The last echoes of the dwarf slaughter still rummaged through the dry hallways of the foundry. In some places they peaked, and in others, they were but whispers. It had been three days since their blood was spilled, yet they were still there, whimpering, begging for the Titan to spare them, begging their king to do something, but he couldn't do anything but watch his people be reduced to husks by the Titan's warriors.
Light spilled from a dwarf's eyes, but when the last of his people fell, Eitri was without that light. His eyes had become dull and grey as he peered down at the dirty plate between his feet. The food atop it was rotted, but his stomach begged for it, at times roaring above the echoes.
The clatter of the metal on metal hurt the deadness of the forge room. It stung for Eitri to try and lift the plate with his ceaselessly clasped hands, entombed by the molten metal the Titan had forced them into. The clang of the dish as it slipped back onto the floor made the dwarf king's mind return again to that fateful day, when the Titan broke his oath, when his people were wiped from existence.
Where was Odin? Thor? The Warriors Three? Eitri was alone, scraping at his dish.
From the ruins and shadows of Nidavellir, a delicately pale hand appeared, lifting the dish from the floor and raising it to the king's lips. It tilted the food into his hungering mouth, and for a moment, he could only focus on the satisfaction of easing his stomach.
"Rest easy now, your highness." A voice came from where the hand was. She set down the dish, and slipped out of the shadows, with her, a man. Their presence was not unfamiliar to Eitri, it was that of gods. However, the feeling of these two was somewhat different. Somehow, they carried more might than even the Allfather — even Thanos.
The woman was dressed in golden threads and a black cape, her eyes faint with a light like that of a red giant. The man was dressed in silver and wore a crown of tall, black horns that refracted the light in scintillating prisms, his eyes a void filled with starlight.
Eitri narrowed his eyes at the strange creatures, they didn't seem real. Their bodies seemed to be one with the place around them, yet, still detached from this reality. The distant starlight that filtered in through the windows gave way to how their skin would splinter the light like kaleidoscopes.
"Who… are… you?" His words were weak.
The woman knelt down before the dwarf, "Tell me, mighty Eitri, king of the dwarves, how was it that you were able to steal away a sliver of Infinity's power?" She asked as the man moved away, his eyes latching onto the many shelves and racks of weapons and materials.
Shattered, melted, cold, left to die with the neutron star at the heart of the foundry. The sight of the ruin seemed to sadden the man, as though there was something he was hoping to see, but it had been long destroyed. He then noticed something near the forge, on a table, a negative of a kind of gauntlet. He moved to it, under the shadow of the lens that once focused the star's light.
Eitri gestured to a canteen of water, left closed as though to taunt him. The woman opened it and let the man drink. Eitri relished the liquid, the small amount that there was. He took a breath, "An old tale, passed down by my father's father… how the Allfather had once stolen from the great being… I only followed the tale… it was a mistake."
The man ran his fingers over the negative, "Beautiful. A magnum opus of dwarven craftsmanship."
"To hell with that!" Eitri barked, kicking the dish across the room. "I should have never made it; never stolen from Infinity!" The dwarf king slammed his fist against the floor, sending a ripple of pain up his arm. He roared and his face crumpled up, teardrops welling on his cheeks.
The woman set her hand on the dwarf's shoulder. There was a warmth that ran through her hand, which seemed to slow Eitri's heart, and focus his vision. "Be still, your highness. Tell us, what is that device's purpose?"
"Why make it, if you denounce it?" The man added.
Eitri looked over to the negative. His gaze was different, empty, hollow and alone. There was nothing but pain running through the dwarf king, and the woman could feel it, as tangible as the stale air. "He made me do it!" He spoke through gritted teeth. "He said they would be spared if I made it for him!"
"He?"
Eitri looked into the woman's fiery eyes, "The Titan, the monster — Thanos, is what he called himself — he forced us to make him a device that could wield the very powers of existence!"
The man and the woman looked to one another with wide eyes. It was as they'd expected, and it was worse than they'd hoped.
"We shouldn't have done it." Eitri was mumbling to himself now. "Where were they!? Where was Asgard?"
"Focus, your worship, the gauntlet." The man said, pulling Eitri back from his wallowing.
"He's mad, the Titan! He thinks he can wield the Infinity Stones! He wanted to wield them… and I gave him that power." Eitri's voice diminished, shame weighing down his tongue.
The woman sighed, "And so, you stole from Infinity to give the Gauntlet such power?"
"Even will the strongest metals in the known Universe, the Stones were too much. Yes."
The man caressed the negative, feeling the way the design could displace the energy of the Infinity Stones to give its wearer the ability to wield them with ease. "Then it is so much worse than we thought." He said. The man moved back over to the dwarf and the woman. "What of the Eternity Stones, does he seek those as well?"
Eitri looked up at the man, his eyes dazed and misty. "The Eternity Stones? Only the Frost Giants whispered of those gems in their ancient, dead languages. How do you know of the Stones which oppose Infinity? Who the hell are you?"
The woman stood and moved to the man's shoulder. "It is because we were there during their birth. For, they made us, and we made them."
Their bodies flashed, and the man's crown became pillars of creation, and his face filled with nebulas and singularities. From his chest burned the light of every star in existence, and his body was the void of space. The woman's golden threads wrapped around her in spirals, and her cape fused to her skin, with the light of her eyes becoming brighter than the surface of a sun, illuminating the foundry.
"We are Infinity, Eternity." They said at once, for they were one, as in the beginning, and for the rest of time.
Eitri leapt up form where he sat, dropping to his knees and bowing before the great beings, his eyes to the floor to keep them from wandering upon their light. "Please, mighty Infinity, Eternity, forgive my blasphemy, forgive me for stealing away your power, forgive me for giving it to that madman!" He begged, and Infinity's eyes drooped, saddened by the man's despair and regret.
She set her hand on the king's head, hushing his sobs. "There is no room for apologies now, especially those which are unnecessary. Rise, mighty Eitri of the dwarves."
Eitri stood, looking in awe at the sight of the two great beings, standing so close to him. For so long, they had only existed in stories. Even when Eitri had gone to the font of Infinity's power did he miss the opportunity to rest his eyes upon her. The beings were far more spectacular than the stories said.
"Tell us, oh great King," Eternity spoke, "can another Gauntlet be forged? One which could wield the power of the Eternity Stones?"
"And let such power fall into another's hands?"
"If Thanos gathers all six of the Infinity Stones, he will be unstoppable. However, if someone else, someone nobler were to collect the Eternity Stones," bright spots of orange, purple, red, yellow, green and blue appeared in Eternity's chest, "they could stand to oppose him." He explained.
Eitri was transfixed as the lights collapsed into the ragged shapes of stones, shining with the powers of the Universe's beginning. He shook his head from the enchanting sight, "It is impossible… my hands… the forge, it is lost."
The great beings looked to one another with a knowing glance. Infinity then rose her hand, and with that, a powerful moan echoed throughout Nidavellir, letting the screams rest. Its rings moaned, tired at having been awoken, and the light that forged the Universe's mightiest weapons spilled forth again.
"You needn't your hands," Eternity said, stepping up to the dwarf, "only assure me you made a mold for the right hand?"
Eitri nodded.
"Good." Eternity said, and he and the dwarf went to the forge, while Infinity preserved Nidavellir's life as they worked.
Eitri chose the last of his strongest metal, melted down by the heat of the star into a glowing liquid that the great being dispensed into the cast of the Gauntlet. As the metal set, the three could feel the Universe's energy flowing through the foundry up into the Gauntlet, focused and seemingly infinite. And, once released from the mold, it spilled forward an immense, uncontained light, the very fabric of space and time and all of existence, so powerful that the entire facility trembled.
Infinity lifted the Gauntlet to her brother, and from his arm, he tore a sliver of his very essence. He stretched the strand into a sparkling, undulating cord of his power and his life force. He wrapped the string around the wrist of the Gauntlet and it melted away into the metal, imbuing it with a stainless, shimmering, silver hull.
The light faded, and the forge stopped trembling. The Eternity Gauntlet was complete, awaiting its Stones.
Eternity took the Gauntlet and slipped it inside his body, where no one could even try to take it from him, should they run into trouble. "I can already feel the power of the Stones being drawn by its gravity." He noted.
"What will you do with it?" Eitri asked.
"We will take it to a place where it can be near the Eternity Stones, on the edge of the Universe opposite where the Infinity Stones were born." Infinity explained.
Eternity nodded, looking out over the reaches of space through a window. "A place of heroes, and humility."
Eitri spat on the ground, "Then I hope whoever finds it gives that bastard Titan hell."
Infinity chuckled, and Eternity seemed to smile. "Whoever so wields this device will be worthy. They will strike a fear into his heart, a fear unknown to Thanos." Infinity said.
"A fear which will make him question why he brought the Infinity Stones together, should that come to pass. A fear that will incite doubt, a fear that will incite a change, a fear that may just stop a war." Eternity said, pride in his voice.
"Are you certain it can be done?"
Eternity and Infinity looked at one another knowingly.