“Okay, sure,” Hugin said, shrugging his wings.

“The fact of the matter is there just haven’t been

that many Scions running around for a long time. And those who were out there didn’t always know who
their divine parents were. Now, though, things have changed.”
“Changed how?” Eric asked. “Why?”
“An uncomfortable prophecy was revealed to the Gods,” Munin said when Hugin hesitated. “When they
heard it, they knew something had to be done.”
“What’s going to
happen that’s so bad it
makes a bunch of Gods
ed an ag reem en t.
ntheons forg uncomfortable?” Eric
the Gods of the various pa asked.

They would each keep to

“Not ‘going to,’”
Munin said. “It’s what
has happened. The Titans
its own concern.

have escaped their eons-

old prison at last to wage
war against the Gods once
more.” He looked over at
Hugin, who was making
a show of preening his
black feathers. “Perhaps
humanity’s fate would be

themselves,
you would prefer to
explain.”
“No, no,” Hugin
said. “You go on. I’ll
just sit here lookin’
pretty.”
“Right,” Munin
forswearing

said. He looked back

to Eric. “The Titans
the temptation to overtly are the Gods’ own
interfere in the lives of ma ancient, terrible
nkind.
parents. When the
Gods came of age at the
dawn of time, they rose up
and tried to strike the Titans down—just as the
Titans conspired to do to them. At first, the Gods made the mistake of trying to kill the Titans, but that
had dire consequences.”
“Like what?”
“When your granddad struck down Ymir, for example,” Hugin said, “the Ice Age ended, and the
whole World nearly flooded. Stuff like that. You can’t just kill a Titan and expect things to be fine and
dandy.”
“Indeed,” Munin said. “That being the case, the Gods chose instead to defeat the Titans and lock
them away somewhere they could do no further harm. Yet the Titans were crafty and powerful, and even
the Gods’ best efforts could not hold them forever. It was only a matter of time before they escaped.”