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Chapter Text

They thought I did not see. Even now, many times many think I do not see. They should know better than that, Odin mused.

There had been a great many trials of sufficient difficulty set upon Odin over the course of his quite very long life. And now, in what he doubted to be the twilight of his life, the Allfather had a very simple policy: Admit when challenged or asked; offer nothing freely, not even to my sons.

Sometimes that was easier than other times. Sometimes even he felt the desire to speak on a matter with someone... but the moment would pass, and something important and threatening would arise to his attention, or there would be a thing calling away the one he wished to speak to.

And then there had been the matter which had nearly destroyed everything; and even so, rippled through the rest of ensuing history...

The Vault, Asgard:

“You must be truly desperate if you have come seeking my help,” Loki said as Thor approached, not looking up from the confines of his captivity.

“To the contrary, brother, I come with an offer of my help.”

Loki looked at him. Did nothing more.

“Would you comply if I convinced our father to release you?”

“And for what reason would either of you do that?”

“Your children are my kin, Loki. I believe the three of you, aided by my Avenger friends and I, could truly free them.”

Having prepared himself to dismiss any suggestion, Loki cast that plan aside. Not that he needed to think it over: “There are a great many hatchets, Thor, between me and she and she. Fewer between I and your newest friends, though they will be prickly.”

Thor grinned. “Leave that to me.”

“Then, when it begins, I will be ready,” Loki said, though the dismal part of his mind did voice the thought that this was all to have him ready and waiting…for a moment which would never arrive.

A nod from Thor. “This shall work,” he said.

~
Location: the sparring yard, Hymir’s estate, Vanaheim:

Having been escorted through the estate’s main building to the rear yard, Thor watched what was unfolding before his eyes: Sif was in mock-battle against her grandmother, whose hair was as shining gold as Sif’s own had once been. Before her involvement with Loki, Thor knew.

“Hold,” said the grandmother. “Your prince is your guest, grandchild. I give you leave,” and walked away.

Planting her sparring spear in the ground, Sif came over to where Thor stood, the escorter likewise having left. “What brings you this far?” Sif asked Thor.

“Would you prefer we confer while sparring?” he asked.

“Ask, and I will answer,” Sif said.

“I am mounting a rescue mission. But to accomplish it, I must first prove that Loki is not a danger.”

You are seeking my cooperation where he is concerned. Had I been trying for cooperation with Loki, I would not have defied him and fought alongside you against the Destroyer. “Do not ask this of me, Thor,” Sif asked him, the depths of her eyes reinforcing her request.

“If I can bring peace to those I treasure, am I not obligated to try and do so? Am I not sworn to defend as much of the cosmos as I can?”

Her lips thinned when she heard that. “Loki used a similar argument in rebuttal to my claim that childbearing was not something for him. He, however, stated it in terms of my ability to fight in battle and to uphold my oaths.”

Thor lowered his head, recognizing that that argument would not move or sway her. However, that was not all he had in his arsenal. “Sif. In coming here, I ask not that you and Loki return to what you were before.”

“Then speak more clearly, o future king of Asgard,” Sif suggested.

“I ask for you to help us – yes, even help Loki – rescue the children from their fates.”

Sif exhaled, clearly considering.

“If not for Loki or myself or any others, do it for Sigyn.”

Sif narrowed her eyes at Thor, That you would invoke my blood oath, my prince, speaks to your need. “I will join you. But you will not approach Sigyn - I shall speak to her about this.”

Thor nodded. “Very well,” he said, more than a little relieved.

As he was leaving, Thor was pulled aside by Sif’s grandmother who told him, “She has been here since Asgard’s celebration of your return, noble Thor. She has been unrelenting in her quest for self-improvement and re-sharpening her skills. We all took it as an offense, an insult, that you did not take her into battle on Midgard.”

“I went alone at the Allfather’s command.”

She looked at him. “And you have never defied the Allfather, have you?” and left him to stew in that as she pushed him towards the door.

~~~
Location: SHIELD HQ:

After listening to the suggestion put forth by Thor (who had simply walked out of one of the maintenance closets that accessed the ventilation ducts of the carrier, two women traveling with him)…

“And why should we agree to this?” Nick Fury asked from behind his desk, not even bothering to stand up…and not just because it would have been pointless when faced with Asgardians. “Answer me that.”

Thor tilted his head enough to see the Ladies Gerfion and Sif out the corner of one eye.

“This is a politeness,” Gerfion said, “a gesture accorded to a friend of Thor, Prince of Asgard.”

Thor said, “I would prefer the cooperation of my friends the Avengers and of SHIELD. But a withholding of support will not change what we shall do.”

“Ant. Boot,” Fury said, finding humor in that. “Say I agree to this, Thor. What do we get, besides Loki in our hair?”

Sif watched for Thor’s reaction, remembering when her prince had lost it.

“My brother’s wisdom. His aid in your defense. An increase in your accomplishment.”

That last one was accompanied by a look reminding Fury of Thor’s remarks about Earth being ready for other forms of war. “Why would Loki help us? What’s changed?”

“You are no longer his priority,” Thor said. You were never his priority before; but I know the counterproductiveness of saying so.

“And what are?”

Thor knew many words to describe the priority. But he said nothing more than “His children.”

“Children?” Fury repeated.

“Succeed, good Fury, and Loki will not be the only one in personal debt to you.”

“While if we fail…”

Thor looked baffled.

Gerfion said, “There may yet be a debt, as it depends entirely upon how hard you try to succeed. Should your efforts be lackluster and paltry, that may engender rage. Should your efforts be good and vigorous, that may engender appreciation at the least.”

“This is so,” Thor informed Director Fury.

~~~
Location: Avenger Tower:

“Now, before we talk any more about the wedding, we’ve got to go over the bachelor party,” Tony said. “I was thinking, and tell me if this is too far…costumes.”

“Costumes?” Thor asked.

“Yeah. Definitely themed. Goddesses. Hathor, Epona, Kami, Bastet, the whole kitten kaboodle.”

Making a mental note to deal with that fiasco later, Thor said “Jane and I were discussing our upcoming nuptuals, when she mentioned the renewal of vows she was witness to for a friend of hers. As she said it improved the character of both bride and groom, I believe the principle could be of benefit to Loki.”

Tony half raised his hand. “Not to be a party pooper, Thor, but in order to get re-married, he’d have to have been already married.”

“He is,” Thor said.

“Since when?”

“Twenty-five hundred years ago.”

Aliens, Tony reminded himself. Aliens. “And you’d like my -”

“Assistance in locating them a fine new home.”

“Can I ask – why me?”

“I count you as a friend,” Thor said. “Do you count me among your friends?”

“You know it.”

Thor grinned. “Then Loki’s recovery is a concern for you as well as it is for me.”

“Not sure we’re using the same ‘concern’ here.”

“If you refuse this, I will be left to turn for aid to the current lord of the land Loki and I adventured upon as boys,” Thor said, hoping this idea of Jane’s and Darcy’s worked - if they believe it will sway him, I shall do it.

“I’m sure Norway will be thrilled your bro’s coming back.”

“Latveria may enjoy the permitted access to the Asgardian technology Loki and his family bring.”

You’re evil, you know that? “Family?” Tony repeated. Of all the chinks in my armor you could aim for…

“Family,” Thor confirmed.

“Not just Loki and his left hand?”

Thor just looked at him.

“Okay, okay, I’ll help.”

“Thank you,” Thor said. The others are mistaken; while I have no difficulty in saying ‘thank you’ as oft as my new friends’ culture requires, I still find it unsettling that it need be enunciated in words.

“Eh,” Tony said, waving that off. “So, who’s the lucky lady?”

Thor frowned.

“Who is Loki’s wife? The woman we’re setting up a home for.”

Jarvis asked, “Is it Angrboda?”

“She is,” Thor said. “She is Angrboda, the Bringer of Sorrows; and War, the planning and rage; and Hymir’s kin, student of eight hundred; and Thor’s friend, comrade; and Meili’s confidant, friend, Shieldmaiden; and Shieldbearer; and Einherjar’s ally.”

“That’s a lot of people,” Tony said.

“That is one person,” Thor said. “She is also called Sif.” I will address the matter of Sigyn once my friends have come to peace with the idea of tolerating Loki on their planet again.

“And she’s…and Sif’s okay with sharing a roof with Loki again?”

“I would not have spoken to you about it, had Sif not already agreed to partake of this venture. And surely you will gain much from this yourself.”

“I…what? I’m not -”

“I am aware you do this for friendship, Stark,” Thor said. “I speak not of that, nor meant to impugn it. I mean that, in working to defeat a thing which has frustrated even the remaining smiths of Asgard, you will fashion new tools.”

So even if we don’t achieve your long-term goal, I still come out of it with nifty gadgets. And if we do, I’m ready for whatever shit comes our way. Kinda explains that comment about Lateveria.

~
That Evening, at the Tower:

“I don’t know which I’m less surprised at,” Clint said after Thor had laid out his idea for the rest of the Avengers. “That your brother’s wife hates him, or that you think it would take a team of superheroes to keep them from killing each other.”

“They would not seek one another’s death,” Thor said. “Had they wished for that, your myths would never have mentioned them.”

“Why not?” Bruce asked. “I mean -”

“Because your race learned the tales from my brother, myself, and our friends.”

Bruce wasn’t the only one who did a mental facepalm; he was just the only one who did a physical one.

“I believe the Avengers would be able to help rescue my kin,” Thor said.

“Narvi and Ullr?”

Tempted though he was to finish the list, Thor simply said “Yes.”

“Who are holding them?” Natasha asked.

“A most foul Thing had been what held them. Now they are bound, and that leaves them unfree.”

“Bound to what?” Clint asked.

“Glepnir and dropnir,” Tony said. “Alien tech, from all Thor could tell me.”

“Not ropes?”

“What would you call them?” Thor asked.

“Um, Thor, if you’re where we got the stories from, then aren’t you at all worried about what’ll happen when those kids get loose?” Steve asked.

“Some details were altered.”

“Just how big of a detail, just so we know.”

“Sif’s hair,” Thor said. “Also, the cave.”

“So Loki wasn’t actually locked up?” Bruce asked.

“On Asgard, caves are sites for marriage.” As he watched his friends digest this, “I leave the decision in your hands, as to if you assist us or not,” Thor said. “Though I ask you consider a salient fact about Loki.”

“That he’s nuts?” Tony asked.

Pepper whispered gently in his ear, “Cough-weaponsmanufacturerswhodon’tmakeweapons-cough.”

“Touché.”

Before Clint could offer his thoughts as to what Loki’s ‘fact’ was, Natasha asked, “What’s the fact?”

“My brother rarely lies,” Thor said.

“True; that we’ve seen,” she said, remembering her little chat with Loki aboard the SHIELD carrier. “He threatened and dropped hints, but he didn’t lie.”

“He tried to kill us,” Steve said.

“In battle, I have done my utmost to vanquish those who moved against me,” Thor said. “Is the same not true of yourself?”

“And after wars, enemies can become allies,” Pepper said.

Natasha nodded.

As did Clint; “Who knows, maybe some of the guys the Captain punched, went on to help America get to the Moon.”

“Is that a vote for or against Loki?” Bruce asked.

In lieu of answering that, Clint asked Thor, “What exactly happens if your brother doesn’t behave himself?”

You underestimate his desire to un-leash his children, Thor knew. “Should that occur, he will be imprisoned until a million years following the extinction of humans.” The Allmother was quite specific on that point.

Tony wasn’t the only one who reminded themselves: aliens.

~~
Several Days Later:
in the lobby of Avenger Tower:

“Why am I here?” Loki asked, Thor having walked him in. “Would the terms of agreement not be more suitable for your friends, if I had my own roof?”

Before Thor could reply, Tony did, walking up to them, the other Avengers positioned through the room; Tony said, “Yeah, uh, no. Much as we’d all love to kick you out in the rain, we don’t trust you enough to let you have your own place. Basically if you're going to be on Earth, we want you under our nose, right where we can see you - not a word about mixed metaphors. And, seeing as how I’ve got all the property out of everyone on the team, you’re going to be living in my casa.”

Loki shrugged, “It is a small castle.”

“And it’s mine. I’ve already got rooms set aside for you and your wife,” Tony said.

And at that, Loki paused. “Wife?”

“Yep. Relax, Thor already told us about you, that you’ve got a wife and kids and used to be downright domestic.”

“It is true that I enjoyed a large measure of contentment when my family was together and…” Loki turned his head to look at Thor. “Wife?”

“I…simplified,” Thor said.

“So it seems.”

“Asgardians are polygamous?” Natasha asked.

“That wasn’t what he simplified,” Loki said.

“You’ve got a husband?”

“My wife has a sister.”

“Yeah, we’ve got a different word for that.”

“Is it the correct one?” Sif asked, walking into the room from another doorway. “Or is it another err where my name is concerned?”

“This is not the time nor place,” Thor asked nicely.

Sif nodded, acceeding. “Loki.”

“Sif,” Loki said.

“Thor entangled you in this as well.”

“Having assured me of the involvement of the both of you.”

“Yes. Speaking of that…Thor?” Sif asked.

“Yes, Sif?” Thor asked.

“I require the use of an Avenger.”

“You may ask them for a volunteer.”

“Volunteer for what?” Steve asked.

“There is a friend whom I must bring here,” Sif told him. “Would you assist me in bringing her here?”

“Sure, if you think I can help.”

Sif grabbed Steve by the back of his neck, and hurled herself and him into the nearest wall – or would have, had they not vanished when contact was about to be made with the wall.

While the Avengers were either staring at the wall, touching the wall, or looking like they were about to ask Thor a question, Loki said “As I told you when we were children, Thor, there is a reason why most worlds consider Valkyries to be insane.” Still, that said, I’m surprised myself – I thought a move like that was known only to the upper echelons of Valhalla’s women.

~

Location: just inside Valhalla:

“Where…where are we?” Steve asked, the smell of blood and of spilled organs an old friend Steve’s nose did not enjoy re-meeting.

“Look around,” Sif said. “Do not your tales speak of this place?”

After glancing up at a rafters made entirely of shields, Steve wasn’t sure he wanted to look at what the rest of the place was composed of. “No. Sorry.”

“Welcome to Valhalla!” a grizzled warrior shouted, clapping Steve on the shoulder. “Come, join a team, we’re not quite done yet.”

“Done what?”

Frowning, “How did you die?” the warrior asked Steve.

“I didn’t.”

At that, the warrior backed away from Steve, wearing a look like Steve had just confessed to being Dracula or the Red Skull.

Before the two of them could be thrown out for scaring the humans, Sif shouted out “I am Sif, Shieldmaiden of Meili, oath-sister of Sigyn. I have come to speak with her.”

Sigyn stepped through the crowd. “Who has sent you, that you mention the duty we once had performed?” Sigyn asked her.

“Thor has asked that we help his friends, you and I,” Sif said. “He feels that, united, we can liberate our children.”

Unimpressed, “A Vanir, an Etin, and a Valkyrie could not. What miraculous ally has our prince befriended?”

“Humans. Such as this one,” she added before Sigyn could dismiss her at the word ‘humans.’

Looking at Steve, Sigyn felt with her senses, and thought This is not a human. To Sif, she said “I will tell my mother that the time is come, and I will join you.”

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A week had passed in full, and a few days besides, My patience is not infinite, Loki knew. But then, they know if I lash out in any way, any deal of Thor’s is moot, and they win. And they say it was needed to be sure I did not simply lie so they would risk themselves to even try to free the children.

“Any progress, Tony?” Steve asked.

“I can slice a dropnir cord in half, if I use a concentrated blast from my arc reactor,” Tony said. “Still got no idea how Sigyn’s making them out of thin air – going to need higher resolution video cameras on hand.”

Her name is Incantation Fetters. Which part of that was unclear? Sif wondered.

“Romanova, any luck on the tunnels?”

“I’m starting to see why that method of going between worlds is only used by Asgardians who either plow, dig, or work with trees – it’s a matter of getting your head around it,” Natasha said. “I'm following the lessons, though I’m not as quick a study as Clint.”

Clint said, “It’s a matter of knowing how to keep your balance on a highwire. And that’s actually not as much of a metaphor or analogy as you’d assume when you’re needing those skills underground.”

“Think we should call in Parker?” Tony asked. Couldn’t hurt to have a spider-man around at a time like this, right?

“I’ll agree to that, right after you admit you need von Doom’s help with the tech,” Clint said.

“Oh please, like being hit with a glowy space cloud could help him understand it any better.”

“I told you,” Jane said.

Clint said, “For those of us who walked onto a subway and stepped out of a cloud yesterday, what happened at the meeting?”

“Doc Foster here,” Tony said, “did a little chest-puffing about how this proves Asgardian superiority.”

Jane frowned at him. “I said nothing of the sort. I said that our level of progress, in trying to get a handle on their technology, just proves the old saying.”

“Tomato, tomatoe.”

“Which old saying?” Clint asked.

“That if you gave a pocketwatch to, say, Imhotep or Hypatia, they could figure out how it works, they could learn how it functions and make their own,” Jane said. “But if you gave a pocketwatch to a chimpanzee, there wouldn’t be any learning.”

“Pocketwatches can be pretty nasty weapons…just don’t take them apart first.”

“Point of it was,” Tony said, “that was something from the Golden Age of science fiction, talking about the difference between aliens we can be friends with, and those we can’t ever understand.”

Loki chuckled. “I vow not to be offended if you say ‘Gods.’”

Sif and Sigyn and Thor smiled.

“We’ve only had a week,” Tony reminded them. “Bearing that in mind, we’re doing pretty well learning your tech.”

“Again,” Loki said. Thor tried something like this before. And how does it get remembered? As a change of custody stemming from a boy eating a chariot goat, and Loki sighed.

Misunderstanding, Bruce said, “We aren’t entirely SHIELD here. This will work better.”

Thor hoped he wasn’t wrong.

~~
A few hours later…

Everyone else is either in bed, sleeping, working, or… And here I am, on the cusp of the Tower’s kitchen, not doing anything. Jane stood perfectly still, slightly frustrated at the illogicality of her fear that if she moved or said anything, it would startle Sif who was pouring a third quart of milk into the small drinking cup…And not spilling anything. Folded spacetime, like I speculated about the Doctor on tv and Loki in real life?

Sif looked up as the last bit of milk fell from the quart, and Jane felt a measure of comfort that light didn’t reflect from or shine out from those eyes.

“Sif?” Jane asked. “Lady Sif?”

“’Lady’ is my title,” Sif said. “I have a rank, as well, but only the Einherjar use it.”

“Then…what should I call you?”

Sif looked at Jane, and Jane tried not to feel very small and fragile. “If naught else, you may call me Sif. As you are Thor’s friend, I would hope you call me ‘friend’ as well. If you wish to curse me, call me ‘Shieldmaiden.’” For it is there that I failed.

“I like meeting new friends,” Jane said. “Um, dare I ask whose coffee cup that is?” seeing in Sif’s hands a mug that read ‘I  {heart}  JANE’. Please don’t be Loki’s, please don’t be Loki’s.

“Thor’s.”

“Oh. I see.”

Heading that line of thought off at the pass, Sif said “Don’t be silly. This is a different drinking vessel.”

Oh good.

“Utgardaloki took the other with him to his grave…and he was assuredly dead by the time Odin had been king for a century.”

“Huh.”

Sif looked at her, and Jane tried not to feel like her soul was being weighed. “You did not come here to ask me about our ease with sharing utensils among friends. Thor would insist there be no secrets between us; ask what you will.”

“How many ways are there to travel from one world to another?” Jane asked.

I am assuredly not the best person to ask that of, Sif knew. “How many can you name?” in case you know all the ones I do.

“Well, there are rockets – chemical and nuclear. There’s the Bifrost. There’s what Loki and Gerfion and you do.”

“The Valkyries gave me an elementary instruction in their more common mode of inter-Realm travel. I do not understand it well enough to explain its workings, friend Jane,” Sif said, placing a small apology in there.

Jane nodded. “I know how to use a television, but I couldn’t repair one,” she offered as an analogy. On the other hand, I’ve probably built radio telescopes out of spare parts more times than I’d care to think about. “And Loki and Gerfion?”

“Gerfion is Vanir; she is a student of my race’s more arcane magics. Loki is Aesir, and uses his race’s magic.”

“Soo…different methods?”

“Different methods,” Sif confirmed.

“Hmm,” Jane said, thinking. “Can I ask you a question about Loki?”

“Yes, I loved him.”

“Um, actually, that wasn’t at all what I was going to ask.”

“Yes, he has a brother,” Sif said.

Jane turned bright red. “I, uh, I know.” Just my luck, that Asgard already has that figure of speech. “How did you know that Loki was…you know. The One.”

“One?”

Aand now I get to explain True Love to Thor’s best friend. Maybe I should just watch Hallmark Channel with her. That would explain it, right? Jane took a breath. “The other half of your soul, the person you’re destined to be together forever with, whom you can’t live without.”

Sif stared at Jane, pupils contracted.

“What?” Jane asked.

By rights, I should ask her how she would feel, if Thor made her soul into a withered-crone and tattered thing. But she still cares for Thor, and I for Loki in my way, so I shall not. Forcing herself to calm down and just breathe, Sif said “You are asking how I knew Loki would be a good father for any children I might potentially have had?”

“Sure,” sure, let’s go with that.

“I learned his capabilities over the centuries,” Sif said, “befriended his way of thinking, and, what was the final weave in the loom – I had a dream.”

“A good dream?”

“I thought so, yes. Sigyn was less enthused when we discussed it.”

“So she and Loki aren’t -”

“They are married. Their cave marriage sealed a diplomatic alliance between Asgard and Valhalla, rendering what was a pact of friendship into something more permanent for the two ‘gards.”

“They’re two Realms, or planets or…?” Jane asked.

“Valhalla is located in Asgard,” Sif said. “But only Valkyries and the fallen may enter Valhalla; that was not mangled in the successive retellings.”

“Okay, that’s all I – ‘retellings’?”

Simplifying things, "Loki tended to speak at length about Asgard and those who lived there," Sif said. Though he could certainly mix fact and history and name-calling...

“Then it’s all his fau- ‘for the two guards’?”

“’Gard,” Sif repeated. “Etins such as Jarnsaxa, they pronounce it ‘garth. Midgarth. Asgarth. A Realm, a world, a cave, a corral, a cage – the word means all of those.”

“A curious variety,” Jane said.

“No. Not in the lightest. It is where Thor and the others have gone – to a place which he has only spoken of as ‘The Safest ‘Gard in the Realms.’ You have naught to fear from Jarnsaxa.”

“Thanks. I appreciate that.”

“She will only worship you.”

“Not so appreciative.”

Sif shrugged.

Jane frowned. “Wait…I’m a human. If Jarnsaxa is an etin, why would she worship me?” My question works just as well if she had been a Giantess like the myths said.

“Thor loves you. She swore to serve Thor. Even I will admit she was very devout in her work, when last I saw her.”

“The two of you don’t get along?” Jane hazarded a guess. “I get it, there are people I don’t feel comfortable with either.”

“We have reached a tenuous peace,” Sif said. “But I will never place my trust or my arms in her hands – even her change of loyalty will not erase her part in the kidnap of my son and his siblings.”

~~
Meanwhile…on that safe ‘garth:

“Nope, still doesn’t make any sense,” Steve said.

“I understood half the words this time around,” Tony said.

Thor said, “Loki has thrice explained to you the method he used to bring us to this place. Perhaps we should focus on simply climbing this mountainside for now.”

Loki snorted.

“What’s this Jarnsaxa like?” Steve asked. “You haven’t exactly said much about her.”

“She is a loyalist,” Thor said. “An etin woman who has sworn herself to obey me.”

“Etin? Those are giants, right?”

“No more than the thurses are,” Loki muttered.

Thor said, “Etins are masters of blending in with a native population – among us, Jarnsaxa looked Asgardian. On Niflheim, she had looked like a Frost Giant.”

Coming to a decision, Tony said “Okay, I’m going to go fly on ahead to the mountaintop, and wait for you slowpokes there.”

“That would be unadvisable, friend Stark,” Thor said.

“Really? Why’s that?”

“I had asked her to stay and defend my nephew.”

“Yeah, two thousand years ago.”

“Yes, that recently.”

“Fine. You and me, we fly up to the mountaintop,” Tony said.

“And leave our friends behind?” Thor asked more mildly than Loki or Steve might have asked it.

They slogged their way to the top of the mountain before the sun reached its highest point in the sky. Looking out across the vastness of what they had finished climbing up, “Holy…” Steve said. “How big did you say this volcano was? Is?”

“Wild ass guess,” Tony said, “this here crater’s big as all the Hawaiian Islands put together, even the ones not officially part of the state.”

“It is big enough,” Thor said.

“Thank you,” Loki told him honestly.

Tony had a feeling it was all Thor could do to keep from beaming or grinning like a loon. “So…who are we picking up here? Yarn sexy?”

“Jarnsaxa is my name,” she said, lifting Iron Man by one of his shoulders, standing behind him. “To you I’d deal a death but you travel on coattails of my lord Thor.”

Steve turned around and saw Tony being held aloft by - either my eyes are finally playing tricks on me, or we’re seeing a woman built out of driftwood. Maybe seeing that Pirates of the Caribbean movie was a bad idea last night.

Turning to greet her, Thor said “It is well to meet you again, Jarnsaxa. You remember Loki, do you not?”

“Father of the child who remains resting underwater,” Jarnsaxa said.

“And this is Captain Steve Rogers.”

“Afternoon, ma’am,” Steve said, seeing Jarnsaxa’s appearance change to a human-looking one, though with clothes modeled after Thor’s – albeit lower quality fabric.

“And the man you hold aloft, is Tony Stark, known also as Iron Man.”

“Dwarven colors brandished in his metals, our enemy’s flag is his hard skin.”

“Coincidence,” Thor said. “Sif had the same reaction as you.”

Jarnsaxa dropped Stark then and there.

“My friends, this is Jarnsaxa of the Iron Knives,” Thor said.

“This etin remains loyal, awaiting your call,” she said.

“Your service here may be at an end, kind one,” Thor told her. “I believe we can at last end the captivities of my brother’s children. Can you awaken Jormungand?”

“I. DO. NOT. SLEEP,” came the reply from the now-rippling waters of the volcano’s lake. “FORGIVEN. ME. UNCLE. THOR?”

“It was an accident,” Thor hollered down to him. “Tis I who should even now apologize to you.”

“NEVER. HAD. YOU. TOUCHED. MJOLNIR. PRIOR,” followed by a blast of wind in a spout not dissimilar from a whale’s blowhole. “YOU. TRIED,” and another blast. “MOTHER. TRIES. STILL. TRIES. VISITING. TRYING. WITHOUT. AVAIL.”

Loki thought, Particularly frustrating for her, I know. She joined her kin in Valhalla as much to strengthen her binding-magics (and thus find a way to free our children), as to get away from the reminder that Sif and I were.

“Which one’s his mom?” Tony asked.

“Sigyn,” Steve said. “Which you’d know if you paid better attention in the meetings.”

“I missed five minutes. That’s all. And it was the one time.”

“GREATGRANDUNCLE. VISITED. ME. ONCE.”

“Guys?” Tony asked, noticing Loki and Thor going deathly pale, and Jarnsaxa wincing in terror.

“No matter for now,” Thor said, and Loki nodded in complete agreement. How did Nidhogg reach this place? “For now, let us test these solutions you have baked in your forges, and see if they can free my nephew and brother’s son to any degree from the bindings holding him.”

~~~
The Next Night:

Sitting in what passed for a library in Stark Towers, now Avenger Towers, Loki turned the page once more in the book he was currently looking through with only half a mind. "Hel," he read, and sighed.

"Something bugging you?" Stark asked, walking in. "Ah, you're reading that book," and seemed to be trying - mildly trying - not to smile at the sight of Loki reading The Norse Myths. "Might wanna go easy on it – couple of weeks ago or so, Thor nearly broke a window when he tried reading it."

I trust you mean something aside from the abject failure our combined efforts made against the bindings gripping Jormungand. "A number of these, your ancestors learned at my knee."

Yeah, I know Thor said the two of you were the source of them, but still; sometimes I can’t resist: "Yeah, so not surprised you'd show up and spank a bunch of medieval kids."

"I was a storyteller for much of my life, Stark," Loki said. "Particularly for the centuries following what became of my children." The reasons proffered for the shapes of my children, they have been more legion than my children themselves, Loki knew. Because I am evil, because I am a Giant, because their mother is a Giant, because my children are to be the enemy of Asgard and all within it. And there were other guesses hazarded over fires and on sea journeys, at bedtimes and over ales. That Hel must be wicked because the inhabitants of Niflheim are Frost Giants, and her brothers could not be any less sinful than she.

"You...have kids?"

You know this. Which leads me to suspect an ulterior agenda, something else you wish to know. Very well. "Such surprise. I was no worse a parent than you would be."

Much as Pepper would love to hear that, I still gotta ask. "So you really did the nasty with a horse?"

Sounding more surprised that Stark hadn't asked this sooner, Loki asked, "Which one?"

"Which... I take it you've got a thing for livestock, or at least horses?"

"Conflation, Stark," Loki said. "While I am not Slepnir's father... You became Iron Man in a cave. There are many caves in your world. Your origin story may one day dovetail - deliberately or not - with the story of any of the other caves as well."

So...that bit was...was real? A horse?

Loki considered, then came to a decision. "Come here, Stark. Truly, I have no quarrel with you at present. Send for Dr. Jane Foster. I will begin when you are both here. She will wish to hear this. And you may find my story cautionary, if not enlightening."

"You mean the story where you turn to the Dark Side and try to conquer my planet?"

Loki's face had a sort of tired amusement to it. "When you read or tell a tale, it is better to begin earlier than that."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1120 AD, Earth:

Candlelight cast shadows anyone could hide in, even if they were not attempting to stay in one for long. The distinctively human undercurrent-scent was still noticeable even with the aroma of various layers of perfumes and sweat and half-healed wounds. Loki sat near the back of the assemblage, listening to the stories being told, and hearing how vastly different they had become in a few centuries.

If Sif was fair and bright, then the dark-haired Sif of the voyage to Earth...that could only be Loki's doing. And to do that to a woman, it obviously meant he hated her.

The cave wedding became a final punishment instead.

The children were multiplied, with each nickname becoming a distinct offspring.

Ullr remained the son of Sif. But the others were divorced from her - Angrboda had been the name offered when Loki had been asked who the mother of the monsters was, and a suitable home for Angrboda was found - one of the worlds of the Giants.

Thor was conflated into being Sif's husband.

Etins and thurses were lumped together with the jotuns, treated as if there was no great distinction between them.

Loki did not fear often...but he was afraid of what the stories would become if given another few centuries or millenia to continue developing. And, not knowing mankind’s fate, it would be better if they did not think I must be opposed. Better still if they did not vilify the children. I can handle more slander against me, but will not tolerate it against them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
650 AD, Earth:

The snows would have been far worse for the three of them if snowfall did not simply slide off their clothes. "We are nearly there," Thor said.

"You said that an hour ago," Loki remarked. "This is Alfheim all over again."

That was a good memory, despite what happened, Thor knew. It was in the sunnier times of our lives. unable to avoid seeing how Loki and Sif were still avoiding looking towards one another. "At the crest of this hill," Thor assured them.

"And if not?" Sif asked. "We keep going," before Thor could reply. You needn't have come with us, Thor - we are no danger anymore, even to each other. And you have better things to do than haul the pair of us out to the snows of Midgard; you could be off on a lark and a quest instead, enjoying yourself. Gudrun was right, the others of our band deserve time to have their own adventures; even with one of us having moved away, we three've weighed them down more than enough, Sif thought. Still, that we will never again be the Warriors Seven... At least we were, for a time.

But Thor had been right - there was a Karl's house - an earl's house - at the crest of the current hill. Thor knocked once, his knuckles applying a measured pressure to the door.

"Almighty Thor," said the man who opened the door, "as before, you and your friends are always welcome in my home," and admitted the three travelers.

"Friends of yours?" Loki asked mildly as he shook the snow from himself, what little bit had managed to cling at all.

"I may have met them once before," Thor said as they were shown to the table where drinks were poured for all, as the number of servings was increased to match the guests. My pardon, Sif, that you must speak small talk here, after centuries of striving to avoid it in all the halls of Asgard, Thor thought, but knew the rules of guesthood.

Thor, Loki, and Sif raised their glasses to toast their gracious hosts, and in turn were praised for their good natures - Thor the Mighty, Loki the Clever, Sif the Bright (and 'Sif the Fair' later that evening). And then, as dinner was completed and all were gathered in attendance around the fire, talk turned to tales, and Thor pressed his brother and Sif to tell of their courtship, "As there is no doubt much that even I have not heard."

"I doubt that very much," Sif said. "You were present for much of it."

Loki made a small noise.

"Some of it," Sif corrected herself.

And so they spoke of centuries of friendship in childhood and adolescence and into maturity; and it was in that last stage, while Hannibal had been thrashing Rome, that it became something more to he and she. (As Sigyn was not with them, they respectfully did not speak of her - 'behind one's back' was not simply a Midgardian form of verbal warfare.) The old Grandfather of the house, he had in his youth known enough of the Classics to understand the references and explain them to the younger generations present.

"And like many unions, there were children born," Sif said.

"Narvi, nicknamed Jormungand, ticklish and clever, a serpent who will be the size of a world; Fenrir, nicknamed Vali, playful and inciteful, a mighty wolf, named to honor mighty Ulla; and Hel..." and here Loki's voice could not carry him through describing her.

So Thor did. And while he did not stint on any features, the proud uncle emphasized how perfect was every part of baby Hel.

"Three children of such countanance," their hosts said. "Truly their parentage must have been distinctive. If you were their father, who was the mother?" was the question put to Loki.

"The great Angrboda," Loki said, giving a name which all of Asgard knew to be Sif - a name earned on the battlefields where she was indeed Bringer of Sorrows to the enemy. "Beautiful and clever."

Sif placed a comforting, reassuring hand on Loki's shoulder, knowing what came next.

"But they were not even days old, when they were stolen away from us..."

~~
PRESENT DAY:

“An objection already, Doctor?” Loki asked Jane. Are you about to ask why I did not simply give this telling on the first day Thor brokered this arrangement between his old friends and his new ones?

“If you named Fenrir after someone named Ulla, would that make his name Fenrir Ulla Lokison?” Jane asked.

“Ullr was another name for Fenrir, a fact your bards failed to grasp.”

“One of many,” Jane muttered, which brought a momentary smile to Loki’s face. “So, were the other two named after anyone?”

“Jormungand was the river around the estate owned and run by Sif’s grandfather, the stately Hymir, who had a private army of eight hundred women. Hel was given her name to honor Hela, the Governor of Niflheim.” Loki paused. “Hel was Lokasdottir, borne of me. Her brothers were not borne from me.”

“From Angerboda?” Tony asked.

Having heard worse mispronounciations over the centuries, Loki let that slide. “Sif, yes.”

“What about Sigyn?” Jane asked.

“She was there,” Loki said. Narvi came from her. Then, “I should back the telling some more, I think.”

“This is the sort of story we need ice cream for, isn’t it?” Tony asked, and went to get some.

When she was sure Tony was out of earshot, Jane asked Loki “Can you talk to Thor for me?”

Loki just looked at her, though his expression reminded Jane of Darcy’s patented ‘Are you kidding me?’ look.

“I tried talking to him about baby names…It’s fun,” Jane said slightly defensively with Loki though she hoped he wouldn’t have Thor’s stunned and slightly horrified reaction.

Loki just watched her, Like he’s seeing how far I’m going to dig myself. “Anyway, he asked me why I was anticipating his death, and that’s when he wasn’t jumping across the room to back away from me.” And then there was Sif’s choice of words when I tried explaining The One to her.

Nothing from Thor’s brother.

“A hint, at least?” Jane asked. “We can get past this, right?”

“Thor’s fears are understandable. His father came close to not seeing his birth, if the tales are accurate.”

“A genetic condition? One he inherited?”

“Something like that. Understand, Jane Foster, that reproduction in the Realms is not as easy as it is here on Earth,” Loki remarked dryly. “Hold out your hands and splay your fingers.”

Jane did so.

“Each of those represents a coupling, a production of infants. Now tuck away one finger.”

“That’s child mortality?” Jane asked. As advanced as you are?

“No; there are no infant deaths, barring murder. That which your fingers show, is paternal mortality.”

“One in ten dies?”

Loki shook his head.

“One in ten survives?” Jane asked.

“Yes,” Loki said. “Assuming the partners are from different Realms.”

“Like me and Thor.”

“You and Thor. Jord and Odin. Frigga and Odin. Sif and I.”

“And if both partners are from the same Realm? The odds are better, right?” Jane asked.

“One in twenty-five survive.”

“So…Magni and Modi are…?”

“Boys whom were fostered by Thor.”

“And Lorrride and Thrud?” Jane asked.

Who? Loki wondered, but before he could ask that –

They both were silent with the return of Tony. “Here – we – go,” Tony said, handing each of them their own carton of ice cream. “Go on,” he encouraged Loki. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Loki sighed. “I have known Thor since I was an infant -”

“You remember that far?” Tony asked. “Nevermind.”

“And when we first met Sif was…”

~~
The PAST:
Royal Gardens of Asgard:

"I'm going to get you!" Thor hollered as he pursued Loki through the more wooded part of the garden. "Rrroarrr! Rroaaarrrrr!"

"That is not how a Dwarf sounds," Loki called behind him.

"I'm an Elf, and I'm going to catch you!"

Also not how an Elf sounds, Loki thought and, hearing someone walking a short few paces ahead, ducked out of sight.

"Hey, no fair!" Thor said, not finding Loki where he had thought he would. But then he noticed that, while his brother wasn't here, nor was he alone. "Who are you?" Thor had asked, confused that there was a trespasser in this part of the gardens. There aren't supposed to be trespassers, he knew.

She drew herself up to her full height, such as it had been, and resolutely told him, "I am Sif,” trying not to show her disquiet at the witchlight hovering over Thor’s head.

"Sif who?" still confused.

"Sif of Sif, obviously, brother," Loki had said, having chosen that moment to appear, and do so a meter behind Sif. "Good day. I am Loki, son of Odin. The brother."

"I'm Thor, son of Odin," Thor introduced himself. “I can do magic,” and gestured at the witchlight.

Loki forebore from rolling his eyes.

"Sif," she repeated.

Thor made a noise. "Who is your father? Or your mother? Or a hallowed ancestor bathed in glory?"

"Dead," was her answer. All are, but for my father.

"Oh. I'm sure they died well."

Loki glared at him, and said to Sif "Do you need to vent? Burn off anger?"

"No. I'm fine," Sif said. "Thank you, though," to the brothers just as Meili caught up with them.

“There you are!” Meili exclaimed, nostrils broad and hands already prepped for tussling. “Where have you been, brothers mine, as I searched for -” and saw Sif there. Meili rocked back, “For me?” pleased as punching.

“She is a new friend,” Loki said before Meili could attack.

“Friends have names,” Meili said, wary.

“I am Sif,” she said.

“I am Meili, berserker born of Frigga Allmother and Odin Allfather. Thor and Loki are my brothers.”

“I am Tyrsdaughter,” Sif said.

“Tyr?” Thor repeated, astonished. “THE Tyr?”

“Do you know another?”

Meili and Loki chuckled.

Hopping from one foot to the other, Meili asked, “Can we go now? Or is Thor going to keep cheating?”

“It was dark in those woods,” Thor insisted. “I cast the light not to cheat but to continue play.”

“Sorcerer,” Sif muttered.

“Like father, like sons,” Thor replied.

Meili shook her head. “Another reason I plan to be a berserker – enough magicians in the family as is.”

~~~

Chapter Text

The Present:

In the morning after Loki told his story to Tony and Jane, most of the Avengers were called out to deal with a budding gang of supervillains heading for the city. Natasha and Bruce stayed behind at the Tower, one while a leg knitted back together, the other because she was on the phone: "Yes, sir, absolutely," Romanova was saying into the phone. "I understand. Yes, sir, the next time we run across Dr. Doom in a library, we'll be sure to let you know." But really, if he's babysitting a kid, that's a good chunk of time he can't be out trying to take over a country or the planet or whatever the latest scheme is. Not that I'd trust him far with the kid either.

Jarvis was minding Loki and Sigyn, playing something like chess with them.

Sif was with Natasha and Bruce, the latter of whom was looking through the Tower's DVR for something.

When Romanova had hung up, Bruce asked "Fury giving another earful?"

"And then some," Natasha agreed. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear Stark was tattling on us because he missed a chance to confront Doom." We offered to show Sif and Sigyn some of the local sights since we couldn't join the fight against supervillains today...not because we knew where to find Doom.

"Some people just are not happy unless they're diving into a fight."

"And some of us were never allowed to do that," Sif said. To explain, "I grew up among the Einherjar, who are near-perpetually held in reserve. No, not dead soldiers," having reached that point in one of the books, "those would be of little use to Asgard. No, the Einherjar are a cadre of humans who fight in the service of Asgard; men and women alike bearing arms and charging at the foes they are pointed toward," she said, sounding like she missed it.

"Fun times?" Natasha asked, at least half in jest.

"They were my best friends. And the only thing they ever asked of me was to bless their babies, and that wasn't a frequent request." Sif sighed as she sat down on the nearest chair with the sort of practiced caution that Bruce's muscles recognized.

"You okay?"

She looked at the countertop for a few minutes before she said, "I am a Vanir woman in an Asgardian army comprised mostly of men. My life has seen me buffeted from one set of customs to another, making me an outsider thrice over." At least thrice. "My blood family are dead. My fosterage family is survived by their descendants. My few friends are in arms against one another." She looked at them. "Loki is one of those few."

"Some of us have no luck, not in that regard," Natasha agreed. Complete misfortune in picking our friends.

"When last I saw Loki..." Sif said. "Prior to Thor returning your captive Loki to Asgard, I had argued with him before his plummetting into the depths of space; defied him, argued against him, argued with him, did everything but confront him." She made a face; "Nor was that the first time I had done so."

"Well, if I can say," Bruce offered, pouring everyone some orange juice, "that its kind of understandable, given what happened...if the stories got that right."

"Oh?" Sif asked.

"Your father's Tyr."

"Yes."

"Loki's son bit off your dad's hand, at least that's what we hear."

Sif blinked. "No," she said. Dad would have loved Fenrir. Granddad would have loved taking him fishing, and tried to imagine her boys all gone fishing. "My father was not attacked by dear Fenrir, having died when I was still a child," Sif said. "His hand was lost an age before I was ever born. His killer was Wulfgar the father of Brokk. When we were old enough to go out on raids and journeys, Loki and Thor went with me to avenge my father's slaying with one of my own. It...did not end well, but it ended the feud - Brokk's surviving relatives did not wish to pursue retaliation. One of our captured prizes ended up destroying a hill in Alfheim a while later."

"Not a mountain?" Bruce asked. 'Dear Fenrir'?

Sif smiled. "I'm from Vanaheim. What we call a small hill, one from Asgard calls a mountain or a pillar of the earth. Though, who mentioned the mountain to you?"

"Thor...may have alluded to it."

"Ah."

"Was it a secret?"

"No. Simply very...awkward," Sif said. It was the first time Loki proposed to me. Long long before any of us grew round with pregnancy.

"I think we're all feeling awkward these days," Bruce said. "No offense, but Loki doesn't exactly bring out the best in us."

Sif didn't dispute the point, as Natasha had wondered if she would. Instead, "As he grew away from everyone, Loki grew sharper, more focused in his intent," Sif said.

"That happens to lots of people. They don't all go out and invade cities," Banner said, working the tv remote, trying to find that clip. Tony made a point of letting me know he had it on his DVR, so may as well let the cat out of the bag...since she's the one person who doesn't already know I have a cat.

"No, some do greater harm, true. We all have things we can become," she said. "For my skills, I was hailed by my enemies as Angrboda, the Bringer Of Sorrows," and she noticed Bruce and Natasha sharing a look. "What?"

"Maybe that story's wrong too?" Bruce suggested.

"What story?" Sif asked, having not yet finished all the books she had borrowed from the library.

Natasha said, "Angrboda's supposedly the wife or lover of Loki. In the myths."

"No, that's true," Sif said. "Or it was. We didn't talk for a great long while, but eventually we had sense beaten into us, and we got along. By the time of Thor's banishment, we were friends again."

Angry sex? That can work. "And then he tried to conquer New York."

"Thor has regaled all of Asgard - and then some - with the tales of Loki's attempted conquest. I am surprised he needed so much help."

"What?" both humans asked.

"What, because he failed?" Bruce asked. That's one of the perennial excuses for failing to get something done, isn't it - that you don't have enough men?

"Because he is Loki," Sif said. "We needed fewer people with us when we besieged the military compounds of Niflheim. And that was a time when he would have underdone nothing."

"Then what do you think happened?" Natasha asked her.

"I do not yet know. Loki has not spoken of his experience between falling from Asgard and crushing SHIELD's base underfoot." Glancing at Bruce's fingers, "What are you doing?"

The tv screen flared to life, with the Other Guy filling almost all of the screen, flattening much of what else was onscreen with him, before leaping over a mile to the site of his next battle with tanks and other doomed objects.

That image paused. "That's what I become," Bruce said. "What I call 'the Other Guy', and Tony calls a rage monster, and Agent Hill called a..."

"A what?" Natasha asked him. "Or are our ears too delicate?"

"No. Mine are." And he noticed Sif walking up to the screen, examining the Other Guy like he was something half-familiar.

"This is you?" Sif asked for confirmation.

"Yes. Can I ask, uh, why?"

Said it with half her mouth quirked in a little smile, "Loki's defeat makes more sense now."

"Again. Can I ask why?" Bruce asked.

"Children," she breathed to herself.

Bruce was afraid to ask how the Other Guy reminded Sif of a child.

After a while of nobody knowing what to say - or simply opting for silence, it was hard to say, in this company; during which time, Sif returned to the table and her coffee - "So, I have to ask," Bruce said.

"Yes?" Sif asked between swallows of a cup of freshly-made coffee made to accompany the pancakes.

That's not your first or second one today, is it? Bruce wondered, noticing how many ceramic shards were already on the floor centered around one corner of the kitchen. "The, ah...the hair...you know..."

Sif looked at him and kept waiting.

Natasha shook her head. "Men," she muttered - or that was what Bruce suspected she was muttering in Russian. To Sif, she said "He wants to know if that's your real hair."

Now Sif was just looking at him like he was speaking gibberish. Which I probably am, Bruce had to admit, at least to himself. "When Loki supposedly cut off your hair."

Oh. "To give to the Dwarves," Sif said, nodding. "That happened. Not my hair, though."

"Huh," Natasha said.

"Thor, however, was quite angry when he woke up with it gone. It was rather a while before he would laugh about it with the rest of us - Not that he objected to the adventure that hair brought to us."

"Thor?" Natasha asked, mentally filing that tidbit away for an opportune time.

"And Loki got the credit for doing it down here as well?" Sif asked.

Bruce just drank his coffee.

~~~
The PAST: In Gladsheim:

“Welcome, War, welcome Tyr,” Odin said to the one man with more warmth than he gave to most, less than he gave to family. “This court has missed you in your absence.”

“Have I missed any battles, my king?” Tyr asked as a simple reply.

“You have not.”

“Then my presence would not have been required, and has been better spent elsewhere.”

“I take it you are speaking of the young girl at your side,” Odin said.

“I am,” Tyr said. “This is my daughter.”

Odin’s lone eye flickered to the stump of what had been Tyr’s good arm. I know what her nature will be. I know how you came by her. What will you ask of me, War? What long-due payment has come time? “Greetings, child. What is your name?” Odin asked her.

She looked up at Odin on his throne, and she asked him, “Are you not Odin the All-Knowing?”

Many courtiers gasped or stumbled and fumbled in shock at the question.

Tyr did not blink, did not flinch; only smiled proudly.

For his part, Odin smiled and gave a laugh he enjoyed. “I am, Sif the daughter of Tyr who is War,” said Odin.

“Then why did you ask?” Sif asked, and Odin could feel the genuineness of the question.

"There are things which must be asked."

"Appearances," she said, an unhappy taste in her mouth, by how it sounded to Odin.

"In part, yes.” Odin considered, then decided: “I am gathering young girls so they may train to be shieldmaidens for my child Meili. Would you care to join their ranks?”

“I would like to, yes, Lord Allfather,” Sif said.

“Then so be it, Sif Shieldmaiden.”

Shieldmaiden-to-be, Sif mentally corrected.

~~~
Decades later on, in a training yard:

“Horse-face!” shouted one of the boys.

“Horse!” jeered another.

“Maybe she’s a goat,” laughed a girl on the sidelines. “She’s always carting around the weapons to and from the training sands.

“Goat!” “Horse!” the taunts continued…until Sif tackled the nearest cluster of teasing boys, punching and punching and kicking, and then head-butting one who tried to pull her off.

“Having fun?” Loki asked, walking up to the sidelines.

“Aren’t you going to stop this?” that ‘she’s a goat’ girl asked him.

With what, my magic? Suddenly I’m popular again? “I think not. She seems to have your thrashings well in hand.”

The fight ended soon after, with the boys asking for mercy, and Sif getting off them with a huge grin on her face.

As all the others ran off, Loki came over and said, “The winner. And with not a scratch on her. That really is a shame.”

“But I won!” Sif said.

“And soundly too,” Loki said, his voice full of the congratulations he didn’t spell out for her. “But you have not a mark on you – now your tormentors can say ‘she ambushed us’ or ‘it would stain our honor to hit a girl.’”

“Appearances,” Sif said, hating the taste of that word.

Loki nodded, and Sif wasn’t sure if he was more pleased with himself that someone understood what he was talking about, or if he was more pleased with her that she understood what he was talking about.

“You sound like your father,” Sif said.

She also wasn’t sure what Loki meant by the expression he wore for the few seconds before he smoothed his face back to his normal observant look.

Loki took her silence for something, and he left.

“The prince is right,” her father said, stepping into sight from the shadows.

“I don’t like appearances!” Sif said, all but stomping her foot.

“You are Warsdaughter,” Tyr said. “Even that name is how you are seen by others.”

“Can’t I just be me?” she asked him.

Crouching beside her, he said “You must always be that.”

~~

Summoned to the Royal Court in Gladsheim for the first time in her life (her first summons), and as she stood at a respectful distance from the royal stairs up to the throne, Sif found herself standing next to a girl near enough to her own age. “Hi,” the girl said to Sif, and was quietly swatted by her mother standing behind her.

“Thrynhild, Valkyrie,” Odin greeted the girl’s mother. “Long has it been since you have left the halls of Valhalla. Whom do you bring before me and why?” Is this in support of your ally Tyr? Or for another reason?

“I seek my daughter to be shieldmaiden,” Thrynhild said in answer. “Even berserkers need guardians. There are not enough wars in all the Realms for it to be otherwise.”

“That is true. What is your name?” Odin asked Thrynhild’s daughter.

“Sigyn,” she said.

“And you seek to be a shieldmaiden?”

Sigyn nodded.

“For what reason? Glory? Treasure?”

Thrynhild and Sigyn shuddered at that – treasure was a cornerstone of every Valkyrie horror story.

“I am a poor fighter, great Allfather,” Sigyn said. “If I cannot learn to defend myself and to fight whilst in the company of a berserker, then I know I will not be able to learn from anyone.”

“Yours is an answer all too rare, young Sigyn,” Odin said. “Have you any other reason?”

“I want to help. I can be a friend, if nothing else.”

“You are approved, Sigyn Shieldmaiden. You are to begin your studies under the command of Sif Shieldmaiden.”

I have not been a shieldmaiden for a full century yet, Sif knew; but we are an exception – normally when a person joins something, there are centuries or millenia of experience between them…now, I must study and learn, and impart all I have learned unto Sigyn.

~~~
Centuries Later:

“Swear an oath?” Sigyn asked.

Sif nodded. “Our blood runs together, and we’re allies forever. We’re already best of friends.”

“We are,” Sigyn agreed. “Though an oath is a powerful knot, and blood makes the link un-revokable.”

“I do not fear it.”

“Nor I. What do we need do?”

“We make an incision, I on me, you on you, and we swear.”

Cutting their respective palms, they spoke the words together which formed the oath and linked their blood by contact and by the magics of sworn words and oaths.

“All done,” Sif said.

Sigyn looked at her palm, how the cut was being sewn up by her own magics – one thread of which leaped over to Sif and stitched itself inside Sif’s cut it healed.

“Even better,” Sif said. “Now we both have magic. Like Loki.”

“Even better,” Sigyn said. Though I have yet to understand why his skin feels like a magical binding.

~~
Decades Later:

“Sif, step forward and near the throne,” Odin said.

I am not the only Sif in Asgard. Merely the only one now who is now without a patronym. Fully aware of the entire room full of people now looking at her, watching me as she stepped out from the ranks assembled before the Odin. Walking as slowly and humbly as she knew how, Sif stopped and knelt, head bowed, at the halfway point of the royal stairs. “My king,” she said.

Odin rose from his throne. “The entire court mourns the loss of your father. You are now the entirety of your House. But know that it is for neither reason that I am denying you two parts of what some would call your inheritance.”

One cannot continue to wear a name once its cause is lost – unless the loss is part of the name; and I have no desire to be Deadfathersdaughter. “The Allfather knows best,” Sif said, reciting by rote as much as anything.

“You will not take up the mantle and title of War so well worn by your father Tyr. Nor will you take his place as my right hand, to smite when I am elsewhere. No, these duties will fall to another, one you know,” Odin said, then turned his head just a bit. “Thor son of Odin. Step forward and approach the throne.”

Sif very nearly let out what had been a very nervous and apprehensive breath. By merit. Let no one say I will inherit what I will rightfully claim as my own, she thought, hiding her grin.

~~~
Two centuries later:

“What do we do now?” Sigyn asked.

“As we have already done,” Sif said.

“We were Meili’s shieldmaidens. Meili is now a bear, one who lurks in the shadows within Gladsheim. Our services are no longer needed.”

I would curse Thor for doing so, were that not a treasonable offense. He may have abandoned use of magic, in the wake of that transformation, but it is too small a weyrgild payment. “So your idea is to give up?” Sif asked. “We were advancing well in our studies of arms and all else, and you think we should stop?”

“I do not wish to, Sif,” Sigyn said. “But our rationale is gone. We could continue our studies in Valhalla – you are my sister by oath, and thus permitted entry.”

Sif was quiet for a long long moment, more than a minute. “You can go. I will try another way first.”

“Should you change your mind, Valhalla’s door will open to you. All fortune to you, sister,” Sigyn wished her.

“And to you, sister,” Sif said to her.

~~~

Thor wasn't sure he understood. "Why do you want to join the Einherjar, Sif?"

"So I can fight in battles and conflicts and, if we have another, in war," Sif said.

"So be a warrior."

"Unlike your new best friend Freya, I am not nobility."

"She's just a friend," Thor muttered.

"For you have a nobility all your own," Loki said.

"Loki's right, you're a noblewoman," Thor said. "Your father is - was War."

"And possessed no estates or lands. I do not care to always be begging others for the use of their lands so I may train," Sif said. "If I join the Einherjar, I will have the use of their exercise yards and training fields."

"But they're mortal!"

"And half their ranks are women," Loki pointed out. "Which do you think matters more to our good friend Sif?"

"I'm sorry, Sif," Thor said, then had an idea: "What about the Valkyries? You could join them! They're all women."

You noticed that, did you? Loki thought, his smile hidden.

"The Valkyries are reinforcements for when all other reinforcements have been already called up," Sif said. "Besides, their main purpose is to select men and women for the Einherjar." And they last did that a thousand years ago.

~~~
The Near Future:
Location: equatorial region of Lower Muspelheim:

Jane looked out at the sea’s waves lapping on the diamond beach, wondering how that water would feel against her skin tomorrow - assuming Thor’s contact knows I’m human, and wasn’t saying it was safe for someone like me who looks Vanir. Thor promised me it’d be safe for us to come here, and he hasn’t been wrong yet. But he’s had times with me where he went one assumption further than he should’ve.

As she gazed at the moon’s reflection on the inland sea’s water, Jane tried not to think about what was in the air. Microparticles of ash. Trace amounts of nicotine and tar in the regional microclimate, particularly here. And this is the hospitable part of the Realm.

“Jane?”

Feeling him come up behind her and stop just short of placing his arms around her. “I love it,” she said, leaning back against him. I have no idea what this vacation cost you, and I’m afraid to ask – oh of all the times for Darcy’s talks about sociability, and bygone history class lessons about Medieval and pre-Medieval systems of honor to sink in…

“We owe Loki a thanks, at least.” Though how did he know this would be enjoyable for Jane?

He could feel Jane’s nod against him. “We do,” Jane said. Then she craned her neck to look up at his face. “Have you ever been here before?”

“To this sea? No, I have not; my contact was a prisoner I freed on Niflheim.”

“And then he owed you his life,” Jane said.

Close. “He pledged his descendants to repaying me for my deed.” Holding Jane close, his hands massaging her sides, Thor said “Loki has been here, with Sigyn.”

“Romantic honeymoon?” Jane asked, only half joking.

“They were gathering intelligence. Old Sutur may still be in the slumber he began when my great-grandfather was as yet unborn, but that never makes Muspelheim harmless to the other Realms.”

“I still don’t understand that.”

“Muspelheim and the other Realms?” Thor asked.

“Loki’s relationship with Sif and Sigyn.”

“Aye, I feel the same oft-times as well, Jane.”

“But you’ve known them all that time.”

“That has not always been of aid.”

~~
The Past:
Location: equatorial region of Lower Muspelheim:

There had been only one place to escape the patrols of weaponized soot-owls. That place was underwater, in the inland sea. Well. This is problematic, Loki thought as he drifted in the water barely a hands-length from Sigyn, his eyes looking into hers.

Feeling himself starting to sink, Loki placed his fingers on her arms, watched her momentary frown become something thoughtful and contemplative.

Sigyn reached and placed two fingertips against his throat, feeling his pulse.

Her face, only a bubble of lifegiving air away. One eye on the soot-owls flying above the sea, one eye watching strands of golden hair drift untended, framing them both, brushing their cheeks.

Loki and Sigyn passed the hours thusly, grabbing brief moments to take quick breaths when the opportunities arose for that – though it was nearly a day later that they saw a window of opportunity which allowed them to escape.

On her last glance deep into the waters, Sigyn could have sworn she saw eyeshine from a vast eye peering out and up at her…the sort of shine which could only belong to one being in all the Realms: one who made Valkyrie blood shake and ready for battle. Nidhogg? Most distant great-uncle or not, what are you doing here? Sigyn wondered as she joined Loki in climbing out onto the diamond-grain shore and opening just enough of a conduit for them to slip through and back to Asgard.

Once there, “Next time, it would be more useful to have a way to leave there while underwater,” Sigyn muttered to her aunts and superiors who were manning this end of the conduit – which they disassembled as soon as she and Loki had come through.

“Go and rest,” Thrynhild advised them both as her fellow Valkyries hauled the conduit-ropes back to Valhalla.

When all others had gone, Loki said to Sigyn, “So…”

“Good night, husband Loki,” Sigyn said. “We both need to dry.”

I could summon a breeze to do it, or you could arrange strings to create a breeze, or there are always towels… but Loki said none of them. “Good night, wife Sigyn,” he said, and let her be the first to walk off, if that was her plan.

Not ten full minutes later, as Loki walked alone through the corridors of Gladsheim… He found someone blocking his way.

Loki looked at Sif, who looked at his dripping self. “Sif?” he asked, watching how her breathing was…irregular was the best he could say; her pupils were enormous: the vast black eyes of a horse indeed, and knew better than to ever say so. “Are you well?”

Skin flushed, lips redder than she wore to dances, Sif said “You mock me.”

“I have before, we are aware; but I am not now.”

“I dreamed, Loki,” Sif said. “Through the blood, I dreamed all that you and she were doing while it happened. I know of your fingertips upon her. I know of her hair brushing you both. I know of -”

“We held each other in the water, to keep either from sinking or drifting off,” Loki said. “I do not deny the sensations were there, but it did not become anything. She and I waited for the soot-owl patrols to move away, and then we returned to Asgard.”

Grabbing Loki, Sif pulled him to her quarters, “Show me,” she asked him.

He tried, but between the two of them, an old adage of warfare was proven: ‘No plan survives contact with reality.’

~
Meanwhile

Having collapsed upon her bed, Sigyn let sleep take her. And, soon enough, a dream came upon her languid thoughts…

Her sister Sif was sitting alongside Loki at the edge of a deep pit covered with water which only appeared shallow as a springtime puddle. Their arms were around each other, across backs.

And then Loki fell in the pit.

Sif flung herself in after him. Sigyn ran and joined her, helping as much to aid one’s kin by oath, as to keep from dooming Valhalla’s effort at diplomacy.

She reached to grab Loki – and all she could get were handfuls of strings and strands stretching away and back to Loki. Makes no sense. Even the infamous Brunhilda never put this much on a body.

Sigyn’s physical body could feel something tugging upon her, pulling like she was a fishing line which had caught a whale bigger than one had planned for. She tugged back with all her might, could feel Sif doing likewise.

Sif grabbed one end of Loki, Sigyn grabbed the other end finally managing to get ahold of something more than bindings; and together they hauled him back to the shore, where they all caught their breath. And in time woke up.

~~~
The Next Morning:

Loki stared at his hands, positive that if he held them –just-so- he could see faint ribbons wrapped around his hands.

I survived. Sif and I… I woke up with her this morning, ran my hand along her cheek, felt the warmth of her smile and… I woke up, I survived.

He looked again, and even the faintness was gone. They were just hands. “Are you normal?” Loki whisper-asked them, wondering if the libraries of Asgard had anything on so obscure a topic as inverse ridge indentations in the post-coital skin. Further thought along any of those lines of inquiry were halted by –

“Loki,” Odin said from further up the corridor. “Come,” and, no different from any other time, the Allfather’s voice brooked neither dispute nor edging away. There were no others anywhere else in the corridor, nearby rooms, or directly above and below the aforementioned places.

“Yes, father?” Loki asked when he had come over to stand before where Odin stands now.

Odin looked at Loki, and knew that there would come no better time. The finest tactical decision I have ever made, he felt Loki to be.

And yet… Odin found himself mute. Not by spell or sword or medicine.

Loki waited patiently. Allfather can be a mite dramatic, perhaps theatrical if the mood strikes him to be so. I learned well.

Long ago, Mirmir had told Odin that cowardice would claim him in a moment of greatest need; At the time, I thought he was simply trying to discourage me, to halt my crucifixion. But now...my mind and my heart agree that Loki should know his heritage, what he was and what he is beneath my seidr-spell; and yet my tongue will not move.

So instead, Odin held out one hand.

Unsure if he was about to receive a blessing or a curse, Loki held perfectly still; even if it is neither, and this is purely a test, I must remain steady. Even as there was stinging in his skin, Loki held fast, even when his mind felt shaken and stirred.

Odin held back from frowning, though it resonated throughout him: Naught is happening. I would undo Loki’s guise and reveal to him what he truly is – there is no better time for this than now.

But even with all the power Odin felt comfortable using on his son, he could not remove the guise. And this is not something even he would believe. This is something which even I would not be believed were I to speak of it.

So he and Loki stood in the hall a while longer, until Odin gave a small nod, and headed to bed; to think, to rest, to contemplate and plan. He stopped short, not having gone five paces. “Loki.”

“Yes, father?” Loki asked.

“Bring Sif and Sigyn from the underground gardens, to the throne room with you. There is a matter to discuss.”

Well that isn’t ominous at all.

~
Subterranean Gardens:

These gardens beneath Gladsheim were accessible to all in Asgard, though only a few did not have to pass a guard to access the trail leading down to these gardens: royalty, attendants, shieldbearers (including sheildmaidens), and stableshovelers.

Her stomach still unsettled, Sigyn looked up from observing the predatory catapault-plant, “Sif?” she asked as her friend and near-sister arrived. At least one problem was already visible to each of them, as plain as the hair upon their heads.

“How??” Sif asked, holding a knot of her hair out by one end. No longer golden. Now dark as night.

“I felt your fear,” Sigyn said, “and it felt like you were slipping, falling into something. So I pulled you, helped you out of…wherever you were.” My dream didn’t register on my body until I was waking up – until then, it was like two experiences; after then, it made more sense.

“And that did – this?”

“Something was weighing you down.”

“I was clinging to Loki at the time.”

“Then the weight was on him or in him,” Sigyn said. “You say ‘clinging’…” and Sigyn closed her eyes. “I felt him dying, that was the weight.”

Sif’s eyes widened. “You brought him back to life?”

“We did, sister. Your strength pulled as much as mine did.”

Sigyn’s hair had darkened, though not so severely as Sif’s own, she noticed. “What does this mean?” Sif asked.

“I broke the law of my mother and her people,” Sigyn answered, brown-haired now. “I defied death, denying it a well-deserved man.”

“You did it to help me,” Sif asserted.

“True, and not relevant. Valkyries shun hair-splitting, and will only ask if you should be party to my punishment. I will ask that you not be.”

“You are my sister, and I will face down what ever penalty you are to be given. I will bear it as well.”

Loki’s cough interrupted them. “My father wants to speak to the three of us.”

One of these days, you will not be able to sneak up on us. I will see to that.

They both went with Loki to the throne room, where the three of them stood before the throne Odin sat alone upon.

“I know what you have done,” Odin said gravely. “You will live with the consequences. As, I fear, will we all,” and he rose to his feet and came down from the throne.

“And now you see – and shall continue to see – part of what is possible with the sort of oath I made with he whom was Loki’s namesake,” Odin said, placing one hand on his son’s shoulder. “Sigyn, your presence is requested in Valhalla; you know the reason.”

“I should -” Sif started to say.

“No,” Odin pronounced. “As it was with the blood oath between Utgardaloki and myself, you shall feel Sigyn’s punishment just as vividly as she does,” and Odin walked away, turning his back on them.

~~~
Months later:

Nearly every time we go to Midgard… she thought with annoyance. This time it was Loki who had wandered off. Thor volunteered to check the woods to see if his brother had dozed off while out on a stroll. Fandral had offered to inquire with the settlement’s lords and ladies if any had seen him. Sigyn and Volstagg would handle the business which had been their reason for coming to this Realm so soon after the last few visits (errands for the Valkyries). And Sif…

Sif found Loki in what passed for a Great Hall in these parts of northern Midgard. She watched from the shadows by the door as Loki, animated and as full of smiles as his audience, spun a tale that took Sif a few moments to recognize it. Mauled it a bit and simplified its repair to something almost metaphorical…but I’ve heard worse accounts from some of my father’s old friends.

“The wall was almost complete, and I’ve said what fate would have befallen the loser, haven’t I?” Loki asked, a rhetorical device that escaped some of his audience, much as it would have escaped some listeners in Asgard. “So it fell to me to bring a stop to what would have been a Giant victory.”

“How did you save the day?” asked Godwinson, his host, one of the earls or something about the same in these parts.

Stepping into the light, “Yes, Loki, please tell us, however did you demonstrate your skills at the Battle of Wallbuild?” Sif asked, chuckling. Particularly since it was three billion and a half years before either of us were born. “We’re just dying to know.”

“I…um…it was simplicity itself, you see,” Loki said. “The Giants were tired from their efforts and -”

“And they went to sleep?” Godwinson asked, sorely disappointed.

“Oh no, you’re right, that would be too easy,” Loki said, and pulled a face, suddenly having a hard time thinking.

Sif watched with interest, grabbing a drink from someone passing by, and looked down her nose at him as she drank well.

“There was a horse!” Loki blurted out abruptly, then winced at the glare Sif was leveling at him now, her drink down. “Did I mention the horse?”

“You did not,” Godwinson said. “At least, not that I recall.”

“There was one,” Loki assured him. “Gotten stuck carting things to and fro for them; sad, really. Well, I had to use my magic to make myself presentable –“

Sif snorted.

“- and asked the horse to come over, please, and while the Giants were wondering what was taking so long with the supplies…”

~~~

"No," Sif said. "It has happened. I will bear it," surrounded as they were by the standing stones of Asgard, the one space not given over to buildings or agriculture.

"One," Loki said, he and Sif standing on opposite sides of the Forseti Stone, the vertical rock marking the deathplace of the wisest of all Asgardians...and the shortest-lived. "I will bear the remainder. Let me do this."

Sigyn said nothing where she stood on a third side of the Forseti Stone.

"I do not doubt your heart, Loki. But it is why -"

"If you should say 'why I exist', I shall demand to know where you have secreted the real Sif. We may neither of us be humans, but pregnancy still impedes us on the battlefield to some degree."

She looked at him, her eyes boring down upon him.

"If your presence can make the difference between victory and defeat in a battle, are you not obligated to attend?"

"Yes," Sif said. "Though I wonder, does this signify you have so little faith in my strength?"

"I do not ever doubt your strength, nor your will," Loki said. "But Eir saw three infants, one within each of us. To carry them all yourself, that would be a considerable number, even if we three were all Vanir."

As it is, I am Vanir and you are Aesir and Sigyn is Valkyrie; I know, Sif thought. And I well know the signifigance of that: my brother Heimdall turned out fairly normal, but that doesn't always happen. Freki and Hugninn resulted from the same coupling as Heimdall. "So you wish to keep things as they are now?" she asked Loki.

"Two...three. I would carry them all if it you each would permit me."

“No,” Sigyn said strongly.

"I do not wish it," Sif insisted. "I may have set the spindle and flame in favor of glaive and dagger, but I do not cower or shy away from labor. It has happened, and I will not flee what is to come."

Loki held out his hand and asked, "Then let me fight alongside you. The three of us are undefeatable.”

~~

"Loki," Odin said, his voice stopping Loki in the hallway one day.

Loki stopped and turned to face his father. "Yes, father?"

Odin did not wish it - knowing how dangerous a wish could be, even if you were convinced it was figurative - but he oft wondered why he could do so many glorious word-games and riddle contests and sage knowledge-givings... and yet still be unable to talk to his own son. "This. What you are doing. It is a brave action to take. One which reflects well upon you."

"It is not bravery, Allfather," Loki said.

"Oh?"

"Sif is more capable than myself in a great many pursuits. Ditto for Sigyn. By doing this, I am simply not hindering either her as much as she might have become."

"That is rationalization," Odin said. And even that is only the tip of your reasons. But I trust you and she and she know the reason.

A smile twitched the corner of Loki's mouth. "I learned from the best."

"Yes, you did."

Chapter Text

Eir had no problem with the proud parents holding their issue while she readied the towels and water to clean the blood and tissue off each newborn. For one, there are three infants, and I can only clean them one by one. For another, provided they clean their hands afterward, there is no harm in allowing Sif or Loki or Sigyn to embrace their progeny.

"I believe this one has your nose," Sif lightly teased Loki as one finger tickled a happy little Ullr pup.

"So long as only one of them has it, that is aplenty," Loki replied in the same easy vein as Hel played capture-the-Daddy's-chin, her eyes barely open.

Eir brought last-born and first-cleaned Narvi back to Sigyn, taking Ullr to be cleaned next. Eir dipped her head respectfully towards the door, and that was the only warning Loki or Sif got that Odin had arrived.

"They are lovely children," Odin said. "You are to be congratulated, both of you."

"The Allfather's words are praise aplenty," Sif said.

"An Einherjar formula, voiced in honesty; thank you," Odin said. "Loki?"

"For what reason should we express gratitude that you are not revolted at the sight of your own grandchildren?" Loki asked.

"None, to the sentiment itself. That was not what Sif was thanking me for."

"And where is the Allmother, that she might express sentiment as well, then?"

"Your mother is resting. She has not felt well of late, you know this." She hears the drums of crisis sounding in the future, the beats of a dynastic shift abrupt and unplanned.

"My sentiments go to her, then," Loki said.

"As do mine," Sif seconded.

They remained there, Odin standing and the proud parents sitting up on the medical beds, until Eir had finished cleaning Ullr. "May I?" Odin asked, but asked it not of Eir.

Looking at him, considering, weighing the variables, particularly the one in the next bed, "You may," Sif granted. "If you both stay in this room."

Odin nodded, and lifted the pup from Eir's hands. "Good day to you, young Lord Fenrir."

Hel was next to be cleaned.

"Grandpa," Fenrir replied, his jaws stretching in a yawn as he said it.

Loki narrowed his eyes at his son's first word, the sight of which extracted a smile from Sif.

"A more personable young one would be hard to imagine," Odin confided with Sif and Loki. "Your brother's first word was more an exclamation - 'wheee'."

"And Loki's?" Sif asked, curious.

"'Down.'"

"And your own?" Loki asked her, feeling tit for tat called for.

"I remember being taken out to a garden behind the house," Sif said. "To help with the weeding, I've been told. So I imagine that I spoke to the weeds, that it was 'die, die, die!' Amused good Grefion no end, I'm sure," referring to a Vanir lady she had fostered with for a while before being brought to the royal court in Asgard. “And yourself, Sigyn?”

“Staaaaaars,” she replied.

"Shall we have an observatory in a garden for our children to play with and in, my dear?" Loki asked them.

Sigyn nodded.

"It would be dead in a week,” Sif said."

Loki said, "Kindred die, cattle die...the question is, would we not draw great pleasure from the plant during their short lives?"

Now it was Sif with narrowed eyes which failed to hide her amusement. "Quoting the Einherjar will not win you this discussion."

"I do not seek to win, only to prolong this delightful banter with you."

"Well if that's - Thor, welcome," as Loki's brother arrived...

...with two things following behind him. Piles and mounds of clothes and skins covered the entire selves of the two, with only an unending gaping pit where a head would be seen through a gap in the materials. Two fierce glowing eyes looked out from that abyss.

Creator-ancestress, Sigyn knew. The race within that pile, did create the first Valkyries (and the firstborn of the first Valkyrie, old Nidhogg), and did so with their own blood. Sigyn held her child close, as did Sif and Loki.

Norns, everyone recognized at once. Even those fortunate enough to have never seen one before, knew its description and nature perfectly, from the tales passed down.

"Skuld," said one Norn. It could have been a name, a title, a rank, or something unique to Norns.

"Welcome, Skuld," Odin said. "Have you come to pay your respects to the birth?" and under that polite tone, even Loki could detect the hard iron of Odin's warning voice, even if the Norns were well beyond even Odin in power.

"And give warning," said Skuld. "Your babies will grow," said Skuld of the Norns said to the parents. To everyone, "Expect them to harm you and endanger you. Expect them to be in at the kill." To Thor, "Of the parents and their children, one will betray you, thundering one. One will always be there until when needed most. One of these will be fighting with you when you die. One will be involved in the Allfather's death. One will rule the Frost Giants."

"And the sixth?" Thor asked.

"Is worse yet."

"You lie," Thor told it.

"Are you asking to behold your death?" Skuld inquired neutrally.

While he did not refuse it, Thor said nothing.

Sensing so much fear from those who could protect him, sensing boundless power hostile to him, Jormungand's skin split and shed away, falling to the floor all bloody and forgotten.

There is something wrong here, Sif knew, could feel it in her bones and in every sinew of her body. Even more than the dire words the creatures had uttered, something more was wrong.

"There are only two of you," Loki said to the Norns. Always, always they travel in threes. We never know if their names are in fact fractions, names, or titles, or something else entirely. "Where is the third?"

"In the appropriate place," said Verdandi, the second Norn. "This shall be, and cannot be changed."

"And now we depart," said Skuld..

Nobody dared to stop them on their way out, just as nobody had dared to stop them on their way in - even the entire Einherjar could not have stopped one of the Norns, nor could Odin, and some say he used to try.

"Brother," Thor said.

Sif stared at him. Sigyn glared after the Norn, the root cause of it all.

Loki turned on his heel and stared up at Thor. "Already, Thor? Barely have they uttered their venom, and you already turn on your kin?"

"What I was going to say, is what I will say, Loki; that I have your backs in this. None will take the children while I have breath in me."

Turning the stare into something more polite, Loki nodded. "Thank you, brother."

"May I hold one?" Thor asked.

Loki looked to Sif and Sigyn, both of whom gave a nod. "Here you go, little Hel. Go to your uncle," and made sure Thor supported the little girl's head as he cradled her on one arm.

"You are very beautiful," Thor whispered to Hel, whose narrow tongue briefly poked out from between her lips. "I would say more lovely than your mothers, but then all your parents would surely slay me where I stand."

"Extenuating circumstances," Sif said with a smile. Though I suspect you still harbor an unspoken crush on Sigyn. "Please," and granted him continue.

"I am your uncle. My name is Thor. Hello, Hel," Thor said, and with his free hand, offered one finger, gingerly feather-light running it along one of her knuckles. Hel was quick to grab that finger with both her hands, the chubby one and the rail-thin one.

Seeing the look on his face, "I believe any coherency Thor may have had, is now lost to us," Sif jested.

"Clearly a sign that our daughter inherited the trait from you, my dear," Loki replied to her.

"Excuse me?"

"You do remember, I trust, when you met us."

Sif nodded as, having just ducked under her maternity vest, Ullr jostled briefly with an imaginary friend for a comfy position from which to suckle. "I thought that to be because I was trespassing."

"Rationalization," Loki said, Jormungand coiling nearly his entire self around Loki's hand. Softly softly to his son, "Are you comfy? Is that a good perch?" Loki asked him.

Nodding with approval, Odin said "This will be a good family," speaking of the immediate and extended family alike.

"Yet more approval," Loki said, but this lacked the bite of his earlier remark.

~~

That night, as she returned to bed, Sif paused at bedside to smile tenderly at the sight she was presented with...

Loki lying flat on his back, limbs splayed out every which way, but hands holding Ullr close – the boy looking equally undignified in how he clung to his father's arms as though for dear life, does he dream of flying through the air? Sif wondered. Jormungand lay around the base of Loki's neck like an unclasped torg or bracelet, the son's sleep made possible by the father's even breathing. Hel held pride of place, belly-down across Loki's chest, her tiny hands holding tight to fistfuls of nightshirt.

(Sigyn was out of sight, presently bathing in the suite’s bodywashing room.)

"Are we presentable?" Loki asked Sif, his words naught more than a whisper, with three very good reasons for it.

"Most satisfactory," Sif nodded, and places her knee on the mattress so as to lie down beside them all -

When the alarms sound and resound throughout Asgard, and Sif is standing and alert, any other thoughts driven from her mind. A thought is spared only when the noise makes Fenrir whimper and Narvi groan like his father does when newly-awakened at an inopportune hour. But even Loki is alert and already sliding their children off him and secreting them each in a secure place. With a twitch of his hands, Loki summons his blades and her glaive to their respective owners before Sif can take two steps.

Sigyn charges out from the bathing room, a battle-tolerant nightshift weaving itself into existence around her, and sends the patterning over to Sif’s to armor her as well.

No sooner is that done, than there is a noise which seems to result in a squad of icicles striking the ceiling of their quarters, and from each icicle's interior slides out a Frost Giant. "Where are the infants?" it wants to know.

"You will not know, now or ever," Sif tells it - her, she suspects somehow. A Giantess. They all are, at least the ones in here are. Sif raises her glaive, blade sliding out with the speed of water dropping off a cliff. And with that, the battle begins. Those who fought in the last War, the one which ended with Jotunheim rendered impotent, they spoke of Frost Giants who grew frozen weapons as extensions of their arms. These don't do that - they fire darts, bolts, needles and cudgels of heavy ice.

Loki takes down one of the Frost Giantesses while Sif topples two who were coming close to where Hel hid, while Sigyn rends the frozen flechetes to snow, then rope-grabs a Giantess and hurls her into another of the invaders. There are too many of their opponents to keep every single one from approaching possible places for the babies to have been tucked away from the fight, but they do not let that stop them, nor does it slow or dishearten them - instead, it redoubles their efforts.

A trumpet sounds, and several of the Frost Giantesses leap from the balcony, leaving Sif and Loki and Sigyn alone with only three living Frost Giantesses.

The alarm quiets itself, and Sif's stomach dreads the idea that they are gone, hates the thought without wanting to know why that is.

Loki's gut feels the same way as Sif's, his being tied up in knots as he and she and she stare down the trio of Giantesses.

Sigyn’s hands flex, gripping new strands to shape into offensive bindings for use against the final three invaders.

Then, one of the Giantesses pivoted and raised a hand to fire flechettes of ice into the base of her neighboring Giantess' skull, killing immediately.

Loki and Sif took advantage of the momentary confusion to fire a dagger to the third one's throat and, at the same time, blast fire into the third one's gut, and then faced off against the lone remaining one, she who had turned traitor to her own kind.

"I am to send a greeting from the Iron Knives," she told them…as she ceased to be a Frost Giantess.

"Before I continue, understand its context," Loki said to Jane and Tony, having agreed to tell them more. "Jotunheim's military was crushed at the end of our last War with them. We of Asgard had gained a measure of control over Niflheim a full three wars previous; and we had a treaty which permitted the Jotunn community there to remain, provided they did not rise against us. But when you cut the head off your enemy, it matters not how many oaths the head swears to and upholds...the body has no way of being bound to them."

"So Jotunheim attacked Asgard?" Jane asked.

"Jotunheim was behaving itself - this was well after the War, after all," Loki said. "No, the invaders were from Niflheim."

"Who?" Tony asked.

"Land of the dead," Jane said.

Loki didn't make any wisecrack about myths. Instead, he said "It would have been, if I had my way. But I couldn't have done that to her"

“Her?” Tony asked. “Big-ass hunch here – you’re not referring to Jarnsaxa or your exes.”

“I have no exes,” Loki said, and nearly left it at that non-answer. “And I speak of Hel.”

One of the invading Giantesses invaders had just turned on another, firing a burst of icicles point-blank into her compatriot - thus buying Sif and Loki enough time to take out the room's third Giant. Only then did Asgardian reinforcements arrive.

"Who are you?" the survivor was asked by Sif, her glaive's edge already sharpening itself, practically begging to be put to use once more.

Lowering herself to her knees, hands pointed at her own sides, the survivor replied, "I am Jarnsaxa of the Iron Knife. And I, etin, do wish to join your forces against Niflheim." Before any could bluster or object, she continued with "And you are planning an offensive, a retaking, justifiably. I ask to be a part of the storm which you shall rain down upon their heads."

"Why would you turn on your own kind?" Loki asked her, coming to the fore.

She gave him a curious look. "You know nothing of etins, then?"

"Stories and this battle."

"Then I shall tell you," Jarnsaxa said. "We are no more united than are your kind. No race of the Realms is unified."

"A shoddy excuse, claiming factionalism as your motivation for offering us your services," Loki remarked.

"Factionalism exists, nonetheless, and is why your children were taken, high prince," she said. "They think to buy greater autonomy for themselves with the infants' lives. What else remains to us, after Asgard has removed all else from our reach?"

"You sound bitter."

"Pragmatic. There is no point weeping over the victory of five wars ago. Those who cannot adjust are to be helped, but they are not to endanger everyone else. And they shall pay with their blood spilled, payment for forcing the cooperation of all others in Niflheim.”

"Then you commit yourself to being our prisoner, until we determine the manner in which we shall crush Niflheim?" Loki asked her.

"I would shed my weapons, but they are me," Jarnsaxa replied. "I shall make no attempt to escape or sly away."

"Take her into the corridor and await," Loki informed the guards, who complied. He barely needed to share a look with Sif to know what they would both do next - check to see if any of their children had avoided capture. No, he thought when they had turned the room over twice more, in case one had found a new and better hiding place. Nowhere.

"They will burn," Sif swore.

Loki agreed: "We shall recover all four, and then crush Niflheim underfoot."

“Is there any more to what you have to say?” Sigyn asked.

Jarnsaxa said, “From my clan, the Iron Knives, a few were brought to the Spring Of Hvergelmir that place of churning waters. There already was Ivaldi and some of his sons, also Brokk’s kin.

“Then came Hela, Governor, bidden and invited. She was seized and boons restrained… And Niflheim’s Governor then was slain. Garm was then hobbled and cast into the abyss. Then all who had viewed, we were commanded to come to Asgard now for kidnap. Godsnapping.

“That I saw,” Jarnsaxa finished.

“Is there a reason for all this?” Thor asked.

“A crude one, a terrifying one,” Jarnsaxa said. “Say those who were there and closer than I, a Norn appeared and spoke. Said the Norn, that soon they the Norns, would stride across their once territory. There would be no war for who can stand against a Norn?”

~

"Open the Einherjar and all other barracks to them," Odin instructed. "Only the Armory is off-limits for this mission," he added, then dismissed that soldier to make the Allfather's wishes done.

Odin turned his solitary gaze on another soldier present. "Einherji, I wish to speak to my sons, to Sigyn of the Valkyries, to Sif of the Einherjar, and to Jarnsaxa of the Iron Knife. Bring them."

"At once, Great Allfather," the mortal woman said and departed to obey.

"'The Iron Knife'... a curious group to claim allegiance to," Frigga said.

"A useful one, certainly now," Odin said. "And in times to come?"

"I know you send her with them to assault Niflheim, as I know her valor on the battlefields there."

"And beyond?" which was never a thing he asked lightly or often.

"You believe it would work?" Frigga asked.

"What have you seen to suggest otherwise?" Odin asked.

"I have seen Loki and Sif and Sigyn and Thor and Jarnsaxa returning to Asgard," and I did not wish to look around them, at who returned with them.

Odin nodded. "Then you have supported my thought - that no matter what the Iron Knife woman's loyalties, this will be good for Loki."

"And for Thor," Frigga said.

"A bonus."

And an additional one will be you bouncing a grandson on your knee.

~

Sif's gaze upon him was thanks aplenty for Loki as he affixed pockets of hold-this space securely to Sif's leathers and then to her armor: every one where she could easily reach it. While he did that for her, she was placing a plethoria of daggers into his own hold-this pockets; he had installed them while Sif had readied her personal armory.

Interupted only once by Loki taking her hand and holding it up directly beneath his lips. "Come back to us," he whispered; an uncharitable soul might have called it beseeching.

"I shall consider that to be mutually binding," Sif said, and he kissed her hand. Translation: That goes for you too and I agre to this.

“Valhalla will welcome our corpses,” Sigyn said, wishing them good fortune.

“But let us not rush to enter,” Loki said, taking a small step over to her as she moved towards them. Taking her hand in his, Loki told her “I know you and I are not as close as you and Sif, know too that you and I do not love one another as do I and Sif to each other. But you are a treasured friend, a boon to my life, and one whose death I would avenge ninefold. Take care in what comes, Sigyn.”

She smiled. “Ever good with words, carving the known truth into food for the ears. I will avenge you ninefold, and then dine with you in Valhalla. I have no doubt you would become the second to ever escape from the hallowed Hall of the Valkyrie.”

Sif placed her hand on Sigyn’s. “A ninefold avenging by my hand, against any who strike you down, sister. Your name will be immortal, even outside Valhalla, unoutgoing as you were.”

“I will avenge you ninefold, and finish helping you become a Valkyrie, sister. We shall dine in Valhalla and stride through the battlefields of all the Realms.”

Sif smiled. “It does have a certain appeal,” she said.

"The Allfather summons the three gods before me," said the Einherji at their doorway.

They three parted reluctantly but were deadly serious the moment they did so. "My thanks," Sif said. "What is your name?"

"I am Brishelda Hildasdottir Grendlemitt, junior lieutenant in the Berserk Corps."

"Then accept this return," Sif said, drawing a long-favored ivory-and-bone dagger from one pocket and, holding it in the flat of her hand, presented it to Brishelda.

"I - I - I ca-"

"This was your ancestor's. I have all confidence it will serve you well."

She was silent, her eyes drinking it in, all the detail and love which had gone into making it, the half-remembered bedtime stories it had featured in, the lore attributed to it. Looking up at Sif, tears in her human eyes, "May I ask its name?"

Sif said, "It is a secret name, one which comes to the mind of Grendlemitts."

"When you are ready," after the girl accepted the return and inserted it into a pride of place pocket of her own. As Brishelda escorted them to the throne room, Loki said to Sif, "There is a spell I have been reading of during our pregnancy - reading, not practicing - and I believe this would be an ideal time for its use."

“What manner of spell?” Sigyn inquired.

“A casting of deception, throwing images of one’s self to mislead and waylay one’s enemy.”

“That bodes well,” Sif said, and Sigyn nodded agreement. The three of them said nothing further until they stood before Odin. Thor was there as well, as was Jarnsaxa.

"Those Frost Giants of Niflheim responsible are using the Dwarven forge of their coconspirators, to create bindings for each infant," Odin said. “Fetters unlike what your kin work,” he said to Sigyn.

"Then we shall break the bindings," Thor said confidently.

"Concern yourself with rescuing first, Thor. The bindings will be dealt with only afterwards. Yes, my sons; yes, Sif; yes, Sigyn; bindings - three layers of increasing difficulty, wrapping each of them. The outermost will be almost too easily-defeatable to deserve a name, that is which lies over Dromi, which covers Glepnir." And all of them will not be easy for conventional Asgardian tools.

Odin held out his hand, and his Staff - his Spear, some called it - flew into his hand...which he held out to Loki.

"What?" Loki asked.

"I offer you -"

"I can see what you offer. What eludes me is the reason."

"Would you rather I save your children, or would you like my help in your saving them?" Odin asked, but asked it of Loki as much as he asked it of Sif.

You always told us that leadership requires the difficult choices, even when we would rather not think and ponder, Thor knew; but that question, Father! "Can it not be -"

"Both? No, it cannot. There is only one way in or out of Niflheim, and they will be watching the Bifrost."

There have to be other means of travel, Loki was sure. I will find them. After this. Right now, there is no time to dawdle.

"We will accept what you offer, Allfather," Loki said.

Sif gingerly took hold of Odin's spear, and Odin let go of it. The spear adjusted its weight and balance for Sif.

~

After Odin finished laying out for them what they could expect upon arrival in Niflheim, and listening to proposals of avenues of counter-invasion and attack and recovery… a small group of Einherjar soldiers approached Sif. “Noble Lady, Great Knight, Goddess the daughter of God, you -”

“Yes?” Sif asked, not presently in a mood to do the give-and-take verboseness that Einherjar forms of address could be.

"We, the Einherjar, are prepared to venture into the field of battle alongside you, Knight Sif."

“I accept,” Sif replied. “You, the Einherjar, will follow behind us, your arrival staggered by a small interval.”

“Your will be done,” and bowed and headed over to relay the commands.

Jarnsaxa looked back and forth from the Einherjar to Sif.

"Yes?" Sif asked her.

"Are the rest of them being held in reserve?" Jarnsaxa asked, puzzled.

"Not in the way you are thinking of. There have been reforms to make their number almost entirely human." I happen to be one of the few remaining exceptions, given that the reforms occurred in the time of the Allfather’s grandfather.

"Then it is a moot point that the political situation kept me from applying to join the Einherjar."

Has an etin served in the Einherjar since the final century of Buri's reign? "Know this - know that if you even appear to be about to betray us, I will slay you before you can draw breath."

"I would expect nothing less," Jarnsaxa replied.

~

Odin watched the Bifrost activate and transport the rescuers to Niflheim. Once it had powered back down, the Allfather turned away and strode towards his Armory. Few things in the cosmos may be able to free Loki from his bindings, but I can at least break the bindings that are set upon my grandchildren.

The PRESENT:

“We then all covered ourselves in accomplishments as we retook Niflheim from those who had kidnapped our kin and murdered the Governor,” Thor said.

"You mean glory, right?" Darcy kidded him.

Thor made a noise.

“O-kaay, so - Wait, you’re not going to tell us about the battle?” Darcy asked as she and Dr. Banner and Pepper walked with Thor up the mountainside to where Jarnsaxa awaited. There was a humongonormous wedge of stone - volcanic uplift, probably - ahead of them, in their path. “You sure you’re feeling okay?” And given that our buddies are still scratching their heads about your alien tech, why haven’t any of the guys called in Von Doom yet? Okay, he’s a bad guy. But what about Doctor Octavius – he’s a reformed figure, right?

“The battle was not the point. The rescue was the point.”

“Makes sense,” Pepper said. “Narratively.”

“Jarnsaxa?” Thor asked when the etin woman in question walked around the wedge of mountain uplift and into sight.

“Your nephew was eager to begin another trial of weapons made to free him,” Jarnsaxa said.

“Where is the…” Darcy started to ask, then trailed off as it hit her: the big guy. A snake at least as big as a planet. Darcy took a long moment for her brain to register that, yes, the massive thing in front of her, was in fact a living thing - a head. Hoooooly sh- “Hi?” Darcy asked it. And in reply, I get a placid gaze from eyeballs the size of Hobbit doors.

And accompanied by the grinding sound of rocks being plowed and sliced through, another woman stepped around from the other side of Jormungand’s head.

And then, in the most cheerful voice Darcy had ever heard anyone say it, Thor all but shouted at this other woman, “Hel!”

“Uncle,” Hel said. With a faint nod to the humans, “Friends of mine uncle.”

“The Governor of Niflheim arrived not long before you did, my prince,” Jarnsaxa said.

While most people tended to say Darcy had no filter between her brain and her mouth, she didn’t say her thought: that Hel didn’t look like a corpse or a half-corpse.

“You can travel?” Thor asked, hope rich in his voice.

Hel said, “For short periods, yes. But even then, such as now, my bindings root me to Niflheim. I leave deep furrows in my wake with each step, all motions of my arms.” She looked right straight at Pepper, eyes narrowing in focus.

“Yes?” Pepper asked.

“You had within you a power source and engine which could have powered and worked your will upon Asgardian technology,” Hel said. “Only to hobble yourself.”

Jormungand whimpered.

Holding up the latest prototype from Stark Industries, Pepper said, “Let’s just try this first, shall we?”

“Yes, a fine plan,” Hel agreed, shuffling to stand beside Pepper. “Take aim; you work the machine, and I shall power it,” placing a wizened hand on Pepper’s shoulder.

Feeling vitality and health course into and through herself, Pepper took aim and fired the heavily modified Hulkbuster at a random ribbon around Thor’s nephew.

After a minute, as Pepper continued firing a steady stream at it, and himself sensing a weakness, Thor hurled Mjolnir at the target strand.

…that string at last snapped and collapsed harmlessly to the ground.

Before anyone could begin to cheer, and as Hel removed her hand from Pepper’s shoulder –

The great serpent, known as Jormungand and as Narvi, changed color.

Darcy had a choice word to say. The Other Guy’s jaw dropped. Bruce’s jaw nearly did as well.

The PAST:
Within the palace of Niflheim:

Jarnsaxa's cautionary words returned to mind as they saw what had been done to their children: the three of them had body and limbs covered with the gossamer threads made by Dwarven forges.

"You have conquered us, Asgardian," said the Dwarf called Dain, "but we still win."

"How so?" Sif asked.

"All but one of your progeny is bound to one degree or another. First we bound the girl to the earth of Niflheim, so she may never leave. Then we used a different binding on the serpent-child, so it would eternally grow in size and appetite. A third binding - a fetter, really - on the wolf-child, that it may become ever more ferocious."

The urge - impulse - to decapitate this Jotunness was strong, and Sif very nearly drew her glaive once more. But then she smiled a smile more worrisome and frightening than her blade could be. "Grendelsmits, come here," Sif said, summoning several of the Einherjar. "I give you watch over this Giantess. She is your prisoner." If you die now at the hands of your captors, Giantess, the blood will be on the blades of mortal men and women. Such a humiliation for you.

"Yes, Knight Sif," said one of the Grendelsmit family.

The PRESENT:

Loki fell silent.

“You need a minute?” Tony asked.

“I have been tortured and had torments on a number of worlds,” Loki said. “None were as harsh for me, as what transpired next. It had come time for farewells.”

“Somebody dying and didn’t notice it until then?”

“Nothing in that vein,” and continued the tale.

The PAST:

“No,” Loki said. I shall stay here with you. No matter what any of the others of Asgard do.

"You have to go," Hel said.

Loki shook his head.

"Its okay. I understand. They need you," Hel said. "Mommy needs you."

Are you as wise as Forseti already? and was of two minds about whether that was a good thing, for his daughter to be so brilliant at not yet two weeks old. "And so do you," Loki said.

"You killed the bad ones, Daddy, stomped on them flat. I'm safe here. Please go. Mommy needs you."

"I don't want to go..." he said, positive that this was one cause for which even Sif would set her glaive and daggers down for as long as it took. I can stay with her a while longer. It isn't like Asgard needs me for anything.

Thor stood in the doorway, knowing there was nothing he could say - and even offering his support by saying 'brother...' would repay him with nothing but a bolt of magic tearing through his side. And I do not blame him one bit, nor would I be angered if he did that anyway; I would do worse to any who interrupted my saying goodbye to Magni, favorite fosterling of mine.

"I know you don't want to leave, Daddy," Hel said, her nose twitching in what would have been a sniffle in anyone else.

Loki nodded.

"But what about my brothers? Ullr, and Jormungand. If you're here, who is going to take care of them? You have to go."

Sif rejoined them just as Loki was tearing himself away from Hel, and now it was Sif who went over to Hel and wrapped her arms around her daughter, (for once uncaring if anyone saw Sif with tears).

"I'll be okay, Mommy," Hel said quietly into Sif's ear. "You'll be good, and so will Daddy, and so will Mommy. We'll all be okay."

Sif pulled back only enough to look Hel in the eyes, and she wondered if this was how Forseti's mother had felt, seeing what felt like all the wisdom of the ages, encapsulated in a body which hadn't even been weaned yet. "We'll get you out of these bindings," Sif vowed.

"I know you will," Hel said, her voice never wavering, her confidence unbending.

When Sif didn't end the hug, Hel said, "Mommy, if you don't go, how will you find a solution?"

Twas putting it mildly, but that hurt Sif's heart; even as it was true and Sif knew it to be so.

When Sigyn approached to wrap her arms around Hel, Sigyn vowed “I will visit.” Once I complete my training as a Valkyrie, I will be able to cross the Realms and come here whenever I so please. “I shall.”

“I know,” Hel said. “Though do not cast aside Mommy and Daddy, please Mommy. They need you as much as do I.”

While Sigyn was speaking with Hel, "We're taking you back to Asgard," Sif said to Fenrir as she held him, who scrunched up his eyes at all the phantom burr-seeds which glepnir made it feel like were covering him, pinpricking him. "I know a nice and quiet mountain pass there, where nobody will bother you," and figuratively stabbed her own heart that she even thought and where you cannot pose a threat to anyone.

A whimper escaped from Fenrir's mouth that would have been a "Thank you, Mommy," making her just want to bury her face in his fur and let him soak up her tears.

One arm around Sif, Loki looked down upon their other son, at Jormungand trying not to writhe at how the binding's knotwork itched so.

Asgard has shallow seas, Thor knew. My nephew deserves better than to be trapped like a beached whale for however many decades it takes to find a solution to this. "If I may, Sigyn, brother, Sif, I have a few thoughts on adequate waters where he could be comfortable."

Sigyn betrayed no palpable emotion but judgement, while Sif's lips stayed thin, but Loki eventually gave a nod and said "It is appreciated, brother."

The Bifrost activated, sending Odin down upon the caked surface of Niflheim, as rough in the palace’s grounds as anywhere else on Niflheim. 'My congratulations on your victory' was what he would have said, had it not have been salt in the wounds and he knew that feeling well.

"Those are from the Armory," Thor said, seeing what Odin was carrying. "You said -"

"You carried the day without need of them," Odin said. "These are for more urgent matters," and set down two of the Armory's inhabitants as he carried the Hammer Mjolnir to where Hel was standing.

Sif's grip loosened enough for Fenrir to slip out. She had been raised to trust implicitly in the Allfather and his decisions and his actions, but in any other circumstance, she would have interposed herself between Hel and Odin with a hammer - even one powerful enough to require a housing in the Armory. She went over and held Hel's hand, taking as much reassurance in the girl's calmness as she hoped she was giving her daughter.

Fenrir started to toddle towards the Casket of Ancient Winters, sniffing at the chill which rolled off its sides.

"Do. Not. Touch," Odin stated firmly, and even Thor and Loki kept their hands at their sides and took a half-step back.

Fenrir sat up, watching what was about to happen, the Casket forgotten.

Jormungand rolled on his back, hoping for at least a belly-rub, which Thor supplied.

Standing within arm's reach of the girl now, Odin crouched down and met her gaze (such as it was) with his own (such as it was). "You must release your mother's hand, my girl, only for a moment," Odin said to Hel. "Otherwise this will not work."

Hel dropped Sif's hand and didn't shut her eyes, just looked right at Odin's eye as he raised Mjolnir and tapped her shoulder with it. As the outermost binding fell to the ground, inert and useless and broken, Odin told his granddaughter, "You can hold her hand again."

"Thank you," Hel told him, duckweed-tinged cararacts filming over and falling from her eyes.

"Now, Jormungand, it is your turn," Odin said, rising and placing Mjolnir back with its neighbors, picking up the Casket now. "Stand back, my sons," and when they had complied, Odin fired the Casket at his serpent-shaped grandson until the little one was encased in a chunk of ice more solid than could form on most worlds. "Shield your faces, everyone," Odin stated.

The chunk shattered in all directions, bits of the outermost binding with it. What remained was Jormungand, scales glistening mamba-green for a few moments, then returned to their original color. "YAY, thank you, grandfather!"

Odin gave him a nod. Then, "Thor, pick up the Hammer Mjolnir and bring it here."

Thor frowned, but complied, obeying.

"Now tap your one of your nephew's scales with it," Odin said, trusting Frigga's statement that 'Thor will wield Mjolnir and perform rescues with it.'

"Father, I -"

Odin was about to remand him, but Jormungand slid over to Thor's feet and looked up at his uncle with those big eyes of his.

"Please?" he asked uncle Thor.

"I shall," Thor said, afraid to see what expression was on the faces of Loki or Sif as he knelt down, placing what he hoped to be a hand of reassurance on Jormungand's back. Having used hammers before, Thor gave a gentle tap to a scale on Jormungand's tail; unfortunately, Mjolnir had never been a normal hammer.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Jormungand screamed, or started to scream, right before he bit Thor's arm. Ullr don't like loud, was his logic.

Thor set Mjolnir down with infinite caution, and used that hand to pet his nephew, whispering to him that it was okay, that uncle Thor understood, that he wasn't mad. Thor was ready to stay like that for as long as need be. Neither of them paid any notice to the shards of Dromi, the middle layer of binding, lying around them.

Fenrir gulped nervously went to hiding behind Loki's legs.

Hel clung to Sif's leg.

It should not be so, Odin thought to himself. How tempted am I to ignore the words of Frigga my queen, as she had told me, shortly before I came to Niflheim here, that there is only one road to peace – and the foundation of that road is to leave at least one layer of bindings upon each child. If I did not trust my wife and queen so much, I would discount her words and liberate all three. “I can do no more,” Odin spoke. “Greater tools will be needed, devices I do not possess.”

“Then we shall get them,” Sif vowed.

“A singular purpose,” Loki agreed.

“A quest nobler than all others, and all others will fall into the shadow of ours,” said Sigyn.

~

Once Ullr’s fate had been addressed, given his own island sanctuary in that mountain pass, only then was the return from Niflheim into Asgard was marked - celebrated - by a triumph, a grand parade and feast and entertainment to rejoice in the defeat over the godnappers and the change of power in the rule over distant but critical Niflheim. In no mood to receive overmuch cheer, Loki and Sif and Sigyn let Thor take the brunt of the praise, Thor taking the weight of the bulk of all acclaim for the deeds which comprised the victory at Niflheim.

In the days that followed, Thor asked Jarnsaxa to walk with him. "What I have to say, it is not easy, Jarnsaxa. I owe you a great deal. As do -"

"Consider it paid, as my duty under fealty," she said.

"That makes this harder, what I must say," Thor said, "not easier. I am about to ask a great deal from you, but I cannot order you."

"You are a prince of Asgard. If you cannot order me, who can?"

How do I tell when she makes a joke? Can she make a joke?

"What is this you wish to ask of me?" Jarnsaxa asked.

"Loki will not ask this of you, in part because of your part in all of this, good and ill. Thus I am asking, without his knowledge. Jarnsaxa of the Iron Knife, will you venture out and keep safe watch over my nephew Jormungand? I know the Norn's words were that he would ever continue to grow, in size and ferocity, but..."

"I understand, prince Thor. Heart and mind do not always cooperate in their understandings. Your concern is that of an uncle, and rightly so." She knelt at his feet, and while there said "I, Jarnsaxa of the Iron Knife, hereby vow to guard over Jormungand the Serpent until you order me away from my posting," and she stood up. "May I begin?"

Thor nodded. "Please."

~

As for Sif...

Sif's marriage prospects were not dimmed by having given birth - indeed, they were heightened, as she had proven her virility. Now she had even more offers of courtship than before - from Asgardians, from Vanir, even some Dwarves were pressing a suit again.

Lady Freya called Sif before her and said, "You acquitted yourself well, Sif. All accounts are favorable when it comes to your actions on Niflheim, and your instructors agree. So I will ask that you do a task for me."

"What do you ask of me?" Sif asked her fellow Vanir woman.

"I will be taking some time for myself, and am not sure when I will be returning - to Asgard or to Vanaheim. In my absence, I would like for you to be War."

"Me?" Sif asked, feeling doubly proud of herself - one, that she was given that honor; two, that she didn't squeak the word when the news was dropped on her.

A smile twitched at Freya's lips. "Do you suggest a man could have done better?"

"Of course not," Sif replied. "And I would be honored." Not simply because now I hold the title my father once did, though I have yet to attain his rank; but also for now I will have greater power to bring with me in the search for objects of liberation for the children.

"Good; but do not do this for the honor. Do it for the vocation - speaking from experience, you would not have made it this far if it did not speak to you, sing to you."

Sif nodded.

"Hold tight the reins, Lady Sif. And when I return, I would not object to us both being War," Freya said.

"I would like that."

~

As for Loki...

Not yet understanding that her foster-grandfather saw everything in the Nine Realms, Hel had sent him a message, lettered as carefully as her good hand would let her... It had read 'Great Odin King of All. Please do not allow my Daddy, Loki, son of Odin, to come back here, to Niflheim. He would be sad, and upset, and not want to leave. I don't like my Daddy sad. He is happy with my Mommy and my Mommy, I remember that much. Please do not allow my Mommy, Sif, or my Mommy, Sigyn, to come back here, to Niflheim. I would weaken their resolve and make them both sad and upset; this would make me sad and angry. Mommys' place is where she wants to be, but not Niflheim, please. I will be okay. Thank you, King Odin.'

Odin remembered there had been three tears on the message: two healthy tears, and a lone tear from Hel's other half. And he remembered telling Sif and Loki and Sigyn and Thor and their friends that 'a king's duty is not to make the easy decisions.'

"Loki, if you would like -" Odin began to say.

You would offer me the throne, the succession, if you thought it would calm me, would you? The throne I never wanted, I desire even LESS now! "I do NOT WANT your pity!" Loki said, rounding on him. "Nor consolation in the form of words or gifts or anything else!" Breathing through his mouth to vent air which might otherwise have damned one of them with words, Loki waited a bit before he added, "You have my thanks, father, for your role in the recovery of...the children," closing his eyes and wincing that he couldn't have done more, however else or whichever way it may have taken him. Cursing himself, berating himself for even thinking that it would hurt any less to not say their names. "But I do not desire a token of sympathy, not even from the lord of all Realms."

"Then so be it," Odin said.

Present Day, Earth:

As Loki fell silent, Tony tried to imagine how he would have done any differently, and doubted it; also thanked many deities that he hadn't had to - the nearest in his life to that, had been the shutting-down of Jarvis and when Stane and Killian had each nearly killed Pepper. And that - each of them, any of them - was more than enough. He knew there was a possibility that Loki was acting, that he was making it up from bits of half-truths or something, but Stark knew what it was like to fall to the bottom of your own personal pit...and sometimes there had even been a mirror.

Jarvis remained with this room turned to Mute, as Jarvis began scenarios regarding what future dealings with resurgent Norns might be like.

Jane looked down at the as-yet-unrounded part of her torso, contemplating her future. Unless Loki's a better liar and story-spinner than we ever thought, that means that when Thor and I have a child... she could look perfectly normal, or she might not. But either way, she'll be ours, and she'll be perfect. A heroine for the ages, I suspect, with a thoughtful smile.

Sigyn remained standing beside the door, while Sif strode across to him, and let him lean against her, into her. Jarvis informed me of a voice stress analysis he detected, and I came right over. At least you aren't disappearing this time. Not sparing a glance at Jane or Tony, "If you would excuse us," and they nodded, giving the couple some space.

~
Meanwhile: in Asgard:

At last. After a chasming interval, Frigga's words have come true, Odin knew, seeing one of the strands breaking from Narvi. "Good," Odin said.

And, taking a private pathway which only he, Jord, and Heimdall knew of, Odin made his way to Midgard.

Chapter Text

Next Morning:
Conference Room,
Avenger Tower:

“How is any of this fair?” Tony asked those assembled.

“Fair? I thought we were to discuss my brother,” Thor said.

“I think that’s Tony’s point,” Bruce said.

“On the nose,” Tony said. “When you talked us into this, Thor, I figured this would be a work-release program, and to be honest didn’t see much hope for success. But we help our friends, and you’re one.”

Thor frowned. “And yet though…?” having heard such statements from Loki – in spirit, not in precise words – as he had just heard from Stark.

“And now I almost want to bring him and the lovely ladies some warm milk and a blanket, maybe turn on It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“And Mr. Stark does not like that movie,” Jarvis remarked.

“We’ve made progress,” Steve said.

“Yep, learned how to break a god’s shoelaces,” Tony said.

“Well there’s that. But I meant in getting inside Loki’s head, figuring out why he did what he did.”

“Great,” Clint deadpanned; “so now we know what to avoid in the future. Raise your hand if anyone here was going to sleep with him.”

One hand went up.

All heads turned.

…and saw Loki standing there. “Worry not. My schedule is quite full for some time to come; your dating scene must continue to survive without me.”

“If it can move along without me, it won’t miss you either,” Tony said. “Though when you say ‘quite full’, you’re planning more storytimes?”

"Tell me, Stark, how far would you go for revenge?" Loki asked.

"Intercontinental, at least," Tony said. "Why? How far did you go?" Kinda curious how long it took you to grind all the conspirators up into a fine powder.

"You assume I'm done. Your Avengers are one part of my plan."

"Riight."

"Consider the composition of your team. As you said...a man with breathtaking anger management issues - who has the power of the Dwarves. A living legend - who has the lifespan and metabolism of a Vanir. And it is always useful to have assassins." To say nothing of those on the periphery, on the cusp of membership – a boy claiming kinship to arachnids, who moves like thurses; a blind acrobat, with the reflexes of Elves both Dark and Light.

"And me," Stark said.

"Yes, an almost Dwarven ingenuity paired with the Jotunn’s or a Thurses’ capacity for retaliation."

Um, thank you? "And, assuming for the moment that I actually believe this claim of yours, that you arranged all this on purpose...why is an obvious question. What's out there, that you were thinking of aiming us at?"

"The Norns," Loki said. The ones who caused the cascade of events, initiated the chain reactions.

"Oh, right, the things that you and Thor consider gods. No sweat."

“On the contrary,” Odin said as he materialized in a faint crackle of ozone and carbon dioxide, “there will be much sweat.”

“And you are?” Tony asked.

Taking a wild guess that was as much guesswork as based on his wartime reading, Steve said “You’re Odin?”

“I am he,” said Odin.

“Welcome, father,” said Thor.

“Allfather,” Loki said with more neutrality.

“Hi, I’m -” Jane said, holding out her hand to him.

Odin replied, “Jane Foster. Woman. Human. Mortal. Natural philosopher.”

We haven’t called our fields of study that since, oh, the 1800s, at least.

Loki asked them, soto voiced, “Which part of ‘he knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you are awake’ was unclear?”

“Indeed,” Odin said, and slammed the butt of his staff into the floor. Others materialized in the room: Pepper, Darcy, Sif, Sigyn, Thrynhild, Peter Parker, Maria Hill, Nick Fury.

Fury looked right at Odin, good eye to good eye. “Care to explain?” Fury asked.

“Were that not my intent, you would not be here,” Odin said. “I was witness to your statement that your brother is adopted, Thor son of Jord.”

Thor lowered his head.

“Was he wrong?” Tony asked.

“Does it matter?” Steve countered.

“It should not, no,” Odin agreed with Steve. “But no mind is immune to the weights of their society's history.

“There are nine Realms at present, as there were when Loki and Thor were born. There are twice as many habitable worlds within those nine. Over the billions of years that the civilization of the Nine Realms has existed, there have been yet more intelligences arising on those worlds, and not all have endured to the present day.

“You were right in a small measure, Loki,” Odin said. “It was my original intent to raise you and then return you to Jotunheim.”

“Father -” Thor started to object. Loki is… No, utter nonsense; my brother is not a Frost Giant. I would have an easier time believing him to be a sunproof Dwarf.

Odin continued: “But you failed to consider the tactical implications of providing Jotunheim with one of their royals educated in all the weaknesses of Asgard.”

“I would be a threat,” Loki stated flatly, as if it were perfectly obvious.

“You would have to be trusted. And before you think it, it was no oversight on my part, to have you be Asgard’s firmest tie to Valhalla.”

“Thereby strengthening Jotunheim with my return. And this would be tolerated?”

“Who stands against the Allfather?” Odin asked him mildly, chuckling at his own joke. There is more to it, but that is sufficient for now.

“And then I ruined it,” Sif said, understanding – and feeling – the Midgardian expression of wanting to sink under the floor.

“No, Sif, you did nothing to ruin it. Merely delayed it. Forestalled the change. I attempted to unveil Loki's nature to himself the morning after..." and Sif and Sigyn and Loki had no doubt or question as to what morning Odin meant: the morning after the dream.

“Gave prospective ties between Jotunheim and the Einherjar,” Thor suggested, still trying to wrap his head around it all; re-interpreting the past millennia with this new knowledge, that would wait for later.

“You are wondering how,” Loki said, more to Sif and Sigyn than to Thor or the others. “I was born on Jotunheim, and carried away at war’s end.”

Sif frowned; to Odin, she asked “My father was your right hand, your most loyal partisan. He would have known of Loki… He knew? Tyr son of Hymir, Tyr who was War, he knew, did he?”

“Your father knew,” Odin confirmed. “He was there when I found Loki in the Jotunheim temple.”

Thor said, recalling, “Tyr opposed his father’s pre-wartime belief in fostering ties between Jotunheim and Vanaheim, if not between Jotunheim and Asgard.”

Sif said, “…And if my father had changed his view, there would be a risk of some wondering at what prompted the change of mind. So he remained opposed to reconciliation with his father, out of loyalty to you, Allfather.”

“He did so. Those are but two causes for the debts I owed your father. And no, none of what occurred to you, Sif, was in payment of those debts; your father insisted upon that.”

Sif smiled.

“Now, Loki, my son by fosterage,” Odin said, “now that you have – if not friends – then allies, arrange a regnancy for Jotunheim, as I have every certainty that you will wish to concern yourself with matters more important than kingship for a time. As a gift for their new king, I cede Midgard to you, Loki, Sif, and Sigyn.”

“You can’t do that,” Fury stated flatly.

Equally flatly, “No?” with implict ‘and how would you stop me?’

“Father…” Thor said, trying to think of how to convince him not to simply hand over the Earth.

“Jotunheim was once the home of more than the Jotuns, Thor,” Odin said. “Once that ‘gard was home to Jotuns and Thurses and Etins, amongst others; your mother’s race, as well as Jarnsaxa’s.

“This will not be the last time you speak with me,” Odin informed the mortals. “Though pray it is not for some time,” and he departed.

Once Odin had left, Thrynhild spoke: “I as well bring gifts. For the accomplishment made against the bindings, which is not a talent most races reach until twice your kind’s age, I gift to you two minds whom you respected before their deaths took them to Valhalla – one a treasured heart, one a father,” and Thrynhild held her hands aloft, palms down, and the air beneath those palms spun with air and time and fetters until two people were standing there, one beneath each palm.

And then Thrynhild fetter-magicked herself back to Valhalla…

…leaving Peggy Carter and Obadiah Stane standing there, looking at those in the room.