6. So, a great tietäjä, Mervi the Magnificent, used to be the official custodian of the Sampo and is allegedly responsible for its mysterious disappearance. Also, Mervi the Magnificent was Mervi Turunen before she earned the epithet, making her my great-great-great-something-grandmother. According to some sources, she’s a descendant of Väinämöinen, which I guess makes me his descendant too!

I’m not so sure about being related to the most epic hero of heroes. Being related to a possibly incompetent mage who misplaced a magical relic—now that is something I can believe.

Althought there’s not much about the Sampo’s disappearance, I guess it somehow eventually ended up in Svalbard—at least that’s what Mom and Dad clearly believe. Perhaps the custodial duty was passed down through the generations to my parents. The book doesn’t say anything about that, or give an official list of artifacts hidden in the vault. There are mentions of things like the Holy Grail, the Book of Thoth, and the Cintāmani Stone, but it doesn’t seem anyone has published an actual inventory. I guess no one wants the wrong people to know for sure what relics the vault contains, especially not if there are chaos mages running around again.

As for Tumultua or that word egregore I saw in the book in Joakim’s room, I’ll have to wait until I have an Internet connection again to find the answers.

At some point in the morning, Mom pads down the hallway, her Reinos chuffing across the floorboards. I’m grateful the scruffy old slippers always announce her presence even if they’re a fashion offense. She pauses a moment outside my door. I brace myself for a sweeping entrance and another lecture. But, after a minute, my mom’s steps recede, and I release the breath I’ve been holding.

Back to my list:

7. A tonttukivi, or the so-called elf stone, consists of a pile of rocks used to mark the locations of wells of elemental energy, sacred sites reserved as powerful resources not to be used except under the most extreme circumstances. Also, they’re allegedly doorways to the space between worlds. How the logistics of this might work is vague at best.

So why would anyone take Natalie, or any of the others, to a bunch of elf stones? Sure, magic has been growing weaker in the world and these might mark the last remaining sources of pure energy, but I just don’t get the connection—especially not how the kidnappings are connected with some rogue mage hunting down the Sampo. I’m missing something.

Frustrated, I shove aside the textbook and rub my eyes as if I can massage my brain through my eye sockets and fit the puzzle pieces together.

Natalie. Her face fills the blank canvas behind my eyes. I

replay what she said to me in the clearing.

“And—last winter, you kissed me.”