"We should start getting ready," Grima told her. "Frey Falkor has invited us over for dinner tonight."

"You mean Hakon and Gunnar's father?" Astyr asked in surprise.

"Of course." Grima said "They are old family friends, you know," adding a laugh.

That reminded Astyr about her revelation and she couldn't help but ask Grima just how old she was, remembering the primitive hut she had seen in Grima's memory.

"Oh!" Grima started with surprise, "Let's see now, I was born just after the war with the Vanir so I guess that would make me about 13,000 years old now."

Astyr didn't even bother trying to make that make sense. She went to her room and tried to decide what might be the appropriate thing to wear to a casual dinner with people who had been around when cloth was invented. Then she remembered that she would be meeting Hakon's and Gunnar's parents and chose a simple silk dress in a deep navy blue color. She added her silver bead necklace and silver flats and slicked a little pink gloss onto her lips.

Grima didn't try to engage her in conversation as they drove to the Falkor's house so they sat in silence as Grima passed through town and turned left onto the road leading north out of town. This was a slightly better two-lane road than the one near their house but that wasn't saying a lot, country roads being what they are. After ten minutes, she turned off onto a small paved road that led between wide hay fields that were bounded by woods. This road led for a couple of miles without any trace of another house when they came up to a large brick home that looked like it had been placed there for a photo shoot. It had mature oak trees providing a splash of color along the road on each side and when they were clear of the canopy, they had a clear view of the giant structure. It was a Georgian mansion with tall Corinthian columns supporting the wide porch that spanned the entire front of the house. All of the rooms facing the porch had wide French doors and the upper story balcony had wrought iron railings. The roof had three gables and two tall chimneys rising towards the sky. The driveway cut through the landscaped grounds in front of the house and continued on around the left side of the house, but Grima stopped in front and they both got out and walked up the wide steps that led to the porch.

Gunnar opened the door before they could knock and welcomed them into the foyer. He took their jackets and hung them up on a polished wooden hat rack behind the door. They passed through from the entryway into a large rotunda. A wide staircase swept up to the second floor and above them was an elaborate stained-glass dome. They walked further and came to an elegant living room with a large stone fireplace topped by a carved marble mantle piece taking up most of one wall. Hakon and his father rose from the antique French chairs to greet Grima, and Astyr was introduced to Frey and his wife Gerda.

Gerda was almost as tall as her husband and her long thick hair was as black as her sons'. Her eyes were a slightly lighter shade of sapphire blue than Gunnar's but were just as intense. She appeared to be in her late twenties but Astyr didn't put much stock in her appearance as a reliable indicator based on what she had just learned that afternoon. She was well dressed in a pale blue silk suit that couldn't have been bought anywhere but in Paris and she wore a string of enormous, perfectly round freshwater pearls at her neck. She gave a warm welcome to Astyr and suggested that the boys take her on a tour of the house, so the three of them left the adults sitting and headed off through the kitchen.

The kitchen itself was large and well appointed with modern appliances and shared the space with a cozy-looking family room and a small casual dining table. French doors at the opposite end led out to a covered loggia that had a barbecue area at one end and was semi-enclosed by the garage. They sat in the chairs and Astyr told them all that she had learned that afternoon. They were concerned and asked if she was having trouble with her new view of her life.

"Maybe, but it's not like I had a normal life before and this is out of the blue." Astyr told them. "I mean, I couldn't look people in the eyes without invading their minds. I knew there was something going on. I just didn't think it was going to end up being something so..." She couldn't find a word to describe what she felt but the boys seemed to understand.

"Is there even a name for what we are?" She asked them, "And are there more of us?"

"What we are is called Aesir," Hakon told her, "but there are other races of our species."

"Yeah," Gunnar added, "there are the Vanir, who aren't really different from us, the Jotnar who are giants, the Alfar, and the Nithavellir."

"Giants? Gunnar. Really?" Astyr couldn't hide her skepticism. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that?"

"Why not, human history accounts are filled with stories of giants." he replied. "Did you think they're all make-believe?"

"Actually, I do!" She said laughing.

The boys laughed with her at that and Hakon playfully threw one of the pillows at her. "Don't be silly, Astyr." He said, "We've never hidden ourselves from humans. Half of what they write is about us. All of the Greek gods on Mt. Olympus were Vanir and the Titans were Jotnar. That's the way we were recorded by humans because they couldn't understand why we were stronger, faster, bigger, lived for incredibly long periods of time and could do things that seemed impossible to them."

"But those are just myths, Hakon." Astyr said, "Are you trying to tell me that all those ancient belief systems were based on real people?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying, Astyr." Hakon looked straight at her. "All the stories you have heard are true. The myths, the legends, the deities, even some of the fairy tales. The stories of elves come from the Alfar, the demons are the Nithavellir, Jotnar really are giants and werewolves and vampires come from us and the Vanir."

"How in the world could stories about people changing into wolves and drinking people's blood come from people like us?" Astyr asked them nervously. She had a feeling this might be one of those questions she didn't really want to hear the answer to.

"Well, the werewolf stories are because people like us, Aesir and Vanir, can use the energy in their bodies to shift forms." Hakon said matter-of-factly. "All of us can do it if we choose to, but it takes a lot of energy and it leaves us vulnerable until we can recharge."

Well, that didn't sound too bad, Astyr thought to herself. "So are werewolves, I mean, sorry, are we, like, I don't know," she couldn't get the words out clearly. "Can we be killed with silver bullets, or something?"

The boys broke out laughing at that and Gunnar spoke up to answer her. "No, silly, we can only be killed with silver bullets if someone shoots them into our hearts or brains. But any kind of bullet will do the same." He said, "Normally, if we are hurt after our bodies start the regeneration process, we'll just heal really fast unless we are injured so badly that we die before we can heal, like if we're shot in the heart or the brain."

"Oh, that's," Astyr had to think for a second how she actually felt about it, "um, reassuring, I guess. So when exactly does this regeneration process start?" She asked.

"That's easy," Hakon said. "It starts on your sixteenth birthday."

"Oh, what happens?" She asked but both boys looked away from her. Finally Hakon cleared his throat and told her it would be best to talk about that later when they had more time.

"Anyway," Hakon added, "we'd better finish giving you a tour of the house, and Mom doesn't like us to be late for dinner. Let's start with my place since we're right here."

"What do you mean 'your place'?" She asked, "Don't you live here?"

"Yeah," he said, "I live here but I stay in the apartment over the garage. I'm too old to live right in my parents' house. If it wasn't for Gunnar, I'd be back out on my own."

They had slipped up the stairs just inside the door to the garage and at the top entered straight into a small, modern kitchen. The sink was set into the granite countertop on the right and directly in front of them was a small, shiny stove that appeared to have never been used. To the left of the stove was a shiny side-by-side refrigerator that had a few photos and notes held on to it with colored magnets. Just beyond the kitchen was a small living room that had dormer windows on either side, a large LED television mounted on one wall and a comfortably overstuffed sofa opposite. Scattered on the coffee table were a wide selection of wireless video game remotes but Astyr didn't know the difference between any of them. There was another large squashy chair stuffed into the corner and it looked like two people could sit in it comfortably with their feet up on the soft ottoman in front of it. There was a short hallway that presumably led to the bedroom and bathroom but they stood in the living room for a moment.

"So, if your parents let you have your own place or even live wherever you want," Astyr addressed this to Hakon, "does that mean you're not really seventeen?"

Hakon gave a snort of laughter that only a guy as handsome as he was could pull off without looking like a dork.

"Ah, no, Astyr," he said, "I haven't been seventeen in over four hundred years."

"Four hundred!" Astyr was shocked. "You can't be over four hundred years old. You look like you're eighteen."

"Well, we don't really start to show signs of age until we get to be at least 10,000 years old." Hakon said. "And it's not really signs of age like you think of in humans. We might get fine lines around our eyes but that's just creasing from smiles, not really wrinkling. Humans get wrinkles because the collagen in their skins breaks down; that doesn't happen for us. And humans get gray hair because their hair follicles get old and stop being able to make pigment. But for us, our hair turns white from a build-up of energy. But while older humans tend to be weaker, the oldest of our kind are stronger than ever."

"And what about you, Gunnar?" Astyr asked, turning to face him directly. "How old are you, really?"

"I'm still young enough that I don't have to lie about my age." He replied, laughing at Hakon who grabbed him in a neck-hold and proceeded to wrestle him down onto the chair in the corner. They came up laughing together to see Astyr just staring at them.

"Oh," Gunnar got a sheepish look on his face and gave her the truth. "I turn sixteen in three weeks."

"Does that mean you're going to start this process then?" She asked.

"Yeah, but let's talk about this later." He said. "We have to go finish showing you around"

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