Divided Chapter 61

       Assignment: 64379-01
Location: Asgard



Agent: Colin M. Denehy
Date: 12/03/29


I was going over my journal entries this afternoon and like a lightning bolt it struck me. Simon has been AWOL for going on two months. Is he dead? Imprisoned somewhere? Living happily in some remote Asgardian village? Who knows. We've heard fuck all from him since his letter. To be honest, I don't have a clue what shite Stark is feeding the boys across the portal but he's been able to keep Simon's absence a secret, he even fed Captain Rogers a line when he helped test the portal. It was a bit trickier a couple days ago when Doctor Banner consented to cross over to see Loki's son Brynn about his asthma but then again Simon's absence was a mere footnote to the excitement caused by the examination and subsequent testing of Loki's youngest son.
It started out quietly enough. Loki, Eidra and Brenna arrived at Longhouse 1 with Brynn who was treating the outing as an adventure as he'd never seen the encampment. His enthusiasm was marred by a slight attack, quickly remedied with a shot from his puffer though his high spirits waned quickly enough when we brought him to the med bays in one corner of the longhouse. Upon meeting Doctor Banner, Brynn proceeded to bury his face in his mother's waist. Normally shy with strangers, he seemed to sense Banner most definitely did not belong on Asgard (confirmed by Stark later when he admitted he'd had Brenna use the Uruz to bring him here. I held my hands over my ears and sang very loudly “The Soldier's Song” until he took the hint and put a finger to his lips). Meeting Banner turned out to be the easy part. Eidra was able to coax Brynn up onto the exam table so Banner could listen to his chest and look in his ears and nose, Brynn holding Eidra's hand the whole time.
I can't blame the lad really. Everything Banner was doing seemed alien to him and at five years old fear is a great motivator. Then came the allergy tests. Suffice it to say Brynn will be one of those men who will call on the physician only when he's dead. Eidra got him to lie on his stomach. Though he whimpered when Banner wiped down his back with alcohol and started to put the allergens on his back, we managed to convince him to lie still. While Banner was busy, I told Loki the next step and to my surprise, he blanched white.
“You might want to help hold him down or he'll have to go through this again.”
So we surrounded the boy as Banner bent over with the lancet bar in hand....

Even the sickest of Asgardian children are stronger than any Earthling adult...

To keep the screaming child on the table took four of us putting our weight on his arms and legs. At one point I looked up at Loki and saw tears in his eyes as he watched his son struggle to be freed of the horrible Midgardian torture device but finally after an interminably long half hour Banner was wiping the boy's back free of the irritants and shaking his head.
“He's showed a reaction to dust mites, mold, pretty common in this environment but one of the strongest reactions seem to have come from horses.”
“He's allergic to fecking horses?” I cried, “The only form of transportation in this realm?”
Banner gave Eidra and Loki a wry grin, “I'm afraid so but we can treat him with allergy shots.”
It was a blessing the sniffling child curled up into his mother's lap hadn't the slightest idea what shots were or we'd have been peeling him off the ceiling. Banner promised he would set up the serum  for the encampment physician but that they had to follow the regimen faithfully for it to be effective. Of course, Loki, a serious look on his face, asked Banner, “Will it cure him of this affliction?”
“We don't have a cure for the body's reaction to allergens but we can alleviate the symptoms so he won't be sick all the time.”
“Then we will follow this...regimen you suggest.”
Brynn will be due for his first shot next week.
I'm planning to be absent for that.

And just when I thought things were quieting down, I had a visitor last evening, my friend from beyond the veil. I had seen him about the house from time to time over the past few months, watching the children play, drifting along behind Loki and Eidra listening to their conversation, sitting beside Sally, hovering over her bed as she slept but for the most part we exchanged nods, smiles.
Last night, however, I was shutting off my tablet and getting ready to lay down to sleep when I looked toward the door to my bedchamber to see Chris standing there, wringing his hands.
“Forgive an old fool for disturbing you, lad.”
I shrugged. In all my life seeing the dead as I did, I'd never felt disturbed. Maybe a bit disoriented, as if peering through a window at the landscape of another dimension and I guess. in all actuality, I was.
“Yer not disturbing me. More to the point, what's disturbing you?”
He floated over to the bed and sat down, or hovered over, what have you, the end of my bed.
“I see death all around me,” he muttered, scanning the room.
“Yer a cheery sort aren't you? The only dead I see is the spirit before me.”
“I said death not dead, boy!” Chris waved his hands frantically in the air, “My sweet Sally is nearing the end of her journey and there are others for whom the thread of life is fraying.”
Here Chris pressed his fingers to his lips, stopping his thoughts from escaping.
“Anyone we know?” I ventured, my words taking on a high warble as panic tightened my throat.
Chris nodded then and a thousand people ran through my head at once, Brenna, Loki, Eidra, Thor, Stark, Chase....
“The circle is closing, the runes are converging. Fate has dealt you a hand you must play...”
My blood turned cold as Chris's voice took on a hollow quality...
“The family will be divided as it has never been before, its heart torn asunder. You alone possess the power to mend the rift...”
If I'd the ability to cover his mouth with my hand I would have but I could only sit there stunned into silence as he continued on..
“This is the sole reason you were called here to Asgard, the Protector, the descendant of Volundr...”
“Wait a minute! I never mentioned any of the shite Trena....”
When I interrupted his speech, he turned to me, a startled look upon his incorporeal face.
“I beg your pardon. What are you talking about?”
“You've just been spouting prophecies for the last two minutes, all about the same tripe I've had from that mad seer at the palace.”
Well not exactly the same but another piece to the puzzle...
When Chris shook his head I was gobsmacked.
“I came here to tell you I was worried about my Sally being alone when her time comes to cross over. Whatever are you going on about?”
I sat there staring at him, trying to judge as best I could if he was pulling my leg because if it were the case I was going to give him a right piece of my mind but he just hovered there, concern growing on his features.
“My boy, I said nothing save that Sally's time was nearly up. Good heavens, are you well?”
Was I?
Had I truly heard him speak or had the voice been inside my head?
“I'm fine, I was daydreaming....or night dreaming. I'm fine. My mind was wandering.”
Chris floated to his feet, “You're in need of rest to be certain. Do keep an eye on Sally for me won't you? I would suggest you tell Eidra but 'twould only alarm her and she has enough to worry about what with her little ones.”
“Sure, i'll watch her. She won't be alone.”
Chris smiled at me as he faded into the chill bedchamber air, “There's a good lad. There's a brave lad.”
A brave lad? Before I could ask him what there was to be brave about, he was gone.
I rose up from my bed, lit a lantern, and walked out to the hallway, stood at the landing for a good long while, staring into the gloom at the doors surrounding mine, Brenna's, Fen's, the twins, Cait's, Eidra's and Loki's at the far end. Sally's and Helgi's around the bend along the west wing.
The family would be divided? How? And I was going to mend the rift? Accepting my place in the history of Asgard was one thing but this was a true conundrum. What kind of rift? I wasn't cut out to play marriage counselor, not by a long shot.
The creak of a door opening caught my attention. Cait shuffled out of her bedchamber into the hallway, rubbing her eyes, her rag doll stuffed beneath her arm.
“Colin?”
“Yes, luv.”
“Could I have some water?”
My attention turned away from such serious matters by the needs of a sweet child, I brought her downstairs to fetch her a drink.
Now as I sit here listening to the closing of the front door and Loki's laughter as the children surround him with cries of “Papa, Papa!” I'm left to wonder if I imagined the whole conversation with the old ghost. For the present though, my mind has shifted gears, led by my nose as the aroma of roast venison draws me away...until the next entry, then.



Sulyir tossed a handful of barley pearls in his mouth, chewing them slowly, his eyes following Neve as she wandered about the tavern cleaning tables. His interest was not in Neve but her actions. She would take her rag and wipe the table paying little attention to the task at hand, instead she would search the room until she found the other serving girl, Willa whom she would watch with thinly veiled hatred. When Willa would laugh at a patron's joke,  or lean over and whisper in another man's ear, Neve would pause as if mesmerized until Willa moved on and Neve would frown, move to the next empty table.
“How are we today, Sulyir?”
Sulyir looked up to see Eris standing behind him, one hand on her hip, an empty stein in the other.
“I am fair. I fear you cannot say the same?” he pointed to his bottom lip and she raised her hand to her own, brushing the scab while she kept a straight face. Every time she'd smiled this week the scab would split open and bleed again.
“Ah this? I took an elbow to the face while dancing last week. Where have you been? I haven't seen you in a month.”
“I was helping my employer ready his farm for the winter.”
He smiled to himself as he recalled the old man's reaction at his request to sleep in the hayloft as the snows began to fall. He had reassured the man he would be quite comfortable and with a shake of his head, the old man had waved him up the ladder.
“Well I'm no farmer. I'll take your word for it. Have things gotten any easier on the diet front?”
Sulyir tilted his head, “Diet?”
Eris rolled her eyes, “Are you eating any better?”
“Ah,” Sulyir clapped his hands together, “I am in fact. The farmer's wife baked me barley bread and I found I was able to stomach it. I am also able to tolerate buttermilk which the farmer has in abundance.”
Eris wiped his table down, “Sounds pretty dull.”
Sulyir frowned, “It suffices.”
Eris stopped, peered at him across the table, “So why don't you return to Muspelheim?”
“I...cannot,” he ached to share his grief with someone but he couldn't yet bring himself to confide in the barmaid.
“In trouble back home are you?” She mumbled, leaning lower to the table.
Sulyir sat back, taken by surprise as Eris gazed up at him, “So am I. At least I will be when I show up again.”
“Indeed. Are we not a pair?”
Eris gave him a wan smile, “You don't know the half of it.”
“I'm all ears.”
But Eris shook her head, “Even if I had the inclination, I don't have the time right now. Maybe another night.”
She stood up, her hands to her back with a groan, “Damn my bed.”
Neve slipped up beside her with a cluck of her tongue, “Poor thing. I'll puts unguents on your back tonight.”
Eris nodded as Neve grinned, hurried away with a tray of empty steins.
“The drow acts rather strange tonight,” Sulyir mused, “Do you know why?”
“Neve is strange all the time,” Eris picked up the empty stein from the table.
“She watches the other barmaid constantly, there is hatred in her eyes.”
Eris sighed, turned to look at Neve who was waiting at the bar for Willa to fill her tankards, “They don't really get along. Willa doesn't get along with anyone, actually.”
Sulyir saw Eris's hand rise to touch her lip again and at once he knew. Willa was the reason for Eris's injury.
“Excuse me,” Eris began to make her way between the crowded tables leaving Sulyir alone, struggling with his thoughts as he watched the ebb and flow of men and women through the tavern.



Loki held Brynn in his lap, glancing up at Stark as Doctor DeSalle wiped Brynn's arm with an alcohol swab.  
“Remember what we spoke of?” Loki whispered in Brynn's ear, “How brave you would be for me?”
Brynn nodded though his face was ashen, his eyes locked on the stranger beside him, a bottle in his hand as he drew the serum into the syringe.
“Okay,” Doctor DeSalle leaned over to Brynn, “You're going to feel a little pinch and it'll be all done before you can say ouch.”
Loki saw the doctor's hands were trembling, “You have no need to be afraid, Doctor. Calm yourself.”
The doctor gave him a shaky smile, “Of course...of course. Ready?”
Brynn screwed his eyes shut and turned away, tucking his head beneath Loki's chin. As the needle pricked the skin of his arm, he drew a sharp breath through his teeth though he remained still until the doctor withdrew the needle.
“Well done, young man!” Doctor Desalle set the syringe on the stand beside the divan and stood up as Brynn opened his eyes and grinned.
“Well done indeed!” Loki enfolded Brynn in his arms, giving him a tight squeeze before the boy jumped down from his lap and sprinted into the dining hall crying, “Mama, it is done! Come see!”
Loki stood, offering his hand to the doctor who shook it heartily, “Thank you for coming here to my home,” he tilted his head toward Stark, “And thank you for bringing him. It would have been much harder to convince Brynn to return to the encampment.”
Stark shrugged, “No trouble at all. Now we just have to wait for a half hour to make sure there's no reaction and we'll be off.”
“Will you not stay for the evening meal?” Loki gestured to the dining hall as Eidra and Colin emerged, Eidra holding Brynn's hand.
“We'd love to but I don't like to be away from my post for long,” Stark smiled at Eidra, “Pepper gets anxious when she's left alone. We've only got a couple more days together before she has to return to Earth.”
Stark's countenance darkened. He had informed Loki a few days before that when the King traveled to Earth to bring Jane back home, Pepper would go with him. She certainly couldn't keep tabs on what was happening on Earth from Asgard. She was his first line of defense after all.
Stark turned to Colin, “You've only got a week and some before you go home too. Spending Christmas with the family, huh?”
Colin nodded, “Aye, I am that. Can't wait.”
His monotone response wasn't lost on Stark who raised an eyebrow, “Calm down. It'll happen soon enough.”
Colin glanced at the floor, hands clasped before him but soon all attention was drawn to the foyer from where rushed Astrid, Cait, and Edie followed by Ingrid and Fen.
“Did you get shot?” Astrid cried, hurrying over to Brynn, taking her twin by the arm and making him yelp.
“Ow! Do not touch it, Astrid! I must wait for it to work.” Brynn yanked his arm from her grasp.
“EEE! EEE!” Edie shouted, bending close to his arm though she kept her hands behind her back.
“Children, do not smother him so!” Ingrid called, ushering them over to the adults, “Mind your manners.”
“Fen you gotta stop growing,” Stark whistled, “You're going to be taller than your father you know.”
Fen blushed pink though he seemed to swell proudly, “My mother would agree with you, Master Stark.”
“Come let us repair to the dining hall,” Loki was herding them enmasse, “You have time for a bit of wine in the very least.”
Stark rubbed his hands together, “Oh there's always time for that.”


Simon drew off his coat, draping it before him over his saddle. As they neared the border of Muspelheim, the weather had become warm and warmer still until he could no longer bear it. The mountains which had seemed small from such a distance three days past now loomed high overhead in a long ridge pointing the way into Bantr's kingdom.
“They're immense, my God!” Simon shielded his eyes from the early morning sun, “Tell me we don't have to go mountain climbing.”
Harmand shook his head. Twisting in his saddle, he pointed toward a great valley, “Not up, my boy, down. Do you see where those two mountains converge, those turrets rising above the trees? That is Surtr's stronghold....or so I've been told,”
Simon squinted hard, sure it was a trick of perspective that made the gray stone turrets seem to dwarf the trees surrounding it as Harmand twisted about in his saddle and gestured to the wide valley,  “Pelinor do you think we can make the valley floor before sundown?”
Pelinor took a spyglass from the pouch behind his saddle and opened it up. He was a thin, handsome young man, his long brown hair studded with braids each of which he claimed was done by a different maid from the village. He held himself in great regard though Harmand had taken him down a couple notches a few times along the trip when his pride threatened to overtake his good sense.
Simon eyed the group as Pelinor surveyed the landscape. Besides himself, Wickett, Pelinor and Harmand, there were the two brothers, Mazov and Kara. Middling aged, they seemed less like brothers, more like dearest friends so well did they get on. So in harmony were they with one another, they would often finish each others sentences. In the village, they owned a well appointed shop where they sold nearly anything one could wish for, their stock bought on the road when they traveled through the realm trading. They were confirmed bachelors, sharing the living space above their shop with no company save their cat, Kensy.
The only female who'd volunteered to come along “Seeing as none of you could best me in a fight, you'll be needing a warrior to guard your flanks,” Tulla, was built as sturdy as an oak, the tallest of the group, covered in leather and armor plate, blond hair braided and plaited around her head, Simon couldn't get the song “Ride of the Valkyries” to stop playing in his head every time he looked at her.
“If we get a move on now, yes,” Pelinor closed the spyglass and dropped it in his pouch, “We should make it by nightfall, but I recommend we strike camp before sundown so we will know our surroundings.”
Turning their horses, they started down the long slope to the valley floor, crossing from Alfheim into Musplheim, their destination slowly swallowed up by the horizon as they descended ever lower into the unfamiliar terrain.



Loki looked up from the tome in his lap to Eidra who was easing the bedchamber door shut.
“Is he asleep?”
“At last, yes,” Eidra draped her robe over the chair before her dressing table, “He kept repeating over and over, “Papa said I was brave. Was I not brave, Mama?” He is beside himself with anticipation for the morrow. Do take care with him.”
Loki smiled, “I shall wrap him in our heaviest robes from head to toe.”
“And you will remember to bring his medicine?”
“Of course.”
Before Doctor DeSalle had arrived at the manor, Brynn had been sick with fear. Loki had taken him by the hands, promising him that if he bore the doctor's treatment bravely, as a young man should, he would bring him to the palace with him that next day and he would be as good as his word.
Loki returned his attention to the tome as Eidra sat down upon the bed, kicking her slippers off her feet.
“Brenna is not in her bed again tonight,” she sighed, slipping beneath the covers.
“Mmm.”
Eidra propped herself up onto her pillows, “Have you nothing more to say?”
Loki read a few more lines, pursed his lips, considering his response, “Rest assured she is indeed in bed somewhere else.”
Eidra sat forward, “Loki!”
He cast a sidelong glance at her, “She is twenty seasons and more. A woman in her own right. What would you have me do?”
Eidra plopped back on the pillows, her arms crossed in front of her, “This from a man who less than a fortnight past was ready to send his daughter back to Midgard if such would keep her from Chase Wells arms.”
“She will return to Midgard without my help.”
At Eidra's gasp, he shut the tome, twisted about to look at her, “Is it your wish I ride to the encampment to drag her from his tent? You have but to say the word.”
Eidra frowned, her foot kicking the covers and Loki had to bite back a smile, “No, it is too cold, too late for you to venture out.”
“The cold has never bothered me. I will be not long,” He turned, ready to rise from the bed, felt her hand grasp the sleeve of his robe.
“You shall not leave this chamber.”
Loki looked over his shoulder at her, “Then I beseech you, tell me what answer will please you?”
“None,” Eidra sunk into the pillows, “It is merely the fact that I recall what I was doing at the very same age as she.”
Loki set the tome on the stand next to his side of the bed the bed and lay down beside her “If it please you, when she returns on the morrow, I will entreat her to refrain from spending the night at the encampment. If not for safety's sake, then for the family's reputation.”
“You may try.”
“Was it not you who advocated this reunion in the first place?”
Eidra groaned, put her hands to her cheeks, “Yes, yes but I did so for the sake of peace between you both. Oh why must the seeds of wisdom take so long to germinate within the young breast?”
Loki molded himself to Eidra's side, “Wisdom must be carefully tended, watered, lovingly fed ere it is to blossom,” he nuzzled her chin, “Thank the gods I had a most beautiful, patient gardener.”
A ghost of a smile played about her lips encouraging him as he took her hand in his, pointing it to the ceiling, “Shall I show you a new trick to coax your bad humor from you? Lys vaere på min kommando, Følg stien jeg gjøre med min hånd.”
Before their eyes appeared a blue white dot. Loki touched Eidra's forefinger to it, drawing it across the air above their bed in a swirl which hung like a gossamer thread, casting their faces in cool  cerulean light. He let her hand go as she drew first a crude flower, a small castle, their names, giggling at the sheer joy of simple play as Loki joined in though his drawings were more to a boy's mind. A sword and shield, a simple horse and cart. Eidra lay there then, watching in wonder at the beauty of his quick sketches, graceful lines.
“Why have you never put your drawings to paper?” she breathed, “they are a delight.”
Loki snuggled closer to her, basking in her compliments though he half thought she gave them out of kindness. They lay there for a long time, drawing in the air, laughing, playing with the shapes, talking, making love, as the worries of the world outside their bedchamber door faded from their minds with the ardor of their passion, their deep devotion, the strength of their love.