Atypical (A Magnus Chase fan novel)

A Group of Demigods

     Amara came out behind Sam with her bird on her shoulder. Samirah closed the door behind her, careful of the cat trying to follow. I had finished explaining what had happened, and my friends seemed to get it. Alex had punched my shoulder playfully and called me a softie, but, whatever. I remembered how I felt when I came, how scared I had been, and I saw that fear in Amara's face. I didn't reflect on that stuff when Alex came, because well, Alex. But enough with the sappy stuff.

     Amara looked around at us shyly, and Samirah nudged her. "Well? Introduce yourself."

     She took a shaky breath, but her voice was strong. "My name is Amara Shajaah. And this is Isa," she said, gesturing to the mass of blue on her shoulder. She looked around at all of us, taking in our weapons, and then our calmness around them. Her eyes lingered on Alex the longest, which I could relate to. As you guys know, there is a lot to describe about her, to say the least.

     Alex responded first. She had been looking between my eyes and Amara's, as if picking up on what I had noticed. "Hey, I'm Alex Fierro. I'm transgender and gender fluid. Right now my pronouns are she and her. I'll let you know otherwise." Amara's eyes widened slightly, but she didn't say anything. Alex continued, "The mess of red hair over there is Mallory Keen, her boyfriend next to her is Halfborn Gunderson, and next to him is our Union army man, Thomas Jefferson Jr."

     "But you can call me T.J." the infantryman cut in.

     "Nice to meet you all," she said. She seemed rather calm, but also withdrawn. I guessed she was still processing. I felt that. To this day, I still had a lot left to process. Samirah spoke up.

     "Well, we should really get to dinner. I got to go handle some Valkyrie business before though, would you mind taking her down?" I realised that Sam was addressing me, and I answered,

     "Sure." Then Sam turned around and walked briskly down the corridor to handle whatever she had to do, leaving us with an intimidated thirteen year-old girl.

     Amara put her bird away in her room, and then we all walked to the huge Hotel Valhalla elevator and piled in. When Amara saw the buttons for the different floors, her eyes widened again.

     "No way. There can't be that many floors, can there?"

     Halfborn laughed. "She's just like you Magnus! Yes, Valhalla has five hundred and forty floors, and five hundred and forty doors leading out to the Nine Worlds!" Her eyebrows knit, and I could practically see the gears in her brain processing and filing away the new information.

     "Does it go to the real world? Mid-something?" she asked.

     I wanted to warn Halfborn not to tell her; it wasn't something you tell someone who desperately wanted to leave a place they couldn't, but Halfborn responded, "Yes, Midgard, the human world of the living."

     She thought for a second, and then turned to me. "Is it true that your dad is Frey?" Turning to the rest she said, "Are any of you demigods too?"

     "Yeah, my dad's Frey."

     "My ma's Frigg."

     "My dad is Tyr."

     "And my mom is Loki," Alex finished. When Amara looked bewildered, I said, laughing,

     "Yeah, we don't go there." The elevator doors opened into the massive hall, and I thought it would be good to give a proper introduction. "Welcome to the Feast Hall of the Slain."

     Amara's jaw dropped at the sight of the hundreds of einherjar bustling around in the huge room, and I had the feeling she was fighting the urge to back up into the elevator and hit the button that would take her back to her room, or preferably to the newly discovered Midgard. But it was too late, and the spears that served as the elevator cage clanged shut, and with the outpouring of people we were forced to move.

     Out of nowhere Sam appeared and grabbed Amara's arm. "Thanks guys," she said. Amara tried to pull away but then Sam said, "Heads up." Amara yelped as Sam took off towards the front of the room and landed gracefully in front of the table set for the newest einherjar. Only Amara and one other kid, a boy that looked about fifteen, were there with their Valkyries. Both looked extremely nervous as they sat down.

     I stumbled over something small, and reached down to pick up a runestone. Dagaz. It was probably Amara's key card for her room, it must have slipped from her pocket when Sam picked her up. I held on to it to give to her later.

     Surprisingly, we snagged a great spot up front in the second row, really close to the thanes' table. Alex nudged me, "Hey, look." Apparently, Amara didn't seem to know that we were going to watch some Valkyrie Vision about her death, and when Sam started talking to her, I assumed she was getting the brief. Her face became paler with every word that came out of Sam's mouth. Alex wasn't smiling, but smirked ever so slightly. I narrowed my eyes at her.

     "You have no sense of sensitivity," I said shaking my head. Alex widened her eyes innocently.

     "What?"

     T.J. butted in. "Oh, come on. You were up there not long ago. And, might I add, you didn't look too calm either."

     Alex rolled her eyes. "Sheesh, sorry."

     "Sadistic people gonna be sadistic," Mallory said.

     "I'm not sadistic!" she cried indignantly. "I'm just...curious."

     To be honest, I was too. Amara hadn't said anything about her death, and I was kind of interested in what happened. I was wondering if she had been living a normal life, or a completely messed up one like my life.

     Alex turned to me. "Hey, look what Hearth did for me last time we met up, I forgot to show you." Alex pulled out her garrotte, and flicked it. I thought it was just a stupid trick to kill me unawares (floor nineteen had just finished a vicious prank war), but instead, it turned into a rope about ten feet long. "Can't be broken," she grinned smugly. Hearthstone was my elf friend who practiced rune magic. I think it was a sign of Alex and Hearth's growing friendship that he had decided to magic Alex's garrote even further, which I didn't really appreciate. She was dangerous enough with that thing already.

     I don't think Amara ate much, all I saw was her nibbling on a piece of bread, nothing else. When dinner was more or less over, Helgi, the head thane, stood up and began to speak.

     "Today, we welcome two new people to the ranks of the einherjar, the warriors of Odin! First, we will observe Amara Shajaah's death, and decide if she is a worthy einherji, thanks to Valkyrie Vision!"

     Applause broke out as a holographic screen appeared at the front of the room, at the feet of Yggdrasil. The footage started to roll, and we saw...