While Hela stepped out of the light beam that was the rainbow bridge, she brooded as she frequently tended to do. She was wearing a dark purple cape with a hood and a silver plate armour with gold engravings showing her royal standing. Her armour was made in the best metal Asgard had to offer and would protect her from most damages. The cape was a gift of her mother and would keep her dry and warm during the entirety of her journey. Her hair had grown to shoulder length. It was still spotting Friggas blond except over the rotten part of her head. That particular part was pitch black. Hela never quite managed to change the colour of that hair no matter what she tried. Not even with her mothers' magical touch. Right now, the princess was showing a thoughtful face. Even in her previous life, she had been prone to overthinking many aspects of life.
'Is this the job I want to do forever?'
'Can she earn more if I switch companies?'
'Do I invest or save my earnings?'
'Should I just settle with the next partner I meet?'
In retrospect, she suspected that she simply never found her true calling. Sure she was decent in many things, being a better than average programmer among those. But neither work nor her private life was all consuming. She always did moderate. Tipping her toes in many puddles, but never diving in. Instead, she came up with plans she never followed to the end, listened to the empty advice everyone was giving out and adapted to situations life threw at her. In her opinion, it always felt that everyone, including her, just seemed to wing it at the end of the day.
Now though, now Hela felt the weight of her decisions. Where previous mistakes only affected her, she was now responsible for the life of others. Every failure could doom many. You can only imagine how much that increased her procrastinating. For the first few hundred years, she was quite proud that it held strong this long, her self-preservation still drove her to get up every day, to struggle against fate, to increase her strength, to save everyone she once admired. After all, she always had been better with a set deadline. Never one quite so literal, but she generally needed the pressure to function. Then she learned she was born 90 B.C. and with only 300 years of age, meant she still has around 1800 years before Ragnarok or even before Thanos gets hands on all infinity stones. Hell, even Thor wouldn't be born for at least 600 more years. That took a lot of gas out of the tank, not everything, but the feeling of her imminent death was a lot more muted now.
It gave her breathing room. Hela didn't realize she missed. She took a look around and noticed for the first time, the beauty of her second opportunity. This rare chance of living life to its fullest, as the crown princess of Asgard at that. She regretted that she never took the time and visited Midgard to see if Jesus truly walked the earth and what his deal was. Was he an alien? A mutant? Just a regular guy? Well, that particular train has left the station.
Speaking of Jesus, in her recent studies with Odin, Hela learned that Asgardians are in fact not related to Celestials in any way. Which sadly meant no access to any divine power. Not that this diminishes the fact that some Asgardians can accomplish godly feats. Just take Odin for example, that guy is a real powerhouse in the universe. The full package. Strength, magic and strategy. Barely anyone can contest with him, and he even had driven Thanos off when he made his first play for infinity stones in the 10 realms. But he did so not with divine energy but with cosmic powers. Turns out her ancestor channelled so much cosmian power through Gungnir fighting Galactus off that it changed his DNA and thus the royal line. She personally liked to think that they are some kind of weaker offshoots of the infinity stones, with Odin as the reality stone, herself as the soul stone and Thor as the power stone. Each was representing an aspect of the cosmos. Not that they were bound in these roles, but them simply being their natural advantages. She really wanted to prove her point and get the soul stone to see if they resonated. But she wasn't ready for the target it would paint on her back. Provided it already resided on Vormir in the first place. She couldn't risk checking right now but she soon would.
Still, she had plenty of time, and this also meant, she had plenty of time to set up a defence or to find counter strategies for future threats. After all, she had the crucial advantage of knowing who and what she was dealing with. While she at the same time, remained in the shadows. An unknown player in a high stake game. All she had to do was to stack up the game in a way that her victory was decided before the fight started.
Which led them here. Since her studies of the mystics arts hit a bit of a slump early in the lessons. Don't judge. She always saw herself more as a scientist and firmly believed that Tony Stark was the most valuable Avenger. Thus she had a hard time accepting some facts if you can call them that, about her arcane studies. Combined with the fact that the princess of Asgard started procrastinating lately. She found herself utterly unable to do even the most basic spells. To the point that had even Odin and Frigga baffled.
That was why Hela was to lead an expedition to Niflheim to study the mystical energies of the many veils of mist. Even good old Heimdall, yes he was already around though new at his job as the watchman, was unable to look through them. With her were 24 Asgardian soldiers for protection and High-Sorceress Magne with a couple of her disciples to guide us. The soldiers were dressed in typical royal guardsman fashion. They had a plain chain-mail armour, dwarven steel plates to cover their arms and legs, a full-helmet with a little golden antler and spears that doubly functioned as energy weapons. The magical party all wore simple cloaks and had staffs to help in their hike and worked as defensive weapons.
Despite being the nominal leader of this little excursion, Magne quickly took control and barked out orders with the ease that only spoke of her experience. She sent out several soldiers to scout ahead while the others split up to defend them from different directions. After getting everything in order, they promptly started their little march.
Hela sighed as she took in the sights of Niflheim. The sky was filled with clouds that promised rain, later on, the humidity was quite high, and the temperature warmer than Asgard. The landscape was triste with almost no wildlife. Endless plains with dozens of hills that prevented a good outlook of were they were heading. She sighed again as she knew that she was gonna start sweating just a couple of minutes into our walk.
What bothered her the most though, was an itch back in her mind she couldn't place. Something was different about this place. It felt potent and cold to her. Not like a freezing cold but like something indifferent. It was hard to describe since it was just an itch for now. At first, our budding sorceress tried to channel some energy in her body, the only magic trick she managed to learn, to fight off this feeling. To her surprise, instead of countering the perception, her actions only intensified the coldness.
Hela instantly stopped the channel and felt relief that the numbing coldness went back to its original itching state. Seeking help, she quickly caught up with Magnes' little group and interrupted their private conversations.
"Mistress Magne, what is this power in the air? Can you feel it as well?"
Not perturbed, Magne simply raised a well-styled eyebrow and began lecturing. "You can feel it out here? Usually, one needs to get closer to the mist to sense anything. You might be more attuned to magic than we were led to believe. What you feel is the residue of a very ancient dark spell. Cast thousands of years ago. It is a promise of death, princess Hela. Though what your attunements mean for you, you have to discuss with the All-Father himself. Perhaps your studies need to take a more sinister turn before you can finally cast a simple spell."
That little poke made her students snicker, but Hela simply gritted her teeth since she didn't want to show Magne that she managed to get a rise out of her.
Instead, she humbly responded: "Thank you for the advice, Mistress Magne."
Having her answers, she let herself fall back a few steps indicating that the conversations were over. It honestly didn't surprise her that much that she might have an easier time feeling dark magic after all she was destined to be Asgards' Lady Death herself. Still, that didn't help her understand how to use her magic. Since Magne hadn't warned her of any impending danger and realizing that the coldness was natural, in a way at least, to darker magic, she tried channelling the energy again. She wanted to get a feel of it. This time she was focusing it to her hand. Like before her whole body felt colder. Her hand, which held the highest concentration of the power felt numb like it had fallen asleep. Still, she managed to raise a finger and focused on the light incantation. *Light*
Nothing.
Used to this failure, a rare mischievous thought went to Hela head.
"Lumos"
With a pout, she stopped trying to channel her inner Harry Potter. Still nothing.
She let most of the power go and rubbed her hand to chase away the numbness. Her face shortly showed her annoyance before she schooled it back into her well-mannered mask. That hadn't work either.
'I still had time.'
Instead of focusing on the frustration, she redid her meditation practices and tried to empty her head. It would not do her any good to throw a temper tantrum. She would continue her grind towards understanding and mastery. No matter how hard it seemed right now. Magic would be a crucial advantage in the future.
Hela then noticed one of the scouts coming back to report. "Mistress Magne we found a veil of mist 20 minutes ahead of us. The path is clear."
Magne seemed pleased with this tidbit, maybe she was not the only one that could feel the aura of the place, or perhaps she just didn't enjoy the local scenery. "Well done soldier, back to your station." and then slightly louder, "Stay alert, everyone. This is not Asgard, danger lurks around every corner."
After a wave of confirmation grunts, they continued their walk.
Getting closer, Hela noticed a shudder going through Magnes' disciples. Seemingly they were feeling the same coldness now. The princess noticed that the closer she got, the more empty she felt. It felt as if she was only a spectator right now. Everything else felt surreal, she raised up her hand to get a better look at it, even turning it around and wondering if this wasn't just all her imagination. She felt ridiculous that she believed that she was actually reborn in a fictional universe. She should have known better. It was far more plausible that she had been a coma, and her brain had made up everything she experienced to shield her from some trauma. Perhaps this realization meant that she was finally ready to wake up.
'No!'
Suddenly feeling dreadfully cold.
'This was the energy speaking!'
Hela channelled the energy out of her body as fast as she could, to keep it from affecting her. Though still feeling numb, her perception changed drastically. In the corner of her eyes, she saw Mistress Magne touch her students with a green-glowing hand. After which each seemed to regain their senses.
"This should serve everyone as a valuable lesson. I know you recently learned to keep our mind open and to feel the surrounding energies. But this way, we are open to being affected by the very same energies. And once someone has power over your mind, your fate is sealed."
Magne spared Hela a cold look to see if she need any help. Asgards' crown princess couldn't help but notice that the High-sorceress was ready to help her after she gave her little lecture about dangerous energies.
Magne continued: "What you felt pales in comparison to what the people must have felt when the spell was unleashed. It is said that the whole planet was covered in fog and every living species was affected. While in the mist everything became a puppet of the caster. Losing all their free will, it was then easy for them to fall to the dark elves. Most life perished here that day. It's only thanks to King Bor and his soldiers that a similar fate hasn't taken place in our home. Let us get closer. But be careful not to let your mind be affected by the surrounding energies. Everyone make especially sure not to get into the fog itself. Even an average person will still be affected inside the mist."
After they arrived in a clearing Magne sent out some sentries and called her group to gather to begin the lecture.
"Listen up, everybody. Today we try to understand and dissipate some of the mist. For that, I need everyone to channel some of the fog. Now that you know what to look for, this should be an easy task. We already went over all the needed techniques. When you start feeling the effects, I need you to picture something you are absolutely resolute in. We have done plenty of these mental exercises already, so I expect everybody to be on point. Depending on who you are, it could be something simple as always eating dessert after dinner."
What made all her little minions laugh.
"Personally, I concentrate on my resolve to further my studies of the arcane. After you have counterweighted the emptiness of your mind with your desire. You need to use the spell matrix *free will* that was sent to everyone before the expedition. This may take a couple of times, but I am confident that by the end of the day, all of her precious students will have this down.
Now, go practice."
*free will* was roughly a promise to oneself to be of sound mind, to be in control. This is something Hela wanted to learn, needed to learn. She doubted it would be able to throw off the mind stone, but there are bound to be lots of people that would try to control one over this avenue. It was paramount that she master this skill.
Sadly Magne seemed to have something against her. Not that she cared much. Most people didn't like her for one reason or another. She figured out early that she exuded some kind of dark energy. Goddess of Death and all. Either that or Asgardians were a lot more rebellious than featured in the Marvel Movies. But it was who she was, and she couldn't change that. It was a price she gladly paid for all the advantages her position gave her. Once she had enough power, others simply would need to get used to it. Might make right, after all. Her mother never cared, and Odin was above such things. Since she couldn't count on the help of Magne, she simply would need to practice until she was able to do it correctly.
Hela early made the decision that she wouldn't bother with people that couldn't handle her natural aura with a smile. She quickly learned only people of real power weren't really affected. It was an excellent way of finding said people in a crowd, though. Her own little radar so to speak. Of course, there were always pretenders here and there, and she met her fair share of them, but that was simply part of the high society life.
Not wanting to fall behind, she took some steps towards the mist and started channelling it. As soon as she noticed the emptiness creeping up towards her mind, she focused on her desire to survive. To come out of the coming mess alive.
'Survive!'
Since she was focusing strongly on the desire for the last 300 years, it didn't take even a second to overthrow the powers of the mist.
Silently she chanted the *free will* matrix in her mind.
Nothing.
Not wanting to give up, she sighed before trying again.
*free will*
*free will*
*free will!*
This time though, she felt a power surge in her body. Something was coming from her core. Her determination to have free will was genuinely absolute at this moment. It was a rush her face couldn't help but blush. Thoughts like 'Nobody tells me what to do!' or 'I am her own woman!' cruised through her head. At the same time, she couldn't remember a time she felt as powerful as at this moment. She felt indomitable.
'Nothing would ever control me!'
In a large circle around her, the mist dissipated. She noticed the shocked faces of everyone. Meeting the gaze of Magne, she simply shrugged. Though she was not showing it in her posture or her face, she felt really smug.
'That'll show you.'
Hela finally had proof that she am no lost cause where magic is considered.
She was able to cast spells! Even if it was only to express her innermost desires. Nobody would take her free will.
She always had an integrated fear of hypnosis, mind control and even mind reading. She knew it wasn't possible around the time she died in her past life, but even the possibility scared her. To not be in control of your own thoughts had to be the scariest power in the universe. She also vowed not to use the mind stone for that purpose. This very fear powered her spell so she wouldn't be able to inflict this to another. Not wanting to let go of this high, she quickly closed the distance between her and the remaining fog and repeated the processes.
In just a short few hours, the whole clearing was cleared. Most by herself and in the end, the princess even had to hold back to give the others a chance to practice. She would not lie; it felt great. After years of disappointments, she finally succeeded in magic. She wanted to skip around and dance, and she would have if it weren't improper for a lady of her status.
Suddenly Hela heard a guard cry "Enemy attack!" and all hell broke loose.
Mistress Magne tried to shout something, but before she was able to finish even her first tone, a colossal wolf jumped onto the clearing. The canine was easily 15 feet tall. The landing created a small shockwave which caught everyone off guards. Seeing its opportunity, the wolf chomped a guard to death in an instant. Afterwards, it instantly jumped to another spot to not be encircled and to maybe repeat the action.
Hela was shocked for a moment. How could she have missed this beast? Usually, Hela felt all life forms around her. The mist must have diluted her senses, but now that she saw it, it was like she was hit by a powerful aura.
Hela drew her sword and started yelling orders. Since the expedition fell under her responsibility, she had to make sure to minimize the losses.
"Guards build small teams to prevent the beast from getting you alone. Take maximal one magician per team. Start attacking from a distance. All teams with a magician in it, focus on protecting your ally. The rest fan out and try attacking from different angles. Remember, try to survive this encounter. We have no need for heroes today!"
Before having restored the order, the wolf swallowed another guard while he was looking around for a group to join.
Even though they had lost another man, nobody panicked and followed her order perfectly. Soon the mages were shooting the giant wolf with energy blasts while the guards tried to cut off its escape routes, getting a shoot of here and there.
The wolf realizing that it couldn't get any more free meals simply turned around and ran away with surprising speed.
"Don't let it escape, let us try following it for a bit. Follow my lead and keep alert!." the princess commanded while focusing on the wolfs significant presence. Tracking it would be easy as long it wouldn't leave her range.
Leading her soldier as fast as possible while keeping out of the wolfes senses was almost too easy. It took a while, but, finally, the canine seemed to stop. She quietly signalled her troops to follow her lead while considering the wind. She didn't want to let their scent give them away.
It seemed the wolf has returned to his lair, which just was a shallow cave in a surrounding hill.
After deciding that they possibly couldn't get any closer. Hela stealthily gave the "Attack!" command via hand sign, and began swarming their enemy along with the guards. This time the wolf wasn't escaping. With a howl, it frenzied onto them.
What followed then was a quick fight. Whenever it tried to attack one group, others instantly sprang into action from a different angle and injured it. After a good 20 minutes, it was already full of wounds. As the leader, it was her obligation to give the killing blow. So when she saw its unsteady stand, she moved into position and quickly jumped onto its back. She then drove her sword through the end of its head. A swift and deadly blow. Without losing any more soldiers, they had felled the beast.
"Everyone report on your status. Mages heal the wounded. Everyone uninjured scout the area. Aric, Hagen follow my lead, I am gonna scout the area." While closing in, she noticed small presences inside the lair. She was pretty sure the wolf had offspring hiding and depending on how young they were, it was possible that they could be tamed.
As luck would have it, they found two little wolf cubs, one male and one female. They seemed to be born not too long ago and weren't able to differ friend and enemy at all. Knowing Hela's original story and being a dog person in her past life, she decided to raise them herself.
Picking up the male she began cooing "Aren't you the cutest little things I have ever seen. I am going to name you Garmr. And your sister is going to be named Fenris." Even though she doubted that they would someday be able to keep up with the Hulk like in the movie, but if their mothers' fight were any indication, they would be plenty strong in their own right.
"Aric, Hagen! Treat them like your own blood. Any harm done to them will be dealt to you two fold!"
"As you command, Lady Hela." the princess wasn't expecting any different answer from soldiers deemed loyal enough to guard her on this expedition, so she showed no sign of acknowledgement and headed back out of the cave.
Magne seemed to have taken back charge outside as everybody was orderly getting treatment. Some of the uninjured had been sent back to watch. When the sorceress saw the cubs being carried out, she straightened her back and stomped over.
"So you found two more beasts" she practically spat the last part. "You should have killed them where you found them. Let us remedy this travesty." Addressing the two soldiers carrying the cubs: "What are you waiting for? Kill these monsters!."
Hela stayed cool and simply held up her hand to signal that the command is not to be carried out.
"Lady Magne, there is no need to kill these two. They are still babies, and I decided to take them in."
"Decided to take them in? Whatever for?" Magne screeched.
"Obviously, to raise them and then let them fight for Asgard." Hela drawled slowly.
"These beasts would only sully the Asgardian name. Just like their master is doing right now."
Helas face morphed into an impressionless mask, and her voice grew colder with every word. "I have taken your insubordination long enough, Mistress Magne. May I remind you that I am the crown princess and that you should be careful of how you address me?"
"We both know that you have no real standing in the palace, princess."
"May that be for now, but I am in charge here right now. So when I tell you to stand down, you stand down. Now be an obedient little servant and stand down."
Seemingly having found a sore point, Magnes' face grew dangerously red. She practically screeched "You dare?"
"Yes, I dare. I am willing to let a lot go considering your seniority. But not in this." Turning to the surrounding soldiers, believing this matter closed, Hela continued. "Everyone get ready to head back!".
Magne though wouldn't take being dismissed like this. She raised her hand and slapped Hela across the face. "I will not allow you little freak to talk to me like this."
Hela barely even felt the slap of the physically weak magician. She had seen the attack coming, and instead of flinching back, she calmly took the hit and started smiling. She then turned to a soldier. "Tell me, sergeant, what is punishment for attacking a superior officer?"
The shock of what was happening left the officer immediately. His spine straightened, and he responded as if he was repeating something he had memorized by heart: "Attacking a superior officer earns you 30 lashes with the whip and 5 days in the hole."
Hela knew there was a no-tolerant policy in her fathers' army. "Well? What are you waiting for soldier? Like I said, I am the commanding officer for this mission. Carry out the first part of the sentence."
Magne's face grew pale. "You dare? Your father will not allow this."
"My father is not here right now. I am." Turning back to the sergeant. "What are you waiting for?"
Hastily this one responded: "We are on an active mission, mam. It would be unwise to injure our best magician."
"Your tactical reasoning can only be applauded and I commend you that you raised a fair point. But do not worry soldier, I have all under control. I take full responsibility. Care out the order."
Not daring to argue any further, the sergeant only replied. "Yes, ma'am!"
Before Magne could come back to her senses, she was being dragged away by the superior physical man and bound to nearby stone. Every other person in the clearing was still baffled about what was happening, and nobody moved. Still in shock what had played out in front of their eyes.
Magne realizing that the sentence was carried out started to fight her restraints. "This is ridiculous. Let me go, this instance!"
"The only ridiculous thing here is that you thought I would let this go Magne." Hela calmy commented from the sideline. "Begin!"
The soldier nodded and began the whipping. "One!"
"Two!"
After the 10th lash, Magne lost her consciousness, but Hela let the sentence carry out to the end none the less. Healing spells would keep the wounds from scarring, but Hela was sure the lesson would stay on her mind for a long time. To gain authority, she needed to make a name for herself. She needed to show that she wouldn't be pushed around. Even if she was willing to play the long game, she could not risk losing her place in Asgards' chain of command. So while she would not be unnecessarily cruel, she needed to prove that she was nobody to mess with.
All attending soldiers showed no difference in behaviour. They understood the importance of obedience in the army. Magnes' disciples though didn't dare to make any more sounds and stood as far as possible from the princess. Hela knew that they would spread the word, but since she had followed the law to a T, she was not particularly worried. On the contrary, it would only help her in the long run. Wanting to finally return she addressed the crowned again.
"Healers tend to Magne. Everyone get ready to head back!"
