Age 14
Niflheim
The mist is eerie, folding in on itself over and over again, uncontrollable. Over a month on Niflheim and I still can't get used to it, especially not while on watch, on my own, in the middle of the night. Every swirl looks like a monster and it takes all my training to not jump at every shadow. We haven't seen any draugr in days, which sounds good, but more likely means they're waiting to attack in larger forces.
At least we've arrived. Right before nightfall (or when the mists grow even darker since there's no sun that reaches this realm) we caught sight of our destination, the easternmost point. It's a maze, of stone or mist we cannot tell. We will make our first attempt in the morning, and I pray that it will be the only one we need. I very much want to go back to Asgard.
Despite the eerie surrounding, I am at least grateful to be out of Eldmara's "care." I don't want to know what I would have become in her service, and I like feeling that I can use my powers for good.
My solo shift lasts three hours hours in the darkest part of the night, and by the end of it, I'm downright paranoid. I wake Thor and Fandral, who take the next shift by themselves, doing what they can with torches. I get four hours of sleep to recharge because that's all they can handle with torchlight.
I'm just afraid that whatever we face tomorrow will be too much to handle even with me.
"Are you ready?" Loki stands next to me at the entrance of the maze. We're at the front so I can light the way and he can keep an observant eye on things. We started with an expedition of 50 men. We sent most of those home the first week, after trying to light enough path for them all to see left me near comatose.
Now we are down to Loki and I, Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three, three trackers, and five soldiers. Fifteen in total. The last eight plus Volstagg will stay behind and only enter the maze of we call for reinforcements.
"Yes." I stand firm despite butterflies in my stomach. I'm determined to serve my purpose, we wouldn't have made it this far without me and I'm not going to let them down now. I don't make eye contact with him, though. I just stare into the mist, gathering strength. We've all trained for this quest, and I definitely won most improved, but I'm still young, still inexperienced.
"Time to move out!" Thor announces. He's really grown into this leadership role, despite getting off to a rough start. Even though we've officially travelled beyond the reach of the Bifrost, we're fine on our own with Thor's direction. I watch as he tests the wall with his hand. It's not stone, it shifts at his touch, but doesn't let him through.
We march into the maze, stopping at the first junction. Not surprisingly, our ominous maze shifts behind us, blocking off the exit. I stoke my glow, pushing back errant tendrils of mist. We push forward, pausing at crossroads to consider which path is best. They all look the same to me.
We reach a junction that I swear we've seen at least twice. We are about to choose a new path when the mist dissolves. It's like a powder explosion: where before there was definite lines, there's now nothing but mist. I push back with my light, concentrating so hard that I actually ignite, but the presence of flame does nothing to help. I can't see anything but grey.
I reach out for where Loki was standing. There's nothing, even though he'd been inches away. I yell for him, but I can barely hear the sound of my own voice. I yell for the rest of them, for anyone, but there's no response, not even a change in the mist. The only thing I can hear is my own heart as it starts to race.
"LOKI!" I try again, even though it's evident that screaming is useless. I'm alone now.
I've been trained for this though, and I focus on that. I try to orient myself, but I have no idea which way I'm facing, and it doesn't matter anyway since the walls are gone. I walk forward, worried that the mist will hold me back, but it's less solid now that it was as a maze.
I take a deep breath and keep going. I figure that I'll either run into something or someone, or just wander forever, but movement feels better than just standing here. I try to glow brighter, but it still doesn't matter, I can't see more than a couple inches in front of my face. So I keep it to a minimum, trying to conserve energy.
An ear splitting crack sounds all around me, and the mist coalesces back into walls. The maze has returned. I'm alone in the passage, but now I can hear faint yelling in the distance. I run toward the sound, hitting several dead ends and having to double back. I shout in return, but I have no way to tell if they can actually hear me.
I realize as I run that I'm probably the only one that can see. The others had emergency torches, but the chances of them actually lighting them and keeping them lit in the mist are low. I run faster.
Just when I catch sight of something that isn't grey mist, the walls dissolve again. I don't stop running, hoping that by keeping in this direction I would run into whatever I saw. Instead, my foot catches on something on the ground, and I trip, landing hard.
I sit up, keeping my legs where they are, trying to reach beyond them to touch what I stumbled over. The mist has gone back to being near impossible to see through and dead quiet. One hand touches something sharp, the other closes around something metallic. I pick it up, realizing what it is. Hogun's flail.
I don't know how to use it, but I pick it up anyway. If danger has befallen Hogun, it's coming for the rest of us, and I might be the only one that can figure this out. I pull myself to my feet and wait, hoping that the pattern will continue and not spring anything else disastrous on me.
When the maze reappears, I sprint forward. Wasn't there a trick to mazes? Always go left unless you couldn't? I try it until the maze falls apart again, leaving me lost once again. I resist the urge to scream; I don't know what I'll attract if I do. I try it over and over, pushing myself faster and faster, but the maze falls again and again.
At one point, when the mist consolidates, I find myself face to face with a draugr, half its head smashed in and still snarling. I have enough sense to swing the flail at it, and it connects solidly, smashing the other side of its head. It's not enough to bring it down and it comes at me with a dagger. I don't know how to defend against it with the flail, so I drop it and draw my long knife from my boot.
The draugr is fast, but mostly blind. I have trouble defending from the random attacks, my nerves getting the better of me. There's no one here to watch my back; I don't even have a proper sword. I stay alive long enough to find an opening, and I ran my knife through its neck.
I burn the body, grotesquely glad that something in this place actually does burn. It's not much comfort. I sink to my knees in the mist, fear and panic setting in. I can't navigate in here, and if I can't, no one can. I can barely fight off draugr on my own. I'm going to die here, alone. The tears come, and I don't stop them, there's no one here to see.
As I watch the burning pyre, I notice that the smoke doesn't disperse. It lingers, curling and interspersing with the mist to the point where they're indistinguishable.
It's not mist, I realize. It hasn't ever been.
It's smoke.
It's not an extremely important realization, but it's all I've got at this point. Smoke and ash, suspended in what can only be magic, because that's what my life has come to. Shouldn't I be able to burn ash? Or was it too burnt to catch?
I'm covered in it, so I try burning just the small particles on my hand. It doesn't catch, but I feel something when I focus on it. I can sense fire, if it's close, and I concentrate really hard. The ash feels like it's still burning, the barest remnant of flame still living, preserved by whatever magic is suspending it.
The maze drops again. I curse, it means I've lost the flail since I forgot to pick it up. Down a weapon, but at least now I know that I'm surrounded by the remains of countless zombies. Or maybe, surrounded by fire. That really shouldn't be a comforting difference, but it is.
It's already burning, or at least I hope it is. And though it takes a great deal more effort, I can put out what's already burning. I reach out again, concentrating on the smoke around me. Instead of pushing it to burn, I will it to let go, to give up.
Nothing happens for a moment, and then it clears. Just barely, just enough for me to see my own hand in front of me. It's working, even though that much effort makes me sick. I pause to consider what the heck I should do now. I can lessen the smoke, but I can't get rid of it entirely, or least, not without seriously overexerting myself.
But when the maze walls reform, I can hear yelling, louder and more distraught than before. I still can't make out words, but I can tell that the others are making sounds of pain and panic. I have to help them.
I take a deep breath, reaching out to the smoke, once again urging it to stop, to be free. It resists, and in desperation, I slam my will against it. I'm no longer coaxing, or hoping that the fire will die. I'm commanding it. Smoke clears around me, and I realize that even if I clear enough of it, there's no sun. They still can't see.
So I glow too, pushing with light as smoke curls toward me. I'm nauseous immediately, and a headache soon follows. The ground starts to spin like the sky full of smoke. I don't stop though. I can't stop. I have to find them.
Eventually, I clear enough room to see figures, but I don't know if they're friend or foe. They come toward me but the pain forces my eyes shut. If they're draugr, I'm not going to be able to defend myself. I glow brighter, thinking maybe it will scare them off, but I know I'm dangerously close to overexertion.
It's just so hard. I'm fighting the smoke, fighting the spell, trying make it so my friends can see all at the same time. I've never tried anything like this with my powers. I start to shake, but I push harder. I manage to get my eyes open, but it's all I can do to see how much smoke is left before shutting them again. I think I'm almost to a point where I can stop. I push against the smoke, giving one last desperate command to the smoke. The air arounds me cracks audibly, and the mental wall I was pushing against shatters.
I stop putting the smoke out, because there's isn't any left. I don't know if I put all of it out or if I just broke through the spell, releasing it. I open my eyes to find a nearly bare field, some scattered friends, a dais just beyond them.
And a full army of draugr surrounding us.
The sight and the settling fatigue sends me to the ground, but I'm caught before I reach it. It's Fandral, he must have been closest to me when the maze fell. Loki reaches us next, just in time to watch me throw up. At least it makes some of the nausea go away.
"Ally? Ally, can you hear me?" His hands take over for Fandral's, checking me for injuries. He wipes the blood off my face, the overexertion must've given me a nosebleed. I can hear fighting in the distance. I respond with something that apparently wasn't words, because he repeats the question.
"I think I broke the maze," I mumble. That gets a strained laugh out of him.
"You've overexerted yourself, Ally, you know that's dangerous." I notice for the first time that we're still moving, he's probably trying to get me out of the line of fire.
"I had to find you. You guys can't see without me." The others are fighting, which is a miracle, because I'm not glowing very bright. Except that there is light coming from somewhere, up on the dais in the middle of the field. Right. The whole reason we came here.
"Thanks darling, but I'm not sure that's worth dying over." I would argue that it is, but I'm too busy staring at the platform as we approach. A tree branch sits upon it, scattering light. A branch of Yggdrasil, when it was a seedling. It's just enough to let the others see, but they can't take on the whole army.
"What are we gonna do?" Loki helps me to the edge of the platform, where I sit and try very hard to not puke again. He hands me my canteen and I sip some water. The others are retreating, forming a loose circle around us. Those who were outside the maze have joined us, and almost everyone is injured.
"Improvise." He leaves me for a moment to examine the branch. There's a snapping sound.
"Don't touch it!" I remind him.
"Too late." Loki's holding a twig of it when he comes back over, it's white light beginning to fade. "I'm going to apologize in advance for my new plan."
"You forgot to say sorry for the first one." He pulls me back to my feet, which I protest.
"I am sorry. We were unprepared, but that's no excuse."
"So what are you apologizing for this time?" I had meant to tease him, but his face is still solemn.
"I don't know if this will hurt you." That didn't sound good.
"You should really stop making plans." The fear in my voice is evident. I already hurt, but if it's our last shot…
"Sorry, I need you to burn this." He held the twig out to me. I take it with trembling hands. It's energy feels wild in my palm, barely contained. "We're cornered, and I don't know what else to do." I can see fear in him too; I can hear it in the others.
"Stand back," I tell him quietly. I start a small fire in my palm, catching the small bit of wood faster than I was ready for it. My light grows whiter, brighter, out of my control.
I explode with the same light. I feel rejuvenated, nausea, headache, and fatigue all gone. I expel a wave of power.
I understood Loki's plan now. We'd theorized that the branch of Yggdrasil would have a positive energy, that it would heal and purify. But here it was in action. My friends, healed instantly. The draugr dropped to the ground where they stood, the twisted spell keeping them alive now broken.
The field fell silent, still, almost peaceful. Only one thing wasn't happy about this turn of events, and that was the Eternal Flame inside me, apparently pissed that I had hijacked it's power to preserve instead of destroy for once. I doubled over as pain skyrocketed through me. I watched the world go from vertical to horizontal as I struggled to breathe.
"Ally!" Hands, voices, movement. I can barely register any of it. I'm burning again, I feel as if I'll dissolve into ash, cursed to join the maze in a million pieces.
It fades as quickly as it came. "I'm fine," I said breathlessly. "I'm good." It's true, but it does not convince anybody. Loki makes me drink the rest of my water and his before letting me stand.
"That's the last plan you ever get to make," I tell him.
"We'll see."