Oh Gods I'm so sorry about the wait. When I started publishing this story, I honestly thought that I would update maybe weekly or so, but then depression and other great things hit me in the face and I'm sorry. so sorry. Hopefully the chapter at least won't suck, seeing that you had to wait for it for so long.

please review, I seriously want to hear every single opinion that there is about this story.

rings of akhaten

"So how does all of this work then? No sorcerer has ever succeeded in time travel. Once I read a theory about stopping time, but nobody has ever succeeded in that either, not even the vanir. And theoreticallyc all time based magic runs into the problem of the magical energy not being abel to flow in the frozen moment. Of course the great Skid had once proposed that by using the magic anchored in the ancient power ritual places and catalysing the magical echo with the movements of the stars..."

"Yeah, it doesn't work like that, definitely not like that."

"But how..."

"Not by psion energy, thats for sure. Or you know, magic. Don't think about it too much, I could explain, but you wouldn't understand it anyways. just think of it as wibbly wobbly timey wimey. Now where do you wanna go?"

the Doctor let his hands hover over the control board and grinned at Loki, wiggling his fingers.

"So we can go anywhere in time and space?"

"yes. Now where do you want to go? The past? The future? New planet? Galaxy? End? Begining?

The Doctor talked fast and looked at his newest companion excitedly.

"I...I...I don't know." Loki found himself saying. It was true. There was a time lord standing in front of him, offering to take him anywhere and any time in the universe. How did you make such a decision? How did you even know what to ask? "Do you know the feeling when someone asks you to preform a spell, any spell at all, and suddenly you forget all the spells you've ever known."

"No, I can't say that I do."

"Because that's exactly how I am feeling right now."

"You are overthinking this. Relax! We are supposed to be having fun! Just think about something you have always wanted to see."

Loki had many places he had always wished to see in the nine realms, but things had changed. While he had many times wished to see the history of his home, even the word home made his stomach crawl. Loki had a feeling that none of the sights he had once dreamed of, would right now bring him any joy.

"Take me somwhere far away. Somwhere that I can't even imagine right now."

"Oh I love your spirit!" the Doctor grinned and pulled the lever.

The tardis shook and wobbled with the familiar worping sound. Loki gripped the safety rail to keep his balance and tried to soothe his nerves. This was going to be a good thing. The Doctor was a time lord and he was on an adventure like the ones that he had always read about as a child. This time everything would not end up like... Like everything else in Lokis life.

The Doctor had his hand on the tardis door. Loki was standing next to him, all his nerves prickling. This was going to be a good thing, Loki repeated in his mind.

"Are you ready?" The Doctor was grinning from ear to ear, almost jumping up and down.

"Yes" Loki answered keeping all his feelings out of his voice. The Doctor seemed a bit disappointed by Lokis flat voice, but only showed it for a second, before his smile turned back on.

"Good!" The Doctor pushed the door open and rushed out. Loki followed a bit more cautiously. When he had stepped out, Loki let his eyes devour the new scenery before him.

They had stepped out into a bare rocky ground, that turned out to be a relatevily small meteor, floating around a great orange glowing planet, no a star. The star was circled by milions and again milions of other meteors, both great and small. The meteors created rings around the alien sun, that intrestengly was not too bright to look straightly at.

Nearer the sun, than what they had landed, was a great rock littered with little lights. There was some kind of settlement in there then. Loki wondered if Asgard looked a bit like that too, seen from enough of a distance.

"Welcome to the rings of akhaten." The Doctor gestured with his hands.

"Where are we?

"Somwhere far away, that you could have never imagined."

"Who live down there?" Loki asked pointing at the great rock, where you could faintly see the outlines of cities and faint glittering lights.

"You'll see soon, but first look up there- no there. Yes that rock! Follow it with your eyes, good. Three, Two, one..."

The meteor the Doctor was pointing at was relatively small, floating along others, but on top of it there was a triangular shape of a build pyramid. When The Doctor reached the end of his count down, the top of the pyramid started to shine bright golden light, reflecting the orange glow of the star.

It was absolutely beautifull.

"What is it?" Loki asked, feeling the knot in his stomach to loosen up. Here he was, seeing something so beautifull that no asgardian had ever seen before. The best thing was that he had no obligations, no other worries than to enjoy the moment. When had been the last time he had been able to just do that.

"The pyramid of the rings of Akhatean. Its a holy sight for the sun singers of the Kept. They gather from all over the seven worlds to see the allignment."

"The who of what?"

"Seven planets, well not all of them are acctually classified as planets, but whatever, orbiting the same star, all sharing the belief that all of the life in the universe originated in here. From this star."

"Well they're wrong." Loki laughed a little before letting his eybrows knit together. "Or are they?"

"Well, that's what they believe."

"Yes but-" The Doctor just put a finger on his lips to silence him. "not why we are here." The Doctor winked. Loki found himself rolling his eyes and surprised even himself when he realised that he was smiling.

Loki had not felt this light in years. It was like being a child again and discovering magic and spells for the first time. Expect that this time there was nobody here to judge him for feeling joy and passion for the wrong art. This was pure exictment and The Doctor was not judging him, instead he was sharing the feeling with Loki. It felt nice. Unbelievably nice. He was getting drunk on the feeling.

"Can we see it up close?" Loki pointed at the settlement down below them.

The Doctor just smiled and offered his hand. Loki surprised even himself by how readily he took up the offered hand. He was definitely losing his senses over this bubbly excitment in his stomach. Still he returned the Doctors smile before they dashed back to the tardis.

The worping could be barely heard over the hassle going on in the market and everyone was too busy to pay notice to the blue box materialising in the silent shadowy corner of the marketplace.

When Loki jumped out, he was instantly punched in the face by all the noises and smells and sensations of the alien enviroment surrounding him.

It was almost like a market place in back hom...Asgard, expect that it wasn't. There were no aesir, instead there were creatures all kinds of sizes, colours and shapes. All shuffling in the crowd, doing business, going on with their lives. There were vendors, selling things that Loki couldn't even start to imagine what they were for. The familiar market place noise was there, but different than what Loki was used to. It was at the same time so achingly familiar and so alien, new, different. Loki loved it and he found himself laughing aloud.

"Enjoying yourself?"

"Yes! What are they! I never even imagined there being so many different races beyond the nine realms!"

"oh Loki! Even I haven't met all of the creatures in the universe and believe me, I've met a lot."

"But you do know these ones?"

"These are all from the local systems. Lets see..."

then the Doctor fired of bunch of names, that loki had no hope remembering, while pointing at the creatures in question.

It seemed to be true what the Doctor said about knowing many creatures in the universe, for he seemed to recognise all of them and while walking the narrow streets, even greeted some of them personaly.

"You speak all-tongue too?" Loki asked while noticing that none of the creatures had any problems at understanding what The Doctor was saying to them. Loki guessed that it was something to be expected from a fabled time lord, but still the teachings of how Asgard was the only realm in the universe to hold the secrets to the golden apples that gifted you among other things the gift of all-tongue, were firmly playing in Lokis head.

"Oh yes, of course, the tardis doesn't need to translate to you as you allready have the translating cortex in your head. And to answer your question yes, allthought technicaly I think it were the time lords that gave you asgardians the ability of the all-tongue, so technicaly you have been using the tardis translation circuit your entire life."

"The time lords have gifted the aesir?" Loki asked disbelievingly.

"It was a long, long, long time ago."

Loki wondered what a time lord would consider a long time, but decided against asking. He was still trying to find his limits with the time lord.

They were making their way through the crowd, weaving in the pulsing masses of aliens packed on to the narrow paths between the stalls.

"I like it in here, should come more often." The Doctor spotted something in the distance and started to drag loki with him towards one of the stalls a bit more on the side.

"look! They're giving out samples!"

No sooner than loki could blink, was something pressed into his hands by the smiling Doctor.

"Local food! Always the best!"

The thing on Lokis hand turned out to be a slightly glowing blue...fruit he guessed. Loki sniffed it.

"Don't worry. It is entirely safe for both of our digestions! Look!" The Doctor then took a bite out of his own fruit, munching on it happily.

Loki took a very small bite out of his own. The fruit had a sharp taste to it. Kind of chilly, but the aftertaste turned out to be very sweet. Loki took another bite, this time a bit bigger. He found himself liking the weird taste.

"So is everyone here for the allignment?" Loki asked between bites.

the Doctor smiled at Loki. "For the festival of offerings, yes. It takes place when the rings are all in alligment, quite a big thing localy, a bit like the pancake tuesday."

the what? Loki was starting to get used to the fact that half of the time he had no idea what The Doctor was talking about.

"care for a moped!?"

Loki was startled out of his thoughts by the voice yelling next to his ear. Turning around he could see some kind of an creature, bald, grey, quite flat faced, wearing an armor and shackles like a hardcore fashion statement.

"um doctor. Who is he and whats an moped?" Loki whipered to his travel guides ear.

"Oh! This is Doreen. Loki, Doreen, Doreen, Loki Not he a she. And the moped is the thing she is trying to rent you. See over there. They have something a little bit similiar on earth. You don't have motor powered engines in asgard? No, I think you were still using the horses. And those flying boats. Isn't it funny, one of the oldest civilizations and still using horses. Well nothing wrong with horses but..."

"Doctor. Rambling."

"yeah, sorry, I do that sometimes. Sorry Doreen, just looking around, come on Loki."

They were again skipping between the stalls and examing all the different knick knacks on sight.

Loki saw some aliens do purchases but no gold seemed to be involved anywhere.

"What do they use as a currency? Nobody seems to have any coins with them."

"Yes they do not use money or gold. All the purchases are done with something valuable. For the customer. Sentimentaly valuable. Old photograph, love letter, family heirloom. Something like that. Objects physicly imprinted with their history. The more emotionaly important, the more valuable the object is."

"How...unusual. Seems very unpractical. Allthought I do understand the idea, many magical spells need that kind of power too. But isn't it dangerous. Using that kind of thing as a currency. What if you get too enthralled by all that historical energy. It can happen to sorcerers sometimes."

"Yes, because no one in history has ever gotten too enthralled by gold or money."

"Point taken."

Lokis eyes catched sight of an some sort of an ritual. A Group of people were sitting in a silent nook covered in carpets and holding hands. They were humming something and Loki could almost taste the magic that was gathering in their locked hands. But the magic felt so different and alien than the one he was used to. Loki was tempted to walk over and ask to join them.

Taking the more cautious road, Loki let his eyes slip shut and felt the magic within him reach the edges of the alien power. The experience was much like tasting the alien fruit again. New, strange, but not unpleasant.

Opening his eyes again, Loki turned where he assumed the Doctor to be. He wasn't there.

"Doctor!?"

Nothing. Zipping between the paths, Loki tried to find his lost guide. He wasn't panicking he told himself sternly. He wasn't being abandoned in an alien world.

Lokis thoughts were cut off when a red running blur Collided with him. "Whoa!" Loki breathed out, steadying himself and the blur he had collided with.

The blur turned out to be a young girl wearing a red cape. She looked almost like an aesir child, expect that she had some kind of markings on her face. They could have been scars, or then natural for the children of this world. Loki had no way of knowing.

Big brown eyes looked up to him, big and scared. With golden hair flying, she skipped past Loki and continued running.

Then the next second, two men, wearing also red capes and having the same kind of markings on their face, appeared behind the same corner that the girl had arrived.

"Have you seen the Queen?" the other questioned in a grave voice while marching towards Loki.

"Who?" Loki asked with his patented innocent voice. Tilting his head to the side for the effect.

The two chasers looked over Loki like he wasn't worth their time and then towards one another. Nodding to each other they too skipped past Loki and continued their march.

Loki looked their way with raised eybrow and smirked a little. There was sweet satisfaction in knowledge that both of the men had just walked past some usefull knowledge with a sneer.

Loki shook his head and started once again to think of ways to track the time lord.

Loki drew a breath and decided that he had to stay calm. There was no use running around like a headless chicken. Loki stepped to stand next to the stone wall, so he wouldn't be on anyones way. Then he once again slipped his eyes shut and let his magic to do the seeing for him.

Magic as a sixth sense is not comparable to any of the other senses. To His magic, the other magic users in the vicincy were like bright spots, shining in the world of energies. Loki tried to concentrate on feeling the life around him. Of course everything was unfamiliar and alien, but loki tried to find something familiar. The complicated energy flow of the time lord should be recognisable to him, if he were to just find him.

Loki did not sense the Doctor before he was distracted by something else.

A small flickering sensation that he had collided with before, and that for some reason had left an impact even to his magic. The girl. She was scared.

Loki snapped his eyes open again. The girl had not felt like a witch. In fact the energy that Lokis magic felt when touching the child had not felt any magic in the girl. Still, there had been something, some kind of power in there that Lokis senses had picked up on.

Most of all, Loki had sensed her fear.

Loki shut his eyes once again, this time concentrating on only finding the curious non-power of the child.

The trail led Loki to one of the dark and damp back alleys. Then through a small hole in the wall into a even darker room. When lokis eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see piles of abandoned junk and twisted metal filling the room. Loki didn't care about that, what he did care was the faint breathing that Loki could hear in the darkness.

The girl was crouching behind one of the big boxes and was obviously scared.

Seeing Loki The girl looked ready to bolt again.

"Hey, wait. I'm not going to hurt you." Loki tried to sound soothing and non threathening. To Lokis own ears his voice sounded false and slippery and Loki doubted that the girl could ever be comforted by such voice. To Lokis surprise the girl however halted her run and turned to face Loki.

The girl cautiously stepped back and acidently felled one of the metal pipes behind her. She let out a little scream and now bolted towards loki. Loki put a steadying hand on her shoulder before she would stumble on the floor.

They both looked at each other and then the girl smiled hesitantly. Loki smiled back and soon they both shared a little laugh.

"Are you allright?"

The girl nodded

"What are you doing here?"

"Hiding" she answered.

"Oh, why?"

Now the girl looked at Loki with questioning eyes. "You don't know me?" she said with voice that implied that it should be impossible to not to know her.

"No, I don't. Sorry."

"So why did you follow me?"

"I don't know. Curiosity I guess. Or maybe I thought that I could help."

"I don't believe you."

The girl started backing away, doubt clear in her eyes.

"Now, I have no idea who you should be or who you might be. I just saw a little girl running away from two large men and got curious. I also have no idea who those two men were, but between you and me, I think I like you much more than those rude and stupid men chasing you."

"Realy?"

"Realy."

"Can you help me to hide?"

"little one, there is nobody better at hiding than me."

Loki had had his whole life to practice the "I'm innocent, deffinetly not on my way to break some rules, oh look again now I'm gone walk". These weren't the halls of Asgard, but that didn't slow Loki down, he had always been good at adapting. It didn't take long for Loki to get his new charge to the tardis, that was still parked in the corner.

Expect that the doors were not even budging.

"oh come on. Don't you trust me without the doctor."

….

"okay, I wouldn't probably either. Come on, behind then." Loki ushered his new charge into the small hiding space left between the wall and the tardis.

"So little girl. What's happening."

"my name is Merry."

"So Merry, what's happening?"

"I'm scared."

"Of what. Is someone trying to hurt you?"

The idea that someone was trying to hurt this little child did not sit well with Loki. Not many would believe it, but he actualy liked children. They were mischivious and curious by nature. They also were less set on their prejudges and norms than adults tended to be.

"No. I'm just scared of getting it wrong."

That didn't explain as much as he had hoped for.

"can you explain like I was a visitor from another world entirely."

The girl huffed, but started still talking.

"I'm Merry Galel."

"Another world, remember."

"The queen of years."

"Very far off world."

"I was chosen when I was a baby. When the last queen of years died."

"Okay."

"I'm the vessel of our history. I know every chronicle, every poem, every legend, every song."

"All of them? Dear valhalla, and my tutors used to say that I read too much."

"Now I have to sing a song in front of everone. A special song. A song to our god. I'm realy scared."

And the girl was. Loki could tell, she was terrified. Loki recognized the signs. He had once been the same.

"You know what Merry. I realy am from another far away world. And in that world I used to be a prince."

"Merry looked at him first with doubt in her eyes, but then she nodded. It was the power of childhood belief. The same belief that had made Loki belief in time lords and now made Merry believe in princes from another worlds.

"When I was little, like you are now, I had to prove my skills in front of the whole kingdom. I was given a sword and then I had to go to the arena all alone and everybody was watching and I was scared to death. If I failed I would bring shame to my whole family and I was so sure that if I failed then I would have no more future and my family would abandon me.

Then my mother pulled me aside and told me that I had no reason to be scared. I would always be their little boy and nothing could ever breake that. She told me that both she and father were sure that I would champion in the fight."

"What happened?"

"My world ended. I lost. There was me, with too heavy sword and then there was one of the old soldiers and he took me down with just few blows. One of them hit me in the head and I fainted there, in front of the whole kingdom."

The girl looked horrified, she was fully enthralled by the tale and gasped at Lokis misfortune.

"But then I woke up in the sick room and mother was there, holding my hand. She told me that she was so proud of me for being brave enough to face a opponent I knew I couldn't win."

"What about your father?"

"He...wasn't so proud. But the point is that My world didn't end then. She said that it was a proof that no matter what, I would always be her brave little boy and that she would always be there for me to remind me of that."

"Did you ever get scared again."

"Oh yes. All the time. But not ever mother abandoning me."

Lokis eyes grew glassy as he gazed the dirty stone wall in front of him. His mind however saw asgard again. The grand halls, mothers soft eyes. It was true, after that he had never been afraid of his mother abandoning him, but it hadn't matterd. He had failed them all, this time even mother. He doubted that even Frigga would love him anymore. If she had ever loved him in the first place. It might be better that he never found out, as he was too afraid of the answer.

Thor had of course championed with ease back then, Like he always championed easy, no matter at what.

Needing to chace the thoughts away, Loki turned again to his new little royal friend.

"About your song. What exactly are you scared of about it?"

"Getting it wrong. And making grandfather angry."

Loki couldn't help it. He felt for the girl, more than he would admit on being comfrotable around.

"You know what Merry. I don't think you will get it wrong. You know why? Because when I was little, I used to skip all my fighting lessons. I would hide from my masters and didn't learn a thing. Then when I was supposed to show my skills, I had no skills to show. What about you Merry, have you skipped your lessons?"

"No" Merry shaked her head.

"And have you studied those songs as hard as you can?"

"Yes." a nod now

"Well, then. There is no reason why you would get it wrong. I think, that you Merry Galel are going to get it very right."

Loki did not expect to have a lapfull of hugging little Queen latched on him, but suddenly he did. After getting over the shock, loki akwardly placed his arms around the little girl. It was stupid but he could feel his throat tightening because of little Merry who was so gladly pressed against him.

Merry was still holding his hand when they walked back into the bustling marketplace. Soon they both spotted the two red caped men, clearly interrogating some poor vendor. When they noticed Merry with Loki, they both froze. Loki couldn't help the smirk on his face when he gestured for Merry to walk forward.

Soon getting over their shock, the men strode to Merry and placed an beautifull white flower necklace over her head. Merry glanced once over her shoulder and waved to Loki while she was led away by her chaperones. Loki waved back.

"Who are you waving to?"

Loki jumped around to see the Doctor standing behind him.

"Where were you!?" Loki accused at his wayward guide.

"Where were you!? I was worried sick when I found that you hadn't followed me. Have you heard the urban legend of the traveller who gets lost in the marketplace?"

"Please don't enlighten me." Loki rolled his eyes.

"Fine fine. C'mon then. If you could please follow me this time, the main show is about to start."

Both time lord and the Asgardian started making their way through the crowd to see even more of this exiting alien world.