Chloe came out of the bathroom gagging when her eyes laid on the weapons and odd stones.

“What’s this?” She first picked up the stone.

“Hello, Chloe Fields. I am your patron.”

As soon as she brought it up the words filled the thing like curling smoke.

“My patron?”

“Yes. The one who is working through you.”

“What is this thing?”

“It is a Shard of the Biifrost — The Rainbow bridge that once led from the Realm of the Gods to the Land of Men. Shattered by Fenrir during the Ragnarok.”

“...that’s all real?” She had heard these stories in college. She was required to take at least one anthropology class, so she had chosen Norse Mythology. Not out of any fondness for Norse culture, but just because it filled in some dead hours. “Who are you, then?” Chloe asked.

“My name is irrelevant. Know, however, that I was once a renowned warrior of the North, and I have dwelled with Valhalla for the past few centuries, and stir once the first prodding fingers of Roki were felt in Our universe.”

“When was that?”

“During Autumn,” came the reply, “There were signs. Great storms and earthquakes.”

“That was because of what? Roki?”

“Yes. It was also during that time that the Farseers began to notice the ending of billions of lives all at once, half a decade hence.”

It was only then that the reality of their situation began to sink in for Chloe. Billions of people dead, all at once. An extinction-level event was fast approaching, and they were expected to fight against it? She sank into the chair her mother had sat in. In the meantime, Ashley’s whimpering had stopped. Rosaendra was concerned.

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“Excuse me, Ms. Chloe?”

“Huh?”

Chloe’s face was pale.

“Could I get this off? I want to go check on Ashley, and see how she’s doing.”

“Ashley? Oh, mom.” She shuttered. “What did she wish for?”

“To be younger.”

“...by how much?”

“35 years.”

“Ah.” Chloe was still struggling to understand what was happening, “Yeah, I’ll get it off.”

Chloe leaned over. Her auburn hair smelled vaguely of vanilla as it brushed against Rosaendra’s face. A quick pinch later and the IV was out of her arm, and the hole was covered by a cotton ball and wrapped with gauze. Rosaendra pushed herself off the bed; her head swooning as she stepped off the bed. Her back was sore, her arms were sore, and her legs wobbled.

“Ashley, are you okay?”

She managed to walk across the room and to the restroom. She pushed it open. Ashley was kneeling naked in the shower. Her back and shoulders, and what was visible of her arms and legs were all bright red and peeling as if she had the worst sunburn imaginable. Her scalp was clean and burning just as red; clumps of hair littered the tile floor and stuck to the rim of the tub. Her clothes were tossed in a messy pile. A kind of slimy sheen stuck to them.

“Ashley?” Rosaendra approached the woman from behind.

Ashley didn’t move. Her forehead was pressed against the wall, and her shoulders rose in a shuttering motion. As Rosaendra got nearer the steam rising off of her naked friend’s body became evident. A smell of cooked meat also accompanied the steam. When Rosaendra got even closer she had to fight the urge to throw up.

At the bottom of the tub was a thin, red and white mucus that looked as if someone had skinned an animal inside of the tub, and left the gross bits beneath the fur. It smelled like the inside of an animal as well. Was this flesh? Fat? In the quick glance that she caught she swore she some other stuff as well; nerves and veins and a variety of other viscera...she hurried out of the room, holding her mouth held closed with her cupped hand against it.

“What was that?” Rosaendra asked Chloe as she stumbled into the room.

“Ah... I think the stuff in there was her skin...” Her eyes were focused on something far away, despite that they stared directly at the floor.

“Her skin?”

“Yes...it seems to have been burned off...and reformed.” Her unfocused eyes glanced at Rosaendra leaning against the If you noticed she didn’t have any scars...her rotator cuff was torn fifteen years back, and I couldn’t see the scar where the surgery had been performed...

“You noticed that? I only noticed the slime at the bottom of the tub.”

“Well, I got closer...the slime only appeared...after I touched her. Peeled right off. Like a wetsuit.”

Chloe’s face turned green. She pushed herself off the chair and nearly stumbled over the box in the middle of the road as she rushed to the bathroom sink. The sound of her heaving into it drove Rosaendra over the edge as well. She glanced around and hurried outside to hurl over the banister and on the ground of the parking lot below.