RAGNAROK IS COMING
— Fool Me Twice —
Avrid crouched on his heels on the edge of Drago's podium. Forseti stood between his legs, balancing on her own accord as Avrid kept his hands in front of his lips as if in prayer. The double doors swung open and he cleared his throat.
"Avrid?" Liogoo called, her brows dipping.
Avrid's jaw clenched as guards came up behind them. Liogoo shoved them off, elbowing two of them in the face with one hit.
"Liogoo." Avrid warned and she went docile. Went limp and allowed the guards to clasp her in chains and lock them. Tannis followed suit and soon the same confusion became a domino he'd knocked over. Stoick looked between his chains and his son's face, nothing but blank puzzlement in his stare.
"How much they seemed to trust you, Avrid." Drago commented from his throne behind him.
Avrid watched each chain snap onto eleven pairs of hands and remarked at a set of three faces staring up at him. Familiar in such a strange way Avrid tilted his head.
"Frode? Yrsa and Bjorn?" For they had been children the last time Avrid was here. No more than a decade old and now they seemed- mutilated. Avrid remarked on the telltale signs of Freabole immediately and those who were more intolerant to it than others. Drago must have subjected his own niece and nephews to the same fate as those he conquered. Carving them into weapons for that insatiable thirst of power.
The three of them stared back, but if his own village did not recognise him Avrid was not surprised they didn't; Paeton hadn't.
"These ones were splitting for the docks, sir." A metal capped guard said, shoving none other than Fishlegs through the line of prisoners and then he noticed the pale form in the large boy's arms.
Avrid stood, twisting to face Drago. "We had a deal."
"Yes." Drago dismissed and looked down from his podium. "Captain, I'm surprised by your betrayal, after all you sacrificed to be here."
Paeton's face was impressively blank. His lips pulled light and staring with such hate at Drago. Avrid jumped from the podium, sliding Forseti into her sheath, an offering. A chance to do this without any killing.
"A deal Drago. Tell me what you know of Loki's whereabouts." Avrid demanded, blocking Drago's view of the prisoners. Liogoo knew not to question Avrid, but he could see her bristling. Could see her distrust in whatever ploy this was.
"Very well. Loki Odinson, God of Mischief and betrayal. A God to turn sane men mad and it seems even you, Hiccup." Drago paused and then waved his hand. "I have no idea where he is."
Avrid gripped Forseti. "You swore on your soul Drago, do not think I will take such a lie lightly."
"Loki was a creature in the shadows. He would whisper things to me, he chose me to carry out his bidding and I did. He gave me but a handful of berries and I turned them into an army. I have not seen him since, nay a whisper since you left my people in ruins."
Avrid swore. "Do not test my patience, Drago, for I have a grievance far outweighing your life."
"Of the lives you led into chains?"
When Avrid went silent, outrage burst behind him. He could hear the Captain's hate, his fury and his father's questions. Snotlout's smug remarks and Liogoo's silence- louder than any of Yrsa's curses. Avrid turned his head to his shoulder, a mark of sorrow and Liogoo stilled as she realised Avrid was telling the truth.
He would give up all of their lives for Loki.
"Even the girl?" Drago sneered and nodded to the guard holding Fishlegs and Fishlegs holding Astrid.
The guard pulled her sickly figure from Fishlegs before the boy could protest and dragged her like a child's blanket to Drago's podium. As she passed, Avrid's jaw clicked and that simple move was exactly what Drago needed.
He pointed at Astrid as that guard deposited her to his feet. "I had captured Berk and stumbled upon her, she is immune to my Freabole you know- or at least she was."
Yes. Yes he did know.
Avrid flexed his jaw. "She was an old friend, no more important than a sentimental token."
But Drago stood and poked her limp head with his boot. "I'd agree. She's an awfully boring woman to bed."
Avrid's tilted his head. "At dāræ."
Drago grinned. He had no clue of this language Avrid spoke but that silent thunder in the man's eyes were enough, enough to know he'd hit the heart.
"Of course they never are at first, but she became compliant enough." Drago added and used his foot to shove her from the five foot podium.
Avrid didn't think as he jolted forward, catching her in his arms before her head could hit the floor and wrapping her into his chest.
It broke his stone cold heart when he collected Astrid in one arm and she weighed absolutely nothing. When he looked down at a face he'd dreamt of far more times than sane and it was withered and broken. Rosy lips chapped and bleeding, skin transparent enough he could see her veins and bones jutting out until she was more skeletal than alive.
Avrid growled low. "At dāræ. At lét svá ætla hér?"
Drago nodded with genuine pride.
"I will kill you Drago, but you shall tell me of Loki first." Avrid said, and placed Astrid on the floor, settling her head as gently as he could. Drago had called for his guards and they came stomping over, shields and swords at the ready. Avrid pulled away a strand of Astrid's hair back before he stood.
Looking at Drago, Avrid dropped Forseti but she didn't clatter to the floor. "You fight a battle you know nothing about."
And then Forseti melted and slithered faster than an eye blinks. Slithered black and poisonous into the lungs of every guard until they dropped with a silent scream frozen on their horrified faces. Forseti climbed then, for she was as angry as her master and she was loose now. She climbed through the castle like a comb to destroy everything.
The castle shuddered.
"Where is he?" Avrid repeated.
Drago cracked his neck and stepped off the podium, his weight echoing across the hall. He struck first, aiming to take Avrid's head from his neck but Avrid side-stepped.
When he stumbled to the side, Drago chuckled. "Do you not want to hear of dear Astrid first?"
Avrid snapped his leg out, knocking Drago to the ground. "Yes, tell me how you bed her. Tell me, did you dissect her like the rest of the Archipelago? Did you find she didn't take well to Freabole? That it became a slow poison or addiction? Were you confused, why such a thing might happen?"
Avrid flew his fist into Drago's face hard enough the man slid into his podium and sent a crack through it. "Tell me in detail, all the ways you hurt her and others- so that I may cast a fair judgement."
Avrid stalked over and grabbed Drago by his collar. "Where is he?"
Despite the blood warming the floor beneath him and his fading gaze, Drago chuckled. "I am only a piece in this game. Kill me, and the Alchemist sends out an army even you won't survive."
"The Alchemist is dead." Paeton spoke up, arms crossed as he- and the rest of them- watched the scene. "Bjorn killed him."
Avrid turned slowly, to find Bjorn smiling at him.
"Hello little human, have you come to kill me?"
Avrid dipped his head back, chuckling against the waking rumble in his chest. Blood ran from his nose, down his chin, over the leather necklace and gleaming gold band. A precaution Avrid had set years ago, a spell that seemed intact. It's purpose was a warning bell, incase Loki dare crawl up behind Avrid unannounced. Intact, that spell, but somewhat delayed. Without looking twice, Avrid slid a blade against Drago's throat so that he fell back and died choking on his own blood.
"You've grown, Avrid. Big," Loki hummed. "Oh yes, big and strong. Mighty Avrid."
Before him, Avrid watched Bjorn's face melt like candle wax. Eyes drooping and grin twisting into something half demented, until the wax rearranged into a face that haunted Avrid's waking moments and chased his sleep. A cruel wicked face smug and dark.
In the distance- in an entire world away- Paeton was saying something and Yrsa was holding the Captain back but Avrid focused on that pale face.
With a breathy cackle, Loki cracked his neck and circled closer to Avrid. "Have you missed the nights we spent together?"
Avrid took a breath. A single second before forcing his knees and thighs and stomach to tighten. To push him away from Drago. He clicked his tongue, tilting his head.
"I miss the sound of your screams. Your begging." When Loki's lips pulled back Avrid nodded. "Oh yes, I missed filling your lungs with fire and smoke and all the manners of fun we had."
"Where is your Hel spawn?" Loki snipped in return. "Your magic?"
Avrid could only clench his jaw as it became crystal clear. "This is your illusion then."
"I have spent many mortal years cloaking it, a spell to reduce you to nothing when you came for me- you have come for me, Avrid?" Loki inched forward, answering his own question. "Yes you have. I have heard of your little minions, the shadows you send looking for me in every realm but Midgard."
"I didn't expect a God to condense himself to such a pathetic existence, fool on me I suppose for you never fail to disappoint me."
Loki looked at Astrid's crippled form. "I'd favour a reason closer to a certain heart of yours Avrid, a wonder- I thought I had broken it.
"Have you told your newfound friends who you really are, Avrid? Where you really disappeared to?"
Avrid didn't dare look at Liogoo.
"No, you'd rather them pity you than hate you. Though there is little of a man who abandons his post for a woman so vile that can be pitied. Little they will think of you, when I have killed you and sing odes and write scripts of your cowardice and lies."
"What is he talking about, Avrid?" Liogoo asked and yet Avrid couldn't face her, could only keep his head ducked and ready to spring into defence. She couldn't help in him in this fight and when she edged closer, sliding her hand to the dagger at Tannis' hip, Avrid warned her again, warning her not to step in. He had waited a very long time for this, if anyone was to kill Loki Avrid would be the one holding the knife.
"I speak of the wedding of the century- empty as it was." Loki waved his hands, dipping a brow. "You married her, did you not? Promising yourself to the underworld with the knowledge that you would now be a natural enemy of the institution that praises you so. A natural spy cloaked in such a high esteem even Yggdrasil let you live.
"Did no one question when you lived past your first rejection as an Elder? Radox initiates never do, after they take that risk to become an Elder and are slaughtered for disturbing the peace of the Home Tree without a due character- yet you survived."
Loki clapped his hands. "You even tried again and somehow tricked the Home Tree. You tricked her into bestowing that blade in your hand and bloody title; yet they call me the deceiver."
Avrid stapled his mouth shutl. He had called Foresti back minutes ago and only now she slithered through the hall, hanging in place of the cobwebs in corners and covering the windows- the doors. And with a pop of his tongue, she became a wall of adamant, closing away the world and casting it into one for just Loki and Avrid.
Loki grinned.
"Oh I think they deserve to hear this." And then Forseti fell, her wall turning into crumbs. Just like that, Loki overpowered the infused weapon because with that imbalance- without his magic Loki stood a chance against Avrid.
Avrid didn't move. Didn't breathe.
Loki held out his arms. "You married the Goddess of Hel and left Radox, let your Court and the creatures you swore to protect think you stolen. Think you rotting in Hel when you ruled it."
Avrid felt the weight of that ring like a brand when Loki lifted a finger and pointed to it. "And then you abandoned her too. Your wife and confidant, your mate. You abandoned your duty and honour for-" Loki stopped then, turning to Avrid. "I never did find out why you left, your shadows only spill so much. Annoyingly loyal, those things."
Avrid's voice was cold and dead. "Is that the story you will tell, because I should inform you of the few holes in it. Of the betrayal you cast, of the lies you fed and the man under her throne."
Loki inclined his head. "Perhaps; it makes for good plot."
And then he struck, faster than a serpent and far more deadly. Avrid had seen it coming and he parried- or at least tried because then he was cast into a cave in Hel. A cave dredged from his memories, familiar down to the smell of a rotting corpse.
"Do you remember what you did? That day I escaped?" Loki's voice was an echo bouncing off the black rocks.
Avrid looked down, unsurprised to see the shimmering rock pool there. He had only needed a small cave and so Avrid had knocked his fist into the side of Hela's mountain. He had carved it then, with blacksmith and warrior hands. Carved it smooth and perfect.
"The new game you came up with."
Avrid reached into the pool. The water was cool, lovely and clear. It shimmered the reflection of the strung up body of Loki above. Of him draped over a ledge, arms attached to metal cuffs moulded into the cave walls. Bare to the elements of Alfheim and the venom of that snake. Avrid grinned, the image like a forgotten memory.
"I remember. I remember your screams." He whispered, watching Loki wither up there. Suspended and spread as a stalactite and snake dropped venom through flesh and bone, allowing enough time between each drop for the skin to heal and then to be burned anew.
"I remember how long it took to find that child of yours. Jörmungandr never did complain when I tied him to that rock."
Avrid could hear Loki's approach in reality and parried every move and swing. Loki had personally trained Avrid, teaching him until he was worn and bloody. It was easy to detach body from mind then, to work into a separate autopilot.
Avrid looked at the metal cuffs encircling this Loki's wrists. He looked at the entrails of Nari, Loki's eldest. The children of a trickster fought without remorse and when they'd all come for their father, good intentions in tow to free him, it became a bloodbath. Avrid hadn't needed to lift a finger, he'd simply watched Nari and Vali tear into each other until only the latter was left standing. With shame, Vali had fled and Avrid's method of torture that night required little contemplating.
"It was a shame though," Avrid noted. "That you never saw the destruction of your own line. How your betrayal destroyed your children."
Loki struck past his defences and Avrid smelt the blood leaking from his flesh, though stuck in this illusion it was impossible to tell whether he was on the brink of death or garnered barely a scratch; an unfair disadvantage to having one's nerves damaged beyond repair.
"I never discovered how you escaped." Avrid pointed at the cuffs.
"I suppose there will always be secrets amongst friends," Loki panted.
And even in this illusion Avrid heard the cut as Loki's blade opened the marred flesh of Avrid's back. He did not scream- though his father did. Because as that blade cut open his skin so did it the armour covering the scars and whorls disfiguring the rest of him. The patchwork of wounds only half healed before re-opened.
Loki was missing some very key parts of his revelations.
Avrid fell to his knees as Loki's illusion faded and Drago's throne room came back blink by blink. The sounds of pain and fear tuning in his ears and blood slamming into his nose. Because in this world Loki had wreaked havoc.
The people who had risked their lives for the ones they loved lay in their own blood and withered in pain. His father, a man Avrid would always think an unmovable statue, shook as he held together the pieces of his dead wife's brother. Tannis was not moving and Liogoo had never looked at Avrid with such disappointment and hurt. The only creature left untouched was the one Loki had forgotten about but it was a relief Avrid just barely managed to keep from his face.
Avrid looked over them all but his gaze fell on Liogoo. Crying unabashedly, her fingers soaked in blood and pressed heavily on Tannis' shoulder. He wanted to tell her to lift the Siren and check for the wound's true nature, but there were little words on his tongue. Though Tannis was not lost, not with the reassuring words he fed his princess and the hand over hers, keeping his blood from spilling completely. Liogoo coughed a sob and dipped her head to her watery Captain, to the creature she had scorned since the moment he'd appeared and yet seemed heartbroken in his demise. She prayed to the Old Gods. To the ones that still listened and then to Odin. To Loki's father that he would come and cast binds on the trickster and save them all.
It made something red and bitter climb up Avrid's throat.
"Look how easily you fall with no one and nothing around you." Loki spat, lording over Avrid. "With nothing to hide behind, no matter what God trained you or what gifts he gave you, no human could ever defeat me."
Avrid said nothing, could do nothing but stare at Liogoo. He wanted to order her wise, to tell her to stop blubbering and drag out the wounded but he feared she wouldn't listen even if she could.
"Do not worry though, I will make sure your end is as long and creative as the one you tried to give me." Loki hissed above him,
He laughed then. Quiet at first, under his breath and then he looked up at Loki. Waited until the God heard it too.
Wings.
Hundreds and hundreds of wings.
And one pair that threw a pale of fear into Loki's face.
Avrid lunged over Astrid's body with a single second to spare before the castle's walls came crumbling down on itself.
It was only then he realised she was very much awake but there was little time to fret, to feel relieved as Astrid coughed against Avrid's chest. Her entire body shook with the movement and it broke something so loud in Avrid's heart he was surprised she couldn't hear it.
Avrid couldn't feel the pieces of the roof crumbling around him but it was the lack of debris or dust- and indeed the muffled crashing, that had him grinning into Astrid's hair.
Toothless' low grumble shook through the cocoon he'd capsulated them into and Avrid sat up on his knees, pulling Astrid's thin body with him. He looked up at the dark leathery wings of his brother and could have swore the air had become lighter. That his heart beat faster and head cleared. That the sight of that dragon had him shoved so full of content he almost didn't want to tell Toothless to move. He did though, as the muffled screaming begun and the castle continued to creak. Toothless gurgled when he pulled away his wings and faced Avrid but there was little time for gleeful reunions.
Avrid dropped Astrid into Toothless' paws and without a word, the Night Fury understood that she was more important than his brother. That Avrid may never forgive if Toothless did not speed from the collapsing building and put Astrid somewhere safe.
With a more than unhappy glare, Toothless took off into the skies above.
…o0o…
Everything was either on fire or crushed under collapsed marble and concrete for that dragon army of Drago's seemed to have turned on him. It would explain where Avrid's dragon had been, perhaps freeing and bringing an army of his own to the oncoming battle.
Liogoo hadn't believed it- hadn't dared until that beast of a dragon came roaring through the skies. Until the familiar warning of his plasma whistled through the air and Liogoo had seconds to curl over Tannis. He'd protested but there was little to hear but the collapse of that great castle.
The roof above caved in first. An explosion that directed most of the falling debris to the sides, to the gardens of the castle and so it was only the smallest of chunks that hit Liogoo's back. But then Tannis had pushed her off and pulled himself in a sitting position, assessing Liogoo despite his own wounds. Liogoo didn't answer though, when Tannis questioned on whatever it was because through that fog she saw the shadow of the bitch she was going to kill.
In the powdered dust Loki had thought to catch Avrid off guard. Thought he could end him in one fell swing but as the castle above groaned loud enough to hide her approach, Liogoo swung her blade. The one made from the hands of a mortal blacksmith but blessed by a creature of Alfheim. By a Princess of the watery depths as she lay with the blood of her kind painted in her hands. Those ruins chalked on the blade were ancient ones, ones only known by a descendant of the great Queen Huil, a Siren Queen known for her viciousness.
It was a known legend that a God can only be killed by a God but they were rumours spilt by the AEsir. By creatures who feared true death and generated titles and lies to keep the rest of the realms afraid and docile. Titles like 'Gods' and 'Immortal' because neither were different from the other and so it was a better interpretation to say an immortal can only kill an immortal.
Loki was a God and therefore immortal, but so was a Princess born from a Queen of the Sirens.
She yelled the pain of betrayal and anger as that sword sung for Loki Odinson, Loki Laufeyjarson. The Trickster and Madness of Men. Liogoo swung for his chest and impaled him on her runes of curses. Impaled the God but didn't consider that he might have seen her coming and already killed her. That she tittered on the edge of death as she took the life from Loki.
She realised it now though, as she looked down. Looked at the snow white arrow impaling her chest and they mirrored each other, God and God killer looking down in shock at their chests, shock that the other had felled them.
Where Loki became black ash drifting in the wind, Liogoo only collapsed into Tannis' arms.
As the dust settled so did Liogoo, coughing eclipse crimson blood and Tannis croaked a plea but Liogoo could only groan because she felt such a pressure in her chest. She'd been hit before but whatever this arrow was it burned and pulsed a pain so fierce through her body.
"Just hold on Liogoo, hold on I'll find Avrid." Tannis pleaded but he only looked around because even he knew there was very little Avrid could do.
Liogoo coughed, trying to string her words together because there was sand dripping through an hourglass in the back of her head with very little left in it. She tapped on Tannis' hand and pulled his attention.
He saw it in her eyes.
"No Liogoo you just need to-"
"I want to- to say I'm sorry." Liogoo managed, trying to breathe around the arrow in her chest. "For lev- Gods, for leaving."
Tannis shook his head. "No Liogoo"
"I don't regret it." She whispered, closing her eyes. "Not a min- of it."
"Liogoo."
"I only regret that you didn't come with me."
Tannis ran his thumb across Liogoo's cheek, pulling away her tears. His lips tightened as he put his forehead to hers because she had asked him. In a million different ways. Begging outright to run away with her once and trying to sneak away so many times. It had seemed impossible then, a wild dream, but Tannis could see it now, the life they could have had.
"I lied." He choked. "That story of your mother- it was a ploy to get you home."
Liogoo coughed something of a laugh. "I know. The waves would have told me if their queen was dead."
And then there was such a stillness in Liogoo that Tannis didn't dare move. Couldn't face that her spluttering had stopped and her grip went loose. His sobs came unbidden and broken as Liogoo went lifeless in his arms.
…o0o…
Avrid watched Liogoo's death. Watched with a strange sort of numbness.
There was a silence in his body, one that slammed into him the minute Loki simply drifted away into ash. The lifting of the illusion and return of magic to the realm but Avrid couldn't revel in its return.
Dead. The God he had spent years searching for, years dreaming of the end to the betrayal Loki had caused. That retribution for the death of Baldur taken by the dead Siren Avrid had let come with him on a mission she should never have been near. She was his Cache- whether Liogoo knew it or not. His charge, his student and she was dead because of a God that Avrid couldn't take revenge on.
He walked over to Tannis and put his hand on the Siren's shoulder, the one not still bleeding.
"Let me take her." Avrid urged but Tannis shook his head. "Kohuru must return to Yggdrasil, to their home to be properly buried."
"She is Siren, she is Huil." Tannis rasped. "She will return to the sea."
Avrid didn't want to argue with the Siren but there was little time. She had to be given the rites of the Kohuru if she was to stand a chance to become part of Yggdrasil's roots. To return to the Home Tree as she swore in initiation, to refuse this meant refusing her that honour. There was a different belief for the Sirens though and Tannis held onto Liogoo's empty body.
Avrid sighed and ran his hand along the ground beside Liogoo. Weeds came to life, growing and wrapping up around her body. Cocooning her. Tannis tried to shove them off her but Avrid grabbed the Siren and pulled him away with more force than was kind.
And despite his curses, Tannis struggled against Avrid with little strength. Adrenaline rushing out of him and replacing it with the reality of that wound. Avrid had already started healing him, stitching the split in his shoulder with a simple mutter. With a shove, Tannis went down, falling away to unconsciousness beside Liogoo's leafy cocoon.
Before those weeds could encapsulate her completely, Avrid crouched down and muttered the last rites to Liogoo's forehead. Pressing a fleeting kiss in place of her mothers as the Sirens would have done, before she was encased and pulled through the earth. Pulled by the hands of Yggdrasil that reach even to Midgard where she would forever rest with the past fallen warriors of Radox.
Avrid dared look up then, to assess the rest of the fallen.
Translations:
At dāræ ~ 'You fool.'
At lét svá ætla hér ~ 'You did this to her?'