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Hela whirled from where she had been about to enter her private living quarters as the defenses around Niflheim rang like a tocsin. Yet what appeared were not invaders, nor did people appear elsewhere in her realm intent on searching out a soul to rescue or some hidden secret from her. Instead two mortals appeared, immediately falling to their faces as the male groaned in agony, and the female, a blonde of some beauty as mortals reckoned things, began to throw up on the ground.
She was still going to curse them when the owl, Hedwig Garm had called her, appeared in midair above them. The snowy owl flew around them making precking noises before landing on Garm's head once more. "She's saying 'I told you so' mistress," Garm supplied sitting back on his haunches from where he too had leaped to his feet. "Also, 'silly humans and their weak stomachs.'"
"Yes Garm I did not need that translated either," Hela said dryly, checking her realm's defenses in an effort to figure out how these two had gotten through them. Feeling them out, she realized it was due to two causes. One was the power of the teleporter, in this case the mortal human male. Second was the fact that his teleportation spell was unlike any she had initially seen. It had used the owl's senses of her realm to paint a picture, rather than to find her or her realm and then teleport to one or the other.
The difference was slight, but profound, and it had allowed them to travel through her defenses. Not easily, and it would still have taken more powerful than any normal seidr user would ever have been able to call upon, but they were still able to travel through them rather than splatter themselves against Niflheim's defenses like they should have. Something they could not have known when they tried it. Even if they knew the area Hedwig had been to it was a true leap into the unknown.
Shaking her head Hela looked back at the two mortals, wondering what could have driven them to try that, especially considering what it had obviously done to them. "You know, I was simply going to attack you, but now I think I will simply sit back and laugh. It is rare for such…eager jesters to grace my hall, even more so while they are still alive." Hela said, her voice rich with amusement as she casually walked back towards them, her dark green dress flowing around her like pooling shadows. At the same time however she brought her realm's physical defenses up with a mere thought. If they were truly here to attack her, they would find that they chose poorly.
Harry was the first to recover, and he groaned as he pushed himself to his knees where he looked up at Hela. Seeing her he couldn't help the warm smile which appeared on his face, his emerald eyes lighting up with happiness. She had become a friend through their various dealings with the possibility of even more in the future prevalent in a lot of their interactions and Hela's silence had disturbed him greatly even before he learned her memories had been erased. "Greetings Lady Hela, I apologize profusely about appearing before you unannounced, but you weren't taking my calls," he said impishly.
As those emerald eyes locked on her own Hela found her pulse was racing, and a slight heat coming to her cheeks hidden behind her half-mask. What, what was that!? "Perhaps then you should have stopped trying to contact me," she said tartly, pushing that feeling away as she broke their locked gazes.
"I would have, if what we had to say was not of such import, and frankly not even so much to us as it is to you," Harry said with a bow of his head though internally he was now even more worried. If this had been a simple Obliviation, actually looking at me should have helped to break it, but it hasn't, and that is bad on many levels.
Taking a person's memories like that, even to Harry that was simply a different type of rape. To a goddess, who of course would normally be inviolate in her own mind, and indeed in this case her own realm, that would be a violation of horrific proportions.
Hela opened her mouth to reply to that, her eyes flashing at the idea of a mere mortal thinking he knew what was best for her, when Emma came out of her own stupor, reaching over to grab they Harry's shoulder and glare at him. "You didn't tell me it would be that bad! If you ever, and I mean ever take me on something like that again, I swear to God Harry Potter I will freaking kill you!"
The blond mortal's body reminded Hela nothing so much of one of Freya's cats when one of her chosen dead had the ill-fortune of stepping on one of their tails. Her teeth were bared in an outraged hiss and her disheveled hair had a poufy look like an arched cat.
"If you're going to kill him, could you at least leave my realm before you do? He is not a believer, and he's not a child, so his soul would have no place here, nor of course will yours," Hela said dryly, smiling thinly as she reminded the bickering couple. Goddess of the dead she may be but Hela knew a lover's spat when she saw one. Then she turned her attention back to 'Harry', as the woman slowly got to her feet glaring at both of them, though why she was glaring at her Hela didn't know, and didn't appreciate in the least either considering the mortal was an intruder.
"The transportation seems to take have taken it out of your companion," She said mildly to the seidr man, her lips curling slightly at the idea of such a one in her hall, even if he seemed to have a semblance of both humor and manners.
"This companion has a name, Emma Frost," Emma snipped back, causing Hela's lips to form a scowl from her previous sneer, becoming irritated at the rudeness now being directed at her in her own hall. Emma however either missed this or dismissed it as she took stock of their surroundings. She looked around, and promptly did a double take at how huge Garm was. It was one thing to see the massive wolf in the memory, but it was quite another thing entirely to see his scarred frame in real life.
Then she looked around at the hall before turning back to Hela. The goddess was very good looking, and had a feel to her that went beyond the physical, but Emma had become used to such and ignored it now. Instead she looked down at the mess she had made and nudged Harry. "Get rid of that."
Harry nodded slightly, turning back to Hela before doing so. "With your permission, Lady Hela?"
That actually caused Hela to smile. The man might be a seidr user, which was an improper and inappropriate thing for any man to be, but at least he had some manners. If one ignores his breaking and entering that is. And his presence! It made Hela wonder about her initial assessment of him as a mere mortal frankly, with the amount of power there he could have ascended to godhood but he had not for some reason. Not that the lack of divinity makes his power any less alluring…she mentally purred, her obsession with Balder fading the longer she stared at the bold mortal before her.
Shaking that thought off Hela nodded and watched as Harry cleaned up the refuse from Emma's stomach, a single spell doing all the work. It was an interesting little charm Hela noted curiously, making a point of trying to memorize the shape of the magic as it left Harry's fingers.
But then Hela turned her back on her unwanted guests for a brief second. Striding to the end of her throne room her dress swirled around Hela once more as she sat gracefully on her throne, leaning back on it with her hands steepled in front of her. "So you have come, and judging from your arrival at great expense to yourself. You have made no effort to trick me or run away from my dread guard Garm, and you did at least have the courtesy to call ahead even if you would not take no for an answer. I can therefore at least hear you out before ousting you from my realm."
Hela smiled thinly as she continued, her eyes cold as she gazed at them. . "I pray that you make your presentation very convincing, or that expulsion will be make your trip into my realm seem pleasant." Regardless of the strange stirrings of emotion Harry's eyes had worked on her, Hela was very wary about these two. No one had breached her realm before and for it to happen now, even if it was through what amounted to being a magical loophole, put Hela on her guard despite her earlier amusement at her erstwhile guest's expense.
"Oh yes, because we're only hear on our own account, not to help you," Emma snarkily replied, once more looking around. "If I was in the mood to go someplace gloomy and dark, I'd go to a haunted house. I wouldn't come to a nether world full of ghosts and dread creatures, and an overbearing goddess with delusions of stripper-hood."
Harry gaped at Emma, disbelievingly Bloody hell, Emma do suddenly you have a death wish?! He mentally shouted at her in incredulity, only for his telepathic expression of shock to be overtaken by Hela's verbal response.
"What did you just say?"
"Oh I'm sorry, is that armor supposed to actually be protective? I thought it was a marital aid," Emma replied dryly, giving no indication that as far as Harry was concerned, she was basically committing suicide via insulted goddess.
Listening to her you would have thought that Emma was either insane, or still mad about the trip in and just taking it out on everyone in the reach of her voice. But after a moment Harry realized this was much the same way Emma had started to interact with Jean when they first met. Initially a man would have been hard-pressed to say they were the best of friends or the best of enemies. The fact she had known for some time that Hela was possibly going to joining their relationship was also no doubt playing a factor.
There was also another factor too, though Harry was slower to realize it. Emma had seen the arrogance, the cold, biting humor which Hela held herself with and found it impossibly arrogant, far too arrogant to be allowed even in a so-called goddess. Of course most other people would have said the same thing of Emma, though of course, not where she could hear them if they enjoyed a life without their brains having been turned to mush.
"What would a weak human wench know of armor in any event?" Hela growled back, looking somewhat affronted, before thrusting out her chest and causing Harry's jaw to drop as Hela seemed to be willing to match Emma barb for barb rather than just smack her down or outright expel them. Certainly his jaw dropping had nothing to do with way Hela's chest strained her armor just then. "Or was that purest envy I hear? Don't worry I understand there are potions to enhance such things."
"I am quite happy with what I have thank you. With the added bonus of it coming from both superior genes and healthy exercise. I have no need of being a goddess to enhance my natural gifts in that area," Emma replied calmly, her lips twitching into a condescending sneer. "Or are you going to say you came up with that complexion naturally? When it just so happens to set your hair color and eyes to such good effect? Here's a hint, you poor dear, trying too hard is as bad as not trying at all."
At this point Harry decided it was time to intervene before his blonde lover got them both expelled before they had a chance to speak to Hela on more serious matters, and gathering his courage he stepped forward to do just that. "As…. interesting …as it is to listen to you two snipe at one another, this was not actually what we came here for. "
Both women blinked, then turned to him then back to one another and finally Hela nodded. "Yes, I suppose we did get a little sidetracked there," she said, certain that she had won the flyting there for a moment. It had been somehow enjoyable, the experience so rare for Hela that the sheer novelty stayed the part of her that kept urging her to kick them out or kill them outright for the slights against her.
"So, back to the original topic, why are you here? Your missive to me said we have met before, but I do not know you, nor do I have the items you mentioned in it as proof of your words. The rest of your message sounded more like that of a love-struck fool," she said clinically, almost sneering the words. Though love letters were known among her people they were not normally well-received being seen as tools of enticement rather than a true means of conveying feelings. "But I am not so easily taken in as that bitch Aphrodite or that useless slab of granite Hades."
"I did mention that we had met in the pursuit of your duty Lady Hela," Harry said, wincing slightly at her tone and the warning therein. Where before Hela's tone had been somewhat angry but also drolly playful with Emma, her voice was now noticeably colder and more forbidding. Girls are soooo weird.
"As a gift for dealing with those who had attempted to remove themselves from the machinery of rebirth you passed on to me a device from Death," Harry stated formally, knowing that decorum would help them here rather than trying to presume on their past interactions, since Hela had no memory of them. "The device was a large globe which showed Earth or Midgard as you call it. Upon it were marks to show where people who had dealings with demons or devils could be found."
"Hmm…I remember that globe," Hela said after a moment's thought, bringing one finger up to tap her chin thoughtfully. "It was indeed a gift for mortal that had pleased my mistress. An odd thing I will admit," she said, frowning at how the memory was disjointed somewhat. Odd, but that could still be happenstance, although it is very strange indeed that I have no recollection of anything beyond the gift itself.
"And later on, my allies ran into an issue on Earth dealing with undead." Harry went on, deciding to skip to the highlights. Hela's patience with the two of them given the way they had arrived didn't seem up to the full story of the back and forth. And somehow my male intuition is telling me not to mention her attempts to court with me. Odd, I never thought male intuition was actually a thing outside of combat. "You and a specialist working for me called the undead Draugr, and you said they were somehow created in a way that you said was abnormal for the breed, since they included children and those without malevolent hearts or deaths."
Hela reared back, her eyes sparking with anger at the very mention of those creatures and a way to create Draugr not only without her knowledge but in an abnormal manner. As if the 'natural manner' weren't bad enough! "Impossible! I would know of such a thing!" she shouted furiously standing up with purple and red lightning cascading around her and from her eyes as her hall shook, her realm reacted instinctively to her ire and outrage. "That is my purview you are speaking of mortal, how dare you make such claims in my own hall!"
"Er, Mistress…" Garm really didn't want to interrupt, but he had to. Having sniffed Harry and Emma Garm knew the human male smelled like an ally, and he had smelled his mistress too when their eyes had locked. There was a distinct sense of attraction there, and his mistress was never one to become attracted to anyone in so quick a manner. The blonde female was another matter, but she not only had the smell of the seidr man upon her in the way of mates, but also 2 other scents that screamed 'familiar allies' to the grizzled guardian so he was willing to let her live despite her breaking the laws of hospitality.
Gathering his courage he went on quickly. "Mistress, if that is the case, it would explain how I had felt as if I had eaten twice cooked, er, that is twice-dead souls. And it would explain the number of children souls on Eylandəvbarnœska."
Hela turned to look at Garm, her brows furrowing behind her half-mask, then she nodded slowly. "I have often thought that it was odd that that there were so many children souls are there of late," she said hesitantly, her attitude noticeably thawing as that thought hit her, her ire disappearing as quickly as it came.
"And how many souls have ever in all the time you've ruled here arrived on eylandəvbarnœska without you having a distinct memory of it?" Harry asked, capitalizing quickly. "Further is it usual for you to not remember those moments, and how those souls came to be under your charge? Specifically those souls of children not raised in the Asatru faith?"
"No," Hela said frowning even more heavily as she returned to her throne, a headache forming as she thought more on the matter. . "No, it is not."
"How are those souls doing by the way?" Harry asked, more to put her at ease than anything else, seeing that she was displaying the same symptoms as after the battle against the Draugr before except in more extreme measures, warily scanning the area around them just in case whoever had implanted the memories could strike at them physically now that they were once more running up against evidence of their work. "You told us after that battle that you would take them to 'eylandəvbarnœska' as you call it, though I've heard such called the Sunset Realm. Something that all gods and goddesses who work for Death have?"
"We do, though I've never seen any of the others. It is not as if we are all one big happy family after all whatever those might actually be," Hela said, snorting derisively. She then looked at Harry quizzically. "Would you like to check on them? Were they your vassals or charges in some way?"
"No," Harry said quietly, remembering that battle all too vividly and the bloated horribly disfigured children among the Draugr. "But they were human, and they died far too soon. You might say I have experience in that area."
Looking at his expression, Hela was struck by how weary the seidr man seemed to be for a moment, his eyes resembling those of some old warriors that had lived too long and seen too much loss. Memories of past friends and acquaintances passed on perhaps? After a second Hela nodded then rose from her throne. She stepped within a few paces of the two of them, and with barely a flicker of her will all three or rather five counting the two nominal animals, found themselves elsewhere.
Emma gasped, clutching automatically at her stomach as words which might well have pushed Hela to evict them came to her mind. But there was no disjointed feeling of unease or turmoil caused by that smooth the transition and she sighed in relief, banishing those words unsaid. "You could learn something from Hela about teleporting Harry…" Emma said before her words trailed off as she stared around them.
Beside her Harry simply smiled, taking in the sights. The island was indeed a paradise, with trees of all sorts and shapes growing everywhere, slides scattered here and there, along with jungle gyms, swings, and little caverns here and there, with tiny running streams flowing across the landscape. It was the kind of children's paradise Peter Pan would have loved. And everywhere he looked he saw the small multi-colored lights of children's souls rushing around. Laughter and shouts of glee filled the air, and both humans were struck by how amazingly peaceful and friendly it all was. It was a sharp contrast to the greys and faded mist of the rest of Hela's realm, further reinforcing that this was a special place though Harry and Emma had no way of knowing that.
listening to the laughter on the wind and watching the little dust mots fly around one after the other or up and down some of the slides Emma could only shake her head. She had somewhat believed the soul before this, but seeing it in person like this was something else entirely. And seeing the souls of children displayed like this was a revelation. "Was I ever that innocent?" she asked softly, fearing to dispel the spell of this place.
Hela smiled, her own eyes tenderly gazing upon the area around them. "All souls start off so innocent mortal. It is life that changes you, not the essence you begin with."
Emma looked at her, and then bowed her head in acknowledgment of Hela's words before turning back to their view as beside her Harry's smile widened.
Huh, so they can get along, that's a good sign long term whatever happens between Hela and us. Especially now, he thought grimly, looking at Hela out of the corner of her eye as she stared around them, before turning back to her two guests. She was no longer touching her head or indicating she was in pain, which he supposed was a good sign, but a sign of what beyond that was a question.
"Come," Hela said softly. A second later they disappeared from Niflheim's Sunset Realm to reappear in Hela's markedly gloomier hall. Sitting back down on her throne Hela leaned back, regarding the two mortals as Harry immediately launched into a description of the battle against the Draugr.
The sheer number of those foul abominations he described was beyond worrisome, and the battle sounded worthy of an epic. The little ceremony to induct the children's souls afterward also seemed on the mark. Harry even described what she wore accurately, though the attention to that detail was somewhat off-putting to hear from a man she had no recollection of meeting. Further Hela found herself somewhat intrigued by this other woman, this Ororo that Harry described. To face her fears so boldly in addition to the tainted dead was no mean feat to say the least.
Yet even so Hela was still wary of them and distrustful of mortals being in her realm at all. It had not been an exaggeration that mortals and giants of all sorts had continually tried to cheat those of her calling out of their duty, and frankly Hela could all too easily remember the number of suitors that had been after her hand when she was younger. Many of them had gone about it in exceeding odd ways, but a few had been far more direct in their suit, and Harry and Emma's arrival had put her mind and memory of a few such times, albeit still standing out for the uniqueness of their arrival and the use of Hedwig.
Yes, there was some proof to what they were saying, that she could not remember the battle Harry described at least and that her memories of eylandəvbarnœska were vague at best. But there was a far cry between acknowledging those points and being open to the idea that someone had interfered with her own mind, had stolen her memories, her very self, from her so thoroughly that she could not recall any inkling of the event.
And Harry's letter to her had hinted that above and beyond running into him in the line of duty like that, they had become something approaching intimates. Hela could not deny that something there was saying that she had interacted with this Harry Potter before positively. Very positively. Yet in turn that made Hela even more paranoid as she recalled some of the legends of those who courted out of turn or used love letters to act as love spells of a sort on the women they coveted.
"We are our deeds," was the phrase that sprang to mind, a central concept to how the Asgardians viewed themselves and the world around them. The deeds of one individual were what defined that individual along with how he though and his belief system, how that individual affected the world and were shaped in turn by the Orlog of their line. Each deed an individual did defined their sense of self and worth going forward, every moment of experience another piece of the tapestry of the individual's life. So memories and being remembered were immensely important to her people.
To not remember a deed of such import, to not remember meeting this Harry Potter before, that was beyond what Hela, as a goddess was willing to accept or believe possible without there being more concrete evidence beyond simple feelings and impressions. After all, what manner of magic could corrupt her mind, here in her own realm? No, such a thing was patently impossible, Hela reassured herself.
"If you don't believe me, I can offer to share my own memories with you." Harry said, finishing his tale, "There is a magic spell that would allow you to view my memories as if they were your own."
Hela nearly lashed out in shock at the very idea, seeing it as almost as much a violation as the idea that her memories had been altered, and a further sign to be wary of these two. "You expect me to trust your memory like that in lieu of my own, to trust you to implant something in my mind under such short an acquaintance!?" She looked at Harry angrily but seeing his sudden contrition and mellowed her response slightly, realizing he had spoken in ignorance rather than malice. "I think the offer is made sincerely, but I must decline. Fine words on a silver tongue sound sweet, yet in the end matter not against the iron of certainty." She said, shaking her head.
"You have given me supposition, you have given me some type of evidence that a battle occurred that at least is true. But you have not shown me anything that links the two of us in any more positive a manner than allies of happenstance nor any evidence of this greater enemy at work that your letter seemed determined to warn me of. I will not view your memories thus, not until you give me some more solid proofs of our acquaintance." Hela finished sternly.
"There is wariness and there is gross stupidity brought on by too much paranoia," Emma broke in coldly, a haughty look on her aristocratic face as she ignored the warning look Harry was already turning to give her. "So is it arrogance or fear that your so vaunted 'goddess powers' are not worth the moss on this crumbling hovel you call a hall?"
As many of her friends and acquaintances could attest to, Emma was one of those individuals who, when feeling rattled lashed out. She was torn, though Harry hadn't picked up on it, about the idea of souls. Emma had after all done a lot of 'bad' things to secure her freedom from her father and to further her own interests and indeed the interests of their faction. Added to that, she was seeing a lot of herself in Hela, or rather herself as she was when she met with Harry for the first time, Except not only does Hela not know she is in trouble but she is also arrogant enough to turn Harry away!
Compounding this was the fact that Emma has made no effort to learn more about the Asatru faith/society. She had no interest in religion of any stripe, and had only heard about it in context to her discussions with Harry and the others about Hela and the possible problems the Asgardians were running into. She had walked into this expecting to be able to treat it as any business meeting or the like from back home.
Hela surged up out of her throne like a striking snake and a blast of pure force reached out, slamming into Emma and sending her skidding backwards several feet. A sneer appeared on her face as she placed her hands on her hips in outraged fury. "Mind your tone with me churl, lest I pluck it from your skull! These are my halls, and I will have the respect due any host no matter how you came to be here!"
Before Harry could intervene Emma righted herself and lashed out with a telepathic pain bolt that thundered in turn into Hela's mind like a bolt of lightning, causing her head to fly back in pain. "It is only the unintelligent which resort to violence to prove their position. As for respect, I'll accord you that when you start thinking instead of taking council with your arrogance! Or does that mask of yours hide some lobotomy scars? Should we be speaking slower to let the words sink in?"
Beside Emma Harry gave a wordless sound of horror at the way two women seemed determined to tear each other apart. This hesitation allowed Hela to get the next blow in, thankfully a verbal one only.
"I have ruled my realm longer than your race was created from pieces of driftwood," Hela growled, though she did not lash out again magically. She and Emma stood glaring at one another separated by a good five feet now, neither moving but neither giving any indication they would back down either. "How dare you presume to know what is best for me? When it is clear you know nothing about the customs or laws of the one you claim to help! And I could have sworn there were jokes among humans about blondes being the truly foolish ones. Or was that the easy ones, I can never remember and even if I could slatterns all look alike to me."
Twitching as Hela's words smashed two of her personal buttons Emma responded in kind. "Wow, you really must be old then mustn't you? Is this body I see before me a glamor then? Don't worry dear, it's quite effective, I can't see any wrinkles or anything, and given what your illusion is wearing that's saying something. As for my being a slattern I'm astonished you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a high born lady like myself and one of those unfortunates. Though perhaps I shouldn't be surprised considering what you dress that you would more willingly associate their kind than with mine?"
Harry made to speak up and diffuse the situation as he had earlier, only to have himself very firmly shown his place with a simultaneous "Be Silent!"/"Butt out!" Once he was certain that neither woman seemed ready to go back to actual violence Harry chose the better part of valor and decided not to get involved in this whatever it was, retreating quickly out of the ladies' line of sight as the insults started to fly fast and furious with increasing vitriol and creativity. Right, anyone who thought a cat fight is the beautiful thing to see is bloody stupid jackass, though both of them … are they smiling? Is this one of those, what are they called again, flyting?
Deciding he had nothing to contribute to this, Harry turned to Garm, who had also quickly slunk out of the way of the two women, and was currently curled up along one wall watching avidly with Hedwig once again riding on his back. Garm had snorted with amusement at the way Harry's attempt to mediate had been met with failure, as the old wolf had seen what was going on right off and despite being a veteran of battles and years, knew full well when to step away from pissing contest alpha females. Garm had grunted idly to Hedwig that for one mated to so many impressive mates, Harry seemed rather thick as to how to handle dominance displays like this, to which the owl gave a put upon sigh about how slow her human was in some matters. The two animals at the very least were able to push past the fact that they didn't have anything most sentients would call memory of one another. Scent was far more important in the animal kingdom than memory, even in such enhanced animals as these two.
"So you weren't able to find any hint of the items I mentioned in our conversation?" Harry asked in a low tone, crouching down next to the beast even though he didn't really need to. The Jotun wolf was larger than he was without that.
"Nay. There be a few odd scents around, but naught that I could use to find anything out of place." Garm had been annoyed because he could smell something that had the seidr man's scent but couldn't find it. It was almost as if the scent was just coming out of thin air, and that offended the wolf's sensibilities on several levels aside from the whole 'someone possibly ripping out the memories of his mistress problem it represented.
"Hmm…" Harry mused then held up his hand. "Well, the simplest things often work the best, so let's try this. Accio blue leather bound book!"
At his words a patch of darkness in the hall shifted, and suddenly a bit of blackness shot into Harry's hand. Harry could tell at once the blackness covering it was an illusion, and as he held the thing in his hands it tried to turn his attention away, to make him drop and forget about it. But Harry was able to ignore the compulsion before banishing the blackness over the book easily. This revealed the blue leather bound book he had given Hela during his and Jean's conversation with her.
Hela had turned quickly from her ongoing 'discussion' with Emma and had been about to rip Harry a new one rather literally for using magic in her realm without her permission when she saw what he had done. She of course felt that shape in touch of the magic cast. No one could work magic in Niflheim and not have Hela be aware of it to a depth only the caster himself could match. Yet right there in Harry's hand was a blue leather wrapped book of the kind his message had mentioned and which he had further described. He had not conjured or created the book right now, but fetched from her own hall, where it had been heretofore hidden from her senses.
Further, now that the darkness around it had been removed she could feel the touch of her mistress on it. Unlike the pouch of chocolates which Death had never touched, Death had been the first one to actually use the book Harry Potter had given them. That marked it as being a gift for both herself and for her servant. Because of that, the Shadows had been unwilling to simply destroy it as they had the pouch of never-ending chocolate.
They knew that Death was looking for an excuse to act against them. Their agreement with the Asgardians had neatly encapsulated Hela in their orbit, but Death was a most demanding mistress, and she had never liked the fact that said agreement had allowed them to mess with one of her servants at all, above and beyond what it did to the Asgardians and their place in the great Wheel.
Thus she was, despite being constrained, calmly waiting for any opportunity to strike against them. Destroying a gift meant for her could well have given her that excuse, and Those Who Watch Above in Shadow had decided to not take the chance. This choice, made by their hubris and deepest fear, would prove their undoing now.
Reaching out a hand Hela waited as Harry pressed the book into her hand, still wary of any trick but sensing none and seeing no effort of subterfuge in his body language. She opened the magical book as Harry explained its usage, and began to read the words, smiling slightly at the author's clever word play and imagery. After a few minutes Hela closed the book gently and sat it in her lap, lifting her eyes to stare at Harry then Emma, sending the blonde girl a slight nod of her head.
Emma had been beyond rude and out of bounds by the measure, of her people, though perhaps Hela could make an allowance this once since she and this seidr man had truly come to aid her despite the headache now pounding through her skull. "I will not apologize for my caution considering the nature of the enemies you say we face or the means you claim they have used to sunder our 'former' connection so cleanly," she said, straightening her back and resting her arms upon the sides of her throne regally as she spoke her, more to keep her hands from rising to her head once more than anything else. "But proof you have offered me freely in earnest of your honesty. I am satisfied enough to believe that we might have been friends at some point, and I will allow you to show me these memories of yours, provided that viewing of them will have no effect upon my mind or self beyond the thoughts of the revelations you claim are within are sure to evoke."
"I will project the memories rather than bring you into them," Harry said nodding his head in acknowledgment. "It will take a little longer to cast the spell but it will be as if you were viewing an illusion displayed over a portion of the hall in front of your face rather than actually experiencing it. Will that suffice?"
"I dislike the word Illusion, but very well, proceed with the viewing Seidr man." Hela said, shifting forward in her throne as she wandered how this was going to go.
Her teasing nickname, the exact same that been explained to him at the feast, made Harry's heart ache a bit that those moments were lost to her and he smiled wanly at her before raising his hand to start the spell.
And that was when the TWWAIS decided to strike.
Harry didn't know and would never learn why they chose that moment to do so, or even if it was a conscious choice rather than instinctual response to shift from subtly attempting to guide Hela to trying to assault him and Emma. Indeed, it had rather been both. Initially the TWWAIS had been concentrating on trying to find out how someone had been able to get into Jormungundar and then retrieve Sigyn's body, plus as always keeping much of their attention on Odin. Such was the complexity of the God of cunning's mind that it was not only a full-time task but a difficult one. So they had only come to realize Hela was once more acting out when they felt her surge of anger at Emma when they returned from the Isle of Children.
Yet the reasons behind their sudden change of tactic didn't truly matter. One moment all is well the next: Hela, Harry and Emma all stiffened as they came under massive mental assaults. There however the similarity between the assaults faded.
For Hela there was nothing subtle about the Shadow-watcher's assault. The headache she had been feeling for a while became a full on mental battering ram, coming at her not from an external source but from her very blood. This allowed the Shadow-Watchers to bypass much of Hela's natural mental defenses in the same manner as they had before, though of course Hela did not know that.
Hela had a brief moment to be oddly happy that this attack had not come from Harry, and to realize from whence the direction this attack had truly come from before almost immediately being subsumed by the TWWAIS's assault unable to fight back and only surviving with her mind and will intact because of her heritage. That and because the Shadow-Watchers had split their attention instead of concentrating solely on her allowed Hela time to defend herself.
Even so the assault slammed into her mind like a ravening tsunami trying to take her over, trying to erase the past few moments of her life and to instill anger and hatred in her this time towards all mortals. The last time the Shadows had not been willing to go that far, again fearing Death as only those to which Death is not a normal fact of existence could.
But now they realized that they would have to take this next step. Even if they could kill the two mortals present in Niflheim who was to say that more would not try to come after them? No, it was best to instill mental dominance over Hela right now to the point where she would be as much a puppet as they could make her rather than free to act at all. So long as their mental control did not interfere in the running of Niflheim, Death would be unable to take action against them without breaking THE LAWS and that in the collective minds of TWWAIS, was enough of a loophole for their attack to fit through.
OOOOOOO
For Harry, it was like no other assault he had ever dealt with. It had no physical form, no physical warning or visible assault for him to sense and prepare for. There was so little warning that he was caught mid-step and fell forward with his body no longer under his control, It was even unlike any of the telepathic assaults he had previously dealt with from Charles or other telepaths in either combat or in practice. Instead, they attackers somehow simply invaded his mind as if his invisibility cloak just wasn't there at all. It was almost Harry would think later, as if they had somehow been able to teleport their willpower directly into his mind much like he had been able to teleport into Hela's realm, save in their case they used the very shadows prevalent in his memories.
Nor was it a brute force assault like that which Hela was dealing with. That Harry could have dealt with, if with great difficulty. Instead, the Shadows attempted to turn his mind against itself. Instead of moving toward a wall to try and start the memory-viewing spell, Harry now suddenly found himself…somewhere else.
He stood in some kind of illusion or other of a long dank hallway leading off into darkness. Harry looked down at himself, finding he was a young child of only ten or so he thought, thin but not quite malnourished. Scowling he tried to ignite a light in his hand only for it to fade, the shadows the light cast turning on it somehow, slicing the light into small fragments so quickly it looked as if they were alive. But that couldn't be, could it? Shadows can't be alive. Where am I? What was I doing? For that matter, who am I?
It was with a supreme amount of effort that Harry remembered where he had just been, and indeed who he was at all. First he found his memories of his lovers, using them and the strength of the love they shared for each other as an anchor to who he was. Then for some reason he didn't analyze at the time he remembered Yggdrasil, and that moment where he'd almost connected to the tree via the branch of it he had infused into his body. That moment too helped him where he was giving him a frame of reference for what he was doing.
With an effort Harry brought that sense of self to bear, and his body changed from that of the little boy his self-image had just been, to the man he now was. Something fought him every step of the way, but it could not overcome Harry's willpower here in his own mind. He was still trapped in the maze however, and scowled angrily He started trying to bring up a few defensive spells, or at least the idea of them rather than the actuality, including a few that he had prepared for this mission light and fire spells for the most part which the books said could be used in the 'immaterial plane' as well as the material.
The first attempt was a column of fire that bore the shape of a flaming griffin bounding forward snarling, lighting up the area. But there was no foes for it to rend and so it faded away ineffectually. A lightning spell rippled out, disappearing into the dark surrounding him without doing anything. Unable to reassert total control of his mind from the invaders Harry couldn't break out of the illusion. "Dammit!"
Nonetheless, Harry refused to play this game. He walked to the nearest wall, raising his hands and imagining himself as strong as the Hulk when he was angry. And since this was his mind, Harry, or rather his mental image of himself, suddenly felt that strong. "I'm not doing this! This is my mind, and you will not control me!"
With that he brought his fist forward, slamming into the wall The hallway shattered around him and hundreds of thousands of pieces of what looked now like glass were sent flickering and fading around Harry's mental representation for several minutes. But before Harry could do more than try to push out past them, they swiftly reformed into a hall of mirrors, or perhaps a maze of them. As he looked at them, Harry saw his own reflection staring back at him.
"Oh Hel no!" With that Harry smashed forward at the illusion once more around him. But Harry was astonished to find his fist stopping in midair as the image in front of him suddenly reared up out of the mirror. His fingers flickering green as a bolt of energy slammed into Harry. "How can you control your own mind when you don't even know what you yourself are?!" The doppelgänger shouted, before fading back into the mirror.
Harry grunted, rolling with the energy blast, which hadn't been so much a spell as simply a bolt of pure magic energy, the kind that he had been using experimentally lately. They didn't have much stopping power in comparison to formed spells, but they were easy to use, at least when you the trick.
Getting to his feet Harry was forced to dodge another mirror image, this one swinging an axe of all things. "You can't understand yourself if you deny yourself, if you deny what you want!"
"You can't understand yourself if you deny what you desire!" said another, this time a sword coming down.
Each image was slightly different, but tellingly so. The first had looked most like Harry, but even as he attacked seemed almost indecisive. The second one looked like some kind of barbarian, the clothing entirely different than what Harry's mental self was wearing. The third had what could only be some kind of leer on his face. Harry realized these were supposed to be versions of his Id, or hidden, subconscious self.
Yet even so, he rejected their words out of hand. "I don't deny myself, and as for my wants and desires, letting your desires or wants define you makes you less than human!" Harry said, shaking his head. "We humans define ourselves by our deeds and what we love, not what we lust after."
With that Harry pressed outwards with both of his hands, a light and wind element spell slamming into the walls all around him. "Drill of Light!"
It didn't work to shatter the mirror maze again, but it pressed his doubles back into their mirrors and Harry marched on, looking for a weakness in this, illusion looking for a way out. My magic is barely useful here! It's only enough to keep my sense of self corporeal if that's the right word if I'm stuck in my own mind. How the hell did they do it, getting underneath my Invisibility Cloak as they did? Harry thought grimly as he moved through the maze. I suppose I have to beat them at their own game then, either find a way to turn their illusions back on themselves or try and find out where to hit it to break it.
As he walked Harry's mirror images tried to attack him again and again both with physical force and words. As he moved through the maze Harry couldn't detect which mirror image the next attack would come, and had to deal with them only after they were attacking. Worse, for some reason unless he stopped to concentrate on them, his wounds did not heal as they should have. But if he stopped moving, Harry found himself back to where he began and had to restart his progress through the mirror maze. Grimly he continued his journey, his mind working furiously as he tried to think about how to break whatever spell or attack had been put on him.
OOOOOOO
While Hela and Harry were dealing with their own assaults Emma too was dealing with her own. But the Shadow-Watchers had never dealt with a telepath before, someone whose powers and ability resided solely on her own mind. Emma's mind was not just the inviolate diamond the exterior appeared to other telepaths. It was the same image on the interior too, hundreds of thousands of tiny fragments of her mind, all organized into diamonds held within larger diamonds. There was no shadow in her mind that Emma did not know intimately.
Not knowing this they tried to attack her the same way they were Harry and like her lover Emma found herself in one illusion or memory after another in swift succession. But her sense of self and mental power was enough to not only see through the illusion, but to see the Shadow-Watcher's center of influence within each illusion, the point from whence the Shadow-Watchers control of the memory or illusion originated. "This is my mind fools, mine!" A flare of light, a whisper of telepathic power, and the attacks broke.
The second prong of their assault fared little better, breaking on the exterior of Emma's mind, unable to find a weakness in her diamond form. Emma had trained against other telepaths. She had trained against Charles a time or two. She had fought Jean Grey in several exercises. And she had fought Mastermind and Exodus for real, shattering the first's mind and holding off the other. The Shadow-Watchers for all their vaunted ability with Illusion, deception and the mental domain could not overcome someone like her and Emma snarled as she threw their attack off her, hurling their influence out of her mind and away within one second and the next.
The Shadow-watchers immediately regrouped, throwing their assault forward, but could no longer get within Emma's mind now that she was on guard. Instead they pressed against her outer defenses alone with all the force they could muster, but they could not get through no matter how much they assailed her. Realizing this, the attackers decided to double up on their attacks on the mortal wizard who was the source of much of their current irritation, and the attack on Hela trying to reset her mind, confident they could deal with the third intruder in time.
Emma shook herself, stepping back once before regaining her balance as she stared around at the halls of the dead. Then she glared at Hela, at first thinking that the attack had come from her for some reason. But she saw that Hela was twitching in place, her eyes rolled up in the back of her head visibly through the mask as she writhed on her throne. Then Emma turned her head to Harry, only to find him insensible on the ground, his own eyes rolled back in his head a mirror image to the physical symptoms of Hela's.
"What is going on human!?"Garm growled from directly in front of her, his lips pulled back to bare his fangs directly above her head, his voice angry and challenging, Emma could also detect worry and some kind of guilt in it too. The guard of Niflheim was not pleased to know his mistress was under an assault he could not defend her from. "Hedwig says that her Harry is also under attack, else I would've already ripped the pair of you to shreds! But I cannot see what is happening I cannot…"
"Oh shut up and let the expert deal with this!" Emma snapped, pushing his head to one side and moving toward Harry.
She ignored how the wolf's muscles bunched up in an effort to keep from biting her. Instead Garm backed up, his muscles tensed and his eyes watching her like she was an enemy he was waiting for an opening to kill.
Just as Emma was about to go to her knees next to Harry, Hela began to scream, her eyes wide behind her half-mask yet still rolled up in the back of her head. Below her half-mask Hela's mouth was wide and gaping as a sound of pure frustration, fear and bottomless fury ripped out of her.
"GRAHHH!" And pain, there was a lot of pain in that sound, so much so that Emma hesitated staring between first Harry and then Hela before racing over to her.
If she had been asked why Emma would have calmly said that this decision was a strategic one. After all, they were still physically within Niflheim. Whatever was going on wasn't from Hela, but Emma estimated that the attackers were attempting to erase or perhaps just replace the last few moments of Hela's memories. If they succeeded, she and Harry would be attacked on two fronts. Which, given Harry's current state and Emma's own limited attack power, could not be allowed.
That was all perfectly logical, but it really wasn't the reason she chose to aid Hela over Harry. No, that was because she understood what was going on, and a mental assault like this to her was as bad as a physical rape. Emma for all her coldness toward Hela and standoffish arrogance would not allow another woman to go through something like that if she could help it. And Emma also understood that if it was a choice between the two of them, Harry would've wanted her to save Hela too.
Before she could reach Hela however Garm was in her way. "What do you think you are doing mortal!?" If the wolf had been tense before, Emma could see he was now ready to rend her to pieces,
But she didn't give a damn. "The names Emma Frost you giant puppy!" Emma ground out, actually pushing at Garm's nose with her hand in a show of courage or perhaps frustrated anger, it was hard to tell, that took Garm aback for a moment. "Your mistress and Harry are under some kind of psychic assault. I can help her but it would be easier to do if I am touching her." Physical contact wasn't really necessary for telepathic assaults of course, but it helped a little to concentrate her powers and freed more of her mind for the fight that would otherwise be focused on projecting her power, especially given Hela's own internal defenses.
"Can you truly protect her from whatever is going on?" Garm growled again wanting to eat this mortal bitch more than ever now. She had done nothing but cause trouble since she'd broken into the hall and unlike the seidr man, her scent only evoked positive impressions from the other scents on her, not her own.
But she was telling the truth, and Garm, for all his physical prowess was next to useless in this kind of battle, which left the guardian of Hel desperate for anything to save his mistress. So when Emma nodded her head firmly, the giant wolf moved reluctantly aside, while Hedwig continued to fly over all of their heads. "Very well but I am watching you! Harm my mistress and it will be the last thing you ever do!"
"Watch all you want, in fact that makes me feel better right now," Emma said hurrying forward to get it over with. At Garm's questioning growl behind her she shrugged. "If we're able to deal with this mental assault, they might try for physical one. Whoever is doing this is obviously desperate if they are being this blatant."
That made Garm blink, then he nod slowly. "Very well. Do what you must…but, please aid my mistress," he said, the words coming hard through gritted teeth in a lupine grimace of shame. He was the guardian of Niflheim, the keeper of the gates of the dead! It should've fallen to him to protect his mistress in her time of need, but he could not defend her from this, and that galled him to the bone to admit.
"I'll do my best I can't promise better than that." Emma said solemnly, before reaching out with her hand towards the incapacitated goddess. One moment her telepathic probe was flaring into Hela's body, the next she found Hela's mind, or rather her astral projection under what like a whirlwind maelstrom given form. The darkness was all around Hela swirling and snarling closing in shattering defensive shield after shield as Hela's astral form shrank even as her defenses did, a representation of the way she was losing control of her own mind.
Without hesitation Emma threw her own power into the defense of Hela's mind, finding to her shock that it wasn't an exterior assault at all. It's coming from Hela's own body! Her own body was assaulting her mind, which should've been impossible, unless Hela had multiple personality disorder or something similar. Or, or is it something inside her body, some kind of, of possession? Didn't Dani say something about having a bit of this Sigyn woman's soul inside her? If so, then maybe whoever is doing this could influence Hela's body in a similar manner? But if that's the case how can we free her from whatever it is?
Emma's body grit her teeth so hard she drew blood as Emma defended not only her own mind, but began to defend Hela's. An image of a diamond wall slowly extended from her own astral form which had alighted nearby Hela's own to cover her. Hela's astral form looked up as she felt Emma joining in, but neither of them had enough time to waste on words or even gestures beyond a slight nod to the other woman, which tried to convey Hela's gratefulness and Emma's apology for how the two of them had been butting heads moments before this began. "It's in my own body!" She's shouted, even her astral form wavering under the assault. "I cannot…"
"I know, I've got an idea, but…" It was hard, incredibly hard, but Emma began to slowly enlarge her mental defenses to cover Hela's astral projection. She did have an idea though, on how to turn this around. It was far-fetched, but possible. If we can somehow separate her mind entirely from her physical form, like this Sigyn woman was able to, then maybe we can start fighting back!
Outside in the physical plane Garm and Hedwig were both watching on in concern. Garm's teeth were bared his ear flat to his skull as he glared between Emma and Hela then back to Harry. Whatever was going on hadn't come from the humans obviously. If he had thought that they would already be dead, his threats on that topic had not been hyperbole or the least bit exaggerated. But their presence had instigated it, so he wasn't exactly feeling all that generous to them either.
Suddenly Garm felt something, a stirring in the hall around him. With a quickness that belied his size or his maimed leg Garm suddenly turned. At the same time Hedwig left his back once more, flying into the air of the Hall precking in sudden alarm.
From the deepest shadows of the hall came Fire Jotun. They were like other giants, seemingly human in shape if on a larger scale, only with ruddy faces and black bristly hair and beards. Their skin was stained with soot and ash where it wasn't covered by crude, jagged armor. Their expressions, what could be seen of them, held sneers of cruelty that marred their already rough and coarse visages. The weapons and shields they held seemed to be made of some kind of black metal with sharp and vicious looking edges, the air around them simmering with the heat radiating off them as if they were still fresh from the forge fires.
Garm took one breath as the Fire Jotun appeared and snarled low in his throat as the scent of something corrupt almost vile to his senses reached his nose. If their sudden appearance hadn't been enough to tell him they were on the side of whoever had launched this mental assault on his mistress that would've been enough. There were only five of them but if not for Garm that would've been more than enough to see off the two humans, the owl and Hela. Fire Jotun after all were the most destructive of that breed, the almost natural enemy of the gods of Asgard in their penchant for chaos and violence.
But Garm was there and five Jotun of any kind would not be enough against him in his rage and fury. Bounding forward the dread wolf let loose a howl. "AROOOOOOOO!!" The sound of his howl was so loud and so staggeringly powerful it was as if it was a sonic boom, and the Fire Jotun stopped their progress, two of them even backing up as they seemed to shake in place as the cry rattled them.
One of those two screamed as Hedwig suddenly dove, some kind of force field or yellow energy surrounding the owl as she attacked. Her claws raked at the Jotun's eyes causing it to stumble back further, crying out in pain.
Behind Hedwig, Garm bounded forward slamming into one of the Jotun's throwing him off of his feet even as the thing tried to bring its spear forward. But Garm was underneath its reach. The Jotun's shielded got in the way of his charge, but that did nothing to lessen his momentum, and that Fire Jotun flew backwards to land heavily on the ground behind him. An instant later Garm's fang's found his throat, cracking the outer skin and sinking deep into the hot magma beneath.
The Jotun screamed a wet sobbing sort of sound but Garm retreated quickly, leaping as one of his nearby fellows raised an ancient sword, trying to hack at Garm's side. But Garm turned as quick as a cat (though of course he wouldn't've put it that way) dodging the sword which slammed into the stone of the floor.
An axe glanced off Garm shoulder as if his fur was the finest armor, and his forepaw lashed out, ripping deeply into the third Fire Jotun's leg. That Jotun bellowed and fell backwards but the other one had quickly repositioned his sword coming up in a sweep which caught Garm in the forearm biting an inch deep. Garm yowled in pain the wound bleeding freely into his thick fur. Yet even so Garm lunged forward, slamming his snout into that beast, bearing that Jotun down to earth before ripping out his throat in turn.
The Jotuns were strong, but Garm was the protector of Niflheim and mighty in his own right. His own prodigious strength could match them, and when fighting in these halls, the power of the realm itself filled him through his connection to his mistress, making him immune to their fiery touch. "AROOOOOO!"He howled again, and again the Jotun's stumbled. Yet they still came on, and behind them came others many of them uttering challenges and jeers in guttural languages. Garm snarled charging forward to meet them.
OOOOOOO
Odin once again felt the pressure the Shadow-Watchers held on him dissipate slightly. It was always there at the back of his mind, bearing down on him so when it faded, even for a moment, the God of Wisdom and cunning was able to perceive it immediately. Glancing around the Hall he knew that no one else there had felt anything, even his own wife. Of all his people only Odin could always feel the pressure on his mind. The Shadow-Watchers of course afraid he would break free of their influence and so were always having to keep the pressure on him lest he do so.
His halls were warm and merry at the moment. His son Thor had returned from another mission against the Night Elves, having harried and then broken a large force which had dared to cross their borders into Asgardian lands. As was appropriate for such deeds, they had thrown him a feast and gathered all who would join to partake of the Eternal Boar's ever succulent flesh as well as Odin's own personal stores of mead. Now he sat surrounded by his friends, the glorious Sif, the Warriors Three, Tyr, Balder and others.
But that was not important. What was, was that the TWWAIS had removed themselves from his mind once again. The mortal Potter's presence in Midgard is causing more and more ripples to their plans, and they cannot deal with these disruptions well. I can only barely sense whatever they are doing, but again it has something to do with Hela, poor lass. Still, her sacrifice can again be used, and this time in a far more direct manner.
Holding up his jeweled horn, Odin stood up from his throne and shouted over the celebration. "Warriors all, it pleases me greatly to see you gathered here this eve, not only to celebrate Thor's victory over our foes, but also because I wish to make an announcement." Odin waited until all eyes were on him and silence had spread as much as it ever would at a feast like this before continuing.
"Word has reached me of the lair of a beast that we have long sought to slay, one that has cost many lives over the centuries among our people. Therefore, I announce the start of a Great Hunt! Thor, you my son will choose six warriors to come with you on a hunt, a hunt for the most dreaded wyrm of them all, Níðhöggr!"
His son or rather half-son looked at him in shock, then he smiled widely jumping to his feet and holding forth his hammer. "Skol! Odin All-Father, I swear to you on mighty Mjolnir that I and my companions will see the wyrm dead!"
Odin had long known of the location of the Níðhöggr of course, he was not the god of cunning and wisdom for nothing. Furthermore, he also knew the wyrm was one of the Shadow-Watchers anchors, a willing thrall to them which gave their control a physical presence in the realms of Yggdrasil. Such anchors were double edged swords, and this was one that he had been unable to act upon up till now. But with the Shadow-Watchers attention if not their touch almost entirely elsewhere, it would take them time to learn of what he had just set in motion.
And there was not much they could do about it once the great hunters were on their way, especially after Odin erased his own mind of what he had just done, as well as all the minds of those around him. It would seem as if Thor and his fellows had simply stumbled upon news of Níðhöggr's hiding place after coming back from the battles against the Night Elves, and decided to act upon it themselves. After all, it was not the first time someone had tried to hunt the dread wyrm.
Odin's mouth twisted in distaste for what he had to do to give the hunting party enough time to face the root gnawer, but it was either pillage their minds now and restore them later, or let his people and those in the other 8 realms of the World tree languish in slavery even longer. No, Odin would take the dishonor on himself like so many others rather than allow that, such was his burden as king.
But what made this hunt different was that this was the first one though that Thor would be part of, and Thor had come back from Midgard more powerful than he had left in several ways. Being a son of Gaea he had taken energy from being in Midgard which allowed more of the thunder god's natural strength to shine through as it were. With that, and with the number of warriors and gods sent, Níðhöggr's days were numbered.
Odin glanced at Volstaag as he and the other Warriors Three slapped Thor on the shoulders and exclaimed about the joy of going out once more with him, as Tyr and Sif and Skadi, the white maned goddess of the hunt had also volunteered. Balder did not, having already agreed to lead out a force to attack the Night Elves in reprisal for their attempts to invade Asgardian lands, though he looked irritated at missing the opportunity. To partake in such a hunt was a great chance for glory and renown, and although Balder was a dutiful son, he was nevertheless a warrior still and so chafed at duty calling him away. But it was Volstaag, and what he held that most interested Odin. Perhaps I will even get luckier than simply slaying Níðhöggr, if that is at all possible.
OOOOOOO
By this point Harry had broken out of the mirror maze at last. Only to find himself somewhere else rather than back to where he should've been. "Dammit!" Sighing Harry looked around, only then realizing he wasn't in another maze or an illusion, but in one of his memories.
It was the sitting room of Grimmauld Place, a sign of many of his better memories in his old dimension. A fire was crackling in the hearth to one side, and across from Harry's nice plush chair was a sofa, on which Sirius lay sprawled. Harry remembered this memory, Sirius had just been trying to explain the do's and don'ts of dating, Sirius style, and Harry had been body bound in his chair, unable to get away or even cover his ears as Sirius went into one long rambling tale of his own dating days after another. It had been a painful, humiliating but all in all amusing memory, made better after Hermione and Tonks came back from a shopping trip and took turns hexing the old dog.
But instead of the words he remembered Sirius's voice was sad as he asked, "Why Harry, why did you let me die?"
"Excuse me?" Harry said, blinking at that before his eyes narrowed angrily. "Oh Hell no!"
"You let me into that fight Harry, then let me die, after all I had done for you! You should have ordered the retreat the moment Voldemort ordered the retreat."
"Point one, if I had done that, everyone in Hogsmeade would have died. Two, you would never have agreed to that. And three, I am bloody well not doing this!" Snarling angrily Harry tried to force himself out of his seat, only finding himself trapped in his memory-self, and as such unable to move. Snarling once more Harry lashed out with his magic, smashing into and over the memory, but doing nothing as Sirius began to speak again, now denouncing Harry as a horrible leader, who did as much or more to get his friends killed as the enemies did.
Frowning Harry analyzed what was going on, trying to figure out something in this strange memory-linked illusion that he could use to break it as he had the stone hallway or the mirror maze, the false dog-father's words ignored as they followed yet another rote pattern of attempted guilt and shaming. He saw the anomaly almost at once, a picture of him and Sirius over the mantelpiece. But Harry knew Sirius and he had never had a picture taken, Sirius having gotten into the habit of hating his picture being taken after the rigmarole following his being cleared of all charges.
With a condensed aimed blast of magic power, much like the mana bolts his doppelgangers had used earlier, Harry lashed out at the picture. An instant later it hit and the memory around Harry exploded, releasing him. But before Harry could lash out or try anything else, he found himself caught in another memory-based illusion. This time it was Daphne Greengrass for some reason Harry could not fathom, but then he had no idea how whoever was doing this to him thought.
This was the memory of the time she and Harry had a rather embarrassing discussion about her and Tracy's relationship. But again, the words did not match the totality of the memory. "Why did you leave Harry? We died to make a difference in our world, and you just turn your back on that, on how you could have made a difference there?"
Scowling angrily, Harry spotted what was out of place and shattered that memory illusion too, then began to put more effort into a spell he had just come up with. Several more such memories later, a shield erupted from Harry's mental representation. But this was not just a magical or mental shield this one had been built around the same kind of energies as which made up a Patronus, destroying the shadow it touched as it pushed out from his 'body'. When it reached the images of his friends, they disappeared one after another, leaving the original memory in place and pushing on.
A second later Harry found himself in another memory, and he shuddered as something tried to tear at his willpower, tried to make his spell dissipate. They failed though, and the spell retained its defensive position. The illusions around him now of his friends and even old enemies instead of trying to egg him on with words tried to attacking physically at the same time but Harry shook his head. "You are not my friends! You were not a part of me, you are not a memory, you are nothing but shadow here! And shadows can be banished!"
Harry used those words again and again a mantra almost like an original spell allowing him to concentrate on what he was doing. It was hard, incredibly hard. The original casting of the spell was relatively easy, but to power it continually like this inside his own mind while dealing with the emotional and psychological attacks? That was a far greater task. He had to go through each of his memories in a second, one after another all the ones that he remembered well and all the ones that he didn't remember. All of them required the same struggle to banish and break. Especially tough were the ones he wished he could forget.
Every time he had to keep powering his spell, pushing whatever influence the Shadow-Watchers had somehow teleported into his mind away from his core self while also destroying the illusion if he could. The worst was of course his memory of Hermione, how he found her and her family as Dumbledore tried to stop him from looking at them. The sight of Hermione staring up at him, her bloody lips forming words now that they never had in real life. "Where were you Harry? Why didn't you protect me?"
That memory nearly was the end of Harry. His astral form, once more trapped in his memory-self felt to his knees, and present Harry and past Harry both howled in agonized loss, the memories of that moment and the emotion of the real memory overcoming him. But Harry didn't give up. The memory of his lovers, his children both adopted and soon to be born gave him strength. The idea of what Hela must've gone through the first time this must've happened to her gave him rage, added to the anger of seeing this memory turned to someone else's purpose. "How dare you!"
And with that Harry thrust all of his power into the spell, pushing through and somehow regaining some of the control of his mind. The memories around him now fueled his resolve. Ororo, Jean, Emma, Little Melody, Illyana and his friends. Every time he said 'I love you', every time he heard 'I love you' back, aided his strength, and finally he pushed the Shadow-Watchers out of his mind. For a moment Harry imagined he heard voices wailing in pain and outrage as he did so, fading the more Harry regained control of his mind until they were silenced.
And just like that Harry found himself back in his own body, lying on the stones of Hela's hall. His mind was now protected not just by his invisibility cloak but by a dome of Patronus-infused defensive shield.
Despite being back in control of his physical body however, Harry was utterly exhausted. Still, whatever that had been, and Harry still wasn't certain what exactly that had been but he was aware of his surroundings once more, and able to get his bearings. On one side he heard the sound of battle, real physical battle this time, and that made Harry smile a dark, bloodthirsty uptick of his lips as he really felt the need to hit something right now. On the other he saw Hela screaming as Emma gripped her hand hard, staring at the other woman's face as a kaleidoscope of expressions flashed across her face.
Understanding what was going on, Harry rolled over and pushed himself up staggering to his feet, feeling almost as weak as a-day-old kitten. But even so, he gathered himself and muttered "Magia Erebea 70%." That helped immensely and strength and vitality thundered through him thanks to the spell, giving Harry a second wind. A twist of one hand brought the sword of Gryffindor into his grip, and he shouted a wordless roaring battle cry as he hurled himself towards the fight, not even caring who or what was attacking Garm and Hedwig, just knowing they were here and trying to hurt those he cared about.
He was fast, faster than the Fire Jotun facing them, and stronger too, thanks to his Magia Erebea. But there were over a dozen of them in the hall now, and they were working together, showing intelligence that Harry had not seen in the fight with the Draugr. This was organization and training rather than instinct, and so was much worse to deal with adding to their daunting durability and strength. While one attacked with a large sword or axe, the others on his side would use spear and overlarge shields to protect themselves and their fellows, presenting a deadly wall of blades and shields that threatened to cut any who approached it.
Smashing his sword into one shield he knocked its wielder off balance while at the same time ducking under his opponent's spear. "Latinium Malleus!" The hammer of green and gold lightning left the sword wielder of the trio currently facing him falling back, his face smoking as he screamed in agony. But another spear came at Harry at the same time as he struck with his own sword, the wielder's arm elongating hugely for a second so as to strike at Harry.
Harry grabbed the spear right behind the pointy bit, stopping its momentum only to hiss as it really was as hot as it looked! It wasn't as painful as some of the things he'd been dealing with in the last few, seconds, minutes, hours? Harry had no idea how long he been trapped in his own mind, but it was still bloody hot!
"Garm watch out!" he shouted, rolling under a third spear and slamming his free hand down onto the ground. "Shi Jundai!" Dozens then hundreds of stone golems reared up out of the ground and immediately began to attack the Fire Jotun. But any fire Jotun was worth nine of the golems, and they hacked them down ruthlessly, their prodigious strength mocking the normally immense durability of the golems.
"Regroup!" Harry shouted, pulling back away from the fight now that his constructs had the Fire Jotun invaders occupied for the moment. "Garm get over here!"
Garm snarled leaping away from his latest victim as one of the others try to spear his former position. He was dripping blood from several wounds now, and his back leg, the same leg that had been marred by old wounds, was now near to lame thanks to a hammer blow. But despite that Garm was still giving a good account of himself and was not happy about taking orders from a human. "What?" he growled.
"Pull back," Harry said quickly, as Hedwig alighted on his forearm. Harry looked at the blood on her talons and beak and nodded, covering Hedwig with as many spells as he could even as he backed away. After she leaped off his arm, Harry again knelt down slamming his hand back onto the stone floor and creating a still more golems, who joined the fray just in time to keep the Fire Jotun pinned in position.
"The Jotun might be coming at us from one direction now, but it's only a matter of time before more come to flank us from the shadows. We have to retreat," Harry stated simply, gesturing over his shoulder for a moment. "We can't let them encircle us, not when we have to protect Emma and Hela."
"They're between us and the interior of the Hall," Garm said calming down slightly. He twitched as he watched his mistress and the mortal woman suddenly float into the air, moving towards them and away from the fight.
"Then we get out of the hall and out into the plains of Niflheim. Are there any other allies out there?"
"My mistress could rally the realm, make every tree, branch or even the grasses attack them, become deadly to intruders. Every soul of the dead here barring the children on the isle are capable of rising to battle at her behest in the largest army of all the nine realms. But I cannot do so without her permission, only she is able to do so. How long can you keep them up like that?" Garm asked, backing away from the fight towards the heavy doors leading into the hall.
"That's not going to be the issue," Harry said grimly, as they cross the threshold of the Hall and Garm pushed open the doors leading out into the rest of the plane. Already though the Jotuns had finished off the golems he'd left in their wake and were proceeding steadily closer forward in close formation, their discipline holding despite the fury which with they hurled insults at Garm and Harry. "The problem is keeping them away from the fight until Emma and Hela deal with their own angle of this battle."
While they retreated Harry turned and began to cast spell after spell at the Jotun trying to come out after them. Lightning and air spells worked alright, but water and ice spells worked better. Yet even with spells charged with the opposite of their own element, the Jotun had massive amounts of magical resistance and it took all of Harry's effort with each spell to do more than glancing damage to the oncoming foes unless he struck their heads. Illusions didn't seem to work on them, and transfiguration seemed to fail or in the case of golems slow down and lose power when they came close to the Jotun. Conjurations worked better, but purely physical assaults were tough as hell to get through the Fire Jotun's armor and the natural thickness of their skin.
Even so, he held the door as Garm and Hedwig rested for more than five minutes, piling up a dozen bodies before being forced to retreat as more Fire Jotun came out of the shadows of nearby seemingly dead trees. "Fall back," he said grimly. "We keep falling back, and hope Hela and Emma work quickly."