These Things We've Gained: Eternal Love, Building Hope, Just Honesty

by Tales of Suspense

In the aftermath of "These Things We've Lost" people strugggle to create a new normal. (Slice of Life)

16. Chapter 16

- Chapter 16 -

23May2023 – Late Afternoon

The Malibu California Mansion Of Anthony Edward Stark

Unfolding his seidr, James mounted a Conjuration Spell then held his right hand out to release the spell under his palm. A black steel box ninety inches long by thirty inches wide by thirty inches high was conjured under his hand. A flat grey metal lid came into being next. The lid fit the rails at the top of the box, letting it slide into place to close the box. Runes done in canary yellow engraved across the exterior of the box and lid. When all the Bundling Runes and Runes of Shielding were engraved James empowered the runes with his unfolded seidr. Garnet seidr lit the canary yellow runes. The interior of the box was safe for DUM-E's remains now. The rest of the Conjuration Spell created a soft foam covering for the bottom of the box and its walls, and several long foam covers to put between the layers of the contents of the box to cushion the pieces. James used his seidr to grip DUM-E's metal coffin and lid and set them down on the floor.

From his unfolded seidr James mounted and released another Conjuration Spell. A large, plastic, transparent box with a split lid hinged to the top and long rectangles of thin foam for packing material inside it as well as small, neon orange, numbered stickers, were created on the second folding table. He stowed his seidr back into his core and opened the box to remove the packing material. After that he summoned his mini laptop and brought up a standard document to continue cataloguing the items he officially confiscated from his younger brother during this most recent purge. It would all go into a report in the archives, to be available to the Chief Justice should he decide to review it. He gripped his mini laptop with an extension of his seidr so that he could type the report using his seidr as his hands, keeping his hands free for emptying DUM-E's drawers.

"I'm going to be setting the drawers on the table to empty them, then cataloguing what's in them. If anyone wants to see what's in them, please come stand by this table." James motioned to behind the table.

"We can still ask questions?" When SHIELD went to loot Howard's library of weapons designs they found a bunch of odd and useless things as well as impressive weapons designs, and in one case something they couldn't reproduce. There was a black crystalline substance that was found behind the walls of the library that they concluded was some sort of extremely dangerous biological weapon that the elder Stark was working on. Several of their researchers died during the study. They were turned into strange and inhuman beings with blacked eyes. They were so aggressive and contagious that they had to be put down. SHIELD was never able to tell what it was though or reproduce it, so the samples were contained, labeled, stored, and forgotten about. Director Fury didn't think that the younger Stark would have biological weapons so close to his kids, but he wasn't sure, so he wanted to be able to ask about the contents.

"Absolutely." James extended more of his seidr to grip several of the drawers in the vault. They were pulled out and set on the table. He kept pulling out drawers until the table was full of them. Many of the drawers were empty, so they went into the coffin as soon as they were marked with a numbered sticker and catalogued. A corresponding number was placed next to the hole that the drawer came out of. Every piece of the vault that was taken out was catalogued in the form on his mini laptop while the items in those drawers were catalogued and placed in the clear plastic box, wrapped into packing material. Many of the drawers were filled with small, child sized tools with red handles.

"Are those more of your tools, Jay?" Frey looked over the little tools. The hard handles were worn with use, and the metal had knicks and scratches here and there.

"No, those are father's tools." Jay didn't look over. He didn't need to since he knew what his Afi Frey was asking about.

"These were the first tools that Anthony made for himself." A pleasant smile touched James' face as he remembered his and Anthony's first time in the forge together. "I taught him how to make them. I was teaching him how to forge things." One of the smaller drawer's contents stopped him for a moment.

A small white gold ring with shimmering silver band that came around to attach to a white gold rose in full bloom. In the center of the rose was a single, small, rose cut diamond. It was the Rhodes' family wedding ring, and he extended invisible, fiery protections around it because of its great value. Out of his unfolded seidr he mounted a Rune of Shield and branded it onto the inside of the ring. Mounting a Shield of Resists Spell next, he branded it onto the ring as well next to the other rune. He held the ring in the palm of his hand and missed his parents again. They were a piece of his heart that he couldn't have any meaningful access to since they'd gone to their last sleep. Now it belonged on Loki's ring finger, until it went to the first of the next generation to be married. He was going to have to talk to Anthony about getting the ring to where it belonged. Anthony was always so nervous about giving it to Loki, since there would be too many questions that he didn't want to answer. Running his thumb over the ring he gripped it with his unfolded seidr and dismissed it to his interdimensional pocket. It's past time to welcome Loki to the family.

The ring in James' hand was shining with white seidr that felt very old to him. When Sean went to view the white seidr, to see why it was there, all he saw were carmine and orange flames swirling around the ring. It too was blocked from his sight. How is Lord Stark blocking my view on so many different things and people? How do firehawks do that?

In the next drawer was the emergency authentication token for the ghost drive. That went into James' interdimensional pocket as well.

The next several drawers contained small computer parts that Director Fury pondered over. "What are those?"

"Transistors, capacitors, unfinished mother boards, memory sticks and such. It's all derivative work coming from the memory cube that Loki gave to Anthony. It's what he uses what he wants to use Elder Realms equivalent technology that looks like Midgardian technology." James used his seidr to melt and cool several of the rectangular packing pads' edges together to create pouches that he emptied the drawers neatly into, at one drawer per pouch.

"So those are magic too?" Director Fury was interested in them since they looked like ordinary computer components.

"No. These aren't enchanted, they were made following Elder Realm's construction principles and with their materials without using the magic. They function at a level close to the Elder Realms' technology but are disguised as current components or devices from Midgard, like these," he held up a small, disguised memory stick, "This has two hundred petabytes of storage on it," holding up a larger capacity one, James explained, "and this one has four hundred petabytes of storage, and," holding up the largest capacity memory stick, "this one has an exabyte of storage on it." James put the last of the components into the pouches he created and tucked them away in the plastic box.

"What does he need that kind of storage for?" Once again Director Fury was wary of what Stark was doing. And how can I get a hold of a supply of those for SHIELD?

"Father doesn't want to miss any time with us, so he has me recording my siblings, as well as recording the security feeds, the recordings from the people we're observing, and anything else that he deems necessary," Jay pointed to the ones that his uncle was packing up, "Those are all empty, but the other ones have all kinds of footage on them; petabytes of footage." He kept his gaze down, away from DUM-E's remains.

Sharply, James looked to Jay. "He kept the footage of the people he was spying on?" That hadn't been mentioned to him, and he suspected it was because would have disposed of the data once it was no longer needed. There was personal information in some of those files. "Was he hoarding again?"

Looking at the plate of pasta wasn't as much of an escape as Jay wanted it to be, so he fidgeted with his fork, pushing his food around. "Yes. Father thought it could be useful somehow at some point, so he kept all of the footage from the cameras."

"Where are these memory sticks?" He noticed how his nephew didn't look up.

'They are in the long, wide, bottom drawer."

"Ok, thank you." James found a drawer at the bottom of the vault that held the thin innards of hundreds of memory sticks. Some were colored blue, while others colored red. Still kneeling down next to the drawer he spoke to Jay. "What's the difference in the blue and red ones?"

A bite of broccoli was swallowed before Jay answered. "The blue ones are family footage. The red ones are the surveillance footage." Pushing his broccoli around didn't help Jay to feel any better about the surveillance footage, or what was on it. There was an uncomfortable amount of footage of people in the bathroom or bedroom. His father never viewed that, but they still had it. "Uncle Rhodey, can we give certain surveillance footage to Directory Fury?"

"What's on them that he needs to see, Little Hawk?" James cut directly to the point.

"Agent Jasper Sitwell, Agent Don Caballero, Agent Dmitri Kravinoff, and Agent Brock Rumlow are all Hydra spies, the ones I've been able to catch. I think there are more. Hydra is planning to assassinate several high-level SHIELD officials, like Deputy Director Hill and General Rogers. Agent George Tarleton and Agent Monica Rappaccini are AIM spies that are trying to keep SHIELD's eyes away from Africa. AIM is sponsoring terrorism in Africa so they can drive governments to their services and products while receiving favorable treatment in mining operations. They're also kidnapping Africans to work in their mobile sea factory. SHIELD should have that evidence." Jay picked up a piece of garlic bread and pushed at his pasta nervously with it. "It would save lives if they had it, like Deputy Director Hill."

Jay still wasn't looking up at the vault, and it didn't surprise James. A little sigh passed through his lips. The drawer was pulled out and released from its sliding track so that he could pick it up. Carrying it over to the table, James asked his next question. "Are the ones with incriminating evidence marked?"

"They have an infinity symbol on them. The others are just day-to-day activities. The footage is intrusive but useless basically," it was Jay's time to sigh, "Father thought you would take the memory sticks away. He said that you would be violent if I told you, so I didn't. I'm sorry."

"Do you know why I've had to hit your father at points in time?" James' voice was quiet and probing, there was no irritation in it.

"Father isn't in his right mind during that times when you execute a forceful cognitive realignment, he's dangerous to other people and refuses to listen to reason." Jay's voice was quieter than James' voice.

His hands went to his hips. "If you understood why I was doing what I was doing then why wouldn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to disappoint father."

Nodding once, James accepted the past for what it was. "In the report that you're writing for me I expect a dissection of the topic of 'compromising ethics vs. disappointing someone' and what compromising our ethics can lead to, with real world examples. Ok?"

Nodding affirmatively, Jay was thankful that he wasn't getting a lecture. "Would you like me to formulate a report for Director Fury summarizing what we found?"

"Yes, please." Running his unfolded seidr over the memory sticks James was able to locate each infinity symbol quickly before mounting a broad Learning Spell. He touched each marked memory stick with the spell simultaneously to absorb all of the information into his mind. In his mind he used the last of that Learning Spell to organize the footage appropriately. Mounting another Learning Spell, it drew in the organized memories. James looked to the Director then. "Can you take out your memory cube? I'll transfer the data over to it."

Once again, Director Fury pulled out his memory cube and held it up for James to give him something important. This information was crucial. The memory cube glowed garnet again as the information transferred over. As soon as he was able he was going to put a guard around his Deputy Director. "Thank you for this. I'll look into it personally."

"Director Fury?" When the Director turned towards him, Jay went forward with his question. "I already have everything put together, incase father wanted to look at it, so do you want a compact report with just important metrics; a standard report with or without citations and lesser metrics, or a full report with all metrics and a video citations section?"

"What do you mean by metrics?" The Director was going to take the full report, but he wanted to know what he was getting first.

"Competency, loyalty, work ethic, extramarital affairs, a cost/benefit analysis of the people's work versus what they cost the organization, education, training, observed diet, exercise. Things like that."

Are you serious?! "And what do you mean by video citations?"

"It's video files taken from the surveillance footage that holds the data for the metrics."

"How many people do you have surveillance on?" You did a cost/benefit analysis?! Do you know how much those things cost to get done? I need to recruit you the minute you turn eighteen. The Director was impressed again by how much work Jay was willing to put in and how willing to share the work he did. Part of him wanted to be wary of accepting work from a child, but the rest of him just held out the memories of what Jay was capable of. "I'll take the full report and thank you for it." He held his memory cube towards the boy.

"Only the top ten members in the SHIELD organization, the various department heads and the agents who are also Avengers had active surveillance equipment assigned to them. The rest of the footage I took was from SHIELD's own security cameras." Impelling his seidr forth from his core, Jay wrote it into a Learning Spell, which drew his memories of the report he'd constructed partly for his father and partly for himself. When the memories were fully gathered he reached over and touched Director Fury's memory cube to release the spell. The data transferred over smoothly as the cube glowed in a pale white-blue light. When the light extinguished the data transfer was done and he called back his seidr to his core. "Would you like me to withdraw the surveillance cameras? I'm not sure that they're appropriate now." Jay had a hard time looking Director Fury in the eye, but he managed to. Embarrassment clawed at his face again, turning it a light shade of red.

"I'd appreciate it if you could withdraw them. I'd also like to know when you did the cost/benefit analysis, if you wouldn't mind telling me." One more gift for SHIELD. In a very real way Director Fury felt bad for the boy. He was stuck between competing desires that seemed often at odds with each other. On one side of Jay was his desire to help and not disappoint his own father. On his other side was his desire to adhere to his uncle's view of morality and ethics. It was surprising that someone so young managed to straddle the fence between them as well as he had.

His gaze drifted down to the table again as Jay accessed the house servers to then reach out and access all of the floating surveillance cameras that were still in place. "I've accessed the cameras." He projected the live feed of Deputy Director Hill, who was managing reports and personnel in the aftermath of the Triskelion hellicarrier being dry docked, through his glowing eyes to create a screen on the table he sat at. "Hm, that's not good. Agents Kravinoff and Rumlow are alone with Deputy Director Hill right now." Before Jay could ask if Directory Fury wanted to speak with his Deputy Director, both of the traitor agents pulled their silenced pistols, pointed them at Deputy Director Hill's back and fired. As fast as he could, Jay extended himself through the connections so that he could extend himself through the camera as well as into SHIELD's communications systems. A barrier of silver fire erupted from the camera between Deputy Director Hill and the two men who'd come to assassinate her. It caught and incinerated the bullets before they could hit their target. The silver fires washed over the two men, purifying their murderous intent, leaving the guilt of betrayal in their minds. They were loyal agents of SHIELD once, and this wasn't where either of them started out wanting to be. Jay resonated Jarvis' voice through his flames. "Deputy Director Hill, you're safe for now. I've reported this incident to security, and they should be there any minute." The door burst open as he spoke, prompting him to think, That was fast. I guess they were ready for trouble. Several armed security personnel flooded into the room with their guns pointed at the two rogue agents.

"Who, what are you?" Deputy Director Hill wasn't sure what to make of the talking silver fires that had just saved her life.

"I'm a friend. I'm with Director Fury right now. If you check your email you'll find a short report on several other agents who cannot be trusted. These two work for Hydra and they aren't alone."

"Hydra!" Her gaze went instantly to the two agents who drew guns on her. Rumlow was looking down, but she was able to catch Kravinoff's gaze. She was shocked when he nodded and mouthed a weak, Hail Hydra. Swinging her gaze back to the silver fires, Deputy Director Hill still wasn't sure what to make of this. "Thank you, ...friend."

"You're very welcome." Jay looked at the situation and believed that she would be safe if he left. "I have to go now. Have a good day, Deputy Director Hill." With that he withdrew back through the connections and set the floating camera to making its way back to his uncle's home. Stopping the projection through his eyes, he blinked a few times, then looked back to the Director. "Your Deputy Director should be safe now. The security that I alerted are trustworthy." It didn't surprise him when Director Fury pulled out his phone, tossed an, "I'll be right back," over his shoulder and headed out of the workshop into the hallway.

The adults in the room who weren't guardsmen all looked to Jay, to what he'd just done. A vague touch of shock tinged the air in the room. No one said anything as none of them expected to see an attempted murder that day. Their sudden silence and staring unnerved Jay. His face turned a little more red then. "Did I do something wrong?" He didn't think that he had, but everyone was looking at him, so he doubted himself.

"No!" The chorus in response to his question helped him to feel better, but he still wasn't sure since he felt like everyone was still staring.

Without having seen the boy's silver fires before Hirdmen Vilulf wouldn't have understood what he saw. As it was, he did see those fires and did understand that the boy had just saved a woman's life in front of them. It was done swiftly and with no hesitation. To the hirdmen, it spoke very well of the boy's character that he acted so quickly. Princess Frigga must be proud of her grandson. That wasn't truly his concern though, so he went back to his watch of his Princess's husband.

Given that her grandson called the woman 'Deputy Director', Frigga surmised that the woman saved was like Director Fury, a Black Hand in service to Midgard. Jay hadn't just saved any person's life. He saved one of the people fighting to secure Midgard, and so Frigga was proud indeed. So much so that she flared her seidr to her grandson, You did the right thing by saving her life. I'm so proud of you, Jay.

No one had stepped forward, so James spoke up quickly, before anyone else could. "You saved a life, Jay. That's not a mistake. You did the right thing, and I'm proud of you for thinking fast enough to save Deputy Director Hill. She's a good woman." He had worried when he saw the two men reach for their guns, worried that he wasn't going to be able to pull Jay back fast enough while trying to do what he could to save the Deputy Director. James expected another mess to clean up and was pleasantly surprised to not have one.

"Everyone is staring at me though." Awkward uncomfortableness caused Jay to squirm in his seat some. The seidr whispers around him told him that people weren't upset at him, but the staring was still embarrassing.

"We're proud of you." Frey could actually hear the pride in Odin's seidr whispers as the two of them looked over at their grandson and knew that the pride in his own seidr whispers could probably be heard.

The awkward uncomfortable expression on Jay's face elicited sympathy from Sean. It seemed that Jay was much more confident hiding behind the mask of Jarvis than he was being himself. Since he was going to be spending time with the boy when he was spending time with Frey, he decided to try to work with Jay like he'd worked with the children of his clan. Practicing confidence helped to bolster actual confidence, and he could help Jay with that.

Running a hand over the back of Jay's head, Odin agreed. "Very proud. You saved a life this day that surely would have been lost had you not acted. We have good cause to be proud of you." In the middle of him speaking Director Fury came back into the workshop.

"It isn't just one life that he saved." Making a beeline straight for Jay, the Director went and knelt down next to Jay as the boy turned to look at him. "Kravinoff and Rumlow have begun giving confessions and providing proof. They told Deputy Director Hill that they were taking advantage of the chaos of dry docking the hellicarrier fleet and evacuating it to do what they planned on doing anyway in a few hours. It was going to be a coordinated attack that would have downed a quarter of my department heads, and a couple of their families. Some of these people have young kids." The Director gave Jay a very serious look. "All those lives, Jay, you saved them all because you chose to save my Deputy Director instead of turning away." Making sure that he had Jay's gaze and not just his attention, he spoke. "Thank you. For saving my people, for saving their families, for exposing these traitors," he held up the memory cube from his pocket, "for giving me the means to make my people safer against things like this. Thank you." SHIELD owes you for this.

"I'm happy that I could help so many people." The red in his face lessened some as he thought about all of the people that Director Fury mentioned.

Pocketing the memory cube and standing, the Director smiled. "Like I said, if you want to do good in the world, SHIELD is a solid place to get it done."

A proud smile crossed James lips. His nephew did very well and deserved something nice for what he'd done. Summoning a bundling paper wrapped package, he set it down in front of Jay's plate and unwrapped it. A small plate with a domed lid was in the bundling paper. His smile deepened when he saw Jay's eyes widen in surprise and anticipation.

"Is that...?" Jay could feel his mouth watering already.

"You did well. You earned another piece, but," James pointed to the mostly full plate, "you still need to eat your dinner first."

"I will!" Jay still didn't look up to what was in the center of the room, but he had a happier look on his face than he would have otherwise. Though he looked forward to the taste of the chocolate-mint torte, it was the small taste of justice that he truly enjoyed. From what he'd seen in SHIELD files, Hydra was a vicious terrorist organization. He was pleased with himself to have been able to help stop them. He clutched the marble in his hand a little tighter and held it close as he worked on his dinner.

Odin noticed the distinct difference in gratitude between Jay and James from Director Fury. His gratitude towards James was measured and diplomatic at the same time. With Jay, his gratitude was honest and open. It told the elder King what the Director of SHIELD valued more. It was a valuation that Odin agreed with.

A pleased smile stayed on James' face as he went to get the next set of drawers to catalogue and empty.

"So you mentioned a cost/benefit analysis..." The Director was still very curious about that.

"Oh, yes! The analysis!" Jay took another bite, swallowed it then turned to smile at the Director. "I conducted the analysis in February of this year."

So it's still usable. "How many people were included in the analysis?"

"Everyone." Jay took another bite of his chicken, then a drink of his iced tea to wash it down.

Like a shot fired Director Fury's eyebrows snapped up. "Stark had you do a cost/benefit analysis on all of SHIELD?!" Why would he want that?!

Looking down at his plate again, Jay held the marble even tighter and close to his chest as he decided to just come clean. "No, father didn't ask me for it, but I think that was the problem; father didn't ask me to do anything. There were no new projects in February. By noon of February first I was so bored. I had finished all of my chores; receiving was tidied and cleaned, the cars were washed and waxed, the house was cleaned and secured, the Iron Legon and Iron Flight were all repaired and ready to use, monthly orders were placed and were being monitored, all of the simulations were complete and there were no new ones to tackle. It was all done." A sigh slipped out of his mouth. "There was nothing else to do, so I started playing with some of the data I found in the surveillance footage. Then I started adding data about people, instead of just programs or the organization itself, then I added some more people for more data, and some more. By the end of February fifth I decided to stop adding people to the analysis by ones and twos, so I added everyone employed by SHIELD. No more people to add after that. I spent the rest of the month playing with the data and observing people in SHIELD to supplement what I already had." Looking up at the old spy, Jay could see the surprise on his face. "It was some of the most soothing data processing I've ever done."

That was as starling a statement as Jay saying he'd done a cost/benefit analysis on his whole organization. "Data processing is soothing to you?" That opened up even more paths for Jay to come up through SHIELD.

"Very soothing. When you're stuck in a wall, being able to escape, even if it's just mentally, is wonderful. Focusing my attention on SHIELD's efficiently helped me to get through the dry spell that was February."

"And you looked at research programs too?" He should have been angry that this boy so easily ferreted out his organization's secrets. All he could think was that this boy may very well have done him a huge favor by doing what he did.

"Research programs, training regimens, educational courses, whatever I could get a hold of, really." He was glad that Director Fury wasn't angry that he'd so closely examined SHIELD. He took his last bite of broccoli and washed it down with some more tea.

"You finished all of that in a month?" The Director knew he should be disbelieving of what he was being told, but once again he thought of what Jay was capable of. Instead he was very curious to see how in depth the boy's work was and what he was rating SHIELD by. "How many pages is your report?"

"I know I could have finished it in half that time if I had to, but I was having so much fun playing with the data. I ended up creating a report that's tens of thousands of pages long. One double-sided page per employee, a twenty page report for things like educational courses and departments and however many pages were appropriate for research programs. Everyone and everything that SHIELD considers 'high value' was marked as such." A larger smile touched Jay's face. "I really enjoyed color coding things. I may have color coded a little too much, but it was like painting, only with data. I even did a silly report on the agents."

Fuck, a free cost/benefit of the whole organization. It's a child's determinations, how on point it is? Even if I have to have a committee go over the data, if the data is there then they can still do their own analysis. "What do you mean 'silly'?"

"I did a report based on zodiac signs. It details their interpersonal success rates, negative vs positive habits I found, conflict resolution skills, things like that. I even came up with artwork to symbolize each of the signs. That was the most fun."

Painting with data, artwork was the most fun. Sean wondered if art therapy might help Jay to develop his sense of self-worth and some stability in that self-worth. Flaring out his seidr to Frey, he put forth his idea, Art therapy might be a good way to encourage confidence in Jay. It's something I can work with him on if I'm on Vanaheim when he visits.

I like that idea, Frey flared his seidr in return, stroking it over the skin of his young lover.

Ranking people based on their zodiac signs held no real interest to the Director. However, a report on his agents' success rates, skills, and habits held a great deal of interest to him. It might help him pick out future trouble agents, or future successes. "Is that report in with the other one? Are both of them on the memory cube now?"

"The cost/benefit report is in your memory cube, but I didn't think you'd want a silly report."

"I'm up for some silliness. Can I have that report too?"

"Alright." Impelling his seidr from his core, Jay wrote it into a Learning Spell which gathered his memories of his silly report into it. The Director was holding up his memory cube again, so Jay reached over to touch it with one finger. Just as he was about to touch the cube, his brows furrowed. There was something else he needed to give to Director Fury, so he impelled more seidr from his core to write into another Learning Spell. It gathered his memories of what belonged to SHIELD then he reached over to touch the memory cube. It glowed a pale white-blue as the data transferred over. When it was done he called back his seidr into his core. "With the silly report I included a report on all of the reports that I changed, the ways that I silenced people and diverted information and attention away from us. It's all your information. You should have it back."

"Thank you, Jay. I really appreciate that." Pocketing the cube again, Director Fury was genuinely curious about the 'silliness' of the report. He wanted to open up the memory cube and start going over the vast amount of data that was on it. The information about the altered reports would come first though. That was essential information that he needed to help rebuild SHIELD. Director Fury hoped the reports were as useful as he thought they would be. There was still more to see, and James looked to have finished packing up the red memory sticks. It pleased him to see the pouch he packed them in labeled 'For Destruction'.

From his unfolded seidr James mounted a Learning Spell that he touched all of the blue memory sticks with. He absorbed all of the data from them then pulled out his phone from his pocket and mounted another Learning Spell. The second Learning Spell let him download the new memories of his nieces and nephews onto his phone and disseminate them to the three monarchs phones. The phone went back into his pocket, and he looked at the Kings, "I disseminated those pictures and videos of the children to your phones, so that you have them." Picking up another two pieces of foam packing material to make a pouch out of, James made another pouch and began transferring the blue memory sticks into it.

Oh, I have some as well! Frey summoned his phone from his interdimensional pocket, as Odin did the same. Each received a large download of pictures and videos. Odin was greatly tempted to simply absorb the pictures and recordings right then and there. He waited, however, because he wanted to view them with Frigga. Flaring his seidr to her, he let her know, I'll wait to view the pictures and recordings until you can.

Frigga flared her seidr in return excitedly, Thank you, beloved!

"Thank you for these, James, we greatly appreciate them." Odin knew that there had to be so many wonderful things for him to see of his grandchildren. This was another wonderful gift.

"Yes, thank you. These are wonderful." Frey flipped through a few of the pictures of his grandchildren. The one of Edana and Adara in a tub full of bubbles was precious. James was moving again; more things were coming out of the vault that he had to pay attention to the feeling of the arc reactor from one of the items. His phone was dismissed back into his interdimensional pocket to be savored later.

The next batch of drawers came out of the vault and were set down on the folding table. Most of it was useless odds and ends that only held sentimental value. They were packed up quickly into the plastic box.

Another strange little machine had come out of the vault, and Director Fury wondered what it was, so he pointed to it and asked, "What's that?" then leaned in a little closer to get a view of it. The Kings were paying attention to it, so he was curious now.

He held up the small supercomputer so that Director Fury could look at it, knowing that the Director would want it. "This is a small quantum computing device that's built with the pieces I showed you earlier, as well as a micro arc reactor. It's equivalent to the memory cube, but made with Midgardian components, most of which were 3D printed. It also has an operating system based on what the memory cube uses."

"Does Stark plan on mass producing those?" This was something that Director Fury needed to actively pursue. It needed to be in the hands of his agents when they were out on missions, or himself every day.

"Not yet, the cost of a single one of these is still prohibitively high for an average electronics consumer."

"How much is 'prohibitive'?" I have a hundred and nine billion dollar budget this year from the World Security Council. How much do you want for those?

"Twenty thousand a piece, and a hundred and fifty thousand for the 3D printer, if they're made with non-conjured pieces. The rare earth minerals and metals and the complexity of the printer are what drives the price up. With conjured pieces you'd only be paying for the time and skill of the person conjuring the parts."

"Could we discuss Stark Industries supplying those to SHIELD at a future date?" Twenty thousand was high, but not out of the Director's reach.

"We can discuss it when we're discussing the other bits of business." The device was wrapped in a few rectangles of foam packing material before it was placed in the plastic box as well. All of the empty drawers were placed in the metal coffin for DUM-E.

"Alright." Acquisitive longing filled Director Fury for a moment as he looked at the small computing device before he pushed it out of his mind. He was very patient, he could wait. The next item that came out of a drawer looked like an orange clockwork ball that was the size of a baseball. "What's that? A child's toy?"

"This?" James held up the device. "This is no toy. This is a weapon." Turning to Frigga he moved to quickly reassure her. "This weapon is disabled, there's no danger from it." She nodded once to him.

"What does the weapon do?" Odin worried over how many weapons Stark possessed, and how close they were to his family.

"It floats, is camouflaged, and runs off of a micro arc reactor so it has multiple uses. It produces soundwaves that debilitate and cause a loss of consciousness in most cases, as well as producing strong strobing lights that cause headaches and a loss of mobility. It's meant to subdue combatants without permanent harm to them." James wrapped up the disabled device and placed it in the plastic box. The rest of the empty drawers in the table went into the coffin.

That caught Director Fury's attention again. "It's a stealth reusable flashbang." Those we could use as well. "I'd like to discuss those with Stark as well. Under limited circumstances we would be able to use them. They sound like they could save lives on both sides."

"They'll need a control panel and UI, since they're basically like hand grenades right now, but those shouldn't be difficult to do. I'm not sure that Anthony wants to get back into weapon making commercially, but if he doesn't want to handle it then I'm sure that I could. They're simple enough to put together." James wrapped it up as well and placed it in the plastic box. A pleased little smile touched his lips when he saw Jay finish the last of his dinner while looking longingly at the chocolate-mint torte. He turned and went to the vault, pulling more drawers out and setting them on the table.

Only two drawers in that batch of drawers had anything of interest to Director Fury. The first drawer was filled with small white metal marbles with a tiny cable coming out of the side of them. On the flattened top of the marbles was a bluebird blue plate with a small, white, metal, open triangle in the middle of it. They looked like arc reactors to the Director, and small enough to be called 'micro' too. "Are those the micro arc reactors?"

Taking four foam pads and using his unfolded seidr to bond the edges together, James created a larger pouch to pour the small arc reactor marbles into. "Yes, this is the micro version of the arc reactor." He took one of the arc reactors and pressed the top of it. It came on in an instant, making everyone who had a seidr core aware that it was there by pushing at their cores. He pressed the top again and it powered down. All the arc reactors went into the pouch which went into the plastic box.

Odin flared his seidr to Frey, A gleipnir, smaller than a man's hand. I never thought such a thing was possible.

Anthony and James truly are Master Craftsman, we should properly introduce them to the our Master Builders, brother, amusement tinged Frey's thoughts and then his seidr, I suppose that there are several people we should introduce them to.

A little amused smile touched Odin's lips as he flared his seidr in return, You make a good point, brother.

"He made those for the computing devices, and weapons? And they make synthetic seidr too?" Whatever they were made for the Director could think of several things that they could be used for.

"They do create synthetic seidr, but he made them to make smoothies with." James let that statement just sit there, letting everyone process it for a moment.

Pointing out to the hallway, the Director looked over to the door then back to James. "There's a blender in that kitchen that runs on synthetic seidr, isn't there?"

"A toaster, and an air fryer too, also a mobile for the side of the crib." There was no other reason than its sheer absurdity for James to object to his younger brother putting the arc reactor in the kitchen, so it ended up there.

The All-Speak translated 'smoothie' as a 'milk and fruit drink', which confused Odin. He didn't think that could be right. "Stark uses a Great Work to make drinks?" That seemed more than a little ridiculous to him.

"It's not so surprising," Frey answered, "Anthony is enamored with machines and all they can do."

"That enamored?" It felt sacrilegious to Odin to use a marvelous Great Work for something so mundane.

"Truly." Frey didn't care for machines more than his position as King required, but it made Loki happy to see what new machines Anthony invented, so he didn't mind them. He just wished that Loki had shared this marvel sooner. He still planned on having a word or two with her about that.

The second drawer which drew Director Fury's attention held a small device he'd seen before. "That's the seidr scanner."

Both Kings attention followed where the Director was looking to and they saw the small Great Work. This was the Great Work that caught Loki when the Asgardian Prince was going about his business stealthily during the invasion. This was the Great Work that helped to save Loki's life when his twice fractured seidr core had all but guaranteed his death. This was the Great Work which first revealed Anthony's true brilliance to them. This was a very important Great Work to Odin and Frey.

To Director Fury it was a tool with a specific use, but a tool that seemed powerful in its use. "It can actually detect magic? How does it do that?"

James took the scanner and showed the little screen to the Director. He turned and scanned the vault. The reading worried him, but the worry didn't cross his face. The seidr in the vault had the same reading as Anthony. He turned and showed the reading to Director Fury, holding the device with his thumb over the number 5 that was next to the reading that denoted it having taken that reading before. James kept his soul song of stillness, with hopeful notes added, playing smoothly. No one was going to suspect a thing. "It's a modified spectrometer. It measures how the light spectrum interacts with the seidr spectrum, with each seidr producing a slightly different reading." James wrapped it in foam and packed it away as well. Unfortunately, seidr and light weren't the only things it could detect. He had to be very careful with it and who got a hold of it. He's going to want these too.

"Can those be mass produced?"

"Absolutely. They require vibranium, but that's not a problem for us." What they could find was the problem, one he was going to have to hurry and find a solution to. Maybe I could produce them with a blind spot. That might cover it, until they discover it. Dammit. The cat was out of the bag now about the scanners, which meant that his time was running out. The drawers' contents were catalogued in his mini laptop and then the drawers were laid to rest in the coffin. The last three drawers in the vault came out and were set on the table for their contents to be catalogued as well.

"What are those?" What was in the thumb drive interested the Director, as well as the suspiciously green bottles of power. The strange shirt that looked metal while moving like cloth piqued the most amount of his curiosity though.

The long sleeve, gun metal grey shirt came out of the drawer first. "This is a micromechanical strand shirt," a proud grin spread across James' face because his younger did rather well with this invention, "This is bullet, knife, and blast proof. It spreads the kinetic force of a blow over the entire piece of armor by stiffening and letting off steam. This transfers kinetic energy into thermal energy directed away from the shirt." It was folded neatly and placed in the plastic box.

"Ok, we definitely want to talk to Stark about supplying SHIELD with those." He wanted one to test, to see if it was as good as it sounded. It would save so many of his people's lives if they could get something like that.

James didn't mind what he was about to do. He couldn't give any of his brother's things from this room away, but he could give his own things away. From his interdimensional pocket he summoned his own version of the micromechanical strand shirt. "I can't give you Anthony's shirt, as it has to be catalogued and sent away, but I can give you my own shirt to test. It has an Enchantment of Sizes Charm on it, so it'll fit the wearer. You can play around with it some, see what you think of it." James handed over the shirt to Director Fury whose eye were still a little wide.

"Thank you!" Director Fury folded the shirt neatly and put it in one of his larger pockets.

The small thumb drive came next. "In this are designs for a larger power converter that turns thermal energy into electric power efficiently. What makes this special is that it can be used in a city to soak up heat from the ground and air then churn out power for that same city." James turned his proud grin towards Director Fury. "Anthony is planning on building the first one later in this year in New York, as a test run."

Once again the Director's eyebrows shot up. "Does it really work?" This sounded like a game changer in the climate crisis. It was something that he certainly hoped would work.

"On paper and in simulations, yes. That's why we need a test run, so we can work out the kinks." This was something else that James knew the Director would be interested in before he mentioned it.

The last two things that he pulled out were two bottles of green powder. James' proud smile turned down into a disapproving frown. This was something else that shouldn't have been used.

That's an unpleasant look, Director Fury thought it quietly before asking about it. "What's the powder for?"

"Is that the same green as the medicines made from the fern, brother?" Looking at the powder up close made the green coloration of it suspicious to Odin.

"I believe it is, brother. I also believe that I've seen it somewhere before." Frey looked to James from the clear glass bottles of powder with metal lids. "What does Anthony use this powder for?"

James' gaze landed on the cool bottles and cold lids. "This is an experimental medical powder that is made of cornstarch, oatmeal powder, aloe, vitamins A and D, and a healthy dose of lavender oil to cover the scent of the last of the polypodium caedes fern powder." He looked up to Frey then. "He used it as a baby powder when changing Edward's diapers. He only stopped using it when you supplied him with a better ointment for diaper rash."

"He used a poisonous plant on a baby? On his own baby?!" That was a step to far for Director Fury.

"Anthony couldn't stand Edward being in pain from the diaper rash. He thought that since it worked on Loki to relieve pain that it would work on Edward too." Anthony loved all of his children. James knew that love went to ridiculous lengths.

A disappointed little sigh came from Frey. This wasn't something to be used on a baby. "He hasn't used this since they first came to visit me?" The first visit, when Loki came back to him, was when he started to understand how dedicated a father Anthony was. He remembered changing Edward's diaper and being displeased by the diaper rash that the boy had. He prepared a healing ointment right then and showed Anthony how to use it. He remembered being surprised as how intently Anthony was paying attention, like he truly wanted to learn. It impressed Frey.

Shaking his head in the negative, James' answered. "Anthony feels that what you provide is better, so no, he hasn't used it since then."

Knowing that he had already resolved this problem pleased Frey. It was handled, unlike so many other things.

His opinion yesterday that Stark didn't know how to not use something returned to Odin. He too was sensitive to his children's pain; it was why he spent so much time in the healing rooms when Loki was younger. Loki was unwell and he wanted to be at his child's side. This wasn't something that he would have used or considered using. Any medicine that was powerful enough to assist in combatting Void Sickness wasn't something to use on a babe, and not so liberally. When he started working with his son-by-law he was going to have to give careful lessons on not using things.

The bottle of powder went into the plastic box with everything else. Sean knew that he needed to give the same gift to Doc Fischer, the clan's doctor, that he gave to Frey, Odin, and Director Fury. Their doctor was old but still quite capable. He would be able to make good progress with the chemicals and medicines that Lord Stark used on Prince Loki when he was sick. Despite so much aid that was going to be pouring into the clan he still felt that this gift would be welcomed.

"There we go, all done." The last of the drawers and spaces they came out of were labeled and the drawers were placed into the coffin for DUM-E, so James moved back towards the vault and began looking for the first plate that he wanted to remove. The main portion of the vault needed to go into the coffin now.

What Jay wanted was to keep nibbling on his chocolate-mint torte. Dealing with DUM-E's remains wasn't a part of that, but there was still something that was in the vault that needed to come out. "Uncle Rhodey, it's not done yet." His uncle looked at him with a little frustration in his face. "If the workshop door is six o'clock, then you want the bottom drawer at three o'clock. On the bottom side of the space, under the drawer bottom, in the middle is a button. It opens the drawer above that one."

A frustrated sigh swept out of James' mouth as he went and found the right empty drawer space. Kneeling down, he felt around on the cold metal until he found the button, where he pressed it. A quiet hiss came from the vault as a small drawer popped out of the metal side where there didn't appear to be anything. Pulling it open revealed what his younger brother was hiding from him. Inside the drawer was a prism ball cut seidr diamond that was 50mm in diameter and comprised of orange seidr, Anthony's seidr. As it sat in the palm of his hand James touched at it with his own unfolded seidr and could only feel a single amplifying rune at its heart. His attention snapped back to his nephew. "Jay, this kind of casting orb is made for extraordinary casting. What is he doing with this that he needs to hide it?"

The little fork in his hand felt pushed at his chocolate-mint torte. "He didn't mean to hide it, he just kept forgetting about it. Father put it in that drawer so that he could show it to you, then he forgot about it."

What his nephew was telling him soothed James' nerves. It wasn't the first time that Anthony had forgotten something important. After all, he did forget an alien spaceship that was essentially in his backyard for an entire year. "Alright, he wasn't hiding it. What was he doing with it?"

"Father didn't tell me much. He just said that it was going to be the heart of a new engine."

"With one rune? He's more likely to blow himself up than to power anything with that." Shaking his head he walked over to the plastic box and wrapped up the casting orb and placed it with everything else. "Is there anything else you know of, Jay?"

"No, that's it." He took another bite of his torte, savoring the flavors and textures.

While Jay was finishing up his food James went back to the vault and extended his seidr gently into it. He found the welded joints between the metal panels and broke those joints so that he could remove the panels and stack them in the coffin. The first three panels were ready to be detached so he removed them with his seidr. What tumbled out caused him to swiftly wrap his seidr around Jay's eyes and ears.

"Uncle Rhodey?" Jay stopped with his fork halfway to his mouth, waiting. Suddenly being unable to see or hear was unnerving.

"Dammit." Sheer disgust coursed through James, but he looked down at the mess at his feet anyway.

"Another weapon?" The look on James' face wasn't very soothing to Director Fury, and he couldn't see around the bulk of the vault to whatever was causing that look.

"No." Everything looked like it was there to James, so he knelt down next to it. The mess of wires, servomechanisms, hydraulic system parts, circuit boards, and various other components were all covered in an oily black liquid that had spilled out onto the floor with the parts. "These are DUM-E's original internal parts along with his hydraulic fluid."

This machine was alive. "These are DUM-E's innards and blood?" Out of his peripheral vision Odin saw Frey putting his hand over his mouth again. He thought that Frey was probably glad as he was that James acted so quickly to keep Jay from seeing this gruesome discovery.

His voice was quiet as he looked over the parts that once made up a friend of his. "Yes, they are." Using his seidr James picked up the dripping mess to pull it the rest of the way out of the vault. The hydraulic fluid was gathered up in his seidr to rest with the parts. A little tinkling noise came from the vault as a strange bottle dropped out after the wiry heap. Picking it up, he instantly recognized that it wasn't one of DUM-E's parts. Out of his unfolded seidr James mounted another Conjuration Spell which released around DUM-E's parts to create a clear plastic, airtight pouch which padded the parts from further harm. The plastic pouch was placed gently into the coffin and out of sight. Then he used his seidr to disassemble the rest of the vault and put those pieces in the coffin as well. The lid slid into place and locked. Once the rest of DUM-E's body was out of sight James removed his seidr from Jay's head.

"Did father hide something else?" Jay finished his bite of chocolate-mint torte which he had been holding in mid-air. When his Uncle Rhodey blocked his sight and hearing he froze in place to avoid getting into trouble. Now he wanted to finish it.

"No," James sighed miserably and went over to stand next to his nephew, setting the bottle down on the table, "You don't need to worry about the vault anymore. I see that you're having a hard time looking at DUM-E like this, but it's ok now." He ran his hand over the back of Jay's head, bent over, and gave his nephew a kiss on the top of the head. "It's all taken care of, and I'll speak with your father about making the final arrangements for DUM-E."

There was no more chocolate-mint torte. There was no more vault. With no excuse for not looking up Jay looked at the empty center section of the room, then over to the coffin which was closed now. Only a strange bottle was left behind. "Goodbye DUM-E." Jay's little whisper was pained but calmer. His gaze fell on the bottle sitting near his plate. "What's that?"

Something odd, Sean thought it quickly as Jay asked. The bottle was glowing in white seidr and runes from Lady Loki that he was almost certain were for making a glersalddys. They were for helping a soul to rest comfortably in its confines. He couldn't hear or see a soul in it though, so he focused on its white seidr. More carmine and orange flames swirled around it, showing him only that Lord Stark was concealing this item as well. It has no soul in it, what are you hiding?

"Let's find out." James mounted a Learning Spell from his still unfolded seidr and released it into the deep blue bottle that turned out to be no bottle at all. The bulbous, rounded bottom of the bottle was a memory cube the likes of which he hadn't seen before. It was more like a brain than a machine. It was exquisite to James. The fluted top half of the bottle was glass and covered in runes from Loki that he didn't know. The runes were calling to him, telling him that he could rest there safely. That wasn't going to happen, so he continued to probe with his Learning Spell. There was nothing in the bottle, but what he found in the memory cube when he interfaced with its programming instead of its hardware shocked him to his core.

A look of wonderment came over him as joy sang through him, and his soul song of stillness changed to the soul song of blessings. It swirled around him, picking up on his happiness then burst like a bubble as he withdrew from the memory cube. The resulting blast pushed everyone in the room a foot back from him. Its burning happiness swept over the entirety of the property leaving everyone feeling happier and understanding that the happiness had come from him. A few seconds later James was able to get control of his emotions and reign them in. His gaze went to the bottle/memory cube, then darted over to the coffin, then back to the bottle/memory cube. A happy grin spread across his lips. This was something he could work with.

The three monarchs in the room weren't sure what had happened, but they couldn't deny that they were happy. It was a happiness that wasn't theirs though and they understood that keenly. It should have alarmed them that James was able to so forcefully project his emotions, but they weren't. They were calm, happy, and a little excited for something good. What was most unusual for them was what they knew it was James who'd given them these emotions. While all of them wondered how James accomplished this without using any seidr, none of them were willing to give up the feelings.

Hirdmen Vilulf tried to worry more about the man guiding his Lord, his Princess, and the Lord he was guarding through the house. These was no worry left in his mind to reach for though. He didn't think that an ordinary mage could do something like that, so he was left questioning. What are you?

"Uncle Rhodey, what's in the bottle?" Jay was still surprised by the blunt force happiness that his uncle unleashed. He hadn't ever felt that before.

Looking down at Jay, James smiled broadly. "The past and the future, Little Hawk, and hope in between them." He went back around to the coffin and plastic box, picking them up with his seidr and setting the plastic box on the coffin as he carried them. The last spell he mounted from his unfolded seidr was another Janni's Portal Weave. It released in his hand and was directed towards an empty section of the room by a snap. The portal to Vanaheim opened quickly. Turning, James looked at Odin. "I have to take this back to Anthony to see what he can make out of it. Would you be willing to watch Jay while I'm gone?"

It stunned Odin to be entrusted with his grandson already. It caused his response to be slower than he should have been. "Yes! I'll make sure he stays safe."

"Thank you, I appreciate that." James's smile was bright as he looked at Jay. He extended his soul song of blessings to his nephew and stamped his white seidr with it. "I'll only be gone for a little while. Stay with your grandfather," he pointed a finger at his nephew and spoke seriously, "and be good while I'm gone." With that he entered the portal. It closed swiftly behind him.

"At least it wasn't a weapon." Jay was certain of his conclusion, so much so that when Director Fury looked at him with a quirked eyebrow he smiled. "He never smiles like that when he and father are working on weapons."

Nodding a few times, the Director could accept that. "Alright, " he nodded once more, "but if it isn't a weapon, what is it?"

Outside The Bounds Of Time

Vanaheim Royal Palace Guest Chambers

A flash of fuchsia light behind him caught Anthony's attention. Anticipation hunched him down on his seat at the workbench. He was behind schedule, and he knew it. For all the longing he had to see his family again, which finishing these infrastructure projects would let him do, he was still having trouble finishing them. They were just so boring. It was hard to keep focused on what he was doing. Anthony wanted something more challenging to work on.

"Anthony, are you done with that project yet?" James set the coffin down on the floor, switched his soul song back to the soul song of stillness, and then brought the plastic box over to set it down on the floor next to his younger brother's makeshift workbench.

Tame curiosity plucked at Lady Sjofn's mind. She could hear the joy singing through James' seidr. It wasn't an emotion she had heard from him yet. Normally she heard the calm song singing in his soul, like he was singing currently. The joy in his seidr was louder than that for the moment. The Lady wondered why or if it had something to do with the bottle in his hand that resembled a glersalddys. A living body, sjel-seidr or some type of glersalddys were the only things she knew of that could hold a soul. That looked like one, was runed like one, but she couldn't feel the soul in it as James entered the room. Oddly enough, as he moved closer to Anthony then she began to feel a soul stirring. In an even odder turn, she wasn't sure if the soul she was feeling was Anthony or not.

"Ah, no. I just need a little more time." A little grimace crossed the bored engineer's face.

So much overwhelming happiness poured through James that he didn't care that his brother wasn't done with his assignment yet. He mounted a Learning Spell from his unfolded seidr and touched the computer that Anthony was working at to absorb the entire project. He maintained the spell in his mind as he corrected the mistakes and finished the project based on what his younger brother had already done. After that he used the Learning Spell to deposit the finished designs back into the computer. For the first time in a while he stowed his seidr back into his core. James set the bottle on the back of the workbench, against the wall. He didn't want it broken.

Pulling Anthony up, James pushed him towards where Lady Sjofn tended to open the portal for them. "Lady Sjofn, would you please open a portal for us to go to Vindrvelsignet on Vanaheim, in the morning of the 23rd of May 2023, to the first of the gleipnirs in the city? We need to get some work done."

Not even a second later she had the portal opened for them, so James pushed at Anthony even more. He unfolded his seidr to mount another Learning Spell, drew in his memories of the completed designs and he released the Learning Spell into his younger brother to show him what they were doing. As the information was sinking into Anthony's mind he dragged his younger brother along towards and through the portal into the room housing one of Vindrvelsignet's city gleipnirs.

23May2023 – Morning

The First Royal Gleipnir Chamber of Vindrvelsignet

The large, white room had a very sterile feel about it. Large power cables with bright glowing runes branded across them ran to and fro through the room, all headed towards the house sized, runed box in the center of the room. The feel of seidr was strong in the room. It also had a security detail that was instantly approaching them with the spears out, but not raised.

The brilliant flash of fuchsia seidr as the portal opened unsettled Hersir Berntsen, and the drengr of formadri with him. Three people stepped through the portal, and one of them he was certain was a Norn. He held his guardsmens' spear out to be ready for the two men she brought with her but kept it down so as to not offend the timeless warrior before him. Bowing respectfully, the Royal Gleipnir Security Officer kept his tone even as he spoke. "Lady Norn, you honor us with your presence. I am Hersir Berntsen, I lead this security drengr. What may we do for you this morning?"

"You will give these men respect and clear the way for their work." Lady Sjofn motioned to James and Anthony.

The scroll allowing them to work with Vanaheim's infrastructure was summoned from James' interdimensional pocket. He handed it over to the man leading the security detail. "This is our permission to be here." He didn't bother to introduce himself as it was handed over. The security detail didn't need to know their names, just that they could be there.

The rolled up scroll that Hersir Berntsen was handed unrolled easily for him. He was shocked to find that it was indeed permission to be there for the group in front of him to be there. Even more shocking than that was that the scroll was signed personally by his King, Lord Frey. The hersir handed the scroll back to the half-dvergar looking man who'd handed it to him. "Will you be visiting any other gleipnirs today? Would you'd like me to inform them of your visit so that you might be given proper entrance?"

"We'll be visiting all ten gleipnirs in Vindrvelsignet today. Please inform them of our visit, we'll be portaling in, and ask them to stay out of our way while we work. I don't want there to be any accidents." James wasn't worried about getting entrance into the facilities where the gleipnirs were housed, he just didn't want people getting antsy with weapons around Anthony. The hersir bowed respectfully then hesitated, so he asked, "Is there a problem?" then waited.

"So long as we stay out of your work, would it be possible for us to stay in the room, as this is our assigned duty." Hersir Berntsen needed to try to protect those under his command He just hoped that he wasn't going to offend the Norn that he was standing in the room with. Her heavy gaze was on him, and her eerie, pink rimmed eyes were watching him unblinking. He hadn't gotten to be a hersir by being unnerved easily, but this woman had such an unnatural air about her. Her seidr whispers didn't betray any annoyance with him, but he couldn't be certain of that. He could feel her overbearing seidr but couldn't feel a distinct seidr core in her chest. Being right in front of Hersir Berntsen, she was inscrutable, indefinite, and in command.

Looking over the four men and two woman that comprised the drengr, James could understand the hersir's desire to protect them from the consequences of actions that were beyond their paygrade. "So long as your drengr can keep quiet about takes place in here, then that's fine. I have no desire to get you and your drengr into trouble for leaving your post."

Hersir Berntsen appreciated that this man understood his concern right away. Bowing respectfully again, he was grateful. "Thank you, sir. I'll relay your message to the other hersiri." He turned and motioned for his drengr to move to the door. The Norns favor us this day. Praise be for that. Flaring his seidr to Formadr Peerson in his drengr in a lengthy flare, I'll stay to monitor this. Go and contact the other hersiri guarding the Royal Gleipnirs. Inform them that the Lord has sent these men to do work on the Royal Gleipnirs, and that they're in the company of a Norn. Be swift. Hersir Berntsen heard Formadr Peerson turn and exit the room. He hoped she would be swift enough.

"It's ugly."

His younger brother's blunt statement cut into James' thoughts. He turned around to find that Anthony had his hand on the gleipnir and was beginning to extend his seidr into it to explore what they were working with. "It's a gleipnir."

"It's a box; an inelegant, unartful box with unattractive lines scrawled on the inside. It's ugly. I don't like it. It needs to go." Anthony felt around the inside of the gleipnir, pushing the seidr on the inside of around so that he could feel at the runes inscribed there. They were simple runes with inefficient straight lines everywhere. It felt childish and undereducated to him. The understanding that he was only there to fix the converters that turned the seidr into power for the city to use still sat like a quietly croaking toad in his mind. It felt and sounded unpleasant to him now, despite him having accepted it previously.

"Ok, but we're not here for that. We're here for the converters." It was too late; James saw the look of determination on his younger brother's face that told him of changes to come. "Anthony?"

Closing his eyes, Anthony designed a new large gleipnir in his mind. His seidr flickered out of his seidr core to forge into a Learning Spell that drew his memories of the new design into his spell. He created a pearl of seidr out of the spell in his hand then opened his eyes and held it up for his older brother to take.

The design that James found when he took the pearl and absorbed its knowledge was skillful, smooth, and flowing. It was much like the seidr it was made to contain. There were only a few issues that James had with it that he corrected in his mind as he perused the design. "It's a beautiful design. What do you want to do with it?"

"I want to replace this ugly box and its inefficient converters with the new design, then I can fill it." He set his hand back on the gleipnir. "How old is this thing? How many tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of years old is this ugly thing? It's time for an upgrade."

A proud but cautious smile spread across James' face. "If we upgrade the gleipnirs in Vindrvelsignet we'll have to replace them just the same in Asgard. Can you do that?"

Coming face to face again with the fact that he was going to be working in Asgard made Anthony uncomfortable. The insidious discomfort took little bites out of his thoughts until he was drawn back to the video footage of Odin in a conference room at SHIELD. The older King was trying to put Frey through a wall while screaming "Why?!" after he thought that Loki had been skinned alive. The grief and pain in the Lord's face was louder than the growl and bite in his voice. It was the same sort of pain that Anthony felt as he slowly pieced together what had happened. It still hurt to know that the two of them hurt together as they found out what had befallen Loki, for the Asgardian Prince/Princess was beloved to both of them. The next footage that played in his mind was a scene of Odin looking down with love and determination to his wife, Frigga. No amount of work was too much for Odin to keep her in his life. It was the same love and determination that Anthony felt when he looked at Loki. Everything he had done was horrible beyond measure, beyond words even, and he would do it all again just to keep Loki. The last scene that always played when he thought about Odin was the footage of the tears that streamed down the King's face when he watched footage of Loki saying that he'd done it all for his father because he loved his father and always would. The pain for Odin was knowing that he'd abandoned such staunch love. It was a pain that Anthony could see and understand how that pain was the hallmark of a great love, Odin's love for his children. It was a love that Anthony only knew after he left a Stark's lair and found his way to the Rhodes' home.

Understanding these things helped to quell Anthony's prodigious rage at Odin, for Odin allowing Loki to be so abused for so long. Odin hadn't meant for the abuse to happen and was distressed to know that it had. The aggrieved engineer could see that in the older King's expression, in his demeanor in the footage of the SHIELD meeting. He didn't know how long it took for his older brother to get him to watch the footage and analyze it, then think about what he'd seen. Years perhaps, he could never tell. Now he couldn't stop thinking about it, about Odin and the undesirable comparisons between him and the Asgardian King that were there to be made. They weren't comparisons that he wanted to think about again, they only led him to being more angry with himself. So he decided that he wasn't going to think about them. All he needed to know was that Loki would be happy if he upgraded what Asgard had. If I upgrade Asgard's equipment then Loki might be willing to forgive me for the rose quartz generator, and the nimp. Looking back up to his brother, he smiled a forced and fake smile. "I can do it. Let's get to work."

"Replacing the current gleipnir will take precise control, so I'll do that. You go converter by converter and replace them. Then you can fill the gleipnir. Ok?"

This sounded like a problem waiting to happen to Lady Sjofn. Filling a gleipnir took most of a mage's seidr. James and Anthony had extraordinary amounts of seidr, but they were still probably going to be filling multiple gleipnirs that day. She could certainly take them back to their room in the Royal Palace and let them wait until their cores filled again. She ventured a guess that Anthony wasn't going to want to wait though. When he decided that he wanted to do something, 'now' was always when he wanted to do it. This was something she could assist him with. Her voice was quiet as she spoke. "James, an Invigorating Rune might be of use to you. The rune moves an empty seidr core through time whence it fills again. It inflicts no harm and lasts a full day outside of the Grand Temple. Would this please you to have?"

Surprise raised James' eyebrows. That sounded like just what they needed. "Yes, that sounds amazing. Could both Anthony and I have one, please?"

A command to her sjel-seidr turned it into two Invigorating Runes that she branded onto the chests of both the men she came with. The runes were visible to her and only her. "It is done, you each have an Invigorating Rune for the next day."

A light bow came with James' gratitude. "Thank you, Lady Sjofn. Your assistance is always appreciated." She returned his bow, and he went about his work. "Anthony get to the converters. Only the converters, understood? You can fill the gleipnir when I'm done."

A cheeky grin and a mock salute came before Anthony moved on to the first converter near him. His seidr flickered out and extended into the large converter so that he could feel around it and gain a better understanding of it. It didn't take long for him to understand what the machinery in front of him was doing, so he shut off the flow of seidr from the gleipnir through the converter. He gripped the converter with his seidr and carefully disconnected it from the power line to remove it from its place, setting it on the floor. From his interdimensional pocket he began summoning the new power converters. Carefully and cautiously, Anthony fit the new converter into the place of the old one. Connecting it went smoothly so he returned the flow of power through it. The power flowed through it more efficiently than through the old one. It made Anthony smile to see it before he dismissed the old converter to his interdimensional pocket and moved on to the next one.

Grinning and shaking his head at his brother as he went over to the first converter, James was pleased to see Anthony beginning to move past his anger. It took a few years, but it was worth it. Placing both his hands on the flat side of the gleipnir and unfolding his seidr let him extend his seidr into the runed box to feel around it. What his brother was mentioning about it being inelegant made sense to James. This was rather crude by his standards, but it was undeniably effective. Pushing at the seidr inside it let him see how the angled runes were holding the seidr in the metal box. They were over-empowered. The seidr felt stale to him somehow while at the same time it felt like it wanted to move. The seidr itself wasn't being taken care of, it was only being contained before being consumed. Anthony is right, this needs to be upgraded. From his unfolded seidr James mounted a Conjuration Spell and a Learning Spell that drew in his memories of the new design for the gleipnir. His seidr extended further into the gleipnir along with his soul song of stillness to contain the seidr in a ball in the center while he went about getting a new gleipnir for it. His seidr sunk deeper into the metal to an atomic level where he gripped the metal. The sharp angled runes on the inside had his seidr sink into them to break them down. As soon as the runes were broken the seidr attempted to escape the grip of his soul song of stillness. It went nowhere, struggling against the song and failing to move it at all.

James released his Conjuration Spell and Learning Spell towards the atoms of the gleipnir. He began to replace the gleipnir, moving slowly and carefully rearranging its atoms into a different configuration and supplying new atoms from his seidr as he needed them. A brilliant garnet ring of seidr holding the spells appeared at the base of the metal box. A smooth, white, metal cylinder that was curved in at the bottom began to take the place of the flat metal box as James guided the spells. Four pale blue, reinforced glass panels grew at the cardinal points in the white metal from the bottom going upwards to the top of the cylinder. The top of the cylinder formed when the bright garnet ring sculpted it out of the last of the flat box, pulling inward until there was nothing left of the cube. Only a smooth cylinder was left behind. On the inside of the closed cylindrical container he used his seidr to inscribe and empower the swirling tracks for the seidr to run along and the flowing runes that contained the seidr inscribed in the thick walls. With the tracks run he used the last of his Conjuration Spell to conjure a flat ring in the center of the cylinder. Three struts that formed with the ring, to hold it in place, fused to the tracks on the interior wall. Flowing runes were engraved along the ring and the struts, then empowered. Smaller, flat rings were conjured to float in the center of the first ring. They were runed and empowered before they started spinning horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. The second ring spun faster than the first ring but not as fast as the center ring. On the outside of the cylinder the last of the runes that he needed, the ones that would allow a mage to channel their seidr into the gleipnir, were inscribed in a square around his hands. They created the mechano-magical runed interface to allow the channeling process to begin automatically. He evened out his hands so that they were side by side then used his seidr to inscribe a line around each of his hands. The mages channeling the seidr would put their hands there to activate the channeling runes. It was all taken care of now. Since the gleipnir was complete James released the seidr in the center. It exploded out into the new gleipnir. After just a second the seidr began to move along the swirling tracks. The seidr gained speed with every lap around the inside of the gleipnir until it was singing with force. The four glass panels glowed a bright azure blue. He withdrew his seidr from the gleipnir only to find that Anthony was standing behind him. The member of the drengr who left earlier came back through the door to stand with the rest of her drengr.

A new gleipnir, and so quickly. The speed and surety of the work impressed Lady Sjofn. The seidr in the gleipnir felt stronger to her. It was curious, like the seidr just gained momentum somehow. How strange. It feels more pleasing to my sjel-seidr than the original one.

It was only because of Lord Frey's authorizing these men to be where they were and to do what they did that Hersir Berntsen wasn't outright unsettled by what he was seeing. Without that authorization he would be looking at his own death and the death of his drengr. If they failed to protect the Royal Gleipnir from harm then they would be charged with treason against the Crown of Vanaheim and summarily executed. The Royal Gleipnirs were too valuable to fail to protect them.

"Did you finish up with the converters already?" James looked around and saw that the converters were switched out for the new ones, with the old ones missing.

A wide grin was spread across Anthony's face. "They're all done."

"Then come and fill the gleipnir. It's waiting for you."

The new gleipnir made Anthony smile to see it. It was his design but his brother's precision. He went and placed his hands in the outlines of his older brother's hands. He extended the orange bones of his wings. From either side of his back three orange Lines of Power arcked out to waver in the air. They moved together, perfectly synchronized. Occasional bursts of fiery feathers gleamed in between and over the Lines of Power. The wings of a firehawk shimmered beautifully on him. They extended out fully as the channeling runes in the mechano-magical interface activated and the drawing process began. Anthony focused his seidr through the runes to travel to the inside of the gleipnir. The surface of the gleipnir heated quickly,

Through their link James reached in and reeled in Anthony's raging seidr so that he didn't melt the new gleipnir and explode the seidr inside of it. Through the link he mounted an Ascending Circle of Strength in his younger brother's seidr while simultaneously mounting a Descending Circle of Strength in his own seidr. The Ascending Circle of Strength opened on Anthony's shoulder. The Descending Circle of Strength opened on the palm of James' hand. He put his hand on his younger brother's shoulder to align the circles and give him refined control of his brother's seidr through the circles. "Let's not burn it down." Switching to the soul song of blessings let him better control the forceful push that was coming from his younger brother's seidr. He swirled his soul song around Anthony's hands to blunt the force while allowing the increased flow. Thirty minutes later the gleipnir wasn't full yet but Anthony's seidr core was nearly empty. The Invigorating Rune activated to fill his core completely so that he could continue the channeling. Another half hour and a another seidr core refill later the newly formed gleipnir was filled completely. It was going to last for a very long time, tens of thousands of years probably. James could feel its fullness through his younger brother's seidr.

Finally, Anthony was able to begin pulling his seidr back, causing the channeling runes to deactivate. After that he felt James close both of the circles of strength and feed his seidr back into his core. He took his hands from the metal and smiled to see the orange imprint of his hands inside the now glowing garnet outline of his brother's hands, on the side of the white gleipnir. They'll know it was us.

Moving over to the security drengr, James bowed addressed Hersir Berntsen politely. "We're done here. We'll be heading to the next gleipnir now. Thank you for your cooperation."

"Is there anything else we may do for you before you leave, sir?" The hersir was nervous about their work and glad to see them go. He still wasn't going to be rude to them though, not when the pink-ringed eyes of the Norn were still gazing heavily at him.

"No, Hersir Berntsen. You and your drengr did everything I needed you to, and I'll mention that to Lord Frey when I speak with him again. Thank you."

The hersir puffed up a little at the thought of he and his drengr being mentioned positively to the Lord of Vanaheim himself. "Thank you, sir."

James bowed again to the hersir then went back to Lady Sjofn. Anthony was already standing next to her. "Good Lady, if you could please create a portal for us to the second gleipnir in the city, just a minute after they were informed of our arrival?"

"Yes." Again, Lady Sjofn commanded her sjel-seidr to open a portal to a specific moment in time. Again, the three of them stepped through the portal to find a security drengr waiting for them. Again, the drengr stood aside to allow James and Anthony to begin their work. The second gleipnir followed the same path as the first one; the converters were changed out while the new gleipnir was created and filled, then they moved on again. Gleipnir to gleipnir, it all followed the same set of actions. James and Anthony were only there to do certain things and they did those things very well and very swiftly. How well they worked together, and the quality of their work impressed Lady Sjofn again. The cheesecake made her glad to be a part of their work, but their work itself made her proud to be a part of it before that.

Bowing once more, James thanked the last hersir of the last gleipnir of the ten gleipnirs in the city. "Hersir Evensen, I'll mention to Lord Frey that you made it easier to accomplish our tasks. Thank you, hersir."

The hersir bowed in return to the man who came bearing his Lord's will. "You're very welcome, sir."

Turning and going back to Lady Sjofn he asked for the same thing that he'd asked for several times that day. "Lady Sjofn, could you please open a portal back to the room in the palace for us?"

"Yes." Commanding her sjel-seidr to open a portal back to the room out of time, she held it open for James and Anthony to step through then she followed them through it.

Outside The Bounds Of Time

Vanaheim Royal Palace Guest Chambers

As James had dragged Anthony through the portal, he all but dragged his brother back to the makeshift workbench, snatching up the runed memory cube bottle. He ignored the protests and shoved it into his younger brother's hands. "Use the Learning Spell on it," he spoke before Anthony could protest again, "Go on."

With anyone else he would have asked what it was before he engaged with it. It was his older brother asking him however, so he let his seidr flicker out of his core and forged a Learning Spell out of it. The spell released to cover the bottle. Probing at the bottle showed him runes he'd never seen before. It was interesting that Loki put the runes there, he recognized her work instantly. The top of the bottle was empty while the bottom of it was something like a combination of a brain and a memory cube. It was beautiful, perfect even. This was some of his wife's best work. He was going to have to compliment her on it. Anthony was curious now, after knowing who crafted this mechanical gem, and he used the Learning Spell to interface with the programming in it. The interface between him and it opened, freezing him in place. His chest squeezed tight, and tears welled up from his wide eyes to trickle down his face. Anthony held the bottle close to his chest and curled around it. He dragged in a few sobbing breaths.

A gentle smile split James' lips as he pulled his brother into a tight hug. "It's time to do what you always wanted to."