KotLC X Magnus Chase

Chapter 14

Sophie's POV

I walked into the lounge and was promptly greeted by T.J., who was sitting at a table with my other hallmates.

"There she is!" He rose and grabbed my hand while the others waved and greeted me, "quite an impression you made yesterday." He paused, "like he first arrived here." He gestured to the person I recognised as Magnus, who nodded in acknowledgement and smiled warily at me.
He was dressed the same way as he was yesterday, with blue jeans, a green hotel t-shirt, and leather boots.

"Hey, newbie." I looked over and saw the green haired person from yesterday sitting next to Magnus. Alexis, was it? No- she was called Alex. Alex shoved the large person whom I recognised as Halfborn Gunderson off the two chairs that he was sprawled across, causing him to fall onto the floor.

"Hey!" He whined, getting up and sitting on his other chair, grumbling something about an 'argr' while the fiery red-head who reminded me of Marella laughed.
Alex gestured to the now-empty chair with a dramatic flourish. "Empty chair. You can sit in it now that the big oaf's not hogging it."
"Thanks," I said, feeling my cheeks heat up.

Alex was also wearing what she had worn yesterday, her green and pink argyle sweater vest, lime green jeans, and rose high-top.

Magnus was wearing blue jeans and a casual t-shirt, while Halfborn was wearing a patchwork of hides and furs as a top and hide trousers that had seen better days.

I glanced around the lounge. It was massive, but compared to the Feast Hall, tiny.
Scattered around the room we're several tables, most of which were unoccupied, in a corner crackled a large fireplace with neon orange flames, different enough from Everblaze to not trigger anything, in front of it stood a sofa that looked very worn-out and needed a good repair. Along the other wall sat a massive buffet table, filled with more kinds of food than I could count.

My new Hallmates had chosen a table in front of a large window overlooking a very familiar sight, leading me to gasp slightly. The grass, the clouds, the sky were all exactly like the ones in the Sanctuary. I could see animals roaming the fields, but ,strangely, no unicorns or other elvish creatures.

My small gasp had not gone unnoticed by the group.
"What is it?" I heard Alex's voice ask.
"Nothing," I replied, trying not to make it sound as if I was hiding something, "I just recognised the view. That's all."

Everyone turned to look out the window, confusion even more prominent on their faces.
T.J. was the next to speak.
"The Hotel makes views like this whenever it's cycled through all the nine realms," he looked at me like I had grown a third eye, "these views don't exist."
I tried not to show that this had shaken me slightly. "I must have dreamt it then."

Everyone turned back to their breakfast after staring at me for a few more seconds.
"Sooo..." I tried to break the ice, "What is it with these nine worlds I'm hearing about?"

"They're the different realms of Norse mythology," T.J. explained.
, "each one is different. For example, Midgard, where everyone at this table comes from, is the centre most world. Each world is connected by Yggdrasil, the massive ash tree at the centre of the universe."

I nodded, trying to get my mind around that new fact,
"Interesting." I said.

Mallory laughed. "You'll get used to it eventually. Just like me, this idiot," she gestured to Halfborn, "and the rest of us had to."
"Heyyy..." Halfborn whined.

Changing the subject, I gestured towards T.J.'s uniform.
"That's a Civil War uniform. I remember learning about it in high school."

He beamed, looking proud as he said, "Yep. Private in the fifty-fourth Massachusetts."
I ran the calculations.

"That's a long time ago. Which battle?"

"The assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina. My dad is Tyr, god of courage, law, and trial by combat. My mom was a runaway slave."

"Ah." I stated, trying to take all this new information into my already full brain.
I glanced out at the view of the Sanctuary. "Is it possible to leave the Hotel?"

The others at the table shared a glance, as if they had already heard this question multiple times before. "Yes." Magnus was the first to answer, "It is possible to exit Valhalla and enter the other realms."

"But," T.J. jumped in, "we," he gestured to everybody else sitting at the table except Alex, "have special access to the nine realms, given to us by Odin himself after stopping Ragnarök."
He looked particularly proud after saying that last sentence.

I looked at Alex, T.J. hadn't included her in the gesture when talking about who had special access to the other worlds.
"What about Alex?" I asked, "You didn't include her."

"Yeah, I wasn't dead when Odin gave them the special access. But," she smiled wickedly at me, reminding me of Keefe's trademark smirk, "that doesn't stop me from tagging along." At this, Magnus looked at Alex like: not helping.

"In any case, we usually only leave the Hotel when we need to." Magnus said before Alex could say anything else.

"You mean like when you two leave Valhalla every week to go to Randolph's old mansion?" Mallory cut in.

"You know that we have to check in on the Chase Space regularly," Magnus argued back.

"So it's possible to leave Valhalla?"

Uneasy glances were shared, apart from Alex, who was smirking like she thought all this was funny.
Halfborn was the first to answer.
"There are many ways into the nine realms. Most of them are guarded, but there's a lot of ways out to Midgard, considering Boston is at the centre of it."

"It is?" I asked.

T.J. answered next.
"Yes. It's right at the trunk of the World Tree, which makes it the easiest place to access the other nine worlds. Usually, we shouldn't be leaving Valhalla apart from missions-"

"Killing giants, witches, and any other thing that might be a problem for anyone in Midgard and Valhalla." Mallory offered.

"Which the Thanes give us. We should also be training for Ragnarök " T.J. spoke again.
"Besides, you're dead. Most of us wait a few years before leaving Valhalla, and, by then, most of the people who know us will be gone, meaning that we can more freely walk about Midgard."

I thought about this and ate in silence for a few more minutes. I realised that only my human family would have passed away in a few decades, while my elven friends and family would just be older and probably continue with their lives or be fighting the Neverseen until either they or the council and Black Swan lost.

My thoughts were interrupted by the deep boom of a horn ringing from the corridor.
Every einherjar in the lounge started to stand up and clear their plates.
"What was that?" I asked the others.

"That was the call to war, my friend." T.J. replied.

Mallory rubbed her hands together evilly. "This'll be fun."

Alex smirked at me. "Let's see how long you last out there," She turned to Magnus, "is Jack coming?"

Magnus shrugged, "I think so. I'll check when we go."

As we got up to leave, Mallory commented, "I can't wait for Sophie to get slaughtered!"

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1248 words
Hope you enjoyed this longer chapter!

Sorry for the wait. 😅

As always, if you find any SPaG errors, please comment their location so I can fix them.

If you have any title ideas, please tell me them so I can replace the current title, KotLC X Magnus Chase.
I just don't think it's that good of a title.

Bye 👋
-ManicMohawk