We've been working on our new palace for some time now. Well, I guess it's only been a few days. It's almost done now. Soon we'll be ready to move into it. Right now I'm walking through the halls making sure everything's ready, or at least close to it. I walk into one room and am immediately confronted by and army of... Myself?

Oh, it's a lot of mirrors. Wait, what?

I look around and see that this is indeed a hall of mirrors. Why?

"Okay," I say, "Who did this?"

Ariel drops in front of me from the ceiling.

"I did," she says.

"Why?"

"Well, I thought it would be neat to have it. I wanted a hall of mirrors."

"Okay, but does it need to be here?"

"This room wasn't being used by anyone, and you said that we could use rooms to make whatever we wanted or needed as long as it didn't hurt anyone else or get in the way of what they wanted or needed. I'm not in the way or hurting anyone."

"Alright, you can keep it, but can I walk around it for a few minutes to make sure it's safe in here and other people will be able to use it if they need to?"

"Alright. I'm going to go and get food, just don't get lost in here, or I might not be able to find you again."

"I'll be fine," I say.

She walks out of the room and I look around at the mirrors. They're lined out to make a sort of maze with them. I start towards the left and look around at the mirrors. I guess this is better than what she could have made in here, but it is kind of surreal to walk through a hall surrounded by yourself.

Either way, I put that out of my mind and walk through the mirrors. Everything looks fine so far. Although, I am starting to feel tense and nervous. I wonder if Ariel put something in here. That's something she would do. I start looking more carefully around me. I watch where I step more closely.

How long have I been in here? How far am I from the exit if I have to make a run for it? Will I even be able to find my way out? I should have brought something to mark my path.

Suddenly I see someone else at the end of the hall. As I get closer I can see it's just their reflection. They don't look like part of some cruel joke. Honestly, they just look bored.

Wait, I know them. He's one of the other gods. What was his name? It started with an O. It's the same as one of the old Norse gods.

Odin! That's it. What's he doing here?

He has fluffy blonde hair and blue eyes. He's built just like one of the Vikings. I guess that makes sense. He probably was one at some point. He's very tall and muscular. He looks like he could snap me in half like a twig whenever he felt like it. He's moved one of the mirrors and is sitting down and leaning against the wall with a look of boredom on his face. I don't think he's even seen me yet.

"Hey, what are you doing in here?" I ask.

He looks up at me.

"Oh, I wandered in to look around and got stuck here," he says, "I got a good ways in and tried to turn back. The path I originally took was gone. I tried to find another way, but I think I just ended up getting more lost. Do you have any idea how to get out of here?"

"I think we can just go back the way I came."

I look back and see that the path I took is gone now. The mirrors have filled it in. I move one of them to the side and see that there's just a wall there now. I look to my right and see a new path is open next to us.

I sit down against the wall I just found.

"So, do you want to try and find a way out together, or just wait for someone to find us?" I say.

"Well, I tried waiting. You found me. Clearly it didn't work out too well. We might as well keep going down the path and hope we find a way out," he says.

"We could just start smashing mirrors until we find the path."

"That's unlucky. And anyways, that won't do anything if the walls are moving too. We better press on."

He stands and walks down the new path. I quickly get up and follow him. The mirrors seem to stretch on forever, but the fear has kind of stopped now that I'm not alone and I've been here for a while.

"So," I say, "How long have you been back here?"

"Not sure, it's been at least a few hours. I was beginning to wonder if anyone would actually find me back there."

"Can we not just teleport out of here or something?"

"I tried, none of our magic seems to work in here. Honestly, this could be a pretty clever death trap if we needed one for some reason."

"Yeah, I guess. Why is that the first thing you think of?"

"Why not? I can't see something made this way being used for much else, especially if it's trying to trap us in here."

"We don't know that it's trying to trap us," I say.

"You really believe that?" he says.

"Okay, so maybe it is, but why would we need a death trap of any kind?"

"I don't know. We might make enemies with someone someday and need to keep them somewhere safe for a bit where they can't attack us anymore."

"Like who?"

"I don't know, I saw a couple guys a couple weeks back who looked dead set on killing each other. You better make sure they don't actually decide to go at it or you might have a full civil war on your hands."

"I don't think it could go that far."

"There's only about twenty of us, if it's serious enough, something like that could totally spring from just two people. What were they so upset about anyway?"

"Oh, um," I say, "One of them killed the other's whole family in a concentration camp during World War II. Then a bit after the war the other guy went on to murder the first guy's entire family and tried to kill him too. He had to run away to avoid getting caught, but they recognized each other and they were going to fight before we made them stop."

"Yikes," he says.

"Yeah, it was crazy."

We walk along in awkward silence for a while longer. He doesn't seem to mind the silence, but it drives me crazy.

"So, um, what do you think of the new world so far?" I ask.

"It's nice, I hope it turns out better than our old one did," he says.

"It was alright."

"Yeah, they're just lucky the old gods stopped them when they did. Half the people there didn't even believe in gods anymore."

"Well, we won't let that happen."

"Hmm, maybe."

"What century are you from? If you don't mind my asking."

"5th century. I don't remember the exact country I was in. It was somewhere around where Sweden and Norway were by the end."

"Were you a Viking?"

"Yeah, for a while. Being literally immortal helps with being in a place that brutal. It means you don't get a lot of harassment from the people there."

"How did you realize you were immortal?"

"Long story short, my brother tried killing me and it didn't work out so well. Thankfully, he never had the guts to tell anyone else about it."

We walk in silence for a bit longer. I can't think of anything to say anymore. How do you even respond to something like that?! I wonder if it's even possible to get out of here.

It has to be. Ariel's done some rotten things, but she wouldn't trap us in here permanently. Would she? How was she on the ceiling before if magic doesn't work in here? I reach up and try to touch the ceiling. It's just out of my reach. I try to jump for it, but to no avail. Odin gives me a weird look.

"What are you doing? You look like a fool who thinks he's a manic frog," he says.

"I'm trying to touch the ceiling. I think if I can do that, it might help us get out. Can you reach it?"

He reaches up and can just barely touch it. In an instant, the room flips over and we're standing upside down on the ceiling. I look ahead and see the exit just ahead of us.

"Look," I say, "Do you see the door over there?"

"Yeah, how did you know we could do this?"

"Well, when I came in here I saw Ariel drop down from the ceiling and I thought that might show a way out."

"Pretty clever."

"Thank you."

"I was talking about her, but sure, you too."

"Thank you?"

"You're welcome."

We walk to the door and drop back to the ground.

"Well," Odin says, "Thanks for helping me get out of there."

"No problem," I say, "See you later."

"Bye," he says, walking down the hall.

I'll have to warn the others not to go in there. He's lucky that I decided to walk through and found him. At the very least we'll have to make sure they know the secret to getting out of there.

I start down the hall to get back to checking the other rooms and see Ariel walking back to this one.

"Oh, good," she says, "You got out. I was wondering how long it would take you to figure out the trick."

"Why did you make it like that?"

"I thought it would be funny."

"Has anyone else walked in there?"

"Well, there was that one big Norse guy."

"I saw him, he got out with me. Anyone else?"

"Not that I know of. I didn't see anybody except for you and him walk in there."

"Alright, but let me know if someone else goes in there and doesn't come out."

"Okay, but did you like it?"

"I like the idea behind it, but maybe just make sure no one is stuck in there for too long before sending someone in after them. Okay?"

"Yeah, alright. I don't need them to be there forever. It's just fun to see how long it takes them to get out before I have to help them."

She walks back into the room and I continue down the hall. I hope the others aren't doing anything like that.