Beneath

Chapter Sixty-Nine – Ideas

Loki could not stop thinking about it the rest of the day, though his thoughts were disordered, agitated, fantastical, like a child presented with thirty flavors of frozen fruit sticks and so overwhelmed with the number of choices that making a decision was impossible. Space-time.

It would be power greater than he had ever wielded, or ever imagined wielding. Power Thor had never wielded. Power even the great Odin had never wielded.

If he could control time, he could control the cosmos.

As a youth, he'd read a fantastical tale bought on a trip to Nidavellir, in which a dying mother of a young son and daughter traveled into the future to be able to meet her grown children, and while in the future, learned that a cure for her disease had been discovered. Her disease was cured in the future, and then she traveled back to her own time to live a long life. It had sent him on wild flights of imagination, culminating in a skit he wrote for class that he convinced Thor to join him in. The tutor had not been amused, and neither had Odin. He'd gotten into trouble for it, and Thor had been angry with him for dragging him into it. For the next week they sat through "special lessons" on why even thinking about such things was wrong-wrong-wrong. Sickeningly desperate for Odin's approval, he'd dutifully cast aside his imaginings and tossed the book in the trash, after first ripping out all its pages.

The tutor had said it was not possible. Einstein's work suggested otherwise. He read on about closed timelike curves, shortened as the mortals liked to do to "CTCs," proposed in 1949 as part of a solution to Einstein's general relativity equations. He read about theories that stated that objects could move along a space axis, or a time axis, or both, and wondered, even though this was just one sentence in a thick and plodding book, why he had taken no particular note of it before. "A CTC may result if a series of light cones are set up to loop back on themselves, so that an object could move around the loop and return to the same place and time that it started. An object in such an orbit would continuously return to the same point in space-time if it remains in free fall."

He began to think of Yggdrasil in terms of loops and free fall. Pathfinder, as he and Jane had used it, relied on free fall. There was, though not really a loop, a closed path between Asgard and Midgard, such that an object sent to the mouth of Yggdrasil from Midgard would necessarily travel to Asgard, specifically to the site of the old observatory. Pathfinder turned it into a loop by pulling the object back to precisely where it started from. The bifrost, though, opened up the closed path and not only sent a person into Yggdrasil, but also directed which path it should take upon entering. Pathfinder should be able to do that, too; he and Jane had discussed it before they realized that for traveling to Asgard it wasn't necessary. They'd both been relieved, at the time, since it moved them much more quickly toward the goal.

Yggdrasil contained many branches, and with its branches that further branched, there were far, far more paths than necessary for nine realms, yet every lesson Loki had ever had about Yggdrasil was clear on the fact that that the World Tree connected precisely nine worlds. Other worlds may exist, but they were not part of the special relationship created by the existence of Yggdrasil. The extra branches, the seemingly innumerable branches, made sense if they represented travel along the time axis, instead of, or in combination with, travel along the space axis. If an object entered Yggdrasil not in free fall but directed, could that object not travel through a different branch to another time, and then, if desired, be brought back, in something like a closed timelike curve?

It seemed possible. It seemed much more than possible. But so many of his plans had fallen through by this point that he tried to keep his expectations in check. With visions of power greater than Odin had ever known or dreamt of, though, maintaining prudence was like grasping at the wind.

/


/

"Not kidding about the photo. No red-eye. Send it by 3 PM Sunday your time or I assume there's a reason you haven't and test out my brand new Extreme Cold Weather-modified suit. I like testing things, Jane."

Jane nodded as she read the message, then stood and stretched to get to the top shelf above her desk, where she kept the digital SLR camera that Peter Larson and the Tromso SHIELD crew had sent her. She had sort of thought Tony wasn't entirely serious about that…but she'd also forgotten about it after the shock of seeing Loki in his "kneel" get-up lounging in her room. Looking back on it, it was clear he'd been playing a role then – his words were carefully chosen, planned in advance she suspected, and even the location and position she'd found him in seemed very deliberate. He wanted to project the image that he was in control, when he was in fact in less control that he'd ever been since first arriving here. She knew the truth, he could no longer isolate her from everyone else here – in fact she was more active in station life than ever before, and finally succeeding in pulling him into it as well – and now she even had a lifeline, outside this place, Iron Man no less, and there was nothing Loki could do about it. And everything was calm.

As long as she sent in that picture.

"Going to take care of it now, Tony. Don't worry. Everything's fine. He knows you know. He wasn't thrilled, but he kept his cool. Please do the same, okay?"

She thought about deleting the last sentence, but her only concern about Tony now was that he might do something impulsive – he seemed the impulsive type. Her other concern was that although Tony might not tell, Thor might ask. And that would be the end. The worst possible outcome. She'd been able to convince Tony. She didn't think that would work on Thor, or that he'd even give her the chance to try before he showed up here furious with Loki. Just over a year ago, if Loki was to be believed - and what he'd said didn't contradict what Thor himself had told her – Thor had reignited a war because someone called him a princess. He had a temper. And while she hadn't seen it, and knew he'd matured since then, he surely hadn't changed so much that Loki following her here with what had clearly been less-than-honorable intentions wouldn't reignite his temper and ultimately lead to violence. She'd seen blurry, grainy footage of them fighting in New York; she'd seen the giant metal thing basically kill Thor right in front of her eyes. No matter how much he'd changed, there was bad blood between these two, and Thor finding out about Loki's presence here now would bring both brothers' blood to a boil.

Jane then recalled the rest of Tony's safety plan and grabbed her black notebook; she'd meant to write it down and had already forgotten. "Call Saturday, backup Sunday by 3PM, use Iridium if no internet," she wrote in small print on one corner of the last page, where she kept track of internet passwords. Then there was the part about Pepper. She didn't think it would ever come up, but on the off-chance things somehow went bad at this point, her very own coded SOS wasn't such a bad idea. And if Loki wasn't supposed to recognize it, then writing it down right here wasn't the best idea ever. With as little respect as he'd shown for the privacy of her communications, she wouldn't put it past him to look through the notebook. Pepper means something has gone wrong and I need help… An idea came to mind. Pepper is bad, salt is good. "NaCl = good," she wrote in a different corner on the same sheet, relatively confident that Loki wouldn't knows Earth's chemical name for sodium chloride, and even if he did, it would be quite a leap from that to her code. She shook her head at herself. She figured she was trying to be too clever for her own good, and wondered how Peter Larson and Tiffany Hastings and Merrick Rollins and all those guys in SHIELD did it. How Phil had done it.

Tucking her hair behind her ear, she set that thought aside with her notebook and reached for her radio, flipping it to Tristan's name. "Tristan, hey, it's Jane, are you there?" Everyone was supposed to have their radios with them and on all the time, but in practice some people didn't bother. A few seconds later, though, she was in luck.

"Jane, hi, sure. How are you?"

"Great, thanks. Are you in the main station?"

"Yeah. Just about to leave the galley."

"Oh, okay. Well, I was planning on going out for a hero shot today at the Ceremonial Pole. And if you've got time, I was wondering if maybe you could take it for me."

"Yeah, sure. We could do that. There's a full moon out today, I was going to try to get some shots anyway. You want to go now?"

Jane agreed with enthusiasm and skipped breakfast to be able to meet him in just a few minutes. They met down by the galley, where Tristan looked over her camera with approval. She tucked the camera away into the housing she'd made to protect it from the plummeting temperatures, then they both finished gearing up and headed outside, down the Beercan stairs. It was Sunday morning, still only about 7:30, the skies brightly lit by a full moon that seemed enormous.

"Can you check for red-eye?" Jane asked when they reached the Ceremonial Pole marker out in front of the station. Red- and white-striped with a shiny reflective metal ball on top, it came up to about waist high on her. "I want to make sure I get at least some of them without red-eye."

"Yeah, it should be okay. And I can make digital corrections for you if we need to."

"Oh, no, it's, uh, I want to send them to a friend of mine who's kind of a purist, you know? No modifications to the images."

"Sure, no problem. I guess there's a few of those left. Dying breed, though. It's becoming part of the art."

Jane quickly stripped off her black hat and neck gaiter from the CDC, replacing them with only the blue-and-white hat with the bow on the side that Darcy had sent, and Big Red went next, leaving her in her black Carhartts and, over those and a couple of shirts, a pale blue sweater that was as close as she could get to the color of the hat. They spent the next few minutes getting multiple shots in different poses; Jane's favorite had her on her knees with her hands palms up exactly where Tristan had told her to put them so it looked like she was holding up the station behind her. That and the "walk like an Egyptian" shot.

When the burn of the cold on her nose and cheeks and ears turned painful she called it quits and got her other gear back on, and after a few more pictures, Tristan handed Jane back her camera.

"Those guys are dedicated," he said.

Jane turned in the direction he faced, off to the left of the station. Four figures were approaching the station's Destination Alpha entrance, still some distance off. They were moving strangely, and it took a couple of seconds for Jane to realize they were on skis. "You aren't joining them anymore?"

Tristan stuck his tongue out and scrunched up his eyes, the only kind of face one could make behind a balaclava, Jane figured. "Not that dedicated. I'm going to go for a walk and see if I get some inspiration," he said, patting the black bag slung over his shoulder that she knew held his own camera gear. "Want to join me?"

Jane declined, thanked Tristan, and headed toward DA. She still hoped to grab some breakfast, or at least some coffee, and then she would upload the new photos and send a few to Tony and to everyone else; she'd brought the hat out specifically for Darcy.

She caught up with the band of skiers as they were releasing their boots from the skis, and realized with surprise that Loki was with them. Her "diabolical scheme" as he'd called it really was working.

/


/

Half an hour later Jane and Loki were cobbling together breakfast from the galley, where the kitchen staff had the day off. Jane got cereal and a piece of toast with a bit of strawberry jam, and Loki a blueberry muffin.

"I'm glad you went with them," she said as she slid into her seat in the near-empty galley.

"Must we discuss that?" he asked, settling in across from her. He was feeling testy, after an adrenaline-fueled day and night and hours hunched over a computer from the early morning hours today, as soon as the satellite connection was up, then trudging along outdoors on skis at a snail's pace. Being just feet away from where he'd allowed himself to be blindfolded and then engaged in Midgardian children's games two days earlier didn't help.

"Nooo, not if you don't want to." Jane gave a mental shrug and started on the cereal.

"What were you doing out there anyway? And who were you with?"

She nodded, swallowing another bite of cereal before answering. "I guess you should know about that." She glanced around; only two others remained in the galley, and they were on the other end. "Tony wanted me to send him a picture that proved that my eyes are still brown."

Loki set down his muffin and peered into Jane's eyes. They looked the same as always, brown with flecks of what might almost be gold. "Why would they not be- Oh." He sat back. If he could master travel to the past, he could make sure Tony never found out he was here. Better yet, he could make sure Tony died back in the battle in New York. He could make sure they all died, in all the ways he'd once fantasized about, and make sure he won.

"He knows I don't have the scepter, does he not? The scepter I had when I arrived on Midgard?"

"Yeah, he knows."

"Then he knows that is a pointless request. He is simply being bothersome. It was only with the scepter that I could command wills as I did."

"Where did you get that from?" she asked, going quiet and still.

"You know where," Loki said, picking up the muffin again and taking a bite.

"The Chitauri?"

Loki frowned but said nothing.

"The Chitauri's ruler?"

He nodded, swallowed. "The tesseract was formed millennia ago to contain a unique form of energy in a perfect four-dimensional structure. Not all of the energy could be forced into the hypercube, though. Some of it, infinitesimal amounts, really, were contained in other, less perfect structures, shaped into specific functions. The scepter employed one of those. But I no longer have it, so it's no longer relevant." He paused and looked at Jane for a moment in contemplation. It was no longer relevant for him, but it might be for the humans. He didn't have it, and didn't want to have it. Since Thor hadn't brought it with him when they'd returned to Asgard, he assumed it remained on Midgard, probably being further studied by SHIELD. It had been linked to his mind, enabling The Other to pull him back in all but physical body to his floating rock. Now that the scepter was nowhere near him, the only way the lackey could reach him was in the vulnerability of his sleeping, his dreaming. It had happened twice more since their encounter in Brokk's circle of blue flame, disturbing nightmares of distorted memories that he was able to brush off upon waking. He wondered, though, if the scepter could somehow be used to form a link with another's mind, some unlucky scientist running tests on it, only to find himself or herself standing before the foul-breathed ghoulish underling of Thanos. He doubted it. But there was no way to know for certain. He let it go. If it were possible, it was someone else's problem, not his.

"Does that mean there are more…leftover bits of tesseract energy out there?"

"Perhaps. I only know of the scepter."

Jane nodded, and tried to think of more questions to ask, but she was drawing a blank. He wasn't even giving her dirty looks with his answers, only delaying his answer occasionally to swallow. Tony would know what to ask, probably. Maria Hill, definitely. This was more like questioning a prisoner than having a normal conversation. Jane didn't even actually like discussing the scepter with him, because of what he'd done to Erik with it. She thought back over what else Tony had said, and an entirely unrelated question occurred to her. "I thought you said you don't drink."

Loki set down his glass of reconstituted orange juice as he looked up at her in surprise. "I don't."

"So why did Tony say you liked Johnnie Walker…Black Label? Blue Label?"

Loki stared. He had been in a reasonably good mood, buoyed by new possibilities. Jane seemed intent on destroying it. "I make the rare exception. For what always seems like a good reason at the time, and almost invariably is not. And it was Blue Label," he added with a patently false smile. It made him wonder, though, what Black Label tasted like, if such a thing even existed. He doubted he would ever find out. He had liked that particular brew, but one could not indulge in everything one liked. Loki had learned that lesson from a time in his life when he'd regularly engaged in enough overindulgence to put the word to shame.

"So when you were in the middle of" – Jane caught herself just in time – "everything going on when you came here the first time, when exactly did you find time to share drinks with Tony?" She'd thought they were pretty much trying to kill each other the whole time, not relaxing over glasses of whiskey.

Loki slowly sipped away the last of the watery juice as he considered his answer and thought back to that fateful day, the day he lost his bid for Midgard. The initial decision he chalked up to being savagely knocked about the head, and a certain giddiness in knowing that the choice of whether to hand over the tesseract to Thanos or face another battle – with Midgard barely his and ready to revolt against him at the first sign of weakness – had been taken from him. This strange relief, to have the bargain he'd had no real alternative in agreeing to broken for him, tempered the humiliation of his defeat, at least while his head still rang and the warmth of the alcohol suffused him. He'd been wary – afraid if he were completely honest with himself – of the punishment that he'd been promised would make him long for pain and death, and limited in his ability to defend himself against the likes of Thanos and his lackey, with the physical damage to his body and those manacles on his wrists blocking his ability to use magic. So he'd given Thor a chance to prove all his words of brotherly love, to act on his sentimental remembrances, and Thor had left him alone and vulnerable to go out and sample strange Midgardian cuisine, his own personal enjoyment, as always, coming before everything else. He'd wanted something from Thor, more than just protection, and he wasn't even sure precisely what, but he thought that might have been a result of his intimate acquaintance with a concrete slab as well. One stupid attempt at self-sacrifice in a dusty Midgardian town aside, Thor always thought of himself first.

Jane, meanwhile, was giving up on getting an answer to that question, and although her curiosity was piqued, she figured it wasn't important enough to be worth pushing for. "If you don't want-"

"When something is important to us, we make time for it. Thor didn't try to see you at all while he was on Midgard, did he?" Loki asked, his face held carefully neutral.

Jane clamped her jaw shut and forced herself to maintain eye contact with him. Anger welled up inside her, and she wanted him to see it in her eyes, to see that she wouldn't be cowed by him. She focused on the anger and let it cover up everything else, because that hurt. It hurt more than it had when she watched in stunned silence as a bright red cape and a glimpse of golden hair told her that Thor had returned to Earth, and she had no idea how long he'd been there. It hurt more than it had with every day that passed afterward, as calm returned but Thor did not. She suspected then that Loki must be the most talented being in the universe at doling out tightly focused pain, no weapon necessary. But he hadn't done anything like that for a while now, and she began to wonder why the sudden reversion to prior behavior. Something to do with Johnnie Walker, and a bad decision to drink? She wondered then what kind of a drunk he was – she could imagine him growing melancholy and poetic, or terrifyingly violent.

By the time she spoke, she'd calmed considerably, and congratulated herself on not speaking at the peak of her anger. "I guess I hit a nerve."

Loki inclined his head a touch in acknowledgement. "As did I."

"There's a difference, though, isn't there? It wasn't my intention to ask you something hurtful or insulting."

"Hurtful?" Loki repeated with a look of surprise followed by a moment of amused laughter. "My dear, you overestimate yourself," he said, smiling. Every bit of it was feigned. As soon as she'd said it, he realized it had hurt. Not her question so much as his memories of that day.

"Look, I'm sorry I brought it up, okay? But I didn't know it was a touchy subject. And sometimes it seems like with you, everything is a touchy subject."

"I wouldn't go that far," he said, though he recognized the truth in what she said. What part of his life was not touched by lies, betrayal, rejection?

"Okay, so what do you want to talk about?"

He thought for a moment. "Yggdrasil."

"Okay," she said, surprised. She'd thought he was no longer interested.

"Are you still working on the data you got from inside Yggdrasil?"

"Not really," she answered with a listless shake of her head. "I just don't know what else to do with it now. It's sitting in the back of my mind, and maybe I'll get some inspiration, but in the meantime, until I can sit down and explain everything to SHIELD and get some kind of safety features in place to try sending a probe through one of the other branches, I don't really know what else I can do. I've already put a portion of the data through every analysis program I have. But all the gravity readings and particle counts and neutrino collisions in the world aren't going to tell me where the other branches lead."

"I see. You were correct, you know, that if I'm to be stuck here all winter, I can't simply remain in my chambers. I was thinking perhaps I might continue to work on that data myself. There may yet be insights I can bring to the research from my experiences on Asgard and with the bifrost. And, because we are expected to be working together, I can also continue to assist you with the rest of your work, part of the time at least. Is that acceptable?"

"Um…yeah. Of course. That would be great, actually."

"Good. What are your plans for the day?"

"Well, first I need to go get a photo sent to Tony. Then I need to finalize a few things before I send off the next data package. At 2:00 a few of us were planning to watch Jurassic Park. You could join us."

"Another movie?"

"Yeah. These biologists figure out how to clone dinosaurs…reptiles from Earth's distant past, and they sort of recreate a bunch of different dinosaur species on this island, and, well, you know, things go wrong and the dinosaurs get loose and start trying to kill people. I guess maybe it sounds kind of dumb, but it's a lot of fun, kind of a thriller, and the special effects are really amazing, at least for when the movie came out. I haven't seen it in a while. You should give it a try, though. It's one of those ones everybody's seen, or at least heard of."

His initial reaction was not to go, but as soon as she mentioned something about interference in Earth's history his interest was piqued. And he was curious about what dinosaurs were, as well. "All right. I'll go."

Jane smiled. The birthday party idea had turned out to be far better than she could have ever imagined. "Come back here first. We're going to pop popcorn."

Loki agreed easily. Staring at a television for a couple of hours was perhaps not the best use of his time…but if time was his to control, then that was hardly a matter of concern.

/


/

"Most of the Eilif Springs have been melted," Natural Environment Advisor Vafri reported to Queen Frigga, who sat on Odin's throne as a matter of convenience, for the Assembly Chamber was not as well protected as this part of the palace. "We focused our efforts on springs with moderate volume. Those with the highest volume will take several more days at least before the ice is sufficiently melted, despite magic and natural flame, and those with the least volume are not worth the time and labor required – they will melt on their own, eventually. The ice itself is worse than we first thought. In some places even the water table itself is frozen. Still, our hard work has been rewarded, and the Vina and the Sekin are flowing well again, though the water level remains low. The Gavmul unfortunately is still sluggish and very low. The Vina and the Sekin we're trying to restock with fish from elsewhere, but thus far in this matter our success has been more limited."

Frigga listened as Vafri explained the overall disturbance of the life cycle in the two rivers that could now support a satisfactory supply of fish, if only the plankton, insects, seeds, crustaceans, and other tiny things the fish ate were also returned. The process could not be accomplished overnight, and even the most powerful magic could not create life where life did not exist.

"What do you need?" she asked when he finished.

"I'm afraid the main thing we need is time. Specialized expertise may help as well. I have two men and one woman who have river-life expertise, but both men are fighting and the woman is also assisting the war effort, I'm not sure where."

"We can recall them if needed. The defense of Asgard will fail if our warriors have too little to eat."

"If I may, Your Majesty?"

"Please, Geirmund."

"We have not reached so dire a situation. Though we did not stockpile any fish, our stocks of other cured and dried meats remain high. We have lost no further silos, and I travel to Midgard tomorrow morning to arrange the first delivery of provisions – grains and dried fruit."

"Still, without our intervention, fish may not return at all, not for a very long time. If I may recall but one of them, it may be enough."

"Very well," Frigga agreed. "When we are finished, provide the names of your experts to the rest of the advisors and do what you must to determine precisely what function each of them now serves. Work with Jolgeir to determine who can be spared."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Vafri and Jolgeir said in union.

Facilities Advisor Bosi spoke next, explaining the recovery of and remaining challenges with systems that relied on water, and which operations had been damaged by the drastic drop in supply. To the same question Frigga had asked Vafri, Bosi said, "Now that the battles have begun anew, we need more hands. But we'll do our best with what we have."

"Everyone needs more hands, and there are few to go around," Frigga said with a frown. Resources and supply was an issue she had dealt with during the Ice War, but not nearly to this extent. With war raging all around them, the pressure on the population and the ability to carry out basic services was immense. "Already our aged and women who don't normally work outside their homes are giving their time. Can our youths perhaps be of any service?"

"Your Majesty," Public Welfare Advisor Oblaudur said in customary preface. "Our youths are already contributing. Their teachers were needed elsewhere. All classes were formally halted two days ago."

"Mothers of young children may be able to provide service," Geirmund suggested, "if some system of childcare is arranged and appropriate facilities are provided."

"This could be done, particularly if the palace could provide the facilities within its walls, for the safety of the children," Oblaudur said.

"Of course. I'm certain we still have space remaining. Oblauder, you will arrange it with the palace staff and with as many mothers as are willing to participate."

Huskol reported next, in Hergils's place - the latter was out among the warriors along with Odin, Thor, Tyr, and Thor's closest friends - on what he knew of specific battles. The information was fragmentary, for battles began and ended constantly, and unlike before, it was hard to say when one ended and another began. Among the good news were the attacks on the false silos; Vanaheim, Alfheim, and Nidavellir had launch coordinated attacks on all three sets of three silos, thus neither the attackers nor their masters had the chance to report to their allies that it was a trap, and great numbers of the enemy were killed or captured. Five silos had been "destroyed," and despite the devastating losses on the attackers' side, the deception still worked, for another of Gullveig's booming messages had sounded across the battlefield, urging Asgard's warriors not to let their women and children starve because of their inability to see reason. Afterward Odin and Thor had made sure that word made its way through the warriors that this attack had done no damage to their food supply. Frigga worried that this word would eventually get back to their enemies, but she understood that they could not risk their own warriors' convictions weakening.

Huskol's other news was less encouraging. Asgard's warriors had been fighting continuously for nearly five full days now, and while Tyr and Hergils tried to rotate rest and sleep periods among the many units, the number of attackers and the pride of the Aesir made this a difficult task. The other realms' warriors never grew tired, in practical terms. When they did tire, or their ranks grew too thin, they simply left as soon as they spotted another portal opening and fresh arrivals coming through it. And casualties were mounting.

Jolgeir spoke for the healers. One of their senior healers or ideally Eir herself should be at the assembly, but none could be spared; they too worked from dawn to dawn, day after day. They were desperate for more help, and so Jolgeir did what he could for them while continuing to receive treatments for his eyes, which had almost fully healed. Frigga did not know exactly how he served there, but she had no doubt he would give everything he had to his task, the same as every Asgardian citizen was.

Geirmund next added to what he'd already said of their supplies and his journey to Midgard the next day, while Trade Advisor Krusa requested to accompany him. "My role has been made largely superfluous, Your Majesty. Not only is there no trade between the realms, but internal trade has also slowed to a trickle. I can work with Geirmund on the trade with Midgard, and the storage and distribution of the food we receive."

"Yes, of course. Do as needed. What is it that Midgard seeks from us in return?"

"Our money is useless to them, so we will provide gems to aid the payment of their farmers. We will also attempt to use our magic to work alongside their biologists and engineers to improve the yield of their crops in areas that struggle to feed their populations," Geirmund explained.

Frigga frowned at the second part, though she knew Odin must have approved it earlier. Geirmund did not have the authority to make such a bargain with another realm on his own. "We have no one who has used magic in such a way, to my knowledge, nor anyone familiar with Midgardian science or engineering. And if we did…we could not spare them at the moment."

"I understand, your Majesty," Geirmund said. "As do the Midgardians Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. We will send our magic-wielders only once the war is won, and they will explore what they can do."

Bragi spoke last, and brought what Frigga couldn't help thinking was hopeful news. "One of our loyal Vanir citizens acting in secret for us on Vanaheim has reported observing two protests there. One of them almost reached the palace before guards came in and apprehended the protesters. We also have word of unrest on Svartalfheim, but thus far nothing beyond some grumbling among the citizenry."

"Whenever you speak to our people, continue to convey our gratitude for their every effort. Have they been informed of the targeting of the silos?"

"Only six of them so far. It's difficult to make contact with them now."

"I understand. Do your best." The words were trite, she'd spoken variations on them time and again this day; there was little else she could say. There was little she could do. Listen. Ensure they worked together. Give a suggestion here and there, if one came to her. Display the surety expected of Asgard's king and queen, especially in time of war, whether she truly felt it or not.

She rose from the throne to return to her chambers and the advisors bowed. When she reached Geirmund, she pressed a hand to his shoulder and signaled that he should follow as she continued several paces beyond the others. "How fares your wife, Geirmund?"

"I…well, Your Majesty. I didn't know that you knew. Her time comes in about three weeks. She will be honored to know you asked."

"Thor mentioned it. With all of your travels to Midgard, is she well settled in the palace? Does she require assistance?"

Geirmund shuffled his feet and suddenly seemed more interested in his boots than in her. "We haven't relocated, Your Majesty. The offer was most gracious, but we are humble citizens. We have our own home, in one of the towers on the edge of the city. It is enough for-"

"Geirmund, the offer was not out of graciousness. You are an advisor to the throne now, and a particularly critical one at that. It's safer inside the palace, the earlier explosion in the throne room notwithstanding. Before you leave for Midgard, speak to the Palace Chambermaster and have your wife and whatever things you need installed here in appropriate chambers. Unless there is some other reason you wish to live in a less secure dwelling that is farther from your place of service?"

"No, of course not, Your Majesty. It will be as you say." He dropped into another bow.

"Rise. I know that great responsibility has been placed on your shoulders, and rather suddenly. I know that you have been nervous at times. But do not worry, Geirmund. You have excelled in your new post. I have every confidence in you," she said, and Geirmund nodded, his throat bobbing, and his eyes growing moist. Make plain your faith in your subjects. Encourage them. These were also things she could do.

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Thor was split between three roles. He fought with ferocity, placing himself in the thick of the enemy before they reached the rest of the Aesir, where he was freer to wield Mjolnir without risk to his own men. When he saw or was told of a new portal opened, he extricated himself from whatever battle he was in and took to the air to bring down lightning against it. Sometimes he was able to collapse the portal before too many warriors emerged; other times he could do no more than constrain its size and make any man who came too close to its edge regret it. He also served as a battlefield commander, with questions as to whether the men should position themselves here or there, whether they should fall back or hold or rush forward, brought to him. This was the most difficult role for him, for he had already realized that he had neither his father's nor Tyr's skill and experience at it. He was rapidly gaining both, though, and had already learned to take advantage of his ability to quickly view the battlefield from above.

"Send them north along the treeline," he said before his feet even reached the ground again. "Ljosalf and Vanir approach there. Archers and swordsmen. I saw no horses or other beasts."

"We shall go welcome them to Asgard at once, my prince. We'll treat them to the same hospitality as we did these Vanir." The warrior whose name Thor did not know gave a quick salute with a bloodied fist and returned to the band of warriors he led. The bodies of "these Vanir" covered the rocky field where they'd clashed, some of them still moaning, but Asgard's healers were already overwhelmed with Asgard's own. It was carnage and chaos. A healer or two usually accompanied the enemy's warriors as well, but none stood here, perhaps slaughtered alongside the warriors they tried to heal. If any still lived by the time Asgard's healers reached them, they would be given basic treatment and taken prisoner. It was the best that could be done under unpleasant conditions.

Thor spun Mjolnir and let it pull him upward again. Movement had caught his eye on the edge of a small wood, whose same treeline he'd just directed his warriors to follow. Movement that suggested a person, not an animal. The wood was not thick, and from above he quickly spotted the movement again – a single man moving at a steady pace through the wood, in the general direction of the city.

Thor dropped to the leaf-covered ground directly in front of the man, who stumbled backward and drew his sword. His armor bore the diamond-shaped emblem of the Vanir. Thor drew back Mjolnir, but did not strike; he hoped to be able to get answers before it came to that. "You have lost your way, Vanir. The rest of your men lie behind you," he said. Before he finished speaking, the Vanir warrior had resheathed his sword, to Thor's surprise. A deserter? No. More likely a saboteur playing at some game.

"You do not remember me, then? No, I suppose you would not. There were many of us. My name is Fotur Ingolfurson. Prince Thor, I swore an oath before you not so long ago, that in return for my release, I would not take up arms against Asgard again."

"Yet here you are."

"Not by my choice. My family was grateful, but I had not been home for three days before I was pressed into service again. I explained my oath, but I was told that it was made under duress and therefore invalid. I swore that it was not, and was told if I refused to go to Asgard and fight I would be branded a traitor. I could not bring that shame upon my wife and son. But as soon as they sent me here, I slipped away. I swear to you on my honor that I have not broken my oath."

As Thor considered this, Mjolnir slowly returned to his side. His thoughts felt sluggish, exhaustion creeping in now that he simply stood here. "What were your intentions, then?" he finally asked.

"I wish I could say I had intentions. I merely wanted to avoid both breaking my oath and being accused of treason."

"And now what am I to do with you?" Thor asked, simply speaking his thoughts aloud.

"I surrender to you," Fotur said immediately. "I am your prisoner."

"I have no time for prisoners. And as you have kept your oath, so must we: you are free."

"Forgive me, Prince, but I am a warrior of Vanaheim on enemy soil. I am hardly free. It's better if I'm your prisoner."

Fotur was right; it was a conundrum. Though technically freed, left to his own devices he would eventually be captured or killed. Thor eyed his armor. Vanir looked no different from Aesir; if he removed it he could blend in among the Aesir. Of course then everyone would wonder why an able-bodied young man was wandering about the city instead of out defending his home. Or healing its warriors… "Do you have any healing skills?"

"Ah, I…basic field medicine, the same as any warrior."

"Better than nothing," Thor said. Less than ten minutes later Fotur was deposited among the Aesir field healers, who were instructed to treat him as one of their own and provide him with supplies so that he could go forth to treat the Vanir as best he could until the trained Aesir healers could get to them. It was perhaps not the perfect solution – Fotur's oath meant he should be home with his family instead of stepping over blood-soaked dirt and bodies, hoping that he didn't step too near an injured Aesir with enough strength left to rise and strike him down – but under the circumstances, Thor was rather pleased with it as he again took flight and headed off to the next battle.


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"Mistysky" - not offended at all! (Though thanks for not getting into the politics of it! I wouldn't want to get into all that in this type of forum.) And for anyone interested, because I had a terrible time getting a link in here, if you search the terms -washington post south pole shutdown- (not with quotes) in Google the first hit currently is an interview with a former Polie who does weather science and talks about the impact of the government shutdown in the US on that.

Yesterday I came across a music group at McMurdo ("Condition Fun," a pun on "Condition One," when weather is too bad there to walk around safely outside) playing a song called "C-17" which I thought was hilarious, and you might enjoy if you remember the earlier chapter on Loki's and Jane's travel from Christchurch to McMurdo. If you search -C-17 condition fun- it's the first hit, on Youtube.

Back to the story...one of you has earned a gold medal...but I won't say more here. Not exactly spoilers per se, just me trying to let you figure things out in your own time. If you want to be able to do that, you should probably not read people's reviews. Thanks as always for your reviews, for reading, favoriting, etc.

Previews from Ch. 70...which might be titled "Relationships," it's how I think of it currently anyway: Loki and Jane watch a movie; Loki hangs out with the Polies, Jane and Loki have a long chat that hopefully you'll find interesting.

And (particularly unhelpful, sorry) excerpt, Jane and Loki:

"Okay. That sounds fun."

"Much better than the version of skiing done here, at least. And I did something else."

"Uh-huh?" she asked, her smile widening.

"Uh-huh? This isn't a question. Aren't you going to ask?"

Jane laughed. "Okay. What else did you do, Loki?"