Nüjaven was in the midst of a boom brought on by their connection to Asgard Tower, but this had not gone unnoticed by the other independent city-states in the region.
Right now, Margaret, the city-lord of Nüjaven, was in a meeting with the lords from the other twelve city-states. As the youngest of the city-lords, and as the only woman currently holding the seat, she was understandably tense.
"Listen here, girl," city-lord Marcs declared, he was one of the oldest in the meeting. "Nüjaven is a backwater, don't think that just because you got lucky with this strange tower, your standing in the council has changed."
Margaret held her tongue, she had been dealing with treatment like this since she joined the council of 13 lords. Since her brother abdicated to join the Lunar Paladins, she'd fought and struggled to prove herself a competent ruler despite the initial skepticism from some of the officials.
"The council recognizes that this tower has been a major boon for your city," city-lord Algan interjected. "However, it also currently represents a great blessing that unequally benefits only Nüjaven."
"Well, Lord Loki, the owner of the tower, agreed to this deal as reparations for damages incurred when the tower first appeared, and for blocking off our access to the city's vault." Margaret explained
"Well, I'm sure this Nex Loki would be open to establishing relations with the rest of the council." City-lord Algan said,
"I can't speak to Lord Loki's amenability, but I should warn you; he and his group can be quite... unpredictable. They are not locals, so their ways are different from ours."
"I'm sure all of us can handle some upstart foreigner," city-lord Marcs scoffed, "your problem was that you were too amenable to his demands, you made it easy for him to take advantage of you for scraps. We should be the ones managing that tower, it is on our land now, and should be under our control."
Margaret didn't respond, they really didn't know who it was they were dealing with.
"Well, it wouldn't be prudent to have this discussion without the man in question present." City-lord Algan said, "we will summon him to speak for himself."
Some time later, there was a knock at the door.
"Excuse me, my lords," said the voice in the other side, "lord Nex Loki and company have arrived."
"Excellent," Margaret smiled, "let them in."
The door opened, and in walked Nex Loki, flanked by Fen and Thor, with Yggdrasil taking the rear. Loki was in her female form, which seemed intentional to Margaret, going by the cocky smirk on her lips. She was also dressed rather feminine in an elegant black and emerald gown with gold accents that hugged her figure flatteringly, her long ash-gray hair glittered like starlight. She walked with confidence, like she wanted to make a statement.
The other city-lords and their guards tensed when the group entered. They had all heard the stories about the Storm Bringer and her rampage decades ago, and they could probably sense the same level of threat from the Black Wolf.
The group proceeded to the other end of the conference table, where there was an empty seat for her.
"So," Loki said, folding her arms, "I got your invitation,"
"The summons was for lord Nex Loki," city-lord Marcs sneered, "even if you are filling in for your father, you are quite late, girl. We've been waiting for almost three hours."
Loki just blinked, confused, before bursting out laughing. This reaction seemed to further frustrated the elderly city-lord.
Before he could snap, Loki spoke again,
"First off; I am the only Nex Loki," Loki said, breifly shifting to his male form, before returning to female. "Next; you cannot summon me, so I will respond to your invite at my leisure."
They were dumbfounded by the display, and cowed by the looks of displeasure from the Valkyrie.
"We are already aware of what this meeting is about," Yggdrasil started
"Excuse me, but who are you?" City-lord Algan demanded
"I am Yggdrasil, the Tower Administrator."
"I thought only Nex Loki owned the tower?" Another city-lord asked
"My master is indeed the sole owner of Asgard, but my duty is to manage the tower in her place."
"And you're doing a great job," Loki said, ruffling her hair, playfully.
"W-well," city-lord Algan said, "currently, we estimated that the resources you provided to Nüjaven since your arrival were less then 10% of what your tower should possess."
Loki looked over to Fen, who nodded, "seems about right,"
"Then, would it not be more efficient to distribute more of those resources equally among the 13 city-states of this region?" City-lord Algan offered, "we will be willing to pay you for th–"
"The answer is no." Loki interrupted, her face casual,
Algan, shocked, tried to stammer out a retort, but Loki continued
"We do not need your money," Loki said, "plus the resources we provided Nüjaven is part of the compensation for the added trouble our presence here has caused her and her city. I even let adventurers make use of the lower levels of my tower as a courtesy to the people of this region. The way I see it; if the other city-lords need anything, they can negotiate with Margaret,"
"B-but Nüjaven is part of the council," city-lord Marcs stuttered, "we should all equally benefit from the blessings your tower brings."
"See, here's the thing; I don't care about that." Loki said, "my deal with Nüjaven was made on a whim, if they aren't happy with the terms, I am more than capable of moving the tower elsewhere."
"There's no need for that, Loki," Margaret said quickly, "Nüjaven is satisfied with our current arrangement."
"Good," Loki said, getting up.
She then snapped her fingers, and a brick of solid gold manifested in front of Margaret.
"For the time you wasted," Loki smirked before walking out.
"Wh-what about us?" Another city-lord asked meekly
Fen growled at the group, "why would we compensate you for wasting our time?"
"These mortals are quite greedy," Thor added, "should we get rid of them so they don't trouble you any more, boss?"
Loki paused to give it some thought, and the room held it's breath. Both Fen and Thor emanated an intense bloodlust that was palpable to all.
"Nah, that would create more hassle than it solves," Loki said, "I guess they can live, for now."
The room let out a breath,
"I trust the next time you invite me to another of these things, it won't be a total waste of my time?"
With that, Loki and her enterage exited the meeting hall.
* * *
It had been over a year since the shattering of Arkannon. Asgard Tower was as prosperous as ever, especially after establishing a deal with the city-lord of Nüjaven to allow adventurers and researchers to access the lower levels of the the tower.
Meanwhile, the search for the missing Valkyrie was still a top priority for Nex Loki. Odin, Jörmungandr, and Heimdall were all unsealed before Loki returned, as confirmed by Intel from the Moonlit Mother. It seemed only Fen's unsealing was tied directly to Loki. The missing three were in the wind, so Loki has begun trying to spread Asgard's name around, in the hopes that it would catch their attention.
Interestingly, senior paladin Conrad had still kept in occasional contact with Asgard through his sister. Recently, he conveyed that a contingent of Paladins had gone missing after investigating a town that was suddenly frozen in the middle of summer. With her interest peaked, Loki sent Thor and Fen to investigate further.
As the pair walked into the town, they noticed that it was completely frozen over, everything was encased in a fine layer of ice, down to every stone, and individual leaf on the ground. Even the people seemed to be frozen mid-scream.
"This feels familiar," Thor mused darkly.
"Well, I'm not registering any obvious life signs." Fen said, "This wasn't some natural phenomenon."
"Really, Flag-face," Thor scoffed, "the fact the that whole f@£king town and everything in it was suddenly flash frozen didn't clue you in to the fact that it wasn't natural?"
"Look at the freeze patterns, Tin can," Fen retorted. "This was a single powerful cryonic blast, with a serious range of effectiveness. And the epicenter was... over there!"
Fen pointed to what looked like a pyre with a horizontal log, it was surrounded by a mob. It looked like they were trying to burn someone at the stake.
"Oh," Thor said, "this is starting to make way too much sense to me now."
"Me too," Fen sighed, "Do you think she's still in the area?"
"If she was here long enough for the locals to already try and execute her, then there's a good chance she already has a lab set up somewhere close-by." Thor acknowledged.
They continued to search the frozen town, it was a little eerie to see a town frozen in an instant of normal life.
"These are all regular villagers, where are these holy knights that came here afterwards?" Thor asked
"I think this is one," Fen said, picking up a helmet with a frozen head inside.
"Oh, she must've been pissed with him," Thor comments before following Fen gaze to a part of the town that looked to have suffered battle damage.
"So, they come to investigate how an entire village ends up on ice." Fen mused, "Let's say they happen to find her in her lab."
"Then let's assume they hold her interest long enough that she doesn't ignore them and freeze them outright," Thor added, looking at a broken sword, "but it's only a matter of time until that runs out, so they start a fight,"
"So, she's really pissed now," Fen says. "We can assume that they wrecked her lab after discovering what she was doing and deeming it unholy."
"They're better than the average mortal, so they do manage to keep from dying immediately, and they use summoned beasts and other tactics to buy time." Thor says.
"It doesn't buy them much, but it buys them enough," Fen says, pointing to several smashed ice statues of what look like knights and their horses.
"They're smart enough to know they can't beat her, but they can trap her," Thor guesses
"Trap her? Really?" Fen asks, skeptically
"Yeah, they're really good at binding rituals, much better than those cultists," Thor admits
"Alright," Fen says, "so she's picking them off one by one, but the one she wants, probably the one who ordered her lab to be smashed, keeps staying just ahead of her, that one leads her around to somewhere the other survivors can set their trap."
"Somewhere like that?" Thor asked, pointing at the small manor of the village lord.
"The dungeons?" Fen guesses
"It's where I'd put her," Thor shrugged,
They proceed into the manor, which had also been frozen solid. Upon inspection of the rooms, they find who they assume to be the town lord, preserved in the middle of intercourse with what they realize were three maids, while an elegant lady who could've been the lord's wife is making love with a stable boy in the stables. The entire household seemed to be mid-coitus, which was bizarre.
After some more searching, they find more frozen knights leading towards the dungeons. Walking down into the cells, they discover three frozen knights pressed against an iron door, behind which, they could hear soft gentle humming. On the door were glowing runes, probably set by the knights before they died. Thor recognized them from their time undercover at the Sky Monastery.
"Unbelievable." Fen muttered under her breath
The humming stopped, and a female voice calls out
"Hello? Is someone out there?" The voice asks, "please help me, I'm an innocent researcher, but these brutes and ruffians tricked me and trapped me in here."
"We all know that's a lie, doc," Thor says cautiously
"Is that Thor? My little toy has come back to free me?" The voice called joyously
"It's not just Thor," Fen said,
"Even Fen's here?" The trapped woman called, "Now that's a surprise, I always thought you hated me. But if you're out..."
Suddenly something heavy slammed against the door, shattering the ice statues, but the binding holds. Thor actually jumps at the sudden act.
"That mean master is back too! Let me out. I need to see him!" She demanded
"Calm down, Jörmungandr," Fen ordered, "Lokkun sent me here with Thor to investigate what happened here. Care to explain your side?"
"Let me out!" She whined, banging on the door
"Talk first." Fen said, "and tell us the truth."
"Fine." she sighed, "So, I woke up in this weird vault thing about a hundred or so years ago. The locals thought I was some savior deity or something, because of some dumb legend. Anyway, they were in the middle of an epidemic, and I had time to kill, so I decided to treat them. Did you know they are fundamentally different from the races of our time? Even if they look strikingly similar, the genetic variance from the races I was familiar with would probably take a long time to occur naturally, my guess would be about a million years or so. That was a fun surprise at the time, kept me here for years. I became the strange doctor that traded in medicines for vials of blood and other bodily fluids."
"Why is the village on ice?" Fen asked
"Their genetic deviation was interesting for a time, but then I got bored, so I started... experimenting." She said
"What was is this time? Corpses? Kids? Pets? Please tell me it wasn't eugenics again." Fen asked exasperated
"The second one," Jörmungandr said, "too many kids went missing in the woods near my little cabin a few times too often, the latest lord was more intelligent than I gave him credit for. He put two and two together and then had me arrested as a witch. Can you believe that?"
Thor snorted at that.
"Evidently, the aphrodisiac virus I infected him with weren't as potent as I thought." The prisoner said "he could still think with his first head."
"Evidently," Fen said deadpanned
"Yeah, last month they tried to burn me at the stake, but I was having none of that and flash-froze the whole village." The doctor explained, "then I went back to my research, they were mildly more interesting frozen, and that's when these knighted a$$holes showed up, catching me when I was taking my morning walk through the village. They followed me back to my cabin and wrecked the place, called my work unholy. I got mad and chased them around for a bit, then they tricked me into this cell and used some ritual I wasn't familiar with to seal the door. I mean, can you believe they would do this to me?"
"Yes." Both Thor and Fen said
"There, I told you everything that happened, will you let me out now?"
Fen raked her claws across the runes, destroying them. The door popped open and out walked a beautiful woman with pale blue skin and snow white hair. She was at just under nine feet tall, standing over both Thor and Fen.
She was dressed in a lab coat over a long elegant black and blue dress. She wore a monocle over her right icy blue eye, and she had what looked like a crown of icicles in her hair, but was actually her horns. Jörmungandr was a leviathan, a great ice dragon subspecies, though in her humanoid form she resembled an ice elf, and she hated it whenever she was referred to as such. The only other hint to her dragon heritage was the long slender blue tail that swayed behind her.
"Girls, aren't you a sight for sore eyes." She said hugging the both of them, "let's get the f@£k out of this s#!thole. Where is the master anyway?"
"Back at Asgard," Thor said
"Asgard is here too?" Jörmungandr asked, "I wonder what the isolation did to poor Yggy? Especially trapped with the tower in an isolated space for a million years. I bet she's all grown up."
"How did you know?" Fen demanded
"A bit of guess work," The doctor shrugged, "leave a spirit tree sapling in an isolated space with a wood nymph for a million years, it's bound to develop. I discussed a similar possibility with the master when he was constructing the tower."
Once they were outside the manor, Fen reached out to Yggdrasil.
"We found the doctor," she reported, "sending our coordinates for pickup now."
"Stand by for Bifrost." Yggdrasil sent back
They started to flicker and glow, before vanishing in a flash of light and the cracks of thunder.