"Malekith," she breathed back. "That's not possible. He resides in Hela's domain. He is her prisoner."
"I know not what this means for your daughter, my princess, but we desperately have need of your aid," Cypress pressed on. Behind him, the Vanaheim warriors were slowly pressing their attackers into the dirt.
She was peripherally aware of when Loki stepped into existence beside her and when a shield snapped into place around them, cutting off any potential reaction from the Avengers. "You will have our aid, gladly and willingly, in two hours," Loki said softly. "There is more information to gather."
Relief washed across Cypress' face as he nodded. "As you wish it, my prince. The location of the last funeral?"
"That is sufficient."
Sigyn cut the spell even as Loki was spinning the next. It took three tries and ten long minutes before spinning colors swirled across the ice. There was snarling and swearing, the spinning flash of a sword, and the disjointed colors of spell fire. "This had better be good!" came an enraged feminine shriek.
"Hela!" Sigyn said.
The entire scene paused and for a moment everyone could see the stark twilight of a sky that did not belong to Earth's skies before it re-centered on a woman with dark hair, sun-kissed skin, dark blue eyes, and features that were reminiscent of Sigyn's beneath the dark splotches of green blood that were splattered across her face. "Mother!" she gasped.
"Do you require aid, daughter-mine?" Loki asked before the two women could say anything further.
Hela wrenched her gaze from her mother to study her father for a long moment. Then, there was a flash of her sword, a spray of gore that spattered her, and something dropped behind her. "No. None required. I assume that in opening this channel of communication that you already know some of what happened here."
"Malekith leads an assault against Vanaheim," Sigyn told her and Hela flinched.
They lost sight of her again as something caught her attention and she spun to attack it. Another spray of blood and gore, a sickening crunch, and then she was looking at them again. "Amora led a number of Dark Elves and humans to my realm. How she did not die a slow death here is beyond me. It's on the list of things to ask the dead-" another grunt and slash on her part "-when this fight is done. Good hunting."
"Hela-" Sigyn started.
"None of it was your fault, mother, and I will see you again. Look to Midgard for more of Amora's diversions," Hela said and then the connection went dead.
Sigyn stared at the surface of the ice for a moment and then dismissed the spell. "Fenrir will wish to assist in this."
"No."
"It is neither your choice, nor mine," she told him and her voice cracked. "It's theirs. Go, ask them. I'll take care of things here," she said, glancing at those that were gathered through the room behind them.
Loki didn't even follow her glance before he had left the vicinity. The shield rippled out a moment after he was gone. Sif and Hogun were the first to cross to her side, their expressions already telling her what they wanted. "There has been no word from Thor?" Sif asked.
"Cypress said nothing of Amora leading the marauders. It is reasonable to believe that her own goals lie within Asgard and that that is where she is."
"Malekith leads the marauders? What of the Dark Elves?" Sif asked.
Sigyn's expression remained unchanged even as she considered the implications. "There will be another wave after the marauders have exhausted themselves. He's wearing away at Vanaheim's defenses. Strategically, it is one of the most vulnerable of the nine realms."
"Vanaheim doesn't have the warriors it once did," Hogun said, some unnamed emotion flickering across his face before it was buried beneath the mask.
There was a long pause as Sigyn considered him and the struggle he must have been going through. "You wish to fight for Vanaheim, to protect it and its people," Sigyn said, favoring her kinsman with a look. "However, there has been no response from Thor or Asgard in the face of this battle. That worries me. Your first duty must be to Thor. I will care for Vanaheim in your place. Ensuring that Thor and Asgard remain unsnared by Amora will be your first priority. However, Amora's powers do work mostly off of her voice. I'm going to limit your hearing to only Sif's voice." He merely nodded even as she wove the spell that would limit his auditory functions.
There was nothing else he could do. Vanaheim's princess had set his first duty to Asgard and claimed the protection of Vanaheim's people for herself. Anyone else might have still been torn, but the path was clear enough to him and he trusted her to keep her word. Without so much as another glance at the humans, he followed Sif to the location where they had first been dropped and waited only a moment longer after she had called to Heimdal before he was enveloped by the light of the Bi-Frost.
A thousand people lost themselves in the same haze in the same moment. Good people, politicians, and junkies alike were drawn into the spell that had been woven over them. When-if-they woke again, nothing would ever be the same for anyone.
He stared at the object in his hand, common sense warring with dread. It had to be done-did it? Had to be done-except she wasn't evil. She was a danger to them all-she was a healer. The planet had already been invaded once-except that hadn't been her fault. She wasn't human, wasn't like them-that didn't mean she had to die. She had to die-except she didn't.
Do it. The command and compulsion wrapped around him faster than it had the last time and his hand closed tightly around the butt of the pistol-where did it come from-and then he lost himself in the haze that seemed to cloud his senses-so unlike the last time.
Sigyn watched the light of the Bi-Frost with a hooded gaze, almost unsure what to make of it. If Heimdal was still able to respond… She abandoned those thoughts for a later time and turned to face the Avengers. Tony was leaning against the counter and it struck her that they had come so far in the few months since she had woken on that very damn counter. The circlets glinted on his wrists and she was aware that every eye had turned to her, every conversation having died with Loki's appearance.
"Shits gone to hell, then?" Tony asked.
"And come back," she replied. "There are two realms under attack and Earth is likely to join that number soon. Asgard can defend itself, but Earth and Vanaheim are the most vulnerable realms. I need help, but I cannot ask you to leave your world undefended." A movement beyond Tony in the hallway caught her eye, but she never looked away from Tony.
Tony and Steve shared a glance. "Leave that to us, Princess," Tony said. "We'll-"
"Dr. Selvig, please-" Jarvis began, then a sound like an exploding firework rang through the room and had the humans either turning with raised weapons or dropping into crouches closer to the floor.
Pain blossomed through Sigyn's shoulder and sliced through the shields that had been skin tight just a moment before. Training saw her magic gathered to her call and her uninjured hand extending towards the threat before she truly registered the person that she was facing. Then, the spell was released and in the instant before it struck Dr. Selvig she registered the sheen of sweat, labored breathing, and dilated pupils. A rotation of her wrist and pull on the magic turned the nature of the spell as it impacted his chest and he crumpled into a heap and the gun clattered to the ground. Around her, the Avengers had paused at the sight of Dr. Selvig.
Signy turned her uninjured hand to her shoulder and was peeling the shirt back to get a better look at the wound. Peripherally, she was aware of the lights that slid over her skin and scanned her vitals and she was sure that Jarvis was doing the same for Dr. Selvig. The bullet hadn't made a clean path through her shoulder. She was too dense in muscle and body type for the human weapon to have done that. The shield reformed around her shoulder and hand when she slid her fingers into the wound and dug the bullet out. It took her a minute and, in that time, the Steve, Jane, and Darcy had gone to Dr. Selvig's side while Tony watched her, his wristlets having extended to encompass his hands and most of his arms. Clint kept his distance from them, his face a blank mask as he observed the entire scene with one hand clenched around the hilt of a wicked dagger.
"Eric Selvig will come to no harm for this or for my spell, but he will remain unconscious for the better part of a day," she said, flicking the bloody bullet to the ground and then pressing her hand to the wound. Magic flowed from her palm and into her shoulder, working to knit the damage as she studied the scientist's crumpled form. "Those who are untrained usually have very little resistance to mind control."
There was a pause and Tony's gaze shifted to Clint, who was still crouched and facing towards her. She caught the change in his gaze and studied Hawkeye for a long moment before one eyebrow flicked up. The wound stopped bleeding and the shield adjusted itself to let her drop her hand to her side, a move that she kept deliberately casual.
"Hawkling?" she half-crooned, her voice pitched deliberately. Clint flinched and she dropped her gaze from his. "As I said, the untrained. For those who are trained, it's harder to take them over but the memories are difficult."
Clint rose slowly from his crouch, deliberately unclenching his fingers from around the dagger and dropping it at his feet. As neutrally as he could manage, he asked, "So, was this something Amora did?"
"I detected no trace of the Enchantress' magic," Jarvis informed them. "Even now, there is no trace of it."
Sigyn looked thoughtfully at Dr. Selvig and then shook her head. "You're correct, Jarvis. I sense nothing of the kind, either." She hesitated, her eyes lingering on the form of the scientist. "As much as I would love to assist you in this, it is perhaps better that I leave. I have other matters to-"
"No," Tony told her flatly. "Stay planted where you are, princess. Jarvis, how's Pepper and Bruce?"
"They are currently locked down in the lab," came the response. "No damage has been sustained and tests on the clones continue."
"And the gun?"
There was a long pause and then, almost surprised, "I have no records showing Dr. Selvig's vital scans despite the regular logs I have kept for the other occupants of the tower."
Tony looked torn at that, but Sigyn's gaze had settled on Clint again. He was whole of mind and stronger than he had been. Just because there were no traces and no alarms had been set off…
She held her hand out and magic filled her palm as she altered the nature of the spell until it was a whisper of what it had been. "Can you detect this, Jarvis?" she asked and the lights centered on her upraised palm. The lights blinked out after a moment and then recentered again on her hand.
"I cannot."
She swore viciously and then tore the spell apart as she wove something else. "It is not mind control. Amora has taken the wills of those she has cast this spell upon. Mind control alters one's perceptions and understandings of the world. To lose one's will is…" she trailed off as she twisted the spell viciously and power flared through it. Complete, she flung it at Dr. Selvig's prone body and watched as a green flare dissipated through him. "Once that spell is set, it is nearly undetectable and damn hard to combat. Dr. Selvig is free of its influence." Power flared between her hands again, highlighting runes and pathways of energy for just a moment. As she worked the spell, she closed her eyes briefly. "I will leave you the counterspell, Tony, and you should be able to manipulate it with your technology, but each spell will only be powerful enough for ten people." She met the inventor's gaze. "Keep your people here. I will care for my own realm and return as soon as I am able." She flung the spell at the countertop where it shimmered in a red ball of light that hovered three inches above the surface.
Then, she crafted the first spell again, twining the spell slower around her hands than the first time she had done it. Through it, Jarvis hadn't let up on his scans of her power, seeking someway to both detect and counter the new threat. Together, they worked through the first spell twice in silence while Steve picked Dr. Selvig up and carried him to one of the guest rooms on that floor. When he returned, Sigyn was working the spell a third time and pulling out pieces of it to let the float in the air before her. Tony, Clint, Darcy, and Clint were observing the process with interest.
When she started on the spell a fourth time, tearing and shattering the runes she had been using, Jarvis said, "I have received enough data to formulate a defense against it. If you would proceed to the second spell, please." Each time she finished the second spell she flung the finished product at the first spell where it would come to rest beside the one made before it and floated like an errie orb. In the end, sweat had gathered on her brow when the fifth spell had been flung at the counter and six of their kind floated in eerie harmony when Jarvis asked her to stop.
She paused with the magic for another spell still crackling in her hands and her gaze settled on the three Avengers that had drifted away to discuss something in low tones. They would be fighting humans and others like themselves, people who were likely innocent of the kind of wrongdoing that the Avengers usually dealt with. Power surged between her and Loki and she felt her magic pulse in a way she hadn't felt in years. For a moment, she almost glowed with the power that had been loaned to her.
"What do they need, Jarvis?" she asked, her voice low and husky.
It would be, perhapds, days before she would be able to help them, days before Asgard and Thor were free from Amora's plots. They had been friends and comrades for months and she was leaving them to their own fates, but Vanaheim was home in a way nowhere else could be and its defense drew her because she would not abandon her people to the mercies of the Dark Elves. The least that she could leave them was these three and Bruce better defended than they usually were.
"Immunity against spells and enchantments."
She breathed life and permanence into the spell, letting it take the shape she willed into it. Immunity against small magics and spells. Resistance to mind control and lose of will. Her memories of the terror she had experienced beneath Amora's magic drove more power into the magic than she might have otherwise used, but these were good people and she didn't resist the surge. Hers to protect and fight with. Her gaze settled again on Tony and she was reminded starkly of Loki and the feeling of hers settled into her bones, pulling something else into the spell.
When the magic parted from her hands, it pulled and hurt in a way that made her gasp and forced her to push at it. Amora would not have them. She thought of the small moments she had shared with Steve in the kitchen, stealing and hassling each other over the meals they were cooking. There was Tony with his snark, wit, and charm during the hours they had discussed the differences between magic and technology. Clint with his wariness and the small conversations they had shared. Bruce with his quiet words and the wariness that was well earned. Four people. Four humans that were hers. Protected and protecting. She would not see them die before their time.
Tony was watching her. He saw the spell, but he didn't shy away from it as it split into four parts and one shot into the ceiling. He merely reached out and touched a still gauntleted hand to the spell. Clint saw it too late and jerked violently back from it. The final part of the spell enveloped Steve in gentle warmth.
For one instant, she was connected with the four of them and she felt the way that Clint and Bruce struggled. The spell pulled away from them and dissipated. It was a gift, not something to be forced on the unwilling. The power settled into Tony like a second skin and then into Steve after he glanced at her and realized what was happening.
It was done, she realized. She barely had time for that to settle in before Loki's spell wrapped around her and she was pulled gently from the tower. Everything that could be done for them had been done. Vanaheim awaited their aid.