fossilised | I come from a land of ice and snow

I come from a land of ice and snow

Asgard sat atop the branches of Yggdrasil since time began, and little had changed in their society in the years since. Each Asgardian was long-lived into the millennia, their lands were fertile, their people brave and strong. They had their vassals, their allies, and their enemies. Yet even those who opposed them respected the might of the Golden Dias, and the royalty who sat upon it. Currently that was Odin Borson, though he grew weary more easily now and had begun to consider passing the throne to his eldest son.

He had been blessed with many children, but only two that he considered worthy of his lineage and status. His firstborn, Thor, strong and honourable and everything an Asgardian warrior should be. His second son, Loki, was not natural born, though none knew that but his wife. He was different, a creature of magic and mayhem, of sharp intelligence. Both were worthy, but together they would take Asgard to a new prosperity, he was certain of it.

Midgard, where the mortals dwelt, was a land raided every few centuries for stock. It was seen as a breeding ground, much like a corral for cattle. Mortals were lesser, short-lived and weak, they were fit only as slaves. The last raid had taken place when Loki had been but a baby, nearly a thousand years ago, but the mortals that had been taken had been bred and cared for so that a healthy slave population still thrived. Slaves were given a weakened mixture of Idunn's crop with their food, to extend their natural lives to at least a few centuries in order to make them worth the effort to train. They had no rights, but they were taught well that this was their natural position.

All slave children were raised in a central pen and taught the same when small, those that then displayed talent at cooking, riding, hunting, housework, artisan skills, or singing were then measured off to be specially trained for higher masters. Every five years those who could afford to buy a slave, or those of high enough status to simply demand them, came to the corral and chose. Those who were chosen were special, were envied, and those who were not ended up working the fields out in the far reaches of Asgard, the most menial of work.

Anthony and Steven had been friends since they were little and being raised in the large pens together. Both had excelled, Anthony at crafting and Steven at warrior's skills, but neither were chosen when they were five, nor ten, nor even fifteen. Now, at twenty, it was their final chance to be chosen before they would be assigned to one of the meanest farmers beyond the borders of the great capital. Steven woke Anthony as the dawn rose, mingled excitement and nerves on his face.

"Anthony! Wake up, I've got news! I heard the overseer talking to one of the passing guards, and Princes Thor and Loki are coming to the corral today."

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Though there was not much outward change on James Barnes, Loki likely had still cleared out a few of her choices, but there were still far too many for her to definitively pick just one. Gone were the versions of James that knew only Loki as male, or who had met him more then four times, and most of those who could bear the thought having any other version of himself returning to his Steve while they languished alone. Of the few that lingered, they were the selfish. They believed themselves all to be the Barnes that would be selected to return home.

It was not a good spot for Loki to be in. Already, the spectre was changing, warring with itself. As the goodness that remained through the abused vanished, the hostile, ready to kill Barnes that Loki mentioned remained.

She had her magic here, but the ghosts and spirits of the lost were stronger in this Realm. She would not be able to stop him if he attacked, and it was likely that Hel would not either.

"Take hold of yourself."

Loki's voice was commanding and firm, she would not brook any selfish anger from a spirit when she had risked much to come to his aid. She did not know all of his story, but she thought she knew enough to say the right words to appeal to him. After all, she had always been good at targeting another's weak spots and manipulation points.

"If you fight for naught else, fight for Steven Barnes. He awaits you, and if you love him as truly as I had believed so, then you will fight your way to the surface. If you hold love for the Stevens of your lifetime, then you will step aside so that one may be made happy once more, even if it is not your own."

Appealing to Bucky’s generous side would have been pointless, but appealing to Steve? That was enough to push the majority of the sludge from his soul and he stood with but a few variants left within him. Each were subtly different in ways that Loki herself might have difficulty sorting without the use of questions. For instance, only six were married to men with blue eyes, only five with blond hair. Three had been friends with their Steve since they were teenagers, ten met him in the Army already. One had a Steve that died trying to protect Stark before Loki stepped in. Two were actually female that had posed as James Barnes to be allowed into the Army. And one had been trained by a HYDRA that had been an American institution all along with Russia and Germany as red herrings.

How Loki would manage to sort out just the one he needed was a mystery even to Hel, but she was dreadfully interested in this little game and would not even mind if she lost. Loki had been a very worthy opponent and thought this version was not as of yet destined for her halls, she would have loved to have her just the same.

Hel should not be surprised that this iteration of Loki did not yet seem destined for her halls; of all the many thousands of versions that there were there, the ones raised Jotnar, or raised aware that they had come from Jotunheim from an early age, were the ones least likely to end here.

Loki did not know enough about James Barnes to know the minutia of his relationship, such as the age they had met, and so such questions from her would be pointless. She stood and weighed the man in front of him, momentarily at a loss for how to proceed. But she had come so far, and there were so few left. Finally, she decided on an idea that may well be impossible, but she had to try.

"We are all bound by the magic that runs through the branches of Yggdrasil, fuelling life on each of the realms even if you personally cannot wield it. Each Yggdrasil is different, but I have been around many from your Yggdrasil and become close with one. I know the reverberations of it, I know the ebb and flow. Open your hearts to me, think to your core, and let me see if I can feel which of you is the one I seek."

This would have been impossible with so many at the start, the vibrations of each would drown out one another in a cacophony, but with so few... it might be possible.

The twenty of so overlapping personalities all rang a different resonance and Loki, smart as she was, would pick out the feel she'd gotten from Stark easily. There were no other Barnes even remotely similiar in taste to her friend and though she herself came from other universe entirely, that didn't mean that her time with the mortals had been ill spent.

She was left with the Barnes who had made her something to eat and smiled at her. The one who was friends with Stark despite his tongue even if he still wanted to strangle him. The one that saved his Steve enough times now to write a book if he wanted to and yet still credited his husband for so much more than he'd ever done himself.

"I know you came for me," this Buciy said. "But... Do you know...? What am I supposed to do if Steve was HYDRA the whole time? How can I go back if he's my enemy?"

Loki allowed herself to feel the swell of triumph at accomplishing her task without a single question asked, a task that Hel herself had called impossible, a smile spreading across her face even as she stepped closer to James Barnes and bowed her head in the apology she owed him.

"He is not. He does not know that you died believing him so, Tony explained to me that he had been pretending to be so in order to gain information about the enemy. I believe he is true."

She held her hand out to him.

"You may come with me without fear, the Lady Hel has graciously granted permission for me to take you until your natural life ends now that I have found you."

An hour might have passed for Loki, who was gently smiled at by her half faced future daughter and bid a fond farewell until they might meet again, who managed to come out of her ordeal without needing the assistance of any of the gifts granted her by the All-Mother, mere moments of grief had passed for Steve. He'd been left alone for less than a minute and hadn't come to grips in the slightest about what to do with Bucky as he possessively held his body, much less what he'd do with himself, when the corpse in his arms drew in a startling breath.

Steve would not be ashamed to admit that he had screamed a little, and possibly even dropped Bucky. He did scoop him up a moment later, hands trembling and sure he was going mad.

Bucky couldn't be alive. He hadn't felt a pulse since he'd come into the room. He was kneeling in nearly all of the man's blood!

"Oh God, pleas-- Buck!"

That first breath that Bucky drew in felt like many others, like each time he had been pulled out of cryogenic storage in time for another mission. But unlike with the others where he had been disoriented and confused, this time he was clear... clearer even than he had been when he died because mingling with those other versions of himself had given him some of who he used to be back.

His chest was sore but no longer split open, though his clothes were soaked in blood, and Steve's face made his heart ache as though it still had the blade in it.

"...Jesus, Steve," he murmured, hardly the most auspicious words. "It really worked, I'm really alive."

Jesus, coming from a guy who just came back to life after having his chest pierced, really was not the first word that ought to have been uttered. Not that Steve was looking for divinity here. He pressed a hand to his mouth, momentarily tasting blood that was not his own, as Bucky pulled himself up. He had to be nuts. This stuff just didn't happen. People did not just breathe after they had bled out!

"H-How...?" If he was dreaming or if his mind had broken, he hoped he stayed just like this. Maybe it was selfish, but for a guy who was never selfish, exceptions had to be made from time to time.

He swallowed and moved a little closer, sliding in the blood. Blood soaked into his pants.

"No. Don't care. Just be real."

How and why could come afterwards because they were mind boggling enough in themselves, let alone for a man who had always been religious and might not take well to knowing that the afterlife truly wasn't heaven and hell as they had always been taught in Sunday school when they were boys.

"I'm real, this is real."

Bucky reached up and cupped Steve's cheek with a hand smeared and slick with red, the whole room just coated in his life.

"It was Loki she came for me, she told me that you weren't really HYDRA and I fought, I came back. It's my job to watch your six, Steve, God only knows what stupid stuff you'd do without me here."

It turned out that when Steve wasn't sad, but was too filled with emotional not to cry, he managed to look dazzling just the same, smiling through his tears. There were no ugly hiccups, no red, puffy cheeks to overlook, just happy, relieved, blissfully thankful tears. He sent off a silent prayer before he hugged Bucky, not aware that the Loki that had brought him back was the same Loki still escorting Tony to his room and the same Loki back on Asgard chatting with the All-Mother.

Time acted strangely and seemed very Realm specific. Luckily, Loki would catch up with herself later, after she was finished telling her future mother by marriage all about her feats.

Frigga looked exceptionally proud of her, beaming with interest and intelligent questions as they sat side by side.

This time, Thor was none the wiser and miserably waiting the return of his future bridge by smacking the Warriors Three around.

Bucky allowed himself to be held in Steve's arms, just listening to the beat of his heart as though it were the most glorious music he had ever heard in his life. Explanations, proper ones, could wait until Steve had calmed down a bit and they had been allowed some hours on their own to clean up.

Loki too was being sequestered by the All-Mother until the timeline caught up with itself, allowed to leave her presence only once Loki herself had already travelled to Hel in order to not damage the fine threads of time. Not that Loki minded, she was full of her triumph, a battle won with wits and wisdom rather than brawn.

The Lady Sif, who had just taken a more vicious beating than usual, set down her sword and folded her arms. "What has become of you, Thor? You have a face set like a thundercloud and you have no reason to be so ill of temper. Is your Jotnar truly such a sight?"

"You need to stop speaking of our future All-Mother that way," Thor commanded, his tone dark. "I will not have it. Not now and not later. Certainly not in front of Princess Loki. She is far more than a Realm. And you would get on with her. You both feel it necessary to sass me."

He grinned and made a play lunge at Sif without going through with it. She was unarmed and he was not willing to risk her injury even if he wanted to smash something.

"She may well be lost. She would not have me journey with her. It's as if she does not care for me at all."

Perhaps nobody knew Thor better than Sif, they had been companions ever since they were tiny children and she had watched him grow so she knew how easily he gave himself over to the passions of the moment, but this worried her. Though she of course wished him happiness with his bride (with perhaps a small amount of jealousy) she did not wish to see him a puppet to a Jotnar witch.

"She has only met you twice, and both times briefly, that is not enough to grow affection. It should not be enough for you, Thor, you do not know who she is at all."

The others looked slightly discomforted, though all were friends of the prince, it was only Sif who ever spoke this way to him, so bluntly.

Dropping Mjolnir to cross his arms, Thor gave Sif a curious look. “Why are you so against the princess when you’ve never met her? My father says he loved his queen the moment he laid eyes on her and she sent him on many adventures to prove his love for her before she would give it back. You wouldn’t reproach the All-Father would you?”

Thor wanted to be just like Odin. Just about everyone did. That he felt this way for Loki was just proof that the love was true and worth it.

“I value your friendship and your counsel but hold the latter until you’ve had the honour of her company. She will join our band soon enough.” Of course he assumed Loki would want to spend time with him in everything!

"Of course I bear no malice to your bride, but you must see that true love cannot come from one glance alone. Even the All-Father would admit that love, true love, comes from a deeper understanding of the other person."

Sif wouldn't let Thor bully her, she knew the crown prince was a lot of bluster and was unlikely to truly take offence to her. If he did, then they would make up before too long, they were too close companions for anything else.

"I am glad you are fond, I wish you happiness, but she may respect you more if she feels your love is not just an affectation that you feel obliged to show due to your arranged union."

Fandral, with the drama of a poet, rolled his eyes ever so slightly and stepped between the two. “I think it is more than fair, Lady Sif, to note that Thor is always impulsive and his feelings are very likely, for better or worse, genuine.” Thor was the truest person they knew, righteous to a fault, and generally with a strong moral compass. He could be easily duped, however, but he generally figured out pretty quickly when that was happening.

Thor snorted at Fandral, one ham hand moving the slimmer blond aside. They were all just past their majorities but Fandral hadn’t bothered to grow out a beard like the rest of them. “I need not a protector in this. Sif can speak her mind. I believe her concern and I will make every effort not to let my head nor heart be played with.”

His eyes leveled on Sif.

“Does that suit you? Does that suit you all? I believe none will have these fears once you meet her.”

"That suits me well," replied Sif with an indulgent smile, for that was all she wanted from this. She couldn't know, of course, that Thor was the one with the right of it here. That his and Loki's lives and souls were forever intertwined, and there was always more love than hatred even when it became complicated by other factors.

That they would love each other was predestined, part of the fabric of reality.

It would be at that moment that Loki herself would walk out into the main courtyard having been dismissed by Frigga, smile on her face and red eyes looking around at the new group of Aesir in interest.

"The All-Mother told me that I might find you here, seeking to sweat out being left behind in swordplay, it seems she knows you well."

Though young, Thor cut a fine figure and the man he would become was even finer, surely, with Loki behind him, shaping away the uneven or the rougher edges. She already had his full attention, his eyes brightened when he saw her. Though he’d only rarely been infatuated before in this particular instance, he couldn’t stop himself from beaming at Loki as she approached. Her heritage, written on her skin, did not bother him. He’d not been so greatly involved with the Jotnar before, but a single Jotun princess, small and clever, had an exotic flavor that Fandral was finding himself jealous of.

“Your paramour has arrived,” he said, as if all were blind. “Bit small for a giantess.”

“She is perfectly sized,” Thor snapped back. “Ignore them. They weren’t raised with manners,” Thor said briskly. “The sharp tongued one is Fandral. Hogun here is the quiet one. Voldstagg is—”

“Dinae say it, Thor,” he blustered, which allowed Sif to step towards the princess and introduce herself with appraising eyes.

“Sif. I’m a shieldmaiden in Thor’s company. Well met, princess.”

Loki was surprised to find how much her spirits lifted when she saw Thor, the smile at her lips genuine and the growing affection in her eyes equally so. But she was not so demonstrative as Thor, not so eager to shout her truths to the world, and so she merely appraised the others as they were introduced to her.

So these were Thor's close companions, it would be well if they would come to like her as well for to have friends and wife set against one another would only end in strife. Strife for the king would mean strife for all. So she inclined her head politely this once, though she noted Fandral's foolish remarks for later.

"Well met, Lady Sif, Sirs Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg. I look forward to speaking with you all and hearing of the many foolish and amusing tales of my future husband's childhood, for I am sure he will only tell me of his great deeds." She glanced over at Thor, radiant triumph on her face. "I have achieved my task! The Lady Hel and I wagered over the mortal's life, and mine was the success. She was gracious in defeat, however, and has revealed that she names me father in some future days. Is that not a strange and yet proud thing to comprehend?"

Red haired and bright, the largest of the group gawked openly at Loki, not for her skin tone or her eye color, but for her words. “Thor will be a mother? Is that why Hel is the way she is?” He had never met her, though Thor had once tried to talk them into going to meet the ruler of Helheim and garner her favour. Frigga had gotten word of the plot, thanks to Sif trying to stop their folly. “We should go and meet her!”

Boisterous though he happened to be, no one was really paying much mind to him. Thor had crossed their distance, never afraid of Loki’s true skin, and offered his hand to her to lead her to sit. “Tell it all, every moment of it, from the very start! I want to hear every moment.”

The warriors and Sif looked confused. Their Prince usually demanded all talk to focus on himself and when it did not….well….

That was a strange thing indeed.

It saddened Loki a little that she would never be able to properly touch her future husband in her natural skin, for he still bore the darkened skin and scars where he had allowed her to touch him before. But she would bear this graciously, and so her form rippled and she became the pale-skinned and green eyed young woman that she had been when they first met, so that she could take his hand.

"I felt it would be folly to venture into the gates without invitation, so I stood outside and called to the Lady Hel to attend me as a guest. She came and called me father, though counselled me that I would not be able to take one James Barnes from the multitude that existed in her domain. I wagered that in three questions alone, I would find the correct one. She asked me for my firstborn son as her own should I fail, but I refused for any son of mine will find his own merit in life and death and not be fettered by the choices of his parents. It was agreed instead that I would take her place for one hundred years should I fail, but I did not. Without asking a single question, I found the mortal I sought and returned him to life."

Thor was completely taken by absolutely everything that came out of Loki's mouth. He leaned forward, elbows on his thighs, to watch the way the princess moved, to take her all in. She told a fantastic tale, her voice lilting and without pause. Thor could appreciate that. The Warriors could as well, all gathered around on the grass.

Only Sif stayed back, watching and waiting. Loki rubbed her wrong. The magic bothered her. Being a shapeshifter bothered her too. But it was mostly the way she seemed to have charmed the boys that got her the most.

She'd rescued Thor plenty of times from Amora. She didn't trust sorceresses.

"To have experienced that alone," Thor was saying, "proves your strength. We are a good match."

Loki was no fool, she could read the emotions of others well and while the three men seemed to have taken to her well enough, it was evident that Sif did not trust her. She did not understand why, she did not quite know enough of her and Thor's history to know she might have had designs on him herself, or that magic had played a part in harming them both in the past.

She would have to watch and learn before she made any sort of move there.

"I did not need to prove my strength, Thor, I am a Jotnar. That I have survived past my birth year in the harsh climate of my home proves that I am strong. Perhaps it is you who needs prove as much to me."

She said it with a smile on her face, a gentle tease rather than a fierce jibe. "I have seen naught of your fabled warrior skills yet, how am I to know that those muscles are not for show alone?"

"Did you miss the whole of it?" Thor was already puffing up his chest, more than ready to rise and to show himself. He wanted Loki to find him attractive. He wanted to impress her. "If that's the case, I shall show you again!"

He was on his feet, but the Warriors Three just glanced between themselves.

Hogun was the one chosen to face Thor this time, mostly because he had been the least worked out from their Prince's earlier annoyance, and be prepared himself with several deep breaths before attacking.

There was no warning for it. Thor preferred to spar the way battle was fought.

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hope things are going well for you dear <3

Mostly meh but thank you for asking. <3

if you ever want/need to talk I can hope onto plurk or skype just lmk

Thanks!

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