Chapter 21
Darcy watched Bucky still himself through deep breaths as the soul forge, or quantum field generator as Jane had chirped happily, did its thing over him. The healers made tutting noises every now and again as they rushed around his prone form, always careful to leave a respectable bubble of space around Darcy where she sat, but Eir, the head healer, was kindly explaining the mechanics of what she was doing to Jane.
She didn’t understand half of what they were saying, but her friend seemed happy, absorbing every word Eir spoke. Darcy sighed as Bucky flinched when a healer gently probed his temple with an odd stick looking tool.
“Hey,” Darcy soothed, propping her chin on his chest so she could fill his field of vision, “Focus on me. We’re okay.”
Bucky latched his eyes on hers but didn’t lose the taut lines around his mouth.
They’d woken this morning in peaceful warmth under all of those strange alien furs, Bucky curled in around the arm she had reached across his middle, and with her huddled so close to his back that his every inhale lifted her.
Fully clothed, never even having kissed, and yet intimately comforted by each other’s presence.
It was maybe that comfort that drew the confession of worry out of Bucky. Worry that whatever unknown was going to be done to him today would be something like the horrors that had been inflicted on him in the past. His remembrances of it were fragmented, but, in the soft morning light and wrapped up in each other, he haltingly told her of the hard leather of the chair, of the taste of split rubber in his mouth, of choking on screams while cloying voices whispered lies straight into his mind.
Darcy held him through it, happy that her face was tucked between his shoulder blades so that he couldn’t see her grim frown or her wide eyes.
She’d responded the only way she could.
She promised him she wouldn’t let that happen again.
So in this medical room, as he stared into her eyes while Eir’s hands worked the light particles above them, Darcy shifted a hand to lay over his heart, never looking away.
Bucky gave her a shaky smile and the chest under her sunk with his gentle sigh.
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“Given what I’ve seen of the Princess’ beloved and what he can do, I would have thought that you would wish to be with Princess Darcy and Lady Jane,” Heimdall said as Thor entered the observatory.
“The day that Darcy and Jane combined cannot handle themselves is the day that Fandral marries, that Volstagg is satisfied with one boar, and that your sister decides to lay down her sword,” Thor laughed, coming to stand next to his old friend
“I recall an incident involving the two of them attempting to steal a fearsome, scaled creature from the,” Heimdall paused as he tried to recall the Midgardian term, “The Zoo! Yes, they thought the beast would make a good companion while they worked, did they not?”
“Aye, that they did,” Thor shuddered at the memory of the apologies he’d had to make. It was the only Pub Crawl he had missed, having had an Avengers related emergency, and he had made sure to never again miss another. Why an inebriated Jane had wanted a Komodo dragon was beyond him, but he was simply thankful that he had caught Darcy before she’d made it into the enclosure. “But James poses no threat to Darcy or Jane. That need not be a worry.”
Heimdall allowed that, nodding thoughtfully before turning to look over the cosmos again.
“Very well, my prince. Tis good that you came to me, for I have a matter of great urgency to discuss with you,” Heimdall spoke with all the gravity the Guardian possessed.
Thor turned to face the vastness of the stars, looking for whatever was causing his friend’s grave tone, despite knowing that his eyes could never match the other’s sight.
“As Guardian of Asgard, I watch the actions of millions of souls, watch the choices they make, watch the ripples of those choices spread far and wide, sometimes even beyond worlds… With so much to be seen, it is not always clear which souls and which choices and which ripples will be of what importance, which will affect the way a leaf blows and which will decide the life or death of someone…”
Thor waited for Heimdall to elaborate, but he seemed lost in thought as he gazed out into space.
“And these ripples trouble you?” Thor prompted.
Heimdall sighed.
“Yes, they must trouble me for they began with Asgard’s failure.”
“Asgard, for all its glory and all its triumphs, has had its fair share of failures like any other world,” Thor said neutrally, accepting with grace that which had been proven to him so painfully over the years.
“Aye,” Heimdall agreed, “But this failure, so minute in the moment, shall prove to be the downfall of so much, the death of so many, if not corrected soon.”
“Then we shall correct it. Of which failure do you speak?”
“After the battle with the Chitauri, we only demanded Loki and the Tesseract be returned to Asgard. Because we were blinded by the imminent danger that those two presented, we did not realize the danger we had left behind. That perhaps could be forgiven, but I fear it has already caused irreparable effects in the scheme of Yggdrasil,” Heimdall spoke, closing his eyes and cutting of his great gaze, not wanting to see anymore.
Thor, though puzzled at Heimdall’s meaning at first, put together the pieces quickly.
“Loki’s scepter,” he growled.
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Of all the situations where Darcy imagined getting her hands all over James Buchanan Barnes, none of them had ever involved her best friend being there.
Never in all of her wildest fantasies had she been groping Bucky’s chest because she and Jane were practically carrying him back to their room. Bucky’d been great all through the trying day, but even a super soldier apparently could only handle so much emotional stress. Light was still pouring through the arched windows of the hall, a fact Darcy was thankful for because dragging Bucky along in the dark sounded like a recipe for disaster.
“Why is it,” Jane huffed from the other side of gigantic dude, looking impossible tiny under the metal arm, “that we are the ones doing the heavy lifting when we’re on a planet of aliens with super-strength?”
Bucky was awake enough to chuckle a bit and tried to take some of his weight back from Jane. Unfortunately, he overshot and ended up pitching too much onto Darcy.
Halting to get her footing, Darcy grunted, “Because it’d be kind of shitty to force manhandling strangers on Bucky after everything.”
“Right, right,” Jane panted, pushing them forward again.
“I could…” Bucky started voice hoarse, “I can make it.”
His statement was belied by him tripping over air.
Again.
“Yeah, Tin Man, keep telling yourself that,” Darcy laughed, shooting Bucky a smirk.
Bucky rolled his eyes but didn’t protest as they finally reached his and Darcy’s room. They had to awkwardly crab walk in sideways to get through the door while staying upright. With a final ungraceful shove, the two women got him on the bed only to collapse themselves on either side of him.
“First thing when we get back, boss, we’re upping our fitness regimen,” Darcy choked out, trying in vain to catch her breath.
Jane’s head popped up like a weasel to peer shrewdly over Bucky’s broad chest. “We don’t have a fitness regimen.”
“That seems irresponsible of us given how much time we spend running head first into danger,” Darcy propped herself on her bent arm, turning into Bucky to face her friend.
“And we’re alive! See, no fitness regimen needed!” Jane stated smugly.
“Which could also be attributed to dumb luck as far as I’m concerned,” Darcy continued, absentmindedly running her hand up and down the inside of Bucky’s forearm.
“Dumb luck!” Jane spluttered, “Dumb luck is not a quantifiable variable, and you know that!”
Darcy’s quiet laughter was accompanied a small smile of Bucky’s, creating a satisfied warmth deep in her chest. “You’re too easy, Janie-pants.”
They were interrupted by a voice at the door.
“Aye, my love, your fury is becoming a might predictable,” interjected Thor from where he was leaning against the frame. Darcy noticed the clenched fists where his arms were folded.
Her focus, however, was taken by Bucky sitting up. She put a hand at his back to help, but she needn’t have worried. Bucky was the one to pull her up straight as he greeted Thor.
“I think that’s my cue,” Jane hopped down, ambling towards the Thunder God, “See you guys tomorrow.”
Darcy furrowed her brow at Bucky’s jaunty wave, suspicion welling.
“You could have gotten to the room on your own just fine, couldn’t you have?” she accused.
Bucky crooked an eyebrow and leaned back on his elbows, looking up at her from under his lashes and presenting an altogether too enticing picture.
Darcy was not easily distracted. On the contrary, this confirmed her suspicions.
“You turd! Do you have any idea how heavy you are?” she jabbed him low in the belly.
“Hey!” he laughed, skittering away from her across the furs, “Okay! I was worn out! I could have pushed through it, though, sure, but can you blame a guy for not turning down the help of his best girl when he’s in a weakened state?” He accompanied the last line with a wink that was a shade too exaggerated to be normal. Darcy recognized avoidance when she saw it. While he may have been able to physically trudge on no matter the circumstance, today… hell, the last week had been emotionally exhausting for Bucky.
If he wanted to avoid that for a while with some harmless flirting, who was she to deny him?
“Best girl, huh?” Darcy drawled, artfully draping herself at the head of the bed, fanning her hair out and letting the neck of her shirt be tugged slightly down with the motion. Bucky’s swallow as only an inch or so was revealed brought a thrill to her.
“Course, doll. What else would you be but my best girl?” Bucky crawled up to her, eyes locked on that inch of skin beneath her collar bone. For her part, Darcy’s whole thought process had narrowed to the play of muscles in his arm as moved to hover over where she lay.
She glanced up, startled to find his face right over hers. The shock thankfully brought back her senses. With a trembling sigh that displaced the curtain of Bucky’s hair that had fallen to frame them, she raised a hand to his chest. “Dangerous game we’re playing here, Soldier.”
His heart stuttered at her voice, it’s rapid beat a heavy thrum against her fingers. Bucky closed his eyes before sighing, “You have no idea,” and rolling off her.
They lay there, barely separated, trying to let the embers die. Time passed, and gradually, the air in the room receded to the usual comfortable familiarity they felt with each other instead of the heat of before.
Darcy’s hand found his in the darkening room, another of Asgard’s magnificent sunsets happening out over their balcony.
“Bucky?” she asked as his thumb stroked the inside of her wrist. A squeeze was her only answer. “Even though we’re totally not there yet, when we do get there? You know, eventually after healing and a long, fulfilling journey of self-realizations, triumphs, and a lot of hard work?”
She could feel Bucky shift to peek at her and smiled.
“Buckaroo, when we do get there, we are going to be so fucking good together.”
He groaned a laugh before dragging her onto his chest and into his arms, shushing her giggles as he settled them in for the night.
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Jane once again thanked Darcy’s foresight as she watched Thor unbuckle the millionth buckle on his armor. She’d been lounging in her Batman nightshirt for ten minutes, laughing at her partner as he cursed yet another layer of clothing for taking so long to remove.
Thor finally lost the last of his clothes and vaulted into bed, dragging her to his side from where she had been comfortably curled. He playfully sneered at pajamas, the beginning of a long running argument they both enjoyed having.
“Not all of us have the body heat of a polar bear and can just sleep in nothing like you,” Jane responded to his sneer with a mischievous glint.
“A polar bear, you say? I have yet to meet this fearsome beast, but if it shares my views on proper slumbering attire, I believe I shall like the bears of the pole,” Thor grumbled into the hollow of her neck.
Jane ran her fingers through his hair, undoing his braids as he rolled to rest his head on her chest, arms securely wrapped around her.
“Want to tell me what had you so tense earlier?” Jane asked, letting him take the time to formulate his answer as she continued with his hair, giving his scalp a scratch with each pass of her hand.
“Aye, if you keep with your ministrations,” Thor sighed, pressing his face even more into her.
“Of course,” she answered with a kiss to his crown.
“I spoke with Heimdall. I intended only to thank him for his assistance when you were captured, but I instead learned of a great threat…”
They fell asleep like that, Thor holding her and her soothing him as they talked through the dangers posed against their worlds.
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While the two couples slept, tangled in each other in both bodies and dreams, Odin again sat vigil, unyielding and, ultimately, unable to help.
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For Bucky, waking was not a process or an evolution.
It’s instantaneous, as is his awareness, even without opening his eyes.
He’s aware of the delicate weight of Darcy curled half on top of him, just as he’d positioned her last night; aware of the first rays of sunlight encroaching across the marble floors; aware of the chill in the room because of the long dead fire; but most of all, he’s aware of the person seated at the foot of their bed.
Before he’s decided whether to use the knife under his pillow or to go with the basics and use his arm, the seated figure startled Darcy upright.
“Well, isn’t this cozy?” Jane drawled, seemingly relaxed, but Bucky takes note of how her focus is entirely on his arm that’s still wrapped around Darcy’s waist.
“Christ on a cracker, Jane!” Darcy heaved, eyes wide and the beginnings of black at their rims.
Jane noticed this, but plowed ahead regardless. “Any particular reason you love birds seem eager to sleep the day away?” she questioned sweetly, deftly avoiding the pillow Darcy chucks at her.
“I hate you so much right now,” Darcy seethed, black overriding the blue of her irises, skin taking on that distinctive red hue.
Bucky was not surprised that Jane was unphased.
“Gee, I seem to recall many a morning where you decided to do the same thing to Thor and me… What was the excuse last time? Oh yeah, you needed Mjolnir to kill a spider.”
“Excuse me, that was more traumatic for me than you! Because when I said I needed Thor’s hammer, I did not mean that one! And that spider was as big as my face!” Darcy leapt out of the bed, but Jane stood her ground.
“Turnabout is fair play, my friend,” she cackled, “Now up and at ‘em! Thor wants us all to have breakfast together. Get dressed!”
With that, she strutted out of the room, leaving Darcy in all of her demonic glory and Bucky with a pretty spectacular view to start his day with, if he did say so himself.
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Odin was in the middle of re-reading yet another medical tome to no effect when he heard his son’s footsteps. Sighing, he closed the book, yet again frustrated by his fruitless searches. Why he thought his eyes would catch something that the healers had missed, he knew not.
Perhaps it was just the arrogance of an old fool.
“Father,” Thor called quietly, and Odin was relieved that, even amidst everything, the face of his son could still bring an easy smile out of an old king.
He lead them out of the Archives before speaking, “The guards informed me that you were breaking fast with our guests this morning.”
Thor’s visage lightened, as it always did with even the smallest mention of his beloved. “Yes, I shall join them after talking with you. First, I am afraid I must report to you as my king.”
They had reached the throne room, but Odin for once did not feel like standing on ceremony and so motioned to the balcony rather than taking his rightful seat.
“What is it that calls for me to be a king so early in the day?” Odin asked, hiding his weariness by keeping his gaze on his city.
“Heimdall has discovered that…” Thor hesitated, “that a mistake of Asgard’s has become a growing threat to… well, to everyone.”
Odin could feel a headache brewing.
“And this mistake of Asgard’s? Don’t tell me that I must guess?”
Thor chuckled without mirth before looking down. “Leaving Loki’s scepter on Midgard.”
“Ah,” Odin nodded thoughtfully, “I thought that might be a problem.”
“What?” Thor thundered, startled, “You realized it could be dangerous and still did nothing to retrieve it?”
“If this is the approach you have with your king, I hate to imagine the tone you would have for your father,” Odin commented drily, “I obviously did not realize at the time, but recent developments have shown me the potential errors of my decisions.”
“What recent developments, my king?” Thor questioned, duly chastened.
“Your brother’s treachery has ever expanding consequences. In light of that, I have been forced into conference with a most unusual suspect,” Odin wished fiercely, for the millionth time today alone, for Frigga as she was so much better with words, “Loki has joined forces with Thanos, the Mad Titan. We do not know exactly what they have planned, but given their combined insanity and thirst for power, it can only end in devastation.”
Absorbing all of this, Thor still asked the one question that Odin least wished to answer. “Who is this most unusual suspect?”
“My son, when you are king, there will be a great many things you will do that you never could have imagined yourself doing before. For me, the greatest of those,” Odin braced himself, “has been working with King Mephisto.”
A chunk of stone broke off the railing under Thor’s hands at his shock.
“Darcy’s father?” At Odin’s reluctant nod, Thor purposefully ripped more stone from the rail like a child throwing a tantrum, “You’ve been in contact with that demon? The one who has caused Darcy immeasurable pain and suffering? The one who tore the soul itself from her mother’s body?”
“Honestly, if you think that is the worst of his crimes, you are horrifically biased,” Odin calmly pointed out.
“Father!” Thor whispered, aghast.
Odin shrugged, not moved.
“Mephisto is the king of Hell. He is evil. However, he is also a father and, as such, has a vested interest in capturing Loki.”
Thor was clearly not comprehending.
“Loki assaulted his daughter, did he not?” Odin sighed, “But that is neither here nor there. We have a common enemy. Thanos’ gauntlet has none of the Infinity Stones so we can be sure that he means to collect them. It’s likely the scepter houses one if Heimdall is seeing catastrophe in its wake. Go to Midgard, assemble your warriors, and retrieve the scepter.”
“I agree the scepter needs to be found, but surely, the Avengers can handle the task without me,” Thor began but Odin swiftly interrupted.
“The destruction that will follow if Thanos finds even just one of the Stones brooks no gamble. You will go, and that is an order from your sovereign king.”
Thor pushed a harsh breath through his nose before giving a curt bow.
“What of Princess Darcy and Lady Jane?” he gruffly asked.
“They will remain here on Asgard. The royal consort will receive medical aid, and the entire party will be safest here.”
“They will be the ones to decide whether or not they will stay,” Thor said, steel in his voice before adding more gently, “Father.”
Odin nodded gamely, watching his son sweep from the balcony. Turning, he rested his forearms on the ruined rail. Yggdrasil had been whispering. He had never been gifted at interpreting the whispering like Frigga, but Odin would have to have been deaf to miss the warnings.
Midgard was the key, the key to everything.
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Breakfast was already underway by the time Thor made it to the small veranda.
“Sorry, big guy,” Darcy apologized, “But the food smelled and looked too good. Some of us,” she elbowed Jane, “were too weak to wait.”
Jane, for her part, stuffed some more sausage in her mouth and smiled with no remorse. Thor took the empty seat next to her and stole the rest of her sausage as recompense.
“Bucky!” Thor boomed as the soldier in question took a huge bit of some pudding-like substance that he’d been mainlining, “I see you are enjoying the a-smff,” Thor was abruptly cut off by Jane’s hand slapping over his mouth.
“What’s the rule?” Jane asked, slowly removing her hand but keeping it raised in case she needed to use it again. Darcy kept eating, but Bucky eyed the exchange with interest.
Thor answered sheepishly, “I am never allowed to tell you of what Asgardian food is made.”
Darcy nodded and muttered “Damn straight” under her breath, knowing full well that Thor could hear her. The hang dog look he shot her did nothing to her resolve.
“How’d the meeting with Odin go?” Jane asked, changing the subject.
“What meeting with Odin?” Darcy herself asked before Thor could answer.
Bucky continued to watch everyone with the same interest.
“I went to Heimdall yesterday,” Thor began, speaking while heaping mounds of food onto his plate, “and was warned of terrible threat to not only Asgard, but to all of the nine realms. Should this evil be allowed to flourish, should this threat be realized, only blood and suffering will follow, havoc would reign. To insure this does not come to pass, the All-Father has ordered me to Midgard so that I might find the threat before it falls into the hand of those who would use it for malevolence.”
Bucky swallowed the truly disgusting amount of food he’d been chewing before leaning to whisper in Darcy’s ear, “Is he always so… poetical?”, blissfully unaware of Asgardians’ enhanced senses.
Or blissful until Thor began to laugh heartily, lifting the tense atmosphere a smidge.
“Darcy asked almost the exact same question early in our acquaintance,” he chuckled, looking at Darcy fondly, “I believe you two are well matched.”
She noticed Jane’s eyes narrowing at Thor for his pronouncement, but Darcy figured she would cross that bridge when she came to it.
“So you’re leaving?” Darcy redirected them to the matter at hand.
“I must,” Thor nodded, “but the All-Father wishes for you three to stay on Asgard for your protection and for the continued treatment of you, Bucky. I informed him that the decision would be made by all of you yourselves.”
Darcy knew that Bucky had to stay because Asgard was his best shot at help and the one place HYDRA couldn’t reach him. She also knew that she needed to be with him for this, knew it without needing to examine the reasoning too closely. But suddenly, the thought that Jane would probably want to go home struck her. Dr. Jane Foster had never missed an opportunity to in the middle of the action, and Darcy Lewis had always been right beside her. Darcy gulped as she looked from Bucky at her right to Jane at her left, the most uncertain than she had been in recent memory.
Her uncertainty, however, was in vain.
“We’ll stay. Bucky needs help and maybe I can help the scribes here. Asgard has more resources than I could get my hands on on Earth,” Jane said casually before plopping a glowing fruit into her mouth.
Thor smiled, nodding thoughtfully before tucking back into his meal as well, happily munching away.
Darcy felt like she was in an episode of the Twilight Zone.
“What?” she croaked, bulging eyes locked on Jane.
Jane frowned at her. “What what?”
“You’re going to…” Darcy shook her head, “You aren’t going back? You’re staying with us?”
“Yes?” Jane was now squinting apprehensively, “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because Earth is about to be Ground Zero! You always go to Ground Zero!” Darcy exclaimed.
“No, I don’t!” Jane had the gall to look mildly offended, but was careful to ignore Thor’s scoff, “I go where I am needed, where I’m most useful! That’s here with you!”
Darcy didn’t miss the heavy glare Jane levelled at an obliviously eating Bucky.
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Thor had left that same day, and the three of them settled into a careful routine. Jane obnoxiously woke them up every morning with a dedicated perkiness that Darcy had absolutely never seen before in her best friend but had not had an opportunity to question her about. While Bucky and Darcy spent their mornings with the healers having yet more tests done, Jane found a niche with the scribes, unexpectedly overcome with how readily they welcomed her once she had proven that she could learn quickly. Darcy and Bucky roamed free in the afternoons. The day after Thor’s departure, they found Sif practicing her sword work in a garden, leading to quality bonding between Bucky and the Asgardian on their preferred weaponry. Sif was a good companion for Bucky, steady and, having gone through war herself, able to relate to some of the pain in Bucky’s soul. While Sif and Bucky occasionally did their warrior quality time, Volstagg and Darcy ran wild. One day they’d taken the kitchen hostage, much to Odin’s disapproval, and another Darcy had taught Volstagg’s kids every viral dance she knew while her iPhone played loudly from her hands. Dinner, after Darcy broke Jane away from her work with the scribes, was eaten together on the same veranda the trio had claimed as their own.
Darcy also spent a fair amount of time at Frigga’s side. Odin was there more often than not, leaving Darcy to wonder when the All-Father slept, if he ever did. He’d asked her only once to tell him if Frigga was marked for death.
She’d said it was unclear and left it at that.
There weren’t words to explain anyway, how Frigga’s glow, that natural glow that all Asgardian’s had to Darcy, came in and out of focus with an alarming frequency and no discernible pattern. No way to explain without messing with Odin’s expectations that Death still had not made up its mind whether to take the Queen or not. It wouldn’t do to let hope swell when the fight was Frigga’s and Frigga’s alone.
Over a month after Thor’s departure, Jane was making herself at home on their bed, as was her custom in the morning, when a guard knocked on the door.
“Might as well come in,” Darcy called then grumbled to herself, “Because no one is getting anymore sleep in here.”
The guard opened the door but intentionally did not enter, standing at attention just outside. “Odin requests an audience with your highness, Princess Darcy,” the guard said, head bowed respectfully. It had been something to get used to, but at least Darcy didn’t giggle like a school girl every time someone called her princess.
“Okay,” she yawned, sitting up and rubbing her face, “I’ll meet him after breakfast.”
“With all due respect, your highness,” the guard countered, head still bowed, “Odin requests your presence immediately. He said it was most urgent.”
Darcy frowned at that.
“Go see what he wants,” Jane piped up, “Bucky and I can handle eating breakfast on our own. Can’t we, Bucky?”
Bucky tilted his head in acquiescence, but warning bells were going off in Darcy’s mind. Jane had been civil to Bucky, but the weird looks and thinly veiled comments had continued. Darcy had been meaning to corner Jane for an explanation, but between Jane’s work and Bucky, there hadn’t seemed like a good time.
“Hey, go,” Bucky pushed, maybe sensing her turmoil, “We’ll be fine on our own for a bit. We’ll save you some breakfast.”
Knowing there wasn’t a real reason to ignore the All-Father’s summons, Darcy got dressed and left, tossing one more worried glance over her shoulder as she left.
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She found Odin in Frigga’s room, keeping his usual watch at her side. As soon as she entered, he turned to face her.
“Ah, there you are, Princess. I am sorry for the hour, but I am afraid this is something of a time sensitive event.”
Eying the slumbering queen cautiously, Darcy asked, “What did you need me for?”
Odin smiled and sat back down, patting the seat next to him.
“That is something that I can answer in a minute. First, I want you to know, despite what the next moments may bring, I do not wish you harm or pain in any way. I also hope that you won’t feel… betrayed, I suppose, by my actions. It would do to remember that I am a king and have to put my responsibilities ahead of my personal feelings or attachments.”
“Gotta admit, All-Father, I do not like the sound of this so far.” In point of fact, Darcy was beyond nerves and into full fledged anxious apprehension at Odin’s disclaimers.
“Yes,” Odin said, stroking his beard, “Perhaps I should simply allow her to explain.”
“Her?” Darcy asked, stomach dropping, “Do you mean… Frigga? Because I told you before, she isn’t here.”
Odin laid a steady hand on Darcy’s shoulder. “No, not Frigga, young one. I am sorry, I can see my words have only made you distressed when I meant to cushion what’s to come. No matter, there is no more time to waste. You must go to the Dead World, MSS, as you call it. Go there now.”
Darcy did not disappear immediately, too confused and unsure with Odin’s odd behavior.
He lifted her chin so he could look at her directly.
“Trust me, Princess, you must go there, now,” Odin ordered, voice calm and smooth.
So Darcy removed his hands and hummed.
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The mists of MSS had been reassuring to Darcy for many years now, and this time was now different. She let the cold wash over her and wash away any of the anxiety Odin has caused.
She was so relaxed that the dainty clearing of a throat behind her nearly gave her a heart attack.
If the sound hadn’t, the face she found when she spun around would have.
Because there, standing in MSS, body shining with the translucency that only the dead have and smiling hugely through her tears, was Diane Lewis.