Chapter Text
I touch the cool rim of my goblet as the sweet taste of tea fills my mouth. I set down my drink and move a black piece of wood across it’s checkered floor. “Checkmate,” I exclaim with a laugh, I lean back in my chair and take in the expression on my father’s face; he hates losing in chess.
“How do I keep losing to you my dear?” Usually my father is very good at the game, unless I play him. I’m his only worthy opponent because my brother Thor doesn’t have the patients or the brains to participate.
I trace my finger around the rim of my golden goblet with a smirk on my face. “If you desire to win, find another player.” My father Odin and I sit in my hall ‘Sokkuabekk’ while drinking tea from our goblets every day. Sometimes, like this, we play a game.
“I wouldn’t rather play with any other.” I smile softly at this sentiment. “If you keep up this intelligence, you are a worthier queen.” My breath catches at his last sentence, is he implying what I think he is.
“Surely you can’t be saying,” I pause and take the goblet in my hand. “Thor’s first in line.” I take a sip of my tea which is starting to go cold.
“That can be changed if you are more fit for the throne.” A horrid taste becomes apparent on my tongue, might be from the cold tea.
“I couldn’t do that to Thor, father,” I say while putting my drink down. I greatly despise this conversation and need to think of a way to change it before it breaks into a fight. “What time is it?”
“About 11, why?” My father asks with an eyebrow raised.
“I promised Thor I’d go with him, I’m sorry to cut short but I have to go,” I say excitement while standing up.
“You two try not to get into much trouble.” I nod and rush out the door.
Once out of sight from father, I break into a sprint. My feet pound against the ground but don’t make a sound. My heart hammers against my chest but the feeling is joyous to me. It’s times like this that I enjoy the most, when I can put my life behind me and just… run.
When I reach the door, Thor is already waiting. I come to a stop in front of him and I try to catch my breath. Most would think that I hate running because I can’t do it for very long but I love it, I just don’t get to do it often.
Thor smiles “Ready for some fun?”
“Depends, what are we doing?” The look on my brother’s face gives me a feeling that it’s not something I’m going to like. Thor is always doing dangerous and idiotic activities, I’m more logical.
Thor smiles triumphally and holds up a sword. The weapon has a strange glow, almost orange. I reach out to touch the blade to find it’s as hot as fire. I jerk my hand back in surprise, I luckily didn’t get close enough for it to burn me.
“Where did you get that?” I ask.
“Father’s vault,” Thor says with a mischievous smile. I raise my eyebrows; does he know how much trouble he’s be in if father found out. “Don’t worry I got you one too.” Thor holds up another sword.
“I want no part in this.” I take a step back with a forced laugh, he can’t make me do anything; can he?
“Come on, Saga, have some fun.”
“That is not fun,” I say with a forced laugh. “I don’t want to get in trouble.”
“Father will never know.”
“He’s Odin, he has ears around Asgard.”
“Will you just come with me?”
“No,” I say stubbornly.
“Sister come on, I promise nothing will happen and besides; I don’t want to do this alone.”
“What exactly are you planning to do?” I ask with a harsher volume than anticipated.
“Frost giants…”
“Absolutely not!” I yell.
“Why?”
“Thor! It will cause a war,” I just want to walk away and forget this conversation.
“You don’t know that.”
“Why do you want to burn the frost giants anyways?”
“I want to see if it melts their stone-cold hearts, maybe it will make them nicer.” There’s a long sickening pause.
“You’re just saying that to get me on your side,” I state while crossing my arms.
“Has it worked?”
“Not even the slightest.” I turn my back, I don’t have a death wish.
“Saga, you don’t have to come; I would just prefer company.” I groan.
“Fine, but I have no intentions of dying today.” I walk to Thor and grab the sword. The weight makes my arm drop a little but I quickly redeem. My brother and I start walking down the glass-like bridge to the Bifrost.
I lift the sword up, careful to it away from anything that can cause damage; unlike Thor who is playing and swinging it around, I roll my eyes. “How lethal are these, they can’t just be normal blades since they were in father’s vault,” I ask while examining the metal, I’ve dueled with quite a few swords but none like this.
“The metal has some sort of electric energy that makes it hotter than fire.” I look worriedly at him then back at the sword.
“Exactly what material?” I keep the weapon farther away from my skin.
“Not sure.”
Once we reach the Bifrost, the anxiety starts to set in; we shouldn’t be doing this. We haven’t gotten on the frost giants bad sides yet but I feel like after today we’ll have an eternal hatred. I help Thor lift the Bifrost sword that is almost as bigger than us into it slot opening up the swirling portal that makes my blood run cold. Thor grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze before both of us sprint into the key shaped hole.
Going through the Bifrost feels like being pull with horses through ice cold water. I’ve never been though it before so it’s quite a shock to my body. Thor and I suddenly go plummeting to Jotunheim, here goes nothing. My feet touch the hard ground, I’m surprised that I landed right side up.
“Now, let’s pick a fight,” Thor says, this can’t go well. I roll up my sleeves not wanting them to get singed. I hold the sword to front of my face defensibly feeling the warmth on my cheeks, then start walking through the unknown terrain.
The cold stings my exposed skin as I look around Jotunheim for frost giants. Why am I doing this? Why is Thor doing this? Why has he taken a sudden hatred for frost giants? They haven’t done anything wrong.
Falling debris makes me flinch uncontrollably, how can anyone live in these conditions. Silence feels heavy on my ears, you could hear a coin drop; the frost giants will heard our footsteps from miles away.
“Where are they?” I ask.
“I don’t know, but their getting a piece of me when I catch even the slightest glimpse of one.” I look over confused and a little angry, stopping in my tracks.
“What have they done to you?”
“Nothing,” Thor says, I know that look; somethings bothering him. I catch him by the arm.
“No, I want to know why; why are we doing this?” Thor sighs.
“Laufey threatened father, I don’t know why but word is getting out that Odin is weak and I want to deal with this before they strike.” I grow a little sympathetic and stretch my lips into a line.
“Thor, violence is not the answ---,” I try to say but am cut off when frost giants appear in the distance, I swear I can hear them breathing.
“Children of Odin! What brings you to Jotunheim?” Laufey yells with sternness in his voice.
“I think you know,” Thor states as we all get closer. Once we are all a couple of feet away from each other I realize that we are extremely outnumbered and we have a slim chance of winning.
“I assure you, I don’t,” Laufey says with confusion, I feel bad; they don’t deserve this.
“Don’t lie!” Thor yells following a battle cry. My brother lifts his sword above his head and strike at Laufey only to have the blow blocked by an icicle, the ice quickly melts and Thor continues to fight.
The others look at me and charge with weapons of their own. I don’t want to hurt any of them but I cut a few, for self defense. Thor starts backing up and into our fight, I try to move to the side but frost giants are surrounding me. I try to ignore it and strike a few icicles down until a hot searing pain shoots through my arm. I look down to see a large gash on my forearm.
“Sorry!” Thor shouts with sympathy and tries to move out of my way while still fighting off Laufey and a few others. The sword cauterized the wound so no blood seeps out.
“Thor! We need to get out of here!” I yell, running through an opening the fight.
“Not yet! I’m not finished!”
“Thor! Now!” I scream. My brother, hearing the desperation in my voice swings his sword wildly in the air causing to cut Laufey multiple times all over his body. Temporally distracted by pain, Thor is able to escape without Laufey noticing. We both run to where we originally came.
“How do we go back?” I ask while out of breath from the long sprint, I didn’t even get to enjoy it.
“Bifrost open!” Thor yells with all his might. A bolt of lightning comes down and strikes both of us sending us back home.
The colour of the Bifrost makes my eyes sting. I start to laugh looking at Thor making him do the same. Once we take the Bifrost sword out of it’s slot, I notice a tiny detail. “Where’s your sword?”
“Lost in battle,” Thor says through gasps of air.
I hear banging in the distance and look up to see father rushing over to us, I uncharacteristically swear under my breath. This is going to go very badly. I roll down my sleeves covering my burn.
“What the hell are you to doing! Thor what have you done?” Father asks making my breath catch. Thor is about to speak but I interrupt, I’m sick of father always blaming him.
“It was my fault father.”
“Saga?”
“I heard what the frost giants were saying about you and picked a fight with Laufey,” I say hanging my head in same.
“What about the fire?” Odin says with clenched teeth.
“Fire?” I say with a voice crack.
“West of Jotunheim is up in flames.” I lift the sword showing the probable cause, father clenches his jaw making me cringe; I’m going to get it.
“I took two of your swords and dropped one before I got out, it must have caught it on fire,” I say with the back of my eyes burning, I refuse to cry.
“Do you realize what you’ve done?” Father hisses. I keep my head down unable to look him in the eye. “Was Thor responsible too?”
“Thor tried to talk me out of going but I refused to listen.” I lift my sleeve to show the cut. “I have proof.”
Father grabs my wrist harshly and drags me over to the other side of the Bifrost. I wince from pain as fear makes my chest ache. I look over to Thor, his face contorted into an expression of sympathy, fear and worry.
“Saga, daughter of Odin,” father says with an emotionless voice, what is he doing. “You have disrespected the frost giants and possibly started a war.” A lump forms in my throat and tears well in my eyes, he’s scaring me. “You are guilty of arson which is unexpectable for a future queen, as I am forced to banish you because of your ignorance and stupidity.” Father lifts the sword into it’s slot making the Bifrost active.
Tears start streaming down my face, the word banishment rings in my ears. Thor tries to say something but is stopped by father yelling for him to stop. My body does some jolts as Odin nears.
“Considering you are only fifteen, the law will take pity on you.” I look up. “I will erase any memory of this world from your mind, letting you live a normal life in the other world,” father has an unknown tone to his voice. “But since I’m giving you a blessing, I must also give you a curse; you will never age in that world.” I look at father hoping that he will change his mind, it’s unlikely but worth a try.
“Saga, all memory will be erased of you from this world except mine. You will have a fresh start.” Father starts slowly backing me up, ‘no’ I want to yell but I can’t find the words. “I hope earth is kind to you.”
Without another word, father pushes me through the Bifrost; the last thing I see is Thor yelling with tears in his eyes. As I shoot through the portal, my mind becomes foggy. I can’t seem to concentrate on anything, I start to cry out of fear.
My body gives a jolt and my eyes are blinded with an unwanted light. My cheeks are wet but I don’t remember any water. My head starts to ache as I try to find any information. Ok, lets start with something easy; I think while keeping my eyes closed. A name, what’s my name? It starts with an S, I know that. Sa, something. Sarah? No, doesn’t feel right. Sam? No. Saige? Still doesn’t feel right but it’s closer than the other ones.
I start rushing to the ground, I hit it hard. The dirt feels nice on my skin, it’s showing me which way is up. I can feel myself blacking out but I need to have a name, my mind only remembers the three things. Sarah, uh; something and Saige.
Ok, Saige it is.