Time Lady of Asgard

Chapter 4

Heimdall stood at the Observatory controls.

Odin pulled Heimdall's sword from the control panel and threw it to him.

Heimdall backed away.

"Why did you bring us back?" Thor questioned

"Do you realize what you've done? What you've started?" Odin argued

"I was protecting my home,"

"You cannot protect your friends. How can you hope to protect a kingdom?" Odin turned to the others. He looked at Fandral. "Get him to the healing room!"

Sif, Volstagg, and Hogun hurried to help Fandral out of the room.

"There won't be a kingdom to protect if you're afraid to act!" Thor argued

Odin stared at Thor.

"The Jotuns must learn to fear me, just as they once feared you," Thor continued

"That's pride and vanity that talks! Not leadership!" Odin argued, "Have you forgotten everything I've taught you? What of a warrior's patience, cunning?"

"While you wait and be patient, the Nine Realms laugh at us! The old ways are done. You'd stand giving speeches while Asgard falls!"

"You're a vain, greedy, cruel boy!"

"And you are an old man and a fool!"

The whole world seemed to stop at Thor's words.

Odin fell quiet. When he spoke again, something was terrifying beneath the calmness of his words. "I was a fool to think you were ready,"

Loki took a step towards Odin imploringly. "Father..."

Odin turned and looked at Loki, which stopped him in his tracks. "Thor Odinson...You have disobeyed the express command of your King. Through your arrogance and stupidity, you have opened these peaceful Realms and innocent lives to the horrors and desolation of war," The Allfather plunged Gungir into the Observatory's control panel.

The turret turned the Bifrost energy building along with Odin's rage. It fired as the Bifrost opened at the end of the platform, creating a portal behind Thor.

Odin turned angrily to his son. "You are unworthy of these Realms..." he ripped a disc off Thor's chest. "...unworthy of your title..." Odin ripped away Thor's cloak. "...unworthy of the loved ones you've betrayed. I now take from you your powers," he extended his hand towards his son.

Mjolnir went flying from Thor's grasp into Odin's hand.

"In the name of my father..." Odin continued as a finger of lightning came off the hammer and hit Thor, disintegrating the right arm of his armor and part of the chest piece. "...and of his father before..." Another strike disintegrated the remainder of Thor's armor, including the cape and torn-away disc on the floor. "I, Odin Allfather, cast you out!" Odin thrust Mjolnir before him and...with a crack of thunder...Thor was hurled back into the open Bifrost and disappeared in the vortex. Odin held Mjolnir in his hand, staring at it bitterly. He closed his eyes, lost in contemplation, whispering "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor,"

Runes appeared on the side of the hammer as if carved into its smooth surface. The runes lingered for but a moment, then disappeared. Suddenly, Odin turned and hurled the hammer into the Bifrost.

***

Sif, Loki, and the Warriors three, battered and shell-shocked, still reeling from the day's events, sat before a Roaring central fire.

Nightingale reached into the flames, pulling out some fragile healing stones. Neither the fire nor the stones burned her. As she carefully placed the stones over her friends' wounds, they began to glow. Nightingale crushed them to a powder. Her friends' injuries healed up at the glowing powder's touch.

Fandral winced in pain as Nightingale healed his gaping wound.

Volstagg looked at the skin on his arm...healing but still blackened from the necrotizing touch of the Frost Giant.

Loki watched him, then stared at his own arm, where the Giant's touch turned his skin blue. It was undamaged, back to its normal color.

"We should never have let him go," Volstagg said

"There was no stopping him," Sif claimed

"At least he's only banished, not dead." Fandral noted, "Which is what we'd all be if that guard hadn't told Odin where we'd gone,"

"How did the guard even know?" Volstagg questioned

Loki looked over at Nightingale as she moved to busy herself. He knew it was her, "I told him,"

Everyone, including Nightingale, turned to him in shock.

"What?" Fandral asked

"I told him to go to Odin after we'd left." Loki lied, "Though he should be flogged for taking so long. We should never have reached Jotunheim,"

"You told the guard?" Volstagg questioned

"I saved our lives! And Thor's. I had no idea Father would banish him for what he did,"

"Loki, you're the only one who can help Thor now. You must go to the Allfather and convince him to change his mind!" Sif claimed

"And if I do, then what? I love Thor more dearly than any of you, minus Nightingale, but you know what he is. He's arrogant. He's reckless. He's dangerous. You saw how he was today. Is that what Asgard needs from its King?"

The others exchanged glances, torn.

Loki had a point. He left the room.

Hogun stared after Loki.

"He may speak about the good of Asgard, but he's always been jealous of Thor," Sif noted

"True, but we should be grateful to him. He did save our lives," Volstagg said

"Laufey said there were traitors in the House of Odin," Hogun implied

The others turned to the usually quiet Hogun.

"Why is it that every time you choose to speak, it must be dark and ominous?" Fandral asked

"A master of magic could easily bring three Jotuns into Asgard," Hogun explained

The others looked to Hogun, understanding his implication.

Nightingale shook her head. "No! Surely not!" she quickly left the room.

"I don't know which wrath you should look out for, Hogun...the wrath of Loki or the wrath of a Time Lady," Sif explained as they watched the Time Lady storm out of the room.