Vow of the Valkyrie

“Hi Pookie Bear.” Astrid replied sarcastically, pressing the code into the keypad in front of her. “Or do you prefer ‘Love Muffin’? I could never remember.”

Loki’s eyes were as cold as stone as they watched Astrid walked toward the glass of the sphere, his posture stiff and unyielding. “What do you hope to accomplish with all of this? You’ll only end up hurt, or even killed.” Loki spoke as though he envisioned killing Astrid with his own bare hands, and with a spine chilling realization, she came to the conclusion that he probably had.

“It’s dangerous to mix yourself in the affairs of the gods.”

“As I’m sure you know.” Astrid said back with a wide sarcastic smile. “And in case you’ve forgotten, I’ve had a hand in the affairs of gods before you were a twinkle in your mother’s eye. I assure you that I’ll fare much better than yourself.” Loki’s lips thinned into a narrow line before spreading into a sly grin, a shear warning that something cruel was on the tip of that silver tongue.

“I see your rebirth hasn’t changed you in the least, has it, Astrid.”

There was the punch in the gut Astrid had been expecting. She had seen the effects of Loki’s words on others but never before had she been the one on the other side of his ability to cut down the mightiest Aesir without lifting a finger.

“Nope, they never do, always come back the same, hair is a little different, blonder than I remember, and I don’t believe my nose was always this pointy,” Astrid pointed to the tip of her nose for clarification, “But otherwise I’m the same old Astrid.”

Having enough of this inane conversation and unwilling to let Loki have the final word, Astrid walked toward the now unlocked door and pulled it open. Loki didn’t even move from his spot as Astrid strolled through the opening, and didn’t flinch when the Valkyrie walked straight up to him, fury and determination in her blue eyes.

“And I still have the power to stop you.” She may have looked Loki in the eye as each word left her mouth, but they were directed toward the individual that had placed the block on the god’s mind.

Astrid reached out and gripped Loki by the chin, forcing his gaze to meet hers and hold it as she dove into his conscious.

It was a fairly difficult piece of magic to learn, one slip and the entire effort was wasted, the person attempting it could be thrown from the mind if it recognized a change too quickly or destroy the other’s mind completely if they fooled with something they didn’t understand. Astrid wasn’t the best at the mind magics, but she was competent enough to resist Loki’s attempts to throw her out and to hopefully find the block and remove it before the person that placed it there became suspicious.

Loki’s mind was essentially a dark, never ending cavern with strands of bright multicolored light zig-zagging and crossing in all directions. They pulsed in the darkness and Astrid knew that if she reached out to one, she would process the information as though it were her own, live Loki’s memories like they were hers and even take on his personality with a brush of her mind over those simple threads.

Astrid scanned the cavern, knowing what she was looking for, but it eluded her long enough to worry her, just long enough to make her think Loki’s words were the truth and that his actions were his own. But that was until she saw, out of the corner of her eye, an area that was darker than the inky blackness that surrounded it, this area was beyond black, beyond dark, and more evil than Astrid could imagine, and it was right in the center of the god’s mind.

Now, Astrid had been alive for far longer than she cared to think about. She had seen the evils and hardships of more wars than she could count, and had watched evil men and women do unspeakable things in times of darkness. But never before had she encountered such a concentrated amount of evil, hatred, and shear malice, it was an almost physical presence as Astrid neared the area and as she did, it began to take shape.

The block was a deep black, which is why it sat hidden from Astrid for so long, it had been created to blend it with it’s surroundings. And unlike the other blocks Astrid had seen, this one didn’t tamper with one memory or one thought, it encircled itself around several dozen different colored strands, keeping them blocked off from the rest and making it impossible for Loki to use this one little section of his mind.

It was powerful and Astrid once again had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of facing whoever it was that placed it here; and her stomach continued to drop when she realized that she wouldn’t be able to remove it in its entirety in one session, it would take several attempts and journeys into Loki’s mind to untangle the mess that had been wrecked within it.

But that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t be able to do anything today. There were a few strands that seemed to be just barely ensnared in the block and Astrid reached for the black nothingness that surrounded them. The block pulsed under her caress and her mind pulled back for just a moment before reaching back in and grabbing hold of the corner of the block.

One big pull, Astrid thought to herself, and these thoughts will be released. She could come back in a few hours, after a nap and a meal to remove more, but she only had so much energy after the day’s events and she knew better than to over exert herself on efforts better left until a different opportunity arose.

So, with a deep, calming breath, Astrid tightened her grip on the block and prepared herself for the drain in her magic as she pulled with all her might.

-
Astrid was thrown bodily across the room, her back hitting the other side of the glass sphere before slipping slowly down the smooth surface to land in a graceless heap on the floor. Her head throbbed from the impact and she saw double as her eyes cautiously blinked open. Loki was in the same position as Astrid on the floor, only the god was holding his head between his hands, the tips of his long fingers turning white with the pressure he was exerting on his skull.

Had she done something wrong? Had she hurt him?

Suddenly the pain rushing through Astrid’s body meant nothing has she stood on shaky legs and made her way over to the fallen god. Loki didn’t move as she approached, he didn’t even look up when her shadow blocked out the light.

“Don’t touch me.” He hissed, not opening his eyes but still managing to make Astrid stop in her tracks. “Just leave.”

“But I want to make sure you’re-“

“GET OUT!” Loki finally hollered, cutting off Astrid before she could finish her sentence. “I want you gone, now.”

Maybe it was the slightly pleading tone in Loki’s voice that made her slowly leave the sphere, or the way he clamped his eyes shut so tightly, as though he was holding back a wave tears, or maybe it was because as much as Astrid would like to deny otherwise, she still cared, just a little, about what Loki Laufeyson truly wanted.