Power Play: Act 1 Svartalfheim (Ragnarok on Ice)

by Jeremy Croston

  No, I’m not conceited enough to believe I was her first go around or that I’m God’s gift to women, but I think it’s because of her believing fate brought us together. Hell, maybe even I started to believe it. Also while we were in the act, our palms started to glow. Yeah, that may also be playing a part in what I do and don’t believe. Anyways after we were finished, we just laid there together. For awhile there were no ice giants or assassin swordsman, just her and I. It seemed almost completely normal, and afternoon turned to night.

  “I could stay here forever Jack, just the two of us. Who cares what happens out there now?”

  I smiled, full well knowing that what she had just said was total crap. “You care Rumil, I know you do. If we can do anything to stop whatever is happening out there, then we should. And before you contradict me, I’m along for the ride now. I doubt you could get rid of me even if you wanted.” She had saved my life twice so far and that counted for a lot in my book.

  “Get rid of you? I would never do anything like that! Besides I think it is adorable I have to look out for you all the time. Where else could I find that?”

  It was my turn to laugh. Nothing makes a guy’s sense of manliness go into the gutter faster than a woman who’s a bigger badass than he and freely admits to it. “Enough of this, we need to get a plan together to get to Svartalfheim.”

  We took the opportunity of nightfall to go over the lay of the land. Rumil took extra time to make sure I understood where we were going and what to expect. As it turned out, we weren’t going far into the mountains, just high enough to access the cave (which I was gathering dark elves are fond of) that would lead us to Svartalfheim.

  The cave itself was pretty long, but at about the halfway point the dark elves had sentries posted to keep intruders out. If we made it that far, the rest of the time we would be as safe as we could be. Svartalfheim was a valley in the mountain range that was lined with caverns that the dark elves used as different clan strongholds. In the center of the valley were the king’s courtyard and his manor. That’s where we were going first so that Rumil could report to King Oor what was going on in Asgard.

  After a good night’s sleep we were ready to break camp and go. As we left the cave, I saw a knife lying at the entrance. It was another long, wicked knife like the one Rumil had hidden in her boot, but the main difference being this knife’s blade was black as night. As I got closer to it, I felt like a cold power come off of it. I pointed it out to Rumil to get her take on it. When she saw it, she gasped.

  “Could this be,” almost like she had forgotten I was there, “could this really be here?”

  “Rumil, what are you talking about?” Her eyes had not left the knife.

  “Jack, this is Hrotti, the dagger of the dragon Fafnir. It is one of the legendary weapons of the nine realms! What is it doing here?”

  I played back the encounter with the assassin in my mind. When Rumil kicked him and he fell, I remember hearing metal hitting the cave floor. He was by the entrance, so it would only make sense that this knife was on him. I told her what I remembered and that seemed to confirm whatever suspicions she had formed.

  “If our attacker had Hrotti on him, that means he was an Aesir. I assumed as much from his attacking style, but the bigger question is who was he and why was he after us? Anyways, the dagger is yours. If it was not for your intervention in the fight I may have lost. To the victor of the fight go the spoils.”

  I bent down and picked up Hrotti. It was light and very cold in my hand. Inhaling some of the cold air, I relaxed. I had some sort of defense in this place and it turned out to be some magical dragon’s dagger. I’d meant to ask Rumil about dragons too, but after being so close to an ice giant I felt asking about them seemed pointless. The lesson I was quickly learning there are a lot of things in Asgard that we all thought were fiction.

  I stared at the dagger for a moment before realizing we needed to get on our way. I slid it in behind my belt; this would have to do for now.

  We made our way up the mountain path to the entrance cave very quietly. After all that’d happened, when we first got to the Dokkalfar mountains, we agreed to not talk and continue to use hand gestures until we made it to the cave.

  Fortunately the journey was pretty tame. The path though covered in snow and slippery offered no other obstacles to us. It took us the entire day but by nightfall we made it to the cave that lead to Svartalfheim. As we entered the cave, Rumil finally turned to me with a huge smile on her face.

  “Oh Jack, we are so close to my home, I can feel it. I am not sure how it is for humans, but when we elves get closer to our homes, we can feel it pulling us. It is the most amazing feeling.” As she said that, it made me realize I had no real special place like that.

  Sure there was good old Manchester, which I had the good fortune to play for, but it still didn’t have that deep connection. As for a true home, that would be the memory of where I grew up with mom and dad. With everything that happened, Manchester just wasn’t that place to me anymore.

  “Hey Rumil, when we get to the halfway point and the sentries see us, they won’t over react to my presence will they?” I thought maybe if there was a way to avoid any unnecessary attention until we got to the king’s estate that would be great.

  “It will be fine, the sentries know who I am and I will explain everything to them. Like I said, dark elves hold no ill will towards most races. The fact you came here of your own free will too is most amazing. King Oor and Lord Azmodeous will both be very excited to meet you and learn more about Midgard.”

  We continued to talk as we walked down the cave towards the sentry station. As we got farther in the cave, lanterns started showing up every so often to provide light. Dark elves didn’t need a lot of light to travel, but it sure was nice for me.

  Rumil told me more about the dark elves history and I found it to be very interesting. It seemed most of the issues that came between the Aesir and dark elves were brought upon by the light elves. They were the ones who planted the idea of the dark elves being merciless assassins and went to the Aesir for help in eliminating them.

  Ever since it was a stand still between the two races while the light elves went back to Alfheim claiming that their people were too limited to participate in the ever growing conflict. Rumil then commented that Odin and the Aesir were too hardheaded to see that the light elves duped them and continued the pointless conflict out of principle.

  For my part, I told Rumil I thought Thor was a genuinely good guy and that given the chance, I would talk to him and see if we couldn’t get to the bottom of this. She gave me one of those patronizing smiles that said thanks but I doubt it’d work. I didn’t want to give up on my friend and I didn’t want to disappoint Rumil, so I was in the process of thinking of what I’d say to Thor when, out of nowhere, came a firm command.

  “Hold your position and please announce yourself to the sentries of Svartalfheim.”

  “It is I, Rumil of the Darklighter Clan. I am returning home from a successful mission into the outskirts of Asgard. With me is an ambassador from Midgard, here to see King Oor.” I could tell bad news was coming right away after she had finished.

  The sentry went from high alert to almost a look of desperation. “Oh Rumil, thank the realms you have returned! It brings me a heavy heart that I am the one to tell you this most sad and disturbing news.”

  As we moved closer to the sentries, I could see the one who was talking more clearly. He looked a little younger than Rumil but was a few inches taller than her. He also had a few strange tattoos on his blue face. Maybe I was basing it on the fact I trusted Rumil, but I had a feeling this too was a good guy.

  “You and your companion from Midgard will not be meeting with King Oor. Right after you departed on your mission, the king was assassinated.”

  Chapter 29 - Svartalfheim

  Rumil’s scary when she’s angry. After a barrage of questions lobbed at the young sentry whose name was Fergal, from what I could tell,
nothing of importance was known as of yet. Azmodeous, the king’s advisor and mage had his body but it was currently missing its head.

  With no other choice to take, we kept on going. The sentries stayed behind to continue the watch which was good because it gave us time to talk about the turn in events before we reached her home. The biggest concern I expressed was how someone could sneak in, assassinate the king, and then sneak out of dark elf territory. I mean, that sounded like the sort of thing only a dark elf could do.

  Rumil seemed to agree. “I know, that is the part that bothers me the most. Only a few of the Aesir have the skills to do such a thing, Loki being the most obvious choice. Contrary to what you are thinking, I do not believe it was him.”

  I was a bit surprised she felt that way. “He has a flare for the dramatic and has never been an enemy of my people. No, whoever did this had a deep seated anger towards my people.”

  “What about the other races? Would the light elves be able to do such a thing?” I really hoped I wasn’t showing off my limited intelligence again.

  “It is a possibility we will have to consider, but it would most likely be a rouge one. The majority of light elves consider themselves superior to us. If one truly learned how to use our skills and use them this well, it would be a dangerous matter.”

  Rumil lost herself in thought again while we continued on the dark path. After walking probably a few miles, I finally saw a dim light coming from the end of the tunnel; it appeared we were very close to the end of this journey. She picked up the pace and I did my best to keep up with her.

  When we made left the cave and back into the open air, I was a bit overwhelmed by the scene before me. In between the snow covered mountains stood a mist filled valley. Along the walls of the valley were a series of caves and tunnels that Rumil pointed out as different clan strongholds. In the middle of the valley, there was a fort-like structure that I took as the late King Oor’s manor. Now with the king dead, I wondered where we’d be going.

  “Are we still going to head over to the king’s place? Maybe we should meet with his advisor and continue as we’d planned.”

  Rumil thought about this for a second. “No I think the best place to go at this time is to my clan’s home. I am not sure who we can and cannot trust. We stay close together until I gather more information.” That seemed reasonable so I didn’t question. “Plus we need to find you some more appropriate clothing.”

  I looked down at my clothing and it was all but ruined. My Bears practice shirt looked like it was about to fall apart. Plus I had been using the animal fur roll we had been sleeping on as my only form of protection from the cold. I really was looking forward to getting a proper coat of some sort.

  The entrance to the Darklighter clan’s stronghold was really at the far back end of the valley. The area was covered in moonlight and speckled with the light coming from all the different structures. It was quite a sight to see.

  Rumil decided to keep the fact I was here a secret for right now and so using a series of tunnels that were rarely used, we managed to get to there without being noticed. Not that anyone seemed to really care. Most of the gossip I heard was about the king and what was going to happen next.

  When I walked into the cave, I guess I didn’t know what to expect. What I saw though was nothing that I think anyone would have imagined though. It was like a medieval castle built straight into the side of the cave wall. The stronghold was huge, at least five stories tall and three times as wide.

  Rumil told me it housed the entire clan, though most of the time they were all off doing whatever tasks were handed out. She also told me not to worry that it had all the accommodations one could ever need. I almost asked if there was satellite television and a Wi-Fi hot spot I could hook up to. However, I bit my tongue due to the fact that snarky comment would lead to endless discussions about human life as we know it and I just didn’t have it at the moment. I was really tired and all the bumps in our adventure had finally caught up to me.

  There weren’t a lot of dark elves roaming around, but to be on the safe side, I kept the animal skin pulled up over me and continued to follow Rumil. Eventually we made it to her living chambers in the castle and I found that it was quite nice. There was a desk, bed, and armoire positioned around the room and a doorway that was connected to a private bathroom.

  “Jack, you stay here and rest. I have to go see my father and make a report on what happened and the fact you are now here. After that is over, I will come back and tell you how we are going to proceed. This is our room now so please make yourself at home.”

  “I think I’ll take you up on that. Good luck with your dad.”

  She smiled and then left out the door to the main area. I went over to the bathroom and got myself cleaned up. The warm water in the bath was almost as good as the whirlpool back in the training room and the aches and pains eased away.

  Once I was finished, I got out and put on a robe that obviously was Rumil’s but due to her being taller than me, it at least covered me up. I then went over to the bed and hit the sack, my best talent so far. In no time at all, I was out.

  “Rumil, you really have out done yourself this time! A human from Midgard is here in my home!? That is amazing!”

  My sleep was broken by the very excited man’s voice talking outside the room. I think he was trying to whisper but he was doing a terrible job.

  “Father, please. He is probably asleep right now and is in need of clothing. Let me get him presentable and we will make our official appearance at dinner.” Thanks for that Rumil. There’s nothing like getting to meet the family right away. Plus, just how long had I been out that they were making dinner reservations?

  “That is an excellent idea. I will gather what members of the clan still here who are not out investigating the king’s death so they can meet him.” His voice went from serious to almost child-like again. “Are you sure I cannot come in and meet him right now?”

  “Leave father, let him rest. Before dinner we will meet you in the library and the two of you can make acquaintances then.”

  “You are right daughter. My excitement got the best of me.” I heard him walk down the hall to leave as Rumil came in the room.

  “I was wondering if you would be resting still. Sorry for my father’s behavior. He is just excited to talk to you and the distraction is most welcomed after all we have heard about the king’s death.”

  I felt good that being here was not a burden and that it took the edge off the bad news we’d heard. That’s when I noticed that Rumil was giving me quite the look. I might be a bit behind on women’s expressions and what they mean, but I knew that one. Well since we opened Pandora’s Box on a cave floor, the bed was a nice addition this time.

  Just like last time our palms started to glow again which I took as a sign we were both enjoying the moment. Rumil was definitely exhausted afterwards but that didn’t stop the mandatory cuddling that is supposed to happen.

  We took a long time enjoying each other’s company and she dozed off herself. Finally when she woke up, I could tell she was ready to get down to business. Rumil got herself dressed and told me she would be right back.

  No more than five minutes passed when she returned with clothing for me. I got kinda depressed to find out the pants and boots came from what’s considered a teenaged dark elf.

  I got over that pretty quickly when I realized just how awesome everything was. The pants were made out of darkened wild boar leather, the boots were dragon skin that were obviously made for combat as they had the short but wicked looking spikes on the toes. Steel toed boots had nothing on these guys. My shirt was just a standard white long sleeve shirt made with soft fabric. It was very comfortable. Rumil also got me a belt with an attached sheath to put Hrotti in.

  The greatest piece of clothing I was given turned out to be a jacket made out of dire wolf skin. It was a gray-white color that Rumil explained was great for camouflage in snowy conditions. It had a thin layer of fur stil
l attached to it that’d been treated to be water proof. When I put it on I felt like the baddest man on Asgard at that moment in time (even though most of this stuff was meant for a kid, don’t you even think less of me).

  Rumil appraised me for a second and then gave me her opinion. “My goodness Jack, you certainly do clean up well. Thank the realms we got rid of those silly and useless clothes you have been wearing. They were completely nonfunctional.” Hey, I liked my jeans and sneakers but I guess she had a point.

  “I appreciate this very much. The coat itself is probably worth more than any article of clothing I have at home.” Flattery gets you everywhere and I was rewarded with one of those trademark smiles.

  “Now it is my turn to clean up. Feel free to look at any of the books or maps that are on the desk. They may help you get a better lay of the land around here.” With that, she walked off into the bathroom and left me to my own devices.

  As I browsed the books, I was not really surprised to find them all in her native language. I think it was called Druhir, but that didn’t help as I couldn’t read them. The books though did have picture and so I found myself taking them all in.

  I saw pictures of all sorts of being – ice giants, trolls, dragons, and more. They were all what I expected, awful looking with the ability to probably do all sorts of things that would be detrimental to my health. I must’ve been lost in thought for longer than I realized because I heard a slight clearing of the throat from the bathroom. I turned around and saw…

  “So how do I look?”

  Words did no justice at this point in time. She had finally gotten out of her traveling elf garb as I came to think of it and was in real women’s clothing. She had on a dress that I think had been made of the same material my pants were. It hugged every curve perfectly, as it was made just for her. It came up over her shoulders but it had no sleeves showing off incredibly toned arms. Her hair was straightened out and fell just short of her shoulders.