leave of absence | Glowfic Constellation

"I suppose you wouldn't, like, bind their souls after you kill them so they can't reach Mandos."

purposeful_glory

"There you go. You wouldn't do that; it would be absolutely beyond the pale. You wouldn't do it even if demonstrating that you were willing to do it would strike fear into the hearts of the Enemy's soldiers and they'd be more ready to flee and leave more of your people alive.

"Now, no one thinks I have committed an atrocity. But I have stepped outside the bounds of honorable combat. I have demonstrated that I am willing to acquire and have in reserve secret powers that are not supposed to be part of the repertoire. It doesn't matter that their first exposure to these powers was me healing my father when someone tried to assassinate him because no socially acceptable healers were present. It doesn't matter that they were never going to be happy if I were just an archer - an immobile archer - because I wasn't born with the ability to put my feet where they needed to be.

"What matters is that they are all operating by a set of rules that say girls are warriors, not sorcerers, never sorcerers, and warriors bring blade to blade and use their speed and strength and aim and tactical wit. Warriors do not blind and deafen ten thousand orcs to send them running away because warriors never learned to do that in the first place; it doesn't matter how many people I protected. Warriors don't shrug off their wounds in the middle of fighting the most dangerous megafauna on Asgard which has just swallowed their friend because warriors are supposed to accumulate and keep battle scars and either fight through injuries or let them be as impairing as they are even if they were inflicted by a dumb animal who outweighs them by a hundred times; it doesn't matter that the only reason either of us survived was that I could heal! It is all so heartbreakingly stupid!"

"Yes," she says, "sounds stupid. Really stupid. I'm sorry. They're wrong about what war is for, the only thing you're really truly supposed to do is keep everyone alive. I'm glad you were able to see that and do something better. Maybe after we've defeated the Enemy you can go figure out what went wrong back home and persuade them to stop being like that? I could possibly travel with you once the Enemy's dead, Father'll be less paranoid."

purposeful_glory

"I don't think you'd get anywhere with Odin. Thor maybe. I think she'd like you. And Thor is nearly guaranteed to take the throne next, so it would be almost as good."

"Perfect!" she skips a few steps down the hallway. "Wait, what do you mean next?"

purposeful_glory

"Asgardians aren't immortal; eventually we age and die. I'm planning to live forever. With magic. But I am not sure it would be such a good thing if my mother lived forever, considering how she handles her power and how unlikely it is she'd ever stop doing it in precisely the same way if she never died; and anyway she wouldn't approve of how I'd do it. In theory she could choose either Thor or I as her successor. In practice it's customary to go with the elder, and that's Thor; and she finds Thor's virtues more admirable than mine. She had not yet rendered a formal decision when I left but I cannot imagine it likely she'll find in my favor."

"Oh."

purposeful_glory

"Yes. But, Thor listens to me, sometimes, on some things, and finds statecraft dull anyway. I could help her. Or I could just go somewhere else, do something else. I'm finding plenty to occupy me here."

"I think my father just said you can have the whole eastern half of the continent. Though, uh, it's windy and directly exposed to Angband and very hard to defend. He was not being particularly helpful, there."

purposeful_glory

"Well, if there aren't any Maiar parked there to oppose illusions I could make a city very hidden. Wind isn't the worst meteorological condition, either."

"Definitely no Maiar. That's a brilliant idea." She chews her lip. "I was worried how they'll all make it, not speaking to each other and trying to hold dangerous territory. But invisibility helps." They're back in the main hall, now laid out for a spectacular dinner.

purposeful_glory

"They're not all traveling together. They arrived in separate groups and the first is already settled; it's the more recent one that's still in transit. Where do I sit?"

"Other end of the table. Sorry." She frowns. "There are complicated rules about that and it's set in advance. We can always talk with osanwë if you don't like your neighbors."

purposeful_glory

"Convenient sort of thing once one is used to it, osanwë," says Loki. And she inclines her head politely to Lúthien and heads to the other end of the table.

Her end of the table includes a silver-haired collection of Quendi who must be related, because the adults all look identical: the youngest is a child of around three feet tall, her hair knotted in extremely messy braids.

purposeful_glory

"Good evening," Loki says, attempting to figure out if she has an assigned specific seat or just a general area.

"Hello," one of the young men says cheerfully, and she recognizes him as the guard who walked her in from the borders the first day. "You're here, I think. Has our lady Lúthien given you the grand tour?"

purposeful_glory

"Thank you," Loki says as she sits. "I have been to visit the Dwarves, today, but I don't think I've had a complete tour."