Choices

Chapter 102
"Sometimes I wonder if I am doing the right thing." Odin admitted to his advisor Tyr.
"Regarding?" Tyr pondered back suppressing a grin. He loved it when Odin told him things close to his conscience. Confided in him. After all these centuries the old fool still hadn't realized he's an imposter and the real Tyr has been dead for the same amount of time.
"Loki," Odin leaned to the side, a sign he was feeling weary. His Odin sleep hadn't lasted long enough, he wasn't at full power. Tyr could easily depose of him now, but were would be the fun in that?
He wanted them all to suffer as he suffered. To feel pain and sorrow. He wanted to bring them down to their lowest before he'd leave this world and move on.
"He is where he belongs." Tyr reminded Odin. It was Tyr who had presisted in Odin keeping Loki locked up. He knew the day would come when his younger self would find freedom, but it would not be by a loving father, that wouLd ruin everything.
Loki would feel the same growing hatred as Tyr felt back when he was his age. His plans had been working, but wrenches had been thrown into his plans early. Cephera hadn't been a factor he expected. Even after he'd managed to get her pregnant, Loki had forgiven her. It angered Tyr, but he had to deal a new set of cards and change his plans accordingly.
Now Thor was another story. Back where he came from, Thor hadn't defied Odin to marry Sif. They'd remained friends only. It was like icing on the cake when Thor did that of his own will. It just made ruining his future that much easier.
He was sure that Jane wouldn't be too happy to find out Thor is married and hadn't told her. Already he'd failed to return and visit her. He had small moments of time between cleaning up the realms. It's was by Tyr's advice that Thor didn't go back.
"A lifetime of imprisonment may be too harsh. Humans have fleeting lives. They are like cattle."
"And yet they hold some importance. They are no less part of the nine realms than the higher species." Tyr always hated to defend the humans, but he'd come to like them more than the Aesir. They were easily controlled.
"I suppose so," Odin replied. "Perhaps, I should have given him a chance to find humility in what it's like to be weak. Taken his power, turned him human."
"And he would have hated you." Tyr reminded.
"He hates me now." Odin frowned.
"No. He's nothing but a scolded child. Every child hates their parent at some point, he'll get over it." Tyr lied with ease. Odin looked thoughtful, but nodded.
"I suppose so." Odin replied. "Still, even when I said it, I did not intend for his sentencing to last forever. I will have to think of a suitable way to continue his lesson without keeping him in a cell."
Tyr held back a cringe. It was this line of thinking he hadn't wanted Odin to follow, but this old man seemed softer than his father ever was. As far as Tyr was concerned, softness led to weakness. Odin didn't deserve to be king.
Tyr himself had no desire to sit on the throne. His plan was to watch his younger self do that and wreak havoc with Tyr whispering in his ear.
Nothing could stop him now. With the gates between worlds closed, not even his wife could foil his plans. All he knew he'd left behind and in the past they would stay.
(Seraphina)
"Why did you kill our mothers?" Karzin demanded. She spoke sharply, but her tone wasn't as harsh as her little brothers. Seraphina still couldn't see a thing and she wondered if her sight would come back at all.
"I didn't kill anyone." Seraphina insisted. The interrogation was irritating.
"Then who did?" Karzin sounded desperate.
"Your maniac of a father." Seraphina was blunt as usual and was rewarded be the sting of something across her side.
"Sulu!" Karzin reprimanded her brother again. He had a temper it would seem.
"How can you just stand there and listen to her say those things?" He demanded of his sister.
"They are just words," Karzin said. "There is no reason to strike her."
"I want this violence to be over." A third voice pipped up. Meek and soft. Seraphina couldn't tell if it was male or female.
"Father warned us to be careful around her. That she lies." It was a fourth voice, male. Deep and almost hypnotic.
"Who is your father?" Seraphina took the chance to interject.
"It doesn't matter." Karzin replied. There was hesitance to her voice.
"Maybe I know him. Maybe I can meet with him and clear up this misunderstanding." Seraphina offered, playing the political card. "We could make peace I'm sure."
"We don't know his name." The meek voice spoke up with the deeper one shushing.
"Don't know his name?" Seraphina was disappointed.
"We call him father. Why would we have need for his birth name?" Sulu demanded, arrogant as always.
"He's your father, and you don't find that odd?" Seraphina retorted. She caught the intake of breath from her left and the awkward silence that followed.
Of course!
Their father hadn't sent them to Seraphina. They had been having doubts about him. They knew something was wrong.
"Dark magic created you, you know." Seraphina went on when the silence seemed to last too long.
"What does that mean?" The deep voice asked.
"Who cares." Sulu snapped.
"You should care. My sister took care of three children who had been created by dark magic. Each of them mutated by the magic. One a massive wolf called Fenrir, Jör the leviathan, and Hela, the half skeleton undead female human. Each one with their strength and weaknesses but none of them evil." Seraphina talked softly.
"Do you think we are evil?" The meek one spoke once more, and again was hushed.
"I think you are who you make yourselves to be," Seraphina said. "But your mothers..., dark magic takes a toll on the body. Even if they hadn't been killed they would have been poisoned by the exposure to the magic and would have died painfully."
"You justify killing them with a story about mercy." Sulu sounded as though his might strike her again, but no hit came.
"I speak the truth. Dark magic is not meant to be used to create life. It's forbidden, illegal. What your father is doing is wrong. A complete disregard for the health of your mothers, but you're already here in this world now. You can make a place for yourselves. We can forget this kidnapping business and make peace with one another."
Seraphina didn't really feel they deserved to be hated. Sulu she'd like to knock some sense into, but the rest sounded like they could be good.
"We've made a place for ourselves already." It was Sulu mouthing off again.
"What? Hiding in the mountains. That's hardly a life." Seraphina tried not to sound mocking, but the tone was still there.
"Mountains?" Again the meek voice. Seraphina was assuming that one was the youngest by the way he/she was getting shushed after speaking. They couldn't seem to keep a secret, that was for sure.
Silence followed.
Now she at least knew she wasn't in the mountains, so where the hell was she?
"Where's your father? I want to speak to him." Seraphina shifted impatiently.
"Father hasn't returned for days. We thought you might have killed him too."
This time Sulu sounded less threatening and more worried.
"We have a problem." This voice she hasn't heard before. Made sense though, five women, five children.
"We're busy." Sulu hissed.
"We've been found." The newcomer, male, told them urgently.
"I'm frightened," the youngest said.
"Raj take Karal and hide. The rest of you with me." Karzin ordered.
"What about her?" Sulu asked.
"Leave her. She'll be here when we get back." Seraphina suppressed a smirk.
That's what she thought.
(Sif)
"You've changed so much since your short time spent on Midgard," Sif said to Thor. They were enjoying a short down time between cleaning up the realms. Or at least she was enjoying it, but Thor was distant and she didn't have to ask why.
"I learned much during my time there. They have a saying, 'you don't know what someone is going through until you have been in their shoes'. I realize how strong they are, and how my previous actions were wrong." Thor shifted in his cloak.
"We've been through a lot over the years. Lots of changes." Sif agreed. She smiled at him. She was happy for him, although he was far from being happy.
All this fighting was wearing on him. His impending ascension to the throne was a burden he knew now he wasn't ready for it and then there was his brother.
Thor loved Loki just as much now as he always did. Even though he had to give up on his hopes that Loki would repent and see the error in his ways. He now saw Loki for the trickster he truly was, but that didn't ease his heart. Love between family was not something easily forgotten or ignored. In his heart, Sif knew that Thor wanted to help Loki.
Thor was visibly torn.
And then there was Jane. He longed for her.
Sif wasn't sure how he'd fallen so hard in such a short time. She had only met Jane for a few moments and hadn't spoken to her. Aside from her physical appearance, Sif was unsure what it was that drew Thor in.
Sif was by no means jealous. She'd failed to keep a happy relationship with Thor. She hoped Jane could fill the lonely void that no one else had, but she was human and with that came many rules, and complication. Sif feared it was doomed to fail and the loss might be too much for Thor to handle.
"You miss her." Sif commented. There was an awkwardness between her and Thor. It was like he was afraid to speak of Jane to her, afraid to hurt her feelings.
"It's not just about her," Thor said.
"It's mostly about her. Every decision you make from now until you are crowned will determine your fate with her." Sif reached up and squeezed Thor's arm. "I am your friend Thor, no matter what past we have together I am always here to talk too."
Thor smiled and nodded his appreciation.
"I have to keep my mind on one task at a time," Thor said with resolve. "Fandral has been gone a while. I expected him back sooner."
"He'll return soon. He knows how important his help is to us." Thor nodded. Sif worried about the situation in Mechanova, but Fandral was already gone and they couldn't all go. Sif missed Seraphina.
Seraphina was a breath of crisp honesty. Sif missed that honesty. She missed her friends collective coolness and inner strength. Whatever was happening in Mechanova must have been big, Fandral wouldn't have run off this long during such a hard time for no good reason, and Seraphina wouldn't have asked him too unless it were important.

Notes