Hotel Valhalla [Magnus Chase Series]

I Should Have Known Better...

       By Skirnir

  It’s not every day I get my hands on a fine piece of magical weaponry. So when Frey offered to give me Sumarbrander in exchange for going to Jotunheim to talk to Gerd for him, you’d better believe I said yes.
  But there was a catch: The sword was destined to end up in Surt’s hands.
  You heard right. Surt, the Black One, Lord of Muspellheim, and, oh, I don’t know, the one who brings chaos to the world, was supposed to get my blade one day.
  When I found out, I was a little anxious about Surt coming after me to get the sword. Then I thought, Well, he won’t come after me if I don’t have it on me.
  This is where my good-for-nothing son comes into the story.
  He’d been moaning about how he was bored in Asgard, how all the other gods got their kids the latest cool stuff, how I never let him go exploring in the other worlds, blah, blah, blah. I’d had it up to here with him, so I decided to send him away.
  “Pick where you want to go,” I told him.
  First he said Alfheim, then he changed his mind and said Nidavellir. I was about to send him straight to Ginnungagap when he finally decided on Midgard.
  “But I don’t want to walk or ride a horse. I want to go on a boat. Not a little boat—a big boat, with sails and rowers.And I want to be captain.That way, everybody has to obey me!”

  “But you don’t know thing one about sailing, especially navigating a
Midgard ocean,” I pointed out.
  “Why do you have to be such a hater?” he whined. “You never let me do
anything!”
  I found him a ship pretty quick after that. The crew that came with it looked a little sketchy, but what can you do?

  And this is where the sword comes back into the story. Besides worrying
about Surt showing up to take it, I’d had the blade long enough to know it was never going to feel right in my hands.
  I couldn’t give it back to Frey, because he’d pledged it to me; and I couldn’t give it to just anybody, because what if
they gave it to Surt?
  So I did the only logical thing.
  I wrapped it in some old blankets and hid it
in the hold of the ship.
  The second my rotten kid was on board, I bellowed “bon voyage!” and shoved the vessel away from the dock with my foot.
  I assumed he wouldn’t darken my door again for some time, and when he did return, I’d have figured out what to do about Sumarbrander.
  I know what you’re thinking: incompetent captain, sketchy crew, magic sword, dangerous ocean, unfamiliar world—what could possibly go wrong?
  I found out when my kid came sailing back in on a different ship, complaining about being seasick, about how his crew didn’t listen to him, and about it not being his fault.
  “What wasn’t your fault?” I asked, though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.
  Surprise, surprise, the boat had sunk off the shore of some Midgard
backwater, taking the sword with it. The foolish boy didn’t know exactly where the vessel went down—or if he did, he wasn’t saying.
  So technically, my son is the one who lost the sword. But if you want to pin Sumarbrander’s disappearance on me,fine. I’ll take the blame for my kid.
  What else is new?