The Guardian of the Bifrost

“Like, uh, how much of an eye on me have you kept? ‘Cause I would prefer if you didn’t know as much as my sword apparently does.”

John rubbed the back of his neck as he looked up at Heimdallr, who stood about a head taller than the runic mage. Now that he wasn’t distracted by the action of turning from blind homeless man into Nordic god, John got a bit of a better look at him. His hair was sandy blonde, reaching down a little past his neck in light curls. His beard reminded John of Thor’s. Both were very well kept and maintained, coming to a point a couple inches from the chin. However, the most noticeable thing on Heimdallr were his eyes. They were a very light blue color, almost a white. They reminded John of the neon blue signs in downtown Springfield, specifically the signs that advertised the kind of shops that made grandmothers scoff at how the nation was going down the tubes in moral righteousness They glowed in the same way that John’s own runes glowed, albeit with a color more akin to King Agviðr’s.

Hiemdallr chuckled a bit at John’s question, reaching up to take his horned helmet off . “It was less constant observance and more just keeping an ear to the ground and an eye open for any trouble.”

“Trouble as in… getting bullied for several years? Because if so, you seemed to have missed that.”

Heimdallr nodded. “I did see that, and I did more than you think. Tell me, John, what was the worst thing those bullies ever did to you?”

"There was the locker incident."

Heimdallr grimaced. "That... was a bit out of my control. I will be honest, I regret not acting on that. But aside from that incident, what else have they done to you?"

John thought back for a moment or two, the various interactions with Frank and his posse of baboons playing through his head. “Well, they’ve beat me up a few times… locked me in a locker once or twice… stole lunch money, bullied people I would make friends with-”

“Yes, but did you ever suffer anything beyond a few bruises? Did they ever seek you out when you weren’t at school?”

John thought for a moment or two before shaking his head. Heimdallr smiled. “That was what I did. I was not allowed to interact with them too much, as displaying my godly might on mundane mortals is… frowned upon by Gaia.” He rubbed the back of his neck, giving an awkward chuckle. “But what I could do was try and keep you safer when he did find you and ensure you were under my protection when he couldn’t.”

“How?”

“A simple redirecting proved wonders for distracting his… let’s say sub par intelligence.” Hiemdallr held his hand open, light pouring out of it in a myriad of colors. Then the light slowly began to focus, colors mixing and shapes changing until they had taken the form of, what appeared to be, a rather voluptuous woman.

“A little trick I learned in my thousands of years controlling the Bifrost. I can use its magic to create illusions. They do not last long, and are hard to create, but that mattered little. All I had to do was create a rather shapely woman out of nowhere and, boom, your bully would be too distracted chasing a skirt to bother trying to bully you.”

John looked at the illusion. If he hadn’t been told of its fake nature, he probably would have been just as fooled as Frank. He then turned back to Heimdallr. “Could you teach me to do that?”

Heimdallr shook his head. “Honestly? Probably not. I must admit, its magic is not my forte. The one who specialized in that…” Heimdallr looked out to the horizon. For John, such a sight would have only been to look at the city or perhaps the mountains in the distance. For Heimdallr… well, John could only imagine how far his gaze traveled. “Well… learning from him might be difficult at best.”

John made a small mental note to look up as much as he could about Nordic mythology when he returned home and got some downtime. The more he knew, the higher his chances of survival and gaining power. Then a small thought crossed John’s mind. “Wait… why did you keep an eye on me for so long? I only became a mage less than a week ago.”

Heimdallr turned his attention back to John. “Simple. Gaia told me to.”

“Gaia? I keep hearing her mentioned and talked about, and she sends me messages sometimes. What is the deal with her?”

Heimdallr sighed and rubbed his chin in thought. “Gaia is… an anomaly of a goddess. As far as anyone else knows, she is the oldest thing in all of the universe, older than even Ymir or Oranous or Ma’at. Somehow, eons ago, she created all of the universe and populated it with all that you see. However… this is confusing to many of the gods, as those of us who were there at the creation of the universe remember it differently. If you were to ask Odin, he would tell you of how Niflheim and Muspelhiem came from the Ginnungagap, and in the meeting of this ice and fire, Ymir formed. If you asked those from Egypt, they would tell you how a benben rose from the waters of Nu, and from that mound Ra came forth with the sun and began the first day of the universe. If you were to ask Zeus, he would tell of how Mother Earth came from the nothingness of Keos, and that from there she created the other gods to be her companions.”

“But… if they all remember it differently, who is right?”

Heimdallr shrugged. “No one can agree, and Gaia refuses to say who is right or wrong. Odin has since guessed that they all remember different aspects of the initial creation of the universe, that they all have different perspectives of something that none of them were actually there for.”

“That’s… confusing. And overly complicated,” John said, scratching his scalp.

Hiemdallr let out a short laugh. “You think that is complicated? I have nine mothers.” He shook his head and rubbed his head. “Mother’s Day is less a holiday and more an exercise in time management and patience.”

“How the hell do you have nine mothers? That… that doesn’t seem physically possible.”

Heimdallr gave John an incredulous stare. “John, you are standing in a tree with a god who can see through dimensions, whose main job is to ensure no one uses a rainbow road who isn’t allowed to. Things not seeming physically possible is just par for the course.”

John and Heimdallr shared a small laugh at that. Then Heimdallr looked up to the sky and sighed. “As fun as this has been, I must be off, John. Godly duties and all that. But before I go, I want to tell you something.” He leaned down close, his voice barely a whisper. “Odin would never tell you this, as he still hates him for killing his son. But when you meet… him, I want you to remember that he was once an ally. That despite his shortcomings, and his crimes, he was once a close friend of mine.”

“W-who?”

Heimdallr gave John a sly smile. “You’ll figure it out. I hold no ill will towards him, despite how our destinies will play out. Plus… You remind me of him, at least in terms of your cleverness and skill with words.”

“Who?”

“Again, I won’t ruin the mystery. You have to figure that out for yourself.” Heimdallr then stood up straight, reaching down to his side and drawing his sword. The second he raised it, a bright flash of color emerged from the tip, quickly summoning a rainbow down from the heavens. Heimdallr took a few steps forward, climbing up onto the Bifrost. He slowly turned back and gave John one final smile.

“I’ll be keeping an eye on you, John. My protection will not be as constant as it once was, but if you truly need me, call upon me and I shall help you.”

With that, Heimdallr walked forward, disappearing into the clouds above.

“Well, needless to say you have managed to surprise everyone in the council today,” Lifthrasir said, smiling like a Cheshire cat as he reclined in his chair. John sat across from him, having been found on the balcony by the council leader a few moments after Heimdallr left.

“Believe me, I didn’t plan any of that.”

“Oh, I believe you. The look on your face when the five of them showed up in disguise was enough to show that you had no intention of bringing a group of disguised gods into your trial.” Lifthrasir reached down into his cloak and pulled out a cigar. “It’s the first time I have ever seen someone saved by a literal deus ex machina.”

“What… what became of my trial after Odin took me away?” John asked softly.

Lifthrasir opened up one of his various desk drawers, pulling out a small lighter. With a quick flick he lit up the magical contraband before speaking “Oh, it was quite entertaining. Tyr basically chewed out the other council members for the piss poor example of justice they claimed to be champions of. You honestly should have seen the looks on most of the council’s faces. I swear half of them had to change their robes afterwards. One of them even tried to speak up, but the glare that the four of them gave him made him sit back down, and afterwards he even resigned from the council!” Lifthrasir laughed before continuing with his retelling. “After that, the gods debated with themselves what you should get as compensation for wasting both your and their time, and eventually decided that you would be given full access to Alfheim. You can come here and leave at your leisure, and any associated with you will be granted the same freedom.” Lifthrasir brought the cigar up to his mouth, taking a slow drag for a moment before exhaling a cloud of blue and gold smoke. “Oh, and this.” Lifthrasir reached down to an area below his desk before pulling out a rather decent sized bag and tossing it towards John. It landed with a loud chink, the top opening up just enough for John to see the glitter of gold inside.

“Congrats, John. You just managed to make a major headway to your first million dollars.”

John’s jaw hit the floor. “A… a mill… million…”

“A million dollars. Well, not actually. That is only 750,000 dollars worth of gold pieces, assuming you use the current exchange rates.” Lifthrasir gave a shrug. “I do a lot of business between Midgard and here. I have to know the best exchange rates.”

John was stunned. His mind began to flood with ideas of what this meant for him and his family, when he remembered that he had, technically, just earned a million dollars in total. If he showed Lifthrasir his runes, he would turn in the quest that was the driver for him to explore the barrow in the first place.

Quickly, John pulled the Runic Glossary from his side pocket. “That reminds me, sir, I finished that quest!”

Lifthrasir’s eyes lit up as he quickly sat up in his seat. “The runes?! You managed to find them all?”

John nodded and passed the book over to Lifthrasir. “They are written down in here once I learn them.”

Lifthrasir quickly opened the book and began turning through the pages. WIth each flip, his smile widened as he looked at rune after rune. “This is… oh my gods above, John, this is incredible!” He turned back to Skadi’s rune and turned the glossary to John. “This rune. Can you cast it?”

John looked at it before slowly shaking his head. “N-not yet, sir. That one is too strong. I don’t have the mana reserves to cast it, and I would just burn myself out.”

Lifthrasir’s expression darkened. “You… you have the runes but… can’t cast them..”

“Yes sir. Until I get strong enough to-”

“Wait, is this to do with your video game powers?” Lifthrasir asked.

“Y-yes sir. The more I train, the more I level up. The more I level up, the more mana I can use.”

“How long do you think it would take to level up enough to use these runes?” Lifthrasir asked.

“I… I’m not sure. I think I can create sort of grindable dungeons with one of my cheaper runes, and might be able to use these to train and get stronger.”

“Hmm… so you can tap into Fateweaver magic as well…” Lifthrasir leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping together as he thought over the possibilities. After a moment or two, his smile returned. “John… do you know what a great way to train is?”

“I know several in games, but I am assuming that you are looking for one in particular.”

Lifthrasir nodded. “Well, I always find it best to train by surrounding yourself with those who are stronger than you, and having a place where you can train and grow stronger in.”

“Like a guild?” John asked.

Lifthrasir snapped his fingers. “Exactly, John. And it just so happens that I happen to have a guild who has a base not too far outside of Springfield.”

“You have a guild?”

Lifthrasir waved his hand dismissively. “Yes, it was from my days before I was a council leader. I still oversee it, but most of the day to day operations are taken care of by various heads in the guild. But that is not the point.” Lifthrasir leaned forward, giving John a smile. “It would take me a couple days to get everything situated, but I think I could have you join my guild. It would be the perfect place to get stronger and be able to use those godly runes ASAP.” Lifthrasir extended a hand to John. “Sound good to you?”

John barely even thought about it before quickly grabbing Lifthrasir’s hand. Signing up with a guild would probably mean not only protection for him but possibly protection for his mom while he was out doing guild business. He could only dream of all the benefits of joining a guild, especially one run by someone who seemed to want only the best for John.