3
Loki/Odin orchestrated the evacuation of the palace as he had his older sons placed in charge of evacuating various parts of the city. Everywhere one looked there was the hectic chaos of food and gold being gathered as Einherjar, under the command of the Odinsons, policed the streets and halls of the palace to aid as well as protect refugees in their flight to the northern mountains.
Long ships were lined up at the walkway to the palace and on every major street in the city to evacuate women, children, the elderly and the infirm. Volstagg's heart was tearing in two as he lifted his screaming children into the long ship nearest his house. His youngest daughter refused to release his neck as she cried hysterically and an Einherjar guardsman had to help the Warrior's wife pry the child from him.
"Be good, obey your mother" he tried to be stern and fatherly with his farewell to them, and to his oldest, his son he gave this charge, "Take care of your mother and your sisters for you're the man of the house now. Listen to your mother for she is very wise and behave with honor in all things."
"And you, you fat fool" his weeping wife leaned over the railing of the long ship to kiss him, "try not to get yourself killed."
Volstagg grinned at her and then waved goodbye as the long ship rose into the air and his small family flew off to what he hoped would be safety in the northern kingdom of the Dwarf King Enar.
"PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!" an indignant Sif cried out in anger as Hogun, the grim, carried her in his arms up the gang plank into a flying long ship, "I will not be shipped out like so much baggage when I can fight!"
"You are in no condition to fight Lady Sif" Hogun dispassionately told her as he walked to the center of the long ship's deck and set her down next to a weeping elderly woman of the court, "If you wish to be useful take care of them, a true warrior does more than just fight."
Hogun ignored the scowl on her face as he turned to leave, but before he disembarked from the ship he spoke with a tall, broad shouldered warrior who glanced in Sif's direction, nodded his head, clasped Hogun's arm in comradeship and then the Vanirman left the ship. The soldier walked over to where Sif sat and stood behind her with his arms crossed and a crafty smile upon his bearded face. A smile that Sif did not take a liking to as she glared up at him from where she sat, but when she attempted to rise he placed a firm but gentle hand upon her shoulder, pushing her back on her seat.
"I am here to see to your every need my lady" he spoke with a hint of laughter in his voice, "and at the moment you need to sit down and tend to the Lady Hakana."
At the sound of her name the old woman turned towards Sif and taking Sif's left hand into her wrinkled own began to weep all the harder in hopelessness as she was a widow with four strong sons. She knew she would become all alone in the world, for none of her sons had yet to take a wife and if they died there would never be the chance for her to have grandchildren. Her and her late husband's family lines would die out after hundreds of generations and be forgotten in the time to come. It was for this that she wept and died a little inside with each tear that coursed down her cheek.
In pity Sif patted her hand and with a weak smile told the Lady Hakana that things would be alright and soon she'd see her sons again. It was a hollow reassurance, Sif knew this but she felt the old woman needed something to hold on to even it were only fragile straws of an improbable hope. She then felt the long ship rise and when it was high enough it set a course for the northern mountains and then set sail.
It had been a young thrall of the Head Librarian that had discovered the Lord High Councilor and raised the alarm. Guards were sent for and when they arrived they gently picked up the Vizier when one of them discovered he was still alive. They made for the Healing Room as quickly as they could as the Head Librarian sent the thrall to inform the Lady Amora about her father. The youth ran as fast as he could to the Vizier's quarters where he found The Enchantress in the process of ordering her own thralls to wrap up food that sat on the table for her father, and to pack what gold and jewelry she had for the evacuation, and to find her father as he was late for his meal and could expect a proper scolding from her for being late. When the boy breathlessly told her about her father the shock nearly made her faint but a servant caught her and helped her steady herself so that she sprinted out of her rooms and headed for the Healing Room.
Loki/Odin took reports of the process of the evacuation and of how their defenses were being manned in the Golden Throne Room. He passed on encouragement to his brother's through the soldiers that they sent back with reports and assembled what he thought was a more than adequate defense strategy which he sent back with the soldiers. Loki/Odin would have three tiers of warriors with armed civilians mingled with them at the city's wall, midway into Asgard, and the heaviest concentration of warriors would be at the palace and here he would lead them into battle should the outer defenses not hold. As he dismissed all those in the throne room to their respective duties he caught the whiff of perfume and he walked towards the back of the throne room to the large flat shaped pillar directly behind the throne before slipping behind it and grabbing at the air with both his hands to catch something unseen.
"I did warn you about your perfume darling did I not" Loki/Odin spoke to thin air which became an enraged Lady Amora, wielding a long bladed dagger, and he backed her into the great pillar as she struggled to break his grip on her wrists. "Why this sudden change in attitude towards me my dear?"
"I told you what would happen if my father came to any harm" she snarled at him, "even now he lies at death's door waiting for Hela to greet him."
"And what makes you think I would be responsible?" Loki took the chance that no one would be lingering around the throne room, or, that no one would enter it by changing back to his true form as he angrily answered back.
"Because he was stabbed in the back, oh master of knives, when he returned to the library" she tried to squirm free but Loki held her fast, "a thrall found him on the floor near the records of land acquisitions."
"I do not know who may have done this Amora, but rest assured it was not me. I told you, your father is too useful to me to have killed and since he is far older than even Odin, time and nature would do that job for me" Loki released her left hand and took the dagger out of her right hand. "I promise you Amora I will find out who is responsible for this attempt at murdering your father, but for now you must get yourself, and him, out of the palace and to the northern mountains as soon as you can."
He released her other hand and pulled her body close to his and he kissed her with a desperate feeling that he may not see her again, despite all his manipulations and planning for his reign as Asgard's sovereign, then he let her go and she disappeared before his eyes so that no one else would see her leave as he transformed back into Odin.
It was obvious to him that the Vizier had discovered something important that was connected somehow to the raids on the western boarders and someone had gotten frightened enough to attempt to assassinate him. Perhaps it would be prudent if HE paid a visit to Karnilla, even if it meant revealing to her that her son-in-hosterage was still alive, in order to find the truth and put an end to this festering irritant. As she had no love for either Odin or Asgard he knew his secret would be safe with her, and it might honestly please her to know that Odin was in the dungeons and her "sword of vengeance" as she had referred to him on this day so long ago, was now King of Asgard. Turning himself invisible he left the throne room to make for one of the hidden portals he'd discovered over the years during his many nocturnal wanderings to go to Nornheim and Karnilla.
The planet where Heimdall sent him to was a festering, oozing swamp as far as his eyes could see in any direction. Gases bubbled up through the muck and actually caught fire in some places, Thor briefly held his hand over his nose as the air reeked of sulfur and methane. He could see no trees or hear any sounds of life, whether insect or bird, so that could mean there wasn't life yet on this planet so no one would be harm by the destruction he and Mangog would cause.
The Thunder god did not have to wait long as the now all too familiar fireball that heralded the monster's coming could be seen in the dense fog that covered this world and he marked where it landed. Whirling Mjolnir till he got enough speed up he released the strap, caught the loop and took off to where the monster landed.
Once again Mangog climbed out of the crater created by his fall and upon spying Thor roared in anger as he reached out a clawed hand to crush the son of Odin. Calling down lightning from the sky Thor smashed the end of his Great War hammer into the earth and the ground split and caved in causing both he and the brutish monster to fall into the enlarged crater. Whirling his Uru hammer above his head Thor quickly flung himself out of the newly enlarged crater and landed a few hundred yards away from it listening to the fading bellowing of Mangog.
A pillar of fire and steam erupted from the crater as gas infused muck and water fell onto the glowing red hot crater's bottom. Coming as close as he dared, Thor tried to look down the crater in hopes, that perhaps he'd slain the creature, but could not get near the edge as the ground crumbled into the crater and he had to back up to a safe distance. He was about to call for Heimdall when he heard the fiend roar and felt the tremors of it climbing back out of the pit. By Hela, just what would it take to kill this monstrosity?
"Puny insect!" it bellowed at him, "If the icy cold of space or the blazing fires of a sun cannot kill me, I who have the power of a billion, billion souls, what makes you think your puny weapons can?"
Mangog bared his bottom tusks in a snarl as he reached for Thor to crush him like an insect but Thor dodged his clawed hands as he began to whirl Mjolnir above his head forming a tornado that grew in width and in strength. Safe in the eye of this storm Thor whirled his hammer faster and faster as he rose up into the air, the tornado he created was now as tall as the planet's stratosphere and nearly a hundred miles wide and all of it was his to command. It sucked Mangog off its clawed feet and the monster was bashed about by hail stones that were as large as it and struck by earthen debris that blinded it as it flailed about. Lightning bolts as thick as freight trains struck Mangog and Thor was rewarded by hearing it scream in pain for the first time. Perhaps he could succeed in killing the fiend after all.
By his command it started to snow and the temperature dropped to absolute freezing and he saw the creature begin to ice up as snow began to bury it. He could see that the demon could no longer move as the snow balled around the monstrous form until it was the size of an S.H.I.E.L.D. heliocarrier. It was now too big even for a storm of this magnitude to keep aloft and the beast named Mangog plummeted to the ground and as it fell from the sky, Thor summoned all the electrical power of the lightning bolts to Mjolnir as he flew down to the ground with a roar and when he reached the planet's surface with a bellow he struck the ground a colossal blow with his Uru hammer just as Mangog landed. The ground split in six different directions as the earth beneath his feet began to fall away as the force of his blow sent shock waves throughout the marshy planet.
The area the size of Africa simply disappeared beneath him as thousands of miles away mountains rose up and sea basins were formed at their roots while the tornado he created began to dissipate. As he fell he began to lose consciousness, and he was dimly aware that he had won, and as his body gained momentum he had one thought, one word that came from his heart, "Jane."
At that moment the multicolored light of the Bifrost snared him and carried his unconscious form back to Asgard.
Heimdall quickly shut off the Bifrost and went to the Thunder god's aid and with relief washing the worry from the gatekeeper's face when he discovered that Thor was still alive, despite the fact that both of Thor's arms and hands were badly burned. Grabbing Thor's right arm he moved the Odinson to a sitting position while hooking his Prince's arm over his neck he lifted Thor off the floor and securing the Thunder god's right leg with his other arm Heimdall himself rose up from the floor. Leaving Mjolnir on the floor, as Thor was the only one who could lift it; it was pointless to try to take it as well, as Heimdall shifted Thor's weight a bit upon his shoulders.
"Oof" the gatekeeper groaned, "your mortal must be a good cook as you've gained weight on your stay in Midgard."
As quickly as he could with his heavy burden Heimdall made for the room of Healing and once he knew of Thor's condition, he would make his way to the King to inform Odin of his son's latest victory.
Karnilla must be preoccupied with one of her male concubines as Loki strolled up to her hall's doors, whose guards were completely unaware that he was there. To be fair, he was invisible, but that should have made no difference as Karnilla's awareness of something or someone magical was approaching would have alerted her to his presence. He calmly walked past the guards that lined the way to her throne room and past the ones in the throne room as he made his way to her quarters. Even though the closed doors to Karnilla's rooms were strong and thick Loki could still hear her passionate cries as she must be finishing a ride on a brutish Norn male. Loki knew the story of how the men of Nornheim came to be such brutes as they, at one time, were the most handsome in all the Nine Realms. They became arrogant in their vanity and when one of them, in a cruel jest made an older witch fall in love with him and then publicly humiliated her, she cursed all Norn men for an eternity of ugliness once they gained maturity, so that no Norn woman would want or desire them. If it weren't for arranged marriages there wouldn't be any at all, and, would have forced the males to rape and ravage to satisfy their passions and procreate the next generation.
Loki heard Karnilla's cries soften and quiet down and he surmised that her ride was over and his guess was right as a giant Norn with a scarred face, whom Loki instantly recognized, left Karnilla's chamber in somewhat of a hurry as he carried his clothes in front of his manhood and left down the hallway leading to the soldiers quarters.
Loki grinned cruelly, knowing that Balthar was very much in love with Karnilla, but she would have preferred to have ridden a handsome Asgardian stallion instead of the troll like bull that walked away. Balthar had left her chamber doors open and Loki walked in stopping at a discrete distance from the bed that Karnilla lay upon. She hadn't even bothered to undress when she took her frustration out on her Legion commander as it was obvious now to Loki that once again Balder denied himself to her. He waited until her breathing became normal and she was beginning to become aware of her surroundings and aware of his presence. She sat bolt upright in her bed and stared at the space where he stood, "Show yourself to me whoever you are."
"It is only me dear "mother" come to seek your advice and council" Loki grinned as he appeared before her in his own form.
"I knew the stories I heard about your death on Svartalfheim were ridiculous" Karnilla smiled craftily at him, "since you are so talented in cheating death."
Climbing out of her bed she approached him to take hold of his head in both her hands in a motherly fashion to tilt his head down so that she might kiss his forehead, "Now what council can Karnilla give to Loki of Asgard? Could it concern these raids on your western boarders that supposedly are carried out by Norn Warriors? Or would it be what to do with Odin, wherever you have him imprisoned?"
"Perhaps both" Loki spoke with respect to her majesty and the memory of her power as a witch, "because if your warriors are not responsible, then who is, and whoever they are they have attacked my High Councilor and the old man sits at the precipice of death to the heartache of my future Queen and your daughter-in-hosterage, Amora."
"So at last my "sword of vengeance" sits the throne of Asgard" Karnilla played with one of her many rings as she walked around the treacherous son of Odin, "and where do you have Odin squirreled away as you rule in his form I take it."
"He will continue to rot in the dungeons until I have siphoned off all his powers and then he shall meet an untimely end, but not before taking a young bride to be his Queen and fathering an heir to the throne. Then after a proper period of mourning Amora will take a "relative" of Odin's to husband and make him king and father to the last "Odinson" born." Loki grinned at Karnilla with a satisfied look upon his face.
"And just how do you intend on accomplishing that" Karnilla quizzed him, "when all of Odin's blood are well known at court?"
"My great, great grandfather Buri's first born, a son, went from his mother's womb straight to the grave. I intend on taking his name, Hadrian, and having him come from a small and little known family branch of Odin's brother Ve, all of whom have died out, but with a little magic, birth records can be forged and a name inserted in genealogies, and I will continue my uninterrupted rule of Asgard for the next five thousand years or more."
"And I shall at last have my revenge against Odin. You have done well my son by washing away all doubts that you would be my "sword" and my heir as well" Karnilla softly laughed as she gently stroked his face. "Now as to these raiders that plague you, I can send a company of men cloaked as wild beasts to spy out the land for you and give you warning of another attack so that you may deal with them in a manner befitting you. Rest assured though this is not the doings of any of my men as there is no one fool enough to defy my edicts."
"Many thanks o Queen" Loki bowed his head in respect, "but could you do me one more favor?"
Briefly Loki explained about Mangog and how not even Thor was able to stop its rampage or its coming to Asgard. Karnilla advised him to cloak himself in invisibility and follow her as she walked out of her quarters. She led him down into the lower bowels of her hall into a room that fairly reeked of magical power and this assaulted Loki's senses as soon as he walked into the room. Karnilla closed and locked the door behind her as he became visible again. She moved past him to walk down the stone steps to where a plethora of talismans, caged beasts used for sacrifices, dried herbs and pottery filled with potions and powders were housed. It was to a raised round dais that she led him to and he saw it was a pool of water, still water with a mist floating over it. In a low muttering voice the Norn Queen spoke over the water and it began to stir until an image of Thor's first battle with the creature appeared in it. Loki was shocked at its size and strength and at how easily it wiped out an entire company of warriors. The creature itself appeared to have a face that looked as if it were reddish brown carved stone. Its eyebrows seemed to be sharp pointed molten gold that thickened into cruel looking horns. Blunt, rounded tusks were revealed each time the monster roared and it had a rounded tubular beard that also had small golden upturned horns that covered its chin. Its bare chest, arms and legs were yellow in color with two murderous looking claws for hands and for feet it had three equally deadly looking claws. It also wore what looked like purple breeches as a yellow tail whipped about wildly.
Still muttering Karnilla changed the image to Thor's second battle with the creature and Loki studied it intently. It had to have a weakness as all things do, but what, and most importantly, where was it? The only oddity that he could see were two oval shaped black spots on the creature's back in between its shoulder blades and directly over its heart, if heart it had.
Again the image changed and Loki watched Thor battle this beast all alone using nothing but his command of the weather. Loki watched Thor create a tornado several kilometers wide and unmercifully pound the brute with all the power of the storm; rain, lightning, hail, and freezing snow before destroying half the planet to bury Mangog in an earthen grave. He saw a wounded Thor collapse and then be plucked up by the Bifrost before following Mangog to its doom, but, was Thor still alive?
Karnilla ceased her muttering and the images dissipated, "I thank you for your council and your aid my Queen but now I must return to Asgard and see if my brother is alive or dead" Loki spoke with great urgency while he ran up the stairs, but, had to wait for Karnilla to climb them and unlock the door as he turned invisible and left the cellar room of spells.