Although Loki's magic had extinguished the fires that had been razing Asgard's surface, a few embers still fluttered in the air. Their red colors were illuminated by the last traces of sunrise. Those few embers were extinguished quickly by the mages. With the anti-fire charms destroyed they couldn't risk another blaze starting.
The air, still thick with blood and smoke, proved how terrible those fires had been. All of the bodies and shrapnel and rubble had proved just how helpless Asgard had been against the onslaught of a Celestial invasion.
A slight breeze tossed dust into Fandral's eyes as he stood on the palace's steps. Fandral couldn't tear his eyes from the razed ruins of his home. We lost.
The Celestial mothership had left and all the fighter craft and warriors left behind were dead, but so many Asgardians had been killed to fend off the attack. The Celestials had torn through the ranks of the Star Guard, and they had been helpless to stop them. Fandral's hand started trembling again, and he clenched the hilt of his rapier to try and stop it. When that failed he slashed the air a few times with the rapier to vent his frustration.
The Star Guard had barely slowed the Celestial warriors down. It had been like this in the last Celestial War as well, getting tossed around like toys and killed one after the next. It was the Raven Blades who had gotten all of the kills in the latest battle while this time Loki had chased away the mothership.
Loki had managed to save not only Asgard, but Thor as well, and he'd done it while fighting off Tilaria. To have Tilaria's soul rewritten so she didn't even remember him and for her to be trying so hard to kill him, was sad. This was not a fate he would wish even on Loki.
Perhaps Fandral was taking pity on Loki because Loki had helped. He shouldn't be though, not for Loki. Loki had let Jötnar into the Weapon's Vault during Thor's coronation, tried to kill Thor at least three times, wiped out his own race, and attacked an innocent realm at the head of an alien army. Although his actions with Thor's coronation and New York were out of character for Loki there was no doubt it had happened. His colors had changed, and trusting him was dangerous.
"Fandral," someone behind him announced as he walked over.
Fandral drew himself from his dark thoughts and finally averted his eyes from the ruins of the once proud city to Hogun. "Any sign?"
"Loki is an expert at stealth and espionage," Hogun relayed dourly. "We will not find him until he wants to be found."
Fandral had suspected as much. "Any other prisoners?"
"Marauders," Hogun noted, "few wished to surrender."
His mace was still dripping in blood as proof of his statement, and again Fandral was unsurprised.
"One did," Hogun's normal somber expression darkened even more.
Now Fandral was taken aback, "who?"
Hogun dodged the question. "Those in the upper cells were not the only ones that were freed by the Celestials. The way he tells it, those in the black cells escaped to."
"Black... cells…?" Fandral whispered. That didn't sink in. "He has to be lying."
"His memories confirm that he was ambushed by the Cadet Killer and we've already been down in the lower levels," Hogun disagreed sadly.
"Dalkr is free?" Fandral remembered the killing rampage Dalkr had gone on. "Does that mean all the other are to?"
"The Black Cells are empty," Hogun cringed almost as he said it. "One of the Guards thought he saw Lorelei for a moment before she cloaked herself, and we've confirmed that Freyr has killed three Star Guard."
Lorelei was Amora's sister and a mage as well. Her magic was centered on manipulating minds. She could make any man fall in love with her and do whatever she wanted without question. It was like Loki's scepter in a way. For most, simply hearing the sound of her voice was enough but those with unusually strong minds would still succumb with a single touch from her.
She had been turned loose on Asgard once before, and had charmed most of the Star Guard and even Prince Thor into following her every whim. Sif and some of the female mages had managed to subdue her. Loki hadn't been caught in her web only because he had managed to stay far enough away from her.
Fandral clenched his teeth together at the memory of being swayed by Lorelei into attacking his friends and family with a smile and cheerful "Milady" to Lorelei. He had also been the age of a cadet when Dalkr had been killing cadets, and there had been some days where Fandral had been so scared to leave the house that he hadn't even gone to Gladsheimr to visit Thor.
Lorelei and Dalkr were some of the worse prisoners in the black cells, but there were others that outshined them. Freyr was one of them. He was the twin sister of Freyja, and since he was born without magic he had tried to murder his sister and steal hers. His weapon was an enchanted sword with a Wraith trapped inside named Annalayana, although he usually just called her Anna. Wraiths were beings from a different part of the Multiverse, and to have the Wraith's power had not made him easy to deal with.
Now all of Asgard's most horrid criminals were loose again. Fandral and the rest of Asgard would have to face them and the Celestials at once. The Celestials were the least of Asgard's problems.
That thought was too terrifying to focus on right now so Fandral set it aside to brood later. "I want to speak to this Marauder."
"You do not," Hogun warned.
"I don't know that yet because you haven't told me who he is." Fandral responded patiently, letting a note of exasperation slip into his voice.
Hogun could tell that Fandral wasn't going to stop, so he reluctantly relented. "It's Kasir."
"Kasir?" Shock illuminated Fandral's brown eyes for a moment.
Then he stormed past Hogun and almost ran to the dungeon, drawing both of his rapiers. One memory clouded Fandral's mind at Kasir's name. That rainy day on Vanaheim when Kasir had returned after being missing for a few months standing beside Nira and her Marauders. Fandral's blades had clashed with Kasir's that day while rain poured, thunder made the ground shake, and lightning illuminated the field. Traitor.
Hogun raced after him, and managed to grab his sleeve. He didn't say anything but after a minute of Fandral struggling unsuccessfully to extract himself, he stopped. His grip tightened on the one rapier he had drawn as if he was going to strike at Hogun to force him to let go, but then relaxed as the thought passed by.
"Don't try and stop me," Fandral warned Hogun. "Kasir should have been killed long ago. He was never brought to justice for his crimes before because he was never captured. Now for the first time, he's in a cell."
"So you will try, judge, and execute him?" Hogun asked solemnly. "Where does your right come from?"
Fandral threw down his rapier at Hogun's innocent words and yanked up his shirt. There was a jagged scar along his right side between two of his lower ribs.
"This does, this gives me the right," Fandral responded with a snarl in his voice and features twisted in hate. "That traitor was my oldest friends before he deserted Asgard and although he only managed to scar my side, he was aiming for my throat. You're the one that chased Kasir off before he could kill me Hogun, you know I speak the truth."
"If he had contact with Dalkr, then he is a source of information," Hogun promised. He would not disagree with Fandral, but nor could he agree. "We should hear his story."
Fandral glared at him before hooking his thrown rapier with his boot and tossing it up into the air so he could catch it. "Fine, but just to hear the traitor's story."
The safeguards around the dungeon's door were still destroyed. All of the guards were on the ground where they had fallen, still stripped of their clothes and gear. Out of respect, the other guards had covered the bodies with their gold cloaks. Asgard had been so busy hunting the Marauders after Bifrost was repaired that they had filled the cells with them, outnumbering the guards ten to one.
The dungeon was quiet. A dungeon was supposed to be quiet, but the quiet of this one sent a chill down Fandral's spine. The sooner the cells were refilled the better. Its emptiness filled Fandral with a terror of knowing that all of those prisoners were now loose.
There was one cell with its golden forcefield active, and it had a lone prisoner in it. The prisoner was lounging on his back with his arms crossed behind his head. A worn Star Guard was near the cell.
The guard saluted in greeting, and the movement attracted the prisoner's attention. He turned his head and smiled when he saw Fandral outside the barrier.
"Long time no see friend," Kasir greeted him.
"Kasir," Fandral growled.
Unlike some Marauders who had been born into the life of a killer, Kasir had been raised on Asgard. He had willingly deserted his post, and betrayed his home and family in order to become a bandit.
"I take it word of my story has reached you." Kasir mused with the same normal carefree smile Fandral had learned from him, and pushed himself into a sitting position.
"Yes," Fandral agreed. "It is pleasing to see you behind bars at last where you belong, traitor."
"Yet you have the scar," Kasir pointed out. "Anytime you want a rematch just get me back my blades, and tell Hogun not to save you again."
"Repeat the story as you told me turncoat," Hogun ordered Kasir before he and Fandral could resume their duel.
Kasir shrugged innocently as if he didn't realize he had said something offensive and repeated his story. "An alien in Celestial uniform showed up and killed the guards. She used some sort of armband to explode the barriers around the cells, and then she said we were free and teleported out. The ground started rumbling after that."
"Loki had restrainer cuffs on," Hogun pried.
"Not when he stepped out of his cell," Kasir corrected. "There were chaff marks on his neck and by his ears from a muzzle, but he wasn't wearing on either."
Fandral was about to say something, but the smug tone of Kasir's voice made him simmer again.
"We rearmed ourselves," Kasir continued. "When we got to the door outside there was a Barrier in place. Loki energized the sword I claimed and broke through it before passing it back to me. I saw his show with the snowflakes before he disappeared. It seems his magic is a lot more useful than a few blades."
Without looking away from Kasir, Hogun snapped out a hand and grabbed Fandral's wrist before he managed to raise his rapier.
Hogun glanced Fandral's way, "you may finish your vendetta at a later date." He looked back to Kasir, "and you had best finish your story before I give the order to drop the forcefield."
Most prisoners would be ecstatic about that promise, but the forcefield was doing more than keeping Kasir in – it was keeping Fandral out.
Kasir snorted, "If I had my blades I would take you up on that offer Vanir."
"Continue," Hogun ordered briskly.
Although the wound on Kasir's right shoulder had healed long ago, his tunic was still bloody. "I still had that sword Loki gave me and I was looking around for a scabbard when someone threw a knife at me. I turned around and go brained in the face with a shield for my trouble. It turned out to be Dalkr. He froze me with his eyes."
"Whatever you did you didn't fight him since you're still alive," Fandral challenged.
The two swordsmen glared at each other before Kasir gritted out, "he's gone. He wanted revenge on Loki and Angborn."
For a moment, Kasir almost mentioned how he had told Dalkr to go to Midgard, but then stopped. It might be a bit more fun to let Asgard guess.
"He didn't want to hang around so he left. Left the Realm I think," Kasir elaborated. "I don't know where to. I thought he was going to kill me, but he said I was too old."
Dalkr was going to start killing children again! The thought flashed through Fandral's mind in terror. Then he looked down and gathered his thoughts. He needed to stop panicking and think clearly.
"If he's left Asgard to go on a wild goose chase after Loki then he's left," Fandral consented. "He's the problem of the citizens on whatever realm he's on now. We're too busy."
"Fandral?" Hogun frowned at his friend's statement.
Asgard was going to let Dalkr go free?
"We're too busy," Fandral repeated. "We still have the other Marauders to capture, and Dalkr's cell mates to deal with. There's damage from the Celestial attack to take care of, and we have to brace for their next strike because the Celestials will return. He's gone so he's gone, and he won't bother us."
For once Hogun wasn't pleased that Fandral was being so rational. The shock of the attack and the sobering fact that Asgard had withstood the assault only with Loki's aid was beginning to sink in at last. They really didn't have anyone to spare.
"Come Hogun, we're plenty busy as it is," Fandral muttered. "As you were."
The latter sentence was snapped at the guard and the guard repeated his earlier salute.
"Good luck without that Jötunn around to save you," Kasir shot at Fandral as his former friend turned and walked away.
Fandral did not look back. Kasir's smile was not unlike Loki's, and the similarity troubled him. Loki's actions may have been rebellious and bizarre in the past, but they had always been for the benefit of the Nine Realms. He had changed though, and so had Kasir.
"You'll need it," Kasir promised to himself quietly after Fandral's steps had begun to fade away.
There was a sorrow in his smile that Loki lacked. Unlike Loki, Kasir had never had a wish to see Asgard burn.
Here is the first chapter of Blood vs Water. As you can see, Loki is not the only one with old scars interfering with his life. Don't worry, Kasir isn't going to become a major character for a long time. The rest of Asgard's rulers are going to agree with Fandral that they don't have the resources or time to send someone to help with Dalkr "wherever he is."
This is why Dalkr has such free rein in the compliment to Blood vs Water - Meanwhile, Back on Midgard... That happens at the same time as this story but shows Angborn's POV as he deals with Dalkr and tries to work with SHIELD and the Avengers, while they keep insulting Loki. I highly advise that you read Back on Midgard or you are going to be really lost later on. You don't have to read them at the same time, but do make sure to read it after you read this one.
*Gladsheimr - the name of Odin's hall in Norse mythology, and the name of the golden palace on Asgard in the movies.