Chapter 12: Who We Thought We Were

"Waitwaitwait," Anders put his hand up, trying to pause the train of the conversation that had seemed to derail somewhere around Insanityville. "Elizabet… Agnetha, she was our mother."

"I never said she wasn't," Olaf replied serenely.

"And Agnetha WAS Freyja," Axl cut in. The room was tense and full of confusion.

"I was fooled, too, for a very long time. Until we were all at Starbucks, and Ingrid and I both put the signs together at the same time."

"What signs, grandpa?" Mike was barely containing his frustration at the slow pace of the discussion. He wanted answers.

"Well," chimed in Ingrid, "first there were the cats. Do you remember the cats that were yowling behind your apartment, Ty?" The brother nodded slowly. "Freyja is associated with cats, so it would make sense that they would become excited by her arrival here."

"But Ingrid and I still weren't sure, until tonight. When Sarah was talking about her goddess powers, it all came together. Freyja is the goddess of fertility and love and sex and war…" Olaf continued.

"Damn. My kind of goddess!" Anders quipped and winked at Sarah, who turned red and decided that the carpeting on the floor was really the safest place to focus her eyes.

"But mother was the goddess of PROSPERITY. She was RICH!" Ty chimed in. "Who else but Freyja could have that kind of luck with money?"

"That's the thing I keep telling you boys," Olaf sighed with exasperation. "God powers manifest differently, depending on the host. Ullr, here, could just as easily have built up an empire. Gambling, sure, but he could have a lot of money, too."

"Then, who…?" Axl began, but just looked between Ingrid and Olaf with confusion. Ingrid put her hand on Olaf's thigh, and Olaf took the sign. Nobody would like what had to be said, and she wanted it done as gently as possible.

"We think your mother might have actually been Gridr." Ingrid let the words out slowly, but then continued when she saw no one in the room recognized the name. "Gridr is associated with greed, and while no Norse being is really inherently evil, Gridr comes pretty close. Nothing gets in the way of her plans, which," Ingrid turned to look directly at Axl, "would explain how a mother could try to have her son killed by a handmaiden or married off to Hel. That doesn't really sound like the actions of a family-oriented goddess. It explains why she left her family to fend for themselves so she could become a tree…"

"Sorry, a what-now?" asked Sarah.

"And," concluded Olaf, "it also probably explains some of the turbulence in your parents' marriage." All eyes turned to him as he took a deep breath to put the final nail in the coffin, "Gridr isn't a goddess; she's Jotunn."

It was as if, Sarah thought, she was sitting inside a painting; everything seemed real around her, but nothing moved. She felt a pang of sympathy for these kind people. What's worse: never knowing who you and your family are, or finding out that you've been wrong your entire life and everything you think you know was probably a lie? She didn't know what a "Jotunn" was, but the way that Olaf guy had said it, it didn't sound positive.

"Is, is a Jotunn like a demon or something?" Sarah hesitantly broke the silence to ask.

"They were a race of monsters," Mike answered, his eyes wide and unfocused, staring blankly at the carpet under his feet. Hanna slowly stroked his hair, her brows drawn with concern.

"I've gotta go," Anders popped up out of his chair. "I'm sorry, I've just…." he didn't finish his thought before walking out.

"Come on, Axl," said Ty, putting his beer down in the kitchen. "I think this party is over. I'll drive you home."

"Ta," Axl said absent-mindedly as he stood up from his chair. "It was, um, lovely to see you again, Sarah." Axl said as he passed by her on his way to the door. She gave him an awkward grimace, and they both pretended it was a smile. Mike picked his eye up to see everyone leaving.

"Sorry about this, Sarah. This isn't how our typical evenings go." He looked at her and was surprised to see how sad she looked. She was sad for them, he knew, and it was an endearing trait. Maybe all New Yorkers weren't evil and soulless. He might visit the city one day.

"It's ok. I'm sorry about your mom. I guess nobody here is who we thought we were." She took a sip from her beer and sighed.

"Look, you're all still who you thought you were, right?" comforted Ingrid. "The only thing that's changed is who your mother said she was. Elizabet, tree, Agnetha, Freyja, or Gridr; you are all still who you are." Ty and Axl nodded, but walked out the front door without another word.