The Magician's Apprentice

Rebuke

"Whoa, whoa, slow down, Evie!"

I cut my voice off, just realizing how exhausted I was. As soon as I awoke from my not-so-fun visit to Norway, I practically sprinted to Stephen and told everything that had happened in a rushed voice. Stephen tried to break in a few times, but I steamrolled over him in my panic. As I incoherently rambled, he conjured a plush armchair and nudged me onto it.

"I only got bits and pieces of that," Stephen said as I got comfortable. "Now, from what I heard, Thor and Loki are in some sort of trouble?"

"Yes," I said, desperate for him to fully understand as soon as possible.

"Okay," Stephen said. "Now start from the beginning. And slowly and coherently, please," he quickly added when he saw me take a quick breath to speak.

"Okay, so soon after Thor and Loki left, I went for my room to do some searching."

"Of what?"

I paused. I never really told Stephen of my plans on trying to locate the Infinity Stones.

"Theinfineestones," I mumbled.

"Pardon?"

"The...Infinity Stones," I confessed.

Stephen was silent for a moment, and I struggled to sense his emotions. To my annoyance, they were carefully concealed and Stephen merely said calmly, "Continue."

I blinked. "Right. Um, so I did that locating trick you showed me, but my thoughts strayed to Thor and Loki."

"Understandable. Go on."

"They were where you sent Odin," I explained, "and they were both really upset."

"Odin must have passed," Stephen mused.

I frowned. "You mean he died? But I thought gods were immortal."

"Immortal beings can die," Stephen corrected. "They can live endlessly, but things can end their lives."

I nodded thoughtfully. That made sense, I guess. But immortal beings suddenly seemed a lot less omnipotent than I liked.

I continued my explanation, talking about how I sensed the approaching power and I searched for its source.

"And you found it," Stephen guessed.

I nodded, slightly breathless from talking so much. "Long story short, it was Odin's firstborn, Hela-"

"-the Goddess of Death," Stephen realized, his tone darkening.

"Yes," I said, shivering at the memory of what I was about to retell. "And she did something unbelievable: she grabbed Thor's hammer and-"

"That's impossible," Stephen broke in, sounding skeptical.

"I wasn't finished," I said, irritated that I was interrupted. "She grabbed it by the head and...and destroyed it."

Stephen was silent for a moment as he contemplated this. "Are you sure?" He asked at last. "Three only one worthy to bear Mjölnir is-"

"Thor, I know," I said impatiently. "But shut up for a second and listen to me. Mjölnir was destroyed--beyond broken. Hela literally shattered it like cheap plastic. The force of it created an explosion!"

"I see," Stephen said, though I could tell he actually didn't. He was just humoring me. "What happened then?"

"I don't know," I said, angry that Stephen didn't believe me. "I left as soon as Mjölnir was shattered."