Alfheim

by Erik Schubach

  Kalimish offered when the master Story Teller sat back, looking to be exhausted, “That is when the defensive walls went up around the City Tree, and the ones which followed. But the farms and grain fields were so massive to feed the growing population that...”

  Breem stood and smacked him on the head with a stick he had found somewhere in the room. Kalimish squeaked and rubbed his head as the Story Teller gave him a cross look, then continued where Jania's brother had left off, “The farms were too expansive to hide behind walls, and needed to grow as our population did. So the farmers take refuge behind the main gates or fortified farmhouses when the sun drops below the horizon.”

  He sneered in disapproval as he grasped the air, closing his fists then making another sweeping motion. “We found that the Dökkálfar, having free range of our farms in the night, would steal from our foodstuffs and our livestock. Taunting us by leaving the bones of the animals taken in piles by the farmhouses before retreating back to their underground world before the sun rose again.”

  Then he stood, taking the stick he was holding and thrust it forward as though it were a blade. I cocked an eyebrow because he actually had good form. And he spoke rapidly, “So we organized defensive parties who would walk the night and defend our food. We are Ljósálfar, and we will never be victims again.”

  He placed a foot on the seat crossing his arms over a knee as he leaned in toward us, taking us all in with a sweep of his eyes. “And to this day, the brave walk the night, protecting what is ours in this never-ending war. And when a young Elf is on the cusp of being an adult, their Ripening, they must walk the night in Sund. To show that they, like every Elf before them since The Suffering, is Ljósálfar, and not a victim.”

  He pointed at the raised, short little curling vines on his cheeks, just barely visible by his ears. Kalimish stood tall and pointed at his which were longer, but nowhere near as long as Jania's or even their mother's. Breem almost whispered, like the story was ending, “We are named and marked when we succeed in fighting off or killing the Dökkálfar, with the defenders who walk the night.”

  The Three Embers looked almost horrified at that. I was shocked as well. They baptized their children in blood to signify their transition to adulthood. I know we should not judge, they have been at war with these Dökkálfar for thousands of years since the Ragnarok left. It is their way of life.

  It isn't any worse than us Olympians, and our breeding programs to keep our numbers up. Other races frown upon that. So I will not be the first to cast a stone in a glass house. I saw Kara looking at her hands like they were foreign to her and I knew she was thinking the same of the Asgard, and their need of the Valkyrie to commit violence so that their pacifist people did not have to.

  Jania's long, gracefully curving vines told a story to us now, how she had fought valiantly when she walked the night for her Sund. And I wept for her inside, knowing the acts she must have had to do to leave her childhood behind. More-so than any of the other Elves we have seen this day as not even the guard's markings were as pronounced as hers.

  In my sadness, there was still that pride I felt for her.

  Inatra asked as she nodded, “So your children are sent out to die at the hands of these Dark Elves, and if they live, they prove their worth?” She seemed to understand as she and Intark nodded as he added, “The strong survive.”

  Jania gleeped and raised a hand like she was in class. “Point of order? That's not quite true. Each Elf is assigned a Nightwalker Watcher for their Sund. To make sure that no harm befalls the younglings... well not 'much' harm befalls them. We are civilized, unlike the Dökkálfar.”

  Ah, I see, the children had protectors.

  I idly wondered why these Dark Elves brought this war to an otherwise peaceful people, especially if they had cooperated in a bygone era.

  I almost jumped when Nerthus spoke from the doorway. “And now that you have some insight as to our distrust of outsiders, what is it that you would ask of the Ljósálfar?”

  Chapter 7 – She Who Lived

  The Queen of the Elves looked almost amused when Kara explained what we wished to do with the Citadel of Mount Olympus. Then she asked me and Apollo, “And does Asgard always speak for you Olympians?”

  I shook my head and Apollo let me do the talking since this was a matriarchal society. “No, we discussed who would speak before we arrived, as she has more experience with other races than us, she was the logical choice.”

  The All Mother cocked her head and examined me before saying, “Artemis of Olympus, among the Firstborn of your race. Archer, spy, and historian.”

  I blinked at her as she turned to Dite. “Aphrodite, among the firstborn, but subordinate to Artemis. Empathic, amorous, and a curious choice to make when begging for land in our realm. Unless you are here to seduce me?”

  Dite's mouth worked like a fish out of water. Did the Queen have dossiers on all of us? Did... did Jania tell her about each of us? Of course she did, Aretmis.

  I noted she didn't address our Olympian men. Indicating the divide in our cultures.

  Nerthus cocked her head the other way as she addressed me. “It is your people who are in need of the help of the Elves of Alfhiem. You can see how it would seem disingenuous if you have someone, not of your people, or even your world as I understand it, ask this huge boon of me? Of us?”

  I inclined my head and then took a knee in front of her, my eyes down. “Queen Nerthus, All Mother of the Ljósálfar, any insult was not intended. I beg of you to grant this boon to the people of Olympus, and we will live by the laws of the Light Elves for as long as our Citadel resides in your lands.”

  The Queen smirked a little and then looked at her daughter, who had a pleading look on her face, then said, “No.”

  We were all shocked to be dismissed out of hand, without negotiation. She added, “We will not allow any kleshnie to take anything from us again.” She held up a halting hand before any of us could retort. “Therefore, in order for me to even consider this, you must become one of us.”

  One of them? “What do you mean by that?”

  A gong sounded from far away, possibly the outer gates, she smiled and said, “Ah, there it is, sundown in fifteen minutes. Come along everyone, it is time for your Sund!”

  Our... Sund? My smile matched Kara's as I realized she wished us to stand in battle with her men who walked the night, to stop the nightly raids. Well, that was something we could do. Our smiles wavered when the Queen smirked as she caught our exchanged looks, then she spun, her robes flaring and flowing behind her like smoke as she strode back out the way we came.

  I glanced at Jania and she squinted an eye like she was in pain, shaking her head at us. No? No what? Kara or I would make short work of any Dark Elf incursion.

  I smiled when we stepped out into the main hall to find Ree waiting. The old Elf led her Queen in a different direction than the main doors. We all stepped outside onto a balcony, where we could see the bluish-green sky now burning with ambers and oranges as the sun started to set.

  Jania braced her stance and then grasped Sammie tightly around the waist. Before I could contemplate it, Nerthus reached up to a wooden handle on a vine and gave it a hard yank and we were falling.

  With a whirring sound, I realized we weren't on a balcony and we weren't falling. Instead, we were in a massive basket hurtling down some vines toward the edge of the ridge. We were bypassing the entire city below in mere seconds in this gondola ride.

  Jani was walking along on the railing leaning her face into the wind of our passing, and seconds before we reached the ridge, the gondola started slowing, causing our friend to slip off the railing. I gasped and reached forward in vain. No! We were all moving frantically to the edge to look down just as we stopped on the ridge.

  Samantha was calling out in grief, “Jani!”

  Jania said from beside her as she looked down with everyone else, “Yes? Yikes, you'd never want to fall out of this thin
g, you'd go splat on the crater floor below. That girl is crazy!”

  Zeus' Balls! How did she get back in the gondola?

  Sammie looked half frantic as she hid a nervous smile as she shoved our Elvish daredevil back a step, chastising, “Stop doing things like that! I thought I had lost you.”

  At least Jania had the common courtesy to look sheepish as she shrugged and said, “Lost me? I'm right here where I belong, by your side.”

  Sam melted. Ok, that was a good line.

  The All Mother said in a forced patient tone, “Sure Step, please stop playing around. If you want me to take their request seriously as you are pressuring me to, then you could try taking things seriously yourself.”

  I cocked an eyebrow, it seems that Jani is stirring the pot on other things than befriending kleshnie and admitting feelings for one against their laws, but she was a true friend if she was as Kate would say, going to bat for us even if it caused friction with her mother. Maybe I could forgive her for the clinical and cold description of me she gave the Queen.

  We all stepped off the gondola onto solid ground, two armed guards rushed up and started hauling on creaking ropes, hand over hand, and the gondola started crawling slowly back over the city toward the Green Palace. Four other guards, all women in plate armor, wielding pikes, seemed to bleed out of the thick underbrush to flank their leader.

  I had to smile. Everyone we met so far here appeared to love the Queen and served eagerly... the mark of a great ruler.

  As we started to follow Nerthus toward the outer wall, Kara's steps faltered. Her eyes were moving swiftly and I could see lights flickering inside them. The All Mother watched the First Valkyrie's eyes with interest as I prompted, “What is it?”

  Kara held a finger up, then she looked over at the Three Embers expectantly. They all nodded once and Brunie stepped forward, slashing her hand over her wrist console. A hologram of Odin's Workshop bloomed and hovered in the air over her arm. The Elves gasped, and one of the guards stumbled back a step before catching herself as she blurted in apprehension, “Magic of the gods!”

  The woman swallowed and regained her composure as she stepped back up to her place guarding Nerthus. The Queen just looked on in fascination, waving a hand through Odin's face as he said, “Oh, well met everyone.” He inclined his head when he saw Nerthus. “Well met, All Mother, you are well I hope? Is the delegation in audience?”

  The queen looked equal parts amused at Odin and amazed at the technology. First, she turned and pointed. “Janialayinlali, have you procured one of these wonderful objects of power for me yet?”

  Jani shook her head and spoke behind her hand, “Not yet, mother. I have to do it without being caught.” Then she wiggled her fingers at Essa and batted her lashes. Essa rolled her eyes and held her arm out and Jani slipped the wrist console off, saying, “I'll just be stealing this with the implication I'm only cleaning it and returning it.”

  She handed it to her mother, mouthing, “Best spy ever!”

  Kroth, she was too cute at times, Samantha never stood a chance.

  The Queen looked at the device in her hands in wonder. Breem moved forward long enough to say like a scholar, “Kleshnie magic.” Nerthus just absently grabbed his face in her free hand to push him back a step as she examined the device.

  Odin cleared his throat and broke the spell on the Queen of the Elves. She glanced back over to him. “Oh, I do apologize. You just have so many wonderful toys. Polite as ever, Odin of the Asgard.”

  He inclined his head again and Kara prompted, “You said there is word father?”

  He turned to her, and technicians in his lab moved around his workshop, working frantically. Geiravor moved into the frame of view of the holo-cams and sat in the background with a smile that was for all of us.

  Odin said, “We received word that light speed telemetry of the Titan Star Killer vessels approaching Olympus is streaming in. We are having problems with the transmission, as we cannot suspend the power transfer through the Bifrost without delaying the charging of the jump drive.”

  Someone made a hand motion, flicking information to Odin who read something on a display we couldn't see. Then said as he made a flicking motion toward us and a screen full of static hovered beside him. “Ah, here they are, connection re-established.”

  Arina's voice was saying, “I'm boosting the gain, harmonizing with the amplitude of the event horizon distortion, try now.”

  The static cleared a little and Thea's face mostly resolved in the static as she was looking back saying, “Very clever, Little One, are you sure there is no Titan DNA in your genetic code?”

  Then she looked toward us. “Yes that did it, I can see them. The Alfheim detachment as well.”

  Arina popped her head up in front of Thea's, and we could see her wide smile, even through the static. Her voice was warbling and tinny sounding as she said, “Well met, everyone. We... through the...” She frowned. “Please hold.” She was whispering, “Try constraining the beam with coherent...”

  Thea finished for her, “...Tachyons. Very, very clever. That would filter out any feedback in the wavelength in realtime.”

  The screen cleared, leaving just a slight amount of static, and Arina's voice no longer sounded tinny. She waved at everyone and started again, “We are receiving telemetry of the enemy vessels, your deception was successful, Kara, they are slowing their approach to the planet.”

  She made a hand motion and a screen appeared above hers, the static was causing a loss of some of the data, leaving holes in the view into deep space over Olympus. The Asgard scan data always amazed me. And what they couldn't read because of the interference from the mithreal armor the vessels were clad in, their visual scans filled in to form the complete picture.

  The time stamp was just a few minutes old, and we saw a bright flash and distortion as space folded, then there was debris spewing into space from a tiny pinhole in the lead leviathan. I whispered, “Tych!” as I read additional data in my heads up display and I moved forward and pinched the screen and widened my fingers, zooming in on the debris.

  The pinhole grew to fill a third of the screen, revealing it to be a perfect half sphere a few meters in diameter missing from the hull of the vessel, and among the debris were almost a dozen halfling bodies. I said to my Asgard sister, “You don't do anything in halves, do you, Wild One?

  Inatra growled out, “But will it be enough of a delay? It will not take them long to determine that the invocation of Thor's Hammer was but a ruse.”

  Kara bared her teeth like fangs when she grinned like a predator, “That is why I left them a second gift which should make things really interesting if it works.”

  The screen started going to static again as Thea moved away saying, “We're getting a negative particle buildup, let me compensate.”

  Odin said, “It is alright, ladies, you have your hands full there. Report back when the Titans restart their advance. If it is too soon, then all of this is for naught, and Olympus will be lost.”

  That was sobering, and Queen Nerthus looked over at us once we signed off with Odin. “There is a chance your Citadel will not be able to make the journey to Alfheim? Yet you still wish to negotiate before you know the outcome?”

  I realized Kara was letting me speak for my people. I nodded. “If we allow doubt to consume us, then we have already lost. We cling to the hope that we will prevail, and hope is a cruel mistress who will not let go unless she is extinguished.”

  The woman seemed to take stock of us once more. I could see she was carefully considering something, her mind racing. She nodded and asked, “When will we know if the delay was successful?”

  We all said in unison, “Eleven hours.”

  She looked at her daughter, and Jani had a serious look on her face when she explained, “Because if it is anything less, then, as they say, they have already lost Olympus.”

  The All Mother considered the words, then asked, “Surely th
ese... these Titans? Are no threat to a people who can manipulate the fabric of everything that is, to pull an entire city through the stars to a new land. This Jump Drive? Are they truly so formidable that the two most advanced races see retreat as the best option?”

  It was Intark who addressed the Queen. “Your people lived through what my ancestors perpetrated upon your race for generations, because of our technical superiority. The Jotunn... Frost Giants and Titans are to the other races, what we were to Alfheim.”

  She blinked at him, then turned to look at Kara. “But you defeated their leader, surely they are no threat.”

  Kara sighed. “It was all our people could do, to stop Ymir and a single Star Killer. Many, including myself, died to accomplish that. There are two of those vessels bearing down on Artemis' world. How can they fight that when they don't possess the ships the Terrans and the Folkvangr have been constructing for system defense? And if either faction of Jotunn ever coordinated their fleet of one hundred Star Killers against the United Races, we would all be snuffed out, passing to the ages.”

  This seemed to give the Queen pause. I could understand. It is hard to believe when a race you saw as gods, as we of Olympus saw the Asgard, could be threatened by anything. When you learn that they are no different than you yourself, just with better tools, it is a sobering realization.

  To her credit, Nerthus just nodded at her own epiphany and said, keeping a waver of uncertainty from her tone, “Then come, we must see if you are worthy of the Ljósálfar's aid.” And she was striding with purpose toward the outer wall, her guards in tow.

  We all exchanged looks and scurried after her.

  When we reached the main gates, the Queen turned to us. “Only those of the Sund and their Nightwalkers Watchers will be allowed beyond the gates. There will be one for each race represented. Olympian, Asgard...” Then she added, “And Ragnarok.”

  We all blinked at that as Kara, Inatra, and I stepped forward. The queen tittered, sounding so much like Jania just then as she shook her head. “Kara, Many Killer, we know of you and what you can do.” She pointed to Inatra. “And you had betrayed your own people to fight for the Asgard. I do not know if we could ever trust you Inatra, Many Claw.”