Alfheim Read online

  Tales From Olympus: Alfheim

  By

  Erik Schubach

  Copyright © 2019 by Erik Schubach

  Self publishing

  P.O. Box 523

  Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

  Cover Photo © 2019 Nejron / Depositphotos.com license

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or broadcast.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  FIRST EDITION

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1 – Kara the Wild One

  Chapter 2 – Diversion

  Chapter 3 – Delegation

  Chapter 4 – Alfheim

  Chapter 5 – Queen Nerthus

  Chapter 6 – Dökkálfar

  Chapter 7 – She Who Lived

  Chapter 8 – Sund

  Chapter 9 – Ambush

  Chapter 10 – The Dökkálfar of Alfheim

  Chapter 11 – Gods of Fire Sky

  Chapter 12 – Two Minutes

  Chapter 13 – Naming

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  A reaping had come to Olympus once more, as two inbound Titan Star Killer vessels had started the two-week journey from the artificial aperture in space, which the Titans had created, to gather discarded experiments and tech from the Frost Giants. The male Jotunn used this planet on the central hub of the cosmic engine they had built long ago, and their counterparts, the female Titans regularly pilfered the discards to determine what advancements, if any, the Frost Giants had made over the centuries since their last scavenging run.

  But now... because of a secondborn man I have come to learn is my son, Charon, the location of our cloaked citadel of Olympus has been disclosed to the Titans. Their scavenging fleet of Halflings were brought down by the Valklopt, the Valkyrie of the Sky of Asgard, who had come to our aid, and now death and sorrow ride in the wake of the virtually unstoppable juggernauts eating up the distance between the citadel and the gateway just five light hours away.

  The two weeks at sublight speed to reach us was all the reprieve we had until I, Artemis of Olympus, would witness another culling of our men by the Titans, or worse, suffer complete annihilation when they realize that our men were now immune to their charms. The Asgard had provided our people with the antidote to the nanophage pheromones that overpower the will of our men.

  Our citadel of Mount Olympus had space folded less than two centuries ago to its new location on the planet, using the gigantic jump drive our stronghold is built around, so it would be at least two more centuries before enough energy was stored in the capacitors to do an emergency fold. Our only choice was to gather what we could, and abandon our home through the Bifrost gateway the Asgard have set up, to Valhalla, or to use the remaining portable jump packs to execute a Case Omega emergency fold to bring our people to some other location.

  Everything was chaos around me as telemetry from Pegasus, the living Windrider, First of the Sky, and my personal friend was feeding our citadel data on the incoming vessels. She was cloaked and was days ahead of them, heading toward Olympus. Olympians were rushing about, preparing for the worst.

  Hera looked so pale just then as she said to Zeus while we all tried to comprehend the danger that two Star Killers posed, “We can't stand against two Titan ships... we must jump away, nothing can save us now.”

  With the hissing of ice vaporizing and the crackling of blue power burning the very air around her, Kara, the Wild One, First Valkyrie of Valhalla, Right Hand of Kenatar, Demon of Ragnarok, stepped through the Bifrost into Olympus.

  She looked up, her eyes crackling with energy, while she radiated an air of danger and barely contained power as she simply said in the growling tone of the predator she was, “Well met, Hera, I beg to differ.”

  And I could hear them. The drums Kara spoke of in whispers when she doubted her own sanity. The war drums approached. And I realized what it was. Kara wasn't mad. It was the combined heartbeats of those of us who possessed evolved Valkyrie nanites, the race of artificial intelligence, the Verr.

  I had almost forgotten that I had been infested by the tiny living machines when Inatra had saved me. My genetic structure was being rewritten while the chaos around us came to a faltering halt as the most dangerous predator of the United Races stood defiant, the ice from the compressed magnetic force used to create the Bifrost boiling off of her armor and skin, the cold burns healing before our eyes.

  I somehow felt the resolve of her and the others who possessed this new link I had with them, and I turned my head toward the oncoming enemy and bared my teeth toward the heavens in a challenge.

  Then, my mother, Hera uttered a, “Huh.” Just like that, mom had sucked all of the heroic inspiration from the air. I swear I could hear crickets chirping somewhere.

  Kara looked sheepish as the crackling blue energy around her dissipated as she scrunched her head to her shoulders almost cutely as she blurted out, “Oh, sorry. Well met Hera and Zeus of Olympus..” She held an arm out.

  Father cocked an eyebrow because Kara had addressed mother first, and mother cocked an eyebrow and said as she studied my Asgard sister while she grasped forearms with her, “Kara... Artemis has spoken endlessly of you. The one who singlehandedly tore the Ginnungagap from the heavens, destroying the first Star Killer in history. The Valkyrie who slew the god Ymir of the Frost Giants.”

  If I thought Kara looked sheepish before, now it was doubly so as she scratched the back of her neck as she squinted and said in a much smaller voice, “Well I didn't exactly... it was a team effort. I just damaged... the Three Embers had... and... well Kate had stood against Ymir until I arrived and...”

  Father said absently to mother, “I know we've already saw her in the holographic communications, and she was diminutive, but I thought she'd be, I don't know...”

  Hera supplied as she released the thoroughly embarrassed Valkyrie. “Bigger?”

  Zeus snapped and pointed at Hera. “Yes! Bigger or more imposing.”

  The Valkyrie looked at me with pleading eyes and I had to suppress a chuckle as I growled out in my sister and friend's defense, “Mother, Father, decorum, please! As you know, this is...” I hesitated as we heard the laughing going on on the other side of the Bifrost. I shot a glare that way as I finished, using every one of Kara's titles, “Kara, the Wild One, First Valkyrie of Valhalla, Right Hand of Kenatar, Demon of Ragnarok. And Kara, as you yourself know, these two ill-behaved louts are the rulers of Olympus, Zeus and Hera.”

  Father stood taller. “Yes, of course, it is an honor to be in the presence of one of the Asgardian Gods, Kara interfectorem de diis.” He bowed, taking a knee, mother then the rest of the Olympians around us did the same.

  Interfectorem de diis? Killer of Gods? Just great, another title for my poor sister to have to haul around with her.

  Kara gathered her wits about her again and looked at me, cocking one of her exquisitely sculpted brows in amusement. It never ceases to amaze me, the sheer beauty of the Asgard. I cocked an eyebrow back in challenge. “I'm not bowing to you, brat.”

  She chuckled then said, “Kroth! Please stand, I'm no god, and neith
er are the Jotunn.” Her tone took on the chill of deep space as she added, “Gods do not bleed, and Ymir... did.”

  Ok, that right there. Only someone who could survive a fall from orbit and burning up in the atmosphere of an alien planet can say something like that and make your blood freeze in your veins. Kara 'was' death, and that knowledge ate away at her every day.

  I tried not to show sorrow in my eyes for her as I offered an arm, “Well met, sister.”

  She clasped my arm, then very uncharacteristically, she gave me an Earth-style hug. She had the old taboos of the Asgard about displaying affection publicly by touching. It used to mean you wished to be physically intimate in Asgard culture. Kara's wife, Kate the Raging Storm and the Three Embers have been trying to cure her of that old stigma. “Well met sister.”

  As everyone stood, I heard a purr next to my ear. I sighed heavily as father grasped forearms with Kara and exchanged greetings and I whispered to the woman with hair that was darkening pinker by the second, “Good lord woman, don't lust after Kara, she's taken... and... and so are you, Dite.”

  Her hair streaked blonde and purple in mischief as she whispered back, “Oh I am, am I?”

  Tych! She was pushing my buttons. I still can't believe that after all these eons, Aphrodite, self-proclaimed Goddess of Love, had finally seduced me into her bed. And Zeus help me if I didn't want more of the woman now.

  I growled out at a normal tone, “Kara, this is Aphrodite, one of the Firstborn of Olympus.”

  Kara started to smile then looked almost afraid as the woman who had recently bedded me, almost stalked forward, licking her lips, her hair a bright pink of arousal, arm outstretched, “Mmmm Kara, the Wild One is it? Is that title from your conquests in bed or...”

  Zeus, Hera, and I all snapped out, “Dite!”

  She looked around as she clasped forearms with a blushing Kara. “Oh, poo, you're all no fun.” Then she straightened up, her hair flowing back to a honey-kissed light brunette I hoped was her natural hair color because it did so many things to the most interesting parts of me whenever I saw it. “Well met, Kara, interfectorem de diis. Artemis just won't shut up about you and the others back in Valhalla. And you're simply...” She almost moaned out in one of her purrs, “...scrumptious.”

  A squealing, first in my head, then verbally, rained down upon us as the Three Embers, Samantha, Essa, and Brunhilde descended upon their mother... well she was Brunie's aunt, but you'd never know the way the girls acted. They engulfed the thoroughly confused Valkyrie into a group hug. I could hear them in my head before they spoke as they were squealing out, “Mom!” and “Auntie Kara!”

  I chuckled in my head and Kara froze as she released the kids, her head snapping my way as her eyes locked on mine. I could see lights in her eyes as her Verr scanned me. Her eyes widened in horror and I pled in my head and with my eyes, “Not now. There's more important things going on besides me becoming Asgard.”

  I don't know if she heard me or if she could read my expression, but she just gave a slight nod to me then turned to greet the others from the Valhalla contingent that were congregating around her to greet her. I looked at my hands and clenched them into fists, seeing a blue glow of nano-lattice in my palms as I felt stronger than I have ever felt in my life. Is this how all Asgard felt? They were a heavy gravity race. And even the weakest Asgard was a physical match for an Olympian.

  The Three Embers, in that spooky synchronicity they had, all snapped their eyes to my hands before I quickly unclenched them. They all looked at each other and shared a nod that was eerily similar to Kara's. How did they all know? Could they somehow feel me? I know I was becoming more aware of them as the minutes ticked by.

  By the time all the greetings were dispensed with, Kara grasped forearms with Thea, the Titan bioengineer who had befriended Kara, and now lived in exile in Valhalla. A pariah to her people. They shared a look that only two who have seen too much death and killing could.

  She looked around, showing her regained confidence as she asked, “Now, let's do something about your unwanted guests, shall we?”

  With that, we moved into the main control room to discuss what was to come.

  Chapter 1 – Kara the Wild One

  It took two eighteen hour sessions of planning before we had a viable plan. All the while the Titan threat grew ever closer. I was a bit worried that I barely got any sleep between the sessions as Aphrodite insisted I 'sleep' in her quarters. There wasn't much sleeping involved, and I seemed to have more stamina than ever. I really needed to talk with Kara and mother and father about what was happening to me.

  Not only had my sexual appetite increased but I was also ravenous and was eating at every chance I got as my already dense tissue structure grew even denser, echoing that of the Asgard I was becoming. All of the women from Valhalla would watch me closely every time I stepped into a room. They all knew or suspected. Though I'm sure Inatra had probably already shared, and by now, all of Valhalla knew what has accidentally been done to me. There was no reversing the process once the Verr started doing what they were designed to do.

  When we were returning to the discussions after a break, Kara pulled me aside and whispered in an accusatory but somehow conspiratorial tone as I shaded my eyes from her blinding blue aura with that roiling black cloud that hung behind her like a cape, “So, how is the First Valkyrie of Olympus?”

  My sharp intake of breath was all the confirmation she needed, and her eyes contained her emotions, they always have. I saw horror and... hurt? In them. I knew she felt that I had somehow become defiled by Asgard technology against my will. I was about to tell her I was ok with it. It wouldn't have been my choice but what is done is done. We had more pressing issues to deal with, as I felt as if I heard the drums approaching as the enemy drew even closer to Olympus with every breath.

  But then she voiced her pain, “Why did you not trust us to tell us? It is why Inatra is inconsolable isn't it?”

  What? Inatra? But she... she hasn't really spoken with me since I saw the shame on her face when my nano-lattice had first started to manifest.

  I worked my mouth but the words wouldn't come as I felt ashamed, because she was right. I wanted to push off addressing it until after the danger had passed. But I should have trusted in them, in my Asgard sisters. I whispered, “I didn't know she...”

  Kara cocked a brow at me.

  I cursed, “Kroth.” Then I started again. “I'm sorry. I should have spoken with you right away when I suspected what was happening to me. But I can't deal with it right now, with a Titan culling underway.”

  She was tight-lipped and I was feeling like a class A heel as I whispered to her, “I'll speak with Ina on the next break.”

  Kara softened then exhaled long and loud, decompressing as she nodded then placed the back of her hand against my cheek as she nodded, “Please do. I apologize for all of Asgard that this has been done to you without your consent. Our Verr have a bad habit of interpreting our fears and need to protect those we love as instruction sets they must execute.”

  I was at a loss what to say so I assured her, “It is alright. I can think of worse things than being a silly Asgard.”

  She smiled at my grin and shook her head. “If Kate were here, she'd...”

  I finished for her, “The silly human would probably, how would she put it? Kick my sorry ass for letting Inatra feel so bad about things, and then welcome me to the club.” I smirked. What had happened to me has happened only three times in the history of Valhalla. First to Kate the Raging Storm, then Arina the Whispering Breeze, and Inatra the Singing Rain.

  Chuckling I said, “At least we're keeping it in the family.”

  She snorted and shook her head at me. “You're lucky you're my sister, or I'd put you to task for not trusting us to...”

  I cut her off. “I trust you with my life, Kara. I just didn't have time to come to terms with it myself yet. I know that isn't an excuse.”

  She j
ust nodded, then smirked. “Have they named you yet?”

  “They? Named me?”

  The short Valkyrie looked almost confused as she prompted, “Your Verr? They have a habit of bestowing names on their victims... err, I mean charges.”

  Only those with the evolved nanites I knew, could communicate with their Verr on a rudimentary level, through the com devices on their wrists or through the organic heads up display the Verr had devised to give direct ocular input in their vision.

  I blinked at her, would I be able to do that as well? She exhaled again and asked, “Have you even tried to communicate with them?” My blank look was all the confirmation she needed and she grumbled at me, “They're probably afraid, thinking you are mad at them. Just think about gathering information on our surroundings.”

  I did as she said, and saw flashes of light in my eyes. It was similar to the heads up display projected into my eyes from my armor, only this was... this was coming from inside of them like it was part of my vision and was there even when I closed my eyes or blinked. There were data streams about... well about everything. And even streaming data from my armor's systems integrated into it and as I thought of that my targeting systems came alive adjusting multiple times faster than ever before. The Verr must be interfacing with my armor and bypassing our inferior processors to feed me even more accurate targeting information, including what looked like micro adjustments for air temperature and density, and variances in both magnetic and gravity differentials between me and the targets I was looking at in real time.

  I gasped. “Are they... are they doing this?” I saw communications traffic in my peripheral and location data on every person with the evolved Verr in their system. Including Kate back in Valhalla.

  There was a message scrolling at the bottom of the overlays in my vision, “Of course Far Striker, the Verr are clever. We protect our charges. We are sorry we have shamed you.”