The Vikings had been given enough warning to stem the tide of Mongols invading their land. The war between both parties had become mired in stalemate. The loss of life on both sides mounted. I ensured any attempt at diplomacy was met with sabotage; the Azi-fey cloaked in illusion, well-suited for this purpose.

Satisfied with events, I had returned to Seastan Deireanach Sithern. I was ready for the next step and had turned to Findabair and Boag to keep the tensions between the two people stoked.

I hadn’t notified anyone of my return, wanting some time to myself. I wanted to spend some time with the World Tree. A time for reflection and a way to facilitate my next step.

The armies of Alexander were moving against Caesar. They hadn’t clashed yet, but Caesar had already been forced to react, pulling his men and troops from his pogrom of Sidhe destruction to withstand Alexander’s arrival.

With the Mongols and Norse fully engaged in war, the Sidhe were being ignored. Caesar and Ragnar Lodbrok were more concerned about protecting their own borders and people than massacring mine. The armies that had been so relentless in our destruction had been re-positioned to deal with those new threats. Their retreat did not mean the Sidhe would forget.

I planned to have the Twelve make plans to retaliate. With our alliance with most of the magical races beginning to take shape, it was time to put more pressure on Rome and Oslo.

I had gifted the Sidhe with the schematics and designs for a bastardized version of a personal scrying device. These devices worked well enough until the infrastructure needed to give worldwide coverage could be fabricated and utilized. With the [Hall of Portals] established and active, it should be easy to coordinate a pincher attack with Alexander and Beowulf.

As I moved to take the next step in my quest, I would leave the details for planning and enacting those strategies for others. I planned to leave Morgana as leader of the Sidhe forces. She had done well to safeguard our people after Lleu Llaw had betrayed and abandoned so many of our people. I had gauged her personality and spent time with her in conversation, enough to know that she would continue that policy of protection and fairness.

I needed to begin making plans for entering Asgard and stealing Odin’s eye.

And the World Tree was where those plans would start.

I had considered using Bifrost to attempt to sneak my way into Asgard. With my Demi-God like control over illusion and glamour and Ag’s ability to hide in shadow, I thought I might have a chance.

But the risk would have been significant.

Heimdall guarded that bridge fanatically. He never rested, only moving when he needed to fight or challenge anyone attempting to enter Asgard. He could not be bribed, forced, or tricked to leave his position as guardian. And the thought of sneaking past him had been a fool’s dream at best.

With the World Tree now restored, I could use my access to the tree to travel all nine realms so that the Bifrost bridge could be circumvented. Part of the reason I had continued to feed the tree my blood and magic was to strengthen the connection between us. Sidhe were adept at traveling betwixt and between, and Yggdrasil would facilitate a path forward.

I wasn’t sure where Yggdrasil would lead. Asgard was a world unto itself, perhaps smaller than Urt but more dangerous. The maps that I had access to were vague at best.

I thought the World Tree would connect to the Asgard realm at the Norn Forest, but the Enchanted Forest, Forest of Sigurd, or the Forest of Nightmare Plants were all possible. The only essential criteria for Yggdrasil to manifest an aspect of itself was a forest area.

Once I had arrived at the tree, I entered a meditative state, lost to time as I watched the flickering changes across the width and breadth of the tree. The most notable were the leaves—a constantly changing kaleidoscope of images that flickered with the scenes and life of each realm.

Anchored in three dimensions, the leaves and branches seemed to phase into and out of reality. Each segment of the World Tree contained a celestial aura that flowed like waves across the tree, the ebb and tide of change inviolable. A festoon of scenes from across the Nine Realms twinkled with flickering fairy lights filled with life and possibilities.

These leaves would determine and guide me to where I needed to go—they were the secret to accessing the World Tree. The process to traverse the tree was simple enough, break a leaf off, and the World Tree would send out tendrils of magic to reconnect the severed leaf to the branch.

At that moment, when the leaf was plucked, a connection would form. The leaf claims and is claimed by the person who holds it. And the World Tree would establish a passage between, a portal able to be used for the briefest moment in time would open. The whole of the tree focused on that one point in time and space.

The real trick to my task was selecting a leaf bound to Asgard. A task made easier because of the rainbow of colors that edged each leaf.

Just as Bifrost was a bridge constructed and shaped by a rainbow, the leaves of the World Tree shimmered with those same colors of the rainbow. Each color represented one of the nine realms.

Silver and gold had been added to the seven colors of the rainbow to give balance and separateness to each of the nine realms. Urt was linked with and classified as blue, not surprising since the planet was often referred to by that color. For Asgard, the color associated with that realm was gold, not to be confused with the sulfurous yellow of Muspelheim.

I had entered a meditative trance to track and time the changes for each leaf. No one leaf was anchored to the same place. The flickering changes that I witnessed occurred as each of the nine realms claimed a different position. Any leaf could be linked with any realm.

I was watching to find the pattern. I concentrated my full attention on just one leaf, watching as the nine realms flitted across it. I watched as I tried to discern the timing between realm swaps and the frequency each realm would manifest.

It took days for me to figure out that a pattern did exist. I had about given up, believing that [Chaos] was involved and that the changes were random. The realms appeared and disappeared so quickly that I couldn’t snatch a leaf when the area I wanted to be manifested. I had to anticipate and trust in my choice.

I had to discern the split second in time when the Asgard realm would be available and time my reflexive movement to begin before that transition so that I completed breaking leaf from a branch just as Asgard arrived.

Soon. Almost. Now!

My hand clenched, my decision made, and the leaf was plucked from the World Tree. A leaf bordered by gold. My entrance to Asgard assured. And just as quickly as I had grasped my target, the World Tree responded, enfolding the leaf and me in a blanket of magic.

Magic fused with the power of space, time, and dimension.

The leaf was returned to the tree branch that held it, and I was pulled through, my arrival at Asgard unnoticed. Heimdall was so focused on the Bifrost Bridge that he was unable and unprepared to notice my arrival.