Odin sees every thread of what is coming. He sees the wolf break its chain. He sees the sea rise. He sees the death of gods. But when he traces Ragnarok back to its first spark, his one eye goes dark. Blind. He gave that eye at Mimir's well for infinite sight, and now infinite sight fails him. He cannot name where the end begins. So he called for the two who might know. He stood on the rainbow bridge where it meets Asgard, the pathway shimmering under his boots like light trapped in glass. His blue cape snapped in the high wind. He waited for his son and his blood brother. Thor came first, hammer swinging at his side, goats stamping behind him. "You summoned me, Father." Short words. He wanted to be named protector of the realms, and he thought that day had come. Loki came second, unhurried, his golden armor bright. Odin had shared a blood oath with him once, made him a brother. Now Odin watched his slim hands and did not trust them. He suspected Loki would one day find the crack in the world. "Look," Odin said. He raised Gungnir. The bridge lit brighter, and the far end opened onto the Nine Realms spread below like a map of fire and ice. "All of it burns soon. Ragnarok comes. I see it end. I cannot see it start." Thor frowned at the realms. "Then we fight it when it comes." "You cannot fight what you cannot find," Odin said. "I brought you both because one of you may see what my eye will not." He turned to Loki. "You wander every realm. You slip through every door. Tell me. Where does the first crack open?" Loki studied the burning map a long moment. Something moved behind his eyes. Then he smiled, too easy, too quick. "I don't know, brother," Loki said. "But your sight didn't just fail. Someone hid this from you." The words struck Odin like cold water. He had thought his blindness was a gap. A hole in the weave. Loki named it as something worse. A thing placed there on purpose. Odin gripped the spear. "Hidden by whom?" "By someone who fears you'd stop it." Loki spread his hands. "Someone close enough to reach your well of sight." Thor's grip tightened on his hammer. "He lies. He always lies." "Maybe," Loki said. "But ask yourself, Allfather. Who in Asgard knows the future as well as you do?" Odin went still. Only one other saw the threads of fate as clearly as he did. His own wife, Frigg, who guarded her visions and shared them with no one. The darkness in his eye was no longer an accident. It was a lock. And someone in his own house held the key. Odin turned from the burning realms. He would not chase the end of Ragnarok now. He would find who blinded him to its beginning.

Odin walked to his high seat at Valaskjálf. From there he could see all the Nine Realms. He wanted to test Loki's claim before he accused his own wife. If his blindness was a lock, someone had touched his well of sight. He needed to know for certain. So he called the other kings of gods to Asgard. If every pantheon saw the same end coming, then the blindness was his alone, and someone had placed it there. Three came across the rainbow bridge. Zeus arrived first, lightning crawling down his arms, his white cape dragging. "You called kings from their thrones," he said. "This had better be worth the trip." Atum-Ra came wrapped in fire, his flames leaving no scorch on the stone. Hades came last, quiet, leaning on a staff topped with a golden eagle. A fourth guest stood apart from the gods. Dracula, king of the vampires, kept to the shadow of a pillar, away from the light that poured off the fire god. "I brought you here for one question," Odin said. "The end of all gods is coming. My sight shows me how it ends. It will not show me how it begins. Tell me what you see." Atum-Ra spoke first. "I fight the serpent every night. Lately he is stronger. I do not know why." His voice did not rise. "The end is near. I cannot see its start." "Nor can I," Hades said. "The dead come faster than they should. Something is coming that I did not sentence. I cannot name where it begins." Zeus scowled. "Same for Olympus. I see the fall. Not the first crack." Odin turned to Dracula. The vampire watched him with red eyes. "And you?" "I search the underworld for a soul I lost," Dracula said. "I have looked into every dark place that exists. I have seen the end you speak of. Its beginning is hidden from me also. That is not chance. Something buried it." The words landed like a hammer. Odin gripped Gungnir. Every king of gods saw the same darkness. Every one of them was blind to the same spot. That could not be a gap in fate. A gap would look different to each of them. This was one hand, covering one truth, from all of them at once. "Then it is confirmed," Odin said, low. "My blindness is no accident. Someone reached into my well of sight and stole this vision. And they hid it from every god who might stop it." Zeus stepped forward. "Then we make a pact. Blood between kings. We protect the worlds of gods together." Odin's jaw tightened. He had his answer, but it cost him. The thief lived in Asgard. The thief knew the future as well as he did. Only one being fit. His own queen. Now the other kings knew it too, and they would want her named.