The only other who had remained as able was Thor, but even he had suffered greatly. His muscular frame was mostly reduced to flab, and he stooped low with age, unable to even wield his own weapon. While he could not lift—or even carry—Mjolnir anymore, he still stood ready with weapon in hand; a hammer larger than his own, but a mere mortal weapon with none of the legendary power of the mystical hammer forged by the dwarfs so many ages ago.
Balder looked up to Valaskjalf’s highest tower. In the window he could see the Allfather staring out beyond the wall at something that only he could see. There was a look in his eye that Balder could not identify. Odin looked troubled, as if a heavy burden were weighing him down. He had rarely seen him like this. Usually his countenance was elusive, and it was all but impossible to guess his mood or thoughts. Balder was unnerved to so plainly see the trouble etched across Odin’s face.
As he watched, he saw Odin rise to his feet and lean partially out of the window, his hands bracing his weight on the sill. Something was approaching. The thralls and retainers held torches high in anticipation, waiting for a sign from the High One.
Balder pulled his sword free from its sheath, its weight now heavy in his hands. It would take effort to wield now that he was merely a shadow of what he had once been. But if this day was to be his death, then so be it. He gladly faced that fate with blade in hand, and felt pity for those too decrepit to stand here with him. It was not death the Aesir feared, but the slow creep and impotence of old age. He considered that dying in battle now might allow him to redeem his infirmity. A smile curled his lip as he imagined a song about “Old Balder’s Stand at Asgard’s Wall.” It was easy to be heroic when young and strong; how much more glory would be gained from a final, desperate stand while trapped in an old man's body?
He focused his attention back on the wall in time to see a hawk soar just over it in a downward arc towards the ground. He did not hear Odin utter a word, but in his head there was an urgent command to fire the wood against the wall.
Everyone that held a torch acted nearly in unison, and the kindling that had been piled high roared loudly with a fire that crested the top of the wall in a blazing red inferno that burned skin, clothing, and hair of all those near it. Balder had not had a torch and was back from the wall in a strategic position, and so did not feel the kiss of the flames. He did, however, feel its heat like a wave, and considered for a brief moment that the servants who had just done the High One’s bidding had paid a price for their loyalty. But that thought passed in an instant as the eagle met the roaring wall of flame.
The enormous bird seemed to realize the danger just as it soared into the flames, and it swiftly changed its flight path upward. Balder realized its fatal mistake. If it had instead continued through the flames, it could have perhaps survived, its feathers severely singed, but it may have otherwise remained intact. When it flew instinctively upwards, it caught itself in the wall of flame longer, and the heat was greater the higher up it rose. The eagle’s feathers burst into flames at the crest of its upward path, and then it fell like a star shooting down to earth.
The Asgardian response was swift. Einherjar rushed upon the creature that was already in the midst of a transformation into his true, giant self. Screams of agony accompanied his change, and then swiftly turned to screams of rage when spears and swords pierced him. With a massive hand he batted away a dozen warriors, killing at least half of them outright and sending their crushed bodies into the flames. He stood to his full height, dwarfing the warriors around him, and beckoned them on with a sneer of defiance. It was obvious that he was hurt, but it was just as obvious that the damage he had sustained was not enough to bring him down.
As the Asgardians rushed forward to renew their attack on him, they paused when long, sinuous and ghost-like appendages erupted from him. They were reminded of the multiple limbs of the mason, and while they still charged forward to attack, the dread on their faces was apparent. It grew into fear when they saw the giant's size increase as well.
Loki had been in the midst of his transformation when he witnessed the assault on Thiazi. After exiting the flames severely burned, the giant had withstood a wave of Asgardians. But while they damaged him to some degree, he was still strong enough to cause much death and destruction.
He finished shifting back into his own form as he watched the giant swat away Einherjar by the dozens. Thiazi was calling forth his chaos energy to help him destroy the Aesir. Loki had seen him use it in many ways during the months he stayed with the giant while learning to control his own chaos. He had suspected that Thiazi did not show him all he knew, but what he had shown him would still be enough to deal with the Aesir in their feeble state.
His own power was nowhere as strong as Thiazi's, but he did not have to counter him strength for strength. He had fooled him for months, made him think that he was a son of Jotunheim, when in reality he had been learning all he could so that he could end the giant's threat to Asgard. Each time Thiazi had used his power, Loki had sent a small portion of his own to intertwine with the giant's, reinforcing the submission and cooperation he thought he received.
He called upon that chaos energy now, willing it to arise from its dormancy within the giant. Thiazi used his own to begin shifting his form into a creature like the mason. In their state the Aesir would not have been able to withstand another such creature, and Thiazi no doubt intended to crush them all as the mason very nearly had.
All Thiazi's energy was focused on increasing his size and threat, leaving none for any kind of defense. His arrogance left him vulnerable to an attack from within. As Loki's energy arose within the giant, the multiple arms that had sprouted withered and slumped to the ground, while his increasing size halted.
Loki enjoyed the look on his face when he realized how he had been tricked once more, but he knew he would not be able to prevent Thiazi’s power from reasserting itself. He only hoped the Asgardians would seize upon the opportunity.
Balder cursed his frail body as he moved forward as fast as his weak legs could carry him. The giant weakened somehow, and he knew that it was time to press the attack.
The giant was already being weighed down by a score of warriors, and a few dozen others stabbed at him with spears and swords. Balder reached the giant and managed to just duck his head before a massive fist sailed above him, threatening to take his head from his shoulders. He slashed at the giant’s leg, cutting through skin and muscle, and the giant’s scream of pain fueled Balder on, sending his sword slashing again and again, as fast as his trembling old arm could manage.
The giant was too damaged from the fire and too overwhelmed by Asgardian attackers to focus on any one assailant, so Balder was able to continuously plunge his sword into the giant’s hide without much fear of retaliation. Blood poured from his wounds, and Balder wondered how the creature could even continue to stand while covered in attackers.
A sound like cracking thunder shook the ground, and Balder could see Thor launching himself onto the giant. The giant was nowhere near the size of the mason, so the Thunderer was able to leap up and strike his head with his hammer. While Mjolnir would surely have shattered the skull in one blow, the diminished power of his current weapon seemed to cause an increase in the savage ferocity of Thor’s attack. He relentlessly smashed the hammer into the giant’s face and head, drawing blood and cracking bone with every blow. The giant grabbed him with one hand that was still weighed down by attackers, but could not pull the crazed old god from him.
Thiazi’s limbs slowed, and he fell to his knees. The remainder of those Asgardians still standing redoubled their attacks. Balder hacked at the blackened and bloody body that still towered over him without any need to avoid an attack. The giant was swiftly dying, only its pure stamina keeping it from completely succumbing.
Thiazi finally collapsed under the weight of his attackers after Thor’s hammer caved in part of his skull. He crashed to the ground and lay there unmoving, while Asgardian and Aesir ceased their attack and stood up from the corpse.
Balder gasped for breath and let his sword drop to the ground, strength failing quickly now that the battle rage had passed. He bent over and put his hands on his knees for support, desperately trying to regain his breath. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Thor had fared only slightly better; the Thunderer was leaning with one hand over the shoulder of a retainer, the other hand clutching his chest tightly.
Balder was slow to recover, but eventually was able to stand upright again. He turned to see someone standing there. As the face registered, the victory against the giant suddenly turned sour. Of all the faces he least wanted to see, the one before him was the most hateful in his sight.
The seed was cradled in Loki's hand. He had risked much to bring Idun back to Asgard. His life might have been forfeited, but what was one life compared to all those in Asgard? If Thiazi had been successful, Asgard would have fallen to the giants, destroying all he knew. The mere fact of his true heritage would not cause him to betray those he still thought of as his own kind.
But the cost had been high.
The Aesir were decrepit, barely clinging to life in some cases. Idun’s absence had debilitated them far more than any battle injuries ever could. Worse than any bloody death was their pathetic lingering, a cruel insult to battle gods who expected to meet their end with steel in hand and fire in their eyes.
His reputation was also likely to be far more sullied than it already was. The Aesir would not care that he was forced to steal Idun. They would only see that his actions had put them at risk and caused them insult. Nor could Odin be counted on to explain his role. The High One was not given to explanations.
Idun's return, he hoped, would go some way towards showing them his loyalties. And he would take one further precaution to ensure that she could not be stolen again.
Loki approached the gathering of gods around the dead giant, gripping the seed firmly in his hand.
Balder turned, and recognition spread across the once young, once handsome face. He sneered, the loathing that he felt not even partially hidden. Loki brought up his hand, the seed perched comfortably in the middle of his palm.
“
I have brought Idun back to Asgard.”
Balder’s curiosity overpowered his disgust for the moment as he stared down at the seed in Loki’s hand.
“
This is Idun?”
Loki nodded.
“
And you have done this to her?”
He nodded again. “Yes, it was the only way to bring her from Thrymheim.”
Balder could not take his eyes from the seed. He took a step closer.
“
And what is it that you have done to her?” The disgust was creeping back into his voice, spurred by the appearance of Idun changed by some power that was distinctly unlike anything the Aesir possessed.
Loki considered how to explain it. He did not want to reveal the chaos thriving inside of him, the energy that made him kin with their enemy.
“
I have made her into the very essence of what she was.”
Balder was dissatisfied with the explanation, but still curious.
“
Does she live?”
“
In a way. But she is not as she once was.”
“
Can you restore her?”
Loki paused. He did not know if it was possible for her to return to the form she held before. She lived, of a sort, but this transformation was different than his own. While he retained conscious thought in any form he took, Idun had become the seed. There was only the barest hint that she had once been a goddess. He was certain, however, that her presence, in whatever form, would return the Aesir’s youth and vitality to them.
“
I will use the runes to restore her.” He would chant them, but it would be the chaos that flowed from him to transform her, not Asgardian magic. But Balder, he knew, would look no deeper than the surface, as usual.
Before he turned from Balder, he noted the sour look that crossed his face. He ignored it. When the gods had regained what they had lost, they would view him differently.
He walked to an open patch of ground, untouched by the battle and marked only with scattered wildflowers. He knelt down and dug his hand into the moist dirt, feeling the life within it. He buried the seed and closed his eyes. He chanted the runes, but it was only a ruse. Instead, the chaos flowed from him, unseen tendrils enveloping the seed. He could feel the essence of what she had been trapped inside, the link to the immortality of the Aesir. She would live again, but not in quite the same way.
The chaos withdrew and he opened his eyes. Standing up, he turned back to see that Balder and Thor had drawn closer. Balder still bore an expression of disgust, but it was colored by an accompanying bewilderment, like that of an old man who did not fully comprehend what he was witnessing. Thor’s expression was blank. He stood by, still gripping his hammer, hunched over and trembling with the effort of remaining on his feet.
After long moments, Balder spoke, his voice dripping with venom. “What have you done?”
Loki looked back at him. “I have returned Idun to Asgard. I have brought you back your lives.”
“
And why is it that you were not affected as we were? What bargain have you struck with the giant that has kept you young?”