Visitation

by kalimecat

Loki has returned to Asgard and is imprisoned for his crimes. While in prison he has the occasional visitor, will the love of others bring back the fallen prince or is he truly too far gone?

33. Paradise Lost

HELLLLLLOOOOO READERS! OMG IT HAS BEEN SO LONG! Dear readers, if you are even still reading (lol) I am soooooo sorry that it has taken me so long to update. I didn't forget about the story, but the month of April was crazy, with school work and weddings, I felt like I hardly had any time to write. Anyway I still appreciate every bit of encouragement I receive from you all whether it come in the form of comment, favorite or follow it is always near and dear to my heart. Anyway, this chapter didn't come out exactly as I had expected and quite frankly for the amount of time you waited for this chapter it probably could have been better. But I do think that this chapter serves to shed some light on how the citizens of Asgard feel at this point in the story and I think that is important. Hopefully in that, you all will find some enjoyment. Well without any further gilding of the lily, happy reads and writes and as always GOD bless you!

Chapter 3

Pita vigorously scrubbed the dirty dishes after the banquet. Normally, the servants were chatty in the kitchen. They talked about their masters and the gentry. They spoke well of how the noble women were dressed or they poked fun at the gaudy ensemble some chose to wear. Even if the nobility wasn't on the menu for discussion there was always something to be talked about. They'd share stories, tell jokes and sing songs to entertain themselves as they worked. Tonight was different. None of the servants were talking about anything. Everyone quietly and somberly attended to their duties.

Pita was surprised and annoyed. She had so much that she wanted to discuss, particularly with her dear friend, Krysten who was standing right next to her at the sink. Krysten had scarcely made a peep all night, besides to say "pass me the plate," or "hand me some more soap." The rhythm of their conversation was the sounds of their hands splashing into the sudsy dish water. Pita could scarcely hold her tongue a moment longer. She had so much to share with her friend about the evening she'd spent attending Queen Frigga. The queen had been nothing like the Asgardian girl had expected. She had always heard wonderful things about the queen, but who would speak ill of the queen. But it was true. Queen Frigga was even more beautiful than she had expected. She was a resplendent as the golden sun itself. But she hadn't doubted that the Queen Frigga would be lovely, but it was her kindness that was truly a marvel. She'd taken such time to talk to her. Her! Her! Nothing, but a lowly guard's daughter. She'd been picked at random to attend the queen and had expected to do the queen's bidding with silent, dutiful compliance. She hadn't thought that the queen would be a lady of mirth and humor or a tender, gentle woman who would smooth hair and dry tears and calm fears

Pita cast a glance at her friend, hoping that a smile would coax Krysten out of such a dismal disposition. Krysten's eyes remained trained on cleaning every scrap of food off the sparkling plates. Eventually, without a word, Krysten moved from the sink and began stacking the clean gold dishes. She made piles for plates; piles for gold and piles for plates of silver and did the same with bowls and saucers. Once she was done making her piles she soundlessly carried the clean dishes over the crystal cabinets where they belonged. She worked slowly, methodically, ever so carefully positioning one jewel studded plate after another into the crystal cabinet, but her eyes weren't on the task and one of the expensive plates slipped from her hand, missed the cabinet completely and broke against the ground. She shrieked at her own clumsiness and jumped back as bits of the fractured plate splintered off around her and gemstones rolled away "Krysten!" her friend shouted hearing the commotion. "Are you alright?" she asked dropping her dishes in the sink and rushing to the other girls side.

"Yes, yes," Krysten bobbed her head as she looked at the mess around her feet. "Clumsy!" she scolded herself. "I can't believe I did that," she grumbled.

"You better hurry and clean that up," Pita pointed out. She patted her friend on the shoulder before she moved quickly to the corner and grabbed a broom and dust pan. "If Quimby sees that mess he'll take it out of you pay purse," she explained as she passed her friend the broom. Quimby the head of kitchen staff was a fussy older man. He liked when the girls came and helped out if there were nobles in the palace, but he didn't like having to divvy up any extra money. The girls received a small purse of coins at the end of each day they worked, but he was quick to look for some reason to dock payments. And breaking one plate would certainly be a whole days pay as much as the plates were worth.

Krysten nodded. She couldn't believe she'd been so careless with her duties. She'd been told that these plates were worth enough to buy her family's house. Dutifully, the young woman took to starting to sweep. After a few strokes on the ground her broom stopped. "What are you doing? Hurry up!" her friend ordered. "You don't know when Master Quimby will be back, you don't want to..."

"What does it matter?" Krysten asked bitterly looking up at the other girl with tears in her eyes. She threw down the broom

Pita looked back and forth between her friend and the tossed aside broom, "What are you saying?" the other kitchen maiden shook her head. The dark-haired girl picked up the broom quickly,

"Convergence is tomorrow! The king lies in Oversleep and shows no signs of waking and the Imperial City lies in ruin!" Krysten yelled. Immediately all the fury and rage drained from her face and she broke into a wail. She sank to her knees, holding her face as she sobbed violently.

"Krysten," Pita muttered, she slowly began to kneel next to her friend and rub circles on her back. "There, there, it's ok," Pita mumbled softly

Krysten pulled her hands away from her face and looked violently at her friend. "No it's not!" she hollered vehemently at Pita, enough so the make the other girl jump. "No, it's not," she repeated through ground teeth. "Can't you see, Pita?" she asked with trembling eyes, "Ragnorok it at our doorstep," she shook her head, "We're all going to die!" She lamented as she tossed back her head and started to sob.

Pita gasped. "No! No, Krysten, we are not," young Pita declared as she gripped her friend firmly by the shoulder causing her to turn around and look at her. "Look at me, look at me," she begged her friend. Krysten's eyes were down cast.

"How can you say that?"

"I know something. I know something that not many people know, even the noblemen and women don't know this," Pita whispered. She looked around to make sure there were no other servant present.

"Huh?" Krysten asked in confusion. "What do you know?

"I know that Prince Thor went to fight the Dark-Elves," Pita whispered in Krysten's ear. Krysten pulled away, her eyes were wide, but her lip was curled. Pita followed her leaning in close to her friend's ear once more. "He took a whole battalion with him to Svartalfheim, the Dark-Elf homeworld and they brought, the mortal who holds the Aether to the Dark-Elves. The Aether is there and the Dark-Elves have no reason to return to Asgard if they already have the Aether," Pita nodded.

"They will return to massacre us, either way!" Krysten protested.

"No, no, no not so," Pita soothed, taking Krysten by the hands and holding them firmly. "Not if Prince Thor defeats them on their homeworld. They can be stopped," she bobbed her head in earnest.

Krysten scrunched up her features not quite convinced, "Who told you these things?" Krysten questioned.

Pita squared her shoulders and sat a little taller on her knees, "Queen Frigga, herself," she declared.

Krysten's eyes went wide. Her mouth dropped open. "You lie!"

"I do not!" Pita remarked. "She told me last night! That's what I have been wanting to tell you, last night I was chosen to be a waiting woman to Queen Frigga!" Pita nearly squealed.

"You are joshing! Surely, the queen has many servants,"

"I know she does, but she wanted them to rest, her personal healer wanted her to be attended to and choose me!" Pita exclaimed pointing to herself.

Immediately, Krysten started the scream! Before long the two young women were screaming, jumping up and down hands entwined with one another. "Pita! That is incredible!" she yelled once more. "How could you not tell me sooner?"

"I wanted to, but you would not speak with me," Pita explained.

"I am sorry," Krysten apologized. "So much has been on my mind since we heard the news about the attacks. I'm just so frightened," Krysten confessed as fresh tears started to pool in her eyes.

Pita's short arms reached out as she folded her friend into a hug. "I know...I know," she muttered as she felt Krysten's body shaking. "I was, too," she expressed as she held her friend's face firmly between her two hands. Salt tears started to wash down Krysten's cheeks. 'last night when I was attending to Queen Frigga I was just as you are. Weeping, sobbing, crying. I had a bad dream and woke a screaming and woke the queen from her slumber."

Krysten gasped. "My goodness! What did she do? Did she strike you?"

Pita shook her head and only started to laugh, "Merciful Yddrasil, no. She was so tender and gentle and kind, just like a mother. "and she told me of Prince Thor, going to the Dark-World to fight Malekith and his hoard and she told me to have hope, just as I am telling you now that you must have hope," Pita stated proudly as she stroked Krysten's hair out of her eyes and tucked in behind her ear.

Krysten closed her eyes and pushed away from her friend. She wrapped her arms around herself protectively, "Hope. Hope?" she muttered in a fragile, brittle voice. "What hope is there now? Convergence is almost upon us."
"There is always hope, Krysten" Pita said quietly as she moved closer and placed a hand on Krysten's trembling shoulders. 'Prince Thor and the Einherjar are out there fighting for us as we speak,"

For a moment Krysten nodded, "What if they lose?" Krysten pondered.

"Come now, Krysten, you are simply being ridiculous," Pita broke into a giggle. "Can you imagine Prince Thor losing?" she countered.

Krysten formed a watery smile on her lips. She turned back around to her friend, "I guess that is rather ridiculous," she concluded. "Prince Thor has never lost a battle."

"And never will! I am sure with morning light we will hear of his victory," she assured her friend. Pita smiled brightly and her warm grin was so infectious that it spread and made Krysten do the same. Krysten gave Pita a big hug and thanked her for her encouraging words.

"What's this?" a crackly, old voice interrupted the two friends.

"Master Quimby!" both girls gasped immediately letting go of one another and turning around to face the short, old man with a fat belly, balled head and full white beard coming toward them. They tucked their hands behind their back.

"What's all this, girls! What's all this!" he started to fuss. "The dishes still aren't completed!" he pointed with his cane toward the wash basin, "And they aren't stacked," he pointed with his cane once more toward the crystal cabinets. "And!" the old man gasped so hard it seemed like he would choke. He clutched his hand to his heart. "My heavens! Look at the mess!" he yelled once he discovered the broken golden, plate.

"It's just one plate, Master Quimby," Pita replied to the man's horror

Master Quimby turned to her and glared and growled, "Just one plate! Just one plate!" He railed and raised his cane. "That plate was priceless!"

"I'm sorry, Master Quimby," Pita immediately apologized. "I broke the plate," she explained she looked down for a moment and then looked the steward squarely in the eye.

" Pita," Krysten tugged on her friend's hand. "What are you doing?

"Pita!" Master Quimby growled as he hobbled up to her on his cane. "This is very disappointing," he groaned. "Disappointing indeed," he fussed as he walked closer to the mess of broken dishes and kicked them about with the tip of his cane.

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir," she replied.

"Oh sorry doesn't cut it, girl!" he scolded waving his cane in her face. "Those plates are worth more than you! Each one of them handcrafted by the fairies of Gilder in Alfheim as part of the dowry of the first queen of Asgard. They are priceless historical artifacts!" he yelled. "Now ruined because of your carelessness, child. I shall now have to dock you of your wages," he stated harshly.

Pita's shoulders fell and she bowed her head. "Yes, sir," she muttered.

"I'm talking about all your earnings for the day child and your father's too," Master Quimby stated.

"My father's! But Master Quimby, that's not fair!" Pita insisted

" I am being more than gracious to you, girl!" Quimby barked at her. "You have no idea the worth of the plate. Even your father's earning aren't even worth 10th of what that plate is worth. It's worth a fortune!" Quimbly mumbled more to himself than to Pita.

"Master Quimby, I was I who..." Krysten started to speak up, but Pita stomped on her foot causing the girl to yowl long enough for Pita to keep talking with Master Quimby.

"Master Quimby, this isn't fair! I dropped the plate, my father had nothing to do with it," she insisted.

"Well I'm afraid, indeed he did, child. He brought you along, did he not?" He asked. He was only answered with silence. "Did he not!" the ill-tempered kitchen-steward demanded stamping his cane on the ground.

"Yes, Master Quimby, but,"

"If he wouldn't have brought you I have to assume that the plate would not have been dropped. He is just as responsible for this as you," the older man leaned on his cane and looked at Pita with satisfaction.

"But you can't do that! You are not over the guards!"

"Mind your tongue, Pita! Or I will see to it that your father loses two month's salary as well!" Quimby threatened cruelly. "Ooh, such insolences," he fumed. "I am very close friends with Sir Tyr, head of the guards and he will have no problem doing as I suggest," he stated. "This is very disappointing, Pita," the old man clicked his tongue and wrung his hands. "yes, yes, yes, indeed and after you'd been so esteemed by the queen. Healer Onrac had requested you be sent to serve the queen some supper. She has not left the all-father's bedside. But I'd not send you up there with the case of clumsiness that you've taken to. You'd likely drop a scalding hot plate in the queen's lap. Krysten, you go up instead," Master Quimby directed.

"W-w-what? M-m-m-me, M-master -Qu-Q-Quimby?" Krysten sputtered.

'Y-y-yes, y-y-you," he teased stomping his cane. "There is a warm plate of food on the counter for her majesty. Just take the plate up there and speak on if spoken to," he instructed.

"Go on, Krysten" Pita encouraged. "Go on and meet the queen," she offered a thumbs up. "She is so lovely and nice, let her tell you the things she told me!"

"What are you waiting for, girl?" Master Quimby grumbled. "Get to going!" he swung his cane at her causing her to duck. "Foods on the counter! Carry it up to the queen before it gets cold!" he demanded. "Chop-chop!" he clapped his hands. With a yelp, Krysten flung herself toward the counter, scooped up the covered tray of food and started for the queen's bedchamber. "As for you," the bald-headed kitchen manager turned back and glared at Pita, "Finish cleaning up this mess!" he barked and tossed broom at her. "Then you can take to finishing those dishes," he cocked his bald head toward the large pile that still needed washing in the sink. With that he hobbled forth on his cane grumbling something while he scratched at his rear.

"Pita!" Krysten called as her strawberry-blonde head peered around the corner checking to see if the coast was clear.

"Krysten," Pita poked her head up from collecting the pieces of broken glass in the dust pan. "You must get the queen her food."

"I will, but..."

"You can't keep, Her Royal Highness waiting," Pita started. "She could be famished..."

Krysten shook her head as she entered the kitchen once more. She sat the queen's tray on one of the serving tables. "Why'd you do it? Why'd you tell Master Quimby you broke the plate?

"I don't know," Pita shrugged.

"I'm telling him the truth! I can't let you and your father lose your wages over me and my foolishness," Krysten stated.

"it doesn't matter, Krysten, what's done is done now," Pita shrugged once more.

"it does matter!" Krysten insisted, "Your family needs money!"

"If Ragnorok comes, money will be the least of our worries," Pita confessed with a slight sight

"Don't tell me, you have lost hope once more!"

"Not in the least," Pita shook her short brown locks, "But I know you weren't entirely convinced with my words either."

"It's not that I don't believe you, my friend it is just...it all seems so hopeless," Krysten sighed.

"I know," Pita said pityingly once more. She touched her friend on the shoulder. "I think you will be reassured once you see the Queen. When you see her sitting regal and strong, a pillar of calm and cool in this storm, I know you will take heart and know things will be alright." she beamed brightly at the other girl.

The strawberry blonde servant girls felt tears prick behind her eyes. She bit her lip, trying to keep the tears from falling. Her arms flung open and before long she was pulling Pita into a tight embrace. "You are such a good friend," she whispered in Pita's ear. Pita hugged her back tightly before pushing away gently.

"I know you would do the same for me," she swore as she cupped Krysten's face and gently swiped away the tears that hung on her cheeks with her thumb. "Go! Go. Go." Pita insisted. She pushed her reluctant friend out toward the door. Krysten barely had time to snatched the queen's tray off of the table before she was shoved completely out of the kitchen. "Come back and tell me everything the queen says and does, my friend!" Pita called as she waved at her.

Krysten walked down the elaborate corridors of the upper level bedrooms quickly while she muttered to herself. She didn't know how she should address the queen if the queen did so chose to speak to her. She supposed she shouldn't expect the queen to hold much conversation with her. Before long she was at the suite of the King and Queen of Asgard. The door was large and ornate. It was so grand with gold plating around the door post and large door knobs with the faces of lions. Timidly, with a deep breath and a gulp, Krysten rapped on the door.

The door creaked open slowly, on the other side she was greeted by a pretty young woman who had her red hair tied up in a wimple. She had on a lovely dress the color of sea.

"I...I...I" Krysten stammered. This woman was dressed so elegantly that she looked as if she could have been the queen herself. If this was how the queen's waiting gentle women dressed then Krysten certainly felt as if she had no business being in the same room as the queen. She looked down at her simple dull, drab brown and gray frock. It hadn't even fancy stitching for embellishment. The woman before her wore elegant high laced sandals. Krysten looked at her own shoes and wished her skirt was longer so that she could hide the shameful dust mule clogs that she wore. "I...I...I have the queen's dinner, my lady," she said as she curtsied to her knees and lifted up the covered tray. Her curtsy was tottering and awkward she could barely manage to balance herself and the tray wobbled about on her unsteady hands.

"Ahh, yes" the lady-in-waiting said with a smile. "Healer Onrac told me he called down to the kitchen to have something brought up for her majesty," the Aesir noblewoman stated. "The queen must eat. Do come in." the lady-in-waiting gestured politely with her hands. Her movements were delicate and pure poetry in motion. Krysten clambered to her feet and followed behind the noblewoman into the bedchamber. She had never dared to guess that she would see where the royal couple slept. The King and Queen's suite was as larger than her house. As she entered the sitting pallor she beheld much finery there were beautiful velvet upholstered couches, settees and lounging chairs. There were coffee tables with marble tops and counters made of silver. The drapes and curtains were made of silk and satin and billowed like beautiful flower petals wafting off the trees in the cool night breeze. The bedroom was decorated exquisitely. In an artisan town such as this there was no shortage of beautiful artwork, but this was like nothing young Krysten has ever seen. The tapestries that lined the back wall were woven with the rarest of dyes. The colors vivid as gems. The patterns told stories that only the most gifted of storytellers could have rivaled. There were beautiful vases, some taller than the girl filled with plants and perfumed flowers. There were even a few ceramic statues. It was breathtaking.

"You must be Pita," the lady-in-waiting's silvery voice broke through the young woman's curious gazing about. The queen's maiden was very fair. She had a swan's neck and carefully twirled chocolate tresses. She was painted like a porcelain doll.

"No, my lady, I am Krysten. Pita had work...I was sent in her place. I hope this will not displease the queen," Krysten remarked.

"I should think not. Seeing a pretty young woman like yourself would not displease the queen." The noblewoman reported. Krysten felt blush grow on her cheeks. The woman before her was surely one of the most stunning women she had ever laid eyes upon. "The queen is in the king's quarter," the woman stated. She pointed back to another room with in the chamber. "His majesty is very ill," she whispered as she bent down toward Krysten's ear.

Krysten sucked in a sharp breath, " I have heard, I keep our king in my prayers every night," the servant girl said in earnest.

"Do child, do," the noblewoman admonished. Her smile was kindly and sincere.

"i wish not to disturb my queen," she stated looking up at the beautiful woman with red hair. "I can simply give you the tray," Krysten immediately started to offer the plate of food to the woman.

The queen's attendant held out her hand refusing the tray. "Tis no need. I will introduce you. May do the queen well to see a youth. The queen is so very fond of Asgard's youth. Twill brighten her spirits. To see a young smiling face."

"if you think it is best, my lady, but she was looking for Pita,"

"But Pita could not come," the queen's lady-in-waiting stated simply. Kyrsten watched as the woman with the flowing blue gown disappeared behind the gossamer golden curtain which held the king and queen. She slammed her shut not wanting to look as she felt a bout of nervousness over take her. Her palms were starting to sweat. She felt like she would drop the queen's tray. She had no idea what she would say to the queen. How in the world did Pita do it? Finally, after giving herself a good stern talking to, Krysten peered around the corner. She was not bold enough to enter although she dared to tiptoe closer. She planted herself just outside of the room. She could make out the silhouettes and forms of the figures behind the golden curtain. There was something that appeared to be the shape of a bed and from it radiated a subtle golden glow. She noted several people frantically darting about room. They were carrying different things, some were carrying vials other carrying datapads. She could only imagine they were healers. Curiously, she gazed through the curtain and watched as the healers worked their healing enchantments over the kings bed. She saw a few women whipping a strange, glowing blue liquid over the bed. Another came carrying a jar and pulled out a large healing crystal and pressed it by the king's head while chanting some indecipherable words. There ministrations seemed to be doing little.

She could make out the form of a woman straightening when the Lady-in-waiting entered the room. As the figure sat up gracefully Krysten knew immediately that it had to be the queen. There was a dignified and poised way in which the figure sat. The movements were pure poetry. Her back was straight and head was held high. Every wave of her hand was simply elegant. Her hair adorned her head like a royal crown. She could barely make out the features of the queen, but she could see her regal profile, full lips and long tresses. Krysten's hands moistened, her pulse quickened and her mouth felt dry. At any moment she could be called in to meet the queen. The tray rattled in her hands as she did her best to stand stock still.

"Your Majesty," the lady-in-waiting spoke as she dipped into a polite curtsy before the wife of Odin, "Your dinner has arrived," she stated.

"Thank you, for your pains, my dear, but I have no stomach," she insisted with a dismissive flick of the hand. Her voice was sweet as a nightingale and clear as a bell, but there was a slight warble to it that revealed the emotional state of the female ruler.

"My queen, you must eat," a male voice instructed. It was the same healer who had been using the healing crystal just moments before. "it is important that you keep up your strength. Asgard needs you strong." he pressed and touched the queen on her shoulder.

"He is right your majesty we need your wisdom and strength now more than ever. A servant girl from the kitchen is here with food for you now, milady. You did not attend banquet this evening, Majesty. Please, won't you have something," the gentlewoman entreated.

"Ah, yes," the man's voice perked up. "Young Pita, my queen did so enjoy chatting with her the other night," Healer Onrac smiled toward the queen encouragingly and nodded toward the lady-in-waiting.

"I'm afraid tis not Pita tonight, my lady, but a young maiden by the name of Krysten,"

"We specifically asked for Pita," the healer snapped. "How dare they deny her majesty's request," he slammed his fist into his palm.

"Please," Queen Frigga raised her hand for peace. "It matters not who was sent," she sighed. Outside the curtain barrier Krysten held her tray with baited breath, the queen obviously didn't wish to see her. She pushed back her strawberry blonde locks. Why should she trouble the queen? She started to leave the corner where she had carefully positioned herself and head back to the kitchen."I am sure young Krysten is quite charming," Queen Frigga remarked. Her words catching Krysten's ears once more. Krysten froze for a moment and quickly scampered back to the corner. "I cannot eat when my husband lies so ill," she spoke her voice breaking slightly, her hand straying to her lips. She just barely contained a sob. "I have never seen him like this," she whispered. Her hand reaching for the bed. Young Krysten watched the shadows and could only imagine the queen was reaching for her husband's hand.

"King Odin has gone into cardiac arrest twice within the pass hour," Healer Onrac reported. Krysten gasped right along with the queen's handmaiden.

"My queen!" she handmaiden cried as she rose to her feet and went to stand by the queen and placed a hand on her shoulder. Frigga's hand rose slowly she placed it on top of the other woman and looked up at her offering a weak version of a smile. The facial expression was so painful it was practically a grimace.

Queen Frigga's hands were soft as silk. She gently rubbed her soft fingers back and forth across her lady-in-waiting's knuckles. Her own hand quivered. After awhile she broke into a rhythmic patting of the other woman's arms. "He is not breathing on his own," she pointed out.

"My king! My king!" she shrieked. "Healer Onrac, surely you can do something!" the lady-in-waiting demanded.

"We are doing all we can," Healer Onrac responded automatically. It was true. Not one healer seemed to be resting. All were either hovering over King Odin's bed or carrying something back and forth. "But there is little more that I can offer him here. We need Mistress Eir,"Healer Onrac stated. "I have put him through the soul forge 4 times and I can detect no anomalies in his physical condition," Healer Onrac reported. "Her powers are greater than my own and she may be able to detect more or what ails him.

"Please! My Lady let us send for Mistress Eir, the all-father's life is at stake," the handmaiden begged.

"I have already sent word to the Imperial Palace of King Odin's condition letting them know how dire it is at this point," Healer Onrac stated.

"Will Mistress Eir be able to get here in time?" the handmaiden to Queen Frigga asked her eyes looking back and forth between the royal woman and the head healer. "Convergence is tomorrow."

Healer Onrac cleared his throat and wiped a handkerchief over his sweating bald head. "I don't expect Eir to arrive, but perhaps she can send me word of something we can manufacture here to help the all-father," he expressed.

"Eir can do nothing for him now," the queen spoke softly. "What is happening is beyond medicine. He sees disaster and calamity and despair," she prophesied.

"No!" Krysten gasped from behind the veil. She bit into her lip to keep from screaming.

"Nothing can save him from that. Nor help him through it. Only the vision itself can change."

"Surely, there is something," the lady-in-waiting countered as her hand reflexively clutched the queen's shoulder. "The king cannot perish, surely that would mean the end for us all," she continued. Queen Frigga was silent for a long while, she simply sat holding fast to Odin's hand and studying every line and crinkle in his face.

"it would certainly mean the end of me," Queen Frigga confessed as new silver tears trickled down her cheeks.

"Oh my queen do not lose heart! Do not lose heart there is still hope," the lady-in-waiting encouraged. She flung herself by the queen's side a raised a handkerchief to dab at Frigga's cheeks and watery eyes. "There is still time," she entreated the queen.

"Time is running out," Frigga responded. "With every passing second Odin grows weaker and weaker," expressed. "Every minute marches us closer to Convergence and Ragnorok, I fear."

"That is why Asgard needs you now more than ever, Majesty, please eat," once again Healer Onrac begged. "Asgard cannot be left without a ruler, in these desperate times," he insisted.

"Your son is still out there, my queen and Ragnorok isn't upon us, yet," Queen Frigga's woman servant stated firmly as she squeezed the queen's hand.

Frigga turned her head toward her lady-in-waiting. She stroked the younger woman's cheek. "You are right," the wife of Odin spoke up, her voice sounded stronger. "My husband still lives," she reminded herself. "Convergence has not taken place yet," she nodded. "Thor and the Einherjar can still win the day and keep these visions that Odin sees from coming to pass," she went on.

"Absolutely, my queen" Onrac indulged. "Now, please, milady won't you eat something and then rest?"

Queen Frigga raised her hand. "I'll eat a little something, but I intend to sit by my husband's side until he awakens or there is no life in him," she remarked sharply.

"Someone show young Krysten in," stated the queen's lady-in-waiting.

Kyrsten heard her name. She froze for a moment. She'd been so busy eavesdropping on the private conversation that she'd scarcely forgotten where she was or what she was doing there. She looked about her trying to get her bearings. Once again she recalled her mission, she was there to present Asgard's queen with a meal and make light conversation if the queen so chose to speak to her. Her mouth felt so dry that her tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of her mouth. She doubted she'd even be able to greet her royal highness. Her knees were all of a sudden over taken with dreadful shakes. They were knocking together like two clattering cymbals. She slammed her legs together trying to stand still enough in order to will her body to walk forward, but it was no use she was trembling too much. Krysten leaned against the wall to keep herself from spilling the queen's food on the floor. "Come on, you can do it," she whispered to herself. "Your queen is hungry and distraught," she mumbled. "This is the least you can do to serve your queen," she chastised herself before she was finally able to take one step forward.

The step was uneasy and unsure. It was just a teeny baby step, but it was followed by another and as she slowly noticed her body moving she was able to try and remind herself how to act before the Queen of Asgard. "Remember to smile. Remember to curtsy. Don't speak unless spoken to," she instructed herself. "Should I kiss the queen's ring?" she wondered aloud.

Just as her shoes were edging toward the shimmering, sheer curtain which kept the healing room separate from the rest of the bedchamber, just as her quivering left hand was daring to stretch forward and push the curtain open to let herself in as she had been requested did someone whiz by her.

They ran past her, arm frantic and flailing as they knocked into her. The arms slammed her against the wall. Krysten reflexively let out a little yelp as she felt her body being thrust to the side. Her startled scream was soon followed by a furious cry as she looked down and noticed that the food she had been carrying on a silver platter had tumbled to the floor. In a puddle, at her feet, lie the queen's meal. "No!" Krysten yelled. No!" she slammed her fist against the wall and then turned to the wall and kicked it, hard all before sinking to her knees and grabbing at her head. The savory meat was over turned and scattered. The fresh vegetables had rolled right off the plate. The goblet full of wine spilled on the rug. The china tea pot and tea cup that were to be served to the queen after she'd eaten her supper broken into tiny pieces. Krysten's shaky hands fumbled as she attempted to gather up the pieces of food and broken glass.

"Your Majesty!" a young man panted as he galloped into the king's bedchamber where the healers were vigilantly working on him. The heads of the healers immediately swiveled to face the gangly youth. He waved a parchment scroll in his hand at the queen. He only was able to wave for a few seconds before he doubled over desperate to catch his breath. The healers ceased their ministrations. A few of the healers rushed toward the youngster, they tried to quiet him and some even tried to force him out. They apprehended him, taking him by the arms and shoving him backward. "Hey ! Let go of me! Unhand me!" he cried as strong, rough hands of men and women gripped him on all sides.

Krysten watched from her knees, the struggle between a group of healers a the earnest young Aesir. The youth pulled against the medicine men and women. He tried to pry his arms from their hands. They did their best to quell him, but he kept calling out, shoving back and even knocking a few of the healers down in a desperate attempt to reach Frigga, Queen of Asgard. "Your Majesty!" he continued to cry over the healers, he waved the parchment in his hand.

Healer Onrac excused himself from the queen and her handmaiden. He furiously stomped toward the commotion. "What is the meaning of this?" the queen's personal physician inquired. "This is the royal suite!" he informed the young man. "Have you no respect for your king? Your queen? You dare come before her majesty unsummoned!" he barked in outrage. "This room now serves as a place of healing!" he reminded the young man wagging a stern brown finger in his face. "You come in here making a racket... The all-father lies sick and you dare start this rabble! How dare you! Get him out of here!" the queen's personal physician ordered.

"Right away, sir," the other healers responded immediately. "Come, boy, come," they ordered pulling him harder. They blocked his path so that he could not see the queen. They had almost successfully shoved him out the room and back behind the curtain, when the young man tore from their hands..

"I have something for her majesty," he informed breathlessly. He finally managed to pull his thin arms free of the constraints of the healers grasp. Most of them were young women, but they were ferociously strong. He wondered whether they were healers or Valkyrie. Once he pulled himself free he fell to his face. Quickly, the young man gathered himself, pressed himself to his knees and looked up at the head healer. He was still panting, "I have something for the queen," he remarked once more and presented a small scroll to Onrac. Onrac looked curiously at the scroll. "It...it's from the Imperial Palace," the courier stated. "It was just transmitted to the communication room," he went on. "Just now, sir..just now," he stammered.

"Healer Onrac," Queen Frigga's melodic voice interrupted the scuffle, "What's going on here?" she asked, her brows furrowing and her lips pursed as she beheld the young paige of the ground surrounded by an angry group of healers.

"Nothing, you highness," the bald medicine man answered quickly. "It is just a courier. The boy is far too impetuous," he stated. "He should not have come in here. "He is about to leave. Get him up, show him out," Healer Onrac ordered. He clapped his hand as he dictated to the other healers. "The queen is about to have her supper," he expressed.

Krysten's ears once again perked. She panicked as she looked at the food that had spilled all about. What on earth was she to do. The food was all over the floor and the queen was ready to eat. She started to bite her nails. What excuse would she offer the wife of Odin for not having her meal? What would the queen say? Off with her head? Krysten's hand groped at her neck. She desperately tried to pick up any piece of food that looked salvageable. Then she shook her head and tossed the food off of the tray. How dare she consider serving the food less than clean meat.

The healers had managed to grapple the young courier to his feet. He didn't put up as much resistance in the presence of the queen. "Please, my queen," He called as the healers started to shove him out of the female ruler's sight, "It's a transmitted message, from the Imperial City," he expressed. He managed to slip his arm out of the grasp of the healer long enough to flash the scroll before the queen's eyes.

"Release him!" the queen of Asgard ordered immediately upon seeing the scroll.

"Your Majesty, please, shouldn't you have something to eat first," suggested the dark-skinned physician.

Queen Frigga simply raised her hand, silencing the head healer instantly. He bowed his head and took a step back. "Bring the scroll, here lad," the queen stated. She extended her hand to receive the transmitted message.

The boy stepped forward, the harsh hands of the healers flying off of him. He came to the queen and bowed before her. He dropped on one knee and lowered his head, not daring to look the highest ranking woman in the land in the eye. He lifted up the scroll before her. He was so shy that he didn't notice the Frigga's gentle and gracious smile before him. "The message was encrypted, milady," he spoke up. His voice just a squeak. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment at the fact that his voice cracked before him queen. Frigga continued to smile down at him, bemused and reminiscent. Having raised two sons she was well accustomed to adolescents with changing voices.

"You have been of great service to me tonight and too all of Asgard," she commended him as her long fingernails skimmed his up faced palms as she plucked the scroll from his hands.

"Oh, Queen Frigga," her handmaiden called. "Perhaps it is good news," she exclaimed as she squeezed the queen's hand.

"Yes, yes perhaps," the queen stated as she studied the scroll.

"Perhaps it is the news needed to wake the all-father from this dreadful Oversleep," Healer Onrac stated. "Let us go and read it over his bedside," he prescribed. They took a few steps back into the room where the king still lay covered by a shimmering force field, lying helplessly on his bed. The lady-in-waiting pulled out the chair for the queen and gently ushered her back into a sitting position.

"Healer Onrac, would you do the honors?" the queen asked as she extended the scroll back to her faithful physician. She took her seat back at her husband's bedside. She slipped her fingers under the shield so that she could hold his hand as they heard the message. She wanted to feel his hands grow warm and his pulse race once more as he heard the good news.

"With pleasure, my queen," he stated as his large brown hands scooped up the scroll. He took a sharp breath as he unraveled the scroll. With baited breath the sapphire-eyed wife of Odin sat by her husband's side. One of her hands strayed to clasp his while the other was held tightly, securely and protectively in the clutch of one of her ladies. All in the healing chamber watched as Healer Onrac's eyes roved over the scroll quickly.

"Are you able to decipher the encryption, Onrac?' asked the wife of Odin. There were many different encryption that the scribes in the palace were trained in writing. It was a communication tool used to keep messages safe and private. Some codes were generalized so that the high ranking officials could decipher the documents, other were militarized and some were private for only the eyes of the royal family to interpret. Queen Frigga's dainty hand started to extend ready to read what her physician could not.

"Y-yes, yes, my lady," he answered his voice quiet, with a slight tremor. His brown eyes wide as they darted rapidly over the parchment.

"Well, what does it say?" demanded Frigga's lady-in-waiting. She still held tightly to the queen's \shoulder. Onrac's lips started to part. His mouth moved as if he was still reading a few of the words.

"Onrac? Do you have news from the palace?" Queen Frigga inquired. "Word from Eir?" she offered.

"Perhaps Mistress Eir is on her way, you Majesty," proposed the lady-in-waiting hopefully. She gave the royal woman's shoulder a squeeze.

"New's, milady," he muttered. His eyes didn't meet Queen Frigga's expectant stare. The queen and her attendant exchanged curious glances. Queen Frigga's hand clutched Odin's calloused, cold palm.

"Out with it!" The handmaiden barked. "News from Prince Thor? Of the dark-Elves?" the queen's handmaiden interjected. Onrac could only bobbed his hairless head. The handmaiden gasped and a happy smile spread across her face. She tossed her head back, lifted her hands and voice and in praise before turning to the female ruler of Asgard. Queen Frigga's beautiful, sapphire, blue eyes went wide. Her lady-in-waiting gave her shoulder a squeeze and both women shared an elated glance. "Oh my goodness! My queen! My queen! Perhaps it is good news!" the handmaiden cried. "Merciful Yddrasil! Do you hear that, your majesty! Do you hear? We are saved!" she exclaimed. Hopefully, Queen Frigga's brilliant sapphire eyes glistened with tears, her hand instinctively clutched tighter to Odin's but his fingers remained limp and cold, unaltered by happy events. Those present in the chamber all took collective sighs of relief. Applause rang out from their hands. Soon a few celebratory hoots and hollers followed. Eyes started to mist and hugs and cheers were readily exchanged amongst the healing staff.

She looked quizzically at her friend. He looked positively stricken. His chestnut skin draining of its rich hue ever so slightly. "Onrac," her voice posed a question. His expression was one of disbelief, but disbelief was a far cry from elation. "Has Prince Thor returned?"

"Yes, your majesty," he admitted as he lowered the scroll from his face. He swallowed thickly. He smoothed his white tunics. Swiped his large hands over his bald head and then smoothed his tunics again. He tried to give a smile to queen, but he could not seem to manage one.

"Do you hear this, my love," the golden queen turned toward the king of Asgard and smiled. Her hand stroked the side of his face that was moist with tears. "Take heart! Take heart!" she encouraged him.

Outside of the room Krysten waited with baited breath to hear the news. Pita was right. No doubt Prince Thor had won the day! He'd never been defeated in battle. He went to battle often, but on days when he'd return home victorious they would have holiday from school and work to have a day of feasting and gladness to honor the conquering hero. Asgard had many holidays for this very reason.

"Merciful Yggdrasil we are saved!" the lady-in-waiting exclaimed lifting up her hands.

"And what of the Einherjar?" the queen questioned.

"There were many casualties, my queen," he reported he looked down at the scroll once more checking the figures.

Queen Frigga bowed her head, "They shall not be forgotten," the queen swore. "All our fallen warriors shall be honored and great monument shall be built to testify of this day," she declared. She looked back up and noticed the stricken look that was still etched over the healer's face. Her breath became caught in her throat. Her heart beating fast as she feared the worst. "What is it, Onrac?" She inquired further.

The head healer hesitated. He continued to fidget with his tunics and smooth his hand across his forehead. "My Queen...I...I...I" healer Onrac stammered.

"Onrac, please just say it!" Frigga demanded.

"Please, my lady," Onrac mumbled he held the scroll to his chest and shook his head. "Perhaps we should talk in private," he proposed.

The golden queen of Asgard sucked in a sharp breath. Her body growing rigid. It was only feeling the queen's tense shoulders that called the lady-in-waiting out of her momentary exclamation of thanks and gratitude to the Norns for the change of fate. "You're majesty? She asked timidly.

The queen of Asgard shook her head and then raised it proudly. She squared her shoulders and breathed deeply. "Saying it in private doesn't make it any less true, Onrac," she stated. "And we haven't time to keep secrets." Indeed the time for secrets had passed. They would meet their destinies in just a days time and everyone's life in this room was dependent upon what was contained in the scroll. Unless of course it wasn't. If the day was saved then there was nothing for the people to fear. Unless the matter was personal. The golden locked queen could feel her heart starting to beat frantically in her chest. Suddenly she wheezed, unable to breath, she clutched at her chest. Thor was alive, but what of Loki? Poor Loki, he'd agreed to go with Thor, but her youngest son had been weak. Depraved of sunlight, good nutrition and much rigorous physical activity in the confines of his restrictive golden cell, had he truly been ready to face the heat of battle?

"Loki!" The queen said jumping to her feet. His name rang out in the room, it filtered into every ear. The very mention of that monstrous criminal was enough to bring the joyous celebration to halt. Even just outside the chamber, Krysten curled her lips at the mention of that slimy trickster. She knew he was the queen's son, but she'd heard that the king had disowned him and she just automatically assume that the queen did as well. Why would she claim him after how he'd betrayed them all, attacked his own kinsmen and broken her heart. Why would he have been in the Dark-World anyway? As far as she was concerned he deserved to rot in that cell of his. Never allowed to see the light of day.

"Onrac," the queen's voice trembled. "What...w-what of my son, Loki?" She asked in the crowd of healers. She walked toward the head physician. He looked at her with amazed eyes, but did not utter a word.

His silence was enough to drive her mad. She clutched at her hair and then at her heart. Before long she was standing in the healers face. Her slender, elegant hands grasping, groping desperately onto his robes. "Onrac, tell me right now, does my son live!" She ordered.

The chief healer staggered backward shaking his head at the queen. She didn't release him, though rather she tiptoed and followed him. Her eyes wide with alarm with the horrified look that came over his face. Onrac's visage crumbled from an expression of confusion, disbelief and fear to one of fury and rage. "HE IS WORKING WITH MALEKITH!"

"What?" The queen's voice came out a breathy whisper, her hands flung off of him as if he had pushed her backwards. "WHAT?" She questioned as she stumbled backward bumping into a few of the healers who stood gaping at the outburst. "NO!"

"Majesty," her lady-in-waiting rushed to her side. She stood behind the queen.

A few screams and shrieks could be heard among the healers as the news was revealed, but they were drowned out in the queen's ears by the frantic pounding of her heart. "No," she muttered. "That can't be true," the royal woman refuted.

"it's true, your majesty," Onrac pressed. He took hold of the queen's hands "This report spells it out clearly," he stated as he held up the parchment before the queen's tearful eyes.

Queen Frigga practically snatched the parchment from her personal physician's hands. Her cerulean eyes roved over the scroll. It was written in black and white, plain as day, but still her mind could not comprehend what was written before her, "I don't believe it."

"Put nothing pass that despicable creature, your highness," Healer Onrac warned. "He and Malekith attacked the Imperial City," he took steps closer to the queen. No doubt they were in cahoots the whole time," Onrac shook his head.

"But Loki was imprison the whole time...he couldn't possibly," the queen tried to rationalize. "No!" Frigga covered her ears.

"How is this possible? What about the Einherjar?" Asked someone in group of healers.

"Thousands of Einherjar were supposed to be stationed at the palace?" The healers whispered. "There is no way Loki and Malekith could have defeated them all."

"The report said, he used some type of force field and protected Malekith and the Dark-Elves when our forces retaliated against their second invasion," he explained. "The strongest weapons couldn't penetrate it."

Queen Frigga leaned into the shoulder of her lady-in waiting, starting to sob. "STOP!" she pleaded with the healer as she covered her ears with her hands.

"Malekith was able to unleash the Aether and our Einherjar and Valkyries we wiped out," Onrac reported his voice starting to break.

"No, no, no, NO, LOKI!" The queen hollered tearing from her handmaiden's consoling hands. "No!," she shouted back defiantly. "I don't believe you. I don't believe this. Loki... Loki wouldn't...c-couldn't..." She weakly protested.

"Majesty!" Healer Onrac gripped up the sobbing royal woman by her shoulders. He held her tightly, but tenderly. "How can you put anything pass that lunatic?" He questioned.

The wife of Odin pushed the healer's hands away from her. She covered her face as tears started to stream down her face. Once more the queen's attendant rushed to her side. She did her best to wrap the woman in a comforting embrace. "Twill, be alright, my queen, twill be alright," she muttered helplessly stroking the queen's golden mane.

"How did Loki escape the dungeon?" Questions sprang up amongst those present. The question did not fall upon deaf ears. The queen heard the murmurs of the confused and frightened healers. Her people. It had been she who had pushed for Loki to go with Thor to the Dark-World. She'd thought...what she thought was irrelevant now.

"How could he have gotten in contact with Malekith while in his cell?

"Should have known it was he who probably planned the first attack!" Others accused.

"Loki was supposed to go with Thor and the Einherjar to help get them into the Dark-World. He was supposed to help...he was supposed to help," the blonde-haired wife of Odin muttered as she turned her face toward her lady-in-waiting.

Queen Frigga pressed her face against her loyal handmaiden's shoulder. Her tears started to dampen the noblewoman's tunics. The lady-in-waiting, held the queen tighter around her shoulders. She did her best to steady the queen against the shaking that was starting to overcome her. She pressed the queen's tear stained face against her bodice and soothingly, stroked Frigga's damp cheeks like she was a child. "What of Prince Thor?" Asked the lady-in-waiting to Queen Frigga. She stood at the queen's side still holding her shoulders and stroking her hair trying to cause the queen to stop trembling. But there was nothing she could seem to do to help the queen now.

For a moment Frigga's heart rekindled with shrill tremor of hope. She wiped her eyes pulling away from the lady-in-waiting, "Yes, yes," she bobbed her head, flicking tears away from her beautiful sapphire eyes. "You said Thor had returned to the palace? You said he was alive! Where is he in all this? Surely, this is merely some trick or deception some plan that Thor and Loki have devised," Queen Frigga expressed.

Onrac merely shook his head. "Prince Thor is alive, my queen and he has returned to Asgard, but just barely so, your majesty," the healer sighed.

"What do you mean?" She inquired staring at the tall, bald, chestnut-skinned healer in terror.

"It seems as though, Thor returned to Asgard as a prisoner," he reported.

"What?" The handmaiden gasped.

"No!" Queen Frigga echoed. "It isn't true!" Queen Frigga refused.

"Tis true, milady, he was lead back to the Imperial City in chains. He was dragged across the Bifrost Bridge by Malekith's horde. A beaten and bloody pulp I'm afraid."

"No! Thor!" The queen of Asgard cried as she grabbed at her hair and dug her nails into her scalp. "Oh Loki!" The queen wailed/ "My son, my son," she moaned clutching her head, heart, stomach and face. "What have you done? What have you done?' She murmured.

"Oh my queen!" The lady-in-waiting called, "whatever shall we do? Whatever shall we do? Oh, my lady, surely there is still something that can be done! There must be something!" The waiting gentlewoman entreated the queen. Frigga looked at her with long gold eyelashes falling over beautiful blue eyes. A fresh tear trickled from her eye. The female ruler of Asgard, shook her head unable to bear the petrified gazes of her people. She was their queen, their leader, their all-mother. Her heart ached. She was a mother unable to protect her children. Her sapphire eyes were wide, but blank as numb as the weight of the words spoken to her sunk in deeper and deeper. She took slow steps forward. She walked toward the window the balcony. Her heart was pounding, her head throbbing, she needed air. She grappled at the banister and tried to steady herself as she looked out at the peaceful seaside city. From her lofty position she could see the city taking on its rituals. The people walking through the streets the school bells chiming and youngsters making their way to their lessons. Men and women going out to peddle their wares in the city squares. She closed her eyes as they pooled with tears. Would all that truly be destroyed? Under her watch? By the child of her heart? It was monstrous. "We need more reinforcements," the lady-in-waiting proposed. Her lady's voice could scarcely pierce the veil of the queen's frenzied thoughts. "Surely, we can call upon our allies...the Vanir, the Light Elves, the Norns... this concerns every race," she pressed. Before long she noble woman was crying. "There has to be something your majesty! Something!" She begged.

The wife of King Odin swallowed. Seeing the distress upon the face of her lady-in-waiting, her dear friend only made the panic all the more real. Quickly she glanced around at the faces of those before her. All looked stricken with terror. Queen Frigga squared her shoulders and turned back to face healer Onrac. "What is the report on the status of the Bifrost?" She asked.

"Heimdal is imprisoned and the Dark-Elves have the palace surrounded. All are being held hostage it seems. No one can get in or out." Healer Onrac stood over the wife of Odin tears filling his eyes. "That monster Loki has brought Ragnarok to our door," he announced.

Just then, a faint, flat, prolonged, electronic sounding beeping seemed to hum above the horrified screams and cries of the queen, her handmaiden and the healers present. Healer Onrac's head swiveled toward the golden shielded bed of the king. "Odin!" He gasped as he rushed the monarchs bedside. The team of healers followed behind him. They surrounded the king's large bed. They ran their scanners over his body. His vital readings were off the charts. His heart rate spiking to an abnormally high rate. His temperature rising astronomically. And all at once his energy levels and and aura readings were falling fast. There was no time for medication to be administered or for mystic healing arts to even be applied.

'Healer Onrac, he's not breathing!" Announced a male healer.

"He has no pulse, sir" another called.

"Odin," Queen Frigga muttered her husband's name as she turned from gazing out the window to look upon her husband. There he lied defenseless in his bed. The worse state she'd ever seen him in. He was so vulnerable. Her heart was seized with horror and concern for him. As she started to come to him, her legs started to tremble. Her first step so shaky that she had to grab hold of the banister to keep from falling. Her handmaiden rushed to help her. Frigga hardly noticed the younger woman's supportive hands around her waist. All she could think of was Odin. Her hand stretched out toward him. Her heart and mind were racing toward his side all though her feet could not carry her to him quick enough. Everything was a swirl and blur. The healers rushed around frantically. But one thing that was clear in the fog of high emotions was the machine that monitored Odin's vitals. Clearly, she beheld the monitor display an unfaltering, horizontal line. At the sight of the line the queen clutched her heart, frozen in her tracks and swayed on her feet; a wave of hot and cold overtook her all at once, her gorgeous, blue gemstone eyes rolled in the back of her head and she was left lying unconscious in her lady-in-waiting's arms.

"Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Your Majesty! The queen!" She screamed.

Krysten fled from Queen Frigga's royal bedchamber as fast as her legs could carry her. She rushed passed other servants. She bumped in to several and slammed against the wall in her haste. She heard some shouts and rants and rails for her to watch where she was going, but she hadn't the presence of mind to pay them any heed or bother with saying excuse me. Tears streamed down her eyes as if flood gates had been open. Before long her eyes were so saturated with tears that she couldn't even make out where she was going. She tossed the tray that she had been carrying for the queen up into the air and continued running. The contents splattered all throughout the hallway and even on the walls. She didn't care. She ran. She ran while she screamed and wailed and muttered madly to herself about Ragnorok. Krysten ran until she could run no longer. Finally she found herself doubling over in the hallway, coughing, gasping for breath her lungs unable to suck in enough air as she sobbed.

She fell down, collapsing in the corridor. She crawled on her hands and knees to find a wall to lean against. She brought her back against the wall and pulled her shaking legs up against her chest and sobbed all the harder. She'd heard it. She'd heard it out of the mouths of those in power, Ragnarok was upon them. Death was imminent. It wasn't fair it was so miserably unfair. Everything and everyone would be destroyed.

Krysten didn't know how long she had been crying when she felt the hands of Pita resting on her head and shoulders. "Krysten?" Pita asked her voice sounded weary. "Krysten, are you ok?' Her friend asked frantically starting to shake her. "Krysten, what is the matter, my dead, didn't you meet the queen?" She inquired.

Krysten managed to peel her face away from resting on top of her knees long enough to look up at Pita. Pita had such a sweet, smiling, hopeful face. She couldn't bare it. She couldn't bare looking at her knowing what was to come. She turned her face from her friend and once more started to cry into her hands. "Oh Krysten," Pita muttered sweetly scooting in closer next to her friend. "What has happened?" She inquired with concern. She stroked Krysten's hair. "Did you meet Queen Frigga?" Krysten responded by nodding her head. "Didn't you like her? Wasn't she wonderfully kind? Oh surely she could not have been cruel to you. I did not think that the rumors were true, but they are...our queen is as kind as she is lovely," Pita elaborated. Her words only made rysten cry harder, deeper and louder. Young woman's face was puzzled at her friend's reaction. "Krysten, please talk to me. Tell me what happened?" Pita begged. She Krysten's hands down from her face so that she could look at her. Krysten's lip was quivering fiercely and her eyes were bloodshot, red and puffy.

Krysten gulped and panted as she tried to find her voice amidst her tears. "I...I...I..." She stuttered for a while. She swallowed once more and started trying to wipe the tears away from her face. "I...I...I didn't get to meet Queen Frigga," Krysten explained. Her voice was barely an audible whisper.

"Oh, well that tis ok dear," Pita said as she rubbed her friend's trembling back. "Tis nothing to take so to heart. The queen's extremely busy," Pita offered and gave an encouraging smile. She pulled out a handkerchief and began to slowly start to dab it at Krysten's tear stained face.

Sharply, Krysten turned her face away from Pita. Her lips formed an intense scowl. "No! No! No, that's not it!"

"Ok, well what is it?" Pita questioned. She tossed her arms up in the air.
"I heard! I heard everyone talking..."

"Everyone...who?"

"The queen. Queen Frigga and her lady-in-waiting and the healers and I saw the courier boy come into the queen's chamber with a letter from the Imperial City," she explained.

"You heard! You heard the queen tell everyone to have hope?" Pita inquired perkily. A bright smile spread across her face.

Krysten's facial features twisted. "No! No!" She shouted in her friends face. "You told me to have hope!" She yelled accusingly pointing her finger at Pita. She pushed her friend off of her.

"I told you what the queen told me!" Pita defended.

"Well that is not what I heard!" Krysten retorted. "there is no hope!" She informed Pita.

"Krysten, please calm down," Pita argued. "What are you talking about? I told you I told you...Prince Thor went to the Dark-World to defeat, Malekith," she said shaking her head.

"And he failed!" Krysten blurted out. Her face turned a violent red as she screamed.

"Impossible!" Pita protested rising to her feet. "Prince Thor wouldn't fail us," she huffed.

"he...he..he failed! He failed! He failed!" Krysten ranted and she roughly shoved Pita against the wall. Hot tears rolled down the strawberry blonde girl's cheeks. "Prince Thor and the Einherjar didn't destroy the Aether," she explained shaking her head. "Malekith has it," she reported bitterly through gritted teeth. "He has it and he has already returned to the Imperial City and attacked once more. The city is burning and we've lost Einherjar and Valkyrie. Prince Thor is a prisoner of Malekith and Loki,"

Pita shook her head, "b-b-but how?" She questioned.

"Loki," she proclaimed. "That scoundrel helped lead Malekith and the Dark-Elves against us once more. They've taken over the palace. Prince Thor is a prisoner! There is no hope Pita." She cried.

"No. No. No," Pita murmured grabbing her head. "There must be something! There must be something that the queen has planned," she expressed desperately.

"Oh Pita!" Krysten yelled enraged by her friends naivete. "Queen Frigga is unconscious, King Odin just went into cardiac arrest and...and...and Convergence is a day away. Malekith is in the Palace and with Loki's help will be able to unleash the Aether's darkness throughout the realms. Don't you see?" She demanded, gripping the other girl by the shoulder and staring at her wide eyes to wide eyes, "this is the end of all things"

---

Lady Sigyn, handful of palace healers and a few guards ushered and evacuation of as many people as they could through the catacombs. "Lady Sigyn," one of the lead healers called from a few feet behind her. "How much farther?" He asked nervously. He and the other healers were pushing gurneys desperate trying to evacuate the patients to one of the hospitals outside of the palace. There were so many injured men and women. So many in desperate need of immediate medical attention if they were going to survive. "These men need help," he urged from behind as he quickened his steps. He raced through the crowd of servants, wenches, chambermaids, elders and children in mass exodus and rushed to Lady Sigyn's side. "Many of these people should be on life supports and under soul forges," he informed her harshly.

"Just a little further," Lady Sigyn expressed. As they walked she would reach for the side of the wall and light the lamp posts along the slime slick, cobweb covered walls. walls with her torch. urged the people following behind her through the catacombs of the palace. Her torch was raised high as a beacon for the elderly men and women as well as the children servants and injured to follow. "Just a little further," she encouraged more to herself than even those around her. The catacombs were winding narrow pathways with little ventilation. They weren't necessarily built to transport large groups of people out of the palace, the secret tunnels were built for the royal family, but they would have to do.

With so many people pushing and shoving and crawling on top of one another desperate to get out of the tunnels it made the air supply short making it hard to breathe in the tight space. Sigyn could feel her own breathing becoming labored as sweat poured from her forehead and temples. While she tried to balance the crying child on her back and keep herself from being pushed over by the anxious mob around her. "You've been saying that for quite sometime, Lady Sigyn," the healer argued. "These people need care, not to be trapped in some claustrophobia inducing tunnel!"

"I know...I know...it's a lot of us, but we can..."

"Do you even know where you are going, Lady Sigyn," the healer snapped.

"I..." The blonde-haired lady in waiting faltered. She turned to the healer, her torch illuminating his features. He was an older man with graying hair, his face was red from the sweltering heat in the catacombs. He rolled his eyes as he beheld her wide golden eyes. The healer knew Lady Sigyn well enough to know not to trust this woman's judgment. She was pretty as an artist's picture, but her golden head was empty as a beggar's bowl. How could they have trusted her to lead them out.

"Lady Sigyn!" He yelled. "You are endangering the lives of everyone down here! Do you know the way out or not?" He demanded roughly.

"I...I...I"

"None of your stammering, girl!" He started furiously. "Dumb wench!" He cursed under his breath. "We are as good as dead with you leading us!" He fumed.

In the dim light the walls and pathways of the catacomb all started to crisscross and blur together. The amber eyed daughter of Admiral Arn could feel herself starting to hyperventilate as panic crept from the pit of her stomach and into her chest. What if the healer was right, what if she had no idea what she was doing. Yes, she had just done this a few weeks ago when the Dark-Elves first attacked but then she was with the queen and other members of the palace household. She wasn't totally relying on herself to get to safety and no one else was relying on her then either. What if they were lost? What if she was leading everyone the wrong way and they all somehow ended up lost in the catacombs? Lady Sigyn pulled her free hand to her mouth and nibbled on her fingernail as self doubt and worry consumed her mind. "I can do this. I know where to do," she echoed in her mind. "Merciful, Yddrasil, please let me know where I'm going," she begged the powers that be. As she opened her eyes from the quick prayer Sigyn was instantly relieved when she saw the faint rays of sunlight poking through the piles of stones. "It's here! It's here!" The blonde-haired noble woman exclaimed eagerly as they neared the exit. She waved her hand and called for a guard and he was able to peel back the heavy iron door.

The strong guard nearly ripped the door from the hinges of the catacomb. The dismal illumination of the dark day flooded into the gray light was still brilliantly bright in comparison to bleak atmosphere of the catacomb. Lady Sigyn was one of the first to poke her head out of the hole that lead from the catacomb. As soon as she emerged she was forced to shade her eyes from the rays that seemed to penetrate the heavy black cloud of debris that had settled over the Imperial City.

Sigyn squinted, coughed and flagged in front of her face trying to adjust to the conditions outside the tunnel. The air was caked with the suffocating smoke, black ash and red residue left over from Aether twister that had swept through and ravaged the city. Those escaping the palace had hoped that out in the city they would find refuge. Their hopes were sadly dashed against the wind. Nothing could have prepare one of them for the sight that they encountered as they pushed themselves from the subterranean pathways and into the city stress The resplendent kingdom of ageless joy and beauty was left in a shambles. Sigyn's golden dubloon eyes welled with terrified tears as she beheld the anarchy, chaos and immense devastation.

Her ears burned with the horrible cries and screams of the Aesir people. The poor citizens of Asgard scurried like rats through the streets. They fled like madmen. Rushing and scrambling with all their might to get out of the burning metropolis, but there was no where to run. Everywhere one turned there was another buring being consumed in the flames of the Aether's destructive power. They stumbled in the streets, staggering and bewildered by what had just happened. They looked like frighten children lost in the woods. They did not look like the residents of the realm eternal. They were a far cry from the beautiful, brave immortals that they were supposed to be. Covered in soot, ash, rubble and blood, clothes torn to shreds to look like rags they looked like pitiful mortal slaves that the Jotuns had tried to conquer long ago. They seemed helpless and pathetic and in desperate need of saving.

"NO! NO!" Screams went up as the citizens of Asgard ran around hysterically.

"WHY!? WHY? NO! In the name of Yggdrasil why?" Other frantically demanded as they fell to their knees staring up in fear as they watched the city going up in flames.

"Notagainnotagainnotagain," a old woman mumbled as she looked around at the devastation at her feet. She raised her hands to the air in surrender as she looked around back and forth trying to make out all that had happened.

"MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!" An agonized groan could be heard from a pile of rubble. A man was stuck beneath the pile. There was a group of city watchmen trying to remove the rubble from the man's leg. Blood streamed through the rocks.

Many citizens were running around holding wounded body parts trying to get to a place of safety. Some were holding bruised and broken arms. They hobbled around on busted legs and held their bleeding heads. Some had shards of glass and splinters lodged in their skin. Others were dragging those who were still alive although severely injured to places of refuge. 'HELP! HELP! HELP!" Women cried as they dashed through the cities holding the limp forms of their children in their arms.

The Imperial City lied in ruin. The majestic buildings and stately edifices had fallen into crumbling heaps of stone. They'd been smashed and obliterated by the unprecedented power of the statues that had always stood as proud guardians throughout the Imperial City had been toppled. The figures of the great heroes of the legends of Asgard's mighty warrior past were cracked and broken on the streets The streets themselves were cracked and split as if some great quake and ravished through the city. The ground was split like a broken heart. And from that broken heart blood oozed. The streets were truly flooded with blood. The gold of the bricks that laid the foundation of the pavement could not be seen. All there was on the ground was brown dirt, black ash and bright red blood. Most of the blood still ran hot through the streets. All of it was crimson, sticky, bubbling and flowing from the fallen. Bodies were strewn and thrown everywhere. Broken bodies, twisted and contorted in shapes that made the skin crawl lied in the streets and in trees and on top of dilapidated buildings. Limbs were scattered and disjointed away from the bodies. The once beautiful city looked nothing like beacon of learning and culture, but rather a battlefield. The bodies of the innocent men, women and children ranked easily in the thousands. Women wailed as they beheld their dead husbands and husbands cried in torment as they carried the limp, lifeless bodies of their brides. Children frantically called out for parents to awaken who would not. Other roamed the streets frantically searching for loved ones.

The Imperial City was on fire. Everywhere there were burning buildings and Asgardians rushing about desperate to escape only to collapse in the streets and weep at the futility of it all. Healers and watchmen raced to aid as many as they could but they were overwhelmed. The noxious smell of blood, smoke, bile and carnage lingered in the air causing stomachs to turn.

"Lady Sigyn! Lady Sigyn!" One of the guards called tugging on her hand. It took a while for his voice to rise about the pandemonium of the destruction. Finally, she took note of the deep voice shouting in her ear. She turned to him, her eyes filled with tears her face petrified. Just as she turned to face him his eyes went wide with panic. "Watch out!" He cried. He didn't give her time to react. He immediately shoved her to the ground out of the path of falling limestone bricks crumbling off the side of burning building. He hopped on top of her to shield her from the tumbling debris. He took a few hits on the back before he raised his shield to protect the both of them. The shield made of the strongest armor easily deflected the heavy stones.

After a few moments of hiding beneath the shield, the warrior pulled them both from the pile of rubble that had mounted on top of them. Sigyn arose dirty than before, her long gown ripped at the bottom and with her elbows and arms cut up from hitting the ground so roughly. She was trembling violently, scarcely able to stand. "My lady, come," the guard insisted gently seeing the noble woman's apparent fear. He gingerly took her petite dirty fingers in his iron clad hand and started to lead her. "it's not safe out here," he stated. "it's a madhouse," he elaborated as he gestured at the insanity before their eyes. "I just got through talking to some of the city watchmen, they were talking to the healers," he started to express. "There is only one hospital still standing with in the city limits," he reported.

"What?' Sigyn gasped as she inadvertent ripped her hand from the guards hand. "No!" She covered her mouth. "but-but-but what about the injured?' The blonde-haired handmaiden to Queen Frigga inquired.

He nodded his head. "'Fraid so, milady" he reported grimly. "I don't know, milady," he shook his head. So many our dead," he informed her. "There may be others buried alive, but...but the city is overwhelmed. We don't have the men to dig them out," he answered. "The watchmen sent out an emergency beacon to signal for help, but they have received any messages back," he informed her.

"But-but-but surely there is something," Sigyn started.

The palace guard closed his eyes and clenched his fist, "Those beast! Those wretches! Those Animals!" He roared. His furious bellow rolled over the clatter of panic. "Curse Malekith and his hoard! Curse Loki, that snake!" He spat to the ground. "The town watchmen want everyone who is injured to evacuate to the hospitals and those who are who are still able bodied to evacuate to the shelters," he shouted over the sounds of screams and sirens. He started coughing as the ash filled air flooded into his lungs. "Come, my lady, the healers say the air isn't fit to breathe," he insisted pulling on her hand and starting to lead her through the frenzied hubbub that was people dashing about madly in the streets in panic, desperate to escape.

Sigyn took one last look at the crumbling city before her. Everything lied in the wake of destruction. Buildings that only days before had glistened like the sun not were charred like burnt meat. Streets of gold were now covered in blackened ash. Fountains that normally ran with crystal clear waters clean enough to drink from now spewed forth only mud. The sky that had just hours before been bright and cheerful, the dawning of a radiant day was now clouded and blacker than the deepest night. The fragrant air of the marketplace that she have smelled of spices and perfume, food and flavor now only smelt of rotten flesh, the pungent odor made her nose curl. Where normally the streets were full of laughter, bustle and chatter of the merchants haggling and of school children scurrying along to their lessons and women walking together gossiping and youths trying to impress one another with feats of bravado not there was only the sound of the sirens and alarms going off in the city, only the roar of frantic feet fleeing in every direction and the mournful cry of the Aesir as they watched their beloved kingdom fall. All this and Convergence hadn't even take place.

Sigyn gripped at her heart, lifted her head up and let out a painful sob. Her knees gave out from under her a she felt her body slowly start to sink to the ground. She never made it though. The strong arms of the palace soldier caught her and steadied her. "it's ok, Lady Sigyn," she faintly heard him whisper to her over the chaos that swirled through the city. Sigyn's lovely, gold obrs rolled in the back of her head as she started to cough trying to clear her lung from the heavy Aether smoke that was still thick in the , Sigyn waved a shaky hand in front of her face. Her knees buckled once more, and she felt her body bump against his. "let's get you to the shelter," he explained as he swooped his muscular arms under her knees and carried her to safety.

Sigyn came to in the shelter. She was jolted out of her sleep by a terrible racket. She awoke to the sound of babies crying at the top of their lungs, women and men weeping as they asked about the conditions of loved ones only to hear that they were not found, and the agonized wails of the wounded screaming for help and medication. Her golden eyes looked around wildly as she took in her surroundings. She was laying on a small cott only raised a few inches off of the dirty, metallic floor. The cott was simply made of straw and thatch with a worn cotton blanket thrown on top of it. For a moment Sigyn wondered if somehow she was back at Lord Theoic's plantation. Perhaps he had punished her and removed her from her stateroom and locked her in some lowly cellar for running away. She supposed it would have served her right for cuckolding him as she had. She took one more look around. The room was hot, crowded, sweaty and filthy. The people were cramped in the room like cattle. All pressing against one another, pushing and shoving and scurrying about like rats still delirious and bewildered and afraid. Everyone looked dirty, haggard, forlorn and there was no telling warrior from carpenter, serf from noble or even the old from the young; soot covered, bloody and pitiful as they all were. The sight proved that she was most indeed not at Lord Theoic's estate in the Dales.

The golden locked lady-in-waiting to Queen Frigga wished with all her might that she was in Kelby. With all her heart she would have given anything to go back and be in Kelby. She would have gladly stayed there and been Theoic's second wife now. She wished she was there, because being there would have meant that these terrible events would have never happened. Sigyn flopped back on her cot. One hand was pressed against her bosom as she felt her heart start to pound furiously with in her chest. The other hand she flung recklessly across her forehead, checking herself for fever. Surely, she was feverish. Surely, everything that she saw was just some sort of crazy fever dream. She once battled the sweat in her youth. It was a terrible epidemic that had swept through Asgard that year. She had fallen prey to it. She could scarcely remember her time battling the illness, but she vividly remembered the frenzied dreams she was plagued with. She had such fitful nightmares. But those nightmares had been mere daydreams in comparison to dreadful visions that she had just beheld. "Please, please, make it not true...make it not true," she sobbed in prayer to the Norns. It didn't take long before her foggy mind was soon inundated with the painful memories of the Dark-Elves attacking the city, Prince Thor being dragged across the Bifrost in chains and Loki leading it all. She clutched her head. She felt a wave of nausea over take her. She felt sick. "No," she shook her head in there was nothing no to believe, She'd seen it all with her very eyes. Even the Norns could not undue what had happened. They could not stop Ragnorok and they too would face doomsday in less than a days time.

Lady Sigyn sniffled as fresh, salt tears trickled slowly from her large gold eyes. She couldn't believe that with every passing moment Convergence was drawing closer and closer and the Aether had already been unleashed. The devastation the infinity stone had discharged was unfathomable. In less than an hour it had transformed a thriving, vibrant metropolis like the Imperial City into a near wasteland. And soon the whole cosmos would be done in the same way. The light and happiness and peace and joy of the realms would be extinguished. Sigyn had never much been a history student. The stories of the past had held little interest to her in her girlhood. Current events had always been more of her forte, but she could recall the stories of the Dark-Elves and the kingdom's they set up, the wars they raged the sorrow that their Aether caused for the fledgling races of the Nine Realms. Had it not been for King Bor. They would have destroyed everything long ago. Now it was about to happen again. The thought of it pushed the tears harder out of Sigyn's eyes. And all of this desolation would soon take place not merely because of ancient prophecies that they were powerless to stop, not solely at the hand of that soulless, white-faced, fiend, Malekith, but mostly because of Loki.

The daughter of Admiral Arn groaned like a bilgeschnipe slain with the swords of 50 Einherjar. She felt her chest tighten. Her lungs felt compressed inside her chest and she couldn't breathe. Pain ripped from the pit of her stomach and tore through the center of her breasts as her heart cracked. The Lady-in-waiting to Queen Frigga of Asgard was no stranger to heart break, she'd felt her heart split in two the day her father told her that Loki and Odin were annulling their marriage contract. When her family disowned her and her friends carelessly gossiped about her behind her back she had constantly been forced to have pieces of her heart chip away. But this was different. It was powerful, strong and potent and able to cut a chasm into her soft heart. As the deep fissure coursed through her soul she felt, her heart crumble and disintegrate into 1000 pieces at the realization of what he had done.

Lady Sigyn panted, desperate to suck in air and escape the pain. Loki, the man she loved and desired more than anyone in the whole world had brought Ragnorok to their door. It was simply inconceivable. She never, not even in her wildest dreams would have imagined it would end like this. She knew what people said of him. Ever since the earliest days of their courtship people had said it. They said Loki was a trickster and a cheat a con-artist, he would break her heart eventually. But despite the warnings of those around her she'd still given him her trust. She figured they were just jealous throne chasers, despite what she said she knew that anyone of the maidens would have leaped at the chance to date a Prince of Asgard. She'd given herself to him so many times over and over again: Heart, mind, body and soul; hook, line and sinker. Everytime with the single hope that he would love her. Even though time after time he'd shown her that he despised her. She'd believed in him. Somehow despite the fact that she knew he was liar, cheat and prone to mischief she'd still naively had faith in him, trusted in him ever so naively. She'd put so much confidence him; so wholly and completely. Even after all the despicable things she'd heard he'd done, even when he'd proven that he was nothing more than a low life scoundrel, she'd seen goodness in him.

Sigyn slammed her golden eyes shut. She clenched her hands into fists by her sides and bit deep into her lip. She'd risked everything to return to the Imperial City so that she could reveal Loki's goodness to the world. She'd known that a man that loved a woman as much as Loki had seemed to have loved Dagmar couldn't truly be pure evil. But she was wrong. Maybe he had loved Dagmar, once. But Dagmar was gone. Perhaps her death had extinguished even the tiniest flicker of light still left within Loki's sould. His heart was as black as his raven locks. and Loki's plots and schemes had had led to disaster. Now everyone would die and suffer because of him. It wasn't fair. It was so miserably unfair that all should have to die.

Sigyn felt anger start to bubble forth from the pits of her soul. It seeped, crept and bubbled forth like a thick hot lava. The hot emotion halfway scared her. She couldn't recall a time of feeling such anger before. Her sweet, petite pink lips twisted into a deep frown as her mind lingered on the fact that Loki had damned them all. She opened her lips ready to scream in rage, but instead a sob escaped her mouth. She tried to cover her mouth to control her scream, but her cry was too piercing to be concealed. He had been Asgard's prince, Odin's son, Thor's brother...how could he betray them like that? She remembered when he would talk to her some nights if she had the chance to steal away to his chambers, on the rare occasions when he chose to confide in her. She knew he didn't truly want to talk to her, but she was who was there. He didn't expect her to give him any advice, she was merely a sounding board for him to vent his frustrations. Although she wasn't gift with a silver tongue and honeyed words like he was, she had been listening, longing to offer him comfort, but feeling too inadequate in speech to say anything to him. Still he'd told her how he longed to make Odin proud, to make Thor see him as someone worthwhile and be celebrated by Asgard. Where had that young man gone? He once loved his family, his people. How could he have grown to hate everyone so much? What had he done?

What had she done? Her stomach twisted in knots. If she wouldn't have gone to the dungeons to tend to him, Loki would have probably not been alive to rise up against cursed herself, she'd only wanted to protect Loki, to defend him, but all she'd done was endanger the lives of everyone in the nine realms. She told herself that she had done so to honor the request from her queen, but she could have refused had she wanted to. What Queen Frigga had asked was treason against the all-father. If she would have said no, she knew Queen Frigga would not have forced her to go down. The queen was not that sort of woman, but she hadn't refused. How could she refuse the plea of a loving mother desperate to help her child. How could she say no to a request to help the man she loved. She should have said no. If she was smart then maybe she would have said no. Sigyn knew she wasn't smart. She was a fool indeed. She'd had the opportunity to run away. When she'd first gone down to Loki's frigid cell and she'd seen the lair covered in icicles and she'd heard him howling, screaming like wild beast and she'd seen him wallowing, grinding in freakish misery with his Asgardian skin stripped from his bones and leaving him to wear the distasteful ice blue flesh of a Frost Giant, she'd ran then. She shouldn't have come back. She should have left him there, but she couldn't. She couldn't leave him tormented, confused and sightless. She cared too much for that. Little good it had done. She had hoped that after receiving some charity, Loki would let go of the vengeance that seemed to plague his soul, but all she had done was tend to him and make him strong enough to prey upon them all. Guilt overwhelmed her. She was just as responsible for the calamity that had befallen her people as Loki was.

Despite her overwhelming feelings of guilt, Sigyn managed to pull herself off of her sleeping cot as she saw the influx of injured coming into the shelter. She could not bear to keep one cot from those who truly needed it. She gave up her bed to a grief stricken pregnant woman. The woman was bleeding from her forehead and carrying one crying babe in her arms, she had several other youngsters clinging to her skirt, crying whining and desperate for food. She seemed to scarcely hear the cries of her own children, her own cry was needy plea for her husband. Sigyn did her best to quell the overwrought mother and quiet her children ushering them to lie on the bed. The pregnant woman talked to her as if she didn't even see her standing there. "Mother, mother," she whimpered. "it's almost time for the baby," she gasped clutching on to Sigyn's garments, "I want him here, I want my husband here. His-his-his name is Finn," she expressed. "tell the all-father they must look for him. He is nightwatchmen," she rambled on and on until she collapsed.

Sigyn immediately went to seek medical help for the woman. After rounding up a healer, the healer instructed her to go to the mess hall and get food and liquids for the delirious woman and her children. Sigyn did so and then returned to the mess hall for herself. On the way to the mess hall, Sigyn happened by one of the rooms in the shelter. The larger sanctuary was a magnificent building a feat of Asgardian ingenuity and architecture. The structure was made of double reinforced glass and steel and iron bricks. Its dome shaped roof had protective panels that were able to deflect attacks and absorb onslaught. Inside of the sanctuary there were many rooms. There were sleeping quarters, bathing chambers, galleys, armories, stables and healing chambers. The shelter had been well stocked for with provisions over the centuries and it was supposed to be able to sustain a quarter of 1 million people. At times It had been used to shelter citizens who had been displaced by fires, flash floods and avalanches that had befallen certain portions of Asgard over the years, Refugees from other realms often came to the Imperial City of Asgard seeking political and religious asylum and many had been able to find solace in the shelter until more permanent residences could be given. But never since the very ancient times had the shelters actually needed to be used to house the civilians of Asgard from an attack.

In the room that Lady Sigyn passed she saw Captain Frell standing in the midst of a group of men. Most of the men were seated and huddled by a fire pit looking disheveled and worn, bruised and bloodied. "How could I have let this happen?" Captain Frell muttered as he paced amongst the other soldiers. "How could we have left this happen?" He demanded of the battled scarred warriors. "How could this have happened?" He yelled and tossed his cup of ale into the fire. The flames leaped up as the metal fell into the flame. The flames swirled as they lapped up the liquor and caused the broken shadows of the bewildered guards, soldiers and Einherjar to linger on the walls.

"Captain Frell," one voice spoke up trying to quell the retired strategist's distemper. "There was nothing we could do. We can't track their ships sir," he reported.

"No!" Captain Frell turned around and pinned the soldier with a harsh glare. "This is unacceptable!" he railed brokenly."We should have found a way!" he insisted. His shoulders slumping and his face falling. The retired member of Odin's war council was too proud to cry. He couldn't remember the last time he'd shed a tear, but he wanted to. He had heard not a word from his family. He didn't know if his wife or children or grandchildren were dead or buried alive under mounds and mounds of debris. He could only hope that his family had fled the Imperial City and went to the Southern Palace with the queen or escaped to the Dales.

He removed his helmet tossing it carelessly to the side. It was a beautiful headdress. It was made of a gleaming, burnished bronzed. It had two large rams horns swirling out of the side of it, it had been the same symbol of his father and his father's father. The pride of his ancestors rested on his head and he had failed them. He'd sworn an oath the same oath as his father and his forefathers the same oath that every man who had ever taken on the creed of Einherjar had ever sworn; to protect Asgard at all cost, to give his life for his king, to defend the Nine Realms from evil, keep his own family. He hadn't done any of that, how could he call himself an Einherjar any longer.

"How was he able to unleash the Aether upon us if the mortal woman was here?" He continued to question. There was a ripple in his voice and his eyes narrowed.

The elderly member of Odin's war council heaved a deep sigh, scratched at his throat as his eyes darted back and forth over the dirty, bloody faces of the men before him. The mission was supposed to be a secret, but the secret was already out. The people were scared and nervous and confused and it was time to bring the matter to light. Sometimes in battle it was good to compartmentalize information. Only let a soldier know as much as they needed to know to complete their mission, but other times that only lead to dissention. It lead to rumors and confusion. The people of Asgard had suffered enough. These men had stayed in the city and been prepared to fight for their realm. Now it was possible that they were fighting a losing battle, but they still deserved to know the truth. "Prince Thor took Lady Jane Foster, a battalion of Einherjar and his brother Loki to the Dark-World," he confessed. Immediately, there was a distinct murmur that came from the men surrounding the fire.

"Why?" One man's cracked voice rose up and broke through the rapid mutterings.

"He wanted to make sure that the city was safe. He didn't want the Dark-Elves to come back to Asgard searching for the Aether," he explained.

"Well why didn't he take more Einherjar?"

"He could have taken all of us? He should have taken all of us?" A tall soldier proclaimed. His declaration was greeted with applause and hearty cheers.

"Prince Thor did what he did to protect as many of our people as he could including the Einherjar. He knew it was a risky mission, from which many of us may not have returned. He wanted to keep Asgard safe," Captain Frell defended the crown prince, "He did not wish to cause panic or alarm. He defied the orders of our king and the High Council to try and save lives!"

The soldiers talked about it amongst themselves for a moment. Some heads bobbed other shook. "A lot of good it did," mumbled Lord Kelse. Lord Kelse was one of the city centuries. He was a relatively young man, but the recent attack had aged him by about 2 centuries. His sandy, brown hair was now interspersed with wiry gray strands. He'd lost his right eye in the first attack upon the palace and from just hours ago he'd had to wrap his strong left arm in a sling. Haggard looking as he was he managed to rise to his feet and glare threateningly at Captain Frell with his one eye. He emitted a low rumble that sooned turned into a full growl. "Lotta good it did us!" He raged. Afew other soldiers place hands upon his shoulders trying to still him and quell his distemper. "No! NO!" He barked as he twisted his massive shoulders free of their clasps. He stomped with big, booted feet toward the elderly strategist. "A lot of good it did him," he repeated bitterly, his fat lip curled with disgust. "A lot o good it did US!" He hollered gesturing wildly with his right hand to the brave warriors all huddled around a hearth in the back of a shelter like frightened children.

"Lord Kelse," Captain Frell raised his hands defensively. His tone was low friendly and soothing. His eyes housed pity and understanding as he extended his own hand to take his brother in arms by the shoulder. Immediately, Kelse slapped the hand down.

"He let that monster out?" He questioned ruthlessly. His lips and eye twitching as he stared defiantly at the old military strategist.

Captain Frell swallowed the thick lump that had formed in his throat upon listening to the incriminating words being hurled about his prince. "It was the only way..."

"LOOK WHAT HAS HAPPENED!" Lord Kelse continued to yell. "LOOK AT WHAT HAS HAPPENED!" He shouted at the top of his lungs as he gripped the collar of his tunics. He bared his teeth as his eyes welled with tears. A few of the other soldiers rushed to pull him off of the esteemed strategist. Lord Kelse was a strong and burly Viking warrior even in his injured state and with a twist of his shoulders he was once again able to thrust the others off of him. His shoulders heaved intensly, but he finally managed to let go of Captain Frell's garments. His hand fell by his side. "Loki is a monster! A criminal! He cannot be trusted," he declared and spat to the ground. "Thor should have known that," he went on using his hand to strike at the air.

"It was the only way to get to the Dark-World without using the Bifrost," Frell explained once more. "He didn't in hopes to spare our people..."

"Spare our people of what? Of this?" Lord Kelse challenged. "Of death and pain and Ragnorok?" Lord Kelse's lips curled and he snarled like a bear. "He has brought it all upon us,"

"NO!"

"Yes!" Kelse snapped back. "He has unleashed that vile beast, Loki, Loathsome vermin! And now we all face destruction," Lord Kelse's voice broke. "Malekith has destroyed everything," the lord whispered bitterly. "and Loki," he admitted. "And Prince Thor," he spoke at last.

"No, this is not our prince's fault," Frell argued.

"Do not tell me whose fault it is, Captain Frell!" Lord Kelse warned as he raised a stern finger in the air. "For I came rushing home after the first attack and found my little daughter dead!" He spat. "She never even made it to school that morning," Lord Kelse reported. He gripped at his cloak near his "I built her tiny funeral longboat," he explained and sniffed as one large teared rolled from his blackened eye. "The smallest coffins are the heaviest, Captain Frell," the burly viking stated as he raised his head proudly and wiped his nose. "And now it has happened again," Lord Kelse said as he clenched his fists and and bit into his lip. "Now more of our sons and daughters, brothers and sister die and they shall die some more come the morrow. And the day after that and so one and so on until all the realms are consumed with the Aether. And those who die shall be the lucky ones," Lord Kelse nodded. "yes, indeed they shall," he repeated to himself. "And you see Captain Frell it is someone's fault," Kelse spoke softly wagging his finger in the elderly captain's face as if he was a naughty schoolboy. "Loki has unleashed Ragnarok upon his own people, but Thor unleashed Loki and so it is our beloved who has lead us to doom," Lord Kelse reported. He clicked his tongue in disgust and walked away.

Captain Frell was left gaping as he watched the tall and proud defender of Asgard trudge away, broken in body, hopeless and helpless, with nothing less to fight for. Slowly, most of the other soldiers who had been surrounding the bonfire got up and walked out of the room as well. Quickly, Lady Sigyn ducked and pressed herself against the wall trying to hide from the warriors. She hadn't needed to hide, the heads of the noble Einherjar were so downcast with defeat that they saw nothing but their own boots shuffling against metallic floor,

Lady Sigyn's large amber eyes peered around the corner once more as she overheard the conversation between Captain Frell and the two warriors that remained with him. "we cannot give up hope," the old member of King Odin's War Council admonished the remaining soldiers. "There is still time," he pressed.

"There is only enough time to evacuate the city and run," sated the young Einherjar.

Captain Frell looked back at the newly appointed Einherjar, he touched the young man gently on the neck, "You cannot outrun this," he said.

"Well what can we do to fight it, captain. Most of our troops have fallen, few of the men we do have are in fit condition to fight," pointed out the fresh Einherjar recruit.

"Malekith and the Aether were defeated before, were the not," chimed in the second warrior. A short and stodgy man with two twisted strands of a beard.

"Yes, yes," Captain Frell bobbed his head. "In the ancient times the Dark-Elves were defeated through the use of MJolnir and Gungnir. So it shall be again!" he rallied. "Prince Thor is the only one who can wield such weapons, though," the strategist stated.

"Well that's it!" The young soldier called. "We need Prince Thor!"

"Indeed, boy," Captain Frell put his hand on the eager warrior's heaving shoulders. "Alas, I do not even know if our dear Prince is alive," he reported.

"What?" The veteran Einherjar gaped. "Sir, you said you went with Prince Thor to the Dark- World?" The man looked puzzled.

"Aye, that I did, but Prince Thor moved on from us. Loki went missing and Thor went looking for him," the strategist reported.

"Confound it!" The older Einherjar swore. He kicked at the ground and squeezed his fist tight. "Why would our prince do such a foolhardy thing?" He demanded.

"Matters not why," Captain Frell stated, the truth was he could not bear to say why. It would be too painful for any soldier to hear that Prince Thor still had a heart toward his treacherous brother. A traitor a coward and an enemy in the eyes of the people. "he did not return and we were forced to go on without him and return to Asgard."

"Are you saying Prince Thor could be dead?" Gaped the young the soldier.

Captain Frell shook his head and raked wrinkled hands through his beard, "I cannot imagine how it could have gotten this far if Prince Thor were alive, but perhaps he Iis still trapped in the Dark-World," he shrugged.

"Then we must go back to the Dark-World and rescue him!' The youth spoke.

"There is no way off Asgard without the Bifrost and there isn't enough time to search high and low on Svartalfheim, Convergence is upon us tomorrow," the esteemed military strategist confirmed."Perhaps it truly is hopeless," Captain Frell stated as he grabbed his head. "Prince Thor could be dead,"

"Tis not hopeless, my lords," a female voice entered into the conversation between men. The heads of the Einherjar swiveled to face the young maiden. Timidly, Sigyn entered the chamber, She gave a respectful courtsy to the Einherjar and the respected captain. "I...I...I was in the palace during the attack," she explained. "I...I...I saw the Dark-Elves, Malekith and Loki marching across the bridge, Prince Thor was with them," Sigyn stated as her shoulders fell and her eyes looked downward.

"What? You mean Prince Thor was behind this!" Gasped the young Einherjar.

"No! No!" Sigyn shouted waving her hands in the air. "No, he was their prisoner!" She shrieked covering up her face and starting to cry. She gasped through her sobbing and tried to collect herself. She felt Captain Frell's hand rub gently on her back trying to calm her. She sniffed and leaned her head on the shoulder of the elderly Einherjar. "He was dragged across the bridge, bound and chained, muzzled like some animal, oh merciful Yddrasil," Sigyn started to weep again. "it was awful!"

"It's alright, Lady Sigyn, it's alright," Captain Frell comforted. He folded Sigyn in his arms and allowed her to cry on his shoulder.

"We have to rescue Prince Thor!" Declared the more seasoned warrior of Asgard.

"We can rally more troops!" The young soldier announced. "We can storm the castle walls. , free Prince Thor and stop this armageddon!" Declared the newly appointed Einherjar.

"We don't have enough men, lad," the veteran Einherjar explained as he placed a hand on his shoulder. He shook his head.

"So we just give up?" The Einherjar recruit snapped turning around and looking at the older officer with discuss. "No!" He barked. "All of Asgard is depending on us. This is what we were appointed to do, to fight to the death if necessary with our king if necessary. If Prince Thor is alive we have to rescue him! We can't let our crown prince become pawn for Loki and those savages. We'll call for all the abled bodied men and women of Asgard. The Valkyrie and Einherjar from across realm. There is no way Malekith and his forces can stop us all! Once Prince Thor is free and he has reclaimed Mjolnir he will be able to stop Malekith. And we will all fight by his side. " Proclaimed the eager rookie as he threw his fist in the air.

Captain Frell started to pace as he considered the words of the new recruit. The boy was eager, perhaps too eager. He was eager to avenge the fallen and eager to save their lives. But they needed more than eager attitudes. Asgard was in dire straights and time was running out for them all. They'd all suffered and lost so much truthfully, Captain Frell didn't know if the people still had it in them to fight. . "There are communication rooms here within the shelter," he muttered to himself as he marched back and forth. "Ahh, but the message wouldn't reach them in time. Ahhh! Curses!" The elderly warrior swore. "There isn't enough time," he declared snapping his fingers. "There is no way that we could get enough troops here by the time Convergence begins," he stated.

"The we have to use the men we have," stated the older Einherjar.

"Ahem," Sigyn coughed to catch the attention of the warrior. "There are more Dark-Elves swarming around the palace than you could imagine," the blonde-haired lady-in-waiting to queen Frigga announced. "Their weapons are strong and with the Aether, I don't truly think they can be beaten with force of arms, my lords," she admitted. "Trying to attack the palace will only lead to more deaths of our people."

"And if we do nothing the death of all of us and all the realms is inevitable!" The young soldier shot back.

Lady Sigyn gulped. Her chest tightened and she felt her palms grow moist as her fingers fiddled with the rolled edges of the parchment. "Per-p-perhaps," she stammered. Her beautiful sunshine filled eyes darted downward, "but perhaps there is another way," she offered as she slowly slipped the parchment scroll out from the folds of her tattered cloak. She so wanted to tell Captain Frell about the secret letter which she had hidden for Loki. "I...I...I have s-s-something," she started. Her voice just a whisper. Her mind thought of the responses she had gotten from everyone she'd mentioned the scroll to. From her own family, to Lord Algrim she'd only been met with anger, frustration and aggression. Sigyn's cheeks started to burn as she remembered the brutal slaps that had come to her face for the very mention of tiny parchment scroll. She couldn't face such rejection again she realized. She didn't have time to argue with those in power about the validity of the scroll. Finally, she was beginning to understand that no one would recognize the power that the contents of the letter could have. Quite frankly, she doubted that the letter could change anything. Loki...Loki was mad with his quest for vengeance and his lust for power. He was on a war path and in a few hours there would be nothing that could stop him and Malekith as they raged in their quest for destruction. Still, Sigyn was convinced that she still had to get the scroll into Loki's hand. It was the dying wish of her friend and there was a chance that it could save them and even if there was only point percent of chance that the letter from the Vanir midwives contained news that would change Loki, it was a chance that had to be taken. The lives of the Nine Realms depended upon it and so did the destiny of Loki's very soul.

"What is it that you have, Lady Sigyn?" Captain Frell inquired as he glanced at the scroll.

"I...I...I...I have a...idea?" Sigyn stated quickly.

"An idea?" Captain Frell quirked his gray eyebrow toward the lady-in-waiting.

"Yes," Sigyn uttered slowly, "Yes," she said with more confidence.

The young soldier started to chuckle to himself, "Save us your advice, woman," he spat, "You are not even a shield maiden," he pointed out. "This is Ragnorok! What could you possibly offer," he scoffed. "Your reputation does you little justice, Lady Sigyn," he crowed as he flicked a tear away from his eye. "You in fact may be the dullest of maidens in all of Asgard!" Sigyn gasped and flinched at the insult. She took a step back and shielded the letter, but squared her shoulders proudly. "Look around you, girl!" He shouted and waved his hands around gesturing at the predicament in which they found themselves. "The Aether has just ravaged through the Imperial City. The city burns! Malekith is in possession of the Aether, Odin lies in Oversleep and Thor is in chains. Convergence is hours away and you suspect think that you have an idea that shall save us?" He questioned cruelly of her.

"I...I...I" Sigyn hiccuped.

"Fool!" The young soldier spat toward the queen's waiting gentlewoman.

"Tusque, that is enough!" Scolded the Einherjar captain. "An Einherjar would never speak to a lady of Asgard in such a manner," he reminded him. Tusque drew back somewhat stiffened and stood tall like soldier should. "Forgive him, dear lady," Captain Frell apologized on behalf of the younger man again. "Please tell me what your idea. There are no bad ideas at this point. We all must do our part to save Asgard from Ragnarok," he expressed tenderly.

Sigyn took a deep breath and sucked in a quivering pink lip. She bowed her said and proceeded to leave. As she was walking out of the chamber she knelt down to pick up the parchment scroll that she hand dropped. Her hand traced across the seal. The crest of the Vanir midwives. Resolve once again took hold of her gut. She'd come too far. She'd made a promise to fulfill some ones dying wish. There were many things that people may call her. They may call her a simpleton and a fool and a disgrace and a harlot, but none would ever say she wasn't a woman of her a few short hours she could enter into Valhalla she would have to answer for her sins before entering and she didn't want such a simple act to hold her from the golden gates. "Captain Frell," Sigyn's soprano voice chimed in from the door. Her shaking, sweaty fingers rested around the back remained turned and her head bowed. Hurt filthy, amber tendrils obscuring her face. "If you truly do intend to attack the palace then surely you would want Lady Sif, Frandal, Volstagg and Hogun to be there,'" she posed.

"Certainly, the help of the generals would be an asset, captain," expressed the Einherjar officer.

"What is your point Lady Sigyn?" Captain Frell asked.

"They are all held up in the healers ward at the palace. If you attack you will put them all at risk as well as hundreds of other warriors, healers, council members and civilians who are still in the palace," she mentioned.

"We need all the warriors we can get sir, if we are going to have a chance at rescuing the prince," stated Tusque.

"We also need more healers. The shelters and hospitals are overwhelmed," the older warrior mentioned

"We won't have time to rescue civilians and other warriors and get to Prince Thor by the time of Convergence," Captain Frell noted.

"You won't need to," Sigyn spoke up once more. She finally turned around to face the three Einherjar. ."I...I just came from the palace. With the help of healers and a few guards I was able to lead a few servants and nobles out of the palace, through the catacombs and out into the city. I could do the same before your attack...evacuate everyone... so that you will have as many warriors possible for the attack and you will also have Lady Sif and the Warriors Three to stand and fight with you as well," she offered. Her hands were clasped in a prayerful position as she offered and faint and hopeful smile.

Captain Frell studied Sigyn for a moment. The military strategist pondered her words. There was sense in it. They needed more troops that much was certain. They needed every man to fight who had half a leg to stand on and one arm to hold a sword. Also Captain Frell knew that in a multitude of counsel there was wisdom. Despite being a well respected captain in the Einherjar he was no longer a member of the High Council of Asgard. And without word from Odin, Queen Frigga or Prince Thor the High Council of Asgard had the final say on what action should take place next, not him. He needed the members of the council safe in the shelter so that they could reach a verdict.

"Lady Sigyn, do you truly think that you can get more people out?"

"I don't know for certain, sir, but I know I should be able to get back into the palace undetected," she agreed.

"Captain Frell, If Lady Sigyn can get us into the palace why don't we strike back now?"asked Tusque as he pounded his fist into his palm.

The wizened strategist shook his head, "That would be a negative, young Tusque," the Einherjar captain expressed. "We need to allow the soldiers time to recuperate. Even a few more hours rest will serve them well when the Convergence begins," he went on. "Besides we'll only have one shot to free Prince Thor," the captain stated. "We can't risk any unnecessary setbacks," he declared. He quickly turned back to Sigyn, "Alright, Lady Sigyn, you are on," he pointed to her. "Slip in and slip out with as many people as possible. You will only be able to go in and out once. If you don't get out before dawn we will assume that you have been compromised and we will prepare our assault," the captain stated firmly.

---

Sigyn was able to slip back into the palace undetected through the catacombs. She knew she wouldn't have much time. It was only a quarter pass noontide, but the cataclysmic events of the morning had left Sigyn feeling as if decades had passed since she'd been in the palace. As she roamed, alone through the twisted hidden halls within the walls of the palace, she listened intently to what was transpiring around her. She strained her ears and practically pressed them against the slime slick, dust and cobweb covered walls trying to hear what was going on in the palace. What she heard made her skin crawl and pulse race. Nothing. She heard nothing. She expected to hear something. Nervously, she nibbled on her long dirty nails. She'd expected to hear screams, cries stomping, marching feet, the sounds of steel and iron clashing and crashing against each other, the horrible blast of the Dark-Elf weapons being fired over and over again creating craters in the alabaster walls of the Imperial Palace. There should have been some sounds. Some evidence of struggle, but there was none.

The Aesir noblewoman couldn't help but think the worst. She wanted to peer into the corridors. She reached her hand and felt along the sides of the walls. groping to find lose bricks that she could push in to open up the walls and allow her to see what was happening in the corridors. AS her hands frantically fumbled feeling for the lose stones she accidentally snagged her fingers against a spiders web. Squeamishly, Sigyn squealed and ran away shaking her hands and scratching at her hair desperate to make sure that no creeping creatures and lodged themselves inside her disheveled, sloppy, disgusting, golden mane. Out of breath, she leaned on to her knees, panting and gasping for breath while still raking her fingers through her hair to check for insects. Somewhat satisfied she allowed herself to lean against the wall. As she did so her elbow bumped against one of the loose cobblestones in the wall. She pushed it in and heard the all creak and as the stones shifted grating against one another as the wall slid open. Lady Sigyn gasped. Horrified, she slammed her back against the inner wall of the catacomb. Her lip quivered, she shut her eyes and covered her mouth to keep from screaming. Sigyn hated herself for her cowardice. She should have been braver than that. After all she was the daughter of one of the most decorated admirals in all of Asgard, but still she could not will herself to even glance out into the gilded hallway. She was too scared of what she might find. She was so scared that when she looked out into the hall she would find blood spilled upon the carpets. She had already seen the carnage that the Aether had created in the city. She'd seen the desolation of the broken bodies, some with hacked off limbs, some with shards of sharp gleaming, crimson crystal sticking from the chest and back.

No. She couldn't see anymore. Sigyn gulped and quickly banged her elbow against the stone once more causing the walls of the winding, hidden pathway to shake as the stones rubbed against one another and the wall closed up. "Oh please! Oh please! Oh please! Oh pleased," Sigyn prayed and she hiked up her dress and quickly darted through the catacombs toward the healing ward.

Sigyn arrived in the healing ward in record time. She pressed herself against the wall once more. She sucked in deep breaths and tried to calm her breathing so that she could listen. After a few moments pause, she exhaled, placed her hand on her heart. Her golden eyes welled with tears. Movement. Sigyn swung around, found the brick that jetted out from the wall and pressed it opening the wall.

The healers wing was a hive all a buzz. Everywhere the healers ran about, carrying the injured, rushing with vials and bottles, gauze and tape. Dashing back and forth from one stretcher to the next with healing crystals. "You have to get out!" Sigyn shouted as she burst into the ward.

Sigyn's announcement barely penetrated the tortured screams of the injured soldiers being rushed about with severed limbs and bleeding heads. A few healers swung back to face the young waiting gentlewoman to Queen Frigga. They looked at her as if she were an apparition. She certainly looked ghastly covered in black ash and dust her expensive garments torn to shreds, her face and arms cut up and scratch as if she'd been in a catfight. Her hair was all over her head and plastered to her face. Her normally, flawless face paint was smeared and running.

"Lady Sigyn?" One of the healers called. She was a sweet faced, elderly woman with a heart shaped head and round belly. "My goodness girl you need tending to," she gasped worriedly as she took the maiden by the hand. She examined Sigyn quickly, she had a few cuts, scrapes and bruises on her face, cheeks and arms, but nothing that couldn't be taken care of with a few ointments. Sigyn reflexively snatched her dirty hand from the hold of the healing mistress.

"You have to get out!" the blonde-haired daughter of Admiral Arn repeated as she grabbed the female healer by her shoulders.

"Get out?" another healer interjected with a scoff. "Don't you think we would if we could. We can't evacuate half of the hese soldiers they are in far too delicate of condition," he debated.

"But you have to!" Lady Sigyn urged. "You must! Oh please. You have to get everyone out. The palace is breached!" Sigyn expressed breathlessly. "Captain Frell is trying to rally every able bodied man or woman still left in the city so that he can to attack the palace and free Prince Thor," the blonde haired maiden reported. "He needs the soldiers here and he wants all the civilians out of the palace before the strike," she panted.

"These men are in no condition to fight!" Protested the other healer. The male healer raked his hand through his thin orange hair. "Does he know how many injured we have? How are we supposed to get them out, many of them need breathing apparatuses," he stated. "Moving them will cause them to die," he argued. "No," he shook his head and swung his hands. "As healers it is our sacred oath to do no harm. How can we in good conscience move these brave men and women knowing that it could kill them?" he asked turning his colleague.

"Stop it Gurtrumm!" seasoned healing mistress scolded. "We are risking more lives staying here in the palace. It is only a matter of time before Malekith and his hoard figure out that we are down here. Those beasts will come down here and gut these wounded warriors like fish," she spat. "If we can used the healing crystals to stabilize the auras of those in the most critical condition we should be able to get the people out and into the hospitals in the city for better care," expressed the healing mistress as she massaged her chin.

"We can move those in soul forges into healing tanks. They are easier to transport," reasoned Gurtrumm.

"You'll have to move quickly," Sigyn insisted, "there isn't much time." She took hold of the female healer's shoulder.

"Time is of the essence for us all, Lady Sigyn and we won't waste time that the world doesn't have," she stated. Her face was serious. "Inform all the other healers of what we need to do, Gurtrumm," she ordered. "I want every soldier, stable and ready to transport in a half an hour," Soon the pair went to ready the patients.

"Sigyn?" A soft voice called from behind the blonde-haired maiden. Sigyn swung around to find a thin, amber haired woman standing behind her.

"Lady Jane!" Sigyn threw her arms opened and exclaimed as she immediately wrapped her in a tight hug.

"Sigyn, oh my goodness!Oh my goodness, What has happened?" Jane asked as she frantically searched Sigyn's eyes. "So many soldiers have been rushed to the healing ward...there were alarms going off...what has happened? I heard the sounds of fighting, like an army. No one will let me out of this healing ward and no one will tell me what is going on. Do you know?

"Oh Lady Jane," Sigyn shook her head still keeping hold of Jane's thin trembling shoulders. "So much, so much..." she panted. "I cannot even tell it all," the lady-in-waiting to Queen Frigga started, but she did. She told Jane of everything that had transpired.

"What!" Jane gasped her eyes growing wide, hands straying to her mouth. She pulled herself out of Sigyn's gentle hands and staggered backward. "No," Jane collided with the silver wall.

Sigyn bobbed her head as her sunlit locks bounced on her shoulders. "Loki led the Malekith and the Dark-Elves back into the Imperial City," Sigyn stated. She winced as the words poured from her lips. It was painful to admit. It hurt heart to know he had done so. She felt fresh tears starting to prick behind her eyes once more.

"Loki?" Jane echoed the name of the ex-prince of Asgard. She swallowed hard. She was all at once enraged and stunned. She knew she shouldn't have expected any better from him. She'd watched on television helplessly as he lead a swarm of aliens to attack New York City, why wouldn't he lead another alien race to attack his own people, but still it was unbelievable. For a moment as she had listened to Thor spout off about how Loki had once been a good and kindly person and how he loved him. She'd almost believed that. "Thor!" She gasped as soon as her mind thought of him. "Thor! Thor! What has happened to Thor?' she questioned, she roughly pushed herself from the wall and rush over to Sigyn grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her vigorously.

Sigyn's body flopped like a rag doll as mortal woman rattled her for information. "It is not good, Lady Jane," Sigyn confessed. Her bright, gold eyes darted down.

"What do you mean?" Asked the female scientist. "Where is he?" Her breath was caught in her lungs, "Is he alright?" The auburn haired astrophysicist kept questioning.

Lady Sigyn could not bring her bright amber eyes to meet the human's gaze. She sunk her teeth into her puckered pink lip. "He's a prisoner, Lady Jane," she stated, finally looking up with wet eyes. "He's a prisoner of Loki and Malekith," she reported. Sigyn watched as the color drained from Jane's face. "Do not despair, my lady, tis still hope. Captain Frell and a few of the men that are still left plan to rescue Prince Thor, but they plan to attack the palace. I told them that doing so would only end up having hundreds more Aesir lives lost because so many are still here in the palace," she explained. The mortal woman nodded, numbness taking over her brain and body. "Captain Frell has only given me 'til dawn to make sure everyone is out of the palace. At dawn they will attack to free Prince Thor," Sigyn elaborated.

"By then, Thor could already be dead," Jane twisted her lips, "Why aren't they attacking now? They don't have any time to waste!"

"Please, Lady Jane," Sigyn whimpered. She did not like yelling. "Captain Frell isn't trying to waste time, he's trying to gather men," Sigyn explained, she tried to grab Jane by her hands. Jane's fingers easily slipped from Sigyn's grasp as she started to pace with agitation. "He's also trying to give the civilians still trapped in the palace time to escape. People like yourself and the servants of the High Councilmen and the healers," Sigyn went on. Jane Foster nodded, she knew nothing about military matters, but she did know that Thor's life was in danger. "Besides, they need, Sif, Volstagg, Hogun and Frandal. How are they?" Lady Sigyn asked as she looked around at the sick beds trying to see if she saw her friend resting in the palace and infirmary.

"They put them all in healing pools. The healers said that the process should only take a few hours for them to reach full rejuvenation."

The handmaiden to Queen Frigga let out a sigh of relief, "Good," she stated. "You must tell them to evacuate with the rest of the wounded warriors and get to the shelter there they can talk with Captain Frell and figure out a way to save Prince Thor," Sigyn instructed as she started sprint away.

Jane Foster's amber eyes were wide as she watched Sigyn hike up her skirt and start to dart between the frenzied healers. "Sigyn, where are you going?' Jane yelled behind the blonde noblewoman.

"To free Heimdal!" Queen Frigga's waiting lady shouted over her shoulder with a smile as she rushed to the wall and slipped in behind it.

The mortal scientist shook her head, "Heimdal, right," she nodded to herself before she raced toward Volstagg, Hogun, Frandal and Sif.

"Master Hiemdal," a sweet soprano voice whispered from behind a golden force-field. The quivering tone called to a large figure, clad in armor of the most regal gold, but whose body was bent in the position that even a lowly servant would be humiliate to take on. A magnificent headdress was tossed asunder in the far right corner of the stark white cell. Besides the one prisoner, the jail was completely empty. Most of the cells had been completely demolished. All the other villains and criminals had escaped during the first attack by the Dark-Elves and the palace guards, city watch-men and Einherjar were too overwhelmed with the task of protecting the city to go gallivanting off and chasing after the marauders and pillagers.

The massive gold plated shoulders wriggled just a little as the gentle voice that sounded like the tinkling of bells entered into his ears. "Lady Sigyn," the prisoner gasped. He immediately turned to her. His wise, shrewd, vigilant bronzed irises were damp and red. He rose to his full height upon turning to her. The ancient guardian was a massive man. He lumbered toward her. "The Dark-Elves have returned," he stated as a fact to her. He did not ask.

Lady Sigyn bobbed, her breath-hitched and the words she wished to speak were caught in her mouth for a few moments before she was able to make utterance. "Master Heimdal did you see it?' She questioned through tears.

The gatekeeper wagged his head, "This far from the Bifrost I can see nothing," he admitted. His shoulders rounding with the confession. "Little difference it makes now, i suppose," he shrugged his enormous shoulders. "I was standing at my post and did not see it coming the first time," he reported. His piercing golden eyes filled with fire. He slammed his eyes shut and breathed deeply for just a moment. "I felt the palace shake from its very core and I knew it could only be one thing," he explained.

"At least you did not have to behold it," Sigyn's soft voice chimed in. "I saw the whole thing," the maiden went on. Her large golden eyes trembled. "Malekith unleashed the Aether," Sigyn blurted out as she pressed her hands against the outer part of the force-field bars. "I watched, Hiemdal," Sigyn whispered. "I...I...I saw it all, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before...spreading and oozing, twisting like a tornado," she went on her gold eyes wide with fear as the scene played in her head once more. "I thought...I thought for sure it was the end," she confessed covering her mouth to stifle a shudder.

Heimdal mashed his lips together, "Once Convergence takes place there will be nothing to stop the Aether from spreading throughout the Nine-Realms," he explained. "There is little time," he stated.

"But there is still time?" the Aesir maiden pressed as she clasped her hands together.

"Little," Heimdal warned, "but yes."

"I have to get you out of here," Sigyn declared. Her golden eyes looked over the magic infused barrier trying to find away to penetrate it. Desperately, the blonde-haired lady-in-waiting started banging upon the barrier. She pounded her fist furiously on the force-field only to watch it surge with energy, but it didn't break.

"it is no use, lady Sigyn' the great gatekeeper announced after watching the woman struggle until she was breathless.

Sigyn fell upon the floor nearly sobbing from exhaustion, her thin, dirty, broken nails skimming over the Plexiglas. "No," she shook her head, "There must be something that can break these shields," she reasoned.

"I do not deserve to be freed from this dungeons. I should wait here until Ragnarok," he stated sternly. Heimdal squared his shoulders and stood tall like soldier on his post.

"Master Heimdal, no!" Sigyn gasped. "y-y-you cannot say such things! We need you, Asgard needs you!" She called to him.

"I have failed Asgard, I have failed my king," the chocolate skinned guardian insisted. "I did not see the first attack and in committing treason I have allowed for the second attack," Heimdal confessed.

"Twas not your fault Heimdal," Sigyn pleaded. "Please," she whimpered. "You didn't know...you said you believed you were doing the lesser of two evils," she reasoned.

"Perhaps I believed wrong," the proud warrior recanted. "Now we stand in the wake of destruction," he sighed. "Loki has brought this on us," he stated.

Sigyn nodded, "I too, am responsible Heimdal," Sigyn confessed as she swallowed deeply. her eyes shone with anger. "I went to Loki while he was in the dungeons. I tended to him. Helped him get strong... strong enough to do this," her voice shook. "But I never imagined it would lead to this," she stated looking around at the broken jail cells all around her.

"You were innocent,Lady Sigyn, you did not know the outcomes of what would be," Heimdal explained to her.

"Neither did you."

"But I should have, my lady," said Heimdal as he smiled gently at the simpleminded maiden, "Long ago, Lady Sigyn," he replied. "I saw the two young princes journey to Nornheim and enter the temple of tribute, in search of their test their was a vision," he elaborated. "Perhaps I should have said something then, but I have never believed that destiny is certain so," Heimdal confessed. "You should go on without me, Lady Sigyn, Flee from the palace," he instructed,

"Flee to where? Where can anyone go, to out run Ragnarok?" The golden eyed handmaiden questioned. "We need you Heimdal," Sigyn stated. "You know more about the Convergence than any of us. Captain Frell, wants to launch an attack against the Dark-Elves to free Prince Thor before Convergence is at its peak. He needs every warrior to do so. Lady Sif and the Warriors Three are being pulled out of the healing waters as we speak to prepare for battle, but we still need you, Master Heimdal! Won't you fight for us, once again?' She begged.

A smirk, rolled over the austere gaudian's handsome face, "Til Ragnarok, my lady, til Ragnarok," he insisted. Sigyn allowed a broad grin from ear to ear to spread across her dirty face, She leaped to her feet excitedly. "Step aside, Lady Sigyn" he ordered as the might gatekeeper took hold of the hilt of his sword made of gold. With a mighty holler he thrust the blade into the shimmering shield which held him in the prison. He did this 7 times until the force-field shattered. It disentegrated into 1000 glittering particles. Out of the sparkling debris the handsome Einherjar strolled forth like a white night. Sigyn's large, childish eyes lit up. She threw out her arms and wrapped the gatekeeper in a tight hug. Heimdal returned her embrace for a moment resting his chin atop her head before her collected his helmet and placed it firmly on his head. "Thank you, Lady Sigyn," he whispered to her. "Come," he said to her as he took her by the hand. "We must get to Captain Frell."

"I-I_," Sigyn hesitated, 'I must stay back," she stated timidly.

'lady," he countered.

"I want to help get as many of our people out as possible," the queen's lady confirmed. "We've lost so many lives," she mumbled. The images of the broken bodies of men women and children lying in puddles of blood in the streets, with severed limbs and charred from the Aether made her shiver. She clutched her dirty, tattered cloak tighter around her slim shoulders and then covered her face and rubbed at her eyes. They burned with the horrific sights stuck in her brain. 'No more," she breathed finally releasing her face and releasing tears as well. "Queen Frigga would want it that way," she confirmed. The keep of the Bifrost merely nodded. "And besides," she gulped as she slid her hand into the folds of her cloak and revealed the tiny parchment.

"You still possess the letter?" Heimdal questioned.

"I know...I know...I know...tis foolish, but I..." she stuttered. "I have to give it to him, Heimdal," she stated. Heimdal's penetrating eye rolled over the parchment. "Can you read it?" she asked. Surely with his incredible gift he could pierce through the parchment and read the words scrawled on the scroll.

"Tis not for me to know, Lady Sigyn" the gatekeeper responded.

Sigyn's amber eyes darted frantically back and forth. She pressed the scroll into the guardian's giant hands. "Oh please, Heimdal we are too close to Convergence. It twould be folly and foolishness to risk all this and then it come to naught," she pleaded.

Heimdal's large earthy hands engulfed her tiny ones. "It takes the things to confound the wise, Lady Sigyn" he recited.

Sigyn nodded, eyes wide, "I know not what that means," Sigyn shook her head. A look of confusion playing across her petite featured.
"You will, my lady, you will."

"I know there is only a fools chance that this could change anything, but..."
Heimdal raised his hand, silencing her, "A fools chance may be all that we need. Do what you need to do, but do not wait until Convergence to get out of the palace," he warned her.

"I won't," she promised.

"May fate be with you, Lady Sigyn" Heimdal wished.

"May fate be with all of us," Sigyn prayed as she and Heimdal parted ways, disappearing in opposite directions through the catacombs

A/N: Guess what readers? I am going to COMIC CON! Comic Con is coming to my town and I had to go. Furthermore Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and Tom Hiddleston are all going to be there :D:D:D:D Fan dream come true! Idk if i am going to get to meet them, but I sure as heck am going to try! I'm bringing my story as well. i have been working on it for so long it would be amazing if they read it, probably not but worth a shot. Anyway it is because of the support you all have given me in my writing that I feel confident enough to do so. So i wanted to thank you! THANK YOU! please feel free to message me about the event with any advice or thoughts if you've been to comic con before. Just wanted to share with those who may be just as hype as me lololololol