After braiding Reidun's hair for the last time in who knew how long, Revna left her little sister with a kiss and set out to return Mjolnir to Eric Thorsson before he accused her of stealing it. She stuffed the chain and pendant sized artifact into a small bag strung from her belt alongside her keys. Ancestors, she had planned to spend her last morning home sharing stories with her little sister to let the girl know how much she was loved, not traipsing through the tunnels across Nidavellir to the expensive homes where Thorsson lived. Reidun would set out to school half-past first bell.

Memory dug her talons into the leather strap slung over Revna's good shoulder, and the girl carried a lantern full of glow-moss in one hand because, even in the morning, Nidavellir was dark. Shafts ran up through the caverns to the surface, where there was supposedly a sky. Ocasionally, bits of light filtered through, but never enough that Revna could see patches of blue or stars. Even in the main cavern where the town was, the sky–the patches of it that they could almost see, ranged from black to dark purple, and they never saw a sparkle of the promised stars. Revna's mother had told the girls stories of how they had adventured across worlds to protect them from the Jotun, before the time when she didn't come back. In her stories, Mama always talked aboiut yellow-white suns, nearly as big has her fist, set like jewels in light blue skies with white, fluffy clouds. Maybe Revna would see something like that in Midgard. Maybe she would see something other than cave walls with chimneys struck through.

The tunnel narrowed, and Memory hopped down just before Revna's bad shoulder brushed the wall of the damp, narrow tunnel. She winced at the pain, but refused to slow to rub it or attempt to dry her cloak. Instead, with the raven moving behind her, Revna crawled on her hands and knees through the extra narrow space. She was nearly halfway there, she could hear the hammers ringing through the twilight darkness. While not all dwarves were smiths, most practiced some craft that they trusted the Aesir and Vanir to sell throughout the worlds. The rich ones who lived in the huge, glowing homes, not Revna's family of course. Revna and her family would never be trusted with such powerful artifacts, and the only reason they had gleaned Thought and Memory over the centuries was because their dead owners had gifted them to her ancestors. That, and ravens were mischievious carrion birds, so of course they gravitated towards descendants of Hel and her father Loki.

The dwarves' eyes were meant for the darkness, and they could see for miles. To them, this world was bright enough and cheery. Though Revna knew nothing else, she longed for the jewel-like sun Mama had promised her. The sun so bright, that to look on it was to risk blindness.

In the main cavern where most of the dwarves lived, they set about their business. Short, bearded dwarves, both men and women, gathered glow moss and mushrooms from buildings carved into hollow stalagmites or built from stone carved from the earth. Unlike the rest of the intellgient races, the dwarves needed little but the mushrooms growing on their homes to survive. Still, a long line always formed outside the duck keeper's home to buy eggs because the dwarves loved the taste of delicacies from other worlds. If only Revna could buy a couple eggs for her sister. Maybe the pay Reidun would receive while Revna was on this missionw would be enough to keep Reidun fed while she was gone. The money from their mother's death hadn't really been enough to keep them well fed. The dwarves thoguht they should just eat the mushrooms that grew everywehere, but that hadn't been enough. Not for growing girls.

As she passed, the dwarves stopped what they were doing to watch her. She turned her eyes from the line at the duck keeper's cottage and toward the houses on the hill. But she didn't miss the dwarves crooking their fingers and waving them through the air, warding against her. Warding against her ability to trespass against death.

Revna was tempted to do something to scare them. But this wasn't the time. Besides, it wasn't like she liked raising the dead, or had even done it outside of practice with her Mama. She'd only practiced with rats, except for the one time. And now she did wrap the chain of Mjolnir around her wrist and reach back to rub the ache in her shoulder. She couldn't ignore it when she thought of the dead. At least Reidun's gifts seemed to lie elsewhere, in hearing the dead's words. In reaching through to the other side. Perhaps she favored her unknown father, but at least Reidun wouldn't die as Mama had, as Revna was doomed to, with the rot slowly spreading through her body the more she used her power.

The school house would be full of dwarven children and the handful of Aesir who didn't have private tutors. Reidun would attend in the afternoon, after gathering mushrooms. The dwarven schoolmaster said she was a good student. Of course, he didn't know that Reidun could listen to the answers from the dead. Her talents lay in other paths than her sister's,and that was a good thing. She'd never suffer the way Mama had or the way that Revna would.

At the far end of the main cavern, Revna chose the tunnel that would lead off to the wealthy Aesir's houses. THey didn't live in tiny cottages--barely more than shacks, that No,

Revna could almost imagine a bejeweled sun, as she looked past the town to the glowing squares on the hill. The wealthy had windows on their homes, that looked down into the darkness of the town. Their brightly lit homes hurt their servants' eyes, but the dwarves who served them wore darkened glasses to protect their eyes and spoke of the treasures in their homes. And here, Revna clutched Mjolnir, one of the most precious treasures that, somehow, the Raven lazily following her had stolen.

Stolen story; please report.

The tunnel she was in, wide already, widened and the comfortable warmth of the Aesir cavern forced her to remove her heavy cloak. The luxurious homes had been built close to the gush of a geyser. The boiling water would never reach their luxurious homes, but the heat from the water warmed their whole area. The dwarves didn't like it, but the heat warmed her, starting with her feet and relieved the ache in her shoulder. Revna couldn't imagine living in the warm open space. In this area, stalactites and stalagmites had connected, forming a sort of forest. Or what Revna imagined would be a forest.

Still, her stomach clenched as she moved closer to Erik's home. She swallowed her fear of the mission, perhaps Alvis would be have seen that she was coming and would meet her to help her to explain why she was returning Mjolnir hours before their mission. Perhaps Alvis would protector her from Erik's taunts. What kind of Aesir was she that she wouldn't use her power except in the most dire need. Erik who needed Mjolnir to open the portal to Midgard and even make this mission possible. Of course, there were other tools that could open portals, and even Thought and Memory could broach the World Tree's so that they could speak across different worlds, but Mjolnir was the one that had been in Erik's family since the time of their Illustrious Ancestors.

The mansions stood at the bottom of the warm cavern, and the light shining from their massive windows made Revna imagine she could see the light of the sun, filtering through. Of course, it was just their lights shining through the strange glass bulbs the dwarves had invented.

Sweating, cloak thrown over her bad shoulder, Revna stopped outside the door of the Thorsson's mansion, and tidied her hair. Her hand hesitated at the door, but before she could find the words that she would say, Memory hopped off her shoulder and tapped hard on the heavy door.

A dwarven woman opened the door, the light glowing so brighlty behind her that Revna had to blink a few times for her eyes to have a chance to adjust. Even though Revna was far taller than the woman, she somehow managed to look down her nose at Revna as she stepped outside and shut the door. When the door was shut, the servant raised the darkened goggles that protected her eyes from the bright light inside the home.

The servant somehow managed to look down her nose at the far taller Revna as she asked, "What do you want?"

On Revna's shoulder, Memory cawed in outrage.

"Hush," Revna whispered to the raven. She patted the purse at her belt. "The raven took something that belongs to Erik. I came to return it."

"The young master is leaving on an important mission today, he doesn't need to be distracted by the likes of you."

Revna fought the urge to roll her eyes. "He needs this. Besides, Alvis saw that without me, that mission will fail." Revna tried not to think of the implications there. Did that mean someone crucial was going to die and she'd have to resurrect them? How far would the rot spread if she were forced to use her power? And what would she do if it were someone like Erik who she had to raise

The servant sighed and settled the dark goggles over her eyes.

"Are you going to let me return his belongings or are you going to delay that same important mission?"

The servant opened the door. "I'll take you to the young Master. He is much aggrieved this morning."

Just what she needed. Erik already disdained her. because she refused to use her powers, which put her at the bottom of the Aesir. That with Loki's betrayal of the Aesir centuries ago and how that had lead to them being all but stuck on Nidavellir.

Revna set her glow lantern down beside the door.

"The bird stays outside. Can't have him stealing anything else."

Revna bit her tongue, wanting to correct hte dwarf. Memory was the female of the pair — well, neither Thought nor Memory were truly alive, more clockwork than anything, but they were still counted brother and sister with Memory the sister.

"Of course." Memory dug her talons deeper into the leather guard on Revna's shoulder. "Hush, I'll be out in minutes."

The bird squawked, then hopped off her shoulder and flapped up to an outcrop of the home. Light shown out the building, technically.

Revna had seen the Thorsson home from the outside, but she hadn't been prepared for oppulance retrieved from a dozen worlds. As the descendants of Baldr, Thor, and Odin's gavored children, the Thorsson's enjoyed the benefits of generations of power, prestige, and travel among the worlds.

The servant knocked on the door to Erik's room.

Something banged against the door. "What do you want?"

"Miss Revna is here to deliver something to you that her raven took," the servant called through the door.

Throat dry, Revna swallowed hard. Just what she needed. She patted the purse on her belt. It held all of her money, money that she would need to buy one last gift for Reidun before she left. And the Mjolnir.

"Give me a minute." The sound of clothes rustling and then the door opened to reveal Erik in a thin dressing gown. Their home was so warm, it was only for modesty, though it scarcely served that purpose. His muscular shoulders strained the material and it hung loose over his partially tightened breaches. His room though, had been torn asunder, clearly he was looking for Mjolnir, even if he wouldn't admit he had lost it.

"What? What could your dumb bird have taken?"

Revna's eyes slid to the maid who stood in the hall next to her. She shrugged. If he wanted to play this game, she would play it as well.

"Memory is anything but dumb. She has centuries of experience." Revna turned her gaze to the mess in his room. "I don't think she was mistaken in thinking that this was the real artifact." Revna untied the purse from her belt and loosed the drawstring. The silver chain caressed her fingers and the hammer practically sung in her mind. She swallowed, wanting to slip the necklace over her head and claim the hammer for herself. "She must have remembered how important this is to your family."

"How dare you dirty Mjolnir with your touch!" He snatched the hammer from her open palm and she could almost feel the hammer's sorrow at returning to the bully.

How dare she indeed. Return what her raven had taken.

"You, who scarecely have any power, whose power corrupts when you do use it–"

"I did not plan on traipsing across Nidavellir to bring you Mjolnir when you were too careless to keep him safe."

"You probably sent your bird to steal him yourself."

"If you'd been more careful with your belongings, Memory would never have brought Mjolnir to me." Revna turned on her heel and stalked out before Erik could hurl abuse at her.