Tyr turned and followed Odin, who was riding at full gallop. He soon found that they were rising into the night air continuously, up and up until he saw the moon before them. When they had landed on the moon's surface, Tyr found that he had been holding his breath, yet when he let it out, he discovered he could still breathe.

"Yggdrasil's power reaches even here." said Odin, noticing Tyr's confusion, and had Slephnir slow to a walk as they moved forward. Eventually, they stopped in front of five large metal fragments, sticking up like fingers on a hand from the moon to the stars above. Odin then dismounted and climbed up one of the fragments nearly to the top and stuck his hand above.

Nearly instantaneously, the hand shriveled with decay and frost began to form upon it. Odin removed it back to below the fragments and jumped down to Tyr.

"Few in the nine realms know this truth: that we are trapped here. Thoth calls it the price of immortality, but whether it be because of the limits of Yggdrasil or something else, we and most other vaettir cannot leave these realms. The long years we live will come upon us at once, and whatever protection and powers we wield will fade."

Tyr watched Odin place runes of warmth and healing upon his hand and remounted Slephnir. Odin then led Tyr back down to the planet once more, stopping in a large field. It stretched beyond them for miles and miles, with neither tree nor risen ground within eye's sight, only tall grass that would have reached nearly to Tyr's knees if he stood in it.

Odin then walked Slephnir forward aways with Tyr following until they reached a spot where nine red flowers grew in the middle of the tall grass. Here Odin stopped and simply stared at the flowers for a minute before speaking.

"No matter how many times I come here, I can never go beyond those flowers, nor will I ever be able to do so come the end times. You know where we are, don't you Tyr?"

"Virgridr, the battlegrounds of Ragnarök." Said Tyr, looking about him and imagining the fight that there was to come.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Indeed."

"Why are we here my lord?"

"Heimdall tells me you faced a vaettir called Ares, and that you fought him. I had seen him some from my throne Hlidskjalf, and hoped to persuade him to fight alongside us, though admittedly I only ever saw him fight and know nearly nothing else about him."

"He is described by many to be a coward, and only ever wins when he faces mortals, those with a semblance of power like us he loses to."

"Perhaps, but the woman Enyo who fights alongside him would have been a great asset. She also commands most of the vaettir army he has."

"You think I was wrong to face him."

"I think you being in the realm he was in either cost me an ally or revealed the truth of what he was before it was too late. When Heimdall revealed what Ares said, it became clear that Ares would likely side with the jotunns due to their shared treatment of the mortals, but now it is assured he will join because of his anger towards your standing against them."

"If the stories I heard of Ares are true, he may very well fight against both sides, for there were giants that imprisoned him in a jar for a good length of time."

"That so? well that is of little comfort." said Odin as he led Tyr back the way they had come.

"Still, I would have like his army for killing the jotunns."

"Why do you hate the jotunns so much?"

"I don't hate the jotunns, I hate Ymir, and because I killed Ymir the jotunns hate me. Most anyway, though some are willing to even care for me."

"Like Skadi and Fjorgyn."

Yes, like Skadi and... well yes."

Tyr noticed Odin sounded a little shocked but said nothing.

"I wanted you to join me so that I could tell you the first task I would like for you to do, and to have only you and Heimdall hear it."

"You are certain that Loki is not here?"

"Loki cannot blow the hunting horn or summon the wraiths. My garments are smoked in the same herbs as Mimir's chamber, so he can't assume any of my items' forms nor me. As for the horses, Loki can assume the form of a horse but not the speed of one, as you already know." added Odin, patting Slephnir knowingly before continuing.

"As for you, you have long possessed an impressive and frustrating ability to see through any illusion set before you. Many were the times that I tried to divert you to go down the wrong corridor in Valhalla during our bet, yet all attempts failed. I had even been trying throughout our journey now to be extra sure and am convinced that it is you and that this is your power Tyr."

Tyr cocked his head and waited for Odin to continue.

"I want you to go to the home of Utgard-Loki."