Chapter 36

The Carvers had done their job wondrously, their work was painstakingly pristine, and Loki truly hoped the Avenges found his base. If they had to move Samantha to the porch of the Tower, there was no way she would remain so grotesquely delightful, and he especially wanted to see the Avengers find her soaked in so much blood.

Skuld killed the first six torturers who dug into the girl. Some were stripped of their flesh, some their bones, and the last two carved through their own eyes and kept going until they reached their brains- screaming in fear and agony all the way. The last one kept stopping and begged to be released from the room before his hands turned on him again. Loki did not let the shields pinning him in fall until at last he died- of blood loss. By then, he figured Skuld's power had ebbed. By the time she managed to find another gap in Verdandi's prison there would be no pawn to deliver her swords.

Her swords… Now those were a thing of beauty. Twin blades of an icy gray metal that seemed to whisper of secrets and truths, battles long lost to history and wars not yet waged. These blades could only be warmed by blood, and if the legends were only half true Skuld had kept them cozy indeed.

"You look upon them as though they were a woman you would see bedded." The cell faded to darkness with only Loki, the Swords, and Samantha in existence.

"They are more dear to me than even that." Loki smiled and turned to face Thanos boldly, "I can feel them, my army, roiling beneath the surface and screaming to be freed. They want to run across the galaxy and soak all Realms in blood."

Thanos leaned back in his chair, a shadow falling across his face, "You cannot proceed as though you've already won this fight. The Asgardians have had one blade for millennia, one given by the Norn. You hold one stolen, and its mistress screams out for it through the bars of her cell. The other seems determined to meddle- either for her own purpose or to aid your brother. You stand against the Realms and two Norn, it is still more likely you lose those blades than gain another piece of the Norn arsenal. And you have forgotten the most fearsome player on the board-"

"Skuld, Verdandi, the Avengers- who else should I be concerned with?" Loki asked innocently, though he deliberately left Thanos himself off that list. With the power the blades promised, he certainly would hold power over the madman. Power sufficient to claim the entirety of Thanos' empire.

Thanos chuckled at the slight, "I was a child when the Norn rose from the dead. Their tomb cracked, and two days later three warriors strode out into the daylight. Urda, Verdandi, and Skuld were calm, stoic, and driven. They have never once acted without direction and purpose, everything they do is painted with bloody intent put there by whoever it was that raised them. Two lifetimes they lay interred, and from that point they were more powerful, more dangerous, and show not a single sign of aging. Someone made them thus. Someone put that army in their hands and told them what to do with it. Do you believe for a second that the Norn do not know what happened in that tomb? Their creator must be a god, and you will need to outwit him and them to steal their forces from beneath their feet."

Loki stifled his indignation even as goosebumps rose on his arms. He was no fool, no idiot child as Thanos would paint him! When he controlled this army fully, he would topple the purple fool from his throne and make him grovel. Whatever created the Norn was long dead. It did not hold them to their purpose, it let one die and another be imprisoned! Thanos wanted to pretend he was a mighty god of his own corner of the galaxy, but he was nothing. A remnant of a bygone race, much like those Norn bitches!

"Try counting to ten, I hear the Midgardians subscribe to that technique." A woman's voice rippled through the darkness between Loki and Thanos, impossibly familiar.

"Did you bring him?" Thanos looked over Loki's shoulder to the invisible woman.

"I did. I can guarantee the boy ten minutes. No more. It is a risk bringing him out of his box."

Thanos smiled down to Loki even as there was a shimmer of light and a dim, transparent shade of Odin appeared between them, kneeling. His ankles were tied together and his hands were bound tightly behind his bent back with golden chains. His hair hung lank and limp, and his beard was a mess of dirt, grease, and chunks of stone, "Thank your fate that you don't have to smell him." The voice echoed into nothing and Loki sensed her parting.

"You should leave your position with the blades before the Avengers figure out where you are," Thanos too began to fade. "And find a way to control them- they summon rain wherever they go. You make yourself too much a target." With that, Thanos left Loki seething.

Loki would have loved to have a few moments to curse Thanos, throw the Norn blades- illusionary in this space as they were- at his head, rip apart something, or break someone, but he was given ten minutes to find out all he could about his enemy. For ten minutes, he had to check his temper.

"Hello father." Loki spat and stormed around Odin to see his face more clearly, "How are you enjoying Thanos' prison cell?"

Odin slowly looked up at Loki. His eyes were glazed over and red, deep bags hung beneath his eyes, and through the muck and filth was the bloom of bruises on his temple and cheek. He could not rise his head far- whatever prison Thanos had him in these last few years was small. Box-small. The man had likely spent all of that time hunched over with his head smashed into a corner, "I almost feel sorry for you."

"Whatever you want from me, you will not get it." Odin's voice was reedy and thin, belying the strength and absolute conviction of the man behind them.

"I only want a bedtime story," Loki said innocently, kneeling before the stooped king, "it is simple as that."

"What kind of-"Odin's eyes fell on the twin blades in Loki's hands and his breath hitched sharply. Some life returned to those eyes and they sparkled with tears, "What have you done?"

"You always did say I was good at picking fights. I may have picked the biggest one yet," Loki gestured behind Odin and the old man struggled to turn his body far enough to see Samantha's. "Now, you aren't getting the full effect- several of my men were eviscerated during the process, so imagine a cell just covered floor to ceiling with blood. A proper cell, I mean. Not the one you're in."

"Is she dead?"

Loki acted offended, taking a sick joy out of the mix of shock, disgust, and pity on his father's face, "She will be, no matter what happens next. I've given her two doses of Inquisitor's Dram. So far, that has not proven enough to kill a Midgardian, but she will not survive the third- not will she survive the effects of what she already has had. She will die slowly, in the arms of her lover I hope. See how pretty she used to be?" He waved a hand and a ghostly face rose up from Samantha towards them, "She is a pawn of Skuld. Some child the old windbag seemed to think would deliver her blades. Poor Skuld, you can see for yourself what her efforts got her." Loki snapped his fingers and the face vanished. "And now her pawn dies, and with her whatever plans Skuld carved out for the girl."

"Soon enough I will have all three Norn blades," Loki continued, enjoying how his father's head fell forward, the tears that sparkled in the darkness, and the heaving gasps coming from him. "Now, I know Skuld is safely tucked away in some prison or another of Verdandi's choosing. What I need to know is what sort of threat the other Norn might pose. What is the measure of Verdandi's might?"

"Stupid boy." Odin's shudders grew harder and Loki realized with a jolt that his father was laughing- that was the source of the tears running down his cheeks, the shaking, the heaving- he was positively giddy with it, "You stupid, stupid boy!"

Loki whipped out a sword and held it to Odin's chin, forcing him to lift his head or have his throat cut, but his father only laughed harder at the look of incredulous rage on his face, "What did you call me?"

"Stupid, idiot boy!" A fresh peal of laughter cut through Odin and he began to cough. When he was recovered his eyes shone with more life than Loki had seen in them since Thor was first sent to Midgard, "Have you seen Lady Verdandi? Did you threaten her as you did me? I hope so- she always was too serious, she needs a good laugh like this!"

"I saw her, when I took these!" Loki hissed.

"And what did she say?"

Ask him what is coming for you.

Loki remembered Verdandi's words well. He thought what he needed to know was the scope of Verdandi's reach, but he remembered the question he'd held when Skuld had appeared before him, that first question that made him summon Odin from Thanos' dungeons, "How did Verdandi bind Skuld? How did the seer find herself trapped?"

Odin shook his head in wonder and smiled even more broadly, it was grotesque on the unkempt, dirty face, "The greatest trick the Norn ever played was convincing an entire galaxy that they were monsters. You wish to know what sort of beast you are fighting. I shall let you in on the truth behind the Great Lie: Verdandi has always and will always love her sister. She can't help it. Even after Skuld tried to kill you, Verdandi gave Asgard both Swords and Scythe as a gesture of peace. I was the one who ordered them hidden back on Midgard, that they might return to their masters someday."

Loki was stunned, "You gave up an army in favor of-"

"In favor of peace."

"They tried to kill your son!"

"SKULD TRIED TO KILL A MONSTER!" Odin spat, "She never would have harmed Thor, it was you she was after! She saw what you were to become and she decided to put an end to you. If I'd have known then how you would turn out, maybe I would have ordered Verdandi to stand down!"

There was only bitter hatred in Loki's snort of laughter, "Well guess what? Now the monster wins."

"No, you won't." Loki turned sharply towards Samantha- towards the masked woman in a red gown that knelt next to the image, smoothing back her hair with all the gentle tender grace of a mother. Verdandi turned her head towards Loki and Odin and slowly stood, her voice cold and hard, "You wanted to know how I bound my sister? I did not. She set the walls of her own prison. By claiming those Swords- you weakened the mortar." Verdandi looked past Loki to Odin and smiled softly, then shot a glance to Loki, "If that is all, you are dismissed." She snapped her fingers and Loki's form vanished, sending him shooting back into the cell.

"Allfather, what have they done to you?" Verdandi's voice was gentle and sad as she came to kneel before Odin. She took his head in her hands and immediately the bindings on his hands and feet snapped, freeing him- if only in the vision.

Some strength poured from her into his fragile body, straightening his spine and easing the ache in his hands and feet as he struggled to move his arms in front of his chest. He reached up and put his hands over hers, squeezing them gently, "Thank you, dear friend."

There was only pain in Verdandi's eyes. She did not release Odin's face, "I have been looking for you since this began, but all I can see is darkness. Where are you? Tell me how to find you."

"I can't," a real tear slid down Odin's cheek, unbidden. "I think Thanos knew you would look for me. They keep me in a box, kept alive by the darkest forms of magic."

"If I'd known, I would have sought you sooner," she swore.

Odin squeezed her hands again, then pulled them away from his cheeks, "I know what is coming. I remember Skuld's prophecies well enough. Loki has the Swords. Skuld is stirring from her slumber. You will die soon."

"I will die soon." Verdandi nodded, "And a Realm will burn. For Skuld there is no animosity towards me, it is simply a factor of her grand scheme that could not be controlled."

"You will not fight it?"

"I did. I lost- just as Skuld always said I would. Save Samantha. Before Skuld buried herself, that was the only direction she gave me. Save Samantha. If she lives even long enough to bear offspring, her fate is sealed. Skuld's future dies. Skuld dies. I thought she was safe, I let her out of my sight and-" Verdandi looked back to the shredded girl. "Loki gave her the Dram. Only a Norn can survive that poison. Samantha will die… Skuld wins."

"Is there anything you can do?"

Verdandi nodded, "There is one last thing I can do." She leaned forward and kissed Odin's forehead, leaving behind a shimmering silver light that faded into his brow, "With that mark upon your soul, Skuld can find you anywhere in the universe. She will free you from Loki's prison. It may be a week, it may be a month, but you will see daylight once again. I promise."

Odin felt a tug at his arms, as though they were being pulled behind him again. His time was up, the summons Thanos' wretch had issued was fading, and the spell was pulling him back into his hellish reality once more, "There is something you need to know," he spoke quickly, "your sisterhood was compromised long ago, there are those who would see the Dark Commander's dream come to fruition- and they have sought out Thanos to ensure it!"

Verdandi nodded, "I understand." She held out a hand under Odin's chin as his arms wound behind him and the golden band appeared once more, "I'm sorry, it is indulgent and changes nothing but I need to hear it from you-"

"My father told me, before he sent me to you for training." A smile lit Odin's face even as he felt the walls of his prison pressing around him again, "I think our ancestors kept the truth secret, but it was always passed down from father to child- that we hailed from the proud house of Asmund and Verdandi. Belor- your son- lived a long and peaceful life. He was kept hidden, made head of a noble house instead of assuming the mantle of king that his birthright demanded, but by our legends he was quite possibly as great and merciful as his father."

With that, the prison rematerialized fully around Odin, and in the darkness of his penn, the King of Asgard was left with the ghost of Verdandi's sad smile.