Note: Expect all the normal Harry Potter stuff in this (Child Abuse, Murder, Torture, Parricide, Mind Control, Love Potions (possibility for Extremely Dubious Consent, Implied Rape/Non-Con, etc.). Additional trigger warnings in notes at the start of chapter.
Not really any major character bashing (Odin excluded, but he's honestly terrible enough in Canon that it's not really bashing).
Please inform me of any grammar/spelling mistakes that I miss in editing.
Crossposted on Ao3 and Wattpad. Ao3 tends to get chapters earlier and is slightly more polished.
Reviews/Favorites are appreciated.
The Norns weave stories with the threads of fate, telling tales with the fabric of the universe.
The story starts with a King.
The story starts with a good King, who is a bad man. He believes himself to be a good man, a fair man. He is powerful, this King, born with the seiðr of the Realm Eternal flowing through his veins and taught by the greatest warriors of his father Bor. He tricks, he schemes, he fights, he steals, and gathers gold. He forges the realm of Asgard into a mighty power, greatest of the Nine. He believes he is superior due to his power, and that he is always right, never wrong. He schemes and watches and waits, and prepares for war, to conquer the Nine Realms and force them into a mighty Empire under his banner.
The Norns weave and weave and weave.
Then he has a daughter, born to an Aesir royal from a night of passion, and he names her Hela Odinsdottir. Her mother dies soon after her birth, and there is no one to question his raising of her.
She is the Goddess of Death, and her potential for power is even greater than his. She is beautiful too, striking dark raven hair and eyes as green as the purest emerald. Yet Odin looks upon her and sees, above all else, a perfect weapon to conquer the Nine.
He enlists the greatest of his Sorcerers and Warriors to train her in the arts of seiðr and battle, and her powers grow rapidly. She is revered and feared by the court for her power and godhood, and her name spreads across the Nine. The most powerful Mage, the fiercest Warrior, and the wisest Scholar the Realms have seen since the All-Father himself was born.
The realms hear tales of her prowess, and they fear.
Then Odin goes to war, with her as his executioner, leader of the Valkyries, general of the armies of Asgard alongside Tyr. The realms fear her, and over the next two millennia one by one they fall before the might of Asgard. The last is Vanaheim, who surrenders and gives up their princess in hopes to be spared from the All-Father's wrath, and Odin has a new Queen who hates him.
The Norns weave and weave and weave.
This story has been told an uncountable number of times in an infinite number of universes. At the surface, it appears the same.
Yet the Hela in this universe is a bit kinder, a bit less bloodthirsty, and loyal beyond belief to those that are hers (Odin is not, never will be). She fights, and enjoys the fight, yet in her heart she despises war and the losses it brings.
In most universes, Hela leads the Valkyrie, yet they are loyal first and foremost to the All-Father, the King of Asgard.
In this universe, they go behind the back of Odin to swear their loyalty and bind their souls to the crown princess.
Forevermore.
It is among the last of the battles of Vanaheim when Odin duels one of the greatest of the Vanir's mages, a revered seer. He falls, like many before him, yet as the All-Father thrusts his blade into his enemy's heart, the Vanir's eyes glow with seiðr, and he sees through the threads of fate woven by the Norns.
And as he dies he smiles and whispers a prophecy to the All-Father, tells him that someday he shall die like many before him.
At his daughter's blade.
For the first time in millennia, the All-Father knows fear.
The Norns weave and weave and weave.
Several centuries later, war with Jotunheim breaks out once more and Hela fights again. She is reluctant, yet none see it but her loyal Valkyrie. She cannot let Asgard see its Warrior Princess falter. She fights viciously and ruthlessly, determined to end the conflict and restore peace to the Nine. She fights for her newly-born brother Thor, son of Frigga and Odin, who she watches come into the universe with thunder in his heart and lightning in his veins. He will not grow up in War as she did, she vows to herself.
Odin watches, mistakes her ruthlessness for bloodthirstiness, and his fear grows. His precious weapon has gotten too sharp, he thinks.
Yet, for all his flaws, he cannot bring himself to kill his daughter. So he plans and schemes, researching ancient spells of banishment and containment.
The Norns weave and weave and weave.
He forms a plan, to banish his daughter to be trapped in a prison in Helheim, realm of the dead, and to erase the memory of her from the Nine, so that none shall know of the sin he has committed. He places the Tesseract at the base of Gungnir, and prepares.
For the banishing spell to succeed however, his daughter shall have to be distracted. And this is where Odin makes his mistake.
Perhaps if he sent the Einherjar, his plan would have succeeded. Yet he knows of his daughter's power, and fears that they will not be enough, that she will butcher the armies of Asgard beyond repair.
So he goes to the Valkyrie, and orders them to attack their leader.
In another universe, where the Valkyrie are loyal to the King of Asgard beyond all else, perhaps his plan succeeds.
That is not this universe.
The Valkyrie form ranks, and Odin realises his mistake too late as Brunnhilde whispers a single word.
Forevermore.
The Norns weave and weave and weave.
The Valkyrie are many, yet the All-Father is mighty in power, and they cannot hope to defeat him alone.
Then Hela comes, alerted from sensing her Valkyrie passing through the gates of Valhalla, and upon seeing Odin slaughter her shield-sisters her rage sends ripples across the battlefield as she lands and begins to fight, protecting her soldiers with her seiðr and sending volleys of spikes at her father.
Even with his daughter having joined the fray, the Odinforce grants him strength, and his bond with Asgard is greater than hers, and the Valkyrie fall one by one, Hela growing more furious with each that hits the ground, till only a few remain.
Then Odin thrusts Gungnir towards Brunnhilde's chest, and the Nine Realms stand still for a moment as Hela leaps in front of her commander to take the spear.
Skuld cuts the thread.
She drops to the ground, and the battlefield stands still for another moment before the remaining Valkyrie charge at Odin, their need for vengeance fueling their tired bodies.
Odin waves his hand, drawing upon the power of the Tesseract, and they are scattered throughout the universe.
He weeps at his daughter's corpse.
Then he draws upon the Odinforce, and in his shame casts the spell to erase her memory from the Nine Realms, so that none may know of his mistakes.
Yet her blood covers the Tesseract, and Infinity judges her soul and finds it worthy.
Power and Reality push Mind and Soul through Space and Time.
The Norns watch, as a millennium later, the Goddess of Death is reborn on Midgard as a raven-haired infant with emerald eyes.
They begin a new tapestry, and they weave and weave and weave.