Chapter 133 - Chapter 30: Stepping Into The Unknown part 3

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Sometime later found Harry and Dani still walking together talking quietly as they took in the sights. The area they were in right now seemed to be an area that focused on not only storytelling, with a few scattered 'skalds' telling tales, but also had spots devoted to question and answer sessions devoted around the Asatru faith and culture. Harry noted dryly that the teachers also seemed able to winnow out those just interested in it because it was 'cool' or because they thought it would allow them to act like thugs as he saw one teenager storm away angrily after being roundly mocked and chastised for his own apparent beliefs.

Beyond that section the two of them began to see different areas devoted to particular discussions, each discussion centered around a well=dug and constructed fire pit. But what really grabbed Harry's attention was the name of Stark. He moved in that direction with Dani following after him curiously.

He could only guess as to how the conversation got started, but from what Harry could gather someone had mentioned Stark's new tech coming out in the civilian computer market and how amazing it was, only to get the response that had gotten Harry's attention, "None of my Kindred or those near us will everbuy anything from Stark again, no amount of gadgetry can make us forget his past deeds."

Harry could easily tell who'd brought up the subject of Tony's new tech. Not only did the man in question look as if his jaw had unhinged in shock he was dressed in clothes that wouldn't look out of place in any office cubicle. He looked somewhat out of place surrounded by men and women in either 'period clothes' or casual clothes.

As Harry stopped within hearing range, a woman with dirty blonde hair and a handgun on her hip spat into the fire. "Nor any in mine, I almost lost my shop thanks to that drunken oath breaker's little 'recall' stopping the shipment I'd already paid for and the pittance that got tossed my way instead of a full refund. If it weren't for my friends chipping in and helping me make last minute purchases to replace the losses, I might've been forced to sell the shop."

Harry frowned at hearing that. He still had issues with Tony's stunt and subsequent dismissal of the issues it'd created, but this was the first time he'd realized that it had harmed the civilian sector as well as the military. I wonder if the good he's done as Iron Man has extirpated the damage he did?

Despite local opinion being against him Salaryman managed to respond. "But-but you heard what happened to him? He did the right thing pulling those weapons and stopping the shipments, maybe you didn't-"

"Maybe I didn't what? Didn't keep a receipt, didn't think about how horrible it is to sell-guns? Do not talk down to me, and as for him doing the right thing, bullshit! The right thing would have been temporarily freezing all shipments and dealing with the leak and issues with his company, which he could have prevented if he'd bothered to be anything more than a drunken idiot and actually run his company. With that done he could have tightened security."

"This would prevent the issues from before, allow him to 'stop making weapon' as he lied about wanting to do, and none of the crap that followed would have happened or leaving our soldiers completely shafted in terms of gear for a time."

"Wait, what lie, Stark didn't lie about not wanting to make weapons anymore! He shut down all his factories like he promised. And what do you mean about soldiers getting 'shafted on gear', aside from the fact we spend too much on the militaryyyyy….."

The man trailed of and Harry and Dani exchanged a grin as the man gulped at the looks Salaryman was getting. Yeah, talk about not understanding your audience mate! Huh, I wonder what Asgardian this guy follows? Is there a god of accountants and namby-pamby liberals?

While no one made a threatening move, it was clear that Salaryman was on very thin ice now. This was shown quickly by a man with a nasty scar on his arm that partially covered a tattoo of a longship. "Leaving aside that bit of idiocy at the end there, what else do you call him not just not making weapons but also stopping the creation of the armor, both flak and tank type he sold the military that kept our soldiers safe? Anything that had been consigned to the military stopped being made and sold for a long while. I talked to some old buddies still in service that work in logistics, and I can tell you that there was a half-year gap when SI didn't make good on any of their contracts thanks to that spoiled child."

The vet shook his head, and Harry frowned, not having realized it had been that bad, becoming very glad he'd decided early on to keep Tony away from his own interests as much as he could. "Stark made a mockery of not only every soldier who risk their lives in service, but those soldiers who died trying to protect him. I am willing to bet cash money that it was Pott's doing that Stark started making all non-weapon material again, and that's another point…even after he sees firsthand what happens when you blow off managing a multi-billion dollar company, he still refuses to do his job and instead spends his time making his new toys to become the so-called Iron Man."

Harry had to raise an eyebrow at the disgust in the man's voice at the mentioning of Tony's hero personae. All the points mentioned before were valid in Harry's eyes and he'd made some of them before. But he was wondering why the Asatru would hate Tony's 'alter ego'.

Despite being outnumbered, Salaryman stood his ground. "Stark was well within his rights to stop all military manufacturing and distribution no matter how much you harp about 'oath breaking' or anything like that. And how dare you try to get mad at him for making the Iron Man suit, he is a hero and a-"

"-A coward and a hypocrite!" the rant was cut off by a sharply spat out denunciation from the woman who'd mentioned her store almost going under. "He gets a bug up his ass because he saw combat and was captured by people using his own companies weapons., Okay, I'll give you that should earn him some empathy and understanding, but instead of solving the problem he decides to arm only himself in that damn suit! It isn't about being a hero or even atoning, it is about Stark not trusting anyone else with his weapons, and wanting to play at being a hero when he could do a lot more by giving weapons to those who could actually use them better! My brother's unit ran into a terrorist cell that had fucking lasers, and because of Stark they had to rely on Hammer Industries crap which promptly stopped working due to overheating in the desert! It's only a miracle, and air support, that my brother made it home!"

"Wow, these people really don't like Mr. Stark do they?" Dani had never met Tony, but she had been brought up to be polite. He was also quite handsome, but given his man whore status she would much rather look from a distance than let him anywhere near her body.

"Hmm, I'm reasonably sure Tony's sincere in his efforts as a hero, but I can't argue he's an arrogant ass sometimes. Emma mentioned a plan of his that made my hackles rise when I heard about it, can't imagine it would go over well here, though I also think I was able to set Steve on that early enough to stop it before it got too far." Harry said, frowning in thought, ignoring Dani twitching at how cavalierly he mentioned being on first name status with Captain America, too busy making a mental note to check up on that in a week or so. Given the scale of things and company bureaucracy that would be enough time to shut the project down and see some results of said via Emma's corporate spies.

Shaking his head, Harry came back to the here and now. "I didn't realize his decision to cut off weapons manufacture had hurt the civilian side of things so much though. Emma's talked about Hammer Industries weapons, but I also didn't think their products were that bad… Damn."

The damn was caused by the group of leaders voting on a boycott of all SE products by all the Asatru. It won't do much to Stark's bottom line, there isn't enough of them for that, but it's another sign these people believe in putting their lives, or in this case livelihood, where their mouths are. Interesting. And let that be a lesson old boy, it's not just their gods who take oaths and agreements seriously. Thank god I still have my own copy of the trade agreement!

About fifteen minutes later it was Dani's turn to spot something interesting. Nudging Harry hard, she gestured with her chin. "Look over there."

Harry did so, and his eyes widened slightly in surprise.

Along one area at the far right of the moot-pits as Harry had begun to call them was a series of interconnected discussions between some of the most belligerent and angry locals they had yet seen. Covering them both with a subtle Notice-Me-Not, Harry led the way over, stopping as the words of the discussion reached them.

"…and if the so-called Friends of Humanity think they can use religion to back up their xenophobic actions, I say we can do the same to treat them just as the murderers should be!"

"Okay, now that sounds promising." Harry mused.

"We are truly among friends here." Dani laughed lightly, her eyes glittering evilly at the mention of the Friends of Humanity, a hardness matched by the look in Harry's own emerald gaze.

The pair stayed silent, listening in on what amounted to a sort of war council pitting the Asatru against the Friends of Humanity. There were a few other local groups represented by one or two scattered members here, a Veterans association, a few policemen here unofficially, and several priests, who looked rather uncomfortable and out of place but game for all of that. They also looked just as angry at the FoH as the rest, incensed that the group had now totally cloaked its actions in the guise of religion. There was even a single young rabbi, who remained silent and watching for most of the proceedings along with his wife.

One of the main speakers was a man who Harry vaguely recognized, whispering to Dani that the man had been among the gawkers which had gathered after the attack on Kitty's family and the death of their neighbor Thomas.

"But at least 'Pastor Jones' was jailed for his part in that attack." The man said, shaking his head after talking about what had happened in the attack from his perspective. "There hasn't even been any arrests made in several attacks. The worse was…"

The man shuddered and Dani and Harry exchanged a grim glance. "The boy in Idaho," Dani murmured. "The one who's murder was recorded and later televised a few months back. Whoever orchestrated that has a lot to answer for."

Harry nodded grimly. "That's not the only death the FoH has caused, but it was the only one recorded like that."

"We can't do anything about hunting down the FoH after the fact." Said an old woman who looked as if she could have been Rosie the Riveter. "What we can do is prepare to defend any mutants that live in our communities or nearby."

"There is a motion in various states to demand the FoH, must open its membership books to state scrutiny but since they have sited freedom of religion it's doubtful it will go anywhere. But we can arrange for neighborhood watches, can we not?"

"Has Sir Dennis mentioned anything coming out of the Vatican?" Dani asked absently staring between the Roman Catholic priest and the Godhi, their Asatru semi-equivalents Vorlus had once mentioned.

"According to a message Steven passed on from a few old friends, Buddhism is behind equality now one hundred percent almost, except for a few groups who are more… nihilistic than Buddhist, very odd, let's not talk about them right now. Seriously, it made my head hurt when Strange and I talked about them." Harry said dryly, shaking his head. "The Vatican is still talking about the issue of gay marriage more than the mutant question. But Dennis has no sources within the church, so we're sort of blind there."

"Greeaaat…" Dani drawled, before turning her attention to the discussion, which had just become quite a bit more bloodthirsty. These people were itching to take the fight to the FoH, and only the police reps and their Godhis were keeping it under control. Their points that they couldn't take the laws into their own hands and act against the FoH first was not well received, but the bloodthirsty atmosphere calmed down somewhat.

"Yet even if we can't start anything, my associate Mr. Kincaid is right. The FoH's so-called 'legitimacy' comes from the fact that most who disagree with them aren't willing to do so verbally in their face. The size of the group and their violent tendencies scares people, it's as simple as that." one of the Godhi said calmly, but one of his hands had fallen to a remarkably evil-looking dagger at his waist. "By standing up to them wherever they rally or attempt to attack a helpless mutant we can show them that their opinions are in the minority and a hate-mongering minority will never make policy for America."

"No, instead it will be another sort of minority making policy." Quipped one of the other visible Catholics.

"Was that directed at our hosts or me?" The rabbi replied quickly, laughing. "Please don't anyone bring up the whole Zionist conspiracy theory right now."

That won a round of laughter while Dani and Harry looked at one another, shrugging incomprehension. "Never heard of it, must be one of those crackpot theory things." Dani said, while Harry concentrated on watching the crowd.

Despite the general attitude Harry noticed there were a few who were not entirely enthused by the idea of fighting for mutants. More than one man or woman sitting slightly apart from the others asked if this was a fight they should be involved in. They also looked askance at the non-Asatru speakers.

The two Custodes remained silent, watching for a time as this smaller group began a shouting match with the proponents of fighting for mutants. "Reminds me of a clip Dennis made me watch from the Ami C-Span channel, only with far more colorful speeches and speakers." Harry said after a few moments of this, moving through the crowd with Dani moving behind him.

He stopped, hearing a phrase he hadn't heard before from a young man who was simply listening in on the rest of the discussion. "Freaking nazitru," the youth said, practically spitting as he spoke for the first time since Harry and Dani arrived, glaring at a few of his counterparts sitting around the naysayers.

"Nazitru? Like, Nazi Asatru?" Harry asked, looking back at Dani. "Vorlus never mentioned such a group to me, at least not from what I can remember."

Dani shrugged. "I guess there will always be naysayers in any group, and I think I remember that the Nazi's were heavily interested in the supernatural, maybe there was some crossover inculcation back in WW2."

"Hmmm… and what would be the likelihood of this group getting in touch with the FoH?" Harry mused, thinking hard about that. "Dennis doesn't have anyone on the inside of that group, so even on the off-chance…" Harry trialed off, and began to cast tiny tracking spells at the people speaking for the dissenters, just in case. The spells would only last a few weeks, but it would turn out to be a good idea later on.

As he was finishing, Dani nudged Harry hard in the ribs gesturing to where a man had stood up to confront the group Harry had been tagging. Obediently Harry stopped to listen, only to smile once more. The man's words were rather Victorian era, but that didn't take away from the impact of them.

"For years we have searched for the lost mysteries, for any sign that our gods still existed beyond our own faith, that our magics and ways still had validity! And when that finally comes to past, when vindication is apparent in the world around us, when great and fell deeds abound you would council us to do nothing? This is the chance we and those before us have longed for, a cause worth fighting for, and I am not just talking about the mutant question, but the grater threats out there! Rembert the lights in the sky, remember the alien robot that attacked down in Florida! If we are to call ourselves ASATRU! We honor those before us and the gods of old, even if we are not fighters or beholding to the Aesir for fultruii we can still make a difference, we can still stand tall and make ourselves heard. Else how can we think of ourselves as anything other than a people of shame and false words?"

As the scattered guests clapped politely watching as Harry and Dani were the vast majority of the listeners cheered and shouted agreement. "That attack by the Kree was seen by civilian telescopes?" Dani asked in shock, looking at Harry.

"I hadn't actually considered that," Harry admitted. "I knew SHIELD had released a statement that it was a natural phenomenon, and I agreed with it at the time since too many sheeple might have panicked at the attack and the fact their governments had no way of protecting them. I knew we saw an influx of people coming into our hiring offices, especially down in Kentucky after that, but I hadn't made the connection between the two facts. Still, this does give me another idea for the long term…"

He smirked lightly as the 'nazitru' muttered to themselves before leaving, each of them magically tagged now, and Dani shook her head mock-reprovingly. "Normally I'd be against the idea of tagging your prey like that before hunting them, but in this case I think an exception can be made."

"Heh, hold that thought Dani." With that Harry slowly removed the spell covering the two of them, making it as if the two had simply been in the background of the crowd the whole time. Harry moved forward, pulling out a few cards as he made his way toward one of the Godhis who had been most outspoken and listened to.

A few moments later he walked back to Dani, whose eyes had lit up with approval at what he had just done: given the man several dozen cards with a few phone numbers on it to Cold Steel. "That fifth column idea you've mentioned a time or two when talking about an invasion?"

"There's no reason that kind of thing can't be used in other circumstances." Harry replied in a butter would not melt in his mouth tone. Then his smile turned into a mix of Marauder mischief and pure evil. "Besides, the idea of a FoH attack running into a group armed with Cold Steel weapons warms the cockles of my heart. Now, let's go meet the others for lunch."

Dani soon found herself surrounded by a few of the kids, eagerly asking for tips about archery, having signed up for a competition in said for their age group later that day. She tried to answer their questions between sips of cinnamon mead and bites of fried chicken, while Ororo and Harry listened to a few of the other kids, with Melody and Victoria sitting on their laps. The British princess wore a new necklace, which she had apparently won in a dancing competition, and Melody was sporting a few clip on earrings won in a singing competition. The sight of Harry making sure they were indeed clip on had been an amusing one for the Cheyenne girl.

Amara, Piotr and Illyana were nowhere in sight. They had gone boating and would be having a meal out on the boat just the three of them.

When Ms. Brown and the adults took the kids off to get some of the rather excellent deserts being served elsewhere in the 'Gildihǫll' Harry turned to Dani, Kitty and Ororo, covering the quartet in a Muffilatio. "Alright, so, thoughts, impressions?"

Ororo gestured to Dani to speak first, gathering her own thoughts. Dani shook her head. "We've been getting an excellent bit of information about the people here, but I don't think we've run into anything stunning or important in terms of the Asgardians and whatever geis they are under. I think we need to go back to the moot-pits and look for any discussions going on about Thor. That could give us a clue or something anyway."

"The books and pamphlets on their religion were interesting but not ground breaking except I was able to confirm they had no knowledge of real runes Teach," Kitty said glumly. "Their crafts are amazing, and some of the children's books mentioned magical items and such like of course, but what few runes were shown were nothing, just scribbles."

"I realized that going in Kitty, no worries. And I agree, the original reason we were here doesn't seem to be panning out. It's been fun, and I have really enjoyed seeing this 'small' minority willing to almost en-masse stand up for mutant rights and defense. It's even opened a few doors long term. But the Asatru seem to be as in the dark about what happened to their gods as we were in the beginning. Their beliefs will make it easier to sift fact from illusion later, but that seems to be all."

Ororo spoke up then slowly, still thinking through her words. "I think there is actually a bit more here than that. I like the fact the Asatru believe in the phrase 'we are our deeds', but I think the important part here is belief. None of you are religious." She stated, looking at Harry then Kitty and Dani, who nodded agreement. "I however am. There is something here, some kind of… potentiality, which seems to be growing in the Asatru. It isn't magical, but it reminds me of the feeling you described about the Vatican Harry, except more muted. Like it was behind a closed door, or perhaps a dam. I felt it when I was dancing with the girls."

"I…" Dani paused, then nodded. "There is something like that in the air here. I thought it was just me, but it feels…like there was a storm on the horizon, you can feel it on your skin. I'm sorry I can't describe it any better than Ororo can."

"The power of faith isn't an area I've researched, wizards in my past dimension believed in ancestor worship, specifically worshipping Merlin in the UK. I know there is faith-based magics, and I can see runes being used in conjunction with it, like Blessings." Harry mused, nodding his head. "And if I was whoever is controlling the Asgardians I would try to separate them from their remaining worshippers as much as possible."

He chuckled dryly. "I'd be willing to bet they, whoever they are, never supposed the Asatru faith would still be around given how hard they tried to stamp the real thing out with the Christian missionaries. Still, that's for later. I vote we make one pass through the moot-pits Dani, then I think we can call it a day for the serious topics." He grinned suddenly, watching his daughter and the other kids making their way back to them. "After all I want to have some fun here too."

Dani chuckled and the meal continued for a few moments before they all split apart once more. It took Dani and Harry a few hours to get back to the moot-pits and when they did, they found most of them had already been lit for evening tide. The smell of meat burning on the spits over the fire reminded Dani of hunting trips with her grandfather, but she and Harry concentrated on sifting through the discussions going on around them for anything to do with Thor. Eventually they found one.

Around a single long fire pit sat several men and women. All of those present for this discussion looked serious and intense, and Harry and Dani noted that most of them also looked visibly older than most of the revelers even from the other Godhi they had seen.

Looking at them and the lack of onlookers, Harry frowned, and decided to cover the two of them with a Notice-Me-Not spell for a moment. This looked like a debate, and outsiders might not be welcome.

Dani however held up a hand when he was about to cast a spell. She too was hesitant to intrude but didn't want to just listen in without their knowing, thinking it rude to their hosts. She stepped forward hesitantly, bowing from the waist and one of the elders, a man with a long beard and craggy features wearing a period costume gestured to her to sit down next to his with a smile. She did so and the elder whispered softly to her in order to not disturb the discussion already going on. "True interest will not be turned away miss. Simply be respectful, and all will be well."

She nodded and looked back to find that Harry had disappeared under his Disillusion, only the feel of his hand on her shoulder telling Dani he was still there. Ass, putting me on point like this. Then again, I suppose I'm the one more interested in the Faith for its own sake, so it makes sense.

One man was talking now as the others listened intently. He seemed a bit younger than most of the others, but he had a United States Marine Corps tattoo on the forearm of one arm, and some kind of symbol on the other. Harry took a moment to decipher that it looked like a hammer, but it was so badly messed up by a series of scars he couldn't tell more than that.

"I subtly tried to mention his wife, and I literally saw no recollection in his eyes even though I spoke the name Sif a moment later and he knew and was friendly with a person by that name whose description mostly matches the old tales." The man was saying as Dani turned her attention back to the discussion. "I dropped the names of his children as well, claimed I had named one of my own kids Magni, asked his advice on if I should try to convince the wife that he should follow me into the Marines you know? Didn't see a single sign he knew the names.

The man frowned, then spoke up somewhat more hesitantly. "He was complaining about headaches the entire time too, I've never heard tales of Þór complaining of something like that. Whenever I mentioned anything from the old tales about his life or family the headaches appeared as if he was running into a wall mentally."

Harry's eyes narrowed from where he was listening in now, nodding down toward Dani, who found she could now see him, whereas no one else was reacting to his sudden presence. "Just like Lady Hela," she whispered, her lips barely moving.

Harry nodded, making no comment on the 'lady' part there, after all Hela certainly was a Lady, just like Emma and Ororo. "It's proof Thor is probably suffering under the same kind of control, as Hela, but we still don't know who is behind it!"

Or how, which is even more worrisome given how powerful the Asgardians are. This proves that there is something actively blocking them from being as they should be, or forcing them to stay in a mold that whoever is doing this devised. Harry will definitely want to hear about this.

"We talked a while about duty, about stories he could pass on to his Fultruii, and he had a few stories to share that I can definitely say match with details of his legends, most of them fact for fact," the man was saying. "But again, about his own family he knew nothing. And for some reason, he called the Trickster his brother rather than uncle and spoke about a falling out occurring because Loki found out he was an ice giant of all things. Note he didn't say Jotun which would have been odd if still within reason, no he was very specific about how Loki was apparently a true ice giant that had been adopted by Odin after a war…anyone else here find that particularly strange? Oh and neither Loki nor Odin seem able to change their shape or form, and I was laughed at albeit without malice for suggesting the idea."

Heads around the fire pit nodded in agreement, and Dani found herself among them. Sigyn was quite clear about how her husband had been a Fire Giant with the ability to change his shape, a skill Odin shared with him and that they'd sworn themselves as brothers by blood long before she and he had been wed.

Even Harry knew that was simply wrong judging by what Vorlus had told him about Loki. This is so divorced from what we know is true. So, his wife split, her body stolen, her soul hidden away from whoever is behind this, and Loki's most significant powers stripped from him. Someone really feared the Trickster didn't they?

As Harry and Dani watched the man shook his head, visibly distraught in a way, which Harry somehow knew was foreign to a man like him. "I don't understand it. The more time I spent with him, the more I became convinced that, his yellow hair and strange mode of speech aside, which let me tell you even Shakespeare would have told him to tone down, that this was Þór! He has this presence, it's, I don't even know the words for it."

A woman from across the fire spoke up. "It was uplifting is what it was, it was like being around him empowered you, as if you could take on any challenge and win. I thought at first it was simply that he was charismatic, or perhaps we were being blinded by his legend, but it wasn't anything like that. If anything, Þór isn't what you'd consider to be classically charismatic in person. He's not self-effacing of course," she smirked as she said the words, and more than one man or women around her laughed while Dani held back a giggle, having heard many a flyting that day and knowing how justified pride in self was important in this culture. "But when you use the term charisma, you automatically think of someone who would be willing to step up and lead, who could incite you to follow him with words along. Þór wasn't like that."

"He would lead by example rather than making decisions for others or expecting them to follow him," said another man thoughtfully. "Is that what you mean? Someone who would charge the enemy rather than tell everyone okay we're going to charge. He would simply charge and assume everyone would go along with it. And if not, say screw it I'm charging anyway. I do recall that was something the old tales tended to agree on, else why would you go fishing for your greatest foe in a rowboat?"

The woman seemed to think about that for a moment, her head bobbing from side to side as she thought then nodded slowly. "Yes I suppose so something like that anyway. I'm not trying to say he had some kind of air of divinity or something like Christian Angels are supposed to have, but there was some kind of power coming from him that when he was gone you could feel you the absence of it."

Murmurs of agreement reached her as people began taking slices of the roast and eating it, creating an impromptu break for thought, Dan shook her head when offered, but quickly stood up, taking the part of server as the youngest person there. "They're as confused as I was when I met the Lady Sigyn," Dani murmured, again her lips barely moving as Harry moved with her for a moment before stopping moving away, having modified the spells covering him for a moment. "Glad I'm not the only one."

"You didn't report any feeling of that nature, or did you…" Harry mused, then nodded as he considered, "The feeling of power yes? It was much more discernable in your first meeting when she got angry than later on when she was happy."

Dani nodded then looked at him somewhat askance. Hela had the same kind of thing. Though I suppose you might not have noticed since you kind of have the same sort of aura about you my jarlshe thought sardonically.

However she was pulled from her reverie by the conversation starting up again attention back to the debate. "We were in town for one of the battles against that escaped creature, the one the media called the Grey Hulk. He fought the way I would assume Þór would fight, though admittedly not as powerfully a berserker of old should have."

Harry had heard about that after the battle had finished and nodded as Dani frowned, not having heard about it. Apparently someone connected to the defunct Hulk Busters had tried to recreate the same experiment that had resulted in the Abomination, but with a few differences. The Grey Hulk kept much of his intelligence, but lost any kind of moral inhibitions and had tried to take over the city by simply taking the local city hall hostage. Thor had stopped him in a battle that had raged for a few hours before he slew the ex-soldier.

This sparked a brief discussion about Banner's history and how this latest debacle completely discredited Thunderbolt Ross. That was sad given how he had been a war hero, but no one could argue with the fact he was culpable both for the original Hulk's creation and the monsters which had come after.

"His weapon, what about Þór's hammer?" asked one man who had not joined in the previous tangent. "We still have to decide whether or not this Thor is the real Þór, or an, an alien construct of some kind. We've all heard that Potter fellow and the Fantastic Four warning everyone that there are alien threats, and there was that robot that attacked Florida. Could this be one of them?"

Dani raised an eyebrow at that. She'd not expected to see bits of Harry's first public statement so long after the fact. She and Harry exchanged a glance, wondering how the world seemed to work sometimes, but said nothing as they continued to listen.

"For my part I believe he is the real Þór, though if there is something wrong with him or our histories are wrong is a question, albeit one I'm inclined to think is more the former with how he was genuinely reacting if not recalling the bits of the histories I mentioned to him. And his weapon is a sticking point for me as well." The former marine replied musingly. "All the tales told about that, not just a few of them, say that Mjöllnir should be made of stone, and I have to admit to being concerned. The handle was much too long for how the story of its creation said it should be, also It doesn't look like a warhammer, even a short one, it looks like a…movie hammer, all flash and sharp edges and shine, like what you'd get if you asked a Hollywood prop maker to create Mjolnir. But I think he is the real Thor. Does that mean we should follow him? That I don't know. Nor will he be around for much longer."

"What do you mean?" asked one of the others sharply, as everyone present became intensely focused on the marine veteran's words.

"According to the 'man' himself, Lord Odin has ordered him home on pain of permanent banishment. He didn't want to leave his mortal lover…" the man paused as more than one of the women there growled or shook their heads, before moving on. "But apparently tensions are rising between Asgard and some of the other realms there. He mentioned dark elves, which is rather odd rather than the Dökkálfar, and one he called Malekith the Accursed in particular."

There were some mutters about that and the man went on slowly. "By this point he's probably already left."

"Shit," Harry said bluntly, unheard by any save Dani.

Dani frowned, her hands clenching unclenching at her side. "They recalled him, whoever they are. Whoever is behind this is getting worried. Worried about him slowly breaking whatever power is over him?"

"Probably, remember Hela seemed almost able to break from it when we were talking to her in Thor's hall." Harry said shaking his head. "We need to figure out a way to get there, the Asgardians are definitely under some kind of external control, even their king, this act is a sign of that for certain."

And isn't that a fucking frightening thought. Everything Vorlus told me or I've learned about Odin tells me he's an entirely different kettle of fish than most pantheon heads. He is not there just because he's strongest, but because he's damn sneaky. But if those ravens Hedwig tangled with are the best he can manage, that's a level of mental dominance and power I've never seen before. Not Mephisto, not any mortal enemy, maybe even on the level of those Celestials.

Okay so Build on that idea, Potter. I bet that Hela could deal with any physical threat, particularly in her own hall, but what about her mental defenses?

Assume they are almost entirely astral beings then. Or… could it be something in their blood? Blood based mental control? Darkest of evil magics that, but also hard to break and fucking painful to do at all from what little I know about them. Makes Voldemort's little tattoo-work look like a child's toy. Harry grimly thought to himself, turning his attention entirely away from the debate which had turned to the mutant question, and whether or not Thor mentioned anything about that.

Dani however continued to listen in as the conversation went on. To her delight, it turned out that the 'Blonde Thor' had indeed mentioned mutants, and likened them to blood gifts, a conclusion which many of the Kindreds had already reached and which made them respect mutants rather than revile them. Others saw sit as just a formal naming of something they'd already accepted, but that a seeming of one of their greatest gods supported this outlook was a boost that many around the fire pit were grinning in a bloodthirsty manner about. They made it clear that this was the nail in the head of the efforts of the Nazitru, who apparently considered this Thor to be as he was meant to be, and had hoped to use his words to turn the Asatru into just another branch of the FoH. That just wasn't going to happen now, a fact Dani was profusely grateful for.

As she listened, the conversation then turned to the various efforts by the FoH to either go after mutants in the areas the gathered Kindreds lived in or to pressure others into supporting them or their actions. There was also discussion about the subtle and not-so-subtle disdain mutants faced even without the FoH getting involved.

One of the leaders spoke out, standing up and looking around at the others. "There is a young mutant in my family," he said simply, "a nephew of mine. He is a young boy, a scrawny sort who has a good head for math. Not exactly a contact sport sort of person, which, since most of you know him, I don't have to tell you was a disappointment to my brother."

There were some laughter at that, but it went over Dani's head obviously as well as a couple of others though they still laughed, evidently knowing the type.

"When puberty hit, which I understand is the normal time for mutations to appear, he developed a massive increase in his sense of smell and taste. His tongue also enlarged for some reason, and because of that he has started to be ostracized at school and in public." The man clenched his fists briefly in anger before continuing, "Just because of that, a random event he could not control. Now you tell me, is that right? Should someone like that be treated like a freak for something outside of their control? For something that is no danger to anyone else? When you look at the mutant, whatever their

mutation, remember they have to live with it, and not all of them are super-strong or powerful or can send use energy blasts from their eyes like those X-Men from the news over in Asia can. Remember they're people, and labelling groups only takes away your ability to remember they are all individuals."

For a moment the rest of the people around the fire pit fell silent, taking that in and nodding slowly or frowning. Then one of the women spoke up, smirking slightly. "So the boy's got an extra-long tongue? Don't worry, his being unpopular won't last long once that gets around to the girls and they realize what that might mean."

Dani blushed slightly as ribald laughter when up all around, then looked at Harry, who smirked down at her. "I think we've heard enough here." Dani however waved him off, remaining sitting and listening.

Harry nodded and moved off still unseen, listening to snippets of conversation, homing in on any talks about the Asgardians in general terms, and their feelings about Thor in particular not really getting any new information unfortunately. Vorlus had been a source of general information already, even if he hadn't figured out anything about that belt they'd found. But this did give him insight about some of the better known tales, and in particular how important Thor was among the Asatru which would be important later on. He also 'tagged' several other nazitru as he went, just in case.

Dani for her part got up during another lull, thanked everyone for letting her listen to the discussion and quickly moved towards where she saw an archery competition beginning, or rather continuing, since it apparently went on every hour. It and other events like axe throwing were very near the Moots and debates so it wasn't that long a trip and would make for a good shortcut to catching up to the others for dinner.

She stumbled to one side however as an ancient-looking man bumped into her, knocking him to his rear as she stumbled sideways. "I'm sorry grandfather," she said quickly, addressing him as she would a Native American of the same age, turning and taking his hand pulling him to his feet and helping him pick up his staff. His hands were pocked with age but he was a solid sort of fellow, not the skin and bones Dani had thought he would be under that cloak of his.

"It's quite all right child. It was partially my fault for not looking where I was going. I don't suppose you could help an old man like me over to the chairs over there?" he asked gesturing to where several chairs had been set so people could watch the archery competition.

"Of course grandfather," Dani replied politely, talking his hand in one of her own and moving in that direction. Taking in his appearance once more she laughed. "I like your costume sir, though the eyepatch doesn't seem to match, and I didn't think that Gandalf the Gray was part of the Asatru culture."

"The eyepatch is the only part that isn't a costume. An old war wound, but such things give the survivors wisdom. As for my costume, where do you think Tolkien got the idea for Gandalf?" The old man asked archly. "Honestly we should probably ask for royalties."

Dani laughed lightly at the jab at Tolkien's having been massively influenced by Norse tales and legends which was something Jean had noticed quickly after meeting Hela and looking at the books again. The elderly man chuckled, patting her hand companionably. "But come child, you are of the Native American peoples, yours is the faith of totems of various animal gods and great spirits. What are you doing here?"

"Oh just on my own journey for wisdom grandfather."

"A sensible woman then." the man said approvingly, to which Dani laughed again and the two moved around the archery section towards the chairs, talking quietly. Dani expressed interest in some aspects of the culture, and the old man answered her questions quickly, showing a knowledge that Dani would've expected from one of those involved in the earlier debate.

But he hadn't been among them. This old man was far too striking for her to have missed, especially in his costume, which was really incredible matching what she had always imagined in her youth Gandalf would look like. Well minus the eyepatch of course. Something about that eyepatch was nudging at her memory, some little tidbit someone had passed on to her, but she must not have been paying attention at the time.

She put it out of her mind, simply enjoying the conversation for now, helping the man along and letting him guide her instead to a darts competition set up to one side of the archery competition. When he tried his luck he didn't win anything, and frowned irritably. "What were you trying to win sir?"

"You see that giant bear? It was a gift for my wife to apologize for wandering off without her."

"Really?" Dani shrugged as he nodded to the affirmative. Old people often had strange hobbies, and collecting stuffed animals was a relatively harmless one. "Then I'll win it for you grandfather, just wait a moment."

The old man chuckled watching her with his single gimlet eye as she easily scored the twelve points needed to get the large stuffed animal. From there they walked quickly towards the benches the old man had indicated earlier, where Dani helped him into a chair, drawing smiles of approval from those around them, some of whom moved out of the way to allow the elderly gentleman to sit down. "Here Old One," said one man, standing up and moving aside as a woman curtsied slightly to the ancient man moving aside as well. Something about the amount of respect he seemed to garner also struck Dani as odd, but her concern faded immediately before she could grab onto it just as her thoughts on the eyepatch had.

The man smiled at them both, and sat down, setting the giant bear at his feet and fishing into his robe for a moment. "Here, a gift for a gift young one."

Dani held up her hand about to refuse, but the old man took her hand and held it palm up pressing the gift into it quickly. "A gift for a gift," he said firmly.

Dani stared into his one eye then slowly nodded. "I've heard it said one should not turn down gifts given like such, so I will simply thank you."

The man took the bear up again, and smiled broadly at her. "And thus the trade is completed," he said chuckling.

"Now go win your archery contest young Huntress, and when you can, give my regards to your young jarl."

Dani nodded, turning away and was out of the sitting area and in the crowd beyond before she paused thinking if she had ever mentioned actually being a hunter to the old man when they were walking around. I must have, right?

Waiting her turn to sign up for the next archery contest, Dani pulled out the medallion she had just been given. A second later just as she was about to put it away and take her turn on the lists, whatever power had been working on her mind faded. She turned quickly, staring into the sitting area to find the old man gone.

Riiiight… I am definitely going to share all of that with Harry the moment I can. She then looked down at the medallion again. It was an old looking circle, of greened bronze around a central stone of some kind. The outer circle had an intricate design of a snake eating its own tail, while the interior was of a mountain, or possibly a tree, the edges were so blurry it was tough to tell. Odd, I didn't think that the Vikings had had ouroboros in their mythology… hmm…

Unseen by any, the old man walked away from the Althing, disappearing to mortal eyes for now.

OOOOOOO

While Harry and Dani wandered for knowledge, Ororo had already moved on to wandering for fun, taking Melody, Victoria and a few of the others directly over to where a series of concerts were going on. Ororo found it interesting to listen to the various types of music, though she kept the children away from the areas which seemed to have become designated mosh pits. Ororo had never understood the allure of those. Their enjoyment was helped by the many pamphlets available by the concert venues that translated the various songs into different languages thanks to the extremely widespread attendance of the Althing.

A Dutch band called Heidevolk was very popular and its music style, while being what she would term as heavy rock or metal, was also distinct enough in its Asatru identity and style. It had a more primal feel than a lot of modern bands and the songs they played either focused on the Germanic tribe the Dutch were descended from, called the Batavi, and their struggle against the Romans. Others were songs like 'Nehelenia' which honored a goddess of travel and safe passage for explorers and traders of that people which Ororo greatly enjoyed.

Tyr was another band, named after one of the Aesir, but Ororo felt they sounded rather bland, while next to her Melody wrinkled her nose at them, shaking her head. "They think music is work, that's so sad!" Indeed, while the band was decent, its songs felt a touch rote and the band's impression of doing it as a job as Melody said affected the music.

Amon Amarth was a band that left Ororo with conflicting impressions considering their material. They seemed to be the musical voice for the portion of the Asatru which wanted to hunt down the FoH, and their songs were the most violent sounding, which Ororo didn't like. But considering who they directed their songs towards Ororo was willing to let the children listen.

For his part after leaving the moot-pit area Harry had quickly found a few of the kids, who had begun to tug him along on their play. He watched some of the kids enter the young children version of the archery competition that Dani had joined and crushed the competition in. Darts was a particular pastime of a few, while wrestling had drawn several of the boys. James and Ivan, the Russian boy with lizard-like skin, seemed to like that the most.

He stopped and chuckled lightly as he saw Illyana at another station, learning or possibly teaching embroidery judging from the exclamations of a few older matronly types who were running the stall. Nearby Ms. Brown was sucking on one of her fingers in irritation and a few of the other girls were following their directions diligently, embroidering little flowers and in one case a multicolored longship onto small handkerchiefs.

He exchanged nods with Mark Tuborn who was watching over the wrestling with a concerned eye along with two other men both of whom were wearing referees stripes before moving on. Soon after that he found Melody and Ororo among the music stalls, the young girl almost vibrating in place as her head moved with the music and Ororo talked quietly with a few women, as boys and girls of all ages raced around them, with Victoria having joined in a spirited game of tag.

"Father!" Melody said, seeing him coming through the crowd and racing towards him.

Harry laughed, reaching down and scooping her into a hug, before moving over to link an arm with Ororo. He kissed her cheek, and whispered, "Found some information, not a lot of new information, but definitely enough to make me understand the scope of what we might be dealing with."

"That's nice," Ororo said smiling politely for the listeners, leaning her white-haired head against his shoulder, looking up at Melody kissing her on the forehead before kissing him on the cheek. "However, the concert is going to start in a few moments. Perhaps we should round up the kids?

"Probably a good idea," Harry said, then switched his hold on Melody, perching her up on his shoulders before nodding to the women Ororo had been talking to. They all smiled at the young couple with their adopted daughter, after all, she certainly didn't resemble either of them, watching as they moved off.

Dani found Harry and Ororo like that, and quickly began to help them gather up the kids explaining at the same time what had happened.

"The wanderer is an aspect of Odin," Harry said grimly, their conversation once again behind a modified Notice-Me-Not, exchanging a grim glance with Ororo. For Odin to set something up like that meant something really bad might have happened.

"That sounds quite a bit like some kind of simulacrum up or one-shot golem, or it would if Odin was human. What a god could come up with that's similar I don't know. Interesting, and doubly interesting that he found you, rather than look for me. Maybe he was afraid that I would ask too many questions which it couldn't answer, or maybe he's trying to play on my curiosity, rather than appealing directly for aid? Regardless, I'm going to analyze that medallion he gave to you as a fare thee well Dani."

"You think he's a threat?" Dani asked, clutching the medallion. It was old but the workmanship on it was incredible, and frankly, she'd like to keep it.

"Doubt it, but Odin's a king. What he wants for his people might not be what I want for ours. And he wouldn't think twice about using us for his own ends so long as he thought the ends were important enough."

Dani nodded seriously then 'oofed' as one of the kids ran into her side with two of the teachers chasing after him and four other kids.

For of the next few moments Harry put thoughts of that out of his head, moving through the crowd quite a bit of which was following along or in front of them towards another area set up for another, somewhat smaller band.

By the banner the band called themselves 'Vigr' which according to the pamphlet they'd been given upon entering meant 'able to fight'. Harry was amused by that but considering the nature of their faith, it was a simple and catchy name which would appeal to a lot of the Asatru. As for more mainstream acceptance, well the name was exotic and simple and would resonate with angsty teenagers, who seemed to be the vast majority of that sub-group anyway.

The band had a definite punk or rebel feel to it that meshed surprising well with some of the 'pagan' elements in their outfits. The headliner for the band was a young-blonde haired girl, around 15 or 16 if Harry had to judge. Her blonde hair was spiky in places and her clothing looked like a mix between punk rocker and country singer.

"Good Evening to the Althing!" She called out with a voice that was almost musical already, a decent alto to Harry's ear. "This is Vigr and I am Dazzler, as in prepare to be dazzled!" There were more than a few groans at the pun, and she grinned, giving the audience the peace sign. Then without any further preamble she will launched into a fan favorite. It wasn't a personal song for her own, Harry recognized it somewhat, having heard a few of the lyrics before and knew that they came from a woman named Heather something. "Axes flash, broadswords swing, shining armor piercing ring, horses run with polished shield, fight those bastards till they yield!"

It was the sort of song that could get a crowd like this worked up quickly.

Then the girl launched into it her own work, which she dedicated to "those of us who are a little bit different, who march to our own little drums, who don't quite fit in for choice for reasons beyond our choosing."

Called 'War of Change', the theme of the song was independence and the need to stand out. It also called into stark relief what most people were already aware of and many feared, that everything was changing in so many ways that it wouldn't be long until they were all something completely new.

That wasn't as interesting however as the affect she began to create. Somehow as the crowd cheered, lights began to appear all around her and above the crowd. It was a magnificent display, the kind of light show that would have needed an entire stages worth of lights, disco balls, and everything else. It was well beyond what was there, and it all responded to Dazzler's gestures.

Melody laughed and clapped and waved her hands throughout it all, as did the other kids including Illyana who actually began to levitate off the ground. Harry quickly covered her with yet another Notice-Me-Not, but didn't stop her, simply keeping one firm hand holding her own until Piotr reached over and took up that duty.

But for the most part Harry, Dani, and Ororo kept an eye on the crowd for any negative reactions. There were a few, and a bit of a brawl broke out at the back as a few people tried to throw mud or stones at the stage, only for their neighbors to stop them. One of them shouted into the ear of the other one, and Harry surreptitiously cast a spell to allow him to hear the words. "Not here, not our own or children ever, you son of a bitch!"

Ororo smiled, her fingers twining around Harry's. "You see my love, the divide is slowly shrinking, racism and bigotry slowly faltering."

"We've got a lot of work ahead of us Ororo," he said, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek staring into her eyes as the song reached a crescendo. "But you're right, I think we've already had an impact."

Dazzler apparently saw this and used it as the launch for the next song, 'Sick of It'. This song sounded like a call to arms for those sick of the bigotry and hatred or the sheer pressure of society to conform and be less than they could be. She followed that up with 'Monster' and 'Circus for a psycho' that were also very clearly jabs at parts of society that seemed determined to label mutants as monsters and animals to be controlled as well as those mutants more than willing to abuse their own abilities and status without care.

The concert went on for six more songs. Dazzler seemed to be energized by the noise of the crowd and her own songs, which she shared with her bandmates. When she ended there was around of thunderous applause and stamping feet, which made Harry thankful that they weren't actually inside, the noise would've been a little too oppressive then.

The moment the crowd began to disperse to head out to other shows or contests Ororo quickly moved to the side of the stage. Cutting through the crowd easily she followed on the heels of the band as they pushed aside the canvas separating the back of the stage from the crowd.

Dazzler looked up as the statuesque African woman with the exotic hair that she had noticed at the edges of the crowd pushed her way into the changing area. Before she or any other fellow musicians could speak or protest Ororo held up a hand. "That was a wonderful concert young miss, and to you as well sirs," she said nodding her head towards the others. "However, I would like to talk to young Dazzler alone if that is alright?"

The rest of the band looked at Dazzler quickly, and Ororo surreptitiously held up a hand, bits of lightning appearing between her fingers. Dazzler's eyes widened, then she nodded as Harry and several of the kids entered behind the African woman. "Take a break guys, head out and find some fillies or whatever. I don't think this lady or her kids are any threat to me."

The drummer stayed with her though, gesturing lightly down towards the lightning in their guest's hand.

"Are both of you mutants?" the African woman asked as the canopy closed behind the man who had been with her as the other three band members walked past him. Something about his appearance looked familiar but Dazzler couldn't quite place it.

"Yeah, I'm Freddie, though I also go by Grettir, and you've already met Dazzler. Are you all are the same?"

Ivan and Sergei touched their image inducers, turning them off. Anechka waved her hands at her hair, which shifted into tiny metal hands which began to clap, before morphing into other things and then settling down.

"This one is also mutant of course," Harry said before Melody could speak, ruffling her hair gently, pulling her against his waist. "I am too, but my power's not one I can show so easily."

Dazzler nodded slowly along with Grettir and Dazzler suddenly remembered where she had seen the man before. "Y, you're Harry Potter! What the heck are you doing here?!"

"Having fun," Harry replied, simply, ruffling Melody's hair again and smirking at the other kids. He watched as Freddie's eyes bulged but for some reason he moved slightly in front of Dazzler. Why he was doing it towards Harry he didn't know but better safe than sorry anyway. "It's easier to go about at things like this if people aren't expecting me at them, which I rather like. Anyway, I don't suppose you'd like a job or be willing to accept my support? I don't own a music company yet, but I suppose I could find one that would help with your career easily enough."

"Heh, um…" Dazzler seemed hard pressed to regain her equilibrium for a moment, pulling back to have a whispered with her friend but eventually she turned back and they both shook their heads. 'No, we want to make our own way if that's all the same to you. I might eventually be willing to work for you, but I want to see if we can make a name for ourselves on our own first. Our riffs about independence weren't just for show, y'know?"

"Well said," Ororo replied, smiling at the younger girl and her friends. "However everyone needs help at some point. Would you agree to stay in contact with us, and maybe something to use in case of emergency? The more visible you are, the more dangerous it might become for you."

Dazzler nodded, though she and Grettir also exchanged a smirk. "That I'll agree to, definitely, though if anyone tries to cause trouble with us they better be prepared to get some back." Dazzler paused, ruffling her hair for a moment as she looked at Harry. "And um, thanks. Not for the offer, but for standing up, speaking out about mutant rights and everything. That, that means a lot to us."

Harry smiled softly, bowing his head. "You're quite welcome my dear."

Leaving the girl with a phone number straight to Sage and an emergency phone to the X-men Harry and the others made their leave. After that discussion, Harry and Ororo corralled the rest of their party as many of the children were starting to droop, Melody among them, cancelling plans to stay at the Althing for dinner.

The same woman there at her booth, looking tired but ecstatic at how the day had gone, giving them a wave when she saw them. They left the Althing behind, to process and work on everything they'd learned there.

OOOOOOO

Later that evening, Danielle stood by the doorway of Harry's magical lab watching with interest as he began to do some tests on the medallion 'the Wanderer' had given her. "What were those spells you ran on it before you teleported us back here?"

"I wanted to make sure there were no tracking spells that anyone could use to get around wards," Harry grunted, then blinked as the small, thin copper rod with a rounded end he had been using to tap the medallion did absolutely nothing that Dani could see. "Well that's interesting. It's not metal."

"What?" Dani asked, startled.

"It's not metal," Harry repeated, putting the copper rod down for a moment. He turned to Illyana, who was standing nearby, her eyes glowing with mage sight, a spell she had picked up in a few minutes after Harry had taught her it when they got back and she insisted on helping out here, eager to see more magic. "Illyana, could you please get me the book called "Obscure Magics and Minutia please?"

Illyana nodded rapidly, turning away and racing over to get the book while Harry placed the medallion on a plinth he conjured up into being for the purpose in the center of the room. The book Illyana returned with was an original book from the library here in Camelot, rather than one of the few that Harry had brought with him from his own dimension. The library was rather an esoteric sort of thing, put together in the last, dying months of a dying magical society, but it was strangely helpful at time, especially in the area of magical research like this.

After a few minutes reading Harry set the book aside, then began to gesture with one hand, and a spark of a color that Dani likened to a summer's day suddenly appeared on his finger, expanding until it enveloped the medallion, forcing it to hover in the air above the plinth for a moment. Then the light withdrew, but the hovering continued.

Harry began to walk all around the medallion as Ororo walked in behind Dani, with three plates of food. She handed one to Dani, who nodded her thanks and set the other two aside before leaning against the wall to watch Harry work.

At Dani's inquisitive expression, Ororo shrugged gracefully. "Gaia has never taught me any spell work that would deal with research like this."

"All right," Harry said after a moment's examination. "The inner face is stone, beryl it seems. This outer ring was from an animal of some kind, I'd guess a scale or maybe a nail from its composition, I can't tell any more than that however. There is degree of innate magic within it."

A second later, the medallion began to glow in ever decreasing spheres of color, one inside the other. The outer layer looked orange then there was something else there to, a dark purple sort of color, imbued directly into the object rather than in the aura around it.

"What is that purple color?" Illyana asked, confused. "It looks… weird." And it really did to her sight, flickering in and out as Harry cast the observation spell on his target.

"Weird, yes, that is a good way of putting it lovey," Harry muttered, reaching over with one hand to rub the top of her head. "That color denotes its inherent magical resistance. Whatever this thing is, it would make a basilisk or even a dragon's magical resistance look like that of a child. Rather scary thought frankly."

Behind Harry Ororo frowned, her eyes flicking from the medallion down to Harry's forearm where he still held the scar from the basilisk despite his dabbling with possible godhood thanks to draining the crystals from Cyttorak and the other Elder Gods of his pantheon. "I don't like the sound of that," she said mildly, knowing that only luck, prior planning and the Sword of Gryffindor had allowed Harry to get out of that battle alive. Ororo knew that present-day Harry would've dealt with the beast easily, but even so…

"Thanks for worrying love, but I'm not intending to take on this beastie, not in a straight up fight anyway," Harry muttered, then began to send Illyana around the work space to gather several objects for him.

These consisted of another rod, this one made of crystal coming to a sharp point, which Ororo recognized as one of the tools Harry had used to inscribe runes into his own body. The others were a twisty curly screw of some kind of dark black iron, and a pair of glasses of all things.

Dani watched fascinated as Illyana hopped from one place to another to grab the items Harry pointed out, before rushing back to her teacher, smiling at him as he began to explain what was going on. "What I'm going to do is remove this outer layer, sort of excise that magic away from the object."

"Why can't you just drain it?" Illyana asked, knowing that was Harry's mutant power.

"Can't control my mutant power that well I'm afraid, Illyana. I can stop the draining from happening at all, but directing it towards one specific spell on an item? That's a bit beyond me," Harry answered, then began explaining again. "The magic in the crystal rod will slowly separate the magical spell away then the iron twirl will harmlessly ground that magic off."

"A thought occurs, Harry," Ororo said. "Hela mentioned that Odin knew how to imbue magic magical runes into the various items, is that what we're dealing with here?"

"Not with the top layer," Harry answered promptly. "If we were, I wouldn't have been able to detect anything. No, this is something else. Though it's definitely from the same individual who laid out the mage trap and the original runic array on that hall."

"How can you tell?" Ororo asked, coming over to lay a gentle hand on Illyana's head and leaning close.

"Well, other than the fact Hela said that only Odin knew how to do that, and that the Wanderer was definitely some kind of… aspect avatar I'd guess, of his when he isn't actually in that guise completely , it has the same sort of feel as those initial runic arrays I felt before they faded out. But it's untainted from what I called the Dark runes which had been laid over them."

As Harry explained what was going on further he kept working, telling Illyana about what the magical tools were and why they worked, knowledge that wouldn't really be important for her for a while but which interested the child a great deal. Then, as Harry finished peeling off the orange looking spell, something changed in the medallion.

The central sphere of the medallion suddenly fell out of the outer ring and Illyana jumped forward, catching it quickly. Harry nodded at her but a voice boomed from the thing, taking his attention away from his young student. "You have unlocked the door Harry Potter, as I knew you would. Foreign magics were never my concern, but I had hoped you would be up to this task."

The voice was rich deep, commanding, and ancient beyond imagining, drawing a gasp from Illyana, Ororo and Dani, while Harry's eyes narrowed. That was not the voice of the wanderer aspect Dani had reported, but the totality of the skyfather Odin himself.

"You have questions," the voice went on, "Questions I am not free to answer as you no doubt have surmised. The aspect I released has unfortunately limited long-term thinking, and with little in the way of my memories it was the best I could do in the time Hela's sacrifice won me."

"Excuse me!?" Ororo said harshly, rearing up like an offended queen as lightning crackled down the arm that wasn't currently holding Illyana to her side.

Harry and Dani both also looked angry, while Illyana was looking from one face to another then at the medallion in consternation. This had seemed an interesting and fun magical exercise, but now it had got all serious!

"I had hoped to have more time, to imbue my aspect with more thoughts and memories, to truly work with you, but that could not be. Indeed, even instructing the construct to pass this onto your person somehow was almost hard beyond belief, and I risked much to do so. They were too swift with Hela, too brutal in forcing her back to compliance…and while my speech may be limited, know this oath, her loss and assault will be redressed."

Harry, Dani and Ororo all looked at one another, and Harry's eyes began to sparkle with his magic coming out, but he forced himself to calm down.

The voice, the voice of Odin, king of Asgard, sighed then went on in a weary but proud tone. "Even now I am constrained, bound by an oath twisted, a bond betrayed such that my own nature enforces my compliance in such a way that I cannot act without great cost and secrecy. My people are trapped in a cycle that does not end for the amusement of things too foul to name, my realm and the other 7 sundered from Midgard for centuries in a seeming that cannot be broken from within…but you King Potter are not bound by any tainted agreement's chains of sworn word, and I must ask…please, help me undo the betrayal of my people."

I cannot ask, I cannot beg. I am a king, such things are beneath me even in extremis. But if you wish to aid us and are able to succeed, we will aid you in turn when we are free to do so and those of your line unto 5 generations. More may be discussed in price but my time grows short, and perhaps yours too if they grow to notice you step from the light."

After that the voice cut out, its message delivered, leaving everyone who'd heard it to process the rather scant but still new information. Harry scowled, staring at the inner aspect of the medallion as it slowly began to turn to dust, its magic burned out by the spell on it. He let it happen then picked up the outer ring of the medallion, deftly controlling his mutant power as it started to activate to drain the object before setting it back down.

"A locator spell," he said simply shaking his head. "Based upon the magic of similarity."

Ororo shook her head. "I'm not familiar with that type of magic."

"I am," Illyana said with a laugh. "That type of magic always appears in old stories. Witches and wizards, if they find, you know a broken nail clip or tooth, they can find the individual, or control them.'"

"Voodoo magic?" Ororo asked curiously. There was still so much of magic she was learning even with her Goddesses instruction.

"Sort of ,"Harry said, shaking one hand from side to side. "Voodoo magic actually only works on people who believe it should, sort of like faith based magic and it takes good bit of magic to actually start up. Hair of course actually wouldn't work whatever non-magic users think, it's a dead part of the body and as such would have little to no connection to the person it fell from. Unless the individual targeted was highly magical himself, there's not enough in magic inherent in a person's hair to set the target out from other people. But a tooth, or in this case a scale, those are much more personable pieces of the target, and they can be used to locate an individual at least."

"The question then is, what exactly are we being led to here?" Dani asked, causing Harry to nod in both agreement and respect towards her. "We have more pieces of the puzzle now, but we still don't have the whole picture."

"With that, I think you need to speak to Dr. Vorlus." Ororo said firmly, her eyes still clouded with her mutant power. "I don't like how he said Hela's 'sacrifice' or how he described the 'assault' on her. That is giving me some very unpleasant thoughts, and I think we need to move on this quickly."

"Yeah," Harry said with a nod, his emerald eyes glittering darkly as Ororo's own went white, her mutant power activating in response to her anger. "Me too."

Harry then threw off his foul mood before looking down to Illyana. "For now though, I think it's time for lessons Illyana."

OOOOOOO

The next day Harry and Ororo had to the begin morning talking to the teachers, as the retrieval team had gathered in several more elementary level students from various European countries the throughout the day before. Apparently there had been several 'spontaneous', and boy did Sir Dennis pack that word with a lot of irony, rallies both for and against mutants, mutant supremacy and equality. There weren't enough of them yet to overwork the teachers, but integrating them into the existing classes was going to be a headache.

"So you think someone overplayed their hand here?" Harry asked as the teachers left, turning to Dennis over the dining room table.

"I am using Occam's Razor to even suppose there is a 'someone' to over play said hand Harry." Dennis shrugged. "It boggles the mind that so many flare-ups would occur the world over without someone pushing events along. Beyond that I have no idea, except that whoever it is might be playing both sides of things. There's nothing physical to indicate a connection between the pro-human groups and the pro-mutant supremacy groups, but the timing issue on these latest flare-ups… The timing is only visible if you have connections like ours the world over but even so…"

Dennis shook his head grimly. One of the flare-ups in particular down in Africa had been especially bloody. It hadn't involved any children, or at least mutants who had recently activated their powers. But it pitted a few older mutants and their allies, a local guerilla force, against another such force. There were reported to be as many as five hundred dead, and far more missing. The fact both groups practiced mutilation of their enemies made it even worse, as did the fact no one knew which side had actually won.

"And none of your sources, Sage or your contacts with the various intelligence agencies have been able to discover anything about how they're communicating? Any hint that there might in fact be some kind of organization behind all this?" Ororo asked not turning her attention from the news real playing on a small hard light screen projected onto the table in front of her.

"I've been chasing this for weeks now, and no I haven't! Did I not just say there is only circumstantial evidence of there being any one force or individual controlling this all?!" Dennis scowled, calming himself down slowly and bowing his head in apology to Ororo before going on. "None of the rabble-rousers captured by the locals apparently know anything, and those are very few and far between in any event. I'd like to get some people to various places to ask those few prisoners questions however."

"Which means it's my turn," Mystique said as she moved over from where she had been sitting with Irene. The elderly woman had recovered from her body's response to Magneto's death, and seemed stronger than she had been in a while, but that strength was a mask and everyone knew it.

Just like Peter's grandparents, she was fading fast. Though unlike those two, she still had some energy and could do more than simply sit outside or in her room. Harry hoped that his medical think tank would find what he hoped they would in terms of some kind of antigerone treatment in time to help her, but had no idea how long it would take them, and there was no magic that could reverse the age of a person who had no magical talent herself.

Harry looked at her then slowly nodded, thinking hard. "Maybe, but not for questioning prisoners. Let's see if we can get ahead of this curve. Morph, get over here."

Morph leapt up from the chair he had been dangling on trying to flirt with Paige and Danielle, both at the same time more to take their attention away from the news than in any real hope of a positive response. His clothing changed into some kind of Commissarial uniform complete with overdone cape as he came to a halt in front of the table, throwing up a swift salute. "Yes mien commander!"

"Knock it off," Harry said mildly, sending a color changing spell at the boy with a wave of one hand. For a moment the spell changed his skin into purple pink and neon dots until he regained control of his body and reversed the spell through the use of his own mutant power.

"I'm taking you off the Custodes Mundi for the moment. You're assigned to work with Mystique for now. Dennis, find a place to insert these two, I want them on the ground where you think is going to be another flare-up like these. I'll get with Jean and Reed, and see what we can get them kitted out with by the end of today."

Jean had yet to return from orbit, which, Harry reflected, probably meant she hadn't slept in two days. Again. Her enthusiasm for the space-based side of things was nice, but worrisome too.

Morph frowned. "Despite my power I'm not certain I'm really cut out to be a spy boss. I mean what you see is what you get in my personality you now. I never was very good at taking on personalities for long stretches of time when I was an Acolyte."

"Then we'll work with that," Mystique said promptly shaking her head. "It'll take a few days to create some background for us anyway, Dennis, Banshee and I will work with you on that. We'll handle it Harry, though I would urge you to clear Anne and a few of the others quickly. Banshee's decent enough, but he's also a possible known factor. I'd actually like to take Betsy, her telepathy would be a major help."

Harry frowned. He didn't like being pushed into that. The only two of the converts they had integrated into Camelot so far were Amelia and Wendy, and neither of them were interested in espionage work. Amelia had joined Una and between the two of them, Dr. Druid, Camelot's own resources both magical and scientific, Camelot now had the equivalent of a top notch hospital.

Wendy however had thrown herself into the retrieval team work, being involved in the work done yesterday. Harry planned to work with her in the future, see if she had it in her to become the retrieval team's field leader, but that would be in the future. She was at one of the other tables right now, boning up on her high school education with Kitty, and for some reason the Guthrie clan. For some reason the Guthries had welcomed her with open arms even more than the rest, though Harry wasn't certain why.

For now though… "Morph, who among the converts would you say were ready for some fieldwork?"

"Scanner and Neophyte are both ready for some fieldwork, but they don't have the temperament for this kind of thing." Morph mused. "You got them on your side the moment you let them talk to the kids when you took them to the Savage Land Ororo. Amelia would be perfect, but she would probably refuse. Anne Marie is a maybe, the others probably need more time to think about things."

"Why her? She is still a true believer isn't she?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Morph said with a nod. "But Anne's a thinker and she doesn't like violence overmuch, I mean she's willing to fight but she'd much rather see mutants become top dog through peaceful means, and these protests are anything but."

Harry frowned looking over at Ororo.

She shrugged, smiling slightly. "I'd already marked out Scanner as being someone who we could seriously help put in charge of the retrieval teams Harry, her mutant power is to find other mutants after all, that makes her a jewel beyond price us. Neophyte is too in a way. As for Anne-Marie, Emma cleared her, and I think actually likes the woman though it's like pulling teeth to get her to admit to it."

Harry shook his head at that while Mystique scowled, but his eyes were serious as he stared first at Morph then Mystique.. "Part of being a leader is knowing when you have to rely on other people to make judgment calls," he said slowly, "If you want Cortez, Mystique, you can have her on top of Morph and Betsy. Check with Mickail too, his power might be useful as a surprise, and he's somewhat more level headed then Illyich."

After that, the breakfast broke up, and Harry took Dr. Druid down to the Room of Requirements to run him through some tests on his rune work. The older man passed the test easily so Harry happily handed over the ongoing runic work, more Trust Me arrays, more defensive arrays for the Ravenspires, work on the protective arrays for the Savage Land, which Harry would then put up, to him. That took a lot of the small long-term projects up out of Harry's hands, something he was ecstatic about.

After that, Harry stopped in momentarily to see how Ororo was getting on with helping the new children integrate into their classes, before popping over at last to see Dr. Vorlus. The former pugilist turned from comparing a series of images to two of the murals on the wall of the cavernous hall, his eyebrow cocking as one of his students shrieked like a little girl at the sudden intrusion. "Ah Guardian, how nice of you to pop in."

"Dr. Vorlus, did I come at a bad time?" The Black and mask-clad Guardian asked, his body language literally screaming sardonic amusement for a moment before he wave the students away. "I need to talk to you."

Vorlus nodded and followed Harry over into one of the hall's corners, ironically the same one in which the belt had been hidden. "Have you discovered anything?" Harry asked without preamble.

"I've only been here for less than a month! We're still checking the veracity

of the murals we can do so with. Besides I already informed Mr. Potter, I haven't discovered anything, not even about that belt. Why the concern?" Vorlus asked, rolling his eyes.

Honestly, no one understood how much time archeology could take, it wasn't all like those Indiana Jones movies made it out to be after all. In fact until this last adventure Vorlus had only rarely had any kind of adventure while on dig sites.

For a moment Guardian simply looked at Vorlus before looking around. "Wait a moment." Vorlus watched as Guardian turned, covering the two of them with several other spells which Vorlus only saw as brief flashes in the air all around them. One of them seemed to banish the nearby shadows and another muffled the sounds of his students and his assistant continuing their work all around the hall.

When he was done with this preparation Guardian turned back to Vorlus. "You might have noticed me giving Hela a small mirror? It was part of a magical communication device. We assumed she would wish to keep in contact, but she hasn't contacted us nor is she responding to our calls. We are worried that something has happened to her, and that it is connected to our finding this place. I need information doctor. Anything you can tell me might be able to hint at what's going on."

"I… alright." Vorlus had honestly forgotten, or rather decided to ignore the idea that his gods might be under some kind of foreign power. It wasn't something anyone would be comfortable with. Yes, Asgardians could be killed, in that way they were as mortal as anyone, and influenced, tricked for either good or ill. But mentally dominated like this? Such things went against the grain of the old Norse and how they viewed the world and magic. None of the old tales spoke of anything like this and the possibility was beyond terrifying.

After a second getting his head around that idea, Vorlus nodded sharply once, before beginning, "This place was the family home of Thor Odinsson, that much is obvious. But what wasn't obvious at first is that there are images of every god and goddess in the pantheon here, from Odin all the way down to some of the children. Some of them are very, very different from most of the images we've seen before with only tiny hints to tell us who they are, others not so much. I had thought that was mere coincidence, but perhaps not. As for the belt, I think it could be the Megingjörð, Thor's belt of power. It doesn't match any of the descriptions in totality but enough bits of it do that I can say that, even if we can't seem to use it."

Harry's eyes widened behind his mask, and he nodded. "One of the two items he needed to wield Mjolnir in the old tales, correct?" Someone wanted it hidden away. Then someone else came along, but they couldn't remove it, so hid it as best they could, then set the Draugr to protect it beyond that. But why hide it at all? Is that connected to Odin talking about oath's betrayed and such-like?

Vorlus' words pulled Harry out of his surprise. "Have you found any evidence that there might be other pantheons out there?"

"What, um, one or two yes, why?" Harry asked, startled at the question.

"Because four of the murals here are dedicated to battles against gods Nick Price and I believe could be from the Greek pantheon. And there are others too, the gods fighting their own people, but the people depicted all wear small crosses somewhere on their person. And then there is this one…"

Vorlus showed Harry over to one mural, but after a moment Guardian shook his head. "What exactly am I looking at here?"

"Ah, sorry, I forget sometimes that other people don't know as much as I do about Scandinavian art. The rest of the murals here do not match the art the Vikings were supposed to have, all well and good. But here, in this one, the background doesn't match the style of the images in the foreground and the other murals. Look, the colors are far dimmer, watered out."

The image was of a long column of people marching up a rainbow bridge, the Bifrost Harry had heard of. Most of the images were too small for much detail, but at the back of the column, facing back the way they had come was Thor, and yes, he had red hair instead of blond. Next to him was the warrior woman depicted in several of the other murals, Sif presumably, with their children between them, the two boys both armed and facing in the same direction.

"They were running from something?" Harry murmured, kneeling down slightly to look at the faces he could see, but he couldn't make out any features. It was as if this mural had been rushed for some reason.

"The influence of Christian missionaries perhaps." Vorlus shrugged, he had a bug up his ass about them Harry noticed, yes, but since Vorlus had given him a lecture about how the last bastion of the old ways had literally been held hostage with the safety of the Godhric Republic's children by the Christian king of Norway Harry was willing to admit he had a point. "It struck me as significant regardless, as I can't easily imagine such a scene like this happening short of Ragnorok itself."

Guardian nodded, straightening up. "Tell me, are there any monsters, or perhaps a group of Jotun, that specialize in mental attacks?"

Vorlus shook his head. "Mental attacks, by that you mean telepathic? There are monsters whose presence can impact their prey, make them too afraid to act or go mad, like the Draugr's aura and smell. But no, nothing like that. The Ancient Scandinavians were a people very much in tune with the physical world, the most they had were things that dwelled in the mists of their homelands and that was more along the lines of shapeshifters and wraiths than mind benders."

"And…" Guardian hesitated, wondering about how to ask this before deciding to just blurt it out. "How about magic users who specialized in controlling people through their blood?"

Harry wouldn't have wanted to try that kind of thing on the Asgardians, not given the evidence of what they could do to their own souls and blood given Sigyn and Dani's relationship. But he was grasping at straws here in terms of trying to figure out what they were dealing with here.

"No, I don't know any stories like that…" Vorlus murmured, frowning. "Certainly not if you are asking if the Asgardians could be controlled in such a manner. Then again I would have said they couldn't be controlled at all."

Great, just freaking fantastic, an entirely unknown enemy, which means I am really leaping into the unknown here. Ah well, I didn't expect anything to leap out at me here, though the belt is certainly significant. "Alright, give me the belt and I'll hang onto it for now. But before I go, one last question: are there any ouroboros in Asgardian lore?"