Unreliable narrator alert!
4,997 Years Earlier
Algrim's eyes were fixed on the ships crashing to the barren, blood-stained ground of the battlefield below, the Aesir soldiers they crushed far fewer than the Dokkalfar lives they carried to their doom. It was shocking how few of them were left, from tens of millions at the height of Kraw's empire down to the 1382 souls who would escape from Asgard's Butcher King on this ship.
"This was to be our Day of Darkness," said Malekith. "But we were arrogant." Many dejected faces looked his way. They were weary and ragged from this endless war, from seeing what had seemed their very last hope snatched out of their grasp. He turned his back on the battlefield and walked among them. "The Aether does not reward the unworthy!" he roared, making several of those nearest to him flinch. He reached out and touched the cheek of a young maiden who still wore her war mask, the shoulder of an infantryman, the hands of an archer. "Every one of you here on this ship could have been on the battlefield today or aboard the ships that purchased our escape. If you doubted before that you were among the Chosen of the Aether, doubt no more."
There were wails from some, exultant cries from others. It was a hard thing to know that the kin many of them had lost in this battle and all the previous ones hadn't been worthy to partake in their triumph. Algrim's own parents and siblings had been dead so long he couldn't remember their faces, but he had lost more brothers and sisters in arms than he could number, and it pained him that they had never been destined to see the glory they had fought for. And those who had fallen this day...surely whatever they had lacked in life, such a noble death would earn their place of rest in the eternal night.
"Mourn them," said Malekith. "Thank them for their sacrifice. But never forget that you were chosen for victory while they were chosen only to lay the path to it. The next five thousand years will be our penance for attempting to reclaim the darkness without first purging our ranks."
As always, he spoke with the ring of prophecy. Algrim could picture how Yggdrasil would bend to them when the next Convergence came. They would sleep soon, once Bor and his armies were gone. It was a pity that by the time the Aether called them from their long slumber, Bor would not be there to see his ill-gotten gains ripped back from him. The little crown prince wasn't old enough to lift a blade yet and would have no memory of the war, but Vili Borson would be the one to pay for the blasphemy of his forebears. He and his twin would be old men with families of their own by then, and it would be a balm to watch them suffer as so many Dokkalfar clans had.
X
Present Day
Alflyse ran her fingers over the carved midnight bloom at her neck. Three more years until the Convergence. Three more years until she would be reunited with her beloved. Was it heresy to be more eager for the latter? Probably. If he hadn't been aboard this ship with her at the end of the battle, she would've thrown herself out of it, the Aether's will for her be damned.
She still had a few more stops to check on her rounds before it would be time to find Terrana and switch. Terrana might have even more to look forward to at the Convergence than she did. It was why Alflyse didn't mind covering her duties every few days or so. Not like there was much else to do anyway, and she found sitting by Jagrfelm's pod too depressing.
Her fingers traced the grooves in the stone petals again. He had taken her to the very last field on Svartalfheim where midnight blooms still grew to profess his love to her for the first time. They were long gone now, unless the Dvergar had some, but Jagrfelm had recreated the shape perfectly. He'd even enchanted it to smell like the real thing.
Only three more years…
X
2,497 Years Earlier
It was the final day of Algrim's watch. Their ship remained undiscovered, unmolested, and in perfect working order, but that was merely another testament that Malekith was truly carrying out the Aether's will for their people.
And yet ten years with no one but Jagrfelm for company could almost make him question. The insufferable twit had somehow gotten the notion that he would be sharing his watch with his wife, which was absurd. The ship was outfitted to carry exactly 1382 Dokkalfar to the next Convergence; they could not risk allowing any pair likely to breed to be awake together for a full decade of privacy. Jagrfelm refused to understand this simple logic and blamed Algrim for his woes. He was lucky enough to have his wife among the Aether's Chosen. Most were not so fortunate.
For at least the thousandth time, when Algrim completed his sweep of the ship, Jagrfelm was nowhere near his post on the bridge. Far be it from Algrim to question the Aether's will, but surely some other architect could have been preserved to rebuild their cities? Scowling, he made his way to the pods and was unsurprised to find the fool sitting at the foot of Alflyse's, carving something from a stone that belonged in the plant nursery. Why did he insist on coming here so often? Alflyse's face and form were hidden behind the pod's machinery. She could not hear him. They called it sleep, but stasis meant stopping entirely, right down to the molecular level. No awareness was possible in that condition, not even dreaming.
"I believe you could do that from your post on the bridge," said Algrim.
"I'm sure you are right," said Jagrfelm, neither glancing up nor ceasing his carving. The next fleck of stone he chipped off landed on Algrim's boot.
Algrim's scowl deepened. He shook his boot and turned to leave. "She doesn't have the next watch, if you thought to steal an embrace before you reenter stasis. Mageth and Mirka do. You may as well return to your pod now and make ready." He had gone several paces before Jagrfelm spoke again.
"Do you really believe Malekith's plan will work?"
"It is the Aether's plan," said Algrim.
"Of course, Malekith is the Vessel. He speaks for the Aether," said Jagrfelm quickly.
"Why do you ask?" said Algrim, turning slowly to face him once more, eyes narrowed. "Do you doubt?" Irksome as Jagrfelm was, Algrim hadn't been looking for an excuse to hurl him into space, but perhaps he was about to get one. He would not allow one heretic to compromise the futures of the worthy.
"No!" said Jagrfelm. "It is only that the watch leaves so much time with my thoughts that I drive myself near to madness. All my lifetime, we've had nothing but defeat. I felt our planet die beneath us. The idea of victory is difficult to comprehend."
Algrim softened a little—he could barely remember the days when their empire stretched beyond Svartalfheim himself. "It is true that we have endured many painful tests to prove ourselves to the Aether. More than I could have imagined, and so few of us passed them. But our reward is coming, Jagrfelm. You will see. You and Alflyse together. Take heart."
Jagrfelm nodded. "See you in two and a half thousand years, I suppose."
"They will feel like moments now that our watch is ended." Algrim's gaze roved over the rows and rows of silent pods. "Naught but moments stand between us and victory now."
X
Present Day
At first, Alflyse thought she had imagined it. The ship often let out haunting creaks and moans, enough to chill the spine when she wasn't with Terrana. But no, there it was again. It sounded like voices. Male voices. She frowned, reaching out with her seidr. Nothing felt amiss. Perhaps it was a pod malfunction and someone had come out of stasis too early. Or perhaps she was losing her mind. Best to check and make sure in any case. She slipped beneath a cloak and crept towards the voices.
She was in the stem of the ship near the central node of the stealth system. The words became no easier to make out the closer she got to the voices, and then they went abruptly silent. Her hand jumped to the carved midnight bloom. With the other, she drew her dagger. She didn't see how it was possible—it went against everything Malekith had assured them—but she couldn't help thinking that someone was on this ship who shouldn't be.
The red crystal that powered the stealth system bathed the entire chamber in pulsing red light, and still she saw no one. Another step forward, however, and she sensed a spell in the air. That wasn't Terrana's seidr, and it certainly wasn't like any cloaking spell she would cast. Alflyse caught hold of the threads of magic. She didn't want to unravel the spell entirely; she just wanted to see… She gently tugged them apart, then nearly jumped out of her skin when five people flickered into view, the nearest barely an arm's length in front of her. A hand shot up and seized her by the wrist.
"There you are," said a harsh voice in triumph. Alflyse's blood ran cold. The rounded ears, the gold in all the armor, the empty whites of the eyes absent any trace of the Aether's blessing. Somehow, the Aesir had found them. She struck out wildly with her dagger, slashing the nearest man in the ribs, but the blow was too shallow and he only grunted in pain. She tried to stab again and he caught her blade against a dagger of his own.
Sparring with Teranna once every few days had not prepared her for this. The Aesir she had battled before favored spears and swords, but this one was a master with shorter blades at close quarters. He cast a counterspell against her cloak faster than she could reform it without missing a step in their fight, and she was soon exposed to view.
He shouted something incomprehensible and two of his fellows moved to surround her while the other two drew back from the red crystal. She had a fraction of a second to realize with horror that they had placed black hole grenades against it—before they detonated. The implosion blast rocked the entire chamber and came close to swallowing up the fattest of the Aesir, but the one in blue and silver pulled him clear just in time. The maelstrom faded, leaving only jagged fragments where the great Aether-forged structure had been.
Alflyse's dagger went flying out of her grip and she was seized about the upper arms by two pairs of gauntleted hands. No no no no no...this couldn't be happening. Malekith had promised them that the Aether's protection would hide them until the Convergence. Asgard wasn't supposed to see them coming! How were they here?
"My prince," said the fat one, "you were wounded!"
"It isn't bad," said the one she had fought. So this was Asgard's prince now? He smirked at her. "Surprised to see us, are you? We found out all about your cowardly little plan to catch us off guard at the next Convergence." He pressed his dagger to her throat. This was all wrong. Why wasn't the Aether protecting them? They were its Chosen! Were they still unworthy after everything? She was never going to see Jagrfelm again.
The prince's eyes flashed with golden light. Alflyse was terrified, but he eased the pressure of his blade against her throat somewhat. "Fascinating," he said. "I suspected that might be the case."
"What is it?" said the one in blue and black armor.
"Heimdall tells me that part of the ship remains concealed from him."
"What are you foul creatures hiding?" the fat one growled. "Is it a stockpile of those black hole grenades?"
"Or perhaps a bomb large enough to wipe out an entire realm if things don't go Malekith's way?" the prince suggested.
Alflyse glared at him, struggling against her captors. They only tightened their grips. She was beginning to lose feeling in her arms. "The others will wake," she spat. "They will be coming out of stasis even now."
"I'm sure they will," said the prince, unconcerned. "Asgard's fleet will be boarding the ship within moments. Whatever Malekith is hiding, we will discover it, and then we will finish what my grandfather could not."
X
To Algrim, it seemed that one moment, he was touching the interface to activate his stasis pod, and the very next, his ears were full of the sound of the ship's alarms. All around them, displays flared with reports of damage both external and internal, and golden lights were appearing all around the hologram of the ship. Algrim swiped a hand over the interface, and the numbers it showed filled him with disbelief. They'd been discovered, and the Convergence was still years away.
He had to get to Malekith. For all the damage everywhere else, the bridge appeared to be intact. Algrim dashed past dozens of his disoriented fellows. Many of them shouted questions after him, but he had no answers to give.
An explosion behind him nearly knocked him off his feet. He looked over his shoulder at the shower of rubble raining on prone figures. A golden-haired warrior summoned a warhammer back to his hand and stepped through the hole that had been a sealed blast door.
Algrim kept running and finally reached the doors to the bridge. They flew open for him and closed again when he entered. Malektih was there, his back to the door, staring out at golden ships, along with two guards. Even from this angle, Algrim could see more than one forced docking bridge made from seidr mesh.
"My lord," said Algrim. "Asgard has found us. The ship will soon be overrun. What is the Aether's will?" A Harrow flew out into view, only to be bombarded by blasts from Asgardian ships and destroyed within seconds.
"The Aether has forsaken us, Algrim. It is over."
The strength left Algrim's limbs so quickly that he nearly fell to the ground. "That cannot be."
X
"Loki, we're about to take the bridge," said Thor. Several Dokkalfar had tried to hinder their progress, conjuring daggers and leaping at them, but they fell to Einherjar spears, Sif's double-bladed sword, Fimbuldraugr, or Mjolnir. Tyr's forces were boarding the ship through numerous holes they'd blasted in the hull as well.
"Sorry, Brother," came Loki's reply across the Hlidskjalf link, "but our stabby elf friend doesn't want to spoil the surprise for us. Not that she can stop us from discovering it."
"Do whatever it takes," said Thor. He was on high alert for any signs of Kurse, whose blood he wanted more than Malekith's. No raging beast of a warrior had come to meet their assault yet, but surely they would be desperate enough to unleash him soon.
Thor had been wrong about how satisfying it would feel to take Malekith's ship. It was just like the Dokkalfar's assault on Asgard in the original timeline, but reversed. They had caught their enemy completely unawares and undermined their defenses, leaving them scrambling. Still they put up a fight, but it was a feeble one. Despite their penchant for suicidal battle strategies, they seemed unwilling to use their black hole grenades within the confines of the ship. Their swords and daggers were no match for Asgardian weaponry and battle-readiness, and more Einherjar were coming aboard by the second.
According to the images Heimdall had sent, Malekith hadn't once left the bridge. It was a despicable display of cowardice, abandoning his people to flounder without leadership during an assault.
X
"The Aether will avenge us!" the Dokkalfr woman cried, still fighting against the hold of the Einherjar restraining her. They had brought her all the way from halfway down the ship's spine to the first level of the main body. She might not want to tell them anything, but the way she grew louder and more distressed the closer they got to whatever Heimdall could not see was as good as having a beacon.
"The Aether is an Infinity Stone," said Loki. "It has no loyalty to you. Continuing to rely on it after Bor took it from you was lunacy."
"Aesir heathen," she snarled. "You know nothing! We are the Aether's Chosen!"
"I know you don't want me to find what's through here." He turned abruptly and slammed his hands into the wall, putting all the spell-disrupting seidr he could into the motion. The illusion melted away, and the wall became a sealed door.
"No!" the woman shrieked. "You can't do this, you monsters!"
"The only monsters here are the zealots who wanted to become the sole living race in Yggdrasil," said Loki. At a nod from him, Volstagg swung the blade of Brandrheid Undrsigr into the crack of the door and wrenched the handle sideways, forcing it open a few inches with an earsplitting metallic screech. Hogun threw the spiked head of Hridgandr through the gap and dragged it the rest of the way open, revealing another crystal-lit corridor.
X
These doors were made of stronger stuff than the previous ones Thor had destroyed with Mjolnir, but they still crumbled after a few extra strikes. He stepped over rubble and fallen Dokkalfar guards onto the bridge, Sif and Fandral flanking him with the Einherjar pointing spears through the gaps between them. There were four Dokkalfar within. Two more masked guards, a dark-skinned lieutenant Thor didn't recognize, and Malekith himself.
Thor's lip curled. "How does it feel, Malekith, to have all your plans come crashing down around you? You waited nearly five thousand years for nothing." The leader of the Dokkalfar turned from the console and regarded him in silence. Thor stalked closer. "You have no Aether, no Convergence, no army. You could at least send out your Kursed champion to fight your battles for you. My brother is about to discover what you've hidden on this ship, and then we will destroy that as well, and all you can do is stand there."
His words got no reaction from Malekith, but the lieutenant started and one of the guards gave a yell and lunged at him, heedless of the spears aimed his way. Never breaking eye contact with Malekith, Thor struck out with Mjolnir. The guard crumpled to the floor.
X
The Dokkalfr woman had given herself over to incoherent screeching once they entered the hidden corridor, and it was all the Einherjar could do to keep hold of her. Loki would've liked to order them to knock her unconscious, but he wanted to see her reaction.
They rounded a corner and found nothing but another woman standing in front of an open doorway with daggers raised. "Come any closer and I'll kill you!" she said. Her voice trembled but the daggers were steady.
"You will certainly try," said Loki. He could sense even more spellwork behind her. Norns, how many layers of cloaking could one make? This was getting absurd.
"Loki, wait," said Volstagg.
"What?" said Loki impatiently.
"Look," said Volstagg, pointing.
"I'm not bluffing, Aesir!" said the woman, moving to block his view with her body. "Not another step!"
Loki couldn't see what Volstagg was pointing at, but the woman's eyes were full of tears. What? He heard a stifled whimper from somewhere behind her, and his stomach dropped. She wasn't protecting a tool of destruction at all. He reached out and tore away the final cloak.
X
"My prince, there is something you must see," said Heimdall.
"Now?" said Thor. What could possibly be so important that it was worth losing sight of Malekith for even a second?
"Now." The bridge vanished from view, and at first, Thor couldn't make out what he was seeing because the chamber was so much dimmer. His eyes adjusted. He gasped. Children. Dozens and dozens of them. Maybe even hundreds. The infants held in the arms of the bigger children wailed in distress as explosions rocked the ship, but most who were old enough to understand any of what was happening were silent, their frightened eyes turned on Loki, Volstagg, and Hogun.
Though the vision faded, returning Thor to the rubble-strewn bridge, the image of the Dokkalfar children remained burned into his mind's eye. But for the pointed ears and the blackened sclera of their eyes, they could have been the Aesir children aboard the Statesman when Thanos attacked. Thor thought he might be sick. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was far too close for comfort. Had those children all perished in the original timeline when the ship collapsed on Svartalfheim?
"Thor, what did you see?" said Sif. "A weapon?"
"No," said Thor, lowering Mjolnir. "They are hiding their children."
"What?" said Fandral, aghast.
Thor fixed his gaze back on Malekith, who had not moved. "Malekith the Accursed. I am Thor Odinson. I've come to accept your surrender."
X
"You would take us prisoner?" said Algrim. It wasn't his place to speak, but he was too shocked to hold his tongue.
"Much has changed in the millennia you passed waiting to spring your trap. My father is a wiser king than his father was. I make no claim to any great wisdom of my own, but I hope I will never be the sort of king who would pay for peace with the blood of children."
"You are the grandson of Bor?" said Malekith. His tone was calm, but Algrim felt the hatred welling up in him. "Here is your peace." And he raised a hand that Algrim now saw contained their last Kurse stone and crushed it within his fist. Whatever shred of hope Algrim had managed to cling to vanished. Even if Malekith had gained the power to slaughter every Aesir on their ship and in the vessels surrounding it, it would still come at the expense of leaving them with no vessel for the Aether.
Malekith contorted in pain as the transformation took him, but prince didn't wait for it to pass. His eyes glowed blue-white and he hurled his uru warhammer with a roar. It struck the still-writhing Malekith in the chest with an explosion of lightning, sending him spinning backward past the holographic displays to smash through the reinforced glass. They barely had time to feel air rushing towards the breach before it was patched over from the outside with more golden seidr netting.
"General Tyr," said the prince, watching Malekith as he continued to tumble helplessly in the vacuum of space, frost beginning to creep over his armor and skin. "Capture him alive if you can. I think Alfheim and Nidavellir will want their say in his fate." He turned to Algrim, his eyes still crackling with wild electricity. The hammer flew back to his hand, and he pointed it at him. "Are you the second-in-command?"
"I am," said Algrim. He could scarcely make sense of everything that had happened in the last few minutes, but the choice before him was clear. The Aether was gone, and Malekith had chosen a pointless attempt at vengeance over anything that would help their people survive. Algrim had never known the Aesir to possess any mercy before, but it was their only chance. He dropped to his knees, placed his hands flat against the floor, and bowed his head. Across the chamber, the remaining guard copied him. "We surrender."
Writing Algrim's and Alflyse's perspectives was fascinating, because they're full-blown Aether-worshipping cultists, so their perspective is more skewed than anything I've ever written, even while they're also fully convinced that they're right. An unscheduled ambush from Asgard seems like the sort of thing that might crack through the cult brain poison, but even then you never know. I rewatched The Dark World a couple times to see if it would make sense for Algrim to choose their people over revenge even if Malekith didn't, and I think it does. In his dialogue, Algrim specifically mentions that the sacrifices they make will save their people when he's trying to reassure Malekith.
I almost cut this one off before switching back to Thor and Loki's PoV scenes, but there wasn't enough left to make it into two complete chapters. Anyway, the parallels between the Statesman and the last Dokkalfar ship are what I've been wanting to get to in Thor's character arc for ages, and I'm really happy with it. I thought Thor might have a harder time changing his plans even after learning about the kids, but when I got to that part, it wasn't even a question. That was nice. Also this is why I had the teams divided up this way. I wanted Volstagg, a father, to be the first one to realize that the Dark Elves were protecting their children, so he needed to be on Loki's team.
Points to the reviewers who guessed correctly that it was kids. I just couldn't imagine how warriors would be the only survivors of the war. They'd have protected as many kids and noncombatants as they could for as long as they could, and no matter how ruthless Bor was, I don't think he'd have managed to kill them all before killing the last warriors or the leader.