Page 31 of Tyr

Tyr scratched his head. “It’s a bit more complicated than that, but yes. I betrayed him, and, in the end, I paid for it with my hand. I would gladly give more if it would earn his forgiveness.”

“He hasn’t forgiven you? But that was so long ago.”

Tyr flexed his fingers. “Some betrayals run so deep that no matter how much time passes, it will still be there in some way. Iwas closer to Fenrir than I was to even Vid and Herm back then. His parents abandoned him. The other gods shunned him. For a long time, it was him and I together. But when the head of the gods tells you to do something, you do it.”

“Would you still do it today?”

“Absolutely not. I would gladly take his place. If I could do it again, I would have protected him. Even if it meant my death.”

“Have you told him that?”

Her eyes were sincere and compassionate, nothing more. He’d never talked to anyone about what had happened with Fenrir before.

“I haven’t.”

She shrugged. “Maybe you should.”

His gut clenched. “What if it doesn’t change anything between us?”

“What if it does? Whether it does or doesn’t is on him. If you tell him how you feel, and that’s probably not easy for the God of War, but if you tell him and he doesn’t accept it, that’s on him. But wouldn’t it at least be better to know? Better to let the burden go after so long?”

Tyr stared at her. He couldn’t answer. Would it be better? What would it be like to finally be unburdened? Who would he be?

“Tell me something about yourself.”

She chuckled and sipped her tea. “Like what?”

“Anything. What did you like growing up?”

“Normal stuff. Music. Books. Art. TV.”

“What kind of books?”

“Anything. I read lots of webtoons online.”

“What are webtoons?”

“Cartoon stories online that people post daily or weekly. I devoured those.”

“What else?”

“Many websites have free stories you can read. Some are terrible, obviously, but some are amazing. I read romance, fantasy, young adult, basically anything I could find. You have no idea how long hours can be when you are stuck in a room with no one to talk to all day for years on end.” She looked at him strangely for a minute. “Or maybe you do. You’ve been alive long enough to witness the fall of Rome, the Renaissance, the Hindenburg, and every other major event in history.”

He turned his teacup around. “A lot of those things I only know about because of reading about them or watching movies. Valhalla is far removed from Midgard. And Midgard isn’t the only realm we were in charge of. I knew about the wars firsthand, but not much else. Honestly, I wish I’d paid more attention to some of those time periods. The Renaissance sounded so fun. And I would have loved to meet da Vinci, the Wright Brothers, Einstein, Tesla, and even Edison, though he stole most of Tesla’s work. They were all so world-changing. And the things they invented were amazing.”

Her mouth fell open.

“What?”

“You just… If you could meet people, those aren’t the ones I would have assumed you’d want to meet.”

“Who did you think I’d want to meet?”

“Napoleon. Julius Caesar. Xerxes. Genghis Khan. Great generals and warlords.”

“I knew all of them, of course. But they weren’t anyone I would want to hang out with. Believe it or not, not everything about me has to do with war. I am fascinated with how Midgardians invented things without divine intervention. Movies, television, and computers you can hold in your hand.”

Her cheek tinged a beautiful shade of rose. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply?—”

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