Sefæra fought to keep the second blaze in check. Likely it had started out the same size as the one in the Council Hall, but it had grown. Not only had it more time it also had more fuel. Many of the patients wouldn't be able to move or escape the flames and the air would have been saturated with healing magic. Healers would still have been inside and they had probably tried to fight the Fel fire as if it were a normal or charmed fire. Unlike normal or charmed fire though, Fel didn't need oxygen to burn and it was the only type of fire that fed on magic.
They would have fought the fire, removing the air molecules around it to smother it or raising wards around their patients as they tried to evacuate. You couldn't fight Fel though. All you could do was flee and contain it. If someone got left behind then they got left behind. It was cruel, but that was how Fel magic was. It had led to the death of the Gods as they slaughtered each other for power. There was no greater sorrow then the fact Fel magic had outlived the gods.
Tilaria was one of several mortals who had learned the magic that had killed the gods, but not the only one. Daris Amrasson, an infamous Ljósálfr traitor, was one, but there were others. Normally, Tilaria dealt with them, but as a Dökkálfr, she was technically a citizen of Muspelheim and foster child of Surtr. She wasn't always where she needed to be. Sometimes she wasn't able to get where she needed as her Dökkálfr heritage barred her from being allowed to help. So she had trained the other Raven Blades to deal with Fel users. Sefæra Darisdottir was one of the members that had the best success, able to draw from the Void.
It was that training that let Sefæra stabilize one part of the palace, and that training that was letting her work on this second blaze. There were several problems with this blaze though. She hadn't attended to it as quickly as the first so it had had time to grow. Unlike in the council where everyone had simply fled, mages had stayed behind to help patients, fighting the fire despite that backfiring. The dose she had given Loki, thinking she was done with Fel for the day, had lessened the amount of Seidr she had to deal with it. The main infirmary was, like most of Asgard's rooms, bigger on the inside then the outside, and it was giving her even more trouble.
A few embers of Fel were still getting through, forcing her to look behind and deal with each individual one before it could grow. That distracted her from smothering the fire which let even more embers escape. It was a dangerous cycle.
Behind her, Thor was helping escort the injured and those that managed to escape the blaze to a safer distance. He was willing to go back into the Fel and see if he could rescue those still trapped, but Sefæra had flatly told him no. Odin, standing near Sefæra, had concurred.
"I can't contain it," Sefæra called out as she was forced to take a step back, terror seeping into her voice.
As long as Fel fire had fuel to burn it would theoretically never stop. That meant it could burn the entire realm of Asgard to dust. It had happened to some of the other realms created by the gods, some of the worlds that hadn't survived the gods' fall. Only nine realms had survived Fel, and only eight, as Niflheim was dead, had managed to retain life. Eight out of the dozens that had originally been created.
Her shadows became transparent as she drew on Ginnungagap, thanking Yggdrasil for letting her use it. The Fel fire gnawing through the stones in an attempt to get free and began to screech when they hit the ward Sefæra had raised with the void. It began to howl impatiently to be free, clawing at the ward like a rabid cat. Never did Sefæra wish so much that Fel had not been rediscovered after the gods' fall.
At her feet, her shadow squirmed, no longer mirroring her silhouette. It was impatient and it knew the danger of this.
Give me some time, Sef chided the spirit that she had bonded with her shadow, I know your job is to protect me but my job is to protect Asgard.
Fey was hurriedly working to stabilize those with Fel burns with other mages, and Odin brushed by her to Sefæra. He really didn't like the Raven Blades and he didn't like the shadowcaster as a person, but he was not going to let Asgard be razed by Fel. Anything would be better than that. Her shadow tugged at the hem of her pants, alerting her to his approach.
"Sefæra," Odin addressed her. "Can I help you reinforce the seal?"
"It will feed on your magic," Sef shook her head, "won't work."
"What if you drew on my energy?" Odin asked.
"You'd let me use the Odinforce?" Sefæra asked.
Something in her tone of voice changed when she asked that, and Odin didn't think he liked the change. He had a feeling he might regret letting the Raven near one of the most powerful sources of magic on Asgard, but he didn't have a choice. Protecting Asgard came first.
With a slight feeling of dread, Odin brought Gungnir out of sleep mode. The instrument hummed greetings as it woke up, and Odin set a hand on Sefæra's shoulder. With a gentle nudge, he redirected its power and told it to reinforce Sefæra's seidr in her soul. Sef gasped as new power suddenly flowed into her soul, energizing her.
The transparent energy of the Void began to glow gold and she quickly lessened the influx of power, not wanting to give the Fel any energy to feed from. Glorious power tripped through her nervous system as she slowly sipped from the pure energy of the Odinforce. The Odinforce was more than just Odin's lifeforce spiked with Gungnir. It also contained the lifeforce's of Odin's older brother Vili and Vée as they had given Odin their power just before their deaths. It was an amazing source of power for a mortal to wield.
The Fel leapt towards the tantalizing hum of the Odinforce but smashed facefirst into Ginnungagap. Where it touched the void's power, bits of it turned into nothingness as their atoms were broken apart and turned from matter to energy. Sipping gently from the Odinforce, she expanded her field until it was encircled and then froze it there.
The Fel was contained. Sefæra swooned as Odin cut off the supply of Odinforce and lowered his hand from her shoulder. He was about to catch her but her shadow lifted off the ground and caught her, becoming solid. It was mirroring Sefæra's shape, but it still made Odin take a sharp step back. Although he had at some point realized Sefæra's shadow was no longer just a shadow he didn't know when. It had been that way for centuries, but it still unnerved him.
The shadow proceeded to pick up its guardian in its arms and carry her some ways away from the Void-enforced ward. It set her on the ground, leaning her against the wall, without making a sound. Then it lost its form that mirrored hers and sank into ground. The two-dimensional black stain rejoined with Sefæra's body, once again mirroring her form and acting as if it was any other shadow.
Thor exhaled softly, feeling a chill go down his spine. Sefæra loved her shadow and it had helped Thor in the past, so although he didn't hate it, he couldn't say it didn't disturb him. He pushed it aside and knelt by Sefæra to check her pulse, ignoring the fact that the shadow was moving ever so slightly despite Sefæra being still.
"What about all the people in there?" Fey demanded, standing from her most recent patient.
"They're dead," Odin told her harshly, "or they soon will be."
"But-"
"Fey," Myrit, standing to one side, interrupted her. "He's right. We've dealt with Fel before."
Fey turned her head and looked away, biting a lip in frustration. She turned away from them and stalked to look at another patient, one of the Star Guard that had been injured from the Celestials. Odin waved Vir over and the Commander of his Star Guard came.
"This is a present from the Celestials, isn't it?" Vir asked Odin. "The attack was the gift and this was the wrapping."
"I think it's safe to assume that," Odin agreed. "Vir, do you know how many mortals know how to use Fel?"
Vir looked down, thinking it over. He shook his head after a few seconds.
"Most of them are dead," Vir shrugged. "They've been killed… except."
He narrowed his eyes and glanced up at Odin.
"Tilaria," Odin finished.
Vir exhaled and shook his head. "It's not her fault. You know that, right? Once the Celestials capture someone they give them new memories and discard the old. Asgardians like Red that they reprogram can't even remember that they were raised in the Nine Realms. They think they were raised among the Celestials and owe allegiance only to them."
"Yes," Odin admitted, "but you also know that the reprogramming, once completed, is permanent. There's no choice but to kill them and end the threat they pose. That's what had to be done with Red."
Killing Red hadn't been easy. She had been a girl, only about fifteen years old by human time. As a former Raven Blade she was well-trained with intimate knowledge of the squad and Asgard's defenses.
"That won't go over well," Vir said darkly. "Loki will do everything possible to stop us from killing her and the Ravens will side with him, turning them against us. We need the Ravens and Loki. He proved his usefulness when he drove off the Celestials."
"He is expendable," Odin disagreed, "and he will become expendable. Now send out search parties. We need to make sure there aren't any more fires."
"Fine," Vir took the chance to steer to a more pleasant subject. "I'll get some men together."
"She'll be fine," Myrit told Thor with a smile. "If Sef was in real danger of dying from exhaustion then her shadow would be panicking. It's just sitting there all mellow though."
"Thor," Odin called out, flagging his son over. "Are you fit enough to go with Vir and scout for more fires?"
"I'm fine," Thor nodded.
"I can come to," Myrit added. "Some eyes in the sky will help, and I'm sure I could round up the rest of the squad."
Thor nodded, used to having the Ravens involved. Odin however, cleared his throat. Myrit rolled his eyes despite Thor cringing.
"The Raven Blades are no longer a unit," Odin reminded them. "They're civilians now.
"What?" Myrit taunted, venom chilling his normally light voice. "Haven't you ever heard of citizens arrest Allfather?"
He laughed and then shifted into his hawk form and flew down the hallway, going out an open window. Thor sighed and shook his head at Myrit's sudden viciousness. Odin didn't have any friends among the Ravens. If Loki attempted a coup, then Thor realized he wasn't sure if the Ravens wouldn't back him up and help him kill Odin. They were simply too loyal to him.
That thought did not put the prince, now Asgard's only prince, at ease.
Vir glanced around at the various patients in an attempt to locate his brother, but there was no sign of Tyr, Asgard's one-handed General and Odin's second in command. He brushed the thought aside, assuming Tyr had already launched into things. He was sure he'd come across Tyr sooner or later.
I sense a possible, explosive clash in the future between Loki and his foster father.