Frygga? Iris thought as her head continued swimming. That’s the name Bellona said. What was she again?

“I understand your frustration,” Frygga responded, trying desperately to catch her breath. “All of these millennia of peace with your kind are now being thrown out the window.”

“Do not forget that I’m the only one,” Arylos responded, as if in warning.

“Right,” Frygga chuckled nervously as if she forgot. “I only want to know where my son is.”

“I’m telling you the truth when I say I don’t know,” Arylos responded while crossing his arms. “After I told him to get lost, he ran away and I have not seen him since.”

“You were able to injure him though,” Frygga continued. “Were you able to figure out what is wrong with him?”

Arylos rested his chin on his hands and lost himself in thought. “If only I knew. It was a random chance that I was able to fight back, not a calculated move.”

“So even you don’t know what’s wrong with him?” Frygga summarised with sadness in her voice.

Arylos shook his head. “I’m sorry that I’m not much help. I’ve seen something like this before, but not exactly like this; the entire mechanism is different.”

“You’re talking about his invincibility?” Iris cut in.

“He’s been that way since he was young,” Frygga confirmed, her sadness growing in her voice. “We don’t know what happened; he just changed one day. Anoron even tried to induce a reincarnation in him but he would just get back up.”

“Even Anoron got nowhere?” Arylos asked out of concern.

“But how does someone just change like that?” Iris asked.

“Some of my sisters believe he’s cursed,” Frygga answered. “From who and how, no one knows.”

Arylos stroked his beard, deep in thought as this problem stuck him like a thorn. A puzzle he had to solve, be it for Frygga’s sake or his own. “So you want me to figure out where he is and what happened to him,” Arylos summarised after a long thought.

“You’re the only one I can turn to,” Frygga pleaded. “Anoron can’t help me, and I fear he will be less inclined to with Odin insisting on a war against you.”

Arylos continued stroking his beard with a deep sigh. “Then tell me what Odin’s response was to my message.”

Frygga clasped her hands together and sat in silence, as if trying to formulate the correct response. “He was furious,” she said after collecting her thoughts. “He made that as an example that you will bring about Ragnarok and berated Baldr for his failure to eliminate you.”

“So in trying to turn Odin away, I only stoked the flames,” Arylos wondered aloud. “I take it Odin told Baldr to finish the job and that’s why you came here?”

“Part of the reason,” Frygga admitted with sorrow in her eyes. “Odin attacked him, struck him in a way that left him broken and bleeding. Baldr was screaming the whole time.”

“That doesn’t sound right,” Iris cut in as she turned to Arylos. “You said he was laughing when you cut out his guts. Why would he be in pain if Odin struck him?”

Arylos’s brow furrowed as he rubbed his eyes. “You mean to tell me Odin not only attacked his own son, but managed to hurt him.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Frygga answered.

“Do you know how?” Arylos sighed.

“I wasn’t there,” Frygga explained. “I heard the commotion and by the time I got to the hall to see what was going on, Baldr was running away, more broken than when he returned.”

“So Odin has a way to hurt him just like I could,” Arylos gathered, trying to process everything. “I could only injure him with my own hands and I only figured that out by sheer dumb luck. If Odin has a way around his curse, we need to know what it is.”

“How come?” Iris asked.

Arylos looked to his hands as he explained. “I was only able to injure him with my own hands, my own strength. My Titanic strength. My sword channels my magic but it’s separate from my real strength. If Odin has a way to injure him, it could function in a similar way.”

“You can’t be serious,” Frygga exclaimed in fear.

“Maybe you two are just strong,” Iris brushed off the explanation.

“Iris, you don’t get it,” Arylos cut in, rubbing his eyes again. “I was able to fight him using my Titanic strength. Only my race has that kind of power and I’m the only one left.”

Iris sat in silence, processing what Arylos was trying to say. “So Odin has his hands on some kind of Titanic power?”

Arylos nodded with a deep sigh. “That or he has a relic or weapon from my world that he can control, and that is not a good thing.”

The three sat in silence as they came to terms with this reality. The possibility that Odin somehow possesses strength similar to that of Arylos is frightening. Arylos knew that Odin was always power hungry in his attempts to subvert Ragnarok, but this is on the level of blasphemy.

“Frygga,” Arylos called out after the silence passed. “I will do what I can, but understand that if I cannot help, then I cannot help and that’s that.”

“What do you mean?” Frygga asked.

Arylos held his hands together as he gave his proposal. “I will try to help Baldr if I am able to, but if the worst comes to pass, I cannot prioritise him. If I have to choose between him and Iris here, he will not even be a consideration. I hope you understand my position on that.”

Frygga thought about Arylos’s proposal at length; considering what his words meant, what they truly meant. “I understand,” she responded softly.

“I know we’re friends and as a result, we have a non-aggression pact, but that has been broken in the past year,” Arylos continued his explanation. “Odin has attacked innocent people twice in an attempt to destroy me. So if he is desperate enough to throw his own children in my way, then he will have to pay dearly for that. He is the one instigating this, not me.”

“Arylos, you can’t say that you’ll kill him without a second thought,” Iris cut in, trying to appeal to him.

“I promise to help if I am able to,” Arylos answered, maintaining a stern voice. “If I am not able to, then I can promise nothing. It’s that simple, Iris.”

“But Arylos–”

“That’s enough,” He cut Iris off. “Understand that I want to help, I really do. But I also have to protect what I have at all costs.”

“I understand completely,” Frygga responded in agreement. “If I had to choose between my sons and your friend, even I would make the same choice. What saddens me is that Odin will not make the same decision.”

Iris’s voice cracked and she bowed her head. She understood as well; if she and Arylos weren’t friends, she would have killed him if it meant her village was spared. In fact, that may have been the likely outcome had things went differently.

“You have my word that I will try, but if I cannot, please accept my word that I won’t hesitate to destroy him if I must,” Arylos affirmed, reaching his hand out to Frygga who examined his hand closely, weighing the decision, before reaching out and grabbing his forearm in a foreign handshake.

“I came here only to ask that you try,” Frygga responded. “If you can do at least that much, then I have nothing more to ask.”

The Titan and the Templarian stood as Frygga made for the door with Arylos in tow. Iris could not help but sit in silence, thinking about everything she heard.

We’ll never be able to live in peace will we? She thought.