to meet, please come down to enjoy Asgard hospitality and break bread with us. I have many questions.”
She chuckled in pure mirth. “Ah, a man after my own heart. Suspicious and careful. I think I would enjoy feasting with you in your little village. I accept your gracious invitation.”
Father nodded with a sly grin and then said, “Our protectors, the Valkyrie, will welcome you at the main gates at your convenience, how long will it take you to arrive?”
She grinned. “I will be there momentarily after I dress appropriately for a feast.” Then the transmission was cut from her end.
Artemis blurted out, “Odin, you cannot have that creature in Valhalla. I have been trying to tell you that the Titans and the Jotunn are a single race. The Titans are the female of the species. That is why there are but one thousand of each. Before there was even time to mark the passage of events, the Jotunn believed that they should alone rule all of existence. That the Titans should create more Jotunn since the females of the species were the only ones capable of it.”
She took a deep breath and continued, “But the Titans refused, stating that there should always be a balance that there would always be one Titan for one Jotunn. All of creation would suffer if one held sway over the other. The Jotunn tried to force it and the Titans resisted with extreme prejudice. Ymir's son was killed trying to enforce his father's edict. He died at the hands of his mother, Rhea! That started the war between the Jotunn and Titans that has raged through all eternity.”
Inatra squinted her eyes in distaste and asked, “ So their war is about... procreation?”
Artemis nodded. “Yes. However, they have always been at technical parity and every battle has always been a stalemate with neither ever gaining ground. So the Jotunn tried creating entire races to battle in their stead to overwhelm the Titans.”
Then her voice hitched as she said, “But the Titans countered with their natural abilities. They were able to take two-thirds of my race to fight for them instead. It is our people's shame. And they bred with our people to create a race of Halflings to fight in their stead. It is a vicious cycle that needs to be broken.”
I asked, “How did they convince your people to join them?”
She shrugged. “To this day we still do not know. Witchcraft? Rhea had come into our base, preaching peace and cooperation. Zeus denied her an accord, stating that though we were designed to battle the Titans, we had free will and had refused, and as such were in hiding from the Frost Giants. We did not want to be involved in their war.”
Then there was fire and hate in her eyes, “She was upset and stormed out of our base and turned and simply said, 'Come with me now!' And all but twelve men of our race dropped their weapons and walked away with her, not a single woman did. They now fight for the Titans and are used as breeding stock for the Halflings. That was our one encounter with the Titans, and though no battle had ensued, we lost two-thirds of our people.”
Her voice quavered. “It took eons to get our population back to our one thousand. All seven hundred younglings were the progeny of the twelve male Olympians who stayed. To this day, no males but the twelve Olympians are allowed weapons since we know they are immune to Rhea's charms. To this day, we still do not know how Rhea had accomplished the feat.”
We all exchanged glances and I could see father was deep in thought. Then he shook his head and said, “We will have to be on our guard.” He turned to Arina and cocked an eyebrow at her, “Did you see?”
Arin grinned and said, “Yes, it was realtime communication at over a hundred light minutes out. Our hypothesis about it being a quantum entanglement tunnel out there was right.”
He nodded in appreciation of her observation and another alarm went off. We all