Hӕra reached into the satchel she wore and took out a small, prism-like crystal that had been smoothed and polished. She held the polished side of the crystal so it caught the watery light that managed to filter through the dark clouds, and read the way it reflected, painting a certain rainbow pattern on the surface of it. Since she was sure she was holding right, she read the polished surface to get the time.
Her time prism wasn't cracked, so Hӕra knew that the time she read, a little past 1pm, was within ten minutes of being accurate. Reading time prisms was difficult to do, but it was the only way to tell time other than using a charm since the sunlight wasn't strong enough to cast shadows. Hӕra shook her head as she lowered the time prism and lost the rainbow.
Her escort was late. It was very sloppy for the Militia. Laufey wasn't even here to see her off, but she wasn't too surprised by that. He had a valid excuse: being king was very busy work, and the Raiders had not made his job easy. The Militia did not, and she shoved the crystal back into her rabbit skin satchel.
Her satchel squirmed in irritation, but Hӕra was too busy glancing around looking for the guards to notice. She was outside the boundary of Útgarðr, waiting for her escort to arrive and then for Bifrost. Being "beamed" over to Asgard through Bifrost worried Hӕra more than anything else.
Slítas shifted where he lay in Hӕra's satchel so the time prism wasn't sitting on top of him and stuck out his tongue. This was a nuisance, but Slítas forced himself to tolerate it. He was worried about Laufey, but more worried about his Jötunn friend. For some reason, Slítas felt that Loki needed his help far more than his father did. It was just fortunate it had been so easy for him to slip inside Hӕra's satchel, for he could think of no other way to return to Asgard.
Something moved in Hӕra's peripheral sight as Slítas finally settled, and Hӕra glanced towards the source of the movement. Mimir was approaching her, and Hӕra looked away from him. She was still cross with her husband over how callous he had been towards Viddi, and every time he had tried to approach her so far she had managed to make herself scarce. Unfortunately, this time he had no choice but to let him approach.
"Hӕra," Mimir greeted her quietly in a submissive voice, knowing he was in serious trouble.
"Do you happen to know what happened to my escort?" Hӕra asked as she glanced behind him instead of looking at him. "It's not like Militia soldiers to be late."
"I haven't seen them," Mimir dismissed, "and please stop trying to change the subject."
"What subject would that be?" Hӕra asked innocently. "More accusations against our son?"
It seemed Mimir was still in trouble, and he spoke shyly, scuffing one of his bare feet against the snow. "No. I just wanted to apologize about what I said a few days ago. Viddi's birth scarred your womb so you can't have any more children, and it frustrates me that he is how he is. I shouldn't be taking it out on him or you. It's not his fault."
Hӕra gave him a sad smile. "You treat him as if he is something that is broken and needs to be fixed. Despite what you think, there is nothing wrong with Viddi."
Until Mimir could understand that, and Hӕra secretly wondered if he ever would, things would never be right. Hӕra was almost relieved when she saw the Militia approaching.
"Ah," Hӕra said before Mimir could respond. "There they are, finally."
Mimir's response died before it was spoken, and he stepped aside as the four Militia approached. They looked down, aware they were late as their steps slowed to a walk.
"Sorry sir," Dúrnir apologized, figuring he would be the best one to do so.
"You're here now," Hӕra sighed. "I only hope Asgard doesn't mind. Unless you're coming with us I suggest you step back Mimir."
Reluctantly, Mimir took a step back. This was no place to say something, and he didn't know what to say anyway.
"We're ready Heimdall!" Hӕra announced with a glance skyward.
Mimir looked up at the cloudy sky oddly. It had to feel so idiotic to say that out loud to someone who was on the other side of the star cluster. A sound like thunder rumbled, and Mimir cautiously took another step back.
Dúrnir suppressed a victorious smile, but he was thrilled. Heimdall was opening Bifrost so he couldn't know that the "Militia" soldiers were really Raiders. Camands Forad's plan really was working perfectly, and it wouldn't be but a moment before they would be on Asgard and could put the rest of the plan into action. They might not be strong enough to gain control of Asgard, but the Raiders were very close now to gaining control of Jötunnheim.
Loki stood on Asgard's mainland in irritating formal clothes. His brother was with him in clothes of crimson and storm grey, also formal, and his parents stood with them. Queen Frigga looked resplendent in a honey-gold gown that rippled like a waterfall, the color reflecting the golden dust in her irises that all mages had. Odin had his golden-colored armor on, newly polished, with Gungnir in one hand.
Star Guard lined the walkways around them in an impressive display of strength, and there were Star Guard on some of the turrets – although they were there so they had a better view more than anything. Many of the current Star Guards were either veterans from the Ice War, or too young to have been deployed and so had never really seen Jötnar. They were as innocently curious as the children, and the older Star Guard were quick to point out that they were acting somewhat like children.
The Rainbow Bridge that connected Himinbjörg, Heimdall's Observatory, to the mainland pulsed with rainbow energy drawn from the Chroniko crystals that existed within the core of Asgard. Once the energy was transferred to Heimdall's Observatory, he could control and direct it to allow travel. Loki had read about the process in the library, and he found the entire thing intriguing. Bifrost had been described as one of the more perfect unions of magic and science. It had not been activated very much, as few had come or gone from Asgard in a very long time.
Four centuries ago, Loki knew Bifrost would have been used a lot. Asgard had been fighting the Ice War, fighting the Jötnar who had invaded Midgard, and had needed it top transport troops, supplies, and casualties back and forth. Once the war had ended, Bifrost had gone quiet.
The first time Loki or Thor had ever seen Bifrost open was last spring when snowdrops and a few hardy daffodils were just starting to bloom through the snow. Freyr had come to Asgard with the only two members of Vanaheim's royal family to have survived Nira's wrath. It had been mere hours since Mira had killed her mother and older sistrer. Freyja's twin had been bedraggled, drenched, dirty, and his clothes stained the awful red-brown color of dried blood. Vör and Hogun had each been holding one of his hands, and they walked silently with their head lowered, in as poor of shape as Freyr.
Freyr had returned to Vanaheim with a squad of Star Guard shortly afterwards, and Bifrost had activated a few more times as events heated up and then died back down. Nira had last been seen leaving with the Marauders, and things had simmered down. Vör, being the crown heir since she was the daughter, had returned home with Freyr to restabilize the realm, but Hogun had stayed. Officially, it was because it was a bad idea to have both royals in the same place where Nira could kill them without too much trouble.
Bifrost had been like a dazzling arrow of shimmering iridescent light, either coming or going depending on the situation. The hum in the air was malleable, and it made Loki's head spin. Even though he hadn't been practicing with his magic back then, it was impossible for him to miss.
Back then… Loki found that idea amusing since that wasn't much more than six months ago. A lot had changed since then.
Now the bridge would be used again, and to bring Jötnar to Asgard. Beside Loki, Thor exhaled and released a breath he didn't know he had been holding. These Jötnar were late, and Thor wanted to see one. Loki smiled at Thor, and his brother gave a small smile back.
There was no sign of Hogun today, but he rarely had anything to do with Asgardians. Volstagg, a member of a lesser noble family which lived outside Gladsheimr, would be at his family's manor. Fandral was probably on the roof of a house in the town, being only a commoner without a trace of nobility in him. Sif crossed Loki's mind, but he was more curious where Sigyn or Lorelei and Amora were.
He felt his mother's fingers dance across his shoulder, and Loki jolted himself back to the present. His mother had noticed Bifrost was activating, but Loki hadn't. With his ice magic contaminating his control, he didn't have any magic anymore, and was a useless mundane. Even before he had begun officially training with it, he had enjoyed the advantage of his magic's sense. Magic gave them a sixth sense that enabled them to be aware of things their five senses could not detect. Loki no longer had that sixth sense.
He was probably the only Æsir that looked forward to the Jötnar's impending arrival. It was the only chance he stood to learn to regain control of his magic. Loki wasn't sure he could bear to live without his magic, to wander about with his senses so dulled and narrow, helpless.
The stunning light as the visitors came to Asgard from Jötunnheim made Loki's eyesight sting. He could feel the power as a rumble in his chest one that made his ribs thrum, but he could not hear its song. It was almost enough to make his heart fall with fear and sorrow, but Loki did not let himself dwell on it. The Jötnar had arrived.
They came at last, three of them approaching. Loki was surprised that he had to tilt his head up so high, amazed that the shortest of the three almost thirteen feet tall, and the other two were over fourteen. The shortest one was female, and she walked in front with the two others walking a step behind and beside her. Black ridge-like lines decorated all of their visible skin, and Loki realized that each of the three had different patterns. Were those things the Heritage Lines he had read about last week?
There was no way for him to mistaken the other two as anything but guards, although Loki wasn't sure what the Jötunn guards were called. It was obvious their title wasn't Star Guard. They had the same taunt look the older Star Guard did despite not carrying weapons, but they did have armor of sort. To Loki, they appeared to be polished bone plates, bleached a paler shade of white then snow that somehow reminded him of twilight grey. They were carved into interlinking geometric shapes, work that seemed too delicate to have been made by such large hands as the Jötnar possessed.
Their armor of bone plates protected their upper back, shoulders, around their neck, and upper chest. They had dark grey leather vambraces on their arm mounted with armor plates in addition to the rest of their armor, and appeared to be more decorative then anything. Each pattern of geometric shapes that made up the armor was slightly different and there was a hexagonal plate of bone in place of sleeves. The left plate had an etched design of horizontal stripes, and he guessed that it denoted some sort of rank.
Loki felt Odin tense slightly as the female Jötunn approached him, something that struck Loki as curious enough to stop looking at the guards and look at her. She didn't have any hair, not even eyebrows or eyelashes that he could discern, and she lacked the bone plate that wrapped around the back of her skull that the men had. He wondered if that was really part of their skeletal structure or if it was some sort of helmet.
Her frame was large like the men's, but slighter and more graceful then theirs. She was barefoot like they were, and wore the same knee-length sort of kilt they wore. Unlike the men, she wore a brown leather shirt to cover her breasts that had the same design as her kilt. Shirt was generous though because it wasn't much more than a leather bra. A metal armband etched with snowflakes was on her upper right forearm.
Something about the seriousness of her look made Loki want to stand at attention. She reminded him of Frigga during the few times when she was strict with her sons, and Loki felt the need, as if she were Frigga, not to cross her or disappoint her. It was singularly strange, but he could see that Thor was reacting the same way.
"Hæra," Odin greeted the female Jötunn by name.
"Allfather," Hæra returned the greeting in a guarded tone. "I see you Asgardians are still breaking your word. Some things never change, hmm?"
Her words were as brittle as broken glass, and cut just as deeply. Thor tensed, taking the insult personally. Loki felt the insult to, and wondered what she meant.
"Your guards," Odin said, knowing instantly what she was talking about.
"Yes," Hæra agreed, saffron eyes sharp. "You said I could bring four Militia as my escort, yet two of them have been left on Jötunnheim."
Loki assumed that Militia was the name of the soldier's organization. Wasn't the definition of a militia a military force raised from civilian numbers to supplement a regular army during an emergency? It sounded strange that the Jötnar regular army was a militia. Did they even have a regular army? He had just assumed from the stories he heard about them that they did.
Hæra gave Odin a sharp smile, her blue lips twisted into a smirk. "What? Don't trust us not to cause trouble?"
"Something like that," Odin replied calmly despite Hæra's honey-smooth venom. "I shouldn't be surprised that Laufey has sent you."
"You know her?" Thor asked their father urgently, glancing at Hæra briefly with a look heated by hate.
"Hæra was one of the ones that helped Laufey and I settle the terms of the Jötnar's surrender at the end of the Ice War," Odin explained.
Hæra knew that there was no way to talk Odin into letting her missing Militia escort come to Asgard, so she didn't see the need to wear at a subject she couldn't win.
"Are these two your sons?" Hӕra asked instead, looking over the two boys that stood near Odin and Frigga.
Her eyes rested on Loki a moment longer then Thor. For a moment, she had thought that Loki was Viddi. The similarities between the two boys were surprising, but she recovered without showing any sign of her surprise.
"Yes," Odin nodded and motioned the boys to step forward. "This is Thor, my eldest, and his brother Loki."
Both Thor and Loki tipped their heads in bow when their name was spoken. Hæra raised an eyebrow, a strange move since she didn't have eyebrows, at Loki's name.
"Loki," Hæra repeated, speaking it with a Jötunn accent instead of an Asgardian one. It sounded better when Hæra said it then when Odin had. "That's an ironic choice of name for a son of Odin."
Loki blinked in surprise, almost saying huh? before he was able to stop himself. Why was his name ironic to a Jötunn? Several times before, Loki had asked his parents why his name sounded so different from other Asgardian names but he had never gotten a straight answer why. Did this Jötunn know something about his name?
Odin didn't respond to Hæra's comment, already regretting bringing the Jötnar here. The last thing he needed was for Loki to be exposed to his species and realize he wasn't Asgardian. He needed to get Loki away from Hæra, now.
"What's going on?" One of a group of children watching from near the Rainbow Bridge asked.
"Shh!" Another ordered without looking away from the group.
"Angborn!" One of his friends hissed. "Tell me what's going on or move so one of us can see!"
"Yeah," another added.
Angborn finally looked away from the Jötnar to his two friends, Hermód Dýrison and Tannr Vafrison, reluctantly. He scooched back a step so one of his friends could see and Hermód was the one to elbow his way closer. The three friends were hiding behind a snow-covered bush, and although it was large enough to hide all of them from sight, only one person could get deeply enough in the branches to look through the leaves at a time.
While Hermód looked and Tannr tried to peer through the leaves behind him, Angborn sat back and looked around to make sure there weren't any Star Guard nearby to catch them. Since they weren't Star Guard, the children weren't supposed to be so close. A quick look didn't reveal any trouble, and there was still no sign of Jaro and his goons blissfully. Hodr and his older brother Baldur were a little bit away, watching. They hadn't seen, or weren't bothered, to look at Angborn and his friends. As heirs to the throne, they weren't get in nearly as much trouble if they were caught if Angborn and his friends would.
"Hey!" Hermód whispered excitedly, trying not to move and disturb the snow on the leaves. "They're moving."
"Where?" Tannr asked and leaned forward to try to see.
He leaned forward too much, and since there was really only room for one person to look, Tannr put his hands on Hermód's back. As he leaned forward, he flattened Hermód to the snow covered ground to see. Hermód made a noise as he lay flat in the snow now, but Tannr shushed him.
Angborn smiled, and took a chance to peer around the bush to see. He could be seen here, but he wasn't sure he wanted to wade into the leaves and interrupt Hermód and Tannr. Already he knew that things would not be resolved silently.
From what Angborn could see, Thor and Loki had stepped back with their mother. Allfather and the Jötnar were continuing their walk with a few other Asgardians. They were entering Gladsheimr. The thought of Jötnar inside the heart of Asgard sent a trill of fear and excitement through Angborn's systems.
Or it did until Hermód elbowed Tannr in the solar plexus and knocked him onto his back so he could sit up. Tannr stayed lying in the snow for a minute as he tried to breathe again, and Hermód resumed looking through the leaves. When Tannr was finally able to breath, he shoved Hermód forward into the bush. Hermód hit the large stems supporting the branches, and snow fell on top of him so he blended into the ground as a white lump.
Tannr wasn't the kind to raise a fuss or throw a temper tantrum, but he seemed to take pleasure in his revenge against Hermód, flashing a smile as gentle and kind as his voice. Hermód scowled and huffed, a sound that came from inside his throat. Angborn sighed, but didn't try to stop them.
Someone cleared their throat behind them as the Jötnar vanished within Gladsheimr, and the three boys all tensed. Silence fell between them, and they turned around very slowly towards the source of the sound. Standing behind them were a pair of Star Guard.
While the three friends smiled shyly, aware of the trouble they were in, Dúrnir cursed to himself. Asgard might not know about the plan, but they had just made Dúrnir's standing very tenuous. Not only had his forces been cut in half, two of the Raiders had been left behind on Jötunnheim. The other Jötnar would ask them what had happened and eventually someone would realize that despite being dressed in Militia gear weren't Militia members. They would be revealed as Raiders, and Dúrnir knew they wouldn't hold up to interrogation.
Dúrnir had no idea how Laufey would react. Even if he didn't warn Asgard about the Raiders, which he might, someone could say the Raider's plan out loud and Heimdall might hear them. The whole plan could be exposed at a moment's notice.
Laufey might warn Asgard anyway. Jötunnheim's royal family were descendants of Ymir, mortals with his DNA in their genome. The immortal's blood in their veins allowed them to use the Casket of Ancient Winters and the Icefall Jewe, Ymir's instruments. Vasad was a distant cousin of Laufey's and also a descendant of Ymir. This meant it was possible he, or one of his two children, could awaken the Casket. If Laufey felt threatened enough by that possibility, he could contact Asgard and alert them to the Raider's plot – spiting the Raiders and his kin who commanded them.
Dúrnir was now on a very short time limit, and what happened next depended on how badly Laufey wanted to stop them and sheer dumb luck. It was a factor he had no control over, and he did not like the feeling that the situation was out of his hands. He needed to contact Midi back with the Raiders and begin the operation – now.
Here is a little more background on characters both OC and cannon. Now both the Raiders and Loki are ready to start, and Odin is already regretting allowing the Jötnar to come.
I'm not sure if I made this clear but Moon's Day is Monday.