- Chapter 37 -
"Wait, I thought there were only nine worlds," Tony said, confused.
"There are only nine inhabited realms. There are ten total realms. The tenth is the waystation the baseplate foundation of Asgard connects to. It was the place where the engineers stayed as they fed Yggdrasil to construct the rest of the realms. It was where they lit the Fires of Life for each realm. The Lucent Forge rests there. It's also where Idunn went, though I know not how she found her way to or from there," Loki said. "And no, there were no Celestials for me to speak with. It was abandoned billions of years ago, before the Celestial fleet both arrived in and moved on from this lucent clutch through the Great Gate." She often wished she knew how Idunn escaped. That knowledge would've changed so many things.
.-.-.-.
Loki's words drew everyone's attention back to the screen. Sif scowled at the image of Loki. Liesmith! What tales you tell! When will we see your true colors?
The Celestials built the Great Gate?! It's a Celestial relic?! Asgard itself is a Celestial relic?! Odin tamped down on the shock he felt. Loki knew of the Great Gate. That was a secret that only the ruling Lord of each realm knew. It was a secret the Lords of the Elder Realms kept because keeping the secret was part of them keeping their thrones. It was a deep secret, and even he didn't know all of it. No Lord did. He shared it with Frigga long ago, but only after he was completely certain that she wouldn't whisper it even to a trusted handmaiden. How much does Loki know? More than I do, that much is certain now. Odin frowned at the mention of Idunn and the very clear statement that she'd somehow been to this tenth realm. Very little was known about Idunn or her trees, save what they did. Everyone knew that.
It'd just become essential for Odin to speak with Loki on this. He needed whatever his son could tell him about this waystation. Its location was what he badly needed. It was in the Nine Realms somewhere, sleeping quietly. Loki knew where. Once he knew where it was then he was going to take his fleet there and see what he could find. He hoped that the station could move under its own power. If it could then he could get it situated closer to Asgard. If it couldn't then he was going to have to see about using a few of his ships to drag it back. Odin couldn't imagine what treasures there might be in a place where the Celestials had lived and worked. The knowledge waiting there had to be immense. In addition to that he was going to have to see about getting some people up under the Bifrost to see if they could locate the secondary system. It needed to be found and analyzed as well. Hopefully, it would be able to give him the waystation's location if Loki couldn't. He hoped that Loki could. The memory of Stark's orange seidr floated through his mind again. Truly, he hoped he could still bring his son home.
It's a Celestial relic?! Asgard is another of their relics?! Oh my dear, what have you been keeping to yourself? Frey knew of the Great Gate. The seven living Elder Realms were meant to protect it. Up until then, none of the Lords of the Realms knew who built the gate, where exactly it was, or what it was meant to be used for. They only knew that they were meant to protect it against all comers, at all costs, and that it lay somewhere on Midgard. It was one of the reasons why he found Odin's warmongering so distasteful, besides all his other more personal reasons. Warmongering only weakened the Nine Realms as a whole. It was a despicable betrayal of the oath every Lord took when he took his throne to become King. An oath to defend the Nine Realms and their free peoples. Odin Oath-Breaker, The Wolf of War, King Kinslayer were only a few of the names Odin was known by.
Great Gate. Gate network? Frey distinctly remembered Loki mentioning a gate network in the first recording he was shown, but the recording ended before the comment could be explained. The Celestials built the Great Gate, he pondered. Why? Where does it go to? Moved on to where? From where, this waystation? Lucent clutch, is that the name of the waystation? If it's a gate to move a fleet, then it surely couldn't be on the realm itself. Could it? Perhaps the control device for the gate is on the realm somewhere. Why would they put it on that realm though? An explanation of the gate network comment was another answer he didn't get from her. Anything dealing with just after her disappearance until the day they came back to him was a time that she wasn't willing to say much about. He was starting to understand why. There were too few answers that he'd been able to get, and almost none for the few years during the dark days. He sighed softly. It'd just become imperative to know how much she knew. She knew more than any of the Lords of the Elder Realms; more than all of them combined. Her having been on this waystation ensured that. He smiled and hoped that she would be willing to share everything she knew on that matter since he knew more. He spent centuries teaching her magic, strategy and tactics, politics, diplomacy, manipulation, and many other things. He taught her all the best forms of mischief. He thought it might be a refreshing change to be the student. It would be even better if Loki could take him to the waystation. He and his fleet would go to retrieve it. Loki would lead them.
Surprise tilted into Frigga's mind, raising her eyebrows as it went. She knew of the Great Gate. Odin told her with the explicit instruction that she was never to whisper it to another soul, and so she never had. All she knew, all anyone knew was there was a Great Gate on Midgard. They didn't even know where it was on Midgard, it'd never been found. It was there and had to be defended. The consequence of not defending it was nothing less than the destruction of the Nine Realms. Frigga always thought it odd. So little was known about it. Not where it was, nor how to use it, nor even who built it or why. Nothing. It was one of the oldest and greatest mysteries in the Nine Realms. It was a mystery that Loki had solved. Frigga was very curious to know what her son knew. It was Celestial knowledge. Knowledge of that sort could be extremely useful.
Anxious surprise widened Thor's eyes some. He could suddenly hear his Little Brother's words again, "I've seen worlds you've never known about!" What else have you seen, Little Brother? What did you find there?
.-.-.-.
"Where the Celestials walk. Right, makes sense." He stroked his goatee, ordering the information that he had. "So, there weren't any Celestials left, bummer," Tony thought for a moment more. "I thought Celestials were giants. Not like Jotunns, but the thousands of feet tall type of giant? You would've been like a fly in my workshop."
For as uncomfortable as this afternoon was, Loki still felt a warm pride in her husband. He listened when she spoke, and he remembered so she rarely needed to repeat herself. He was so wonderful for so many reasons. She smiled warmly at Tony. "As it turns out, there are three sizes of Celestials. Ones that are about the size of Jotunns, the engineers. Ones that stand between six hundred to six hundred and ten meters, those were normal sized Celestials. Then there are those who've become the Fires of Life." She felt the same admiration for the Celestials then as she had when she learned the truth of it.
"The Celestials controlled every aspect of realm creation, from the Nine Realms themselves to the supply of secondary planets surrounding some of those realms. They didn't grow the realms first. You must make the beating heart before you make the body. That's what they did. One of them would volunteer. Then they would enter the Lucent Forge. The luminescence of their soul was ignited, consuming them whole. Once this living flame was lit, it was transported to where its realm would be grown. Every realm is watched over by at least one Celestial. These Fires of Life ensure that the realms themselves are fed. Life feeds off life," Loki explained calmly.
"The stars? The stars are burning Celestials? Sol is a Celestial? And still alive," Tony could believe it. He understood things better now. "Fuel for the realms," he muttered. It was beautiful, sad, and ingenious all at once.
"Yes, the only Celestial there, but we didn't speak," Loki said. "The waystation is a captured Fire of Life."
Captured? Tony arched an eyebrow at the word 'captured'. "Wait, the journal! The picture in the journal! Where the Celestials walk is a Dyson's sphere. A real Dyson's sphere!"
.-.-.-.
What journal? What did you find? Was it something Lady Audhumbla gifted you with? Was it something you found on the waystation? Odin was intensely curious about where Loki came into possession of this lost and forbidden knowledge. Did Lady Audhumbla whisper these secrets to you? Was it Skuld at the temple grounds? Or is there someone else who taught you these things? What Loki knew and how he learned it had to be ascertained. Even the small amount of knowledge he'd gained from this was going to be useful. Loki clearly possessed much more. That it was going to Stark was irksome. It was Odin's firm opinion that it should go to him and not Stark.
Journal? Frey was interest in that. He didn't think Anthony meant Loki's mage's journal. It wasn't something he could be certain of. Frey had never seen Loki's mage's journal. It seemed more likely to be something that was obtained from Lady Audhumbla, Lord Ginnungagap or Elder Gorynych. He kept that as the best possibility. Asking what all she'd received from the three of them was on his list of things to speak with her about. There were clearly things she was in possession of that he needed to know about. It might take a little bit of work, but since he knew that this journal existed, he wasn't going to stop until he got Loki to show him.
Frigga's eyes narrowed some. She wanted to know what journal they were talking about. It would be completely inappropriate for Stark to have seen Loki's mage's journal. Even she hadn't seen her son's mage's journal, nor did she want to. It wasn't her place to see that. A mage's journal was kept private. Odin had seen hers, but only after marriage and certainly not right away. If this mannerless fool had somehow forced Loki to expose his journal, then she was going to have him tossed in the dungeon. Frigga fretted a moment. She still didn't know if they would be able to remove Loki from Stark. She still hoped they could.
Bruce perked up at the mention of a Dyson's Sphere. That was something he understood. If Loki had been to a real Dyson's Sphere then he hoped that he might be able to talk to her, or Tony, about it. He didn't understand magic gates, but he understood science. That was right up his alley. It was particularly right up his alley because he suspected that powering the station would involve nuclear physics somewhere along the line. Even the prospect of being able to examine something like that was exciting.
.-.-.-.
"It's an incredibly efficient design. There's no energy loss so a small Fire of Life can power the entire station for billions of years. Unfortunately, the one at that station was in its final stages of life. It's dying light was just enough to power the residential complex I was in." Loki huffed a bit. Begin at the beginning, don't mention what he can't know.
"I suppose the breaking of the Bifrost was the fourth attempt on my own life. I didn't know it was a portal I was falling into. I thought it was a maelstrom. I truly thought I would die, but it wasn't like before. I had evidence to dispose of. I destroyed every other piece of evidence that I found along the way. I was simply the last piece. I knew too much. I had to die," Loki looked away from Tony. He had a dark look in his eyes and displeasure was plainly written on his face. Loki wanted to be angry in the face of his displeasure, except that she knew it wasn't aimed at her. If it had been then she could deal with it better. "I will admit, looking down at the portal, I was scared. It was like staring at a meat grinder. It looked nothing like any portal I had ever seen or read about. It was so loud, like rending metal and screeching dread."
"I remember hanging onto Gungir, looking up at Thor and father," Loki's voice was warm, despite her words. "I thought, 'Thor will be fine. He's safe now.' I thought, 'Mother will be fine. She's safe now.' Father looked so disapproving, though, I couldn't stop myself." Embarrassment burned through her. Even her ears felt warm. She'd seen the disapproval on her father's face and immediately moved to explain what was done. "I knew I shouldn't, but I almost told father what I'd done. It was so weak and pathetic, such a childish impulse. I nearly ruined everything. I was fortunate. Father was as he always is. He was strong. Father has always been so strong. He told me, 'No'. It hardened my resolve. I knew that he would be fine as well. He was safe."
As Loki described how she'd tried to die, again, Tony listened. Bitter anger boiled in his blood. He absolutely couldn't understand the admiration on her face. He'd thought that his father was bad; that being beaten and burned were the worst. It took a dark cave in Afghanistan to kill his will to live. Howard couldn't accomplish that. Tony ground his teeth together. Twinges of the ache returned as his anger heightened again. He hated Odin, hated that traitorous bastard with everything he could muster. Odin drove Loki to utter despair. Worse than that, Odin drove Loki to a desperation that changed the Nine Realms forever. It was a change that burned Loki down. Tony was left to live in the ashes. He took a breath and tried to shove the anger away. Loki was still talking, there was more he needed to know. His anger would wait. It always did. As his love for Loki was patient, so was his anger for her family.
"The last thing I thought, before I let go, was, 'Thank you, father.' He gave me the strength I needed to surrender and let go. I thought they would be safe, I thought I'd done well. I was wrong. I was so very wrong," Loki's expression shifted quickly from love to clear distress.
.-.-.-.
Slowly Thor dragged in a deep breath. Both his hands clenched tight. He remembered that day. It was one of the worst days of his life. Bringing Mjolnir down on the Bifrost bridge caused an unintended explosion. The Bifrost simply falling off into the void was what he'd thought would happen. Being violently thrown caused him to lose his bearing momentarily. It was only luck that he saw Loki about to tumble off into the void with the remains of the Bifrost. The was the only good luck. Thor couldn't reach Loki, could only reach Gungir. He thought it would be enough. Loki had one end of it, he had the other. Their father had him and would pull him up so he could pull his Little Brother up. That's what Thor wanted to happen. He could see the intent in his Little Brother's eyes just a split second before Loki fell. There was nothing he could do. Loki was too far away to reach. His Little Brother let go then and fell to what Thor thought was his death. All he could do was watch as both his Little Brother and his tears fell into a maelstrom from which neither would return. Even though the day passed, it continued to live on his nightmares. It always would.
It was only Frigga who noticed the tight set of Odin's face, the tension in his shoulders. Most telling was the slight tremble in his hands. When she lightly squeezed his hand, he tightly gripped hers. She glanced over and noticed him working to push back tears. She looked back to the screen. Dread was still working through her at Frey's words. She truly feared what they would learn next.
Cold memories swept through Odin's mind. The tussle in his sleeping chamber with the Jotens awakened him. He hadn't seen where Loki and Thor went to as he was waking. Since he hadn't known where his sons went to, he'd taken Sleipnir through the city. He'd never ridden so fast as he had trying to find them. He saw the Bifrost fire and knew where they were. Sleipnir was sent back to the Royal Stables while he teleported there. Odin arrived just in time to see the explosion throw both his sons from the bridge. There was so much loose energy that he could barely unwind any seidr. All he could do was try to reach them himself. An agony he'd never known cut through him as he realized that he couldn't reach both of them. Only Thor was in reach, so he'd grabbed his elder son's leg and held fast to the bridge, hoping with everything he had that Thor could reach Loki. As relieved as he'd been that Thor caught Loki, Loki's own words disappointed him. Odin couldn't imagine why his youngest son would think he needed to go so far. He was already proud of both his sons. None of it needed to happen in his opinion. "I could have done it, father! I could have done it! For you! For all of us!" Loki said. There was only one thing to say to that. "No, Loki." There were no words that he had for what happened next. Odin couldn't reach Loki as he fell away. All he could do was watch with an overwhelming sense of horror as his son died. A prodding feeling of hollowness sped through him until he felt like he'd had a hole punched right through his center. His son was dead, and he couldn't stop it. He managed to pull Thor back up then, determined not to lose both his children in one day. There'd been many bad days in his life. That was among the worst.
A cold little shiver traced down Odin's spine then, shaking him from his memories. Those weren't memories that he wanted, but he did want to know what happened to Loki after he fell. He needed to know where his son went and what he'd done there. He needed to know why it all happened. What Loki did during and after Thor's coronation just wasn't the boy he raised. Mischief was always in the air around Loki. It was what the boy thrived on. What happened during those few days was so extreme that it just didn't seem like his son anymore. Something happened to the boy. Odin suspected it was because the boy's mind had become unbalanced, but he wasn't sure yet. Implications, insinuations, possibilities, and plausible maybes were all he had right then. A concrete answer wasn't within his grasp yet. More than anything, he wanted to know what that answer was.
.-.-.-.
"When I landed on the other side I was very confused. I expected to be torn apart, burnt, and scattered to the cosmic winds. I didn't expect to be gently deposited into an abandoned Celestial compound. The moment I stepped outside the landing sigil power was restored to parts of the compound. The waystation's Construct Helper was more like Jarvis. It told me where I was and even welcomed me. It thought I was a returning Celestial engineer," Loki spoke slowly, trying to put the events in order. The months right before the break were still difficult to remember.
"It had an AI? A real one?" Tony asked. A Celestial AI? As an engineer that sounded interesting. Construct Helpers were just minor programs, little more than a simple application that was coded with thoughts. An actual AI was a great deal more complicated than that. He knew it for certain because he had the best one in the Nine Realms. Jarvis was absolutely the best.
"One that was far older than Jarvis, and very insane. He was alone for billions of years. He was useful, lonely and more than a little scary," Loki told him. She still had occasional nightmares about him grabbing on while his jaw unhinged.
"Scary? Really?" Tony wasn't sure he wanted to meet an insane AI, Celestial or otherwise.
"As I said, insane and lonely. Its designation was First Light 616. He did anything I asked because I would chat with him. He just wanted some company. I don't blame him for trying to keep me there, I truly don't," Loki looked away as she spoke. Sometimes she thought that she could still feel the agony crawling down her nerves. "When I tried to open a portal to Vanaheim, First Light stopped me. He activated the local defense systems. One of the systems canceled out my seidr in a way I'd never dealt with before. First Light didn't mean to harm me. I know that. I do. He was just so lonely," Loki looked past Tony, her eyes unfocused. "I understand being lonely." He didn't mean to do it.
"The local defense system was agonizing. When activated, it latched onto my seidr. It didn't just crush, it consumed. It felt like hooks sinking into my flesh and pulling into different directions. I thought I was bleeding out of a dozen different gashes. I thought my bones had been smashed again. I was on fire and I couldn't put it out. It felt like I was being eaten alive, but I wasn't. First Light deactivated the local defense system and the pain stopped. 'Don't leave me,' he said. He would randomly activate the system. When I asked why, he would only say, 'Don't leave me'." Loki shrugged at the disgusted look on Tony's face. "Eh, he feed me, and didn't normally activate the system while I was sleeping. He also showed me to the archives section and activated the archive pillars for me when I needed them. If it hadn't been for the First Light I never would have known that he was still on the move."
"It told you about him?" Tony absolutely wanted to know more about this AI, but that would wait for another time.
"No. For the first month, I just familiarized myself with the compound, talked with First Light and spent hours a day basking in the archives," Loki hadn't focused on Tony, despite his question. "The Celestial archives aren't like anything I've ever seen before. Once he activated them for me I was like a cat in a sunny windowsill. Each archive is just a small room, a closet almost. It's empty except for a runed pillar in the center. When the pillar is activated it emits a light like sunshine. All you need to do is stand there and it puts the knowledge straight into your memories. I couldn't use it at first. I'm not a Celestial. First Light fixed that."
Even this is wrong? Tony frowned, that didn't make sense. "You couldn't learn from it? You said all mediums," he raised an eyebrow as he realized that he'd been misled again.
"The local defense systems kept me out. Seidr is part of Celestial engineering. They're the ones who gifted us with it," she said. Loki tried to smile as she shrugged. "I tried everything I could think of to make the archives work for me. I couldn't get around the local defense systems. When I eventually grew too frustrated to continue, I punched the wall. Normally I would never indulge in such an undignified display. I thought it would be alright to allow myself that small indulgence since there was no one there but First Light to see it. I hit it hard enough that I shattered most of the bones in my hand and wrist, and broke both the bones in my forearm. Two bones ripped through the top of my hand when the wall panel crumpled in. I didn't feel it. That wasn't what I felt. I was so angry that I didn't notice it until it was too late."
Cruel memories played through her mind. Loki's lips tightened at the memory of what happened. "First Light activated the local defense systems again and I hit the floor screaming. He normally only kept it active for a few seconds. That time though, I don't know how long he left it active. I stopped marking time when I started convulsing. It took me awhile to realize what was happening. I lost consciousness as soon as he deactivated it."
"When I woke up my hand was healed. First Light said that the archives would work for me. He wouldn't tell me what he'd done or how long had passed. He rarely said anything besides, 'Don't leave me'. I didn't care, I was so hungry," Loki chuckled darkly. "I could have out eaten Volstagg at that point." She smiled, "After that day the local defense systems let me pass for every archive and building."
.-.-.-.
In that moment, Odin felt a passing fear of Loki. Loki had Celestial knowledge, ancient knowledge. He understood keenly what could be done with power like that.
Again, Frey arched an eyebrow. He needed to speak with her about what she learned from the archives as well as anything about the construct. He also needed to know what she was attacked with.
This knowledge belonged in the hands of the Lords of the Elder Realms. Frigga knew that what Loki had learned needed to be ascertained. What was done to her son concerned her more.
Director Fury found the prospect of a race that came before the Asgardians interesting. He wondered what kind of technology they had. It was powerful enough to create planets.
.-.-.-.
Quietly, Loki's mind drifted away for a moment before she forcibly brought herself back to the present. "I learned so much from the archives. Old forms of magic, Celestial engineering, the Auric Shield Spell, how the realms were created, the purpose of the realms, and the waystation. It was in the archives that I learned of the monitoring station in the compound. They used it to monitor the Nine Realms as they were creating them. There's nothing in the Nine Realms that it doesn't see and record. If you align it properly you can see just outside of realms."
Looking to Tony then, Loki almost cried, "I did try Tony, I truly did. For the first three days, I stayed away. On the first day, I told myself, 'It's no longer your concern.' On the second day, I told myself, 'I have done everything I can do.' On the third day, I told myself, 'I have paid all my debts to Asgard.' On the fourth day, I went."
