The Armorer

We are so screwed, I have time to think as the crowd presses in and I'm shoved to the road. Then there's a weird noise and a fractured rainbow of light. I look up as the space suddenly clears and see Cap talking to a big blond guy who I recognize from the news as Thor. Great. This isn't inconspicuous at all.

Suddenly Thor turns, grabs me by the back of the neck, puts his hand on Cap's shoulder, and just like that, we're hurdling upward in that strange beam of light. Really really fast, and there are no safety devices and the experience is NOT PLEASANT.

Then space and time return to normal and I'm in a weird little hemispherical building that normally would be very interesting but I'm trying not to throw up in it. Thor releases his grip and I thud to the floor. As I get to my feet, I hear him asking Cap who I am.

"She helped me out," he says. "Made me a new shield." Thor grunts, looks at it, and dismisses it. I want to protest because that is a seriously awesome piece of work, completely unique, but at the same time, I'm in some weird place, probably Asgard, and I don't think I can get back home without some help. I decide to keep my mouth shut. As Cap brings Thor up to date on the situation back on Earth since Sokovia, I look around at the intricate patterns on the walls of the dome we're in. The craftsmanship is exquisite, but the formation of the metal is crude, your basic bash and smash school of metal working. There's an opening in the side of the dome that shows celestial bodies I've never seen before and kind of gives me the creeps, and in the center is a plinth kind of thing where a man in golden armor and holding a great big sword is looking us over calmly. I try to remember a book of Norse mythology I read after the battle for New York, before my accident, and deduce that this is Heimdall. Beyond him, I see a beautiful road of light leading from this observatory thingie to a golden city and some people approaching on foot.

I tune back into the conversation to hear Thor explaining that there's been an issue with his brother Loki pretending to be their dad, who is back in the Odinsleep. The problem is that he was doing a really good job of being the king, but nobody but Thor really likes Loki, and even Thor doesn't trust him, so he's locked up while they try to figure out what to do with him. And Thor's acting as regent until Odin wakes up, which is not what he's really wanting to do with his life. And his girlfriend broke up with him, so there's that too. Cap nods through the recitation.

The people I'd seen on the Bifrost burst into the dome. There's four of them-- a big stout guy with a beard, a blond guy who looks like Robin Hood, a dark-haired woman, and a man who looks Asian. The woman takes one look at me and groans. "Another one, Thor?" she complains and shoots me a WTF look. Thor looks confused, glancing between her and me.

"She's just a blacksmith," he says to her, then finishes up his conversation with Cap. Everybody turns for the door and I trail along after them. I'm stunned by the Bifrost, but the stout man takes my arm and we march along behind the others. I keep looking at it as we walk, marvelling in the beauty of the flow of electrons, expressed for anyone to see as multicolored flashes of light. I could just sit here and watch it until I pass out. We walk past a couple of places where it's all snarled, but it's still functional somehow. I don't know the source of the Bifrost or what it does, but it's absolutely mesmerizing. I want to fix the bad places and see what it's like when it runs freely and beautifully. I manage to fix a small snag as we pass by.

We enter the citadel gates and stop. Thor is addressing a knot of guards in that golden armor, then he, Cap, and his entourage walk away. One of the guards approaches me, looks down at me, and tells me to follow him. He takes me in a different direction to a little guest cottage. Unlike most of this place that I've seen so far, it's stone, not golden metal. He tells me that these will be my rooms, and that I should relax and refresh myself. He steps outside, closing the thick wood door behind him, and I look around. There's a fireplace, a large bed draped with hangings in a pretty dark green, tables on either side, a wardrobe, and a comfortable-looking chair. Through another door is a bathroom, with a massive soaking tub and what looks like a rainfall shower and the unmistakable outline of a toilet. Excellent. I make sure I know how it works before I need it. Everything is built on a very large scale that's appropriate to the size of my hosts, but which dwarfs me. I don't know how long I'll be here, but I take advantage of the situation and wash my clothes again, thoroughly, and drape them on the edge of the massive sink to dry. Then I take a bath myself, kind of drowsing. It's been a long, action-packed week or so. There are some nice-smelling toiletries, and the conditioner is fabulous. When I emerge, the sun has dropped considerably. I dig in my pack, finding my cell phone and Kindle still intact, but completely drained. I hook them up to the solar panel and place them on the windowsill. It should only take a few minutes to charge.

I flip the phone back into the pack when it was topped off. I'd unpack, but I'm wearing all my clothes that aren't drying in the bathroom. I settle for putting my toiletries in the bathroom and the pack in the wardrobe, and settle into the chair to do some reading. I have a lot of fiction to catch up on. In the rainforest, I mainly read technical material. I'm deep in a novel about a new superhero called Wearing The Cape when the door opens and a man who is not in armor comes in. He's come to get me for dinner, and I follow him into a huge hall filled with people. It's like a medieval banquet, complete with a head table. I'm deposited at another table far away and the man says he'll come get me after the meal. It's fairly quiet; people are served as they sit down and the head table remains empty. The food is delicious, and the server sends me back to my room with a covered plate. I thank him enthusiastically and find tiny herbed rolls and a mild cheese when I look. I read til late at night, snacking on my treats. The bed is unbelievably comfortable. I wake up to a maid who is returning the clothes I'd left to dry; they're pressed and look nicer than they did when they were new. She directs me back to the hall for breakfast, and when I return, escorted back and forth by a guard, the room is tidy again, the toiletries refilled. Nice.

This is how I spend the next few days, not leaving my room unless it's for a meal, and always escorted by a guard, who always discourage me from exploring. On the third day, I'm jolted by the novel experience of having company at the evening meal, and stunned to see Heimdall, who is looking at me as calmly as he did when I arrived here. Automatically, I adjust my vision to examine his armor but find no surprises. It's tough and pretty, but there's nothing special about it. He asks how I am in a rich deep voice that is very soothing.

I smile. "Very comfortable, thank you," I say, and thank the server who has come back with the dessert, which turns out to be a delicious pound cake.

"And what do you make of Asgard?" he asks as he is served.

"I haven't seen much, but what I've seen is lovely," I say. I tried to go down to the city earlier in the day to look around, but the guard still wouldn't let me.

"Thor has been busy with other matters and has not issued instructions regarding you," Heimdall says matter-of-factly. Personally, I'd be surprised if Thor even remembered I was here. "You seem to see farther than most people," he says, his startling gold eyes measuring me.

"But not as far as others," I say. Now I know that he's the gatekeeper of the Bifrost, its guard and sentinel, and that he can see very far indeed.

"If it would interest you, I invite you down to the Bifrost," he says. "I am sensitive to its flow and it seems to respond to you." There's a small smile tugging at his lips, and I know that he knows that I did something to it. I waited for him to finish his dinner and accompanied him down, followed by my guard, who would not let me cross it. But that was all right with me; I could follow the flow just fine from the end at the citadel. Heimdall frowns at my guard and sends him away as I smooth a path a little. The guard retreated but did not leave.

"How did this get damaged?" I ask, sitting down just at the edge and touching it. It was smooth, feeling like a combination of plastic and glass, but the matrix that contained the energy was unknown to me.

"What makes you think it was damaged?" Heimdall asked, looking down at me. I tell him about the great snarls down by the observatory end and a faint trace of surprise crosses his face.

"Thor broke it while trying to prevent his brother from taking control of the energy and destroying a world," he finally said.

"Well, the repairs aren't bad, but they're certainly noticeable." He looks unenlightened. "Aren't they?"

"There was a small spike when you passed the other day," he said after a pause.

"I straightened a path, like unraveling a knot," I said, shrugging.

"Can you do that again?" he asked, his amber eyes narrowing.

"Yeah, it's not hard," I say, then wonder if I've said too much about what I can do.