I couldn't sleep.
I lay there staring at the ceiling in the dim moonlight, sheets twisted around my legs, my head pounding in slow, steady waves. My left eye ached—not the sharp pain from earlier, but something deeper, like a pulse that didn't quite match my heartbeat.
Remembering Hel's fingers on my face...
Gods. The memory made my stomach twist.
Jerry, who had been curled on my pillow, lifted his head for the thirteenth time.
"You're doing it again."
"…Doing what?" I whispered.
"Thinking so loudly it's making my scales itch."
This was the fourteenth time he said it.
"I'm fine," I muttered.
"You're lying," he said immediately. "Very badly."
I groaned into my blanket. "Jerry, please. It's late."
"Exactly. Which means you should be asleep. Instead, you're vibrating with dread."
He slithered onto my chest, staring down at me like a disappointed parent. "What's wrong?"
Of course he wouldn't drop it.
He was relentless.
And maybe… maybe I needed to say it. Out loud. To someone.
I swallowed hard. "Jerry… I-I met Hel ."
He froze completely, every muscle rigid.
"…My sister?"
"Yes."
His eyes widened slightly—not in anger, but in something I couldn't name. Something sad, maybe.
"I—I didn't know she was still alive," he whispered. "I knew she was banished, but… alive?"
"Very alive," I said dryly. "Terrifyingly alive."
Jerry blinked once. "Why? What did she want from you?"
I tensed.
Of all the things to say, this one felt the heaviest.
"She… wants me to capture Loki."
Jerry stared.
Then stared harder.
Then dropped onto my chest like he'd fainted.
"You made a deal to catch my father? A god..?"
"Yes, Jerry—"
"The Loki who created monsters by accident.."
"That seems irrelevant—"
"Irrelevant?!" Jerry sat up sharply. "You agreed to hunt a god!"
"Yes! I didn't know I was agreeing! She didn't explain the terms—she tricked me into promising something before telling me what it was."
Jerry let out a hiss through his teeth. "Classic Hel."
I blinked. "…You mean Loki?"
"No, Hel. She's always like that. Dramatic. Cryptic. A little stab-happy."
"Jerry—"
"But Loki… yeah, okay, fine. If he's doing something stupid in the human realm, but Hel wouldn't just send someone after him."
Mavis paused, "Well..it's not just Hel."
"What do you mean?" Jerry asked.
Mavis continued, "Hel is working with Odin to capture Loki."
He flicked his tail.
"That makes more sense.." he murmured
"Father does overstep… a lot. I see why Odin would want him gone"
I rubbed my face. "So you're not mad?"
"Why would I be?"
"I'm going to fight your father? Why wouldn't you be upset?"
"Not fight. Capture. Totally different."
"Jerry—"
"I'm kidding. Both will probably kill you."
I threw a pillow at him. He caught it with his tail, smug.
But then his tone shifted back to a more serious one.
"Mavis. What did you get out of this deal? Even you're not stupid enough to agree to anything without payment."
That felt backhanded.
I sat up slowly, blankets pooling around my waist.
"It's… about my people."
Jerry tilted his head.
"A few months ago, a washed up on shore… after escaping from the Hidden Kingdom," I whispered.
He looked confused.
"…That one myth?"
"It's not a myth."
"Isn't that the place mortals never come back from?"
"I did," I murmured.
Jerry stared at me with something close to awe.
"Hel promised," I continued, voice cracking, "to free them. Break the fog. Restore the land. Let my people breathe again. That's why I agreed."
He didn't speak for a while. When he finally did, his voice was soft.
"Then you did what any ruler would have done."
The words hit harder than I expected.
My chest tightened.
I opened my mouth—maybe to thank him, maybe to deny it—but he spoke again.
"And the blessings?"
Right. That.
I exhaled shakily. "She… gave me the blessing of death. And Odin's Eye."
Jerry was so shocked he almost fell off the bed.
"You—YOU HAVE HIS EYE?"
"Well, part of it, maybe? She ripped out my old one and shoved the new one in—"
"Odin's eye is a relic of power." Jerry's voice was low, reverent. "He lost it in war—an eye that sees truth, future, strategy, memory. How in the nine realms did Hel even get—"
He cut himself off abruptly.
"You know what, i'm not even going to ask."
Then he shot me a sharp look.
"Mavis."
"What?"
He slithered closer, his tone suddenly grave.
"Deals with gods are not jokes. If you go back on your word, if you fail—"
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"You will suffer eternally in Helheim."
I shivered so violently the mattress creaked.
"Don't say that," I whispered.
"I'm not trying to scare you."
"You ARE scaring me!"
"Because it's serious!" Jerry insisted. "Hel is not cruel, but she is absolute. And Odin—Odin is worse. He keeps promises. He also punishes those who break them. They are gods, Mavis."
"I know," I whispered.
But did I really?
Jerry studied me for a long time, then gently curled around my neck, warm and reassuring.
"Just… be careful," he murmured. "I like you alive."
My chest squeezed.
"…Thank you, Jerry."
He huffed. "Whatever. Sleep before you look even uglier."
"EXCUSE ME—"
But he was already pretending to sleep.
I lay back down, fatigue finally catching up to me, but sleep didn't come easily.
But eventually, somewhere between dread and determination, I drifted off.