Chapter 12: Shadows

~§~ Lady Sif ~§~

Sif stared in disbelief at the pile of clothing. What had happened to Tyr? She had not known him of course, but it startled her to see him killed so abruptly, or had he been killed? Had he been real? She moved her gaze to look at Katirya. Had the woman killed him to silence him or was she telling the truth?

Confusion ruled within the chamber. The fact that there were intruders was the first problem. This was compounded by the addition of the fact that they were Cartherions, led by one of the Thirteen. Sif tried to make sense of it.

The silence was ended with a roar from Thor as he ran across the room to grab Katirya. "GUARDS!" The city guards along with the Warriors Three entered the room just as Thor closed in on Katirya. He reached out to grab her only to run through her.

Loki laughed. "When are you going to stop falling for that trick?"

Thor whirled to face Loki. "Seriously? Where is she then? Can you find her?"

Loki shrugged and began to look around the room. Sif noticed that he paused longer, looking intently into one corner more than other areas of the room. She followed his gaze, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"She's gone and so is the Tesseract! Guard the doors and sound the alarm!" Volstagg shouted causing everyone to start shouting as they looked around the room for Katirya. "She cannot have gotten past us!"

The guards had closed in on the Cartherion intruders, trying to force them towards a corner of the room. The Cartherions were not so willing to accept defeat and started to push back at their captors. They raised swords and began to shout at the guards as they engaged them in battle. Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral left the doorway and joined in the melee. Eight of the Thirteen had split off, moving to reinforce the Cartherions when Thor raised his hammer and crashed it to the floor with another roar. Stunned, all the combatants stopped. Thor turned to face the four remaining of the Thirteen who had not moved to join the scuffle. "Where is your Queen?"

Mythean shook his head. "I do not know, but she is still near."

"She cannot have escaped; we were in the doorway until the argument started. Then we all came in, but the doorway was still blocked." Sif finally spoke up. She knew there had not been any opportunity for someone to get through the group that had crowded through the doors. The child she had been protecting suddenly wrenched his body out of her grasp and raced towards the door, only to fall when one of the guards tripped him and scooped him up to hold him tightly. Screaming and kicking, the boy tried to escape.

"Well, she clearly is not in here and the Tesseract is gone! She lied and came here only to steal it. She probably set this whole charade up and left these people here to face our wrath!" Volstagg shouted.

The Cartherions roared their approval of Volstagg's comment. "She lied to you! Tyr was trying to tell you that, and then she killed him. She has taken off with the Tesseract. You will …"

"I am right here," a soft voice came from one of the corners, revealing Katirya standing close to the wall directly behind Loki, "but I do not have the Tesseract, though it still is in this room."

Sif realized at once it was the spot that Loki had been staring at. Had he seen her? Could he see her?

Katirya moved towards the Cartherion group, shaking her head sadly. "So many familiar faces. I am disappointed in you and your families." She sighed heavily, then turned and walked to the child that Sif had been protecting. Approaching the young boy, she reached out and lifted his chin so that he was forced to look up at her. He jerked his head away and spat at her feet. She ignored his action and turned towards Loki.

"Boy! Who are you?" Loki's voice was soft as he questioned the young child. "I do not recognize you. Do you?" He directed his question to Thor.

"Oh, none of you will. He is not of Asgard. They brought him along with. To think that you chose to involve an innocent child in your schemes. What lies have you told him to get him to hate me so?" Katirya asked the group of intruders. Then she looked at the eight who had joined them from her party. "You are making this more difficult than it needs to be."

Sif was surprised that Loki was allowing her to simply take over. She glanced once more at the pile of clothing that once had been Tyr. "You say the Tesseract is still here; where is it? Where have you put it?" She looked at Katirya accusingly, unsatisfied with the way things were going.

"I have not put it anywhere. They stole it." Katirya motioned towards the captives.

"We did not steal it. It was your intention all along to make it look like we took it so you could control it."

"Njall Volundson," Katirya moved towards one of the Thirteen who had joined the intruders, "if I had wanted the Tesseract, I would have simply taken it and not bothered to even speak with the Asgardians. You are a fool!"

"Then where is it?" Njall sneered back at her. "Where is your precious Gem?"

Katirya did not answer him but walked back over to the child. The boy began once more to struggle, trying to escape his captor. Katirya reached into the boy's tunic and pulled out the missing Tesseract. "Like father, like son?" She stared back at Njall once more as she walked over to Sif and handed her the Tesseract.

Sif gasped and stared down at the object. How had the boy managed to get the Tesseract? She had been holding him, protecting him, the entire time she had been in the room. She recalled being grabbed from behind, a knife held to her throat as she had been pulled into the chamber. Thrown across the room, she had stumbled over the boy. The Tesseract had been sitting on its pedestal the whole time, or had it? Why had Katirya given it to her?

"You planted it there! You are trying to make them think you had nothing to do with this." Njall started to shout once more.

Katirya closed her eyes and sighed once more. "Truly you are a fool." Taking a deep breath, she lifted her arms towards the eight who had aligned with the Cartherion traitors.

The eight realized too late what she was doing and started screaming. "Stop her!" The plea came too late as Katirya shot flashes of light towards the eight and like Tyr, they collapsed to the floor, leaving piles of empty clothing where once they had stood. This time, Katirya did not stop with that. Lifting one arm over her head, she drew it across in an arc and opened up one had to reveal a glowing ball of light. She opened her eyes and stared at it for several moments before covering it with her other hand after which she pressed down and the light suddenly split into nine flashes. The piles of empty clothes suddenly rose up.

Sif stared at the one that had been Tyr. Now, where once had been flesh and bone, there was an ethereal figure. She stepped back and turned to look at the other eight. Nine wraiths now stood in the room and moved to stand behind Mythean. "What have you done to them?" Sif spoke softly, voicing the question that had been in everyone's mind.

"What I ought to have done in the first place," Katirya replied. "I should never had trusted the families to align themselves with me, even with one of their own as part of the Thirteen. These," she pointed to the ghostlike members of the Thirteen, "they are the disembodied souls of all the former members of the Thirteen. They would have no form were I not to give it to them. They exist and always will exist, but can only be called by the Cronuth Stone. They can be bound to a living form, and thus bound to that soul, but when released they are unseen, yet they are still there."

Sif frowned, finding the explanation very confusing. "So the souls remain, each one adding to the collective?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. It is a collection of all the previous souls who have served the Cronuth Stone. With a leader, a person who can control the Cronuth, a living form is chosen to be the receptacle for the collective souls and their soul joins the collective."

Sif did not like this strange turn of events. She felt as if Katirya was hiding something, as the explanation seemed too glib.

Katirya turned to face Loki and Thor. "Were I in Cartherion, I would pronounce a harsh judgment for the treasonous acts these miscreants had done. I leave it up to you, as this is your home and not mine. You can see now perhaps why I seek aid. That eight of the families have turned against me is a sign that all is not well within my lands. I fear to return there, for they truly do seek my death."

"Kill her!" One of the captives shouted out. "She is still lying to you. Look what she did to our people. She twisted their lives to her use, and then destroyed them when they tried to challenge her. She wants power and will only use you to get what she wants!"

Loki looked at Katirya for a long time without speaking.

Katirya stepped towards him, raising her eyes up to meet his before finally breaking the silence. "You have two options. You can believe them or me. One of us is lying."

Sif held her breath as she waited for Loki's response. Suddenly she was afraid. She did not trust Loki. What if he sided with Katirya and the Cartherions were right? What if all she was after was the power? Her mind froze and she heard words in her mind.

'Silence your thoughts, woman!'

Sif felt the Tesseract begin to resonate in her hands. Fighting for control of her mind, she jerked her gaze down to the Tesseract only to see another set of hands reaching out for it. Looking up, she saw Katirya had crossed the room and was standing in front of her. She heard the command in her mind.

'Give me the Tesseract."

"NO!"

Sif felt the enormous power emanating from Katirya as the Cartherion Queen reached out to grasp the Tesseract from her hands. Though fighting to keep it, she felt it inexorably pulled from her hands. Collapsing on the floor, she began to sob as she wrapped her arms around her body.

"SIF!" Thor shouted and ran across the room to her. Bending down, he slowly turned her over. "What is wrong?"

"She has it!" Sif wailed. "She is going to kill us all!"

"Has what?"

"The Tesseract."

Thor stared down at the Lady Sif. "Sif, you are holding it in your hands."

Sif sobbed. "No, she has it." She slowly unwrapped her arms from her body. The Tesseract was gone!