Between family camping trips and frantically sewing a new Éowyn dress for RenFaire, it's been a crazy month, but I finally managed to get a chapter finished!
Vanaheim
The day passed quickly in the plateau village in the bustle of everyone's usual tasks. Sif and Brunnhilde were swept along to assist with various chores and errands, from clearing a nasty pack of kappas that had infested one of the lesser springs to carrying baskets of fresh produce for supper at Ulfrun's house, to which they were invited—on Brunnhilde's account, Sif was sure.
Though Ulfrun lived out on the very edge of the plateau, miles from the village proper, she didn't lack for company. There wasn't anything particularly special about this day, but half the village had turned out to eat and dance on the sprawling balcony. Ulfrun's house was made of vine-covered stone and built right over the waterfall where the river from all the springs emptied out into the valley below. It was completely open in the back, and between the breathtaking view of Vanaheim's endless forests beyond the cliff and the sounds of water crashing over the falls, the place was rather similar in feel to Heimdall's Observatory.
Sif had barely seen any of this on her first visit. She would always love Asgard above any other realm, but she could easily understand how this part of Vanaheim held such appeal for those whose fighting days were behind them.
X
Asgard
Okay. Alien planet. Somehow. This was fine.
After a couple of breaths, what remained of the ocean air Tony had been breathing previously depleted, and what replaced it made his eyes water. Far from a nice woodland scent, his nose was assaulted by a cloying musk. He coughed and opened his mask, but that only made it stronger. Was the atmosphere of this place toxic to humans? Simultaneously it was like compost, wet dog, concentrated horse urine, and something like the smell of his MIT dorm when he hadn't cleaned out his iguana's cage in a while.
Between coughing for air, he noticed that many of the chunks of tree around him bore deep slashes in sets of four. He barely had time to feel a sense of foreboding before a growl rolled over him, the sound so low that he felt it rattling his bones more than he heard it. An enormous scaly paw closed around the tree trunk Tony had crashed into. The claws were as long as Tony's forearm. What looked like two bone-white, leafless saplings came into view next, but those turned out to be antlers attached to a wide face somewhere between a boar's and a bullfrog's. The beady, bloodshot eyes found Tony at once and it bared a mouthful of fangs.
"Shit."
Now would be a great time to fly away, but in the seconds it took him to push himself into a takeoff position, the monster pounced with a bellow, slamming him back into the ground.
X
"What think you of our strategy against the Dokkalfar, Father?" said Thor as Tyr and his lieutenants filed out. Malekith had been Bor's greatest enemy; surely Odin had strong opinions on how to confront him. Yet he had given nothing away throughout the meeting.
"I think you have the matter well in hand. It will be a good opportunity to prove to the people that you are no less capable of leadership for the delay in your first regency."
This was so far from Odin's approach in the original timeline that it was jarring. "You don't think I'm being too cautious by using a small boarding party instead of launching a major assault with the armada from the start?"
"You are the only person living who has experience with this enemy. If you believe your approach is best, I will trust your judgment. I know your goal must be to keep the Dokkalfar as far away from your mother as possible, but you have not allowed a thirst for vengeance to compromise your tactical instincts."
Despite the neutral tone, there was a hardness to Odin's expression that seemed to suggest Thor ought to apply the same cool strategy to the matter of Hela. That was galling considering that she, too, was a threat to Frigga, and Odin was hardly coming at this from a position of pure logic himself. He glanced to the corner where Loki had lurked during the meeting, ready to have this argument with both of them again, but Loki was nowhere to be seen. Thor blinked and looked around. "When did Loki leave?"
X
Impact alarms were going off all over the heads-up display, showing Tony the damage to various plates on the armor. He couldn't afford to mess around; at this rate, it would take seconds for the enraged monster to either squash him, suit and all, or peel him like an orange. He made fists and engaged one of the newer gadgets.
The monster was rearing up with another bone-rattling roar in preparation for the next flurry of claw strikes. Tony threw his arms up and swept them out in a line. The high-powered laser that could slice through several feet of most materials on Earth only managed to cut inches deep into the monster's belly. The roar went up a few octaves as it recoiled.
Even though it wasn't the fatal blow Tony had hoped for, he didn't miss the chance to get airborne while it was distracted. The repulsors were a little sputtery but they kicked into gear in time for him to evade another swipe from one of those massive paws. The monster yowled its frustration, leaping and tossing its hideous antlered head, but it couldn't reach him and didn't appear to be able to breathe fire. Tony was in the clear.
"Well you didn't kill it, but I'd still say that went better than Thor's and my first hunt."
Tony nearly fell straight back into the thrashing monster's clutches in shock. He spun around, and a fancy-looking canoe thing shimmered into view in the air next to him, with Loki stretched out next to the tiller, halfway through an apple.
"Is this your idea of reasonable escalation?" Tony said, somewhere between incredulity and outrage. The monster was still roaring below and his heart was still pounding from the adrenaline. "All I did was give you background music!"
"I thought you wanted to see Asgard," said Loki innocently.
"Not from the inside of a monster's stomach! When I told you to work on your friendly overtures, this was the opposite of what I had in mind."
"I doubt you'd be very appetizing to a bilgesnipe. At worst you would have been smeared across its den like so much paste."
"Well that's a relief," said Tony flatly.
"You did crash right through its hard work, after all." Loki gestured at the other bench in the canoe thing. Tony wasn't super thrilled to approach, but he did want a closer look at the magic flying boat, so he flew the remaining distance and dropped down. Part of him hoped it would be enough to flip the boat over and sent Loki catapulting out of it in a comical fashion, but the added weight of him and the suit barely made the craft wobble. "Rest assured that I would have intervened had it seemed the bilgesnipe was more than you could handle, but you acquitted yourself magnificently."
"Does that mean I'm a warrior in Asgardian culture now?"
"Yes, actually," said Loki. "So really you should be thanking me. Romanoff and Barton earned Asgard's respect on the Sakaar mission and half the realm is desperate to spar with Banner's beast. You won't be as high in everyone's estimations as if you'd lost a limb, but at least you won't be trailing hopelessly in the wake of your fellow mortals."
"Fantastic," said Tony. "Was that the whole reason you popped me over here, or…"
"Merely an opportunity too perfect to miss. I brought you here because I wanted your perspective on a matter of great importance that I might have rather badly mucked up."
Tony's curiosity should not be piquable right now. "Okay."
Loki needed no further encouragement to launch into a ten-minute soliloquy about the history of his evil secret big sister. He let the boat fly gently over the verdant landscape in the direction of a city with what looked like a massive pipe organ jutting out of it while he talked, explaining why Big Sis had been imprisoned on an asteroid for most of his parents' marriage, the consequences of her loyalists' attempt to bust her out when Loki was a baby, and the big prophetic dream Thor had recently had about what she would do to Asgard and its people if their dad died before anything changed. Then he outlined his proposed solution and how each of his family members and Brunnhilde had reacted to it.
X
Vanaheim
"Now then," said Ulfrun after a deep drink of cider from her goblet. "What finally drove you here, Brunnhilde?"
"Been watching me, have you?" said Brunnhilde, who was already on her third goblet. Sif went easy on her own cider, not wanting to risk making a fool of herself in front of every living Valkyrie in Yggdrasil, retired or not. She felt so out of place at this round table where they all sat, and she had never wanted to belong anywhere more.
"One of the Valkyrior survived Hela's slaughter. I would have been watching much sooner had I known. We Matriarchs owe you a terrible debt for all the years we did not know to come to your aid." The others nodded.
"I didn't want anyone's aid," Brunnhilde muttered.
"Their deaths were not your doing," said Atla, reaching over and patting her hand with the prosthetic one. "You've been punishing yourself for too long. I wouldn't be surprised if my niece found a way back from Valhalla just to tell you exactly that."
Brunnhilde's face looked carved from stone. She swallowed and nodded. Sif knew the names of many of the Valkyrior from everything she'd studied about them, but she couldn't remember exactly who Atla's niece was. Clearly someone who'd been very important to Brunnhilde.
"Quite so, dear girl," said Imdr in her quavery voice. She was more bowed with age than any of the others. Her white braid was as thick as a fist and would have reached her knees if she could have stood up straight. "If any portion of the blame does not belong to Hela, it is Odin's for sending you against her. For raising her to be a monster."
"He's going to put her on probation," said Brunnhilde.
Some of the Matriarchs swore; others exchanged dark looks across the table.
X
Asgard
Tony whistled, watching the beautiful scenery go by. What was that floating tower thing by the shoreline? "That's one hell of a cold utilitarian proposition. I get why everyone's pissed, but the status quo is a ticking time bomb and the best way to permanently defuse it is off the table."
"Exactly!" said Loki, throwing his hands up. "Thank you."
"Hey guy who just kidnapped me across space and dropped me on top of a monster pit," said Tony, pointing an armored finger at him, "I'm not on your side here. I kinda owe your girlfriend my life, remember? The idea was worth putting out there, but the way you did it was a major dick move."
Loki wilted. "I'm well aware of that. So how do I make this right with her?"
"I'm not sure you can," said Tony bluntly. It was hard to stay grumpy when everything in sight was so awesome. "But it might help if you had more than a half-baked plan by the time she's willing to speak to you again. What are your contingencies in case Murder-Princess tries to turn this thing around and pick up the conquering where she left off? It's gotta be airtight."
"I've been thinking on that. I mean to discuss with Father precisely how his power-stripping spell will work. It can't have the same flaw in it that Niflheim does, where his death ends the magic, and it will need to be just as effective a galaxy away as it would be within Yggdrasil."
"Is there a way to make sure she can't hitch a ride home if she tricks someone into giving her one?"
"That should certainly be part of it. Perhaps we can bind her tongue against uttering anything that could be perceived as asking for passage to Yggdrasil. We use similar spells for security purposes already."
"Magic," said Tony, shaking his head. "So, say this plan actually works. Hela sees the error of her ways. Earns her power back. What then? She doesn't get to have the authority of a princess again, does she?"
"Certainly not!"
"Good," said Tony. "But Brunnhilde's probably gonna want you to be more specific than that, especially if she thinks you're trying to hand a happy ending to the psycho who ruined her life."
X
Vanaheim
Ulfrun showed no sign of anger or shock at Brunnhilde's words, but it was clear where Heimdall had gotten his quiet intensity. Her eyes never left Brunnhilde. "How?" she said.
"He'll strip her power and send her somewhere far enough she won't get any scraps from Asgard. Either she proves he should've executed her when he first sent her to Niflheim or she earns it back."
Atla snorted. "Exactly what bar of achievement will she have to clear for that?"
"The adventurous child he once presented with a tiny wolf pup is thousands of years gone," said Imdr, shaking her head. "Has he deluded himself that she still exists?"
"Aye, he's more likely to find himself with a war on two fronts than to get her to join him against Thanos this time," said Eyrgjafa.
"Perhaps he only wants her to give him an excuse to finally put her out of all our misery," said Greip. "As if he doesn't already have plenty of those."
"Pardon my impertinence, honored Matriarchs," said Sif. She had stayed silent for long enough that her plate was already clean while they all had plenty of fruit and meat left on theirs. Several of them turned their heads towards her, and she forced herself to keep her head high under their hard, appraising looks. "If Odin is desperate enough for more warriors to ensure the victory against Thanos—"
"He does not see Hela as reinforcements," Imdr cut across her. "He hasn't many years left, and she is his daughter. No matter what she's done."
"Even so," said Sif. "Why has he not come to you to ask that you train the women of Asgard?"
"Odin knows we will train no new Valkyrior to serve under him," said Ulfrun.
"He had a lot of nerve to even hint at it with Brunnhilde," Greip added with a scowl.
"But what of Thanos?" said Sif. "All of you fought in the first war against him. You know what he is, what he seeks to do."
"This isn't the Aesir-Vanir war, girl," said Eyrgjafa. "We are happy to take up arms against the Mad Titan again and we wish Asgard well with Jotunheim, but we will train no one who swears her oaths to Odin Borson. He forfeited the goodwill of the Matriarchs when he painted over our daughters' deaths with a convenient lie."
"He did that to break Hela's power," said Sif, thinking back to Frigga's explanation the other day.
"Yes, and he was so very cut up about not having to trouble himself further with the faction of his own subjects who wanted their butcher queen to lead Asgard to glory," said Imdr. "What a hardship for him that he can pretend to Yggdrasil that he rules over a noble people and his only legacy is those two fool boys of his."
No one ever talked the way they were doing on Asgard, and yet even though they weren't troubling to keep their voices low, the guests at the other tables paid them no attention, talking and laughing as they ate their food. It was shocking, and it would've had Sif bursting with outrage just a week ago. She might even have drawn her sword and challenged them over it.
She'd learned much since then. These women had outlived the entire cohort of their successors, several of whom had been their daughters and granddaughters—not because of an incursion of Jotnar, as Sif had believed the first time she came here hoping to be trained, but because of the Allfather and his daughter. They were perfectly entitled to their anger against him.
Still, that fact could not make Sif content that her dream of becoming a Valkyrie was all but dead. She clung to the loophole in Eyrgjafa's words, much as it felt like she was flirting with treason even to think it. There would be no new Valkyrior in Odin's reign.
"Once Odin gets a notion in his head, there's no stopping him," said Imdr.
Brunnhilde set her goblet down hard. "Maybe not," she said, "but this time it'll cost him."
Since Hogun is from Vanaheim and his armor resembles samurai armor more than anything else, it makes sense to me that Vanaheim would be a source of inspiration for east Asian folklore as well as Old Norse, just like Alfheim doubles as a source of inspiration for Irish folklore and mythology. Hence, kappas infesting the spring.
Anyone extremely familiar with Norse mythology might recognize the names of all the Matriarchs. I got them from the list of Heimdall's nine mothers, who are actually Jotun maidens in mythology. I remember reading somewhere that Heimdall was the son of a Valkyrie in the comics but I haven't been able to find that again, so maybe I goofed there, but I still like it as my headcanon. If I need names for Valkyrior killed by Hela, I'll mostly pick names off the list of mythological Valkyrior, but I liked the idea of the Matriarchs being nods to Heimdall's very strange origins.
I loved the Loki series and Black Widow. The only headcanon of mine that was proven wrong seems to be the exact circumstances under which Loki cut Sif's hair, but I'm not going to change that in the fic because for all we know, it wasn't a one-time thing, and I really like my version. Also, based on what happens in the finale, I was right to feel zero urgency to explain the TVA's absence in my fic. Hooray! Looking forward to season 2!
On an unrelated but important note, this site is seeming less and less reliable as a good home for fanfiction. I'm going to keep posting updates here as long as it doesn't give me problems, but I'm also posting on Archive of Our Own, so you can find this fic there if anything happens to it here. I'll be uploading all my other stuff there eventually, but there's a lot and it's kind of a headache just to think about it. Overall I like Ao3 better because I can embed the occasional artwork I do for the story in the actual chapters, but this makes me sad because this site is where I started out as a fanfic writer.