perform a rewind and revise the amount of detail he was willing to give away. “I vaguely marked a couple of locations on the map. Those are the areas where we should find the missing bits. However, they are potentially guarded.”

“Excuse me? Guarded? You never mentioned that before.”

“I don’t expect any physical presence, but charms.”

“Or traps.”

“Or charmed traps,” he added, to which Maddie shrugged unimpressed, as if she had given up on expecting anything better.

“I suppose you know how to disarm them before they dismember us or something,” she eyed him rather cautiously, trying to catch any trace of a lie. Although, it was really difficult to tell whenever he wasn’t honest. When was he truthful anyway?

“I should be able to, yes.”

“Should be able to? Jörmun, the best I can do is to throw rocks at a wall. I can’t even guarantee that those will hit the desired mark,” she moaned, not believing what she was hearing. Were they just going to head dangerous places, without much of a preparation? Considering how their first adventure went, she expected nothing less from the current one, given the newest details.

“That could amount to something,” he laughed softly.

“Remind me again, why do you need me in this journey if it’s all about magic I can’t see nor understand?”

“Because you want to help me reach Hel?”

“I want you to bring her back, not just reach her. We have to be clear on this: Eloise needs to come back. I have so much trouble piled up on my back thanks to her being gone- Ouch!” she frowned as her finger got hurt under her subconscious acts. She sucked onto the fresh wound.

“You should stop doing that.”

“Oh, shut up,” she shushed him and briefly checked on her finger, only to see it still dripping red.

It was to Maddie’s surprise when Jörmun’s hands reached for her own. She tried to snatch them out, but as soon as she heard him murmur something unintelligible, a comfortable, numbing warmth wrapped her fingers. She was least to say surprised once he took his hands away; all the damage she caused around her nails over the last few days was completely gone.

“You did this,” she accused him while still staring in disbelief at her healed fingers.

“My mother taught me this when I was a child. She said she won’t always be by my side to mend my scratches.”

“You never spoke about your mother before,” Maddie remarked, noticing the fondness in his tone.

“Well, you never mentioned yours either. That makes us even,” he said as he stood up. He made his way back inside the room, letting Maddie alone with two empty juice cartons and a pile of concerned thoughts regarding their upcoming adventures.