Through The Eye Of A Needle
Authors notes:
On a personal level- My first fic in a while, life's been taken over first by college and now uni. Right now I need a distraction so that's why this is happening. So if you've followed any of my other stories, sorry I will sort them out soon. As always, I'm dyslexic and in no way a professional writer, if I get stuff wrong let me know.
This story- I am aware that Laufey is male in the marvel universe but in this frost giants are hermaphroditic and can mate with any other member of the species, just to get around the whole Loki's mother issue. So yes I am aware that Ran is the wife of Aegir but for the sake of the story and characteristics Ran is the sire. Obviously there is some head canon going on as making mythology, the marvel comic universe and the marvel film universe all fit together is quite difficult but will mostly follow the film as it's the most well-known.
Chapter One
They stood in the temple of Ymir, its walls lit with the seidr of the völvur, waiting for an escort to meet them. Laufey had long heard the stories countless times, the original giant whose body was used to create the nine realms, the order of the völva who studied 'the great knowledge' (or fjölkyngi) and were therefore able to connect to the realms and manipulate them. But this was the first time in his living memory he was allowed to witness the carvings and magic within the temple. He felt a strange in this place. His heart raced and he seemed to be viewing everything in slow motion.
His current focus was a carving depicting Auðhumla, a cow which had once fed Ymir. As his eyes traced along the animals slender yet toned legs up to its broad shoulders onto its horns and down to its comparatively dainty mouth it felt like every line was screaming at him.
"Laufey!"
The deep voice of his sire brought him from his reverie. It sounded short and harsh and he knew yet again he would soon receive another lecture once he was away from their subjects.
He followed his farther down another corridor which turned into stairs. At the end he found them in a room, the temple library he assumed, which had wall to wall shelving. Every inch of shelf was taken up by scrolls and there was a large stone table in the centre. If he did not know that it was a winter night and that he was in a temple forged in a cliff which ran under the ocean he would have sworn the room was roofless and lit by sunlight. He was in absolute awe of the magic preformed here. The same could not be said for his sire. The great king Ran, the fearless plunderer, was shifting about uncomfortably. Laufey wondered, as he sometimes did, what exactly it was about magic that made his usually stern and sturdy sire rather irrational. Many years ago, long before Laufey's birth, he had all but outlawed magic. With the völvur being the only ones exempt from having control placed on their powers. They were allowed to live within the priory of the temple, they used their seidr to maintain it, connect to Yggdrasil and the Well of Urd in order to prophesise the will of the Norns, protect the path to Mímir's Well,bring blessings to Jotunheim's forests and curses to their enemies. Though revered the völva were ostracised somewhat and never left the confines of temple grounds. Healers were allowed to practice magic but were limited to their speciality and closely monitored.
There were stories of outlander chieftains practicing sorcery, though this was deemed malicious scare mongering by the royal court. And of course Fárbauti, a shaman who would occasionally act as an advisor to Ran, though he was banished to just outside the border between Útgarðar and the outlands and only allowed to enter the cities wall when summoned by the king. The young prince himself had never really had much interest in such matters, after all he had spent his entire life being told that the existence of such occupations was a necessary evil that must be endured, but now after experiencing The Great Temple of Ymir he longed to know more about magic. Though as he watched his sire growing visibly impatient at the hooded figure, who had been guiding them, trying to find a particular scroll he realised he would never be allowed. His sire was always so well composed and stone faced, even during hunting and executions he only managed a small, rye smile. Yet here he was shifting his weight from foot to foot, his eyes were darting around like a prey animal trying to see where it would be ambushed from and he could not keep his hands still. There was definitely something about these practices he did not like, the only other time he had seen his sire close to this state was when the castle healer closed up one of his battle wounds that would otherwise have proved fatal and he always demanded extra guards every time Fárbauti was due at the castle.
"Ah, yes. This is the one."
This must have been the first time he heard their guide speak. His voice was deep, like any strong Jotun's, but it had a sort of whispering tail which followed it, it reminded Laufey of the wind blowing through the ice capped mountains which protected at least one side of Útgarðar. He reached his hand out stretched towards one of the higher shelves and a scroll floated down to rest in the palm of his hand. At this the king stood still. He reminded Laufey of a stag, a strong and majestic creature in essence, but when trapped between a rockface and a hunting party it just freezes and waits for the inevitable. With is hand and lower arm protruding from the cloak Laufey could see that this individual had a strong but lean physique, somewhat like that of the cow from the carving. He had ample muscle clinging to bone with little fat and with the absence of excess muscle common in Jotuns the veins could also be seen wrapping around the arm and branching into the wrist like the roots of a tree. It also reminded him of himself.
Though Laufey had barley started puberty and was not expected to start filling out for another few centuries yet he was very slight for a Jotun of his age. This was yet another way in which he disappointed his farther. He was not tall enough. Not strong enough. Not clever enough. Not driven enough. And not cruel enough. His sire enjoyed ruling with fear and finding any excuse to torture someone. Laufey enjoyed music and dancing and the scenery of the great forests which ran down the mountains and flanked the side of Útgarðar where their castle stood.
The guide placed the scroll down on the table and unfurled it. It was blank. He opened his mouth to enquire why this particular blank scroll was so important that it took so long to find but Ran raised his hand to about hip high and held it flat. This usually indicated to Laufey that he was about to embarrass the crown yet again and he should just stay out of the way and watch how a king should deal with thigs. So he closed his mouth and observed the völva picking a strand of light from the ceiling and draping it over the scroll. The light snaked out in all directions and settled to form golden words. He recognised the script to be the writing of the old ones, a very ancient form of the Jotun language usually reserved for religious texts and royal ceremonial oaths. He had learnt enough of this dialect to be able to pick out a few words but was not yet fluent enough to make any sense of them. 'Aesir', 'battle', 'stolen heart' and 'prince' were all he could manage. This made his farther very tense.
"Remember Your Majesty, the vision of the Norns can be changed with foresight."
The völva's words did seem to sooth his sire a little, but not entirely. Ran reread the scroll four more times before giving their guide a curt nod to indicate that he was done and the völva rolled the scroll back up, walked with it to the side of the room he had retrieved it from and held it up in his outstretched hand. The scroll was lifted up and placed back on its shelf by the same invisible force that had delivered it. Particles of light dispersed from the folds of the paper and made their way back to the ceiling. Without further words the völva led the way out of the room and back down the corridor from which they came. But they stopped at the foot of the stairs instead of going up them. At either side of them there were two identical blue tapestries depicting the nine realms. Yggdrasil was woven in gold thread and everything else was silver.
"I shall wait here for you, your majesty, your highness."
The völva bowed to each of them in turn. The king gave him a slight nod in response and drew back the tapestry to the left. It uncovered an archway and an unlit corridor. Ran entered, letting the fabric fall back across the entrance and Laufey was not sure if he had intentionally been left out. But the point of this trip was for him to observe the kingly duties so that he may one day be able to for fill them himself, so he hesitated with his hand on the silky material.
"Come boy."
The disembodied voice of his sire was made even more authoritative by the deepness and slight echo given off by the corridor. He too stepped behind the tapestry and as it fell back in place they were submerged in darkness. The prince followed the sound of his sire's footsteps, lightly trailing his hand on the wall in order to feel if there were any turns. There were a few but with the confusion of the darkness he could not remember them. He hoped this would not be yet another test he had to fail. It sounded like there was a faint signing coming from far away. He had to try very hard to concentrate on the footsteps instead of the melody. All of a sudden the footsteps in front stopped. And Laufey just about managed not to walk straight into the king's back. He heard a key turn and a door creek open. A blue glow escaped from the room in front and the melody intensified. He felt drawn to the light. They entered the room. It was nonagonal in shape with the ash wood door taking up the entirety of one side. The ceiling, other walls, and floor were all stone with ash runes and swirling patterns adorning them. In the centre of the room was a nonagonal ash Colum on which stood a glowing blue box, the apparent source of the singing. Around the base of the alter was a thin moat filled with silvery-blue water. But Laufey noticed none of this, for to him nothing else existed in this world other than relic in front of him. Though the voice never sang words, he felt it calling him to touch it. He got about three steps away when he felt a great clamp on his shoulder, stopping him from going forwards.
"Not yet child, it will be some time before the powers of the casket may be revealed to you. As for now, you observe and learn."
Ran pulled his son back by the shoulder and moved to the other side of the alter, so that he was now facing the door, in order for his son to be able to witness the withdrawing of the winter. He grabbed the casket of ancient winter by both handles and let himself become one with it. Laufey was once again in awe as the kings markings and the colour of his eyes began to deepen, the box began to hum louder and the blue light began to stream from his hands being absorbed by the runes and the water. It was all over in a matter of 10 seconds or so. The king placed the box down, returning to his usual appearance, and stepped around the water to reach his son who was still frozen in awe.
"Come, we must return to castle before the feast."
The king gave his son a sort of warm fatherly smile and placed his hand gently on the shoulder he had recently held in a vice. This sort of parental affection was something the prince was not use to and as he stirred from his wonderment he began to think he should encourage his sire to do whatever he just did more regularly.
He could not even concentrate on the great feats of magic and amazing temple décor on the way out. The carvings and draw of the seidr were eclipsed by what he had just witnessed. He had never felt his soul was incomplete but now he had experienced the casket he felt as if he had been made whole.
The journey back to the castle was not a long one, the temple was just within the limits of the city, though it could have been shorter. The king did not like traveling through areas inhabited by commoners if he could help it. While they usually would have had escorts and been preceded by pomp and ceremony, this trip had been deemed too profound to be trivialised by such things. So they had two guards about five meters in front and behind them. They walked for a few hours in silence, as they usually did when alone together, when Ran decided to speak.
"I suppose I should explain to you what went on in there."
The last word was said with some venom and he looked back as if the mere direction of the priory offended him. And Laufey decided to remain respectfully quiet as his sire's lifted mood seemed to have worn off.
"The temple itself marks where Ymir, the first giant and for farther to all of our kind, fell and that is where part of Yggdrasil branch runs into Jotunhiem because it was the start of this world and it once drew some nourishment from his body. When it continued on its search to ground itself on this land it found Mímir reading, trying to find the knowledge to heal his ailing love. He took pity on the dried-out root, struggling on this barren land, and waters it from a nearby spring. For this Yggdrasil gave the waters the power of knowledge so that he could gain what he desired as a reward."
This was not new to Laufey, it was not new to any Jotun past early childhood. It seemed odd that he had heard this from his nurse and his sire was now telling it to him anew. He had recently had that feeling a lot. The king had only really started showing an interest in his son after he started showing the first signs of adultescence.
"The first room we went into was the prophecy room. It's a room where, well, the prophesies are. And it is important to know of any new ones so that we may be prepared or endeavour to change them. That one was one from the past year but will not come to fruition for centuries. So we can leave sorting that out for now. That does not need to be done this time of year but it makes sense to do it during the annual spring summoning. That was the second bit."
The prince had lots of questions about the prophesy and how they were made but he decided against it as he knew his sire would not appreciate the interruption.
"The artefact you saw is the casket of ancient winters. You see the land used to be so barren that the giants were starving as their prey was dying out. Mímir was kind, as I previously said, so he made the casket by combining seidr and ice from the well of knowledge. This meant that the winters could be held back a little to allow prey to thrive and for us to have a suitably cold environment in which to have young. He made it so that only the royal bloodline could control the seasons. Mímir was wise, you see, he knew that a warrior people could not be left to thrive alone they need a ruler to guide them or they will kill themselves. And he wrote the great knowledge so that the völvur could protect it and so that his powers can be harnessed to help save future generations. Today I set the start of spring, that is why we can now have the great hunt followed by the feast. Because the animals will emerge soon now that the ice has been pushed from the forest and up into the mountains. This is the king's duty and one day you must do it. Next year I will teach you how."
Laufey thought it odd that he was being told all this now instead of on the walk up to the temple. Though he could not question it now as they were approaching the castle and he could not be overheard questioning the king.
The gates were opened for them and they walked to the royal chambers in silence once again. As they neared his room Ran turned to the prince.
"I must get ready for the hunt now, you are still too young to come. You must get dressed for the feast, I have had the maid lay out a robe for you. Your dam would never have forgiven me if I let you go to a gathering unsuitably dressed. I will allow you to greet the lesser guests, do not let me down."
With that he turned and continued down the corridor. It was the first time Laufey had heard the king talk about his late wife. He wanted to ponder this sentiment more but he was weighed down by the latter part of the conversation.
