He'd already identified me as a heathen, and I hoped he wouldn't try to change that.

I’m not as Catholic as I used to be. I find that I can’t believe in a God who would punish anyone for the way he made them. A God who punishes is something mankind created as a way to hurt and control one another. God isn’t like that. God is better than that, better than us.

I'm a heathen when it comes to marriage.

The heathen could only be eliminated as a force if their culture was completely erased.

Oh, please.” Loki stepped back, examining me with a look of disappointment. “It’s only a matter of degree. So I killed a god. Big deal! He went to Niflheim and became an honored guest in my daughter’s palace. And my punishment? You want to know my punishment?”

“You were tied on a stone slab,” I said. “With poison from a snake dripping on your face. I know.”

“Do you?” Loki pulled back his cuffs, showing me the raw scars on his wrists. “The gods were not content to punish me with eternal torture. They took out their wrath upon my two favorite sons–Vali and Narvi. They turned Vali into a wolf and watched with amusement while he disemboweled his brother Narvi. Then they shot and gutted the wolf. The gods took my innocent sons’ own entrails…” Loki’s voice cracked with grief. “Well, Magnus Chase, let’s just say I was not bound with ropes.”

Something in my chest curled up and died–possibly my hope that there was any kind of justice in the universe. “Gods.”

Loki nodded. “Yes, Magnus. The gods. Think about that when you meet Thor.”

“I’m meeting Thor?”

“I’m afraid so. The gods don’t even pretend to deal in good and evil, Magnus. It’s not the Aesir way. Might makes right. So tell me… do you really want to charge into battle on their behalf?

Mere heathen morality, and not Jesus Christ, is preached in most of our churches.