Timeless

◈ 16 ◈

The lights of the Bifrost disappeared, leaving us in the company of thousands of dwarves at work on the surrounding rims of a dying neutron star.

One of the dwarves lumbered over to us and grinned when he saw my brother.

"Eitri, my friend!" Thor greeted with a wave of his hand.

"Welcome to Nidavellir, my princes. What is it that you need?"

I looked up at him and straightened the horns atop my head, which did little to help me seem taller than I actually was.

"We're here in search of a weapon!" I shouted, my voice barely audible over the sharp clangs of metal against metal and the roars of machinery surrounding us at every angle.

"Oh? What kind of weapon?"

He motioned for us to follow him through the chaos. I stepped gingerly over the hot, jagged pieces of rock and metal that littered the ground. I'd always hated Nidavellir, despite my natural attraction to chaos. The realm was much too hot and noisy for me.

I struggled to match Eitri's pace as we continued on our walk.

"The kind that can destroy infinity stones."

He stopped walking and turned to look at me.

"Destroying something as powerful as an infinity stone is no easy task, but I may know just the thing."

He led us over to one of the many machines covering nearly every inch of the multi-ringed megastructure. After bending down and digging through a chest full of molds, he pulled out the one he was looking for and started jogging away.

"I'll be back in a minute!" He called over his shoulder as he faded from view.

Thor turned to me and sighed.

"This isn't a good idea."

"I know," I replied without hesitation.

He crossed his arms over his chest and huffed in frustration.

"Then why go through with it?"

I considered this for a moment as the dying star shot a steady stream of light far past us with cutting-edge precision.

"Thor, have you forgotten where I was mere hours ago?" He took his eyes off of the star to look at me. "I was dead. Useless. Tossed aside like I was nothing. Do you understand how much I hate doing nothing but wasting oxygen?"

Thor nodded and opened his mouth in preparation to speak. I ignored him and continued to talk.

"Now, I have a one in a million chance to actually do something, and I don't plan on passing it up."

"But Heimdall warned us-"

"And he can warn us as much as he likes. It won't change the decision I made. If I don't take this shot, then I'll never get another one again. I'll fail, and I'll go right back to being useless. To being dead."

He didn't get a chance to respond, for Eitri was approaching us with a gleaming silver sword in his hand. It was still red-hot on the edges and looked sharper than any blade I'd ever seen before.

He held it out to me without speaking a word as he watched the deep red veins from the Aether travel up my neck at an almost insignificant speed.

I took the sword from him and turned it over in my hands slowly. What stood out the most was the small, oval-shaped indentation in the center of the blade.

The perfect size to accommodate an infinity stone.

"It is the only way." He said, his voice nearly inaudible.

I moved closer to him, putting some distance between Thor and I. My brother shouldn't have to hear what I had to say to Eitri.

"Chances of survival?"

"Very, very low. I'm sorry."

I kept my eyes on the sword, not trusting myself enough to look at Eitri or Thor. I feared that if I did, I might not have been able to mask my emotions very well.

"Thank you, Eitri," I whispered.

He gave me a small, sad smile and nodded.

"Good luck."