Malekith awoke from slumber to the call of the Aether.
The resonance reached into his undying soul and pulled him from stillness with the promise of an ancient purpose resumed. He knew that presence. It belonged to the weapon through which darkness would return, and it was calling from Asgard.
He did not know that the signal came from an imitation. It carried the right pattern, fed on Jane Foster's life, and called across the realms with a voice stolen from the real Stone.
To Malekith, the distinction did not exist.
Asgard had taken what was his and placed itself between him and his eternal quest once again. This time, there will be vengeance as well. The offence joined a debt measured across ages. His people had dwindled while the hated realm endured, prosperous enough to mistake survival for virtue.
The Dark Elves who remained answered his summons. They had too few lives to waste on an open assault without preparation, so Malekith chose one of his most trusted people and gave a simpler command. The infiltrator would enter Asgard, remain unidentified among the enemy, and act when the time came.
The rest prepared for war.
Malekith let the Aether's call calm his mind. Grim certainty replaced the long patience of defeat. The golden realm would learn that arrogance did not erase a debt. It only allowed the interest to grow.
--
The Bifrost delivered three figures into the observatory.
Thor stood first, holding Jane Foster against his chest. Lucius appeared beside him with one hand raised toward the containment field around her. Heimdall faced them as the last light withdrew into the mechanism beneath his feet.
At such close range, his ordinary eyes could see Jane. His greater sight found nothing.
Heimdall had watched the Nine Realms and listened through the clamour of ten trillion souls. Every life left some presence within his awareness, however faint. Jane possessed weight, breath, and a heartbeat, yet the senses that reached monitored the nine realms passed through her as though she were absent.
The man beside Thor presented a similar problem. Heimdall felt immense power standing within the chamber, but his realm-sight could not resolve its owner. He remained visible only because he stood within the reach of ordinary eyes. Beyond that narrow certainty, there was nothing where he should have seen this being's past and present and even glimpses of his future.
Heimdall settled his attention on him. "Who are you, mortal, and how do you avoid my gaze?"
Lucius turned from Jane. His expression carried the patient offense of a man who had just arrived and already found the hospitality inadequate.
"What makes you think I am mortal, Guardian of the Bifrost?"
He glanced at Thor before Heimdall could answer. "I thought I was invited as a shield-brother, not delivered as a prisoner for questioning, brother. Your realm has confused the welcome with the interrogation."
Thor adjusted Jane in his arms and stepped between them. "Heimdall, this is Lucius Noctis. He is an honoured guest, a mighty warrior, and a healer. Mjolnir has judged him worthy, and I have named him my shield-brother."
Heimdall inclined his head to the prince. The gesture acknowledged Thor's claim without resolving the absence before him.
"An honoured guest it is, then, Prince Thor."
Thor carried Jane toward the palace. Lucius followed while maintaining the field around the scientist who failed the simplest operational procedure of contact with unknown material. Heimdall tracked them with his eyes until the passage took them from direct view.
Both vanished from his greater sight at once.
Jane had disappeared from his gaze before entering Asgard. Lucius, on the other hand, was never noticed by him before. Not until he crossed the Bifrost did he disappear into the Asgard. Heimdall turned back toward the Nine Realms, but the questions remained at the edge of his attention. Knowing precisely where two people stood still failed to bring them within his greater sight.
-
Odin reached the healing chamber already displeased.
Thor had returned from Midgard carrying the woman who had occupied too much of his attention, then brought her directly into the palace. The report had been irritating enough before Odin learned that Frigga herself was tending to the mortal.
The queen stood beside the healing platform with her hands poised over Jane. Pale magic moved beneath her palms while Asgardian healers watched the crimson presence under Jane's skin resist every attempt to examine it. Thor remained close enough to intervene in a procedure he did not understand. Lucius stood farther back, observing all of them with unconcealed interest.
Odin stopped at the foot of the platform. "This human does not belong here."
Thor turned from Jane. "She is ill, Heimdall lost sight of her, and the power inside her has attacked everyone who tried to restrain her. She needs healing."
"Midgard has healers. They call them doctors, and they should treat this."
Odin's gaze moved to Frigga. His frustration sharpened when she continued working instead of yielding the patient to less royal hands.
"Their doctors may discover the limits of Midgardian knowledge. The Queen of Asgard is not obliged to serve a being my son carries through the Bifrost."
Jane pushed herself upright on the platform. Fatigue made the movement unsteady, but it did nothing to restrain her curiosity.
"Excuse me, who are you?"
The healers drew a collective breath. Thor closed his eyes for the length of one regret. Frigga lowered her hands and regarded her husband with a softness that made the silence worse.
Odin chose dignity over punishment, though the choice cost him visible effort.
"I am Odin Borson, Allfather and King of Asgard, Protector of the Nine Realms, and wielder of Gungnir. I trust those credentials are sufficient to send you back where you belong, girl."
Jane glanced at Thor. "Your father introduces himself like a grant application."
Lucius covered his mouth with one hand. The gesture failed to hide his amusement.
Thor stepped closer to the platform. "Jane, this is not the moment."
"It became the moment when he talked about me as if I were a lower being."
Odin turned away from her before the exchange consumed what remained of his patience. His attention settled on the larger problem waiting near the wall.
Power emanated from Lucius in layers. Some of it carried the density of a being who had lived beyond mortal limits. Another portion resembled sorcery, although it did not move like Asgardian magic. Odin recognised the similarity to the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj.
Before the Allfather could begin a second interrogation, Thor hurried into the silence.
"Father, this is my shield-brother, Lucius Noctis. He is a mighty warrior, a healer, and my honoured guest."
Odin studied Thor, then Lucius. "A sorcerer as well, from what I can feel. Is it not Lucius Noctis of Midgard?"
Thor's eyebrows rose. He had watched Lucius fly, command lightning, stop Mjolnir, and contain the power inside Jane, yet he considered them powers coming from the mutants of Midgard. Learning that his new brother also practised sorcery seemed excessive even by Asgardian standards.
Lucius straightened and offered a shallow bow. "It is true, Your Highness."
Frigga's attention shifted from Jane to him. Warrior and healer had been Thor's claims. Sorcerer was Odin's judgment, yet the queen did not feel even an ounce of magic from the Midgardian. This has made her consider Lucius with renewed interest.
Odin had learned enough for one audience. He motioned toward Jane without looking away from Lucius.
"Guards, return her to her people."
Two guards approached the platform. Thor moved to object, but Jane swung her legs to the floor first. The moment the guards took hold of her arms, the false Aether interpreted restraint as a threat.
Dark-crimson energy erupted from beneath her skin.
The discharge tore the guards' hands away and drove everyone nearby back a step. The healers recoiled while Thor planted himself before the platform. Lucius formed a curved shield around his body, more interested in the reaction than surprised by it.
Odin did not retreat.
He watched the crimson strands coil around Jane and recognised the ancient signature they imitated.
"Aether."
The word silenced the room.
Lucius kept his face composed. The real Aether rested within him, fed by his Cosmic Energy and hidden beneath the Veil of Fate. Odin had identified the counterfeit exactly as intended. It was difficult not to feel proud when one's forgery deceived a king in under a minute.
Odin raised one hand. The guards halted rather than attempting a second seizure.
"No one removes her from Asgard. Seal this chamber and place her under guard until we know how the Aether came to inhabit a mortal."
Thor looked from Jane to his father. "You ordered her returned a moment ago."
"A moment ago, she was an unwelcome guest. Now she is an unwelcome prisoner."
Jane stared at the crimson light fading beneath her arms. She wasn't sure what to do at this point.
Frigga guided her back onto the platform before weakness made the decision for her. The guards moved to the doors instead of touching her again.
Jane Foster's incarceration in Asgard began with a locked healing chamber and an Allfather who believed he had found the Aether.
-
Thor followed Odin from the chamber, and their argument continued beyond the sealed doors.
"She is not your prisoner."
Odin kept walking. "She became my responsibility when you carried her into my realm."
"Then let Mother heal her."
Do you not understand what Aether is, my son? Healing may not be possible. We must decide whether the woman can be separated from it without releasing something worse."
Their voices faded into the palace, leaving the problem under guard and Lucius temporarily unclaimed.
He took immediate advantage.
Frigga accepted Thor's description of him as a healer and allowed him to accompany the attendants who worked from the small temple of Idunn. Lucius observed their healing magic with the concentration of a scholar and the ethics of a burglar. He watched each working, compared it against the powers already at his command, and asked questions polite enough to disguise how much he was taking.
Observation supplied structure. Telepathy supplied everything the healers had forgotten how to explain.
He entered their minds lightly, avoiding any pressure that might announce him. Training, instinct, remembered corrections, and the habits behind each spell opened before him. He copied the knowledge without disturbing its owners, then thanked them for their hospitality with perfect sincerity. They had offered him a tour and accidentally included the contents of their minds.
The royal libraries proved even more generous.
Lucius had already rewritten part of Mjolnir's enchantment with runes, but that work had been calculated vandalism performed against a single artefact. Asgard's records offered a larger tradition. He studied its runic magic, tested each principle against what he had learned from the hammer, and let his Eternal intellect connect lessons that had taken their authors' lifetimes to preserve.
Whenever a written explanation stopped short, he found someone capable of completing it.
He read healers, rune scholars, attendants, and every knowledgeable mind that entered his reach. Some offered only fragments. Others carried techniques they had never committed to a record. Lucius took all of it. Sorting barrowed knowledge later cost nothing, and declining free information offended him on a personal level.
Hours of royal hospitality left him with a clearer understanding of Asgardian healing and runic practice, along with confirmation that neither Heimdall nor Odin had pierced the Veil around the real Stone. Jane remained guarded as the counterfeit host, keeping the invitation to Malekith active. The disaster was proceeding with almost professional courtesy.
There remained one person in Asgard whom Lucius had no intention of ignoring.
His old friend occupied a cell beneath the Allfather's judgment. Calling Loki an old friend was a stretch, but they had shared one pleasant conversation aboard the Helicarrier, and Loki had given his word not to harm Tony Stark. By Lucius's standards, that placed him above most governments and several people who claimed to be allies.
Lucius kept his body elsewhere in the palace and formed a life-sized illusion inside Loki's cell without opening the door.
The imprisoned prince lifted his gaze. Recognition sharpened his expression as Lucius's image settled into the empty space before him.
Lucius spread his hands. "We really must stop meeting in prisons, Prince Loki. Twice is enough to suggest a pattern."