Brokkr drank a swig of mead washing down a mouthful of salted meat. The rune hammer silenced his hunger, but it was still there, injuries too. Better yet, it gave his free hand something to do as he leaned on the edge of the ship paring into the deep. Sadly, the waters offered no peace, not while the shadows were so enticed.

The very planks Brokkr stood upon were works of art. It wasn't just the runes that were carved over every surface but on every wall, hand rest, and seat were depictions of great battles, lindworms and storming seas. The rune work alone would have taken Brokkr years to fathom and decades to build himself, and still father had taken the time to paint it with beauty. Skidbladnir was the ship’s apparent name, a vessel able to sail any ocean. Odin himself had ordered it constructed, sending his own daughter to see it through. And Brokkr had bedded that daughter, threatened her too. No wonder his brothers were dead and tribe in ruins.

Of course, that had just been one of many revelations.

No man labored for naught and neither would father. There had to be a price and Brokkr demanded it. Thought it would be a golden apple of Yggdrasil that gifted the god’s their immortality. Laufey had laughed at that and said Ivaldi wouldn’t need an apple for he and his children were already immortal.

Made sense if Brokkr had thought about his own nature. Shifters live twice as long as most men. How long would a man drowned in shadows remain young then? Many years the shadows whisper, more than they even knew.

The Thane had said it so offhandedly as if he were immortal too, or a fellow god, Brokkr surmised. Should have asked. Should have asked a thousand questions but he just listened.

The price had been orichalcum it turned out. The metal was rarer than even a golden apple. Held in Brokkr’s hand was probably more than in all of Midgard, but now it held a bitter taste in his mouth. After such a long tale much had still been unsaid.

“Everyone willing to board has boarded,” Laufey said, joining Brokkr at his side.

“I know. The shadows.”

Laufey nodded. “Of course, too bad though. Only half the tribe survived. Come nightfall the draugr will return.”

Brokkr knew that all too well. He’d left Skidbladnir to relieve himself all the while feeling the darkness beneath the earth as he walked. Every few feet were dozens of bodies waiting below for the sun to leave. This night would be just as bloody as the last but still, some fools wished to leave not wanting to take to the sea with a svartalfar. Well, the less cravens the better. Now all Brokkr needed were his final answers.

“Are you and Sigyn gods?” Brokkr asked.

Again Laufey answered as if talking of the weather. “Sigyn is mortal,” he said, tapping the ship’s rail with a finger. “Skidbladnir will buy her immortality upon her return to Asgard.”

“And you?”

Laufey unwrapped the bandages covering his arms. Fresh dark skin purred out beneath those bandages like he’d never been burned. “Some have called me a god but yes, I am immortal like you.”

Brokkr chuckled without mirth. Couldn’t seem to find any no matter how hard he tried. “My friend the Aus.”

“Not an Aus,” Laufey corrected.

“One of the old gods then, a Vanir.”

“You wouldn’t know my tribe.”

“It sounds more like you just don’t want to tell me.”

Laufey smiled. “That too.”

Another long pause. Brokkr thought to let it continue, to not ask the question and swallow it whole. There was no defying the gods anyway, or there hadn’t been. But now Brokkr held his rune hammer, and he was sure it would shatter god-bone just as well as a troll’s.

Brokkr turned to meet Laufey’s eyes. “Are you going to steal my hammer?”

“No!” Laufey exclaimed, sounding perplexed. “Why would you even think that?”

Brokkr couldn’t keep the anger from his voice or the shadows from spilling out from his feet. They blackened the deck as they moved searching for prey.

“Odin never intended on paying father what he was owed! He and Sigyn knew he’d burn the night of the ritual and let it happen! And of course they did. With father gone there is no need to pay him. Might as well have killed him themselves!” Brokkr stepped forward so close he felt Laufey’s breath. “You too if you knew ought of this.”

Laufey didn’t back down. To Brokkr’s surprise, he took a seat and gave a tired breath. “The sight is not so simple. You know hints of it from Sigyn but can’t fathom its complexities.”

The shadows didn’t taste a lie, so Brokkr gestured for him to continue.

“No one plotted against Ivaldi. Odin just knew he’d never have to pay the man. As for the orichalcum I gave you, he charged me to create a weapon with it. He saw that I would one day I’m guessing”

“A weapon for you to steal,” Brokkr accused.

Laufey shrugged. “I don’t need to. It will be his in time, or it should have been. Who knows now? And before you ask, I don’t know how it comes into Odin’s possession. It could be part of a trade. You might simply join the Aesir. I did after all. Or you could die in ten, 100, 1000 years and he retrieves it then. I simply don’t know.”

“But now the timeline has changed, and I don’t know why,” Sigyn said as she joined them. “Eitri was supposed to try to kill you last night with a dozen men. He’d fail and die by your hand. An army of draugr beat you to it though.”

“That sounds like Eitri,” Brokkr said. “Fine then. I’ll accept your word for now.”

Sigyn crossed her arms like she’d won something. “What’s important now is to get this ship moving.”

“It already is,” Brokkr said.

Just as he spoke, icy wind blew over them as Skidbladnir left the cave mouth to the sea.

Sigyn rushed to the edge of the ship. “I don’t even feel us moving.”

Oh, but Brokkr did. He felt every inch of the vessel through the shadows. They’d found its true magic, read father’s runes, and whispered its secret to Brokkr. And only now would they begin to understand what father had built, a wonder made with shadow and easily controlled by them too.

“We’re flying!” Sigyn shouted in disbelief.

Skidbladnir flew just above the water, soaring across the sea like a bird. With a thought, it rose higher, gaining speed as Brokkr held onto a rale and stared into the wind, frosting his face. Then he felt the last of his people flee below deck and smiled.

Brokkr shouted as loud as he could, just barely speaking over the wind. “Hang on!”

Skidbladnir grew faster again, whipping past rocks jutting from the sea. It chased clouds illuminated by stars then passed them heading farther and farther out. It took so little magin, a single drop from each soul onboard every few moments.

“How!” Laufey bellowed as he ducked behind a rale.

“Bound spirits in the wood!” Brokkr shouted back but he refused to look away. He’d thought it a day until he reached his destination but already they neared.

Sigyn looked into the wind with him and paled as she saw their heading. “Turning around!”

“No! My hammer is incomplete!”

Just ahead, lightning flashed, spinning arcing webs across the sky. It was hard to see at chore but all those who braved Norjd’s ocean knew it; the All Storm.

The lightning never ended. Day or night it struck down along with winds and dark clouds. Worse were the tides that dragged ships into its maw sending countless in the goddess Ran’s embrace upon a watery death.

Some said she and her husband Ægir's home lay at its center. Brokkr wasn’t sure and didn’t fucking care. Every rune-blade needed a vaettir at its core. Already the rune-hammer was running low on the power forced into it when forged. But that lighting in the distance had form if one looked close enough.

They were thunderbirds, vaettir of storms held at sea by an unseen hand. Brokkr could feel that hand in the shadows. Something old placed them here. Why didn’t matter? He’d steal them either way.

Laufey grabbed Brokkr, spinning him around. “Turn us around!”

There was that fear again and sounding too close to an order for Brokkr’s liking. Couldn't blame Laufey too much though. The ship was only rising higher while drawing breath became more difficult.

“I need those vaettir!” Brakkr said, the smile on his face so wide it hurt.

This would be a skald’s tale. Brokkr the Storm Slayer. Or Brokkr Thunder’s Bane. He was apt to lose the rune-hammer anyway so why not make it the greatest weapon in all of time for his name to spread to the farthest reaches of the realm?

“The Thunderbirds are bound there for a reason. Disturbing them is not an option. And you might kill us all in the attempt.”

There it was, a lie the shadow’s promised. Laufey was trying to scare him. Well, Brokkr was no craven.

Brokkr turned, hand drawn back to throw the hammer when Laufey’s arms snaked around his throat. The shadows had seen it coming too but it seemed too impossible. Laufey attacking him, choking him? It still wouldn’t be enough.

Brokkr dropped the hammer letting a tendril of shadow wrap around its short hilt. With a flick of the wrist it was sent overboard right into the All Storm they now flew over.

“No!” Laufey screamed and ran over to the edge of the ship as if to jump after the hammer.

Coughing, Brokkr joined him, too elated for a fight. He gazed over the darkness constantly peppered with lightning not truly knowing what to look for. Would the hammer take in each strike of lightning or-

Skidbladnir lurched towards the storm as a clap of thunder sounded, forcing Brokkr to cover his ears. The wind pulled at them steadily growing stronger. Brokkr fought against it to no avail. They’d be in the storm in seconds and showered in lightning soon after.

I should have listened

Just as Brokkr braced himself for death the All Storm imploded, sinking in on itself and drawn to a single point. In an instant, the wind was gone. The thunder and lighting vanished and a glowing white speck in the night sank beneath the sea.

“What have you done?” Laufey whispered his hand clutching at his hair.

“Let me show you.”

Brokkr reached a hand out. The white speck surged out of the sea like an arrow. It landed in Brokkr’s hand, the hammer's light dimming as it bound the last of the thunderbird's power.

Brokkr held it out to Laufey and Sigyn. “My finished creation, Mjölnir, the Thunderer.”