CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
With twin suns beating down from far above in the sky, the Avengers split into small groups. Clint and Paige joined with Steve heading down a path to the right. Cracked marble beneath their feet made small crunching noises every so often. Silence reigned except for bird noises as flocks flitted from tree to tree.
As Paige clambered over a fallen white column, she felt her magic buzzing inside. Something about the place they were in felt so intrinsically alive she couldn't even describe it to herself. It was like a beating heart. She looked down the path further. Dominating the sightlines stood a building like a gothic cathedral. It sat on a hill, and beneath it Paige fancied she could hear and smell the ocean. She took a moment to breathe.
"Keep moving, Pea," Clint said with a huff. He crawled over the column as well. "Or are you getting tired?"
Paige scoffed. "Just try to keep up!"
As they continued on, Steve looked back at them and gestured forward. They saw a contingent of the Asgardians led by Sif up ahead. He decided to wait for Clint and Paige. When they caught up he nodded. "Might be something important up there. We should go with the Asgardians."
"Agreed," Paige said. She flexed her fingers. "Something's up there. I can tell."
They both watched her curiously. She didn't respond to their silent questions, instead she stalked forward with purpose. Something was up there. Every hair on her body stood on end whenever she looked at the cathedral.
The walk up to the cathedral took nearly an hour. As they drew closer, they realized they were in fact climbing beside a massive ocean. Broken columns and statues lined the way up. Paige couldn't read their inscriptions but she figured them to be religious in nature. Half way up they found one still in tact. Sculpted of off white stone and pearl, it depicted a woman with a star and a sun, one in each hand. Her marble dress fell loosely all over her body.
"I wonder who she was," murmured Paige as they stood at her feet.
Clint said, "Clearly someone important."
"Thanks, genius. It's no wonder you're an Avenger."
Steve laughed behind his hand. "Come on. Be nice." He looked up the path to where a few Asgardians trailed. "Let's catch up."
They did so. The handful of Asgardians they found looked back at them in confusion but didn't object to their presence. The Lady Sif still walked ahead of them, and Paige eagerly wanted to catch up to her. She hurried herself along, leaving Steve and Clint to bring up the rear.
"Lady Sif, right?" Paige asked after a moment, walking beside her.
Sif glanced her way with a nod. "Yes."
"This land, it was run by my people, right?" Paige looked around at another broken, cracked sculpture at the side of the road. "The Vanir?"
Sif nodded. "The Vanir lived here tens of thousands of years ago somewhat in isolation." She moved forward and gestured to each side. "Asgardians have been taught the history of the War that destroyed Vanaheim. From here, the surviving leaders of the Vanir moved to Alfheim with the Light Elves and became their monarchs."
They climbed the last hundred yards to the perched cathedral. The stonework amazed the Avengers; like Greek almost, and yet more foreign. Carven trees mimicked living ones that threatened to split and skew the building. The archway inside the domed room stood fifteen feet high and ten across. The room inside was cloaked in darkness from the stone and the trees blocking out the twin suns. The few rays that did escape the barricade glistened off polished stone.
The Asgardian warriors hesitated at the entrance with Sif. The woman undid her double sword paused. She glanced back at her warriors, instructing them to wait. Paige watched curiously as Sif raised her sword blade and slowly moved it through the archway. It stuck at the entrance and Sif grunted, trying to push it forward.
"It's no use," commented one of the soldiers. "The magic is still in place."
"Magic?" Steve looked at them in concern.
Sif nodded. "The Vanir are the greatest sorcerers in the Nine Realms. At the height of their power, they sealed all their places of worship with spells."
Paige smirked. She walked past Sif to the place before the open archway and raised her hand. Hesitantly she moved her palm forward towards the area that had stopped Sif's sword. At the presence of her hand, the invisible field began to shimmer and pulse. It became visible like the film of a bubble in summer sun, waving ever so slightly at her pressure. Where her skin met the barrier glowed gold.
"Stand back," Paige demanded. "I don't know what it's doing!"
Sif urged her men back, and Steve and Clint positioned themselves defensively. The Asgardians murmured and held their shields up as the field buckled further. Paige made one more push and walked through it, but it snapped back into place immediately upon her intrusion.
"Are you alright?" Clint asked in concern. He walked up to the barrier with Steve and Sif beside him. "Injuries?"
Paige looked herself up and down. "None." She took a deep breath and looked around. "Should I describe it to you guys?"
"Or come back out," Steve cautioned. "We don't know what's in there."
"Then I better find out, right? That's why we're here, isn't it!"
Sif frowned. "Be careful, Lady Paige. Magic is a dangerous thing."
Paige looked back at Sif. She didn't say anything in response. Paige was already far too familiar with how dangerous magic could be. She lived with it. Every day she reminded herself of her dangerous nature. But this place didn't feel dangerous. This place felt powerful. It felt unique.
"There's a lot of marble here," She described for them.
The ground moved up in gradual steps of sometimes cracked white marble until the center stood about four feet off the entrance level. A white statue of a woman holding a rayed sun sat in the center. Her hair had been crafted of gold which matched the sun. Eyes of azure looked out at Paige. She stopped talking and walked over to the statue. In the pedestal it sat on, a handprint had been carved.
"I'm going to touch this!"
"Careful," Sif cautioned immediately. "You-"
But Paige didn't wait. She laid her hand in the space and to her amazement, the handprint fit exactly. As she stared down at it, the ground began to groan. The area she had put her hand began to glow, and Paige glanced around. The entire place changed hue, beginning to shimmer from the sun in the statue. But not just the statue.
Paige's skin began to transform. Golden light burst forth from her chest and then all along her skin, seeming to disregard her clothes. Beams of luminescence blinded those watching. She heard them cry out in dismay from behind. But still she couldn't move her hand.
She noted moments later that three people stood beside her as she coughed and sputtered, the light fading. She tingled from the hairs on her head to her toes and fingertips even as the golden light went away.
"What the hell," she said, coughing. "How did you get in?"
Clint explained that the barrier had dropped. He watched her carefully, not touching her though Steve helped her stand. "Are you okay?"
"I feel amazing." She grinned and looked around. Thanking Steve for his help, she turned to Sif. "What happened?"
Sif backed up. "I don't know. The Vanir are known for their foresight and ability to see the future. Perhaps this place was made for you?"
A clamor arose from the entrance. Shields and swords banged against each other. Sif turned and ran towards her warriors. When they all reached the open air, they found a group of black and white elven like warriors dropping from a black ship.
"Are you ready for a fight, Avengers?" Sif barked.
They didn't have time to answer. Though still recovering from whatever power had been triggered by the statue, Paige wanted in on the fight as well. She rushed forward and focused all her thought on the ship. Throwing several balls of fire at it, it began to dodge. Finally it flew off.
Steve and Clint worked together to take down several of the dark elves but Paige went on her own. She summoned a rough crystalline black shard and drove it into the neck of a dark elf that got too close. She wished she could use the trick Loki had demonstrated, splitting into multiple. The dark elves came thick. They threatened to overwhelm the Asgardians by sheer numbers.
Suddenly a huge monster of a dark elf crashed into Paige, knocking her to the ground. She hit her head and lay dazed. But as the mega beast went to grab her neck, she reached up and held his face. Her hand glowed gold again, and suddenly the creature wailed as it began to glow gold from her grip. It shrieked in agony as Paige scrambled up and held on. His very skin came peeling off, disintegrating. With a scream, Paige slammed him to the ground, her arm shimmering gold, and he died twitching.
The battlefield calmed as the Asgardians took the distraction to finish off the dark elves. Paige just grinned and knelt on the ground near the scalded body of the monster. Her skin faded back to normal. Steve went to her side.
"You okay?"
Paige huffed. "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine."
Sif backed up away from her, wiping blood off her own forehead. "What did you do to him?"
"I killed him. I don't know. I just... I was angry because he hit me, and so I grabbed him." Paige looked around, and then down at the corpse. "I've never had that happen so quickly before."
Clint frowned. "But it has happened before?"
"Sometimes my fingers start glowing, but it always fades before that."
"We've got to find out what is happened," Steve muttered. "Lady Sif, how do we find Thor?"
But even as he spoke, the red cape of Thor flashed overhead and Mjolnir pulled him in. Tony Stark landed next to him.
"We saw a lightshow," Tony commented. "Did we miss a party?"
They all exchanged glances. What were they supposed to say to that?
"Yeah, one hell of a party," Clint agreed.