Chapter 10 — Shadows Over the Snow Peaks
The northern winds grew harsher as Bor, Thor, Sif, and Loki climbed deeper into the mountains. Snow drifted down in heavy waves, muting the sun behind a curtain of cold gray clouds. Bor felt the decreasing light like a weight on his body his powers still strong, still Kryptonian, but muted without the full blaze of the sun.
He could still fly, but only in short bursts.
Still fire heat vision, but weaker.
Still run faster than any Asgardian, but not at solar peak.
Thor pressed ahead confidently, hammer swinging at his side. Sif followed with quiet grace. Loki, as always, walked with elegance, his cloak untouched by falling snow.
Bor watched him closely.
That vigilance saved them.
The group reached a circular plateau lined with ancient standing stones carved with runes hidden under frost. Bor felt the hum of dangerous magic under the snow.
"Hold," he said sharply.
Thor did not. He stepped into the stone circle and the runes flashed blue. Bor crossed the circle in a blur, snatching Thor backward just before an enormous spike of ice burst from the ground. Thor whistled at the frozen spear.
"Well struck, brother!"
"That wasn't a strike," Sif muttered. "That was a warning."
The runes flashed again blue to red. The ground shuddered like something monstrous waking beneath them.
"Move!" Bor shouted.
Thor leapt aside. Sif darted back. Bor grabbed her arm, fired a burst of short-range flight, and carried her to safety. Loki simply vanished and reappeared on the next ridge with a soft green pulse.
The entire clearing collapsed into a jagged pit.
Loki observed the fallen stones with an almost-too-calm expression. "How fortunate none of us were caught."
Bor's eyes narrowed. "You recognized the runes quickly."
"Should I not?" Loki said, smiling, but his voice wavered just slightly.
Before Bor could press further, a cold ripple rolled down the mountainside too strong, too deliberate, too bitter. Something wicked had taken notice of them.
---
Far away in Nornheim, Karnilla the Norn Queen watched the four young warriors through her scrying pool. Thor's hammer gleamed in snowfall. Sif moved with precision. Bor glowed faintly under the clouded sun. Loki moved in the shadows with magic.
A boy of sunlight.
Her lips curved.
"Odin sends his children to play at quests," she murmured. "Let us see how many return."
An ice demon knelt.
"My queen. Shall we strike the palace?"
"Strike the children first," Karnilla said. "Crack the family, then shatter the throne."
Her finger touched Bor's fading glow.
"And kill the sun-born one before noon restores his fire."
---
Bor sensed the ambush moments before it happened the faint scrape of claws beneath snow, the distant crack of ice armor shifting.
"Eyes up," he murmured. "Something's—"
The snow exploded. Three ice demons burst out, towering creatures of frozen bone and glowing runes, breath steaming with deathly chill.
Thor roared in delight and charged immediately.
The first demon swung a massive cleaver of frost. Thor blocked with his hammer, sparks and ice shards flying. Loki hopped lightly behind Thor and flicked his fingers green magic shimmered across Thor's forearms, reinforcing his guard.
Thor didn't notice the help, but Bor did.
Sif sprinted toward the demon on the left, blade flashing. It slashed at her too fast, too heavy. Loki raised his palm and cast a thin illusion of Sif a half-step to the right. The demon swung at the fake image, giving the real Sif an opening.
She rolled beneath its guard and sliced its rune cluster. The demon staggered.
Loki smirked. "You're welcome."
Sif didn't say thank you but she smirked back. Bor faced the largest demon alone.
Its icy aura bit at his skin like knives. The creature roared and swung a tree-trunk arm toward him. Bor dodged with a burst of super speed faster than Thor or Sif could even track. He struck the demon's ribs with a rapid trio of blows, cracking the ice plates.
The demon retaliated by spewing a stream of frost toward him.
Bor braced, heat vision flashing out red lines cutting through the icy blast, melting it enough to avoid being frozen solid. His heat beams, weaker but still deadly, scorched the demon's chest.
It howled. Loki suddenly appeared behind Bor and tapped the ground with his staff green sigils flared outward, forming a slippery ice-slick illusion under the demon's feet.
The monster stumbled.
"Try not to die, brother," Loki said casually. "It reflects poorly on me."
Bor grinned. "Not planning to."
He blasted forward, using a short burst of flight to vault over the demon's arm. He twisted mid-air, grabbed the demon's head, and slammed both feet into its spine shattering several runes.
Thor smashed another demon nearby. "Bor! Bring it around!"
Bor pushed off the demon's back, landing in the snow with a roll. The demon lunged for him
Thor intercepted it, hammer overhead, smashing down with thunderous force. The creature cracked, stumbling.
Sif sprinted in and drove her blade into the weakened runes. The demon collapsed into fragments. The battle quieted, leaving only heavy breathing and drifting snow.
Loki brushed frost from his cloak. "Well. That was bracing."
Thor clapped Bor and Loki both on the shoulders. "Glory shared is glory doubled!"
Sif rolled her eyes. "You say that after every fight."
Loki sniffed. "I can assure you I do not share any glory."
But he smiled. Just a little.
---
Gnori, the ancient snow eagle, tested each of them in turn.
Sif answered with courage.
Thor answered… loudly, and then truthfully.
Bor answered with quiet honesty about fearing his own strength. Gnori approved. Loki said nothing, but his expression softened at Bor's humility.
The feather was given freely.
---
The dwarven mines were eerily silent when they stepped inside, their torches casting flickering shadows on the stone-carved walls. Bor felt the magic in the rock cold, sharp, dangerous. The Jennia jewel chamber pulsed with dim purple light ahead.
Thor strode forward.
Loki grabbed his arm again—hard.
"Don't move another step."
Thor blinked. "Why?"
"Karnilla's sigils line this entire chamber," Loki whispered. "I recognize the structure of the spell. I… might have attempted a minor rune shift earlier to annoy Bor, and found something far worse already entwined."
Bor paused. There was no deceit in Loki's voice. Just fear and sharper still anger.
"Speak plainly," Sif said.
"Karnilla means to sabotage your quest," Loki said quietly. "And to attack Asgard itself."
Bor's jaw tightened.
Then the chamber exploded.
Seven ice demons burst from the walls simultaneously larger, more jagged, more deadly than any before.
Thor roared and met them with hammer raised. Sif danced among them, slashing runes. Bor shot upward with a burst of flight, tackling one demon mid-air into a pillar. Heat vision tore through another's leg, giving Thor an opening to smash it.
Loki moved like a conductor guiding an orchestra: He cast a shimmering ward around Thor's chest, blocking a fatal spike. He conjured an illusion of three Sifs, confusing two demons long enough for Sif to strike. He wrapped Bor briefly in a shield of green flame, letting him plow through icy breath unharmed. He froze one demon's legs with emerald frost so Bor and Sif could finish it. He teleported a hammer strike so it hit a demon's back instead of Thor's shoulder
For once, the Trickster's magic was not sabotage. It was teamwork. When the last demon cornered them, Bor saw the structural weakness in the ceiling.
"Thor! Ceiling—now!"
Thor didn't question. He leapt and smashed upward. Stone collapsed in a violent cascade, burying the final demon beneath tons of rock.
Silence followed. Then the group exhaled together.
Sif sat down on a rock. "By the Norns…"
Thor laughed breathlessly. "I LIKE this quest!"
Loki straightened his cloak and muttered, "I despise all of you."
Bor smiled slightly. "You did good, Loki."
Loki blinked at him.
Then looked away.
"…I know."
They collected the Jennia jewel.
Three relics down.
Two to go.
Karnilla's threat looming over them.
And Bor felt the first rays of sunlight pierce the clouds as they exited the mines.
His strength warmed.
The next trial awaited.