Winter of Yggdrasil

Chapter 38

"Wow." Rowan spun a tight circle, staring around him at the fields of untouched snow. "Has it ever looked like this, Merek?"

"We did not have winters." Merek murmured. "Come. Jolen waits."

"Can you feel him?" Loki frowned. "Do you have a link?"

Merek shook his head. "I know him well enough. He'll want to gloat. When he comes for me, let him. Focus on Farbauti and then Yggdrasil. You'll find an old cut covered with new growth. That's where Kenna is grafted."

Expelling a shuddering breath, Loki looked up at the towering figure of Yggdrasil. "What do we do then?"

"I'll reverse it. Things will return to normal." He spoke softly, his voice dull and shoulders drooping.

"And what does that mean for you?"

Merek shrugged. "I think it's time my race met its extinction once and for all."

"Merek..."

"Kenna will be fine. She'll hardly remember the grafting."

Loki jerked and turned to stare at him. Rowan stopped from where he walked ahead. "What?"

"I can bring her back. I told you. I can be grafted into the tree to save her. Didn't I tell you that?"

"But... she's dead. She was grafted to it already."

Merek smiled. "She'll have kept her safe. You're never really dead with Yggdrasil."

"But we can't bring you back." They kept moving.

Merek shook his head. "I was always going to die here. It's alright."

They came upon a crumbling structure, old stones and remnants of buildings hewn together to create something new. Part of it had caved in already. They entered through the cave in, climbing over the stones, searching the ruins for anything of use.

Rowan stopped with a gasp, his hand flying to his mouth. He turned away, retching over the side of a rock.

"Rowan?"

They crawled to his side, stopping at the carcass laying below him.

"The cave in is fresh." Merek said. "Kenna was here with it."

"That's..." Loki leaned closer. "That's the dog. That thing Thanos kept. They're native to Atlas?"

"No. Kenna had nightmares about them." He didn't see the way Loki froze, horror washing over him. "No doubt Jolen saw it in her mind and found one. I wouldn't put it past him to go to such lengths for simple torture."

"The poison..."

"Judging by this cave in, I don't think it had the chance. Come. We're losing daylight."

The building was empty, great stone rooms with nothing and no one to fill them. Merek shook his head, recognizing some of them. It seemed Jolen was trying to invoke the grander days of old with what little he had. He sighed. There was a meeting room where the highest Other had always met. He would be there.