6.
The field was barren and littered with rock, a grim phosphorescence which seemed to inhere in the soil itself providing the only light. Thor knew immediately where he was. The air and the feel of the place cried Asgard; and the desolation and the scent of blood told him that he was on the field of Vigrid, the battleground of the Einherjar where had befallen the great last battle of Ragnarok. The goddess Sophia stood before him, cold fire in her eyes, the light of divinity gleaming beneath the thin veil of her skin; and her raiment flamed with the colours of the mystic bridge.
"Father," she said, and her voice was high and strong, resonating within Thor's skull. "Father, I have called thee out. We will duel here, and one of us will die. And if there be justice in Asgard it will be thee; for my mother's blood cries out upon Midgard for vengeance."
"I know thee not," Thor said, matching his manner of speech to the goddess's own. He held the hammer still at his side, careful to give no sign of enmity. "Nor do I know who thy mother might be, for I have forced myself upon no woman; nor have I slain any, since the Frost Giantesses, who were like to destroy all the Nine Worlds, perished at my hand."
"Thou liest, thou coward," the goddess cried. "Defend thyself, if thou durst; and may Hela judge between us!"
Thor saw Jane unconscious beside him, laid across a low rocky mound. He saw the runestone which named that mound Odin's Howe, in letters carven with his own hand and dyed brown with his own life's blood. He saw another figure behind Sophia, lying still, almost lost in the gloom. He could not tell who it was; but it seemed that he, or she, was as unaware as his mortal lover of the interchange. He sprang aside, thinking first of avoiding hurt to Jane should combat ensue; and in that instant Sophia struck.
Her hands were raised before her face, their outline almost lost in the glare of light which signalled the goddess's attack. A bolt of pure force struck Thor over the heart, destroying much of the clothing on his upper body and searing the skin, but the chief effect was internal. He felt his chest filled with the fire of the goddess's power, his heart fibrillating, the moist air in his lungs turned to steam. The agony was indescribable. Thor could not prevent himself, he screamed in pain as he fell; and it seemed that all the honoured dead of that place screamed with him.
Yet Sophia might indeed be close to him. Their powers were too like, too nearly related for chance. Even as he felt the pain and the nearness of death Thor felt the very cells of his body reject the attack, throw it off, refuse to submit. His innate control of the storm and the lightning, the electrical web which binds the universe, came to his aid. His heart steadied itself; he breathed the air again. The force with which the goddess had struck him was too close, too like his own power. It could hurt him; but no more than the power inherent in his own hammer could it kill him. He was down, but he could still move; and as he moved he lifted that hammer before him, preparing a strike of his own.
Somewhere off to one side, a red-haired head moved. Thor could see from the corner of an eye that Jane was awake; how much of his exchange with Sophia she had heard he could not tell. Desperately he called to her, "Jane? I don't know who she is. I don't know what she's talking about!" He could not tell whether or not she had heard.
"Fool!" Sophia cried. "Think not that that was my only weapon, nor that thou wilt so easily shrug off the rest. Thy concern for thy whore will be thine undoing. For I am far above thee in might!"
"So all fools say," Thor murmured. "And I am beginning to believe that I have heard this fool before..." Without standing up, he commanded his hammer to strike; and from its head a bolt of energy shot forth, streaking to its target.
Sophia seemed to stop in mid-action, reacting to shield herself. The hammer-strike broke on a splintering disc of light which appeared before her.
"Sorcery, goddess?" Thor cried, standing. "Who has been thy teacher? Need I ask?"
"It matters not, since thou canst not defeat me!" Sophia replied. She raised her hands, weaving another spell, and even as she spoke she hurled it forth. Ruby fire lanced from her. At the last possible instant Thor realised that the spell's target was not himself, but Jane. Crying out, he lunged forward, without any idea what the possible effect of the spell might be.
The watcher at the Fire of Vision could not credit the thunder god's stupidity. Not only had he fallen straight into Sophia's trap; he had taken with him that woman, the red-haired mortal whom Odin had so long ago forbidden him to see again. And in doing this, he had doomed himself. His attention was divided. He was quite unable to defend both himself and his wench from the goddess's wrath.
Perfect, the watcher thought.
He decided that he had seen enough. He would delay no longer. He had promised that he would be present for his foster-daughter's triumph; and he would be present. He turned to order his servants to tend the flames while he was gone; then he strode from the Fire-temple to the stair which led to his Hall of Magicks.
Thor struggled upon the unclean earth. The blood and the fire which had consumed this place assailed his nostrils, their stink barely muted by time. He lay at the foot of his father's grave-mound; and he knew the fetters which bound him. He had often seen them wielded by Asgardian sorcerers. He knew that he might break them, given time; but he knew that he would not have that time. Whether Sophia had intended to trap Jane in order to slay her; whether she had merely sought to prevent the woman from interfering; or whether, indeed, she had anticipated his reaction and had intended all along to trap him, she had done what was needful. Thor observed her approach. Grey-violet light oozed between her clenched fingers as she prepared another sorcerous attack. Thor strained against the bonds, feeling them yield only a little. He could not know what fell magic the goddess intended to use against him, but all his instincts told him that if he could not free himself he was lost.
Sophia chanted sorcery beneath her breath, slowly approaching the trapped thunder god. Her foster-father had taught her much of magic, preparing her against this day. She had been taught that Thor had little knowledge of the unholy arts; how could he defend himself against that which he did not know? She could hardly restrain her grin of triumph as she prepared the Rune of Dissolution.
Even her foster-father would never have dared cast this spell. It had been stolen from the halls of the All-father himself, after his death: one of the eighteen runes of making and unmaking which the Lord of Asgard had bought in his own spilled blood upon the tree of Yggdrasil.
Moondragon lifted her head. She knew nothing of magic and little of the true depth of Thor's power, but she knew minds. Both were open to her. She felt the disgust and hatred in the psyche of the goddess Sophia, and she divined its origin. She felt the desperation of Thor, who knew that if his struggle failed he would have no other chance; and she knew its source. She saw within the thunder god's mind the image of the one who awaited him, cold arms outstretched and a skull's grin upon her face.
And Moondragon knew once again why all this was happening and how appalling a work of evil it was. All this passed through her mind in a flash; and she reacted out of instinct, without a plan, from utter terror.
From the corner of an eye Thor saw the figure moving behind Sophia. He recognised the priestess of Titan with a dreadful shock, a piece of the mysterious pattern falling abruptly into place. He looked away, closing his eyes even in the face of Sophia's rage, afraid that some movement or some glance would betray the other woman's presence.
Sophia stood feet from the god she had named her father. She observed with satisfaction that he could not bear to look upon his own death. The spell built, the power which raced through her bloodstream and her soul drawn from depths of which even her foster-father had hesitated to speak. Moments more and it would be loosed; and her mother's blood would be avenged.
"Sophie, don't do it!" Moondragon cried.
The goddess glanced around but could not see the source of the call. She turned her attention back to Thor, her chant suspended but not interrupted. The spell's sickly light grew brighter. As she raised her hands to the sky the spell was concluded and the powers of Hel and Hades and Gehenna and of the eternal darkness beyond even those dread realms were hers, surrounding her left hand with unholy glory.
The goddess Sophia reached out that hand to Thor's unprotected chest.
"Sophie! Listen to your mother! Stop it at once!"
As she spoke, Moondragon did the only other thing she could do. She opened her mind to them all: to Thor, and to Sophia, and even to Jane St. Clair. She had no choice. It must all be shown to them: the truth, even that truth which she had told to no-one, the truth of her most secret shame; all must be there to be read. Moondragon heaved herself to her feet as she watched them, knowing that she had done as much as she could. Now she could only stand before them and hope.
Sophia paused, her action frozen, her fingers with their burden of damnation inches from their target.
Thor cried out, a sob of pure mental pain. He turned as far as he was able and buried his face in the tainted soil, as if to shield himself. He saw all of it and, because Moondragon had no time to mitigate the effect, he felt it once again. He relived his long-ago ensorcelment by one who had called herself 'Goddess of Mind', the only one who had ever divined his chiefest weakness. He relived his seduction by the demon-born power of her sexuality. He felt also the shame with which Moondragon, the mortal Heather Douglas (and he also learned that she now accepted this was her true name), now regarded her actions. She thought of herself as a rapist; and so she was.
Sophia remained immobile, her face registering utter shock, her eyes gazing sightless into the distance. It was presented direct to her inner mind, raw and merciless; there was no possibility of deceit. She knew that what she saw and what she felt was the truth; the truth at last, for the first time in her life. In her mother's mind she read the truth of her conception; a story as different from the great lie she had been told as it was possible to imagine. She read of her mother's 'death' and of how it had come about. It had been nothing to do with Thor. That was another lie.
Thor remembered how he had taken Moondragon to Asgard. She had claimed to be a goddess; he had decided that she should be judged as such. For the first time he learned how she had been found to be pregnant; how Odin had insisted the child be raised in Asgard, a place where Moondragon had no wish to remain; and how the girl had been given to be fostered by a peasant couple with no children of their own. Moondragon had then returned to earth to begin her reform; a reform interrupted first by a mental breakdown and then by her apparent death, which had been in fact an exorcism. The evil force which had possessed her had been driven forth. Then she had managed to unite with her new body, grown on her adopted home of Titan from one of her own cells, given up for such a purpose long before.
Sophie learned that it had been Moondragon's own choice to allow the demon-dragon to use her. Thor had had nothing to do with it. No-one had been responsible for her descent into evil save she herself. She had also known exactly what the cost would be, both to herself and to her friends, to drive the demon out. People, good people, including one of Odin's own Valkyries, had offered themselves to Hela in doing that. That Hela had not been able to take them had been due solely to the presence of that Valkyrie, Brunnhilde, who had guided them along the paths between the lands of the living and of the dead. She read of her foster-father's other deceits. He had told her that she had been entrusted to him to raise; yet Odin had intended for her to be brought up as a simple daughter of Asgard, not as a necromancer's apprentice.
Thor learned finally that now, Moondragon was, in every way, no longer the woman he had known. The old Moondragon would never have exposed her inner being like this; nor would she have been, as this woman who stood before him was, a penitent who begged with her whole mind for his forgiveness. And deep within Sophie's unconscious self, in a place laid bare to him by Moondragon's crude psychic linkage, he thought, and then he was certain, that he detected something else: something unknown even to the 'Goddess Sophia'. He stared at the girl - at his daughter - for just a moment, in astonishment. And then he knew what must be done.
Sophie Douglas read another truth in her mother's mind. Her entire life too had been a lie: her 'memories' magical implants; her 'aunt' a stranger enspelled. The death-rune guttered and dissolved. The magical fetters fell away into nothingness as their maker surrendered. Sophie screamed and flung herself at her mother, crying like a child.
Jane St. Clair felt it all in wonder and in sorrow for Moondragon and above all for Sophie; yet her chief emotion was thankfulness. For minutes she had been confronted with the possibility that everything Thor had said to her had been a lie as well. Had that been the case, she knew that she really would have gone crazy. She would have been better off dead. And it was then that she realised that he, Thor, was all she had; and that this had been true since the first moment she had set eyes on him. She dragged herself up on to one of the rocks of Vigrid and sat there, shaking with reaction. She watched as Moondragon, as soon as her daughter could stand unaided, tried to throw herself at Thor's feet; only for the god to prevent her, as he had prevented Shirley Baxter weeks before. She watched and only smiled as he took the woman's hands, gently assuring her that he felt no anger toward her. He knew that she had been possessed, and that was enough; there was nothing to forgive.
Jane saw Sophie standing between the two of them, moving as if to take her father's hand; and then she saw the change that came over the girl as she remembered something so dreadful that everything else would have to wait.
"He's coming!" Sophie said. "He said he'd be here! He's been watching me ever since I came to earth - and he said he'd come to watch my triumph. Even if he doesn't know what's happened he'll still be here any minute. What are we going to do?"
"I know who you mean," Thor said. "And I know why you refuse to say his name. I know his handiwork so well. I could hear his words in your mouth, Sophie. How easy for him, after all, to transform a corpse into his own image. You are speaking of your...foster-father. My dear, and never as deceased as one might wish him, foster-brother Loki."
"Yes," said Sophie. "Him. I don't think I can stop him. The spells which might do it are ones I don't dare cast. Like the one I would - Father Odin, wherever he may be, forgive me - have used on you. Besides, he would be able to stop me. Masters make sure they can do that with their apprentices. He can stop my tongue at a glance. Can any of you do anything?"
"I have fought him many times before," Thor said. "I have never truly defeated him. Together we can try. And there is one other thing..."
"What's that...Father?"
Thor considered for a moment. "Will you trust me for now?" he said. "If he were to read it in your mind..."
Sophie caught her father's eye. That piercing blue gaze told her nothing and everything. Many times her foster-father had told her of this god's stupidity; and that was yet another deceit, perhaps the prideful sorcerer's deceit of himself. There was a wisdom in her father's glance which she hesitated to question.
"Are you really a mutant, Sophie?" Jane suddenly asked.
"You mean the gestalt power?" said Sophie, turning around. "It isn't part of the magic I was taught, if that's what you mean. Nor are my lightning-bolts. I really am Thor's daughter..."
"It's okay, really," Jane said with a lopsided smile. "I don't mind. Well," and she glanced sidelong at Thor, "Not that much, anyway...But listen, Sophie. I have an idea."
Loki stepped between the worlds with a master's ease. The dimensions and the universes were as familiar to him as his hall and its private little plane of existence; and many of them acknowledged his might and trembled before him. Those which did not he avoided on this occasion. He could tolerate no further delay.
The portal shimmered before him. Spacetime parted to let its master pass. Loki raised his arms in triumph; then he paused, sagged a little, gazed about him in dismay.
The plain of Vigrid was deserted. The phosphorescence and the stench of blood and the stones of the grave-mounds were all that met his disbelieving senses. Nothing moved; nor were there any bodies to be seen. No Thor; no cringing mortal woman; and above all, no sign of Sophia.
Loki did not panic. He had lived too long and had seen too many strange things (many of which he had caused) to do such a thing. He did not believe for a moment that his foster-brother could have defeated the goddess, nor that they might, in the brief time since his last scrying, have departed for some other place. He invoked his magic and reached out with his occult senses to determine what might have occurred. Moments later, overcome by the ludicrousness of it all, Loki placed his hands on his hips and laughed.
"Sophia! And my dear brother! Come out! Your stupidity is showing. You think that a simple spell of invisibility can hide you from me? From me? I care not whether you have changed sides, foster-daughter. You are all at my mercy, in this place and on this occasion. Show yourselves, for if you compel me to bring you back to sight, I shall not be gentle!"
"No need for that, god of evil," a woman's soft voice said.
Loki turned toward the sound and was astonished to see the mortal red-head standing, apparently alone, not twenty feet away from him.
"Nurse Foster, I presume?" Loki gave an ironic bow. "You have grown bold, my dear. A far cry from the timid maiden my foster-father despatched from Asgard with a flea in her ear. But I fear you are beneath my notice, Jane. Stand aside. I have enemies worthy of my might in this place."
"I have grown bold, Loki. Yet I will stand aside. But only because there are others whose claim on your head is greater than mine." Jane returned the evil one's bow with an equally ironic curtsey. Then she stepped aside with a flourish to reveal that which Loki had so far failed to notice: that whatever had concealed the other protagonists until this moment had been abolished and that four other figures now met his gaze.
With disbelieving eyes Loki gazed on the uninjured, though unprecendentedly ragged, form of his foster-brother Thor; and on Sophie Douglas, who not only stood beside her father but held his hand as if she would never let it go. She also held, at her other side, the hand of a woman whom Loki had not until this moment realised was present: a shaven-headed woman dressed in green whose appearance was all too familiar to the Asgardian sorcerer.
"You!" Loki gasped.
"Yes, evil one. How gratifying that you remember me. I am not sure, being only a mortal, that I could influence your mind for long. I had some success with Thor; but even he, who is no psychic adept, evaded me swiftly. Fortunately, though, I do not have to exercise such influence. Our comrade shall see to your despatch."
Loki was speechless, deprived suddenly of all his boasts. Silently he watched as a being who was in all detectable respects his own twin approached him from behind parents and child. This 'Loki' was an identical copy of himself to all appearances; but it took the first of the gestalt's spells to convince the god of evil that he truly had anything to fear from this apparition. Before he could raise any shield a net of light bound him, holding him immobile, unable to return spell for spell.
Savagely, triumphantly, Sophie Douglas grinned. "You trained me, foster-father," she said; and she made the acknowledgement of their relationship sound like a curse. "You brought my mutant powers as well as my magical potential to their fullest flowering. And you have taken from me the weak, sick mortal shell you had me wear to engage the sympathies of the healer who is my father; and you have given me back my birthright. My godly power is added to that of the mutant Gestalt. You will find that my Loki - whose entire purpose, whose joy, is to oppose you - is neither as temporary nor as dependent on my concentration as most such projections. You realise, don't you, that due to accident of birth, my power is almost limitless? You must have known, you were so careful to keep the truth from me. What shall it be next, O most evil one? Your own personal Dormammu to fight? Or Odin, perhaps?"
"Oh no," Loki muttered. "Oh no..."
Sophie's gestalt Loki raised his hands again in a complex gesture. He murmured soft magic beneath his breath. The bound god of evil turned into a kangaroo. Another gesture; Loki was a warthog. Then he became in turn a three-toed sloth; a moose; a baboon.
"Do it now, Father," Sophie said, her voice full of triumph, yet tinged with sorrow. "Do it now."
"No..." said Thor.
"Father...!?"
"No, child. You do it." And to Sophie's astonishment and to that of the others who looked on, Thor held out the hammer Mjolnir to his daughter and gestured for her to take it.
Loki struggled within the net. Jane St. Clair, watching, saw realisation dawn in his face; and a horror such as she had never seen. He thrashed about, vainly seeking release. Overwhelmed by the magnitude of his own folly, he could not voice the cry he uttered; only a whispered No...reached the ears of those who watched.
Sophie, baffled and overawed, reached out a hand to the magical weapon which her father proffered. For a moment their right hands both grasped its handle; then the girl realised that Thor had released his hold. The hammer, that notorious burden, was not heavy. Mjolnir pulsated in her hand with an ancient and deathless power. Its head glowed first softly and then with a blue-white heat. A soundless explosion of light erupted from Sophie's inner mind through the holy thing she held. She was consumed by it and she was born; her world was unmade and it was created.
"Father!" Sophia cried, though she did not speak to Thor. "Father, must it be? Ah, Father, yes..."
"Sophie...?" Moondragon gasped. She looked at the thunder god; she saw him stand with his eyes open to the light which dazzled her. He nodded his head once; and he smiled.
Sophia lifted the hammer above her head, where it burned fiercely; but its light seemed dim beside that of her own face. She gazed upon the god she had called master and foster-father; there was sorrow in that burning countenance; and there was knowledge. She gestured; and a spatial vortex began to form about the god of evil and his counterpart.
Loki seemed to overcome his terror for a moment. "I defy you still!" he cried. "I shall not be bound for ever; and my vengeance shall be terrible..."
Sophia, still encompassed by the light, replied, "Ah yes, as always. Yet my creation shall pursue you for ever, until I choose to destroy him. And I am not certain I can do that. One could call it...murder."
The last any of the group on Vigrid saw of Loki was his face, open-mouthed and horrified, visible above the clinging sorcerous bonds. The gestalt had his back to the watchers, yet his posture was undoubtedly one of anticipation. "It will be a great battle!" the gestalt cried. Then the warp closed and went out. Loki and his double were gone.
"What? What....?" Moondragon gasped.
"Where have you sent them, Sophie?" asked Jane.
Thor moved forward. Sophia looked exhausted; her physical form would come to encompass such might, but this would not happen immediately. The goddess turned to him, her light paling. "I understand," she said.
"I saw it in you, thanks to the priestess your mother," Thor said. "It was sealed with the rune thurisaz; Odin's message to me. It is yours by right, daughter."
Sophia nodded. Then she grasped Mjolnir in both her hands and held it out. "Receive thy weapon, Thunderer," she said. "I would not keep it from its rightful wielder."
"The Lady of Asgard is gracious," Thor said. He knelt before the young woman who had been Sophie Douglas and, as a knight granted a weapon by his sovereign, he accepted the hammer from her hands.
"Oh," said Jane. "So that's it."
"Please," Moondragon asked of no-one in particular, "Could someone tell me what is going on?"
Mjolnir's magic could carry them only to the borders of Nornland. Karnilla's defences against sorcery had been strengthened since the War; the spatial vortex which the hammer created could not breach them. Thor had plenty of time to explain events to his baffled companion as they journeyed on foot to the Queen's halls.
"Thurisaz is an ancient runic sign used by the Vikings," Thor said. "Watch where you tread, Heather; there are man-traps in these woods..."
"Thanks for the warning, thunder god. Nice family you have."
"I assure you, Karnilla is not family. And these are desperate times. Have some understanding, priestess."
"Very well. But you were saying..?"
"The name of the sign is my name and its glyph, in its most ancient form, is the hammer. That is what I saw within Sophia's psyche. There was a place hidden so deep that she did not know of it; and it was sealed, symbolically, with the sign of the Hammer. Thus I knew that only when she held the Hammer - and held it with my consent, I judge, rather than taking it by force - would that seal be broken. And it was not difficult to divine what must be beneath that seal. The Power has long been hidden from us. It was not conceivable that Odin would have withdrawn it altogether from his people, out of mere pique at his son's behaviour. He was ever the autocrat; but he was not a fool. He hid it in plain sight, in the domain of a deadly enemy; in the one place, in fact, where he was certain it would not be found. Had he passed it to me Surtur would only have renewed his assault."
"And you do not resent being...passed over?"
"No, indeed. Often have I felt that despite appearances, I was not destined for a throne. I am an adventurer; and, thanks to my father's one-time wrath, I am a healer. To be a prince is a mere accident of birth. One's destiny is that which one feels in one's heart to be right."
"Thor..."
"Yes, Heather?"
"You realise that what you say indicates that Odin knew all along that Loki had kidnapped my daughter."
"Our daughter. Yes, I know. I cannot trust myself to comment much on that. My father's actions ever had motives within motives; and with him, right would oft come forth from many wrongs. We had our differences, my father and I. We did indeed."
The companions journeyed on together until they came to Queen Karnilla's keep. As they approached the moat a lookout upon the battlements observed them. Thor saw defenders rush to the walls, longbows raised. He lifted Mjolnir above his head. Momentarily he felt the disorientating sensation of a magical scan as his identity was verified; then the drawbridge was lowered and the castle's inhabitants could be seen scurrying about within, preparing a hurried welcome.
Thor stepped onto the drawbridge with his companions. He saw Hildegarde and one or two others he knew; and then Balder himself stepped forward to greet his old friend. Thor and the three women moved onward. Thirty feet separated them from the exiled Asgardians; then twenty; then ten.
Thor and Sophia looked at each other. "Do you want to tell them, or shall I?" she asked.
Eventually the celebrations quietened down; but it was not until several days after their arrival that Thor and his companions had time to walk together in the Witch-Queen's garden before the denizens of Asgard took their leave to begin the rebuilding of their land.
"So, Father," Sophia said, "You have brought me through a dreadful night to the throne. What will you do?"
"If it be my Lady's will," Thor said with a smile, "I shall return to Earth."
"You wish to resume your career, do you not? To seek your destiny amid the blood, tears and toil of Midgard? Well, I shall not prevent you."
"Lady, you are very different from my father."
"True. And I am sure that you know why. Two bloodlines live in me. I am your daughter, and my mother's; and she is a child of Earth. This union of two peoples has long been destined. We are not so different; my very existence is proof of this. And now it has begun. I perceive that you wish to...contribute."
Thor smiled again. He had expected nothing less.
"Sophie," Jane said.
"Yes, Jane? Is it too soon to call you stepmother?" Sophia smiled gently and moved alongside the mortal woman. She took Jane's arm.
"Only a little, I think. But Sophie...You never did tell us what you had done with Loki."
What have I done with him? Sophia asked. Why, nothing, Jane. I have simply...sent him home.
Since the fall of the Realm - in which I am certain he played his part - he has made a fortress of the plane of existence in which his house is built. There is no-one else there, save for unliving servants created by his magic. No-one to be harmed by any battle. And the house is surrounded by an extraordinary magical shield. He wished no intrusion; to ensure this he had to make the wards immensely strong, lest some being of a strength equal to his own should attack them. He left one Gate for his own use; the Gate through which he sent me to Earth. And I have returned him to his house along with his double; and I have sealed the Gate. None can enter to rescue them, thanks to Loki's own wards; and they cannot escape, because I have surrounded those wards with wards of my own. I think it will be a long time indeed before we hear from my 'foster-father' again.
"I hope so," said Jane. "And you will truly not stand in your father's way and mine, should we choose to return to Earth together?"
"No. I cannot see a reason. Your lover, my father, may understand better than I what has come to pass..."
"I said that for Odin, many wrongs could give birth to a right. I hardly dare think on it, but for all I know that he was not God, my father took his power from the Source; and he had much knowledge. It is quite possible that he saw far enough to see this day. My mind tells me that his actions were despicable, that I should never forgive him. But my heart...perhaps I am granting him too much insight. We may never know. Does it matter, Jane, in the end? Does it really matter?"
"Perhaps not; but I wish our destiny to be our own, not that mapped out by a dead god."
"Jane, I think it quite possible that it may be both."
They walked in silence for a while. It would soon be time to go. As the evening drew on the four companions made to return to Karnilla's mead-hall for the leave-taking feast. There, Balder and Karnilla would finally declare themselves handfasted before the people; an act long delayed which would confirm Nornland's status as an ally and friend of Asgard. The new Asgard would be founded as Sophia wished, in peace.
As they reached the gates of the hall Moondragon and Thor perceived that Sophia had something more to say to Jane St. Clair. They walked on ahead.
Thor, I...There was something. I couldn't help seeing it. I had to link us all. There was no other way, you do understand, don't you?
Yes, Heather. I do. And I know what you mean. You seem...disturbed by it. If you want to ask, please go ahead.
I...Thor, you must remember how I used to be. I was so jealous of you. I was so jealous that I...Well. I will never cease to be thankful that you regard all that as ancient history. But I understand now that I did not know what I envied. How do you bear it? What will become of you, of Jane, in the days ahead? Tell me something that will give me a little hope.
How do I bear it? Can I do anything else? Strangely, Heather - and I think you may understand this now - there are many among the gods who find that they envy human beings. Our destiny is known to us and seems inescapable. You...have a choice. This is really what was so wrong about my father's actions. As for Jane and myself, I can only hope that when the universe is gathered to its Source we may be together. Until then we will have to be content with what we have. Even though I know that in all probability, for millenia upon millenia it will be to me no more than memory, whether in Asgard on on Earth or in Hela's dark halls.
Moondragon stared at her companion, eyes wide.
There is only one thing, Thor continued.
Which is?
The past few days have seen the birth of a new age for Asgard. None of us yet know what this may mean, for humans or for Asgardians, in the future. Hela could not, I think, claim the soul of Sophia herself, nor of anyone who was partly human, for more than a very brief time. Perhaps the death-goddess has played out her role. I do not know. And I doubt I will find out before my own life reaches its end.
Moondragon shook her head slowly. So what you told Jane is not entirely true, she said at last. You do not know. Not exactly.
Not exactly, no.
They walked on together into the feasting-hall.
Sophia turned to Jane St. Clair as soon as the others were out of sight. To Jane's astonishment, there were tears in the goddess's eyes.
"I have something for you, Jane," Sophia said.
"Something...?"
"My grandfather...stole it from you, so it would not be right to call it a gift. Perhaps it would be better termed...a blessing." She gulped. Suddenly, behind the power and the presence of the goddess Jane could see the teenager Sophie Douglas, still staggered by the enormity of the thing which had befallen her. "Some day I shall get used to saying things like that..." Sophia shivered; then she was solemn again. "Jane..."
Jane looked into her companion's eyes. Sophia wore the simple gold circlet which was the nearest Asgard possessed to a royal crown. The circlet glowed softly with its own light; but its light was outshone by the light of the young goddess's face. Jane did not flinch. She saw only love and respect in that countenance; Odin's hard despite had been his personal failing, not a function of his power. Then Sophia placed her hands on Jane's shoulders and quickly leaned forward to kiss her twice on the forehead, once above each eye.
Sophia turned aside and walked rapidly away into the hall. Jane noticed that as the goddess moved she wiped her eyes with her hands. Not at all like Odin. But Jane felt no different. She watched nonplussed for a few moments; then she too went inside to join the feast.
A fortnight later Thor and Jane lay together on a bed covered in greetings cards.
They're still outside, you know.
I know. Parker will be in his element. Talking from a great height to the representatives of the world's media. This is one of the high points of his career!
Ha! I'm sure you're right. I did think they might have had enough of us, after the ceremony.
Malcolm was great. I'll never forget the way he faced down that guy from the Sun. He just stood there and...and loomed at him.
I've seen videos of one or two of his matches, Jane. He used to do that to the opposition on the pitch. Sometimes they just fell over all by themselves.
Jane laughed. I can imagine...Well, it made a change for you to need a bodyguard. At least there wasn't a fight.
I couldn't have stood it if there had been a fight. Did I ever tell you about Sue and Reed's wedding?
That's all the argument you need for keeping it small and private.
Well, we managed that. A best man, a matron of honour and a registrar. What more do you need?
Katrina seemed a bit...disappointed.
` If she'd had her way she'd have had us in St. Paul's with all her titled friends. Long dress with a train - Oh, ivory, I think, dahling, since you've been married before... - her eight nieces as bridesmaids, reception at Claridges, the works. And she'd have invited every superhero in New York. Quite apart from anything else, I'd have spent the next twenty years worrying about repaying her.
I was wrong, then. That's all the argument you need for keeping it small and private.
Well, Jane, we had better get on with it. Pass the next one.
You did say you had another job lined up, didn't you? We could do with a computer, with a really good word processor on it.
I can always borrow Tony's when I'm in New York. Commuting is hardly a problem, now is it?
I told you, I'm only going to stay here another couple of months. But it's a senior post. I can't just walk out after six weeks. I'd never work again.
I know, I know...Look, we have to get on. There are hundreds of these things. We have to acknowledge all of them, I guess. And there are some I don't even understand. Explain this one to me, for instance. Congratulations on your marriage. Just be sure to decide who's going to clean the toilet, you hear?' And that's from Katrina!
Oh, good grief...! Jane giggled. I'll tell you later. Here's one for you, now: Heard about wedding on World Service. Many congratulations. McCarthy.'
Just one of the people I have underestimated in the past, oh, twenty years...Never mind. Now...look at this, Jane. but don't think this changes anything. Creel.'
Oh, him...And here's one from Shirley Baxter, that nurse you told me about; and one from Wanda and Century and a separate one - of course! - from Pietro; and another from Professor X...
You have evaded all my traps but even you could not escape this one. Von Doom.' Von Doom...! I have only met him about twice. I suppose he says that to all the superheroes.
...And Tony and Nick Fury and Steve Rogers and Jubilee and Kate and Peter Wisdom and Matt Murdock and Doc Strange and Logan and Sue and Reed and...and everybody, really. Everybody.
You do realise, Jane, that if we had had that big society wedding your friend threatened to organise we would have had all these read out at the reception.
Oh yes. That's one of the reasons I was so keen on just doing it. Like we should have done before; as you said.
Thor looked at Jane. He reached out a hand and touched her face, running his fingers along her jawline. Sophia's blessing shone back at him from his wife's unshadowed eyes; from her unlined forehead and from her hair, which showed not a single streak of grey. She was as beautiful in her youth as she had been in her middle age. He had no idea what she might have told her nursing colleagues; and in the circumstances neither of them much cared what others thought.
And so, Dr. Blake'...
He reached out his other hand.
Will we be opening that practice you used to talk about? That one where the rich would finance the treatment of the poor? Do that again.
That was a great many years ago. Mm.
I know. Is that a problem? That's it.
No, not really...Good...
Well, then. As soon as we are both free of other commitments...That's it...
As soon. As we. Are. Yes.
Oh, come here, Doctor Blake. Come...
Come here.