Work Text:
The North Forest
Asgard, 979 AD
The morning grew late as Thor and Loki paused on their way through the large forest of the Northern Territory.
"How long do you suppose it's been since the waters rose this high?" Thor asked as he gazed down into the nearby ravine. He had grown tall and broad shouldered, with dusty blonde hair and the vague beginnings of a beard.
"Not nearly so long ago as your last bath," Loki said dryly from behind a nearby fallen tree, standing tall and slender with black hair tied back with a leather cord. The tree before him was one of the specimens he'd been seeking. After meticulously scrutinizing for rot, he slid his dagger easily between the cracks of the bark, splitting off several generous tiles.
Thor cast a glance at him as he returned from the rocks. "You and your witchy ingredients," he teased.
Loki smirked. "Careful, Thor, or you may wake tomorrow morning as a frog."
Thor ignored the threat, instead leaning down to inspect a colorful trail of mushrooms.
"Are these the sort that can be eaten?" he wondered aloud.
"Go right ahead and taste, I'll wait to see what happens to you," Loki grinned.
Thor shot him a look and thought better of it, and they made their way deeper into the trees where they picked up the trail again, the hot sun a mere trickle through the tall canopy. The forest was alive with birdsong, the faint skittering of small creatures through the underbrush, and an orchestra of insect calls.
The season was just turning over from spring into summer and the air was rich with the smells of rain and lush, verdant overgrowth. They stopped frequently to bask in the rich beauty of the old-growth forest; the dim light that filtered through the canopy made the greenery seem to glow. They had set out at first light and were quick enough to catch the rising sun reflecting colorfully from the mists blanketing the countryside, then raided the orchard on their way to the road.
The trail was well worn but narrow in places, and they took turns leading. It occasionally meandered across a small stream where they sat watching turtles, frogs, and birds moving about in the water while wildlife wandered up to take a drink. Thor rinsed the mud from his boots in the shallow water as Loki picked through the various small stones scattered throughout the silt, drying them on his sleeve and dropping them into a pouch in his bag. Thor looked on with curiosity.
"What do you use the stones for?" he asked.
"It will depend," Loki said and showed him the selections in his hand.
"Some of these are flat and smooth enough that they are perfect for runes, and others are better for use in charm work." He turned them over in his palm until a wide, blue stone with green flecks was in the center. "But this one is not at all common in this part of Asgard. It probably chipped from a much larger piece up the mountain and got carried this far down by the water," he said.
"And what will you do with that one?" Thor asked.
"Probably nothing," Loki shrugged. "I just find it lovely."
The streams were higher than normal that day from the recent rains. As they stepped carefully across the slippery rocks they startled a hare and it fled in a blur into the underbrush. Thor pointed out several deer upstream and Loki showed him a nosy little fox on the opposite end.
They savored such outings in the wild, especially without the cumbersome entourage of a hunting expedition. While they had always enjoyed those trips well enough, there was something about simply sneaking around on foot that made the woods feel all the more exciting. Thor had never known anyone else who could move so silently; he often turned his head just to be sure that Loki was even still there.
"You are as silent as a ghost," he said.
"Perhaps I am a ghost," Loki replied, his fingers dancing in a spooky gesture.
Thor smirked at him. "It would explain your pallor."
Loki stuck out his tongue.
They paused to watch a snake wriggle through a muddy puddle. Thor studied the knotted vines dangling from a nearby tree and watched squirrels squabbling overhead. The trees were taller this far into the woods, the upper branches nearly as busy as the forest floor. They counted no fewer than thirty crows curiously observing them from the treetops as they passed through.
Loki sometimes wandered through the forest on his own when he sought to clear his head or explore an untested route. Most led nowhere, some dropped off where old foot bridges had once been, but none gave him much fascination for the effort. He'd heard rumors of special artifacts, magical trinkets, and other interesting things hiding throughout, but had not yet discovered anything of real interest.
Eventually, Father made it clear to him that he was not to roam alone, and that if he insisted upon his forest walks, he was to take his brother with him. Thor had also noticed him disappearing more frequently of late, and that his general demeanor had become markedly more sullen. When Thor was given the order to accompany his younger sibling on such outings, they each feigned protest and declared it an annoyance, but inwardly it was a relief to them both.
They turned a corner close to a pair of tall saplings and Thor gasped in awe.
There, woven delicately between them, was an elaborate circular web, spanning nearly an arm's length wide. Near its center, perched elegantly upon her iridescent strands, was a large, brilliantly decorated spider. Her abdomen bore intricate designs in velvety brown and black, complimenting her thin, striped legs.
Loki reached out and hovered his fingertips just below the outermost strands of the web, touching his wrist to a nearby branch to steady his hand. He carefully recited a phrase that Mother had taught him under his breath and the strands pulsed faintly in response.
She slowly advanced lower until she was just above eye level. Loki tilted his head and admired her lovely markings as he discerned the threads beneath her. It was barely discernible at first, but as he focused, the rhythm became unmistakable.
Thor shuffled behind him, unsure of what to make of this unusual interaction.
"Loki," he whispered. "What are you doing?"
"Shhhh." Loki closed his eyes and focused once more.
There it was.
Her tiny pulse traveled through the thin cords of the web and felt like slight tickles on the pads of Loki's fingers as they lingered so close. He smiled and opened his eyes to observe her.
Thor peered closer, holding as still as he could.
Loki lowered his hand and turned to him with a delighted smile. "I was listening to her heart."
Thor thought it over as they continued up the slope of the trail; he supposed that anything that lived had a heart, but it had never occurred to him to listen for it, especially not in things such as spiders.
The cry of a falcon rang out overhead and they paused in their step to look up and scan for its silhouette.
"Out for the day's hunt," Thor said.
Loki smiled mischievously. "Perhaps one of Fandral's, even."
Thor looked at him skeptically. "What do you mean?"
"Father's noticed that his ravens have taken a liking to Fandral, and that he has a keen skill with the other raptors as well," Loki said. "He's had Fandral working under the captain with the messenger and hunting birds."
Thor looked after him, mildly astonished. "How do you know that?"
Loki smiled coyly and looked straight ahead. "I pay attention when Father speaks."
Thor snorted and made a face at him .
They walked steadily for a while, counting the bird calls they could make out and occasionally stopping to pluck some choice roots or leaves for Loki's pouches. They uncovered several impressive bits of animal skeleton, which interested Thor. They watched with wonder as an enormous colony of ants conducted their business up and down a tree, until Loki snuck a leaf behind Thor and lightly tickled it against the back of his neck, earning himself a headlock.
As the incline sharpened up ahead, they took hold of low branches to steady themselves as the path grew steeper. They ducked down under a partially tipped tree, its long, exposed roots jutting out like spider legs in the eroded gaps of soil.
An odd, guttural clicking sound emanated from somewhere close by. They squinted up at the branches, scanning for movement, but could find none. Loki continued around the side of the tree and stopped. There, in the hollow cleft of the trunk, was a pair of eyes staring down at him; from between them protruded a long, black beak which seemed to point at him in accusation.
Thor came around the same corner and paused, following Loki's gaze up to a very large raven perched just out of arm's reach. As they studied the creature, they could not help but feel that it was studying them as well. There was an uncanny intelligence in those eyes; Thor found it unnerving.
"Is it one of Father's?" Loki asked.
"No, I don't think so," Thor said. "This far out, I think these belong to themselves."
He watched as Loki slowly reached out and touched the tree, noting a look of concentration and a slight movement of his lips. A subtle flickering, barely perceptible, passed from his fingertips into the tree bark.
Thor looked back up at the raven. It flicked its head to one side, examining them both very closely. It gave another clicking sound and a low, throaty croak. Loki tilted his head and continued muttering quietly.
Thor leaned into Loki's side. "Are you two … conversing?" he whispered.
Loki nodded, smiling.
"What about?" he whispered.
Loki smirked. "You."
Thor turned and gave him a look, half alarmed. "That's not funny."
Loki's smile turned upward on one side.
The raven gave a loud, nasal honking which was returned from various trees surrounding them in a murmuring chorus of raven gossip which Thor could not understand. He looked around them in disturbed awe at the council of ravens sharing their collective opinion.
He felt oddly judged.
He squared his shoulders and leaned in closer. "What's happening, Loki?"
"They're discussing something," Loki whispered.
Thor raised a brow. "What are they saying?"
"I think they're working out what we are doing here in these woods," Loki said.
"Why shouldn't we be here?" asked Thor.
"That's … not quite it," Loki began, and fell silent as he contemplated the discernment coming to him.
Avian conversation was tricky, even with Loki's well developed telepathy; while birds understood one another's noise quite well, they often had an awkward grasp on the way that other creatures made use of it to form words and convey bits of information. Even the smartest birds usually spoke in babble, with their choice of words often pulled solely from memory and performed as mimicry.
Loki's only luck with it was to reach out from his mind to theirs, and do his best to interpret the mostly abstract impressions that he could discern. He knew that even Father had learned to do so in place of normal conversation; his own pair of ravens, devoted though they were, had never been particularly chatty.
This raven had clearly decided something about the encounter, perceiving them as one would see foreigners who were stranded far from home; though, it seemed like less of an observation about the two of them … and more about Loki, personally.
No matter how carefully Loki pushed, the sentiment that came back was the same.
You.
Wanderer.
Strange.
Loki leaned his head to one side, mildly confused.
"What are you telling them?" Thor asked as he looked on cautiously.
Loki broke away from the interaction and turned to him. "I've assured them that we don't mean them any harm, but that you will undoubtedly make more noise and continue to annoy them."
Thor glared at him. Loki grinned.
Thor cast a glance or two over his shoulder at them as he and Loki continued on.
They soon found themselves in a clearing lined in budding berry bushes and flowering crabapple trees, where they took their rest in the shade with their water and foodstuffs, talking and watching the peaceful procession of wildlife.
Loki pored over his inventory of medicinal roots, barks, leaves, and other foraged oddities he had sorted into various marked pouches in his side bag. Thor picked through his own bag at the variety of interesting stones, bones, and other items he had accumulated. They traded back and forth and shared their fruit and cured meat rations.
"I hear that you've bested Volstagg in blade fighting, finally," Loki said, taking a long drink from his waterskin.
Thor grinned into his apple. "I am excellent with uncle Vili's collection of swords," he said proudly. "Though, I'm afraid our large friend remains undefeated with an axe."
Loki laughed. "It suits him well."
Thor elbowed Loki's arm playfully. "I hear that you are becoming quite the warrior yourself," he smiled. "And a rather imposing marksman."
Loki grinned. "And who told you that?"
"Only the best young swordsman of our generation," Thor beamed. "One who says that you are also rather capable with a blade these days."
Loki rolled his eyes. "I swear, all that boy ever does is talk."
"Of swords and falcons and glory," Thor laughed. "And of his beloved friends." He paused to read Loki, who was burning red in the cheeks. He raised an eyebrow at this and elbowed him again.
"Leave it be, Thor," Loki warned, shoving at his arm and smirking.
"Fandral is proud of you, is all," Thor reassured him. "As am I." Loki smiled sheepishly as he gazed out at the clearing before them, watching the bees and gnats floating in a haze of activity above the dandelions and tall grass.
Loki took one of the apples they had picked and looked it over, smiling to himself; he concentrated on it, turning it over between his hands, and it disappeared. Thor's eyes widened.
"What was that?" he asked, pointing at Loki's hands.
Loki gave him an innocent look. Thor squinted at him suspiciously. "You had something, and now it's gone. What did you just do there?"
Loki shrugged at him. Thor folded his arms and leaned in closer, smiling as he nudged him with his shoulder. Loki felt something bump his hand, and looked down to find a plum there. He laughed. Thor looked down at the plum and back up at him, puzzled.
Loki picked up a pouch from his lap and withdrew one of the stones he had collected. He took a smaller pouch from his bag and placed the stone inside, tying it neatly with a ribbon. He held it out for Thor to examine.
Thor looked at it closely and poked it with his finger. Loki closed his hand, waved the other over it, and opened it again.
His palm was empty.
Thor looked at him closely, smiling bigger. "And where has it gone?"
"To someone," Loki said with a sly grin.
Thor nodded at him. "And the other?"
"The same," Loki said, taking a bite of the plum.
Thor studied him for a moment and looked down at the apple he had been eating. He held it out. "Do it again."
Loki eyed the apple and grinned. "No."
"I knew it, you can't!" Thor teased. He looked back down and found his hand already empty. He patted himself all over, tilted side to side to look beneath his folded legs, and lifted his bag from the grass. It was nowhere to be found.
"Where have you --"
Something bounced off his forehead and dropped into his lap. It was his apple, bearing his same bite marks all along the side. He looked up at Loki, who was grinning into his plum and looking straight ahead.
"I see," Thor grumbled, smiling despite himself.
The day was moving into afternoon. They laid on the soft ground for a long time watching the clouds overhead, Thor choosing a spot in the sun with his feet lingering near the shade, where Loki remained. Loki flicked a dandelion leaf around in his teeth as his thoughts wandered back to his interactions with the raven in the tree.
"Thor?"
There came a grunt in reply.
"Do you find me … odd?" Loki asked.
Thor swatted away an insect hovering over his face. "No. Of course not."
Loki lay quietly for a moment. "I would want to know."
Thor furrowed his brow as he tucked his arms beneath his head. "Not at all, Brother," he answered. "Why do you ask?"
Loki couldn't think how to explain it to him. It wasn't any one thing that he could point to, but a persistent feeling that permeated everything he did and felt any more. It seemed that even the peculiar birds of the forest knew something about him.
Thor shifted his boot to tap Loki's. "Have I made you think so?"
Loki smiled to himself. "No," he said. "You never have."
And that much had always been true. Through all of the difficult changes they'd each gone through as children and adolescents, Thor had always kept him close no matter what. Even as the years turned and Thor began to surge forward into his masculine frame as Loki remained lithe and delicate, he never treated him any differently for it. Nor had he ever been cruel about Loki's euphoric dabbling between tunics, trousers, and gowns, as she discovered herself in her travels with Mother to Vanaheim and Nornheim in her pursuit of Seiðr and other traditions of magic. Thor had once rather sharply corrected the nephew of a Vanir nobleman for repeatedly referring to Loki as a prince, despite her appearance that day in an extravagant dress and ornately decorated braids.
Thor was one of a shrinking number who still made Loki feel perfectly normal.
While Loki had been thinking for a while, so had Thor.
"What you do with your river stones is your business," Thor said pragmatically. "And Father speaks to birds all the time," he noted. "Though, he has never once told me of the heartbeats of spiders. But I suppose he keeps some things to himself."
Loki considered his point. "Well," he said. "It was Mother who first told me of such things, but yes, Father was the one who taught me to speak with birds."
"What were you talking to them about today, in the trees?"
Loki paused to think it over before speaking. "Their thoughts form differently than ours, as well as their words. So it is difficult to discern most of the time."
Thor bumped his boot into Loki's and waited for the rest of the answer.
Loki sighed. "I could have sworn that it called me … strange."
Thor leaned himself up on an elbow and looked across his feet at his brother. "That bird said what to you?" His eyes narrowed. "What a rude, haggard little ---"
Loki laughed. "Well, not in so many words, really. It's difficult to explain."
Thor shook his head and dropped back down into the grass. "They're just birds anyway, what do they know," he muttered. "What did your spider say to you?"
Loki laughed again. "She said nothing at all, just watched us closely."
They studied the clouds again in contented silence. A few crows passed through noisily, and a moment later a faint rustling caught their attention from the far end of the clearing as a handful of elk grazed there.
Thor spoke again. "People once thought Father to be strange," he pointed out. "Yet he and Mother are now the most revered in all the realm. Save perhaps for Baldr," he added.
He wasn't wrong about that, Loki thought. Odin's was a particularly rigid generation, even now. Much of what they knew of their father's conquests were considered rather notorious at the time, and there were still some among the Vanir and other tribes who regarded him cautiously, albeit politely.
Loki sat up and brushed the grass from himself. He glanced over at Thor, who was still flat on his back in the sun, the underarms of his bright red tunic dampened, hands folded absently on his stomach. He had taken a blade of the tall grass and stuck it between his teeth where it protruded up from his face like a sign post. A butterfly had perched upon the toe of his boot.
Loki leaned back on his hands and looked out at the field, breathing in the smells of wild flowers and petrichor. Flickers of movement caught his eye and he squinted to find a few tiny mice bouncing about in the flowers and grass, playing and gorging themselves on pollen. He reached up and fixed the leather cord around his hair and stretched with a yawn.
It was a beautiful day, even if it was a bit warm. He pulled at his tunic and wafted some air through it and took another drink from his waterskin. Even in the shade, he was feeling too hot. Thor took the hint and sat up, shaking bits of grass and dust from his hair. They circled the clearing and gathered a few handfuls of berries and then ducked back into the heavier cover of the woods.
At a break in the tree line they stopped to look out over Asgard. They were still a long way from the mountains, yet the incline had been so gradual that they had barely noticed how far up they had indeed gone. They could survey half of the northern farmlands, watching the herds of livestock roam and graze, tracing the borders by the colors of the crops. There was the outer loop of the river, a scattering of ponds, lakes, and groves, and the eventual inroads to the capitol city.
Jutting up between the bridges and gates were grand statues of every notable ancestor ever born to Asgard. Neither Thor nor Loki could even keep track of which towering effigy was supposed to be who, or how long ago they had been carved into the sides of rock formations or crafted and erected by hand, dwarfing the villages and rotundas at their feet. The spires of the palace compound gleamed blindingly in the afternoon sun from the center of the city, at the heart of the land. Even from their vantage point they could count nearly all of them.
They stood along the ridge and named every part of their world, negotiating which of them would rule over each someday. Loki insisted that Thor take the Ironwood Forest and its adjoining mountains in the east. Thor nodded, but added that Loki should take the outer region to the south since it bore the most snow, and he seemed to be happiest in the winter months. Loki pondered this, and suggested that they should therefore share the central and northern edge, as it held all of the most elegant and magical places for gatherings.
Thor then dedicated the cavernous western mountains to Loki, citing his love of dark and scary things. "There are bats in there, you know. You love bats."
Loki looked at him. "There are also trolls in those mountains."
Thor waved it off. "No, no, there aren't. That's just a story." Loki stared at him. Thor leaned in closer, pointing out into the countryside below. "But it is said that there are monsters in that lake, you know."
Loki rolled his eyes. "No, Thor. You're making that up."
Thor shook his head resolutely and pointed again to the lake below. "Look closely. There are shadows in the waters, even at the height of the sun. And they move about. They're moving now, even!"
Loki sighed loudly and peered out again.
Thor leaned in closer and spoke cautiously. "Perhaps it is your mountain trolls who feed them and keep them secret. They could be numerous, and huge."
Loki threw his hand out in exasperation. "How big could they possibly get? They're confined to a lake, Thor."
"Does not the lake reach through the very body of Asgard to the ocean beneath it? Countless things could pass through, back and forth, at will. Do you know how many creatures live in Asgard's ocean? I myself do not." Thor's face was quite serious, and it gave Loki pause; it occurred to him that he had no refutation to the idea of it.
Thor stroked his thin beard thoughtfully. "Would need a powerful sorcerer someday to keep them in check, you know. Especially considering where those trolls have likely come from."
There were vague legends of things hidden deep in the mountains and forests of Asgard, passages leading directly into other realms and back again; the common trolls of their countryside could very well have been the trølli of Jotunheim, hiding in plain sight. Loki shuddered at the thought.
"Look!" Thor whispered urgently, pointing down at the shadowy patches of foliage at the edge of the lake. Loki leaned forward and squinted, unsure of what he was looking for. "I thought they couldn't move about by day, but there they are!" Thor said as he backed away fearfully.
Loki shook his head, confused. "But I don't see anythi-"
He suddenly found his shoulders pulled backward in a monstrous grip, and he yelped as he jumped in alarm. He spun around to find Thor standing behind him, roaring with laughter.
"Your face! Oh, what a look!" Thor was bent over giggling, nearly breathless.
Loki balled his fists at his sides and fumed. "You!" He shoved Thor onto his backside in the dirt. "Cretinous ass!"
Thor laid on his back, laughing harder now. "That's for the apple to the face earlier, Brother!" He rolled to one side, snickering into the grass.
Loki growled and kicked him on the rear. Thor sat up, catching his breath. "Oh, come on!"
"Shut up," Loki scowled, backing away from him.
Thor pushed forward onto his knee and pointed at the ground. "Loki, the ledge-"
Loki swung himself around and caught his breath as he looked down; he was mere inches from the steep drop with nothing but rocks to break his fall. He swung his arms out to steady himself and gasped in panic. Thor had him by the belt in an instant and yanked him forward safely into the dirt, where they landed with an ungraceful puff of leaves and grass.
Loki pushed himself up from the damp ground and rolled onto his back, Thor's hand on his shoulder checking him over.
"I'm … I'm fine," he said. He sat up and looked away to gather himself.
Thor rose and offered a hand to help him up. Loki ignored it, instead pawing through his bag to hide that his own hands were shaking. Thor crouched down beside him and swiped away debris from his back.
"I said I'm fine," Loki grumbled.
"I know," Thor smiled, watching him and waiting.
After spending entirely too long looking around in his pouches for nothing in particular, Loki leaned forward and looked back out across the land. "We'd better get moving, now that every creeping thing in Asgard knows exactly where we are."
Thor sat back down beside him and pulled him into a crushing side hug. Loki winced and pouted; he was still cross. "I thought you liked pranks," Thor said playfully. "But … that's enough for today."
Loki pulled at his tunic and took another drink from his waterskin.
Thor looked on with mild concern. "Let's go," he said. The river would be coming up ahead soon enough.
They ducked back into the trees and edged along the top of the jagged slope, peering down at the water rushing by on its way to the falls. The cooler air was already a relief. They debated whether to pick their way down the rocks and cross there, at the shallow point, or to continue as they were; as Thor took a step to descend down the boulders, Loki pulled him back by the arm. A very large bear had just emerged on the opposite side of the river and was making her way toward the water with a pair of cubs in tow.
The brothers ducked down behind the craggy ridge and watched as the cubs wrestled playfully in the shallow edges, swatting and shoving until one of them tumbled face first into the deeper water. It emerged a moment later, raging and batting its paws into the other's face. There was more growling and slapping, and soon both cubs were brawling loudly and capsizing with their feet in the air.
Thor leaned into Loki's shoulder. "I don't remember us ever having been so close to bears before," he whispered. They laughed quietly at the scene below.
The cubs chased each other in circles around their mother, splashing boisterously and generally getting underfoot, until she decided that she'd had enough and voiced her annoyance. It was impressively loud even above the din of the river and it sent chills through them both as they lay watching behind the stones above. She nudged the cubs along, breaking up a few more tussles as they ambled across the rocks and approached the other side.
The brothers looked at one another and quickly stole up the rest of the hill. Once they were steady on the trail again, Thor wondered aloud if that was what it had been like raising the two of them.
"Were we that ridiculous?"
"Oh, I'm sure we've been far more irritating," Loki said.
"I'm not irritating," Thor protested half seriously.
"Thor," Loki said patiently. "You are, in fact, so irritating that the spirits of the forest lobbed an apple at your face today."
"They were merely returning to me what you had stolen from my hand a moment before, which was an honorable gesture on their part," Thor smirked.
They stood facing one another, arms folded. Thor grinned and leaned in close, and they stared one another down for a long moment. Then, without warning (but with great zeal), Thor emitted a long, loud burst of gas like the sound of a battle horn from his backside. Behind him, several startled quail fled the underbrush. Overhead, a crow protested loudly and took off from a nearby tree.
Loki ground his teeth and glared at him in utter disbelief.
"Thor, I had better not -"
He stopped short and grimaced as he spun around and stalked away down the trail. Thor threw his head back and howled laughing as he caught up with Loki.
"If our mother were a bear, she'd have pushed you into the river herself by now," Loki said over his shoulder.
Thor pulled him into another crushing side hug. "I will always be around to push you into a river. I promise you, Brother."
Loki snorted and poked him in the ribs as he wriggled free. "And I will always be ready with a dagger, just for you," he laughed.
"Snake."
"Oaf."
Loki scrunched his nose up at him. Thor snapped a twig off a nearby bush and tossed it at his head. "If we make it home early enough, what shall we sneak from the kitchens?" Thor asked.
Loki thought it over.
"I will want some berry tarts for myself," he declared. "And for you, perhaps some soap and water."
Odin's Private Study Room
Palace Upper Floors
A cool breeze brought the smells of late spring throughout the private library as the Allfather sat at his favorite study table, deeply absorbed in the selection of volumes laid open before him. His hand moved methodically, applying ink in various colors with great care throughout a stack of bound parchments. Filling the upper half of the page where he was working were careful illustrations of celestial arrangements; in the spaces between and beneath them were his personal reflections and interpretations thereof.
The stars shimmered in a gold that defied its modest place on the page; the planets twirled in place with their respective rings and colors; their moons crept slowly across the paper, tracing their natural paths around their worlds, each shape enchanted to move of its own accord. Between each cluster were carefully measured lines, each bearing calculated speeds, distances, and other metrics; encompassing it all were faint, wide branches connecting them to the central tree of their universe. Neither the worlds nor the tree resembled anything that was known of Yggdrasil --- only Odin knew what universe this might have been.
As he paused to assess his work, he heard a gentle thud. He looked up from his pages to find an apple, fresh from a tree with a leaf still clinging to its stem, rolling across the table behind his books. He glanced upward purely out of habit, already knowing that he would find nothing overhead.
The corridors had been quiet since morning, which meant that their two boisterous teens must have been elsewhere for the day, perhaps running off their energy in the northern woods. Odin picked up the apple and looked it over: it was a perfect specimen, chosen well. He carefully plucked the leaf and set it at the center of his illustration. He summoned a plum from the refreshment tray, turning it over in his palm before closing his hand around it and sending it off.
He felt a wily grin coming on as he bit into the apple and continued his writing.
Frigga's Private Rooms
Palace Upper Floors
The afternoon sun shone brilliantly across the polished stone floor of the queen's rooms, where she sat quietly at a large altar filled with wrapped herbs, oils of various colors, and a large, round mirror upon the wall at its center. She had two enormous books laid open before her, each with a series of stones laid across their pages. Her lips moved softly as she read and her fingers slowly drew upon the mirror.
On either end of the altar was a small cauldron; after a long moment of silent recitation, each came alive with colorful flames, their carefully assorted contents soon filling the air with a sweet, aromatic incense.
Frigga paused, her fingers hovering before the surface of the mirror. Something else was afoot. She closed her eyes and listened closely to the crackling of the cauldrons, the breeze from the windows, and her own breath.
Something tickled her nose. She opened her eyes to find a large, pale pink petal falling into her book. She smiled and held it between her fingers, silky smooth and still warm from the sun. It was from a crabapple flower. She reached out and gently touched it to the mirror, where it held fast with a mild ripple across the reflective surface.
A faint ping sounded from one of the golden dishes to her side, and when she peered inside, she found a small leather pouch tied neatly with a bright green ribbon. Within it she discovered a large, flat stone of ardent blue with deep green flecks and a golden hue when held in the light. She smiled warmly.
Thank you, beloved child.
She closed her hand around it and held it dearly as she finished her working, the petal drifting slowly across the mirror as though it were a pool of water.