Chapter 6 — The Trial of Shadows
For a long moment, Thor simply lay on the cold stone of the Trophy Room floor, staring up at the vaulted ceiling as though it were the sky itself.
"Almost… had it…" he wheezed.
"No," Sif said gently, offering him a hand. "You truly didn't."
"Not even close," Bor added, though his tone was kind.
Thor groaned, rolling onto his back. His right shoulder still twinged from the strain of pulling on Mjolnir with absolutely no effect. But his pride was bruised far more than his muscles.
"It moved," Thor insisted.
"It didn't," Bor repeated.
Thor shot him a betrayed look. "I believed you supported me."
Bor shrugged. "I support many things. Delusion is not one of them."
Sif burst into laughter. Thor glared at her until she composed herself. The three teenagers rose from the dais where Mjolnir rested, its runes faintly glowing as if amused by Thor's attempts. The hammer sat there with quiet finality unmoved, unbothered, unconquered.
Thor dusted off his tunic. "I shall return. I shall succeed. The hammer shall obey me!"
"Riiight," Sif said.
"We should go," Bor said. "Before someone notices we're—"
Click. The Trophy Room doors shut behind them, the wards sealing themselves as they exited into the corridor outside the treasure hall.
Thor looked a little too pleased with his forbidden adventure. Sif looked relieved it was over. Bor looked… uneasy. Not because of Mjolnir.
Because someone had been watching them. Someone whose presence felt like the sting of cold laughter.
---
Far down the corridor, cloaked in an enchantment of perfect concealment, Loki Laufeyson allowed himself the smallest curl of a smile.
He had watched everything. Every grunt. Every hopeless pull at the hammer. Every moment Thor failed. And Loki felt something hot coil inside his chest jealousy, sharp and bright.
Thor had always been the golden one. The loud one. The beloved one. Even his failures were considered charming. But Loki… Loki had to earn visibility. Earn praise. Earn affection.
And now, he watched the three leave the Trophy Room and felt the familiar twist of resentment toward Thor… and, recently, toward Bor.
Bor, who never bragged.
Bor, who never demanded attention.
Bor, who was praised simply for being "gifted."
Bor, whose strange power made Loki uneasy.
Bor, whose strength rivaled Thor's and sometimes surpassed it.
Bor, who had become another sun around which others seemed to orbit.
Loki's fingers tightened around a small pouch of runic dust. He whispered an incantation he had learned in secret a misdirection spell, woven from jealousy and brilliance in equal measure.
Three tiny spiders sat on the wall beside him, ordinary creatures no larger than his thumbnail. Loki blew a gentle breath of magic over them.
The spiders glowed. Twisted. Shuddered. Grew.
Legs stretched into long, armored appendages. Eyes multiplied across grotesque, chitinous faces. Venom sacs pulsed like beating drums. The corridor shook as three monstrous arachnids burst forth, each one the size of a warhorse.
Loki stepped back into the shadows, heart pounding.
"Let us see," he whispered, "how the golden boy fares now."
---
A tremor echoed behind them. Sif reacted first, her hand drifting instinctively toward her sword. "Did you feel—"
Thor interrupted. "Hear that? Something rumbled."
Bor frowned, eyes narrowing. "Something's wrong."
And then— SKREEEE—!!
The first giant spider slammed down from the ceiling, landing between the three teens with a thunderous CRASH. Its legs carved gouges into the marble floor, its fangs dripping venom that hissed upon contact with the stone.
Thor stumbled backward. "BY THE NINE—!!"
A second spider scuttled along the wall, leaping with frightening speed. A third climbed down the far column, eyes glowing sickly green.
Sif drew her blade with a ring of steel. "What in Hel—?!"
Bor stepped forward, instincts screaming. His skin prickled with the warmth of Sunshine the same strange, solar force that empowered him whenever daylight touched Asgard.
But the sun was beginning its descent behind the palace towers. Already he felt the warmth fading. Still, he positioned himself between his friends and the spiders.
"Thor," Bor said calmly, "take the left one."
"Gladly!" Thor shouted.
"Sif, the right."
"Understood."
"I'll handle the first."
The largest spider lunged—And Bor moved.
---
The first spider barreled toward him, fangs bared. Bor ducked left, pivoting with practiced ease, driving a punch into the creature's side. The impact cracked its shell. But not enough.
Bor landed lightly, teeth gritting. His strength was slipping as the sun sank lower, like a fire coiling inward. Heat vision flickered behind his eyes but he rejected it too risky here.
The spider shrieked and swung a leg like a scythe. Bor dodged, then caught the limb between both hands and pulled. The limb snapped like dry wood. The spider squealed.
On the left, Thor charged his foe with a roar.
"You dare threaten a PRINCE OF ASGARD?!"
He slammed into it shield-first, sending sparks flying. The beast screeched, rearing. Thor grabbed two legs and wrestled the creature bodily to the floor.
"Bor, look!" Sif cried.
Sif danced around the third spider with swift strikes, her blade flashing silver. She moved like a storm-wind light, fast, deadly. But the creature was relentless. Bor ducked a venom strike, rolled beneath the beast, and with a grunt heaved it upward. Even with his waning solar strength, Bor managed to flip the massive spider onto its back.
Thor yelled from across the hall, "Show-off!"
Bor grinned. "Focus!"
The first spider lunged again. Bor felt sweat run down his neck not from fear, but from the diminishing store of solar energy inside him. His Sunshine strength was almost fully gone.
But Kryptonian physiology remains, he reminded himself. I am never truly weak. He grabbed a nearby column and braced, pushing himself upward with a burst of speed. The beast leapt after him, but Bor dropped from above, smashing his heel into its head.
The skull dented.
The spider shrieked.
Bor landed hard, legs slightly trembling. Thor, meanwhile, had subdued his spider by headbutting it and slamming it repeatedly into the marble.
"STAY DOWN!" Thor bellowed, delivering a final punch.
His spider collapsed unconscious. Sif had driven her creature back toward a wall, using its momentum to slice deep under its joint plating. She stumbled once as it clipped her shoulder, but Bor appeared beside her, catching her before she fell.
"Thanks," she breathed.
"Always."
Her cheeks flushed but there was no time for embarrassment. The third spider lunged directly at them both.
"DOWN!" Bor shouted, tackling Sif out of the way.
The beast crashed into the wall, momentarily stunned. Bor rose first, breath ragged. He drove a shoulder charge into the spider's abdomen. It screeched as the impact cracked more of its chitin. Sif seized the opening, plunged her blade deep between its eyes
SKRRREEEEEE—!!
The spider convulsed and collapsed. Bor exhaled shakily. Sunlight finally fell behind the horizon, and with it the last motes of Sunshine left his veins. He felt his strength dip sharply still immense by Asgardian standards, but no longer blazing.
The first spider staggered back to its feet, wobbling.
Bor steadied himself. "One more."
He charged. The two collided with thunderous force. Bor dug his feet into the marble, gripped the spider's head, and pushed with everything he had.
The strength of a fading sun.
The endurance of a Kryptonian.
The resolve of Jacob Walker.
With a final roar, he twisted. And the spider went still.
---
Silence fell.
Thor panted heavily. Sif wiped blood from her cheek. Bor stood very still, heart hammering, sweat beading across his brow.
"Well fought," Sif said, smiling.
Thor slapped Bor's shoulder hard enough to stagger him. "Brother! You fought like two storms!"
Bor managed a weak smile. "You're heavy-handed."
"HA!"
A slow, deliberate clap echoed down the corridor. The three teens froze. Odin stood there at the far end of the hall, one hand resting lightly on Gungnir. His expression was unreadable but his single eye gleamed.
"Three spiders," Odin said. "Transfigured by magic. Dangerous magic."
Loki was nowhere to be seen.
Thor swallowed. "Father, we—"
"Spoke of this earlier," Odin interrupted. "Mjolnir is not a toy. And the Trophy Room is not a playground."
Thor shrank slightly. But then Odin's gaze drifted to the remains of the spiders.
"You defended each other. Fought as a unit. Saved lives."
He paused.
"And you did not falter."
His gaze fell longest on Bor. Bor forced himself not to flinch.
"Each of you," Odin said, "has shown courage today. And skill. And a readiness for challenges beyond these halls."
Sif glanced at the others nervously. Thor's chest puffed out. Bor stared at the floor, unsure. Odin's voice echoed like thunder muffled by distance.s
"Perhaps," he said, "the time has come for a greater trial."