BOOK 3. Trapped in Asgard after Odin's apparent death, Anna chooses an unlikely ally in her attempt to find Loki. While the realm is sealed from the rest of the Nine Worlds, her strange dreams lead her to the one place she'd never expect.
To him...
That's all Anna can see. The inky blackness drinks her in, covering her tiny frame until she can't even see the tips of her fingertips. It wraps around her like a lush velvet, swallowing her body whole, so that nothing could escape it. No sound, no movement, no light. It is the great equalizer, she realizes, in that everything disappears into its depths. Everything and nothing.
She can hear the sound of chains clanking together, metal against metal, and she winces as the racket echoes off the rocks around her. Holding out her hand, she uses her fingertips to guide herself through the labyrinth she visited each night in her dreams. Every night, it's always the same. Every night, she falls asleeps in Asgard and wakes up here. In the land of everything and nothing, consumed by darkness, where she can do nothing but wander until morning.
Every morning she wakes up exhausted, drained from another relentless night of scouring the face of the rocky terrain. Unlike the first dream, which left her body battered and bruised, she always wakes up untouched and unharmed. It's become an exercise in isolation, forcing her to endure countless hours of solitude and silence day after day after day. Each night she prays that she'll fall into a dreamless sleep, but each night she is greeted by the darkness.
Eir attempted to give her something, a draught of some kind with the intention of causing dreamless sleep, but it did nothing. She woke up in her dreams, groggy and sluggish, with every muscle dragging as she navigated her way through the now-familiar rocks.
After that, she refused to take the draught again. Instead, Eir now focused on helping Anna stay awake during the daytime. Three months of this torment made it impossible for her to feel well-rested. Her health continued to deteriorate, and - even now - she sports ever-present dark circles under her large blue eyes. The color drained from her cheeks after the first month, leaving her skin ashen and dull.
The mental strain was by far the worst side effect of the dreams. Always on the move, both waking and sleeping, she could feel the edges of her mind wearing down from the constant use. Ilva, the ladies made assigned to her by Frigga on her first visit to Asgard, made sure to stop by and visit daily, but Anna's attempts at conversation grew further and further apart. She listened to the maid chat happily while she dusted the already spotless chambers, but she couldn't follow it half of the time.
Try as she might, words slipped in through her mind like water through her fingertips. She could hear them, she could try to pay attention, but she couldn't hold on to them. Nothing registered. Aimless babble about the state of Asgard and the pointless deliberations of the tribunal. Even after three months, the council had yet to make a decision on whether or not to unseal Asgard to retrieve Thor - or at least the Warrior's Three - and, while Anna tried to soak up as much information about the ongoing talks, she failed miserably.
The only thing that held her attention were the books she requested from the palace library. History books on the Asgardian royal family were stacked haphazardly around the room, some laid open to specific passages, while others were filled with makeshift bookmarks. Every story of Loki spoke to her, every sentence - every word - about his past drawing her toward him, and she couldn't let him go. She wouldn't. Something about the books would lead her to the truth.
Determination turned into obsession, and - when she wasn't dreaming of the darkness - she was racking her brain about Loki and his whereabouts. Where was he? Why did he lock her in his chambers? Why did he abandon her? All of the questions flitted through her brain without answers, all of them tormenting her ceaselessly.
Physically, she was still weak. While her wounds healed quickly after the first dream, her condition deteriorated the longer she was trapped in Loki's chambers and deprived of sleep. Eir hadn't tended to many Midgardians, but the healer was impressed that Anna's injuries from the first dream had disappeared so quickly, and that her condition stayed relatively stable even after so long without sleep.
"I have never seen anything quite like it," Eir confessed to Anna one afternoon, soon after that first nightmare. "But without the Soul Forge, I can't actually tell what is happening."
Anna frowned at that statement, "So...you don't know what's happening?"
"Your immune system seems to be heightened, along with your body's ability to regenerate injured tissue. Given the severity of your initial injuries, the risk of infection was incredibly high," the healer explained. "Yet here you are, infection free, and completely unscathed."
Anna recalled one of the many conversations she had with Natasha, during which time her sister recounted their time at the Red Room. She still couldn't remember the four years she spent in training. According to Natasha, combat training started at a very young age at the facility, along with ballet, while the government carried out their experiments in the background. Those who could not meet expectations were eliminated, one by one, and emotional attachments were discouraged.
After some persuasion - and half a bottle of Tony Stark's strongest vodka - Natasha recounted the training they endured with the Winter Soldier, also known as James Buchanan Barnes, and the medical treatments done on all of the girls. They wanted to make each girl stronger, faster, and better than possible, and they enhanced their immune systems and physical durability, along with slowing the aging process.
Whether or not Anna had undergone these experiments, however, was uncertain. She couldn't remember any of her time in the Red Room, thanks to her adoptive parents, so they could only guess. Given that she'd broken her leg when she was thirteen, Anna couldn't remember healing any faster than normal. The doctors didn't seem to think anything was different, so she assumed she'd been too young for the Russian experiments in the Red Room. Thankfully, she had also been too young for the graduation procedure, which Natasha could only hint at without caging off.
She remembers the conversation clearly, the distress etched on her sister's perfect features, and her heart aches anew. Even though they'd only known each other for a short time, the sisters took to one another uncommonly fast - something that shocked all of Natasha's teammates - and quickly became best friends.
Shaking her head to push back the memory, Anna focuses on the here and now. Trapped in the middle of nowhere, exhausted and worn down, her bare feet tread lightly across the rough rocks as she navigates the maze carved of stone. By now, she's certain that she's circled the same path four times already, a new record for a single night, and she sags against one of the rocks off to the side for a moment to rest.
If only she could rest. Catch an hour of sleep. Close her eyes for a moment and not wake up somewhere else, forced to live a double life. Her limbs are screaming at her, every muscle in her body sore from the constant activity, and she relishes the opportunity to stop and rest. After a few moments, she pushes herself off the wall and begins her trek once more. Another lap, another night, another month.
Always the same.
Every night, the darkness greets her. Every night, she forces herself to keep moving. To keep searching. To find something, anything, in the darkness.
There is something out there, and she is determined to find it.
Now Playing: Dreams by Robot Koch (ft. Stephen Henderson).
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