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"You know, Harry, you should probably try to connect a doorway between my mansion and Babylon for all the time we've been spending up there," Emma said as the two of them arrived at her mansion in New York. Concentrating briefly, she smiled before pulling back her telepathic powers, breathing out in relief that the exertion hadn't caused her headache to grow still worse. Her security team had known that she had gone out with Harry the morning before, and that his own security would be taking over watching her. Implanting the memory of her arriving and heading up to her office was simple and painless.
The only three she didn't do it to were Sandman, her sister, and Firestar. All three of them knew what she had truly been up to, though Sandman's information did not extend to all of what they were doing. He knew that Harry led the Custodes, and that was enough for the ex-con turned bodyguard.
"No, I want to keep all the runic doors going through the hall of doors. That allows us to keep a level of security and control on things even if someone gets into the system," Harry replied, already moving towards the window. "Besides, this time it's pretty much like two birds with one stone. I had to come down to New York anyway, so why not take you home at the same time?"
"Going to see Dr. Strange?" Emma asked, her eyes narrowed. Part of her was irritated that Harry seemed to be in a rush to leave, but given the amount of time they had spent together in the time dilation chamber and her own headache she didn't complain. Indeed, she squashed that part with the fact that Harry hadn't spent any time with Jean or Ororo, of course, over that same time with an ease that would have astonished her as little as a year ago.
Harry nodded grimly. "Yes, I think he needs to stop sitting on the sidelines." With that the two exchanged a kiss before Harry turned and flew off.
Emma stood watching him for a moment with a faint smile on her face before heading to her room and bed. She did, however, remember to send an order down to the kitchen to prepare for a guest for dinner.
When he wanted to Harry could fly very quickly, almost as fast as a jet fighter. So it did not take any time at all before he was over New York, the city. With his Notice Me Not and illusion charms covering him, Harry was able to land without anyone seeing him.
Walking through the city, Harry took a moment to look at the headlines on a few newspapers, buying one. He read it quickly as he walked , only having to deal with one attempt at pickpocketing before he finished his reading and set it aside in a wastepaper basket.
Judging from the news reports it looked as if the world was indeed waking up to the threat of space, though Harry was dismayed to see that several people, noted experts, whatever that meant, thought that Ororo's light show had been faked. Still more shared the opinion, unsubstantiated as far as Harry could tell by anything approaching reality, that Harry himself, or rather Guardian, was creating this threat in some effort to seize power.
"After all, who is more dangerous? The ones standing over you with a knife, or the Jotun behind the door with a hammer?" said one wag as Harry made a turn, the voice from the radio of a parked car audible to him over the background hum of the city. "You have to do away with the one before you can manage the other."
"Good luck with that," Harry muttered to himself, shaking his head as he moved on. Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen, though I don't like how a good quarter of the reporters don't seem to want to believe the alien threat is real. I suppose they could all be failing their sanity rolls, he quipped to himself chuckling as he came within sight of Dr. Strange's apartment.
Knocking on Strange's door, Harry was once more greeted by Dr. Strange's manservant, who ushered him inside without preamble. "The master is in his meditation chamber. Follow me please."
The meditation chamber was in the attic of the building, a low ceiling area which looked only about three inches or so above Harry's head when he came through. Steven sat in the center of the room in the middle of a circular rug surrounded by small magic lights. He did not acknowledge his visitor as Harry was shown in.
"Steven," Harry said slowly, knowing the dangers of suddenly waking up a magical that was lost in meditation.
Dr. Strange immediately opened his eyes, looking up with a smile so faint it was almost wintry on his expression as he nodded at Harry. "Ah, Harry, how are you doing? Are you here to talk shop, or is there something specific that brings you to my doorstep?"
"I am well enough for an individual whose friends and people just defeated a possible genocidal bombardment of our planet," Harry replied tartly, sitting down across from Steven. "Which rather neatly brings me to my own question. What have you been doing with yourself since we closed off Earth to the demon dimensions?"
"Hunting down and incarcerating a few magical sorcerers and one rather put upon sorceress who attempted to use her sexual wiles on me to get away. Needless to say Clea was not impressed. Either with her tactics or her sense of self-preservation," Steven replied dryly.
"I see," Harry said. "And that's taking all of your time?"
"Well no. I do indeed have quite a bit of free time on my hand. I've been using it to get to reading those books that pile up whenever you turn your back, but that one never actually has time to sit down and read. It's the most enlightening," Steven said, wondering where the younger man was going with this. "I also have been helping Clea with young Wanda."
Harry nodded slowly, keeping his temper in check. "I see. And the idea of doing something actually useful, or perhaps even just going to work for me in a non-combat position hadn't occurred to you?"
Steven looked up sharply at that. "I already have a job Harry. I am the Sorcerer Supreme."
"A job whose purview has been cut down by at least two-thirds by this point," Harry retorted.
"Steven, we came this close to losing over half the planet's population in a single missile bombardment," he went on, holding up his thumb and forefinger about a centimeter apart. "If not for Ororo's powers and will, we would be mourning millions, possibly as many as a billion deaths right now. The Fantastic Four were there, the X-Men were called in eventually too, and Doom was there from the very beginning. So where were you, Clea, Wanda, and Polaris?" Lorna had moved in with her Wanda after the Savage Land campaign, sharing a room with her here in Steven's house for a few weeks before they would both move into the X-mansion.
"Protecting Earth from aliens such as that is not my task. I defend this planet from magical and immaterial threats, not mere mortal ones. There are many that can match that task, but only such as I can deal with the magical threats." Steven replied calmly.
"So does that mean you just don't want to work, or refuse to put forth the effort? Since most of the demonic and immaterial threats have been closed off, that isn't even a full time job. Just because the threats to Earth have changed doesn't mean you should simply stop trying to defend this planet and humanity from its enemies," Harry ground out, not commenting on Steven's egotistical statement.
"Do not take that tone with me, Harry Potter," Steven said, standing up abruptly, forcing Harry to do the same. "You have chosen this quest of defending Earth from an exterior threat on your own. I applaud you for it, but that does not give you the right to preach to me. I have been protecting this planet from demonic and immaterial threats for far longer than you've been around. There are still sorcerers and sorceresses out there who use their powers for material gain or to control those around them simply because they can. They are still a dangerous threat, and it is my task to police them."
"Still seems to me that that would give you a lot of free time to use to defend Earth from other sorts of threats," Harry retorted.
The two men stood glaring at one another for a time, but it was Steven who looked away first. "Very well," he said shaking his head. "I have been…reluctant to put all of our faith in that anti-demonic shield, despite having worked on both the spell and the actual casting myself. It also must be said that I have been enjoying my part-time employment," he finished wryly. "But you are right. A true ally does not wait for his allies to call upon him, he notices when they are in distress and moves to their aid. So ,what would you have of me?"
Harry breathed a small sigh of relief and smiled. "Thank you, Steven. You could be a major help in a lot of ways. Right now, Ororo's apprentice Kitty is up in Fortress Mars working on a little, well, not so little really, project. If you go there you could help her with that, or you could look for a magical way of discovering any aliens hiding on Earth."
"We would be spoiled for choice there. Any such spell I cast would get far too high a return to do you any good. These three that you have been fighting are not the only ones to come to this planet in the past. Atlantis was constructed by aliens, both its people and those that settled there eventually. There is some evidence to suggest that the merpeople, Namor's people, were aliens at one point or another, though they could interbreed with humanity to a certain extent. There is further evidence that aliens were involved with humanity as far back as ancient Egypt, and a few tales in India and China point to similar events. I suppose I could use a lower powered spell to find those not of this planet and then cast it consecutively over different sections of the earth, but that would be quite time-consuming."
Resisting the urge to say something along the lines of, "well you do seem to have a lot of time on your hands,'" Harry simply nodded. "Helping Kitty would be the most aid you could give me in the short term. In the long term, there are a lot of magical projects I would like to throw you, Clea, and Wanda at if you're up to it."
Steven nodded and smiled slightly. "I presume therefore that since I will be somewhat in your employ that means I will be getting paid? And would either of those ladies be of any aid with what Ms. Pryde is doing?"
"Not with the stuff that Kitty's doing, at least not Wanda. Even if she's gotten a handle on her magical power, I'm not quite certain I want a chaos mage near time dilation arrays."
"That makes far too much sense for me to ignore," Steven replied with a chuckle, and then escorted Harry out of the room promising he would contact Kitty in a few moments and then transfer himself to Mars.
Harry checked in with Wanda who was taking a magical test Clea had given her, and then Polaris, asking her to pitch in too. In return for going on his payroll and no longer being involved in field work, she agreed. Feeling a sense of accomplishment for having convinced Strange to be more proactive, Harry headed to the United Kingdom.
Moments later, Harry was touching down outside Buckingham Palace. He sent through a Patronus, as was normal procedure these days for informing William that he was there and wanted to talk. Quickly ushered into the king's presence by a few armed soldiers, Harry nodded his head to William, then clasped forearms with Duncan and General Mountebanks before sitting down across from them at a small tea table near the windows of the king's foyer.
"Congratulations are in order, I believe?" Williams said looking at Harry thoughtfully as he pushed across a cup of tea. "You once more saved Earth from an alien threat, though this assault seems to have been much more serious?"
Harry took the tea gratefully, sipping at it and sighing faintly before nodding. "For what Susan knew at the time of that announcement she was accurate enough. The equivalent of a large flotilla complete with dreadnought and battle cruisers attacked Earth with the intent of wiping humanity out. They didn't have any lighter units, thankfully. We would've had a devil of a time keeping them all in the trap we prepared for them. But more importantly she said nothing but the truth about the Kree's normal methods of dealing with upstart populations. I have no idea how likely or how long it will be before a fleet is sent, but that is the next step up, and if they come in as intelligently as this one did, if they spread out and stagger their hyperspace arrivals, I don't know if we'll be able to stop them from wiping out Earth. Not alone."
After another sip of tea Harry set his tea down firmly looking across at William. "That brings me to why I'm here. The Custodes Mundi will no longer go it alone when it comes to preparing Earth and humanity for defense from alien threats. The time has come for the nations of the world to step up and meet that demand."
"And you have plans for that?" William asked calmly. He had, after all, anticipated that.
"Yes. Sage is still working on the numbers for me, but I am throwing another post-operation discussion in a few days, and I will make an announcement to that effect there."
William nodded slowly. "I'd like some information about what you want from my nation before agreeing to anything, Mr. Potter. I like you, I consider you an ally, but I will not allow you to make what I think are unreasonable demands upon the people of my nation."
"Agreed. The payment and the amount of participation in the future defense of the world will be negotiated on an ad hoc basis, something I will also announce at the UN."
"You're going to go public?" William asked in surprise.
"Within two weeks, yes. Back alley communications to the various governments and a connection to officers I can work with militarily are one thing, but the world needs to be informed as a whole. Though the actual wording of that announcement is still up in the air as that will depend on the reactions we get from the meeting."
"Never lock yourself into a plan before you have all the information at hand," William nodded. Then he chuckled, though there was no humor in it. "The United Kingdom has learned the cost of that sort of thing to its greatest dismay and horror in the past. The entire Gallipoli campaign in World War I, for instance. That, thankfully, was before my time."
He looked at Harry shrewdly. "Will you be working with the UN, or creating an entirely different system of organization? What will you call it?"
"At the moment we're just calling it the Earth Defense Force, or EDF. It's short, and it says what it is, but we might come up with a catchier name in the future. As to what I would want from the United Kingdom…" Harry said, leaning forward intently. "I need trained crews, captains, tech people, anything and everything to do with Naval or aerial warfare. You give them to me, and I can see to their retraining and fitting out."
William chuckled once more, leaning back in his chair. "In that case, Mr. Potter, I'm positive we could come to some agreement. Indeed, let us do so now, before this meeting you've set up…"
OOOOOOO
"So, exactly what are we doing here?" Lorna asked, gasping as she leaned away from the wall of a tunnel in what the locals called Fortress Mars. Lorna had been astonished by the scope of Mr. Potter's works in space, and had eagerly thrown herself into the work he wanted her to do. She loathed fighting other people at this point and knew she still had issues with the indoctrination she had been put under and her issues with the now dead Eric. But helping the planet to prepare for an alien threat was something she could do.
Harry had asked her to head to Mars and to use her powers to bring up domes of metal and steel out of the ground of the planet. It was hard doing that without damaging the structural integrity of the planet as a whole, and the human inhabited portions in particular, but she was making progress.
Strangely, though, the project on the surface of the planet, which was mainly to bring up enough raw material to help build what the locals called "the Web," had been put on hold the moment Kitty learned she and Wanda were on Mars. She had contacted Harry and asked to have them assigned to her work, which as far as Lorna could tell was to create a long strip of tunnel leading into a cavern deep within the planet. Lorna estimated they were at least two miles within the planet by this point, and the cavern was at least as large as two aircraft hangers side by side.
Wanda had helped her half-sister dig out the tunnel, with Kitty using her own magic spells to help. Pushing at Kitty's shoulder she joined in on the questioning. "Yeah Kitty, what the heck are we working on here?"
Kitty held up a finger as she continued to calculate an arithmantic formula to figure out where to begin on her own project. When she had it down on the giant piece of cardboard, as large as she was, she set it down and moved over to lean against the wall next to Wanda, looking at the two sisters, her eyes bright. "We're going to be mixing magic and science here. I'm going to create an area in which time is sped up, then order a lot of the work-bots in here to create a large factory to build more of them. After that the stuff from the asteroids we're mining out and any and all metals and other raw materials we can get will come down here to start building up the number or work-bots. Hopefully within a few days of my finishing it we'll have a glut of work-bots rather than a shortage."
Looking down at the formula on the cardboard, Wanda could only shake her head. "Damn, girl. No wonder going back to school is like, the least of your worries. Me, I'm still worried about fitting in and not lashing out at the first asshole with my powers."
"Meh, I still want to take computer programming courses, and some other stuff. But yeah, I doubt I'll be giving my school work as much attention as I have in the past," Kitty replied with a giggle.
"Understood, and I suppose this explains the next job Mr. Potter asked me to take up, I guess." The other two looked at Lorna who chuckled. Unlike the two younger girls, she had both finished high school before Shaw had found her and two semesters of college yet had no real desire to go back to]. "Mr. Potter asked me to start work with his miners. He wants to see if I can use my powers to speed up the mining operations of the Ravenspires. Judging by what I was able to do here, its workable, but hard."
Wanda giggled. "On the other hand, he also wants us to go around to junkyards and that kind of thing, starting in countries that are having major issues with trash and such. I'll use my powers to cover us, and then Lorna here will pull out all the useful metals. But who cares about the work? A chance to go to Greece, Italy, and other places like that for day trips without paying for it while getting paid? Yes, please!"
The other two girls laughed at that before falling silent for a moment. Then Kitty asked Lorna, "So… You and Alex. What's it like dating the wilder of the Summers men?"
"What's it like to have a boyfriend at all?" Wanda said quickly.
Lorna rolled her eyes, but answered readily enough. "Hmm, well I haven't dated or even talked to Scott that often, but Alex is…"
OOOOOOO
Laughing Emma leaned back, swirling her glass of orange juice in her wine glass as she watched Hela sip appreciatively at the wine Emma had supplied for her. This teetotalism was for the birds, but Emma had made the decision to stick with it for Jean's sake, and even when the redhead wasn't around she would do just that. "Really, she wanted to go to Sessrúmnir just to goose Thor?"
"Thor and others," Hela replied drolly, before placing the gun she had taken from the scene of that battle. "Here is one of the more advanced seeming guns I mentioned. Does it look familiar?"
"Not off the top of my head, but leave it with me. I don't want to pull Dennis or the rest of Harry's intelligence apparatus in on this, but I can sic my own companies' intelligence service on it." Emma mused holding up the weapon. It was a decent sized gun, with a crude looking battery or some kind of chamber sticking out to one side of the main barrel, but the rest of the gun looked much more streamlined. Setting that mystery to the side, she looked back up at Hela. "Did you stick around to watch what happened afterward?"
"After I made certain the spirit of Nanny would remain in Niflheim, she tried to escape twice the moment my back was turned, I went back. The family were being looked after, and when I looked in on local news if seems that the local Kindreds had decided to fight fire with fire. There were still running fights around the city as known FoH members came under attack by them, including the remnants of their supposedly peaceful march." Hela shrugged unconcernedly.
As far as she was concerned the bigots had brought it upon themselves and the Kindreds were more than justified in their retribution. That they limited their actions to only the confirmed adult members of the FoH, not even attacking the so-called teenagers involved with the despicable group and did not indulge in looting or vindictive destruction spoke well of their control in the face of their anger at the loss of one of their own. "The police were getting a handle on the violence, if slowly when I left. Still, I doubt the FoH will be left with any doubt that their actions today earned them an enemy, and with the efficiency of these modern communications news of the assault and murders, both that which they attempted and that which actually occurred, will spread across the country."
"Hmm… I can't say the chaos is to my liking, but the sentiment is. Still, we can leave that in the hands of the authorities." Taking a final bite of her quiche, Emma set her fork down. "Now, you wanted to know about how I met Harry. To start that tale however, I suppose I should ask how much the others told you about my family…"
OOOOOO
Thor's party made their way through the woods and snowcapped peaks towards their destination, the highest peak of Asgard, Hnirberg. Its mighty peak nearly abutted one of the world tree's branches which passed by the realm of Asgard.
At night you could see Yggdrasil occasionally from everywhere, but there were scant few places where you could actually transport yourself from the realm of Asgard to the 'greater reality of Yggdrasil'. Or at least that was how Odin explained things to Thor, he was not one for such deep thoughts, and was more than willing to take his father's words on the matter as his own views were that the World Tree simply WAS and that's all he needed to know. .
At the present Thor was in the lead as the group climbed up a sheer rock face of the mountain. There was no path up this segment of the mountain, and worse for the Asgardians, something in the air this high up made them unable to fly despite the magics several of them had which would normally allow them to.
Currently Thor had a rope tied between him and his fellows as he forged upwards. Volstagg was next to him working his way up stolidly, connected to Thor by another rope which dangled loosely between them. He might well have trouble actually reaching the wall of the cliff over his own stomach, but Volstagg was a powerful warrior for all his bulk.
The fall wouldn't kill any of them they were Aesir after all, warriors one and all made for hardship who laughed at such danger. But it would hurt, and possibly injure one of them them enough to force them to troop back to Asgard. Hence why Thor and Volstagg were in the lead; they were the physically strongest of the party. Since they could just muscle their way to the top it made sense for them to be trailbreakers even if neither of them were the best when it came to actually finding the easiest way up the rock face.
Of course there is also the fact that if Volstagg fell, only I am strong enough to stop him from taking everyone else with him," Thor thought to himself chuckling between looking for another handhold.
Behind the two of them in two long lines, came the others that had joined him on this quest. Volstagg led Skadi and Tyr, while Sif, Fanrdal and Hogun followed Thor.
The climb continued as the sun continued its course through the sky. As it was passing overheard, from behind Volstagg, Skadi suddenly shouted, "Thor look out!"
Looking up from where he had been trying to find his next handhold Thor saw a Jotun boulder coming down the mountainside towards him.
"Hold hard!"Sif bellowed untying herself from the rope directly behind him and leaping up, bouncing up off of Thor's back, her sword outstretched to shatter the boulder. She then grabbed onto the sheer rock face and clung there for a moment with one hand, glaring upwards. "There are more coming!" She said over her shoulder before going to work with her sword, flailing at the rocks as they came.
Behind Volstagg Skadi and Tyr leaned back, trusting to the ropes around their waists as they used their hands to quickly free their bows and arrows. Leaning to either side they shot up past their fellows at whoever was dropping the boulders.
Thor himself could not see them, his view upwards now blocked by Sif's body. I will admit the view is rather nice from this angle yet still I would rather see the attacks coming.
"By Odin's beard! When I get them my hands on them, the mighty Volstagg will teach them the error of their ways! Such a cowardly attack deserves a right proper beating!" Thor's overweight friend roared. Even so he stopped moving, gripping the cliff face, bearing the weight of the two bow users stoically.
"While anger is not the most handsome of emotions, in this case it is not anger but righteous fury. For that I will join you in this contest of arms my friend," said Fandral, pulling himself up with Hogun while the other two continued to the lob arrows up at the Jotun above them.
"Can anyone see who it is?"Thor shouted.
Skadi nodded her head quickly as she launched a well aimed arrow, a cry of pain echoing through the air a moment later that Skadi's grinned wolfishly at. "Frost Jotun!" Skadi had the best eyes of all the gods save Heimdall and Mighty Odin himself, and even they had to bow to her skill with the bow.
Frost Jotun were physically stronger than most Asgardians, brutish creatures that relied on that brute power and a certain way with stone and ice to match their betters in combat despite the fact many had no further inherent magic save their ability to not feel cold. They were not dangerous opponents on the dales and fields of Asgard's hills and plains, but up here in the mountains, which was much like their own realm of Jotunheim, they could be a dangerous threat even to one so mighty as Thor. That first boulder would have knocked them all off the mountaintop, if not for Sif's swift actions.
"We must close with them," she grunted now, her blade cutting another boulder in twain despite the one-handed nature of the blow. "Climb faster the lot of you!"
"Leapfrog over us, one after another, the ones highest up take up the duty of protecting the others." Thor ordered. "Yet keep your ropes tied my friends, I pray thee."
"I see a crevice," Hogun said moments later as he came up to us Thor's left side, speaking up though he was normally a man of few words. "I'll make my way over there and up faster. When you hear the sounds of battle, make your own way up as quickly as possible."
With that he dropped down below, literally letting go of his grip and falling for a moment before grabbing a rocky outcrop and halting his downward plunge. Then he moved to the side, repelling around before moving up the small crevice that he had spotted. Behind him, Thor had moved to where Sif had been holding the boulders off originally, taking up along with the duty of defending them from further boulders to give Sif a rest.
Now at last Thor could finally see their opponents that were indeed Frost Jotun. They looked to be man shaped things, with misshapen heads and hair growing out every which way along with pale, almost blue tinged skin. When they touched the rocks their hands seemed to enlarge slightly, frost coming to their fingertips and somehow joining them directly to the ice or snow they picked up. They used crude misshapen stone axes and interweaving bronze armor. For all that they were magnificent miners Ice Jotun did not make very good smiths. They had to make do with their crude weapons of stone and ice when they couldn't steal something better from one of the crafting races. .
Past the ones who were hurling down boulders however was another group. They were working on dislodging what looked like a piece of ice, larger and far wider than any of them were. If they were able to free it and tossed that large a piece of ice down at them, the Asgardians' wouldn't be able to block it. Even the shrapnel would be so large they knock the Asgardians off the cliff face.
"We must move now!" Thor shouted, though that was hard to do in the face of a barrage of boulders that required those in the lead to have at least one hand free at all times to smash them aside. That made the rather inconvenient fact that they were still trying to climb a sheer rock face even more so.
It was a race then for a few moments though the Jotun above them did not know it. Would Hogun arrive on the scene before the Jotun working on the large ice chunk freed it, or would they succeed and blast the otherAsgardians off of their mountaintop?
Of course the Jotun didn't have it all their own way. Protected by the others, Tyr and Skadi were able to lob arrows up at the Jotun, and several of them had fallen back, one in particular gasping and choking as an arrow from Skadi took him in the throat, the goddess of ice and hunting giving a shrieking cry of victory at the hit like that of a hunting falcon. Another one screamed when an arrow went through his cheek and out the back of his head, but it didn't seem to have done much lasting harm for all of that. It simply made his face become more grotesque than it already had been, although many of the Asgardian party would have thought that impossible.
Then without any warning Hogun was on the scene, smashing bodily into two of the Jotun trying to free the ice mountain as he leaped up over an outcropping of rock. He slammed one Jotun into the other as his heavy-handed mace flashed toward a third, crushing his skull and sending his body down to land among those tossing boulders down on his fellow Asgardians. That group all turned and he roared out a battle cry charging at them.
"Now, up friends and to Joyous Battle!" Thor shouted, unwilling to continue hanging there while his friend faced danger and glory in equal parts above him.
As the others scaled the cliffs moving as fast as they could Thor remained in place, leaning back away from the wall. He began spinning Mjolnir, the hammer becoming a whirl in the air before he hurled it upwards, the strap still wrapped around his wrist. The hammer's impetus pulled him upwards and also pulled the others still connected to him up quickly, all of them landing on the pathway where the Jotun stood.
They all landed one after another, rolling or otherwise taking the tumble as they could. Volstagg in particular used the roll, having untied himself at the apex of his impromptu parabola. Coming out of his roll, which had taken several Jotun off their feet, he pulled out a massive broadsword hacking down two of the Jotun in one mighty blow before twisting around to bring his fist up and into another Jotun's face before it could launch a short spear at Hogun's back. "Tremble and moan in fear, foolish Jotun, mighty Volstagg is here!"
"That was almost poetic if a bit too long winded for my tastes,"Sif muttered, as she too attacked, cutting the arm off a Jotun who's blade she deflected, the brute falling back blood staining the snow beneath him. Her sword was much more traditional, a simple 34in. double edged longsword which she wielded in one hand, her other arm holding a large round shield.
Tyr used a similar sword, though in comparison to Sif's his had a far more intricate inlay to it, as well as a larger pommel and a slightly longer blade. Despite that, his blade was nicked here and there, and was very obviously a blade that while well cared for still saw plenty of action and he wielded it with the ease of long use. So too did Fandral though his sword was both longer and thinner, his swordsmanship was actually better than his fellows, if far too flamboyant and showy in comparison to the businesslike blade-work of Tyr.
None however could match Thor for skill or strength with Mjolnir in his hand. When a Jotun came within range of Thor, they died swiftly. Blades, axes, hammers, bone, armor, none stopped his mighty rampage.
With the Asgardians within arm's reach the Jotun proved no match despite having larger numbers. Indeed, they retreated a little too quickly,Thor thought with a frown as he picked bits of brain off Mjolnir's head. Normally Jotun like that, a war party it appeared, would have stayed and fought to the last if only because to do otherwise would court scorn and mockery from their fellows, let alone the chance of prestige at taking down one of the hated Aesir or Vanir. But this group hadn't…
He wasn't the only one who had picked up on that. "Methinks we need to be prepared for further ambushes in the future." Said Tyr as the god of leaders, justice and self-sacrifice gave the failed ambush another look around, causing all around him to nod. None of their number were concerned about the potential ambushes however. With the failure of the this one the element of surprise was lost and that had been the Jotun's greatest, and only, advantage baring their bringing massive numbers into play.
Those proved to be prophetic words, as they were indeed ambushed several times more as they traversed the mountains, each time fighting off the Jotun warbands with relative ease and leaving dozens of giant corpses in their wake to be buried by the falling snow. None proved to be as potentially deadly as that first one might have proved, and they forged on, reaching the summit of the mountain where it was closest to the world tree a bare day after the last ambush.
For a moment they fell silent in awe as they stared at the monstrously huge branch that hovered in the distance. Even gods such as they had things they believed in, and Yggdrasil was one of them, even discounting the number of mysteries and separate powers it contained in its branches and roots. It was awfully hard not to worship such a presence.
"And now comes the part for that I have been dreading," said Fandral sighing theatrically, smoothing his hair in an unconscious gesture. "The leap of faith."
"I will go first," Thor replied promptly. As leader of the expedition Thor felt it was both right and proper for him to go first. "The rest of you follow after but watch out for each other. There might still be Frost Jotun about."
With that he turned away from the view, heading toward back towards the end of the small outcrop they stood on before turning, and racing forward as fast as he could go. He leaped out over the space separating the top of the mountain with the edge of the Asgardian's realm and out into nothingness before landing with a whuff of expelled air on the monstrously huge branch which passed over and slightly through the realm of Asgard.
Quickly glancing around Thor pulled out his hammer wary of an ambush even here. When none materialized, he turned slightly and waved at his friends, before turning around to examine their surroundings more closely.
"It makes you feel like a child again,"Sif said a moment later, doing the same.
"Almost mortal in fact," said Tyr, shaking his head as he stared up and further up at the monstrous Yggdrasil. "It makes mountains looked tiny."
"I suppose in the face of the World Tree all of us are mere mortals. No matter how long we live, we will never live anywhere near as long as Yggdrasil has existed." Volstagg said pensively..
"That was oddly poetic my friend," said Fandral, clapping Volstagg on the shoulder while Thor paused in his march, thinking about Jane Foster.
What would she think if she saw the Yggdrasil? Would she be feeling the same all as they did, or would she feel terror at something so beyond what any of us can truly contemplate? And why is it that this is the first time I've thought of Jane since returning full time to Asgard? I had believed that what we felt for one another was special yet if it was, would she not be in my thoughts all the time? That is a troubling thought.
"Enough woolgathering," said Sif, smacking her palm into the side of Thor's head and gesturing him forward. "You're up my friend."
Chuckling he moved towards the trunk of Yggdrasil, following the others as he quipped, "Shouldn't that be 'you're down' since we are going down instead of up?"
Sif groaned and rolled her eyes following him quickly. "Leave the jokes to Fandral and Skadi I beg of you. At least they are somewhat good at it."
With a laugh Thor began to climb down Yggdrasil's massive trunk.
OOOOOO
Baldur stood in the middle of the fire blackened charnel house that had once been a village staring around him, his face a mask of rage. Asgard ruled these lands, but for the most part, those who inhabited them were not gods themselves. Rather they were Asatru, descendants of Kindreds of old who had traveled with the Asgardians to this alternate universe instead of facing persecution from the Christians, eager to explore these new lands and leave behind the old.
Their lives were hard but they were a hearty and hale folk even if not all of them were warriors. Yet that hadn't stopped the Night Elves from wiping this village off the map. The villagers hadn't gone quietly, and Baldur hoped that at least a few of them had earned their place in Odin's halls, but it had not saved their loved ones, their womenfolk and children. I thought Thor's strikes at their army's forward outposts would have made my own undertaking a show of force rather than a real warrior's task. I had thought this would be boring at best, now I am sorry I ever thought in such a manner.
In actuality, the local humans were mere creations, not so much illusions as simulacrums like the one Harry had used in Russia to play Piotr to the Russian soldiers who led them back to the Super Soldier base. All of them were created by the Shadows, who had taken the memories of the various Asgardians to create as lifelike an illusion of life as they could to act out their roles.
They had no souls, their belief could not give power to Odin or any of the other gods who they were supposed to believe in. They simply gave the illusion of such, yet another way the shadows had weakened the Asgardians through denying the pantheon a connection to their human followers save the trickle which could cross the dimensional gap.
Baldur did not know this, of course. He was as entangled in the Shadow's net as any of them save perhaps Odin and Hela, who both knew they were enshrouded even if that knowledge was scant comfort. All he knew was that the Night Elves were not going to get away with this, and he would be taking it up personally with Malekith if he could. Their alliances with the various Jotun tribes and several trollkin tribes might have kept Lord Odin from declaring war upon them in the past, but an act like this, coming so swiftly after the series of skirmishes and reprisals Thor's mission should have stopped, could not be borne.
I wonder where they were hiding the raiding parties to do this. Or were the outposts Thor smashed faked in some manner? Yes, that makes sense, the Night Elves are ever creatures of duplicity and misdirection, it would be all too easy for them to put poor fighters or conscripts in those outposts and thus both hide and husband the forces needed for these atrocities from our scouts.
"Still, however this occurred, it must be replied to in like kind," he said aloud, moving through the debris of the town quickly. He found his half-brother Víðarr waiting for him and nodded brusquely to the younger man. "Send a raven back to our lord father then see if you can find the raiding party that did this. I do not want them to get back to Svartalfheim with their ill-gotten gains. Not this time!"
Víðarr nodded grimly and turned to his horse as Baldur did the same, pushing himself up into the saddle. Moments later they were racing off over the snowbound landscape trailing after Tyr's hounds as they caught the scent of their prey.
All the while the Shadows watched, pleased that something was going right for them now. They were even pleased with Thor's quest for Níðhöggr, having fallen for Odin's ruse there, and happy to have Thor out of the way on such a fool's errand. They would watch it closely, and would empower any servants or creations of theirs that ran into the group as much as they could. Níðhöggr in particular would be useful there, strong enough to kill Thor even without their aid. That would make it all the easier to launch Ragnarok with Balder's death later.
Yet for all of that, they were constrained in many ways in how openly they could act by their agreements with the Asgardians, something they'd not foreseen and would not have cared about even if they had realized it, never believing the Asgardians could slip their leashes. In Asgard they could not act physically at all, as they had in Niflheim by teleporting in troops to assail Hela in her lair.
Not, mind you that it had done them any good there. The Shadows still shuddered occasionally as they remembered the power Hela had unleashed on their tools. And they could not even tell one another if those shudders came from avarice, a desire to control that power and turn it to their own purposes once more, or fear.
But in Asgard and the other realm of the world tree the gods lived on, Vanaheim, the Shadows were sharply constrained thanks to the wording of the agreement they had made with Odin in their initial agreement with him. The Shadows could not act against Yggdrasil in any way, though the creatures that made it their home were fair game. They could not physically appear anywhere within it, or on Asgard and Vanaheim. As Niflheim and the other realms had not been named, what they could do in them was much less constrained, which had bitten Hela on her shapely rear for a time. Nor could they concentrate on other Asgardians too often, not without weakening their hold on Odin, which they were desperate, or as close as such beings could be, to not do after Hela had slipped her leash.
Odin and Loki had worked together on that agreement, fearing betrayal even then, though it had not helped them in the short term. It remained to be seen if it would aid to free them in the long term.
But there were two more things bothering the Shadows. One was Hela of course. Her power and her newly-won freedom worried them. Though she truly had no way to actually combat them directly, Hela could fight their creatures, and worse their tethers to the realms of Asgard. And with the powerful humans behind her, that was a distinct threat. Even if they had shut down all connections between Midgard and the rest of the realms, the Shadows still had no idea how the Humans had shown up in the first place.
Added to this concern was why anyone would go to such lengths to rescue Sigyn's body, since they knew her soul was dead and gone, her body remaining behind a mere curiosity, nothing more. The Shadows feared a Loki-style trick there, but could do nothing now that the body, which had been protected by a spell they could not break before now.
Leading from that was a somewhat more worrisome concern than Hela no longer being under their thumb: her father was still not around after having fallen into the Abyss between realms. After having twisted Loki's very being as much as they could, the Shadows had used him to cause tension and strife among the Asgardians in preparation for his role in Ragnarok. But he was not to be found, and thus was well beyond their reach. That was a problem, one they fretted at even as they watched the rest of their pawns continue to dance to their tune.
OOOOOOO
That evening Hela returned to Camelot, stopping by what was still being called the headmaster's tower to see if Harry or Jean were awake and check on Ororo. Emma did not, her head still somewhat bothering her and still dealing with the odd psychosomatic creepy crawling feeling after her time in the dilation capsule.
Hela found Harry sitting by the room's original bed, one hand gently stroking Ororo's forehead as she lay still insensate from her initial and continued exertions wrangling the Earth's weather patterns back into line. He didn't look up as Hela entered the room, the door leading from the spiral staircase into the room opening automatically for her.
This allowed Hela to look around the room and notice the room had been rearranged. The small intimate little dining and sitting area had been replaced by a second bed. Jean didn't actually sleep in the same bed as the unconscious Ororo that seemed just plain wrong to her and the others. But just as wrong was to not be near her at night if Ororo woke up.
In that bed Jean sat up at one side of it, watching Harry and Ororo while to her side slept Melody, Illyana and oddly to anyone but Hela who only had the vaguest idea of his past, a young white-haired boy. Jean looked over as Hela came in and smiled at her, gesturing over to Ororo. "We know she's going to be alright but…"
"But missing your other half is and should always be a painful thing, understandable." Hela replied, moving to stand by the bed and look down at the gorgeous features of the unconscious African woman.
She put a hand on Harry's shoulder and stood there watching with him, his hand on hers for a moment until Harry stood up. He leaned over, placing a light kiss on Ororo's forehead. "Get well soon love, you are dearly missed."
Even asleep Ororo's lips slid into a smile at that touch. With a smile of his own Harry turned away to join Jean and the two youngsters in bed, as Hela leaned down to do the same before leaving.
Jean almost reached out a hand to stop her as Harry was changing for bed, but Hela shook her head. She was not part of this relationship yet, she and Harry were still very much courting. Joining them in bed, even with the three youngsters, would not only have been premature in the extreme, but one simply did not share a bed like that so casually in Hela's culture unless it was impossible to do otherwise.
Jean nodded at Hela's nonverbal answer, not speaking herself only giving the Asgardian goddess a small smile in reply before settling down in bed once more watching Hela walk out to seek her own bed. Tomorrow would be a busy day for all of them after all, just like most of their days were.
OOOOOOO
The next day while Harry, Jean and Emma got down to organizing the upcoming meeting and numerous other jobs, Hela was busy with something far more personal. With Harry's okay she had asked Danielle Moonstar to come with her to the outer edge of the solar system, where Dani had been able to connect with Sigyn's soul within her blood. Hela had decided it was time to see if she could meet her 'mother' in person, for a given value of 'in person' at any rate.
They took the Hellion out with Carol and several dozen technicians to manage the ship. They wanted to get some hands on experience with the ship to aid them in understanding the Kree ships and the differences between spaceships and wet navy ships. Carol had never served on a sub, but two of the techs had served on commercial research subs, so between them they might be able to come up with a simplistic training manual. Or at least the framework of one, since each position the crew would need their own manual. There were also two scientists who wanted to run some tests in Zero-G out from the sun's gravity well that Hela didn't understand the purpose of.
The queen of Niflheim found herself actually rather ambivalent about the entire thing. Another individual might have called it nervousness, but she was a goddess, she did not feel nervousness! Or shyness, or trepidation! Such weak feelings are beneath me.
Hela kept telling herself that as she finished hanging up a training sword to one side of the ship's exercise area. She and Dani had taken to training against one another in short sharp bouts throughout the day. Hela helped Dani with her sword work and the younger woman answered some of Hela's questions about modern culture.
She had learned much of human history from Ororo already, though that had been a mere overview, and she had continued that education during her spare time in the time dilation chamber. She had come away both appalled and impressed in equal amounts by how far humanity had come and how little they had changed in some ways. Modern society however was still a relative unknown to her, with some very odd, unneeded complications and underlying understandings that she simply could not comprehend just yet.
In turn Dani had learned a bit about swordsmanship from Hela, just like Harry had during their spare moments in the time dilation chamber. Harry had not been willing to devote much time to it, but he'd proved an able student,Hela thought, which Dani has not alas . The sword wasn't Dani's preferred weapon, she was a spear-woman and an archer for preference, and Hela had stopped their first spar only a few moments in to order Dani to go get Sigyn's Gift and use it in spear form instead of a sword. Unfortunately that meant Hela hadn't had as much to teach her, but the sparring had still been good for the younger woman, in teaching Dani how to handle a skilled opponent wielding a sword as well as how to wield her spear more effectively in close combat.
And I have succeeded in exhausting her no end Hela thought smugly. Humans shouldn't try to keep up with Asgardians in endurance or training like this, even if I am 'dumbing down' my speed and strength to mere human levels. I was surprised however to see that like Harry her reflexes are quite good. Nowhere near as good as Harry's, which are simply inhuman even in comparison to myself but still quite good.
Entering the shower area Hela found Dani already finished a towel around her fit, sprinters body and she exchanged a small nod with the other woman. "I'm going to try to sleep in about an hour or so. Will you have to be nearby physically to do whatever it is you have to?"
"Not at all,"Hela said shrugging her shoulders. "After all, I wasn't physically close to you when I attempted to pull your dreaming mind to my realm, now was I?"
"True,"Dani said with a chuckle, then leaned against the wall as Hela moved in towards the shower, already stripping off her clothing. She didn't do this as a normal woman would. Rather each article of clothing disappeared into the immaterial for a moment until she was completely divested of clothing and about to step into the shower. The only thing that remained was her mask, still obscuring her forehead and the area around her eyes.
Dani finally looked away, shaking her head. Wow, if I was the type to be jealous, then she snorted at the thought. I'd already have a lot of practice with that wouldn't I?
"Have you had any thoughts about how to get your mother's soul out of my body and into her own?" She asked aloud, coming to the point of why she had stuck around instead of going to change and heading to her room right away.
"Dani, I haven't even had any thoughts about how to break whatever spell is keeping her body in that magical construct," Hela said with a sigh audible even over the sound of the shower. "It's a magnificent construct I'll admit, making her utterly immune to any kind of damage, even Harry says that he couldn't get through it."
It still cost her somewhat to admit it, but Harry had more raw magical power then Hela did, at least outside of her own realm. Inside was a different story entirely and even without it Hela was still immensely powerful. But the one time they had tried to transfer Sigyn's magical coffin to her realm it hasn't worked. The coffin simply refused to be moved when they tried, as if its reality completely negated her own realm's somehow. So Hela had to swallow her pride and admit that Harry's versatility would hopefully prove the key to freeing Sigyn.
"I actually had a thought about that one,"Dani said, having witnessed their attempt. "I think that construct that's containing her is part and parcel of whatever hid her soul away in the first place. They couldn't hide both body and soul, but they could protect the body while the soul was hidden away."
"Yes I had a similar thought myself. I'm assuming that my… father… had something to do with it, and that sounds much like something Loki Truthbender would come up with," she said, hesitantly using the word 'father'. She had yet come to grips emotionally with the idea that her memories of Loki might have been tampered with. A lifetime's worth of loathing was not easily overcome, nor was it easy to truly come to grips with her mind and memories being so violated. That would have made a lesser being tremble in her bed, for Hela it just made her angry.
Dani nodded though there was a frown on her face. "I've never understood why both Loki and Odin are excused from the normal reaction to men dabbling in magic. Heck not so much dabbled but mastered beyond anyone else in your culture."
"Lord Odin was allowed to dabble in it simply because he was the Highest, who would gainsay him about it? He was determined to find wisdom wherever he could to better himself and those under him by the gaining of it, paying the price as needed or using his cunning to get free of such. To my knowledge he rarely uses magic beyond shape changing, runes, and disguises so it is easier for others to accept. And if they did not, well, they could challenge him on the matter. I will leave it to you to imagine how well that went" Hela scoffed at the mere idea of someone trying to give Odin grief for using magic.
"Loki Foolsbane, his efficacy with magic was part and parcel of his general image from what I know, though of course all of it might be false. It fit into his persona as the god of fire and all at that could entailed: a trickster, a dangerous friend and a far more dangerous foe, someone you had to treat with intelligently, or else you would be burned, with guile and artifice beyond most men's ken. In short, he could do it, so he did."
"I wonder how Loki and Odin's fathers dealt with them while they were young,"Dani quipped as Hela finished her shower. "They must've been interesting to grow up with, even on their own not including that Odin had two brothers."
"Undoubtedly,"Hela replied then blinked turning her head to stare at the woman even as her mask formed once more on her face, the piece of clothing having disappeared as she washed her face and hair for a moment as Hela turned away to face the wall of the shower. "Wait, why did you say that as if they both came from the same generation? Odin is Loki's step-father, he raised him as a fosterling."
Dani had wondered about the story about that mask more than once but knew it would be impolite to ask. It was obviously something very personal to her. Though it isn't anything to do with her actual face, not given what I saw while she was sleeping. Again, if I was the type to be jealous… "No he's not, at least not according to the mythology, and according to all of the historical works we've found so far," Dani said aloud, before blinking. "Wait, no one told you that part?"
"No that aspect did not come up in our discussions of the similarities and differences between what humans believed, and what we know of ourselves." Hela replied dryly. "I wonder which is reality?"
"Considering that both the writings and stories we've been able to find and the actual Asatru faith on the matter says that Loki and Odin are sworn blood-brothers rather than father and son, I'd say the Shadows had a reason for somehow limiting Loki that way, among all the others that seems to have been done to him."
"I can think of hundreds of reasons why they would want to limit someone who made it a point of pride to worm his way out of any agreements to the humiliation or defeat of the opposing party, but why would they try to do so in such a manner?" Hela said to herself, shaking her head. Between one twist of her neck and the next Hela was dry. Her clothing reappeared around her body an instant later as she cocked her head quizzically at Dani. "Aren't you going to change before bed?"
Dani rolled her eyes, and turned away replying with a flippant "I see that one-upmanship exists among even goddesses."
"Of course it does,"Hela said in a slightly louder voice as Dani left the bathroom. "We're just somewhat more subtle about it."
Dani's answering laughter was loud and long, and Hela smirked to herself, before following the other woman out of the bathing area.
A few hours later, Dani laid back in her bed falling to sleep swiftly thanks to how tired she was and the sedatives she been given by Amelia Voght before she had left Earth that morning. Nearby, Hela waited a moment, sitting in a meditation pose of her own, as she waited for Dani's breathing to indicate she had fallen into a dream state.
Then she began to send out her mind towards the other woman. It was somewhat trickier here without being in her realm which normally anchored such astral projections like this, but it was still well within her means. Yet when her thoughts entered Dani's mind the difference between sending out her own mind and grabbing someone else's subconscious was immediately apparent.
Using a spell to grab someone else's mind was like throwing out a net to catch a fish, pulling it towards her through the water only with Dani to see it suddenly be pulled away. This time, it was Hela's mind that was doing the journey, and it was not pleasant. It felt almost as if she was drowning for a moment, not in Dani's mind or emotions, but the subconscious id, or soul if you looked at it in that manner, upon which those things swam. It was a strange feeling, and not pleasant but thankfully for Hela it was over quickly.
In return, Dani sort of got flashes of emotion and imagery from the invader as Hela's mind wound its way into her soul: concern coupled with a view of her realm, wariness from a memory of the Shadows, a sharp intelligence and desire. A lot of different varieties of desire with several different images, the most prominent right now being a sort of longing to have this work and get to know her step-mother, mingled with worry and longing for Harry and Ororo, who she was the closest with among the ladies involved with Harry.
Dani tried not to think about that, feeling it rude to have gained such insight, and moreover having no desire to do so in the first place. Despite that however one image stuck in Dani's mind, and she could only shake her head at it as she once more opened her eyes to find herself not in her room, but elsewhere. What the heck was with that image with Harry cooking in only an apron? Dani thought, before shaking her head and concentrating on her surroundings.
This particular 'elsewhere' was a mountain clearing of some kind, with a small dirt road leading down a trail to one side, and a hilly field of goats to the other. There were actual goats there, several of them and not one of them was making an attempt to bolt away from her despite the fact they were not in a paddock. Only a small berm surrounded them, something any of them should have been able to jump at will.
To the other side was a large and extremely well made hall, different from the ones she had seen previously which had come from her own memory. This one was most definitely a construct of Sigyn's mind rather than hers.
Next to our Hela's body, or rather her astral projection, formed swiftly. Looking around, Hela frowned, then said hesitantly, "Why, why do I feel as if I should know this place? It, it looks like some of the images in that cavern but I…curse those Shadows!" Hela shouted, her normal self-control slowly sliding away as she looked around them, her body trembling with rage and grief, the anger at her helplessness in the face of what the Shadows had done to her surfacing once more.
"This… I did not expect," said a calm but equally emotional voice. "I ,I thought that you had come once more for advice Dani, I did not…"
They two of them turned to see Sigyn standing by the doorway to the cabin, her eyes wide and shimmering as she took in Hela's body. She wore a skirt much more akin to the one she had worn the first time she met Dani, a long skirt of brown tied around her waist by a white braided cord, this time braided with a light blue rope.
"Be welcome daughter,"Sigyn said her voice thick now as tears began to form in her eyes, her hands open and gesturing into the hall, inviting the pair inside.
Hela stared at the woman looking for all the world like she would bolt, far too many emotions playing over here her entire body for Dani to get a handle on before Hela reined herself in with a show of control that was almost scary."You, you claim to be my father's wife yes?"
Sigyn snorted, one hand coming up to wipe away at her eyes before she gestured with that same hand towards the door once more, a touch more insistently. "I don't claim to be anything. I am your mother and Loki Shapechanger's wife. And let me tell you, taking the motherly role over for you and your brothers was not an easy task, or a decision I came to lightly. I did however choose it off my own free will." She paused in the doorway, looking back at Hela. "When was the last time you could say the same of any of your actions?"
"Point,"Hela replied, actually regaining control of herself under her mother's snarky assault, somehow finding it both familiar and comforting as much as the warm air Sigyn had about her. "Though I bet I was a picnic in comparison to my brothers." She added primly, her expression expectant as she waited for confirmation on her good behavior
Sigyn devolved into a giggling mess for a moment, leaning against the doorframe as she had held her stomach while Hela glared at her in indignation. "What?!I cannot imagine that anything I did would be up to something those two could get up to."
"Oh my dear,"Sigyn said with a wild toss of her head, regaining control of herself with difficulty. "I see we have much to talk about."
Inside the cottage was… the charitable would call it eclectic. The room was built around a well made central fireplace and chimney system with some, baroque faces carved into the chimney randomly around its surface of different animals. The fire was lit and inviting, despite randomly changing color, pulsing with all the colors of a rainbow, and taking on odd shapes whenever you looked at it from the corners of your eyes.
Besides the fireplace there were numerous scattered if well made chairs with cushions on them set haphazardly here and there around seemingly roughly made small tables, again scattered around the room. In contrasts the walls were covered by several very well made tapestries of intricate but mind boggling designs, looking like mazes almost somehow grabbing your eyes and drawing you in. A few of them were different however, blank, the black fabric looking more like blocks of shadow than cloth.
Dani thought it looked somewhat like a ski lodge's lobby almost without those tapestries. She had to force her eyes away from the maze-like tapestries, but the black ones, those and the empty shelves set between them carved into the wood of the wall attracted her hunter's instinct. They are important somehow, but since they are black, does that mean those are memories Sigyn can't share with us for some reason?
To distract herself from that and to break the suddenly awkward silence as they all moved to sit around a single, one-legged table Dani asked, "Can I ask, why aren't you worried about the goats escaping? I know something about animal husbandry and goats are some of the worst animals to keep in paddocks like that. They are independent, belligerent, obstinate, and somewhat intelligent too."
"Ah the goats, don't worry my dear, my husband has if not tamed them at least taught them. Domesticated animals at heart all know that if they stay around they get better and larger amounts of food than they would in the wild. The goats know this, and they know we also protect them from wild animals." Sigyn winked at Dani. "This might have been helped by my Loki having actually talked to them in their own form a few times of course."
Hela snorted, shaking her head. "I have come to understand intellectually that my memories of my father have been tampered with, and well I know that shape-changing would be among the Prince of Lies powers, but to use it in such a domestic manner? Does not seem as if it would be worth his time."
"That name for Loki is both false and vile, given to him as the Christian missionaries looked for local gods they could use to be the source of evil, as Satan is in their own religion. Do not utter it in my presence again!" Sigyn said firmly, glaring at Hela with such a look of remonstrance that the Queen of Niflheim actually had to nod agreement, not so much because she realized that she'd inadvertently offered serious insult to her father, but under the power of that gaze.
Smiling in satisfaction at that Sigyn expanded on her point further. "You could say god of Lawyers perhaps, that would be just as vile an appellation and be slightly more accurate." Her eyes lit up with hidden fire for a moment, flicking over to the fire in the center of the room. "Woe betide anyone who thinks to get one over on Loki in any kind of treaty or agreement."
"Can you, that is, is there anything you can tell us about that time?" Dani asked hesitantly. She didn't want to get between their reunion but if Sigyn could give them any information, she had to hear it and pass it on.
"I am afraid not. Believe me, I have tried, and it is hard for me to even think of that time period, let alone speak about it with you." Sigyn said, gesturing at her mouth with one hand, the barely leashed fury of her first meeting with Dani appearing on her face magnified many times over.
Both her listeners got her point and Sigyn changed the subject looking over at Hela, her rage disappearing to be replaced by joy and happiness. "It has been so long Hela! Why, I remember when you were a shy, prickly young maiden but by He Who is Above All look at you now. I always knew you would grow into your role and make it your own, but this incarnation is most striking, and far warmer and outgoing than I thought you would be." She smirked slyly winking at her daughter. "I suppose we have this 'seidr man' to thank for that?"
Behind her mask Hela flushed, unsure what to say and her mother went on blithely, now intent on embarrassing her daughter to no end, as was the prerogative of a parent. "You are taking your courtship with the seidr jarl slow I trust? I wouldn't want you rushing in and making mistakes you would later regret. Besides, the courtship part of the relationship can often be the most fun. The man must concentrate solely on gaining your favor at that point and their efforts can often be creative and amusing in both success and failure."
"Er, yes we, um Harry and I are indeed taking it slow, and I am indeed enjoying the courtship." Hela said, stammering her words. She did not recall ever feeling so off-balance before and while a part of her was glad to be able to talk to her step-mother another part was notenjoying being made to feel like a blushing young maiden. She had enough of that reaction when she and Harry were actually courting, let alone when he wasn't even around!
"That's good to hear, but how does that work with young Harry already being involved with three other women?" Sigyn asked, her mouth pursing slightly in skepticism. "I can't say I approve of that sort of thing, even if multiple marriages are not unheard of, but from what I have heard it is a far more equal relationship than my initial impression of it."
"It actually works rather well. I have become close friends with both Jean, and Ororo. Emma is… well I am getting closer to her as well I suppose," Hela said, the last words coming out rather grudgingly, before changing the subject. "But if you cannot answer questions about what is going on with all of us, then can you tell me about how your soul bond was carried over the oceans to the Americas?"
"Ah, that. I know it aye." A faraway look came into Sigyn's eyes for a moment. "His name was Endre Hulmstang, and he was a sailor of some renown, though not much of a raider. He only joined raids when his jarl called him up, but he was known as the finest navigator for many leagues. He first came to my attention when he called upon Loki's aid to see him through an ambush from a rival clan. The boat he was a steersman for was being hunted down, and had taken refuge in a fjord, only to be blockaded inside. He found an unused tributary of a river and led the men in a night operation, paddling their ship up the main river then down the tributary."
Sigyn went on as Dani and Hela imagined the scene. "The night had no moon, and the sky threatening snow blocked all light, but Endre had memorized the route, and led them unerringly, even their paddles didn't disturb the water on their side of the river, so careful was Endre's leadership. They were able to get back out into the ocean and actually take the blockading ships by surprise, using fire javelins and arrows to send the enemy ships to the bottom. The men survived getting to land quickly, but many did so without weapons or armor, and Endre's clan had no further trouble with that group. Indeed, Endre was able to convince his jarl to make peace, and even marry his son to his opponent's daughter."
"Their courtship amused me, and at the time with the missionaries spreading like lice over the land whispering in the ears of kings I had little to be amused at." Sigyn snarled, shaking her head at how the missionaries had fed false promises and tales of wealth to entice the rulers. "I lost several followers to those bastards and the king's men who followed the new faith."
"But how did Endre get across the ocean? And can you tell us anything about how you placed your soul in his blood?" Hela asked, hoping to get Sigyn off that topic.
Sigyn paused, her mouth working. Her lips twisted into a snarl and she opened her mouth again, before subsiding in thought and saying at last. "The topic of how is unimportant, though I can say Endre came to our attention once more when he correctly spotted your youngest brother in wolf form for what he was. Fenrir was hunting at the time, but Endre named him, and further agreed to teach the young wolf about how to fish out of the rivers like a bear. I think Fenrir was rather amused, watching a human bent over like bears do on all fours in the freezing waters, but since he was actually able to catch a few fish that way, the amusement was replaced by respect."
"Afterward, Endre then prayed to Loki and I directly for his survival, to Loki for giving Fenrir the intelligence of man, and to me for giving him a sense of respect and courtesy. Looking at his deeds and given…what was going on Loki jumped on the chance, and I went along with things."
Sigyn chuckled at the memory of Endre's shock at two gods deciding to appear before him. "He took on the journey, and decided on its course, taking to the sea in his small, personal longship. Normally such a ship should never have been able to make the journey entirely across the ocean. But Endre was able to through the blessing of Loki and his odd friendship with the Jotun Aegir. Aegir had powers over wind and waves, and Loki had some powers over flame, and blessed Endre with a flame that could keep him warm all journey long. So long as he respected it of course," Sigyn said lightly, before shaking her head. "I wish I knew what became of Aegir, nothing good I would wager."
Unable to say anything to that Hela stayed silent as did Dani and after a moment Sigyn finished her tale. "He faced many trials on his course, including a Kraken and another monster of the deep, a large whale like creature with serrated teeth, though I cannot tell you any details about that portion of his adventure, as all I saw were the dreams which came after the fact, and his will was not quite as strong as yours Danielle. After he came to the Americas he somehow befriended the local natives, after that, I don't have to paint you a picture about how you eventually came along do I Danielle?"
Both younger women laughed at that. Then Hela asked hesitantly. "Tell me, what, what kind of father was Loki? I, my memories are…"
"I have no doubt of that, seeing as you did not remember me at all. As for the kind of father Loki was, he was the playful amusing one of us two, preferring…practical lessons and pranks with a purpose to teach rather than anything more overbearing. I normally had to deal with the everyday discipline, and with you three that was not easy. He only became serious when your two brothers let their animalistic sides guide their actions too much.
"He came down on them both for preying on his goats I recall, though Fenrir at least learned after the first time, while his brother did not. He was more doting on you, if distant, and had a rather estranged, if not overly negative, relationship with your older brother. Their personalities are just too different and Sleipnir was more than happy with his duties in service to Odin besides.
"Heh, we gave that overgrown eel with delusions of grandeur a serious case of indigestion a bit ago," Dani said lightly, wondering what Sleipnir, the eight legged horse, would be like. Would he have more or less human style intelligence than Fenrir? It certainly sounded as if he did.
Sigyn's eyes lit up as she realized what that meant. "My word, that is good news. Still it would surprise me if that was the last time you had to deal with that glutton."
"It might not be, since he did seem set on keeping that crystal tidbit in his stomach, and even knew why it was there." Since the geis on Sigyn actually caused her pain whenever they tried to talk about a subject she could not speak of, Dani was speaking about it in circuitous manner.
It worked and Sigyn's face closed down for a moment before she sighed and went on, speaking of Loki, her family and other things. The three of them shared tales for a time then. Dani told Sigyn and Hela of her own childhood, and how her power activated and what a major problem it was. These days she rarely used a few of her empathy based powers, but she did make good use of her empathic connection with animals at least once every few days even discounted her friendship with Garm. She also unconsciously used with Rahne.
Hela spoke of her realm in turn, and spoke of Garm in particular. In Return, Sigyn spoke of how Garm came to be with her, and how he had become so loyal a defender, then mentioned a few stories of the siblings growing up. Nothing embarrassing to Hela, not yet. Realizing her daughter was still rather leery about her, Sigyn decided to put off that most ancient of parental rights for a time.
Eventually however, Dani felt the dream or whatever this could be termed as begin to fall apart, and she and Hela made their farewells. As they left, before Sigyn's consciousness dissipated once more into Dani's blood she smiled grimly. "Hmm, so my body at least is free of their control. It might have been a long time coming even as we measure such, but now I think it is just a matter of time before we both break free my love…"