Star Dust (A Paladin Adventure)

Confession is good for the soul

Odin looked like he didn't know whether his head should explode with rage or he should be very worried. "Cul is my older brother," he said tightly. "He is the god of fear, and if you fear your treatment in Asgard, know that he would have worse ahead for you if he could capture you. He is not to be trusted. He would delight in your torment. Humans are not our equals. You are small and weak, for the most part. You have no higher powers other than what your science can wrench from the cosmos for you. And women are weaker than men. Your bodies are meant to be receptacles, to bear young." He shrugged. I bared my teeth.

"And yet, when Asgard's mighty fell, to whom did you come for help? To the weak, disregarded humans. We may be small and physically weaker, but we use our intelligence and our imagination to our advantage. And to yours. You are sadly mistaken if you think that all a woman is good for is sex and breeding. It is certainly convenient for you to think so; you're all very fond of your superiority. You're living in a fairy tale if you think that women live to mounted and squeeze out kids, risking their lives in pregnancy and childbirth. Your realm, your rule is made much weaker because you refuse to acknowledge that women have more than one dimension. I am not stronger than all men, but I am stronger than some men. I fall into the upper one percent of human intelligence. I can do things with my mind that so far, no one else can. Natasha is someone everybody should treat warily and with respect; her skills at killing are better than yours. If Wanda wanted, the damage she could cause in your mind would beggar whatever happened when you were dumped in Seattle.  Just like all women, we are far more than a uterus. And you know what? The most interesting thing about my work with Mjolnir is not that I reformed it. It's how I came to be in possession of it." I smiled fiercely. "When I found that pile of shards, it had no power and it had just appeared on my benchtop. Surveillance footage showed a little blip, no light show. The shards weren't there one moment and there the next. Heimdall didn't send them. They had no discernible energy when I found them, they were completely drained. But over time, they regained their natural energy, which is how I was able to reform the hammer. Even in its fractured state, the hammer had energy. I believe, since every time someone sends something through the realms there is a discharge of energy as light, that the scraps of Mjolnir drained their power and sent themselves where they could be assured that they would be...helped. Not many people can send things from one realm to another, and every little bit of uru made the trip. I know this because there were no gaps to be filled. The fragments went preferentially to the spaces they had occupied before it was destroyed. Even if somebody had swept up the bits as carefully as possible, there would be lost mass. But there wasn't. It sent itself. To me.

"Once again, I voted against incarcerating Loki here. But for a different reason this time; he put himself on the line to help us and his brother. I don't feel like he deserves to be jailed. If not for his willingness to help, we'd probably be dead, imprisoned, or still bumbling around out in the wilderness. You would not be back on the throne of Asgard. You might want to reflect on that as you sit there. You might have saved Loki from exposure on Jotenheim, but you might try being honest with yourself. I don't believe it was solely pity that motivated you; you saw a potential tool. Thor has probably always been your favorite son. He almost restarted the war between Jotenheim and Asgard, but all he received was a temporary banishment. Loki tried to invade Earth, not Asgard, and he was facing a life of imprisonment. I personally feel this reflects badly on you as a father as well as a ruler."

"And what is it that you feel for Loki? Do you delude yourself into thinking he has feelings for you, that you could ingratiate yourself to him and he would take you to wife?"

I startled Odin by laughing. "Loki is my friend," I said baldly. "And I think that he considers me his friend. I'm not unaware of his faults, but I also see his good parts. I don't want to marry him." If Odin had Gungnir by his side, I have no doubt he'd have skewered me where I stood,  but he'd come unarmed. He satisfied himself with a venomous glare. Nick rolled his eyes at me.

"Emma's views are her own," he said. "We are certainly willing to continue to work with Asgard for our mutual protection and benefit. We're bound now, and more than our realms know about it," Nick continued. "Other realms know we have helped you." I wanted to laugh. Nick had just boxed Odin into remembering that he owes us favors, should we want to collect on them. Odin's pride wouldn't permit an interstellar loss of face. Nick turned away to talk a little further with Odin, and I started to walk away

"Glad somebody pointed out his defects," Natasha muttered as she caught up with me.

"He asked," I stressed. "He told me to tell him what was bothering me."

"The next time they come begging, I won't go back there," Wanda said, coming up on my other side. "The boys can go save them. I don't want to help a criminal regime."

I stopped and reflected. "Guys, I feel better now that all that's off my chest." Wanda guffawed, which set of Natasha, and the three of us made for my workshop before I could piss off anybody else.