The Shield-Mountains of Asgard...Three hours later...

"It has never been this long," Cernunnos said, anxiously stroking Karol's head, "but then, there has never been this much to repair."

The girl's natural color had returned, gradually deepening to the medium-brown rarely seen in Asgard. Her hair, too, had deepened to its original ebony, but her eyes remained closed. Occasional twitches of her outer limbs were her only movements. She did not shiver; Loki had recovered the girl with his cloak to ward off the mountain's chill.

Something...changed. There was a slight movement under the skin, almost a flicker of light, and then Karol's chest heaved with a coughing spasm. Loki helped her roll onto her side, facing Cernunnos, and the spasm passed as a muddy-looking mist oozed from her mouth and nose.

Cernunnos grabbed Nexus' cloak from the ground and held it at the ready, but when the polluted cloud coalesced into Nexus, she held up a thin, strained hand, warding him off.

"Touch me not," she rasped. She had resumed her Crone form, but looked as if she had been through a wreck or a storm, so frazzled and dirty was her appearance. Dark circles marked the underside of her eyes, and her face was drawn and pained. Her color, too, was off; grey-green, she looked as if she might vomit. Grabbing the side of the stone table for support, she tottered naked to the large pestle Loki had prepared. Leaning over, and grabbing the sides of it now for support, her back and ribs heaved as she DID vomit, spewing a grey sewage that churned and reached out for the nearest living flesh. Reaching into the washing basin, she cupped the clear water Loki had provided to her face once, twice, three times, rinsing out her mouth and spitting into the collected mass, stopping only when the water came out clear.

"Loki," she coughed: "contain thee this foulness! It seeks another host!"

Shaking, she staggered backwards from the pestle and into Cernunnos' waiting arms and her robe. Loki stepped forward, muttering enchantments of binding, and a clear bubble of energy formed around the seething, writhing mass.

"I call you both to bear witness," Nexus coughed anxiously: "I have done what I could! The child's fate is no longer in my hands! No harm have I done, nor sought to bring, to a child not my own! Sommerland withdraws, and will not trespass again! You bear witness..."

"Nexus!" Cernunnos exclaimed, grabbing her by the shoulders to steady her. "Look at me! What happened? What spooks the Queen of Sommerland, that you speak so?"

She shuddered and buried her face in his broad chest. "Not our child. She is not our child! I did not think...did not consider...I trespassed onto the estate of another! I meant no wrong, I swear!"

"NEXUS!" Cernunnos cried firmly, shaking her a little, "COME BACK!"

Loki, standing at Karol's head, combed a seeking hand through the re-darkened locks and felt with his mind. Karol slept peacefully now, and her body seemed perfectly at rest. She had resumed her normal appearance and color; her joints were normal sized; her back straight. Even her scent was pleasant: slightly spicy, with a twist of jasmine and vanilla and a woodsy, earthen musk. The angry white-and-red scars had all but disappeared; her skin was nearly smooth.

"She is well," he announced to a baffled Cernunnos, "probably healthier than before her violation. What ails Nexus?"

"I know not..." Cernunnos admitted. "I have never seen her this way before."

"Consent," Nexus rasped, "I had no consent to do what I did..."

"The girl was unconscious and possibly dying, Nexus. She would not fault you for taking action..." Cernunnos soothed, but she cut him off.

"Not from her," she shook her head vigorously, "from her King! We asked permission to come into Asgard: to come through the Bifrost. I crossed a boundary when I entered her body..."

"Do you mean this girl is a Gatekeeper, like Heimdallr?" Loki asked incredulously.

"No," Nexus coughed again, shaking, "not a keeper. She is a castle, like the Valholl, and I met her King!"

"Nexus," Cernunnos shook his great head patiently, "you are disoriented. The child is a Rómhánach Caitliceach; her king is the human enthroned in Rome! Is this not some foul vision caused by the vileness in yonder pestle?"

"No," she said firmly finding a stone to sit on, "this was no vision." She took a shuddering breath and raised her eyes to Loki. "She is human," she coughed, "and must go back to Midgard right away. If we start right now, we can get her to the Bifrost by mid-day..."

"Nexus," Loki said sternly, "it is now past mid-night. None of us leaves this rock before daybreak, least of all Karol Jamesdottir! Furthermore, she is of Asgard and is the All-Father's ward. Only Odin All-Father can banish one of his own children, or decide their fate! Come to your senses!"

Nexus hung her head, exhausted, as Karol slept soundly on, oblivious to the discussion warring around her. The Crone passed an exhausted hand across her face and took a deep breath.

"My senses," she groaned. "I should have used better sense. Gentlemen, the King of the Rómhánach Caitliceach does not sit in Rome. That human is only a deputy of sorts, or a high priest. Her King...He is at once old and young, male and female, in this universe, and yet not...I do not understand. He is POWER, but has wrapped Himself in flesh..."

"Nexus," Cernunnos chided, bringing her the dress she had cast aside, "you are rambling. You make no sense."

"I entered her through the breath-gate; you saw me," Nexus began again when she had dressed, and the men nodded. "I thought to start with her heart and lungs, and then her digestive organs, to work on the soft tissues and filtration systems before moving on to her skeletal issues."

Loki nodded. "That makes sense."

"It seemed best," the old woman nodded. "Her damage was great. I found the seat of all mischief at her womanhood, where the infection was introduced. Lady Eir did a marvelous job repairing the physical damage, but the infection had changed the cradle of life into a factory of destruction. She was 'pregnant' with the virus, you might say, and all of the systems attached to the cradle were now being used to multiply and spread the infection."

"Lady Eir reassured her she would be able to bear children, if she wished," Loki protested.

Nexus shook her head. "'Tis a devious work of dark magic, this virus," she explained. "The cradle of life would pass a visual inspection, and appear normal. But the supports for normal copulation, the glands that produce lubricants and the like, produced infective agents instead. Any man lying with her would be immediately infected. That which was supposed to bear children was changed into a mutagenic machine."

"You corrected this?" Loki was aghast. "No wonder it took so long..."

"I cleaned all the soft tissue, and moved to the joints and the bone. Her skeleton is stronger than a human's now: closer to an Asgardian's."

"She is part Asgardian," Loki reminded her. "If Father decides she should stay in Asgard, then it will help her to assimilate. Humans are far too fragile to live here long."

"No, no, NO. She must GO!" Nexus coughed again, and Loki handed Cernunnos the re-sanitized cider bottle. "I had all the code re-written, and her body healed, and moved to her mind...and then I met HIM."

"Whom did you meet, Beloved?" Cernunnos stroked her hair, trying to soothe his Lady. "You went to the Soul-gate, and someone besides the child was there. Do you mean she is possessed?"

Nexus shook her head. "Not possessed: owned, or inhabited, would be better words. This...being...does not recognize the deities of Asgard or Sommerland as such, but as children, the same as we consider humans." She gulped more cider, and her color started to stabilize. "And he is angry," she whispered, "SO very angry..."

"With you?" Cernunnos was aghast. "You entered the child to help her! Why would he be angry about that?"

"His anger was not with me," Nexus admitted. "He knew I was there as a healer, so I was permitted to work on her body. Her mind, however, was off-limits. I could not change her memory of the attack, nor alter her attitudes towards copulation..."

"Why would you seek to do such?" Loki was incredulous.

Nexus sputtered. "Why? Why not? How else can she resume a normal life, once she leaves Asgard? How can she fall in love? How can she trust a man's touch, so as to know the joy of physical love, and perhaps bear children, unless her memory is altered?"

Loki grimaced and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Nexus," he said patiently, "you can neither change what happened, nor create a harmless memory that would give her a normal life. This violation is now a part of Julesang's history, and for good or for ill, she must manage it. Her experiences with men and love must happen within the setting of the truth of her past, or they will not be valid."

"How can you say this, O God of Lies?" Cernunnos demanded. "What do you know of life after violation? You are male, and have never known such weakness and pain!"

"Would you like to wager on that, Cernunnos?" Loki snapped. "I've always desired a collection of Sommerland Power Gems!"

Nexus looked at Loki oddly. "Gentlemen, please. Can we have that conversation another time?"

"Of course," Loki nodded coolly.

"I apologize, darling," Cernunnos soothed. "You mentioned meeting Julesang's King at her soul-gate, and that he was angry, but not with you. What happened?"

She shuddered again. "Darkness: I was surrounded by it. He put dark clouds between us, or his hand...I am uncertain. There was light behind it...He showed me Julesang's attack...and others. This is not the first time such has happened." Her voice deepened with her disgust. "It was vile. You were right to name them Dolkalfar-Human mutates, Loki. They are indeed an unholy brood, and their actions are intolerable." She shook again, this time with anger.

"Then why didn't he do something about it?" Loki was furious. "Was this king of hers not within her when she was violated? Why then did he not act, prevent the crime or strike down her attackers?"

Tears coursed down Nexus' face. "He was there," she nodded, and her voice was suddenly hoarse. "He suffered with her. I don't know if she knows; she feels abandoned. Her soul cries out lama sabathani...why have you forsaken me? But...there are others within the group-within the coven-that suffer also. He means to rescue them, and more...there is more..." she wiped her wet face with a withered hand. "There will be recompense for their actions, believe me."

"How can any King stand by and watch their child suffer so?" Loki's voice was uncharacteristically harsh, and Nexus looked at him again oddly. "If this King is so powerful, why did he not act, and protect her?"

"Because there was more at stake than one girl's comfort or honor, Loki," Nexus said hoarsely. "This King...he has set limits for himself, lines that he will not cross, or at least not now. But the Coven...they crossed a line when they chose Julesang as a victim, and disregarded her ownership. She chose something...a Via Dolorosa..."

"That means 'the Way of Suffering'," Loki explained, and Nexus nodded.

"He walked it once before, long ago," she croaked. "When she invoked it, Julesang joined Him on it. When the Coven spilled her blood, they spilled His as well, and they covered their altar with it."

Loki's head snapped up. "Their sacrifice didn't belong to them; it was stolen...contaminated."

"With bloodguilt," Nexus nodded, "and inter-realm agency. The fools have brought all this onto their own heads."

"What do you mean?" Cernunnos asked sharply.

"How do you get Asgard's attention, Cernunnos?" Nexus snapped back. "This is not the first rape in Iseland, nor the first attempted murder, nor the first altar desecration, in 1000 years. This evil has been going on for a long time, and Asgard has done naught, until this child was violated! Why? Who noticed, and sounded the alarm, and sent a royal son to her rescue?"

"My mother's altar..." Loki began, but Nexus cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"Your mother's altar has been used by this band of miscreants for centuries, lad," she snapped. "Something different happened this time, for the victim's cries to be heard in Asgard. Is she, perhaps, an Odin-dottir?"

Loki shook his head. "I saw the test results, Nexus. Her nearest Aesir ancestor was four generations past. The program could not ascertain who it was; the code of life is too diluted to tell."

"Perhaps Frigga took a seat on Hliðskjálf in time to view the unholy scene," Cernunnos suggested. "Such things have happened before."

"Perhaps," Nexus murmured, thoughtfully looking at the unconscious Julesang. "Or perhaps e'en that is just too coincidental. This girl's pain was used: used to contact Asgard, and used to contact us."

"You?" Loki looked at Nexus in surprise.

"Us," she said firmly. "We would not notice her torture: she is not our child. But her heart-sister is ours, and when the Coven struck to silence a Fire-Keeper of Sommerland, they crossed a line. Sommerland is now drawn into this conflict, and we shall not withdraw from it until our boarders are safe again!"

"But you said..." Cernunnos began, but Nexus raised a hand.

"I withdrew from her body, beloved. But I have now also touched her blood, and his. We are called to walk the Via Dolorosa now, and cannot turn back." She stood, her body slowly returning to her Matron form, strengthening as she approached the sleeping Karol Julesang. "We will not turn back," she whispered. "Sommerland is called to war."

"This 'king' of hers; does he have a name?" Loki was annoyed.

Nexus considered the sleeping girl in front of her before answering. "What do you call someone who suffers with the afflicted, to redeem the criminal? What do you call a king that uses his own blood to join realms? What name do you give one who uses an innocent's unrighteous suffering, to spread justice? What do you call one who is righteous indignation, judgment, and compassion, all at the same time?" She gently combed her hands through the curling black locks. "She calls him 'ABBA': Father."

"Nexus..." Cernunnos began, but silenced himself at the look in her eyes.

"We dare not shrink back now." She turned her kaleidoscope eyes to Loki. "The All-Father would do well to send this child home to her parents, lest his kingdom be drawn into the conflict as well."

"Asgard never flinches from what must be done," Loki growled. "If war is called for, then war will be delivered, and the Coven will find itself in over its head."

Nexus nodded thoughtfully. "I think," she said softly, "that her 'ABBA' knows this, and is counting on it." She looked thoughtfully at Loki. "The All-Father must be informed right away."

"We all need to rest first," Loki said pragmatically. "We can deliver all the evidence to Odin when we reach the Valholl on the morrow." He glanced at the glowing mass in the pestle. "That vileness, especially, should convince him that action is needed."

"Then let us rest," Cernunnos nodded sagely. "I cannot now take stag-form for a moon-phase at least. The hike will indeed be long."

Nexus and Cernunnos made a bed of moss, wrapped up in each other's arms and Nexus' cloak, and went to sleep. Loki checked on Karol one more time, tucked her into his cloak again, set protection spells around the rock, and then conjured up a bed roll. Frekr and Garmr took positions at either end of the girl's bed, after sniffing her to see if she was well, and curled up to sleep.

None of them noticed the great black hand that hovered over them in the night, nor saw the fingers that pinched the seething mass in the pestle and lifted it away.

"Hmmmmm," the great voice murmured, "vileness, foulness, twisted in a ring. What now to do with this dirty little thing?"

The forest trembled slightly with his footsteps as he withdrew, but the company on the rock face slept on, heedless.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

There was no small stir amongst the godlings when they woke at daylight and discovered the missing abomination. None could determine how it had disappeared; no residue of a broken binding enchantment remained, and the ground around the pestle was not defiled. Hunnin and Munnin had already returned to the Valholl; Frekr and Garmr's investigation revealed nothing but the smell of stone, moss, and pine. Loki finally found the great footprints at the rock's base.

"Stone troll," he announced. "We are lucky to be alive. The only metal items here are Cernunnos' amulets."

"What use would a stone troll have for that foul pocket?" Cernunnos rumbled.

"Like as not it wanted the shiny containment field," Nexus mentioned wryly, shaking her darkening hair out, "perhaps as an ornament."

Loki shook his head. "I've ne'er known the trolls to wear such," he admitted. "Brute beasts, the lot of them: they think only of their next meal."

"Mayhaps it ate the foul thing," Cernunnos suggested, and then paused. "Would the virus affect it?"

"Most likely not," Loki said, scratching his chin. "Stone trolls have no soft tissue to corrupt."

"But we have tissue that must be fed," Nexus said firmly, "and Julesang must dress for the journey. Off with you, fellows, and forage us something with which to break our fast!"

Loki picked up the remains of Julesang's ruined dress and grimaced. "This won't do, not e'en to gird the loins with, much less as a full garment," he pointed out.

"I have handled the matter, Loki," Cernunnos rumbled. "Come, let us be off, and leave the womenfolk some privacy. You know these mountains better than I. What sorts of forage have you?"

Loki and Cernunnos hopped off of the cliff-face, leaving Nexus alone with Julesang. The night's rest had restored some of Nexus' youth, so she looked more like a middle-aged matron instead of the ancient crone, but there were still bags under her eyes and tired wrinkles at her forehead and mouth. She ran a slender hand through Julesang's hair; the maid was still asleep.

"Karol," she said gently. "Karol Julesang: wake, child. We must be off soon."

The girl stirred sleepily and her eyes fluttered open, but she looked about her, confused.

"Where?" She sat up, clutching what she thought was a blanket. "Where am I? What happened?" She finally caught sight of Nexus' face. "Who are you?" She looked down at herself, bare under Loki's cloak. "Aaaa!"

"Do not panic, child," Nexus' hands on Julesang's were calming as the girl tried to wrap herself tighter in her only cover. "No harm has come to you. What do you remember?"

The girl had started to hyperventilate, but calmed down at the sniffling whuff of Frekr and Garmr.

"Pup smells better. Pup good." Frekr said, sneezing.

"Pup needs fur for walking in the wood," Garmr harummphed.

"Why do they call me that?" Julesang asked.

"Call you what?" Nexus inquired.

"They keep calling me a pup," the girl said. She crinkled her face at Nexus. "Don't you hear them?"

"I do not speak wolf," Nexus pointed out. "My alters are a doe and a snowy owl. You understand Frekr and Garmr?"

"Aye, I do. My custodian, Sir Jarl, taught me the language of the birds, and soon after I heard his horse speak as well. I thought all animals in Asgard must speak, but if they do not," she frowned, "perhaps I am daft, or going mad."

"None would fault you for madness after your ordeal, child," Nexus said gently, "but your mind is sound. If you indeed hear and understand the beasts, then it is your Asgardian blood that enables you. Some of the royal house have this talent; t'is not so odd." Nexus glanced down at the pacing wolves. "If they indeed call you a pup, then it is because they are pack animals, and understand familial relations in that light. You are Odin's ward, and he commands your care, so you must be one of his pups, being so young and in his house."

The girl nodded. It made sense. She thought for a moment, and her face chilled. "Running...I remember running...I struck down the royal family," she looked at Nexus with alarm, "they what rescued me and took me in: I killed them! I saw meself in a mirror...I am a monster! What ha'e I done?" She looked at Nexus, stricken. "I saw them! All dead! What ha'e I done?" Fresh tears sprang to her eyes, and Nexus took Julesang's face into her hands, shushing her.

"Peace, child. You dealt no death in the Valholl! You were frightened and lashed out to protect yourself, naught more. None shall fault you for that; you knew not what you did, and you did no lasting harm."

"But I saw..."

"They were but stunned," Nexus corrected her firmly, "as were Cernunnos and I. Odin dispatched Frekr and Garmr to find you, and Hunnin and Munnin searched from the air. Cernunnos ran in stag-form, I flew as an owl, and Loki was the Phoenix giving light. Do you remember none of this?"

"I saw..." Julesang bit her lip. "I saw a monster in the glass: white skin and hair, like a dead thing, and it had fangs and claws and pointed ears, an' it was me, and everyone...Baldr was dead...an' I ran...I remember the wolves," she reached down to scratch Frekr, who shamelessly turned her ears so Karol could reach the good spots. "An' the stag...I remember the stag...I yelled at him, an' he became a mon...sort o'..."

"He became 'sort of' a man?" Nexus looked offended.

"He were green, Lady Nexus," Karol protested, "an' he had horns and funny eyes...I've ne'er seen the like before. On my world, we ha' only one green mon, an' e'en he isn't green all the time, but only when he is pissed. Ye wouldn't wish ta meet him then, I'm sure."

Nexus nodded. "I have heard of this other green man, I think, but we are not acquainted. Think you that he is a monster?"

Julesang frowned and thought. "I dinna know," she finally admitted. "I've heard he's done a lot o' wreckin', when he's big an' green, but usually to folks what are tryin' to hurt him anyway, when he were mindin' his own business. Otherwise he's a peaceable mon, an' a good 'un, an' smart besides."

Nexus nodded. "Give yourself the same judgment, then, Karol Julesang."

"I dinna understand..."

"You thought yourself a monster based on appearance, and with the thought of false guilt, when you meant naught but to protect yourself. My consort did bait you wrongfully, and frightened you, and slandered you besides, when you had done us no wrong. He works even now to make amends, as have I this evening past. Look you down. What do you see?" Nexus gently pried Loki's cloak away from Julesang's grasp, revealing coffee-colored legs and the faintest lines where her scars had been.

The girl gasped, then peered at her arms and belly, pulled her hair in front of her eyes, and finally felt her ears and teeth. "How?"

"You were sick, child," Nexus informed her. "The ones that tortured you gave you a virus. It was meant to change you into another species entirely, one you do not know. Apparently," she glowered, "their Coven has been doing this for some time. It is how they propagate...do you remember what you looked like, in the glass?" Julesang nodded: her eyes wide. "Have you seen the like before?"

The girl's chin trembled, but she nodded. "Aye," she said hoarsely, "when the Coven...when they were..." a tear slipped down both cheeks, and she choked. "I saw them. They changed: horns an' claws an' fangs an' the like. I thought it were the drugs in the fire..."

Nexus shook her head. "You saw them as they truly are, child. They are a combination of Dolkalfar-Dark Elves, you would say-and Earth-children. This 'coven' is not one of ours. They disguise themselves as such to hide their true intentions and purpose."

"Like a w..." she glanced down at Frekr, who had tilted her chin up for more scratching, "predator, disguising itself as a sheep to attack a flock o' lambs."

"Even so." Nexus nodded. "When they look human, it is a disguise. We call that spell a glamour."

Julesang examined her hand again, turning it one way and then another. It looked perfectly normal. "This," she said, her face puckering, "be this a glamour?"

"No, child," Nexus assured her. "You are healed. The virus has been removed from your body. The hardest part now will be the journey back to the Valholl."

"Journey back?"

"Turn about, child, and look," Nexus commanded, pointing over Karol's shoulder.

Karol shifted on her make-shift bed, and her eyes widened.

The rock-face she had slept on was barely the size of a cottage, and ended in a steep drop-off. Tips of fir trees poked up near the edge, but not enough to block the view of the dizzying drop that awaited her, or the forest and valley below. Sunlight glinted off of forest dew and the fog from a nearby waterfall, giving the scene a bejeweled look. In the distance-kilometers away-glittered a golden spire that could only be a tower of the Valholl.

"Lady Nexus," Karol said slowly, "jest how far did I run last eve?"

"Nearly 430 stadium, child," Nexus said softly.

Karol's face wrinkled, confused. "What be that in kilometers?"

It was Nexus' turn to be confused. "What is a kilometer?"

"Err..." Karol's head began to spin. She didn't often do the kilometer-to-miles conversion. "If I remember aright, there be jest o'er one-an'-a-half kilometers in a mile."

"Ah," Nexus thought for a moment. "You ran nearly 50 miles...so about 80 of your kilometers."

Karol looked horrified. "Thah's like runnin' from Dublin to Castledermot! I ken barely walk from Lady Eir's hoose to the Valholl, an' that be but a brisk stroll! How ken this be?"

"You were sick, child: filled with a virus that changed your bones and muscles to a hardier species, and frightened besides. Do not wonder that you did this; marvel that we caught you in time! You gave us quite a chase; the Hunt for Julesang Jamesdottir will be told for cycles to come."

"T'will take days to get back," Karol said seriously. "I cannae repeat what I did yesterday," She glanced down at herself, "An' wrapped in someone else's cloak besides. Where be me dress?"

Nexus grimaced. "What is left of it will not function as a garment, child, but only as a washrag. Come: let us get you cleaned up."

Nexus directed Karol to the washing basin, which Loki had thoughtfully filled with clean water and heated for the women. The remains of Karol's old dress were used to scour the dirt, sweat, and grime from both women, until they glistened, naked and shivering a little, in the morning sunlight. Karol wrapped back up in the long green robe, while Nexus rinsed out her garments and snap, snap, snap changed them into mountain-appropriate apparel, which she donned.

"Ken ye do the same to me dress?" Karol asked hopefully.

Nexus shook her head. "No, child. Thy vestments are too far gone for me to change even into undergarments. Worry not," she raised a hand, laughing at the consternation on the girl's face, "the matter has been handled." She dipped over the cliff-face and emerged with a simple dress made of thick white cloth. "Off now, little ones; you are finished," she commanded, giving the dress a shake. "Here now, put this on," she said, handing it to Karol.

Karol looked it over quickly. The design was simple: a long-sleeved tunic dress with a scoop neck. It would neither cling to her body nor look baggy. She slipped it on, struggling a little with the sleeves and the fact that she had on no undergarments. It dropped almost to her ankles. The fabric, when she rolled it between her fingers, felt odd: sheer and sponge-like and sticky, all at the same time. She peered at it, trying to determine how it had been made, but could determine no pattern. It was neither woven nor knitted, there were many different thread sizes, and she could find no seams.

"Lady Nexus," she began, perplexed, "what be this..."

"T'is spider-silk, child," the Lady said with a small smile. "There are many spinners and weavers in the forest. They worked through the night, at Cernunnos' request, to make you this tunic."

Karol was touched. She had never liked spiders (what woman did?), but knowing that a band of them had done this for her brought tears to her eyes.

"I shall never knowingly kill one again," she promised.

"Here, child," Nexus said, handing her a similar pair of pantaloons, "For your nether regions."

"Thank ye, Lady Nexus."

Cernunnos and Loki returned soon after with provisions for breakfast: roots of wood sorrel, cattail, and chicory, which Nexus showed Karol how to boil, and piles of cloudberries, bilberries, and sweet strawberries. Nexus tugged on her sleeves a few times to make leaf-cups for them all, which they used to quaff cider from Loki's bottle. When they had all broken their fast, Loki gripped the bottle sternly and closed his eyes.

"Vatn," he said deeply, and water poured from the mouth again.

They all scrubbed their hands and faces after that, removing any trace of berry juice or root-pulp, and Loki gave Julesang's dress a quizzical look. Cernunnos explained how it had been made, and Loki stopped the maid before she could wash.

"Half a moment, Lady Julesang," he insisted. "You don't want to ruin your outfit by getting it wet." He knit his brow and took the end of one sleeve in his left hand, and the back collar of the dress in his right. "Vatn sönnun," he murmured forcefully, and then smiled. "T'would not do to have your only garment dissolve," he explained. "Spider-silk deteriorates in water; I have proofed it."

She thanked him shyly and turned away. He frowned at the girl's bare feet as she washed, and sat to tug off his own boots and socks. When everyone was done washing their hands and faces, he plunged both into the basin and gave them a thorough rinsing.

"Þorna og skreppa saman!" he commanded, and the articles obediently dried and shrank down to half their original size. He handed them to the young girl. "Put these on," he insisted. "You will not hike down this cliff in your bare feet."

She looked up at the grim dark prince. "But what aboot you?" she asked, perplexed. "T'is not proper that a prince runs barefoot while a pauper girl is shod."

"I appreciate your concern, little one," he said, smiling kindly, "but I am a warrior of Asgard as well as a royal son. My feet are tougher than yours; I do not need my boots." He picked up his green robe from the makeshift operating table and shook it out. "Now wrap up," he said handing it to her. "T'is a long hike to the Valholl. My father has commanded your care, and I shall not be remiss in having you catch a chill."

Julesang looked stricken at the mention of Odin, and Loki put a hand under her chin, tilting it up. "Don't worry so," he urged, smiling broadly. "Father is not quite so frightening as you think, and I am not named Silvertongue for no reason. I shall handle the old man. Have a little faith," he said with a wink, "and follow me as best as you can."

"What do ye..." Karol began to ask, but Loki had released her chin and stepped back, shaking his head. His hair began to fly about, and he stooped over, now shaking his shoulders and upper body. His black armor moved...

In an instant he was a giant black wolf with blue-green eyes, sniffing at the edge of the cliff-face.

Karol blinked, opened her mouth, and shut it again.

Nexus chuckled. "Loki knows these mountains well, child. He will find a way down that we can handle, have no fear."

"We?"

"Cernunnos and I shall accompany you in humanoid form, at the very least for company's sake."

The climb down took nearly two hours, and more than once Karol was grateful for both the tough dress and the boots; the rocks were hard and unforgiving. When the company reached the mountain's base they stopped at a stream and refreshed themselves with the icy-cold splash. Loki resumed his man-form and pulled Cernunnos aside for a chat, while Karol stepped into a thick stand of rush-grass and began to feel about at the base.

"Child," Nexus called, "whatever are you doing?"

Karol emerged from the rush-thicket with three long, green, spiraling rushes, which she quickly braided together, tying at each end with a simple knot.

"This be a symbol of penance for my people," she explained to Nexus, as she tied the resulting braid around her waist. "I should no go to the King's presence proudly, after striking him an' his house down, e'en if t'were an accident."

"He does not seek to prosecute you, child," Nexus reminded her.

"Mayhap not," Karol nodded, "an' I ken hope for sech. Have you any children, Lady Nexus?"

"Aye, several hundred," the Lady responded with a nod.

"An' if one o' them gave another a blow, e'en accidental-like, would ye not expect 'im to apologize to his brother?"

"I would," Nexus nodded. "You show good sense, child. Come, let us plait your hair as well, for the journey. It is the fashion here in Asgard for proper ladies to control and cover their locks," she explained.

"Then I am glad this cloak has a hood," Karol nodded. She cocked her head at Nexus. "What aboot your hair? Will people say aught aboot it bein' down?"

Nexus smiled and shook her head. "I am a foreign queen; a little...barbarity...is expected of me by the Asgardian nobles. Still..." she shook out her hair with her fingers, and then drew her hands out from her head, twirling her fingers. Her multi-colored hair stood out straight from her head for a moment, and then gradually coiled into a regal-looking, multi-braided coif that wrapped itself around her head like a crown. "I have not lived 3,000 years without learning a few tricks."

Nexus produce a wood-comb from her belt, and Karol's tangles were removed. She swiftly pulled the girl's hair back in a tight, elaborate plait, using more rushes to secure the ends. Some of the shorter wisps broke loose from the braid, framing the girl's face and neck becomingly. Looking about the grassy area, Nexus spied a few stands of tiny white flowers, which she quickly plucked and tucked into the girl's braids, seemingly at random.

"There," the Lady said with a flourish, "art now fit for an audience with a king."

A stag-whistle sounded from the forest as Cernunnos walked out of the woods, holding an armload of wild asparagus and fiddleheads, and Nexus grinned at his flirtation. He set the greens down on a nearby rock and pulled several withered pears out of his pockets. He handed the pears to Nexus. "Can you do aught with these, darling?" He cocked his head at Karol's adjusted outfit and hair. "She is almost ready to enter the capitol."

"Aye, verily," she said, dipping them in the icy water and blowing on them. In a minute they had resumed the plumpness of just-ripe fruit. "What mean you by 'almost', my love?"

"Her vestments lack ornamentation," he explained. He pulled more withered pears out of another pocket and handed them to Nexus. "She shows neither rank nor status."

Karol bit her lip and kept her eyes averted from Cernunnos. She was still uneasy around the green humanoid, and felt guilty about how she had screamed at him the previous evening. She kept her head down as she spoke.

"I dinna have sech things here, Mister Nex...Sir...I dinna know what to call your husband, Lady Nexus," she confided.

"You have not been properly introduced, either, child. My Prince-Consort is His Royal Highness, Cernunnos, Lord of Sommerland, god of death and the hunt. He has many other titles, as do I, but we will dispense with those for time's sake." She re-plumped a few more pears. "You may address him as 'Your Highness' or 'Your Lordship', as 'My Prince', 'Lord Cernunnos', or 'Sir'."

"He is not the King o' Sommerland?" Karol's face twisted in puzzlement.

"A king outranks a queen, child," Nexus reminded her. "E'en in your homeland, is there not a ruling queen, with a prince-consort for a mate?"

"Ah. That be in the next country over, in England," Karol nodded, finally comprehending. She turned to Cernunnos and gave him a little curtsey but kept her eyes averted. "Your Highness, I must..."

Cernunnos held up a hand. "Stop. Apologize not, child. I had it coming."

Nexus looked up, surprised. "Had what coming?"

"Our little friend chewed me a new tail yestereve, darling. The little lamb can roar like a lioness, when provoked."

"And you did provoke her," Nexus nodded. She handed Karol two of the pears and a handful of greens. "Eat up, child. The journey is a long one." She turned back to Cernunnos. "What did you mean about her adornments?"

"She should show her country of origin in some fashion, as well as her family's rank and her affiliation to Odin's House," he said simply. "What sort of craft does your father practice?"

Karol thought of her parents, who were so far away now in Ireland, on the Earth. "My Da, he's a police detective...he investigates crimes and the like, workin' for the courts. King Odin said he were a 'truth-sayer', on account o' nobody ken lie to him. He sees through sech e'ery time."

Cernunnos nodded thoughtfully, and casually pulled two torcs from his pocket. "This land of Ire, from whence you hail, what symbols does its house use?"

"'Aye-rah', 'tis pronounced, but we spell it 'E-I-R-E'," Karol said, reverting to the old name. "T'is a harp. Eire has been a bastion of learnin' an' poetry for centuries."

The green man nodded slowly, thoughtfully, and began to hum while he rolled and twisted the golden torc. The metal began to soften and mold under his powerful hands, and he twisted it first one way, then another. "A child of Eire," he muttered, "daughter of a truth-saying court-officer...does he carry a weapon, child?"

Karol nodded. "Aye, he does."

"And a soldier...no... a champion of justice and protection...that should do it. Nexus, my love, I am in need of holly-leaves."

Nexus shook one of her sleeves, and thorny evergreen leaves sprouted. She plucked these off and handed them to her consort, along with one hair. Cernunnos continued to work, his hands-and the metal he shaped-now glowing.

He finished a few moments later, dunking his hands and handiwork in the stream to cool before presenting the latter to Karol.

They were beautiful. The first was a gold circle of Irish knot-work. It was obviously meant for her hair, for there were fine teeth set into it to hold it in place. The second was a brooch of sorts: a golden harp-the strings made from a strand of Nexus' hair-set in a bed of gilded holly leaves. A tiny gold sword ran diagonally from the top of one side of the harp to the other, holding it in place.

"Your coat-of-arms," Cernunnos explained. "The Harp is for Eire; the sun-circle of holly is for truth, and the sword shows a knight-protector. It will both hold the cloak closed and show your family's rank."

"What about her affiliation to Odin's house, darling?"

"She is wearing Prince Loki's cloak," Cernunnos pointed to the giant green swath of cloth that wrapped itself around the girl's form. "The ash-leaves embroidered on it t'will serve as she rides into the Capitol."

"Erm..." Karol began.

"Not in that state, they shan't," Nexus muttered. She grabbed the edge of the cloak wrapped around Karol and muttered something the girl couldn't hear. A second later the leaves changed from green to gold. "That is better." Nexus said, satisfied. "Stand up now, child, and let me set the bend correctly in your brooch. 'Twould not do to have it libel thy house by being ill-set."

Karol was flabbergasted. The items Cernunnos had produced so casually would be hideously expensive back home. The Sommerland Royals had now both healed her and given her finery she could never afford. She had been raised frugally since childhood: conditioned to give charity and not to seek it. The sinking feeling in her heart told her she could never repay this debt, not with a lifetime of service.

"Prince Cernunnos, I cannae..." she began, but he held up a solid green hand, and the black eyes behind the shock of white hair were solemn.

"Then do not try, child. Besides, the debt to pay is not thine, but mine. As I said yestereve, you shall have what you asked: your maidenhood, your good name and reputation, your family and friends. Those who initially robbed you shall be held to account, for they wounded us as well. I make amends for mine own actions today." He stood smoothly, muscles rippling like water, for he had stripped to the waist, and held out his hands. "Now, my ladies, we should be off. 'Tis a long ride back to the Valholl."

"Hast found mounts for us, then, my love?" Nexus asked.

"For thee and me, darling: nay. I shall run apace, while I think thou shalt be more comfortable in the air. The mount I mention is for the Lady Julesang. She shall be born back into the Valholl in style."

"But wait: what of the Prince Loki?" Karol finally found her tongue. "Surely he shall not walk into his Father's kingdom, while a commoner rides?"

A rustling sounded from behind Cernunnos, and a large, shining white horse stepped from the woods. Its coat sparkled, refracting white light as if it was made from diamonds, while its black mane and tail imitated the night sky, absorbing light that fell onto it, but here and there spots of color twinkled like stars. A side-saddle and tack of black leather wrapped itself snugly around corded muscles, but the horse's face-plate and armor were of gold. Deep blue eyes looked sideways at Karol.

"Walk?" the horse said, tossing its mane and pawing the ground with a gold-shod hoof. "Nayyyy, I ssshall not walk! Trot, perhapsss, but more likely we ssshall display the haute école of dressssage, as is fitting, provided you keep your ssseat!"

TBC