Thor kneeled next to his father but soon noticed that he could do nothing to help. He had never bothered to learn magic after all. So he turned to look at Eli, who had moved to pick up Shatterstar from the balcony.
"Eli, thank you for saving my mother," Thor said as he walked next to the boy and patted his shoulder.
"You don't need to thank me, Thor. It was a matter of course... I... my mother was an admirer of hers," Eli said while turning the sword back into a pendant.
"So how come you have arrived here? On Asgard?" Thor inquired, looking back to his mother.
"My mother, she was Asgardian. She knew of the convergence and gave me the means to find a way here. I found a passage to have a look at her... home."
"I see, then you had truly bad luck to have your first visit spoiled like this," Thor said, but Eli knew that Thor wasn't really in the conversation. The worry for his mother trumps all, and the same could be said for Eli, but he couldn't show it.
Eli looked to Jane, who was unsure what to do. When their gaze met, Eli lifted his index finger in front of his mouth in a 'shush'ing motion and winked.
"I wish the queen the best in her recovery, may she enjoy a long life in good health. I shall impose on you no longer Prince Thor. I will move to do what I came here for and seek out my mother's home. Please excuse me," Eli said as he bowed in the direction of Thor and Odin, who had just laid his wife on a portable healing bed that arrived.
Had he not been occupied with the dark elves' invasion and the worry over his queen, Odin might have stopped the boy. But alas, he did have these worries. Same with Thor and so, still hidden behind his scarf, the young son of Thor lifted himself up and flew away from the palace.
Eli had seen the memory of his mother's home, so he knew where to fly. Several minutes later, on a mountain top overlooking the capital of Asgard, he found it, his mother's luxurious mansion. It was covered entirely in gold, just like the palace.
Her belongings were all safe here because they were hidden away and locked with powerful Asgardian runic circles. Though, thankfully, his mother had given him the correct way to open the magical locks.
Inside the palace, everything was still in pristine condition, not a spec of dust inside. It looked even more extravagant than the palace. While he appreciated his mother's style normally, this place was truly...gaudy.
First, Eli made his way into the library. He found a trunk, the only one not covered in gold and jewels, and began filling it with spell books from the hidden compartment, like his mother had asked.
Then, he moved to his mother's bedroom to find her dresses as she asked of him. He didn't truly mean to gift them to his future girlfriends, but he had a feeling it might have been a message within the message. And when he admired her mostly emerald green wardrobe, he discovered a faint mark on the wall behind the clothes, the mark of his mother. He touched it and sent in magic at certain points in the runic circles that made up the mark. The moment he was done, a small hidden door half his height was opened at the height of his chest.
Behind the door, three shelves were seen. The top shelf held an ornate dagger with an emerald on the cross guard and a leather bracelet holding a dark, jagged shard the size of an eyeball. The note next to it called the shard 'black uru', he would have to find out later what that is.
The shelf in the middle held a book with his mother's mark on it once again. There was a note next to it that read;
"For you, my son, the secrets I kept from you in life and did not have the strength to tell you on my own. I hope you will use this knowledge to your advantage and not let it use you."
'Mother was exiled from Asgard before she knew she was pregnant with me, how in the nine realms did she leave me a note here,' Eli thought in disbelief.
'And if she somehow...sent this here magically, why go through all this effort, she could have left it with Misty, just like she left the scrolls in our home in Midgard,' Eli concluded. The more he thought about it all, the more he thought it weird. Well, he would have to read this notebook.. or diary? Then, he would know whether it all made sense or not.
But before he began reading, Eli looked to the last item on the bottom shelf. It was a breastplate, though clearly for a woman. It was covered in runic magic circles, and the outside was painted in his mother's favorite color, emerald green. Vaguely, he could see a motif of a majestic deer antler on it, fully covering the front. He was going to bring it with him and see if Misty has a use for it.
With a new bracelet on his right arm and the trunk he was going to bring back to Midgard filled with books, dresses, a dagger and a breastplate, Eli lit a fire in the hearth and sat down on a lavish gilded couch with green upholstery.
He opened the book and read until nightfall. The book was truly eye-opening.
It mentioned her life on Asgard, her sister Lorelei who died a millenia ago, his mother's unanswered advances toward his father, how she had rescued and hid Misty or 'Krista' after a huge battle, and her...death. No, not the death he knew two years ago.
Apparently, Amora had died a good century ago and did not spend her afterlife in Valhalla, no, she ended up in Hel. Where she had met Hela, Odin's first born, his...aunt?
Through circumstances unmentioned in this diary, his mother was resurrected, but Hela had latched onto her soul. She did not tell him this in life, because she did not want him to see her as a monster.
His mother was plagued by visions of the Odindottir, who had attempted to overtake Amora's consciousness on several occasions to hasten her release from banishment in Hel. Every time Odin fell into Odinsleep, the seal on Hela weakened, and her grasp on Amora increased for a short while.
To free herself from Hela's clutches, his mother had attempted to get the Odinforce or at least a part of it and use it to reinforce Hela's seal. Since she was already infatuated with Thor, Amora decided to forcefully seduce him instead of his father and she succeeded, though through the efforts of Lady Sif and Loki, who was infatuated with his mother and jealous of Amora's love for Thor, Amora was found earlier than anticipated.
The spell she had placed on Thor was broken, Amora was exiled from Asgard without a trial to explain her actions and...Eli's existence went unnoticed, his birth unknown even to Odin.
The passage dated in the Midgardian year 2011 told Eli of his mother's worries what Hela would do to him, so she decided to end her life to save him. Or rather to give him more time to either flee or grow stronger and fight Hela.
For that reason, she had sneaked back to Asgard that year, which was when she placed this book and the note in the safe. Apparently, she had also tried to warn Frigga of Hela's plot, but Frigga mentioned nothing of the warnings earlier, so Amora might not have succeeded in her warning.
The book mentioned that it was his decision, and she wanted Eli to be grown up enough to make an educated choice. That's why she waited to tell him until now.
The book also mentioned that Hela had, on several occasions, gloated that she was invincible on Asgard. Since she technically owned half the Odinforce and would only grow stronger than the old and weak Odin, her powers would keep growing if she were to get back to Asgard.
And so his mother concluded if he truly wanted to take revenge for her sake, he could cause Ragnarok and make sure Asgard is destroyed. Eli shuddered at the words written in actual blood. His mother had even researched what would cause Ragnarok and informed him how to find Surtur.
"My boy, I know you think me selfish after reading these words, cruel even. But I never considered myself a good person in the first place. Life has taught me some harsh lessons. Lessons I hope I imparted you with. Always pride yourself in your own strength, never rely on borrowed power. Power is something you have plenty of hidden inside you since birth. Gain true mastery over my magics and your divinity, and you shall move unhindered in the nine realms and beyond. That is my wish for you."
The message wasn't exactly filled with love and emotions, but Eli still shed silent tears at the message. To think his mother thought he would think her cruel for her actions and plans... she was painted as a villain half her life, exiled from her home and died twice. His mother was truly a tragic figure.
He just hoped her death as a selfless sacrifice would mean her second afterlife would be in Valhalla, not in Hel.
To think on his next steps, Eli moved to the balcony facing the vast waters next behind the palace.
For the first time, Eli saw the night sky as Asgardians saw it with his own eyes. The stars, the galaxies, everything was so much more vivid, bright, and colorful. It was a truly mesmerizing sight.
But that only caught his attention for a short time because out of the corner of his eyes, Eli saw a burning arrow fired from the shore towards the waters. After the first arrow, hundreds more followed, and they lit hundreds of little boats on the lake on fire.
When the boats reached the edge of the waters, Eli heard a dull *thud* echo through Asgard, and the boats began to float instead of falling down at the edge. Once they passed the edge, the burning boat lit up once again in motes of light and dissolved.
Seeing hundreds of boats dissolve into motes of light was another majestic sight this night. Somehow, he wished he had taken out his phone to record it for Misty. But he was sure a recording with a Midgardian phone camera would not do it justice anyway.
The next morning, Eli woke up at the break of dawn to browse through some of the books he would leave behind from the regular library and then sneaked back into the palace under the effect of his invisibility spell. Was he not raising any alarms because his blood marked him as a member of the royal family? Was it Frigga's bracelet? He would have to ask her to find out.
For that to happen, Eli will have to see in what condition she is in though, and hope for the best. The map at the back of his mother's letter still showed him where Frigga was.
From the outside, Eli flew into what he recognized as Frigga's quarters from yesterday. Frigga was asleep on a bed, covered in a golden cocoon made of energy with runic markings. Her left arm was just a stump covered in clean bandages, and her peaceful sleeping face indicated that she was healed properly. What finally eased his worried thoughts was the shallow falling and raising of his grandmother's chest.
"You are here, yet I could not see you. Not even Heimdall can. Be glad I sense no malice in you, son of Amora, and that you helped save my wife's life or I would treat you same as your mother after your continued trespassing," Odin spoke from behind Eli.
Eli was riled up at the mention of his mother's treatment, but an aggressive reaction would do him no good here. More than that, this was most likely a calculated taunt by Odin to get a better glimpse into his character.
So, instead of saying anything, Eli stayed silent and kept observing his grandmother. Odin walked up and stood next to him, keeping his eyes on his sleeping wife, too.
"Will she survive?" Eli asked softly.
"Indeed she will. The healers could not tell me when she will wake up, but wake up, she shall. My son has mentioned to me your actions of yesterday. You saved her from certain death by diverting the blade. Instead of her heart and therefore her life, it only cost her an arm and one of her lungs. Her fighting days might be over like this, but that is much better than her days being over period," Odin calmly stated.
"Thank goodness," Eli breathed out under his breath.
"Who are you then, boy? Who are you truly?" Odin asked without looking away from his wife.
"Well, like I mentioned yesterday, I am the son of Amora," Eli began explaining. He reached out to his ear to remove the scarf.
"She did not have another partner after her exile," Eli said as he turned to look at his grandfather. His gaze was complicated, but it held a steely edge.
After all, though she held a big part of the fault, his mother's death was caused by Odin indirectly when he exiled her instead of giving her the means to stop Hela breaking out of her prison early through her.
Odin looked up at the boy, and his gaze turned complicated, too. It was obvious who the father of the boy was, and he understood why the boy would sneak around with a mask instead of presenting himself.
"What are your intentions in coming here, my boy?"
Though he almost felt some kinship to Odin after his address changed to 'my boy', Eli's feelings did not change in the slightest on account of the politically loaded question Odin asked. It was becoming more and more clear why his mother had praised his grandmother as a wise and powerful woman and, on the other hand, called his grandfather an oaf or fool whenever possible.
"My mother has written a will that spoke of the convergence and has asked me to take back some of her belongings. Other than that, I had wished to meet my grandmother, who my mother spoke of in nothing but praise. I accomplished that yesterday and, thankfully, was at the right place and time to save her. I have no other intentions for Asgard, I think of Midgard as my home. If you so wish, I shall renounce my name and my right to the throne. Truly, without the attack yesterday, I had wanted to remain hidden from you and my father for a bit longer. It was my mother's last wish after all," Eli remarked as he turned back to his unconscious grandmother.
Odin looked at his grandson a bit longer afterward, his gaze turning more and more complicated. From the bitterness in his voice, Odin felt there was something more to Eli's dislike than just Amora's exile and apparent death.
Before he could speak further, the grandfather and grandson duo heard hurried footsteps. Eli tapped his earring to hide his face once again, and both turned around to see three guards hurriedly enter.
"My king, I bring an urgent call from Heimdall. He has asked for you to meet him at the bifrost as soon as possible."
Odin prepared to leave with the guards, but three steps later, he turned around to give his goodbyes to his grandson.
Eli, however, had moved out of his grandmother's quarters after leaving behind a long letter he had penned for her this morning, and was on his way back to his mother's home to pick up the trunk with his mother's things. And when Odin could not see his grandson, it truly hit home that he did not even ask for his name. Thor had mentioned his wife's sword was in the hands of a Midgardian who called himself 'Eli', but that was surely not his name, least of all his full name.