I practiced the magic circle whenever I could - mostly in my dorm room. Usually, I had to take a nap or drink strong coffee after each attempt. I still didn't say anything to Percy - I just couldn't distract him from school right now. It was hard to keep a secret from him, I really didn't like it, but I also knew he'd want to join me and he couldn't split his focus.
I was helping Percy study for a history test when Paul's voice called from the living room, "Uh, Percy? Annabeth? There's a crow trying to get into the apartment and somehow that feels like it's got to do with you two."
Percy and I raced into the living room, leaving behind a flurry of papers. Sure enough, a raven was bouncing on the window sill, clearly trying to be let in. Percy glanced at me.
"Trap?"
"Possibly." I said, readying my knife, "but perhaps…." I remembered something I had read in one of the Norse mythology books I'd borrowed from the library after re-meeting Magnus. Ravens were supposed to be sacred to Odin. Perhaps this was some kind of message, or a test. The raven held up its foot and I relaxed. A note was tied to it.
"Relax." I informed Percy, then glanced at Sally and Paul who were in the hallway. Paul had hefted a large textbook reading Advanced Literature and Language - a Complete Guide, clearly intending to use it as a weapon. "I think it's a fairly normal raven with a message."
"A message?" Percy asked as I opened the window.
"Caw!" Said the raven, holding out its foot. I gently used my blade to cut the strings, then looked at the raven.
"Can you wait, uh, for my return message? I'll find something to feed you." I glanced at the others. "Any idea what ravens eat?"
The raven answered that by flying in and grabbing a strawberry off the counter. It happily sat on the back of a kitchen chair to eat its prize.
"Hey!" Paul complained, lowering the textbook. "I just washed that! I was making chocolate strawberries!"
"Yum." Sally muttered. "Now, can someone please explain the raven?"
I unrolled the letter. "It's a letter from my cousin. Long story short - he's a Norse demigod." I saw Sally and Paul's shoulders relax, so I added, as casually as I could, "Oh, and he's dead." There's not really an easy way to explain that to people.
Paul's mouth opened and shut several times, but his eyes were shining with excitement. "Uh, ok, has he met Thor, and if so, can I get a picture of me trying to lift the hammer?"
I laughed and read the letter.
Annabeth - when can we meet? I have tried calling and texting but I'm not getting through. Please attach your message to the raven and tell it 'Magnus Chase - Valhalla' and it will return to me. I need to talk to you. My latest 'quest' was a mess. Everyone's ok, but I need to talk. Love you, cuz. See you soon.
"Everything ok?" Percy asked, worry clear in his voice.
"Yeah. Magnus just asked to see me - I guess he tried texting and calling and couldn't get through. I should have thought of that." I sighed. "Stupid emperors. I guess messing with the Greek/Roman part of my life wasn't enough." I went back to Percy's room and grabbed my notebook and a pen. I ripped out a sheet and wrote,
"Magnus - sorry about the communication difficulties. See you Saturday? Let's meet halfway. New London, Connecticut." I looked up train schedules and found a time we could both get there. I wrote down the options and went back to the raven. Paul was happily petting the raven and trying to get it to talk while he fed it another strawberry, his anger over the stolen one clearly vanished. I held up the note for the raven to see and it stuck out it's foot, clearly used to the routine.
After it left, Sally sat down with the now-finished chocolate strawberries. "Ok. Annabeth, I guess we haven't really been focussing on you, but we should've. What's going on with your cousin?"
And so I told Percy and his parents what I knew about the Norse gods and Valhalla and my dead-but-not-dead cousin, as we all enjoyed the chocolate strawberries. It felt so good to talk to people about all this craziness. It felt like…. Well, like a family. And that didn't feel so strange anymore.
On Saturday I took a train down to New London, Connecticut, and waited for Magnus's train to arrive. He was wearing a green "Hotel Valhalla" t-shirt that I was sure most of the mortals thought was a strange band shirt. His jeans had rips that looked suspiciously like claw marks and his hair was far shorter than I remembered. As soon as he stepped off the train I yanked him into a hug.
"I was so relieved," I told him, "I never thought I'd be glad to see a raven at my window, but, are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah." Magnus said, but I could tell he was lying. Magnus was in trouble - something bad was going on in Norse-world. Or, Norse-Nine-Worlds.
"A lot to talk about." Magnus explained. "Let's get some lunch."
As we left the train station I turned to him. "I have to ask - the hair? It looks like you hacked it off with a broadsword."
Magnus laughed. "Long story - my friend Alex cut it off. We needed it to make some thread to sew a Giant's bowling bag."
I tried not to laugh as I said, "Your hair has special talents? Like, it glows when you sing, like Rapunzel?"
"Don't laugh!" Magnus complained. "Uh, technically, all of me glows, not just my hair. And I will not sing."
"You could." I offered.
"I won't."
"I want to see you glow." I countered as we continued down the street. "My friend Will can glow."
Magnus just shook his head so I changed the subject. "So, your friend Alex cut off all your hair to use as magical string for a Giant's bowling ball bag. Sure. Makes complete sense."
Magnus laughed until he had a coughing fit. Briefly, I remembered that he had asthma as a kid, then I remembered he was technically dead, and can dead people have asthma? Since his coughing fit ended, I decided not to worry about it.
"Yeah, my friend Blitz -"
"The dwarf." I remembered.
"Yeah, he's a clothes designer. He said he needed magical ingredients, including my hair and Alex's blood -"
"Woah -" I held up my hands, trembling a little. "As someone who was nearly used as a human sacrifice -"
Magnus shook his head. "No, she's not dead. We just…. Kinda, cut her arm and bled her into a thermos."
I shook my head. "Yeah, ok, similar thing happened to my leg to wake Gaea. Let's not talk about that part, ok? Is Alex ok? And you?"
Magnus nodded. "Yeah, we're both fine. I think my hair will grow back. I hope."
We found a place to eat called Muddy Waters cafe, probably some blues musician based on the decor, but they advertised good burgers, which was what I cared about. Magnus found us a table outside and we sat, enjoying the view and being with each other before we got into talking about whatever danger was happening in Norse-world.
I could tell Magnus was having a hard time thinking of how to start, so I did instead. "It's been crazy in New York. I thought communications were only down among demigods…. I mean my kind, the Greek and Roman, but then I realized I hadn't heard from you, either. I'm sorry that didn't dawn on me sooner."
"Wait, why are communications down?"
I tapped my fork on the table, trying to decide how much I should drag Magnus into the trouble in New York if he already had his own problems.
"There's a crisis happening," I explained. "A god fell to earth as a human. These evil Roman emperors are back, causing trouble."
"Oh, so just the usual, then." Magnus said, smiling.
I had to laugh, "Yeah. Somehow these evil Romans found a way to mess up communication among demigods. Not just the usual magical kinds of talking, but also cell phones, Wi-Fi, you name it. I'm surprised your raven made it to me. I would've come up to Boston to check on you sooner, but…." I shrugged, not wanting to add another layer to Magnus's life by telling him about my learning Egyptian magic. "I've had my hands full."
"I totally get it." Magnus assured me. "I probably shouldn't be distracting you. You've got enough to deal with…"
I reached across the table and took his hand. "Are you kidding? I want to help. What's going on?"
Magnus gave me a relieved smile and poured out everything that was happening. How Thor's hammer had gone missing (Sorry, Paul, no photos with it), and he and his friends had tried to get it back. How his friend Sam had nearly had to marry a Giant (reminded me a lot of Clarisse and Grover nearly marrying a Cyclops), but his friend Alex shape-shifted and took her place. Then there was a major battle involving Giants, the god Loki being freed, and our uncle Randolph falling straight to Hel.
"That's H-E-L 'Hel', not H-E-L-L," Magnus explained. "So not eternal torment. I think. Just the afterlife."
I swallowed. I wasn't close with Randolph - in fact, the last time I'd seen him was Magnus's funeral. But every death I encountered just seemed to compile, and I didn't like how long the list was getting.
"So, what's next?"
Magnus smiled at me, relief apparent on his face. He informed me that his friend Sam, a valkyrie , had this plan about how Loki would appear on his ship of dead people in Scandinavia. Which…. Ok. Seems fairly creepy and bad.
"A boat trip." I muttered. "Oh, boy. That brings back painful memories."
"Yeah. I remembered what you said about sailing to Greece and…. Yeah." Magnus was silent for a while, then said quietly. "Look, I don't want to put any pressure on you. I just thought…. I don't know…. Maybe you'd have some ideas, some pointers."
I thought about that. Did I have any pointers? If you see your godly parent, do not accept a suicide quest. If you defeat your parent's mortal enemy, make sure you aren't tangled in spiderwebs. Don't fall to H-E-L-L. If you encounter fish-centaurs, they make good brownies.
"You say you have problems with sea gods." I muttered, thinking aloud.
"Yeah, Ran…. this bag lady with a net. And I guess her husband hates me too now. His name is Aegir."
I tapped my forehead, getting a headache as I thought about all these new gods. Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and now Norse. How many pantheons will Annabeth be dragged into?
"I need more memory storage for all these names. Okay, I don't know how this works with multiple sea gods. Are the Norse ones just in the north and Poseidon is in the south, or do they do, like, a time-share program….?"
"I don't know." Magnus said, looking sheepish. I could tell he was hoping I'd have the answers. "But I'd like to avoid getting all my friends drowned in a tsunami as soon as we leave Boston."
"But you've got some time?"
"Until this summer. We can't leave while the seas are frozen or something.
That didn't make a ton of sense, but sure. At this point, I was just grateful for the reprieve. "Good. We'll be done with school by then, finally graduated."
"I don't go to school. Oh…. you mean we as in you and your boyfriend?"
"Exactly." I said, feeling good about having a plan. "Assuming he passes his semester and does okay on his standardized tests, assuming these evil Roman emperors don't kill us all and destroy the world…"
"Yeah." Magnus gave me that sarcastic smile. "Loki would be seriously ticked off if Roman emperors destroyed the world before he got to start Ragnarok."
"We should have enough time to help you, at least compare notes, maybe call in some favors." The gods owed us a lot of favors.
"Um, what favors?"
I smiled at my cousin. "I don't know the ocean very well, but my boyfriend does. I think it's time you met Percy."