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"What do you guys think the Dimension Door actually IS?" Sophie asked the others as they walked up the hill towards Loki's palace. The Dimension Door, the challenges – as much as she'd tried, Sophie hadn't been able to make any real sense out of them yet.

Elva seemed unsure as well. "And, do we even know if Utgard is a real place?"

"Just because you don't know about it," Trom huffed.

"Remember what Beto told us. He said the Dimension Door could hold a treasure chamber, but it could also be something as big as a castle – so why not an imaginary country? Maybe the Door was created by someone who was able to use Creation Magic."

Trom shook his head. "That seems like way too much work."

"Clearly you don't know anything about Creation Magic either. Yes, it's the most complicated and time-consuming of the Seven Ways of Magic, but it'll let you do almost anything! Surely that's worth it?"

Sophie didn't know anything about Creation Magic or about the Seven Ways of Magic, but she thought back to their story lessons with Mr. Ignortus. In his lessons, each of the students would read a text, and then they'd get transported into the story, where the events they'd read about would play out in front of their eyes.

"It reminds me a bit of the magic that Mr. Ignortus uses in his story lessons. What do you think, Elva?"

"It could be something like that. But that doesn't tell us whether Utgard is a real place, or what the point of all this is... beyond just finding the treasure."

They kept walking. Loki, with his longer legs, was already a good bit ahead of them. Trom had started to complain about why no one had thought of an easier way to get up the hill than just regular stairs.

"If they could just build some kind of pulley system, then you could just step up on a platform and it'd take you all the way up, easy as that."

"And how would that work? There'd have to be people up at the top pulling the whole thing. But I guess it's fine for them to put in all the work, as long as you don't have to do anything, right, Trom?" Elva snarled, fed up with Trom's griping.

"Hmm, I guess you could make a system where there's a big rock at the other end, pulling the whole thing," Trom mused.

"And how do you build one of those? Do you know?"

Trom didn't answer Elva. Instead he just looked up and down the hill with a look in his eye that made Sophie think of someone trying to figure out an interesting math equation or a riddle.

They finally reached the palace. Loki stopped at the door, waiting for the others to catch up to him. The door to Loki's home was at least 10 times Sophie's height, and broad enough that the wagon could easily make it through.

"Welcome to my humble abode," Loki said with a wink. "Let's head for the treasure chamber – I'll show you how well I've done for myself since you saw me last." He signaled for the other Jotuns to bring the wagon as well.

Loki's pride seemed to have grown since they'd last seen him, Sophie noted. His back was straight and his chest puffed out, the self-satisfied grin never seemed to leave his face, and when he spoke, confidence oozed from every word, like he couldn't imagine that anyone wouldn't want to hang on every word he said.

They walked through impressive halls, all very clean and newly polished. The light shone in through the lavish windows and reflected off the beautiful decorations – mirrors, paintings, chandeliers, carpets, tables and chairs. As on the outside, the walls were built from finely carved rocks and wooden columns.

They passed by several different rooms, and Sophie just had to peek into every one of them [https://img.wattpad.com/514ffd6d761f5a0be8992bee3e27fc3f467a4686/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f69705151765033743673756549773d3d2d313337393935373931392e313738316434333536306561306661323332373930373237333533392e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

They passed by several different rooms, and Sophie just had to peek into every one of them. Some were nicely furnished and probably used for meetings or parties. Others looked like kitchens or guest rooms. In one room, lots of animals stood in spacious cages. Some of them she recognized from books, like fire lizards, sea serpents, land squids, treehorns and armored tortoises, but there were even more that she didn't recognize.

"What do you need all those animals for?" Sophie asked.

"Before the White Desert became Utgard, there was no native wildlife. But now that it's a fertile land, we need animals to live here. So we've captured species from all over the world to see which ones might best make a home here in Utgard."

They reached a rectangular stone door with a circular door handle and stopped. Loki pushed open the door, revealing a magnificent treasure chamber. Mountains and mountains of riches, all piled on top of each other, and so much gold, silver and jewelry that it covered the entire floor of the massive room.

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"Incredible!" Elva exclaimed. "His treasure chamber is even bigger than mine!"

Trom rolled his eyes. "Oh, how horrible. Are you sure you don't need to sit down for a bit to recover from such a shocking revelation?"

Elva huffed, crossing her arms.

"Come on, Trom, be nice," Sophie reprimanded.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Trom said sarcastically, still directed at Elva. "I just think maybe she should consider herself lucky that she even has a treasure chamber!"

"I never said I wasn't!" Elva shot back.

Loki leaned down next to Sophie. "Fight a lot, these two?" he asked.

"Unfortunately," she sighed. "Anyway, what were we supposed to do here, Loki?"

Loki stood back up with an eager expression on his face. "Well, I need to show you all that I've accomplished since I found the power source, of course!" He turned to the wagon and started pulling things from it. The first object he found was a golden spear. "This spear is unstoppable – once you throw it, it'll never stop!"

Elva raised an eyebrow. "Then you can only throw it once, though."

"Oh yeah, I hadn't really thought of that," Loki said scratching the back of his head. "Never mind, then. But this is a goose that lays golden eggs, and here's a golden ring that will create nine new golden rings every nine days, and here's a magic drinking horn that you can drink from forever without it ever going empty – because in reality you're drinking from the ocean itself! ... I'm not really sure how that last one is useful, but maybe I could use it for a prank. I am expecting guests next week..."

Loki kept on pulling out one amazing object after another, taking great joy in telling Sophie and the others all about them.

"But why have you been collecting all those treasures? Do you need money to run your kingdom?" Sophie asked.

"No, my kingdom has plenty of money already. But if I want it to be the most magnificent kingdom the magical world has ever seen, I'll need more. Much more!" Loki looked out across the mountains of treasure around him, but Sophie sensed that really his eyes were wandering towards somewhere far off on the horizon. Somewhere only he could see.

"Loki, I don't suppose any of those treasures would be a padlock, would it?" Trom asked. Loki turned to look at him.

"A padlock? I have a lot of those. Can you be more specific?"

"The one we're looking for doesn't have a keyhole," Sophie added.

"Ah, then I think I may have just the thing." With those words, Loki skated off across the treasures that covered the floor and disappeared between the piles of riches. Soon after, he returned carrying an old, dusty book. As he came closer, they saw that the book was locked tight with exactly the padlock they had been searching for.

Sophie was still fascinated by the rune magic that allowed Loki to skate across the ground, and she couldn't help but start asking him if he'd learned any other rune magic since the last time they'd seen him. Loki was starting to explain that he hadn't learned any new tricks, but that he'd been working hard to become better at turning into a giant, when Trom cut them both off and guided their attention back to the old book. Loki started to explain.

"Years ago, I found this book on one of my travels. It was hidden in a secret room beneath the ruins of an ancient castle. I don't know what it does or what the contents are about, because it's impossible to open... but I figured that it had to be valuable, so I took it with me."

Sophie, Elva and Trom stared at the padlock.

"Do you think this is it?" Elva asked.

"How many padlocks without keyholes can there be? But how do we get it off the book?"

"Can I try holding it, Loki?" Loki passed the book to Sophie, and she immediately started to investigate the lock and the book. The book was made of thick leather, and like the padlock it was covered in a lot of strange inscriptions. Except for one small area of the book's cover, which was completely blank. Elva and Trom were following along over Sophie's shoulder.

"Is this a language you know?" Sophie asked. Neither Elva nor Trom recognized it, so Sophie kept just staring at the book. It felt a bit silly, but she really wanted to be the one to solve this riddle. Trom had been the one to figure out the riddle of the moving steps in the sky, and he'd figured out how to build the staircase of floating books as well, before Sophie had even had time to think properly about it. Add to that the instant camaraderie between Trom and Loki, and Sophie was starting to feel a bit left behind.

After all, she was supposed to be the most creative one, the one who got all the clever ideas. If Trom could do that just as well as her, and Elva had her amazing nature powers, and all the other students had their own remarkable things... what did that leave her with?

Sophie kept examining the book. It was odd, but the longer she stared at it, the more legible the inscriptions started to seem.

"'To one who shows patience and persistence, the truth of this book shall be revealed'," Sophie read aloud. She continued: "'Whatever your dreams, whatever your desires or needs, this book will sate them all. Whether you have one or a thousand wishes, merely write them down, and all will come true.' It sounds kinda like a genie granting wishes!"

Loki's eyes beamed. "Incredible! This book will help me make my kingdom even more splendid than it already is!"

"Sure, if we can get the lock off of it. Do we have some bolt cutters or something so we can just cut it off?" Trom asked.

"I've already tried that," Loki explained. "It's a magical lock, so it can only be opened in the intended manner."

"Does anyone have a pen or something?" Sophie asked. They all checked their pockets, but none of them had anything. Loki asked his men to find Sophie something to write with, and soon after she had been given a feather quill and some ink.

"What do you need that for?" Elva asked.

Sophie placed her quill on the blank area of the book's cover and wrote: "Open the lock." Right away, the lock clicked open and fell to the floor. Sophie let out a sigh of relief, surprising herself a bit. She hadn't realized how tensed up her entire body had been.

"How did you figure that one out?" Trom said, impressed, as he picked up the padlock.

"I just figured that this was the only solution that wouldn't be too much of a hassle," she said, grinning at Trom. Her chest puffed out with pride as she opened the book, happy to have solved it. There was something written on the first page as well.

"'But beware, for every wish granted will also come with a consequence of the same size and gravity.'"

Sophie handed the book to Loki. "You might not want to use this book, Loki. It sounds like the consequences could be pretty bad. Oh hey, the door!"

Behind Loki stood door number 3, which would lead them back to the Dimension Room.

"Don't you worry, Sophie. I'll only wish for small things that can improve my kingdom."

Sophie wasn't so sure that that was a good idea either, but they had the padlock they came for, so they needed to move on.

Elva and Sophie headed through the door. Trom, however, stayed behind...

Trom, however, stayed behind [https://img.wattpad.com/a7cfd6c12e5b3b15c9f2916cd0653655ccc64a4a/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f5535343037745a67416476634a673d3d2d313337393935373931392e3137383164343337633962663132623738393630393736353638392e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]