WOLVERINE'S WORLD - THE SIGNS

Just before sunrise, I explained my plan to Anna and Emma.

Anna and Emma carefully considered what I'd said and responded with respectful courtesy. Emma, of course, properly deferred to Anna's status as my wife and remained demurely silent as Anna brought their concerns to my attention.

"Oh, beloved and honored husband," Anna said - worry etched in her caring eyes, "although your plan has risks, it is also sound and well-considered. We do not agree with all of its elements, but we defer to your wisdom. We will do everything in our power to support your endeavor."

Obviously, that's not what happened.

"There is no fucking way you're doing that!" Anna snarled at me.

"James, sometimes you can be such a damned fool!" Emma snorted.

That was one of the reasons I'd taken a break from relationships for last century or so.

Rahne rubbed sleep from her eyes and then performed a jaw-breakingly wide yawn. The shouting had woken her.

"What are you fighting about?" she asked plainitively as she rolled out of her bunk. All she was wearing was a shirt she'd borrowed from Anna. It was much too small for her.

"James is being an idiot again," Emma responded helpfully.

"He wants to track down Laufey and kill him," Anna contributed.

Rahne pushed a tangle for red-hair away from her eyes and then contemplatively scratched one of her breasts. "That doesn't seem like a bad idea - except for the little problem of the Destroyer."

"And he wants to do it on his own. We're all supposed to stay behind," Emma continued as she balefully glared at me.

Rahne looked at me and snorted. "No. I barely managed to save you during our last fight with the Destroyer."

I stared at Rahne. "That's how you remember that? I could have sworn it was Olivia who saved the two of us."

Rahne shrugged that off. "Let's not argue. The Destroyer almost killed us both. What happens when you run into it alone? Why do you think that this time you'll..."

Then Rahne paused and seemed to consider the matter further. "Oh. I see. You don't plan on fighting the Destroyer. You intend to sneak up on Laufey and kill him. You're hoping that will make the Destroyer shut down again."

I nodded.

"I'm as good at stealth as you are," Rahne mused - which wasn't quite true. She was actually better than me. Really, was she trying to spare my feelings?

"Anna's okay, but not as good as we are," Rahne went on thoughtfully. "Emma's hopeless. We might as well drag an ox around with us."

Emma bristled. Anna put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. Amazingly, that didn't start a fight. Apparently the truce between them was the real thing.

"So I see your point about leaving them behind," Rahne concluded, "but I should still go with you. We can hit Laufey from two sides."

Anna and Emma gave each other a concerned look. This part of the conversation wasn't going as they'd expected.

"Rahne's right, Emma is like an elephant in the woods," Anna interjected hurriedly. Emma rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. That was her way of agreeing with something she didn't like, but was true.

"But we're still going along," Anna finished. "We'll stick with you until we get close to Laufey. Then we'll hang well back and give you support as needed. Emma can track you telepathically, I'll be able to pull you out if it all goes wrong."

Emma saw the look in my eyes. "Anna and I won't be alone," she added quickly. "We'll bring help."

"You're worrying too much about us," Anna told me. "That means you're not thinking clearly. You need help with this, Jimmy. Admit it."

I took a long moment to consider the words of my women.

They were aggravatingly true.

"Once we find Laufey, you'll stay well back," I said finally. "At Anna's extreme teleportation range."

Then I glared at Anna. "And you give me your word on this - if you have to pull us out, you take Rahne first."

Rahne opened her mouth to object. I reached over and put a hand over her mouth. She subsided.

Anna was hesitating, "Jimmy, the situation might..."

"Your word, wife," I said flatly.

"He's so DAMNED old fashioned..." Anna fumed to Emma. Emma just smiled at me and shrugged.

Then Anna took a deep breath, crossed her arms in front of her chest, and bowed. "It will be as you will, my honored love and lord."

"You should talk like that more often," I suggested approvingly.

"Kiss my ass, Jimmy."

"Why? You prefer it when I bite."

"How will we find Laufey?" Rahne asked curiously.

"We need a sign," I said.

We left the fort and climbed a nearby hill. The others were still within the fort, waiting for us.

Rahne looked at me expectantly. The hill was small, wind-swept, and mostly consisted of bare rock. However, it had a good view of the fort, the river, and the surrounding area.

I sat down, crossing my legs underneath me. Then I put my staff on the ground in front of me.

"Sit with me," I told Rahne.

Obviously surprised, Rahne did so.

"That hammer symbol you wear around you neck - take it out and hold it," I ordered.

Rahne hesitantly did as I'd told her, kissing the symbol before gripping it with both hands. Her Mjolnir pendant wasn't a secret, but she usually refrained from displaying it around Emma and I.

"Close your eyes," I told her. "Breath deep, but slow. Then empty your mind and forget the concerns of the everyday. Know the scent of the earth around us and listen to the wind. Eventually, when you're ready, your eyes will open. Just let it happen. And if you see nothing, you haven't failed. It simply isn't time."

Time passed. There was the movement of water, the call of birds, and the raucous back-and-forth of half-understandable shouts and words from the fort and the surrounding camp. The scent of the woods alternated with that of unwashed bodies. I heard the bass roar of Dugan's voice as he berated a pair of young hot-heads who had been about to fight a duel.

As near as I could tell, Rahne and I opened our eyes simultaneously.

"Nothing..." Rahne whispered, obviously disappointed.

"Look closer," I said as I got to my feet.

Puzzled, Rahne scanned the scene below us. Then she gasped.

A tiny figure was slowly, painfully, making her way out of the woods. She was using a broken tree-branch for a staff. It seemed to be the only thing keeping her on her feet.

It was Ingrid - Laufey's sister.

Ingrid was kneeling on the ground, adjacent to the dirt road that led to the front gate of the fort. Her wrists were bound behind her. She became difficult when we approached her, and that made it necessary to take her captive.

Ingrid didn't look good. She'd been beaten and her clothes were torn. Rahne and I hadn't done that to her.

There was a steady traffic of people going in and out of the fort's gate. They gazed at us curiously, but otherwise kept their distance. My status as a seeker was part of that, but actually the rule of Blood tradition was simple in such situations. Ingrid was our prisoner. Nobody else would interfere unless they wanted a fight.

Anna and Emma came out of the gate and joined us. Emma was still dressed as a Fire priestess. I presumed her role as a Folk servant was now a thing of the past.

"We've never met," Emma told Ingrid. "But I have seen you at a distance."

Ingrid was too tired and hurt to glare, but there was still defiance in her blue eyes as she looked up at Emma.

"I am told that your brother murdered your father," Emma went on implacably. "Tell us the location of your brother. He won't die because we seek justice for your father, but he will die. I imagine your father's shade will not care about the details."

Ingrid said nothing.

Emma sighed and reached out to Ingrid. Ingrid flinched away, but Emma managed to snag a lock of Ingrid's long, blonde, hair. Then Emma reeled it around in her fingers until she had a solid grip on a mass of hair. Using that to hold Ingrid in place, she put her other hand on Ingrid's forehead.

"This will go easier for you if you do not fight," Emma said. Her voice was neither angry nor threatening. She was simply speaking the truth.

Ingrid spat at Emma.

The expression on Emma's face didn't change as Ingrid suddenly collapsed and began to convulse helplessly.

Rahne was standing very close to me, her arms crossed over her body, with her hands on her opposite shoulders. This was new to her, and it was an ugly thing to see. Anna watched expressionlessly. She didn't like that sort of thing, but she understood the neccesity.

Emma stared out into the distance as Ingrid lay in the dirt and choked and kicked. There was something terribly bleak in Emma's eyes.

"I know where Laufey is," Emma told me.

Emma described to us where Ingrid had last seen her brother.

"A line of hills comes out of the west," Emma told us, her eyes focused elsewhere. "The hills are treed with oaks, with some pines near the hilltops. The hills stop at an escarpment that drops a good fifteen or twenty feet into the river. The stone of the escarpment is gray and black, but there is a thin streak of grey-white running horizontally through the cliff face. Rectangular blocks of stone have broken loose from the cliff and fallen into the river, forming an irregular natural dock. Where the stones meet the water, somebody has driven three man-high wooden piles into the river. The edge of the cliff has been cleared of trees, although there has been some regrowth. There are a pair of crumbling wooden huts up there. The one closest to the cliff doesn't have a roof any longer. The other is in better shape."

Emma took a deep breath and continued. "Laufey has built a circle of rounded river stones between the two huts. The circle is about twelve to fifteen feet in diameter. The perimeter of the circle is composed of hundreds of stones, ranging in size from pebbles to full cobbles. They form a sinuous, braided, pattern. In the center of the circle is a large, flat, slab of the dark stone that makes up the cliff. Laufey must have had the Destroyer move that stone - it weighs tons."

"On the far side of the river, the ground is flat and wooded. There is a sandbar splitting the river near the far shore. It's covered with a thick pile of driftwood from one end to the other. From the side, it reminds me of a hedgehog."

I considered Emma's description.

"Do you know that location?" Anna asked.

I nodded. "Yes, but I don't like that circle Emma described."

Anna nodded in grim agreement.

"What is it?" Rahne asked quietly.

I let out a long sigh. "I'm not sure, but a circle is almost always the basis of ritual magic. And Laufey seems to have some odd talents. The combination is troubling. We should talk to Cyrus about this. Emma can you contact him?"

Emma shook her head. "I tried earlier, but I can't get a lock on him. I think he's deep in a mystical working."

Unfortunately, that made sense. The influx - big and getting bigger - of Blood militia was straining the resources of the Point professionals to the limit in an effort to effectively control and guide the new arrivals. Cyrus was undoubtedly using his talents to coordinate field activities.

I considered our options. Off hand, I could only think of one.

"We'll proceed with the plan. Emma, keep trying to contact Cyrus."

*There's something we must speak about,* Emma sent to me.

I looked at her. Anna and Rahne were nearby, keeping an eye on Ingrid.

*We should keep Ingrid under guard,* Emma told me.

*Yes*, I agreed. Ingrid was something of a wild-card and it would be a good idea to not have her roaming around until our business with Laufey was done.

*We could leave her in the custody of the fort samurai,* I suggested.

Emma send a mental signal of disagreement. *It would be best if Victoria - the Blade priestess - kept her instead.*

So now I finally knew the name of the Blade Priestess. And there was something about Emma's demeanor. I suddenly became worried.

*Emma, what aren't you telling me?* I asked carefully.

Emma gave me a very direct look. *Ingrid presents a problem. And the Temple will have to make a decision concerning her.*

Emma had phrased that very finely and with a clear implication. Ingrid was not in my purview and I should defer the matter to Emma, Olivia, and Victoria.

*How so?* I asked.

*Ingrid may be with child. Laufey would be the father.*

I didn't respond.

*You aren't surprised?* Emma asked me.

*I could smell Laufey on Ingrid when Rahne and I captured her,* I replied shortly. *I take it this is somehow even worse than I thought?*

*There was a ritual,* Emma answered tiredly. *I saw it in Ingrid's mind. Laufey called on powers that were old when Odin was young. Then he violated his sister within his circle of stones. He told Ingrid that their child would eventually rule a kingdom of horror and pain.*

The prospect of killing Laufey had never been a difficult one for me. It certainly seemed strategically necessary. But it was increasingly becoming a matter of moral and metaphysical hygiene. In between patricide, incest, trafficking with elder gods, and trying to create abominations from his own flesh and blood, he was a walking, talking, and breathing violation of mortal existence. We had to cleanse the Earth of that man.

*Afterwards, Ingrid somehow escaped,* Emma finished. *She was trying to get as far away from her brother as possible when you captured her.*

*Are you sure she's pregant?* I heard myself ask Emma. I was becoming distant from myself. That was always a bad sign.

Emma sighed, *It's too early for me to tell with certainty, but Ingrid believes she is.*

I let out a long breath. If Ingrid was carrying a child, it would be the issue of two children of Loki, conceived in rape and incest during an unknown ritual, at the behest of unnamable powers.

I looked over towards Ingrid. She was kneeling again, her head hanging in exhaustion and pain. Anna and Rahne were standing nearby, chatting about something while idly keeping an eye on Ingrid.

Ingrid wasn't exactly innocent, but she certainly hadn't asked for what had happened to her.

But the thing she might be carrying... that was a problem.

It would be easy to end it quickly. A blow to the base of Ingrid's skull to incapacitate her, then I would pull her to her feet and slit her throat. After that, a simple thrust into her lower abdomen and a quick yank upwards would shred whatever she was carrying in her womb. It would be a quick and relatively painless death.

Emma took my hands in hers, her fingers interlocked with mine. That was an old, old gesture filled of meaning. There was no way I could extend my claws without seriously injuring her. It is how a Blood female tells a Blood male to stop and think.

Meeting Emma's eyes, I looked deep into them. There was a hint of red behind the blue. It seemed as if something predatory was gazing back at me. However, it was quiescent. Merely watching and waiting. There was no need for action.

I looked away quickly.

I accepted that as another sign, although it obviously wasn't from the Old One.

Smiling at Emma, I kissed the backs of her hands. "You're right. This is best decided by the Temple," I told her.