FROM THE ASHES - L. Laufeyson [1]

Chapter 18

After the pointless talk with his father, Thor had sat in a tavern on the outskirts of the castle, awaiting Heimdall's arrival.

He had decided that since Odin had denied his request and in doing so had put the Bifrost on lockdown, Thor would go to Plan B to accomplish his task. He had scheduled a meeting to discuss the other ways off of Asgard and who knew of them.

Upon seeing Heimdall approaching, he spoke. "You were not at Odin's war council."

"The Bifrost is closed by your father's orders. No one is to come, or to go," Heimdall informed, setting his helmet down on the table before sitting down in the chair diagonal to Thor and gazing off into the distance. "We face an enemy that is invisible even to me. What use is a guardian such as that?"

"Malekith will return, you know this," Thor began, looking pleadingly into Heimdall's eyes. "I need your help."

"I cannot overrule my king's wishes. Not even for you." Heimdall explained, silently wishing he could be of more help.

"I'm not asking you to. the realms need their Allfather strong and unchallenged, whether he is or not. But he is blinded, Heimdall, by hatred and by grief."

Heimdall nodded, stating that they all were, before continuing to listen to Thor.

"Well, I see clearly enough," Thor assured, continuing on with informing Heimdall of his plan.

"The risks are too great," Heimdall warned, understanding Thor's want to commit treason for the greater good of Asgard.

"Everything we do from here on is a risk. There is no other way."

Heimdall looked down, deep in thought at Thor's proposition before speaking. "What do you require of me?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adaline slowly began to awaken, completely unaware of the battle that had taken place.

Her body was still extremely overheated even for herself, and still needed cooling down, but she had managed to gain consciousness once again. She still felt extremely weary, but as she sat up from where she lay on a hard bed, she was quickly stopped in her movements by a healer demanding she lay back down.

"Where am I?" she asked, wiping her eyes and looking around startled by not knowing where she now was.

"Thor brought you in. You had passed out, Lady Adaline."

At that moment Thor walked in, surprised to find Adaline awake, before moving to pick her up into his arms.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. She is still burning up," the healer warned , watching as Thor still continued in his actions.

"I have a remedy," Thor replied before leaving the room and walking down a few hallways before walking into another room with a dining table.

Adaline was currently unable to stand as she still was trying to gain some of her strength back, so she watched as Thor sat her down at the table beside Fandral.

Thor had filled her in on everything that had happened and Adaline felt immense pain upon hearing of Frigga's death. She worried if Loki was tearing himself up inside from her passing. She hoped he wasn't.

She leaned against Fandral's shoulder in pure exhaustion, noticing that Sif, Heimdall, and Volstagg were present as well.

Fandral, noticing her eyes drooping and her weary stature, wrapped his arm around Adaline letting her rest against him comfortingly as Thor began to speak, proposing his plan of escape, that would inevitably help Asgard for the better.